The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning

No Greek philosopher could have imagined a lot in life offering greater opportunity and incentive to success than that which fell to the young Browning. He was born three years and two days earlier than Abraham Lincoln to a gentle Kentucky family related by blood and marriage to clan after clan of the Kentuckians who helped to form the newer west. His parents had means enough to secure for him at Augusta College in Kentucky the greater part of the college education which fell to the lot of but few men of the time. Then a little before his graduation financial difficulties overtook his father and the young man, well equipped for life, was thrown into it on his own resources. Studying law in Kentucky, he came to Illinois in 1831, landing almost penniless at Quincy, to seek his fortune in the new west. This work picks up the thread of his life (in great detail) in 1850, and continues forward thereafter until the close of 1864. It is thus that we, the readers, are permitted an intimate glimpse into the life of a man who would assist in shaping a nation into a new political - and social - form.