Excerpts from a personal autobiography of Albertus Vogt, which was printed in the Ocala Banner in 1893.
“In my memory there is a sacred picture which I feel is no sacrilege to
give the public a glimpse of, for in the main the public heart is right, the
better nature predominates in the majority of people. Born with a silver
spoon in my mouth, up to the fifth year of my life, all was sunshine, love
and happiness. No son ever had a nobler, prouder father, or a more beautiful,
tender and Christian mother. On the 13th of May, 1855, on as fine a morning
as the glorious South ever witnessed, I was called suddenly from my governess’
room to my mother’s. At breast she kissed me and sent me to my primer. How
beautiful and stately she was then, her face radiant with smiles, her kindly
eyes lit up with love, fight and hope for my future; at that moment I must
have been the happiest child in the universe. I never saw my mother more
beautiful but once. When I could just begin to lisp, I remember when she
first knelt me down beside her chair and taught my childish lips to say,
“Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.” This prayer has moved
the universe; it is taught by every Christian mother to her children and though
they may proclaim themselves agnostics or what not, they never forget it.”
“From the side of my governess to my mother’s bed I was led, she, who was
so tender, so beautiful, so much to me at breakfast time, was dying. A sudden
hemorrhage had drained her noble life out. Motioning the five of us to her
bedside, with one of her hands in my father’s as he stood heart-broken beside
her and the other on my head, whispering the Lord’s prayer she passed from
earth to Heaven. Her last faintly whispered words were, “my husband, my child-
ren, meet mother in heaven.”
“For days, weeks, months and years the sun didn’t shine much for me. My
father married again. I was kept at school and the war began. At the battle
of Chestnut Ridge, near Atlanta, my father laid down his life for the “lost
cause.”
“As Topsy says in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, after my father’s death “I was not
raised, I jus’ growed.” I went nearly everywhere. I kept my eyes open. I
saw all that moved and several still things. I had a skin like my nigger
Pladdie’s only it is not black, but it is superlatively porous and a great
absorbent. I picked up by absorption a lot of “devilment” and other things.”
“I have married one of the best and most companionable women in the world.
1 have spent thousands of dollars in my lifetime and realized 199 cents worth
of fun out of each dollar of it. If I died tomorrow (sic) and went to orthodox
hell of genuine fire and brimstone, remembrance of sweet joys experienced in
this beautiful world would render me oblivious of its miseries. My head is
white at 39. I believe most people like me and my motto is —
A sigh for those who love me, and a smile for those who hate,
And whatever sky’s above me, hears a heart for any fate.”