USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Dublin > Dublin days, old and new ; New Hampshire fact and fancy. > Part 8
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New York physicians recommend Dublin to their hay fever patients.
While his son Gerald was in his early 'teens, he came into possession of a black bear's skin-the head, fur and all, intact. With Gerald inside, the figure very much resembled the real thing-looked like "the bear which walks like a man."
It would be a very good joke, he thought, to wear it into
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the village school-he didn't go to school himself-and give the scholars a bit of a scare. So, he tried it out.
In the quiet hours of study the bear appeared and entered the schoolroom. Frightened scholars shrieked; the school was in an uproar; one of the little girls fainted. Apparently sensing the confusion his visit had caused, Bruin cut short his stay and left suddenly.
Complaint was made to the school board and Gerald was ordered to appear. When the young man and his father learned of the penalty involved for disturbing a public school and fright- ening the scholars, the situation looked very serious.
The matter ended happily when father, speaking for the board, said that if Gerald would go to school and publicly apol- ogize to the teacher and scholars, the affair would be over- looked. This, Gerald did with good grace.
Mr. Thayer expressed gratitude for the kindly manner in which the situation had been handled and, in appreciation, presented Father with a small picture of Monadnock, painted expressly for him.
When Mr. Thayer died, his previously expressed wish was carried out-his ashes were taken to the crest of Monadnock and scattered on the mountain he loved.
SECRETARY MAC VEAGH
Before Franklin MacVeagh, of Chicago, built his summer home here he passed two or three seasons at the Boulderstone and the Leffingwell Hotel. Said he wanted to know the towns- people and decide whether they would give him shelter in event of an emergency and find out how he would be received as a neighbor.
He bought the Calvin Learned farm on the Jaffrey road and built his house there, secured the adjoining Corey property, the Dwight Learned farm, and, finally, purchased the Raynor place close by.
Dwight's father Hervey, Calvin Learned, Aunt Hannah Corey, and my father's mother, Persis Learned, were brothers
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and sisters. The Learneds were a long-lived family: Most of its members lived well beyond their eightieth year, some of them in excess of ninety. Dwight served as state senator from this district.
The MacVeaghs were a remarkable family. Wayne MacVeagh was Attorney General in President Cleveland's cabinet; he vis- ited his younger brother Franklin here. Wayne's son Charles was counsel for the United States Steel Company, and became Ambassador to Japan.
Charles MacVeagh summered in Dublin, then bought the Walter B. F. Rowe farm, just over the town line in Harrisville, and built his fine residence there. Mr. MacVeagh died some years ago, but his family continues to own and occupy the home. His son Lincoln, formerly Ambassador to Greece, is now Min- ister to Portugal.
President William Howard Taft visited Dublin twice during 1910, while serving as Chief Executive of the United States. The President, accompanied by Mrs. Taft, his daughter Helen, and his military aide, Major Archie Butts, was guest of his Sec- retary of the Treasury, Franklin MacVeagh, at the latter's home, "Knollwood," when he first visited Dublin. A largely attended reception at the MacVeagh residence afforded local residents an opportunity to shake the President's hand. Major Butts was drowned when the ill-fated Titanic hit an iceberg and sank en route to America from Europe.
On the Sunday following the President's arrival, he attended the Unitarian Church with Mrs. Taft, his daughter Helen, Major Butts, and Secretary and Mrs. MacVeagh.
Some of President Taft's ancestry lived in Townshend, Ver- mont, some twenty or more miles from Brattleboro, in the West River valley.
Several weeks after his visit to "Knollwood," the President motored to Townshend, called upon relatives, and returned to Washington via Dublin, where he stopped briefly and addressed a home audience in the town hall.
Mr. Taft was an exceptionally large man physically and must have weighed nearly three hundred pounds. When he went to the stage to be presented, he declined the chair of
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generous size offered him, and chose a seat on the more com- modious and quite as substantial settee.
Mr. MacVeagh prepared a field on his estate and tendered its use for athletic activities-baseball games were played there, and the annual horse show was held on the field. He kept a gardener on his place throughout the year. "Knollwood" was one of the largest and most pretentious residences in town. Throughout his entire stay in Dublin he continued his daily trips in the saddle over the paths maintained by the local Walk- ing and Riding Club. Mr. MacVeagh said horseback riding was a healthful exercise-"good for the kidneys."
GEORGE GREY BARNARD
George Grey Barnard, sculptor, married the youngest of Pro- fessor Monroe's daughters. The wedding took place out of doors, on Cathedral Rock, a romantic spot, high up on Beech Hill, overlooking the lake and mountain. Mr. Barnard's father, an Indiana clergyman, performed the ceremony.
The young sculptor looked his part; thick-set, of rugged build and medium height, he wore his black hair in pompadour fashion, which aided in giving him a distinguished appearance.
Mr. Barnard said the History of Dublin was one of the most interesting books he ever read-it seemed to connect the past with the present.
When the beautiful new Pennsylvania state capitol was built at Harrisburg, Mr. Barnard was commissioned to provide the statuary. Controversy and scandal developed over the cost of the capitol and charges of graft and fraud arose. Mr. Barnard had not been paid for his work, and the struggling young artist needed his money.
The young man made a trip to the capitol while the Legis- lature was in session, hoping to collect the funds due him.
Mr. Barnard was received cordially and invited to address the representatives. He said Art was the only subject he felt capable of talking about and believed that a body of politicians would hardly care to listen to him. Nevertheless, he began, in- tending to occupy only a little time but said the legislative body
Monadnock Lake and Mountain From the Catlin Shore
The Parting of the Ways
"Glimpsewood"
The summer home of Colonel and Mrs. Higginson, each of whom is shown in the picture.
ABBOTT THAYER: PAINTER AND SCIENTIST: IN HIS NEW HAMPSHIRE STUDIO, THAYER EXPLAINS THE THEORY OF PROTECTIVE COLORATION. 1900
Photo by Wenday
Barry Faulkner's Mural in the State Capitol at Concord The mural depicts Abbott Thayer explaining his theory of pro- tective coloration (which led to scientific camouflage) to Sculp- tor Daniel Chester French, Mrs. Thayer, Artists George de Forest Brush, Barry Faulkner and Alexander James, and Mr. Thayer's daughter Mary.
President William Howard Taft ( in front of left pillar) Leaving the Uni- tarian Church in Dublin After the Sunday Morning Service, August 28, 1910
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listened intently and asked him to continue. He spoke for an hour and was warmly applauded at the finish. His bill was eventually paid in full.
One of the Barnard Lincoln statues was shipped to England and duly erected there. A similar design was sold to John D. Rockefeller, Senior. When it became necessary to change the location of the statue, a teamster was engaged to do the moving.
The statue was large, very heavy, and several additional men were required to handle it. Mr. Barnard said the bill for moving was required to go through a great many different de- partments, which caused a good deal of delay, and the teamster was sadly in need of funds. Mr. Barnard advanced the money himself and was reimbursed by Mr. Rockefeller afterward.
DR. OSGOOD
Dr. Hamilton Osgood, of Boston, was among the first of the Dublin summer residents to build a cottage here.
His house was located on the north side of the lake. After its sale he built his home and two more cottages on the oppo- site side, then erected another one for rental-a total of four.
Professor Monroe's wife was Dr. Osgood's sister; his brother, Professor George L. Osgood, was a teacher in the New England Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Osgood practiced medicine here during the summer sea- son, and drove a handsome, spirited bay mare. He was a large, rugged man, wore a nicely trimmed full brown beard with well- trained wax-tipped mustache, kept a thirty-foot sailing yacht on the lake, and thoroughly enjoyed his summer outings in Dublin.
The doctor was a grand singer, his high baritone voice comparable in quality to that of his accomplished brother George; the two sang for the Episcopal services, held first in the Unitarian Church, then in the town hall, before the erec- tion of the Society's new Emmanuel Chapel.
He was quite friendly with Joseph Morse, the brother of Thaddeus. Joseph Morse directed the church choir and sang the tenor part; he had been a shoemaker in earlier days, and
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had handmade as many as twenty-five hundred pairs of shoes in a single year.
Mr. Morse had been feeling a bit "under the weather" and the doctor felt he needed treatment. Mr. Morse assured him his ailment was nothing serious, he would be himself again within a day or two, but Dr. Osgood gave him the medicine he thought was needed and wrote directions for taking on the label.
Mr. Morse thanked him, received the package, and laid it away in the cupboard at home. He took none of it then, or thereafter. A few days later the Doctor asked him how he felt. His former patient assured him he was all right again. The Doc- tor said he knew the medicine would straighten him out quickly.
Mr. Morse related the experience with a quiet chuckle.
Dr. Osgood said he loved to go to his unplastered chamber, lie in bed and listen to the rain on the roof, "theme of Earth's symphony, that means beauty and bounty."
His friends, Professor John K. Paine, of the music department at Harvard, and Frank B. Sanborn, of literary fame, from Con- cord, Massachusetts, were visitors at his Dublin home.
In their spacious livingroom, Mrs. Osgood gave classes in Dante and in Goethe's Faust, attended by nearly the entire summer colony.
MR. BRUSH
George de Forest Brush was the third artist of note to locate permanently in Dublin; he followed Thayer and Joseph Lindon Smith, and bought the David Townsend place on the East Har- risville road.
Born in Tennessee, he studied in New York and under Gérôme, in Paris; won medals at the Expositions in Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo. He died in 1941.
Mr. Brush spent some years of early artist's life in the West. He described his first and only hunting experience, saying he joined a party and set out in quest of deer.
They followed a small drove up a narrow mountain trail, where, as they neared the summit, the greater part of the herd went over the crest and started down the other side.
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A little fawn brought up the rear, trying desperately to keep up with its mother. Almost at the peak of the mountain the lit- tle fellow tried to reach the others, but, tired and on the point of exhaustion, it lagged behind. Just as it reached the summit he fired and wounded the fawn.
It struggled to get to its feet and go on with the others, hurrying away. Badly hurt, with legs broken, it tried vainly to rise, then sank back helpless.
Mr. Brush said the pathetic look in the little creature's eyes, wistful and almost human, so sickened him and filled him with such remorse, that he resolved then never to hunt again.
Many of these animals are wounded so that they can never recover during the hunting season at home. Broken jaws, shat- tered legs, bullets which tear the flesh, cause wounds which leave trails of blood in the snow. The creature must suffer in its effort to live, and, failing to survive, finally dies in the bleak cold of winter. Is there any other animal more innocent and beautiful?
Mr. Brush's pictures were wonderful in conception and ex- ecution. The paintings of members of his family-of Mother and Child-are of a quality to suggest the work of the old masters.
Many other artists have summered here: Frank W. Benson, Birge Harrison, George D. M. Piexotto, Edmund C. Tarbell, Miss Rose Lamb, Jacob Bates Abbott, and Gouri Ivanov-Rinov. Thayer, Smith, Brush, Meryman, James, and Ivanov-Rinov, all became permanent Dublin residents. Meryman and James once conducted a school of painting here;, both were pupils of Thayer, as was Barry Faulkner, of Keene, one of America's outstanding painters of murals.
Richard Meryman has been associated with the Corcoran Art Gallery, in Washington. A Dublin exhibit of his own work during the summer of 1951 featured portraits and landscapes in prolific number, comparable in quality with those of the na- tion's finest artists.
The sudden death of Alexander James while still a young man saddened this community and the art world. He had earned for himself an enviable position in his field of work.
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AMY LOWELL
Miss Amy Lowell, poetess, became owner of the Crownin- shield property. Her brother, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, was President of Harvard University at the time.
Miss Lowell was one of my excellent customers while I was operating the store in Dublin. My wife's father, Milton D. Mason, established the business in 1869. We conducted it over a period of fifty-seven years.
Miss Lowell required the best of the S. S. Pierce groceries for her household, and needed hay, straw, and grain for the stable. A Packard car completed her travel equipment.
Miss Lowell sat up very late at night and arose at an equally abnormal hour. It was late in the day when she personally tele- phoned her grocery order; the regular delivery had left, conse- quently a special trip was necessary, which usually fell to me.
A pack of half a dozen or more great shaggy Russian sheep dogs dashed across the field at my approach and their Stalin- like behavior made their intentions doubtful. I drove as close to the porch as possible and was always relieved to find myself inside the door unmolested.
Her capable cook, possessed of a ready sense of keen Irish humor, was to make a cake and contribute it to the annual
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"coffee party," held each season in the town hall, but she had no way of getting it to the village because George, the chauffeur, had gone to Brookline with the car. I offered to deliver the cake myself and arranged to take it next day.
When the cake was brought out, she said it was to be given to the person guessing nearest its correct weight. Grateful, per- haps, for doing her errand, she advised me to say "it weighs four pounds, seven ounces and a half." Accordingly, I risked the price of a ticket, guessed four pounds, seven ounces and a half-and carried home the cake.
Miss Lowell drove her smart bay mare, hitched to a light open buggy, about as cleverly as could be done by an expert horseman. There were always people in the old days who be- lieved they owned the fastest horse in town. She demonstrated to one of them, at least, that he was entirely mistaken.
With each grocery order, a slip, listing the items, was sent. At the end of the month, all the articles on the slips were item- ized upon a complete bill. I went in person to the house to check the bill with her and receive her check which sometimes amounted to three hundred dollars and more. Miss Lowell was always agreeable, and chatted pleasantly, sometimes quoting the opinion of her brother, upon subjects of public interest.
The accounting was done in her living room; we sat at her table at the farther end of which lay a well-used meerschaum pipe.
Contrary to a report emanating from the city of her birth, "home of the bean and the cod," where, it has been said, her family's conversation was confined to a certain restricted and exclusive few, I found her quite ready to talk, of positive opin- ion but pleasant, and it was always an enjoyable visit for me. Dublin is pleased to have entertained both the Cabots and Lowells.
Our local carpenter, Willard Pierce, had a long beard which reached nearly to his waist; he made an interesting character subject for artist Alexander James to paint.
Mr. Pierce was a dependable mechanic, who took care of the construction work and repairs for Miss Lowell, and for Richard Parker and Daniel Dwight at their summer estates.
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A typical, old-fashioned Yankee, he expressed himself as frankly to the people he worked for as though he belonged to their own set-and they liked it. He commanded their respect because he was master of his trade, gave honest labor for cash received, and was, withal, an intelligent man to talk to.
Miss Lowell watched his work and sometimes brought out one of her poems and read it to him. Apparently she observed his methods closely for she accurately describes them in her poem "Trades." In it she said, "I want to be a carpenter, work- ing in clean wood, shaving it into thin slivers, which screw up into curls behind the plane; pound square, black nails into white boards," etc.
She continued reading, and said she "wanted to shingle a house, sit on the ridge-pole in a bright breeze and put the shingles on neatly"; Mr. Pierce laughed outright. In language less diplomatic than I have chosen, he told her he thought a more petite and sylph-like figure than hers would quite as be- comingly adorn the ridge-pole of a house.
When she recited her closing lines, describing the delight of a carpenter's trade: "That is the life! Heigh-ho! It is much easier than to write this poem"-well; the thought expressed was so grotesque, he said, that it was really very funny and deserved another hearty laugh.
Miss Lowell listened with amused good humor to the some- what disparaging comments of her outspoken, and very prac- tical-minded, critic.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
The American novelist, Winston Churchill, formerly of St. Louis, became a permanent resident of Cornish, New Hamp- shire.
He was a popular author and his books-Richard Carvel, The Crisis, The Inside of the Cup, The Dwelling Place of Light -were widely read and helped to make him famous in the lit- erary field. Coniston was a political venture and created con- siderable of a sensation throughout the state.
His principal figure in the novel, Jethro Bass, was supposed
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to represent a Croydon character, prominent in state politics although a small town resident; while Coniston described very well the large and quite important village of Newport.
Mr. Crenve's Career, another political story, was believed to have described a Dublin resident whose activities made him the outstanding figure in the novel. Other local characters were represented and a young lawyer from another Cheshire County town was a featured subject.
Mr. Churchill was an expert horseman, an occasional en- trant in the Dublin Horse Show. He drome bir four-in-hand brake with the skill of a professional, and was a frequent vinhos to the town because of his acquaintanceship with members of the St. Louis contingent. One year he leased a house and spent the entire summer here.
During Woodrow Wilson's administration. Churchill's Cornish home, "Herlakenden House" became the Nation's summer cap- itol while the President occupied it during his vacation months
In an effort to eliminate what he believed to be a menace in the way of control of the state through domination br the Boston and Maine Railroad. Churchill became a candidate for Governor and conducted a speaking campaign throughout New Hampshire, after being coached in the art of public speaking br Ethel Barrymore, the actress.
Perhaps quite as much because of his literary fame as of the merits of the issue involved, he drew large audiences. With the approach of the State Republican Convention at Concord. his candidacy was supported by an enthusiastic following. Those were the days of "trust-busting" President Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Churchill made an encouraging showing in the early balloting and gained consistently thereafter, finally becoming high man on next to the last ballot; but the presiding officer announced that the ballot was void and would be thrown out "because more votes were cast than there were delegates in the convention." It was claimed br some that Churchill had really received the nomination. Managers of the tip other lead- ing candidates got together in the anteroom in the meantime. agreed to withdraw one of the names, and their mom was de- clared the nominee on the next and Enal ballot.
During the convention, when the result was announced
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showing Churchill's continual gain, his delegates rose to their feet, some mounted settees and cheered lustily. As one of his enthusiastic supporters I did my best to aid his cause and with each announcement jumped upon a settee and exercised my lungs to the limit of capacity.
After one such proceeding, I accidentally brushed a hat to the floor belonging to one of the two elderly delegates, appar- ently from a rural community, sitting beside me. Neither one shared my sympathies or appreciated my enthusiasm. Quickly jumping down I brushed off the hat, handed it to the owner and said, "I'm sorry."
Somewhat testily he took it and answered, "I don't care a damn for the hat, but I can't see why you have to holler so like Goddamnation!"
Oftentimes mail intended for the two Churchills became mixed, each getting the other man's letters. An agreement was reached between them: the Englishman added a middle name to his own and, thereafter, became Winston Spencer Churchill.
A young lady elocutionist requested me to submit to Mr. Churchill the manuscript of a monologue she had written, for his criticism. He declined to receive it, saying such articles are invariably bad and the author is offended if you tell him so.
THE BRITISH EMBASSY
Lord Hope came from Washington to select summer homes for the various members of the British Embassy. Four houses were required: one each for Lord and Lady Bryce, Colonel and Mrs. B. R. James, Sir and Mrs. Esmond Ovey, and the clerks, headed by Lord Eustace Percy.
The imposing list of names belonging to these distinguished officials impressed me with the belief that I was to deal with an aristocratic array of English nobility, but I found all of them to be democratic in manner and of simple taste.
Mrs. Bryce was an American lady, the niece of Mrs. Josiah Bradlee, who had leased Frank Frothingham's house for sev- eral seasons; Mrs. Ovey was American-born also.
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Lord Hope returned to England and did not come to Dub- lin with the remainder of the Embassy. He was agreeable and very good company. I enjoyed showing him quite a few houses for consideration.
The Misses Ida and Ellen mason's residence on Snow Hill, afterward owned by Mr. Shallcross, was selected for the Ambas- sador; the William B. Cabot home, now occupied by Mr. Leh- mann for his Dublin School headquarters, was chosen for Colonel James, Military Aide; Mrs. Burton's "Morningside" was assigned to the Oveys; and the clerks-they said "clarks"-had our own cottage at the lake. The Oveys requested and were given four portable tin bathtubs to augment the built-in ones already in- stalled.
Lord Percy did not come with the remainder of the staff but arrived nearly a week later. He was the son of the Duke of Northumberland, said to have been one of the wealthiest gentle- men in England. We had exchanged several letters before he came.
Late one afternoon, a young man wearing a cap came into the store and asked for me; he said, "My name is Percy."
After the members of the Embassy had returned to Wash- ington, Lord Percy came back to Dublin to visit friends. He made a special trip to the village for the purpose of conveying a good-will greeting and, finally, to say good-by and good luck.
Mrs. Bryce went to her kitchen each morning to talk with the cook concerning the day's household needs; she was formally addressed by her maids and given her official title decreed by custom.
The Ambassador wore a full grey beard and was rather a small man, physically. He and Mrs. Bryce enjoyed walking and took morning hikes nearly every day. He believed there was too much foliage in the town and thought conditions could be improved by intelligent thinning and cutting.
It seems unfortunate that those open spaces on Monadnock, where some two hundred and fifty head of cattle were ac- customed to graze during the summer, have now entirely grown up to forests.
Late in the season the Ambassador and Mrs. Bryce visited
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South America. She returned and stayed with her aunt just be- fore Mrs. Bradlee closed her house for the season. It was an unusual courtesy for her to walk from Mrs. Bradlee's, a half mile distant, in order to come to the store for a friendly call and bid me a final goodby. I have very pleasant recollections of the members of the British Embassy.
ADMIRAL BYRD
In response to a call from Boston, my son, associate in real estate with me, went to the city to arrange for the rental of Mrs. Charles F. Aldrich's "Frost Farm."
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