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 From the Seventeenth Annual Report 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics op Labor 
 1886. 
 
HENRY KEMBLE OLIVER. 
 
 BY REV. JESSE H. JONES. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, August 12, 1885, General Henry 
 K. Oliver, the first chief of this Bureau, died. His large 
 and manifold powers, the high attainments which he made, and 
 the various important positions in the Commonwealth which he 
 filled ; but especially his eminent services as the founder of 
 the work of this Bureau, becoming thereby the pioneer of all 
 such work in the world, render it fitting that a memorial of 
 him should be made by the Bureau in this Eeport. 
 
 Early Years. 
 
 Henry Kemble Oliver (originally Thomas Henry, but 
 changed apparently to preserve the name of his mother) was 
 born in North Beverly, Essex County, in this State, on Mon- 
 day, November 24, 1800. He was the third and youngest son, 
 and eighth child of the nine children, of He v. Daniel and 
 Elizabeth (Kemble) Oliver. He was in the sixth generation 
 from Thomas Oliver, surgeon, who with his wife Ann and eight 
 children came over from Bristol, England, in the ship Lion, 
 along with the family of Governor Winthrop, landing at Bos- 
 ton, June 5, 1632 ; and who was one of the founders of the 
 First Church of that town and a Kuling Elder in it. His 
 
4 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 mother, daughter of Thomas Kemble, Esq., of Boston, was 
 descended from Thomas and Margaret Kemble, who came over 
 to that city in 1640. Both families had remained there from 
 the first. His ancestors in the direct line on his father's side, 
 after Surgeon Oliver, were three merchants (the third a gradu- 
 ate of Harvard, and all three of marked eminence), one lawyer, 
 and one minister, his father. The Olivers were connected by 
 marriage with various leading families of the State, — with the 
 Hutchinsons, Wendells, Brattles, Belchers, and Bradstreets. 
 His father's mother was sister to the grandfather of Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, and the same blood which ran in his veins, 
 and in the veins of the illustrious physician-poet, ran also in 
 those of Wendell Phillips, clarum nomen, whose personal 
 efibrt, as much at least as that of any, brought this Bureau 
 into existence. Down to a few years ago the family had sup- 
 plied forty out of the forty-five of the Oliver alumni names at 
 Harvard and Dartmouth. Plainly, then, from the choicest of 
 that choice seed-wheat which God sifted the whole nation of 
 England to get, wherewith to plant a new nation in New Eng- 
 land, this man sprang. 
 
 The father, Rev. Daniel Oliver, was a minister of rigid ortho- 
 doxy, after the strict, Puritan type. He graduated from Dart- 
 mouth in 1785, was pastor of the North Church, Boston, from 
 1787 to 1800, preached in Beverly one year, and in Exeter, 
 N. H., a short time ; after which, in 1802, he brought his family 
 back to Boston to remain, while he himself went forth as a mis- 
 sionary to the Indians, going for years on long and wearying 
 horseback rides from place to place in what were then the west- 
 ern wilds, preaching the Gospel to the dusky savages of the 
 forest. 
 
 The fiimily being now settled in Boston, Henry Kemble in 
 due time attended the Mayhew school there ; and prepared for 
 college partly in the Latin school, partly at Phillips Academy, 
 Andover, and partly with an elder brother in a private school ; 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 5 
 
 and he was by this brother entered at Harvard in 1814, at the 
 age of thirteen years and eight months. Surely the boy gave 
 promise of what the man would be. 
 
 After two years his father removed him to Dartmouth, chiefly 
 at least because he looked with strong disfavor upon what he 
 considered the growing theological laxity of Harvard. In 
 1818 he was graduated by hoth colleges, certainly a singular 
 and very unusual mark of high esteem. Concerning himself 
 at this time, he has left these remarks : 
 
 " Ou leaving college, ... I had a not very large amount of schol- 
 arly knowledge, and that chiefly in Latin and Greek, but I had 
 excellent health, thoroughly pure moral habits and moral principles. 
 I had a natural aversion to intoxicating drinks and tobacco, and all 
 forms of dissipation, and a moral dread of bad or dangerous com- 
 pany and excesses. While in college an evening passed in the prac- 
 tice of music or in visiting families where music, especially sacred 
 music, was practised, was the greatest pleasure I desired." 
 
 For a number of months he found only occasional and trifling 
 employments, but in the early summer of the following year 
 he had gained the fit place in which to begin his career. In 
 May he applied for the position of usher in the newly estab- 
 lished Latin grammar school at Salem, and received the appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 Teacher at Salem. 
 
 On Saturday, June 12, 1819, he, "a beardless youth" of 
 eighteen years and seven months, took the stage for that city, 
 and arriving there " was welcomed as a member of the house- 
 hold of the late Rev. Dr. Browne Emerson, pastor of the South 
 Church." By a son of his host, then a lad, and to be one of 
 his pupils, he is spoken of at this time as " a fine, good-looking, 
 even handsome young man, fresh from Dartmouth College, 
 and full of all sorts of college pranks and college learning." 
 
6 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 The schoolroom, in which he was to teach, "had seats for 
 eighty boys, and was crowded with a hundred and twenty boys, 
 — an unmanageable mass, but that a third teacher. Master Parker, 
 .... took the younger classes into the committee room for 
 recitation." Of the spirit in which he began his work he him- 
 self thus writes : 
 
 " I entered upon my work as teacher on the following Monday, 
 June 14th, 1819, with very great ' fear and trembling,' and entire dis- 
 trust in my own abilities, knowledge and ultimate success. This 
 self-distrust has always characterized me and has impeded my 
 labors ; but I determined to work hard in school and out, and if that 
 would secure success, no effort on my part should be wanting." 
 
 From the first he felt poorly furnished for his work. His 
 early studies "were not congenial, consisting mostly, after he 
 was nine, of mere translations from Latin and Greek into 
 English, with very insufficient instruction in any English 
 studies." As expressing his own judgment in his riper years 
 he says : 
 
 «' My intellectual powers had not been properly and philosophi- 
 cally cultivated On the whole, the nine years spent in pre- 
 paring for college and in college I have always considered a failure ; 
 and but for the hard, close, unyielding perseverance of the nine 
 years that followed graduation, I should, as a scholar, have been a 
 greater failure. But finding, when I commenced teaching, my im- 
 perfections, I set about a course of self -education, first in the studies 
 in which I was guiding others, then in French, then in Spanish and 
 Italian, adding afterwards a wide course of mathematics and philos- 
 ophy, general literature and history, with astronomy." 
 
 It is of special interest as showing the power of his mind 
 to grow, and grasp, and enlarge its aptitudes, to know that 
 whereas in youth he had no relish for mathematics, he came 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 7 
 
 at length, as the result of his determined studying, to have in 
 them a positive delight. 
 
 This course he pursued alone, this ** battle he fought out un- 
 aided," except as he "consulted that well-known and accurate 
 Greek scholar, the late Hon. John Pickering." 
 
 "Feeling," he continues, "the great deficiencies of my previous 
 education, and the constant push of the demands made upon me by 
 the pupils, I was merciless to mj^self, studying as many hours out of 
 school as I taught within. What I thus acquired I have never for- 
 gotten." And he still further says, " My unvarying rule in the 
 classics was to keep myself as thoroughly prepared on every author 
 in the hands of everj^ class in school, as existing facilities would 
 allow, keeping myself a fortnight in advance of their several lessons ; 
 and never entering the schoolroom but with the certainty that no 
 question could be brought to me that I could not at once answer." 
 
 It was this hard studentship and the mastery thus acquired, 
 which caused it to be said of him in after years, — 
 
 " He was a diligent student, and a fine classical scholar. The 
 classics were his delight, and to the day of his death he had not for- 
 gotten the beautiful passages from the Greek and Roman writers 
 which he had early learned ; and the sharp, clear sentences which he 
 always wrote showed how the Athenian style had taken fast hold 
 upon his mind. His command of words was something wonderful, 
 and his vocabulary seemed inexhaustible." 
 
 He rose constantly in the estimation of men. His salary at 
 first was $600 a year, a quite munificent sum for those days, 
 rarely, if ever, paralleled for so young a man ; and now con- 
 sidered to be more in proportion than the $1,500 which is now 
 paid for much older men in the same relative position. Yet 
 once and again his salary was increased, October 1, 1822, to 
 $750, and in June, 1824, to $900. He was selected as the 
 
8 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 orator of the day in Salem for the Fourth of July, 1824, and 
 acquitted himself so creditably that his oration was long remem- 
 bered and spoken of highly. Besides the eloquence of his 
 style, it is especially mentioned that he " dwelt with much 
 enthusiasm on the cause of the Greeks," who were then striv- 
 ing for independence; and with burning words "denounced 
 the melancholy exception to the purity of our institutions, the 
 scourge and curse of negro slavery " and also " the persecution 
 of the Indians in Georgia ;" and that he paid an earnest tribute 
 to Lafayette, closing Avith a glowing apostrophe which has been 
 preserved. In 1827, when at length the English High School 
 was established, on the 16th of June he was appointed princi- 
 pal with a third increase of salary, now to $1,000. 
 
 On Monday, July 9, 1830, Master Oliver resigned his 
 position, and directly after set about building a two-story 
 schoolhouse near his own home on Federal street, for a private 
 academy. In the construction and appointments of this build- 
 ing no pains were spared to introduce every excellency then 
 known. Without, it had an ample playground and gymnastic 
 apparatus. Within, it had a coat-room, wash-room, recitation 
 rooms, and various apparatus. The following account of the 
 school is from a Salem print : 
 
 " The course of study laid down was extensive and complete, boys 
 being prepared either for college, or for business life ; the latter course 
 including the French and Spanish languages, and a very wide range 
 in mathematics, history', and general literature. For the first time 
 in any Salem school, if not for the first time in an}- school in this 
 country, music was taught, and a regular course of gymnastic train- 
 ing with suitable apparatus was provided. A very complete set of 
 philosophical, astronomical, and chemical apparatus, costing upwards 
 of $2,000 was procured, which enabled him to supplement his oral 
 
 and book instruction by actual illustrations His school was 
 
 always full, and, with the aid of able assistant teachers, he was en- 
 abled to achieve a satisfactory success." 
 
 / 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 9 
 
 After five years he yielded to the urgency of friends and 
 changed his school over into one for girls, and '* his rooms 
 were immediately filled." This school he continued to teach 
 for eight years, when a very complimentary event withdrew 
 him altogether from his profession, and changed his whole 
 career. Here then we may pause and briefly survey in retro- 
 spect his course of life. It was the year 1844. For twenty- 
 five years he had been a teacher in Salem, and his course had 
 been a steadily growing and unbroken success. It was a very 
 remarkable career. Some clue to the secret of it we may gain 
 from the following statements, chiefly made by former pupils, 
 expressing the estimation in which he was held, and showing 
 the work he had done and his manner of doing it. 
 
 Mr. T>. H. Emerson, son of Rev. Browne Emerson in whose 
 house he first lived at Salem, wrote to him in a letter of remi- 
 niscences in 1878 thus : 
 
 " You made the Latin school what it became while you were there, 
 and I ascribe all the glory it acquired to you. You drilled us in the 
 grammar and text-books. You compelled us to know all about 
 them. You ground them into us. You were severe in that, and 
 you succeeded with your pupils. Yet you were never severe in your 
 treatment of those who were placed under your rule. Tliis is my 
 testimony. With greatest respect and affection." 
 
 The same ""entleman writino^ of him said ; 
 
 " When I was but a youth he came to my father's house and all 
 the time he continued there we felt that he was in that home as an 
 
 elder brother, and as a son With all his decision of character 
 
 he was never ci'uel or unjust. In that empire in which he wielded a 
 sceptre, the Salem Latin School, he ever ruled by love. Himself a 
 splendid scholar, he had patience with our dulness, and seemed to 
 enjoy the pains he took to lead us forward in the paths of learn- 
 ing." 
 
10 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 An old pupil writes : 
 
 " We found him strict without petulanoy, exemplary in habits, firm 
 and humane in correction, never losing temper. He punished if he 
 found it needed, on his own responsibility, without referring to the 
 senior master ; but often with his expressed approbation, saying, 
 ' Mr. Oliver, punish that boy well,' the only effect of which was, 
 however, to emphasize the deliberateness of the punishment without 
 increasing the amount. I never saw any sign of resentment on the 
 part of the boys." 
 
 Another writes : 
 
 " Master Oliver was the idol of the boys of '19, '20, '21 ; and, 
 therefore, it is as ' Master ' Oliver that we have ever loved to think 
 and speak of him." 
 
 Yet another writes : 
 
 " No man held his scholars more by his potency of nature, his 
 fine mind, his sympathy with youth, his many-sidedness. It is fifty 
 years since, and yet his character shines in our memory with undi- 
 minished brightness." 
 
 Of his private school he himself said : 
 
 " No fact laid down in the sciences as existing in those days, and 
 within the grasp of the general school, failed to be illustrated ex- 
 perimentally." 
 
 Concerning discipline in his girls school, he also said : 
 
 " During eight years of my instructing girls no instance occurred 
 of what may be called punishment. To strike a girl was abhorrent 
 to my nature ; nor did anything occur which needed that, or any 
 other method of severity in discipline. Yet I had an average of 
 fifty pupils." 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 11 
 
 Rev. Joseph B. Felt in his history of Salem, also, pronounces 
 this school, " the most complete and successful ever carried on 
 in that citv." 
 
 As an illustration of the truthfulness of the testimony borne 
 concerning him, that " his teaching developed great interest 
 and great proficiency in the scholars of all the schools in which 
 he taught," Ave give the following fact. *' The senior class in 
 the English High School between 1827 and 1830 computed all 
 the solar eclipses of the 19th century between 1831 and 1900, 
 visible in the United States." Can this be equalled, or any- 
 thing like it given for that time? 
 
 These sayings are great praise, such praise as only the ex- 
 cellent of the earth win ; but they are the natural utterance of 
 those who had felt the quickening power of his master soul. 
 We glean from them a few phrases in which certain chief traits 
 of his character appear : " Never severe ;" " never losing tem- 
 per ;" " he ever ruled by love ;" " Master Oliver was the idol 
 of the boys ;" "I never saw a sign of resentment on the part 
 of the boys ;" ' ' no man held his scholars more by his potency 
 of nature." 
 
 Yes, " potency of nature" that is the crowning phrase, which 
 includes all the truth contained in the other sayings. Let us 
 try and unfold a little the reality that is in it, and so gain a 
 larger and fuller knowledge of this nature which was so power- 
 ful. 
 
 This youth, this man, this teacher, this *' Master" of youth 
 was a wide, deep, strenuous river of human vitality flowing 
 upon and through those in his charge. He maintained com- 
 plete government, kept clockwork order and precision, and 
 worked his scholars to the hight of their bent ; and yet there 
 was no domineering spirit in the man, nothing of tyranny in 
 his temper, or of harshness in his methods. He ruled, but not 
 by will. He controlled, but not by fear. Rather it was his 
 own strong, abounding life which quickened the very fountains 
 
12 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 of the life of his pupils, making them Avish to do what he would 
 have them do, and awakening in them the desire to strive and 
 the effort to achieve, beyond what could have arisen in them of 
 themselves. By this power he belonged to that class of teach- 
 ers, few and rare, who are of the first order, of whom Mrs. 
 Emma Willard of Troy, N. Y., and President Mark Hopkins of 
 Williamstown, Mass., are illustrious examples. 
 
 During the period which now came to a close the following 
 events personal to himself had occurred. In 1821 he moved 
 his father's family to Salem, and assumed their support. Dur- 
 ing 1824 he was studying for the ministry, with a view to 
 entering the Episcopal Church, and a sermon which he com- 
 posed is extant ; but becoming Unitarian in his views he gave 
 the matter up. In 1825 he married Sarah, daughter of Capt. 
 Samuel Cook, a retired sea-captain, by whom he had, in all, 
 seven children, two sons and five daughters. In 1836 he was 
 elected a member of the first Common Council of Salem, and 
 was twice re-elected. 
 
 When " Master" Oliver closed his school, and changed the 
 whole course of his life, he had arrived at the full maturity of 
 his powers ; and they were marked by largeness of nature, 
 strength, intellectuality, and gentleness. All the best that was 
 in him had been displayed. Henceforth there was to be rather 
 the varied application of his powers in larger spheres of 
 action than the growth and expansion of those powers. We 
 turn now to consider the new direction of his activity. 
 
 Adjutant-General. 
 
 The very complimentary event by which his professional 
 work as a school teacher was brought to an end, and he was 
 set instead in a large field of public affairs, was his appoint- 
 ment, March 22, 1844, by Governor George N. Briggs, upon 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 13 
 
 the recommendation of Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, as adjutant- 
 general of the State. This altogether strange event, by which 
 the master of a girls school was put in charge of the military 
 affairs of a great State came about as follows : 
 
 In 1821 the young teacher enlisted in the Salem Light In- 
 fantry. He had an erect, soldierly figure, and strong, military 
 aptitudes ; and this company was to him like a military school 
 in which he acquired a good degree of military knowledge and 
 training. So marked were his capacities and acquirements, 
 that at different times he was pressed to accept a commission, 
 but steadily declined. When, however, in 1833, he, still a 
 private, was elected lieutenant-colonel of the newly organ- 
 ized Sixth Regiment (the same which made itself so famous 
 in Baltimore in 1861), he accepted, and three years after was 
 made its colonel. As showiug how efficient an officer he was, 
 the following incident is related. 
 
 "On the occasion of Governor Edward Everett's visit to 
 Salem, September 22, 1837, the Governor said that he never 
 saw regimental manoeuvres performed with equal rapidity out- 
 side of the regular army," as they were then performed by 
 Colonel Oliver's regiment. 
 
 In 1839 he resigned his colonelcy ; but his fine and noble 
 gifts had been brought clearly to view. His splendid personal 
 appearance, his athletic form, his military bearing, his power 
 to command, his abundant knowledge and thorough training, 
 all went to make him a well-nigh ideal officer. We may feel 
 certain that he was not surpassed, perhaps he was not 
 equalled, by any military officer in the Commonwealth at that 
 time. So when we know the man, it does not then seem so 
 strange that the head of a girls school was made the head of 
 the military afiairs of the State. 
 
 With the moderate salary of $1,500, and no allowances, he 
 set himself "earnestly at work, and soon had matters in 
 hand." " He made personal visits to the various regiments ; 
 
14 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 . . . attended all the parades of the several brigades and regi- 
 ments, arranged for drills and instruction of commissioned and 
 non-commissioned officers, with a sufficient number of privates 
 to make battalions of 150 to 200 men, and took personal 
 charge of them. . . . Thus interest was excited in the infan- 
 try, and the service was soon improved." 
 
 In INIay, 1846, the Mexican war being in progress, the 
 national government called for troops, and by direction of 
 Governor Briggs General Oliver took charge of raising and 
 officering the regiment which Massachusetts sent out to that 
 service under the command of Colonel Caleb Cushino;. This 
 regiment entered the city of iNIexico with the army of General 
 Scott. 
 
 In the 3'ear 1838 Colonel Oliver had been elected first 
 lieutenant of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company 
 of Boston ; and now, eight j^ears later (1846), as General 
 Oliver he was elected captain, the highest social, military 
 position in the State. 
 
 In the following year CI 847) he was appointed by President 
 Polk a member of the Board of Visitors of the Military 
 Academy at West Point, and was made its secretary. But in 
 the midst of 2:atherino: honors and efficient labors he was called 
 to new duties in a wholly diverse sphere of action. 
 
 Superintendent of the Atlantic Cotton Mills. 
 
 If the appointment of a teacher of a girls school to be 
 adjutant-general of a great State, if the preferring one then 
 in civil life before all the older militia officers of that State 
 and setting him over them, and if the complete success of 
 tliis officer both in his personal relations to the men and in 
 his whole administration of the affiiirs committed to his 
 charge, do all together seem like a leaf torn out of a 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 15 
 
 romance, rather than a chapter of sober prose in this plain, 
 prosaic century ; hardly less strange is the next movement 
 in the life of this extraordinary man, by which he, who had 
 never run a spindle or loom, or handled a pound of cotton in 
 any practical way, and who knew nothing more of a cotton 
 mill than might be learned by walking casually through one, 
 was called to be superintendent of a cotton mill not yet in 
 existence. Having been appointed to this position by the 
 directors and treasurer of the "Atlantic Cotton Mills," a 
 newly organized manufacturing corporation at Lawrence, he 
 resigned his position as adjutant-general, January 15, 1848, 
 and repaired at once to that city. There he found one mill 
 erected, but only the walls and flooring, no part of its " fitting 
 up," that is, of its shafting, elevators, closets, etc., being in 
 position, nor any of its machinery set up. 
 
 He at once went to Lowell, and devoted three months with 
 Mr. Homer Bartlett, agent of the Massachusetts mill there, to 
 acquiring a knowledge of the general management then in vogue 
 of large cotton mills, to selecting overseers, second hands, etc. ; 
 and to watching the several stages in the process of manufac- 
 turing the goods from the bale to the cloth. 
 
 On the fifth of July the machinery began to be delivered at 
 his own mill, and with his newly selected overseers, and with- 
 out any outside assistance, he did all the work of fitting, set- 
 ting up, and starting the machinery ; getting it all running and 
 beginning to turn out cloth in October. Their very first goods 
 were of the finest grade, and were made from cotton known as 
 "good middling," bought at seven cents a pound; and the 
 General remarked with honorable pride, " a more beautiful arti- 
 cle had not been placed upon the market. They have always 
 kept a lead in the trade." 
 
 In nine months this man had learned a complicated and dif- 
 ficult manufacturing business, of which he before knew nothing, 
 had selected with Mr. Bartlett's assistance his staff" of subordi- 
 
16 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 nate officials, every one of whom were unknown to him when 
 he began, had tal^en an empty shell of a building, and he and 
 they together had set up all the machinery in it, and in less 
 than four months from the time they began to set it up had it 
 in complete successful operation, turning out the best of goods. 
 Such a work was the manifestation of extraordinary, perhaps 
 of wholly unique powers. 
 
 In July of this year (1848), his family moved to Lawrence. 
 The next vear a second mill was built under his charoje ; and 
 equipped and run with the same success as attended the other ; 
 and in 1850 yet a third mill was built. Otherwise his life as 
 superintendent was in the nature of the case monotonous, and 
 few incidents can be recalled. A general survey of the field 
 with the statement of the chief reasons for his success, so far 
 as we have been able to gather them, will set the man and his 
 work in Lawrence sufficiently before us. , 
 
 The first of his powers were rare keenness, quickness, pene- 
 tration and scope of mind, by which he seized at once and held 
 in masterful grasp whatever he set his mind upon. And these 
 qualities were equally shown in the realm of things and the 
 realm of persons. He saw into the system of a cotton mill, 
 comprehended it as a whole, and mastered it in detail in five 
 months. He could brigade a mill or a State with equal readi- 
 ness and success. And he had such power to grow that he in- 
 troduced improvements or supervised others in doing so with 
 a readiness equal to that of experts trained in the matter from 
 their youth. But his power to read persons was quite equal to 
 his power to penetrate things. He knew a man when he saw 
 him. His great gray eye was like the eye of fate. His was 
 indeed an eagle glance. So marvellous was this power that 
 only they who experienced it could really have the full sense 
 of what he was in this regard. 
 
 The next of his powers was his personal magnetism, his 
 power over men whereby he so touched and quickened them in 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 17 
 
 the very fountains of their life, that they instinctively desired 
 to do what he would have done ; and thus he secured from 
 them, whether he was present or absent, their best service. 
 
 A third power, closely allied to this, was his pure sincer- 
 ity, a source of perennial good will which flowed a clear, living 
 stream from the depths of his own life in sweet purposes and 
 wise actions for the welfare of all in his charge. By the work- 
 ing together of the last two powers in him he drew to himself 
 the excellent men, the line, well-skilled, and growing young 
 men ; and when they came it was to stay, and so well pleased 
 were they that they drew others after them also. Thus it was 
 that he gathered round him a class of overseers much superior 
 to what is often found in mills. 
 
 And Avhat were all these powers, as in happy radiance they 
 were shed forth in Lawrence in constant glory of well-doing, 
 but that same "potency of nature" which bound with silken 
 cord his scholars to him when he was a school teacher, even 
 from his early youth? In a slight incident which he relates, 
 this kingly gentleness wherein his influence over others so 
 largely lay is well displayed, and we present it here. 
 
 " A girl had appropriated to her own use a piece of cloth from 
 her loom, pinning it about her waist under her clothing, and it had 
 become loosened and dropped upon the ground, as she with the rest 
 of the help was leaving the mill-yard at evening. It was picked up 
 by an overseer, and brought with the girl to me, standing at the 
 time [as he often did] on the mill-steps seeing the crowd go out. 
 The poor girl trembling and mortified, stood amidst shouts of laugh- 
 ter, doubtless anticipating some severity at my hands. Knowing 
 that not she alone of all the weavers had done this kind of wrong, I 
 waited awhile till silence ensued, and then holding up the piece of 
 cloth, said, ' Let her among you who never did the like say how this 
 girl shall be punished.' Nobody spoke, but they all quietly walked 
 away ; and then, tossing the cloth to the offender, I said, ' Go, and 
 sin no more.' I have always thanked Him who first dealt with an 
 
18 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 offender thus, that I remembered his example. I suppose the poor 
 girl, like the most of her comrades, was sorely pinched by poverty, 
 and could not withstand the temptation. ' Forgive us our debts, as 
 we forgive our debtors ; ' yet if we are not forgiven a good deal 
 more than we forgive, we shall have a hard time of it." 
 
 Another illustration of his natural impulse toward his fel- 
 low-men was shown in connection with a fatal accident which 
 happened at the mills one winter. 
 
 Sometimes in winter the ice would form or drift against the 
 rack (which was set at the upper end of the flume to keep off 
 flood-wood and the like from the wheel) to such an amount 
 and solidity that it was necessary for men to get on the mass, 
 break it up, and get the fragments away, so that the water 
 would have free course to run through. On one occasion, in 
 the winter of 1855, when three men were thus working, the 
 pressure was so great that the rack gave way and was carried 
 down instantly on to the great waterwheel, and one of the 
 three men was swept away with it, while one of the others 
 sprang out, and one fell in just at the side. When the rack 
 gave way the General, hearing the crash, sprang to the spot 
 and, leaping down upon the timber that had given way in the 
 middle but yet held in place at the end, seized the man who 
 had fallen in as he rose, but lost his hold being pulled away 
 by a watchman who thought he was also falling in, and the 
 man again sank. Assuring the watchman that he was safe, 
 and stooping still farther down, as the man rose to the surface 
 a second time, he grasped him with a firmer hold, and dragged 
 him out. 
 
 The largeness and manifoldness of General Oliver had their 
 widest field and fullest display in Lawrence. And the fruits 
 of his varied activities were many and lasting. One instance 
 was his work in improving Lawrence Common, a lot of eigh- 
 teen acres, which in 1849 was an uninteresting field with few 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 19 
 
 trees upon it. The Essex Company gave this lot to the city 
 upon conditions that $300 a year be expended upon it, and 
 that the superintendents of three manufacturing companies, 
 which were named, together with the mayor of the city con- 
 stitute a committee to take charge of it and expend the money. 
 The Atlantic mills was one of the companies named; and 
 Superintendent Oliver was made chairman of the committee, 
 and the whole work was placed in his charge. By 1853 five 
 hundred trees had been planted "in avenues, and cared for 
 until rooted and established," and the rude, unsightly field in 
 due time became " a very fine public square." " His interest 
 in the park never flagged, and whenever he met a Lawrence 
 man his inquiry was for his trees on the common." 
 
 Another of his public spirited good works was the establish- 
 ment of a Free Library in his mill. To accomplish this, he 
 " called together the overseers in 1851, and told them that if 
 they would organize themselves into a library association, 
 with suitable officers, he would commence the library with a 
 donation of a hundred volumes, and a loan of $50 for new 
 purchases. This was done ; and by consent of the treasurer, 
 Mr. William Gray, a room was fitted up in the counting-room 
 building, and the library commenced. Mr. Gray added valu- 
 able donations." Sometime since the number of volumes had 
 increased to 3,500. He also established free hot and cold 
 baths in a building in the rear of the mill. 
 
 Naturally, from his former avocation, feeling a deep interest 
 in the educational afiairs of the new town, and havino- been 
 elected a member of the school committee, he proposed that 
 as soon as a high school should be established, he would con- 
 vey to the city for use in such school all the school apparatus 
 that he had collected for his own school at Salem. This was 
 done ; and in recognition of the gift the building in which the 
 high school was first established (and which is the largest 
 school building in Lawrence) was called the Oliver School 
 
20 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 House. He also presented to the high school for its prin- 
 cipal room a set of busts and statuettes, and of engravings for 
 its walls ; and many books of reference, Latin, Greek, and 
 mathematical, for the use of teachers and pupils. 
 
 In 1853 he was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Con- 
 vention, and was made chairman of the committee on military 
 affairs. 
 
 In the same year occurred the notable case of his "famous 
 effort to deposit his vote " at a turbulent town meeting, in 
 which his courage, vigor, strength, and intense love of free- 
 dom and the exercise of one's legal rights, were so effectively 
 manifested. The town meeting was holden to vote on the 
 acceptance of the city charter, and the moderator had made 
 a decision by which the Democrats deemed themselves ag- 
 grieved, and they determined to block the way to the ballot- 
 box, and prevent voting. So 
 
 " . . . in an instant the avenues to the platform were blocked 
 by a mass of angry, excited men, and the prospect of a row was un- 
 usually promising. The ballot-boxes could not be reached, and 
 everything but arms and tongues were at a stand-still. At this 
 instant General Henry K. Oliver entered the hall, and stood for a 
 moment near the door to enquire into the occasion of the singular 
 spectacle. On being informed of the situation of affairs his eyes 
 flashed, and exclaiming, ' I should like to see the man who dares 
 resist my casting a vote in a legal meeting,' he strode down the open 
 space, thi'usting aside one or two opposers, and quickly elbowed his 
 way through the outer circle of the crowd, until he came to the solid 
 mass blocking his way ; when, placing his hands upon the shoulders 
 of the two nearest men, he sprang up upon the mass, and was 
 rapidly making his way, vote in hand, over heads and shoulders 
 to the ballot-box, when he was seized by the skirts of his coat ; but 
 leaving one of them roughly torn away in the hands of his opposers, 
 he reached the box, and placed therein his ballot. This success, no 
 less than the ludicrousness of the movement, was too much for the 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 21 
 
 solidity of the Democratic column. Good nature was restored, and 
 the voting went on." 
 
 Wherein his great power lay is well disclosed in the follow- 
 ing remark made by a Lawrence paper in its obituary of 
 him : 
 
 " In Lawrence the stalwart figure of the General, physically one 
 of the finest specimens of manhood ever resident among us, will be 
 long remembered. His trained voice, and ability as a public speaker 
 and leader, whenever political, musical, or public matters were dis- 
 cussed, made him a prominent figure in evei"y assembly." 
 
 After a prosperous run of the mills in 1855, the treasurer, 
 as an expression of his satisfaction at the result, placed in 
 General Oliver's hands the means to defray the expense of a 
 course of six lectures. Of these Hon. Josiah Quincy gave one, 
 and General Oliver four on astronomy, illustrated with large 
 diao-rams and a maofic lantern. To these were added six con- 
 certs given by a chorus of a hundred singers selected from 
 among the operatives of the mill, and trained by competent 
 instructors under General Oliver's supervision. Both lec- 
 tures and concerts were given in a hall over the counting- 
 room of the Pacific mills, and were all free to the mill people. 
 So successful were the concerts that one of them was repeated 
 by special request in the city hall to an operative audience, 
 admitted free, of more than 1,500 persons. 
 
 In 1857 the ladies of Lawrence presented General Oliver 
 with a gold watch "as a slight token of their sincere regard 
 and esteem, and as a pledge of their confidence in him, as a gen- 
 tleman of generous and noble impulses and of the highest 
 moral principles and sentiments." 
 
 Nine years had well-nigh passed away since the work of set- 
 ting up the machinery had begun ; and on May 25 of this year 
 
22 HENEY K. OLIVEE. 
 
 (1857) he received a letter from the treasurer couched in 
 flattering terms, announcing the successful run of the past year, 
 the profit made, and asking him to add $500 a year to his 
 salary, making it $3,500. In October following he "was 
 amazed and thunderstruck at receiving" quite another kind of 
 letter, which resulted in his being discharged from the service 
 of the company ; and to his dying da}'-, although he at various 
 times endeavored so to do, he could never get a single word as 
 a clue to show the reason for the treatment inflicted on him. 
 
 Before the severing of his connection with the company, 
 General Oliver secured an examination of the mill property 
 and accounts by experts, who reported the mill in complete 
 order, and the accounts correct. 
 
 Concerning the cause of the event above stated enough is 
 now known to show that his great and generous heart, by 
 which he sj^mpathized so keenly with the operatives that he 
 shrank from cuttins: down wages as one w^ould shrink from 
 fire, was in large measure the cause. Thus came the first 
 great shadow over his life. 
 
 From his peculiar and intimate relations with the overseers, 
 it was quite appropriate that he should address them, as he did, 
 a farewell letter. To this they sent him a letter in response, 
 the chief portions of which are here given. 
 
 "In reviewing the ten years of your connection with us, they 
 really seem like a pleasant dream, so unruffled their general aspect, 
 and rapid their flight. True there has been an occasional cloud, 
 
 .... but all have been satisfactorily resolved On the 
 
 whole, the remark in your letter that ' unity of opinion and coopera- 
 tive good will have marked our whole course,' is truly just, and one 
 to which we heartily respond. 
 
 "You will doubtless pardon us for taking the liberty of pointing 
 out somewhat in detail the leading characteristics which have dis- 
 tinguished your administration from some others with which we have 
 been familiar during our history in manufacturing. While their sole 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 23 
 
 policy has been to secure the greatest possible amount of service for 
 the least possible amount of money, your administration has been 
 characterized, not only by a fair and just regard for the company's 
 interests, by requiring close attention and application on the part of 
 all employed ; but, farther than this, you have uniformly manifested 
 a zealous regard for every instrumentality which could be made to 
 contribute to their mental, moral, and religious welfare. 
 
 "Among the various enterprises to this end allow us to mention 
 that at an early day in our history your generous donation of one 
 hundred volumes, which formed the nucleus of our now extensive 
 library, claims a prominent place, and commands our highest com- 
 mendation and gratitude 
 
 " It also affords us great pleasure to advert to the fact that, while 
 our mental wants have been thus supplied, our love for the beautifnl 
 in nature has not been overlooked : for our yard, instead of being 
 left to present a desolate, prison-like appearance, has (in accord- 
 ance with your taste and skill) been made to blossom as the rose, 
 presenting through the flowering seasons, in rich abundance, those 
 representations of all that is beautiful in nature. Who among us has 
 not been admonished by the language of those beautiful flowers, in- 
 citing to lives of purity, innocence and virtue. 
 
 "Another idea originating with you was the erection of bathing 
 rooms for general use among the operatives, which have largely con- 
 tributed both to their general health, and to their pleasure. 
 
 "And still another, never-to-be-forgotten; — we refer to those 
 moral and instructive entertainments in the form of lectures and 
 concerts, in which you were pleased to mingle with us as one of us, 
 without regard to distinction or caste. This is truly an anomaly in 
 manufacturing, and found only (to our knowledge) in your adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 " We also feel greatly indebted to you for the interest manifested 
 in regard to the proper keeping of the Sabbath, and attendance upon 
 public worship ; as also for your agency in securing free seats in the 
 various churches, that none, however poor, need be excluded for 
 want of sittings. In connection with this topic we would name 
 another fact (peculiar to yourself) , that, while you have been frank 
 
24 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 and free in expressing j^our own religious and political views, 
 you have accorded to others the same rights and privileges un- 
 molested. 
 
 " But lastly, .... it is well known throughout this community 
 that all the public spirited enterprises of this city, — and especially 
 the establishment of the Oliver grammar and high school, have, 
 from the first, received your hearty cooperation and beneficent dona- 
 tions. In our opinion it is but just to say, our public schools owe 
 their present flourishing condition and standing, mainly to your un- 
 tiring interest and efforts in their behalf 
 
 " In conclusion, permit us to express our sincere desires that long 
 life, with health, happiness and prosperity may attend you here, and 
 a blessed immortality await you hereafter. 
 
 (Signed) J. M. RICHARDS, 
 
 ELISHA WINCH, 
 NEWMAN S. FOSTER, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Plainly General Oliver was before his time. In him we see 
 a luminous ideal and prophecy of what a superintendent is to 
 be in the coming age, when the spirit of the Crucified shall 
 rule in a cotton mill, as fully as in the life of a saint. 
 
 The people of Lawrence appreciated the man who had done 
 so much for their municipality, even if the corporation whose 
 working force he had created failed to do so, and in November 
 they elected him mayor, so that he filled that office during the 
 year 1859. In the election of this year he was sent as repre- 
 sentative to the General Court for 1860. During this period 
 he served occasionally also as agent of the State Board of Edu- 
 cation, visiting the public schools in various parts of the State, 
 and attendinof institutes and conventions. 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 25 
 
 Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The high esteem in which General Oliver was held through- 
 out the State was shown in a very marked way in the autumn 
 of 1860 by his nomination for the office of Treasurer of the 
 Commonwealth on the same ticket with John A. Andrew. 
 He was four times re-elected, and thus became the war treas- 
 urer, as Andrew became the war governor. And it may not 
 be too much to say that he did his full share in his place, as 
 Governor Andrew did in his, to maintain Massachusetts in that 
 leadership of all the loyal States, which she took from the start. 
 
 We can hardly imagine what his work really was, but some 
 facts may help us in a measure. When he took the office 
 there were but two clerks in it. When he left it there were 
 thirty-two, including all departments, an increase made neces- 
 sary by the variety and vastness of the financial operations 
 which the war caused. During his five years of office he han- 
 dled $77,780,843.51, — a sum greater by $18,125,204.34 than 
 all the receipts of the State for the sixty years of the century 
 before. In the last year alone (1865), his financial operations 
 amounted to $24,876,163.77, and he had in charge sinking and 
 other funds to the amount of $8,701,509.64. Moreover, 
 wholly beyond the regular duties of his office, he was made 
 virtual paymaster of all the troops which Massachusetts raised, 
 for the various periods before they were mustered into the 
 United States service ; and went about from post to post as 
 the occasion required, carrying the funds with him and paying 
 the troops. Besides all the rest he was made the caretaker 
 of bounty money to the amount of $635,297.90, which it was 
 no part of his duty to receive or have any charge of, but which 
 he took at the request of Governor Andrew because there 
 seemed to be no other person to take it. When the interest 
 had accumulated on this sum to the amount of $9,800, and the 
 
26 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 attorney-general had given his written opinion that this 
 money belonged to the party who had taken care of the prin- 
 cipal, General Oliver, having too fine a sense of honor to take 
 it without a definite, legal title, referred the matter to the 
 legislature. This body voted a petty $500 to the treasurer 
 for his services, and turned the balance into the recruitment 
 fund. 
 
 The mere enumeration of his services at the close of his five 
 years' term (the constitutional limit) "filled six pages of an 
 octavo legislative document (House Doc't No. 226, 1865)." 
 He had received and paid out, that is, twice handled, a sum 
 amountino^ in round numbers to 155 millions of dollars once 
 handled, had been under bonds of $100,000 renewed every 
 year ; and for all this immense care and labor he had received 
 an average annual salary of $2,300. And when, at the close 
 of his term of service the legislature learned from him the 
 facts, it promptly raised the salary to $5,000 for his successor; 
 hut it did nothing for him. 
 
 The story of his action in saving the credit of the State in 
 June, 1864, has been often told, and does not need to be 
 repeated here. But there is one element in the story, never to 
 our knowledge brought out, which deserves to be especially 
 mentioned. This man, who had too fine a sense of honor to 
 take the interest money without an explicit legal title, had 
 equally too fine a sense of responsibility to take the risk 
 of promising more interest on the State loan than the law pro- 
 vided, without making adequate provision to meet the same, if 
 the legislature did not approve his act. And so he and his 
 wife, of their own accord, dedicated their little patrimony 
 to this end, if the need should be, well knowing that they ran 
 the risk of being stripped of their last dollar. And after this 
 joint act of sacrifice by the two in their heart, the husband went 
 cheerily on to the street, and arranged for the amount needed. 
 Such was the man, who served his native State with abundant 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 27 
 
 capacity and perfect rectitude in her dire period of stress and 
 storm. 
 
 Massachusetts, with honest pride in righteous doing, gained 
 for herself the high honor of paying in gold during and after 
 the war every debt incurred in gold before the war, and so 
 keeping her faith with her creditors unbroken ; and her war 
 treasurer did his full share towards this achievement. By 
 reason of his character and capacity in part it could be said at 
 the close of the war, "yet the fiscal affairs of the Common- 
 wealth, notwithstanding the strain to which they have been 
 subjected, are in tlie highest degree satisfactory ; and th'* 
 financial credit of Massachusetts stands unsurpassed at home 
 and abroad." No one, we think, can survey the whole field of 
 this service, and become familiar with the facts, without coming 
 to the conclusion that the character which the war treasurer 
 displayed was a distinct honor to the Commonwealth, and that 
 for the labors he performed, the burdens he bore, and the ser- 
 vices he rendered there is still due him a distinct debt. 
 
 In January, 1866, the man who had rendered these gigantic 
 services to his native State went out of his office by constitu- 
 tional limitation, without a place and without an income. 
 Upon his election as treasurer he had moved back to Salem, 
 and was now dwelling in the ancestral mansion which his wife 
 had inherited from her father, and around which the most 
 sacred associations of his early manhood were gathered. After 
 but a few days, namely, on the 26th of this month, his Avife 
 died, but he continued to keep house, his daughters acting as 
 housekeepers. 
 
 Bureau of Statistics or Labor. 
 
 In September, 1867, Governor Bullock gave General Oliver 
 an appointment " to look into the condition of the factory chil- 
 dren in the various establishments of the State ; " and he con- 
 
28 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 tinned in this work nearly two years, *' finding the several laws 
 relating to their employment when under ten years of age, 
 when between ten and fifteen years of age, and to their school- 
 ing, violated every where." He *' prepared two reports on the 
 subject which excited not a little attention and comment." 
 
 On the 23d of June, 1869, Governor Claflin approved the 
 bill for the establishment of this Bureau, and July 31 following 
 appointed General Oliver its chief. Of his fitness for the 
 place, both as to spirit and capacity, the foregoing narrative 
 gives abundant evidence. Of his work here done we need not 
 qjeak at length. The four volumes of his reports are his 
 monument ; and as an evidence of the estimation in which they 
 are held we may mention the fact that the Bureau frequently 
 receives requests for them from various parts of the world. In 
 judging of them it should be borne in mind that the field was 
 Avholly new, that of precedents there were absolutely none, 
 that he was the pioneer of all such work in the world ; and a 
 fair judgment will decide that he worked with courage, fidelity, 
 thoroughness, and much clear-sight. To have staked out the 
 ground would have been a large work, but he did more. 
 Some of the worst fallows in the field he vigorously set about 
 breaking up. 
 
 Experiments had to be tried, and he tried them. Some of 
 his work struck at the roots of great evils, or erroneous opin- 
 ions in society, and so awakened deep hostilities. This was 
 inevitable. His reports weighed strongly in behalf of the wage 
 workers. They could not be truthful without doing so ; and 
 the larger and more complete they were in setting forth the 
 actual facts, the more they must weigh on that side. At length 
 with strong and heavy hand, but with accurate touch, he laid 
 bare the tenement-house system of Boston ; and also made it 
 plain that the savings banks of the Commonwealth were largely 
 the storehouses in which the well-to-do people preserved their 
 plenty out of the reach of taxation. Inevitably a storm Avas 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 29 
 
 raised against hira, and when his second term expired he was 
 not reappointed. 
 
 Concerning his work there is no need that we speak further. 
 But it is well-fitting that he himself should give his own view 
 of it ; and to this end we present considerable extracts from 
 his private memoranda, as follows : 
 
 "To the duties of this office I gave my undivided attention, having 
 to grope my way, unguided by precedent, example, or experience, — 
 everything connected with our investigations being new, and nearly 
 all of those investigations being rendered difficult and embarrassing 
 b}'' the very strong and powerful influence of the employing class of 
 the State, who with no sympathy in the subject-matter of our inqui- 
 ries, withheld, as a general rule, all such information as our inquiries 
 were directed to obtain. The laboring class as a whole, however, 
 gave such support as their small means and unemployed time would 
 permit. The inquiries were in their behalf, elicited their support, 
 and gained their confidence 
 
 . . . . I prepared, with the assistance of Mr. McNeill, four 
 annual reports, upon the earnings, cost of living, and savings or 
 indebtedness of the laboring classes of the State : their homes, 
 education, habits of living, morals, manners, hours of labor, amuse- 
 ments, societies of various sorts ; upon factory life, factory opera- 
 tives, factory children, — the schooling of the latter, half-time 
 schools, etc., etc. : in fact upon everything relating to the great 
 question of labor and the laboring classes, skilled and unskilled, and 
 to every grade and variety of them." 
 
 Speaking of the savings banks, he says : 
 
 " These banks were originally intended to be the managing deposi- 
 taries of the poorer and working classes ; but we found by a very full 
 investigation that while the banks were the resort of the poorer 
 class in great excess [of numbers], (13 or 14 of them to 1 of the 
 better-to-do class) , they were likewise the resort to a large extent of 
 the latter class : and that (taking 1870 as an illustrative 3'ear) one- 
 
30 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 fourteenth of the whole number of deposits contributed three-sevenths 
 of the whole amount deposited ; that of 47 millions deposited 
 about 21 millions were deposited in sums of $300 and upwards, 
 averaging $573 for each deposit, the remaining 26 millions being 
 deposited in sums under $300, and averaging about $55 for each 
 deposit. Now as the average earning for skilled labor that year was 
 only about $700, out of which an average family was supported, it 
 was plain that none of the first class of depositors were skilled 
 laborers, but were of the wealthier folk above them ; and this 
 showed that nearly half at least of the money in those banks was 
 that of the better-to-do people." 
 
 "Our revelations occasioned a great stir, and great excitement." 
 " It soon became public opinion and yet remains so that these 
 banks are largely used by the better-to-do classes, and even by capi- 
 talists ; and that it cannot be argued with truth that the increase of 
 their deposits is an indication of the prosperity of the working 
 classes." 
 
 Concerning factory children, he says : 
 
 " We proved that very little regard was paid to the laws of the 
 State in relation to the employment of children in factories, and to 
 those requiring that these children should receive a certain amount of 
 schooling each year ; and that children under ten years of age, not- 
 withstanding legal prohibitions, were employed all over the State, 
 and that in not a few instances factory children received from year 
 to year no instruction whatever ; so that of the children of the State 
 between 5 and 15 years of age, at least 10 per cent could not be 
 accounted for as attending any school, public or private. Our deduc- 
 tions were founded on the reports of the Secretary of the State 
 Board of Education." 
 
 " I left the Bureau in May, 1873, retiring with an entire con- 
 sciousness that I had omitted no effort in endeavoring to do my 
 whole duty ; and that, regardless of personal considerations, I had 
 faithfully set forth the real status of the working people, — the real 
 producers of the State." 
 
HENEY K. OLIVEE. 31 
 
 One of bis peculiar qualifications for the place he filled in 
 this Bureau was that he was a man of sympathetic heart, who 
 ever saw the human in the poorest and lowliest of men. The 
 following extract from an address illustrates this element of 
 his character. 
 
 On the 23d of June, 1874, the working people of Lawrence 
 celebrated the passage of the ten hour law. Gen. Oliver 
 was present, and was reported by the Journal of that city to 
 have " closed an able speech with these noble words : 
 
 " Before I close I wish to speak on a subject that is very dear to 
 my heart. I speak it tenderly — it is that of the children. I have 
 a little grandchild at home whom I love dearly, and whom I have 
 spoiled — what grandfathers usually do. Among the many faces 
 around me I see a number from over the water. Some of you will 
 remember that, before the ten hour bill was passed, children were 
 gathered up by employers from all over the country — from poor- 
 houses and the sti'eets of the cities — and put to work in the facto- 
 ries. Those children never returned to where they were taken from. 
 They never were heard of after. The first Sir Robert Peel said, 
 ' Take care of the children.' Now the children are taken care of. 
 And I want to see before I die the short-time schools of England 
 established in this country, and no child under the age of fifteen 
 years to be allowed to work over five liours a day. And I want you, 
 the gainers by this measure, to see that the law relating to the em- 
 ployment of children is strictly enforced. And now as I close and 
 bid you good night, I will say what I said at a previous banquet in 
 this city. A celebrated Queen of England once said that if her 
 heart was opened after her death, on it would be found the word, 
 ' Calais.' Lord Ashley, now Earl of Shaftesbury, said that upon 
 his heart would be found the words, ' Lancashire operatives.' If my 
 heart could be seen under similar conditions, upon it would be found 
 the words, ' Factory children.' " 
 
 As an example of the marked intellectual qualifications of 
 General Oliver to be chief of this Bureau, and of the hisfh 
 
32 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 appreciation which he awakened in those who were especially 
 fitted to judge, w^e quote the following by Mr. George 
 Holyoake, from his book entitled " Among the Americans." 
 
 " Gen. H. K. Oliver was a name I had known in England in 
 connection with questions of international industry. The social 
 wisdom of his conversation, now I had the pleasure to be his guest, 
 impressed me very distinctly. He explained to me that when in 
 charge of this Bureau, he counselled workmen to provide themselves 
 with a competence for their declining j^^ears ; — defining ' competence ' 
 as that sum which, if invested in days of health and work (from 
 earnings), would yield an income at a given age, equal to their 
 average annual income, and sufficient to maintain them in the station 
 in which they had moved. This is what I mean by wise talk, con- 
 versation that moves steadily to new issues, and in which material 
 terms are rendered definite. ' Competence ' is a term on many 
 tongues, but Gen. Oliver was the first person whom I heard define 
 it as he used it." 
 
 These words, coming from one of England's foremost think- 
 ers and writers on industrial questions, are certainly high 
 praise. In them is reflected a single ray from this great and 
 luminous soul. 
 
 He ceased his labors in this Bureau in May, 1873, not being 
 reappointed. All his great, unexampled, highly honorable 
 services to the State seemed to him to have been forgotten ; 
 and this man of keen spirit and high sense of honor was cut to 
 the quick with the apparent injustice done him. He shared 
 with all prophets and pioneers of human progress in all the 
 ages past the sacrificial pain without which, it would seem, the 
 advancement of mankind cannot be achieved. 
 
 And now, as we close the record of this passage in his life, 
 we venture the judgment that when he was made chief of 
 this Bureau no other citizen of the Commonwealth was so well 
 prepared, whether by natural endowments or by experience 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 33 
 
 and training, for the work that tliere was to do ; and that both 
 what he did and what he endured entitle him to the lasting; 
 gratitude of all toilers, whom he so earnestly and with single- 
 ness of mind served. 
 
 A Judge at the Centennial. 
 
 For about three years he "was almost entirely unemployed." 
 In 1875 a school building in Salem was named after him, at 
 the dedication of which he made the address. Also his birth- 
 day was celebrated by his friends in Salem that year in a man- 
 ner " long to be remembered." Early in April, 1876, he was 
 appointed one of the judges at the International Centennial 
 Exhibition, held in Philadelphia, Pa., and went there on the 
 tenth of that month. He was assigned to Group XXV, which 
 was devoted to " Instruments of Precision." This "included 
 astronomical instruments of all sorts, trigonometrical and sur- 
 veying instruments ; magnetic, electric, telegraphic, and tele- 
 phonic instruments ; and microscopes. There were also added 
 musical instruments of every variety from organs down ; " and 
 these last being formed into a sub-group, he was made chair- 
 man, and as such prepared the printed reports. Having fin- 
 ished his duties and returned home, he was recalled in October 
 to be one of the " Judges on Appeals." 
 
 Mayor of Salem. 
 
 While yet in Philadelphia he received in November a letter 
 from Salem desiring him to accept a nomination for the mayor- 
 alty of that city. He consented, and was elected and re- 
 elected, serving in all four years. His administration was 
 characterized by economy, reduction of expenses, great reduc- 
 
34 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 tion of the debt of the city, and a thorough visitation of the 
 schools and discussion of their interests. When the municipal 
 year of 1881 was approaching, the General, having rounded 
 his full eighty years of life, declined a renomination. 
 
 Closing Years. 
 
 In December, 1880, he presided at the annual dinner of the 
 alumni of the Boston Latin School; in May, 1881, at the 
 annual dinner of the Unitarian Association given in Music 
 Hall; October 21, at a banquet held at the Revere House in 
 honor of the completion by Franz Liszt of his seventieth year ; 
 and in November, at the annual dinner of the Association of 
 the Alumni of the Boston grammar schools prior to 1831. 
 
 In April, 1881, the fiimily removed for a year to Boston by 
 the desire of his children, that he might have a better oppor- 
 tunity for hearing concerts, lectures, etc. In July of that 
 year the American Institute of Instruction, of which as '* Mas- 
 ter Oliver" he was one of the founders in 1830, met at St. 
 Albans, Vt. With a possible exception he was the sole sur- 
 vivor of the original members. By request of the directors 
 he prepared and delivered there a eulogy on George B. Emer- 
 son, who had died in the March before. During the winter 
 following he lectured twice before the Young Men's Christian 
 Union, and delivered other addresses in Boston, Lawrence, 
 and Haverhill. 
 
 In April, 1882, he went to pass the summer at North Andover 
 with a daughter, then recently married. The season being one 
 of unusual heat, a weakness of the heart was developed, which 
 ordinary remedies did not control ; and in the ensuing winter 
 a fatal result was anticipated. More decided treatment, how- 
 ever, restored a considerable measure of health as the spring 
 drew on. In May following he returned to the old house in 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 35 
 
 Salem, sacred to him by so many hallowed associations and 
 tender recollections, and continued to reside there till his 
 death. "He gave up attendance upon any public meetings, 
 and went to the polls but once ; but spent most of his time in 
 reading, and writing music, and articles for the press." 
 
 At the annual meeting of the trustees of Dartmouth College, 
 held in June, 1883, he was made Doctor of Music. A request 
 having been made by President Bartlett of that institution the 
 following year for a portrait, one was painted in the late 
 autumn, and sent there in season for the Commencement of 
 1885. Also, at the request of the present chief of this Bureau, 
 a portrait in oil was provided and placed in the rooms of the 
 Bureau. The letter of the chief acknowledging the portrait 
 gave to the General the highest satis Miction. 
 
 At length, in midsummer of last year, the time of the end 
 came. On Sabbath evening, July 26, the final stroke fell, being 
 a semi-paralysis of a portion of the brain not affecting the 
 motor system. He lingered, gradually failing, until Wednes- 
 day evening, August 12, when, as the gloaming was darkening 
 over the earth, he peacefully fell asleep. On Monday follow- 
 ing he was buried from the North Church, where he had wor- 
 shipped so long, with the full honors of a reverent people. He 
 has passed from the sight of men ; but his name shall live and 
 his memory be cherished, we believe, while God shall be wor- 
 shipped in song, and courage, purity, public beneficence, and 
 high manliness shall be loved and honored amonof men. 
 
 His Personal Appearance. 
 
 In person General Oliver was a trifle less than six feet high, 
 of square shoulders and massive frame. His head was 23| 
 inches in circumference, and his brow was Websterian, — a 
 beetling crag, underneath which his large, full-set, and lumin- 
 
36 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 ous gray eyes looked out with keen and kindly glance. His 
 nose was Roman, his jaw square and strong; and the flesh 
 hung on his face in folds like a vail, tremulous to every 
 emotion of the sensitive soul that dwelt behind it. There was 
 something of the mastiff in him, but the heart that beat in that 
 grim and powerful frame was all alive with gentle humanness, 
 and love of every virtue, and quick delight in every high, 
 chivalric deed. 
 
 Various expressions of judgment concerning him, which ap- 
 peared in the press at the time of his decease, are quite worth 
 preserving, as showing the general estimate in which he was 
 held in the communities where he had resided. 
 
 " In the death of General Oliver, Salem loses her foremost citizen. 
 Judge Endicott and Dr. Loring are probably more widely known, 
 but the general's long and varied career entitles him to the rank we 
 have given him." 
 
 " Gifted with a commanding presence, and with large and varied 
 mental aptitudes, with an ear attuned to music and a voice of un- 
 limited strength and compass [" a stentorian voice" it was called in 
 Lawrence], he was a born leader. His powers as teacher, writer, 
 student and executive officer were such as are rarely combined in the 
 same person. But the strongest note in his character — the domi- 
 nant chord — was the musical one, as will be surely testified by those 
 who recall him (as the present writer does) in charge of this part 
 of the service in the North Church, Salem, which he raised to choice 
 excellence, as he did also that of the Unitarian Church in Law- 
 rence." 
 
 " Large-hearted, full of generous instincts and purposes, the poor 
 of Lawrence had, during the early years of that city, no warmer and 
 more constant friend than General Oliver. 
 
 "In educational matters he was equally efficient. When superin- 
 tendent of public schools, or as a private citizen, he could and did 
 step in and fill the place of the high school principal, when that was 
 temporarily vacant." 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 37 
 
 "He was an industrious and unsparing student, his tastes leading 
 him to the languages, and the physical and mathematical sciences. 
 He was familiar with the Greek, Latin (which he wrote and spoke 
 with great ease) , French, Spanish and Italian languages ; and, 
 when a teacher, took great delight in pupils whose tastes led them in 
 the same direction. He aimed especially at thoroughness and exact- 
 ness in the study of the classics, and the scholars whom he fitted for 
 college will bear testimony to his persevering and practical fidelity." 
 
 " In whatever he was engaged General Oliver exhibited large 
 intellectual resources and unusual fertility of mind. He was 
 extremely fruitful in thought, and had retained vast stores of knowl- 
 edge on various subjects, acquired in his student days. There are 
 very few who commenced their mental labors so early, who worked 
 so assiduously, and who continued them to so great an age." 
 
 " As a teacher he was remarkable for the skill with which he com- 
 bined perfect familiarity with his pupils on the play-ground, or any 
 where out of doors, and thorough control of them in the school- 
 room." 
 
 His "intellectual resources" and "fertility of mind" had 
 their fullest manifestation during that period of his life when he 
 was a teacher, especially in the later portions of it when, " be- 
 sides the daily labors of his school, he delivered lectures and 
 addresses very frequently, and was active in most of the liter- 
 ary enterprises of the time." He was quite adequate to all 
 this, because he was "a ready speaker, a clear and forcible 
 writer, familiar with many branches of science and literature." 
 
 "He held office many years, and held many offices, yet he died 
 poor as the world counts wealth. He never profited by any position 
 which he held. Nor did he surrender his opinions for any purpose. 
 What he thought he spoke, what he believed he did." 
 
 It may be added that what he thought was truth, and what 
 he spoke was wisdom ; that what he believed was good, and 
 what he did was righteousness, to a degree rarely attained by 
 
38 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 men. Through his crystalline soul the light from the pure, 
 interior realm of life was transmitted with almost unrefracted 
 ray. 
 
 His spirit and temper is shown, and the living presence in 
 him of that same overmastering love of freedom and sympathy 
 for all the oppressed of every nationality, which lived and 
 burned in our revolutionary fathers, so near to whom he was 
 born, by the ftict that "in the eighty-first year of his age he 
 addressed a land league indignation meeting in Salem, in 
 clear and eloquent phrase expressing his earnest sympathy 
 with their cause, and urging that the weapons of Ireland's war- 
 fare be reason, right, and the truth unyieldingly insisted 
 upon." 
 
 There is one trait of General Oliver's character which 
 we would fain present, but which quite eludes our pen. It is 
 his wit, his humor, his bonhomie. Says one, " His love of 
 fun was irresistible, and he possessed a bright, keen humor." 
 Another writes, "His wit and humor were keen, exuberant, 
 and irrepressible, his industry untiring, his intellectual re- 
 sources exhaustless." His humor was like the shimmer of sun- 
 light over the landscape in a sultry summer day. His whole 
 person quivered with it on occasion. When he laughed he 
 laughed all over, frame and flesh all shaking with the merri- 
 ment. But it cannot be set down and told with types. Sooner 
 could one photograph the colors of a sunset than put forth in 
 print the gleam and glow and billowy flow of humor and fun in 
 his talk. And there was no frivolity in it. It was altogether 
 the play-impulse of a large, active, and many-sided soul, dis- 
 porting itself just a little in a natural, spontaneous way. Nor 
 was there a trace in it of that dark, malicious bitterness which 
 finds its perverse delight in thrusting to the quick a fellow 
 human for some peculiar, inborn trait. He made fun for 
 others, but never of others. 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 39 
 
 But wit, the intellectual side of humor, this can be told ; and 
 one very bright instance we here relate. When the concerts 
 were given by the chorus of operatives in Lawrence, there 
 were no printed programs ; but General Oliver announced 
 the pieces from the stage. At one of the concerts, perhaps 
 the last one, in the city hall, the General announced as the last 
 piece of the evening, "The Three Bell(e)s of Lawrence;" 
 and, as everybody was looking with eager curiosity to see who 
 might the three fair damsels be who should come on to the 
 stage under such a title, the bells of the three factories began 
 to ring for nine o'clock, the vast audience took the joke, and 
 in the best of good humor the people dispersed to their homes. 
 
 Perhaps in nothing did his intellectual powers of learning, 
 thought, and wit combined so much appear as in his maca- 
 ronic poetry. He dropped into macaronic writing in a letter, 
 or on a postal, just as easily as he uttered a humorous remark 
 in conversation, and the gleam of fun was always lurking in it. 
 One poem of this character, containing the names of many 
 persons, is especially spoken of. 
 
 In his family life there was a beauty, strength, and tender- 
 ness well-nigh as rare as the man himself. He was genial, 
 gentle, faithful, watchful ; and nothing lacked in all his life 
 of what a man could do for home. A writer says: " In his 
 private and family life General Oliver was most kind, gentle 
 and lovable. To his friends he was endeared by most pleasing 
 traits of character. His vivacity of manner, his wit and humor, 
 his merry tales, and his treasures of knowledge made him ex- 
 tremely companionable." And another says: "His fund of 
 information and his great versatility made him a delightful con- 
 versationalist on any topic." Such was the man in home and 
 social life. 
 
 He was a communicant of the Unitarian Church, passing to 
 it with so many from the Evangelical Church in the twenties. 
 At one time before this event he had contemplated being a 
 
40 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 minister, as we have previously said, and made some prepara- 
 tions to that end. In his private school he gave " unsectarian 
 religious teaching" on tlie Sabbath to such of his pupils as 
 desired. But it was in his spirit and way of life as superin- 
 tendent of a cotton mill that he most fully exemplified Chris- 
 tianity, and gave the especial evidence that he was a genuine 
 follower of the Nazarene. 
 
 In all persons and all things quality, which is density, purity, 
 fineness, and in living things verve combined, must have quite 
 equal consideration with volume and variety, in order to a full 
 and complete estimate, and a just judgment. This is eminently 
 true of the subject of our memoir. And the quality of this 
 man in the whole substance and spontaneity of his life had its 
 perfect disclosure in his musical gifts. This teacher, military 
 commander, manufacturer, treasurer of a State, and first chief 
 of a labor bureau in the world, was a musician of a high order. 
 
 Whoever has studied with intent gaze the grain and bloom 
 of a brilliant flower, and carefully noted the delicate tints 
 which in gentle gradations from pink to white w^ere disclosed 
 in the petals, and has reflected on the nature of living things, 
 cannot have failed to perceive that the vitality of the plant 
 came to the acme of the intensity of its manifestation in that 
 flower. Music was the exquisite bloom of this manifold soul. 
 
 Ere he was three years old he was learning to sing on his 
 mother's knee, and he caught the singing from her, who was 
 " a fine singer," it is said; and so we know that his aptitude 
 came in his blood. At ten years of age he was a singer in the 
 Park Street Church choir, having " a pure and powerful soprano 
 voice, which continued into his seventeenth year, when it fell 
 to a deep bass " of like quality. Forbidden by his father 
 (who shared the prejudices of religious people in those days 
 against all except sacred music) to learn to play any instru- 
 ment, the powers within him compelled him to disobey ; and 
 he mended up an old, cracked, one-keyed flute, and began to 
 
HENRY K. OLIYEE. 41 
 
 learn on it, hiding it wlienever a visit of his father was 
 expected. He was ever in some choir, in that of the Park 
 Street Church, as has been said, in the Pierian Sodality and 
 the chapel choir at Harvard, in the church choir at Dartmouth, 
 and in a Salem choir at first, until he became an organist. He 
 began to learn the piano and organ in 1821. As he grew in 
 years he grew in musical development, and became " an expert 
 performer on the organ, violoncello, flute, and piano forte." 
 He was an organist for some thirty-six years or more, namely, 
 for about two years, beginning in 1823, at St. Peter's Church, 
 Salem ; for two years after at Barton Square Chtirch ; for 
 twenty years at the North Church ; and for twelve years at 
 the Unitarian Church in Lawrence. About 1824, also, he or- 
 ganized in Salem the Mozart Association for the study of the 
 works of the great authors, he being its president, organist, 
 and conductor. 
 
 But he also rose to the yet higher grade of composer. Hav- 
 ing early made himself familiar with the laws of musical har- 
 mony he began, at thirty-one, the composition of tunes with 
 ''Federal Street," and wrote chants, motets, anthems, a Te 
 Deum, and many hymn tunes. "In 1849 he edited, with 
 Dr. S. P. Tuckerman, a collection of church music, called 
 * The National Lyre ; ' and in 1875 published a work, entitled 
 'Oliver's Collection of Sacred Music.'" He was, moreover, 
 ' ' one of the oldest members of the Boston Handel and Haydn 
 Society, and of the Salem Oratorio Society, and an honorary 
 member of the Portland Haydn Society." 
 
 "The proudest moment of his long musical career came to 
 him on the 25th of June, 1872, when at the Great World's 
 Peace Jubilee in Boston, in the presence of President Grant, 
 Secretaries Fish, Robeson, and Boutwell of the Cabinet, and 
 many dignitaries, he stepped from the ranks of the undis- 
 tinguished chorus, and, taking his place among the three or 
 
42 
 
 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 four great composers and conductors of the world, he led, baton 
 in hand, a choir of 20,000 persons in his own hymn and choral, 
 — in 'Federal Street,' with his own words, * Hail Gentle 
 Peace,' " written for the occasion. 
 
 In April, 1876, he was appointed one of the judges at the 
 Centennial in Philadelphia, Pa., and assigned to the work on 
 musical instruments there, as we have heretofore described. 
 
 But a mere catalos^ue of work and achievement cannot fulfil 
 our purpose. The soul of the man in its whiteness and nobil- 
 ity exhaled in his music, and that music must be sung in order 
 that the whiteness and nobility may be seen. As a specimen 
 we have selected, and here present, what we believe to be his 
 finest composition, the tune " Merton." 
 
 MERTON. 
 
 REV. PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 
 
 H. K. OLIVER. 
 
 m 
 
 Ye golden lamps of lieav'n, fare-well, With all your fee - ble light ; 
 
 g::=3 
 
 "P -g - — g- 
 
 zHt: 
 
 mz^z 
 
 
 ^-—(2^ 
 
 m 
 
 ^-' 
 
 :p= 
 
 m^m^^m 
 
 — gi- 
 
 f-g^-ETi^bri;-—: 
 
 3] 
 
 Farewell, thou ev - er- changing moon,Pale em - press of the night. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■V- 
 
 Mq-- 
 
 I^V^frr. 
 
 -■^ 
 
 .«_L 
 
 -(^ 
 
 This tune, like his more familiar but less intellectual and in- 
 dividual " Federal Street," was not properly speaking composed. 
 It came into his mind as a sweet echo from a far away land, 
 and the way of its coming was this. One Sabbath in 1843, in 
 
HENRY K. OLIVER. 43 
 
 the North Church, Salem, of which General Oliver was mu- 
 <*i'jal director and organist from 1828 to 1849, and Rev. John 
 Brazer was at the time pastor, Dr. Doddridge's beautiful hymn, 
 beginning "Ye golden lamps of heav'n, farewell," was to be 
 sung as the last piece in the afternoon. All through the day 
 the director could recall no tune that seemed adapted to the 
 words. The afternoon sermon had got well under way, but 
 the director was not listening to it. Instead he " was conning 
 the words of the hymn, more intent upon them than upon the 
 words of the preacher," when suddenly a melody came floating 
 into his mind. It being his custom always to have blank music 
 paper at hand, he at once pencilled down the melody, and set 
 the other three parts to it, thus completing the score for his 
 own use. Then he made a copy of each several part on a sin- 
 gle staff", and handed the slip to the one of his quartet choir 
 who sang that part — all of whom could read music at sight, 
 and " were singers of rare excellence both in voice and skill." 
 So when the reading of the hymn was ended, the organ 
 sounded, the choir arose and sang with earnest heart and well 
 befitting tones ; and thus was this tune, which the angels had 
 brought, given forth that day unto men. 
 
 Merton is a unique tune. It is too high and fine and differ- 
 ent to be imitated. In originality, in delicacy, in purity, 
 spirituality, and aspiration, it has few equals and no superiors 
 in the realm of American sacred song. It seems like a lofty 
 Ionic column of pure, Pentelic marble, standing in the soft 
 moonlight of a summer night, when the moon at her full rides 
 high up towards the zenith. 
 
 But it is not for the tune itself, but to reveal the soul through 
 which it came, that the above has been written. Only through 
 a soul large and white, like one of the heavenly gates of pearl, 
 could the angels have breathed such a tune. Who knows the 
 tune, and loves it in his heart, may know in so far the grain 
 
44 HENEY K. OLIVER. 
 
 and grade of this stainless, knightly soul, that soared with the 
 eagle, sang with the lark, and walked in the ways of the living 
 God with a perfect heart. 
 
 His Masterfulness. 
 
 If we were asked to decide wherein, most of all, the great- 
 ness of this man of manifold powers lay, we should answer that 
 it was in his ability to master whatever he set himself upon. 
 
 He was master of himself, and his life was a career of singu- 
 lar purity, integrity, good-will, and well-doing. He was mas- 
 ter of his pupils, and that by such excellent powers, so benefi- 
 cently exerted, that to the last they loved to think and speak 
 of him as "Master Oliver;" and they evidently felt towards 
 him something as President Garfield felt towards his president, 
 Mark Hopkins of Williams College. He became master of 
 many studies, some of which at first were distasteful to him, 
 but in which he acquired by sheer force of mind and will a pos- 
 itive delight. He was master of military affairs in such emi- 
 nent deo-ree that he made the militia reo^iment which he 
 commanded well-nigh equal in drill to troops of the regular 
 army ; and afterwards he raised the standard of efficiency of 
 the militia of the whole State, when put in charge over it. He 
 grasped at once, and became master in a few months, of the 
 whole business of manufacturing cotton cloth, gathering and 
 controlling many hundreds of operatives, and conducting the 
 manufacturing operations of a great corporation with as much 
 smoothness and precision as he did his girls school of fifty 
 pupils, — a gigantic work wrought by a giant man. He be- 
 came master of finance, and bore the unexampled burdens of 
 his oflSce as war treasurer of this Commonwealth so easily, 
 that few realized how 2:reat the burdens were, or understood 
 
HENEY K. OLIVER. 45 
 
 what service he was rendering ; and as a master he wrought 
 his pioneer work in this office. Above all other titles well 
 may he ever be known as " Master Oliver." 
 
 His Cast of Mind. 
 
 Whoever surveys the life of General Oliver cannot but feel 
 that he did not gain that high place in the world's knowledge 
 and esteem, which his powers deserved ; and the reason may 
 justly be asked. It lay in the structure of his mind, and the 
 nature of his personality as springing therefrom. 
 
 His mind was fundamentally discursive rather than concen- 
 trative. His life ran out rich and strong on various lines of 
 thought and action, but never did and could not bring all its 
 force to bear on any one work. His powers worked apart, 
 and with plenitude of results ; but these were like rays dis- 
 persed from a convex reflector. The several beams were 
 seen, each in its separate line ; but in seeing them one did not 
 feel the full measure of the soul from which they sprang. His 
 selfhood did not centre in his will sufficiently to secure the 
 working of all his gifts together in such a way as to constitute 
 him, in the highest degree which those gifts should have 
 enabled him to be, a personal force in society. He himself 
 recognized this at length, as when, near the close of his life, 
 surveying the beginning of his career, he spoke of the " entire 
 self-distrust " which he felt at that time, and said "that this 
 distrust had always impeded his labors." 
 
 Last Words. 
 
 We sum up the whole man in a single sa^nng. General 
 Oliver had the eye of an eagle, the frame of a lion, and the 
 heart of a woman ; and the large and noble powers of such a 
 
46 HENRY K. OLIVER. 
 
 being "were blended together into a fine harmonious unity in 
 him. He was a kingl}'^ man in person, in endowments, and in 
 action ; and the manifoldness of his career was according to 
 the greatness and diversity of his powers. He Avas a teacher 
 of youth, and he came to be of the first order, attaining to the 
 same rank, though not to the same fame, with Arnold of 
 Rugby. While a school teacher he became a military ofiicer 
 of such excellence as to receive promotions extraordinary if 
 not unexampled in this Commonwealth, during the period in 
 which his service occurred. From being adjutant-general of 
 the State he was called, without previous acquaintance with the 
 business, to take charge of an empty building, select the stafl', 
 gather the help, put in, set up and start the machinery, and 
 manage the manufacturing operations of a great cotton-mill 
 corporation ; and such was his power to grasp and master new 
 afiairs, his keenness in reading men, his judgment in selecting 
 them, and the " potency of his nature " in moving them to act 
 in willing agreement with himself, that from the first yard of 
 cloth the product of the mills was in the highest grade, and 
 for the whole period that he had charge they were a complete 
 success. He was the war treasurer of this Commonwealth, 
 as Andrew was the war governor ; and without a flaw ot 
 action, but in the hour of exigency with ready daring he bore 
 every burden as it came, handling vaster sums of money than 
 any official in his place before or since, and for an average 
 pay about half what is now provided. He was the founder 
 of the work of this Bureau ; and in the fulfilment of his duties 
 endured with dauntless courage the brunt of a sore conflict, 
 with clear-sighted devotion breaking the way for those who 
 should come after. And finally he was a religious musician, a 
 writer of tunes that cannot die — a "sweet singer of Israel," 
 whose name will live in dear regard while men shall sins; in 
 English speech to the worship of God. The exquisite quality 
 
HENRY K. OLIVEE. 47 
 
 of this high gift has made him to rank among the purest, 
 choicest souls of his day. Teacher of youth, general of sol- 
 diers, manager of mills, treasurer of the State, first chief of 
 this Bureau, musician and writer of sacred songs that live 
 perennial in the Christian heart, what parallel to the man and 
 his career in all these lines shall be found in our time? 
 
OCT 28 19U1 
 
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