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

WHAT THE YEARS HAVE BROUGHT 319
Mary Eleanor and Maude King, (nit on the high seas, beginning
their voyage aroimd the world.
The first days of my married life were the hard and cruel
ones of the Civil War, and that, too, in Minnesota, with the
horrors of the Indian massacre about us; but Alvah and I were
young then, and stronger for all conflicts. i hough we lost
our first-born, he was with us when we sorely needed the cheer
and comfort of his sweet presence. After we returned to live
in Ohio again, two other children were born to us. Adelaide
Gail was born in Meigs County, Ohio, and William Watkins
in the adjoining county of Athens, where his father was also
born. In appearance our younger son is not at all like his
brother, who left our home so long ago. He too, as others of
our race, grew to love books above all things. He has that
quality of love for literature which has made him work to be
able to understand the great masters of the pen. As our
brother for whom he was named, he has found it easy to commit
to memory lofty and noble poems as well as almost anything
in the shape of a rhyme. Our son was willing to make any
sacrifice to obtain the education he craved and fit himself for
the position he desired as an educator. He received his degree
of Master of Arts from Chicago University and began his life
as Professor of English in Stetson University in DeLand,
Florida. He was married to Bessie Grable, a classmate of
his in Hiram College, June 18, 1897. They are the parents
of my two dear grandchildren, Dwight Grable and Winifred
Lilian.
Our only daughter was graduated from Hiram College in
June, 1894, and sailed for India in September of the same year.
For almost thirteen years the mail has brought us weekly
letters from that far country. As a missionary of the Christian
Woman's Board of Missions she has conducted a school for
girls in Mahoba, a town in the United Provinces of India.
Since I began to write this narrative, the companion of
more than fifty years of my life has left ours a broken circle.
He passed away with words of joy and peace upon his lips,
June 14, 191 2, only nine days before the seventy-fifth anniver-
.sary of his birth.