Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS 163
wrote for the magazines. He had just bought a two-hundred-
dollar, one-seated carriage in which both he and his sisters,
Carrie and Lucy, could sit and have room to ride in comfort.
They were taking care of some old relatives who owned a farm
in Warren County which they were to inherit some time in the
future.
Brother William and I had planned their visit as an
event, and it gave us much happiness. Like other conimg
events we could not see what life was bringing them and us.
They never married, and the bright trail of youthful hopes
and aspirations that made them romantic characters faded
into a shadow of disappointment and poverty. That da}^
however, we were happy-hearted and full of gay interest in
the celebration. A procession was formed of carriages and
horsemen, the rear being brought up by students and citizens.
The attendance was large and enthusiastic; the speeches and
music were of high order and the feast was bountiful. Under
the lovely shade of the trees of the old academy campus the
dinner was spread. I see the great platters of well-cooked
beef in fine slices, as they circulated on the green; the fruits,
preserves, pickles, and cake heaped on the long tables — it
is all one of the unforgotten pictures of youth, and belonging
to those antebellum days before the dark clouds of war swept
over every scene in our land.
In looking back over more than fifty years I recall the death
of one who was not only the first president of Farmers '
College
but who had also much to do with the development of our
southern Ohio in all that pertains to culture and education —
Dr. R. H. Bishop. In his youth he had come over the moun-
tains to "grow up with the country;" he had been active in
all the work connected with Farmers' College, and it was his
pride and delight to see it growing in usefulness. I think he
had filled the measure of life allotted to man, and upon a bright
October day he left his Hfelong work to other hands
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
I think of the day Brother Will came home with a letter
from Freeman Cary to father, asking him to be one of the pall-