CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 67 
come to Carlisle this spring. We might have procured some valuable 
birds together, which I simply can not get. You speak of my coming 
to Washington. This I should like very much in May, but I think I 
had better stay here till the Migratory birds have passed. Nothing 
would delight me more than to spend a week or two among the patent 
office, Congress Library, &c. How would I get my baggage there if 
I walked? Give my best love to Aunt & Uncle Penrose, Sal, Clem 
& Charley. Charley, I suppose, does not remember me, however. 
Your affec. Brother 
Spencer F. Barrp. 
P. S. Do you know Frances Markoe Jun. Secretary of the 
(National) Institute. I was introduced to him last fall in Philadel- 
phia and he wanted me to exchange Carlisle fossils for Tertiary. 
I am going to get Alex. Logan to haul a 4-horse load of stones from 
his hill, when I shall have enough to last a while. I will make up a 
set for the Institute if they wish it. Get a good many duplicates of 
such birds as Blue Grey Flycatcher, and others; Red Birds, Carolina 
Wrens and in fact any thing you can come across. They will do for 
exchange with Phillips and the rest. I will send the Gull, flycatcher, 
& Shot, by Grandmother if she has room. There is no news in town 
except that a Daguerreotype man is here; he has taken Uncle William 
& Dr. Foster. Both admirable. 
On the ninth of April the Journal records: “Heavy 
rain. Did nothing!” The exclamation point is surely 
appropriate in view of his usual incessant activity. 
On the 19th he met for the first time Colonel Churchill,” 
his future father-in-law, who came to Carlisle to inspect 
the garrison, and stayed at his Grandmother Biddle’s. 
20 Sylvester Churchill, born in 1783 at Woodstock, Vermont, 
married in 1812 Lucy Hunter. He served in the war of 1812, and 
with high honors in the Mexican War as Inspector General. He was 
retired in 1856, but offered his services to the Government in 1861, 
and died Dec. 7, 1862. His daughter, Mary Helen, was born at 
Windsor, Vermont, Aug. 30, 1821, and died at Washington, D. C., 
Dec. 22, 1891. 
