Adin ballou autobiography for kids free

He thought well of me, and amid the rivalries of the schools on different sides of the state line, offered to present me as a grammarian against some that boasted much greater privileges than I enjoyed, and were prone to speak of those less favored than themselves with contempt. Yet I was drawn into no very vicious or immoral courses of thought or conduct.

The Missouri Compromise Though mainly occupied with manual labor on the farm and personal religious nurture and discipline, I kept myself posted in regard to public affairs and what was transpiring in the world at large, so far as the newspaper of the family and occasional conversation with well-informed townsmen could serve me in that direction.

To the wise and prudent reader this early pledge of marital purposes and fidelities on my part may be deemed boyish and absurd, bespeaking my folly and want of sound judgment.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ADIN BALLOU, 1803-1890. CONTAINING AN …

It had already been planned that I should settle down with my parents on the farm, see them through life, and inherit their domain. Crossman of the Christian Connexion was the pioneer preacher and for a time almost sole manager of the movement. The early part of the year was replete with martial excitement throughout the land. He did not deal so much in the terrific as in the pathetic and sentimental.

This was boys' special business, and many a barrel had I to help empty, quart by quart. They, too, are texts in the volume of human nature on which we can profitably moralize. There were eight or ten proprietors of our schoolhouse and they managed all school affairs. This was originally more than half a square mile in extent, and, with inherited rights in common lands adjoining, ultimately covered an area of nearly a whole mile square.

Elders Abner Jones and Elias Smith, then at the head of the denomination were present, as were also Elder Frederick Plummer, an eloquent revivalist; Elder Daniel Hix, the solid farmer preacher; Elder Benjamin Taylor, the John-like apostle; and a host of other zealous evangelists of that distinctive faith. Some, as stated, started off with good resolutions, but afterward fell back into their old ways.

And a sorry establishment it was, especially for the proprietor and his family. One occasion of this sort often leads to another of a similar character. It was quite a desideratum with those immediately concerned to have this done as noiselessly as possible and to make it, since it must be known in due time, a surprise to outsiders, even to the family relatives.

The dwelling-house and accompanying buildings were on the Rhode Island territory, about fifteen miles north-northwest from Providence, three in the same direction from Cumberland Hill, and four east of Woonsocket. I therefore closed a bargain with him for a goodly stock of hats, procured an outfit of a suitable team, and made preparations for starting on an expedition for which, the more I thought of it and the nearer I came to it, the stronger was my conviction that I was in no wise capacitated.

It is a place for the study of moss-covered inscriptions and for solemn meditation, especially to a Ballou of the lineage of James.

Adin ballou autobiography for kids free: Autobiography of Adin Ballou, Containing

Elder Crossman was not a profound man, but impulsive, magnetic, and insinuating. Among his sons were James, long famous in that region as an astrologer and fortune teller, and Silas, the rustic poet. Bonaparte was decisively crushed at Waterloo, and the old order of things was reinstated, as far as possible, on the continent of Europe. An appetite for the intoxicating cup was one of his fatal weaknesses, and made a wreck of him at last.

I embraced this view of the subject and thought myself strongly entrenched therein behind the word of God. I had no doubt that there was a great and holy, yet awful, God in the form of a gigantic man, who was seated in a glorious chair above the blue arch of the sky. By study and reflection, I had formulated the following items of doctrine in which I most firmly believed: 1.

A posthumous daughter was born the following spring.