​​Armchair Genealogist

Well we must have something to keep house with, we have no dishes nor iron ware and Hulda, your wife has not many she would like to lend and we would rather have of our own than to borrow. Well, he said that he would go with me down to Chandlers store and see if he would trust us with what I wanted to git to keep house with. We got into his sleigh and went to Chandlers store. He told Mr Chandler how he brought a young man thare that wanted to git some things and wanted to git trusted for them but he dident think it would be safe for him to trust me and if he trusted me, he must do it on his own risk and that I had been away in to the western country and and wasted what I had taken in with me and come back with all most nothing and now expected to git trusted for more to waste.

Mr Chandler asked me what my name was, I told him. He wanted to know what I was to uncle John. I told him I was his half  brother and the Porters in that settlement was my cousins. He inquired about the Buffalow country and of the burning of the city. I told him that I had luck and had left all my household furniture and had nothing to keep house with. We had fled from thare and left all our furniture standing in the house and had taken nothing with us but our fether bed and beding and our wearing cloaths and a fiew tin dishes and spoons and our knives and forks, some things as would not brake by dashing about.

John told Chandler that I could tell a pretty ful story but he must run his own risk if he trusted me. Chandler said, “Uncle John, I know what you came here for. You knew that this young man was a stranger to me and you thought that I would not trust him and you would have to git what things he needed on your own back. You will not git anything off me tonight unless you pay me down for them for I wont trust you with one dollars worth of any thing that I have in the store but this young man I will trust. He may have all he wants and I will wait for my pay until he gits money to pay me and if he never pays me, it is none of your business. Young man, just call for all that you want of anything I have in the store and pay me whin you please but uncle John hant have one dollars worth unless he pays me down or steals it.”

They had buraged one another until they had both got badly riled, almost mad. I stood thare leaning on the counter and dident know wha was best to do, whether to git any things or not. Mr Chandler told me not to be backward, just take what you please and not mind about thare loose talk. I told him that I would take some things but I didn’t want any bad feelings about it. He said thare would be none, that uncle John and him often joked one another and what they had said then was only a joke, and fer me to take what I needed.

Well I got some iron ware and crockery and a water pail and I think a wash tub. I took as little as I thought we could do with and be comfortable. What I took amounted to fifteen dollars. That I remember verry well on account of what past between him and John. Chandler urged me to take more. I told him I thought we could make out with what I had taken and Mr. Chandler, John and me all drank together freely and was as friendly as ever. John was a great lover of liquer and all wais cept it in his house of different sorts but I never new him to git drunk but he would get joust and lively.