History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 82

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 82

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Thomas Oliver and Ann (maiden-name unknown).

Peter Oliver and Sarah (Newdegate).

Nathanael Oliver and Elizabeth (Brattle).

Nathanael Oliver and Martha (Hobbs).

Nathanael Oliver and Mercy (Wendell).

Daniel Oliver and Elizabeth (Kemble).

Henry Kemble Oliver.

In the year 1801 Rev. Daniel Oliver, with his family, removed to Exeter, N. H., and in 1802-03, to Boston. Here Henry attended, at five years of age, the school of a Mr. and Mrs. Hayslop, and acquired his earliest rudimentary knowledge. In 1809 he was transferred to the school of Madame Tileston. "The two schools," he has written, "werc on the same method, a good deal of sitting still-if one could-and a very little teaching for each pupil. Not liking either, and with nothing to interest or amuse, during the dreary six hours of the day, I not unfrequently fell under the discipline of good Madame Tileston. I cannot re- member that we had books or slates, and sitting still and being good was not within the bounds of my spontaneity; for I was a nervons, uneasy and playful child."

After leaving Madame Tileston's school, Heury at- tended the Mayhew School, on Chardon Street, under Messrs. Milliken and Holt, " both good floggers," and later, about the year 1810, the school kept by Eben- ezer Pemberton, formerly principal of Phillips An- dover-Academy. "With Master Pemberton-but still keeping up my elementary studies in English-I be-

1 Elizabeth Kemble was the second daughter and third child of Thomas and Hannah (Thomas) Kemble.

AK Oliva

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gan my Latin grammar, under the old dreary method of committing everything to memory. The book used was ' Adams' Latin Grammar,' followed by the 'Col- loquies of Cordevius.' I had small relish for Latin, but was quite fond of my English studies and very apt in declamation.

"Some time in 1811 my father removed me to Phillips Academy in Andover, then under care of John Adams. . .. Here, continuing my Latin, I com- menced Greek grammar, and memorized, with distaste at the difficult work, all of the book before entering upon translating. When that came about it was upon ' Dalzelt's Græca Minora,' a work then in nearly uni- versal use for lads fitting for college. . .. My stay at Andover was for about twelve months, my first three days having been indelibly fixed in memory by the most distressing homesickness."

Returning to Boston, Henry entered the Latin School,-then on School Street, under William Bige- low,-near the close of 1811. His brother, Nathaniel Kemble Greenwood Oliver (Harvard College, 1809), was for a time, with Mr. Bigelow, an usher of the Latin School, and, about the close of 1813, he opened a private school. Henry attended it, and was by his brother offered at Harvard in 1814. " I was then but thirteen years and eight months old, a mere lad, with a short jacket, having, as was the fashion of the day, a wide collar to my shirt, fringed with a ruffle and turned down over my shoulders. . .. On being taken out to Cambridge at the beginning of the term my father gave me most valuable and excellent couusel. A part of this counsel-and it was very earnestly prohibitory-was that I should not attempt to play any musical instrument whatever.1 I had been a member of the Park Street choir in Boston, and he gave permission for my singing in the chapel choir, which performed the sacred music on Sunday, under charge of William H. Eliot (H. C., 1815). I strove to obey, but I was over-mastered by my love of music, and I borrowed a flute with one key, the upper joint of which was cracked nearly its whole length. . . . I afterwards, at college. learned to play the violoncello."

Henry remained at Harvard College during the Freshman year and until May or June (1816) of the Sophomore year, when the increase at the college of Unitarian views, and the greater expense, induced his removal to Dartmouth College, much against his in- clination. He entered the Junior Class of the latter institution in the fall of 1816. "I had no inclination for a literary life, and my whole preparation for college was to me a burden. . . . When I entered college I had but little knowledge of geography or arithmetic, none of history, almost none of the great facts of as- tronomy. My intellectual powers had not been prop- erly or philosophically cultivated. . .. In Latin and Greek, and in French, I held at college a pretty good

rank, but I failed in mathematics and in intellectual and moral philosophy. I took an interest in what was then called natural philosophy, a good deal in rhetoric and elocution, but felt sorely my unripeness when called upon to express my ideas in composition."

Immediately on graduating at Dartmouth College Mr. Oliver returned to Boston. The commencement at Harvard College occurred one week later, and at that time he received an ad eundem with his old class- mates, and subsequently, in 1862, the complimentary degree of A.M.

In May, 1819, he was among the applicants for the place of usher in the newly-established Latin Grammar School in Salem, and at the canvass was numbered third in the order of success. But it hap- pened that the first candidate died soon after election, the second obtained a better place at Lynn, and so Mr. Oliver was appointed. He went to Salem on Thursday, June 10, 1819, making his home with "that most excellent man," Rev. Brown Emerson, minister of the South Church. "I entered upon my work as teacher on the following Monday, June 14th, with very great fear and trembling, and entire distrust in my own abilities, knowledge and ultimate success. Finding my imperfections, I commenced a course of self-education, first in the studies in which I was guiding others, then in French, then in Spanish and Italian ; adding afterwards a wide course of mathe- matics and philosophy, astronomy, general literature and history. I was merciless to myself, studying as many hours out of school as I taught within. What I thus acquired I have never forgotten."

On Sunday, June 20, 1819, Mr. Oliver joined the choir of Mr. Emerson's church, his voice, which had been a high and pure soprano, having matured into a deep and very firm and clear bass, with a range from low C to high E. " I also continued my practice on the flute and violoncello, adding to them the double- bass. In 1821, on suggestion of Hon. Leverett Sal- tonstall,-always my friend, a noble and excellent man in every respect, and then a leading member of the North Church and society,-I commenced practicing the piano-forte and the organ, and, in 1822, I was ap- pointed organist of St. Peter's Church in Salem, re- moving to Barton Square Church in 1827, in each place with full charge of the choir."

In 1821 Mr. Oliver's father, mother and two sisters came to Salem for a time, and the family resided on Carpenter Street. " Among the families calling upon us was that of Capt. Samuel Cook,2 residing on Fede- ral Street. I had met his elder daughter, Sarah, at meetings of the choir of the South Church, of which she and many ladies of the most cultivated families of Salem were members. An intimacy springing up between Miss Cook and my sister Margarett, I saw

1 His father was entirely destitute of the musical sense, and he had the early dislike of the religions people of bis denomination (he was a Cal- vinist of the Hopkinsian variety) to all musical instruments.

2 Captain Samuel Cook was a retired ship-master, the contemporary of the many enterprising and famous master-mariners of Salem, and of its numerous and successful merchants. He married Sarah, daughter of James and Sarah Chever.

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her very frequently, and was gradually drawu to- ward her by the loveliness of her disposition, the unvarying kindness of her temper, the quiet dignity of her demeanor, the gentleness of all her ways and all her words-till I found my whole self possessed with love for her . . On Tuesday, the 30th of August, 1825, we were married, at her father's house, by the Rev. Mr. Ducachet."

On the 4th of July, 1824, Mr. Oliver delivered the oration at the celebration carried out by the young men of Salem, a production which, according to a published account of the proceedings, " was received with the most flattering testimonials of approbation by a crowded and respectable assembly." While connected with St. Peter's Church, Mr. Oliver entered upon a course of theological study, with a view of entering the pulpit of the Episcopal Church. His views, however, became Unitarian, and he relin- quished the study.

In 1827 he was appointed head master of the newly- established English High School, but in 1830 he resigned the position and opened a private school, building on Federal Street a house planned carefully for the special purpose. "I doubled my income within a year, and during the fourteen years I after- wards continued to teach, I had no reason to com- plain of either patronage or want of success. During these fourteen years I taught boys six years-fitting for college and for counting-room-and girls eight years . ... I opened the school in the spring of 1831 with about forty scholars."

Having in 1821 enlisted into the Salem Light Infan- try, at that date and long afterwards one of the best companies of the State, Mr. Oliver obtained a great deal of military knowledge. In 1833 he was elected lieutenant-colonel of the then just organized Sixth Regiment of Light Infantry, and in 1836 he was chosen its colonel, a position he resigned in 1839.

In 1844 Colonel Oliver was made adjutant-general by Governor George N. Briggs, and gave up teaching, but he retained his residenee in Salem. The military force of the State at that date consisted of about seven thousand men, all volunteers. The military property was stored in an arsenal near the foot of the Boston Common, in part, and in part in another arsenal in Cambridge. During his occupancy of this office the war with Mexico broke out, and the general government called, in May, 1846, for troops from each of the New England States. This call was subsequently revoked by the Secretary of War (General Marcy). In No- vember of the same year, however, it was renewed, but on Massachusetts alone, one regiment only being called for, infantry. Ten companies were organ- ized. During his term of office General Oliver was elected captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artil- lery Company of Boston, of which organization lie had been a lieutenant in 1838; and in 1847 he was appointed by President Polk a member of the Board of Visitors at the Military Academy at West Point.

He was elected secretary of this board, and prepared the report to the government.

He continued in the office of adjutant-general till 1848, when he was appointed resident agent of the Atlantic Cotton-Mills, a new corporation for the manufacture of coarse cotton shirtings and sheetings, at Lawrence, Mass., to which town he removed in the early summer of the year mentioned.

In 1853 he was sent from Lawrence, with Messrs. Storrow and Parsons, to the Constitutional Conven- tion of the State, where he was chairman of the Com- mittee on the Militia.

He left the Atlantic Mills in May, 1858, and in November following was elected mayor of Lawrence. In 1859 he was elected Representative to the Gen- eral Court.

In 1860, having been nominated thereto by the Republican Convention at Worcester, General Oliver was chosen State treasurer on the ticket with John Albion Andrew, as Governor; and he was re-elected for each of the four years which made up the five to which the office is limited by law.

In 1867 he accepted a call from Governor Bullock, of Massachusetts, to look into the condition of the factory children in the various establishments of the State. This he did for about two years, finding the several laws relating to their employment under ten years of age, and their schooling when between ten and fifteen years of age, violated everywhere. He prepared two reports on the subject, which excited not a little attention and comment, and caused more stringent legislation.

In 1869 he attained an honorary admittance to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and in 1870 he gave the oration at Dartmouth College.

The act for the establishment in Massachusetts of a Bureau of Statistics of Labor, with a chief and deputy, was passed in 1869, and General Oliver was selected by Governor Claflin as the chief of the bureau. To the duties of this office he gave his undivided attention, having to grope his way unguid- ed by precedent, example or experience; everything connected with the investigations being new, and nearly all those investigations rendered difficult and embarrassing by the very strong and powerful influ- ence of the employing class of the State. He left the bureau in May, 1873.

In April, 1876, he received an appointment as one of the judges at the International Centennial Exhibi- tion at Philadelphia, and was assigned to Group XXV., in charge of all "Instruments of Precision." Under this expression were included astronomical instruments of all sorts, trigonometrical and surveying instruments, microscopes, magnetic and electric, tele- graphic and telephonic instruments. There were also added musical instruments of every variety, from organs down, these being assigned to a sub-group, of which General Oliver was chairman.

Subsequently, after the work of the judges was

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supposed to have been finished, and they had left Philadelphia, a "Group of Judges on Appeals " was summoned, of which General Oliver was one, and he again repaired to Philadelphia.

A few days prior to his leaving Philadelphia for his home he received a letter from Salem, desiring him to accept a nomination for the mayoralty of that city, to which he consented, and, at the election later, he was chosen mayor. He was re-elected in the fol- lowing year, and also in the years 1878 and 1879.

At the approach of the year 1881, Mayor Oliver publicly announced his decision not to be a candi- date for re-election, against many requests that he would again stand. "Being eighty years of age on the 24th of November, 1880, it is quite time that I should rest," he said, "and it would not be, in my view, right to impose the natural incapacities of old age even upon a willing people."

On his eightieth birthday, with earnest expressions of gratitude for many favors shown him, during a half century of residence, by his fellow-citizens of Salem, he addressed a letter to the City Council, of- fering as a nucleus of a Public Library for the city, a donation of books from his own library. The city not feeling then in a position to undertake the estab- lishment of a library, a portion of the books-about 800 volumes-was afterwards given by General Oliver to the "Salem Fraternity."

During the summer of 1882, General Oliver began to be sensible of a cardiac trouble, which, without his being aware of the fact, had been discovered several years before by his physician. The difficulty gradu- ally increased, and his condition became very serious in the succeeding winter, but in the following spring the trouble was so far under control that he passed a very comfortable existence. But he; perforce, led a very quiet life, declining all invitations of a public nature, and passing his time in the companionship of his friends, his books and his music. His communi- cations to the newspapers and the periodicals of the day on current subjects, and on the events of "long- ago," became now very numerous.

During the summer of 1885, up to Sunday, the 26th of July, General Oliver's health continued as good as in the two years before. On the Sunday mentioned he complained of his head, and after an unquiet night he awoke with evident cerebral trou- ble, aphasia being the chief, and, in fact, the only marked symptom. The inability to express his thoughts in words continued, physical weakness su- pervened, and he was not able to leave his bed on the morning of the 29th. He died in the early even- ing of August 12th, retaining almost to the last some consciousness of his surroundings.

General Oliver's death called forth extended mani- festations of regret and sympathy, public and private, and his funeral, which took place from the North Church, on Monday, Angust 17th, was attended by a large concourse of citizens and of officials, both of | ever carried on in that town.

Salem and of other places. His body rests in the family tomb in the cemetery on Broad Street, Salem, within sight of the school-house which was the scene of his earliest labors as teacher, and in which hangs his portrait. Upon the tomb there has been placed a natural boulder, from the neighboring fields, covered with moss and gray lichens, and upon this stone is engraved his name, date of birth and of death, and a sculptured suggestion of the pipes of an organ, em- blematic of sacred music, which was the grand passion of his life.

Of the character of the subject of this notice it is difficult to speak in a brief space, his talents were so various, his acquirements so extensive, and his per- sonality so strikingly composite. His powers as stu- dent, teacher, writer, musician and executive officer were such as are rarely combined in the same per- son. But the strongest note in his character-the dominant chord-was the musical one. "I had," he says, "early manifested a passion for music, ac- quired from my mother, who had a voice of rare excellence and great skill in singing, and I learned any music I heard my brother and my sisters per- form with the greatest ease and rapidity." And again, "My amusements in college were entirely innocent, and I found great comfort and pleasure in the study and practice of music, my voice and knowl- edge of the finte being passport to many families wherein music, especially sacred music, was prac- ticed. An evening so passed was to me the greatest pleasure I desired." At ten years of age he was a member of the choir at Park Street Church, Boston. He was also, carly, a member of the Handel and Hayden Society, of that city, and an active member of its chorus, whenever possible, even beyond the age of seventy years, at which period of his life his voice still retained great sweetness and power. He was, from his earliest residence in Salem, largely identified with music, and he was the most active member of the Mozart Association, founded in 1825, and of the Salem Glee Club, 1832. Gradually, sa- cred music, as has been stated, came to be his great- est love, the oratorios of Handel, of Hayden, and of Mendelssohn, his passion, and the organ his idol instrument. He was organist of churches in Salem and Lawrence for a period of forty years. As a com- poser of church music he held high rank, and many of his compositions have an abiding popularity. In 1849 he published with Dr. S. P. Tuckerman "The National Lyre," and in 1875, "Oliver's Collection of Sacred Music." In 1883, Dartmouth College con- ferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Music, and requested his portrait to be hung upon its walls.

As an educator of youth General Oliver really loved his profession, and he combined, in a rare de- gree,1 firmness and thoroughness with youthful sym-

1 Rev. Joseph H. Felt, in his " History of Salem," pronounces Mr. Oliver's private school to have been the most complete and successful

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pathies and feelings. His interest in education never flagged to the end of his days. He was him- self always a diligent student: the classics were his delight, and he never forgot the beantiful passages from the Greek and Roman writers which he had early learned. But he was also a mathematician of unusual excellence ..

His services as a member of the school committee were eagerly sought for in both Salem and Law- rence, and in parts of the years 1858, '59 and '60, he was chosen by the State Board of Education to visit the public schools in various parts of Massachusetts, and to attend teachers' institutes and conventions. He was also at various times in the Examining Board of Visitors of Harvard College, both in the classics and in mathematics.

When the high school in Lawrence was opened, he presented to it the extensive and valuable appar- atns which he had collected for his private school in Salem, and he added to the gift a set of busts and statuettes, engravings and many books of reference, Latin, Greek and mathematical, for the use of teach- ers and pupils. As a token of gratitude the school was given his name, and his portrait was requested, which was hung upon its walls. One of the public schools in Salem also bears his name.

As a military man General Oliver showed marked ability. As colonel of the Sixth Regiment he brought it to a high degree of efficiency, and while adjutant-general, through his personal visits to the parades of the various regiments, and his encourage- ment of drilling, the service was greatly improved.

The role of manufacturer was ahly filled hy him, but it was more throngh his devotion to what he had in hand than through any special love for manufac- turing. Nevertheless, the products of the mills over which he presided held always the highest rank in the market. The employes did their best, urged not only by the knowledge that much was expected of them, but by the personal magnetism and sympathy of their superintendent, which always so touched and quickened those under him, in every position he ever held, that they instinctively desired to do what he wished done. He thus secured from his subordinates, whether he were present or absent, their best service.

In 1851 he founded a library for the operatives of the Atlantic Mills by a present of books. He also established for them free hot and cold baths in a building near the mills.

As treasurer of the State, General Oliver directed the vast business of the office without loss to the Commonwealth, while on one occasion he saved its credit in a great and sudden emergency by pledging his private means. During his term of office the Civil War broke out, and the business of the depart- ment increased to an unprecedented degree. The treasurer acted also as paymaster to the troops raised by Massachusetts, and during the continuance of the war he handled and accounted for $77,000,000-really

the sum was $154,000,000, for being received and paid out it was twice handled.

As chief of the Labor Bureau General Oliver made a profound impression. His official announcement of the existence of great abuses called forth extended comment and great antagonism. Some of his work struck at the root of great evils, or of erroneous opin- ions in society, and so awakened deep hostilities ; but he lived to hear all his statements of these evils wholly verified, and his efforts to ameliorate them justified. During the five years of holding the office he prepared five annual reports to the Legisla- ture upon the earnings, cost of living, and savings or indebtedness of the laboring classes of the State- their homes, education, habits of living, morals, man- ners, hours of labor, amusements, societies of various sorts-upon factory life, factory operatives, factory children, the schooling of the latter, half-time schools, etc., in fact, upon everything relating to the great question of labor and the laboring classes, skilled and unskilled, and of every grade and variety of them.

" I left the bureau in May, 1873, retiring with an entire consciousness that I had omitted no effort in endeavoring to do my whole dnty, and that Thad, regardless of personal considerations, faithfully set forth the real status of the working people, the real wealth-producers of the State."

After leaving the Bureau, and to the end of his life, he retained the deepest interest in the welfare of the working classes, and more especially in that of factory children, as the many articles written by him for the newspapers of the day testify. In April, 1885, his portrait was hung on the walls of the office of the bureau, in Boston, as its first chief.

As mayor-in-two cities-his great executive abil- ity and knowledge of men made him a valuable offi- cer, and his retirement elicited hearty expressions of regret and good wishes from the several departments of the city government and from the citizens generally.

General Oliver's wide range of study and reading caused frequent demands for his services as lecturer before lyceums and other literary associations, and hefore educational, musical and agricultural societies, while his ready command of language, and his wit and humor, made him greatly sought for as presiding officer at festive occasions. Many of these occasions saw him such an officer when he was beyond eighty years of age. Of these latter characteristics, which constituted a very marked feature of his character, it has been written "His wit and humor were keen, ex- uberant and irrepressible, and his many tales, and his treasury of knowledge made him extremely com- panionable. and a delightful conversationalist on any topic." A curious feature in his character was the presence of exuberant spirits and gayety, and the pas- sion for sacred music. But with all his gayety his feel- ings were deeply reverent. He loved nature ardently, and flowers were the source of the greatest delight to

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 82

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