In 1845 I went for a few months to a Mr. Walker, a good scholar himself, but a very poor teacher. In 1846 T went to school at what was known as the Somerset school-house, about two and a half miles distant; this was a better house, being frame and weatherboarded and having seats made of plank, some of them with backs; this house was heated with a large stove in the center of the room. The teacher's name was Thomas Hart, and a good one too, very strict in dicipline. In 1847 I attended school at the same place, but with a different teacher, John Augustus Williams, afterwards of Daughters' College, Harrodsburg, Ky.

Jan. 1, 1848, when not quite thirteen years old, I hired to my uncle William Hearne to work for six dollars and a half per month and board. Uncle was a bachelor, and there being no woman about the place except the old negro woman cook, it was quite lonely for me; but I was busy at work during the day, and at night I would read some, and knit my gloves on a bone, darn my socks, patch, and sew on buttons, etc., as well as bottom chairs with shucks, for extra dimes, and occasionally beat a mess of hominy in the oldtime mortar, with a pestle and iron wedge.

In 1849 I attended school at Lafayette Seminary, near Lexington, Ky., taught by Mr. Beverly A. Hicks. The cost for board and tuition was one hundred and twenty-five dollars. This was by far the best schooling of my life; I think I received more real benefit from it than all the other put together, and that ended my school life before I was fifteen years old.

The year 1850 I worked for Uncle Thomas Owen, till Oct. 1st., on the farm, for six dollars and a half per month, and he then gave me extra a two-year-old colt, valued at thirty dollars.

On Oct. 1, 1850, when less than sixteen years old, I commenced work on the farm for my brother-in-law, Mr. James M. Stone, of Montgomery Co., Ky., for $6.50 per month, with my board and keep of saddle horse. Almost my first employment was to assist in weighing up, and getting together some two thousand fat hogs, to be driven to the Virginia market. Mr. Stone, like my father, was quite a trader in mules, cattle and hogs, besides conducting his large farm, and handling a large number of stock on it every year. It was no small job to gather up and weigh this 2000 hogs, (in that day each hog had to be weighed separate, in leather straps made for the purpose) that cost $2.25 per hundred pounds, their

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Thanks to Catherine Bradford for transcribing this page.