Connecticut western news., 1922-02-16
cHAPT ER |.
C0pYpZdHT IRVZWG R4CHEZZER2


 son Henry TrayIor and His Wife and
 Their Two Children and Their Dog
 Sambo Through the Adirondack Will
 derness In 1881 on Their Way to the
 Land of PIenty-Furthermor 1t De-
 serIbes the soaping Of the 6rim-
 steads.
 In the early summer of 1881 Sam son Traylor and his wife, Sarah, and two children left their old home near the village of Vergennes, Vermont, and began their travels toward the setting sun with four chairs, a bread board and rolling-pin, a feather bed and blankets, a small looking glass, a skillet, an ax, a pack basket with a pad of sole leather on the same, water pail, box of dishes, tub of salt pork, a rifle, teapot, a sack of meal, sundry small provisions and violin, in a double wagon drawn by oxen. It is a pleasure to note that they had a violin and were not dis posed to part with it. The reader must not overlook its full historic signifi- canoe. The stern, uncompromising spirit of the Puritan had left the house of the Yankee before violin could enter 1t. Humor and the love of play had preceded and cleared way for 1t. Where there was a fiddle there were cheerful hearts. A young black shepherd dog with tawny points and the name of Sambo followed the wagon.
 If we had been at the Congrega- tional church on Sunday we might have heard the minister saying to Samson, after the service, that if was hard to understand why the happiest family in the parish and the most ee- loved should be leaving its ancestral home to go to a far, new country of which little was known. We might also have heard Samson answer:
 "It's awful easy to be happy here. We slide along in the same old groove, that our fathers travelled, from Yer gennes to Paradise. We work and play and go to meetin' and put a shin plaster in the box and grow old and narrow and stingy and mean and go up to glory and are turned into saints and angels. Maybe that's the best thing that could happen to us, but Sarah and kind O thought we'd try . new starting place and another route to heaven"
 Sarah and Sampson had been raised on adjoining farms just out of the village. He had had little schooling, but his mind was active and we'll in- clined. Sarah had prosperous. rela- tives in Boston and had had the ad- vantage of a years schooling in that city. She was a comedy girl of a taste and refinement unusual in the place and time of hel birth. Many well-favored youths had sought her hand, but, better than others, she liked the big, masterful, good-natured, humorous Samson, crude as he was. Naturally in her hands his timber had undergone some blaming and smooth ing and his thoughts had been gently led into new and pleasant ways.
 Let us take look at them as they slowly leave the village of their birth The wagon is covered with tent cloth drawn over hickory arches. They are sitting on seat overlooking the oxen in the wagon front. Tears are stream ing down the face Of the woman. The mans head IS bent His elbows are resting on his knees; the hickory handle of his OK whip lies across his lap, the lash at his feet. He seems to be looking down at his boots, into the tops of which his trousers have been folded. He is rugged, blond, bearded man with kindly blue eyes and a rather prominent nose. There Is a striking expression of power in the head and shoulders of Samson Traylor The breadth of his back, the size of his wrists and hands, the color of his face betoken a man of great strength. This thoughtful, sorrowful, attitude Is the only evidence of emo hon which he betrays. In a few minutes he begins to whistle a lively tune.
 The boy Josiah-familiarly called Joe-sits beside his mother. He is 8 slender, sweet-faced lad. He is looking up wistfully at his mother The little girl Betsey sits between him and her father.
 That evening they stopped at the house of an old friend some miles up the rusty road to the north.
 Here we are-goin' vest" Sam. son shouted to the man at the door step.
 He alighted and helped his family out of the wagon.
 "You go right in-I'll take care O the oxen." said the man.
 Samson started for the house witl the girl under one arm and the boy under the other. A pleasant-faced woman greeted them with a hearty welcome at the door.
 You poor man! Come right in, she said.