Excerpt from Select Poems and Autobiography I was at this time employed by Stedman Co., of Aurora, Indiana, where] subsequently lost my sight. -in the spring of 1872 I met for the first time, Nellie Smith, the woman of my choice. We united with the First Baptist Church of Aurora and were baptized in the Ohio river, February 23, 1873 by Rev. Chas. Ager, pastor, who afterwards united us in marriage, April 16, 1873. On March 22, 1874, Harold, our first born came to bless our little home. But the pleasure of seeing him tome was short. On May 23 following, a sliver of steel from the head of a tool I was using pierced the ball of mv right eye ushering me into lifelong darkness. And were it not that my trust was in God, I scarcely know how the calamity could have been borne. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.