On one such trip, he apparently jumped ship at Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was then part of Canada. He bought large tracts of land cheaply, and eventually became very wealthy. Hamilton sent for his son, Allen, from Northern Ireland.
Allen's son, Montgomery, married Gertrude Pond. Montgomery, Edith Hamilton's father, who never worked a day in his life, was a voracious reader and an educated man but was interested mainly in literature and religious heresies. According to his daughter, he was a horrible teacher. Her mother encouraged Hamilton to play outdoors and to learn foreign languages.
Hamilton, the eldest of five children from an exceptionally gifted intellectual family, was raised on a family estate with many servants, many relatives, and no need for outsiders. She was withdrawn, intense, moody, and somewhat depressive. However, she was also caring, a gifted storyteller, and had a phenomenal memory. She learned French at an early age from her mother and German from servants. Her father taught her Latin at the age of seven and Greek at eight. She was also a voracious reader, but was especially interested in ancient Greece. Her sister Alice says of her in Edith Hamilton: An Intimate Portrait, by Doris Fielding Reid, "Edith had intense emotions.
