Part 11 (1/2)
”Innumerable instances of occurrences which took place in the Army I could relate, but who would care for them: Perhaps it may be thought by some that I have already been at the expense of Prolixity. n.o.body in these days feels as I do, left here alone, & they cannot if they would, but to me it is a melancholy pleasure to go back to those Scenes of fear & anguish & after the laps of 50 years (1826 was in my 78th year) to rumenate upon them which I think I can do with as bright a recollection as though they were present--One more reflection I will make--why is it that the delicious Capt. Hale should be left & lost in an unknown grave & forgotten!--
”The foregoing Statements were made from Memory & recollection & from doc.u.ments & Memorandoms which I kept.--ELISHA BOSTWICK.”
(8) _Edward Everett Hale_
Of the subsequent records of the Hale family no trace remains that is not honorable. Nathan's brother Enoch was settled at Westhampton, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1777, where he remained a useful and beloved pastor for sixty years. Enoch's eldest son, Nathan, graduated at Williams College in 1804. He was editor-in-chief of the _Boston Daily Advertiser_ for more than forty years. Nathan's son, Nathan, a Havard graduate, became a.s.sociate editor of the _Boston Advertiser_.
Lucretia Peabody Hale, a well-known writer in her day, whose delightful and amusing ”Peterkin Papers” are still read and remembered, was a granddaughter of the Rev. Enoch Hale.
Edward Everett Hale, a man beloved by every one who knew him, was the son of ”a great journalist,” Nathan, grandson of Enoch, and therefore grandnephew of Captain Nathan Hale. He, too, had a son Nathan who died in his early manhood. Edward Everett Hale was one of the most commanding and admired of men, with rare endowments as clergyman, author, editor, and patriot.
Those interested in the study of his granduncle, Nathan, owe to him the preservation of many records of the Hale family, and an arrangement of the genealogy of the Hale family, made while he was a Unitarian minister in Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts, and kindly lent to the Hon. I. W. Stuart, one of Hale's early biographers.
It will be long before some of Edward Everett Hale's vital words are forgotten; longer still before his marvelous story, ”The Man Without a Country,” shall cease to thrill its readers.
The impa.s.sioned sentences in which he cites its unhappy hero as speaking to a boy--a mids.h.i.+pman--while under heavy stress, read, ”For your country, boy, and for your flag, never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, though the service carry you through a thousand h.e.l.ls.
No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you or who abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pa.s.s but you pray G.o.d to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind all these men you have to do with, behind officers, and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother.”
No one justly comprehending the bed rock of Edward Everett Hale's boundless patriotism can doubt that if the same call of duty had come to him that came in bygone days to his relative, young Nathan Hale, he would have done exactly as Nathan Hale did. That call did not come, but to the end of his days Edward Everett Hale lived for his country as n.o.bly as Nathan Hale died for it.
CHAPTER X
ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS OF NATHAN HALE'S PARENTS
Robert Hale arrived in Ma.s.sachusetts in 1632. He was one of those sent from the first church in Boston to form the first church in Charlestown in 1632, and was a deacon of this church. He was a blacksmith by trade.
He also had a gift for practical mathematics, being regularly employed by the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts as a surveyor of new plantations.
His son John, of whom mention has been made in connection with the witchcraft delusion, was a graduate of Harvard in 1657. Samuel, the fourth son of John, was the father of Richard, father of Nathan Hale.
Elizabeth Strong, wife of Deacon Richard Hale and mother of Nathan, came from a family more notable than that of her husband. Her grandfather, Joseph Strong, represented Coventry in the General a.s.sembly of Connecticut for sixty-five sessions and presided over town-meeting in his ninetieth year.
Mrs. Hale had four immediate relatives who were graduates of Yale college. Three of the sons of Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong Hale graduated from Yale,--Enoch, the fourth son, Nathan, the sixth child, and David, the eighth son. Three of the sons were officers in the Revolutionary army, and the husband of a daughter was a surgeon there.
John was a major; Joseph, who died as the result of the privations endured there, was a lieutenant; and Nathan was a captain. Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph, married Rev. Abiel Abbot, for many years minister in Coventry. Three of their sons were college graduates--two of Yale and one of Dartmouth. Rebekah, another daughter of Joseph, married Ezra Abbot of Wilton, N.H. Three sons were graduates of Bowdoin. One son, the Rev. Abiel Abbot, was settled in East Wilton.
Two daughters also married clergymen. Another daughter of Joseph, Mary, married the Rev. Levi Nelson. For a man who died at the age of thirty-four, Lieutenant Joseph Hale appears to have been well represented by his descendants.
Surgeon Rose of the Revolutionary army, and Elizabeth Hale, daughter of Deacon Richard Hale, were the grandparents of the distinguished lawyer and statesman, Was.h.i.+ngton Hunt, and of Lieutenant Edward Hunt, U.S.A., first husband of the celebrated author, Helen Hunt.
Enoch Hale, Deacon Richard Hale's fourth son, graduated in the same cla.s.s with his brother Nathan, became a minister, and spent a long life in his first and only pastorate. One of his sons, Enoch, was educated at Yale and Harvard and became a noted physician. A son, Nathan, was a graduate of Williams College, and editor of the _Boston Advertiser_ for more than forty years. His son Nathan, a Harvard man, became coeditor with him. One of Enoch's granddaughters married a minister named Montague.
David, another son of Deacon Richard Hale, graduated at Yale, and was settled in the ministry at Lisbon, Connecticut. Joanna, the second daughter of Richard Hale, married Dr. Nathan Howard.
One of Enoch Hale's grandsons was president of the Continental Bank in New York City. The most noted of Enoch Hale's descendants was the Rev.