Through Poverty's Vale: A Hardscrabble Boyhood in Upstate New York, 1832-1862

Writing his full-length reminiscence in a lonely Adirondack cabin during the winter of 1891-92, Conklin recounts the first thirteen years of his life on a farm in Schoharie County, his young manhood in Herkimer County, and his service in the Civil War. The story is one of a hardscrabble life, of farming on marginal land, and of struggling each day for the necessary food and clothing. And yet Conklin asserts that these years were the happiest he knew. The Conklin family was close-knit, lovin...