Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Historical Papers Published by the Historical Society of the North Carolina Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1901
The arena in which William Branson the boy moved would not be considered ideal in this busy rapid time. The community was sparsely settled. Schools were few and of short term. This disadvantage, I am sorry to say, still exists in the God-blessed land of Carolina. The chances for communication with the outside world were few. The scream of the locomotive had not sent its echoes among the old hills of Southern Randolph. The heavy loaded wagon lumbered slowly on its way to Fayetteville or Salisbury. A trip to either place marked an epoch in the life of the average boy. The visit of the Methodist circuit rider was a rare event. To attend meeting at the old country church, to ride or walk miles to a party at a neighbor's house, to trudge gun in hand on Saturday afternoon through the mighty forests or sweep with eager dogs over the snow-covered hills, to eat frugal unadulterated fare, to bathe the face in the cool crisp mornings at the back door, to sleep right under the roof where rain at night makes sweetest music - this was the life of the country boy. William Bran son's school days were few. These closed for him in his eleventh year. His father died when he was a very small boy. His after life showed to what advantage be utilized his school advantages. There is pathos in the fact that the little country school house was his academy and college and that he was forced to graduate at such a tender age. Yet there is inspiration in the thought of what he made of his few advantages. Within the periphery of that short simple school life he crammed a force sufficient to project him as a mighty force into that larger life which awaited him. The story of his boy hood days is full of instruction to those of limited op portunities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.