My Memories of Eighty Years | Page 3

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MY MEMORIES OF EIGHTY YEARS
BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW

TO MY WIFE MAY PALMER DEPEW THIS BOOK GREW FROM
HER ENCOURAGEMENT

FOREWORD
For many years my friends have insisted upon my putting in permanent
form the incidents in my life which have interested them. It has been
my good fortune to take part in history-making meetings and to know
more or less intimately people prominent in world affairs in many
countries. Every one so situated has a flood of recollections which pour
out when occasion stirs the memory. Often the listeners wish these
transcribed for their own use.
My classmate at Yale in the class of 1856, John D. Champlin, a man of
letters and an accomplished editor, rescued from my own scattered
records and newspaper fiIes material for eight volumes. My secretary
has selected and compiled for publication two volumes since. These are
principally speeches, addresses, and contributions which have appeared
in public. Several writers, without my knowledge, have selected special
matter from these volumes and made books.
Andrew D. White, Senator Hoar, and Senator Foraker, with whom I
was associated for years, have published full and valuable
autobiographies. I do not attempt anything so elaborate or complete.
Never having kept a diary, I am dependent upon a good memory. I have
discarded the stories which could not well be published until long after
I have joined the majority.
I trust and earnestly hope there is nothing in these recollections which
can offend anybody. It has been my object so to picture events and
narrate stories as to illumine the periods through which I have passed
for eighty-eight years, and the people whom I have known and mightily
enjoyed.
C.M.D.

CONTENTS
I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
II. IN PUBLIC LIFE
III. ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IV. GENERAL GRANT
V. ROSCOE CONKLING

VI. HORACE GREELEY
VII. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES AND WILLIAM M. EVARTS
VIII. GENERAL GARFIELD
IX. CHESTER A. ARTHUR
X. GROVER CLEVELAND
XI. BENJAMIN HARRISON
XII. JAMES G. BLAINE
XIII. WILLIAM McKINLEY
XIV. THEODORE ROOSEVELT
XV. UNITED STATES SENATE
XVI. AMBASSADORS AND MINISTERS
XVII. GOVERNORS OF NEW YORK STATE
XVIII. FIFTY-SIX YEARS WITH THE NEW YORK CENTRAL
RAILROAD COMPANY
XIX. RECOLLECTIONS FROM ABROAD
XX. ORATORS AND CAMPAIGN SPEAKERS
XXI. NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTIONS
XXII. JOURNALISTS AND FINANCIERS
XXIII. ACTORS AND MEN OF LETTERS
XXIV. SOCIETIES AND PUBLIC BANQUETS
INDEX [not included]

MY MEMORIES OF EIGHTY YEARS

I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
It has occurred to me that some reminiscences of a long life would be
of interest to my family and friends.
My memory goes back for more than eighty years. I recall distinctly
when about five years old my mother took me to the school of Mrs.
Westbrook, wife of the well-known pastor of the Dutch Reformed
church, who had a school in her house, within a few doors. The lady
was a highly educated woman, and her husband, Doctor Westbrook, a
man of letters as well as a preacher. He specialized