150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



a few neighbors, a farmers club was organized 

 which, I am told, is still an active society. In the 

 spring of our first year on the farm a Sunday 

 school was started in the same schoolhouse for 

 the benefit of the children it was proclaimed, but 

 I am persuaded that the grown-ups received more 

 benefit than the children. Having been elected 

 superintendent, I was stimulated to keep myself 

 well-versed in the lessons. When fall came the 

 question of adjournment for the winter was raised, 

 and it occurred to me why not continue through the 

 winter, meeting at night as the club did. The sug- 

 gestion found favor and as long as I resided in 

 that locality, the all-year-round Sunday school 

 prospered. 



As to adult membership, the club and the Sun- 

 day school were mostly composed of the same per- 

 sons and, being successful in two undertakings, we 

 attempted a third. The County Agricultural Fair 

 Association had died of anemia some time before. 

 We set about resuscitating it for we believed the 

 country was now sufficiently settled up to maintain 

 it. Here was my first effort to make a public ad- 

 dress. Although the printed copy of it is now lost, 

 the main ideas still linger in my memory. One of 

 them was : " Build the smokestacks and the grain- 

 stacks in sight of each other ! " The idea grew 



