Vermont Phœnix

Four Generations in the Field.

We witnessed a scene a few days since, on the farm of the Messrs Wilder, in Dummerston, Vt., which illustrates, in a marked degree, the health-giving and life-prolonging tendency of the farming occupation in New England, when pursued with industry, frugality and temperate habits. It was a mowing-match, participated in by four distinct generations! The mowers took their places in the field, and Mr Joshua Wilder, a patriarch of ninety summers, after examining with a practiced eye the hanging and edge of his scythe, led off with his usual quick and easy stroke, followed in succession by his son, Dea. Dan Wilder, his grandson, Leroy Wilder, Esq, and his great-grandson, Mr Wallace Wilder. If his great-great-grandson, living in another part of the country, had been on the ground to spread the swathes, as he might have been, it would have added somewhat to the novelty and interest of the scene. As it was, the mowers took a turn of some twenty-five rods and back, the venerable leader all the while keeping his place in front, with little or no apparent fatigue. The united ages of the four amount to something more than two hundred years. We challenge the State of Vermont to produce the like.

It may not be improper to remark that this family—the father, son, grandson and great-grandson, the first three of whom have wives living—all reside upon the same farm (an excellent one, by the way) and cultivate it in common. They also carry on the tanning business, and perform other mechanical labor. In short, they produce nearly all they consume, and depend very little upon the rest of the world for the necessaries, comforts or luxuries of life. At the age of eighty-eight years the father, Mr Joshua Wilder, built, with his own hands, a family carriage, in which representatives of the four generations may be seen, on pleasant Sabbath mornings, wending their way to Church.

Eagle.