CHAPTER I 

 CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION IN AMERICA 



Jacob Johnson of Wallingford was not the first of 

 his family in this country. Two generations of his 

 forebears may be found on the genealogical lists; but 

 to their descendants these earlier Johnsons are only 

 names. The tradition handed down by grandmothers 

 and great-aunts has always begun ^dth Jacob of Wal- 

 lingford, about whom tangible knowledge has survived 

 as one of the "West Farmers" of that part of Walling- 

 ford which is now Cheshire, Connecticut, where he 

 owned many acres and reared many children, living 

 long and respected in that rural community. One of 

 his sons, Abner, was a merchant, a man of some pros- 

 perity and captain of the Wallingford train-band at 

 the time of the French and Indian War. His son, 

 Jacob Johnson, married Esther Hotchkiss, of whose 

 wisdom, sagacity and ability many tales are still 

 extant. When a messenger came to summon her hus- 

 band, who was home on furlough, back to service in 

 the Revolutionary War, she hastened to the field where 

 he was ploughing, bade him farewell, lifted the reins 

 from his neck and, placing them around her own, 

 called her small son to help her finish not only the 

 furrow but the field. She lived to a revered old age 

 and saw four generations of her descendants. With 

 a family of fourteen children, she had fair field for 

 the use of all her ''faculty" and self-reliance. Her 

 second daughter, Amelia, married Daniel Potter, a 



