The Family 11 



a share In what was called the Tupper Lake Club in north- 

 ern New York, and went there to shoot and fish with 

 Grandmother when Father was a little boy. Gradually the 

 members died off and Father acquired the property. This 

 consisted of about 145 acres on the southeasterly shore of 

 Big Tupper Lake. And Paradise Point, on which the famous 

 Coleman's Spring was the outstanding feature of the prop- 

 erty. Here Father built a camp where for years he came 

 for relaxation and enjoyment after the hard life so char- 

 acteristic of the businessmen of his day, who speculated 

 daringly albeit successfully, but certainly to the peril of 

 their nervous system. Father had his father's passion for 

 acquiring land. Grandfather bought tracts of land scat- 

 tered over New Jersey, usually because there was a pretty 

 view over some attractive pond, whereas Father kept add- 

 ing to his Adirondack holdings until at his death he had 

 at least 45,000 acres. 



Father was not skillful with his hands any more than I 

 am, although his handwriting was superb. Nevertheless, 

 he loved to watch work and the work he liked best was 

 the building of stone walls. I often drove oxen hitched to 

 a stone boat and hauled rocks with him. My brother 

 Robert, the mechanic, ran the big stone crusher, and every 

 year we built roads and stone walls. When it was time to 

 knock off Father went for his evening bout of fishing 

 with Dan Hinkson, who simply adored him. Father had a 

 stately figure, and was possessed of great personal beauty 

 and dignity. He was six feet three inches tall and often 

 said, "I and my four boys are just a half inch shy of being 

 thirty-one feet of Barbour." Unfortunately for me I was 

 the tallest of the lot, and I have suffered from colliding 



