Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ciously dared to assert that the black eyes of a certain Miss Richardson, who conditioned the boon of her hand upon a New England residence, were the true loadstars of American attraction with our worthy progenitor. But, for ourselves, we at once and forever repel the soft impeachment, not merely as reflecting upon our ancestor's veracity and parole of honor (for he was a lieutenant of militia); but because we are sure no one could win enough the favor of the Muses to coin rhymes, who would fail to acknowledge in his verse so honorable a leading as the lustrous eyes of a maiden in determining his line of destiny. The supposition that, in the blind romance of first love, he misconceived his true motive, is alike inadmissible in the case of our American patriarch. No! that he was a true Puritan, with a large place for the religious element in his character as the controlling motive, is abundantly proved, we contend, not only by his own words and deeds, but also by the character and lives of his descendants.

Third in the series from Thomas Fuller was Rev. Timothy Fuller, who graduated from Harvard College in 1760, and was ordained in 1767, the first settled minister of Princeton, Massachusetts, and, ultimately having moved to Merrimack, N. H., almost exclusively applied himself to agriculture, and the training of his five sons, all of whom became lawyers, with no schooling, before their college days, except the home teaching.* In Princeton, he was the proprietor

* These sons were Timothy Fuller (to be more particularly mentioned), Abraham Williams Fuller, Henry Holton Fuller, William Williams Fuller, and Elisha Fuller; of whom a brief account may be found in Historical

of the blue Wachusett, assigned to him as the parish farm, a tract well able to "carry forests on its back," yet fitted to bear little else.

A descendant thus seeks to account for the parish grant to the parson being located upon this mountain,

Bestowed by his society,

To ear from thence his salary:
For ministers, not then, as now,

Used brains, without the sweating brow.
Why his good people gave the mount,

And kept the vale, we 've no account.

Notices of Thomas Fuller and his Descendants, above referred to. They have all been gathered to their fathers. On the decease of Henry, in September, 1852, an eloquent tribute was paid to his memory by Hon. Charles G. Loring, in presenting to the Supreme Judicial Court the resolutions of the Bar on that occasion; to which there was a feeling response from Mr. Justice Fletcher. We should delight to dwell longer upon this nucleus of five legal brothers, were it not aside from our present purpose.

Besides the five sons, there were five daughters, who survived Rev. Timothy Fuller. From the time of his death, on the third day of July, 1805, till the death of his son Timothy, on the first day of October, 1835, a period of full thirty years, that family circle of brothers and sisters remained unbroken. Now all have passed away, except Mrs. Deborah Allen Belcher, of Farmington, Maine, who, though for many years a widow, still enjoys a green old age, honored and beloved by children and grandchildren.

These ten children were much attached to each other, as well as to their parents, while living, and their memory when departed. Mr. Loring, in his address to the court on the death of Henry, before referred to, gives a touching picture of the ten children of Rev. Timothy Fuller, who, some quarter of a century after he had gone to his rest, and long after the family dwelling in Princeton had passed away, visited its site together. Nothing remained but its cellar, which time had partially filled, whose rounded excavation it had carpeted with greensward. Here the children gathered, and, seated in the charmed circle of what was once their home, sang again together the sweet hymns to which their tongues had been attuned in childhood, by their faithful parents, in the dearly loved home which had once rested upon that spot. They did not visit it again, in concert; and many of them sought it no more. Death, in a few years, broke that circle; and one after another they went, in quick succession, the way of all living.

[blocks in formation]

Rev. Timothy Fuller represented Princeton in the Convention of Massachusetts which voted to approve and accept the Federal Constitution. Being totally opposed to slavery, he voted against that instrument, on account of the insidious clause providing for the rendition of fugitives from service. This negative vote is claimed by his descendants for an hereditary honor; manifesting, as it does, that aversion to oppression which has characterized more than one of the family, and taking a first step in that antislavery path which descendants have followed on. In the light of recent history, may we not be led to believe that it would have been better for this nation had it, while in its cradle, strangled the little serpent of slavery, so cunningly insinuated into our Constitution, before it grew to the monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum, like the baleful dragon of the Apocalypse.

This antislavery origin was duplicated, in 1770, by the marriage of Rev. Timothy Fuller to Sarah Williams, daughter of Rev. Abraham Williams, of Sand

wich, Massachusetts. He married Anna Buckminster, a near relative of the distinguished clergyman, whom Choate aptly styles "the glorious Buckminster," and whose useful and brilliant career, brought to an untimely close, has been commemorated by his distinguished contemporary, Dr. Channing.* The honor of this family connection was the occasion of bestowing the name of Buckminster, as the middle baptismal name of the subject of this memoir.

The eldest son of Rev. Timothy Fuller, bearing his father's name, graduated from Harvard University in 1801, at the age of twenty-three, with the second honors; having his only preparatory training in the home school, when, pari passu with Latin and Greek, he acquired those habits of industry and endurance, which, even more than learning and talent, form the sure capital of success in life. His high college rank was the more creditable, that he was obliged to defray his expenses by teaching school in the vacations, and even during a part of the term, an episode, which not only encroached upon his time, but also tasked the energies he would have been glad to apply solely to the pursuits of a college student. He himself thought he should have borne off the first honors, had he not felt obliged to take an influential part in a college rebellion, which he regarded as justified and called for by the students' grievances. He was admitted to the

* Buckminster, as a child, was a precocious and eager reader. It is related that he was, one day, intent on reading in a room by himself, leaning against the mantel. He remained in this posture, entirely absorbed, for several hours, till he fainted from exhaustion; and the family hearing him fall, rushed in to find him on the floor in a swoon.

bar, after the usual term of preparatory study, and for many years had his office in Boston.

Timothy Fuller rapidly rose to distinction at the bar, being noted for close reasoning and high professional character. He joyfully devoted the first-fruits of professional success on the altar of family love, faithfully assisting his younger brothers in their struggles to obtain an education. He took Henry into partnership, a favor he repaid years afterwards by conferring the same advantage upon Timothy's son, Richard. He was especially kind to those in humble circumstances, and readily espoused their cause in the forum for a small compensation, and often at the risk of receiving none.

-

1

He had a natural fluency and facility in extempore speaking, in which he was semper paratus, and more successful than in the labors of the pen. This afforded him ready entrance, and of itself almost drew him to political life. His moral and religious nature and characteristic benevolence led him to embrace the principles of republican democracy, whose mission he believed to be the general diffusion of knowledge, the elevation of the humble, the political equality of all races and conditions of men, and human brotherhood, as announced in the sublime epitome of the American Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate from 1813 to 1816, a Representative in Congress from 1817 to 1825, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1825, and a member of the Executive Council in 1828.

He is still remembered as chairman of the Com

« AnteriorContinuar »