James Mahoney, 1862-1915 : biographical sketch, letters of appreciation, literary productions

Introduction

BY

HON. FRANK B. SANBORN

PRIVATELY PRINTED BY THE

RuMFORD Press Concord, N. H.

Copyright, 1920

BY

MAHONY FAMILY We Defend Ourselves and Our Faith

CARROLL FAMILY Firm in Faith and in War

Contents

PAGE

Intkoduction, by Hon. Frank B. Sanborn xi

CHAPTER I Irish History with Special Reference to the Mahoney Family, by Mr

James W. McCoy 1

CHAPTER n

Old Family Letters from:

Mrs. Harriet E. Duncan 10

Mrs. F. E. Cooke 13

Col. John S. Cooke 13

Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells 13

Mr. H. C. Shaw 14

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Blake 15

Hon. Theodore C. Bates 15

Description of the Old Home and Surrounding Country, by James Mahoney 17

Chapter III

Early School Days, hy Miss EmmaWhiting and Mr. Sidney Sherman ... 21

Letters of Sympathy from Old North Brookfield Friends .... 27 Essays Written when He was a Pupil in the North Brookfield High

School 31

Chapter IV

Days at Amherst, by Prof. Joseph 0. Thompson 73

Extracts from Common Place-Book, Kept while He was at Amherst , . 81

Letters FROM Amherst Men 84

Oration by Mahoney on the Commencement Stage 99

CHAPTER V Letters from People Associated with Him in Worcester

Rev. Dr. John J. McCoy 102

Rev. Owen M. McGee 103.

Mr. Alfred S. Roe 10&

Mr. a. p. Marble lOI:*

Dr. William P. Souther 101'

Dr. E. Warner lOT

Letters from Prof. H. B. Adams of Johns Hopkins University and from

Dr. Ira Remsen, President of Johns Hopkins University . . . 107, 108

Application for the Position as Assistant Superintendent 109

CHAPTER XIII Dorchester Heights, Words and Music by James Mahoney 345

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

James Mahoney Frontispiece "^

Coat of Arms Preceding Chapter I

Pictures of the Old Home and of Some of the Historic

Places which Surround It Preceding page 17 ^^

James Mahoney when He Graduated from Amherst,

1884 Preceding page 73 '^

James Mahoney when a Student at Berlin University,

1896 Preceding page 278

^orti) iiroofeficlli, iWafiJS.

Foreword

The endeavor, in compiling this book, has been to allow James Mahoney to tell his own life story by his writings, as far as possible. Who could tell better than his essays can, his rules of life, his springs of action — his very inmost thoughts, even, are exposed in them.

The essays which are presented to the reader are ones which the compiler of this work was fortunate enough to get possession of in her childhood, entirely unknown to the author. To her they were priceless and so were carefully cherished.

The scope of this work embraces examples of James' work from the time he entered the North Brookfield High School to the time of his death. An attempt has been made to show, by the selections, what was positively true, that every realm of thought and every phase of human existence appealed to him. Also to show the broadness, depth and originality of his mind.

The work would have fallen far short of its aim if it were not for his good friends who cheerfully wrote of the times when they were closely associated with him. To them and to all who rendered any service, I hereby tender my most grateful thanks.

Many of the quotations which precede the chapters were written by James. For the most part the others were marked by him in his books, so they may be said to be really a part of him. Everything in his books that reminded him of the cherished scenes of his childhood was marked. Also passages which depicted great strength of character. The one preceding Chapter VIII is an example.

All the papers have been published in their original condition, with but a single exception. The only papers James had prepared for publication, used in this book, were the poems and the "English Poets' Debt to the Church." It was his intention to publish his lecture on "Socialism and Anarchism," but he wanted to revise it first.

When he prepared that lecture he was a very sick man, so I asked his good friend, Mr. Arthur Astor Carey, if he would go over it carefully. Mr. Carey did so and wrote me as follows: "I have made but few changes — those changes were made to bring out the meaning a little clearer — in no case have I changed the meaning or added anything to it."

After completing this work I accidentally found a file, which had escaped my attention, filled with letters, from people in all walks of life, thanking James for the favors he had rendered them The letters revealed a side of his character that has scarcely been touched upon in this book. Charity was his greatest characteristic. The best remains untold.

Nellie M. Mahoney.

Cardinal's Residence,

408 N. Charles St.,

Baltimore.

New Orleans, Louisiana,

March the 3rd, 1917.

Miss Nellie M. Mahoney,

72 G Street, South Boston, Mass.

Your esteemed favor of the 27th ult., has been forwarded to me here in New Orleans where I am spending a few days.

Although I had frequently heard of your brother, I do not recall ever having the pleasure of meeting him.

I am pleased to hear that you are about to publish a Memoir of him and I most heartily bless your undertaking, for I am sure that it is for you a work of love.

I have read with great interest the essay* you enclosed with your letter, written by him during his first year in High School. It shows a clear understanding of a question which is of so much interest during these times.

Yours very sincerely,

J. Card. Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore.

* The essay referred to is " Ought Women to Vote.' "

INTRODUCTION

Sixty-one years ago, on graduating from Harvard College in the Class of 1855, I took for my Commencement subject, "The School-master of the Future," that being the occupation which I had chosen for at least the beginning of my active life. I was already settled in a small school, in the pleasant town of Concord, and saw no reason why I should not continue there, and in that agreeable and useful pursuit. Providence directed the course of my days otherwise; but I never regretted the choice I first made, of the function in which I was to test whether it would be allowed me to move the great world, be it ever so little, with the small lever of the teacher of boys and girls. It was but a few years after my graduation, and before I gave up my school, that our friend, James Mahoney, was born, who so well filled the function declared to be of such value to mankind.

Like my neighbor, Henry Thoreau, a natural inclination for study and thought turned the wishes of his family toward the acquirement by him of the higher education, which afterward fitted him for those upper walks of instruction in which he so long labored. He graduated from the distinguished college at Amherst, at the age of twenty-two, but still continued to follow a line of studies which took him to Baltimore, to Boston and finally to Berlin. The names of his higher instructors, including those of Dr. Seelye of Amherst, Dr. Herbert Adams and Woodrow Wilson at Baltimore, and of Paulsen in Germany, are guarantees of the solid and varied culture, with which he carried on for thirty years, and with a steady discipline and an organizing faculty which does not always accompany high attainments, the serious business of instruction.

In a country like ours, where there is an eager thirst for the practical benefits of education, but a small and proportionately decreasing desire for the rewards of the scholar's harder and ill-requited attainments, it is most attractive to see a zeal so native, and an accomplishment so successfully gained, as was noticeable in Mr. Mahoney. He did honor to a race noted for its learning since the earliest ages of its history; and it was with him no selfish acquisition, fostering pride and withholding him from the companionship of his kind; but what he had acquired with toil and travel he imparted freely, with labor and journeying, to those with whom his way of life brought him into acquaintance. His literary talent kept pace with his gift for instruction and for organization; for he was not one of those specialists who can do only one or two things well; but had that general faciUty for the tasks of the scholar.

xii INTRODUCTION

the citizen and the practical man, which Milton commends, and would have made the aim of his noble system of education.

He had his trials and disappointments like others, and was no exception to the rule that his good was sometimes misinterpreted, where it could not be misunderstood. Those who serve mankind with much expectation of gratitude are apt to be disappointed; even justice is not always rendered to excellent and earnest service. The motives must be religious, as his were; and then the result can hardly fail to be satisfactory. Wordsworth has well stated the rule for self -consecrated persons, in that Sonnet which thus closes :

Earthly fame Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet there lives A Judge who, as man claims, by merit gives; To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim.

Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed; In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.

Frank B. Sanborn.

Concord, Massachusetts, May 20, 1916.

CHAPTER I Irish History and the Mahoney Family

Only a week or two before James Mahoney* started on his fateful trip to California, he met a boyhood friend in Boston, with whom he felt free to soar into the realms of philosophy, even on a casual encounter in the street. The talk turned in the course of time to the great war and particularly the future of Europe. A natural sidelight of this phase, that interested both, was the future of Ireland; whether it would be a contented but integral part of the British Empire; an independent nation; a self-governing outlier of the empire; anything, he hoped, but the sullen vassal as of yore. His forecast was that the awful toll of battle, would bring about one great good — a happy culmination of the miserable age-long story of Ireland.

Mahoney was, of course, a New Englander through and through — born and bred on mid-Massachusetts' hills, educated in Amherst, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Berlin. But the home of his ancestors had a deep interest for him. This was but natural from a man whose father came from Cork county and his mother was a Carroll from Clare county, a relative of the Maryland Carrolls, of whom it will be recalled Charles Carroll of Carrollton, faced a hanging in signing the Declaration.

Mahoney would look back, with a glowing eye, to the stirring tale of King Mahon, possibly the most Irish figure in Erin's Valhalla, and among other things the traditional progenitor of the tribe of Mahony.

Not all of this came out on any one occasion. It was to him a delight, to enlarge on so much of Irish history as he knew, and he, himself, a specialist in the teaching of history, to descant to a sympathetic mind, upon the varied and glorious annals of the green isle; into some of the recondite fields of which he had explored beyond the reach of many diligent students. Of the documented, authentic history, he knew the outlines very well. His own special bent tended toward philological, ethnological, and archaeological data, from which to get a light on the prehistoric.

* Mahoney (Mah'-o-ni), Century Dictionary. This is the Irish pronunciation. Formerly there was no "e" in the spelling. It crept in during the school days in North Brookfield. 2

He was a great believer in race characteristics; their persistence; their undying adherence to distinguishing ideals, as he often expressed it, and found in the Irish race, not merely a blend of qualities merged in centuries of travail and attrition, but rather a primitive groundwork, distinctively Irish, that remained relatively unchanged throughout, on which there would from century to century be drawn various traits, other ideals, other aims, some to persist for a long time; some to vanish and make way for newer notions.

A subject always of absorbing interest to Mahoney was the origin and migrations of the Celtic race. The historian, of course, soon runs short of written records and must rely on matters at first like architectural remains, bits of pottery, and the like, which carry him back only a few more centuries. Of comparatively recent times there has been developed a new instrument of research, in identifying ancient languages, some now forgotten as languages, but whose remains are embodied in modern speech.

For a man of Mahoney's thoroughness, this vista came too late for anything like adequate study and so, teacher-like, he left the deep research work to others, but was eager for any fruits of their work. For the historian, this line of research has proved exceptionally rich, particularly in place names, which are found to be peculiarly persistent, practicably immovable in fact, and providing material regarded as more and more reliable, in tracing races back in the mists of time.

Out of this has come a fairly well-settled conviction that the Celts were the first of the Aryan races to enter Europe. They travelled ever westward from somewhere in Asia, sometimes pioneers, pushing into the unknown and displacing the natives; more often, probably, being pushed onward by following tribes, who, with the virile strength of the rough, outdoor, poverty stricken, was able to drive onward, those he found in his way, who by long years of peace and plenty had lost possibly the warlike qualities that suflSced to win a foothold originally. But go where he would, the Celt left his place names, firmly attached to this day; often changed or corrupted to fit the tongue of newcomers, but holding fast to roots and essentials and being fairly recognizable, as a historical record.

One field in which Mahoney liked to delve, by proxy of course, as he realized the limitations on his own energies in making anything like an adequate study, was the singular persistence of the word Gael, as imbedded in place names. It is noted to-day in Ireland, in "Gal"- way, Don-" gal," where one would expect to find it. The French to-day call the Prince of Wales, the Prince de Galles — the same word and pronounced practically the same as one talking Irish would pronounce Gael. France, itself, was once Gaul, still another form of the same word. The Romans conquered Gaul under Julius Caesar in 48 B.C.; the Gallo-romans, in turn were conquered by the Franks in the fifth century a.d. In Brittany and Belgium we still find traces of these Gaels.

The same word crops up a farther step eastward in "Gal' '-icia where there are practically no Gaels now, nor for a great many centuries; but it still remains the land of the Gaels, in name at least. Going still farther, probably in Asia Minor, there is a record found in the New Testament, of the "Gal "-atians, who lived in "GaF'-atia, another land of the Gaels, abandoned by them untold centuries ago.

Another Celtic word singularly persistent is "dun," which in Gaelic is a hill, fortress, a fastness, probably away back, what we would call a robber's or raider's lair. It is part of the word Verdun. The same word appears in Lon"don," which once was only a Roman fortress and two hundred years of Roman occupation could not wipe the Celtic "dun," from the name.

River names, also, are peculiarly tenacious. Renos or Rhenos is apparently an old Celtic word for "flowing water"; also Don, though there was probably some difference in meaning. These are imbedded to-day in Rhine, Rhone, Danube (in German Donau), Don Dneister and more obscurely in hundreds of other river, brook and lake names. Garonne in France is pure Celtic, being "Gar," as rough, turbulent and Rhone, a river, somewhat corrupted of course, to conform to the French tongue.

Examples cited by philologists of extreme corruption in the course of many, many centuries, are Aisne and Marne, where the letter "n" is all that is left of the once assertive and tenacious Rhenos, or Renos, or some word very like it. This record in geographical names was peculiarly eloquent to Mahoney, as indicating the farflung migrations of the Celts. It also appealed to him as accounting, in some measure, for the remarkably early development of culture and civilization in Ireland.

The Celts may be looked on as a rough, uncouth, ruthless and uncultured tribe as they entered Europe, the vanguard of the Aryans. They can be conceived as living in some place in the far east of Europe, say Galicia, and acquiring in the course of peaceful centuries some culture, perhaps not much. They either pioneered farther westward, or were driven on and repeated the process, their culture advancing a step beyond the Galicia stage. They must have stayed centuries in the places they chose, so widespread and persistent are the remains of their language in place and river names. Finally, we can jump to the last stage when they reached Ireland, possessing not merely a high degree of accumulated culture, but, in fact, all the culture there was at that time.

A curious remnant of this philological type, is the only survival of the word "Aryan" itself in "Ire "-land in a place name, which in Celtic is much different from "Ire"; more like Erin as we know the word, or Eirinn and many other variants in the spelling. It is not put forward here as a demonstrated fact that the "Ire" in Ireland is a variant of Aryan. It is conjectured to be by some philologists, with a confession of a very uncertain ground for any conclusion.

They came in time to the then peaceful Ireland; a haven where the finer graces of culture could flourish far from war's alarms and literature that illuminated the world grew to rich fruition. There came other migrations to Ireland, notably from Spain, where Milesius and his followers, added a new facet to the Irish character, perhaps the most distinctive of all, except possibly the English, which have imposed their language at least on the island, though failing signally in other fields of effort. "She was subdued perhaps, but never conquered," as Mahoney would say.

Of Irish history, the documented roster of events, little need be said here, except that one may note the singular tenacity with which the Irish remained Irish; they did not welcome Danes when the name of the Norse invader was a potent menace indeed, laid low later by Brian, whose harvest was garnered by Mahon. Even in later years, the English did no better. The invader became Irish in a generation or two; "More Irish than the Irish" has often been said of them.

The best information on the origin of the Mahony family places its beginning in a.d. 483, founded by Cormac, King of Munster, anciently given as Maigheanach, enjoying the titles of Lord of Iveagh, also Lord of Kinal Meaky, ruling in Kinal Aodha, now the barony of Kinalea, south of the Lee. Their descendants, in remote but historic times, flourished mainly in Cork and Kerry. The widest known Mahony of modern times is probably Rev. Francis Mahony, born in Cork in 1805 and died in Paris in 1866, the Fr. Prout of literature, whose "Bells of Shandon" are immortal, and "The Reliques of Father Prout" which originally appeared in Fraziers Magazine, are unique in English literature. A little farther back Venerable Charles Mahony, Irish Franciscan Martyr, was executed August 12, 1679, at Rulhin in North Wales. He died praying God to forgive his enemies and to bless the King. His age was under forty. He suffered with great constancy, being cut down alive and butchered.

Col. John O'Mahony was not only a famous Fenian, but one of the very learned men of his time.

A Col. Dermod O'Mahony was with King James, at the battle of the Boyne (1691) and fought at Aughrim and Limerick; a Barthelemy O'Mahony, Chevalier of St. Louis, was a lieutenant general in France. A more imposing figure was Daniel O'Mahony, who fought at Limerick, at least, and then like many an Irishman went to France where he was made a colonel by Louis XIV for his work at the battle of Cremona, became later a brigadier in French service; went to Spain, where Philip V made him commander of the Irish dragoons, ultimately, a lieutenant general. Count of Castile and Commander of the military order of St. James.

James Mahony's mother was a Carroll, coming from County Clare, Ireland, The chief of the family was Lord of Ely, also Lord of Clary and the family was originally more or less confined to Kerry, Tipperary and Kings, now of course found everywhere in Ireland, to say nothing of the rest of the world. Their principal castle was at Birr, near Parsonstown and the founder was Donald O'Carroll. They were staunch supporters of the English Stuart dynasty, the head of the clan in Charles I's time, having been Donough O'Carroll, who had thirty sons and one daughter. The old man made up a troop of his sons, or some of them, presenting the troop to the Marquis of Ormonde for Charles I. They followed Charles II into exile and died in foreign service. As a remnant of history, it is a small matter, but it requires little vision, to realize the light that would gleam in Mahoney's eyes, as he recalled this rugged ancestor. Brigadier Francis O'Carroll was a distinguished officer under James II, went to France when the monarch was exiled — more likely allowed to escape — and was killed at Marsaglia. His descendants are known in France to-day as "de Carrolles."

The Carrolls came over in force with Lord Baltimore and helped to found Maryland, which may well be called the state of the Carrolls From them sprung Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the signer of the Declaration, the most distinguished American Carroll, though a question might be raised regarding the claims of his contemporary. Bishop Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States. The site of the city of Baltimore was bought from the Carroll family in 1792, and incorporated 1796 as a city. Daniel Carroll presented his farm on the Potomac to Washington, making what is now a large part of the District of Columbia. This Daniel Carroll was one of the thirty-six delegates who signed the Constitution in 1787.

Grandfather Carroll was an accountant, of the type now known as "chartered" or "public" accountants. His work was more with the relatively simple records of transactions among the landlords, requiring accuracy and the utmost probity.

Mahoney's grandfather's grandfather was the first of the family to settle near Crookhaven Harbor. He received from his father, who was a merchant marine, a sloop, cargo and a thousand pounds. He was a merchant, captain and owner of the sloop. There were no overland routes at that time and Crookhaven Harbor was a great port of call. There is a wireless station there now.

Their coat of arms bore the motto "We defend ourselves and our faith."

Mahoney's paternal grandfather was, in his youth, a captain of the yeomanry, later a government surveyor in County Cork. He was also a member of the Court of Arbitral Justice, a body for settling disputes between landlords and tenants, also for settling estates, etc.

It is of some interest to note that one of the estates he settled was that of an English peer whose family name was Beecher, and who was a progenitor of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.

It was, as may be guessed, an exceedingly responsible position and of exceeding honor and filled only by the best men to be had. Another office he filled was that of chief of the Coast Guard, which post often called him far from home. He was a learned man and a poet.

James Mahoney's father was John Mahony, born at Goleen, County Cork, Ireland, in 1821.

John Mahony left Ireland, May 1, 1850, in a small craft carrying less than fifty passengers, being six weeks and three days on the way. Under stress of weather, the ship had to put in at St. John, New Brunswick. He landed in Boston and made his way to Ware, where he settled down as a farmer.

In 1856 he married Miss Bridget Carroll of Ware. She was born in Bally Kelly, a part of the town of Broadford, County Clare, Ireland, and came to this country in 1850, braving a thirty-six days' passage in a sailing packet, from Liverpool and travelling by train and coach to her sister's in Ware.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Mahony lived a while in Ware and later in Hardwick, but in 1863, purchased the old historic Hale farm in the western portion of North Brookfield, where they may be said to have lived ever after, the peaceful, uneventful, but characterbuilding life of the industrious New England farmer.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Mahony were studious and, as may be gathered from the foregoing, well able to carry on the New England tradition of "Plain living and high thinking." When their children became old enough nothing was spared in schooling. This was no light task as the high school was three miles away and those were not the days of free transportation or free text books.

They were never absent from school on account of the severe New England storms, and tardy marks were unknown to them, unless the roads were actually impassable and they had to wait in the team, on the road, while their father cleared a passage through the drifts. When the roads were known to be blocked they must start for school at 7 o'clock, so as to be at school on time, if it was humanely possible for their father to get them there. In those days there was no such thing thought of as no school on account of a severe storm. Punctuality and system were so thoroughly instilled in their minds that they could never be anything but punctual and systematic in whatever they did.

James, as has been indicated, had considerably more than the average in scholastic training. Miss Mary, the eldest daughter, died comparatively young, in 1891. Miss Kate A. has long been a teacher in North Brookfield. Miss Nellie M. was for many years supervisor of drawing in Massachusetts schools, later the companion of James and the chatelaine of his home.

Mr. Mahony, the elder, died at the old home on February 28, 1902, at the age of 81, and Mrs. Mahony also at the family home on November 30, 1906, at the age of 84.

The following was copied from James' diary:

Father died Friday morning at 4.45 o'clock.

I was awakened at the Nottingham at 3.30 a.m. by Mr. Hunt. He said : " A message has come over the 'phone for you. Your Father is alive but is sinking very fast and they want you to come right home."

The first train I could get was the 5 a.m. train. I reached home at about 8.30. Father was already dead. When laid in the coffin profound peace was in his face. He looked as if asleep.

The funeral was this afternoon from the church. The roads were very bad and it was raining but even that seemed fitting. The arrangements were perfect, not a delay anywhere. The flowers were beautiful. "Well done, good and faithful." Requiescat in pace.

James Mahoney was born in Hardwick, on May 9, 1862, going with his parents soon after to North Brookfield, where his father had purchased a farm. Until he was nearly seven years of age he was an exceptionally robust, active boy, when an accident befell him. He was bedridden for four years. That no studying was possible during this period is obvious. He gained gradually during the next year and was able to do some studying, though under difficult conditions, for he was often pain racked, but it was considerable. During this time he started to teach his younger sister drawing, he, who had never been taught himself and his method was of the approved method of the present day.

At twelve years he resumed school work, with his old class, the group with whom he studied when he was stricken five years previously. His teacher at this stage was Miss Emma Whiting. At fourteen he entered North Brookfield High School, where the late Mr. Charles M. Clay and Miss Emily M. Edson were his teachers. Here his story can be left to later chapters, where those who knew him well, will continue his career.

That Man, who is from God sent forth.

Doth yet again to God return?

Such ebb and flow must ever be.

Then wherefore should we mourn?

— William Wordsworth.

Why if the Soul can fling the Dust aside.

And naked on the Air of Heaven ride.

Wer't not a Shame for him

In this clay carcase longer to abide?

— Omar Khayydm.

Life! we've been long together Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; » 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear —

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

Then steal away, give little warning, Choose thine own time; Say not Good Night, — but in some brighter clime

Bid me Good Morning.

Death, of course, is always a tragedy, but there were peculiarly sad notes in the fate of James Mahoney. It was well known that he was on the eve of a promotion to a broader and higher sphere of activity in educational circles.

An intensely home loving man, he was destined to die alone, among strangers, 2,000 miles from home. The announcement to his people came like a crash of thunder in blazing sunshine; no inkling of even illness preceding the telegraphic news. He had attended the convention of the National Education Association at Oakland, California, in 1915, where he read a paper on a technical subject and was on his way home.