Thomas Lincoln made the decision to move from Indiana to Illinois rather quickly.  In the fall of 1829, young Abe was cutting trees and making planks for a new house on his father's farm. 
    Thomas, Abe's father, switched plans and sold the planks to Josiah Crawford.  Abe was put to work cutting wood to make wagon wheels.  He had to cut hickories tough enough to make axles and poles for an ox wagon.  Abe was obedient to his father and step mother and would do as he was told.  Plans were being made for the Lincolns, Hanks and Halls to move to the land of the Sangamo (the land of plenty to eat", or Illinois.  The Sangamon River would be their destination, and the Sangamon River ran through it. 
    The winter would be spent preparing for the journey.  The Lincolns were used to moving and knew how to prepare. 
    Thomas Lincoln had invested money into buying land in Indiana.  He just was not making a lot of income from it.  Abe's cousin, Dennis, some 9 years older them him, as well as Levi Hall (both married to  Abe's step-sisters)decided with Thomas that all would move. 
    Thomas sold his acreage for $125.00 in cash.  He had 80 acres that cost him $2.00 an acre some fourteen years before, just was not producing a good crop.  He sold the acreage at a loss.
    Another reason for the move was because the "milk sickness" was killing off the milk cows and calves.  Dennis had even had a touch of the sickness himself.  It was dangerous for all of them to stay in Indiana much longer.
    Thomas and Sarah made a trip to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to sell the lot that Sarah had when she was widowed.  They got a total of $123.00 for the lot.  Thomas would take the $248.00 total from their property sales and purchase oxen (young steers), and would then trade and sell other personal items for more needed travel supplies and things.
    During the winter, the men in the families would shape wood into wheels for the wagons, and get other wood ready to make the wagons.
    The wagon that Thomas and Abraham made was wood all through:  it was put together with pegs, cleats, hickory withes, and knots of bark, holding it together, except the wheel rims, which were iron.
    The Hanks and Halls would also build their wagons similarly.  Altogether there would be three wagons.  Oxen would pull two, and horses would pull another. 

A Mover's Wagon much like what the three families' Men-Folk built over the Winter of 1829-30