Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/149

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JOHN FARMER TO WILLIAM PLUMER. 127

I have received the History of the County of Berkshire, but it came in sheets, and is now at the bindery. So soon as it is done, I hope to send it to you. I have been wishing to obtain Shidr's Collection of Papers, which was in the State Hbrary, but is now missing. If you have a copy of it, you will oblige me by loaning it to me. I will also thank you to send me the volume of Pope's Works, which contains his correspondence with Swift, if you can with convenience spare it. There is no copy of it to be found in any of our public or private libraries. If you wish I will send you more of the Belknap papers.

With great respect I am your obliged,

JOHN FARMER.

P. S. I have made a number of trials to procure the II Part of the Transac- tions of the Penn. Hist. Society for you, but have not succeeded in obtaining it. I first called on Mr. Moore for the key of the library, which he had lost, and has not yet found, and probably never will find. This afternoon Mr. Corser collected a number of keys in the neighborhood in order to find one that would suit the lock, but when he went to the State House, Mr. Pickering in whose office the key to the room of the State library (in which room the care of the Hist. Hbrary is kept) was deposited, was absent, so that I shall not be able to procure the book for you this time as I intended.

��IN MEMORIAM.— CHARLES Af. WHITTIER.

��THERE are but few in the midst of the cares and labor of active business life who bear their own burden of duty faithfully, and at the same time keep a helping hand ever extended to their fellow-men, maintaining, also, a a lively interest in, and complete knowledge of all events occurring in the world at large.

. When such an one is taken from his post, he is missed ; his place is difficult to fill ; and the many who found in him a friend mourn. There are tears in the eyes of those who knew him, at news of his death, and he needs no higher tribute of respect.

Charles Mark Whittier was born in Hooksett, November 30, 1S35, the son of Jonathan Whittier, of Warner, and Charlotte Abbott Whittier, of Andover, Massachusetts. In Hooksett, Mr. Whittier spent his childhood, attending school most of the time, although he often remarked afterward that his father was more anxious for this than himself; but that he made good use of his time in the then, to him, distasteful pursuit of knowledge, his well-worn school- books and '• reward of merit " cards, still testify. When young Whittier was about fourteen, his father removed to Plymouth, purchasing the farm then owned by N. P. Rogers, and called by him " Under-cliff Cottage." Here, the boy formed that love for the hills and mountains of New Hampshire, so strong through all his life ; but the desire and necessity for a hard-working business life was upon him, and he soon left the farm for the office of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad Company, at Worcester, Massacliusetts, where he was employed eight years as clerk. Always painstaking and faithful, rapid in work, and withal, invariably cheerful and kind, he won the regard and the respect here, as in all subsequent positions, of those he served. He was for a short

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