iver. Father's oldest
brother, Arthur D. Hastings, Sen., had preceded father a few years to
the new state, and was ready to greet and assist his brother to make
a new home. Uncle Arthur was one of God's noblemen, an honest,
leading citizen, and devout Christian. He lived on the place he
first settled about sixty years, and died there in 1886 at the
advanced age of 85 years. Although I had many uncles, Uncle Arthur
was the only one I ever saw.

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C H A P T E R T W O

Indiana. The Stars fall. Move. Texas. The flood of
1844. First School. White River's Pocket. No
Nimrod. A Fish Story. Clarksburg.

At the time of father's arrival, Indiana was only 14 years old and
contained about 300,000 inhabitants. Its capital city's first Mayor
was inaugurated two years before I was born and three years after the
stars fell.

In 1842 when I was about four years old my parents sold out and moved
down the river five or six miles and bought a new, larger and better
farm with a large two story hewed log house and a big double log
barn, and a good apple orchard. The farming land was bottom and lay
along the river. Here we had some sheep and cattle on a few hills
and some hogs in the woods, that got fat in the winter on white oak
acorns and beech nuts. And here we had a large "sugar orchard" as
the Hosiers called it--hard maple trees by the many from which, in
the early spring, flowed the sweet sap by the barrels full which we
converted into gallons of maple syrup, and into many cakes of maple
sugar.

It was while we lived here, when I was six years old, there was the
greatest flood, known to me, since the days of Noah. I remember it
well. You too, my boys, will never forget the year when I tell you
it was the same year, 1844, in which your best earthly friend was
born, your mother. But I did not know anything about her until
twenty years afterwards.

The flood was great. All the lower lands were under water. Mr.
Greene's, the ferryman, our nearest neighbor's family had to go in a
canoe from the door of their kitchen to their smoke house to get
meat. All our cattle and hogs were in the stalk fields near the
river, and all were drowned, except one large, strong cow which swam
more than one half mile, almost in a straight line, and was saved.
We could see the cattle huddled together on a small island knoll away
down in the field next to the river. The poor creatures would stand
there until the r