CHAPTER I. 



Youth and Training. 



Ancestry — birth — childhood — early taste for natural 

 history — school and college life — training for the 

 ministry — pastor braun — licensed to preach to three 

 congregations in his native county, rexnselaer. x. y. — 

 ordination and ('fl\n(4e of field. 



JOHN BACHxMAN has left us in his own luuid- 

 writing a few records, and very few, of his 

 ancestry. He laid no undue stress on descent ; 

 yet would often say to his family, " 1 rejoice that 

 I have come from an excellent stock : for good, pure 

 blood shows itself in men, as well as in animals, and 

 thus far I prize it.'^ 



In 1S58, he wrote a sketch of Ins life for a scien- 

 tific journal in Europe. In it he says: 



'' My paternal ancestor, was a native of the Can- 

 ton of Berne, Switzerland. After visiting England, 

 he came to America as private Secretary to William 

 Penn. Einally he settled near Easton, Penn, As a 

 reward for faithful services rendered to the infant 

 Colony, the Government granted him two Town- 

 ships of land called, ' Upper and Lower Sackeny,' 

 which are now settled by his numerous descendants. 

 He was the seventh generation from the above. My 

 ancestors on my mother's side, were from the 

 kingdom of Wiirtemberg, Germany." 



