BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



He went to school in the little red school- 

 house across the valley, and as he grew 

 older he aspired to attend an academy. 

 But he had to make the opportunity for 

 himself, and only succeeded in doing so at 

 the age of seventeen, when he raised the 

 needful money by six months of teaching. 

 This enabled him in the autumn of 1854 

 to enter the Heading Literary Institute at 

 Ashland. He found the life there enjoy- 

 able, but his funds ran low by spring and 

 he was obliged to return to the farm. Un- 

 til September he labored among his native 

 fields, then took up teaching again. When 

 pay day came he set off for a seminary of 

 some note at Cooperstown, where a single 

 term brought his student days forever to 

 a close, and after another period of farm 

 work at home he borrowed a small sum of 

 money and journeyed to Illinois. Near 

 Freeport he secured a school at forty dol- 

 lars a month, which was much more than 

 he could have earned in the East. Yet 

 he gave up his position at the end of six 

 months. *' I came back," he says, *' because 

 of * the girl I left behind me ' ; and it was 

 pretty hard to stay even as long as I did." 

 Soon afterward he married. His total 



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