He had sixty acres of
rich soil under cultivation at the time of which we are to speak, his
right-hand man being his son Allan,--a rugged, handsome, intelligent
boy of sixteen.
The winter of '39 was a terrible one; snow set in before the end of
November, and, even in the open country, lay upon the ground until the
beginning of April, while in the recesses of the forest it was found
as late as the middle of June. There was great distress among the
settlers outside of the bounds of civilization, to whom the deep snow
was an impassable barrier. The Devinses neither saw nor heard from
their nearest neighbors from the first of December till near the
beginning of February, when a crust was formed upon the snow
sufficiently firm to bear the weight of a man, and a friendly Cayuga
Indian brought them news of how badly their neighbors fared.
Mr. Devins was especially touched by the bad case of his friend Will
Inman, who lived on the nearest farm. The poor man lay ill of a fever;
Mrs. Inman was dead and temporarily buried, until her body could be
removed to the cemetery in Owenton, and all the care of the family
devolved upon Esther, his daughter, fourteen years old.
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