Cyrus W. Field, His Life and Work [1819-1892]

CHAPTER I

Chapter 13,324 wordsPublic domain

PARENTAGE AND EARLY HOME LIFE

(1819-1835)

CYRUS WEST FIELD, the eighth child and seventh son of David Dudley Field, was born in Stockbridge, Mass., November 30, 1819. He took his double name from Cyrus Williams, President of the Housatonic Bank (in Stockbridge), and from Dr. West, for sixty years his father's predecessor in the pastorate of the old Church of Stockbridge. He was the sixth in descent from Zachariah Field, the founder of the family in this country, who was the grandson of John Field the astronomer. Zachariah was born in the old home in Ardsley, Yorkshire, England. He came over in 1630 or 1632, seemingly from Hadley, Suffolk, and settled first in Dorchester, Mass., afterwards making his way through the wilderness to Hartford, Conn. Then followed in the direct line his oldest son Zachariah Junior, Ebenezer, David, and Captain Timothy, who was born in the north part of Madison, Conn., in 1744. He served in the Continental Army under Washington, and was in the battle of White Plains.

David Dudley Field, Captain Timothy's youngest son, was born May 20, 1781. In 1802 he graduated from Yale, the next year was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church, and a month later, October 31, 1803, was married to Submit Dickinson, daughter of Captain Noah Dickinson, of Somers, Conn., who first served under Putnam in the French War and afterwards in the War of the Revolution. Submit Dickinson was called "The Somers Beauty."

David Dudley Field was first settled in Haddam, Conn., and remained as pastor of the Congregational Church for fourteen years. Seven of his children were born while he lived there: David Dudley was the eldest; then followed Emilia Ann, Timothy Beals, Matthew Dickinson, Jonathan Edwards, Stephen Johnson 1st (who died when he was six months old), and Stephen Johnson 2d. Cyrus West, Henry Martyn, and Mary Elizabeth were the three children born in Stockbridge, Mass. Among the reminiscences of his sojourn in Haddam is that it fell to him to preach the execution sermon of Peter Long. The grim Puritanical custom still survived, according to which a prisoner convicted of a capital crime, on the day on which he was to be hanged was taken by a body-guard of soldiers to church to be publicly prepared for his ending. He was placed in a conspicuous pew, where he was obliged not only to listen to a long and harrowing sermon, but when addressed by name to stand up facing the preacher and receive the exhortation as he had received the sentence. Dr. Field addressed the victim directly for some minutes, and closed with these words: "Before yonder sun shall set in the west your probationary state will be closed forever. This day you will either lift up your eyes in hell, being in torment, or, through the rich, overflowing, and sovereign grace of God, be carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. If in any doubt about your preparation, you may yet find mercy. He who pardoned the penitent thief on the cross may pardon you in the place of execution. Pray God, then, if perhaps your sins may be forgiven you. Cry to Him, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!' and continue those cries till death shall remove you hence. May the Lord Almighty support you in the trying scene before you, and through infinite grace have mercy on your soul."

From the church the prisoner was led, clothed in a long, white robe, to the scaffold. It is said that on this occasion the rope was cut by the militiamen in attendance as a guard.

In May, 1819, Dr. Field accepted the call to the church in Stockbridge, and on August 25th he was settled there as a pastor. In those days the moving of a household from Haddam to Stockbridge was a formidable undertaking. Teams were sent to Connecticut, a journey of several days, to bring on the household furniture, and, most important of all, heavy boxes piled with the volumes that comprised the pastor's library. The clearest statement of the impression made upon the youth of his flock by the ministry of Dr. Field is furnished in these words, written nearly fifty years after his settlement in Stockbridge, and a fortnight after his death, by the venerated president of Williams College:

"WILLIAMS COLLEGE, _April 30, 1867_.

"CYRUS W. FIELD, Esq.:

"_My dear Sir_,--On my return I comply at once with your request to write out the remarks I made at your father's funeral. In writing to me, Mr. Eggleston simply said he should like to have me take some part in the services, but he did not say what, and under the circumstances I did not think it best to attempt anything but a few remarks bearing on my personal relation to him. I give them below as well as I can.

"'On coming here I was not aware what the order of exercises was to be, or what part I was expected to take in them; but as I am drawn here by a deep personal regard to the departed, the few words that I shall say will have reference to him chiefly in that relation through which this regard was awakened.

"'It was under the ministry of Dr. Field that I first united with the Christian Church. By him I was baptized in this place.

"'For a long period my mind was in a state of solicitude and careful inquiry on the subject of religion, and during much of that time I sat under his ministry. Well do I remember his sermons and his prayers; we worshipped in the old church then, and the whole town came together. His sermons were lucid, logical, effective, and his prayers remarkably appropriate and comprehensive. One of his texts I remember particularly. It was this: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the son of the living God." From these words he preached several discourses of great power showing that Jesus was the Christ, and that there was no one else to whom we could go. I regarded them then, and still do, as among the ablest discourses I ever heard. They had a powerful effect upon my mind.

"'In respect to feeling he was not demonstrative, and some thought him cold. No mistake could have been greater. On sitting near him I remember to have been struck by noticing the big tears rolling down his cheeks when he came to the more touching parts of his discourse, while there was scarcely a sign of emotion in his voice or in the lines of his face. Perhaps intellect predominated. Probably it did; but he was a man of deep feeling, and under the impulse of it, as well as of principle, he was a faithful, earnest, laborious pastor. It was in that relation that I feel that his character and life and preaching and prayers were an important formative influence with me for good, and I have never ceased to regard him with affectionate veneration, and never shall.

"'And what he did for me he doubtless did for multitudes of others. There is no higher educating power than that of a pastor thoroughly educated and balanced, earnest by proclaiming God's truths from Sabbath to Sabbath and dealing fairly with the minds of men. This he did, and in doing it was eminent among a body of men who have done more to make New England what it is than any other. In clear thinking, in able sermons, and in earnest labors, he was altogether a worthy successor of the eminent men who had preceded him.

"'I see some here who will remember those earlier times. I am sure, my friends, you will verify all I have said, and that with me you do now and will continue to cherish with respect and with love the memory of our former pastor. It only remains to us now to emulate all in him that was good, and in deep sympathy with these mourning friends to aid in placing his dust where it will rest with so much other precious dust that makes this a hallowed valley, and where it will await the resurrection of the just.'

"In reading over what I have written I can only say that it seems to me altogether inadequate as an expression of the sense I have of your father's worth and of the benefit he was to me, but having promised to do so I send it.

"With great regard, yours, "MARK HOPKINS."

The recollection that his grandchildren have of him is of a quiet, dignified old gentleman, who seemed quite lost when his call for "Mis' Field" was not answered at once by his energetic wife, upon whom he was very dependent. Occasionally he would gather his children's children about him, and seemed to enjoy showing them how "the lady's horse goes," and the tumble that followed "and by-and-by comes old hobble-de-gee," was looked upon as great fun. He would also delight his youthful audience by repeating a few of Mother Goose's Melodies, and they never tired of hearing him.

Life in New England in those days, and especially the life of a pastor's family, was earnest, with an earnestness that to the young, with the eagerness of youth for enjoyment, may well have seemed repulsive. The Puritanic rigor that has been so much relaxed during the past half-century was then much what it had been in the earliest colonial times.

Morning and evening the entire family gathered in the sitting-room for prayers, each one with a Bible, and all were required to join in the reading. A chapter was never divided, and in turn the verses were read; often comments were made. Afterwards came the long prayer, when all, except Dr. Field, knelt; he stood, with his hands on the back of his chair, and one of his favorite expressions, and one which greatly impressed the younger members of his family, the more because they did not understand it, was that the Lord would "overturn, overturn, overturn ... until he come, whose right it is."

That the Puritanic atmosphere was no harsh and unmirthful thing in this parsonage is shown by the story told by one who was a boy in Stockbridge at the time. A hen was sitting in a box in the woodshed; each morning Cyrus looked for the little chickens. One day in an adjoining box he found the family cat with a number of kittens. These he placed with the hen, and then with a very straight face asked his father to come and see the chickens.

The controversy as to the scriptural limitation of the Sabbath, whether it began at sunset on Saturday or at midnight, was then very active. When Dr. Field was questioned as to which evening was the one to be observed, he always advised those in doubt to keep both.

Once in speaking of the curious texts that he had known clergymen of his generation to choose, he instanced: "Parbar westward, four at the causeway and two at Parbar"; but he failed to give the lesson that was drawn from the words.

In those old days in western Massachusetts cooking-stoves were unknown. The pots were hung above the fire, the meats were broiled over the coals or before them, and the baking was done in a brick oven. Neither were there ice-closets nor travelling butchers. The winter's stock of meat was laid in with the first cold weather; the chickens were killed and packed in snow in the cellar, to be brought out as they were needed; and pies were made in large quantities, and frozen and put away for future use; and the foot-stove was taken down from the shelf. This was a small iron box with holes in the top, and into it were put live coals. The box was carried in the hand, and used in place of a footstool in "meeting"; but even with this mitigation the cold was felt intensely.

The conflict in a conscientious pastor's mind between his sense of duty and his kindness of heart was often severe and painful. Mrs. Field used to say that the most difficult act her husband was ever called upon to perform was to refuse church membership to those who had accepted Dr. Channing's views. She was naturally more pitiful than he. A revivalist who had come to the village in the course of his mission took occasion at a service publicly to arraign one of the prominent men of the town for drunkenness. Mrs. Field strongly disapproved of the time and place chosen for the rebuke, and on her way home from the meeting expressed her disapproval, and when she reached her gate said, "Wait, Cyrus, and when Mr. ---- passes bring him to me and I will pick his bones for him" (Micah iii. 2). She would not have approved of the method adopted, according to a story current in her son Cyrus's family, by a pious man in Connecticut who, when he thought himself imposed upon by his neighbors, would say, with a long drawl, "Leave them to the Lord, leave them to the Lord--he'll smite them hip and thigh."

Her son always remembered, as one of the strongest impressions of his childhood, the deep and lasting grief of his mother at parting with her eldest daughter, who married and went to Smyrna, Asia Minor, as a missionary, when he was but ten years old.

An old lady in Stockbridge tells to his niece this story of him at about the same age. "Your grandmother had been very ill. I watched with her; many of us watched. I thought to keep her from talking by coming up behind her to give her medicine, but she found out who I was and talked a great deal. After she was better she still needed some one to sleep in her room, keep up the fire and give her medicine. Your uncle Cyrus did this one whole winter when he was a little boy, I should think not ten. It was lovely of him." And it was just like him. He always remembered that during this same illness his mother called him to her and said, "Cyrus, the doctor says I am very ill, but I shall be up to-morrow." And he would add, "She was."

By all Stockbridge tradition he was the hero of another tale, although he himself always gave the credit of it to one of his brothers. A certain rat-trap (perhaps of new and efficient style) had been lost. After much search and questioning the minister gave orders that whenever found it should be brought at once to him. So one day at a service, when the sermon was in full progress, there came a clanging noise up the aisle, and the missing article was set down in front of the pulpit with the words, "Father, here is your rat-trap!"

Another laughable reminiscence occurred at the burning of the parsonage, which took place about 1830. In 1822 or 1823 Dr. Field had bought a small house in the village and had moved there. The fire was first seen as the children were coming from school, and very soon after it was discovered all hope of subduing it was given up, and the first thought was to save the study furniture and books, and the study table was thrown from the window. Imagine the surprise of the crowd and the consternation of their pastor as the drawers of this, his private repository, came open, and a shower of playing-cards fluttered forth and whitened the grass. They had been found in the possession of his children and confiscated.

It is remembered of Cyrus Field as a child that his dealings with his playmates were most exact. He paid punctually all that he owed, and required the same punctuality in return. He was the chosen leader in all the games, and he was the victor in a race around the village green, one of the stipulations being that a certain amount of crackers should be eaten on the way.

His half-holidays were passed in roaming over the country-side, and he has often said that the meal he enjoyed the most in his life was one gotten on a Saturday afternoon when he had stopped, tired and hungry, at a farm-house, and was given a plate of cold pork and potatoes. He was obliged to be at home before sunset on Saturday, as every member of the family was required to be in the house by that time, and all work to cease; and as the children entered their father greeted them with the words, "We are on the borders of holy time." Sunset on Sunday was watched for most anxiously, for they were then again quite free to come and go.

The simple life of the Massachusetts village was not without its pleasures. There lies before me a yellow programme, printed sixty years ago, which commemorates what was very likely at once the first appearance of Cyrus W. Field on any stage and his last appearance in his native village, and forms a fitting conclusion to the story of his childhood.

=EXHIBITION.--STOCKBRIDGE ACADEMY=,

MARCH 26-27, 1835.

=THURSDAY EVENING.=

ORDER OF EXERCISES.

1. MUSIC.

2. Prologue.--United States Speaker. JOHN HENRY ADAMS

3. Burr and Blennerhasset.--Wirt. ESSEX WATTS

4. Bernardo Del Carpio.--Mrs. Hemans. RALPH K. JONES

5. Death of the Princess Charlotte.--Campbell. HENRY W. DWIGHT, JR.

6. MUSIC.

7. "Hail to the Land."--Author unknown. PHINEHAS LINCOLN

8. Extract from Robert Treat Paine on French Aggressions. DAVID L. PERRY

9. Parody of "The Young Orator."--Anonymous. GEORGE W. KINGSLEY

10. A Dandy's----What?--Independent Balance. WILLIAM STUART

11. MUSIC.

12. Patriotic Stanzas.--Campbell. THOMAS WELLS

13. Injustice of Slavery. JAMES SEDGWICK

14. Question Answered.--Ladies' Magazine. GEORGE LESTER

15. Fall of Missolonghi.--E. Canning. THEODORE S. POMEROY, Jr.

16. MUSIC.

17. The Rich Man and the Poor Man.--Khemnitzen. LEWIS BURRALL

18. Man, the Artificer of His Own Fortune. EDWARD SELKIRK

19. Pleasures of Knowledge. MARSHALL WILLIAMS

20. Extract from an Oration by Wm. R. Smith. EDWIN WILLIAMS

21. Running Dover, a Boaster.--Anonymous. GEORGE W. KINGSLEY

22. MUSIC.

23. Influence of Intemperance on our Government.--Sprague. BRADFORD DRESSER

24. Bunker Hill Monument.--Webster. GEORGE W. PARSONS

25. Extract from Webster on the Slave Trade. JOHN ELY

26. Parody of "Lochiel's Warning."--Edward Selkirk. Advocate of Temperance, {EDWARD SELKIRK Vender of Ardent Spirits, {THEODORE WILLIAMS

27. A Wife Wanted.--A Bachelor EDWARD CARTER

28. MUSIC.

29. The Instability of Human Government.--Rutledge. JOHN VALLET

30. Parody of "Brutus's Address to the Roman Populace."--Anonymous. GEORGE W. BURRALL

31. Peter's Ride to the Wedding.--New Speaker. GEORGE LESTER

32. Tragical Dialogue.--Columbian Orator.

Indian Chief, CHARLES POMEROY American Officer, LEWIS FENN Son of the Chief, CYRUS FIELD Soldiers, {CHARLES DEMING {JOHN VALLET

33. Petition of Young Ladies.--United States Speaker JOHN HENRY ADAMS

34. MUSIC.

FRIDAY EVENING.

ORDER OF EXERCISES.

1. MUSIC.

2. _"SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER."--Goldsmith._

A COMEDY IN FIVE ACTS.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Sir Charles Marlow, S. G. JONES Hardcastle, H. C. FAY Young Marlow, H. TREMAIN Hastings, E. ROCKWELL Tony Lumpkin, H. GARDNER Diggory, C. POMEROY Jeremy, T. WILLIAMS Stings, L. FENN Mrs. Hardcastle, C. W. FIELD Miss Hardcastle, F. FOWLER Miss Neville, J. STEPHENS Maid, J. ELY Fellows of the Ale-house, Servants, etc.

ACT THE FIRST.