Theodore Tilton has thus described the place where I was born: "Birthplace is secondary parentage, and transmits character.
Johnstown was more famous half a century ago than since; for then, though small, it was a marked intellectual center; and now, though large, it is an unmarked manufacturing town.

Before the birth of Elizabeth Cady it was the vice-ducal seat of Sir William Johnson, the famous English negotiator with the Indians.

During her girlhood it was an arena for the intellectual wrestlings of Kent, Tompkins, Spencer, Elisha Williams, and Abraham Van Vechten, who, as lawyers, were among the chiefest of their time.

It is now devoted mainly to the fabrication of steel springs and buckskin gloves.

So, like Wordsworth's early star, it has faded into the light of common day.