and plans for the future, we were always to live together, and each promised to name his eldest son after the other."
In due course of time this was done, and Matthew, having a home of his own, and Richard being dead, the latter's young son, Matthew, came to live with this loving uncle, who thenceforward provided for and educated him, as one of his own children, until he was old enough to "paddle his own canoe."
In Albemarle County, Virginia, Matthew Fontaine Maury first came to be amongst his Virginia kin, and often told his children of the hospitality he received in the home of his relatives, near where the University of Virginia now stands.["Piedmont"] His arrival was the occasion of an especial entertainment, and when the ice cream was handed him first as the honored guest by the black servant, he astonished that negro, and tried the good manners of the company, by transferring a teaspoonful of the unknown sauce to his own plate, and sending on the rest.
Maury was more than a fortnight on the road, [1] which was in those days it very bad one, before he reached the home of Mr. Edward Herndon (who had married Matthew's aunt), to whom he sold the mare, and immediately transmitted the money to the owner in Tennessee.
While at his Uncle Herndon's house, he met for the first time the little cousin who was to become his future wife, Ann Hull Herndon, a maiden of some twelve or thirteen summers. She was the eldest daughter of Dabney Herndon (cashier of the Farmer's Bank, of Fredericksburg, and one of the most prominent
- ↑ On the road into Virginia, Matthew fell in with two merchants, on their way to purchase goods in Baltimore. They both conceived a great liking for the lad, and upon their arrival at Bristol, they each took him aside separately, and offered to let him have what money he wanted from their purses. This kind offer he gratefully declined, though when he reached his relatives in Virginia he had only 50 cents left in his pocket. The names of these two friends were Echols and Read.
