The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
When spring opened, the surroundings began to assume a more cheerful
aspect. The farm was a very pretty one of thirty-two acres. The house
stood on an elevation, the long walk that led up to it was lined on
both sides with pinks, there were many roses and other flowers in the
yard, and great numbers of peach, cherry and quince trees and currant
and goose-berry bushes. The scenery was peaceful and pleasant, but they
missed the rugged hills and dashing, picturesque streams of their
eastern home. Back of the house were the barn, carriage-house and a
small blacksmith shop. Mrs. Anthony used to say that her happiest hours
were spent on Sunday mornings, when her husband would heat the little
forge and mend the kitchen and farm utensils, while she sat knitting
and talking with him, Quakers making no difference between Sunday and
other days of the week. He had learned this kind of work in boyhood on
his father's farm and always enjoyed the relaxation it afforded from
the cares and worries which crowded upon him in later years.
Mr. Anthony put into his farm the energy and determination
characteristic of the man. He rose early; he ploughed and sowed and
reaped; he planted peach and apple orchards, and improved the property
in many ways, but it was unprofitable work. It seemed very small to him
after the broad acres of his early home, and he was accustomed to refer
to it as his "sixpenny farm." His life had been too large and too much
among men of the great business world to make it possible for him to be
content with the existence of a farmer. While he retained his farm
home, he very soon went into business in Rochester, connecting himself
with the New York Life Insurance Company, then just coming into
prominence, and used to say he made money enough out of that to afford
the luxury of keeping the farm. He was very successful, and continued
with this company the remainder of his life.
On April 25, 1846, Miss Anthony received this invitation:
At a meeting of the Trustees of the Canajoharie Academy held this
day, it was unanimously Resolved to offer you the Female Department
upon the terms which have heretofore been offered to the teachers
of that department, viz:--the tuition money of the female
department less 12-1/2 per cent., the teachers collecting their
tuition bills. Should these terms meet your views, please favor us
with an answer by return mail. The next term commences on the first
Monday of May proximo.
We are Very Respectfully Yours,
JOSHUA READ, LIVINGSTON SPEAKER, GEORGE G. JOHNSON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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