e time to devote
to the half orphaned children or her home. A plantation and a hundred
and fifty slaves engaged all the father's time. The boy and girl ran
wild on the place and it was little wonder they often came in for
censure and even more severe punishment. The sister seemed more
aggravating to the new mother than the boy. Reprimands became more
frequent, followed by bodily punishment. During the father's absence in
Louisville, the step-mother's abuse of the sister became so aggravating
to the brother that he assaulted the step-mother. The boy, fearing the
wrath of the father, determined to run away. He had relatives, a brother
in Newark, Ohio. Walking and working, he reached Newark, footsore,
weary, lonesome and homesick. He felt he had reached a haven of rest.

The wife of the brother was the best man. She ran the husband, she ran
the home. Ragged and miserable looking, his reception was anything but
cordial. The recital of his wrongs, the abuse of his sister by the
step-mother, instead of creating sympathy, brought censure. The
brother's wife was a most devout church member and that a boy of
fourteen had descended to the depths of degradation his condition
denoted, was most abhorrent to her.

The boy realized that he was an unwelcome guest. It was not long ere the
brother, influenced by the wife, informed him that he must go back to
his home, to the old plantation in Kentucky, that he must submit to the
authority of the step-mother, become a better boy, that his behavior,
had disgraced the family, and that he, the brother, could not harbor him
longer. The brother's wife assured him the prayers of herself and family
would go up for him nightly. They gave him no food, they gave him no
money. When the door of his brother's house closed upon him, all there
was of love in his being for kith or kin went out of him, save for the
memory of the dead mother and the living sister. He worked on a farm
barefooted; he slept in an out-house without sufficient covering to keep
him warm; he carried a clap-board to the field that he might protect his
feet from the frost while he husked corn. He apprenticed himself to a
blacksmith, learned the trade and came to Columbus. He established a
shop at a crossroads in the country. It became known as Hunt's Corners.
It is now the corner of Cleveland and Mt. Vernon Avenues.

Uncle Henry, through influence, secured a contract from the
penitentiary. He accumulated money, moved to Burlingto