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LIFE ON THE BORDER, 
 
 
 1% 
 SIXTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 BY WILLIAM REED. 
 
 "Let not ambitian mock (jheir useful coll. 
 Their humble joys and destiny obscure ; 
 
 Nor Qrandear hear with a disdainful smile, 
 The short and simple annals of the poor.'* 
 
 . Obat's Elist. 
 
 FALL RIVER, MASS, 
 Robert Adams 
 1882. 
 
I Zl 
 
 FS'K?^ 
 
 TO THE SEADEB. 
 
 I write these simple sketches as a pi easing exercise for my 
 declining years, not with the expectation Jthat they will be 
 largely read. If any benevolent individual should happen to 
 honor them viith his notice, I shall be deeply gratified. But at 
 the outset let it be understood that no pretence is made 
 towards elegance of diction or sensation in plot. They are 
 rude drawings of actual experience by sturdy citizens, such as 
 may be gathered up]to-day along the frontier innew settlements 
 In conclusion I dedicate this little book to the memories of my 
 «arly associates and all the good humble toilers of the back- 
 woods, and the enterprising people which now dwell among the 
 rural scenes that charmed my early years. 
 
 COPV RIGHT SECURED. 
 
 HA ! ■^ ■■•"'■? 
 
 .-^ 
 
 V 
 
 ■Printed by A. B. Morss, 140 Blackstonc St.. Boston. 
 
WHERE THE BORDER WAS. 
 
 The stri^of Northern New York, that skirts the 
 north and northwestern base of the Adirondacks and 
 trends away northward to the Canada line or latitude 45 
 degrees, and thence in Canada to the St. Lawrence 
 Biver, is one of the handsomest outspreads of land on 
 the face ot creation. From Plattsburg, the most north- 
 ern town of any note on the west side ofLakeChamplain 
 to Ogdensburg by the old road over the Chateaugay 
 hills Is not far from -120 miles. At the time of which I 
 am writing, 1822 to 1835, nearly the whole of this broad 
 strip was covered with a dense forest, yet to be cleared, 
 but settlements had been made at many points, especially 
 in the north part of St. Lawrence, the northern end of 
 Clinton and the eastern corner of Franklin Counties. The 
 latter was now becoming the centre of attraction for 
 poor men because of the cheapness of the land and the 
 facilities ofifered by the land agent for settlement. With 
 the forest covering the entire face of the country it 
 was impossible to discern the beauties now apparent, 
 and the industrious axemen, intent on clearing the soil 
 so they could get a livelihood from it, never realized 
 that future generations would travel with delight over 
 and through the very country under their feet admiring 
 its peculiar attractions especially in summer. The de- 
 scent from the Adirondacks is over gentle declivities 
 terminating on terraces some two or three miles across 
 till you reach the last decline upon the alluvials of the 
 St. Lawrence. At the foot of the last terrace, which in 
 our section was a strip of sand dunes some three miles 
 in width, and in 1825 to 1845, covered with a thick 
 
4 LIFE ON THE BOKDGB. 
 
 growth of pine and hard timber, and which pines were 
 large and a great source of wealth ; the country took on 
 the form of ridges with depressions called "swales," 
 which were generally swampy and abounded in white 
 cedar, soft maple, elm and brown ash timber. As you 
 journey from Malone westward over the dirt roads, you 
 pass over a regular succession of ridges, but as 
 they trend northward, in going in that direction the 
 traveller finds a very nice, easy road. At certain inter- 
 vals the position of these ridges and swales is changed 
 so they run east and west, and the observer coming down 
 from the south looks out from the elevated terraces on 
 the landscape before him and the great river in the 
 distance with feelings of wonder that so little has ever 
 been written of this magnificent array of fertile land 
 and comfortable homes. Away to the eastward the eye 
 takes in a scope of country, happily diversified with 
 rolling swells and sweetly beautiful vales, tiU the view 
 is lost in the Chateaugay hills twenty or more miles 
 away. To the north or directly ahead, the ridges seem 
 to spread out for miles like a fan, and then the billows 
 of the cross ridges and vales catch the view, and in the 
 mellow sunlight of a July afternoon seem inspired with 
 subdued grandeur. Away to the northwest and west- 
 ward the expanse increases in delightful inspiration, 
 and the mighty St. Lawrence away over across the 
 stretch of land, appearing as a silver lake or cloud in 
 the horizon, gives one a feeling of awe mixed with 
 delight, hard to express, especially the first time it 
 is seen. The view takes in a strip of Canada, but it is 
 none the less beautiful for that, and the extensive land- 
 scape is diversified with hamlets, villages, churches, 
 farm houses and herds of cattle grazing on the stony 
 ridges, and the traveller does not feel like hastening on 
 and leaving a scene so pleasant to the view. 
 
 The last time I visited that region was in 1868, some 
 thirty-one years after I left it a grown up youth of 
 nineteen years. Once between the two dates I had paid 
 a fiying visit there, but then the great changes that have 
 
LIFE UN THE BOBDER. 6 
 
 BO brought out the grand features of the country had 
 not been effected. Not long after that — 1851 — the pres- 
 ent railway, uniting House's point, at the foot of Lake 
 Champlain, with Ogdensburg, was completed and the 
 section brought in contact with the whole civilized world 
 and its great markets and rapid has been the development, 
 and in 1868, it seemed like a region entirely new or 
 which I had never seen before. I was in a maze as I 
 travelled over the roads I helped build when a boy, 
 looked upon fences whose rails I had lifted to their 
 places, and buildings I had helped construct, and while 
 tracing many points in which no change had come, the 
 improvements had been so numerous, it seemed as 
 though I had entered enchanted ground. 
 
 The log houses, everywhere visible in my boyhood, 
 had disappeared and had been replaced with substan- 
 tial wooden, brick or stone structures ; the small farms 
 had mostly been absorbed in large ones ;- the old em- 
 ployments of wood chopping and rail splitting bad 
 given way to the care of stock and cultivation of 
 hay, and an air of thrift and comfort had super- 
 seded the former very narrow and straitened circum> 
 stances of the people. In fact an entirely new class of in- 
 habitants — not all to the manor born — dwelt where the 
 former pioneers prepared the way and only two or three 
 of the old settlers remained as mementoes of sixty years 
 ago. 
 
 THE EARLY SETTLERS. 
 
 Into this wilderness, bristling with hard work and 
 deprivations a battalion of sturdy New England people 
 ventured between 1820 and 1830. They were generally 
 poor, hardworking laborers with no capital and could 
 barely pay the expense of migration on the most econ- 
 omical scale. A few bronght teams and a little house- 
 hold furniture, but very rarely one brought money 
 enough to pay for his land. They were mostly young 
 people of about thirty years, some with a few quite 
 young children, but all were strong and healthy, willing 
 to toil and economize in hope of a better future. In 
 
6 LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 
 
 their habits, morality was the rule, many were pious, 
 and in dealing scrupulously honest. They encountered 
 aU the hardships and self denial of a new settlement 
 with cheerfulnesi and worked on for years with a per- 
 sistence and energy worthy of commendation. They 
 came largely from New Hampshire and Vermont, and 
 some from the region around Plattsburg which was an 
 old settlement. It was in the wake of this immigration 
 that it fell to my lot to be carried thither by an energetic 
 family from Newport, N. H. in the spring of 1823, and 
 in that vicinity I made my home till 1837. The town- 
 ship in which our home was pitched enjoyed and enjoys 
 now the high sounding title of Bombay, and is situated 
 in the north western corner of Franklin County and 
 along the Canada line, some fifteen miles west of Ma- 
 lone, and forms a part of the beautiful panorama we 
 have spoken of. Those early settlers are all gone, with 
 a few exceptions. Another class have come in within 
 the last forty years, purchased the land the former 
 settlers cleared, and enjoy the fruits of their early la- 
 bors. So far as I know, nothing peculiarly famous has 
 ever taken place in the township : no men or women of 
 great renown have risen to astonish the world, but in- 
 • dustry, good order and morality have ever been con- 
 spicuous and the inhabitants have held on the even tenor 
 of their way, abreast of their neighbors in other towns, 
 and in other sections of the country. Nor do I forget 
 that in the early history of that settlement there was 
 much that was rough : — indeed everything was rough : — 
 and deprivation was endured by everybody ; that the four- 
 teen years passed there were fraught with many a pleas- 
 ing incident and happiness even smiled on the then re- 
 mote frontier— and, in my recital of the simple events that 
 fell under my notice, I shall aim at the truth so near as 
 my memory has it and my readers— if I am fortunate 
 enough to have any— will not look for rhetorical em- 
 bellishment while dwelling upon commonplace matters. 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDEB. 7 
 
 THE LAiro AGENT. 
 
 I know nothing further about the original land titles 
 of northern New York, than that the land was owned in 
 immense tracts by individuals, who had either stolen or 
 purchased them. That on which we had settled had 
 been purcha!>ed some years before and was now offered 
 in the market by the son of said purchaser. Connected 
 with this personage was a little romance that was con- 
 sidered interesting in early days, and I place it here as 
 coming in connection with the early history of the land. 
 Somewhere in Ireland — that island so fruitful in smart 
 boys and romance, — and at some date near the middle 
 of the last century was born an Irish boy named Hogan. 
 On reaching manhood, his love of adventure or pursuit 
 of business drew him off to the East Indies and he got 
 a foothold at Bombay on the western coast. He was 
 smart, attractive and observing and in due time he wed 
 a woman of the country, who, it was always claimed 
 was a Hindoo or partly so. At any rate she had money, 
 the most important thing in the matter just then, and 
 with the money they both left and came to America. 
 A son named William was born to them, who if now 
 living, must be very aged. The elder Hogan, among 
 his investments of money purchased a very large tract 
 in the northwest corner of Franklin County, which he ■ 
 afterwards mortgaged to some friends in Baltimore, and 
 as is commonly the case, lost the property. In the 
 meantime the son had grown up to manhood, and the 
 owners of the tract not caring to speculate in land, gave 
 him the agency to sell it and pay them a small price per 
 acre, which would repay the debt, and he was to pocket 
 the rest. The elder Hogan dying, the son with his nice 
 old mother and his young wife removed to the wilds, 
 located in a corner of the tract on the St. Regis river in 
 the edge of the township named Bombay, from his 
 mother's home in India, and there built up a fine busi- 
 ness village that has not yet forgot to be smart. A 
 bridge over the river, a dam across it, a mUl, a tavern, 
 a store, a little wooden Episcopal Church that was in its 
 
8 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 doleful decay in 1868, having hardly ever been used, and 
 indicating by its sad aspect the actual decay of sectarian 
 zeal and partizan rancor which formerly af9ic£ed that 
 region, soon rose in the forest. 
 
 The romantic story of young Hogan's birth and edu- 
 cation supplied a great fund of gossip and small talk 
 among the rude unlettered settlers for all the early 
 years. He was a strongly built, black-eyed, black- 
 haired man of rather aristocratic bearing, but kind and 
 forbearing to the settlers. Some of these were rude in 
 manners and speech and not anfrequently took liberal 
 potations of whisky, and sometimes they came in busi- 
 ness collision with Hogan. He readily sold the land on 
 liberal terms as to payment, not exacting anything 
 down, if the buyer was poor, but charged compound 
 interest on the money owed. For years he would wait 
 while the occupant was clearing the land and getting a 
 Btock of cattle around him. He bought the wheat of the 
 farmers, sold lumber from the worthless sand ridge, 
 found no fault if the settlers cut timber for their own 
 use on unsold land, took a wide interest in town affairs, 
 sometimes presiding at town meetings, was finally elec- 
 ted member of Congress and acquitted himself well as a 
 Dlimocrat. His large family grew up around him and 
 the boys left that region as they matured. In due time 
 having sold out the land, he also retired with his re- 
 maining family, and a new generation came in, that 
 knew him only as a historic character. In 1868 not one 
 of his name or family, or even a trace of him outside 
 that doleful Episcopal chapel, remained in the village 
 be had organized and named after himself— Hogansburg. 
 With some of the real old hard heads he was obliged 
 to hold a pretty rigid hand, and when I was a boy, I 
 often heard subdued conversations about him that did 
 not flavor much of compliment, but never heard him 
 accused of injustice. By some means one old sturdy 
 settler named Fomeroy got on the wrong side of Hogan 
 and lost his farm. Fomeroy was a man of large frame, 
 heavy muscles and great strength, and was the ac- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 9 
 
 knowledged leader in heavy work. But he loved a 
 drop of whisky and when under its influence was not 
 entirely amiable. On one occasion, when having some 
 business with Hogan, his temper got the better ot him 
 and doubling his fist he pushed it rather near Ho- 
 
 gan's face, exclaiming, "you d d scoundrel, what 
 
 would you do if I should punch that into your face?" 
 Hogan was sitting and calmly replied, "I'd put daylight 
 through you in a second." Pomeroy understood the 
 hint and subsided, but he never could get another farm 
 of Hogan, and finally drifted westward in the emigra- 
 tion of 1835. 
 
 OUR IRISH NKIGHBORS. 
 
 Hogan'g being half Irish himself, gave him great pop- 
 ularity among the Irish immigrants that were, even as 
 early as 1825, beginning to swarm to this country. At 
 that time they generally came in emigrant ships to Mon- 
 treal, and huntingabout the country for a place to root, 
 they naturally gravitated to Bombay, where an "illigant 
 Irishman" was the boss. They were kindly received by 
 ' Hogan, and what was quite jovially remarked, after a 
 while it was found that so far as be could, he located 
 them on a handsome ridge of land that ran along the 
 east side of the Little Salmon river, which soon became 
 known as "Irish Bidge," and doubtless bears the name 
 to this day. Once in a while a family got planted on the 
 west side in our neighborhood, but they were few for 
 the first ten years. One Malone got rooted on the west 
 road, Peter Hannon, with his flock of robust children 
 and nice little wife on the south road, and Patrick 
 McLaughlin an ex-soldier of Wellington's in the Span- 
 ish peninsular war, in which he went through sundry 
 romantic adventures, was out west from us. He had 
 seen real fighting ; was in the battle of Salamanca where 
 16,000 men were killed ; had been knocked down by a 
 spent ball ; had been taken prisoner by the French three 
 times and nearly starved to death ; had been exchanged 
 and on the close of that war shipped to America in 1814 
 to help conquer the United States. His regiment was 
 
10 LIFE ON THB BOBDEB. 
 
 sent to Plattsburg under old George Provost, where it 
 encountered the American regulars and militia and 
 while on the retreat in a disorderly way, many deserted, 
 he among them, and skulking in the woods for a little, 
 found their way into the States. Quite a number of this 
 class lived in our region, and made good citizens. Ol 
 some oC these I shall have more to say as my story 
 progresses. 
 
 OUE CABIN. 
 
 This was pitched right in the midst of a dense forest, 
 at first, with only a bridle path to lead any one to or 
 from it. Why it was located where it was. no reason 
 could be given. As soon as it was inhabited a small 
 clearing was made in front and rear, comprising a 
 couple of acres, but leaving the forest trees on each of 
 the other sides near enough to fall upon and crush it. 
 By means of this clearing, a view was opened in the rear 
 to another log cabin or house, as we called these struct- 
 ures, just over the dividing line on the nextf arm, and 
 this was the only house in sight for several years. This- 
 cabinofours was also located back on the farm, some 
 forty rods from the northern boundary where a road 
 was already planned, and which road is in good order 
 today. 
 
 As to the cabin, it was built of medium sized logs, 
 some 24 feet long, and 18 feet in width. There was only 
 one room . The floor consisted of loose puncheons, — 
 that is, thick short plank, made by splitting straight 
 grained bass-wood logs, and hewing them a little so 
 they would lie in position on the floor sleepers. There 
 was no hearth or fireplace, only a place for each> and 
 a backing of rude stonework against the logs at one end. 
 At the foot of this, on the ground, the fire was built, and 
 the smoke gradually found its way up along this chim- 
 ney back and out oT a hole in the ridge of the roof. 
 There was no door, only a place cut through the logs 
 on one side, where our predecessors hung up a blanket 
 by night, and in cold weather. There was no window, 
 only a place cut through the log wall on the. side oppo- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 11 
 
 site the door. The floor overhead was of loose, ua- 
 planed boards, and the roof was covered with rough 
 boards, and the joints battened with wide, heavy slabs, 
 nailed down firm, and this roof was always tight in the 
 most driving storms. There was no piazza or shed or 
 enclosed door-yard, no oven, no well, no cistern, no 
 cellar, no outbuildings of any Isind. Of course the place 
 and surroundings were generally forbidding in charac 
 ter, and much more so for New England people accus- 
 tomed to framed houses, good barns and home conven- 
 iences in abundance, even if not elegant. But this cabin 
 and surroundings were as good as any other settler en- 
 oyed, and such as they were, it was better than no shelter 
 at all. 
 
 The farm comprised seventy-two acres of land, wholly 
 upland and all but seven or eight acres covered with a 
 heavy growth of hiird timber-^maple, birch, elm, hem- 
 lock, beech, oak, walnut and basswood, and in the 
 summer season these noble trees stood there in the 
 subdued semi-tropical splendor, peculiar to northern 
 forests. It was a glorious sight to gaze upon their 
 majestic trunks and leafy tops, coveied with foliage, 
 manj' with blossoms, and gaily thronged with birds of 
 various kinds. 
 
 On the north side of the farm, along where the road 
 now is, some seven acres had been thoroughly cleared 
 and sowed with winter wheat the previous year. This 
 wheat was in its glory when we took charge of the place. 
 A half acre of laud was planted to corn, right among 
 the logs, and a small patch to potatoes. These crops 
 were paid for along with the "betterments," a back- 
 woods term for improvements, when we took possession 
 and they were our chief dependence for food for the 
 first 3'ear. • 
 
 Into the above cabin we moved June 20th, 1823, some- 
 thing less than a hundred dollars having been paid for 
 the "betterments." Those who remember back 60 
 years can well recall the general conditions of th 
 country at that date. It was in the Presidency of Jame 
 
12 LIFE ON THE BOBDES. 
 
 Munroe, who was serving his second term, and the na- 
 tion had hardly emerged from the injuries inflicted by 
 the British war of 1812. Money was not plenty and the 
 great improvements of the last fifty years were hardly 
 dreamed of. The Erie Canal was being built, and the 
 enterprise of founding the city of Lowell was ripening. 
 Boston had just become a city, and northern and western. 
 New York were mainly a vast wilderness. In fact, the 
 great development of western New York, with the settle- 
 ment of the farther west, was hardly begun. The north- 
 ern border was gradually being occupied by the hardy 
 poor of New England, mainly from New Hampshire: 
 and Yermont. — It was at this date that we plunged into 
 the forest, adopted the rude life of frontier people, began 
 to fight the forest with the axe, and set about organizing 
 a home in the wilderness. 
 
 Imagine us then just entered into the above hut, and 
 how Aunt Ann must have felt to put her nice things in 
 that dingy room. She was the daughter of a thrifty 
 farmer in New Hampshire who had died leaving each of 
 his three daughters about six hundred dollars — quite a 
 large sum for that day. With a part of this money she 
 had bought her wedding outfit. This consisted of the 
 inevitable six silver tea spoons, three large silver spoons, 
 sugar tongs, china set, a nice mahogany bureau, a hand- 
 some cherry parlor table, substantial clothing, besides a 
 full supply of kitchen fixings including a large and a 
 small brass kettle and a huge iron one for special pur- 
 poses. She was bothered to find a place appropriate for 
 her "plunder," but, at last, she got it stored so she could 
 nse it. One bedstead occupied each of the two corners 
 of the room farthest from the fire, the bureau was placed 
 on the side opposite the door and near the bed, the 
 cherry table on the other side of a cupboard for crockery 
 and food afterwards placed on the saige side of the 
 room. And when all this work had been done we 
 began to live the life of a frontier settler far in the 
 woods. We were two miles from the nearest store, 
 school, tavern or any civilized convenience as black- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 13 
 
 smith, carpenter, bricklayer, and were eight miles from 
 a post office. The two miles to school were mainly 
 through the unbroken forest. Here then began the 
 hard laborious life of whittling out a living from the 
 rudest advantages. Everything was as rough as it could 
 be. Every deprivation bearable by humanity must be 
 endured for years before comfort could be thought of 
 and even a road must be opened and built through the 
 woods before we could have access by a cart and oxen 
 with the great busy world. One mile east of us a main 
 road ran north and south, from Fort Covington, a bus- 
 tling settlement then — formerly French Mills — on the 
 Big Salmon river and close upon Canada line, to Moira 
 a stirring little village near the base of the Adirondacks 
 then on the important stage and mail route from Malone 
 to Ogdensburg and now a station of importance ou the 
 Ogdensburg railroads And it took several years to 
 open the one mile of road from our cabin to this road, 
 as the trees had to be cut down, the stumps dug out, 
 the swamp corduroyed, as it was called that is, the road- 
 way covered with logs laid across the road some twenty- 
 five feet wide and covered with dirt so that teams could 
 travel in muddy seasons. As there were but few settlers 
 and the work on roads had to be done by the farmers 
 whose land abutted on the roads it was slow work to get 
 much improvement in this line. 
 
 Now having described the condition of things when 
 we entered the cabin in 1823, it becomes necessary to 
 say a little of the improvements begun and carried out. 
 Uncle Beuben and his wife were people of considerable 
 energy of character, he being thirty and she twenty-two 
 years of age, but she was a little the more energetic of 
 the two. And as she was a woman of remarkable 
 physical development, tall, muscular and athletic, with 
 large black eyes, quick temper, a willing worker, neat 
 in housekeeping, thorough in execution, of ready tongue 
 and great persistence, there was little chance for any- 
 thing to go to waste or to lack for attention around or 
 within that domicile. Consequently, a revolution was 
 
14 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 soon begun within the cabin, and it did not ceaae till 
 things were mightily changed. 
 
 First there was a door constructed and hung upon 
 wooden hinges, with a wooden latch opened from with- 
 out by a leather string. Then three window sash were 
 bought and glass to be set, and a double window was 
 fixed in the west side of the cabin, one to slide sideways 
 upon the other instead of being raised as with us. An- 
 other sash was fixed ou the front side and these with the 
 door made our cabin light and airy. Next a common 
 table with crossed legs was constructed for every day 
 ube and it was kept for that purpose some ten or more 
 years. Then a fire place was built b}' laying down a 
 good solid hearth of flat stones, which were plenty on 
 the land, and on this a chimney was constructed. Two 
 jambs were built up ou either side some four or five feet 
 apart, of stone carefully laid in clay mortar, an iron 
 support was fixed in at the right hight to hold the front 
 of the chimney and the stone work carried up to the attic 
 floor. From there the chimney was constructed to the 
 ridge and a couple of feet above, out of straight cedar 
 sticks some one or two inches square laid up in a square 
 form and plastered within and without with clay, so as 
 to render it completely fire proof, and this chimney 
 stood the wear some twenty years. 
 
 Next a new floor was laid of white ash planks sawed 
 in a mill but unplaned. Consequently Aunt Ann had a 
 jolly good job before her to scrub this floor smooth, 
 which she did faithfully, so that in four years, by her 
 weekly exercises on washing day, with a splint broom 
 she rendered this rough floor as smooth and whit-e as 
 could be wished. 
 
 Having thus got door, windows, chimney, hearth and 
 floor inside the cabin, the next thing was to render it 
 impervious to the cold when winter was approaching. 
 As I said before the cabin was built of rough logs, 
 hewn only on the insiide, but between the logs were 
 numerous cracks, more or less wide and nice openings 
 for letting in the cold. To remedy this, straight cedar 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 15 
 
 plugs or wedges — more or less triangular in shape so as 
 to have a sharp edge — were driven in between the logs, 
 on the inside of the house, and a large ^part of the 
 difficulty removed. But to finish the improvement moss 
 was gathered from the large old trees in the forest, and, 
 by means of a sharpened, wide-edged punch driven into 
 the cracks, on the outside till they were completely 
 chocked, and then clay mortar was plastered over that, 
 rendering the walls of the cabin as secure against the 
 frost as though they had been built of brick. And now 
 we had a home, liuitoble as it was in which we could 
 keep warm in the coldest weather and enjoy life, in a 
 rude way in the forest wilds . 
 
 LIFE . INSIDE THE CABIN. 
 
 . But our story would not be completed if we neglected 
 to Inform our readers how we managed our fires. 
 Allow me then to say that the capacious fire place 
 would hold an eighth of a cord of wood without crowd- 
 ing it. In the rear would be placed a large green log, 
 generally of beech or maple, sometimes two feet in 
 diameter. On top of this a smaller log and a still 
 smaller one, above that made the backing. The and- 
 irons were then placed in position in front of the back 
 log, the coals rakeil along in front of it also, and a rous- 
 ing big forestick laid on the said andirons in front of the 
 fire. Between this and the backing dry pine and chips 
 would be crammed for kindling, and green wood, if we 
 had no other, which was often the case, piled on top of 
 the whole till a huge pile would be in position. A good 
 draft would soon set the drier wood burning, the green 
 wood would gradually become roasted dry, and burning 
 slowly, send out a tremendous heat, so that in a halt 
 hour, you could sit comfoi-tably in the rear of the cabin, 
 and the blazing fire so illuminated the interior that no 
 other light was necessary. Reading, sewing, spinning, 
 knitting or talking could all go on merrily around such 
 a blaze, and the occupants of the cabin cared not whether 
 it was cold or not outside. Oh, the memories that clus- 
 ter around those evenings about such a fire. Those 
 
16 LIFE ON THE BOBDER. 
 
 who have ever enjoyed one will sympathize with us ia 
 the wish that we may enjoy one more such, in a social- 
 way, before called hence. But such fires could only be 
 enjoyed where there was a surplus of forest timber to be 
 destroyed, as was then the case, for it took fifty or more 
 cords a year to feed the kitchen fire alone. It is a fact 
 that in those early days, in another log house, we saw 
 even a quarter cord of wood piled upon one fire, but 
 there were no jambs to the chimney, and logs eight feet 
 long could be used. It was a glorious sight to see it 
 burn, and it kept the house at summer heat for the whole 
 cold, blustering day. 
 
 The occupation ol the women in those days is worthy 
 of a word. It must be confessed that the life of a house- 
 wife was not an easy one. Her work, laborious and 
 pressing, must be performed under almost every known 
 inconvenience and obstruction, as none of the modern 
 convenient improvements had come into use. The only 
 cooking utensils in our cabin were a cast-iron bakei, 
 which I shall describe : an iron dinner pot for boiling 
 meat and vegetables ; an iron spider for frying ; an iron 
 tea-kettle and one or two small iron kettles and a small 
 brass kettle. Within the fire place an iron crane had 
 been securely fastened into one of the jambs and a hal 
 dozen iron hooks longer and shorter, were used with 
 this to lower or elevate a kettle, according to the fire. 
 As we had no oven, until one was built the second year 
 out of doors, all the baking was done in the baker or on 
 flat, tin surfaces, placed at an angle to the fire. In this 
 latter way the famous johnny cake was baked. 
 
 The baker (or Dutch oven as generally ca,lled) was 
 capacious, made of cast-iron, and with a movable cover 
 that not only covered the whole oven part, but was 
 turned up around the circular edge so as to prevent live 
 coals of fire from falling off. Into this baker Aunt Ann 
 would place her batch ot deugh, making allowance for 
 expansion, and drawing out from the fire place a lot of 
 live burning coals she would fix a bed on which the ba- 
 ke r would be set. Then the cover would be put on, and 
 
LIFE ON THE BOSDEB. 17 
 
 piled two or three inches deep with coals so that a severe 
 heat would he enjoyed hy the bread from ahove as wel^ 
 as below. The coals on top or bottom could he renewed 
 if necessary and a right good baking secured with the 
 requisite attention. — We can testify to the excellence of 
 the bread so baked, and notwithstanding this old" 
 fashioned, cast-iron baker disappeared from that region 
 forty-five years ago, yet it would be wrong to say that 
 the bread of the present daj' tastes any better than 
 when baked in this original way. 
 
 Potatoes,— and no country ever produced nicer ones, — 
 were generally cooked as now by boiling or roasting in 
 the hot ashes, covered on the outside with burning hot 
 coals. Koasted potatoes or roasted green corn -in its 
 season, and roasted eggs, were always great luxuries 
 among the boys, and in the right season many got pun- 
 ished by the young scamps in the woods, where fires 
 could be easily kindled. Other great luxuries with the 
 always hungry urchins were broiled chickens, or boiled 
 pumpkin or hast}' pudding and milk, and the good 
 mothers did not fail to make use of these instrumen- 
 talities, especially the latter, in shutting up the hungry 
 growling of the fierce eaters. Most of the meat eaten 
 was pork, always either boiled or fried, as there was no 
 convenience for baking or roasting, and hence the fatten- 
 ing of several swine became a permanent necessity with 
 every farmer for every year. It would be thought in- 
 credible by many if 1 should tell the amount of pork 
 eaten by a family of half a dozen, but with say four in 
 our family the year never was got through with, with 
 less than four hundred pounds, and we were moderate 
 pork eaters. 
 
 Next to cooking, the labor of the women was directed 
 to the clothing of the family. There were wool and flax 
 to be spun and there were no factories in that part of the 
 country and for awhile were no carding machines or 
 means of fulling cloth. To get good warm woolen gar- 
 ments for winter for both sexes, the wool had to be 
 carded into rolls and spun into yarn on a wheel all by 
 
18 LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 
 
 hand. Before weaving, the yarn was colored black or 
 dark with a solution of the bark of the soft maple or but- 
 ternut tree ; red was obtained from logwood and redwood, 
 and for stockings it was colored blue by a solution of 
 indigo. All these operations increased the burden of 
 domestic life in which the men had very little share. 
 The weaving was done iu a hand-loom that in a year or 
 two was set up iu one corner of the cabin and the clatter 
 of the treadles and shuttle was the general music of the 
 household. The flax had to be hackled to separate the 
 fine flax from the tow, and the fine staple was spun into 
 thread on the little wheel, at which the spinner sat and 
 turned it with her foot. This was a work of considerable 
 skill and required an expert to do it in the best manner. 
 The tow was spun ou the large wheel into coarse rough 
 threads and when woven into cloth was made into the 
 common shirts and pants for rough wear on the farm. 
 The flax was made into flne linen cloth for ladies' nice 
 clothing, sheets and table-cloths and it was really sur- 
 prising to see what beautiful figured linen work some of 
 the women of that period could weave. Ladies who 
 have remnants of their grandmothers' outfit in table- 
 cloths, sheets or underwear can satisfy themselves by 
 ocular demonstration that the women of sixty years ago 
 could de their part in embellishing life and making their 
 families comfortable as well as now. 
 
 As we are spinning this description out too long, we 
 must hurry over the rest of the relation. Women, in 
 those days, did not hesitate to put forth a helping hand 
 on the farm, when the pressure of the outside work re- 
 quired. They almost always assisted at the milking of 
 the cows, cared for the poultry and pigs, and in sunny 
 afternoons raked hay, and in planting and harvesting, 
 dropped the seed or picked up the potatoes and helped 
 husk the corn. And when I add that childreu were 
 born in abundance, there being but rarely a family with- 
 out a dozen or a good fraction thereof, and few of those 
 born died, and those that lived were cared for with 
 motherly energy, grew up strong and hearty men and 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 19 
 
 women, I think my readers will agree with me that the 
 frontier was pretty well provided with elements of en- 
 ergy, industry and good calculation in its early settlers. 
 These have all passed away, and the children of that 
 period have become old people, like the writer, but there 
 was too much good in the old generation to be suddenly 
 forgotten or carelessly consigned to oblivion. Therefore 
 we will continue our relation of some other phases of 
 frontier life— 
 
 OUTSIDE THE CABIN. 
 
 There was land to be cleared of timber, fences to be 
 built, a barn to be provided, and the numerous tools to 
 do work with to be obtained and put in order. At the 
 beginning we had not a cow or yoke of osen, or any 
 other animal than a horse, and very little use for him, 
 for want of roads. Travelling was largely done on 
 horseback, the women generally riding on a pillion be- 
 hind their husbands, unless fortuuate in owning a side- 
 saddle, as was the case at our house. So, of course, the 
 first thing done was to purchase a cow and a yoke of 
 young oxen with yoke and chains, for at the first we 
 could not use a cart even, and a plow was entirely use- 
 less till the roots and the stumps could have time to rot. 
 
 But the main work in hand was felling the forest. 
 This was hard, rough, wearing work,' at all times, and 
 especially so in hot summer days. But there was no 
 escaping it, and the settlers went at it with a will. Most 
 of them had had some practice with the axe in their for- 
 mer homes, and those who had preceded us in settle- 
 ment, had become really skilful in handling that tool. 
 An axe generally weighed somewhere about five pounds, 
 or a little less, and but few used one weighing more. 
 
 It therefore, became the leading indispensable tool 
 for several years of struggle, as with it about all the 
 work possible to be done was performed. Fuel for the 
 fire, road-ways through the woods, fence rails, shingles, 
 boards, all were dependent on the axe, and the construc- 
 tion of many of the farming tools was impossible to us 
 without it. With the axe all square timber was got out. 
 
20 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 An axe of large size with a wide edge, called a broad 
 axe, being used in hewing timber, and, in fact, so nu- 
 merous were the uses for this tool, that every boy grew 
 up an adept in its use, and a man's capabilities for work 
 were usually gauged by his expertness in handling it. 
 
 Right well do we remember when the first large trees 
 near the cabin were felled by the sturdy blows of Uncle 
 Beuben. A very tall hemloclf and a huge beech stood 
 quite near the house, and it was a rich pastime for me, 
 a small boy, to see them fall. The huge hemlock be- 
 came afterwards the heavy ground log for one side of 
 the big barn that was built during the second summer 
 and prepared for housing the grain crop then growing . 
 The other logs for this building were cut not far away, 
 and the young oxen that were also purchased when the 
 cow was, had lots of heavy fun in drawing them to the 
 place needed. 
 
 After cutting down the tre es and chopping the trunks 
 into logs some sixteen feet long, and piling the small 
 limbs in piles called brush heaps, the next work was to 
 do the logging. This work tested the grit and muscle 
 of all engaged. A place was first to be selected to pile 
 the logs on and then with the oxen, the scattered logs 
 were drawn to the place and made to lie straight beside 
 the others or raised on top of the lower tier. It needed 
 three men to do this work easily but quite often there 
 would be but two besides the ox driver. The labor of 
 lifting the logs was facilitated by the use of handspikes 
 or levers made of a tough, hard, springy wood called 
 leverwood or hard-hack, and it was considered quite an 
 art to fashion a nice, eligible lever, so as to have it work 
 easy. Every man working or logging had his own 
 lever^ the same as his own axe, and no one disputed his 
 claim. To gather together and pile up the logs on an 
 acre or two of ground was considered an ample day's 
 work and more often one acre was cleared than two in 
 that time. But there was no wasted time. Generally 
 the farmers, who were too poor to hire this work done, 
 exchanged day's works, that is Mr. A. and B. would go 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDER. 21 
 
 over and work for Mr. C. a day in logging and tnen Mr. 
 C. would go over at another time and work a day for 
 each of the others. In this way poor men who had no 
 teams had to manage in order to get team work for clear- 
 ing land. Two days work for a neighbor owning a team 
 would get one day of the team and its owner in return. 
 Sometimes men would have to. do this way for years be- 
 fore they could accumulate enough to buy a team. In 
 other cases men would work in this way till they could 
 raise a yoke of oxen from calves. People of our day, 
 accustomed to all sorts of conveniences and tools for 
 executing all kinds of work can form but a very poor 
 idea of the heavy laborious life that thousands of thrifty 
 men went through to clear away the forests all over this 
 continent, so far as it has been done. All New England 
 went through this experience and four or five generar> 
 tions of people were occupied in this rude labor, and at 
 this hour, the axeman's whacb upon the hard old trees 
 can be heard within a day's ride by railway from Boston 
 towards the north and east. Along the farther frontiers 
 ofHaine and Kew Hampshire this work is now going 
 on and there are some recent comers from that settlement 
 that can tell as hard stories of frontier life as we have 
 recorded. 
 
 Well, year by year the forest fell in all directions, 
 wherever farms had been opened, and each year some 
 five, ten or twenty acres on each farm were cleared 
 and added to the opening. The farms adjoining ours 
 were going through the same experience as ours, and 
 from all sides could be heard the crash of the falling 
 timber, levelled by the axe. During the first year a 
 view was opened on our farm from the cabin out to the 
 road. In the second year we cut away the heavy forest 
 east of the cabin and by the end of the third season an 
 opening was made the whole width of the farm, so we 
 could see the house of our neighbor on the east, who 
 had also made a generous opening around his house 
 clear back to the line dividing our farms. It was a year 
 more, at least, before the house on the third farm which 
 
22 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 cornered upon ours came in sight, but it was considered 
 
 quite an addition to our privileges when we could lools 
 
 away down diagonally of our clearing, across the road 
 
 to the house of the neighbor on that farm. There was 
 
 something to show for these years of toil. The broad 
 
 acres were opened, were productive, and from the crops 
 
 came support and comfort. Fences had to be built 
 
 around each field, but the rails were generally got out 
 
 in the less busy season, when work was not so pushing 
 
 as during the growing of the crops. Our fences were 
 
 all built of rails made from the wood of the white cedar, 
 
 called by our classic botanists " arbor vUcb " which grew 
 
 to a large size on our low, moist lands, and was easily 
 
 split and very durable. The rails which were put into 
 
 the fences Qtty years aigo, are still there and sound 
 
 enough to last many years more. Next to that we used 
 
 white ash, brown ash and hemlock when the cedar grew 
 
 scarce. Our fences were 'built of large rails ja,nd laid up 
 
 to stay, and cattle early learned that they could not 
 
 Jump them. By the time all this was accomplished, the 
 
 road had been opened out to the main road, aud a good 
 
 stout cart had been added to the farm conveniences. 
 
 We could now do considerable getting round. We 
 
 could go to mill, bring lumber from the saw-mill and 
 
 carry produce to market, a matter that had troubled us 
 
 before. In the first year we had to go to mill on horse 
 
 back, and if we wan^ed any lumber we had to get it 
 
 through the woods by driving wliere the trees would 
 
 allow it, using the axe to cut away the brush and small 
 
 trees. There were a few temporary paths or road-ways 
 
 of this kind cut just where it was convenient, across 
 
 anybody's farm, but they were liable to be obstructed at 
 
 any time and frequently were. 
 
 There was a source of income in clearing the land and 
 falling the timber, that helped out the early settlers, in 
 the matter of expenses. The ashes of the wood could 
 be turned to good account. There were merchants who 
 would purchase them at about twelve-and-a-half cents 
 a bushel, or the black salts or potash which could be 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDBK. 23 
 
 manufactured from them. The process of making the 
 salts was thus : A series of huge tubs called leach tubs, 
 made of rough boards, with battened joints, so as to 
 prevent leaking, would be arranged in the forest to be 
 cleared, and close by them a large cast iron kettle, called 
 a "potash kettle," holding some twenty pailfuls, would 
 be set in a sort of rude arch made of stones and clay. 
 "When the leach' tubs were filled with ashes, well packed 
 down, water would be applied in abundance till the 
 whole mass would become thoroughly soaked ; the lye — 
 composed of said water and potash in solution — would 
 run out of an orifice at the bottom into a huge trough, 
 dug out of a great log, and placed in position for that 
 purpose. This lye was evaporated by boiling in the 
 great potash kettle, in a similar way to making maple 
 sugar, until the residuum or "black salts," was left in a 
 mass in the kettle. When so much of this had been ac- 
 cumulated in the kettle as to prevent boiling, it was re- 
 moved into heavy circular cast-iron tubs called coolers, 
 and the process of boiling more lye continued until by 
 repeated supplies of water running through the leaches 
 the potash elements would all be extracted. The color 
 of the water would determine this. The leached ashes 
 were considered of no value there, and were then thrown 
 out in a huge pile on the ground and left to their fate. 
 This was a mark of ignorance in the people, for no bet- 
 ter fertilizer could be asked for to spread upon the land 
 after a little worn. Yet we never knew a busliel so 
 used in the early settlement of New York. 
 
 The black salts could be readily sold for money or 
 exchanged for store supplies at some three or four cents 
 a pound, and in clearing the timber from ten acres of 
 land, enough would be realized to pay the expense of 
 clearing at the rate of ten dollars per acre, then general- 
 ly paid, though in a certain scarcity of monej' one 
 patch was cleared for six. 
 
 While on this point. I may add that the black salts 
 could be and often were turned into the potash of com. 
 merce by the process of melting. This was considered 
 
34 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 good sport and was generally done in the night. All 
 the youths in the neighborhood stood ready to join in 
 the work and fun of the occasion. A tremendous lot of 
 dry cedar or pine wood that would burn like tinder 
 would be hauled up to the ashery ; the salts placed in 
 the large kettle again, and a rousing fire kindled beneath. 
 In order to get a quick and incessant flame one man 
 crowded the dry wood into the Are and the flames would 
 stream out ten feet high from the chimney, making a 
 fine illumination and in a half hour a blue flame would 
 spring up all over the surface of the salts, burning out 
 the niter; in another hour the salts would begin to lique- 
 fy and small blue currents would be seen running over 
 the surtace and the terrible heat would be kept up for 
 six or more hours till the whole mass of salts was lique- 
 fied, when it would be dipped out by iron ladles into the 
 coolers again. This when cooled would be a solid mass 
 of crude potash, worth some six cents a pound in that 
 early day. This labor and fun too was so laborious that 
 generally the salts were sold in their original condition. 
 When thus sold to the merchants they would either be 
 treated as above and rendered into potash or else 
 changed into the old-fashioned pearl ash of i3omiuerce. 
 This was done by fixing a large oven with a broad floor 
 of brick, a furnace underneath and an open passage way 
 for flame up through the rear of the oven floor and a 
 chimney near the front to carry off the flame and smoke. 
 A ton or two of black salts would be placed on the floor 
 of the oven, a fire of dry wood built below and the draft 
 would bring the flame up over the salts making them in- 
 tensely hot, and a man at the oven door kept them stir- 
 ring with a small iron shovel with a long handle, similar 
 to puddling iron. Gradually the intense heat would 
 burn out the niter pnd other gross elements, the salts 
 would turn pure white and become pearlash and in that 
 condition found a ready sale. A still higher refinement 
 of this pearlash produces tlie saleratus so much used 
 now in many parts of the countrj'. There was but one 
 merchant in the town who carried on the business of 
 
LIFE ON THK BORDER. 25 
 
 making pearlashes, and of him we may further spealcas 
 we prolong our slcetches of that region . 
 
 Of course in clearing land and with the constant use 
 of the axe in all sorts of hands, ekillfnl and, unskillful, 
 there was a great liability to severe accidents. Small 
 ■cuts or gashes on the feet or hands were not uncommon. 
 The writer of these rambling incidents now carries a 
 number of scars that remind him of his share of the 
 rough hardships of early years. His first experience 
 was when about seven years old. In his enthusiasm 
 to learn to chop, for being the only youngster in the 
 family he was lonesome, he had adopted the scheme 
 of taking the lightest axe, when not in use, going out 
 into the forest and slaying the young trees. Uncle 
 Reuben finding this out, forbade the game, and told the 
 youngster if he was so anxious to handle an axe he 
 might exercise upon the [wood pile in the door yard. 
 This took the poetry out of the chopping business, hut 
 there was no help for it, and from that day the 
 young frowzy head faithfully practiced with the axe 
 upon the wood pUe for a while and afterwards in hack- 
 ing down the forest. 
 
 But one day the young chap slipped off out to- the 
 ashery near the woods, axe in hand, intent on adven- 
 ture, and finding a small remnant of fire beneath the 
 potash kettle and a little rain water having fallen within 
 It, he bethought him to play boiling lye, as the men did. 
 So gathering some fuel he proceeded to stimulate the 
 fire. Observing a large log lying near by with lots ot 
 coarse hark thereon he advanced upon it with uplift- 
 ed axe to chip off some of it for the fire ; but alas ! the 
 glancing axe came down upon his bare right foot causin 
 a sad looking gash upon the foot from which the blood 
 flowed freely. The axe was suddenly dropped and the 
 hoy hobbled the best he could to the house holding up 
 his bleeding foot and bawling in the most approved 
 style. It was Monday afternoon . and washing day too 
 and Aunt Ann was just in her meridian splendor for that 
 3 
 
26 LIFE ON THE BOBDER. 
 
 day with the spUnt broom on that white ash floor. She 
 was also well accustomed to the loud bawling of the 
 boy, who was expert at getting hurt, and, of course had 
 learned to pay little or no attention to said noise. Con- 
 sequently when she heard youngster's voice raised in a 
 howl of agony, she paid no attention to it, not even 
 when he had reached the door and by turning her head 
 she might have seen what was the trouble. Well does 
 the now old man remember the long moments of fright 
 and agony of the few minutes he waited at the door 
 outside for Aunt Ann to finish her scrubbing, the blood 
 dripping freely from the wound and covering the door 
 step. She kept on at her work rather hurriedly till she 
 had completed the few remaining square feet, and then 
 turning towards the bpy to see what was the matter, 
 she dropped her scrub-broom, threw up her hands in 
 astonishment crying out, "Why how did you cut your- 
 self so badly? I didn't suppose it was anything" — and 
 then hastened to perform the surgery required. She was 
 skillful at this work, and soon had the wound dressed, 
 the marks of which are plain to-day in a crippled toe on 
 the right foot. This was my first experience in wounds 
 with the axe or any other tool, but not the last by great 
 odds. As the years passed away, I hacked both great 
 toes with good sized gashes amputated the fourth toe 
 on my left foot with a good scar on the joint of the third 
 toe, besides one deep scar on my leg near the knee, 
 which wound caused me more pain than all the others 
 combined, and a long scar on my right wrist and arm 
 caused by my tailing with an axe in the hand. In addi- 
 tion I carry three good sickle scars on my left hand, 
 one of which wounds took off the end of my third finger 
 and one-half the nail at a clip. 
 
 But all these slight wounds put together fail to equal 
 some received by older men, who had gone through 
 great perils in the woods. One neighbor had an awful 
 wound upon his right leg where an axe had been driven 
 into the ankle joint and up along the outside of his righ 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 27 
 
 leg towards the knee, laying open the muscles for six ' 
 inches ; it was a fearful wound and he was fortunate 
 to escape. 
 
 Another neighbor years afterwards drove an axe through 
 his left foot, splitting it from between the large and 
 second toes to the instep. He was fortunate in having 
 good surgical assistance and was laid up several weeks 
 with It, but finally recovered and now lives in Wisconsin. 
 But even these accidents were slight in comparison with 
 some others. And the worst in our immediate neighbor- 
 hood happened a little before our arrival. Ezekiel Glo- 
 ver a robust, ambitious immigrant, from New Hamp- 
 shire, had occupied the farm north of us, and one day, 
 while chopping, in company with other men as night 
 came on, he fell a bass wood tree, one ol a clump, or 
 cluster that had grown up from the roots of a previous 
 tree which had fallen many years before. The tree was 
 of moderate size and when it fell it lodged on another 
 tree that stopped its falling. He advanced to the stump 
 where it still held on, and striking a blow with his axe 
 to aid it in falling, the tree suddenly gave way, shot 
 back from the stump, and catching him by the right arm or 
 its clothing, hauled him against another tree in the 
 cluster, and smashing his arm and breaking several ribs, 
 threw him, as the tree fell quite a distance, a poor bleed- 
 ing and helpless victim on the ground. He would have 
 soon died, but his companions hurriedly carried him to his 
 cabin, where were his wife and young children, and one 
 of the men rushed through the woods eight miles for a 
 surgeon, who immediately came. In a brief period the 
 arm was amputated at the shoulder the ribs set and Mr. 
 Glover lived twenty years or so, longer, a vigorous, hale 
 and hearty man, able to do a good days work, and chop 
 with his left arm about as well as others with two arms. 
 Another settler, about the same time, lost his left arm 
 by a tree in a similar manner, and was also remarkable 
 for great muscular power in the other. In fact he re- 
 ceived the same wages for chopping, teaming and work 
 within his scope, as any man with two arms. 
 
28 I-IFE ON THE BOBDEK. 
 
 But the most unlortunate occurence iu onr vicinity was 
 the killing of a smart young man named Townsend by a 
 falling tree. He was chopping with others In the woods, 
 when a tree in falling, fell the wrong way directly to- 
 wards him. The other men hallooed to him to get out 
 of the way, but he seemed confused by his danger, 
 threw up his arms and stood still, and in a second or 
 two the tree crushed him to a jelly by its fearful weight. 
 It was a matter of profound speculation among the 
 citizens why he did not get out of the way of the tree as 
 he had ample time and warning. Let anybody find him- 
 self in the very moment of danger of this kind, with a 
 certainty that the tree is coming down upon him, and he 
 will understand right well the reason why. It was our 
 fortune to be once placed in such danger. We had fall- 
 en a tall hemlock, right upon another that stood some 
 thirt}' or forty feet distant. The falling tree locked upon 
 the second and carried it partially over, bending it per- 
 haps twenty-flve degrees from a perpendicular. We 
 stood a little distance from the stump of the falling tree 
 and in a line with the two trees, watching the struggle 
 and had decided that our tree would break the other 
 down. Suddenly as a flash the falling tree slipped or 
 rolled off the other, and that relieved of the superincum- 
 bent pressure sprang or rebounded back again. The 
 pressure had been so great that when released it flew up 
 with awful velocity and swung over in the opposite 
 direction with so threatening a moVement, that I instant- 
 ly believed it would break from the gathering force and 
 come directly over upon me, and the seusatiou it.gave 
 explained why men in such peril cannot escape. The 
 oppressive sense of death completely paralyzes every 
 muscle and a man is as powerless as if struck motionless 
 by lightning. It is a terrible sensation, and one never 
 wants it repeated. The tree fortunately vibrated back 
 and forth many times and at last assumed the perpen- 
 dicular, after which my axe repaid it for so frightening 
 me. 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDER. 29 
 
 Still, considering the vast number of men then em- 
 ployed as axemen in the forest, the too general use of 
 whisky and the multitudinous ways in which a man 
 could get hurt or cut, it can be truthfully asserted that 
 severe hurts were rare. Whole families with perhaps 
 four or five members, working as axemen or lumbermen, 
 or clearers of land, would work at their callings for 
 years and never meet with a sad accident. For the con- 
 stant use of the axe renders a man perfectly at home in 
 its management; his muscles get accustomed to the 
 business of handling it, he strikes with unerring aim as 
 the perfect huntsman shoots his rifle, and habit brings 
 proper care to have a clear space and firm foothold, 
 when attacking a huge old tree from two to eight feet in 
 diameter. The heroism of the backwoods, though not 
 so enticing a topic for poets to run their merry word 
 jingle over, is second only to the risks of the navigator or 
 the soldier who fills the ranks on the field of battle. He 
 contends with nature in its roughest aspects, fights it 
 with no intention of retreat, and dies as heroically, at his 
 post, as the other heroes of civilization in its num- 
 berless vocations. 
 
 As we have now finished the description of the work 
 inside and outside the cabin, we shall speak next of the 
 people and their peculiarities, the country at large and 
 the incidents of its settlement. 
 
 THE SCHOOLS OP THE BORDER. 
 
 One of the very first public acts performed by the early 
 settlers in that forest region was to establish a district 
 school. Under the laws of New York a certain sum of 
 money was distributed yearly, as now, from the state 
 fund, and the remaining cost of the school was devolved 
 upon the tax-payers. The public money was all appro- 
 priated to pay for instruction as far as it would go, and 
 the further cost was levied upon the parents pro rata 
 for the attendance of the children. This was better than 
 no law, perhaps, but it operated to keep many children 
 out of school or at least to curtail their attendance, so 
 
30 LIFE ON THE BOBDEK. 
 
 they learned little or nothing. For instance, a man 
 might have five children of school age. If he sent them 
 a full term of three or four months as the district might 
 vote, his bill would be five dollars or so, and this enor- 
 mous sum he could not meet ; hence the children would 
 be sent halfofthe term, and then withdrawn under some 
 very emphatic excuse, but rarely under pretence of pov- 
 erty. For it was a sort of rule, adopted by tacit consent, 
 that the children of certain poor families should be left 
 out of the cost in malcing out school bills. 
 
 Under this system a school was organized at an early 
 date, but no school-house was provided till the winter of 
 1824-5. In the previous winter the school was keptiu a 
 log barn on the farm of Jake Travis, a mile west of the 
 corners, and right well do I remember a visit of two 
 days to the school, while Au nt Ann was visiting her sis- 
 ter Judith. They were jolly days. A huge stone chim- 
 ney had been improvised at one end of the barn, and a 
 big pile of wood prepared, and a cord or two each twenty- 
 four hours kept the ungainly edifice comfortable. ' 
 
 Wilson Randall a stout gentleman with protuberant 
 stomach, presided with pleasant geniality, and adminis- 
 tered instruction to the alphabet pupils as well as grown 
 up young people who thronged the school. 
 
 In 1824, great progress had been made. A lot had 
 been secured some thirty rods from the crossing at the 
 Corners, on the south road and a frame edifice erected 
 tliereon. and accordingly the next winter Ben Rolfe an- 
 other ponderous gentleman, florid face and protuberant 
 abdomen, was employed to do the teaching. My home 
 was nearly two miles distant by the road, and only one 
 other family near us sent pupils to the school. Luckily 
 for me, as I was not yet seven years old. Moses Dutton 
 bad located on the adjoining farm and had three sons, 
 the youngest, of my age, to go to school, so I had plenty 
 of company. From their house it was nearly three 
 quarters of a mile, right through the woods, to the next 
 house, which stood out on the main road, and was then 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 31 
 
 occupied by our old acquaintance Glover whose daugh- 
 ter Lucy and son Philip, the latter about my age also, 
 joined us in the journey. At this point also the children 
 from the three other families living on the road south of 
 the Glovers joined us, and so for the last mile, we went 
 along a jolly crowd, and picked up two or three more 
 on the way. In the coldest weather, and that means 
 something when 30 to 40 degrees below zero is under- 
 stood, we would often be late to school, as we would 
 have to stop and warm thoroughly at the Glovers, and 
 afterwards once more, at least, before reaching school. 
 
 Oh those terrible mornings! People down here 
 almost on the edge of the gulf stream think they can 
 hardly go out doors if the thermometer falls to zero or a 
 few degrees below that point, and this too with thick 
 clothing, under flannels and outer furs, and rubbers also 
 to keep out the cold, while up there in those early days 
 the boys and girls of ten years or less, travelled to school 
 with only shoes and socks on the feet — such a thing as a 
 boy's wearing boots was not known — homespun pants, 
 coats and dresses with no drawers or undershirts, great 
 coats or cloaks. I have seen tender little girls six and 
 Seven years plodding to school in terribly cold weather 
 without dresses as warm as girls now wear in lat-e 
 autumn, and yet such a thing as freezing never occurred, 
 beyond perhaps a little nipping of the ears. During the 
 fourteen years I spent in those frozen latitudes I never 
 heard of more than one or two cases of severe freezing 
 and then it was from being drunk. 
 
 Well, Ben Rolfe was our teacher and a very pleasant 
 and agreeable man. I never shall forget his ruddy 
 genial countenance, nor the feelings of awe that op- 
 pressed me when I. a child of six years and nine months^ 
 entered that sanctum of a school house. The room was 
 nearly square, atid the building had an entrance on the 
 west end, and an entry across that end. From this entry 
 a door at the right led into the room for the use of the 
 boys and another at the left for the girls. Between 
 
-32 LIFE ON THE BOKDER. 
 
 these two doors was located the master's desk some five 
 feet or so long. On three sides of the room were placed 
 long desks, on a raised floor, and these long desks had 
 ^n opening in the center of their length for those who 
 •sat behind them or in the back seats, to pass through to 
 get into them. Of course there were but three of these 
 ■openings or passage ways. Along in front of these long 
 desks ran a low seat for the small children, which had 
 the desk aforesaid for a back, and one half the length 
 of the seats and desks were devoted to either sex. In 
 ~the center of the room, stood the huge stove, into which 
 a stick of wood three feet long could be thrust. 
 
 In this room, as I entered it in December 1824, my 
 €yes rested not only on the dreaded teacher, but a long 
 array of full grown men and women, occupying the back 
 seats and desks, and a corresponding regiment of young- 
 sters like myself. There was barely room enough to 
 ■crowd us into the seats provided, and I was dumped on 
 the low seat at the right of the teacher and near the door. 
 I had the advantage of bein°: the first to get out at recess 
 and at dismission. The Dutton boys sat next and be- 
 yond them young Pomeroy, the Lord boys. Glover, 
 Hunt, Luther, several Digginses and others whose 
 names have escaped me. Around on the other side was 
 a string of little girls of our ages, but hardly one of their 
 names do I surely retain. The larger scholars were 
 full grown people. — Some of the men were six feet high 
 ■and twenty-flve years old, their sisters in several cases 
 were large overgrown women. I cannot praise their 
 -ambition or intelligence. From what I indistinctly re- 
 remember, they must have been about as rare a con- 
 glomeration of ignorance and stupidity as could have 
 been well gleaned from the log huts on the border. 
 Nor do I remember, a single case, with one exception, 
 during the fourteen years I was acquainted with that 
 school, of a pupil's ever rising to a higher distinction, 
 than to spell orally more hard words than his other as- 
 sociates. Of course they pretended to learn to read, but 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDEB. 33^ 
 
 with a half dozen exceptions among the girls, who were 
 noted for superior fluency there w'as a Dead sea of read- 
 ing. The children seemed to be incapacitated for be- 
 coming keen, sensible readers. To get over as much 
 as possible of a page and rattle it off with as few hesitan- 
 cies as possible was considered a nice thing, and as we 
 had for the leading book "The English Reader," one of 
 liindley Murray's publications, there was ample chance 
 to find long paragraphs and get good hard words. Of' 
 the higher studies I may speak further on. 
 
 Well into this Babel, this jumble of all sorts and sizes, 
 all grades or no grades of condition or acquirement, we 
 were pitched, under the benign influence of the school 
 law of New York. On the first day, along towards nooa. 
 Master Rolfe got round to the small fry, in which I was 
 included, and be called us up on the floor in a class. 
 Opening the spelling book — the only book we small fel- 
 lows had carried to school, and this wasWoah Webster's 
 oldest and earliest work of the kind, — he asked the boy 
 at the other end of the line or class, to read a few lines 
 of an easy selection. He could not read a word, nor the 
 next, nor any one till it came down to me at the foot of 
 the class. Handing me the book I read the passage read- 
 ily. Never shall 1 forget the look of astonishment on 
 his face, and the surprise of the jolt-heads in the seats, 
 for they were all looking. Taking the book he opened 
 to a half dozen other places, some of them the hardest 
 in the book, and I read them all witnout hesitation. 
 Looking me in the face, said — 
 
 "Where did you learn to read?" 
 
 "At home," was the reply. 
 
 "Who taught you?" 
 
 "Aunt Ann." 
 
 "Well you need not read with this class any more 
 and may take your seat. 
 
 Of course I did not know what this was for, for I was 
 not conscious of doing anything smart or wicked, but 
 noticed that Ben was pleasant in his manner and voice, 
 and went to my seat. He bothered on with the dull 
 
34 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 scamps, a half hour, finding out that they were as near 
 dunces or boobies, as they could well be, and arranged 
 for them to read in spelling, as it was called, till they 
 could learn to read in words, and in due time the school 
 was dismissed to our great joy, and we had a lively run 
 and romp on the way home. 
 
 The next day passed and my time was unemployed, 
 save in sly movements when the teacher's back was 
 turned, and 1 began to think school was pretty dry bus- 
 iness. But on the the third day, Mr. Eolfe called me up 
 to his desk, and having quite a large new book open, 
 asked me to read a certain paragraph. The first word 
 was "Dyouisius," and I could not pronounce it. He 
 pronounced it for me, and I then read right on through 
 a long paragraph without stopping except at the periods. 
 He remarked to me at the close, ''this book is yours and 
 you may read and spell with the first class hereafter," 
 that is with that line of young men and women whose 
 knees were almost as high as my head. And thus it fell 
 out, that before I was seven years old, and on the third 
 day I attended school, I was placed in the first class, so 
 called, and always continued in it. The other boys 
 were too stupid to envy me — but the big fellows did not 
 like it any too well and some showed their animosity. 
 
 The explanation of my knowing how to read and spell 
 so well is very simple. In the summer of 1823, when I 
 was but five years old. Uncle Beuben one day brought 
 home the '^Webster's Spelling Book" I have spoken of. 
 During the warm season I paid but little attention to it 
 turther than looking at the few pictures it contained ; 
 but when the cold winter set in, for want of shoes, I 
 was compelled to stay in the cabin with Aunt Ann. The 
 days were long and lonesome with nothing to do, and so 
 while she was busy carding and spinning her wool and 
 flax, I was permitted to study a column of words, which 
 she would hear me spell as soon as she got round to it, 
 in her work. In this way, I studied and spelled the 
 whole book through quite thoroughly, and having a 
 
LIFE ON THE EORDER. 35 
 
 good memory, I retained the words. Before the winter 
 closed I had mastered the whole spelling book, and 
 found, one day, by accident that I could read where the 
 stories were printed. So at six years, I was found able 
 to read in any ordinary book, and that is how it hap- 
 pened, I could read as well as any of them at school. 
 Ben Eolfe was so surprised at my attainment that he 
 told Uncle Reuben that I must have the reader, and he 
 ordered him to supply me and hence for a few days, I 
 had business enough in reading the new book. 
 
 Of course I seemed mightily out of place with the great 
 buffers of the first class and timidly took my place at 
 the foot of the long line of men and women that encir- 
 cled the centre of the room, when they stood up to read 
 and spell. Everything went off well enough for a few 
 da}'S. The custom in spelling was, if one missed the 
 word, it was passed to the next below him : if he missed, 
 on to the next, pnd so on till some one spelled it aright, 
 and that one then stepped up into the place just above 
 the first one who missed. In this way the members, 
 were changing places constantly. About the third day 
 of my promotion a word was missed pretty well up to<^ 
 wards the head of the class. It was easy enough for me 
 to spell it, and I did sOj and then by order of the teacher 
 marched up to the place. The big fellows did 
 not like it, but said nothing, and in a few rounds more 
 another word was missed above me and I went up again, 
 to the head of the class. This event made quite a sen- 
 sation, and so vexed were two or three of the big sap- 
 heads that I got pitched into a snow bank afterwards, if 
 I ventured out of school, any where near one of them. 
 
 It is hard to believe that such low malignity dwells in 
 the human heart, but it does. With those brutes on the 
 border there was no more sense of generosity or true 
 manliness than is found among a lot of hogs. And go 
 where we may, envy and dislike are almost always the 
 portion of one who leads his fellows in mental acquire- 
 ment, and if such a one is poor or without friend?, he is 
 fortunate if he escapes active malice. 
 
'36 LIFE ON THE BOB DEB. 
 
 Now, leaving my own experience let us look a mo- 
 ment at the discipline of of the school. Rolfe whipped 
 very little. Being an easy good natured fellow he got 
 along as quietly as he could, and had no trouble. 
 
 The next winter he was succeeded by a man of whom 
 I remember nothing except that to keep me from playing 
 he compelled me to commit to memory nearly all the 
 .poetry in the second part of the English Reader. After 
 he was gone, Sylvester Parr, a third teacher of the pro- 
 tuberant type came, and who degenerated into a Baptist 
 ipreacher and went away to other parts, and under him 
 the practice of whipping became considerable of an ex- 
 -ercise. But in 1828, the fun of going to school began to 
 be felt, in its real smaitnes. There came in as teacher 
 one Amos Emerson, a man of excellent physique, strong, 
 well made and used to labor, and as incentives to make 
 school pleasant he brought in three handsome blue 
 beeches which he placed carefully in the desk. I have 
 mentioned that the desk was several feet long, and right 
 'well do I remember observing that the butts of these 
 beeches stuck out at one end of the long desk, the tips 
 -at the other. They must have been five feet long at 
 least, and of the size usually applied as ox goads. This 
 blue beech grows in the swampy land, and becomes at 
 ^rst and for some few years growth along straight 
 withe, or shoot, properly shaped for a switch or goad> 
 -and when seasoned is about as tough as whalebone. 
 The convenience of these goads, I suppose first caused 
 their use in schools, and this good pious Baptist started 
 out with a good round supply. 
 
 It may well be believed that these goads were not idle, 
 ■for the young boys had grown up pretty rough fellows. 
 Most of the huge numbsculls I spoke of at first were 
 gone ; but a certain few remained, and it happened if a 
 school closed in an adjoining district before ours did, a 
 -delegation would soon join us, thus giving our master 
 enough to do. The blue beech and ferule were in fre- 
 -quent requisition, the ferule for the gh-ls and the beech 
 for the boys, and when the latter were sometimes com- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 37 
 
 ipelled to take off their jackets, the bushiess of whipping 
 'became serious. I never shall never forget the scene 
 when John Luther, son of the leading merchant of whom 
 I have spoken in other places, was ordered to pull off 
 his jacket or round-about, it was found he had on only 
 -a ragged cotton shirt. He might as well have been 
 naked, and I am happy to say Emerson did not beat him 
 severely over the shoulders. On joking John about it 
 afterwards, he laughingly replied, ''By golly I guess 
 that poor shirt saved me a deuced licking. Next time 
 I wont have on any," But generally speaking boys were 
 not so fortunate as to have ragged shirts, and with a good 
 stout arm to wield it, the switch would set mighty snug 
 'to a fellow's skin. 
 
 Thus having given a rough account of our school or- 
 .ganization and brought it down to 182S— 9, 1 must post- 
 .poue the description of certain scenes of discipline, and 
 ludicrous events that occurred, and some illustrations 
 •of the stupidity of the pupils to a future article. But my 
 readers may rely that what we have said is true and that 
 'the condition of our public school was a fair sample of 
 ithe schools all along the border. In fact at that time, the 
 description would answer quite well for the whole coun- 
 try, as school discipline was unmitigated brutality, and 
 ^the parents acquiesced in treatment of their children that 
 stamped both teachers and parents as unfit to have the 
 young in their care. In due time we shall have occasion 
 to relate about as brutal a scene as ordinarily disgraced 
 -even the unexampled forbearance of the border. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE BORDER. 
 
 Let no one, who honors us enough to read these hastily 
 ■written sketches, infer from what we may say of the re- 
 ligious life or experience of the early settlement along 
 the border, that we entertain or intend any disrespect to 
 •religion, or its honest pi actice among men and women 
 'in general. The instinct of early education alone would 
 forbid this if no sentiment in unison with the subject oc- 
 c p pied the heart. Eeligion is the most vital interest to 
 
38 LIFE ON THE BOKDER. 
 
 earth's toiliug millions. It has attended men through ev- 
 ery phase of development, every emergency, every ex- 
 perience, whether individual or associational. It has 
 dwelt alike in peasant and autocrat; it has attended the 
 soldier in camp and battlefield, the father in his agony 
 of toil, the icother in the diflSoulties of maternity, the 
 cultured man or woman of leisure and the rude swain at 
 his hardy toil, the explorer, the scholar, the man of sci- 
 ence, the unlettered, the learned, the ignorant, alike. 
 It has been man's solace in trouble, his strength in infir- 
 mity, his comfort in afSiction, his resource in poverty, 
 his hope in despair, and his abiding trust when death re- 
 moves him from mortal scenes. Admitting a multitude 
 of errors in belief, a myriad of lapses from high and no- 
 ble convictions and intentions, the truth still remains 
 that good men and women are universally religious, alid 
 the march of human progress has been illuminated by 
 its radiance. But man is weak. Passion or prejudice 
 often usurps the dominion piety should only enjoy and 
 lack of knowledge has often caused many to swerve 
 from the true path of progress. And again huma n weak- 
 ness has often substituted opinions, prejudices or dog- 
 mas in place of the simple principles of right doing, and 
 thus, in too many oases, what passes for religious exal- 
 tation degenerates into a burlesque ot religion's noble 
 attributes or purpose. And with these few remarks let 
 us now recall, as they dwell in memory, a few of the 
 more vivid operations of a religious character that enliv- 
 ened the border from foi-ty to fifty years ago. 
 
 The settlement of which we have been speaking was 
 settled by a great variety of poor people, drawn thither 
 from the older settlements by the cheapness of the lands 
 and opportunities to carve out a home in the wilderness. 
 Many had been reared in some religious denomination, 
 and came there charged to the brim with the views tliey 
 had previously imbibed. Aside from these there was a 
 large number, who had escaped the influence of the 
 churches, and had no- definite views on religious - topics 
 
LIFE ON THE RORDER. 39 
 
 Taut floated with the current. Still another but smaller 
 -class were pronounced unbelievers or given over to in- 
 temperance and kindred vices. But nearly all were under 
 the necessity of hard and continuous industry, so there 
 was little time that could be wasted iu gross sensuality. 
 Of the settlers from New England a small number 
 iad been communicants with the good old sturdy Cong- 
 regational churches of their neighborhoods, and as sooo 
 as thej' could get well acquainted they proceeded to or- 
 ganize a church of the same laith in the woods. As 
 soon as this was done Uncle Eeuben, who had been a 
 church member from his fifteenth year, down iu New 
 Hampshire, and was quite efficient in the good work, 
 was chosen deacon. A minister was secured and preach- 
 ing established at the school house at the Corners, the 
 minister to have the salary of $iOO a year. It turned 
 out however that he was a man of too little energy, soon 
 lost his wife by death, which unmanned him for a season, 
 and after dragging out his year he left and the Congre- 
 gational church was disbanded and lias never been re- 
 suscitated. For, while this was going on, a lynx-eyed 
 young Boanerges of the Baptist persuasion, was pegging 
 away at the " world the flesh and the devil" at Fort Cov- 
 ington only eight miles away. H^ had one eye peeled 
 on the various nooks and corners of the country round- 
 about, and being" diligent in business" aswell as '• fer- 
 -vent in spirit" and of a tough robust temperament, his 
 voice was often heard in every retreat where he could get 
 hearers. This man was the celebrated Rev. Nathaniel 
 Colver, whose ministerial and missionary efforts stretched 
 ■ out over fifty good long heroic years of service; and, 
 who after doing brave fighting for Christ and against 
 .Freemasonry, Oddfellowship, slavery and liquor selling 
 aud drinking, sank to his rest some years ago. Elder 
 Colver— as he was always called— had settled at Fort 
 Covington not lar from 1820, and preached there sieven 
 full years, when he was called to a more extensive field 
 of work, and afterwards filled many responsible stations 
 
40 LIFE ON THE BOBDER. 
 
 in the church, among them the pastorate of the church- 
 that first owned and occupied Tremont 'J'emple in Bos- 
 ton. He was a bitter antagonist to what he called error 
 and hesitated not to throw brick-bats at the devil in what- 
 ever shape he might appear. Hewas a heavily built, dark, 
 skinned man, of large physical strength, strong voice,- 
 energetio in word, action and purpose, and could hardly 
 fail to make his mark anywhere. As a matter of course 
 he kept watch of affairs at Bombaj' Corners, and on the- 
 lapse of the Congregationalists he ventured into the va- 
 cant arena, and began his master's work. 
 
 Now it happened that several of the leading settlers, 
 and among them James Luther, the leading merchant at 
 the Corners, were Baptists, and they formed a strong 
 nucleus for a ch urch . The}' were all strong men. There- 
 were the two Tovvnsends, Captain Willey of the artillery 
 company, and three or four more. Besides these Aunt 
 Ann had been reared a Baptist and could not see the 
 truth through any other spectacles, although Uncle Reu- 
 ben was orthodox and a deacon. Bnt she kept aloof 
 from his church as a member, and waited till the auspi- 
 cious time should come that hei views would be preach- 
 ed. Her sister Judith and her husband Jake Travis, 
 were in the same boat. So when Elder Colver announ- 
 ced his meetings, there was a stir in that section of the 
 vineyard and soon quite a little congregation was gath- 
 ered in the school house and listened gravely to the 
 " wonderful words of life," as they issued from the 
 pastor's lips. It was not long before baptisms were in 
 order, and the banks of the Little Salmon river, were- 
 crowded to witness the novel ceremoii}' of immersion. 
 
 It was singular how fascinating this ceremony was, and 
 how i-eadily a large number of the settlers fell in and> 
 joined the Baptists. Uncle Eeuben soon became convin- 
 ced that tlie ''difSkilties" in regard to infant baptism ahd 
 sprinkling had always plagued him, but under Elder- 
 Colver's clear and robust explanations of the passages- 
 bearing on the subject, and elucidation of the points con- 
 
LIFB ON THE BORDER. 41 
 
 neoted with the important topic, he eame to see the 
 matter in its true light, and Aunt Ann was a zealous 
 helper. Often they sat in the evening communing on 
 the subject, while a frowzy-headed urchin they had 
 picked up as a waif, was listening and some of their 
 reasoning he can faintly remember. "Now Eeubeu," 
 said Ann, in one of their discussions,"can't you see how 
 clear this is? We read that Jesus came up out of the 
 water. Then he must have gone into it and what did 
 he go into it for if he was sprinkled ?" "That's so,"quoth 
 Reuben, who was much her inferior in education,"! de- 
 clare I never see it jist so before. I 'spose its because 
 I never gave the subject much study. Yes I declare it's 
 as plain as the nose on your face that Jesus was immer- 
 sed. And there is Philip and the Eunuch too, how clear 
 that is; and then in Enon, there was much water. Now 
 what did they want much water for, but for immersion." 
 Ann was highly pleased at the progress her catechumen 
 was making, and persisted with the aid of the Elder, 
 who was prompt to visit the cabin when he came up to 
 preach. So it came out that on a bright summer's day 
 UncleEeuben, Aunt Ann, Jake Travis and Judith, with 
 Alf, a brother of Reuben, and a sister also, went down 
 to the Bombay Jordan and followed their savior's exam- 
 ple. More trophies came afterward, and the missionary 
 spirit became so brilliant that it spread back to New 
 Hampshire, and Reub's old father of revolutionary re- 
 nown, with his wife and all the rest of the family became 
 converted to the Baptist faith and made a heavy phalanx 
 in the new brotherhood there. 
 
 Elder Colver persevered in this work in the field he 
 thad cultivated for two or three years, and strengthened 
 he pure minds of the converted by way of remembrance 
 and everything went on swimmingly till about 1827, when 
 the outbreak against freemasonry occured, in conse- 
 quence of Morgan's book of revelations coming out. 
 The Elder was a royal arch mason, and there were but 
 a few of the order in the towns round about, but nis 
 
42 LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 
 
 conscience was tender.and he soon discovered what a 
 heinous thing Masonrj' was and out he came against it. 
 What few masons there were, were intelligent leading 
 men in the community and of course he forfeited their 
 friendship, at once. He cared nothing for that but blew 
 his trumpet blast the more loudly and made war upon 
 the institution as a deadly sin. From that hour his per- 
 sonal influence began to wane, savage criticisms were 
 launched against him in return that hurt when'they hit, 
 domestic affliction overtook him'in the death of his wife, 
 and saddened by her loss and rendered less useful than 
 formerly bj' iucreasing unpopularity, he moved away 
 from the border, and rarely visited the scene of his earlj' 
 ministrations. 
 
 Meanwhile another branch of the church was spying 
 out the land. The Methodist Episcopal church, at the 
 time of which I am writing was not the vast massive 
 organization it is to-day, but it' was very numerous in 
 Maine and the Middle States. It bad to wait till a gen- 
 eration of preachers could be reared, numerous enough 
 for all the outposts on the frontier before they could all 
 be occupied. Gradually therefore the arena of their op- 
 erations extended till, at last, thej' were able to supply 
 the hundreds of circuits all along the border as well as 
 the more thrifty stations in the older sections. It was, 
 therefore, about 1827 or 8 as near as I can remember 
 that the first circuit preachers appeared in our vicinity. 
 When they did come, so long was the circuit, that the 
 two ministers equipped with each his horse could only 
 get round, by preaching several times in the week, to 
 our school house once each two Sundays, so that each 
 preacher held forth about once a month or twelve times 
 a year in our neighborhood. So the Sundays were divi- 
 ded equally between the Baptists and Methodists, and 
 this arrangement continued several years. It also fell 
 out that the Methodist preaching was far the more pop- 
 ular among the people, at large, and it also happened 
 that a number of prominent settlers were either Metho- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 43 
 
 "dists or sympathizers with thern. And ic behooves us 
 to say, that, notwithstanding: the Methodist managers 
 were compelled to accept of young men as preachers, 
 who were very deficient in book education, yet it so fell 
 out that they knew as much or more than their hearers 
 and what was much better, they were men of pure and 
 blameless lives, set a good example and made up in fer- 
 vent exiortation and sometimes real eloquence what was 
 wanting in the other line — moreover, the bishops of that 
 church, aware of this lack of mental development in 
 many of the young ministers organized a course of self- 
 linstruction and required each one to do so much studying 
 each year, while on the circuit. On these studies each 
 was examined at the annual conference, and I am happy 
 to say that many noble preachers, men of first class abil- 
 ity and large acquirements were developed under this 
 plan, and the world has been made better by their lives 
 and works. Too much credit cannot be awarded to the 
 early methodist bishops for their wise foresight in this 
 line. 
 
 But I shall only have room to speak of one other uo- 
 itable character that interested my boyhood. Never shall 
 I torget a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in mid sum- 
 mer 182S when it was my lot, barefooted, in shirt sleeves 
 and straw hat to wend my way to the school house to 
 attend meeting and a Methodist was to preach. The 
 school house was filled, extra seats having been brought 
 an, the doors and windows w«re all open and the sweet 
 air was circulating through the room, when all at once 
 there entered the "queerest figure" of a man, and his 
 appearance created quite a sensation. He was a small 
 man, clad, as was the universal Methodist custom, in a 
 blue coat with brass buttons, white fur hat, white neck- 
 tie, and other habiliments peculiar to the craft, and step- 
 ping into the desk, laid aside his hat and knelt a moment 
 •n silent prayer. As he rose, it was difficult to keep one's 
 «yes from his features. He was of low stature, had good 
 muscle, and shoulders, with a batch of rather stiff black 
 
44 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 hair, shaggy eyebrows, a clear piercing eye that evinced 
 independence and determination, a regular nose but with 
 an abbreviated upper lip , so that his upper teeth were 
 quite visible, robust chin, and an eminently expressive 
 and rather pleasing countenance so far as It gave out aa 
 impression. Never shall I forget the appearance of this 
 man as he stood there in the desk and cast his glances 
 around the room. There was plenty of silence and when 
 he opened his mouth a clear voice rang out in naming 
 the hymu, that told every one present there would be a 
 poor chance to sleep that day. His prayer was short but 
 fervent and to the point, and when he announced his text,. 
 "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good 
 will to men," we all felt that a sermon was to come that 
 would do us good. This preacher was Luther Lee, after- 
 wards quite a celebrated minister, author and polemic 
 and rather too much given to reform topics to please the 
 more conservative Methodists. As he was a representa- 
 tive man of that time for his class, we append the gossip 
 concerning him that fell in our way. The story ran that 
 he was a poor but good boy ol somewhere, who had the 
 good sense to marry a nice wife that knew more than he 
 did, at 18 years of age or so ; that she taught him to read 
 and lound him an apt scholar, that before he was 21 
 years old he was licensed as an exhorter, and soon after 
 elevated to a preacher's rank and placed on our circuit. 
 I know not how much truth or falsehood there was in 
 the statement, but this I know he preached faithfully to 
 us once a month for a year, won the good will of every- 
 body, left a lasting regard for his merits behind him, 
 and after leaving did not return again for years, if ever. 
 His rapid improvement la study and acquirements of 
 what is called education, outran all expectation ; his de- 
 velopment added to the vigor and elegance of his preach- 
 ing, but his independence in forming opinions on many 
 topics brought him in collision with others. He was 
 fond of controversy, especially with the Universalists, 
 with one of whose ministers he had a set-to about 1836 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 45'' 
 
 or 7 and completely annihilated him, of course, in the 
 opinion of his Methodist admirers, and afterwards publis- 
 hed au argumentative book, embodying his views, called 
 "Universalism Exposed" &o., that was hard to sell,. 
 though highly commended. In the troublesome days 
 of anti-slavery he joined the phalanx of immortals that 
 began battle with that hideous monster and got his share 
 of what he called "'brick-bat logic and rotten eggs rhet- 
 oric." 
 
 Ten years from the time I first heard him preach when 
 I was attending a Methodist Academy, in a town some 
 eighty miles away, Luther Lee came into the town an 
 avowed Anti-Slavery champion, and it being noised ab- 
 road that he would speak on that subject, Sunday eve- 
 ning, the whole community flocked to the Academy to- 
 listen. The room could- not hold the crowd and the 
 Baptist meeting close by being deserted, a request was 
 sent over for Mr.Lee to adjourn to the Baptist Church 
 and there hold his meeting. Accordingly all rushed over 
 to that church and filled it. He then courteously an- 
 nounced that as he was in a friend's house by invitation 
 and it was Sunday evening he would preach a. sermon 
 aud give his anti-slavery lecture on the next evening. 
 Every one slakl to listen, and what was my surprise- 
 when he took for his text the identical passage' Glory 
 to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to 
 men" — from which he preached ten years before when 
 I first heard him. And 1 must close by adding that the 
 sermon was a benediction and my life has been better 
 for hearing it. 
 
 The next evening he gave his anti-slavery discourse — 
 the first or second I had ever heard, and from that hour 
 I was an abolitionist. He had a cast-iron logic about 
 him that convinced any reasonable man, and although 
 I seldom heard anything about him afterwards, it wa& 
 currently reported that he left the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, and I am uncertain when or where he died oi- 
 really whether he is dead yet— for he was worthy to live- 
 
46 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 Si century— but still my regard for Luther Lee 1 s second 
 to no otlier good man with whom I never spoke but of 
 -whom I have received benefit. 
 
 EELIGIOUS BURLESQUES . 
 
 But leaving the contemplation of the above worthies, 
 •our memory teems with remembrances of the rude, 
 queer, burlesque or eccentric conduct of several, who, 
 In that early day and amid the rude surroundings, be- 
 came imbued with more zeal than knowledge. As the 
 country gradually filled up with settlers the religious 
 meetings became more fully attended and as the talent 
 became diversified the outcome ,of these were corres- 
 pondingly varied. And it happened, as it often does in 
 religious matters, that sometimes the most ignorant or 
 ■undeveloped converts or believers were the most zealous, 
 the most exemplary in using their privileges, so called, 
 -and of course tortured the rest with their urgency, fre- 
 quency of exhortation or other disagreeable-peculiarities. 
 Never shall we forget that on one occasion, Zeke Glo- 
 ver — whom we have referred to as losing an arm — a 
 strong remnant of the Congregational order, felt it his 
 -duty to rise and give in his testimony on the Lord's side 
 and urge sinners to repentance. Zeke was not gifted 
 with great flow of language nor of extensive ideas, but 
 he knew most of the cant phrases used and was deter- 
 mined to do his duty once more. So he rose and went 
 on with the usual facility of confession and acknowl- 
 edgment of good received, of which anybody can fill 
 in the burden, and then moved ofi' on the exhortation 
 business. "My young friends" said Glover, "I want 
 you to get religion. It is the best thing you can do. 
 You know you are sinners and are on the road to hell. 
 Now turn right round and seek religion if you want to 
 be happy. And if you will seek religion and get it and 
 •don't feel happy as I tell ye, ye will, come to me and 
 I'll give ye my farm." As Zeke was known to be a 
 pretty sharp hand at a bargain, and not always to be 
 strusted on a promise about a trade his ofiFer created 
 
LIFE ON THE BOEDER. 4T 
 
 some merriment outside, and certain caustic comments 
 reaching his ear he never essayed any more exhorta- 
 tions. 
 
 A BOANERGES. 
 
 About this time, a very zealous Methodist minister 
 was sent to our circuit, who thought it his duty to rep- 
 resent the Boanerges tribe as well as he could. He 
 preached with great tervor and emphasis, used rather 
 learned words, pressed home the truth as he understood 
 it and the result was that quite a little revival was the- 
 result and seveial additions made to the church. But 
 one Sunday evening, when the school house wasjammed 
 with people, he observed either certain levity among- 
 the boys, or some signs of disrespect from somebody. 
 It rather excited the old Adam, which was pretty strong 
 within him, but he held his peace for awhile. Prayer 
 and exhortation went on rapidly, sister Taylor was un- 
 usually felicitous, brother Gates sang with unusual fer- 
 vor, and father Rich added his potential voice in the good 
 work. The meeting was a rousing good one, ass all 
 thought but the minister. He held back for an hour or 
 so and merely directed the exercises till he could hold 
 out no longer. Accordingly he announced himself as- 
 to pray and kneeling down he began in a pretty sonorous 
 tone to inform the Lord of the blessings received in the 
 salvation of souls and an emphatic appeal that the good 
 w(vk might be extended, till the converted should flock 
 to the sanctuary "like doves to the windows." Thenhfr 
 evidently bethought him of those troublesome sinners 
 he had remarked earlier in the evening, and brought up 
 their case nearly as follows : "But oh Lord, if there ar& 
 any sinners hereabout that will not come to thee; who 
 will not hear thy offers of mercy ; who prefer to remain 
 in sin and run the risk of going to perdition ; if there are 
 such who will not be saved but still continue to resist. 
 thy mercy, send them to hell and the quicker the better." 
 
 A sort of cold tremor went through the assembly. 
 This was a new phase of a loving religion, of a loving 
 
48 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 •Clirist, and no amens came back to encourage the min- 
 ister. He finished his prayer, the glorious old hymn 
 -*'Come thou fount of every blessing;" was struck up and 
 the whole audience joined, each one, evidently desirous 
 ■of erasing the bad impression of that prayer. Sister 
 Taylor, the most devout of the list, rose and made a 
 good, loving, motherly, sisterly address, then kneeled 
 ■down and besought the Lord "to have mercy upon us 
 and keep us from condemning those who may appear 
 sinful to us" by which some thought she intended to 
 'enlighten the young minister in his Juty, and with one 
 •or two more good old fashioned hymns the meeting 
 •broke up. I regret to say that the bad effect of the 
 minister's prayer was tlie theme of the week's gossip 
 and his influence afterwards was very slight over the 
 unconverted. Many of the latter remarked that they 
 ■•could not afford to be converted if it would inspire them 
 to pray their neighbors into hell, and among the believ- 
 •€rs of other denominations the criticisms were extended 
 and merciless. The next Sunday the school house was 
 -occupied by a Baptist minister. Elder Safford, of high 
 repute as an earnest, kindly feeling man, and a good 
 preacher too, and those disgusted the previous Sunday, 
 ■congratulated themselves that they could hear a man 
 who evinced a sympathy with erring humanity, rather 
 ithan a disposition to curse his neighbors. 
 
 SISTER TAYLOR. , 
 
 As time went on the various experiences that befall a 
 frontier settlement came in order and the following year 
 -a new deal of Methodist ministers sent to our circuit two 
 .preachers, of an entirely different type from the preced- 
 ing. One was a very feminine, precise gentleman, 
 faultless in blue frock coat, white vest, and wonderfully 
 cautious in manner, speech and general decorum and his 
 influence was of no more value than so much spilled 
 water. The other was a robust fellow with a great facil- 
 ity of expression and much earnestness and the usual 
 result followed. Quite an awakening was had alo ng in 
 
LIFE ON THE BOKDER. 49 
 
 tthe sammer and the evening meetings, became again a 
 great attraction. I have alluded to sister Taylor already 
 and now she comes into especial prominence. She viras 
 -a middle sized woman of good height, rather spare in 
 ^figure with solemn countenance and keen black eyes, 
 ;the wife of a blacksmith— a good brotherly Methodist — 
 and mother of five children. Never shall I forget the 
 solemn sanctified look of this earnest woman, whose 
 whole exterior as well as her soul appeared borne down 
 with a weighty sense of responsibility for human souls 
 .And a morbid desire to win heavenly bliss for herself. 
 She was never absent from meeting, rain or shine, 
 morning atternoon or evening, and being instant in 
 exhortation, ready in prayer, aud facile of speech, and 
 thoroughly imbued with religious fervor, she was never 
 remiss in duty, never hesitating to say a word from tim- 
 idity and never pushing herself forward before her 
 .associates. But no time could be lost when she was 
 present. She was only particular that the time should 
 be Improved, and when the work flagged, her voice 
 would be heard in some stirring hymn of the Wesleys 
 in which the congregation would join and then she would 
 tell how good the Lord was to her. Generally she went 
 through the meetings with ordinary calmness, but occa- 
 sionally she received what was then called "the power." 
 J never knew exactly what this meant,buc guessed from 
 wtiat was (aid that it meant having such a surcharge of 
 God's spirit as to overcome the bodily faculties and 
 bring the whole soul under the influence of the Holy 
 Ghost. I had heard of her having had one or more of 
 .these before I saw one of her spasms, but at last, it was 
 my good fortune to be a spectator of a scene that under 
 . any other auspices would have been called supremely 
 vulgar. 
 
 The summer evening was rather warm and both doors 
 .and windows of the schoolhouse were open, and the 
 joom was crowded with attendants at the prayer meet- 
 '.ing. Rough boards had been brought in and laid across 
 
50 LIFE ON THE BORDEK. 
 
 the room in various directions, but sister Taylor occu- 
 pied her accustomed seat at the angle of the room on 
 one of the loose seats. 
 
 There was considerable religious feeling, as the preach 
 er above mentioned had pushed the word home with 
 euerg7, and a number were said to be interested in the 
 soul's salvation. All this lifted sister Taylor into the 
 serene heaven of enjoyment through the week, and on 
 this occasion it appeared as though she was bound to 
 mount the upper skies. After an hour's exercise by 
 various brethren and sisters, she rose for the second or 
 third time to express her emotions. The sisters around 
 her saw what was coming, and quite a bevy of them 
 kept watch of her, being all ready for the worst. She • 
 exhorted sinners to repentance ; the brethren to their 
 duty; and praised the Lord for salvation. I was a 
 youngster of a dozen years, and with several other boys 
 had gone to the meeting out of curiosity, but when it 
 was whispered around that sister Taylor would probably 
 " lose her strength" — another phrase for having the 
 power,— we were doubly interested. As the meeting 
 was somewhat disorderly in its nature when prayers 
 were going on, — and sometimes a dozen would pray at 
 once, — it gave the boys a chance to look around a little 
 and get fixed for better operations. I got a position near 
 the desk where I could stand upon a seat if necessary, 
 and watch sister Taylor in her present eflfbrt. She stood 
 like a ghostly statue, her face pale, her breast heaving, 
 her face upturned, and hoarsely ejaculating prayer and 
 praises for God's mercy. It would be impossible to 
 write down what she said, but its impression will last 
 for life. Her breath seemed to grow shorter ; her words 
 were rather indistinct, at last, and suddenly, as though 
 shot with a bullet, she dropped backwards right over 
 the seat, falling at the risk of breaking her head on the 
 seat next behind her. Notwithstanding the other women 
 were watching, her fall took them by surprise, and I 
 must say I never wanted to see the scene repeated. But 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 51 
 
 they rushed around her, one taking her head in her lap, 
 others began to fan the poor thing, and still others held 
 her in a decently comfortable condition, while other de- 
 vout brethren offered prayer or exhortation. The poor 
 ■woman lay there gasping in appearance, but occasional 
 shouts of •■ aiory !" " Hallelujah !" an d other cant phra- 
 ses would come out, then an " Amen" to what some one 
 would say in prayer, next perhaps, "there he is," point- 
 ing upwards, "my Jesus; Oh how he loves me; how 
 he loves sinners," and so on for a time that seemed very 
 long to the young folks. The meeting continued till 
 very late, and finally sister Taylor recovered from her 
 partial swoon or fit of exhaustion, and the meeting 
 broke up. 
 
 It may seem strange to intelligent Christians now 
 that such scenes as this could find lodgment in religious 
 circles, but so it was. The good people not Methodists 
 condemned them unsparingly; the irreligious scoffed 
 with all their might and threw out many a gibe, but 
 strange as it may seem a majority of the religiously in- 
 clined favored these exibitions and considered sister 
 Taylor's behavior all right. I must confess, young as 
 I was, I thought I detected a large amount of make be- 
 lieve in the matter, and thought I saw, when she fell, 
 that she knew well enough what sh", was about, and did 
 not alter this opinion in after years when I saw more of 
 it and had had more exact observation to help understand 
 it. In fact among christian people not much was said 
 about this phenomena, for those who believed nothing 
 of it thought it did no harm and if they talked and ridi- 
 culed it, religion might suffer. So the thing went on for 
 some years without let or hindrance. 
 
 But there were other queer things happening occasion 
 ^ally that threw a sort of burlesque drift over the worship 
 •of the border. People, up there in the woods, clung 
 tenaciously to their peculiar idiosyncrasies. They feared 
 not to be called odd or eccentric. As they knew little 
 tteyond the rough ways of life, tbey did not aspire to 
 
52 LIFE ON THE BOKDEB. 
 
 ape the smooth or polished manners of th'e town. As^ 
 rough clothing and blunt manners were in the majority, 
 all the coarse, blunt people felt secure and happy Ini 
 their liberty. Hence the neighborhood enjoyed, with- 
 some restrictions, that blissful period spoken of in the- 
 Bible when " every one did that which was right in hts- 
 own eyes." 
 
 FATHER KICH AND DAUGHTER ANNA. 
 
 Among the leading and prominent citizens of the re- 
 gion round about, and the most prominent among the 
 Methodist brethren, because he owned the largest farm- 
 and had it paid for, lived in a large framed house, had a 
 large barn and an apple orchard in bearing, was father' 
 Eich, who lived some four miles away and in the adjoin- 
 ing town, and carried on his farm in his own way. He 
 was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, a good 
 neighbor, had reared a large family of sons and daugh- 
 ters, who were settled around him, except the youngest 
 of the daughters whom I shall call Anna, who remained' 
 at home. Anna was a fair, stout, healthy girl, and fully 
 grown, but had never been converted. This was in the 
 days of Havarino bonnets, which our elder ladies re- 
 member and laugh over, and tight lacing. I should fail 
 to give an accurate description of a Kavarino bonnet 
 should I attempt it. SutBce it to say that an immense 
 coal scuttle inverted would represent its shape as nearly 
 as anything. They were made of pasteboard, stamped' 
 with a certain figure, and flared out each side of a. 
 woman's face, giving even beauty a sorrowful appear- 
 ance. Indeed whoever has seen an old fashioned' 
 Navarino bonnet would be reconciled to any modern 
 deformity the genius of god or devil has imposed oq 
 the fair sex within the last twenty years. 
 
 Well, our Anna, being somewhat disposed to the gay 
 things of the world, refused to listen to her father's and' 
 mother's counsel and turn to the Lord, so she sought, 
 happiness in fine dress. I regret to say that fine dress 
 up there in the woods, was not many removes from^ 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 53 
 
 calico or linsey-woolsey, but such as there was Anna 
 procured and made it up for Sunday. I regret to say 
 too that tight lacing raged all over the country, and was 
 carried to such excess, that the grave yards were filled 
 more rapidly than ever known except when an epidemic 
 raged. There was no preventing it. The women were 
 as lunatic over that deadly fashion as all others that 
 come up, and Anna went in for good heavy corsets and 
 tightly girded cords, as she was q^uite inclined to have a 
 large healthy chest. 
 
 So one Sunday evening in the cold weather, having 
 equipped herself in her finery, corsets included, which 
 last her father had warned her against, and consequently 
 she had given them an estra turn, Anna came up to 
 meeting with her father and mother, and as usual the 
 meeting was crowded and seats were again placed every- 
 where convenient. Father Rich led the meeting, as he 
 was the oldest and most " gifted" brother, and right well 
 did he magnify the office. The meeting went on har . 
 moniouslj' and all helped in singing, exhorting and 
 prayer, bnt the room got excessively warm, as the 
 doors and windows were closed for the cold, and a fire 
 was burning in the stove. The interest had increased to 
 quite a pitch, when about nine o, clock, as the pious 
 brethren were on their knees, including Father Kich, 
 listening to a prayer, suddenly a loud groan resounded 
 through the room and Anna Kich tumbled from her seat, 
 right over backward upon the floor. It was done so sud - 
 denly the girls sitting nearest could not prevent her 
 falling. Had she been pious they might have thought 
 she had the "power," but all knew that could not be 
 the case. Another groan from Anna resounded and 
 father Eich recognized her voice. Springing Irom his 
 knees he cried out " cut her corset strings, quick. I 
 told the fool they would hurt her. ' But no woman had 
 any knite or scissors, and he drew his big jack-knife out 
 of his pocket, opened the largest blade and with the 
 remark, "get out of the way and let me get at her," ad- 
 
54 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 vanced to his fainting daughter. Her face was pale and 
 ghastly, and she seemed to be dying. Reaching over he 
 ripped open her dress along the front and there lay ex- 
 posed those accursed corsets. Inserting his knife under 
 the cords he ran it along, clipping off the loops and, as 
 he afterwards i-emarked in telling of it, •' they snapped 
 like pop guns." It was a unique sight for a religious 
 meeting, but there was no private room for a fainting 
 woman, nor was it expected women would faint. Water 
 was dashed in the face of Miss Rich and by and by she 
 recovered, and the meeting was abruptly ended. I 
 cannot say whether Antia ever attended meeting again 
 in that school house, but the incident afforded food for 
 merriment for a long time, and many absurd remarks 
 were made, and silly jokes perpetrated about poor Anna 
 Kich, so radiant in her Navaiino hat, fashionable corsets 
 and gay trappings of dry goods, so nice to be crumpled 
 while rolling on the floor, a jovial spectacle for wise and 
 foolish alike. Xor can we state whether Anna learned 
 any wisdom from her mishap. -'Being a genuine descen- 
 dant from mother Eve, it is presumable that she did not,, 
 but laced herself tighter than ever while the fashioa 
 lasted. She did not enjoy her' revenge any too long 
 however, for in due time the grim messenger, who hails 
 all humanity co its narrow home, reached out his with- 
 ering grasp and laid poor Anna in the bosom of mother 
 earth alongside her aged and beloved parents, who, it 
 is hoped, when translated to the upper spheres realized 
 in full the expectantjoys of immortal life. 
 
 SCANDALS. 
 
 I regret to be obliged here to remark that, although 
 our settlement was so far removed from the debasing 
 corruptions of a large city, several noisome scandals 
 came upon us, and, unfortunately, in the two hardest 
 cases, affected members of the Baptist Church. The 
 first was the most grievous, as it involved the character 
 of our leading merchant and business man, and a Baptist 
 deacon, who was convicted of a base crime in the ruin 
 
LIFE ON THE BOEDER. 55 • 
 
 of a young woman, his niece he had reared, and for 
 which he was punished by fine and imprisonment. This 
 resulted in his removal from our town to Michigan about, 
 the year 1S33. 
 
 No sooner had the neighborhood got rid of him than 
 the second of these noisome scandals broke out in the 
 same church, this time involving a leading Baptist and 
 a young woman who had left the Methodists, but al- 
 though the excitement was great the villain escaped, 
 molestation, his wife adopted a boy baby that had made 
 its appearance, and the young woman left the place, 
 married and settled in another township. But the dis- 
 grace and shame, the talk and scandal, seriously affected 
 the tone of morals and the condition of the BaiHist church,, 
 and its influence waned from that date, the few that 
 remained being unable to support public worship and 
 gradually the whole ground became occupied by the- 
 Methodists who proceeded to build a church edifice and 
 establish regular worship, and although in 1868, the 
 actual membership of the church had dwindled to four, 
 preaching was still sustained in a nice brick church that 
 had replaced the original one, the community, now a 
 rich one, having furnished the means. 
 
 ON THE MOVE. 
 
 Aboutjthis time, 1830—5 the territory of Michigan 
 had become somewhat known to our settlers as it had 
 been opened to settlement some years, and 
 one or two persons, who had incidentally visited, 
 that section and returned bringing wondrous stories of 
 the fertility of the soil, salubrity of the climate and ease- 
 of cultivation, had set the border on fire with excitement 
 for a western migration. In due time the good tidings, 
 was confirmed, and the parallel richness of Ohio, Indiana 
 and Illinois became known and as early as 1830 severaj 
 families emigrated to the west. As the years went by 
 others departed, selling their farms or betterments to- 
 new comers from Vermont, so that by 1832, a marked 
 change haj come over our township in the exchange o£' 
 
56 LIFE ON THE BOEDER. 
 
 Old settlers for new. This emigration was the most 
 furious among the two extremes of society, those who 
 had become the most forehanded, and those who had 
 paid least for their farms. As it was, quite a number of 
 the latter who had toiled for years to clear up their farms, 
 and failing to find purchasers, sold ofif their stock and 
 grain, got togettier what money they could^ abandoned 
 their land and moved away towards the setting sun. 
 It so happened Ihat this process carried away the last 
 remnant of the Congregationalists, several Baptists and 
 a few Methodist families. But in several instances the 
 families coming in from Vermont were Methodists, and 
 being people of more substantial means more than made 
 good the loss by removal. 
 
 NEW CITIZENS. 
 
 In a few years, all but a half dozen of the early fam- 
 ilies had left for the west, and our town became almost 
 a young Vermont. Nearly every man that came was a 
 valuable addition to our population, for the Vermouters, 
 were an intelligent, thrifty, industrious people, who 
 meant business, had a sharp nip on the dollars, under- 
 stood how to drive a shrewd bargain, and what they did 
 not know about horses, was not worth knowing. In the 
 mass of new comers were Bussells, Tracys,Trowbridges 
 and others, nearly all of which names have disappeared 
 by emigration, for in the course of twenty years, a new 
 attack of western fever carried these away to Wisconsin. 
 But out of the drift of new comers, one has always been 
 remembered with pleasure, and I deem it proper to 
 record his virtues, as showing that goodness can dwell 
 on the border. 
 
 PAUDON TROWBRIDGE. 
 Pardon Trowbridge had gravitated to our town in 
 company with his mother's family, of which a still elder 
 brother was the head. The Trowbridges were a strong, 
 r«putable family of some aspiration, comprising a wid- 
 owed mother, two sons and two daughters, the youngest 
 a girl of fourteen years. They settled upon one of the 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 57" 
 
 hard stony farms on the west raod, near Jake Travis, 
 and, having some means, began to make a strong mark 
 in our neighborhood about 1833. Pardon, the younger 
 brother was an exemplary christian in all respects. He- 
 was really a burning and shining reoral and religious 
 light in our vicinity. He was, of course, not much of 
 a scholar, but he had ambition to know something and 
 had pui chased some religious books which he studied^ 
 He was always regular and prompt at religious service,, 
 in all kinds of weather, was always ready to do his duty 
 in every degree, but was never demonstrative nor ex- 
 citable. Though a farmer and a hard worker, he was^ 
 always calm, pleasant and unruffled and he lived the 
 nearest to a perfect and blameless life of any man I 
 have ever known. There seemed to be in and around' 
 him a spirit of cheerful blessedness and blessed cheer- 
 fulness. I never heard of his being angry, or saying 
 an unkind or improper word, or doing an act that could 
 be criticized as an error. Of course he was not a learned 
 philosopher, but a simple hearted and good man, who- 
 won the esteem of all, and lived to honor his profession. 
 I never shall forget him. His influence over me was- 
 good. I. only regret that there are so few like him, and 
 wish further that he had met with fewer rebuffs in life's 
 experience. 
 
 Pardon married when towards thirty years of age a 
 good Methodist sister, settled on a farm and worked in- 
 dustriously some ten or fifteen years till a large family 
 of sons and daughters sprang up around him. When 
 his brother got tired of pecking away at the Bombay 
 rooks, he sold the old farm and emigrated to Wisconsin, 
 where he purchased several tracts of land. Rending for 
 Pardon, the latter also moved away to Wisconsin about 
 1850—55, and settled on a flat tract of land belonging to 
 his brother near Wampun. The location was malarious 
 and in a few short months. Pardon and his wife were 
 dead, leaving their young flock to the cold world's^ 
 regards. The world proved not so cold to them. The 
 
.58 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 people had found out what a good man the father was, 
 and they joined together, built a neat little house in the 
 town where it was healthy and brought the clildren into 
 it, finding them work and thus giving them a start. Of 
 •course they grew up and succeeded well and the promise 
 ' of the old psalmist was verified, "when my father and 
 mother forsake me the Lord will take me up." Peace 
 to the memory of ray dear friend ; it does ray heart good 
 to recall his moral virtues. 
 
 BILL CRAWFORD. 
 
 I must not omit to say a word about our neighbor 
 Bill Crawford an Irishman *m generis. Where he came 
 from in Ireland none knew; nor when he came into 
 Bombay, nor was he known to have a relation on the 
 globe or anybody that might claim to be an associate. 
 He lived alone on a small farm or rather a fragment of 
 a farm that was cut off by the road and enclosed by a 
 bend in the river, which some one had previously im- 
 proved, and on which was a log house. His farm had 
 been deserted by the last occupant and before any one 
 was aware, Bill Crawford dropped down from some- 
 where and claimed to have bought it. He was a square 
 built, strong man of medium height, clumsy in motion 
 because of a terrible hernia that would have sent nine 
 men out of ten to the hospital or alms-house ; his face 
 was dreadfully pitted with the small pox; his eyes were 
 large and afflicted with severe strabismus and in his 
 speech he was the worst stammerer among a million. 
 
 "Not a very prepossessing character, was Bill Craw- 
 ford," you say. True, my dear reader! but if you were 
 cursed with a tithe of his bodily complaints, or labored 
 under one half his terrible infirmities, you would be an 
 object of just commiseration. And yet no one ever 
 heard Crawford complain, or whine about his afflictions, 
 and he lived his lonely life and plodded on for years, a 
 quiet, industrious . man, honest and peaceable, never 
 drunk, never meddling with his neighbors, never in a 
 quarrel, and never known to meddle with politics or 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 59' 
 
 religion. He was Iciiidly treated by the neighboring 
 farmers, who often employed him to help them ou their 
 land, when he was not working his own, and he was 
 always treated by them with all proper consideration. 
 His chief forte, like most of the poor Irish laborers that 
 came amongst us, was with the spade, and when there 
 was a ditch or cellar, or well to be dug, Crawford was 
 the man. It was really painful to hear him talk, for his 
 gasping, broken fragments of words came out with such 
 an explosion as made it very disagreeable to listen. He 
 was probably about forty-five years of age, and so far- 
 as had been known had never up to that time aspired to 
 the matrimonial state. But at this period he had got 
 quite a little start in pigs, poultry and farm stock, and 
 actually had hopes of paying up for his land, a slow job 
 for an infirm man, but towards which he had made a 
 beginning. 
 
 JOHN MCCABE. 
 
 And just then, 1830, our community was startled by a 
 fresh arrival of immigrants from the dear old sod of 
 County Cavan, Ireland. This was the tribe of McCabe — 
 old John, his wife, sons Barney and John, daughters 
 Nancy and Mary, two McCabe nephews — one of whom, 
 Henry, was grown up, and another named StaflEbrd,— all 
 a bright, breezy race, healthy, happy, strong, steady, 
 smart and protestant in religion. Besides all these 
 virtues they had money. Old John was a bright intelli- 
 gent man of iifiy years, who had worked his nine acres 
 of rented land on Lord Farnnm's estate in Cavan, and 
 by thrift and economy had accumulated a small hat full 
 of gold sovereigns, the first the boys of our vicinity had 
 ever seen, and which gained him great respect among 
 all citizens. In due time he purchased the farm next 
 to Crawford, which had been also occupied and deserted, 
 with a few acres cleared and a log house down near the 
 river. Of course the advent of these people was pleas- 
 ant to Crawford, who had no afiiliation with the Catholics. 
 That class of Irish settlers were over on the Irish Ridge. 
 
«0 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 CRAWFORD AND NANCY. 
 
 As a matter of course old John McCabe's oldest 
 •daughter, Nancy, a very pleasing, neat and intelligent 
 lady, was a special attraction to Crawford and his old 
 heart began to warm with admiration. Her being Irish, 
 was, as he thought, in his favor, as he reasoned that no 
 native would presume to marry a foreigner, t was 
 noticable that in a short time after her arrival, Crawford 
 Appeared in a new suit of Sunday clothes, hat and shoes 
 included. It is true they hung rather loosely ou his 
 unofaialy form, and there was but little improvement 
 in the pock marks, thick lips, cross eyes and stogy gait, 
 but still it was pleasant to see him in a new dress. And 
 he appeared to have revived the last twenty years of 
 his youth. 
 
 It soon became apparent what all this meant, for the 
 eyes of the neighbors were as quick, and tongues as free 
 as in more refined communities, and a dish of gossip was 
 relished in due ratio to its scarcity. So all eyes were 
 busy watching Crawford's attentions to Nancy McCabe, 
 who, as a modest young lady, had won the good opinion 
 of the whole neighborhood. She never gave him any 
 «ncouragement, but this only made Crawford the more 
 persistent. He met her at every opportunity, often 
 called at her father's house and made himself as agree- 
 able as possible and vigorously commended himself to 
 Miss Nancy. But she remained incorrigible. 
 
 CRAWFORD PLATS PIOUS. 
 The culmination came at last. On a beautiful summer 
 Sunday afternoon a prayer meeting was held at tb e school 
 house at 5 o' clock. Only a moderate number were 
 present, but as was generally the case, Nancy McCabe 
 was there, demure, sweet, pretty and pious. I never 
 «hall forget her quiet manners, nor her radiant beauty 
 as she sat there among the natives, the prettiest woman 
 by all odds in the town. To the surprise of everybody 
 Bill Crawford was present in that new suit of clothes 
 and as he had never been seen in meeting before, his 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 61 
 
 presence was a real sensation. He had often been seen 
 on Sandays, sitting in his cabin door, reading the Bible 
 or some other book, but no one ever dreamed of his at- 
 tending religious meetings and I doubt if he had ever 
 been invited to go by the most devout of our citizens. 
 
 But here he was and very attentive to what was said. 
 The Methodist leader who led in the exersises was fer- 
 vent in the hope that Crawford had "met with a change 
 of heart," or in other cant phrase had " experienced re- 
 ligion," and hopes were felt that he had come out on the 
 Lord's side. The meeting was rather unusually solemn 
 on account of the interest felt in Crawford, and worse 
 than all was prolonged beyond the usual length. Craw- 
 ford who had been very quiet, solemn and observant, 
 got tired. He was not accustomed to sit so long, con- 
 strained b}' good bebavior, and the thing became a little 
 played for him and, besides, there were the chores to do 
 at home. So when he had waited as long as be could 
 afford he concluded to malie a break. Rising from the 
 low seat he occupied, every Methodist heart leaped with 
 joy and hoped that he was about to give his testimony to 
 the Lord's goodness to his soul, but instead of that he 
 walked directly across the room to where Nancy sat on 
 the opposite side, and leaning on the desk in front of her 
 he stammered out in his guttural tones, "Nancy come 
 home. " The act was so unexpected that everybody was 
 a!:tounded at his coarse voice, but only a few could under- 
 stand him. Nancy looked thunderstiuck and mad altogeth 
 er, but simply shook her head as a negative, and motion- 
 ed with her fan for him to leave by the door. Crawford 
 took the hint, for her eye told him his fate, so instantly 
 turning his hurried footsteps towards the door he disap- 
 peared and never was known afterwards to attend a 
 religious meeting. 
 
 BILL CRAWFORD'S WEDDING. 
 
 The Methodist brethren retired feeling quite chagrined 
 at the sell Crawford had played on them, but it was soon 
 forgotten in the excitement ofpolitics or some other farce 
 
62 LIFE ON THE BORUEK. 
 
 and the world moved on as before. But it was predes- 
 tinated that Bill Crawford should not mourn forever, his 
 disconititure on his first attempt at courtship. The old 
 motto that there never was a Jack without a Gill was 
 most admirably illustrated in his case. For not long af- 
 ter the above event there appeared on the scene a new 
 arrival, oi'iginally from the Green Isle, named Pesigy 
 0'N"eil. Where she came from nobody knew, and every 
 thing about her history was as mysterious as Bill Craw" 
 ford's. Peggy was a sort of personable creature, rather 
 poorly clad, with red as a predominant color, and she 
 lived by doing odd jobs of rough work, a washing here, 
 a sweeping there, a week in one place and a week in 
 another, a uselul machine with good muscles, a ready 
 tongue, a quick temper and a strong affection for the 
 " crathur " though like all whisky imbibers, — never 
 taking enough to do any harm. Peggy had been in the 
 neighborhood a few weeks, during which she bad learned 
 all about Bill Crawford and with true Irish sagacity set 
 about catching him. but kept her own counsel. For 
 some time she watched for a chance to spark him but 
 Bill having been rendered shy of women by his recent 
 discomfiture did not readily respond. He and Peggy got 
 acquainted somehow, — in the indescribable manner 
 known only to people desirous of committing matrimony 
 — and on several occasions Peggy made it cenvenient 
 late in the afternoon to pass his door being on her way 
 and in a hurry too, to get to the place where she was to 
 work next day. She invariably bowed to Bill and ex- 
 changed a good evening or fine day, as she went by and 
 when she had done this two or three times, Bill began 
 to be interested and rather thought she was a smart jolly 
 female for him. So, on the next occasion as he saw her 
 coming down the road, he planted himself by the fence 
 in front of his house and as she came kiting along with 
 half averted pace and her " good even " Crawford was 
 ready to converse a little more, but his infernal stammer- 
 ing stuck every word in his throat and she glided by 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 63 
 
 before he could say a single word. Maddened by this 
 infirmity he retreated into his cabin resolved to have a 
 chat with Peggy or die. Waiting for her next advent, 
 only a day or two. as Peggy was intent on the same 
 result, he watched for her again, and this time she did 
 not seem to be in a hurry. It was Saturday afternoon 
 the week's work was done and John Short — another 
 Irish man, and a new comer, a jolly fellow reared in 
 Vermont and passing for an Irish Yankee, employed on 
 the farm opposite Crawford's was just then at the barn 
 clearing up for Sunday, wheu he observed Peggy's 
 approach to Crawford's domicile. John had looked on 
 Peggy, but turned away from her as he aspired to have 
 a Yankee wife, but he thought he would observe what 
 transpired. So Peggy sauntered along till she came up 
 to Crawford and with her smiling " good even," halted 
 a little to give Bill a chance. 
 
 Bill replied as soon as he could '" F-f-f-ine day m-m 
 miss Peggy." 
 
 "Yes," said she gently •' but who doesn't know that 
 widout your tellin' 'em " throwing an arch squint tow- 
 ards Crawford, who replied. 
 
 " Y-y-you n-n-eedn't be sharp Miss Peggy, w-when a 
 m-m-mau sp-sp-speaks civilly to yez." 
 
 Peggy laughed and says '■ now you're mad isn't ye, 
 bekase an honest woman pranks ye a wee bit" and 
 laughed the little laugh that means so much when a 
 woman wants it to. 
 
 Bill was encouraged and invited her to come into the 
 j'ard and see the pigs and chickens, which invitation she 
 accepted, and in a moment she and Bill were behind the 
 house and out ot sight to the public. John Short slipped 
 across the road and going round the other waj-, nearly 
 by the house, secreted himself in a nook where he could 
 hear ever}' word and see the speakeis from out of a nest 
 of weeds in which he was concealed. After admiring 
 the pigs and interchanging views on pig culture, and 
 chicken raising, Peggy giving Crawford much useful in- 
 
64 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 formation gathered up where she had worked, Crawford' 
 as the sun got low, began to talk of his need of a womaa 
 to care for his home, pigs, chickens, &c, and asked her 
 bluntly if she wouldn't marry him. 
 
 Of course this was just what Peggy wanted him to say 
 and would have been angry had she failed to get him to 
 do so, but woman-like she did not intend to surrender her 
 virgin heart until it had been vigorousl5' and properly 
 assaulted. As she afiSrmed afterwards, she had no notion 
 of letting Bill Crawford think he could walk over her, or 
 carry her off as a weak pigeon, and so she met his ques- 
 tion with blank astonishmenc. Looking up as though 
 she did not fully comprehend him at first, she burst out, 
 throwing up her hands, " Marry ye is it ? And what 
 Should I marry the loikes of yez for ? Do you think I'd 
 take up wid every make of a spalpeen I may meet when 
 a dozen forninstyerself have axed me that same question? 
 And do ye think I, a vartuous girl,will mate with such an 
 ould fog as yez, which the devil may run off with any 
 night ? Why I'd fear to let yez out before breakfast, as 
 the neebors might take ye lor a scared monkey and 
 whisk yez out of my sight forevei*. Now tell me, what 
 in the devil made yez ashk me to marry yez ? 
 
 Bill had listened to her prattle with true Irish polite, 
 ness but he thought he understood it so he gave her the 
 stereotyped answer, '' bekase I love yez Miss Peggy." 
 
 " Oh drat it. Bill, what'b your love good for, it will 
 not make the kettle boil, and do ye know I've sacked 
 twenty tellers already who all tould me that same lie." 
 
 "Well," said Bill, ''there's the pigs, chickens and 
 cows, they shall be yourn if you'll marry me." 
 
 •' Howly mither, and now you talks sense," Peggy re- 
 plied and wheeling round in a sort of pretended extacy 
 she purposely brought herself close to Bill, who, taking 
 time by the forelock, threw his brawny arms around the 
 fragile female and gave her a tremendous bear hug, a. 
 she afterwards called it, for the poor fellow had qeve]. 
 had any practice and be let out most of his , force, and 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 65 
 
 ^eggy who had not yet agreed to marry him cried out 
 in a subdued yell " Bejabers Bill let me go, You'll ruin 
 tne Crawford. Only think If anybody saw us. Let go 
 •of me I say. I'll pull your hair all out, you spalpeen* 
 Howly mither but I'm dying for breath. Oh Crawford* 
 why will you kill me," and many more ejaculations, but 
 her muscular eflEbrts were not ^ severe and gradually 
 faded out, as Bill showered smack after smack on her 
 bronzed cheek, and at last she became as quiet as a kit- 
 ten. 
 
 " Kow will you marry me ?" said Bill. 
 
 "Oh, yes, how can I help it ye divel." 
 
 "Do you really mean it Peggy?" said Bill. 
 
 "Upon my word as a woman'' said Peggy but we must 
 be wed to-night — this blessed eve." 
 
 All right" said Bill releasing his heavy grip, "we'll 
 "have the knot tied within an. hour. "j 
 
 They now entered the house and John Short slipped 
 away from his nest in the weeds back to his own side of 
 the road, and stood leaning over the fence awaiting oth- 
 er developments. Shortly afterwards Crawford appear- 
 ed, just starting for the corners half a mile away to get 
 the town clerk to come up and tie him and Peggy to- 
 gether. Seeing John close by, he stepped a moment to 
 say a word, when the latter says "well Crawford what's 
 up that you are going to town so late." Crawford re- 
 plied he was going to call the town clerk to marry him. 
 "Well," said Short, who was a true Irishman to smell out 
 any fun ahead. "I'll go down and call him for you as 
 the woman don't want to stay alone and I'll bring up a 
 little whisky too said John so we can drink the bride's 
 liealth." "All right," said Bill "you do so and I'll stay 
 with Peggy." 
 
 So John Short starts oflF on a dog trot (or the cornerS| 
 -and on the way he met several of the neighbors and 
 more of them at the corners, and invited them to the 
 •wedding. Among these were two old stagers of 45 years, 
 named John Moore and John Kiley, both of whom loved 
 
66 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 a drop and belong to the numerous band of temperance 
 drinkers. On mentioning the whisky both were glad 
 to attend the cermony, and so, Jolin finding tlie clerk 
 and borrowing a two gallon jiig at a tavern started back, 
 with two gallons of whisky and quite an array of the 
 male neighbors to witness the ceremony. 
 
 Bill and Peggy were already waiting, for their toilets- 
 were easily prepared, and sitting on a bench, they re- 
 ceived a large company in a sort of bewildered manner, 
 but as only civil men had come they feared nothing. 
 The town clerk quickly performed the marriage ceremo- 
 ny, pronounced them husband and wife and wished them 
 many years of happiness, but failed to kiss the bride, 
 and so did the rest. But as soon as the couple had been 
 united, John Short proposed that their healths should be 
 drank in whisky straight, so that the knot could never be 
 untied. Now it occured that he had forgotten to bring 
 tumblers and it was too late to go for them, so hunting 
 about they found a tin pint cup, a quart mug, a broken 
 tea cup and saucer, besides a small gourd hollowed out 
 for drinking. With these, portions of the liquor could 
 be .'erved out to the bridegroom and bride, and the more 
 aristocratic of the company, and as some did not drink 
 liquor at all, John Moore remarked he would use the jug 
 lor his dram So, when all was ready, the toast was giv- 
 en, "long life and health to the happy pair," each guz- 
 zled down his share, old Moore absorbing a tremendous 
 swig from the jug, Crawford and wife using the pint cup 
 and mug, taking in a liberal supply. Three cheers fol- 
 lowed and the clerk and pious observers of the fun with- 
 drew. But not so the rougher crowd. There was plenty 
 of whisky for the half dozen or so left, and in a brief 
 time another potation was absorbed iu honor of a union 
 ■ of Ireland and America, prefaced with a speech from- 
 John Short, eulogizing Ireland as the great birthplace of 
 true Americans. By the time this second swig was swal. 
 lowed, the happy feelings of the crowd broke forth in 
 songs and peals of laughter, and the cracking of time^jr 
 
LIFE ON the' BORDER. 67 
 
 jokes. The bed on which Crawford had slept, and des- 
 tined for the happy pair, stood in a corner of the room 
 and underneath this was no floor. Old Eiley had noticed 
 this, though it was nearly hidden by the overhanging 
 quilt, and he planned a huge joke on Moore, who had 
 become pretty well fuddled, the jug allowing him to 
 drink copiouslj' and no one could tell how much. So in 
 due time, Moore wlas thrown up'on the bed in a jovial 
 scuflHe with Eiley, who reaching beneath with his open 
 pocket knife, cut the bed cord in several places, and in 
 an instant Moore went through, bed and all into the cel- 
 lar. Bill Crawford had become so mystified by the 
 "crathur" he could not rise, and helplessly cried out, 
 " Oh don't boys," while the company hurried to save 
 Moore from suffocation among the bed clothes in the 
 cellar. He was so completely obfuscated by Whisky tha' 
 he took it all as a huge joke and on emerging from the 
 cellar beneath the bed, the naked b'idstead presented a 
 doleful spectacle. But the company raised up the couch 
 from below, retied the cords and fixed up the place for 
 nuptial repose as well as they could. 
 
 It was now about nine or ten o'clock and as it was 
 thought best to give the newly married couple one more 
 token of regard, the movement proceeded. One of 
 the rough jollities of the backwoods in drunken ca- 
 rousals consisted in crowning each other as good soldiers 
 of Washington with copious whisky. So it was quickly 
 resolved to put Mr. and Mrs. Crawford through the 
 initiation. As they were pretty stupid already with drink, 
 they could offer no resistance and there was no escape. 
 Old Moore was generally high priest on these occasions 
 and fortunately was not too drunk to enter into the spirit 
 of it. So the party ranging themselves, a part in front 
 and a part in the rear of the Crawfords, Moore with jug 
 in hand, starting the refrain, 
 
 •• Here is a good soldier of Washington," raised the 
 jug directly over Crawford, and poured about a quart 
 of the contents directly on his head. The liquid of 
 
48 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 ■course, ran down over his face, into his neck and bosom, 
 completely saturating him with alcohol and nearly chok- 
 ing off his breath as lie took a lot into his mouth to say 
 nothing ef eyes and ears. He gasped for breath, but 
 was kept in place during the baptism by the crowd who 
 joined in chorus. 
 
 "Here is a good soldier of Washington, 
 Of Washington, of Washington. 
 Here is a good soldier of Washington, 
 Heigho, heigho, heigho." 
 While siuging this each patted him on the head in an 
 -affectionate manner, or rubbed the whisk y into his hair. 
 
 Next the tin cup was put to his chin and the refrain 
 ■continued. 
 
 "Put the good liquor unto his chin. 
 
 Unto his chin, unto his chin. 
 Put the good liquor unto his chin, 
 Heiglio, heigho, heigho." 
 This ended the ceremony for Bill, then came Peggy's 
 turn, who from having imbibed too copiously already 
 was hardly conscious of the honor or insult, but, one 
 who saw the whisky streaming down over her face and 
 three or four vigorous brutes rubbing it into her haiy 
 -could not easily forget it. But the orgies came to an end 
 at last, and the civil brutes retired, leaving Mr. and Mrs. 
 William Crawford to assume their dignified position in 
 society, which was rather a difficult job till the whisky 
 bad evaporated, late thenext morning. But in due time 
 everj'thing became calm and the neighborhood became 
 accustomed to the existence of the happy pair, although 
 a few good old fashioned Irish wrangles, enlivened their 
 earthly journey. 
 
 We close with a few more details of this singular 
 couple. Mrs. Crawford, as before her marriage, con" 
 tiuued to do honest drudgery for wages when the 
 neighbors needed her help. She continued in this way 
 some fifteen years or so, when it fell to her lot to be 
 called to do the week's washing for a family near by. 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 69 
 
 The good woman who employed her, knowing her fail- 
 ing about diqaor, called her attention to a bottle of 
 bed-bug poison on a shelf in the wash room, telling her 
 what it was and warning her not to make a mistake and 
 drink it. Peggy did not believe the woman, but assumed 
 that she feared she would drink her whisky and had lied 
 to her to save it. Accordingly, when alone, she could 
 not resist the temptation to absorb a draught of it and 
 doing so was irremediably poisoned. Her screams of 
 *K<"iy) caused by the corrosive sublimate, soon brought 
 her employer and other assistance, but she was beyond 
 help and died in great agony before a doctor could reach 
 her. It was an awful blow to her husband ; a terrible 
 catastrophe to the community for all knew Peggy and 
 felt friendly to her, notwithstanding her infirmity. Her 
 poor husband mourned her sincerely, and her loss broke 
 him completely down. It may seem foolish to imagine 
 such an unfortunate as Bill Crawford, capable of real, 
 true loye, but those who saw him lament for his deceased 
 wife were thoroughly convinced that he had as warm a 
 heart as any other man. He lingered in the neighbor- 
 hood some years longer, a poor, heart-broken man, and 
 finally died in the almshouse, where he comfortably 
 spent the last few years of his life,' at the ripe age o^ 
 eighty years. Peace to his ashes. 
 
 REVIVALS. 
 
 Nx>w tu continue my rambling remarks on the relig- 
 ious aspect of the border, let us leave Bombay and drop 
 in a moment at Fort Covington, in the winter of 1835 — 6. 
 This village had grown to quite a respectable size during 
 the thirty or forty years since it was settled. — It was 
 historically important as the French Mills of the British 
 war, where the American Colonel Covington— after 
 whom the township was named — was killed by the Brit- 
 ish in a furious skirmish, after which the British cap 
 tured the place and held it for quite a spell. In this vil- 
 lage, close to theJCanadian line, the Presbyterians and 
 Baptists had established strong churches, and erected 
 
70 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 comfortable and tidy meeting houses, but the Methodists 
 were struggling: to get a flrtn foothold, worshipping in 
 the Town house. For many years this place was only a 
 point on the Bombay circuit, but about 1836 it was erected 
 into a station. In the winter of that year occurred stren- 
 uous efforts of all sects to hold their own, increase their 
 numbers and thus gain in influence over the community. 
 It may be proper to state hei-e that about this time 
 there sprang up a flock of revivalists, that were as nu- 
 merous for a season as the frogs of Egypt, and to many 
 people full as loathsome. Where they all come from no- 
 body knew, but when they came into a town everybody 
 soon knew it, for meetings were all the rage, and held 
 every day and evening, sometimes running on three or 
 more weeks. They set the whole community in commo- 
 tion, disturbed old sinners, rubbed the ears of lazy 
 christians and probably did some good, if not so much 
 in converting sinners, as in setting people to thinking- 
 They had original ways in setting forth the truth;, 
 sometimes rather rough ways ; and a new religious liter- 
 ature followed in their wake with new and startling 
 h3'mns, sung to new and stirring tunes, and not infre- 
 quently these evangelists hitched onto the temperance or 
 anti-slavery hobby, and did good incidentally by making 
 people mad enough to do something decent. Prominent 
 among the evangelists were Jedediah Burchard, Beriah 
 Green, C. O. Finney, H. G. Foote and others. 
 
 Rev. Burchard did not honor our neighborhood with a 
 vi^it, but he swept around like a comet through Ceuteal 
 New York ahd soon like a comet disappeared. An 
 anecdote of his brusqueness came travelling around that 
 ran on this wise. He had an impudent way of address- 
 ing persons anywhere ; in the parlor or on the street 
 with smart comments on their spiritual condition. While 
 evangelizing in Rochester. N. Y., the story was, that a 
 certain very profane citizen was pointed out to him as a 
 good subject to experiment on. Going directly up to the 
 stranger and putting out his hand a nd seizing the hand 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 71 
 
 ■of the mail he said abruptly, '-Sir, do you know you are 
 gohig straight to hell ? " 
 
 The profane man looked up at the preacher and replied, 
 ^' I guess I am for I see the Devil has got me by the hand." 
 
 Burchard was non-plussed, the bystanders burst into a 
 laugh and the serene gospeller betook himself lo his own 
 apartment to ruminate on the depraved condition of the 
 impenitent. The profane citizen went about his business 
 •quietly observing that he guessed that d — d pious foo] 
 would let him alone thereafter. 
 
 Eev. Beriah Green presided for a while over the Oneida 
 Institute, and eventually became a preacher of rather 
 liberal and radical views. He never visited us. 
 
 Rev. C. G. Finney became president of Oberlin Col- 
 lege, Ohio, and was noted for many years as a pure mind- 
 ed, talented man of generous proclivities and did much 
 good in liberalizing the public mind on the anti-slavery 
 policy. Indeed, so far as I ever knew, all these evangel- 
 ists and their coadjutors were.men of excellent characters 
 
 OUR EVANGELIST. 
 
 Eev. H. G. Goote visited Fort Covington in the winter 
 of 1836. and started a series of meetings in the Presbyte- 
 rian church. We must also add that the schism in the 
 Presbyterian Church on the question of "natural ability" 
 had taken place and so far as we know, all these revival- 
 ists were of the new school, that is. believed in " natural 
 ability." By this was understood that man had a natural 
 ability or power to repent of his sins, as opposed to the 
 old doctrine of effectual calling. It was a flank attack 
 on the hardest side of Calvinism. 
 
 Well, Rev. Foote held to the new doctrine without re- 
 serve. He was, as was quite usual with men of that 
 calling, a small, wiry, dark-skinned fellow, with black 
 hair, cut short, dressed in the extreme of simplicity, in 
 black, exhibited a solemn conntenance, innocent of the 
 power to smile; and acted as though he felt himself com- 
 missioned to give important imformation to earth's sin. 
 niiig mortals. He had original ways of putting things; 
 
72 ' LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 rarely took more than two words, or a brief sentence for 
 a text ; and, by the rather superficially educated peopl® 
 of the border, he was received as a remarkble emissary 
 from the land of religious intelligence. 
 
 As he held forth day after day, the good Pre sbyterian 
 .people, of whom there were many, in Dundee, just over 
 the border in Canada, got quite well warmed up with 
 spiritual emotion. But everything went on with some 
 regard to '• decency and order," though many Methodists 
 also joined in to help the good cause, consequently the 
 three weeks went by without anything happening to mar 
 the general harmony, and a considerable number of souls 
 were gathered in. 
 
 At: a sample of the style of preaching in those days, I 
 recall one incident. — He took one day the text, " Son, 
 remember," from the parable or story of Dives and Laza- 
 rus, and gave a rough dissertation on the realities of hell 
 as he understood them. Hs pictured the barning lake, 
 rolling and boiling with seething brimstone, echoing the 
 groans of the damned souls, pleading for mercy which 
 they never could obtain, and so on. Then he instanced 
 various classes and grades of sinners who might think 
 they could escape them. It happened that two candles, 
 partially burned, stood on candlesticks on the pulpit to 
 be lighted in the evening. As he went on he finally 
 reached the impenitent young woman. " Yes," said he, 
 " the gay young woman may think herself too good for 
 this place. She has delicate hands with rings on her 
 fingers, bnt I tell you those fingeis will burn in hell like 
 candles," placing his forefinger across the wick of one 
 of the candles near him to give emphasis to the words. 
 And this was gentle talk compared to what was often 
 heard from the pulpit. 
 
 Well, this revival came to an end and the evangelist 
 departed, and from what I heard drop from some of the 
 leading members they were not sorry. Avery excellent 
 minister named Foster was settled over that church, ■'^ome 
 met afterwards news came back that Mr. Foote in his 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDISR. 73 
 
 labors at Ogdensburg had converted three hundred. 
 Mr. Foster was taking tea with the writer when the re- 
 port was announced. '"Well," replied he, "I always 
 •discount one-third from brother Foote's reports," and 
 looked wondrous wise as he said it. I was young, but 
 thought it illustrated one excellence of evangelists ; they 
 never made their stories too small ; and I have ever 
 known this rule to hold good. 
 
 Well, as soon as Foote had expended his ammunition 
 and departed for new fields of labor, the Methodists set 
 in motion the agonies of a continued revival. At this 
 time the circuit was filled by two miuisters each of great 
 excellence, but differing from each other as one star 
 differeth from another in glory. One, named Mason 
 was married, and had as lovely and efficient a wife as 
 ever blessed a preacher. They were Vermont Metho 
 dists, and sometime 1 hope to do justice to their memories. 
 The other was a regulpr Apollo, named B. F. Brown — 
 one of the handsomest men ray eyes ever beheld. Tall, 
 muscular, rosy cheeked, with brown curly hair, and 
 straight as an arrow, his match could not be found in a 
 «entury ; and he carried all these traits into his religion. 
 It was his never ceasing theme. He lived and breathed 
 an atmosphere of supreme devotion. He was quite well 
 educated, about twenty-five years old, and exceedingly 
 fluent. But in the pulpit he would writhe and twist him- 
 self into all sorts of contortions. He preached like a 
 gladiator wrestling with an antagonist he must conquer 
 or die. He would shriek and sweat, exhort and beseech 
 till nearly exhausted, not unfrequently disarranging his 
 clothing. He cared nothing for food or clothes beyond 
 the commonest neces.«ities, preached regardless of re- 
 ward or commendation, and actually seemed the nearest 
 insanity of any man I ever met, who passed for sane. 
 He was far removed trom scandal or unkind criticism, 
 and beloved by all good people. But like several others 
 in our vicinity, he eventually ruined his general health, 
 ]ong before middle life, lived several years a superau- 
 
74 LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 
 
 uated relic, and died reasonably early, an amiable suicide- 
 wlio ruined his health, as he thought doing good. 
 
 With these two men for leaders a revival was easily 
 engineered. At Malone resided a Boanerges named 
 Dunning, a man of splendid physique and immense noise 
 when preaching, and he was harnessed in to help. Ma-- 
 lone was a station only fifteen miles ofF, and had a pretty 
 strong Methodist societj'. So the meetings began and 
 great was the turn out of people. 
 
 For irany who had got initiated in the recent move- 
 ment and had not surrendered to Christ found these - 
 • meetings just what they needed to keep the interest alive. 
 Hence lively times were the result, and in a brief period 
 the Presbyterians, in a good neighborly spirit, offered 
 the use of their nice little church to the Methodists, and 
 the offer was gladly accepted. 
 . Accordingly the meetings were held in that edifice and 
 great accessions were made to the audiences. By and 
 by brother Dunning came down from Malone and 
 preached a sermon. I did not hear it, but father Bich 
 was delighted. "Why" said he to me at supper, you 
 could travel all around the church on the noise he made." 
 Afterwards 1 heard him and found father Rich was pretty 
 near right as to the amount and solidity of the noise, for 
 it/gave me a full idea of the roaring of the "bulls of 
 Bashan" referred to in the Bible. Nor shall I forget an 
 interview with brother Dunning. He was fretting be- 
 cause in Malone some converts that he had expected to 
 join his church had united with the Presbyterians. I 
 said to him " that perhaps they would do better there 
 than with him." " No " replied he " the Presbyterians 
 have no right to string Methodist fish." I then saw the 
 point about which he was concerned. The leading 
 thought was to build up Methodism at any rate. 
 
 JESSE, THE PONDEROUS. 
 
 Well, the days went on, and the interest waxed and 
 waned as the ministers exerted themselves little or much j 
 but the drag became too severe. So in the third week 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 75 
 
 "it was announced, to the delight of the whole Methodist 
 fraternity, that a valiant young apostle was about to visit 
 us and lend the weight of his eloquence to the good cause . 
 This was none other than the afterwards famous Jesse 
 T.Peck, now an honored bishop of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church. I had never seen or heard of him till that 
 moment, and like all others had much curiosity to do 
 both. So on a certain Sunday evening, we rushed to the 
 church early, and were surprised to see a young man of 
 huge size, bald head, large pleasant visage and large 
 blue eyes, rise in the pulpit and in a silvery voice give 
 out the hymn, While reading the hymn, let us scan 
 him a little. Ponderous In size, some 250 pounds in 
 weight, this young man was but twenty- four years old; 
 but his clean bald head, with no hair save on the back in 
 a line with the top of his ears, gave him the look of grav- 
 ity belonging to fifty years. But his singular silvery 
 voice! Karely have I heard a woman's that was much 
 sweeter, and many hundreds could not match it. His 
 prayer was as refined as his reading, and his sermon was 
 delivered in so pleasing a tone that I remember nothing 
 now but the voice. His praises began to ring all through 
 the neighborhood, and the next evening the house was 
 crowded. The "anxious seat" had been in use all 
 through the revival, and this evening Jesse seemed to 
 have a mission to fill it. He preached a warm discourse 
 that caused many to tremble, no doubt, and when the 
 sermon was through, an invitation was extended to all 
 who wished for salvation to come forward and be prayed 
 for. Jesse descended from the pulpit and ,waited. But 
 ■ the anxious ones did not come forward very numerously. 
 The fact was, the business was becoming monotonous. 
 The brother speaking urged the duty as well as he could, 
 ■tout the response was poor. Jesse evidently felt vexed, so 
 he stepped upon a seat that raised him a little from the 
 floor, and began to pour out a flood of exhortation that 
 "would have done credit to an Italian improvisatore. The 
 -words flowed from liis mouth in a copious stream that 
 
76 LIFE ON THE BOBDEE. 
 
 seemed to swell in size as he continued. He pictured 
 the glories of heaven and painted the agonies of hell. He 
 held forth '"a bleeding sacrifice," and dwelt upon the 
 bloody scene of the cross. He quoted Gethscmane, and 
 referred to the departure of the holy spirit, never to ■ 
 return. He called up Dives and Lazarus and revelled in 
 the joys of Abraham's bosom. And when he had ex- 
 hausted all the beatitudes ol heaven he again "descended 
 into hell," figuratively, to find arguments for the purpose,. 
 "There," said he, as near as we remember, "there you 
 will meet only with damned souls and hissing devils. 
 There for multitudinous ages' your souls will revel only 
 in the society of the accursed, and groan amid the mis- 
 eries of agonized souls. Your very souls themselves 
 will become impervious to good; misery and agony will 
 only be your lot, and your constant wail will be — cannot 
 fail to be — I knew my dut}' but I did it not. Go on then 
 in your hardened ways ; comfort yourselves a little while 
 with the foolish idea that God may forget you ; that you 
 may escape hell torments? that you may repent at the 
 last moment and reach the glories of heaven. You are 
 Iree to indulge in such folly, but sorrow will oveitake 
 you suddenly, and God will laugh at your calamity and 
 mock when your fear cometh." And in this strain or 
 worse he held on the continuous flow of his silver tones 
 for near-a half hour. Before he had talked ten minutes 
 the poor frightened creatures of all ages and sizes began 
 to come forward. Jesse saw that his eloquence was- 
 telling home and redoubled his efforts. More came 
 humbly and meekly to the front and the echoes of his- 
 voice were still resonant and he stayed not his vocifera- 
 tions till the anxious seat was nearly full. Then Jesse- 
 rested. 
 
 Prayers were oflered ; a grand jubilation resulted and 
 the meeting broke up late and hundreds of wearied* 
 frames traveled several miles before getting to bed. 
 
 A TRICK. 
 
 The next Sunday was a glorious day for Methodism.. 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 77 
 
 Brother Dunning had cautioned the brethren against 
 the Presbyterians, and so early in the afternoon, Jesse 
 called all the newly converted together in the front seats 
 for a few words ot advice before parting. When all 
 were seated, he very gently and gracefully insinuated 
 that the duty of new converts was to connect themselves 
 with a church. Going on from this point, gradually he 
 wove round them the high consideration the Methodist 
 Church held for young converts; how well she watched 
 over them and how easy it was to join on probation, and 
 wound up by inviting all who wished to connect them- 
 selves with the Methodist class to rise, and the whole 
 sixty-five rose and gave ia their names. It was a cool 
 operation in a business point of view, but it was a right 
 royal specific against the Presbyterian trick of stringing 
 Methodist fish. 
 
 OUR FIRST HOMICIDE. 
 
 While running over the minor experiences of the bor- 
 der, I will now stop a moment to relate in brief, the 
 excitment created by the first and only deed of blood 
 that disgraced our vicinity between 1820 and many years 
 later. This crime exhibited features of atrocity hardly 
 parallelled for diabolical coolness in the annals of mur- 
 der and assassination, and from the circumstances sur* 
 rounding it was styled, 
 
 THE VIDETOE MURDER. 
 
 Which I will briefly relate premising that I rely wholly 
 upon memory and cannot give the name bf the woman 
 who was the victim. 
 
 It was a stormy morning early in February, 1825, 
 that, as we were sitting at breakfast in our lowly and 
 lonely log cabin, Moses Dutton, Jr., rushed in at the 
 door, crying out in breathless haste, ''The Indians have 
 killed that woman that lived at Mr. Videtoe's." In these 
 latter days of multitudinous murders, when' the news- 
 papers teem with bloodshed ; when the telegraph is loa- 
 ded down with the horrible recitals ; when cold-blooded 
 butchery stalks through a large part of the Kepublic, 
 
78 LIFE ON THE BOBDKR. 
 
 and men ambitious of office hesitate not to shoot their 
 rivals at sight, and in the public streets, and find the 
 commission of murder no obstacle to political prefer- 
 ment; when men sit in the various State TjCgislatures 
 and disgrace the halls of Congress, whose record of 
 bloodshed would, if justice were half done, consign 
 them to a felon's doom, I say, under such circumstances, 
 it is impossible to express the consternation the news 
 afforded. Uncle Keuben jumped from the table, drop- 
 ping knife and fork. Ma'am K. sprang up as though 
 she had received an electric shock, while I sat in mute 
 wonderment, not knowing or realizing what it reallj' 
 meant. Further questioning of Moses, who was a rather 
 dull boy, revealed a few particulars. The news had 
 come up the six miles from house to house at early 
 morn, and every body was gettinsj readj' wltii guns and 
 ammunition to hunt down the Indian murderers who, it 
 was supposed, had retreated towards St. Kegis. 
 
 Tn the next minute all was bustle — Uncle Kouben took 
 down his fowling-piece from the hooks over the door, 
 and hastily swabbing it out, he looked in his pouch and 
 found no bullets. Kemember this was 58 years ago, and 
 there was no fixed ammunition. Every man had his 
 bullet-moulds and a bar of lead in the house, and ran 
 his own bullets. Quick as thought he snatched down 
 the bai; of lead, threw it into a small iron kettle, caught 
 his bullet-moulds and stood ready for the melted lead. 
 In a brief period the lead was in a liquid form, and with 
 an iron spoon the hot lead was poured into the moulds, 
 so that in ten minutes there was quite a lot of bullets. 
 Throwing them hastily into his pocket, placing the pow- 
 der horn in another and hurrying on great coat and hat, 
 with a handkerchief tied about the neck, for it was snow- 
 ing quite hard and the wind was blowing too, gun in 
 hand, he set out, armed and equipped tor the hunt for 
 the murderous Indians. 
 
 The family named Videtoe resided some six miles 
 away, in the southern part of the town of Fort Covington. 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 79 
 
 It consisted of a father, mother, and several grown up 
 
 -children, the oldest of which was named Stephen, all 
 hardy, respectable and thrifty farming people. The 
 
 ■house was of the better class and probably is still 
 standing, as it was a few years ago. 
 
 In this family a woman, a tailoress by occupation, 
 made her home, and she was also a woman of irre- 
 proachable character and highly respectable in all re- 
 spects, but poor in health. It was a common opinion 
 that Stephen would marry her, as they appeared some- 
 ivhat intimate. This woman had had a bitter experience. 
 She had married a villain some years before in Canada, 
 and on their wedding tour he had deserted her at a 
 tavern where tliey were stopping for the night, and 
 carried away the team and all her money which she had 
 entrusted to him, leaving lier entirely destitute among 
 strangers. She had gravitated into our neighborhood, 
 worked steadily, laid up money agahi, and loaned 
 
 . Stephen Videtoe quite a sum while living at his home. 
 The winter of 1825, her health was very poor and she 
 was confined at home, and for some reason became very 
 nervous about the Indians. Stephen had told her of 
 having a row with one and pretended to fear an attack, 
 and so scared the poor thing she could not sleep. So, 
 
 •one night he agreed to stand sentinel over the house 
 while she slept, and before morning she wa.^ fatally shot. 
 Soon after midnight the neighbors of the Videtoes 
 were awakened by the report of two guns tired very 
 nearly together, but one a trifle before the other. Of 
 
 ■course those re'siding near by sprang out of bed and 
 began to inquire the meaning of the shooting. It was 
 soon ascertained that it was at the Videtoe's house, and 
 several soon hurried over, learning the awful fact, found 
 Stephen in great distress at the casualty and the woman 
 apparently dying in the bed. They heard his story, and 
 
 at first believed him, and hence the hurried rush to hunt 
 up the murderous Indians. Parties set out on every road 
 that led to St. Regis, and as a light snow had fallen, it 
 
80 LIFE ON THE BORDEK. 
 
 was easy to And tracks if any existed. But their search 
 was vain. Aside from a few moccasin tracks about the 
 house and barn, not a sign could be found that anybody 
 had been around. 
 
 But while these were gone to hunt for the Indians the 
 people at the house made certain discoveries. They 
 found that the woman was shot from a different direction 
 that she would have been had' the shot come in from the 
 window, one pane of glass having been broken, through 
 which "Videtoe pretended the bullet came. On examina- 
 tion it was found that all the glass was blown out of 
 doors proving that the shot that broke the glass came 
 from within the room. It was also found that Videtoe 
 had given the woman a cordial to ease her pain and 
 arsenic was found at the bottom of the tumbler. Videtoe 
 was Immediately arrested on a charge of murder, tried 
 at Malone, where the court sat, convicted, and finally 
 hung on the 25th day of July, 1S23. He met his fate 
 with the utmost calmness, and maintained his innocence 
 with a stolidity quite remarkable, and his case afforded 
 matter for much speculation, whether be was actually 
 insane or a man of implacable depravity. The family 
 remained on their farm a number of years and then re— 
 mozed to the West in the great tide of emigration and 
 disappeared from further notice. 
 
 In those days executions were performed in public, as 
 the moral sense of mankind had not yet reached a de- 
 velopment that suggested the duty of making them pri- 
 vate as now. The gallows was erected in afield adjacent 
 to the village, on a slightly rising ridge or hillock, so that 
 the sending off of the culprit could be visible to the as- 
 sembled thousands. Men walked fifteen, twenty and 
 thirty miles to see the execution, leaving their work in 
 mid-summer to see the horrible operation. The day was 
 bright and sunny, and all nature wore its most cheerful 
 aspect as the victim was brought forth the last time to 
 ^ook upon the beautiful world, rejoicing in the quieti^de 
 of summer, and with the blessings of nature spread al' 
 
LIFE ON THK BOKDKR. SI' 
 
 over the land. During his months of confinement he- 
 had often reverted to the pleasant home of his parents;- 
 tlie farm on which he had wrought many an honest 
 day's work, and as his heart was human, it may be sup- 
 posed he had spent many a weary and unhappy hour and 
 suppressed many a sorrowful longing to enjoy those • 
 scenes once more. But he left no record, made no con- 
 fession, and dying made no sign of fear or repentance,. 
 Such rare stoicism has been seldom seen or remarked. 
 He found no fault with anybody or anything ; gave the- 
 jailer no trouble, asked for no favors, and mounted the- 
 scaffold with a firm step, and countenance unmoved. 
 And, as his helpless corpse hung suspended, amid the- 
 gaze of thousands, and in the stillness of that summer 
 morning, there came over the quiet multitude, with the 
 sense of relief, that a guilty felon had paid the proper- 
 penalty of his crime, an astonishment that such heroic- 
 nerves could have been sacrificed to an inward demon, 
 either of revenge, despair or miserly greed, and be 
 thrown away as worthless in a world where heroes arc 
 too scarce, and cast-iron grit is so much needed. The- 
 secret of this crime died with Yidetoe, and with his death 
 went out the sad interest felt by the public in the sorrow- 
 ful fate of an innocent and useful woman, and a singular- 
 ly constituted, simple settler, who was adapted to a 
 better sphere, and fell a victim to his own depraved 
 impulses, as many others do, who escape the doom that 
 so soon befell him. 
 
 DOLLY DUTTON. 
 
 I have mentioned the Dutton family several times, but' 
 now it becomes my privilege to speak of Dolly the eld- 
 est girl. It is not too much to say that these Dnttons 
 were about as downright stupid a family as could be res- 
 urrected out of New England dullness so prevalent at 
 that day. The family came from New Hampshire and^ 
 as the elders could barely read and write |a little, they- 
 could not impart much intellectual culture to their chil- 
 dren. Dolly was the fourth child and the eldest girl,. 
 
82 LIFE ON THE BORUEE. 
 
 ^nd ill development was like the others ; somewhat stun- 
 ted in growth, until she reached advanced girlhood, but 
 like all females she had the honorable ambition of long- 
 ing to be as advanced in study as any of lier schoolmates. 
 Q^'he boys were so stupid, that such a thing as studying 
 grammar or geography, never entered their heads. To 
 read poorly, write indifferently and learn a bit of arith- 
 metic, filled the circle of their aspirations and they man- 
 aged to grow up with as little of the above branches as 
 it was possible to learn as a minimum. But Dolly found 
 other girls giving attention to grammar, and her ambi. 
 tion was fired to do lilcewise. So a grammar was obtain- 
 ed, and Dolly began her devotion to language. 
 
 It was amusing to hear her flounder through a recitation , 
 which consisted of memorizing and repeating definitions 
 and rules, without relevancy or illustration. Probablj' 
 she never succeeded in mastering verbally a single rule 
 or definition ; but then what could be done? She had 
 become a large girl of thirteen years, and had the same 
 right to choose her studies as the rest. So the teacher 
 let her slip along over the boolc, and when a certain 
 stage was passed, allowed her to begin parsing, as that 
 was the neplus ultra of grammatical distinction in those 
 -days. The parsing exercises were talien from the Eng- 
 lish Beader, our leading booli, and generally from ex- 
 tracts selected from the poetry of Pope — It was the case 
 ust then that we were trying to parse the selection begin- 
 ning. 
 
 " Has God, thou fool worlted solely thy good?" &c. 
 ^nd we had got one day bown to the line. 
 
 "Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?" 
 which sentence fell to Dolly to explain. The poor girl 
 had no more idea of a sentence or the parts of speech, 
 'beyond what she had learned by hearing it repeated, as 
 the teacher had always assisted her. But on this occa- 
 sion, he, for some reason of his own, let her try to go 
 alone, and Dolly knowing only the phrases used in pars - 
 ing a noun began: 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 83- 
 
 " Or is a common noun," here she looked up to the 
 teacher, who kept silent, looking on the book, and let her 
 proceed. So she went on. "Third person singular 
 number and nomitive case to hears." (The word nom- 
 inative was always cut short to nomitive and she followed 
 the custom.) 
 
 •'Hears is a common noun, third person singular num- 
 ber and nomitive case to the. 
 
 •'The is a common noun, third person singular number 
 and nomitive case to hawk. 
 
 •'Hawk is a common noun, third person singular num- 
 ber and nomitive case to when. 
 
 Here the teacher and class could not restrain them- 
 selves, and burst into a loud laugh, and poor Dolly who 
 had proceeded rather slowly, as though not confident of 
 her parsing, broke down in a flood of tears. I regret to 
 say that the Buttons were very unpopular, and hence 
 the brutes in general, rather enjoyed Doily's miser}' than 
 pitied her. But the result was, she left the school that 
 day and did not return. In the spring her family bade 
 adieu to old Bombay, and rambled to the beautiful Ohio 
 region, where at the ripe age of fourteen, Dolly was 
 chosen by a thrifty farmer, slightly deformed but own" 
 ing a good farm, as his beloved wife, and I never heard 
 but that she went on and wrestled with pots and kettles 
 as successfully as her mother. For my own part, rude 
 as I was at sixteen, I remember how uncomfortable I 
 felt to see Dolly in trouble, for I had known her from a 
 small girl of five years, and with her and her brothers 
 had made man}' a morning's cold journey nearly two 
 miles through the snow. I confess now, 1 believe the 
 fault was more in the books and ignorance of teachers 
 in those days, than in the ability of the children. Ob- 
 taining an education was made as hard as possible, and 
 hence the small results. The swing now is the other 
 way ; the pupil is crammed with knowledge he does uo t 
 understand, and take the country through, you find just 
 about as much stupidity and real genuine ignorance ; the- 
 
84 LIFE ON THE BORDER 
 
 same tendency to believe a lie ; the same unwillingness to 
 give np 3 silly opinion as ciiaracterized people on the 
 frontier fifty years ago. 
 
 BRDTALITY IN SCHOOL. 
 
 I liave given several minor references to the discipline 
 -of our school, but one fact remains to be noticed, and 
 this also involves another notice of the Dutton boys. 
 Right opposite the Dutton farm lived the Riley family, 
 pretty nearly equal in the number of children, only the 
 - Rileys were by far the stronger. A laraily feud sprang 
 up between the two sets of boys, and this was aggravated 
 during the winter school term by the hostile action of 
 ■the two younger Buttons in pestering the two younger 
 Riley girls on the way home from school. Alonzo Riley 
 the second son, was a youngster of about fourteen years 
 but an unusually muscular fellow, and rather inclined to 
 be quarrelsome if a good excuse existed. Accordingly 
 he and a younger boy, who was a warm-friend of his, 
 took it upon themselves to roughly handle the Duttons 
 on their road while returning home from school the next 
 day, and it is but truth to say the poor fellows got un- 
 mercifully tumbled into the snow and the skin well 
 rubbed off their faces by rough application of snowy 
 mittens. Their yells were only good music to revenge- 
 ful ears, and they got home quite fairly exhausted. All 
 Ibis was in violation of the teacher's rules, and so the 
 next morning, the Duttons made complaint to the teach- 
 er — the Amos Emerson once before alluded to. 
 
 He listened, and decided to administer justice on the 
 spot ; so, calling young Riley and Reed out on the floor, 
 he demanded an explanation, and was politely informed 
 that Dutton had I old the truth, and the reason for the 
 aggression was also stated. The teacher decided that 
 the reason was not valid, and that an application of blue 
 beech would be the true remedy. Accordingly he brought 
 -out one of his three handsome ox-goads laid up in the 
 desk, and telling Riley to step forward, began to lay the 
 -blows on his legs, mainly below the knee. Alonzo 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 83 
 
 Stood firm and took the blows without wincing, and Em* 
 erson piled them on, with heartiest vigor, evidently 
 intending to mal^e him cry out. The blows resounded 
 like the whipping of a horse, and the pupils, large and 
 small, looked on with astonishment at Alonzo's power of 
 endurance, for he was clad only in homespun, without 
 any drawers, so the blows must have set terribly close 
 to his flesh. The whipping continued for a time that 
 seemed horribly long to us, and especially to the poor 
 culprit that stood awaiting his turn for assisting Kiley 
 in flogging the Duttons. These last, three in number 
 besides Dolly, looked on with great satisfaction and the 
 three Rileys, looking on quite savagely, sat quiet and 
 silent as the whipping proceeded. Finally Alonzo turned 
 on his feet and faced the teacher, but said not a word,, 
 keeping his hands in his pockets. Emerson evidently 
 became tired with his arm eserclse and suddenly stopped, 
 asked Riley the regular questions about future behavior 
 and received the usual assurances of good conduct and 
 sent Riley to his seat. 
 
 Young Reed, the next candidate for the honor of a. 
 flogging had stood quietly looking on at Riley's stoicism 
 and at first was astonished, then resolved to imitate him in 
 endurance as far as possible. So when Alonzo went to 
 his seat, Reed was ordered to step into the place vacated, 
 and summoning up all his bravery, he received the first 
 instalment of a dozen whacking blows of the red-hot- 
 blue beech without wincing. But the blows sat terribljr 
 snug to the skin and though he found he could bear their 
 force for a short time, it was rather tough to do so, and. 
 so on the fifteenth whack, he stepped back a foot or two- 
 without expecting relief, when, to his great surprise,. 
 Emerson stopped the whipping and he was allowed to 
 resume his seat, congratulating himself that he stepped 
 back at the right moment. The school resumed its ac- 
 customed work and nothing was seriously thought of the 
 events just described. 
 
 The next day Alonzo showed his legs to his associate. 
 
86 LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 
 
 They were as black as charcoal from ankles to knee, as 
 the numerous blows of the beech had caused the blood 
 to settle under the skin, eiviu^ it a fearful look. The 
 other chap's legs had only a few marks of the teacher's 
 affection. Riley hinted that the Dutton boj'S should pa.y 
 for the whipping, and not long afterwards, a good op- 
 portunity happened and he kept his promise faithfullj'. 
 The poor Duttons got shaken up right rudely, and their 
 only resource was to " tell the master" which they did 
 the next morning. 
 
 Emerson was not pleasantly impressed with the affair 
 when he found that his horrible whipping had failed to 
 cure the evil. So. stepping down from his desk, he called 
 Alonzo to the old place on the floor. As he sat on the 
 back seat and several boys were between him and the 
 opening, he did not start, nor did he when the order was 
 repeated. Emerson's temper was sprung by this new 
 disobedience, so, ordering the boys that sat in the was- 
 te come out, which they did, he seized Eiley by the coat 
 and with a heavy jerk, brought him to the opening aud 
 with another jerk, whirled him clear out upon the floor 
 where he fell with his whole weight and at his whole 
 length, his back coming in contact with the corner of the 
 platform on which the stove rested. The wonder is that 
 the fall did not kill or cripple him for life, for Emerson 
 threw him from the j-aised platform on which the back 
 seats stood. ,Theboydid not rise when Emerson or- 
 dered him, and he went to his desk and drew out the 
 blue-beech. 
 
 At thisjuncture, great excitment existed and the older 
 boys and young men who were looking on, showed 
 symptoms of interference. Ealph Eiley the older broth- 
 er of Alonzo spoke out decidedly, 
 
 "Mr. Emerson don't you strike that boy" and the mas- 
 ter desisted. Some hard words ensued between him 
 and Ralph, but he saw that the force to conquer was too 
 formidable, and accordingly, as Alonzo wanted to go 
 home, foi' he was pretty badly hurt though not crippled' 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 87 
 
 he was disraissed and went limping out of school for a 
 two mile walk. He reached borne and remained a few 
 days; his father called on Mr. Emerson and requested 
 him not to repeat tlie discipline, and some sharp words 
 followed which Emerson heeded. 
 
 The final result of this feud was that Alonzo, as 
 soon as able, returned to school and in a few days 
 on an opportunity occurring, he attacked Moses Dutton 
 while going home Irom school ; a clinch was the result 
 and Moses threw Alonzo hard upon the road, and would 
 have pummelled him good, had not John Kiley ran up 
 and pulled him oflf so that Alonzo came to the top, and 
 the rough rascal then administered about as handsome 
 and thorough a pounding as could be wished. Poor 
 Moses liobbled home after the chastisement; the elder 
 Eiley had to visit the Duttons and make peace, and 
 quietness again ruled in the neighborhood. The two 
 families got along somehow, for a few years more as 
 neighbors, and finally evaporated in the great tide of 
 emigration westward, where hard work and fever have 
 fully rubbed out the early ferocity of temper and man- 
 ners. 
 
 ST. REGIS. 
 
 In m3' rambling notes I have once or twice referred to 
 the Indians, which were quite numerous in early days, 
 and their peaceful character. These Indians belonged 
 to the tribe located at a beautiful spot on the St. Lawrence 
 river, not far from where the line of 45 degrees north 
 latitude, which is the northern boundary of Vermont and 
 New York, intersects that splendid river. The village of 
 St. Regis, the home of the aborigines, was at the junction 
 ofthe St. Regis river — au affluent from the Adirondacks — 
 and St. Lawrence, only two or three miles from Hogans- 
 burg. The land is singularly handsome in its general 
 descrii)tion, being level along the rivers and rolling 
 farther back, and the village is divided into two unequal 
 parts by the above mentioned line of latitude. The road 
 running into the village from Hogansburg, terminates 
 
88 LIFE ON THE BORDER 
 
 at the St. Lawrence, but an angle there leads off another 
 street along that river's brink, which turns again and 
 comes back into the aforesaid road, so that the village 
 has two or three streets along which stand the rude but 
 comfortable dwellings long ago erected tor their accom- 
 modation. The main part of the tribe have their homes 
 in Canada, as the dwellings were originally built along 
 the river's brink, long before a division came from the 
 revolutionary war ; but the chief , in former years dwelt 
 io a large framed bouse on the Xew York side of the 
 line, as he claimed to be an American. ( )n the Kew York 
 side also was a reservation of timbered land, covering 
 several square miles, through which runs the road from 
 Port Covington to Hogansburg, but no further privilege 
 was allowed to white men, nor did they ever intrude 
 on the rights of the Indians or the Indians ontheir's. In 
 all the intercourse between the two races in early days, 
 there was always perfect accord, and no quarreling of 
 any moment between individuals. The Indians received 
 an annuity in money, blankets or food from the govern- 
 ment and those on the United States side, either from 
 Congress or New York, so they had enough to keep 
 them quite comfortable with what they could pick up 
 hunting and fishing, peddling apples and making sugar, 
 and what money the women might casually earn at odd 
 jobs, such as picking hops or other light work. No 
 beggars came from them and their only prevailing vice 
 was intemperance. A very few of the men would aid a 
 little in rafting or boating on the St. Lawrence, but none 
 would do farm work of any kind. But they were excel- 
 lent hunters and spent much time in the dense forests 
 to the south of our settlement, especially in the autumn 
 killing deer. 
 
 Well do I remember the long lines of the Indians as 
 they filed past our cabin or along the road, for they paid 
 little attention to boundaries and crossed the farms at 
 will ; never being forbidden or disturbed, all in single 
 file, each man with his gun slung over his shoulder,^ 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 89 
 
 'With muzzle in front; the women or squaws, as the In- 
 dians called their wives, following with large baskets 
 slung on their backs, by a belt that was brought forward 
 around the forehead, so the woman's head w^as kept in the 
 same position for miles. In the basket generally, there 
 would be a "papoose" or Indian baby of small size, or 
 at least unable to walk, fastened to a board by a cord 
 around its chest, leaving arms and legs free to move, the 
 board being set nearly upright in the basket, so the 
 baby's head would be close to its mother's. I never 
 heard one of these babies cry or whimper, and they 
 were very common up to 1830. But later on the hunting 
 became rather poor and there was less of it and of 
 course less Indians flocked to the woods. 
 
 These Indians were always made welcome in our 
 cabins. It was a rule never to refuse theto admittance 
 ■unless sickness or some good reasons forbade it, as they 
 were known to be harmless and friendly. They some- 
 times asked for food, but were not particular about its 
 coarseness, and they never occupied a bed, but lay right 
 down on the floor, close to the flre place, and would be 
 gone early in the morning. Their lives must have been 
 awfully monotonous, but they seldom conversed on any 
 topic, and never asked for information or instruction. 
 
 In the spring, each year, they would go down upon 
 the reservation and make maple sugar, which the women 
 would peddle among people in the village. They were 
 not proverbial for neatness, which was the only hard ob- 
 jection to using the sugar. In early days the Jesuit 
 missionaries, which converted these Indians to the Ro- 
 man Catholic faith, had cleared away considerable land 
 along the St. Lawrence, which was in our day used for 
 pasturage, and on an island they planted orchards 
 which were then in good bearing condition, and these 
 apples were sold by the Indian women all through the 
 neighborhood, and for the flrst few years they were the 
 ■only apples within reach. 
 
 Of course there were some legendary stories told o . 
 
90 LIFE ON THE BORUEB. 
 
 Indian prowess or white men's exploits among them. 
 Of these, I can relate only a few, premising that there 
 may be some truth or neat falsehood in each recital. One 
 of the earliest was that a certain hard old fellow — a. 
 raftsman named Farnsworth — got into a quarrel with a 
 lot near St. Kegis, where he was building a raft of lumber 
 to go to Montreal ; that a dozen or so Indians rushed 
 upon the raft to attack him ; that he turned upon them 
 with naked list and knocked oyerboard every one but 
 one whom he knocked down and then threw him over-- 
 board. Anyone can put the right estimate on this yarn. 
 
 Another was that a certain hard fisted old fellow was 
 at a tavern somewhere, and a gang of Indians rushed' 
 madly upon him ; that he seized the youngest Indian — a 
 burly chap of eighteen years — and making him a shield >- 
 he swung him round by his legs, and hitting the others 
 with the fellow's head, drove them all out of the room. 
 Such stuff as this was currently told for truth on tbe- 
 border, and doubtless was generally believed. 
 
 But the best stories were of the Indian's own exploits ■ 
 in fishing or skating. The first of tliese was that several 
 Indians were out in canoes fishing for sturgeon, a large 
 but rather sluggish fish ; that 6ne was fastened to, but 
 was too strong for the Indians to pull in, and began to - 
 make off with the boat ; that seeing the danger, some one 
 cut the line, at which a powerful savage sprang from the 
 boat and jumping astride the sturgeon, caught the fish 
 by the gills, and then a heroic struggle ensued ; the fish 
 trying to carry the Indian under, and the latter pulling 
 on the fish to keep him at the surface. Meanwhile the 
 other Indians came to his aid and they secured the stur- 
 geon. This yarn also was believed. Another was a . 
 story of a skater, for the Indians were good skaters. A. 
 party, among which were two brothers, were out skating 
 on the St. Lawrence, when the younger brother skated 
 into an open place and sunk with a yell. His brother 
 instantly rushed to the place, sprang in, caught his 
 brother and pushed him upon the solid ice, but in so- 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 91 
 
 doing, was himself pushed under the ice and the current 
 carried him down the river. He could not find his way 
 to the open place or air hole, but as there was a little 
 space between the ice and water he could breathe and 
 think of his condition. He knew he must soon die if he 
 did not get out and there was only one way to do that : — 
 to break the ice above him. Accordingly he decided to 
 try his head ou the ice and diving to the bottom some 
 tweenty feet, so as to obtain headway, he sprang up- 
 wards and his force drove his head clear through the ice- 
 where he hung and would still have perished had not his 
 cries brought the Indians to- his assistance, who helped 
 him out. This story found currency in the local paper at 
 Fort Covington and probably has an element of truth 
 in it, how much I do not say. 
 
 But the finest legend was connected with the bell 
 which hung in the steeple of the Koman Catholic Church,, 
 a stone edifice, erected in early times by the missionaries, 
 and was really a comfortable affair for the border. The 
 story ran somewhat like this. A bell was wanting for this 
 Church, and the ruling power thought it easier and 
 cheaper to steal one from some border settlement in New 
 England,than to import it from France. Very eloquent ad- 
 dresses were delivered on the beauty and glory of a bell 
 dedicated to the true service of God, and the wild savages 
 were flred up with a willing desire to take scalps and 
 steal a bell. So in one of the terrible wars that raged 
 between the Canadian French and English settlers a foray 
 was made by a band of the St. Begis Indians, upon some 
 town in the Connecticut valley, in western Massachusetts. 
 A number of the quiet inhabitants were murdered and 
 scalped in cold blood, the town wholly or partially 
 burned, and the Church bell seized and carried off on the 
 shoulders of some muscular savages who hurried away 
 over the Berkshire hills, and up the valley of the Hudson 
 to Lake Champlain, and by some means "toted" it, as the- 
 border phrase was, to the vicinity of Plattsburg or Kees- 
 ville, N. Y., where in the woods and about two hundred: 
 
92 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 miles from the point of starting, tlie Indians became 
 tired of tlie job, threw down the bell and left it on the 
 ground in spite of the protests and threats of the mis- 
 sionary. There it lay for many years, till in process of 
 time that murderous generation died out and a new and 
 better order of things was established, a road built over 
 the Chateaugay hills to Fort Covington and Hogansburg, 
 when the successor of the former marauder hired a 
 team and brought the bell to St Regis. There it swung 
 for the best part of a century, calling the peaceful be- 
 lievers to worship till the year 1868, when the church 
 edifice, bell and all were consumed by flre. 
 
 I know not how much truth there may be in the bell 
 story, but I indulge the liberty to disbelieve it in toto. 
 There were no Indians a hundred years ago sufficiently 
 used to laborious hardship to persist in carrying a bell 
 over two hundred miles, slung on a pole and hanging to 
 their shoulders. Such slavish work would find few now 
 willing to perform it. All I really know is, they had a 
 bell fifty years ago, for I heard its mellifluous tones one 
 beautiful Sunday when three of us rode out to St. Regis 
 on horseback to attend the Roman Catholic worship. 
 On the road we passed a bevy of young blooming- Irish 
 maidens of fourteen to sixteen years walking ten miles 
 irom Irish Ridge to St. Regis, and passed the same on 
 our way back ; so those girls walked twenty miles that 
 warm summer day to attend a religious service given in 
 A language of which they did not understand a word. 
 
 We were much interested in the ceremonies, so differ- 
 ent from the rough and tumble performances of sister 
 Taylor and brother Gates and others at our schoolliouse. 
 The reverent manners of the Indians and their women, 
 who each occupied different sides of the church and all 
 remained on their knees during the whole tedious ser- 
 vice, sermon and all, were very striking to us and the 
 singing of the Indians was equally interesting. First 
 the men would chant a long strain, having the chants 
 and music on a bench before them, and then the women 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDEB. 93 
 
 or squaws responded in a shrill volume of sound, sharp 
 
 •■■and loud enough to waken the newly dead, and this 
 
 fiinging or chanting constituted the entire music of the 
 
 ■ service. 
 
 The occasion was so new and interesting, the exercises 
 so unique, the worshipers so devout, the surroundings 
 so romantic, that they were the theme of thought and 
 reflection for a long time afterwards. In fact, the expe- 
 rience gave a new turn to my opinions, for I had always 
 - heard the Catholic worship derided, and ever since it has 
 been a point with me to remember that the ancient wor- 
 ship of our ancestors was not so foolish and preposterous 
 as many of their over-wise descendants claim. If the 
 multitudinous millions of believers who lived and died 
 before the year 1500 went to heaven, through the instru- 
 mentality of the Roman Catholic Church, why not the 
 numerous millions still adhering to that communion? 
 A little acquaintance with our neighbors and a free inter- 
 change of opinions would dispel a great part of the 
 foolish prejudice now existing and bring mankind into 
 harmony on the question of toleration. 
 
 INDIAN IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 In 1868 I revisited St. Kegis and learned some new 
 facts. During the thirty-four years that had ensued 
 since my first visit great changes had occurred. The 
 grand forest on the " reservation " had been entirely cut 
 away and the land was as naked as a pasture. Several 
 Indian families had erected houses and were living neatly 
 . and comfortably along the road, having a few acres of 
 land under cultivation, and in the village some improve- 
 ments were visible. I learned that some years previous 
 
 ■ the Methodists had instituted a mission at St. Regis, and 
 quite a number of tlie Indians had embraced the new 
 form of faith. A neat chapel stood near the line at 
 which a part of the Indians attended, though the major- 
 ity still clung to the old faith. Many of the Indians had 
 learned to work on the land, and found ready employ- 
 ment anlong the farmers. But they could not be induced 
 
94 l.IFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 to work more than half of the time. Gradually they were - 
 relinquishing the old, lazy, savage life, and probably in 
 two or three generations more their former characteris- ■ 
 tics will wholly disappear. 
 
 THE CAMP MEETING. 
 
 Among the more prominent means of grace in the 
 olden days, and they are not out of use but exist in a 
 modified form, were camp meetings. The custom of hold- ■ 
 ing quarterly meetings in barns prevailed for many years 
 previous to the erection of Churches, and this prepared 
 the believers for the rough and tumble extacies of the ■ 
 original camp meeting in the forest. During the younger 
 period of development the youngsters iu our vicinity 
 only knew of these gatherings by hearsay, and as stories - 
 never lose anything of the romantic, grand or picturesque 
 in the telling, the boys considered that camp meetings - 
 must be scenes of rollicking jollity. But as the selected 
 spot was some eight or ten or fifteen miles from the va- 
 rious points in our section, the younger children never 
 attended, nor did the sects aside from the Methodists ap-> 
 prove of them, and of course their families never attended. . 
 So it passed along till the summer of 1836, when a cer- 
 tain frowzy-head mentioned long ago in this book who 
 had reached eighteen years and a humble membership • 
 in the Methodist church, had an opportunity to enjoy one. 
 And thus he related the story in after 5'ears. " I decided 
 to walk the fifteen miles to camp meeting at Moira on 
 Saturday afternoon fo as to be present on Sunday^ So • 
 putting on my best clothes, I set out on a pretty warm, 
 afternoon and marched up to the Jerusalem of my hopes. 
 The road was rather long and I was lonesome, and by 
 the time I arrived in the vicinity I was mighty tired and ^ 
 hungry. Stopping late in the afternoon at a farm house 
 near the camp ground, I asked for supper, and the • 
 woman set about cooking it, and soon produced some 
 warm biscuit on which with good butter and tea, I made - 
 a good meal along with her and several women visiting- 
 there. Asking her what I should pay, she replied that 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 95 
 
 - she never sold any victuals and hardlj' knew what to 
 -charge, but I happened to have two or three small coins 
 in my pocket, among which was a silver quarter, and 
 ■oflfering her that, she took it, with admii-able female and 
 rather inovs grace, appearing quite surprised that I offered 
 her anything. I was glad to lose my hunger, and travelled 
 on to the camp ground which I reached before sundown 
 ■ and began to look around for acquaintances. Passing 
 down among the tents I noticed commotion at several, 
 and soon ran upon one with a genuine sensation. On the 
 ground in front of the tent door, lay Amelia Ilogle,— a 
 young woman from Fort Covington, my then home, — 
 prostrate and apparently insensible, while several breth- 
 ' ren were pleading with God upon their knees for moi-e 
 of the blessed power. At a little distance Comfort Sa- 
 bins, a hardy old veteran of the war of 1812. and who 
 had been converted in middle life and needed it badly 
 too when he got it, was on his knees by a fallen tree, 
 having a glorious time of it all alone. Comfort appeared 
 
 • to be in extacies, clapping his hands and groaning as 
 though he had so much happiness he could hardly con- 
 tain it. Over on the other side, sitting on a tree, was 
 another saint in his shirt sleeves, groaning in unsubdued 
 strains and rubbing his hands for joy, and he too was 
 so happj' he could hardly live, and .still another well 
 
 - dressed rather danditied saint, stood twenty feet distant 
 on another log and directed encouraging remarks to the 
 panting sufferer such as " you know now, how good the 
 Lord is;" "you will remember the Lord from hill Mizar" 
 
 - and so on ad libitum. The scene was so new and origi.ial 
 that I, a green one, hardly knew what to make of it- 
 But I kept my eye pretty closely on Amelia, for 1 was 
 well acquainted with her, and not long after my arrival 
 she opened her eyes, saw me standing near by, and 
 
 - arose and went inside the tent. I thought while looking 
 at her with the power, that she was " making believe" as 
 the saying is, for, at home she never evinced the slight- 
 
 • est religious emotion. 
 
96 LIFE ON THE BOEDER. 
 
 Pretty soon one or two young men of my acquaintance 
 came along and I was glad to see them among so many 
 strangers. The evening passed with no further sensa- 
 tions . lots of good praying and singing were indulged 
 in, and everything promised a gloriously serene morn- 
 ing, when the fun would begin anew with some good ser- 
 mons. My friend showed me where I could sleep, on 
 the soft side of a rough board, under the preacher's - 
 stand, and there I lay down with several other weary 
 fellows, preachers and others and was soon in a pro- - 
 found sleep. 
 
 About midnight, the rolling thunder roused us from 
 sleep, and soon the rain began to fall in torrents. For 
 awhUe the boards of the shed kept the water out and we 
 rejoiced to be so well provided for, when, lo I and behold 1 
 in came a delegation of young preachers followed by a . 
 troop of the worst disguised females ever exhibited. 
 They had been sleeping in tents, but the eloth was no 
 protection against the pouring rain, and of all the wet- 
 test, soppiest, drowned looking females ever picked up 
 in swamp or morass, pulled out of a pond or rescued 
 from the sea, they were the frightfuUest. It almost ex- 
 cites a burst of laughter now, to recall their condition. 
 But we had not long to criticise. The order was for us 
 all to vacate and give up the room to the women, which 
 order we obeyed and turned out into the drizzle without 
 relief. Several large heaps of logs were burning, and all 
 we could do was to huddle as near them as possible with- 
 out burning our clothes. Dozens were in the same con- 
 dition. The rain did not extinguish the fires, for it came 
 down only in showers, and a log-heap on fire will burn 
 a long time in a heavy rain. In a short time the shed we- 
 bad left was as bad as out of doors for wet, only the fall 
 of the water was avoided. 
 
 Before nine o'clock Sunday morning, I had been soaked 
 through and dried three times, by successive, heavy show - - 
 ers. Soon, as daylight appeared many fled from the 
 ground, and by noontime the camp-meeting had dwindled. 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 97 
 
 to a handful. Religious services were field in the several 
 tents (luring the forenoon, when the rain permitted ,but 
 the audiences were small. About noon, however the 
 clouds rolled away, the sun came out in his supernal 
 splendor, and seemed to atone for all we had suffered. 
 As the weather was warm we suffered nothing from cold, 
 only the being wet down so freely was badly relished. It 
 was announced that a sermon would be preached from 
 the preacher's stand at 2 P. M. and it was understood 
 that the champion of the revival the previous winter 
 ■would preach it. And this brings us again to 
 
 JESSE THE POMPOUS. 
 
 This rising young divine having distinguished himself 
 In the revival at Fort Covington the previous winter as 1 
 have reported, was the chief magnate also on this occa- 
 sion. And when the hour for the sermon arrived, the 
 people having returned so that a dense audience were 
 waiting to hear the gospel,' Jesse climbed up the stand 
 and presented his fair proportions to the assembly. 
 Mixed in with the audience were many people who being 
 Unitarians in belief as to the doctrine of the trinity, were 
 stigmatized by the other sects as Christians ; (giving a 
 long sound to the I in the first syllable.) These people 
 ■were numerous in Moira, and jointly with the Methodists 
 had erected a meeting house of respectable size and 
 -quality, in which worship was held alternately for some 
 years. They were generally a respectable and thrifty 
 class of citizens, averaging far above their neighbors in 
 intelligence. Jesse, of course, knew they were present, 
 and it was a good opportunity to pound them in good 
 -doctrinal style. So, rising iu his pompous majesty he 
 sounded forth his text, '*God was manifest in the flesh," 
 and proceeded to pour forth for an hour, the most em- 
 phatic and undiluted trinitarianism ever coined by the 
 ingenious logicians of the last fifteen hundred years. He 
 went on to show that a certain Jew, born in Judea some 
 1837 years previous, was the creator of the world ; that 
 from the smallest insect that floats in the breeze, to the 
 
98 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 eveiUsting orbs that stud the boundless universe, al* 
 was the work of his hands; and most marvellous of all 
 he had existed from all eternity and had done all this 
 immense work myriads of years, cycles and ages before 
 he was born ; and worst of all that he was the son of the 
 God who had done this same work ; (in other words but 
 not Jesse's,) he was his own father and his own son at 
 the same time; that he consented to be born because 
 man, one of his own crealures, bad Einned, and thus 
 brought himself into condemnation by a law that must 
 be satisfied by blood, and blood alone ; that in conse- 
 quence of this sinning, all the human race was in danger 
 of eternal suffering, or as then called the "damnation of 
 hell"; that this man or God so pitied them, that he con- 
 sented to become human, to be born and grow up a maa 
 and be cruelly executed by crucifixion as an atonement 
 for sin ; and that having died a bloody and excruciatingly 
 agonizing death, he came again to life after three daya, 
 and afterwards ascended into heaven, where he was then 
 sitting at the right hand of God, that is of himself; and 
 that now, all men could be saved from hell by consenting 
 to believe in this stupendous theory and live good lives. 
 Here having fully digested (his point, he proceeded to 
 show that another agent, called the "Holy Ghost." was 
 also God, and this doctrine he elaborated from a book he 
 had that was written some 1700 or 1800 years previously 
 and had a lot of statements by somebody, who lived after 
 the former celebrated man was dead, asserting the mon- 
 strous doctrine. By this ingenious logic he showed that 
 there was a "God the Father, God the Son and God the 
 Holy Ghost," and yet there was but one God, thus con- 
 founding arithmetic, fapt and common sense all in one 
 maze of contradictions which be called mysteries. He 
 finally closed his harangue with an earnest exhortation 
 to all present to accept of this doctrine, become true be- 
 lievers and secure the salvation of their immortal souls. 
 
 The audience listened with great silence and attention, 
 and dispersed. The Methodists felt that Jesse had done 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 99 
 
 an immensely flue job in giving tlie Cliristians an excellent 
 dose of orthodox teaching, and the Cliristians departed 
 feeling keenly the nisulc to iheir iiiteiligence. No con- 
 Terts were made by Jesse's tii-ade, so there were no 
 ^'Methodist flsh to string." But Jesse's profundity of 
 learning so won Methodist regard, th at the sermon was 
 printed in patnphlet form and scattered abroad, and one 
 of the amusing links of tlie past, carefully preserved for 
 an occasional review and cachinnation, especially to cure 
 « fit of the blues. It would be rare to find any advocate 
 of the trinitarian theory at the present date, willing to 
 insult a miscellaneous audience largely unbelievers in 
 bis doctrine, so boldly and maliciously as did Jesse on 
 (hat occasion. His pompous manner and imperious elo- 
 quence when dealing out his thunder, would have done 
 eredit to a mediaeval monk, ready to buckle on the 
 sword for the crusades. His effort has for many years 
 been a source of good health by exciting to laughter. 
 
 A few words about Jesse and I will close. He won 
 so much distinction as a verbose, loquacious preacher of 
 the word, that his fame spread far and wide, and in about 
 * year he was called to preside over an important semin- 
 ary for the diffusion of Methodism. Eising in fame, he 
 gravitated to one in another state and from that was 
 transferred to a second rate college a few hundred miles 
 away, in which he unfortunately was made the butt of 
 some rough jokes, and resigning his office he returned 
 to the pulpit, filled sundry important stations and when 
 past the ripe age of sixty, was elevated to the bishop's 
 office and has fought "the w^orld, the flesh and the devil," 
 so effectually, that his name is enrolled on a high shelf 
 among the magnates of the M. E. church. Sero redeas in 
 4odum. 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Fifty years ago the doctrine of the "trinity" and an 
 "endless hell," held rigid, and almost undisturbed con- 
 trol over the common people, and as the human mind 
 bad slumbered on for ages upon ages, without seriously 
 
100 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 questioning these monstrous absurdities, and incipient; 
 blaspliemies, it is not surprising tliat tliey bad such an 
 influence. So absolutely crushed was all aspiration to\r~ 
 ards original thoughtor speculation, that even ordinary- 
 doubt was severely criticised, and the doubter consigned 
 to the lowest depth of infamy, by a huge majority of the- 
 community. The doctrine of Universalism was hated 
 with considerate horror, and Unitarianism with sublime- 
 contempt. The idea that G-od is too merciful to consign 
 untold millions to eternal perdition, was scouted as- 
 treason to truth, and dangerous to good morals. Hence 
 the boldness with which Jesse and others hurled the ma- 
 lignant dogmas of the dominant faith, right into the faces 
 of doubters, and crucifled with heartless logic and relent- 
 less rhetoric, every man who dared lift up his voice for 
 a God of compassion and a Savior of Infinite love. The 
 Elijahs of the church admitted these two points but 
 vrished them to be put into the system with their pre. 
 conceived settings and groupings. Beligion. or salva- 
 tion was a thing of conditions ; an almighty sovereign 
 had been offended by a finite creature ; hence sin was 
 almost almighty and must be atoned for in the blood of 
 a God ; and when this was done and man accepted the 
 act, i. e. believed just as Jesse and Co. did, he would be- 
 safe, and Jesns become a being of inefifable love and ex^ 
 quisite tenderness. And hence we can see why so much 
 boIdnes3, not to say impudence, was cultivated by these 
 poorly developed men. They were tolerated because 
 the whole community had been educated in their silly 
 dogmas and was influenced by them to the suppression of 
 free thought and independent opinions. Who wonders 
 that such abominable theories have either been kicked 
 aside or relegated to the shades of silence by millions? 
 Who wonders that the very churches that in those days 
 defended such monstrous absurdities have shrank into 
 mere squads, unless in cases where the ignorance was 
 too dense to be scattered in two generations? It is well 
 known that not a fair fraction of the human race has yet 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 101 
 
 thrown off the miserable swaddUiig clothes of early re 
 llgious opiaioDs; that there are now more Brahmins, 
 rBuddhists, Mohammedans than ever before ; that Sav- 
 agism rules the fairest portion of the globe and "dark- 
 ness covers the face of the great deep" of humanity anc' 
 though we may hope for a brighter and better day, agt 
 must pass before inteligence will rule the world univer- 
 sal. 
 
 A FOREST FIRE. 
 
 People who reside in cities and witness only an occas- 
 ional conflagration of a building or block of buildings, 
 have only a faint idea of the terror and magnificence of 
 a forest in flames. Nor when any person has seen such 
 a wilderness of fire extending over miles of forest coun- 
 try, will he wish to see it again, unless at a safe distance. 
 In the earlier years of our settlement, great care was 
 alwaj's taken when a few acres of brush or log heaps 
 were to be burned, to not only select a perfectly still 
 daj' to set the fire, bnt a constant watch was kept while 
 the flames were raging, to prevent disaster. The flre 
 would be set all round the area to be scorched, so as to 
 have the draught towards the center and in this way the 
 flame was managed quite easily, and when the flre had 
 done its work and consumed the inflammable brush and 
 leaves, the log heaps could be controlled without diflS- 
 ■culty. Hence, for some thirty or more years the country 
 got along without a flery catastrophe, but it finally came, 
 and that too, when largely more than half, and perhaps 
 two thirds of the region was under fence and cultivation. 
 It happened on this wise. 
 
 I have mentioned that not far from the southern bound- 
 ary of our original farm was a bett of sandy land some 
 •three miles wide, running for a long distance east and 
 west. This sand belt was originally covered with timbier 
 -of all kinds, but largely of pine, which during the pre- 
 vious years had been cut down for timber and boards, 
 -and the debris left on the ground. Gradually ■ as the 
 years went by, the loose and dry remnants of the slain 
 
102 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 trees covered much of tbe ground, and in summer wa» 
 as dry as tinder. Many trees still remained of liard wood 
 or small pines, but perhaps had there been no fire, it 
 would still be a hideous jungle, instead of a naked sandy 
 dune, unsightly and useless for any purpose beyond the 
 very poorest grade of culture. 
 
 Kight west of our township, but in St. Lawrence coun- 
 ty was the town of Brasher, at that time a forest region 
 and abounding in saw mills. One of the little slab vil- 
 lages, as they are called, — i. e., a saw mill and a few 
 houses was located pretty near in a line with the afore- 
 said sand strip and right in midsummer some thirty years 
 ago, on a windy day a fire broke out in a wigwam in 
 that hamlet, which soon caught the dry stuff around th& 
 saw mill and in a few minutes the whole hamlet was in 
 flames. 
 
 The fire struck into the surrounding forest, and the 
 west wind blowing strong, drove it easterly, right in the 
 wake of the aforesaid pine ridge, and tbe farms adjoin- 
 ing. The forest was so dry, that the brush and leaves 
 caught' as readily as tissue paper, and in a half hour the 
 flames were leaping and bounding onward a half mile 
 away, and reaching out southward, so as to take in the 
 whole sandy plat, and in a few short hours the country 
 for ten miles or more in length and three miles in width, 
 or some thirty square jniles, was as completely covered 
 with a burning flame as any area ever was with water. 
 There was no power to resist it. Large trees went down 
 ju ashes, the undergrowth was swept away and the dry 
 deadwood and leaves only led the fire on with greater 
 rapidity ; even the little Salmon river proved no obstruc- 
 tion, for the fire leaped^ across and eating up the forest 
 growth beyond, attacked tlie farms that stretched acros» 
 its path over there and ruined the whole neighborhood.. 
 On our side the river the farms bordering the burning 
 forest suffered severely in loss of fences,and stock smoth- 
 ered by the smoke, one man losing fifty sheep from that 
 cause. It was a blue day for that region and many- 
 
LIFE ON THE BOEDER. 105^^ 
 
 farmers who where comfortably situated in the moruiug, 
 found their entire property consumed at evening and 
 withno place for their-families to sleep, and not a mouth- 
 ful of food for their children, matters appeared rather 
 gloomy. Help however soon came in the kindly and' 
 prompt action of men who had money to lend, and the- 
 farmers were set as^ain upon their feet and in a few years 
 forgot all about the ravages of the fire in an unexpected 
 prosperity, and now a new generation barely remember - 
 the event as one happening ages ago. It was interesting 
 to note during the dominance of this conflagration how 
 peculiarly the birds, squirrels, rabbits and in fact all an- 
 imals inhabiting the forest, conducted themselves. At 
 first they appeared surprised and bopped out of the way of" 
 the heat, but were soon overtalcen and driven on, till, 
 they found about enough to do to keep out of the way 
 of the fire. At last the birds and squirrels, appeared to- 
 take the hint and fled to the edge of the woods, and oc- 
 cupied any scattering trees that happened to stand near 
 the forest. A large hemlock stood at a certain point in 
 the line of the fire, but a few rods out from the woods 
 and it was interesting to see the squirrels flock to that 
 tree. They ran up to the limbs and appeared to number - 
 hundreds on the branches. In due time the huge blast 
 of flame shot out from the forest and licked up the grass 
 around that hemlock and instantly rushed up the body 
 of the tree driving the squirrels on the lower limbs up 
 higher and higher till the upper limbs seemed densely 
 crowded. Closer and nearer came the fire, crawling up 
 the tree and wrapping the green branches in flames and' 
 it was a question whether the squirrels would be roasted 
 or jump off their perch. In an instant more the fire would' 
 have wrapped the highest limbs and killed every one of 
 them, but they did not wait. Though some ninety or- 
 more feet from the ground they sprang off almost at the 
 sams instant, and fell to the ground as in a shower. For- 
 a moment the air was full of them all around the tree^ 
 and then they disappeared for ev^, for with our best- 
 
104 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 search we could not find any dead after the fire was 
 over. Still thousands of animals must have perished in 
 the woods, for toads, frogs and snakes had no chance 
 for escape. No human lives were lost and but little 
 property value on our side of the river, but east of the 
 stream fifty families suffered, and the loss was immense. 
 Ever since that conflagration the ^andy strip of land 
 burnt over has been only a naked waste, — a desert with- 
 out shrub, brook or bush ; a deformity in the landscape, 
 as the land is worthless, and a traveller would hardly 
 believe that it was once covered with a heavy forest 
 growth; that pines grew there a hundred feet high, and 
 tliat millions of feet of lumber and timber had been cut 
 there and floated down the river to Montreal. Yet so it 
 was and such aie the changes that occur in transforming 
 a wilderness into a civilized condition. 
 
 OUR CELEBRITIES. 
 
 They were few, and most of them with no refined con- 
 comitants to elevate them above the common mass. I 
 have spoken of several, but more extended remarks must 
 be given to others. There was John Diggins, our loud- 
 mouthed Democratic polititian. who organized the yell, 
 '■'■ Hurrah for Jackson " in 1828. He could not spare time 
 enough from politics and general gossip to earn a decent 
 living, as the country was in danger and his duty was to 
 save it. John Diggins was constable for a while, and 
 being a poor, thriftless fellow had nothing to give his 
 children but a lot of names, so he piled three or four 
 of them upon the young Digginses, and the poor un- 
 fortunates staggered though life with the heavy load. 
 I only remember Oscar Coustantine Washington Wel- 
 lington Diggins, a sad looking boy in his early years. 
 
 Next to John Diggings came Deacon Jesse A. Clark, 
 one leading Presbyterian while a church of that sect 
 existed. Jesse lived in the best house at Bombay Corn- 
 era, had a large garden and a few sour apple trees from 
 which adventurous boys stole the apples in spite of a 
 huge ferocious dog kept for their protection and accused 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBDKR. • lOS 
 
 of killing sheep. Jesse was leader in organizing the- 
 first Sunday School in 1827, at which the trick was to see- 
 how naany verses of Scripture each pupil could recite. 
 His daughter Abigail was about nine years old and con- 
 sidered a very bright child by her family ; so Jesse set 
 his heart upon her excelling all others in memorizing 
 verses. Accordingly the first Sunday Abigail performed 
 the wondrous feat of reciting one hundred verses, while 
 no one but a certain irowzy-head of a buy from a back, 
 woods farm learned over ten or twenty. Frowzy-head 
 was green at the business of memorizing and hardly 
 knew what a Sunday School was, so he took a fancy to- 
 learn just ninety-nine verses, not knowing of any contest. 
 Jesse was hilarious with joy to find that Abigail had 
 beaten the whole school. — some thirty or forty scholars^ 
 — and after dismission he foolishly boasted of it. His- 
 boasting piqued several men, who did not love him any 
 too well, so they concluded to give Abigail a run. Ac- 
 cordingly frowzy-head was selected and promised a new 
 bible and a new hatif he would beat (as the word was) 
 Abigail Clark all through the summer, as long as th& 
 school would last. The result was that Abigail outdid 
 her first efibrt on the second Sunday, and recited one 
 hundred and ten verses, while her antagonist rolled up. 
 two hundred and fifty and kept on his easy way during 
 the school, twelve Sundays, reciting from that to three 
 hundred and sixteen verses at each lesson. In the twelve 
 Sundays he recited thi'ee thousand one hundred verses,, 
 and of course among the stupids of the neighborhood 
 he became quite :> prodigy. Abigail was so discouraged 
 with the result of her second efibrt that she never tried 
 again, and frowzy-head had it all his own way. Clark 
 lived on in Bombay till about 1833, when he sold out and 
 migrated to the then far west of Wisconsin where he 
 faded out in due time. 
 
 I must nOb forget Eri Allen, our neighbor, who came 
 into our section from near Flattsburg. He was a volun- 
 teer soldier in the last British war, when the British in- 
 
"106 LIFE ON THE BOKDEK 
 
 -vaded Plattsburg, and had the honor of having a bullet 
 shot through his hat while on his head in one of the 
 . skirmishes. He and others would grow eloquent over the 
 -events of that invasion, the vast raj'riads of the British 
 myrmidons ; the bloody contest on the lake with the ac- 
 ' companying legends ; the fighting on land along the Sara- 
 nac; the retreat of Gen. Provost; the politeness of the 
 British officers and liow everything taken from the farm- 
 ers was paid for in specie ; and how the men deserted. 
 Of course everything on the American side was just 
 right, and the youngsters of Bombay grew up with the 
 impression that the British were a pack of tyrants and 
 oppressors, that the American Eagle had a right to bite 
 - at any time aud anywhere. A red coat was the sign of 
 ■hostile power, and the first, last and main duty of an 
 American, was to hate the British and stand ready to 
 fight them whenever called upon. It is easy to see 
 how national hates are nurtured and perpetuated by the 
 
 ■ experience of the border : for in 1838. when a rebellion 
 broke out in Canada between a political faction and the 
 government, to the disgrace of the United States, hun- 
 
 • dreds of men on the New York side of the line yolun- 
 -teer to aid the rebellion, so strong was the prejudice 
 
 ■ against the British ; but a good dose of banishment to 
 Bermuda and Van Diemen's Land cured the most of 
 
 'them, and a stout hemp cord did the job for the rest. 
 
 OUR ROUGHS. 
 
 Of course the border had its coarse social features in 
 " those early days. We have related the religious pha- 
 ses of the first twenty years, now we will turn over the 
 leaf and see what his Diabolic Majesty was doing on the 
 
 • other side. 
 
 First there was drunkenness in all its horror, poverty, 
 filth, ferocity and foulness, and consequent degradation. 
 Liquor selling was unrestrained; the pious deacons, Lu- 
 ther and Clark, retailed it without scruple ; the variety 
 •store keeper never failed to have a supply on hand, and 
 topers could indulge in a glass, gill, pint or quart aud 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 107' 
 
 have a jolly young revel at almost any store. Whisky 
 sold at twenty-flve cents a gallon retail, and there were 
 sixteen distilleries for making it from corn and rye, 
 within the limits of Franklin county about 1830 to 35. Id 
 fact the whole community drank; christians imbibed' 
 with avidity, and the writer can remember a tough Bap- 
 tist apostle taking a nip at Uncle Beuben's, soon after 
 the latter's conversion to the immersion faith, and smack- 
 ing his lips after the swig as though it tasted good. It 
 is suspected now, that some of the savage preaching 
 about "hell and damnation," so mercilessly scorching 
 and ponderously, not to say pompously, laid down, may 
 have had the fumes of good fourth proof whisky, wine- 
 or brandy at the basis. And yet it is proper to say, 
 that when the temperance cause began to be agitated, 
 about 1829 or 30, nearly every minister fell into line and 
 became a heroic defender of the new doctrine of temper- - 
 ance. And it may be added, the quality of the sermons 
 was improved from that time on. 
 
 Among the nuisances thatj, afflicted our township were 
 the taverns that held forth their enticing allurements at 
 every village or cross roads, whose signs swinging from 
 high poles, informed the public that entertainment for 
 man and beast could be found within. Tt was also- 
 known that within, the "critter" was abundant,, for on 
 opening the door, entrance was had into the "bar room ;" ' 
 on one side of which in winter, a huge fire roared in a 
 great fire-place and threw out a cheerful warmth all 
 through the room, and around which generally, a dozen, 
 more or less, of native sovereigns, redolent of whisky 
 and tobacco, with rubicund noses, pulfed red cheeks, 
 flabby flesh and blear eyes, sat and discussed politicst- 
 retailed neighborhood gossip, invented lies, rehearsed 
 vulgar scandals or repeated vulgar stories for the hun- 
 dredth time, while across a corner of the room ran a 
 sort of circular counter, some four feet high, with grate- 
 work to swing open into the bar from its upper surface, . 
 while both sides and the rear of this small enclosure or- 
 
108 LIFE ON THE BOBUER. 
 
 recess, were ornamented with shelves adorned with bot- 
 tles, decanters and tumblers, an occasional sugar bow^ 
 aiid'iu the bottles various liquors artistically arranged 
 ai^cordinu; to color or quality. There was no limit to the 
 amount the tavern keeper might sell or anyone might 
 'drink ; there was no protection tor the man made drunk 
 by the poison retailed, for the landlord could turn him 
 out of doors when his money was gone, or it was time 
 to shut up for the night, but as long as any one's money 
 lasted and the treating went on, all was merry within 
 the bar-room and the fighting and howling, that made 
 night hideous, was unrestrained. 
 
 And fiirhting there was in abundance. In a rough 
 society it U easy to rear a species of fighting, quarreling 
 brute, without honor or decency, whose personal quali- 
 ties in many respects would disgrace a Bengal tiger. 
 These brutes, when collected from all the points within 
 five or ten miles, on a Saturday night at our- village tav* 
 «rn, would number quite a corps of hitters, grugers, 
 biters and strikers, each perhaps celebrated for some 
 peculiar mode of brutal exhibition and considered a 
 liero by his compeers When this motley group would 
 be assembled, muirb, blunt, coarse, perhaps ragged, a 
 vulgar, profane and irreligious pack, without decent 
 traits, one could almost imagine the primeval days of 
 savagism to have returned, and society to be dissolved 
 into its original ferocious elements. 
 
 The most prominent of these desriided wretches, for 
 «ome years, was one John D. Parish, a huge mass of- 
 bones, brawn and adipose matter, pulling dowu 280 
 pounds on the scales. This monster ol depravity was 
 a constant loafer during the winter day and evening at 
 the Corners, and was ready for a drink or a fight at a 
 moment's warning. He had migrated to our region 
 among the earliest settlers, from Plattsburgor Vermont. 
 He had by some means secured one of Father Bich's 
 ■daughters for a wife, and his family consisted of a 
 £warni of boys as vile and brutal as himself. This old 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 109 
 
 nuisance was note^ among the brutal class for several' 
 fierce struggles with other brutes, whom he conquered 
 •by his terrible biting. He, was too clumsy for a pugilist; 
 but would clinch his antagonist, hug him closely and 
 ^proceed to make a meal ot his flesh, where most con- 
 venient. Whoever has experienced the sensation o^ 
 being chewed to death piecemeal, by an infuriated tiger, 
 -can best understand the feelings of a half-drunken scull- 
 ion under the operation inflicted by Parish. 
 
 This human hyena, boasted of teeth that would have 
 done credit to a wolf so strong and sharp were they, and 
 his romantic explanation of their power was that in 
 early manhood, he was troubled with a terrible toothache, 
 t>ut on advice from some one, he annointed them thor- 
 •Ottghly with rattlesnake oil and ever afterwards he had 
 enjoyed immunity from toothache and had power to 
 ^bite oflTthe end of a small knife blade, a lie that many 
 i-fools believed. 
 
 This simpleton, after some forty years spent in de. 
 ^bauchery, concluded to become pious, and so, to the 
 surprise of everybody, it was announced that "old Par- 
 ish" was converted. He actually procured some decent 
 coarse clothes, and attended meeting a number of times. 
 But, unfortimately for him, divine grace cuuld find but 
 little to reform, and in a brief period he relapsed into a 
 sort of poor devil, with too little money to indulge in 
 drink and too infirm from age to do much fighting. 
 Meanwhile the regiment of drunkards and fighters, had 
 scattered or died and the Coi-ners had become a quiet, 
 -orderly and moral hamlet. The two run^-selling dea- 
 cons hud left, and only one rum-belling Methodist held 
 Bway over a dirty bar; for the temperance work had 
 been faithful, and many distilleries had shut down. 
 Only a remnant of the devil's corps remained, and most 
 of these were new comers. So Parish had less nib- 
 blings than formerly, and really had become a half 
 '4aicent man. 
 
 Still he wanted a nip now and then, and adopted a pe- 
 
110 LIFE ON THE BORDER. . 
 
 culiar dodge to obtain it. At town meetings, trainings or- 
 public gatlierings,|he would give exhibitions of his power 
 of endurance by offering to let good strikers hit him > 
 with full force in the abdomen, it they would give him a . 
 glass of whisky and a cracker. This shows the utter 
 depth of his degradation. This vile practice resulted in 
 his death in a few months, and his wife soon followed . 
 him, leaving a detestable throng of young rufiSans, to 
 curse the world. 
 
 "OLD GRIMES" AND WICKED HAZEN. 
 
 There were not very many of the above type in our im- 
 mediate vicinity, and after the temperance reform shut- 
 down the plentiful, whisky, they all disappeared in the 
 migrations noticed already. There then remained only 
 the profane class, tnat disgrace society everywhere by 
 their personal vileness, though too cowardly for bruisers. 
 Among these were an old nuisance named Nepbi Grimes, 
 about whom a whole volume of silly exploits was re-- 
 tailed; — his wonderful jokes and ponderous tricks in 
 former years, away off in Vermont and elsewhere, — and 
 all too low even for ordinary amusement ; and next to- 
 him came the wicked Hazen, who was known far and^ 
 wide for his sublime depravities, but who for many 
 years held a high rank as a business man, over iu anoth- 
 er town. Hazen was an accomplished rogue, a vulga- 
 rian of the deepest hue, and could outRwear any man on 
 the border. He often avowed he could swear the steeple 
 off a church, but no one ever asked him to try. Hazen 
 came from Vermont, and fairly represented the rude- 
 semi-savages that issued from the vicinity of Swanton 
 Falls, except that he had no taste for fistic, encounters.. 
 Bis vices were of a more genial grade, but after rnnning- 
 a large lumber business several years, he became invol- 
 ved in a huge law suit with a shrewd and sharp neigh- 
 bor and former partner, was hopelessly ruined in,t 
 business; his sons grew up as mean as their father, and 
 had to leave the neighborhood; the old man fell into- 
 heavy drinking ; his wife — a nice woman, — into great. 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. Ill 
 
 -despondency, and both sank down into the grave years 
 -«go, a sad, but misplaced pair, like many others whose 
 lives bear no comforting fruitage. 
 
 OUR ACADEMY. 
 
 ^Notwithstanding the hardy, robust, self-sacriflcing 
 lives the settlers led in the dreary forest of the border, 
 they did not forget that education was a matter of prime 
 necessity for human comfort and advancement. Hence, 
 district schools were everywhere established, and al^ 
 ' though rude affairs, they were better I ban no schools, 
 ibr the dunces did learn a tew things thej' needed, and 
 -often got handsomely disciplined. But as soon as the 
 people could afford the luxury, an academy was estab- 
 lished at Malone and not long after, at Potsdam, the 
 former in Franklin, the latter in St. Lawrence county. 
 Both these were rather distant from our immediate seo- 
 ' tion, and so, about 1828, steps were taken at Fort Cov- 
 ington to organize a third; the second in Franklin 
 -County. The region was and is blessed with an abun- 
 dance of beautiful limestone, easily quarried from the 
 ridges, where it was in separate layers, and these could 
 'be easily split into any size required. The money was 
 raised and a clean, nice edifice of this stone, ttvo stories 
 ;in height, with tower and bell, was erected on a level 
 tract, just over the river, and opened for instruction 
 about 1829 or 30, perhaps a little earlier. This wonder- 
 ful event created great interest among the rustics far 
 -and near. A son of Jesse A. Clark was sent down as 
 pupil, and from there was admitted to Middlebury col- 
 lege, and the fact was notable as a wonder. Occasion- 
 ally, conversation would turn upon this wonderful 
 institution; the name of the "Preceptor" would be 
 pronounced with reverence, and the titles of the sciences 
 and languages taught, had a sonorous charm that quite 
 ■ entranced the youthful imagination. Right well do I 
 remember the first time my eyes rested on the wonderful 
 institution. It was in the fall of 1831. I was sent to 
 •■mill away down to Fort Covington, and my journey 
 
112 LIFE ON THB BORDBR 
 
 brought me near the academy. On rising a slight ridge, 
 behold, the cupola covered with tin, and the edifice of 
 stone, rose upon my astonished vision, and a thrill of 
 joy, hope and expectancy seemed to rush in upon my 
 innermost soul, that I might sometime enjoy its advan- 
 tages. But long years intervened before that hope was 
 realized. Meanwhile, the reputation of the academy 
 grew apace and in 1833, a student came up to Bombay 
 to teach our school, and I then learned something about, 
 the great institution. He was just plunging into Virgil, 
 and was heartily absorbed in Latin, and as I attended. 
 his school, we became acquainted and I discovered a 
 new world in the incomprehensible language that he- 
 was slowly trying to master. I was so dazzled that a' 
 his suggestion I toolc up the study, and for years it was- 
 a wonderful source of delight, and in 1836 I was a stu- 
 dent in the academj', earnestly pushing on in Latin and- 
 other studies, under one of the best and mildest of pre- 
 ceptors, — Mr. Milton Bradley, — whose memory I cherish, 
 as an immortal connection with the dreary past. The 
 school flourished well till he lefr., out soon after began to- 
 decline, as its rivals were too numerous and too near,. 
 Malone being only fifteen miles away, and some twenty 
 years ago it was destroyed by Are, and whether it has- 
 been rebuilt I cannot say. I can only record the fact 
 that around that small edifice cluster many if not the 
 most, sacred and interesting associations of my early 
 manhood, and although, so tar as I know, every asso- 
 ciate with whom I was intimate is dead, and few remain 
 in that locality, who were conversant with its primitive 
 history, yet, whenever my memory runs back fifty years, 
 it finds rest in the scenes that transpired in and around- 
 the old academy. 
 
 Quite a number of young men, who acted well their- 
 parts in life, went out from that institution, but I have 
 not room for a notice of even a few. As I before remark-- 
 ed, the grave has closed over them, and several passed, 
 the ■goal of all mortal," many years ago. 
 
LIFE ON THE BOBUER. 113 
 
 LOVE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 Those who honor my rambling effusion with a peru- 
 sal, especially the few readers 1 may have among the 
 fair sex, will probably notice the absence of the roman- 
 tic love element among experiences on the Border — It 
 may be imagined that such will say, "This is a silly 
 book ; there is but one murder and one love story in it, 
 and both of these among people of no note or reputa- 
 tion—Can it be that the border boors knew nothing 
 about the tender passion?" 
 
 To such I can only respond, "Certainly, my fair one, 
 the border people were just like other folks. But a 
 generation had to grow up there in the woods before the 
 fierce activities of the romantic passion could come into 
 full play, and hence the few surprises of that sort could 
 only be enacted by some lonely stray birds that came 
 thither unmated. Their histories were rather prosaic 
 but their experience of the fullness of fruition of love in 
 all its sanctities was as perfect and satisfactory as those 
 of a higher sphere of society. It lies well in memory 
 how Eri Allen carried off Sally Diggins from our log 
 cabin, and how Elon Chipman there joined his heart 
 and hand to Aunt Rebecca's and how both these couples 
 trod the narrow path with honest intent and industrious 
 activity, each and all doing their best, and all lying 
 down in honorable graves when their work was done. 
 
 It lies iu memory how our log house was for a while 
 cheered by the regular calls on Sunday evenings of Nick 
 Waggoner who wished to carry off Aunt Arzela, but she 
 decided otherwise and found another mate, more to her 
 mind, in Malone. But the list of these was so small and 
 the advent of a wedding was so rare as to be a topic for 
 everlasting gossip and gabble for weeks or months. 
 Of the younger generation not one was married till late 
 in 1837, and then the writer was far away. 
 
 So, all we had of love affairs did not create a large 
 ripple in the everlasting quietude of Border life. It has 
 boen different since, though, in consequence of the fre— 
 
114 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 quent migrations, probably more of those born and 
 reared in that vicinity founil their mates in other places 
 than were married at home. 
 
 Need I say more? I could relate some painful tales 
 of misplaced love, that resulted as such misfortunes 
 often do in early death and multiplied sorrow, and I 
 could relate the ordinary experiences of callow youth 
 becoming cremated in love's furnace, by years of agony 
 throu<;h admiration and adoration of a pair of blue eyes, 
 demure countenance and other angelic charms, all of 
 which were wasted, as the youngster never told his love 
 and let the prize slip away to another. 
 
 But of what use would all this be? It is the same old 
 tale; the same ever repeated folly, teaching the same 
 lesson, that love, like most other human experiences is 
 a pleasing incident or accident that times and circum- 
 stances dispose of as happens, and still the world moves 
 on and man takes his chances for good or ill. Let it 
 always continue. The world cannot have too much of it. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 A thousand minor incidents of personal value crowd 
 upon the memory for notice, but to my readers they 
 would prove of no great value. The general ignorance 
 of science or even of advanced literature can be inferred ; 
 that the people were more or less superstitious can be 
 easily deduced ; for rough life and rough experiences 
 are hard barriers to break through by the light of intel- 
 ligence. Bight well do I recall the everlasting witch 
 stories that found credence ; how Chalker Buel, being 
 provoked because the butter did not come in the churn 
 after a whole evening's churning, resolutely heated an 
 iron wedge red hot and dropped it into the cream which 
 soon turned to butter. 
 
 But lo I on the morrow, news came that an old woman 
 ■who lived near by and was reputed a witch was found 
 boiribly burned in her but. the effect as believed-of that 
 hot iron wedge dropped into the churn a lialf a mile 
 away. Then old Ben Jackman would regale his friends 
 
LIFE ON THE BORDER. 115 
 
 privately, with relays of such stories, that he knew to be 
 true for they happened in liis time in New Hampshire; 
 how a ferocious hor.se chased him and a companion 
 almost to death, when there was none In the pasture; 
 how a hog led some young lellows astray in a very pi- 
 euliar manner ; and how a cousin of his was nearly 
 killed by being often dragged from his bed and out 
 through the keyhole of the door, turned into a horse, 
 saddled and bridled by a well-known old witch, and 
 rode at a gallop for miles, and returned to his bed. 
 There wei-e acres of such sillytrash floating about, and 
 unhappily for the credit of that community too generally 
 believed. But let us not forget that millions live now 
 as firm believers is such nonsense as were the old pio- 
 neers of New York. Why should it not be so when the 
 pulpit too often is the source of assertions on other 
 topics as ridiculous as witch lore. 
 
 As to longevity it can be properly inferred that the 
 severe labors endured and the self-denial necessarily 
 practiced tended to shorten life, and perhaps that con- 
 clusion would be correct if a very high rate of old age 
 were taken as a standard. But taking settlements for 
 comparison, the borderers held their own remarkably 
 well. No nonagenarians pass in review as we recall 
 the older heroes in our vicinity, but cases of seventy and 
 eighty years were about as common as anywhere else. 
 In Malone, dear old mother Chipman lived on to ninety- 
 four, but her husband, the good old deacon, Jesse, a 
 hero of Bennington battle, and of the invasion of Qtiebec 
 in the Bevolutionary war, died at eighty-one. Uncle 
 Keuben pulled through to eighty-four and a half, but 
 his father down in' New Hampshire held on to a hun- 
 dred lacking three months. So we see what stock the 
 pioneors came of and how well they held their own. 
 But none of the extreme cases came within our iinme. 
 diate vicinity. 
 
 But health was as near universal as it could well be; 
 the graveyards filled up slowly ; very little chronic dis- 
 
116 LIFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 ease aflBicted any one ; consumption wa« rare and fevers 
 few. There was no malaria, for tlie land was well and 
 naturally drained. How those of my eeneration held 
 out. I have no means of knowing. As most of them 
 started out strong in health, they may still be living. 
 AETATIS 65. 
 The years have rolled on in their ample round, and 
 the ripe age of threescore and five finds the former boy 
 of five years alive and full of hope. The sixty years 
 since said boy found himself ensconced in the log cabin 
 on the Border have brought their fruitage of experience, 
 much of which has been gained through mistakes and 
 follies that are not pleasant to contemplate. A wise 
 writer sagely remarks that "a man can be a fool and not 
 be conscious of it" ; and doubtless every man or woman 
 that reaches sixty-five years, can testify that the proverb 
 applies to his or her case. However varied or however 
 successful one's life may have been, there is still a rough 
 margin that one would like to forget. But sad as it may 
 be, the memory of follies will cling like the shirt of a 
 Nessus to the unfortunate Hercules ;' and hence the re- 
 collections of former days are marred very essentially 
 by the ever present vividness of a foolish act or an idiot- 
 ic mistake that perhaps occurred forty years ago and in 
 a moment of thoughtlessness. But these remembrances 
 are private property, and however willing we may be to 
 acknowledge ourselves fools in the abstract or concrete, 
 we do not intend to reveal our hateful or hated actions to 
 a critical and supercilioas world. It is enough to admit 
 that half of life has been thrown away on useless mat- 
 ters ; that ripe years bring the consciousness of waste, 
 error and failure ; but perhaps this universal experience 
 may be wisely ordered that man may gradually lose his 
 confidence in himself and be the more willing to be 
 gathered in to the great assembly. I do not say this as 
 a whining regret that no better results appear after for- 
 ty years of manful exertion. Poverty at birth and all 
 along one's growing years is a poor capital to start with, 
 
LIFE ON THE BOKDER. 117 
 
 and as years go by it grows no better. Inherited quali- 
 ties stick like the appetites of hunger and thirst, and 
 trip one up at every angle of progress. Circumstances 
 and conditions do the rest. A bird confined in a cage 
 may have ambition to soar aloft in heaven's concave, but 
 efforts to do it only wear out. its wings against the bars 
 of the cage. '"Paul may plant; Apollos may water", 
 but neither can assure himself of a crop. An untimely 
 frost steps in and cuts off all hope before the harvest is 
 assured. And is not this largely true ot man's life? , 
 Did one ever reach ripe years without Unding that 
 " The best laid schemes of mice and men, 
 Gang aft agley?" 
 Well, the years have done their work, and gray hair* 
 are abundant, eyesight dimmed, teeth decayed and rheu- 
 matism anchored in muscle and joint. But these are 
 only notices that the end approaches; that the time for 
 work is drawing to a close ; that the veil is growing thin- 
 ner every day that hides the unseen ; and that my place 
 will soon be filled by another, who will play his little 
 round of mistakes for a season and drop out of sight in 
 his turn. This is not to be complained of. Each 
 one gets his share of life; he breathes all the 
 air his lungs can hold ; he eats his share of food ; 
 be sleeps as sweetly as a King; ho labors or is 
 idle ; he prays or profanes at will ; he does good or 
 evil as swayed or tempted : he grows old and weak, and 
 dies as his forefathers did and is soon forgotten as they 
 were. Life to millions is a hard»hip from labor and 
 poverty ; to others a curse through vices and the depra- 
 vities of wealth ; to a few a blessing through good health, 
 good nature and facile contentment, and in this class 
 your humble servant belongs. Always ready to work ; 
 never chained, Ixion-like, to the wheel of traffic; com- 
 fortable with small earnings, the result of early drill 
 and self-denial made easy from habit, he has plodded 
 along, quite unambitious for wealth ; regaiTlless of fame ; 
 earnest in acquisition of knowledge on a small scale; 
 
118 LIFE ON THE BOBDEB. 
 
 rather careful not to know too much ; quite skeptical as 
 ■to believing fashionable lies, and always punctual in 
 paying debts. The former little chap now grown old, 
 Is able to sleep without anxiety and rejoice in his neigh- 
 bors' successes. 
 
 Do I fear to depart and be forgotten? Does the veter- 
 an soldier who has faced death for forty years in a hun- 
 dred battles and seen whole regiments of associates 
 «wept away by shot and shell, fear to go into the conflict? 
 Does a man who has always moved among the kaleido- 
 scopic changes of birth and death ; who has not only 
 helped to lay away the former generations, but seen his 
 own beloved ones drop from his arms, fear to follow 
 them? Being introduced upon this mundane sphere, 
 without his consent being asked, and yet finding life a 
 pleasant thing, is it judicious to doubt the continuance 
 of that protection which has always been vouchsafed?. 
 
 Yes. there is no mistake about tlie certainty of the end 
 of life, and the future will be controlled by the same 
 Power that has controlled the past and guides the pres- 
 -ent. Let us be content. 
 
 Who knows at sixty-five what the future years may do 
 or how long he can work? Who has any business to be 
 idle because he is old or can do less work than a young- 
 «r man I Of what avail is wisdom small or great, if no 
 use is made of it? '•'■ Work is worship " says the monk- 
 ish proverb. "Show your faith by your works" says 
 An apostle. All of this is good. Work on, work ever, 
 but work not too hard tor strength or health. Forget 
 not human limitations. The errors of the past forty -to 
 fifty years admonish us to be moderate in action and 
 pleasure; patient in reverses and quiet in ambition. 
 Work is order. Work Is the passport to a quiet immor-. 
 tality. The Creator works now as he has always work- 
 «d, and man has no title to idleness. 
 
 But each huinan heart has a right to rejoice that his 
 lot has been ^lo worse. A review of the long years al- 
 ready gone, with their various mutations will, in most 
 
LIFE ON THE BOKDEB. US' 
 
 cpses, enable an honest, reverent heart to sympathize- 
 with the following stanzas which the writer put forth a 
 year ago expressive of the condition of the old man re- 
 viewing the experiences of past life and looliing hope, 
 Ailly forward to the future. I append them here as a 
 fitting close to my desultory reflections on finding the- 
 threshold of the "palpable obscure" so near at hand. 
 
 8ENEX JUBILANS. 
 
 The world is growing better 
 
 Every year; 
 It throws off many a fetcer 
 
 Every year; 
 There are many things to relish, 
 TboDgh the ancient things must perish, 
 Bnt the beantifal we cherish 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Many changes have come o'er ns 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Many friends have gone before ns 
 
 Every year; 
 
 Tbrongb many a strange mntation 
 
 We have reached a higher station 
 
 Of thought and observation 
 
 Every year. 
 
 We have had our slight vexations 
 
 Every year; 
 
 And our pleasing jubilations 
 
 Every year; 
 
 There are visions to remember 
 
 Of flowers in September 
 
 And Christmas in Decemlier 
 
 Every year. 
 
 The snn shines now as brightly 
 
 Every year; 
 And the snowflakes fall as lightly 
 
 Eveiy year; 
 As in days when we were younger. 
 And the years appeared mnch longer 
 To our hearts, wnich then felt stronger. 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Afflictions have not shrouded 
 
 Every year;. 
 And troubles have not clouded 
 
 Every year;_ 
 For Hope the whole discounted, 
 While the former we recounted, 
 
120 1.IFE ON THE BORDER. 
 
 And the latter all sarmoDnted 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Oor weakness is more trying 
 
 . Every year; 
 And the days more swiftly flying 
 
 tvery year; 
 Om- faults bring deep contrition. 
 Our errors admonition, 
 Experience its fmition 
 
 Every year. 
 
 "The end of lit; comes nearer 
 
 Every year; 
 
 The friends left became dearer 
 
 Every year; 
 
 And the "goal of all that's mortal" 
 
 Opens wider still its portal 
 
 To the land uf, the immortal 
 
 Every year. 
 
 And thinner grows the curtain 
 
 Every year; 
 
 That divides us from the certain 
 
 Every year; 
 
 We look forward to the morrow 
 
 Which shall close all earthly sorrow 
 
 With the calmness Hope can liorrow 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Therefore the once young but now old boy, proposes 
 to go right on and be as near a young boy as convenient. 
 Children — living and departed, — grandchildren in their 
 glowing health and beauty, friends innumerable and en- 
 emies impotent all encourage to vigor and industry. 
 The world is wide ; the country safe : the Border a par- 
 adise of pliysical beauty in suuinier. the home of com- 
 fort at all times ; the former generation is asleep ; the 
 stranger dwells in the lionie of the patient poor who 
 first toiled there; and human life flourishes with all the 
 little ambitions and frivolities that mark its activities ev- 
 ery where. Shall I ever revisit that region? It may be. 
 Few Mve there that ever knew me; perhaps none. But 
 the land remains and cannot change so that I will not 
 know it. Farther than this the future only can reveal. 
 
 ADIKC. 
 
 4:€ESL 
 
E E R A T A . 
 
 My apology for the numerons errors in this hook is that 
 the printing was done fifty miles away, and I did not see the 
 final proofs. I append corrections for a few of the worst, hop- 
 ing the reader can correct the rest. 
 
 Page 72, hottom line, for "met," read "time." 
 
 Page 82, 6th line from bottom, read "clear" for "more." 
 
 Page 99, line 7 from top, insert " is," between " and " and 
 
 " ONE." 
 
 Page 99, in last line of long paragraph, " redeas " should 
 read " redeat." 
 
 The author designs in due time to publish three hooks, 
 similar in size to " Life on the Border:" 
 
 1. — Thirty Years in the School Room. 
 
 2. — Sixteen Years in the Editorial Sanctimi. 
 
 8.— Mv Life. 
 
 Copies of this book can be obtained by mail, by remitting 
 forty cents by postal check to the Author or Publisher, deduct- 
 ing postage.