Mrs. William A. Platt, the sister of Governor Hayes, who died July 16, 1856, at the age of thirty-six, was a lady whose virtues and good deeds are enduring memories in Columbus homes. The Hon. Aaron F. Perry, of Cincinnati, in a public address, made this allusion to her worth: "Mrs. Platt, in the prime of a happy womanhood, passed beautifully away; not a white hair on her head, not a wrinkle on her brow, not a cloud upon her hopes; but in the full maturity of life and love she has gone where life and happiness are perfected." He whose character it is our duty to make known reflects this tender light from two lives: "She loved me as an only sister loves a brother whom she imagines almost perfect, and I loved her as an only brother loves a sister who is perfect. Let me be just and truthful, wise and pure and good for her sake. How often I think of her! I read of the death of any one worthy of love, and she is in my thoughts. I see--but all things high and holy remind me of her."
The conclusions which we draw from the examination of the records of the ancestral descent of Rutherford B. Hayes are, that his progenitors have in each generation displayed courage and capacity to fight limited only by the strength of the enemy to hold out. It was a habit they had to fight on the side in the right, and on the side that won. Three of his immediate ancestors--Elias Birchard, Israel Smith, and Daniel Austin--gave proofs of valor and patriotism in the War of Independence. Another characteristic of the Hayes stock is the almost uniform tendency toward longevity. It is a robust race, presenting an extraordinary number of large families. The divine injunction to increase and multiply has been obeyed with religious fidelity. Upon the whole, the stock is good, and bids fair to become better. As men suffer discredit from disreputable progenitors, they ought to enjoy credit from reputable ancestors.
_Birthplace--University--Springs--Kossuth's Allusion--Early Instructors--Sent East--College Life--Began the Study of Law--At Harvard Law School--Story, Greenleaf, Webster, Agassiz, and Longfellow--Admission to the Bar._
The town of Delaware, the county seat of the county of Delaware, is located near the center of Ohio, twenty-five miles northwest of Columbus. It is a prosperous place of seven thousand people, the most of whom live in comfortable-looking, newly-built homes, and has been hitherto chiefly known for its University and its Springs. The Ohio Wesleyan University is the most flourishing literary institution of the great Methodist denomination in the West. The White Sulphur Spring is a fountain of healing and happiness to the whole region around, and is regarded with added interest since Kossuth came to drink of its waters, and, in reply to a welcoming address, eloquently said, that "out of the Delaware Springs of American sympathy he would fill a cup of health for his bleeding Hungary."