OLD-TIME NEW ENGLAND

CA Quarter/y dkfagazine Devoted to the dncient Buildings, Household’ FumiIhings, Domestic drtx, &fanners and Customs, and 23finor chztipuities of the 3\cew England Teop/e

BULLETIN OFTHE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES

Volume XLVII, No. 3 yanuary-JMarch, I 9 5 7 Serial No. 167

A Family Letter From VV. Rodman Peabody.

The following reminiscences were dictated for his children by Mr. William Rodman Peabody of Milton, Massachusetts, shortly be- fore his death in 1941. The grandparents of whom he writes were Francis Minot Weld and Elizabeth (Rodman) Weld.

I Captain Joseph Weld, the direct ancestor of Francis Minot Weld, was born in 1598 in MY GRANDFATHER Sudbury, County Suffolk, England. He came to New England, not an adventurer, penniless Y earliest memories are of the and outcast, but a Puritan who left behind him great brown house in Jamaica in old England, home, comfort and prosperity, M Plain where my, mother, as well and sought in the new land freedom for con- as I was born. As a matter of fact, it was science. He became a ‘freeman of Roxbury Colony on March 3, 1636, and acted as repre- only by good luck that I was born at all sentative for the Colony from 1637 to 1645. for when my mother was an infant the He was well trained in arms, and when he was house caught on fire. Enthusiastic friends chosen captain in the service of the Colony in were eagerly tossing its contents out of the I 641, he proved a valuable aid to Governor windows and were just throwing a bundle Winthrop in military affairs and fought in many engagements with the Indians. In 1641, of bed clothes from an upper room when Captain Joseph Weld was one of the commis- they were interrupted by a scream. My sioners appointed to settle the boundary be- grandmother dashed into the room and tween Roxbury and Boston; and in 1643, he rescued Baby Cora from a blanket poised served with Governor Winthrop on the com- on the window sill. mission which made a treaty with the Pequot Indians. In this year the Colony gave him a My grandfather was descended from grant of several hundred acres of land, which one of the first settlers to arrive in the estate is now known as West Roxbury Park Massachusetts Bay Colony. Captain Jo- and Arnold Arboretum. He lived on Roxbury seph Weld took a tract of land in what Street. was then the Town of Roxbury. Our Captain Joseph was one of the earliest friends of Harvard College, to which he, was a donor cousin, Sarah Swan Weld, has written in 1642, and the first bequest in his will is to about the early members of the family as that college . . . ‘Being visited by the hand of follows: the Lord . . . my spirits being restless and out

57 58 Old-Time New England of quiet because my house is not set in order’ a saw mill on the Hemlock Gorge Brook he begins quaintly . . . I‘ do therefore make this of the present Arboretum. It is a family my last will and testament as follows: IM- tradition that in I 775 the Weld sawdust PRIMIS, I give to the college in Cambridge pile concealed a large supply of Colonial Ten Pounds to be paid in 5 years,-viz: 40 shillings per annum, to the help and furtherance powder. When the British raiding party of such in learning as are not able to subsist of was forming on Boston Common on the themselves.’ . . . Savage states that at the time of evening of April 18th and the signals his death in I 648, Captain Weld was the richest were set by the city patriots in the old man in the Colony. His will was one of the first on record there, and is extremely interesting in North Church it was understood that one its details of family practices and matters. It lantern would indicate that the troops also shows the close relationship that existed be- would march by land over Roxbury Neck tween himself and the Apostle Eliot, who was for the Weld sawdust pile in West Rox- his best friend. bury. Two such lanterns would give When Anne Hutchinson .was tried for here- warning that the troops would cross to sy and sentenced to banishment by the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony, she was quartered as a Charlestown by boat and search for the prisoner in the House of Captain Weld until the military stores which were secreted in sentence could be carried into effect. It was Concord. then winter, and the Indians and wolves were In common with so many other New abroad. Captain Weld was at that time a magis- trate of the Colony, but not as was his brother Englanders, the Welds heard the call of Thomas, on the court which tried Mrs. Hutch- the sea ringing loudly and persistently in inson. Regarding her sojourn in his house their ears. By 1800, at least one member from November, 1636, to April, 1637, Anne of the family was trading with Europe in Hutchinson said that, except for the fact that she was obliged to have a companion when she command of his own square-rigged ship. walked out, she would have thought that she In 1802, William Gordon Weld, my was an honored guest in his home. great grandfather, while in command of As we follow the direct line of descent from his armed ship “Jason” off Tunis, fought Captain Joseph Weld, we find in nearly every and beat off an Algerian ship, one of the generation a Weld prominent in civic or mili- terrors of the sea, and recaptured two tary affairs,-John Weld fought against the Pequot Indians in 1676, in King Philip’s War, American brigs with their crews. In and both his son and his grandson were ofIicers 1812, his ship “Mary” was lying in the in the service of the Colony. river at Lisbon. He had discharged his Captain Weld’s farm included the cargo of dried fish and barrel staves and present Bussey Arboretum. His grave was waiting for his factor to collect his and those of his family are at the top of return cargo. Nearby the English frigate Bussey Hill and the house in which the “Spartan” swung at her anchor. Your Peters family now lives was for genera- great great grandfather was of a com- tions the Weld family homestead. An panionable character and like all other early Weld married a Minot, a daughter, Welds since his time regarded a good cook I think, of the housewife, who, when her as one of the necessities of life. It was a husband was absent, noticed an Indian natural result, therefore, that Mr. Weld looking through the window and with and the captain of the “Spartan” formed quiet presence of mind hid her two chil- the habit of dining with each other on al- dren, who were playing on the floor, un- ternate evenings. Eventually, the “Spar- der a great iron pot. As an incident to tan” received orders to sail for England their lives as farmers, the Welds operated and dropped down the river on an ebbing A Family Letter tide. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Weld, de- ter while the children grew up, but one spairing of obtaining a profitable cargo, after another of the boys drifted back to determined to return to Boston in ballast Boston. First came the elder brother, with the proceeds of his outward voyage William. He entered the shipping business converted into doubloons, which were and amassed the largest fortune acquired packed into kegs. by any Boston merchants of his time, but The voyage was monotonously slow, died unmourned and with the reputation but Cape Cod was passed at last. Just as of grasping acquisitiveness. Incidentally, he raised Boston Light, a familiar sail ap- he gave Weld Hall to Harvard Univer- peared to windward. It turned out to be sity. the “Spartan.” She bore away and sig- A younger brother, Francis Minot nalled Mr. Weld to back his foresail. A Weld, in his turn felt the lure of the city. boat was launched from her and came I have always been told that he drove a alongside to receive the cordial greetings cow from Lancaster to the Brighton of the American. To Mr. Weld’s amaze- stock yards, and went on to Boston to ment, the embarrassed lieutenant in com- seek his fortune with his brother. He was, mand announced that the War of 1812 however, of a very different ‘character had begun, and that the ship was a prize from William, and he soon set up in busi- of war and was to be taken to Halifax for ness for himself. I know very little of his condemnation. In memory, however, of youth, but as an older man he enjoyed many pleasant dinners the captain au- a wide reputation for vivacity and charm. thorized the lieutenant to permit Mr. It is said that when relations found them- Weld to leave the ship in his dinghy and selves faced with a dull dinner party it proceed to shore balanced by a keg of his was their custom to summon Cousin own doubloons. He landed, lonely and Frank whose gaiety and humor would be disgruntled, somewhere near Wollaston sure to make the party a success. He be- Beach, heaved the keg onto his shoulder came not rich, but a successful Boston and made the best way he could to his merchant, always ready to take a chance, West Roxbury home. His cup of wrath always borrowing to join his friends in a ran over when he found the house empty financial venture, always suffering acute and locked. In his absence, his wife, fear- distress until his note was paid, always ing a British raid, had sought security for making solemn vows that he would never herself and her children with relations in borrow again and always yielding to the Lancaster. It is said that Mr. Weld be- opportunities offered to him by his richer came so angry that he pulled a chair on neighbors to share in another Western the veranda, put his feet on the railing and railroad venture. Apparently he was ad- took an oath that he never again would do mitted to what we would now call under- any work. This vow, it is believed, he writing syndicates, not because his pres- fulfilled. At any rate, I myself have in- ence added any financial strength to the vestigated the railings and have found in group but because his presence in the di- them deeps dents which could only have rectors’ room brought with it an atmos- been made by the repeated scratches of phere of gaiety and charm. Wheth,er he cowhide boots. So, there is every reason benefited permanently from these finan- to believe that the story is true. cial opportunities is doubtful. At any rate, The Weld family remained in Lancas- when his death occurred a crop of notes 60 Old-Time New England . . appeared whrch It took his children over a Board of Directors. The competition was decade of effort and family economy to held, Robert Peabody was duly selected Pay. and everybody, except possibly the other Grandfather Weld might have found competitors, was content. Again, how- it difficult to resist an opportunity to in- ever, Grandfather was justified in his crease his fortune, but it is equally true notion for the Peabody plans were ob- that he could not resist an opportunity to viously superior to all the others and for do a kindness. Once when my father was two generations the Providence station a young minister in Cambridge he men- was the most dignified and convenient tioned to his father-in-law that a Mr. railroad terminal in Boston. Your mother Williston, one of his parishioners, wanted tells of the other side of this story. When much to be Superintendent of Boston her father learned that he had been ap’ schools. Mr. Weld was a friend of the pointed architect for the Providence sta- then Mayor of Boston. He called upon tion he hurried home from the office to re- him and so convincing was his statement port the glad news to his bride. It was his of the qualifications of Mr. Williston for first large building, and they celebrated the office that the latter was appointed. by walking downtown together and buy- Shortly afterwards, Grandfather was ing her a new pair of shoes. walking up School Street with the Mayor Until 1857 Grandfather had been in when a gentleman bowed to him with the shipping business in partnership with cordiality. “I wonder who that man is,” his cousin under the firm of Weld and said my grandfather, “he looked as if he Minot. Their ships must have covered the knew me well, but I do not remember seven seas for they seemed to have traded ever having seen him before.” “Why, regularly with Canton (China) and ap- that,” said the astonished Mayor, “is our parently they had a branch office at New new Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Wil- Orleans. The picture by a Chinese artist liston, who was chosen upon the strength of the ships lying off the Tongs below of your personal and unqualified recom- Canton at the Ahampau anchorage must mendation.” It is fair to add that Mr. have come from the days of Weld and Williston’s successful career entirely justi- Minot for I found it in bad repair in the fied his appointment. Suncook mill office and had it restore’d. When my grandfather was a director The New Orleans office of the firm seems of the Boston & Providence Railroad the to have been a source of some embarrass- proposal was made to construct a terminal ment to the Boston partners because one station at Park Square. As the station was of the assets of the firm in that office was to be a prominent civic improvement it a slave. Whether existence of the slave was suggested that the architect be chosen was known to Abolitionists neighbors in by competition. My grandfather agreed Jamaica Plain I have never known. that a competition should be held, but with The panic of I 85 7 brought the firm of the proviso that his son-in-law’s brother, Weld and Minot to the verge of bank- Robert Peabody, who had just married ruptcy. My mother used to tell of the and needed the business, should be the ar- family economies during that winter. An chitect of the station. It is said that this’ addition was being put onto the house compromise was duly accepted by the just at the moment when freights were

. A Family Letter 61 going down, but the greatest impression mill were so satisfactory that, after paying upon the nine year old child’s memory dividends sufficient for the support of the seems to have been the fact that liver was families who were dependent upon the introduced into the family meals as a sub- enterprise, the surplus profits were ade- stitute for steak. It was in the winter of quate to build and equip a still larger mill 1857 that two sets of china arrived from which was named after Senator Webster. Canton on a Weld and Minot ship. In These two mills provided ample funds for those days a set of Canton china consisted a third mill known as the China Mill, of two or three hundred pieces and served the purpose of which was primarily to for all purposes. There were insufficient produce clothing for the heathen Chinese, ready funds to permit the keeping of both -and thus the Welds and Howes did sets, so the everyday china was retained their part in foreign missionary work. and is now our best dinner party china. For sixty years these mills were the The other set was sold to a prosperous main source of support for the growing neighbor, Mr. Head. On the death of Mr. Weld family and if today they seem un- Head’s daughter, Mother was given a rewarding it must be remembered that coffee pot and a few other pieces hy the from them have accrued most of the fami- family, and so what remains of the whole ly capital and that no money was ever importation is now back again on the put into them except the original invest- family shelves. ment in the little mill which was burned. The experience of I 857 satisfied The naming of the Webster mill was Grandfather that he had been in the ship- significant. My grandfather might worry ping business long enough. Therefore, ahout his own notes at the bank, but there with a few friends he bought a little mill was one promissory note which could not situated upon a water power at Suncook, have been purchased from him. He was New Hampshire, at a point where the one of the intensely loyal followers of Suncook River empties into the Merri- Daniel Webster. The great senator’s mack River. His neighbor, Mr. Howe, philosophy was his doctrine; the senator’s put up a little more than half the money friendship was his privilege. An oil paint- and became president of the company. ing of the Senator hung in the dining Grandfather was elected treasurer and room opposite Grandfather’s chair, and administrator of the mill. They engaged when the Senator himself stood in the a Mr. Micajah Pope as agent. As Mr. Weld dining room under the painting Pope was proceeding by train to Concord Grandfather’s cup of happiness was full in order to take on his new job he looked to brimming. across the Merrimack River and saw the Webster was a conscienceless borrow- Suncook cotton mill a mass of flames. This er, but to be a creditor entitled one to call catastrophe proved a blessing, however. the great Daniel his friend. A note of The old mill had been thoroughly in- Daniel Webster was the passport to the sured. With the insurance money the society of the elect. To be a follower of young company was ‘able to build and Mr. Webster, however, stamped a man equip with the newest machinery a larger as a conservative who was out of sympathy mill which was named after the town of with the Abolition movement. The Sev- Pembroke. Profits from the Pembroke enth of March Speech divided the men of Old-Time New England

Boston not only politically but socially. ties upon a jury. Grandfather and Cous- To the followers of Webster the salvation in George Minot joined the Ancient and of the Union was even more important Honorable Artillery Company. As re- than the abolition of slavery. A war be- cruits in the rear line they attended their tween the States was to them evidence of first drill on Boston Common. Suddenly, political bankruptcy. Therefore, when Grandfather looked at the clock on the the war came, the Welds were among tall tower of the Providence Railroad the so-called “Copperheads” who could station and whispered to George: not approve it and would not support it. “George, the 2:40 train leaves in five When the oldest son was drafted as a minutes.” Quietly the two soldiersslipped soldier, Grandfather bought a substitute from the ranks, leaned their muskets for him and sent him on a journey to the against a tree and ran for the train. The Far East. It may be that Grandfather’s muskets were never seen again. This is course was based upon his strong politi- the only military experience of which I cal feelings, or it may be that he was have any knowledge in our branch of the moved by the influence of our grand- Weld family. mother who was a Quaker and therefore Time could be taken off in the fishing opposedto war, or it may be that he was season. There was an annual chowder influenced in part by a mistaken, mis- party at Ponkapoag Pond. The fishing directed parental love. At any rate, from club consisted of Mr. Whitney, whose the point of view of. the effect upon his house is the present McGinley estate, son, it was a terrible mistake. George Minot, the grandfather of our The lives of the merchants in the era Cousin George Minot, old Mr. Peters between I 840 and I 880 were not wholly from Forest Hills, and others. They drove given to the acquisition of wealth. Money in state on a Saturday in each spring to came easily even though it sometimes Ponkapoag Pond, where the morning went quickly. The work day was over was spent in fishing for perch, pickerel and in time to take the 2:40 train on the perhapsbass. Meantime, a skilled retainer Providence Railroad which brought a had started a fire on the shore, and a man home for dinner at 3:30. Indeed, chowder lunch accompanied by well iced even in my boyhood days to return upon champagne was served in due course. Af- the 2 :40 train was for the gentlemen who ter lunch was over, it was time to be driv- lived in the neighborhood of Roxbury, en home. It was a tradition that the Jamaica Plain and Forest Hills almost chowder was a chef’s dream, but I have a ritual. There could be no excuse for always believed that the champagne must missing this train, on any day except Sat- have prejudiced the judgment of the pic- urday. Saturday afternoons were spent nickers. I also remember that this club, at the Temple Club on Temple Place. or another, once met at Jordan Pond at Only the young bloodsof the next genera- Mount Desert. Grandfather was driven tion graduated to the more modern Som- home, very wet, was much petted and erset Club. was put to bed. It afterwards turned out In thosedays, membership in a military that he had insisted on an armchair being organization, which in theory at least placed in a narrow Adirondack rowboat might be called upon for service at any which he had used as a fishing punt. For time, was a causefor exemption from du- some reason, unstated, the boat had cap- A Family Letter 63 sized. He died in 1866, a deeply beloved, zen of the town. If you will look at the leading citizen of Boston. picture “New Bedford Fifty Years Ago” you will see William Retch in his one II horse chaise. The son-in-law, Samuel MY GRANDMOTHER Rodman, is standing on the street corner dressed in brown with a white stock and Your great grandmother was Eliza- with a Quaker three-cornered hat. beth Rodman of New Bedford. The The Retch family were Quakers from

THE SOMERSET CLUB, BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Photograph taken about rgao.

Rodmans had been early settlers and Nantucket who for generations had been 1 planters on the Island of Barbados. In the engaged in the whaling industry. As year two Rodman brothers arrived Quakers they were unsympathetic with in Newport, Rhode Island. They must war, and as islanders they professed an have had some means, for one of them indifference to colonial aspirations. They bought the island of Block Island. The wanted to be left alone in order that they other brother found his way to New Bed- might maintain their religious principles ford where he married the daughter of without interference and sell their whale William Retch who was the leading citi- oil wherever the market was highest. Old-Time New England

Quakers had not been popular in Boston replied quite simply that it was of the first since the days of Anne Hutchinson, and it importance that nobody should be hurt. may well have been an additional irrita- Inhibitions, however strong, are us- tion to the Boston patriots that the East ually balanced by some form of indul- India Company had chartered three of gence. The Quakers were restrained in Mr. Retch’s shipsto bring the tea of the dress, were seemly in deportment and East India Company to Boston. During were unresponsive to artistic appeal. the Revolution, both American and Eng- Nothing in their creed, however, or in lish vesselsfound refuge and a source of their conscience, forbade their bodies to supplies in Nantucket. So little tie was be well fed. Cooking was the Quakers’ there between the Quakers of Nantucket fine art. The perusal of your great grand- and the mainland that after the Revolu- mother’s cook book will today stimulate tion was over Retch, the the gastric juices. Her table was a culinary head of the family moved his businessto triumph. Her cake closetwas a small boy’s France. An interesting diary of this Mr. heaven, and her jelly pantry a treasury of Retch has been printed and is in our li- delight. It is said that some Rodman rec- brary. Subsequently, the branch of the ipes began with the phrase: “Take one Retch family which remained at Nan- dozen eggs, one quart of cream, and one tucket found that the harbor bar carried quart of Madeira,” After that it did not too little water to permit their larger ships make much difference what ingredients to enter even with the aid of camels. were added. Rodman Madeira was sea- Therefore, as the phrase then was, they soned in Rodman ships which went determined to become ‘off-islanders” around Cape Horn after the sperm and to settle in New Bedford. whales. An entry in the diary of my great Your great grandmother was brought uncle, William Logan Rodman, is as fol- up a Hixite Quaker. Her theology differed lows : little from Unitarianism, but upon her First Day. Sultry. Went to meeting in marriage to a Boston Unitarian she was the morning. In the afternoon de- duly read out of the church. This formal canted IOO bottles of Madeira which separation from youthful religious con- had arrived in the ship. servatism did not affect the habits and Rodman cream came from imported Jer- instincts which she had developed with sey cows. her Quaker characteristics. She had a gentleness and lovableness in her char- III acter which she transmitted to your JAMAICA PLAIN grandmother. It was her nature to be quiet in moments of emotional strain. Your great grandparents lived in am- Once at Mount Desert when our house ple but unostentatiouscomfort. The house was entered by a burglar she was awak- was large enough to hold not only the ened by the man in her room. She spoke family but the guests of all the children, to him, and he disappeared into the hall and when these children had married with her watch in his hands. For half an there was room for them to return at hour she lay silently in bed and then rose Christmas time with their own children. and tapped at my father’s door. When The living room with its early Victorian asked why she did not call for help she furniture offered every material comfort, A Family Letter 65

even if today the furniture would not boy I was seldom invited in the harness meet the demands of modern good taste. room on Sunday mornings, but I do re- The library shelves were filled with member one Sunday morning after American as well as English editions of church being securely perched on a bench books which a gentleman ought to own, when a rat was let out of the trap to test though I cannot remember many books the spirit of a New Bedlington terrior being taken from these shelves. An ex- imported from Yorkshire. I have since ception, however, would have to be made learned that this harness room was the of books which dealt with the upkeep of scene of many famous cock fights, in a gentleman’s place, with the breeding of which the Weld family cocks fought it poultry or the diseases of horses and of out with the champions from Brookline course an exception would have to be and West Roxbury. These fights were made of the Waverley Novels which my never mentioned in the house. It was Uncle Rodman knew almost by heart. recognized that Grandmother disap- The dining room was not spacious but proved, and she in turn appreciated that three generations could sit about the din- assumed ignorance made moral issues un- ing room table in comfort and at Christ- necessary. mas and Thanksgiving when decorated The next story of the barn was given

with the I 857 china and the Georgian to the horses,-Grandmother’s matched silver it had a heavy magnificence. The pair, two utility horses for the carryall, billiard room with its elevated platform on and two trotters for the light pleasure which was a sofa placed so high that a wagons. Grandmother was short, dumpy spectator could look over the table with and round. In size and figure she was not ease, and the walls covered with sporting unlike Queen Victoria. On pleasant aft- prints, was a masculine refuge when not ernoons her carriage appeared at the the site of children’s holiday revelry. door, the bay horses a little restive under Music must have meant little in the their silver mounted harness with the gold family life, though I can remember my family griffins on the blinders, and fat grandmother playing “The Campbells Dan, the coachman, erect on the box in are Coming” and “I Dreamt I dwelt in plum colored livery and high hat. Grand- Marble Halls” on a tinkling grand piano mother, all in black, with a little black and it is said that she went to “Pinafore” bonnet tied under her chin by broad black forty times. On one occasion she took ribbons, and her small folding sunshade with her her eldest grandson; it was the in her hand, was tucked in by the devoted first time I had ever been to the theatre. Julia who then placed at Grandmother’s There were oil paintings on the living feet a Nantucket basket filled with pears, room walls, but except for the portrait of or glasses of jelly, or fresh vegetables. Mr. Webster in the dining room, I think The whip cracked, the horses danced a that the pictures were regarded primarily little, and Grandmother said: “There is as appropriate wall space coverings. no hurry, Dan,” and then put up her little ’ ’ To the male members of the Weld sunshade. So she set out on her errand of family life on Forest Hill Street centered love, perhaps to Cambridge, perhaps to in the barn. In the loft close to the hay dear Cousin Annie Peabody’s in Brook- were the coops of fighting cocks-splen- line, or perhaps to Milton where lived her did, noisy, gorgeous creatures. As a little two friends, the Miss Channings, maiden Old-Time New England

daughters of William Ellery Channing. and finally the Tilbury with its two red Sometimes pressed by her side was a very wheels and little seat facing backward for small boy who was wishing that his own the groom. I think the Tilbury was used father and mother were not so far away. only as the background for gay adven- To Grandmother, whose tastes were tures. Personally, I remember seeing it very simple and whose personal wants out but once. Minot and his friends were were few, a horse and carriage was an es- then attempting to drive two horses in sential part of daily life. If she had to go tandem around the avenue. The whole shopping at Hovey’s in Boston, it would family stood on the front steps to watch never have occurred to her to go other- them start. The whip with the long lash wise than in her carriage. When she died snapped gaily over the head of the leader, in 1896 she had never in her life stepped which promptly turned around and faced into a street car, and I doubt whether if the wheel ,horse. General confusion fol- she had done so she would have had the lowed in which Dan and the stable boy necessary five cents in her pocket to pay grabbed the horses by the heads, and the her carfare. For years after their father’s party proceeded to return rather igno- death it was the first duty in the minds of miniously on foot to the stable. Then of his sons to pay off the promissory notes. course there were the sleighs, big and Their mother, however, should of course little, down to the light cutter in which be given all the comforts of a lady. She Molly, the fast bay mare, was driven on could run up bills which they gladly paid, the Brighton road. When a carriage was but money was forbidden to her; she taken in or out of the coach house, the jar might give it away in mistaken kindness on the floor set all the sleigh bells jingling. or squander it unwisely on charities. I Eelow the horses was the cow barn and think that one sorrow in Grandmother’s father beyond the two pig pens. I once life was that though she could take fruit, earned fifty cents from an amused uncle flowers, Pears soap, or a table cover as a bv catching a young pig by his hind legs. weekly present to her daughter she never Unfortunately, I was thrown in the could slip a bill into the hands of the young struggle, and my triumph must have cost mother in Cambridge who was struggling Grandmother more than fifty cents to to bring up a growing family on the re- renovate my clothes. Everywhere there stricted salary of a college professor. were hens-no Rhode Island reds, but On the left as one approached the horse great white cochins and dainty leghorns, stalls in the barn was the coach house. all I think of foreign stock. How strange those cumbersome vehicles At the foot of the hill was Grandmoth- would appear today. Alongside of Grand- er’s garden with two rose beds at the up- mother’s dainty Victoria was the great per end and the long lines of perennials closed carriage with its heavy springs. It which stopped abruptly at the pasture was large enough to take the whole Pea- fence. To the left of the garden was the body family to the Christmas Eve party pond, and beyond the pond a densely, at Cousin Hannah Weld’s at Eliot Square wooded hill over which ran the path that “over on the Plains.” Then, there was the cows took when they went to pasture. the booby hutch for winter, the carryall It was a man-sized job for a boy of six for station work, the Goddard buggy, the to drive the cows home over that hill with light top black buggy, the yellow wagon, only a switch and old Pat behind to put A Family Letter 67 in a rough word of command, if by chance If the great armchairs were swathed in a cow turned suddenly to look at the boy antimacassars, they faced a fireplace or lowed belligerently. To the right of where the great logs burned endlessly. the garden was an apple orchard, and As the family grew, the house grew to then the hemlock woods ending in the meet the new demands upon it. A bed- unscalable pudding stone cliffs. In the room was placed next to the parlor, and cliffs, however, were two little caves the long window was left in its place con- which could be reached by the venture- necting the two rooms. My mother liked some, and at the foot of the cliffs was a to tell how she had a witness to one of lovely bubbling spring. I have no doubt her proposals. Her brother Rod was in that the spring might have been a source bed on the other side of the window and of family fortune for its reputation for overheard not only the ardent declara- curative properties was so widespread in tion, but also the gust of tears which fol- the neighborhood that people came from lowed her answer. I noticed, however, as far as the other side of the railroad that any feminine satisfaction in this con- tracks to fill their pitchers and cans from quest was modified after her unsuccessful its clear waters. The time finally arrived suitor not only had succumbed to the when these pilgrimages were so constant charms of a neighboring young lady but and took on such an aspectof community also in due course had acquired a second celebration that the spring had to be pro- and then a third wife. His youthful dis- tected by a high timber fence surmounted appointment seemed not to have been by barbed wire. enduring. Grandmother’s house was an example Such was the household in which I of family hospitality which in one aspect spent much of my early life and which at least was undoubtedly unique. Most was the first home which I remember. homes at one time or another are closed while the family is absent. For sixty years IV the front door of the Weld home invited UNCLE ROD every branch of the family to enter. Dur- ing thesesixty years there never was a day Jamaica Plain was home to me more when the housewas unoccupied or closed. than to my brothers or sisters, because The only question asked of a visitor was at different times I spent three full years “Have you come to stay, or only for a there, when the fatiily were in Europe, meal? ” For sixty years the door was never and because after I went downtown I locked until the last latecomer got to bed. made Jamaica Plain my summer head- I supposeits mid-Victorian furniture quarters while the family went to Mount would be regarded today as representative Desert. From 1898 until I was married of our worst architectural period. It pro- it was my summer home. During a por- vided, however, comfort, if not elegance, tion of many of these summers Minot’s and a hospitablegraciousness. If the heavy family were at Bar Harbor, and he also hangings carried a permanent aroma of lived at the house on Forest Hill Street. stale Havana tobacco, there was always It was Uncle Rod, however, who was the on. a side table an open box of cigars avail- host and presiding spirit of the house, He able to ariy guest. Besidethe cigar box was was my mother’s eldest brother; I suspect a carton of S. S. Pierce’s chocolatewafers. that his youth had not been a very happy 68 Old-Time New England one. He entered college with the Class to the Far East. The episode perhaps does of I 859, but as he used to say: “The fac- not reflect very creditably upon the son’s ulty and I did not get along well to- ardor to fight for his country or his inde- gether.” I have been led to believe that pendence of paternal influence, but his he must have spent too much a propor- father was a forceful person and no one tion of his time in the billiard parlor which could have said that assertive independ- then existed under Lyceum Hall. At any ence was Uncle Rod’s outstanding char- rate, his college career seems to have fin- acteristic. In fact, he was unusually gentle ished at the end of his Freshman year. at heart, but hid deeply his sweetness of He participated in one inter-collegiate character under a protective roughness athletic event of which he liked to tell. In of language and manner which only fi- that college era the Harvard and Yale nally disappeared as he approached old crews raced on Lake Quinsigamond in age. The death of his mother wrought Worcester. On the evening before the some inner metamorphosis of character boat race it was the custom for the repre- and caused the prickly shell to crack open sentatives of the two colleges to partici- revealing a gentleness of heart and a win- pate in a billiard match at Worcester Ho- someness which made him the most be- tel. “In the spring of my Freshman year,” loved member of the family. During most according to Uncle Rod, “Harvard of the year he lived at Jamaica Plain, out- lacked an adequately skilful billiard play- wardly a crabbed old bachelor yet actu- er, and to maintain the tradition of the ally a pathetic and lonely old man whose college they finally engaged a Boston secret desire was to maintain the family professional to represent them and duly home and tradition as his mother would presented him at the ‘Night Before’ as have wished. His welcome was never ef- a young and promising Freshman. Yale, fusive but his hospitality was unbounded. also, it seems, was required to turn to the I never knew whether the invasions by Freshman Class for its billiard expert. nephews or by a whole family at one time When the champions of the two colleges were welcome interludes in his lonely life approached the table they looked at each or were nuisances to be put up with be- other and laughed. It appeared that the cause he was the head of the house and Yale Freshman was a well known New the house was the headquarters of the York professional billiard player. The two family. men had frequently met in billiard tour- In appearance, he was not unlike King naments before. The situation quickly be- Edward VII of England, and I rather came recognized, and after hearty cheers fancy he enjoyed the resemblance which all the spectators sat down to watch a was often remarked upon by his friends skilled professional exhibition. It was the and played up to it a,little. His beard was last time Harvard and Yale ever com- cut in the same manner and his square peted at billiards.” gray derby hats were of the same shape Soon after he left college the Civil War as King Edward’s. I think he admired broke out, and as I have already said when King Edward, because, whatever may Uncle Rod was drafted for the army a have been the latter’s faults, he repre- kindly but mistaken father hired a sub- sented the traditions of a gentleman. The stitute and sent his son on a long journey code of a gentleman was Uncle Rod’s A Family Letter 69

religious creed. What a gentleman ought quaintance, but I understood that you were a gentleman and that a gentleman could be de- to do under any set of circumstances was pended upon to pay his bills as they became due. to him the conclusive test of his or an- I trust that I shall have no reason to modify this other’s behaviour. “Pack. some cigars in opinion. Mr. Rodman’s bag,” he said to old Julia. Yours truly, (the housekeeper) when I was starting B. R. Weld off for a summer week-end, and, turning The bill was paid forthwith. to me, he said: “Remember, a gentleman Incidentally, Uncle Rod had advanced only acceptshis host’s cigars after a meal; to Watkins from time to time more cash between meals he smokeshis own.” That in the form of loans than the latter was my cigars were to be furnished by him able to repay. For years Minot and I had he took as a matter of course. “Remem- our shoesmade to order without cost to ber,” he said to me once in reference to us, the price being deducted from the drinking, “no gentleman takes a drink amount of Mr. Watkins’ indebtedness to before S:oo p.m. or east of Park Street.” Uncle Rod. For many years he had his shoesmade One day when I was just starting by a shoemaker in New Bedford named [for] my law office a caller was an- Watkins. One day Mr. Watkins came to nounced. “I am Mr. Hoare,” said the him and said that he had an opportunity caller, “Mr. Rodman Weld’s tailor from * to furnish the shoes for the crew of a London, He tells me that your trousers yacht named “Independence” which had do not hang right, that they have not the been built by Thomas Lipton to defend proper spring over your instep, and he the American Cup. Lawson was a widely has directed me to take your measure- known speculatorin stockswho had made ments for a suit of clothes.” I postedover a fortune in exploiting copper stocks but to Uncle Rod’s office. “Did you see whose reputation for financial integrity Hoare?” he asked. “No, don’t try to was not above reproach. On Uncle Rod’s look at your trousers. Don’t you know advice Watkins took the Lawson contract that it is impossiblefor a man to judge of and made the shoes, but subsequently the hang of his own trousers? If your came back with the report that he had in- family are going away and you have to vested a substantial sum of money in the live with me, you’ve got to wear trousers contract, but that Mr. Lawson had not that hang like those of a gentleman.” paid any of his bills. Watkins was without Thereafter, as long as Uncle Rod lived cash to meet his own current obligations Hoare came twice a year to my office and or to pay the weekly wages due his work- measured me for a suit of English clothes. men. On hearing of this situation, Uncle “Your name comes up for election to Rod wrote substantially the following the Somerset Club next week,” he said letter to Mr. Lawson:- to me once abruptly. I protested that I Dear Sir: had neither the money to pay the dues nor My shoemaker,Mr. Watkins, asked my ad- the present need of the club. “I thought vice as to whether he should furnish the shoes of that and consulted Minot. We agree for your crew on the “Independence.” He told that you had better be elected at once. me that the outlay would be so large that he could take no risks in regard to the credit. I told Some day you may do something. What- him I did not have the privilege of your ac- ever you do, some member of the Somer- Old-Time New England

set Club will disapprove of it. I will pay which meet the conventions of those with your dues until the time when you tell me whom one associates. A gentleman need that you would like to be a member.” not attend church, but he should recog- During his life I never saw my club bill. nize the existence of the Sabbath. Card The Somerset Club was his second games were not played on Sunday by a home. Every day at two-thirty he gentleman. But, by an equally accepted lunched there. From three to four-thirty conv.ention, solitaire is not a game. There- he played cards. At four-thirty, Dan, the fore, solitaire but not whist could be coachman,’ with Molly and the yellow played on Sunday evenings. In the go‘ s’ wagon, pulled up at the club door, and in this distinction was generally recognized. his Inverness cape and a large gray felt It was Uncle Rod’s habit to cruise each hat, the two broad backs overflowing the summer on the Bigelow’s steam yacht. restricted width of the wagon seat, he Each week day evening the bridge table drove the dainty mare down Beacon was brought out. Each Sunday evening Street, saluting traffic policemen with a small tables were unfolded. The host and grave raising of the whip. He demanded his guests sat in different corners of the of others the same formal courtesies which cabin, each busy with his solitaire. The he as a gentleman felt called upon to offer. rule as to cards was as rigid as the rule “William,” said he, once to a friend at that on Sundays we ate beef and York- the Club who passed him hastily without shire pudding. a greeting, “Do we bow when we meet, I never knew why Uncle Rod never or do we not? It is a matter of complete married. He used to say that hk did not indifference to me, but it is for you to have the courage to take on the responsi- choose.” bility of a wife. It is true that his was not Once, I overheard him engaging a a’venturesome nature. He never inten- cook at Jamaica Plain. She had come to tionally took a business risk. He had the interview highly recommended. “Can watched his father play solitaire through you make bread? ” said he, “and can you the night when financial anxieties made bake a potato?” The amazed woman sleep impossible and he had spent ten answered in the affirmative. “If that is years saving family funds to pay off his so, you are a qualified cook. A woman father’s notes. He was proud of the busi- who can make good bread and will take ness or professional successesof his broth- the trouble to bake a potato as it should ers or his nephews, but for himself he be baked can cook anything.” On Sunday preferred a life without disturbing inci- evenings when I lived with him we would dents. But family loyalty brought obliga- experiment with some special dish. I once tions which to him seemed simple and t&ted my product and exclaimed how inevitable, although to others they might good ‘it was. “That isn’t the question,’ have been regarded as extravagant and said he with severity, “I don’t care how unnecessary gestures. When in 1907 his go04 this is. What we should be consider- brother-in-law’s firm needed cash re- ing’is what you can suggest which would sources, quietly he went to his safe de- make it’better next time.” posit box, made up his securities into a The code of the gentleman may not bundle, took them to Uncle John’s desk require subjective moral philosophy, but and said: “H ave John use these as you it does entail acceptance of principles need them. Let me have the money back A Family Letter some time.” For thirty years he was treas- one morning a week he drove to Roxbury urer of Suncook Mills, but those were to a bank meeting; on one evening he the days when running a cotton mill was attended the Whist Club; on Saturday not a complicated task. There were no nights he dined at the Somerset Club. labor unions. There was a constant de- There were few other interruptions in the mand for the simplest fabrics. It was even path of his daily routine. And yet he merely a matter of buying cotton, turning had an astonishingly formulative influence out print cloths, and if the market would upon all with whom he came in contact. not stand a quarter of a cent a yard prof- The tang of his caustic tongue but gentle it, then one must be content with an words were the source of countless stories eighth of a cent. So, the day’s work which among his friends. The homely lessons began at ten o’clock was over at two, save in the code of a gentleman unconsciously for an occasional visit to the mill. He was directed many a younger life. And when at home for a cup of tea at five-thirty. In he died men said again: “How we shall the evening there was the open fire, the miss dear old Rod. We never realized solitaire table and Waverley Novels. On how dependent we were upon him.”