Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-09-13
TEVSK.

- - My SrduulatHef,f uOIIldS DOJCreli, was III
height five feet four. My father, Thomas
Doltrell, was five feet four inches and a
quarter. He broke his leg, and degener
ated into five feet three inches and three
quarters. [ am OF the third generation,
and by ordinary rules should have been a
tall man.
80 My grandfather, Thomas DottrelL had
married q tall 'wOman--a very tall one, five
feet ten and a half inches without her high
heeled Shoes Joanna, wife of my father,
Thomas Dettrell, stood five feet ten in her
stockihgsi These wives were both gentle,
mild, and somewhat timid women, standing
in great awe whether IN shoes or stock
ings) of my grandfather and father, the
two Thomas Dottrells.
AS may well be imagined, the hopes of
father, mother, grandfather, and grand
mother were centered in the third genera
ton. Tradition had not handed down the
stature of William Dottrell, founder of The
family. Nothing was known of him be-
You'd his Christian name, and the circum-
stances that he did pot belong to our part
of the country, that he had married late in
life, and that he and his wife had died
shortly after my grandfather's birth.
The latter had appeared in early life in
Yorkshire, accompanied by Mistress Mar
gerry Dottrell, his aunt This good woman
had purchased some land for her nephew
built thereon house, on which she con-
.ferred the designation of Dottrell Hall,
which was decorated with the family arms,
or, pie tawny-superintended the educa-
ton of her microscopic nephew till he be-
came as much of age as his size allowed
then shuffled off this mortal coil one
Thursday afternoon at halfpast six, leav-
if,o 11nfniohod rant1u bou
on her lips, and her nephew ignorant of
his parentage and cradle.
From these few facts my grandfather
Thomas and my father Thomas had con-
a structed family legend that ancestor Will
liam had been man of many cubits,
married to woman of diminutive form.
They endeavored by Anakim alliances to
repair the mischief wrought by their pigmy
progenitors No lord in ALL the country
had so tall wife as grandfather Thomas !;
but the result answered his expectations
neither in quantity nor in quality. Father
Thomas was the only offspring of his de-
voted parents. 50 lie was their ALL though
small the offering was My grandfather
hoped on against hope He sought ferIu-
ginous baths, and consulted skilled medical
men. In vain. Having spent life which
in duration was long as his being was
short, he breathed his last in Dottrell Hall !;
and even IN his death and leaden coffin
could not fill the six foot shelf he had
erected for himself in the family vault.
When this event occurred | was one
J and.twenty. My coming of age, imagine,
rather FASTENED his end. AT an early period
my father had been married to my mother,
and within the earliest creditable limit of
time | made my appearance in the wide,
do xrNrld Thnf rasniainnc fhio
sion were unbounded. | was a long, lusty,
muscular infant, with below like a lam,
and conformation which displayed more
the stalwart Stoddart blood of my mothers
family than the diminutive but symmetrical
anatomy of my Dottrell descent Iimbibed
my mothers milk like young gladiator,
and ere long devoured mutton like a young
wolf Broad chested, thick-limbed, red
checked, | babe fair for six feet, and for two
7 or three years made the unmixed delight OF
= the Thomas Dottrells, father and SON. For
myself, had been named William Dottrell
in honor of the founder of the family-oi
my great-grandfather and my grandfath-
er, who had stood sponsor, had, without
consultation, slipped the name Goliah be
fore the family Dottrell.
But two, three years passed, and my
mother gave no further evidence toward
the augmentation or ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF
our line. Four years passed, then five
six, seven, ten, twelve, fifteen. was still
an only son-fed on beef, mutton, and mu
cous food, calves heads and tendons; ex.
81 ercised in gymnastics; encouraged to ride
shoot, devour jellies, swallow beer, and
neglect my books. And I shot upward
like a green bay tree, my calves like 9
drayman's, my arms like prize-tighter's
an appetite like Dando, and wind like al
organ. a-a4
At length l completed my fifteenth year
Great joy reigned around US Twas five
feet four inches and a half. There was
great feast at Dottrell Hall. All my moth
er's brothers and cousins, Baxters, Skaters
Quarmbys, and Booths-all my grand
mothers clan of Booths, Skaters, Quarm
bys, and Baxters, assembled to do honor t.
my stature; and our house might have
been taken for scene in Gath or Pata
gonia, so Titanic were the proportions O.
our maternal kith. Compliments were
deluged on my size, appearance, ard pros
poets. / was true Booth-a true Quarm
by-no one could mistake me but for
Baxter--I was Slater, every inch of me
according to the gems of the flatterers
Even some young clans-women beameQ
kindly, aud some elderly spinsters loomeC
Alegacies There was a grand dinner tina
: day.. A large quart mug was produced-t
custom of the country. 1t was filled witt