friends of Middlebury College had presented his name in connection with
the office of President of that institution, and added: "Whether Dr.
Waite will accept the position, if elected, we are not informed, but of
his qualifications there can be no doubt. Graduated from a kindred
institution, he is a firm believer in the usefulness of the smaller
college.... To his other qualifications are added the executive skill
and indomitable energy which are needed to place Middlebury College upon
the footing with similar institutions to which its honorable position in
the past so justly entitles it."
Among other labors, he is preparing for early publication by D. Lothrop
& Co. a work upon the Indian Races of North America; and is also
Secretary of the Inter-State Commission on Federal Aid to Education. Few
men have a wider circle of devoted friends among educated young men, a
fact in some degree accounted for by the ready and helpful sympathy and
practical wisdom with which he responds to the numerous demands made
upon him for aid and counsel, by those who are perplexed as to the
choice of a calling or are seeking entrance to some field of labor.
There are many such, within the writer's knowledge, who owe him debts
which they will never cease to acknowledge with gratitude. An evidence
of the esteem in which he is held by college men, is afforded by the
fact that one of the oldest of college societies, with chapters in
twenty or more leading colleges, including Harvard, Brown, Cornell,
Williams, Hamilton, etc., chose him as orator at its semi-centennial
anniversary, observed in September of last year, in the Academy of
Music, in New York.
To these notes relating to a family whose history is so linked with the
beginnings of colonial life in Massachusetts, we append the following
inscription from one of the three tombs of Marshal Wayte's family, still
standing, in good preservation, in the old King's Chapel Ground, on
Tremont St., in Boston:
RICHARD WAYTE
Aged 84 years
Died 17 Sept. 1680
COLONEL CHRISTOPHER TOPPAN.
BY ONE OF HIS DESCENDANTS.
In the May number of the Bay State for 1884 is an article on the
promontory Boar's Head, and the adjoining town of Hampton, New
Hampshire, which contains a mention of Colonel Christopher Toppan, who
employed in his time many men there in boat and ship building, and in
other branches of industry. He was a man so strongly marked in mind and
character, and so identified with the local prosperity of his day and
generation, that some further facts about him may be noted.
Christopher Toppan was the son of Dr. Edmund Toppan, a physician of
Hampton, and the grandson of Dr. Christopher Toppan, a Congregational
minister of learning and ability, settled from 1696 until his death,
1747, over the first church in Newbury, Mass. Christopher Toppan married
Sarah Parker, daughter of Hon. William Parker of Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, and sister of Bishop Samuel Parker of Boston, so many years
rector of Trinity Church.
The children of Christopher and Sarah Toppan were Abigail, who died
unmarried at the age of ninety-six years; Sarah, who married Dr.
Nathaniel Thayer, who had a long and able pastorate, severed only by his
death, over the Unitarian Church in Lancaster, Mass.; Edmund Toppan, a
lawyer who lived and died in Hampton, N. H.; Mary Ann, who married Hon.
Charles H. Atherton of Amherst, N. H.
Of the grandchildren of Christopher Toppan may be mentioned Hon.
Christopher S., son of Edmund Toppan, who lived and died a prominent
merchant of Portsmouth, N. H. He left his salary as mayor so funded as
to furnish every year a Thanksgiving dinner to the poor of the city. As
that anniversary comes round, his name may be seen on the walls of the
almshouse, with appropriate mottoes of gratitude, and his memory is
fragrant to a class of citizens whom, in his life-time, he delighted to
aid.
Among the children of Charles H. and Mary Ann (Toppan) Atherton was
Charles Gordon Atherton, a lawyer of Nashua, N. H., who represented New
Hampshire in Congress, for successive terms in the House and in the
Senate. Every year but one from the time he was twenty-one, he had held
political office until his sudden death at the beginning of Franklin
Pierce's administration in which, had he lived, he would have had,
doubtless, a prominent part. He was an ultra and zealous democrat,
differing in this respect from the political faith of his fathers; and
so strenuous was he in the advocacy of State rights that he introduced
into Congress the twenty-first rule against the right of petition--a
rule which the efforts of "The Old Man Eloquent," John Quincy Adams,
caused to be rescinded. So obnoxious a measure fastened upon Atherton
the nickname of Charles Gag Atherton; and many an anti-slavery writer in
bitter philippic contrasted his course with that of his grandfather,
Hon. Joshua Atherton, who, early in the history of New Hampshire, was an
able and fearless advocate of the abolition of slavery.
Two of the sons of Dr. Nathaniel and Sarah (Toppan) Thayer were the
well-known successful and liberal bankers,--John Eliot and Nathaniel
Thayer of Boston,--whose wise and generous gifts to the cause of liberal
education give their names an honored place among the benefactors of the
Commonwealth. A younger son, Rev. Christopher Toppan Thayer, was, for
many years, a faithful and beloved pastor of the Unitarian Church in
Beverly, Mass.
Christopher Toppan was not only shrewd and enterprising in his private
business, but a pioneer in every project which would benefit the
community around him. He assumed responsibilities, invested money, and
hired labor in building the turnpike and other public improvements. He
was a leader in matters of religion and education as well as of secular
interest. When the Congregational Church and Society of Hampton wished
to build a meeting-house, the committee wrote him a letter stating the
reasons why a certain valuable and centrally situated piece of land
owned by him would be the most advantageous site for the proposed
building. His reply was in the laconic style characteristic of his
manner of doing good:--
GENTLEMEN,--If you want my land, you may have it.
CHRISTOPHER TOPPAN.
He invited the clergyman to make it his home for a year at his house,
thus removing some of the self-denials of an early settlement in a
country parish. He did much toward the establishment of Hampton Academy,
then a pioneer and very useful institution of the kind in that part of
the State, and one at which Rufus Choate and other men of mark fitted
for college. He offered to the preceptress also a home in his family, in
order that a well-educated and refined woman might find it more pleasant
and profitable to teach in the village. The hospitality of his house was
proverbial. The old mansion still stands, a large, low, two-story yellow
house, with long front and side yards, and a grassy lawn between them
and the road, with massive, protecting elms, twice as high as the house
in front and around it; spacious barns extend a little in the rear on
one side, and a simple old garden of fruit, flowers, and vegetables on
the other. This was originally one of the four garrison houses of the
town in the old times of terror and defence from Indian incursions; and
it would be difficult to find now a more pleasant old-fashioned country
house of equal age, with its physiognomy of generous hospitality and
unobtrusive refinement and good sense.
Christopher Toppan was an influence in character as well as a stimulus
in business to those around him. He taught them to save part of their
earnings, to secure as early as possible a piece of land and a home. In
few but pointed words he reproved thriftless and idle ways, and his
respect and approbation were sought and valued. What Colonel Toppan said
upon any matter was quoted and remembered as if it decided the question,
long after men left his employment, and had an independence of their
own. Nor was the gratitude for his aid and influence always confined to
the first generation. Within a few years, two solid men of business
sought out Hampton, and inquired especially for the house which formerly
belonged to Col. Christopher Toppan. They visited the spot, and looked
with reverence at the situation, the trees, the old house, and
everything that belonged to it. Their grandfather had come to this
country a poor and friendless boy, and at the age of twelve had been
taken into the kitchen here to wait on the family. The patience with
which his blunders had been borne, and the kindness with which he had
been treated, he had rehearsed to his children's children. He was sent
to school, and told he must learn to read and write and cipher if he
wanted to be a man, but being a dull pupil he was often discouraged, and
the Colonel used to call him into the sitting-room, as it was called,
and teach him himself in the evening. He gave him a little money for
certain extra services on condition he set it down on paper, and saved a
little every month. Thus commenced the habits of industry, economy, and
exactness which made the subsequent prosperity of the man, who used to
recount to his grandsons his early poverty and hardships, the kind home
he found, and dwell with grateful pleasure on every trait and habit of
the Colonel. "Now, boys," he said, "be sure, when you grow up and can
afford it, that you go into New Hampshire and see where I used to live
as a boy, and if the house of Colonel and Madam Toppan is still
standing, with the beautiful elms and all."
Verily the good men do springs up, they themselves know not where, and
blesses, they know not whom.
SOCIAL LIFE IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND.
BY REV. ANSON TITUS.
There is much value in knowing of the past social life of New England.
By regarding the ways and manners which were, we are the better prepared
for the duties which are. In entering into the labors of others, we
should know what those labors were.
At the outset we must regard the singular oneness of purpose in the
minds of our New England ancestors. To serve God unmolested was the
ruling idea of those who led in the settlement of Boston, Dorchester,
Salem, and Plymouth. The hardship of laws and social oppression
stimulated many more to join those who came from a religious motive. But
those who came, came with a deep purpose to make these parts their home.
They brought their families with them. This made the settlers more
contented in living amid the new scenes, with privations they had not
known. The early settlers in many instances came in such numbers from a
given section that they brought their minister with them. There was a
great bond of sympathy between those who thus came together. The new
communities became as one home. Add to this the fact of the settlers
living within a mile of the meeting-house, often meeting with each other
on Sunday and at the midweek meetings for town purposes, for the drill
of the military companies, and having the same hopes and fears regarding
the Indians, we find the common sentiment welded even stronger. The
oneness of the New England communities is proverbial. There were rich,
there were poor people, and in the meeting-house the people were seated
and "dignified" according to title and station; but in spite of these,
there was more in the name than in reality. The people were not hedged
in by their differences. President John Adams was asked by a southern
friend what made New England as it is. His reply is memorable: "The
meeting-house, the school-house, the training-green, and the
town-meeting." In these, the people were brought together, their common
interests were discussed and acted upon. The youth grew up with each
other in the schools. The young men stood shoulder to shoulder on the
training-green, drilling themselves to defend their homes. In the
councils of the town they debated and conducted the business which would
accrue to their weal and benefit, and on the Lord's Day they would
gather in families to hear the words of the town minister, and before
the one altar of the community bow in filial reverence to their God.
This frequent meeting with one another and mingling in the same social
life made the distinctive type of character which grew up in every
community.
The minister and his family were in the front rank of social life. To
the people's adviser deference was paid. To the minister, even the
smallest of the boys took off their hats. The people of the town may
have disagreed with him, still his position in society was acknowledged.
He was the educated man of the town. In the early days he was the
physician also. The first medical work published in America was by the
pastor in Weymouth. It treated of small-pox. Vaccination was met with
the strongest of opposition. The clergy opposed what was thought to be a
means of intervening the will and providence of God. This discussion had
much to do in separating the profession of medicine from the ministerial
office. The minister likewise did much of the legal business of the
people. Lawyers were rare men until towards the war of the Revolution.
There was a dislike towards them--a feeling that they would take
advantage of the people's rights. But America owes a debt of gratitude
to the young barristers of the Revolution. They were true to the people
and their best interests. When John Adams wished the hand of Abigail
Smith, the people were anxious lest the dignity of Parson Smith's family
would suffer. The next Lord's Day after the marriage he preached from
the text, "And John came neither eating nor drinking, and ye say he hath
a devil."
The grade in social life, which was largely a name, was shown most in
the meeting-house. The seating of families and the assigning of pews was
one of the difficult things. The minister and deacons were nearest the
pulpit. The boys and colored people were assigned the back pews or those
in the gallery. This idea of "social dignity" was brought from the old
country, but gave way in the growing oneness of life in America.
The days of the early New Englander were not all dark. There was much of
the austere in them, but there was also a grain of mirth and
cheerfulness. We must bear in mind that the clergymen were the early
historians of the country; and they put much gloom in their writings.
The mirthful side of social life was expressed at the parties and
meetings for hilarity; for such they often had. The young delighted
themselves in each other's company, the same as to-day. The young gent
and his lady either walked to the party, or rode on one horse. Parties
began in better season than now. The assembly met in the latter part of
the afternoon, and the dancing, where dancing was the order, began at
about four o'clock. This was truly in good season, but, if our
information is correct, they kept even later hours than the parties of
to-day.
In Froude's recent "Life of Thomas Carlyle" is a conversation alluding
to Thurtill's trial: "I have always thought him a respectable man." "And
what do you mean by respectable?" "He kept a gig." A century ago it
evidenced pre-eminent respectability to support such a vehicle. It was a
wonderful conveyance in the eyes of the ordinary folk. With the
coming-in of gigs and carts, where the element of pleasure was sought as
well as service, came not alone improvement in vehicles, but the
widening and general improvement of the highways. The New England inn
was a place of great resort. In the poverty of newspapers, people came
here to gain what news there might be. The innholder was a leading man
in the community. He got the news from the driver and passengers of the
stage-coach, and of the travellers who chanced to be passing through the
town. The innholder knew the public men of the country, for they had
partaken of his sumptuous dinners, and had lodged at his inn. If the
walls of these ancient New England taverns could talk, what stories
would they tell; not of debauches alone, but, in the dark and stirring
days, of patriotic and loyal sentiments and deeds, whose influence went
out for the founding of the nation, and the perpetuity of the blessings
of freedom. He who strives to know of early New England, must not look
alone to the learning, character and influence of its ministers, but to
the manners, life, and influence of the innholders.
The town meeting was the day of days. The citizens of the town met to
consult and devise plans for their common welfare. "Citizen" in the very
early time meant "freeman," and a freeman was a member of the church;
but this interpretation was too confined for the growing diversity in
colonial and provincial life. It served well for the time, but new
conditions demanded that it be superseded. The property qualification
has likewise virtue in it, and the educational test of Massachusetts has
much strength. This test is quite limited in the nation; nevertheless,
if general, it would be for the saving of many of our political
troubles. Election or town-meeting day had its treat. Its cake has left
a precious memory behind, and many an old-timed family observes the
custom until now. The town meeting was opened by prayer by the town
minister, and much decorum and orderliness was observed by the citizens.
The day was jovial, however, despite the solemnity attending it.
Prudence and economy had to be exercised, even in the more prosperous
days. Little was wasted. There was not much money in the market. To
trade, barter, and dicker was the custom. For amusements, the game of
"fox and geese," and "three" or "twelve men morris," served well. The
mingling of work and pleasure was common. The husking-bee and the
quilting-bee afforded sources of much enjoyment. Prudence and economy
hurt no one, but the mingling of these in the life of childhood and
manhood aids in developing character which makes men and women hardy for
the race of life.
The ever-famous New England Primer, small though it has been, was one of
the most influential of publications. It was in every home. From it the
children learned their A, B, C's. In it were pert rhymes expressing the
theology of the people, such as "In Adam's fall, We sinned all"; and the
set of biblical questions beginning with "Who was the first man?" The
prayer of childhood, "Now I lay me down to sleep," is in its pages. Of
songs, most familiar is the
"Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber.
Holy angels guard thy bed."
The picture and story of John Rogers' burning at the stake, with wife
and nine small children and one at the breast looking on, beholding the
martyrdom of this advocate of the early Protestant church, did much to
keep alive the bitterness between the Protestant and Catholic churches.
The Catechism, known by all, began with: "What is the chief end of man?"
Then followed the words of this conclave of divines, the teachings of
Rev. John Cotton, which he named "Spiritual milk for American babes,
Drawn out of the Breasts of both Testaments for their Soul's
Nourishment." We call New England character hardy, stern, and stalwart.
Well it might be, by having the teachings of this Primer enforced in
men's lives and labors. We may not admire some of the doctrines, but for
the times they made the noblest and strongest of men. A trite statement
of the late Dr. Leonard Bacon was: "In determining what kind of men our
fathers were, we are to compare their laws not with ours, but with the
laws which they renounced." So with their theological opinions. Compared
with the doctrines they renounced, and not with those of our own era, we
recognize in them a strength and vigor of thought and character which
will stand the severest test and scrutiny. Steel well heated and
hammered is most valuable. But steel can be overheated and overhammered;
then it becomes almost useless. The strong doctrines of the earlier New
England were too closely enforced, and there came a day--a part of which
we live in--which repelled them. The old-time teaching has passed, and a
fresher and more potent teaching is supplanting it.
There is something grand in the social life of the good old days. In
knowing of it, we better appreciate the blessings of to-day. The
ordinary life of the people has in it a fascination which a general
knowledge fails to impart. The greatness of New England, however, is not
all in the past. New England has given excellent life to the great West,
and the far-reaching isles. Its line has gone out through all the earth.
The descendants of New England are drawing riches from the prairies, the
mines of the mountains, and are creating business thrift in all the
rising towns. In all the world, in every commercial centre, in the
vessels upon the sea, in every mechanical industry at home and abroad,
are those whose keenness and brightness of mind, whose sharpness of
ingenuity, and whose warmth of heart are to be traced to the natural
blood and descent from those we ever delight to honor.
The social life of to-day is not as it has been. The oneness of the
early times is disintegrating. The people seem almost mad in their rush
after clubs and societies. The ninety per cent of English descent at the
beginning of the Revolution is giving way before the incoming of
emigrants from every other nation. The rapid reading, thinking, and
living has long since passed the life of former generations. But in this
new social order is there nothing rich and abiding? Most truly there is.
The millennium may be distant, but a brighter day is dawning, when
intellectual activity, stimulated by the studies of the sciences and
material things, coupled with the fresher faith quickened by the larger
conceptions of the mission of the world's Master, will result in causing
the knowledge of the truth and heavenly affection to go to the farthest
parts of the earth, and the turning of men to the character which
attracteth all.
OBJECTIONS TO LEVEL-PREMIUM LIFE INSURANCE.
BY G. A. LITCHFIELD.
In considering the objections to level-premium life insurance, as at
present administered, it will not be assumed that there is not much in
the system to commend. It has subserved, and is now subserving, a great
and beneficent end.
It is the channel through which millions of dollars have been disbursed
to families in the time of their sorest need.
It has encouraged habits of economy, and stimulated the noble resolve to
lay by a part of earnings, scarcely adequate to meet present necessity,
for a time of greater necessity still.
Thousands of families have experienced exemption from actual want, and
thousands more have enjoyed comforts, not to say luxuries, that they
would never have known but for the forethought of husbands and fathers
who availed themselves of the provisions of life insurance when in
health, and with a long life in prospect.
We have no disposition to detract from the excellent results
accomplished, and perhaps the severest criticism that can be made upon a
system embracing such beneficent possibilities is that it has failed so
disastrously to realize them in such numerous instances. While it has
carried relief and comfort to many families whose wage-producers have
been taken from them by death, it has bitterly disappointed many more
who had made it their dependence for such a time of need.