APPENDIX.

WHEN

7HEN I began to write this life of my mother, I wrote to many early friends for any letters they might have retained of hers, and any recollections they might have of her. The letters I received in answer were so cordial and kind, that I have added some of them in these pages. Within a few hours after my mother's death was made known, the short but expressive notice of the event by James Thayer appeared in the "Boston Daily Advertiser," which is appended below; and, within a few months of her death, Mr. Rufus Ellis, in the article called "Random Readings," in the "Monthly Religious Magazine," embodied some of his reminiscences of her later life, which have recalled her vividly and delightfully to many hearts.

To my friend, Mr. William Greene, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for his long and careful preservation of my mother's letters to my Cousin Abby, and for his great kindness in giving them to me, and for the cordial words accompanying this invaluable package. In his letter to me, he writes:

EAST GREENWICH, June 14, 1875.

I beg to say that I heartily sympathize with you in your pious undertaking. I hold your mother's memory, and your father's too, in the highest veneration, as I held them in their lives in the warmest affection. You cannot say too much good of either of them.

I cannot help also mentioning here that my dear old friend, Mr. David Lee Child, who passed from earth last winter, was about to write a sketch of my mother that must have been most interesting, from his vivid appreciation and warm recollections of her. His society was for many years a rare pleasure to her, and she quoted his wise and witty sayings with delight. One expression of his which she used for years after, on various occasions, is often recalled to me by her satisfaction in it. She had asked him about the political events of the day which had disturbed her, and his answer was: "Oh, Mrs. Lyman, when things are in a transition state, there's a great deal of eccentric action."

One other dear friend, who had the deepest and truest understanding of her character, would gladly have written a fitting memorial of her. I quote from her warm and appreciative letter.

EXETER, N.H., July 21, 1874.

I loved your mother dearly; I mourned for her with sincere grief. First her eclipse, then her death, caused a great void in my life. Her place has never been filled for me. Standing on my own feet so much in youth, and having so much care and responsibility, you can comprehend how I reposed in the all-embracing affluence of her nature, and how all chills and shivers were dispelled, while basking in her sunshine.

At the time of your mother's death, I longed for some sufficient testimonial to so large a life. I shall take the deepest interest in your memorial.

Yours very affectionately,

H. C. STEARNS.

The published notices of my mother, to which I have

referred, are here added.

HER INFLUENCE ON NORTHAMPTON 483

[From the Boston Daily Advertiser.]

MRS. ANNE JEAN LYMAN.

In that short list of deaths which makes every newspaper pathetic, there appeared to-day, in the "Advertiser," this notice: "May 25th, Mrs. Anne J., widow of the late Hon. Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Mass."

It is due to the memory of a remarkable woman and to the feelings of a very wide circle of friends in this community, by whom she was admired, that something more than this should be said of the death of Mrs. Lyman.

For thirty-eight years she lived in Northampton, and gave character to that whole community. She was born in 1789, at Milton, the daughter of the Hon. E. H. Robbins. On the mother's side, she was descended from a vigorous Scotch stock-the Murrays among whose living representatives in this city are some of our best citizens. In 1811, she was married to the Hon. Joseph Lyman, of Northampton. From that time until the year 1849, she lived with her husband and the beautiful family of children which they reared, in one house at Northampton, near the middle of the village. Judge Lyman was a man of high character and influence, and of a sweet and gracious demeanor which affected one like a benediction. Their house was the centre of wide-spread hospitality; all that was best and most cultivated in the town had there a natural home and shelter.

Mrs. Lyman was a person of a vigor of mind, a broad and strong good sense, and a quaint, idiomatic emphasis of expression which gave general currency to her opinions and her sayings. She was of a noble and impressive presence, and it was easy to believe the traditions of the beauty which had filled the town with admiration when she first came there.

But the best part of this good woman was a deep and warm heart, which found expression in never-ending deeds of kindness. It stirred her up to the most energetic and persistent efforts to help all whom she had once befriended, and to search out new objects for her

care.

A peculiar and sad interest is attached to the few closing years of her life. It is comforting to think that she sleeps at last in peace.

May 27, 1867.

[From the Monthly Religious Magazine.]

T.

"A Leaf from my Autobiography, in which, though the first pronoun personal occurreth very often, the chief figure is really one better than myself."

We associate certain places with certain seasons of the year. For myself autumn is, and always will be, Northampton. I always go there, in thought, when the shadows of the year begin to lengthen, and here and there a feebler leaf, taking on the hectic color before the rest, predicts what is surely coming upon all. I should go in deed as well as in thought, were there not such a mingling of joy and sorrow because of changes. It was a beautiful day in the earliest autumn, when two of us, fellow-students at C, climbed up to the seat behind the driver on the old "Putt's-Bridge Stage" which made the connection in those days between the Western Railroad and Northampton. Long ago, in my early childhood, I had seen Holyoke and Tom, but the visions had passed into dreamland, out of which they seemed to come naturally enough in that refulgent summer; and when we drew up at length at the Mansion House, after crossing the ferry at Hockanum and driving none too

MR. RUFUS ELLIS'S ACCOUNT

485 slowly through the rich, unfenced meadows, the house all came back with the associations of the time when it was filled with summer strangers and the parents of Round Hill scholars. The hotel window commanded a view of the glories of that magnificent region, and, as I could see at a glance, they were no rustics that passed up and down the village streets. To the eyes of a city-bred and college-bred youth, the whole scene was as beautiful as it was fresh. I heard, the other day, of a young man who went to "supply" a pulpit in one of our inland parishes, and was allowed to go to the tavern unwelcomed, to pass thence to the church and return twice during the Sunday unspoken to, except perhaps by the functionary who fails. not to come for "the metres," and then to leave for home with no token of recognition except, we may hope, the usual honorarium. It was not so in Northampton. The afternoon had not gone by before a gentleman, authorized and competent to represent the little parish, had made his appearance and proffered hospitality; and before Monday morning the young preacher had met and conversed with several parishioners of both sexes. That Sunday proved to be the first of a six months' supply; and the supply, with the interval of a twelvemonth spent in another field, was the prelude of a ten years' ministry, -a ministry marked by the utmost patience and kindness on the part of the parishioners, who, it should ever be remembered, must take their young clergyman, after "the School" has done its best and its worst for him, and give him the most valuable part of his training, and help him to convert his scholasticisms into experience.

It was a significant time in the parish. It was the day of Transcendentalism,- that was the word then, a word almost forgotten in our swift years. I think the "Dial" was just announcing the hour in the great cycle of the