HIS LIFE AND WORK 



valley, when they heard that the Revolution had 

 begun in Massachusetts, carted 137 barrels of 

 flour to Frederick, one hundred miles north, and 

 ordered it sent forthwith to the needy people of 

 Boston. This grew to be one of the most pop- 

 ular tales of local history, an epic of the pa- 

 triots who fought for liberty, not with gun- 

 powder but flour. 



By 1809 the more severe hardships of the 

 pioneer days had been overcome. Houses were 

 still built of logs, but they were larger and better 

 furnished. In the McCormick homestead, for 

 instance, there was a parlor which had the 

 dignity of mahogany furniture, and the luxury 

 of books and a carpet. The next-door county 

 of Augusta boasted of thirteen carriages and 

 one hundred and two cut-glass decanters. And 

 the chief sources of excitement had evolved from 

 Indian raids and wolf-hunts into elections, lot- 

 teries, and litigation. 



It was, perhaps fortunate for the child McCor- 

 mick that he was born in such an out-of-the-way 

 nook, for the reason that in 1809 almost the 

 whole civilized world was in a turmoil. In Eng- 



[3] 



