Edward Sherman Hoar
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EDWARD SHERMAN “THE CALIFORNIAN” HOAR EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR THE HOARS CONCORD’S “ROYAL FAMILY” Judge Hoar[Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar]’s brother Edward, after several years’ life in California in her early days as a state, had returned home, and not long after had gone abroad with his sister Elizabeth and their friend and neighbor, Miss Elizabeth Prichard [Elizabeth Hallett Prichard]. He married this lady in Florence, and, on their return, he bought a farm in Lincoln near Deacon Farrar’s and worked hard there, until our harsh climate began to pinch and stiffen him with rheumatism. He then went with his wife and daughter to Sicily and delighted in their pleasant acres near Palermo until they found the climatic perfection outweighed by the imminence of assassination. So they returned and shared with Miss Elizabeth their father’s house, where they were born. Mr. Hoar was only well enough to carry on the small place, but he loved to be in the woods and on the HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” river, especially with his friend, Henry Thoreau. His knowledge of flowers and birds, his adventures of travel and California life, his knowledge of books and his refined nature, kindly though sensitive and shy, made him a charming companion to the few who had the privilege of knowing him. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1677 July 16, Monday (Old Style): Daniel Hoar, the race-murderer nephew of the troublesome attorney John Hoar of Concord, got married with Mary Stratton, daughter of Samuel Stratton, and they would have a son John Hoar, born on October 24, 1678 and named after its grandfather (he would become a pirate in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, and would be killed in the pirate haven of Saint Mary’s Island in 1697, thus predeceasing the grandfather after whom he had been named, who would survive until 1794), Daniel Hoar, born about 1680, Leonard Hoar, Jonathan Hoar, Joseph Hoar, Benjamin Hoar, Mary Hoar, born on March 14, 1689, Samuel Hoar, born on April 6, 1691, Isaac Hoar, born on May 15, 1695, David Hoar, born on November 14, 1698; and Elizabeth Hoar, born on February 22, 1701. He would thus become a great-grandfather of Concord’s righteous Squire Samuel Hoar and a great-great-grandfather of Edward Sherman Hoar, George Frisbie Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Elizabeth Sherman Hoar, etc. John Evelyn’s diary entry for this day was in part as follows: I went to Wotton to see my deare Brother. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1823 December 22, Monday: Franz Liszt performed in Paris to sensational audience and critical response (he would perform in Paris no less than 38 times before the following April). Edward Sherman Hoar was born. In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 22nd of 12 M / Recd this Afternoon a packet of information with a letter from Wing Russel of New Bedford, where there appears to be new troubles among the disturbers of Society. — This evening have recd News of the Death of our old & affectionate friend Elizabeth Towle on the 10th inst after about two weeks of illness. She died at Nazareth Pennsylvania where she resided with her husband Saml Towle, Since they left this Town. —her attentions to us & many more they left in this place will never be forgotten, in sickness she was Attentive & Affectionate, & as a companion pleasant & instructive both in deportment & conversation.- RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 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. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1839 Edward Sherman Hoar matriculated at Harvard College. Loring Henry Austin, Francis Lemuel Capen, Edward Everett Hale, and William Francis Channing graduated from Harvard. Channing would go on to study medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (although his practice as a physician would never extend beyond the administration of quack applications of electricity to the heads and feet of sufferers). NEW “HARVARD MEN” After leaving Harvard, Ellery Channing had spent almost 5 years living in the home of his father Dr. Walter Channing, withdrawing books from the Boston Athenæum and presumably educating himself in this manner — but otherwise not doing much of anything. In this year he determined that he was going to make something of himself, as a farmer on the frontier! (Meanwhile, in this year, Abraham Lincoln was beginning to travel through 9 counties in central and eastern Illinois, as a lawyer on the 8th Judicial Circuit.) THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1840 January: Manlius Stimson Clarke was admitted to the Suffolk bar. Early in this year, at the age of 15, Harvard College freshman Edward Sherman Hoar ran off in the company of a boy named Worthington “to hunt buffalo” — they would get as far as Kentucky (eventually Edward would return to Concord, to matriculate again but this time as a sophomore). THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1841 October 12, Tuesday: The combined British detachment that had ventured out from the relative safety of the metropolis, Cabul, Afghanistan, by this morning had become large enough to transit the pass of Khoord-Cabul, and this was effected with some loss due to long range sniper fire down from the rocks at the sides of the defile. The force then set up a defensive camp perimeter on the far side of the defile at Khoord-Cabul and the 13th light infantry again subjected itself to losses due to its exposure to this unrelenting rifle fire, by returning through the pass to its defensive camp perimeter at Bootkhak. For some nights the camps would repel attacks, “that on the 35th native infantry being peculiarly disastrous, from the treachery of the Affghan horse, who admitted the enemy within their lines, by which our troops were exposed to a fire from the least suspected quarter. Many of our gallant sepoys, and Lieutenant Jenkins, thus met their death.”1 Frederick Douglass addressed the Middlesex County Anti-Slavery Society at the Universalist meetinghouse in Concord. 1. Lieut. V. Eyre (Sir Vincent Eyre, 1811-1881). THE MILITARY OPERATIONS AT CABUL: WHICH ENDED IN THE RETREAT AND DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH ARMY, JANUARY 1842, WITH A JOURNAL OF IMPRISONMENT IN AFFGHANISTAN. Philadelphia PA: Carey and Hart, 1843; London: J. Murray, 1843 (three editions); Lieut. V. Eyre (Sir Vincent Eyre, 1811-1881). PRISON SKETCHES: COMPRISING PORTRAITS OF THE CABUL PRISONERS AND OTHER SUBJECTS; ADAPTED FOR BINDING UP WITH THE JOURNALS OF LIEUT. V. EYRE, AND LADY SALE; LITHOGRAPHED BY LOWES DICKINSON. London: Dickinson and Son, [1843?] HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” We very much need to know who was in town at the time, and who did and who did not attend this meeting: • Bronson Alcott ? • Abba Alcott ? • Anna Bronson Alcott ? • Louisa May Alcott (8 years old)? • Phineas Allen ? • Perez Blood ? • Mrs. Mary Merrick Brooks ? • Squire Nathan Brooks ? • Caroline Downes Brooks ? • George Merrick Brooks ? • Deacon Simon Brown ? •Mrs. Lidian Emerson ? • Waldo Emerson ? • Reverend Barzillai Frost ? • Margaret Fuller ? • William Lloyd Garrison ? • Nathaniel Hawthorne ? • Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar ? • Edward Sherman Hoar ? • Senator George Frisbie Hoar ? • Elizabeth Sherman Hoar ? •Squire Samuel Hoar ? •Dr. Edward Jarvis ? • Deacon Francis Jarvis ? • John Shepard Keyes, Judge John Shepard Keyes ? • John M. Keyes ? • Reverend George Ripley ? • Mrs. Sophia Dana Ripley ? • Reverend Samuel Ripley ? • Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley ? • Lemuel Shattuck ? • Daniel Shattuck ? • Sheriff Sam Staples ? • Henry David Thoreau ? • John Thoreau, Senior ? • Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau ? • John Thoreau, Jr. ? • Helen Louisa Thoreau ? • Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau ? • Aunt Maria Thoreau ? • Aunt Jane Thoreau ? • Alek Therien ? • Miss Prudence Ward ? HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1842 Edward Sherman Hoar joined the Class of 1844 at Harvard College during its Sophomore year. Edward Capen graduated from Harvard. Joseph Osgood graduated from Harvard Divinity School. Frederick Goddard Tuckerman graduated from Harvard with a degree in law (but he would never practice law, instead living on his inheritance). NEW “HARVARD MEN” DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Edward “The Californian” HDT WHAT? INDEX EDWARD SHERMAN HOAR “THE CALIFORNIAN” 1844 March 1, Friday: On this day and the following one Frederick Douglass lectured in New Bedford. Harvard senior George Merrick Brooks wrote apologetically to his mother Mary Merrick Brooks in Concord, owning up to a recent incident involving himself and Edward Sherman Hoar and the public consumption of alcohol: Dear Mother, No longer than last night I was congratulating myself with the thought that by this time, the most unfortunate occurrence in my life was almost wholly blown over in the town of Concord. I sat down last night & coolly & calmly reflected upon the whole matter. I saw & felt the iniquity of the proceeding, & thinking thus, my thoughts naturally reverted to my parents. I knew the anguish that such a transgression must necessarily cause them, & while on that subject, the greif [sic] of my mind can better be conceived of, than expressed. But while suffering under such reflections, one thought consoled me, ie My parents love me (at least I have no reason to suppose the contrary) & if they love me they will forgive transgressions even of a blacker die than the one I have been guilty of if they sincerely believed that I had repented.