HON. W. H. ENGLISH,

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT.

CHAPTER XV.

ANCESTRY.

N the cemetery of the thriving but rather quiet

IN

town of Carrollton, the county seat of Greene County, Ill., there is, or was some years ago, an humble monument standing by two graves, bearing the following inscriptions:

In memory of Elisha English, born March 2, 1768, near Laurel, Sussex County, Del. Married Sarah Wharton, Dec. 10, 1788. Rcmoved to Kentucky in 1790, and to Greene County, Illinois, in 1830. Died at Louisville, Ky., March 7, 1857. He was a faithful husband, a kind father, and an honest man.

In memory of Sarah Wharton, wife of Elisha English. Died November 27, 1849, in the eighty-second year of her age. She was kind to her neighbors, devoted to her family, and a noble woman in all the relations of life.

My father and my mother. They lived lovingly together as husband and wife over sixty years, and, before the tie was broken, could number 200 living descendants. Their fourteen children all married and had children before a death occurred in the family. This monument is erected to their memory by Elisha G. English, of Indiana.

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These are the grand-parents, on the father's side, of the subject of this sketch, the Hon. William H. English, and the facts disclosed by these inscriptions embody the most that is known of their history.

On the mother's side his grandparents sleep their last sleep in the Riker's Ridge (or Hill's) buryingground, a romantic spot near the Ohio river, a few miles northeast of Madison, Indiana, and again recourse is had to a monument which marks their graves as containing an epitome of the most that is known of their history:

In memory of Philip Eastin, a Lieutenant in the Fourth Virginia Regiment in the war of the American Revolution, who was buried in this secluded spot in the year 1817, leaving his widow and a large family of children to mourn his loss. "He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle." Honor his memory, for he was one of the brave and true men whose gallant deeds gave freedom and independence to our country.

In memory of Sarah Smith Eastin, who died near this place and was buried here in the year 1843. She was married to Lieutenant Philip Eastin at Winchester, Va., in 1782, near which place she was born, being a descendant of the Hite family, who first settled that valley. The prosperity of early life gave place in her old age, to poverty and the hardships of rearing a large family in a new country; but she acted her part well under all circumstances, and died with the respect and love of all who knew her. Now that the joys and sorrows of a long and eventful life are over, they sleep well. May they rest in peace. This monument is erected to their memory by their grandson, William H. English.

Of the seventeen children born to this pair, Mahala, the mother of our subject, first saw the light