John Wycliff Rigdon, Sidney’s son, wrote of his father that:
“His parents would not let him have a candle to read by night; he therefore gathered hickory bark, there was plenty of it around the old farm. He used to get it & at night throw it on the old fire place & lay with his head toward the fire & read history till near morning, unless his parents got up & drove him to bed. In this way he became a great historian, the best I ever saw. He seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue’s end & he got to be a great Biblical scholar as well. He was as familiar with the Bible as a child with his spelling book. He was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get. He studied English Grammar, he was very precise in his language.”
http://ourgenealogyroots.com/images/samueljharned28352441fireplace.jpg
