Brief
Sketch of a Country Neighborhood
Chapter IV
Inheritance
Oliver W.
Holmes, on being asked where the training of a child should begin,
replied, “A hundred years before it is born.” Not
only should it begin then, it does, for inheritance, together with that
which necessarily accompanies it is the great conservative influence
which perpetuates national characteristics and preserves the identity
of races. In the case of nations, as well
as communities, education,
though it may modify the results of inheritance, is, itself, for the
most
part, determined by inheritance. The law
of heredity
has long been suspected, and in late years, has been to a considerable
extent,
regarded as the demonstrated and universal order of nature. It is the
law
by which the offspring inherits the qualities and characteristics of
its
ancestors. It makes the oak tree the same
sort
of a tree as the parent from which the seed acorn fell.
It says that everything shall produce after its kind; that other
things
being equal the descendants of a fast home shall be fast, and the
posterity
of a plug shall be plugs. But man has an
infinitely wider range, through which his characteristics may run, than
the brute or vegetable creation. It is
among his ancestry
that must be sought the reason and source of his powers.
The question of whether he shall be a mechanic, a tradesman, or
a
lawyer, is settled before he gets a chance at the problem.
Man inherits tastes, and to a certain extent, appetites and
habits. If a man’s ancestors are true and
upright, he will do to rely upon, but if they are thieves or liars, it
will not do to trust him. What is the
difference between North and South America? It
is the difference between
the Anglo-Saxon race and the Spanish race. What
is the difference between Massachusetts and Virginia?
It is the difference between the
Pilgrim
and the cavalier. How unlike are Boston,
New
York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Quebec? Religiously,
morally, intellectually, socially, commercially and otherwise, they
differ
today pretty much as their founders differed generations ago. Communities, as well as cities and
commonwealths,
like men have their childhood, which is the formative period. It is the first permanent settlers who impress
themselves and their character on the future. Powerful
influences may make great modifications, but it is early influences
that
are far reaching and generally decisive. So
it
is in this little, obscure country neighborhood which is noted for
nothing
but good, true, honest, upright, industrious citizens.
The first settlers were men of character and the same has
descended
to the present generation. There has never
been
but one man sentenced to the penitentiary from this section and he was
sentenced
by the United States government in time of war and was soon pardoned. There were but few slaveholders in this little
section
and but few colored men live here now, in fact, I think there is but
one
in the section. The people of this section
were
somewhat equally divided on the rebellion and I do not desire to give
any
account of how they stood. I only wish to
tell
who were the first settlers and who they are now. There
is not an infidel or atheist in this section. Though
some of the people are not Christians all believe in the divinity of
the
scriptures. All the people are
Protestants; we
never had but one Catholic in the neighborhood and he is dead. Our people are a mixed race, some being of
English,
some of Dutch and others of Irish descent, but all are Americans now. I have shown that the first settlers lived in
little
log huts, worshipped in the same until a hut was built in which to
worship
God, and these settlers, although mostly poor men, were men of
character. I have said but little of the
women, the noble women
of this section, While the men were
clearing
the land and undergoing many hardships, the women were carding and
spinning
and manufacturing all the garments that were worn.
The
man’s day’s work closed at sunset while the woman’s closed at late
bedtime. She was as busy after supper was
cleared away until
late bedtime as the man was during the day. The
women were destitute of what modern ladies would call comforts. Their parlors, dining halls and pantries were
one
and the same. Their pianos were the little
flax
wheels. Their literature was a flaxen
garment
to be made. Their delicacies for the table
were dried pumpkin and hominy. Their means
of travel were walking or riding behind a gentleman on horseback. All this only enobles the fair creatures of
this section. Let the poet sing of a man,
“His life was gentle,
and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to
all
the world, “This was a man.” Let me say of
our
women of this section, they are noble.