CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Then sow, for the hours are fieeting, Shall gladden the sunny day, --Adelaide A. Proctor. Clara Leffingwell was born at Napoli, Cattaraugus County, New York, December 2nd, 1862; and died at Cheng Chow, Province of Honan, China, on Sunday, July 16th, 1905. She was the tenth child of Edwin Leffingwell, M. D., and Maranda Merchant Leffingwell. The Leffingwell family have an ancient and honorable record which dates back as far as the fourteenth century. About the time when Columbus set sail on his wonderful voyage which resulted in the discovery of a New World, when Henry VIII. was a baby, and Martin Luther a lad, we find in English records the name of Lawrence Leffingwell. During the succeeding generations, the name seems to have undergone several slight changes such as Leppingwell, Levingwell, Lephingwell and Leapphingwell. These changes frequently occur in family names and are accounted for by what is known as "Grimm's Law," according to which certain consonants go through cycles of changes; so that the American branch of this family now spell the name exactly as did Lawrence Leffingwell in 1495. The American branch of the Leffingwell family has principally resided in New England and for several centuries has made for itself an honorabic and somewhat illustrious name. About the year 1637, only a short time after the settlement of New England, there appeared among the forests of Connecticut a young hunter, Thomas Leffingwell. He might have been perhaps the prototype of Cooper's "Deerslayer," as he was at that early day on good terms with the Mohegan Indians, and especially with their young chief, Uncas. He probably lived among them, acquiring their language and sharing their adventures. He was gifted with unusual physical strength. He was endowed with great courage, and shrank from no perils in a time when danger was an every day occurrence. He became one of the founders of a large and flourishing city, Norwich, Connecticut, and for more than a third of a century held important positions of trust and honor. He died in 1714. Clara's paternal grandfather was Joseph Leffingwell of Lee, Massachusetts. "He was a man of rare excellence of character, a fine specimen of the oldtime New England farmer. He was more than six feet in stature and of a kind but energetic disposition. He had a faculty of keen observation and a ready wit. He and his wife lived together almost half a century." His second son was Lyman, a very godly and devoted minister, who not only obtained an excellent education by his own exertions, but also assisted his son Charles to the same, and was for some years a successful Methodist minister. He died at his home in Knoxville, Illinois, where he had moved to be near his son Charles, who had established there a large and flourishing school for young ladies. Many other members of the various Leffingwell families became distinguished in different professions and callings in the army, in medicine, as educators and as missionaries. The Leffingwells nearly all were noted for being religious, and some of them extremely so. It was a remark frequently made in pleasantry about Joseph, Clara's grandfather, that he was so strict that he would not wind his watch on Sunday. Edwin Leffingwell, the second son of Joseph, mentioned above, was Clara's father. He was born at Athens, New York, in 1810, graduated at the Hartford, Connecticut, Medical School, and came to Cattaraugus County about the year 1834. The next year he married Miranda Merchant, who was at that time only sixteen years old. He had an excellent education for those days, was well read, loved books and periodicals, and considered them indispensable in true family life. He was the leader in the literary debating society of the village, and frequently enlivened his speeches with original verses, composed on the topics under debate. As a physician he was very successful, but he seemed to practice more from desire to assist his neighbors and bless humanity than from pecuniary reasons, as his charges were merely nominal. His medicines consisted principally of herbs, and he always opposed the prevailing practice of bleeding patients. He was a very skilful blacksmith and loved to be engaged in making tools which were acknowl edged to be superior to those usually made at that day. He made axes, saws and knives of such superior quality that the town of Axville was named from the location of his shops. Clara always regarded her father very highly; and at one time in mature years gave her childhood estimate of him by saying, "He was a complete treatise on morals and philosophy, and was also an encyclopedia of universal knowledge, besides being almost everything else that was good." His religion was broad, strong and deep. Although he was not a member of any denominational church, he was a loyal and active worker in the Union church and Sunday-school of the town in which he lived. Clara's mother was the daughter of Amos Merchant. He and his wife lived in Eastern New York, and moved to Cattaraugus County when the country was practically an unbroken forest. They had seven children; and Miranda, Clara's mother, was the second. The whole family was deeply religious, and Clara's mother was especially so. She was thoroughly converted at the age of twelve, and always remained steadfast and true to her calling and convictions. She spent much time in secret prayer, and became noted as a holy woman. This remarkable mother of Clara's was deeply spiritual, and, of course, was reverential. At one time, as she was in the fence corner gathering flowers, she heard her uncle Truman praying just on the other side of the fence. She immediately fell on her knees and remained till he had finished. One day one of her children asked her: "Mamma, how do you know there is a God and a heaven?" She replied by giv ing some of her experiences in prayer, one of which was as follows: "One time, when I was praying, I felt conscious of a heavenly presence and know there was an angel beside me. I felt the flutter of wings." She brought up all her ten children to pray, so that all but one were Christians. Her husband was first attracted to her by her sweet singing and her saintly appearance during divine services. She died in holy triumph while Clara was a child, only three years old. If Clara honored and revered her father, she almost worshiped her mother. She especially and frequently spoke about the remarkable influence that her mother's singing had upon her. Of this Clara speaks in one of her letters: "If you ask me for what privilege of the home life I am most thankful, I must answer: 'For the lullaby songs and hymns of early childhood.'" She particularly mentions one that was a great favorite with her mother, which she often sang when lulling her to sleep. One stanza of this song is as follows: "Sweet bower where the pine and the poplar has spread And woven their branches as a bower o'er my head, How oft have I knelt on the evergreen there And poured out my soul to my Savior in prayer. To my Savior in prayer." And one part of another verse was many times brought vividly to her mind and heart: |