FACTS ABOUT THE KALLIKAK FAMILY 99 



the normal chart presented in this book. No praise 

 can be too high for such disinterested self-forgetfulness 

 in the face of an urgent public need. We owe to these 

 two persons most of the information which has made 

 possible the study of the normal side of this family. 



Of Martin Kallikak Sr., himself, the record of many 

 characteristic traits has been preserved. As stated 

 in another chapter, his father died when he was a lad of 

 fifteen. The father, in his will, after enumerating cer- 

 tain personal bequests to his wife, recommends the 

 selling of the homestead farm, in order to provide for 

 the education of his children. There is a quaint docu- 

 ment still in existence, in which Martin Kallikak, hav- 

 ing attained his majority, agrees to pay 250 to each 

 of his three "spinster" sisters, still minors, in return for 

 a quitclaim deed of the homestead farm. This was 

 a considerable burden for a young man to assume, but 

 it seems to have given him the impetus which later 

 made him a rich and prosperous farmer. 



He had joined the Revolutionary Army in April, 

 -1776. Two years later he was wounded in a way to 

 disable him for further service, and he then returned 

 to the home farm. During the summer of enforced 

 idleness he wooed and won the heart of a young woman 

 of good Quaker family. Her shrewd old father, how- 



