average weight being about 300 pounds. From my very earliest youth, I had a great desire to get out from home and see something of the world, and felt that now was my opportunity, but in that I was disappointed, for Mr. Stone had to go himself, and it fell to my lot to stay at home with sister and manage the farm and stock. The hogs were driven over the Alleghaney Mountains same as my father's and Col. Johnson's were to Georgia. Had I have gone, my duty would have been to ride my own horse, and lead the pack horse that carried the blankets and clothing for the men who drove the hogs. After the hogs were all sold, the last in Richmond, Va., the hands were all paid up in full, allowing for the time till they reached home, counting they were to walk 33 and one third miles per day. Many of them beat the time averaging forty miles per day, arriving home just before Christmas. The next year my time came to go from home for a trip. Early in Sept., 1851, Mr. Stone sold an interest in a drove of seventy mules to a young man, Caleb O. Moberley, to be taken to the coal mines in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Stone sent me to represent his interest. We drove them by land, crossing the Ohio river (near Maysville at the mouth of Cabin Creek), on a horsepower ferryboat, going through West Union and Chillicothe, Ohio, and recrossing the Ohio river into Virginia near Wheeling, then soon into Pennsylvania, over the Alleghaney Mountains, through Harrisburg, and on to Pottsville and Mauch Chunck, among the coal mines, where we peddled out the larger part of the mules at remunerative prices. In making the trip, we usually travelled twenty-five to thirty miles per day. Through Ohio and Pennsylvania, they fed us on cold victuals most of the time, which was not very palatable to a Kentuckian. Each family had their large bake ovens built out in the yard, of brick and mortar, in which they baked enough light or yeast bread to last for a week. The night we were in Virginia, our meals were a feast to us, as they were like Kentucky.

After leaving the coal mines, we went over into New Jersey, where we sold the remainder of the mules in a lump to a trader, taking in part pay, a pair of fine large iron-gray coach horses. Here a little incident occurred that I don't forget. We were stopping at a country tavern or inn, as it was then called, where the bar was an adjunct, regarded just as necessary as the dining room, being not at all private, for it was in the tavern office, where the

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Thanks to Catherine Bradford for transcribing this page.