CHAPTER I

MY BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE LIFE


Washington Irving has somewhere said that it is a happy thing to have
been born near some noble mountain or attractive river or lake, which
should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we
could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of
my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the
Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin
Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794. He was a
native of New London County, Ct., a nephew of Col. William Ledyard, the
heroic martyr of Fort Griswold, and the cousin of John Ledyard, the
celebrated traveller, whose biography was written by Jared Sparks. When
General Ledyard came to Aurora some of the Cayuga tribe of Indians were
still lingering along the lakeside, and an Indian chief said to my
great-grandfather, "General Ledyard, I see that your daughters are very
pretty squaws." The eldest of these comely daughters, Mary Forman
Ledyard, was married to my grandfather, Glen Cuyler, who was the
principal lawyer of the village, and their eldest son was my father,
Benjamin Ledyard Cuyler. He became a student of Hamilton College,
excelled in elocution, and was a room-mate of the Hon. Gerrit Smith,
afterward eminent as the champion of anti-slavery. On a certain Sabbath,
the student just home from college was called upon to read a sermon in
the village church of Aurora, in the absence of the pastor, and his