TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1872.

Sunday Feb 23' 1879 "Our Silver Wedding day"

Twenty five years ago this day, Sarah Polly and myself were married, by Rev'd John Scott (now of Emerson), Annie, Nelly, & Susie had been giving us sly hints after Harvest of the coming anniversary but the events intervening had brushed them all aside and the day was spent in quiet melancholy, Sarah went up in the afternoon to the Manse and returned with a severe headache, I was affrighted for it seemed a "fac simile" of my own case, and we used the same treatment with effect— and recovered. Looking back over these years, though ours has not been an eventful history, it has not been all sunshine nor all dark as it once appeared to me— Just two years after our marriage and before we had anything "gathered" I was mysteriously struck with Epilepsy, which disabled me for 10 years, during which time I earned almost nothing— but got better during the year 1860 and began to keep a small store, which eventually developed into a larger one Thomas Polly going into partnership with me, this con- tinued for seven years when I continued alone for seven years more, in 1873 we bought the Farm and as the Boys were growing up it furnished them plenty of employment and up to this date has kept them together, we had now Eight Children in all, health and active, only our "Dear Nellie" was not to be spared, the smiling face looks down on me now from her frame on the wall, there is no sorrow or regret in it, that has been left for those who remained. My Poor Sarah through all these years was far from healthy or strong, and at many seasons failed to receive all the attention