1889

The beautiful old town o£ Harwichport on Cape Cod, where '89's late member, Ralph Waldo Doane lived, has been the home of the Doane family for generations. The Doane homestead there is now occupied by his daughter, Silvia Gladys Doane, the only surviving near relative. Since her father's death two years ago she has been collecting and carefully preserving all records of interest pertaining to the Doane family, the old homestead and the town of Harwichport. Certain records she has given to the town's Historical Society, other records to the Pilgrim Congregational Church, of which her grandfather, Capt. Abiathar Doane, was a founder. To this scribe, Miss Doane has given much information regarding this old Cape Cod family, some of which it is hoped will be of interest to readers of '89's Class Notes.

Capt. Doane, father o£ Ralph Waldo Doane, was born in Harwichport in 1820. He was the youngest son of Nathaniel and Mary (Paine) Doane, and one of their nine children, Nathaniel Doane, was a direct descendant of Deacon John Doane, who lived and died in Eastham in 1686 at age of 96. Capt. Doane was a highly esteemed sea captain following the seafaring life of his forebears, for which Cape Cod long ago became famous. After attending the town public schools he went to sea. The year he attained his majority he became master in full command of a vessel sailing to South America. He afterwards commanded vessels in which he owned a part interest, and for 25 years continued in foreign voyages without accident — never calling upon an underwriter for a dollar's damage. In the Civil War he was assigned to many important commissions entrusted to him. He had charge of transporting in his schooner J. W. Allen, towed by the steamship Fulton, the Swamp Angel from New York to Fort Sumter, S. C. - a determining factor in the war. The Swamp Angel was an eight-inch, 200 pound Parrott rifle gun, mounted by the federal troops in a morass on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor. In 1863 the city of Charleston, five and a half miles distant, was shelled, the gun bursting at the 36th shot. After the war the gun was sold as old metal and conveyed to Trenton, N. J., but having been identified, it was set up on a granite pedestal at Perry and Clinton Streets in that city.

In later life Capt. Doane carried on his cranberry culture, introducing new methods, and the "Early Black," which became his specialty of cultivation, resulted in his being ranked among leading cranberry growers of his day. Interested in Masonic affairs, for twelve years he was Worshipful Master of the Sylvester Baxter Royal Arch Chapter of Masons. He was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1866-67 and had a lifelong interest in town affairs; was a member as well as founder of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, where his name still appears on the pew which was used by his family - and in those days purchased. Furthermore he saw to it that members of his family held various offices in the Church. On one of his European voyages he acquired in Belgium the bell which still hangs in the Church Tower and tolls to call parishioners to worship.

In 1847 he purchased land on Doane Road diagonally across from his boyhood home, and, as he reared his family, he added to the original Cape Cod house so that now it is a two-and-one-half story sea captain's home of 14 rooms, connected at right angles with woodshed, carriage shed and barn, and a two-car garage, which sort of encloses a heartshaped driveway. The house is painted white and still affords an unobstructed view of adjacent fields and meadows. One used to be able to see schooners at anchor from the south side of the house. The orchards have gone with the years, but there are two grapevines he brought from Marseilles, France, which still yield grapes. Capt. Doane was a great student of the Bible and of Shake-speare. He often quoted freely from each in his conversation.

The mother of Ralph Waldo Doane, whose maiden name was Josephine Higgins, was born in Brookline, Mass., August 9, 1839, the daughter of Paul and Silvia (Snow) Higgins. She was a descendant of Elder Brewster and Nicholas Snow of the Mayflower, and of Governors Prence and Hinckley of the Plymouth Colony. Highly educated in music, Ralph Waldo Emerson, for whom her son was named, introduced her into Concord and Lexington circles. Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, sang in the drawing room of an uncle in Boston - the musical director at Tremont Temple. Throughout her lifetime Ralph Waldo Doane's mother was a student of the classics, religion and various kindred subjects. Such was the background of Ralph Waldo Doane of the Class of 1889 at Dartmouth.

Secretary, Treasurer and BequestChairman, 108 Mt. Vernon St., Boston 8, Mass.