The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-03-31
Longfellow Dead.
AMERICAS GREATEST roEr CROSSES riIE
VALLEY OF SHADOWS.

Henry w. Longfellow, the poet, died
at his residence in Cambridge, Mass
last Friday. lie had been suffering from
a complication of complaints, but the ill.,
ness which proved fatal was peritonits.
lie celebrated his seventy fifth birthday,
February27.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was
born at Portland, Maine, on the 21h of
February, 1907. His father, the Hon.
stephen Longfellow, was a native OF
Newbury, Mass. The grandfather of
Stephen Longfellow was born in Hamp-
shire county, England, about the year
1861. lie came in early life to New.
bury, where he married Annie Sewall, a
sister OF Chief Justice Sewall. lie was
drowned in the Gulf of st. Lawrence
during Sir William Phipp's expedition
to Quebec in 1890. In 1904 Stephen
Longfellow married Ziepab, eldest
daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth,
a descendant of John Alden, of Plymouth.
Their son, the poet, was born nearly
three years later. His early days were
passed in his native city, where he at.
tended the public schools. In 1921 the
young man entered Bowdoin college and
was graduated therefrom four years later.
His earliest known poetical attempts were
some stanzas on Venice which he wrote
at the age of thirteen. After leaving
college he studied law for a few months
in his fathers office, but as this was an
uncongenial pursuit he gladly accepted
the offer of the position of professor of
modern languages at Bowdoin. In order
to qualify himself for the duties which
this office required he spent three years
and half travelling abroad, visiting
France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland
and England for this purpose. He
came home in 1929, and began his pro-
fessorship at Bowdoin, which continued
until 1885, when the death of Mr..
George Ticknor, who held the cores =.
ponding position in Harvard university,
resulted in his sccepting the vacant pro
tessorship in that eminent seat of learn.
ing Before entering on his new task
he again visited Europe, travelling in
Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland
until the autumn of 1886. The summer
Of 1912 was passed at Boppord, on the
Rhine. Inthe year 1854, after service
of seventeen years, he resigned his pro-
fessorship of bellies lettres, but continued
to live at Cambridge, in the house once
occupied by Washington. In 1868 0
he made his fourth trip to Europe, and
was everywhere received with marked
honors, among others that of ID. G. L. of
Oxford being conferred upon him. Har-
ward university had already made him
l.. l.. ID. and Cambridge, England,
doctor of common law, and in 1873 he
was elected member of the Russian
academy of science In 1877 the Span
ish academy conferred similar honor
upon him. The past few years the poets
health has been precarious, and since
autumn his friends have dreaded that
his indisposltion would have fatal ter
mination. Not quite month ago, on
the poets birthday, the city of Cam
bridge honored the occasion with
public festival, as also did his native
city, Portland, but his feebleness pre-.
vented him from taking part in the
festivities. The poet married Mary S.
Potter when he was but twenty four, but
his wife lived only eight years. Eight
years later be married Frances Elisabeth
Appleton, who died in 1861, from a
shocking burning accident. He has a
brother livsng, the Rev. Samuel Long
fellow, pastor of the Unitarian church;
and five children, two sons, one of
whom is an architect and the other an
artist, and three daughters, the youngest
OF whom married Richard Henry Dana,
the son of the late Boston jurist