Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-13
Death In Iowa of the Author
of the Poem Twenty Years
Ago."
LIVED IN DEWITT MANY YEARS
Story of the Life of A. !. Gault and How
He Came to Write the Famous Poem
Written to Urge Return of Broth
er Who Had Wandered From Home
Other General News.
Special to rimes-Republ:can.


Clinton, Feb. 13.-In the little oh
scure village of Wheatland this coun
/ ty, in an obscure grave, was laid to res
this afternoon the remains of A. .
j Gault, the author of Twenty Year
4 Ago." also known as I've Wandered t
the Village. Tom" one of our fines
poetic gems This poem was true t
i life and was written from actual Incl
dents and strange to say was writer
by Mr.. Gault as letter, many year
! ago, when the author was young maj
in the Vermont hills.
and the origin OF the poem were told il
an interesting manner in the Calamu
| Record by A. w. Gault, a son of tn,
deceased, who is the editor of the Rec
ord. He says:
| "A. j. Gault was born in Jackson
| Washington county, New York. on Oct
| 4, 1915 When he was 2 years old hi:
parents moved to Arlington, VT, where
| he resided until he was % years of age
When not occupied with his studies 1T
spent his leisure time catching specklel
trout, roaming over the green-cappeG
mountains in search of game and COM
muning with nature in Nermont's green
hills. Here, in the midst of nature, ideas
came to him, which, in after years, he
worked into some excellent poetical
productions, pronounced by critics t.
be equal to Twenty Years Ago." AS
thoughts came to him he would write
them down on chip, piece of bark or
anything that came handy, utterly OBJ
livious to everything else until his task
was finished.
The country in that part of Vermont,
AT that time, was sparsely settled.
School houses We're situated near some
stream and the play grounds were large
and beautiful. MY father" says MI.
Gault. Jr., was one Of a family of nine
children. Tom. who is addressed in the
poem, was his youngest brother, who
was living at Otsego, N. Y. at the time
the poem was written. Tom was care
less about writing home. All wished
to hear from him ani wondered why he
did not write. My father at last de-
cided to write him touching letter,
appealing to the heart. and see If that
would not bring an answer. Twenty
Years Ago was that letter. In some
manner the letter found its way into
print and this fact was unknown to my
father for many years. Several years
ago, when Tom died. the letter was
given to his sister, residing in Kansas.
as a keepsake, AMI she still retains
nf
THE poem contained no fiction. The
old grape vine swing the beech tree
on which their sweethearts' names
were cut the 'berches their jack
knives had defaced.' The speckled trout,
the spring and all the incidents of the
poem and named are realities
Mr.. Gault came to Clinton county in
1855 and during the war printed the
Clinton County Advocate at Wheat
land. Several years later he began the
publication of the Wheatland Specta-
tor, which he published until couple
of wears ago, when he retired.
During his career as newspaper
publisher Mr. Gault published some eX-
cellent poems, but none of them were
ever received by the public as was
"Twenty Years Ago." When he wrote
that poem had Mr.. Gault realized it's
true merit and published 1t over his
signature 1T would have made him ia
nous, even tho he had never written
another line.