holding general conventions and sending
itinerants among the people in the villages and country. Some of these
doubtless had penetrated to Adams and converted Daniel Read, who was
always liberal in his belief. He was an inveterate reader and pored
over a vast amount of theological discussion which attracted so much
attention in his day. The family moved from Cheshire to a suburb of
Adams called Bowen's Corners. Near their house was the tavern, its
proprietor known to all the people roundabout as "Uncle Sam" Bowen. He
and Daniel Read never wearied in setting forth the merits of "free
salvation." They were the only two persons in all that section of the
country who did not believe in a literal hell. It was the common
sentiment then that only those disbelieved in endless punishment who
had reason to be afraid of it, and, since both these men were exemplary
in every other respect, it was impossible for their friends to
understand their aberration. Susannah Read, in the language of that
time, "wore the skin off her knees," praying night and day that God
would bring her husband back into the fold, but her prayers never were
answered. Every Sunday regularly he accompanied her to church, and
faithfully contributed to the support of the preacher, but he died, at
the ripe old age of eighty-four, firm in his Universalist faith.

Susannah was the care-taker of the family and looked after the farm,
inheriting the Richardson energy and thrift. Daniel was genial,
good-natured and very intelligent, but his health being impaired from
army service, he was willing she should take the lead in business
matters. The farm was one of only a hundred acres, but was carefully
and economically managed and, at their death, the Reads left about
$10,000, which was then considered a snug little fortune. Lucy, one of
seven children, was born into a home of peace and comfort and had a
happy and uneventful childhood. She attended the district school, was a
fair writer and speller and, like her father very fond of reading. She
learned to cook and sew, make butter and cheese, spin and weave, and
was very domestic in all her tastes. The Reads and Anthonys were near
neighbors, and although differing widely in religious belief, a subject
of much prominence in those days, they were on terms of intimate
friendship even before the ties were made still closer by marriage
between the two families.

Both Anthonys and Laphams were Quakers as far back as the sect wa