Life and times of Alvah Crocker

Front matter

i

Class u 6 G 4- Gopiglit ]^°

CQFSRIGHT DEPOSR

Chapter I Page

Ancestry and Youth i

Arrival of first train in Fitchburg. — Crocker a paper-maker at eight years of age. — The Crocker ancestry in America. — Captain John Crocker builds first ropewalk in Newburyport. — Benjamin Crocker his son. — Deacon Samuel Crocker moves to Leominster. — Alvah Crocker born 1801. — Events of the period. — School days at Groton. — ^The portrait of Captain John Crocker discovered by Alvah Crocker.

CHAPTER H Early Business Experience, 1823-36 9

Alvah Crocker's start in Fitchburg. — Early business difficulties and successes. — Marriage. — First public services. — Contemporary events. — Early methods of transportation. — Crocker conceives of the Fitchburg Railroad. — Election and record as Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts.

CHAPTER HI The Fitchburg Railroad IS

Planning of the Fitchburg Railroad. — ^The methods of promotion. — Incorporation of Fitchburg Railroad, 1842.— Crocker goes to England to purchase rails. — Controversy over location of the Fitchburg Depot. — Arrival of first train, March 5, 1845. — Inception and incorporation of Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, March 15, 1844. — Crocker elected president of road, 1845. — Speech of Charles H. B. Snow at Centennial Celebration of Fitchburg, 1864.

CHAPTER IV Alvah Crocker's Personality 29

Quotations from his diary: On his birthday, October 14, 1843.— The death of friends, and a visit to Burlington. — October 19, 1843— Visit to Montpelier.— Tuesday, October 31, 1843— A typical day's work.— viii CONTENTS

PAGE

Saturday, November 4, 1843 — Visit to Brattleboro. — January 23 and 24 — Notes on location of Fitchburg Depot. — January 26, 1844 — Contract for passenger cars. — February 12, 1844 to March 23 — Mission to Washington. — April 24 — Interview with Messrs. Baldwins and Norris Locomotive Works. — April 29, 1844 — A visit to Mount Vernon. — July 8, 1844 — On the sale of the Crockerville Mill. — July 20, 28 and 29. — October 14, 1844 — On his birthday. — March 13, 1845 — On the opening of the Fitchburg Railroad. — March 24, 1845 — On accepting the presidency of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad. — April, 1844 — Mr. Crocker's impressions of President Polk. — May 14, 1845 — On resignation as president of the Fitchburg Railroad. — August 25, 1845 — On a visit to Newburyport. — October 14, 1845 — Thoughts on his birthday.

CHAPTER V Business Interests 37

Firm of Crocker, Burbank & Co. established 1850. — Gardner S. Burbank. — ^The Crocker mills; how they were acquired. — Charles T. Crocker admitted to firm, 1855. — George F. Fay and Samuel E. Crocker become partners in Crocker, Burbank & Co., 1863. — Alvah Crocker's other" business interests. — Rollstone Bank and the Fitchburg Savings Bank, etc. — The Civil War. — Appointed by Governor Andrew to care for the wounded Massachusetts soldiers. — Crocker's speech at Centennial Celebration of Fitchburg, 1864. — Early activities in regard to the Hoosac Tunnel. — ^The founding of Turners Falls.

CHAPTER VI The Hoosac Tunnel Route 43

Petition for construction of Troy and Greenfield Railroad, 1848. — New York acts to connect Troy with the proposed Hoosac Tunnel by railroad. — Opposition of the Western Railroad. — Incorporation of Troy and Greenfield Railroad. — Appeal for State Loan, 1851. — First contracts for construction of Hoosac Tunnel, 1855. — Construction halted, 1861. — Speech of Alvah Crocker in Massachusetts Senate on a bill for the more speedy completion of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, 1862. — The State takes over the construction of the road and Tunnel. — Mr. Crocker appointed commissioner and acting superintendent. — Contract for completion of Tunnel awarded to Walter and Francis Shanly. — ^The completion of the Hoosac Tunnel.

CONrENTS ix

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

Congressman Crocker 55

Mr. Crocker elected to Congress, January, 1872, to fill incompleted term.— Letter to the Fitchburg Sentinel on renomination of Mr. Crocker in September, 1872. — Re-election. — Remarks of Mr. Crocker in Congress: On the post-office appropriation bill; on the duty on coal; on the subject of soda ash and bleaching powder; on the tariff; on the salary bill; on the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; on removing the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi River.— The Christmas recess, 1874. — Fatal illness and death, December 26, 1874. — A retrospect.

APPENDIX Crocker, Burbank & Co., since 1874 75

Memorial addresses on the life and character of Alvah Crocker, as published by order of Congress, 1875: Address of Mr. Dawes; resolutions; address of Benjamin F. Butler.^Proceedings in the Senate: Address by Hon. William B. Washburn of Massachusetts; resolutions; address of Mr. Wadleigh of New Hampshire 75

Letter of Alvah Crocker, 1844, to the Hon. George Evans, Chairman of the Committee of Finance of the Senate, on the subject of remitting the duty on railway iron 85

Report as commissioner on the Hoosac Tunnel, 1868 97

Speech on Inland Navigation 112 iH

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Alvah Crocker Frontispiece

Captain John Crocker i

Two Views of Old Fitchburg 9 --'

The Fitchburg Fire Department about 1851 13 ~^

Map of Fitchburg, 1851 15 •

Fitchburg in 1856 17 >/

The Railroad System of New England the Year after the

Opening of the Fitchburg Railroad 21

First Passenger Railroad Depot in Fitchburg 25

Bank Note which shows Alvah Crocker as he appeared when

President of the Rollstone Bank 29

Main Street, Fitchburg, in 1867 33

Gardner S. Burbank 37

The Old Stone Mill, Fitchburg 39,

Rollstone National Bank, Fitchburg 41

Charles Thomas Crocker 43 •

East End of the Hoosac Tunnel during Construction ... 49

West End of the Hoosac Tunnel 53

View of Fitchburg, 1870 55 ■

Compressed-Air Power Plant, Deerfield River 61

Steam-driven Air Compressors at West End of the Tunnel 65

The Burleigh Drill at Work 65

Entrance to the West Shaft 69

Reproduction of an Old Print showing Profile View of the

Hoosac Tunnel 71

Mills of Crocker, Burbank & Co 75

Manuscript Letter of Alvah Crocker 81

Columbus, First Locomotive through Hoosac Tunnel .... 89

Introduction

IT would be difficult to express the purpose of this book in better words than the following taken from a memoir of the late Samuel Appleton: "Of lives of statesmen, poets, artists, literary, military, and professional men of all sorts, we have enough, but of eminent and successful merchants, men who have made commerce the sphere of their extensive activity and usefulness, we have few permanent records . . . yet commerce has had its heroes, its saints, and martyrs, — men who, along its dusty paths, in its busy counting-houses, amid its varied enterprises, have exhibited the noblest qualities of intellect and of heart. ... To these men, these noble and benevolent merchants, literature, learning, science, humanity in all the instrumentalities that would promote its progress, in all the institutions that would alleviate its sufferings, owes a debt which cannot be too gratefully acknowledged."

Among such men was Alvah Crocker, whose public works — the building of the Fitchburg Railroad, its extension to the West through the Hoosac Tunnel, the establishment of a great paper manufactory, and the founding of Turners Falls — have done so much for Massachusetts. And yet the lesson of his life, the inspiration of his achievement, would soon be lost unless recorded.

His works have been, so far, his only monument; but few remain who know them as his works. Still fewer realize, when they travel over the railroad that he built, how much they owe to one who began in a paper mill at the age of eight, who added to a meagre schooling a fund of knowledge such as few possess, and by sheer force of character overcame the strongest opposition of men and mountains!

It is nearly fifty years since Alvah Crocker died, and just a century since he began his career in Fitchburg; so it seems a fitting time that the obligation to his memory should be paid in a memoir, that shall preserve the record and inspiration of his life for posterity.

The author desires to acknowledge the kindness shown in facilitating the preparation of this book by Charles Fosdick, Esq., Frederic A. Currier, Esq., Edward F. Kimball, Esq., Miss Theresa N. Garfield, Librarian of the Fitchburg Historical Society, Julius H. Tuttle, Esq., Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and Miss Harriet Swift of the Boston Public Library; and also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the following authorixi V INTR OD UCnOH^

ties and records: "The Old Records of the Town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 1764-1855," Walter Alonzo Davis, Compiler; Fitchburg Historical Society, Proceedings and Papers Relating to the Town, Vols. 1-4; "History of the Town of Fitchburg," Rufus Campbell Torrey; "The Great Bore: a Souvenir of the Hoosac Tunnel," J. E. Harrison; "Fitchburg Past and Present," Emerson; Address delivered at Fiftieth Anniversary of Tufts College, George Sewall Boutwell; Report on Hoosac Tunnel, December 20, 1867, Benjamin H. Latrobe, Consulting Engineer; Journal House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1836, Vol. 58, 1837, Vol. 59, 1842, Vol. 64, 1843, Vol. 65; Massachusetts Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth, 1886, Vol. 87; Congressional Globe, 42d Congress, 2d Session, 1 871-1872, Part H; House Proceedings 42d Congress, 2d Session, 1872; Congressional Record, 43d Congress, ist Session, Vol. Ill, Vol. 114.

CAPTAIN JOHN CROCKER

LIFE AND TIMES OF

Chapter I ANCESTRY

MARCH 5, 1845, was a day of great significance to the town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The crowd which had collected about its first and newly completed railroad terminal listened impatiently for the shrill whistle of the locomotive, about to herald not alone the arrival of the first train in Fitchburg, but the dawn as well of a new era of prosperity for the community. Many in the gathering had doubtless never seen a train of cars before. Others had made the tedious five-and-one-half-hour trip by stage coach to Lowell, and thence by rail to Boston. It is safe to say that the arrival then, of this pioneer engine from Boston, meant far more to the inhabitants of Fitchburg than the first appearance of an airship in our times. As the little train drew up in "Depot Square," a tall, triumphant man of forty-four descended from the locomotive, to be greeted "by a committee of reception and by citizens." This was none other than Alvah Crocker, to whose clear vision and unremitting energy the Fitchburg Railroad owed its existence; a man destined to become a dominant figure of his time in Northern Massachusetts, and one whom posterity has yet to appreciate for his full worth.

Certainly there was little in the early environment of Alvah Crocker which gave promise of shaping him for a successful business career. Other youths under similar conditions became, at most, skilled artisans. He enjoyed none of the educational advantages which are actually thrust upon a modern boy. He received no consecutive preparatory school training. For him a college education was entirely out of the question. Indeed schools of engineering or graduate departments of business administration were then among the unborn conceptions of university curricula.

As a matter of fact, the training that fell to the youthful Crocker's lot would now actually be prohibited by law, since he began hard manual labor at the age of eight.

We have a brief account of these beginnings in his own words, taken from a speech which he delivered in the House of Representatives in 1872:

"Sixty-two years ago this coming month, I was put into a paper factory at the tender age of eight years. I lived with my mother, without allowance for board, and worked twelve hours daily at twenty-five cents per day. My only remission from labor with the exception of a single winter was six weeks a year, when I was allowed to go to school. In the latter part of the first ten years of my factory life, compensation being somewhat increased, I had sixty dollars a year with my board."

It is in vain that we scan this program for an answer to Alvah Crocker's mental growth. If any one should arise to propose, in our times, such a training as a good preparation for a successful career, he would probably be instantly placed under observation in a psychopathic hospital. We are indeed forced to look elsewhere than to environment for the germs of success with which Crocker was inoculated, and where else can we look than to his heredity? h-\ Captain John Crocker, the great-grandfather of Alvah Crocker, was born in England in 1692, and after coming to this country became a citizen of Newburyport, where he was both a skipper and a ship-owner. In those days the town was famous for its shipbuilding and was one of the most active ports in the colonies. While we have few details of Captain Crocker's career, we know that he was a man to see and grasp opportunity, as evidenced by the fact that in 1748 he obtained permission from the town of Newburyport to erect a ropewalk, which was the first to be built there. He married in 1727 Mary Savage, daughter of Thomas Savage, and had eight children, four of whom were sons. Benjamin, their third child, was born in Boston in 1732 and was reared and lived in Newburyport. Like his father he was interested in shipping, and was a part owner with him of the brig Ranger in 1758. Captain John Crocker died in 1763 and is buried beside his wife in St. Ann's Churchyard.

Benjamin was married September 9, 1761, to Sarah Somerby, daughter of Samuel Somerby, at Hampton, a nearby town in New Hampshire, and had five daughters and four sons. The eighth child. Deacon Samuel Crocker (father of Alvah), was born in Newburyport, March 22, 1774, two years before his father's death. Samuel was brought up in Newburyport, where he attended school, afterwards learning the paper-making trade, and removed to Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1796, in his twentysecond year. He took employment with Nichols and Kendall, who had just started the first paper mill there. The site was on the Nashua River slightly below the present property of the George W. Wheelwright Paper

LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEK^ 3

Company. In 1801 the firm built a second mill below the first, but the partnership was dissolved in 1804. Samuel Crocker continued in the employ of Jonas Kendall, who acquired the business. The house in which he lived and reared his family still stands, and is leased as a workingman's house by The Wheelwright Paper Company.

In 1798 Samuel married Comfort Jones, daughter of Samuel and Hannah n (Adams) Jones of Medway, Massachusetts, and had the following children: Alvah, born October 14, 1801 ; Phineas, October 21, 1804; Chandler, November 3, 1806; Thomas, March 13, 1809; Varamus E., February 7, 1812; Samuel Somerby, October 3, 1813; William Plummer, November 25, 1817. ij

Deacon Samuel Crocker's outstanding characteristic was his religious zeal. He has been described as "stern, uncompromising and conscientious." At the age of forty-three (the same age at which his son was interested in railroad construction). Deacon Crocker while reading the Bible at family worship came to one of the accounts of baptism in the New Testament. His wife interrupted him with, "There, husband, the Baptists are right!" This led to careful consideration of the subject and a change in belief. He walked to Harvard, applied for admission to the Baptist Church of that town, and was received after short delay. This led to further conversions in Leominster, and the founding there of the Baptist Church, with which Deacon Samuel and his son Deacon Samuel S. Crocker were so long identified. The elder Crocker and his wife were both active and influential in the church. He was an evangelist in disposition, and held prayer meetings and conference meetings in his own house and elsewhere, and preached the gospel frequently.

It is said that the only books in his home besides the Bible were "Edwards on Religious Affection," "Lives of Watts and Doddridge," "King Philip's Indian Wars," and "The Westminster Assemblies Lesser Catechism." Mrs. Crocker was a direct descendant in the sixth generation from Henry Adams of Braintree, the forefather of most of the old American families of this surname. Thus the Puritan traditions were naturally paramount in the family life. From the early age at which the children went to work it is evident that the family's accumulation of this world's goods was small.

In Lewis's "History of Worcester County," it is stated "Mrs. Crocker was a descendant of the celebrated Adams family and inherited all its selfreliance and independence of character. Nobly struggling under adverse circumstances, and unwilling to receive assistance not absolutely necessary, she aimed to nurture the children in habits of honest industry and to accustom them to exertion, not only from necessity, but also from choice.

4 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVJH CROCKETi^

Such an education as they received proved to be a greater instrument of temporal success than large fortunes in the hands of numberless children of luxury and ease." The boys were sent out to work for farmers during the summer months in their childhood, and in this way the insufficient income of the father was made to cover their necessities, while early habits of industry and thrift were inculcated. If as some one has put it "genius is the ability to work hard and long and well," we have perhaps discovered the secret of the genius of Alvah Crocker. Inheriting the traditional New England traits from hardy self-reliant ancestors, his natural physical exuberance being early harnessed by the necessity of work, he started life under no handicaps of ease and with no false conceptions of its meaning. He knew full well the meaning of the words "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."

The territory of the United States at the time of Alvah Crocker's birth in 1801 comprised only that portion east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Florida and a small portion of what is now the State of Louisiana. In all, there were then seventeen organized States with a total population of five and a third million, one-fifth of whom were slaves.

The country Was on the eve of enormous expansion through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and during Crocker's lifetime our sovereignty came to embrace all present possessions with the exception of Hawaii, Samoa and the insular acquirements which were incident to the Spanish War. Virginia held first place in population, followed by Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. Nine-tenths of the population resided east of the Alleghany Mountains.

Industrially the dawn of a new era was close at hand. Transportation, while dependent still upon sailing vessels and stage coaches, had witnessed the first attempts of John Fitch, James Ramsey and Oliver Evans to harness the power of steam. The paper machine in its primitive form had been invented by Louis Robert at Essonnes, France, in 1799 and was first put to practical use in England through the engineering skill of Bryan Donkin and the financial assistance of Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier in 1804. Manufacturers dependent solely on water power were cropping up here and there, but the pursuits of the country were mainly agricultural and marine.

The nation had scarcely recovered from the birth pains consequent upon the turmoil of Revolution, and Thomas Jefferson had taken the oath of office as third President of the Union.

Probably it was as well for the Crocker family that Deacon Samuel had turned his back on Newburyport, so soon to experience the blight

LIFE ^AND TIMES OF <lALVJH CR0CKE%^ 5

of the Embargo Act of 1807, which while ruining its shipping industrydiverted the attention of New England to manufacturing. Happy also the choice of his trade as paper maker proved to be for the son, who at the early age of eight followed in his father's footsteps. In the first quarter of the century the industry was still conducted largely by hand, but the principles learned through long years of toil enabled the younger Crocker with his active mind and energetic enterprise to meet successfully every industrial change, while his disposition inclined him to welcome every new invention of which his practical experience was quick to recognize the merit.

The narrow limits of his father's library were fortunately extended through the kindness of their employer, Israel Nichols, who placed his own library, a good one for those times, at the disposal of his inquiring apprentice. Alvah Crocker was determined to wring an education from this barren soil, and though he generally received but eight weeks' schooling yearly, he managed by night study to keep along with the best of his class. At the age of sixteen, having accumulated sixty dollars, he entered Groton Academy, and remained as long as this limited appropriation lasted. He is said to have cherished hopes of attending Harvard College, but the liberal tendencies of this institution had offended the orthodox Deacon Crocker, and whether this was a decisive factor in the abandonment of his hopes or not is a matter of conjecture.

The family traditions concerning the boyhood of Alvah are fragmentary, but by piecing them together we may safely infer that he was vigorous, self-reliant and wide awake. Two letters from a Groton schoolmate, I. Burrage by name, would also indicate that he shared with his companion a fondness for literature and an appreciation of humor.

The first was written from Groton in 1819; the second, dated May 26, 1824, from Brown University, shows that the friendship continued after the boys had been parted by circumstances, while their preservation indicates a warm regard for this youthful tie.

Both letters are sufficiently lively and revealing to warrant their inclusion in this narrative.

Groton, May 8, 1819.

Friend:

Not with the sublime effusions of an Ossian, nor the splendid strains of a Pope, do I now address you; a far inferior style must be the choice of one, whose head is as uncultivated, as yonder sand-hill, & who possesses such an intolerably poor nervous system, that with all his powers he is scarcely able, even in a north or north-west breeze, to keep it within bounds, but when Notus arises Hue miserande

6 LIFE <^ND TIMES OF ^LVJH CROCKE%^

puer, away fly all restraints, down drop all reason, sense & abilities, and left deeply wallowing, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, in the Slough of Despond. Under the dominion of the above maladies, you must be sensible, friend, that it would be next to impossibility for me to write anything either instructing or amusing. But as you have the history of my Uncle Toby's famous siege, you must have learnt that, when we cannot do one way, another must be tried, thus making use of different expedients; now as this happened to pop into my head just at beginning my epistle, I concluded that if by reason of my several debilities, I were debarred from the use of great author's style, little ones must do; so Trim, when there was no lead to make mortars, made the tops of a pair of jack-boots answer his purpose. Agreeably with the foregoing resolution, I determined to begin with the plain John Trot style of "Yours of the 14th inst. came safely to hand," but alas! wretched man how liable thou art to be disappointed! Just as my fancy was wound up to the highest pitch, & I had begun to consider myself something above the common level, down came the heart-soothing hopes, with a most dreadful crash, occasioned merely by the officious intrusion of the following question, put by my interlectual monitor "have you received a letter," my answer was in the negative that I never expected to have any. "Then (replies my monitor) it would be the most consummate folly in you to make such a beginning." Folly thought I, that is a lucky hit, I am all folly. However, something must be done soon and at last, I thought it best to write a budget. But in writing the budget, the exordium and peroration were on the point of making up the whole, for this violation of rule your forgiveness.

I will now inform you that my health has been good, the school is much the same, about thirty-five scholars attend, among whom are Cutter, Hunt, Brown, Wilder our former schoolmates, the Preceptor is as usual kind and endearing, yet he has faults, & who has not? He does not drill us enough; drilling especially to such dull minds as mine, is very essential. As to my progress I scarcely wish to tell any concerning it. I have read 79 lines in Virgil in three days and a half.

Please to receive this from your affectionate friend,

I. BURRAGE.

Mr. Alvah Crocker

Leominister P. S. Our school closes on Tuesday the i8th of this

month in the afternoon please to inform father so that he may send

after me if he pleases & if you can make it convenient please to come.

I like with you to have a discourse on the road. Prove that by a

letter.

Brown University, May 26, 1824, Friend Crocker:

The old proverb "Out of sight out of mind" is I presume your favorite, & you surely deserve no small praise for due observance of it. Two or three months have

LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKE%^ 7

passed tediously away & no epistle from you has yet greeted my eyes. I can brook the disappointment no longer. My pen is in hand, & this imperfect communication will soon wend its way to your residence to request, that if the address with which this section commences, is no longer agreeable it may be lost in the yawning gulph of Oblivion.

Having now given vent to my passion, I dismount from my Bucephalus and plod along with you in a friendly manner, & relate everything I can think of, that will be interesting. It is vacation with us at present & as there are several students like myself who are too poor & too remote from the paternal roof to render it convenient to visit their friends the short time which intervenes between the close of the last term & the commencement of the next, we have obtained leave to room in college. We keep bachelors' hall at present & begin to taste the soldier's life in all respects as it regards subsistence, — one sweeps, another cooks and the third is market-man, the market is near, & affords all the variety of provision we wish at a cheap rate. We make ourselves very comfortable at 75^ per week, in the meantime three libraries furnish all the intellectual gratifications that heart can ask, or imagination conceive, so that contentment only is wanting to insure us a tolerable portion of happiness allotted to mortal man.

Such is a picture of the present, would that the past and future might present as pleasant a prospect. But alas! I shall not attempt to conceal from you that our college has been in a very disordered state, the causes of which I will proceed to enumerate. On my return to Providence, immediately after I last saw you, I learned that Dr. Adams, our Professor of Mathematics & Natural Philosophy has resigned. He had been appointed President of a college in Charleston, S. Carolina, where his salary would be triple what it was here; he, however, informed some persons in town, that he should not have resigned had he received proper treatment from the other officers, & signified that he should prefer a written accusation in a short time. Our fiery spirits took the hint upon this information, & having assembled in a considerable body about 12 o'clock p.m. they assaulted the houses of the President & Professor Park, broke the windows & shouting "Down with old Messer & Park and up with Adams." The authors of this disturbance could not be discovered; as is generally the case. Great irregularity succeeded in all departments, & to cap the climax, the Junior Class shut the door against their professor which amounted to open rebellion, this outrage passed with impunity & one recitation was omitted. Certain of the trustees now persuaded the class to get up a memorial, & present to the Fellows specifying that our recitations were omitted, & that no order was observed, this has been done, & a meeting of the Corporation will be held in twenty days, when it is expected the officers will be dismissed, or that several students will be rusticated & indeed four are already. Those who wish for the dismission of the officers, rely much on the difference of the religious tenets prevailing among the corporation, which I am sorry to say will have too much influence.

My health is good, my spirits have recovered in some degree from the shock

8 LIFE 'lAND times OF <^LVAH CROCKEH^

occasioned by my domestic affliction which still an awful calamity seems, 0! may I be taught more composure & learn to

"Redeem mine hours — the space is brief

While in my glass the sand grains shiver And measureless my joy or grief,

When time & I shall part forever."

From your friend, I. BURR^^GE, Providence.

Mr. A. Crocker:

If we stop to consider that the letter from Groton was written by a boy then in his seventeenth or eighteenth year to a contemporary, we may fairly conclude that their maturity compares at least favorably with boys of today, and while their phraseology is inclined to be stilted, yet the display of grammar, vocabulary and the literary allusions reflect creditably on the teaching of Groton Academy.

One incident remains to be told of Alvah Crocker's youth which reveals his characteristic persistency. When eighteen years of age he went to Newburyport to visit some relatives. While there he was told that there was a portrait of Captain John Crocker somewhere in town that had been left by a cousin who had removed with his family to Vermont. In loading up his goods he could find no place for the portrait, the frame being of an unusual size. Mr. Crocker was told if he could find it, he could have it for his own, as it was many years since the cousin had left and nothing had been heard from the family since. The youth with his natural ardor and earnestness of purpose began the search and called at every house on Main Street asking if the portrait of Captain John Crocker had been left there. He finally arrived at the residence of Mrs. Bass, widow of Bishop Bass. She looked carefully and critically at the young man and said in reply to his inquiry for the portrait, "Yes, and you look enough like the portrait to be identified as a descendant of the Captain." Mr. Crocker carried it away and left it at the house of his relative where he was visiting, with the understanding that whenever he had a home of his own it should be sent to him. The painting is said to be by Copley or one of his pupils. Eventually Mr. Crocker obtained this picture, which later passed from his son into the possession of his grandson, the present owner.