The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-18
GENEALOGY.

GENEALOGY.
It has been discovered, through ap-
parently trustworthy documents. that
Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant
were desce nded from the same great
grandfather. This ancestor was VIM.
Simpson. who came to this country
from the north of Ireland in the mid
die Of the last century, settled In
Pennsylvania and fought In the Con-
tinental army. His SON John was
Gen. Grants grandfather, and his
daughter Ann, who married John
Davis, was the grandmother of the
Confederate leader. The circum-
stance possesses curious interest,
owing to the prominence of the men.
yet it is not, after all, half as strange
as the division Of immediate families,
and the fighting Of brother against
brother, which took place more than
once during the war Of the Rebellion.
Pioneer Press.
There are few things more perma-
nent than family characteristics.
They persist for hundreds of years.
Darwin tells Of family in France
that had 1.-The curious faculty Of NOV
ing the scalps Of their heads, with
such force that, while the head re-
NAMED motionless, book on top Of
the head could be projected with
great force for several feet. A
French philosopher, curious on such
subjects, undertook to find out how
far back this faculty extended. He
traced it for several generations to a
point where the family divided, and
part removed to another portion of
France. The philosopher continued
his researches and traced down the
line of the migrated branch Of the
family for several generation, to the
present time; he called on one of the
representatives of the race and began
to explain the purpose Of his visit.
Before he had finished the gentleman
put book on his head and projected
it to the end of the room by the
movement Of the scalp.
Here we have the leader of the con-
Quered, Jefferson Davis, and the lead
er Of the conquerors, Ulysses Grant,
both traced back to one common an
cestor-from whom both probably de-
rived those large characteristics that
put them at the head of affairs.
James G. Blaine was simply an out
crop Of fer ce, able, shrewd little
Irishman, one Neill Gillespie, his
grandfather, who, like William Simp-
son, lived and died in obscurity, lack
ing the education or the opportuni-
ties for development.
A farmer will very often preserve,
in herd books. with great care, the
pedigree of his bulls and stations
when he scarcely kno VS. who his own
grandfather was. And yet the line of
descent and the carriage with it Of
characteristics, is as evident and in
evitable in one case as the other. We
are simply what our ancestors were:-
the converging lines meet in us; we
are a new compound where every ele-
ment is borrowed; and they will be
lent again to those who come after
us.
Hence every person should put
down in writing all he knows of his
ancestors. If he does not those who
come after him will know nothing
about them. Time is the great de-
| vourer.
Time hath. my lord. wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts aims for oblivion"
The Chinese worship of ancestors"
has something noble in it; for it is the
duty of the living to honor the dead;
and he who cares nothing for his an
cestors does not deserve to have DOS
terity. The Roman youth refused to
yield his chair to the old bachelor
because" said he, "when l am old
you will have no son to give me a
seat" Among the Jews and the an
Gent Irish the pedigrees of families
were preserved with the greatest care.
The triennial parliaments of Tara
made it their special business to pre-
serve the records Of descent, and the
Irish peasant, like the Spaniard, felt
that even when bare-foOted he was
still gentleman.
With us everything is left to chance
and 1.-THE infinite shuttle OF things"