years of age, when I
entered the employ of Mr. Charles Burnett, of Skaneateles, N. Y., in his
dry goods and grocery store. I remained with Mr. Burnett one year and
then, as he retired from business, I came to Oswego and entered the drug
store of the late James Bickford, jr.

Not liking the drug business, I at the end of the first year entered into
the employment of the late Worden Newkirk, as a dry goods clerk, with whom
I remained three years, and was afterwards for a short time in the large
dry goods house of Downs & VanWick, of Chicago.

Thrown out of employment in Chicago by the panic of 1856, and being fond
of adventure, when the great "Lager Beer Riot," as it was called, broke
out in that city in the spring of that year, I went to the city hall in
response to a call for three hundred special police and was sworn in as a
special to serve during the riot. The riot lasted three days and was a
lively skirmish.

We took three hundred prisoners in the first three hours and there were a
number killed and wounded.

The rioters marched across Clark street bridge in good order, armed with
shot guns, pistols, hatchets and clubs, and were met by the police at the
corner of Clark and Lake streets, where the first conflict took place.

Almost the first shot fired by the rioters wounded the man next to me in
the arm near the shoulder, and he fell as though he had been knocked down
by a powerful blow. I was too closely engaged to pay any attention to him
and for a time it was pretty lively work for all of us.

I commenced business for myself in the spring or summer of 1857, by
starting a fruit, confectionery and oyster store on West First street,
about where the middle of the Lake Shore Hotel now is. I moved around on
Utica street while the "Revenue Block" (now the Lake Shore block) was
under process of construction, and upon its completion, took the store in
the north end of that block, which I kept until after the war of the
Rebellion broke out. Having served six years in the Old Oswego Guards, and
become somewhat proficient in the drill, I was anxious to join one of the
regiments then being raised. But the store could not be disposed of, and
needed, at that time, my individual attention. Finally, without disposing
of my store, I enlisted in the 12th N. Y. Cavalry, which was then being
recruited in Oswego, by Major Ward Gasper; who intended at first to raise
two companies of Cavalry for the "Harris Light," but subsequently