Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the Pioneer Promoter in the Middle WestHulbert, Archer Butler
History
Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the Pioneer Promoter in the Middle West
Hulbert, Archer Butler
Canals -- United States; Mississippi River Valley -- History; Northwestern States -- History; Pioneers -- United States
It was surely no accident that these lads grew into daring, able men,
for good blood will tell; and Virginia in that day was giving the world
her richest treasures lavishly on the altar of liberty. I know of no
picture of the father of these six boys; but the pictures of George
and William are remarkably similar, showing a strong mark which must
have come directly from one of the grandfathers, either on the Clark
or Rogers side of the family. We may be sure Farmer Clark and his wife
exerted, a strong, wise influence on their children, and Jonathan and
George were called upon at an early age to assist in the management
of the children, to settle disputes, to tie up injured fingers, to
reprimand, and to praise. And in the school of the home and the family
circle these boys received the best and about the only education they
ever had; and it would be well if many a boy nowadays would learn more
in the home of patient, wise parents and a little less from books.
The Clark boys, at least George Clark, would have been benefited by
a little more schooling in books, especially a speller. It is quite
sure that George did not take full advantage of even the few school
privileges that he did have; but while all his letters of later life
are poorly spelled, that may have been his principal weakness, and in
other branches he may have succeeded much better; we know he did in
one. For nine months he was under the instruction of Donald Robertson,
under whom James Madison, afterwards President of the United States,
studied at about the same time. Strangely enough this boy, who would
not learn to be careful with letters, became proficient in the matter
of figures and did well in that most difficult of studies, mathematics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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