History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 58

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Benjamin Peirce (Professor) was born in 1809 and graduated at Harvard 1829. He was Hollis profes- sor of mathematics in 1832, and Perkins professor of astronomy and mathematics from 1842 to 1867, having been previously tutor in mathematics. In 1867 he was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. Professor Peirce was truly a mathematical genius. He comprehenided a problem with great rapidity and clearness, and he stated it, with his conclusion, with a conciseness never sur- passed by mathematicians of any era. No proposition was too small to receive his attention and none too large to be mastered by his powerful mind. His pub- lications were numerous, and they stand in the front rank of mathematical works. He published " Ele- mentary Treatise on Plane Trigonometry," 1835; "Elementary Treatise on Spherical Trigonometry," 1836; " Elementary Treatise on Sound," 1836 ; " Ele- mentary Treatise on Plane and Solid Geometry," 1857; "Elementary Treatise on Algebra," 1837; " Elementary Treatise on Curves, Functions and Forces," 1841; "Tables of the Moon, arranged in a form under the superintendence of Charles Henry Davis, lieutenant U. S. N.," 1853; " Physical and Celestial Mechanics, Developed in Four Systems of Analytic Mechanics, Celestial Mechanics, Potential Physics and Analytic Morphology," 1855; besides many articles on " Meteors," " Latitudes," " Pertur- bations of Uranus and Neptune," "Comets," "Sat- urn's Ring," " Tails of Comets," "Moon Culmina- tions," "Celestial Mechanics and Meteors." His diligence was great, as was also his power of applica- tion, and his amiability and patience enabled him to pursue his work continuously amidst the interruptions incident to his duties as teacher and professor. His position among the scientists of his day was among the foremost, and it is related of him that he secured by letter, for a fellow-student and observer, to M. De Lesseps, the plans and measurements of the Suez Canal, which had been repeatedly refused to those who applied as statesmen and diplomatists. He died in 1880.

A brother of Professor Peirce, Charles Henry, born in Salem in 1814, and a graduate of Harvard in 1833, was formany years examiner of drugs and medicines for the port of Boston, and published "Translation of

Stockhardt's Principles of Chemistry," 1850, a work which was highly commended ; and " Examinations of Drugs and Medicines," 1852. Dr. Peirce died in 1855.

Charles T. Brooks, who was a contemporary of Pro- fessor Peirce, possessed a mind of an entirely different order. He was born in 1813, was graduated at Har- vard in 1832, and was ordained pastor of the Unita- rian Church, Newport, R. I., in 1837. He had a quick imagination, a graceful fancy and a deep love of poetry. His sermons were characterized by great piety and strong faith, as well as hy a progressive lib- erality. It was chiefly as a poet, however, that he distinguished himself and took his place among the scholars and authors of the country. He published "Schiller's William Tell," translation 1838; transla- tion of " Mary Stuart," and the " Maid of Orleans," 1839; "Titan," from Jean Paul Richter, 1840 ; "Specimens of German Songs," 1842; translation of Schiller's "Homage of the Arts," 1847; " Poems," 1848; the controversy touching the " Old Stone Mill at Newport," 1851; "German Lyrics," 1856; "Songs of Field and Flood," 1854.

Mr. Brooks was distinguished not only for his ability as a scholar and poet, but for the sweetness of his disposition and the purity of his life. His pres- ence in the pulpit was a benediction, and he hore the trials which fell upon him with a calm and patient submission which won the admiration of all who knew him.

The essays and poems of Jones Very were published in 1839. He was born in 1813, as was Mr. Brooks, just preceding, and was graduated at Harvard in 1836, four years later. His progress towards distinction was not rapid, but it was sure and constant. His rank in college was good, his ability was recognized and lie was appointed Greek tutor in the university soon after his graduation. The first issue of his poems and es- says attracted universal attention. They were char- acterized by great religious fervor, a fine imagination, great delicacy of thought and a pure, simple and ef- fective style. His sonnets were especially charming. He was intimate with the beauties of nature and drew many a lesson from the flowers by the wayside and the fair landscape which lay around his home. His soul was, at the same time, full of aspiration, and he saw the hand of the Creator in all the natural objects about him. On every subjeet which came under his notice he turned a " dim religious light," and you rose from his essays with the feeling that you had been led to the contemplation of his themes by the prophet of the Lord. It was said of him, by one of the ablest of his crities, that " he always piped the sweet, sad notes of religions melancholy," but he also taught the most unbounded faith and the most confident re- liance on that divine power to which he turned for inspiration, and on which he leaned throughout his sincere and thoughtful and pious life. He was one of the most sympathetic of men, and one of the most inspired.

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Robert Rantoul, Jr., one of the most eloquent and brilliant of all the sons of Essex County, hardly identified himself with Salem, except as a law-student in the offices of John Pickering and Leverett Salton- stall, and a lawyer from 1829 to 1831. At this time, however, he took so active a part in the mental ac- tivity of the town, that he has given an opportunity for enrolling his name in this list of cultivated and intellectual men. Mr. Rantoul was born in Beverly, 1805 ; was graduated at Harvard, 1826 ; was admitted to the bar, 1829; and died in 1852. During this com- paratively short period he devoted himself largely to public service and won great distinction as a lawyer, legislator and orator, with powers which, had they been exercised in more purely literary work, would have won for him greater distinction still. His com- mandiug presence in the Massachusetts Legislature is well remembered. His hold and gallant stand in Congress is recalled with admiration by his contem- poraries who remain. He was a fearless advocate of the principles in which he believed, and he was the most inspiring popular orator of his day in Massachu- setts. He was formidable as an adversary and all- powerful as an ally ; a generous and kindly opponent and a tender and devoted friend. His early argument in behalf of popular education, and his unanswerable attack on the Ten Million Bank Bill, which he defeated in the Massachusetts Legislature ; his report against capital punishment ; his oration at Concord, in 1850; his reply to attacks made on him in Congress, in 1852 ; his speech to his devoted constituents in Salem, July 5, 1852; his arguments as United States district attorney, from 1845 to 1849-all indicate great mental grasp, extraordinary keenness of perception and mas- terly skill in arrangement. When hedied a great career was suddenly and prematurely closed. And in the great struggle which followed, in the opening of which he took a conspicuous and important part, and which ended only with the Civil War, his friends, his State and his country, when disheartened by adversity, were encouraged by the thought that the spirit of Rantoul was with them, and mourned that his voice could be no longer heard. His recorded words gave great in- spiration to those on whom the burthen of the contest fell when he was gone; and his name is warmly cherished by the few now living who knew him, and by the many who have learned from their fathers to admire his courage, his genius and his gentle and affectionate spirit.

On the organization of the Barton Square Unita- rian Church, in 1824, the Rev. Henry Colman was installed as pastor, February 16, 1825. Mr. Colman was born 1785, and died 1849. He continued his connection with the church seven years, and then withdrew to a hroader and more active sphere of duty. He became one of the most useful and inter- esting of agricultural writers. He published "Re- ports of the Agriculture of Massachusetts," 1849; " European Agriculture and Rural Economy," 1851 ;

"Agriculture and Rural Economy of France, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland," 1848; and "European Life and Manners," 1849. He spent many years in England, investigating agriculture and society, and he was the first to describe the domestic economy of that country, into whose well-organized homes he was most cordially admitted. His style was graceful and graphic, and his intercourse was genial and highly attractive.

In 1842 Richard J. Cleveland published a narrative of "Voyages and Commercial Enterprises," which was most favorably noticed by the leading reviews of the day. His son, Henry Russell Cleveland, born in 1808, graduated at Harvard in 1827, died in 1848, and published "Remarks on Classical Education of Boys by a Teacher," 1834; "Life of Henry Hudson," 1838; "Address Delivered Before the Harvard Medical Association," 1840; "A Letter to the Hon. Daniel Webster on the Causes of the De- struction of the Steamer 'Lexington,"" 1840; besides many papers to the North American Review and the New England Magazine. Mr. Cleveland was a sound scholar and a graceful and forcible writer. His early death was deeply deplored.

One of the most brilliant and fascinating of Amer- ican writers and historiaus was William Hickling Prescott, who was born in Salem, 1796, and died in Boston in 1859. He was a son of Judge William Prescott, who resided in Salem from 1789 to 1808, and who was intimately connected with the most im- portant business enterprises of that day, and whose name appears on many of the important documents. Mr. Prescott was graduated at Harvard in 1814, and having been disabled by a painful accident from en - tering upon a professional life, he commenced at once, under great obstacles a literary career which he pur- sued with great diligence and success uutil the close of his life. He published, in 1837, "The History of Ferdinand and Isabella," and stepped at once into the list of the great historians of the world. It was universally known that this fascinating and elaborate work had been accomplished under difficulties which would have discouraged the most enthusiastic and devoted student, and the entire world of scholars was filled with admiration of the accomplishment and the tenderest sympathy with the heroic author. The history was translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian, and was enrolled at once among the classic productions of the world. But Mr. Prescott did not relinquish his work here. Dependent upon a reader for his data, and employing an appa- ratus constructed in a writing case for the blind, he " pursued his solitary way." His mind acquired great strength as he went on with his work, and he retained and arranged the materials he had accumulated with marvelous facility. In 1843 he published the "History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Prelimi- nary View of the Ancient Civilization," and a "Life of the Conqueror, Fernando Cortez;" and

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the world of scholars was once more filled with ad- miration of his "pure, simple and eloquent style, keen relish for the picturesque, quick and discerning judgment of character, cahn, generous and enlight- ened spirit of philanthropy." In 1847 this was fol- lowed by the "History of the Conquest of Peru, with a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas," a work which was as enthusiastically re- ceived as its predecessors. His style was again ad- mired ; his candor and fidelity and power of descrip- tion were warmly commended by authors and readers alike. The "History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain," appeared in 1855. The ma- terials for this work, the preparation of which oc- cupied six industrious years, were gathered without regard to trouble, labor and expense, and the work it- selfopened one of the most thrilling and important chapters in the history of the greatest and most stormy periods of Continental Europe. The brilliancy of the volumes drew from the historian Macaulay, then in the height of his power, the warmest praise. " The genius of Mr. Prescott," said he, " as a histo- rian, has never been exhibited to better advantage than in this very remarkable volume, which is grounded on ample and varied anthority." In 1857 he published "The Life of Charles the Fifth after his Abdication," Modestly insisting that Robertson had most faithfully recorded the policy and events of this great monarch's reign, he devoted him- self to the unrecorded years of his life of retirement, and supplemented the brilliant pages of Robertson with a touching narrative of the close of the great life to whose career they had devoted their fine historical powers. In addition to these important works, Pres- cott published biographical and critical miscellanies containing reviews and essays of great interest,- "Charles Brockden Brown, the American Novelist; " "Asylum for the Blind;" " Irving's Conquest of Grenada ;" "Cervantes ; " "Chateaubriand's English Literature ; " " Bancroft's United States ; " " Madame Calderon's Life in Mexico :" " Molière; " " Italian Narrative Poetry ; " "Poetry and Romance of the Italians ;" "Scotch Song ; " " Du Ponte's Observa- tions ; " "Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature."

Mr. Prescott was sixty years old when his last vol- ume was published. For more than a quarter of a century he had pursued his great career. In many respects he was the greatest of American historians. Scholars recognized him as one of the most brilliant of their number, when that number in this commu- nity was not small. The American people remem- bered with pride that the blood of the brave com- mander of the patriot forces at Bunker Hill was flow- ing in his veins. A Christian community loved him for the beauty of his character, and for the high moral standard which he had followed through life. His biography was written by all the biographers; his works were reviewed by all the reviewers; his character as a scholar was discussed with admiration

by Edward Everett, and George E. Ellis, and Francis Lieber, and Theodore Parker, and A. P. Peabody, and by all the historical societies of the world. No American writer has won higher renown, no Ameri- can citizen has received more profound respect and warmer love.

Alpheus Crosby, who took charge of the Normal School in Salem Oct., 1857, was born in 1810, and died in Salem April 17, 1874. He was graduated at Dart- mouth in 1827, and was appointed professor of Greek and Latin languages in that college. He was a dili- gent and careful scholar, and published “ A Greek and General Grammar," "Greek Tables," "Greek Lessons," "An Edition of Xenophon's Anabasis," "First Lessons in Geometry," " A Letter of John Fos- ter, with Additions," "Au Essay on the Second Ad- vent." Professor Crosby was for many years princi- pal of the Normal School in Salem, and after retiring from that position passed the remainder of his life in this city.

Edwin P. Whipple, who was born in Gloucester in 1819, was for a long time employed as clerk in a bank in Salem,'and for a time was the librarian of the Salem Athenæum, where he acquired those literary tastes which he afterwards exercised with so much activity and usefulness. He began to write for magazines early in life, and soon acquired a good reputation as a facile and graceful essayist. He was an interesting popular lecturer, selecting his themes with great skill and treating them with great wit and discrimination He published "Essays and Reviews," 1848; "Lec- tures on Subjects connected with Literature and Life;" " Washington and the Principles of the Revolution ;" " An Oration before the City Authorities of Boston, July 4, 1850 ;" " Character and Characteristic Men," 1867, in which he discussed Character, Eccentric Character, Intellectual Character, Heroic Character, the American Mind, the English Mind, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Edward Everett, Thomas Starr King and Agassiz. He was considered "one of the ablest of Americar critics." His lectures were esteemed as miniature histories, and were highly valued. He was accepted by Prescott, and Griswold, and Bowen, and Thomas. He was not accepted by Edgar A. Poe.

George B. Loring was boru in North Andover, (at that time included in Andover) November 8, 1817. He entered Harvard College in 1834, and entered the Harvard Medical School, where he was graduated in 1842. He was in practice from 1842 to 1850; sur- geon of the United States Marine Hospital, Chelsea, 1843 to 1850; commissioner to revise the United States Marine Hospital system, 1849; member of the Massachusetts Legislature, 1866 to 1868; president of the New England Agricultural Society from its foun- dation, 1864, to the present time ; United States Cen- tennial Commissioner, 1872 to 1876; president of the Massachusetts Senate, 1873 to 1877; member of the United States House of Representatives, 1877 to 1881 ; United States Commissioner of Agriculture, 1881 to

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1885. In the midst of his public career he has been active as a writer on many and diverse topics, and a speaker on many and various occasions. He has published " An Essay on Phlebitis," New England Journal of Surgery and Medicine, 1843; “An Oration on Constitutional Freedom, the Corner- Stone of the Republic," 1856; "Review of the Scarlet Letter," 1851; "Reply to the Church Re- view on the Scarlet Letter," 1851 ; "Letters from Europe in the Boston Post," 1848-49; " Modern Ag- riculture," 1858; "The Farmer's Occupation," 1858 ; "Agricultural Education," 1858; " Farm Stock, Mas- sachnsetts Report on Agriculture," 1859; " The Re- lation of Agriculture to the State in Time of War," 1862; " Scientific and Practical Agriculture," 1864 ; "The Assassination of Lincoln," 1865; " The Unity and Power of the Republic," a Fourth of July ora- tion, Newburyport, 1865; "The State of the Union, a Speech in the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives," 1866; "The New Era of the Repub- lic," 1866; " Dedication of the Soldiers' Tablets at Bolton," 1866; "Classical Culture," 1867; "The Power of an Educated Commonwealth," 1867; " Agricultural Investigation," 1867 ; "Oration on the Dedication of Soldiers' Monuments at Weymouth," 1868; "Semi-Centennial of the Essex Agricultural Society," 1868; "The Development of American Industry," 1869; "The Connection of the State Board of Agriculture with the Agricultural College," 1869 ; "The Struggles of Science, Address before the Amer- ican Institute," 1870; "Oration Dedicating the Memorial Hall, Lexington," 1871; "Speech at the Dedication of the Morse Statue, New York," 1871 ; " Oration at the Bi-Centennial Celebration at Dun- stable, Mass.," 1873; "Speech in the Massachusetts Senate in behalf of the Museum of Comparative Zoology," 1873; "Eulogy of Agassiz," 1873; "The People and Their Books," an address dedicating the Thayer Library at Braintree, 1873; "Oration at the Centennial Celebration at Sherburne," 1874; " Ora- tion at Centennial Celebration of Swansea," 1875 ; " Address on Tree-planting before the Fern Cliff As- sociation," Lee, Mass., 1875 ; " A Speech in the Mas- sachusetts Senate in Favor of Rescinding the Re- solves Condemning Charles Sumner," 1874; "A Speech in the Massachusetts Senate on the Railroad Policy of Massachusetts," 1874 ; "Speech on Suffrage as a Right under a Republic," Massachusetts Senate, 1874; " An Oration at the Centennial of Leslie's Re- treat from Salem," 1875; "Oration at the North Church, Boston, on the Centennial Anniversary of hanging out the Signal Lanterns to warn Paul Revere of the Ad- vance of the British Troops to Concord," April 18, 1875; "Oration at Bloody Brook," 1875 ; "Oration Dedicating the Mugford Monument at Marblehead," 1875; "Sketch of the Massachusetts Surgeons in the Revolutionary Army," 1875 ; "The Farm-Yard Club of Gotham," an account of New England families and farming (pp. 600), 1876 ; " Eulogy of Dr. S. G. Howe,',

Massachusetts Senate, Jan. 21, 1876; "Oration on Speculative Masonry," 1876; "Speech before the New England Society," New York, Dec. 10, 1875 ; "Speechi in the United States House of Representa- tives on Specie Payments," 1877 ; "Speech on the Col- lege of William and Mary in Congress," 1878; "Speech on American Industry and the Tariff, in Con- gress," 1878; "Defence of Massachusetts in Con- gress," 1880 ; "The American Problem of Land- holding," 1880; "Eulogy of Caleb Cushing," 1879 ; " Address on the Cobden Club and the American Farmer,"-1880; " Education, the Corner-stone of the Republic," speech in Congress, 1880; "Eulogy of Judge Collamer," in Congress, 1880; " Eulogy of Garfield, Lodge of Sorrow, Washington," 1880; "Speech on the Anniversary of John Winthrop's Landing in Salem," June 22, 1880; " Washington as a Statesman," 1882; "Opening Address at Mechanics' and Manufactur- ers' Institute, Boston," 1881 ; " Address at the Cotton Convention, Atlanta, Ga.," 1881; "Address at the Tariff Convention, New York," 1881; " Address be- fore the Mississippi Valley Cane-Growers' Associa- tion," 1882; " Address before the American Forestry Association, St. Paul, Minn.," 1883; "Oration at the Ninety-fifth Anniversary of the Settlement of Mariet- ta, Ohio," 1883 ; " The Cattle Industry," 1884; "The Influence of the Puritan on American Civilization," 1885; "Puritanism, the Foundation of Liberal Chris- tianity," 1887 ; "New England Agriculture," 1887. Dr. Loring has also contributed to the Southern Lit- erary Messenger, the Massachusetts Quarterly and the North American Review, and has delivered a great number of occasional speeches in addition to those enumerated, besides many political addresses in State and national campaigns.

Edward Augustus Crowninshield, son of Hon. B. W. and Mary (Boardman) Crowninshield, born in Salem, 1817, was graduated at Harvard, 1836, and died, 1859. His literary taste led him to the collec- tion of rare books; his valuable library contained the "Bay Psalm Book," 1640 ; Morton's " Memorial ;" Winslow's "Hypocrisy Unmasked," 1645; Coryat's "Crudities," 1611.

Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, a son of the great mathematician, who was graduated at Harvard in 1822, published a " Memoir of N. Bowditch," 1839; " History of the Massachusetts General Hospital," 1851 ; and "Suffolk Surnames," 1855. Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, another son, who was graduated in 1828, has published translations of valuable treatises on medicine.

William W. Story, the son of Judge Story and author of his biography, was born in Salem in 1819, and was graduated at Harvard in 1838. He took the degree of LL.B. at the Dane Law-School, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1841. He published " Report of Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of the United States for the First District," 1842-47 ; " Nature and Art, a Poem," 1844; "Treatise on the

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Law of Contracts under Seal," 1844; "Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal l'roperty," 1847 ; " Poem de- livered at the Dedication of Crawford's Statue of Beethoven, at the Boston Music Hall," 1856 ; "The American Question," 1862 ; " Roba di Roma," 1862; " Proportions of the human figure according to a new Canon for practical use," 1866; "Grafiti d' Italia," 1869; "The Poet's Portfolio," 1855 ; besides poems and articles in the Atlantic Monthly, the Boston Mis- cellany and Blackwood's Magazine. As an artist, Mr. Story has taken a front rank. For this he had an early love. The admirable bust of his father was one of his first works, and there is in existence a crayon portrait of one of his classmates, taken a short time after they left college, which, as a likeness and as a drawing, is admirable. In sculpture he has produced busts of his father, J. R. Lowell, Josiah Quincy, The- odore Parker, Edward Everett, and statues of Everett, Chief Justice Marshall and Professor Henry. He has also created in marble the Shepherd Boy, Little Red Riding Hood, the Libyan Sibyl, Cleopatra, Judith, Holofernes, Sappho, Saul, Medea and others of great beauty and power. His genius as author and artist are everywhere acknowledged, and he has shed great lustre on his country.

Among the cultivated men of Salem, William C. En- dicott has accomplished, as lawyer, writer, jurist and statesman, a work of which his native city will always be proud. He was born in Salem in 1826, and was graduated at Harvard in 1847. Having taken his de- gree at Cambridge, he was admitted to the bar in Essex County, and commenced the practice of his profession in Salem. His judgment as a lawyer was soon recog- nized, and he became one of the leaders of the bar and one of the best of office advisers. The grace and finish of his style have always been recognized in his public performances, among the most interesting and elaborate of which are his orations on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the landing of John Endi- cott, celebrated in Salem in 1878; his address before the Young Men's Union on Patriotism, as bearing on the duties of the citizen ; address on John Hampton and his relation to the great Puritan movement here and in England; lecture on Chivalry; agricultural address at Sterling on the relation of agriculture to the stability and permanence of the State ; speech on the death of N. J. Lord. Mr. Endicott's services on the Supreme bench of Massachusetts are highly es- teemed, and his conduct of affairs as Secretary of War, to which he was appointed in 1885, will place him on the list of sound and judicious Cabinet minis ters.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 58

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538