Some of the Men Prominent in the 

 Ratting Industry, i 840-191 5 



CAPTAIN S. B. HANKS 



Stephen B. Hanks was born near Hodgensville, Ken- 

 tucky, October 9, 1821. His father's only sister, Nancy, 

 later married Thomas Lincoln and became the mother 

 of Abraham Lincoln. 



After the death of his father and when Stephen was 

 twelve years old, the family moved up to White County, 

 Illinois, and the mother marrying again, young Ste- 

 phen and a sister, Mary, went to live with a brother of 

 Mrs. Hanks, named Alfred Slocumb, who moved to 

 Knox Count}', Illinois, in 1830 and from there to Al- 

 bany, Illinois, in 1836. 



He made his home with Alfred Slocumb, doing hard 

 work with little pay, and having laudable ambition 

 backed by a large, strong frame, good health and will- 

 ingness to work, he left Albany in 1841 for the far 

 northern pineries, where he worked four years cutting 

 and getting out logs and driving them to the sawmill 

 at Saint Croix falls, and helping raft and run the lum- 

 ber to Saint Louis with Sandy McPhail as pilot. In this 

 way he became a pilot himself. Late in 1843 he helped 

 run two rafts of lumber that only got to Albany when 

 winter set in. Part was sold there and the rest stored in 

 Cat Tail Slough. 



In January he went back to Saint Croix falls, mostly 

 by following the ice covered Mississippi and Saint 

 Croix rivers with a sled and pair of mules. 



