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CHAPTER XXXIII.

A

RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE.

FTER selling out his printing and newspaper

business, in the fall of 1870, Mr. Hildreth retired from active business. He was now in his 55th year. Having only himself and wife to provide for. he felt that he had acquired a competence for his and her remaining days. He had erected a large new dwelling house in a pleasant part of the city and surrounded it with many attractions. Thither he and his excellent wife repaired to enjoy the closing years of their existence here on earth in reading their well stocked library. in social intercourse with neighbors and friends, &c., &c.. all in the quietude and rest of their delightful and peaceful home.

In the summer of 1857 Mr. Hildreth made a journey to the New England States on business, and improved the opportunity to visit the paternal home in Vermont, where his father and mother still resided. He never saw them afterwards. The father died the next year. 1858, of hemor rhage of the bowels, caused by the rupture of some blood vessel internally while driving a spirited horse. His age was 75 years, 6 months

and 14 days. The mother survived her partner eleven years, and died of an affection of the lungs in 1870, at the age of 75 years. 9 months and 11 days.

The visit of Mr. Hildreth to his father and mother at the old homestead was ever remembered and cherished by him with the fondest recollection. His father, who always drove a good team. took great pleasure in carrying him from one locality to another, and at parting could scarcely restrain the tear that unbidden would course his cheek, as he remarked that in all probability this was the last time they would see each other here on earth.

Azro was the first born of his mother's children.

He was ever her favorite. When three years old. and he could read in easy lessons, he was given a decorated plate to eat from on which were the words:

"Who ran to help me when I fell,

And kissed the place to make it well?
"My Mother."

This visit of 1857 was the last time that he saw his mother, as has been stated. Remembering the fondness of her son for berries and milk, she went out upon the old farm some distance from the house and gathered a quantity of red raspberries. and prepared for him a bowl of these ripe fresh berries and cool, sweet milk. This little act of maternal affection could never be effaced from the memory of her first born and best beloved child. The love and affection between mother and son flowed on uninterruptedly through life.

Mutability and decay are surely written upon all things earthly. The old Hildreth homestead in Vermont eventually passed into other hands, after a lapse of a period of some fifty years. In the year 1872 Mr. Hildreth, with his wife, again visited the home of his youth-but, alas, how changed! No father nor mother, no brother nor sister was there to greet him. The parents, and some of the brothers and sisters, were lying buried in the neighboring cemetery, and other members of that once large and happy family were scattered to different localities in that and neighboring States. But it was some compensation to find, in the then owner and occupant of the farm, an old schoolmate and early friend of his boyhood. One of Mr. Hildreth's first acts, on arriving there, was to obtain fishing tackle and hasten to the trout brook which crossed the farm. He remembered the incident of his early youth, when, at the age of six years, he, with a pin-hook, provided by his mother, caught his first trout from this stream, and he thought to play the boy again by seeking the same spot and repeating the same experiment, only with better apparatus. But the channel of the stream had been changed and the deep trout hole" was now dry land. Still, near by a small pool was discovered, and in this he dropped the baited hook, when a nice speckled trout rewarded him for the act. But this childlike sport could not satisfy the adult mind, and was shortly abandoned. On the former occasion his little four year old sister was with him to carry the fish and

share in the excitement of their childish endeav

ors.

Next, the old apple orchard was visited. Here once were apple trees named for father and mother and for each child of the family. Some of these favorite fruit trees still remained and were loaded with apples, while others had died and disappeared from their accustomed places. After gathering some of the choice fruit, a stroll was taken over other portions of the farm to see where woodchucks had been holed and trapped, squirrels, partridges, pigeons, hawks, crows and other game had been captured. The large granite boulder and the limestone ledge, where the lambs had disported in frisky glee; the old cherry tree which every boy and girl in the neighborhood had climbed; the barn, sheds, shop, chambers, attics, and all other places where a child could go, (and where could he not go?) were successively visited.

In

A thousand recollections of the days of his youth were constantly welling up in his mind. the east room" of the house, known as mother's room," what events had transpired! Here that good mother's twelve children were born. Here sickness, sorrow and death had many times been experienced. And now this holy place, consecrated by the daily prayers of pious parents and children, was the abode of strangers. What an impressive lesson was this! What a striking illustration of the changes wrought by time! But the present owners were all so kind that regrets were robbed of their keener stings.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

STILL IN ACTIVE LIFE.

N 1862, Mr. Hildreth was one of the incorporators of the First Congregational Society of Charles City, (of which church his wife was a faithful member.) and was for several years chairman of its board of trustees. He is liberal in his religious views, and inclines to the sentiments of the Unitarian wing of the New England Congregationalists, who are a very numerous and influential body of Christians in that region. There being no church of that denomination in Charles City, both Mr. Hildreth and his wife have been constant attendants and supporters of the Congregationalist church. This church was organized in 1858. Mrs. Hildreth with four other ladies and three gentlemen comprised the entire membership at the time of its organization.

In the spring of 1871 the First National Bank of Charles City was organized. In this enterprise Mr. Hildreth took an active part. From the beginning he was one of its directors and part of the time vice-president.

In August, 1873, the Floyd County Savings Bank. at Charles City. was incorporated. In this

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