USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Cornish > History of the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, with genealogical record, 1763-1910, Vol. I > Part 28
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maintained in the interests of mariners, a class whose spiritual needs are much too often neglected. He has continued his connection as chaplain of this church in the "Golden Gate" ever since. The fruit of his labors there has been rich and abundant.
Record has been kept of the converts made through his efforts in the Mariners' Church since his connection with it, and they reach the total of 5,700 souls. With good reason it is said that Chaplain Rowell has been remembered in prayer in every part of the globe, for his converts have entered every port in both hemi- spheres. Like "Father Taylor" of Boston, he has been called the "Sailors' Friend."
He is still a man of remarkable physical and mental vigor, being at this writing (1909) in his ninetieth year. Seldom has man been so well preserved in all his faculties as has Mr. Rowell. His has been a robust, strenuous, active, as well as a useful life. In order to give the reader a better idea of Rev. Joseph Rowell, we append a characteristic letter written by him to the writer a year since, in reply to an invitation for him to attend the annual meeting of the aged people of Cornish in 1908. We give the letter entire:
SAN FRANCISCO, 7-23-08.
Dear Bro. Child:
Your invitation to attend the "Old People's Association " annual meeting is before me. I had thought it quite possible that I might be at the meeting this year, as I have been very near you this last spring. I have returned from a trip to the Mediterranean Sea, and particularly the Holy Land, where I traveled the paths which Jesus used, visited his birth-place and the scenes of his miracles, his death, and burial place, his resurrection and ascen- sion-the joy and privilege of my life. I suppose that I am the oldest person that ever made this trip; but I bore the fatigue and trial better than many who were younger than myself; indeed, it was commonly said of me: "He keeps at the head of all explor- ing parties," and not seldom: "He is the youngest man aboard the ship!"
I traveled 15,000 miles or more and did not miss a meal on the whole trip. I was a pretty good specimen of Cornish vigor, and in this way, did you all credit. I should be glad to be with you, though there are so few eyes there now that ever saw me,
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and nearly all my old friends have gone over the river. The Book speaks of "the things that remain,"-Yes, the things re- main-the hills and valleys, and even the old houses, but the people, where are they?
Possibly I may visit the dear old town again-God knows. But I shall certainly see the old faces again, "over Jordan."
Kindest regards to all.
JOSEPH ROWELL.
AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the celebrated sculptor, was born in Dublin, Ireland, his father being a southern Frenchman and his mother an Irishwoman, but was brought to America when six months old, and his childhood and youth were passed in New York City. He attended the public schools until his thirteenth year when he was apprenticed to a cameo cutter. The trade was a fortunate choice for one destined to future mastery of work in low relief, and he exercised it for his support during his student years in Europe. He went to Paris to study sculpture in 1867, and entered the studio of Jouffroy in 1868. In 1870 he went to Rome and remained there about three years. He returned to New York in 1872 and opened his studio there. He married Augusta F. Homer in 1877, and returned to Paris in 1878 to execute there the statue of Farragut, the earliest of his important works, which was exhibited in plaster at the Salon of 1880. Its success was immediate and conclusive. A great career was begun, and from that time he moved forward from triumph to triumph until he was universally recognized as not only the greatest sculptor of America, but the foremost of American artists and one of the first artists of his time in any country. The esteem in which he was held by his fellow artists was perhaps most clearly shown when, at the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901, he was, on the unanimous recommendation of the jury of fine arts, composed of architects, sculptors and painters, awarded a special medal of honor "apart from and above all other awards."
His connection with the town of Cornish came about through his friendship with the late C. C. Beaman, from whom he pur- chased in 1885 the old brick house then known as "Huggin's Folly," and the land about it, and gradually transformed it into his beautiful home of "Aspet." At first it was a summer residence only, but when he went abroad again in 1897 to execute the great
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equestrian statue of General Sherman, which is perhaps his masterpiece, Saint-Gaudens gave up his New York abode, and on returning to America in 1900 he made "Aspet" his permanent resi- dence the year around. The final work on the Sherman statue was done here, and all his subsequent work was carried on from sketch to completed model in the two studios which he erected. The larger studio was destroyed by fire in 1904, when much of his work then under way was lost, as well as some souvenirs of other artists, including two portraits of himself, one by Bastien-Lepage and the other by Kenyon Cox, the only portraits painted of him in his prime. The studio was rebuilt in more permanent form and the lost work re-begun, and in that studio his assistants are still busy (1907) reverently completing the work left unfin- ished at the time of his death.
Other artists were brought to Cornish by the attraction of Saint-Gaudens's presence, as well as by that of its beautiful scenery and fine air, and by degrees the artistic and literary colony was formed which has gradually spread over a part of the neighboring town of Plainfield. Its members looked upon Saint- Gaudens not only as a great artist and a beloved friend, but as the founder of the colony, and on June 23, 1905, celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his coming to Cornish by that fête and open air play, given upon the grounds of "Aspet," which has al- ready become almost legendary and which the sculptor himself has immortalized by the creation of a charming plaquette which he presented to all who took part on the occasion. The altar, under its columned canopy, which was the background of the play, still stands in a recess of the pine groves of "Aspet," though much dilapidated by weather. To many friends of Saint-Gaudens it has seemed that no more fitting memorial could be erected to his memory than a reproduction of it in permanent material and suitably inseribed.
The artist had returned from Paris in 1900 an ill man, and from that illness he never recovered. At times he seemed again fairly vigorous, and he was able, with the assistance of a corps of devoted assistants, to do mueh valuable work. Upon their aid he became, however, more and more dependent as time went on. In the summer of 1906 his illness took so grave a form that work was altogether suspended and he ceased to see even his intimate friends. From that attack he rallied somewhat, but he was greatly altered. The end came on August 3, 1907. According to
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his wish his body was eremated, and his ashes are deposited in the cemetery at Windsor, Vt. An informal service was held at his studio on August 7 in the presence of friends and neigh- bors, but of only a few of his many friends in other parts of the world.
As a man Augustus Saint-Gaudens combined great energy and power of will with a singular patience and a natural gentle- ness and sweetness that made him greatly loved by those who knew him, and most loved by those who knew him best. As an artist his leading characteristies were mastery of design and great decorative feeling combined with exquisiteness of workman- ship, as shown in the many works he executed in low relief- works unsurpassed in this kind since the Florentine Renaissance; a profound insight into human character as shown in many of these reliefs and in his great portrait statues such as the Farragut, the Lineoln and the Sherman and that ideal portrait, as real as any of them, the Deaeon Chapin; a ereative imagination as shown in such typieal figures as the "Angel of Death" in the Shaw Memo- rial, the "Vietory" of the Sherman group, above all, the brooding figure of the Adams Memorial-an imagination which gives these figures a strange individuality and raises them out of the rank of conventional allegories into that of original inventions. He was less interested in the problem of the expressive modelling of the human figure and eared little for the study of the nude, but his work steadily advanced in mastery of the purely seulpturesque qualities of mass and movement until his greatest works are nearly as fine in these respects as in decorative beauty of com- position and imaginative beauty of conception. His great Sherman group is indubitably one of the half dozen finest eques- trian statues in the world.
The fame of Saint-Gaudens belongs to America-his art to the world at large. To the town of Cornish it will be an abiding glory that it contains his chosen home.
"In his life in Cornish, Saint-Gaudens drew around him many friends of artistic and literary repute, and his beautiful home, 'Aspet,' with his numerous little studios has for many years been the Mecca of the world of sculpture in America, and that it should be there that the hand which touched the elay and marble into life became still, was the wish of Augustus Saint- Gaudens."
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LOUIS SAINT-GAUDENS.
Born on Lispenard Street, New York, January 7, 1854. Ran away from the public school at the age of thirteen. Served occa- sionally as apprentice until the age of eighteen, when he went to Italy, where he made a living setting cameos, a trade taught him by his brother. He lived in Rome three years, in this time he was seriously ill with pneumonia and later with Roman fever. He sometimes worked in the art classes of the French Academy at Rome. After this he went to France and studied art in Paris, then wandered through England or worked with his brother until he returned to America in 1880. He rented a studio in New York and did work for architects, including the "Piping Fun" ordered by Stanford White for the house of P. T. Barney, and the medallion portrait of Commodore De Kay. For ten years, from about 1883, he worked most of the time in his broth- er's studios, although part of the time upon his own orders. The "Angels of the Church of the Ascension" were modelled there. In a studio in Harlem he modelled a relief for the Union League Club and the lions for the Boston Library.
In 1901 Mr. Saint-Gaudens came to Cornish where he worked in collaboration with his brother for two years. He then built a house and studio and modelled two of the statues for the new custom house in New York, "Prince Henry" and "Van Trump," and the portrait of Mr. Breierly.
In 1905 he began the sculpture of the new union station in Washington, D. C., D. H. Bernham, architect. President Eliot of Harvard chose the subjects for the statues for the exterior decoration, "Fire," "Electricity," "Freedom," "Inventive Im- agination," "Ceres," "Archimedes." These statues are being cut on single stones of white Bethel granite at Northfield, by the Daniel Ellis Company.
Mr. Saint-Gaudens is now modelling studies of three Roman soldiers, seven feet in height, which are to be reproduced for the forty-six statues which will decorate the waiting room of the station. College athletes have posed for most of the statues, which is a departure made because the college men more nearly approach the perfection of the antique statues. This work will be in place on the station about 1912.
Mr. Saint-Gaudens has modelled these statues almost without
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assistance even with the manual labor and has dispensed with many of the ordinary mechanical helps and methods-and has made numberless sketches and changes to gain the elassical ideal.
ANNETTA JOHNSON SAINT-GAUDENS.
Born in Flint, Ohio, September 11, 1869. Her ancestors were early pioneers to Ohio, from New England, Virginia and New Jersey.
She was educated at home until the age of thirteen when she and her sisters attended private school.
At thirteen she began modelling by herself in native clay and at the age of sixteen was sent to the Columbus Art School, where she studied for three years with Dora M. Norton, graduating from the school in 1888. After two years spent at home she went to the Art Students' League in New York, where she studied drawing with Troachtanam and modelling with Augustus Saint- Gaudens. She worked with Saint-Gaudens as student and assist- ant most of the time for five years, with the kindness of friends earning her own way much of that time, working on the statue of General Logan for one year and a half. She returned to Ohio, being worn out with the work in New York. In Ohio she modelled the bust of Professor Orton and President Canfield of the Ohio State University. In the summer of 1898 she returned to New York to model the portrait of Emerson MacMillin.
In 1901 the family moved to Cornish, where they have lived, excepting two winters spent with her parents in Claremont, Cal.
Mrs. Saint-Gaudens assisted her husband for several years, and for two years has been experimenting in cutting marble and modelling small statues, vases and portraits for terra cotta.
DR. DAVID S. C. H. SMITH.
David S. C. H. Smith was born in Cornish, June 27, 1797. He was educated at Dartmouth and Yale Colleges. His father, the renowned Dr. Nathan Smith, was connected with both of these institutions. Having chosen the medical profession for his life work, he went to Sutton, Mass., and commenced its prac- tice in 1819. There were already three other doctors there, all quite distinguished men in their profession. This circumstance made his place a hard one at the first for the young man. But his thorough training and the prestige of his father's fame, soon made
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him the most popular physician in that part of the country. He was called in consultation by many of the doctors for miles around. He drove to Rhode Island almost every week for years and was frequently at Providence.
He was a large man of fine personal appearance, had large piercing gray eyes and some of his patients thought he could look straight through them and tell exactly what ailed them; and, indeed, diagnosis was his forte.
To understand the complicated and intricate mechanism of the human system requires great research, as well as intuitive genius, judgment and skill. All these Doctor Smith possessed in a remarkable degree. So when other physicians had a human machine on their hands that they could not keep going, they sent for him to find out what cog was broken, what pin loose, or what pulley disbanded. Some seemed to think that he could put in a new mainspring, wind up the system like a clock, give motion to the pendulum of life and restore a defunct body to animation, strength and vigor. He used to say that other doctors would send for him when they thought their patient was dying, and once in many cases, such a person would recover; then he got the credit of the case, giving him an increased reputation. He said he had no proof that he ever cured any one, though circum- stances sometimes seemed to indicate it, and that the recuperative power was more frequently due to the constitution and courage of the patient, than to the skill of the doctor.
He was a great naturalist and seemed to know all about ani- mated nature. He was almost as intimately acquainted with the American birds as Audubon himself. He also gave much attention to entomology. His hat was frequently lined with insects which he had pinned there to be placed in his cabinet. He furnished Professor Harris several thousand specimens for his valuable work. He also gave a description of the reptiles of New England for President Hitchcock's great work. He trav- eled one year through the Western country that he might master the study of botany. So he became a great botanist and could classify and give the medical properties of nearly all the known plants that grow in this country.
Like his father he was a great man, but never became rich; indeed, at one time he was quite poor and deeply in debt, and his creditors attached his horse, so that he had no way to visit his
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patients, and he became discouraged. One day a man came for him to go to Thompson, Conn., but the doctor told him that he could not go as he had no horse. The man told him that he would take him there in his own carriage and bring him back. "Well," said the doctor, "if you will do that I will go." So he went. When he reached home the man asked him what was to pay. "Oh, nothing," said the doctor, "you have had trouble enough already." "But I am going to pay you for all that," and the man gave him a ten-dollar bill and left. The next day a man came for him to visit a poor family in the south part of the town. He said: "If they are poor I'll go, for I am poor myself." When he reached the home he found they were poor indeed, and he said that starvation was all that ailed them; so he took out his ten-dollar bill and gave it to the poor woman to buy wholesome food for her sick children. It was all the money he had. He thought their rich neighbors could doctor that family as well as he could.
During this season of financial embarrassment, Doctor Shat- tuck of Boston sent his son with a good horse as a present to Doctor Smith. Doctor Shattuck formerly was one of his father's students, and had a great regard for the family. Soon after this Mr. James Phelps volunteered to build him a house, telling him he could pay for it from his earnings in small installments as was most convenient.
At one time he was quite skeptical, although his mother was a pious woman and read her Bible through in course as often as she could. When she died, her book-mark was at one of the Psalms. He had her Bible and sacredly kept the mark where she left it. So thinking of his good mother and her Bible, he learned to love it for her sake. This led to his conversion and he was made happy in his new-found hope.
He was thrice married. His first wife, Lucy Hall of Sutton, Mass., whom he married July 26, 1820, was the mother of his five children. She died September 23, 1850. He left Sutton in 1848 and removed to Providence, R. I., where he died April 6, 1859.
JOSIAH FRANKLIN STONE.
Josiah Franklin Stone, the fourth son of Capt. Josiah and Experience (Stevens) Stone, was born in Cornish, October 16,
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1822. He was educated at Kimball Union Academy and New Hampton Institute. At nineteen years of age he engaged in mer- cantile pursuits, first with his brother Samuel, and afterwards by himself. He married Malvina Clark of Sanbornton. His friends were numerous, his credit good, and his business flourishing, until his generous impulses overruled his better judgment and he signed papers for his friends, and all his earnings were swept away. After this misfortune he resorted to other occupations. He settled in Winchester, Mass., in 1850. His fellow towns- men, recognizing his sterling qualities and business abilities, thrust upon him every office of honor and trust within their gift-seven years as selectman, eight years assessor, trustee of savings bank, representative to state Legislature in 1879, where he was on the committee on banks and banking. He was justice of the peace for more than twenty-five years. He had a general charge of the public schools and settled many estates. In 1880 he was again chosen to the state Legislature where he was on the committee on railroads. During this session he was stricken with pneumonia and suddenly passed away, February 2, 1881. His biographer says of him:
"There was silence in the street and overwhelming sorrow in every heart. It was like a loving father's death. It was there- fore fitting that at his funeral services, the governor of the state, committee from each branch of the Legislature, trustees of the bank, fellow-officials of every position should attend, and the flags to be at half-mast, and business places all closed. All classes felt they had lost a personal friend, a helper, whose sym- pathy and counsel had lifted them over many hard places, and on whom they had leaned with confidence. Rarely do we meet a man whose personality combines so much nobility and inspires so much confidence, and makes such strong impressions on a com- munity. All felt intuitively that behind the public man was character so sound that no temptations of designing, grasping, dishonest men could ever degrade it.
It was in the family circle that his inner life of purity and beauty shone like Ben Adhem's "great awakening light," and happy was that favored guest, who by chance was sometimes pres- ent and participated in those private "feasts of reason and flow of soul": to grasp the strong warm hand and feel the glow of the Heaven-lit face and hear the jubilant greeting when the loving
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father of the devoted family circle was the "Presence in the room." The writer was that favored guest and still lives (1903) and offers this feeble tribute to one of the truest friends he ever had on earth. The love between them was like the love of Damon and Pythias. And should Cornish ever erect a memorial shaft for those whom Cornish hath loved, or who loved Cornish, let the names of these two friends be graven side by side: Josiah Franklin Stone, David Sydney Richardson."
GEORGE H. STOWELL.
Among natives of Cornish, N. H., to achieve honor and suc- cess in after years, is George H. Stowell, son of Amasa Stowell. He was born October 28, 1835, and his boyhood days were passed on the home farm. He lived the rugged life of the times, with more work than play, assisting in the cultivation of the farm, and attending the public schools whenever opportunity afforded. Of hardy, persistent New England stock, the heritage of ancestry and the early training of a New Hampshire mountain farm had their influence in forming habits of thrift and industry that eventually placed Mr. Stowell's name prominent among the list of New Hampshire's publie men.
In March, 1860, ambitious promptings led him to give up farm- ing and he removed to Claremont, the town adjoining Cornish on the south, a prosperous and growing community offering inducements and possibilities that appealed to Mr. Stowell's instincts and temperament.
His first venture was in the gravestone and marble manufactur- ing business, which he carried on successfully until 1864, when he purchased the hardware stock of Levi B. Brown. Mr. Stowell made no change in the location of the business, in the northwest corner store of Oscar J. Brown's briek block, and for thirty-seven years, or as long as he remained in business, he occupied this site. "Stowell's Corner" became a landmark; a synonym of busi- ness prosperity and a place of far-reaching influence in affairs of both town and state.
The business grew until it became one of the best known hard- ware firms in New Hampshire. The stock was increased to cover a wide range of commodities, and when coal revolutionized the fuel business, the first ear-load of anthracite coal for house use,
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GEO. H. STOWELL.
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was brought to Claremont by Mr. Stowell. Eventually, coal be- came an extensive branch of his trade.
Meantime, he was actively engaged in other occupations that called for executive power and careful financial management. To meet the demands of Claremont's growing population, tene- ment houses were needed, and Mr. Stowell was one of the pioneers in ereeting a number of first-class structures for this purpose. And when, in 1887, the old wooden "Brown Block" on the corner oppo- site Mr. Stowell's store was destroyed by fire, he was the leader in organizing the syndicate that procured the site of the burned property, and built thereon Union Block, one of the finest and best appointed business blocks in the state. His last building venture of public consequence was in 1895, when he built "Stowell Block," a handsome, modern business structure on Pleasant Street.
With multitudinous and increasing business cares, Mr. Stowell has never been too busy to neglect public affairs, in which he is prominently identified. His advice, influence, and sound con- servative judgment has contributed much to promote Clare- mont's importance as a town. His own business success, by his own efforts, made him a power in any enterprise where careful financial discrimination was needed. In return for these qualifi- cations his town has honored him in various ways as an able representative citizen. He was a member from Claremont in the New Hampshire Legislature in 1871 and 1874; a state senator in 1875 and 1876; member of the governor's council from 1881 to 1883; aide, with rank of colonel, on Governor Prescott's staff from 1887 to 1889; member of the state constitutional conven- tions of 1876 and 1889 and a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1884.
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