I had been very sick all winter with the Typhus fever, and from Christmas to April had not been able to go to Bristol.

On the same night of the fire, a man came to tell me of the great loss.

I was in another part of the house when he arrived with the message, but my wife did not think it prudent to inform me then, but in the latter part of the night she introduced a conversation that was calculated to prepare my mind for the sad news, and in a cautious manner informed me.
I was at that time in the midst of my troubles with Frank Merrills, had been sick for a long time, and at one time was not expected to recover.
I was not then able to attend to business and felt much depressed on that account.

It was hard indeed to grapple with so much in one year, but I tried to make the best of it and to feel that these trials, troubles and disappointments sent upon us in this world, are blessings in disguise.

Oh! if we could really feel this to be so in all of our troubles, it would be well for us in this world and better in the next.
I never have seen the real total depravity of the human heart show itself more plainly or clearly than it did when my factories were destroyed by fire.