became of the cane. the two elder brothers of my father, George and Joseph, inherited the landed property of their father (Lowder) who died when my father (Thomas) was a small boy, who at an early age was put out to learn the trade of a saddler. With a man by the name of John Houston, who was the father of Judge Houston, of Dover, Del. For some reason he did not continue long with Mr. Houston, but came to Laurel and there learned shoemaking with a man by the name of Kinney. Among my earliest recollections is the shoe-shop of my father, where he carried on the business of manufacturing and selling shoes and had quiet a number of apprentices working for him. I remember one day going to the second story of the shop, where they were at work, and one of the men, who had broken off the handle of the water-pitcher, told me to take the axe and knock the pitcher in the head, which I did. thinking it good fun. Then the man, or boy, went down stairs and asked for a new pitcher, saying that I had broken the old one. My father was an industrious and thrifty man and himself made about all he was worth. Some twelve thousand dollars. He died at the age of forty-five, after a very short illness. My mother as before stated, was the only child of her father, William Hobbs, and died of consumption at the age of forty.

William Hobbs's father died before he was old enough to remember him. His mother died when he was about seven or eight years old. He had an elder brother, Captain George Hobbs, who was a ship captain and spent nearly all his life at sea. When his mother died on the banks of the Wicomico River, below Salisbury Md., he was left all alone, and orphan indeed. He was taken, when a child at eight years, into Delaware, and bound an apprentice to a blacksmith by the name of Palding. After his apprenticeship ended, he began blacksmithing for himself, and had quiet a number of negro men working in his shop, who were his slaves. He had quiet a large family of negroes as far back as I can remember, and I think they were generally as bad and vicious a set of negroes as I ever knew. His wife, my grandmother, was named Jennie Bounds, and died of consumption at an early age.

My grandmother on my father's side was named Lavinia Cannon. My grandfather's brother Clement also married a Cannon, who was a sister of my grandmother and was named Kiziah. The Hearnes in the West are descendent from them. I mean Frank

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Thanks to Candy Hearn for transcribing this page.