INTERESTING FAMILY LETTERS, OF THE LATE Wheelock) MRS. RUTH PATTEN, OF HARTFORD, CONN. PRINTED BY D. B. MOSELEY. 3711786 us 14986.1.3 HAIVARO COLLEGE LIBRARY 1881, April 25. Gift & Rev Inc. 6. Langdon, of Cambridge. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. PREFACE. As it was the earnest desire of Mrs. PATTEN that something should be written for the encouragement of her descendants, and others, especially the widow and fatherless, that they may be enabled to trust in the wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God. Through all this long wilderness, Mrs. P., with her little brood marched contentedly along, hand in hand, unitedly. The subsequent letters will show where her great support and consolation rested, through her various trials in the sickness and death of her beloved husband, in the meridian of life, and five dear children, of which the 'reader would, probably, be gratified to know more particularly. As there were a number of incidents and anecdotes omitted in the memoir of Mrs. Patten, owing to the writer not living with his mother, which it is thought best to insert, though not to interfere with the memoirs, only to add.-The death of her eldest son was a very grievous affliction. He was a remarkably intelligent child from infancy-when not two years old he called four young students, who were studying with his father, preparatory for College, into the parlorthey immediately obeyed, and the child, after |