Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-12-11
Exercises Held In the East for
Samuel Longfellow, Brother Of
the New England Poet
WROTE SONGS GIVEN
BY CHOIR In BARABOO
Had Stimulating Contact With
Emerson, Alcott, Parker, Phil
lips and Many Others

Years ago Rev. Samuel Longfellow
brother Of the New England poet
Henry w. Longfellow, preached for a
time In the Free Congregational OF
Unitarian church in BaraboO. The
minister was also an essayist and
song writer, often being present when
the choir practiced his hymns for the
approaching Sunday service.
The centenary of Rev. Samuel Long
fellow has been observed in New
England. Mrs. Katherine Crandall
Train of Baraboo has received a
clipping from the Boston Herald which
tells much of his life. The article
was sent by Mrs. Frederic May Holl-
and, who resides in the Block house
in Concord Mass, and whose hus-
band, cousin Of Louisa NJ. Alcott,
was also minister Of the Free Con
gregational church in Baraboo for
some time. The article reads:
Somewhat overshadowed in the
public eye while he lived by Henry
Wadsworth, his famous brother
Samuel LongfeloW the Unitarian
preacher, essayist, poet and writeh
of hymns, emerges today for the new
honors that will be paid to him by
Portland, his birthplace, in Cambridge,
which was long his home and far be-
yond the denomination to which he
gave his effort and his allegiance.
A happier combination of nature and
nurture has rarely been exemplified
than that which came to fruition in
his case. It meant something that he
could trace his ancestry back to John
Alden and Priscilla Mullens; it meant
vastly more that tie unfolding OF ev-
erything latent in him had the aid OF
favoring influences from childhood
and in youth educational opportuni'
ties quite exceptional. At Harvard
he gained such mastery over the
classics, modern languages and lit
eratures that his fellow students es--
teemed him as the best writer in
their class and one Of them wrote that
what Longfellow did not know about
belles-lettres seemed to us not worth
Knowing" Later he enjoyed foreign
travel until Europe had become to him
as an open book. Companionship with
the great and good of that time was
also his: he had the benefit OF
stimulating contact with Emerson,
Alcott, Theodore Parker, Wendell
Phillips, James Freeman Clarke,
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Ed
ward Everett Hale, Julia Ward Howe
and Ednah D. Cheney.
AS a minister Longfellow did his
best work in the three brief pas
torates at Fall River, Brooklyn and
Germantown. While yet at the Har-
ward Divinity School he had written
to DR.. Hale: 81 wish they would
let me preach. I feel curious to
know how l shall make out. / have
not written sermon yet, nor can
I understand how man can write
a proper sermon until he has learned
how by actually preaching" The
student who thus diffidently spoke OF
himself learned both to preach and to
write sermons, and ''made out" SO
effectively that the congregations to
which he ministered parted from him
with sorrowful regret. Once in a
despondent mood it had seemed to
him that call this preaching is terri
bly, spectral and he added that ''only
the remembrance of some heart stir
ring, living words, heard at intervals
from pulpits in times past, encourages
us to hope that we, too, may at times
feed others with something more than
husks." His own practice brought
full realization of this hope. ''He had
a singular gift" says Joseph May, s'oi
understanding others, their trials
perplexities and cares, their mora,
struggles and spiritual wants." he
had also "the art of helping and
cheering them by kindly words, sug
gestions and delicate attentions
Unconventional in his ways he kept il
close contact with his people. revived
the waning tradition of parish calls
and was at the side of the humbles
members of his flock in their hour:
of bereavement.
Longfellow's sympathies enlisted
him in the whole range Of ethical
philanthropical and reformator!
movements. He was against slave
holding from the beginning. 1t die