MOTHER AND SONS by Canada Presbyterian

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 16.

MOTHER AND SONS.

By Canada Presbyterian

DOES any boy who reads this paper feel that he has a hard time with his chores about the house? I wish he would read this account of a family of four—father, mother, and two sons—who lived years ago "in a small house situated in the roughest locality of the rocky town of Ashford, Connecticut."

The family was very poor; a few acres of stony land, a dozen sheep, and one cow supported them. The sheep clothed them and the cow gave milk and did the work of a horse in plowing and harrowing; corn-bread, milk, and bean porridge were their fare. The father being laid aside by ill health, the burden of supporting the family rested on the mother; she did her work in the house, and helped the boys do their work on the farm. Once in the dead of winter, one of the boys required a new suit of clothes. There was neither money nor wool on hand. The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from a sheep, and in one week the suit was on the boy. The shorn sheep was protected from the cold by a garment made of braided straw. The family lived four miles from the "meeting-house," yet every Sunday the mother and her two sons walked to church. One of these sons became the pastor of a church in Franklin, Conn., to which he preached for sixty-one years; two generations went forth from that church to make the world better. The other son also became a minister, and then one of the most successful college presidents; hundreds of young men were moulded by him.

The heroic Christian woman's name was Deborah Nott; she was the mother of the Rev. Samuel Nott, D. D., and of Eliphalet Nott, D. D., LL.D., president of Union College.—Canada Presbyterian.