42 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



Simeon L. Wilson^s Statement. 



Having been favored with a visit from the committee on 

 farms, and requested by them to make a statement of facts re- 

 lating to my place, it is with pleasm-e I comply with their re- 

 quest. I suppose their attention was attracted to it by the 

 peculiar circumstances under which I have labored, in bringing 

 a barren piece of land to its present fertility. I will briefly 

 state the particulars. At the age of thirteen years I became a 

 cripple, by a white swelling on my knee, which caused me to 

 lose the use of that joint. I at first got about upon crutches ; 

 afterwards with only a cane, and finally without the aid of 

 either. And whilst I was buoyed up with the hope of again 

 getting well of my lameness, or nearly so, I was afflicted with 

 a paralytic stroke, which caused me to lose the use of the other 

 leg very suddenly. This took place in 1831, when at the age 

 of twenty-two years ; since that time I have not teen able to 

 walk one step. At first this affliction seemed to dishearten me, 

 and I came near giving up in dismay. But hope predominated, 

 and I made a vigorous effort to obtain a livelihood by my own 

 industry. Not having any trade, I commenced closing shoes. 

 By applying myself very closely to my business, working early 

 and late, I succeeded in obtaining a sufficient sum of money to 

 purchase one acre and sixty rods of land, near Methuen village. 

 With a little assistance, I soon had a house on the same, into 

 which my parents moved in the fall of 1836. This piece of 

 land, although but smal], has a variety of soil, viz. : a gravelly 

 hill, yellow loam, black loam, or clay soil, rather moist, and a 

 swamp, very wet, with muck eighteen inches deep on an aver- 

 age, with a clay and sandy bottom. The swamp was covered 

 with a thick growth of alders. The upland appeared to be 

 almost fiUed, or paved, with small stones. The whole lot was 

 a very bad looking piece of land. In the spring of 1839, the 

 stones were picked off the upland, and it was ploughed for the 

 first time, which threw up as many more small stones as had 

 already been picked off. The alders were cut from the swamp, 

 and a ditch dug through the same to drain it. I then under- 

 took to plough the wet, or swamp land, with six oxen ; but 



