Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/421

 WHITTIER

WHITTIER

studied law; was admitted to the bar, 1845; and served as auditor's clerk and in the government service until 1848, when he began practice in Columbia, Tenn. He was married in July, 1848, to Jane Campbell. He was a state senator, 1855- 58; a representative in the general assembly, 1859, serving as speaker; a presidential elector-at- large on the Breckinridge ticket, 1860, and a delegate to the Democratic national convention of the same year. He served as assistant adju- tant-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in the Provisional Army of Tennessee, 1861; was adjutant of Anderson's brigade in the West Vir- ginia campaign, and promoted adjutant-general of the state in November, 1861, serving until 1865, on the staff of Generals Anderson, Wright, Carter and Hardee. He was a Democratic representative from the seventh Tennessee dis- trict in the 42d-47th congresses, 1871-83, serving for three terms as cliairman of the committee on naval affairs, and was re-elected in 1886 to the 50th congress, but did not take his seat, being appointed and afterwards elected U.S. senator, to fill the unexpired term of Howell E. Jackson, and serving from April 26, 1886, to March 3, 1887. He died in Columbia, Tenn., Sept. 21, 1891.

WHITTIER, John Qreenleaf, poet, was born in the East Parish of Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 17, 1807; son of John (1760-1830) and Abigail (Hus- sey) Whittier; grandson of Joseph (1716-1796) and Sarah (Greenleaf) Whittier and of Samuel and Mercy (Evans) Hu.ssey; great-grand- son of Joseph Pease- ley, from whom the Quaker element in the family was de- rived, and great-- grandson of Tliomas Whittier of South- ampton, England, who sailed in the Confidence, April 24, 1638, for Boston, Mass.; settled in Salis- bury, Mass., whence he was sent as a deputy to the general court; married a distant relative, Ruth Green, and in 1647 located permanently in Haverhill. The sur- name of his paternal grandmotlier. Sarah Green- leaf, was originally Feuilleverts, the family be- ing of French Huguenot extraction. John Green- leaf Whittier's boyhood was spent in the simple, rural surroundings of a country home, where he did his share of the many rough tasks incident to farm life, incurring, when about seventeen years of age, injuries from overwork, which re- sulted in permanent frailty. His educational X. — 26

advantages were naturally meagre. Until 1820 he had attended only the district schools and had had access to but few books of the qualitj^ to ap- peal to his literary tastes. The first pregnant event in his early career was the awakening of his poetic instinct by reading the poems of Burns, a copy of which had been given him by his teacher, Joshua CoflSn, who became an anti- quary of note, and to whom Whittier subse- quently addressed a poem entitled " To My Old Schoolmaster." The impulse inspired by the poetry of Burns found its expression in many crude attempts at verse making, of which scarcely a remnant remains, Whittier's first published poems being " The Exile's Departure," and " The Deity," which appeared in the Free Press of New- buryport, respectively, June 8 and June 22, 1826. Their publication led to the second, and not less vital incident in his development. Will- iam Lloj'd Garrison, editor of the Free Press, sought out his young contributor at Haverhill, the meeting resulting in a life-long friendship based upon mutual and active interests in the national problems of the day. Thus it was partly due to Garrison's influence and partly to that of Abijah W. Tha^-er, editor of the Portland Gazette, to which Whittier also contributed some of his early verses, that the latter was finally per- mitted to begin a classical education. Tlu-ough his own efforts Whittier earned sufficient money to attend Haverhill academy for six months in 1827 and for a similar period in 1828, meanwhile teaching a district school in W^est Amesbury, Mass. Under various pen-names, including "Adrian," "Donald,"' "Timothy." " Micajah," and " Ichabod," he contributed poems to the Bos- ton Statesman, the National Philanthropist and the Gazette, Mr. Thayer of the last publication proposing in 1828 to bring out by subscription a volume entitled "The Poems of Adrian," but the enterprise did not materialize. Whittier was at this time also becoming known as a prose writer. The materials he had collected for a histoiy of Haverhill, he gave, in 1828, to one B. L. Mirick, by whom the work was completed (1831). From December, 1828, to August, 1829, Whittier edited the American Manufacturer of Boston, a political journal devoted to the interests of Henry Clay, and during this period wrote his famous poetical tribute to " Harry of the West." After leaving the editorship of the Manufacturer, Whittier was engaged in managing his father's farm until the latter's death in June, 1830, and also edited the Haverhill Gazette, January-June, 1830. In the following Jvily he assumed charge of the Neio England Revieiv of Hartford, Conn., with which he remained until January, 1832. His first book. Legends of Neic England, in Prose and Verse, appeared in 1831. also his poem " Moll