At seven he suffered the loss of his sister, Elsie, which came as a great grief to him: “At seven years old I had a serious illness, which brought me so near death that everybody said I was saved by a miracle,.not that I wanted kind care, my dear father and mother hardly left my bedside for fifteen days and nights. I was on the point of expiring when suddenly I asked for some beer. I had always disliked beer but it saved me. I recovered, and six months later, my sister, my darling sister, died. Oh! what a grief that was.” -from a letter he wrote at age 16