I, Levi Hummel, was born in Turkey Valley, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1854. A more forsaken place at that time to be born in would indeed be hard to find.

My great grandparents came here from Germany and Scotland when but 700,000 people were thinly scattered thru the colonies. My grandfather, John Hummel, founded Hummelstown, PA. My father was born there in 1800. Before and after moving to Juniata County, he taught school for many years. He was a singularly honest man, one of the most intelligent of his time but totally lacking in business judgement, was poor all his life and died poor. He never, so far as I know, did harm to any human being. He had no enemies.

When I was born, “1854”, the so called improvements of modern civilization had not yet begun. The linen and woolen goods out of which our clothes were made never left the farm. The wool was taken from the sheeps back and manufactured into cloth and clothes and never left our farm. The flax was raised on the farm, dried, broke, scutched, heckled, spun and woven on the farm. My mother was a weaver. I remember back to the early days of my childhood and see her at the loom and my sisters at the spinning wheels.

Many, many nights will I pick dirt out of dirty wool. Our light we got from rich pine split fine and put into a square opening of the big chimney that had a hole opening back so as to give it draft. The burning pine threw a glimmering light over the room. The talo dip came next and the “smultch rumchle” hung on a chain. I was, I think, 9 or 11 years old before even a coal oil lamp was seen in our parts. About this time sulphur matches came into use. My father sent to Miller's Store one day to get some. In hearing people talk about them I inferred that when struck they would blaze right up. In trying them I saw that at first they only smoked so I threw them in Jerry Crawford's old brush fence alongside the road. It was not long before the whole fence was on fire and the neighbors there to water it and keep it from spreading. I yet remember the licking my father gave me.

I used the sickle in the harvest field when a boy and remember my father using it many a day. I used to glean after the sicklemen and women. Then came the grain cradle, a wonderful invention for that time. A careful farmer would not take it into a field where there was a stump for fear of breaking it. The hand rank and homemade, heavy, clumsy hoe were in universal use. I remember the first reaper, the old hussy. Took four horses to pull it. A man sat on it and raked off the grain with a hand rake. Subsequently came the self-rake reaper and the self binding harvester now in general use. When, as a boy, I was with my father many a day in the barn while he was using the flail to thresh out the wheat, rye, etc. I also remember the horses doing the tramping out.

The first school teacher I remember of having was my own father. He was strict, a rigid disciplinarian but a good teacher. In recent years I have spoken to many old people that went to his school and they all said that he was the best teacher they ever had. He taught “subscription schools” as far back as from 1820 to 1860 in Dauphin, Lebanon, Juniata, Snyder and Perry Counties, PA. many years before the advent of public schools. The public schools in those days were very primitive. The A.B.C. book, Webster's spelling book and the Bible were about all the books we had except Greenleaf's Arithmetic. All learning consisted of committing to memory. Book learning routing was about all. Us little ones had to sit on slab or board benches with no backs. No back rest or support of any kind. Had to sit and hold our one solitary little book all days. It was a life of misery for little ones. I can remember yet how proud and glad I was when I got in the ABS, ADS, etc. (AB, AD, etc.)

When I was six years old “1860” I remember the first Lincoln campaign. However boys used to shout for Lincoln, even for Douglass, etc. I was always for Lincoln. The men used to call him “Blackleg”, “Gorilla” etc. Two of my brothers, Hiram and Absalom, were in the Civil War. Hiram was also in the Mexican War, 1848. My great, great grandfather fought under the Duke of Saxony during the War of the Reformation. My great grandfather fought under Frederick the Great during the Thirty Years War. My grandfather was under Washington from Boston till the surrender at Yorktown. My mother's people fought for the freedom of Scotland back under Wallace and Bruce. I am here from a race of warriors. As for myself I believe not in war. “War is hell” W.T. Sherman. In those days in school we used to buy fools cap paper and make our own copy books. The teacher would write the copy at the head of the page with a goose quill pen. The teacher used to make our pens and sharpen them for us. The first line or two under the copy we used to write pretty good, but the further down the page the worse it got till the last line, no one could hardly tell what it meant.

I was the first one to carry the news of the surrender of Richmond through Turkey Valley. I was to the falls (McKers ½) when the news came across the river. I was on our old grey mare Nance and rode with all my might towards home and shouted the news at school house and all along the highway. When I was a child we used to have the fire in the big chimney where all the cooking was done in pots, etc. hung from a crane. When the fire happened to go out we used to “strike fire” with a flintstone and a steel and punk, then blow it up with a haull bellows. Sometimes we took a shovel and went to one of the neighbors and borrowed fire. The baking was done on the bottom of a heated oven out of doors. The dough was put in bread baskets and upset on the bottom of the oven when the ashes and fire had been removed. They used to bake good bread in those days, far better than the allum bread of the present time. Many children grow up that never taste good bread, know not what it is. In those days they had good corn meal. Corn out of the field when ripe, oven dried and parched a little. The mush tasted delicious.

A young man by name of Garman just killed at #14 punch. A bearing weighing about 10 lbs. fell from the crane and hit him on the head. I have had a premonition for the last week that something to that effect would happen. I remember the first wheat bread I ever tasted. I thought it was ambrosia. The food of the gods. The wheat failed in our section for several years in succession so the people had to depend on rye flour and corn meal. Our food was plain and nourishing. Our lunch for school consisted of (3) slices of bread around the loaf. Dave used to get the biggest, Ellen came next then I. I still remember how terrible hungry I used to get for that slice of bread. When I was a boy at home and while with my brother Wm., one pair of shoes had to last a year. When they wore out we had to go in our bare feet. I used to go in my bare feet from early spring to late in the fall. The grass would be stiff with frost when I would bring in the cows and horses in the morning. I was lucky when one was lying down I could chase her up and warm my feet on the warm spot where she had been lying. My feet used to crack open under the toes, get stone bruises, briar scratched. I can still remember of going to Sabbath School wearing homemade linen shirt, knee pants and homemade straw hat. I was in my bare feet yet though I was well dressed. I learned nearly the whole Bible so I could recite it from memory. In that way I bought my first books with red tickets won as prizes to study the bible. I used to delight in Solomon and the Book of Job. The poetical parts. I was profoundly interested in Moses. I could always tell in reading where he left off and the priest or relator began. From the Bible I got wisdom and first taught me to think and to fear wrong.

About the year 1858 or 1859 an epidemic disease swept over Turkey Valley known as the Black Dysentery. Many children died from it. The death rate from it was great. Two died from it out of our own family, Adam and Sussanah. About 1862 our Freddie died. A lovely golden haired boy. His hair curled all over his head. The brightest member of our whole family. One day he and I were playing under an apple tree by the lane. He got sick, went home and in a few days went to meet his mother in heaven. My mother died about 1859, a comparatively young woman. She came with Father from Lebanon Co. and settled in Juniata County when that portion was yet a wilderness. She helped to clear the land, build the house, pick stones, etc. She worked herself to death when comparatively young. The immediate cause of death was dropsy. I do not know how long my mother lived after she married my father. I know not how many years they were married but she had ten or eleven children that I know of. When she died I lost the best friend I ever had except my first wife. Had my mother lived I would have become a minister of the Gospel and a noted scholar. Since the death of little Freddie I am the youngest of my mother's children living. When a boy all that I wished and longed for was books. I devoured the Bible and what other few books were in reach.

About 1861 my father married again and a step mother came into our home. That soon broke it up. Wm. and Rebecca left and about 1863 Wm rented the Ben Kauffman farm in Pfoutzes Valley and went to farming, Rebecca keeping house for him. In a few years Dave and Ellen left home and went to live with Wm. About 1866 Father had to sell his farm for he had none of his boys at home anymore to help him except myself and I was too young yet to do much. In recent years I have thought this matter over and think that my older brothers and sisters did not do just right by our father in forsaking him the way they did when he needed them most. After selling his farm to David Strawsen he bought a place about 12 acres with a poor house and rotten barn from Joseph Meisen, below Meserville. He loaned his money to Sweigard who failed in business soon after and in that way my father was left penniless in his old age with (4) small children on hand. As early as 1872 he wrote to me about his financial difficulties and I then sent him several $5.00 checks from Harrisburg. He died in 1878. He had no enemies. He had the good will of all that knew him. A fine scholar, very reticent, never had much to say. Sat around home a whole evening and never spoke. He was lacking in financial judgement and energy hence never a money maker. Being born in 1800 he lived to see all the progress and marvelous changes of the 19th century. He was seven years old before the first steamboat navigated a river, 15 years when the Battle of Waterloo was fought, 29 years when the first railroad was built in England, and 44 years before the first telegraph message went over a wire.

When a boy going to school in Pfoutzes Valley, I was hounded and driven around the school house like a wild beast by the rich boys because I was poor and poorly clad. Thank God my oldest daughter has a happier lot. She is the most respected and the favorite one among the nurses in the Episcopal Hospital, Philadelphia. He saw the population grow from 5,000,000 to 50,000,000. The Union was small when he was a boy, a giant nation when he died. When in a talkative mood he used to tell me about his father's deeds under Washington. How he went to Boston a few days after Gen. Washington took command of the army and remained with him till the surrender at Yorktown. He told me how in his boyhood and young manhood he met Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, Jackson and nearly all the noted men of that great age. Of late years I have often wished that my father was still living that I could talk to him about those past years.

After my father moved to Snyden County he had nothing for me to do so I went to live with my brother Wm in Pfoutzes Valley. It was about 1866 or '67. For him I worked hard. From early in the morning till late at night, though a boy yet of 13 or 14 I had to do a mans work. All the chores and odd jobs fell to my lot, like putting out the horses in the evening and fetching them early in the morning. I was in my bare feet, stone bruised, briar scratched and cracked, burst open under the toes. Sore all over. I worked for my brother six years like a slave without wages, poor clothes and not any too much to eat. The books I got I had to buy with money for chestnuts etc. The chestnuts I had to gather mostly on Sundays for there was no time through the week. I was kept out of school to thrash and do chores. The term was only 4 months. I used to sit up till 12:00 and 1:00 at night and study by candle light. I was ridiculed and laughed at first but because

left I got two of his books and began to read about the science of phrenology. It was the most critical moment in my life. A time of evil. I am sorry I ever heard of phrenology. I through it have wasted my life in a wild goose chase after nothing. While the fundamentals of the science are true and a great improvement on the old metaphysical dogmas and the modern psychology, it is not a science that the general public has any use for. It is not a fit science to follow as a profession. Gall, Spurzheim and Combe were among the masters of their day but after the visit of Combe to this country in 1838, O.S. Fowler, with New England shrewness and greed for gain started out lecturing and examining heads for so much a piece. He became one of the greatest charlatans and humbugs of his time. Phrenology, among the thinking, commenced to die from that time on and now is dead, has been for years and seldom heard of. Combe's “Constitution of Man” is one of the greatest books ever written. If phrenology was known and taught in every home the way he taught it, the science would soon reform the world. But it is far above and beyound the average man and woman now living. When Surgheim was in this country and faculties of the universities of Harvard, Yale, Penna, Phila, and others. Such men as Stillman, Horace Man, Bucher, Dr. Howe, Dr. Caldwell and many other noted men were phrenologists. But the quacks have about killed it. In the spring of 1875 I started for Clearfield County. Hired to Samuel Hegarty. Worked for him and attended a few weeks normal school at Curveisville and a part of a term at Lumber City Academy. In the fall of 1875 I got a school at Pine Flat (Ramey) and taught for several months but found that I did not know enough about arithmetic and grammar. Throughout my boyhood I had to depend so much on myself and not being able to master arithmetic I got a