Happy Birthday, Abe Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's birthday is normally lost in the midst of the hullabaloo of getting the right Valentine's gift or setting up the perfect date night. It almost seems appropriate that there is no fanfare for this quiet unassuming man. Yet, if you ask our modern presidents and leaders, most say they admire this backwoods lawyer.

Lincoln's words, inscribed on a wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., seem appropriate for today's troubles:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "

Here is a kids' logic puzzles. If you have never done a logic puzzle, go to my companion site (Peppy Puzzler Printouts) and learn how. For your convenience, the link will open in a new window. That site is where you will find the printable grid for each puzzle.

I have taken the road of artistic license with these puzzles — they are fictitious, but based on facts.

Abe, the Ferryboat, and the Natchez Trace

When Abe was 17, he worked on a ferryboat. He enjoyed the river and work so much that he constructed a flatboat when he was 19 and took a load of farm crops down the Mississippi to New Orleans. He sold the boat in New Orleans and walked home via the Natchez Trace. When he got home, gave his earnings to his father. (from http://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/essays/biography/2 )

The Natchez Trace is a very long walk — about 450 miles (725 km) from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Young Abe was not finished with his trip at Nashville. He still had to go about 350 miles to get home. The full trip home was almost 800 miles long!

See The Natchez Trace if you want to see a picture of what the trail looked like. https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Natchez_Trace

Abe on the Natchez Trace

A kid's logic puzzle

Young Abe was happy to have the money. He had worked hard. First, he made the ferryboat and loaded it with freshly harvested crops. He knew that the crops would bring a better price in New Orleans. They had! He sold his ferryboat for the lumber. Ferryboats were designed to float down the river but could not go against the current to return up the river.

On his trip, he met several people who were walking the trail, too. Along the way, five times he was lucky enough to eat lunch with a person who told funny jokes. (President Lincoln liked good jokes!) Only one person in each group told the jokes. Each of the groups had come from a different town that Abe would be visiting on his way home (one town was PortGibson, Mississippi ). Can you match the joke teller with his or her last name and the town he or she was from?

The girls are Emma and Sarah. The boys were Adam, David, and Peter.

1.     The person from French Camp, Mississippi was Mister or Miss Carson (who was not Emma or Adam).

2.     Peter and Mister Pane were from Collinwood,Tennessee,   and Tuscumbia, Alabama , in some order.

3.     The hiker from Tuscumbia, who wasn't Adam, wasn't Mister or Miss Samson.

4.     The person from Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, was Mister or Miss Watson.

5.     Mrs. Dalton was traveling with her husband and his family and told a joke about a dog and a frog.

The grid is found at Peppy Puzzler Printouts. Follow this link.