One warm day in the summer of 1845, several Quaker elders had stopped to dine at the Anthony home on their way to Quarterly Meeting.  Hannah and Susan were in the large, cool parlor working on the wonderful quilt which was to be a part of Hannah’s wedding outfit, when one of the elders, a wealthy widower from Vermont, asked Susan to get him a drink.  He followed her out to the well and there made her an offer of marriage, which she promptly refused.  He pictured his many acres, his fine home, his sixty cows, told her how much she looked like his first wife, begged her to take time to consider and he would stop on his way back to get her answer.  She assured him that it would be entirely unnecessary, as she was going with her father and mother to their new home and did not want to marry.  He could scarcely understand a woman who did not desire matrimony, but was finally persuaded to gather up his slighted affections and go on to Quarterly Meeting.

On September 4, Hannah was married to Eugene Mosher, a merchant at Easton.  Daniel R. was now clerking at Lenox, Mass., so there were only Susan, Mary and Merritt to go with the father and mother.  All the relatives bade them good-by as if forever, and the leave-taking was very sorrowful, for it was the first permanent separation of the family.

[Footnote 7:  In after years Miss Anthony greatly enjoyed attending a good play.]

[Footnote 8:  In 1848, when the law was enacted allowing a married woman to hold property, it was put in her name and she retained it till her death.]

CHAPTER IV.

The farm home—­end of teaching.

1845—­1850.

On November 7, 1845, the parents and three children took the stage for Troy, and from there went by railroad to Palatine Bridge for a short visit to Joshua Read.  The journey from here to Rochester was made by canal on a “line boat” instead of a “packet,” because it was cheaper and because they wanted to be with their household goods.  At Utica they found two cousins, Nancy and Melintha Howe, waiting for the packet to go west, but when they saw their relatives they gladly boarded the line boat.  Mrs. Anthony did the cooking for the entire party, in the spotless little kitchen on the boat, and the young people, at least, had a merry journey.

The family arrived in Rochester late in the afternoon of November 14.  They landed at Fitzhugh street and went to the National Hotel.  The father had just ten dollars, and it was out of the question to remain there over night; so he took the old gray horse and the wagon off the boat, with a few necessary articles, and with his family started for the farm, three miles west of the city.  The day was cold and cheerless, the roads were very muddy, and by the time they reached their destination it was quite dark.  An old man and his daughter had been left in charge and had nothing