Many years after he closed his connection with the agency Lawrence Taliaferro wrote an "Autobiography"--a narrative that shows all the quaintness and egotism of the man. "Not until after the year 1840", he wrote "did the government become unfortunate in the selection of their agents for Indian affairs."[186] From this account can be gleaned information to supplement the bare facts usually given about his life. His ancestors had come to England from Genoa, Italy, and later they emigrated to Virginia. Here Lawrence Taliaferro was born on February 28, 1794. At the age of eighteen he joined the army and served through the War of 1812, being a first lieutenant when it closed. Although he received no other promotion he was always known among his associates as "Major".[187] He was appointed Indian agent for St. Peter's on March 27, 1819, and on April 1, 1819, he accepted--resigning the same day from the army.[188] He reached his new station probably in the summer of 1820, and was immediately engaged in the duties connected with Indian affairs.[189] During his term of office he was continually troubled by ill-health which resulted from his campaigns in the late war. In 1824 he resigned because of this ill-health, and although he continued in service, Governor Clark at one time wrote to the Secretary of War that "his fate is considered as very doubtful."[190] As early as 1831 he confided to his diary that "there is something of a Combination of Persons at work day after day to pick at my Actions both public and private".[191] His resignation finally came in 1839, and he closed his connection with the Department on January 1, 1840, because he could no longer endure the machinations of the traders.[192] Thereafter he made his home at Bedford, Pennsylvania, serving as a military storekeeper from 1857 to 1863, when he was put on the retired list. Mr. Taliaferro visited his old home at Fort Snelling in 1856 and wrote characteristically: "We were in St. Paul on the twenty-fourth of June, the 'widow's son' was Irving's Rip Van Winkle; after a nap of fifteen years, we awoke in the midst of _fast_ times. We truly felt bewildered when we found all the haunts and resting-places of the once noble sons of the forest, covered by cities, towns, and hamlets. We asked but few questions, being to our mind received as a strange animal; if nothing worse."[193] Among the others who served before 1858 as Indian agent were Amos J. Bruce, R. G. Murphy, and Nathaniel McLean. The influx of whites had greatly increased the difficulties of their position, and the memory of their former agent made the Indians suspicious of their new advisers. The Governor of the Territory became the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and his presence so near the agency took from the agent much of his power.[194]