USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Fitchburg > Fitchburg, Massachusetts, past and present > Part 8
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clothed and lodged him for some time. This arrangement was, however, brought to an abrupt and unpleasant termina- tion. It happened something in this wise : The little fellow, grateful beyond measure and aching to do something to show his gratitude, finding the family coal-bin empty, generously filled it from the adjoining bins without the knowledge or consent of his benefactor, who was soon called upon by the irate owners either to make restitution or submit to arrest. From Boston he removed to New York, and there had his name changed by an act of the legislature to Augustine J. H. Duganne,-in compliance with his mother's dying request for him to assume her maiden name,-the signature over which his writings usually appeared thereafter.
He soon became prominent in politics in New York city, and was one of the founders of the American Know Nothing party. He subsequently became a staunch republican, which political faith he held to the end of his days. He was at one time connected with the New York Tribune and held official positions under the city government. His experience while serving on a committee for investigating the moral condition of the city furnished material for his book "The Tenant Houses ; or Embers from Poverty's Hearth." His best known work was his "History of Government," showing the progress of civil society, and the structure of ancient and modern states. His last was a satire on Ingersol called "Injure Soul." His contribution to our national literature has been considera- ble both in poetry and prose ; of the former he published "Home Poesies," "The Iron Harp," "The Lydian Queen" (a tragedy produced at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadel- phia), "MDCCCXLVIII" or "The Year of the People," "Parnassus in Pillory" (a satire), "A Mission of Intellect" (delivered at Metropolitan Hall, New York, 1852), "The Gospel of Labor," "The True Republic," and "Poetical Works," the first complete collection of his poems. Of his prose writings a series of critiques on contemporary authors appeared in Sartain's Magazine, under the title "Revised Leaves." He also wrote several dramas and twenty or thirty novelettes and romances as well as a large number of papers
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upon a variety of subjects, under various nom de plume in the different magazines and journals of the day. During this period of his life, his marriage took place. His wife was the daughter of a West India man of great wealth, who re- sided in Philadelphia. She was the daughter of the then reigning belle of that city, remarkable for her beauty, and as good as she was beautiful. Their tastes were congenial, and with ample means at command. nothing happened to dis- turb the happiness of their married life until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when with patriotic enthusiasm Mr. Duganne entered into the work of recruiting soldiers for the army. He succeeded in raising several regiments and, in response to what he considered an imperative duty, left the pleasant associations of home and entered upon active service at the head of the 176th New York Regiment, accompanying it to the front. In one of the engagements in which the regi- ment participated, Colonel Duganne was taken prisoner and held for a long time at Camp Ford, Texas, in the hands of the rebels, the story of which was rehearsed in his book "Camp and Prison ;" or "Twenty Months in the Department of the Gulf." "The Fighting Quakers," a true story of the war for the Union, was published by authority of the New York Bureau of Military Records. Another of his books is entitled "Sound Literature," the safeguard of our national institutions.
The following criticism from the pen of William H. Bur- leigh is considered just and impartial, by those who are most familiar with his works. He says: "Colonel Duganne's lyrical powers are characterized by a nervous energy, a gen- erous sympathy with humanity, a wonderful command of language, and an ardent hatred of wrong and oppression in all its forms. His poems have a distinct character of their own, and are evidently the strong, unrestrained and indignant utterances of a bold spirit, deeply penetrated with a love for its kind and intolerant of all despotisms."
Any analysis of the character of Colonel Duganne would fail of completeness were we to omit what might be termed the imperfect side of his nature, a peculiarity which is often
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the accompaniment of genius, but which in the eyes of his friends only served to intensify the purity of his character, and reveal to them that childlike simplicity which the changes of fortune and circumstances were powerless to effect or modify. From a business point of view he was un- successful, never being able to comprehend the value or need of money. While yet a young man and struggling with poverty he refused the ample fortune offered by his mother's brother, who had inherited the estate of his grand- parents in France, and would have shared the inheritance with him, but he could not be induced to accept as a present what he considered belonged to him by right. After the close of the war Colonel Duganne resumed editorial and lit- erary work on The New York Tribune. April 5. 1869, he delivered an oration on the "Heroic Succession," at Cooper Institute, it being the second anniversary of the death of Lincoln.
Upon the death of his wife Colonel Duganne arranged his affairs in New York with the intention of at once return- ing to Fitchburg, there to spend the remainder of his days, for through all these busy years he still retained a strong at- tachment for his early home and boyhood friends. These plans, however. were never realized. He died at his home in New York, Oct. 20, 1884, surviving his companion only a few months.
REV. WILLIAM CUSHING. A. B., a former well-known resident of Fitchburg, was born in Lunenburg, May 15, ISII, attended school there, and fitted for college at Cam- bridge; graduated at Harvard University, 1832, and was a student in Harvard Divinity School in 1832-3: removed to Fitchburg and was a teacher in the Academy for seven terms and was editor, for a short time in 1834, of a weekly religious paper called the "Christian Messenger :" was engaged in teaching in various places until 1837, when he completed his studies at the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1839 ; was ordained as an evangelist, June 10, 1840 ; was engaged in preaching and teaching until 1857, removing that year to
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a farm in Clinton, where he remained ten years, occasionally supplying pulpits : from thence he removed to Medford, in 1867, and to Cambridge, in 1868, where he has since resided. He was employed until 1878, as assistant in Harvard Col- lege Library, since which time he has been engaged in literary work for himself. In 1878, he published an "Index to the North American Review," and in 1879, an "Index to the Christian Examiner." He spent several years' work on his "Century of Authors," which, however, was not pub- lished. The material has been purchased by Appleton & Co., of New York, to be used in the preparation of their "Cy- clopædia of American Biography."
His "Initials and Pseudonims," a dictionary of literary disguises, comprising a collection of twelve thousand initials and pseudonims employed from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the present time, with eight thousand real names of authors, represents a vast amount of labor in their preparation, for Mr. Cushing does not confine himself to the bare bones of the initials and pseudonims which he ex- plains, but adds interesting notes explanatory of the writers ; and in the second part we find the real names of the authors followed by initials and pseudonims and short biographical notices. He is now preparing a supplement which will be ready for the press in the fall, this will contain six thousand additional initials and pseudonims. A companion volume to these two is the book of "Anonyms," comprising the titles of some twenty thousand books and pamphlets with the names of the authors, followed by brief biographical notices. The "Publishers Circular," London, ranks Mr. Cushing's "Initials and Pseudonims" beside Allibone's great "Dictionary" and Cowden Clarke's no less famous "Concordance to Shaks- peare," for good, honest workmanship. It is indeed difficult to decide which of the three books will prove the most useful to the librarian and the student of English and American lit- erature.
JAMES RIPLEY WELLMAN HITCHCOCK, who signs him- self simply Ripley Hitchcock, was born in Fitchburg, July
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3, 1857. He prepared for college at the Fitchburg High School, entered Harvard in 1873, and was graduated in 1877. For the next two years he pursued special post-grad- uate studies in Cambridge and at his home. During this time and also while in college he wrote articles which were published in various minor periodicals, and in 1879, when he took up his residence in New York city, he began to occupy himself regularly with literary work, contributing many arti- cles to magazines and newspapers. In ISSo, he accepted a position on the staff of the New York Tribune. Early in his college course he had begun a special study of art, which he continued after graduation, and his interest in the subject, upon which he had already written, was utilized in his selec- tion to perform the minor work of the Tribune's art depart- ment. In 1882, Mr. Hitchcock became the art critic of the Tribune and he remains at the head of this department. In the summer and autumn of 1882, Mr. Hitchcock travelled through the southwest, Northern Mexico and California as the correspondent of the Tribune. He also wrote a series of letters for the Boston Herald.
In 1883, he went through the southwest and northwest, visiting British Columbia, and making a journey to the glaciers of Mt. Tacoma on Puget Sound, afterward described in a magazine article. Since 1883, Mr. Hitchcock's journalistic work has consisted almost entirely of art criticism, with some book reviewing. His connection with the daily press has become rather that of the special contributor than that of the regular journalist, and a large portion of his time is occupied with literary work out- side of daily journalism. His books and a considerable pro- portion of his magazine articles have naturally treated of art. He is the author of "Etching in America," a book published in New York early in 1886, which received favorable reviews in this country and in England. He is also the author of the text of "Some Modern Etchings," published in 1884 ; "Recent American Etchings," published in 1885 ; "Notable Etchings,"
published in 1886; "Representative American Etchings," published in 1887, and of a monograph upon George Inness, N. A., published in 1884. Mr. Hitchcock, who is a keen
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lover of out-door sports, usually spends his summers in salmon and trout fishing in New Brunswick and Quebec, and articles by him upon these topics are included in the Century Company's "Boys' Book of Sports." Among his contributions to monthly magazines have been articles for the Century, St. Nicholas, the Popular Science Monthly, Out- ing, the Art Review, the Art Amateur, the Book Buyer and others. The list includes some half dozen articles each for St. Nicholas, the Art Review and Outing, those for the last named magazine dealing with fishing and incidents of travel. An article in the Century magazine entitled "The Western Art Movement" was translated into French and re- published with comments in L'Art. It was also re-published in pamphlet form in Nova Scotia. Some of the weekly pub- lications for which Mr. Hitchcock has written are the Chris- tian Union, the Youth's Companion, Puck, and others. In addition to the work of his department of the Tribune he has for some years contributed occasional letters upon artistic and literary topics to the Boston Herald. Although Mr. Hitch- cock's writings have dealt chiefly with art and literary criti- cism, and out-door life and travel, he has done a little in fiction in addition to critical and descriptive work. In 1885 he was chosen a trustee of the National Society of Arts and served as long as the organization lasted. In 1886 he visited Washington, in an unofficial capacity, to examine into the possibility of securing a modification of the tariff upon works of art. Mr. Hitchcock is a member of the Authors' Club. For the year 1887 he is a member of the executive council and of the committee on membership of this club.
CHARLES MASON, A. M., for a little more than forty-five years a resident of Fitchburg, and connected with its educa- tional interests, has written more or less on education, and since he has been in town has preserved a large amount of material (probably as complete a collection of reports, docu- ments, etc., as can be found in the city ) relating to the his- tory and progress of Fitchburg. His position in educational and parish affairs has brought him in contact both personally
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and by correspondence with prominent men in educational, political and ministerial circles, and his collection of letters received from men of that stamp, many of whom are now dead, is both interesting and valuable. In 1852 Mr. Mason was invited to deliver the address at the centennial celebra- tion of his native town, Dublin, N. H. He prepared and de- livered the address, which was printed in the history of Dub- lin, N. H. His book on "The National and State Govern- ments" has been used as a text book in schools and acade- mies. At the time of its issue it received the approval and commendation of eminent educators, lawyers, and the press.
REV. S. LEROY BLAKE, D. D., was born in Cornwall, Vt., Dec. 5, 1834 ; fitted for college at Burr and Burton Seminary at Manchester, Vt. ; entered Middlebury, Vt., Col- lege in the autumn of 1855, and graduated in 1859; taught at Royalton, Vt., Lancaster, Mass., and Pembroke, N. H .; entered Andover Theological Seminary, May, 1862, nine months after his class entered, and graduated in 1864. He
was ordained and installed at Pepperell, Mass., Dec. 7, 1864 ; in 1869, was settled over the South church in Concord, N. II. : came to Fitchburg the first Sabbath of April, 1880, after a short pastorate in Cleveland, Ohio, and was installed over the C. C. church in Fitchburg, Sept. 1, 1880, remaining until March 27, 1887. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Iowa College in 1883. While in Fitchburg, Dr. Blake published a volume entitled "The Book," which has attracted the attention of thoughtful people and received the indorsement of some of our most scholarly Biblical commentators. In this volume Dr. Blake has given to the world a convenient summary of the evidence upon which the canon of Holy Scriptures rests, and the authorship of its several books. He brings together the testimony of the apostolic and other fathers, the historians and doctors, and from it draws his conclusions, as to the time and authorship of the books and what books have from the first comprised the Sacred Canon. Instead of beginning with the apostles and working down, Dr. Blake has pursued the even more convincing method of working back to them from the time
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when there is admitted to have been an accepted Canon. "The Christian Union" says: "Such books as these are needed just at this time when the wave of unbelief is reced- ing, and many need to have the proofs that sustain the Word of God freshly presented to their minds." Dr. Blake has also published during his ministry several sermons and pamphlets.
ASA THURSTON. Among those in the past who have a name for literary work may be mentioned Asa Thurston, who compiled a dictionary and grammar of the Hawaiian language, which language he also spoke fluently. He was no doubt the most remarkable man Fitchburg ever produced. He was born in 1787, on one of the hill farms on Ashby west road. As a young man he was athletic and given to sports, having no high aim in life, but meeting with a change of heart he became an earnest christian ; prepared himself by a course in Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary. for his life work as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands, the natives of which were then in the deepest darkness and deg- radation. In 1819, he set sail for the Sandwich Islands and remained until the time of his death. He died at Honolulu, March 11, 1868, living to see more than fifty thousand con- verts to christianity and a corresponding progress in civiliza- tion. The value of his life work for humanity can never be estimated.
RUFUS CAMPBELL TORREY was born in Oxford, Mass., Feb. 13, 1813 ; fitted for college at Wrentham in 1833 ; spent the next four or five years in Fitchburg, engaged mostly in teaching and editing a newspaper; was a teacher in the Fitchburg Academy ; wrote the well known History of Fitch- burg in 1836, which was reprinted in 1865 : removed to Mobile, Ala., in 1838; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840 ; practised his profession at Grove Ilill and Clai- borne, Ala. ; was judge of county court, 1844-48 ; prominent officer in the Masonic Fraternity ; was state senator, 1876- 1880, and retired from the practice of the law in 1879 ; died at Claiborne, Ala., Sept. 13, 1882. In the preparation of Mr. Torrey's History the manuscript of a series of lectures written by his friend Nathaniel Wood, Esq., was freely used and a
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full acknowledgement of its use made in the preface. This original manuscript is now preserved in the public library.
Among the local writers whose services have been most valuable to the city may be mentioned :
HENRY A. WILLIS, author of Fitchburg in the War of the Rebellion, published in 1866.
EBEN BAILEY, writer of the Sketch of Fitchburg, in the Worcester County History, published in 1879, by C. F. Jewett & Co.
RAY GREENE HULING, a book entitled The Teachers and Graduates of the Fitchburg High School, 1849 to 1883, preceded by Some Mention of Teachers in the Fitchburg Academy, 1830 to 1848.
THE FITCHBURG AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION have prepared valuable essays from time to time on various subjects, its members having interested themselves in the study of the plants and minerals of this region. "The Flora of Fitch- burg," which has received high commendation from eminent naturalists, and the unpublished essays on Rollstone and Pearl Hills, being especially worthy of notice here.
ARTISTIC.
S. HERBERT ADAMS, son of Samuel Minot and Nancy A. (Powers) Adams, was born at West Concord, Vt., Jan. 28, 1858; came to Fitchburg in 1863. At the early age of nine years his entreaties for a teacher to instruct him "to make pictures" were unceasing. A teacher being procured he was gratified with two terms only of instruction in draw- ing. Again, when he was eleven years old, the slumbering propensity for "making pictures" burst forth in the demand for another teacher. He was put under the tuition of Miss M. Louisa Haskell (since Mrs. Dr. Alden Sylvester), who was his teacher in drawing until it was introduced into Fitch- burg public schools in '71. Miss Haskell being the teacher of that department of education, she still held her connection with him, and by her influence and encouragement may have
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done much to shape his life work. He entered Fitchburg High School in '74, where he remained but two years ; en- tered Worcester Technical Institute in '76, with the intention of graduating therefrom, and then attending the Massachu- setts Normal Art School in Boston. Before the expiration of the first year he became convinced he could not obtain as much of artistic knowledge there as he had expected, and deemed it wiser to relinquish the education he could there gain in other branches, and turn his whole energies to what he intended as a life work. Accordingly in 1877, he entered the Massachusetts Normal Art School. After successfully passing class A in '78, he took the supervisorship of drawing in Fitchburg public and evening schools. Here he labored for nearly four years, ever impatient that he must relin- quish his art work, and always availing himself of any little opportunity to continue it. In the spring of 'S2, he re-entered the Normal Art School and passed the examinations of class B-the painting department-at the end of the school year ; and in '83, graduated from the school with high honors, having done the work of the mechanical and modelling classes in one year, in a most satisfactory manner. In September of the same year he went to Baltimore, Md., as first assistant in the Maryland Institute of industrial and fine arts. Here he had charge of the modelling, and instructed in other depart- ments. After two years, increase of salary, or offers of larger remuneration from other localities, could not hold him in America. But with his prominent characteristic, to over- come all obstacles, he determined to carry into execution his long cherished plan of giving his undivided attention to sculpturing. He arrived in Paris, June, 'S5, and almost im- mediately entered the Julian school, soon to learn he could not make the progress he desired among so many pupils. Consequently he began work under the instruction of the eminent sculptor, M. Antonin Mercie' : also attending even- ing schools under efficient artists. In '86 and '87, he had portrait busts accepted at the Salon. Of the last it has been said by competent critics, "it would do credit to an older artist." He is still in Paris, studying, and also engaged in original work in his own studio.
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S. AUGUSTA FAIRBANKS, birthplace Fitchburg, daughter of C. P. Deane, educated at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., and Worcester Academy, Massachusetts ; was a teacher for several years in the public schools of this city. She received private instruction in drawing and paint- ing of J. J. Enneking and F. Childe Hassam, also attended the famous Julian School in Paris in 1883 and '84; is at present in Fitchburg, giving private instruction in drawing and painting at her studio, 238 Main street.
ELEANOR A. NORCROSS, a daughter of Hon. Amasa Norcross, is a native of Fitchburg ; graduated at Wheaton Seminary ; taught drawing one year in the public schools in Fitchburg ; studied painting two winters with Alfred Stevens in Paris, exhibited a portrait in the Salon, 1886. Miss Nor- cross was intrusted with the selection of photographs for the Fitchburg public library, and a similiar collection for Wheaton Seminary, together with five oil paintings of copies from old masters, which were of her own execution.
MARTHA MEDORA ADAMS, daughter of Samuel Minot and Nancy A. (Powers) Adams, is a native of Concord, Vt. ; graduated from the Fitchburg High School in 1879; studied with her brother Herbert for a few months; in the spring of 1880, entered the Normal Art School, Boston, leaving at the end of the school year in 1882, having passed classes A and B; gave private instruction in drawing and painting for one year in Fitchburg; in September, 1883, re-entered the Normal Art School in the modelling class ; January, 1884, went to Baltimore, Md., where she was for a short time a de- signer of ornament in Chesapeake pottery ; in the following spring became a teacher of painting in the Maryland Insti- tute, where she successfully taught until the close of the school year in 1885. She then returned to Massachusetts resumed private teaching, and studied with Vonnoh; has also been a pupil of T. O. Longerfelt and Juglaris ; since September, 1886, has taught drawing in the girls' High School, Boston.
CHAPTER VII.
MILITARY.
HE oldest military company now in exist- YE ence in the city, received its charter in 1816, F and was known by the name of the FITCHI- S BURG FUSILIERS from the time of its organ- ization. By petition of Ephraim M. Cun- 8 ningham and forty others the company was formed from the "Old South" Company be- longing to the 4th Regiment, 2d Brigade, 7th Division. M. V. M. This militia com- pany, as far back as 1807, was under good discipline and, so far as the records go to show, was well officered. The commission of Isaiah Put- nam, (grandfather of J. E. and Lieut. Daniel C. Putnam, ) as ensign, is now in existence, dated 1807. May 5; his resignation taking place two years later. From that time, in common with the militia generally, it gradually became de- moralized, was poorly uniformed and undisciplined, but was usually on hand at "general muster" and was designated by the boys as the "Slam Bangs."
The charter was granted to the new company, Dec. 14. 1816, and the organization was perfected at a meeting, Feb. 3, 1817, at which John Upton, (uncle of Colonel Edwin Upton,) was elected captain ; Alpheus Kimball, (father of General John W. Kimball, ) lieutenant, and Walter Johnson. ensign. These three officers were of equal height, a trifle over six feet, and otherwise well fitted to command. The uniform adopted by vote of the company consisted of a blue coat trimmed with bell buttons and lace, pantaloons of the same color as the coat, made to button over the boots, and
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