56 AI.EXANDER wii^son: poe^-nattjraust 



tramping through New Jersey, and for a short time 

 he taught school near Frankfort, Pennsylvania. It 

 was a life of trial and change that he was leading 

 now, so that all of this occurred in the space of less 

 than two years, for by the end of 1795 he was living 

 in Milestown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, 

 where he remained, apparently residing through the 

 entire time with one family, until the ist of May, 

 1801. 



Here he was the teacher of a school of about forty 

 scholars, in the midst of a superstitious but "sober," 

 industrious, and penurious people, who were nearly 

 all Germans. Meanwhile, he studied much himself, 

 mastered the German language, learned and prac- 

 tised surveying, wrote verses occasionally and took 

 his exercise in long cross-country walks or rides. 

 His health during this time was undoubtedly bad, 

 for once or twice he was forced to give up his teach- 

 ing, but he never complained throughout it all; 

 though to his Scottish friends who questioned him 

 whether they would be wise in coming to America, 

 he wrote that they must consider "the uncertainty 

 of the country agreeing with their constitutions (for 

 it has been, I fear, fatal to mine.)" 



William Duncan had not remained with him dur- 

 ing these years, but, giving up the loom, he had gone 

 to Ovid, Cayuga County, New York, where he was 

 managing a farm, which he and his uncle possessed 

 together. There a short time later, his mother, — 

 Wilson's sister Mary, — ^who had come over from 

 the old country, joined him, with her other children. 



Wilson's life at Milestown ended suddenly. Just 

 why he left the place we cannot say, but the circum- 



