JOHN BURROUGHS 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



BY CLIFTON JOHNSON 



In the town of Roxbury, among the western Catskills, 

 was born April 3, 1837, John Burroughs. The house in 

 which he first saw the hght was an unpainted, squarish 

 structure, only a single story high, with a big chimney 

 in the middle. This house was removed a few years 

 later, and a better and somewhat larger one, which still 

 stands, was built in its place. The situation is very 

 pleasing. Roundabout is a varied country of heights, 

 dales, woods and pastures, and cultivated fields. The 

 dwelling is in a wide upland hollow that falls away to 

 the east and south into a deep valley, beyond which 

 rise line on line of great mounding hills. These turn 

 blue in the distance and look like immense billows 

 rolling in from a distant ocean. 



There were ten children in the Burroughs family, 

 and John was the seventh of this numerous household. 

 He was a true country boy, acquainted with all the 

 hard work and all the pleasures of an old-fashioned 

 farm life. His people were poor and he had his own 

 way to make in the world, but the environment was 

 on the whole a salutarv one. 



He has always had a marked affection for the place 

 of his birth, and he rejoices in the fact that from an 

 eminence near his present home on the Hudson he can 

 see mountains that are visible from his native hills. 



