The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
OF CONNECTICUT .1NJTsTRY.
Charles Edwin Markham, Poet and EnucntOr.

OF CONNECTICUT 1NCESTRY.
 Charles Edwin Markham, Poet and | Educntor.
 | MT. Markham, the poet and educator, | is of Connecticut ancestry, and the fol- | lowing concerning him from the Nation- | al Cyclopaedia of American Biography, | is therefore of special interest to Con- necticut people;
 Markham, (Charles) Edwin, poet and educator was born in Oregon City, Ore- gon, April 23, 1852, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (WnchelD Markham His ancestry on both sides Is of the oldest colonial stock in Pennsylvania and New
 England. By the paternal line he de- scends from Colonel William Markham first cousin and secretary of William Penn; acting governor of Pennsylvania during Penn's absence in England; made first deputy governor of Delaware in 1891, and later an associate of Lord Bal
 timore in important territorial matters
 Although a stanch adherent of the
 Church of England he believed with his
 Quaker cousin in non-resistance and the
 rights of the masses. Another William
 Markham, mentioned in "Pepy's Diary
 and "Walpoles Letters" was of the
 family line. He was graduate of
 Christ Church college, Oxford Dean of
 Westminster, where his body lies; Bish
 op of Chester and tutor of the Prince of
 Wales. He was renowned for vigorous
 mind and profound learning, and was a
 close friend of Edmund Burke, whose
 ' Dn ho SIJh1 f,,I
 he helped correct, although he later
 quarreled with him over the case of
 Warren Hastings.
 The Winchells are of equally ancient
 and distinguished lineage, deriving de-
 scent, according to tradition, from Rob-
 ert Winchelsea, made Archbishop of
 Canterbury in 1293 The line is Welsh
 or English in origin, and is represented
 on the continent by the names Winkel
 and Wunschel Having espoused the
 cause of the Puritan dissenters early 1T.
 the seventh century the family suf-
 fered persecution in England; some rep resentatives accordingly taking refuge
 in England and others in Holland. De- scendants of the Holland branch later came also to America, and the combined families at the present time number some three thousand members, settled mostly in the New England and Middle states, One of the earliest American Winchells is mentioned for contribu- ton to King Philips war and another, Robert Winchell, is mentioned in the most ancient records of the church at Windsor, Conn, as the first to pay for a sitting, while his young son is memori alized by an appointment t0bea the drum, calling the congregation to ser vice. Twenty persons of the name served in the Revolutionary war, seven in the war of 112, and over sixty as pri-~I yates, chaplains and field officers in the civil war Throughout it's history the family has been noted for intellectual vigor and aggressive activity in the af fairs of church and state; many repre- | having been noted as legisla- tors. preachers, scientists and in other learned professions.
 Deriving descent from such distin- guished ancestry, and passing his early | years amid the primitive surroundings | of pioneer life, Edwin Markham-for so | he is best known to the world of letters | early manifested the vigor and origi | naity of thought which have character ized his entire career. He was the son of pioneer parents, who, shortly before his birth, had crossed the plains from Michigan. Having lost the care of his father before reaching his fifth year; he settled with his mother and brothers in a wild and beautiful valley near Susun, in central California, where he grew to young manhood. in lred to every kind of labor required on l western cattle ranch, and depending for education on the rude country schools and his own ceaseless reading. For companionship the young poet de- pended almost wholly on an elder broth er, who was deaf and dumb, and on his mother, a stern and silent woman, of strong character and great originality. lis reading was largely poetical-Ho- ner and Byron being his first masters md his thoughts soon sought expression II verse One of his earliest attempts in his direction was a Byronesque frag nent, "A Dream of Chaos'' which dis played poetic feeling and insight; and with this beginning he has constantly ldded to his reputation until he now anks high among the popular and effec- i've poets of America
 Tn 1871 MT Markham entered the State Normal school at San Jose. making his way on money he had earned, and then pursued the classical course at Christian ollege santa Rosa, Cal After leaving ollege he read law for time. but has lever practiced at the bar. As superin- endent and principal of schools at vari- us places for many years, he has rem tered important services in the educa- ional progress of California. He is now 1S99) head master of the Tompkins Ob- ervation school Oakland, connected with the University of California, where e has been engaged for number of ears in work which is highly signifi- ant to the interests of academic educa- ion. Professor Markham's library is