"Very well," he answered, "I can live somewhere else."
He went home and told his wife that the time had come when she must
choose whether she would remain with her own kinsfolk or follow him. Her
choice was made on the instant, and within two hours, David Glasgow
Farragut, his wife and their only son, were on a steamer headed for the
North. A few days later, he offered his services to the Union.
Before going forward with him upon his great career, let us cast a
glance over his boyhood--such a boyhood as falls to the lot of not one
in a million. Born in 1801, of a father who had served in the Revolution
and who was afterwards to become a friend and companion of Andrew
Jackson, his childhood was passed amid the dangers and alarms of the
Tennessee frontier. In 1808 occurred the incident which paved the way
for his entrance into the navy. While fishing on Lake Pontchartrain, his
father fell in with a boat in which was lying an old man prostrated by
the heat of the sun. Farragut took him at once to his own home, where he
was tenderly cared for, but he died a few days later. The sufferer was
David Porter, father of Captain Porter of the Essex, at that time in
charge of the naval station at New Orleans.
Captain Porter was informed of the accident to his father, and hastened
to the home of the Farraguts.
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