no more of my brother untill the letter came 20 yea[rs] after—— thence to 2 <​years​> Dead wife dead one daugter alive

Having attained my 62 year, and being offlicted with a complication of disease and infirmities, many of which have been brought upon me by the cruelty of an ungodly and hard hearted world; and do many <​at​> <​often— times​> times threaten to put a period to my Earthly existence, I feel it <​a privilege as well as​> my duty <​to all can​> and my priveledge <​Candid inquirers after truth​> to give (as my last testimony to a world from whence I must soon take my departure) an account, not particularly <​exclusively​> of my own manne[r] of life from my youth up, but after saying somewhat concerning my ancestors, as well as myself, to trace carefully up, ev en from the cradle to the grave The footsteps of some <​the circumsttances​> the manner of whose life and <​death​> as <​have been such​> such as <​are calculated​> to excite in the minds intense of int cur<​iosity​> in the minds of all who ever knew them personally or shall hear of them hereafter. And inasmuch as none no one on earth <​is so thorougholy acquainted)​> do know as fully as myself <​with​> the entire history of those of whom I speak and all those intimately connected with them I have been induced by these and other considerations to assume the task of not only tracing them through during their own individual existences throug <​all the windings, and vicisstudes of​> a life checkered with many ills; but likewise to give a sketch of their forefathers <​progenitors​> and the dealing of God with <​them​> also.

I will firstly take up an old document which I have in my possession writen by my in the 80 year of his age and from which I shall perhaps make a n [p. [1], bk. [1]]