Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-11-10

these labored to recall, that I might
repent and plead with Divine mercy
for forgiveness. But alas! could re-
member nothing save the browning
crime-forgetfulne of God.
I seemed to stand outside, and see
myself a mere mite, in a pink sun
bonnet and white bib, the very chief
of sinners, for the probability was II
had been thinking of that bonnet and
bib. 1t was quite certain that God
knew my sin; and all, the crushing
horror that could, by no possibility
conceal aught from the All-seeing
Eye, while it was equally impossible
to win it's approval. The Divine Law
was so perfect that could not hope
to meet it's requirements Divine
Law-giver so alert that no sin could
escape detection.
Under that cloud of doom the sun.
shine grew Ozark, and 1 did not dare
to move until CHEEKY voice called
out something about my pretty bon
net, and gave me sense of compan-
ionship in this dreadful, dreadful
| world. Rose, a large native African,
had spoken to me from her place in
Squire Horner's kitchen, and l went
home full Of solemn resolves and sad
forebodings.
This is probably what evangelists
would call my conversion, and it came
in my third summer. There was
fire in the crate when mother showed
DR.. Robt. Wilson, our family physi-
clan, pair of wristbands and collar
I had stitched for father, and when
| they spoke of me as not being three
years Old-but then l had in my mind
the marks of that "great awaken
ing"
To me, no childhood was possible
| under the training this indicates, yet
in giving that training, my parents
were loving and gentle as they were
faithful. Believing in the danger of
| eternal death, they could but guard
me from it, by the only means of
which they had any knowledge.
Before the completion of that mo-
mentous third year of life, had learn
ed to read the New Testament read
lily, and was deeply grieved that our
pastor played patty cake" with my
hands, instead of hearing me recite
my catechism, and talking of original
sin. During that winter I went reg
| ularly to school, where I was kept at
the head of spelling class, in which
were young men and women. One of
these, Wilkins McNair, used to carry
me home, much amused, no doubt, by
my supremacy. His father, Col. Dun
| ming McNair, was proprietor of the
village, and had been ridiculed for
predicting that, in the course of hui
man events, there would be graded,
McAdamized road, all the way from
| Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and that if
he did not live to see it his children
would. He was neighbor and friend
of VIM. Wilkins, afterward Judge,
Secretary of War, and Minister to
Russia, and had named his son for
him. When his prediction was full
. filled and the road made, it ran thru
his land, and on it he laid out the
village and called it Williamsburg. Mr..
McNair lived south of it in rough
stone house-the manor Of the neigh
borhood-with half dozen slave huts
ranged before the kitchen door, and
the gateway between his grounds and
the village, as seen from the upper
windows of our house, was, to me, the
boundary between the known and the
unknown, the dread portal through
which came Adam, the poor old rag.
ged slave, with whom my nurse threat
| ened me when I did not do as she
| wished. He was a wretched creature,
who made and sold hickory brooms,
as he dragged his rheumatic limbs on
| the down grade of life, until he found
rest by freezing to death in the woods,
where he had gone for saplings.
I was born on the 9Th of December,
1915, in Pittsburg, on the bank of the
Monongahela, near it's confluence with
the Allegheny. My father was Thorn
as Cannon, and my mother Mary
Scott. They were both Scotch-Irish
and descended from the Scotch Re-
formers. On my mothers side were
several men and women who signed
the Solemn League and Covenant" :,
and defended it to the loss of livings,
lands and life. Her mother, Jane
Grey, was Of that family which was
allied to royalty, and gave to England
her nine days queen.
This grandmother I remember as a
stately old lady, quantity and plainly
dressed, reading a large Bible or an
swering questions by quotations from
it's pages. She was unsuspicious as
an infant, always doubtful about "ac-
tual transgressions" of any, while be-
lieving in the total depravity of all.
Educated in Ireland as an heiress,
she had not been taught to write, lest
she should marry without the consent
of her elder brother guardian. She
felt that we owed her undying graft
tude for bestowing her hand and for
tune on our grandfather, who was but
a yoeman, even If 'he did have good
leasehold, ride a high horse, wear
spurs, and have Hamilton blood in his
veins" She made us familiar with
the battle of the Boyne and the sui
ferings in Londonderry, in both OF
which her great-grandfather had shar:
ed, but was incapable of that sectar.
ian rancor, which marks so many de.
scendents of the men who met on
those fields of blood and fought fol
their convictions.
i In April, 1916, father moved from
Pittsburg out to the new village OF
Williamsburg; took with him large
stock OF goods, bought property, built
the house in which I first remember
him, and planted the apple tree which
? imprinted the first picture on my
memory. But the crash which follow
> ed the last war with England brought
general bankruptcy; the mortgages or
Col. McNair's estate made the titles
, valueless, and this, with the fall Of
; real estate in Pittsburg, reduced faith
y er to poverty, from which he never
: recovered.
ITO be continued.)