12 American Antiquarian Society ! [April,

always responded to our appeals for assistance,especially when it meant the increase of our collections.

IC. S. B.

CALVIN COOLIDGE '•I

Calvin Coolidge, president of the American Anti-quarian Society, died January 5, 1933. Elected to theoffice in October 1929, he thus served less than fouryears as the chief administrator of the Society'saffairs. This is not the place for a biography of Mr.Coolidge. Many lengthy volumes, not to mention hisown Autobiography, narrate in detail the facts of hislife. All that will be attempted here is a brief sketch ofhis career and then a comprehensive account of hisconnection with the Society. '

Calvin Coolidge was born at Plymouth, Vermont,July 4, 1872. He was a descendant in the tenth genera-tion from the colonist John Coolidge, who came fromCottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, to Watertownin 1630. His line came down from the secondson, Simon, whereas the Boston Coolidges descendedfrom the sixth son, Jonathan. Mr. Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, John Coolidge, who served in theRevolutionary War, removed from Bolton, Massa-chusetts to Plymouth, Vermont, about 1781, cleared afarm, and was the father of Calvin, father of CalvinGalusha, father of John Calvin, father of Mi-. Coolidge.His grandfather, Calvin Galusha Coolidge, died atPlymouth in 1878, but the widow, Sarah AlmedaBrewer, had a great influence on her grandson's earlylife and lived until 1906. His father, John CalvinCoolidge, married Victoria Josephine Moor who diedin 1885, and for his second wife, Carrie A. Brown, whodied in 1920. On his mother's side Mr. Coolidge wasdescended from James Franklin of Swansea, as hehimself told me once when inquiring whether therecould be any connection of this with the BenjaminFranklin line.

Mr. Coolidge was christened John Calvin Coolidge,

1933.] Obituaries 13

but because of the sameness with his father's name, hewas always called Calvin, and at the end of his boy-hood the name John was discarded. Strange it is thatso many Presidents of the United States have hadtheir names undergo similar transformations—HiramUlysses Grant, Stephen Grover Cleveland, ThomasWoodrow Wilson.

Like every other boy brought up on a farm, CalvinCoolidge pursued the routine of constant contact withnature—tapping the maple trees for sugar in thespring, planting the crops, shearing the sheep, harvest-ing the hay and grain, carting the lumber to the saw-mill in winter, and at all times caring for the livestock.But it was a healthy life, both for mind and body. Hewas always fond of the country and of the soil. Inlater life he said: "It was all a fine atmosphere in whichto raise a boy. As I look back on it I constantly thinkhow clean it was. There was little about it that wasartificial. It was all close to nature and in accordancewith the ways of nature. The streams ran clear. Theroads, the woods, the fields, the people—all were clean.Even when I try to divest it of the halo which I knowalways surrounds the past, I am unable to create anyother impression than that it was fresh and clean. "

His father was not only a prosperous farmer, butalso a storekeeper and a magistrate of local affairs.Like his father before him, he was a member of theState Legislature and interested in political events.Therefore the young son could observe first-hand thepractical workings of government, of law, and of themeting of justice. The object lessons thus learned inhis earliest years were to stay with him through life.

When he was twelve years old, his mother, long aninvalid, passed away. In his Autobiography, hedescribed his mother in words characteristically beauti-ful and imaginative: "There was a touch of mysticismand poetry in her nature which made her love to gazeat the purple sunsets and watch the evening stars.Whatever was grand and beautiful in form and colorattracted her. It seemed as though the rich green

14 American Antiquarian Sodety [April,

tints of the foliage and the blossoms of the flowers caméfor her in the springtime, and in the autumn it was forher that the mountain sides were struck with crimsonand with gold. " Her death and that of his loved sisterAbbie, at the age of fifteen, made lasting impressionson the boy. '

In spite of his work on the farm, even as a child hehad considerable opportunity for reading. Althoughhis father read little but the papers, his grandfatherMoor and his grandmother Coolidge were well read,and there were many books on the farm that appealedto the young boy. One late summer day in 1931, Ivisited him at Plymouth and we were looking over someold family books which were in the storeroom back ofthe homestead. I noticed copies of "Green MountainBoys" and "The Rangers" and said: "There are twobooks by Daniel P. Thompson, very popular in theirday." "Yes," he replied, "those stories of Vermontin the Revolution are the very first that I can remem-ber. My grandmother read them aloud to me." Hepicked up a copy of Bancroft's abridged Life of Wash-ington and remarked, reflectively, " I t is strange, butthe character of Washington never appealed to me as aboy. He was too wise and serene and omniscient.Ethan Allan seemed to me more inspiring. It takesmaturity to understand Washington." I should liketo own those books that constituted Mr. Coolidge'searliest reading.

His schooling began in the village school at the ageof five. By thirteen he had mastered the commonschool subjects and entered Black River Academy atLudlow. Here he studied algebra and geometry, theclassics, ancient history, civil government, and French,and here he graduated at the age of seventeen, taking'as his graduating oration "Oratory in' History."Decided upon entering Amherst College, iii the fall of1890 he was prevented by a severe illness which kepthim at home until winter, after which he took a springcourse at St. Johnsbury Academy in further prepara-tion for college.

1933.] Obituaries 15

The following fall he entered Amherst with the classof 1895, composed of about eighty-five boys. Hestudied industriously throughout the four years,refraining from college sports but keeping in goodhealth through physical exercise. He continued withLatin and Greek, supplemented by French, Italian,and German, followed mathematics through calculus,took all the courses that were given in history, andtoward the end of his course became especially inter-ested in philosophy. Amherst had an excellent faculty,with Merrill E. Gates as president, George D. Olds inmathematics, Anson D. Morse in history, and CharlesE. Garman in philosophy. According to Mr. Coolidge'sown testimony no teacher influenced him so much asProfessor Garman, who taught him to weigh conflictingfacts, to place truth above expediency, and to exaltservice. With his keen powers of observation and hisretentive memory, Mr. Coolidge had the clearest recol-lections of his college life. Few men thirty-five yearsout of college could remember so much of the detailsof their education. In 1895 he was graduated cumlaude with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

In the autumn of 1895 he decided to study law atNorthampton and entered the office of Hammond andField. In twenty months he was admitted to the bar,and in February 1898 started in practice by himself.He records that his income from the law for his firstyear was $500, and the second year $1400. Throughindustry and inspiring confidence he acquired anexcellent practice. In 1899 he was appointed CitySolicitor and in 1903 Clerk of the Courts. On October4, 1905 he married Grace A. Goodhue, a graduate ofthe University of Vermont at Burlington, and at thetime teaching in the Clark School for the Deaf atNorthampton.

liis decided interest in public affairs rapidly drewhim into political life. His first office was as a memberof the Republican City Committee in 1898. After thatin quick succession he was elected a member of theCommon Council, chairinan of the Republican City

16 American Antiquarian Society [April,

Committee, representative in the Massachusetts Legis-lature, Mayor of Northampton in 1910, a member ofthe Massachusetts Senate in 1911, president of theSenate in 1914, Lieutenant-governor in 1915, andGovernor in 1918. He was highly regarded and in-variably ran ahead of his ticket. His adherence tohigh ideals, his loyalty in keeping promises, his conser-vatism, and his insistence upon economy all gainedhim the confidence of the people. His administrationwas notably excellent and he was re-elected in 1919.

Although widely known in New England, GovernorCoolidge was brought to the attention of the nation bya series of events which happened in September 1919.The police of Boston sought to form a labor union, inviolation of a rule of their department, and instituted astrike, leaving Boston defenceless and subject for onenight to mob rule. Governor Coolidge took charge ofthe situation, backed the Commissioner of Police andin response to a telegraph from the head of the Ameri-can Federation of Labor, replied: "There is no rightto strike against the public safety by any; body, anytime, any where." The police strike was a subject ofgreat national interest, and this phrase caught theattention of the nation. Mr. Coolidge took up theissue further in his campaign for re-election as Gov-ernor and won by the largest majority to that timecast for the office. President Wilson sent him a tele-gram: " I congratulate you upon your election as avictory for law and order. " Mr. Coolidge immediatelybecame a national figure.

In the Republican campaign for nominations to thePresidency in the fall of 1919, Governorj Coolidge'sname was strongly advanced in Massachusetts as acandidate. But he thought it unwise to enter into sucha contest and announced that he was unwilling to beconsidered a candidate. In spite of this at the Republi-can Convention he received thirty-four votes. SenatorWarren G. Harding was finally nominated. When itcame to the nominations for the Vice-presidency, theState of Oregon placed Mr. Coolidge's name in nomina-

1933.] Obituaries 17

tion, there was almost a landslide in his favor, and hereceived about three-quarters of all the votes cast.

How the ticket of Harding and Coolidge was elected,how Mr. Coolidge faithfully administered the duties ofthe Vice-presidency during the trying years of chang-ing over a nation from a war to a peace basis, and howthe sudden death of Warren G. Harding on August 2,1923 elevated him without warning to the Presidency,are well-known matters of national history. The takingof the oath in the little sitting room of the Plymouthhomestead and his visit to his mother's grave beforestarting on his pilgrimage to Washington, both acts sonatural to his character, brought him into closer touchwith the people and endeared him to their thoughts.

It was but natural that he should be nominated andelected to the Presidency in 1924. The people hadconfidence in him. They respected his honesty andcourage. They valued his advocacy of thrift andindustry. The accomplishments of his administrationare part of the country's historical record. Perhaps themost lasting result was his influence upon the nationalmind, inspiring people toward conservatism, honorabledealings, and the seeking for truth. No one ever had ahigher regard for the sacredness of public office. Tohim it was a trust, to be faithfully discharged withoutconsideration of self interest. When the end of hisadministration arrived and he sent out his famousmessage that he did not choose to run for anotherterm, it simply meant that he did not think that it wasbest for the country for him to succeed himself. Hetherefore retired, with the desire to serve the countryagain, but as a private citizen. It was a privilege thatwas given to him for less than four years.

Mr. Coolidge left the White House for Northamptonin March 1929. Immediately he was besieged withnumerous offers to take up new lines of work or assumethe presidency of many kinds of organizations.Friends suggested lecture tours, the presidency ofcolleges, or lucrative directorships on large businesscorporations. But all of these he refused, some

18 American Antiquarian Society [April,

because he considered them undignified, some becausethey were commercial and some because they wereburdened with detail. The single exception was hisaccepting without remuneration a directorship in theNew York Life Insurance Company, of which hisfriend Darwin P. Kingsley was president, and thiswas chiefly due to his belief in the value of life insur-ance as a means of encouraging saving and thrift.

When Chief Justice Rugg suggested that Mr.Coolidge might assume the presidency of the AmericanAntiquarian Society after the death of Dr. Charles L.Nichols, most of the officers thought that there waslittle chance of his considering it. It is true that he hadbeen a member since 1925 and was somewhat familiarwith its work. Also because of nearby residence heknew many of its officers. Letters were written to himbringing the matter to his attention. He replied byasking for details regarding the history and work ofthe Society, in response to which several reports andhandbooks were sent to him. Among this literaturewas a mention of the fact that the Society had num-bered eleven Presidents of the United States in itsmembership—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, JamesMadison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, AndrewJackson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt,William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and himself—andPresident Taft had been a member of its Council.After considering the matter for a fortnight, he wrotesignifying his willingness to assume the presidency ofthe organization. Once I asked him why he hadaccepted this position when he had declined so manyothers. He replied that it was partly due to the factthat any request made by Chief Justice Rugg wasworthy of the most careful consideration, but thatprimarily he was anxious to continue personal con-tacts with his fellow men. He also said that SenatorAlbert J. Beveridge had told him much about the helpwhich the Society had given him when he was writinghis Life of Lincoln. It must have been strange to Mr.Coolidge after so many active years in politics, sudden-

1933.] Obituaries 19

ly to be retired to private life and to live in a smallNew England town where there were few outsidecontacts except those of his own choosing. He sawsome partial relief from this condition in the knowledgethat through the Antiquarian Society he would meetseveral times a year men from various sections of thecountry, even though they worked in a field withwhich he was not especially familiar.

The first meeting at which Mr. Coolidge presidedwas in Boston in April 1930. There he made a gracefulspeech of acceptance in which he referred to the valueof the study of history and his belief in the workwhich the Society was doing. With a rather personaltouch he said that he could still be addressed as"Mr. President" and feel that the phrase was not amisnomer. This particular meeting in Boston wassignificant in that the two important subjects dis-cussed were connected with the lives of PresidentsWashington and Jefferson, that one of the papers wasread by the son of President Tyler, and that themeeting was presided over by Mr. Coolidge himself.

Generally speaking, Mr. Coolidge said very little inconducting the meetings of the Society, but attendedstrictly to the business of the meeting, just as he haddone in presiding over political affairs. He rapidly fellinto the routine of the Society's work, taking overwhatever duties came to him. He wrote and read theReport of the Council in October 1930 and 1931. Butin October 1932 he asked to be excused, saying thatduties placed upon him in connection with the politicalcampaign then in progress and his connection with therailroad investigation gave him little spare time.

Mr. Coolidge always showed much interest in theSociety's collection and frequently sent to the Librarybooks and documents which he thought would be use-ful. When I visited him at Plymouth in the summer of1931, he showed me a collection of family books whichbelonged to his father and grandfather and Willinglyagreed to my taking many of these for the AntiquarianSociety's library. On January 4, the very night before

20 American Antiquarian Society [April,

he died, he mailed to the Society an envelope withseveral early documents, written by members of theCoolidge family, although not those of his own particu-lar line. On the week of his death I had planned tovisit him at Northampton to talk over certain mattersregarding the increase of the Library.

Mr. Coolidge did not miss a single meeting of theCouncil during the three years that he was president.There were four meetings a year and this meant twelvemeetings in all. Generally he visited my house inWorcester, arriving just before luncheon, which lefthalf an hour to talk and smoke before the Councilmeeting. He was an inveterate smoker, preferring milddomestic cigars. At the time of the Annual Meetingin October, that is, in October 1930 and 1932, hestayed over night at my house, and on both occasionssat up until midnight, after the Council meeting,indulging freely in conversation and reminiscence.

Mr. Coolidge has always been called taciturn andsilent. This was true of him at public affairs where hewas surrounded by groups of men, and especially ifthese men were not well known to him. When he firstmet the Society's officers at a luncheon given at theWorcester Club in 1929, he scarcely said á, word dur-ing the entire meal, apparently preferring to listen,and answered questions only by monosyllables. Butwhen he was alone and chose to talk, he W^SLS a prolificconversationalist. Several times while visiting me, hesat with me alone in my library and conversed for overtwo hours continuously, talking on a great variety ofsubjects—prohibition, political speech-making, life atthe White House, Washington newspaper |correspond-ents, the economic situation, book-collecting, or anytopic of the day. He was a great reader, interestedespecially in history, essays, and biography, althoughI doubt whether he read current fiction. '

He was a man of far greater culturé than wasgenerally realized. Even after graduation from collegehe read much of Milton and Shakespeare and trans-lated into English the orations of Cicero. One night he

1933.] Obituaries 21

asked if I did not have some fine early bindings, so Ishowed him an edition of Dante which was translatedinto English in a volume of over six hundred pages.I remarked: "Who could ever wade through thisbulky volume!" And to my surprise, he answered:" I once read the whole of Dante in the originalItalian." "What!" I replied, "that to me would seemalmost an impossibility. Did you do it in your collegedays?" "No," he said, "it was yeai-s after I grad-uated from college, and I did not finish it until after Iwas married." Then he continued: " I always likedItalian and French and read many books in theoriginal, but German was considerable of a stumbling-block."

H!e told me about the building up of his library at theWhite ifouse. When he first went there, he said thatthere was little more than a long set of Blackwood'sMagazine which he relegated to the attic. Then thebooks began to pile up until when he left Washingtonfor Northampton, there were forty cases of books,with over four thousand volumes in all. When thehomestead at Plymouth was remodelled, place wasmade for this library, and the planning and filling ofthe room was a source of great pleasure to him. Hesaid that in practically every volume he had placedhis bookplate, the work having been done in Washing-ton by some workers who came over from the Libraryof Congress. I said: "But what did you leave at theWhite House?" And he replied: "The set of Black-wood's Magazine!"

Political speech-making was a tremendous bore toMr. Coolidge and he thought it much overdone. Hehad made his notable campaign speech in behalf ofPresident Hoover only a .week or so before he visitedme on October 17. I told him that I thought his speecha remarkably fine document and that it sounded verywell over the radio. He said: " I didn't think much ofit. I expected that I would have ten days to prepare it,and finally prepared it in three. Writing it in Ply-mouth didn't give me much time to verify my facts."

22 American Antiquarian Society [April,

I said: "Are you going to make another speech duringthe campaign?" "No, ' ' he replied, "one speech isbetter than six." During the Tercentenary year inMassachusetts he had over two hundred requests tomake speeches at various towns in the State, and hemade but one.

One of the most notable characteristics shown byMr. Coolidge in conversation, as well as in publicutterance, was his fairness and impartiality. He couldalways look at both sides of an argument and seldomdid he make up his mind until he had heard all sides. Ireferred to high wages as a primary cause: of inflation,lie said: "Don't forget that many employers areresponsible for higher wages, for it gives them the oppor-tunity for increased profits. " He could see the side ofthe working man just as readily as that of the operator.

His conversation was frequently punctuated withepigrams or observations containing subtle wit. Thiseven came to the surface during his conduct of ameeting when a Council member was telling of thegreat value of the Gutenberg Bible and of the mag-nificent copy which Congress had recently boughtfrom a European collector for a fabulous sum. "Well,"Mr. Coolidge remarked with a smile, " I should thinkthat an ordinary copy of the King James version wouldhave been good enough for those Congressmen."

As a writer, Mr. Coolidge possessed a style that wasconvincing and always grammatically correct. Heused short sentences and invariably chose good Anglo-Saxon words. In much of his writing, especially hisAutobiography, the description of some ,event in hislife or some general happening ends with a reflectivecomment, providing a moral or making the narrativeof value to the reader. There was a decided imagina-tive quality in much of his writing. In fact, one of theleast suspected sides of Mr. Coolidge's nature was hisidealism and his susceptibility to emotional thought—overlooked during his lifetime, but which in due coursewill come to be considered one of the most impressivephases of his character. It was shown in his love of

1933.] Obituaries 23

poetry, his fondness for children and for dogs, andin the frequent use of imagery in his writings. Heonce said: " I should not want to think of heavenwithout children there"; and of his favorite collie dogwhich had just died, he said: "He was a statelygentleman of great courage and fidelity. " What couldbe finer than the ending of his tribute to his native stateof Vermont, "Here I first saw the light of day; here Ireceived my bride; here my dead lie pillowed on thebreast of the everlasting hills." And then the inscrip-tion in a book which he sent to Edward K. Hall whohad recently lost a son, at about the same time as thedeath of young Calvin Coolidge: "To Edward K. Hall:In recollection of his son and my son, who had theprivilege by the grace of God to be boys through alleternity. Calvin Coolidge."

I think that Mr. Coolidge's most outstanding traitwas his kindness and his sympathy. He never forgot afriend and had a surprising habit of remembering trivialhappenings, if they concerned those whom he liked andtrusted. He had the faculty of inspiring a really fondaffection from those with whom he was closely broughtinto contact. His character was so strongly made up ofhonesty, fairness, adherence to ideals, and courage,that they stood out above other qualities throughouthis whole life. Truly, a man with a soul which lookedinwards and tried to interpret the mysteries of life,whose own life was given to serve his fellow men, mustlive forever in the hearts of the people. Like AbrahamLincoln's, his is the common heritage.

C. S. B.

ALFRED JOHNSON

Alfred Johnson, historian and genealogist, died inBoston, January 13, 1933. He was born in Boston,June 28, 1871, the son of Edward and GeorgianaParker (Miller) Johnson. After a preparatory educa-tion at Chauncy Hall School and at Phillips Andover,he entered Harvard College in 1891. Although his