BIRTH.--BOYHOOD
ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS first saw the light at the old Marble Ridge
farmhouse, on the 25th of March, 1818. He was a delicate infant, and it
was impossible for his mother, with her other little ones and the
engrossing labors of the farmhouse, to bestow upon him the care his
condition required. His grandmother, one day visiting the farm, was
shocked to see him still in his cradle, though three years old, and,
remarking that unless he was taught soon he never would walk, insisted
upon taking him home with her, where, under her gentle and experienced
hands, he quickly learned to run about. After returning home his father
used to plunge him, fresh from bed, into a hogshead of cold water every
morning.
Such heroic treatment would be sure to kill or cure, and perhaps no
better proof could be given of the native vigor of his constitution than
the fact that he lived, and became strong, active, and hardy.
Even as a child he was active, daring, and adventurous. He used to climb
the lofty elms in front of his grandfather's house, and cling like a
squirrel to the topmost branches, laughing and chattering defiance to
his grandmother's commands and entreaties to come down.
One afternoon Abiel Holt, the hired man on the farm, went a-fishing for
pickerel, and took Isaac, who was then a very little urchin just able to
run about cleverly. After catching a fine string of fish, they came to
the old causeway which crossed the water where now stands the dam under
the Essex Railroad, but which was then submerged several feet deep in
the water for some distance.
A rude footway had been contrived here by driving down forked stakes at
suitable intervals along the causeway, and placing loose poles in the
crotches from stake to stake, forming one row for the feet and another a
little higher for the hands.
The contrivance was rickety and unsafe to the last degree; the poles
swayed and bent at every step, and it required great care and the use of
both feet and hands to avoid a ducking. It was now time to drive up the
cows, which were pasturing beyond the water; so Holt, bidding the child
remain there, crossed over after them, taking with him the string of
fish, which he hung up on one of the stakes on the farther side, for he
wanted the pleasure of taking his spoils home in triumph, and feared, if
he left them with Isaac, the latter would take them and run home while
he was away. On returning he was struck with consternation to find no
trace of either the child or the fish. He carefully scrutinized the
water without result, and at length slowly returned to the farmhouse,
filled with misgivings, and was not a little relieved to find both his
charge and his fish safe at home. The child had worked his way across
the water by the poles, although, standing on the lower row, he could
hardly reach the upper one with extended arms, and had returned, holding
the string of fish in his teeth, in the same way. His father ever after
was particularly fond of relating this anecdote in proof of the daring
and adventurous spirit so early manifested.
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF GENERAL STEVENS, ANDOVER, MASS.
_From Historical Sketches of Andover, by Sarah Loring
Bailey_]
He was a sensitive, earnest child, not demonstrative, but having great
affection and tenderness, which he lavished upon his mother. Her early
death was his first and greatest misfortune. When he was only seven
years old, his father, who always drove furiously, in driving with
his wife in his wagon rapidly around a corner, overset the vehicle. They
were thrown out violently upon the ground, and the unfortunate mother
struck upon her head. From this shock she never really recovered, and
died two years after the unhappy accident. During this period Isaac
attached himself closely to his mother, and acquired no slight influence
over her. The early death of this tender and devoted wife and mother
well-nigh destroyed the happiness of her family. Isaac ever cherished
her memory with the tenderest veneration. He thought that from her were
inherited great part of his talents, and that had she lived he would
have been spared the injudicious forcing of his mind in his childhood,
to which he always declared he owed a real mental injury.
After the mother's death, a housekeeper was employed to provide for the
helpless little flock, and attend to the household duties; and two years
later the father married his second wife, Ann Poor.
Isaac was sent to school before his fifth year, where from the first he
displayed great power of memory, close application, and devotion to
study. His teachers were astonished to find that he did not stop at the
end of the day's lesson, but habitually learned far beyond it, often
reciting page after page. It was said that there was no need of telling
Isaac how much to study; it was enough to show him where to begin, and
he would learn more than the teacher cared to hear. His first teacher,
Miss Susan Foster, said with astonishment one day, after hearing his
lesson in arithmetic, "There is no use for me to teach him arithmetic;
he is already far beyond me in that."
After his tenth year he attended Franklin Academy, in North
Andover,--Old Put's school, as it was usually and more familiarly
styled,--kept by Mr. Simon Putnam, who attained great repute as a
teacher. This was situated on the hill north of the meeting-house, on
land given for the purpose by grandfather Jonathan. Here he studied the
usual English branches. Among his schoolmates were William Endicott,
Jr., the well-known philanthropist, Hon. Daniel Saunders, the late
George B. Loring, and Major George T. Clark. It appears that wrestling
was a favorite sport with the active and hardy boys at this school.
His father, proud and ambitious on his account, kept him constantly at
school, and urged on to still greater efforts this earnest, ardent
nature, intense in everything he undertook. The evil effects of such
mistaken treatment soon made themselves felt. His mind became wearied
and dull from overtasking. The teacher advised rest. The boy, then but
ten years old, begged his father to take him out of school and let him
work on the farm, telling him that he could no longer study; that he
could not learn his lessons. But the father refused, not realizing the
son's condition, and bade him go back to school and study what he could.
Isaac then went to his uncle Nathaniel, who owned the Cochichewick
woolen mills, situated two miles below the farm, and obtained his
permission to work in the factory for a year. He prevailed upon his
grandmother to let him lodge at her house in order to be nearer the
factory; and having thus decided upon his course, went home and informed
his father of the arrangements he had made, who, astonished at the
judgment and resolution of the boy, acquiesced. So Isaac went to work in
the factory, lodging at his grandfather's, rising long before daylight
that he might eat a hurried breakfast, walk a mile to the factory, and
begin the day's work at five o'clock in the morning, and toiling ten to
twelve hours a day. He entered the weavers' room, where he soon learned
to manage a loom. The best weavers were women, it seems, and able to
run two looms apiece. Isaac at once determined to excel the most
capable; and before he left the factory, succeeded in reaching the goal
of his ambition, and managed four looms unassisted.
After a year of this unremitting labor, he left the mills. As he was
returning home with the scanty sum he had earned in his pocket, taking
it to his father, he passed a shop where some tempting hot gingerbread
was displayed for sale, and felt an intense longing to buy a
penny-worth; but reflecting that his earnings belonged to his father,
and it would be wrong for him to spend any of them, he overcame the
desire and went home. But when he handed the money to his father, and
asked for a cent to buy the gingerbread with, he felt stung to the quick
by the latter's refusal. In truth, the father's hard struggle with
poverty and adverse circumstances had narrowed his noble nature. Too
much had life become to him nothing but hard work, self-sacrifice, and a
severe sense of duty. He did not appreciate the sensitive nature of a
child, and its needs of sympathy, recreation, and occasional indulgence.
Directly across the road from the house was a small pool called the
frog-pond. Isaac selected a corner of this pond for his garden, filled
it up with stones, and covered them with rich earth brought from a
distance in his little cart with great pains and labor. He eagerly
seized every moment that could be spared from school and his unceasing
round of morning and evening chores to devote to this darling project.
At last the garden was prepared, and planted with his own favorite
seeds. But his father, fearing that it might distract and take up too
much time from his studies and duties about the farm, rudely uprooted
his tenderly cared-for plants, and put in potatoes instead.
On another occasion his father's injudicious urging nearly proved
fatal. Isaac was helping in the hay-field, and was working with such
ardor and had accomplished so much that his father was actually
astonished. Instead of restraining, he praised him without stint. Under
this stimulus the ambitious boy redoubled his exertions until he was
prostrated by a sunstroke, resulting in a raging fever, from which he
barely escaped with life after a severe sickness.
On another occasion, when twelve years old, he was working in the
hay-field, pitching hay upon the cart; he was badly ruptured, and had to
be carried to the house. As soon as he was able to travel he went alone
to Boston, and sought out Dr. Warren, a noted surgeon, and laid his case
before him. Dr. Warren was so much struck with the lad's courage and
intelligence that he refused to accept any fee. "If you do exactly what
I tell you, you will get well," he said, "and I know you will do so from
looking in your face." The surgeon had a truss made, and prescribed
treatment, but all the remainder of his life Isaac was obliged to wear
the truss, although he outgrew the injury in a measure until it broke
out afresh in Mexico from over-exertion.
Measured by modern conditions, it was a severe and laborious home life
in which the farmer's boy grew up, but it was a wholesome one, and well
adapted to bring out all his powers. Morning and evening, throughout the
year, he had his round of duties, feeding and milking the cows, feeding
the pigs, cutting and bringing in wood, etc. During the winter he rose
long before daylight to attend to these chores and shovel snow from the
paths, then after a hasty breakfast trudged away to school, and on
returning again resumed the round of unending farm work. In summer there
was no school for three or four months, and then he worked on the farm,
hoeing corn, making hay, driving oxen, and performing all the hard and
varied labors of a New England farmer's son. But the New England farmers
of that day were the owners of the soil. They knew no superiors. The
Revolutionary struggle, as recent to them as the great Rebellion is to
us, was fresh and vivid in their minds, and stimulated noble ideas of
liberty and national independence. The standard of personal honesty,
manhood, and morals, bequeathed from their Puritan ancestry, was high.
Such was the moral atmosphere of Isaac Stevens's household, heightened
by his own earnest, philanthropic, and elevated sentiments. All his
children were intellectual and high-minded, and nothing can be more
touching than the constant ambition and striving of his five daughters
for education and self-improvement. All became teachers, but died young,
victims of consumption.
Nor was the life of the youth nothing but a round of hard work and
privation. If he worked hard and studied hard, he enjoyed play with
equal zest, and shared the rougher sports of those days with his cousins
and other boys of his age. They were more pugnacious and rougher than
nowadays. Wrestling was a common sport, and boyish fights and scuffles
were usual.
At the age of fifteen he entered Phillips Academy in Andover. Nathan W.
Hazen, Esq., a well-known and respected lawyer of the town, furnished
him board and lodgings, in return for which he took care of the garden,
and did the chores about the place. One of his schoolmates, describing
his first appearance at the academy, said: "The door opened, and there
quietly entered an insignificant, small boy, carrying in his arms a load
of books nearly as large as himself. But the impression of
insignificance vanished as soon as one regarded his large head, earnest
face, and firm, searching, and fearless dark hazel eye."
He remained at the academy over a year. As usual, he took the front
rank from the beginning. His reputation as a scholar, especially in
mathematics, extended beyond the school. Besides his studies he took
sole care of Mr. Hazen's garden, a half acre in extent, groomed the
horse, milked the cow, and fed them, cut and brought in the wood, and
did many other jobs about the house, performing an amount of labor, as
Mr. Hazen declared, sufficient to dismay many a hired man. He studied
early in the morning and late at night. His power of concentrating his
mind upon any subject was extraordinary. His industry was untiring. The
impress this boy of fifteen made upon those with whom he came in contact
during his stay at this place is really remarkable. Mr. Hazen, who
proved a considerate friend and adviser to the struggling youth, relates
that every evening Isaac would bring his chair close to the office
table, at which the former was accustomed to read or write, in order to
avail himself of the light, and would work out mathematical problems on
his slate. He would remain quietly with his hand to his head in deep
thought for a little time, when suddenly he would shower a perfect
rainstorm of figures upon his slate without hesitation, or erasure,
oftentimes completely filling it. Generally the correct result was
reached; but when the solution was not found the first time, he would
rapidly wipe off every figure and begin again as before. His mind always
sought out and mastered the bottom principle. It was remarked that,
whenever he had once solved a problem, he could unhesitatingly solve all
others of the same character.
On one occasion a mathematician of some note, who had just published a
new arithmetic, brought his work to the academy, and tested the
acquirements of the scholars by giving them his new problems to solve.
When Isaac was called to the blackboard, he astonished the author and
the teacher alike by the ease and rapidity with which he solved every
example. They plied him again and again with the most difficult
problems, but he mastered them in every instance. "Well, sir," exclaimed
the author, somewhat piqued, "I think you could make the key to this
book." Isaac took the book, and in three days returned it with every
example worked out.
A very difficult problem was sent from Yale College to the academy.
While the teachers and scholars were puzzling over it, Isaac sat in
thought for half an hour with his hand to his head, then rapidly worked
out the problem on his slate and presented the solution.
Young as he was, it seems that he had thought enough on religious
subjects to become a decided Universalist and Unitarian. A religious
revival took place while he was at the academy, and many of the scholars
were brought within its influence. Among others, one of the teachers
became "converted," and sought all means to promote a similar experience
among his pupils. In order to remove the stumbling-blocks of doubt and
ignorance, he offered to answer any questions they might propound on
religious topics. The first question Isaac put, "Can a sincere
Universalist be saved?" was met by a decided and uncompromising "No."
But the youth plied the unfortunate zealot with such queries that he was
forced to confess his inability to answer them, and to withdraw his
offer. Once, when he wanted the whole class to attend one of the revival
meetings, he put it to them that all who were willing to dispense with
the afternoon session and attend the meeting should rise. All promptly
stood up except Isaac, who resolutely kept his seat. "Every one in favor
except Stevens," exclaimed the teacher with some bitterness, realizing
the protest against his own bigotry. In truth, the youth's sense of
right had been shocked by the doctrines he heard advanced; he was
strongly opposed to such revival meetings, and his earnest nature would
not bend in a matter of principle.
At one of these meetings his two sisters, Hannah and Susan, yielded to
the exhortations and influences of the occasion, and took their seats on
the converts' or mourners' bench, as it was called. Perceiving this,
Isaac immediately marched up to the front, and made them both leave the
church with him, no slight proof of his influence over them, older than
himself. In fact, while they felt great pride in his talents, his
sisters had come still more to respect and lean upon his sound judgment
and firm will. He lavished upon them all the great tenderness and
affection of his strong and earnest nature.
During his boyhood he was affected with excessive diffidence, or
bashfulness. With characteristic resolution and good sense, he set
himself to overcome this weakness. He made it a point always to address
any one whose presence inspired this awkward feeling, but, he said, it
was years before he overcame it.
After a year and four months of this severe application, Isaac completed
his course at Phillips Academy. He wished to study law with Mr. Hazen,
but that gentleman discouraged the idea. At this juncture his uncle,
William Stevens, suggested West Point, and wrote to Mr. Gayton P.
Osgood, the member of Congress for the North Essex District, in which
Andover was situated, inquiring if there was an appointment in his gift,
and suggesting Isaac's name. Mr. Osgood replied that there was no
vacancy. But uncle William was not satisfied; he wrote to William C.
Phillips, the member representing the South Essex District, by whom he
was informed that no cadet had been appointed from Mr. Osgood's
district. Accordingly he formally made application in behalf of his
nephew. A lawyer by profession, and cashier of the Andover bank, he was
a man of some influence. Mr. Hazen and other friends joined their
recommendations. Mr. Phillips exerted a favorable influence, and
although there were other candidates with more influential backing, Mr.
Osgood bestowed upon Isaac the desired appointment. Both uncle William
and Mr. Hazen declared that the recommendations had little weight, and
that Mr. Osgood selected him on account of his reputation for ability
and scholarship.