The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-12-12
THE LITTLE GIANT.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AS HIS INIT
MATE FRIENDS KNEW HIM.

His Narrow Escape When an Infant-Re-
turn to His Devoted Mother After His
Election to Congress-The Changers, Fa-
Their and Son, and Their Wives.
1t is not strange that people gaze at
the shaft surmounted by the bronze fig
ure of Stephen A. Douglas, overlooking
the lake, as they pass by the spot where
the remains of the electric statesman
are at rest.
1t was Oliver Wendell Holmes who
said that it is the incidental part OF
mans life which interests the people.
There was a good deal of this sort OF
thing in the Douglas family. There
runs through the story of that family
thread of the uncommon. The country
knows all about the political career of
the man who faced Lincoln in debate.
and who became the idolized leader of
his party in the north. There was some
thing in the disappointment of the man
that touched the sensibilities Of his op-
ponents, as there is always and ever
will be something pathetic in the fail
ure of one who expires when within
grasp of long cherished hope.
A picture of the house in which Doug
las was born was recently taken at the
suggestion of his only living sister, Mrs.
Sarah Granger, now "a years old, and
still living on the old farm near Clifton
Springs, N. Y, on which she was mar
ried, and which was opened up by her
husbands father, Hezekiah Granger.
in 1899.
The father of Douglas, whose name
was also Stephen A.-the Little Giant
being the fourth Stephen A. in direct
line--was standing before the big fire.
place in his home at Brandon, VT. with
his son, then two months old, in his
arms. The fathers heart was affected,
and he let the child fall from his grasp
The father fell dead The child fell in
to the ashes, and but for instantaneous
rescue would have met horrible death.
The mother of Douglas was Sarah Fisk,
and she was the second cousin of Jim
Fisk Of picturesque career and tragic
end
Referring to the incidentals of
mans career, here is another of more
than passing interest, inasmuch as it
furnishes the key to the coming Of
young Douglas into the west.
There was a man who lived on a
farm with his father near Clifton
Springs, N. Y, whose name was Gran
ger. His father was Hezekiah Granger
The son WAS in the habit of visiting
Brandon, VT, to do his counting. He
married Miss Sarah Douglas. She was
the sister of Stephen a. Douglas, and
followed him in all his career, even I'M
to his death, and then came on here to
Chicago to watch the building of the
monument to the memory of one whom
she still refers to as the "best man that
ever lived" Young Granger returned
to the old homestead near the Springs
with his bride. His father, Hezekiah,
at once declared that his boys wife was
mighty fine woman" and asked if
there was any of the stock left, for Heze-
kiah was in his weeds. The boy told his
father that his brides mother was liv-
ing, and was likewise i'll her weeds
Hezekiah hitched up his team and made
pilgrimage to Brandon, VT, where he
"made up an acquaintance" with the
Widow Douglas, and soon after they
were married. Thus the boy had
mother n-law and a stepmother in one,
and the old gentleman became the STEP
father to his duughter-in- law. To the
old farm in New York came Stephen A.
Douglas, and while there he heard
about the chances for young men in the
west, and concluded to come out. The
story of the penniless young man who
reached Illinois, and afterward became
one Of its senators, is as familiar in Il
linois as is the life of Washington in
Virginia.
The morning young Douglas left the
house on the old Granger farm his
mother walked with him down to the
gate that opened out into the lane and
into the United States senate, and put
her arms around her boys neck and
kissed him goodby.
"When are you coming back to see
your old mother?' she asked him.
ION my way to congress-. was the
prophetic reply. There is Patmos that
rises across the way of some mortals
A good many years went by, and the
faithful mother used to 60 down to the
gate Of the lawn and look along the
lane and go back again unconsoled.
One day she saw a man coming, and,
though he had grown and had some of
that tired look in his face which the
west imprinted on its young men, the
woman knew this was her boy. He held
in his hand his certificate of election to
the lower house Of the national congress
from the district in which he lived in
Illinois. He was on his way to congress.
- Long years after this, when the young
hsS scars upon his political armor,
made in coSsi,sst with the giants Of those
days, and when be WIN ss IN 1ne race Tor
the White House wreath ai6aee press
of the opposition was vindictive M>.s
attack upon him, Douglas stopped on
his return from Washington to visit his
mother, who had in the meantime NOV
ed up near the Canadian border. The
wagon roads were filled with the plain
people of that section who assembled at
the station to meet the presidential can
didate The old woman threw her arms
about the neck of her boy in the pres
snce of the multitude, and cried out,
"Ah, they do not know my boy as / do
or they would not say what they do
about him''-referring to the attacks of
the opposition. And the son, forgetting
for the moment that be was in a presi-