[From _An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by
Himself_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1876)]
Yet, thus juvenile, poor, and proud, I ventured not only on the rather
hopeless prospects of professional life, but, on the 28th of November,
1809, when I was only ten days over nineteen years of age, I ventured
on the far more momentous contingencies of marriage, and, linking my
destinies with a wife only fifteen years and seven months old, we
embarked without freight or pilotage, on the untried sea of early
marriage. I had never made a cent, and had nothing but ordinary
clothes, a horse, an old servant, a few books, and the humble talents
with which God had blessed me. I borrowed thirteen dollars as an
outfit, and out of that fund I paid for my license and handed to my
groomsman, R. P. Letcher, five dollars for paying the parson, Randolph
Hall, father of Rev. Nathan H. Hall. Some days afterwards Letcher
rather slyly put into my hand a dollar, suggesting that he had saved
that much for me by paying the preacher only four dollars. This looked
to me as such minute parsimony as to excite my indignation, important
as was only one dollar then to me. And I manifested that feeling in a
manner both emphatic and censurious; to which Letcher replied that
four dollars was more than was then customary, and that Mr. Hall, when
he received it, expressed the warmest gratitude, and said that, old
as he was, he had never received so large a fee for solemnizing the
matrimonial rite! This reconciled me to the return of the dollar.
My wife and myself lived with her mother until the 9th of September,
1810, when we set up for ourselves in a small buckeye house with only
two rooms, built and first occupied by Judge [John] Boyle, and
respecting which I may here suggest this remarkable coincidence of
successive events:--That Boyle commenced housekeeping in that house,
and, while he occupied it, was elected to Congress; that Samuel McKee
commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded Boyle in
Congress; that I commenced housekeeping in the same house, and
succeeded McKee in Congress; and that R. P. Letcher commenced
housekeeping in the same house, and, after an interval of two years,
succeeded me in Congress. I was unable to furnish it with a carpet,
and our only furniture consisted of two beds, one table, one bureau,
six split-bottomed chairs, and a small supply of table and kitchen
furniture, which I bought with a small gold watch. I had bought a bag
of flour, a bag of corn meal, a half barrel of salt, and two hams and
two middlings of bacon; and these, together with the milk of a small
cow given to my wife by her mother, and a few chickens and some
butter, constituted our entire outfit of provisions. But all our
supplies were stolen the night we commenced housekeeping. This was, at
that time, a heavy blow. I had no money; and, though I had good
credit, I resolved not to buy anything on credit. And that was one of
the best resolutions I ever made. It stimulated my industry and
economy, and soon secured to me peace and a comfortable sense of
independence. In adhering to my privative, but conservative resolve, I
often cut and carried on my shoulders wood from a neighboring forest.