The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-10-04
USitS the Scenes
OF Boyk1ood Days

OF the creek to rest awhile and think
of things that were being done here
so many years ago. AS sat there,
what throng of memories passed be.
fore me. | could see little boy in
in his bare feet, with straw hat and
cotton shirt and pants, with suspen.
ders made from strips of white cotton
cloth, with the limb Of beech tree for
fish pole, a line made of thread, and
a bent pin for fish hook, trying to
catch fish that we're so plentiful In
this creek. l fancied could see him
a few years later hoeing tobacco In a
field with other boys with a hoe that
a blacksmith at Brandon had made,
and plowing corn with single shovel
plow that the same blacksmith had
made, and reaping and grading wheat
and moving grass with scythe. I
could see him few years later at the
age of eighteen, starting away TO
school to the academy at Martinsburg
to spend three happy years, the mem
ories of which will never fade, and at
the end of that time, going West to
begin life's battles.
followd him on through the many
changes that the years since then have
brought, till today l find him an old
man visiting the place where so many
happy days had been spent so long
ago.
10 Gh H..
ginning to lengthen, and was remind
ed that it was time to start home. AS
went back over the fields, | noticed
what changes had taken place since
| left the farm. The pond where 1
used to slide was gone, and the trees
that had been let grow around the
| pond for sha0e for stock were all
cleared away, and the ground was all
under cultivation, just as though no
pond had ever been there. The old
rail worm fences were gone and wire
fences were in their place, and so
many other changes that one would
hardly know the place.
On my way out this morning, /
stopped and spent half hour in the
Brandon cemetery. / first went to the
place where loved ones sleep, and then
walked around reading the names on
the grave stones of persons who were
once my friends. / also called on one
of my old school teachers, Aunt Sally
Simons." / went to school to her in
the summer of 1849. She was then
Miss Sally Gates, and the school house
stood on her fathers farm. Mrs. Sim
ons is very pleasant old lady, eighty
three years old, and is living on the
farm on which she was born. She has
the original indenture (deed) that her
father got when he purchased the land
| from the government. The parchment
bears date of September %, 1915, and
signed by James Madison, president of
the United States.
When | came home this evening,
came over another road in order to
see familiar places This gave me an
opportunity to call on another of my
old school teachers, Miss Sally Ann
Hawkins. l went to school to Miss
| Hawkins in the summer of 1874, in an
old log cabin that had been built for
dwelling house, but was not used as
such any more. 1t was the summer of
the Polk-Clay presidential campaign,
and political excitement was at high
tide, and it extended to the school
children. Father was the only Demo-
crat living in the school district, and
the Whig children SHE'D away from us.
They called us ''Polkberries" and 10
4 cofoes," and they would sing, "Oh,
| Polk, you'll end in smoke" and Who
ever heard of Polk till he was named
! last May" and other Whig songs.
had not seen Miss Hawkins for good
many years, and l was glad to see
and talk with her again. l think from
words. that passed between us, as I
was taking my leave, that theI same
thought came to each of us, and that
thought was that our next meeting
would be on the other side of "The
River"
Burgess. Mrs. Burgess is the only
person living in that neighborhood
that went to school in the log CABIN in
1874. She was then little girl of six
years old, living in small log house.
She is now an old lady seventy-two
years Old and is living in large
brick house on the same farm on
which she lived then.
have been sitting at home tonight
indulging in memories of the past tin
it is now quite late. What would not
, give as l sit here in the silence of
this night, if l could lift the curtain
that wells the past just for little
while and see father and mother and
: hrofharc and siatara draasad in fhair