Third Souvenir Main Page

Excerpts from Francis 

C. Waid's Third Souvenir

Submitted by David M. Waid 

"Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now withering in the ground;

Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise."

In the afternoon I paid a visit to my brother-in-law, Moses Masiker, calling on my way to see Miss S. Braymer, who had recently returned from her visit to the West. I met her at Dr. Weter's last February while I was spending a few days at Grand Island, Neb., as already treated in full in the account of my fourth trip to Kansas and the West [see page 17]; also drove and walked to G. W. Cutshall's; thence walked to Hickory Corners, and from the hill near there I had a grand view of the country around me. Descending this long hill, and musing as I trudged along, my eyes reveling in the beautiful landscape, I presently found myself in Woodcock Valley, by the banks of the creek that bears the same name. Here are to be found, not only pleasant homes and good farms, but also kind-hearted, industrious people. At any season of the year Crawford County is noted for her beauty, but in the month of June, when in velvety verdure clad, with myriads of sweet-smelling flowers adorned, and arrayed in all the glory; fair Nature can supply, there is no other county in the State that can excel her in comeliness, fertility and grandeur. Here reign health, peace and quiet, and as I look about me I find it is a very hive of industry. Mr. Cutshall's new house is fast growing with the assistance of masons and carpenters, while he himself, son and hired man are busy in the fields cultivating corn and plowing a piece of ground for buckwheat; and last, not least, among the busy ones I find Aunt Jane (Mrs. Cutshall), my wife Eliza's only sister, whose faithful work in the house can never be too highly commended.

On my return I called on Orlando Sutton, postmaster at Hickory Corners, and still nearer to my home I stopped and took supper with my cousin, Mrs. George Sutton, daughter of William C. Morehead, whose husband and their daughter had gone visiting a sick relative at Enterprise. From there to my home I had a beautiful walk amid umbrageous trees that lined both sides of the road [Our wood lot of six acres lies just west of Mr. Sutton's farm, adjoining it, and fronts on the north side of the road]; all the surroundings being the more endeared to me by associations and pleasant memories of the past, of happy hours when Eliza and I oft drove along this same sequestered pathway in the days of long ago.

June 18.--Wrote to Anna enclosing draft for fifty dollars, with the request that if it should so please her she may for me remember her father and mother, Hattie and little Vera, by giving each of them five dollars. My desire is to treat them kindly in my own way, for I know that peace and harmony are worth more than money. In such respect I wish to be as my father when he prayed to the Lord for the evidence whereby he might know that whatever he did was right; that is, his desire was to avoid thinking, saying or doing anything he was not convinced the Lord would approve of. And I want to imitate my father also in acts of benevolence and kindness. Washington Irving says somewhere, in speaking of benevolence and kindred virtues: "How easy it is for one benevolent person to diffuse pleasure around him; and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles!"

June 19.--Being in Meadville, I walked from there to the house of my uncle and aunt, Robert and Polly Morehead, about four miles west on the State Road, in Vernon Township, and as we met they expressed themselves very glad to see me. From there I went to my cousin, Robert A. Fergerson, where I spent the evening and night. In the morning I made a call on my relative, John C. Morehead, living near by, and while there viewed his strawberry patch, rich with ripe fruit of many varieties, and also his apiary containing, I should think, about fifty hives. I would also here speak of Mr. Fergerson's two-acre farm which by industry he has brought to such a high state of productiveness; then his garden, profuse as it is with many kinds of flowers, invariably commands the admiration of the passer-by. After another brief stop at Uncle Robert Morehead's, I proceeded on my way homeward, dropping in as I passed to see a sick aged couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kycenceder, the former of whom was born in 1803. He knew my father and mother and also my grandfather, Pember Waid. He said my father "was an honest man," and that he loved him. The venerable couple thanked me for calling on them, and invited me to come again.

Sunday, June 22.--There was a large attendance today at church and Sunday-school, and while at the latter I had the pleasure of sitting beside Mrs. Handly, one of the three aged ladies who had "thanksgiving dinner" with Eliza and myself a few years ago; these three old ladies--Mrs. Handly, Mrs. Long and Mrs. Kiser--are yet living.

June 26.--This is "Commencement Day," class of 1890, Allegheny College, and I went to Meadville on purpose to attend the exercises which were held in the First M. E. Church building. It was a noted day for Meadville in other respects, for in the evening the Republicans and friends of Hon. Wallace W. Delamater, State Senator, who was nominated for governor of Pennsylvania, was given a grand general reception on his return home to Meadville. Irrespective of party polities, all united in giving our candidate a welcome reception, worthy of so prominent a man, one of good record and noble character. Before leaving Meadville for Jamestown, N. Y,, and other points (for I am now on my way thither), I called on Hon. W. W. Delamater, just to shake hands and congratulate him on his success, etc., and I need hardly add I was greeted with a most cordial and friendly reception by him.

June 27 to July 4.--[Here comes my short trip to Jamestown, N. Y., and other points, for an account of which the reader is referred to page 37.]

JULY 4.

"Long, long be my heart with such memories fill'd!

Like the vase in which roses have once been distill'd:

You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,

But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

The "Fourth of July" is a day to be ever remembered by me, and held in calm and peaceful reverence. Two years ago, to-day, Eliza passed from things temporal to things eternal. On her fell on that bright summer morn the mantle of immortality.

"Cold in the dust her perish'd heart may lie,

But that which warm'd it once shall never die."

Should any one ask how it is I think and speak and write so much of my dear departed wife, my reply would be, "Can a true lover forget his first love? Am I different from other men, that I should forever banish from my thoughts the memory of her who was the wife of my early and later manhood, and became the mother of my children?" No! I cannot forget, nor do I wish to have obliterated from the tablet of my memory thoughts of my departed wife, the most devoted of mothers, a true Christian woman, kind-hearted, noble and amiable, the leading star of my life!

In the afternoon of the day I went with an excursion party to Conneaut Lake, where a large gathering had assembled to celebrate the "Glorious Fourth." The three little ferry steamers--Queen, Nickel Plate and Keystone--were as busy as shuttles in a loom, as they ran to and fro between the different wharves on the lake. And I lacked only one thing to complete my comparative happiness--the presence of my dear wife Anna, who, alas! is still absent from me, many miles away, seeking in her quiet paternal Kansas home restoration to health. But who has not seen sunshine and storm on the same day; joy and sorrow within the same hour; the rose and the thorn on the same stem?

"Life is a waste of wearisome hours,

Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns:

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers

Is always the first to be touched by the thorns."

A heavy rainstorm in the early part of the day threatened to mar the prospective pleasures of the excursionists; but it soon cleared up, after cooling the air and laying the dust, whereat those who lamented on account of the rain were the first to rejoice when the sun shone again; verily, every cloud has a silver lining. At the lake, which I had not visited for several years, although quite near to my home, I met many of my friends, with whom I had pleasant greetings, and when I returned home in the evening I felt refreshed and well rewarded by my short "Fourth-of-July Trip" to the crystal waters of Conneaut Lake.

Sunday, July 6.--This Lord's day I spent in Meadville, in company with Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Derby, with whom I usually stop when in town. In the forenoon we all three attended the M. E. (State Street) Church and class meeting, Rev. J. Clyde officiating, and in the afternoon Mr. Derby accompanied me a mile or two west in order to pay our last tribute of respect to the late Joseph Kycenceder [Mr. Kycenceder's widow did not long survive him], who died, at his home in Vernon Township on the 4th, at the age of eighty-seven years, having been born in November, 1803. He was interred in the Denny Cemetery, in the presence of a large assemblage of mourners, among whom were Uncle Robert Morehead, Robert Fergerson, and other relatives of my own, but Mr. Derby and I did not go to the cemetery as it is distant several miles from Mr. Kycenceder's late home. At 4 P. M. Mr. Derby and I attended the Y. M. C. A. meeting, where we heard Brother H. McClintock and others address the members, and in the evening we listened to the exercises of the M. E. Society in their church at Meadville, of which Dr. Hall is pastor; but on this occasion Brother G. S. W. Phillips, a graduate of Allegheny College, class of 1890, filled the pulpit. The text he preached from was Romans iii: 23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Tuesday, July 8--Being in Meadville on business today, I availed myself of the opportunity to pay a visit to my relatives, Smith Leonard and family, who live near Meadville. Mrs. Leonard, who is my niece, I always thought resembled my wife Eliza in looks. I had the pleasure of dining in the company of Mr. David Compton, who was taking the census and happened to be in the neighborhood; he and I attended school together, one term years ago, and we have ever since been friends. I also called on William Magaw and Aunt Maria Lord, and, later, on my friend Hiram Blystone who also has a very pleasant home near Meadville. On Wednesday I was present at the funeral of Rev. W. H. Marshall's child, which died in its second year a few days after Mr. Marshall had sailed for Europe, and on my return home, being caught in a severe storm I remained over night at James McKinney's house, where a relative of mine is living at present. For some days after this, not wishing to abandon active work, which I enjoy, and which I always find beneficial to my health, I helped my son Guinnip in the hay field--mowing with a scythe (the boys used a mower), hauling, loading and unloading--and also mowed and trimmed the front yard at both Guinnip's and Fred's place. The wheat and hay crop are both good this year in our neighborhood, but fruit generally, such as apples, pears and peaches, is a failure. To-day (July 12) in the afternoon, I went to Meadville, where I received a letter from Anna, who, I rejoice to be able to say, writes in good spirits as her health is much improved. While in the city I learned of the death of Capt. Leslie, and on my way home I dropped in on Henry Smith, where to my surprise and pleasure, I found my venerable friend Mr. Ebenezer Harmon, who had left his home in Michigan [Mr. Harmon moved to Michigan in 1833, and still lives on his farm there at Lake Ridge, Lenawee County. During August of 1891, in company with my brother G. N., I paid a visit to our relatives in Michigan and called on my aged friend Mr. Harmon, an account of which visit will he given in my FOURTH SOUVENIR] on Tuesday, 8th instant. He reported our relatives there all well; and I might here mention that his son, James (who lives on the Harmon Farm in Michigan), is married to my niece Anna Waid, daughter of Samuel Waid. Mr. Harmon who, by the way, is now in his eighty-second year, visited us three years ago last June. It was quite a pleasure and diversion for me to listen to the chat and merry jokes between him and Mr. William Chase, Henry Smith's father-in-law, who is in his eighty-third year, as we sat on the verandah in the cool of the evening; they talked, among other things, of "rastlin" and such like gymnastic exploits, and, both being farmers, had a good deal to say about their agricultural experience, etc.

Sunday, July 13.--To-day my brother, G. N. and I attended the funeral of Capt. Leslie, who died on his farm near Meadville at the age of eighty-three years, having been born May 25, 1807; the interment was in Greendale Cemetery, and the services were conducted by Rev. Craighead, of Meadville. While in the cemetery, G. N. and I visited several of the graves of our kindred, including those of Uncle Joseph and Aunt Sarah Finney and their family, and those of other relatives and descendants on my mother's side. On Monday Mr. Harmon came to spend a few days with us, and we were reminded of having been favored in November, 1888, with a call from his daughter-in-law, Anna, and her two sisters, Clarissa and Lovina. He is making a trip, alone, to his native place, Phelps, Ontario County, N. Y., visiting friends in Ohio and elsewhere en route. I drove Mr. Harmon round a good deal, making calls on relatives and friends, and the reader may be sure we did not forget the busy hay field, where I lost no opportunity of doing some share of the work, which becomes a second nature to me.

"Tis the first sanction Nature gave to man-

Each other to assist in what they can."

In looking over some old pictures and daguerreotypes, while visiting with Mr. Harmon at the home of my cousin, Lucinda Gillett, near Townville, Penn., my eye alighted on a clipping from an old newspaper, preserved in the case along with the pictures, and which read as follows:

Pember Waid [Pember Waid was my paternal grandfather, of whom special mention is made in the Biographical sketch of myself elsewhere in my SOUVENIRS] departed this life in full hope of endless life. He experienced religion in one of our revivals last year in the 77th year of his age, and left for the good world in his 78th year, giving to all who knew him, a Christian example of one year and one month. He was noted for being an honest man, all his life. His class-leader told me that "Father" Waid attended every class meeting but one, after his profession of religion up to the day of his death.

                                           S. R. PADEN.

Sunday, July 20.--Along with Mr. Derby and family, of Meadville, I attended State Street M. E. Church and class meeting, and heard a young man, by name McKinney, preach, and in the afternoon we went to the cottage prayer meeting held at the residence of Mr. McKinney, father of the gentleman we listened to in the morning. This was a good meeting, some eighteen being present, among them being Sister Wilson and her brother, Ephraim Williams, for many years members of the old State Road Church. In the evening Mr. Derby and I attended the Park Avenue Congregational Church, where an interesting discourse based on the day's Sunday-school lesson delighted and instructed us. On the following day, Monday, I called on Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Reynolds of Mead Township, to express my sympathy with them in their recent sudden bereavement, their son Earl having been killed at Bairdstown, Ill., while employed as brakeman on the C., B. & Q. R. R., Tuesday, July 15, 1890, at the age of twenty-nine years. On Wednesday I attended the funeral of the Rev. J. V. Reynolds' wife, and afterward went some four and one-half miles into the country to visit my friend, Jeremiah Cutshall, who owns a good farm pleasantly located on the west side of French Greek, well watered and sloping to the east.

July 25.--Two cases, being first shipments of my SECOND SOUVENIR, 184 copies of the 300 ordered bound, arrived this afternoon from my publishers in Chicago, so I now have plenty of work on my hands in addition to my regular labor. In the forenoon I visited my aged friend, Isaac Blystone, residing on College Hill, Meadville, who is very sick and not expected to recover; also called on Hon. G. B. Delamater, in behalf of his son, Hon. W. W. Delamater, State Senator, who presented me with a copy of "Birds of Pennsylvania," an elegant work containing fifty illustrations.

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