physical work was respected, where help for the needy and
unfortunate was spontaneous, and where education was regarded as so
important that Grandfather Anthony built a school for his children and
the neighbors' in his front yard. Her childhood was close enough to
the Revolution to make Grandfather Read's part in it very real and a
source of great pride. Eagerly and often she listened to the story of
how he enlisted in the Continental army as soon as the news of the
Battle of Lexington reached Cheshire and served with outstanding
bravery under Arnold at Quebec, Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, and
Colonel Stafford at Bennington while his young wife waited anxiously
for him throughout the long years of the war.

* * * * *

The wide valley in the Berkshire Hills where Susan grew up made a
lasting impression on her. There was beauty all about her--the fruit
trees blooming in the spring, the meadows white with daisies, the
brook splashing over the rocks and sparkling in the summer sun, the
flaming colors of autumn, the strength and companionship of the hills
when the countryside was white with snow. She seldom failed to watch
the sun set behind Greylock.

Her father's cotton mill flourished. Regarded as one of the most
promising, successful young men of the district, he soon attracted the
attention of Judge John McLean, a cotton manufacturer of Battenville,
New York, who, eager to enlarge his mills, saw in Daniel Anthony an
able manager. Daniel, always ready to take the next step ahead,
accepted McLean's offer, and on a sunny July day in 1826, Susan drove
with her family through the hills forty-four miles to the new world of
Battenville.

Here in the home of Judge McLean, she saw Negroes for the first time,
Negroes working to earn their freedom. Startled by their black faces,
she was a little afraid, but when her father explained that in the
South they could be sold like cattle and torn from their families, her
fear turned to pity.

At the district school, taught by a woman in summer and by a man in
the winter, she learned to sew, spell, read, and write, and she wanted
to study long division but the schoolmaster, unable to teach it, saw
no reason why a woman should care for such knowledge. Her father, then
realizing the need of better education for his five children, Guelma,
Susan, Hannah, Daniel, and Mary, established a school for them in the
new brick building where he had opened a store. L