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

CHILDHOOD OF B. U. WATKINS 27
more difficult of removal than that of Uncle Joseph, for she
lost almost her entire sight, and could just discern lif;ht when
in daytime a door or window was open. She walked in twi-
light the rest of her days.
I have said but little of Robert Utter, perhaps for the very
reason that he was quiet in his ways and good without making
a stir. He was destined to be a farmer and a good man, as he
was a boy. Our brother William wrote, on the occasion of his
son William Utter 's golden wedding, that in early manhood
he became disgusted with pioneer Ufe and started to return to
New Jersey. At Chillicothe, however, he jomed General Duncan
McArthur's army, and after varied e.xpenences in Indian
warfare was paroled and returned to Cincinnati. In 18 14 he
married Sarah Van Winkle, also of Dutch extraction, and they
went to housekeeping in a log cabin, the site of which is still
marked in the vicinity of Spring Grove. Here his son, William
Van Winkle Utter, was born on January 3, 181 5.
While yet a child, our father had his share in the work of
the home place. "Going for the cows" was one. He had to
start about the middle of the afternoon to gather in all the wanderers
by milking time, as it grew dark so early in the wood
where they foraged for pasture. Other chores of his were pull-
ing flax and milking. One day as he was watering the horses
at the big spring down in the woods, he looked across the ravine
to the opposite bank, where, in a fine grove, he thought he saw
a company gathering as for a camp-meeting. Crossing over,
the vision vanished; and as these hallucinations became frequent
it was found that he, too, the youngest, was going blind;
and so it was that at the age of six years he lost his sight from
cataract. This was some years after Uncle Joseph 's operation,
and we do not know all the conditions of that gloomy
time, excepting that for four years in the best time to acquire
the fundamentals of an education our dear father was led by
the hand. His hungry young mind expanded even in the
darkness, but they were sad years for childhood. When an
operation could be performed upon his eyes, he entirely lost
the sight of one from inflammation, and had but one fourth
normal vision in the other. Thus handicapped, our father