Lincoln wrestling Needham in Coles County

Wrestling was a significant part of frontier culture where men squared off against one another in feats of strength. The most famous wrestling match in Lincoln's life was his struggle with Jack Armstrong, the town bully, after he moved to New Salem in 1831. Weeks before that happened, Lincoln also wrestled a man in Coles County. He had just returned from a flat boat trip to New Orleans and was visiting his family who had just moved to Coles County. The following is a recollection of that event published in 1907.

Conviction through a thrashing
In 1831, Abraham Lincoln, returning from a voyage to New Orleans, paid the usual filial visit to his father, living in Coles County. A famous wrestler, one Needham, hearing of the newcomer's prowess in wrestling, more general than pugilism on the border, called to try their strength. As the professional was in practice, and as the other, from his amiable disposition and his forbidding appearance was not so, the latter declined the honor of a hug and the forced repose of lying on the back. Nevertheless, taunted into trial, he met the champion and defeated him in two goes. The beaten one was chagrined, and vented his vexation in this defiance:
"You have thrown me twice, Lincoln, but you cannot whip me!"
"I do not want to, and I don't want to get whipped myself," was the simple reply.
"Well, I 'stump' you to lick me!" went on Needham, thinking he was gaining ground. "Throwing a man is one thing and licking him another!"
"Look here, Needham," said the badgered man, at last, "if you are not satisfied that I can throw you every time, and want to be convinced through a thrashing, I will do that, too, for your sake!"
The man "backed out." But he was afterward one of the champion's warmest friends.
The Lincoln Story Book (New York: G. W. Dillingham Company, 1907), pp. 20-21.