USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Ashfield > History of the town of Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts from its settlement in 1742 to 1910 > Part 34
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The church and town agreed to pay him "$300 annually so long as they pay Mr. Porter, and after yt time $400 annually." The contract was made and he "took tea at Esq. Paine's."
17. Wrote upon a discourse. Walked out to see ye people build a staging and seats for installation. 20. Had company- Mr. Miller and wife from Heath. Walked over to ye Meeting-
house to see ye people make seats for installation.
As has been noted on another page where an account of the installation is given, these seats were arranged around the hol- low where the tomb now is, and Mr. Sanderson says it was estimated that three thousand people attended the exercises.
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June 11. Rode to ye northwest part of Ashfield-Visited at Mr. J. Taylor's. Preached a lecture at ye school house near Mr. Firbush's. Text, John 5, 25. Made a short visit at Mr. Ezekiel Howes.' Lodged at Mr. Mark Howes.' Made a short visit at Mr. Barnabas Howes,' Mr. Joseph Vincent's and Mr. Thaddeus Rood's. Called at Mr. Joseph Stocking's. Returned home. * 19. Visited at Mr. Asa Porter's, Alvan X- Clark's, Mr. Giles Ranney's, Parsons Mansfield's, Jonathan Gray's. Called likewise at Mr. Case's a member of his family being sick. '20. Rode to Buckland and called at Rev. Mr. Spaulding's. Rode with him to Shelburne to attend a church fast appointed on account of 2 or 3 of the sisters becoming deranged. *
Aug. 17. Visited at Mr. George Ranney's, Mr. Brown's, Mr. John Bement's, Mr. Burton's and Mr. Joseph Smith's. Called at Wd. Sears'. Returned home. Eve, went with two others to Esq. Williams' to converse with him and Mr. Graves (two brothers in ye church), who had serious difficulties to settle. Tarried there till midnight. They agreed to make
satisfaction. Returned.
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Sept. 1st. Unwell. Rode to Conway. Called at Rev. Mr. Emmerson's and at my brother's. Rode to Ashfield. At- tended funeral of Rachel Smith's child. Called at Mr. Ward's, his child continuing very sick. Went to my lodgings. Very much beat out and unwell. Took ye bed.
Sept. 2. Visited at Mr. Ward's whose child is very sick. Visited at Mr. Paul Sears,' who is dangerously sick, and at Mr. A. Goodwin's, whose child is sick. Attended a lecture at ye meetinghouse. After lecture ye chh conferred together on some matters and agreed to set apart Wednesday next as a day of fasting and prayer on account of ye sickness and drought and ye unhappy state of mind two of ye sisters are in. Visited at Mr. Ward's, whose child continues very low. 8. Visited at Mr. Ward's, whose child died this morning. 9. Visited ye wife of Joshua Howes, Jr., she being very sick. 10. Visited at Mr. Stephen Warren's, who has a daughter sick. Visited at Mr. Wing's, his son and son's wife being sick. Visited at Mr. Abner Cranson's, his wife and daughter being sick and a daughter of his died this morning, nearly 17. * * *
Oct. 7. Spent some time in bringing home a desk which Mr. Wing has been making for me and in arranging matters after I had brought it home. 8. Rode to Florida to keep the Sabbath there, the people being in a destitute condition.
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13. A short season was set apart this afternoon for ye purpose of rendering public praise and thanksgiving to God for ve late displays of his mercy in sending rain from heaven and in arresting ye progress of ye pestilence and causing ye voice of health to be again heard among us. May we have true grati- tude and speak of his mercies in ye midst of judgements.
A reliable middle aged citizen says he has heard his parents tell the story of a young man from this town who went to Wil- liams College and for a time roomed with William Cullen Bryant. The said young man was very saving, close and even small, so much so as to call forth an effusion from his poet roommate of which, unfortunately, my informant could recall only these lines :
"Ten thousand souls like his might fly In platoons through a needle's eye.
Mr. Bryant, in his early days, during his sojourn in Plainfield, made frequent visits to Ashfield.
Running extracts from old Account Books:
1772. To 50 1bs. beef, 8 shillings. 1 Swine, 84 lbs., 14 s.
1 bushel corn, 3 s.
314 pounds butter, 1 s. 11 d.
1 Gal. Cyder, 8 s.
1 quart Rhum, 1 s.
To making one grate Coat and 2 Jacoats, 10 s. 6 d.
Making 2 bunnets, 2 s.
To 5 pecks beans, wanting 3 pints, 4 s. 9 d.
Making coat, 8 s.
1 Pair britches, 6 s.
boarding the school marm 1 week,
3 s. 6 d.
To one Die tub, 3 s.
making 1 pair Shoes, 2 s.
horse to mill, 3 d.
In the annals of the churches, allusion has been made to the removal of members to "distant parts." The Smiths, Shepards, Lyons, and some of the Phillipses moved to Stockton and vicinity. The Crosses and Lindsleys went to Greenfield, N. Y., and John
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HISTORY OF ASHFIELD
Sadler, who had eight children, to Windsor, N. Y .; in pepper- mint time the Ranneys, Burnetts and many others to Phelps and vicinity. Joshua Howes went to Mohawk Valley, and as has been noted, Joseph Howes and some of the Phillipses to West Virginia. They sometimes made the journeys with ox teams and were several weeks on the way. In 1816, Elder Ebenezer Smith moved to Stockton in a cart drawn by two yoke of oxen. He took two cows with him and was thirty days on the way. A few years ago it was said the cart wheels were still preserved in Stockton.
Letters frequently come to the town clerk and others, from descendants of some of these settlers in "distant parts," making inquiries concerning their ancestors, and occasionally one drifts back to pore over musty records and mossy tombstones in search of some knowledge of kith and kin. -
IN MEMORY OF A NOBLE MAN
On page 384 is noted the dedication of a tablet to the memory of Mr. Curtis, at which time Professor Norton gave an address.
That address is given here.
The meeting was called to order by A. D. Flower, who in behalf of the Curtis Club presented the tablet to the town. "As the years go by," he said, "this tablet will be looked upon by many who did not know Mr. Curtis as we knew him, and the story of his life will be told, his writings more widely read and the high ideals taught by his illustrious example, will be an inspiration to many. The town will forever cherish the deep impress which Mr. Curtis left upon it. We can all call to mind how he looked as he passed through our streets with his elastic, swinging stride, his genial smile, his hearty handshake as he met those he loved to call his neighbors and friends. He was the most affable of men with that grace of manner which puts one immediately at his ease. This tablet is the outward and visible sign of the great respect and affectionate regard in which the town holds the memory of Mr. Curtis." Charles
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Howes, chairman of the board of selectmen, received the tablet in behalf of the town in a few appropriate words. The principal speech of the evening was an eloquent tribute by Prof. Charles Eliot Norton to his dead friend, which is given below.
PROFESSOR NORTON'S SPEECH
Of all the blessings which can befall a community, there is none greater than the choice of it by a good man for his home, for the example of such a man sets a standard of conduct, and his influence, unconsciously not less than consciously exerted, tends to lift those who come within its circle to his own level. In the quiet annals of this little town there are many incidents of local and personal interest, but the incident of chief import- ance to its inhabitants of this generation and of coming times, was its selection in 1865 by George William Curtis for his summer home. Hither for 27 summers he came to find refresh- ment among the hills and woods, to show himself the best of neighbors, and to exhibit those social virtues and charms which would have made him beloved and admired by any society which he might have chosen to adorn.
It is well that the club named in his honor should set up a tablet to commemorate his residence in Ashfield, in this hall where his presence has been so familiar, and where his voice has been so often heard. It is well that the town should accept this tablet as a permanent record of great services rendered to it, and to be sacredly preserved so long as its own ever- renewed life shall last. It is well that we, the townspeople, should meet to dedicate this tablet, the inscription upon which records our lasting and grateful affection for the good man whose name it bears.
Happily there are many men in the world, some even in a little community like this, whom we, speaking in familiar phrase, should call, and rightly call, good men; men who per- form fairly well the simple duties of life; who try to be, or at least intend to be, estimable husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, neighbors; but there are few anywhere whose goodness stands, year in, year out, the wear and tear of common days, whose virtues are never dimmed by slow-collecting rust, or by the dust which rises from even worthy toil and unavoidable cares. So, too, it often happens that among many virtues the one is lacking which is required to give savor to all the rest; that some black drop in the blood betrays itself in moroseness; that feebleness of imagination (the great defect of man) shows itself
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in failure of sympathetic consideration for those who most need it.
No, the good man, in the full sense of the word, the man whose virtucs never suffer cclipse, and whose goodness is not merely good but beautiful, is as rare as he is great a blessing to his kind. Happiest and most blessed of men is the good man whose temperament and character combine to make him as pleasant as he is good; whose virtues are the sweet flowering of his native disposition, trained by experience and perfected by self-discipline; whose character is based on simplicity of heart, and who fulfils the new commandment because for him it is the most natural mode of self-expression. And if to such a man be added great gifts alike of body and of soul, the fine form expressing the fine spirit, the sweet voice attuned to the sweet disposition, if in him outward grace be the type of grace of mind, and physical vigor the emblem of intellectual power; if he be endowed with poetic imagination, quickening the moral and invigorating the intellectual elements of the nature, and if all be crowned by a spirit of devotion to public interests,- then we have such a man as he who fills our memories and our hearts today.
You have seen him in his daily walk during almost 30 years; can you recall one act, one word of his that was not friendly and pleasant? I who knew him from youth to age, I whose life was blessed by his friendship for 43 years, find in my memory of him such pleasantness that my words come short to express it. No one could meet him without being better for the meet- ing. "He makes you feel pleasant," an old Ashfield man said of him.
In his relations with others, whether in private life or in public affairs, he was singularly exemplary; I mean he set an example of simple excellence to us all, fitted to the various needs and conditions of our lives. And yet his modesty was such, and his simplicity so entire that he walked among us quite unconscious of the virtue which proceeded from him, never assuming an air of superiority, or claiming the distinction which was his due. Seldom has there been so general a favorite as he, and seldom a man who received more flattery with less harm to the simplicity of his nature. When he returned home from Europe in 1850, a youth of 26, with keen perceptions of the delights of life, with accomplishments and graces and tastes that opened every door to him, with literary ambitions which were soon to be gratified by the success of his first book, with the youth of both sexes crowding round him at Newport, at
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Saratoga, at New York, to follow his alluring lead, and to catch from him, if they might, the secret of his charm,-at this time he stood at the parting of the ways. As Izaak Walton says of his friend Sir Henry Worton, "His company seemed to be one of the delights of mankind." He was flattered and caressed, and for a time he floated on the swift current of pleasure. It would have been so easy to yield to the temptations of the world ! But his pure, youthful heart cherished other idols. He heard the voice of duty saying. "Come, follow me," and he obeyed. The path along which she led was difficult. The times were dark. He recognized the claim which in a democracy like ours the country has on every one of her sons for the best service which he can render. He had a most public soul, and he gave himself without reserve to the cause of justice, of freedom and of popular intelligence.
His first books, poetic records of eastern travel, had shown that he possessed literary gifts of a high order, a style fluent, facile and elegant, capable of conveying clearly the impressions of a sensitive and fine spirit. And the books which followed them gave proof of his delicate sensibilities, and quick and dis- criminating perceptions. They showed him to be a lover of Nature and of the arts, a shrewd observer of men, an acute critic of life, a delicate and tender humorist. The way of simple literary distinction lay open to him. He felt its charm. Con- flict was averse to his nature. But the times called for strenuous action, and with full consciousness of the attractions of the ease and pleasure which he was relinquishing, he turned from the pursuit of literature as an end in itself, and devoted his literary gifts and accomplishments to political and patriotic service.
MR. CURTIS'S PROFESSION OF FAITH
In August, 1856, just 40 years ago, at the height of the struggle between the forces of freedom and those of slavery before the war, Mr. Curtis, then 32 years old, delivered at Wesleyan university at Middletown, Ct., an oration on "The duty of the American scholar." It was at once a profession of faith and an appeal to the young scholars of the land to be true to those moral principles which, in a period of material prosperity, are apt to be subordinated to mere temporary interests. It was the first of that long series of speeches which secured to Mr. Curtis a place in the front rank of orators. He had spoken often before in public, but on this occasion he found and mani- fested his unequivocal vocation as a great master of the art
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of persuasive and powerful eloquence. To all her other gifts to him Nature had added those of the orator. He was of a fine presence and easy grace of carriage, tall of stature, of strongly marked and expressive features, with the masculine nose and long upper lip that mark the born public speaker. His voice (it still echoes in our ears) was of wide compass, sweet and full in tone, perfectly under control, and in perfect harmony with his aspect. Not often has a finer instrument of speech been vouchsafed to a man.
"Do you ask me," said he, in his discourse at Middletown, "do you ask me our duty as scholars? Gentlemen, as the American scholar is a man and has a voice in his own govern- ment, so his interest in political affairs must precede all others. * *
* He must recognize that the intelligent exercise of political rights which is a privilege in a monarchy is a duty in a republic. If it clash with his ease, his retirement, his taste, his study, let it clash, but let him do his duty. The course of events is incessant, and when the good deed is slighted the bad deed is done. Young scholars, young Americans, young men, we are all called upon to do a great duty. Nobody is released from it. It is a work to be done by hard strokes everywhere. Brothers, the call has come to us.'
From the date of this oration to the end of his life Mr. Curtis never put off the harness or relinquished the arms of public service. He took an active part in the local politics of the county in which he lived, he became a prominent figure in the politics of the state of New York, he exercised a powerful influence by voice and by pen in shaping the policy of the republican party and of the national administration. When the war came-that war which to the generation born since its close seems so re- mote, but which to us who lived through it is in a sense always present, giving poignancy to the disappointment of many of the high raised hopes of that heroic time,-when the war came, Curtis threw himself into the contest with passionate zeal, passionate but not blind or irrational. In the bitter sacrifices of the war he shared. In 1862 one of his younger brothers fell dead at Fredericksburg at the head of his regiment, thus gloriously ending a stainless life of 26 years. His brother-in-law, the fair young Col. Robert Shaw, dying at the head of his black regiment in the assault on Fort Wagner, and buried with his niggers, became the immortal type to all generations of Ameri- cans of the ideal hero of human brotherhood. Of the work which had to be done at home, no less essential than that in the field, no man did more, or more effectively than Curtis.
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As political editor of Harper's Weekly he exercised an influence not second to that of any other public writer of the time in shaping and confirming popular opinion and sentiment. Nor did his service in this respect end with the war.
Sound in judgment, of clear foresight, of convictions based upon immutable principles, absolutely free from motives of jealousy or ignoble ambition, with no personal ends to serve, neither seeking or desiring public office or other station than that which he held, he acquired not only general public confi- dence and esteem, but secured also the respect of those who most widely differed from him. No man of such influence, especially with the reasonable class of his fellow-citizens, could escape the enmity of selfish politicians whose interests he op- posed and against whose schemes he contended. More than once he became the object of bitter denunciation. He was charged with weakness, with folly, with treachery to his party. The charges never disturbed his serenity, nor drew from him a reply of passion or of personal retort. He was indeed not open to any attack that could disturb the serenity of his soul or the sweetness of his temper. I do not believe that in any controversy in which he was engaged he ever used an unfair word or cast a personal imputation upon his opponent. He did not spare the base, the treacherous and the malignant, but he never dealt an unfair blow, nor in the heat of conflict forgot "the law in calmness made." Wordsworth, in the "Character of the Happy Warrior," drew as with prophetic inspiration the portrait of our friend. Was he not one-
Whose high endeavors are an inward light, That makes the path before him always bright;
One- Who labors good on good to fix, and owes To virtue every triumph that he knows.
One-
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim; And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait For wealth or honors, or for worldly state; Whom thou must follow, on whose head must fall Like showers of manna, if they come at all; Whose powers shed round him in the cannon strife Or mild concerns of ordinary life A constant influence, a peculiar grace.
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One, in fine, who-
Plays in the many games of life, that one Where what he most doth value must be won?
It was not to service only as a political writer and speaker that our Happy Warrior devoted himself during his long years of incessant toil. Month after month, from the Easy Chair of Harper' Magazine he was scattering broadcast seeds of civiliza- tion which took root far and wide. In this long series of brief essays treating of a thousand topics, always fresh, always timely, the grace and skill of his literary art were abundantly displayed. He found here a free field for the expression of his humor, his sentiment, his fancy, his good sense, his critical judgment, his strong moral convictions, his wide sympathies. Manners and customs, arts, letters, passing events, life and death, all the concerns of men, furnished subjects for the wise and pleasant discourse in which his own delightful nature was delightfully mirrored. Most of these little papers were slight in fabric and ephemeral in quality, but many of them were of such ex- cellent substance as to have lasting worth, and to deserve a place in literature. And they were more than merely literary essays; they were bodies of doctrine, and it would be hard to estimate too highly the influence they exerted in refining the taste, quickening the moral sensibilities, and raising the stand- ard of feeling in a multitude of readers who stood in need of that culture which these brief lessons were eminently fitted to im- part. It was an inestimable benefit to many a reader of scant opportunities for association with the best, to have this monthly intercourse with such a teacher.
HIS CONNECTION WITH POLITICAL MATTERS
Conscious of his power and of his influence, aware that from his editor's seat he was helping to shape the policy of parties, to mold the character and to determine the destiny of the na- tion, it is not strange, however surprising to men of a lower order, that Mr. Curtis never sought for public office, and was never tempted by repeated offers of high station in the public service. Most men would have found it too hard to resist the charm of distinction and of opportunity for the display of talent upon the conspicuous field, which these offers opened to him. The allurement was, indeed, great, but it was not overmastering. He compared one duty with another, and he chose that for which experience had proved his competence.
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He was helped in his choice by his preference for simple modes of life, and for quiet domestic joys and social pleasures. He loved his home and his friends too well to quit them for strange courts and brilliant company. And so from year to year he maintained tranquilly his industrious, laborious, unselfish, use- ful career, with steady increase of his powers, with steady growth in the respect and regard in which he was held by the public, and with the ever deepening love of his friends.
Of all the many public questions of importance which claimed attention in the years following the war, none was of greater concern than the reform of the civil service. The "spoils system" had become rooted in the practice of the government, both local and national, and in the popular theory of its admin- istration. This system by which public office was held to be not a place of trust to be awarded only to such as were compe- tent by character and intelligence to discharge its duties, but a place of emolument given as reward or incentive for partisan or personal services,-this debasing and corrupting system had in the course of years become the source of evils which threatened the very foundation of our institutions. One of the least of these evils was the lowering of the quality of the public service and the degradation of the character of the public servant. To hold public office was no longer a badge of honor, but a token of loss of personal independence and a badge of servitude to a patron. The system poisoned the moral springs of political effort and action; it perverted the nature and the results of elections; it fostered corruption in every department of the government, and tended to vitiate the popular conception of the duty of a citizen in a republic, and of the very ends for which the government exists. To contend against this system, intrenched as it was behind the lines of long custom, defended by the host of selfish, unprincipled and ignorant politicians, and openly supported by both the great parties alike, seemed an almost hopeless task. But Mr. Curtis did not shrink from the contest. He had faith in the good sense of the mass of the people if once they could be roused from their temper of opti- mistic indifference. The fight had already begun when he entered it, but he had scarcely entered it before he became its leader.
In 1871 he was appointed by General Grant upon the com- mission to form rules for admission to the public service and regulations to promote its efficiency. He was made chairman of the commission, and their report,-the basis of all that has since been done in the establishment of the reform, was mainly
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his work. But the opposition to the project of reform was strenuous, was persistent. The aims of the reformers were often baffled, often defeated. But they were not disheartened. In 1880 the New York civil service reform association was founded, in 1881, the national association for the same end, and of both was Mr. Curtis chosen president. In both he held this office till his death. The duties were arduous, and were per- formed by him with consummate fidelity and ability. He was a magnificent standard bearer. Slowly, but steadily the cause advanced. He did not live to see its triumph, but he never doubted that it would win the victory. It has triumphed, and for this triumph with all its far-reaching beneficent results, the honor is mainly due to Mr. Curtis, as well as the gratitude of his country for her rescue from a grave peril and a great disgrace.
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