they had ever experienced. (In Illinois it was known as the "Winter of Deep Snow".) In the spring, as the Lincoln family prepared to move to a homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Lincoln was ready to strike out on his own. Thomas and Sally moved to Coles County, and remained in Illinois for the rest of their lives. Although Sally Lincoln and his cousin, Dennis Hanks, maintained that Thomas loved and supported his son, the father-son relationship became strained after the family moved to Illinois. Perhaps Thomas did not fully appreciate his son's ambition, while Abraham never knew of Thomas's early struggles. In 1851, after the move to Illinois, Abraham refused to visit his dying father, and failed to take his own sons to visit their grandparents. Historian Rodney O. Davis has argued that the reason for the strain in their relationship was due to Lincoln's success as a lawyer and his marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln, who came from a wealthy, aristocratic family, and the two men no longer related to each other's circumstances in life. Another trip to New Orleans (1831) Lincoln, along with John Johnston and John Hanks, accepted an offer from Denton Offutt to meet in Springfield, Illinois, and take a load of cargo to New Orleans in 1831. Departing from Springfield in late April or early May along the Sangamon River, their boat had difficulty getting past a mill dam northwest of Springfield, near the village of New Salem. Offutt, who was impressed by New Salem's location and believed that steamboats could navigate the river to the village, made arrangements to rent the mill and open a general store. Offutt hired Lincoln as his clerk and the two men returned to New Salem after they discharged their cargo in New Orleans. New Salem (1831–1837) Lincoln settles in New Salem, Illinois When Lincoln returned to New Salem in late July 1831, he found a promising community, but it probably never had a population that exceeded a hundred residents. New Salem was a small commercial settlement that served several local communities. The village had a sawmill, grist mill, blacksmith shop, cooper's shop, wool carding shop, a hat maker, general store, and a tavern spread out over more than a dozen buildings. Offutt did not open his store until September, so Lincoln found temporary work in the interim and was quickly accepted by the townspeople as a hardworking