Next Monday is President’s Day celebrating the birthday of George Washington but there is no national holiday for Abraham Lincoln who was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. His father Thomas, owned two 600-acre farms, several town lots, livestock, and horses. However, in 1816, Thomas lost all of his land in court cases because of faulty property titles. The family moved north across the Ohio River made a new start in what was then Perry County but is now Spencer County, Indiana.

Besides Abraham Lincoln, several actors were born on February 12, and some of them played in western movies like Wallace Ford who played in the movie ‘The Man From Laramie’, Joe Don Baker who played in the ‘Guns of the Magnificent Seven’, Clifford Tobin DeYoung who played in ‘Centennial’ and ‘Glory’, and Forrest Tucker who played in many movies like ‘Chisum’.

A Canadian actor, Lyon Himan Green, better known by the stage name Lorne Greene was also born on February 12 in 1915. Lorne Green made Ben Cartwright come alive on the TV series Bonanza from 1959 to 1973 with his faithful horse Buck.

And while this horse is not a buckskin like Buck, I think he is saying happy birthday to everyone and secretly wishing someone would take him south for the winter as you can see his frosty breath on his chest.

Red & White