The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-11-26
To Save Whittier's Home.

As the day draws near for the annua
meeting Of the Whittier club at Haver-
hin, Mass, the country Is informed thai
money is needed for the care and preser-
walton Of the poets birthplace. December
II, Whittier's birthday, IS the regular date
for the clubs meeting, and exercises ara
usually held appropriate to the occasion
Anticipating the forthcoming event, the
Haverhili Whittier club has issued an ap-
peal for funds for the purpose stated Il
is believed many admirers Of Mr.. Whittier
Throughout the country will respond to this
appeal.
At the last change of ownership the his
torlc birthplace passed into the hands OF
]. H. Carleton. VINO intrusted II to the
care of the club. but there is no money
with which to maintain it and keep II n
proper condition for tourists and visitors
II is a shrine visited by many hundreds
of people every year.
This historical old dwelling in which the
famous bard of the Merrirnac Valley was
born December Il. 1905 was erected by his
grea reat-great-grand-father Thomas Whit
tier. the first of his name in America,
abor. 300 years ago. II Is in the east par
ish OF Haverhill. lonely farmhouse IN
one OF the most rugged and hilly sections
Of Essex county. Haverhin, now a city
Of about $1,000 inhabitants, is three miles
away. Two centuries ago, as now, Essex
county was more thickly populated than
any other on this side the Atlantic that
included no big city, yet the Whittier
homestead, in the northeast corner, Is in
so isolated a spot that from the date of
its erection to the present time no neigh
bor's roof has been in sight. It Is In a
sunken pocket of the inland hills. In the
early days, Il is said, Indians in their war
paint occasionally passed up the valley,
and the evening freight in the Whittier
kitchen would frequently reveal a savage
face at the window. But this quaker house
hold was never harmed.
The birthplace, its enyirons and the life
of the family within have been well de-
scribed by the poet In "Snow-Bound.' In
winter there was nothing to see in the
prospect but a universe of sky and
snow
Shut in from all the world without,
We sat the clean-winged hearth about,
Content to let the north wind roar,
In baff1ed rage at pane and door,
While the red logs before US beat
The frost line back with tropic heat.
The house has been minuteiy described
in the accounts of Whittier's boyhood and
youth. On one side OF the great kitchen
is q cupboard, at which the tramp men,
toned by the poet in his Yankee Gyqs.es
prospecting for brandy, flied his mouth
with whale oil, and spluttered inarticula te
inprecet:ons. There Is straight and
steep flight of back stairs leading up from
the western porch. 1t was down these
stairs that in his tenderest infancy the
poet, wrapped in a blanket, was once roll
ed. as an experiment, by little girl who
had him in charge.
Wher Whittier last visited the homestead
in 1882, he pointed out stone wall he
helped to build, which is now standing be-
tween the brook and the gate. 1t is the
garden wall referred to in The Barefoot
Boy" Quaker meetings were sometimes
held in the large Kitchen.
II was in 1s40 that Whittier reluctantly
disposed of the old homestead, in which
he had resided much of the time for nearly
thirty years, and removed to Amesbury,
that lovely little hamlet at the foot of
Powow Hill, in full sight of the much-loved
Merr:mac. In later years he made his
home at Danvers. The Haverhill Whittier
club was formed at the time the poets
SEVENTEEN birthday was celebrated in so
memorable manner at the Hotel Bruins
wick, Boston, December II, 1877.