Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

V/half a dozen young gentlemen living in his family, and preparing themselves, under his direction, for college. IHe was
an excellent Latin and Greek scholar, and one of the best of
men. He had a farm of some twenty or thirty acres, and cultivated it with his own hands, with the assistance of a single
hired man. His life was as simple as it was exemplary. He
rose at daybreak in summer, and in winter long before light,
and was busy in his study till breakfast preparing his sermons
for the succeeding Sabbath. The rest of the day was divided
about equally between his pupils and his farm. In his agricultural labors he made no distinction between his hired man
and himself. IHe did his full share of ploughing, planting,
and harvesting. The only occupation in which he took no
part was the care of the horses. I do not think his sermons
were ever fully written out. He had very copious notes, and
in his anxiety to illustrate his points with clearness he became tedious in spite of his learning and his unaffected piety.
Yet there was an earnestness and a solemnity in his exhortations which were very impressive. To his pupils he was all
that a parent and a teacher could be-kind, patient, and indefatigable. This was my first absence from home. It lasted
some six months, and in that time I had not only mastered
my Latin and Greek grammars, but had made such proficiency
in both tongues as to be able to translate easy exercises with
facility. My fellow pupils were among the first young men
in the State. One became, years afterward, Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and another a minister at a foreign
court.* The half year I was with them passed away almost
* There is, perhaps, an error here; for in a private letter subsequently
written, and to which I occasionally refer in these notes, my father
writes: "I was for a portion of a year (1809, I think) an inmate of his
(Rev. Dr. Wood's) family, with Charles Haddock, who was Charg6 d'Affaires at Lisbon during General Taylor's administration; Charles Woodman, at one time Speaker of the lower branch of the New Hampshire
Legislature; and one of the Dr. Kittredges so familiar to the memory of
the men of that period as members of the medical faculty of the State."