Church was
established. He was a laborer in the War Department during forty years and
died in 1885.--From interviews with Mr. Brent and other members of the
family.

[10] Hamilton Edmondson was sold in the New Orleans slave market about the
year 1840 and took the name of his purchaser and was thereafter known as
Hamilton Taylor. He learned the trade of cooper and was allowed a
percentage of his earnings, but was unfortunate in having his first savings
stolen. He eventually acquired his freedom through the payment of $1,000.

[11] He continued in the cooperage business, was highly respected and
became comparatively wealthy, having a place of business on Girard near
Camp street. John S. Brent, who is his nephew and the son of the John Brent
heretofore mentioned in this narrative, spent a week with his uncle,
Hamilton Taylor, in 1865, on his return from Texas, when, as a member of
the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, he was mustered out of the
service.--Interview with John S. Brent.

[12] The fame of the Edmondson children through the incident of the _Pearl_
was now wide indeed, and after the Brooklyn meeting there had been
made many suggestions looking to their education and further benefit.
The movement for the education of Emily and Mary was crystallized
into a definite proposition and they were both placed in a private
school a short distance out of New York. Miss Myrtilla Miner had
already established her school for girls at Washington and had moved
to a new location at about what is now the square bounded by 19th,
20th, N and O streets. Here, after returning from New York, Emily
assisted Miss Miner in the school and it was in one of the little
cabins on this place that the Edmondson family established their home
after moving in from the country. Miss Miner, speaking of the
establishment of her school at its new location, says: "Emily and I
lived here alone, unprotected except by God, the rowdies occasionally
stoning the house at evening and we nightly retired in the
expectation that the house would be fired before morning. Emily and I
have been seen practicing shooting with a pistol."--Myrtilla Miner,
"A Memoir," Congressional Library; "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The parents of the children, however, were not yet entirely relieved
of the fears that had so long haunted them, for there were still the
two youngest childre