From the beginning of the making of the new home on the empty prairie, the children took their full share in the work it involved. Mr. Bemis has told us that he was doing from one-half to two-thirds of a man's work on the farm when he was twelve years old, the year in which his wife was born into the well-established life of a fine old New England town, rich for her in all the inheritances that seven generations gave; all the way before her made as smooth as love and ample means could make it.
At the age of nineteen Mr. Bemis left the farm and began his business career in Chicago as clerk to a shipping firm. After six years, with only his own savings for his capital, and helped by the loan of some machinery supplied by a cousin, he went to St. Louis and began the business which has borne his name for over sixty years, a name that is a synonym in all the business world for ability and integrity. His success did not come by accident, or by any so-called good fortune, but as the result of patience and perseverance, steadily following the principles and the rules he laid down for himself very early in life. He speaks with gratitude of the fact that he had to learn by force of circumstances "the blessedness of drudgery and the value of time and money in his long hours of work and in the closest practice of economy."
We have seen how different were the outward circumstances of their early lives. In temperament also Mr. and Mrs. Bemis differed much; but in sympathy on all great matters, in their ideals of life, and their unfailing recognition of their own personal obligation and duty, they were always one. In the reminiscences he has written for his grandchildren, Mr. Bemis says: "Parents can lay the foundation for each child by their own life. They are giving daily examples by their actions and by word of mouth. If parents are living well-ordered and Christian lives, their children will be likely to follow their example. They will know nothing else. Good boys and girls make good men and women. An educated and scientific carpenter will hew and mortise the timbers to fit the keys that bind the frame to a complete and solid house, so that storm and winds pass it by unharmed. So with boys and girls; if their characters are moulded in truth, mortised and keyed together with obedience to God and man, when they become men and women they will withstand the environment of bad persons and escape unscathed. Hence their young lives, founded on the bedrock of Christian characters, are well qualified to work out their own destiny and make their lives whatever they will."
Mr. and Mrs. Bemis were married at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Roberts, in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, on November 21, 1866, and went directly to their new home in St. Louis. There the oldest son, Judson Cogswell, was born in December of the following year; and there they remained until they returned to Boston in 1870, when for business reasons it became necessary for Mr. Bemis to have his headquarters in that city. After the birth of the second son, Albert Farwell, they moved to Newton, Massachusetts, where their three other children were born: Maude, now Mrs. Reginald H. Parsons, Lucy Gardner, who lived less than three years, and Alice, now Mrs. Frederick M. P. Taylor. Three of these survived their mother and had long been established in their own homes before she left them. To the father and mother was given the great happiness of seeing each of these new households controlled by the same standards of right and the same sense of personal and civic responsibility on which they had built their own united lives.
Mr. and Mrs. Bemis's home was in Newton for eleven years, and during that time it was the centre for the family connection in New England and for many friends. It was always rich in association for themselves and family, and was made rich in the same way for many others. Family cares that came upon Mrs. Bemis and the part she took in the life of the church and the community made the years spent there the most active of her life. After her removal to Colorado Springs, she showed in a practical and liberal form her interest in the First Congregational Church in that city, which the family attended, but she had such a strong sentiment about the church at Newton and the experiences that came to her while connected with it that she never removed her membership; its pastor, Dr. Calkins, and his wife were among her most valued friends.
In 1881 a serious throat trouble developed, and Mrs. Bemis was taken south for the winter. She did not gain there, and the following year was sent to Colorado Springs. Slight hope was then given to her family of her living more than a few months, but the climate and the sunshine effected what had seemed impossible, and within a few years she was able to lead a comparatively normal life in the new home where she was happily settled. A house was rented for the family until 1885, when the one at 508 North Cascade Avenue was built. This was henceforth home to her and to all the family as long as she was there with her welcome for them, and it soon became a centre for a large number of friends who are rich in memories of the unfailing welcome and genuine hospitality so freely given them. These were not restricted to a limited number with tastes and outward circumstances that were comparatively alike, but were extended to a large circle that differed widely in both of these. The sincerity, genuineness, and simplicity of the lives of those that made this home created an atmosphere that was felt as soon as one entered it.