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[Illustration: Ben F. Butler]

THE

BAY STATE MONTHLY.

_A Massachusetts Magazine_

VOL. I.

JUNE,1884.

No. VI.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER.

There is a belt extending irregularly across the State of New Hampshire,
and varying in width, from which have gone forth men who have won a
national reputation. From this section went Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass,
Levi Woodbury, Zachariah Chandler, Horace Greeley, Henry Wilson, William
Pitt Fessenden, Salmon P. Chase, John Wentworth, Nathan Clifford, and
Benjamin F. Butler.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER was born in the town of Deerfield, New
Hampshire, November 5, 1818.

His father, Captain John Butler, was a commissioned officer in the War
of 1812, and served with General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans. As
merchant, supercargo, and master of the vessel, he was engaged for some
years in the West India trade, in which he was fairly successful, until
his death in March, 1819, while on a foreign voyage. In politics he was
an ardent Democrat, an admirer of General Jackson, and a personal friend
of Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire.

Left an orphan when an infant, the child was dependent for his early
training upon his mother; and faithfully did she attend to her duties.
Descended from the Scotch Covenanters and Irish patriots, Mrs. Butler
possessed rare qualities: she was capable, thrifty, diligent, and
devoted. In 1828, Mrs. Butler removed with her family to Lowell, where
her two boys could receive better educational advantages, and where her
efforts for their maintenance would be better rewarded, than in their
native village.

As a boy young Butler was small, sickly, and averse to quarrels. He was
very fond of books, and eagerly read all that came in his way. From his
earliest youth he possessed a remarkably retentive memory, and was such
a promising scholar that his mother determined to help him obtain a
liberal education, hoping that he would be called to the Baptist
ministry. With this end in view, he was fitted for college at the public
schools of Lowell and at Exeter Academy, and at the early age of sixteen
entered Waterville College. Here for four years, the formative period of
his life, his mind received that bent and discipline which fitted him
for his future active career.

He was a student who appreciated his advantages, and acquired all the
general information the course permitted outside of regular studies; but
his rank was low in the class, as deportment and attention to college
laws were taken into account. During the latter part of his course he
was present at the trial of a suit at law, and was so impressed with the
forensic battle he then witnessed, that he chose law as his profession.
He was graduated from the college in 1838, in poor health, and in debt,
but a fishing cruise to the coast of Labrador restored him, and in the
fall he entered upon the study of the law at Lowell. While a student he
practised in the police court, taught school, and devoted every energy
to acquiring a practical knowledge of his profession.

MILITIA.

While yet a minor he joined the City Guards, a company of the fifth
regiment of Massachusetts Militia. His service in the militia was
honorable, and continued for many years; he rose gradually in the
regular line of promotion through every grade, from a private to a
brigadier-general.

LAW.

In 1840, Mr. Butler was admitted to the bar. He was soon brought into
contact with the mill-owners, and was noted for his audacity and
quickness. He won his way rapidly to a lucrative practice, at once
important, leading, and conspicuous. He was bold, diligent, vehement,
and an inexhaustible opponent. His memory was such, that he could retain
the whole of the testimony of the longest trial without taking a note.
His power of labor seemed unlimited. In fertility of expedient, and in
the lightning quickness of his devices to snatch victory from the jaws
of defeat, his equal has seldom lived.

For twenty years Mr. Butler devoted his whole energies to his
profession. At the age of forty he was retained in over five hundred
cases, enjoyed the most extensive and lucrative practice in New England,
and could at that age have retired from active business with an
independent fortune.

POLITICS.

Despite his enormous and incessant labors at the bar, Mr. Butler, since
early manhood, has been a busy and eager politician, regularly for many
years attending the national conventions of the Democratic party, and
entering actively into every campaign.

Before the Rebellion he was twice elected to the Massachusetts
Legislature: once to the House in 1853, and once to the Senate in 1859;
and was a candidate for governor in 1856, receiving fifty thousand
votes, the full support of his party.

In April, 1860, Mr. Butler was a delegate to the Democratic convention
held at Charleston. There he won a national reputation. In June, at an
adjourned session of the convention, at Baltimore, Mr. Butler went out
with the delegates who were resolved to defeat the nomination of Stephen
A. Douglas. The retiring body nominated Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky,
for the Presidency, and Mr. Butler returned home to help his election.
It may be here stated that Mr. Breckinridge was a Southern pro-slavery
unionist. Mr. Butler was the Breckinridge candidate for the governorship
of Massachusetts, and received only six thousand votes.

In December, 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln was an
established fact, there was a gathering of politicians at Washington,
Mr. Butler among the rest. South Carolina had passed the ordinance of
secession, and had sent commissioners or embassadors to negotiate a
treaty with the general government. Mr. Butler told his Southern friends
that they were hastening on a war; that the North would never consent to
a disunion of the States, and that he should be among the first to offer
to fight for the Union. He counselled the administration to receive the
South Carolina commissioners, listen to their communication, arrest
them, and try them for high treason. Mr. Butler foresaw a great war, and
on his return to Massachusetts advised Governor Andrew to prepare the
militia for the event. This was quietly done by dropping those who could
not be depended upon to leave the State, and enlisting others in their
stead. Arms and clothing were also prepared. On April 15, 1861, a
telegram was received by Governor Andrew from Senator Henry Wilson
asking for troops to defend the capital. A little before five o'clock,
Mr. Butler was, trying, a case before a court in Boston, when Colonel
Edward F. Jones, of the sixth regiment, brought to him for endorsement
an order from Governor Andrew to muster his regiment forthwith on Boston
Common, prepared to go to the defence of Washington. Two days later Mr.
Butler received the order to take command of the troops.

IN THE WAR.

General Butler's command consisted of four regiments. The sixth was
despatched immediately to Washington by the way of Baltimore, two
regiments were sent in transports to garrison Fortress Monroe, while
General Butler accompanied the eighth regiment in person. At
Philadelphia, on the nineteenth of April, General Butler was apprised of
the attack on the sixth regiment during their passage through Baltimore,
and he resolved to open communication with the capital through
Annapolis.

At Annapolis, General Butler's great executive qualities came into
prominence. He was placed in command of the "Department of Annapolis,"
and systematically attended to the forwarding of troops and the
formation of a great army. On May 13, with his command, he occupied the
city of Baltimore, a strategic movement of great importance. On May 16,
he was commissioned major-general, and on the twenty-second was saluted
as the commander of Fortress Monroe. Two days later, he gave to the
country the expressive phrase "contraband of war," which proved the
deathblow of American slavery.

A skirmish at Great Bethel, June 10, was unimportant in its results
except that it caused the loss of twenty-five Union soldiers, Major
Theodore Winthrop among the number, and was a defeat for the Northern
army. This was quickly followed by the disastrous battle of Bull Run,
which fairly aroused the North to action.

On August 18, General Butler resigned the command of the department of
Virginia to General Wool, and accepted a command under him. The first
duty entrusted to General Butler was an expedition sent to reduce the
forts at Hatteras Inlet, in which with a small force he was successful.

Early in September, he was authorized by the war department to raise and
equip six regiments of volunteers from New England for the war. This
task was easy for the energetic general.

Early in the year 1862, the capture of New Orleans was undertaken, and
General Butler was placed in command of the department of the Gulf, and
fifteen thousand troops entrusted to him. After innumerable delays, the
general with a part of his force arrived, March 20, 1862, at Ship
Island, near the delta of the Mississippi River, at which rendezvous the
rest of the troops had already been assembled. From this post the
reduction of New Orleans was executed.

On the morning of April 24, the fleet under command of Captain Farragut
succeeded in passing the forts, and a week later the transport
Mississippi with General Butler and his troops was alongside the levee
at New Orleans.

On December 16, 1862, General Butler formally surrendered the command of
the department of the Gulf to General Banks. What General Butler did at
New Orleans during the months he was in command in that city is a matter
of history, and has been ably chronicled by James Parton. He there
displayed those wonderful qualities of command which made him the most
hated, as well as the most respected, Northern man who ever visited the
South. He did more to subject the Southern people to the inevitable
consequence of the war than a division of a hundred thousand soldiers.
He even conquered that dread scourge, yellow fever, and demonstrated
that lawlessness even in New Orleans could be suppressed.

The new channel for the James River, known as the Dutch Gap, planned by
General Butler, and ridiculed by the press, but approved by the officers
of the United States Engineer Corps, remains to this day the
thoroughfare used by commerce.

The fame of General Butler's career at New Orleans, and his presence,
quieted the fierce riots in New York City, occasioned by the drafts.

General Butler resigned his commission at the close of the war, and
resumed the practice of his profession. He is now, and has been for many
years, the senior major-general of all living men who have held that
rank in the service of the United States.

IN CONGRESS.

In 1867, Mr. Butler was elected to the fortieth Congress from the fifth
congressional district of Massachusetts, and in 1869 from the sixth
district. He was re-elected in 1871, 1873, and in 1877. He was a
recognized power in the House of Representatives, and with the
administration. In 1882, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, and
gracefully retired in December, 1883, to the disappointment of more than
one hundred and fifty thousand Massachusetts voters.

Mr. Butler is a man of vast intellectual ability--in every sense of the
word a great man. He possesses a remarkable memory, great executive
abilities, good judgment, immense energy, and withal a tender heart. He
has always been a champion of fair play and equal rights.

As an orator he has great power to sway his hearers, for his words are
wise. Had the Democratic party listened to Mr. Butler at the Charleston
convention, its power would have continued; had the South listened to
him, it would not have seceded. Mr. Butler is a man who arouses popular
enthusiasm, and who has a great personal following of devoted friends
and admirers.

Books have already been written about him--more will follow in the years
to come. He is the personification of the old _ante bellum_ Democratic
party of the Northern States--a party that believed in the
aggrandizement of the country, at home and abroad; which placed the
rights of an American citizen before the gains of commerce; which
fostered that commerce until it whitened the seas; and which provided
for the reception of millions, who were sure to come to these shores, by
acquiring large areas of territory.

This hastily prepared sketch gives but a meagre outline of this
remarkable man, whose history is yet by no means completed.

THE BOUNDARY LINES OF OLD GROTON.--II.

By THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D.

     The report of the Comitty of the Hon'ble Court vpon the petition of
     Concord Chelmsford Lancaster & Stow for a grant of part of Nashobe
     lands

     Persuant to the directions giuen by this Hon'ble Court bareng Date
     the 30'th of May 1711 The Comity Reports as foloweth that is to say
     &ce

     That on the second day of October 1711 the s'd comitty went vpon
     the premises with an Artis and veved [viewed] and servaied the Land
     mentioned in the Peticion and find that the most southerly line of
     the plantation of Nashobe is bounded partly on Concord & partly on
     Stow and this line contains by Estimation vpon the servey a bought
     three miles & 50 polle The Westerly line Runs partly on Stowe &
     partly on land claimed by Groton and containes four miles and 20
     poll extending to a place called Brown hill. The North line Runs a
     long curtain lands claimed by Groton and contains three miles, the
     Easterle line Runs partly on Chelmsford, and partly on a farm cald
     Powersis farm in Concord; this line contains a bought fouer miles
     and twenty fiue pole

     The lands a boue mentioned wer shewed to vs for Nashobe Plantation
     and there were ancient marks in the seuerall lines fairly marked,
     And s'd comite find vpon the servey that Groton hath Run into
     Nashobe (as it was showed to vs) so as to take out nere one half
     s'd plantation and the bigest part of the medows, it appears to vs
     to Agree well with the report of M'r John Flint & M'r Joseph
     Wheeler who were a Commetty imployed by the County Court in
     midlesexs to Run the bounds of said plantation (June y'e 20'th 82)
     The plat will demonstrate how the plantation lyeth & how Groton
     coms in vpon it: as aleso the quaintete which is a bought 7840
     acres

     And said Comite are of the opinion that ther may [be] a township in
     that place it lying so remote from most of the neighboreng Towns,
     provided this Court shall se reson to continew the bounds as we do
     judg thay have been made at the first laieng out And that ther be
     sum addition from Concord & Chelmsford which we are redy to think
     will be complyed with by s'd Towns And s'd Comite do find a bought
     15 famelys setled in s'd plantation of Nashobe (5) in Groton
     claimed and ten in the remainder and 3 famelys which are allredy
     setled on the powerses farm: were convenient to joyn w s'd
     plantation and are a bought Eaight mille to any meting-house (Also,
     ther are a bought Eaight famelys in Chelmsford which are allredy
     setled neer Nashobe line & six or seven miles from thir own meeting
     house

     JONATHAN TYNG
     THOMAS HOW
     JOHN STEARNS

     In the Houes of Representatives
     Nov'm 2: 1711. Read
     Oct'o. 23, 1713.

     In Council

     Read and accepted; And the Indians native Proprietors of the s'd
     Planta'con. Being removed by death Except two or Three families
     only remaining Its Declared and Directed That the said Lands of
     Nashoba be preserved for a Township.

     And Whereas it appears That Groton Concord and Stow by several of
     their Inhabitants have Encroached and Setled upon the said Lands;
     This Court sees not reason to remove them to their Damage; but will
     allow them to be and remain with other Inhabitants that may be
     admitted into the Town to be there Setled; And that they have full
     Liberty when their Names and Number are determined to purchase of
     the few Indians there remaining for the Establishment of a Township
     accordingly.

     Saving convenient Allotments and portions of Land to the remaining
     Indian Inhabitants for their Setling and Planting.

     Is'a ADDINGTON Secry.

     In the House of Representatives

     Octo'r: 23th: 1713. Read

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiii, 600.]

The inhabitants of Groton had now become alarmed at the situation of
affairs, fearing that the new town would take away some of their land.
Through neglect the plan of the original grant, drawn up in the year
1668, had never been returned to the General Court for confirmation, as
was customary in such cases; and this fact also excited further
apprehension. It was not confirmed finally until February 10, 1717,
several years after the incorporation of Nashobah.

In the General Court Records (ix, 263) in the State Library, under the
date of June 18, 1713, it is entered:--

     Upon reading a Petition of the Inhabitants of the Town of Groton,
     Praying that the Return & Plat of the Surveyor of their Township
     impowered by the General Court may be Accepted for the Settlement &
     Ascertaining the Bounds of their Township, Apprehending they are
     likely to be prejudiced by a Survey lately taken of the Grant of
     Nashoba;

     Voted a Concurrence with the Order pass'd thereon in the House of
     Represent'ves That the Petitioners serve the Proprietors of Nashoba
     Lands with a copy of this Petition, That they may Shew Cause, if
     any they have on the second Fryday of the Session of this Court in
     the Fall of the Year, Why the Prayer therof may not be granted, &
     the Bounds of Groton settled according to the ancient Plat of said
     Town herewith exhibited.

It is evident from the records that the Nashobah lands gave rise to much
controversy. Many petitions were presented to the General Court, and
many claims made, growing out of this territory. The following entry is
found in the General Court Records (ix, 369) in the State Library, under
the date of November 2, 1714:--

     The following Order pass'd by the Represent'ves. Read & Concur'd;
     viz,

     Upon Consideration of the many Petitions & Claims relating to the
     Land called Nashoba Land; Ordered that the said Nashoba Land be
     made a Township, with the Addition of such adjoining Lands of the
     Neighbouring Towns, whose Owners shall petition for that End, &
     that this Court should think fit to grant, That the said Nashoba
     Lands having been long since purchased of the Indians by M'r
     Bulkley & Henchman one Half, the other Half by Whetcomb & Powers,
     That the said purchase be confirmed to the children of the said
     Bulkley, Whetcomb & Powers, & Cpt. Robert Meers as Assignee to M'r
     Henchman according to their respective Proportions; Reserving to
     the Inhabitants, who have settled within these Bounds, their
     Settlements with Divisions of Lands, in proportion to the Grantees,
     & such as shall be hereafter admitted; the said Occupants or
     present Inhabitants paying in Proportion as others shall pay for
     their Allotments;. Provided the said Plantation shall be settled
     with Thirty five Families & an orthodox Minister in three years
     time, And that Five hundred Acres of Land be reserved and laid out
     for the Benefit of any of the Descendants of the Indian Proprietors
     of the said Plantation, that may be surviving; A Proportion
     thereof to be for Sarah Doublet alias Sarah Indian;. The Rev. M'r.
     John Leveret & Spencer Phips Esq'r. to be Trustees for the said
     Indians to take Care of the said Lands for their Use. And it is
     further Ordered that Cpt. Hopestill Brown, M'r. Timothy Wily & M'r.
     Joseph Burnap of Reading be a Committee to lay out the said Five
     hundred Acres of Land reserved for the Indians, & to run the Line
     between Groton & Nashoba, at the Charge of both Parties & make
     Report to this Court, And that however the Line may divide the Land
     with regard to the Township, yet the Proprietors on either side may
     be continued in the Possession of their Improvements, paying as
     aforesaid; And that no Persons legal Right or Property in the said
     Lands shall [be] hereby taken away or infringed,

     Consented to J DUDLEY

The report of this committee is entered in the same volume of General
Court Records (ix, 395, 396) as the order of their appointment, though
the date as given by them does not agree with the one there mentioned.

     The following Report of the Committee for Running the Line between
     Groton & Nashoba Accepted by Represent'ves. Read & Concur'd; Viz.

     We the Subscribers appointed a Committee by the General Court to
     run the Line between Groton & Nashoba & to lay out Five hundred
     Acres of Land in said Nashoba to the the [_sic_] Descendants of the
     Indians; Pursuant to said Order of Court, bearing Date Octob'r
     20'th [November 2?] 1714, We the Subscribers return as follows;

     That on the 30'th. of November last, we met on the Premises, &
     heard the Information of the Inhabitants of Groton, Nashoba &
     others of the Neighbouring Towns, referring to the Line that has
     been between Groton & Nashoba & seen several Records, out of Groton
     Town Book, & considered other Writings, that belong to Groton &
     Nashoba, & We have considered all, & We have run the Line (Which we
     account is the old Line between Groton & Nashoba;) We began next
     Chelmsford Line, at a Heap of Stones, where, We were informed, that
     there had been a great Pine Tree, the Northeast Corner of Nashoba,
     and run Westerly by many old mark'd Trees, to a Pine Tree standing
     on the Southerly End of Brown Hill mark'd N and those marked Trees
     had been many times marked or renewed, thô they do not stand in a
     direct or strait Line to said Pine Tree on said Brown Hill; And
     then from said Brown Hill we turned a little to the East of the
     South, & run to a white Oak being an old Mark, & so from said Oak
     to a Pitch Pine by a Meadow, being an other old Mark; & the same
     Line extended to a white Oak near the North east Corner of Stow:
     And this is all, as we were informed, that Groton & Nashoba joins
     together: Notwithstanding the Committees Opinion is, that Groton
     Men be continued in their honest Rights, thô they fall within the
     Bounds of Nashoba; And We have laid out to the Descendants of the
     Indians Five hundred Acres at the South east Corner of the
     Plantation of Nashoba; East side, Three hundred Poles long, West
     side three hundred Poles, South & North ends, Two hundred & eighty
     Poles broad; A large white Oak marked at the North west Corner, &
     many Line Trees we marked at the West side & North End, & it takes
     in Part of two Ponds.

     Dated Decem'r 14. 1714.

    HOPESTILL BROWN
    TIMOTHY WILY
    JOSEPH BURNAP

    Consented to
    J Dudley.

The incorporation of Nashobah on November 2, 1714, settled many of the
disputes connected with the lands; but on December 3 of the next year,
the name was changed from Nashobah to Littleton. As already stated, the
plan of the original Groton grant had never been returned by the
proprietors to the General Court for confirmation, and this neglect had
acted to their prejudice. After Littleton had been set off, the town of
Groton undertook to repair the injury and make up the loss. John Shepley
and John Ames were appointed agents to bring about the necessary
confirmation by the General Court. It is an interesting fact to know
that in their petition (General Court Records, x, 216, February 11,
1717, in the office of the secretary of state) they speak of having in
their possession at that time the original plan of the town, made by
Danforth in the year 1668, though it was somewhat defaced. In the
language of the Records, it was said to be "with the Petitioner," which
expression in the singular number may have been intentional, referring
to John Shepley, probably the older one, as certainly the more
influential, of the two agents. This plan was also exhibited before the
General Court on June 18, 1713, according to the Records (ix, 263) of
that date.

The case, as presented by the agents, was as follows:--

     A petition of John Sheply & John Ames Agents for the Town of Groton
     Shewing that the General Assembly of the Province did in the year
     1655, Grant unto M'r Dean Winthrop & his Associates a Tract of Land
     of Eight miles quare for a Plantation to be called by the name of
     Groton, that Thom's & Jonathan Danforth did in the year 1668, lay
     out the said Grant, but the Plat thereof through Neglect was not
     returned to the Court for Confirmation that the said Plat thô
     something defaced is with the Petitioner, That in the Year 1713 M'r
     Samuel Danforth Surveyour & Son of the abovesaid Jonathan Danforth,
     at the desire of the said Town of Groton did run the Lines & make
     an Implatment of the said Township laid out as before & found it
     agreeable to the former. W'h. last Plat the Petitioners do herewith
     exhibit, And pray that this Hon'ble Court would allow & confirm the
     same as the Township of Groton.

     In the House of Represent'ves; Feb. 10. 1717. Read, Read a second
     time, And Ordered that the Prayer of the Petition be so far granted
     that the Plat herewith exhibited (Althô not exactly conformable to
     the Original Grant of Eight Miles quare) be accounted, accepted &
     Confirmed as the Bounds of the Township of Groton in all parts,
     Except where the said Township bounds on the Township of Littleton,
     Where the Bounds shall be & remain between the Towns as already
     stated & settled by this Court, And that this Order shall not be
     understood or interpreted to alter or infringe the Right & Title
     which any Inhabitant or Inhabitants of either of the said Towns
     have or ought to have to Lands in either of the said Townships

    In Council, Read & Concur'd,
    Consented to Sam'll Shute

[General Court Records (x, 216), February 11, 1717, in the office of the
secretary of state.]

The proprietors of Groton felt sore at the loss of their territory along
the Nashobah line in the year 1714, although it would seem without
reason. They had neglected to have the plan of their grant confirmed by
the proper authorities at the proper time; and no one was to blame for
this oversight but themselves. In the autumn of 1734 they represented to
the General Court that in the laying out of the original plantation no
allowance had been made for prior grants in the same territory, and that
in settling the line with Littleton they had lost more than four
thousand acres of land; and in consideration of these facts they
petitioned for an unappropriated gore of land lying between Dunstable
and Townsend.

The necessary steps for bringing the matter before the General Court at
this time were taken at a town meeting, held on July 25, 1734. It was
then stated that the town had lost more than twenty-seven hundred and
eighty-eight acres by the encroachment of Littleton line; and that two
farms had been laid out within the plantation before it was granted to
the proprietors. Under these circumstances Benjamin Prescott was
authorized to present the petition to the General Court, setting forth
the true state of the case and all the facts connected with it. The two
farms alluded to were Major Simon Willard's, situated at Nonacoicus or
Coicus, now within the limits of Ayer, and Ralph Reed's, in the
neighborhood of the Ridges; so Mr. Butler told me several years before
his death, giving Judge James Prescott as his authority, and I carefully
wrote it down at the time. The statement is confirmed by the report of a
committee on the petition of Josiah Sartell, made to the House of
Representatives, on June 13, 1771. Willard's farm, however, was not laid
out before the original plantation was granted, but in the spring of
1658, three years after the grant. At this time Danforth had not made
his plan of the plantation, which fact may have given rise to the
misapprehension. Ralph Reed was one of the original proprietors of the
town, and owned a fifteen-acre right; but I do not find that any land
was granted him by the General Court.

It has been incorrectly supposed, and more than once so stated in print,
that the gore of land, petitioned for by Benjamin Prescott, lay in the
territory now belonging to Pepperell; but this is a mistake. The only
unappropriated land between Dunstable and Townsend, as asked for in the
petition, lay in the angle made by the western boundary of Dunstable and
the northern boundary of Townsend. At that period Dunstable was a very
large township, and included within its territory several modern towns,
lying mostly in New Hampshire. The manuscript records of the General
Court define very clearly the lines of the gore, and leave no doubt in
regard to it. It lay within the present towns of Mason, Brookline,
Wilton, Milford, and Greenville, New Hampshire. Benjamin Prescott was at
the time a member of the General Court and the most influential man in
town. His petition was presented to the House of Representatives on
November 28, 1734, and referred to a committee, which made a report
thereon a fortnight later. They are as follows:--

     A Petition of _Benjamin Prescot_, Esq; Representative of the Town
     of _Groton_, and in behalf of the Proprietors of the said Town,
     shewing that the General Court in _May_ 1655, in answer to the
     Petition of Mr. _Dean Winthrop_ and others, were pleased to grant
     the Petitioners a tract of Land of the contents of eight miles
     square, the Plantation to be called _Groton_, that in taking a Plat
     of the said tract there was no allowance made for prior Grants &c.
     by means whereof and in settling the Line with _Littleton Anno_
     1715, or thereabouts, the said Town of _Groton_ falls short more
     than four thousand acres of the Original Grant, praying that the
     said Proprietors may obtain a Grant of what remains undisposed of
     of a Gore of Land lying between _Dunstable_ and _Townshend_, or an
     equivalent elsewhere of the Province Land. Read and _Ordered_, That
     Col. _Chandler_, Capt. _Blanchard_, Capt. _Hobson_, Major _Epes_,
     and Mr. _Hale_, be a Committee to take this Petition under
     consideration, and report what may be proper for the Court to do in
     answer thereto.

     [Journal of the House of Representatives, November 28, 1734, page
     94.]

     Col. _Chandler_ from the Committee appointed the _28th._ ult. to
     consider the Petition of _Benjamin Prescot_, Esq; in behalf of the
     Proprietors of _Groton_, made report, which was read and accepted,
     and in answer to this Petition, _Voted_, That a Grant of ten
     thousand eight hundred acres of the Lands lying in the _Gore_
     between _Dunstable_ and _Townshend_, be and hereby is made to the
     Proprietors of the Town of _Groton_, as an equivalent for what was
     taken from them by _Littleton_ and _Coyachus_ or _Willard's Farm_
     (being about two acres and a half for one) and is in full
     satisfaction thereof, and that the said Proprietors be and hereby
     are allowed and impowred by a Surveyor and Chain-men on Oath to
     survey and lay out the said ten thousand eight hundred acres in the
     said _Gore_, and return a Plat thereof to this Court within twelve
     months for confirmation to them their heirs and assigns
     respectively.

     Sent up for Concurrence.

     [Journal of the House of Representatives, December 12, 1734, page
     119.]

The proprietors of Groton had a year's time allowed them, in which they
could lay out the grant, but they appear to have taken fifteen months
for the purpose. The record of the grant is as follows:--

     A Memorial of Benj'a Prescott Esq: Represent'a of the Town of
     Groton in behalf of the Proprietors there, praying that the Votes
     of the House on his Memorial & a plat of Ten Thousand Eight hundred
     Acres of Land, lately Granted to the said Proprietors, as Entred in
     the House the 25 of March last, may be Revived and Granted, The
     bounds of which Tract of Land as Mentioned on the said Plat are as
     follows viz't.: begining at the North West Corner of Dunstable at
     Dram Cup hill by Sohegan River and Runing South in Dunstable line
     last Perambulated and Run by a Com'tee of the General Court, two
     Thousand one hundred & fifty two poles to Townshend line, there
     making an angle, and Runing West 31 1-2 Deg. North on Townshend
     line & province Land Two Thousand and Fifty Six poles to a Pillar
     of Stones then turning and Ruñing by Province Land 31 1-2 deg North
     two Thousand & forty Eight poles to Dunstable Corner first
     mentioned

     In the House of Represent'a. Read & Ordered that the prayer of the
     Memorial be Granted, and further that the within Plat as Reformed
     and Altered by Jonas Houghton Survey'r, be and hereby is accepted
     and the Lands therein Delineated and Described (Excepting the said
     One Thousand Acres belonging to Cambridge School Farm and therein
     included) be and hereby are Confirmed to the Proprietors of the
     Town of Groton their heirs and Assignes Respectivly forever,
     According to their Several Interests; Provided the same do not
     interfere with any former Grant of this Court nor Exceeds the
     Quantity of Eleven thousand and Eight hundred Acres and the
     Committee for the Town of Ipswich are Allowed and Impowred to lay
     out such quantity of Land on their West line as is Equivalent to
     what is taken off their East line as aforesaid, and Return a plat
     thereof to this Court within twelve Months for confirmation.

     In Council Read & Concurr'd.

     Consented to J Belcher

     And in Answer to the said Memorial of Benj'a Prescott Esq'r

     In the House of Represent'a. Ordered that the prayer of the
     Memorial be Granted and the Com'tee. for the new Township Granted
     to some of the Inhabitants of Ipswich are hereby Allowed to lay out
     an Equivalent on the West line of the said New Township
     Accordingly.

     In Council Read & Concurr'd

     Consented to J Belcher

     [General Court Records (xvi, 334), June 15, 1736, in the office of
     the secretary of state.]

This grant, now made to the proprietors of Groton, interfered with the
territory previously given on April, 1735, to certain inhabitants of
Ipswich, but the mistake was soon rectified, as appears by the
following:--

     _Voted_, That one thousand seven hundred Acres of the
     unappropriated Lands of the Province be and hereby is given and
     granted to the Proprietors or Grantees of the Township lately
     granted to sixty Inhabitants of the Town of _Ipswich_, as an
     Equivalent for about that quantity being taken off their Plat by
     the Proprietors of the Common Lands of _Groton_, and that the
     _Ipswich_ Grantees be allowed to lay out the same on the Northern
     or Westerly Line of the said new Township or on both sides.

     Sent up for Concurrence.

     [Journal of the House of Representatives (page 108), January 12,
     1736.]

[Illustration: Groton Gore in 1884]

The record of the grant clearly marks the boundaries of Groton Gore, and
by it they can easily be identified. Dram Cup Hill, near Souhegan River,
the old northwest corner of Dunstable, is in the present territory of
Milford, New Hampshire. From that point the line ran south for six or
seven miles, following the western boundary of Dunstable, until it came
to the old Townsend line; then it turned and ran northwesterly six miles
or more, when turning again it made for the original starting-place at
Dunstable northwest corner. These lines enclosed a triangular district
which became known as Groton Gore; in fact, the word _gore_ means a lot
of land of triangular shape. This territory is now entirely within the
State of New Hampshire, lying mostly in Mason, but partly in Brookline,
Wilton, Milford, and Greenville. It touches in no place the tract,
hitherto erroneously supposed to comprise the Gore. It was destined,
however, to remain only a few years in the possession of the
proprietors; but during this short period it was used by them for
pasturing cattle. Mr. John B. Hill, in his History of the Town of Mason,
New Hampshire, says:--

     Under this grant, the inhabitants of Groton took possession of, and
     occupied the territory. It was their custom to cut the hay upon the
     meadows, and stack it, and early in the spring to send up their
     young cattle to be fed upon the hay, under the care of Boad, the
     negro slave. They would cause the woods to be fired, as it was
     called, that is, burnt over in the spring; after which fresh and
     succulent herbage springing up, furnished good store of the finest
     feed, upon which the cattle would thrive and fatten through the
     season. Boad's camp was upon the east side of the meadow, near the
     residence of the late Joel Ames. (Page 26.)

In connection with the loss of the Gore, a brief statement of the
boundary question between Massachusetts and New Hampshire is here given.

During many years the dividing-line between these two provinces was the
subject of controversy. The cause of dispute dated back to the time when
the original grant was made to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, The
charter was drawn up in England at a period when little was known in
regard to the interior of this country; and the boundary lines,
necessarily, were very indefinite. The Merrimack River was an important
factor in fixing the limits of the grant, as the northern boundary of
Massachusetts was to be a line three miles north of any and every part
of it. At the date of the charter, the general direction of the river
was not known, but it was incorrectly assumed to be easterly and
westerly. As a matter of fact, the course of the Merrimack is southerly,
for a long distance from where it is formed by the union of the
Winnepeseogee and the Pemigewasset Rivers, and then it turns and runs
twenty-five or thirty miles in a northeasterly direction to its mouth;
and this deflexion in the current caused the dispute. The difference
between the actual and the supposed direction was a matter of little
practical importance so long as the neighboring territory remained
unsettled, or so long as the two provinces were essentially under one
government; but as the population increased it became an exciting and
vexatious question. Towns were chartered by Massachusetts in territory
claimed by New Hampshire, and this action led to bitter feeling and
provoking legislation. Massachusetts contended for the land "nominated
in the bond," which would carry the line fifty miles northward into the
very heart of New Hampshire; and on the other hand that province
strenuously opposed this view of the case, and claimed that the line
should run, east and west, three miles north of the mouth of the river.
At one time, a royal commission was appointed to consider the subject,
but their labors produced no satisfactory result. At last the matter was
carried to England for a decision, which was rendered by the king on
March 5, 1739-40. His judgment was final, and in favor of New Hampshire.
It gave that province not only all the territory in dispute, but a strip
of land fourteen miles in width, lying along her southern border, mostly
west of the Merrimack, which she had never claimed. This strip was the
tract of land between the line running east and west, three miles north
of the southernmost trend of the river, and a similar line three miles
north of its mouth. By the decision twenty-eight townships were taken
from Massachusetts and transferred to New Hampshire. The settlement of
this disputed question was undoubtedly a public benefit, although it
caused, at the time, a great deal of hard feeling. In establishing the
new boundary Pawtucket Falls, situated now in the city of Lowell, and
near the most southern portion of the river's course, was taken as the
starting-place; and the line which now separates the two States was run
west, three miles north of this point. It was surveyed officially in the
spring of 1741.

The new boundary passed through the original Groton grant, and cut off a
triangular portion of its territory, now within the limits of Nashua,
and went to the southward of Groton Gore, leaving that tract of land
wholly in New Hampshire.

A few years previously to this time the original grant had undergone
other dismemberment, when a slice of its territory was given to
Westford. It was a long and narrow tract of land, triangular in shape,
with its base resting on Stony Brook Pond, now known as Forge Pond, and
coming to a point near Millstone Hill, where the boundary lines of
Groton, Westford, and Tyngsborough intersect. The Reverend Edwin R.
Hodgman, in his History of Westford, says:--

     Probably there was no computation of the area of this triangle at
     any time. Only four men are named as the owners of it, but they, it
     is supposed, held titles to only a portion, and the remainder was
     wild, or "common," land, (Page 25.)

In the Journal of the House of Representatives (page 9), September 10,
1730, there is recorded:--

     A petition of _Jonas Prescot, Ebenezer Prescot, Abner Kent_, and
     _Ebenezer Townsend_, Inhabitants of the Town of _Groton_, praying,
     That they and their Estates, contained in the following Boundaries,
     _viz._ beginning at the _Northwesterly_ Corner of _Stony Brook_
     Pond, from thence extending to the _Northwesterly_ Corner of
     _Westford_, commonly called _Tyng's_ Corner, and so bound
     _Southerly_ by said Pond, may be set off to the Town of _Westford_,
     for Reasons mentioned. Read and _Ordered_, That the Petitioners
     within named, with their Estates, according to the Bounds before
     recited, be and hereby are to all Intents and Purposes set off from
     the Town of _Groton_, and annexed to the said Town of _Westford_.

     Sent up for Concurrence.

This order received the concurrence of the council, and was signed by
the governor, on the same day that it passed the House.

During this period the town of Harvard was incorporated. It was made up
from portions of Groton, Lancaster, and Stow, and the engrossed act
signed by the governor, on June 29, 1732. The petition for the township
was presented to the General Court nearly two years before the date of
incorporation. In the Journal of the House of Representatives (pages 84,
85), October 9, 1730, it is recorded:--

     A Petition of _Jonas Houghton, Simon Stone, Jonathan Whitney_, and
     _Thomas Wheeler_, on behalf of themselves, and on behalf and at the
     desire of sundry of the Inhabitants on the extream parts of the
     Towns of _Lancaster, Groton_ and _Stow_, named in the Schedule
     thereunto annexed; praying, That a Tract of Land (with the
     Inhabitants thereon, particularly described and bounded in said
     Petition) belonging to the Towns above-mentioned, may be
     incorporated and erected into a distinct Township, agreeable to
     said Bounds, for Reasons mentioned. Read, together with the
     Schedule, and _Ordered_, That the Petitioners serve the Towns of
     _Lancaster, Groton_ and _Stow_ with Copies of the Petition, that
     they may shew Cause (if any they have) on the first Thursday of the
     next Session, why the Prayer thereof may not be granted.

     Sent up for Concurrence.

Further on, in the same Journal (page 136), December 29, 1730, it is
also recorded:--

     The Petition of _Jonas Houghton, Simon Stone_, and others, praying
     as entred the 9th. of _October_ last. Read again, together with the
     Answers of the Towns of _Lancaster, Groton_ and Stow, and
     _Ordered_, That Maj. _Brattle_ and Mr. _Samuel Chandler_, with such
     as the Honourable Board shall appoint, be a Committee, (at the
     Charge of the Petitioners) to repair to the Land Petitioned for to
     be a Township, that they carefully view and consider the Situation
     and Circumstances of the Petitioners, and Report their Opinion what
     may be proper for this Court to do in Answer thereto, at their next
     Session.

     Sent up for Concurrence.

     _Ebenezer Burrel_ Esq; brought from the Honourable Board, the
     Report of the Committee appointed by this Court the 30th of
     _December_ last, to take under Consideration the Petition of _Jonas
     Houghton_ and others, in behalf of themselves and sundry of the
     Inhabitants of the _Eastern_ part of the Towns of _Lancaster,
     Groton_ and _Stow_, praying that they may be erected into a
     separate Township. Likewise a Petition of _Jacob Houghton_ and
     others, of the _North-easterly_ part of the Town of _Lancaster_,
     praying the like. As also a Petition of sundry of the Inhabitants
     of the _South-west_ part of the _North-east_ Quarter of the
     Township of _Lancaster_, praying they may be continued as they are.
     Pass'd in Council, _viz._ In Council, _June_ 21, 1731. Read, and
     _Ordered_, That this Report be accepted.

     Sent down for Concurrence. Read and Concurred.

     [Journal of the House of Representatives (page 52), June 22, 1731.]

The original copy of the petition for Harvard is now probably lost; but
in the first volume (page 53) of "Ancient Plans Grants &c." among the
Massachusetts Archives, is a rough plan of the town, with a list of the
petitioners, which may be the "Schedule" referred to in the extract from
the printed Journal. It appears from this document that, in forming the
new town, forty-eight hundred and thirty acres of land were taken from
the territory of Groton; and with the tract were nine families,
including six by the name of Farnsworth. This section comprised the
district known, even now, as "the old mill," where Jonas Prescott had,
as early as the year 1667, a gristmill. The heads of these families were
Jonathan Farnsworth, Eleazer Robbins, Simon Stone, Jr., Jonathan
Farnsworth, Jr., Jeremiah Farnsworth, Eleazer Davis, Ephram Farnsworth,
Reuben Farnsworth, and [_torn_] Fransworth, who had petitioned the
General Court to be set off from Groton. On this plan of Harvard the
names of John Burk, John Burk, Jr., and John Davis, appear in opposition
to Houghton's petition.

The town of Harvard took its name from the founder of Harvard College,
probably at the suggestion of Jonathan Belcher, who was governor of the
province at the time and a graduate of the college.

     To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq'r. Cap't General and
     Governour in Chief The Hon'ble. The Council and the Honourable
     House of Representatives of His Majestys Province of the
     Massachusetts Bay in New England in General Court Assembled by
     Adjournment Decemb'r 16 1730

     The Memorial of Jonas Houghton Simon Stone Jonathan Whitney and
     Thomas Wheeler Humbly Sheweth

     That upon their Petition to this Great and Honourable Court in
     October last [the 9th] praying that a Certain Tract of Land
     belonging to Lancaster Stow and Groton with the Inhabitants thereon
     may be Erected into a Distinct and Seperate Township (and for
     Reasons therein Assigned) your Excellency and Honours were pleased
     to Order that the petitioners Serve The Towns of Lancaster Groton
     and Stow with a Copy of their said Petition that they may shew
     Cause if any they have on the first Thursday of the next Sessions
     why the prayers thereof may not be granted.

     And for as much as this great and Hon'ble. Court now Sitts by
     Adjournment and the next Session may be very Remote And your
     Memorialists have attended the Order of this Hon'ble: Court in
     serving the said Several Towns with Copys of the said Petition And
     the partys are attending and Desirous the hearing thereon may be
     brought forward y'e former order of this Hon'l Court
     notwithstanding.

     They therefore most humbly pray your Excellency & Honours would be
     pleased to Cause the hearing to be had this present Session and
     that a Certain day may be assigned for the same as your Excellency
     & Honours in your great wisdom & Justice shall see meet.

     And your Memorialists as in Duty bound Shall Ever pray.

    JONAS HOUGHTON
    SIMON STOON JUNER
    JONATHAN WHITNEY
    THOMAS WHELER

     In the House of Rep'tives Dec'r 17, 1730 Read and in Answer to this
     Petition Ordered That the Pet'rs give Notice to the Towns of
     Lancaster Groton and Stow or their Agents that they give in their
     Answer on the twenty ninth Inst't. why the Prayer of the Petition
     within referred to may not be granted.

     Sent up for Concurrence

     J QUINCY Sp'kr:

     In Council Dec. 18, 1730; Read and Concur'd.

     J WILLARD Secry

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 6-8.]

The next dismemberment of the Groton grant took place in the winter of
1738-39, when a parcel of land was set off to Littleton. I do not find a
copy of the petition for this change, but from Mr. Sartell's
communication it seems to have received the qualified assent of the
town.

     To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq'r Captain General &
     Governour in Chief &c the Honorable Council and House of
     Representatives in General Court assembled at Boston January 1,
     1738.

     May it please your Excellency and the Honorable Court.

     Whereas there is Petition offered to your Excellency and the
     Honorable Court by several of the Inhabitants of the Town of Groton
     praying to be annexed to the Town of Littleton &c.

     The Subscriber as Representative of said Town of Groton and in
     Behalf of said Town doth hereby manifest the Willingness of the
     Inhabitants of Groton in general that the Petitioners should be
     annexed to the said Town of Littleton with the Lands that belong to
     them Lying within the Line Petitioned for, but there being a
     Considerable Quantity of Proprietors Lands and other particular
     persons Lying within the Line that is Petitioned for by the said
     Petitioners. The Subscriber in Behalf of said Town of Groton & the
     Proprietors and others would humbly pray your Excellency and the
     Honorable Court that that part of their Petition may be rejected if
     in your Wisdom you shall think it proper and that they be sett off
     with the lands only that belong to them Lying within the Line
     Petitioned for as aforesaid, and the Subscriber in Behalf of the
     Town of Groton &c will as in Duty Bound ever pray &c.

     NATHANIEL SARTELL

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 300.]

     _John Jeffries_, Esq; brought down the Petition of _Peter Lawrence_
     and others of _Groton_, praying to be annexed to _Littleton_, as
     entred the 12th ult. Pass'd in Council, _viz._ In Council _January
     4th_, 1738. Read again, together with the Answer of _Nathanael
     Sartell_, Esq; Representative for the Town of _Groton_, which
     being considered, _Ordered_, That the Prayer of the Petition be so
     far granted as that the Petitioners with their Families & Estates
     within the Bounds mentioned in the Petition be and hereby are set
     off from the Town of _Groton_, and are annexed to and accounted as
     part of the Town of _Littleton_, there to do Duty and receive
     Priviledge accordingly.

     Sent down for Concurrence. Read and concur'd.

     [Journal of the House of Representatives (page 86), January 4,
     1738.]

In the autumn of 1738, many of the settlers living in the northerly part
of Groton, now within the limits of Pepperell, and in the westerly part
of Dunstable, now Hollis, New Hampshire, were desirous to be set off in
a new township. Their petition for this object was also signed by a
considerable number of non-resident proprietors, and duly presented to
the General Court. The reasons given by them for the change are found in
the following documents:--

     To His Excellency Jon'a. Belcher Esq'r. Captain General and
     Governour in Chief &c The Hon'ble. the Council and House of
     Rep'tives in General Court Assembled at Boston November the 29th
     1738

     The Petition of the Subscribers Inhabitants and Proprietors of the
     Towns of Dunstable and Groton.

     Humbly Sheweth

     That your Petitioners are Situated on the Westerly side Dunstable
     Township and the Northerly side Groton Township those in the
     Township of Dunstable in General their houses are nine or ten miles
     from Dunstable Meeting house and those in the Township of Groton
     none but what lives at least on or near Six miles from Groton
     Meeting house by which means your petitioners are deprived of the
     benefit of preaching, the greatest part of the year, nor is it
     possible at any season of the year for their familys in General to
     get to Meeting under which Disadvantages your pet'rs has this
     Several years Laboured, excepting the Winter Seasons for this two
     winters past, which they have at their Own Cost and Charge hired
     preaching amongst themselves which Disadvantages has very much
     prevented peoples Settling land there.

     That there is a Tract of good land well Situated for a Township of
     the Contents of about Six miles and an half Square bounded thus,
     beginning at Dunstable Line by Nashaway River So running by the
     Westerly side said River Southerly One mile in Groton Land, then
     running Westerly a Paralel Line with Groton North Line, till it
     comes to Townsend Line and then turning and running north to
     Grotton Northwest Corner, and from Grotton Northwest Comer by
     Townsend line and by the Line of Groton New Grant till it comes to
     be five miles and an half to the Northward of Groton North Line
     from thence due east, Seven miles, from thence South to Nashua
     River and So by Nashua River Southwesterly to Grotton line the
     first mentioned bounds, which described Lands can by no means be
     prejudicial either to the Town of Dunstable or Groton (if not
     coming within Six miles or thereabouts of either of their Meeting
     houses at the nearest place) to be taken off from them and Erected
     into a Seperate Township.

     That there is already Settled in the bounds of the aforedescribed
     Tract near forty familys and many more ready to come on were it not
     for the difficulties and hardships afores'd of getting to meeting.
     These with many other disadvantages We find very troublesome to Us,
     Our living so remote from the Towns We respectively belong to.

     Wherefore your Petitioners most humbly pray Your Excellency and
     Honours would take the premises into your Consideration and make an
     Act for the Erecting the aforesaid Lands into a Seperate and
     distinct Township with the powers priviledges and Immunities of a
     distinct and Seperate Township under such restrictions and
     Limitations, as you in your Great Wisdom shall see meet.

     And Whereas it will be a great benefit and Advantage to the Non
     resident proprietors owning Lands there by Increasing the Value of
     their Lands or rendering easy Settleing the same, Your Pet'rs also
     pray that they may be at their proportionable part according to
     their respective Interest in Lands there, for the building a
     Meeting-house and Settling a Minister, and so much towards Constant
     preaching as in your wisdom shall be thought proper.

     Settlers on the afore'sd Lands

    Obadiah Parker                 Will'm Colburn
    Josiah Blood                   Stephen Harris
    Jerahmal Cumings               Tho's Dinsmoor
    Eben'r Pearce                   Peter Pawer
    Abr'm Taylor Jun'r               Benj'a Farley
    Henry Barton                   Peter Wheeler
    Robert Colburn                 David Vering
    Philip Woolerick               Nath'l Blood
    William Adams                  Joseph Taylor
    Moses Procter                  Will'm Shattuck
    Tho's Navins

    Non Resident Proprietors

    Samuel Browne                  W Browne
    Joseph Blanchard               John Fowle Jun'r
    Nath Saltonstall               Joseph Eaton
    Joseph Lemmon                  Jeremiah Baldwin
    Sam'l Baldwin                 Daniel Remant
    John Malven                    Jon'a Malven
    James Cumings                  Isaac Farwell
    Eben'r Procter

     In the House of Representatives Dec'r 12th. 1738. Read and Ordered
     that the Petitioners Serve the Towns of Grotton and Dunstable with
     Coppys of the petition.

     In Council January 4'th. 1738.

     Read again and Ordered that the further Consideration of this
     Petition be referred to the first tuesday of the next May Session
     and that James Minot and John Hobson Esq'rs with Such as the
     Honourable Board shall joine be a Committee at the Charge of the
     Petitioners to repair to the Lands petitioned for to be Erected
     into a Township first giving Seasonable notice as well to the
     petitioners as to the Inhabitants and Non Resident Proprietors of
     Lands within the s'd Towns of Dunstable and Groton of the time of
     their going by Causing the same to be publish'd in the Boston
     Gazette, that they carefully View the s'd Lands as well as the
     other parts of the s'd Towns, so farr as may be desired by the
     Partys or thought proper, that the Petitioners and all others
     Concerned be fully heard in their pleas and Allegations for, as
     well as against the prayer of the Petition; and that upon Mature
     Consideration on the whole the Committee then report what in their
     Opinion may be proper for the Court to do in Answer there to Sent
     up for Concurrence.

     J QUINCY Sp'kr.

     In Council Jan'ry 9'th. 1738

     Read and Concurred and Thomas Berry Esq'r is joined in the Affair

     SIMON FROST Dep'ty. Sec'ry.

     Consented to

     J. BELCHER

     A true Copy Exam'd per Simon Frost, Dep'y Sec'ry.

     In the House of Rep'tives June 7'th: 1739

     Read and Concurred

     J QUINCY Sp'kr;

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 268-271.]

     The Committee Appointed on the Petition of the Inhabitants and
     Proprietors situated on the Westerly side of Dunstable and
     Northerly side of Groton, Having after Notifying all parties,
     Repaired to the Lands, Petitioned to be Erected into a Township,
     Carefully Viewed the same, Find a very Good Tract of Land in
     Dunstable Westward of Nashuway River between s'd River and Souhegan
     River Extending from Groton New Grant and Townsend Line Six Miles
     East, lying in a very Commodious Form for a Township, and on said
     Lands there now is about Twenty Families, and many more settling,
     that none of the Inhabitants live nearer to a Meeting House then
     Seven miles and if they go to their own Town have to pass over a
     ferry the greatest part of the Year. We also Find in Groton a
     sufficient Quantity of Land accommodable for settlement, and a
     considerable Number of Inhabitants thereon, that in Some Short Time
     when they are well Agreed may be Erected into a Distinct Parish;
     And that it will be very Form prayed for or to Break in upon
     Either Town. The Committee are of Opinion that the Petitioners in
     Dunstable are under such Circumstances as necessitates them to Ask
     Relief which will be fully Obtained by their being made Township,
     which if this Hon'ble. Court should Judge necessary to be done; The
     Committee are Further of Opinion that it Will be greatly for the
     Good and Interest of the Township that the Non Resident
     Proprietors, have Liberty of Voting with the Inhabitants as to the
     Building and Placing a Meeting House and that the Lands be Equally
     Taxed, towards said House And that for the Support of the Gosple
     Ministry among them the Lands of the Non Resident Proprietors be
     Taxed at Two pence per Acre for the Space of Five Years.

     All which is Humbly Submitted in the Name & by Order of the
     Committee

     THOMAS BERRY

     In Council July 7 1739

     Read and ordered that the further Consideration of this Report be
     referred to the next Sitting, and that the Petitioners be in the
     meantime freed from paying any thing toward the support of the
     ministry in the Towns to which they respectively belong

     Sent down for Concurrence

     J WlLLARD Sec'ry

     In the House of Rep'tives June 7: 1739 Read and Concurred

     J QUINCY Sp'kr:

     Consented to

     J BELCHER

     In Council Decem'r 27, 1739.

     Read again and Ordered that this Report be so far accepted as that
     the Lands mentioned and described therein, with the Inhabitants
     there be erected into a Separate & distinct precinct, and the Said
     Inhabitants are hereby vested with all Such Powers and Priviledges
     that any other Precinct in this Province have or by Law ought to
     enjoy and they are also impowered to assess & levy a Tax of Two
     pence per Acre per Annum for the Space of Five years on all the
     unimproved Lands belonging to the non residents Proprietors to be
     applied for the Support of the Ministry according to the Said
     Report.

     Sent down for Concurrence

     SIMON FROST Dep'y Sec'ry

     In the House of Rep'tives Dec 28. 1739 Read and Concur'd.

     J QUINCY Sp'kr:

     Janu'. 1: Consented to,

     J BELCHER

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 272, 273.]

While this petition was before the General Court, another one was
presented praying for a new township to be made up from the same towns,
but including a larger portion of Groton than was asked for in the first
petition. This application met with bitter opposition on the part of
both places, but it may have hastened the final action on the first
petition. It resulted in setting off a precinct from Dunstable, under
the name of the West Parish, which is now known as Hollis, New
Hampshire. The papers relating to the second petition are as follows:--

     To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esquire Captain General and
     Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of the
     Massachusetts Bay in New England, the Honourable the Council and
     House of Representatives of said Province, in General Court
     Assembled Dec. 12'th, 1739.

     The Petition of Richard Warner and Others, Inhabitants of the Towns
     of Groton and Dunstable.

     Most Humbly Sheweth

     That Your Petitioners dwell very far from the place of Public
     Worship in either of the said Towns, Many of them Eight Miles
     distant, some more, and none less than four miles, Whereby Your
     Petitioners are put to great difficulties in Travelling on the
     Lord's Days, with our Families.

     Your Petitioners therefore Humbly Pray Your Excellency and Honours
     to take their circumstances into your Wise and Compassionate
     Consideration, And that a part of the Town of Groton, Beginning at
     the line between Groton and Dunstable where inconvenient to Erect a
     Township in the it crosses Lancaster [Nashua] River, and so up the
     said River until it comes to a Place called and Known by the name
     of Joseph Blood's Ford Way on said River, thence a West Point 'till
     it comes to Townshend line &c. With such a part and so much of the
     Town of Dunstable as this Honourable Court in their great Wisdom
     shall think proper, with the Inhabitants Thereon, may be Erected
     into a separate and distinct Township, that so they may attend the
     Public Worship of God with more ease than at present they can, by
     reason of the great distance they live from the Places thereof as
     aforesaid.

     And Your Petitioners, as in Duty bound, shall ever Pray &c.

    Richard Warner
    Benjamin Swallow
    William Allin
    Isaac Williams
    Ebenezer Gilson
    Ebenezer Peirce
    Samuel Fisk
    John Green
    Josiah Tucker
    Zachariah Lawrence Jun'r
    William Blood
    Jeremiah Lawrence
    Stephen Eames

    "[Inhabitants of Groton]"

    Enoch Hunt
    Eleazer Flegg
    Samuel Cumings
    William Blanchard
    Gideon Howe
    Josiah Blood
    Samuel Parke
    Samuel Farle
    William Adams
    Philip Wolrich

    "[Inhabitants of Dunstable]"

    [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 274, 273.]

     Province of the Massachusetts Bay

     To His Excellency The Governour The Hon'ble Council & House of
     Rep'tives in Generall Court Assembled Dec'r 1739

     The Answer of y'e Subscribers agents for the Town of Groton to y'e
     Petition of Richard Warner & others praying that part of Said Town
     with part of Dunstable may be Erected into a Distinct & Seperate
     Township.

     May it please your Excellency & Hon'rs

     The Town of Groton Duely Assembled and Taking into Consideration
     y'e Reasonableness of said Petition have Voted their Willingness,
     That the prayer of y'e Petition be Granted as per their Vote
     herewith humbly presented appears, with this alteration namely That
     they Include the River (viz't Nashua River) over w'ch is a Bridge,
     built Intirely to accommodate said Petitioners heretofore, & your
     Respondents therefore apprehend it is but Just & Reasonable the
     same should for the future be by them maintain'd if they are Set of
     from us.

     Your Respondents Pursuant to y'e Vote Aforesaid, humbly move to
     your Excellency & Hon'rs That no more of Dunstable be Laid to
     Groton Then Groton have voted of, for one Great Reason that Induced
     Sundry of y'e Inhabitants of Groton to come into Said Vote was This
     Namely They owning a very Considerable part of the Lands Voted to
     be set of as afores'd were willing to Condesent to y'e Desires of
     their Neighbours apprehending that a meeting House being Erected on
     or near y'e Groton Lands & a minister settled it would Raise their
     Lands in Vallue but should considerable part of Dunstable be set of
     more then of Groton it must of course draw the Meeting House
     farther from y'e Groton Inhabitants which would be very hurtfull
     both to the people petitioners & those that will be Non Resident
     proprietors if the Township is made.

     Wherefore they pray That Said New Township may be Incorporated
     Agreeable to Groton Vote viz't Made Equally out of both Towns & as
     in Duty bound Shall Ever pray

    Nat'ell Sartell
    William Lawrence

    [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 378, 279.]

     At A Legall town Meeting of the Inhabitants & free holders of the
     town of Groton assembled December y'e 24th: 1739 Voted & Chose
     Cap't William Lawrance Madderator for said meeting &c:

     In Answer to the Petion of Richard Warnor & others Voted that the
     land with the Inhabitance mentioned in said Petion Including the
     Riuer from Dunstable Line to o'r. ford way Called and Known by y'e.
     Name of Joseph Bloods ford way: be Set of from the town of Groton
     to Joyn with sum of the westerdly Part of the town of Dunstable to
     make a Distinct and Sepprate town Ship Prouided that their be no:
     More taken from Dunstable then from Groton in making of Said new
     town. Also Voted that Nathaniel Sawtell Esq'r. and Cap't. William
     Lawrance be Agiants In the affair or Either of them to wait upon
     the Great and Generial. Cort: to Vse their Best in Deauer to set
     off the Land as a fores'd so that the one half of y'e said New town
     may be made out of Groton and no: more.

     Abstract Examined & Compaird of the town book of Record for Groton
     per

     Iona't. Sheple Town Clark

     Groton Decem'br: 24'th: A:D: 1739

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 281.]

     Province of y'e Mass'tts Bay

     To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq'r Governour &c To The Hon'd.
     His Majesty's Councill & House of Representatives in Gen'll Court
     Assembled December 1739

     Whereas some few of the Inhabitants of Groton & Dunstable have
     Joyned in their Petition to this Hon'd. Court to be erected with
     Certain Lands into a Township as per their Petition entered the
     12'th: Curr. which prayer if granted will very much Effect y'e.
     Quiet & Interest of the Inhabitants on the northerly part of Groton

     Wherefore the Subscribers most Humbly begg leave To Remonstrate to
     y'or Excellency & Hon'rs. the great & Numerous Damages that we and
     many Others Shall Sustain if their Petition should be granted and
     would Humbly Shew

     That the Contents of Groton is ab't. forty Thousand Acres Good Land
     Sufficient & happily Situated for Two Townships, and have on or
     near Two Hundred & Sixty Familys Setled there with Large
     Accomodations for many more

     That the land pray'd for Out of Groton Could it be Spared is in a
     very Incomodious place, & will render a Division of the remaining
     part of the town Impracticable & no ways Shorten the travel of the
     remotest Inhabit'nts.

     That it will leave the town from the northeast and to the Southwest
     end at least fourteen miles and no possibillity for those ends to
     be Accomodated at any Other place which will render the
     Difficulties we have long Laboured under without Remidy

     That part of the lands Petitioned for (will when This Hon'd. Court
     shall see meet to Divide us) be in & near the Middle of one of y'e.
     Townships

     And Althô the number of thirteen persons is there Sett forth to
     Petition. it is wrong and Delusive Severall of them gave no Consent
     to any Such thing And to compleat their Guile have entered the
     names of four persons who has no Interest in that part of the town
     viz Swallow Tucker Ames & Green

     That there is near Double the number On the Lands Petit'd. for and
     Setled amongst them who Declare Against their Proceedings, & here
     Signifie the Same

     That many of us now are at Least Seven miles from Our meeting And
     the Only Encouragement to Settle there was the undeniable
     Accomodations to make An Other town without w'ch. We Should by no
     means have undertaken

     That if this their Pet'n. Should Succed--Our hopes must
     Perish--thay by no means benifitted--& we put to all the Hardships
     Immaginable.

     That the whole tract of Land thay pray may be Taken Out of groton
     Contains about Six or Seven Thousand Acres, (the Quantity and
     Situation may be Seen on y'e. plan herewith And but Ab't. four Or
     five hundred Acres thereof Owned by the Petit'rs. and but very
     Small Improvements On that. Under all w'ch. Circumstances wee
     Humbly conceive it unreasonable for them to desire thus to Harrase
     and perplex us. Nor is it by Any means for the Accomodation of
     Dunstable thus to Joyn who have land of their Own Sufficient and
     none to Spare without prejudicing their begun Settlement Wherefore
     we most Humbly pray Y'or. Excellency & Hon'rs. to compassionate Our
     Circumstances and that thay may not be set off and as in Duly bound
     &c

    Benj'a. Parker          John Woods
    Josiah Sartell          Samuel Shattuck iu
    Joseph Spoaldeng        James Larwance
      Juner                 Jonathan Shattuck
    Nath'll. Parker         James Shattuck
    Jacob Lakin             John Chambrlen
    Thomas Fisk             John Cumings
    Isaac Lakin             Henery Jefes
    John Shattuck           David Shattuck
    John Scott              Seth Phillips
    Benj'n. Robines         Samuel Wright
    Isaac Woods             John Swallow
    Enoch larwance          William Spoalding
    John Blood              Jonathan Woods
    James Green             Wiliam Cumings
    Joseph Blood            Nathaniel Lawrence iu

   [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 282-284.]

     Wee the Sub'rs: Inhab'ts: of y'e Town of Dunstable & Resident in
     that part of it Called Nissitisitt Do hereby authorize and Fully
     Impower Abraham Taylor Jun'r. and Peter Power to Represent to
     Gen'll. Court our unwillingness that any Part of Dunstable should
     [be] sett off to Groton to make a Township or Parish and to Shew
     forth our Earness Desire that a Township be maide intirely out out
     [_sic_] off Dunstable Land, Extending Six mils North from Groton
     Line which will Bring the on the Line on y'e Brake of Land and Just
     Include the Present Setlers: or otherwise As y'e Ho'll. Commitee
     Reported and Agreeable to the tenour thereoff as The Hon'rd Court
     shall see meet and as Duly bound &c

     Tho's: Dinmore, and 20 others.

     Dunstable Dece'r; y'e 21'st; 1739

     These may sertifie to y'e Hon'rd. Court that there is Nomber of
     Eleven more y't has not signed this Nor y'e Petetion of Richard
     Worner & others, that is now setled and About to setle

     [Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 277.]

TUBEROSES.

By LAURA GARLAND CARR.

  In misty greenhouse aisles or garden walks,
    In crowded halls or in the lonely room,
  Where fair tuberoses, from their slender stalks,
    Lade all the air with heavy, rich perfume,
  My heart grows sick; my spirits sink like lead,--
    The scene before me slips and fades away:
  A small, still room uprising in its stead,
    With softened light, and grief's dread, dark array.
  Shrined in its midst, with folded hands, at rest,
    Life's work all over ere 'twas well begun,
  Lies a fair girl in snowy garments dressed,
    And all the place with bud and bloom o'errun;
  Pinks, roses, lilies, blend in odorous death,
  But over all the tuberose sends its wealth,
  Seeming to hold the lost one by its breath
  While creeping o'er our living hearts in stealth.
  O subtle blossoms, you are death's own flowers!
  You have no part with love or festal hours.

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.

BY RUSSELL STURGIS, JR.

[Illustration: GEORGE WILLIAMS. Founder of Young Men's Christian
Associations.]

There is an old French proverb which runs: "L'homme propose, et Dieu
dispose," which is but the echo of the Scripture, "A man's heart
deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." In truth, God alone
sees the end from the beginning.

From the beginning men have been constantly building better than they
knew. No unprejudiced man who looks at history can fail to see from how
small and apparently unimportant an event has sprung the greatest
results to the individual, the nation, and the world. The Christian, at
least, needs no other explanation of this than that his God, without
whose knowledge no sparrow falleth to the ground, guides all the affairs
of the world. Surely God did not make the world, and purchase the
salvation of its tenants by the sacrifice of his Son, to take no further
interest in it, but leave it subject either to fixed law or blind
chance! Indeed the God who provided for the wants of his people in the
wilderness is a God who changeth not. The principles which once guided
him must guide him to-day and forever. There never has been a time when
to the open eye it was not clear that he provides for every want of his
creatures. Did chance or the unassisted powers of man discover coal,
when wood was becoming scarce? and oil and gas from coal, when the whale
was failing? Cowper's mind was clear when he said:--

  "Deep in unfathomable mines
    With never-failing skill,
  He treasures up his bright designs,
    And works his gracious will."

If in his temporal affairs God cares for man, much more will he do for
his soul. Great multitudes of young men came to be congregated in the
cities, and Satan spread his nets at every street-corner to entrap them.

In 1837, George Williams, then sixteen years of age, employed in a
dry-goods establishment, in Bridgewater, England, gave himself to the
service of the Lord Jesus Christ. He immediately began to influence the
young men with him, and many of them were converted. In 1841, Williams
came to London, and entered the dry-goods house of Hitchcock and
Company. Here he found himself one of more than eighty young men, almost
none of them Christians. He found, however, among them a few professed
Christians, and these he gathered in his bedroom, to pray for the rest.
The number increased--a larger room was necessary, which was readily
obtained from Mr. Hitchcock. The work spread from one establishment to
another, and on the sixth of June, 1844, in Mr. Williams's bedroom the
first Young Men's Christian Association was formed.

In 1844, one association in the world: in November, 1851, one
association in America, at Montreal; in December, one month after, with
no knowledge on the part of either of the other's plan, one association
in the United States, at Boston. Was it a mere hap that these two groups
formed simultaneously the associations which were always to unite the
young Christian men of the two countries, and to grow together, till
to-day the little one has become a thousand?

Forty years ago, one little association in London: to-day Great Britain
dotted all over with them; one hundred and ninety in England and Wales;
one hundred and seventy-eight in Scotland, and twenty in Ireland. France
has eight districts, or groups, containing sixty-four associations.
Germany, divided into five _bunds_, has four hundred; Holland, its
eleven provinces, with three hundred and thirty-five; Romansch
Switzerland, eighty-seven; German Switzerland, one hundred and
thirty-five; Belgium, eighteen; Spain, fourteen; Italy, ten Turkey in
Europe, one, at Philippopolis; Sweden and Norway, seventy-one; Austria,
two, at Vienna and Budapesth; Russia, eight, among them Moscow and St.
Petersburg; Turkey in Asia, nine; Syria, five, at Beirût, Damascus,
Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Nazareth; India, five; Japan, two; Sandwich
Islands, one, at Honolulu; Australia, twenty-seven; South Africa, seven;
Madagascar, two; West Indies, three; British Guiana, one, at Georgetown;
South America (besides), three; Canada and British Provinces, fifty-one.
In the United States, seven hundred and eighty-six.

In all, nearly twenty-seven hundred, scattered over the world, and all
the outgrowth of forty years. It has been said that the sun never rises
anywhere that it is not saluted by the British reveille. Look how
quickly the organization of young men has stretched its cordon round the
world, and dotted it all over with the tents of its conflict for them
against the opposing forces of the evil one.

[Illustration: CEPHAS BRAINERD, ESQ.
Chairman of the International Executive Committee Y.M.C.A.]

What are its characteristics?

1. It is the universal church of Christ, working through its young men
for the salvation of young men. In the words of a paper, read at the
last world's conference, at London:--

"The fundamental idea of the organization, on which all subsequent
substantial development has been based, was simply this: that in the
associated effort of young men connected with the various branches of
the church of Christ lies a great power to promote their own development
and help their fellows, thus prosecuting the work of the church among
the most-important, most-tempted, and least-cared-for class in the
community."

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. IN MONTREAL, CANADA.]

The distinct work for young men was thus emphasized at the Chicago
convention in 1863, in the following resolutions presented by the
Reverend Henry G. Potter, then of Troy, and now assistant bishop of the
diocese of New York:--

"Resolved, That the interests and welfare of young men in our cities
demand, as heretofore, the steadfast sympathies and efforts of the Young
Men's Christian Associations of this country.

"Resolved, That the various means by which Christian associations can
gain a hold upon young men, and preserve them from unhealthy
companionship and the deteriorating influences of our large cities,
ought to engage our most earnest and prayerful consideration."

2. It is a Christian work. It stands upon the basis of the faith of the
church of all ages, which is thus set forth in the formula of this
organization.

The convention in 1856 promptly accepted and ratified the Paris basis,
adopted by the first world's conference of the associations, in the
following language:--

"The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to unite those young men
who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the
Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their doctrine and in
their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his
kingdom among young men."

This was reaffirmed in the convention of 1866 at Albany. In 1868, at the
Detroit convention, was adopted what is known as the evangelical test,
and at the Portland convention of 1869 the definition of the term
evangelical; they are as follows:--

"As these associations bear the name of Christian, and profess to be
engaged directly in the Saviour's service, so it is clearly their duty
to maintain the control and management of all their affairs in the hands
of those who love and publicly avow their faith in Jesus the Redeemer as
divine, and who testify their faith by becoming and remaining members of
churches held to be evangelical: and we hold those churches to be
evangelical which, maintaining the Holy Scriptures to be the only
infallible rule of faith and practice, do believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ (the only begotten of the Father, King of kings and Lord of
lords, in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead, bodily, and who was
made sin for us, though knowing no sin, bearing our sins in his own body
on the tree) as the only name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved from everlasting punishment."

But while the management is thus rightly kept in the hands of those who
stand together upon the platform of the church of Christ, the benefits
and all other privileges are for all young men of good morals, whether
Greek, Romanist, heretic, Jew, Moslem, heathen, or infidel. Its field,
the world. Wherever there are young men, there is the association field,
and an extended work must be organized. Already in August, 1855, the
importance of the work made conference necessary, and thirty-five
delegates met at Paris, of whom seven were from the United States, and
the same number from Great Britain.

In 1858, a second conference was held at Geneva, with one hundred and
fifty-eight delegates. In 1862, at London, were present ninety-seven
delegates; in 1865, at Elberfeld, one hundred and forty; in 1867, at
Paris, ninety-one; in 1872, at Amsterdam, one hundred and eighteen; in
1875, at Hamburg, one hundred and twenty-five; in 1878, at Geneva, two
hundred and seven,--forty-one from the United States; in 1881, in
London, three hundred and thirty-eight,--seventy-five from the United
States.

At the conference of 1878, in Geneva, a man in the prime of life, and
partner in a leading banking-house of that city, was chosen president.
He spoke with almost equal ease the three languages of the
conference--English, French, and German. Shortly after that convention
Mr. Fermand gave up his business and became the general secretary of the
world's committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations. He traveled
over the whole continent of Europe, visiting the associations, and then
came to America to make acquaintance with our plans of work. Now
stationed at Geneva, with some resident members of the convention, he
keeps up the intercourse of the associations through nine members
representing the principal nations. I have spoken of the three languages
of the conference. It is a wonderful inspiration to find one's self in a
gathering of all nations, brought together by the love of one person,
each speaking in his own tongue, praising the one name, so similar in
each,--that name alone in each address needing no interpretation.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. IN NEW YORK.]

The conference meets this year, in August, at Berlin, when probably as
many as one hundred delegates will be present from the United States.

But inter-association organization has gone much further in this country
than elsewhere, and communication is exceedingly close between the nine
hundred associations of America.

The first conception of uniting associations came to the Reverend
William Chauncey Langdon, then a layman, and a member of the Washington
Association, now rector of the Episcopal Church at Bedford,
Pennsylvania. Mr. McBurney, in his fine Historical Sketch of
Associations, says: "Many of the associations of America owe their
individual existence to the organization effected through his wise
foresight. The associations of our land, and in all lands, owe a debt of
gratitude to Mr. Langdon far greater than has ever been recognized."
Oscar Cobb, of Buffalo, and Mr. Langdon signed the call to the first
convention, which assembled on June 7, 1854, at Buffalo. This was the
first conference of associations held in the English-speaking world.
Here was appointed a central committee, located at Washington, and six
elsewhere.

In 1860, Philadelphia was made the headquarters. The confederation of
associations and its committee came to an end in Chicago, June 4, 1863,
and the present organization with its international executive committee
was born, with members increasing in number. The committee now numbers
thirty-three, two being resident in New York City.

In the year 1865, a committee was appointed by the convention at
Philadelphia. The president of this convention became the chairman of
the international executive committee, consisting of ten members
resident in New York City, and twenty-three placed at different
prominent points in the United States and British Provinces. There is
also a corresponding member of the committee in each State and province,
and means of constant communication between the committee and each
association, and between the several associations, through the Young
Men's Christian Association Watchman, a sixteen-paged paper, published
each fortnight in Chicago.

On the sixteenth day of April, 1883, the international committee, which
had been superintending the work since 1865, was incorporated in the
State of New York. Cephas Brainerd, a lawyer of New York City, a direct
descendant of the Brainerds of Connecticut, and present owner of the
homestead, has always been chairman of the committee, and, from a very
large practice, has managed to take an immense amount of time for this
work, which has more and more taken hold on his heart,--and here let me
say that I know no work, not even that of foreign missions, which takes
such a grip upon those who enter upon it. Time, means, energy, strength,
have been lavishly poured out by them. Mr. Brainerd and his committee
work almost as though it were their only work, and yet each member of
the committee is one seemingly fully occupied with his business or
professional duties. See the members of the Massachusetts committee, so
fired with love for this work that, in the gospel canvasses of the
State, after working all day, many of them give from forty to fifty
evenings, sometimes traveling all night to get back to their work in the
morning. It is no common cause that thus draws men out of themselves for
others. Then, too, I greatly doubt where there are such hard-worked men
as the general secretaries,--days and evenings filled with work that
never ends; the work the more engrossing and exacting because it
combines physical and mental with spiritual responsibility. We who know
this are not surprised to find the strength of these men failing. Those
who employ them should carefully watch that relief is promptly given
from time to time as needed. There are now more than three hundred and
fifty of these paid secretaries. Now, look back over the whole history
of the associations, and can you doubt that he who meets the wants of
his creatures has raised up the organization for the express purpose of
saving young men as a class? And to do this he employs the church
itself--not the church in its separate organizations, but the church
universal. A work for all young men should be by the young men of the
whole church. First, because it is young manhood that furnishes the
common ground of sympathy. Second, because the appliances are too
expensive for the individual churches. Large well-situated buildings,
with all possible right attractions, are simply necessary to success in
this work. These things are so expensive that the united church only can
procure them. That in Philadelphia cost $700,000; in New York, $500,000;
in Boston, more than $300,000; in Baltimore, $250,000; in Chicago,
$150,000; San Francisco, $76,000; Montreal, $67,000; Toronto, $48,000;
Halifax, $36,000; West New Brighton, New York, $19,000; at the small
town of Rockport, Massachusetts, about $4,000; and at Nahant, $2,000. In
all these are eighty buildings, worth more than $3,000,000, while as
many more have land or building-funds. Third, how blessedly this sets
forth the vital unity of Christ's church, "that they may all be one,"
and also distinguishes them from all other religious bodies. "Come out
from among them and be ye separate."

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. AT JACKSONVILLE, ILL.]

This association work is divided into local (the city or town), state or
home mission, the international and foreign mission.

The local is purely a city or town work. The "state," which I have
called the home mission, is thoroughly to canvass the State, learn where
the association is needed, plant it there, strengthen all existing
associations, and keep open communication between all. This is also the
international work, but its field is the United States and British
Provinces, under the efficient management of this committee.

As has been said, the convention of 1866 appointed the international
committee, which was directed to call and arrange for state and
provincial conventions. This is the result: in 1866, no state or
provincial committee or conventions. Now, thirty-three such committees,
thirty-one of which hold state or provincial conventions, together with
a large number of district and local conferences.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF Y.M.C.A. AT LYNN, MASS.]

In 1870, Mr. R.C. Morse, a graduate of Yale College, and a minister of
the Presbyterian Church, became the general secretary of the committee
and continues such to-day. Of the missionary work of the committee the
most conspicuous has been that at the West and South. In 1868, the
convention authorized the employment of a secretary for the West. This
man, Robert Weidansall, a graduate of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg,
was found working in the shops of the Pacific Railroad Company at Omaha.
He had intended entering the ministry, but his health failed him. To-day
there is no question as to his health--he has a superb physique, travels
constantly, works extremely hard, and has been wonderfully successful.
When he began there were thirty-nine associations in the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There was only one secretary,
and no building. Now there are nearly three hundred associations,
spending more than one hundred and ten thousand dollars; twenty general
secretaries, and five buildings. Nine States are organized, and five
employ state secretaries. The following words from a recent Kansas
report sound strangely, almost like a joke, to one who remembers the
peculiar influence of Missouri upon the infant Kansas: "Kansas owes much
of her standing to-day to the fostering care and efforts of the Missouri
state executive committee." In 1870, two visitors were sent to the
Southern States. There were then three associations only between
Virginia and Texas. There are now one hundred and fifty-seven.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. AT TORONTO, CANADA.]

Previous to the Civil War the work was well under way, but had been
almost entirely given up. Our visitors were not at once received as
brethren, but Christian love did its work and gradually all differences
were forgotten by these Christians in the wonderful tie which truly
united them, and when, in 1877, the convention met at Richmond, not only
harmony prevailed, but it seemed as though each were trying to prove to
the other his intenser brotherly love. The cross truly conquered. No one
who was present can ever forget those scenes, or cease to bless God for
what I truly believe was the greatest step toward the uniting again of
North and South. Mr. T.K. Cree has had charge of this work since the
beginning. Not only has sectional spreading of associations been done by
the committee, but, in the language of the report already quoted:
"Special classes of young men, isolated in a measure from their fellows
by virtue of occupation, training, or foreign birth, have from time to
time so strongly appealed to the attention of the American associations
as to elicit specific efforts in their behalf." Thus, in 1868, the first
secretary of the committee was directed to devote his time to railroad
employees. For one year he labored among them. The general call on his
time then became so imperative that he was obliged to leave the
railroad work. This work had been undertaken at St. Albans, Vermont, in
1854, and in Canada in 1855. The first really important step in this
work was at Cleveland in 1872, when an employee of a railroad company,
who had been a leader in every kind of dissipation, was converted. He
immediately began to use his influence among his comrades, and such was
the power of the Spirit that the Cleveland Association took up the work
and began holding meetings especially for these men. In 1877, Mr. E.D.
Ingersol was appointed by the international committee to superintend the
work. There has been no rest for him in this. A leading railroad
official says: "Ingersol is indeed a busy man. Night and day he travels.
To-day a railroad president wants him here, to-morrow a manager summons
him. He is going like a shuttle back and forth across the country,
weaving the web of railroad associations." When he entered on the work
there were but three railroad secretaries; now there are nearly seventy.
There are now over sixty branches in operation; and the work is going on
besides at twenty-five points; almost a hundred different places,
therefore, where specific work is done for railroad men. They own seven
buildings, valued at thirty-three thousand two hundred and fifty
dollars. The expense of maintaining these reading-rooms is over eighty
thousand dollars, and more than two thirds of this is paid by the
corporations themselves; most of the secretaries are on the regular
pay-rolls of the companies. How can this be done? Simply because the
officers see such a return from this expenditure in the morals and
efficiency of their men that they have no doubt as to the propriety of
the investment.

Mr. William Thaw, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Company, writes:
"This work is wholly good, both for the men and the roads which they
serve." Mr. C. Vanderbilt, first vice-president of the New York Central
and Hudson River Railroad, writes: "Few things about railroad affairs
afford more satisfactory returns than these reading-rooms." Mr. J.H.
Devereux, of Cleveland, president of the Cleveland, Columbus,
Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railway, writes: "The association work has
from the beginning (now ten years ago) been prosecuted at Cleveland
satisfactorily and with good results. The conviction of the board of
superintendents is that the influence of the room and the work in
connection with it has been of great value to both the employer and the
employed, and that the instrumentalities in question should not only be
encouraged but further strengthened." Mr. John W. Garrett, president of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, says: "A secretary of the Young
Men's Christian Association, for the service of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company, was appointed in 1879, and I am gratified to be able
to say that the officers under whose observation his efforts have been
conducted informed me that this work has been fruitful of good results."
Mr. Thomas Dickson, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company,
writes: "This company takes an active interest in the prosperity of the
association, and will cheerfully co-operate in all proper methods for
the extension of its usefulness." Mr. H.B. Ledyard, general manager of
the Michigan Central Railroad Company, writes: "I have taken a deep
interest in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association among
railroad men, and believe that, leaving out all other questions, it is a
paying investment for a railroad company."

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A. IN CHICAGO.]

These are a few out of a great number of assurances from railroad men of
the value of this organization. In Chicago, the president of one of the
leading railroads, the general superintendent of another, and other
officials, are serving on the railroad committee of the Young Men's
Christian Association, and it is hoped that at every railway centre
there may soon be an advisory committee of the work. Such a committee is
now forming in Boston. This work should interest every individual,
because it touches every one who ever journeys by train. Speak as some
men may, faithlessly, concerning religion, where is the man who would
not feel safer should he know that the engineer and conductor of his
train were Christians? men not only caring for others, but themselves
especially cared for.

Frederick von Schluembach, of noble birth, an officer in the Prussian
army, was a leader there in infidelity and dissipation to such a degree
as to drive him to this country at the time of our Civil War. He went
into service and attained to the rank of captain. His conversion was
remarkable and he brought to his Saviour's service all the intense
earnestness and zeal that he had been giving to Satan. He joined the
Methodists and became a minister among them. His heart went out to the
multitudes of his countrymen here, and especially to the young; thus he
came in contact with the central committee and was employed by them to
visit German centres. This was in 1871, in Baltimore, where took place
the first meeting of the national bund of German-speaking associations.
At their request Mr. Von Schluembach took the field, which has resulted,
after extreme opposition on the part of the German churches, in eight
German Young Men's Christian Associations, besides an equal number of
German committees in associations. When we remember that there are more
than two million Germans in this country, and that New York is the
fourth German city in the world, we can scarcely overestimate the
greatness of this work. Mr. Von Schluembach was obliged on account of
ill health to go to Germany for a while, and, recovering, formed
associations there,--the one in Berlin being especially powerful, some
of "Caesar's household" holding official positions in it. He has now
returned, and with Claus Olandt, Jr., is again at work among his
countrymen. His first work on returning was to assist in raising fifty
thousand dollars for the German building in New York City.

Mr. Henry E. Brown has always since the war been intensely interested in
the colored men of the South. Shortly after graduation at Oberlin
College, Ohio, he founded, and was for two years president of, a college
for colored men in Alabama. He is now secretary for the committee among
this class at the South, and speaks most encouragingly of the future of
this work.

In 1877, there was graduated a young man named L.D. Wishard, from
Princeton College. To him seems to have been given a great desire for an
inter-collegiate religious work. He, with his companions, issued a call
to collegians to meet at the general convention of Young Men's Christian
Associations at Louisville. Twenty-two colleges responded and sent
delegates. Mr. Wishard was appointed international secretary. One
hundred and seventy-five associations have now been formed, with nearly
ten thousand members. These colleges report about ninety Bible-classes
during the past year. Fifteen hundred students have professed conversion
through the association; of these forty have decided to enter the
ministry, and two of these are going to the foreign fields.

The work is among the men most likely to occupy the highest position in
the country, hence its importance is very great. Mr. Wishard is quite
overtaxed and help has been given him at times, but he needs, and so
also does the railroad work, an assistant secretary.

There is a class of men in our community who are almost constantly
traveling. Rarely at home, they go from city to city. The temptations to
these men are peculiar and very great. In 1879, Mr. E.W. Watkins,
himself one of this class of commercial travelers, was appointed
secretary in their behalf. He has since visited all the principal
associations, and has created an interest in these neglected men. Among
the appliances which are productive of the most good is the traveler's
ticket, which entitles him to all the privileges of membership in any
place where an association may be. A second most valuable work is the
hotel-visiting done by more than fifty associations each week. The
hotel-registers are consulted on Saturday afternoon, and a personal note
is sent to each young man, giving him the times of service at the
several churches and inviting him to the rooms. Is it necessary to call
the attention of business men to the importance to themselves of this
work? Is it not patent? You cannot follow the young man whose honesty
and clear-headedness is of such consequence to you. God has put it into
the heart of this association to try and care for those men, upon whom
your success largely depends. Can you be blind to its value? Every
individual man who employs commercial travelers should aid the work. But
how is all this great work for young men carried on? It requires now
thirty thousand dollars a year to do it. Of this sum New York pays more
than one half, Pennsylvania about one sixth, and Massachusetts less than
one fifteenth. But to do this work properly,--this work of the universal
church of Christ for young men,--at least one third more, or forty
thousand dollars a year, is needed. There is another need, however, much
harder to meet--the men to fill the places calling earnestly for general
secretaries. There are nearly three hundred and fifty paid employees in
the field, representing about two hundred associations. Since every
association should have a secretary, and there are nearly, if not quite,
nine hundred, the need will be clearly seen. This need it is proposed to
meet by training men in schools established for the purpose. Something
of this has already been done in New York State and at Peoria, Illinois,
and there must soon be a regular training-school established to
accommodate from fifty to one hundred men.

This is a very meagre sketch of a great work. How inadequately it
portrays it, none know so well as those who are immediately connected
with it. Could you have been present at a dinner given a few months ago
to the secretaries of the international committee, and heard each man
describe his field and its needs; could you have seen the intensity with
which each endeavored to make us feel what he himself realized, that his
special field was the most important,--you would have come to our
conclusion: that each field was all-important, and that each man was in
his proper place, peculiarly fitted for it and assigned to it by the
Master.

A prominent divine has lately said: "I believe the Young Men's Christian
Association to be the greatest religious fact of the nineteenth
century."

What has been effected by this fact? Thousands of young men in all parts
of the world have been brought to Jesus Christ. It has been the
training-school for Moody, Whittle, and hosts of laymen who are to-day
proclaiming the simple Gospel. It has organized great evangelistic
movements both here and abroad. It formed the Christian Commission,
which not only relieved the wants of the body during our war, but sent
hundreds of Christ's missionaries to the hospitals and battle-fields. It
has gloriously manifested the unity of Christ's true church. It stands
to-day an organic body, instinct with one life, spreading its limbs
through the world, active, alert, ready at any moment to respond to the
call of the church, and enables it to present an unbroken front to
superstition and infidelity, which already rear their brazen heads
against Christ and his church, and will soon be in open rebellion and
actual warfare, and which Christ at his coming will forever destroy.

[NOTE.--Through the kindness of Messrs. Harper and Brothers, of New
York, we present to our readers the two portraits in this article. For
the cuts of the buildings we are indebted to the Chicago Watchman,
mention of which is made above.--R.S., Jr.]

GEORGE FULLER.

BY SIDNEY DICKINSON.

The death of George Fuller has removed a strong and original figure from
the activity of American art, and added a weighty name to its history.
To speak of him now, while his work is fresh in the public mind, is a
labor of some peril; so easy is it, when the sense of loss is keen, to
make mistakes in judgment, and to allow the friendly spirit to prevail
over the judicial, in an estimation of him as a man and a painter. Yet
he has gone in and out before us long enough to make a study of him
profitable, and to give us, even now, some occasion for an opinion as to
the place he is likely to occupy in the annals of our native art. Mr.
Fuller held a peculiar position in American painting, and one which
seems likely to remain hereafter unfilled. He followed no one, and had
no followers; his art was the outgrowth of personal temperament and
experience, rather than the result of teaching, and although he studied
others, he was himself his only master. In other men whose names are
prominent in our art, we seem to see the direction of an outside
influence. Stuart and Copley confessed to the teaching of the English
school of their day--a school brilliant but formal, and holding close
guiding-reins over its disciples; Benjamin West became denationalized,
so far as his art was concerned; Allston showed the impression of
England, Italy, and Flanders, all at once, in his refined and thoughtful
style, and Hunt manifested in every stroke of his brilliant brush the
learned and facile methods that are in vogue in the leading ateliers of
modern Paris. In these men, and in the followers whom their preëminent
ability drew after them, we perceive the dominant impulse to be of alien
origin; Fuller alone, of all the great ones in our art, was in thought
and action purely and simply American. The influence that led others
into the error of imitation, seems to have been exerted unavailingly
upon his self-reliant mind. We shall search vainly if we look elsewhere
than within himself for the suggestions upon which his art was
established. Superficial resemblances to other painters are sometimes to
be noted in his works, but in governing principle and habit of thought
he was serenely and grandly alone.

We must regard him thus if we would study him understandingly, and gain
from our observation a correct estimate of his power. We think of our
other painters as in the crowd, and amid the affairs of men, and detect
in their art a certain uneasiness which the bustle about them
necessarily caused. We perceive this most in Hunt, who was emphatically
a man of the world, and in Stuart, who shows in some of his later work
that his position as the court painter of America, while it aided his
purse and reputation, harmed his repose; least in Allston, whose tastes
were literary, whose love was in retirement, and who would have been a
poet had not circumstances first placed a brush and palette in his
hands. Allston, however, enjoyed popularity, and was courted by the best
society of his time, and was not permitted, although he doubtless longed
for it, to indulge to its full extent his chaste and dreamy fancy. It
may be said without disrespect to his undoubted powers, that he would
have been less esteemed in his own day if his art had not been largely
conventional, and thus easily understood by those who had studied the
accepted masters of painting. He lacked positive force of idea, as his
works clearly show,--that quality which was among the most
characteristic traits of Fuller's method, and made him at once the
greatest genius, and the man most misunderstood, among contemporary
American painters.

Although men who have not had "advantages" in life are naturally prone
to regret their deprivation, they frequently owe their success to this
seeming bar against opportunity. We have often seen illustrated in our
art the fact that favorable circumstances do not necessarily insure
success, and now from the life of Fuller we gain the still more
important truth, that power is never so well aroused as in the face of
obstacles. Few men endured more for art than he; none have waited more
uncomplainingly for a recognition that was sure to come by-and-by, or
received with greater serenity the approbation which the dull world came
at last to bestow. His history is most wholesome in its record of
steadfast resting upon conviction, and teaches quite as strongly as his
pictures do, the value of absorption in a lofty idea.

If the saying that those nations are the happiest that have no history
is true of men, Mr. Fuller's life must be regarded as exceptionally
fortunate. Considered by itself, it was quiet and uneventful, and had
little to excite general interest; but when viewed in its relation to
the practice of his art, it is found to be full of eloquent suggestions
to all who, like him, have been appointed to win success through
suffering. The narrative of his experience comprises two great
periods--the preparation, which covered thirty-four years, and the
achievement, to the enjoyment of which less than eight years were
permitted. The first period is subdivided into two, of which one
embraces eighteen years, from the time when, at the age of twenty, he
entered upon the study of his art, to his retirement from the world to
the exile of his Deerfield farm; the other including sixteen years of
seclusion, until, at the age of fifty-four, he came forth again to
proclaim a new revelation. The first part of his career may be dismissed
without any extended consideration. Its record consists of an almost
unrelieved account of struggle, indifferent success, and lack of
appreciation and encouragement, in the cities of Boston and New York.
In Boston he appeared as the student, rather than the producer of works,
and laid the foundation of his style in observation of the paintings of
Stuart, Copley, Allston, and Alexander,--all excellent models upon which
to base a practice, although destined to show little of their influence
upon the pictures which he painted in the maturity of his power. It is
not to be doubted, however, that all these men, and particularly Stuart,
made an impression upon him which he was never afterward wholly able to
conceal. We may see even in some of his latest works, under his own
peculiar manner, suggestions of Stuart, particularly in portraits of
women, which in pose and expression, and to a considerable degree in
color, show much of that dignity and composure which so distinguish the
female heads of our greatest portrait-painter. He always admired Stuart,
and in his later years spoke much of him, with strong appreciation for
his skill in describing character, and the refined taste which is such a
marked feature of his best manner.

His work in Boston made no particular impression upon the public mind,
and after five years' trial of it he removed to New York, where he
joined that brilliant circle of painters and sculptors which, with its
followers, has made one of the strongest impressions, if not the most
valuable or permanent, upon the art of America. During his residence in
that city he devoted himself almost exclusively to portrait-painting, in
which he developed a manner more distinguished for conventional
excellence than any particular individuality. It was remarked of him,
however, that he was disposed, even at this time, to seek to present the
thought and disposition of his subjects more strongly than their merely
physical features, and among his principal associates excited no little
appreciative comment upon this tendency. In some of his portraits of
women of that period, wherein he evidently attempted to present the
superior fineness and sensibility of the feminine nature, this effort
toward ideality is quite strongly indicated; they are painted with a
more hesitating and lingering touch than his portraits of men, and with
a certain seeming lack of confidence, which throws about them a thin
fold of that veil of etherialism and mystery which so enwraps nearly all
his pictures of the last eight years. This treatment, however, seems to
have been at that time more the result of experiment than conviction;
later in life he wrought its suggestions into a system, the principles
of which we may study further on. His earlier work, as has been said,
was chiefly confined to portrait-painting, although it is a significant
fact that among his pictures of that time are two which show that the
feeling for poetical and imaginative effort was working in him. At a
comparatively early age he painted an impression of Coleridge's
Genevieve, which showed marked evidence of power, and later, after
seeing a picture of the school of Rubens, which was owned by one of his
artist friends, produced a study which he afterward seems to have
developed into his well-known Boy and Bird; a Cupid-like figure, holding
a bird closely against its breast. These exercises, however, seem to
have been, as it were, accidental, and had little or no effect in
leading him to the practice in which he afterward became absorbed.

His life in New York, which was interrupted only by three winter trips
to the South, whither he went in the hope of securing some commissions
for portraits, was an uneventful experience of very modest pecuniary
success, and brought him as the only official honor of his life an
election as associate of the National Academy of Design. He then went to
Europe, where, for eight months, he carefully studied the old masters in
the principal galleries of England and the Continent. This visit to the
Old World was of incalculable value to him in the method of painting
which he afterward made his own, and, in point of fact, gave him his
first decided inclination toward it. Its best influence, however, was in
giving him confidence in himself, and assurance of the reasonableness of
the views which he had already begun to entertain. He had been led
before to regard the old masters as superior to rivalry and incapable of
weakness, superhuman characters, indeed, whose works should discourage
effort. Instead of this, however, he found them to be men like himself,
with their share of defect and error, yet made grand by inspiration and
idea, and this knowledge greatly encouraged him, a man who of all
painters was at once the most modest and devoted. Most painters who
resort to Europe to study the old art find there one or two men whose
works make the strongest appeals to their liking, and, devoting their
attention chiefly to these, they show ever after the marks of an
influence that is easily traced to its source; Fuller, however, observed
with broader and more penetrating view, and, as his works show, seems to
have studied men less than principles, and to have been filled with
admiration, not so much for particular practices as for the common and
lofty spirit in which the greatest of the world's painters labored. The
colorists and chiaroscurists, such as Titian on the one hand and
Rembrandt on the other, seem to have impressed him particularly, and of
all men Titian the most strongly, as many of his pictures testify, and
as such glowing works as the Arethusa and the Boy and Bird unmistakably
show. Yet it was not in matter or in manner, but in the expression of a
great truth, that the old masters most strongly affected him. He felt at
once, and grew to admire greatly, their repose and modesty, calm
strength and undisturbed temper, and drew from them the important
principle that true genius may be known by its confessing neither pride
nor self-distrust. The serenity of their style he sought at once to
appropriate, and thereafter worked as much as possible in imitation of
their evident purpose, striving simply to do his best, without any
question of whether the result would please, or another's effort be
reckoned as greater than his own. It became a governing principle with
him never to seek to outdo any one, or to feel anything but pleasure at
another's success, for he was not a man who could fail to recognize the
truth that envy is fatal to a fine mood in any labor. Few artists, we
may well believe, study the great art of the world in this spirit, or
derive from it such a lesson.

On his return to America, he betook himself to his native town of
Deerfield, to assume for a time the care of the ancestral farm, which
the death of his father had placed in his hands. He had returned from
Europe full of inspired ideas, and was apparently ready to go on at once
in new paths of labor; but the voice of duty seemed to him to call him
away from his chosen life, and he obeyed its summons without hesitation.
Moreover, he loved the country and the family homestead, and may have
perceived, also, that the condition of art in Boston and New York was
not such as to encourage an original purpose, and that, if he was ever
to gain success, he must develop himself in quiet, and aloof from the
distracting influences of other methods and men. It is easy to perceive,
with the complete record of his life before us, that this experience of
labor and thought upon the Deerfield farm, although at first sight
forming an hiatus in his career, was really its most pregnant period,
and that without it the Fuller who is now so much admired might have
been lost to us, and the spirit that appears in his later works never
have been awakened. It is, indeed, a spirit that can find no congenial
dwelling-place in towns, but makes its home in the fields and on the
hillsides, to which the poet-painter, depressed but not cast down by his
experience of life, repaired to work and dream. For sixteen years, in
the midst of the fairest pastoral valley of New England, he lived in the
contemplation of the ideas that had passed across his mind in the quiet
of European galleries, and now became more definite impressions. The
secret of those years, with their deep, slow current of refined and
melancholy thought, is now sealed with him in eternal sleep; but from
the works that remain to us as the matured fruits of his life, we may
gain some hint of his experiences. It is not to be questioned that he
drew from the New-England soil that he tilled, and the air that he
breathed, an inspiration which never failed him. The flavor of the quiet
valley fills all his canvases. We see in them the spaciousness of its
meadows, the inviting slope of its low hills, the calm grandeur of its
encircling mountains, the mysterious gloom and wholesome brightness of
its changing skies, the atmosphere of history and romance which is its
breath and life. Song and story have found many incidents for treatment
in this locality. Not far from the farm where Fuller's daily work was
done, the tragedy of Bloody Brook was enacted; the fields which he
tilled have their legend of Indian ambuscade and massacre; the soil is
sown, as with dragon's teeth, with the arrow-heads and battle-axes of
many bitter conflicts; even to the ancient house where, in recent years,
the painter's summer easel was set up, a former owner was brought home
with the red man's bullet in his breast. The menace of midnight attack
seems even now to the wanderer in the darkness to burden the air of
these mournful meadows, and tradition shows that here were felt the
ripples of that tide of superstitious frenzy which flowed from Salem
through all the early colonies. No place could have furnished more
potent suggestions to the art-idealist than this, and although it did
not lead him to paint its tragic history (for no man had less liking for
violence and passion than he), it impressed him deeply with its
concurrent records of endurance and devotion. Nor did it invite him, as
it might have done in the case of a weaker man, into mere description,
but having aroused his thought, it submitted itself wholly to the
treatment of his strong and original genius. He approached his task with
a broad and comprehensive vision, and a loving and inquiring soul. He
was not satisfied with the revelation of his eyes alone, but sought
earnestly for the secret of nature's life, and of its influence upon
the sensitive mind of man. He perceived the truth that nature without
man is naught, even as there is no color without light, and strove
earnestly to show in his art the relations that they sustain to each
other. He saw, also, that the material in each is nothing without the
spirit which they share in common, and thus he painted not places, but
the influence of places, even as he painted not persons merely, but
their natures and minds. It is for this reason that, although we see in
all his pictures where landscape finds a place the meadows, trees, and
skies of Deerfield, we also see much more,--the general and unlocated
spirit of New-England scenery.

This is the true impressionism--a system to which Fuller was always
constant in later life, and which he developed grandly. He was, however,
as far removed as possible from that cheap, shallow, and idealess school
of French painters whose wrongful appropriation of the name
"Impressionist" has prejudiced us against the principle that it
involves. The inherent difference between them and Fuller lies in
this--he exercised a choice, and thought the beautiful alone to be
worthy of description, while they selected nothing, but painted
indiscriminately all things, with whatever preference they indicated
lying in the direction of the strong and ugly, as being most imperative
in its demands for attention. Fuller's subjects were always sweet and
noble, and it followed as a matter of course that his treatment of them
was refined and strong. His idea was also broad; he sought for the
typical in nature and life, and grew inevitably into a continually
widening and more comprehensive style. He taught himself to lose the
sense of detail, and to strike at once to the centre, presenting the
vital idea with decision, and departing from it with increasing
vagueness of treatment, until the whole area of his work was filled with
a harmonious and carefully graduated sense of suggestion. He arrived at
his method by an original way of studying the natural world. He did not,
as most artists do, take his paint-box and easel and devote himself to
description, and from his studies work out the finished picture.
Instead, he disencumbered himself of all materials for making memoranda,
and merely stood before the scene that impressed him, looking upon it
for hours at a time. Then he betook himself to his studio, and there
worked from the impression that his mind had formed under the
guiding-hand of his fancy, the result being that nature and human
thought appeared together upon the canvas, giving a double grace and
power. The process was subtle, and not to be described clearly even by
the painter himself, who found his work so largely a matter of
inspiration that he was never able to make copies of his pictures. They
grew out of his consciousness in a strange way whose secret he could not
grasp; to the end of his life he was an inquirer, always hesitating, and
never confident in anything except that art was truth, and that he who
followed it must walk in modesty and humbleness of spirit before the
greatness of its mystery. A man of ideas and sentiment, remote from the
clamor of schools and the complaints of critics, with recollections of
the grandest art of the world in his mind, and beautiful aspects of
nature continually before his eyes, he could hardly fail to work out a
style of marked originality. The effort, however, was slow; one does not
erase on the instant the impressions that eighteen years of study and
practice have made, and Fuller found his life at Deerfield none too long
to rid him of his respect for formulas.

His experience there was a continuous round of study. He completed
little, although he painted much, inexorably blotting out, no matter
after what expenditure of labor, the work that failed to respond to his
idea, and striving constantly to be simple, straightforward, and
impressive, without being vapid, arrogant, or dogmatic. He possessed in
large measure that rarest of gifts to genius--modesty--and approached
the secrets of nature and life more tremblingly as he passed from their
outer to their inner circles. It was a necessity of his peculiar feeling
and manner of study that he should develop a lingering, hesitating,
half-uncertain style of painting, which, however variously it may be
viewed by different minds, is undoubtedly of the utmost effectiveness in
describing the principles, rather than the facts, of nature and life.
This way of presenting his idea, which some call a "mannerism,"--a term
that has wrongly come to have a suggestion of contempt attached to
it,--was with him a principle, and employed by him as the one in which
he could best express truth. Art may justly claim great latitude in this
endeavor, and schools and systems arrogate too much when they seek to
define its limitations. Absolute truth to nature is impossible in art,
which is constrained to lie to the eye in order to satisfy the mind, and
continually transposes the harmonies of earth and sky into the minor
key. Fuller offended the senses often, but he touched that nerve-centre
in the heart, without which impressions are not truly recognized. He won
liking, rather than startled men into it, and his art, instead of
approaching, retired and beckoned. His figures never "came out of the
frame at you," as is the common expression of admiration nowadays. He
put everything at a distance, made it reposeful, and drew about figure
and landscape an atmosphere which not only made them beautiful, but
established a strange and reciprocal mood of sentiment between them. He
alone of all American painters filled the whole of his canvas with air;
others place a barrier to atmosphere in their middle distance, and it
comes no farther, but he brought it over to the nearest inch of
foreground. This treatment, while it aided the quietness and restful
mystery of his pictures, also strengthened his constant effort to avoid
marked contrasts. He sought always a general impression, and ruthlessly
sacrificed everything that called attention to itself at the expense of
the whole. Yet he was not a man of swift insight in comprehensive
matters, nor one who could be called clever. Weighty in thought as in
figure, he moved slowly and in long waves, and although of marked
quickness in intuition, he seemed to distrust this quality in himself
until he had proved it by reason. He received his motive as by a spark
quicker than the lightning's, and when he began a work saw its intention