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JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY
BY GEORGE H. HOPKINS
June 7, 1882
Mother said to me this morning, 'John, do you never deceive your wife in regard to your business. I began life young, and have done well so far. My ambition has been to be a good man, a kind man, a good business man, and a successful man. That I shall succeed I dare not doubt. Still, I do not feel 'lifted up' with my success, but feel to thank God, who has thus far led me, and my parents, who, when young, instilled good principles in me, and who, as I have grown older, gave their advice, their counsel, their example, and their good wishes. That none of these may ever desert me is my earnest hope; that as long as I continue to 'act well my part' they will continue with me I do not doubt. "
"Belvidere, I11., March 7, 1853.
I have been traveling over the broad prairies of Illinois for the past two days, seeing sights that I never before witnessed in Michigan or elsewhere. My ideas of prairies had been formed from the small ones I had seen in Michigan. But the prairies of Illinois seem boundless; from Chicago to Rockford—a distance of ninety miles—it is all one vast prairie, with only an occasional grove of trees to be seen. Still, give me my own home—the home almost of my whole life, so far, and I hope my home always. The forests of Michigan are to me a grander sight than these plains, and the thundering of the wind among the trees of my own State is sweeter music to my ears than the gentle, love-like melody that sweeps through the tall grass of the prairie. "
"July, 1853.
* to one whose life has been profitably spent, there can be no greater happiness in old age than to look back upon the past, and trace each year as it has flown by, each marked with some good deed or action.
Michigan
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