That evening has been marked with a very white stone in my calendar ever since.

It was but a brief visit of a fortnight that the fair maiden from the West made in Trenton; but when she, soon afterwards returned to Ohio, she took with her what has been her inalienable possession ever since and will be, "Till death us do part." My courtship was rather "at long range;" for Newark, Ohio, was several hundred miles away, and I have always found that a man who would build up a strong church must be constantly at it, trowel in hand.

On the 17th of March, 1853, the venerable Dr.Wylie conducted for us a very simple and solemn service of holy wedlock, closing with his fatherly benediction, one of the best acts of his long and useful life.

The invalid mother of my bride (for Colonel Mathiot had died four years previously) was present at our nuptials, and for the last time was in her own drawing-room.

Mrs.Mathiot was a daughter of Mr.Samuel Culbertson, a leading lawyer of Zanesville, and was a lady of rare refinement and loveliness.