The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-02-06
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 6. 1850.
The Late Mrs. Mary F. Meacham.
POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE,
Brooklyn, n. Y,
February z 1SSS

February 3, 1885.
Editor Register dad JJHrRai The death
OF Mrs. Mary Frances Meacham, announced
in your columns three or four weeks ago.
was great shock to my wife and myself,
who for so many years were honored with
her acquaintance aud her friendship. The
announcement came unheralded by any
news of decline or even sickness. and the
shock produced was all the greater because
the intelligence was so startling.
l feel, rs so many of your other readers
must feel, that the obituary notice which
you gave Of one so long and so widely
known, and known for so many positive
virtues, was far too scanty for her deserts.
Its meagrencss can hardly have been caused
nor can If he justified, by the fulness of
the funeral discourse. Little, | learn, was
said at her burial, and few of her friends
were there to hear that little. But. even if a
eulogy had been pronounced and to an
overlooking house, facts and impressions
concerning Mrs Meacham, put upon a
more permanent record than any the ear
furnishes, would be grateful to all present,
| am sure looked in your issue succeed
ing the announcement, in the next, and in
the next, confident that some one in Middle
b'lry mus; have supplied the lack of which
l. speak, Int | looked in vain. We're Presi-
dent Labaree who knew her so well. alive.
II Prof. George n. BOardman We're on this
side the ocean, We're Governor Stewart not
so busy at Washington, or Prof. Parker not
so feeble,-a graceful tribute to Mrs
Meachams worth would certainly have an
peared IN your columns before this
1t Is getting late for any such labor of
love. But | cannot bear to have MIS-
Meacham laid away forever with no notice
or her life. or expression of feeling respect
ing her, from some one of those who knew
her so long and esteemed her so highly 1;
and so, though | am not the one to do it, if
you Will kindly allow me the space | will
HON Il..fl. f...,l 4 Al
till have prepared and sent you column
or two IN cOmmemOratiou.
Mary Frances Meacham was born at New
Haven, VT, Dec. Is, 1921. She was the ed
est of five children, only one of whom Mr..
Henry Clifford is now living. Her mother
died many years ago, and her father, Dea-
con Ira Clifford, esteemed by all who knew
him, in 1881. Her advantages for education
IN New Haven, and at the Young Ladies'
seminary in Middlebury. were thorough
ly improved; but | have heard her la
ment that her early opportunities were
not more ample. She did what she could
subsequently to atone for the early loss
but she never felt that it was made
good. Such losses never are, never can
be. Her case is not peculiar we are all
in the same boat with her. Who of MS will
not carry down to the grave the scars of de-
fectlve training. and of faulty training too.
in youth! 1t is well for our pride. for our
that we do not see these scars AS the discern
ing eyes of others view them And are
there not scars all over our moral nature
as well! No sin leaves one as it found him.
Repentance, bringing mercy, which "con-
fronts the visag4 Of offence may restore
one to favor; but it cannot restore him to
his normal condition. Innocence is lost,
untoward tendencies are set going, and "A
disease is undergone that impalrs the spir-
itual organs.
1t was while Mary F. Clifford was living
in New Haven that the Rev. James Meaeh-
am was called to the pastorate of the
church OF which her father was deacon.
Mr.. Meacham, born in Rutland VT, in 1910,
was graduated from Middlebu College in
1882, and from AndOver Theological semi
nary in 1896. He served the college as tutor
Tor two years. and in 1898 began his minis
try IN New Hayen-the only charge he ever
had. 1t was near the close Of his eight years
passionate. IN 1914, that Miss Clifford became
Mrs. james Mearham. Two children were
born to them during the II years of their
married hte-Lewis, the elder, who was in
the class of 1874, think, and who died in
Chicago m lNIS and Emma, who in 1874
married Rev. Mr.. Davis, then of Beverly,
Mass. and now pastor of the First Congre-
gatiOnal church in Detroit Mich the
church DR.. kitchell left when in 1873 he be-
came president of Middlebury College, the
church which subsequently, was ministered
70 ny the INeV. III. Iluuy, bfOther-lu-laW OF
DR.. Cochran, president Of our Polytechnic
Institute of Brooklyn.
In 1876 Mr.. Meacham accepted the Chair
of Rhetoric AMI English Literature in his
Alma Mater and filled il for four years.
These are the days to which We younger
men haye been taught to look back AS the
palmy days Of the college. She did not
need then. II is said, TO apologize for her
existence, but could point to her large grad
uahnP classes, and to what she had done
for them, as her iustfyng raiS0H a. etTe
But the class Of 40 numbers but eleven,
that of '4S only ten. and 40 but seven. Go
ing back or coming forward ten years or
more, we light upon prosperous times, we
ind classes ranging from twenty to forty.
But the shortest day of the college, when
her longest sun set at right descensions
and made but winter arches" is not, of all
days, necessarily now her sun has hung
rs low at midday before. From the
trough Of the waves to the crest and from
the crest 10 the trough has been her history
often repeated.
In 1919. Professor Meacham was elected
to COngress-an honor conferred upon no
other occupant of his chaiT-predecesso or
success0l OF his services In Congress, this
IL not the place 10 speak in detail His
were the days there when the country was
nearing in ever sWifter and narrower cir
cles the Maelstrom vortex of the Civil War
The special scene of the "lIrepressible Con-
fiict" then was Kansas. In 1854 Kansas
and Nebraska were organized into terrific
Ties' and the Missouri Compromise OF 1920