Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-06-10
How a Boy Bought a Farm.

Several years ago, q youth Of
sixteen years, of good service, and
fair English educations not having
profitable employment at his fathers
home in Kentucky, sought employ
ment among his enterprising neigh.
bors a few miles distant; and al.
though wages were low in those
days of gold and silver currency, he
saved from his first years wages
$40. He was then seventeen years
old, healthy, lively looking, aspiring
and ambitious to become useful,
noble, and perhaps great. He had
learned that money loaned at high
rates of interest was oppressive to
the borrower, and reacted on the
loaner, and IN the failing of prices
of nearly all articles in the CONNER
cial world that men sought just.
fication for their bankruptcy and
delinquency in the fact that they
had paid large rates of interest.
Feeling, therefore, that iberality,
as well as justice, was necessary to
every mans dealing with his fellow
men, he loaned his $40 to an exem-
plary, enterprising, and prosperous
trading man in his neighborhood, at
the lowest rate of interest known in
business in that State, viz, six per
cent. per annum. He worked an
other year. clothed himself in neat
Kentucky jeans and other neat
articles of apparel, and went to
country school three months of the
winter that year; and learned the
rudiments of Latin and something
of the higher branches ofmathemat-
les, working for prosperous liber-
al farmer evenings and mornings to
pay the boarding; and at the end
of the second year, or when he was
eighteen years of age, he had saved
$96 more. His character for integ-
rity and industry began to be better
known in the neighborhood, and
his services were soon sought for.
He worked on farm and rode as
collector for trading men and the
sheriff of his county; and atthe end
Of his nineteenth year he had saved
S11O more. With the interest ac-
cumulated on his other two years
wages, he had now $500; was CON-
fortably clothed, and had a good
business education, which he i'm
proved from one winter to another,
till he became scholar, both liter
ally and scientifically. His indu-
ence and usefulness increasing, he
had, at the age of twenty years,
$3.50 At twenty-one he had ac-
cumulated $3.50, and was well
known for his activity of life, as a
; J oung man Of intelligence, virtue
and usefulness, as well as young
man of very attractive manners and
wavs.
He moved to q Western State
, , where land was cheap, and entered
16O acres by land warrant, which
, he purchased with $3.50 of his
money. He made good selection
of land, in good region of country ;
he used a portion of the balance OF
his money in improving his land,
buying a little stock, and a few i'm
plemenls for farming, and the sec
ond year he raised a small crop.
Having gone to his new neighbor-
hood with about S4OO in money,
and used it cautiously, he by de-
grees, gained the name of a respon.
sible citizen and a good paymaster,
and his influence rose gradually
from his appearance among his new
1 and scattered neighbors. Year after
year he raised crop, continuing to
: lead the best newspapers, period
e ais, and books, which still further
: improved his mind until sheep
f cattle, and other stock grew up il
e fiocks around him, more land ad
h joining him being purchased from
n time to time, till now he finds him
: self, when scarcely arrived at the
e middle of life, a gentleman farmer
e of wealth, surrounded by comfort
e and many luxuries, esteemed by
r neighbors both far and near, and
D would receive the suffrage of those
who know him to any office for
j which he might be nominated, If
8 respective OF party politics, so firm
o is their confidence in both his
It ability and integrity.-&. Louis
u Jour. of Agr.
a A CuriOuSity.