Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/268

Baltimore, and to draw up a Declaration to hinder his Illegal proceedings," in 1684; and a committee " to draw up a charter for Philadelphia to be made a Burrough," in 1684. As president of the council he was frequently in 1685 acting governor of the grovince. In 1682 he was one or those who, in enn's behalf, treated with the Indians "about land and a firm league of peace." He read to the Indians, through an interpreter, Penn's second let- ter to them ; and, according to a recent authority, " the actual treaty for the lands of the present Philadelphia and adjacent country, out to the Sus- quehanna, was made in the year 1685 by Thomas Holme, as president of the council in the absence of William Penn, who had gone to England."

HOLMES, Abiel, clergyman, b. in Woodstock, Conn., 24 Dec, 1763; d. in Cambridge. Mass., 4 June, 1837. John Holmes settled in Woodstock, Conn., in 1686. His grandson, David, father of Abiel, served as a captain of British troops in the French war, and was afterward a surgeon in the Revolutionary army. Abiel was graduated at Yale in 1783, became a tutor there, and at the same time studied theology. In 1785 he was settled as a pas- tor in Midway, Ga., but six years later he resigned, and in 1792 he was settled over the first parish in Cambridge, Mass., where he was pastor till Sep- tember, 1832. In 1817 he delivered a course of lectures on ecclesiastical history, with special ref- erence to New England. He had married for his first wife, in 1790, a daughter of Ezra Stiles, presi- dent of Yale college, became his literary executor, and published his life (Boston, 1798). His second wife was a daughter of Oliver Wendell. The ex- amination of Dr. Stiles's manuscripts drew his at- tention to the subject of early American history, and he wrote " Annals of America " (2 vols., Cam- bridge, 1805 ; new ed., brought down to 1820, 1829), which is a standard authority. He was a frequent contributor to the collections of the Massachusetts historical society, the 27th volume of which contains a list of his writings. His home in Cambridge

is seen in the accompanying engraving. It was the birthplace of his son, Oliver Wendell, author, b. in Cambridge, Mass., 29 Aug., 1809, who was the third of five children. Among his schoolmates were Alfred Lee, afterward bishop of Delaware, Margaret Fuller, and Richard Henry Dana, Jr. He was prepared for college at Phillips Andover academy, where he made his first attempt at versi- fication, a translation from the first book of the JEneid, in heroic couplets. He was graduated at Harvard in 1829, among his classmates being Will- iam H. Channing, James Freeman Clarke, and Benjamin R. Curtis. He was a contributor to one of the college periodicals, delivered the poem at commencement, and was one of the sixteen mem- bers chosen into the * B K society. The next year, when it was proposed to break up the old frigate " Constitution," Holmes published in the Boston " Advertiser " his lyrical protest, beginning, " Ay, tear her tattered ensign down 1 " which was widely copied in the newspapers and circulated in handbills, saving the ship from de- struction and giving the young poet a reputation. He studied law for a year at the law - school in Cambridge, and at that time pro- duced some of his best-known humorous pieces, including"Even- ing bv a Tailor" • and "The Height of the Ridicu- lous." In 1833, with Epes Sar- gent and Park Benjamin, he

contributed to a

gift - book, entitled "The Harbinger," the profits of which were given to the Asylum for the blind. But his hereditary instincts appear to have been for the profession of medicine, and he studied under Dr. James Jackson and then spent three years chiefly in Paris. He received his degree in 1836, and in the same year published his first vol- ume of poems (Boston), which contained forty-five pieces, including, besides those already named, "Poetry, a Metrical Essay," read before the B K society; "The Last Leaf"; "My Aunt": "The Treadmill Song " ; and " The September Gale." In 1839 he was chosen professor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth. In 1840 he married Amelia Lee, daughter of Judge Charles Jackson, of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and soon afterward he resigned his professorship at Dartmouth in order to devote himself to practice in Boston. In 1849 he established a summer home at Pittsfield, Mass. Hawthorne at that time was living at Lenox, a few miles away, and in his " Hall of Fantasy," after describing an ideal group of poets, he says: "In the most vivacious of these I recognized Holmes." In 1847 he succeeded Dr. John C. Warren as professor of anatomy and physiology in the medical school of Harvard. About the same time he became a lyceum lecturer. Dr. Holmes had gained three of the Boylston prizes for medical dissertations, and his three essays were published together (Boston, 1838). His other scientific works include an edition of " Marshall Hall's Theory and Practice of Medicine," with Dr. Jacob Bigelow (1839) ; " Lectures on Homoeopathy and its Kindred Delusions " (1842) ; " Report on Medical Literature," in the " Transactions " of the National medical association (1848) ; " Puerperal Fever as a Private Pestilence," a pamphlet (1855) ; " Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science" (1861); and " Border Lines in some Provinces of Medical Science " (1862). Several of these have been reissued in one volume with the title "Medical Essays" (1883). His successive volumes of poetry have borne the titles "Urania" (1846); "Astraea: the Balance of Illusions" (1850); "Songs in Many Keys " (1861); " Songs of Many Seasons " (1875) ; and " The Iron Gate " (1880). There are several collected editions, and some of the pieces have been issued singly with sumptuous illustrations. When the " Atlantic Monthly" was established, in the autumn of 1857, Dr. Holmes became one of the first contributors.