Proceedings of the Society. 



3 



only brother of Jonas Chickering, celebrated for his skill and enter- 

 prise in the manufacture and improvement of piano-fortes. 



Mr. Chickering's mother was of French ancestry; her maiden 

 name was Boutelle. To her were born four children — three sons and 

 one daughter — all yet living, except the subject of this writing. 



J. B. Chickering spent the first years of his life on a New England 

 farm, where he was trained to habits of hardihood, frugalit}* and in- 

 dustry. When but eight years of age he lost his father. Then fell 

 upon the boy the hard necessity of self-support, and the filial duty of 

 relieving his widow mother. We suspect he had but few holidays. 

 Take eight from fifty-four and it leaves forty-six. So many years did 

 J. B. Chickering toil in this " working-da}* world." 



The farm was Mr. Chickering's primary school, and from it he learned 

 much that was practical and that gave practical direction to his after 

 work. When he reached the age of sixteen he resolved, with his 

 mother's consent, to go forth from the home of his bo3'hood and try his 

 fortunes alone in the struggling world. The cash capital with which 

 this confident Yankee lad began life was forty-two cents. 



The winter of 1843 found young Chickering an eager pupil in the 

 Appleton Institute, a good classical and scientific academy, in his 

 native township. Not having money to pay for his tuition, he gave 

 honest work for useful education. Part of the time he rang- the 

 academy bell, and may we not believe that a task so regular helped to 

 fix upon him the habits of punctuality and regularity which became 

 the very wings of his success in later years. He could never tolerate 

 tardiness or neglect of set duties. 



For about six years Chickering attended school at inters-als. work- 

 ing, we are told, and can easily believe, on an average eighteen 

 hours a day. He graduated at the head of his classes. The continu- 

 ity of hisstud}* was broken by the necessity of earning money, to which 

 end he found employment in the winters of 1846, '47, '48, '49, in teaching 

 district schools. He was licensed in November, 1846, and again in 

 November, 1847, "to teach the scholars in District No. 2," in the town 

 of Leonminster. In 1849 the School Committee of Gardner found 

 him "qualified to teach the South East School." While teaching at 

 Gardner he was in his twenty-third year. Afterward he was employed 

 for a time in Rev. David Perry's family school for boys, near Boston. 



Mr. Chickering pursued his studies after graduating at Appleton 

 Institute, but he never completed that rather indefinite intellectual 

 labor called taking a college course. The title of A. M. was bestowed 



