From collection Creating Acadia National Park: The George B. Dorr Research Archive of Ronald H. Epp

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

Page 12

Page 13

Page 14

Page 15

Page 16

Page 17

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Page 21

Page 22

Page 23
Search
results in pages
Metadata
1859-63
Jensica Chrone liler 1851-63
Eng
Communication to Park MA.
Club Joe the
Jansica Plain, MA.
Relocation to Pail St., Boston
" a que, Back Booton
Early years of
Boy
47
1860
GO
by
Bryant.
1860's
the
A
fact
of
of
this
which
(fig.
facades
houses
Club
parts,
an
40
with
a
bay.
By
the
Monday October 31.
The bookcase in the library of Storm Beach
Cottage stood when I first
//
/ remember it in the late 1850's against the
wall of the library of my grandfather Ward's house
on Park Street, Boston. I remember well climbing
up on a chair to look at the back of the books on the
yet
shelves, for I could not/read, and pulling out a
volume of Professor Lane's translation of the Arabian
Knights, for it gives emblazenment on a pale green
cloth cover, and finding delightful engravings in it,
strewn through the printed pages. of armies fighting
in the air, of giant Afrits, of Sinbad the Sailor,
and the like.
We had driven in whoever we
may have been -- from my father's and mother's home
by Jamaica Pond and I carried the book back with me
when we returned.
Thut my kind old nurse,
Mrs. Hind, a Welsh woman, who received me in her arms,
the first of all, when I was born and was as devoted
to me as if her own.
I remamber well sitting up on
a high chair in front of a glowing hard coal
fire in the nursery while she read to me from the book,
to which I added on another trip to Boston the other
two, equally fascinating, volumes of the set. I was
young enough still to have long, fair curls and not
to have graduated into trousers yet.
It was difficult
reading for my nurse with long verses from
the Koran interspersed in the set but I listened with
attention as I looked into the fire and delighted in
the tale.
My grandfather's library looked out back on the
Grenary Burial Ground over a back garden that my grand-
mother tended, while the front rooms on that floor, the
dining room and parlor, looked out delightfully over
the Common with the sunlight streaming in the afternoon
on the walls
and throwing/colored light from X glass prisms
hanging from a great chandelier in the center of the
parlor, the colored light shifting constantly on the
wall as the afternoon sun descended.
After my grandfather died, not long afterward,
we lived for a winter in the house, which then was
sold by my grandfather's executors, while we built our-
selves a new home alongside my grandmother, being among
the first to build on the new-made land beyond the Public
Gardens, new/itself,
Den
Dixwell's Boston Latin School.
There were few boarding schools in my school-boy
days; Phillips Exeter and Saint Paul's were the only
ones I remember hearing spoken of or which were
represented at Harvard when I was there. Boys
lived at home and went either to the Boston Latin
School or to Dixwell's. Epes Dixwell, the son of
an old Boston merchant engaged, I think, in the
China trade, had been head master at the Latin
School and then, with reputation gained as a teacher,
had set up his own private school which quickly
took the lead in Boston, having practically all its
old families represented in it at one time or
another, relatively small though the school was for
it never had more than fifty odd boys, divided into
six classes, from the last of which they entered
Harvard.
The school had its football team -- playing the
old-fashioned open game; baseball as an organized
sport was just beginning and tennis and other sports
of the present day did not exist, save rowing, which
2.
4
one took up first at Harvard. The only teams
with whom Dixwell's played in set matches were
the Boston Latin School, or, more seldom, its
chief rival, the Roxbury Latin, also a big school
of high standing and sending boys to college.
Groton and the other schools which came so much
to the front in later years were not in existence.
School hours were from nine till two with a
recess of half an hour from half past eleven to
twelve, when, if it were spring or fall, we went
out and played football on the Common. There
was no choice of studies; all was definite and
fixed and the goal was Harvard.
When spring came, the parents of most of our
school-mates moved out to homes in the country,
whence both fathers and sons came in by train, the
boys returning in the early afternoon, giving
abundant leisure in the long spring days for play
at home. Many went to the North Shore where they
could go out to row or sail and lived much upon the
water, laying the foundation for yachting in later
years. It was there that Edward Burgess, the
3.
famous cup-designer, an older pupil still at
Dixwell in my time, got his first experience and
his love of sailing.
Many, too, went to the
South Shore on Buzzards Bay where the winds were
steady and the water warm for bathing. There it
was that Charles Francis Adams, the younger, the
recent Secretary of the Navy, and a famous skipper
in the International Cup Series, got his experience.
Other families still went to Chestnut Hills or
Milton.
Our own home in spring and fall was the
town of Canton, beyond the Blue Hills, which we reached
by the Providence Railroad, where we went to be near
my grandmother. My grandfather Ward had bought an
old farm there on which to spend his summers, by
his doctor's advice, a few years before his death.
It was delightfully wild there at that time, with
a big pond to sail on and old roads and woods-roads
over which to ride with scarce a house upon them;
and it was & wonderful place for birds, whose eggs,
like all the boys of my time who had the chance,
collected.
But it was hot in summer and, school
closed, my mother and father would presently pack up
4.
and go off to the seashore, or to Lenox, real
county then, where my mother had stayed with my
uncle and, as a girl, ridden over the whole
region -- the most fearless horsewoman, Mr. Curtis
the old inn keeper at Lenox, told me in later years,
that he had ever known save Fanny Kemble. There
we spent delightful summers, driving about the country
or exploring it -- my brother and I -- on horseback
or on foot. This migratory habit of the family was
to prove important afterward in leading us to Bar
Harbor.
Rockefeller Archive Center
Crimine betow into
Photocopy Request
EPP
H.L. Martin cares.
Researcher:
Cosmos Club
Washington
Collection:
OMR
March 5 1923
III
Dear Mr Rockefeller:
Record Group:
After some delay your letter of February 23rd has reached me
here. I know the land your correspondent described by observa-
Series:
2
tion only from a distance. Looking at it so and on the map,
as I have studied the western area over, it has seemed to me de-
sirable ultimately to acquire that area together with the slopes
Sub-Series
I.
of the mountain to its south and west and the whole valley of
Great Brook. It is a genuine park area and natural wild-life
reserve. The mountain looks down on it and it is not readily
accessible, like the northern shore of the lake, for camping.
Whether it would be injured seriously by the cutting of the wood
upon it I do not know, for I have only looked from a distance.
I imagine all the woods near the lake shore, being easy of ap-
Box:
83
proach in winter when the lake is frozen, have long since been
cut and that what is growing now must be second or third growth
Where really fine growth exists, it is of course worth saving
Folder:
827
but there is little of it left in general. And, in my judgment
open grassy spaces like wild sheep pastures, are often better
in contrast than continuous woods. I used to be familiar with
# of pages to be copied:
them, wandering over the Berkshire country when I was a boy.
The trouble with the cutting on the Island has been mainly in
late years the way in which the land has been left after cutting,
disfigured and blocked by slash and exposed to fires. I have
met Nutting, years ago when he opposed me at Augusta on
a slash law, which I sought for the Island but obtained for
Bar
2
Harbor. He is frankly commercial with no public spirit when
it interferes with profits and is not interested in preserving
for the future. But I imagine him to be straight and business-
like, not given to attempted blackmail, and my suggestion would
be that the matter be lev lie for the moment. No one is likely
to cut the wood at this season with the lake just opening,-
and that I have a frank talk this spring with Nutting and find out
if I can not bringing you into it in any way, what he plans
or would consider profitable to do, in the way of cutting.
And I will also launch a canoe, for which I have a trailer
rigged, and explore the woods.
Item:
My main preoccupation now, upon the western side, is to
secure
the
Lurvey
land, or as much of it as possible, at the
head of Echo Lake, and of Long Pond (two lots). Both are important
3/5/20
and that at the head of Echo Lake bordering there the land we have
now especially by an old important. It is old family property controlled until
Civil War veteran, who would not for reasons of
1-Gilder
F
sentiment consider sale. I have been watching it and keeping an
eye on it with Schuyler Clark's assistance. Lurvey, the veteran,
has lately died and I have had since an interview with Clark
about it. He has written the family but not no answer. In
the meantime, I have had within the last two days a letter for- -
warded from Mr. Lynam's of ice, written him by Mr. Heydt - not
knowing that he was still away - enclosing copy of one addressed
to you, and the postscript apparently to him as well, by the
family executor as I judge. The only way to get the land reasonably
will be to leave it to Mr Clark, and that you should not appear
in any way as interested. I have written Mr. Clark, enclosing
copy, about to write by thi same mail to Heydt. I enclose you
that he may be posted and understand the sit ation and are
copy in case Mr. Heydt should not have done so, - the copy I
received from the Squire's office - of the Lurvey letter.
I
have some funds remaining but how much I do not know.
Mr. Lynam is keeping the account. He will be back the first
of
April. pe is at work at present on securing for me a tract
adjoining ours upon the Breakmeck Road, extending west, and taking
in the whole of Lake Mood, a unique and beautiful area, well
wooded and of wide extent, which I have been at work upon since
last fall. If I can get it at any reasonable price the whole will
be given by Mrs John I. Kaul in memory of her sister, Mrs.
Bridgeham. One of the owners who is difficult and who only
now blocks the way, is out in California, and Mr . Lynam, from
whom I have lately heard, is in touch with him.
With regards,
Sincerely yours,
George 3 Dorr
Memories
Civil mar may 19. 1938
World war Ditaplant
I remember well the news came of the firing on
Fort Sumter.
My
grandmother drove out from
Boston to our house at Jamaica Plain bringing the
newspaper.
It was in the early afternoon, April,
1861,
the sun streaming into the parlor where they
sat, my grandmother, my father and my mother, from
across the lake, the leaves not yet out upon the trees
would soreen the house from it. I was then seven
years old, my bDother nearly three years older.
It
was the end of our life at Jamaica Plain. Before
another winter came we had moved into Boston, to my
grandmother Ward's house on Park Street, where a
new life began.
The war dominated the next four
years, the most impressionable in life.
The war
was afterwards the war to me until fifty years later
the World War came upon the news from which I hung
from day to day as my father and the world about me
had on the news from the south in the Civil War. In
that I cannot remember hearing the question raised of
separation; it was ** not that but slavery that made
the Civil War for us and for our friends in Boston
a koly thing.
Right and wrong cannot be measured
by numbers, by the pre-ponderence of advantage.
2.
Were it but the case of a single man it, must be righted
any
if righted it could be at
sacrifice.
It was a
principal that was involved, no less. And principles
cannot be weighed in terms of gain and loss.
They
are absolute. But at the first S there was a strong
Goopperhead contingent among the conservative element
in Boston, wishing to compromise, wishing to avoid the
penalty of War. It passed or hid its head, once
war was entered on and the men of more generous temper
had laid down their lives in sacrifice. Equally we
felt bitterly the disgrace of the'carpet bagging' period
which followed the victory of the north and the reign
of the politicians.
It was a shameful episode, not
to be forgotten. But all war and strife bring evil
in their train, as they do heroism also and self
sacrifice.
Wilsom's idea of a League of Nations
the world was not ready for, if over it will be, but
it was a great thought and the men who blooked it not
from conviction but from political or personal motive,
stand petty and small beside it.
But how peace
can be had without authority, for authority without
tyranny is a problem that none at the present time
can solve.
Men are not ruled by reason and the
mob is the work of rulers unless there be in man some
3.
spiritual principal'that shakes our end, rough
as we may' he stands precariously with all that he has
won. ISO let us pray 08
the
MHS. T.W. ward. Hs. B.3.F.22.
GBD notation "In the later sixties"
Inte late EMD. Simil by & Dar
for gen Intertain with
Dear Many,
I have use had
Such an absence fiffed
that it fruis donbe
a moment Smier our return
thank
charces
nameligum hospitals
tast an recumple
you knie L
which of forever as
time of ma friend
I hope it will baby
other with revolution,
pub mefully spend
in Protein the lem
which an in - But
of true
allendi. Yan afty
I thould an Lay
L.G.C.
Effects
Amy Heard: Letters from the Gilded Age Introduction
Page 1 of 3
1881
Top
Preface
Introduction
Introduction
Amy Heard was born on 7 October 1860 in Paris, the month before the
election of Abraham Lincoln and the year before the outbreak of the
American Civil War. She was christened Amelia, but never used the
name. She was the second child of Augustine Heard, at the time a well
known China merchant, and Jane Leaps de Coninck, the daughter of a
Belgian Diplomat. Augustine went to China following his graduation
from Harvard in 1847 to serve with his uncle and namesake, Augustine
Heard, the founder of Augustine Heard and Co.
ol months
Amy Heard in 1862, Paris
The #3 Park Street home
of Dorr's grand father,
TWW, was sold to llr.
A. Heard m March 16, 1863
who owned it for 30 years.
Augustine Heard Jane Leaps Heard
Like his brothers John, Albert Farley, and George Farley, young Augustine was a senior partner of the
largely family controlled firm and was reputed to be the first American permitted to trade in Siam
(1855). Augustine took over leadership of the firm in 1852 from his older brother John, and directed the
company until John's return in 1855 or 1857, when Augustine moved to Paris as a representative of
AH& Co. He married Jane Leaps de Coninck in April 1858, and they had a reputation for living in grand
style. The family still traveled during this time and Amy's younger sister Helen Maxima (Max) was born
in 1868 in Hong Kong, then the headquarters of Augustine Heard and Company.
Jane's parents were François DeConinck and Amalia Williams Taylor. François served as the Belgian
Consul in Havana. Amalia was born in Baltimore in May 1806, the daughter of Lemuel Taylor and
Mary Wheatly Williams. Taylor was a Baltimore merchant who lost his fortune in 1816-1818 when he
lost several cargoes in his West Indies trade. In 1821 he started fresh and moved to Cuba, where
eventually he became owner of Sta Amelia, a sugar plantation in the Cilizo district between Matanzas
and Cárdenas. François and Amailia were married at the Sta Amelia plantation on 16 June 1831 and
subsequently had four children: François, Jane Leaps, who was born in Cuba in May 1832, Mary Taylor,
who was born in 1833 and died in Cuba in 1886, and Amalia, born in 1835 and died in October 1884.
Mary Taylor de Coninck married Thomas Johnson of Baltimore in 1881, as described in the notes
http://ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amy/amy_3.html
3/7/2010
1859
1-12-20
see Chapter 6 of The Early years of the
Saturday Club.
Death of Wm.H. Prescett
Birthday verses fen RWE for Jame Reessell Lowell
the March, Emerson read his lecture 'Clubs'
at the Freeman flace Chapel in Booton
Showed have rush he valued clubs.
John Brown related issues. Harper's Ferry.
50th b-day of OWN.
Cultaur gold rush.
Charles Summer acture fa Europe
Hawthorne's relocation for Rome to England
1860
from Chapter 7 of Easly you of the
Saturday Cleff
Club member publication
Howthorse returns after 7 you absence as
Richard Dana returns for a world tour
/3r reference to President Elist-which
Nonuntra of Lincoln, and
Tis apporatment to new Enford Reprefecies
Charles new invited to
form the S.e., & his later marriggt
Susan Sedgiwick Description of her
Pg. 240. Shady Hell, and the "repended
relation that gares fariel expecial
at c Norton family after many to
Comprage in 1865. Lath, Nortons
abend 1868-72. stay, Gernay. Enford,
death of wife fatheround of 6 kids; in
1867 he esterlished second love in
in Ashfield. (pp. 246-47)
1861
From Chap. 8 of Early year of the
Saturday Club
New year opens c South Caraline secession
read appeal of OWH. Other states followed
'Almostall of the Club members
John A. Andrew
Peace Conference
Housto Woodman on "The Flag, & Suntero fall
War pupartions.
Charle Frances Adam in May sent to Sugland as
u. S. minester -revarded for 7 years
Other member activities
Ellsot Cabrat at 40 years was youngers club number.
S. 6.Ward, as rep. of Bauge "was sup actout
in gorry the English J information of the
trie sr tuation how, ad the attitude +
resolve of our people
Bull Reen defect in July "or astounding shock."
I October autobal battle at fills bluff,
severely urrending your Weadell Holmes
be sunuary pg. 259.
Jene Elist Cabot (1821 ) merries Eleze eldest of
Col. Thomas Handasyd Persins, founda in Perken's
Institute, Mass gew Hospital f Br tm Albenseen
Student game Mulomps at Heidelberg+
Lis pased to "neetal saentering (p. 261) Howard 145.
Calut
In letter to SGW, Dec. 1944, Emerson says
he has "adverable paper "fa The is id
written by Cabst 21848, C.is agassy student
in the feculities Selood explory Later Superor region
Sectrustion Kant at Howard, the lafic instructor
Overseer in 1875, t EGBD] seved for loyers
c Philos. Uniting Committle Encoon said of her:
he has a greek mind. But Enermis precess in 1871
began to fail & the fate of lus noosuscupts in question,
lefting the load for Emerson's shoulders. Becom
Literary executor
find Cabots (1838-1903)
Essay by E.W.E, who saw murch of be in has
father house during the last 20 years 4 hr life,
As there a boopaps of EWE ? None found.
Caucard Free P.L.: SWE Papers See seve
Sever. BIII, box 2, Folder 20.
3mg Bradley Thayar, a we term
Trip with Us-Emerson (BoD ton.
fittle sam 1884).
EWE hured Sleepy Hollow (1844-1930)
1-12-2020
Re fulla Ward House & Mary 9rog Word:
see Early year of the Saturday Cheet, Pg. 272.
Charles faminer & Curelius Felton were
San Houes friends Both infunted In
Laura Bredgean core of "toole
new Jelen Ward to the Blend asefer
for to see for," when she sow Have
for fast time. [They named in 1843 J.
may reports that the was there c Julia
There is also her dauglates report, Laura Rockards.
1862
Source: Chap. 9 of Early years of the
Saturday Club
Charles Seenner was one member chosen this you
GrownsAndrew review the troops
War reports-ord poetty @ the struggle
Union Club, audity it to
Mr. ward, Bummer, Woodman Narton, + Howe,
(1811-1874)
Charles Summer on troop relieve , listing
p.
Club member c service records (280) He was
assaulted by Preston Brooks in Congress was - in 1856-
invalidic the resounder of his life -recall - boupic
in D. McCullough's The Greater J Gerag (2011).
1863
from Chap. 10: The Early years f-the
Saturday
Emanopation Produration. Jubilee Concert.
Union Clerk occepter present guarter, 10/15/63
the former revelue of abbott Laurence. Its
"promoters, S.G.W. the fash treasurer.
Hue S G.W. is instrumental a bauge agait
in efforts to purchase wonded Accounts
some vessels been built in Liverporl for
The South, an issue of great neithern corceru.
Finell, the English stopped production
seeming because the North would
declare was on the U.K.
Victory at gettsburg (R)-314,317).
Hauthorne very oll.
Publication of Club member-
Colonel Shaw
C.W Eloat is gerry abroad for 6-8 ma
Henry James, Sr. only member closer into Club
A Swedenborgian whose hooks were all onleligion
Good exouple of Conversation" c Alcott, Jones Sr,
Viewer Controls
Toggle Page Navigator
P
Toggle Hotspots
H
Toggle Readerview
V
Toggle Search Bar
S
Toggle Viewer Info
I
Toggle Metadata
M
Zoom-In
+
Zoom-Out
-
Re-Center Document
Previous Page
←
Next Page
→
1859-63
Page | Type | Title | Date | Source | Other notes |
1 | File folder | File contents: 1859-63 Jamaica Plain. Relocation to Park St., Boston. Relocation to Commonweath Ave, Boston Back Bay. Early Years of Saturday Club | Chrono 1/1/01 | Ronald Epp | |
2 | File folder contents | Jamaica Plain, MA. Relocation to Park St.,Boston. Relocation to Commonwealth Ave., Boston Back Bay. Early Years of Saturday Club | Annotated by Ronald Epp | ||
3 | Text excerpt | Facade of 20-36 Commonwealth Avenue 1860 | 1967 | B. Bunting. Houses of Boston's Back Bay,1967 p.105 | |
4-5 | Manuscript excerpt | 1850's T.Ward Commonwealth Avenue | October 31 | Dorr Papers | |
6-9 | Manuscript excerpt | Dixwell's Boston Latin School | Date ? | JMJ [Jesup Memorial Library] 1,f.13 Dorr Papers | Annotated by Ronald Epp: See 1, folder 13 |
10-11 | Letter | To Mr. Rockefeller from George B. Dorr re:purchase of land | March 5 1923 | Rockefeller Archives.OMR III 2 I Box 83 Folder 827 | |
12-14 | Manuscript excerpt | Memories re: Civil War and World War | May 19,1938 | Dorr Papers.B1.F.14/Also B2[?] | |
15 | Letter | To Mary from L.G.W. | "In the later sixties" | MHS.T.W. Ward. Ms. B.3.f.22 | Annotated by Ronald Epp |
16 | Website | Amy Heard: Letters from the Gilded Age | 3/7/2010 | http://ee.stanford.edu | Annotated by Ronald Epp |
17-23 | Notes | Chronology and Notes: 1859-63 | 1-12-2020 |
Details
1859 - 1863