The Quiet Radical: The Biography of Samuel Longfellow

By Joe Abdo

Who is Samuel Longfellow? Most people have not heard of him, and those who recognize his name know him as the brother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The few that are familiar with Samuel Longfellow know that he was much more than his brother’s secretary. In fact, he was a great influence on some of the leaders of social and religious movements during the mid-19th century.
Samuel Longfellow is best known as the youngest brother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but he was an important personality during the 19th century. His activities are not well known because he did not believe in speaking about himself and what he had done.
After graduating from Harvard Divinity School Samuel became a Unitarian minister. His continually evolving theology became more radical over the years and created mixed feelings in his congregations. Aside from his religious activities, Samuel supported Women’s Rights, the Peace Movement and other ideas advocated by the more socially aware residents of New England. Some of his ideas, such as women receiving equal pay for the same work as men, were considered radical at the time and only obtained acceptance in the mid-20th century.
While Samuel wrote articles on his beliefs for several periodicals, he generally avoided the limelight. He was outspoken only among his friends in the intellectual milieu of Old Boston and they listened carefully to his serene, well-considered opinions.
Samuel Longfellow was a noteworthy personality during the 19th century, but because of his quiet character he blended into the background while others took center stage. This book provides a look at Samuel’s involvement in Boston’s, political and religious during the 19th century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Abdo
• Release date: May 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452477480

Joe Abdo

Joseph, or Joe, Abdo has a background in health care as a lab technician, strategic planner and hospital administrator; college level instructor in microbiology and English as a second language; translator from Portuguese and French into English; acting on stage and in films; and writer.His first writing experience was developing plans for the health care delivery system in Los Angeles and Orange Counties and the west San Francisco Bay area. Taking a mid-life break, he moved to Portugal where he lived for many years. He developed a great interest in Portuguese history and culture and started writing articles related to Portugal. He soon became a regular contributor to several magazines in Portugal and abroad, publishing more than 80 articles.His writing evolved from magazines to books and the first book he wrote was Tram Tours of Lisbon, which described places of interest along Lisbon’s century-old electric tram routes. This was totally rewritten and published in 2014.During a vacation to the Azores, Joe discovered the Dabney family from Boston, Massachusetts. They provided three generations of American Consuls to the Azores in the 19th century. He told the story of this important, but relatively unknown, American family in the book On the Edge of History.This was followed by The Quiet Radical, the biography of Samuel Longfellow. He had been tutor to the Dabney children and was the youngest brother of America’s important poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Samuel was influential in the more radical social and religious movements in America during the 19th century.Joe’s third historical nonfiction book, The Christian Discovery of Tibet, was the story of Portuguese Jesuit Padre Antonio de Andrade. He was the first European to cross the Himalayas to the city of Tsaparang in the kingdom of Guge in western Tibet. Padre Adrade established a mission there that functioned for 14 years. The mission was closed not long after the conquest of Guge by the neighboring kingdom of Ladakh, partly to stop the Christian influence of the Jesuits.Trying his hand at film scripts, he wrote Mary, a story about a freed slave who was placed as a spy in the home of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. It was made into a short film and was released in mid-2013.Joe is now making his first foray into the realm of fiction.He continues to enjoy writing.

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

Samuel Longfellow is one of the least known protagonists of the 19th century. This is somewhat surprising considering that he knew a great number of the individuals who were having a great effect on poetry, literature, history, social movements and religion during the middle part of the century.

He did not just know them, but through speaking and writing, he was a respected contributor to their ideas and accomplishments. He was not in the spotlight, but was generally a step ahead of the direction the light was moving.

This book aims at showing Samuel Longfellow’s life and activities among his friends and other persons he had contact with. Of course his family was involved in his life, but a large part of his social and theological contributions over the years were carried out together with his friends, organizations with which he participated and the places he worked.

The primary document about Samuel Longfellow is Samuel Longfellow Memoir and Letters, edited by Joseph May in 1894. It gives a basic view of Samuel, but does not go into much detail of his life and relationship with others. Other information is available in articles published in contemporary magazines, some summarizing his life, others mentioning him in articles that supported or opposed a specific issue or belief.

Unfortunately, Samuel did not write much about himself. He wrote a few articles and essays on religious topics. In addition, he published a number of his sermons. He also gave speeches at conferences, which presented his liberal, often radical, viewpoint on conference themes. However, his best known published material were the hymns he wrote for the hymnbooks he and Samuel Johnson produced, as well as some written on request for friends to use in their churches or organizations celebrating an important event.

Samuel was not a very diligent journal writer. At times, he would let a year lapse between entries, as he recognizes in an entry on January 28, 1838: After the lapse of nearly a year, the whim has again taken me of Journalizing. Another problem Samuel created is in a letter he wrote to Rev. A. M. Haskell in 1882 where he mentions having destroyed [his] Journals of earlier times. In fact, there are no personal journals after 1847, but he did keep travel journals up to 1866. Furthermore, there is an indication in the journals that exist that he may have kept more than one set of journals at a time. A hint at this is a short journal entry on March 6, 1845: A clever fresh March west-wind, drinking up the moisture from the ground, to send it down again in spring showers – In the morning walked and wrote Journal. If there were, indeed, more than one set of journals, they went the way of the others that he destroyed.

The main source of information about Samuel Longfellow is his letters. Regrettably, he did he did not keep much of his correspondence. Few letters other than those to Samuel’s family came into the possession of the Longfellow National Historic Site. Among the Longfellow family, Samuel’s main correspondent was his sister Anne. Samuel’s main correspondent over the years was his best friend Samuel Johnson. Some letters entered other collections, such as the collection of the publisher Ticknor in the Library of Congress and the publisher Fields in the Huntington Gardens and Library in California.

Sources of information about his friends were obtained from books and articles about their lives and activities. Several of them also wrote articles about their social concerns, their lives in Cambridge or histories of the times, movements and people and included the involvement with Samuel. There were even a few articles by people who did not know Samuel, but were aware of his contribution to their topic.

Not everything about Samuel Longfellow could be included in this book. One of his greatest interests not addressed was gardening. It is mentioned in a few letters, however, there are entire letters to his sister Anne that discuss various types of plants and gardens, especially from the Azores from where he brought a number of cuttings and seeds. Another interest of Samuel’s not mentioned was his enjoyment of drawing. He put drawings in some of his letters, and the Longfellow Site has drawing books from various periods of his life.

Acknowledgments

I greatly appreciate the moral and practical support provided by George Abdo, Audrey Un Silva, Nancy Keller and Jeff Childs. I would also like to recognize the assistance of the staff members at the Harvard Divinity School Library, the Houghton Library of Harvard University, the Library of Congress and The Huntington Library (Pasadena, CA). My very special appreciation goes to Anita Israel and Jim Shea of the Longfellow National Historical Site for their time, assistance and support.

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Chapter 1 – The Longfellows and the Wadsworths

Over the centuries many explorers ranging from the Vikings to the Europeans of the Middle Ages landed on the jagged Maine coast that had been carved out by the Ice Age. Some of these visitors stayed and built settlements while others went on to what they thought might be greener pastures. Prior to the arrival of visitors from the east, Maine was home to tribes of hunter-gatherers living there since before 3000 BCE. Two of the Native American tribes that lived in the territory when the Europeans began to settle there were the Micmacs and the Abnakis.

Despite the establishment of more permanent settlements in Maine from the early 17th century on, most of the settlers were not able to endure the severe climate, deprivation and hostile tribes. By the 18th century only about a half dozen settlements still existed and the Colony of Massachusetts purchased most of the vacant, wilderness land claims.

France disputed the English ownership of Maine and supported the local tribes in their raids on the settlements. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended French claims on the territory of Maine. As a result of the more peaceful situation, the population of the area began to grow. When the American Revolutionary War began, the men of Maine actively joined in the fight for independence. After the war, the frontier settlers wanted their own independence and wanted to break free from Massachusetts. However, the coastal merchants held off any action until after the War of 1812, which demonstrated that Massachusetts could not, or would not, protect the people of the territory from British raids.¹

Among the families taking up residence in Maine were Samuel Longfellow’s ancestors, the Longfellow and Wadsworth families, who had previously lived in Byfield in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where they had arrived in the 17th century from England.

Samuel’s father Stephen was not the first with this name in the family. The name Stephen had been used in the Longfellow family for the oldest son during several generations. The first Stephen Longfellow had been a craftsman and farmer who was destined for fame as the model for his great-great-grandson Henry’s poem The Village Blacksmith.

Taking advantage of the opportunities for higher education that were becoming available in the New England colonies, the second Stephen attended Harvard from which he graduated in 1742 and became a schoolmaster. He moved to Portland in 1745, which at that time was still an area subject to attacks from the French and Indians in Canada. He became a leading citizen in Portland and was clerk of the First Parish for 23 years and town clerk for 22 years, as well as being the Register of Probate and clerk of the Judicial Court for 16 years.

Stephen III followed his father’s steps into the legal field and became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Portland. When the family’s house was burned down during a British assault in 1775, he moved to his farm in Gorham where he spent the rest of his life.

Stephen IV, Samuel’s father, was born in Gorham in 1776, but left to go to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts from which he graduated in 1798. He returned to Portland and became a highly respected lawyer and was elected as a Massachusetts Legislator in 1814. After Maine became a state in 1820, he served one term as a Federalist Congressman for Maine from 1822-24. The Federalist Party was created following Alexander Hamilton’s views and favored a strong central government. Most of its supporters were New England merchants, businessmen, farmers and the wealthy. However, these groups were hurt by the War of 1812 and the American victory helped them in the election at the time. Nevertheless, the party was tied to this issue and began to lose influence and by the time Stephen Longfellow was elected it was on its last legs.

After Stephen’s national political activities, in 1826 he represented Portland in the Maine Legislature, and in 1834 he became President of the Maine Historical Society. He also served on Bowdoin University’s Board for 19 years. Stephen IV retired from politics and dedicated himself to his law practice until his health deteriorated to the point that he was virtually an invalid for the rest of his life.

The Wadsworths trace their ancestry to the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth and had a more colorful history than the Longfellows who arrived in America in 1678. Samuel’s mother was named Zilpah, a name taken from Genesis 29:21-24. These verses tell the story of Jacob who had agreed to work for Laban for seven years in order to marry Laban’s younger daughter Rachel. However, when the seven years were up Jacob gave him his older daughter Leah instead, along with her handmaiden

Zilpah. Laban said the custom was to give the older daughter before the younger and said he could marry Rachel after completing his wedding week with Leah. However, he told Jacob that he would have to continue to work seven more years for him, an offer and condition which Jacob accepted.

Samuel’s grandfather on his mother’s side, Peleg Wadsworth, was a person around whom legends arose and his story was surely repeated numerous times to his children and grandchildren. Peleg’s name also derives from the Old Testament. As related in Genesis 10:25, "Two sons were born to Eber: one was named Peleg [Peleg means division], because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan." There is disagreement whether the division of the earth refers to language (Babel), water, land or culture.

Peleg Wadsworth graduated from Harvard in 1769 at the age of 21 years. He taught in Plymouth, but early in the American Revolution entered the army as a Minute-Man Captain and became aide to General Artemas Ward. In 1777 he became a militia Brigadier General, and in 1779 he was second in command of the Penobscot expedition, one of the major events in his celebrated life.

The American colonial militia carried out a campaign to remove the British from their fortified location at the mouth of the Penobscot River in order to decrease the danger to Massachusetts from the east. Unfortunately, the attack failed and the American fleet was destroyed because of the incompetence of the American commander. Peleg demonstrated great courage and emerged from the debacle with his reputation improved while many other officers were dishonored, including Paul Revere who faced a pro forma court martial.

In 1780 Peleg Wadsworth was appointed military commander of the District of Maine, an area whose loyalties were split between pro-British and pro-Revolutionary residents. One of the Tory loyalists informed on Peleg and in February 1781, a group of 25 British regulars surrounded his house and shot their way in. During his determined defense he was wounded in the left arm and had to surrender and was imprisoned at Fort George.² Being a high-ranking prisoner he was treated well and his wound slowly healed. However, he was afraid he might be shipped back to Britain as some other prisoners had been. There he might be tried as a as a rebel and executed if America lost the war. As a result, he decided to escape along with a fellow prisoner.

Following careful planning, the two prisoners worked at night and gradually sawed a hole in the ceiling, at night, filling in the cut with chewed-up bread to hide it during the day. Finally ready, they took their chance during a driving thunderstorm and went up through the hole in the ceiling. They inched quietly along the rafters without disturbing either the guards below them or the chickens roosting in the attic. When they reached the end they dropped down and escaped through the door. They then went over the fortress walls and through the surrounding forest to finally arrive back home to everyone’s surprise.

After the war, the Commonwealth sold Peleg 7,800 acres of land northwest of Portland in the hills between the Ossipee and Saco rivers at a rock-bottom price. He established the town of Hiram and built Wadsworth Hall as his residence. In order to support himself he became a successful merchant in a part of Portland that was still rural. In 1792 he entered the State Senate of Massachusetts and was then elected to Congress as a Federalist and remained in office from December 1793 to March 1807. Finally, he retired to a Country Squire’s life at Wadsworth Hall, continuing to dress in the old pre-Revolutionary style.

In addition to having a father in the army, Zilpah had two brothers in the navy. One had a long, successful career, but her favorite brother, Henry, was killed off the shores of Tripoli. In 1894 he had gone to sea as a nineteen-year old midshipman on the USS Constitution under Commodore Preble. They traveled to the Mediterranean to overcome the Barbary Pirates who sailed from the port of Tripoli, in what is today Libya, and harassed American merchant vessels. In order to destroy the Barbary Pirate fleet Commander Preble sent the ketch Intrepid loaded with explosives with a ten-man crew under Lieutenant Wadsworth. They were to sail into the midst of the pirate fleet, set the Intrepid to explode and then flee in a small boat. However, some unidentified incident took place and the Intrepid exploded and killed the entire crew. Samuel says that his Uncle Henry died in service to America, Preferring death to slavery.³

Zilpah had loved her brother greatly and she and Stephen named their second son Henry Wadsworth in his memory. Nevertheless,

Despite her military traditions, and her having in her girlhood presented a flag, with a speech, to a company of soldiers, she had in maturer years a horror of war, and was an untiring advocate of peace.⁴

Zilpah’s advocacy of peace unquestionably influenced her family over the years and Samuel was a strong opponent of war throughout his life, including the Mexican campaign in the 1840s and the Civil War.

Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth were married on New Year’s Day 1804. At first they lived with Stephen’s sister at the corner of Fore and Hancock streets in Portland. Their first son, named Stephen of course, was born in 1805 and their second, Henry, was born in 1807. About a year after Henry was born, the Longfellows moved into the house Zilpah’s father had built in the mid-1780s on Congress Street in Portland. It was the first brick house in Portland and Stephen and Zilpah lived there the rest of their lives. Stephen and Zilpah both became invalid through ill health, and their children, principally Anne, took the responsibility of caring for them.

The Longfellow family life that Samuel knew is described in his Memoir.

It was refined, orderly and religious; but easy and cheerful. Parents were respected, but loved still more, and not feared. Brothers and sisters lived together in a perfect mutual affection which the passage of years could not weaken. ⁵

On the subject of his father he says,

In his family he was at once kind and strict, bringing up his children in habits of respect and obedience, of unselfishness, the dread of debt, and the faithful performance of duty.⁶

Samuel has more to say about his mother, for whom he cherished a peculiar, tender devotion and to whom Samuel was closer than his father.

"She was fond of poetry and music, and in her youth, of dancing and social gayety. She was a lover of nature in all its aspects. She would sit by a window during a thunder-storm, enjoying the excitement of its splendors. Her disposition through all trials and sorrows, was always cheerful, – with a gentle and tranquil fortitude. Full of tender, simple, unquestioning piety, she was a lover of church and sermon and hymn; a devout and constant reader of the Bible, especially of its Psalms. She commended religion by its fairest fruits. It was the religion of the two great commandments. (…) She was a kind friend and neighbor, a helper of the poor, a devoted mother to her children, whose confidant she was, the sharer of their little secrets and their joys and the ready comforter of their troubles, the patient corrector of their faults."⁷

(f)rom her he may well have inherited his exceeding sensitiveness; his love of beauty in nature and in all the forms of art; his serene and cheerful disposition; his fortitude in suffering; and especially his clear, intuitive, spiritual faith and childlike piety.⁸

This special relationship with his mother is not surprising considering that his father spent much time in Washington as a Congressman when Samuel was 4-5 years old. In addition, when Stephen, Sr. returned to work in Portland, he devoted himself assiduously to his profession in which he was absorbed.⁹ The Longfellow home also had less male than female figures in it because his two oldest brothers had already entered Bowdoin College and resided there while Samuel was still an infant.

Cultural activities were an important part of life in the life of the Longfellows. Since Portland was a small town in a predominantly rural area, it attracted virtually no visiting theater groups or concerts, although the town did have a library. As a result, it was important for families to have their own resources if they were interested in ensuring that their children were introduced to some of the finer things in life.

In the home, there were books and music. His father’s library, not large, but well selected for the time, gave him, as he grew up, access to Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Dryden, Thomson, Goldsmith; the Spectator, the Rambler, the Lives of the Poets, Rasselas, Plutarch’s Lives; Hume’s, Gibbon’s, Gillie’s and Robertson’s Histories, and the like. For Sunday reading, which was scrupulously separated from that of week-days, there were Hannah More’s Works; for some reason, possibly theological, The Pilgrim’s Progress seems not to have been on the shelves.¹⁰

In the evenings, there were lessons to be learned; and the children opened their satchels, and gathered with their books and slates, round the table in the family sitting-room. (…) Studies over, there would be games till bed-time. (…) When bed-time came, it was hard to leave the warm fire to go up into the unwarmed bed-rooms; still harder next morning to get up out of the comfortable feather-beds and break the ice in the pitchers for washing. But hardship made hardihood.¹¹

The girls played the piano, a talent that Samuel also had, and the family joined together in singing the familiar music of the period. Along with this, the lessons of the dancing-class were repeated in the parlor.¹² This latter activity had the double attraction of being an enjoyable activity, as well as a way to keep warm during the frigid Maine winter.

The winter was also holiday time. The Longfellows celebrated holidays somewhat differently than in many other homes. When he was older, Samuel wrote a letter to a young friend describing them.

I believe that to New Englanders Thanksgiving Day is more than to any other people; its associations running back to days before Christmas was observed in this part of the world. In my boyhood, even Christmas was not observed, except by the Episcopalians and Roman Catholics (who then were few), and our gifts were always exchanged on New Year’s Day. On Thanksgiving Day, everybody went to meeting, or church, in the morning, where was always a wonderful and elaborate anthem sung by the choir. And at dinner were gathered at the old home children and grandchildren, and all the boys and girls were allowed to have as much turkey and as many pieces of mince-pie and pumpkin-pie, and as many nuts and raisins as they could hold. In the evening they played blindman’s buff.¹³

The proper religious education of the Longfellow children was probably of greater importance to the family than providing a suitable cultural background.

On Sundays, according to the habit of the time, all ordinary books and occupations were laid aside. There was church-going twice a day, – ‘going to meeting,’ it was always called, – never to be omitted by any of the family, save for reason of sickness.¹⁴

There were no Sunday-schools as yet; but on Sunday afternoons, after the meeting, the mother gathered her children around her, to read in turn from the great family Bible, and to look over, and talk over, its rude engravings of Scripture scenes and events; or to turn for the hundredth time, to the family record of deaths and births which grew upon the pages between the Old and New Testaments. On Sunday evenings there was always the singing of hymns to the familiar psalmody of the old ‘Bridgewater Collection,’ – St. Martin’s, and Dundee, and Brattle Street, with its favorite hymn by Helen Maria Williams.¹⁵

The earliest Longfellows and Wadsworths in America practiced the prevailing Calvinism of the period. As time passed, religion in America changed and the family’s beliefs accompanied this movement from moderate Calvinism to early Unitarianism. A significant influence on the religious beliefs of Samuel’s father Stephen came from his former classmate and close friend William Ellery Channing.

Although Samuel did not come into contact with Channing until he entered Harvard, Channing’s influence through his speeches and writing was extensive. He had been a classmate of Samuel’s father in the Harvard class of 1798 and then went on to study theology. After graduation, he was ordained at the Federal Street Church in Boston in 1803 where he remained as a minister until his death in 1842. He was on the Board of Harvard and worked for the founding of the Divinity School. In the clash between the viewpoints of the orthodox and liberal churches, Channing was recognized as the spokesperson for the liberal, or Unitarian, churches within the Massachusetts area. Nevertheless, he did not support a split that would break up the fellowship of Churches in New England, a fellowship that had existed from the beginning of the Colony. However, it happened anyway with churches on both sides of the issue refusing to share their pulpits with each other.

Channing’s sermons argued against Calvinist doctrine and opened a path to Christian humanism in recognizing the moral nature of man. In 1819, his sermon Unitarian Christianity acknowledged the de facto split and clarified the establishment of a distinct Unitarian Church in the community of churches. His opinions were highly respected and he was considered a model of Christian piety and stood up for human rights and dignity, becoming incensed at every invasion of human rights.

Another minister who had an influence on Samuel’s life was Dr. Nichols, the minister of the Portland church he grew up in. The First Parish Church in Portland had preached moderate Calvinism under Rev. Deane in the early 19th century, and in 1809 Dr. Ichabod Nichols was appointed associate pastor. Dr. Nichols was born in 1784 and graduated in Mathematics from Harvard in 1802, where he taught this subject while he studied Theology.

Dr. Nichols was a conservative Unitarian and his appointment caused a split in the church with some members leaving. In 1814 he became the church’s only minister when Rev. Deane died and he became one of the best-liked pastors the First Parish ever had. The increase in the size of the congregation required the building of a new church that was dedicated in 1826.

In addition to his pulpit, Dr. Nichols was active in the temperance movement, a supporter of the Sunday School Movement and served as the second president of the American Unitarian Association, a trustee of Bowdoin University and vice-president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1855 he resigned his pastorate after 46 years and moved to Cambridge where he was involved in scholarly pursuits until his death in 1859

Dr. Nichol’s sermons and Sunday school along with the writings of Channing had a great influence on Samuel’s life. As a matter of fact,

If the tradition repeated by his son [Samuel] is correct, that it was at his [Stephen Sr.’s] instance that the covenant of the First Parish of Portland was modified in the direction of progressive thought, we may have a hint of the source of his son’s ever-forward look, and his strictness of fidelity to personal convictions, however finely distinguished.¹⁶

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Chapter 2 – The Longfellow Siblings

Stephen and Zilpah Longfellow had a total of eight children between 1805 and 1819. The four boys and four girls were close knit and maintained contact with each other throughout their lives even though the paths they took were quite different.

As already mentioned the oldest of the siblings was born in 1805 and named Stephen in keeping with family tradition. The second oldest, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was born February 27, 1807, and named after his mother Zilpah’s favorite brother who died in fighting the Barbary pirates at Tripoli. There are many books about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s life and work, the first biography being written by his youngest brother Samuel, on whom he had a significant influence.

On the other hand, Samuel was not as close to his brother Stephen who was regarded as a difficult and exasperating child, although he was also considered charming and well meaning. While still a teenager he began to drink heavily and keep questionable company. His temperament troubled his parents a great deal, in contrast to the behavior of their second son, Henry. In a letter to Stephen, Sr., Zilpah stated, our sons are different, very different. I think they are so naturally and it cannot, I think be imputed as a fault to one that he is not like the other.¹ In spite of Stephen’s faults, it appears likely that Henry loved his brother, and was much closer to him than to his younger brothers, Alexander and Samuel.

In 1821, 16-year old Stephen and 14-year old Henry entered Bowdoin College, which was 28 miles north of Portland and where their father was a trustee. Although Harvard was Unitarian and would seem to be a more logical choice for his sons, Stephen Sr. most likely sent his sons to Bowdoin because of pride in the new state’s college. The two boys lived at home during their first year, probably because their parents felt that Henry was still too young. Another likely reason for keeping the boys at home the first year was that Stephen, Sr., felt that his son Stephen still needed supervision. The following year the two boys lived at school, , and resided in the house of Rev. Titcomb. About 30 years later Prof. Calvin Stowe and his wife Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in this same house while he taught at Bowdoin and where she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

In 1831 Stephen, Jr. married Marianne Preble, daughter of Judge William Pitt Preble. They had six children, the first, a boy, was named Stephen following family tradition, however, he lived only a year. Their second child was also a boy who became heir to the name Stephen, the sixth in the sequence. Unfortunately, the marriage had problems as the result of Stephen’s alcoholism, and in 1849 he was sent to a hydrotherapy spa for an attempt to cure him. However, the treatment was unsuccessful and his marriage to Marianne ended in divorce in January 1850. Stephen then married Miss F. Fuller, but their marriage was destined to be very brief since Stephen succumbed to problems related to alcoholism and died in September 1850.

The Longfellow’s third child was a daughter born in 1808 and given the name Elizabeth. She was Henry’s favorite sister, but unfortunately she came down with tuberculosis. While Henry was on his first trip to Europe in the 1820s, her tuberculosis quickly became very grave and she died on May 5, 1829 at the age of 21. This was while Henry was still in Europe and Samuel was 10 years old. During the last part of her life the rest of her family was present and toward the end so was her fiancé William Pitt Fessenden (later Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury and the Senator from Maine whose vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment). She was the first of Samuel’s generation to die and her death created a break in the close-knit household. Elizabeth’s siblings were greatly distressed and her parents never completely overcame this first loss, although Zilpah wrote, To see a timid feeble girl meeting without dread the messenger who so often appalls the stoutest heart was indeed a most consoling sight.²

Anne Longfellow was the fourth to be born and was the second daughter. Born in 1810, she died in 1901 and spent 87 of her 90 years living in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland. In 1832, she married George Washington Pierce, one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s good friends and his classmate in the Bowdoin class of 1825 along with Nathaniel Hawthorne and the future U.S. President Franklin Pierce. George died only three years after he and Anne were married and Anne moved back to her parent’s home where she remained until her death. As a result, she became the focal point around which the family could gather. Of all the siblings, she was the one with whom Samuel shared the greatest number of interests and they exchanged correspondence with regularity.

After the death of Stephen and Zilpah in 1849 and 1851, respectively, Anne Longfellow Pierce remained in the house and kept it up until she died in 1901. She left it to the Maine Historical Society when she died, including the recent outhouse, which supposedly was the last one for which the city of Portland issued a permit. With Anne’s death, approximately 115 years of Wadsworth-Longfellow presence in the Portland house ended.

Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow was the fifth child and third son in the Longfellow family. He became a civil engineer and lived in Portland most of his life, and his work involved wide-ranging coastal surveys by the U.S. Government. He and his wife, Elizabeth Clapp Porter, had five children. Their oldest daughter, Mary King Longfellow, was born in 1852 and became a well-known painter, and studied with artists Ross Sterling Turner and William Morris Hunt. Their oldest son, Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., was born in 1854. He became an architect and one of his projects was the Maine Historical Society Library building.

Mary Longfellow was born in 1816 and married James Greenleaf in 1839. In 1850 the Greenleafs moved to New Orleans where he formed a partnership named Greenleaf and Hubbard, which arranged for the purchase and shipment of cotton to northern ports for use in the mills there. Every summer the Greenleafs traveled north to New England to visit their relatives and they finally built a house at 76 Brattle Street, not far from the Craigie House at 105 Brattle Street where Henry Wadsworth lived. Greenleaf was a strong supporter of the Union and in May 1860 the partnership was dissolved and the couple moved north just prior to the Civil War in order to avoid the conflict. The Greenleaf property in New Orleans was seized at the beginning of the war, but was returned after the hostilities ceased. However, James died in August 1865 and, since the couple had no children, and Mary decided to live in Cambridge where she maintained a close relationship with the Cambridge and Portland family members.³

The last daughter to be born was Ellen Longfellow, but her short 16-year life did not allow her time to develop a reputation beyond the family group.

The baby of the Longfellow family, and the subject of this biography, was Samuel. He was born on June 18, 1819, in the city of Portland, nine months before Maine was made a state and, fourteen years after his oldest brother, Stephen. During the time he was growing up, the family group was a little smaller than that experienced by his siblings.

His father spent much time in Washington, D.C. from 1822-1824 when he was a federalist congressman, and later was busy as a Maine state legislator. Aside from his political activities, Stephen Longfellow had his law practice, some of it in his home office, plus activities on the Board of Trustees of Bowdoin College in addition to his community and church activities. These all decreased the amount of time he could spend with his family.

Stephen, Jr. and Henry entered Bowdoin College in 1821, although they lived their first year at home. In the Fall of 1822, the two brothers began to live on Campus and continued to do so until they graduated in the class of 1825. Their move to campus was the same