Memoirs of General William T. Sherman | Page 4

I recall him, returning
home on horseback, when all the boys used to run and contend for the
privilege of riding his horse from the front door back to the stable. On
one occasion, I was the first, and being mounted rode to the stable; but
"Old Dick" was impatient because the stable-door was not opened
promptly, so he started for the barn of our neighbor Mr. King; there,
also, no one was in waiting to open the gate, and, after a reasonable
time, "Dick" started back for home somewhat in a hurry, and threw me
among a pile of stones, in front of preacher Wright's house, where I
was picked up apparently a dead boy; but my time was not yet, and I
recovered, though the scars remain to this day.
The year 1829 was a sad one to our family. We were then ten children,
my eldest brother Charles absent at the State University, Athens, Ohio;
my next brother, James, in a store at Cincinnati; and the rest were at
home, at school. Father was away on the circuit. One day Jane Sturgeon
came to the school, called us out, and when we reached home all was
lamentation: news had come that father was ill unto death, at Lebanon,
a hundred miles away. Mother started at once, by coach, but met the
news of his death about Washington, and returned home. He had ridden
on horseback from Cincinnati to Lebanon to hold court, during a hot
day in June. On the next day he took his seat on the bench, opened
court in the forenoon, but in the afternoon, after recess, was seized with
a severe chill and had to adjourn the court. The best medical aid was
called in, and for three days with apparent success, but the fever then
assumed a more dangerous type, and he gradually yielded to it, dying
on the sixth day, viz., June 24, 1829.
My brother James had been summoned from Cincinnati, and was

present at his bedside, as was also Henry Stoddard, Esq., of Dayton,
Ohio, our cousin. Mr. Stoddard once told me that the cause of my
father's death was cholera; but at that time, 1829, there was no Asiatic
cholera in the United States, and the family, attributed his death to
exposure to the hot sun of June, and a consequent fever, "typhoid."
From the resolutions of the bench, bar, and public generally, now in my
possession, his death was universally deplored; more especially by his
neighbors in Lancaster, and by the Society of Freemasons, of which he
was the High-Priest of Arch


Chapter No
. 11.
His death left the family very poor, but friends rose up with proffers of
generous care and assistance; for all the neighbors knew that mother
could not maintain so large a family without help. My eldest brother,
Charles, had nearly completed his education at the university at Athens,
and concluded to go to his uncle, Judge Parker, at Mansfield, Ohio, to
study law. My, eldest sister, Elizabeth, soon after married William J.
Reese, Esq.; James was already in a store at Cincinnati; and, with the
exception of the three youngest children, the rest of us were scattered. I
fell to the charge of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, who took me to his
family, and ever after treated me as his own son.
I continued at the Academy in Lancaster, which was the best in the
place; indeed, as good a school as any in Ohio. We studied all the
common branches of knowledge, including Latin, Greek, and French.
At first the school was kept by Mr. Parsons; he was succeeded by Mr.
Brown, and he by two brothers, Samuel and Mark How. These were all
excellent teachers, and we made good progress, first at the old academy
and afterward at a new school-house, built by Samuel How, in the
orchard of Hugh Boyle, Esq.
Time passed with us as with boys generally. Mr. Ewing was in the
United States Senate, and I was notified to prepare for West Point, of
which institution we had little knowledge, except that it was very strict,
and that the army was its natural consequence. In 1834 I was large for
my age, and the construction of canals was the rage in Ohio. A canal

was projected to connect with the great Ohio Canal at Carroll (eight
miles above Lancaster), down the valley of the Hock Hocking to
Athens (forty-four miles), and thence to the Ohio River by slack water.
Preacher Carpenter, of Lancaster, was appointed to make the
preliminary surveys, and selected the necessary working party out of
the boys of the town. From our school were chosen ____Wilson,
Emanuel Geisy, William King, and myself. Geisy and I were the
rod-men. We worked during that