floor.

The district school was about half a mile north and was kept in what was
called the VanPetten school house. Here it was that the author first
attended school, which was taught that summer by Miss Rachel Lester--now
Mrs. McFadden. For seven seasons I attended school there under the
instruction of different teachers, among whom were, Miss Sarah J. McCrea,
now Mrs. George Turner, Mr. Emerson Crane, Mr. Mathew B. VanPetten,
Obediah Cooper, Dennis Cooper, John B. VanPetten, and others. Up to the
time of my mother's death, which occurred January 17, 1845, just before I
was fifteen years old, I had attended school summer and winter, with the
exception of part of the last two summers, when I was obliged to stay at
home to assist in the farm work, and being easy to learn, had acquired a
fair education in the primary branches for a boy of my age--14 years.

At the death of my mother the only legacy I inherited was a robust
constitution, a cheerful and happy disposition, and the faculty of always
looking upon the bright side of life. These characteristics were clearly
inherited from my mother, to whom obstacles that would have seemed
insurmountable to most women seemed only an incentive to more determined
efforts.

To her household duties were added the work of the loom and the spinning
wheel, and up to the time of her death there were very few clothes worn by
the family that she did not weave and afterwards make up into garments.

The linen trowsers and shirts that were bleached to snowy whiteness for
our summer wear, and the full suits of comfortable sheeps-gray for winter,
were alike the production of her own toil. The dresses worn by the girls,
especially those for Sunday wear, were also the production of her loom,
and were dyed and pressed by herself. Besides all this, all the time that
could be spared from the duties of her own household was employed in
weaving for others.

Both she and my father were members of the old Reformed Dutch Church at
Cato--now Meridian--that was at that time under the pastorage of the good
old dominie Houghman, and her well worn Bible bore testimony to her
faithfulness in her Christian duties. She was faithful in instilling into
the hearts of her children the religion she practiced, but rather appealed
to their sense of duty than to the fear of punishment.

After the death of my mother I followed the pursuit of a farmer, attending
the district school during the winter, until I was 19