Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-03-13

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him. ~
All this happened several months ago !;
we are married now, but have never
regretted my fathers ruse.
len. Wade-His Percentage and
(. BOyhOOd.
! The name of Benjamin f. Wade, Of
Ohio, has been familiar one to the people
of this country for more than thirty years,
but at no time has it attracted so much
attention as at the present moment. The
fact that Mr. Wade-if Mr.. johnson is
convicted of high crimes and misdemean-
ors will succeed to the Presidential
chair under circumstances such as never
before happened in the history of the
country, is of itself sufficient to make the
people desire to learn all they can of the
new President
I BIZ. Wade was born at Feeding Hills
Parish, West Springfield, Mass, on the
9th day of October, 1900 and is therefore
in the sixty eighth year of his age. His
father, James Wade, was soldier in the
war of the Revolution, and fought at Con-
cord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill. He was
made prisoner in ore of the battles, and
confined at Halifax for long time. His
mother was the daughter of a Presbyte-
rian clergyman, and woman of great
force OF character and strength of mind.
The venerable Senator often speaks Of his
mother, dead long, long ago, and his eye
will brighten, and his voice grow soft with
emotion yet, when he tells of "that good
New England mother" His mother
taught him to spell and read, and having
kept the small library of her father, Ben
jamin read the dozen books in it through
several times While his father was in the
war fighting for the independence of his
country, the good mother was at home
taking care of the children. The family,
to use Mr. Wade's own words, "was one of
the poorest in New England" and the
mother could barely find enough food
and clothing, for her children. There
were ten children, of whom Benja-
When Bepjamin's father returned from
the war, he was broken in health and
spirits, and seemed to have lost all his
former energy and sprightliness. Ben.
early sought to relieve his parents of the
burden of keeping him, and lived out
among the farmers, doing all kinds of work
for his boarding and clothes. When almost
young man, he worked hard many day
for twenty-five and fifty cents. In winter,
he tended the farmers horses and cattle
for his board, and went to school, often
walking several miles daily through the
deep snow. He was in the habit of Dor
rowing books and reading them through
at night, and early manifested great de-
sire to study, especially history and the
biographies of men. We will here relate
an anecdote of Mr.. Wade, which will
serve to show what kind of boy he was,
and point moral for our American youth.
He had borrowed a history OF farmer, and
one evening left it laying on the window
bottom, and, the sash being up, the wind
blew the rain in during the night and
ruined the book. Much mortified, young
Benjamin next morning went to the farmer
and told him what had happened, and said
that, although he was 100 poor to pay for
the book, he was willing to work it out.
A bargain was made, and when the season
opened up, Benjamin worked seven days
for the farmer to pay for the book. Mr..
Wade says tine most difficult thing to solve,
he ever met with, was algebra. He was
working on farm when he commenced
studying it; he had no one to show him,
and he read it over fifty times without I'M
Outstanding it. Often, when following
the pillow, he thought for hours over the
mysterious signs and letters in tn book,
until they seemed as large as the palm Of
his hand. He had looked at them SO often
they were constantly before his eyes, as
| clearly as if they were painted on canvas,
but he could make nothing out of them.
| Gradually he began to comprehend them,
and he has not forgotten to this day the
propositions he then studied and solved.
When about eighteen, Mr.. Wade came to
the conclusion that the East was poor
| place for young man, and determined to
seek his fortune in the Far West. After
revolving the proposition in his mind for
| two years, he fixed upon Chicago, then q
small village, as the place of his future
| residence. With seven dollars in his
pocket, a pack upon his back, in which
were his clothes, and stout stick, young
| Wade set out on foot to walk from Massa-
chusetts to Illinois, by way of New York,
| for he was determined to see the great city
about which he had heard SO much.
What must have been the feelings of the
old Senator, when, more than thirty years
afterward, he, great, rich, surrounded by
friends, was carried in gilded cars on spe-
cial trains over the country, and in great
professions, amid huzzaing thousands,
through the streets of the very cities,
where, when boy, he had trudged with
his pack and stick.
| God bless America, the poor boys home!
God bless her for such examples of human
greatness Our own dear native land,
where the humblest lad, if he can carry an
honest heart in his bosom, may hope to
rise to the highest honors of the nation.
Mr.. Wade, after a tedious Journey,
reached Ashtabula county, Ohio. where he
had a brother living. Here he was per-
suaded to stop for few weeks, and the
snow falling in the meantime, he deter
mined to work until spring, and then cross
the lake in boat to Detroit, and make his
way from there to Chicago on foot. That
winter he chopped cord wood at fifty cents
cord and found. During the long win
the light of pine knots piled on the hearth
| of the rude cabin in which he slept. Oft
en- he would lay for hours on his back,
with his head TO Il fire, ard long after his
| comrades HAD goi pore over the
| sacred writings; IL. ~ greet to say he
is not even to this day pious man, though
still an attentive reader of the Scriptures.
The writer has often spoken to him
about his habit Of swearing, and urged
him to discontinue so useless and wicked a
practice, but all in vain: old as he is, en-
rage him, and he will swear like trooper.
During the years 1891 and 1922 young
Wade chopped wood, rolled logs and
grubbed in the summer time, teaching q
school in winter. In the fall of 1923 a
drover employed him to assist in driving
cattle, and Wade led steer in front of the
herd all the way from Ohio to New York.
His little pack was tied on back of the ox's