The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-08-23
Ho,U u Beg Bought q Farm.

Several years ago, youth OF sixteen
years of good sense and fair English ed
ucation, not having profitable employment
at iiis fathers home in Kentucky, sought
for employment among his enterprising
nciShbOrs few miles distant; and altho,
wages were low in those days of gold and
silver currency, he saved from his first
years wages eighty dollars.
He was then seventeen years Old, healthy,
hvely-lOOking, aspiring, ard ambitious TO
become useful, noble, and perhaps great.
He had always learned that money loaned
at high rates of interest was oppressive on
the borrower, and reacted on the loaner in
the falling of prices of nearly all articles in
the commercial world that men sought
justification for their bankruptcy and de-
Iinquency in the fact that they had paid
large rates of interest.
Feeling, therefore, that liberality as well
as justice was necessary to every man S
dealing with his fellow men, he loaned his
eighty dollars to an exemplary, enterprising
and prosperous trading man in his neigh
bOrhood, at the lowest rate of interest
known in that State, viz: six per cent. per
annum. He worked another year, clothed
himself i'll neat Kentucky jeans and other
cheap but neat articles of apparel, and went
to a country school three months in the
winter of that year, and learned the rudi-
mentS of Latin and something of the higher
prosperous and liberal farmer morning and
evening to pay his board; and at the end
of the second year, or when he was eighteen
years of age, he had ninety-siX dollars
more. His character for integrity and in
dustry began to be better known in the
neighbOrhOod, and his services were sought
for.
lie worked on farm and rode as collec-
tor for trading men and the sheriff of the
county, and at the end of his nineteenth
year he had saved one hundred and ten dol
lars more. With the interest accumulated
on his other two years wages he had now
three hundred dollars, was comfortably
clothed, and had good business educa-
ton, which he improved from one winter
to another, till he became a scholar, both
literally and and scientifically. His inf1u
ence and usefulness increasing, he had, at
the age of twenty, four hundred and eighty
dollars. At twenty-One he had five hun
dred and fifty dollars, and was well known
for his activity, intelligence, virtue and use
fulnesS, as well as for very attractive man
ners and ways.
He moved to n Western State, where land
was cheap, and entered one hundred and
sixty acres by land warrant, which he |
purchased with one hundred and fifty dol |
lars of his money. He made good selec-
ton of land in good region of country and |
uSeu Il pOTJlOI Oh Jlle balance OF his money |
in improving his land, buying little stock !
and few implements for farming, and the |
second year he raised a small crop. Hav- |
ing gone to his new neighborhOod with |
some six hundred and fifty dollars in money
and used it cautiously, he by degrees gained |
the name of responsible citizen and good
paymaster, and his influence rose gradually
from his first appearance among his new
and scattered neighbors.
Year after year he raised crop, contin-
ucd TO read the best papers, periodicals and
books, which still further improved his
mind, till sheep, cattle and other stock grew
up in tiOCks around him, more land adioin-
ing him being purchased from time to time,
until now he finds himself, when scarcely
at the middle of life, a gentleman farmer
of wealth, surrounded by comfort and many
luxuries, esteemed by neighbors far and
near, and would receive the suffrage of
those who know him to any Office for which !
he might be nominated irrespective of party |
politics, so firm is their confidence in both !
his ability and integrity.