Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. He moved with his family to Indiana in 1816 and to Illinois in 1830. His first home in Illinois was eight miles southwest of Springfield, and there he operated a general store and served as Postmaster and Deputy County Surveyor in 1833.
He served as a Representative in the Illinois State Legislature from 1834-1842. In 1836 Lincoln was admitted to the bar, and in 1837 he moved to Springfield and began his law practice. He married Mary Todd in 1842 and purchased his home at Eighth and Jackson Streets in Springfield two years later.
As a Whig, Lincoln was elected a Representative to the United States Congress in 1846. As a Republican, he opposed Stephen A. Douglas for the United States Senate in 1858, and the debates between the candidates made Lincoln nationally prominent even though Douglas won the race. Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860, and the election of a Republican prompted the southern states to secede from the Union. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and the Civil War began April 12. The original aim of the north was restoration of the Union, but after 1862 freeing the slaves became another objective. Lincoln was reelected in 1864.
At his second inauguration in 1865 he pled for a conciliatory attitude toward the South. He pursued the war to a succesful conclusion, capped by Lee's surrender to Grant on April 9, 1865. Five days later Lincoln was assassinated in Ford's Theatre in Washington. He is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.
Abraham Lincoln grew to "a man of purpose and destiny" during the six years (1831-37) he lived in New Salem Village. While there, he clerked in a store, enlisted in the Blackhawk War, served as postmaster and deputy surveyor, studied law and was elected legislator.