OF A CERTAIN PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY. 63 



moaning that she might die in peace if only she could make one con- 

 fession, he never left her bedside, even to get a drink of water, so the 

 secret died with her. He lived to marry the third time. When this 

 wife discovered that his small property had gone to his son, she left 

 him. He went then to stay with a daughter by his first marriage and 

 died there of dropsy about 1890. Was buried by the county. 



There are many families of his name about his early home. They 

 are people of average ability, industrious, and of fair integrity. It is 

 said they are no more honest than they have to be. Most of them 

 manage by dint of hard work to acquire a little property and a measure 

 of independence. It is not known that any of these bear a nearer 

 relationship to him than that of first cousin. His three daughters by 

 his first marriage were all very deficient, but, since nothing could be 

 learned of their mother or her family, their history will not be included 

 here. 



Of the children of II-4 and 5, one died in infancy, one (III-42) was 

 killed at 16 by the falling of a log in a sawmill, and the third (III-47) 

 was killed by a stroke of lightning at 14. The seven who survived to 

 maturity were all very slow in school ; some of them never progressed 

 beyond the second reader and simple problems in arithmetic, but 

 nevertheless have later shown practical judgment in the management 

 of their concerns. Their histories are as follows: 



III-44, born 1852. A strong, active, quarrelsome girl. At school, 

 where she made little progress, was always a match for the roughest 

 boj^s. Married III-43, a man of fair mentality, but alcoholic and with 

 insane tendencies, whose family show ability and were among the first 

 settlers of the county. He was a widower with two daughters, whom 

 she abused shamefully; she also managed him. She was so strong 

 that she thought nothing of lifting a plough or carrying a barrel of 

 vinegar up from the cellar. She had an intrigue with a neighboring 

 farmer (III-46), who used to go on sprees with her husband, and when 

 her ''goings on" so preyed on her husband's mind that he tried to 

 drown himself in the well, she pulled him out much against his will. 

 Eventually he set fire to a mow of hay and burned himself to death 

 in the flames. III-44 thereupon drifted about with her children, 

 cohabiting with various men. When the wife of her former paramour 

 (III-46) ended her misery by suicide she married him, but they quar- 

 reled incessantly and she did not stay with him long. For 8 years now 

 she has "kept house" for a queer, stupid, alcoholic old man who owns 

 a few acres of ground. Their home is a granary. It has two tiny dark 

 rooms crowded with old furniture, bags of seeds and grain, walls hung 

 with many enlarged pictures, chromos, and dried plants. Every 

 available corner is crammed with bundles of old newspapers, and there 

 if no place to sleep unless on bedding spread on the floor at night. She 



