as a farm hand, but later, when sufficiently advanced in his studies, taught school. After graduation he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, at the age of twenty-nine, began practice at Salem, Illinois. On November 4th, 1852, he married Mariah Elizabeth Jennings. During the same year he was elected to the State Senate and served in that body for eight years. In 1860 he was elected to the circuit bench, and served twelve years. In 1872 he was nominated for Congress upon the Democratic ticket, receiving the endorsement of the Greenback party. He was defeated by a plurality of 240 by General James Martin, Republican candidate. As a member of the convention of 1872, which framed the present Constitution of Illinois, he introduced a resolution declaring it to be the sense of the convention that all offices, legislative, executive and judicial, provided for by the new Constitution, should be filled by elections by the people. Before his election to the bench, and after his retirement therefrom, he practised law in Marion and the adjoining counties. He was a member of the Baptist Church, the church to which his parents belonged, and was a very devout man. He prayed at morning, noon and night, and was a firm believer in providential direction in the affairs of life.

Silas Lillard Bryan was a man of strong character, stern integrity and high purpose. He took rank among the best lawyers in Southern Illinois, and was a very graceful and forcible speaker. His mind was philosophical and his speeches argumentative. In politics he was a Democrat in the broadest

sense of the word and had an abiding faith in republican institutions and in the capacity of the people for self government. He was a staunch defender of higher education and gave financial as well as moral support to various institutions of learning. He regarded the science of government as highly honorable and set apart the guest chamber of his home for "politicians and divines." He was broad and tolerant in his religious views. It was his custom, after he removed to the farm, to send a load of hay at harvest time to each preacher and priest in Salem. While a public man during a large part of his life, he was eminently domestic. He died March 30, 1880, and was buried in the cemetery at Salem. His will provided that all of his children should be encouraged to secure "the highest education which the generation affords."

The Jennings family has lived so long in America that descendants of its pioneers do not know the date of their coming to the colonies; nor is it known positively from what country they came; they are believed to have been English. Israel Jennings, who was born about 1774, is the earliest known ancestor. He was married to Mary Waters about 1799, and lived in Mason County, Kentucky. In 1818 he moved with his family to Walnut Hill, Marion County, Illinois, where his wife died in 1844 and he in 1860. He was the father of eight children: Israel, Jr., George, Charles Waters, of whom I shall speak later; William W.; Elizabeth, who married William Davidson; America, who married George Davidson; Mary, who married Ed

ward White, and Ann, who married Rufus McElwain. All are now dead.

Charles Waters Jennings was married to Maria Woods Davidson, on December 14th, 1826, and established a home adjoining the Israel Jennings homestead. He died in 1872, and his wife in 1885. To this pair were born eight sons and two daughters: Josephus Waters, deceased, who lived near the home of his father; Harriet, who married B. F. Marshall, of Salem, Illinois, both deceased; Sarah, who married Robert D. Noleman, of Centralia, Illinois, both deceased; Mariah Elizabeth, the mother of William Jennings Bryan; America, deceased, who married William C. Stites, then of Marion County, Illinois; Nancy, who married Dr. James A. Davenport and lives at Salem, Illinois; Docia, who married A. Van Antwerp, and lives at St. Louis, Missouri; and Zadock, who lives near Walnut Hill.

Mariah Elizabeth Jennings, Mr. Bryan's mother, was born near Walnut Hill, Illinois, on May 24th, 1834. She attended the public schools of the neighborhood, and when nearly grown was the pupil of Silas L. Bryan, who was nearly twelve years her senior. At an early age she connected herself with the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the church of her parents, and remained a member until about 1877, when she united with the Baptist Church, at Salem, to which her husband belonged. She was a woman of excellent sense and superior skill in management. Her husband's frequent absence from home threw upon her a large portion of the responsibility for the care and discipline of the

family, and for some years after his death her entire time was given to the nurture and education of the five minor children. When the boys were grown she removed from the farm to Salem, and became an active worker in her church and in societies for social improvement. She always took a deep interest in the political fortunes of her son William, and for counsel and instruction he has always felt indebted to her equally with his father. She lived during the later years of her life in a home which William bought for her use with the first savings from his Congressional salary. After a lingering illness, which she bore with great patience, she died on the 27th of June, 1896, and was laid to rest by the side of her husband.

To Silas Lillard and Mariah Elizabeth Bryan were born nine children. Of these Virginia, John and Hiram died in infancy. Russell Jones, born June 12th, 1864, died at the age of 17, on the eve of his departure for college; and Nancy Lillard died at the age of 34. Four children are now living, namely: Frances Mariah. born March 18th, 1858; William Jennings, born March 19th, 1860; Charles Wayland, born February 10th, 1867; Mary Elizabeth, born May 14th, 1872. Francis M. Bryan (now Baird), lives at Shaw, Mississippi, and Charles W. and Mary Elizabeth Bryan (now Allen) live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Bryan, Lillard, Jennings and Davidson families all belonged to the middle classes. They were industrious, law-abiding, God-fearing people. No member of the family ever became very rich, and none ever abjectly poor. Farming has been the

occupation of the majority, while others have followed the legal and medical professions and mercantile pursuits.

William Jennings Bryan, as a boy, was sturdy, round-limbed and fond of play. There is a tradition that his appetite developed very early. The pockets of his first trousers were always filled with bread, which he kept for an emergency. One of the memories belonging to this period is that he was ambitious to be a minister, but this soon gave place to a desire to be a farmer, and that to a determination to become a lawyer "like father." This purpose became the controlling one, and his education was directed toward that end.

Mr. Bryan's father purchased a farm of five hundred acres, one mile from the village, and when William was six years old the family removed to this new home. Here he studied, worked and played, until ten years of age, his mother being his teacher. He learned to read quite early. After committing lessons to memory he would stand upon a little table and speak them to his mother. This was his first recorded effort at speech-making. His work was to feed the deer which his father kept in a small park, and help care for the horses, cows, pigs and chickens; in short the variety of work known as "doing chores." His favorite sport was rabbit hunting with dogs. I am not sure that these expeditions were harmful to the game, but they have furnished his only fund of hunting adventures for the amusement of our children.

At the age of ten William entered the public