If he opposed some measures for the general good, like high schools and school libraries, it was because he lacked perspective, in his intense individualism, and suspected all expense of being spendthrift.

He believed in good district schools, and he had a fondness, crude but genuine, for some kinds of reading--history, and forensics of an elementary sort.
With his good head for figures he doubted doctors and despised preachers; he thought lawyers were all rascals, but he respected them for their ability; he was not himself litigious, but he enjoyed the intellectual encounters of a difficult lawsuit, and he often attended a sitting of the fall term of court, when he went to town, for the pleasure of hearing the speeches.

He was a good citizen, and a good husband.

As a good father, he was rather severe with his children, and used to whip them, especially the gentle Conrad, who somehow crossed him most, till the twins died.

After that he never struck any of them; and from the sight of a blow dealt a horse he turned as if sick.