The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-03-08
THE HOFFMAN.
Biographical Sketch of Edwin
Markham.


Neb., at its last meeting in February.
We are familiar with the three
means by which greatness is attained
by birth, by achievement, or by the
bestowal of our fellow men. The
subject of this sketch, like most o.
the men of our country who have
risen to high place in any depart
ment of life, has earned renown, not
| by birth, but by doing something,
and doing it so well as to receive the
plaudits so justly bestowed upon him,
| Charles Edwin Markham, or Edwin
Markham, as we know him, comes u
an old family, descending on the
paternal side from Col. VIM. Mark
ham, first cousin and secretary to
VIM. Penn. His mother, Elizabeth
| Winchell Markham, traces her line
age back to Robert Winchelsea, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, in 1898. Our
own country is SO new that these
dates seem very remote to us, but
is it not apparent that we too are
shaking off our swaddling clothes,
| when we find a man whose years
have nearly reached the half century
mark, born west of the Rocky noun
tains?
Mr.. Markham IS parents were among
those pioneers who undertook the
long journey from their home in Mich
igan across scorching plain and over
snow clad mountain to far away
Oregon. 1t is of such sturdy par
ents and amid such primitive sur
poundings that Edwin, the youngest
son, was born at Oregon City, on
April %, 1852. AT an early age his
father was taken from him and the
family moved to Central California.
Here he entered into the wild free
life of the western country boy, but
was not without his share in the
domestic duties of the home. His
companions were his mother, wom-
an of strong Christian character, and
an elder brother, who was deaf and
dumb; but for such boy there is a
sweet comradeship with nature,
known only to himself, and the more
enjoyed because it is all his own.
Books too began to occupy his mind
and added to the meager learning of
the country school.
Tn recently reported interview
regarding his early life Mr.. Mark
ham said:
"My earliest recollections go back
to the days when l was a shepherd
boy on the California hills. / was
seven years old then. When my
mother gave up her sheep range /
turned cowboy and learned the many
tricks of the trade-could throw a
RATA or ride broncho with the best
of them. Later / became farmer
and spent many months walking be-
hind the pillow, turning up the rich
loan of the foothills and preparing
it for the harvest. Money that
earned in this way / invested in
books-copies of Bryant, Tennyson,
Thomas Moore, and Webster's Die
tionary. | derived much inspiration
from the works of Victor Hugo, and
from Carlyle and Ruskin. In poetry
/ was much attracted by the passion
of Shelley, and by the imaginative
insights of Browning. Swinburne
was another favorite of mine"
In his notes which accompany a
recent edition of the poem, "The
Man with the Hoe" he tells us of his
own intimate knowledge of the fffe of
the toiler. He says:
During all my early manhood Twas
a workingman, under hard and incor-
rigible conditions. The smack of the
soil and the whir of the forge are in
my blood. / know every coign and
| Granny of rancho and range. The
breaking of the ground with the
pillow, the sowing and narrowing of
the seed, the watching of the skies
| for omens of the weather, the head
| ing and threshing of the wheat, the
| piling of the haymows-I know all
4 these things. know also the whistle
| of the sun-burnt boy going to hunt
| the cows, the lyrical shout of the
| meadow-lark in the field OF grain,
and the ripple of the peoples in the
l wheat. These things are sweet and
deep in memory; but know also the
| prose of the farm. l know the hard
| endless work in the hot sun, the chill
ling rain. I know the fight against
| the Death Clutch reaching to take
| the home when crops have failed or
| prices fallen. i know the loneliness
| of the stretching plain, with the whirl
| of the dust under foot and the whirl
| of the hawk overhead. know the
| dull sense of hopelessness that beats
upon the heart in that monotonous
drudgery that leads nowhere, that
has no light ahead"
1t was with his savings from money
earned in the harvest field and on
the roundup that he was able to pay
for higher education, and we find
him, entering the Normal School al
San Jose in 1871. From there he
went to Christian College at Santa
Rosa, California, where he pursued
the Classical COURSE. Having com
| pleted his studies he undertook the
reading of law but never engaged in
its practice. He soon identified him.
self with the educational interests
of his state, and has occupied the
| position of principal or superintend.
emit of some of its most prominent
institutions of learning. For several
years he has been head master of the
Tompkins Observation School in Oak
land, preparatory school for the
State University. His home on Nine
teenth street, with its rambling struc
ture, quaint yet tasteful, with pillaret