Micah Taul memoir

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afterwards, and raised a large family of children. He had barely health and strength enough, to ride out occasionally [occasionally] upon his farm, and for years was not off of it. The hemorhage of of his lungs continued, discharged at times a quantity of blood, that would be almost incredible to relate. For many years he was attended by the best physicians [physicians] of the county, but he alternately discontinued the use of medicine entirely and relied entirely upon a dietetic course. He rose early in the morning, and after the necessary ablution, ate a cold biscuit - at breakfast he would drink a cup of tea or milk, abstaining almost entirely from animal food; never eating any thing warm, or stimulating, and in the general was happy & cheerful. His oldest son was named Arthur after our father; he removed to Missouri before I left Kentucky & I have not heard of since. His second son was named Jesse for his maternal grandfather. He studied medicine, married & removed to Vicksburgh, where he soon got into a lucrarive practice, but died in a few years. A short time before his death a younger brother, went out from Kentucky to accompany his wife, on a visit to her friends in that state. They were attacked with the yellow fever in Shelby County, & both died on the same day, & what is very remarkable, their death, was on the same day that the Doctor died in Vicksburgh. The husband, wife, & brother all died on the same day, at least 5 or 600 miles apart. He had several other sons. One of whom was called by my name. One named Jonathan, & several daughters; several of them, died young - one named Mary-Ann, who was very beautiful, married a Mr. Thompson, & I think died young. I have not heard from any member of the family for several years.

Samuel Taul, was married in 1801 to his cousin Polly Muffett & by her had a numerous family of children [children]. He succeeded to the patrimonial farm, in Fayette County, Kentucky, on which he raised his family, and died a few years ago. His health was never good, but he was a man of uncommon industry, & a good

15 manager- kind hearted, charitable & benevolent to a fault. Being a first rate farmer, & raising an abundance of every thing, his neighbors & friends always received a cordial welcome at his house. His wife was an excellent woman; first rate manager & house keeper - lively, cheerful & happy. I don't remember any family of their means, that entertained as much company - they were both members of the Baptist Church, & I am sure I never knew a better man, or better woman. His oldest son is named Benjamin, who was married in 1826 & probably lives near the "old place" in Fayette County Kenty. He had several other sons, named Jonathan, Levi, John, Micah &c all of whom were small when I left Kenty. in 1826 - a portion of them I know are dead, but what has become of the others I know not. They had also several daughters some of whom died young & unmarried; two or three lived to be married; one of them married a man named Stafford. My brothers were all remarkable for their morality & steady habits. I don't remember to have ever heard of either of them having been engaged in any sort of difficulty with any person. I am certain I never heard either of them, swear a profane oath - and I am equally certain, that neither of them was ever intoxicated with spirituous liquor altho' they conformed to the fashion of the day, by keeping spirits in their Houses for the use of such of their friends & guests, as thot proper to partake of it - few indeed were the number that did not.

Micah Taul, (the youngest of six sons, & the writer of this Memoir) was born on the 14th day of May 1785. As before stated, all the "school" education I ever got, was from my brother Benjamin with very inconsiderable exceptions. I can't remember when I could not read. I was fond of going to school fond of learning & I can say it, without vanity that I went ahead of all the boys. I think in my tenth year, I did not loose from school a single day.

16 and I stood head in spelling all the time, not having been turned down once. But my time was in a great measure thrown away. The only school book in those days was Dilworths Spelling book, and the Bible & Testament. What a change in 50 years!! As soon as a boy was old enough he was put to "cyphering." I "cyphered" thro' Delworths arithmetic at least twice & wrote down every sum, & copied every rule into my cyphering book, filling several [quire?] of paper. When I removed from Kentucky, I left it in Winchester; which I now very much regret as I should like for my young children to see & know what I had done, when a man child. I wrote a neat hand for a little boy, and at the age of about eleven, my father took me to Lexington, with a view of getting me into the store of William Scasy, a highly respectable Scotch merchant, but he objected to my size & I returned home. Altho' I was industrious, I did not want to be a farmer - wanted to be something else - tho' I hardly knew what. About the last of May 1798, my brother Benjamin, understanding from Capt. David Bullock, Clerk of Clarke County, Kentucky, that he wanted a boy to write in his office, immediately dispatched a messenger to my father's to notify him of the fact, and I was sent the next day to my brother's residence, & I was taken by him the next day (1st Monday in June) to the house of Capt. Bullock, (where the office was then kept near the Grassy lick road, one mile North East of Winchester. I found Capt. B. a plain, sensible, well educated, & very stern old Virginia Gentleman; he had been a Captain in the Revolutionary War, & was a first rate Clerk - wrote with more rapidity than any person, I ever saw. I have heard him say, he had written a quire of paper in a day. He was at the time Clerk of the quarter session & County Court of Clarke County, the two offices being very lucrative; tho' at the time he was appointed, Clerk (June 1792) he must have been in very poor, & they loved poor

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during my residence with them. Capt B. was at the time I went to write in his office, about 50 years of age inclining to corpulancy - was certainly one of the last & altogether the laziest man I ever saw. he was an inveterate smoker & had a great repugnance to locomotion. He went to the town of Winchester, every Saturday, to "see company", except that, he scarcely ever went off the place or even on it. He had a small but very good tract of land, & a few very mean Negroes to cultivate his farm. They raised plenty of corn, but he was no farmer - & did not keep an overseer - raised but little stock. Perhaps pork enough to supply the white family. The Negroes (poor Devils) did not get much. Mr. & Mrs. B. were cousins. He (I think) was raised in Hanover County, Virginia. She in Charlottesville, Albermarle County. Her name was Moore, she was the sister of Sen Colo. Crockett of Jessamine, & of McCalla of Lexington Genl. John M. McCalla, at present (March 1848) one of the Auditors of the Treasury of the U.S. is her nephew. Wm. H. Moore of Talladega, is also a nephew. I never saw a man & wife so well matched - so perfectly congenial in their dispositions. She too was a "great smoker" and they spent the principal part of their time in smoking & conversation. They were perfectly contented & happy - lives in an indifferent cabin in a plain, simple manner - their diet was of the most common kind - meat, corn bread & milk being almost the only articles - tea & coffee were unknown. They had seven children, two sons and five daughters - the eldest son (James P.) is I presume, the present Clerk of the County Court of Clarke County. They did not educate their children but I never could account for it, particularly as he was himself a well educated man. He was a first rate Greek & Latin scholar, the consequence was , when his children grew up, they labored under great disadvantages - his daughters did not marry well. His stingyness might have

18 been the cause of his not educating his children; for he was the stingyest man, I ever knew - too much so to live well- or even decently - they had not a good set of knives & forks during the time, I lived with them - and yet wife, daughters & all were perfectly cheerful & happy - and so was I, for the good old Gentleman & Lady were very kind to me, and their daughters, tho' they labored under great disadvantages were ladies, and as kind as sisters could have been to me. I retain for the whole family the most affectionate regards. In addition to their relations before mentioned, they were connected by blood & marriage, with several distinguished families in Virginia & Kenty - particularly the Clark's Henderson's & Lewis's. Capt Bullock was indeed a father to me. I don't think there was any stipulation between him & my brother as to the length of time I was to serve - or write in the office. Kentucky was then a new country, & I presume the understanding was that I was to remain until I could get a "clerkship" in some new county, which I could have done, before I was fifteen years of age - the clerkship of Floyd County, being offered to me at that very tender age, but it was a new, wild mountanous county, & I was not willing to accept it. When I went into the office, I found there a very unpromising looking young fellow, named John Mitchell, who had been in the office three weeks. He was probably 16 or 17 years of age, exceedingly awkward & uncouth in his appearance - wretchedly dressed. His coat was of blue cloth - had been made for a large man, but [ragee'd?] to come near fitting him, his pantaloons (called trousers then) were of the coarsest kind of striped linsey woolsey - his shirt of about 500 hemp cloth, shoes he had none - but he wore a pair of moccasins that looked like they had been made of un dressed [undressed] "Bull's hide". I don't think he had any waistcoat: and yet this "ogre" was a son