In the latest revision of the highest reader, made in 1879, one hundred and thirty-eight selections composed the book. Of this number sixty-one were in the original book as prepared by Mr. A.H. McGuffey.
It was an admirable collection of much material that is still prized and which, when carefully read by pupils hungry for thoughtful language, made a deep and lasting impression. In many cases the inmost thought of the author may not have been at once fully apprehended by the young readers; but with advancing years and wider experience in life the stored words became instinct with thought and feeling.
THE AUTHORS.
Dr. William Holmes McGuffey was born September 28, 1800, on the southern border of Washington county, Pa. The family descended from William and Anna (McKittrick) McGuffey who came from Scotland, and landed at Philadelphia. They made a home in the southern part of York county, at which, during the Revolution, General Washington often stopped to refresh himself. In 1789 this family removed to Washington county, Pa.
Alexander McGuffey, the father of Dr. McGuffey, was six years old when the family came to America in August, 1774. In 1790, when he was twenty-two years of age, he and his friend, Duncan McArthur, afterward a governor of Ohio, were selected from five young men who volunteered to act as scouts against the Indians in Ohio who were then threatening the frontier settlements in the western part of Virginia and Pennsylvania. These two young men were selected after tests by Samuel Brady to find which could run the fastest, shoot most accurately, and were least afraid of Indians. Alexander McGuffey served in the army three years, venturing his life with small bodies of scouts in the Indian country. He took part in several fights with the Indians. When General St. Clair in 1792 marched north from Cincinnati to meet the Indians, this body of scouts was one day concealed in a swamp near the spring of Castalia, Ohio. There they saw great numbers of Indians passing to meet General St. Clair, and three of the scouts hastened through the Indian country to inform the general. They traveled only at night and hid during the day. One night they marched forty miles. They told General St. Clair what they had seen and again went out to watch the collecting Indians. Three days later St. Clair was defeated. These scouts were then twelve miles away but the retreating soldiers soon overtook them and then the "woods were alive with Indians." The scouts turned eastward and in due time reached Logstown, near Wheeling.
The next year McArthur, McGuffey and George Sutherland were again sent out by General Wayne to spy the Indians. When only seven or eight miles from Wheeling and west of the Ohio river, they came upon a trail which led to a deer lick. Just at dusk McGuffey, who was leading the party, saw in the path the gaily decorated head-dress of an Indian. It had been placed there by the Indians who were in ambush close by and were ready to shoot any white man who should stop to pick it up. McGuffey saw through the stratagem instantly; without halting, he gave it a kick and shouted "Indians!" Several Indians fired at once and one of the balls smashed McGuffey's powder horn, and passed through his clothing, but did not wound him. The three scouts retreated in safety, and the Indians did not follow them.
The wars with the Indians in that region closed in 1794, and Alexander McGuffey then married Anna Holmes, of Washington county, and became a settler. His eldest son was William Holmes McGuffey. When this son was but two years old the family moved to Trumbull county, Ohio. Here, in the care of a pious mother and father, he spent the years of childhood and of early manhood, performing the labors falling upon the eldest son in a large family of children dwelling in a log cabin on the frontier. From the heavy forest, fields were cleared, fenced and cultivated, roads were made and bridges were built, and in all these labors the sturdy son of the famous Indian scout took part.
During the first eighteen years of W.H. McGuffey's life he had no opportunities for education other than those afforded by the brief winter schools supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the parents in the neighborhood.
In 1802 Rev. Thos. Hughes, a Presbyterian clergyman, built at Darlington, Pa., the "Old Stone Academy" for the education of young men, having obtained the necessary funds by traveling on horseback throughout Pennsylvania and eastward even to Newburyport, Mass.
This seminary of learning was conducted on lines of the utmost economy to meet the needs of the boys living on the frontier. The tuition was only three dollars a year and the charge for board was seventy-five cents a week. The food was simple. For breakfast, bread, butter, and coffee; for dinner, bread, meat, and sauce; for supper, bread and milk. The only variation allowed in this bill of fare was the occasional omission of sauce or coffee.