Memories and Anecdotes

Memories and Anecdotes, by
Kate Sanborn

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Title: Memories and Anecdotes
Author: Kate Sanborn
Release Date: February 25, 2005 [EBook #15174]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES
By

KATE SANBORN
AUTHOR OF "ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM,"
"ABANDONING AN ADOPTED FARM," "OLD-TIME WALL
PAPERS," ETC.
WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON The Knickerbocker
Press 1915
[Illustration, Frontispiece: GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO
EVERY READER (KATE SANBORN)]

To
ALL MY FRIENDS EVERYWHERE
ESPECIALLY TO MY BELOVED "NEW HAMPSHIRE
DAUGHTERS" IN MASSACHUSETTS, MY PUPILS IN SMITH
COLLEGE, ALSO AT PACKER INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, AND
ALL THOSE WHO HAD THE PATIENCE TO LISTEN TO MY
LECTURES,
WITH GRATEFUL REGARDS TO THOSE DARTMOUTH
GRADUATES WHO, LIKING MY FATHER, WERE ALWAYS
GIVING HIS AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER A HELPING HAND

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors
to Dartmouth--Two Story-Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a
Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A

Wedding Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One-Hoss
Shay"--A Great Career which Began in a Country Store
CHAPTER II
A Friend at Andover, Mass.--Hezekiah Butterworth--A Few of my
Own Folks--Professor Putnam of Dartmouth--One Year at Packer
Institute, Brooklyn--Beecher's Face in Prayer--The Poet Saxe as I Saw
him--Offered the Use of a Rare Library--Miss Edna Dean Proctor--New
Stories of Greeley--Experiences at St. Louis
CHAPTER III
Happy Days with Mrs. Botta--My Busy Life in New York--President
Barnard of Columbia College--A Surprise from Bierstadt--Professor
Doremus, a Universal Genius--Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny
Man"--Mrs. Esther Herman, a Modest Giver
CHAPTER IV
Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A
Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska
CHAPTER V
Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs.
Hannah Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorn
Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood.)
CHAPTER VI
In and near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth
Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the
Concord School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora Distria," our Illustrious
Visitor
CHAPTER VII

Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire's Daughters in
Massachusetts. Now Honorary President--Kind Words which I Highly
Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family Affair--Two
Favorite Poems--Breezy Meadows

ILLUSTRATIONS
GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER (KATE
SANBORN) Frontispiece
THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER,
N.H.
MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA
PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE
PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS
SOPHIA SMITH
PETER MacQUEEN
SAM WALTER FOSS
PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES
PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK
THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE
TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND
THE LOOKOUT
THE SWITCH
HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS

GRAND ELM (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD)

MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES
CHAPTER I
My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors
to Dartmouth--Two Story Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a
Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A
Wedding Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One Hoss
Shay"--A Great Career which Began in a Country Store.
I make no excuse for publishing these memories. Realizing that I have
been so fortunate as to know an unusual number of distinguished men
and women, it gives me pleasure to share this privilege with others.
One summer morning, "long, long ago," a newspaper was sent by my
grandmother, Mrs. Ezekiel Webster, to a sister at Concord, New
Hampshire, with this item of news pencilled on the margin:
"Born Thursday morning, July 11, 1839, 4.30 A.M., a fine little girl,
seven pounds."
I was born in my father's library, and first opened my eyes upon a
scenic wall-paper depicting the Bay of Naples; in fact I was born just
under Vesuvius--which may account for my occasional eruptions of
temper and life-long interest in "Old Time Wall-papers." Later our
house was expanded into a college dormitory and has been removed to
another site, but Vesuvius is still smoking placidly in the old library.
Mine was a shielded, happy childhood--an only child for six years--and
family letters show that I was "always and for ever talking," asking
questions, making queer remarks, or allowing free play to a vivid
imagination, which my parents thought it wise to restrain. Father felt
called upon to write for a child's paper about Caty's Gold Fish, which
were only minnows from Mink Brook.

"Caty is sitting on the floor at my feet, chattering as usual, and asking
questions." I seem to remember my calling