or two later, he was killed by indians,— not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest—His ancestors, who were quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania— An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite, than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like—
My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education— He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in my eighth year— We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union— It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods— There I grew up— There were some schools, so called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond "readin, writin, and ciphering" to the Rule of Three— If a straggler supposed to understand latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard— There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course when I came of age I did not know much— Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all— I have not been to school since— The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity—
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty two— At twenty one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon county— Then I got to New-Salem at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard county, where I remained a year as a sort of Clerk in a store— Then came the Black Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers— a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since— I went the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legislature the same year
