202 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 



family tradition respecting the occasion of their coming to this coun- 

 try, may serve to illustrate the history of the times. The story is, 

 that, about two hundred years ago, the father of the family, who re- 

 sided in England, a man of large property and great respectability, 

 called together his five sons and addressed them thus: " America is 

 to be a great country ; I am too old to emigrate to it myself; but if 

 any one of you will go, I wih give him a double share of my proper- 

 ty." The youngest son instantly declared his willingness to go, and 

 his brothers gave their consent. He soon set off for the New World, 

 and landed at Boston, in the neighborhood of which place he pur- 

 chased a large tract of land, where he enjoyed the satisfaction of 

 receiving two visits from his venerable father. His son, John Fay, 

 from whom the subject of this memoir is immediately descend- 

 ed, removed from Boston to Westborough, where he became the 

 proprietor of a large tract of land, since known by the name of the 

 Fay-Farm. 



From Mrs. B. the sister of Mr. Whitney, we have derived some 

 particulars respecting his childhood and youth, and we shall present 

 the anecdotes to our readers in the artless style in which they are 

 related by our correspondent, beheving that they would be more ac- 

 ceptable in this simple dress than if, according to the modest sugges- 

 tion of the writer, they should be invested with a more labored dic- 

 tion. The following incident, though trivial in itself, will serve to 

 show at how early a period certain quahties, of strong feelling tempered 

 by prudence, for which Mr. Whitney afterwards became distinguished, 

 began to display themselves. When he was six or seven years old, 

 he had overheard the kitchen maid, in a fit of passion, calling his 

 mother, who was in a delicate state of health, hard names, at which 

 he expressed great displeasure to his sister. " She thought (said he) 

 that I was not big enough to know any thing ; but I can tell her, I 

 am too big to hear her talk so about my mother, I think she ought 

 to have a flogging, and if I knew how to bring It about, she should 

 have one." His sister advised him to tell their fadier. '• No (he 

 rephed,) that will not do ; it will hurt his feelings and mother's too ; 

 and besides, it is likely the girl will say she never said so, and that 

 would make a quarrel. It is best to say nothing about It." 



Indications of his mechanical genius were likewise developed at a 

 very early age. Of his early passion for such employments, his 

 sister gives the following account. " Our father had a workshop, 

 and someumes made wheels, of difi^erent kinds, and chairs. He 



