, 1884-09-12
BEN: PERLEY POoRE.
A Visit to the House of the Veteran
Correspondent.
The Mansion FILLED with Valuable
Relics HnlIovEed with h
Dust OF Aees-A BrIor
Description.


-NEwHURYPoRT, Mass.-Thc most remark
able and interesting private residence In
America is that OF Mai. Ben: Perley Poore,
the veteran author, reconteur and CORE
spoudent, at Indian hill, four miles from this
place.
Il WIS in 1850 that the residence of Mr..
ioore was completed, on Indian hill, and he
took his family there 10 dwell, and they have
dNelt there continuously, eight generations
OF them, the property being improved by
each successive possessor, until it is now a
great mansion OF sixty rooms. covered with
clematis and honeysuckles which nave fed
upon the frost and sunshine OF moro than
two centuries. .
Beyond the parlors are a series OF quaint
old chambers, occupied now US they nave
been, sewing and sitting rooms, all filed with
historic relics, all mellow with the ripeness
anal interest Of age. As generations added
to the size Of the family circle the house was
enlarged. until It became a labyrinth Of
rooms.
In the second story there srs other cham.
bers quite as quaint and odd. but quite as
comfortable and luxurious as modern inge-
nuity and modern taste has been able To ar
range. In the stone tower. no longer needed
u protect the non-combatants of the family
against savage assailants. Mai. Roure has
stored a quantity OF historic relics and man.
uscripts, too valuable 10 run the risk or fire,
and beyond the power 81 undersriters 10
replace.
The third story is given up to history and
literature; IL series of low-roofsd rooms.
whose walls are covered with books and
whose cabinets and chests, desks and closets
contain n store Of literary treasures which
first interest and then bewilder one. Maj.
Poore has the largest and finest collection Of
autographs in the country, not the mere sig
natures OF men, but manuscripts of personal
value and enduring interest. He has love
letters written by Napoleon and Washington.
as well as men OF lesser note, and among
them the original letter written by the Father
OF his Country 70 Widow Curtis asling when
the marriage day shall be. He has manu-
script addresses or public papers in the
penmanship Of nearly all the famous
men Of this nation, the originals
of presidential Inauguration addresses and
presidential messages 10 congress, which, as
clerk OF the senate committee on printing,
records he has been able to secure. He has
political correspondence between several
great leaders, and other relics of the sort too
valuable TO be left slumbcring in the attic of
even so historic a house.
No public library in the land has such a
collection, and the archives Of the govern
ment contain nothing like so much interest.
In his library Maj. Poore has the writing
desk which was used by John Quincy Adams
while the latter was in the house of repre-
sentatives, and about the house are other
desks and chairs which have been owned and
used by Daniel Webster, Charles Summer,
Abraham Lincoln, and other famous men.
Over the mantle in the library is a cabinet
containing a collection Of decorated chinH,
including one or more pieces from every set
that has been in use in the White House from
the time OF Washington until to-day.
The main hall on the ground floor leads
into what was perhaps originally intended to
be a conservatory, but 1t is now filed with
Indian relics. From this you enter what is
known rs "tho continental rooms.p The first.
Il sort OF hallway, is filled with military relics
Of the revolution. Nuskets and swords that
were used in all the great battles of that
struggle, uniforms, flags, andcamp equipage;
the drum which led the Newbury company
to the battle Of Bunker hill, and other relies
Of similar interest and value.
The timber of which this portion OF the
house was constructed all came from other
historical houses. From the Province house
and the Dearborn house Of Roxbury. from
the Stuyvesant house. which was the resi-
dence Of the colonial governor OF New York.
from the houses Of John Hancock, Edward
Everett, Hawthorne, and Others.
These continental rooms contain a picture
Of domentic life as it was TO be seen in New
England 200 years ago. The furniture is
complete, and the most OF il has been in
actual use by tho Poore family. From the
knocker ON the door to the towel which hangs
on its ROLLER in the sink-room every article is
genuine and historical, and the catalogue
alone would fill a column or two. In the par
Tor is n harp that was made in 1882, a manu-
SCRIPT Bible, and paintings that have hung
there for $50 years.
But the most interesting of all Is the bed
room, with its equipments all as they were
used 200 years ago by the Poore family, the
linen on the bed woven in the same house,
and the bed and pillows filed with feathers
from geese which formed a part of the do
nestle economy nearly two centuries behind
Us. Over the washstand hangs n Sampler
which beRrs this inscription:
Judith Poore is my name,
England is my nation,
Newbury Is my dwelling place,
Jesus my salvation.
At the foot OF the bed is the cradle in which
Major Poores grandfather his father. him
self. his children. and his grandchild, five
generations, hive been rocked, and it is good
Tor many more.
IN the dresser" is the bridal trosseau Of
his grcat-grandmother, her shoes, stockings,
dresses, Undertaking, and STAYS. Her lew
elry is in a casket, and in the corner is a pair
OF old fashioned scales, in which her father
measured out her marriage -portion-which
was her weight IN silver. IL is a tradition
in the family hat the night before the girl
sewed many pounds of shot into hor petit.
coats, and came it over the old gentleman in
that way.
In another dresser are the bridegroom's
garmonts-his buckled slippers, silk hose,
small clothes. embroidered wafstcoat, aud
brass mounted swallow-tail. Beside the bod
is a stand. upon which his watch and other
old memen1oes are lying, and over in the cor
ner Is the cylinder trunk which he strapped
to the axle of the wagon when the happy
couple went 10 Boston on their wedding Jour
ney- These are the relics which no amount
OF search or money could replace, and the old
house is full OF them.
Above the house Is the old garden, which is
quite as quaint and interesting as anything
about the place, growing rs it was
laid out two centuries ago, full OF
old-fashioned plants and flowers, whose
names even were forgotten generations ago,
Above the garden is the old Indian hill,
which was bald when the estate came into
the family, but which Maj Poore planted 10
timber in 1859, when the Massachusetts Ag-
ricultural society offered a premium OF SlO,-
600 to the MAJ who SHOULD raise tho best for
est Of Seeding timber within the next ten
years. The major took the prize.
On the top Of the hill is n Masonic lodge.
laid out by cedar hedges curious place
and here the MRsons OF the thirty-third de-
gree, which Maj. Poore has reached, meet
annually and bold a sort Of pow-wow under
a cloudless dome.
By n new process OF making 1rolled-goldr
ware 100 pairs OF bracelets can he plated will
one ounce OF gold.