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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
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A MEMORIAL, 
 
 raft]^ EEminiscences, 
 
 HISTORICAL, PERSONAL, AND CHARACTERISTIC, 
 
 JOHN FARMER, A.M.. 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES 
 AT COPENHAGEN, ETC. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN Le BOSQUET. 
 
 ^^^^^^^s}^. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM, & CO., 
 
 ©Ill Corner bookstore. 
 
 1884. 
 
e: \']5 
 
 ■5" 
 
 Copyright, 1883, 
 By JOHN Le BOSQUET. 
 
 iFranhlin ^Srcss: 
 
 RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, 
 BOSTON. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 1. PAGE 
 
 Introductory 7 
 
 II. 
 Early Life lo 
 
 III. 
 
 Lyceum. — Letters. — III Health i8 
 
 IV. 
 
 Removal to Concord. — Personal Appearance ... 30 
 
 V. 
 Surroundings. — Interest in Young Men .... 36 
 
 VI. 
 Kindness. — Geniality 44 
 
 VII. 
 Journeys 49 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 ^ ^i-^' PAGE 
 
 Christian Character 56 
 
 IX. 
 
 Anti-Slavery. — Friendship 66 
 
 X. 
 Mode of Life 79 
 
 XL 
 
 Writing. — Industry 90 
 
 XII. 
 In a New Place 94 
 
 XIII. 
 Removals. — Letters loi 
 
 XIV. 
 Letters. — Anti-Slavery in 
 
 XV. 
 
 Labors. — Last Days 123 
 
 XVI. 
 Survey of Former Scenes 13 q 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 .HE thought of preparing some notice of Dr. 
 Farmer, such as is contained in this vol- 
 ume, has been floating in the mind of the 
 writer, like a stray cloud in the sky, for several years. 
 But it has been suffered to remain without shape, 
 and without effect, for the reason that other engage- 
 ments have more urgently claimed his attention. 
 And, to tell the truth, it did not occur to me, until 
 long after my honored friend was dead, that I knew 
 any thing concerning him that could be of interest 
 to others. 
 
 But more recently my attention has been drawn 
 to the subject by his Excellency, the Hon. Charles 
 H. Bell, Governor of New Hampshire, and president 
 of the New-Hampshire Historical Society ; the re- 
 
8 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 quest that some reminiscences of Dr. Farmer might 
 be put in writing, for the use of the Historical Soci- 
 ety, having first been made to Col. Harvey F. Courser 
 of Nashua, N.H., v^rho was also one of those who were 
 benefited by Dr. Farmer's friendship and instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 More than half a century has passed away since 
 the period of my most intimate acquaintance with 
 the noble man whom I have sought to honor ; and 
 I have had no material to rely upon in reproducing 
 this imperfect picture of his character, except mem- 
 ory and a few letters. Therefore, I cannot flatter 
 myself that the notes I have been able to get to- 
 gether will meet the expectations of those who may 
 be interested to know more of our great antiquarian 
 student. 
 
 Justice, however, requires me to add that I have 
 turned to the brief memoir written by the Hon. 
 Jacob B. Moore, for some way-marks which were 
 necessary to the outline of the sketch I have pro- 
 duced. 
 
 I would also gratefully acknowledge the kindness 
 of Mrs. Catherine Steele of Nashua, N.H., in furnish- 
 ing me with some facts, and in putting into my hands 
 the letters of Dr. Farmer, from which several extracts 
 will be found in the following pages. 
 
 My recollection of the circumstances narrated 
 
INTRO D UCTOR V. g 
 
 may be somewhat inaccurate in a very few instances ; 
 but with whatever of unintentional error there may 
 be in it, and whatever of imperfection in its expres- 
 sions of esteem, I dedicate this affectionate tribute, 
 first to the memory of the man whose virtues have 
 charmed me from youth to age ; then to the friends 
 who remember him only to cherish his name as a 
 sweet inspiration ; and finally to all who honor true 
 excellence of character, intellectual refinement, and 
 devotion to the increase of knowledge and happiness 
 among mankind. 
 
 J. L. B. 
 SouTHviLLE, Mass. 
 
II. 
 
 EARLY LIFE. 
 
 ^ioHE orrave closed over the mortal remains or 
 John Farmer forty-five years ago. A bio- 
 graphical notice, written by Hon. Jacob B. 
 Moore, and published in "The American Quarterly 
 Register" for February, 1839, narrates the principal 
 events in the life of this distinguished man, and gives 
 a highly satisfactory view of his character. 
 
 But it is the privilege of eminent men to live when 
 their bodies are no longer distinguishable from the 
 dust, and all monumental records have been lost from 
 sight. The memories and affections of the genera- 
 tions that follow them are the temple in which their 
 light is perpetually kept burning. And the impres- 
 sion made upon the minds of survivors by their deeds 
 and their virtues often produces the wish to know 
 more of them than can be seen or written by an ordi- 
 nary observer. 
 
 We wish to know something of the inner workings 
 of their minds ; something of how they did those 
 
EARLY LIFE. 1 1 
 
 things that have made them historical ; and how they 
 appeared when unbent and unrestrained, at work or 
 at leisure, in the intimacies of actual life. Such a 
 wish has been expressed by some, and may have been 
 indulged by many, in reference to the subject of this 
 sketch ; and it is for the purpose of gratifying it in 
 some measure that these thoughts are given to the 
 public. 
 
 The writer will be obliged to speak of' his old friend 
 as Dr. Farmer, in order to make these reminiscences 
 seem natural, as he almost invariably heard him 
 called by that name ; although it is believed that he 
 preferred the simple title of Mr., and although he was 
 usually addressed as John Farmer, Esq., by his corre- 
 spondents, who knew him chiefly as a literary man. 
 And to this mention of titles it may be added, that 
 the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred 
 upon him by Dartmouth College in 1822 ; and in 
 1823 he was commissioned as a justice of the peace, 
 — an office whose duties he never cared to perform. 
 
 Dr. Farmer was born in Chelmsford, Mass., June 
 12, 1789. With a curious genealogical instinct, he 
 traced his lineage back to the days of the English 
 king, Henry VII. His immigrant ancestor was 
 Edward Farmer, who was among the earlier settlers 
 of Billerica ; and his father was John Farmer of 
 Chelmsford, a tiller of the soil, and a deacon of the 
 
12 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 first church in that place. His mother was Lydia 
 Richardson of Chelmsford, daughter of Josiah Rich- 
 ardson, a descendant of Ezekiel Richardson, who 
 came from England with Gov. Winthrop's company 
 in 1630. The family removed to Lyndeborough, 
 N.H., in 1803, and afterwards to Merrimac. 
 
 Of Dr. Farmer's earlier years, no information is at 
 hand, except that, when little more than a child, he 
 attended school in his native town under the instruc- 
 tion of Rev. Dr. Packard of Wiscasset. It will not be 
 an unsuitable continuation of this narrative to intro- 
 duce in this place a letter afterwards written to his 
 mother (then a widow), containing a copy of one 
 which he had written to Dr. Packard, together with 
 Dr. Packard's answer to the same. It exhibits, in a 
 strong light, his affection for his mother, and also 
 his esteem for his former teacher. 
 
 Amherst, Dec. 16, 1809. 
 
 Kind Mother, — I have resumed my pen to convey to 
 you some pleasing intelligence. Some time in the course 
 of last fall, I meditated upon writing to the Rev. Mr. Pack- 
 ard, to express to him my gratitude for the numerous favors 
 which I received from him while "Attending his private 
 school at Chelmsford. To have done this would have been 
 highly proper and commendable ; but, being restrained by 
 modesty, I neglected it till October, when I wrote to him 
 a letter dated Oct. 24, 1809, which I deposited in the post- 
 office Nov. 19, of which the following is a copy. 
 
EARLY LIFE. 1 3 
 
 Amherst, N.H., Oct. 24, 1809. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir, — A profound respect for the 
 distinguished favors which I received while under your tuition 
 induces me to express my gratitude by writing. From your 
 kind generosity I received several books, which had a happy 
 tendency in improving my mind with those sentiments so neces- 
 sary for youth, in order to regulate their future actions. The 
 admonitions of the pulpit, and the admirable instructions im- 
 parted to your pupils in your private school at Chelmsford, 
 ever led me to cherish a fond remembrance and sincere respect 
 for so worthy an instructor. It was first under your care (at 
 the age of ten years) that I commenced the study of English 
 grammar, and I have abundant reason to return my thanks for 
 your kind and affectionate attention. About eighteen months 
 after my father removed to Lyndeborough, I was put under 
 the care of a merchant of this town, with whom I have resided 
 ever since. I have enjoyed many advantages, but have never 
 attended school until the last spring ; when, on account of the 
 obstruction of business in the store, I commenced the study of 
 the Latin language at the public school in this town, under the 
 care of Mr. N. K. Clough, and have now arrived at the eighth 
 book of Virgil's ^neid. It must be considered, however, that I 
 have had to encounter the embarrassments resulting from study- 
 ing in the store, and attending to the little business necessary 
 to be transacted. These circumstances have deprived me of the 
 privilege of devoting so much time to my studies as I could 
 wish, and to them may be attributed the slow proficiency I 
 have made. The object of my studying Latin is, not to prepare 
 for a collegiate education, but merely to improve every oppor- 
 tunity which may conduce to my future advantage. 
 
 It may not be improper to relate something concerning my 
 
14 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 father's family. They resided in Lyndeborough for the space 
 of two years ; and in November, 1806, they removed to Merri- 
 mack, N.H., where they continue to dwell, enjoying the conven- 
 iences of life. My father often speaks of you with respect, and, 
 no doubt, would join his respects with mine if present. My 
 mother enjoys her health much better for years past than for- 
 merly. My grandmother Richardson was well the last time 
 I heard from Chelmsford, as were also my other friends and 
 relations. I ought to apologize, reverend sir, for my presump- 
 tion in thus writing, and beg you to consider it as an effusion 
 of gratitude to one from whom I have received many pleasing 
 counsels and instructions, which, being impressed on my mind 
 in youth, I hope will never be effaced by time. 
 
 Believe me, sir, to be, with the greatest deference and re- 
 spect, your pupil and obedient servant, 
 
 John Farmer. 
 Rev. H. Packard. 
 
 To his mother he continues, — 
 
 After my return from Chelmsford, I visited the post- 
 office, and the post-master presented me with a letter from 
 the Rev. Mr. Packard. The following is a copy of it. It 
 presents some of the choicest and most needful advice. 
 
 WiSCASSET, Dec. 4, 1809. 
 
 My young Friend, — I received your letter with emotions 
 of joy and gratitude. I recollect with pleasure Deacon Far- 
 mer's family, and, among other pupils, recognize you. If any 
 of my friendly and religious counsels, or any books I put into 
 your hand, made deep and lasting impressions upon your ten- 
 der mind, you will join with me in giving praise and glory to 
 God and the Redeemer. I can say of my pupils, as St. John 
 
EARLY LIFE. 1 5 
 
 did of those he had converted to the Christian faith, " I have 
 no greater joy than seeing them walking in the truth." You 
 write like a young man of principle, of a regular and conscien- 
 tious life. I hope you do effectually remember your Creator, and 
 daily acknowledge and seek his favor. Virtuous youth leads on 
 to stable and useful manhood, and manhood conducted upon 
 right principles advances with regular and graceful steps to 
 respectable and tranquil age. I entreat you, by the bonds of 
 friendly regard, and by whatever is important in religion and 
 solemn in eternity, to acquaint yourself with God at this inter- 
 esting period of your life, and live in virtue ; that whatever 
 occupation you follow, and wherever your lot may be cast, you 
 may enjoy the favorable testimony of your own mind, and the 
 esteem of the wise and good. Live in virtue, my young friend, 
 that you may die in peace, rest in hope, and rise in glory. If 
 you read the Scriptures with attention, and meditate on what 
 you read, you will have a relish for moral and religious sub- 
 jects and books, and seek regular society and virtuous friend- 
 ships. My best wishes attend you, and I pray God to have 
 you in his holy keeping. I am much pleased with the account 
 you give me of your progress and industry. You have already 
 found that every step in literary improvement facilitates those 
 that follow. This is true of every part of a literary course, and 
 I hope you will continue to enjoy the honors and pleasures of 
 progress. If you have no idea of a college education, it might 
 perhaps be as useful to you to make yourself more acquainted 
 with branches which you have partially pursued, with geography 
 and history. The constitutions of State governments, and that 
 of our country, deserve the careful attention of youth. Some 
 of your leisure hours may be profitably employed in tracing 
 the origin and progress of the wars in the Eastern world ; the 
 
1 6 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 calamities of which have already destroyed some of the fairest 
 
 and best portions of that extensive continent, and the thunders 
 
 of which roll upon the ocean. Just ideas of the various evils 
 
 of war should be lodged in the breast of every young American. 
 
 Do write me again, when you have opportunity, and express 
 
 my friendly regards to your father's family. I am, my friend, 
 
 grateful for your respectful notice. 
 
 H. Packard. 
 
 We can scarcely conceive of Dr. Farmer as ever 
 having been a boy. At least, we feel compelled to 
 place him with that small class of boys who are 
 always men. He may have handled the base-ball 
 club, and tried his skill at standing upon a pair of 
 skates ; but he inherited a prevailing weakness of 
 body, which, with his mild and amiable disposition, 
 and the whole make-up of his mental and physical 
 constitution, would seem to have placed a great dis- 
 tance between him and the athlete, and rendered it 
 impossible that there should be any roughness in his 
 character. 
 
 In 1805 he left his father's house, and went to 
 Amherst, N.H. ; and that town was his home for about 
 sixteen years, during the first five of which he was 
 employed as clerk in the store of Nathan Kendall, 
 Esq., by whom his love for books was greatly encour- 
 aged and stimulated. Of the succeeding eleven years, 
 the greater part was spent in teaching, — a vocation 
 for which he possessed a peculiar aptness, and an 
 
EARLY LIFE. 
 
 17 
 
 equal degree of fondness. And, while he was teach- 
 ing others, he never ceased to be a student himself. 
 
 And it appears, that, during the latter part of this 
 period, he decided upon preparing himself for the 
 medical profession, and, with that end in view, placed 
 himself under the instruction of the learned and 
 skillful Matthias Spalding, M.D. ; but, after a time, 
 he abandoned the undertaking, judging himself phys- 
 ically disqualified for the hardships of a physician's 
 life. 
 
III. 
 
 LYCEUM. — LETTERS. — ILL HEALTH. 
 
 UT there is more to be said of this portion 
 of his Hfe. We cannot know how early 
 he began to exhibit the bent of his mind 
 towards those studies which so completely engrossed 
 his energies in later years, and which made him prob- 
 ably the most learned antiquary of his time. But it is 
 evident, that, even in his boyhood, he evinced a taste 
 for treasuring up the more curious and striking scraps 
 of historical information. And during all the years 
 of his clerkship, and while he was himself a scholar, 
 as well as while he was teaching others, the powerful 
 current of his devotion to the same study was wear- 
 ing its channel broader and deeper within him. As 
 early as 1813, his attainments had become known 
 in Massachusetts, and he was elected a corresponding 
 member of the Historical Society of that State. It 
 was in 18 16 that his "Historical Sketch of Billerica" 
 was pubhshed, probably the first town-history pub- 
 lished in Massachusetts ; and his " History of Am- 
 herst" was sent from the press in 1820. 
 
LETTERS. 19 
 
 But his love for literary pursuits was manifested 
 in another way. While he was yet busy with the 
 various duties of the store, a society of the lyceum 
 character was formed in Amherst, (one of the first of 
 the kind in the State,) of which he became an active 
 and leading member. His unflagging interest in the 
 meetings (weekly) of this organization became inter- 
 woven with the whole texture of his daily existence. 
 After a time he was elected its secretary, and to his 
 energetic support the society was largely indebted 
 for its continuance and success. 
 
 The following letter, written to his friend and cor- 
 respondent Isaac Spalding, then young, gives some 
 particulars in relation to the society referred to. 
 
 Amherst, Sept. 13, 1817, 
 
 Mr. Spalding, — Sir : I have the honor to inform you, 
 that, at a late meeting of the Franklin Society, you were 
 unanimously elected an immediate member of that institu- 
 tion. The Franklin Society is an association of friends, 
 moral in its institution, literary in its objects, and highly 
 useful in its tendency. The members consist of three 
 grades, — honorary, immediate, and probationary. The hon- 
 orary members have no stated exercises to perform, but 
 are allowed to make such remarks upon the performances 
 of the other members as they conceive proper. They have 
 liberty to be present or absent at all stated meetings, and 
 have free access to the library forever, by paying six dollars 
 
20 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 for its augmentation. The immediate members have ex- 
 ercises in declamation, composition, and extemporaneous 
 disputation. The probationary members are excluded from 
 extemporaneous disputation, and from the liberty of voting. 
 The two last grades of members pay upon their admission 
 an initiatory fee of one dollar. Quarterly assessments have, 
 for several years past, been remitted. The officers of the 
 society consist of a president, vice-president, secretary, two 
 censors, librarian, and library committee. The library 
 contains between two and three hundred well-selected vol- 
 umes. Quarterly meetings are on the third Wednesdays of 
 March, June, September, and December. Please to return 
 an answer before our next meeting, i yth inst. 
 Respectfully, I am yours, etc., 
 
 John Farmer, Secretary. 
 Mr. Isaac Spalding. 
 
 This society attracted the attention of prominent 
 men in other towns ; and several clergymen became 
 honorary members, and were interested in attending 
 its meetings. The following is a list of the acting 
 members, among whom will be noticed gentlemen 
 who afterwards received distinguished honors from 
 their fellow-citizens : Samuel Abbott, Herman Ab- 
 bott, Abraham Andrews, Charles H. Atherton, John 
 P. Batchelder, John- Burnham, Joseph Bell, William 
 Claggett, Nathan K. Clough, Joseph Gushing, Elisha 
 E. Elam, Caleb Emerson, Luther Farley, John 
 Farmer, Allen Fisk, Benjamin F. French, William 
 
LETTERS. 21 
 
 Gordon, Alonzo S. Grenville, Levi Hartshorn, Isaac 
 Hill, Jacob Holmes, Joshua Holt, Eugene Hutchin- 
 son, George Kimball, Joseph B. Manning, David M'G. 
 Means, William F. Morrison, Harrison G. Otis, jun., 
 Edmund Parker, James Perkins, Robert Read, David 
 Secombe, Matthias Spalding, Gustavus Swan, Eben- 
 ezer Taylor, Henry J. Tudor, Andrew Wallace. 
 
 Before closing this description of his engagements 
 while at Amherst, it ought to be mentioned, that, for 
 some time, he was secretary of the Amherst Bible 
 Society, always manifesting a deep interest in its 
 work ; and also that while there he was made a mem- 
 ber of the American Peace Society, to whose philan- 
 thropic endeavors were given the sincerest sympa- 
 thies of his heart. 
 
 There is no record of whatever might have been 
 the severity of Dr. Farmer's struggle with ill health, 
 previous to the year 1818. In July of that year he 
 left Amherst, and was absent, most of the time with 
 friends at Billerica, for more than a year. We learn 
 something in regard to his physical condition at this 
 period, from letters written to his friend Spalding, 
 portions of which are here inserted. 
 
 Under date of Billerica, 28 July, 18 18, he writes, — 
 
 " I regretted very much that in leaving Amherst I was 
 not indulged with an opportunity of calling upon my friends, 
 and particularly that I could not have an interview with you, 
 
22 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 in order to request you to favor me with your communica- 
 tions, and forward me those that might come directed to 
 me. But, as I was deprived of such an interview, I can at 
 this time request you to favor me with such intelHgence as 
 you think will relieve the disquietude of ill health, and afford 
 me a rational and substantial gratification. My coming to 
 this place was rather unexpected. The proposition was 
 
 made to me by Dr. C in the morning, acceded to in 
 
 the afternoon, and actually put in operation the ensuing day. 
 It was, however, a bold and hazardous undertaking, viewed 
 in all its circumstances. But the goodness of that Being 
 who hath hitherto supported me protected me. You will 
 excuse me for not writing much at this time. If my strength 
 improves, I shall probably make you the debtor in future. 
 Respects to all. 
 
 " I am respectfully your friend, " F." 
 
 * 
 He dates another letter — 
 
 Sept. i, i8i8. 
 
 My Friend, — Your kind and affectionate letter of the 
 26th was received on the 29th. It contains an apology 
 for delinquency, which, considering the number and magni^ 
 tude of your avocations, I accept as satisfactory. Indeed, 
 had your reasons for not writing been less plausible than 
 those you have offered, my partiality towards you, which 
 almost ever leads me to put a favorable construction upon 
 your conduct, would not have permitted me to accuse you 
 of want of affection and friendship. A charge of this kind 
 would come with a very ill grace from one who is honored 
 
LETTERS. 23 
 
 with being placed first on your " catalogue " of friends. To 
 have such a conspicuous place in your affections deserves 
 my warmest acknowledgments of gratitude. 
 
 I find a disposition in your letters to ascribe motives and 
 principles to me which I most sincerely wish had a stronger 
 influence on my conduct, and were more firmly riveted to 
 my mind. I beg you would forbear imputing to me any 
 degree of goodness which 1 do not possess. Let it be your 
 constant maxim in writing to me, " I had rather offend by 
 telling the truth, than please with flattery." I consider this 
 an important maxim, one which ought ever to influence 
 our conduct when we write or converse with those we love 
 and esteem. 
 
 Again from Billerica, Sept. 18, same year, he 
 writes, — 
 
 "It is above two months since I came here ; and all this 
 time I have been at one place, at Mr. William Rogers's, on 
 the banks of the Concord, at the intersection of this river 
 by the Middlesex Cknal. This situation is esteemed by 
 many as the most pleasant and delightful in town. It has 
 many advantages which no other situation possesses. There 
 is considerable navigation on the canal this season. Boats 
 loaded with wood, barrels, various kinds of timber, the 
 Chelmsford granite, etc., are almost constantly passing, and 
 all in plain view from the window where I am now sitting. 
 The ' Middlesex Packet,' a very pleasant and handsome 
 boat, passes here every day, having ladies and gentlemen 
 on board. A conveyance to Boston in this way, at this 
 
24 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 season of the year, is very pleasant, and subjects a person 
 to little more inconvenience than sitting in his room." 
 
 Nov. 9 he writes of a new affliction : — 
 
 "The last month I have been very sick. First an attack 
 of the cholera much reduced my strength ; then a violent 
 cough and cold commenced, which kept me to the house 
 for more than a month. I do not think I have at any time, 
 since last spring, experienced more pain and distress for 
 the same length of time. Thus, you see, I have continued 
 calls for patience and submission, and am admonished of 
 my own frailty and mortality. Happy are those in health 
 who keep the great end of life in view, without these daily 
 warnings and admonitions. I am a stranger to the sanc- 
 tuary, where I once delighted to repair. I feel myself an 
 exile from those I love and esteem ; and astonishing it is 
 that I have such cheerfulness of spirits when separated from 
 those whose benevolent offices will ever claim my gratitude 
 and respect." 
 
 Nov. 20, to the same he writes, — 
 
 " I amused myself the other day in recollecting my cor- 
 respondents since my first commerce with the world. I 
 soon enumerated more than sixty from whom I have received 
 letters, without including my female correspondents ; and the 
 number of these you may rationally suppose is very limited. 
 Among the number I have mentioned may be found gentle- 
 men belonging to the three liberal professions, and some 
 of them holding a very distinguished rank in the professions 
 
LETTERS. 25 
 
 to which they belonged. These possess a variety of talents, 
 and write with different degrees of accuracy and excellence. 
 Some are distinguished by facihty of expression, some for 
 strength of thought, some for vivacity and sprightHness of 
 fancy, others for great variety of intelligence, and a few for 
 the talent of compressing their ideas so as to give multum 
 in parvo. I could not help forming in my imagination an 
 epistolary thermometer, containing a scale of some of the 
 most prominent and important qualities which make a fin- 
 ished letter-writer. I admitted twelve qualities, which were 
 all graduated on the scale from twenty degrees below minus, 
 to twenty-two degrees above, which, for distinction's sake, I 
 called the point of perfection." 
 
 And he placed his friend Spalding at the highest 
 point. 
 
 May 19, 1 819, he speaks with evident pleasure of 
 having received " the honor of a letter from Isaiah 
 Thomas, LL.D., over the signature of the secretary 
 of the American Antiquarian Society, in which I am 
 informed that my name is recorded in the books of 
 that society." 
 
 Subsequent to the above date, he spends three or 
 four months at Salem, making brief visits at one or 
 two other places also. Under date of Salem, Sept. 20, 
 1 8 19, he writes a letter — to Mr. Spalding — giving 
 some account of a few of the noted characters of the 
 place. From that letter the following extract is 
 taken : — 
 
26 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 "At the head of the medical profession is the highly 
 esteemed Edward Augustus Holyoke, M.D., LL.D., the pre- 
 ceptor of our Dr. Spalding. He was the son of Rev. 
 Edward Holyoke, President of Harvard College, and was 
 born in August, 1728. He was graduated at Harvard Col- 
 lege in 1746, and is but third surviving in the catalogue. 
 He was one of the first founders of the Massachusetts 
 Medical Society, of which he was president for several 
 years. I think he was one of the original associates of the 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is now the 
 president. His Alma Mater, a few years since, conferred 
 upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., a distinction which 
 has very seldom been conferred on physicians, but one to 
 which his eminence in knowledge and science justly entitles 
 him. Since I came here he has entered his ninety-second 
 year, and a few days after attended the wedding visit of 
 Judge White, where he spent the evening enlivening the 
 company by his social powers, which excite astonishment in 
 one of his age. He is still active in his profession. His 
 corporeal powers are said to be as vigorous as they were 
 twenty years ago, and his hearing is better. When called 
 upon for any thing while sitting cross-legged, instead of cau- 
 tiously and slowly raising the leg which is uppermost, and 
 placing the foot upon the floor, he seems to give a bound 
 like a youth, and is partly across the room before he recov- 
 ers his erect posture. He does not fear in the winter-time 
 to walk out upon the ice. If his foot slip, he can recover 
 himself with the alacrity of youth. It is but a few years 
 since he left off his skates. His dress is in the primitive 
 
LETTERS. 27 
 
 Style. He wears a coat of light-colored cloth, with broad 
 folds, a long waistcoat with pocket-flaps, and small-clothes. 
 He wears a wig, dressed in the ancient style." 
 
 From Salem he writes, Aug. 7, 18 19, — 
 
 "I have had the pleasure of seeing the celebrated Joseph 
 Lancaster, author of the Lancasterian system of education, — 
 the one who passed such a compliment to Speaker Clay last 
 winter. I have heard him converse in private, but have 
 not heard his lectures, of which he has delivered three in 
 this town ; at which he received the sums of forty-four dol- 
 lars, forty-seven dollars, and twenty dollars, respectively, by 
 the collections made for him. He is a large, fat man, forty- 
 one years of age, — a man of wit, easy in his manners, free 
 in conversation, and a Quaker. 
 
 " I have had the honor of being introduced to the learned 
 Dr. Bentley, esteemed by some as the greatest classical 
 scholar in the United States. He certainly ranks among 
 the first of our antiquaries, and the civil and ecclesiastical 
 history of our country is perfectly familiar to him. His col- 
 lection of antiquities, curiosities, etc., is immense. He has, 
 I should think, four or five hundred portraits, of different 
 nations of ancient and modern times. He has Homer and 
 Virgil, Socrates and Plato, Horace and Ovid, Hippocrates 
 and Democritus, Cicero and Demosthenes. Of the worthies 
 of New England, he has Winthrop, Vane, Ludlow, Endicott, 
 Sewall, Prince, Willard, Pemberton, Cotton Mather, Roger 
 WilUams, Holyoke, etc., and among the rest the venerable 
 Gen. Stark. I have called upon him several times, and 
 
28 - MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 always find something new. Inquiring for a book which he 
 had not, he poUtely offered to introduce me to the Athenaeum, 
 the largest collection in town. Accordingly he wrote a note 
 to Hon. Nathaniel Bowditch, LL.D., of which I send you 
 a copy. It has put my risibles in motion more than twenty 
 times since I read it, which I had an opportunity to do, as 
 I did not find Dr. Bowditch present. 
 
 "' Mr. Bentley begs the favor of Dr. Bowditch to introduce 
 Mr. John Farmer — author of the "Description of Billerica," 
 a well-known antiquary and worthy man — into the Athenaeum, 
 to consult Mather's " Magnalia " for some fact.' 
 
 "You know that Salem is the old Naumkeag of the Indians, 
 and is the oldest town in the old Colony of Massachusetts, 
 and has almost completed two hundred years since its set- 
 tlement. It has, therefore, many antiquities, which Mr. 
 Bowditch has pointed out. But, alas ! many of them are too 
 remote for me to visit. I am obliged to walk where I go, 
 and my strength circumscribes me to narrow limits. I have 
 no velocipede to convey me about. I can command no 
 horse and chaise when inclination is favorable. But my 
 friends are obliging. Mr. Palfrey, printer of 'The Essex 
 Register,' called ihe other afternoon, and took me over town ; 
 then to Danvers ; from thence to Wenham meeting-house, 
 in going to which we passed the seat of that inflexible old 
 Roman, Timothy Pickering, the man who has at last united 
 both parties in his favor, and whom posterity will revere as 
 one of the great men of our country. From Wenham we 
 came through Beverly over Beverly Bridge into Salem, hav- 
 ing had a most agreeable ride." 
 
AFFECTION FOR AMHERST. 
 
 29 
 
 He returned from Massachusetts to Amherst 
 about the commencement of the year 1820. But this 
 place was no longer his home. June 20, 1820, he 
 wrote to Mr. Spalding from Concord (N.H.), saying 
 that he was at the State House taking minutes of the 
 proceedings of the Legislature. But he afterwards 
 returned to Amherst, and did not finally cease to be 
 a resident there until the early part of 1821. With 
 what feelings he took his departure from the place 
 where many of the most interesting scenes of his life 
 had transpired may be judged from the following 
 extract from one of his letters (May 19, 1819) : — 
 
 " To the voice of friendship I am prompt at every call. 
 I never hear it but with emotion ; and, when it is heard from 
 a quarter where are laid the scenes of my early youth, the 
 emotions are much stronger, and the impressions on my 
 mind more permanent. There is no place the recollection 
 of which is so strongly riveted to my mind as Amherst. 
 There I enjoyed the society of those friends that with me 
 grew when ' life was life, and all was young and fair.' That 
 period of life when the imagination is most susceptible of 
 those impressions which are seldom erased from the mind 
 was spent at Amherst." 
 
IV. 
 
 REMOVAL TO CONCORD. — PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 »ARLY in 1 821, in the thirty-second year of 
 his age, Dr. Farmer removed to Concord 
 (N.H.), where he spent the remainder of his 
 life ; the change of residence being made probably 
 with a view to engaging in a light and remunerative 
 mercantile business, and with the hope of finding at 
 the capital of the State superior advantages for the 
 pursuit of his favorite investigations. 
 
 He now engaged in the sale of drugs and medicines 
 in copartnership with Hon. Samuel Morrill, M.D., a 
 congenial spirit, actively employed in the practice of 
 the medical profession. This fastened upon him the 
 title of Doctor. He had a thorough knowledge of 
 chemistry and pharmacy, but the sale of medicine 
 was no more than the by-play to the grander scene in 
 which he was acting his part. 
 
 Already he had performed half a lifetime of literary 
 work. He had become accomplished as a student of 
 
REMOVAL TO CONCORD. 3 1 
 
 academical and general knowledge, and had made 
 himself eminent as a teacher; but still, the stronger 
 inclination of his mind was towards history, and par- 
 ticularly the history of New England. It amounted 
 to an almost uncontrollable passion, which constrained 
 him to make extraordinary exertions to become ac- 
 quainted with the annals of his native State and of 
 New England, even to the minutest particulars. And 
 doubtless he regarded it as a fortunate circumstance, 
 that those who first took up their abode upon these 
 shores, as well as their descendants, were intelli- 
 gent men, — men who were capable of recording the 
 events of their own lives and times, and who saw the 
 importance of doing it. So that, in the writings of 
 the Bradfords, the Mathers, and the Hutchinsons, he 
 found the means of gratifying the predominant desire 
 of his heart. It is undoubtedly the fact, that he had 
 obtained an acquaintance with the men and the events 
 of the first two hundred years of New-England his- 
 tory such as has been equalled by very few persons. 
 Nor is it doing him any injustice to say that he was 
 probably better acquainted with the characters of the 
 men of former times — the Winthrops, the Endicotts, 
 the Cottons, and the Chaunceys — than with those of 
 the men of his own day. 
 
 He had furnished articles for publication in the 
 collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
 
32 • MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 of which society he had been elected a member : he 
 had assisted in preparing materials for a history of 
 his native town of Chelmsford, published by Rev. Mr. 
 Allen, and had published the history of Billerica, 
 Mass., and of Amherst, N.H. And now he sat down 
 in his unpretentious quarters, and put his pen in 
 motion with an energy that no outside attraction 
 could divert from its purpose. Attentive and urbane 
 when interrupted by the call for root, ointment, or 
 tincture, as soon as he found himself alone again his 
 mind was in a labyrinth of genealogical names, dates, 
 and events. 
 
 In September of this year (1821) he writes of be- 
 ing engaged in preparing a new Register of New 
 Hampshire ; ''hoping," he says, "if we may not have 
 a very valuable one, we shall have a correct one. I 
 have written, to obtain the information I possess, 
 nearly a hundred letters to different persons in and 
 out of the State." Before the year closes he pub- 
 lishes an " Ecclesiastical Register ; " in January, 1822, 
 the " Military Guide " is in press ; and in February 
 of the same year he is using his industrious pen in 
 pubHshing, in connection with Hon. Jacob B. Moore, 
 as a periodical, " Collections, Topographical, Histori- 
 cal, and Biographical, relating principally to New 
 Hampshire." 
 
 The world saw so little of him, that, without impro- 
 
PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 33 
 
 priety, he might have been called the invisible man ; 
 and that because of no effort of his own to keep him- 
 self out of sight. And yet he was just the man to 
 attract attention ; there being in his appearance and 
 employments precisely that slight shade of singularity, 
 not to say mystery, which seems to fall crosswise upon 
 the great majority of minds. Soon, however, he came 
 to be spoken of as the accomplished scholar, and 
 faultless gentleman, newly come to town. 
 
 He was a man of an erect frame, about five feet 
 eight or nine inches in height ; extremely thin and 
 pale — evidently owing to some fault of the powers of 
 digestion and assimilation, rather than to pulmonary 
 disease. His face was symmetrical, but not without 
 wrinkles ; with Grecian nose ; high forehead — that 
 and the temples slightly marked with blue veins ; lips 
 full, and expressive of mingled good-nature and firm 
 decision ; a deep depression between the chin and 
 the lower lip ; prominent and well-covered eyebrows ; 
 light-brown hair, with a foretop brushed over from the 
 forehead bearing a little to the left ; and bright, honest, 
 medium-sized, bluish-gray eyes, that looked straight 
 forward, turning neither to the right hand nor the 
 left, nor often towards the ground. 
 
 In dress, Dr. Farmer was neither fashionable nor 
 slovenly. In the warmest days of summer, for an 
 upper garment, he could trust himself to the protec- 
 
34 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 tion of a flowing dressing-gown of calico ; but gen- 
 erally he wore a coat of blue broadcloth with brass 
 buttons, according to the custom of the day. His 
 vest was commonly of the same material and color : 
 whilst he could adorn himself, for an occasion, with 
 one of buff or pure white ; although, as regards the 
 color last mentioned, memory has become somewhat 
 dimmed during more than half a century of busy 
 life. His pantaloons, too, were sometimes of a lighter 
 hue ; but the dark blue prevailed, — a happy circum- 
 stance, as quite frequently an unfortunate spot on the 
 right side was compelled to submit to a few smart 
 strokes from the point of a refractory or untidy pen. 
 About his neck he wore an ample white cravat neatly 
 tied in front. Then, let the feet be covered with 
 boots of calf-skin soft as morocco, and the head with 
 a high, shining hat, and you have the whole costume 
 of the man ; unless you examine his coat-pocket, 
 where you would be sure to find a large red bandanna 
 handkerchief, which was brought into service as a 
 muffler for his neck if he went out, even for a moment, 
 into the cold air. To form a figure of him with a low, 
 soft hat shading his brow, with a face unshaven, or 
 with his head hanging down, were an impossible bur- 
 lesque of what he really was. 
 
 When walking in the street, he invariably carried 
 a cane, — one of light weight, of an uncertain red color. 
 
PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 35 
 
 and with an ivory head, — which he swung rather than 
 leaned upon ; for he seemed little dependent upon it 
 for support. His heel struck the ground a notable 
 distance of time before the rest of his foot got ready 
 to come down : at least so it appeared ; for all that 
 was ever heard was the fall of the heel of his boot, 
 like the blow of a small mallet. That he was ever 
 on horseback, is too much to believe. But he was no 
 stooping or shambling walker. He carried himself 
 well poised, took long steps, and his limbs seemed to 
 ask no help in bearing him safely along. His walk 
 was too stately for haste, and too assured to indicate 
 infirmity. If in company with another person, he 
 was always engaged in animated conversation. There 
 was a bright cheerfulness in his whole aspect, as if 
 every part of him were in sympathy with the beautiful 
 day; such a day being the only time when he was 
 likely to venture abroad. 
 
V. 
 
 SURROUNDINGS. — INTEREST IN YOUNG MEN. 
 
 |E cannot well portray the character of an 
 individual without giving some description 
 of the scenes by which he was surrounded 
 while passing the years, and performing the work, of 
 his life. On coming to Concord, Dr. Farmer did not 
 find himself wholly among strangers ; but immediately 
 on his arrival he sought the society of Gen. Joseph 
 Low, a former Amherst acquaintance, who received 
 him into his family as a boarder. In that family he 
 enjoyed a quiet home for several years. And his 
 place of business and of study (it bore the undignified 
 name of "the apothecary- shop") was in a building 
 which was the property of the same gentleman. 
 
 That building was of two stories, about twenty-two 
 feet in width, and forty in length. It stood on Main 
 Street, east side, gable to the street, some fifty rods 
 south of the State House, and was so situated that 
 a person standing in the front door would look very 
 
SURROUNDINGS, 
 
 17 
 
 nearly straight through the middle of School Street. 
 In the lower story was a dry-goods and grocery store; 
 in the upper was the drug-store of Morrill & Farmer, 
 the only establishment of the kind in what is now 
 the flourishing city of Concord. It was entered by a 
 flight of stairs, exterior to the building, on the south 
 side. The visitor to the place having ascended these 
 stairs, and opened the door at his left, found himself 
 in a small entry, and, turning again to the left, entered 
 the apartment, where he was sure to find Dr. Farmer 
 sitting at his table with pen in hand. 
 
 When the doctor first became an occupant of this 
 apartment, it was only a corner room with one win- 
 dow towards the street, and possibly two in the south 
 side ; its dimensions being perhaps twelve by eighteen 
 feet. But after a year or two it was enlarged so as to 
 embrace the whole front end of the upper story of the 
 building, to the depth of its previous length. Now, 
 as you entered, and walked, into the centre of the 
 room, with your face turned towards the north, you 
 had on your right long rows of drawers, tier above 
 tier, with a counter in front of them ; and on your 
 left, lining the wall, bottles and jars innumerable, look- 
 ing like Continental soldiers, some in uniform and 
 some not, drawn up in line ready for battle. Near 
 the middle of the room stood a plain box-stove ; and 
 a little farther on, close against the counter, was the 
 
38 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 table at which for several years the doctor's wonder- 
 ful work of pen, ink, and brain was done. 
 
 This building extended forward quite to the verge 
 of the sidewalk ; and Gen. Low's dwelling-house stood 
 north of it, broadside to the street, at a distance of 
 some twenty-five feet in the rear of the sidewalk, 
 where both house and store were joined together as 
 one building. This gave the doctor an opportunity, 
 by means of back stairs and back door, to enter the 
 house without being seen from the street. Or he 
 could, and often did in unfavorable weather, step 
 through the window opening from the back store into 
 the front room of the house. This was an arrange- 
 ment exactly suited to his health and inclinations. 
 
 Gen. Low was fully the peer of the best-bred gen- 
 tlemen in town, his wife (a daughter of the venerable 
 and excellent Nathaniel Abbott, Esq.) being well 
 fitted to stand by his side in the most refined society. 
 Their house was often the gathering-place of some 
 of the most distinguished characters in the State, 
 especially during the sessions of the Legislature. 
 But Dr. Farmer seldom mingled with the company, 
 even on the most brilliant occasions. If he did make 
 his appearance, he soon withdrew, being unable to 
 endure the excitement. 
 
 Probably he had been led by bodily infirmity to 
 prefer communion with books rather than with men, 
 
INTEREST IN YOUNG MEN. 
 
 39 
 
 and it seemed more agreeable to his temperament to 
 hold converse with men long dead than with those of 
 his own generation. And yet he was one of the 
 most genial and companionable of men naturally. 
 Much of the time his inability to endure excitement 
 prevented him from attending public worship. At 
 times, when he found his way to the house of God, 
 he was not able to remain till the close of the service ; 
 neither did he always have strength sufficient to urge 
 his way through the crowd to deposit his vote in the 
 ballot-box, although he felt a deep interest in the 
 political questions of the day. 
 
 A trait of character that marked Dr. Farmer's 
 whole life was his love for the society of young men, 
 together with an earnest devotion to their welfare. 
 During his residence in Amherst, this tendency of 
 his mind was a prominent characteristic ; and, after 
 his removal to Concord, it continued in full activity, 
 manifesting itself in a benevolent and fatherly in- 
 terest in the young men around him, — a very con- 
 siderable number of whom came under his tuition 
 at different times. 
 
 It became well understood that the pleasure he 
 enjoyed in imparting instruction was quite equal to 
 that of treasuring it up ; and young men of a stu- 
 dious turn, many of whom were connected with the 
 printing-offices, felt no hesitancy in calling at his 
 
40 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 room. And all who came within the sphere of his 
 influence were greatly benefited. Even the man 
 whom he might employ to perform an act of service 
 generally received the compensation of some valua- 
 ble hint, or piece of advice, as well as his due reward 
 in money. The young man once in his presence, he 
 would with delicacy and tact make inquiries as to his 
 attainments ; would recommend books ; advise' him 
 to cultivate a love for reading ; and endeavor to 
 stimulate him to the formation of studious, virtuous, 
 thrifty, and manly habits. More than one now living 
 (and the same has been the case with as many who 
 are dead) feels himself greatly indebted for his genial 
 and generous attentions, much of their success in 
 life having been due to his instructions and guidance. 
 Though retiring and undemonstrative during life, 
 doing his work behind the scenes of the world's 
 pomp and din, yet he did much to give character and 
 life to those scenes. He made his power felt in 
 forms that cannot be lost sight of for generations to 
 come. He wished to exert a salutary influence over 
 those whom he knew to be exposed to many temp- 
 tations. He saw in every young man a possible can- 
 didate for some important position, for experiences 
 either joyous or painful, for achievements elevating 
 or degrading to the human species. He would give 
 the weight of his testimony and his example in the 
 way most likely to benefit all. 
 
INTEREST IN YOUNG MEN. 41 
 
 It was a true exhibition of Dr. Farmer's unselfish 
 and fatherly disposition which was seen in the case 
 of the first young person whom he drew into his con- 
 fidence and guardianship after becoming a resident 
 of Concord. A small part of the history of this case 
 must be given, in order to explain how a knowledge 
 of the minute particulars narrated in these pages was 
 obtained. Allusion is made to a . schoolboy not 
 twelve years old, of parentage reputable but not rich, 
 his father a tin-plate and sheet-iron worker, living in 
 the neighborhood. 
 
 One evening about the close of the year 1822, he 
 was sent, with a quill in his hand, to the merchant 
 doing business directly beneath the apothecary-shop, 
 to ask the favor of the making of a pen ; those being 
 days when pens of steel were little known, and those 
 in use grew upon the backs of geese and swans ; and 
 the making of a pen was an art in which experts alone 
 excelled. The merchant was busy, and said, '' Run 
 up to Dr. Farmer : he will do it." In a moment the 
 boy was round the corner, up the stairs, and in the 
 presence of the doctor. He was greeted with a kind 
 word, and as kind a smile. The doctor's penknife 
 was always in order. Taking the quill, he shaved off 
 about half the depth of the tubular part at the lower 
 end, inner side ; fashioned the nib in approved form ; 
 exactly divided the point, and cut it off ; then slipped 
 
42 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 the knife along the nigh side of the shaft, clearing off 
 the web, and clipped it near the upper extremity, — 
 and the work was done, with an accuracy and despatch 
 which the nicest machinery could scarcely have 
 equalled ; the boy looking on with eyes glistening 
 with admiration, it being to him the neatest of sleight- 
 of-hand. " Now write your name on that piece of 
 paper, and see if you like it," said the doctor, passing 
 both pen and paper to the boy. The boy made some 
 scratches meant for his name : and the compliment 
 was returned, " You write pretty well ; wouldn't you 
 like to learn to write better ? " The boy answered 
 that he would ; when his new-found friend continued, 
 " If you will come in here Saturday afternoon, I will 
 teach you ; " that being the only half-day of the week 
 in which scholars in those days had their liberty. 
 
 The boy promised, and was there punctually at the 
 hour. The writing-lesson despatched, he was invited 
 to take a little exercise at the mortar, pulverizing 
 medicine. And, when the business of the afternoon 
 was accomplished, he went away with an invitation 
 to a similar entertainment the next Saturday. And 
 things went on after the same order, — a lesson with 
 the pestle following the lesson with the pen, — un- 
 til the close of the winter term of the public school. 
 The boy had become highly pleased already with his 
 apothecary teacher, and the teacher had evidently 
 
INTEREST IN YOUNG MEN. 43 
 
 found a place in his heart for the boy. And now the 
 favored lad, who had no other employment, was regu- 
 larly instated as a student and an employee of the 
 scholarly and honored John Farmer, Esq. And the 
 acquaintance thus casually commenced became more- 
 and more intimate for many years, and was inter- 
 rupted only by the death of the great and good man 
 who so generously bestowed his friendship upon one 
 by whom it was needed, and by whom it was never 
 felt to be of greater value than now when the snows 
 of age have fallen upon his head. 
 
VI. 
 
 KINDNESS. — GENIALITY. 
 
 o/i^ r^^oHIS lad was under the eye of Dr. Farmer a 
 
 large portion of the time for the space of 
 three years ; the succeeding three years of 
 his youth being spent in a printing-office in another 
 place, — a fact that will explain some allusions occur- 
 ring in one or two of Dr. Farmer's letters hereafter 
 to be inserted. He was employed in pounding and 
 compounding medicine, weighing and measuring it, 
 putting it into packages, and selling it ; in making 
 pills, opodeldoc, blue mass, cold cream for pimpled 
 cheeks (with the cream left out), and ointments many 
 and not always sweet savored ; and once he assisted 
 in the nice little process of distilling prussic-acid ; 
 and, when the doctor was absent or sick, he was in- 
 trusted with the keeping of his meteorological record. 
 And, during the same time, he was led on in a course 
 of study, embracing the common-school branches, with 
 history, science, and composition, and was constantly 
 
KINDNESS. — GENIALITY. 45 
 
 receiving practical hints from the doctor's lips, con- 
 cerning passing events and all the interests of life, 
 together with moral instruction of inestimable value. 
 Besides, he had something of the rudiments of Latin 
 continually before him, and fastening themselves upon 
 his mind, — in the names of medicines, and in various 
 books and papers which the doctor had in his hands 
 every day, — which gave him a start in that direction. 
 And not only did he enjoy the company and instruc- 
 tion of the good man during the day, but for long 
 periods, especially in the colder portions of the year, 
 he shared his bed at night. 
 
 With the scholarly genius about him, any lad might 
 have emerged from such a school with a very respect- 
 able education. Though often heedless and inatten- 
 tive; doing, or leaving undone, things that must have 
 tried the patience of his benefactor, — yet he never 
 heard an unkind expression from his lips, nor saw a 
 trace of passion upon his countenance. No, never 
 from those lips fell a single syllable borrowed from 
 the vocabulary of the profane or the vulgar, to the 
 knowledge of this person, who for so long a time had 
 opportunity for almost seeing the thoughts by which 
 those lips were inspired. 
 
 And, when this lad had left the place, still his old 
 teacher remembered him as if he had been a son, and 
 followed him with letters filled with good advice and 
 
46 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 affectionate assurances of deep interest in his welfare ; 
 the last letter received from him being dated only a 
 little more than a year previous to his death. 
 
 Besides, the kind-hearted and thoughtful doctor 
 studied to keep the mind of his protege employed 
 with reading when no other occupation demanded 
 his attention. He evidently believed the sentiment 
 of the old nursery-hymn, citing the example of the 
 bee: — 
 
 *' In works of labor or of skill, 
 I would be busy too ; 
 For Satan finds some mischief still, 
 For idle hands to do." 
 
 He recommended books (and generally furnished 
 them), some of which were solid octavos, like Scott's 
 " Life of Napoleon," then recently published ; and some 
 smaller volumes, such as the "Letters of Junius;" and 
 others of a lighter and more engaging character, as 
 "Coelebs in Search of a Wife," — he being careful to 
 tell him that ccelebs meant bachelor, — and "Gulliver's 
 Travels." And frequently, during the reading of the 
 book last named, when the lad's mouth began to widen, 
 with the corners turned upward, and a giggle seemed 
 imminent, he would say, ** You may read aloud ; " and 
 quite likely he would himself join in the laugh. It 
 was, however, no open explosion. Of the broad, 
 crashing laugh of the bar-room, or even that of the 
 
KINDNESS. — GENIALITY. 4/ 
 
 boy on the playground, he appeared utterly incapable. 
 With some effort he kept the lips pretty well com- 
 pressed, and seemed to be confining within his agi- 
 tated breast a pleasant-voiced animal that had serious 
 thoughts of making his escape. 
 
 He was not a story-teller, but it was impossible for 
 a man of his knowledge of books and the world not 
 to have in his mind an inexhaustible store of enter- 
 taining facts ; and he could appreciate the ludicrous 
 and trenchant points of an anecdote as well as any 
 other man. Nor did he ever lack the ability to tell 
 what he knew in an effective manner. And he knew 
 how to mingle amusement with the more wearisome 
 occupations of life. 
 
 When the time began to pass drowsily in the 
 " shop," he would frequently tell a story, — such as 
 that of Benjamin Franklin's visit, when a printer's 
 boy, to the Rev. Dr. Byles, the witty clergyman of 
 Boston. The story was something like this : When 
 the boy had done his errand, the reverend doctor, 
 who had some kindness of heart, put himself on quite 
 familiar terms with him, and in the course of the con- 
 versation learned, that, in the office where he was em- 
 ployed, he was called the "devil;" "printer's devil" 
 being the name in former times given (probably more 
 commonly than at present) to the youngest appren- 
 tice, whose duty it was to perform the miscellaneous 
 
48 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 services, or chores, about the office. Continuing his 
 attentions, the reverend gentleman invited the boy up 
 into the highest part of the house, that he might look 
 out upon the town. But, the boy not being tall 
 enough to see to advantage, the doctor lifted him up 
 by the arms ; and, when he helped him down, he said, 
 " Now go home, and tell your people that / have 
 raised the devil!' It is needless to state, that, by the 
 time such a story about a Boston boy was at an end, 
 the Concord boy was fully awake. 
 
 At other times he would describe the hallucina- 
 tions of persons diseased in mind, some of which 
 were of an exceedingly mirth-provoking character. 
 One of these was in relation to a man who imagined 
 that his legs were made of glass, and who drew upon 
 himself a good deal of ridicule, and some pity, by his 
 intense fear of their being broken in pieces by any 
 attempt to walk, or by being touched by any other 
 person. Then, again, he would amuse and instruct 
 his pupil with descriptions or examples of chemical 
 and magnetic processes ; the formation of the Arbor 
 Saturni being one of his most gratifying experiments. 
 A glass jar was filled with a solution of acetate of 
 lead ; in it was suspended a piece of zinc a few 
 inches in length ; and, when it had been set aside 
 a few hours, there appeared a well-formed tree, top 
 downwards, having the zinc for its trunk, with the 
 branches proceeding from it. 
 
VIL 
 
 JOURNEYS. 
 
 MONG Dr. Farmer's earlier acquaintances 
 ^ in Concord was Jacob B. Moore, Esq. He 
 St was a printer, book-publisher, bookseller, 
 newspaper editor, and an author, and was a man of 
 talent, mental cultivation, and great industry and en- 
 durance. He had the physical power for a more stir- 
 ring and out-of-door life, while the doctor was doing 
 his work in almost entire seclusion. The closest inti- 
 macy subsisted between these friends, until the more 
 feeble of the two was taken away by death. They 
 were associated in the preparation and publication of 
 several volumes pertaining to the history of New 
 Hampshire, but the most important enterprise in 
 which they were mutually engaged was the publica- 
 tion of " The New-Hampshire Gazetteer." It was a 
 work requiring a vast amount of laborious research, 
 the writing of letters almost innumerable, and the 
 exercise of much care and judgment. During the 
 
50 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 preparation of it for the press, Mr. Moore was often 
 in the doctor's place of business. When together, 
 the doctor would read what he had written, and Mr. 
 Moore would bring forward the matter he had been 
 getting together; or, again, one or the other would 
 read a letter just taken from the post-office. Their 
 consultations were often quite animated ; and their 
 pleasure on meeting with some enlivening incident 
 for the pages of the " Gazetteer," and especially as 
 they approached the end of the book, was not to be 
 suppressed. This work was published in 1823 ; in 
 February of which year, at the invitation of Mr. 
 Moore, who was going to Boston, strange as it may 
 seem he made a brief visit to his friends in Billerica. 
 
 But the hard task of preparing the " Gazetteer" hav- 
 ing been completed, he seemed to breathe more freely ; 
 and undoubtedly he felt the need of rest. So that, 
 when the next spring arrived, he began to make prep- 
 aration for an extended journey, — a huge undertak- 
 ing for a man of his health and habits. He wiped 
 his pen dry, shuffled his papers together and put them 
 away, shut up his desk, seeming to say "good-by" to 
 all that usually surrounded and employed him ; and for 
 several weeks there were vacancy and silence around 
 the spot which was nearly always enlivened by his 
 presence. 
 
 On a fine morning — it might have been in the 
 
JOURNEYS. 51 
 
 middle of June (1824) — he started out into the fra- 
 grant summer air, with Dr. Morrill's horse and chaise, 
 and with his boy clerk for an attendant. The first 
 day's ride brought us to the beautiful town of Am- 
 herst, — his former place of residence, — where he was 
 welcomed to the hospitality of Nathan Kendall, Esq., 
 with whose family his associations run, like threads of 
 light, through all the acts and experiences of his youth 
 and manhood. The next morning when we awoke, 
 the sun was shining brightly into the room where we 
 slept ; and, knowing that this was my first trial of 
 being away from home, his first words were, *' Well, 
 where are you now } " He next visited his sister, Mrs. 
 Riddle, residing in Merrimack. Then we drove across 
 the State line into Massachusetts, and as far as North 
 Billerica, where he made a visit of several days with 
 Mr. and Mrs. Rogers (Mrs. Rogers being a motherly 
 aunt, who showed him a great deal of attention) ; and 
 a shorter one with an uncle (Farmer), in the more 
 southern part of the same town. From this place we 
 rode to Salem, where he regaled himself a few days 
 in the company of friends, — perhaps cousins, — and 
 where he seemed greatly to enjoy a little excursion to 
 the seashore. Then, turning his face toward home, 
 he stopped with relatives in Andover, and again with 
 his sister in Merrimack ; from which place I was sent 
 home to Concord with the horse and chaise, leaving 
 him to finish his journey at his leisure. 
 
52 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 He did not ride through the country in silence: 
 he spoke of the friends he was going to visit or had 
 visited, of the birds and the trees that attracted his 
 attention, and of other things unnumbered ; showing 
 that his mind was fully and ever alive. He was ab- 
 sent from home five or six weeks, as nearly as can be 
 stated now ; and during the whole time he seemed 
 like one sailing upon a smooth sea, and under a cloud- 
 less sky. Everywhere he was cordially received, and 
 overwhelmed with kind attentions. His enjoyment 
 must have been well-nigh unalloyed ; although as he 
 went from place to place, and bade adieu to his kin- 
 dred and former associates, he must have reflected, 
 that, in the case of most of them, it was probably for 
 the last time. 
 
 This excursion was an extraordinary event in his 
 life. Scarcely ever afterwards did he turn his back 
 upon his desk and his manuscripts, even for a single 
 day, excepting when unable to pursue the work in 
 which he delighted. And it would appear evident, 
 that he enjoyed better health at this time than he 
 generally did in the later periods of his life : it cer- 
 tainly was not often that he could rely upon his 
 strength sufficiently to trust himself away from 
 home. 
 
 He went, in company with his friend Mr. Moore, 
 about the time the ** Gazetteer" was published, to pay 
 
JOURNEYS. 53 
 
 a visit to the venerable Mr. Welch, who lived three 
 or four miles away, in the town of Bow, and who 
 had attained the very great age of nearly one hundred 
 and twelve years. And in those early years he made 
 some brief visits at the house of Mr. Moore, and that 
 of Dr. Morrill, and possibly other places ; but it was 
 not until the year 1836 that he took another journey 
 equal in length to that of 1824. He then visited 
 Boston, doubtless anticipating great enjoyment in 
 meeting many people of eminence whom he had known 
 by reputation or correspondence, if not by personal 
 acquaintance. 
 
 What is here said of this visit, is derived from his 
 diary ; concerning which the remark may be made, 
 that it is largely meteorological, is by no means full 
 at any period, and has in it many interruptions. The 
 original is among the collections of the Northern 
 Academy of Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 
 N.H. ; and a copy, transcribed by the late Rev. Silas 
 Ketchum, among those of the New-Hampshire An- 
 tiquarian Society, at Contoocook, N.H. This diary, 
 unless a portion of it has been lost, is perfectly silent 
 as regards his setting-out for Boston ; nor does it say 
 where he was at first entertained. It appears, how- 
 ever, that he was there on the 14th of September, 
 1836, and received some calls on the following days ; 
 but the record is for the " 29th, Joseph E. Worcester 
 
54 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 called, with whom I had an interview," — a remark 
 that would not have been made if he had not been 
 laid aside by illness. And then the record is for the 
 " 30th, Rode out with Mr. Edmund Jackson ; first 
 time since illness." Then the record further is, " Oct. 
 I, Edmund Jackson called, and gave me an airing." 
 " Oct. 2, Came to Edmund Jackson's, where I re- 
 mained till the 22d." 
 
 It is probable that the fatiguing journey to Boston, 
 together with the excitement of receiving the atten- 
 tions of the cultivated people of the place, proved too 
 severe a trial for his enfeebled nervous system ; so 
 that for some days after his first glance at the city 
 he was reduced to the close confinement of sickness 
 and suffering. But, apparently, he soon rallied ; and 
 during the last part of his visit he saw much of the 
 sunny side of life. He speaks of riding to some place 
 of interest almost every day, — to Roxbury several 
 times, to Dorchester, to Punch-Bowl Village, to Com- 
 mercial Wharf, and through State to Tremont Street, 
 to Brookline, and round by Jamaica Pond and the seat 
 of John Lowell, to South Boston, and round the 
 Common. 
 
 And among those who called upon him were, Fran- 
 cis Jackson and wife, Dr. James Jackson, Judge Jack- 
 son, Edmund Jackson, Eliza F. Jackson, S. W. Jackson, 
 Rev. Dr. Cogswell, Rev. Dr. Harris, Rev. J. B. Felt, 
 
JOURNEYS. 55 
 
 Joseph Willard, Esq., and many ,others. His record 
 is for ''Oct. 19, Called at Francis Jackson, Esq.'s, 
 and passed the a.m." 
 
 " Oct. 22, Bade adieu to my hospitable friends Mr. 
 and Mrs. Jackson, and returned to Nashua with my 
 friend Mr. Spalding." 
 
VIII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 ^JTST is evident that Dr. Farmer was a Christian. 
 TO IM His diary and his letters show, that in his 
 »^^^i^ earlier days he was a constant and interested 
 attendant upon public worship. He often made a 
 record of the texts of the sermons he heard; and 
 all his conversation and demeanor during life must 
 be admitted as indubitable proof that he was a true 
 disciple of Christ, although he may not have become 
 a communicant with any particular church. And 
 although this sketch cannot be classed with religious 
 biography, yet it is no more than justice to record, 
 that in many ways Dr. Farmer expressed his strong 
 attachment to the religion of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 In one of his letters to Hon. Isaac Spalding, writ- 
 ten when he was twenty-nine years old, he made the 
 confession, " Such is my indwelling depravity, that, 
 strange as it may appear, my days pass along with 
 a constant accumulation of sin and guilt, which can 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 57 
 
 only be pardoned through the merits of an Almighty 
 Saviour." Some time after his death, his former part- 
 ner in business, Hon. Samuel Morrill, a deacon of 
 the North Church in Concord, who must have known 
 the depths of his heart, said to the writer, '* He was a 
 good man : he trusted in the merits of the atonement 
 of Christ." 
 
 With his other excellences of character was con- 
 nected an undisguised regard for the Bible. He re- 
 vered and read it as the inspired word of God. This 
 was made to appear in many ways. Among the gifts 
 I received from him was that of a Bible (i6mo), in 
 the first part of which were a couple of leaves so 
 neatly pasted in as to appear as if originally belong- 
 ing to the book. On those leaves was written, in an 
 elegant hand, and in letters almost as fine as diamond, 
 the following encomium upon the Holy Scriptures : — 
 
 "'The Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto 
 salvation.' — Paul. 
 
 " Numerous testimonies from the writings of distinguished, 
 though uninspired men, might be exhibited in favor of the 
 authenticity and excellence of the Scriptures. That prod- 
 igy of learning. Sir William Jones, wrote on the fly-leaf of 
 his Bible the following remarks : ' I have carefully and 
 regularly perused these Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion 
 that the volume, independently of its divine origin, contains 
 more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and 
 
58 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 finer strains of eloquence, tljan can be collected from all 
 other books, in whatever language they may be written.' 
 The advice of that 'giant in literature,' Dr. Samuel John- 
 son, to a young friend on a particular occasion, is equally in 
 point. Summoning up all his peculiar energy of manner 
 and expression, he said, ' Read the Bible : all other books 
 have their foundation and their merits there.' The illus- 
 trious names of Milton, Newton, Locke, and a host of 
 others, might be adduced. Even the deistical Byron (a 
 lamented instance of perverted talents), in one of those 
 seasons of conviction that irresistibly force themselves upon 
 infidel minds, confessed the superior excellence of the 
 sacred books. But the testimony of the inspired apostle, 
 eminent for his learning and his intellectual gifts, from whose 
 writings the above motto is selected, has still greater weight. 
 His estimate of the Scriptures may be learned from his dec- 
 laration that he counted ' all things but loss for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge that is in Christ Jesus.' This 
 knowledge the Bible imparts. Other kinds of knowledge, 
 however useful, fall short of promoting the grand design of 
 human existence, — the glory of God and the salvation of 
 the soul ; and as all knowledge is valuable, only in proportion 
 to the end to which it conduces, what infinite superiority is 
 attached to the knowledge contained in the Bible ! The 
 Bible is its own best evidence. The humble saint, who — 
 
 'Just knows, and knows no more, 
 His Bible true,' 
 
 is a living illustration of the intrinsic excellence of this 
 blessed book. 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, 59 
 
 " The religion of the Bible elevates not only the moral, 
 but intellectual, "character of man. By preserving him from 
 the dominion of the passions, his mind becomes serene and 
 unclouded, and its faculties acquire new vigor, and new 
 powers of perception. ' Religion is the highest exercise 
 of the noblest faculties of the mind upon the sublimest 
 topics of mental investigation ; the voluntary, excursive, 
 endless pursuits of the human understanding in the region: 
 of eternal truth.' 
 
 " Wouldst thou, my friend, that this intellectual elevation 
 were thine ? Wouldst thou acquire the most exquisite relish 
 for the subhme and beautiful in nature ? Wouldst thou sus- 
 tain a character for usefulness and respectability in life? 
 Wouldst thou ' have always a conscience void of offence 
 toward God and toward men ' ? Wouldst thou have com- 
 fort in affliction, society in solitude, true enjoyment in pros- 
 perity, and a shelter from the storms of adversity ? Wouldst 
 thou that thy good resolutions should be strengthened ; thy 
 love of virtue, and abhorrence of vice, confirmed and per- 
 petuated ; thy moral sense, the nice perception of right and 
 wrong, quickened and preserved in its purity ? And wouldst 
 thou not only know, \iM\ pursue, the path of duty? — Read 
 this book. Wouldst thou be an object of complacency to 
 all holy beings, and to the holiest of all? Wouldst thou 
 'grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ ' ? In fine, wouldst thou be happy 
 through all the changing scenes of life, have hope in death, 
 and an immortal inheritance of glory beyond the grave? 
 Then, read the Bible ; read it frequently, believingly, and 
 
6o MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 prayerfully ; make it the 7nan of thy counsel, and conform 
 thy life to its precepts''' 
 
 This excellent man was also a believer in the sab- 
 bath, as a day to be kept holy, both because it is an 
 appointment of .God, and because of its beneficent 
 tendencies and effects. Therefore he adopted the 
 sentiment of Sir Matthew Hale, who is credited with 
 saying, " No tradesman is more careful to take in his 
 wares at night, than I am to take in my thoughts of 
 this world's business when Saturday night arrives." 
 His regard for the sacredness of the Lord's Day was 
 in one case exhibited in a very practical way. It was 
 on a winter sabbath day, and the snow had fallen 
 to a considerable depth during the night previous ; so 
 that, not unwillingly, I found an excuse for omitting 
 my usual visit to the sanctuary, and passed a portion 
 of the day in the company of the doctor. The ingre- 
 dients of some kind of a preparation were in process 
 of dissolution in a bottle, and needed longer to be 
 kept under the influence of heat. In my thought- 
 lessness I set the bottle upon the stove, wishing to 
 hasten the operation that was going on, but was 
 quickly directed to take it off, and reminded that the 
 sabbath was no day for any such business. 
 
 Connected with his religious feelings was a pro- 
 found and affectionate reverence for the ministers of 
 the gospel. He loved their society, and sincerely 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 6 1 
 
 desired the prosperity of the grand objects to which 
 their lives are .devoted. And the interest he felt in 
 religion led him to contribute, according to his ability, 
 for the promotion of every good and charitable work. 
 If, however, he saw so much to be honored in the 
 men of the sacred calling, yet he could recognize an 
 eccentricity or a foible that might appear in their 
 ranks, or relate with a zest a comical anecdote affect- 
 ing some one of their number. Either to ''point a 
 moral or adorn a tale," he once gave a description of 
 the manner in which a clergyman taught his servant 
 (colored) to cross a stream upon string-pieces. De- 
 manding the strictest attention, he instructed the 
 negro to follow his example ; and then stepping upon 
 the slippery log, and placing his feet very carefully, he 
 said, *' Do so, and so, and so^' — and, as he uttered 
 the third or fourth ''sol' he was floundering in the 
 water. This anecdote was greatly enjoyed by the 
 usually sedate doctor. 
 
 , I once heard him speak somewhat in disapproval of 
 some remarks made in a sermon at a protracted meet- 
 ing, which had been reported to him ; the preacher 
 having spoken in terms which he thought inordinately 
 fervid, of the separations between dear friends which 
 must take place at the judgment-day. But I think it 
 was only the extreme to which the idea was carried, 
 that was aimed at by his criticism : I never heard 
 him say a word against religion in itself. 
 
62 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 A man generally shows very much of his charac- 
 ter by his letters. Some extracts from those of Dr. 
 Farmer will give an idea of the paternal feeling which 
 he always cherished towards young men. After I 
 had written to him, expressing the warmest gratitude 
 for the kindness shown me in past years, he wrote as 
 follows : — 
 
 Concord, 4 Aug., 1827. 
 
 My YOUNG Friend, — I received your letter this morning, 
 and was much gratified with your remembrance of me, and 
 still more with the manner in which you allude to past times 
 and opportunities of improvement while under my care. If 
 you received any benefit from my instructions, I am glad, 
 and shall consider the gratitude you express for them as the 
 richest compensation I could receive. The good resolutions 
 you have formed for improving present privileges are highly 
 commendable, and I hope will be well fortified ; and let me 
 urge upon you, as of the greatest importance, the duty due 
 to that Being who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, and 
 who has the first claim to our services and gratitude. 
 
 I will add an extract from a letter, written in 1791 by your 
 excellent great-uncle the late Gov. Brooks, to a youth of 
 Medford, but then in Scotland, which contains very judicious 
 advice : — 
 
 " At this period of life, the mind is pecuHarly susceptible of 
 impressions. At this period, too, habits are generally formed 
 which are as durable as our existence. We sometimes, indeed, 
 see a youth of active industry degenerate into an age of indo- 
 lence ; but we seldom see a youth of sloth exchanged for an age 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 63 
 
 of application. Let me then, from motives of friendship, call 
 to your recollection those principles which I have often sug- 
 gested to you, which are of infinite consequence, and cannot 
 too frequently be the subjects of contemplation." 
 
 It is not doubted but that you may be subject to some 
 services which require patience, and sacrifices of personal 
 feeling, to perform ; but you can look forward to when you 
 shall be promoted, and some one else will succeed you in 
 those services which you consider sometimes as disagreeable. 
 You will recollect the advice of Cotton Mather to Dr. Frank- 
 lin when he was a lad, who, on being shown a shorter way 
 out of the house, through a narrow passage, did not notice 
 a beam over his head — though directed by Mather to " stoop, 
 stoop ! " — until he hit his head against the beam. Now, Dr. 
 Mather never missed any occasion of giving good instruc- 
 tion, and upon this incident said to Franklin, "You are 
 young, and have the world before you : stoop as you go 
 through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." Dr. 
 Franklin has said that the advice thus beat into his heart 
 was of great importance to him aftenvards. 
 
 I am glad to find that you are reading Watts's " Improve- 
 ment of the Mind " and Robertson's " Charles V.," and hope 
 you will receive much good from the former, and pleasure 
 from the latter. You will find Mason's " Self- Knowledge " a 
 very good book. There is an edition to which I prepared 
 questions last summer, and was pubHshed in this town. I 
 notice with pleasure your good writing, correct spelling, and 
 
 correct punctuation. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
64 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 Probably at this time his table was encumbered 
 with records of the early settlers of New England, 
 or catalogues of colleges ; and it must have been 
 about the same period that he was gathering materials 
 for his edition of Belknap's " History of New Hamp- 
 shire," which was one of the most ponderous of his 
 historical works. He was also giving more or less 
 attention to the instruction of young men who were 
 frequently calling upon him, conversing with them 
 upon the contents of the books he had recommended, 
 and correcting their compositions; not to mention his 
 correspondence, and the numerous calls from promi- 
 nent men of Concord and many other places, which 
 made heavy demands upon his time and strength. 
 But still he did not forget the one, now a printer's 
 boy away from home, who had received so much of 
 his affectionate attention in previous years. Here are 
 extracts from another of his letters, — whose com- 
 mendatory expressions, however, would seem to need 
 a little softening down. 
 
 Concord, 2 July, 1828. 
 
 My young Friend, — Your letter, accompanied with 
 several newspapers, was handed to me by your sister ; and I 
 was surprised and delighted with the improvement which 
 one short year has made in your penmanship, and in your 
 style of writing. The train of thought and expansion of 
 mind, with a full determination of future improvement, all 
 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 65 
 
 agree well, and are to me highly gratifying. The days that 
 are past cannot be recalled ; and, if we are sensible that any 
 portion of them has been spent in youthful follies, it is the 
 part of wisdom to avail ourselves of the experience we have 
 acquired, and to endeavor that our future days shall be filled 
 up with duty and usefulness. In this way, we may in some 
 measure atone for past misimprovement of time. We may 
 correct the foibles of youth. We may fix the principles 
 which ought to govern us through manhood. I have already 
 informed you that a virtuous course in youth will lead to 
 stable and useful manhood. Even if we are compelled to 
 associate with persons debased with habits of intemperance, 
 profanity, and lewdness, we can, by the force and influence 
 \)f good principles, avoid the contagion. Our own charac- 
 ters will remain unsulhed if we come not into their secret, 
 and keep aloof from their vices. I am obliged to you for 
 the list of publications you sent. If you should find any 
 others, in past years issued from your office, their titles would ■ 
 be acceptable. It will also gratify me at all times to hear 
 of your progress in knowledge and virtue ; to know what 
 books you read, and the benefits you derive from^ them. 
 Watts's V Improvement of the Mind," and Mason on "Self- 
 Knowledge," are works of great value ; but, to read them with 
 profit and advantage, we should have our minds clear, and 
 free from the entanglements of business or amusement. A 
 few good histories, and the Constitutions of the United States 
 and of this State, should make a part of your reading. 
 
 For your respectful notice I am grateful, and am your 
 
 friend and instructor, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
IX. 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY. — FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 R. FARMER possessed a native tenderness 
 of heart which led him to sympathize with 
 all the sufferers of misfortune. This was 
 the source of his earnest devotion to the cause of the 
 enslaved, while yet he clearly saw that every consid- 
 eration of patriotism and benevolence also required 
 that same devotion. That cause he ardently embraced 
 when it first began to agitate the public mind, and 
 to it he consecrated much of his best strength to the 
 end of his life. Even when it became a subject of 
 controversy, not always unmixed with bitterness, he 
 firmly adhered to the sentiment that every human 
 being has a right to his liberty, and that consequently 
 it is a sin to take away liberty from one of God's in- 
 telligent creatures, unless it be forfeited by crime. 
 
 He well understood the objects and operations of 
 the American Colonization Society : he admitted that 
 its affairs were conducted by good men, and that, 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY. 6y 
 
 viewed by itself alone, it was worthy of all commen- 
 dation. But inasmuch as that society aimed at the 
 removal of the free colored people only, while his 
 desire was to have all set free, without expatriation, 
 he felt compelled to turn his back upon it, and to use 
 his influence exclusively for the emancipation of the 
 entire colored race of the country. 
 
 He was not ignorant of the objections and difficul- 
 ties supposed to stand in the way of the extinguish- 
 ment of the system of slavery. He knew that the 
 abolitionists were accused of using violent language 
 and violent measures, and committing many grave 
 mistakes. But his answer was, that in subjecting 
 men to the degradation and cruelty of hopeless bond- 
 age, was the violence that most deserved condem- 
 nation ; and that in tolerating such a wrong for an 
 hour, there was the great mistake. Still he went on 
 pleading that the enslaved millions might be set free.i 
 
 For the accomplishment of this grand object, he 
 wrote, acted, and prayed. He was corresponding 
 secretary of the New-Hampshire Anti-Slavery Soci- 
 ety for a considerable time, though probably never 
 able to be present at its meetings. His annual re- 
 ports were replete with facts and arguments which 
 had a powerful influence throughout the State. The 
 anticipation of the hour — which he did not live to 
 see — when all the inhabitants of the land should 
 
68 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 rejoice in the possession of liberty loomed up before 
 his imagination like a vision of glory. His hopes 
 were fixed upon it : it seemed almost constantly to 
 employ his thoughts, and was most frequently the 
 topic of his conversation. 
 
 He was never harsh or sarcastic in opposing the 
 course pursued by others in relation to the subject, 
 but invariably gave evidence of being governed by the 
 dictates of an upright conscience and a sincere heart ; 
 and he always enjoyed the respect of those who dif- 
 fered from him in opinion. The man who questioned 
 his motives, or opposed him with any severity, has 
 never yet made his appearance. Nor did he suffer 
 his views* of slavery to diminish his regard for the 
 Bible or its religion. He did what he could while 
 his strength lasted ; and, when he could do no more 
 with voice or pen, he directed in his will — which was 
 left unfinished — that a portion of his moderate prop- 
 erty be given to the cause that lay so near his heart. 
 
 Some of his letters, found in the later portions of 
 these reminiscences, convey a clear idea of his views 
 and feelings on this subject. 
 
 No one could be much in the company of Dr. 
 Farmer without learning that the New-Hampshire 
 Historical Society was an institution in which he 
 felt a deep interest. He assisted in its formation in 
 1823, became its corresponding secretary a year or 
 
NEW-HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 69 
 
 two later, and continued to»perform the duties of that 
 office with eminent abihty until the close of his life. 
 He naturally fell into such a position. Historical 
 researcli^s were to him both business and pleasure. 
 The exclusion of the subject from his mind would 
 have been the breaking up of the whole habit and 
 course of his existence. Though constantly com- 
 muning with the men of past days, he was laboring 
 for the benefit of future generations. He saw it to 
 be of the greatest importance, that the present gen- 
 eration should hand down to those yet unborn a 
 knowledge of the character and achievements of their 
 fathers ; even feeling that he could not pardon him- 
 self if he did not do his utmost for the accomplish- 
 ment of this object. Except during the frequent 
 intervals when sickness compelled him to drop his 
 pen, he sat at his table, day after day, month after, 
 month, year after year, examining ancient records, 
 copying time-worn and half-legible documents, bring- 
 ing order out of confusion, in graceful form placing 
 before the eye of the children a picture of the life 
 and times of their fathers. 
 
 Disease had a hold upon him from which he could 
 not extricate himself, and the periods of his inability 
 to be at his work were discouragingly frequent. Some- 
 times he was laid aside with an irritation of the lungs ; 
 at other times the stomach seemed to be the offend- 
 
70 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 ing organ ; or, again, it \fas general debility, accom- 
 panied with more or less of fever, that laid him low. 
 But little of change in the atmosphere, of extra labor 
 or excitement, or of food to which he was nCt accus- 
 tomed, was required to place him upon his bed. And 
 painful it was to those who loved him, and watched 
 over him, to witness the paleness of the cheek, the 
 sadness of the eye, and the weariness of patience and 
 submission by which his sufferings were attended. 
 
 How he could perform so great an amount of labor 
 with a constitution that appeared always ready for a 
 final collapse, was a wonder to many. In Writing let- 
 ters alone, he did work sufficient for the strength of 
 an ordinary man. His correspondents belonged in 
 every part of the country, and included — if not 
 others in Europe — the secretary of the Royal Society 
 of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen. And yet 
 he was one of the humblest of men. He was perfectly 
 destitute of the egotism of genius, and apparently 
 without anxiety in regard to the estimation placed 
 upon his labors by others. 
 
 Dr. Farmer was a man whose heart was incessantly 
 emitting the fragrance of a pure affection. He knew 
 how to be a friend, and no one ever more highly val- 
 ued the friendship of others. He ever felt grateful 
 that he was permitted to spend several years preced- 
 ing his majority in a family in Amherst, where he was 
 
FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 71 
 
 treated as a son, and enjoyed privileges peculiarly his 
 own ; rendering it natural for one of the members 
 recently to write, '' The store, and John's chamber 
 at the house, remain, nor has the apple-tree of his 
 culture been removed." But alas for the stability 
 of earthly mementos ! I have since learned that the 
 apple-tree no longer stands. 
 
 This was the family of Nathan Kendall, Esq., to one 
 of whose daughters, it may not be going too far to 
 say, he conceived a strong attachment, but from whom 
 he became voluntarily disconnected on account of his 
 feeble health ; and he never married. One of the 
 daughters of the same family became the wife of 
 Hon. Isaac Spalding, one of the wealthiest and most 
 influential citizens of Nashua, N.H., who died in 1876. 
 And another married David Steele, Esq., a prominent 
 attorney-at-law, of Hillsborough Bridge, N.H., also 
 deceased. In Mr. Spalding and wife, Dr. Farmer 
 found friends, intimate, trusted, and lifelong ; and 
 Mrs. Steele was to him an angel of consolation whose 
 tender sympathy was ever at his command in hours 
 of sickness and suffering, and whose privilege it was 
 to minister to his necessities, and smooth his pillow 
 when he fell into the arms of death. 
 
 In his familiar conversations he often spoke of his 
 former associates. Among the members of the lit- 
 erary society at Amherst, was Levi Hartshorn, who 
 
72 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 Studied theology, and died early. He was a particular 
 friend. Never did the writer of this narrative hear 
 him speak in a tone of greater sadness than when 
 uttering his recollections of this friend. Very soon 
 after he had commenced the work of the ministry, he 
 preached on a sabbath in the pulpit of Rev. Dr. Lord, 
 then of Amherst. He was in ill health, and the effort 
 caused the perspiration to stream from every pore ; 
 and he was immediately prostrated with a fever, 
 which terminated in death, just when the bright pros- 
 pect of a life of usefulness and happiness was open- 
 ing before him. This sudden and violent disruption 
 of so warm a friendship seemed to lie as a permanent 
 pain upon his heart. 
 
 But, at the time of this friend's decease, he was 
 away from home ; and what were his feelings on re- 
 ceiving the intelligence, we learn from his own words, 
 in a letter to Mr. Spalding from Salem, Oct. i, 1819: — 
 
 My dear Friend, — The mournful and heart-rending in- 
 telligence contained in your letter of the 30th was divulged 
 to me the same day, through the medium of " The Boston 
 Gazette." For your kindness and attention in giving me 
 such early and interesting particulars respecting my lamented 
 friend, I am truly under the sincerest obligations. You did 
 not miscalculate my feelings in supposing that I should not 
 be uninterested in such an event. It is an event afflictive 
 beyond any thing of the kind I ever experienced, for I 
 
FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 73 
 
 never before lost so dear a friend and associate. Suffer a 
 few lines from me on so melancholy a subject. 
 
 A letter from Amherst to M. C, dated on Sunday, and 
 received on Tuesday, gave me the first intimation of Mr. 
 Hartshorn's sickness ; but I hoped and prayed that he 
 might recover. Yesterday forenoon, after I had been read- 
 ing and writing some time, I walked out, as the morning 
 clouds had dispersed, and the sun appeared with cheering 
 beams, — Httle apprehending that the beauties afforded by a 
 serene sky, and the satisfaction of my heart in beholding 
 them, would be so soon enveloped with the clouds of such 
 melancholy intelligence. I took my accustomed walk to the 
 printing-office, which I had no sooner entered, and seated 
 myself, when Mr. P. said, "You knew Mr. Hartshorn of 
 Gloucester : he is dead ! " I was petrified with astonish- 
 ment. My emotions suppressed my utterance ; and I dis- 
 tinctly felt, as it were, the chords of friendship which had 
 so long united us forcibly severed from my heart. 
 
 " As those we love decay, we die in part : 
 String after string is severed fiom the heart." 
 
 The death of an eminent and highly useful servant of 
 the cross is at all times a calamity of an afflictive kind ; but 
 when we view that person in the relation of a dear friend, 
 the event is doubly distressing. My acquaintance with Mr. 
 Hartshorn, as you probably know, commenced in the sum- 
 mer of 1809, while we were companions at school. It soon 
 ripened into a friendship which was cemented by the closest 
 ties of affection. In the midst of his usefulness, in the 
 
74 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 meridian of his strength, in the flower and prime of his hfe, 
 he is cut down, and numbered with the silent dead. The 
 blossom has fallen to the earth, but it will bloom again with 
 celestial fragrance in the paradise of God. 
 
 " The friend I mourn, with sacred love was fraught; 
 And truths divine, with Christian zeal he taught. 
 Still may he teach ! still from the grave impart 
 Such truths as melt the eye, and mend the heart. 
 Oh, might I pour the solemn, plaintive strain, 
 And might its accents not be heard in vain ! " 
 
 The delineation of his character would far transcend my 
 
 feeble powers. Even if I were qualified, I should at the 
 
 present moment be unable, from the effect this event has 
 
 had on my system. I reflect with astonishment at finding 
 
 myself the survivor of many early associates whose lives 
 
 promised a longer date than my own. While I have stood 
 
 feebly on the stage of existence, I have seen many of strength, 
 
 beauty, and renown faU around me. I can only say, that 
 
 the hand of kind Providence, the Father of mercies, has 
 
 sustained me. Let us be thankful for the gift of life, and 
 
 improve it while it lasts. 
 
 I am yours, 
 
 J. FARMER. 
 
 It v^ras in connection with some of his allusions to 
 this cherished associate (if there be no error of 
 memory), that I first learned that Dr. Farmer pos- 
 sessed a fine musical taste. He had an ear of ex- 
 quisite sensitiveness, but .his voice partook of the 
 
LOVE OF MUSIC. 
 
 75 
 
 weakness of his physical powers generally ; whereas 
 his friend, in addition to a fine ear, had a voice both 
 melodious and strong. He said that on one occasion 
 Mr. Hartshorn and himself were out enjoying a ride, a 
 little distance from their home in Amherst. Having 
 reached an eminence which afforded an extensive view 
 of the surrounding country, they halted to feast their 
 eyes upon the magnificent scenery that lay spread out 
 around and beneath them. As they were gazing, 
 and expressing their admiration, Mr. Hartshorn felt 
 the stirring of the muse within him ; and he struck 
 into the tune of "Scotland," with the words, "The 
 voice of free grace cries escape to the mountain ! " — 
 sending the lofty strains echoing over wood, hill, and 
 dale. At that moment there was kindled in the soul 
 of the listener an enthusiasm of delight that must 
 have been strange to himself, so irresistibly did he 
 seem borne aloft upon the wings of the music that 
 fell upon his ear. 
 
 In giving an account of this incident, he exhibited 
 the deepest feeling. His countenance assumed an 
 aspect that was rare, though characteristic of his 
 higher moods. To give a description of it, is exceed- 
 ingly difficult. There was a blending of solemn 
 assurance with joyous satisfaction, the eye and the 
 whole countenance beaming with glowing radiance. 
 The lower portion of the face seemed to be actually 
 
76 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 widened ; the cheeks were filled out, and slightly 
 reddened ; the more prominent features took on new 
 strength ; every part of the body came into harmony 
 with the uplifted soul ; and the entire man became 
 vocal in the expression of the positive joy of the 
 heart. He was grandly indignant on rare occasions, 
 especially when remarking upon the horrors of the 
 system of slavery ; but it was seldom that any event 
 could arouse him to so high a degree of honest, noble, 
 quietly demonstrative satisfaction as was manifest in 
 the case now mentioned. 
 
 His love of music led him sometimes to ask a 
 young man who might be in his room, to favor him 
 with a little rehearsal of some piece from his singing- 
 book. His boarding-place, on State Street in Con- 
 cord, was in the neighborhood of the Baptist church ; 
 and for a time a prayer-meeting was held in the ves- 
 try of that church early on sabbath morning. He 
 once spoke with feeling of the pleasure he experi- 
 enced as his ear was greeted by the singing of that 
 meeting. He mentioned particularly the tune of 
 " Sterling," as having had a thrilling effect upon 
 him. On still another occasion, as he heard a little 
 girl singing while at work in another part of the 
 house, — with the door ajar, — he remarked, ''How 
 sweet is that music ! It is the singing of Nature : it 
 sounds like the birds." 
 
POETRY. yy 
 
 So the most trifling circumstance made its appeal 
 to his sensitive nature and refined taste. He saw 
 beauty, and derived pleasure from it, when many 
 others would discover nothing worthy of attention. 
 Once he held up a blooming damask rose that had 
 been presented to him, and said in an animated tone, 
 and with a countenance all aglow, "Who can paint 
 like that > " 
 
 His engrossment in the dry details of history and 
 
 genealogy did not extinguish his love of poetry. 
 
 Pope's "Essay on Man" was familiar to him ; and I 
 
 have heard him quote the lines, on some occasion, — 
 
 " Go ! If your ancient but ignoble blood 
 Has crept through scoundrels ever since the Flood." 
 
 But I presume he did not apply such words to any of 
 the characters whose fame he was endeavoring to 
 perpetuate. He would express himself as greatly de- 
 lighted while reading, or hearing read, some of the 
 more beautiful portions of Thomson's " Seasons ; " 
 the language of his sparkling eye agreeing with that 
 of his tongue. But Cowper, probably, was his favor- 
 ite. Indeed, he possessed much of the mild and 
 kindly spirit of the beautiful writer whose poem " On 
 the Receipt of my Mother's Picture " has reached the 
 depths of so many hearts. 
 
 At one time he opened a volume of Cowper, and 
 handed me, requesting me to read aloud, saying, 
 
yS ' MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 " Begin there ; " pointing to the lines in the " Winter 
 Evening" of "The Task," — 
 
 " Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast. 
 Let fall the curtains ; wheel the sofa round." 
 
 This was on a winter evening at his State-street 
 boarding-house, and there was a glowing fire upon 
 the hearth before him. And, as the reading went 
 on, he occasionally changed his position in just such 
 a way as seemed expressive of enjoyment ; once in 
 a while interjecting the grateful applause : " How 
 plainly one can see all that!" or words of similar 
 import. 
 
 It is not too much to say that Cowper was to him 
 as a cherished acquaintance, rather than a poet of 
 the opposite hemisphere and of the previous age. 
 Far more cheerful than was the poet, yet he ever 
 alluded to him in a tone of affectionate sympathy, as 
 if he had seen him, and loved him as a brother. He 
 kept in his mind the names of the hares upon which 
 the poet bestowed so much attention, and admitted 
 them also to his friendship ; although he himself did 
 not keep even a dog, like Sir Isaac Newton, to tip 
 over the lamp, and burn up his manuscripts ; or, like 
 Dr. Johnson, a cat, to creep over his shoulders. 
 
X. 
 
 MODE OF LIFE. 
 
 'UT, however refined in his tastes, he was not 
 one of the nervously timid sort of people. 
 There was no trace of superstition in him. 
 He had no eye for a ghost, and there was too much 
 of consistency in his mental composition to allow 
 him to be thrown into qualms by any trifling matter. 
 He was thrown out of his equilibrium, it is true, one 
 evening, — probably in the winter of 1822-23, — when 
 a fighting and intoxicated old man was hustled into 
 the shop for surgical aid, with his head and face cov- 
 ered with blood. There was considerable confusion, 
 the bleeding man having a goodly number of assist- 
 ants and followers ; and some one crying out as if in 
 great alarm, " This man wants his head done up ! " 
 The doctor's face was scarcely in its usually composed 
 condition, showing that he had no taste for practising 
 surgery in such a case ; and he said, with no little 
 appearance of disgust, " I can't do it : take him to 
 Dr. C- !" 
 
80 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 But just at the head of the stairs, — leading from 
 the entry, — among the rubbish in the garret, not 
 more than ten feet from his table, there was a box — 
 minus a cover — full of ghastly human bones; and 
 lying round somewhere was another box, containing 
 the limbs of some fellow-mortal, with the desiccated 
 flesh still adherent, — " preparations," the anatomists 
 call them. But these things gave him no uneasiness ; 
 neither was he disturbed by the presence of a human 
 heart, a liver, and a pair of lungs, well dried and 
 varnished (all these precious articles doubtless being 
 the property of Dr. Morrill), standing on one end 
 of his counter, upon slender supports, like bonnets 
 in a milliner's shop. 
 
 There are two classes of persons who are not fit for 
 the cooler work of the anatomist's or the surgeon's 
 profession. One class consists of the honestly timid, 
 who make no effort to conceal their fear of the body 
 when the soul has departed from it, and who are af- 
 fected to swooning by the sight of a wound ; and the 
 other includes those who make such demonstrations 
 of lightness and bravery in presence of relics of the 
 dead, or in view of the scenes of a military hospital, as 
 to give rise to the suspicion that they are using this 
 means of sustaining their courage. But Dr. Farmer 
 belonged to neither of these classes. His mind was 
 sober, cool, and clear, and his conscience also ; and 
 
MODE OF LIFE, 8 1 
 
 of the sensitiveness that is morbid and without a rea- 
 son, he did not partake. He was one of those who 
 say nothing, because they think nothing, of things 
 such as have been alluded to, and such as no one 
 would choose to be familiar with except for instruction 
 or necessary use. 
 
 Immediately in the rear of the shop was an apart- 
 ment which the doctor sometimes occupied as a 
 sleeping-room, — notwithstanding the anatomical fur- 
 nishings that were lying about, — especially during the 
 month of June, when Gen. Low's house was filled with 
 members of the Legislature. Another gentleman, 
 who at a certain time passed a night with me in that 
 room, was of a different temperament. When all was 
 dark and still, and he was about dropping to sleep, 
 there fell upon his ear from the lips of his bedfellow 
 the inquiry, " Did you know there was a skeleton un- 
 der the bed } " It was a thunder-peal, or might as 
 well have been. " What } " said he, his alarm slightly 
 tinged with anger. " Is it so .^" He was assured of 
 the fact : and, as soon as he had comprehended the 
 situation, he leaped from the bed, demanding that his 
 young bedfellow do the same ; and in a trice the ob- 
 jectionable box was dragged forth, and man and boy, 
 one at one end, and the other at the other end, bore 
 it to the farther back part of the building. Dr. Far- 
 mer had a word of fault found with him for permitting 
 
82 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER, 
 
 "that thing" to be left there. It must not be con- 
 cluded, however, that the doctor himself ever occu- 
 pied that bed with the box beneath it, or that he had 
 any thing to do with the placing of things as they 
 were. 
 
 In connection with that same bed, there was an- 
 other and a more inoffensive, but not less amusing, 
 occurrence. It was the place where the doctor often 
 took an after-dinner nap in the long days of summer. 
 One day he wished to get so nearly asleep as to "lose 
 himself," he said, and nothing more. That he might 
 effect his purpose, he took a small weight from the 
 counter, and held it in his open hand, with the hand 
 extended over the edge of the bed; thinking he should 
 be waked at the right moment by its falling upon the 
 floor. But the plan was a failure. He got a longer 
 nap than he had bargained for, and came out laughing, 
 with the weight still in his hand. It had not been on 
 the floor. 
 
 A little episode in relation to another bed has often 
 been acted over again, making strange music in the 
 mind of the principal performer during the half-cen- 
 tury that has passed away since it occurred. It must 
 be brought in here, although it relates but little to 
 the revered subject of this sketch. In those days 
 when the doctor gave his young assistant and pupil 
 the privilege of warming at least one-half of his couch 
 
MODE OF LIFE. 83 
 
 at night, it was for a considerable period — doubtless 
 for good reasons — that he occupied what might have 
 been Mrs. Low's chamber of honor, usually reserved 
 for visitors of the politest sort. And, as the lad was 
 not expected to wait for the doctor to retire, it was not 
 an unusual thing for him to be in bed first. It was 
 so on the occasion now referred to, not a little to his 
 long-continued chagrin. The lad soon began to see 
 vessels sailing in the sky, and many other impossible 
 things, which indicate that a young person is nearly 
 sound asleep. But suddenly the room was brightly 
 illumined, and ladies' voices were heard, making him 
 think he had been carried away into some shining 
 fairy-land. In amazement he lifted his head to as- 
 certain what might be the state of the case; and 
 probably in still greater amazement the ladies, and 
 Mrs. Low most of all, saw a boy's head shoot up from 
 the soft pillow, like a ''jack-in-the-box." But the case 
 was soon understood. Mrs. Low had invited the 
 doctor to take another room for the night, but his 
 bedfellow had not been notified of the fact. The 
 ladies withdrew, doubtless with appropriate embar- 
 rassment ; and the boy hastened to make himself con- 
 spicuous by his absence, feeling ashamed to the point 
 of every hair of his head. It was necessary to relate 
 the adventure to the doctor ; and to him it seemed so 
 much more comic than tragic, that he dismissed it 
 with a kind of compound smile. 
 
84 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 Dr. Farmer was a man of practical wisdom. He 
 had vastly more knowledge of human nature than 
 many whose opportunities for seeing what it is were 
 far superior to his own. His prudence and sagacity 
 were daily in use. He could judge of character with 
 singular accuracy. He could give advice. He could 
 get hold of the hearts of others, and gain their confi- 
 dence. He was one of the few men who have peo- 
 ple's confidence, without seeming to make any effort 
 to gain it ; he being always and everywhere above 
 suspicion. 
 
 He was ambitious only of doing his own proper 
 business. He was economical of strength, time, and 
 money. He made few false motions. He could say 
 what he wished to say, without giving offence. He 
 could ask the young man who had been sawing wood 
 for him, as he was receiving his pay, " Now, what are 
 you going to do with that money } " And, on receiving 
 some kind of an answer, he would inquire, " Wouldn't 
 it be wise to put a part of it into the savings bank } " 
 — following up the suggestion with a little calculation 
 about how much might be accumulated in that way in 
 a given space of time, reckoning in the interest. He 
 would thus show himself a benefactor to a person who 
 perhaps had no other one to befriend him. 
 
 Just in the right manner he could give a hint upon 
 temperance i in eating or drinking. He would easily 
 
MODE OF LIFE. 85 
 
 ascertain a young person's habits as to rising in the 
 morning, and would advise an earlier hour; saying 
 that an hour of precious time might be saved every 
 day for reading, or some other profitable employment, 
 but not omitting the suggestion that the change 
 should be made gradually, lest rising a whole hour 
 earlier than usual at first might cause unpleasant feel- 
 ings for the whole day. 
 
 The hints he gave concerning the preservation of 
 health were many, and always wise. Speaking with a 
 young man about climate, in its relations to longevity, 
 he mentioned a remark, with which he appeared 
 highly pleased, made by Dr. Franklin when on one of 
 his missions in Europe. The philosopher was asked, 
 to how great an age the people of America lived. 
 His reply was, that " he could not tell till Drinker 
 died;" Drinker being, according to the best version 
 of the story now at hand, a resident of Philadelphia 
 who had at that time attained a very great age. 
 
 Dr. Farmer being such a man in all these respects, 
 he could not but be a man of order and exact habits. 
 He always knew where to find his boots, and could 
 lay his hand on any utensil or piece of paper, without 
 a long search, at any time. His clothes were invari- 
 ably well brushed, and also his writing-desk and his 
 floor. His medicines were never adulterated, even 
 with dust. With him, to-day was very much like yes- 
 
86 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 terday, and to-morrow like to-day. He never was in a 
 hurry. He left his bed early in the morning ; went 
 immediately to the washbowl, that stood beside the 
 water-pail upon a bench or low shelf (this particu- 
 larly in his apothecary days) ; washed hands and face 
 thoroughly with a fine sponge, — always with a sponge, 
 — which gave a glow to his cheeks such as they had 
 at no other time ; then came a little throat-clearing, — 
 too vigorous for a consumptive, and his voice was too 
 easily managed for that ; the use of the comb came 
 next ; in regard to the brush, I am in doubt ; then a 
 few bouts of walking the room, — and he was ready 
 for business ; generally nothing more than a little fix- 
 ing of things till breakfast. He had a talent for em- 
 ploying odd moments in the use of the dust-brush or 
 the wing among his shelves, books, and bottles. 
 
 His toilet was more elaborate when the beard 
 needed attention, which was about three mornings a 
 week. The shaving of his thin visage (he always 
 shaved himself) was an undertaking of some magni- 
 tude, and not unfrequently he came from the glass 
 with a spot of blood on his face. 
 
 He lived rationally. He was not afraid of a bit of 
 beefsteak with potatoes. One day he took dinner 
 alone, the family being absent ; and the girl, when 
 she cleared the table, in her innocence made the re- 
 mark, **The doctor ate pretty well to-day." That he 
 
MODE OF LIFE. 87 
 
 ever indulged in wine, or any thing intoxicating, the 
 present witness has no knowledge ; and for snuff and 
 tobacco he had quite as little use. 
 
 When breakfast was over, he went into the substan- 
 tial business of the day. He sat down to that table 
 in front of which so large a part of his life was spent. 
 It was only three feet in length, and the same- in 
 breadth, — a common hard-wood table, of the invariable 
 old style, and of dark-brown color. Upon it was his 
 plain, portable desk, of generous dimensions, and 
 about the same hue; sloping on the front side to 
 within some two and a half inches of the face of the 
 table, and having on the opposite side the usual apart- 
 ments for inkstand, sand-box, and pens. Its open 
 face was covered with green flannel, worn smooth by 
 the attrition of innumerable books and sheets of 
 paper ; not to mention the hardship to which it was 
 subjected by the continual pressure of the owner's 
 right hand. And, were it not an indication that 
 somebody's eyes were too familiar with the doctor's 
 personal appearance, it might be recorded, that the 
 lower surface of his coat-sleeve was sometimes worn 
 to a shining smoothness. 
 
 This desk was closely packed round with books 
 and papers, so as to render its being pushed aside im- 
 possible, without throwing any number of things upon 
 the floor. It was never shut. A certain lad, before 
 
88 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 whose eye it lay open for so long a time, saw the 
 inside covers lifted very many times ; but it was so 
 sacred a thing that he never had the vicious curiosity 
 to touch one of them himself. It is not quite true, 
 however, that it was never shut. When the doctor 
 went upon the notable excursion of 1824, that desk 
 was not left open, — a circumstance of deep signifi- 
 cance, seeming to say that the busy toiler in that 
 laboratory of knowledge was gone; and a circum- 
 stance as rare as was the closing of the Temple of 
 Janus at Rome, — signifying that peace prevailed 
 among his manuscripts, books, pen, ink, and paper. 
 
 And the chair he sat in was not one that the polite 
 people of modern times would care to have in their 
 parlors. It was of oak, round back, bent frame, with 
 the seat covered with a plain cushion. He was a very 
 Diogenes as regards furniture. Indeed, it has all been 
 described ; unless his looking-glass has been forgotten, 
 which might have been twelve inches by ten in size, 
 with a few plain book-shelves and drawers, and a 
 trunk or two. His thermometer, inkstand, folder, and 
 ruler may be counted as nothing. The whole would 
 scarcely have sold for twenty-five dollars. Not a pic- 
 ture ever adorned the walls of his room, so far as I 
 can recollect. 
 
 There he sat at that table, and wrote and wrote. 
 No outside attraction took off his attention. Gen. 
 
MODE OF LIFE. 89 
 
 Lafayette rode through the thronged and noisy 
 streets in the summer of 1825, and Gen. Jackson 
 afterwards did the same thing ; but it is doubtful if 
 his curiosity led him farther than the window in 
 either case. Not that he did not breathe the spirit 
 of patriotism ; not that he had no warm admiration 
 for the great Frenchman and the great men of our 
 own country, — but his physical inability to enjoy the 
 exhilarating pageantry in which so many find delight, 
 together with his engrossment in the one purpose of 
 his life, continually held in check the curiosity he 
 might otherwise have indulged. 
 
XL 
 
 WRITING. — INDUSTRY. 
 
 R. FARMER'S writing was plain, uniform, 
 elegant, easily read ; each letter and each 
 stroke formed so perfectly as to appear like 
 engraving. He wrote rapidly, not often finding it 
 necessary to make an erasure or an interlineation ; 
 excepting when at work upon those statistical and 
 catalogical publications in reference to which he was 
 constantly receiving new information. 
 
 In his writing, emphatic words and phrases, such 
 as would be printed in Italics, were usually under- 
 scored, and always with the aid of the ruler; that 
 article being always kept within reach. His paper 
 was generally without ruling ; but his lines were as 
 straight as ruling could have made them, and of 
 uniform distances from each other. Frequently he 
 would hold up the left-hand end of the ruler, the 
 opposite end resting upon the paper, so as to be able 
 to make his line without blotting the words newly 
 written. Once in a while — not often — he would 
 
WRITING. — IND US TRY. 9 1 
 
 wipe off, while the ink was yet fresh, a letter or a 
 word which had dropped from the pen by mistake. 
 The ring-finger alone had the privilege of doing this 
 work, and the ink finally found its way to his hair. 
 
 He was sometimes seen bending over his paper, 
 and writing, as if for variety's sake, with his chin or 
 his cheek resting upon one end of his ruler, while the 
 other end rested upon his thigh ; the prop being held 
 in place by the left hand. When his writing was in- 
 terrupted only for a moment, his pen was held in his 
 mouth, or poised over his ear. 
 
 His inditstry was something marvellous. With 
 pen in his mouth, he would rise many times in a day, 
 and go to his book-shelves to consult some authority. 
 The writing of letters may be said to have been one 
 of the principal things to demand the use of his 
 strength. It is more than probable that he wrote 
 at least one letter a day, on an average, during the 
 whole of his Concord life ; as he was able to inform 
 almost any man that was known to any extent who 
 his ancestors were, and was constantly receiving 
 letters of inquiry upon matters of the kind. 
 
 His letters were models of neatness ; concise in 
 their expressions, and to the point, without circum- 
 locution ; affectionate, instructive, and encouraging, 
 — those to young men especially so. He used letter- 
 paper of the fashion of fifty years ago. In all his 
 
92 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 letters the writing was methodically kept from the 
 back of the sheet a proper distance, to allow of their 
 being bound in a volume if desired ; and a suitable 
 space was left upon the third page for the wafer. In 
 the date he usually put the number of the day before 
 the name of the month, — with the name of the month 
 abbreviated when possible, — and then the year ; as, 
 " I Jan., 1 88 1." And John was frequently written 
 *'Jno.," and other names were abbreviated in like 
 manner. 
 
 The writing of a letter completed, it was folded and 
 sealed as neatly and expeditiously as it was written. 
 He turned the sheet round, so that its right-hand 
 edge should be towards him ; doubled over about one- 
 third of the width of the first leaf ; doubled this upon 
 itself, bringing the farther edge of the folded part 
 near the back of the sheet ; then the lower end of 
 the sheet was slipped round, and folded to the proper 
 width ; then it was whirled end for end, for the 
 doubling of the upper portion in the same way ; and, 
 after one more turning, it was twice folded again, from 
 back to front, giving the letter its proper form ; each 
 folded edge being nicely and solidly smoothed as he 
 proceeded, with the back of the right thumb-nail, — 
 that thumb-nail being so often brought into the same 
 service that one inexperienced observer was some- 
 times apprehensive that it might be worn through ; 
 
INDUSTRY. 
 
 93 
 
 the thicker end was then inserted into the thinner, 
 on the back side ; and the wafer (moistened from the 
 mouth) slipped into its place, and pressed down with 
 the ball of the thumb ; the superscription added, — 
 and the missive was ready for the post-office. Doubt- 
 less thousands of others folded a letter in about the 
 same way, but these particulars are given as a matter 
 of minor historical interest ; it being the fact, that the 
 envelope revolution took place so far back in the past 
 as to leave the present generation without the means 
 of knowing how their fathers prepared their letters for 
 the mail. 
 
 And yet it is scarcely proper to say that letter- 
 writing constituted a principal part of the business 
 of his life. He always had some more solid work on 
 his hands. The writing of letters, either of business 
 or friendship, necessarily consumes time ; but it does 
 not draw upon the nervous power like the labor that 
 must be done in the production of a volume. A let- 
 ter may be completed in an hour or two, and then 
 dismissed from the mind ; but the preparation of a 
 work like Belknap's " History of New Hampshire," 
 or the " Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of 
 New England," requires vigorous and continued exer- 
 cise of the mental powers. It is an undertaking that 
 must weigh heavily upon the brain for weeks and 
 months, and probably much of the time in the night 
 as well as during the day. 
 
XII. 
 
 IN A NEW PLACE. 
 
 T this point in the sketch now given of Dr. 
 U Farmer, it ought to be mentioned that he 
 ^^ did not always remain in his modest quar- 
 ters in the apothecary estabhshment. I returned to 
 Concord after an absence of three years, not far 
 from the beginning of 1 829 ; and my former intimacy 
 with my early friend was immediately recommenced. 
 This date marks the commencement of a new period 
 in the personal history of Dr. Farmer ; although it is 
 to be confessed, that some of the circumstances al- 
 ready narrated took place subsequently to the above 
 date. 
 
 We have henceforth a new view of his whole man- 
 ner of life. He was in a situation hitherto entirely 
 unfamiliar to him, both as regards the employment of 
 his time, and the sources of his income. 
 
 The copartnership of Morrill & Farmer had been 
 dissolved ; their business had been discontinued ; si- 
 
IN A NEW PLACE. 95 
 
 lence reigned in the chamber over the store where 
 for years such quantities of drugs had been dispensed 
 to the people, for weal or for woe, and where so much 
 had been done by the doctor's pen for nothing but 
 the highest good of mankind ; and other men had as- 
 sumed the responsibility of furnishing the community 
 with things thought needful for their bodily ailments. 
 And about this period it was that Concord " Street " 
 began rapidly to put on a more modern appearance. 
 The blessed old wooden buildings in which the fathers 
 had lived and traded and labored were disappearing, 
 — being taken to pieces, or "retired" to more obscure 
 locahties. Brick blocks were raising their lofty forms, 
 and looking down, as if in scorn, upon the humbler 
 structures that remained standing around them, monu- 
 ments of the work of the generation just passing off 
 the stage. And sooner or later the tide of enterprise 
 was to sweep away the old store, and the mansion be- 
 neath whose roof the doctor had so long enjoyed a 
 quiet home, and around both of which clustered so 
 many inspiring associations. 
 
 Possibly these proceedings and tendencies of the 
 advancing age might have been distasteful to him 
 whose mind was so constantly occupied with the 
 things of the past, and whose reverence for the old 
 would naturally overbalance his love for the new. 
 Perhaps he wished to escape from the confusion that 
 
96 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 was increasing around him, and to find superior 
 advantages for reflection and study in a situation of 
 greater retirement. 
 
 He had left Main Street. He was no longer an 
 inmate of Gen. Low's hospitable home. Now his 
 boarding-place was on State Street, west side, about 
 midway between School and Pleasant, in the agreeable 
 family of Stephen P. Breed. He occupied the front 
 room of the north end, upon the lower floor of the 
 house. His bed was in the south-west corner, his 
 books were arranged upon the wall next the street, 
 his table stood in the centre ; upon the north side 
 there was an open fireplace, and during the winter 
 months he warmed himself by a visible, cheery blaze. 
 
 No longer surrounded by medicine drawers and 
 bottles and jars, no longer breathing an atmosphere 
 in which were mingled a thousand different odors, he 
 was in a condition much more suitable to the char- 
 acter and habits of the refined literary man that 
 he was. 
 
 He was now better situated for receiving visitors 
 than before. The clergymen of Concord and vicinity, 
 and prominent men from all parts of the State, were 
 frequently in his company ; and the conversation was 
 always of a dignified and instructive character, ran- 
 ging through the whole field of literature, science, and 
 history. Representatives and senators, judges and 
 
ATTENTION TO YOUNG MEN. 97 
 
 governors, often found it convenient to make him a 
 call ; and the young men, from whom he never 
 turned away when they needed advice or assistance, 
 were almost daily receiving his attentions. 
 
 It was about this time (1829 or 1830), that a num- 
 ber of young men united in forming the " Concord 
 Lyceum." This made work for the doctor. He 
 often corrected the compositions of the members, 
 sometimes suggested subjects of discussion; and his 
 influence did much to sustain its existence and use- 
 fulness. If any of us wished to know what king of 
 England, or of almost any other country, reigned when 
 any particular event or change took place, he could 
 tell us. If we wanted help in arranging a difficult 
 sentence, he could give it. If any principle in natu- 
 ral or moral philosophy required elucidation, he was 
 ready to satisfy our minds in regard to it. So far 
 was he from deeming it a hardship to receive calls and 
 appHcations for assistance from his young friends, 
 that he evidently would have felt it to be a privation 
 not to be thus noticed. Of one young man, who had 
 become less frequent in his calls than formerly, he 
 once said, " I fear I am losing my hold upon him ; " 
 the expression being accompanied with some appear- 
 ance of regret. 
 
 He was a natural teacher. At his new boarding- 
 place, for a considerable time, he had his niece Miss 
 
98 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 Riddle of Merrimack under his instruction ; thus aid- 
 ing her in pursuing her education. So well did he 
 love the practice of teaching, and so earnestly did he 
 desire to see improvement in his young acquaintances, 
 that, when one of them called upon him, he would 
 sometimes give variety to the interview by taking a 
 book, and saying, " Let us parse a little ; " or he would 
 introduce some other school exercise, with the same 
 end in view. ^ 
 
 The ways were innumerable in which he could show 
 a perfectly unselfish spirit. He had no disposition 
 to monopolize the vocation of the historian. When 
 I was residing for a time in a distant town, he made 
 some effort to induce me to prepare a historical sketch 
 of the place. He gave me a list of heads under 
 which the various portions of the narrative should be 
 arranged ; such as. Topography, First Settlers, etc. 
 But I had no leisure for the work, and it was never 
 done. 
 
 I was not, however, remarkable for modesty in say-, 
 ing what I thought I could do. In conversation at a 
 certain time, I expressed the belief that I could write 
 a sermon. " Well," said the doctor, " I will give you 
 a text;" and it was this: Mic. vi. 6-%, especially 
 the first part of the sixth, together with the eighth 
 verse, — " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, 
 and bow myself before the high God t — He hath 
 
ANECDOTES. 99 
 
 showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth the 
 Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " But 
 from indolence, pressure of business, or most likely 
 because I " had not a mind to," the sermon was never 
 produced. 
 
 While at Mr. Breed's, the Rev. Moses G. Thomas, 
 pastor of the Unitarian church, was his fellow-boarder 
 for a longer or shorter period. Their conversations 
 were frequent, and much enjoyed on both sides. 
 And here an anecdote cornes in place, which was 
 related by the doctor with an unusual degree of ani- 
 mation. In the course of his ministerial duties, the 
 Rev. Mr. Thomas exchanged pulpits on a certain 
 sabbath with the Rev. Thomas Worcester of Salis- 
 bury. He came to remain from Saturday afternoon 
 till Monday morning. At tea-time (I think it was) 
 he took his place at the table, with the family, and 
 possibly several boarders : the divine blessing was 
 implored with all solemnity, and all was progressing 
 with quietness and decorum. But, as soon as the 
 reverend and venerable gentleman began to eat, a 
 thought struck him seemingly with much force.: he 
 exclaimed, " Oh, I forgot I had a piece of Mrs. Worces- 
 ter s cheese in my trunk!'' and he abruptly left the 
 table, ran up-stairs, and quickly re-appeared with the 
 cheese in his hand. In telling this little incident, 
 
lOO MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 the doctor came as near to a full-voiced laugh as in 
 any case I can remember. 
 
 He once had a serious illness at the house of his 
 friend Hon. Jacob B. Moore. In speaking of it a 
 few years afterwards, he paid a high compliment to 
 one of the New-Hampshire clergymen who happened 
 to call upon him. He said he was quite disheartened, 
 and apprehensive that his end was near. The old 
 gentleman (it was the Rev. John H. Church, D.D., 
 of Pelham) came into the room smiling, and appear- 
 ing to be in the best of spirits. His experienced eye 
 discovered at once that the sick man needed the 
 medicine of cheerful looks and words, and he acted 
 accordingly. When the doctor expressed his fear 
 that the disease then upon him was going to prove 
 fatal, he tried to persuade him to the contrary, and 
 said, " I hope you will recover : you are going to do 
 a great deal of good in the world yet. We shall want 
 you for secretary of the New- Hampshire Missionary 
 Society ;'' the idea being about enough to make the 
 doctor himself smile. This sunny greeting and as- 
 suring conversation had a beneficial effect, and caused 
 the doctor to cherish a high opinion of his clerical 
 visitor. He never approved of any assumed solem- 
 nity, in tone or manner, on the part of a gospel 
 minister. 
 
XIII. 
 
 REMOVALS. — LETTERS. 
 
 UT the doctor makes another removal. 
 
 yEDl^ Perhaps in 1832 it was that he returned 
 K/^-^M^ to Main Street, North End, and became a 
 boarder with the Misses McClary. He was now 
 quite as retired as before, but still he was fully as 
 far from being alone : his friends knew where to 
 find him, and they were never more cordially wel- 
 comed. And he was still the same indefatigable 
 worker. His bed was again in the room where his 
 labors were performed, and that circumstance may 
 be held accountable for my recollection of an inci- 
 dent which shows that there was a vein of sportive- 
 ness about him which had not yet been exhausted. 
 He was one day taking an after-dinner nap. He lay 
 with his face towards the wall. I sat in the room 
 with him, reading or writing. By and by the sleeper 
 began to stir. He partly turned, and said, ''Wouldn't 
 you like a swarm of beesV A little at a loss what 
 to say, — for the thought came to my mind in an in- 
 
102 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 stant, that a swarm of bees would be an elephant on 
 my hands, — I ventured to answer, " I don't know but 
 I would : where are your bees ? " — " Here," was the 
 reply in rather a sleepy tone. I began to say to my- 
 self, " Well, the doctor is out of his head for once in 
 his life ; " but he relieved me of my bewilderment, 
 and set me to laughing at the same time, by reaching 
 out his hand, and giving me a scrap which he had 
 cut from a newspaper, with the title, "A Swarm of 
 B's." Some of the B's were, " Be patient, Be gentle, 
 Be kind," and so on to the end of a very instructive 
 little chapter. 
 
 In the midst of all his engagements, Dr. Farmer 
 had an eye upon the moral and religious condition of 
 the place in which he lived. The cause of tem- 
 perance, in all its phases, had a full share of his 
 solicitude ; and when he saw the people going to 
 extremes in any of their social enjoyments, it caused 
 him real uneasiness. While living at the North End, 
 he spoke at one time with much feeling of evening par- 
 tieSy — their frequency, their expense, their tendency 
 to foster dissipation of mind, the lateness of the 
 hours to which those attending them were kept away 
 from their homes, and the undesirable effects of them 
 in the general view ; and one of the ideas which he 
 mentioned in particular was, that they interfei'ed with 
 those religious dtities which in every family ought to 
 
LAST REMOVAL. IO3 
 
 commence and close the labors of the day. And he 
 expressed the wish that the attention of the com- 
 munity might be called to the subject in the religious 
 paper. He proposed to furnish the plan, if I would 
 fill it out. The proposal was accepted ; and there 
 appeared in "The New-Hampshire Observer" as 
 many as a dozen articles under the caption, " Even- 
 ing Parties," in which the said parties were treated 
 in no commendatory manner. 
 
 But by and by the good man makes one more re- 
 moval, prior to that last one that in a few years he 
 was to make to " the undiscovered country from 
 whose bourne no traveller returns." This time he 
 turned his back upon the noise and dust, and found 
 a home two miles from the middle of the town, upon 
 the main road leading in a westerly direction, in the 
 quiet and capacious residence of Mrs. Daniel Clark. 
 Here he had the privilege of feeling that he was in 
 the country. He could look out upon the fields, 
 woods, and hills, stretching far away towards the 
 south, east, and west. He breathed an atmosphere 
 perfumed with the odors of many a green tree and 
 many a sweet flower. His ears were saluted by the 
 songs of the birds. In the bright summer day he 
 could walk in the fields laden with the new-mown 
 grass, and enjoy to' the full the presence of nature 
 unshorn of its beauties by the inventions of man. 
 
I04 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 How much he was able to avail himself of the out- 
 of-door advantages which surrounded him, or how 
 often his devotion to his books would allow him to 
 do so, I cannot tell. His shoulders were becoming 
 a little more rounded than formerly, and the lines of 
 care and toil deeper in his face ; and, if memory does 
 not deceive me, gray hairs were showing themselves 
 upon his head. 
 
 But the time had now come for us to separate. 
 New engagements called me away from the place. 
 We never met but once or twice more. The last 
 time I ever pressed his loving hand was after we had 
 been taking a ride as far as the street. He appeared 
 then quite well. I thought I was going to see him 
 many times more, but his end was not far off. Most 
 of the following letters, however, were written pre- 
 vious to our last meeting. 
 
 Here is one written very soon after my removal 
 from Concord : — 
 
 Concord, i8 Sept., 1834. 
 
 My Friend J., — It occurred to me the other day that I 
 owed you the postage of a letter, and I take this method to 
 pay it. It slipped my mind when you were about leaving. 
 But I cannot promise you any thing more than the paper 
 itself, having been altogether incapacitated for writing by 
 sickness, and now not in a fit conditioia to sit up at my desk ; 
 so I take my paper on my arm-chair, and may scribble until 
 I am tired. 
 
LETTERS. 105 
 
 My illness commenced on the 5 th, the day previous to 
 which I received a visit from my Nashua friends Mr. and 
 Mrs. Spalding and their son, and Miss Kendall of Amherst. 
 They remained with me (that is, remained in town ; for they 
 put up at the Eagle), and were very kind in their attentions, 
 during the 5th and until the morning of the 6th, when they 
 returned home. Within a few days I was able to sit up, and 
 walk into the other part of the house, and yesterday rode 
 out, but am not able to perform any great feats of strength. 
 But I have abundant reason to thank Him, in whom we have 
 all that we enjoy in Hfe, and place all our hopes for a happy 
 existence hereafter, for the measure of strength imparted, 
 and relief from the pains experienced. Our aid under such 
 trials must always be derived from Him. 
 
 You are now probably well settled at your studies, and 
 are enjoying the pleasures of retirement, and the benefits 
 which books can confer, and the instructions of a devoted 
 minister of the gospel. I heard from you verbally by Mr. 
 Chadwick, who saw Mr. Stone at Meredith, and learnt that 
 your health was good. I hope you will continue to enjoy 
 as much ; but, in order to do it, you must remember to take 
 a due share of exercise. The haj'vest is not past, and in the 
 labors of that you may delight to participate. It is generally 
 a season of gladness, of joy, ajjd should be of devout aspira- 
 tions of gratitude to Him who giveth us all things liberally 
 to enjoy. I remember the enjoyments of gathering the 
 products of autumn Sy the harvest moon ; and it was no 
 unusual thing to collect on the green in large parties, to 
 
I06 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 prepare these products for winter storage, and this done in 
 the bright evenings of autumn. 
 
 The meetings at Meredith are spoken of as being highly 
 interesting. I hope the remarks of Dr. Matheson on the 
 subject of slavery will not be lost on the numerous clergy- 
 men who were present. It is a subject which must more 
 engage the attention of the messengers of glad tidings than 
 it ever has yet done. Ministers must not be afraid to speak 
 and to preach on the subject. Slavery is one of the greatest 
 national sins, and it cannot much longer remain unpunished. 
 Even Jefferson, a slaveholder, said he trembled for his coun- 
 try when he reflected that God was just. I have sometimes 
 queried in my mind, if our Saviour were again to appear 
 on earth, and should make our country the scene of his mis- 
 sion, what portion of our extended territory he would first 
 visit, and what the first people to whom he would proclaim 
 peace and good will towards men. Would he not first visit 
 the captive ? Would he not command that every yoke should 
 be broken, that the poor and ignorant slave should be set free 
 and enlightened? Would he not reprove some of his her- 
 alds for their apathy — nay, for their wickedness — in saying, 
 "Touch not the subject of slavery : they have slaves at the 
 South ; let the South take care of their slaves "? Now, this 
 has been actually said by professed Christians, and ministers 
 of the gospel. Let this course be adopted, and how long 
 would it be before the sin of slavery should cease ? This may 
 be a good subject for one of the " Letters from the Moun- 
 tains," which I hope will be forthcoming soon. You see, my 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 107 
 
 paper is exhausted ; so I must conclude with assurances of 
 my friendship, and my sincere hopes of your improvement 
 in every thing good. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that, in the above epistle, there 
 is a large amount of energy displayed by the writer, 
 for an invalid. In relation to the great evil of slavery, 
 it exhibits the righteous indignation of a man who 
 never uttered a sentiment which he did not feel. That 
 was a subject in regard to which he could not sup- 
 press his convictions. In the letters which follow, he 
 expresses the same feelings. They give some true 
 idea of the severity of the conflict that preceded the 
 final overthrow of the slave system in our country. 
 And yet we may well bear in mind, that at that time, 
 and during the years that followed, many things were 
 said and done, in opposition to the anti-slavery enter- 
 prise, which are now regretted by all. Here is his 
 next : — 
 
 Concord, N.H., 6 Nov., 1834. 
 
 My dear J., — Yours of the 29th ult. was handed me 
 last evening. It affords me great pleasure to learn that your 
 health is so good, and that you reahze such a share of en- 
 joyment, both temporal and spiritual. May these blessings 
 long continue, and may warm aspirations of gratitude ascend 
 to Him who in judgment remembers mercy I 
 
I08 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 I directed to you an " Observer " on which I wrote some- 
 thing, and the packet has long lain in my window for an 
 opportunity to send ; but I now substitute another paper, 
 containing No. 13 of" Evening Parties." 
 
 You speak of having an Anti-Slavery Society in Campton, 
 and I hope you will send delegates to our convention next 
 week. We are expecting several gentlemen of distinction 
 from abroad. I received, last Saturday, a letter from the 
 distinguished philanthropist George Thompson, from Lon- 
 don, who will, with permission of Divine Providence, be 
 with us, although he was engaged at Providence on the 14th. 
 He is greatly dehghted with the abolition feeling which is 
 abroad over the land. He says, — 
 
 " You have begiin well. All will work well while principle 
 is the guide. Never let us be induced, from any consideration, 
 to adopt that doctrine of devils, — expediency. While we 
 tread the straight line oi principle., the shield of the Almighty is 
 over us, and our triumph will be glorious." 
 
 While in Maine he attended the convention at Augusta, 
 lectured once at Hallowell, twice at Brunswick, three times 
 at Portland, and delivered about half a dozen addresses. 
 His interview with the students at Waterville, where he also 
 lectured, was peculiarly gratifying, and especially on account 
 that they all were abolitionists. At Brunswick a good por- 
 tion were in favor of anti- slavery principles, and the leaven 
 was diffusing itself rapidly. 
 
 The advice of Dr. Matheson at Meredith is beginning to 
 operate ; and I was surprised and gratified in seeing this day, 
 
LETTERS. 
 
 109 
 
 in yesterday's "Boston Patriot," a letter addressed by a 
 number of worthy citizens of that city to Mr. Lawrence, who 
 is a candidate for member of Congress, and calHng upon him 
 for an expression of his views in relation to the evils of 
 slavery. His reply is also published, and is all that aboli- 
 tionists could wish. A person's principles in regard to 
 slavery will by and by become the great test as to the choice 
 of members of Congress in the non-slaveholding States, and 
 especially with Christians, who have too long manifested 
 great apathy in the choice of our rulers. Why is it that we 
 have so many infidels and immoral characters for our rulers ? 
 Is it not because Christians have aided by their votes in 
 their elevation? If a candidate was only of the right kind 
 of politics, no matter whether he were an infidel or deist. 
 You have seen something of this kind of feeling in Concord. 
 
 I am happy to learn from some gentlemen I lately saw, 
 that your Rev. Brother Stone is favorably disposed to the 
 anti-slavery cause. To this result we must all come, al- 
 though the process is longer with some than others. To 
 those who fully believe that the laws of God are para- 
 mount to the laws of man, the process is a short and easy 
 one. "We ought to obey God rather than man." (Acts 
 v. 29.) 
 
 In regard to religious prospects, an effort is now making 
 to excite the attention of the church in this place. It is said 
 that there has seldom been so much want of religious feeling 
 
 here since Mr. B 's settlement, as at this time. Meetings 
 
 are taking place throughout the town, and to-morrow there 
 
no MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 is to be a meeting through the day at the M. H. ; and next 
 week there is to be a protracted meeting in the West Parish. 
 You will present my respects to Mr. Stone, and in return to 
 
 the kind remembrance of Mrs. Le B , to her also, with 
 
 a wish that your happiness may continue. 
 
 With sincere regards I remain your friend, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
 P. S. Write as often as you can. 
 
XIV. 
 
 LETTERS. — ANTI-SLAVERY. 
 GAIN he writes under the date of 
 
 rA3 Concord, 24 Jan., 1835. 
 
 %mO!^' My dear J., — I often wish that the communica- 
 tion between this place and C was more frequent, as in 
 
 that case, if I did not write, I would endeavor to send you 
 something equivalent to a letter ; and I should hope also to 
 receive more frequent communications from you. Your last 
 letter gave me much pleasure, as did also the call of Rev. 
 Mr. Stone, from whom I had such pleasing intelligence con- 
 cerning you, — of your progress in your studies, of your 
 personal quiet and happiness. Your " No. III." of " Letters 
 from the Mountains " was also valuable, and I will inform 
 you how I have disposed of that and the preceding num- 
 bers. "No. I." was handed to "The Observer," and met 
 with an immediate insertion. " No. II." touched upon the 
 subject of slavery ; and having been in the hands of the 
 editors about six weeks, and not published, I withdrew it, 
 and presented it to "The Abolitionist," where it was in- 
 serted in tne first number of that paper. In order to save 
 harmless " The Observer," by adding any explanatory note, 
 
1 1 2 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 I called " No. II." "No. I." when published in "The Abo- 
 litionist," and "No. III." will be "No. II." I hope you 
 will continue the series, and send a number for every num- 
 ber of the paper ; and now you need not fear to touch 
 upon the subject of slavery, as we have a paper in which 
 discussion is admitted. This prohibition of discussion was 
 to me a cause of deep regret. It was so to many others, 
 and I presume it was to you. It is not in agreement with 
 the principles of Protestantism. Our Puritan fathers would 
 be unwilling to acknowledge some of their time-serving pos- 
 terity. "Discussion," say the students of Lane Seminary, — 
 the " Expose " of whom I hope you will read, — "is the 
 standard test for the detection of fallacies and the revelation 
 of truth. It is the furnace where gold and alloy separate. 
 It is the fan which drives the chaff and wheat asunder. It 
 is the court of errors, where the decisions of individual 
 tribunals are reversed or confirmed. In the search after 
 truth, can we dispense with such aid, when available, and 
 be guiltless?" 
 
 The new paper in behalf of abolition, which has lately 
 commenced here, will need writers, and will need pa- 
 tronage, in order to be sustained. Will not our friends at 
 C do something? Cannot you obtain ten or twelve sub- 
 scribers? Try and see. An account of your Anti-Slavery 
 Society is wanted, with the names of the officers. I have 
 on hand a few copies of the proceedings of our convention, 
 and address to the people of New Hampshire on the subject 
 of slavery in the District of Columbia, which I wish to send 
 
LETTERS. 113 
 
 you. Direct some of your C friends coming to this 
 
 place, to call on me for them. 
 
 You speak of those papers I put into your hands before 
 you left Concord. Give yourself no uneasiness about them. 
 Unless I send you others connected with them, they will 
 appear as unintelligible to you as some of your first lessons 
 in Euclid or the Greek grammar. 
 
 I am informed that there is some attention to religion in 
 
 our village. This is the fourteenth day of a meeting holden 
 
 every evening at the town hall, where various neighboring 
 
 ministers have officiated. Gov. Morrill seems to be much 
 
 engaged. There is also a protracted evening meeting at the 
 
 schoolhouse near Mrs. Clark's, on the Hopkinton road. 
 
 Let me hear from you oftener than of late, and be assured I 
 
 have the warmest wishes for your happiness and usefulness, 
 
 and remain your friend, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
 My respects to Mr. S and your wife. 
 
 Again he writes : — 
 
 Concord, 10 June, 1835. 
 
 ,My dear Friend, — Your old instructor has not forgotten 
 you, but thinks of you almost daily, if not every day ; and it 
 was with no small degree of pleasure that he found, from 
 your letter of the 28th ult., that he himself was not forgotten 
 by his affectionate and well-beloved pupil. My silence has 
 been principally owing to various duties which have crowded 
 upon me. As corresponding secretary of three distinct 
 societies, I have much gratuitous labor to perform, and 
 
114 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 some of my friends do not receive so many letters from me 
 as they would if these societies were like some which have 
 corresponding secretaries ; but they all have work for this 
 officer to do, and it must be done within a certain time. 
 Notwithstanding my silence, I remember my friends. I 
 delight to call them to mind, and to enjoy the reveries their 
 recollection affords. 
 
 You would have been much gratified in attending the 
 annual meeting of the New-Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society, 
 to witness the warmth of feeling and the breathings of benevo- 
 lence for those in chains, and groping in moral and intellect- 
 ual darkness. The whole proceedings you will see in the next 
 number of "The Herald of Freedom," from the pen of Mr. 
 Kimball, who is now a boarder in our family. A great effort 
 has been made here, to prop up the colonization cause ; and 
 the friends of it were excited to action by the presence of 
 Mr. Gurley, the general secretary at Washington. He took 
 part in the discussion on Friday evening, lectured on Satur- 
 day evening, preached on sabbath afternoon and evening, 
 and lectured again on Monday evening, when he received, 
 as auxiliaries, Samuel Cushman, Joseph Robinson, and Gov. 
 Morrillj who all spoke ; and with all these efforts, I under- 
 stand, about three hundred dollars were pledged. Now, mark 
 the difference. The Anti-Slavery Society at their meeting 
 on Friday evening, in the course of fifteen or twenty min- 
 utes, raised the sum of five hundred twenty-six dollars ; or 
 that amount was pledged for the general objects of the so- 
 ciety. It will doubtless be applied to the objects of an 
 agency, on which Mr. Storrs will be appointed. 
 
LETTERS. 115 
 
 Col. Baker, who delivered me your letter, appears to be 
 an intelligent man and a stanch abolitionist. I am in hopes 
 he will call again ; as I wish to make inquiry respecting the 
 prospects in your quarter, and whether you need an agent 
 to visit you. Mr. Storrs was our delegate at New York on 
 the 1 2th, and at Boston on the 25th. He is now attending 
 the New-England Conference at Lynn, in which, last week, 
 an anti-slavery society was formed, and forty ministers had 
 signed the constitution on Friday last. 
 
 The improvements going on in Concord, the present sea- 
 son, would somewhat astonish you. I hope you will come 
 and see us this summer. If you cannot, you must favor me 
 with your letters somewhat oftener. If you should have any 
 thing like an original hymn or ode, suitable for the annual 
 meeting of the Concord Anti-Slavery Society, to be on the 
 4th prox., it will be acceptable. 
 
 With regards to your family and Mr. S., 
 I remain your friend, 
 
 JOHN FARMER. 
 
 26 June. I have delayed sending this letter till this time. 
 I would remark that the day of fasting and prayer in behalf 
 of the slaves throughout the United States was observed in 
 this place yesterday. Mr. Storrs gave an excellent discourse 
 from Matt. xvii. 20. We are thinking of an anti-slavery 
 hymn-book, to contain pieces suitable to be sung at the 
 monthly concert, last Monday of each month ; and I will 
 thank > ou to write one or more, and also to prepare an 
 
Il6 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 anthem, — that is, fix some suitable words of Scripture to 
 some approved piece of music. 
 
 Yours as before, 
 
 J. F. 
 
 These letters were written in one of the most stir- 
 ring periods of our country's history. The great 
 battle was well begun which ended in the emancipa- 
 tion of four millions of enslaved men, women, and chil- 
 dren. Only those who lived during the long struggle 
 can form any proper judgment of the amount of 
 wrangling and bitterness by which it was character- 
 ized. It seems almost strange that a man like Dr. 
 Farmer, mild, candid, dispassionate, as he was, should 
 have been so enthusiastically engaged in it ; but all 
 is explained by the simple fact that it was a contest 
 for justice and mercy that was going on. It was his 
 conscience that was doing its work. 
 
 The men whose names he mentions as being on 
 what he esteemed the wrong side of the great ques- 
 tion, were good men. He admitted them to be such. 
 He had no gnashing of teeth for them. He only 
 meant to adhere firmly to the right. We may be 
 thankful that the time has arrived when a better 
 understanding prevails in regard to these matters of 
 national and world-wide importance. 
 
 It may not be out of place to remark, that George 
 Thompson, Esq., of London, Eng., and Rev. R. R. 
 
LETTERS. 117 
 
 Gurley of Washington, D.C., of whom Dr. Farmer 
 speaks, were not only men of the highest character 
 otherwise, but also among the most distinguished ora- 
 tors of the two hemispheres. Each of them pleaded 
 his cause in a manner that was truly magnificent. 
 Whether Dr. Farmer ever listened to the eloquence 
 of either, I do not know ; but he probably admired 
 them both, while he agreed with the one, and differed 
 from the other. 
 
 A few months after the reception of the last of the 
 above letters, I removed to another place, and to a 
 situation of increased responsibility and labor ; and 
 then, after a little more than another year, I found 
 myself in Massachusetts, with still heavier burdens 
 upon me ; and I fear I began to be inexcusably neg- 
 lectful of my correspondence with the friend who 
 never knew when to cease showing kindness to me. 
 To that place came the last letter I ever received from 
 him, which is as follows : — 
 
 Concord, 3 July, 1837. 
 
 My dear Friend, — Yours of the 23d was delivered to 
 me the day of its date. It was welcome, but much more 
 welcome would have been the hand that wrote it ; yet I can 
 excuse you for not calling, as your calls were imperious. It 
 is more than a year since I saw you ; and, until your late letter, 
 it was a long time since I had heard from you. I rejoice in 
 all your prosperity, and feel happy in learning that the sphere 
 
I 1 8 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 of your usefulness is enlarged ; that you are in your native 
 State, and near the residence of your early ancestors. Our 
 dear old Massachusetts, after all, is entitled to our highest 
 regard ; and notwithstanding some faults, and something that 
 we could wish were otherwise, we can with ardor exclaim, 
 " We love her still I " You will, I imagine, find more con- 
 genial society where you now are than you could expect at 
 
 D ; and you will be in the neighborhood of ministers of 
 
 the gospel, with whom to associate must be one of the high- 
 est delights of this sublunary state. You will, I doubt not, 
 use that prudence and circumspection in your intercourse 
 with them, which your experience and a due regard to your 
 usefulness and reputation will naturally suggest ; and among 
 your people you will find a great call for prudence. There 
 have been some eminent men settled in the ministry in 
 Stoneham ; and I recollect of once seeing a sermon of Rev. 
 John Searl, who was regarded as fond of metaphysical inves- 
 tigation. He was settled first as the second minister of 
 Sharon, Conn., in August, 1749, but was dismissed on ac- 
 count of feeble health in 1754. He, however, recovered his 
 health, and was installed at Stoneham, where he lived to an 
 advanced age. Dr. Dwight informs us in his travels, that 
 Mr. Searl and Judge Noble were the first persons who ever 
 went to the top of Saddle Motmtain, which is considered 
 the highest mountain in Massachusetts. Thus much for one 
 of your predecessors. It may be well for you to collect 
 some account of all the ministers who have been settled 
 there, and communicate it to " The New-England Specta- 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY. 
 
 119 
 
 tor," or "Boston Recorder." I am, perhaps, quite as 
 desirous that important facts should be preserved for suc- 
 ceeding generations since I have been so deeply immersed 
 in the old papers in the secretary's office [of state] as I was 
 before. I have, to my sorrow, seen the loss of many valu- 
 able documents which would be highly useful in illustrating 
 the early events in our country's history. 
 
 But I cannot enlarge, as I must say a word on anti- 
 slavery. It was the remark of a good old Puritan minister, 
 that he wished to sweeten his mouth daily with a little of 
 Calvin ; so, in Hke manner, do I find it comfortable for me 
 to dip a little into anti-slavery. The cause is onward, not- 
 withstanding all the obstacles thrown in the way to oppose 
 it. Those very obstacles add to its momentum. In this 
 State, there is much latent abolition, which will soon be called 
 into action. "The Herald" has been doing good, and it 
 has brought many into the light : but I lament to inform 
 you its talented and accomphshed editor [Mr. Rogers] is 
 now languishing on the bed of sickness ; and it is not at all 
 probable that he will be at present, if ever, able to resume 
 his useful labors. He is one of a thousand, if not ten thou- 
 sand. I know not any one who can fill his place. The 
 Ladies' Society here are sending out petitions to every town 
 in the State. They are before us men in the good cause ; 
 and I know not [but] that the world would go on better if 
 Miss Martineau's principles of the rights of women (see the 
 chapter on the "Pohtical Non-Existence of Women," in her 
 new work " Society in America ") should be received, and 
 carried out. 
 
120 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 To-morrow our national independence is to be celebrated 
 by the young men on one part, and by the Sunday school 
 and friends of temperance on the other part. For me, I 
 think with Garrison, — 
 
 "We'll not discourse of British wrong, 
 Of valorous feats in arms by freemen bold, 
 Nor spit on kings, nor tauntingly call names j 
 But we will fall upon our bended knees. 
 And weep in bitterness of heart, and pray 
 Our God to save us from his gathering wrath : 
 We will no longer multiply our boasts 
 Of liberty, till we are truly free." 
 
 Remember your old friend, and remember him to your 
 wife and family. That the blessing of God may be with you, 
 is my fervent prayer. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 J. FARMER. 
 
 I have not failed to reflect that it is something like 
 unfairness to the departed, to publish their letters, 
 which were written in the haste of private correspond- 
 ence, and in which they freely express their opinions, 
 without the remotest thought of their being exposed 
 to any other eye than that of the recipient ; but an- 
 other reflection is, that Dr. Farmer would have been 
 the last man to wish to conceal his views of any sub- 
 ject whatever. 
 
 Mr. Rogers (N. P.), mentioned in the above letter, 
 was at the time extremely unpopular with many ex- 
 
ANTI-SLA VER V. j 2 1 
 
 cellent people. He was a man of high cultivation, 
 and genial and attractive manners, a gifted attorney- 
 at-law, a gentleman in any society, — precisely the man 
 we should not expect to see contending for the rights 
 of the down-trodden slave. He married a sister of 
 the wife of George Kent, Esq., and was often a visitor 
 at the house of the latter gentleman in Concord ; Mr. 
 Kent being a man of the same stamp, and equally well 
 disposed towards the anti-slavery enterprise. When 
 he visited Concord, in the first years of his connec- 
 tion with the church, he attended the prayer-meeting 
 with his brother-in-law, if that meeting occurred dur- 
 ing his stay in the place ; and my pleasant recollection 
 of him there is as a humble Christian gentleman, 
 particularly arresting my youthful attention by spread- 
 ing his handkerchief upon the dirty floor of the old 
 town-house, to kneel upon when he led in prayer. 
 
 He came down from Plymouth, and took up his 
 residence in Concord, during the heat of the anti- 
 slavery controversy, and became editor of " The Her- 
 ald of Freedom." I am pained to say, — and I say it 
 with becoming tenderness, remembering that he can- 
 not now make any defence of himself, — that he 
 thought he saw in the Church that (in relation to 
 slavery) which warranted him in withdrawing from 
 it ; and that he was led to express himself many times 
 in an extremely harsh and uncharitable manner. Nor 
 
122 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 would I by any means justify all that was done, or 
 left undone, in the Church in those exciting and try- 
 ing times. 
 
 But Dr. Farmer thought, that, though it were wrong 
 to speak or act against the Churchy it was equally so 
 to speak or diCtfor slavery : therefore he did not turn 
 against the Church, nor against his friend Rogers. 
 However much he might value the friendship of 
 others, he held in the highest esteem Mr. Rogers, 
 Mr. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and the anti-slavery 
 leaders and laborers generally. 
 
XV. 
 
 LABORS.— LAST DAYS. 
 
 HAVE -before spoken of the immense 
 amount of labor performed by Dr. Farmer, 
 and I feel unwilling to draw these reminis- 
 cences to a close without presenting some general 
 view of his published and unpublished works. The 
 following summary was given by Rev. Dr. Bouton in 
 his discourse preached at the funeral of Dr. Farmer, 
 and was also contained in the sketch of him, written 
 soon after his death, by Hon. Jacob B. Moore. In the 
 fewest words it is as here given : — 
 
 Historical Sketch of Billerica, Mass. ; Historical 
 Sketch of Amherst, N.H. ; A Family Register of the 
 Descendants of Edward Farmer of Billerica, Mass., 
 in the Youngest Branch of his Family ; A Topo- 
 graphical and Historical Description of the County 
 of Hillsborough, N. H. ; An Ecclesiastical Regis- 
 ter of New Hampshire, containing a Succinct Ac- 
 count of the Different Religious Denominations, their 
 Origin, Progress, and Numbers in 1821, with a Cata- 
 
124 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 logue of the Ministers of the Several Churches from 
 1638 to 1821; The New Mihtary Guide, a Com- 
 pilation of Rules and Regulations for the Use of the 
 Militia ; A Gazetteer of New Hampshire, in con- 
 junction with Hon. Jacob B. Moore ; Memoir of 
 the Penacook Indians ; Catechism of the History 
 of New Hampshire for Schools and Families ; The 
 Concord Directory, 1830; Pastors, Deacons, and 
 Members of the First Congregational Church, in 
 Concord, N.H., from November, 1730, to Novem- 
 ber, 1830; an edition of Mason on Self-Knowledge, 
 with questions ; an edition of the Constitution of 
 New Hampshire, with questions, for academies and 
 schools ; a new edition of Belknap's History of New 
 Hampshire, containing various corrections and illus- 
 trations of the first and second volumes of Belknap, 
 with additional facts and notices of persons and 
 events ; seventeen volumes of the New-Hampshire 
 Annual Register and United-States Calendar ; three 
 volumes of Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous, 
 in connection with J. B. Moore ; papers in the second 
 and third series of the Massachusetts Historical Col- 
 lections ; papers in five volumes of Collections of the 
 New-Hampshire Historical Society; and papers in 
 The American Quarterly Register as follows : sketches 
 of the first graduates of Dartmouth College from 1771 
 to 1783; list of the Congregational and Presbyterian 
 
LABORS. 125 
 
 ministers of New Hampshire from its first settlement 
 to 1 8 14; list of the graduates of all the colleges of 
 New England, containing about nineteen thousand 
 names ; list of eight hundred and forty deceased min- 
 isters who graduated at Harvard College from 1642 
 to 1826, together with their ages, dates of graduation, 
 and decease ; memoirs of ministers who graduated at 
 Harvard College to 1657. To all which may be added 
 his "Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of 
 New England," a work of immense labor, and intended 
 to be carried out on a scale of the grandest dimen- 
 sions. The title-page of one of the great historical 
 works of Massachusetts, afterwards published, is in 
 itself a comphment to the excellence of the work of 
 Dr. Farmer, as also to the merit of its author. It is, 
 " A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of 
 New England, on the basis of Farmer's Register, by 
 James Savage." 
 
 In manuscript he left a large mass of material for 
 a second volume of the History of New Hampshire ; 
 sketches more or less complete of deceased lawyers, 
 physicians, councillors, and senators of New Hamp- 
 shire ; extended tables of mortality and longevity ; 
 list of the graduates of the colleges in New York and 
 New Jersey, not complete ; ten bound volumes, duo- 
 decimo, of memoirs of more than two thousand gradu- 
 ates of Harvard College ; and two bound volumes, 
 
126 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER, 
 
 same size, of memoirs of graduates of Dartmouth 
 College; besides corrections and additions to almost 
 all his published works, which might have been incor- 
 porated in new editions. 
 
 During the last part of his life he was occupied 
 with the work committed to him by the Legislature of 
 New Hampshire, of arranging, indexing, and prepar- 
 ing for binding, the public papers of the State. Prob- 
 ably no day-laborer was reduced to severer toil than 
 he imposed upon himself while engaged in this work. 
 He found the ancient records in great confusion. He 
 arranged them in chronological order, put them into 
 a condition for binding, copying many hundreds of 
 pages ; so that in the archives of the State there are 
 now more than a score of ponderous and elegantly 
 bound volumes of these papers, which will be of great 
 service to future generations, and for which they will 
 be indebted to his industry and skill. 
 
 In his message to the Legislature, June, 1837, Gov. 
 Isaac Hill, who had been an intimate acquaintance 
 and friend of Dr. Farmer for many years, makes the 
 following remarks : — 
 
 " Perhaps a century may occur before another person 
 with the peculiar tact and talent of Mr. Farmer shall pre- 
 sent to undertake this work. Although of extremely feeble 
 health, there is not probably any other person in the State 
 who can readily perform so much ; none so well versed in 
 
LABORS. 127 
 
 its history, and who has, like him^ traced from the root up- 
 wards the rise and progress of government in the land of 
 the Pilgrims, and the origin and spread of every consider- 
 able family name in New England." 
 
 But any description of Dr. Farmer's labors must 
 necessarily be quite imperfect. The work he did as 
 a member of the publishing committee of the New- 
 Hampshire Historical Society ; his annual reports of 
 the various societies of which he was secretary, and 
 keeping the records of those societies ; his contribu- 
 tions to weekly and monthly publications ; and his 
 voluminous correspondence, — these items, in addi- 
 tion to the more extended and laborious undertakings 
 of his life, show that he performed an amount of work 
 that is truly astonishing. 
 
 And all this must not imply that he was not a 
 reader. The fact is, it implies the contrary. The old 
 tan-colored volumes and pamphlets that he pored over 
 for hours and days, and which in a measure furnished 
 the pabulum that fed his prolific pen, deserve the 
 name of legion ; not to say any thing of the current 
 literature, to which he gave a due share of attention. 
 He sent in every direction for books of a historical or 
 biographical character. Even an antiquated almanac 
 he regarded as a choice acquisition ; and how much 
 pleasure it gave him to find a name or a date that 
 was wanting to fill a vacant space in one of his cata- 
 
128 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 logues or records, it would be difficult to tell. And 
 in the same line of thought it is, to say that he ap- 
 peared to have a real affection for the Latin names 
 found in the college catalogues. It is pleasant to 
 know that he found sc much of enjoyment in the 
 midst of his toilsome career. It is also a gratifying 
 fact that his eminent character and services were rec- 
 ognized by his election to membership in the Royal 
 Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen, and 
 of the American Antiquarian Society ; as well as 
 corresponding member of the Historical Societies of 
 Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and New York. 
 
 But it is impossible to find any thing agreeable in 
 the fact, that, for all his hard work, he received but 
 meagre compensation. He once alluded to this fact, 
 evidently with some feeling of sadness. He said that 
 for a considerable time his income had been scarcely 
 equal to his expenses. It is not unreasonable to sup- 
 pose, that, if he had been as laborious a writer of fic- 
 tion as he was of solid and useful history, he might 
 have approached the estate of a millionnaire. If he 
 ever offered the prayer of Agur, it was answered : 
 he knew not the inflictions of either poverty or riches. 
 
 As I look back upon his life, I see a mild and pleas- 
 ant light running through it all, — the light of a mod- 
 est, uncomplaining laborer for God and man. It gives 
 me pain to reflect that I was not sooner awakened to 
 
BEAUTY OF CHARACTER. 1 29 
 
 a consciousness of having some knowledge of him 
 that was worthy of being communicated to others. 
 Many times since the dark curtain fell between him 
 and me, have I wished I might enjoy the privilege of 
 consulting him upon questions that were difficult for 
 me to solve. I would go almost any distance, that I 
 might be in his sunny presence, and enjoy an hour of 
 conversation with him once more. I shall never for- 
 get his fatherly affection, his sweetness of temper, his 
 invariable superiority to self. But yesterday it seems, 
 since he bent over me to see if I were taking due 
 pains with my penmanship ; since he reminded me 
 of my mistakes in grammar ; or, indeed, gave me just 
 the kindest possible admonition concerning errors 
 that were neither grammatical nor right in any sense 
 whatever. 
 
 I was not always careful of his valuable utensils. 
 Who was it but me that gave the edge of his porce- 
 lain mortar a stroke with the pestle intended to jar 
 off the medicine that adhered to its sides, and saw the 
 mortar ruined } who else that tried the experiment of 
 going out of doors to scour his spatula, and left half 
 of the blade in the ground } and who that tasted his 
 tamarinds oftener than was in any wise necessary .? 
 But, oh, I can to-day see that still placid countenance, 
 marked with a slight shade of sorrow, which sent 
 straight to my heart the severest rebuke I could have 
 received ! 
 
I30 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 One of his friends made him a present of an elegant 
 inkstand, and a finely polished marble or soapstone 
 ruler. As another friend was viewing and admiring 
 the ruler, it dropped from his hand, and was in frag- 
 ments ; and yet there was the same unruffled spirit, 
 and the same kindly expression. There was the great 
 marvel. 
 
 Well enough he could see the sins and follies of 
 others, but he uttered no harsh judgments. The 
 strongest expression of dislike that ever fell from his 
 lips in my hearing — nor am I able to recollect of 
 what or whose performance it was uttered — was, 
 " Vox et praeterea nihil." 
 
 Years after my acquaintance with him began, it 
 seemed to do him good to put into my hand a cluster 
 of nice raisins that he had laid up in some safe place. 
 When I was about visiting Boston, uninitiated in the 
 intricacies and dangers of the great city, he was care- 
 ful to give me a letter of introduction to a gentleman 
 of his acquaintance (Francis Jackson, Esq.), which 
 was a great benefit to me while there. His tender 
 anxiety when I was sick and suffering, and his fatherly 
 visit to my bedside at that gloomy period, will never 
 be blotted from my memory or my heart. 
 
 But the bright scenes are all past. Death overtook 
 my old friend in the midst of his days, and with his 
 work but half done ; but he had not been thoughtless 
 
LAST DA YS, 
 
 131 
 
 concerning the uncertainty of life. All letters of im- 
 portance that he had received were found, after his 
 decease, nicely arranged in packages, and directed, 
 ready to be delivered to the writers. 
 
 Suddenly fell the fatal stroke. His death was one 
 of those events which almost unsettle our belief in a 
 universal and unerring Providence. In the full tide 
 of his usefulness, when he was never more valuable 
 to his friends, and when his health was scarcely ever 
 more firm, he was stricken down. 
 
 So frequently had he been laid aside, that no alarm 
 was felt when it became known that he was upon the 
 bed of suffering ; but that he was sick unto death, 
 was the announcement that quickly followed. The 
 friends who had long enjoyed his confidence and 
 affection hastened to his relief. Particularly the one 
 who had never failed him in times of distress — Miss 
 Catharine Kendall, afterwards Mrs. Steele — was there. 
 To her he whispered his words of hope as he looked 
 forward to immortality, leaning upon the arm of his 
 Saviour. On the evening of his last sabbath, at his 
 request, she sang in his failing ear a favorite hymn. 
 His mind was clear to the last. He ceased to breathe 
 at about six o'clock on Monday morning, Aug. 13, 
 1838. 
 
 At his funeral, a handsome tribute was paid to his 
 character and memory by Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, 
 
132 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 D.D., pastor of the First Congregational Church in 
 Concord, who had long been one of his most intimate 
 acquaintances. The house of worship was filled with 
 attentive listeners, all classes deeming it a privilege 
 to share in the honors paid to one whom none knew 
 but to love. 
 
 He had no companion or child to be laid by his 
 side in the grave ; but the same tender affection 
 which Gen. Joseph Low had so long cherished to- 
 wards him, now provided his last resting-place. He 
 was laid in the General's own family-lot, near the 
 centre of the southern division of the old cemetery in 
 Concord. The epitaph engraven upon the family 
 monument — eastern face — thus reads : — 
 
EPITAPH. 133 
 
 JOHN FARMER, 
 
 ©fell 
 AUGUST 13, 1838, 
 
 PL. 49. 
 BORN AT CHELMSFORD, MASS. 
 
 HONORED AS A MAN, 
 
 DISTINGUISHED AS AN ANTIQUARIAN AND SCHOLAR, 
 
 BELOVED AS A FRIEND, 
 
 AND REVERED AS A CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPIST 
 
 AND LOVER OF IMPARTIAL LIBERTY, 
 
 HIS DEATH HAS OCCASIONED A VOID IN SOCIETY 
 
 WHICH TIME WILL FAIL TO SUPPLY; 
 
 AND THE REASON AND FITNESS OF WHICH, 
 
 AS TO TIME, MANNER, AND ATTENDANT CIRCUMSTANCES, 
 
 ETERNITY ALONE CAN UNFOLD. 
 
134 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 As another evidence of the esteem in which he was 
 held by his friend Gen. Low, there is on the children's 
 side of the monument the inscription, — 
 
 JOHN FARMER, 
 
 Died June 26, 1828, 
 
 /E. 8 Mos. 
 
 This being a child named John Farmer Low. 
 
 Dr. Farmer had seen but little more than forty-nine 
 years of life. Many hearts were made sorrowful by 
 the announcement that he was no more ; while it is 
 almost an impropriety to say that he was no more, 
 for in his works, and in the hearts of multitudes, he 
 still lives, and seems to be even more than when he 
 was with us in the body. And eyes which have never 
 yet seen the light will bear testimony to the greatness 
 of the benefits he bestowed upon his country and the 
 world. 
 
 I am aware of the incompleteness of this memorial. 
 It is the testimony of a single individual only, and 
 one who saw this noble man but a small part of his 
 time. How voluminous and grand would be the ac- 
 count of him that might be written by one who had 
 watched him through all the busy and fruitful years of 
 his life ! How bright the light that would shine from 
 the pages ! How instructive the incidents, the anec- 
 dotes, the expressions of wisdom, that fell from his lips ! 
 
XVI. 
 
 SURVEY OF FORMER SCENES. 
 
 ^fcrr^N the summer of 1882, when my dear old 
 friend had been dead forty-four years, with 
 the saddest of pleasure I visited the scenes 
 which were best fitted to make me feel myself once 
 more in his presence. The store, in the second story 
 of which he passed the first years of his life in Con- 
 cord, was gone, leaving no marks to show precisely 
 where it stood. Gen. Low's house, likewise, had dis- 
 appeared before the encroachments of modern busi- 
 ness and wealth. 
 
 The Breed house I found in a good state of preser- 
 vation, but not with its old-time appearance. It had 
 obeyed the order to turn its face from the street, to 
 step to the rear, and to become a mere annex of a 
 more sumptuous edifice. But I was politely permitted 
 to enter. There was the same room of former times, 
 and yet it was not the same. A door had been sub- 
 stituted for the window through which the doctor had 
 
136 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER, 
 
 hundreds of times looked out upon the people, and 
 the church and its clock ; the homelike fireplace had 
 been bricked up ; and other changes had been made, 
 so as to render it impossible even for the imagination 
 to make it seem like the temple where, fifty years 
 ago, the prophet of history gave forth his oracles. 
 Scarcely could I feel that he was there. 
 
 At the former residence of the Misses McClary, my 
 visit was more satisfactory. The room where the 
 doctor wrote and read and slept, and held unheralded 
 receptions, was thrown open to me. It remained 
 almost wholly unchanged. Having passed its modest 
 door, I stood for a moment as if my feet were fastened 
 to the floor. My thoughts were transported back to 
 the days of long, long ago. The very same, I said : 
 there stood his bed, there his stove, there his case 
 of drawers, there his book-shelves, there his table and 
 desk, there the chair in which he sat. Whether I 
 had gone to meet him, or he had come to meet me, 
 I could scarcely tell. It seemed as if we met in a 
 prolonged and affectionate embrace. My heart per- 
 sistently lingered in the place made sacred by so many 
 sweet and tender associations. 
 
 Also I walked the distance of two miles to the 
 place where the doctor performed his last work, and 
 where he died. There again I was entranced. The 
 lady I met with (Mrs. Frye) was a granddaughter. 
 
SURVEY OF FORMER SCENES. 
 
 137 
 
 of Mrs. Clark, with whom Dr. Farmer was a boarder. 
 In full sympathy with the object of my visit, and from 
 her own recollection, she pointed out the portions of 
 the room which were occupied by the various articles 
 of the good man's furniture, with the window out- 
 side of which he hung his thermometer, not omitting 
 to mention, what affected me most, where stood his 
 dying-bed. 
 
 She also conducted me to the upper part of the 
 house, where were stored away many little things 
 adapted to awaken sad memories of my departed 
 friend. There was the light desk which he appears 
 to have procured in his later days, — a mere tablet at- 
 tached to an upright shaft, and intended to be raised 
 or lowered at pleasure, and to appearance a very un- 
 comfortable substitute for a table. There were many 
 specimens of his handwriting, and among them the 
 original manuscript of his " History of Amherst ; " 
 together with a great number of old letters, almanacs, 
 etc., upon every one of which he had doubtless placed 
 a high value. 
 
 Nor could I omit visiting his grave. Here I stood 
 in silence, I know not how long. Again and again I 
 read the inscription placed over his mouldering dust 
 by loving friends ; and, as I read, my eyes were blinded 
 with tears. Memory never did a more faithful work 
 than then. It was a grand life that loomed up before 
 
138 MEMOIR OF JOHN FARMER. 
 
 me in that hour, but it was a bitter thought that that 
 life came to an end so soon. With an awe-stricken 
 heart, I walked slowly away, through the gate of the 
 city of the dead, out into the living world again.