Encounters
''whilom'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜encounter｜ENC｜20260904120411-10-•
Several times Thomas took boatloads of pork and other goods down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, usually making little money. In a particularly unfortunate transaction, he was cheated out of the entire load. His son Abraham described that calamity: “Father often told me of the trick that was played upon him by a ‘pair of sharpers.’ It was [in 1815] the year before we moved from Kentucky to Indiana that father concluded to take a load of pork down to New Orleans. He had a considerable amount of his own, and he bargained with the relatives and neighbors for their pork, so that altogether he had quite a load. He took the pork to the Ohio River on a clumsily constructed flat boat of his own make. Almost as soon as he pushed out into the river a couple of sleek fellows bargained with him for his cargo, and promised to meet him in New Orleans where they arranged to pay him the price agreed upon. He eagerly accepted the offer, transferred the cargo to the strangers and drifted down the river, his head filled with visions of wealth and delight. He thought that he was going to accomplish what he had set out to do without labor or inconvenience. Father waited about New Orleans for several days, but failed to meet his whilom friends. At last it dawned upon him that he had been sold, and all that he could do was to come back home and face the music.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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