1889

Under Letters to the Editor in this issue is an article contributed by your secretary in which is published a letter written at the time of Daniel Webster's death by Mrs. Ellen M. Joy, a sister-in-law of Webster's son Fletcher, to Samuel T. Tisdale, a close personal friend of Daniel Webster. The notation on the original letter referred to in the article was made by Tisdale more than ten years after he received the letter and is as follows:

"Agaivam, March 3, 1863. I again read this letter of Mrs. Joy. Kind, cheerful, and the life of every spot wherever present, poor lady! alas no more. She died a year or two since. Mrs. Paige, Mrs. Fletcher Webster and herself, sisters, were the Graces which adorned Carswell. This letter was written in reply to mine shortly after the death of Mr. Webster, and is characteristic of the domestic relations of this great man. Mrs. Joy, her hus- band, Mr. Webster, and his son Fletcher, alas, he, too, is gone, have spent many pleasant hours with me at Agawam. Kindred spirits on earth, may they be so in heaven. Mrs. Paige and her sister Caroline, relict of Fletcher, survive.

(Signed) S. Tisdale."

The pageant Mrs. Joy referred to in her letter consisted o£ memorial exercises held on Boston Common shortly after Webster's death. The Mitchell she referred to was Donald Grant Mitchell, author, lecturer and essayist, who wrote under the pen name of "Ik Marvel." He accompanied both Daniel and Fletcher Webster on many fishing trips in Wareham and East Wareham. Peregrine White, from whom Mrs. Joy's father's family descended, was the first white child born in New England. She was born on the Mayflower November 20, 1620.

Mrs. Joy's letter has an interesting history of its own. Charles C. Billings, a former foreman of the Norway Steel and Iron Company of Boston, became owner of Agawam, the former Tisdale home in East Wareham, about the beginning of the present century. The house had been ransacked from top to bottom by squirrels during the long period it had remained unoccupied. After restoration, Billings renamed the house "The Squirrels Nest" and conducted it as an inn. For years following it was a favorite haunt of a group of judges and lawyers for weekend visits. Your secretary, then a member of the Boston Committee of the Webster Birth Place Association organized for the purchase, restoration and maintenance of Daniel Webster's birthplace in Franklin, N. H., became interested in the restored old house in East Wareham where Webster, his son Fletcher, and their families had often been entertained, and occasionally went there for a weekend visit. On one of these visits, Billings told of finding in the garret of the Tisdale house barrels of old letters and documents many relating to Webster, and gave your secretary to read the original letter of Mrs. Joy to Tisdale found there years after it was written. Later Billings gave the original letter to your secretary who thereupon presented it to Dartmouth for its archives.

Mrs. David N. Blakely died July 1 after a brief illness. She long had suffered from a heart ailment. Her daughter Elizabeth, Mrs. Robert Taylor of Andover, Mass., is her only survivor.

The Alumni Records office through the return last July of mail matter addressed to Frank J. Hazen, marked "addressee deceased" was the first to receive news of Hazen's death. A letter to his son Richard E. Hazen n.'20, now living in Richfield, Utah, brought a brief reply stating that his father died in Richfield last March (no date given). Your secretary has received no communication from the deceased during the past three years.

An In Memoriam notice appears in this issue.

secretary and Treasurer 108 Mt. Vernon St., Boston 8, Mass.