10 Jesse Huddleston.md

#Jesse Huddleston Written by his son Samuel

Jesse Huddleston & Edith Brown went into housekeeping in a neat little four roomed cottage that he had just built on a three acre tract of land his father had given him and where he had already commenced to establish himself in the fruit tree nursery business from which nearly all the early orchards and the general nursery stock of this pioneer section were started. Not long after his marriage Jesse Huddleston, full of enterprise and ambition for large success sold out in Dublin and located on the north side of the new National Road west of Cambridge City on land that is now occupied with buildings of the M.E. Parsonage, the residence of Frazier the green house of Mr. Thomas Peat and other residences in Cambridge city.

“In February 1851 my father, having so failed in his health that he could do but little hard work sold out his home and nursery land in Cambridge City, and having already reduced his stock he removed what he had left on hand to rented ground adjoining his residence home, just bought in Dublin and moved to it. Before our removal to Dublin my father had been a frequent attendant at the services of the United Brethren Church in Dublin and I often accompanied him. After locating there, and I being about eight years old I remember distinctly the time and circumstances of my father's coming home from church one day and telling Mother he had been converted and had joined the United Brethren Church. Mother was very much displeased, and she believed it was her duty to let him know it. She was very careful and did all she could to watch me and my brother Martin after this time and prevented Father from reading the Bible to us and from talking to us about God and religion to us, for she had an ambition to make Calvinists out of her children but she was wholely unable to teach. She was uneducated and not apt as a teacher. My father was an apt teacher and being now full of the Christian spirit and believing the end of his life was drawing near he embraced every opportunity he could get to teach us the Bible and the orthodox religion. My father's health continued to fail until he died July 25th 1855, aged 43 years, 4 months, and 18 days. Mother’s age was nearly 31 years at this time and she had six children living. I being the oldest and was a little past twelve years old, and her baby girl was not born until two and a half months after her fathers’ death.”

Painted portrait by Sharon Ogzewalla

##Autobiography of Samuel Huddleston

Do I know myself? Perhaps I do not; but I do know more about myself than anybody knows about me. Who, more than I, knows of my trials in childhood; my disappointments in youth; my failures and successes in manhood? Who but myself, has felt the blood flow quick in my veins when I have resolved that I would stand firm for what I believed was right, or die in it’s defense? Who but I could know what it cost me, sometimes to say with a positive determination that

'Trouble's darkest hour Shall never make me cower; To the Scepter's power Never! Never!! Never!!!

Who, more than I has felt shame and remorse when I knew I had erred or committed actual sin; and when in the face of all my moral purposes, I have found that error and sin were so apt to beguile me? Who, but I having hated sin and loved rightewousness from my childhood, and having boasted in my youth and more mature manhood that I had the ability to resist temptations, has felt my humiliation when I have found that my self-sufficiency has, many times, been utter helplessness? Who but my self, has felt my emotions of joy when, after I had followed after teachers of error, or suggestions of evil inclination or of satan, and feeling the remose of smitten conscience have felt the terror of my self accusation? Or who more than I have felt the approvoal of a righteous pride when I have remembered my good and worthy acts; my service for my Country upon the battlefield, in the camps and as a nurse in the hospital?

After I have calmly considered all this, who, more than I, is able to write a true story of my life in a manner that will be pleasing and instructive to my children, or to whom-so-ever may care to read? Shall I cower or shrink from what I feel I ought to do because sane self imposed judge may wrongly criticize my purpose, or my effort?

I do not intend that this shall be a religious treaties. I shall only refer to matters of a religious character only as they must be woven in order to make this a true record of my life and with very little or real moralizings or religious exhortations in it. And yet one of the objects of my effort is to show the reader purity of life, purity of thought and noble aspirations in ones every day life are profitable.

Alfred the Great said, I desire to leave behind me a remembrance of me in good works. I can not expect that anything I have done or shall do will tend to so great an influence over so many people and be so enduring as the noble life of that great king who passed out of this life a thousand years ago and left a name and example worthy to be emulated all down through the ages and shall continue to live yet in the future. But if this little effort of mine shall help a few of my beloved to aspire for better lives then I shall be well paid for all it will cost me.

The cold clouds may be black, And the storms beat and blast; But when clouds have gone back, And the storms beat is past Oh how sweet then to bask In the sunshine so warm! And who more, then, would ask, Since there's more calm than storm?

Just before day, so I was told by one that was there, on the morning of May 18, 1843 a very angry wind and electric storm passed over the infant village of Dublin, Indiana but it was one and the clouds cleared away in time for the people to welcome an ideal May- morning sunrise. As already suggested the village was yet in its infant swaddle and it flourished on the milk of it’s pioneer industry. Right in the midst of that awful storm a wee timy mite of humanity was presented as the first-born ot a humble father and mother in their new frame cottage in the village. This new comer and the varied circumstances surrounding his advent were subjects of gossip among the good women of the village for a number of days. More than sixty years after this notable morning a lady told the writer that she walked three miles that day to see that baby, and she returned to her parental home that evening. He can’t possibly live more’n a few hours?” the women that saw him all agreed. Did you ever see such a wee bit of humanity?! Was a common expression, half interrogation and half exclamation. When he did live a few hours; and when he was seen to behave himself as other young babies did, and when these few hours began to lengthen into days these curious women began to develop a spirit of prophecy and induled in revealing their day-dreams to each other with a very discouraging stock of “if”s”.

"If he does live he will always be a midget.” "If he does live he will always be weakly; for his father is a frail man, and there is not enough of the little mite to lay the foundation for a strong full-grown man. "If he does live his life will be a stormy one, for he was born right in time of that awful. His mother took up the wail of neighbors and poured their discouraging prophecies into the child’s ears so continually that he developed a fixed impression as he came through his childhood and young manhood that he was a confirmed worthless weakling; and that he would die young. It was with some difficulty that he gave up the idea of his worthlessness after he came to his manhood, and it was only by a determined struggle with doubts and fears that that he might die soon that he finally determined that die soon or live long he would make a useful man of himself. His father was Jesse Huddleston and his mother was Editha. They named their son Samuel Brown Huddleston, for his mother's brother Samuel Brown, a sturdy blacksmith of Dublin who was formerly a saddletree maker.

As already indicated Jesse Huddleston had always been a frail man. He was one of a family of eight sons and five daughters, all of whom, but he, were strong, able bodied men and women. On account of his frailty he had been educated above his brothers and sisters, and while his brothers worked at clearing their farm of the heavy timber, and cultivating the cleared land Jesse was salesman in his fathers "General store," in the country four mi les Southeast of Liberty Union county Indiana. This was called a "general store" but in the sense of the times it could not be so called for no whisky, tobacco, nor goods produced by slave labour were ever kept nor sold there. Jesse Huddleston's parents were Jonathan and Phebe Huddleston and they had such ability in training their children and such influence over them that they all hated slavery, whisky, and tobacco. Jesse was born in Guilford county North Carolina March 7, 1812 and came with his parents to Union County Indiana in 1815 and to Dublin Wayne county in 1835. His father was born near New Bedford Massachusetts October , 17

Jesse Huddleston married Editha, daughter of Isaac and Margaret Brown, in Dublin Indiana in June 1840. She was born on a farm, near Fairfield Franklin county Indiana October 16, 1824 and was therefore fifteen years and about eight months old when she was married. They went to housekeeping in a neat little four roomed cottage that he had just built on a three acre tract of land his father had given him and where he had already commenced to establish himself in the fruit tree nursery business from which nearly all the early orchards and the general nursery stock of this pioneer section were started. Not long after his marriage Jesse Huddleston, full of enterprise and ambition for large success sold out in Dublin and located on the north side of the new National Road west of Cambridge City on land that is now occupied with buildings of the M.E. Parsonage, the residence of Frazier the green house of Mr. Thomas Peat and other residences in Cambridge city.

The author of this writing is the outcome of the much talked of "tiny" son of Jesse and Editha Huddleston and other children were born to them in Cambridge City and Dublin, of whom were six sons and two daughters. Two sons died in infancy and one in young manhood.

One of the most vivid recollections of my childhood to which I can fix a date was the 1847. That autumn I, in company with my brother Martin and my infant sister Louisa were taken by our parents a few times to revival meetings in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was through the persistent persuasion of Miss Jane Brown, an active Christian worker in this Church and a cousin of my Mother that they went to church at this time and place. My father had been raised a Quaker and Mother was born of a "Hardshell" Baptist mother who died when Mother was quite young, but she was left in the settlement with her mothers’ Baptist people until she was ten years old, then her father who was a "Freewill' Baptist brought her away from her mother's people and away from all her old church associations. But my mother would not be drawn away from her mothers’ religion although she had only a crude knowledge of what it was. She understood that it was radically Calvinistic but she knew little of what Calvinism was except that it taught foreordination and predestination. My father was disowned bythe Quakers for marrying out of meeting, and now after attending a few meetings at the Methodist church he wanted to join, but Mother would not, and yet, before she had married she lived several months in the home of the Rev and Mrs. Whitten in Dublin when Mr. Whitten was pastor there, and through their influence she had joined the church without conversion and without giving up her Calvinism, but when she got out from under the influence of the home of the Pastor she dropped out of the church with the excuse that she did not like their Close Communion customs.

Miss Brown sought diligently to persuade my parents to allow her to take me to their Sunday School but through Father joined her in persuading Mother she would not yield and so I never saw inside of a Sunday School until I was a grown up man.

In the early autumn of 1848 I attended my first public subscription school. My teacher was a Mrs. Whitman, and she taught in one end of her husband's blacksmith and wagon shop, on what has ever been know as Carolina Hill. While the children received instructions from Mrs. Whitman in one end of the shop her husband shod horses and pounded iron in the other end of the same building. Instead of a bell to call the children into books" and from the play round Mr. Whitman would pound vigorously upon the anvil. Instead of desks with comfortable seats with backs to them we had rough slabs with the tree bark on the underside and the rough splintery saw-marks on the upper side. The bench legs were rough split pegs inserted in two-inch auger holes and the lower ends of the legs were driven into the earth floor to prevent the benches from falling over. This school lasted six weeks but it turned cold before it was out and the school was moved to the basement story of the teacher's residence nearby. This was a brick building facing west-with much enthusiasm, and for some time she maintained that she had received intelligence from spiritualistic pursuances after this.

In February 1851 my father, having so failed in his health that he could do but little hard work sold out his home and nursery land in Cambridge City, and having already reduced his stock he removed what he had left on hands to rented ground adjoining his residence home, just bought in Dublin and moved to it. Before our removal to Dublin my father had been a frequent attendant at the services of the United Brethren Church in Dublin and I often accompanied him. After locating there, and I being about eight years old I remember distinctly the time and circumstances of my father's coming home from church one day and telling Mother he had been converted and had joined the United Brethren Church. Mother was very much displeased, and she believed it was her duty to let him know it. She was very careful and did all she could to watch me and my brother Martin after this time and prevented Father from reading the Bible to us and from talking to us about God and religion to us, for she had an ambition to make Calvinists out of her children but she was wholely unable to teach. She was uneducated and not apt as a teacher. My father was an apt teacher and being now full of the Christian spirit and believing the end of his life was drawing near he embraced every opportunity he could get to teach us the Bible and the orthodox religion. My father's health continued to fail until he died July 25th 1855, aged 43 years, 4 months, and 18 days. Mother’s age was nearly 31 years at this time and she had six children living. I being the oldest and was a little past twelve years old, and her baby girl was not born until two and a half months after her fathers’ death. Of course Mother must now sell out her nursery stock and discontinue that business. The stock having been gradually run down by my fathers’ brought her only four hundred and fifty dollars at wholesale. She then made an error in selling out her home which she did at a great sacrifice. Property in this undesirable part of the town was very cheap then and she got only one hundred and fifty dollars for it, making her six hundred dollars in hand. Bythe advice of her best friends she then agreed to buy a better home in a better location, but she had a desire to go to her sister in Illinois and so she concluded to get temporary homes for four of her older children and take the two younger ones with her to her sisters, which she did in the winter following Father’s death.

"While others live in poverty And homeless face the world's cold blast, Shall I expect my lines shall be In painless ease, and plenty cast? "While other souls despairing stand, And plead, with famished lips today, Shall I expect that princely hands Shall scatter roses on my way?

I being the oldest, was the first to find a home among strangers. I was taken on trial by a distant cousin of my father’s on a farm south of Liberty. Mother had a special dislike for the Quakers but when it came to carrying out her ends she did not stop to consider who were to help her do so. This however was a model home and a fine newly married Quaker couple. I went there in November 1855 an stayed until Mother returned from Illinois in April. Then, as soon as it was known that Mother had returned I was sent to her; for I had not pleased these modest, pious Quakers on account of my unchaste speech which they said I had gotten from my mother and they feared I could not be taught to overcome it.

After I was sent home from Union county I stayed with my mother until she got me a home in the family with my brother Martin, where he had lived since early in the spring. This home was about eight miles southwest of my two uncles, Samuel and Nathaniel Brown who worked at their trade, blacksmithing, in a little village on the county line between Rush and Fayette counties, and these uncles had gotten the home for us. For the sake of this man’s children who are fine people I will not give his true name nor his exact location, but will call him Mr. Anon, and I went there in July, about a year after my father’s death and soon afterward Mother having secured a home for her youngest boy, then about five years old, she made a second trip to Illinois taking her baby girl with her.

The great and notable political campaign of 1856 was just now opening and there were three parties in the field with candidates for the presidency of The Democratic candidates were James Buchanan for president and John C Breckenridge for vice president. The newly organized Republican party had John C Freemont for president and William L. Dayton, for vice president. The American party had Willard Fillmore for president and A J Donelson for vice president. My relations on both sides were all Republicans and Antislavery. My brother and I had been taught that slavery was a very wicked institution and so we could scarcely be anything but Republicans though the Republican party was not then an antislavery party . Mr. Anon was a radical pro-slavery Democrat and a local petty politician .

My brother and I had but the clothes we wore when we came here except we had one change of shirts. Mr. Anon had agreed with our mother that he would provide good comfortable winter clothes for us, and so in September he bought butternut jeans cloth for us and Mrs. Anon made us each a coat and a pair of pants. A neighborhood shoemaker came to the home, as was the custom in those days and sat bythe kitchen window and made all the family shoes and boots for Mr. Anon. He also bought hats for us of the hatter at Connersville and when all was done even two pairs of wool socks for each of us, all of our completed outfits were spread out by Mr. Anon, for us to admire. We had much talk between our two selves, and with the family about our prospect of a comfortable winter, with better clothing than we had wore since our father's death, and we were real anxious for winter to come that we might wear them.

When the excitement of the campaign had really opened Martin and I procured a small flag from Mr. Anon's girls and we had a Republican pole-raising in the front yard, and when people came by while we were about the house we would hurrah with all our might for Freemont and Dayton. Mr. Anon was sorely offended when he found it out and hauled our flag down and forbade us to hallow for Freemont. But we were self willed and would not obey him, especially if he was not in hearing; and he was away campaigning much of the time.

One cool Sunday morning early in October Mr. Anon called us into the storeroom where had hung our clothes upon the wall where we could see them every time we went there to get a horse blanket, buggy harness, saddles and other stores that were kept there. We went with him at his call, full of joyful expectations. He ordered us to put on our full suits, including our shoes and socks and our new wool hats, for up to this time we had gone barefooted and worn only our thin cotton pants, shirts, and straw hats. When we were fully dressed Mr. Anon took us into the sitting room with his family and allowed us to stand before the looking glass and admire ourselves and hear his wife and young lady daughters admire us a few minutes. Then he said to us: “Now boys these clothes are yours, only on conditions that you will be good Democrats and will yell with all your might for Old Buck (Buchanan) every time you see anybody passing, from now until after the election which will be about a month from now. I am ashamed to have two “black abolition” boys in my home. I have taken great care to get you these nice warm clothes and comfortable as any our neighbor boys, and I believe you will be just as good to me now as I have been to you,- that for my sake you will quit yelling for that old nigger loving Fremont. I hate him; and I would hate you for being for him, but you are too young to know any better. I believe you will now be good Democrat boys - I know you will, Mart …. Now out with it, and you may keep your clothes on, and wear them every day. Now Mart, yell, Hip! Hip! Hurrah for Buchanan!” Martin hesitated, but the temptation was too much for him. His hurrah came without any enthusiasm, but it satisfied Mr. Anon as a beginning and he dismissed him with heart approval.

Then he turned to me and lectured me with much more flattery and length of speech than he did my brother. He reminded me that my brother was only eleven years old and it would not look well for him to be dressed nice and warm while I continued to wear my old thin, faded summer cloths and went bare footed. Then addressing me by name he said, Now Sam, I know you have got too much sense to disobey me, so now I will not ask you to hallow for Buchanan, but I will only forbid you telling any body that you are a Republican. You need only tell people that ask you, that you are a Democrat. If you will promise me that you will do that you may out as your brother has, with your new clothes on. Will you do it?” I answered quickly and with emphasis: "No! I will not pretend to be what I am not, and what I never will be.”My reply angered Mr. Anon and he said to me sharply: "Sam, hear what I am telling you. Winter is coming, and your mother is in Illinois and will not be back soon. I will freeze that nigger-loving abolitionism out of you, or I will freeze you to death before Christmas. Now do you understand I was disappointed at the price of my clothes, but I had purposed in my heart that I would not defile my self by lying for them. I would die rather than barter my volition, so I hastily put off the clothes and remembered them only with scorn and left the house. I did not mortify Mr. Anon, however, by telling any one I was a Republican unless I was pressed for an answer to their questionings, while I was depending on him for a home.

The pleasant autumn days soon passed and white frosts were followed by cold rains and spits of snow before election day came. I had been asked repeatedly, by Mr. Anon, if I was ready to swap off my "Abolition party” for a "White man's party, II with a suit of clothes to boot, but even the suggestion of such a thing to me seemed criminal. I did not like for anyone to suppose I would sell out my sacred principles for a suit of clothes.

I did chores about the house and barn, and brought the cows and horses from the pasture of mornings where, at times, I left the tracks of my bare and bleeding feet upon saw the cold clouds flying by day and the twinkling stars by night I remembered my father used to tell me that God made the clouds pour out rain and sleet and snow that the earth might have seedtime and harvest, and the shining stars, he said, reminded us that his eyes were ever open to see our acts and to patiently watch over us while we slept in the nighttime. I wondered if my beloved departed father, too, was looking down from heaven and saw my acts and knew even my secret thoughts. If he did, I was sure that he loved me now as much as he loved me while he was on earth and he was taking notice of any suffering here. I loved to cherish such thoughts. They made me strong in my determination to do right, no matter what the cost might be. I do not remember that I ever formulated a prayer to God in words, but my whole being was full of reverent piety and trustfulness of his mercy and watchfulness for my good. Were not such childlike meditations and trustfulness enough to move the pen of the recording angel to give me the promised blessings of heaven upon children? Would that I had always kept my childhood innocence and zeal for a simple Christian life as I had it in those days.

A new doctor had just located in the nearby village and was getting some practice. He was a young man and although the political excitement was running high he seemed to know nothing outside of his profession, and the people were wondering how he would vote. His most intimate friends had failed to draw him out to commit himself; but he was a native of Maryland and therefore the Democrats were claiming him, and the Republicans were making no claims on him at all. Mr. Anon liked him very much, and he spent as much time loafing in his office as he could. The people were whispering to each other that Mr. Anon was courting the doctor for his daughter Virginia. The doctor would have very easily and quickly become a very popular man in the village and neighborhood, but from some unaccountable reason he held himself entirely aloof from society circles. The writer's better acquaintance and more intimate association with this doctor a few years later has made this introduction of him, at this time, seem proper and fitting. His right name is doubtful even. to the writer and from the fact of our accidental meeting and recognition of each other when we were soldier comrades, and from the fact that I was placed under a pledge at our first meeting there that I would never call him by the name that was known in this settlement I will here call him Dr. Jacques, a name that will not be found upon our Muster Roll. During a Democratic street meeting one evening near the close of the campaign, Dr. Jacques stood by the speaker's stand and faced nearly all the audience. He had been invited as a mark of distinction, to a seat in the speaker’s stand, but this honor he declined. Near the close of the speech the speaker cried out "Is there one Abolitionist in all this splendid audience?" A husky voice like that of an old man, a way back of the crowd answered, “Yes sir, there’s hund’rd of “m. Then the speaker said, “Did you hear that, ladies? One third of this splendid audience wants nigger wives! Do you believe it?” A shrieking voice like an old woman’s over in another part of the audience seemed to answer, “They’d as well have nigger wives as for us to have drunken husbands!” The speaker was a well known drunken petty politician from a nearby county seat town; and many of his hearers knew that he was drunk at this time. The rebuke sent terror to the hearts of the local party leaders and an effort was made to locate the supposed woman offender. Nobody suspicioned that it was a clever ventriloquist. But just about six years later Dr. Jacques told the writer that he was the fellow that did it!”

Election day came and it was accompanied by a cold November rain that turned to snow in the afternoon, and a strong wind was blowing from the northwest. I was compelled to do my out of doors chores about the barn and I brought up the cows from the pasture about thirty rods away in the morning and evening and on the following morning, leaving the tracks of my bare and bleeding feet wherever I went. The next morning was very cold for the time in the year and the wind was still blowing.

While we were at the barn this morning Martin scolded me sharply for what he called “my contrariness,” He declared I had better be a democrat than to freeze to death. I was too cold to talk back to him; but I knew I was not democrat and I told him I would rather die than to say I believed it was right to hold people in slavery because they were black. Mr. Anon was absent from home much of the time and when he was away I kept my feet tied up with old rags that my brother and Mrs. Anon and her step daughters helped to keep within my reach, and I also wore a horse-blanket wrapped about me. But Mr. Anon caught me thus wrapped twice, and he snatched the wrapping off of me and sharply commanded his wife and daughters and my brother to see that I was not thus protected from the cold.

The morning after the election, when breakfast was over Mr. Anon ordered me to saddle his riding horse and bring him out to the kitchen door for him to mount and ride to town to get the election news, People road on horseback nearly all together in those days for the roads were un-graveled and very muddy and buggies and carriages were little used. When I brought the horse to the door' met Mr. Anon coming out wrapped in his great coat, high fir collar, fir cap with ear mufflers, and great fir gloves. While he was mounting his horse I walked down the driveway to the front gate, opened it and let him ride out. Just outside the gate he stopped as he usually did when he was going away, and there he gave me orders for the work I must do while he was gone. "Now Sam,” he began, “ this is a pretty cold morning for one to be out dressed as thinly as you are, so you must hot around and keep your blood moving, or you will freeze to death. You have been a pretty good boy, generally, and if you had not been a 'Black Abolitionist' would have dressed you up like your brother and you would not have to stand here shivering and half froze to death as you are now, and you know it. I hate a "Black Republican Nigger Lover," and my money shall not buy a stitch of cloths for one of them to wear. I’m going to town now to get the news that I hope willput an end to your low down hateful wooly headed abolitionism and bring you to your senses before the next election. Now Sam, don't you hope Buchanan is elected?" “No, I don't," I quickly answered, and then he resumed his lecture to hold me there, it seemed to me, in torture of cold from which I was shaking violently; "Now Sam," he continued," you must be a good boy today, and we will get along all right after a while. You know I have been good to you. I have never got mad and whipped you: I have never even threatened to whip you. I have tried to persuade you byshowing you what is right and what is wrong. Now shut the gate and go across the calf lot to the cornfield and shuck twenty baskets full of corn and carry it out to the hogs. By the time you get that done I will be back. Then if the news is all right I will give you your cloths. You don't deserve them, but I think it may be best for me to give them to you whether you are good me or not. You know Sam, that you have no home, and no friends and I have given you a home because I pitied you. I see, Sam, that you are so cold now, that I had better let you go to the house and get warm and then put your cloths on before you need go to the field, if you will only say that you hope Buchanan is elected. Now will you do that much to get the clothes you need so much. "No sir! I will die rather than tell you I want something that I do not want at all." Then as he rode away he said held break my stubborn will or I would die with a garment that his money had bought.

Ships that ride deepest in the spray The most of commerce bears away On branches that bend near the ground The choicest, sweetest fruit is found. In deepest forest shades we hear The nightingale's song, sweet and clear. The nest that in the low grass lies Sends forth the lark that highest flies. The soul with crosses most bent down Will, in the end, wear richest crown.

Some readers may be angry with me because I did not surrender my consciousness of right and wrong, for at least a brief period, for the sake of avoiding my painful torture. They may say that politics is nothing to a thirteen-year old boy, and therefore I should have surrendered to Mr. Anon for the good and comfortable clothes he offered me. But such should know that I was then in the most critical period of my building of character. The yielding of one’s will to do what he thinks is wrong than at any age in life, but at any time in life it is an injury to one’s moral being to surrender to an act of wrong doing. Then again, if the reader suggests that I ought to have run away, I did not have the liberty to do so. My mother had put me here to stay, at least until she had returned from Illinois, and I felt that I had a no moral right to disobey her. And if I had any inclination to leave here I had no place to go. True I had two uncles eight miles away who were my mother’s brothers, but I dare not go to them without they had bid me come. It has been said that the “Stars shine brightest in the darkest night; torches are better by beating them; spices smell sweetest when they are pounded; gold looks brighter for scouring; such are the conditions of me; they are most triumphant when most tempted.” To make this saying true, however, a man must not allow the temptations to overcome him. As I look back to my childhood, now, I can but know that the most noble traits of my moral character were formed and fixed in me under my severest afflictions and tests; and all of my sinful indulgences came upon me through my weakness that were always present and now can be seen as I look back to the times of relaxation that came when I felt that I was under little or no outward restraint.

On that cold November morning, I stood shivering and almost unconscious holding on to the gate for support while I listened to the lecture and orders from Mr. Anon. As I watched him ride away in comfort, and even luxury I did not envy him, nor even censure him for his cruelty to me. I submitted to all that must come upon me and took it uncomplainingly and fearlessly, even though when I climbed over the rail fence and started hobbling across the snow-carpeted lot to the cornfield I felt a sinking sensation and believed I would die in that lot. Mrs. Anon and her three step-daughters, noble hearted women, told me afterward that they watched me from their window and as soon as they dare come to my rescue, when the lord of the home was so far away that he would not see them they came to my rescue. They saw me sink down into un-conciousness in the lot just as they were leaving the house to come to me. They carried me to the house and put me in Mrs.

Anon's bed, and one of the girls went to the field where my brother was husking corn and ordered him to go to town as quickly as he could ride, on a spare horse that stood in the stable, and bring Dr Jaques. He was bidden to avoid meeting, or being seen by Mr. Anon, if possible. While my brother was riding away and returning with the doctor the women were restoring me to consciousness, which they had accomplished before the doctor arrived. On their way to me my brother told the doctor all he could about my forced exposure; how he had seen the tracks of my bloody feet in the snow; and how he had plead with me to get relief by saying I was a democrat. Some one in the village told Mr. Anon that they had just seen my brother ride out of town with the doctor, and so he hastily followed them and caught up with them just as they reached the gate . Mr. Anon was greatly excited and asked who it was that needed the doctor in such haste. The doctor did not tarry to explain but my brother told him, it was I. As soon as the doctor warmed his hands a moment at the open fireplace he came to me where I lay moaning in great suffering, and addressing me he said, "Well, my young man, I have come to see what I can do for you. Where do you hurt most? I told him I had been frozen almost to death and that my feet were very badly frozen - Mr. Anon interrupted me and as I was attempting to uncover my feet he came between me and the doctor and replaced the cover over me and began his explanation of my condition, saying my "feet had been sore all fall and on that account I had not been able to wear my new shoes that he had bought me with his own money. I was a puny boy, always sickly and only able to do light chores about the house and barn. He said he was taking care of me because I was a homeless and helpless orphan boy that was not able to do work enough to earn his board; but through charity he had bought, and paid for, out of his own money, a complete suit of cloths, including shoes, socks, and hat, and he ordered my brother to bring them all out and show them to the doctor. While the clothes were being brought he kept up such a flow glib-gabbet that no one else could find place to speak a word. But the doctor interrupted him a time or two by asking me questions which, however he answered himself, not allowing me to say a word. And as soon as he had exhibited the clothing and his own generosity he told the doctor that he should not do any thing for me for he would bundle me up nicely and take me to my uncles, eight miles away where, he said, my mother had arrived a few days ago from her visit in Illinois, for he had just seen a man of that village who told him he knew she was there and he had determined that he would take me to her that afternoon. Then he asked the doctor to give him a written statement of his charge for the visit and said he would do his best to collect it from my mother and bring it to him that evening, but the doctor said "No, Mr Anon, I cannot do that. I came out here on an order from your wife and I cannot take a stranger for it, one who is just visiting in this county.

And so the doctor left Mr. Anon's home under a spirited dispute with him. I was a helpless invalid all that winter, and in a destitute condition, for Mr. Anon forgot his streak of generosity as soon as the doctor was gone and did not allow me to have an article of clothing that he had bought for me. By the generosity of my uncles, my mother's brothers, and other good neighbors of theirs I was soon comfortably clothed for the winter. I was kept at this place with my mother, until the middle of the next summer, for she had no money and no" means for housekeeping by the time she ended her second visit to Illinois.

In the midsummer r of 1857 mother took me and the baby to Dublin where my grand-father Huddleston furnished her a house free of rent and with the actual necessities for housekeeping.

Now it is with much hesitation that I speak here as I have done before of my dear old mother's faults and failures, but my words will, I believe, in no wise injure here, and I speak of them with a hope that whatever I may have said and what I may yet say of her on this line may have an effect to prompt others to escape failures. When she sold and gave away everything she had less than two years ago, she found homes for all of her children except her baby and with six hundred dollars in cash she quit housekeeping and intended to live with her sister in Illinois and with other relatives here. She had an avowed disliking, if not a hatred toward all of her late husbands’ brothers and sisters except to one sister and one brother, and especially toward her father in law, and now with not a dollar in money and no property of any sort she was forced by her destitute and homeless condition to accept the kind tender of her father-in-law, my grandfather- Jonathan Huddleston of a house to live in and furniture to set her up at housekeeping on the east side of South Milton street in Dublin all free to her as long as she was in need of it. All of my fathers’ people were kind and helpful to her. It was now in the Mid-summer of 1857. I had regained my normal health and strength and got ready employment about town. Mother was a good seamstress and got steady employment from our home tailors.

In those days there were pork packers in many of the little towns throughout the county and about all the hogs that were raised in this vicinity were slaughtered and packed here at home. My uncle Nathan Huddleston gave me work in his slaughter-house all the winter of 1857-8, at fifty cents a day, and Mother and I thought that was splendid wages. Mother got every cent of money I earned for I-had not dared to spend even one penny without her knowledge and consent. I was in the fifteenth year of my age but I was small of statue and of delicate appearance. Mother commenced that winter to explain to me what she understood were advantages to a man belonging to some Secret Society as soon as I should be old enough. Her highest ambition was to get a clerkship for me in some dry goods or grocery store, or a position as book-keeper in some office. She knew I was naturally a good penman and she thought that was all the requirement I needed for book-keeping. She thought I had a good education when I could write plainly and could read in the first reader, but I knew nothing of arithmatic and spelling. She tried, as soon as hog killing time was over to get a job for me in the stores and offices but when she was informed that I must go to school six or eight more years before I could ever hope for such employment she gave that ambition up; for, she said she did not intend to have her children ruined by sending them to school. Education, she said, made people proud, lazy and sinful.

During the revival meetings at my father's church I had a desire to go to church and that desire grew upon me until Mother became alarmed and had fears that she might not be able to keep me away if I should stay in town, so as soon as I was out of work at the slaughter house early in March she sent me to the country to hunt a job on a farm. I did what I could to overcome her plan in this, for I knew I could earn more money in town, but she said she could no longer endure the taunts I was getting by the young people here; for in truth ever boy of my age except two, teased me continuously, because I was poor and because my mother kept me closely under her care. I was never seen upon the streets or away from home except on business. Many people in town did not like my mother and talked before their children of their dislikes for her and this was the chief influence that drove them to abuse me. And so Mother used this problem of my abuse in urging me to go to the country. I did not dare think of open rebellion against her will but I said, "When I become a man I intend to settle in Dublin; and I will live here all the days of my life; and the people of Dublin will some day look up to me as one of her best citizens.

When I left home Mother said to me, "Go toward Bentonville, and do not ask any body for work until you have gone four miles from home; then going on Southward stop at every house and ask for work. Keep going from house to house till you get work.” I had walked eight miles from home and had no success. Nobody wanted so frail a looking boy as I was. At about two o’clock I met a man building fence along the roadside. When I asked him for work he took much interest in me, asked my name and where I lived and when he found that I was a poor fatherless boy he said I should stop with him until I found work. He had two boys of his own that were about my age. As we stood there talking he made a mental canvass of the entire neighborhood until I at last he told me of a young married man that he had heard say he would hire a boy to do chores, about the house and barn if he could find one he liked, and when he had directed me to the place he told me to come back to his home and stay all night if I did not get work. When I turned in at Mr. Marion’s home I told him who I was and where I lived, and that Mr. Rhodes had advised me to call on him. I met with immediate encouragement here, and when he had asked me a few questions about my willingness to do the sort of work he had for me, my price etc. I contracted to work one month on trial for five dollars. I felt pretty certain that if I could please him during the rough month of this time in the year I could hold my job during all the busy summer months. He then took me into the house from where I met him at the barn, and introduced me to his wife, and told her I had walked all day hunting work and had eaten nothing since early in the morning, and that he had hired me for one month for five dollars, of course my board and washing was expected from them.

It is said that the lion will turn and flee From a maid in the pride of her purity But the maid, if she be a wise little thing Will keep out of the way of the beastly king And just so with the youth when old Satan draws nigh

In his cunning to lead you to sin he will try, With his promise of safety and pleasure-some joy But beware lest his wiles your true manhood destroy

At the close of the trial month I was rehired and the events of a whole year at this place would make a long story; but I will relate only the incident of my connection with the Secret Order of Hoot-Owls.” I do not give the true names of any of the people of this settlement, because some of them and a number of their descendents are still living and they have long been honest and highly respected citizens. It was well known that eight neighborhood boys of highly respectable families were closely associated together in social meetings and it was supposed that they were simply rambling along Williams Creek, or through the great forests, for there were still great bodies of native timber in the country then. There was no thought any where among the families that these boys were engaged in any immoral or unlawful acts. Their meeting place was not known. They talked very little about their Order, in public, and when pressed by outside persons they only ascertained that they had a place of meeting for social past-time and that they met in the woods. "Now boys," said Joe Underland to his seven companions, one Sunday morning, "We’ll go down to Frank Marion's and get Sam Huddleston to go with us. You know we elected him to membership last Sunday, and we’ll initiate him today.”

Charles Marion, a nephew to Frank Marion said, “you don't know Sam as well as I do, Joe, or you would not be so sure that your plan would work out. He's a very pious fellow, and I'll bet my Sunday boots that he'll not go off with gang of rough fellows unless we play mighty pious and make him believe we're running a sort of Sunday School Society." I think we'll have more trouble to keep him, than to get him," said Jake Cline. "We don't care whether we keep him or not, just so we can get him to help us to work out a way of getting into Frank Marion’s home, that we have failed to do for the past three or four months,” said Bob Davidson. “I suggest,” said Ben Peters, “that Jim Rhodes and Charles Marion go alone and coax him out, and tell him about our lodge and coax him to be initiated. Sam is better acquainted with them than he is with us, and I suppose he likes Jim because his father helped him to get a job. And then they are about the same age, you know. “

This plan was adopted, and when the two boys started down the road toward the Marion home the other boys went into the woods and started toward the “Owl’s Nest”, in the “Fallen Timber," where they were to await the coming of their two companions with their prospective new member. If I had been left to my own choices I wouId not have gone with the boys, for when they had almost abandoned their hope of persuading me to go with them Frank Marion, who heard all the conversation while he sat reading his weekly newspaper just inside the sitting room and I sat on the front door-step. When Mr. Marion found that I was not inclined to go with them he first suggested that I ought to form a kindly association with my neighbor boys; and then seeing that his suggestion would not move me to go he told me that I must go. The boys had not mentioned to me the object of their ramble, nor that we were to join the boys in the woods until we were ourselves; beyond the barn yard and in the "Big Woods.” Now they commenced to explain to me that the object of our social stroll was that they might tell me about a "Secret Society," a real "lodge" they had, and that eight of the best boys in the neighborhood had already joined it. They said I had been elected to membership on last Sunday and they had been sent to notify me and bring me to their lodge for initiation. I thought of my mother's advice to join a lodge and not knowing that there was, or could be a bad lodge I was very easily drawn into their association. I asked the two boys many questions, however, about the objects, principles, and benefits of their lodge and was told that it was highly beneficial, socially, morally, and educational; that because I was a poor boy other members of the lodge that were able had paid my initiation fee just because they liked me and wanted my help and influence. When I had agreed to join the order I was told that we were on our way to the lodge and that all the other members were there waiting to initiate me. Other features were explained to me after I had been conducted through a tangled thicket in the center of a strip of woodland where the great trees had nearly all been blown down bya hurricane, some years before and it had grown up with young trees and tangled vines, so dense that in some places it was next to impossible for man to pass through. I was told

that I might consider the initiation into the first degree a little rude and disagreeable to my taste and liking but the second degree would be nothing whatever but a lecture and instructions as to what would be required of me. The initiation was indeed rude and very objectionable to me but I was taken through it by physical force and I was compelled to make promises that were very objectionable, and I made up my mind that I would not meet with them again nor associate with them.

On Sunday morning about three weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Marion told me that they were going away to spend the day and that I must go into the woods and digging ginseng to get money to pay for my winter clothing. I protested against working on Sunday, but he said I must, and since I had never disobeyed my parents I felt that while I was here I was under obligation to obey him after I had failed in my endeavor to have him reverse his command and allow me to stay about the house, or go on a visit to my brother Calvin who lived with a Mr. Baker, a few miles away; so after they were gone I took a mattock on my shoulder and a bag to carry the precious roots in and with great reluctance I there was no way to avoid meeting them. They told me they had seen Mr. and Mrs. Marion when they were on their way to their place of visiting and Mr. Marion had told them where they would find questions or to speak a word until I was told to speak. Presently I thrust my hands into my trousers pockets and missed my house key and the boys watching my every movement and every expression again cautioned me not to speak d word, and thus I remained here in forced imprisonment and silence until it was almost sundown, at which time the Underland boys came in bearing a large feed basket full of valuable silver ware, jewelry and other household keepsakes. I recognized the basket as the property of the Marion barn, and I knew many of the articles in the basket, for I had seen them in the Marion home. As soon as the basket was set down Joe Underland turned to me and said, "Now Sam, we have made a pretty good haul, and you must remember you are Hoot-Owl, as well as we are; and don't forget the penalty. If you are not true to us you will wish you had never been born. Remember the oath you have taken was Secrecy or death: and horrible death it will be.

We have concluded that you will never make a good Hoot-Owl and so I will tell you now what we have determined you shall do. You must leave this settlement at once. You must not return to Frank Marion's; for, if you do we have the matter fixed so that you will be arrested and taken to jail before morning, for robbery; and we - every one of us - will. We all know that you and old John Lamson’s are intimate. You often go there. We will swear that we saw you two going away from the Marion home carrying this basket when we were on our way out here today and that you went toward the Lamson home. Sam here is the key. I took it from your pocket. You have no other need for it than to remind you that it is not safe to trust your trousers with other boys while they are making a "Hoot-owl" out of you take it, and, here, take this purse. I found it in the cupboard with ninety dollars in it. We have taken out seventy dollars for ourselves and we give you the purse and twenty dollars. Now don't go to Dublin. Go South and don't stop till you are in the mountains of Kentucky of you do you will be caught and sent to the penitentiary. The money will last till you get there and then you can get work. Now go. Do not stop to rest till morning or you will b e caught. Keep out of all towns and avoid meeting people as much as you can." I had my plan of action matured before Joe Underland ended his speech to me. I was the youngest boy in the Order, I being only fifteen years old and the ages of the other boys ran from eighteen to twenty-eight. I gracefully accepted door key and purse and when I had been cordially complemented by them for my quick decision to take their advice and flee they bade me good-by.

I walked hastily along the creek until I had passed out of hearing of the boys and then I sat down to meditate and to allow the boys all to have time to get out of the woods and be in their homes. While here I thought of my mother1s wish that I might get work in the township that boosted that it had no church in its borders, and I thought of how I had suffered this trouble to be forced upon me by allowing Mr. Marion to drive me against my will to go into the woods with the boys three weeks before now and again today to drive me against my conviction of right to go into the woods and dig ging-sang. When I had finally changed my course after resuming my supposed long journey I came in sight of the Marion home and saw that it was still lighted and so I stopped here until it was darkened and I knew Mr. and Mrs. Marion had retired and I remained quiet for at least a half an hour longer and then with a quickened heartbeat, feeling the weight of the responsibility of the task I had taken to clear myself of this dreadful wrong; and the possibility that I might fail to make the necessary impression upon Mr. and Mrs. Marion to get them to trust me far enough to help me to carry out my plans of proving my entire innocence and of the possibility that I might, after all, be sent to prison in my innocense.

But, possibly at about midnight the keen scented coon dog and his powerful companion, the bull dog gave a few subdued barks and came playfully out to meet me. I knew, by this, that there were no spies from the Owls Nest nearby, unless it might be possible that Frank’s nephew, Charles, might have stayed here all night, as he did occasionally, In this event my purposes and my success in wining Mr. Marion1s help in carrying out my plan would be a sure failure. The dogs were heard by Mr. and Mrs. Marion and very soon I saw the light of a candle blaze in the siting room. They knew someone was coming and so he got up and dressed and was ready to meet me at the door. The first words I spoke were "ls Charley here?” Mr Marion answered me very cross and threatening "No! But he was here and, you thief! He saw you and Old Samson robing my house! He swore profanely that he and his boy associates would swear that they saw us carry the feed-basket full of stuff away from here toward Old Lambert's. Fortunately for me he knew that the dogs had scented my approach and that I had come from the direction opposite the Lambert home. My first pleading was that he should darken the house lest my feared spies might see the light and suspicion my presence and come to us, but I finally prevailed on him to grant me my request. But for a long time he seemed to be determined to rush me off to jail before -Icould have a chance to even gain admission to his home and sit down quietly and reason together, so that I might tell hi m my story that I was trying to convince him would make him know to an absolute certainty who were the robbers.

Finally I won the sympathy of Mrs. Marion and was allowed to come into the house and here we talked for two full hours before Mr. Marion would as much as allow me to suggest how he might know positively that I was innocent and who were guilty. He insisted from the beginning of my pleading for justice, that I tell him who I would accuse but I would not give a name nor an intimation until he softened enough to agree to help me faithfully to carry out my plan. Then I began with the time he forced me to go with the two boys into the woods. Then I told him how he had sent the boys to me this Sunday morning and they compelled me to go with them to the Owl's Nest and how they had procured my door key and held me a prisoner until they knew the thieves were coming near. When I had finished my story thus far Mr. Marion interrupted me saying, “Well Sam you tell a thrilling story, but how are you going to prove it? You admit that there are eight witnesses against.” I answered lf you will hear me further I will tell you how the boys will convict themselves and clear me. You will allow me to keep in close hiding until two oclock next Sunday. During this week you must summons the fathers of each of the boys except the grandfather of the one whose father is dead. Have them all to place themselves carefully to conseal themselves in hiding in the thicket around the Owl's Nest and await there until the boys come. I will also be in hiding foras I have told you they suppose I have taken flight to the mountains of Kentucky and when they have assembled I will surprise them by appearing for admission to their Lodge. Giving the secret signs they will admit me and I will talk the matter of todays doings over with them in your hearing.”

The plans were all successfully worked out. After I had submitted to a very sharp tongue lashing from the boys for coming back to them I very easily referred them back to the operations of the previous Sunday without arousing their suspicions of danger and they talked freely with me and laughingly admitted their guilt and my entire innocence, after I had solemnly and truthfully declared to them that I would never be seen by them in one of their meetings after today and that I had been in hiding all the week and had come back for the purpose of helping them to keep out of trouble. When the old men were fully convinced of the truths I had declared to Mr Marion they demanded the surrender of the boys, all speaking simultaneously and from every point around them and then rushing in upon them as quickly as possible. After a long consultation between the boys and their fathers the mad, sullen and revengeful spirit of the boys was broken and an agreeable conclusion was reached, whereby the boys were all assured that their crimes should never be made known to anyone, and they each gave a solemn pledge that they would never again repeat their crimes, but they would pay for, or restore all their stolen property, and that they would treat me as their friend. The oldest member of their Lodge, however never spoke to me afterward, but sullenly avoided me. 54 years have passed and I and only one other man that knew of this transaction are now living.

What you are, it hath been said Doth ring so loudly in my ear That words you speak fall dull and dead And words you speak I can not hear.

After staying my time out in the Marion home and having pleasant associations with all but one of the boys who were former members of the Hoot-owl Lodge I returned to Dublin with a mind to stay at home, and I did well working about town.

About the middle of December 1859 there arose a contention between me and my mother that made us disagree in matters of religion as long as we lived together. I had determined that I would be an Arminian Christian and that I would go to church. She admitted that she had kept me out of town to keep me away from the churches and she intended to keep me away from them as much as she could. I have written a little book on my religious life and so I do not purpose to dwell much on this subject in this book. I t is enough for me to say that I joined the United Brethren Church without conversion because my mother would not allow me the privilege of going to the mourners bench, and having had no instruction on the subject of conversion I was at an utter loss to know how to do more than accept my mother’s offer of church membership. She tried a number of schemes during the winter to induce me to leave town but failed in them all; but in the following summer she reduced my clothes to patches and rags and urged me to stay away from church for the want of respectable clothing but I would not. In the autumn of 1860 a wealthy lady gave me a full suit of good black clothes, a felt hat, a pair of fine boots and two changes of under clothes. They were all about as good as new and her only son had outgrown them. Mother tried to shame me out of wearing them; telling me that everybody in town would know they were Bill Lawrences old clothes. She protested so strong that I did not wear them until in February 1861 she persuaded me to go on a visit to her mothers’ people in Franklin county, saying she would allow me to wear my cloths if I would go.

She said they were well-to-do farmers and good, rich Baptist people and she wished I would get work with them and learn their religion, and perhaps I could find a rich Calvinist Baptist girl there that I could marry. She gave me thirty cents and I left home near the last of February and walked to Connersville, where I stayed all night and paid all my money for my supper, lodging, and breakfast. The next morning when the Land lady, a widow had given me directions from there to West Union (now Everton) and when I was about to leave she gave me ten cents and told me to go to the bakery, that she pointed out, and buy me some cakes and crackers for my dinner.

I arrived at the home of Mother’s uncle Elisha Harrell, east of Everton, that evening and was heartily welcomed by them. And I was surprised at finding children and young men and women in the home. Mother had known almost nothing about the families of her kindred here for although they lived only a few miles away she had not seen them since she was a child and she had scarcely' heard from them. Letter writing, in those days was sparingly practiced and people rarely visited even near relatives that lived twenty five miles or further away. I visited here a few days, and regretted when the time came that I must go to see other relatives. I had never before been treated as a guest in a well-to-do home. I had an ambition to know how to behave myself in company, but my sense of my ignorance and awkwardness embarrassed me so much that I could not make my self free in the company of young people. So I held myself in the background from them and could be free with only Mothers Uncle Elisha and Aunt Margaret.

After I had stayed here two or three days my cousin James Harrell who was about my age took me on horseback to visit Mother’s Aunt Jane Buckley who lived about three miles further South and two and a half miles west of the town of Fairfield; a sister to Uncle Elisha Harrell and to Mothers mother. Aunt Jane was a widowed farmer, with two daughters and three sons at home and some of them were a little older and some younger than myself. I soon learned to love this family a little more than I had ever loved any outside of the circle of my immediate home folks. Uncle Elisha's family had done all they could to make my short visit with them enjoyable, but there are certain affinities of character, or likes and dislikes that sometimes spring up, or are recognized at early acquaintance that are endearing and lasting; while other persons who may not be drawn quite so close to us in our sympathies they are equally noble in their character. The sister-like freedom and tactful cordiality of my cousin Miss Mattie R. Buckley who was just a little younger than myself; and the brotherly kindness of John and his brother Anson E. and the motherly solicitude of Aunt Jane and altogether with the younger son and daughters kindness was just the character of personalities that I needed to develop my ambition to make a true man of myself.

After I had been here two or three days Aunt Jane's youngest son, James, took me on horseback to Fairfield to see another sister to my Grandmother Brown, Aunt Susan Turner. Her husband was Dr. John Turner, a good and very first class citizen of his town, and county. Aunt Susan was the only real uncompromising Calvinistic Baptist in the relationship. The others had allowed their children to drift away from what had become a very unpopular, and to thinking people of this day a very un-wise and unchristian religion and they were tending toward Methodism. Among the first questions that Aunt Susan asked me was, "Are your mother and her brothers and sister true to their mother’s church? “ I answered, "Mother professes to believe in the doctrine, but she can’t read and she never heard a Baptist sermon preached since she was a child and so I think she don ‘t know what she believes. Her father, you may remember, is a Means Baptist. Aunt Eliza makes no profession at all; Uncle Sam is a Methodist Class-leader, and Uncle Nathaniel is a Methodist preacher.” I spoke of my uncles attainments with some emphasis, for I was proud of them; but she gave several of her characteristic groans while I was talking and when I told her all I was asked to tell her she said “Oh, my poor sister Peggy, I am glad the Lord took her to glory while them boys were little, for she was too good to see that all of her children but, may be, your mother are predestinated to endless torment. If they had been elected to grace they would not have been heretics.”

On the first day of my visit at Aunt Jane’s Mattie told me of my mother's cousin Stephen Harrell, who .lived only a half mile away and whose step daughter, whom she called Sallie E. Johnson was just her age, and she declared she was the favorite girl of all this settlement. She described her as of medium height, blue eyes, fair complexion, medium dark wavy hair, not beautiful featured, but of a beautiful Christian character, and a member of the Methodist Church. Her mother was a woman of splendid Christian character and her own father in his lifetime had been a Methodist preacher. I perceived immediately that Mattie was anxious that I should meet and admire her friend, but I was made to dread the meeting and to feel that her anxiety had inclined me against her. It seems to be a natural endowment of the young to choose their own mates and it very often occurs that the effort, when it is recognized, of a third party, to make a match drives the couple away from each other.

Of course I must go and see Mothers’ cousin Stephen and Cousin James went with me. It was a beautiful day for out of doors romps and Sallie happened to have the company of a neighbor girl, an intimate associate of hers and while I sat talking with Mothers cousin the two girls were racing and romping about the door yard, the orchard, and the barn, and made up my mind that she was rude and immoderate in her play and I became so angry at her that I would not stay for dinner even though I knew I was expected to stay. When I returned to Aunt Jane’s and when she found out why I would not stay, she told me that the girls were not expected to be my company and that their rompings and racings were only marks of healthy buoyance that makes the young strong and vigorous and she was as sure as could be that neither of the girls were rude nor imprudent in their character; but she said I had acted real rudely in leaving the home when I knew I was expected to stay for dinner. I apologized to Aunt Jane and promised that I would go again if I was wanted. She assured me that they should not know why I had left their home and that she would see that I should have another invitation, and so in a couple of days I went again and stayed all night with them. Miss Johnson, in her natural way did what she could to help entertain me and I had a real pleasant visit with the family, but my mind was made up that I did not, and I would not like the girl.

After a two weeks visit in the country, I returned home without much effort to get work. I told Mother that I Ii ked her people but it was true that none of them had any need of hired help. They were only farmers of moderate means. The country was broken and not able to make them more than a living, and I could do better in a more prosperous section. She was disappointed - even grieved at my return and my dissatisfaction with the country. She thought my judgment was at fault, or that I was only homesick for Dublin.

I found my brother Martin at home sick with measles, and now I had come home to add to her trouble by exposing my own self to the disease. She now had four of her children to nurse through the sickness and also to support by her daily toil. Her work was mostly away from home so the sick must be neglected to some extent though the malady was of a very light form until it came to me. And I was the last to take it. When it was thought that I was about to recover I was taken with a relapse and became unconscious, and was in this condition at the time of the opening of the Civil War and in time of the fall of Fort Sumpter. I was not able to

go to earn wages that year until October and Mother often reproached me while she was struggling so hard to make a living during my tedious convalescence because I did not stay in Franklin county. Early in the Autumn I got work running the bark-mill in the Cambridge City Tannery, and I worked almost continuously all the winter. My health seemed excellent during the spring and summer and I worked in buoyant hope that I would get an increase hi wages very soon, for so many young men were going into the army that laborers were scarce and hard to get.

Every day after the fall of Fort Sumpter was a day of intense' excitement in Dublin as it was every where else. The daily papers were not as plentiful as they are now (1912) and good readers would read aloud in stores, shops, and street corners, wherever crowds of people would congregate to hear. Ham Collins, Sr., a shoe maker was the most popular reader in Dublin; and no matter how much he was rushed with work in his shoe shop he would lay his work by and read the news as soon as the paper came, every was always full of hearers. Mr. Collins was also a good tenor drummer and he would sometimes beat his drum alone; sometimes accompanied with a bass drum and a fife, and the more noise they would make the better. Men were volunteering and going into camps as fast as they could be armed, and equipped. In the mid-summer of "1862 when my brother Martin was seventeen and a half years old he volunteered and went to Camp Morton at Indianapolis where his regiment was organized.

I took a deep interest in the struggle and I embraced every possible opportunity to hear the papers read. I said very little about the war, for although I hated slavery, I held strongly to the Quaker's peace principles. I knew that we were now in the beginning of a dreadful war and I knew that its final ending was a matter of uncertainty. Of course many were saying that it would be a short struggle and so the first enlistments were only for three months, but cooler minds saw a long and desperate struggle before us, but they knew that at that time it would not do to call for long termed volunteers. I could not for one moment entertain the thought that the people of the North ought to submit to the proposition of allowing the South to recede without a struggle and yet I felt a deep drawing back and away from engaging in war. As I grew older I felt myself more and still more embarrassed on account of my lack of education. I knew I could not converse intelligently upon the topics of the day, for I must work and dare not loose time to hear all the papers read and I could not read well enough to read them' myself, and so I must be always behind the times. It has been said that “Thought will not work but in silence.”

Photo of Samuel taken from his self published book “Whispers of the Muses” He published 300 copies. Leah’s brother found a copy in an antique shop and bought it. I bought it from her. The book is filled with poems that either he or other family members wrote. Before Samuel became an ongoing contributor to the newspapers he was a house painter.

article researched and sent to me by Leah Huddleston