(From "History of Wabash County, Indiana", pub. 1884, pp 331-333)
SAMUEL ABBOTT, born February 21, 1819, in Switzerland County, Indiana, and, for a wonder, never out of the State in his life. He was an orphan boy. His father died when he was three years old and his mother sixteen days afterward; and the poor child was left alone in the world, more than sixty years ago. Yet God fulfilled the promise of His word, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," and raised him up friends in his orphanage. Samuel resided with various people during his boyhood, until he was fifteen years old, but from that time to his majority he lived with Augustus A. Peabody, who was also his guardian.
Abbott came with Mr. Peabody to Wabash County, Indiana in the fall of 1834. Mr. Peabody had been here in the summer of 1833, and had entered land; and in the fall of 1834 he came out, bringing with him Samuel and a young man named Lester, as also a wagon, and a team consisting of two oxen and a horse. when the little company reached La Gro the canal hands were just building the "Feederdam." They crossed the river and camped overnight, and the next day Samuel was left alone in the woods with the team (being a lad not sixteen years of age), while the two men went to hunt the corners and lines of Mr. Peabody's land. The men returned after a while, and the team and wagon was driven out to the place at which they stopped on Mr. Peabody's land, without cutting even a bush, the woods were so open and free form undergrowth. Samuel on that day cut the first tree that was felled on the land that Mr. Peabody had entered. After stopping, he took the ax and felled a tree of considerable size and kindled a fire against the trunk. They had come to spend the winter (the rest of it) in building a cabin and clearing some land and getting somewhat ready for living. They first made a kind of shelter by placing some forks in the ground, with some poles leaning, and then they split some puncheons and slabs and set them endwise against the poles, inclosing a space; and then they covered the top with some clapboards; and thus they had a place to live until they could build a real cabin, which was done as soon as they could accomplish the task. The cooking (and Samuel was cok and teamster both) was done over a fire made against a log, which they thought, indeed, was a good enough way, as none of them had ever seen a cook stove. They built a cabin 14 x 18 feet, and the family, who came out in April, 1835, lived in it through the summer.
The men managed to clear five acres so as to plant it in corn in the spring, but the seed was put in late (having been brought from their home near the Ohio River), and the season was poor, and they had no ripe corn, but only fodder; and their meal and flour for bread had to be brought in from elsewhere. Samuel went for Mr. Peabody more than once for provisions to Turkey Creek Prairie in Kosciusko County (north of Wabash), some forty miles distant. It took a whole day to reach Manchester (ten miles), and there was not much to reach when they got there, and the next day they managed to go through to Turkey Creek. Two teams, one of horses and one of oxen, went on the trip, and they forded Eel River at Manchester. After getting the grain, it had to be taken several miles into Elkhart County,to the mill at the outlet of Wolf Lake, which was three or four miles further and in the thick timber. He went once and brought a full load of corn, perhaps thirty bushels; and again got wheat and corn, and took them to the mill on wolf Lake to be ground.
Mr. Abbott married a young lady by the name of Lester, who, it seems, had been brought up in the same family with whom he spent five years of his youth, i. e., Mrl Augustus Peabody's, so that in coming to the wilderness he brought with him as a part of the emigrating family group, the one who was afterward to become, and who has been, during forty years of pioneer life, the companion of his bosom, and the comfort of his years, and hwo is still spared to enjoy beneath the sun the fruits of their mutual toil.
Mr. Peabody, the faithful guardian of Mr. Abbott when in his youthful years, and his estimable wife, long survived the hardships and perils which during those early years of privation and want they cheerfully endured; and they beheld with thankful hearts, this "howling wilderness" come to bud and blossom as the rose. Mr. Peabody indeed has now gone the way of all the earth, his lifeless frame having been consigned to its final earthly rest in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, the inscription upon the tombstone above his grave indicating his death to have taken place January 31, 1881, and that he departed this life at the ripe age of seventy eight years.
His companion, however, still breathes the vital air, spending a serene and genial old age among the happy, grateful froup of cheerful children she has reared, and who now delight to afford joy and comfort to he declining years.
Mrs. Peabody, the relict of Augustus A. Peabody, who was in the place of a mother to the orphan boy, is now an aged and venerable widow, a resident during almost half a century of this whilom wilderness, who has witnesses, moreover, well-nigh the whole of the mighty transformation that has, by the steady and persistent labors of the sturdy immigrants who, in those early and these later days, have made their domicile within its limits, in the lapse of almost exactly fifty years, been wrought. It would seem, indeed, that these veteran pioneers, then young and vigorous and rejoicing in the exuberance of their strength, now feeble and toil worn, a wreck of their ancient youthful power, must be filled with amazement as they stand gazing upon the now and marvelous picture which now presents itself to their astonished vision, must wonder wheather this now cultivated and fruitful land, covered with bounteous crops and yellow waving harvests, filled with bustling towns and elegant country dwellings, with barns of marvelous capacity to accommodate in winter the herds of neighing horses and lowing cattle and bleating flocks which roam the pastures free during the sweet and balmy summer time, and to contain the fodder and provender for their sustenance through the bleak and stormy months when the frost cuts down the growth of vegetation and the burden of snow lies deep and heavy upon the surface of the soil; whether this land is, in sober verity, the same land upon which stood, fifty years gone by, the vast and boundless wilderness into which they boldly plunged when first they came hither, and beneath whose overshadowing branches and amid whose mighty tree trunks their rude log cabin dwelling was erected so long ago.
And verily that scene of taking possesion by those hosts of eager emigrants of this vast extent of hill and dale and valley and plain, and that picture of the planting of rural homes through these boundless Western wilds by men, women and children who flocked from every region beneath the shadow of our country's flag toward these fertile forest wilds, were every way worthy of being represented upon the mental retina, that the present generation might realize as a thing of veritable fact what was then occurring month after month during many lapsing years over so many leagues of space throughout this grand and matchless Western valley between the frowning forests that crown the summits of the Appalachian range upon the east, and the channel on the west, of the mighty river which stretched from its hidden sources in the far-off North along ist south-bound way, upon its ceaseless course toward the tossing billows of the broad and stormy Mexican Gulf.
But those scenes are past and that picture has vanished, and never again will the world witness such another. And, ere many years, the very last actor in this varied and shifting human drama will have "shuffled off this mortal coil" and lain down to his final earthly rest; his tired and worn-out frame has been deposited in the cold and solemn tomb and his soul have passed to the realities of the invisible future!
Thankful should be the present and all the coming generations throughout our fair and happy land to that heroic host of bold and hardy pioneers, that fearless company of worthy and noble ancestors who feared neither storm, nor wild and pathless woods, nor howling wolves and prowling bears, nor venomous rattlesnakes, nor swollen streams and bridgeless rivers, nor impassable and fathomless mud, not all of these combined, but who boldly and resolutely faced and conquered them all, that ehri children and their children's children might have a home and a dwelling place in the land, and an ownership of broad acres upon the surface of mother earth. Verily, in the brief but pregnant words of the Roman leader and General of old: "They came, they saw, they conquered;" and the wondrous conquest still remains and is left as a heritage in the hands of their children and their grandchildren, theirs to preserve, theirs to enjoy, theirs to transmit, unjured, untarnished, unsullied, to those who yet shall dwell beneath our blessed and glorious American sky. Mr. Abbott and his estimable companion are now spending a green and happy old age amid the scenes among which their active married life has been spent.
SAMUEL ABBOTT, born February 21, 1819, in Switzerland County, Indiana, and, for a wonder, never out of the State in his life. He was an orphan boy. His father died when he was three years old and his mother sixteen days afterward; and the poor child was left alone in the world, more than sixty years ago. Yet God fulfilled the promise of His word, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," and raised him up friends in his orphanage. Samuel resided with various people during his boyhood, until he was fifteen years old, but from that time to his majority he lived with Augustus A. Peabody, who was also his guardian.
Abbott came with Mr. Peabody to Wabash County, Indiana in the fall of 1834. Mr. Peabody had been here in the summer of 1833, and had entered land; and in the fall of 1834 he came out, bringing with him Samuel and a young man named Lester, as also a wagon, and a team consisting of two oxen and a horse. when the little company reached La Gro the canal hands were just building the "Feederdam." They crossed the river and camped overnight, and the next day Samuel was left alone in the woods with the team (being a lad not sixteen years of age), while the two men went to hunt the corners and lines of Mr. Peabody's land. The men returned after a while, and the team and wagon was driven out to the place at which they stopped on Mr. Peabody's land, without cutting even a bush, the woods were so open and free form undergrowth. Samuel on that day cut the first tree that was felled on the land that Mr. Peabody had entered. After stopping, he took the ax and felled a tree of considerable size and kindled a fire against the trunk. They had come to spend the winter (the rest of it) in building a cabin and clearing some land and getting somewhat ready for living. They first made a kind of shelter by placing some forks in the ground, with some poles leaning, and then they split some puncheons and slabs and set them endwise against the poles, inclosing a space; and then they covered the top with some clapboards; and thus they had a place to live until they could build a real cabin, which was done as soon as they could accomplish the task. The cooking (and Samuel was cok and teamster both) was done over a fire made against a log, which they thought, indeed, was a good enough way, as none of them had ever seen a cook stove. They built a cabin 14 x 18 feet, and the family, who came out in April, 1835, lived in it through the summer.
The men managed to clear five acres so as to plant it in corn in the spring, but the seed was put in late (having been brought from their home near the Ohio River), and the season was poor, and they had no ripe corn, but only fodder; and their meal and flour for bread had to be brought in from elsewhere. Samuel went for Mr. Peabody more than once for provisions to Turkey Creek Prairie in Kosciusko County (north of Wabash), some forty miles distant. It took a whole day to reach Manchester (ten miles), and there was not much to reach when they got there, and the next day they managed to go through to Turkey Creek. Two teams, one of horses and one of oxen, went on the trip, and they forded Eel River at Manchester. After getting the grain, it had to be taken several miles into Elkhart County,to the mill at the outlet of Wolf Lake, which was three or four miles further and in the thick timber. He went once and brought a full load of corn, perhaps thirty bushels; and again got wheat and corn, and took them to the mill on wolf Lake to be ground.
Mr. Abbott married a young lady by the name of Lester, who, it seems, had been brought up in the same family with whom he spent five years of his youth, i. e., Mrl Augustus Peabody's, so that in coming to the wilderness he brought with him as a part of the emigrating family group, the one who was afterward to become, and who has been, during forty years of pioneer life, the companion of his bosom, and the comfort of his years, and hwo is still spared to enjoy beneath the sun the fruits of their mutual toil.
Mr. Peabody, the faithful guardian of Mr. Abbott when in his youthful years, and his estimable wife, long survived the hardships and perils which during those early years of privation and want they cheerfully endured; and they beheld with thankful hearts, this "howling wilderness" come to bud and blossom as the rose. Mr. Peabody indeed has now gone the way of all the earth, his lifeless frame having been consigned to its final earthly rest in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, the inscription upon the tombstone above his grave indicating his death to have taken place January 31, 1881, and that he departed this life at the ripe age of seventy eight years.
His companion, however, still breathes the vital air, spending a serene and genial old age among the happy, grateful froup of cheerful children she has reared, and who now delight to afford joy and comfort to he declining years.
Mrs. Peabody, the relict of Augustus A. Peabody, who was in the place of a mother to the orphan boy, is now an aged and venerable widow, a resident during almost half a century of this whilom wilderness, who has witnesses, moreover, well-nigh the whole of the mighty transformation that has, by the steady and persistent labors of the sturdy immigrants who, in those early and these later days, have made their domicile within its limits, in the lapse of almost exactly fifty years, been wrought. It would seem, indeed, that these veteran pioneers, then young and vigorous and rejoicing in the exuberance of their strength, now feeble and toil worn, a wreck of their ancient youthful power, must be filled with amazement as they stand gazing upon the now and marvelous picture which now presents itself to their astonished vision, must wonder wheather this now cultivated and fruitful land, covered with bounteous crops and yellow waving harvests, filled with bustling towns and elegant country dwellings, with barns of marvelous capacity to accommodate in winter the herds of neighing horses and lowing cattle and bleating flocks which roam the pastures free during the sweet and balmy summer time, and to contain the fodder and provender for their sustenance through the bleak and stormy months when the frost cuts down the growth of vegetation and the burden of snow lies deep and heavy upon the surface of the soil; whether this land is, in sober verity, the same land upon which stood, fifty years gone by, the vast and boundless wilderness into which they boldly plunged when first they came hither, and beneath whose overshadowing branches and amid whose mighty tree trunks their rude log cabin dwelling was erected so long ago.
And verily that scene of taking possesion by those hosts of eager emigrants of this vast extent of hill and dale and valley and plain, and that picture of the planting of rural homes through these boundless Western wilds by men, women and children who flocked from every region beneath the shadow of our country's flag toward these fertile forest wilds, were every way worthy of being represented upon the mental retina, that the present generation might realize as a thing of veritable fact what was then occurring month after month during many lapsing years over so many leagues of space throughout this grand and matchless Western valley between the frowning forests that crown the summits of the Appalachian range upon the east, and the channel on the west, of the mighty river which stretched from its hidden sources in the far-off North along ist south-bound way, upon its ceaseless course toward the tossing billows of the broad and stormy Mexican Gulf.
But those scenes are past and that picture has vanished, and never again will the world witness such another. And, ere many years, the very last actor in this varied and shifting human drama will have "shuffled off this mortal coil" and lain down to his final earthly rest; his tired and worn-out frame has been deposited in the cold and solemn tomb and his soul have passed to the realities of the invisible future!
Thankful should be the present and all the coming generations throughout our fair and happy land to that heroic host of bold and hardy pioneers, that fearless company of worthy and noble ancestors who feared neither storm, nor wild and pathless woods, nor howling wolves and prowling bears, nor venomous rattlesnakes, nor swollen streams and bridgeless rivers, nor impassable and fathomless mud, not all of these combined, but who boldly and resolutely faced and conquered them all, that ehri children and their children's children might have a home and a dwelling place in the land, and an ownership of broad acres upon the surface of mother earth. Verily, in the brief but pregnant words of the Roman leader and General of old: "They came, they saw, they conquered;" and the wondrous conquest still remains and is left as a heritage in the hands of their children and their grandchildren, theirs to preserve, theirs to enjoy, theirs to transmit, unjured, untarnished, unsullied, to those who yet shall dwell beneath our blessed and glorious American sky. Mr. Abbott and his estimable companion are now spending a green and happy old age amid the scenes among which their active married life has been spent.
(From "History of Wabash County, Indiana", pub. 1884, pp 331-333)
SAMUEL ABBOTT, born February 21, 1819, in Switzerland County, Indiana, and, for a wonder, never out of the State in his life. He was an orphan boy. His father died when he was three years old and his mother sixteen days afterward; and the poor child was left alone in the world, more than sixty years ago. Yet God fulfilled the promise of His word, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," and raised him up friends in his orphanage. Samuel resided with various people during his boyhood, until he was fifteen years old, but from that time to his majority he lived with Augustus A. Peabody, who was also his guardian.
Abbott came with Mr. Peabody to Wabash County, Indiana in the fall of 1834. Mr. Peabody had been here in the summer of 1833, and had entered land; and in the fall of 1834 he came out, bringing with him Samuel and a young man named Lester, as also a wagon, and a team consisting of two oxen and a horse. when the little company reached La Gro the canal hands were just building the "Feederdam." They crossed the river and camped overnight, and the next day Samuel was left alone in the woods with the team (being a lad not sixteen years of age), while the two men went to hunt the corners and lines of Mr. Peabody's land. The men returned after a while, and the team and wagon was driven out to the place at which they stopped on Mr. Peabody's land, without cutting even a bush, the woods were so open and free form undergrowth. Samuel on that day cut the first tree that was felled on the land that Mr. Peabody had entered. After stopping, he took the ax and felled a tree of considerable size and kindled a fire against the trunk. They had come to spend the winter (the rest of it) in building a cabin and clearing some land and getting somewhat ready for living. They first made a kind of shelter by placing some forks in the ground, with some poles leaning, and then they split some puncheons and slabs and set them endwise against the poles, inclosing a space; and then they covered the top with some clapboards; and thus they had a place to live until they could build a real cabin, which was done as soon as they could accomplish the task. The cooking (and Samuel was cok and teamster both) was done over a fire made against a log, which they thought, indeed, was a good enough way, as none of them had ever seen a cook stove. They built a cabin 14 x 18 feet, and the family, who came out in April, 1835, lived in it through the summer.
The men managed to clear five acres so as to plant it in corn in the spring, but the seed was put in late (having been brought from their home near the Ohio River), and the season was poor, and they had no ripe corn, but only fodder; and their meal and flour for bread had to be brought in from elsewhere. Samuel went for Mr. Peabody more than once for provisions to Turkey Creek Prairie in Kosciusko County (north of Wabash), some forty miles distant. It took a whole day to reach Manchester (ten miles), and there was not much to reach when they got there, and the next day they managed to go through to Turkey Creek. Two teams, one of horses and one of oxen, went on the trip, and they forded Eel River at Manchester. After getting the grain, it had to be taken several miles into Elkhart County,to the mill at the outlet of Wolf Lake, which was three or four miles further and in the thick timber. He went once and brought a full load of corn, perhaps thirty bushels; and again got wheat and corn, and took them to the mill on wolf Lake to be ground.
Mr. Abbott married a young lady by the name of Lester, who, it seems, had been brought up in the same family with whom he spent five years of his youth, i. e., Mrl Augustus Peabody's, so that in coming to the wilderness he brought with him as a part of the emigrating family group, the one who was afterward to become, and who has been, during forty years of pioneer life, the companion of his bosom, and the comfort of his years, and hwo is still spared to enjoy beneath the sun the fruits of their mutual toil.
Mr. Peabody, the faithful guardian of Mr. Abbott when in his youthful years, and his estimable wife, long survived the hardships and perils which during those early years of privation and want they cheerfully endured; and they beheld with thankful hearts, this "howling wilderness" come to bud and blossom as the rose. Mr. Peabody indeed has now gone the way of all the earth, his lifeless frame having been consigned to its final earthly rest in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, the inscription upon the tombstone above his grave indicating his death to have taken place January 31, 1881, and that he departed this life at the ripe age of seventy eight years.
His companion, however, still breathes the vital air, spending a serene and genial old age among the happy, grateful froup of cheerful children she has reared, and who now delight to afford joy and comfort to he declining years.
Mrs. Peabody, the relict of Augustus A. Peabody, who was in the place of a mother to the orphan boy, is now an aged and venerable widow, a resident during almost half a century of this whilom wilderness, who has witnesses, moreover, well-nigh the whole of the mighty transformation that has, by the steady and persistent labors of the sturdy immigrants who, in those early and these later days, have made their domicile within its limits, in the lapse of almost exactly fifty years, been wrought. It would seem, indeed, that these veteran pioneers, then young and vigorous and rejoicing in the exuberance of their strength, now feeble and toil worn, a wreck of their ancient youthful power, must be filled with amazement as they stand gazing upon the now and marvelous picture which now presents itself to their astonished vision, must wonder wheather this now cultivated and fruitful land, covered with bounteous crops and yellow waving harvests, filled with bustling towns and elegant country dwellings, with barns of marvelous capacity to accommodate in winter the herds of neighing horses and lowing cattle and bleating flocks which roam the pastures free during the sweet and balmy summer time, and to contain the fodder and provender for their sustenance through the bleak and stormy months when the frost cuts down the growth of vegetation and the burden of snow lies deep and heavy upon the surface of the soil; whether this land is, in sober verity, the same land upon which stood, fifty years gone by, the vast and boundless wilderness into which they boldly plunged when first they came hither, and beneath whose overshadowing branches and amid whose mighty tree trunks their rude log cabin dwelling was erected so long ago.
And verily that scene of taking possesion by those hosts of eager emigrants of this vast extent of hill and dale and valley and plain, and that picture of the planting of rural homes through these boundless Western wilds by men, women and children who flocked from every region beneath the shadow of our country's flag toward these fertile forest wilds, were every way worthy of being represented upon the mental retina, that the present generation might realize as a thing of veritable fact what was then occurring month after month during many lapsing years over so many leagues of space throughout this grand and matchless Western valley between the frowning forests that crown the summits of the Appalachian range upon the east, and the channel on the west, of the mighty river which stretched from its hidden sources in the far-off North along ist south-bound way, upon its ceaseless course toward the tossing billows of the broad and stormy Mexican Gulf.
But those scenes are past and that picture has vanished, and never again will the world witness such another. And, ere many years, the very last actor in this varied and shifting human drama will have "shuffled off this mortal coil" and lain down to his final earthly rest; his tired and worn-out frame has been deposited in the cold and solemn tomb and his soul have passed to the realities of the invisible future!
Thankful should be the present and all the coming generations throughout our fair and happy land to that heroic host of bold and hardy pioneers, that fearless company of worthy and noble ancestors who feared neither storm, nor wild and pathless woods, nor howling wolves and prowling bears, nor venomous rattlesnakes, nor swollen streams and bridgeless rivers, nor impassable and fathomless mud, not all of these combined, but who boldly and resolutely faced and conquered them all, that ehri children and their children's children might have a home and a dwelling place in the land, and an ownership of broad acres upon the surface of mother earth. Verily, in the brief but pregnant words of the Roman leader and General of old: "They came, they saw, they conquered;" and the wondrous conquest still remains and is left as a heritage in the hands of their children and their grandchildren, theirs to preserve, theirs to enjoy, theirs to transmit, unjured, untarnished, unsullied, to those who yet shall dwell beneath our blessed and glorious American sky. Mr. Abbott and his estimable companion are now spending a green and happy old age amid the scenes among which their active married life has been spent.
SAMUEL ABBOTT, born February 21, 1819, in Switzerland County, Indiana, and, for a wonder, never out of the State in his life. He was an orphan boy. His father died when he was three years old and his mother sixteen days afterward; and the poor child was left alone in the world, more than sixty years ago. Yet God fulfilled the promise of His word, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," and raised him up friends in his orphanage. Samuel resided with various people during his boyhood, until he was fifteen years old, but from that time to his majority he lived with Augustus A. Peabody, who was also his guardian.
Abbott came with Mr. Peabody to Wabash County, Indiana in the fall of 1834. Mr. Peabody had been here in the summer of 1833, and had entered land; and in the fall of 1834 he came out, bringing with him Samuel and a young man named Lester, as also a wagon, and a team consisting of two oxen and a horse. when the little company reached La Gro the canal hands were just building the "Feederdam." They crossed the river and camped overnight, and the next day Samuel was left alone in the woods with the team (being a lad not sixteen years of age), while the two men went to hunt the corners and lines of Mr. Peabody's land. The men returned after a while, and the team and wagon was driven out to the place at which they stopped on Mr. Peabody's land, without cutting even a bush, the woods were so open and free form undergrowth. Samuel on that day cut the first tree that was felled on the land that Mr. Peabody had entered. After stopping, he took the ax and felled a tree of considerable size and kindled a fire against the trunk. They had come to spend the winter (the rest of it) in building a cabin and clearing some land and getting somewhat ready for living. They first made a kind of shelter by placing some forks in the ground, with some poles leaning, and then they split some puncheons and slabs and set them endwise against the poles, inclosing a space; and then they covered the top with some clapboards; and thus they had a place to live until they could build a real cabin, which was done as soon as they could accomplish the task. The cooking (and Samuel was cok and teamster both) was done over a fire made against a log, which they thought, indeed, was a good enough way, as none of them had ever seen a cook stove. They built a cabin 14 x 18 feet, and the family, who came out in April, 1835, lived in it through the summer.
The men managed to clear five acres so as to plant it in corn in the spring, but the seed was put in late (having been brought from their home near the Ohio River), and the season was poor, and they had no ripe corn, but only fodder; and their meal and flour for bread had to be brought in from elsewhere. Samuel went for Mr. Peabody more than once for provisions to Turkey Creek Prairie in Kosciusko County (north of Wabash), some forty miles distant. It took a whole day to reach Manchester (ten miles), and there was not much to reach when they got there, and the next day they managed to go through to Turkey Creek. Two teams, one of horses and one of oxen, went on the trip, and they forded Eel River at Manchester. After getting the grain, it had to be taken several miles into Elkhart County,to the mill at the outlet of Wolf Lake, which was three or four miles further and in the thick timber. He went once and brought a full load of corn, perhaps thirty bushels; and again got wheat and corn, and took them to the mill on wolf Lake to be ground.
Mr. Abbott married a young lady by the name of Lester, who, it seems, had been brought up in the same family with whom he spent five years of his youth, i. e., Mrl Augustus Peabody's, so that in coming to the wilderness he brought with him as a part of the emigrating family group, the one who was afterward to become, and who has been, during forty years of pioneer life, the companion of his bosom, and the comfort of his years, and hwo is still spared to enjoy beneath the sun the fruits of their mutual toil.
Mr. Peabody, the faithful guardian of Mr. Abbott when in his youthful years, and his estimable wife, long survived the hardships and perils which during those early years of privation and want they cheerfully endured; and they beheld with thankful hearts, this "howling wilderness" come to bud and blossom as the rose. Mr. Peabody indeed has now gone the way of all the earth, his lifeless frame having been consigned to its final earthly rest in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, the inscription upon the tombstone above his grave indicating his death to have taken place January 31, 1881, and that he departed this life at the ripe age of seventy eight years.
His companion, however, still breathes the vital air, spending a serene and genial old age among the happy, grateful froup of cheerful children she has reared, and who now delight to afford joy and comfort to he declining years.
Mrs. Peabody, the relict of Augustus A. Peabody, who was in the place of a mother to the orphan boy, is now an aged and venerable widow, a resident during almost half a century of this whilom wilderness, who has witnesses, moreover, well-nigh the whole of the mighty transformation that has, by the steady and persistent labors of the sturdy immigrants who, in those early and these later days, have made their domicile within its limits, in the lapse of almost exactly fifty years, been wrought. It would seem, indeed, that these veteran pioneers, then young and vigorous and rejoicing in the exuberance of their strength, now feeble and toil worn, a wreck of their ancient youthful power, must be filled with amazement as they stand gazing upon the now and marvelous picture which now presents itself to their astonished vision, must wonder wheather this now cultivated and fruitful land, covered with bounteous crops and yellow waving harvests, filled with bustling towns and elegant country dwellings, with barns of marvelous capacity to accommodate in winter the herds of neighing horses and lowing cattle and bleating flocks which roam the pastures free during the sweet and balmy summer time, and to contain the fodder and provender for their sustenance through the bleak and stormy months when the frost cuts down the growth of vegetation and the burden of snow lies deep and heavy upon the surface of the soil; whether this land is, in sober verity, the same land upon which stood, fifty years gone by, the vast and boundless wilderness into which they boldly plunged when first they came hither, and beneath whose overshadowing branches and amid whose mighty tree trunks their rude log cabin dwelling was erected so long ago.
And verily that scene of taking possesion by those hosts of eager emigrants of this vast extent of hill and dale and valley and plain, and that picture of the planting of rural homes through these boundless Western wilds by men, women and children who flocked from every region beneath the shadow of our country's flag toward these fertile forest wilds, were every way worthy of being represented upon the mental retina, that the present generation might realize as a thing of veritable fact what was then occurring month after month during many lapsing years over so many leagues of space throughout this grand and matchless Western valley between the frowning forests that crown the summits of the Appalachian range upon the east, and the channel on the west, of the mighty river which stretched from its hidden sources in the far-off North along ist south-bound way, upon its ceaseless course toward the tossing billows of the broad and stormy Mexican Gulf.
But those scenes are past and that picture has vanished, and never again will the world witness such another. And, ere many years, the very last actor in this varied and shifting human drama will have "shuffled off this mortal coil" and lain down to his final earthly rest; his tired and worn-out frame has been deposited in the cold and solemn tomb and his soul have passed to the realities of the invisible future!
Thankful should be the present and all the coming generations throughout our fair and happy land to that heroic host of bold and hardy pioneers, that fearless company of worthy and noble ancestors who feared neither storm, nor wild and pathless woods, nor howling wolves and prowling bears, nor venomous rattlesnakes, nor swollen streams and bridgeless rivers, nor impassable and fathomless mud, not all of these combined, but who boldly and resolutely faced and conquered them all, that ehri children and their children's children might have a home and a dwelling place in the land, and an ownership of broad acres upon the surface of mother earth. Verily, in the brief but pregnant words of the Roman leader and General of old: "They came, they saw, they conquered;" and the wondrous conquest still remains and is left as a heritage in the hands of their children and their grandchildren, theirs to preserve, theirs to enjoy, theirs to transmit, unjured, untarnished, unsullied, to those who yet shall dwell beneath our blessed and glorious American sky. Mr. Abbott and his estimable companion are now spending a green and happy old age amid the scenes among which their active married life has been spent.
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