New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-04
A WEEK AT WEST HILLS.
LETTER FROM WALT WHITMAN


around a1 Long Island and devote this letter to
west Hills Suffolk County 80 miles from New
iorh'' ana the main purpose of journey thither to
'''ui"o anu Identify my brth-spot, and that of nv
p'o"'s ana Their parents. and to plore the pic
turesque regions comprised in the townships of
huntington and Cold Spring Harbor. shall just
s''o NY NOTES verbatim as pencilled them.
AN OLD HOMESTEAD.
oatV ~ Down at the native place after LONG
absence. Hadn't been in Huntington VILLAGE for
| o'or ~ years, and only once briefly at the Hills
curing that time. Rode around to all the old
iahiliar Spots viewing and bordering and dwelling
iohg upon them, everything coming back to me
from nifty years, with childhood's DAYS and scenes
went hrst to the old Whitman homestead ON the
| upland at West Hills, and took a view eastward
| ,hciihing south over the broad and beautiful farm
| Iahds OF my grandfather (l7SO) and nv fotber
IhcIe was the new house 1Sl0l, the big oak hum
urea ana hity or two hundred years old there the
WELL the siopng kitchen. garden, and little wav
OH even the wekept remains of the dwelling of INV
great-grandiather u75Ol6O) stfl standing with its
| mighty tlmbes and low ceilings. Nearby. a
stately grove of tall, vigorous back-walnuts beau
tilui' ApoIlo-ikc. the sons grandsons no doubt
OF biack-walnuts during or before 1776.
oh 'he other side OF the road spread the lannon's
aPP'e orchard over 20 acres, the trees planted by
| hahds long Wondering in the grave my uncle
JeSses, but quite many of them evidently capoblc
Oh throwing out their annual blossoms and fruit vet
TIE ACTUAL BIRTu-sPoT.
went down nearly mile further TO fine houso
| "here was bern MAY 81. 1870 in the fertile
| meadow land AS paused and looked around |
iet that any good farmer would have gloated over
inc scene Rich corn in tassel. many fields; they
had Graded their wheat and rye and were cnttino
| their oats Everything had changed so much and
1t looked so fine began to doubt about the bonse
| ana drove in and inquired to be certain | SAW
Mrs. =, wife of the owner. (son of the j that
| pought the farm OF my father go years ago. She
was very courteous and invited us in DE- Buckle, of
| Canada with mel, but declined.
we drove back to the homestead let down some
bars at the foot of slope and assembled to a spot
most interesting of ALL
AN OLD LONG ISLAND CEMETERY
write these lines seated an old grave doubt
less oil century since at least on the burial hill of
| the Nhltmans OF many generations Fifty and
more graves are quite plainly traceable and as
many more decayed out of any form; depressed
mounds, crumbled and broken stones covered with
moss the gray and sterile hl the clumps of chest
nuts outside he silence Just varied by soughing
wind. There is always the deepest eloquence of
serm' or poem IN any Of these ancient graveyards
al winch Long Island has so many; what must
ih one have been to me A whole family history
with its succession of links from the first settle
mcnt down to date, is told herc-three centuries
concentrate on this sterile acre.
FOUNDERS AND FOREFATHERS,
The Whitmans on Long Island or in New-England
and the Middle States (without going further back
are generally traceable TO John Whitman, born
l"o2 IN England. where ne grew up, married and
his eldest sou was born in 1929. He came over in
the True Love in 1910 to America and settled in
Weymouth. Mass. which place is the mother-hive
OF the New .EnglanderS of the name; he died in
1922 His brother Rev. Zacharah whitman also
came over in the True Love either at that time or
soon after, and settled at Milford, Conn son of
this Lachariah, named Joseph, migrated to Hunt
lngton, Long Island. and permanently settled
there. Savaee's Genealogical Dictionary (vol T. D.
52i) gets the Whitman family est ibished at Hunt
ington. per this Joseph, before 1861 1t is quite
certain that from that beginning. and from Joseph
the West I'LL Whitmans, and all others in Suffolk
County have since radiated. myself among the num-
Der. John and Zacharah both went to England
and back again div crs times; they had large
families, and several of their children were born
in the old country We hear of the father OF John
and Zachariah. Abiah Whitman. who goes over
into the l500's but we know little about him. ex-
cept that he also was for some time in America
The Whitmans as originally spreading from
this outset were ong-hved, most of them farmers
had big families. aud strenuous for the best
education that could be obtained. One is men
toned great linguist and sometimes acted in
the courts rs Interpreter with the Indians: and
down to the present date twelve of tho name have
graduated ut Harvard. five at Yale and nine at
other New-Engand colleges. There have been
ministers and deacons and teachers by the dozen.
THEN ON MY MOTHERS SIDE.
The next day, July 30, devoted to the maternal
locality, and If possible still penetrated
and impressed. ! write this paragraph the
burial nil of the Van Vesors. Cold Spring the
most significant depository of the dead that could
be imagined, without the slightest help from art,
soil sterile, mostly bare plateau-lat Of acre.
the top of HILL brush and we'll grown trees and
dense woods bordering all around very primitive,
secluded, no visitors. road (you cannot drive
here, you have bring the dead foot, and follow
on FOOT. Two or three-score graves quite plain
many more almost rubbed out. My grandfather
Cornelius and my grandmother Amy tNaomi) and
numerous relatives remoter, my
mothers side, lie buried here. The | stood
or sat. the delicate aid wild odor of the woods,
slightly drilling ram, the emotional atmosphere of
the place, and the inferred "reminiscences such
as never realized before.
went down from this ancient grave place eighty |
or ninety rods to the site Of the Van Velsor home
stead, where my mother was born Q795), and
where every spot had been familiar TO child
and youth lS2o|4O). Then stood there n long |
rambling dark-gray shlnge-sded house, with |
sheds pens, great barn and much open |
road space. Now OF all those not vestge left; all
had been pulled down, erased, and the plough and |
harrow passed over foundations, road-spaces and |
everything for many summers; fenced III at pres
fields, only big hole IRON an ancient cellar, with
little heaps of broken stoue, green with grass
and weeds, Identified the place. Even the great |
old brook and spring seemed to have mostly dwin |
died away.
IT'S FIFTY YEARS SINCE.
In some particulars this whole scene, with what |
IT aroused, memories OF my young days there half
century ago. the vast old kitchen and ample fire |