When you think of the great trunk lines of
railroad, over which fast trains carry hundreds of passengers daily, stop
a moment and remember that it was little more than a hundred years ago
that we first began to know much about this region!
ANDREW JACKSON
The next addition made to our expanding nation was in the extreme
southeast, and with it we associate the name of another of our Presidents,
Andrew Jackson. The story of how Florida came to be a part of the United
States will be more interesting if we know something of the career of the
picturesque hero who brought about its purchase.
Andrew Jackson was born in Union County, North Carolina, in 1767, of poor
Scotch-Irish parents, who about two years before had come from Ireland. In
a little clearing in the woods they had built a rude log hut and settled
down to hard work.
But Andrew's father soon died, and his mother went with her children to
live in her brother's home, where she spun flax to earn money. She was
very fond of little Andrew and hoped some day to make a minister of him.
[Illustration: Andrew Jackson.]
With this in view, she sent him to school, where he learned reading,
writing, and a little ciphering.
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