Chapter 7
Brief account of Solomon Mack, youngest son of Solomon Mack.
January
28, 1773 to fall 1845
Solomon, the youngest son of my father, was born1
and brought up, married, and still lives in the town of
Gilsum, and although sixty-four years old,2 he has never traveled farther
than Boston, where his business leads him twice a year to
purchase goods.
He has gathered to himself in that rocky region fields, flocks,
and herds, which multiply and increase upon the mountains.
He has been known these twenty years as Captain Solomon
Mack of Gilsum; but as he lives
to speak for himself, and as I have to do chiefly with the
dead,3 and not the living, I shall
leave him, hoping that, as he has lived peaceably with all
men, so he may die happily.
I have now given a brief account of all my father’s family,
save myself; and what I have written has been done with
the view of discharging an obligation which I considered
resting upon me inasmuch as they have all passed off this
stage of action except myself and youngest brother. And
seldom do I meet with an individual with whom I was even
acquainted in my early years, and I am constrained to exclaim
— “The friends of my youth! where
are they?” The tomb replies, “Here are they!” But, through
my instrumentality,
Safely truth to urge her claims, presumes
On names now found alone on books and tombs.
————
Notes to Chapter 7:
1. Solomon was born January 28,
1773.
2. At the time of Mother Smith’s
dictation, her brother Solomon was seventy-two years old.
3. When Lucy Mack Smith dictated
her history in 1845, her parents and all of her brothers
and sisters, save Solomon Jr., were dead.
