The Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant | Page 5

contemporaries there --who, I believe, never attended any other
institution of learning--have held seats in Congress, and one, if not both,
other high offices; these are Wadsworth and Brewster.
My father was, from my earliest recollection, in comfortable
circumstances, considering the times, his place of residence, and the
community in which he lived. Mindful of his own lack of facilities for
acquiring an education, his greatest desire in maturer years was for the
education of his children. Consequently, as stated before, I never
missed a quarter from school from the time I was old enough to attend
till the time of leaving home. This did not exempt me from labor. In my
early days, every one labored more or less, in the region where my
youth was spent, and more in proportion to their private means. It was
only the very poor who were exempt. While my father carried on the
manufacture of leather and worked at the trade himself, he owned and
tilled considerable land. I detested the trade, preferring almost any
other labor; but I was fond of agriculture, and of all employment in
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