Land Lincoln Bought From Cash-Strapped Dad Is Sold

The 30 acres go for $300K
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 12, 2019 3:33 PM CST
Land Lincoln Bought From Cash-Strapped Dad Is Sold
Ron Best, of Charleston, looks over a copy of the deed for Abraham Lincoln's 1841 purchase of southern Coles County farm land from his father, Thomas Lincoln.   (Dave Fopay/Mattoon Journal Gazette via AP)

A plot of Illinois farmland that President Abraham Lincoln once owned has sold at auction for $300,000. A retired farmer in the central Illinois city of Charleston sold his family's 590-acre farm, which includes the 30-acre plot once owned by the nation's 16th president. The Times-Courier and Mattoon Journal-Gazette report the remaining 560 acres sold for $3.9 million Tuesday morning, or about $7,000 an acre.

The land once owned by Lincoln went for $10,000 an acre. A representative says the buyer wants to remain anonymous. Plans for the land have not been revealed, reports the AP. Lincoln bought 40 acres in 1841 from his cash-strapped father. Six acres became part of the current Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. The remaining 34 acres were eventually sold. (Something of George Washington's also recently sold.)

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