Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-02-28
SOME EARLY SETTLERS.
AUNT BETsEY DURKEE.


old pioneers and give the result Of my in
teryiew. On the 10th inst, called on
Miss Betsey Durkee, who lived with her
nephew, C. C. Durkee, just in the edge of
Monroe, on the center road. But, alas!
since my visit she was taken with a sudden
congestion of the lungs, and with three
days struggle she passed away and last
Sunday saw her remains deposited in the
ground by the side of her father; the very
place have frequently heard her speak of
as her resting-place which she longed to
occupy.
AS Aunt Betsey was one of the early
settlers Twill give brief biography Of her.
She was born in Tunbridge, VT, October
18th, 1856. SOlomOn-her father-and
Capt. Benjamin Durkee-her grandfather
were both soldiers of the Revolution, and
Betsey inherited the spirit of her fathers,
and long ago declared herself independent
and would have remained so to the day of
her death, had not the infrmaties of age
prevented.
She was the oldest of a family of ten
children and, as a matter of course, rank
ed highest in command. Like most of the
girls in New England at that day, she
learned the art of carding, spinning and
weaving, and to-day the heaps of flannel
and linen goods she had laid away for her
own use when she got to be old, will testify
to the handiwork and industry of her for
mer years.
The advantages Cor education in her
younger days, in that portion of Vermont,
were rather limited, though at the district
school she acquired knowledge of spell
ing, reading, writing aud how to cast up
numbers. which were about all the branches
that were thought necessary in those days,
especially for girls. At the age of eight
cen she took her first school to run, and
was sought, for several years to teach
school in the rural districts of her native
town. An old lady of seventy-fve in this
town, who was one of her pupils, testiies
that as a school teacher, Betsey was sue
cess, as she not only taught US science, but
also the art of handling the knitting and
sewing needles.
About 1915, the old patriot, Solomon
| Durkee, heard of paradise west of the
Holland purchase, in the new Connecticut,
and the songs of the boys and girls wound
off: "And we will settle on the pleasant
banks of the Ohio" So, accordingly, they
packed their worldly goods into a wagon,
with two yoke of oxen, and in four weeks
landed in Monroe, where they hswed out
home for themselves.
need not tell the reader of the hard
ships the D. family had to encounter at
that early day, coming into the woods
without a dollar to help themselves.
But with the knowledge Betsey had learn
ed of flying the shuttle and the art of
weaving all kinds of double work, such as
table linen, coyerlets, etc, which soon was
noised throughout the elearIngs, and she
had all the weaving she could do the year
round. Such gpt.i'' IRON ano 9sssaa would
do would bns to those % P6saroJ Is avlGS, u5an Ia,
|
could noeaking up known compounds, 6
1t wsn; and these changes are in sol
do ~ .ases even greater than those broug
~ about when known compounds are I
IN der examination. Certain strong Lin
Dy of calcium are rarely seen in the chr
IN. mosphere, though always present VIII
10 the spectrum is obtained in the labor
ng tory; other lines, faint and short in t
Ell laboratory, are greatly intensified
Ho the spectrum of local storms. o
c3e hydrogen line, which is never seen
lu' the laboratory except under very hi
M temperatures, was wholly absent fro
In the solar protuberances during t
e'O eclipse of 1875, though the other lin
were seen; and this line is coincide
with the strongest line in the spectrU
of iridium.
The above are merely specimens oi
M large number of facts which Mr.. Loc
fl yer has collected. 1t need not be sa
eir that they do not singly or united
: e prove the compound nature of what '
IN have been accustomed to term elemeI
ire beyond question. They certainly ma
en- the supposition that they are compoul
he not unreasonable, and no other supp
sition yet brought forward accounts
, a fully as does this for the changes O
IN. served. A mere argument from sns
-er ogy is Mr.. Lockyer's theory. Certa
lie, substances known to be cOmpoul
AZ yield changed spectra under chang
as conditions. Other substances, heret
at fore supposed to be elementary, act
III tie same way when subjected to Il
by same treatment. There is the ia
of which chemists must explain. Ana v
lly may add that it IS the only fact tn
ch requires explanation, for the previol
to announcement that the spectrum of OF
in metal has been obtained by Il
on spectrum of another metal W,
ite wholly incorrect. Nothing at q
We resembling a transmutatiOn of me
ITS ais has been accomplished, even
N, it should prove that they are MOI
y. nearly related to each other than mot
in ern science has taught. But Mr.. Loci
is yer's discoveries have opened highl
on interesting field for research, and ii
future is full of possibilities BostO
Mt Advertiser.