San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1885-05-14
4 GOOD MANS MEMORIAL RECORD.

"A GOOD MANS MEMORIAL RECORD
AuronIooRApHY or SAMUEL X. HosnouR, A
NJ, With an Introdution by Isaac Errot
and an Appendix by Ryhnd Il. Brown, A
NJ, NJ. ID. st. Louis John Burns Pub
fishing Co.
The above is n volume Of 233 pages
handsomely printed and bound. Oul
friend d. W. Pritchett, the minister o.
the Christian church at San Marcos
loaned us copy several months since
Had it been book of merely ordina
ry interest to us, we, Of course, would
have dispatched it at once with an or
dinary notice. But there were cir
cumstances connected with the worl
which impelled us to a more extended
notice, which, under thopressure of 9th
er duties, we could not sooner attend
to, satisfactorily to ourself. Hence
the long and apparently unreasonable
delay, which, as we trust, the owner
of the book, on our plea of better late
than inadequately done, will kindly
excuse.
Samuel X. Hoshour is name init
mately associated with the home oi
our nativity, the recollections OF our
boyhood,y youth, and a good deal of oul
after life. Not only SO, but it also
intimately associated with influences
of an intellectual, moral and religious
character. His life was devoted to
the dissemination of those noble in
fuences, especially among tho rising
generation, and there are to-day a
great multitude who revere his name
and call his memory blessed.
He was born in Heidelberg town
ship, York county. Pennsylvania, on
the 10Th of December, 1903, the Oldest
of family of six children. Ho was
of German descent, and did not learn
English until nearly grown. His
father died when Samuel was in his
fourteenth year, and no was left un-
der the control of q guardian. AL
though his father left an estate of
some $4,000, his guardian favored
the idea of the boys being hired out
to the farmers of the solid "Pennyl-
vania Dutch" community ill which he
lived, and he mentions that he worked
in the summer of his seventeenth
year on the farm of q mill-owner for
four dollars month and board. He
adds:
| Sometimes in my present ruminations on
my past / almost como to the conclusion
that it was fated for me to work for too HttEe
in the different spheres In which ], from
that time till now, have labored for too lit
tie in the pulpit, too little in the school
room, and in public services generally.
Both his father and grandfat her
had been tanners by trade, and Sam
uel was destined by his family to the
same calling, but circumstances open
ed a more congenial field for him.
The miller on the farm referred to
was illiterate and untitled for keeping
the books, and finding young Hoshour
better qualified had on rainy days and
other leisure times, turned that busi-
ness over to him. Not long after
there was vacancy in the position OF
schoolmaster in that neighborhood,
and apprehensions were felt that they
might be without school the com
ing winter. We quote from the mar
rative:
As the mill was the place where neighbors
met, this apprehension was frequently ex-
pressed in the presence of the miller He
counseled as follows: "Here is Sam. X.
Hoshour, who can read we'll enough, writes
q fair hand, and can cipher so as to tell how
much at SO much comes to, and that il all
your children need TO know! Keep your
larger ones at home, or make them behave
themselves should they desire to go, aud he
will get along we'll with the school" The sug-
pestion was received with appreciation by
several Of those interested, but "some
doubted"
However, he was engaged. While
teaching, he naturally was led
to assume a more dignifed de-
meanor and devoted more time to
reading and study. A copy of "Pil-
grims Progress" in German which
came in his way was the first book he
ever read through, and gave him re-
religious impressions, which were
heightened by the perusal of other re-
ligious books, including the New Tes
lament 30 that in his eighteenth year
he was led 10 unite with the Lutheran
church. His school closed satisfacto
rily to his employers, and he devoted
the proceeds to MS own further i'm
provement, by attending an English
school. He was now determined TO
70 on in the course in which he had
selected, bat his guardian, an igno-
rant German. insistel on his becom-
ing a tanner. and refused TO advance
a dollar Of his share Of the estate for