[herrington] first LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO 227 



application to a very wide range of reading, he acquired a large fund 

 of useful knowledge, surpassing in its practical usefulness many of the 

 courses in our University curricula of to-day. He was well versed in 

 literature and his well selected library, the accumulation of a life time, 

 bore testimony of his good taste in that direction. Science, both 

 theoretical and applied, received his attention and he digged deeper 

 still in the realms of political economy and jurisprudence. 



While not yet twenty years of age he taught school a few miles 

 from Brockville and boarded with a grandson of Benedict 

 Arnold.^ 



In 1831 he left his father's home and started out in life to seek 

 his fortune, having no other capital than a fairly robust constitution, 

 such education as he had acquired in Brockville and a strong will that 

 knew not failure. Thus equipped, with a few shillings in his pocket, he 

 came to Bath and entered the employ of Henry Lasher as a clerk in a 

 general store. He devoted himself assiduously to his new occupation 

 and at the expiration of five years, upon the death of his employer, he 

 had acquired such a mastery over the details of the business that he 

 and John Lasher, son of Henry, formed a partnership and took over the 

 business under the name of Lasher and Stevenson. This partnership 

 lasted for fourteen years, during the last few years of which period a 

 branch store was opened in the village of Newburgh under the manage- 

 ment of John D. Ham, who had also served his apprenticeship behind 

 the counters of Henry Lasher. 



Bath at this time was a thriving village and promised to be the 

 most important business centre in the county of Lennox and Adding- 

 ton. It was the educational and commercial centre of a rich and ex- 

 tensive farming community settled by the most progressive families of 

 the United Empire Loyalists. All roads in the neighbouring townships 

 lead to Bath. It was on the main thoroughfare connecting York and 

 Kingston, in fact, the first stage line between Kingston and York 

 was put in operation by Ralph Purdy of Bath. The Finkle shipyard 

 was located at the outskirts of the village and from its ways had been 



iThe story of Arnold is known to all. Having made his escape to the British 

 lines, he received a military appointment and a grant of several thousand acres of 

 land. There were many Loyalists who remembered him as the first American who 

 proposed the invasion of Canada, and they protested against the Government for 

 according him such generous treatment. His son, John and his sister, Hannah, 

 settled in the township of Kitley. John died in 1819 leaving three sons, Henry, 

 John and Richard, each of whom owned at one time a portion of the land included in 

 the grant to their grandfather. John B. Arnold, reeve of the township of Walford 

 and son of the last mentioned John Arnold, is the only male descendant of Benedict 

 Arnold living in the county of Leeds to-day. The military coat worn by Benedict 

 during the American revolution is still preserved in the family. 



