Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/505

 BENJAMIN T. GUSHING. Benjamin Tupper Gushing was born at Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio, on the twenty-sixth day of January, 1825. His ancestors were among the pioneer settlers of the North- West ; — Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper, of the maternal stock, having, at the close of the war for Independence, settled at Marietta, while his paternal ancestors early emigrated from Plymouth, Massachusetts, to the central part of the State of New York. His father, at the age of sixteen years, came to Ohio, and settled at Putnam. When five years of age, Benjamin was placed at school at Marietta. Drilled with a class of boys superior to himself in respect of years and mental discipline, he tired of the class routine, and sought for himself a course of study more spirited and congenial. At the age of twelve, upon the removal of his father's family to Wisconsin, he entered a printing-oiRce at Milwaukee. In 1839 he returned to Ohio, and pursued his trade in the Ohio State Journal office, at Columbus. An eagerness to read whatever fell in his way, and a searching inquisitiveness as to the reasons for opinions expressed by authors whose works he perused, became habits of his character. The result was a constant tendency to clothe with verse the ofi^spring of his quaint and sleepless fancy, and many hundred folio pages, then written, bear witness to its fertility and range, if not to its cultivation and discipHne. At Milwaukee and elsewhere, his verses were welcomed by the Press, and ansv/ered with cordial en- couragement of the author's aspirations. The turning-point in his career came sud- denly and decisively. An incident, in itself unimportant, furnished the spur to his forming purpose, and gave birth to the idea of a sacred poem, which thenceforth became a vital element in his plans, and rapidly unfolded the deep and tender sympa- thies that pervaded his character. Resolved at last to fit himself for a station where he might " at least enjoy the society, if he might not partake of fi-ee converse with educated minds," he left the printing-oifice. Within eighteen months he completed the freshman and sophomore routine of classical study, and entered the junior class of Marietta College, in 1844. His college career realized his ambition. He continued his analysis of the British classics — finished the Iliad and Odyssey, together with a partial law course, and graduated with the highest honors of his class. He studied law with Joseph R. Swan and John W. Andrews, at Columbus, during the year 1847. Upon admission to the bar, he practiced his profession for a few months in the office of Salmon P. Chase, at Cincinnati, but returned to Columbus, during the year 1848, for the purpose of making it a place of permanent residence. He had entered upon his profession with energy, while at the same time pursuing his literary tastes into the choicest fields of prose and verse, and had just begun to enjoy the long-coveted access to men of cultivation, and a wide-spread credit as a good writer, through con- tributions to the standard magazines of the country, when bronchial difficulties inter- (489)