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

44
ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
Our mother used to tell us of the bright bits of stained glass
and broken china she found about the fort, and the descriptions
of her playground so impressed me that I recalled what she
had said, and when Brother Joseph took Sister Ida and me to
Fort Ticonderoga in 1903 we found pieces of glass and china,
and in memory of our dear mother's childhood I brought home
some little bits with me, which I yet treasure.
What a visit that was, back to the scenes of our mother's
girlhood! None more pleasant and none so memorable has
been taken by me. The opportunity came as a surprise from
our brother Joseph. He loved his mother devotedly and was
ever a dutiful son; with the rest of us he had often listened to
tales of her youth amongst the picturesque haunts of the
Adirondack mountains and the beautiful lakes of the state of
New York. When his life's greater work had been accomplished
and his fortune was well assured, he took time for
travel; and it was while I was living in Hiram, Ohio, that he
wrote teUing me that he desired to take Ida and me on a trip
to Essex County, New York, that we might together go over
the scene of our mother's birth and childhood and see the
neighborhood where she began the earnest struggle of life in
1804.
Sister Ida was to be called from CaHfornia, and they were
to leave Duluth, Minnesota, on the Lake route, pausing in
Cleveland, Ohio, where I was to join them. Mr. Frost took
me the short distance from Hiram to Cleveland, and there,
about midnight, we saw the fine lake steamer Tienesta land.
Our relatives were soon discovered among the passengers, for
they were looking out for us, and great was our mutual joy
on starting out at last together on that long dreamed of pilgrimage,
though we missed the eldest of our group of four, the
one so fitted to add a large share to the profit of this journey.
Brother William had taken that last journey "whence no
traveler returns," and there were but the three of us left.
Our first stop was to be at Niagara Falls, and there we
arrived in due time, glad to hear the thundering of the waters
so famous wherever America is known. Brother Joe found a
good hotel near the great abyss — ClifF House — where our