The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-01-29

Their and SON, and Their Wives.
1t is not strange that people gaze at
the shaft surmOuntcd by the bronze fig
rre 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 a
mans life which interests the people.
There was a good deal of this sort of
thing III the Douglas family. There
runs through the story Of that family "a
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 a 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, o 81 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. i'll 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 a 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 incidcntals of a
mans career, here is another Of more
than passing interest, lnasmuch as it
furnishes the key to the coming of
young Douglas into the west.
There was a man who lived on q
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, wen 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
a'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 wa likewise in her weeds.
Hezekiah hitched up his team and made
a pilgrimage to Brandon, VT, where he
made up an acquaintance with the
Widow Douglas, and soon after they
were married. Thus the boy had a
mother and a stepmOther in one,
and the old gentleman became the step
father to his daughter-in-la law. To the
old farm i'll 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
n Of its senator's, 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 ont into the lane and
into the United States senate, and pu,
her arms around her boys neck and
kissed him goodby.
when are you coming back to ses
your old mother:' she asked him.
'On my way to congress- was the
prophetic reply. There is a Patmos thai
rises across the way Ct some mOrtals.
A good many years went 10y, and The
faithful mother used t o go down to the
gate of the lawn and look along tn,
a and go back again unconsoled
One day She saw a man coming, and
though he had grown and had some @
that tired look in his face which tn,
west imprinted on its young men, thu
woman knew this was her boy. He helt
in his hand his certificate of election t,
the lower house Of the national congress
from the district in which he lived il
Illinois. He was on his way to congress
Long years after this. when the youn,
man had scars upon his political armor
made III contest with the giants Of thos
days, and when he was in the race fo
the White House wreath and the pres
OF the opposition was vindictive in it
attack upon him, Douglas stopped o.
his return from Washington to visit hi
mother, who had in the meantime mov
ed up near the Canadian border. TIL
wagon roads We're filled with the plat
people of that section who assembled a
the station to meet the presidential car
dldate. The old woman threw her arm
h>..& AI~