History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 217

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 217

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On Sunday, August 12, 1883, he read the services with much energy, and on the 13th and 14th appear- ed cheerful and active.

He conversed pleasantly with visitors who came to see him, and spoke of improvements he hoped to make on the farm. On the 15th he was not well, but walked about a quarter of a mile, and dined with the family.

During his short illness he recognized his family and the rector of St. Paul's, who was sent for to attend him by his bedside. He repeated the Lord's Prayer audibly with the others, and responded "Amen " to the prayers offered.

His death called forth many tributes of love and esteem from friends in different parts of the country, and sympathy with the bereaved family.

The funeral was attended on the following Monday at St. Paul's Church, Newburyport, by seven clergy- men besides the rector, Rev. E. L. Drown. A large congregation of sorrowful friends were present.

His body was laid to rest in the Belleville Cemetery, with the holy service of the church. On one part of this cemetery is the site of Queen Anne's Chapel, the first Episcopal Church in Newbury, near which may still be seen the head-stone, at the grave of the

The bishop of the diocese, prevented from being present at the funeral, wrote a letter of condolence to the family, in which he expressed great esteem for Dr. Emery and sorrow for his loss.

At the next convention of the diocese, in June, In June, 1880, Dr. Emery was present at the fiftieth 1884, the bishop, after mentioning Dr. Emery's long anniversary of his class, the survivors of which, , service in Connecticut, said. " In times of necessity were invited to a dinner at Judge Warren's in Bos- ton, one of their number. He also attended com- mencement and the commencement dinner at Cam- bridge, and seemed to renew his youth amid old scenes. | he has rendered good service since, notably in his long term of care of St. James', Amesbury, at a time of complete business prostration in that village. De- vout, wise, humble, charitable, strong in the faith, Dr. Emery was a man to make friends with all who knew him."

The Rev. Mr. Harriman, rector of Trinity Church, Portland, wrote soon after Dr. Emery's death : " As I enjoy the prosperity of this old and firmly-planted parish, I often acknowledge my indebtedness to the wise master-builders who preceded me, and I feel that others have labored and I have entered into their labors. In these days of change and short rector- ship we need to learn the secret of success which en- abled Dr. Emery to labor thirty-five years in one place."

From a minute adopted by the vestry of Trinity Church I extract the following :

" From 1835 to 1870 he broke the bread of life to feed the flock of God committed to his care ; he went in and out among us, as a faithful imitator of the Good Shepherd, and an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity.

" Two generations of parishioners remember with gratitude his gentle, kindly ministrations, and look to see him receive the crown of life when the Chief Shepherd shall appear."

In the afternoon he became very ill, but towards An elegant and massive stone church occupies the ground on which the old one built in 1830 stood. A evening seemed partially relieved. His physician, who was sent for, left him late at night, as he seemed quiet. fine organ, the gift of parishioners and many other In the morning he was alarmingly worse, and no friends, some from out of town, in memory of Dr. Emery, with a brass tablet set in the wall near it, stands on one side of the chance l. efforts to help him were availing, until at about ten o'clock he quietly entered into rest.

It was used for the first time publicly at a mem- orial service nearly a year after Dr. Emery's death, when the rector then in office-the Rev. Mr. Harri- man-preached a commemorative sermon from Neh. iv. 6.

The Holy Communion was celebrated, and a very large congregation, not only of parishioners, but also others from different places, participated in the solemn service, and all seemed anxious to show their loving appreciation of their deceased pastor. A mem- orial window is soon to be placed in the Chapel of St. John Baptist.

" The memory of the just is blessed."

1880

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CORNELIUS CONWAY FELTON.I

Cornelius Conway Felton, the eldest son of Corne- lius Conway and Anna (Morse) Felton, was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, November 6, 1807. His parents gave their children the heritage of their own superior intelligence and morat worth; but were able to bestow on their higher education little beyond their hearty sympathy and encouragement. While Cornelius was still a child they removed to Saugus, and lived in the near neighborhood of Dr. Cheever. grandfather of the present Professor of Anatomy in Harvard University. The doctor, finding young Felton a boy of excellent promise, gave him his first lessous in Latin, and furthered his advancement by every means within his power. Felton was fitted for college under the tuition of Simeon Putnam, of North Andover, who had high and well-merited reputation as a classical teacher. .

He entered Harvard College as a freshman in 1823. He took at onee and maintained through his college course a foremost place in his class ; was second to none in the department of ancient languages, and manifested the power of rapid acquisition and the scholarly tastes that distinguished him through life. At the same time he won the cordial friendship of all who were brought into intimate relations with him ; and they were such friends as he was glad to hold ever afterward in the dearest regard. No one can have ever passed through the ordeal of student-life with a character more transparently pure. Tempta- tion, indeed, had for him no meaning. He loved society, but only the best ; and his own influence was from the first refining and elevating. He had an elastic spirit, and bore the burdens of his early life easily and cheerily ; yet they must have been heavy. Ile was dependent mainly on his own industry, with the very slender aid then given by the college to meritorious students ; and he worked in the library in vacations, taught school, and resorted to every honorable means for replenishing his scanty resources, all the while practising a more rigid economy than would seem eredible to a student of the present day.

Immediately on graduating he went to Geneseo, New York, with two of his classmates, to take charge of an academy founded by Mr. James Wadsworth, well-known as a munificent patron of learning. He remained there two years, and then returned to Cam- bridge as a tutor in Latin. In 1830 he was appointed tutor in Greek ; in 1832, College Professor of Greek ; and in 1834, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature. He had in these successive oflices the occupation most congenial with his taste, and one for which no man could have been more eminently fitted by the cast of his mind, the direction of his studies, and his enthu- siastic love of the literature of which he was the teacher and expositor. He was by no means rigid or exacting in the class-room, and an indifferent scholar

was put by him under no compulsory pressure ; but those who were ready to learn received from him the most ample aid, and derived from their intercourse with him the strongest stimulus to persevering indus- try. At the same time his genial disposition and his fellow-feeling with young life, which never waned, made him a favorite teacher with all who came under his charge.

The only important episodes in this period of his life were European tours and sojourns, in 1853 and 1856. On both these occasions he not only visited Greece, but traveled in the country extensively and with close observation ; made himself acquainted with the leading men, especially with those concerned in the revival of letters and the diffusion of knowledge; and became conversant with the institutions and the pub- lic life of the kingdom. What a man gains by travel depends mainly on what he carries with him, -on his knowledge of the fit topics for research and inquiry ; and probably no American has ever been in Greece who was more thoroughly versed than he in all that could be known of the past, or better qualified to form an accurate judgment and estimate of the present and the future, of a people so long depressed and down-trodden, yet with so rich a heritage of an- cestral fame.

In 1855 Mr. Agassiz established in Cambridge a school for young ladies ; and Mr. Felton, though with his full tale of college duties, became a teacher and lecturer in that institution, and contributed very largely to its success and prosperity.

When, ou the resignation of Dr. Walker in 1860, the presidency of Harvard University became vacant, Mr. Felton was elected as his successor ; and in their votes the governing boards simply ratified the unani- mous choice of the whole community. In this office it can hardly be said that he met the expectations of his friends ; but their disappointment was one of sur- prise and admiration. He had previously led the quiet life of a scholar, absorbed in books and literary labor, with few relations of business with the outside world, and with no opportunities for testing his executive ability; and it was anticipated that he would adorn the headship of the college by the rare grace and beauty of his spirit, character and culture. rather than that he would take upon himself the un- numbered prosaic details of duty and service which then made the presidency of Harvard College as arduous and as multifarious a charge as could well be devised or imagined. But with an intense feeling of responsibility, as for a most sacred trust, he entered upon a thoroughly energetic administration, giving his personal attention to all concerns that could rightfully come under his cognizance, seeking mull knowledge of the work of the teachers, exercising a watchful vigilance over the students, and making himself felt, not merely as a gracious and kindly presence, but as an active and action-compelling force in every department of the university. He even be-

1 By Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D.

6. 6 Felton

1881

WEST NEWBURY.

came a strict disciplinariau when it was his duty to be so, though it was manifest that in the infliction of penalty he suffered more than those who deserved and needed it. His labors were rendered more severe and exhausting by the growing discontent with the stereo- typed and obsolescent methods of our New England colleges, and the movements toward a broader cul- ture and a higher intellectual lite, in which he was in the front rank of the leading minds. With his unresting assiduity, he was oppressed by a painful sense of the vast interests devolved upon his discre- tion and ability, and by the constant accumulation of demands upon his time and strength, which grew more and more numerous and urgent from his habit of giving heed to every claim, and of assuming every burden that he was asked to bear.

But his overtasked vigor of body yielded under the incessant strain and tension. Symptoms of heart- disease, which had already given his friends some uneasiness, became more decided and alarming fronr the time that he exchanged his sedentary habits for a more active life. Early in 1862, during the winter vacation, he was induced to seek relief and recreation by a change of scene and surroundings, and he visited his brother at Thurlow, Pennsylvania. Here his disease advanced rapidly to a fatal issue. After an attack in which his death was expected from moment to moment, he seemed for a little while con- valescent. On the 26th of February, the first day of the new term, I received a letter from him, dictated when respiration and utterance were intermittent and laborious, telling me that he had been at the point of death, but now began to hope for prolonged life; ex- pressing fervent gratitude to the Divine Providence ; and asking me to beg the college Faculty, in the name of the Infinite Love, to be lenient and merciful in certain cases of discipline that had been laid over from the preceding term. That same evening I read the letter to the Faculty, obtained the desired vote, and had hardly reached my home when I received a telegram announcing his death.

Mr. Felton filled a very large and, in some respects, a unique place in our world of letters. It is seldom that an adept in one department is a proficient in all the essential branches of liberal culture. This, how- ever, was true of him. While as a classical scholar he had no superior, he was versed in the languages and familar with the best literature of modern Europe, was largely conversant with natural science, and had a highly educated and nicely critical taste in the entire realm of art. The ability that he showed in many and diverse directions, had its scope been narrower, would have been accounted as genius of a very high order; but in its breadth and versatility it was more than genius. Within the largest bounds of a liberal education no demand was made upon him that found him incapable or unpre- pared; and whatever he did he did so well that he seemed to have a special adaptation for it.

As a writer he was easy and graceful, brilliant in metaphor, rich and apt in illustration, and, whenever his subject permitted, affluent in wit and humor. He often wrote too rapidly to do himself full justice; but when the occasion required and leisure served, he had at his command a style of finished elegance and beauty.

He was often false to his own reputation in his un- stinted kindness to others. No one ever applied to him for aid in literary labor of any sort without re- ceiving all and more than all the assistance he desired. He would put aside work of his own that he was anxious to finish, to look up authorities, to furnish working material, to revise manuscripts, to correct proof, for those whose only claim upon him was their need ; and of course the report of his generosity was constantly multiplying his would-be beneficiaries. Had he converted to his own use all the time, thought and study that he contributed to fame in which he had no share, posterity might have admired him more ; but his own coevals would have loved him less.

Indeed, those who knew him best feel that no mau could have been more lovable than he. He can never have made an enemy, or forgotten or lost a friend. In society he was genial and mirthful, full of anecdote, talking so admirably well that his friends would have been content to be mere listeners, yet never willing to assume more than his dne share in conver- sation. There was a native refinement, an unstudied delicacy in his manners and his social intercourse, indicating an inward life on a high plane, and by un- obtrusive example and influence constantly tending to elevate the prevailing tone of sentiment and feel - ing around him. To those most intimate with him it was impossible that he could be replaced. We have not seen, and may not hope ever to see, his like in this world.

With a temperament that might have seemed pliant and ductile, no man was ever more strongly intrenched than he within the defenses of a true, quick, sensitive and discriminating conscience. No unworthy com- pliance ever cast a transient shadow even on his early youth. We who knew him from boyhood could recall when he went from us not an act or a word which we would wish to forget. He was firm in the right, and no power on earth could make him swerve from his conviction of duty. His force of character, hidden on ordinary occasions by his gentle, sunny mien, showed itself impregnable when put to the test. He never shrank from the most painful duty; and in prompt decision and fearless energy for difficult emer- gencies he seemed no less worthy of supreme regard than for those amiable qualities which made his daily life so beautiful.

It can hardly be needful to say that a character like his could have had no other foundation than matured Christian faith and principle. He was un- feignedly reverent and devout. He loved the wor-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ship and ordinances of religion, and gave them the support of his constant attendance, his unfailing in- terest and his earnest advocacy. He took from Jesus Christ the law of his life, breathed in His spirit, trusted in His gospel of salvation and immor- tality, and looked to Him for guidance through the i death-shadow into the everlasting light.

Mr. Felton's literary activity was incessant ; but he seems to have had very little ambition to appear be- fore the public in his own name and on his own sole account. It may be doubted whether he ever pub- lished anything except at the solicitation of others ; and he was thus often led into partnerships in which his share of the labor far exceeded that of the revenue, whether of fame or of material recom- pense.

In 1844 he published an edition of the "Iliad," with very valuable English notes, and with Flaxman's illustrations.

In 1840 he prepared a Greek Reader, with Eng- lish notes and vocabulary. This continued long in use, perhaps is not yet out of use, and is probably to be preferred to any other similar text-book, in the fitness aud range of its selections, in the facilities which it furnishes, and in those which it wisely fails to furnish for the student.

In the same year he contributed to Ripley's " Specimens of Foreign Literature " a translation of Menzel's work on "German Literature," in three volumes.

In 1841 he published an edition of "The Clouds " of Aristophanes, with an introduction and notes. This has been republished in England.

In 1843 he contributed very largely to a work on " Classical Studies," edited by Professors Sears and Edwards; and also to Professor Longfellow's " Poets and Poetry of Europe."

Iu 1844, in connection with Professor Beck, he made a translation of Muuk's " Metres of the Greeks and Romans."

In 1847 he published editions of the " Panegyricus " of Isocrates, and of the " Agamemnon " of /Eschylus, each with introduction and notes.

In 1849 he translated Professor Guyot's work, en- titled " The Earth and Man." In the same year he issued an edition of "The Birds " of Aristophanes, with introduction and notes, which was reprinted in England.

In 1852 he published a selection from the writings of his prodecessor. Dr. Popkin, with a most happily written memoir. In the same year he issued a volume of selections from the " Greek IHistorians."

In 1856 he published a series of selections from modern Greek writers, in poetry and prose.

Hle contributed to Sparks' " American Biography " a " Life of General Eaton."

In addition to these works, he published many lec- tures and addresses. His aid was constantly sought by the editors of various periodicals, to which he was

a large contributor. If we remember aright, his earliest writings of this sort were literally labors of love for the American Monthly Review, edited by the late Professor Sidney Willard,-a work designed to give a fair and truthful statement and estimate of current American literature, which had an early death solely because it was too honest to live. Ile was a frequent contributor to the North American Review and to the Christian Examiner. He wrote for Appleton's " New American Cyclopedia" several long and elaborate articles, particularly in his own special department.

But the works most characteristic of his mind and heart, of his ability, scholarship, taste and sentiment, were not designed for publication, and were not issued till after his death, when they appeared under the editorship of the writer of this memoir. They are "Familiar Letters from Europe," and "Greece, Ancient and Modern." The former was a small volume of let- ters of travel, written to his family with no ulterior purpose, yet with a fidelity of description, a vivid- ness of comprehension, and a charming spontaneity of graceful diction, that not only needed no revision, but would have suffered damage by any endeavor to improve them. The latter comprises four courses of Lowell "Lectures on Greece," in two large octavo vol- umes. We doubt whether there exists in our lan- guage any other work on Greece that comprehends so much, and is at the same time so entirely the out- come of the author's own study, thought and obser- vation. As the lectures were hastily written, many of them on the eve of delivery, it was thought desir- able to verify references and translations; but this labor proved to be almost needless. There was in his manuscript the strange blending of a chirography bearing tokens of hot haste, and a minuteness and accuracy showing that his materials were at his com- mand at momentary notice ; though a large portiou of them were such as seemed to require elaborate re- search. There is no reason why these volumes should not live and last, as at once of profound interest to the general reader and of essential service for the special study of the Greece that was and the Greece that is.

Mr. Felton was an active member of the Massachu- setts Historical Society, and of the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and of various literary and scientific bodies, in all of which he bore as large a part as his busy life rendered pos- sible. He was for several years one of the Re- gents of the Smithsonian Institution, and a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Board of Education ; while he manifested equal efficiency and diligence in the less conspicuous office of a member of the School Committee of Cambridge, where his services are com- memorated in a school-house that bears his name. Hle was a corresponding member of the Archeologi- cal Society of Athens. Ile received the degree of

S. m. Fecio

1883

WEST NEWBURY.

Doctor of Laws from Amherst College in 1848, and from Yale College, in 1860.

Mr. Felton was twice married,-April 12, 1838, to Mary, daughter of Asa and Mary (Hammond) Whit- ney ; and in September, 1846, to Mary Louisa, daugh- ter of Thomas Graves and Mary (Perkins) Cary. He left two sons and three daughters.

SAMUEL MORSE FELTON.1

Samuel Morse Felton, the son of Cornelius Conway and Anna (Morse) Felton, was born at West New- bury, July 17, 1809. At the age of fourteen he be- came elerk in a grocery store in Boston, devoting his scanty leisure to study, with the purpose of preparing himself for college. In 1827 he became his brother's pupil at Geneseo, N. Y., and there completed his preparation for advanced standing in Harvard Col- lege, entering the sophomore class in 1830. In col- lege, while supporting himself by teaching, he dis- tinguished himself as a scholar in a class containing a remarkable number of men who became eminent in literature and science. On graduating in 1833, he still continued to do double work, taking charge of an academy in Charlestown and studying law at the same time. But impaired health warned him of the necessity of a change, and led him to seek more ac- tive employment. He chose the profession of a civil engineer, for which he was admirably fitted, both by rare ability and attainments as a mathematician, and by a maturity of practical wisdom seldom found in one who has lived chiefly among books and students. He entered the office of Loammi Baldwin in 1835, and succeeded to the business of his office on his death, in 1838.

In 1841 Mr. Felton built a railway from Boston to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, and in 1843 he commenced the construction of the Fitchburg Railroad, followed by that of the Vermont Central and other connecting railways. On their completion he became superin- tendent of the Fitchburg Railroad, and continued to hold that place till, in 1851, he was chosen president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail- road. This road was in a very bad condition, un- profitable, in need of extensive repairs and of thor- ough reorganization in every department.

In the measures which Mr. Felton found necessary he encountered serions opposition, and obstacles that at first seemed insurmountable. But he understood his ground, and maintained it with strenuous purpose and unyielding energy. His plans were laid with careful deliberation and with the wisdom which long experience gave, and the result was that the road hecame and has not ceased to be second to none of the great thoroughfares of travel, in construction and equipment, in facilities of transportation, and as a safe investment for capital.

By Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D.

In 1861 this road, as the only direct means of com- munication between the northeastern portion of the country and Washington, became an object of attack by the secessionists, so that its president's unshum - bering vigilance was demanded at every point. A plot had been skillfully planned for the assassination of President Lincoln on his way through Baltimore, immediately before his inauguration. This plot Mr. Fel- ton, with still greater skill, unearthed and baffled, and it was solely through his agency that our patriot chief magistrate reached the chair of state. Our limits will not admit of a detailed narrative of this achievement. It deserves, and can hardly fail to secure a perma- nent place in the history of the country. Suffice it now to say that no greater service was rendered to the loyal cause during the war, and that Mr. Felton's part in it evinced a keenness of penetration, a command of resources and an intensity of will-power, which, in a more conspicuous field, would have won for him extended and enduring fame. Subsequently, the burning of bridges on this road by the rebels threat- ened the entire suspension of travel and intercourse, and especially of the transportation of troops and military stores between the North and Washington,- a danger which Mr. Felton averted by opening a more easily defended route through Annapolis.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 217

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672