BOYHOOD AND YOUTH IN NEW YORK STATE 15 



one of its clear and lovely u finger " lakes. For I 

 cannot but think that " Old Cayuga " had a pro- 

 found if unconscious influence in preparing me for 

 an unusually strenuous and difficult life. 



The house where I was born was on the site of 

 the log house built by my grandfather Burroughs 

 when he emigrated from Harbortown, New Jer- 

 sey, to Central New York, in 1812. At that time 

 he brought with him his family, consisting of a 

 wife and three children, traveling in a prairie- 

 schooner wagon. He had selected a farm there 

 some time before, I think, and had built this log 

 house at any rate, there was a house upon the 

 site when they arrived. A few miles before they 

 reached their place he stopped at a saw-mill and 

 bought a single, wide board which served as their 

 first dining table. This was constructed by boring 

 holes into the logs of the house, and driving pins 

 into them that supported the board. The larger 

 part of the furniture was home-made. Every 

 farmer in those days was provided with a small 

 kit of rough carpenter tools and was trained after 

 the manner of the skilled Dutchman of Pennsyl- 

 vania who claimed that if he had a broad-ax and a 

 narrow ax, an auger, a saw, a pair of compasses 

 and a two-foot rule, he could build a saw-mill. 



