[Letter to William Trout.]

ΓÇö*s?\u27l% 120 Trout Family History In due time, when the wheat crop was harvested and known to be by far the finest and most abundant of all the previous years and the price also good, you may be sure there was a thankful and happy people, who never afterwards had a renewal of any thing approaching that trying year\u27s experience. From the foregoing the reason will be manifest why I was diverted from my preaching purpose formed at Williamsville. Paul was under necessity to preach. My necessity lay another way. I was the oldest son and my father\u27s namesake, so I must stand for his honor and the family interest. My known efficient line of work was mechanics, which evidently I must continue. Edward was my second in the same purpose but ahead of me in money efficiency, toward its accomplishment. No one blamed John for striking out for himself, it was the best course in his judgment and was so respected. He soon after married and went to Toronto. To start a nice little business like the manufacture of rakes, without a knowledge of it, or money to meet the cost, simply studying it out, and inventing and making the cheap machinery to accomplish the work, which successfully met the needs of the trade, and helped to carry the family and others through a severe crisis, all in about eight or nine months, was deservedly regarded as no small creditable accomplishment. Based on the experience already gained, and some knowledge of the methods of other manufacturers, we proceeded to replace, as fast as we could, our temporary machinery for something more efficient and stable. Cast and wrought iron took the place of wood, old processes with their machines were discarded for those more effective and economical. This course was kept up for two or three years. The carding and cloth-dressing machines were disposed of, which gave more space for our new work. Also an addition was built which doubled the capacity of the shop, and the business was placed on something like a permanent footing. When our friends would want an afternoon\u27s holiday, they would come to see and admire our (to them) wonderful shop. In the year 1861, the heirs of Wm. Laycock, from whom father purchased the mill property, began to press for the o ; X -. 2016-05-31 2016-05-31 http://cdm16745.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/p16745coll2/id/2280 2280 2281.jp2 /p16745coll2/image/2281.jp2The Coming of the Muirs 121 final payments, and we had no means to meet them; they foreclosed the mortgage, and took possession of the property and ran the saw mill, leaving us the free use of our shop, and second^ claim on the use of the water power, and the liberty of cutting hardwood lumber on the land. This arrangement continued two years, and Charles Hugh Jay and myself formed a new company, Trout & Jay, to carry on the business of harvest tools and other articles of similar manufacture. About the same time, the Laycock family found they were running the mill at a constant financial loss; so they quit working it, and offered the property for sale. Receiving no offer, they again offered it to us on such favorable terms that it was repurchased by Trout & Jay, who at once began arranging for a more thorough and systematic conduct of the business, with prospects of a fair degree of success. THE COMING. OF THE MUIRS About this time (1863), on one midsummer day, a grownup beardless boy called at our mill applying for work. I asked him how he came to look for work with us in our secluded valley. He replied that he had tried all over town to get work and failed, and was advised by several that our place was the likeliest to find it. I told him our spring rush was over, and we had then nothing for him to do. His fine, boyish face and frank open manners interested me. I said to him, You are evidently a stranger in this part of the country? Yes, he replied, I am; my brother and I are students from Wisconsin University at Madison, and we are spending the summer vacation here in Canada botanizing. A couple of my farmer customers were standing by, and that big new word Botanizing aroused their curiosity. What\u27s that? Why, 1 said, the boys are examining and studying the different kinds of plants. What for? For medicine? No! but for knowledge. They looked bewildered, but said no more. He explained that his brother and he found it best to separate for a while, and meet again at a certain town, but somehow they failed making connections, and each was no doubt hunting the other; also his money was about all gone, and he must 66 iff 122 Trout Family History find work till he could get word from home or from his brother. I again regretfully told him I had no work, nor could I tell him where he would get it. He left, and in the evening I was surprised to find him working for the man who was running the sawmill. I said to him, I am glad you got a job. Oh, just working for my board. Is that all ? Why, you come with us, you\u27ll get better board and at least a dollar a week. Thank you, I shall be glad to do so. So I soon introduced Mr. Daniel Muir, of Portage, Wisconsin, to my sister-housekeeper, and he soon became to us, not a needy young tramp, but a most welcome companionable guest. He remained with us about six weeks; then through a few home communications his brother was finally located, and he left us to join him, and they continued their journeyings for a couple of months longer until winter was likely to set in, and snow would cover up nearly all of the plant life. They had not returned to the Wisconsin University because of a positive order from their parents that Dan should remain in Canada while the military draft was enforced in the northern United States, and John, his elder brother, being of manhood age, was urgently requested to remain with him. While John\u27s feelings did not coincide with their wish, yet especially for his mother and Dan\u27s sake, he complied. So now on the approach of winter, like the squirrels and marmots and bears, the great question was, where shall we den up? not in the inactivity of the two last mentioned animals, but with the common characteristic activity of the squirrels, the Trouts and Muirs as well. So the question was not alone, where shall we go? but also, what shall we do? (The Muirs\u27never knew idleness.) After John had proposed several places that fell under his observation, and were considered, Dan suggested our mill place. It would be as much like a winter den as they could find, and though the place was not our family home, yet a good part of it would be there; and that we were a studious, well-informed lively lot of boys and girls, some of them school teachers, and they were all in touch with others of the same style; and wc had a large shop in which they could likely have employment, or they could work in the woods getting out logs for the mill. The Coming of the Muirs 123 Dan\u27s proposal carried the day. One evening, after returning from town, I met our former good boy friend, Dan Muir, who at once introduced me to his brother John, who after a few minutes of general friendly chat laid before me their situation very much as I have outlined it above; and hoped we might make some mutual good arrangement in regard to work for the winter, at least such that would be profitable to us and helpful to them. After due consideration an agreement was made, and their first work was to assist in building an addition to our shop, or rake factory as it was afterwards known. They remained with us altogether a year and one- half, or until near the close of the war, when Dan went home and John remained to complete a contract which he had entered into with us to make one thousand dozen rakes and turn thirty thousand broom handles. The broom handles were turned and stored in every available space about the factory for final seasoning, and a good start made on the rake contract, when one stormy night, near the first of March, 1866, the factory took fire; and sawmill and factory with broom handles and partly manufactured rakes all were completely destroyed, and no insurance. We had recently paid the second payment on the property, which was now forfeited. We had accounts to collect, and debts to pay, one of which would about balance the other. A good span of horses and wagon was the only firm property left to us. We settled with John Muir under the peculiar circumstances as equitably as only Christian brothers could. I don\u27t remember the exact figures of the account, somewhere about three hundred dollars, and after paying him what cash we could scratch up, enough to carry him a good journey into the United States, he cut down the account to two hundred dollars, taking our individual promises to pay, each one hundred dollars, without time limit and without interest. A few years afterwards in San Francisco, when relating some of his experiences, he showed these notes to his friends, who derisively asked him when he expected payment. Never mind, he replied, those notes will be paid. Laughingly, they responded, Won\u27t you kindly let us know when you get the cash? They regarded it as a 124 Trout Family History good, soft joke on John. Not long afterwards he wrote me that he was contemplating marriage, and that he never began to feel poor till he faced the calculations regarding it, and also intimated the acceptability of the promised fund. Though poor enough myself, I got together a hundred dollars and sent it to him. Muir at once showed his jibing friends the cash, and had the laugh on them, who said, Well that is pretty good, there is one Christian conscience in the world, but that is only one, wait till we see the other paid. That will be all right, too, one of these days, replied John, and so it subsequently proved. APPRECIATIVE REFERENCES TO JOHN MUIR The first winter of John Muir\u27s stay with us he regarded it as likely to be the only one, so he took up no special course of study, but gave us pretty freely the benefit of his fine conversational powers. He was making acquaintances with us, and we were endeavoring to fully understand him; and when it comes to measuring up and determining the extent of the capabilities, disabilities, liabilities and various other abilities of a gifted young man, who had the advantage of about three years\u27 university study and training, and a continuous study of nature\u27s great book as well, it will be easy to see that we had much the hardest sizing-up job. It was easy to admire, but to understand and appreciate him required some knowledge of the subject matter of his studies and his modes of thought. Though ardently devoted to science, as well as the study of nature, yet the agnostic tendencies that had their beginning about that time found no sympathy with him. With him there was no dark chilly reasoning that chance and the survival of the fittest accounted for all things. On the contrary, that God cared for the sparrows of the air and the lilies of the field, was something that his kindly nature could most readily understand and heartily appreciate. He examined nature with a lover\u27s eye, and he saw not only an All-Creator, but an All- Father and Protector. In temperament and parental training between myself and he there was much in common. In my thirteenth year I read and studied Goldsmith\u27s Natural His- Appreciative References to John Muir 125 tory, to which was added Brown\u27s Anecdotes of Animals. Though Goldsmith could hardly be called a naturalist, yet he could write interestingly on any subject which he treated, and when I read Goldsmith I was certainly in close contact with nature and with very little else, such as the native woods and waters of Canada can exemplify. So that Goldsmith at the least helped to make me an interested observer. Not a studious, methodical systematic persistent observer like Muir, but one that had always an interested eye with regard to what was going on about me. Beside this I had from childhood a strong bent for astronomy, mastering as well as I could all accessible information regarding it. In this Muir and I more nearly mated. He was a real live inventor, while I was also so regarded, yet I felt I could not by any means take rank with him, but I was easily awarded the lead in practical mechanics, as my experience, if nothing more, would have justified. But John and I were not the only frogs in that little pond, there were others there to croak as well as we. There was Mary, our steady housekeeper, who had also been a teacher, and three other sisters, one or more of whom would come from the home farm, or the schools where they were teaching, and visit us on Saturdays along with other teachers; also my business partner, C. H. Jay, who lived with us, and Dan Muir and my brother Peter, who was a great reader and never forgot anything; all young lively intelligent people, with common aims and purposes, and yet each with his distinct individuality, which, in discussion, was often decidedly pronounced, but which rarely became ungentlemanly. If, as Garfield said, that Mark Hopkins and a good student sitting on a log would make a university, so I should think that John Muir, though himself then a student, and others learning and contributing, our log house in the mill hollow might modestly claim the same dignity. I have referred to similarity of temperament, and parental conditions and environment between Muir and myself. These would account for my tendency to invention and mechanics, as my father was at the least a good mechanic, and my ability was largely acquired; but with John it was altogether different, . sass.\u27* * 1 126 Trout Family History his father was in no sense a mechanic, yet with the seeming absence of the hereditary impulse, and the usual necessary training, both of which I had, he showed himself to be a real born inventive designing mechanic. While still a small boy, he began fixing things about the house and farm, and later while still in his minority, took methodical and regular times out of each morning\u27s sleep to construct special clocks and other intricate machines of his own original design. In this I am not dependent on his or anyone\u27s story because I examined the constructions. When John Muir made his rake and broom handle contract with us, he also made a proposition to be given the liberty of improving the machinery as he might determine, and that he should receive therefor half the economical results of such improvement during a given period. An arrangement of this kind was entered into, and he began with our self-feeding lathe for turning rake, fork and broom handles and similar articles, which I considered nearly perfect; by rendering this more completely automatic, he nearly doubled the output of broom handles. He placed one handle in position while the other was being turned. It required great activity for him to put away the turned handle, and placed the new one in position during the turning process. When he could do this there would be eight broom handles turned in a minute. Corresponding to this I had on the floor immediately above him a machine that would automatically saw from the round log, after it was fully slabbed or rounded, eight handles per minute, but setting in the log and the slabbing process occupied about three-eighths of the time. This, with keeping saws and place in order, cut the daily output to about two thousand five hundred. John had his drawbacks in similar ways, and at best could not get ahead of the sawing. It was a delight to see those machines at work. He devised and started the construction of several new automatic machines, to make the different parts of the hand rakes, having previously submitted and discussed them with me, from which our intimacy may be judged. Appreciative References to John Muir 127 Like all others who have made much of themselves, and much for the world of humanity, Muir was a most diligent student and systematic worker. He would make inroads on his time for sleep and recreation. In fact, for the latter, there was no time allowed. What fun we had was generally caught on the fly. For him, seven hours was the allotment for sleep, that was from ten in the evening to five in the morning. The encroachments were made on the first part of the period, when the study became more especially interesting; an hour or two was not considered, and the clockwould strike eleven or twelve before retiring, but that made no difference about the rising. That was previously determined, and unalterably fixed. His bed was mounted on a cross axle, sustained by two high pedestals, one on each side, and nearer the head than the foot; so that if the foot was not held up it would fall and lie on the floor, and the bed would be reclining at an angle of about forty-five degrees. A rod screwed to the ceiling, and hooked to the foot, sustained it in the level position. At night, however, a special trigger was affixed to the rod, and sustained the bed. A string connected the trigger to his specially constructed clock, which at the determined hour, five in the morning, would pull the trigger, and release the bed, which would instantly fall, leaving the occupant in a half-upright position, with his feet on the floor. If he lay crooked in the bed, or crossways, he was apt to be rolled out sharply to the floor. Our house had only board partitions, ordinary sounds could be heard in every room; so that when John\u27s bed fell it was a wake up signal for all in the house; but if we heard a double shock, which would be caused by a roll out, then we had the signal for a good laugh on John, and he had further jolly reminders of this at the breakfast table. Charlie (Mr. Jay) generally led off in these jibes. When the bed fell, an arm swung around, into the fingers of which had been placed a match, which in swinging, rubbed over a piece of sandpaper, and being ignited, came to rest over the wick of an oil lamp, perched in its regular place on a shelf. The lamp was thus lighted with the fall of the bed. A sponge bath in the tub was the next move, then dressing, ^.4^,1 128 Trout Family History which was followed by study, till breakfast time. Then the day was for work except the noon hours, when there was always the handy book, and place to turn to, and if there was one minute or five minutes before eating, it was used in reading; and it was the same after dinner for the remainder of the noon hour, unless some very interesting topic was started at the table that must be extended beyond the meal. MUIR IN INDIANAPOLIS Soon after the burning of our mill, as has been previously mentioned, John Muir left us, and went to Indianapolis, Indiana, and engaged with a wagon manufacturing firm; they soon discovered John\u27s ability in fixing things, and gave him the care of all the machinery. After he had been there about four months, one day, while unlacing a belt, using the tang end of a file to pull out the laces (such as I have done hundreds of times), in which he had a hard pull with a sudden release, which allowed the strain on his arm to plant the tang of the file into the center of his right eye, causing the vitreous humor to run out, it was thought the eye was totally lost; but with highly skillful treatment, and eminent vis naturae or good healing force, his sight was fully recovered. An angular corner in the pupil of the eye was testimony during his lifetime of the entrance of the file. He had about one month\u27s confinement in a dark room, and was gradually brought to the light. While in this confinement, as he remarked to me in a letter, he had the grandest opportunity for prolonged meditation. He decided that life was too short and uncertain, and time too valuable, to spend it mending belts, and sharpening saws. While he was looking after wagon-making machinery, God was making a world; and if his eyesight was spared, he would devote his time to watching the process. Accordingly, about six weeks after the accident, he settled up with his employers, paid his bills, and started a cross country journey on foot, from Indianapolis to South Carolina. He rather avoided the ordinary roads, preferring the woods, river banks and mountains, plant and general nature study being his object. At Charleston he had a weary time waiting Muir in Indianapolis 129 for money from home. South Carolina had scarcely begun to recover from the devastations of the war, food was scarce, and very limited was the money to buy. He took his abode in a half-ruined church outside the city, from which for six successive days he made his anxious journey to the post office, for the needed money that was to come from home. When it finally arrived, he continued his way southward through Florida, then over into Cuba, making the double journey through its extent; then taking in some of the West India islands, he crossed the isthmus of Panama, and took steamer for San Francisco, from thence he started for the mountains. In order to fill up his depleted exchequer, he engaged as a shepherd for a large flock of sheep, the migrations of his flock enabling him to see the country and pursue his studies, which were never lost sight of. Shortly previous to this, Yosemite valley had been discovered, and its possibilities as a great wonderland for tourists estimated. A company was formed, a stage road projected, and a hotel was to be built in the valley. The inaccessibility of the valley called for a sawmill to be built on the ground, in order to make the lumber to build the hotel. Muir was in touch with all this, and convinced the money magnates that he could build the mill, a simple structure, which, when satisfactorily completed, he ran, until the hotel was finished. Then, except for Muir\u27s residence in it, the mill was of no f