Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV, Part 24

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 886


USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV > Part 24


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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of great assistance to the famous "War Gov- ernor" during the most critical period of the national history.


Mr. Crane married, at Lee, Massachusetts, August 29, 1839, Caroline E. Laflin, born May 31, 1818, died January 16, 1849. He married (second) Louise F. Laflin, born July I, 1830, sister of his first wife. His children : I. Zenas, born December 6, 1840. 2. Kate F., born October 17, 1843. 3. Caroline L., born April 26, 1851. 4. Winthrop Murray, born April 23, 1852.


(VII) James Brewer Crane, third child and second son of Zenas and Lucinda (Brew- er) Crane, was born in Dalton, Massachu- setts, April 30, 1817, and died August 4, 1891. He succeeded to a share in his father's busi- ness, and was identified with the phenomenal growth of the Crane paper manufacturing in- dustry, which engaged his attention through- out his life. Mr. Crane was a man of broad pub- lic spirit and bountiful benefactions. Among his generous gifts to meritorious institutions in his lifetime, he left in his will $15,000 to the Home for Aged Women, and $10,000 to the House of Mercy, both in Pittsfield, be- sides $22,000 for public purposes not spe- cifically designated. He married (first) Eliza Barlow Thompson, of Dalton; children : I. Robert B. 2. James. 3. Lizzie L., married Dr. William L. Paddock, a leading physician of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 4. Jennie L., married Dr. Frank M. Crouch, a prominent physician in Dalton. Mr. Crane married (second) Mary E. Goodrich, who died Octo- ber 10, 1904. Children: Frederick G., of whom further ; and Mollie, married Rev. Her- bert S. Johnson, a well known Baptist minis- ter in Boston.


(VIII) Frederick Goodrich, only son of James Brewer and Mary E. (Goodrich) Crane, was born in Dalton, Massachusetts, and received his education in the public schools of that town. He was early intro- duced to the paper manufacturing business, with which he has been actively identified throughout his life, and is officially connected with the Crane Company. He is a director in the Agricultural Bank. The family are mem- bers of the Congregational Church of Dalton. He is a member of the Park Club, and in poli- tics is a Republican. He married Rose Paddock, born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, daughter of Dr. Frank K. and Anna (Todd) Paddock. Three children were born of this marriage.


In the maternal line, Frederick G. Crane


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comes from the Goodrich family, of English origin, through the following line :


(I) William Goodrich, American ancestor, was born in or near Bury St. Edmunds, Suf- folkshire, England, and came to America, presumably with his brother John, as early as 1643. He was admitted a freeman of Con- necticut in 1656, was an early settler at Whethersfield, and deputy to the general court at Hartford, May 15, 1662, and a grand juror. In 1663 he was appointed en- sign of the train band, and is called "En- sign" in 1676, just after the close of King Philip's war. On October 4, 1648, he mar- ried Sarah Marvin, who came in the ship "In- crease", from London, in 1635, at the age of three years, with her parents, Mathew and Elizabeth Marvin; a brother and three sisters. Her father was original proprietor in Hart- ford, Connecticut, in 1638, one of the original grantees of Norwalk, same colony, in 1653, and representative the next year. His daugh- ter Sarah, wife of William Goodrich, was christened at Great Bentley England, Decem- ber 21, 1631. The Marvin family is elabor- ately written of in "Marvin English Ances- try," published by William I. R. Marvin, in 1900. William Goodrich died in 1676, having been the father of nine children. His widow married (second) Captain William Curtis, of Stratford, and died in 1702.


(II) John, son of William Goodrich, was born May 20, 1653, and died September 5, 1730. He married, March 28, 1678, Rebecca Allen, born February, 1660, and to them were born nine children. Rebecca (Allen) Goodrich was daughter of Captain John and Sarah Allen, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Her father came from Kent, England, with his wife Ann, in 1635, in the ship "Abigail", each aged thirty years. His wife died, and he married (second) Ann He joined the church May 21, 1641, was admitted free- man in June, 1642, was of the artillery com- pany 1639, in 1657 was the wealthiest man in the town, and captain and representative in I 668.


(III) Allyn, seventh child of John Good- rich, was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, November 13, 1690, and died April 8, 1764. He removed to that part of Farmington call- ed "Great Swamp Village," where he was a blacksmith. He married, December 29, 1691, Elizabeth Goodrich, born November 19, 1691, died at Farmington, Connecticut, August 25, 1726, daughter of Colonel David and Hannah (Wright) Goodrich. Her father was born


May 4, 1667, son of William Goodrich (I), so that Allyn Goodrich and his wife were cousins; Colonel Goodrich was a lieutenant- colonel in the old French war. Allyn Good- rich married (second) December 10, 1729, Hannah Seymour, born March 28, 1707, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (North) Seymour.


(IV) Elisha, son of Allyn and Elizabeth (Goodrich) Goodrich, was born September 2, 1712, and was on the town list of Pitts- field, November 16, 1772. He married, No- vember 21, 1734, Rebecca Seymour, born June 25, 17II, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (North) Seymour, and sister of his step- mother. Her father was son of Richard and Hannah (Woodruff) Seymour, and grandson of Richard Seymour, one of the original pro- prietors of Hartford, in 1639. Elisha Good- rich and his wife were admitted to the church June 5, 1722; they had two children.


(V) Josiah, son of Elisha Goodrich, was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, January 15, 1740, and died in Pittsfield, Massachu- setts, October 24, 1798. He married, Sep- tember 10, 1767, Ruth Gilbert, born August 14, 1743, died August 4, 1777. He married (second) in Wethersfield, Connecticut, Feb- ruary 25, 1779, widow Abigail (Wolcott) Wright, born in Wethersfield, April 21, 1752, died at South Hadley, Massachusetts, De- cember 24, 1831, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Wyatt) Wolcott, widow of Levi Wright. Pittsfield church records show that Josiah Goodrich was admitted a member, September, 1781, by letter from church in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Josiah Goodrich had one child by his first wife, and seven chil- dren by his second wife.


(VI) Levi, son of Josiah and Abigail (Wolcott-Wright) Goodrich, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, December 9, 1785, and died August 8, 1868. He was active and successful as a farmer, builder and contractor, having contracts on the Harlem, Housatonic, Western and North Adams railroads. He was many times called to official position. He mar- ried, February 27, 1806, Wealthy Whitney, born January 6, 1788, died July 24, 1858, daughter of Joshua and Anna (Ashley) Whitney, of Pittsfield. Levi Goodrich and wife were admitted to the Congregational church in 1832, at Pittsfield, where they resided. They had ten children.


(VII) Noah Whitney, son of Levi Good- rich, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, May 17, 1811, and died January 9, 1875. He


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married, September 16, 1832, Abigail Porter Goodrich, and they resided on Summer street, Pittsfield. Both were admitted to the Con- gregational church there, in 1832, the year of their marriage. Mr. Goodrich, having passed his entire life in Pittsfield, was well acquainted with the history of that town, and recognized as an authority in the matter of roads and boundaries. He was a most es- timable man. Children of Noah Whitney and Abigail Porter (Goodrich) Goodrich : I. Harriet, born June 6, 1834. 2. Levi W., born May 31, 1836; married Alice Battle. 3. Mary E., born June 21, 1838; married James Brew- er Crane (q. v.). 4. Lydia L., born August 24, 1840; married William H. Cooley. 5. Lydia W., born September 1, 1842; married John Feeley. 6. Frank Hinsdale, born April 7, 1846; married Elda Hoyt. 7. Fanny, born May 4, 1835 ; married Frank A. Robbins. All were born in Pittsfield.


Abigail Porter Goodrich, wife of Noah Whitney Goodrich, was born November 28, 1812, and died September 2, 1891, daughter of Butler and Lydia (White) Goodrich. Hus- band and wife were fourth cousins. While Mr. Goodrich was descended from William Goodrich, the immigrant, through his son John, his wife was descended from the same ancestor through another son, Ephraim, whose wife was Sarah Treat, daughter of Richard Treat, and granddaughter of Richard Treat, an early settler in Wethersfield. Ephraim Goodrich had a son Gideon, who married Sarah , and had a son Caleb, who mar- ried Huldah Butler, and they were the par- ents of Butler Goodrich, whose wife was Ly- dia White. Lydia White was descended from Elder John White, who came from England in the ship "Lion", in 1632, settled in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, and removed to Hart- ford, Connecticut, in 1636. Her father, Ebenezer White, leased the mill privilege in Pittsfield in 1778. He was admitted to the church in 1776, and his wife Abigail in 1774: she was daughter of Abraham Porter, of Hartford, Connecticut.


The surname Atwater ap- ATWATER pears very early in English records, in the English langu- age in various forms, and in the Latin, which was long the language of all scholars in Britain, as ad Aquam and de Aqua, the name implying that its possessor lived at or by a stream or other body of water. The earliest mention of the name, so far as traced, is in


the county of Kent, in the parish of Stone, where the name Godefried ate Water occurs in connection with the Manor of Eylvarton be- fore the year 1257.


The early Atwaters in America were the offspring of sturdy, upright, God-fearing peo- ple, of whom all who bear the name may well be proud. The colonial history of Connecti- cut would not be complete if the names of Joshua and David Atwater were omitted. Genealogists have traced the English ances- try of the Atwaters of the United States in Royton, in Lenham, in Kent, by wills to John Atwater, of Royton, as follows :


(I) John Atwater, of Royton, made a will which was proved July 14, 1501. This will mentions his wife Maryan, sons Robert and John, daughters Florence, Spyce and Thom- asyn Turner, also grandchildren and god- children, and property at Royton in Lehham.


(II) Robert, "the elder", of Royton, son of John and Maryan Atwater, made a will which was proved December 22, 1522; it men- tions sons John and Thomas, brother John, sisters Florence and Thomasyn, Alice, wife of son John; and properties at Langderfield, Parkfields, Little Scotland, land lying in Len- ham called Grant's Gate.


(III) Thomas, son of Robert Atwater, was of Royton ; his will proved December 1, 1547, mentions wife Johan, sons Thomas, Christo- pher, Edward and William, and a daughter Alice. He enumerates properties : "One Messuage called Ward's and gardeyn"; "an- other message and one gardeyn situate, at Grants Gate"; "my house, the which I now dwell in, and gardeyn, and twenty-two pieces of land, of which are named Edythe, West- broke, Churchfilde, Darbolls, Broke, Under- croft, Hyfield, Symerfield, Agellcroft, Pyxes, Dervold", and "other two pieces" (Park- fields) in Rovton, Bromfield. Bromecroft and Randalls, in Boughton Malherbe.


(IV) Christopher, son of Thomas and Johan Atwater, of Royton, died before April 6, 1573, the date on which his will was proven. The will mentions wife Maryan, sons David, Matthew, George, and John, and daughter Toane, brothers Thomas and Wyllyam, and "Adam Water, my brother's son"; properties, lands and tenements in Lenham and Bough- ton Malherbe, Parkfields, Randalls and Brom- field.


(V) John (2), youngest son of Christo- pher and Maryan Atwater, died intestate. Ad- ministration on his estate was granted to his son, Joshua, at request of his widow, Susan,


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November 29, 1636. He and his daughter Ann and sons Joshua and David were men- tioned in the wills of his brothers David and George, the will of his brother David convey- ing to him Parkfields in Lenham and Randalls in Boughton Malherbe during his life, and after his decease "unto David Attwater, his sonne and to his heires forever."


(VI) David, younger of the two sons of John (2) and Susan Atwater, was baptized in Lenham, October 8, 1615, died in New Haven, Connecticut, October 5, 1692. Be- sides his interest in his father's estate, in which, according to the custom of gavelkind, he would retain the homestead, he became en- titled, by the will of his uncle and god-father David, upon the death of his uncle, George, in 1622, when he was seven years old, to the place "called the Vyne, with all the appurten- ances", in Lenham, and by the same will, upon the death of his father, John, to the lands called Parkfields in Lenham and of Randalls in Boughton Malherbe, and by the will of his uncle, George, upon the death of his aunt, Ann, wife of his uncle, George, to the "house, barns and buildings, with all lands thereunto belonging, at a place called Grant's Gate, in Royton. In the month in which David at- tained his majority, October, 1636, his fath- er died, and his mother died scarcely more than two months later, in January, 1637. In less than six months from the latter event, June 26. 1637, the brothers Joshua and Da- vid, with their sister Ann, arrived in Boston. It cannot be doubted that their arrangements for removal, so hastily made at that time of general discontent and apprehension in church and state affairs, involved large pecuniary sacrifices. They came in the company of Messrs. Eaton, Davenport and others, and with them were among the founders of the New Haven Colony. He and his sister Ann probably sailed from Boston where they had spent the winter and with the company reached their new home in the spring of 1638. He signed the plantation covenant June 4, 1639, the day of the meeting of the constituent assembly in Mr. Newman's barn. In 1643 he was one of twenty-nine planters whose es- tates were on the list at £500 or more upon the union of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, consummated at a general court held at Hartford, May II, 1665. David Atwater was the first of the New Haven colony who was sworn a freeman of the United Colony. Besides the town lot assigned to him, as to each of the original settlers, the plantation as-


signed to David Atwater in the original di- vision of lands among the planters was in the Neck, between Mill and Quinnipiack rivers, at the north side of what is now the city of New Haven. There appear to have been three of these divisions in his lifetime, the first division being about one hundred acres to him, as appears in the inventory of his estate. The general name of Cedar Hill has been given to this region. Descendants of Da- vid Atwater still reside at Cedar Hill. The eldest male representative in each succeding generation was born here, and for a time at least resided there. Witchcraft made little im- pression on the steady going inhabitants of New Haven ; but it is stated that in 1654 the At- waters, the Lambertons and even Mr. Hooke, the colleague of Davenport, attempted to ef- fect the death of a woman whose sharp tongue had rendered her obnoxious, and therefore suspicious to her acquaintances; but their combined influence effected nothing, and she died peacefully in her bed some years later. David Atwater's will was dated April 14, 1691, and to this an "appendix" was added, dated December 9, 1691. David Atwater mar- ried Damaris, daughter of Thomas Sayre, of Southampton, Long Island, before March 10, 1647, the date of the general court, when the name of "David Atwater's wife" was read among those settled in the meetinghouse. She died April 7, 1691. Their children: Mercy, Damaris, David, Joshua, John, Jona- than, Abigail, Mary, Samuel and Ebenezer.


(VII) John (3), third son of David and Damaris (Sayre) Atwater, was born in New Haven, November 1, 1654, died in 1748, aged ninety-four. He was called "weaver", and his name was in the list of proprietors in 1685. The following is a transcript from the will of his father : "Item, I doe give and bequeath unto my son, John Attwater, ye House and accommodations at Wallingford, with ye Rights and privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, wch I bought of Sam- uel Potter, with two acres of meadow I had of John Dod, formerly Ephraim Young's land, and one more acre of silt marsh next ye river, lying near my son David's." He settled in Wallingford upon a farm which be- longed to his brother Joshua. He married (first) September 13, 1682, Abigail Mans- field, born February 7, 1664, died September 24, 1717. He married (second) November 27, 1718, Mary Beach. His children, all by first wife, were: John, Abigail, Mercy, Han-


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nah, Joshua, Moses, Phineas, Caleb, Benja- min and Ebenezer.


(VIII) John (4), eldest child of John (3) and Abigail (Mansfield) Atwater, was born August 17, 1683, and lived in Cheshire, where he died March II, 1765, aged eighty-two. He married, August 4, 1713, Elizabeth Mix, who died February 20, 1758. Their children were: Stephen (died young), Enos, John, Stephen, Elizabeth, Hannah, Sarah, Titus, Amos and Ebenezer.


(IX) John (5), third son of John (4) and Elizabeth (Mix) Atwater, was born June 27, 1718, and lived in Cheshire. He married, February 22, 1744, Hannah Thompson. An item in the Connecticut Journal states: "Died suddenly at Cheshire, December 14, 1804, Mrs. John Atwater, aged 87." Their chil- dren were: Jeremiah, Phebe, Hannah, John and Mary.


(X) Jeremiah, eldest son of John (5) and Hannah (Thompson) Atwater, was born No- vember 10, 1744, lived at the corner of Chapel and Orange streets, and died October I, 1835, aged ninety-one. He married Lois Hurd, of Killingworth, who died July 23, 1824. Their children were: James (died young), Jere- miah, John (died young), John, Lois, James, Charles, Fanny, Nancy and Polly.


(XI) Rev. Charles, sixth son of Jeremiah and Lois (Hurd) Atwater, was born August 18, 1786, lived in North Branford, died Feb- ruary 21, 1825. He graduated from Yale College in 1805, and was installed pastor of the Congregational church at North Branford, March 1, 1809. He married, October 4, 1809, Mary Merwin, born February 18, 1785, died October 13, 1879, aged ninety-four, daughter of Miles and Abigail Ann (Beach) Merwin, of Milford. She married (second) June 22, 1827, Abijah Fisher, of New York, by whom she had one child, Charles A. Fisher. The childern of Charles and Mary (Merwin) At- water were: Charles Merwin, George Mer- win, David Fisher and James Chaplin. The following is a brief account of the Beach family including the revolutionary record of Thomas and Landa Beach, the grandfather and great-grandfather of Mary Merwin.


(1) Thomas Beach first appeared in New Haven in 1646, migrated to Milford, and in 1652 married Sara, daughter of Deacon Rich- ard Platt, and a settler. (2). John, son of Thomas Beach, married Mary and


settled in Wallingford, Connecticut. (3). Thomas (2), son of John Beach, born in 1686, married Hannah Atwater, a daughter of John


Atwater and Abigail Mansfield, and she was the daughter of Major Moses Mansfield, as- sistant governor of the colony of Connecticut. Their children were: Abigail Ann, born 1718; Landa, 1727; Samuel, 1729; Hannah or Ann, 1735. (4). Landa, son of Thomas (2) Beach, born March 5, 1727, married, in 1743, Abigail, daughter of Lieutenant Nathan Bald- win, who had command of the fort in Mil- ford, also of governmental sloops. Their chil- dren were: Thomas, Daniel, Abigail Ann, Thaddeus, Samuel and Sara. (5). Abigail Ann, daughter of Landa Beach, married Miles Merwin. Their children were: Abigail Ann, Miles, Samuel, Mary, Anson, Nathan and Benedict. From the report in the "Connecti- cut State Records" it appears that Thomas Beach, father of Landa, served in General Wolcott's brigade in 1777. He was in the bat- tle of White Plains and Fishkill Fort. Con- necticut history shows that Sergeant Landa Beach was in Colonel Webb's regiment at the battle of White Plains, at Trenton with Cap- tain Peter Perritt and Lieutenant Samuel San- ford, of Milford; also in Captain Hale's com- pany which acted as coast guard. Sergeant Beach was one of the force which crossed the Delaware river with Washington on the memorable 25th of December, 1776.


(XII) George Merwin, second son of Rev. Charles and Mary (Merwin) Atwater, was born in Branford, October 29, 1814, died in Springfield, Massachusetts, January 14, I902. Rev. Dr. J. L. R. Trask of the Memorial Church preached an eloquent dis- course commemmorative of Mr. Atwater, one of the principal founders of the church, and gave an appreciative characterization of his parishioner, emphasizing especially his love of nature, his strong and tender friendships and his breadth of religious views, and giv- ing with the portraiture glimpses of the life of the unique man years ago in Virginia and of his hospitality at Rockrimmon. The dis- course is so unique, so vivid, and evidenty so truthful that a great part of it is transcribed in the following account.


For fifty years-a little more-and more than half of his entire life, Mr. Atwater had been identified with the growth of Spring- field. A New Englander by birth and by in- heritance, it was not a difficult matter for him to affliate himself with our life. And to say that he loved Springfield is to say that he chose one of its most pisturesque rural sites for his home, and built there the house and developed there the land to which he gave the


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name Rockrimmon. The uniqueness of Mr. Atwater's mind was apparent in all he did. It was greatly apparent in this selection of a place for his home-for the site was an iso- lated knob of clay and sand which he could approach only as he filled a large gulch which yawned between the knob and others to the south of it. He loved to do the im- practicable and the impossible. So he bridged the ravine with a plateau of earth and over this he made the road which led to his house. After this was done he attempted nothing fur- ther. A few meandering paths wide enough for a wagon track led you through the woods he loved so well to his hospitable door. He never permitted the rustic charm to be in- vaded by the fantastic conceptions of the landscape architect. It was nature and At- water. The first part of his commercial life was passed in Virginia, and it was Virginia he was importing into New England when he built Rockrimmon, and left the woodland trails to tell their own story. One of the Happy events in Mr. Atwater's life was his falling in with Mr. Upjohn, the architect of New York and Brooklyn. And when he dis- covered this peculiar location Mr. Atwater said : "The man to project me a house there is Mr. Upjohn." The architect had one piece of advice from the owner. "Build me such a house as my great-grandfather would have put up"-ordinary men build in the form of the present age. This unusual man went back to ancestral dates. And in the large hall which in the lower floor of the house is near- ly one-half its area, we get the true baronial dimension. Easily could a hundred have dined in the commodious apartment; and in an earlier age the game could have been found in the adjoining woods. The log house not far from the mansion was a reminder of the same historic age. North and west the house commands a romantic view of the river, and the meadows and the hills. Mount Tom is fully in sight and Mount Holyoke not far out of the visual range, while far to the northwest the village of Blandford and its white church lie on the rim of the horizon. But no distant view, or even one closer at hand, was as fine in Mr. Atwater's eye as the primeval trees, in the midst of which his house was set. To say that this unusual man loved trees is but half the truth. He wor- shipped them. No ax could be laid either to the root or the trunk of one until it menaced the house or threatened to barricade the rus- tic thoroughfares. In the owner's eyes a tree


was a divine thought. He would crook around to save a tree. The civil engineer might argue till doomsday about the impropriety of irregu- lar lines in a road. In vain. The trees al- ways had the right of way. He told me that he must have planted in the thirty-five active years of his life fifteen thousand trees. He imported them by the wholesale. If he built a road, the first thing was to set trees growing along the sides. He loved an open fire, but he begrudged the wood when it came from his own trees. He bought land partly with the idea of selling it again. But as the trees grew on it he had great difficully in separating him- self from them. Once when a three-cornered piece of land, heavily timbered, lying between two converging roads, was about to be de- nuded of its trees, he bought the worthless land in order to save the timber. And this superb passion for trees was probably a thing which he imbibed sixty years ago in Virginia where he rode on horseback, as his mercantile duties summoned him, across those eastern counties famous for statesmen, colonial residences, wide estates, and woods crowned with grand- eur. Of Springfield as a future home he did not know, as he tarried for a night as the guest of the famous John Randolph. And there were others less renowned than this sharp debator who killed men with his tongue, whose hospitality the young traveler enjoyed ; and hospitality was the golden chain that bound these widely scattered households. And up from the South this young man from Con- necticut brought to Rockrimmon the Virginia atmosphere. In his praise let us say, thirty years ago Mr. Atwater had here his south- ern home. Some black servants-no slaves, of course-and such warmth of welcome! His front doors were large, of double fold- so that all his friends could come at the same time if it should please them. The house was never too full. Horses, some of the best in Springfield, and wagons were at your service. He had his dogs-numerous and various fancy breeds, which in true Virginia style sported about the place or followed him as he rode to his business at Hadley Falls. In- deed, it was on one of these mounts that he saw in the distance the sandy knoll on which later his house was built. And he turned to follow the cart track until, to his suprise, it ended in paradise. He never could get away from the enchantment, nor did he ever, un- till the rural Eden became his property. Here the tired traveler or the preacher, worn with his morning's work, would see the kindly host




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