Looking Back: An AutobiographyRichardson, Merrick Abner
History
Looking Back: An Autobiography
Richardson, Merrick Abner
Richardson, Merrick Abner, 1841-
"What trouble?"
"Trouble," she replied wiping the tears away with her apron. Then
coming near me inquired quizzically, "What is your name?"
I saw she was on the point of detecting me, and looking straight in her
eye I answered, "James Hall."
Again she hesitated and then said, "You do look so much like James
Burroughs, who is dead, that I thought the dead had been raised." She
then told me all about father's execution, Fanny's death and mine,
after which I walked over to Deacon Felker's.
When I arrived, there was no one in but the deacon, so I struck him
up for a job. Soon I saw a lady coming up the walk who I at once
recognized as Cousin Phoebe, whom I had not seen for fifteen years.
Beside her ran a little boy. The deacon introduced me, and in shaking
hands I squeezed hers so hard that she looked up quickly, then
presuming me to be very rough, she spoke pleasantly. Then I picked up
my own little boy and as in some phantom mirror, Fanny seemed to look
me right in the face.
While waiting for tea, Winnie Richardson came in and adroitly
introduced herself by saying, "I presume our town looks tame to you,
especially if you've been living in the city, but to us who have never
traveled Stafford is the center of the world."
At the conclusion of Jim's story the sweet Winnie softly caressed the
troubled man with her arm around his neck, and here we leave Winnie
and Jim, to whirl and swirl in their frail barques of life, on the
restless waves of time, until they mysteriously cross the bar out into
the unknown ocean of Eternity, from whence, if they return to guide our
thoughts, we do not comprehend it.
[Illustration: OUR MOUNTAIN HOME NEAR WABBAQUASSETT LAKE, BUILT BY
WARREN RICHARDSON, 1832.
PORTRAITS OF CHILDREN, 1870, EXCEPT MARIETTE. LEFT TO RIGHT. ELIZA,
ADELIA, COLLINS, CAROLINE, MERRICK, GORDON, JANETTE.]
OUR WABBAQUASSETT MOUNTAIN HOME
John, my Grandfather Richardson, son of Uriah, built his home on the
east side of the Devil's Hopyard, while Abner, one of John Dimock's ten
sons, built his home on the west side.
John Richardson raised a family of boys, John, Warren, Collins, Marvin,
Orson, and one girl, Fanny, while Abner Dimock raised a family of
girls, Lovey, Manerva, Luna, Hannah, Arminia, Abigail, and one boy,
Abner.
Warren Richardson crossed the Hopyard, wooed and won Luna Dimock, and
they built their nest near Wabbaquassett Lake, where the flowers bloom
in early spring, wild birds awake the summer morn and the babbling
brook sings through the winding vale below, all day long.
Here they raised a group of laughing, frolicing, romping backwoods
mischief and their names were:
Mariette A.--Married Frank Slater.
Eliza L.--Married Lucius Kibbes.
Adelia A.--Married Epaphro Dimock.
Caroline C.--Married Lucius Aborn.
Collins W.--Married Martha Aborn.
Merrick A.--Married Mary Hoyt.
Gordon M.--Married Amanda Pitt.
Janette A.--Married George Newell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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