"
The following data concerning his brothers and sisters were given
me by Mr. Burroughs in conversation:--
Hiram, born in 1827, was an unpractical man and a dreamer; he was
a bee-keeper. He showed great aptitude in the use of tools, could
make axe-handles, neck-yokes, and the various things used about
the farm, and was especially skilled in building stone walls.
But he could not elbow his way in a crowd, could not make farming
pay, and was always pushed to the wall. He cared nothing for
books, and although he studied grammar when a boy, and could
parse, he never could write a grammatical sentence. He died at
the age of seventy-five.
Olly Ann was about two years younger than Hiram. Mr. Burroughs
remembers her as a frail, pretty girl, with dark-brown eyes, a high
forehead, and a wasp-like waist. She had a fair education for her
time, married and had two children, and died in early womanhood of
phthisis.
Wilson was a farmer, thrifty and economical. He married but had no
children. He was evidently somewhat neurotic; as a child, even when
well, he would groan and moan in his sleep, and he died, at the age
of twenty-eight, after a short illness, of a delirious fever.
Curtis also was a farmer, but lacked judgment; could not look ahead;
thought if he gave his note a debt was canceled, and went on piling
up other indebtedness.
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