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When James Sherman, senior, sold all that he had in Crampton, and removed to the West, he knew not to what part of that country he should finally direct his course. Oppressed as many a doting father has been by the bad conduct of a son, in whom he has built up the bright and cherished hopes of life, he cared very little where he went, if he might seclude himself from the sight of the "ingrate" boy, and be safe from his pursuit and the importunity of his sure, future want. Mr. Sherman well knew that the course of extravagance, idleness and sin, which his son had chosen, would in a short time leave him in a dependent condition; from this, he had some hopes of his ultimate reform. But alas! what little hope of repentance well founded was there in his case.

Mr. Sherman was a man of sudden impulses, and of strong passions. At the same time he was unquestionably a person of very great affection, and was sure to feel its exercise in all its true force under the requisite and appropriate terms of it. Unlike some men of his peculiar temperament, lie was universally regarded as a man of good judgment, clear views, and real benevolence. By the citizens of Crampton he was held in high regard, and had two or three times been sent as their representative to the General Assembly of the State.

The western part of New York, the northern parts of Ohio, and the country west of these points, was comparatively a wilderness from 1820 to 1830, between which periods Mr. Sherman removed from Crampton, so that he found no difficulty in locating himself in a retired position in the northern parts of Illinois.

Here he purchased from time to time considerable wild land at government prices, and lived to see even in five years a considerable tide of emigration setting in towards him, and even going beyond him from the East.

At this period of his sojourn in that country, he lost his amiable wife, who, in her dying moments, implored his forgiveness of their only son. Under the solemn aspect of death, all sublunary things assuming their true inferiority of regard, and duty imperiously attesting her great importance, the husband and the father, his heart truly yearning for his son, could not refuse his assent to this request. He promised her all that she required.

After her departure accordingly, he made special and earnest inquiries about him, and took all the necessary steps to restore him legally to his forfeited heirship. But great was his disappointment, sorrow, and chagrin to learn the whole history of his son and of his family, all of whom were reported as no longer living. Mr. Sherman never fully recovered from these accumulated disappointments and sorrows. He married again, however, a lady of excellent character, of affectionate regard -- a cousin to his former wife, by whom he had two daughters, but was ere long removed from them by death.

By his will, he gave the whole of his property to his wife in trust for "all his children, their true heirs and assigns, forever."

Mrs. Sherman, left a widow with these daughters -- she being now forty-five years of age, with a very large landed estate, increasing yearly in value -- found that the care of this property and the education of her children required the utmost diligence and exertion on her part. Unaccustomed heretofore to so much exertion and to so great responsibility, it for a long time sensibly wore upon her strength, and excited apprehensions that the daughters would at an early age be left orphans in the world. But these unfavorable clouds at length dispersed. She was able to perform her required labors with more comfort to herself, and with decided advantage to the young heiresses, as she was eminently fitted to give a guiding hand to the formation of their characters.

Chicago was now become a city of great extent and business, the pride of Northern Illinois -- filled with inhabitants, evidently destined to be one of the most important and magnificent cities of the country. It was within the limits of this rising metropolis that a part of Mr. Sherman's estate lay, and the remainder was near by, every rood of which commanded a high price, every foot of that within the limits of the city valued at almost fabulous prices. Such has been the rise of landed estate in our great western towns and cities.

Of the Puritan Fathers, there never lived one who, we suppose, dreamed of the great West of that country whose eastern margin he beheld in glorious outline from the deck of the May Flower. The Puritans never saw the mighty lakes and western prairies of the land they took in possession. Stern and rugged men, they struggled for a century and more on the margin where they first planted cornfield and city, school and church. It was two centuries before Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan were fully comprehended. The Indian and the dark-haired bison were there, but not the early settlers of New England.

Well, it makes no difference; we mean, it is just as well -- as well for them, and as well for us -- for the world. The good old Puritan came not here to buy government land at one dollar and twenty-five cents the acre, and to speculate in its rise; but as the poets justly say --