George Barrell Emerson
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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK PEOPLE OF A WEEK: GEORGE BARRELL EMERSON GEORGE B. EMERSON “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project George B. Emerson HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK Mr. George B. Emerson, in his valuable REPORT ON THE T REES AND S HRUBS OF THIS STATE, says of the pines: “The tenacity of life of the seeds is remarkable. They will remain for many years unchanged in the ground, protected by the coolness and deep shade of the forest above them. But when the forest is removed, and the warmth of the sun admitted, they immediately vegetate.” Since he does not tell us on what observation his remark is founded, I must doubt its truth. 1797 September 12, Tuesday: George Barrell Emerson –like Waldo Emerson a descendent of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich and of Thomas’s son Joseph Emerson– was born in Kennebunk. Raised in Wells while this district was still part of Massachusetts, George would spend much of his boyhood roaming the fields, woods, and seaside and working on the family farm. After a few years of preparation at Dummer Academy in Byfield, New Hampshire, he would in 1813 matriculate at Harvard College, where he would concentrate in mathematics and Greek. Samuel Joseph May was born in Boston:1 In 1864, in a brief life memoir, May began “I was born in Boston, Massachusetts on the twelfth day of September, 1797.” LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. 1. Be careful to keep these people unscrambled: sister Abby May Alcott (Mrs. Ernest Niericker) born July 28, 1840 in Concord, mother Abigail May AKA Abba Alcott, Abigail Williams May, Catherine May, Charles May, Charlotte Coffin May, Dorothy May, mother Dorothy “Dolly” Sewall May, Edward May, Elizabeth May, George Emerson May, John May, John Edward May, father Joseph May, son Joseph May, Louisa May, Lucretia Flagge Coffin May, Mary Goddard May, uncle Samuel May, grandson Samuel Joseph May, Thomas May, and Frederic May Holland. The elder Samuel Joseph May (-1841), an entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in Boston, the founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, as well as of the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Massachusetts Asylum for the Insane, and the American Unitarian Association, whose portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart and who bore the honorary title of “Colonel,” who was Abba Alcott’s uncle, is not in any sense either political or theological similar to his younger relative, the Reverend Samuel Joseph May, who was the brother closest to Abba in age and was for many years the general agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, or to the Reverend Samuel J. May, Jr.. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1811 September 5, Thursday: Isaac Sprague was born in Hingham, Massachusetts. He would be apprenticed to his uncle, a carriage painter, and eventually would become a self-taught landscape, botanical, and ornithological illustrator. He would, for instance, create the illustrations for George B. Emerson’s 1846 REPORT ON THE TREES AND SHRUBS GROWING NATURALLY IN THE FORESTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 5 of 9 Mo// Our meeting was to me a good one, being favor’d with quiet ability to labor for life — C R expressed a few Words. After Meeting I went to Middletown & dined at Elijah Anthony’s & from thence to John Goulds house to attend his funeral, which was large & the setting was silent. I took tea with cousin George Gould & Wife & then came home Cousin George lives at the late residence of my cousin Alice Gould deceased widow of Thomas, & I hope I may find in visiting him & his family a renewal of the same love which closely united me with those of my late dear Cousins. The Ancients of our family are Swiftly passing to the grave, the house appointed for all living, & that the younger generation may not only equal them but far exceed them in Grace & goodness is the sincere desire of my soul ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project George B. Emerson HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1813 Boston boys Samuel Joseph May, Caleb Cushing who would become a Democratic politician, Samuel Atkins Eliot who would become mayor of Boston, 13-year-old George Bancroft who would become a national historian and Secretary of the Navy, George Barrell Emerson who would become an educational reformer, and David Lee Child who would become a radical abolitionist, were matriculants at Harvard College. Before entering Harvard, George Barrell Emerson had undergone a few weeks of preparation at Dummer Academy in Byfield, New Hampshire. He would concentrate in mathematics and Greek. He had been taught the Linnaean system of classification by his father and it would appear that right after getting settled in his dorm room, he visited the botanic garden in order to ply Professor William Peck there with questions about plants he had noticed during his boyhood in his hometown of Wells that he had been unable to identify. George Ticknor was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, and opened a law office in Boston. Professor Sylvestre François Lacroix’s TRAITÉ ÉLÉMENTAIRE D’ARITHMÉTIQUE, A L’USAGE DE L’ÉCOLE me CENTRALE DES QUATRE-NATIONS (A Paris: Chez M veuve Courcier, Imprimeur-Libraire pour les Mathématiques, quai des Augustins, no 57). NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT George B. Emerson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1817 Upon graduating from Harvard College, George Barrell Emerson became master of a private boys’ school that had been recently established in Lancaster, Massachusetts. This year’s graduating class would become notorious for its abolitionist sympathies: this was the year in which the abolitionist poet John Pierpont graduated, as well as the Reverend Robert F. Wallcut (1797-1884). NEW “HARVARD MEN” WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF George B. Emerson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1819 Edward Tyrrell Channing succeeded Joseph McKean as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard College. George Barrell Emerson became a tutor in natural philosophy and mathematics. A food fight broke out between the Freshmen and the Sophomores in the dining hall at the college, and as punishments several of the identified participants were “rusticated.” The Sophomore class met beneath “Rebellion Elm” to issue a series of demands and then resigned en masse — but within two weeks the students had individually straggled back without having succeeded in getting these banishments rescinded. You can read about this if you have the stomach for it, in a poem of four atrocious cantos entitled “Rebelliad; Or Terrible Transactions at the Seat of the Muses.” [SOMEBODY OUGHT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE WILLIAM FURNESS SERIES OF CONTEMPORARY DRAWINGS OF THIS FOOD FIGHT, FROM THE HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK HARVARD ARCHIVES, AND SEE WHETHER THIS DRAWING IS ONE OF THEM] REBELLIAD; OR TERR... CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT George B. Emerson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1821 The English Classical School (which would become the English High School, as opposed to the Boston Latin School for well-to-do boys destined for the ministry and other such exalted professions) was founded on Derne Street at the rear of the Massachusetts Statehouse. For the first century of its existence it would prepare white boys in working class families for gainful lives by the teaching of English, logic, civics, surveying, navigation, and geography with a strong emphasis on the development of mathematical prowess. Renouncing an opportunity to become a professor of mathematics at Harvard College, the first headmaster would be George Barrell Emerson. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. George B. Emerson “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1823 George Barrell Emerson planned a private school for young women in Boston. Ebenezer Bailey was appointed master of the Franklin grammar school. He would be at various times a member of the city council of Boston, director of the home of reform, president of the city lyceum, and director of the Boston mechanics’ institute. June 11, Wednesday: When King Fernando VII of Spain refused to quit Madrid before the invading French, the Cortes deposed him and set up a Council of Regency. George Barrell Emerson got married with Olivia Buckminster, who in addition to bearing a child every other year would be his assistant in his new private school for young women. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project George B. Emerson HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK:GEORGE B. EMERSON PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1824 With the help of his bride Olivia Buckminster Emerson, Dr.