Thomas Wentworth Higginson

We admit being late in writing about Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He was a contributor to, and editor of, the Massachusetts Magazine. Earlier, we looked at R.A. Douglas-Litghow, MD, LLD and F. B. Sanborn.

Today, I saw that several authors, including F.B. and Dr. Frank, had written about Thomas after he died (TMM, Vol. IV (1911), No. 3, pg 139). F.B. noted that he had corresponded with Thomas in regard to a topic that we addressed earlier (Final migration), in a different context. We quoted Cordley's book about the early efforts to found Lawrence, KS. There have been several posts about the long reach of New England into the western part of the country.

F.B. gives us a deeper look at the activity of Thomas in this regard. He helped form the State Kansas Committee. He was an active abolitionist. One motivation was the Charles Sumner attack. Charles was beaten in the Senate by a Southern Representative (1856). Too, Thomas, personally, knew, and admired, John Brown (more on that later). And, events in bleeding Kansas had gotten more violent.

There were several names for the Committee, such as The National Kansas Committee, as reported by The National Magazine, in Vol.17 (1893). Wikipedia does not have a page for this activity which is an oversight to be fixed.

Related material at Territorial Kansas On-line.

Thomas printed his notes and letters (in the New York Tribune) from his 1856 visit to Kanzas. Thomas stopped in several towns and wrote a lot of Lawrence. He gives us a view of the area just prior to the Civil War which ensued, largely, from those events out west.

We will look at all aspects of Thomas' life. He is [almost] a descendant of Thomas Gardner of Salem. Thomas was also first President of The Old Planters Society.

• Note: 03/07/2022 -- Thomas' grandfather, John (#10, pg 13), married, in 1695, a descendant of Thomas and had six children. She died in 1713. His second wife was the mother of Stephen, father of Thomas. 

Several of the TMM authors had ventured west. For instance, Judge Francis M. Thompson, of Greenfield, MA, toured the west following Lewis and Clark. Too, he was a pioneer of Montana.

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We used Col. T. W. Higginson (WikiTree, Higginson-380) as an example of the "Blended family" that was so common. This example comes from the early times and was documented by T. W. himself which we show with these two images. First, we have T. W.'s description of himself. 

 Then, we show the association of two of his great aunts with Harvard men: John Thornton Kirkland and A. Lawrence Lowell.  

Higginson and Harvard

Remarks: Modified: 09/23/2022

06/15/2017 -- Thomas donated his files related to Kansas to the Kansas Historical Society. Story of His Life (1914) by Mary Potter Thacher Higginson. "Kansas and John Brown" from The Writings of Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

07/11/2017 -- In 1929, a plague was put in a park in Lawrence, KS. It lists the names of the members of the first two parties. Thomas W. Higginson arrive two years later.

07/12/2017 -- Sanborn and Higginson were in the Secret Six.

08/13/2017 -- Posts on Lawrence (and surrounds): Trails West, Westward Ho, Blogging and such, Final Migration, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Kansas and Lawrence.

03/07/2019 -- Added image from this post to the index on our portal to truth.

09/16/2019 -- The Colonel wrote a book on his ancestor, Rev. Francis Higginson, who is buried in the Charter Street Cemetery in Salem, MA.

03/07/2022 -- The WikiTree profile for Thomas W. Higginson (Higginson-380) is fairly complete. 

09/23/2022 -- Added info from Col T.W.'s book about his lineage. There are many Harvard graduates mentioned, both related and of a collateral family. Higginson was old Cambridge University. 

Sidney at his best

Perley, of course. While working on the next issue of The Gardner Annals, I am looking at The Massachusetts Magazine, The Essex Antiquarian, and others. Too, we are looking at how Lucie M. Gardner picked up Sidney's work.

But, this little article on chimney sweeping got my attention. That, folks, was England and New England.

Terrible. Poor kids. Chimney Sweeping.

Please read the article. No need to say anything more.

Remarks: Modified: 06/02/2019 

06/14/2017 -- Sidney's periodical is available for ready at Hathi Trust: The Essex antiquarian : an illustrated ... magazine devoted to the biography, genealogy, history and antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts.

Sidney last published Oct 1909. The next issue of The Massachusetts Magazine had the first continuation by Lucie.

06/02/2019 - Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn

Earlier, we looked at an author that helped Dr. Frank with his magazine, namely R.A. Douglas-Litghow, MD, LLD. RA was quite prolific.

There are many more, but let's look at F.B. Sanborn (updated the Wiki page with a pointer to the Massachusetts Magazine - See Remarks, 10/09/2022) who popped up as we were looking at, and digging into, the minutes of The Old Planters Society of Salem. In 1916, F.B. gave a talk about Hector St. John, calling him an evasive planter. The story is interesting.

TMM, Vol. IX, No. 2, pg 163

It is interesting that Hector was the namesake of St. Johnsbury, VT through his friend, Ethan Allen.

There will be more in the upcoming issue of The Gardner Annals.

Too, we will bring forward all of the Old Planter Society minutes that we can find.

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F.B. was remembered in TMM, Vol. X, No. 4.

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The Wikipedia page has been extensively updated so show the huge amount of work accomplished by F.B. Sanborn. We ran into him through his remembrance of Col. TW Higginson. Too, as a graduate of Harvard, we have seen reference to F.B. during our look at the institution, so we will get back to him. For now, we can add a link to his WikiTree information: Sanborn-1542. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/16/2022

06/14/2017 -- F.B. corresponded with Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

07/12/2017 -- The Significance of Being Frank. ... Sanborn and Higginson were in the Secret Six.

06/04/2018 -- Added the snap from The Massachusetts Magazine Vol. X, No. 4.

03/07/2019 -- Added image from this post to the index on our portal to truth.

10/09/2022 -- Got to love Wikipedia's technology. Mentioned that  F.B.'s page had been updated with information about his writing about Hector St. John plus the talk at the Old Planters Society which has been published in The Massachusetts Magazine. This entry was there from 2017 until 2021 when it was removed via this edit. 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franklin_Benjamin_Sanborn&diff=next&oldid=1022591916

Had thought today to look at this since F.B. was mentioned on the Col. TW Higginson page. The Col and his family were covered in the recent issues of Gardner's Beacon, Vol. XII. No. 2. 

11/16/2022 -- Research continues; papers arise to awareness. One, of late, that appeared in The American Genealogist, had to do with the family of F. B. It is of interest to us for several reasons. He's a cuz. Too, there were several New Hampshire families involved with the Sanborn family. Then, a link was made from the immigrants to their grandmother. Our first intimation was a reference on WikiTree in a G2G context. We looked then and were intrigued. Then, Gary Boyd Roberts wrote of Sanborn, yesterday, in the context of his Royal Descent book (three vols) which just went to the printer. The post by GBR: Royal News Since the Release of Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, and the United States. Second Edition. As well, today, I put a link to this post on the F.B. Sanborn page on Wikipedia (the Talk page). As an aside, this list of posts references F.B. and his work and life. 

The Old Planters Society

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was the first President of The Old Planters Society (TOPS) that instituted in 1899. Frank A. Gardner, M.D. was Vice-President. The members list consists of illustrious descendants of the early colonists (see below).

The following documents are found at archive.org.

• Constitution, pg 14
• By-laws, pg 17
• Officers and Early Members, pg 19

In the pamphlet, published June 19, 1900, there is an overview of the society (page 11) and its motivations. We have seen this mentioned elsewhere, but one purpose was educational. And, one focus was to get those here before 1630 included in historical looks, excluding the "Mayflower people." 

The Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. agrees with this view and will carry this forward using The Gardner Annals. The issue for Vol. IV, No. 1 is in preparation.  

In that same section, we find the reading list of the Society. These are on our bibliography, but we will be looking at them again. 

Finally, the pamphlet starts out with a talk by Col. Higginson. It was titled "The Alliance between Pilgrim and Puritan in Massachusetts." The TOPS published many talks which we will document. 

Of note, briefly, though, is that in 1900, Col. Higginson was 77 years of age. Many other members were elderly.

Dr. Frank and his sister were much younger. Too, later, Lucie M. Gardner was Secretary of the TOPS. TOPS published via The Massachusetts Magazine (started printing in 1908) while it was published. Lucie edited a section that was titled "Pilgrims and Planters" that reported on meetings of the TOPS, offered commentary, and gave notice of the activity of other organizations, such as the Balch Family Association and The Gardner Family Association. The TMM ceased publishing in 1918. 

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Earlier, we wrote of this group in a post (December 2012): Old Planters, Massachusetts. A corresponding post covered another group (May 2011): Old Planters, Beverly.  

Remarks: Modified: 11/20/2019 

06/14/2017 -- Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Bleeding Kansas. The Massachusetts Magazine (Vol. II, No. 2, pg 117)  reported that it was an official arm of the Old Planters Society.

06/04/2019 -- Sidney on the Old Planters Society via The Massachusetts Magazine. 

11/20/2019 -- Sidney on the Old Planters in his History of Salem (page 60).  Starting at page 68, Sidney publishes Dr. Frank's look at the early times of the Gardners.

Lucie following Sidney

Lucie? Dr. Frank's sister, Lucie M. Gardner.

Sidney? Need you ask? Sidney Perley, the long-time editor of the Essex Antiquarian. He published the magazine from 1897 to 1909.

We are working on the next issue of The Gardner Annals. Last time, we looked at the Table of Contents for Volumes I through V of The Massachusetts Magazine (TMM). Also, we featured a bit about R.A. Douglas-Lithgow who provided several articles to Dr. Frank's effort.

This time, we will look at the Table of Contents for Volumes VI through XI. We also will feature a few things from those times.

After that, we will bring out lots of topics, especially those that are apropos to today.

This image is from Vol II. Sidney quit publishing. He mentioned Dr. Frank's periodical. Lucie picked up and published several articles on "Family Genealogies."

Anyone wishing contribute an article, please contact us at jmswtlk@tgsoc.org. 

What I have seen by looking thoroughly at Volumes I through V is that the initial thrust with many authors settles into a few authors providing the material (while working like mad). Several factors went into the demise of TMM. One had to do with the age of the authors. Then, WWI came along. We will show a graphic from a survey done in 1914.

Remarks: Modified: 10/28/2019 

06/14/2017 -- Sidney last published Oct 1909. The next issue of The Massachusetts Magazine had the first continuation by Lucie.

06/02/2019 -- Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

10/28/2019 -- Mentioned Lucie in a comment at this post: Seeking refuge in the valley.

Lyceum

On this day in 1857, some folks in Boston got together to start a magazine. It was named after the great pond twixt here and the old country. And, it is still publishing (from DC having moved there from Boston in 2006). And so, we continue our interests in old magazines. As well as looking at The Massachusetts Magazine, we will consider several that were prior.

However, while looking at one of the authors of the Southern Literary Messenger, namely Lydia Sigourney, we came across the story of the Lyceum movement that started in New England as a response to efforts in Britain and the Continent. After the New England start, it rolled across the country. Lydia, of New England of course, inspired several local Lyceum chapters in several western states. We will be getting back to her.

In the meantime, that educational movement seems to have some applicability to our current state of affairs. Notice this from the history by Anna L. Curtis (in 1906): ... for the coronation of this plain common sense of the people, and for the annunciation and for the defense of fact, of truth, of reality, of actual human experience.

Now, does that not sound like New England? And, ought not it apply to today's muddy cloud of social media?

We will be doing a series on these old articles, especially those that relate to the themes of New England's broad reach across the country.

Who said that we cannot learn from the past? Rather, we ought to ask, anything new under the sun?

Remarks: Modified: 03/07/2019

03/07/2019 -- Add this to the image index at our portal to truth. 

Magazines

We are going through The Massachusetts Magazine (TMM) in order to document the effort by Dr. Frank and friends. The TMM published from 1908 to 1918. When we first were researching the TMM, we encountered The New England Magazine (1886-1900) which had started as the Bay State (1884-1885, 1886-1887) monthly (edited by John McClintock who was a contributing editor for the TMM).

Then, we ran across the Southern Literary Messenger, that published from 1834 to 1864, while researching southern families with New England ties. An early editor was Edgar Allen Poe. We will look at this further as we make comparison between the periodicals.

Today, there was a message sent to all interested by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. It started publishing in 1857 and is still going strong. We have to be interested in that the magazine started in Boston and was there until just a few years ago when it moved to D.C.

Message:

On May 5, 1857, a group of Boston Brahmins gathered for dinner at the Parker House Hotel and decided to create a new magazine, one that would make politics, literature, and the arts its chief concerns. These men, united in their opposition to slavery, their love of American writing, and their tripartite names, included such eminences as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and James Russell Lowell. They did not set out to exclude women from the gathering; Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was invited, but she boycotted the dinner when she learned that alcohol would be served.

A plan for this new magazine was set. The question of a name soon arose. Oliver Wendell Holmes, another of the founders, proposed "The Atlantic," to convey the notion that an immense ocean would separate this New World journal from its cousins in the Old. A manifesto was written, one that made ambitious promises: In politics, The Atlantic would be "the organ of no party or clique, but will honestly endeavor to be the exponent of what its conductors believe to be the American idea," and it would bring to the attention of the reading public the newest and most interesting American writers. The manifesto was signed by, among others, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and yes, "Mrs. H. Beecher Stowe."

In November of 1857, the first issue of this magazine was published, and we have never stopped publishing. And since its founding, this magazine has published everyone from the aforementioned Hawthorne (who served as the magazine's Civil War correspondent) to Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman; from Robert Frost and Helen Keller to W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington; from Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf to Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway and Sylvia Plath, to a raft of future presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and JFK—and on to the great writers of today, too many to even begin mentioning.

We know that the America of today would be unrecognizable to the founders of this magazine, but my hope is that they would take quickly to today's Atlantic. They would recognize in our journalism the stringent application of intelligence and analytic rigor to the great problems of the day; the devotion to the explication of not only the American idea, but also the nature of an unsettled world; and a great love of literature and culture in all of its manifestations—"the whole domain of aesthetics," in the words of the founding manifesto. I believe that the founders would be able to locate these values in our print magazine, on our website, at our events, and in our documentaries. (I also believe that they would be confused by our Instagram account.)

Today, on the 160th anniversary of the conception of The Atlantic, I write to thank you, our subscribers, for your support, and your devotion across the years.

Magazine? One can think of these as condensed views from a particular time. They go beyond journalism. And, in the future, these will be condensations of the ever-flowing web material. As such, they are important to history; and, there are those with genealogy as subject (NEHGR, for example - published since 1847).

Remarks: Modified: 03/07/2019

03/07/2019 -- Added an image to add this to the index at our portal to truth.