USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 14
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Another well known publisher was Daniel Lothrop, born in Rochester, August II, 1831. He was fitted for college at the age of fourteen but turned aside to business, for which he had remarkable abilities. At the age of seventeen he hired and stocked a drug store in Newmarket and soon after another one in what is now Laconia, associating two brothers with himself.
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It was noticeable that a large part of the stock in his stores consisted of books. The three brothers remained in partnership forty years, though in different lines of business and in different cities. In 1850 Mr. Lothrop bought out a book store in Dover, which became a literary center. In 1868 he removed to Cornhill, Boston, and a few years later increase of business sent him to larger quarters on Washington street. Books written by Ameri- cans he preferred to publish, and to give encouragement to young authors. He specialized in books for children and Sunday Schools, that would elevate character and give an impulse toward right living. In 1874 he originated "Wide Awake," a magazine for young folks and the family. Other periodicals of his were "The Pansy," "Our Little Men and Women," and "Babyland." Having purchased "Wayside," the old home of Hawthorne in Concord, Mass., he made it again the abode and resting place of those literarily inclined, and here he spent his last years. His death occurred March 18, 1892, and he was buried amid the famous authors of Concord.
Many now living will remember the "Waverly Magazine," published by Moses A. Dow, a native of Littleton. Before he was thirty years old he had started nine periodicals and all were failures. Not subdued, he ventured once more with a capital of less than five dollars and ability to borrow fifty more. This was in 1856, and he lived to have an annual income of $150,000 from the "Waverly Magazine." It cost him almost nothing for original contributions, and nothing was copied or stolen from other writers. So many liked to see their productions in print, that he published almost everything that was sent in, poetry, essays, stories, and news. The circulation was immense. The common folks found an open forum. Some of the scribblers grew to be authors. The magazine was readable and entertaining and some- times instructive. The way for a publisher to get rich quick is to print what the masses want, rather than what they need. There is no disputing about literary tastes.
After all the work of author and publisher, books, in order to be of great use, must be gathered and classified in great libraries. Such institutions have developed rapidly during the last half century, and to have a big private library now is the desire only of the few. The public library is much better, be- cause it can be fuller and better indexed. Here those who love
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books meet on the level. New Hampshire has furnished some librarians of wide reputation. George Henry Moore was one of them, born in Concord, April 20, 1823, son of Jacob Bailey Moore, who was associated with Dr. Farmer in publishing his- torical collections. After graduating at the University of New York he became assistant librarian in the library of the New York Historical Society and in a short time librarian in chief. In 1872 he was appointed superintendent and trustee of the great Lenox Library, where he remained many years. His Alma Mater honored him with the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was author of "The Treason of Charles Lee," "Employment of Negroes in the Revolutionary War," "Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts," "History of Jurisprudence in New York," and "Washington as an Angler."
Judge Mellen Chamberlain was born in Pembroke, June 4, 1821. After teaching a few years he went to Dartmouth and finished his course there in 1844. Then he taught three years in Brattleboro, Vermont. While studying law at Harvard he worked in the library. Becoming a lawyer in Boston, he was elected to serve in the House and in the Senate of Massachusetts, and was judge of a municipal court from 1866 to 1878. In the latter year he was chosen librarian of the Boston Public Library, one of the most responsible positions in this country. He had previously made a rare collection of manuscripts and portraits pertaining to American history. He wrote the History of Chel- sea, Mass., where he lived fifty years, and many articles for the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. He resigned his post in 1890 and died in Chelsea, June 25, of that year.
Ainsworth Rand Spofford, librarian of Congress, was born in Gilmanton, September 12, 1825. He acquired a good English and classical education and had an innate love for books. He went to Cincinnati in 1844 and was one of the founders of the Literary Club of that city, acting as assistant editor of the Daily Commercial. Removing to Washington in 1861 he was appointed first assistant in the library of Congress, which was then in the capitol building, and in 1864 he was chief librarian. The new Congressional Library, costing $6,000,000, was erected under his direction, said to be the finest library building in the world, built, as has been heretofore said, of granite from Concord, N. H. Mr. Spofford, at the beginning of his duties as librarian there,
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had about 70,000 books to care for and before he finished his career he had probably 1,000,000. The library has a capacity of 4,500,000 volumes, and manuscripts there exist by the hundred thousand. Mr. Spofford originated the law making that library the permanent depository of all copyrights. Thus two copies are secured of every book published in the United States, that is copyrighted, and copies of books not copyrighted are pur- chased, if they have any worth, so that here is a complete library of American literature. About twenty-five thousand volumes were added yearly some time ago, and now the yearly increase is probably twice that number. Mr. Spofford was a frequent con- tributor to the literature of periodicals and encyclopaedias. Am- herst honored him with the degree of Doctor of Laws. His address at the dedication of New Hampshire's State Library in 1895 is replete with fine thought well expressed, helpful to all who wish to know what books to read and how to read them. The purification, education, usefulness and happiness of a human soul depend upon the thoughts therein awakened and cherished, and books are today the most potent means for the conveyance of thought. It is not the book that blesses us; it is the thought contained in the book. If the thought is brought home to our minds in some oher way, as by music or painting, we are equally blessed.
Last but not least among the poets and librarians was Sam Walter Foss, a native of Candia. Removing to Portsmouth he was educated in the High School there and was graduated at Brown University in 1882. For a time he was editor of the Lynn Transcript and later of the Yankee Blade, published in Boston and having a wide circulation. He also held an editorial position on the Boston Globe. In 1893 he published his "Book of Country Poems," and in 1907 "Songs of the Average Man." He was chosen librarian of the Somerville, Mass., Public Library in 1898 and held that position at the time of his death, February 26, 19II. He was a poet of rare humor and kindness of heart, growing in popular favor.
SAM WALTER FOSS
Chapter IX ARTS AND SCIENCES
Chapter IX
ARTS AND SCIENCES
Practical Achievements Worthy of Mention-Larkin G. Mead, Sculptor- Daniel C. French-Adna Tenney and Ulysses D. Tenney, Painters- Roswell M. Shurtleff-Joseph Ames-Albert G. Hoit-Edward W. Nichols-John R. Tilton-Mrs. Amy M. (Cheney) Beach, Musician-The Hutchinson Family-Lyman Heath-John R. Eastman, Astronomer- Prof. Charles A. Young-John Evans, Geologist-Warren Upham- Charles F. Hall, Arctic Explorer-Col. Stephen H. Long-Elliott Coues, Naturalist-Almon H. Thompson, Geographer-Prof. Augustus A. Gould, Geologist-Edward W. Nelson, Scientific Explorer-Prof. Ed- ward W. Scripture, Psychologist-Charles H. Hoit, Playwright.
U P to a comparatively recent time it has been the practice of historians to chronicle little else than the doings of kings, warriors and statesmen. Great authors and artists have had but slight attention shown them, and scientists, in the modern meaning of the word, did not exist. As for the common people they were not much better than slaves and deserved mention only as they fulfilled the will of their masters. Within the last century the people have been coming into notice through the rise of republics, and whosoever has produced anything of per- manent value is accounted superior to an idle king or to a war- rior who attempts to make might right. Hence some chapters in this work are devoted to the natives of New Hampshire who have accomplished something of value in the realms of art, science, invention, literature, and practical achievement.
A noted sculptor was Larkin Goldsmith Mead, born in Chesterfield, January 3, 1835. In early life he removed to Brat- tleboro, Vermont, and while yet a youth he fashioned a "Snow Angel" after a fall of damp snow. Rain moistened it and the frozen image remained several days to be admired by those who passed by. The writer hereof remembers to have seen its repro- duction in marble in the studio of Mr. Mead in Florence, Italy, and good judges think it to be the finest thing he produced. Having studied in Brooklyn with Henry Kirke Brown, Mr. Mead
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produced in 1857 his colossal statue of "Vermont," placed on the dome of the State House at Montpelier, and in 1861 the statue of Ethan Allan for the same building. From 1862 till his death, October 15, 1910, he resided in Florence, having mar- ried an Italian lady. All American tourists were welcomed to his studio, where copies and models of his principal works were displayed. His groups are "The Returned Soldier," "Columbus' Last Appeal to Queen Elizabeth," "Cavalry," "Infantry," "Ar- tillery," and "Navy." For the soldiers' monument at St. Johns- bury, Vermont, he sculptured "America." Ideal figures of his creation are "Echo," "Sappho," "Venice," and the "Mississippi," a colossal work typifying the greatest river in the world some- what as the Nile was represented in ancient sculpture. He made the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the monument at Springfield, Illinois ; also the "Recording Angel" in the rotunda of the capi- tol at Washington. Another group was "The Return of Pros- perine from the Realms of Pluto."
Daniel Chester French was born in Exeter, April 20, 1850. His father, Henry Flagg French, was lawyer, judge and assist- ant secretary of the United States Treasury. In 1867 the fam- ily removed to Concord, and there at the age of eighteen the young sculptor began to model. After study in Boston and New York he first became known to the public by his groups of birds and animals, in which he excelled. His first public work was a bronze statue, "The Minuteman," unveiled at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1875. The following year Mr. French spent at Florence in the family of the sculptor, Preston Powers, and worked chiefly in the studio of Thomas Ball. His bronze statue of John Harvard, necessarily an ideal, since no portrait is in existence, was erected at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1883. He received a medal in the Paris salon of 1891 for the large relief, "The Angel of Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor," as a memorial to Martin Milmore, the young sculptor who produced the Soldiers' Monument on Boston Common. French's work may be seen in Forest Hill Cemetery. Other productions are "Peace and Vigilance," a marble group in the custom house at St. Louis, "Law, Power and Prosperity," in the United States court house at Philadelphia, "Science Directing the Forces of Electricity and Steam" in the post office at Bos- ton, and "Labor Sustaining Art and the Family," in the same
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post office. Among his statues are those of Galaudet and Lewis Cass at Washington, Thomas Starr King at San Francisco, and Rufus Choate at Boston. His "Heroditus and History" is in the Congressional Library at Washington. A monument to John Boyle O'Reilly in Boston, consists of seated figures repre- senting Patriotism, Erin and Poetry. He also designed and modeled the bas-relief bronze doors of the Boston Public Library. Attention has been called in this work to his group over the entrance of the building of the New Hampshire His- torical Society. His statue of Alma Mater is at Columbia Col- lege. Four groups, representing Europe, Asia, Africa and Amer- ica, may be seen on the front of the custom house at New York. His statue of Abraham Lincoln is at Lincoln, Nebraska. A statue of James Aglethorpe is at Savannah, Georgia. Thus this son of New Hampshire has become widely known and his works have ministered to the delight and refinement of many minds. Is he not a hundred times greater than the mere millionaire?
Among painters Roswell Morse Shurtleff deserves mention, born at Rindge, June 14, 1838. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1857 and at once took charge of an architect's office in Manchester. In 1859 he went to Boston and began drawing on wood, studying in an evening class at the Lowell Institute. In 1860 he settled in New York and made illustrations for news- papers, studying in the Academy of Design. In the Civil War he illustrated newspapers by scenes at the front, being a lieuten- ant and adjutant of the 99th New York regiment. Wounded and captured he was confined in prisons at Yorktown and Richmond eight months till he was released on parole. He painted the "Race for Life," now in the art gallery of Smith College. Other works are "Wolf at the Door," "Autumn Gold," "Gleams of Sunshine," "A Song of Summer Woods," "Forest Melodies,' "Si- lent Woods," "Mid-Day in Mid-Summer." His water colors in- clude "A Mountain Pasture," "Forest Stream," "Mountain Mists" and "Edge of the Wood." His "Silent Woods" and "Mountain Stream" are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Adna Tenney, born in Hanover, February 26, 1810, became a well known portrait painter, although he did not begin to ex- ercise his art till he was thirty years of age, having previously been a farmer. In 1844 he studied for a short time in a Boston studio. He painted portraits of several of the Faculty of Dart-
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mouth College, of John P. Hale and Franklin Pierce. Thirty portraits of his production hang in the State House, among them being those of Governors Berry, Prescott, Stearns, and Baker. He died in Oberlin, Ohio, August 17, 1900.
His nephew, Ulysses Dow Tenney, was born in Hanover, April 8, 1826, and took his first lessons in painting from his uncle. He studied also with Francis Alexander in Boston. For many years he resided in Manchester and then in New Haven, Connecticut, but doing most of his painting in Manchester, Portsmouth, Concord and Hanover. Some of his portraits are the full length one of President Franklin Pierce, that hangs in the Representatives' Hall of the State House, and also that of John P. Hale in the same Hall. In the corridors of the State House may be seen his portraits of Gen. John A. Dix, Gover- nors Hill, Colby, Harriman, Head, John Bell, Weston, Charles Bell, Goodell and others, making fifty-four portraits in this build- ing. Also at Portsmouth he made portraits of Gen. William Whipple, Admiral Farragut, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Sec- retary Long of the United States Navy, and others. He died in Portsmouth, August 7, 1908.
Alfred Cornelius Howland, born in Walpole, February 12, 1838, studied art at Dusseldorf and Paris, after some study and practice in New York and Berlin. He was made a member of the National Academy in 1882. His "Fourth of July Parade" was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exhibition. "The Yale Fence" is now owned by Yale University. "Driving a Bargain" is in the Leighton Gallery, Milwaukee. Other paintings are "The Pot Boiler," exhibited at Munich, "Morning on the River Banks," "The Village Band," "On the Hoosac," "They're Com- ing," etc.
Joseph Ames, born in Roxbury, July 16, 1816, wholly self- taught, went to Boston and opened a studio as a painter of por- traits. While in Rome he painted a portrait of Pius IX. He lived in Boston and for a short time in Baltimore and New York. His best known pictures are portraits of Prescott, Emerson and President Felton of Harvard. Among his ideal paintings are "Miranda," "Night," "Morning," "The Death of Webster," and "Maud Muller." "His many likenesses of Webster became like Stuart's Washington the popular type of the original." One of his portraits of Webster hangs in the main hall of the building of
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the New Hampshire Historical Society, and in the upper hall is a portrait of Peter Harvey by him, the superiority of which is apparent to one who looks around the room. He died in New York, October 30, 1872.
An earlier painter was Albert Gallatin Hoit, born in Sand- wich, December 13, 1809, who died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, December 18, 1856. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1829 and became a painter of portraits and landscapes. After working in Portland, Bangor, Belfast and St. John, he settled in Boston in 1839. While in Europe in 1842-43, he copied many pictures in Florence with rare fidelity to the original, especially in the color- ing. The portrait of Daniel Webster in the Hall of Representa- tives of the State House is by him. In 1840 he was commis- sioned to go to Ohio to paint a portrait of President Harrison.
Edward W. Nichols was born in Orford, December, 1820, son of a Baptist clergyman. He taught music till the age of twenty-three. Then he studied law at Burlington, Vermont, but his natural taste inclined him to landscape painting. He visited Italy in the fifties and on his return opened a studio in New York. He had a large circle of admirers of his landscapes, espe- cially the uplands of his native State. He died at Peekskill, New York, September 18, 1871.
John Rollins Tilton was born in Loudon in 1833 and died in Rome, Italy, March 22, 1888. He was a student of the Vene- tian school and painted many landscapes that are in collections of art in England and the United States. Among his paintings are "The Palace of Thebes," shown at the Royal Academy, Lon- don, in 1873, "Como," and "Venice." His "Venetian Fishing Boats" and "Rome from Mount Aventine" are in the Corcoran Gallery, Washington. His "Lagoons of Venice" was at the Philadelphia exhibtiion in 1876.
A musical prodigy was born in Henniker, September 5, 1867. She was named Amy Marcy Cheney. It is recorded that at the age of twelve months she could sing forty songs correctly and that she composed waltzes before she was four years old. She was instructed by the ablest musicians in playing the piano- forte, but was self-taught in musical theory and composition. She made her first appearance as a pianist in Music Hall, Boston, at the age of sixteen. Thereafter she played with the Symphony Orchestra and with Theodore Thomas' Orchestra. She married
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H. H. A. Beach, a physician of Boston, and has been a com- poser of music of classical character. Three years were spent in writing a mass, which was given by the Handel and Haydn So- ciety in 1892. She has written about sixty numbers, including "The Rose of Avontown," Gaelic Symphony, "The Minstrel and the King," cantatas, anthems, songs and sonatas for the piano and violin.
In the town of Milford were born and reared the thirteen children of Jesse and Mary (Leavitt) Hutchinson. Four of the children, Judson, John, Asa and Abby, made up the famous quartet known as the "Hutchinson Family," who toured the States, singing for anti-slavery and temperance reform. They were also received with enthusiasm in Europe. Their brother Jesse was business manager, occasional substitute and writer of songs, such as "The Old Granite State," "Good Time Coming" and "The Emancipation Song." They first sang in the year 1839 and thereafter for many years they returned to the farm for the summer months and gave concerts the rest of the year. Judson Hutchinson wrote many songs, among them being "If I Were a Voice," Away Down East," and "Anti-Calomel." The brothers together founded the town of Hutchinson, Minne- sota. After the death of one of the original quartet, Asa Hutch- inson, with his wife and three children, formed a company and gave concerts for twenty years. This family brought out the familiar song, "Tenting To-night," composed by Walter Kit- tredge, a native of New Hampshire. The Hutchinson family, it is said, gave eleven thousand concerts. They won admiration by homely common sense in their songs, by patriotism, and by the pathos with which they sang. Theirs were songs of the heart and went to the hearts of others. Almost all of their songs were composed by some member of the family.
Lyman Heath, violinist and composer, was born in Bow, August 24, 1804, and died in Nashua, June 30, 1870. He became a teacher of music at the age of twenty-one and gave concerts for many years. Among his compositions were "The Grave of Bonaparte," and "The Burial of Mrs. Judson."
From musicians we turn to some who have listened to the music of the spheres. John Robie Eastman, astronomer and mathe- matician, was born in Andover, July 29, 1836, and was gradu- ated at Dartmouth in 1862. At once he was appointed assistant
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in the National Observatory at Washington and here he re- mained. In 1865 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the U. S. Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. From 1865 to 1898 he was engaged in astronomical work at the ob- servatory and accompanied several expeditions to observe eclipses and transits. He was sent to Syracuse, Italy, to observe the solar eclipse of December 22, 1870. His principal astronomi- cal work was the preparation of "The Second Washington Star Catalogue," containing results of 75,000 observations, one-quar- ter of which were made by him. He retired in 1898 with rank of captain and spent his last years in his native town, rounding out a life of usefulness by writing an excellent history of An- dover. He also represented that town in the legislature. He died at Andover, September 26, 1913.
Charles Augustus Young was born at Hanover, December 14, 1834, son of Professor Ira Young. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1853 at the head of his class. He taught the classics three years in Phillips Academy, Andover, and was nine years Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Astron- omy in Western Reserve College. In 1862 he was captain of a company that enlisted for service of one hundred days in the Civil War. From 1865 to 1877 he was Professor of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth, at the end of which period he became Professor of Astronomy at Princeton, New Jersey. He was the inventor of an automatic spectroscope and made many new observations on the solar spectrum. In 1891 he received the Jannsen medal of the French Academie des Sciences. He was a member of many expeditions for astronomi- cal observations and he popularized his scientific knowledge, lec- turing at the Lowell Institute in Boston, at Mount Holyoke, Williams College and St. Paul's School in Concord, in regular courses of instruction. He published a popular treatise on "The Sun," and several text-books on astronomy. The degrees of Doctor of Science and Doctor of Laws were conferred on him in recognition of his scholarship and services. He was also hon- orary member of many scientific associations. He died at Han- over, January 3, 1908.
In mentioning geologists we simply drop from the heavens to earth and consider a detailed portion of astronomy. John Evans was born at Portsmouth, February 14, 1812, son of Judge
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Richard Evans. He was graduated at the St. Louis Medical School but turned from medicine to geology and served in the geological surveys of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Ne- braska. A large deposit of fossil bones in the "Mauvaises Terres" of Nebraska was discovered and described by him. He was commissioned by the United States government to conduct the geological survey of Washington and Oregon territories. His death occurred in Washington, D. C., April 13, 1861.
Warren Upham, born in Amherst, March 3, 1850, was grad- uated at Dartmouth in 1871. From 1871 to 1872 he was civil engineer for the water works of Concord and in making rail- road surveys in' the White Mountain region. Thereafter for twenty years he was engaged in geological surveys in New Hampshire, Minnesota and in the service of the United States. In the first volume of the geological survey of New Hampshire the chapters on the history of the White Mountains and on the river system of New Hampshire were written by him, as well as some two hundred pages of detailed reports of surveys in the third volume. He wrote much for the annual reports of the Minnesota geological survey and "Geology of Minnesota," and for the United States Geological Survey he prepared "The Upper Beaches and Deltas of Lake Agassiz" and "Altitudes between Lake Superior and Rocky Mountains," "The Glacial Lake Agas- siz," and "Catalogue of the Flora of Minnesota." For many years he was associate editor of "American Geologist" and "Gla- cialists' Magazine." In 1889 he was associated with G. F. Wright in the authorship of "The Ice Age in North America" and in 1896 of "Greenland Icefields and Life in the North At- lantic." In 1895 he became secretary and librarian of the Minne- sota Historical Society, in which office he compiled a volume of Minnesota Biographies.
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