ried on a heavy
business; he erected a magnificent mansion, for that age and
country, on his land adjoining the town of Kaskaskia.

This tract of land was the property of my mother when she married
my father. My grandfather Doyle was a wealthy man. He died in
1809 at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and left his whole fortune to my
mother and her sister Charlotte, by will. They being his only
children, he divided the property equally between them.

My father and mother were both Catholics, were raised in that
faith; I was christened in that Church. When about one year old,
my mother being sick, I was sent to a French nurse, a negro
woman. At this time my sister Eliza was eleven years old, but
young as she was she had to care for my mother and do all the
work of the household. To add to the misfortune, my father began
to drink heavily and was soon very dissipated; drinking and
gambling were his daily occupation. The interest and care of his
family were no longer a duty with him; he was seldom present to
cheer and comfort his lonely, afflicted wife.

The house was one mile from town, and we had no neighbors nearer
than that. The neglect and indifference on the part of my father
towards my afflicted mother served to increase her anguish and
sorrow, until death came to her relief. My mother's death left us
miserable indeed; we were (my sister and I) thrown upon the wide
world, helpless, and, I might say, without father or mother. My
father when free from the effects of intoxicating drink was a
kind-hearted, generous, noble man, but from that time forward he
was a slave to drink - seldom sober.

My aunt Charlotte was a spit-fire; she was married to a man by
the name of James Conner, a Kentuckian by birth. They lived ten
miles north of us. My sister went to live with her aunt, but the
treatment she received was so brutal that the citizens complained
to the county commissioners, and she was taken away from her aunt
and bound out to Dr. Fisher, with whose family she lived until
she became of age.

In the meantime the doctor moved to the city of Vandalia,
Illinois. I remained with my nurse until I was eight years of
age, when I was taken to my aunt Charlotte's to be educated. I
had been in a family which talked French so long that I had
nearly lost all knowledge of my mother tongue. The children at
school called me Gumbo, and teased me so much that I became
disgusted with the French language and tried to forget it - which
has been