Personal Memoirs of General U.S. Grant, vol 1 | Page 8

which horses were used. We had, among other lands, fifty acres of
forest within a mile of the village. In the fall of the year choppers were
employed to cut enough wood to last a twelve-month. When I was
seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the
house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, of course, at that
time, but I could drive, and the choppers would load, and some one at
the house unload. When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to
hold a plough. From that age until seventeen I did all the work done
with horses, such as breaking up the land, furrowing, ploughing corn
and potatoes, bringing in the crops when harvested, hauling all the
wood, besides tending two or three horses, a cow or two, and sawing
wood for stoves, etc., while still attending school. For this I was
compensated by the fact that there was never any scolding or punishing
by my parents; no objection to rational enjoyments, such as fishing,
going to the creek a mile away to swim in summer, taking a horse and
visiting my grandparents in the adjoining county, fifteen miles off,
skating on the ice in winter, or taking a horse and sleigh when there
was snow on the ground.
While still quite young I had visited Cincinnati, forty-five miles away,
several times, alone; also Maysville, Kentucky, often, and once
Louisville. The journey to Louisville was a big one for a boy of that
day. I had also gone once with a two-horse carriage to Chilicothe, about
seventy miles, with a neighbor's family, who were removing to Toledo,
Ohio, and returned alone; and had gone once, in like manner, to Flat
Rock, Kentucky, about seventy miles away. On this latter occasion I
was fifteen years of age. While at Flat Rock, at the house of a Mr.
Payne, whom I was visiting with his brother, a neighbor of ours in
Georgetown, I saw a very fine saddle horse, which I rather coveted, and
proposed to Mr. Payne, the owner, to trade him for one of the two I was
driving. Payne hesitated to trade with a boy, but asking his brother
about it, the latter told him that it would be all right, that I was allowed

to do as I pleased with the horses. I was seventy miles from home, with
a carriage to take back, and Mr. Payne said he did not know that his
horse had ever had a collar on. I asked to have him hitched to a farm
wagon and we would soon see whether he would work. It was soon
evident that the horse had never worn harness before; but he showed no
viciousness, and I expressed a confidence that I could manage him. A
trade was at once struck, I receiving ten dollars difference.
The next day Mr. Payne, of Georgetown, and I started on our return.
We got along very well for a few miles, when we encountered a
ferocious dog that frightened the horses and made them run. The new
animal kicked at every jump he made. I got the horses stopped,
however, before any damage was done, and without running into
anything. After giving them a little rest, to quiet their fears, we started
again. That instant the new horse kicked, and started to run once more.
The road we were on, struck the turnpike within half a mile of the point
where the second runaway commenced, and there there was an
embankment twenty or more feet deep on the opposite side of the pike.
I got the horses stopped on the very brink of the precipice. My new
horse was terribly frightened and trembled like an aspen; but he was
not half so badly frightened as my companion, Mr. Payne, who
deserted me after this last experience, and took passage on a freight
wagon for Maysville. Every time I attempted to start, my new horse
would commence to kick. I was in quite a dilemma for a time. Once in
Maysville I could borrow a horse from an uncle who lived there; but I
was more than a day's travel from that point. Finally I took out my
bandanna--the style of handkerchief in universal use then--and with this
blindfolded my horse. In this way I reached Maysville safely the next
day, no doubt much to the surprise of my friend. Here I borrowed a
horse from my uncle, and the following day we proceeded on our
journey.
About half my school-days in Georgetown were spent at the school of
John D. White, a North Carolinian, and the father of Chilton White
who represented the district in Congress for one term during the
rebellion. Mr. White was