USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. I > Part 19
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Mr. Palmer was the youngest man, probably, who ever held the distinguished position. It is doubtful whether any other ever showed greater capacity for its requirements. Certainly none have excelled him in courage, or have achieved more or greater suc- cess in their legal battles for the Commonwealth against its aggressors.
At the expiration of his term as Attorney General, Mr. Palmer returned to, and is still engaged at, the practice of his profession, in Wilkes-Barre.
He is the senior member of the firm of Palmer, Dewitt and Fuller, and is counsel for numerous corporations, among them the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Companies, the New York & Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad Company, the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, and the Susquehanna Canal Company. From this large and distinguished clientage his earnings must be lucrative.
He is a man of business and enterprise, too, outside the law. He is at present a director in the Miners' Savings Bank, and has held that office in the Wilkes-Barre Savings Bank and People's Bank of this city. He takes an active interest in railroad matters and was conspicuously identified with the building of the new North & West Branch Railroad Company, now operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, of which corporation he is now a director. He is one of the corporators of the Bloomsburg & Bernice Railroad, which is designed to develop the lumber
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HENRY WILBUR PALMER.
regions of Luzerne and Sullivan counties, and to open up new coal lands in both, and which bids fair to bring a handsome return to the investors. He is likewise a director in the pro- posed Wyoming, Yellowstone & Pacific Railroad Company. This road is to be some four hundred miles in length, and will run from Rawlins, on the Union Pacific, to the Yellowstone Park, past the famed Soda Lakes and through the iron, coal, and oil territory of that vast and yet virgin region. It is expected to be commenced before August I, of the current year, and com- pleted within two years from that time. The capital stock is $12,000,000, most of which has been secured from investors in Great Britain. The road has a charter from the Territory of Wyoming, and is the only road projected from the South to the Yellowstone Park. Hon. L. D. Shoemaker, of this city, is its president.
Mr. Palmer is a married man and man of family, having taken to wife on September 12, 1861, Ellen M., daughter of George W. Webster, of Plattsburg, N. Y. Mr. Webster is a native of New Hampshire. They have five children living, three girls and two boys. Three others are dead. The oldest living is now a young lady of twenty. He is a vestryman in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Wilkes-Barre, and has frequently been a delegate to diocesan conventions of that faith.
It falls to the lot of comparatively few men to achieve, at so early a period in their careers such marked distinction as attaches to the name and record of Henry Wilbur Palmer, who is at this writing but 44 years old. The qualities that have made him so unusually successful are manifold, but principal atnong them are his great common sense, his undaunted courage, both in assault and defense, his contempt of all shans, and his fine powers of invective. As a pleader, either to judge or jury, he is remarkably success- ful, his pleadings being always pointed, pithy, and directed to the capacity in others, from which they are drawn to himself; which is to say, to their common sense. He is a highly favored con- vention and stump orator. As the latter, he has delivered some of the most effective arguments ever presented in the behalf of the Republican party, of whose principles and destinies he has always been a devoted follower. He is in great request, also, as
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CHARLES MINER CONYNGHAM.
a speaker before benevolent and literary associations, and has found time amid his manifold business duties to prepare and deliver under these auspices numerous polished and instructive addresses. He is excellent company, and while a man of his vigor of intellect and combative disposition is necessarily never without his enemies and detractors, Mr. Palmer lives, in the esti- mation of very many ardent friends and his neighbors generally, a good and useful citizen and a capable and reliable attorney.
CHARLES MINER CONYNGHAM.
[Abridged by Rev. HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN, from his forthcoming work entitled " Reminiscences of David Hayfield Conyngham, of the Revolutionary house of J. N. Nesbitt & Co., Philadelphia, 1750-1832."]
[David Hayfield Conyngham descended from William Conyng- ham, Bishop of Argyll, Scotland, 1539, of the house of Glencairn. The family owes its rise to the act of one Malcolm, son of Freskin, who saved the life of Malcolm, Prince of Scotland, from the wrath of Macbeth by hiding him in a barn, when hotly pursued, and covering him with straw by means of a shake fork. When Mal- colm became king, he rewarded his presence by the thanedom of Cunynghame, from which the posterity of this faithful adherent assumed their surname, and took a " shake fork" for their arms, and "over fork over" for their motto. From this Malcolm of Cun- ynghame descended all the families of the name in Great Britain. The houses of Lord Cuninghame, of Ayr (the Earl of Glencairn's line); Lord Cuningham Fairlie, of Fairlie; Lord Dick Cunyng- ham, of Edinburgh; Lord Cunynghame, of Milncraig; the Mar- quess Conyngham, of Mount Charles, Ireland; with the several lines among the landed gentry-Cuningham & Cuninghame of Lainshaw, of Hensol ; of Cadel & Thorntoun, of Caprington and of Balgownie House-all preserve the original arms, "Arg. a shake fork, sa," and in most cases the original motto, " over fork over."
William Conyngham, Bishop of Argyll, 1539, had two sons : William, who succeeded at Conyngham-head, Scotland, and was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia ; and Rev. Alexander, who took orders, and about 1610 removed to Donegal county, Ireland
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CHARLES MINER CONYNGHAM.
In May, 1630, he was made Dean of Raphoe, and died Septem- ber 3, 1660, and was buried at Raphoe. He married Catherine, daughter of John Murray, of Broughton, who owned all Boylagh and Banagh. He had. according to Burke, twenty-seven children, of whom four sons and five daughters survived infancy. The sons were : George Conynghamn, Esq .; Sir Albert Conyngham, from whom descend the Earl of Conyngham and of Mount Charles (see Burke's Peerage); William Conyngham, Esq., who died unmarried, and whose property, by will, descended to David Hayfield Conyngham, through Alexander, of Eighan ; Alexander Conyngham of Letterkeny, Esq., the immediate ancestor of David Hayfield Conyngham. Alexander Conyngham of Letter- keny, Esq., married Mary Montgomery, and had Alexander of Eighan, will dated December 27, 1701; and Andrew, the supposed one through whom the Wilkes-Barre family descend, for this reason. Alexander of Eighan married Helen, and had Richard of Dublin, merchant, who married, as per marriage con- tract, May 8, 1706, Mary Moore, daughter of Brabazan Moore, of county Louth. His father, by will, entails upon him and his heirs forever the lands of Ballyboe, said "lands of Ballyboe limited to said Richard Conyngham for life, remainder to the heirs male of his body." These lands came by deed from Richard Murray, son of John, of Broughton, who died September 24, 1669, to Alexander of Eighan. By deed of February 8, 1721, these lands are assigned by Capt. David Conyngham, of Bally- herrin and Letterkeny, for the benefit of his children, and were found entailed by his son Redmond Conyngham, Esq., on his son David Hayfield Conyngham, by will, dated May 21, 1778, now in the hands of the writer.
Andrew, son of Alexander of Letterkeny, had (1), David, will dated November 18, 1757; (2), Rev. William; (3), Rev. Adam : (4), Gustavus, married his cousin, and had Capt. Gustavus, U. S. Navy, 1775-1784, distinguished during the Revolutionary war. He raised the first U. S. flag in the British channel ; (5), Andrew; (6), Florinda ; (7), Elizabeth ; (8), Ann.
I. David Conyngham married Katherine O'Hanlon, daughter of Redmond O'Hanlon, the celebrated Rapparee of that unhappy time in Ireland, and who was outlawed by the English. He was
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CHARLES MINER CONYNGHAM.
a Sept of the race of Colla da Chrioch, descended and deriving their surname from Hanluan, chief of Hy-Reith-Thire, now the Barony of Orior, county Armagh, and is traced back by the " Four Masters" to Milesius, of Spain. O'Hanlon was one of those dispossessed of his possessions by the crown, and fighting as any patriot would fight for his land and liberties, was not only outlawed, but a heavy price set upon his head. This decree was however subsequently removed, as his grandson, Redmond Con- yngham, in his will, disposes of property by entail received from Redmond O'Hanlon's estate. Redmond Conyngham's silver bears the Conyngham " shake fork," but he seals his will with the O'Hanlon arms, which are " vert on a mount ppr., a boar pas- sant erm." Crest, " a lizard displayed vert."
David Conyngham had issue: (1), Redmond of Letterkeny, will dated May 21, 1778, probated November 23, 1784; (2), Isabella, married David Stewart, of Balto., of whom was Hon. David, member U. S. Congress, from Maryland, 1849; (3), Mary, married Rev. Thomas Plunkett, son of Sir Patrick Plunkett and his wife, grand daughter of Sir William Welles, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. They had two sons-Patrick, M. D., and William Conyngham, created Lord Plunket 1827, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1830-1841. The present Lord Plunket is also the Lord Bishop of Meath (See Burke's Peerage). (4), Elizabeth ; (5), Katherine ; (6), Hannah ; (7), Florinda.
Redmond Conyngham came to this country before the revolu- tion, and married, January 13, 1749-50, Martha Ellis, daughter of Robert, of Philadelphia. He was a member of the firm of J. N. Nesbitt & Co. Returned to Ireland before 1776, when his son, David Hayfield, took his place in the firm, which, under the names of J. N. Nesbit & Co. and Conyngham & Nesbit, aided very materially the cause of the colonies in various ways, doubt- less saving the army of Washington at Valley Forge by its liberal donations.
Redmond Conyngham had (1), David Hayfield, born March 21, 1756, who married Mary West, and had William, Redmond, who married Judge Yeates' daughter, Mary Martha, Hannah Anne, Mary, Elizabeth Isabella, Catherine, wife of Ralph Peters, William, David, John Nesbit, LL. D.
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CHARLES MINER CONYNGHAM.
Charles Miner Conyngham, seventh and youngest child of Hon. John Nesbit and Ruth (Butler) Conyngham, was born at Wilkes-Barre, July 6, 1840. Educated at Protestant Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. Graduated A. B. 1859, A. M. 1862. Studied law with G. Byron Nicholson, of Wilkes-Barre, and admitted to the bar August, 1862, but has never engaged in the practice of the profession. During the war between the States, he entered the U. S. army as captain Company A, 143d Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, August 26, 1862; E. L. Dana, col .; George E. Hoyt, lieut .- col. ; John D. Musser, major. When Lieut .- Col. Hoyt was killed, September 1, 1863, Major Musser was promoted to lieut .- col., and Captain Conyngham to the majority, to date and rank from June 2, 1863. Was engaged with his regiment in the battles of Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania C. H. In the latter action, Col. Dana was wounded and captured, and Lieut .- Col. Musser killed, when the command of the regiment devolved on Major Conyngham, who, in the action of May 12, 1864, was so severely wounded that, July 26, 1864, he was honorably discharged the service. On his return from the army, instead of engaging in the practice of the law, he entered into mercantile pursuits, under the various firms of Conyngham & Paine, Chas. M. Conyngham ; and also in coal mining operations, under the firm of Conyngham & Teasdale, at Shickshinny. Mr. Conyngham is also president of the West End Coal Company, and is a director in the Hazard Manufacturing Company and the Parrish Coal Company. He is also the head of the firm of Conyngham, Schrage & Company, who have extensive stores at Ashley, Sugar Notch, and Wilkes-Barre. During the adminis- tration of Governor Hoyt, of Pennsylvania, Major Conyngham held the office of Inspector-General of the National Guard. He is a communicant and junior warden of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal Church, Wilkes-Barre ; one of the executive committee of the Luzerne County Bible Society ; a member of Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M .; of the Loyal Legion of the United States; of the Society of the Potomac ; and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
He married, Hartford, Conn., February 9, 1864, Miss Helen Hunter Turner, daughter of William Wolcot Turner, of Hart-
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CHARLES MINER CONINGHAM.
ford, who graduated A. B., Yale, 1819; A. M., Yale and College, N. J., 1821 ; Ph. D., National Deaf Mute College, Washington, D. C., 1870; and is the author of "The School Dictionary, 1829." He still lives, upwards of 80 years of age. Major Con- yngham has three children-Helen, Herbert, and Alice.]
John Nesbit Conyngham, LL. D., was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county April 3, 1820. In 1839, he was commissioned as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and with the exception of the years 1850-1851, he remained in commission up to the date of his resignation in 1870. He lost his life by an accident in Mississippi in 1871.
John Butler Conyngham, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 6, 1849, was a brother of Major Con- yngham. At the time of his death, May 27, 1871, he was captain . in the Twenth-fourth Infantry, U. S. A. He was appointed colonel of the Fifty-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the late civil war. The year of his death, he was brevetted major and lieutenant-colonel in the regular army, for gallant service in the field.
As has been stated, Charles Miner Conyngham, although fitted by the regular course of study, and regularly admitted to the bar, never entered into active practice in the profession. It is, however, conceded by all who know him that, had he done so, he would have achieved as distinctively prominent and credit- able a position in the legal arena as rewarded his bravery and general soldierly quality in the field and his business acumen and activity since his return from that performance of a patriot's duty. It is not needed that we go back to the venerable ancestry above briefly traced to learn that the Conyngham blood runs in the veins of men who make their mark in the world in whatever walk of life they choose to follow. Within the memory of men now living, the immediate relatives of the subject of this sketch have dignified the several professions they espoused, brought high honors to themselves and distinguished credit to the com- munity in which they lived. Major Conyngham is a worthy scion of a noble house of useful men. He is just of middle age of commanding and genial presence, the possessor. of large means, and a foremost man in social as well as business circles.
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GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
Stephen Bedford, the great grandfather of George Reynolds Bedford, was a native of Suckasunny, Morris county, New Jer- sey, and was probably of English descent. After his death, the family removed to Ulster county, New York. Jacob Bedford, son of Stephen Bedford, entered the Revolutionary War at the age of fourteen years, his first service being garrison duty. He removed to the Wyoming Valley in 1792, where he remained during the whole of a long life. He died at the residence of his son, Andrew Bedford, M. D., at Waverly, Pennsylvania, August 23, 1849, aged 87 years. The first wife of Jacob Bedford was a daughter of Benjamin Carpenter, who was commissioned a justice of the peace and one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne county, May 27, 1787. William Hooker Smith was commissioned on the same day. In 1794, Benjamin Carpenter was a member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth, another daughter of Mr. Carpenter, married Lazarus Denison, a son of Col. Nathan Denison. Hon. Charles Denison, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county August 13, 1840, was a son of Lazarus Denison. Mr. Carpenter removed to Sun- bury, Delaware county, Ohio, in 1810. Jacob Bedford married May 16, 1799, for his second wife Deborah Sutton, daughter of James Sutton, of Exeter, Pa. Mr. Bedford was a prominent man in his day, and at one time was one of the largest owners of real estate in Luzerne county. On the 3d November, 1804, he was commissioned as coroner by Governor Thomas Mckean. In October, 1810, he was elected sheriff of Luzerne county in con- nection with Jabez Hyde, but the then Governor 'Snyder gave the commission to Mr. Hyde, as he had the privilege of doing under the law. Dr. Peck, in his history of Early Methodism, writes of Mrs. Bedford: " There is still lingering upon the shores ยท of time one member of this class (Ross Hill)-the first Methodist class formed within the bounds of our territory-and that is Mrs. Deborah . Bedford. This 'mother in Israel' has ever been a uniform and consistent Christian, and an unflinching Methodist,
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GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
and it is especially fortunate that she has been spared to leave behind her a record of the origin of Methodism in the Wyoming Valley. She is one of the number who have traveled with the church from early youth to extreme old age without ever having the slightest stain upon her Christian character, or exhibiting the least evidence of backsliding, or even of wavering in her Christian course. She has been a member of the church for seventy-two years (written in 1860, she died in 1869), and for forty-two years of this period it has been our happiness to enjoy her acquaintance and her personal friendship. She is now in the full exercise of her intellectual faculties, and often attends divine service."
" Old men beheld, and did her reverence, And bade their daughters look, and take from her Example of their future life-the young, Admired, and new resolve of virtue made."
Mrs. Bedford was in Forty Fort at the time of the massacre, and it was her misfortune to be a witness of that disastrous day when, the battle lost, the stockade was given up to pillage, and at least one of its occupants to death. She joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1788 through the instrumentality of the pioneer laborers of that denomination, and became a member of the first class formed in Northern Pennsylvania. Perhaps no person in the United States had been a longer time a member than Mrs. Bedford at the time of her death. She was cotem- porary in membership with John Wesley (who died in 1791) and the honored fathers who were his co-laborers in the building up of that church which now reflects such imperishable honors on their names. She was born in North Castle, N. Y., February 8, 1773, and died in Waverly, Pa., April 3, 1869.
Andrew Bedford, M. D., the father of George R. Bedford, was born at Wyoming, Pa., April 22, 1800, and is still living. He resides at Waverly, Pa., where he has practiced his profession for over half a century, but during the latter years of his life, his business has been mostly in holding consultations with his brother physicians. He graduated from the medical department of Yale college. The doctor has been a life long Democrat, and has filled many important offices at their hands. He was a
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GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1838. It is believed that the only survivors of the members of that body are, besides Dr. Bedford, Ex-Chief Justice Agnew, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and Ex-Judge Henry G. Long, of Lancaster county, Pa. His colleagues in the convention from Luzerne county were Ex-Chief Justice George W. Woodward, General E. W. Sturdevant, and William Swetland. Dr. Bedford was prothonotary, clerk of the Courts of Quarter Sessions, and Oyer and Terminer, and of the Orphans' Court, from December, 1840, to December, 1846, being the first officer elected under the consti- tution of 1838 for the above named offices. Under the constitu- tion of 1791, which was in force until 1838, all county officers were appointed by the Governor. He has also been postmaster at Waverly, Pa.
Dr. Bedford is a prominent member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and has held the various offices connected with that denomination, such as steward, trustee, and class leader. He was an earnest advocate of lay representation, and was temporary - chairman of the first lay convention (held at Owego, N. Y.) in the Wyoming Conference. He has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in early manhood, was Hannah, daughter of Benjamin Reynolds, of Plymouth, Pa. Mr. Rey- nolds was a prominent citizen. He was sheriff of Luzerne county in 1831, and for many years was a justice of the peace at Plymouth. The fruits of this union were seven sons, five of whom are now living, George Reynolds Bedford being of the number. James S. Bedford, who was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county January 10, 1854, was one of the sons. He died in 1863 at Brownville, Nebraska, where he was practicing at the time. The second wife of Dr. Bedford was Mrs. Mary Bur- tis, nee Porter, whom he married in 1853. Her father was Orlando Porter, of Wilkes-Barre. She is the sister of the late Rev. George P. Porter, of the Wyoming Conference. They have but one child living, who is a daughter. John Bedford, a brother of the Doctor, was a prominent lawyer in Norwalk, Ohio. At the time of his death he was mayor of that city.
Dr. Bedford was one of the corporators of Madison Academy, located at Waverly. Here David L. Patrick, Garrick M. Hard-
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GEORGE REYNOLDS BEDFORD.
ing, M. E. Walker, Alexander Farnham, Jerome G. Miller, and other members of the Luzerne county bar, were educated, either in whole or part. The Doctor has been one of its trustees since its incorporation. He was one of the incorporators of the Wilkes- Barre and Providence Plank Road Company, and also of the Liggetts Gap Railroad Company, which was merged in the Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, and subsequently in the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. On his retirement as a director, over thirty years since, he was voted a free pass for life.
James Sutton, the father of Deborah Bedford, was born March 7, 1744, and married Sarah, daughter of William Hooker Smith, June 22, 1769. He was a merchant at North Castle, West Ches- ter county, New York, and when British goods were interdicted he sold his property and removed to Wyoming in company with his father-in-law. Mr. Sutton settled on Jacob's Plains, on the east side of the Susquehanna, two miles above Wilkes-Barre. Before the Indian troubles he removed to Exeter, on the west side of the river, about five miles above the head of the valley of Wyoming. Here he built a grist and saw mill upon a stream which gushes from a notch in the mountain, and now known as Sutton's Creek. Dr. George Peck, in his history of "Early Methodism," written in 1860, says, "The old Sutton house was situated in a gorge of the west mountain in the side of a steep hill, about twelve miles above Forty Fort. A mountain torrent rushes through the gorge, upon which 'Squire Sutton erected a grist mill. He had a taste for 'milling,' and for a large portion. of his life he was engaged in that business. The spot was secluded just at the head of a considerable narrows on the wind- ing Susquehanna. In that immediate neighborhood the popula- tion was sparse, and the people a delving, hardy race. Up the creek you saw a deep chasm cut through rocks and shaded with trees and shrubs, the most perfect specimen of gloom and solitude. Across the river the chain of mountains which follow the river, now advancing to the very edge and again receding and leaving a rich bottom, and ever varying in form and height, presents a most wild and poetic view. Here it was that ' Father and Mother Sutton' passed a half a century together,
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entertained two generations of Methodist preachers, received visits from distinguished guests, dispensed charities to the poor, and kept up an altar for the worship of Jehovah. Here the ven- erable Asbury found a 'home neat as a palace and was enter- tained like a king by a king and queen,' of which he gives ample evidence in his journal." Mr. Sutton was possessed of unusual mechanical genius. He was not a carpenter by trade, but aided by a Dictionary of Arts he was able to do most of the work of planning and constructing his mills himself. In the year 1777- the year before the battle-there was much talk of war with the Indians. Several persons were killed up the river and others taken prisoners. Mr. Sutton and John Jenkins, afterwards known as Colonel Jenkins, the ancestor of Hon. Steuben Jenkins, made a journey through the wilderness to Queen Esther's Flats in order to procure the liberation of Mr. Ingersoll, who had been carried into captivity. The distance was about ninety miles. The visitors were treated very courteously by the queen, and she was free in her communications with regard to the prospect of war. They were invited to spend the night with her, and the true spirit of hospitality seemed to characterize all her commu- nications and arrangements. In the course of the evening, how- ever, things took a new turn, and the travelers, for a while, were at a loss what construction to put upon the indications outside. A company of Indians came before the house, and seating them- selves upon a log began to sing " the war song." The old queen went out to them, and was engaged in an carnest conversation with them for a long time; when she came in she frankly told her guests that the Indians were determined to waylay and kill them, adding, with great emphasis, " I can do nothing with them. Now," said she, "you lie down until I call you." They did so, and when all was still in the town, she called them, and then said, " You must go down the river. Go down the bank and take my canoe and paddle it without noise. Lift up the paddles edgewise, so as to make no splash in the water, and you may get out of reach before the war party find out which way you have gone." They slipped off and found the canoe which the queen had particularly described, scrupulously followed her directions, and found their way home in safety. In the spring of 1778, Mr.
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