Autobiography of Z. S. Hastings

The narrator recounts his life from birth in 1838 in Lawrence County, Indiana, through family origins and frontier childhood. He describes parents who left North Carolina, their mixed Dunkard and Quaker baptismal practices and decision to live simply as Christians, English and Irish ancestry, and the naming story. Early memories include a Whig political rally and the loss of a tin box of savings during the 1830 migration. Subsequent chapters cover farm life along the White River, siblings, a later move to a larger homestead with sugar-maple orchards, schooling, local events such as a noted meteor occurrence and floods, and reflections on upbringing and faith.