USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 19
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John Fiske the clear-sighted historian, deep thinker, and ceaseless worker, was of Hartford birth. His books, rang- ing over history, near and remote, over myths and realities, over the principles that underlie man's relation to Nature and to God, with the public addresses that he gave with great charm, have caused him to be one of the most prominent makers of modern thought. Unequaled in popularizing the great discoveries and ideas of others, he made solid contribu- tions of his own to the realm of philosophy and science.
Journalism has been a field in which many a writer has shown his mettle; and Hartford offices have seemed espe- cially to be hotbeds for future authors. The Mirror pub- lished there, and the Microscope in New Haven, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, had many a contributor who became famous afterwards. George D. Prentice, born in Preston in 1802, a graduate of Brown University, made his reputation in Hartford as the editor of the New England Weekly Review, having followed Brainard on the Mirror. Prentice's wit and ability, combined with gifted contribu- tors, made the Review successful for ten years. He it was who introduced Whittier to the world, and in his charge he left his paper while he went to Kentucky to prepare a "Life
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of Henry Clay," whom he supported as candidate for Presi- dent. Whittier went on writing poems for the Review for two years; and Prentice remained in Kentucky, where he established the Louisville Journal and a national reputa- tion.
One of the well-known contributors to the New York Times during the Civil War, was the "Veteran Observer," Edward Deering Mansfield, who was born in New Haven in 1801, the son of Jared Mansfield. He was decidedly a scholar, having graduated from West Point and Princeton and studied law with Judge Gould in Litchfield; and he became a professor, in Cincinnati College, of Constitutional Law, on which subject and on others he wrote ably.
Like Stedman, another member of the class of '53 held a brilliant pen, and used it in a Norwich editorial office-Isaac H. Bromley. He had a taste of army life during the war; he was editor and partial proprietor of the Hartford Evening Post for four years, ending in 1872, after which he was con- nected with several papers in New York, but was especially identified with the Tribune, being on its editorial staff for eleven years, always contributing spicy and important articles. During his last years he was the Government Director of the Union Pacific Railroad, and was in other ways connected with railroad affairs.
Another editor, D. W. Bartlett, went from Hartford to Washington just before the Civil War, to be connected with Dr. Gamaliel Bailey in the editorship of the National Era. In 1858 he became the daily correspondent by mail and tele- graph of the New York Evening Post. He was also for over twenty years the correspondent of the Springfield Republican and the Independent, and the letters of "Van" and "D. W. B." were sought with never-disappointed expectation by his
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readers. His sure insight and careful observation made these letters valuable to recent historians, especially in the period from 1858 to the breaking-out of the Civil War, during which time he was almost alone as an anti-slavery correspondent from Washington. Mr. Bartlett wrote the first "Life of Abraham Lincoln" published in book form. His books on London and Paris were widely read for years, and his "Lady Jane Grey," first published in 1853, still has a sale of 500 copies a year. He was Clerk of the House Committee on Elections for fourteen years, and the American Secretary of the Chinese Legation for twelve years.
It was on the editorial pages of the Hartford Courant that Charles Dudley Warner's "My Summer in a Garden" made its bow to the public; and while he was an active editor and one of the proprietors of the paper till his death, con- tributing constantly very valuable articles full of political sagacity to his own journal, his literary talent took him into broader fields of travel, biography, fiction, and essays that carried his name far and wide. His delicate wit and humor lighted up even commonplace incidents with a glow that warmed but did not sting. Whether his graceful pen set forth the charms of literature, the picturesque in Nature, or explained the duties of the citizen, his words and influence were always on the side of right living. He was not of Con- necticut birth, but was identified with the State by a lifetime of service. A friendly neighbor in local habitation, a member of the same literary circle, and sometimes literally a partner in authorship, was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, whose immor- tal extravaganza "Innocents Abroad" made "Mark Twain" a household word, and whose succeeding works have brought him increased renown.
The scattered records of the past have been collected by
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the careful hand of Professor Franklin B. Dexter, in regard to the graduates of Yale, in the biographical volumes which will be a priceless authority in years to come ; and in "Chron- icles of New Haven Green" and other works, Henry T. Blake the author of the poem "Niagara" has preserved, and enlivened by his wit, local history that would otherwise have vanished from present knowledge.
One more Norwich editor distinguished himself in the line of antiquarian research, and became one of the most famous genealogists of his day-Joseph Lemuel Chester, who, going to London in 1858, investigated the ancestry of Washington, and devoted seventeen years to a work on the baptismal and marriage registers of Westminster Abbey, besides accomplish- ing other kindred works. Of similar importance in American archives has been the invaluable work of Charles J. Hoadly, for many years the librarian of the State Library in Hart- ford, and an unimpeachable authority on State history; and the remarkable genealogical work of Professor Edward Elbridge Salisbury of New Haven, and his wife, Evelyn MacCurdy Salisbury, the daughter of Judge McCurdy of Lyme. Both of them accurate scholars, they devoted them- selves for years to collecting from both sides of the ocean all the accessible records of many of the prominent old fam- ilies of New England, tracing them down from the most ancient families of Great Britain. These histories, presented in a charming style, with large charts and engravings of arms, fill six sumptuous quarto volumes, of which the two volumes, "Family Memorials," are Professor Salisbury's account of his ancestral lines, and the four others, "Family Histories and Genealogies," describing Mrs. Salisbury's lines, are the joint work of Professor Salisbury and herself. This monumental work, which preserves precious knowledge that would other-
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wise have been lost, is, as a private achievement, quite with- out a parallel, and his already become a recognized mine of unique lore.
Time fails to speak of the many contributions to the lit- erature of special subjects from scholars whose fame has added to, as well as come from, that of their books; such as Woolsey's works on International Law, Dana's many books on Geology and Corals, Whitney's memorable gifts to phil- ology, Fisher's masterly works on Ecclesiactical History. Every lover of art must thank Hoppin for his "Our Old Home" and his scholarly books on art; and every student of Chaucer and Shakespeare owes a debt to Lounsbury for his critical volumes, at once learned, and delightful in style. As part of the commemoration of Yale's great anniversary, some of her professors prepared upwards of twenty-five works elucidating the advancement of knowledge in their own departments. President Hadley, already well-known as an able writer on economic subjects, led the list with "The Education of the American Citizen ;" Russell H. Chittenden gave a work on the subject on which he is the acknowledged authority, "Physiological Chemistry;" Lounsbury added "Shakespearian Wars" to his valuable works on Shakes- peare; John Christian Schwab wrote the first industrial and financial history of the South during the Civil War; William G. Sumner gave a book on "Societology;" Thomas D. Sey- mour, "Life in Greece in the Homeric Age;" Edward Wash- burn Hopkins, a work based on personal experience in India, besides an analysis of the "Great Epic of India;" J. Wil- lard Gibbs, the great mathematician, "The Principles of Sta- tistical Mechanics;" John S. Weir, a "Life of John Trum- bull;" Horace L. Wells, "Studies from the Chemical Labo- ratory of the Sheffield Scientific School;" Samuel L. Penfield
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and Louis V. Pirsson, "Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrography;" the lamented Charles E. Beecher, "Studies in Evolution;" and space fails to enumerate many others; the list is remarkable for range and quality, embracing phil- ology, history, religion, literature, art, science, and pure and applied mathematics.
Each son and daughter of Lyman Beecher had talent, many had genius: Thomas and Edward were able writers and preachers ; Catherine's strong personality had a molding effect on her time, whether she was teaching, writing, or talking; Is- abella, Mrs. John Hooker, threw her great influence on the side of woman's rights. Henry Ward Beecher, the ninth child, born and brought up in Litchfield, found his first school under his sister Catherine, took his degree at Amherst, and was with his father and sisters in Cincinnati during the troublous times of pro-slavery mobs there, and in fact served as a special policeman for several days then. He was one of the four original editors of the Independent; he wrote much; -twenty volumes of his sermons were published; his "Star Papers" and "Norwood" show his love of New England life and scenery, and the former contain some of the most charm- ing essays in the language; and his "Jesus the Christ" was the last book from his pen. But his greatest work was as a preacher and a lecturer. The man who began with an audi- ence of nineteen women and one man in Indianapolis, was through most of his life wont to move audiences of thousands to tears or laughter by the magic of his wonderful eloquence, and to know that his name filled the streets of Brooklyn every Sunday with a hurrying throng.
And his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, what a power she had! Far and away the most famous novelist that America has produced, she held the world enthralled in sympathy with
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Uncle Tom. From the day when her father discovered in the Litchfield school that it was his twelve-year-old daugh- ter who had stirred his admiration of her paper on the "Im- mortality of the Soul," her genius was suspected. Those quiet eyes were taking notes all through her life, of the dignified New England divines, the angular, kind-hearted spinsters, the village gossips and romances, the tragedies of Border life in the pro-slavery and anti-slavery struggle, the pathos of the black man's lot; and on her pages she has made them more real than reality, for they are immortal.
She reached the high-water mark of literary success, and her name literally went around the world. Her English admirers gave her an inkstand of silver, ten inches high, rep- resenting two slaves just freed from their bonds; the Duchess of Sutherland, a gold bracelet in the form of a shackle, which has since been inscribed with the dates of the epochs of pro- gress in the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade; and an address was sent to her by Lord Shaftesbury, signed by 562,- 448 names in England and on the Continent, which filled twenty-six thick folio volumes.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" first appeared in Dr. Bailey's Na- tional Era, in Washington, and, according to the authorities of the British Museum, has been translated into twenty languages, has been published in thirteen German, four French, and fifty English, separate editions. It has been abridged, dramatized, arranged for children, and has had elaborate commentaries; it has brought to its author the homage of the masses, the admiration and friendship of the great ones of the earth, and has undeniably contributed to break the shackles it described.
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CHAPTER XIV EDUCATORS AND PHILANTHROPISTS
T HE traditionally witty Frenchman spoke the truth when he said that from Connecticut went forth teachers, law-makers, and clocks !
There were good teachers in the old days; and although they did not talk very much of methods, the "proof of the pudding," in the sterling schol- ars and men they brought up, was eminently satisfactory. The memory of the prowess of some of these teachers still lingers :- of James Murdoch, the classmate of Lyman Beecher and Henry Baldwin, who began, as have so many other distinguished men, as the rector of the Hopkins Gram- mar School in New Haven, and, with the University of Ver- mont for an intermediate place, spent most of his teaching life at Andover, where he made a strong impression as an expounder and writer of philosophical and ecclesiastical mat- ters, and later Lyman H. Atwater, the kind friend and keen logician, who for years held sway over his classes at Prince- ton, "a great jurist spoiled to make a great professor;" and another noted force in the teaching world, George McClel- lan, of Woodstock birth and Yale education, the eminent surgeon of Philadelphia, whose private lectures in anatomy and surgery resulted in establishing the Jefferson Medical College there; and whose efforts, later, obtained the charter for the Medical School connected with Pennsylvania College. His lectures were of notable advantage to the institution, for his fame as a surgeon, especially in ophthalmic surgery, was borne abroad even to foreign lands, patients resorting to him from various countries; and his medical and surgical reports were widely read. His son was General George B McClel- lan.
Also a native of (East) Woodstock, was the famous authority on political economy, Amasa Walker, a man whose
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influence was potent in everything that he touched, whether it were helping the founders of Oberlin, in which he was deeply interested; organizing the Free Soil Party, as well as the Boston Lyceum; persuading the Massachusetts Legisla- ture to authorize the use of the Connecticut Webster's Dic- tionary; presiding over the first Temperance Society in Bos- ton; or lecturing on political economy at Amherst, Oberlin, or Harvard. Tireless in his energy, he was yet an advocate of peace; and in the days when Elihu Burritt was preaching a new doctrine of peace and arbitration, Amasa Walker served as a Vice-President of the two great International Peace Congresses held at London and Paris in 1843 and 1849 respectively. As an authority on finance and an advocate of reforms, he was best known. His "Nature and Uses of Money," his articles on political economy in Hunt's Mer- chant's Magazine, and his "Science of Wealth," which had eight editions and was translated into Italian, had an educat- ing influence on the reading public.
In the domain of the schoolroom, the creative impulse of the State has been very evident; and it is generally acknowl- edged that the distinctive text-book for practical uses was first installed in Connecticut schools. He who studies early instruction must be struck by the frequency of the manuscript copy of some learned teacher's "manual" for his own schol- ars, sometimes handed down from class to class for many years, with much painful copying, even books of psalm-tunes being thus prepared by hand. To sugar-coat the pill of knowledge, as is now the custom, was not thought of; and it was a wonderful advance when, in 1783, Noah Webster pub- lished the first part of his "Grammatical Institutes," which combined reader, spelling-book, and grammar.
To properly set forth the merits of and the benefits result-
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ing from, Webster's great work, is not possible here; to him more than to any one else is due the happy fact that the vast area of the United States is homogenous in its use of the English language, instead of being broken up by provincial dialects; that, in a formative period, the idea of careful and systematic attention to spelling and the use of language as a basis for a liberal education was instilled; and that a digni- fied assertion of our national rights in using the English language without a servile imitation of local English cus- toms was made. Webster was active in securing a copyright law. Already one well-known college-president (and doubt- less there are many others ), has definitely assigned the disuse of Webster's spelling-book as a cause of the acknowledged defects in fundamental English on the part of the modern college-boy and has expressed a desire for its revival. It is certain that Webster's little blue spelling-book, with its Temple of Fame on the Hill of Science as the frontispiece, its quaint fables, and its columns of b-a, ba; b-e, be, reaching, by the year 1870, a sale of 40,000,000 copies, is one of the most famous books produced in America.
Webster's contemporary and temporary rival in publishing readers and spelling-books, Caleb Bingham, although a native of Salisbury, was identified especially with Massachusetts schools.
Nathan Daboll, born in Center Groton in 1750, eight years before Webster, for a long time almost shared the latter's poularity in schools on account of his arithmetic, which for thirty-five years held the first place in its field. He struck a happy medium between an arithmetic published in Norwich in 1796 by Root, who accommodatingly omitted fractions "because they are not absolutely necessary," and the English Cocker, with his Latin explanations. In spite of recommen-
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dations from Noah Webster, Professor Meigs of Yale, and Professor Messer of Brown, the publisher was faint-hearted and allowed a royalty of only one cent a copy. Yet to the day of that publisher's death in his ninety-eighth year, the sale of the arithmetic had not abated.
Of geographies there is quite a history. Strange as it may seem to boys and girls now, the modern geography, with its abundant and compendious maps, its attractive pictures of birds and beasts, of the wonders of nature and art, its sys- tematic and compact arrangement of useful facts, was not known in the early nineteenth century. The ice was broken by Jedidiah Morse, a learned native of Woodstock, who ven- tured to publish in 1784, a "Geography made Easy" that his pupils had used in manuscript. The public indorsed his opinion in the preface that "Geography was no longer esteemed a polite and agreeable accomplishment only, but a very necessary and important part of education," by buying the books so eagerly that in 1789 he published his famous "American Geography." Its two stout volumes, bound in leather, contain much information, some of it especially inter- esting now that it seems obsolete, as with regard to the regu- lations for using tobacco. It won instant recognition and praise, and brought to its author the name of the "Father of American Geography." His monument in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, near Webster, Whitney, and Beecher, is surmounted by a globe.
William C. Woodbridge, although born in Massachusetts, spent almost his whole life from infancy in Connecticut. He taught at one time in the School for the Deaf at Hartford. In 1821, he and Mrs. Emma Willard consolidated their peda- gogical experience in another geography, which they justly felt remedied many faults in previous ones. But it was soon
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eclipsed by a rival, the work of Jesse Olney, a native of Union in Tolland County. In 1827 he published his atlas-geog -. raphy, with illustrations, which had a popularity almost equal to that of Webster's books, and for thirty years was used all over the country, being revised and improved in many edi- tions, which amounted to at least 80,000 copies. Olney sen- sibly omitted the accounts of the solar system and other far- away matters, which had encumbered previous geographies, and began at once with every-day land and water; and his methods have been essentially used ever since. Frederick Butler of Wethersfield had issued ten years before a com- pendium of all general history, which is called the first of the kind to be published in this country.
The classical learning of Ethan Allen Andrews, a native of New Britain, was applied to a work that was a landmark in the study of Latin ;- his Latin-English lexicon, which was not only a boon to the student of his time, but was done in so complete and masterly a way as to become a standard work for many generations. Professor Andrews, whose attain- ments were very great, held a chair in North Carolina Uni- versity for six years, and was at the head of schools in New Haven, and in Boston, where he succeeded Jacob Abbott. He introduced new methods, now commonly adopted, of teaching Latin; and his text-books, of which the "First Lessons in Latin" had thirty-four editions, had a great sale. They, as well as the Lexicon, were written in New Britain.
Of a different type was Samuel J. Andrews, long a teacher at Trinity College, but best remembered as a disciple of Irv- ing, and an expounder of the doctrines of the Catholic Apos- tolic Church. His "Life of our Lord upon Earth" has long been of standard value.
Most of the text-books spoken of proceeded from practical
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teachers, who tried to meet personally-felt needs. Among these was the famous Emma Willard, one of the leaders of her time, and a pioneer in the higher education of women. She was born in Berlin, the sixteenth of the seventeen chil- dren of Captain Samuel Hart. Her talents as a student and teacher were early displayed, and in their full development in her Seminary in Troy, gave her an international renown. Her "Plan for improving Female Education," published in 1818, after long consideration, led to the adoption in 1819, by the New York Legislature, of the first law for the educa- tion of girls passed by any Legislature, and to the incorpora- tion of her school in Troy. For a long lifetime she exerted a potent influence on the rising generation of women, and on the public estimation of the necessity of their education. She herself gave assistance to deserving students which amounted to at least $75,000. She had the friendship of distinguished men both here and abroad, being received with honor by Lafayette; her text-books on history and geography were in great favor, being translated for use in French schools, and with her novel theory of the "Circulation of the Blood," and her song "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," giving her a place among authors; and her beauty, goodness, learning, and dignity of character made her a stately type of the American woman.
Her sister, Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, was almost equally gifted and distinguished. She taught a private school in New Britain in 1813, was associated with Mrs. Willard in Troy, and afterwards gave a great impetus to woman's education in Maryland. Her lectures to her classes in Bot- any, prepared because she could find no suitable text book, were widely used when published as "Lincoln's Botany."
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She was the second woman to become a member of the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Science.
These women, like Mary Lyon, broke ground which has borne rich harvests since then. And in later days has been the memorable work of Sarah Porter, who led thousands of pupils to a love for learning, for philanthropy, for high- minded living that has carried the name of Farmington, where she had her school, all over the United States. Her singleness of purpose, her generosity, her devotion to cul- ture and scholarship, and her wonderful personal influence, made her an inspiring force; and she has been ranked with Arnold among the great educators of the nineteenth century.
The epoch-making effort of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell in establishing the School for the Deaf and Dumb at Hartford has been mentioned. From that arose the famous work of Gallaudet in teaching mutes; and by the urgency of Gallau- det, David Ely Bartlett was led to bestow the zeal and devo- tion of a lifetime on the same noble work. All these men were natives of Connecticut and graduates of Yale.
Among those who gave the motive power for educational progress, who touched the springs of governmental support, Henry Barnard is pre-eminent. Disinterested, indefatigable, gifted, he devoted his whole life to the improvement of edu- cation, and without doubt stands at the head of American educators. He was born in Hartford in 1811, was graduated from Yale in 1830, studied law, and then tried his hand as principal of an academy in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. That directed his attention to the importance of public schools. Before that, any improvements in them had been desultory and personal, without any well-arranged or prevailing system. Mr. Barnard went to Europe to examine methods there; and his errand, as well as his high-bred and agreeable personality,
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