The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1859-02-24
Ds.,h Of william H. PRESCOTT.


Death of William III. Prescott.
The public will receive with deep
sensation. the announcement of the sud- |
don death of William III. Prescott, the /
eminent Historian, which took place
Mt his residence in Beacon street in this
city, yesterday afternoon about 2 O'clock.
He was attacked with paralysis be-
tween II and o'clock, and within the
short space of time we have indicated,
his mortal nature sunk before the dis.
order. Thus passes away one of the
real celebrities of the present age.
William Kicking Prescott, son of
distinguished lawyer, and grandson of
the immortal lawyer leader of the
American troops at the battle of Bunker
Hill, was born in Salem, in 1896 Com
ing of historical ancestry, it is little
wonder that his tastes early inclined
him to the glorious records of the past,
although it was many years before he
gave himself up to the lead of his inn
pulses. When he was twelve years old
his family removed to Boston, where
he continued his classical studies under
the tuition of DIR. Gardiner, a pupil of
the celebrated DIR. Parr. Three years
later, at the age of fifteen, he entered
Harvard College, and graduated with
honor in 1914. He had intended to
enter the profession of the law; but
a serious accident destroyed for time,
all his ambitious hopes. Previous to
leaving College, he had lost the sight
of one of his eyes from an accidental
blow; and the other, weakened by over
exertion, began to fail him, so that
when he recovered from a severe illness
into which his situation had thrown
him, he found himself nearly blind.
His father disparing of seeing him
cured by our physicians, sent him to
Europe. During his two years resi-
dence abroad, he visited England,
France and Italy, and consulted the
most eminent occulists in London and
Paris, but was obliged to return home
without relief His European tour was
so beneficial to him, that it entirely re-
stored his shattered physical health,
and by freeing him of bodily pains en-
abled him to turn his attention to that
quiet but engrossing department of
knowledge which had so early attracted
his mind. Singular to say, if we look
at his bodily infrmities alone, he de-
termined to be historian. He knew
too, what that title ment, and with
proud consciousness of his powers, as
well as Just appropriation of his aim
he had set before him, he gave himself
up to ten years preparatory reading.
Then selecting his subject, he worked
npon it another ten years, and in 1888,
at the age of forty-two, he gave to the
world his " History of Ferdinand and
Isabella" publishing it simultaneously
in Boston and London.
If the fruit was long ripening, it was
perfect when it fell. The history was
received on both sides of the Atlantic
with unhesitating applause. and took
its permanent place among the classics
of our tongue. 1t has since run through
many editions, and has been translated
into German, Italian, French and Span
ish. His eye had, in the meanwhile,
somewhat improved, and he was ena-
bled to dispense with reader, upon
whose services, in the composition of
his first work, he was obliged to rely,
while he wrote in dimly lighted ROOM
In 1913 appeared his second work, "The
Conquest of Mexico" While this was
received with increased honor in Eu-
rope-causing its author to be chosen
n member of the French Academy of
Sciences, and procuring him many sim
liar hoEors-its reception at home was
still more gratifying; and it probably
remains to the present time the the ia
vorite of all Mr.. Prescott's works, with
American readers. In 1917 appeared
the Conquest of Peru" marked
throughout by the same high qualities
which distinguished its predecessors.
A volume ofmiscellanies followed, con-
tanning many papers of great interest
He also supplied a new edition of Rob-
ertson's Charles ", with an interesting
appendix, complied from lately discov-
cred materials, relating to the cloiSter
life of the Emperor. In 1850 Mr..
Prescott visited England second time
where he was received in very fiat
tering manner, the University of Ok
ford comforting upon him the degree of
LID. Since then he has been at work
upon a His. of Philip H." of which
the first three volumes have been pub
lished. How much further towards
completion this exceedingly interest
ing work was carried before the
pen fell from the hand of the historian,
we are not informed Boston Journal