One of the people; his own story

Preface

Were I writing the preface to the biography of some other fellow it would be, if slang were permissible, dead easy, but to write a preface to an autobiography is embarrassing, to say the least. Place yourself before a full length plate glass mirror and take a good look at the person you are going to talk about. What can you say about him ?

The result of such an attempt would necessarily be more or less egotistical, and in this, as in other similar efforts, the I's have it, no doubt. To tell the truth and state facts will force egotism to the surface, no matter how much you try to suppress it.

I have no apologies to make for any shortcomings in the narrative. It is simply the story of a plain, unpretentious citizen of a great country where each life is one of the restless atoms in the teeming sea of humanity. It tells what happened to one of these lives, and what it caused to happen to others during seventy-five years of existence, and, with the exception of some episodes out of the ordinary experiences of men, it will have, to a large extent, its counterpart in that of millions of the common citizens who are ever struggling for the something beyond.

i The ups and downs in life's earlier years, and in the period of manhood; in peace and in war; in prison and out of prison ; in sickness and in health ; in travels on land and on sea; in business and out of business, in love and otherwise,

iii iv PREFACE

with all its changing vicissitudes, make up the story as here written down with no attempt at embellishment, but with a strict adherence to truth.

I hope this record of a somewhat strenuous career may have a passing interest to a busy but sympathetic generation of fellow-workers. If the reader may draw from it some moral as well as some practical lessons, it will, perhaps, prove useful as well as, I trust, entertaining.

B. B. P.

CoLTON, California, October, 1906.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Boyhood Days i

II Aspirations 15

Chapter I. Boyhood Days

I WAS born on the third day of March, 1832, in the city of Auburn, N. Y., where my parents were then Hving. I am satisfied that I was one of the party present on the occasion, but I cannot recall any circumstance connected with the event. I have a letter written by my mother to her sister in Connecticut corroborating the above. The first event impressed upon my memory was going to church with my mother and an aunt, dressed in a suit of scarlet in which was comprised the gorgeous embodiment of my first pants. The next ray of memory reaches back to December, 1835, when I went to the funeral of my mother with my father in a covered sleigh, through a very deep snow. This was the first tim.e I remember seeing my father.

Of events previous to the time I first went to school, at the age of four years, only a few faint recollections remain. But the good old Mrs. Crocker, who kept a private nursery school in her own house, is well remembered. When any of the children got sick she put them to bed. I remember havin!2r the earache at one time while there. Mrs. Crocker soothed it and put me to bed. How the children loved this kind old lady!

My mother's sister kept house for my father after my mother's death, and her daughter lived with the family, and was married at my father's house. This was the first marriage I had ever witnessed, and I thought the bride the most beautiful being that I had ever seen. The ceremony, to me, was very impressive, and thereafter I always held my cousin, the bride, in the greatest esteem. She afterwards became a star actress of beauty and talent, and played to crowded houses in all the large cities of the United States. Who says that impressions of childhood are not sometimes prophetic ?

My aunt soon went to live with her daughter, and my father's half-sister kept house for us. I had a brother two and a half years younger than myself and only a year old when my mother died of pneumonia — in those days called quick consumption. JMy half-aunt was a veritable mother to us, and believed in the old maxim, ''Spare the rod and spoil the child." Though kind, many of our shortcomings were promptly attended to at the end of a switch, and I frequently went through a lively gymnastic exercise, accompanied with yells, tears, promises, and burning sensations in the rear that subsided in due time, and I stood corrected until the next act in the drama came on.

Every year, during the summer or fall, our family took a trip of about seventy miles southeast of Auburn to Chenango County to visit Ezekiel Porter, the father and grandfather, an old Revolutionary soldier who lived on a farm. We always made the trip with a pair of horses and carriage, with the trunks strapped on behind, stage fashion. It took two days to make the journey, stopping for the night either at Homer or Cortland on the way to and from our destination. Those villages as they looked then are as fresh in my mind to-day as they were when I saw them sixty years ago.

Upon the arrival of the guests at the old homestead a flock of sheep was gathered into a pen at the barn and a fine fat one killed. Of course a town boy was bound to be a nuisance while his uncle was catching a sheep, so I was kept in the house while this was going on, but my uncle had brought the sheep to the back of the house, under a tree, and from a window I watched the proceeding of cutting its throat with the greatest curiosity and delight. Somehow I got out and was soon covered with blood, to the supreme disgust of my aunt, but it was a great treat for me.

Soon after this my father married his second wife, and my stepmother treated us very kindly, but she employed an old woman as nurse, who proved to be an old hag. My father was away from home most of the time, and during his absence a great deal of whisky was drunk at the house, and I was the boy that carried the jug to and fro from the grocery. It was a little brown jug that held about two quarts. I remember very well how it looked and how ashamed I was to be seen carrying it back and forth. One morning the jug was started rather early, with myself as a close companion to see it safely to and fro. To my disgust and surprise, the same afternoon it was started again, and very reluctantly I went with it. On the way I passed a pump in front of a hotel, and a bright idea struck me. I would fill up that jug at the pump and save time, as I had some very important engagement with some boys from whom I had been called to escort the jug. With a conscious feeling of justification and a recklessness beyond my years, a disobedience of orders occurred. Water took the place of whisky, and the jug and I returned home, a Httle uncertain what the outcome would be. Parting company with the jug at the kitchen table I rushed off to find the boys. I delayed my return home to a late hour, crawled over the backyard fence, went in at the back door, got into the pantry, stuffed my pockets full of dry bread, and, unobserved, crawled upstairs, covered myself up in bed, where I took a quiet repast and soon after fell asleep amidst a bedful of crumbs.

The next morning I hesitated about getting up, and conceived the idea of playing sick, but my empty stomach would not allow it. The aforesaid old hag in a piping voice commanded me to come to breakfast at once. As she closed the door I caught the appetizing odors from the breakfast table. My place was soon filled at the table and my meal finished without a word on my part. I tried to get out of the house unobserved, hoping the little discrepancy of the day before would blow over without a row. But, alas ! my joyous hopes were crushed. The old hag clutched me by the collar and thumped me down into a wood-bottomed chair. With a rasping squeal I was told that I must sit there until she was ready to attend to me. Crying in childhood was not my habit, but the evenness of my mind was very much disturbed. The next act was the production of a rope from a nearby cupboard, when she proceeded to tie my arms and lead me out to the woodshed and fasten me to a post. A well-seasoned switch was brought forth and used with great vigor over my shoulders and legs, while I writhed in agony. But the drubbing was short, for she got out of wind on account of the debauch of the day before and had to sit down. Then she told me she had intended to make the blood run down my legs before she stopped and would surely do it the next time I cut such a caper as the one of the day before. Of course I had nothing to say, but when my father, came home he was fully informed of all the particulars. Soon after my stepmother was taken sick and died in less than a year after my father married her. Again my father's half-sister took charge of the household affairs, and I had a good mother again. Whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, vaccination, and children's diseases were gone through with safety.

At school I learned very rapidly, and soon acquired a taste for reading books of travel, history, and lives of distinguished men. What I read I remembered well. I was not a dull boy, but rather mischievous ; loved fun and play, and was what might be called an average bright boy. When I was six to seven years of age several of the schoolboys would go three or four miles out of town to see the cars come in at full speed (from fifteen to twenty miles an hour). At that time there was a railroad between Auburn and Syracuse. It was the farthest west of any railroad in operation at that time — 1838. The road was laid with wooden rails with wrought-iron straps spiked on top. These bars of iron would often curl up and punch a hole in the bottom of the cars, and many accidents occurred from this cause. There were three locomotives on the road, named, respectively, the Cayuga, the Auburn, and the Syracuse. This road is now a branch of the main line of the New York Central, upon which I rode 148 miles on the Empire State Express in 160 minutes, and the train ran so smoothly that a glass of water on the window sill would not slop over. I wonder how it will be in 1939?

Traits of character began to show during these years of boyhood, and many an escapade and boyish prank took place, a few oi which I now recall. In 1838 the boys of the immediate vicinity, from seven to twelve years of age, formed a company of about twenty lads and began to drill as soldiers under the tutelage of a boy thirteen or fourteen years of age, by the name of Charles H. Stewart, who, during the Civil War, became colonel of a volunteer regiment raised at Auburn, N. Y. This lad seemed to be a natural born commander, and under his training we became so proficient in drill that we attracted much attention from the citizens of the town. The uniform consisted of red paper caps. We were armed with wooden toy guns, and a very nice flag of stars and stripes was furnished by the fond mothers of the embryo soldiers. I was exceedingly proud when I was chosen to act as color bearer. Our captain, like the Duke of York with ten thousand men, marched up the street and then marched down again. Our martial music emanated from a large toy drum and two boys with big whistles. The amount of noise created by that company of small boys was astonishing. I remember an Irish lad of ten summers who wanted to join the company, but he was objected to on account of his not being a full-blooded !A.merican ; but the captain finally concluded to let him join if he would always march at the rear and act as a servant of the captain. Our motto was, "Put none but Americans on guard."

In the year 1840 Harrison and Tyler were nominated by the Whigs, and the "hard-cider" campaign followed. They built an immense log cabin in the center of the town, nailed coon skins on the gable end, rolled in barrels of hard cider, and started the campaign with a rush. Martin Van Buren was the Democratic candidate for President, and during the fall made a visit to Auburn, He was President at the time.

His visit was during a Democratic convention, and I got a good look at him as he passed in a carriage, with hat off, bowing to the people along the way. He was the first President of the United States that I had ever seen, and of course it made a strong impression upon my mind. I supposed I had seen one of the greatest men on earth. Boylike, during a Democratic convention I was an enthusiastic Democrat, and during a Whig convention I was a first-class Whig, and with the rest of the boys sang Whig songs with great gusto.

Soon after Van Buren's visit the Whigs had a great convention, held a barbecue, roasted an ox whole, and baked the largest johnnycake that had ever been seen. It was a foot thick and eight by sixteen feet in width and length. It was on a platform, placed where all could see it as they passed. As soon as the procession was over tables were set in the middle of the street, in front of the log cabin, and a stuffed coon was raised on the end of a pole about thirty feet above the huge johnnycake. Preparations were made to feed everybody. The platform at the end of the log cabin was large enough to set a table for speakers, singers, and bandsmen ; also three or four barrels of hard cider. Hard cider in tin dippers was freely given away to anyone who wanted it, from a back window of the log cabin. One of my chums and myself kept together, and often visited the hard-cider window in the rear. We got places at the table also, and filled up on roast beef and johnnycake, well washed down with hard cider.

Speaking, singing, and band playing were kept up for hours, but we two boys continued our visits to the back window for hard cider until we were happy as lords, and, picking up some stumps of cigars, got a light and commenced smoking. Arm in arm, with hats tilted to one side, we started up the street for home, yelling for "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." After a while there came a pause in the hilarity. Both of us were taken sick, vomiting roast beef, johnnycake, and cider in great profusion. We sat down on the curbstone for a while and felt a little better, but still very much intoxicated. However, we lit our cigars again, and, reeling our way along, started for home. Just then we were met by a woman, who grabbed me by the collar and violently shook me. The woman (my aunt) led me rapidly home, my steps quickened every now and then by a good switching about my legs, causing me to forget all about "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." She took me home and tied me in a chair, but I was too drunk to rebel or remember anything until the next day, when I found myself sick in bed.

A few days afterward my father came home, and at the dinner table my aunt related the v/hole proceeding to him, winding up by saying, "The idea of a boy whose father was a good Democrat following off a dirty Whig procession, whose members gave a boy of his size nasty old hard cider until he was drunk as a fool. Even after I had got him home he went to singing 'Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.' Another Whig convention would make a perfect rowdy of him." After the meal was over my father took me out into the woodshed, and before he got through with me I was more than anxious to promise never to do so again.

This escapade and its dire results will always help me to remember the Harrison and Tyler campaign of 1840, which was doubtless the most exciting campaign that ever occurred. "Two dollars a day and roast beef !" was the cry of the Whigs, but, like most political promises made during the excitement of a campaign, they did not materialize.

About this time my father sold out his business of manufacturing the first goose-neck hoes made in the United States to a hardware merchant of Auburn, N. Y., who soon after failed, and my father was left a poor man, as he could not collect a dollar from his bankrupt debtor. This discouraged him so much that he decided to leave Auburn. He soon after married a widow who lived in the town of Solon (afterward divided and the eastern part named Taylor), Cortland County, N. Y., and owned a farm about fourteen miles east of Cortland village, the county seat.

Up to this time — 1841 — I had been kept in school and had made good progress in reading, writing, spelling, geography, and mental arithmetic, and had commenced to learn grammar. In those days children were not pushed and rushed with more lessons to learn than they had time to learn them in. Hours of study in school were from 9 to 12 A. M. and from i to 4 p. m. The remainder of the time was devoted to play and recreation, and they went to school in the morning fresh and ready to study with vigor. They learned better, and retained longer, that which they learned, than children do at the present day, and were physically, if not mentally, better off than the overworked children under the modern school system.

When we moved from Auburn to the farm in Solon it seemed like a new world, and I commenced a new existence. My pet dog. Trip, went with me and was a constant companion. I had taught the dog to be driven with reins and whip until he was well broken. The next morning after the arrival at the new home the dog was hitched up, and he and I started on a voyage of discovery. We trotted along for a couple of miles, when, reaching the top of a hill, we discovered a village. We rested a while, took a good look at it, and then started back home to announce the discovery. On the way back a crow flew across the road, rather low, and the dog saw him. He had never seen a crow before and off he started after him, dragging me through a patch of thistles and briars. He then broke away from me and ran, barking, over the fields after the crow. I followed until we reached a piece of woods, where the dog disappeared, and I went back to the road. Just then a man came along in a buggy, laughing very heartily, as he had seen the whole performance. He stopped and called to me and asked what the trouble was. I told him about it, and the man laughed more than ever. Feeling somewhat indignant at being laughed at, I started home after calling the dog. In a short time the dog came back with the reins broken, but I fixed them up and soon arrived home. I related my discovery to an admiring audience, but when I told about the dog and crow they all laughed as much as the man did that I had met. It was no laughing matter with me, as my clothes were badly torn, with face and hands scratched, but I soon got over it.

The same afternoon my new stepmother's son, five years older than myself, coaxed me to go fishing with him for trout and carry the fish while he did the fishing. Of course nothing could please me better than going fishing, so away we went to the creek. We soon had fifteen or twenty very nice trout, my new stepbrother teaching me how to string them on a forked stick. In crossing over the stream on a slippery log, off I went into about two and a half feet of water and got a good ducking. I was badly scared, but held on to the fish, My companion helped me out and laid

BOYHOOD DAYS ii

me on an old log in the sun to dry, while he went down the creek to catch some more fish. We went home with a good mess of fish and reached there before night. Thus passed my first day of country Hfe at my new home, and I went to bed pretty well tired out with my day's adventures.

I was nine years of age, rather small, but had great will power, fair health, was rather independent, loved fun and ready for a fight if imposed on, was quick in movement, and could outrun or out jump any boy of my size. Trifles never bothered me. I was genial with my companions, and got along without much trouble. I would rather be with boys older than myself, rather than with those who were younger. This trait of character lasted until I was thirty-five or forty years old, when it changed, and ever since I have better enjoyed tlie companionship of people younger than myself. My brother, two years and nine months younger, I could never agree with. We were constantly quarreling, and many a well-deserved thrashing did I get for thrashing him. We were no more alike in disposition or looks than a cat and dog, and agreed just about as well. Consequently we did not court each other's society, and were never together if we could possibly avoid it.

Our family consisted of my father, my stepmother, her two sons, one five years older and the other ten years older ; one daughter, seven or eight years older than I ; my brother and myself. For some reason I was a favorite with my stepmother and her children, and my brother was favored by my father. My stepsister always declared that I was the most mischievous boy she ever saw. She often told of her spinning wool in one of the rooms upstairs at one time when, by some means, I had discovered a small knothole in the ceiling and saw my chance. I made an elder-stalk squirt gun, that held about one-half pint of water, filled it, and very quietly crawled up into the garret over the place where she was spinning, inserted the squirt-gun into the knothole, and fired a little water down. She looked up to see where it came from, and I let her have the remainder full in the face. While she was recovering from the shock I scrambled down and was out of the house before she could catch me, and doubtless my legs saved me from her wTath on that occasion. However, I was forgiven if I would promise to not do it again.

The summer passed rapidly, working, fishing, hunting, picking berries, and riding horseback — a new experience for me. The country had a great charm for me, and never for a moment did I wish to return to city life. The next winter was passed at school. My long vacation seemed to brighten my ideas, and doubtless caused me to learn much faster. One difficulty caused much trouble. My brother and I were continually quarreling. My father said he would have to separate us. Toward spring he took me with him on a visit to Smithville, N. Y., where his two half-sisters and stepmother lived, and a half-brother on an adjoining farm. The outcome of that visit was that his two half-sisters (old maids) decided to take me to bring up. To me the idea was rather pleasing, and in the course of a few weeks I was fully established in my new home. As my aunts had no dog, and I was anxious to have one, my father brought me one of the black and tan species, about three months old. This proved to be a fine hunter for woodchucks, squirrels and partridges. Trip was my constant companion and was a source of much enjoyment to me, deprived as I was of the company of other playmates.

My uncle worked the farm, and I was his helper in everything that I could do. I was kept pretty busy during the summer, and went to school in the winter for three or four months. Our house was situated some distance from the main-traveled road, and w^e seldom saw anyone except they came to see us. It was a dull place for a lively, wide-awake boy, but I managed to enjoy myself. I had acquired a great taste for reading and read all the books and newspapers that I could get hold of. My uncle also was a great reader and a well-informed man. He was always ready to enlighten me upon any subject that interested me. He was a living encyclopedia to me, and I received a great deal of useful information from him that was of much benefit to me. Being a kind and indulgent man, I soon learned to love him. He doubtless instilled into my character many traits that influenced my later life. He is still living (May, 1899), and is ninety-one years of age.

One of my aunts was an intolerable scold, and a large share of her vituperative language was addressed to me. Being of a restless, sensitive nature, the repeated scoldings I got for my boyish pranks began to make me uneasy and discontented. My aunt was very good when she was good, but her tongue lashings more than counterbalanced her otherwise good behavior.

When I was about thirteen or fourteen years old I became very much in love with one of our neighbor's daughters, who was about my own age. She had red hair, was very much freckled, but had a bright countenance and a lively and winning way that caught me entirely. My youthful passion was reciprocated, but I had a rival about my own age, but more than half a head taller. At our school there was a good deal of rivalry as to who was the best speller. We had spelling schools every week, and, of course, the boys escorted the girls home on such occasions. One'evenmg I asked permission from my girl to escort her home. She readily agreed, and we started off. The snow was about a foot deep, but the sleighing was good and the path well broken. My rival was very wroth that I had got ahead of him, and, following behind, kept tripping me up with his foot, with the intention of getting me down and capturing the girl. I got mad after awhile and asked her to wait while I thrashed him. She consented, so I turned on him, and we were soon down in the snow pounding each other in fine style. The presence of my girl seemed to give me strength, and he came off second-best. We left him with the blood streaming down his face from his battered nose, and I soon had my girl at her home. The next day my rival declared he would whip me, and tried to tell the rest of the boys how it all happened. At noon we had it again, and quite a severe fight occurred, but before it was ended the teacher interfered and stopped it. We never fought again, and became very good friends. Some years afterward my rival married the girl, and her first boy was named after me. I have visited the family many times, and we are still the best of friends. Thus ended my first love affair.

Chapter II. Aspirations

The winter after I was fifteen years old I made up my mind to push out into the world for myself, and began to concoct schemes to carry out my purpose. About this time my father came down to visit me, as was his custom about twice a year, and I informed him quietly of my intention. He said but little at the time, but about a week afterward he sent my stepbrother to take me home. My aunts were very much astonished and laid all the blame upon my father, not knowing that I had anything to do with it. I said nothing, but most cheerfully got ready to leave at once.

This event changed the whole course of my existence. The youngest son of my stepmother, five years my senior, was a very peculiar character. Though naturally a genius, he was rough, uncouth, and uneducated, with a strong propensity to drink. He was fond of hunting, fishing, and trapping, and had a supreme dislike for work. Still, he was freehearted, and would go out of his way at any time to accommodate anyone that he liked. He consequently had many friends, but was not the sort of character for a boy of fifteen to be associated with as a boon companion. Yet I was not easily led into that which I thought was not right. Therefore I was not seriously contaminated by my association with him. The older brother was also a peculiar character. He was a strictly temperate man, very much set in his ways, ambitious, very anxious to make money, and a hard worker. He was honest, but too grasping to accumulate much, as he had no speculative ability. The stepbrothers never agreed, but the older one controlled the younger to a considerable extent.