sometimes rode with him when on
the circuit, and always on horseback. It was an adage in the
family, even to her grandchildren, that she was always ready for
a visit. I never knew her to scold, much less to strike, her
children. She was our sure refuge against grandmother, between
whom and my mother there was, however, the warmest affection. When
Aunt Elizabeth married Mr. Parker, grandmother followed her daughter
to their home in Mansfield.

When my mother, by the death of her husband, was left a widow with
eleven children and spare means of support, she received the sympathy
of all her neighbors and the kindly encouragement of everyone in
Lancaster. As her children scattered her resources increased, so
that after one year of widowhood she was quite independent. Like
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield she was "passing rich" on four
hundred dollars a year. Soon the houses of her children were open
to her, but she clung to Lancaster until all her children had taken
flight, when, in the summer of 1844, she accepted the invitation
of her sons to make her home in Mansfield and removed there. She
had there her house and home. Her two youngest daughters, and the
writer of this, were her family, but in a very brief period all
around her were married. She still continued to occupy her home,
and always with some of her numerous grandchildren as guests. She
often visited her children, and her coming was always regarded by
them as a favor conferred by her. And so her tranquil life flowed
on until 1852, when she attended the state fair at Cleveland and
contracted a bad cold. She returned to Mansfield only to die on
the 23rd day of September, 1852, at the residence of her daughter,
Mrs. Bartley.

Before closing this sketch of my ancestors, it seems proper that
I refer to their religious beliefs and modes of worship. In England
they were classed as Puritans, and were members of the Presbyterian
church. In Connecticut they followed the doctrine and faith of
the Congregational church of Anthony Stoddard. Daniel Sherman had
his father were deacons of the congregation of Mr. Stoddard, and
his granddaughter, the wife of Taylor Sherman, carried her faith
and practice into her family, and maintained to her death the strict
morals, and close observance of the Sabbath day, that was the
established rule and practice of the Connecticut Congregationalist.

My mother's family, the Hoyts, were, with scarcely an exception,
members