History of James Sheffield Maxson

Erie Kan. May 13, 1902,m.a.m.

Gertrude A. Maxson: present.

My Dear Daughter ;

After years of delay, waiting to find the right time, I have decided to state to you now, a few facts touching the earlier portion of my mundane existence: So that you may know of the “pit from which you were digged”.  Seventy eight years have wrought wonderful changes in every thing men have to do with.   Some 83 years ago (1819) my father hired a man to load my mother and two little sisters into a two-horse wagon with some household goods and drive from Chinango, Co. NY. 150 miles into a new country, Allegany Co., NY. covered with heavy timber; except now and then, a settlement near some lake or river, and occasionally a bit of a farm cleared and a small log house built, in which the family of the owner were sheltered.  No railroad had been dreamed of, no good roads had been built; and only a few bridges.  That drive was a terror to think of, and a struggle for life, to perform.  Father had hired a stone chimney built in one end of his one room, one story, log house that was covered with unshaved shingles, 3 ft. long: not nailed, but held in place by heavy poles laid on.  Trees stood all around; and father had to chop them down and chop body and limbs, pile brush and burn all, before the least thing could be planted.  He had to cut & split logs to make the floor and by using his adz he got the floor quite good so that mother could scrub it with sand and mop it clean & white.

He made a bedstead & a trundle bedstead, of poles: lumber that had been sawed was not to be had.  He made a barn with a mow, a floor & a stable; and not a nail, I think, was used.    He bored holes with an auger & drove in wooden pins.  A big shed also with a manger made of logs; and the all fields & fences were made by the same hard, slow way.  Trees were set for fruit; & after years of care, the fruit came.

Sister Samantha was born in this new home, in the woods, and three years later I was hailed as the much wished for, boy.  I had a desire to work and also learn to read.  I, at four years of age, in three months, learned letters and to spell and commenced reading.  When I took the ax or hoe (the only tools a boy was allowed to use), I had to put the upper end of the handle under my right arm; as that limb hung helpless by my side.  When I cried in grief at my poor success, my kind, affectionate, mother would come out of the house and stand behind me, take hold of the tool handle with my hand round it and dig or chop, as the case might be, and thus let me see the work done.

By lapping my limply fingers round the handle, and by holding them in place make both hands work.  She, also, bared that arm and poured cold spring water from the tea kettle on the arm from a high position.  This caused great pain.  When I was 5, I read in the spelling book, at 6, I read in the Testament, at 7 in the English Reader: a book as hard as the highest reader in use now, and close, fine print.  I attribute my poor faculty to read, all through life, to the use of that book all the time I attended school.  Expect there was a change to the “New English Reader”, that was a little plainer print.  School terms were three months and were summer and winter, and fall 2 mo.  I attended two winter terms, two, 2 mo. fall terms, and several summer terms before I was 12 years old; but was sick all of two summers.  Bad health cut-off the school going then at 12, until I was almost 19.  I read and studied at home some: But the measles when I was eight started the disease that increased on me until my mother died, nine years later.  The measles, also, almost ruined my mothers eyes; and started the bronchitis that ended her life in consumption.  At the same time brother William had measles; and never opened his eyes again.  He was blind six weeks and died of Scarlet Fever; aged one year, one month, and 13 days.  There were six of us all very bad at the same time.  Sister Mary was getting better, but not able to work and father just up from brain fever.  Dr. 4 m. away and neighbors few and scattered: too busy to go and hunt, chances to do for others.  (Those were trying times not to be forgotten).  Father usually made 25 to 40 lbs. of maple sugar each spring.  Milk was plenty in summer, pork in fall and winter.  Honey, mutton, chickens, and pigeons, came in as extras.  There were no ready-made clothes in the country and cloth, both wool, and linen, was made by hand.  Mother, carded spun, wove, or knit, cut, sewed, and made buttons, for all our garments.  She wove to pay for making our boots and shoes.  After all her work at home, day and night (for she did work until late in the night), and going to do for neighbors, when they were sick, she and father found time to sit down, every morning, read a chapter in the Bible and then kneel and pray.  On the Sabbath we all attended meeting. 

After a while, we had bought buttons and bought dried goods, hats, etc.  Nine years after we had measles, mother died of bronchial consumption.  I was a confirmed invalid 17 years of age.  For months, as she lay there, or sat, coughing her life away, she wore a sad expression of countenance; and I fear she was not prepared to die.  But some three weeks before she died having had watchers through the night, she met the girl’s morning salutation with a smile, and told them she was ready to die: that she had seen the lord, and he has promised to “take care of Sheffield”, and that “he shall have no more fits”.  She died July 25, 1840.  The next spring I went out from my fathers home to do for myself and for four years I attended Alfred Academy one half of the time: “living in the winds eye” (as some would say).  No clothing except one suit of course, everyday wear (father gave me 7 pounds of sugar & his wife gave me one pr. of socks).  Nothing but a desire to learn that was, “like fire shut up in my bones” could have induced me to bear the shame I felt day after day, and week after week, as I recited 5 or 6 hours, lesions that I learned during the other part of each 24 hours.  Eating took time, and other duties had to be attended to, so, to keep the brain active and mind strong to hold what was gathered, I stood up to study: and walked my room: had no chair in my room.  When I felt that the time had come that I must retire, I would undress in a hurry, and stretch myself on my straw bed, lift my head and listen for the Academy bell; that rang at 4 am.  At the first clang I would bound out of bed ½ asleep, wash head, face, hands, and arms, then rush out of doors for a short walk; or to get some wood for my stove fire, or a pail of water.

In those days wages were small.  Men worked at farming for 10 to 13 dollars a month and board; or 1.00 a day and board themselves.  Teachers got from 4.00 to 15.00 a mo. and board round among the pupils.  I taught eleven weeks for eleven dollars, the next term in the same place for 7 dollars a month, then, in another place I got 9.00 a mo. for 3 mo.  The next winter in that school I had 10.00 and for the 3rd winter they offered me 12 dollars.  One dollar more than they would give any one else: and every voter in the district voted the same way.  But I could get 15.00 in a large difficult school and waded in.  Did the biggest and the best job of teaching of my entire life.  This was in 1845, the winter after I was 22.  In the spring instead of returning to school, as I ought, I went away to Ky. to find a summer school.  I rode with br. Geo. on a raft of lumber down the Allegany river to Pittsburgh.  Spent a week in seeing the wonders of that city and Allegany City across the river.  Iron and glass works, a large cotton factory: and a steamboat all made of iron.  That is, the frame was.  We than took a steamboat on the Ohio River to Cincinnati 500 miles.  Cost 1.00 each, & we boarded ourselves.  After looking that city over, we crossed over the Ohio River on a steam ferry, to Covington: and started back into the country.  Called at a neat log house where were a nice old lady and a pretty girl.  They washed each of us a shirt while we rested.

Seeing some slaves at work took my strength: so I had to sit down.  We made only 8 miles that day.  We pushed on and arrived at Cynthiana.  An unprincipled man who had come from NY made us believe that after Sunday we could make a school, right there, in town.  He kept a sort of hotel and charged us 1.00 a day each for a little fried pork and poor corn dodger, and a poor strawberry; he got 4.00 of the 6.00 we had: & then we started south toward Paris.  I found a school at 3 miles from Cynthiana, and if Geo. Had staid until the next day he could have had a school in the adjoining district.  But he walked on, and went 150 miles to Louisville on one dollar: & paid 1.00 for ride on steamboat to St. Louis.  There, he rolled barrels, one or two days, & got money enough to take him up, and across, into Ill. Where he found a school.  The Mormon war came on, and he left his school & went to Wis.; was sick 9 months.  I got no letter from him for six months & I did not see him for twenty-four years.  I taught 6 mo. in the school near Cynthiana, 3 mo. in a school 4 miles east of Paris, and 9 months 4 miles north of Paris.  I then left teaching and went into Daguerreotyping: at Ripley, Ohio with my friend Payne.  A long flood in the river and bad weather drove us to separate & I went teaching writing in Ky. followed it the winter, spring & summer.   

I returned to N.Y. in the spring 1849 and taught writing until fall.  Went over into Penn. Three winters and taught 3 or 3½ mo. terms: and two summers I worked at painting, varnishing, and some in a tannery.  Work was scarce and wages low.  If I had pushed writing schools and then taught day school in winter I might have done as well but would not have learned painting & varnishing.  You wonder I did not lay up money. I wonder that with such small wages and short jobs, I could clothe and board myself, the year round.  I decided to go to Wis. but would not until I had seen N.Y. City and the ocean.

In the spring of 1853 I went to New York City via Buffalo, Rochester & Albany: looked over the city two days, then took a boat for Hartford, Conn. To find Dr. J. C. Main who had been urging me to come and live with him, in his Sanitarium and study medicine.  He had a large farm in a nice valley in the town of Bolton, Tolland Co., Ct., and a large four-story house with an attic & steeple, near a very large oak tree.  He called his place “Music Vale, Infirmary”.  But his home needed paint outside and was not all finished inside.  His family consisted of himself, wife, one nice daughter 17 years old, a woman that he kept as a sort of slave: who worked mostly out of doors and only got her living.

I found he was feared and hated by all his neighbors, and I left.  Worked a week on varnish in a little furniture factory down the valley.  The proprietor could not keep me, but gave me a letter of recommendation to J. C. Brown, the owner of the large clock factory in Forestville, 16 m. west of Hartford; where our big clock was made.  Brown lined like a prince.  He hired me to rub varnished stuff for cases:  arranged for my board and paid me by the piece.  I worked 5 days each week for some 40 days and let my pay run until the close of my job; that I cut off, as soon as I felt sure I had money enough earned to take me to R. I.  Brown rode to town 2 m. in a 1 horse covered buggy: his wife and two daughters, in a fine hack, with a black man driver.  I approached him and told him I would like to quit work.  He looked at me as if he would like to read me although, then went into the factory and spoke to his foreman: and I soon got the balance due me above paying my board.  It was while at this factory that I became acquainted with E. T. Dickinson who was working in a machine shop not far away. 

I took the train to Hartford 16 m.: bought a full suit of clothes, silk hat, fine boots & silk velvet collard on black coat, gloves and started for R. I.  Saw some of my mother’s kindred in North Stonington, then went over into R. I. to Rockville where my grandfather Maxson lived in 1790 to 1796.  I found Dr. S. W. Green and elder P. S. Crandall, old Allegany Co. friends there; who seemed glad to introduce me to the best people in that country.  I painted some and then went to the old profession of teaching.  Taught three winters and two summers.  Got married the 2nd year, and, to please the old folks, left my wife at the same place, in the paternal nest 2 years.  Then I went to Wis. with the understanding that when I got a home ready, she would come.

I got hold of some land warrants, had them located, and traded the land for a pretty house and lot in Edgerton worth 1000 dollars.  A better place than I have ever called mine since.  There was a mortgage on the place of 275 dollars that I could have lifted, if I had set myself about it, instead of buying more land to speculate on.  The sandy land in Adams Co. was in a boom like O. T. (Ohio Territory) now.  I bought lots of provisions for the winter, and had a tailor, an acquaintance of my wife, in my house: and she came with a company of her friends who were moving from R. I. to Wis.  But she did not bring our goods.  Her bossy mother had maintained all the time that I was lying to her, and did not own a house: or if I did, it was a log house: and Rebecca must leave our things and go see.  She wrote them to send our stuff, but they put off doing so, until the next August, and then did not send only what a small hogsheads would hold.

Being baffled in my plan, I rushed off to earn some money by writing schools: hired wife boarded right there in my house.  Found a class in Ft. Atkinson 18 miles from Edgerton where my house was.  I always walked to go home.  It would take 4 or 41/2 hours in the day to walk it.  I was urged to make a select school.  Did so, and started with 15 pupils at 1.00 a month of 20 days.  In three weeks I had 50 pupils.  I taught 6 months and left because my wife was lonesome.  I aught to have stayed there, year after year, and to have made no effort to leave; but to enlarge and perfect my school, adding evening lesions, as I did, so that I earned 60.00 or more a month.  If I had done that, and left land speculation alone, I might have added other houses to my one and note, to my popular school.  But experience teaches a dear school and fools will learn in no other.  I was one of those; and did not know how to prize “well enough”, and be contented.

I went into tanning skins before my wife came.  I put in $50 and in three months we had 300 dollars worth of leather and all the tools.  But my partner proved to be a knave, and I sold out in the fall.  While I was off to the Land office three weeks, my wife visited two cousins; sisters, living in the same house one mile south of Milton.  There were cheerful and when washing day came, took off their shoes & stockings and did their washing on the broad platform back of the house.  They said, “Come Beck, take off your shoes”.  She said,  “I am afraid I would take cold”.  They replied, “No you won’t”.  So she did as they said, and did her washing barefoot.  I came in a week and found her so horse that she could not speak, aloud.  I would take her to Lima Center 6 m. to Dr. Maxson, but the cousins opposed and urged me to get Dr. Collins of Milton.  Finally, Rebecca said to me, Get Dr. C., and if he kills me it will not be your fault.  I did so, & he treated her two weeks, charged 12 dollars.  Had council, & decided that she could not live more than two weeks.  She said if she could not get well she wanted to go to her father’s in R. I.  So to give me a chance to get ready, I had her moved to Dr. Maxson’s, Lima.  I paid her cousins for boarding her while she was sick at their house.  The ride to Lima did not hurt her.  Dr.’s wife put a little compress round her neck and it did not shock her: and gradually she & Dr. enlarged the compresses and increased the treatment until she could bear full course.  He had one fault in his method.  He starved the patient too long: did not give cream, meat & butter to build up the wasted tissues.  After six months he decided that she would die.  I knew that meant a journey to R. I., 1500 miles.  Her father had written that if she could not get well, he would send money to pay for bringing her to R. I. as soon as the decision came.  I wrote him to send $50 and I would start at once.  He wrote, “You hire the money there”, and I will let you have it to send back when you come.  So, I loaded off to Edgerton where my house was and where I was acquainted, and hired 50.00 of an old R. I. bachelor, whom I knew.  He charged one percent a week.  I left my school at 2 mo. in Lima where Dr. M. lived and moved my wife to Albion to the home E. Nicholds, a cousin of mother Crandall where Rebecca had visited and become well acquainted.  She ran down rapidly and after a few days when we were really to start she could not sit up two hours.  I folded one of her new thick soft comforters, so it would be some 22 inches wide & tacked it.  Cut a thin board long enough to reach from one car seat to the other when the backs were thrown apart.  Put a cord loop to this board so I could slip my arm into the loop and let the board hang by my side.  I filled my big covered basket with a bail, that looks so black and rough, now (but nice and white, then) with every thing a traveling hospital must have; and ready to take the train at Edgerton, for N. Y. City one thousand miles away, via Chicago.  Snow was deep and weather cold.  Mr. Nicholds brought wife in his big sleigh to my house: and then to my consternation, she decided that I must take her bird cage and three birds that I had paid 7 dollars for, before she took sick.  I had to carry her in my arms to the train, & from one train to another.  I took, also, the board, the folded quilt and umbrella.  Other people carried the basket and birdcage.  Such help was sure indispensable. One night we had a sleeping car, & one night we used common coaches.  I put the board from the seat to seat, laid the folded comforter on, and rolled up one end for a pillow.  She slept well; sat up and coughed.  I reversed the head and she would lie on the other side, take a nap, rise and cough, then lie on the former side: She had crackers and other health foods, a bottle of water and a bottle of cough syrup.  I had a white mug, that I heated water in, on the car stove.  As we passed through Ohio, an old man and his new wife came into the car.  He was going to Connecticut, his old home, to visit.  The two helped me carry my loads when we changed cars.  While on the Erie R. in N. Y. some thief stole our rubbers and in N. Y. City the same, or some other one, got my new umbrella.  I bought new rubbers and from that hotel to the streetcar, I had to carry her several blocks.  It was thawing and sloppy, so I would carry as far as I could and then stand her down on a dry place as there was, and take in breaths.  Then take up my load and paddle on.  Took a street car to the depot; of the New York and New London R. R. called for tickets and found that my money (Ohio State Bank’s money) was not current east of N. Y. City.  My old Ohio friend had eastern money & swapped with me and took my O. (Ohio) money.  So I bought tickets to New London.  As far as they would sell tickets.  My old friend left our course to go north and as I stood at the hind car door looking out, a young merchant from Vermont who, with his partner, had been to N. Y. City to bring goods came and asked me of my affairs.  I told him our reason for going east, and he put into my hand a ½ dollar and asked me to accept it as a token of his sympathy.  He went away.  I turned to see Rebecca who was lying near the middle of the coach, & she beckoned to me to come.  I went to her and she showed me a 50c piece and said, “that gentleman, yonder, put this in my hand & I would like to know what it means”.  The partner of my donor saw her telling me and came and asked me what she said.  I told him, then, he bent over her and said, gently, I noticed that you are sick and gave you that as an expression of my sympathy.  The young merchant left our line to go north.  When I got to N. London I called for tickets to Westerly R.I. and found the fare just one Dollar more than I had obtained of the old Ohio man: the half dollars made it, and we rushed forward: arrived in Westerly at 3 p.m.  Johnathan Maxson, an old friend and 5^th cousin, asked us to go down to his house and stay over night.  R. said no. She wanted to go home.  Then, he said, you come and get my horse and buggy.  I did, and rode 13 miles over a rough country, hilly and rocky road, poor, crooked, and in places muddy.  Arrived at 9 pm.  Great joy, R. walked into the house and seemed real smart.  Next day a special lung Dr. who chanced to be in town came, by my asking, examined her lungs and felt sure he could cure her.  He left her medicine and she gained rapidly for a week.  She sat up all day; talked to her friends, laughed & sang; and I overheard her say, “I wanted to get married, and I did, and I am glad I did”. 

Then her mother said, “Now Becky, if you had something to brace up your stomach I believe you would be well”.  R. asked me what I thought.  I ought to have said, I think she must be very slow to change her diet. But I said, I have done all I can.  So the next day Mother Crandall had her eat corn bread, baked beans, & pork sausage, mince pie, jelly cake & c.  In a few hours she took acute pain in her stomach and bowels; diarrhea and inflammation.  Lungs congested, and she could scarcely breath, storm came on, and she lived 3 weeks after eating the three meals.  I heard her mother tell some one how she got her to eat, and that “Beka said it tasted good, and, it never hurt a bit”.  I told our old Dr. Palmer of the case, and he said, “it killed her”.  They gave me no money to send to Wis. to pay the $50 I borrowed; and mother Crandall’s cousin, where R. visited last, in Wis. got all our things packed into the cask and shipped them to Crandall and he went and hauled the cask up from the depot just before R. died.  She told her folks that she wanted me to have one of her silk dresses.  The old woman said I should not have it.  My plan was to take my birdcage west with me but mother C. said you shan’t have it.  I made the old man promise to pay the expense of burying (15 dollars) & sign a written statement that I went away without owing anything.

I had rode & watched 1500 miles in three days and 2 nights and spent one night in a hotel in N. Y. City eating nothing except such as Rebecca ate.  So when I got through, I ate a common meal: and it gave me colic so that to appearance I came near dying.  In a few days I was on my way to fathers in Allegany, N. Y.  Told father & stepmother of my debt in Wis.  Father had no money at hand.  Mother said to him “you go and collect the $50 Mr. (somebody) owes me”; and he did & then they made up the $6.00 interest, and I sent the money to Brown, and in a few days a flood came on Allegany River and I hurried off to Olean 20 miles and got a ride on a raft of lumber 350 miles to Pittsburg, Pa. 

On the raft was a lad 18 years old with a gun: a nice delicate looking fellow who had his father in N. Y. and was on his way to Kansas.  His father was a shoe merchant and owned two stores.  He had married a second wife, so his two boys-this and another left home.  He gave this one 10 dollars when he left home & when we got to Pittsburgh he was nearly out of money.  I was, also.  We boarded a steamboat for down the river: I bought a pair of good pants and a felt hat in Pittsburgh, both brown.  I told him I should stop at some town and teach a class writing and if he would stop too, I would keep him.  He stopped & I hired both boarders at a hotel in Rochester 25 miles from P.\ down the Ohio.  Made a good class, finished in 3 weeks; paid up and bought tickets to Cincinnati.  On the boat were a lot of roughs; and the night we reached Cin., one of them I suppose, got my hat, a fine black coat and several nice articles.  I went uptown bought a cap, and then took a boat for Louisville.  Of course my tag had to be paid for.  When at Louisville I got him to go and hunt a job at clerking and I took the train to Elizabethtown 45 miles down the R. R. toward Mammoth Cave, where cousin Geo. Maxson was located and teaching a high school.  His wife was a refined delicate lady and 15 years older than he.  He had buried 2 children and had one left not yet 2 years old.  My “Will Foreythe”, came the next day: but he found a job at clerking in the hotel.  I took sick and was sick 7 weeks, had fever, did not call a Dr. but took homeopathic drops from my box: according to my large book:  Cousins were astonished at my recovery.  When well enough, I fixed me up an outfit for varnishing furniture; and also for writing classes.  Put off down the road thinking of Mammoth Cave.  Did some work and got to Mumfordsville in time to see Mr. Jaggers hanged for the murder of his wife.  The gallows was a little bottom a few rods from Green River, (a stream about as large as Eagle Creek) and in sight of the new iron R. R. bridge 115 feet above the water.  The bottom and surrounding hills were standing water and sitting ground for a multitude of eager gazers who seemed anxious to see the awful sight.  After the hanging I got a ride through the water to the other side into Woodsonville: then went off into a timbered country with spots cleared and houses built.  As night approached I stopped at one owned by James Burd.  I proposed writing school and he took with the idea.  I went round and made a class at $2.00 for 24 lessons.  Used the large, log, Baptist church.  I taught two terms.  If all had paid I would have cleared 5.00 a day. 

The people offered to give me an acre of ground and build me a house as large as I wished and give me 10 dollars a scholar for 3 months if I would stay and teach them regular day school.  And they thought I could get 40 pupils (ie, 400 dollars in three months).  Board was one dollar a week.  I wanted to stay, but Dr. John Maxson had written me several times telling me how the people wished me to come and make a select school in the fall.  I had become attached to the people of Lima and I decided to go north.  That was the District I left to go east.

My going north looks like a providential arrangement to save my life.  For, had I remained I would have been there when the rebellion broke out.  The rebels blew up that fine iron bridge at Mumfordsville.  If I had been there I would have been killed, as I was an abolitionist.

Before leaving I hired a horse and rode 13 miles to Mammoth Cave, stopped over night with Mr. Eaton, living a mile this side of the cave.  He was a gentleman and run an arm bus from the R. R. ”Cave City”, to the Cave.  His wife was a nice lady.  I left my horse there and spent ½ of the next day in the cave: then came & got my horse and I think, came home the same afternoon.  I also made a trip of some 30 miles to see another fine cave; but it was housed in.  They let me go down the ladder; but I saw nothing worth the trouble it had cost.  I came north; called on coz. Geo. M. at Elizabethtown.  In the two mo. I had been away, his wife had given birth to a child and died; and the child died; also, the little girl I saw running round there in the spring.  So he had five graves to leave.  He seemed in a hurry but expressed no grief at his loss.  I came north; via Louisville, Indianapolis, White Pigeon, Chicago, Jamesville to Lima.  I got to Indianapolis at about 6 am.  Went into a hotel and sat down to breakfast; ate, and when I left the table a young man fell dead in the adjoining room that I passed through to reach the office.  He was 23, a fine looking large man, left a note to the landlord, apologizing for using his house so.  Then took the poison that killed him instantly.  I arrived in Lima the last day of Aug. 1859.  That night there came a freeze that killed all the late corn in the state and in the northern states.  I made the school as proposed; but it was not as full and profitable as we all hoped.  I boarded at John Child’s and was struck comparably blind, of love.  It is said, “love has no eyes”.  I had eyes; but the saw not.  Amelia filled all the visible horizon.  I went to Hebron for a winter school, in Bark Woods hired to the schools board at 25 dollars a month and, to board with the pupils.  I went down to Lima occasionally to see Amelia.  It was 14 miles; and we decided to marry: and did: and then my oldest and most prim lady pupil 26 years old (I think) left school. 

Spring came and I was out of work. I started off to hunt for work; fully conscious of the truth of a man’s decision who, like myself, once thought he had every thing he needed but a wife; and after he got her, saw that he needed every thing, but a wife.  The roads were muddy and I was on foot.  Called at Lake Mills, no school, for me.  Pushed on to Waterloo: a new village on the Milwaukee and St. Paul R. R. 36 m. from Lima.  Made a “high school”, and hired a private school room to teach in.  At the close of a 3-month term, I hired the upper part of a brick block, having stairs outside.  Took & had the front room seated and desked; and took the two back rooms, bed recess, and pantry for living use and father Child brought Amelia and some things in his spring wagon.

 
Prov.13:15, The way of the Transgressors is hard.

I, now, started out to see what I could do under favorable circumstances.  I had a full school a nice schoolroom, pleasant, forehanded neighbors and plenty to live on.  Our rooms were plastered and finished white & the woodwork painted white.

When Rebecca died and her family treated me as they did I decided to go to Ky. and to get my living among other people, and do as they did, and be one of them: and not mar my enjoyment by keeping another Sabbath from other people.  So I left the Sabbath and passed as a Baptist.  Did not stay there but returned to Wis. and settled at Lima, where nearly all kept Sunday.  Did not hear much said on the subject of the Sabbath and I did not realize that my sin against God was great, and would bring punishment.  My pride was also heaping up wrath, against the day of wrath.  We had kept house but one week when Amelia came down with Typhoid fever, and grew rapidly worse.  I called the head Dr. of the town and he did 12 dollars worth of treating but she still grew worse.  I then tried a Homeopath but he did no good.  I would teach all day then start off and run to find a girl to hire.  I scoured the country for two miles in different directions, but could find no help.  I started a man off in a buggy to Cold Springs 36 miles away to bring Dr. John Maxson.  I think he came on the cars that night.  He went right to work & I got an old lady about like Mrs. H. Lodge to come over and assist.  By the next day she seemed out of danger, so cheerful and so beautiful, I was more happy than I could express.  The Dr. had to leave, and Mrs. Hill could not stay all day.  I paid her $1.00 a day, for a little each day.  Amelia was nervous and got worse.  Weather bad: sent for Dr. M.  Paid 7 dollars for the two trips and Dr. M. 16 dollars.  This last time he told me to not hope much.  But by staying 24 hours he broke the fever & she came to her senses.  Of course there was a little fever for several days.  Now, Mrs. Clark a grass widow, spiritualist, quack, water cure Dr. came to town and I heard of and went for her.  She was a great talker, and I was delighted to find that she would come and nurse my sick wife.  She stayed until our first baby was born 5 weeks later & charged 5 dollars for her botch bungling work.  Amelia and I were as ignorant as she and perennial rupture was the consequence.  Mother Child came and stayed a day or two & brought cousin Mat Child, now, Truman, and she worked 2 or 3 weeks.  When Mother C. left, she said now, Amelia, you must do your work in two or three weeks.  That rule would apply to a strong, sound, Dutch or Irish woman; or to a mare well used to labor: but to a frail, nervous, but ambitious young mother, it was a dangerous path marked out by ignorance.  (Part of my effort here was a brilliant success and after visiting us from Waterloo Father Child went home and told his wife he was not ashamed of Sheffield.)

With all my watching, sawing, splitting, and carrying wood, and making files and managing my coarse pupils and teaching different branches: my body and mind were over worked: and I became unhappy.  When my term closed, I sold my desks and moved to Milton; and spent the summer in working on a place to pay rent and I painted some.  I failed to find teaching there.

When winter came I put off and taught writing in Beaver Dam; a new city 100 m. north of Lima: then went to Madison, the capital of Wis. and wrote, or, printed with pen, on Soldiers Record’s, for S. W. Martin.  Hiring my wife and baby boarded at Deacon Bond’s in Milton.  In the spring Father Child hired me to work on joints swelled and O, how I suffered from pain.  Amelia had nervous spells and one day was crying and Father C. came in to our room and said Sheffield, you have got to stop fretting at Amelia: and he was in earnest.  I told him I had not fretted at her.  He did not believe me, of course.  I said, ask her.  So he turned to her and said wasn’t he fretting at you?  She said, no.  He went out and never meddled to give me orders, again.  Julia was born while we lived in those rooms and we staid until she was one year and a quarter old and then we moved into the house Father Child gave, or sold to Amelia: for $200.00.  While I lived in the paternal nest I went 4 m. to the Stone School House settlement, made and taught a good writing class.  Sometimes I rode, but, mostly, walked would get home by 11 pm, rose at 4 am I also taught a good class, at Johnstown.  I worked all summer on the house, free, and uncle Mark got 112 dollars & then there was lots of work not done.  I had the offer from two different carpenters to do all the work and finish the house for 90.Dol.  We had been in our new house only one week when Julia took cold and went into acute bronchitis & it became chronic by having it six months, two winters in succession.  The lord only knows how much that dear, patient, child suffered, in the 22 years she lived after that first cold was taken.  And no one but her ever knew how many hours her anxious, loving father, spent watching or doing for her, while others were sleeping.

 In June the summer Julia was 4 years old she seemed to recover from her bronchitis and was gay and happy until diphtheria came to the children; the fall after she was 7 years old.  When Julia was 3, and Emma 5, –4 months, and Mary was 4 months old, the mother was subject to attacks of suffocation, when the blood would rush to or congest in her head and chest, and her extremities would be cold.  No remedy being near, I put the two older children, at their grandmother’s, and sent or went with the mother and babe to Dr. Maxson’s water cure, in Pumpkin Hollow 22 miles away; where she stayed 9 weeks.  In that time I painted Mr. Salisbury’s large house and blinds without and parlor within, giving the parlor a porcelain finish.  I also painted Ensign’s hotel and a lot of blinds for Bridges; both failed to pay.  At the hotel I was to have dinner, but was not called & worked all day without stopping.  I used to rise at 4 am, get my meals and put in 12 or 13 hours a day.  The bill at the cure was 50 dollars.  I went and worked out 30 dollars of it.  The spasms in her chest subsided and I felt happy.  When Mary was almost 2 she had pneumonia and came very near dying, I paid Dr. Coakley 5 dollars and Dr. Maxson perhaps 10 dollars and O. Truman 50c to go for Maxson.  Next Sept. Mary had a similar attack & Dr. M. came & subdued the inflammation & all 3 & John had Whooping cough and it lasted 9 months or until the next June.  The winter previous I went to Douglas corners in Walworth county 23 miles away and made & taught a writing class.  Got 33 dollars I think, came home found the girl, I left hired to stay, gone, & Mother child there.  John born the night after I came home.  In a week the mother got pneumonia, & gave it to the babe & he came near dying.  Had spasms, and I was so alarmed for the mother that I felt resigned to have the child die: if, only, the mother could be spared.  After a few days Old Mrs. Richmond ¼ mile off took the babe and kept him for 4 or 5 weeks at 15.0 a week if I remember.  When I glance, in memory, over those 10 to 12 years spent in Lima, 10 in the house I helped to build and remember the sickness, the hired help, the grabs dishonest men made out of my means of living, the Dr.’s bills and the waste resulting from sickness I wonder and thank, the patient father who chastened me, instead of cutting me off: as a cumberer of his ground.

My sin was in turning from the Sabbath, marrying an unbeliever, and going to work in my own strength, and believing that I could accomplish all things by extra efforts, gladly put forth to please and support my dear and lovely wife, and children!  My affections were “inordinate” and hence sinful.  I saw year after year that my capital stock was diminishing; but I could not help it.  John was born Jan. 14, 1867.  When he was a little over two months old Mary was taken very bad of pneumonia & I called Dr. Coakley.  He said we must nauseate her, and make her sweat or she will die.  He ordered, “hives syrup” to give her, & left.  Came the next day and found the stuff had been given but had not nauseated her, but had acted as a cathartic.  He gave orders and went to his home in Milton June tion 7 m.  Mary grew worse and I, started Orson Truman off in the night for Dr. Maxson 22 m., 18 m. on cars, & 4 m. on foot.  Dr. got here about 11am.  She was cold to her knees and elbows & her chest was swelled up even with her chin and her throat, or tonsils swollen so that she could not swallow.  The Dr. said he would not have come if he had known I had a Dr. “But if I am going to do any thing there is no time to loose”.  He then ordered a washtub of very warm water and put her in it & a cool wet cloth on her head: when her limbs were warm he put a clothe doubled & snow inside round her neck until the swelling began to go down.  He then took her out, wiped her, and wrapped her in a warmed woolen blanket and laid her in bed, & took a seat in the farther corner of the room.  Very soon Dr. Coakley came.  He came through the front room with slow measured tread, not hoping that she was yet alive.  He sat in the chair by the bed and took hold of her wrist.  In an instant he jumped up from the chair and exclaimed, “Mr. Maxson, your girl is better!  Her pulse is better!”  Dr. Maxson replied, yes, it is 50 percent better since she took her bath.  Coakley seized his medicine case to deal out some drugs, but I said, Dr., you need not give her any more medicine.  She is taking water treatment and it seems to agree with her.  He started out of the room cursing.  I followed close & said Dr., don’t be offended, I want to save my child’s life.  How much do I owe you?  He replied, 5 dollars (3 visits).  I had it in my vest pocket and passed it out to him & he took it without looking round, or slacking his speed.  Dr. Maxson charged 5.00 & I paid Truman for going for him.  I found girls to hire, very scarce, and when they could be found they charged from 1.50 to 2.50 a week and if my wife got sick they would leave, & I would have to hire a horse, perhaps, and drive all over the country to find another.

One winter a teacher was needed in the School and Lewis Child was the hiring committee.  He would not pay me only 22.50 a month and I, to board myself.  The next winter he went and astonished a girl by offering her 35.00 a month and then the next winter he offered her 50.00 and paid it.  When I got my school to going by his influence, lawyer Ed Vincent got up a muss & the school board came to see what it was.  Vincent made his charge and demanded that I confess that I had acted mean & ungentlemanly and ask forgiveness of the school and the board.  I rose & said I have felt kind toward my pupils and have done nothing that I did not feel forced to do.  And now I am ready to leave the school, but I have no confession to make.  I sat down, and Mr. Anderson rose (He was Chairman of the Board).  He said, “Mr. Maxson, We want you to go on, & teach the school, and do it as you have done, and keep order”.  O how Vincent did rave.  After he got out of doors.

Of all the sickness, and all the Dr.’s bills, all the hired girls, their good & poor qualities, and the time spent in hunting them or of the long nights spent in keeping fires and the amount of wood I had to split, or how I seldom retired until 11 and sometimes later, and always rose at 4 am or earlier; I will not speak.  For, I know it is all recorded in the book of my life’s record: and it will be shown in the great day of judgment.  But I will state with contrition and sorrow of heart, that for years, I loved my family better than I did the one that gave them to me, and I confess also, that I felt a secret pride and purpose to show others, that I succeeded in getting a smarter, & better looking, family than my neighbors.  These two sins I confess, openly, and ask for forgiveness, for I now see that inordinate affection is a sin.  Col. 3:5.  And pride with its reward is set forth in Malachi, 4:

I now accept all the sickness and financial failures as a rebuke for my pride and, my inharmonious family with all the misrule, insubordination and contempt of my children for me, & my advise; and my instruction; is the pay I have received for admiring and setting my wife up to be head in the family: while I actively favored, “Women’s rights”. 

In the early part of the year 1868 there was a Religious Revival in Lima in which different denominations joined and many were apparently converted: and among them my wife.  We were Sunday Keepers: but there were a few Sabbath keepers in the neighborhood: so that after the meetings became less rushing there was a sorting of converts by the different churches and the Sabbath was referred to.  I took no part in the discussion and Amelia said she knew the Seventh day was the Sabbath at first and unless it was changed it must be Sabbath still; and she would look for the change.  A week passed and not a word was said about the Sabbath and I began to fear she had backslid: but on the sixth day she said to me “I can’t find in the Bible where the Sabbath was changed and I believe I ought to keep it”.  I replied, if you turn, I will.  So we kept the next day.  Elder James Bailey came from Milton, preached in the Methodist and United Brethren Church, then we went to a large spring and pond and he baptized 7 if I remember.  We returned to the church and a church of 15 members was organized.  Henry Ernst, Deacon J. S. Maxson, Clerk.  This was in Feb. I think 1868.  5 ½ years before we came to Kan.  Those were among the happiest days of my life.  We lived in peace and harmony, and worshiped in unison and went to meeting on the Sabbath.  But the Morgan sisters came to make long visits; also, Helen & Eliza Folsom all spiritualists, and their influence was not toward vital pity: for they were strangers to all the holy emotions of the renewed heart.  We all attended Good Templars Lodge: cost 15 dollars.  The G.T. Lodge was broken up by unprincipled, men joining and then drinking and bragging of it, and when any question was up, they would show their lack of principle by disorderly conduct.

After we got to living a Christian life and it seemed as if the path before us was open to fields of delight all of a sudden, a cloud of evil portent rose over the way, and a storm burst so unexpectedly that I was not able to stem the gale and I yielded and let the evil spirit hold sway.  Luke II: 24, 25, 26.  One day as I was leaving the yard, to go up town Emma, then 8 or 9 years old stood on the side porch and I said to her come here, and she replied, “I shant do it”.  I was in a hurry: and I saw no way only to make the refractory child yield, as I saw she meant what she said.  I started for her and picked up a piece of a flat hoop off from a keg and hit her some two or three times across her shoulders: but not hard enough to make her cry; but she ran out to where I stood, when I first called her.  It was not twenty feet, but her mother came out of the door near where Emma stood when I called her, and without saying a word ran to me & caught hold of me and struck and pulled and fought so fiercely that I saw I would have to give her a heavy blow or back-off: and I thought, surely some one will see us: for the R. R. ran not more than six rods from where we stood, and was also most always occupied by some one going to, or coming from town.  So I left the scramble, and went to my work up town.  That was the worst mistake of my life.  I ought to have gone into the house and demanded an explanation, and if that was to be the rule (as it has been), I ought to have packed my old trunk and left for parts unknown.  But I stayed: and I, and my children realized that I could not govern them; so as to make them respect me, their lawful ruler, and so keep love active in me, for them, and respect and love, in them, for me.  I loved them; admired their beauty and their bright expanding genius.  I could do all for them with pleasure: watch over them night & day; toy with them, trot them on my knees, carry them in my arms or on my back and never tired of adding to their enjoyment.  But when they grew larger and, like all ½ grown children, temper rose and I felt that for the good of my child I must subdue the rage of temper I was told before the child, that I was mad, or that I had done as bad as that myself; and if I used a switch to correct a child the mother would follow up with an examination to see if I had left marks; and once she found one and brought the child out into the garden to let me see it.  I was sorry, but knew it was nothing compared with the marks I got when I was whipped: not for stubbornness but for some mistake.  Finding that I could not reckon with my children as I thought right, I took to giving a slap or pull at the hair, believing their fault as willful rebellion. 

It seems to me now that some other way would have been better: but all the nations, in all time, have proved that children who are to amount to any real good, or excellence, and are fitted to enjoy life and make others happy must be “well whipped” and well governed; and made to show respect to parents, and to all people older than themselves.  So important is it that children obey their parents that the Infinite Judge of all the earth put the command in the middle of his law and promised long life as a reward.  Long life will extend into the new earth: Showing that those who do not honor their father and mother by obeying them and treating them with respect, will not find long life in the new earth.  Because a hen will fight for her chickens, is no reason why an intelligent, accountable woman, should fight for her erring child.  O lord, open our eyes to see thy law. 

When Julia was one year old she was bright, but spunky; and when she got spunky she would throw herself on the floor and bump her head on the floor & scream with all her might.  Her ma asked, me to break her, for fear she would kill herself.  I said Julia get up: She only screamed and pounded her head on the floor.  I got a little switch and commenced tingling her feet.  I was not mad, but I kept on whipping until I was very anxious to stop, but I kept on, whipping.  Her mother kept still and I said get up, Julia, and whipped away.  All at once she jumped up, and threw her arms about my neck & we kissed.  She never got over the influence of that whipping: and she humbled herself before the Lord and honored her father and mother: and kept all the commandments: and I believe fell asleep in Jesus.  O Lord, grant to show all my children the pure way of the Lord and save them by repentance and obedience, Amen. 

Some time after the scene described on page 31 I think I was one day working in the garden, and my wife came out of the house and asked me where the children were.  I heard the train coming, and ran to the road fence, and saw the two girls Emma and Julia on the track running toward the crossing that led up to my gate in the R. R. fence.  I yelled, come off the track!  Emma replied, ”I shan’t do it”.  The train was in plain sight, had made the curve and was rushing up.  I climbed over the high fence as quickly as possible, ran down the steep bank, caught Julia by the arm and jerked her off the track then ran and overtook Emma & pulled her off.  I rather think she would have reached the bridge but the train rushed past, before we got to the R. R. fence.  I felt that I must make her mind, not only for her present safety, but for her future good.  The fall after she was nine years old I took her to Singing School and helped her at home, so she learned the transportation of the scale and she never lost it.  Father Child died a few days before Mary was born, but left a will giving his property all to his wife, but after her death, it shall be divided equally among the children: Lewis, Barney, Emeline and Amelia.  Barney died in a few years. Mother Child felt so overburdened with the thought of so much business that she got Lewis appointed agent.  The farm had 200 acres, a flock of 200 sheep (more or less), cows & horses: & hens.  A man hired by the year & c.  Lewis seemed to feel rich: he had a store of all sorts of goods: was express agent, had a warehouse & bought wheat, wool, butter, & eggs & c.  He was a politician and rode a great deal.  At the end of 2 years mother found money was getting scarce and she asked Lewis to look over and settle with her. He said her could in 3 minutes: but did not. So she went to the county seat & asked the Probate Judge to settle with him.  He called him (I think by wire), he did not seem inclined to go: & the Judge told him that if he did not come he would send an officer after him: He then went and I think there were several thousands of dollars (it seems to me it was 8,000.00 that he could not account for).  There had been a sale & the auctioneer got over 300 dollars for his services.  Afterward the farm was sold for 8000 dollars.  One year, the wheat raised, sold for 2000 dollars.

After Lewis had failed to account for 8000 dollars or 9000, he demanded that she should guarantee to him 3000 dollars at her death or he would not settle.  So she gave him that claim.  Then she bought Emeline’s share for 1000 dollars and Amelia’s share for 1,000 dollars.  And paid the cash.  Amelia, with her money bought 30 acres of land that joined the 3 acres that her father had charged for.  And she had her bedroom enlarged 8 feet & an outside door made to the cellar & cistern made cost of land 600 dollars, addition to the house 150 dollars, a cow 45.00, 5 sheep at 7.00 a head 35.00=at my request 130 dollars for a loom and all necessary fixtures with 40 yards in the loom.  I was offered the same in cash, but thought it a good investment; a person could weave 30 to 36 yards a day at 25 cts a yard (If I remember).  But goods from the factories began to come; for the war was over, and factories could start: this soon brought the prices down.  I call that a loss by my mistake.  All these expenses aggregate 960 dollars.  I worked at all the improvements (of course free) and worked out 30 dollars of the 50 at the water cure and I presume she paid the 20.  If so that leaves only 20 dollars of the 1000 not accounted for.  I know she paid $1.00 for a pair of gloves that she gave to Alonzo Truman.  After my father’s will was probated the Executor sent me $510 dollars.  200 went right away for the sickness and its results already due.  The 300.00 dollars I paid for horse buggy harness, & c. that I turned over to pay 300 dollars towards 40 acres of excellent meadow Marsh that I got for 700 dollars.  It was part of the same farm that Amelia’s 30 acres was of, and joined it.  I gave a mortgage for 400 dollars at 8 percent interest.  Mother Child, without a word of warning bought a pair of steers not ¼ broke and sent them to me, apparently, as a gift.  So I fell in, boarded up my cowshed for a stable & wintered the oxen.  Paid $9.00 for a sleigh and put a tongue to it, bought chains, and spent weeks of time breaking, or training, the team until I could talk them about, as obedient as horses with lines: but they never paid ½ the expenses they had been to me, until she sold them for $110.00 and gave me 10.00 and the man that bought them borrowed my plow and used it up and broke it, so I lost just 11 dollars:  One dollar more than I got.  Mother Child bought the mortgage I gave for my land and when the mortgage came due she raised my interest to 10 per cent, and if I could not pay the interest she took my note at 10 percent.  Thus compounding the interest.  She sold Mr. Hull property on trust & fearing he could never pay her, she asked me to get things out of the store and have them charged to her.  I did so, and if I got ahead a little she would ask for a note and I had to pay 10 p.c. interest on it.  By the time I was forced to sell out and leave that climate to save the lives of wife and Julia Sept. 1873 her accounts Mortgage interest store goods and all else summed up $736.00.  I paid her cash in full.

I paid all my debts and several claims that were not honest.  Dr. Stillman conjured up an account of 14 dollars that was false.  Lewis Child owed m3 $150.00 that he would not pay one cent of and he induced several, who were owing me, to not pay me.

Mrs. M. and Julia had not drawn a breath without gasping for over three months, when after selling farm in pieces, and household goods at auction and packing 1200 pounds in two large boxes and a few barrels I got hauled to “Milton Junction” seven miles, wife and children going on train.  We all stopped at Shepard Mill’s and took the Chicago and North Western train to Chicago at 2 a.m. 96 miles.  I feared the asthmatics would die so I walked the aisle of the car until morning: had all six laid down to sleep and I often listened to the breathing of the mother and Julia: and was delighted to notice that they were breathing more naturally than when we started from Milton.  Arrived in Chicago at 6 a.m. and the sick as well as the well ones walked upright into the depot.  At 10 we took the C.B.Q.  Train arrived in Quincy after dark but soon started over the Missouri on R. R. bridge and down to Hannibal: then across Missouri to St. Joseph: across Missouri river to Atchison, stopped for breakfast and took train for Emporia.  Had a head on collision at 4am, one mile from Emporia.  Got to hotel at 7 am, left family and walked 8 miles to br. Joseph’s.  Got him & team and went for family.  Got them up there to dinner.  The air was cool and both Julia and her mother took cold and had a bad spell of asthma.  In three weeks Joseph took his team and family & my family and drove to Hartford 23 miles to visit br. George.

When we arrived at Emporia Sept. 26, 1875 all summer vegetation had been killed by the frost.  After visiting and having my goods hauled from Emporia, I hired Mrs. Rogers house and moved in Oct. 9, ’73.  That night ice formed in wash dish on stove in kitchen ¼ in. thick.  So I went and hired 3 rooms of Mr. Nusetice, ¾ mile west of town on the bottom: Bought cow 35.00 built her a stable.  Bought Celia for 50 dollar bill.  Saddle for 10 dollars, bridle 1.25, hired her stabled & fed for, perhaps, 6 dollars a month; 7 dollars a mo. for 3 rooms in house.

Finally bought an old store on 3 lots 100x150 ft., a well on place.  Had front room shelved & countered & put in a stock of groceries.  Bad move: lost money.  Sold out to Tom Campbell.  Taught one 3 m. term while living in that store, (rear).  Bought mower, 130 dollars.  Made hay with Mr. Coburn & by his slack management lost nearly all the hay and as the hot winds and grasshoppers spoiled the crops I decided Kansas was not habitable for white men.  So in 1875 I hitched my team ahead of Dr. Hunting’s and Carter’s who had a covered wagon & Mr. Bonhan in all going to Arkansas to hunt a good place; for a S.D.B colony: we started from Hartford July 23d.  About a week after Amelia had learned that her mother had, before her death, made her will and given all her property to Emeline to keep and use, for my children, except 500 dollars, the extension table, 3 beds and two pictures.  Emeline sent the 500 dollars & table & feather beds, but kept the nice bedding: sent the woolen quilt and home wove coverlet, kept the pictures and mother’s fine black dress: gave her gold bowed spectacles to Mrs. Anderson.  Sent the old rolling pin and such things as she did not want, and let us pay freight on them.  Not satisfied with what Amelia would have inherited consisting of Four Thousand One hundred and Fourteen dollars in cash, and notes, drawing interest, and the house & 3 acres that cost the old lady not less than Three Thousand Dollars, making, $7000.114 in all.  Not satisfied, I say, with robbing her kind, loving, faithful sister, of her inheritance, who often said if property ever should come into her hand she would see that Emeline is taken care of:  She went to writing abusive letters to her and so hurt her sensitive soul that she went sick and Mrs. Gould told me after I came home from Ark. that Mrs. M. had been insane in her sickness, so that she was afraid she would never recover: but she did; as her body gained strength her mind came back to her.  I reached home Oct. 9, the 52d anniversary of my birth.  I had seen many soul trying ordeals when death came and took the dearest and most loved ones from my arm and out of my sight; and left a void in my love that I felt could never be filled: but when I entered my home in Hartford, that day, and saw my emancipated, sick wife, in the old rocking chair; and my one year and ¼ old baby lying on a pillow so poor that she was really a skeleton with skin wrapped round it, to weak to lift her hand or foot or to turn her head or cry aloud, I felt such agony as no human tongue can describe, no pen portray.  I had suffered the toil and rough ways of journeying 500 miles & back over rough roads; up and down mountains; along muddy valleys and rocky beds of streams gone dry; and had breathed the malarias atmosphere of Arkansas’s deadly climate for two month and suffered the effects another month while I waited at Springfield Mo. for my worn out team to recuperate, so that I could start for home.  My partners had, while I lay sick in the wagon, made my team draw the wagon up the long hills, and so kept their team strong that when I stopped at Springfield as my team could scarcely walk, they drove 28 miles the first day after they left me.

When I thought it would do to start home I borrowed Mr. Weaver’s wagon.  He was mayor, and I had slept in his basement and hired pasture & bought oats of him for the horses.  So I hitched my team to his wagon put my trunk and box of harness & other traps in and drove to the depot 2 miles and shipped them for Hartford, put my saddle on Celia and used it as a “pack saddle”.  Bought a nice old saddle of Weaver, for 1.50 and rode fanny on this saddle.  I got 10 miles and had a chill O how sick!  Stopped at a neat white house asked the lady to let me lie down on her carpet.  She consented.  I slept and when the fever came on I got up & rode on 2 miles and a farmer let me in and kept team.  I sweat so that the bed was wet.  Started on and rode 2 or 3 miles and I never had so severe a shaking chill.  It seemed to me I would flutter off of fannies back.  I came to a house with high cross stacked rail fence, in front I threw the reins over one, & got over and to the house asked the widow lady to let me warm by her stove she consented, said “You have a chill”, and brought me some hot tea.  I stayed there 3 days her son offered me 75 dollars for Fanny.  I started at about 5 p.m. and could not get in to lodge until I turned off the main road & found Mr. Wm. West.  Put up with him; Stayed with him two weeks.  My team had all the corn on the stocks they could eat.  He charged me $2.25 for the time.  I had part of my food in my grip.  Rode on and at length in 3 days arrived at Stover. Spent 2 days there looking for a place to buy.  Found a splendid 160, with log house, apple, grape, peaches and shade; set, and doing was a well.  Forty acres fenced for pasture, & sixty under plow, sixty in prairie meadow.  Price, 300 Dollars.  I took the contract, and paid 10 Dollars to bind the bargain.  Came north, stopped one night at Gurdon Hick’s (Florence Noble’s) (my niece).  At Osage Mission, cool nights: was dreadfully bothered to find places to stop over night.  Arrived in Hartford at 3 P.M., Oct. 9, 1875.  The condition of my wife and babe Gertrude, as described above (p.40) forbade moving to place near Sabette City.  So I wrote Mr. Eaton and he sent me the 10 dollars I had paid.

Seeing that our money was sure to run out for necessary things in the way of living I bought 20 acres across Eagle Creek for 125.00.  Would have built a house on it if Eagle Creak had not risen in flood so that we could not cross and Julia and her mother took asthma so they could not breathe and as I could find no house to hire in Hartford I went to Burlington and hired a house at 7 dollars a mo.  Here we stayed two and a half years.  Thirty months.  Paid 210 dollars cash rent.  Then bought poplar lumber, pins, shingles, & nails: and hired Mr. Niver and built the house I had planned two ½ years before: 16x24.  I kept my family here 2 ½ years.  Put in the little field already broke & broke some more set 52 peach trees and some apple trees & a lot of blackberry briers.

Emma taught on Four Mile Creek.  I painted in Hartford and on E. Creek.  Lost my two cows and a nice yearling heifer worth 18 dollars, a twin.  The cows were worth 200.00.  Emma taught also at Neosho Rapids, under Theodore Rogan.  While living there I put the cover on my wagon, took my family of eight including myself and attended the S.D.A. camp meeting at Emporia 10 days. (I think) I had become very anxious over the irreligious condition of my family and was delighted when a number of my children wished to be, and were, baptized.  The next day the other two and my wife and myself were re-baptized.  This time into the hope of the coming of the Lord and the resurrection through him.

We returned home and for a while I enjoyed the blessed privilege of reading the Bible and joining with my wife and children in worship, morning and evening.  At length it was decided that over a day was sufficient and later that I should do all the reading and still later I must do all the praying and later, in Parsons work must keep up only when the praying was being done.  I saw that the reading of the word of God was as solemn an act as any words I could utter and suggested that all sit and listen.  I was then told to go into my closet; I did so and my children have grown up ignorant of the word of life, and have drifted into the world and two of them have joined themselves to a body who claim that the “Law of God” is done away by Christ and his sign; (his Sabbath) is not binding on them.  Romans 8:7.8, explains their situation: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it’s not subject unto the law of God neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.   And the other verse tells us that, “To be carnally minded is death.  So we see, death, (Eternal) is the doom of all those who are not subject to the law of God.  What feelings can, or ought, a loving, anxious, father to have when he sees his dear children whom he has guarded from every harm with all his abilities enlisted, night and day, as far as possible, turn to the world: or, to a worldly, carnal minded church: thus abolishing all the influences and all the hope he had all these years longed and prayed to see confirmed in their salvation.  O it is too bad that the devil is permitted to head the young captive at his will.  The Lord only can convince and if his word cannot do it his wrath will, when the day of destruction comes.  After struggling for 2 ½ years with poor health, and herds of cattle and horses, running on the prairie and lack of money, with a large family to suffer, I took J.C. Barber’s offer of $2.50 a day to paint in the car shop in Parsons.  I went late in the fall and left my dear ones on the bleak hill with horses to care for and I am not sure if any more animals: but wood had to be hauled and my brave children did it.  O how I do wish I had hired that all done.  I wonder I did not.  But they seemed so cheerful and happy when I saw them, I did not realize how hard they were having it when I was away.

I moved to Parsons the next spring.  Hired a new, 5 room house of Mr. St. Clair at $12.00 a month until spring 6 mo’s. 72.00.  I then bought the substantial dwelling on Crawford Av. Built of brick with two walls of stone, a well of 45 ft. depth, a hedge & gate in front and 50 ft. of sidewalk.  Shade trees and fruit trees and grape vines were well grown on the place.  Lot 50x150 ft.  Price of place $700.00, paid 200 and gave a mortgage for 500 dollars.  My oldest daughter Emma, who had taught on Fourmile Creek, also at Neosho Rapids, now found a school near Mr. Elders and hired her board of his wife.  It was 7 miles away and made the job average heavy.  But Emma was brave and faithful and did a good job giving general satisfaction; and won the admiration and puppy love, of Tandy Montgomery, a smart workish chap with too much self admiration to allow him to treat others with becoming deference.  His forwardness disgusted Emma and she set him adrift.  She found a situation in the public 4th ward school in Parsons, which she held for three years; and left it after breaking her physical constitution by mental strain and going to school without breakfast sometimes and omitting to eat her lunch at noon: thus weakening the powers of the nervous and digestive system; and when a good warm supper was offered, of course, the force of nature’s demand would be for a fuller meal than the weakened digestive organs could manage; and disease gained a foothold, that although Dr. Harvey succeeded in over coming it in one attack two years, or less, later, a similar attack in the hands of less skillful doctors, cut short her arduous and almost pleasure less life.  She died the wife of James W. French in Moberly Mo., aged 26y: 2mo: 18da.  She was baptized in the Neosho river during the camp meeting near Emporia, June 1879 by elder J. O. Corliss when she professed faith in Christ and his resurrection, and promised to keep the Sabbath: which promise she fulfilled until the day of her death.  Mr. French found a letter she had written to A. H. Lewis for the “Outlook” a monthly magazine.  So I see evidence that she held on to her faithfulness until death: hence I hope I shall be permitted to see her again in the New Earth along with dear, patient, faithful Julia: who was baptized during the same meeting by the same elder as were, also, my other children Mary, John, Sarah; and all were accepted by the leading elders as fit subjects after they had examined them.  They were all baptized into the same faith and made the same promise, and all kept the Sabbath as long as they lived with me at my home.  When Mary, John & Sarah left my home to do for themselves they all fell under the influence of a kind, generous, friend; who was reared to the observance of the Sabbath, and when converted refused to join the M. E. Church, because they did not keep the Sabbath, and he did: but he, like Jacob of old, had to go down into Egypt to find bread (a living) and like the children of Israel forgot the true God, and went to serving Baal.  My children followed; at first, cautiously; later, freely and willfully: and after settling in Erie Sarah turned her baptism, given as a seal to her faith in Christ, and her pledge to keep the Sabbath, over to the enemies of God’s law, and the active apposers of his Sabbath.  Gertrude having been baptized ere this, and slipped into the church by a shake of the hand, unintended by her, and in violation of the promise made to her, that she should be baptized without joining the church.  She being young and singing in the choir, allowed the swindle to pass and after settling down to the sin felt less hurt than she expected to.  That sin unless repented of and forsaken will dam her and the one who deceived her.  The Lord knows his name.