John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[4] stage-coach. After several weeks' rest he became a clerk in the general store of Staats & Dana. He had already been taken into the family of his uncle William, who was junior partner of the firm, but later took board at the Eagle Tavern, which at the time was the best in Buffalo.

This was a most important move in the life of the young adventurer. It placed him in a wider and more progressive field than was offered by the wilds of northeastern Vermont. Buffalo, situated at the eastern end of Lake Erie, near the outlet of the Erie Canal, was already becoming a commercial centre of great importance. It contained a population of about twenty-five thousand souls, and counted a number of distinguished lawyers and doctors as well as prosperous merchants among the principal citizens. It was even at that early day noted for the education, refinement, and public spirit of its leading people. William Dana was himself a man of intelligence and note, who was interested in one of the principal stores of the city, with a branch at a neighboring town, both establishments having an extensive trade in dry goods and notions with the surrounding country, and especially with the civilized Indians of the Six Nations. Naturally enough, as these were the first Indians Charles had ever seen, the young clerk became greatly interested in them and their primitive ways, and as the women spoke but little English, he set about learning their language. In a short time he had practically mastered it, and his retentive memory never forgot it. Many years afterwards, during the siege of Vicksburg, he gave a striking illustration of the thoroughness with which he had learned this strange tongue and the tenacity with which he had retained it. Coming into camp one night after a hard day's ride, we found a strange officer at the camp-fire, Captain Ely S. Parker, a full-blooded and well-educated Seneca Indian, who had been recently detailed at headquarters