cept
during the winters of 1836-7 and 1838-9. The former period was spent in
Maysville, Kentucky, attending the school of Richardson and Rand; the
latter in Ripley, Ohio, at a private school. I was not studious in
habit, and probably did not make progress enough to compensate for the
outlay for board and tuition. At all events, both winters were spent in
going over the same old arithmetic which I knew every word of before,
and repeating, "A noun is the name of a thing," which I had also heard
my Georgetown teachers repeat until I had come to believe it--but I cast
no reflections upon my old teacher Richardson. He turned out bright
scholars from his school, many of whom have filled conspicuous places in
the service of their States. Two of my contemporaries there--who I
believe never attended any other institution of learning--have held
seats in Congress, and one, if not both, other high offices; these are
Wadsworth and Brewster.

My father was from my earliest recollection in comfortable
circumstances, considering the times, his place of residence, and the
community in which he lived. Mindful of his own lack of facilities for
acquiring an education, his greatest desire in maturer years was for the
education of his children. Consequently, as stated before, I never
missed a quarter from school, from the time I was old enough to attend
till the time of leaving home. This did not exempt me from labor. In my
early days every one labored more or less, in the region where my youth
was spent, and more in proportion to their private means. It was only
the very poor who were exempt. While my father carried on the
manufacture of leather and worked at the trade himself, he owned and
tilled considerable land. I detested the trade, preferring almost any
other labor; but I was fond of agriculture, and of all employment in
which horses were used. We had, among other lands, fifty acres of forest
within a mile of the village. In the fall of the year, choppers were
employed to cut enough wood to last a twelvemonth. When I was seven or
eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and
shops. I could not load it on the wagons, of course, at that time; but I
could drive, and the choppers would load, and some one at the house
unload. When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a plow.
From that age until seventeen I did all the work done with horses, such
as breaking up the land, furrowing, plowing corn and po