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

THE LIFE OF OUR SISTER 277
three years. They had enough to eat, but clothing was often
quite scanty. As for myself I went barefoot in summer, wore
blue jeans pants and what was then called a hickory shirt,
manufactured from the coarsest cotton; my hat was straw:
such was my meager outfit.
"My father died when I was eighteen, and my mother
went to live with my eldest sister; and at last I started out to
make my own way in the world. I had always wanted an education,
and I resolved to get it. I began by hiring out to work
for a man for eighteen dollars a month and board, and at the
end of a time, after buying necessary clothmg for myself and a
few things for mother, I found I had sixty dollars left. With
this as a reserve fund I made arrangements to attend a private
boarding school conducted by Washington Oyler and wife near
Harrison, Ohio. Mr. Oyler told me I would have to enter
the children's class to begin with, which I agreed to do; but
after further thought he suggested that he hear me privately
until I could go into a more advanced class."
Brother Datus had a remarkable memory or he could never
have done what he did in those days. As I write his reminiscences
I can but think of our father, who worked to know under
the greatest discouragement, and in his particular case with
physical hindrances; I think, too, of my husband, who in a
backwoods country had that same hunger for knowledge, and
I am glad that, whether under poor, ordinary, or the best of
circumstances, the people who have made up our family have
desired education. Whether our father, with his magnifying
glass and his Greek grammar and the disapprobation of his
parents, or his great grandson, Joseph Ray Watkins, junior,
carrying off four hundred dollars in prizes from Andover this
June, and with every encouragement up the hill of knowledge,
all have shown desire that strives to win in the field of learning.
To continue with our brother-in-law's reminiscences:
"I entered into my studies with zest and worked night and day.
I astonished my teacher by being able to recite dozens of pages
of geography and grammar at one recitation, and in two months
I was able to enter classes where the pupils were of my own
age. At this time a good lady by the name of Clark, hearing