Henry Martyn Boies; Appreciations of His Life and Character
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
' i AND Henry Martyn Boies Appreciations of His Life and Character By Laflin Illinois Reverend Honorable Luther Mills, Chicago, ; H. Connecticut Honorable Joseph Twitchell, Hartford, ; Alfred Colonel F. L. Hand, Scranton, Pennsylvania ; Hitchcock, Scranton, Pennsylvania; James H. Torrey, Esq., Scranton, Pennsylvania ; Eugene Smith, Esq., New York Edward B. City ; Sturges, Esq., Scranton, Pennsyl- vania Charles H. ; Welles, Esq., Scranton, Pennsylvania; Reverend James McLeod, D.D., Scranton, Pennsylvania; A. Honorable James Beaver, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania ; together with Minutes and Resolutions passed by various Societies and Organizations. Reverend Joseph H. Odell, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Editor. The Knickerbocker Press ' ) ew York 1904 THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 822608 A ASTOR, LENOX AND T1LDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1936 L Copyright, 1904 BY ELIZABETH DICKSON BOIES -.- - Ube t?ntcftccbochec press, IRevp JJorfc TO THOSE WHO CHERISH A GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE NOBLE MAN WHOSE STORY IS HEREIN TOLD THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED to o CONTENTS. PAGE Editor's Introduction ix By Rev. Joseph H. Odell CHAPTER I. and Ancestry Boyhood ..... 3 By Luther Laflin Mills II. '59, Yale 17 By Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell III. Business Life 33 By Alfred Hand IV. Military Services 59 By F. L. Hitchcock V. Christian Citizenship 89 By James H. Torrey VI. The Science of Penology . .113 By Eugene Smith VII. O'er Land and Sea 141 By Edward B. Sturges VIII. Christian Life and Activities . 173 By Charles H. Welles IX. His Personal Characteristics and Home Life 211 By James McLeod, D.D. vi Contents. CHAPTER PAGE X. Last Days 235 By James A. Beaver Funeral and Memorial Services .... 257 Memorial Poem ........ 260 By Rev. Isaac J. Lansing Resolutions and Appreciations .... 265 Index 291 ILLUSTRATIONS. Henry Martyn Boies Frontispiece Photograph by Davis and Sanford, New York, 1898 PAGE Breezymont, Scranton, Pa. 33 Photograph by T. E. Dillon, Scranton, Pa. The Armory, Thirteenth Regiment, N. G. P. 59 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. The Boies Palma 85 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. The Y. M. C. A. Building, Scranton, Pa. 109 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. The Library, Breezymont ..... 136 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. Hall and Stairway, Breezymont .... 150 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. The Hall, Breezymont ...... 168 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. The Second Presbyterian Church, Scranton, Pa. 178 Photograph by T. E. Dillon. Elizabeth Dickson Boies ...... 223 Photograph by Kemp, Scranton, Pa., 1904. vn EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. it was proposed that a biography of WHENColonel Boies should be written it was felt to be not only proper but eminently desirable. While a public monument may be seen more often and noticed by greater numbers, its value is not as intensive or interpretative as a Memoir. To reveal Colonel Boies in his rare and strong manhood is the surest way of making his influence permanent. When such a work can be accomplished without reservation or literary artifice the immediate and remote effects are alike inestimable. Therefore no apology is offered in presenting this appreciation of Henry Martyn Boies. It is not possible for a man fully to present him- self to every one, except by a studied egotism, and then he is not worth knowing. The various parts of his nature are not called out simultaneously, nor even in such sequence as will adequately reveal his true proportions. The full sweep of his orbit may lie far beyond our range of observation, or the splendor of one accomplishment or virtue, which we are predisposed to admire, may dim other char- acteristics no less intrinsically sublime. Perhaps only a few of Colonel Boies' innumerable friends IX x Editors Introduction. his asso- realized his versatility. Many of business ciates were unaware that he was a shaping force in the evolution of the State Militia, and indirectly of who admired the whole National Guard ; others, themselves to the him socially and surrendered were not conscious gentle sway of his personality, will that they were played upon by the indomitable vast numbers who of a social reformer ; respected were him as a polished and successful gentleman io-norant of the fact that in the world of thought he of modern was an expert in the most complex the of those who sciences ; overwhelming majority of the best acclaimed him a public-spirited citizen Puritan type knew nothing of his affectionate, is to do joyous and winsome personal life. It that the justice to this many-sidedness following chapters are published, and this likewise determined the form of the volume. differed from The book as originally conceived a con- its present form. It was intended to present the ventional biography, conformable to accepted standards, in which the story of Colonel Boies and his activities should be chronicled with severe im- to reach his partiality and the reader allowed judg- ment without the aid of the biographer. But such the intense a plan was found impossible owing to per- could not re- sonal feelings of the contributors, who strain their admiration and love, and persisted in doing homage throughout their respective chapters to the memory of him who had long been their friend and fellow-worker. The tide became so strong Editor's Introduction. xi that the Editor soon relinquished any attempt to stem it in fact, he found that he could not even direct the course of its currents. The emotions of the writers flowed through their pens, spurning literary restraint, and compelling chronology, his- torical sequence, and the natural order of develop- ment to take a subordinate place while they poured out their hearts as before a shrine. This is their unconscious tribute to the greatness and goodness of the man whose story they tell, and we are cal- loused indeed by the critical habit if we do not praise them for the issue. To make clearer the meaning of this peculiarity, I would hazard the prediction that every reader of the following pages will feel that he has been perusing the life of a saint. Such an impression, however, will not be the result of any expressed or implied wish of the family of Colonel Boies nor an effect covertly planned by the Editor. Ten men were asked each to contribute a chapter upon a clearly defined phase of Colonel Boies' life. One only of these chapters was to tell the history of his religious experience and activity, and yet all of the writers, obedient to an irresistible personal con- straint, make his religion the dominant element in their delineation. Are they to be blamed for that ? not it was inevitable. felt that Certainly ; They they could not portray Colonel Boies in any rela- tionship of life and leave out his Christianity with- out out the real Colonel Boies if he is leaving ; so, is a soldier, he a Christian soldier ; a citizen, and a xii Editor s Introduction. Christian citizen a but a Chris- ; business-man, yes, tian business-man ; a thinker, then a Christian a also a Christian traveller. thinker ; traveller, Eieht of the contributors to this Memoir are mem- bers of the Bar in their respective States, and sev- eral of them in the distinguished legal profession ; all of them are men skillful in wei^hine evidence, analyzing motives, and estimating character. Each bends to his task unconscious of bias, each paints in the spirit of truth, and when the work is com- plete and the independent lines and distinct colors are brought together it is discovered that they have produced the picture of an eminently religious man. Of course no one will so far misunderstand the characterization as to think of Colonel Boies as a mediaeval or canonical saint. He was simply a man willing to translate the laws of Christ into the manners, occupations, and ideals of modern life without suppressing his own individuality. It is highly improbable that these biographers could be mistaken in their estimate : they had known, for or the man of whom write thirty years more, they ; they knew him under widely divergent circum- stances knew him for to his ; they intimately, friends Colonel Boies was unusually frank and communicative. It remains only to express the obligation of Mrs. Boies and her family to those who have con- tributed to the making of the Memoir. With the wealth of their personal reminiscences and the exceptional documentary data at their disposal, the Editor's Introduction. xiii task of arrangement and compression has been extremely difficult. They have succeeded in telling the story of a noble and useful life with such clear- ness and ardor that all who loved Colonel Boies will gladly acknowledge a lasting indebtedness, while those whose love was as the very breath of life would assure them of a sense of gratitude too profound for expression. J. H. O. I. ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD. By LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS. Henry Martyn Boies. ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD. By LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS. MARTYN BOIES was born in Lee, HENRYBerkshire County, Massachusetts, August 18, 1837 the first son of Joseph Milton and Electa Caroline Laflin Boies. The name given to him was that of the devoted missionary to India whose biography by Wilberforce had just been published and was making a deep impression on the Christian life of this country. In that year the religious thought of New England was peculiarly intense, under the continuing influence of the revival ex- of and its periences 1827-32 ; among significant facts was the founding- of the Board of Foreign Mis- sions of the Presbyterian Church in America. It is apparent, therefore, why the devout young father and mother signalized the advent of their firstborn son by a distinct recognition of Christianity as the world's great helper and by an expression of their admiration for one of its finest heroes, Henry Martyn.