"It was about this time," he says, "that my first ambition to become a mathematician was excited by an old cobbler, Neal by name, who lived not far from my father's house, and who used to send the shoes home to his customers with the soles all scratched over with little x's and y's."
After obtaining such elementary instruction as the "old field" schools of that period and region afforded, young Maury entered Harpeth Academy, [1] subsequently under the charge of Rev. J. H. Otey (afterwards Bishop of Tennessee), assisted by William C. Hasbrouck, a member of the Huguenot families of Newberg, New York, who subsequently became a distinguished lawyer of New York.
The quick active mind, and studious habits of the youth soon attracted the notice and secured the regard of his instructors; and so long as the good bishop and the eminent barrister lived, there existed between both and their former pupil the warmest friendship.
- ↑ When in his twelfth year he had fallen from a high tree one day, a height of forty five feet, and was taken up apparently lifeless. It was found upon examination that he had bitten his tongue almost off, and had injured his back so much that his father thought he would never be fit for work on the farm again. He therefore determined to yield to the lad's earnest wish for more schooling, and permitted him to attend Harpeth Academy.
