on. This prize was
taken by the gallant Decatur, but a short distance from New York.
Hastening back from this sickening scene, we resumed our journey. My two
companions had been telling me that we should have to cross the North
River in a boat, and I did not understand how a boat could be made to
carry our team and be perfectly safe, but when we arrived there, I was
much surprised to see other teams that were to cross over with us, and a
number of people. At that time an old scow crossed from New York City to
the Jersey shore, once in about two hours. What a great change has taken
place in the last forty-seven years; now large steam ferry boats are
crossing and recrossing, making the trip in a few minutes. It was the
first time that I had ever crossed a stream, except on a bridge, and I
feared that we might upset and all be drowned, but no accident happened
to us; we landed in safety, and went on our way rejoicing towards
Elizabethtown. At that place I saw a regiment of soldiers from Kentucky,
who were on their way to the northern frontier to fight the British.
They were a rough set of fellows, and looked as though they could do a
great deal of fighting. It will be remembered that this was the time of
the last war with England. We passed on through Elizabethtown and
Morristown to Dutch Valley, where we stopped for the night. We remained
at this place a few days, looking about for a cabinet shop, or a
suitable place to make the clock cases. Not succeeding, we went a mile
further north, to a place called Schooler's Mountain; here we found a
building that suited us. It was then the day before Christmas. The
people of that region, we found, kept that day more strictly than the
Sabbath, and as we were not ready to go to work, we passed Christmas day
indoors feeling very lonely indeed. The next day we began operations. A
young man from the lower part of New Jersey worked with me all winter.
We boarded ourselves in the same building that we worked in, I doing all
of the house-work and cooking, none of which was very fine or fancy, our
principal food being pork, potatoes and bread, using our work-bench for
a table. Hard work gave us good appetite.

We would work on an average about fifteen hours a day, the house-work
not occupying much of our time. I was then only nineteen years old, and
it hardly seems possible that the boys of the present day could pass
through such trials and hardships, and live. We worked in this way all
wi