YLER AT 50

LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH

DR. CUYLER AT 80

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE

CHAPTER I

MY BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE LIFE

Washington Irving has somewhere said that it is a happy thing to have
been born near some noble mountain or attractive river or lake, which
should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we
could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of
my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the
Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin
Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794. He was a
native of New London County, Ct., a nephew of Col. William Ledyard, the
heroic martyr of Fort Griswold, and the cousin of John Ledyard, the
celebrated traveller, whose biography was written by Jared Sparks. When
General Ledyard came to Aurora some of the Cayuga tribe of Indians were
still lingering along the lakeside, and an Indian chief said to my
great-grandfather, "General Ledyard, I see that your daughters are very
pretty squaws." The eldest of these comely daughters, Mary Forman
Ledyard, was married to my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, who was the
principal lawyer of the village, and their eldest son was my father,
Benjamin Ledyard Cuyler. He became a student of Hamilton College,
excelled in elocution, and was a room-mate of the Hon. Gerrit Smith,
afterward eminent as the champion of anti-slavery. On a certain Sabbath,
the student just home from college was called upon to read a sermon in
the village church of Aurora, in the absence of the pastor, and his
handsome visage and graceful delivery won the admiration of a young lady
of sixteen, who was on a visit to Aurora. Three years afterward they
were married. My mother, Louisa Frances Morrell, was a native of
Morristown, New Jersey; and her ancestors were among the founders of
that beautiful town. Her maternal great-grandfather was the Rev. Dr.
Timothy Johnes, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church, who administered
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to General Washington. Her paternal
great-grandfather was the Rev. Azariah Horton, pastor of a church near
Morristown, and an intimate friend of the great President Edwards. The
early settlers of Aurora were people of culture and refinement; and the
village is now widely known as the site of Wells College, among whose
graduates is the popular wife of ex-President Cleveland.

In the days of my