Geneva is a pleasant name, and the township has an enduring fragrance in my memory, for within its limits in my original tour over Ohio in 1846 I passed several most enjoyable days, a recipient of the hospitality of a man of rare character and usefulness, the late Platt R. SPENCER.  The home was a quaint, comfortable old farm house in a level country, with the surroundings of grassy lawn, orchards, and forests, about two miles from Lake Erie.  It was in the heats of summer; a severe drouth prevailed throughout this region, the home well had given out and I remember I daily rode Pomp, the faithful companion of my tour, and his willing burden down to the lake for his drinks.  Mr. SPENCER was at the time the secretary of the Ashtabula County Historical Society and had collected nearly a thousand folio manuscript pages; it was a rare mine, from whence I took nearly all the historical materials embodied under the head of this county as well as much elsewhere. Mr. SPENCER was born on the first year of this century in the valley of the Hudson; when a boy of ten, came with his family to this county and died eighteen years after my visit to his home. The great work of his life was as a student and teacher of penmanship.  For this art he was a born genius. President Garfield, writing of him in 1878, said: "He possessed great mental clearness and originality and a pathetic tenderness of spirit.  I have met few men who so completely won my confidence and affection. The beautiful in nature and art led him a willing and happy captive. Like all men who are well made he was self-made. It is great to have become the first in any worthy work, and it is unquestionably true that Mr. SPENCER made himself the foremost penman of the world. And this he did without masters. He not only became the first penman, but he analyzed all the elements of chirography, simplified its forms, arranged them in consecutive order, and created a system which has become the foundation of instruction in that art in all the public schools of our country."  Mr. SPENCER'S early struggles to learn writing show the strength of a master passion. Up to eight years of age he once wrote he had never been the rich owner of a single sheet of paper; having then become the fortunate proprietor of a cent he sent by a lumberman twenty miles away, to Catskill, for a single sheet. When he returned it was after night. Platt was in bed, when he arose all enthusiasm but could not produce a single letter to his mind after an hour's feverish effort, when he returned to his bed and to be haunted by

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unhappy dreams. Paper being a luxury rarely attainable in those days he had recourse to other materials.  The bark of the birch tree, the sand beds by the brook and the ice and snow of the winter formed his practice sheets.

                In his twelfth year he for a time enjoyed the privileges of a school in Conneaut. He then began as instructor in penmanship for his fellow-pupils. Being anxious to complete his studies in arithmetic he walked barefooted twenty miles over frozen ground to borrow a copy of Daboll.  On his return night overtook him, when he slept in a settler's barn, too timid to ask for lodgings in the cabin.

                Mr. SPENCER was for twelve years county treasurer: was a strong advocate of the temperence cause and that of the slave. He was the pioneer in the establishment of commercial and business colleges.  His copy books have been sold into the millions, and the Specerian pens are widely favorites with rapid writers.

                Interesting and strange are often the little minor surprises of life.  We all have them. In conclusion I will relate one to myself. Twelve years since I happened to be one evening at the home of a lady in Washington City of whom I had never before heard. Accidentally a book of exquisitely graceful penmanship from her hand met my eye. I could not help expressing my admiration, whereupon she replied, "I ought to be a good writer, for I am the daughter of Platt R. SPENCER." "Ah! I was once at your father's house – do you remember me?" "I do not – when was that?" "In the summer of 1846." "Therein," she replied, "you had quite the advantage of me – got there several years before I did."