^r * <^ % \9^^ ,0*^..-. -^o 1-1°^ .-1°^ •^0 .4^^ ri^^ >-o^ 4°^ ^.c.'i' ^-./ ^. *' .-^o^ %* v^\ ^^^^^^ ,^', %/ /Mi, %/ 6o?„ im^; ^^v^^^ '-Ik*' /\ ^^' --o^ I '. -^^0^ >/ r^^ %. '.-ig^.*;* .K Cv V **it; 'jv-i- \^ J'^i^.. V X^^v^ « ^*3^\.o^ ^^Z^-'^.^" ••^. .-i'^ .' .^^.s-'^.-^Cv ^; ^°-^^, V •' .*s % -•,,•' , ^7 Copi/right, 1903, Lanixon Studio HENRY W. LONGFELLOW LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME BY MRS. MARY JOHNSON AUTHOR OF "ALOHA, AND OTHER POEMS," "HOME- ANCHORED," " TENT-TALKS," " MAC," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE LAMSON STUDIO, PORTLAND, ME. BOSTON H. H. CARTER & CO. 1905 LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Copies rteceived FEB 24 1905 GoyyriHiii Ldtry COPY B. Copyright, 1905, By MARY JOHNSON. Noriooot) ^rtsB Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Nellie ja. Palmer €\mt Noteg of Hongfelloba's ISarlg l^ome in rememliranee of another Ijome of 10115 ago, anti ti}e Dear frientis ixiJjo useti to gatljer tljere — frieutrs for e&ermore to|)et|}er in tl)ig lauU or tl}e beautiful eountro of tl}e Begotttr anti tlje mang mauston^ of Ej}e jfatljer's ^onu *' Then the night shall be filled with music. And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And silently steal away/' Illustrations Portrait of the Poet . Frontispiece PAGE Portland Head Light facing 7 Longfellow Homestead 7 The Poet's Birthplace lO Longfellow Parlor .... facijig 1 3 Longfellow Law Office . . - i6 The Poet's Chair .... . - i8 Longfellow Dining-room (** The Den ") . " 20 Longfellow Guest Chamber '* 22 - Portrait of Rev. Samuel Longfellow . . ** 26 Longfellow Kitchen . - 30 The Dresser .... 33 Evangeline (I) facing 48 Evangeline (II) . . - 52 y Copyright, 1903, Lamson Studio Longfellow Homestead, Congress Street, Portland Longfellow's Early Home WHAT a beautiful city ! This is one's first thought of Portland when once out of range of the wharves and railroads. Driving in from Cape Elizabeth, crossing the long iron bridge that marks the boundary between 7 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Portland and Willard, and then the railroad bridge, you climb a steep, gravelly hill, and turn into State Street. It would be hard to find a prettier street in any city. Clean and wide, with magnificent trees on either hand, handsome houses of brick and stone, many of them half covered with a luxuriant growth of ivy or woodbine, with spacious, well- kept lawns ; here and there an old-fashioned wooden dwelling, in contrast but not out of harmony ; frequent glimpses of the sea, and everywhere its salt fragrance. As you leave State Street and cross the square, you have full view of the Longfellow statue, perfect in form and feature. On Congress Street stands the Longfellow mansion, not the birthplace of the Poet, but the home of his boyhood and youth. It was built by General Peleg Wadsworth in 1785 and 1786, and was the first brick house in Portland. The bricks were brought from Philadelphia. The walls were at first laid 8 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME sixteen inches thick ; thus the supply of brick was soon exhausted, and the building had to be deferred till the next spring. Hon. Stephen Longfellow was married to Zilpah Wadsworth in the parlor of this house, January i, 1804 '-> ^^ey went to house- keeping, about a year later, at the corner of Congress and Temple streets. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, their sec- ond son, was born in the house on Fore Street, corner of Hancock, shown in the photograph. The room was in the second story, front, at the right. Mrs. Samuel Stephenson, a sister of Stephen Longfellow, had invited her brother and his wife with their child to stay with her the winter of 1 806-1 807, as her husband was in the West Indies on a matter of business, and it was lonely for her in the large house. February 27 the Poet was born. The wooden cradle in which he and all the Long- fellow children were rocked stands in the LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME guest-chamber of the house in Congress Street. Thither he was brought when less than a year old ; thus his earliest recollec- tions clustered about this house, which was Copyr\ciht, 1903, Lamson JStudio The Poet's Birthplace : House in Fore Street really his home for many years. It had been the home of Lieutenant Henry Wads- worth, for whom he was named ; also the birthplace, in 1790, of Commodore Alexander S. Wadsworth. It was that of Annie Long- 10 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME fellow Pierce in 1811 ; she died in the same house in 1 901, at the age of ninety, having given it to the Maine Historical Society, on condition of keeping it in good preserva- tion. The house is plain and substantial, in- doors and out. It stands next the Preble House, and in the immediate vicinity of many stylish and handsome dwellings ; but its charm would only be diminished were its individuality and old-time characteristics changed. There is an enclosed yard in front ; from the gate a brick walk to the porch. The door is low-silled and has the old- time heavy knocker. There are five locks and bolts of different sizes, put on from time to time. The house was originally of two stories ; later, a third was built, as seen in the picture. The entrance hall leads directly through the house to the garden door. The outlook II LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME is charming as one comes in from the busy, bustling street. It seems hke a peep into fairy-land. A flowering grape-vine covers a pretty arbor and reaches to the side wall of the house. It does not bear, but the blossoms are very pretty, rather peculiar, too, for they are greenish white. The fragrance is exquisite. The vine flowers early in the spring ; but during the summer the foliage is very attractive. In the hall is a portrait of the Poet's father. At the right is the stairway, straight and easy, the carpet fastened by old-fashioned brass stair-rods. At the landing is an oil portrait of Longfellow when a professor at Bowdoin College, wearing the gown, and looking young and handsome. He was then about twenty-three. Here, too, is a bust of later date, and very good. In all the rooms of the first and second stories are open fireplaces and andirons, with backlog and forestick laid ready to light, 12 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME just as in the olden time. Shovel and tongs are on either hand, and in one room a pair of bellows. The parlor has brass andirons and a fireboard in fan shape. This parlor, in which several weddings have occurred, was the largest in the city at the time it was built. The first piano owned in Portland (a Chickering) found place there. From all the front windows of the house the view was then open to the sea. A glimpse can be had now from the second and third stories. The windows have in- side wooden shutters, and wide, cushioned window-sills, where one may sit com- fortably. In the parlor is a portrait of Stephen Longfellow ; also one in crayon of the Poet ; but the portrait the family like best, painted by his son Ernest, is in the study. Here, also, is the portrait of Annie Longfellow Pierce, his sister and the donor of the house. You do not find a picture of Longfellow's 13 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME mother except a silhouette. Probably there is none the family liked to spare from their own keeping. Hawthorne was Longfellow's classmate and intimate friend. His picture is in the parlor, also a pretty one of Evangeline, and a painting of a fisherman busy with his nets, his wife and child by his side. There is a silhouette of General Wads- worth, with ruffled shirt-front, cue, and military hat. The hat is of the fashion of the time, resembling an old lady's bonnet, so much so that a visitor, not noticing the inscription, asked if that were the likeness of some old lady. In one window is a square, red cushion, made from the curtains of the First Parish Church (Unitarian), the one the Longfellow family attended. 14 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME In a small, square frame on the wall is the following letter : — The Church in Duxbury to the First Church in Portland. Whereas Peleg Wadsworth and Elizabeth his wife, members of our Society, request Dismis- sion from 0U7' Body & Recommendation to '^our Communion, — They are therefore dismissed and recommended with our esteem and Charity — We subscribe Your Brethren in the Faith of the Messiah and hope of Immortality. The vote of the Church. John Allyn, Moderator, Oct. 25, 1789- Letter recommendatory FROM 7 Chh. in DUXBOROUGH. 15 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME A very handsome, illustrated edition of Longfellow's poems, complete in three large volumes, bound in garnet and gold, is lent by Elizabeth Longfellow, his niece. The parlor doors have the old-time heavy lock outside the panels, with brass handles like those on a bureau of that day except that they are smaller. The room at the right as you enter the house was originally Stephen Longfellow's law office. It was afterward the family sitting room, then the Poet's study, and of late has been used as a dining room. It was especially convenient for this when Mrs. Pierce kept house here, as the small room adjoining, and opening from it, was easily converted into a china closet. It has an outside door facing the street, and in the picture looks like a porch or vestibule as it really was. It was built by the Poet's father as an entrance to his law office. A window opposite the door gives a pleasant outlook i6 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME on the garden. The room has now shelves, dressers, and drawers, and is a very pretty china closet. In the study stands Stephen Longfellow's own chair, of mahogany and haircloth, studded with brass nails. Here, also, near his favorite front window, is the Poet's favorite easy-chair, of the very oldest fashion : mahogany, with arms and high back, covered with cretonne. His mother's work-stand is between the front windows, and over it a mirror used in his grandmother's time. It is in a gilt frame, with a painted picture at the top and a row of small gilt balls. The writer remembers one very similar, and also a larger one which was in its time esteemed very elegant, — a gilt frame, ornamented at the top with a bunch of gilt grapes on a gilt panel. In one corner is a set of shelves for books. Among these Adams' beautiful allegory, "The Distant Hills," seems like the greeting of an old friend. There is a large table with 17 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME reading lamp, also a handsome sideboard, com- bined with desk and bookcase. On each side is a locked closet with drawer above. The cen- trepiece looks like a deep drawer, but when opened discloses a desk leaf, pigeonholes, and small drawers. In the upper part, which was an addition later, are four doors with glass front and green lining. It is convenient either for books or silver. The family were accustomed to gather here for the evening. The boys used to study and play games. Sometimes their father was busy with legal papers, and they then adjourned to the kitchen or upstairs. From the study a small, square entry, with shelves built into the wall at the side, leads into the kitchen. On the other side of the hall is the dining room of former days — " the Den " as it was often called. Here stands the desk Long- fellow used in his early home. ^' The Rainy Day " was written here in i8 - K_ LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME 1 841. A written copy, but not in his hand, is fastened to the door at the right of the open fireplace. On the left is a smaller and narrower door opening to a chimney closet, — a common arrangement in old-time houses. It was used to keep food from freezing, and was often called the " pie closet." Over the mantel is an oil painting, a good one, of the Presumpscot River and its sur- roundings, now Riverton Park in Portland. Presumpscot is the Indian and poetic name. The view was taken from " Pride's Bridge," as it was called, a family by the name of Pride living in the neighborhood. There is also a picture of the interior of a Capuchin convent, the monks at prayer. Probably a number of Longfellow's poems were written on the desk in this room. " The Battle of Lovell's Pond " was written when he was a boy of thirteen, and kept secret from all the family except his sister Eliza- beth, till it appeared anonymously in the 19 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Portland Gazette. Thirty-eight years after- ward he wrote " Changed." "Musings" and "The Lighthouse" were written in the home at Portland, probably in one of the front chambers, where the windows have the best outlook toward the sea. Some lines from both these poems are written on a card, and placed in one of these windows. Portland Head Light is worthy even of his pen : — ** The rocky ledge runs far into the sea ; And on its outer point, some miles away. The Lighthouse hfts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day." The front southeast room over the study was the guest-chamber ; and here the Poet brought his bride, September, 1831. The bureau is of dark mahogany with brass handles. In one drawer are babies' embroidered caps, worn by different little ones in the family. One, lined with lilac 20 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME silk, is marked with the Poet's name. In another drawer are various fancy articles of home making : a swan pin-cushion, a green one simulating a leaf, needle-books, thimble- case, and others, including that bete noire of little girls in New England's past days — the sampler. On the bureau top stand an oil lamp or two, and a vase filled with paper lamp- lighters, as they were called. They were then in general use, and often made by the children of a family. The old-fashioned, canopied bed, with its dainty white curtains, soft pillows, and pretty figured coverlet, has a beauty and elegance of its own that our modern furniture can never rival. At one side stands a three- cornered wash-stand of dark wood, with pitcher and basin of dark blue and white crockery. It is matter of regret that this is not included in the photograph of the room. It certainly ranks among the house- 21 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME hold articles the grandmothers in our midst remember, and to-day is not often seen. The writer has one which was in use more than a hundred years ago, and is the exact counterpart of the one in the Longfellow mansion, even to the dark blue pitcher and bowl. The front southwest chamber was " moth- er's room." In a wardrobe are a dozen or more dresses worn by the Wadsworth and Longfellow ladies long ago. Most of them are beautiful silks and brocades, with " baby- waist" and sleeves puffed at the shoulder. There are several bonnets ; and strange they seem now as to form. There is a very handsome silk pelisse, worn by the Poet's mother. It is a peculiar shade, as nearly as it can be described, a silvery gray, verg- ing upon ecru. A silk bonnet to match, and worn with it, is in form much like the sunbonnets of to-day. A pair of tiny shoes, with pointed toes and high heels, were worn 22 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME by Mrs. Peleg Wadsworth (the Poet's grand- mother), in 1775, in camp at Dorchester Heights. In this room are two pictures of the home in Hiram, Maine, where the Wadsworth family hved for many years. One is a very pretty view of the house and grounds ; the other an interior, the hall of the house. Between the front windows of this room stands an old-fashioned, pretty work-stand, with two drawers and folding leaves. Here are a doll's canopied bedstead and bed, very dainty and very old, that delighted the hearts of the little folk away back in the Wadsworth family. Ladies' handkerchiefs are the exact size to serve as linen sheets ; blanket, quilt, and trimmed pillow-cases, just as mother's hands would make them ; and the sheer white muslin curtains, looped back with ribbon, in the artistic fashion of the time, leave nothing to be desired by any little lady, mother and lover of dolls. You 23 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME do not wonder that a tiny note lies on the coverlet, — " Please do not handle." There is also a group of three tiny wooden dolls, age unknown. In this room is a model of the First Parish Church to which the Longfellow family made their Sunday pilgrimage, "in the days of auld lang syne." It is two- storied, painted white, with belfry, spire, and clock. It has three porches with dark green doors, not folding but single, and many win- dows. The pews were square. The foot- stove has been kept which the Poet used to carry into the pew every Sunday for his mother. The new church, built on the site of the old, is a handsome structure of stone, lav- ishly overgrown with woodbine. It is but little distance from the Longfellow home- stead. The first bell ever rung in Maine for a church service was rung from the bell-tower 24 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME of the First Parish Church. The bell was brought from England. The church was built in 1740. In 1775 it was pierced with cannon-shot from Mowatt's fleet. At the time of the embargo, just after the tea was thrown overboard in Boston Harbor, the bell was muffled and rung all one day, from sunrise to sunset, in turn, by the men of Falmouth, as Portland was then called. The new granite church was built in 1825, on the site of the wooden one. The First Parish must have believed in retaining a faithful minister, for from 1727 to 1864, a period of one hundred and thirty-seven years, they had only four pastors. Next to the mother's room is the one occupied by Mrs. Annie Longfellow Pierce. The furniture of these two rooms, of course, is nearly all removed ; but in Mrs. Pierce's room is a cabinet containing various articles which were used in the Wadsworth and 25 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Longfellow families, — Indian baskets, books, backgammon board, dumb-bells, spool- boxes, and the like, — not remarkable except for association. From " the boys' room '* the Cove was in plain sight, beyond were fields and wood- lands, and in the distance Mount Washing- ton. No wonder that two poets grew up amid such surroundings and in this home. Those of us who had the good fortune to hear the dearly loved minister. Rev. Samuel Longfellow, many times, cannot soon forget the rare quality of his se-rmons. W^hile always thoroughly practical, and in the high- est degree helpful to a truly religious life, yet they were prose poems. And though of necessity fewer than those of his gifted brother, his hymns and other poems have their own equal charm. Among the treas- ures of the house is an excellent photograph taken in his later years. And a member of the family has lent the portrait painted some 26 Copyright, 1903, Lamson Studio REV. SAMUEL LONGFELLOW LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME time earlier by his artist nephew, Ernest Longfellow. Long be remembered his gentle courtesy, his genial nature, his spirit of reverence, trust, and truest charity ! The beautiful hymn written by his brother for his ordination must now be regarded as a prophecy. ** Christ to the young man said: * Yet one thing more ; If thou wouldst perfect be. Sell all thou hast and give unto the poor. And come and follow Me ! ' ** Within this temple Christ again, unseen. Those sacred words hath said. And His invisible hands to-day have been Laid on a young man's head. ** And evermore beside him on his way The unseen Christ shall move. That he may lean upon His arm, and say, * Dost thou, dear Lord, approve ? ' ** Beside him at the marriage feast shall be. To make the scene more fair ; 27 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Beside him in the dark Gethsemane Of midnight toil and prayer. ** O holy trust ! O endless sense of rest ! Like the beloved John, To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast. And thus to journey on ! " In "the boys' room" is a large painting of " The Bombardment of TripoH," when Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth was routing the pirates. The night of September 4, 1 804, he and his men sacrificed their own Hves in the fire-ship Intrepid, She was blown up rather than have her captured by the enemy. What a sad comment on the fortunes of war — yes, on its nature — that the promising young life should go out so early ! Those other lives, too, not so well known, but as dear in their homes ; and in such a terrible way — literally by fire ! The Secretary of the Navy sent a bronze medal in recognition of Lieutenant Wads- 28 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME worth's courage. The medal and the secre- tary's letter are kept here. It was for the young officer that the Poet was named. In this room, too, are the silhouettes of Longfellow's class in Bowdoin College, 1825. Among these was George Pierce, an intimate friend of the Poet, and afterward the hus- band of Annie Longfellow. Less than three years after their marriage he died, and Mrs. Pierce returned to her old home. Eighty- seven years of the ninety which were hers she lived in this house. Two small panes of glass in the upper part of the door from " the boys' room " serve to Hght the back entry and stairs. This was needful, for the stairs are, as commonly built in those days, steep and dark. Here, also, is the stairway leading to the third story. The windows at the back of the house have the old-fashioned, small, square panes. Two leather fire-buckets marked " S. Stephenson " hang on the wall, 29 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME and two others marked " Longfellow," down- stairs. The wall-papers are very old-fashioned. Where they have been renewed, patterns were selected as nearly like the original as possible. It was ascertained that the paper in the dining room (the Den) could be cleaned, and it remains, though fifty years old. The pattern is a cream ground with green leaves and tiny flowers, pink, blue, and Hlac. The parlor paper has a deer peeping out from the forest foliage. The hall simulates panels. In the guest-chamber the design is a little shepherdess, with a lamb by her side and flowers in her hand. The writer remembers a very similar pattern in her grandfather's house. But after all, to one who finds an especial interest in the old-time things and ways, and whose memory reaches back through many years, not only to a grandfather's home, but also to a country parsonage, 30 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME where all these were In daily use, the kitchen is a delight. The photograph is a perfect reproduction. It gives the brick hearth, the open fire- place and crane, on which hang the tea- kettle and dinner-kettles over backlog and forestick ready to light. It is intended to really keep a fire during the hours of exhibi- tion, after the cool fall weather comes. Then it will be even more realistic. At the right of the fireplace is the brick boiler. On the left is the cavernous brick oven, in which was done the family bak- ing, and whence came forth every week a vast array of good things. The " tin kitchen " or " tin oven " — for it was called by either name — stands on the hearth. A spit runs through the centre. A roast of beef, a leg of mutton, a turkey or pair of chickens, used to be spitted, set before the fire, turned on the spit at frequent intervals, sprinkled with flour, and " basted " with 31 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME butter. In an hour or more it was served, hot, brown, delicious ! Near the tin kitchen is a charcoal-burner, similar in its use. A gridiron and long- handled toaster standing on four feet, a lantern, a foot-stove, two or three sauce- pans and skillets, are in evidence. By the way, the skillet was a very convenient article. It was rather small, but deep, with three feet, a cover, and long handle. It could be set directly on live coals to boil eggs, milk, or porridge, or down on the hearth when only needed to keep something warm. On the shelves over the fireplace are a tea-tray and a large " platter," covered por- ringers, a mortar and pestle, a sugar-scoop, and a coffee-mill. Every family then bought coffee in the berry, and roasted and ground it at home, a little at a time, thus getting it pure and strong. Above the shelf hangs a small bell, communicating with some other 32 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME part of the house. There are two chimney cupboards. Copyruj/it, luu:J, Lum-^uu Studio The Dresser In the back of the fireplace is the figure of a fish on an iron plate, set in the brick- 33 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME work. There are waffle-irons, a coffee- roaster, an apple-roaster, candle-moulds, and the balances in which the newly arrived little folks were weighed. There is a plate-heater ; this is a sort of miniature cupboard with tiny shelves, to stand before the open fire, very convenient to keep pies warm during the first part of the dinner, or the dinner itself for a belated member. The dresser at the side of the kitchen is supplied with dishes of various kinds, all of them old-fashioned in form and coloring, — pitchers and mugs, bowls and covered jars, cups and saucers, soup-tureen, canisters for tea and coffee. At each side of the dresser hang several tin dish-covers, that were used on the table to keep the meat and vegetables hot. Here, too, is the bread-tray used in the banquet given in honor of Lafayette, when he visited Portland in 1825, and the Poet's father gave the address of welcome. Zilpah Wadsworth, at twenty-one, stand- 34 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME ing on the front doorstep of the Portland homestead, presented a flag to the Federal Volunteers. The house seems to be set low. It formerly was three or four feet above the street. But the street was raised and the stone covered. New steps were made. Not long ago, when the house was repaired, the stone was raised, and is now again the doorstep. In February, 1781, General Wadsworth, then commanding the forces of the Maine coast, was surprised at night by British sol- diers, at his house in Thomaston, with only a few of his men. He was captured, and conveyed to Fort George, Castine. His friend, Major Burton, was with him. They contrived, with such tools as they could get, working at night, to make an aperture, filling it with bread from their rations, for daylight view. At last, a night in June, just before the ship sailed which was intended to carry 35 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME him to England, he succeeded in getting outside the walls. He swam across the bay, now called Wadsworth's Cove, from Block Point, reached the mainland, and a little later his camp, in safety. Major Burton also escaped. The story varies slightly in detail, but this is the way the people of Castine have it. In 1790 General Wadsworth bought from the state of Massachusetts seventy-five hun- dred acres of wild land in the township now called Hiram, on the Saco River. It cost something less than one thousand dollars, as twelve and a half cents an acre was the price. Hiram is thirty-six miles from Port- land. In 1800 he began to build a large house on this land, which he had previously been clearing. It is yet standing, and is a mile from the village, a very pretty place. The clay for the bricks to use in the chimneys came by boat, three miles down the Saco River. The house is two stories, with a bal- 36 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME ustrade on the ridge between the chimneys. The kitchen is one story, and spacious, with an immense chimney and fireplace. Here it is easy to sit Hterally in the chimney- corner by the fire. The youngest son, Peleg, at the time of the building of the house, was only seven years old. One day his father, when going to ride on horseback to the town for the mail, left him with orders to watch the fires in eleveyi fireplaces. They were kindled to dry the fresh masonry. Years later this son said it was the greatest weight of re- sponsibility he had ever felt in his life. No wonder ! It was indeed far too heavy a burden for such young shoulders. Not many children would be set a similar task to-day. The Wadsworth family removed into the country in 1807, and Stephen Longfellow and his wife took the Portland homestead. The part which had been used as a store 37 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME was moved away, and it was then that the vestibule was built at the east side. Stephen Longfellow's family had lived here seven or eight years when a startling event occurred. This was a fire in the house from the kitchen chimney. The servant girl had carelessly overheated it. The attic was soon in flames, but the family knew nothing about it till the fire burst through the roof. Mrs. Longfellow was sick, and the family physician, Dr. Weed, very fortu- nately, was in the house at the moment. Mr. Longfellow was the Chief of the Fire- men's Company. His first care, of course, was for his help- less wife ; but Dr. Weed said cheerily : — " See to the fire ; Lll take care of her." When it became evident that the house could only be saved by flooding it, Dr. Weed, who was a very strong man, lifted Mrs. Longfellow, wrapped a blanket around her, and carried her in his arms into the 38 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME house of the Preble family next door, the one which is now a hotel. A lady, a mem- ber of the Preble family, then a little girl, remembers seeing her father standing on a post of the front fence, shouting orders through a brass trumpet to the firemen. The roof was nearly destroyed before the fire was overcome, but no one was hurt. The " fire-buckets," as they were called, belonging to Mr. Longfellow, and used at that time, now hang on the wall of the Congress Street house. They were a familiar sight in those days, and were kept where they could be reached at a moment's notice. The writer remembers her grand- father's fire-buckets always on the side of the front stairs. Instead of merely repairing the house, Mr. Longfellow built a third story, with a low, four-sided or " hipped " roof in place of the high, two-sided one, and with the same chimneys. Thus the house stands to-day. 39 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME The second story back chamber had hitherto been " the boys' room," but they were promoted to the third, and here still stands the " trundle-bed," nicely made as if in regular use. Possibly some reader has not seen one of these contrivances to save room in large families. The trundle bed- stead was made like a large packing-box ; the one the writer remembers was square, but this one is longer, perhaps not quite so wide. The legs were very short, and furnished with casters. The bed was made in it like the berth of a steamboat, and the whole concern was rolled under the mother's bed for the day- time and pulled out at night. It was comfortable and convenient, though we would not now think it best for children to sleep so near the floor. The desk appropriated to the boys' use still stands in their room, with a large map in view. 40 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME The southwest front chamber in the third story is the one the Poet occupied when a young man and always chose on his visits home in later years. It has an old-time bureau and wash-stand, with the customary dark blue and white pitcher and basin of English style. The bedstead is a veritable four-poster, with canopy and curtains of dark cretonne, and the self-same coverlet he used. The trunk he carried on his first trip to Europe is also shown. The southeast chamber was that of Miss Lucia Wadsworth, the genial, reliable auntie who mothered the Longfellow children of two generations. Near this room is the linen closet, large and convenient, with a pleasant window. There are some old-fashioned patchwork quilts, and an immense white one, closely resembling a Marseilles, but it was made by hand very long ago — probably spun and woven at home. It was a present to a 41 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME member of the family on her going to housekeeping. Seven framed pictures by different artists represent scenes from Longfellow's poems. Evangeline's earnest, beautiful eyes look out from one. In another the children are gathered around the village blacksmith, watching him at work, while the sparks fly from his anvil. The Poet's little daughters trip down the broad stairway to surround him in his study. The Puritan maiden, Priscilla, meets her lover. There, too, are Hiawatha and his Indian bride. "The Building of the Ship," with its accuracy of detail, all its ideal suggestion, is in beautiful contrast with the quiet home scene, where amid the evening shadows the fire glows on the hearthstone, and crane and kettles are in readiness for daily service. It is remarkable that in the great fire of the Fourth of July, 1866, this house was not touched. The track of the flames swept 42 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME very near, but just below it. It had, as it were, borne its share. The house at Hiram, Maine, has been open to visitors ; but it is now closed, and with reason. A party from a certain associa- tion went there one day sight-seeing. The balusters of the old-fashioned staircase were very slender. One of the men cutaway two of these and carried them home. He had them made into canes, a photograph inserted, either of the poet or the house, and then had the effrontery to send one as a present to the Longfellow family ! I have direct authority for this statement. A library is building, adjoining the Port- land mansion. The framework of the roof is iron. A concrete of Portland cement is laid over this frame, and in it are bedded plates of expanded iron, forming a sort of netting. The outside covering is of copper 43 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME plates. The roof is at least four inches thick, and absolutely fireproof — the first roof of the kind ever made in Portland. " The old clock on the stairs " cannot be forgotten. The original, suggestive of the poem, is owned by a Longfellow cousin. A dupHcate tells the hours from the landing of the front stairs, halfway up, in the Poet's home in Cambridge. But there is still another clock of the same kind in Port- land which has a history of its own, unique and interesting. In 1791 Santo Domingo was the most valuable of the French provinces. The land was rich and fertile. The planters lived in royal luxury. They held unlimited sway, even the life of the slave depending on the word of the master. Among these planters themselves, however, there was not always harmony, for there was admixture of blood and race. Many mulattoes were among them, and though these possessed 44 LofC. LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME equal wealth with the white people, the caste line was severely drawn. They had no voice in the government. Their children were as well educated as the others ; they were sent to school in France, and they began to demand equality. The outcome was insurrection. The slaves burned and pillaged, and committed every sort of out- rage, marching over the land as incarnate fiends. The white planters fled to the towns, leaving their luxurious homes to be dwelt in and ruled by the men who had served them. But in the cities they were not safe, for the negroes again and again gathered their forces and sallied out on new raids. Finally all the white people who survived fled for their lives, and left them in undisputed sway. At this time a Portland sloop, commanded by Captain William McLellan, was in one of the harbors of Santo Domingo. The 45 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME people hastened to him and entreated de- Hverance. He welcomed them kindly and took them on board. When the cargo had been unloaded, he allowed them to put into the hold their jewels and silver, and whatever of their most valued possessions they had been able to secrete and convey to the ship. He sailed with a crowd of refugees and landed them at Jamaica. There were other American captains whose vessels became arks of safety to the hunted refugees. Soon after Captain McLellan sailed from Jamaica a cask was found on board, which no one remembered. It was opened, and a package wrapped in sail-cloth taken out. In this was a clock movement, a very good one. It could not be known whether this was purposely left on board as a grateful present to the captain, or was overlooked in the hurry and confusion of landing. Captain McLellan brought it home to Portland and had a clock-case made. It 46 . LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME is owned by his descendants to-day, and keeping good time. Captain William McLellan was the son of Bryce McLellan, who settled in Portland in the eighteenth century and built a house in York Street, which is still standing, now one of the oldest in the city. During all his active life he was a mariner. He won his wife by aiding her to escape from Quebec, when she had been captured by Indians and sold into servitude. The McLellan and Longfellow families were friends. One member of the McLellan family is in charge of the Portland house, and is my authority for this story of the clock, the oldest in the city, and twin to the one owned by the Poet. An anecdote of Longfellow, which has never, to the writer's knowledge, been in print, was told her many years ago by a friend then studying law in Cambridge. A student had been engaged in some wild 47 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME prank ; the matter was discussed by the Faculty, and it was assigned to Professor Longfellow to " reprimand " him. tie said nothing about it for a day or two, till he happened to meet the young man in the museum, and alone. He greeted him with his accustomed kindness of manner, and without reference to his misconduct talked pleasantly with him for perhaps fifteen minutes, starting with something the stu- dent was examining when he came in ; and at the close of their conversation said quietly : " I am desired to reprimand you. You may consider yourself reprimanded." That was all. It was never mentioned afterward, and there was no further trouble with that student. In 1826 Longfellow made a visit in Phila- delphia, staying at Head's Mansion House in South Third Street. The closing scene in the poem " Evangeline," where EvangeHne finds her lover in the hospital, was located in 48 my'^'m Ft rnj Pictures Painting Inj DoiKilas EVANGELINE LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME that vicinity. Not far was the Lutheran Cemetery. It is generally supposed that the Friends' Hospital is the one meant ; but the truth in regard to this can be found in Louise Stockton's charming paper on Phila- delphia and its Charities. She says : — " Twenty years after the founding of the city, a wealthy clothier, a member of the community of Friends, owned all the land between Spruce and Walnut streets (paral- lel) and South Third and Fourth, a large, square area. In 1702 he died, leaving this land to three of his personal friends. The will did not specify for what purpose, but he had doubtless talked it over with them, and given them verbal directions. His confi- dence was not misplaced. They understood his design, and the result proved their trust- worthiness. The honest souls directly built a house for the poor who most needed it. 49 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME It was long and quaint, with three windows each side of the door, and a southern front- age on what was then a green field. "The Monthly Meeting took charge of the place, and sent here certain of the poorer members who needed help. After a time they built Httle, one-storied cottages, with an attic in the steep roof, and a great chimney outside. These were ranged in order on either side of a green lane ; all had their little gardens, with trees, fruit, and flowers. None of the people who lived here were paupers. Some had a little money, and all worked who could. Two or three old women had little schools ; another made molasses candy. A watchmaker put his timepieces in one of the Walnut Street win- dows, and the herbs raised in the gardens had a virtue peculiar to themselves. "As the city grew around them, this small village seemed greener and sweeter. Little by little high brick houses arose around it ; 50 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME the streets leading thither were all paved, and the city beat about it as an ocean about a lagoon. The only entrance was now up a little alleyway, and he who strayed in there, not knowing what he would find, must have rubbed his eyes and fancied himself be- witched. He came out of noise and traffic, from bustle and business, and suddenly everything was still ; the air was filled with the perfume of roses, bees were humming, old men were sitting smoking their pipes in grape arbors, and old Quaker ladies bending over beds of sweet marjoram and lavender. To awake and find oneself at the gates of Damascus were commonplace to this. " If the stranger were fond of Longfellow, he stood still and smiled, because he knew the place at once, and he would gently murmur, — ** 'Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows and woodlands ; Now the city surrounds it, but still, with its gateway and wicket, 51 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Meek in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem to echo Softly the words of the Lord, ** The poor ye have always with you." ' " Then would one of these peaceful old men arise, and he too would smile because he too knew, and he would show the stranger the little vine-covered house to which Gabriel was taken, and then the place where he was buried. " ' It was all true, and Longfellow did but put it into verse/ " The stranger found it good to be there. Few pilgrimages rewarded so well, because this asked nothing of imagination ; and he took an ivy-leaf from the house — bought rosemary for a remembrance. If he were an artist, he made a sketch of the place, and if he were a writer, he published a description of it. " Every one who knew ' Evangeline,' knew of the ' Old Quaker Almshouse ' in Phila- 52 ;i.kJ£. #.-*,■&#: Perry Pictures Painting by Faed EVANGELINE LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME delphia, and the story not only gave the inmates a certain importance in their own and others' eyes, but it added many a thrifty penny to their income. But what proof this pretty tale gave of an imaginative memory ! These clear-eyed old people knew well that a fever-stricken patient never was and never would have been taken into their asylum. They knew Evangeline never crossed their little yard nor entered their wicket, and that there was no grave sacred to the wanderer's memory in their enclosure. They knew all about the ' Bettering House,' once up Spruce Street, a few squares away, and about the fever patients there, and the nuns who nursed them. It had also once stood in the midst of meadows, but when the pilgrims came looking for the true Mecca, behold it was all destroyed, and built up as a city in bricks and cobblestones ; and then the old Quakers, leaning over their wicket, beckoned them away to a delusion." 53 LONGFELLOW'S EARLY HOME Since the above was written Longfellow's flute has been sent to the Portland home ; also a vase from Acadia, filled with grasses grown there, and given to him some years after " Evangeline " was published. The flute recalls a pretty bird story. While the Poet was a student in Bowdoin College, he occupied the southwest chamber in the house of " Parson Titcomb," as the minister was oftenest called. In a pasture, a little distance from the house, was a group of fir trees, where many birds, especially robins, built their nests. Longfellow often sat at the window playing on his flute. With almost the first notes the robins would begin to sing. And they kept on singing as long as he played, or till the twilight shadows deepened into dusk. Perhaps he thought of their merry music when so long afterward he wrote the winsome poem about Vogelweide and his bequest to the birds. " ' 54 C 32 89 -li o^ ♦<..«' aO V c9^,^L'^.% .#\'>J^%V .,0*.^^^%"^ .^ »*. "^^ *•-'• ^t ^-^/ .' ?- "^s- >^.,'-^% -^-cv ©•. *' O II ^ °o r ,^' ?' '^^ %/ '^ ^^^^^ - ^"-^^^ V iV^. ^♦v.^^'\'-M^/-^^ CKMAN )ERY INC. ?^ DEC 88 N. MANCHESTER, , INDIANA 46962 I ,4°ft