Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-08

Y, LENox, MASS.
of great age. And it formerly not
only a great distinction to be a graduate.
but its diploma was a passport that would
admit the owner without examination to
any college in the land. 1t occupies an
old-fashioned white frame structure with
big windows and a cupola, surrounded by
over-arching elms, and was built more
than hundred years ago having been In
corporated by the great and general court
of Massachusetts February 90, 1903. The
building was erected by the proceeds of
the sale of township of land in Maine,
which was granted to the institution with
the charter. In looking over the list of the
alumni one is surprised to find the names of
Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of
the southern Confederacy; Gov. Yancy, the
fre-eater of South Carolina, and many
other representatives of the arstocratic
families of the south, who, l am told, were
accustomed to send their sons here to be
educated because of their admiration for,
and confidence In, the principal Of the
school, David Davis Of Illinois, President
Mark Hopkins of Villains College. David
Henry Martin Field were all prepared for
college here, as We're many other famous
men.
There was also a school for girls at
Lenox during the greater part of the nine
teenth century which was attended by the
daughters of the New England aristocracy
whose intellects and graces were developed
and trained by Mrs. Charles Sedgwick,
of Theodore Sedgwick and
sisterin-law of Catherine Maria Sedgwick,
who was our most popular novelist sixty
and seVenty-fve years ago, and reflected
dazzling glory upon her native town.
The Sedgwicks.
The Sedgwicks have always been the most
conspicuous and influential family in Stock
bridge. They were so important and so
much revered that Donald G. Mitchell,
whose gentle and refined wit has charmed
the readers of his american Lands and
Letters" says that the crickets at Stock
bridge all chirped "Sedgwicki' "Sedgwickr'
"Sedgwick!" and the frogs in the swamps
had a similar song.
Theodore Sedgwick 07s0-1S39) was the
founder Of the family. He was a graduate
of Yale, class Of 1898, studied law, went to
the legislature and to Congress and became
a famous engineer in addition to his legal
practice. He promoted various great bust
ness enterprises, organized manufacturing
companies and founded banks, and in 1927
introduced bill in the Massachusetts leg
lslature to charter a company to build
railroad over the mountains from Worcester
to Albany. He advocated the plan with
great eloquence and persistence, but his
colleagues in the legislature ridculed it as
preposterous. They did not hesitate to de-
constructed of sufficient power to haul q
train of cars up the grades that would be
necessary to cross the Berkshires. Tray
eers who ride at forty miles an hour be-
tween Boston and Albany these days would
find 1T difficult to realize that such con-
troversy ever could have occurred although
in those days it was considered the most
extraordinary engineering triumph on
record
Mr.. Sedgwick was man Of deep religious
convictions and devout habits. He was a
prominent temperance advocate and died of
apoplexy at Pittsfeld in 1889, after deliv-
ering a temperance speech.
His daughter, Catherine Maria SedgWick,
began writing about the year 1880, and in
old-fashioned Libraries you will find long
row OF her novels, containing wholesome
plots and morals with stited descriptions
OF fashionable life IN those days. She was
brilliant writer and converse tionalist,
had a stately beauty and cOurtly manner
and was one of the highest types Of the
intellectual American woman, but her
stories are very seldom read these days.
They are too tame and unsensational; the
dialogue is too Addisonian and precise, and
the moral is too obvious. Nobody reads
novels nowadays for Improvement. They
are read for excitement or for curiosity.
Miss Sedgwck travelled a great deal. She
crossed the ocean several times, when 1t
was rare thing to do, had a wide circle
Of acquaintance among the literary people
Of England, France and Italy, and was
much admired Fanny Kemble the famous
actress, was her intimate friend and came
to live at Stockbridge to enjoy her So
ciety.
Jonathan Edwards Successor.
The successor Of Jonathan Edwards in
the pulpit of the Congregational Church at
Stockbrldge was the Rev. Mr. West. He
came In 1853 and remained as minister
fifty-nine years, until he died in 1915. He
was an eccentric man, full Of idiosyncrasies
and of strong individuality, and Miss Sedg-
wick introduced him as character in sew
eral Of her stories. In one of them she de-
scribes him having "a well-turned leg
without the aid Of carriers, three-cor-
nered hat, a gold-headed can and buck
skin gloves whose first act on the occa-
sion of pastoral call was to smooth his
hair to an equatorial line around his fore
head, and then help himself to the/decant-
err"
DR.. West was a mighty theoloe!an. and
more than eighty young men studied theol-
ogy with him during the period of his min
istry at Stockbridge. His house was a
theological seminary for more than a third
of century, according to the custom in
those days, and he eked out q living from
the meager fees paid for board and instruc-
ton by the young men who sat at his feet
as Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Among
them were several Of the most famous d-
vines of that generation.
1t seems strange to us that man of DR..
West s ability and learning should have re-
| mained so long in this sleepy little village,
where his congregation never exceeded two
! hundred souls. and his salary was only
| about as many dollars, mostly paid in fire
wood, potatoes. hay and other farm prod
| uce. The other day l saw a letter written
| by one OF the earnest pastors of those days
| about the year 1900 to friend, in which
! he casually mentioned the fact that he was
| saving up money TO buy a commentary on
! the Bible, in two volumes, which had re-
| Gently been published at a cost of So a vol
| ume. He said he hoped to accumulate the
! necessary amount within a few weeks but
was somewhat discouraged because his pa
rlshioners were bringing in produce instead
| of cash
! Down the road between Stockbridge and
/ LenoX. in the little town of Lee is a ia
| nous quarry from which was obtained the
! marble for the national Capitol at Washing
| ton and a little farther on is the village OF
| Tyringham. where Richard Watson Glider,
| editor of the Century, has summer home
| and Grover Cleveland often comes to fish
| The streams in this part of the Berkshires
! are full of trout and in the ponds black
| bass are plentiful. The entire for a
| radius ca twenty-five miles Is occupied by
! the summer cottages of rich men from
| New York. Boston and other cities.