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I've got written approximately Jamestown within the “Gilded Age,” a e-book of mine, however it used to be from rumour, no longer from own wisdom. My father left an excellent property in the back of him within the area around approximately Jamestown—75,000 acres. * while he died in 1847 he had owned it approximately two decades. The taxes have been virtually not anything (five funds a 12 months for the whole), and he had regularly paid them on a regular basis and saved his identify excellent. He had continuously stated that the land wouldn't turn into worthy in his time, yet that it'd be a commodious provision for his teenagers a few day. It contained coal, copper, iron and bushes, and he stated that during the process time railways could pierce to that zone, after which the valuables will be estate actually in addition to in identify. It additionally produced a wild grape of a promising variety. He had despatched a few samples to Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, to get his judgment upon them, and Mr. Longworth had stated that they might make pretty much as good wine as his Catawbas. The land contained a majority of these riches; and in addition oil, yet my father didn't understand that, and naturally in these early days he could have cared not anything approximately it if he had identified it. The oil used to be no longer chanced on until eventually approximately 1895. I want I owned a number of acres of the land now. within which case i wouldn't be writing Autobiographies for a residing. My father’s loss of life cost was once, “Cling to the land and wait; allow not anything beguile it clear of you. ” My mother’s favourite cousin, James Lampton, who figures within the “Gilded Age” as “Colonel Sellers,” consistently acknowledged of that land—and acknowledged it with blazing enthusiasm, too,— “There’s thousands in it—millions! ” it's real that he continually acknowledged that approximately everything—and was once continually wrong, too; yet this time he was once correct; which indicates guy who is going round with a prophecy-gun ought by no means to get discouraged; if he'll sustain his center and fireplace at every thing he sees, he's guaranteed to hit whatever via and by way of. Many folks appeared “Colonel ” as a fiction, an invention, an extravagant impossibility, and did me the dignity to name him a “creation”; yet they have been incorrect. I basically placed him on paper as he was once; he was once now not anyone who can be exaggerated. The incidents which seemed such a lot extravagant, either within the booklet and at the degree, weren't innovations of mine yet have been proof of his lifestyles; and that i used to be current after they have been constructed. John T. Raymond’s audiences used to come back on the subject of demise with laughter over the turnip-eating scene; yet, extravagant because the scene used to be, it used to be devoted to the evidence, in all its absurd information. the object occurred in Lampton’s personal apartment, and that i was once current. in truth i used to be myself the visitor who ate the turnips. within the fingers of a good actor that piteous scene might have dimmed any manly spectator’s eyes with tears, and racked his ribs aside with laughter while. yet Raymond used to be nice in funny portrayal in simple terms. In that he used to be incredible, he was once wonderful—in a be aware, nice; in all issues else he was once a pigmy of the pigmies. the genuine Colonel , as I knew him in James Lampton, was once a pathetic and gorgeous spirit, a manly guy, a instantly and honorable guy, a guy with a tremendous, silly, unselfish middle in his bosom, a guy born to be enjoyed; and he was once enjoyed by means of all his pals, and by way of his family members worshipped.