Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1884 — An Eccentric Family. [ARTICLE]

An Eccentric Family.

Twenty years ago there lived in Belgrade a large family, the father of which was a very eccentric individual. There were nineteen children. They lived in a big house, but one room of which was plastered. The head of the family daily dealt out in stated amounts the food required by the family. The wife was an invalid. Many of the children took peculiar eccentric turns. They nearly all had remarkably retentive memories. Several were carried away entirely with reading. One would Bit fbr twenty-four hours at a time, neither eating nor sleeping, pursuing history and sacred writings. Although appearing idiotic he could talk intelligently on almost any subject. Another child was fascinated with literature of the dime novel character. Three ol the boys were drowned at once in a lake in Belgrade, while gunning. One of the daughters, a little, puny girl, died, and her father procured a coffin for her of dimensions suitable for a man. One of the girls, now a woman past the prime of life, is in the insane asylum. Mot long since, an Augusta lady, who, twenty years, ago, was 5 years of age, and lived a neighbor to the above family, visited the asylum. While moving among the female patients, she was astonished to hear her name spoken by one of the unfortunates. ‘T-’hat is you, , ” said the patient. “1 should have known vou by your father. ” Thus, this woman, broken in intellect and shattered in health, recognized the lady whom she had not seen for twenty years, and then only as a 5-year-old girl. But two children of this large family now remain alive. —Augusta (Me.) Journal.