FIRST TRIP TO CICERO OR LOOMIS' SETTLEMENT
When I was sixteen years of age I engaged to teach school in
the town of Cicero twelve miles from home. On the sixteenth of
May 1834 I went to enter upon my duties for the summer. There
was a state road running two miles from my destination but I must
needs go four miles to take the stage which made daily trips from
Syracuse to Cicero Corners. So Mr. Babcock, the Trustee, came for
me and, mounted in a lumber wagon with one of his boys who was to
be one of my pupils, we set out on our tedious ride of several
hours. It was by far the most tedious ride I ever experienced.
Very soon after starting, it began to rain which soon turned to
sleet driven by a strong west wind. When turning a corner on
Salina Street it caught the umbrella 'ctnd turned it completely
inside out and we were obliged to stop at a house to get warm
and repair damages before proceeding. The next trial was crossing
the log way. There were slough holes admitting the wheels nearly
to the hubs, then the ends of the logs would tilt the wagon so
we were nearly thrown out. But this was not more than a mile in
extent and we drew a long breath, adjusted our wraps, resumed a
somewhat comfortable position'ere we reached the little log house
which was to be our home for three months, just as the daylight
was deepening to twilight. I was not homesick tho very tired,
but the hearty welcome which I met from the good-souled house
mother made me feel at home and I pressed my welcome pillow
and slept soundly.
The next morning found everything white with snow and it
was decided the school should not open that day, thus opportunity
was given to extend the notice that the schoolm'am had arrived.
The eighteenth of May 1834 I opened school by reading a chapter
in the Bible which my father had given me for reading the Bible
through.
The summer passed pleasantly. My school house, unpretentious
as it was having been built of logs with a broad fireplace and a
large open chimney through which the clouds by day and the stars
at night might be traced, yet it served as a preaching place.
The Corners was a regular preaching place and the Methodists
had a very good house.
There, I once went to a quarterly meeting with my father
when not more than nine years of age. He traveled North Manlius
circuit at that time. About two miles out, on the state road,
there was preaching once in two weeks. Here my father preached
once during the summer. Most of the country was wooded still,
and we were sometimes treated to a display of burning log heaps.
He who was clearing his land after the trees were fallen, would
make a "logging bee", and invite his neighbors hear and far.
Everyone for miles around in a new country is a "neighbor".
All would respond with oxen and strong chains and draw the logs
into heaps which, when the proper time came, would be set on
fire. Many cords of wood were consumed in one night.
FIRST TRIP TO CICERO OR LOOMIS' SETTLEMENT
Page - 2
In one of my rambles for berries with a friend, we roused
a large bear who trotted off like a good-natured dog. The men
turned out to hunt him but he probably secreted himself in the
black, swamp which was in the vicinity of my school house and
formed the eastern boundary of the district.
Fifty years later I visited the neighborhood of my first
school teaching. The roads were changed, a new school house
and many residences had been built, and the place was altogether
strange.