PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT:

“LORD” TIMOTHY DEXTER OF NEWBURYPORT

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1748

January 22, Friday (1747, Old Style): Timothy Dexter was born in Malden, Massachusetts. to Nathan Dexter and Esther Brintnall Dexter (another source says this happened in the previous year, January 22, 1746/7, and includes the following snippet: “I was born when great powers ruled, on Jan. 22, 1747. On this day, in the morning, a great snow storm; the signs in the seventh house; whilst Mars came forward Jupiter stood by to hold the candle. I was to be one great man.”).

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1755

May 9, Friday: At the age of 8, Timothy Dexter of Malden, Massachusetts, who had received and would receive precious little by way of education, began work as a farm laborer. 1755 in may 9 Day my father put me with a farmer in malden in which I stated six years and six months then went to Chalston I stayed Seven months at Dresin of skins for briches & glovs — than went to boston, there stayed till I was free — in fourteene days I went to Newbury Port with A bondel in my hand to A plase all Noue to me — I had sold my free Dom Sout at the vandour — five shillings A yard starting in Roum of a guinea Clorth — I was angry — this money I began with Eight Dolors & 20 sents — I had faith by Reading A book — I was to have this world’s goods and be Come grate and be Amonkest grat men in the East and to give lite to the blind where in my fellow mortels have bin Douped for many thousand years with untrouth — Now turn the systom of knollege and Lite into good morrels of onnesty and good Axions — parents and masters begin skoul master begin at Cadde mys and Collegeys — begin minnisters — Leave of Carcrows in Coreg brave good Eyplits — then we will have the best sogers in the world — om Courage skouls All skouls — the skolars to Larne by giving once a year some presents to three scolars — the gratest to Larne After this way 3 Dolors for the first, sekend two, the third one Dolor — I will be one half of this town — one thing — those masters are wanting — masters must teach thare skolars to have good manners to there parents and to peoppel in the streets un Cover and not to be toue Nosey — Every sattaday give this Lession to the skolars.

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1761

June 13, Saturday: Jonathan Plummer was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, a son of Jonathan and Abigail Plummer. Despite the fact that he would obtain a good common-school education, and despite the fact that his memory was retentive, he would come to be characterized as “mentally weak.”

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 People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1764

Jeremy Belknap moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to teach school and to study theology under the Reverend Samuel Haven (Harvard College Class of 1749).

Timothy Dexter, who had spent his childhood in farm labor in Malden, at this point became apprenticed to a leather-dresser in Charlestown, Massachusetts. 1755 in may 9 Day my father put me with a farmer in malden in which I stated six years and six months then went to Chalston I stayed Seven months at Dresin of skins for briches & glovs — than went to boston, there stayed till I was free — in fourteene days I went to Newbury Port with A bondel in my hand to A plase all Noue to me — I had sold my free Dom Sout at the vandour — five shillings A yard starting in Roum of a guinea Clorth — I was angry — this money I began with Eight Dolors & 20 sents — I had faith by Reading A book — I was to have this world’s goods and be Come grate and be Amonkest grat men in the East and to give lite to the blind where in my fellow mortels have bin Douped for many thousand years with untrouth — Now turn the systom of knollege and Lite into good morrels of onnesty and good Axions — parents and masters begin skoul master begin at Cadde mys and Collegeys — begin minnisters — Leave of Carcrows in Coreg brave good Eyplits — then we will have the best sogers in the world — om Courage skouls All skouls — the skolars to Larne by giving once a year some presents to three scolars — the gratest to Larne After this way 3 Dolors for the first, sekend two, the third one Dolor — I will be one half of this town — one thing — those masters are wanting — masters must teach thare skolars to have good manners to there parents and to peoppel in the streets un Cover and not to be toue Nosey — Every sattaday give this Lession to the skolars.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1765

Timothy Dexter, who had became apprenticed to a leather-dresser in Charlestown, passed over into Boston to pursue this craft. 1755 in may 9 Day my father put me with a farmer in malden in which I stated six years and six months then went to Chalston I stayed Seven months at Dresin of skins for briches & glovs — than went to boston, there stayed till I was free — in fourteene days I went to Newbury Port with A bondel in my hand to A plase all Noue to me — I had sold my free Dom Sout at the vandour — five shillings A yard starting in Roum of a guinea Clorth — I was angry — this money I began with Eight Dolors & 20 sents — I had faith by Reading A book — I was to have this world’s goods and be Come grate and be Amonkest grat men in the East and to give lite to the blind where in my fellow mortels have bin Douped for many thousand years with untrouth — Now turn the systom of knollege and Lite into good morrels of onnesty and good Axions — parents and masters begin skoul master begin at Cadde mys and Collegeys — begin minnisters — Leave of Carcrows in Coreg brave good Eyplits — then we will have the best sogers in the world — om Courage skouls All skouls — the skolars to Larne by giving once a year some presents to three scolars — the gratest to Larne After this way 3 Dolors for the first, sekend two, the third one Dolor — I will be one half of this town — one thing — those masters are wanting — masters must teach thare skolars to have good manners to there parents and to peoppel in the streets un Cover and not to be toue Nosey — Every sattaday give this Lession to the skolars. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Physically, Timothy of average height, “horny handed” with a broad-set chin, beady eyes, and a long, sharp, straight nose. This is about as good a representation as I could Google for on the internet, taking into account that he was not yet as rich as Croesus, or even Donald Trump:

A census found the population of Boston had reached 15,520 (precious few of whom, it might be suspected, were receiving any respect).

Though Thomas Hutchinson recognized the legality of the Stamp Act of 1765, he considered the measure inexpedient and impolitic and urged its repeal (his attitude was misunderstood and he was considered by many to have instigated the passage of this act).

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

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THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1769

The widow Elizabeth Adams Sharp remarried with a partner in the family hat business, Thomas Cable Davis.

Having attained his majority and thus completed his apprenticeship to the leather-dresser, Timothy Dexter opened his own business in the finest of leathers in Charlestown, Massachusetts (which would be most successful) and eventually relocated with $8.20 (the 5 shillings for which he sold the “free Dom Sout” – freedom suit– that he had been given upon completion of his apprenticeship) in his pocket to Newbury, Massachusetts: 1755 in may 9 Day my father put me with a farmer in malden in which I stated six years and six months then went to Chalston I stayed Seven months at Dresin of skins for briches & glovs — than went to boston, there stayed till I was free — in fourteene days I went to Newbury Port with A bondel in my hand to A plase all Noue to me — I had sold my free Dom Sout at the vandour — five shillings A yard starting in Roum of a guinea Clorth — I was angry — this money I began with Eight Dolors & 20 sents — I had faith by Reading A book — I was to have this world’s goods and be Come grate and be Amonkest grat men in the East and to give lite to the blind where in my fellow mortels have bin Douped for many thousand years with untrouth — Now turn the systom of knollege and Lite into good morrels of onnesty and good Axions — parents and masters begin skoul master begin at Cadde mys and Collegeys — begin minnisters — Leave of Carcrows in Coreg brave good Eyplits — then we will have the best sogers in the world — om Courage skouls All skouls — the skolars to Larne by giving once a year some presents to three scolars — the gratest to Larne After this way 3 Dolors for the first, sekend two, the third one Dolor — I will be one half of this town — one thing — those masters are wanting — masters must teach thare skolars to have good manners to there parents and to peoppel in the streets un Cover and not to be toue Nosey — Every sattaday give this Lession to the skolars.

where in the following year he would get married with Elizabeth Frothingham, widow of well-to-do Benjamin Frothingham, Senior, and purchase one of the town’s mansions. According to pages 572-3 of John James Currier’s “OULD NEWBURY”: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (Boston: Damrell and Upham, 1896), At the time of her second marriage, Mrs. Elizabeth Frothingham was living in a house belonging to the estate of Benjamin Frothingham, now standing on the corner of Green and Merrimac streets, Newburyport. Tradition asserts that Dexter carried on the business of leather dressing in that vicinity for many years; and his wife, it is said, kept a huckster’s shop in the basement of the house for the sale of provisions and small fruits HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

and vegetables in their season.... Dexter published from time to time in the columns of the Newburyport Herald strange and whimsical communications that served to increase his notoriety. Persuaded in his own mind that he could amuse the public and at the same time gratify his inordinate vanity, he wrote a small book, or pamphlet, called “Pickle for the Knowing Ones,” which he printed at his own expense and distributed gratuitously. The fabulous stories with which he filled this little volume were, no doubt, invented for the purpose of magnifying his wealth and imposing upon the credulity of those who were constantly asking “How did Dexter make his money?”

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

June 1, Thursday: When Benjamin Frothingham, Senior died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, he left his 32-year-old widow Elizabeth Lord Frothingham with four children ranging in age from 4 to 10.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1770

January 3, Wednesday: Timothy Dexter purchased from William Wyer a 33-square-rod plot on Prospect Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts (a fifth of an acre).

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

May 22, Tuesday: At the age of 23 Timothy Dexter got married with Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter, widow of Benjamin Frothingham, Senior of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a glazier. She was 9 nine years older, having been born on January 22, 1737 in Exeter, New Hampshire, and the couple would produce a son Samuel Lord Dexter and a daughter Nancy Dexter who unfortunately would both seem to have been of very limited intelligence. The marriage would be an unhappy one, the couple would separate, and the husband would constantly be making disparaging remarks about his wife. She would run a local grocery store in her basement while he would dig up her back yard and create vats to continue his odorous work of leather-making.

The widow brought with her into this new family 10-year-old Betsy Frothingham who had been born in Newburyport on September 14, 1760 (another source claims February 22, 1767), 7-year-old Gilman Frothingham born according to his tombstone on May 17, 1764 (presumably this should have been 1763), 6- year-old Benjamin Frothingham born on October 10, 1764 (another source claims Benjamin to have been the 1st-born, in 1761), and 4-year-old John Frothingham born on February 24, 1765. None of these children would take the name Dexter.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1772

October 6, day: Samuel Lord Dexter was baptized, son of Timothy Dexter and Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter (he would live at home and die at the age of 34 without issue despite having been twice married, a drunk of rather limited intellect).

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of What Shall It Profit: Lord Timothy Dexter HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1776

August 16, Friday: Mary Moody Emerson would later declare that though she was still in her 3d year at the time, she could remember her father the Reverend William Emerson, standing in the doorway of the Old Manse and then riding away to war. Giddyap! Bye-bye!

Nancy Dexter was born, daughter of Timothy Dexter and Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter and little sister of Samuel Lord Dexter. She would become a young woman of beauty and would get married with Abraham Bishop of New Haven, Connecticut, an aspiring lawyer, and there would be an infant Mary Ann Bishop — but the husband would soon divorce the wife (she was a substance abuser and of limited mental resources) with her winding up as a resident in the Dexter House in Newburyport, Massachusetts for the remainder of her life (the father’s explanation for the sad turn of events in his daughter’s life would be that his son-in-law had married his daughter merely for her father’s moolah and had tired of her when the moolah had neglected to deposit itself at their doorstep). HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1777

September 21, Sunday: Colonel Benjamin Bellows’s Regiment of Militia (AKA 16th New Hampshire Militia Regiment) was called up at Walpole, New Hampshire as reinforcements for the Continental Army during the Saratoga Campaign. The regiment would join the forces of General Horatio Gates and face off against the British army under General John Burgoyne in northern New York. (The 16th New Hampshire would then serve in General William Whipple’s brigade until, just after the surrender and grounding of arms of Burgoyne’s army was witnessed by two Americans on October 27, 1777, it would disband.)

(Presumably this was the struggle that the intellectually marginal Jonathan Plummer would have meant to indicate, when later in his life he would remember having participated in the 1st and 2d Battles of Saratoga under Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1779

Jonathan Plummer somehow got hired to be a schoolteacher in Londonderry, New Hampshire. As he reached the age of about 16 or 18, having dreams and visions and visitations from the spirit world, he began to feel a need to prepare himself for the ministry, although eventually he would be persuaded that this wasn’t going to be a possibility for him. He would be able to continue as a schoolteacher until 1782. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1782

Jonathan Plummer wasn’t going to be able to be a schoolteacher Londonderry, New Hampshire anymore, being recognized as having a good memory but otherwise deficient. Fond of reading, he would take to hanging around in the marketplace of Newburyport, offering for a small consideration to recite selections of prose and poetry from his favorite authors. He also was able to go from door to door with a basket, offering pins, needles, fruit, and other small wares. He bought cotton rags that could be sold at the pulping mill for the manufacture of paper (that was the way paper was made in those days). He would make desultory attempts to get married with maiden ladies and with widows. Occasionally he would author and get printed up and vend verses describing some event or incident of local interest such as a hanging.

October 12, Saturday: Benjamin Frothingham of Newburyport, Massachusetts, mariner, 18-year-old son of Benjamin Frothingham Senior, deceased, sold to Timothy Dexter, leather dresser, for £240, 2/5ths of the place in Newburyport where he grew up, where his mother Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter was residing with her new husband, along with his mother’s dower portion of a specific pew in the Presbyterian meetinghouse (the pew in question being the 4th along the wall to the right of the northwest meetinghouse door).

October 29, Tuesday: Gilman Frothingham conveyed to Timothy Dexter, leather dresser, 1/5th of the place in Newburyport, Massachusetts in which he had grown up, where his mother Elizabeth Frothingham Dexter resided with her new husband, and on this same day the married couple sold that property to the widow Meriam Tracy of Newburyport.

Thomas Paine’s THE AMERICAN CRISIS, No. 12 was published. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1783

At the age of about 10 Oney “Ona” Judge was brought to the Mansion House at Mount Vernon, presumably to serve as a playmate or plaything for Martha Washington’s granddaughter Nelly Custis. (In her old age she would indicate that during her childhood and youth at the plantation she had obtained no education or religious instruction whatever.)

Inflation was so severe in the former American colonies of England, due to the debts of the war, that George Washington commented, with only a fair degree of exaggeration, that it took a wagonload of paper money going into town, to obtain a wagonload of supplies to take back to the plantation. The expression “not worth a Continental” began to be used.

In the midst of this inflation crisis, the Marquis de Lafayette wrote to Washington to suggest that they join together and “try the experiment to free the Negroes.” The French leader pointed out, sucking up, that “such an example as yours might render it a general practice.” The American leader responded the two men would be meeting again in person and would be able to chat about this proposal (when they would meet and chat in the following year, Washington’s answer would of course be no). SLAVERY EMANCIPATION

When the new federal government of the United States of America would accept the advice of its first treasurer Alexander Hamilton and honor its war debt at part, Timothy Dexter would “make his nut” because he was one of the currency speculators who had heavily bought up this almost valueless revolutionary-war “Continental Currency” at a small fraction of its face value and was able to turn it in to the new federal treasury for a windfall profit. The money would go directly to this man’s head and he would begin to refer to himself as “Lord” Dexter, “by the will of the people.”1

1. His son was named Samuel Lord Dexter because Lord had been his mother’s maiden name before she had gotten married with Mr. Frothingham — this does not seem, to me, to have had much to do with the father beginning to refer to himself as “Lord Dexter” after his so-successful federal currency and frontier real estate speculations. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1787

July 5, Thursday: The Reverend Manasseh Cutler arrived in New-York, talking of buying millions of acres of land on the Ohio River for the Ohio Company.

One of the people who were involved in this real estate speculation in land at the Penobscot in Ohio, and profiting greatly thereby, was Timothy Dexter — that guy may have been a perfect piece of shit (as any number of his acquaintances and neighbors have alleged) but his touch was decidedly the Midas touch. He knew the worth of nothing, decorating his shelves with books he purchased by the yard and never glancing at them — but he knew the price of just everything. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1790

January: William Bartram began a meteorological diary.

Alexander Hamilton presented a First Report on Public Credit to the federal congress. Public credit is fundamental for political stability. Shays’ Rebellion had occurred in backwoods Massachusetts because Daniel Shays was a debtor farmer who needed an excuse to default on his obligations. When in 1774 King Louis XVI acceded to the throne, he had pledged to honor the indebtedness the Crown had accrued mostly through its previous unsuccessful wars, but it had not been possible to raise taxes still further, and the interest payments alone were eating the nation alive. Therefore the monarch summoned the Estates General, and that body had become a focal point for political dissent. Hence, crisis in public finances lay at the root of the French Revolution of 1789 and all the horror that followed. It was necessary that the new federal government redeem its war debt in order to prevent revolution. “The debt of France brought about her revolution. Financial embarrassments led to those steps which led to the overthrow of the government and to all the terrible scenes which have followed.” Yada yada yada, therefore, in a situation in which virtually all of that old Continental war paper had been bought up at small percentages of its face value by wealthy speculators, the new nation needed to buy back all that worthless paper from those wealthy currency speculators. The new federal legislators listened eagerly (did I mention that those wealthy currency speculators who had taken a flier in this worthless paper were well represented politically?). At United States Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s insistence, Timothy Dexter’s speculation in depreciated wartime paper was transformed into windfall profit. (The situation was very much like the Republican looting of the savings and loan institutions by way of easy credit and bad loans that occurred under the administration of Ronald Reagan, and the Republican looting of the banking system by way of easy credit and bad loans that occurred under the administration of George W. Bush.)

Meanwhile, Dexter’s 171-ton brigantine Mehitabel, his 1st merchant ship, was being built (this would also be recorded as Mehetable and as a “snow” or merchant vessel). HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1791

April 8, Friday: Shipbuilder Patrick Tracy had constructed Tracy House in Newburyport, Massachusetts as a wedding present for his eldest son Nathaniel Tracy. However, as the revolutionary war progressed Nathaniel had suffered losses as a privateer and had been obliged to retreat to his family’s homestead in Newbury. He sold his place in town to his associate Thomas Russell on April 6th, and on this day the property was purchased by Timothy Dexter for £1,400 (Dexter was by this point the 16th-richest citizen of the town and his family would reside there for 5 years before moving on up; Tracy House would eventually house the Public Library). HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1792

Timothy Dexter’s 2d merchant vessel, the 153-ton Congress.

During this year and the following one, the Sally of Bristol, Rhode Island was making its final slaving voyage to the coast of Africa. TRIANGULAR TRADE W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Meantime, in spite of the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to the United States continued to flourish. It was notorious that New England traders carried on a large traffic.2 Members stated on the floor of the House that “it was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic.... In various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their fellow- citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common consent.”3 These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation, and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation. South Carolina’s own Congressman confessed that although the State had prohibited the trade since 1788, she “was unable to enforce” her laws. “With navigable rivers running into the heart of it,” said he, “it was impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and, for the last year or two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been a legal one.”4 The same tale undoubtedly might have been told of Georgia.

2. Cf. Fowler, LOCAL LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT, etc., page 126. 3. Speech of S.L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress, 1st Session, page 1000. Cf. also speech of Bedinger: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, pages 997-8. 4. Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress,, 1st Session, page 992. Cf. Stanton’s speech later: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 9th Congress, 2d Session, page 240. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1793

January 23, Wednesday-24, Thursday: Celebration of French liberty began in Boston at dawn with a cannonade by Citizen Bradley’s Artillery from the Castle. The citizens consumed quantities of spiked punch and a 1,000- pound barbecued ox near Boston Common, and then elevated the skull and gilded horns of this dead cow atop their liberty pole in Liberty Square as a symbol of freedom or horniness or something. “[O]n the right horn hung the French flag, and on the left the American.” A few months after, news came that Louis XVI. was beheaded three days before the celebration, and the head and horns of the roasted ox were draped in mourning.

Timothy Dexter would happen to be in Boston the news belatedly arrived of the execution on January 21st of the French monarch Louis XVI, and would rush home to persuade the sextons to toll the church bells of Newburyport, Massachusetts — this would soon be stopped, however, by the town selectmen.

July 10, Wednesday: By this point Timothy Dexter had, in result of his currency speculations among other things, risen from being 16th in wealth in Newburyport, Massachusetts to 4th, behind only yeoman William Bartlett, merchant Moses Brown, and Nathaniel Carter. When he wrote to the Essex Journal & New Hampshire Packet to report a 4th-of-July toast he had offered at the tavern near the Deer Island Bridge tollhouse, an editor cleaned up his message as follows: Mr. MyCall, Messrs. Blunt and Robinson took notice in their last Herald that I delivered on the fourth instant on Deer Island a speech in French. This speech I now send you in English, and should you think it worth of a place in your useful paper, you may insert. I did not deliver all that I intended on account of the ill- breeding of a blue puppy, who impertinently endeavored to upset my pulpit, or rather the table on which I stood. The public, considering the small chance I have had to learn French, are a little surprised to hear of my having endeavored to speak it; but, if Gentlemen and Ladies will give themselves the liberty to reflect that Frenchmen express themselves very much by gestures, and that Englishmen have made such a proficiency in the art that a whole play can now be acted without speaking a HDT WHAT? INDEX

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word, they will cease to wonder. Timothy Dexter Ladies & Gentlemen, this day the 18th year of our glorious independence commences — Justice, order, commerce, agriculture, the sciences and tranquility reign triumphant in these United and happy States — America is the asylum for the afflicted, persecuted, tormented sons & daughters of Europe. Our progress towards the glorious point of perfection is unparalleled in the annals of mankind. Permit me, then, my wife and jolly souls, to congratulate you on this joyful occasion — Let our deportment be suitable for the joyful purpose for which we are assembled — Let good nature, breeding, concord, benevolence, piety, understanding, wit, humor, Punch and wine grace, bless adorn and crown us henceforth and forever. Amen. CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1795

Timothy Dexter offered to the Newburyport, Massachusetts selectmen that he would pay for a town Market House if they would name it for him as Faneuil HallFANEUIL HALL had been named in Boston in 1742 for donor Peter Faneuil Esqr. This offer, it would seem, was declined.

When the Massachusetts House of Representatives vacated its quarters in the Old State House at the head of State Street in Boston, it took along its wooden “Sacred Cod” so this symbol could continue in their new HDT WHAT? INDEX

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statehouse to hang opposite the speaker’s desk.

All of which proves that New Englanders are capable of great silliness.

...Considering how this State has risen and thriven by its fisheries, –that the legislature which authorized the Zoölogical Survey sat under the emblem of a codfish,– that Nantucket Island and New Bedford are within our limits, –that an early riser may find a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars’ worth of blackfish on the shore in a morning, –that the Pilgrims saw the Indians cutting up a blackfish on the shore at Eastham, and called a part of that shore “Grampus Bay,” from the number of blackfish they found there, before they got to Plymouth, –and that from that time to this these fishes have continued to enrich one or two counties almost annually, and that their decaying carcasses were now poisoning the air of one county for more than thirty miles, –I thought it remarkable that neither the popular nor scientific name was to be found in a report on our mammalia, –a catalogue of the productions of our land and water.

Boston voted to move its workhouse and almshouse away from Park Street. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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August 6, Thursday: At 3PM Pomp, a black man about 28 years of age, was “carried in a cart, seated on his coffin, to the place of execution,” and hanged at Ipswich for having murdered his master, Captain Charles Furbush (1736-1795) of Andover.

Before his execution, he was carried into the meeting-house at 11 o’clock. Mr. Frisbie prayed and Mr. Dana preached from the words, “He that sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Mr. Bradford of Rowley prayed at the gallows. Pomp remained unaffected through the whole of so awful a scene. He was directed to call on God for mercy, and he formally complied. His mind had been so little instructed and his heart so left to moral darkness, that he appeared to have no realizing perception of his guilt or of his danger in being suddenly sent into eternity. The little while he was under the care of the Ipswich ministers, they faithfully did what they could to correct the gross errors of his long neglected education.

Furbush had been given to saying things like “I might stay as long as I please at his house” and “he should not stay in this world forever,” and Pomp had taken this to mean that upon Furbush’s death “Mrs. Furbush and the farm would be mine.” Most of what we know of this is taken from a sixpence publication prepared by Jonathan Plummer, “Dying Confession of Pomp, A Negro Man, Who Was Executed at Ipswich, on the 6th August, 1795, for Murdering Capt. Charles Furbush, of Andover, Taken from the Mouth of the Prisoner, and Penned by Jonathan Plummer, Jun.” (Newburyport: Jonathan Plummer; Blunt and March). Although portions of the text of the one surviving frayed copy of this are illegible, it appears that Pomp had been born in Guinea in 1767 and arrived in Boston with his parents “when I was about three months old.” We don’t know that the family arrived as slaves because the text merely indicates “My mother soon after our arrival in this Country gave me away to Mr. Abbot of Andover.” When, shortly after turning 16 in approximately 1783, Pomp had grown dissatisfied in the Abbot household, he had sought with “the Select men of Andover to know whether I had not a right to leave it” and they had counseled him that slavery was no more, he had better continue to serve Abbot. Then “after a while it came to pass that Capt. Furbush took a notion to have a black man; and applying to the Select men, obtained their consent that I should be his servant.” A particular point of friction would be being kept from going to meeting on Sundays. He would make several attempts to run away and when recaptured would be flogged. Waking at midnight on February 6, 1795, “impressed with an idea that I must get up and kill Capt. Furbush,” Pomp was horrified but “something still kept whispering in my ear, that now is your time! kill him now! now or never! now! now!” And so he crushed Furbush’s skull with an axe and returned to bed, until he was taken into custody in his chamber. While in jail cell Pomp was intrigued to notice that his skin tone was lightening, so that he became almost like a mulatto, suspecting this to be a sign of his redemption. As the noose was adjusted around his neck he began to pray “with great solemnity,” and continued until this prayer was cut off.

August 8, Saturday: The hanging of Pomp in Ipswich, Massachusetts on the 6th was reported in the Impartial Herald.

(Let us hope that as part of its responsible reporting, this impartial herald pointed up the fact that there was no longer any such thing as slavery in Massachusetts.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1796

January: Timothy Dexter began to make noises about leaving Newburyport, Massachusetts. (One possibility would be a physical-health one, that his gout and other rheumatic conditions were exacerbated in the constant moisture of a port town. From their weather-exposed home atop a hill they could see frigid clouds coming all the way out from above the Isles of Shoals. However, another hypothesis would be the psychological one, that like the immensely successful American Donald Trump of our own era he had RDS, Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome.)

April 9, Saturday: Timothy Dexter had a number of real estate holdings in New Hampshire and his wife was a native of that state, where her Lord family still resided. He had purchased a house in Chester, and at this point the Tracy House atop the hill in Newburyport, Massachusetts that he had purchased in 1791 for £1,400 was purchased by John Greenleaf for $8,400.

September: By this point we know that the family of Timothy Dexter was in Chester, New Hampshire. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

September 29, Friday: The ballad of Timothy Dexter’s poet laureate Jonathan Plummer allows that during his residence in Chester, New Hampshire he had initially been recognized as “Lord Timothy Dexter, King of Chester” but had then been publicly beaten by a Chester attorney for his alleged indiscretions with local young women. He would confess “They gave the titel & so let it goue for as much as it will fetch.” The incident would be described in A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES: OR, PLAIN TRUTHS IN A HOMESPUN DRESS as “I was beaten almost to Death” although he would deny having provoked such an attack. THIS COMETH GREETING. mister printers the Igrent or the Nowing wons says I ort to Doue as thay Doue to keep up Cheats or the same thing Desephons to Deseave the Igrent so wee may Cheat and Likewise have wars and plunder my wish is all Liers may have there part of fier and brimstone in this world or least sum part part of it or Else the gouement is Not good it will want pourging soone if a Lawyer is to way Lay a man an brouse him unmassely All most to Death A sitteson that pays twentey fore Dolors for Careags and more than one Dolor A week to ment the hiways and my being Libperel is in part of this bloddey Afare No sauage would beat a man as I was beaten almost to Death I Did not know houe these men Came to keep sade Lawyer from quite kiling of me till sum time After three men saw the Axon of the blodey seene without massay and carried sade Dexter in to the house sun fainting or Neare to it se and behold the olful site bleading and blind of one Eye twoue brousings in two hours at Least Now Laws in this part of the world Now part of the world A man of money to Live those I lend money to sind A Lawyer and others thay youse me the wost it maks Inemye then those Rogs if there is Any that call me A foull and pick A Qualrel with me A bout my Nous papers so as to pay the Lawyer Craft to make up the molton Calf Not an Ox Now the town of Chester has Lost two hundred wate of silver at Least I beleuv more money Now thay may have me in the town or a Lawyer Chouse for yourselves my frinds and felow mortals pease be with you All A men selagh finely brethren sum thing more Coming — TIMOTHY DEXTER Chester Sept the 29 1796

October 5, Wednesday: By this point in the epidemic of yellow fever in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 44 had died, so it would have been rational for anyone who could, such as the Dexter family, to have fled elsewhere. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1797

DATE: At some point Timothy Dexter hired William “Dwarf Billy” Burley to guard the peaches in his orchard, and printed up a flyer: Whereas I, Lord Timothy Dexter, having been truly informed that several audacious, atrocious, nefarious, intrepid, night walking, garden violating, immature, peach stealing rascals, all the spawns of the devil, and cubs of Satan, do frequently, villainously, and burglariously assemble themselves together in my garden, therein piping, fighting, swearing, roguing, duck egg hunting, with many other shameful and illicit acts which the modesty of my pen cannot express. This is to give you all notice Delicarians, Capinicarians, Talamunarians, base born scoundrels, and old rascals, of whatever nation you may be, return ye my fruit and property, or, by the Gods, the Heathen Gods, I swear, I will send my son Sam to Babylon, for bloodhounds fiercer than tigers, and fleeter than the winds; and mounted on my noted horse Lily, with my cutting sabre in my hand, I will hunt you through Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, until I can enter you in a cavern under a great tree in Newfoundland, where Beelzebub himself can never find you. Hear! ye tatterdemallions, thieves, vagabonds, lank jawed, herring gutted, and tun-bellied plebeians, that if ye, or any of ye, dare set your feet in in my house or garden, I will deliver you to Charon, who will ferry you across the River Styx, and deliver you to the Royal Arch Devil Lucifer, at the place of his infernal cauldron, there to be dredged with the sulphur of Caucassus, and roasted forever before the burning crater of Ætna. LORD TIMOTHY DEXTER. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Table of Altitudes

Yoda 2 ' 0 '' Lavinia Warren 2 ' 8 '' Tom Thumb, Jr. 3 ' 4 '' Lucy (Australopithecus Afarensis) 3 ' 8 '' Hervé Villechaize (“Fantasy Island”) 3 ' 11'' Charles Proteus Steinmetz 4 ' 0 '' Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (1) 4 ' 3 '' Alexander Pope 4 ' 6 '' Benjamin Lay 4 ' 7 '' Dr. Ruth Westheimer 4 ' 7 '' Gary Coleman (“Arnold Jackson”) 4 ' 8 '' Edith Piaf 4 ' 8 '' Queen Victoria with osteoporosis 4 ' 8 '' Linda Hunt 4 ' 9 '' Queen Victoria as adult 4 ' 10 '' Mother Teresa 4 ' 10 '' Margaret Mitchell 4 ' 10 '' length of newer military musket 4 ' 10'' Charlotte Brontë 4 ' 10-11'' Tammy Faye Bakker 4 ' 11'' Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut 4 ' 11'' jockey Willie Shoemaker 4 ' 11'' Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 4 ' 11'' Joan of Arc 4 ' 11'' Bonnie Parker of “Bonnie & Clyde” 4 ' 11'' Harriet Beecher Stowe 4 ' 11'' Laura Ingalls Wilder 4 ' 11'' a rather tall adult Pygmy male 4 ' 11'' Gloria Swanson 4 ' 11''1/2 Clara Barton 5 ' 0 '' Isambard Kingdom Brunel 5 ' 0 '' Andrew Carnegie 5 ' 0 '' Thomas de Quincey 5 ' 0 '' Stephen A. Douglas 5 ' 0 '' Danny DeVito 5 ' 0 '' Immanuel Kant 5 ' 0 '' William Wilberforce 5 ' 0 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Dollie Parton 5 ' 0 '' Mae West 5 ' 0 '' Pia Zadora 5 ' 0 '' Deng Xiaoping 5 ' 0 '' Dred Scott 5 ' 0 '' (±) Captain William Bligh of HMS Bounty 5 ' 0 '' (±) Harriet Tubman 5 ' 0 '' (±) Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (2) 5 ' 0 '' (±) John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island 5 ' 0 '' (+) John Keats 5 ' 3/4 '' Debbie Reynolds (Carrie Fisher’s mother) 5 ' 1 '' Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) 5 ' 1 '' Bette Midler 5 ' 1 '' Dudley Moore 5 ' 2 '' Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel) 5 ' 2 '' Honore de Balzac 5 ' 2 '' Sally Field 5 ' 2 '' Jemmy Button 5 ' 2 '' Margaret Mead 5 ' 2 '' R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller 5 ' 2 '' Yuri Gagarin the astronaut 5 ' 2 '' William Walker 5 ' 2 '' Horatio Alger, Jr. 5 ' 2 '' length of older military musket 5 ' 2 '' 1 the artist formerly known as Prince 5 ' 2 /2'' 1 typical female of Thoreau's period 5 ' 2 /2'' Francis of Assisi 5 ' 3 '' Vol ta i re 5 ' 3 '' Mohandas Gandhi 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Kahlil Gibran 5 ' 3 '' Friend Daniel Ricketson 5 ' 3 '' The Reverend Gilbert White 5 ' 3 '' Nikita Khrushchev 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 3 '' Kim Jong Il (North Korea) 5 ' 3 '' Stephen A. “Little Giant” Douglas 5 ' 4 '' Francisco Franco 5 ' 4 '' President James Madison 5 ' 4 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Iosef Vissarionovich Dzugashvili “Stalin” 5 ' 4 '' Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 '' Pablo Picasso 5 ' 4 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 4 '' Queen Elizabeth 5 ' 4 '' Ludwig van Beethoven 5 ' 4 '' Typical Homo Erectus 5 ' 4 '' 1 typical Neanderthal adult male 5 ' 4 /2'' 1 Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 /2'' comte de Buffon 5 ' 5 '' (-) Captain Nathaniel Gordon 5 ' 5 '' Charles Manson 5 ' 5 '' Audie Murphy 5 ' 5 '' Harry Houdini 5 ' 5 '' Hung Hsiu-ch'üan 5 ' 5 '' 1 Marilyn Monroe 5 ' 5 /2'' 1 T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” 5 ' 5 /2'' average runaway male American slave 5 ' 5-6 '' Charles Dickens 5 ' 6? '' President Benjamin Harrison 5 ' 6 '' President Martin Van Buren 5 ' 6 '' James Smithson 5 ' 6 '' Louisa May Alcott 5 ' 6 '' 1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 5 ' 6 /2'' 1 Napoleon Bonaparte 5 ' 6 /2'' Emily Brontë 5 ' 6-7 '' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 5 ' ? '' average height, seaman of 1812 5 ' 6.85 '' Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. 5 ' 7 '' minimum height, British soldier 5 ' 7 '' President John Adams 5 ' 7 '' President John Quincy Adams 5 ' 7 '' President William McKinley 5 ' 7 '' “Charley” Parkhurst (a female) 5 ' 7 '' Ulysses S. Grant 5 ' 7 '' Henry Thoreau 5 ' 7 '' 1 the average male of Thoreau's period 5 ' 7 /2 '' Edgar Allan Poe 5 ' 8 '' President Ulysses S. Grant 5 ' 8 '' President William H. Harrison 5 ' 8 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

President James Polk 5 ' 8 '' President Zachary Taylor 5 ' 8 '' average height, soldier of 1812 5 ' 8.35 '' 1 President Rutherford B. Hayes 5 ' 8 /2'' President Millard Fillmore 5 ' 9 '' President Harry S Truman 5 ' 9 '' 1 President Jimmy Carter 5 ' 9 /2'' 3 Herman Melville 5 ' 9 /4'' Calvin Coolidge 5 ' 10'' Andrew Johnson 5 ' 10'' Theodore Roosevelt 5 ' 10'' Thomas Paine 5 ' 10'' Franklin Pierce 5 ' 10'' Abby May Alcott 5 ' 10'' Reverend Henry C. Wright 5 ' 10'' 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Louis “Deerfoot” Bennett 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Friend John Greenleaf Whittier 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 President Dwight D. Eisenhower 5 ' 10 /2'' Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots 5 ' 11'' Sojourner Truth 5 ' 11'' President Grover Cleveland 5 ' 11'' President Herbert Hoover 5 ' 11'' President Woodrow Wilson 5 ' 11'' President Jefferson Davis 5 ' 11'' 1 President Richard Milhous Nixon 5 ' 11 /2'' Robert Voorhis the hermit of Rhode Island < 6 ' Frederick Douglass 6 ' (-) Anthony Burns 6 ' 0 '' Waldo Emerson 6 ' 0 '' Joseph Smith, Jr. 6 ' 0 '' David Walker 6 ' 0 '' Sarah F. Wakefield 6 ' 0 '' Thomas Wentworth Higginson 6 ' 0 '' President James Buchanan 6 ' 0 '' President Gerald R. Ford 6 ' 0 '' President James Garfield 6 ' 0 '' President Warren Harding 6 ' 0 '' President John F. Kennedy 6 ' 0 '' President James Monroe 6 ' 0 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

President William H. Taft 6 ' 0 '' President John Tyler 6 ' 0 '' John Brown 6 ' 0 (+)'' President Andrew Jackson 6 ' 1'' Alfred Russel Wallace 6 ' 1'' President Ronald Reagan 6 ' 1'' 1 Venture Smith 6 ' 1 /2'' John Camel Heenan 6 ' 2 '' Crispus Attucks 6 ' 2 '' President Chester A. Arthur 6 ' 2 '' President George Bush, Senior 6 ' 2 '' President Franklin D. Roosevelt 6 ' 2 '' President George Washington 6 ' 2 '' Gabriel Prosser 6 ' 2 '' Dangerfield Newby 6 ' 2 '' Charles Augustus Lindbergh 6 ' 2 '' 1 President Bill Clinton 6 ' 2 /2'' 1 President Thomas Jefferson 6 ' 2 /2'' President Lyndon B. Johnson 6 ' 3 '' Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 6 ' 3 '' 1 Richard “King Dick” Seaver 6 ' 3 /4'' President Abraham Lincoln 6 ' 4 '' Marion Morrison (AKA John Wayne) 6 ' 4 '' Elisha Reynolds Potter, Senior 6 ' 4 '' Thomas Cholmondeley 6 ' 4 '' (?) William Buckley 6 ' 4-7” Franklin Benjamin Sanborn 6 ' 5 '' Peter the Great of Russia 6 ' 7 '' William “Dwarf Billy” Burley 6 ' 7 '' Giovanni Battista Belzoni 6 ' 7 '' Thomas Jefferson (the statue) 7 ' 6'' Jefferson Davis (the statue) 7 ' 7'' 1 Martin Van Buren Bates 7 ' 11 /2'' M. Bihin, a Belgian exhibited in Boston in 1840 8 ' Anna Haining Swan 8 ' 1'' HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

March: Laudanum, being taken to relieve a headache and a fever, was providing for Samuel Taylor Coleridge “a spot of enchantment, a green spot of fountains, & flowers & trees, in the very heart of a waste of Sands!”

The press of Newburyport featured “Poet Lauriet” Jonathan Plummer’s poem describing Timothy Dexter’s return and purchase of the property which still bears his name — Dexter House on High Street, the mansion erected by the Honorable Jonathan Jackson in 1771 as a wedding present to his son. To sir TIMOTHY DEXTER, on his returning to Newburyport, after residing a long time at Chester in New Hampshire; a congratulatory ODE; by Jonathan Plummer, Junr, Poet Lauriet to his Lordship.

YOUR lordship’s welcome back again — Fair nymphs with sighs have mourn’d your staying So long from them and me your swain, And wonder’d at such long delaying; But now you bless again our eyes, Our melting sorrow droops and dies. The town of Chester to a Lord Must seem a desert dull and foggy, A gloomy place — upon my word I think it dirty, wet, and boggy; Far different from your Kingly seat, In good saint James his famous street. There all the arts and graces join To make you happy and contented; There flowing wits and sparkling wine Will duly to you be presented — Aye, raptures rare combin-ed meet To bless and crown saint James his street. Your happy change I’ll loudly sing, Your change to all the town transporting, And while I make the valleys ring, I shall rejoice at your good fortune. From Chester to saint James his street Is quite a glorious retreat. But I a suit of clothes must have To sing my joy in, and the best, sir; A suit of red, not black and grave, Provided by the Earl of Chester. To Todd the taylor send, I pray — Your Lordship’s Poet must be gay. The sable suit is handsome yet; But not so proper to rejoice in, As that which now you’ll for me get, To tune my very joyful voice in. In Europe I know not a King Without a bard in red to sing. You in this place have many friends, And all the Lawyers her are civil, They know full well that envy tends To send its owners to the devil. I think they will not beat you blind, HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Because the Nymphs are to you kind. Your house in Chester is not fit For a wise noble lord to dwell in — In this you may display your wit; Aye, this I’m sure you will do well in. I hope you’ll shine gay as a lark, A glory to saint James his park. Bless me! what wits and beauties there, With dazzling lustre gay are shining! Nymphs who to angels I compare, And wits who’re not with envy pining; Beaux who will never beat you blind Because the Nymphs are to you kind. Lo! what a place below the skies, How stately, elegant, and splendid, Is that boon early paradise, Where wit and beauty are so blended! You truly hit the proper mark By living in St. James his park. A man of sense should always live Among the highest and the best, sir, And never pine away and grieve Among the fighting folks at Chester; Then shine, rich lord, the gayest spark, The glory of saint James, his park. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1798

August 15, Wednesday: While residing in Chester, New Hampshire Timothy Dexter had taken to referring to himself as “King of Chester,” which had been rather resented by the local populace. Returning from Chester to Newburyport, Massachusetts, he took possession of a High Street property just purchased from the heirs of Captain Thomas Thomas (said house had been erected in 1771 by Jonathan Jackson). This would be the home the yard of which he would decorate in the outlandish manner for which he has become infamous. According to William C. Todd, Esq., donor of the Free Reading Room at the town library, He laid out the grounds after what he was told was the European style, and had fruits, flowers, and shrubbery of many varieties planted in them. He put minarets on the roof of the house, surmounted with gilt balls, and in front placed rows of columns fifteen feet high, — about forty in all — each having on its top a statue of some distinguished man. Before the door were two lions on each side, with open mouths, to guard the entrance. On the arch, and occupying the most prominent position, were the statues of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, and to the other statues he gave the names of Bonaparte, Nelson, Franklin, and other heroes, often changing them according to his fancy. In a conspicuous place was a statue of himself with the inscription, “I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the known world.” All these statues were carved in wood by a young ship-carver, Joseph Wilson, who had just come to Newburyport. They were gaudily painted; and, though having but little merit as works of art, and less as likenesses, gave the house a strange appearance and attracted crowds, whose curiosity deeply gratified the owner, and he freely opened the HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

grounds to them. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

For some reason, in the above, the author seems to have omitted to mention that atop the central cupola of this edifice there was perched a golden eagle! He also seems to have omitted the important fact that the wooden statues were bigger than lifesize and included an Indian chief, a goddess of Fame, and a goddess of Liberty. The representation of President John Adams was hatless, presumably to make a display of baldness. President Thomas Jefferson held a scroll that had been intended to represent the Declaration of Independence, except that Dexter was going to be the author of his own captions on his own cartoon characters and had obliged the artist to paint on it “The Constitution.” President George Washington was in his military uniform. He changed the names on the statues at whim, General Morgan for instance becoming Bonaparte. The inside of this house was decorated with fine French furniture, and various paintings purchased by an agent on the Continent, with the names of famous painters added to them.

Dexter began to ride about town in an elegant coach bearing a coat of arms selected by himself, drawn by a matched team of cream-colored horses. He appointed an assistant, Jonathan Plummer, as his poet laureate, and outfitted him in a black livery uniform bearing stars and fringes, with large buckles on the shoes, a cocked hat, and a cane with a head of gold. Jonathan would be sadly disappointed to find, when his boss’s will was read, that he had not been so much as mentioned.

There is a drawing which is supposed to be of Dexter, and it would appear to me as if the person who created this drawing, James Akin, posed Dexter in the livery uniform of his poet laureate Plummer: HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1799

January 2, Wednesday: Timothy Dexter published an advertisement of his house and lot in Newburyport, Massachusetts for sale, in Boston’s Columbian Centinel.

March 1, Friday: Jan Ladislav Dussek’s three piano sonatas C.166-8 were entered at Stationer’s Hall, London.

Timothy Dexter signed his will (a document that, when opened, would startle people with its rationality).

A combined Russian and Turkish force captured the Ionian Islands from the French (they would set up a republic under Turkish protection).

French forces captured El Ramle and were welcomed by the Christian population. EGYPT HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1800

June: Thomas Campbell went abroad and wound up visiting Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock at Hamburg, after which he went to Regensburg, where he was captured by the French. He was able to obtain the security of a Scottish monastery. During this period he wrote the lyrics for his songs “Hohenlinden,” “Ye Mariners of England,” and “The Soldier’s Dream.”

Timothy Dexter presented £100 to St. Paul’s Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and £100 to the Presbyterian Church, toward the purchase of bells to announce their worship.

June 10, Tuesday: Johann Abraham Peter Schulz died in Schwedt an der Oder, Prussia at the age of 53.

Samuel Lord Dexter got married with Mehitable Hoyt of Hampstead, New Hampshire (I haven’t been able to figure out what happened to this wife, but Samuel would remarry and there would be no children by either of these unions).

August 14, Thursday: Thomas Jefferson wrote to Jeremiah Moor in regard to certain religious leaders who were opposing the separation of church and state: The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machinery of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.

Timothy Dexter wrote to the editor of a local newspaper: I’me Now Come fored to speak of mi selfe of Infermeties of bodey I have more then one I say the gout never head Ake and the gravel for many years and I Cant help it and a very Colding wife is pison to me and I wish to be still and be master of my Cash and therefore it is Rite for my Littel familey to Leave the hous foulley and I wish fore one very good housekeeper very good and them that know me will know the kind of woman will Doue Now I will say what kind of a passon one from thirtey to fortey year old a good gade that will trott pase and gallop not to heave one of (off) but Rather of the two heave on I meane right well now stop I goaks I got out of the parth now I am onest I wish for a middling woman for size with a nose like mine Not black Eyes a good seamster and know houe to Cook I meane so as to order to have a good made to tend on you and me as for money the hous keeper and made will have A nouf if the Rite sort they must be sens Abel & onest & Comly & know when to speak & when to be silent then I shall please my Littel familey and the peopel at Large and to have the best of health to have good Rekamendason and if one or both Lives with me to my Decease thay will have a serting sum for Every year I Live Not Less then the wages upon the strickest honner. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

August 14 I a firme by the honer Dat 1800 TIMOTHY DEXTER

October: Timothy Dexter presented an elegant standard to the artillery company of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

This is not an image of that elegant standard:

November 14, Friday: Timothy Dexter published another advertisement of the availability of his house and lot for sale, in the Newburyport, Massachusetts Herald. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1802

May: Timothy Dexter’s pamphlet A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES: OR, PLAIN TRUTHS IN A HOMESPUN DRESS, with imaginative spelling and an absence of punctuation. Subsequently he would have a special edition printed up that would include at the end a few pages of periods and commas with the instruction that the readers might “peper and solt it as they plese.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1803

July 28, Thursday: Timothy Dexter published another notice of the availability of his house and lot in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in this notice mentioning that he was in fear for his life. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1805

June 12, Wednesday: Timothy Dexter complained to the press about the 35-year “hell” of being married to Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter, and his disappointment at the way the marriage of their “Dafter” Nancy Dexter Bishop to “Abram bishup” had turned out: NOW TO ALL ONNEST MEN, to pittey me that I have bin in hell 35 years, in this world, with the gost — A woman I maried, and have two Children, Now Liveing; Abram bishup maried my Dafter — sence, the troubel is such that words Cant be Expresed; Nine years disordered for a tun of silver for three months; I could Not have the gost in my palles; sleep Not to be had; now to save my Life I will sell — if Not, I will let the house; it is as Noted as any hous in the oile shouls, and fourder, in the world, or sence Noers Arke & sence the floud; taking in my self, finly, such a plas No whare in the world; all goes with it — hoses, carages, all but plate and gouels, and Reserve the holey bybel and one bouck more. my old head has wore out three boddeys; it would take a jourey of Doctors one our to find and Count the scars on my head, given by the gost & others. A men. Clean trouth. T. DEXTER. Joune 12, 1805.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4 day 12 of 6 M 1805 / From inattention & unwatchfulness, I have experienced much leaness for several days — but thro favor the animating influence of the Spirit has been once more shed in my heart I feel at times strong desires to have the masters presence at the Approaching Y Meeting that so much langor & poverty may not be my lot as was the last Year — ———————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1806

October 24, Friday: French forces reached the suburbs of Berlin.

At this point what was left of his reason deserted Timothy Dexter. He would continue for two days in this condition.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould instanced in his journal that he had been fined for his failure as a Quaker to participate under arms in the local militia and that the penalty had been unfairly exacted through the tax seizure of his hat, that had cost him considerably more than that penalty: 6 day 24 of 10 M / James Chappel has just taken from me an Hat what in the 6 M last cost me six Dollars for a Militia fine amounting to only 2 Dollars & 5 cents including fees — by order of Charles C Dunham the Capt. The warrant dated 6 day of October 1806 & signed by Robt Taylor Just Peace. ——————————————————————————————————— THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

October 26, Sunday: French forces occupied Osnabrück.

Timothy Dexter, who had been drinking heavily for some time despite the best efforts of his live-in personal trainer Lucy “Black Luce” Lancaster, and had been entirely bereft of his wits for the past couple of days, succumbed at the age of 59. His house was on High Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts among the stately homes of the other shipowners and captains, but its yard was crowded with disintegrating larger-than-life wooden statues of famous men, including a bust of himself. At the point of his death all the statues were still in prime shape. Although he had constructed in his back yard a fine mausoleum with major windows (12 by 12 with an 11-foot ceiling, featuring 158 squares of glass), and invested in an elaborate coffin of the finest woods with large silver fittings which he kept inside the house with him, none of this would be taken into consideration by the people who would dispose of his remainders — which would be taken heedlessly to the Old Hill burying-ground where they would disappear beneath a simple marble slab: He gave liberal Donations, For the support of the Gospel: For the benefit of the Poor, And for other benevolent purposes. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

His wife would eventually be interred by his side. Here is an engraving done from life in 1805 by James Akin, that was published during this year of the man’s death:

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1 day 26 of 10 M / Favor’d with rather more animation at meetings than of late, dear cousin Anne Greene was concernd to leave with us in the morning a few words of warning & exortation to those who continue in evil practice, & concluded with an affectionate address to the Youth. Took tea with D Rodman & wife, in company with cousin Anne & two of David’s precious sisters, on the edge of evening we drew into silence & Anne was engaged to speak to our several states in a very sweet & encoraging manner, from there I waited on her to J Earl’s where we again drew into silence, & she found much to communicate to our several states. in these opportunities my mind was much solemnized & favor’d to witness the extendings of divine goodness to be spread over us, for which I desire to be thankful & retain the savor that it may not vanish like the early dew. ——————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

November 3, Monday: With Napoléon’s blessing, Polish leaders in Berlin issued a call for a national Polish uprising.

Essen was transferred from Prussia to Berg.

When the will Timothy Dexter had signed on March 1, 1799 was proved, it was revealed that he had made several public bequests such as $2,000 per year to be expended upon the town’s poor outside of the almshouse, $300 for a bell for the meetinghouse, and $2,000 for the preaching of the gospel there. The remainder of the estate after these bequests was to go to his son Samuel Lord Dexter and daughter Nancy Dexter Bishop, divorced wife of Abraham Bishop. His live-in personal trainer Lucy “Black Luce” Lancaster was not provided for, but then, as a free black, she would not have been expecting to be provided for. William “Dwarf Billy” Burley, the protector, similarly, had not been expecting consideration. The poet lauriet (sic) Jonathan Plummer, however, in the black livery uniform bearing stars and fringes that had been provided for him, was another matter — he had somehow come to expect that his needs would continue to be met and was considerably disappointed. He would live out his life with his unmarried cousins Eunice Alexander, Hannah Alexander, and Elizabeth Alexander in a home at the corner of High and Federal Streets, while tramping around New England making himself here and there a welcome nuisance.

DATE: A statue toppled in the front yard of the Timothy Dexter home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, that of the Indian Chief (eventually a stronger gust would fell all the statues except for the three presidents atop their arch).5

5. There had been but three presidents during Dexter’s lifetime. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1807

January 11, Sunday: Ezra Cornell, who would found Western Union Telegraph and who would help endow Cornell University,6 was born.

Samuel Lord Dexter remarried, with Esther Dexter in (?) Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1 day 11 of 1 M 1807 / Silent meetings & to my mind tolerably composed seasons. Spent the evening at C Rodmans in company with divers young friends, & towards the close had an interview with my precious H. on the account of matrimony which I had intimated to her before & obtained our parents consent. It is a subject which hath long engaged my attention & trust have duly weighed it on all sides under a propper & weighty sense of its importance, & whatever my be the Issue it is sealed on my mind that the thing (thus far) is tight & that I have moved it nearly in the right time & manner. My mind is often bowed in much humility when I consider the littleness of my abilities in performing the duties relative to a married State, but when I am led to view the great Goodness love & condesention of our God to the children of men, that he cloths the lilleys & feeds the sparrows & the many blessings which he bestows on those that are unworthy my mind if strengthended with an hope that as I am faithfully dedicated in my heart to do & suffer what ever he pleases to require at my hands he will not leave nor forsake me, but cast up a way where no way may appear, & not only give me South land but also Springs of water. I am not looking for miricles [sic] but expect to use my own endeavors, & as they are exerted within the limits of truth, my present faith is that I shall get forward in peace to my own mind, & the honor of the good cause, to which the older I grow the more I feel bound with fervant desires to promote. Oh that nothing may work in either from the love of gain or Self exaltation to retard the groth of that precious tender plant which I sometimes feel to be growing in my mind, but that a constant watchful care may be faithfully maintained to guard my heart as at every avenue from the subtil stratigems of the old deceiver, for I have often found him to be a very buisy medling creature striving by the most artful means to overthrow all good to establish his own kingdom. Therefore Oh my soul be on thy constant watch. ——————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

6. In conjunction with others such as the son of Friend Stephen Wanton Gould (1781-1838), John Stanton Gould (1810-1874). HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

April 28, Tuesday: 14-year-old Friedrich Günther replaced Ludwig Friedrich II as Prince of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt under regency.

The fine French household furnishings of the deceased Timothy Dexter, together with “the carved images with the pillars on which they stand” from his front yard on High Street, were advertised to be sold at public auction by P. Bagley & Son, auctioneers, “on Tuesday the 12th of May next.”

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3 day 28 of 4 M / More feeling this morning than Yesterday. led into sympathy with an acquaintance in affliction This afternoon about 4 OClock died Saml Brown, which occurrence has spread “a gloom profound” over my mind, to reflect on the truly afflicting & disconsolate situation of the Poor widow who is now confined to her room unable to see him whom She has lately wedded, Alas now a cold corps - she is an acquaintance whom I esteem, & believe She has known & felt the living power of truth in a remarkable manner to reach & convince her mind. May she be supported thro’ all, & may the present affliction prepare her mind for a more full surrender of heart to the pure living & substanceal truth, & may my mind be also awakened to greater dilligence, at the Awful Scene presented to view. ——————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

May 12, Tuesday: The household furnishings of the deceased Timothy Dexter, together with “the carved images with the pillars on which they stand” from his front yard, were sold to the highest bidder by the firm of P. Bagley & Son, auctioneers. The statue that produced the highest selling price was that of the goddess of Fame, at $5. The statue of William Pitt, the final one with a recognizable identity, garnered only $1, that of the “Travelling Preacher” commanding only 50 cents presumably for firewood.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3 day 12 of 5 M / Pretty dilligently at Trade. In the corse of the Afternoon have endeavord to make a just estimate of temporal things & find “there is but little worth living for” The ills of life has appeard to overballance the good, but the best way is to seek ability to pray to be supported thro’ all tryals, & not repine at any, but meet them as instruments sent to prepare us for the full enjoyment of a better country. May all that is within me be earnestly engaged to seek an inheritance, where none can say “I am sick”. My weaknesses are numerous, & I may often acknowledge as with my mouth in the dust that I have been highly favord of the Lord, but I have not been So faithful as is required, yet feel encoragement to press forward a little longer. Oh Lord enable me to hold my confidence in thiee. ——————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

July 20, Monday: In New-York harbor, Robert Fulton demonstrated his torpedoes, managing after three attempts to sink a target ship.

George Heriot painted Presqu’isle, St. John River.

Samuel Lord Dexter died childless at the age of 34, survived by his 2d wife.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2 day 20 of 7 M 1807 / I have just return’d with J W & D W brothers committe Men to treat with AA but our labors were ineffectual the poor thing refused to see us & when we went Where he was he run away from us. I felt much for him & should have been glad to have discharged my duty to him. may the power of Truth yet reach his mind, & so effectually operate as to bring him within the Holy enclosure The day closes with a good degree of Sweetness & I trust it has been a Season of some spiritual advancement - I desire I crave in Sincerity of Soul that this renewed extension of divine reguard may be held in rememberance - Made several calls this evening, & was favor’d not to do or say any thing that tended to discipate that precious Sweetness attendant on my mind thro’ the day RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1808

March 8, Tuesday: The royal Portuguese entourage of Dom João and the Queen Maria disembarked and made a triumphal entry into Rio de Janeiro.

According to the Newburyport, Massachusetts Herald, Samuel Richardson informs his friends and the public in general that he has removed from the Hotel on Plum Island to that elegant and spacious House owned by the late Timothy Dexter, High Street, where he has good accommodations for travelers and others who may favor him with their custom.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 8 of 3rd M / I think my mind is in better condition this forenoon than for some time. The calls of my dear friend P Dunham has been strengthening RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1809

The AMERICAN MAGAZINE OF WONDERS AND MARVELOUS CHRONICLE described Edward Bright, “a noted fat man” (APS 115, volume 2, page 257, reel 1).

An engraving was published, of Jonathan Plummer standing in the Market Square of Newburyport with his basket of broadsides and pamphlets proclaiming himself a “traveling preacher” (his peculiarities and singular costume were widely recognized).

July 3, Monday: Elizabeth Lord Frothingham Dexter, widow of Benjamin Frothingham Senior and then of Timothy Dexter, died at the age of 72. The body would be placed at the side of her 2d husband, who had so detested her, in the Old Hill burying ground. Soon the elaborate house on High Street, minus those garish front- yard statues of course, would be rented out to the innkeeper Thomas Marshall, and then to the innkeeper Stephen Marshall (yet later it would be leased to Mrs. Hannah Toppan Marshall and be used as a residence and boardinghouse, until 1852).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 3 of 7 Mo // My dear H & little son spent the day at my fathers - My dear friend Joseph Austin of Nantucket came to the Shop to see me this afternoon & in the evening he & Daniel came up to see us - he is a dear Youth. I allways did love him, & hope I all ways shall. There seems to be a sweetness in him that is not diminished by an increase of outward care — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

November 16, Thursday: The widow of Samuel Lord Dexter, Esther Dexter, making careful prearrangement to keep her inherited properties separate and in her own possession (what we would now term a “prenup”), remarried with William Rose of Charlestown.

George Gordon, Lord Byron and Hobhouse left Katuna and arrived at Mukala (Machalas?).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 16 of 11 Mo// A poor dull meeting to me - Wm Dean of Salem was there. I should be glad if the object of his visit was like to prove more successful or gratifying, but Alass the Young Damsels health is such that it is improbable she will ever make a Wife for any one — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1812

Matthew Whittier, Friend John Greenleaf Whittier’s brother, was born.

It would have been in approximately this timeframe that the Whittier farm would have been being visited by “tramps,” and in particular by Jonathan Plummer, formerly the “poet lauriet (sic) to Lord Timothy Dexter”: The advent of wandering beggars, or old stragglers, as we were wont to call them, was an event of no ordinary interest in the generally monotonous quietude of our farm life. Many of them were well known — they had their periodical revolutions and transits; we could calculate them like eclipses or new moons. Some were sturdy knaves, fat and saucy; and whenever they ascertained that the men-folks were absent would order provisions and cider like men who expected to pay for them, seating themselves at the hearth or table with the air of Falstaff, “Shall I not take mine ease in mine own inn” Others poor, pale, patient, like Sterne’s monk, came creeping up to the door, hat in hand, standing there in their gray wretchedness, with a look of heart-break and forlornness which was never without its effect on our juvenile sensibilities. At times, however, we experienced a slight revulsion of feeling when even these humblest children of sorrow somewhat petulantly rejected our proffered bread and cheese, and demanded instead a glass of cider. One I think I see him now, grim, gaunt, and ghastly, working his way up to our door used to gather herbs by the wayside, and call himself doctor. He was bearded like a he-goat, and used to counterfeit lameness, yet when he supposed himself alone would travel on lustily, as if walking for a wager. At length, as if in punishment for his deceit, he met with an accident in his rambles, and became lame in earnest, hobbling ever after with difficulty on his gnarled crutches. Another used to go stooping, like Bunyan’s pilgrim, under a pack made of an old bed-sacking, stuffed out into most plethoric dimensions, tottering on a pair of small, meagre legs, and peering out with his wild, hairy face from under his burden, like a big-bodied spider. That man with the pack always inspired me with awe and reverence. Huge, almost sublime in its tense rotundity, the father of all packs, never laid aside and never opened, what might there not be within it! With what flesh-creeping curiosity I used to walk round about it at a safe distance, half expecting to see its striped covering stirred by the motions of a mysterious life, or that some evil monster would leap out of it, like robbers from Ali Baba’s jars, or armed men from the Trojan horse! Twice a year, usually in the spring and autumn, we were honored with a call from Jonathan Plummer, maker of verses, peddler and poet, physician and parson, — a Yankee troubadour, — first and last minstrel of the valley of the Merrimac, encircled, to my wondering young eyes, with the very nimbus of immortality. He brought with him pins, needles, tape, and cotton thread for my mother; jackknives, razors, and soap for my father; and verses of his own composing, HDT WHAT? INDEX

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coarsely printed and illustrated with rude woodcuts, for the delectation of the younger branches of the family. No love-sick youth could drown himself, no deserted maiden bewail the moon, no rogue mount the gallows, without fitting memorial in Plummer’s verses. Earthquakes, fires, fevers, and shipwrecks he regarded as personal favors from Providence, furnishing the raw material of song and ballad. Welcome to us in our country seclusion as Autolycus to the clown in Winter’s Tale, we listened with infinite satisfaction to his readings of his own verses, or to his ready improvisation upon some domestic incident or topic suggested by his auditors. When once fairly over the difficulties at the outset of a new subject, his rhymes flowed freely “as if he had eaten ballads and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.” His productions answered, as nearly as I can remember, to Shakespeare’s description of a proper ballad — “doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant theme sung lamentably.” He was scrupulously conscientious, devout, inclined to theological disquisitions, and withal mighty in Scripture. He was thoroughly independent; flattered nobody, cared for nobody, trusted nobody. When invited to sit down at our dinner-table, he invariably took the precaution to place his basket of valuables between his legs for safe keeping. “Never mind thy basket, Jonathan,” said my father; “we shan’t steal thy verses.” “I ’m not sure of that,” returned the suspicious guest. “It is written, ‘Trust ye not in any brother.’” HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1819

September 13, Monday: Clara Josephine Wieck (Schumann) was born in the Neumarkt of Leipzig, 2d of 5 children (and eldest surviving) of Friedrich Wieck, pianist, teacher, and owner of a piano shop, with Marianne Tromlitz, singer, pianist, and daughter and granddaughter of musicians.

Henry “Orator” Hunt made a triumphal entry into London.

Jonathan Plummer died.

The 3d American Installment of Washington Irving’s THE SKETCH BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT.

September 14, Tuesday: Notice of the death of Jonathan Plummer on the previous day appeared in the Newburyport Herald: “Yesterday afternoon Mr. Jonathan Plummer, aged 58, poet laureate and preacher to their majesties the sovereign people.”

We know, from a report in the Nashville, Tennessee Clarion of this date, that the initial newspaper to be published in Texas, the Texas Republican, had begun to be published by Eli Harris, formerly of Franklin, Tennessee, who had originated in North Carolina. It had been issued a month earlier in Nacogdoches by General James Long and seems to have been edited by a member of his “Supreme Council,” Horatio Bigelow (no copy of it seems to have been preserved).

John Keats posted, from Lombard Street in London, a letter to Fanny Brawne that he had begun to compose on Fleet Street on the morning of the previous day: My dear Girl — I have been hurried to town by a Letter from my brother George; it is not of the brightest intelligence. Am I mad or not? I came by the Friday night coach and have not yet been to Hampstead. Upon my soul it is not my fault. I cannot resolve to mix any pleasure with my days: they go one like another, indistinguishable. If I were to see you to-day it would destroy the half comfortable sullenness I enjoy at present into downright perplexities. I love you too much to venture to Hampstead, I feel it is not paying a visit, but venturing into a fire. Que feraije? as the French novel writers say in fun, and I in earnest: really what can I do? Knowing well that my life must be passed in fatigue and trouble, I have been endeavouring to wean myself from you: for to myself alone what can be much of a misery? As far as they regard myself I can despise all events: but I cannot cease to love you. This morning I scarcely know what I am doing. I am going to Walthamstow. I shall return to Winchester to-morrow; whence you shall hear from me in a few days. I am a Coward, I cannot bear the pain of being happy: ’t is out of the question: I must admit no thought of it. Yours ever affectionately John Keats.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 14th of 9 M / ANN McCOY a young woman from Savanna who HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

has boarded a few weeks at Aunt Anne Carpenters, left Town for Providence. - Her conduct has been such as has endeared her all her acquaintance, & we parted with her with regret. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1838

26-year-old Jehiel Lillie’s PHILIP, OR THE INDIAN CHIEF was performed by the cadets at Vermont’s Norwich Military Academy. The gist of this seems to have been, why did our white ancestors perp so as to almost make it necessary for us to be embarrassed for them –or shamed even– when the eventual extermination of native Americans and their culture was so obviously an inevitability and therefore nothing unseemly was needed.7

Bad white ancestors! Shame on you for being caught red-handed, embarrassing your heirs!

Yet again Timothy Dexter’s A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES: OR, PLAIN TRUTHS IN A HOMESPUN DRESS.

Samuel L. Knapp’s LIFE OF TIMOTHY DEXTER; EMBRACING SKETCHES OF THE ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS THAT COMPOSED HIS ASSOCIATES (Boston: Published by G.N. Thomson, 32 Washington Street). Knapp joked that “There are but few men who are sufficiently attentive to their own thoughts, and able to analyze every motive or action. Among these, Timothy Dexter was not one.”

7. Jehiel Lillie (1812, Tunbridge, Vermont-1875, Selma, Alabama) matriculated at the Norwich Military Academy in 1835 and received his A.B. in 1838. Afterward he would study for the law and in 1839 be admitted to the bar of Orange County at Chelsea, Vermont, relocating his law practice to Selma, Alabama in 1842. This play in the north in which white men acted the roles of both races (How! Ugh!) may be only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, or only one of the cute white little baby seal cubs that need to be clubbed. We badly need to locate the drama he must have authored about the race slavery of the south — a dramatization in which of course white actors would similarly play the roles of both races (Yessuh, Massah!). –Or, maybe not. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1847

On one night during this year an “irreverent heathen” clambered into the lap of Horatio Greenough’s George Washington statue sitting in the middle of its little floral island in the middle of East Capitol Street in the District of Columbia, and positioned a large cigar between its thin pale marble lips.

Yet again Timothy Dexter’s A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES: OR, PLAIN TRUTHS IN A HOMESPUN DRESS. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1851

September 30, Tuesday: John William Cunningham died. His parishioners would follow his funeral procession “like one great family mourning for a father.” A lychgate would be erected, to his memory.

Nancy Dexter Bishop died. Surviving was her daughter Mary Ann Bishop.

Henry Thoreau surveyed the Acton/Concord boundary in the northwest part of Concord. This survey showed Damon’s Factory, farms of John Brown, John Hosmer, Joseph Derby, Harrington, Samuel Lees, as well as Fort Pond Brook, and roads to Stow, South Acton, and Main Street in the western part of Concord. According to the Concord Town Report for 1850-51, for perambulating the town line and erecting stones at Acton and Bedford lines he was paid a total of $18.00. Thoreau had already perambulated part of this area while checking Concord boundary markers on September 15th.

September 30, Tuesday: To Powder mills & set an intermediate boundstone on the new road there. Saw them making hoops for powder casks of alder & the sprouts of the white-birch which are red with whitish spots. How interesting it is to observe a particular use discovered in any material. I am pleased to find that the artizan has good reason for preferring one material to another for a particular purpose. I am pleased to learn that a man has detected any use in wood or stone or any material–or in other words its relation to man. The white ash has got its autumnal mulberry hue– What is the autumnal tint of the black ash– The former contrasts strongly with the other shade trees on the village streeet–the elms & buttonwoods–at this season– looking almost black at the first glance– The diffirent characters of the trees appear at this season when their leaves so to speak are ripe than at any other–than in the winter for instance when they are little remarkable– & almost uniformly grey or brown or in the spring & and summer when they are undistinguishably green. Now a red maple–an ash–a white birch–a populus grandidentata &c is distinguished almost as far as they are visible. It is with leaves as with fruits & woods–& animals & men–when they are mature their different characters appear. The sun has been obscured much of the day by passing clouds–but now at 5 Pm the sun comes out & by the HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

very clear & brilliant light though the shadows begin to fall long from the trees, it is proved how remarkably clear or pure the atmosphere is– According to all accounts an hour of such a light would be something quite memorable in England. As the wood of an old Cremona its very fibre perchance harmoniously transposed & educated to resound melody has brought a great price–so methinks these telegraph posts should bear a great price with musical instrument makers– It is prepared to be the material of harps for ages to come, as it were put a soak in & seasoning in music. Saw a hornets nest on a tree over the road near the Powder Mills 30 or 40 feet high. Even the pearl–like the beautiful galls on the oaks–is said to be the production of diseaseas or rather obstruction–the fish covering as with a tear some rough obstruction that has got into his shell. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1852

February 2, Monday: Mary Ann Bishop Clark of New Haven, Connecticut, only child and heir-at-law of Nancy Dexter Bishop, inheritor from her grandfather Timothy Dexter, sold the Dexter House and plot on High Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts to Elbridge G. Kelley for $7,000 (by this point all the statuary was gone, the three presidents having lasted the longest, until about 1850).

Henry Thoreau returned the Loudon volume ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF PLANTS to the Boston Society of Natural History and checked out, from Harvard Library, Carl von Linné’s CAROLI LINNÆ ... PHILOSOPHIA BOTANICA (1751).

He also checked out Louis-Armand de Lom d’Arce, Baron de Lahontan’s NOUVEAUX VOYAGES DE MR. LE BARON DE LAHONTAN DANS L’AMÉRIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE, QUI CONTIENNENT UNE RÉLATION DES DIFFÉRENS PEUPLES QUI Y HABITENT; LA NATURE DE LEUR GOUVERNEMENT; LEUR COMMERCE, LEURS COUTUMES, LEUR RELIGION, & LEUR MANIÉRE DE FAIRE LA GUERRE. L’INTÉRÊT DES FRANÇOIS & DES ANGLOIS DANS LE COMMERCE QU’ILS FONT AVEC SES NATIONS; L’AVANTAGE QUE L’ANGLETERRE PEUT RETIRER DANS CE PAÏS, ÉTANT EN GUERRE AVEC LA FRANCE. LE TOUT ENRICHI DE CARTES & DE FIGURES. TOME PREMIER (A. La Haye, chez les Fréres l’Honoré, Marchands Libraires, 1703) MEMOIRES ... (VOL. I)

and MEMOIRES DE L’AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONNALE, OU LA SUITE DES VOYAGES DE MR. LE BARON DE LA HONTAN. QUI CONTIENNENT LA DEFCRIPTION D’UNE GRANDE ÉTENDUË DE PAÏS DE CE CONTINENT, L’INTÉRÊT DES FRANÇOIS & DES ANGLOIS, LEURS COMMERCES, LEURS NAVIGATIONS, LEURS MŒURS & LES COÛTUMES DES SAUVAGES, &C. AVEC UN PETIT DICTIONAIRE DE LA LANGUE DU PAÏS. LE TOUT ENRICHI DE CARTES & DE FIGURES. TOME SECOND. (A. La Haye, chez les Fréres l’Honoré, Marchands Libraires, 1703), making his notes in his Indian Notebook #5 and his Fact Book. MEMOIRES ... (VOL. II) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away” — Emily Dickinson

On this day, as is clear from entries in his Fact Book, he had perused an article in the Boston Daily Evening Traveller, by Benjamin Apthorp Gould the son, headlined “The Progress of Astronomy During the Last Half Century.” It is clear also in his journal entry, that he was concurrently reading in the 5th edition of Sir Francis B. Head, Bart.’s THE EMIGRANT (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1847). THE EMIGRANT

Henri-Frédéric Amiel, who would be referred to as the “Swiss Thoreau,” wrote in his JOURNAL INTIME: “Still the Monologues. Critically I defended myself enough against them yesterday; I may abandon myself now, without scruple and without danger, to the admiration and the sympathy with which they inspire me. This life so proudly independent, this sovereign conception of human dignity, this actual possession of the universe and the infinite, this perfect emancipation from all which passes, this calm sense of strength and superiority, this invincible energy of will, this infallible clearness of self-vision, this autocracy of the consciousness which is its own master, all these decisive marks of a royal personality of a nature Olympian, profound, complete, harmonious, penetrate the mind with joy and heart with gratitude. What a life! what a man! These glimpses into the inner regions of a great soul do one good. Contact of this kind strengthens, restores, refreshes. Courage returns as we gaze; when we see what has been, we doubt no more that it can be again. At the sight of a man we too say to ourselves, let us also be men.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

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KEY: existing white settlements in boldface, future white settlements in italics HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

February 2, Monday: Sir Francis Head says that in America “the moon looks larger” than in Europe Here then more moonshine is to be expected– Perhaps the sun looks larger also. Such are the advantages of the new World. The same writer says “the heavens of America appear infinitely higher” – – “the stars are brighter”– These too are encouraging facts – symbolical of the height to which the philosophy & poetry and religion of her inhabitants may one day soar. At length perchance the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind – and the intimations that star it will appear as much brighter. For I believe that climate does thus react on man – and that there is something in the Mt air that feeds the spirit – & inspires. We shall be more imaginative– We shall be clearer as our sky – bluer, fresher, broader & more comprehensive in our understanding – like our plains– Our intellect on a grander scale – like our thunder & lightning – our rivers & our lakes – & mts & forests. Are not these advantages? Will not man grow to greater perfection, intellectually as well as physically under these influences? Or is it unimportant how many foggy days there are in his life? Sir F. Head thinks that the greater cold –equal to 13 degrees of Lat.– in this country is owing to the extensive forests which prevent the sun & wind from melting the snows –which therefore accumulate on the ground– and creates a cold stratum of air which blown to warmer ones by the N W wind condenses the last into snow– But in Concord woods at any rate the snow – (in the winter) – melts faster – & beside is not so deep as in the fields. Not so toward Spring – on the N sides of hills & in hollows– At any rate I think he has not allowed enough for the warmth of the woods. The moose (& beaver?) will perchance one day become extinct – but how naturally would a future poet imagine or sculptor carve a fabulous animal with such branching & leafy horns – (when this will in fact exist as a fossil relic) His horns a sort of fucus in bone– –or a lichen. The Elk (moose) may stand with the Gryphon & Dragon & Dodo &c. &c. The fire-flies & bright plumaged birds! do not they too indicate the peculiarities of the future American Head “felt that there was something indescribably awful & apalling in all these bestial, birdal, and piscal precautions” at the approach of winter– Going into winter quarters – migrating &c. Head coming to Canada in the winter to a house in the fields covered with snow did not know that he was surrounded by a lawn & garden – with gravelled walks – flowers & shrubbery – till the spring thawed the snow. The race that settles & clears the land has got to deal with every tree in the forest in succession– It must be resolute & industrious – and even the stumps must be got out or are– It is a thorough process – this war with the wilderness – breaking nature taming the soil – feeding it on oats The civilized man regards the pine tree as his enemy. He will fell it & let in the light – grub it up & raise wheat or rye there. It is no better than a fungus to him. It is natural that we should be enterprising – for we are descended from the enterprising – who sought to better their fortunes in the new world The Yankee has no leisure to touch his hat to you even if he were so disposed

April 20, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau was visiting downtown Quincy, across the Neponset River on the coast south of Boston. He was being written to by Horace Greeley in New-York, to express disappointment; therefore, evidently, Greeley had been advised by Thoreau that he could not write as desired about the “works and ways” of the Reverend Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Massachusetts, Thoreau To: HDT From: Horace Greeley Date: 4/20/52 New York, April 20, 1852. Dear Sir: I have yours of the 17th. I am rather sorry you [will] not do the ‘Works and Ways[,’] but glad that you are able to employ your time to better purpose. But your Quebeck notes don’t reach me yet, and I fear the ‘good time’ is passing. They ought to have appeared in the June Nos. of the Month- HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

lies, but now cannot before July. If you choose to send them to me all in a lump, I will try to get them printed in that way. I [d]on’t care about them if you choose to reserve or to print them else- where; but I can [better] make a use for them at this season than at any other. Yours, Horace Greeley. H. D. Thoreau, Concord, Mass.

April 20, Tuesday: Morning. Storms still. The robin [American Robin Turdus migratorius] sings unfailingly each morning at the time the sun should rise–in spite of dreary rain. Some storms have much more wet in them than others though they look the same to one in the house–& you cannot walk half an hour without being wet through–while in the others you may keep pretty dry a whole afternoon. Turned up the Juniper repens on Conantum yesterday with my foot–which above had a reddish & rusty look. beneath it was of an unexpectedly fine glaucous tinge with a bright green inmixed. Like many things it looks best in the rain. They have many birds for sale in Quincy market next the fish-market. I observe that one cage bears permanently the label “a good singer” tied to it. Every passer’s eye rests on it & he thinks if he were to buy a bird it would be the occupant of that cage. When I go to Boston the next year I perceive that this cage still wears its label, & I suppose that they put a new bird into this cage without changing the label, as fast as they sell the old one. Any bird that is without a home goes into the cage thus labelled, whatever may be his vocal powers. No deception, no falsehood seems too stale to succeed. The bird-fancier who recommends his bird as “a good singer” finds customers by the means. Saw yesterday apparently freshly broken shells of tortoise eggs.

April 21, Wednesday: In the afternoon Henry Thoreau and Ellery Channing took a walk in the rain to the 1775 Battle- Ground across Old North Bridge over the Concord River.

April 21, Wednesday: The storm still continues. When I walked in the storm day before yesterday, I felt very cold when my clothes were first wet through but at last they being saturated with water were tight & kept out the air & fresh wet like a thicker & closer garment & the water in them being warmed by my person – I felt warmer & even drier. The color of the water changes with the sky. It is as dull & sober as the sky today. The woodchuck has not far to go to his home. In foul weather if he chooses he can turn in any where. He lives on & in the earth. A little parasite on the skin of the earth. – that knows the taste of clover & bean-leaves &beetles.

2 PM another walk in the rain. The river is remarkably high – Nobody remembers when the water came into so many cellars The water is up to the top of the easternmost end of the easternmost iron truss on the S side of the Stone bridge – It is over the union turnpike that was west of the bridge – so that it is impassible to a foot traveller – & just over the road west of Woods bridge – Of eight carriage roads leading into Concord the water to my knowledge is now over six – viz – Lees Bridge – the Corner Road – Wood’s Bridge – Stone Bridge – Red bridge on both sides full half a mile in all over the walls – & the Turnpike. All of these are impassible to foot travellers except Woods’ Bridge where only a lady would be stopped. – I should think that 9 inches more would carry it over Flint’s Bridge Road – How it is at the East Quarter school house I dont know – nor at the further Stone Bridge & above – nor at Derby’s Bridge It is probably over the road near Mile’s in the Corner and in 2 places on the Turnpike – perhaps between J P Browns HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

& C. Miles. This may suggest how low Concord is situated. Most of the cellars on both sides of the main street E of our house have water in them – and some that are on high ground. All this has been occasioned by the repeated storms of snow & rain for a month or 6 weeks past especially the melting of the deep snow of April 13 and added to this the steady rain from Sunday morning Ap 18 to this moment 8 Pm Ap. 21st. The element of water is in the ascendant. From the Poplar Hill the expanse of water looks about as large on the S W as the N E. many new islands are made – of grassy & sometimes rocky knolls & clumps of trees and bushes where there is no dry land. Straight willow hedges rising above the water in some places marking the boundaries of some man’s improvements look prettily – Some of the bushy islands on the Great meadows are distinctly red at this distance even a mile off from the stems of some bush not red (distinctly in fair weather – wet now – – Is it cornel? In front of Peters. The grass has been springing in spite of the snow & rain & the earth has an increased greenish tinge – though it is still decidedly tawny. – Men are out in boats in the rain for muskrats – ducks & geese [Canada Goose Branta canadensis]. It appears to me as I stand on this hill that the white houses of the village seen through the whitish misty storm and rain are a very suitable color & harmonize well with the scenery – like concentrations of the mist. It is a cheerful color in stormy weather. A few patches of snow are still left. – The robins sing through the ceaseless rain and the song sparrows [Melospiza melodia] & I hear a lark’s [Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna] plaintive strain – I am glad that men are so dispersed over the earth. The need of fuel causes woods to be left – and the use of cattle and horses requires pastures – and hence men live far apart & the walkers of every town have this wide range over forest & field. Sitting behind the wall on the height of the road beyond N. Barretts – (for we have

come down the N bank of the river) – I love in this weather to look abroad & let my eye fall on some sandy hill clothed with pitch pines on its sides, & covered on its top with the whitish cladonia lichen – usually so dry – but now saturated with water – It reminds me of northern Regions. I am thinking of the hill near Tarbells – 3/ 4 of a mile from me. They are agreeable colors to my eye – the green pine & on the summit the patches of whitish moss like mildew seen through the mist & rain. – for I think perhaps how much moisture that soil can bear, how grateful it is to it. Proceed toward Hubbards Black birch Hill – the grass is greenest in the hollows where some snow & ice are still left – melting showing by its greenness how much space they recently covered. On the E side of Ponkawtassett I hear a robin singing cheerily from some perch in the wood – in the midst of the rain. – where the scenery is now wild & dreary – His song a singular antagonism & offset to the storm – As if nature said “have faith, these two things I can do.” It sings with power – like a bird of great faith – that sees the bright future through the dark present – to reassure the race of man – like one to whom many talents were given & who will improve its talents. They are sounds to make a dying man live. They sing not their despair. It is a pure immortal melody. The side of the hill is covered first with tall birches rising from a reddish ground – just above a small swamp – then comes a white pine wood whose needles covered with the fine rain drops have a light sheen on them. – I see one pine that has been snapped off half way up in the storm & seen against the misty back ground it is a distinct yellow mark. The sky is not one homogeneous color – but some what mottled with darker clouds & white intervals – & anon it rains harder than before. (I saw the other day the rootlets which spring from the alder above the ground – so tenacious of the earth is it) Was that a large shad bush where fathers mill used HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

to be.? There is quite a water fall beyond. where the old dam was Where the rapids commence at the outlet of the pond, the water is singularly creased as it rushes to the fall – like braided hair as the poet has it. I did not see any inequalities in the rock it rushed over which could make it so plaited. Here is enough of that suds which in warm weather disperses such a sense of coolness through the air – Sat under the dark hemlocks – gloomy hemlocks on the hill-side beyond. In a stormy day like this there is the gloom of night beneath them. The ground beneath them almost bare with wet rocks & fine twigs – without leaves (but hemlock leaves) or grass. The birds are singing in the rain about the small pond in front – The inquisitive chicadee [Black-capped Chicadee Parus Atricapillus] that has flown at once to the alders to reconnoitre as the black birds – the song-sparrow [Melospiza melodia] telling of expanding buds. But above all the robin sings here too – I know not at what distance in the wood. Did he sing thus in Indian days?, I ask myself – for I have always associated this sound with the village & the clearing, but now I do detect the aboriginal wildness in his strain – & can imagine him a woodland bird – and that he sang thus when there was no civilized ear to hear him – a pure forest melody even like the wood thrush. Every genuine thing retains this wild tone – which no true culture displaces – I heard him even as he might have sounded to the Indian singing at evening upon the elm above his wigwam – with which was associated in the red-man’s mind the events of an Indian’s life. – his childhood. Formerly I had heard in it only those strains which tell of the white man’s village life – now I heard those strains which remembered the red-man’s life – such as fell on the ears of Indian children. – as he sang when these arrow-heads which the rain has made shine so on the lean stubble field – were fastened to their shaft. Thus the birds sing round this piece of water – some on the alders which fringe – some farther off & higher up the hills – It is a centre to them. Here stand buttonwoods an uncommon tree in the woods. naked to look at & now covered with little tufts of twigs on the sides of the branches in consequence of the disease which has attacked them. The singing of birds implies fair weather. I see where some farmer has been at pains to knock to pieces the manure which his cattle have dropped in the pasture so to spread it over the sward. The yellow birch is to me an interesting tree from its remarkable & peculiar color – like a silvery gold – In the pasture beyond the brook where grow the barberries – huckleberries – creeping juniper &c are half a dozen huge boulders which look grandly now in the storm covered with greenish gray lichens alternating with the slateish colored rock. Slumbering – silent like the exuviae of Giants – some of their cattle left. From a height I look down on some of them as on the backs of oxen. A certain personality or at least brute life they seem to have. C. [Ellery Channing] calls it boulder field. There is a good prospect Southward over the pond – between the two hills – even to the river meadows now. – As we stand by the Mt on the Battleground – I see a white pine dimly 1 in the horizon just north of Lee’s Hill – at 5 /2 Pm, its upright stem & straight horizontal feathered branches – while at the same time I hear a robin sing. each enhances the other. That tree seems the emblem of my life – it stands for the west – the wild. The sight of its grateful to me as to a bird whose perch it is to be at the end of a weary flight. I not sure whether the music I hear is most in the robins’ song or in its boughs. My money should be all in pine tree shillings. The pine tree that stands on the verge of the clearing – whose boughs point westward. Which the villager does not permit to grow on the common or by the road side. – which is banished from the village. – In whose boughs the crow [American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos] and the hawk have their nests. We have heard enough none sense about the pyramids – If Congress should vote to rear such structures on the prairies today, I should not think it worth the while nor be interested in the enterprise. It was the foolish undertaking of some tyrant – But says my neighbor – when they were built all men believed in them & were inspired to build them. Nonsense nonsense – I believe that they were built essentially in the same spirit in which the public works of Egypt – of England & America are built today – The Mahmoudi-canal – the Tubular bridge & the Washington monument. The inspiring motive in the actual builders of these works is garlic – or beef – or potatoes – – for meat & drink – & the necessaries of life men can be hired to do many things. Ah, says my neighbor, but the stones are fitted with such nice joints! But the joints were nicer yet before they were disjointed in the quarry. Men are wont to speak as if it was a noble work to build a pyramid. – to see forsooth a hundred thousand Irishmen at work at 50 cents a day – to piling stone. As if the good joints could ennoble it, if a noble motive was wanting. To ramble round the world to see that pile of stones which ambitious Mr Cheops & Egyptian booby – like some Lord Timothy Dexter – caused a hundred thousand poor devils to pile up for low wages. – Which contained for all treasure the thigh bone of a cow. The tower of Babel has been a good deal laughed at – It was just as sensible an undertaking as the pyramids which because they were completed & have stood to this day are admired. I dont believe they made a better joint than Mr Crab – the joiner can. I have not this season heard more robins sing than this rainy day.

[“WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” Paragraph 31] Most men would feel insulted, if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now. For instance: just after sunrise, one summer morning, I noticed Hayden8 walking beside his team, which was slowly drawing a heavy hewn stone swung under the axle, HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

surrounded by an atmosphere of industry, — his day’s work begun, — his brow commenced to sweat, — a reproach to all sluggards and idlers, — pausing abreast the shoulders of his oxen, and half turning round with a flourish of his merciful whip, while they gained their length on him. And I thought, Such is the labor which the American Congress exists to protect, — honest, manly toil, — honest as the day is long, — that makes his bread taste sweet, and keeps society sweet, — which all men respect and have consecrated: one of the sacred band, doing the needful, but irksome drudgery. Indeed, I felt a slight reproach, because I observed this from the window, and was not abroad and stirring about a similar business. The day went by, and at evening I passed a rich man’s yard,9 who keeps many servants, and spends much money foolishly, while he adds nothing to the common stock, and there I saw Hayden’s stone10 lying beside a whimsical structure intended to adorn this Lord Timothy Dexter’s premises, and the dignity forthwith departed from Hayden’s labor,11 in my eyes. In my opinion, the sun was made to light worthier toil than this.

8. It is odd that Thoreau uses Eldridge G. Hayden’s last name in the lecture, for his usual practice was to preserve the anonymity of individuals. It is clear from the Nantucket Inquirer report of the lecture, however, that Thoreau read either the form “H.” — which is the form in the Inquirer — or “Hayden.” Bradley Dean’s decision to emend the essay copy-text from ‘one of my neighbors’ to ‘Hayden’ was based on the assumption that Thoreau would not have read “H.” in his lecture. 9. Bradley Dean emended the essay copy-text from ‘the yard of another neighbor’ to ‘a rich man’s yard’ on authority of the Nantucket Inquirer summary of the lecture. The rich man was Samuel G. Wheeler [See JOURNAL and the last sentence in “LIFE MISSPENT” 6; Wheeler “ran off” in December 1856 after borrowing money from, among others perhaps, Captain Elwell, who “was obliged to take [Wheeler’s] farm to save himself.”] 10. Bradley Dean emended the essay copy-text from ‘the stone of the morning’ to ‘Hayden’s stone’ on authority of the Nantucket Inquirer summary, which reads “H.’s stone.” 11. Bradley Dean emended the essay copy-text from ‘the teamster’s labor’ to ‘Hayden’s labor’ on authority of the Nantucket Inquirer, which reads “H.’s labor.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1858

Walter Savage Landor produced a miscellaneous collection DRY STICKS FAGOTED BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR (Edinburgh: James Nichol. London: James Nisbet and Co.), which contained among other things some epigrammatic and satirical attacks fit to generate further libel lawsuits.

Samuel L. Knapp’s THE LIFE OF LORD TIMOTHY DEXTER, WITH SKETCHES OF THE ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS THAT COMPOSED HIS ASSOCIATES, INCLUDING HIS OWN WRITINGS, "DEXTER’S PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES", &C., &C. (Boston: J.E. Tilton and Co.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

1881

Timothy Dexter was reprocessed by Peter Quince, in A PICKLE FOR THE KNOWING ONES: OR, PLAIN TRUTHS IN A HOMESPUN DRESS (S.A. Tucker. 36 pages).

Although the 16th century prophetess Mother Shipton had been reputed to have written the following couplet: The world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred and eighty one.12 In 1873, it had been discovered that the couplet was a forgery created by the guy who had published Mother Shipton’s prophecies in 1862, Charles Hindley. This discovery had not prevented people from expecting the end during 1881 (Schwartz, Hillel. CENTURY’S END: AN ORIENTATION MANUAL TOWARD THE YEAR 2000. NY: Doubleday, 1996, page 122, Randi, James. THE MASK OF NOSTRADAMUS. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1993, page 242-243).

The Jehovah’s Witnesses had also proclaimed this year to mark the end of the world, although they had not been basing their belief on the testimony of Mother Shipton (Kyle, Richard. THE LAST DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN. Grand Rapids MI: Baker Books, 1998, page 93).

Some pyramidologists had also been figuring this year to mark the end of the world (Randi, James. THE MASK OF NOSTRADAMUS. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1993, page 242).

MILLENNIALISM

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

12. We all of course remember that in fourteen hundred and ninety three, Christopher Columbus had been sailing the deep blue sea. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: February 27, 2015 HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT: TIMOTHY DEXTER

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.