The Lincoln family in the early 1800’s first lived in Hodgenville, Kentucky at Sinking Spring Farm and because of a land dispute had to move out of the farm and original Log Cabin that Abraham was born in. They fought the loss in courts and eventually lost out. The Lincoln family then moved to leased land at Knob Creek not far away from Hodgenville and worked a 30 acre bottomland farm for 5 years before another land dispute in that area forced them out. They pick up entirely at that point and moved to Indiana. Below is an original map of a land survey in the late 1700’s in Kentucky showing the overlapping land claims where many people laid claim to the same piece of land. Is it any wonder that Abraham Lincoln would carefully study surveying when he was a young man and then go out and survey land in Illinois? Later he studied Law on his own and became a lawyer. Perhaps his early experiences and frustrations of his family in land disputes had an effect on him?