Jonathan's only education was self-directed. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, he was given an old flintlock rifle for a week's work on a neighbor's farm. He tinkered with the gun and by watching a blacksmith, Jonathan's tinkering with the gun surprised the old farmer who gave it to him and he bought it back for four dollars. Out of this transaction developed something that was to change the entire course of Jonathan's life. He worked for the blacksmith during the days and did his Father's chores nights and mornings. For the remuneration, he received the use and freedom of the shop. Jonathan expanded the business and his own knowledge. He learned the fundamentals of hand forging, welding, brazing, tempering and soldering. By the time he was nineteen, he considered himself a pretty competent gunsmith. He had repaired a lot of guns using the blacksmith's tools and his own design. He began to think of making guns as well as repairing them. He lacked the knowledge of making the barrels. His vague plan took form when he saw a gun bearing the stamp of Samuel Porter. So with a dream, a goal and determination, Jonathan went to see Mr. Porter. He was thrilled at the tools and equipment in the shop and Mr. Porter was very impressed with Jonathan. A deal was worked that Jonathan could learn and use the tools and shop and be free to develop his own ideas. The two men became very good friends. Jonathan had used his savings and what Mr. Porter had given him and converted them into tools. The time had come for him to return home. He was now a qualified gunsmith and a fine marksman He was to return to a girl he intended to marry and a business he intended to create. As proof, the rifle he carried was one of which he had fitted a barrel made entirely with his own hands. On it, Sam Porter slyly stamped Jonathan Browning 1824. Jonathan settled down to making guns. He acquired a small house to live in, as well as a shed which he used for a shop. On November 7,1823, he married Elizabeth Stalcup. They had twelve children. Due to the poor land, people were moving away. In September 1833, Jonathan received word of the death of his father in Wayne County, Illinois, at the age of seventy-three. Jonathan closed his shop and loaded two wagons with his family and the contents of his shop and home. They set out for Quincy, 400 miles away. In Quincy, his saving were ample enough to provide him with a new home and his new shop. During this period, he invented a repeating rifle, one of the first. His son would inherit his ability and talents for Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together inventions and mechanics and become one of the world's greatest gun inventors. He invested in land and ran for and was elected Justice of the Peace which title gave him the title of Judge. Through his cousin, Orville Browning, an attorney, he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, who was a guest twice in his home for the night. Following is a story that Jonathan often related: On this night, Jonathan and Abe (Abraham Lincoln) had the evening to themselves. With chairs tilted comfortably against opposite walls of the kitchen, they chatted of one thing and then another. Their birthplaces were not far apart- Tennessee and Kentucky; neither had spent a full year in school, although Mr. Lincoln was a more fluent speaker. "Judge," he said," someone told me that a youngster in the neighborhood broke his arm yesterday and you set it. Do you fix anything that breaks, plow, gun, bone?" He smiled broadly. Jonathan grinned back. "Well, a doctor would have charged a dollar for the job, but I couldn't charge a neighbor for setting a bone any more that I could for helping him pull his wagon out of a mud hole. Fact is, 1 nearly turned Doctor one time. When I was learning to read, and poking around the countryside to find a book or two to practice on, I picked up a doctor book. Traded a gun for it that I'd fixed up. Fact is, that's the way I got my first Bible - traded a gun for it. Lincoln slapped his leg and his chair snapped upright. "Now hold on, Judge! It's tangled up in my mind. Give me a minute to figure that one out. I want to laugh, but I don't see the point. There's the sayings about turning swords into plowshares or is it pruning hooks?" "Plowshares" Jonathan answered, "Isaiah." "Well, that's the way you did it in a way, turning a gun into a bible, but the other fellow, he canceled out by turning a bible into a gun. Looks like the trade left the world just about where it was." The two men enjoyed a chuckle. "Well," Jonathan said after a moment, "there was something else funny about that trade. To tell the truth, the mainspring in that old gun was pretty weak, and the stock—" Lincoln interrupted with an upraised hand, "Judge Browning," he rebuked in an exaggerated courtroom manner, "you mean you cheated in a trade for a Bible? —A Bible!" "Not exactly," Jonathan replied, his face as sober as Abe's. "When I got to looking through that Bible at home, I found about half the New Testament was missing." The mirth of the two frontiersmen, as Jonathan later described it. "Near to shook the logs." Jonathan arose. "Mr. Lincoln," he said, "I hate to end a p~ evening like this, but you'll be wanting some s"