The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-05-06
The Death OF Mr.. Emerson.
boston. April u.

nj.
DR.. z. N. Emerson, and his two daughters,
Miss Ia Emerson and Ms Forbes his sons
wife, and DIR. Putnam, Of Boston. He had
been growing steadily weaker since Tuesday
night, and arrived to-day nc the point where
delirium took possession OF the brain He
labored this forenoon under the impression
that he was away. from nome, and, while he
recognized the faces about him, he quietly
asked to be taken home. gentleman who
passed portion OF the day at the house. and
who saw the dying mau twice, says that in the
forenoon he was recognized and had brief
conversation with him, but that in the after
noon he seemed to be wandering and not quite
so certain of the identity of those about him.
in the latter part of the day he suffered moro
than at any time since his illness began, and as
the sunset hour arrived lapsed into uncon-
ciousness, from which he did not awake. "'
The cause Of Mr.. Emerson's death was acute .
pneumonia. No stranger could have visited
Concord during the past week and met the
people there without being impressed with the
esteem in which Mr.. Emerson was held by his
neighbors. Men, women, and even little chill
dren, spoke tenderly of him and expressed
earnest solicituds as to his condition.
In l176 Rev. William Emerson, father of
Ralph Waldo, figured prominently in the Revo-
luton; was Chaplain of the Continental Con
gress, and was present at the famous fight at
Concord.
Ralph was born in Boston. May p, 1903. At
eight years of age he entered the public gram
mar school and soon after the Latin school
He was noted as zone who loved to triae in
rhyme little now and them" He entered
Harvard in his fourteenth year, but was even
then good classical scholar. His favorto
study was Greek, and he was an apt translator,
and excelled in composition and defamation.
In his sophomore year he assisted his brother
Williamiin teaching school which was held
In his mothers house. In March, 1929 he was
ordained munster of the Second Church In
Boston. Bronson Aleott, who heard him preach
that year, was struck with the youth Of the
preacher, the beauty of hiselocution, and the
direct and sincere manner In which he adj
dressed his hearers" In 1899 he resigned his
place and gradually Withdrew from the min
istry. ulCt I,t.. .rt. lui yifu.f
In 1888 Mr. Emerson made a voyage to Eu-
rope for the benefit of his health. In England
he formed the acquaintance of such men as
Coleridge, Wordsworth, Carlyle, Walter Saw
age Landor and other famous literati. Re-
turning TO Boston in the winter, he COM
menced series of lectures, and in 1884
preached for time for the Unitarian Church
In New Bedford. In 1895 he delivered series
Of biographical lectures in Boston In 1896, at
the laying of the cornerstone of a monument
commemorating the Concord fight, an ode
written by him was sung. 1t contains the im-
mortal lines; .. .Igu.. Ed ...' .It .
Here, once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.s
In 1886 his book, entitled nNature,'' was
published, which met with so slow sale that
after twelve years only 500 copies were sold.
In 1888 Mr. Emerson collected and Published,
in three volumes, Carlyle's Essays" having
previously edited the American edition of
"Sartor Resartus." In that year be, with
Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Parker,
Stetson, Clarke and others, formed the Trans
cendental Club devoted to the discussion of
idealistic religion. He resigned position as
minister of East Lexington in 1888, on account
of his increasing liberality of opinion. In
1889 40 he leotured in Boston. In 1910 quar-
terly magMize, called The Dial, of which Mr..
Emerson was editor, being associated therein
with Margaret Fuller, was commenced and was
published for four years, and for which he
wrote much both of prose and poetry. In the
Brook Farm scheme of 1S4l he took much in
terest, but his keen sense of the ridiculous
prevented his becoming a resident of "the
aesthetic village" as he styled it. A
In 1S47 he published q second series of essays
and volume of poems. In the fall of that
year he made second visit to England. There
he was engaged to deliver a course Of lectures
for the Mechanics Institute, which had some
time previously been organized by the famous
Lord BrOugham. These lectures were re-
markably successful. He published another
volume of essays in 1s4e, and also published in
book form some of his contributions to the
Dial. Essays on Representative Men" APP
peared in 1850, "Memoirs of Margaret Fuller
'Ossoh" in 1862, English Traits Fl" in 1856, the
"Conduct of Life" in 1860, "May Day and
Other Poems " in 1867. "Society and Solitude )"
in 1870. .'. -.h-d gef -u. ffaI4.
In 1852 he was in sympathy with the Free
Soil party, and stumped for John Gorham Pal
frey, who was a candidate for Gubernatorial
honors on that ticket, In 1855 he lectured on
ant-slayery in Boston and New York. He was
the friend during life Of John Brown, of Har-
pers Ferry, and his apologist TO the end. In
1868 he composed his u oston hymn to celebrate
emancipation, and read it at the great meeting
in BostC.i Juno of that year. He delivered q
in Concord which was held April 10, 1865, tt
give expression to the public grief for the
death OF Abraham Lincoln. ..r.. .......,
For the past fifteen or twenty years he has
continued to write and lecture, sometimes t.
preach Those who once criticised him fount
new faith in him as poet thinker and critic
What once seemed faults were forgotten, II
an admitting recognition of his genius. From
far and near he has been honored. Tyndal
said of him: "n him we have poet and
profoundly religious man, who is really ant
entirely undaunted by the discoveries o
science, past, present and prospective" .'
Mr.. Emerson was twice msrried--in 1899 t.
Ellen Louisa Tucker, who died of consump
ton In 1872, and in 1885 t. Lydia jackson, o
Plymouth, who has been the beloved eompar
ion TO the last. He was always Interested il
the public welfare; and took an active plrt
the literary organizations of Concord. BY hi
neghbors, those VINO knew him longest an
most intimately, he was regarded with royel