2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Roxcy, (the writer of this history,) left the home of their youth, and moved to what was at that period considered the extreme West, or, as it was sometimes styled, "the jumping off place," and settled in Mantua, Portage County, Ohio, making the eleventh family in the township. There two daughters and three sons were added to the family, to wit: Amanda Percy, Melissa, Lorenzo, Lucius Augustus, and Samuel Pearce.
Many times, and with intense interest, have their children listened to recitals of the hardships our parents encountered, and the privations they endured in that new and heavily timbered country, so very forbidding when compared with the beautiful prairie landscapes of the West. But as true and worthy representatives of our noble ancestors, our parents were proof against discouragement, surmounted every difficulty, and through the blessing of God on their efforts, created for themselves and their children an enviable home.
In their religious faith our parents were by profession Baptists, but not of the rigid, iron-bedstead order; their house was a resort for the good and intelligent of all denominations, and their hospitality was proverbial. Thus, as their children grew up they had ample opportunities for forming acquaintances with the erudite of all religious persuasions.
Without the least shadow of vanity we can truly say of our parents, their integrity was unimpeachable, and they were trustworthy in all the social relations and business transactions of life; and carefully trained their children to habits of industry, economy, and strict morality, and extended to them the best facilities for scholastic education the country at that time afforded.
Although a farmer by occupation, father was much abroad on public business, and Lorenzo, being the eldest of the three brothers, was left in charge, and early in life became accustomed to responsibilities, which he discharged with scru-
