"I taught my first two months of Summer school when I was nineteen years old.  I received twenty-five dollars for the two months.  I was never prouder of money in my life, and as I was riding home in a one-horse buggy with Olive, I waved it in the air.  I bought a wine-colored silk taffeta skirt, a wine-colored silk velvet basque, and wine-colored kid gloves with the money.  I taught four months in the Winter in Toby Township, and that Spring two months in Freedom.  Then Ella Grazier and I planned to go to Edinboro Normal School, where my brother, Peter, had graduated.  But Ross Yingling, a teacher in Clarion Seminary, persuaded us to go there.  He made arrangements for us to occupy the end room on the long hall on the third story of that large building.  It being at the end of the hall, was a large room with beds for three.  He intended his sister-in-law, Alice Whitehill, should room with us, but Roxie Wilson came and talked him into letting her room with us, so Alice roomed with a music teacher.  This started the long friendship with Roxie Wilson, later Gwinn, that led to my going to Washington.

"The following Winter, Ella, Roxie, and I roomed together at Teachers' Institute in Clarion that lasted for a week.  From this time on, I taught continually until I went to Washington with Roxie.  She had come back to Pennsylvania to see her sick father.  I remember that about two years after we had lived together at Clarion, Roxie had told me at Cherry Run camp meeting as we sat together in a buggy that she intended to marry Will Gwinn and move to Washington, where he was homesteading on a wheat ranch near Garfield.  She told me that day to save my money and come to Washington where I could earn more.  So, instead of going to Chautauqua Lake, I went to Washington with Roxie.