and ease of their
existence, excepting the war of 1812-13, between the United States and
England, when my father had to shoulder the musket, as captain of a
volunteer company, and leave his family, to fight for his country.
This was the only eventful period of their lives, until my father
became fired with the Western Fever, that about that time (the year
1818) began to rage, and which resulted in the purchase and settlement
of a cotton plantation in North Alabama. Alabama was then the Eldorado
of the far West, and I well remember the disappointment I felt, upon
our arrival there, at not seeing "money growing upon trees," and "good
old apple brandy flowing from their trunks!"

From this period commenced our misfortunes, which, although
trying to my parents, were, by dint of energy and perseverance, readily
overcome, at least so as to enable them to support and educate their
growing family--securing the comforts of life, with some of its
luxuries--until, very naturally, aiming at more than this, my father
again made a sacrifice of much, with the hope of gaining the more, by
removing to St. Louis--the result of which I have already told you.

My father was honest, frank, social, communicative, and
confiding. He possessed an unbounded confidence in his species,
believing every man a gentleman who seemed to be one, or was by others
esteemed as such, and, in transactions with them, considered their
"word as good as their bond." From which, as soon as the old and
well-tried associations of his native State were dissolved, he suffered
many pecuniary losses. He was passionate, but not revengeful; gay and
animated, but subject to occasional reactions, when he became much
depressed. He was a high-toned, honorable gentleman, very neat and
exact in his personal appearance, but entirely free from pretension.

My mother was orphaned in infancy, and brought up by her grand-parents
--Mr. and Mrs. Etheldred Taylor. She was proud of her
ancestry. I can see and hear her now, when, under circumstances where
her pride was touched, she would say, "Daughter, remember that pure and
rich blood flows in your veins--the best in the land. If your mother
had to live in a hollowed stump, she would be what she is; no outward
circumstances could lower or elevate her one iota;" and she would raise
her proud head with the air of an unrighteously dethroned queen. This,
I may say, was mother's great, if not her only fault. She was a pure,
lov