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he stopped the mogul in front of the general office. So long as the excitement of the run was on, so long as he saw the absolute necessity of doing his whole duty until the desired end was accomplished, so long as he had a reputation to protect, his will power subordinated all else. But when several of us engineers ran up to the engine, we found Miles hanging to the reverse lever by his safety cord, in a dead faint. We carried him into the depot, and one of the doctors administered

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without ceremony, the ankle replaced and hot bandages applied, and other repairs were made, which took up most of the afternoon. When the doctor got through, he called Mrs. Bailey and myself out into the parlor, and said that we must not let people crowd in to see the patient; that his wounds were not dangerous, but very painful; that Miles

"I talked with the doctor and the nurse."

was weak from loss of blood, and that his constitution was not in particularly good condition. The doctor, in fact, thought that Miles would be in great luck if he got out of the scrape without a run of fever. Thereafter Mrs. Bailey referred all visit

ors to me. I talked with the doctor and the nurse, and we all agreed that it would stop most inquisitive people to simply say that the patient had suffered an amputation.

That evening, when I went home, there were two anxious women to receive me, and the younger of them looked suspiciously as if

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she had been crying. I told them something of the accident, how it all happened, and about Miles's injuries. Both of them wanted to go right down and help "do something," but I told them of the doctor's order and of his fears.

By this time the reporters came; and I called them into the parlor, and then let them pump me. I detailed the accident in full, but declined to tell anything about Miles or

"The reporters came, and I called them into the par lor, and then let them pump me."

his history. "The fact is," said I," that you people won't give an engineer his just dues. Now, if Miles Diston had been a fireman and had climbed down a ladder with a child, you would have his picture in the paper and call him a hero and all that sort of thing; but here is a man crushed, bleeding, with broken bones, and a crippled engine, who stands on one foot, lashed to his reverse lever, for eighty miles, and making the fastest time ever made over the road, because he knew that others were suffering for the relief he brought."

"That's nerve," said one of the young

men.

"Nerve!" said I, "nerve! Why, that man knows no more about fear than a lion; and think of the sand of the man! This afternoon he sat up and watched the doctor perform that amputation without a quiver; he wouldn't take chloroform; he wouldn't even lie down."

"Was the amputation above or below the knee?" asked the reporter.

"Below" (I didn't state how far). "Which foot?"

"Left."

"He is in no great danger?"

"Yes, the doctor says he will be a very sick man for some time-if he recovers at all. Boys," I added, "there's one thing you might mention-and I think you ought to-and that is that it is such heroes as this that give a road its reputation; people feel as though they were safe behind such men." If Miles Diston had read the papers the next morning he would have died of flattery; the reporters did themselves proud, and they

foot for Miles, who was along.

made a whole column of the "iron will and nerves of steel"

shown in that amputation without ether." Marie Venot was full of sympathy for Miles; she wanted to see him, but Mrs. Bailey referred her to me, and she finally went home, still inquiring every day about him. I don't think she had much other feeling for him than pity. She was down again a week later, and I talked freely of going to pick out a wooden improving right

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Meanwhile, the papers far and near copied the articles about the "Hero of the Throttle," and the item about the road's interest in heroes attracted the attention of our general passenger agent-he liked the free advertising and wanted more of it-so he called me in one day, and asked if I knew of a choice run they could give Miles as a reward of merit.

I told him, if he wanted to make a show of gratitude from the road, and get a big free advertisement in the papers, to have Miles appointed superintendent of the Spring Creek branch, where a practical man was needed, and then give it out "cold" that Miles had been rewarded by being made superintendent of the road. This was afterwards done, with a great hurrah (in the papers).

The second Sunday after Miles was hurt, Marie was down, and I thought I'd have a little fun with her, and see how she regarded Miles.

"There's quite a romance connected with Diston's affair," said I at the dinner table, rather carelessly. "There is a young lady visiting here in town-I hear she is very wealthy-who saw Miles when we took him off his engine. She sends flowers every day, calls him her hero, and is just crazy for him to get well so she can see him."

"Who is she, did you say?" asked my wife.

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"I forget her name," said I, "but I am here to tell you that she will get Miles if there is any chance in the world. Her father is an army officer, but she says that Miles Diston is a greater hero than the army ever produced.".

"She's a hussy," said Marie.

I don't know whether you would call that a bull or a bear movement on the Diston stock, but it went up I could see that.

A week later Miles was able to come down to our house for dinner, and my wife asked Marie to come also. I met her at the depot, and after she was safe in the buggy, I told her that Miles was up at the house. She nearly jumped out; but I quieted her, and told her she mustn't notice or say a word about Miles's game leg, as he was extremely sensitive about it.

My wife was in the kitchen, and I went to the barn to put out the horse. Marie went to the sitting-room to avoid the parlor and Miles, but he was there, I guess, and Marie found her hero, for when they came out to dinner he had his arm around her. They were married a month later, and went to Washington, stopping to see us on the way back.

As I came home that night with my patent dinner pail, and with two rows of wrinkles and a load of responsibility on my brow, Marie shook her fist in my face and called me" an old story-teller."

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'Story-teller," said I; "what story?" Oh, what story? That leg story, of course, you old cheat."

"What leg story?"

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she looked for that wooden foot and only found a slightly flat wheel." "Here

"That's just like 'em," said I. Marie only expected a part of a hero, and we give her a whole man, and she kicksthat's gratitude for you."

"I got my hero all right, though," said Marie; "you told me a big fib just the same, but I could kiss you for it."

"Don't you do that," said I; "but if the Lord should send you many blessings, and any of 'em are boys, you might name one after me."

She said she'd do it-and she did.

MARY TODD LINCOLN.

REMINISCENCES AND LETTERS OF THE WIFE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

BY EMILY TODD HELM.

OMPARATIVELY little is John Todd, David Todd (the great grand

known concerning the family history of Mary Todd Lincoln, although the press of the country has recorded much that has not been agreeable for her friends and relatives to read, often giving totally erroneous ideas of her; and thus the public has insensibly been prejudiced against her. Her ancestry can be traced to a long line of men distinguished in the early history of Pennsylvania and other States. She was related to the families of Parker, Bodley, Owens, McFarland, Findlay, Major, and Porter, of Pennsylvania. Her great grandfather, General Andrew Porter, was the close friend of Washington. The Porters furnished Pennsylvania with a governor, and two of them filled cabinet positions. What is known of the Todd family is honorable. Of the covenanters captured at Bothwell Bridge, two hundred and fifty were sentenced to be transported to America. Two hundred of these were drowned in a shipwreck off the Orkneys; fifty escaped, and afterward took part in the defense of Londonderry. Among those drowned were Robert Todd of Fenwick and James Todd of Dunbar. In 1679, the same year in which these two were drowned, John Todd, their brother, fled from the persecutions of Claverhouse in Scotland, and sought refuge in Downs County, Ireland. In 1720 his son Robert Todd (born in 1697) came with his family from Ireland to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1775. His first wife died before he left Ireland, but he married Isabella Hamilton in America. The mother of Robert Todd was Isabella Parker. Many families of note in Pennsylvania were related to her.

father of Mrs. Lincoln), was born April 8, 1723. He was a farmer, and in 1760 bought lands of the proprietors of Pennsylvania on the south side of the Phoenixville and Peckowen Bridge road, near a corner where his brother Robert Todd kept a store. In 1783 he sold his farm, receiving $12,000 for it, and the next year removed to Kentucky, to join his sons Robert and Levi Todd. An older son, Colonel John, had been killed in a fight with the Indians at the Blue Licks, Kentucky, two years before; and it is said that it was because the mother grieved so at his loss and was so anxious to be with the sons who were left, that the removal from Pennsylvania was made. David Todd died in 1785, the year after he went to Kentucky.

His wife was Hannah Owens of Pennsylvania, daughter of Owen Owens. They had four sons, of whom one, Owen, settled in Ohio; and he, as well as the others, bore a brave part in the early Indian wars. The other three, John, Robert, and Levi Todd, were educated in Virginia, in a classical school taught by their uncle, the Rev. John Todd. The eldest, Colonel John Todd, studied law, and was the first civil governor and lieutenant-commander of what is now the great State of Illinois. His record or minute book is in the possession of the Chicago Historical Society, and forms an interesting chapter in the history of our country. England was forced to cede this rich country to the United States, as a fruit of the Revolutionary War, won by the valor of General George Rogers Clarke in 1778, and his valiant soldiers, who numbered among them the three Todd brothers. Upon Patrick Henry, the first Governor of Virginia, devolved the duty of appointing a John Todd, son of the above Robert Todd, lieutenant-commander of Illinois, and the graduated at Princeton in 1749, located in man chosen for this responsible position (on Louisa County, Virginia, and became so dis- the 12th of December, 1778) was Colonel tinguished as a Presbyterian minister, John Todd. He had removed from Virginia scholar, and educator, that it has been said, to the County of Kentucky in 1775, and had that no history of the Presbyterian Church become prominent in its house of delegates in Virginia could be written without honor- or representatives. In 1777 he was chosen able mention of him. The brother of this to represent Kentucky in the General As

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sembly of Virginia, and in 1778 he and his brothers formed a part of the expedition to Illinois County.

For three years Colonel John Todd held his position as lieutenant-commander, devoting most of the time to its interest. In 1780 he was again chosen a delegate to the Virginia legislature. In this year Kentucky (county) was divided into three countiesLincoln, Jefferson, and Fayette; and Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, appointed Colonel John Todd Colonel of Fayette County; Daniel Boone, LieutenantColonel; and Thomas Marshall, Surveyor. During the summer of 1782, an Indian invasion aroused the county, and the militia was summoned to repel it. Colonel Todd, as senior colonel, took command of the little army sent in pursuit of the retreating savages. This force included Daniel Boone and many illustrious Kentuckians. On the 18th August, 1782, they came up with the Indians at the Blue Licks, and one of the most disastrous battles to the whites ever fought on Kentucky soil followed. Colonel John Todd fell at the head of his men, shot through the body. Nearly one-half of the little army was killed or wounded. Among the wounded were his brothers, General Levi and General Robert Todd. General Robert Todd was wounded also in the defense of McClellan's Fort (now Georgetown, Kentucky), in 1776. He continued an active soldier all through the troubles with the Indians.

General Levi Todd, the third brother, wa. the grandfather of Mrs. Lincoln. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1756, studied law and surveying, and was one of the defenders of Harrod's Fort in Kentucky, and also assisted General Ben Logan to hold St. Asaph's at Stanford, Kentucky. He was lieutenant in George Rogers Clarke's campaign for the conquest of Illinois; was appointed Major, Colonel, Brigadier, and jor-General of the Kentucky forces. died in 1807 at Lexington, Kentucky. wife was Jean Briggs, a daughter of Captain Samuel Briggs, who was a brother-inlaw of General Ben Logan and one of his fifty picked men.

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Å son of General Levi Todd, Robert Smith Todd, was the father of Mary Todd Lincoln. He was a merchant of considerable wealth, and was for many years president of a bank at Lexington, Kentucky. He served in both branches of the Kentucky legislature, and was a man of generous and refined nature, belonging to the old Virginia school and known throughout the State for his hospital

ity. He served as captain in the War of 1812. His first wife was a daughter of Major Robert Parker of Lexington, Kentucky. His second wife was a daughter of Dr. Alexander Humphreys of Staunton, Virginia. Mary Todd Lincoln was but a child when this second marriage was made. Four of the brothers of Mrs. Lincoln entered the service of the Confederate States. One, Samuel Todd, was killed at the battle of Corinth; another, Alexander Todd, aged twentythree years, was killed at the battle of Baton Rouge; and a third, David Todd, received a bullet wound that, after a long illness, caused his death in 1866. The fourth brother was a surgeon, and is still living, at Barnwell, South Carolina. Three of Mrs. Lincoln's sisters are living: Mrs. Frances Wallace of Springfield, Illinois; Mrs. Margaret Kellogg of Cincinnati, Ohio; and Mrs. Ben Hardin Helm (widow of General Ben Hardin Helm, who was killed at Chickamauga, September 20, 1863) of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

An interesting account of Mrs. Lincoln in her girlhood is given in the following passage from a letter written to me by Mrs. Elizabeth L. Norris, of Garden City, Kansas, September 28, 1895:

My first recollection of your sister Mary runs back to the time when your father lived on Short Street (Lexington, Ky.), before your sister Elizabeth married Ninian w. Edwards,* of Springfield, Ill. Mary Todd was then ten years old. I was in age between her and Frances (now Mrs. Dr. Wallace, of Springfield, Ill.), and while Frances and I were in harmony, I entered more into Mary's life. Mary was bright and talkative and warmhearted. She was far advanced over girls of her age in education. She was a pupil of the celebrated Mr. Ward. He was a splendid educator; his requirements and rules were very strict, and woe to her who did not conform to the letter. Mary accepted the condition of things, and never came under his censure. We occupied the same room, and I can see her now as she sat on one side of a table, poring over her books, and I on the other, with a candle between. She was very studious, with a retentive memory and a mind that enabled her to grasp and thoroughly understand the lessons she was required to learn. Mr. Ward required his pupils to recite some of their lessons before breakfast. On a pleasant summer morning nature would hardly rebel; but what an ordeal to rise in winter by candle light and make the needful preparations to encounter the furious blasts! I have nothing but the most pleasant memories of her at that time. I never saw any display I was an inmate of your father's home. Sixty-six years of temper or heard her reprimanded during the months

*Ninian W. Edwards was the son of Governor Ninian Ed

wards, of Illinois. He was born April 15, 1809, near Frankfort, Kentucky. His father was at that time Chief Justice of Kentucky, but removed to Illinois the same year the son was born. Ninian Edwards was educated at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, where he met Elizabeth Todd, the eldest sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and she became his wife. His home was one of great hospitality. He served his State in a number of positions of honor. Mrs. Edwards was an exceedingly attractive woman. Her winning sweetness and gentleness of which is not likely to be forgotten.

character have never been excelled, and have left an impression

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