Orange County can claim the distinction of having been the home of many men and women who have achieved literary fame as poets, historians, journalists and writers, the work of several having found a permanent place in English literature. Chief among her poets may be mentioned Nathaniel Parker Willis, of Cornwall, and Goshen's sweet singer, Mrs. Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers. Poems of both these writers are to be found in Bryant's "Family Library of Poetry and Song," a standard work of international reputation.
Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers. Goshen's Sweet
Singer, Mrs. Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers, who wrote under the nom de plume,
of "Ethel Lynn," was born at Goshen, Orange County, N. Y., in 1825 and
died at Orange, N. J., in 1879. Mrs. Beers who was a woman of rare
literary gifts, was a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals of
her time. Perhaps her best known poem is "All Quiet Along the Potomac,"
written during the civil war, which attracted wide attention, and
occupies a permanent place in standard poetical literature.
"All Quiet Along the Potomac" was first published in
Harper's Weekly of November 30, 1861. The phrase, "All Quiet Along the
Potomac," was a familiar one in the Fall of that year, and in the
indifferent announcement that was one day added, "A Picket Shot," the
author found the inspiration of her poem.
This celebrated poem when first published bore only the
initials "E. B.," and as it went floating around in the great sea of
journalism, numerous aspirants for literary fame, who were not over
scrupulous in their methods of obtaining it, grasped the opportunity of
playing the role of literary pirates in their ambitious desire to have
their names handed down to posterity as poetical celebrities, in the
vain hope of thus achieving enduring literary fame.
Mrs. Beers, in an explanatory note in her volume of
collected poems entitled "All Quiet Along the Potomac and Other Poems,"
published by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, (1879,) gives the history of
this poem along with the amusing incidents connected with its
publication and the various claims of those who sought to establish
themselves as its author. She says:
"In the Fall of 1861, `All Quiet Along the Potomac' was a familiar
heading of all war dispatches. So, when this poem appeared in Harper's
Weekly of Nov. 30, it was quickly republished in almost every journal in
the land. As it bore only the initials `E. B.,' the poem soon became
only a nameless waif and was attributed to various pens.
"The London Times copied it as having been written by a
Confederate soldier and found in his pocket after death. (It seems to
have been a dangerous thing; to copy it, as it has so often been found
in dead men's pockets.) An American newspaper quoted it, saying that it
was written by a private soldier in the United States service and sent
home to his wife. This statement was met by another asserting that it
was written by Fitz-James O'Brien. As the soul of that true poet and
gallant soldier had gone out through a ragged battle rift won at Ball's
Bluff, this was un-contradicted until an editorial paragraph appeared in
Harper's Weekly, July 4, 1863, saying that it had been written for that
paper by a lady contributor.
"It appeared in a volume of `War Poetry of the South,'
edited by William Gilmore Sims, as a Southern production, and was set to
music by a Richmond music publisher in 1864, with `Words by Lamar
Fontaine,' on its title page. A soldier cousin, who went with Sherman to
the sea, found in a deserted printing office at Fayetteville, a paper
containing a two column article on the poem, with all the circumstances
under which `Lamar Fontaine composed it while on picket duty.
"It appeared in the earlier editions of Bryant's
`Library of Poetry and Song,' over Mrs. 'Howland's name, which was
afterwards corrected by Mr. Bryant. "Within the last year a Mr. Thaddeus
Oliver claims its authorship for his deceased father, being no doubt
misled by a wrong date, as he fixes an earlier time than its first
appearance in Harper's Weekly.
"I have been at some pains to gather up these dates and
names as one of the curiosities of newspaper waif life. To those who
know me, my simple assertion that I wrote the poem is sufficient, but to
set right any who may care to know, I refer to the columns of the old
ledger at Harper's, on whose pages I saw but the other day, the business
form of acceptance of, and payment for, `The Picket Guard, among other
publications.
"Fortunately I have two credible witnesses to the time
and circumstances of its writing. A lovely lady sitting opposite me at
the boarding house table, looked up from her morning paper at breakfast
time to say, `All Quiet Along the Potomac, as usual,' and I, taking up
the next line, answered, `except a poor picket shot.'
"After breakfast it still haunted me, and with my paper
across the end of my sewing machine, I wrote the whole poem before noon,
making but one change in copying it, reading it aloud to ask a boy's
judgment in referring to two different endings, and adopting the one he
chose. Nothing was ever more vivid or real to me than the pictures I had
conjured up of the picket's lonely walk and swift summons, or the
waiting wife and children. A short sojourn in Washington had made me
quite familiar with the routine of war time and soldier life. The
popularity of the poem was, perhaps, due more to the pathos of the
subject than to any inherent quality.
"Ethel Lynn Beers." Orange, N. J., 1879.
Poems
Nathaniel
Parker Willis
Born in Portland, Maine,
January 20, 1806, died at his country home, Idlewild,
Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, January 20, 1867. His chief works are: Melanie,
Lady Jane and other poems; Pencillings by the Way; Inklings of
Adventure; Romance of Travel, comprising Tales of Five Lands; People I
Have Met, or Pictures of Society and People of Mark; A Health Trip to
the Tropics; Out of Doors at Idlewild; Paul Fane, or Parts of a life
else Untold, a Novel. Edgar Allen Poe, in a review of the literary work
of N. P. Willis said: "As a writer of `sketches' properly so called, Mr.
Willis is unequaled. Sketches especially of society, are his forte, and
they are so for no other reason than that they afford him the best
opportunity of introducing the personal Willis or more distinctly
because this species of composition is most susceptible of impression
from his personal character."
Among his short poems, perhaps the most popular are "May"
and "The Belfry Pigeon."
George Clinton
For many generations the name of
Clinton has been a name for New York State to conjure with. The public
achievements of George Clinton and his fame as a farseeing statesman
have been somewhat obscured by the later brilliancy of DeWitt Clinton,
of the same clan. George Clinton was born on July 26, 1739, in what is
now the Town of New Windsor, Orange County, N. Y. He was the youngest
son of Charles Clinton, who came from the North of Ireland. He was born
in 1690 and died in Orange County in 1773.
It should be stated by way of explanation regarding the
birthplace of George Clinton, that he was born in what was then the
County of Ulster, but his life work and political associations were
confined largely to this county. In the year 1797 Orange County included
the present county of Rockland, its northern boundary extending only as
far as Murderer's Creek. In that year, what is now Rockland County, was
detached, and five towns then in Ulster County, viz, New Windsor, New
burgh, Wallkill, Montgomery and Deerpark were annexed to Orange County,
whereby Orange County acquired its present dimensions. George Clinton
resided at New Windsor and the house in which he lived is still in
existence.
His first noteworthy adventure was connected with
privateering in the French war of 1763. He was an officer in the
expedition against Fort Frontenac, and after the war went into law and
politics. He was chosen to the Colonial Assembly and to the Continental
Congress and was made a Brigadier General in the Revolutionary Army. In
1777 he was elected first Governor of the State of New York. He was
reelected and occupied the executive chair in all for eighteen
successive years, and in 1800 was chosen for one more term, making
twenty-one years as Governor. In 1804 he was elected Vice-President of
the United States, holding the office until his death, as he was
reelected in 1808, when Madison was elected President. He died in
Washington in the year 1812, aged 73 years.
Under his leadership the state's commercial
interests were jealously guarded. It is stated by a well informed
authority that the vast project of the Erie Canal, Which was carried out
by DeWitt Clinton, had its inception in the fertile brain of George
Clinton, who, as a member of a distinguished party which included
President Washington and Alexander Hamilton, toured the northern and
western parts of the state in 1780, investigating economic conditions.
Dewitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton was born at
Little Britain, Orange County, N. Y., in. 1769. He died suddenly while
engaged in official duty at Albany, February 11, 1828. His paternal
ancestors, although long resident in Ireland, were of English origin,
and his mother was of Dutch-French blood. He was educated at Columbia
College, graduating with high honors. Choosing the law for his
avocation, he studied law under Samuel Jones, afterwards Chief Justice
of the United States Superior Court. He was admitted to the Bar in 1788
and entered immediately into political life, being an ardent supporter
of his uncle, George Clinton. He took an active interest in the adoption
of the Federal
Constitution, and reported for the press the
proceedings of the convention held for that purpose, also acting as
private secretary for his uncle. His first office was Secretary of the
Board of Regents of the University, and the next, Secretary of the Board
of Commissioners of state fortifications. In 1797 he was elected to the
State Assembly as a representative from New York City, where he made his
residence, and the next year was chosen State Senator for four years. In
1802, when but 33 years of age, he was appointed a Senator of the United
States. He labored for the abolition of slavery and its kindred
barbarism, imprisonment for debt. Before his term as Senator expired he
resigned to accept the office of Mayor of New York, which he held for
four years, when he was removed; he was again appointed in 1809; again
removed in 1810; finally appointed in 1811, again holding the office for
four years, through the period of the war with England. He was a member
of the State Senate from 1805 to 1811; Lieutenant Governor for the, next
two years, and for part of this time again made a member of the council
of appointment. In 1804, his uncle, the Governor, was elected,
Vice-President of the United States, and soon afterwards by reason of
age, retired from active political life. His retirement left the
political scepter of the Clintons in the hands of DeWitt, who speedily
became the leader of the Republican party in the State of New York, and
their candidate for President, ,at the close of Madison's first term.
The result of the election was a disastrous defeat for Clinton, he
having but 89 electoral votes to 128 for Madison. His partisan opponents
considered his political career at an end, but they were mistaken. He
took a leading part on many public questions, notably, that of
establishing the public school system of New York City, the
establishment and promotion of various institutions of science; in the
improvement and modification of criminal laws, the extension of
agriculture and manufactures, the relief of the poor, the improvement of
morals, and many other worthy objects, in which he was in many instances
the moving spirit.
All these, however, were small in comparison with the
great work upon which his fame as a public man rests, viz., the building
of the Erie Canal. The history of this enterprise and the part he played
in it would fill volumes. He labored with indefatigable energy, patience
and hope until the great work was an accomplished fact. Through all
these weary years "Clinton's folly" was the by word of scoffers, but he
never despaired, and toiled on, often against the most discouraging
opposition, never giving an inch, until after a dozen years, a line of
cannon stationed at intervals along the much ridiculed "ditch," awakened
the people of the Empire State to the fact that the waters of lake Erie
were pouring through the canal bearing on their waves the message that
the great lakes were on that day wedded to the Atlantic ocean. In 1816
Governor Daniel D. Tompkins was chosen Vice-President and resigned the
Governorship. Clinton was brought forth for the place, bearing not only
the odium of advocating the "big ditch," and of the crushing defeat as a
Presidential candidate four years before, but the additional ignominy of
having been but one year before removed from the office of Mayor of New
York by a council of appointment controlled by his own party. To run for
Governor seemed madness, yet the marvelous power and political genius of
the man gave him an easy victory, and he was elected by a heavy
majority. He was reelected in. 1820, in 1824, and in 1826. In 1822 he
was out of the field, and his enemies once more celebrated his political
demise, adding in the course of their two years' rule, the indignity of
removing him from the office of Commissioner of the canal, then under
construction. This outrage was more than the people could bear and he
was once more brought forward for Governor, running against Samuel
Young. The disgraced Canal Commissioner was elected by 17,000. majority.
While engaged in official duties at Albany he died suddenly on February
11, 1828. Among his works are: Discourses before the New York Historical
Society; Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York; Letters on the
Natural History and Internal Resources of New York; Speeches to the
Legislature, and many historic and scientific addresses.
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