The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-03-01
THE LITTLE GIANT.
tTEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AS HIS iNTl-
MATE FRIENDS KNEW HIM.

Election to Congress-The Changers, Fa-
Their ana s.,A, 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 whsre
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 good deal of this sort of
thing in 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 OPP
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, 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 fol- 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
T. K Of picturesque career and tragic
end
Referring to the incidentals of q
mans career, here is another OF more
than passing interest, inasmuch as 1t
furnishes the key to the coming or
young Douglas into the west
There was q 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, even un-
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 tho Springs
with his bride. His father, Hezekiah
at once declared that his boy wife wa
"mighty fine woman" and asked
there was any of the stock left, for Heze
kiah was in his weeds. The boy told HI
father that his brides mother was liv
ing. and was likewise i'll her weeds
Hezekiah hitched up his team and mad
pilgrimage to Brandon, VT, where n
"made up an acquaintance with tn
Widow Douglas, and soon after the
were married. Thus the boy had
, mother in law and a stepmother III one
! and the old gentleman became the steI
! father to his daughter law. To tn
old farm in New York came Stephen
, Douplas, and while there he hear
, about the chances for young men IN tn
I, west. and concluded to come out. In
! story of the penniless young man VIII
: reached Illinois, and afterward becam
: one of its senators, is as familiar III L
Inois as is the life of Washington
n Virginia.
:, The morning young Douglas left I'll
!, bouse on the old Granger farm d
. mother walked with him down to I'll
gate that opened out into the lane al
into the United States senate, and p'
= her arms around her boys neck al
II kissed him goodby.
"When are you coming back TO s.
= vour old mother?" she asked him. i.
= "On my way to congress, was u
. prophetic reply. There is Patmos tn
rises across the way Of some mortals.
. A good many years went by, and q
:, faithful mother used to go down TO q
:, cate of the lawn and look along =
- lane and go back again unconsoie
~ ~ One day she saw man coming al
20 though he had grown and had some
20 that tired look in his face which I
- west imprinted on its young men, I
~ woman knew this was her boy. de ne
10 10 in his hand his certificate OF election
y the lower house of the national congr'
50 from the district in which he lived
Illinois. He was on his way to conere
Long years after this, when the you
man had scars upon his political arm'
=. made in contest with the giants OF I'd,
Nv days. and when he was in the race
:. q the White House wreath and the pr
," Of the opposition was vindictive IN
=. attack upon him, Douglas stopped
as his return from Washington to visit
=, mother. who had in the meantime M.
no cd up near the Canadian border. !
II wagon roads were filed with the pii
w. neople of that section who assembled
y, The station to meet the presidential ca
iio Il N fhrQW her ar