Page 37
History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
Page 37
The Neelytown meeting house was a square building with a square roof not very flat. After Mr. Annan had been in Boston a short time, he returned to Neelytown to visit the members of his old congregation, to whom he had preached the word of life for about fourteen years with great acceptance. As he rode out one day in company with Mr. Eager and *were passing the old square meeting house, comparing it in his mind with those in Boston, innocently remarked that "it looked like a little old bee hive."
Mr. Eager, quick as thought, and looking him dead in the face as if it meant something, enquired—" Sir, is not the honey in a small hive as sweet as that in a large one? You have tasted both."
The reproof merited by the indiscreet remark was felt, and atoned for on the spot. These off-hand remarks show the keen slash and ever active character of his mind.
Like most men living in the country, owning and driving horses all their lives, Mr. Eager loved what he called a good horse. Many men are of many minds about horses, as in other things, and no two scarcely agree in the same property and qualities. Very few persons at this day would agree in taste and judgment with Mr. Eager. Color, size, gait, general appearance were each and altogether as nothing, provided they were deficient in speed and temper. To suit him the animal might have these properties to an extent a little short of being unmanageable. One of his team might be as small, droopy, long haired and ill-shapen as a jackass, and the other large and muscular as an elephant, and there warn no violation of good taste in his opinion. If they did not come up to his standard of quality and perfection they were worthless, and he would not have given a pound note for them. On one occasion he had a team that mounted well nigh up to his notion of good horses, and being in the village of Wardsbridge, about three and a half miles from Neelytown, (which he called Sodom, and Goshen, Gomorrah), became offended at something that had transpired, suddenly left for the purpose of returning home. How it came about do not know but as soon as in the wagon, firmly seated, reins in hand and the village cleared he permitted the horses to indulge their temper and try their speed, and was soon seen measuring the road home in a race apparently against time. The distance was three long miles and more; the road wide and in fine order. On he came with the speed of a rail car, sweeping the way like a whirlwind. At every house the inmates—men, women and children—crowded the doors to learn the noise and see what on earth was coming. The laborers in the field stood still to wonder and to guess; while some, under the excitement of the moment, ran to stop the team under the belief they were running away with the driver. All he met gave his flying steeds a wide margin to pass. The race was fair, for no one interfered to jostle or to jockey. The horses neither faltered nor failed, for they had all their grit and temper. Arriving home he called out lustily for Tom and Harry to come and take the team. On inspecting the spot of arrival, it was difficult to determine whether the wagon and horses were on or under the wood pile. There certainly was a wreck of some kind, and though all were there, they seemed to be spilled about as if a tornado had recently passed over them. It was always a matter of doubt in the family, whether the horses ran away with the driver, or whether he drove them against time. It was a delicate matter to enquire about, and, therefore, remains unsolved. The breakage, though numerous, was small and not mortal—and the wagon, horses, harness and driver were all fairly at the end of the race. If he left the village in a fit of anger as was generally supposed, we never could understand how it came about that the fit lasted through a three mile race, unless it was, that where the ebullition of anger subsided in the driver, the horses in turn became infected—and to show their speed and that they were their owner’s darlings, and could get into a passion too,—continued the race till they arrived at home, and were wrecked and partially lost on the logs of the wood pile.
From our boyish recollections of this aged patriarch, honest, upright and early settler, we can laugh and weep by turns over his memory. Many of his pithy and pungent remarks and aphorisms are fresh in our recollection, and no one can regard him with more filial respect and gratitude.— He lived to an old age and when he died, his death was really regretted by his friends and neighbors, and deeply lamented by a numerous kindred. The year in which he died was memorable for its mortality. A malignant fever which stupefied the patient almost from the hour of attack, and ran its course with the velocity of the cholera, dissolving the body in mortification as soon as dead, swept over the country and gleaned its victims chiefly from manhood and age. Infancy and youth seemed to have been protected by some invisible mark, inscribed on the portals of early life, from the wide spread ravages of that destroying angel. The following table will show the breach made in Mr. Eager’s family:
Harry,
Thomas Eager,
Ann Eager,
William Eager,
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a black man,
a son,
wife,
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aged 40,
aged 48,
aged 73,
aged 85,
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died April 3, 1813.
died April 11, 1813.
died April 13, 1813.
died April 15, 1813.
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It is seen from this statement, that Thomas the son died before William his father. William had made his will, and devised the homestead—a farm of 250 acres—to his son Thomas; who, not being alive at the death of the testator, the devise was void, and the estate descended by legal operation to the heirs-at-law of William Eager, the testator. To change this hard provision of the common law as growing out of this particular case, Mr. John Duer—one of the revisors, and well acquainted with the facts—introduced the following provision into the Revised Statutes, which, while it relieves against the hardship of such cases, to a great extent carries into effect the intention of the testator—a very desirable point in all devises.
1. Revision of the Statutes, Vol. 2nd, Page 66, Sec. 52.—”Whenever any estate, real or personal, shall be devised or bequeathed to a child or other descendent of the testator, and such legatee or devisee shall die during the life time of the testator, leaving a child or other descendent who shall survive such testator, such devise or legacy shall not lapse, but the property so devised or bequeathed shall vest in the surviving child or other descendent of the legatee or devisee, as if such legatee or devisee had survived the testator and had died intestate.”
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*Errata--read was.