pounds, and had a ruddy complexion. Later descriptions included Lincoln's dark hair and dark complexion, which were also evident in photographs taken during his tenure as president of the United States. William H. Herndon described Lincoln as having "very dark skin"; his cheeks as "leathery and saffron-colored"; a "sallow" complexion; and "his hair was dark, almost black". Lincoln described himself around 1838–39 as "black" and his complexion in 1859 as "dark" Lincoln's detractors also remarked on his appearance. For example, during the American Civil War the Charleston, South Carolina Mercury described him as having "the dirtiest complexion" and asked "Faugh! After him what white man would be President?" Early years (1809–1831) During his later years, Lincoln was reluctant to discuss his origins. He viewed himself as a self-made man, and may have also found it difficult to confront the untimely deaths of his mother and his sister. However, around the time of his nomination as a candidate for president of the United States, Lincoln provided two brief biographical sketches in response to two inquiries that provide a glimpse of youth in Kentucky and Indiana. One request for a campaign biography came from his friend and fellow Illinois Republican, Jesse W. Fell, in 1859; the other request came from John Locke Scripps, a journalist for the Chicago Press and Tribune. In Lincoln's response to Scripps, he summed up his early life in a quote from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, as "the short and simple annals of the poor." Additional details of Lincoln's early life appeared after his death in 1865, when William Herndon began collecting letters and interviews from Lincoln's friends, family and acquaintances. Herndon published his collected materials in Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (1889). Although Herndon's work is often challenged, historian David Herbert Donald argues that they "have largely shaped current beliefs" about Lincoln's early life in Kentucky, Indiana and his early days in Illinois. Early life in Kentucky (1809–1816) Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln became the parents of three children during their years in Kentucky. Sarah was born on February 10, 1807, and Abraham, on February 12, 1809. Another son, Thomas Lincoln, Jr. or "Tommy", was born in either 1812 or 1813 and died three days later. In December 1808, Thomas, Nancy and their daughter, Sarah, moved from Elizabethtown to the Sinking Spring farm, on Nolin Creek, near Hodgen's Mill,