We knew that he could not die. The thing was impossible. Whether our prophetic givings out have had any agency in his restoration, we scarcely feel authorized to say; but that he is better, and likely to live, let these pages bear witness.

He was born in the township of Peacham, in the county of Caledonia, Vermont, on the 30th of September, 1787. His father was one of the first settlers in the town, and was fortunate enough to locate himself in the center of the township. An academy was erected on his land, within a short distance of his dwelling. In his youth, John worked on the farm in the summer, and went to school in the winter; but, his father being an uneducated man, who did not believe in the advantages of a collegiate education, his schooling was confined to the English branches. Soon after the academy had been erected, a printing-office was started in the village, near his father's residence, and a newspaper was issued, through the medium of which he became early familiar with the political topics of the day, and with the characters of the leading politicians of the country and of the distinguished men of the Revolution. His father died when he was about fifteen years of age, leaving a family of seven children, five of them younger than himself. John was then compelled to labor on the farm, for the purpose of keeping the family together, until he was nineteen or twenty years of age, teaching school at intervals in the winter. Having resolved, however, to obtain a collegiate education, he prepared himself for the sophomore class in Dartmouth College. He was admitted a student in the fall of 1809, and graduated in August, 1812. He then removed to York, Pennsylvania, was engaged as a teacher in an academy there, and at the same time read law. He was admitted to the bar, and immediately left that place, and came to Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. He remained there until the fall of 1815, when he removed to Bellefonte, Centre county, his present residence. Here he has had the benefit of as lucrative a practice as most of the lawyers in that judicial district. We have heard him state, that at the time he left Vermont for the purpose of obtaining a collegiate education, he was two hundred and fifty dollars in debt, which amount he paid out of his earnings as a school-teacher in York. In 1820 he married Mary Miles, daughter of Evan Miles, of Centre county, Pennsylvania, and has two sons living.