Writing his full-length reminiscence in a lonely Adirondack cabin during the winter of 1891-92, Conklin recounts the first thirteen years of his life on a farm in Schoharie County, his young manhood in Herkimer County, and his service in the Civil War. The story is one of a hardscrabble life, of farming on marginal land, and of struggling each day for the necessary food and clothing. And yet Conklin asserts that these years were the happiest he...