Robert Thompson said that he was born about 200 yards from Lincoln’s boyhood home in Knob Creek, KY. He played in Abe Lincoln’s original log cabin as a child. Cabin was torn down about 1870. The time of his birth that area was part of Hardin County. Larue County was founded from Hardin County on March 4, 1843

He was described as being 5’10 1/2”, with a fair complexion, gray eyes, and light hair.

Bob was robbed by several soldiers, thought to be Confederates, who threw him to the ground and took his wagon and team as well. In his anger Bob enlisted in the Union Army to get back at them. He became a private in Company C, 15th Kentucky Infantry Volunteers Regiment, on 10/9/1861 at Camp Sherman. He fought in several states, including KY, TN, and Huntsville, AL. Before the battle of Perryville the generals told the troops that this was a critical battle and that no one should stop to help a wounded man but should keep fighting instead. Bob was shot in the leg during the battle, Oct. 8. 1862, but was able to bandage it and make his way to a mule, which he took and rode back to Knob Creek. Since he had deserted, the Thompson family hid him out for several weeks at “Cradle Rock”, a natural bowl like formation at Knob Creek that was thought to be a watering hole by the indians. Later he was discharged on a certificate of disability, October 1, 1863, and returned to the community, who considered him a war hero.57

When Bob returned home he wanted to know why the negroes were not out working the fields. The slave families would set up shanties near the main house on a seasonal basis and since slavery was ending they had not done so that fall.58

He was a well liked character and had a whiskey named after him, “Uncle Bob’s”. Hoppy Bennet has an empty bottle of Uncle Bob’s Whiskey with the original label. The KY Standard listed him as the oldest man in Nelson County, having had eight grandchildren at his death in 1939. He was the last of his regiment to die, and perhaps the last living soldier from Larue County.59

At age 95, he was staying with his daughter, Mary Jo Cissell, in Louisville during the 1937 Great Flood. The family was evacuated to Bedford, IN by rail.

Robert Thompson’s Own Statement about Lincoln’s Boyhood Home on Knob Creek, New Haven, Kentucky, October 3, 1934

“To Whom It May Concern: I was born December 18, 1841, on Knob Creek in Larue County, Kentucky, about two hundred yards from Abraham Lincoln’s cabin home.

My father, Steve Thompson, was born in 1809, the same year of Abraham Lincoln. My grandfather was one the first settlers on Knob Creek, (at that time Kentucky was a county of Virginia.)

In those days Knob Creek was a large stream of clear water. There was very little cleared land, only small fields. The hills that rise on all sides sideswere the most picturesque of the famous Muldraugh ridge, and the valleys were very fertile. The hllls were fulI of all kinds of game and wiId hogs. I have helped my father trap wild hogs for our meat many times, and he took loads of pork down the river to New Orleans.

My father and mother both went to school with Sarah and Abe Lincoln, on Knob Creek. I have heard them teIl about it many times. The school house was located about two miles North of the Knob Creek farm, at a point that is now Athertonville. Some other boys who lived close went to school with the Lincoln’s were Hawkins, Woods, Robert Cecil, John Roberts, Joe Cap, Austin Gollaher, Charles Boone, Turner Wilson and Pete Atherton.

I well remember the Lincoln cabin. It was a one room cabin with a flreplace in it. I have played in it many times when I was a chIld, and I was about thirty years oId before it was torn down. I last remember it was used for a corn crib, and hogs were fed around it.

On the site of were it stood now stands a replica, reconstructed with logs taken from the cabin of Austin Gollaher, the boyhood friend who saved young abe from drowning when he fell into Knob Creek. I have heard Austin Gollaher tell about it many times, and he pointed out the spot to me. It was just about 50 yards north of the cabin. The Gollaher home stood up the "hollar" just back of the Lincoln home.

The seven acre field which Lincoln spoke of as being the "Big Field,” and the one that he planted the pumpkin seeds in, was evidently just back of the cabin. I fought in the Civil War and was wounded in the Battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862. – Robert Thompson