The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-12-10
SM isGe11a
From the Saturday Boeniag Post, Oct., 1s49.
EDGAR A, POE,

! Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in
Baltimore on Sunday, September Z. This
announcement will startle many, but few
will be grieved BY it. The poet was known
personally or by reputation in all this
country; he had readers in England, and
in several of the States of Continental Eu-
rope; but he had few or no friends; and
the regrets for his death will be suggested
principally by the consideration that in
him literary art has lost one of its most
brilliant but cratic stars
The family of Mr.. Poe-we learn from
Griswold's "Poets and Poetry of America y
from which a considerable portion of the
facts in this notice are derived was one
of the oldest and most respectable in Bal
timore. David Poe, his paternal grand
father, Was Quartermaster-G eneral In the
Maryland fine during the Revolution, and
the intimate friend of Lafayette, who du-
ring his last visit to the United States,
called personally upon the Generals widow
and rendered her acknowledgements for the
services rendered to him by her husband.
His great-grandfather, John Poe, married
IN England, Jane, daughter of Admiral
James Mcbride, noted in British naval his
tory, and claiming kindred with some of
the most illustrious English families. His
father and MOTHERHOOD of whom were in
some way connected with the theatre, and
lived as precariously as their more gifted
and more eminent son-died within a few
weeks ofeach other, ofconsumption, leaving
him an orphan, at two years of age. Mr..
John Allan, q wealthy gentleman of Rich
mond, Virginia, took a fancy to him, and
persuaded his grandfather to suffer him to
adopt him. He was brought up in Mr.. AL
lan's family; and as that gentleman had no
other children he was regarded as his son
and heir. In 1915, he accompanied Mr..
and Mrs. Allan to Great Britain, visited
every portion of it, and afterwards passed
four or live years in school kept at Stoke
Newington, near London, by Rev. DR..
Bransby. He returned to America in 1922
and In 1925 went to the Jefferson Universe
ty, at Charlottesville, in Virginia, where he
led very dissipated life, the manners of
the college being at that time extremely
dissolute. He took the first honors, how
ever, and went home greatly in debt. MI.
Allan refused to pay some of his debts OF
honor, and he hastily Quilted the country on
a Quixotic expedition to ioin the Greeks,
then struggling for liberty. He did not
\ III, L,
but made his way to st. Petersburg, in Rus
STA, where he became involved in difficult
ties, from which he. was extricated by the
late Mr.. Henry Middleton, the American
Minister at that capital. He returned
home in 1929, and Immediately afterward
entered the Military Academy at West
Point. In about eighteen months from
that time, Mr. Allan, who had lost his first
wife while Mr.. Poe was in Russia, married
again. He was sixty-fve years of age, and
the lady was young; Poe quarreled with
her and the veteran husband, taking the
part of his wife, addressed him an angry
letter, which was answered in the same
spirit, He died soon after, leaving an in
FAINT son the heir to his property, and be-
queathed Poe nothing.
The army, in the opinion of the young
cadet, was not place for poor man; SO
he left West Point abruptly and deter
mined to maintain himself by authorship:
He printed, in 1927, small volume of
poems, most of which was written in early
youth. Some of these poems are quoted
| in reviewal by Margaret Fuller, in the
Tribune in 1916, and are justly regarded as
among the most wonderful exhibitions of
the precocious development of genius. They
illustrated the character of his abilities
and justified his anticipations of success.
For considerable time, however, though
he wrote readily and brilliantly, his con-
tributipns to the journals attracted little
attention and his hopes Of gaining liveli-
hood by the profession of literature were
nearly ended, at length, in sickness, power
ty and despair. But in 1881, the proprie-
tor of weekly gazette, in Baltimore,
| offered two premiums, one for the best