Narrative of Thomas Mckean Thompson. Ill Although Always

Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. Ill

NARRATIVE OF THOMAS McKEAN THOMPSON. CONTRIBUTED BY P. F. THOMPSON. (Continued from page 77.) Although always popular and in public office from twenty-one or two years of age till near the close of life his manner of attaining public favors was anomalous, for he never courted it; indeed his outward manners were against such a result, for they were rather distant and cold and he seldom mixed with the people except on public occasions and was a novice in intrigue. I used myself to be surprised that he was popular and I have heard friends, his contemporaries, say they were ut- terly surprised at his popularity with his numerous clients when quite a young lawyer; his manner of sift- ing out the facts of the case submitted to him, especially if there were any appearance of juggling being so pointed and severe. The secret to be developed must be referred to the selfish principle that rules the human heart. The people had confidence in his integrity, industry and talents and were willing to commit their interests into such hands. Governor McKean's chief intellectual acquisition was a knowledge of law; he was a learned Jurist and must also have had experi- ence in the science of government, being a member of Congress during the whole of our Eevolutionary con- troversy with England, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a man of sterling integrity, in public as well as private life; his attachment to the laws and institutions of the country was open and steadfast; his disposition was kind and affectionate, but he was not without faults, which those who esteemed and loved him most—most deplored; he gave no other evidence of attachment to religion than what is often given by men in high places—out- 112 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. ward respect, such as going to Church on the fore- noon of the Lord's day, etc.; his temper, moreover, was too self-complaisant and irascible, and, as the fruit of these, dogmatical; he had no patience to bear contradiction and was too easily thrown off his guard, but kind forbearance and apparent acquiescence from others, although they could not cure, could avert any evil consequence of this constitutional infirmity. I uniformly experienced from him paternal kindness and should feel that I was an ingrate could I cease grate- fully to remember his affectionate beneficence toward me. Governor McKean had by his first wife two sons and three daughters, and one son and two daughters by his second. His eldest son, Joseph, was a respectable lawyer and for a number of years Attorney General of Pennsylvania and died in middle life. His widow and daughters, as I learned some years ago, were members of Eev. Mr. Barn's Church in Philadelphia and much attached to him personally. The Governor's second son Eobert married into a wealthy family of that city and died before his father. His eldest daughter Elizabeth married Andrew Pettit, Esquire, a merchant and an Alderman of the city and a prudent, respectable man, whose sister was the wife of Jared Ingersol, a distinguished lawyer, and mother of the two lawyers of that name, who at the present time are figuring in Congress. His other two daughters married two brothers in Baltimore, the youngest a merchant, the eldest Doctor Buchanan, who, with our old Delaware friend, Doctor Monro, went to Eden- burgh for their diplomas and both returned as they went skeptics on the subject of religion, but both afterward became active professors of religion, the first in the Methodist and the other in the Presbyterian Church years before their death. The eldest daughter by the second wife married the then Spanish Minister, Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 113 Marquis Yrusco, who was a well looking young man of excellent sense and who in addition to his salary of $12,000. was possessed of a large private estate— the other died young and unmarried. They were all accomplished and some of them unusually pretty women, especially the Minister's wife, and the three first mentioned were professors of religion. Of all Governor McKean's children, his youngest son Thomas alone survives. He is a wealthy merchant and re- sides in Philadelphia. Your paternal Grandparents as already stated were married by Doctor Allison in Philadelphia in the year 1758. I have no knowledge in respect to your grandmother, except what was de- rived from others. They resided, I apprehend, during my mother's life, for the most part at New Castle, my native place. She was represented to have been a woman of much sensibility, exemplary piety and devoted to her children, on whose account she must have experienced much affliction; her first born daughter in the 13th year of her age and eldest son at the age of ten, both died the same year and afterward her youngest daughter aged twelve years and her own health was feeble probably for some time, previous to the close of her life. From circumstances now going to be related, I suppose your Grandfather removed from New Castle to his farm a year or two previous to the fall of 1777, the period of the British getting possession of Philadelphia and when we must have fled to "Fogs Manor" in Chester County as already related, and that my reverend mother must have died within the same period probably the spring or summer of 77, for I well remember on going from out doors into my mother's chamber on the farm, I found her sitting up sewing, when I expected to find her in bed, and the thrill of pleasure experienced on that occasion I have a conscious sense of at the present VOL. LIL—8 114 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. moment!—expressing to her the surprise and pleasure I felt at seeing her better; it is probable I soon left her and except at that time have not the faintest recollection of ever having seen her in my life. I am the more surprised at this, as if the preceding chronology- be correct, I must then have entered on the eighth year of my age. I can account for it to myself in no other way than by supposing I must have been sent from home about that period and continued absent till after my mother's death and burial, for had I been present the gloomy association accompanying such an event could not have been so entirely lost. After her death we must have removed to Chester County as I am satisfied she was not with us there. Thus my dear Hat, I have fulfilled my promise of making out a family register or (as it might be called) a short obituary notice of some of your relatives on your Father's side of the house, and will now proceed to give you, from the like kind of material some account of your mother's family and my own connection with it. Your maternal Grandfather John Halsted, Esquire, was a native American. His parents were probably from England, and the maiden name of your Grandmother, his wife, was "Waters" of French genealogy, but when he married her she was the widow of Captain Dehart and the mother of two children—Jacob and Margaret Dehart. Failing in his first suit with Miss Waters, the Captain having the start of him, he remained a bachelor till after the decease of her first husband and then married her as the widow of Dehart, on Staten Island in the State of New York. Some years after his marriage, your Grandfather removed with his family to Quebec in lower Canada and continued to reside there till the fall of 1775, when hostilities having commenced between the Colonies and mother country and divisions of American troops under the command of General Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 115 Montgomery and Colonel Arnold been despatched on an enterprise against Canada on their arrival on the border of that country, being a Whig and having re- solved to make common cause with his native country- men, he renounced his allegiance to the crown and fled to the American Army and tendered his services to General Montgomery as a guide in his contemplated attack on Quebec and accompanied the General and his troops into the lower town of the city where that Commander gallantly fell and the whole enterprise entirely failed. Your Grandfather by this resolution sacrificed his worldly estate. He had been for some years extensively engaged in mercantile transactions and especially in the flour business; he owned a mill or mills where he manufactured and sold flour on a large scale and as I understood, profitable one. Those warehouses were afterward converted into barracks for British soldiers. Your Grandfather's effort after the peace to reclaim his former interest in Quebec proved an entire failure. The State of New York, however, by an act of her Legislature, made a grant of land to the Canadian refugees, as they were called, not far from the town of Plattsburg in remuneration for their loss of property in Canada out of which Mr. Halsted received three hundred acres and by an Act of Congress a body of land in the state of Ohio still known by the name of the Canadian refugee tract was appropriated for the same object, from which he received patents for two quarter sections of 160 acres each—all of which were afterward sold for a compara- tively small sum of money. With the American Army on its retreat from Canada, your Grandfather returned to New York where he erected a dwelling house for his family, but just as it was being finished and ready for occupancy, it accidentally took fire and burned down. The family subsequently removed to Elizabethtown, 116 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. New Jersey, where they resided several years, which was the birth place of your mother and Uncle Elbert, the youngest of your Grandmother's children. Thence they removed to the city of Perth Amboy, where your Grandfather purchased a dwelling house which in ac- cordance with the mishap that seemed to accompany him, he subsequently lost through a defect in the title. His worldly possessions being now much impaired, he obtained from the President, through the assistance of influential friends, the office of Collector of the revenue at the Port of Perth Amboy, which office he filled to general satisfaction and continued to hold for a number of years. In the year 1791, he became a widower by the death of your Grandmother and continued such till his own death. When your Grandmother died she left ten children, two, Jacob and Margaret Dehart, by her first husband and eight by your Grandfather, to wit, John, Susan, Anthony Waters, Matthias, Alletta Waters, Eliza Jane, Johanna Willet and Elbert Hope ; four of whom, to wit, John, Susan, Anthony and Elbert died before their father. I became acquainted with a part of your Grandfather's family, to wit, his eldest son John who resided about five miles from Charles- town, on the east bank of the Ohio River, to which I had removed with Col. McKennan's family in the autumn of 1797, (as herein before related) and his then eldest daughter Alletta Waters Halsted, who was on a visit from Perth Amboy to her brother's family and to whom I was married the next ensuing year 1798, and the same autumn accompanied her on a visit to her father at Perth Amboy, whom I had then never seen. On our return we commenced housekeeping at Charleston and early the next year removed to Mid- dletown in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and having received the appointment of Secretary of that Commonwealth from Governor McKean, I removed Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 117 my family to Lancaster, the then seat of Government in April 1801. Not long after your Uncle Elbert Hope Halsted, then in the 21st or 22nd year of his age received the appointment of a clerkship in one of the public offices, and so became an inmate of our family. In the spring of 1801, my family consisting of myself and wife and two children Eobert and Elizabeth then a year old and her nurse made a visit to my father-in- law then residing on his farm adjoining the city of Perth Amboy, our brother Elbert for the term of our absence taking lodgings at a boarding house. During our absence we visited around amongst my wife's relatives and amongst others made a visit to New York City where she had an uncle and numerous cousins, but this visit to New Jersey commenced under such pleasant anticipations was overcast with a dark cloud at its close, both our children were taken with the whooping-cough, Robert so severely that his life for a time was despaired of and we received from Lan- caster the melancholy tidings of the death of our much loved brother Elbert Halsted. This was a severe blow on his father's sisters which was rendered more poig- nant by an apprehension that his disease, which was remittent fever, had been unskilfully treated. We were told that for some days after its commencement there was considerable remission in the fever every other day, and it was the opinion of persons in whose judgment we placed confidence that if bark or other restoratives had been resorted to on his well day the fever might have been subdued, but instead of this, as there was no entire intermission to the fever, the lancet and other depleting remedies were continuously used throughout the progress of the disorder. Elbert's physician was a Doctor May, then in high repute at Lancaster; he was a devoted disciple of the celebrated Doctor Rush; their general remedy for disease was 118 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. bleeding. If the patient died under their hands, it was from debility after the disease had been conquered. Poor May a few years afterward fell himself a martyr to his own theory. He was a man of spare frame and pallid visage, and it was generally thought fell a victim to the too free use of the lancet on himself. Your Uhcle Elbert just entering on active life was a man of industrious habits, blameless life and very affectionate, obliging disposition and was loved by his relatives and esteemed by all who knew him. Not long after his death, your Grandfather who was then quite too old to superintend a farm, was prevailed on by his daughters and my own solicitations to come and reside with us at Lancaster and fill the vacancy in the Comptroller General's office occasioned by his son's death, which appointment I had procured for him from my friend George Duffield, Esquire, the head of the department and father of the Eev. Doctor Duffield now of Detroit. I should have stated in the order of time that in the year preceding the period now under review, that is in the year 1803, your Uncle and Aunt Caldwell had been married at our house in Lancaster and were now living at Charleston on the east bank of the Ohio. Your Grandfather continued to occupy his place in Mr. Duffield's office during our residence at Lancaster and till the termination of Governor Mc- Kean 's administration in March 1809 and appeared to enjoy himself well. The adjustment of accounts having occupied a considerable part of his life and his present employment being identical and the office hours for business not being burdensome and writing, as he did, a strong legible hand, he was well qualified for and pleased with his situation. Governor McKean's family continued to reside in Philadelphia, during his administration. He was obliged himself to be at the seat of Government whilst the Legislature was in ses- Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 119 sion on an average about half the year, but with the exception of one year (when he kept house) he resided as a boarder in my family during our eight years residence in Lancaster. You know it is an adage that old folk are loquacious, such at any rate, was the case with the Governor and your Grandfather. They were both fond of talking and at times very lively so that on our long winter evenings in the absence of other company we were often enlivened and entertained by the relation of various anecdotes diverting or interesting in connection with their past lives. At the termination of Governor McKean's official term I removed my family to Steubenville in this State and there purchased a house and lot and engaged in merchandise, soon after which I and my wife made a public profession of religion and united with the Presbyterian Church in that place and erected the family altar, and your Grand- father removed to his farm in the vicinity of Perth Amboy. To preserve the connection of this narrative, I must here go back to that part of it which states that your Grandfather was deprived by death of your Grandmother in 1791; that at her death she left ten children, four of whom died before your Grandfather. With all these I was personally acquainted, excepting your Aunt Susan and Anthony Waters, your uncle. Your aunt married Edward John Ball at the time holding an appointment in the Custom House office at New York. She died a few years after her marriage, leaving a son Halsted Ball, whom I suppose to be still living in that city. Mr. Ball, with whom I had some acquaintance married a second wife and is since dead. Your Uncle Anthony was well educated and placed in a counting house with a shipping merchant at Amboy, a Mr. Butler. Your uncle went out on a voyage to the West Indies as Supercargo in one of Mr. Butler's vessels, and there died a youth among strangers. His 120 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. death was a sad blow to his sisters, as his age, disposition and character very naturally led them to re- gard him as a companion, guide and protector. I have already informed you that my acquaintance with your Uncle John Halsted commenced at the period of my settling at Charleston on the east bank of the Ohio in 1797. Soon after this Col. McKennan and myself and a Col. Marshall entered into partnership for build- ing a vessel to be laden with flour and sent to New Orleans or if necessary to the West Indies. This sloop or schooner was speedily built, laden with flour and under the direction and management of Mr. Halsted sent to New Orleans. Your uncle not being able to make advantageous sale of the flour there carried it to the Havanna where he took the fever incident to the climate and died. He left a widow and two sons, the eldest of whom I have heard nothing of for a number of years and knew nothing about; the youngest, Andrew, by reason of some hurt in infancy became lame, so as to be disabled for active employment, but he possessed an active disposition and the little lame boy when 11 or 15 years old, at his own request, was placed with a well instructed shoemaker whom he served six years, then established himself at Wheeling on a capital of less than two hundred dollars and now lives on a valuable farm situate on the national road some five or more miles from Wheeling. His sons carrying on the farm and himself the shoe concern. He with his wife, an industrious, economical woman made us a visit some twelve years ago, was then rich and increasing in goods, and if he lives to advanced age seems destined to be a wealthy man. He and his wife are both members of a Presbyterian Church in the vicinity of his residence. Jacob Dehart, your Grand- mother's eldest child, like his father, was a sailor and for many years of his life pursued his occupation as Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 121 a sea captain, and as lie was man of industry, prudence and enterprise, it was supposed would have become rich, but for a run of unusual ill luck and misfortune on the ocean. He was repeatedly ship-wrecked, when owner or part owner of vessel and cargo, and all was lost. Almost half a century ago I and my wife, his half sister, spent some short time at his house. He was then in middle life some forty or fifty years of age and had abandoned the sea. I found him to be a friendly, pleasant, talkative man and he entertained us one evening with the history of the sea-faring part of his life, including one of his shipwrecks, which alone, employed him a longer period in recounting than would be necessary for reading this entire narrative. The following are some of the principal circumstances attending it:— By reason of a severe storm his vessel was so disabled by the loss of her masts and otherwise as to be entirely unmanageable and at the mercy of the wind and waves. They had become short in pro- visions so that in a few days all were expended; they tried the fishing hook and had the good fortune to catch a fine fish, which was delivered to the Captain for di- vision among the crew, and which, although by nautical law entitled to more than one share, he divided equally, share and share alike to each man on board. The Cap- tain boiled his portion and subsisted the first day on the broth and afterward as sparingly as he could on the flesh, but the hungry sailors ate up their shares at once and knowing the vessel to be laden in part with brandy and wine and becoming desperate, they mu- tinied, went down into the hold of the ship, knocked out the head of a brandy cask and helped themselves, and being soon in proper trim entered into a con- spiracy against the cook, and determined to kill and eat him, but the plot was providentially discovered and the Captain and the mate, cook and cabin boy effected 122 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. a safe retreat into the cabin, barricaded the door and armed, stood in their own defense; the insurgents after a few ineffectual attempts to get at their prey, formed the rash design of quitting the vessel and accordingly unshipped the long boat, hoisted into it a cask or more of brandy or wine, gave three cheers and were soon off and never seen or heard of afterward. The party remaining in the hulk of the vessel by rising up scraps of greasy leather found about the wreck, supported life subsequently for several days and until a sail hove in sight, to which, by holding out tokens of distress, they succeeded in making themselves known and which finally came to their rescue. The first inquiry when within hailing distance was— "what number on board," the reply "four"—they were then taken off and when in the rescuing vessel informed that they were on their allowance and that had the rescued been but a very few more in number, they must have been left to their fate. Captain Dehart's family consisted of himself and wife and two sons, Eobinson and John. I don't remember the time of the parents decease, but some ten or more years ago, heard the sons were both captains of steam vessels sailing from New Or- leans. Your Ma's half sister, Margaret Dehart never was married, lived to an advanced age and died some years ago at the house of your uncle Judge Caldwell in Wheeling. She was a sensible, prudent woman and a professor of religion in the Episcopal Church. Matthias Halsted, your Grandfather's third son discovered an early hankering after a sea-faring life to which his father after opposing some time finally yielded. He went to sea and pursued the calling for a good part of his life, but without much success never realizing more than a mere living for his family. His father bequeathed to him what amounted to five hundred dollars, the interest to be paid during his natural Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 123 life and the principal after his death. The interest for some years was paid and at the request of our friend Andrew Bell, Esquire, of Perth Amboy and Halsted Ball of New York (his family being in much need of it) a part of the principal in his life time and the balance principal and interest paid to his family since his decease (which took place about the year 1832). Matthias Halsted left a widow and six or seven children. He and his wife for a number of years previous to his death were members of Doctor Milmor's Episcopal Church, New York. Soon after the removal of my family to the west in 1809, your Aunt Caldwell and my wife became anxious about their father, then more than four score years old, and were desirous to have him give up his farming and come and spend the remaining days with them and his grandchildren, and knowing the industrious habits of your grandfather and that he would not relinquish his farm without the prospect of having some employment here, I wrote to him that if he would rent out his farm and come to the west I would join him in establishing a nail fac- tory of which he could take the supervision. He acceded to our wishes and came out and with his youngest daughter, now your mother, who had been his housekeeper on the Amboy farm, after our separa- tion at Lancaster. Surrounded now by his three daughters and a number of grandchildren who loved him, it was natural to suppose he would have been content to spend the remainder of his pilgrimage without interruption with us; however, it was not so; after remaining but little more than two years at Steu- benville, to the surprise of his children and other friends, he became impressed with the opinion that it was his duty to make another visit to Perth Amboy for the purpose of seeing how his farm had been man- aged during his absence and of putting it in order be- 124 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. fore his death; from this resolution all the efforts of his children could not divert him. Accordingly about the close of the summer 1812 he made a visit to Judge Caldwell and his daughter and whilst there made his will, written by Mr. Caldwell and dated September 2nd, 1812. By this will, of the contents of which I was ignorant till some time after the testator's decease, after payment of his debts and sundry specific legacies, he devised all the residue of his estate, real and personal to his daughter Johanna Willet Halsted whilst she remained sole; in case of her marriage, such residue to be equally divided between her and her two sisters, and in case of her never marrying, one third to be at her disposal by will, remaining two thirds to go to her two sisters equally. According to my recollection he left Steubenville for the State of New Jersey early in October the next month, on horse back, and alone then in the eighty-fifth year of his age and reached Amboy safely, travelling as his letter informed us at the rate of about forty miles per day. "When looking back to that period I know not which most to admire; the strength of his own resolution in un- dertaking such a journey under such circumstances or our utter want of prudent reflection in consenting to the attempt of his carrying it out. Having spent some nine or ten months in New Jersey and com- pleted his arrangements in relation to his farm, he wrote to us that we might look for his early return to Ohio, but the next letter was from his friend Mr. Bell announcing his death. It stated that all his arrangements had been made preparatory to his leaving for the west save one small matter which occasioned a ride into the country of a few miles. This was attended to and he returned to his friends the same evening with a fever on him and in about nine days after departed this life, at the house of Mr. Bell, in Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 125 the eighty-sixth year of his age and his remains were deposited along side the grave of his departed wife, your maternal Grandmother. Your Grandfather enjoyed an excellent constitution and almost uninter- rupted health during his long life. He was a professor of religion in the Episcopal Church for many years and until his death and sustained a fair and blameless life; he was a man of good temper, occasion- ally somewhat excitable, but well governed. His disposition was kind and affectionate, especially as a husband and father; he was never weary in endeavors to promote the comfort and happiness of his family. He had not received a college education, but had a sound understanding and was well read in his own language; his peculiar taste or talent was for mech- anism and much of his leisure time was employed in constructing machines and models of his various in- ventions with a view of obtaining patents for them. He made a structure which he called the "mud turtle" for scooping up and raising alluvial soil from his marshy grounds, deposited there by the periodical overflowings of the adjacent sea, with which to enrich his farm; he also constructed the model of an im- provement on the wind-mill and another for drawing out different sized wire, for which he designed to ob- tain patents, but I believe never applied for the patents. His projects amused him whilst employed about them, but as it is with original projects generally never turned out to much account. Your Grandfather passed through a long life of vicissitude and mishap with persevering industry and the history of his life would afford a striking illustration of the words of Solomon "a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord di- recteth his steps." My wife, his then eldest daughter was in a declining state of health at the period of her father's death, the product of a cold caught some two 126 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. years previously whilst sitting up with a sick female friend. Eeceiving no benefit from her attending physicians, I left home with her the next year (1814) on an intended visit to the warm springs of Virginia and having reached Fort Cumberland, the physician of that place thought the patient too feeble to prosecute the contemplated journey and advised us to visit the Bedford Springs about thirty miles distant. We remained at the Springs two weeks and then returned home without sensible benefit to her health, but after being a short time at home it improved so much as to impress her with a desire to accompany me on a journey I had to make a few months subsequently to Philadelphia. Whilst in that city our residence was at the house of the late Governor McKean, where we were treated with all imaginable kindness, and where Doctor Physic, reputedly the first physician in the city attended daily on my dear wife during our stay, but all human devices were vain and we again returned home without any ground for encouragement. The insidious disease, slow but steadfast continued its ravages on her now wasted frame to the end of life. A few weeks before her death I was engaged in reading to her one of Boston's sermons and before I had finished she remarked to me "I seem to have a new view of my condition and feel entirely submissive to the will of God; if it be death I am content to die, my will is entirely resigned to His." From that time till death she appeared to let go her hold on the world and to look only on the things that are unseen and eternal. Very shortly before her death she said "when the period of my departure arrives, I wish the children to be removed from the room; Ann, you know, is somewhat babyish and her cries might disturb my last moments; I desire at that time to be quiet.'' Im- mediately before death the Physician had hold of her Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 127 wrist, when looking into his face she said, "how long yet doctor!"—"Not long, do you feel impatient?" "Oh, I am tired, I long to be gone." These were her last words. She died in December 1815, leaving to her surviving friends the delightful hope that the ex- change she had just made was unspeakably glorious. Having made up my mind to remove to Licking County, your Aunt McKennan took the charge of my house and family at Steubenville and early in April 1816 I transferred my store goods to Granville, taking with me my then clerk, A. P. Pritchard and your brother Eobert, leaving Anthony at Granville. I took boarding for myself and Eobert at Major Pratt's adjoining my farm on the Brushy Fork Creek; there we boarded about six weeks and then removed to Mr. Smith's on the east side of the farm where we continued till the month of November following. My thoughts have often reverted to the spring and summer thus spent with a sort of melancholy satisfaction. I felt like one shut out from society and realizing the unsatisfying nature of this world of sin and change. I had never before enjoyed religion with greater relish or valued the Bible, the Sabbath and Sanctuary perhaps so much. Mr. Harris was then the pastor at Granville, not a very popular preacher, but a man of much piety and kindness. In November I returned to Steubenville for the rest of my children. When I first became attached to your mother, we both felt some doubts as to the propriety of our marriage on account of my previous connection with the family and with her approba- tion, I had recourse to our aged friend the Eev. Lyman Potter, for his opinion and advice on the subject. Mr. Potter saw no objections whatever to such matches, said "they were common in the east, his native country, and on the occasion referred to him (so far especially as it regarded my children) he thought it would 128 Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. be the most prudent connection I could form." His opinion removed our scruples and we were married at Judge CaldwelFs in Wheeling, by the Rev. James Henry in February 1817. On my return from Wheel- ing we crossed the Ohio River on the ice and I brought your mother to this, then, wooden country during as cold a spell of weather as I had ever experienced. Your sisters Elizabeth and Ann having spent much of their time at school and not been brought up to do housework, we had to depend for some time on hired help, but your Ma and sisters realizing our dependent condition came to the wise and prudent conclusion that the girls must learn to work or we must leave the country. There was no alternative. They took hold, were soon first rate workers and much to our own satisfaction we became as independent as our neighbors. Thus my dear Harriet, having brought down my little history to the period of your own recollection and knowledge I shall close with a few brief remarks. You will find interwoven in the relation small portions of incident and anecdote, in themselves uninteresting, com- monplace and trivial, but to you who will feel an interest in the persons they have respect to, it will not be a tax on time or patience to read them. Little more is given of the personal history of your parents than was necessary to preserve unbroken the thread of the narrative, the design as far as carried out being some notice of the lives of departed friends rather than of the living. In the review of my own past life I find much for the indulgence of sorrow and regret, but little, very little, to gratify a spirit of self complacency. Indeed human life confined to our state of existence in the present world and in view of its shortness and un- certainty and the various trials, crosses and miseries to which we are exposed is in itself of little importance and might seem to warrant the mournful exclamation Narrative of Thomas McKean Thompson. 129 of the Psalmist "Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain." But when we view the present life in refer- ence to the duties we owe to God in connection with a future state of existence, it becomes of infinite importance. If in the present life we have characters to form that are to have a bearing on our eternal destiny, its importance cannot be estimated, and in the light of this subject how do all other things dwindle into nothingness in comparison with the cultivation and possession of religion. It affords me sincere gratitude to God to believe that you have correct and abiding views on this subject. That you are striving to make God's will the rule of your life and his glory the end of all your actions. Whilst your dear mother and I are soon to quit this busy stage of action, you are but entering upon it. I would say to you in the strain of the pious Psalmist—"Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Transcribed April 1852. By T. M. Thompson.

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