The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-01-06


grandmother. But the good doctor Is
wrong about Thomas Jefferson. He did
not marry Miss Martha SHELTON, for she
was a widow and her maiden name was
Martha Wales, as | said. Neither did An
drew Jackson marry Miss Rachel Robards.
She was not a miss. but a divorced wife
and her maiden name was Rachel Donel-
son. Jackson had to marry her twice
in different States to comply with the
law OF course George Washington mar
ried the widow Custis. Everybody knows
that. 1t was the typo that made it
Curtis. DR.. Conway says that Millard
fillmore never married. He is mistaken.
His first wife was Abigail Powers and
his second was Carolina Mcintosh. 1t
is singular how many of the presidents
married widows. Madison's wife. Dolly
Payne, was a widow Todd Her maiden
name as Dorothy Coles. I reckon We
will get this matter Strengthened out
after while. Mr.. Thaxton. of Teanes-
see, writes me that the full list OF moth
ers and wives can be found in the ''WOrld
Almanac" of 1894. Friend ThaXton is
not mad, but he is grieved that l said
JOhnsons parents were too poor and lg-
norant to be named in the biography.
That was not my assertion, but was bit
of sarcasm on the compiler, who makes
special mention of their poverty and
lack of education and records that An
drew and his mother and stepfather
moved from Raleigh, n. c., to Greenville,
Tennessee, in a two-Wheeled cart drawn
by blind pony, but does not give their
names. Mr.. ThaXton says his Wifes ath-
! er was an own cousin to Andrew Johnson
, and Andrews mothers name was Mary
McDonough, but he does not mention the
cta fat ba
second time? The biography in Appleton
was written by James Phelan, editor OF
the Memphis Avalanche, and seems to be
very fair and favorable to Johnson and
his wife and children. 1t says that
Johnson's father died when Andrew va.
only four years old, and Mr.. Thaxton
says his mother had many more chu
| dren. Mr.. Phelan says that Andrew
learned his alphabet on the tailor bench,
and his wife, Eliza McCarle, taught him
to read
My friend Thaxtor says that ne did OF
know that poverty and Ignorance W re
tied together. As general rule t av
! are. That second husband must have
been both shiftless and ignorant if he
couldn't provide any better transportation
for his wife and stepson than a two
wheeled cart and blind pony for a long
journey. # Mr.. ThaAton was to see such
a cavalcade as that coming down the big
road now he would say that poverty and
| ignorance We're tramping along together.
But this much we have learned from Mr..
Ihaxton-that Andrew JohnsOn's moth
or's maiden name was Mary McDonOugh.
All honor to him who rose from poverty
and obscurity and all honor to his de-
voted wife and to his accomplished daugh-
ter, Mrs. Patterson, who presided SO
worthily in the White House.
And Roosevelt married twce-thats
right, He ought to have a good woman
| at his elbow all of the time. l reckon
/ he must have been a widower when
| he wrote those slanders against Jefferson
Davis and the people Of the South. | am
/ still waiting for him to retract and apollo
I gize But now he is a candidate and
. is scheming for the solid Northern vote,
! and the Southern negroes thrown in, he
won't retract. If he is to be elected
President, l want Miles to be coupled
with him on the ticket for Vice President.
j The champion chainer and the champion
! defamer ought to be paired. One to work
on live men and the other on dead ones.
And here is a letter from Mrs. Lucy
! Harrison Gay Whitfield, of Siddonsville,
| Ala, who informs me that William Hen
j ry Harrisons mother was Elizabeth Bas-
| sett She is Mrs. Whitfield's great great
{ grandmother and was the wife of Ben
/ Harrison, who signed the Declaration Of
| Independence. is mother was Anne Car
j ter, an aunt of Robert Lee, I believe that
! supplies all the missing links
| I've been enjoying some rich and racy
readng-the reply of Horace Greely to
/ the committee who summoned him to
trial for singning the bail bond OF Jeffer
! pla
On. There were twenty-one who signed
it, but Greely was the first and the only
Republican abolitionist. He volunteered
to do it and did it willingly, going from
New York to Richmond for that purpose,
and it raised q howl all over New York
! and New England. The Northern ez
tremists demanded that Mr. Davis be tried
and hung for treason, for the assassi
naticn Of Lincoln, or for something or
| anything, he was hung. Greedy be
longed to the Union Club Of New York,
/ a powerful organization, and they were
outraged and enraged at his signing that
bond and cited him for trial. His reply
is long one and some parts of it are
most delightful sarcasm.
"You say you will give me reasonable
time for reflection. l want none, nor
shall I attend your meeting. 1t is not
! my habit TO take part in any discussion
/ that may arise among other gentlemen
! as to my fitness to enjoy their society.
/! That is their affair, and to them I leave
!, it. No. I shall not attend your meet
! ing this evening. I have an engagement
| out of town and shall keep it, l do net
recognize you as capable of Judging me.
!, You regard me as a weak sentimentalist.
/ I arraign you as a set of narrow minded
J Llockheais who would like to be useful,
but don't know how. Your attempt to
tase an enduring party on hate and wrath
! is like planting q colony on an iceberg
that had driftod into tropical sea me
I signing Of that bail bond will do more for
freedom and humanity than you all can
do though YOU live to the age of Mathu-
+ sa1eb. I ask nothing of you but that you