Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-27

O. ~
JOHN NJ. PALMER
ture, alertness to all that was going on
about him, forceful gestures all con-
tributing to the effect which surprised
all beholders and delighted his friends.
II is not often we see in the United
States senate or anywhere else u man
seventy-fve years old disporting himself
in the oratorical arena like % man of
forty, with all his faculties unimpaired
and the fires of his eloquence undimmed
by the cloud Of age.
The span of this mans life carries us
back to the year 1917. His career has
been synchronous with the development
of nearly all there is of the American
republic. He was almost man grown
before the iron horse made its appear
ance in the land. In his youth the coun-
try existed chiefly east of the Allegheny
mountains. Through all these seventy
five years no has been a worker in lifes
vineyard in the very thick Of the fight
ing in war and peace, and yet here he is
apparently good for quarter of cen
fury more of activity and usefulness,
have been sent to the capital by Illinois,
Senator PALMER is native of Kentucky
and comes of good old Virginia stock.
His great-grandfather came from Ire
land and was Of Scotch ancestry. His
grandfather was born on the shores of the
Potomac, 100 miles below Washington,
and carried gun in the war of the Rev
olution. II have myself heard my grand
father tell of the battle of Yorktown"
said Senator Palmer u day or two ago,
"and | remember distinctly little joke
which he was fond of perpetrating in
that connection. He always spoke of
Lord CORVALLIS us b-wallis-because
weshelled the corn off him at Yorktown"
Senator Palmer's father, Lewis D., was
q pioneer IN Kentucky, a cabinet maker
at Lexington, whence he removed to the
Green river country in that state to be-
come farmer. His earthly possessions
were a wife, two horses and two boys,
the younger of them being the present
senator. 81 was very young then" said
the senator in recalling some of the in
cidents of his youth, "but have been
told that father rode one horse with my
brother up behind him, while my mother
rode the other with me in front Of her.
was so young that all needed tomalle
me happy was plenty of food and sleep,
and SO far as know | have been i'll the
Same condition ever since"
On the Black Jack lands of the Green
river country Lewis Palmer acquired
more children than riches. OF seven
h. A., al. p
the dullest and least promising, He sent
the boy to school to Daniel Boone, who
used hazel switch on the future gov
ernor and senator about twice day dur
ing one whole term, and when Palmer
senior returned from. the Indian wars,
where he had served for time under
C%eral William Henry Harrison, he
ga it as his opinion that young John
had deserved all he had received and
more. After time Father Palmer
caught tho Illinois craze which was then
sweeping over Kentucky, and which gave
to the state, which snow the third of the
Union, some of the best blood from Ken
lucky and Virginia. Packing up his few
chattels and his seven sons and daugh-
tiers no removed to Madison county, HIS, |
firing tho Imagination of his sons by
telling them that ON tho prairies they
could all have farm for the asking and
fill their pockets by simply tickling the
virgin soil,
Young John, who was at that time
fourteen years old, very soon began TO
evince an extraordinary desire to secure
an education. His father said to him:
John, my son, am poor man and
cannot give you money. The most |
can do for you is to give you your time.
Go and see what you can do for yourself" |
In those pioneer days a father expected !
the full benefit of his sons services till he !
was twenty-one years old, and he was
considered very generous who made his !
son present of three or four years of
his minority. So young John started
out to see what he could do. He worked |
by the day for neighboring farmers,
drove four oxen breaking the prairie sod
with big pillow, husked corn, planted,
cared for stock. One day he went to
town and saw in a tailor's shop cotton
suit which the tailor had had left on his
hands. II was worth twelve dollars. !
Young Palmer eyed it enviously, and
the tailor asked him to try it on. AS a
result the tailor, whose name was Moore. !
sold the boy the suit ON credit A few
months later the 81 day of July found |
The youngster with $50, which he had |
earned by hard days work on the neigh !
boring farms, John" said his father,
''you still owe Tailor Moore seven dol !
lars Eyes, father" And you have |
s7.50?" Eyes" "Well, tomorrow will (
be independence Day, and if you want to |
be a free and Independent man go the /
first thing in the morning and pay that /
debt. No man is free and independent /
who owes another money" Next morn .
ing the debt was paid, and third of a
century later when the barefoot boy
had become governor of Illinois, i was
paid again in the appointment of Tailor
Moore to somewhat lucrative office,
which he held for many Years and which