USA > Vermont > Vermonters : a book of biographies > Part 15
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He was on his way to increasing power as a critic that America needed, would heed, and was beginning to trust when on August 20, 1926, his life came to a sudden and shocking close. While swimming in a lake near his summer home, Dune- wood, at Manistee, Michigan, death came swiftly as a result of heart failure.
The funeral services were held at the little white church in Dorset, Vermont, his mother's home. As his biographers tell us-"From the grave on the hillside there is a view of one of the noblest of the New England mountains. Sherman would have been satisfied with the thought of this resting place in one of his adored green valleys of Vermont."
In a letter written by Sherman, a few months before his death, to the author of this sketch there is a memorable phrasing of a love for Vermont that was deeper than any affection he held for other places, dear as they may have been to him through as- sociation 'and memory. So it was fitting that he should come home at last to his own. Stevenson's tender and wistful lines in the poem REQUIEM come to mind with sincerity and with ... truth-
Home is the sailor, home from ses,
And the hunter home from the hill.
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JOHN GREGORY SMITH
By John T. Cushing
T HERE has been, and still is for that matter, an altogether too prevalent notion that Vermont offers too limited a field to permit a man to achieve a real and substantial success. Too frequently Vermonters, who, of all people, should know better, subscribe to that doctrine.
So many Vermonters have left the state and have attained to high position that some semblance of truth seems attached to the theory. What too often is not taken into account is the number of others who, resisting the enticing call of other fields, have remained at home and there have grown into a stalwart and productive manhood that has shed a splendor, not alone upon themselves, but upon their state and nation.
Stephen A. Douglas, the Brandon boy who achieved fame as the "Little Giant" because of his opposition to Abraham Lincoln, coined the phrase, "Vermont is a good state to emigrate from." The career of John Gregory Smith demonstrates the real irony of that two-edged remark. John Gregory Smith remained in Vermont and among the wealth of his accom- plishments was his helpful and sustaining relationship with the same Lincoln when the fate of the nation was being de- cided on the battle fields of the Civil War.
The career of John Gregory Smith should demonstrate to . Vermonters that a man may live in the state, there perform the major part of his life's tasks, and at the same time exercise a potent influence on the political and economic affairs of the nation. Manhood is manhood wherever it is found. Vermont is a sovereign state on a parity with any other commonwealth in the Union. Merit reveals itself and is availed of it despite geography. John Gregory Smith recognized no limiting boundaries to his talents and accomplishments. And the
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recognition accorded him was likewise intolerant of geographi- cal lines.
Had Smith subscribed to the doctrine that one must leave Vermont to attain the fullest measure of success he might well have done so with more warrant than most of those who did quit the state under that delusive idea.
At a time -- he was born over a century ago-when collegi- ate education was a thing preserved for a chosen few, there was given to him, not alone the advantages of a university training, but also the law course at Yale University. Thus equipped, all that he needed was the larger field. And yet so great, so confident. was his loyalty to his native state that he converted Vermont into that larger field and to few men has it been given to go farther on the path of substantial success, regardless of the size of the stage on which they played their part.
Smith had in concentrated form the advantages that are the birthright of all Vermonters. He was well born. His father was a man of prominence and accomplishments, having been a pioneer in the development of manufacturing and transportation in the state. The people also evidenced their confidence in the father's ability and integrity by delivering into his care a succession of public offices, including that of representative in the Congress of the United States. The father had gone far. The son went farther. He builded on his birthright.
Fortunate in his background and early environment, Smith capitalized at home those inherent Vermont virtues, which, transplanted, have brought so many men to fame and position. He possessed the native Vermont shrewdness-and he used it at home. He possessed the native Vermont common sense -- and he used it at home. He possessed the native Vermont energy-and he used it at home.
The man, not conditions, makes success. The truth of this is exemplified in Smith's life. He gave free rein to his imagi-
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nation-and then set resolutely about reducing his vision to the tangible.
1 From Vermont his vision spanned the continent. He could foresee the great growth of the nation and the westward trend. And in his mind he conceived a transcontinental railroad sys- tem, convinced great financiers of his soundness, and became the first president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
He was a potent factor in national affairs, confidant and ad- visor of presidents. His home people gave him their un- stinted trust. They elected him their Civil War Governor, and his traits of human sympathy and kindness to Vermont soldiers in the field are a particularly bright spot in the state's history. He declined a period of service in the United States Senate. Time after time he headed the state's delegation to Republican national conventions at a time when Vermont's influence in such councils was infinitely more potent than the size of the commonwealth would warrant, a condition reflect- ing the influence of the man himself and his standing among his fellows from other parts of the nation.
And when he died, after a long and strenuous life, there passed one of the greatest men Vermont, the mother of men, has produced. His contemporaries realized this. Governor Page, in a legislative message, referred to him as having been "identified with the material interests of our state more promi- nently, perhaps, than any other man in its history."
Now, with the passage of the years, this estimate, generous as it may be, can be enlarged. It may also be said, and with equal truth, that John Gregory Smith was identified with the intangible interests of our state more prominently than any other man in its history because his life has become a part of the heritage of Vermont youth, from which can be drawn inspiration for large accomplishment at home.
The young Vermonter can study and reflect upon the life of Smith with great profit to himself and his state. The human qualities of the man; his courage in the face of obstacles; his
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tenacity and unbounded energy in achieving the high goals he set for himself in so many phases of life's activity; his loyalty to his state, to himself and to his associates, these were the bricks with which he built his success. They are traits of character not denied to Vermonters of the present generation.
WENDELL PHILLIPS STAFFORD
By Arthur F. Stone
O NE of Justice Stafford's tenderest poems, entitled NAMING THE BABY opens with this line,
Come, name the child, my dear, what's in a name?
When the subject of this sketch was born in Barre, Vermont, May 1, 1861, I have often wondered if his fond parents had a presentiment when they named the child Wendell Phillips, that in later life he would become as famous an orator as his great name- sake, demonstrating that eloquence was not a lost art as he held his audiences spellbound in the fascinating delivery of addresses couched in purest English. Did they behold in the cradle a poet whose sweet sonnets and lilting lyrics have charmed us all? And did they visualize him gracing the bench for thirty years- first in Vermont and later at Washington-"just in his judg- ments, true to his word, and constant in all that he takes in hand?" Yet Wendell Phillips Stafford has achieved fame in all of these vocations in an abundant life of barely threescore years and ten.
.. The first seventeen years of the boy's life were spent in Barre. Referring to his childhood days in a reminiscent way at the dedi- cation of the Aldrich library in his native city, he said it was, "back in the peaceful days before the deluge-the deluge of
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population and prosperity that has come upon Barre." These days were no different from the days of other boys where work and play combined to develop manly traits and high ideals of life. In 1878, he had graduated from Barre Academy, and two years later he was graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy. On the commencement stage of the latter institution he ran true to form as he chose for his theme "Orators and Oratory." The writer recalls the perfect diction and matchless delivery of this address. It is interesting to note that the honorary essay on this occasion was delivered by Miss Florence S. Goss of Greensboro whom he married February 24, 1886. Their son, Edward Staf- ford, is a practicing attorney in the city of Washington. His wife is the daughter of Admiral Robert E. Peary, being known in childhood as the "Snow Baby" because she was born within the Arctic circle. In 1883, he was graduated from the Boston Uni- versity Law School with the degree of LL. B., cum laude.
Coming to St. Johnsbury after completing his law course, he was admitted to the Caledonia county bar, practicing his profes- sion for the next eight years. A part of this time he was in partnership with Henry Clay Ide, an attorney of marked legal ability, later Governor General of the Philippine Islands and En- voy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. As a practitioner, Mr. Stafford was characterized by Judge Frank L. Fish as, "a man of high ideals, an accomplished lawyer, and an eloquent advocate." In 1892, he represented St. Johnsbury in the Legislature where his persuasive eloquence and pleasing personality gained him much distinction. From 1900 to 1904, he was the reporter of the Supreme Court of Vermont where his work showed the same clear and limpid style that always charac- terized his poetry and his prose. He was president of the Ver- mont Bar Association in 1899, and his annual address took up the interesting question as to whether the Vermont Legislature had the authority to commute sentences of death. After dis- cussing the legal phases of the question, he advocated the aboli- tion of capital punishment which he termed a barbarous penalty.
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As toastmaster at the annual banquet, his impromptu remarks scintillated with wit in his clever presentation of the after-din- ner speakers.
In 1900, he was appointed by Governor Edward C. Smith a Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court where for the next four years he held many county courts and also sat with the other Justices in the Supreme Court. There was a dignity in his conduct in the Superior Court which extended to all parti- cipants in the sessions. His opinions in the Supreme Court were characterized by direct and clear statements and legal scholarship. On June 6, 1904, he was appointed by President Roosevelt an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Colum- bia, retiring from this position in May, 1931, after twenty-four years of conscientious service. During his residence in Wash- ington, he was for a time Professor of Equity Jurisprudence at the George Washington University.
During his busy life, whether as a lawyer or a jurist, he was ever and anon giving addresses in all parts of the country and writing from time to time the poems which will always make his writings treasured by known and unknown friends. His ad- dresses were published in 1913 and included all that had been delivered up to that time. He dedicated the book to his father, filially acknowledging, "without whose training and encourage- ment I never should have attempted public speech." After the delivery of one of the most notable of these speeches in the Hall of Representatives in Montpelier on October 24, 1900, where he spoke for an hour without notes on THE MAKING OF VER- MONT, Chief Justice Russell S. Taft of the Vermont Supreme Court in congratulating him said that it was the greatest address he ever heard. And this was the universal sentiment of all who heard this great historical speech. Nearly thirty years later the ยท members of the 1929 Vermont Legislature and many others sat entranced in the same hall as they heard Justice Stafford's match- less tribute to the two great Americans, Washington and Lincoln. These published speeches embraced a wide variety of themes-
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literary, biographical and historical. His memorial address at Grant's tomb in New York was eagerly listened to by thousands who had never heard this silver-tongued orator before. At its close, Colonel Frederick D. Grant told Justice Stafford that it was the finest tribute to his father ever given. His addresses on Whittier, Lincoln, and Robert Burns, as well as the oration on his namesake at the Wendell Phillips centenary in Boston stand out pre-eminently in a group of addresses which have added to his fame in many cities. Nor were Vermonters forgotten on the rostrum as evidenced by his addresses on THADDEUS STEVENS, THE OLD COMMONER and ANN STORY, A WOMAN WHO HELPED TO FOUND A STATE. In later years, he has spoken before many bar associations and on one occasion said, "The ideal lawyer must be adequately endowed by Nature, fully informed by study, perfectly disciplined of practice, open-eyed to his opportunity and loyal to his trust."
Several of his poems have been published in book form. NORTH FLOWERS appeared in 1902; DORIAN DAYS in 1909; VOICES, A DRAMATIC ODE in 1915; THE LAND WE LOVE in 1916, and a booklet of WAR POEMS in 1917. In the modest preface to his first volume of poems he said, "These poems have been gathered into a book in order that they might not be lost to the few that naturally care for them; not because the writer has become suddenly impressed with a sense of their import- ance." But the rest of us know that Justice Stafford ranks with Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr as a poet and that Vermont literature has been greatly enriched by his poems of love, duty and patriotism. One critic has well said that "his art is admirable as his senti- ment is genuine." Another refers in words of highest praise to "his indulgence in lyrics and fantasies of charming variety." His ODE TO VERMONT has been set to music; is often sung when the sons and daughters of Vermont meet in gatherings in far away cities. Its last verse is a fitting close to this tribute to a lovable and talented Vermonter:
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My heart is where the hills fling up Green garlands to the day. 'Tis where the blue lake brims her cup, The sparkling rivers play. My heart is on the mountains still; My steps return to thee, Green-hooded maiden of the hills, Lady of Liberty:
GEORGE JERRISON STANNARD
By Sherman R. Moulton
G T EORGE JERRISON STANNARD, brevet major general of Volunteers in the United States Army during the Civil War, was born in Georgia, Vermont, October 20, 1820. He was the sixth son of his parents, whose farm was situated about four miles south of St. Albans. He was educated in the common schools and academy of Georgia, and later attended the academy at Bakersfield. As a boy and young man he worked upon his father's farm and taught school. At the age of twenty-five he became a clerk in the employ of the St. Albans Foundry Company, and later was placed in charge of the business. In 1860, he took over the concern, having leased the foundry, being associated with Edward A. Smith of St. Albans as partner. He married, in September, 1850, Emily Clark of St. Albans. Three daughters and a son were born to them.
From the age of sixteen, when he had joined the state militia, Mr. Stannard had been interested and active in mili- tary affairs. At the time of the insurrection in Canada, in 1837, when the militia was called out for duty along the bor-
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der, he held the rank of orderly sergeant of his company. Shortly thereafter he was chosen second lieutenant, but the militia disbanded before his commission was delivered to him. When, in 1856, the company known as the Ransom Guards of St. Albans was organized, he became a first lieutenant. In 1858, he was appointed colonel of the 4th Vermont Volunteer Militia.
In view of his activity and interest in soldierly pursuits, it was not surprising that upon the first call for troops issued by President Lincoln in April, 1861, Colonel Stannard at once offered his services to Governor Fairbanks, being the first Vermonter to volunteer for service in the Civil War. In May of that year he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Second Vermont Volunteer Militia, serving under Colonel Henry Whitney, a graduate of West Point. The regiment left for the front on June 6, 1861, and as a part of Howard's Brigade, participated the first battle of Bull Run, with the re- sult that it was complimented for its steadiness under fire.
For the remainder of that year Lieutenant Colonel Stan- nard was engaged in scouting activities with his own and other commands. In May, 1862, having been commissioned colo- nel of the 9th Vermont Regiment, he came home to supervise its organization and recruiting, but in July this was completed and he led his command back to the field. He was at Win- chester, Va., in August, and retired to Harpers Ferry in Sep- tember, where that port and all the troops in it were sur- rendered tu Stonewall Jackson, by the commander, Colonel Miles. Colonel Stannard vigorously protested against the surrender, and refused to sign a parole for himself or his regiment, which, however, was signed by an officer of higher rank. After a period of service in guarding prisoners, at Chicago, an exchange was effected, and on March 11, 1863, Colonel Stannard became a brigadier general of Volunteers and was assigned to command of the Second Vermont Brigade, consisting of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th regi-
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ments. After a period of service in Virginia, the brigade joined the Union forces at the close of the first day of the battle of Gettysburg. On the third day of this engagement General Stannard and his command played a most decisive part, in repelling Pickett's charge. By prompt action and clear foresight, the brigade attacked the invading forces on the flank, so breaking their ranks that their defeat was greatly facilitated. General Stannard was wounded in the thigh, but refused to leave the field.
The following year, in May, 1864, he was wounded at Cold Harbor, but again remained with his command. About a month later he was at the siege of Petersburg, and for a third time was wounded, this time by an accidental shot from one of his own officers. In September, he led the as- sault upon Fort Harrison, one of the defenses of Richmond, north of the James River. The fort was captured and held, but General Stannard received, in the course of a counter at- tack by the enemy, a fourth wound, shattering his right arm and necessitating its amputation at the shoulder. In recogni- tion of his services, he was made a brevet major general of Volunteers on October 28, 1864.
The serious character of his wound caused his retirement from active service at the front, but in December, 1864, he was placed in command of the Vermont frontier, with headquar- ters in St. Albans. In February, 1866, he served with the Freedman's Bureau at Washington, but resigned in June of that year and was mustered out. He had served nearly five years, and had participated in eleven battles.
After his return to civil life, he served as collector of cus- toms for the Vermont District until 1872. He died June 1, 1886.
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HENRY STEVENS
By Leon W. Dean
I N the Vermont Room at the University of Vermont are approximately forty volumes, for the most part bibliog- raphies and commentaries, compiled by Henry Stevens, native of Barnet, Vermont, one of America's foremost bibliogra- phers. In the compilation of these volumes Mr. Stevens be- came a member of numerous dignified and exclusive historical and antiquarian and other learned societies, on both sides of the Atlantic, beyond space to record; and acquired honorary titles sufficiently numerous, when marching single file, to be concluded with that most nebulous but comprehensive of all titles, "Etc." As a citizen of the realm of books it would seem that he might rightfully have subscribed himself almost anything he chose, be- ing possessed of about all the titular honors the realm could be- stow upon him, but as a rule he seemed to prefer simply, "Henry Stevens of Vermont."
As the little seaport town of Brouage, France, gave to the world Champlain, so the little mountain town of Barnet gave to the world Henry Stevens of Vermont, pathfinder in the domain of books, antiquarian with old books as his hobby, traveller of lone trails in quest of lost volumes, studious explorer and colonizer in strange lands of print, voluminous excavator of historical, geographical, biblical and biographical treasures that otherwise might still lie buried at a useless depth among the bibliographical debris of time. He was not a rowboat captain on his own home pond, he was a blue water navigator of heavy seas, famous enough to inscribe boldly his seven hundred page list of American Books in the British Museum "to the seven Italians who by their in- telligent enterprise in foreign countries achieved the lasting re- membrance and gratitude of America-to Christopher Columbus, to John Cabot, to Amerigo Vespucci, to Peter Martyr, to Jean
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Verrazzano, to Jerome Benzoni, and to Antonio Panizzi of Bres- cello, of the University of Parma, and of the British Museum, who initiated the unrivalled collection of books described in this catalogue"-and to conclude by once more signing him- self, "one who has made American History and American Litera- ture his life-long study-Henry Stevens of Vermont."
So we see that Henry Stevens of Vermont was no common type of bibliophile. A bibliophile is not an entomological speci- men but a lover of books. He devours books intellectually not gastronomically. Henry Stevens was a bibliophile on a large scale. He devoured whole libraries of books. He consumed nations and hemispheres of books. The world of books was his eating place. Such a man must necessarily have become an authority upon books, more of an authority than anyone else on special classes of books, incidentally an authority on certain literary by-products of books, book collecting and compil- ing.
Henry Stevens of Vermont had a heart that warmed to books from print to binding, elegant or inelegant, and a head that esti- mated their value. He was a practical Vermonter, born of gen- erations of pioneering, Indian fighting ancestors, with that stern regard for books and learning that is a New England heritage, possessing at the same time, as might be expected, a shrewd sense for the social and commercial worth of a scarce or rare volume. He labored diligently, as a Yankee will, in the further- ance of his mission, and was blessed with an imagination, coupled with ambition, that caused him to work from a large palette, painting in wide boundaries, and to make a real contribution to scholarship by providing for men and nations fuller and richer archives of those neglected things from printland that fill in the gaps of the world's knowledge about itself.
"It is only the rare cogniscenti, the knowing ones of a thou- sand," he says, "who ferret out the unknown and undescribed books and secure them."
He contends that no letter, no tract, no pamphlet, no journal,
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no book is so insignificant as to be valueless, that what may ap- pear as insignificant is significant.
"Sirs, there is no such thing as trash in our historical litera- ture, so far as it relates to America. You may, if you please, apply that disparaging term to a funeral sermon on my grand- mother, and I may, if I please, entertain a like opinion of the one on yours; yet both of these documents might very properly be preserved in the public libraries of a nation whose hopes and prospects are backed by its genealogy, its biography and its history."
A photoprint of Henry Stevens of Vermont, as carried in his RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. JAMES LENOX OF NEW YORK, shows him in sitting position as a stocky, full-bodied man, his crooked elbow resting on a book which in turn rests on a case of books, a man with a large head to match the large body, flowing beard that covers face and chin, squared spectacles set beneath a high forehead. The picture is subscribed, "Your faithfully, Henry Stevens of Vermont."
He came justly by his predilection for books and antiquarian pursuits, for his father, one of the outstanding business men of the state, founder and first president of the Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society, was also interested in books.
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