LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. .Q!*L-! Class GIFT OF r HE DID IT; The Life of a New England Written in His Adopted State California ASA SANBORN EDGERLY SAN FRANCISCO, CAI,. : PRESS OF H. S. CROCKER Co. 1909 DEDICATED. I dedicate this book to Mrs. Violet Mabel Hoggins Webber, in consideration of the great service she has rendered me in writing it. THE AUTHOK. 186314 A. S. EDGERLY 1 MRS. A. S. EDG^RLY INDEX. CHAPTER I. Page My Boyhood Days 13 CHAPTER II. My School Days 21 CHAPTER III. I Studied Dentistry 40 CHAPTER IV. Engaged in Teaching School 43 CHAPTER V. Got Married 49 CHAPTER VI. Teaching Continued 51 CHAPTER VII. Went Into the Restaurant Business With My Brother in Almira, New York, and Other Changes 59 CHAPTER VIII. Engaged in the Life Insurance Business 62 CHAPTER IX. Engaged in Fanning 66 CHAPTER X. Canvassing and Ice Cream and Real Estate Business. . . 69 CHAPTER XI. Built the Edgerly Block 77 CHAPTER XII. The Boom Broke 82 CHAPTER XIII. Running Rooming Houses 86 CHAPTER XIV. Rooming Houses Continued 92 CHAPTER XV. Gave Up Business 95 CHAPTER XVI. Built Four Homes on the Two Hundred-Acre Vineyard North of Town for My Children 99 CHAPTER XVII. Extracts 103 CHAPTER XVIII. My Own Architect Ill CHAPTER XIX. My Habits of Life 112 CHAPTER XX. The Church ' 117 CHAPTER XXI. Lessons to Poor Young Men 118 CHAPTER XXII. My Views of Spiritual Life 120 CHAPTER XXIII. There Is a God 123 CHAPTER XXIV. Sunday Trading 125 CHAPTER XXV. Cutting Wood 127 CHAPTER XXVI. A Word to Young Men and Women About to Marry. . . 129 CHAPTER XXVII. My Wife 131 CHAPTER XXVIII. Golden Wedding 133 CHAPTER XXIX. Go to Oakland 134 CHAPTER XXX. Cataract 135 CHAPTER XXXI. Deed All My Property to My Wife and Children 137 CHAPTER XXXII. Looking Forward 139 HE DID IT; The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTEE I. MY BOYHOOD DAYS. Away back in New England wh^re the wild fox digs his hole unscared, and the red squirrel hoards his nuts in the hollow of a tree undisturbed, where the wild turkey builds its nest and rears its young unmolested, and where the country is held in its icy embrace for six months of the year, is where the writer first saw the light on March 15, 1834. Born of the persecuted Puritan descend- ents of poor but respected parents, I passed my youth on a New England farm, so sterile, that it seldom made proper returns for hard work be- stowed. Being the sixth child of the numerous family of twelve children it became necessary for me to look elsewhere for a living. 14 The Life of a New England Boy It was a custom in that country for boys to re- ceive their time from their parents at the age of eighteen, so that I, being desirous of an education, told my father that if he would pay my expenses for six months' schooling at the Academy, I would work for him on the farm for the other six months of the year. This talk was had on an early Mon- day morning whilst we were mowing in the field before sun-up, as it was customary for us to begin the day's work during hay-time before the sun rose. He said he would talk it over with my mother and report to me that evening. I included in my proposition that the expenses of my sister, Martha, next younger than me, should also be paid at the Academy for three months of the year. Pie reported acceptance of my proposition that evening. This was in the month of July, 1852, and school at the Academy was to commence the first of September following. A few days before the first of September my father went to the vil- lage where the Academy was, four miles away, and made arrangements there with the merchant of the little town for our board. The condition of the trade with the merchant was that we were to board with him and his family for five days of The Life of a New England Boy 15 the week for one shilling a day each. On Monday morning of the first day of September he took us to our boarding place. On Friday evening of the same week he came for us and took us home, and thus we paid for five days board per week, at one shilling per day a shilling is sixteen and two- thirds cents. We attended the Academy during the eleven weeks of the term. The school was taught that term by Rev. Eeed, pastor of the Free Baptist Church of the village. My first interest was aroused in education by a young lady who was my first sweetheart, Chris- tiana Jacobs, who lived one-fourth mile from my home, whom I visited with my sister, Martha, one Sunday evening, when she made the statement, that she was going to school at the Academy in the fall and insisted on Martha's and my going, too. I thought the matter over that night and made the proposition to my father, and it was accepted, that we should go to the Academy in the fall. Although I enjoyed her society during the school term, a neighbor boy succeeded in marrying her later on. After years had passed on her only son and daughter were graduated at New Hampton In- 16 The Life of a New England Boy stitution, where I had graduated years before, and the son came to me in California where I was then living and I took him in my arms, as it were, and helped him to get a school where he taught for two years and earned money enough to pay his expenses in college. After graduating from col- lege, he came back to California and married a girl whose acquaintance he had formed while teaching school there, and took her back to Cleve- land, Ohio, where he became a professor in a col- lege there. At the beginning of the last term of school, of the agreement with my father I went to Guilford Academy, twelve miles away from my home. Pro- fessor Benjamin Stanton was the principal. After passing through the school term, I engaged to teach a school near that town for ten dollars a month and my board, and I boarded all over the neighborhood. After teaching two months where I had a suc- cessful school, I went home, and from there I went to Boston, Mass., to find employment. After walk- ing the streets of Boston for about three weeks, I found a job in a grocery store for which I agreed to work for one year for seventy-five dollars and The Life of a New England Boy \1 board. I worked three months and my health failed me. I left that place and went to my uncle, Daniel Edgerly, who lived in the city of Boston. After staying there about one month I had suf- ficiently recruited my health to go to work again. I started to find another job ; I found a job where I could earn ten dollars a month and board in a baker shop. After working there three months my health failed me again and I left there and went to my father's home in Meredith, New Hampshire. Although my father had a numerous family of twelve children, ten of whom were at home at one time, the two oldest were away at work in the cotton factory, where they earned some money, the bulk of which, after paying their expenses, they brought home to my father and gave it to him as a loan. We had a school for three months in the winter and three months in the summer; in the winter the large and small went to school, in the summer only the smaller children attended the school because the older children had to stay at home and help make a crop, for all of the family old enough to earn anything had to do his share of the work on the farm, because the farm was so 18 The Life of a New England Boy sterile that we had to make every thing count to keep us through the hard winter. The land was so poor that the country there was given the name of "Hard Scrabble," for we had to scrabble through the summer to get enough to keep us through the winter. During the winter term of school father kept an old mare and sleigh for us to go to school with, and there were eight of us children to go, and we would all pile together in the sleigh and my oldest sister, Hannah, would take the lines and whip and drive to the school- house a mile away. After unloading the children she turned the mare's head toward home, tied the lines to the dashboard, then taking the whip give the old mare a few cuts and she would start off and never stop until she arrived home. In the evening father would come with the same old mare and take us home. In the summer time we would attend the school on foot, carrying our lunch pail. Usually the lunch pail had a respectable dinner for us all, but one day mother was so put to it that she did not have a sufficiently respectable dinner for us, so she put into a large pail milk and into another pail bread, and when the noon hour came we were ashamed to eat our bread and milk before The Life of a New England Boy 19 the other scholars, so Hannah, who was the oldest and manager of the group,, took us all off to the woods ; there we sat down and ate our bread and milk picnic fashion, each having his own tin cup and spoon. The numerous family of my father made clothing and provisions for the family a serious problem, but we have always said that we never went to bed hungry and we all had a special suit of clothes for Sunday, because father kept sheep and had the wool carded and the girls spun the wool into thread and my mother wove it into cloth and dyed it, and father had a tailoress come there once a year and made the goods into cloth- ing for the boys, and a dressmaker came to make the goods into dresses for the girls, and father being a cobbler, had a neighbor cobbler to come there and make the leather obtained from the slaughtering of the animals for the meat that was salted down to supply the family, into boots and shoes for the family. Thus my father supported his family from the proceeds of the old rocky farm. The 1)1 eak weather with its snow and ice made it necessary for him to spend a larger portion of the winter in breaking the roads. The way they did it was that after every storm the neighbors 20 The Life of a New England Boy would club together with their oxen and sleds and drive ihrough the roads in the district set apart by the officials to keep clear, so that about one-half of the year's time was used in keeping the roads clear. The balance of the time, after breaking the roads, was consumed in cutting and hauling the wood to supply the family. A large pile of wood consisting of several cords was piled up in the door yard of the house. In the spring of the year when the snow was melting and the roads im- passable, it was father's business and the boys to cut and prepare the wood for the stove and haul it into the shed where it was stored for summer use. The Life of a New England Boy 21 CHAPTEK II. MY SCHOOL DAYS. Prof. Benjamin Stanton, who was the professor at the Academy of the school in Guilf ord Academy where I last went, was elected by the Institute Board of New Hampton as principal of the New Hampton School. It also had a theological de- partment. In this school they educated and grad- uated young men to enter college, and there is a female department where they educate and grad- uate young ladies. When I was at the age of nineteen, I told my father that I was not physically strong to be a working man and that I must go to school and fit myself for lighter work than a day laborer. "But how can you do it!" he said. "I don't know how I wilt do it," I says, "but where there is a will there is a way." And I went to New Hampton to school. The first thing I did was to engage a room where I could cook, eat and study. I boarded myself for three years, kept PROF. BENJAMIN STANTON The Life of a New England Boy 23 bachelors hall, had nothing to eat excepting what I cooked myself and what mother would send me in the shape of pies and cakes. I bought my books with the little money I had saved from my Boston trip, and entered the Sophomore class of the New Hampton Institute. I joined the Social Frater- nity, a prominent literary society, and remain a member to this day. This was the fall term of the Sophomore year. Col. Lewis, a native of Mississippi, came to New Hampton to recover his health long before the forties and settled there. He soon became inter- ested in the New Hampton Institute. Being a man of great wealth, he was a power there. His wealth consisted in owning a large number of negro slaves which he owned with his brother in Mississippi. But his brother remained at home and run the plantation while he lived in New Hampton with his family and spent his money. Fronting on Main Street were fifty acres of rich land, running back quite a distance. He cultivated this land like a garden. He built near the street a green-house in which he cultivated grapes and flowers. He told me one day, while I was visiting his conservatory, that some people thought him COL. RUFUS G. LEWIS The Life of a New England Boy 25 foolish to spend so much money upon fruits and flowers, "but," says he, "I derive more revenue from grapes and flowers than any farmer in the county does from his farm, notwithstanding that I have to keep it heated by day and night for one- half of the year." He had a family of children, three sons and one daughter, on which he doted, as Southern people of wealth will do. Being wealthy, he could send his children to school. They did not have to do a lick of work, while I, being poor, had to put in every moment of my leisure time in working to get money to help pay my ex- penses. While seeing this, I began to grieve that God had given them so much and had given me nothing, so one day I went to Col. Lewis, whom I found in his conservatory, and asked him for a loan or a gift, I do not remember which. He turned to me and said, "Because I'm able to send my children to school and your father is not able to send you, I must help you, must I not ? " " No, ' ' said he, "go on as you are now going and I venture to say that you will come out better in the end than my boys will." I went away much grieved because he had turned me down, but I have watched his sons, and his prophecy has been 26 The Life of a New England Boy literally fulfilled, for his sons who have been raised in ease and plenty and were never required to work or do anything for themselves, have not made their mark in life, whilst I have succeeded so well in life that my property exceeds theirs by many thousands. Now the tables are turned; I am rich while they are poor. And I owe it all to the fact that I had to learn to work in my boyhood. Col. Lewis had often been spoken against by Abolition- ists in New Hamplon, of whom there was a goodly number in the neighborhood, because he owned slaves. It was frequently argued against receiv- ing contributions from his wealth, because it was earned largely by slave-labor, but his great popu- larity as a man overcame all such scruples. I took a school in Bristol, New Hampshire, across the Pemeguosic Eiver, opposite New Hamp ton, where I was very successful. The day before the school closed there came a man from Center Harbor, N. H., who wanted a teacher. I intended to go from this school back to New Hampton and resume my studies, but he offered me a good price if I would go and teach his school, for it was dif- ficult to find teachers at that season of the year. After teaching that school Mr. Cany, a prominent 28 The Life of a New England Boy citizen, had a son and daughter who were patrons of my school, and he suggested to me that I go to Meredith Village, three miles distant, and open up a private school where he sent his son and daughter. The teaching of these schools carried me through the spring term, but I had kept up with my classes by studying extra times, and went back to my school for the summer term. I worked at haying and canvassing for books to raise money to help me with my expenses. At the close of this term I went to Cape Code to teach school. A member of our class went there for the purpose of engaging schools for the students. So many schools did he engage that when they went down there they were called the drove. "He is one of the drove," they would say. He located me at the little town called West Sandwich, Barnstable County, Mass. I had in my school seven young ladies of about my age. I remember distinctly the first morning I began school. These young ladies came trooping in and took their seats ; their size and beauty very much abashed me, but I, following the custom of the school from which I came, opened the school with prayer. The school numbered about forty stu- 30 The Life of a New England Boy dents, very few of them of much size. After prayers I enrolled the names of the scholars. There was one young lady in the group who very much interested me, who afterwards became my wife. I boarded around the neighborhood to help out the length of the school which was about three months; my wages was thirty dollars per month and board. The first day at noon when I went to my lunch, I thought to myself that I had earned seventy-five cents that forenoon, the most money in the shortest time that I ever earned. The school district had a social turn, and during the winter there were several social parties where I was invited and accepted. To one of these parties I took two young ladies in the old-fashioned shay. After the party had broken up, the horse being a very spirited one, we drove home very rapidly, four miles. I took each girl to her home and then took the horse to the stable and went to my board- ing-house and immediately retired before the other young people had gotten home. I left my plug hat standing on the ante table in the hall. After I had gone to sleep the other members of the household came home and took seats in the parlor waiting for me to come. After they had sat about The Life of a New England Boy 31 an hour they began to wonder where I was, think- ing I was a long time getting home, but one of them happened to go in the hall and saw my hat on the table ; she reported to the other girls in the parlor that I must be at home as my hat was there. Then they all retired. This was a huge joke on them, and the next morning at the breakfast table some one asked where I was the night before, which sat up a big laugh because I had so fooled them, and we had a big time over it. I always wore a high silk hat those days, for I thought a cap was not dignified enough for a school teacher. I was so popular in that family that we used to gather in the parlor and have social chats with the school girls that would come over. I being a single school teacher, became quite a favorite with the girls. And thus passed the winter in the school and social circle. At the close of the school we gave an exhibition; we needed lamps to light the school-house. Gustavus Swift, who founded the great Swift Packing Company of Chicago, was a boy at that time, called by his chums * * Stut- tering Dick, ' ' because he stuttered ; he was janitor of the church. I invited him to bring the lamps of the church and light up my school-house that 32 The Life of a New England Boy night. The next morning he took the lamps to the church. I asked him what I should give him for his trouble; he told me I might give him t-t-t-wenty f-f-f-ve c-c-c-nts i-i-i-f I w-w-was a m-in-mine t-t-to. I paid him the twenty-five cents. This Gustavus Swift started his career in life by butchering sheep for one cent a head for his brother, who was in the meat business. He also went to the Brighton Market, near Boston, where they would buy droves of hogs, drive them down on Cape Cod and peddle them out to the people who each wanted a pig or two. This young man would take the money his brother gave him for his wages and buy a few pigs to drive on down the Cape with his brother and sell them out. After awhile he had accumulated enough to buy a drove for himself. He made some money then and went into the butcher business down on the Cape in the town of Barnstable. He started a market and sent out four wagons to sell his meat to the coun- try people. There were in the town four men in the same business who nudged each other and said they were sorry for the boy, for he would lose what he had in a few weeks, for he gave over- weight. In less than one year he was selling beef 1 (UNIVERSITY^ The Life of a New England Boy 33 to these same men. He would go to Brighton and buy carloads of cattle, ship them down on the Cape, slaughter them and sell the meat to these four men. To get this money to buy these cattle he went to his uncle Paul Crowell, my wife's father, to borrow the money. He got six hundred dollars for thirty days and he paid it back the day before it was due, and he said that was the key to his success in life to pay borrowed money the day before it was due. When he needed more money than Paul Crowell could furnish him, he went to the Barnstable Bank and asked the president if he would loan him six thousand dollars. The old man drummed on the counter with his pencil and opened wide his eyes and looked at the young man and said, " Young man, what are you going to do with six thousand dollars ?" The young man re- plied, "I am going to Albany, New York, and buy six carloads of cattle. " "What security can you give, ' ' the old man asked. ' ' Nothing but my note, ' ' he said. The old banker was thunderstruck and thought for a moment. He knew the young man was a thrifty boy. He had done business with him for a couple of years and knew he was a thrifty young man and faithful in paying his loans. The Life of a New England Boy 35 After a moment's thought he said, "You can have it," and made out a note for six thousand dollars which the young man signed. The day before the note became due the young man appeared at the bank window and paid the six thousand dollars and took up his note. He then looked up at the old banker and said, * i Can I have that six thousand dollars again?" "Yes," the banker said, "you can have it, ' ' and it was paid again the day before it was due. This circumstances of prompt payment gave the young man credit for all the money the banks could loan. He then moved to Chicago where he commenced the great establishment, The Swift Packing Company. He borrowed money by the millions, but he always paid it the day before it was due, and this prompt payment was the key- note of his success. He told me this on one occa- sion when I was visiting him. "I have but one advice to give to any young man when he borrows money, always pay it back the day before it be- comes due, and this will establish his confidence with the banks, so that he can borrow all the money he wants." He said, "If I had failed to pay the loan when it fell due, I would have lost The Life of a New England Boy 37 their confidence and been crippled for life. By prompt payment I established confidence. " School on Cape Cod having closed, I went back to the New Hampton school for the spring term. I met numerous school mates and we passed through the summer term, keeping up successfully with my class. While many of the boys were en- gaged in playing ball on the school ground I was engaged in hoeing corn for a neighbor at ten cents an hour during corn hoeing time. Other times I would be engaged in sawing wood for the neigh- bors around, and thus passed my time in work while other boys more favorably provided for were playing ball. After the term of school closed I went to work for the farmers, making hay during my vacation, where I earned considerable 'money to help pay my school expenses. The fall term passed much the same as the previous term, at the close of which I returned to Cape Cod to teach the same school where I had taught the previous winter. I received the same wages, but did not board all around over the neighborhood. I had virtually the same group of young ladies as pupils, and the one I mentioned interested me so much is where I boarded altogether. The 38 The Life of a New England Boy close proximity to each other in the family caused us to become well acquainted, and finally ripened into courtship, so that by the time the term closed we had entered into arrangements to be mates for life, which was consumated three years afterwards, after I had left college and gone South to teach. The school having closed I went back to New Hampton to resume my studies there with much the same conditions as in pre- vious years. When the next fall term closed I went back to Cape Cod and took another school at Centerville, about fifteen miles further down on the Cape. I had a successful school and formed the acquaintance of a teacher in an adjoining district to whom I became somewhat attached, because she was such a help to me. After the school term closed I went to Michigan to Hillsdale College, a Free Baptist school. I there met as president of the college Chancelor E. B. Fair-field, a noted educator. I entered the Sophomore class where I remained one term. From President Fairfield I learned they were in need of a teacher of drawing. The lady to whom I had become attached at Cen- terville was a teacher of drawing. I wrote to her, saying there was an opening there for her to teach The Life of a New England Boy 39 drawing. She communicated with President Fair- field, which resulted in her engagement for the next term, which she successfully filled. At the close of the Sophomore year, because some of the New Hampton students had gone to the Ann Arbor College, Michigan, I went there to visit them, and I was so much taken with the college that I left my Hillsdale College and passed the examination to enter Ann Arbor. 40 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER III. I STUDIED DENTISTRY. During the vacation I went south to Ohio for the purpose of finding something to do to earn money. I took an agency to canvass for books, but met with very poor success as a canvasser. I met a man who had a patent-right for a fanning mill for cleaning grain. I bought the right for Cuaga County, Ohio. I started out to canvass for the sale of the patent-right. I worked about a month and made but one sale for which I received a gold watch estimated at fifty dollars. I became dis- gusted with the patent-right business and went into a dentist office in Central Ohio, to see if they wanted a dental student. The man told me that he did not want any students, but that he knew of a man who lived at Eavena, Ohio, by the name of Dr. Spellman, who wanted a student. I went there and saw Dr. Spellman and made the arrangement with him to study dentistry for a year. As I had The Life of a New England Boy 41 no means to pay him a tuition except the watch, I told him I would give him my watch for the tuition. He said I could carry the watch until the end of the year, and then he would take it. He did so. I had no means of living while engaged as a dentist student, so I went to a professor of a private school at Revana, by the name of Hague- man, and engaged to teach two hours a day for my board and room. I taught three months and then I had an opportunity to go to Shalersville, a town four miles away, where I could get a private school. I went there and had a successful school. During the term of school I met a lady by the name of Mason, who lived with her father in the village, and fell in love with her. She was a widow and fourteen years older than myself. I finished my school and then went back to Eavena to the dentist office where she frequently visited me. I became disgusted with the dentist business. The widow, as a present to help me on my way, gave me ten dollars, and that was the last I ever saw of her, but afterwards learned she got married. At the time I knew her she was the mother of seven chil- dren, six of whom were dead. After becoming 42 The Life of a New England Boy disgusted with the idea of being a doctor of den- tistry, I decided that teaching was my forte, so after giving Dr. Spellman the watch, I left Eavena for the South. The Life of a New England Boy 43 CHAPTEB IV. ENGAGED IN TEACHING SCHOOL. Then I went to Bowling Green, Ky. While on the boat down the Ohio River I met an elderly gentleman and his family, who lived in Kentucky. He took me to his wife and introduced me and told her I was a Yankee school teacher seeking a school down South. She said, "We will have him go along with us." I also met a young man and his mother on the boat who were broke. He asked me for the loan of some money. I told him I had but little money. He said that he and his mother were going to a little town further down on the river, and when they got there they would have plenty of money. I let him have ten dollars and he told me that he would meet me at a certain point down the river and pay me the money. I stopped off from the steamer at a place called Wellsville, Ohio, for the purpose of looking for a school there.. I found no school; the next day I 44 The Life of a New England Boy took the boat again, and went down the river to the point where this young man I had loaned the money to was to meet me. When I arrived there I learned that he lived in another little town, four miles from the river. Then I had to walk four miles to see him; I found him. He paid me back the ten dollars, and I walked back to the river four miles, and thus I lost a day, and walked eight miles, and this was all the pay I got for loaning him ten dollars. I took the steamer and went on down to Cincinnati; I crossed over to Covington, Ky., and took the cars for Bowling Green, Ky. I stopped there a day or two and then started out into the country to hunt for a school. I went to this man's house whom I had met on the boat. They were glad to see me and told me that their house should be my home as long as I should- stay. He loaned me a horse and I rode ten miles to the town of Middleton, where I found a man by the name of Patterson who wanted an assistant in a private school. I engaged with him to teach the Latin and Greek classes for $30 a month and board. While teaching there I became very popu- lar, but the salary was so small that I was not sat- isfied. After a few months teaching there I met The Life of a New England Boy 45 a young man by the name of Sanborn who had just come from Columbus, Ga., and was a teacher. He was a Northern man, had gone down South for the purpose of teaching. He became dissatis- fied because of the heat and came up to Kentucky where I was. He reported that there were schools down there where I could get more wages. I made arrangements with him to take my place in Mr. Patterson's school to teach the languages, and I left for the South. While in this school I had be- come very popular, by taking an interest in the Sabbath school, because I exhibited my ability as a teacher. I was invited by the pastor of the church there to preach one Sunday, which I politely declined to do. When they found I was to leave they made me a present of a very nice book called "Work on Geology," which I have among my precious relics to this day. I took the boat and went down the Ohio Eiver to Louisville, Ky. I went up the Columbia Eiver to Nashville, Tenn., and changed cars for Chattanooga, Tenn. Thence I went on to Atlanta, Ga., and then to Columbus, Ga. As I arrived in Columbus, Ga., the city was swarming with people. I asked the occasion of so many people in town. They told me 46 The Life of a New England Boy that two men were to be hung. I went to the scene of the gallows and there saw two men hung. I then went back to the hotel and left my trunk with instructions to forward it when they received notice, and started out for Cuthbert, Ga., about fifty miles away, seeking a school, as I had not money to pay my fare. I walked part of the way and rode whenever I could get a chance on wagons. I arrived at Cuthbert two days afterwards, but had not found any school. I went to the hotel and got dinner. I paid the landlord fifty cents for my dinner. I then asked him if he could tell me where I could find a school. After thinking a moment he said there was a place seven miles out where they wanted a school teacher. I started out and ar- rived there at about six o'clock in the evening. The next morning he charged me seventy-five cents for my supper and lodging and breakfast. I paid him and had left fifty cents more. The only money I had in the world. I was three thousand miles away from home. That evening I told him my excuse for being there. I said I wanted a school. He said they had just employed a teacher, but that eight miles away they wanted a teacher. He told me to go to Maj. Goneka. When I arrived at Maj. The Life of a New England Boy 47 Goneka's house I found it an old plantation log house. He was sitting on the piazza. As I walked up to the door he arose and came forward and took me in his arms, as it were, and with an out- stretched hand, he said, * * You are a Yankee, and a school teacher." I said, "Yes I'm a Yankee and a school teacher." He replied, "You are just the man I want; come in and sit down." We talked the matter over and he said, * t We will have dinner and go out and see if we can make up a school," as there were no other kind of school south of the Mason and Dixy lines, except private schools. After dinner he put me on a horse (I was not accustomed to riding horse-back), and we went out and made up a school of twenty-six scholars, but he had no school-house suitable, but there was a house one mile away at the cross-roads which was vacant, and it had been a rendezvous for goats, which we could get. They sent their negroes and cleaned up the house. But we needed benches and desks. They told me they would send me lumber and negro carpenters and I could superin- tend the making of desks. They did it, and I made the desks, and on the fifth of January, 1859, fol- lowing, I appointed a day for opening the school. 48 The Life of a New England Boy Early that January morning I opened school. As I came up to the school-house I saw awaiting my arrival on the outside of the school-house door several of my patrons of the school and sixteen scholars, eight of whom could count a hundred and eight could not. I rang the first school bell ever rung in that neighborhood, and called the school to order. I commenced the usual operation of taking the names of the scholars, assigned the lessons of those who were big enough to study, and commenced teaching. As usual I soon became very popular. I had won the confidence of the people. I taught school six months and gave an exhibition at its close. I then had forty-nine students. My exhibition called people from all around, and it filled the church where we had the exhibition, and we had a grand time, and we were to have a vacation of two months of the summer. During my first vacation I went' North to get mar- ried. The Life of a New England Boy 49 CHAPTER V. GOT MAKEIED. Believing it to be the duty of every man after arriving at mature years to marry, at the age of twenty-four years I went North, where I had left my sweetheart two years and half before, the one out of the same group that had so interested me when we first met, six years ago. We were mar- ried at her home in West Sandwich, Mass., now called Sagmore, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the sixth day of August, 1859, and took the cars for New York City. Then we took the steamer for Savannah, Ga. We were seasick on the way for a day or two, but we recovered ourselves shortly. When we arrived at Savannah, Ga., we took the cars for Cuthbert, Ga. When we arrived there we took a carriage for Springvale Institute, where my school was. I named my school Spring- vale Institute, which name remains to this day. The place bore the name Springvale after my 50 The Life of a New England Boy school, and has become quite a town. There are two railroads there now. We were received with much eclat, The people turned out and gave us a warm reception, because a bride and groom had arrived. I received congratulations on every side, because I had succeeded in marrying such a beau- tiful wife During my trip North I met a lady, by name Miss Leavett, who lived in Meredith Village, New Hampshire, who came south as a teacher of music. When she arrived there on September following she was very much disgusted to think she had come three thousand miles to teach music to scholars who lived in the woods. But she bore up under it and taught there successfully for a year. The Life of a New England Boy 51 CHAPTER VI. TEACHING CONTINUED. On September 1, 1859, the fall term of school opened. I had seventy-five pupils. In the mean- time while I was gone North to get married, the neighborhood had built me a fine school-house costing two thousand dollars, which sum was made up by subscription. It was a two-story building, and had three school rooms. The downstairs room was used for morning devotions and music, the upstairs was used for teaching the classes. The people were so interested in the school that they would send their children at seven o'clock in the morning. I opened my school at eight o 'clock and taught until five o'clock in the evening, with one hour recess at noon. My work was so hard that I was reduced to almost a skeleton, and Miss Leavett said never was a teacher so worked as I was. But I had to have a house to live in, and that fall I built me a dwelling, the only house in the Spring- 52 The Life of a New England Boy vale Institute district, excepting the school-house, so I built the first house in the town of Springvale. So I am the founder of the town of Springvale. There was nothing unusual happened the first year of school. At the close of the first year Miss Leavett closed her work with me and went North, and I was left at the opening of the civil war to battle with my Yankeesim. I was a Yankee, and they all knew it. Although I had shown no proclivities against slavery, all who knew me be- came attached to me. But when the war broke out every Yankee had to show his hand. But I had a family now, and all I had in the world was invested there, and I could not get away. Al- though I was a Northern man, after seeing the workings of slavery for about a year, I had be- come convinced that slavery was not so bad as it had been represented to me, and I fell in with it. While the people were investigating me as to my ideas of slavery, the bone of contention, there were some who did not know me who were for driving me out of the country, but those who knew me stood by me. During a meeting of the citizens who met to investigate me, was present one of my friends, James Foster. He said he had a gun that The Life of a New England Boy 53 would shoot seven times and if anybody touched me he would shoot it at them seven times. So he sent for his carriage and brought me and my family to his house where I remained two weeks in seclusion until the excitement had abated. I then volunteered as a soldier in the Southern army and went to the front. My company, the Quitman Greys, went on the cars to Strausberg, Va., where we took our first tramp for Winchester, Va. On my way from Strausberg to Winchester, when about half way, I fell with a sunstroke. The whole regiment halted for an hour and gathered around me. It was decided by Col. Geary and officers that I should remain by the wayside while the regiment passed on. Two young men who were pupils of mine in my school at home, by the name of Phillips, were detailed to wait on me. I was taken to a wayside inn and stayed there three days. One of the days was Sunday, the Battle of * Bull Run. We were in the church and heard the rattle of the musketry. After three days I suf- ficiently recovered to join my regiment. We got a team and drove on to Winchester where we learned that the day before my regiment had been ordered to Bull Run. We got on a freight car and 54 The Life of a New England Boy went to Bull Run where I joined my regiment that was camped in a swamp. We soon moved out on the higher land, where I remained in my tent sev- eral days, and I being a feeble man, together with the effects of the sunstroke prevented me from being a soldier, and I was honorably discharged and sent 'home. On this trip I never saw an army and never heard a gun fired. When I arrived home I was sick. I was met at the station by sev- eral of my people and taken to their home in a carriage. I then sent for my family. I remained at the house of Mr. Thompson several days. In the meantime, while I was away as a soldier, Maj. Goneka, who was incapable to be a soldier on ac- count of poor health, had moved to my house with his family. I was taken from Mr. Thompson's house with my family to my house and boarded with Maj. Goneka for a few weeks. Salt had be- come a great scarcity, and I told Maj. Goneka that if he would furnish me with a pair of mules and wagon I would go to Florida and get a load of salt for his family and mine. He accepted my proposition and I started for Florida, one hundred miles away, where they were making salt from sea water. I got a load of salt and took it home and The Life of a New England Boy 55 gave Maj. Goneka his share. So scarce was everything in the country that I had no sacks to put my salt in, so I took up my carpet and made it into sacks to hold the salt; so that after that during the war I had no carpets for my floor. I sold some of my salt for one hundred dollars per sack in confederate money. After boarding with Maj. Goneka for three weeks I went over to live in a one-room log house in a sweet potato patch, full of nice sweet potatoes which I was permitted by Maj. Goneka to use. After I had sold my house I went over Pataula Creek and took another school. I lived in a two-room log house. The war was on us, the people had no money to pay me for tuition, and I took corn and pork for my tuition. I taught school there for one year and then moved to a place called Bethel, eight miles away, and opened up a school, which I taught until the close of the war. During the war I had to do something else besides teaching school for a living, so I rented some land and hired negroes to cultivate it. I was in this condition when the war closed. After the war closed I received a letter from a man who had been a captured rebel in a Northern prison, and being benefited by my wife's sister, Mrs. Rebecca 56 The Life of a New England Boy Burgess, who sent food and clothing to the prison- ers, she found that he was going home, and lived within fifty miles of her sister, and she had her father to entrust him with money for her sister. After arriving at his home he sent me word he had fifty dollars in greenbacks which was given him by my wife's father to take home and give to me. I rode fifty miles on horse-back to get the money. I got the money and with it bought tickets to Boston, Mass., for my wife and children by the way of the West. It took them eight days to reach Boston. Then at Boston they had to buy another ticket for West Sandwich. I was left alone in Georgia. I got a private school four miles away, supported by Amus Ward. He gave me one hundred dollars per month and board in greenbacks for teaching the school. He invited all the neighbors ' children around to go to the school. I taught there about three months and became desirous of going home; I sold my house and lot in Bethel for about six hundred dollars in greenbacks and gathered together what money I could from those whom I had taught, which amounted to about twelve hun- dred dollars. I took this money to a Mr. Morris, The Life of a New England Boy 57 a particular friend of mine who was a dealer in cotton. He sold me twelve hundred dollars worth of cotton. The cotton was already shipped and on its way to New York. He gave me a bill of laden and I started for New York City. On my way I visited my brother William who lived in Almira, New York and from there I went on to Cape Cod, where I found my family at her father's. After staying there a few days I went back to Almjira, New York, where my brother was and bought out a half interest in his restaurant. After I had been there a few days word came to me that Mr. Morris, from whom I had bought the cotton, was in New York City. I took the first train for New York City and arrived there in the morning, and went to the hotel where he was stop- ping, and registered. I ask the clerk if Mr. Morris was there and he said "Yes, he is in the dining- room." The first person I saw was Mr. Morris sitting at a table, eating. I did not make myself known to him then, but took a seat back of him. He finished his breakfast before I did and went into the office. I soon followed him and at the desk I said "Good morning, Mr. Morris. " He turned and recognized me and was very glad to meet me 58 The Life of a New England Boy and said, "Let us go to my room." We went to his room and talked matters over. The cotton had not yet arrived and I told him I needed the money. He figured up what the cotton would be worth when it arrived. It amounted to about twelve hun- dred dollars which he paid me. We then went out on the street, and in passing by a jewelry shop, he said, "Let us go in." We went in and he said, "Now pick out a watch." I picked out a cheap watch and the price was fifteen dollars, which he paid and handed it to me and said, ' * This is for you to remember me by, as we shall probably never meet again." We parted and we have never met since, but I have learned he became very wealthy as a cotton dealer. The Life of a New England Boy 59 CHAPTER VII. WENT INTO THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS WITH MY BROTHER IN ALMIRA, NEW YORK, AND OTHER CHANGES. I sent for my family who stopped with my wife's father in West Sandwich since their return from the South. We rented rooms in Almira, New York, and lived there. I soon learned that the restaurant business was not sufficient to support two, so I sold out my interest to my brother, sent my family back to her father's in West Sandwich and left again for the South. I went to Mobile, Ala., where I had an uncle living by the name of Smith. I stopped with him a few days, but could find nothing to do to earn any money in Mobile. I took the steamer for New Orleans and then took another steamer for Galveston, Texas. I took the stage for the interior of Texas. While in Mobile I changed my money from greenbacks to gold, which amounted to about six hundred dollars. 60 The Life of a New England Boy Having arrived in Texas I found the country so vast, and it required a good deal of money to en- gage in the cattle business, for which I went there. After staying there a few weeks I decided it was best for me, not having much money, to go back to New England. I then started on my long journey home. Before going to West Sandwich, Mass., when I arrived in Boston I went to Man- chester, New Hampshire, where I had a sister liv- ing. Her husband was an overseer in a cotton mill. I told him I wanted work. He took me to the mill and I was given a position in the mill at a dollar and twenty-five cents a day and boarded myself. I left the job because it did not pay me, and went up town and bought a few things to sell. I started out to sell these things and found that they netted me so little profit that I could not afford to continue. In the meantime my wife had come from West Sandwich, where I had sent for her, and we decided that it was best for us to go back to West Sandwich where I could get the posi- tion as principal of the High School at Monument for sixty-five dollars per month and board myself, four miles away from West Sandwich. I went up on the cars in the morning and returned in the The Life of a New England Boy 61 evening. While teaching there Thomas Eli, pre- siding elder of the Methodist Church, invited me to go to West Falmouth and supply the church as a preacher. This place was twelve miles from Monument, and was reached only by stage. I went up on Saturday by stage, preached two sermons on Sunday and attended the Sabbath school, and returned on Monday to my school, opening at nine o'clock. I taught school through the week and repeated the transaction every week for three years. I was very popular as a young preacher. The High School was a rotation school as well, and was held at Sandwich, Mass., one-half of the time, so I taught at Monument one-half of the time and at Sandwich the other half. 62 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER VIII. ENGAGED IN THE LIFE INSURANCE BUSINESS. While teaching school at Monument there came to me a life insurance agent. He presented the subject with such glowing colors that I became interested,, but told him that I was not able to pay the premium on any insurance policy. He sug- gested that he make me an agent and that I could insure other people, and thereby receive money from commissions to pay my own premium. He insured me for two thousand dollars on a twenty- year endowment, which I never received, because the company failed. I was then thirty-four years of age and the policy would be paid to me at fifty- four. I started out then during my leisure time to canvass for insurance. I was very successful and got many applications for policies. So much so that I interested the branch office, located at Boston, and they sent for me to come to the office and offered to pay my expenses. I went and we The Life of a New England Boy 63 made an arrangement whereby I should receive one thousand dollars per year and expenses. But what should I do with my school and church that I was pastor of? They told me to get another teacher, but I could preach on Sundays as usual. I went to Dartmouth College, N. H., and engaged a teacher to succeed me. I then went to work as a life insurance agent. I was so successful in getting applications for policies that they sent for me to come to the office again. When there I made an- other arrangement whereby I should receive two thousand dollars a year and expenses, and preach at the same time on Sundays. I was sent to New Bedford and took an office there. After working about two years they wanted me to go to Vermont. I gave up my ministry and went to Eutland, Vt., and took an office. My business was to travel all over the State and appoint agents for life insur- ance as I had been so successful in appointing suc- cessful agents in other places. After working for a year or so with office at Rutland, it was found more convenient for me to locate at Burlington, Vermont. My salary was raised from two thou- sand to three thousand dollars and expenses. I located at Burlington, Vermont, and decided I 64 The Life of a New England Boy wanted my family with me, but had to have a house to live in. I bought lots and engaged a contractor to build me a house of seven rooms that would cost thirty-two hundred dollars. The house was located on Union Street in sight of Lake Oham- plain where we had a beautiful view of steamers passing and repassing. Having built my new home I sent for my family, who were living at West Sandwich, and moved to Burlington, Vermont, to my new home. After working about a year my success as a life insurance agent began to fail, be- cause there were so many men in the business. Almost every man I would meet was a life insur- ance agent. All the preachers and school teachers and business men went into the business. I became disgusted and gave up my salary of three thou- sand dollars, which had under contract one year longer to run, because I could not earn my salary. I then met Mr. Holland, who was a prominent publisher of the Bible. I engaged with him to sell his Bible for five dollars a day and expenses. I canvassed for the Bible about one month, but met with no success. I gave up the job. There came to me at that time a man by name of Joseph Inhoff from Lincoln, Nebraska, who was a land agent The Life of a New England Boy 65 from Nebraska. I engaged with him as a partner to sell lands. We sold some land in Burlington at a good profit, but he had to go home to Lincoln, Nebraska, and insisted I should visit Lincoln in the near future to see the country. I went, and on my way, I was so pleased with the rolling prairies that I wrote back home saying it was not in the power of tongue or pen to describe the beauties of that country. Lincoln, the capital of the State, had about two thousand inhabitants. Lincoln is located in a little valley and as I stood upon the streets one day talking with some gentleman, I was enthused at the prospects that surrounded me. I said that I expect to live to see the day when the city would spread out and fill the horizon of the valley, which was six miles away on each side. My prophecy has been literally fulfilled, for that coun- try has been nearly covered with houses. 66 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER IX. ENGAGED IN FARMING. I bought a six hundred and forty-acre farm in Otoe County, Nebraska, from the railroad com- pany at eight dollars per acre. I built a house and barn on it, and went to Burlington, Vermont, for my family. While traveling to Otoe County at St. Albans I was robbed of my pocket-book and tickets. While going into the car I was met by two or three persons who crowded me very hard. I sa-id "do not hurry, gentlemen, there is plenty of time. ' ' Then they left me. After going into the car and the car had started I found I was robbed. Everything was done to catch the robbers, without success. I then had to buy new tickets and lost my pocket-book containing fifty dollars. On ar- riving in Otoe County with my family I broke up one hundred acres of prairie land and planted it in sod corn. I made a good crop of sod corn. I bought one hundred and twenty-six head of Texas The Life of a New England Boy 67 steers and hired a boy to herd them on my farm. I cut one hundred tons of prairie hay and stacked it around my coral. I gathered my corn which made about twelve thousand bushels. I had also a lot of hogs that run with the cattle. I fed them hay and corn during the winter. The weather was so cold at times that it killed the weaker ones, so that I in the spring, in place of a hundred and twenty-six, had a hundred that were spring poor. I herded them out on my farm again until fall. When I found they were eating their heads off, I arranged with Gov. Buttler to take them to Chi- cago and sell them. He also marketed my hogs. T found by this experience that I was not a farmer, so I rented the place and moved with my family to Lincoln, Nebraska, eighteen miles away. I there bought a half interest of C. M. Parker in the hardware business. I obtained the money to do this by borrowing eight hundred dollars from a Mr. Ogden, and gave him as security my one hundred and ten acres of land. I lost this and the one hundred and ten acres when the store was closed up. I rented my house, but built another one costing me eleven hundred dollars on a lot on which was a mortgage of four hundred and fifty 68 The Life of. a New England Boy dollars. We had but poor success in our business and the business very much declined. About this time there was a new county formed thirty miles away which had for its county seat a town by the name of David City, where we opened up a branch store, and it was decided that I should go there and run the store while Mr. Parker run the home store in Lincoln. Our business continued to de- cline, and we soon found that we could not pay our bills so we were closed up by our creditors in Chicago. After we had been closed up a few weeks we managed to raise sufficient money to pay off the debts, and opened up again. We run the store about one year longer and again closed up for want of money to pay our bills. I then moved the goods in my store, David City to Lincoln, Nebraska, where I sold out my interest in the store to Mr. Parker, and all I received for my share was a re- ceipt in full from him, which was eighteen hundred dollars which I had put in the store. I lost it all and four years time, except I had enough out of it to support my family, and that he would pay the debts. He run the store a few months and closed it up. The Life of a New England Boy 69 CHAPTER X. CANVASSING, ICE CREAM AND REAL ESTATE BUSINESS. After I had gone put of the store I was out of business. I tried various means for a livelihood, but found nothing until I struck a man who wanted me to go to Kansas to canvass for the enlargement of pictures. I went and successfully canvassed for the enlargement of pictures. After a few months' work in that line I had saved up a few dollars and bought a stereopticon which I exhibited through the country until I became disgusted with my poor success. I then received a letter from home from Lillian, my youngest daughter, who said that her mother was sick and that I must come home. I went home and found her health much improved. After staying at home a few weeks I went to Omaha, Neb., where I canvassed for books. After canvassing a few weeks I became disgusted with my poor success and went home again. ' After look- ing about for something else to do I met a man 70 The Life of a New England Boy by the name of Small who had an ice cream parlor. I went into his place of 'business and asked him if he would sell out. He replied that he would and that his price was two hundred and eighty dollars. I told him that I had but two hundred dollars. I had saved this in my canvassing. He said that I could give him two hundred dollars and pay the eighty dollars out of the earnings of the parlor. In the meantime, while I was canvassing, my wife had supported the family by keeping boarders in a house I had built, and put the title in her name on which there was a mortgage of four hundred and fifty dollars. I then took charge of the ice cream parlor. Mr. Small made the ice cream and I sold quite a good deal of cream and cake. I was alone and did all the work, but on the eleventh day of August there came Barnum's Circus to Lincoln. His circus was world-wide in reputation and drew a large crowd. The railroads that centered in Lincoln brought in great crowds of people from everywhere, so that they filled the town full of people, so much so that by twelve o 'clock there was not a thing to eat in town. People flocked to my ice cream parlor for something to eat. I could give them nothing but ice cream. Among those The Life of a New England Boy 71 who came was a lady from Topeka, Kansas, who had just arrived on the train. She came into the parlor and asked for something to eat. I told her I could give her nothing but ice cream. She said that was better than nothing and took a seat and ate her ice cream. Then she came to the counter where I was cashier and paid her bill. She then asked me if I could tell her where she could get a room. As the town seemed to be full of people, I told her that my wife was keeping a boarding- house and that I thought that she could get a room there. She gave her name as Mrs. Carrie S. Tufts. She got a room at my wife's. The next morning I found on counting up my cash that I had taken in one-hundred and twenty-six dollars and a half. I had sold sixty gallons of ice cream and some cake. I paid Mr. Small sixty dollars for the cream. The next morning at the breakfast table Mrs. Tufts asked me if I could tell her where she could get something to do. I asked her what could she do and she said she had worked in an ice cream parlor and had worked in a restaurant and a mil- liner's store and was handy at most anything. I told her I needed a lady in my ice cream parlor and she said she would accept a position there. We 72 The Life of a New England Boy went down to the parlor she commenced her work, and she worked for me in ice cream parlors and rooming-houses for twenty-one years and died in the bath-tub asphyxiated by the gas. She was of such splendid help that I could not get along without her. I run the ice cream parlor until the cold weather set in and then converted it into a restaurant. I made seventeen hundred dollars within one year. Then I built an addition to my house of seventeen rooms and made it a hotel which I called the Central House. I sold out my restaurant and went there to run the hotel. After running the house about two years I rented it for about fifty dollars per month and I went to live in the next house wjiich I had bought beside tins house; that I had bought was a small Swedish Church on the corner. I bought this church, raised up the roof and made a two-story building of it. Downstairs I had made into a store and upstairs were rooms for renting. Between this house and the one I had bought was twelve feet space on which I built another story and put rooms above. I built on the rear of the store a one-story dress- making store. I tKen built in front of the first building I had bought there, four rooms, two up- The Life of a New England Boy 73 stairs and two downstairs on the same lot on which the hotel was. I built another house two stories high on the alley side. I built a house two stories high and a basement consisting of fourteen rooms apart of which I occupied and rented the balance. I then had a hotel, a dwelling house, three stores and twenty rooms. At that time an excursion was formed to go to California. Mrs. Tufts had gone to California the spring before. The excursion which we joined stopped at Sacramento, where we found Mrs. Tufts. In a few days we went on to San Francisco, where I bought a restaurant for Mrs. Tufts. After spending the winter in San Fran- cisco until March my wife and I left Mrs. Tufts in San Francisco and started home East. We went to San Jose where we stopped a few days and then we went on to Fresno, Cal. I negotiated to buy a vineyard and sixteen lots in the City of Fresno from S. H. Cole, a real estate dealer, but did not consummate the trade. We then went on to Los Angeles, where we remained about a week, and finding property so high I did not buy anything. They took me out four or five miles from the city and showed me land that stood upright for which they wanted six hundred and fifty dollars an acre. 74 The Life of a New England Boy I asked them what I could do with such land to make any money. They said, "Raise the price and sell it." The land was afterward sold for seven hundred dollars. In the meantime I had numerous offers for my property in Lincoln, all of which I turned down. We then went on to Lincoln, our home. As soon as I arrived in Lincoln, real estate men flocked around me and wanted to buy my place there. After much conversation I sold it to the Y. M. C. A. folks who wanted it to build a fine Y. M. C. A. building on it. I received for what cost me twelve thousand dollars, forty-five thousand dollars. It was said to be the best sale ever made in Lincoln up to that time. The cause of the sale was I donated fifteen hundred dollars to the Y. M. C. A. I received twenty thousand dollars in cash and the balance in notes, with mort- gage for the balance to run two years at eight per cent interest. I then went to Beatrice, Nebraska, and bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, right across the Blue Eiver in view of the city, for which I paid nineteen thousand and five hundred dollars. I surveyed this into lots and put it on the market for sale, but met with poor suc- cess, because I placed the price of the lots too The Life of a New England Boy 75 high, which was two hundred and fifty apiece. I then went to Lincoln and made arrangements to return to Fresno, Gal. On arriving in Fresno I bought the sixteen lots for which I had arranged before I went East, for which I paid twenty-five hundred dollars, and in a few weeks I sold them for sixty-four hundred dollars, making a fine speculation. I then bought two hundred acres on Blackstone Avenue, two miles north of the city, which was then a barley field. I negotiated with Thomas E. Hughes to buy five lots on the corner of Tulare and J Streets for twenty-five thousand dollars, and then went East. While East I com- pleted the sale and sent Thomas E. Hughes ten thousand dollars and a mortgage back for fifteen thousand dollars. I went East that season because I had promised Myrtie (Lillian), my youngest daughter, that I would go East to our old home in West Sandwich, Mass. After visiting my wife's people we went to New Hampshire, where we visited New Hampton school from which I had graduated years before. After visiting our relatives there a few weeks we returned to our Lincoln homo, where I arranged to move my family to Fresno, Cal. While they 76 The Life of a New England Boy remained in Lincoln I went to Fresno and built a house and barn on the two hundred acres I had bought there. In about three months my family came on from Lincoln, Nebraska, and took pos- session of the new home I had built on the two hundred acres. In the meantime I was engaged in the real estate business with two gentlemen partners by the name of Harvy and Thomas. The firm's name was Harvy, Thomas and Edgerly, located under the Grand Central Hotel. Among other things we did, we bought one hundred and twenty acres of wheat land, which we called Bel- mont addition to Fresno for which we paid eigh- teen thousand and five hundred dollars. We sur- veyed the land into lots and put it on the market for sale which sold very rapidly, so that in three months time we had sold all of it, excepting three blocks which we reserved a block each for each member of the firm. Mr. Harvy and Thomas sold theirs very soon and I kept my block and did not sell it all for fifteen years. This addition has now become a prominent part of the city. The Life of a New England Boy 77 CHAPTER XL BUILT THE EDGERLY BLOCK. After a few weeks I went to Dry Creek on Black- stone Avenue, where I bought five acres of clay land for which I paid three thousand dollars to make brick on. Having made the brick, one million in number, I hauled them to Fresno and built the Edgerly Block, a building which is one hundred and fifty feet long and seventy feet wide and three stories high. I bought the pressed brick for the front in San Francisco, which cost me twelve and a half cents apiece when laid in the wall. The whole building proper cost me fifty-three thousand dollars. It was then considered one of the finest buildings in Fresno. I had bought various pieces of land, for which I paid part cash and gave mort- gage for the balance. In all of my dealings in real estate during this time I had given mortgages to the amount of sixty-six thousand dollars. Prop- erty began to decline and I could sell nothing; THE EDGER.LY BLOCK, FRESNO The Life of a New England Boy 79 rents went down and I soon found myself badly handicapped. The Fresno National Bank was carrying me for ten thousand dollars with no security but my note. The president, H. D. Col- som, told me one day when I went to pay my in- terest that he wished he had a hundred customers just like me, because he had no trouble in collect- ing the interest. In the meantime I sent for my son in Kansas, who was herding sheep, to come to California and work for me. He came and, with my younger son, planted my two hundred-acre farm north of town into a Muscat vineyard. While visiting in San Francisco during the summer I received a letter from the Republican office asking me to add a press-room in the rear of the Edgerly Block. I did so and that remained there successful- ly for fourteen years, our only morning paper for Fresno. There came a time when it was necessary for the Government to move the Postoffice. It was then in a building on the corner of Fresno and J streets. After much wrangling between the citizens of North and South Fresno I succeeded in locating the Postoffice in the Edgerly Block. I received numerous letters from the citizens on the north side of town asking me to place a price on my 80 The Life of a New England Boy building ; that is, I was to sell out the southern side to them. I placed a price on my building at one hundred thousand dollars. I was to receive twenty-five thousand dollars cash and was to take a mortgage of seventy-five thousand dollars. If they secured the Postoffice I was to buy my build- ing back and give them the seventy-five thousand dollars mortgage back. Thus I was to make in my transaction twenty-five thousand dollars, but they could not raise the money -and the project fell through, so the Postoffice was located in my building on the corner of J and Tulare streets. The Postoffice took two stores. I was to donate the rent of one store and the citizens agreed to pay the rent of the other store. I received a few dollars from the people for the rent of that store and the rent stopped, excepting Dr. Eowell's. I was then paying for the rent of two stores. In the meantime the Republican Office needed more room so I built a one-story building forty feet wide and sixty feet long in front of the press-room, which led out to J Street, as editorial and composing- rooms, which they occupied until they built a five- story brick building on the corner of Tulare and J streets, opposite the New Postoffice, which they The Life of a New England Boy 81 are occupying to this day. The Postoffice re- mained in the Edgerly Block about fifteen years, or until the Government built a public Postoffice on the corner of Tulare and J streets, where the Postoffice now is. 82 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XII. THE BOOM BEOKE. After the boom broke and my notes began to fall due, I could not pay the interest, and let some of my property go to pay the mortgages, but I still held on to my two hundred-acre vineyard and the Edgerly Block. The property I had back in Beat- rice was sold at a smaller price than I paid for it, so I lost money in that speculation. There was a mortgage on the Edgerly Block for thirty-five thousand dollars and another mortgage on the vineyard for ten thousand dollars. I saw a notice in the San Francisco paper that a party there had property that they would exchange for city prop- erty. I wrote to this party asking for an explana- tion, and told them what I had. He came down, and after looking over the Edgerly Block, he told me that he had an eleven hundred-acre farm at Youtville, Napa County, Cal., that he would trade for the Edgerly Block. On this ranch there was a The Life of a New England Boy 83 wine vineyard of three hundred and fifty acres of bearing vines and a brick wine cellar with three hundred and fifty thousand gallons of oak cooper- age in it, but the cooperage was empty. This winery was used to make and store wine in. It also had a distillery for distilling brandy; it also had a fine dwelling-house and brick barn located near the railroad station. The price of this ranch was a hundred and ten thousand dollars. The price of the Edgerly Block was a hundred and five thousand. The ranch was free of all incum- brances and I put a mortgage on the ranch for twienty thousand dollars, enough to pay the differ- ence in trade of five thousand and ten thousand to pay the bank and I had five thousand left to run the ranches with. I did not move to Napa County that year, but rented the ranch and wine cellar and lived in Fresno with my family. The next year I went to Napa County with my wife and run the ranch myself. I soon learned that I was not a wine man. I did not make enough that year to pay the interest on the mortgages. I be- came alarmed and feared J. K. Pryor of San Francisco, who held the mortgages, would fore- close on me, as he was reported to be a hard man. 84 The Life of a New England Boy He had accumulated, he boasted, two million dol- lars by loaning money and taking advantages of parties who could not pay their interest. One day while he was visiting us, I knew him to be a wine man, and sat before him at dinner coffee, water and a bottle, of wine. Instead of drinking the water he took up his glass and said, "I don't know what water was made for unless it was to wash a man's face with." He drank his wine. This shows to what extent a man may go to depreciate his appetite. There came along a man from Omaha, Nebraska, who claimed to have money and securities to buy the farm. I negotiated with him a few days before the interest became due. I sold him the farm and took his securities, which con- sisted of mortgages on real estate back in Omaha and Wyoming oil stock. The mortgages took the real estate and no companies with such oil stock were ever found. They proved to be wild-cat com- panies. I took the stock, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars par value, for which I paid twenty cents on the dollar, which amounted to fifty thousand dollars. The whole of these securities proved to be worthless, and I lost in the trade fifty thousand dollars. I have these stocks now. Mr. The Life of a New England Boy 85 Pryor now owns and runs the ranch which cost him about thirty thousand dollars which he ob- tained by the laxity of California laws. 86 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XIII. RUNNING ROOMING HOUSES. During my last year's stay on the ranch in Napa I had accumulated two thousand dollars in gold which I took with me and went to Los Angeles. The first thing I did after I arrived there was to buy a restaurant for which I paid eight hundred and fifty dollars in gold. The man who sold me the restaurant said that he was going to Seattle to open up a restaurant. I went into the restaurant business, but soon learned that this man from whom I bought, instead of going to Seattle, just went around the corner and there opened up a restaurant, and took away all my trade. I soon found I could do no business in the restaurant so I traded it for a rooming-house on Second Street with thirty-six rooms. It was nicely furnished, but so far out that it failed to pay. I then traded that rooming-house for the Portland on Spring Street, Los Angeles, with thirty-six rooms, the rent of The Life of a New England Boy 87 which was one hundred and seventy-five dollars per month. The rent being so great that it was impossible to pay expenses and make any money, I then sold the rooming-house to a party in Pasa- dena, who owned forty acres of washed land. The land proved to be worthless and I lost it all. Then I bought out a small bakery and run it a few weeks. Mrs. Tufts was with me and did the bak- ing, but the business was too small to make any money. I took the fixtures out of the bakery and sold them to a second-hand man and shook the dust off of my feet from Los Angeles, and with Mrs. Tufts and my wife went back to Fresno to live. We went to Mrs. Tufts' house to live in Fresno. After a few w;eeks I went to Oakland where I found a cheap lodging house of fifty-nine rooms located on Ninth Street between Broadway and Washington streets. I traded for this house and gave in exchange nineteen lots which I had saved out of my purchase in Youtville, Napa County, and three hundred dollars in money. I took possession of the house and soon found that I had purchased a house of ill-fame. I was dis- gusted with my purchase. I soon cleaned the house out and refitted it for business. The house 88 The Life of a New England Boy being in a good location for business soon filled up with respectable people. When I had gotten the house in good condition I sent for my wife and Mrs. Tufts. I put Mrs. Tufts in charge as manager and we went on and made some money. After we had run the house for about three years I came to Fresno to look after the boys on the vine- yard. The first man I met on leaving the cars at Fresno was Thomas Dunn, who was about to erect the Dunn Block with stores below and rooming- house above. I bought it. I then had two rooming- houses ; one in Oakland. I went back to Oakland and sold out my house there, and moved to Fresno and took possession of the new house in the Dunn Block at Fresno. I named the new rooming-house Hotel Portland. I had previously bought the furniture in Oakland with which to furnish the new house, so that on the first day of May, 1901, I had the house nicely furnished and moved into it. I then leased the whole building for three years for three hundred and twenty-five dollars per month, and I paid the water bill. Mrs. Tufts run the house while I lived in rooms in the house. Mrs. Tufts told rue when I came to California that I had some money now, and that I should do some- The Life of a New England Boy 89 thing for her besides paying her wages, because she would be old by and by, and being a widow,' she would have no support. She had then worked for me eight years, and had saved very little money. I looked around and found ten acres of land one-half a mile east of the Courthouse and had a house and barn on it and was planted in grape vines, pear trees and alfalfa. I bought this land and paid forty-five hundred dollars for it, paying one-fourth down and gave a mortgage for the balance. I told her that when she should pay for the land she should have a deed for it. ' ' But, ' ' said she, ' ' I can never pay for the land. ' ' I said I am in the real estate business and I will survey the land into lots and put it on the market for sale. It made eighty-four lots. The boom was on and I soon sold the twenty-four lots and realized money enough to pay for the full price of the land, com- missions and interests. Thus she had sixty lots left clear for her adventure, and I took sixty-three dollars in money and gave it to her as this was what was left her after paying for the land. She lived in the house and cultivated the land, and made enough money to make her a good living for a year or so, when she rented the place and went 90 The Life of a New England Boy to the Edgerly Block and took charge of my room- ing-house there for years. When I sold out the Edgerly Block I had previously given her a lease of all the rooming-house for the small sum of seventy-five dollars per month. She run the house for two years and then sold it out to a second-hand man and went on her place to live awhile. In Sep- temper of 1901 while she was running the Port- land at Fresno she says to me one day in the afternoon, " I 'm going to the bath-tub. ' ' She went and closed the windows and transom and lit the gas to heat the water for the bath-tub. In about a half an hour a gentleman rung the bell and asked to see Mrs. Tufts. I went to find her and thought the last time I saw her she was going to take a bath. I went to the bath-room door and found the door locked and rapped on the door, but no answer. I rapped again and still no answer. I became alarmed and rushed to the store-room, took a step ladder and looked over the transom and saw Mrs. Tufts in the bath-tub dead. I raised the alarm, and with my son Charley who was vis- iting me at that time, burst the bath-room door open, took her out of the bath tub in a nude state, and with the ladies there we worked over her for The Life of a New England Boy 91 an hour, and sent for the doctor, but could not revive her as she was dead. We had a postmortem examination. She had left in her room instruc- tions that if anything happened to her to wire her brother who lived in Topeka, Kansas. I wired him and told him of her death and asked for in- structions. He wired back, ' ' Hold the body and I will come.' 7 He came in about three days. We had the funeral and he took the body to San Fran- cisco and had it cremated, because she had made her will that she should be cremated for she feared all her life that she would be buried alive. She made her will giving her property to her brothers and sisters, as she had no other relations. They lived in Kansas, but all were dead at the time of her death excepting one brother, Mr. Martin, who never went back, but made Fresno his home where he now resides to this day. Thus ended the life of a most useful woman. 92 , The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XIV. KOOMING-HOUSES CONTINUED. I continued to run my Hotel Portland, where Mrs. Tufts died, and built it up to a high state. I had numerous housekeepers until I found one, a Mrs. Michael, who proved to be a very success- ful manager of a rooming-house. I kept her in my service about a year and a half, when Mr. Martin, a brother of Mrs. Tufts, came and set- tled up her estate. He brought his wife with him from Topeka, Kansas, and they stopped with us at the Hotel Portland. His wife was pleased with the house and he negotiated with me to buy the house and the furniture in the rooms. I put the price on it at three thousand dollars. One thou- sand was to be cash and the balance to be paid as the house earned it, about one hundred dollars per month at eight per cent interest. They took pos- session of the house with Mrs. Michael as man- ager. They soon fell out and she left him. In The Life of a New England Boy 93 the meantime I went to the corner of M and Kern streets and bought four lots and a house for which I paid four thousand dollars. I built the Hotel Lincoln, a rooming-house of thirty-three rooms, and put Mrs. Micheal in there as manager. She took possession February 1, 1903. She run the house until September following, when she mar- ried a man by the name of Eohs and went to San Diego to live, where he bought a rooming-house, which they are running to this day. I sold the furniture in the Hotel Lincoln to Robert Nutting, a young married man, renting him the building for one hundred dollars per month. He run it three years and sold the furniture to a Mrs. Steel, who runs it to this day. In the fall of 1907 I built two flats of eleven rooms each, besides the Hotel Lin- coln, in one of which I now live. UNIVERSITY) / sS The Life of a New England Boy 95 CHAPTER XV. GAVE UP BUSINESS. After building my flats I had decided not to build any more houses. I went to Oakland with my wife and daughter Effie, where I had been several summers to spend the heated term. I was in poor health, and instead of getting better my health continued to decline. When the time came for me to go back to Fresno I decided I must go to work or die soon with inactivity. After arriving in Fresno I looked around for vacant lots. I found on the corner of and Tulare streets four lots which were vacant and for sale. I purchased one hundred feet square on the corner of and Tulare streets for six thousand and eight hundred dollars. I contracted with a Mr. Sweet to build me three houses, an apartment house of thirty-four rooms fronting on Street and two flats fronting on Tulare Street, each flat was to have six apartment rooms and two stores. VIEW OF MRS. N. E. D. WHEELER'S HOME The Life of a New England Boy 97 While I was building these flats there came a man who talked to me about renting one of the stores. After much talk he asked me if I 'had any objec- tions to putting a saloon in there. I said, ' ' Saloon and I am a Prohibitionist from away back. No saloon will ever go into one of my buildings. ' ' He turned away without another word and left me. I begun to think that he or some one else would buy the lot between my property and the alley, fifty feet, and put up a saloon, which would ruin my property. I went to the owner of the lot and bought it, paying twenty-five hundred dollars for it. The four bare lots then stood me nine thousand and three hundred dollars. After I had gotten the houses built they soon filled up with tenants. There were eighteen suites of apartments and five stores in the buildings. When I first commenced to build I was laying my foundation for my apart- ment house, which I called the Boston, within two feet of the fence next to Mrs. Sherman's house. Her tenant, Mrs. Judge Tinnen, who lives there and runs a boarding house, came to me and re- monstrated with me saying that I should put my house further over on the lots as I was ruining the neighborhood. I told her that the land was too 98 The Life of a New England Boy valuable to be idle, and so long as I was not tres- passing I should continue to build. She said she would bring my case before the city authorities and have me stopped. About that time her land- lady, Mrs. Sherman, came along and told her that my house would be an advantage to her house as the people who would live in my house would want to take their meals in her boarding-house, which has occurred and she was satisfied. Having the apartment house I installed Mrs. Sanders there to manage it at forty dollars per month and a suite of front rooms on the first floor. She man- ages it so successfully that she has a job with me as long as she lives, for when I build in the near future the four brick stores fronting on Tulare street and the alley with thirty-three apartments above, I shall give her the management of those stores and apartments. The Life of a New England Boy 99 CHAPTEE XVI. BUILT FOUR HOMES ON THE Two HUNDRED-ACRE VINEYARD NORTH or TOWN FOR MY CHILDREN. When I first came to California I built a home for myself in one corner of the two hundred-acre vineyard. After living there one year my oldest son, who came from Kansas to work for me, de- cided he wished to marry. He went East and got married in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to Miss Lorena Carrie Rice of Kansas City, Mo. She was born in Girard, 111. He brought her to California. I then gave him my home and moved to Fresno and took rooms in the Edgerly Block. They now have one daughter and one son, Pearl Irene and Lyman Elmer, both graduates of the Fresno High School. During this time my youngest son Charles D. Edgerly lived with his brother, and they together run the ranch and vineyard. Later on my oldest daughter Nellie Effie Delana, who was living in VIEW OF MRS. L. M. R. GARDNER'S HOME The Life of a New England Boy 101 Paducah, Ky., came to California and to my house with her family. She married a man by the name of Eobert E. Wheeler, born in Brooklyn, N. Y. She first met him at our hotel in Lincoln, Neb., where she married him. Their son named Clar- ence Grant and daughter named Daisy May con- stitute the family. " I built a cottage home for them of six rooms ; also a barn and windmill and tank costing twenty-six hundred dollars. My youngest daughter Lillian May, nick-named by the family Myrtie, married a man by the name of J. Sumner Gardner, born in Taylor, Mo. Lillian first met him at our hotel at Lincoln, Neb. She married him at the Edgerly Block in Fresno. She has only one child, Estella Grace, a girl now fif- teen years old attending the High School. I built for her also a modern cottage of seven rooms and barn and windmill and tank which cost twenty- eight hundred dollars. My youngest son of my four children lived a bachelor's life until 1904. He then married a girl by the name of Annie Paulina De Craene, born in Muscatine, Iowa, and married in Fresno. They now have two small children, both boys ; the eldest, Fred Theodore, the youngest, Harry Eugene. They live in a cottage 102 The Life of a New England Boy home which I built for them with barn and wind- mill and tank costing three thousand dollars. Thus I have located within a mile of each other each on forty acres of land, which constituted my two hundred acres. I deeded to each child forty acres of vineyard and sold to the two boys forty acres more, which completes the two hundred-acre farm. VIEW OF CHAllLIE D. EDGERLY'S HOME The Life of a New England Boy 103 CHAPTER XVII. EXTKACTS. Extract 1: Extract from the New Hampton Literary In- stitution. Alumni. Catalog, of 1853-1903, page 47 of the Regular Graduates of 1856 : "Edgerly, Asa S. ; son of David and Sarah (Sanborn) Edgerly, b. New Hampton, N. H., Mar. 15, 1834. Studied at Gilford Academy. Entered N. H. L. I. '52. Member of Social Fraternity. Completed classical course. Residence, New Hampton, N. H. Taught school about ten years. Engaged in life insurance, mercantile pursuits, farming and vineyard industries. He entered Hillsdale college, but owing to ill-health remained but two years. Married Lydia E. Crowell 1859. Is said to have amassed a fortune. Address, Fresno, California, Hotel Portland. " 104 The Life of a New England Boy Extract 2: Extract from the History of California and Biographical Eecord of the San Joaquin Valley of California. An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. By Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M. in the year of 1905. Page 1396 of the Historical and Biographical Eecord : "A S. Edgerly, a resident of California and Fresno County since 1887. A. S. Edgerly has been actively engaged in the upbuilding of the City of Fresno since that date. He was born in New Hampton, N. H., March 15, 1834; a son of David and Sarah (Sanborn) Edgerly, both of whom were born in Meredith, N. H., and there died at advanced ages. The grandfather, Samuel Edgerly, was born in the New England States of English parentage. On the maternal side the grandfather, Asa L. Sanborn, was of English ancestry, and was a farmer. Edwin and Orrin Edgerly were soldiers in the civil war, the former being wounded in an engagement. The sixth in order of birth of twelve children, A. S. Edgerly, was reared on a farm in New Hampshire at New The Life of a New England Boy 105 Hampton and Meredith, until nineteen years of age, being given such advantages as the common schools afforded. He entered New Hampton In- stitution, then Hillsdale College, where he re- mained but one year, when on account of failing health he was obliged to leave. He engaged in teaching near Cuthbert, Ga., in 1859, as proprietor of Springvale Institute, and remained at the head of that institution until 1866, at which time he went to Sandwich, Mass., as principal of the High School, and held that position four years. En- gaging then in the life insurance business, he was made special State agent for Vermont of the Con- tinental Life Insurance Company of New York. In 1873 he removed to Otoe County, Neb., and at Palmyra purchased six hundred and forty acres of railroad land and engaged in the stock business until 1875, when he removed to Lincoln and went into the Hardware business under the firm name of Parker and Edgerly, which continued four years. The partnership being dissolved, Mr. Edgerly embarked in the real estate business, buying, improving and selling residence and busi- ness properties until 1887. Disposing of his in- terests, he located in California and at once set- tled in Fresno, where he engaged in the real 106 The Life of a New England Boy estate business. Having a firm belief in the future of that city, in 1889 he manufactured the brick and erected the Edgerly Block on the corner of Tulare and J streets. In 1891 he built an addition, the whole being 150 x 70 feet with an L 40 x 80 feet three stories high. He also improved considerable residence and other business property in the city. Among his other enterprises worthy of special mention is the laying out of the Hartley Addition of ten acres into lots, which was soon disposed of with William Harvey and W. E. Thomas. He laid out the Belmont Addition of eighty acres, which was sold off in two months in city lots, with the exception of three lots which had been reserved. He now owns two hundred acres one mile north of Fresno on Blackstone Avenue, which is devoted to a vineyard and also has an orchard and vine- yard of forty acres near Fowler. At West Sand- wich (now Sagamore), Mass., August 6, 1859, Mr. Edgerly was united in marriage with Lydia E. Crowell, who was a native of that place, and a daughter of Paul and Lydia (Ellis) Crowell, both of Massachusetts, the former of Dennis and the latter of Plymouth. Of their six children three are now living. Mrs. Edgerly being the second The Life of a New England Boy 107 in order of birth. To Mr. and Mrs. Edgerly six children have been born, namely, Willie Alberto, a vineyardist ; Nellie Effie D., wife of E. E. Wheel- er of Fresno ; Lillian May Rebecca, the wife of J. S. Gardner of Fresno ; Charles D., also a vine- yardist; Fred Lincoln and Nellie Elsie died in infancy. Through the influence of Mr. Edgerly the location of the Postoffice was secured for the corner of Tulare and J streets, by giving the lower floor space, 50 x 70 feet, to the Government for use for a term of years free of charge with the under- standing that the property-holders adjacent to that corner would pay the rent of one-half the space. This arrangement was entered into and was carried out for only a few months, when the property owners repudiated their part of the agreement with the exception of Dr. Chester Rowell, who still fulfills his part. In this way Mr. Edgerly practically gave the use of his building gratis from 1891 until he sold it in 1895. In poli- tics a Republican, Mr. Edgerly has always had the interest of the party at heart, though never an aspirant for official recognition. As one of the enterprising citizens of Fresno County, he has ever been a supporter of measures that have had HOUSES ON KERN STREET, FRESNO The Life of a New England Boy 109 for their object the advancement of the people and the prestige of Fresno in the San Joaquin Val- ley. His success in life has been of his own mak- ing, and in the annals of his adopted State his name is entitled to enrollment among the pro- gressive builders of a commonwealth. ' ' HOUSES ON O AND TULARE STREETS, FRESNO The Life of a New England Boy 111 CHAPTER XVIII. MY OWN AKCHITECT. Not having been taught drawing in early life, I was ill-prepared for a draughtsman, but when I had the first house to build I draughted it, and after I had built it, there came a gentleman look- ing up at the house. He said, ' ' That's a fine house, you must have had a good architect. " I told him I was my own architect and drew the plans myself. He said, "Well, you'll do; it compares well with the works of many fine architects. " So when I had other houses to build I drew all the plans and made the specifications myself, and thus I saved for myself many a dollar which I should have given out had I not have been competent to do this work. All who have occupied my rooming- houses, apartment houses and stores were well pleased with the way they were built. 112 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XIX. MY HABITS OF LIFE. Born of religious parents I was taught from boyhood to attend Sabbath School and church on Sunday, where I learned to read the Bible and practice its lessons. I do not remember the time when I was so-called converted, but grew up to be a moral upright young man, so much so that my word was considered by others as good as my / bond. I was taught, and it was adherent in my life, never to drink or chew or smoke, and when I have seen young men chewing tobacco and smok- ing cigarettes, they have fallen far below my standard of morality. I have said I have no time nor money to spend in such foolish use, and if I had been a tobacco chewer and smoker my wife never would have married me, because she hates even the smell of tobacco, therefore being a to- bacco abstainer I have saved thousand of dollars which would have gone up in smoke. It is true The Life of a New England Boy 113 that sometimes when I wanted to make a trade with a gentleman who smoked, that I have de- plored the fact that I did not smoke, because had I smoked I could have gotten nearer him and made a better trade. Then again it is nice to sit with a friend and smoke socially, but I have never re- gretted notwithstanding all these things that I did not smoke, and my life has been better and my breath has been sweeter, because I did not impreg- nate it with the fumes of the nasty weed. I claim that my success with being a favorite with the young ladies is because I did not chew or smoke, and that was one of the reasons I was successful in life. As to drinking spiritual liquors I had no desire, never having formed the taste. I cannot tell one kind of liquor from another, and when I have seen young men who work by the week, on Saturday night receive their check for their services, they go straight to the saloon, and there take a drink. No sooner have they had one drink, then that begets a desire for another, and they continue to drink and treat their fellows until they have not a dollar left. Then they go broke for another week until they get their pay again. 114 The Life of a New England Boy Thus they go on from year to year until they be- come a drunken wreck, and in old age they and their families become a subject fit for the poor- house, thus the taxpayers have to support multi- tudes of such men, and the saloon-keeper becomes wealthy by the sale of intoxicating liquors to these men who have become beggars and poverty- stricken with their families. The saloon-keeper says he makes the town, for people would not come to town if they could not get liquor to drink, but if the saloons were removed the town would be far better without them. They say they occupy the finest buildings, generally corner stores, in the cities, and if they are closed up their stores will be vacant and the license they pay will have to come out of the taxpayers by direct taxation. But the saloon-keeper forgets his store will be occupied by good business men who will open up a legiti- mate business, and now the very m ( oney that goes to support the saloons will be paid to the families and will go to support these stores, and thus we shall have a city without saloons and made up of good business men. While the saloon-keeper is selling liquor to these men, he rolls in his wealth while the man who buys the liquor with his family The Life of a New England Boy 115 rolls in rags. And thus if the nation should do away with all the 'saloons we should have a nation of purity, good morals and substantial citizens, while we are now supporting orphan asylums and old women's and old men's homes, if traced to the bottom will be found out because of the saloon. Go to our penitentiary and ask the men what brought them there, they will tell you in nine cases out of ten that they owe their downfall to saloons. Go to the justice and police courts and the judges will tell you that nine-tenths of their cases have been caused by the saloons, and the vast amount of money that was used in persecuting drunks is obtained from the license of the saloon-keeper. It is true that the dry laws of California permits drug- gists and other parties to sell liquor by the bottle, but it can't be drunk on the premises. The man who buys the liquor by the bottle will buy only one bottle and take it home and drink it. He also will take home the balance of the money which is left after buying the bottle of liquor to his family who use it in buying supplies for the family, and the family will live in peace and plenty, and thus the stores left vacant by the saloon-keepers will be 116 The Life of a New England Boy supported, and we shall have a nation- of saloon- keepers reformed and become good business men, where as if they continue to sell liquor they do it for the big money that is in it. The Life of a New England Boy 117 CHAPTEK XX. THE CHURCH. Although I was raised in the church until I came to mature years, when I left it, I do not discard the church. They are noble institutions, filled with good meaning people. They teach the young in the Sabbath School and church many things that form the character of a good citizen without which many of them would grow up and become thriftless and demoralized citizens. It is true that the clergy are not all honest men. Some fol- low the business of preaching because they were educated to it and some for their bread and butter. Without the churches the world would sink into a natural despond, but owing to the aristocratic principle of our city churches, they drive many a poor man from their doors, so that the poor man's church is the majority of the human race. The Salvation Army has picked up this class from which the church would ask to be excused. 118 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XXL LESSONS TO POOR YOUNG MEN. The world is full of poor men who draw their substance from the swteat of their brow. Poor, because of their unfaithfulness, they work harder to get rid of work than they work for their em- ployer. While building the Edgerly Block I had a man in my emiploy, and once when I paid him on Saturday evening I ask liim what he was going to do with the money I had just paid him. He said he did not know, he had not thought yet. The fact was brought out that when Monday morning came he had spent every dollar. Also while build- ing that building I had another man in my employ who was so selfish that when the whistle blowed for dinner and he was driving a nail he dropped his hammer and left the nail partly driven in. I can show you to this day that nail. This man was always poor, and a large portion of his time was employed with hunting for a job. The fact was The Life of a New England Boy 119 contractors who employed him soon learned of his unfaithfulness and discharged him. I also had another man in m!y employ whose faithfulness was proverbial. He never thought of his own interest, but worked faithfully for his employer. So much so that he soon ceased to be employed and became a contractor. This is a fine type of the world's laboring men, most of them work for themselves instead of their employer, and are constantly out of business while others who work for their em- ployers soon rise to be employers themselves. 120 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XXII. MY VIEWS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. That there is a Spirit World there is no doubt. It is not a place but a state of existence. It is every- where, and when we have lived the allotted time of Earth life we pass from the Earth life to the Spirit life. We lay aside the Earth life as we lay aside a pair of old shoes and enter upon the Spirit life as a child. We are placed under teachers who teach us the things of the Spirit world, as we were taught the things of the Earth life. We commence to develop and grow, until we have advanced to a state which we will call Eternity in Spirit life. Then our teachers leave us and each one goes on by themselves and learn the beauties and the love that belongs to that life. We continue to develop forever. After we have passed out of Earth life we soon forget the things of Earth life. Our whole thought is upon the beauties and the love of the Spirit life. There are degrees of attainment in The Life of a New England Boy 121 the Spirit life just as there are in Earth life. In Earth life, as the scholar and the scientist is de- veloped, he ceases to take cognizance of the things of the past. So in Spirit life when he has devel- oped to that degree that he no longer needs a teacher, bnt is a teacher himself, he becomes as it were a Scientific Spiritual man and helps to lead the Scientific Spirit World on and on forever. In his career in Spirit life he never sees Jesus be- cause Jesus was a good man and entered Spirit life as a ripe scholar, but still he progresses so fast in beauty and goodness that he is never over- taken. Neither will man ever see God in Spirit life, because He the greater of all greatness and man can never be developed to the extent of coming into his presence. "We pass out of Earth life just as we have lived in Earth life. The good will enter upon Spiritual life and begin to grow and develop into Spiritual beauties. The moderated good in Earth life will pass into Spirit life and remain in Status Quo forever; they neither progress nor go backward. The criminal in Earth life will pass into Spirit life in a state of darkness. He never wiill develop, but will remain in this state of dark- ness forever, and this is hell which none but 'the 122 The Life of a New England Boy evil will ever experience. Thus we see that the be- ginning of goodness and greatness and purity and love have their foundation made in Earth life. Every one in Spirit life lives by himself, each out- stripping the other as his ability permits him to do, so we work as hard in Spirit life to advance as we do in Earth life. The Life of a New England Boy 123 CHAPTER XXIII. THERE Is A GOD. That there is a God 'tis true, for we see the work of his hands in everything around us. As I exist, God exists. The world exists, therefore God exists, and everything within it. Had there not been a God a first great cause, nothing could have existed. We see God in the mountains, in the rivers, in the fields, in the plants, in the flowers, in the wind with the great storm King that levels everything before it. Take God or the first cause out of the world and we shall be left in total dark- ness and clioas. That God has an influence on each is also a matter of fact. Who cannot say that at times he has been strangely led. Man has been led strangely at times to do things for which he cannot account, only because there is a God. God is greater than all his works, as a maker greater than that which is made. He is in our sleeping and waking moments. He directs our thoughts 124 The Life of a New England Boy on all Earthly and Spiritual interests. Can we discard this great God! When He robs us of our children, husband and wife it is a warning to us to live a better life. He is not a God of vengence, but a God of supreme love. He wipes away the tears from the eyes of the child grieving for the death of a mother, yet He sometimes chastises us for wrong-doings, every thing seems to turn against us as we grope our way in dispondency, but after awhile the clouds will break and the sun will shine through our tears, and we will learn to love God more for his chastisement. Therefore we wt)uld say to all, remember God and his chas- tisements as well as His love and goodness to us. The Life of a New England Boy 125 CHAPTER XXIV. SUNDAY TRADING. Once when I was a boy eight years old I, with my brother William, was sent on Sunday to Sun- day School, two miles away. While on the way home we fell in with two boys by the name of Carter, who were three or four years older than we wtere. I had a nice boy's pocket knife which Levi Carter wanted. He offered me various trinkets for it, all of which I declined. Finally he offered me two cents. Now two cents was a good deal of money to me in those days and I took the two cents and gave him the knife. We went on a few paces when I saw something I wanted to cut, then I wanted my knife back. I offered him my two cents. He refused to trade back, then I began to cry. About that time a neighbor came along and asked me what I Was crying about. He passed on and told my father that the Carter boys and I were quarreling and that I was crying. Father 126 The Life of a New England Boy asked me about it that night and I told him all about the knife trade. He went to Mr. Carter, father of the boy I had sold the knife to, and he being a good man and deacon in the church said, "The boys have .been trading on Sunday, have they." He called his son Levi and came to my father's and they came to me and he asked me for the two cents and I gave it to him. He handed the knife back to me and said, "You must not trade on the Sabbath day." I mention this cir- cumstances to show how strict the children were raised in my day to keep the Sabbath holy. The Life of a New England Boy 127 CHAPTER XXV. CUTTING WOOD. Once when a boy about ten years old my father engaged to cut a lot of cord wood for Mr. Emerson who lived about one mile away. It was necessary for my brother William and I to carry luncheon to him at noon. Father was proverbial for having long arms with great strength. He could cut and pile up three cords of wood in a day for which he received fifty cents per cord. The snow was deep and we had to wade through it to find our father, who was in the woods. The shortness of money made it necessary for my father to cut this wood to help out in his expenses. I remfember on one occasion while William and I were passing through a pair of bars to get to my father we dropped the bottle in which was a quart of cider which we were taking for father's luncheon and the cider all run out. We deplored this accident very much, as father was very fond of cider with 128 The Life of a New England Boy his meals. When we arrived at the place where father was cutting wood we told him of our mis- hap and all he said was, " Could you not have saved some of the cider ? ' ' He ate his dinner with- out his cider and relished it very much. I mention this circumstance to show that while my father was not a drinking man he loved his cider. After this incident father found out he could do with- out his cider. He went home and cut the taps off of every barrel of cider in his cellar, and forever swore off from drinking any more cider. Hence he was afterwards known as a Prohibitionist. Had father been a drinking man his children would never have been respectably clothed and fed. His sons all grew to mature years Prohibi- tionist and each made an honest name for himself. The Life of a New England Boy 129 CHAPTER XXVI. A WOKD TO YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN ABOUT TO MARRY. Having arrived at mature years no doubt thoughts of marriage have entered your minds. But have you ever thought of the great responsi- bility attending marriage ? Have you ever thought of the effect your offspring would have upon the Government and world at large? Have you ever thought that perhaps they would be criminals and tend to degradation instead of honor and trust? The world is what you and your offspring have helped to make it. Therefore in those candid mo- ments when you have been weighing the matri- monial journey with the young gentleman through life which or who shall you marry. Have you thought of these things 1 Or have y.ou only thought of the good time marrying brings and spent your thoughts only of the honeymoon. This latter is the cause of so many divorces at the present day. 130 The Life of a New England Boy Many people meet and think they are mated at first sight, and decide to marry, when after the honeymoon has passed they tire of each other. They soon seek and obtain a divorce, and thus too many souls are wrecked on the bark of life, and their work has gone on until we have a nation of divorced people with babies crying for father and mother. The great object of matrimony is to peo- ple and replenish the world. How it has suc- ceeded our penitentiaries and criminal calendars, and jails tell us. Let those of similar education seek each other socially, and experience will teach us that only such should marry. It will bring harmony and happiness, otherwise there will be wrangling and discontent. A man is not made better by a divorce. Thus we would say to every one thinking of marrying, "Do not weigh the subject lightly, but bring all your wisdom to bear upon the subject, and when you do decide to marry, decide for life, and let nothing prevent you from making an honorable upright matrimonial The Life of a New England Boy 131 CHAPTER XXVII. MY WIFE. That I have a good wife follows from the fact that without her my success in life would have been far less. While I have been at the helm work- ing for our upbuildings in life, she has guided my feet into the successful paths. At times when I have been out of business groping in darkness as it were, she has held out a helping hand by taking in boarders, and thus assisting me on my feet again. When I had almost lost hope of suc- cess in life again she would encourage me onward, and instead, as in many cases, I have been led to abstain from drink, the cause of so much misery and so many downfalls. While I have never been inclined to drink, yet there is no telling what I might have done had not she spoke comforting and encouraging words to me. By the help of God or some unforeseen power we have been blessed with six children, four of whom have lived to 132 The Life of a New England Boy mjanhood and womanhood, and now take their places in life as good and upright citizens. Had I yielded to my misfortune when it had overtaken me, I might have been led to desert my family. Then there would have followed destitution and possibly divorce, but by the encouraging spirit of my wife we have pushed forward in this world until We have reached the goal of success. The Life of a New England Boy 133 CHAPTER XXVIII. GOLDEN WEDDING. Little did I think when I journeyed three thou- sand miles to marry my wife on August 6, 1859, that at the end of fifty years of married life I should celebrate our golden wedding. But now at the age of seventy-five years I find after having made four fortunes and lost three, I have the fourth one to comfort me in my old age, and noth- ing to do but enjoy our golden wedding honey- moon. 134 The Life of a New England Boy CHAPTER XXIX. Go TO OAKLAND. On account of the summer heat in Fresno during raisin-drying time, my wife and I and my daughter Effie have made it a practice to spend that season of the year in Oakland, Cal. Oakland is a nice city across the bay from San Francisco, where the climate is ideal. It is never too hot nor too cold. Oakland is to San Francisco what Brooklyn is to New York City, a place of residence. Business is done in San Francisco, and the people live in Oak- land, so much that the people speak of Oakland as the bedroom of San Francisco. Communication is made by cars and steamers every ten minutes of the day, thus the travel between the two cities is very great, the revenue of which is said to be equal to the revenue of the whole of the S. P. System in California. The heated term having passed we return to Fresno, where we enjoy the best climate on the Globe. The Life of a New England Roy 135 CHAPTER XXX. CATARACT. About the year 1890 my left eye began to show signs of defections and soon developed into a cat- aract, and finally, in 1896, the vision had become completely obscured. I consulted many oculists in regard to it, and it was finally decided that I should have an operation performed to remove the cataract. When the eye had become totally blind I discovered an affection of the right eye in the same manner, which seemed to be forming into a cataract also. I discovered that before I had quite gotten over the blindness of my left eye, I had to have an operation performed on my right eye. Total blindness stared me in the face. I had the operation performed on the left eye, which was partially successful. I had then to go through the rest of my life with my right eye totally blind and half of the usual sight of my left eye. It is remarkable that three of the twelve children in 136 The Life of a New England Boy my father's family had cataracts on their eyes, and all would have become totally blind but from the partial sight preserved from removal of the cataracts. But with the aid of my cane I manage to do the business of an average man. Why these cataracts should have appeared among us is a mystery, traced from away back. The Life of a New England Boy 137 CHAPTER XXXI. DEEDED ALL MY PROPEKTY TO MY WIFE AND CHILDREN. In May, 1905, believing I was about to die, I deeded all my property to my wife and children. I did this to save the expense of settling two estates. My wife had an estate, and I thought that by putting my property in her name that her estate could be settled at the same expense with mine. I gave to my wife my Fowler vineyard and my real estate in the city of Fresno. I had my wife make her will giving to each member of the family, fifteen in all, each share and share alike in the property she received from me. This so fixed things that when I pass away I shall have no estate to settle. I will have my wife to form a syndicate, because she won't be able to handle the property. My oldest son will be president, secre- tary and manager and my youngest son vice-presi- 138 The Life of a New. England Boy dent and trustee and the two daughters the other trustees, and they together will manage the busi- ness. The Life of a New England Boy 139 CHAPTER XXXII. LOOKING FORWARD. There comes a time in the life of every man when he can no longer work, and he looks forward in anticipation of what he would do. Therefore, I having arrived at that period,can only anticipate what I may do should my health permit and life be extended to do it, and if I don't do this myself I shall place it in the hands of my syndicate to do it for me when I shall have passed away. I purpose to build an apartment house at 833 O Street of thirty-four rooms. I purpose to build an apartment house at 2322 Kern Street of thirty- four rooms. I purpose to purchase one hundred and fifty feet on the corner of and Kern streets on which I will build a threble apartment house of one hundred rooms, and when I or my syndicate shall have accomplished this, if I'm living, I rest from my labors. I have lived until I did it. Did what? Made a fortune. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. ' K.y^ 9 T*HM < SEMTONJLL DEC 03 2002 U. C. BERKELEY Pgo^arALiQoa^ff to recall aftah- * nr-br fMtrt)- L U LD 21A-60m-3,'65 (P2336slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley YC 15448 C (^jOQ-rO^V^