AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT VALENTINE SHORT.
I was born on the 31st day of March, 1823, in a log cabin on a farm near the village of Fairview, Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, about thirteen miles west of Pittsburg. In the fall of that year my parents emigrated to Richland County, Ohio, settling on a frontier farm two and one half miles from Mansfield, the county seat. Here my mother died when I was about two years of age. My father then sold out and moved to another farm near Ashland, where we remained until I was about six years old.
I was then sent back to my birthplace to live with an uncle and aunt, brother and sister of my father, who had remained in their childhood home and cared for their aged parents. Here I remained until my sixteenth year, attending district school three months each summer and three months each winter, and also enjoying the superior advantage of several terms in a private school. In this private school I studied "Gummer's System of Surveying."
On July 4, 1835 (or 1836) I was allowed to "celebrate" by a trip to the city of Pittsburg, and here saw the little steamboat, Elizabeth, the first boat that ever navigated the Alleghany River, making her first trip up the river.
In 1839, when in my sixteenth year I left my uncle's place and went back to my father's home. Not finding that congenial, in the spring of 1840 I contracted with one Anderson Deem, a tailor in Ashland, Ohio, to serve an apprenticeship of two years and three months at the tailor's trade. After serving out my time, on the 2d day of November, 1842, with $7.50 in my pocket, I started out as a journeyman tailor. Struck a job the first day in Gallion, Ohio, working seven days. From there went to Del-
