Book Read Free

Henry David Thoreau

Page 74

by Laura Dassow Walls


  Maynard, Barksdale, 533n7

  McCauslin, George, 219, 220–21; hosted and guided HDT and cousin in Maine, 220–22, 225

  McKean, Henry, 154

  Melville, Herman: “Bartleby the Scrivener,” 149; Moby-Dick, 5; Typee, 222

  Menu (divine Hindu lawgiver), 145, 256, 274

  Mercantile Association Library (NYC), 154

  Merriam, Francis Jackson (Mr. “X”), 455, 457

  Merriam, Joe, 30, 33

  Merrimack, NH, 109

  Merrimack River, 107–9, 258–59, 397, 491

  Mexico, invasion and surrender of (1846–48), 208, 211; injustice of U.S.-Mexican War, 248

  Michaux, André, 308

  Michigan, 230, 482

  Middlesex Canal, 107, 110

  Middlesex Canal Company, 442; Concord farmers lose lawsuit against, 442–23

  Middlesex County Agricultural Fair. See “Cattle Show” (annual farm fair)

  Middlesex County Anti-Slavery Society, 93, 466

  Middlesex County Jail (Concord), 29, 210; HDT’s experience of, 211

  Miles, Warren, 94, 442; assisted HDT with graphite business, 438

  Milford, ME, 218

  militia muster (Concord, 1858), and Thoreaus’ boardinghouse, 439

  Mill Dam (Milldam). See Concord, MA: Mill Dam (Milldam)

  Millinocket, ME, 419

  Milnes, Monckton, 552n4

  Milwaukee, WI, under martial law (1861), 490

  Minkins, Shadrach, 315, 367; rescued from recapture, 316

  Minneapolis, MN, 484; Minnehaha Falls, 484

  Minnesota, 484–90; HDT’s journey to, 481–91, Fig. 41

  Minott, Capt. Jonas, 28–30, 32, 35; forebears of, 425

  Minott, George, 15, 103

  Minott, Mary (Jones) Dunbar. See Dunbar, Mary Jones (HDT’s grandmother)

  Mississippi River, 483, 489, Fig. 41; HDT’s impressions of real life on, 483–84

  Missouri Ruffians (proslavery border raiders), 446

  Mitchel, Nathan, 109

  Monadnock, Mount (MA), 174, 429; climbed by HDT and Blake, 429–30; climbed by HDT and Channing, 468–70; enigmatic frogs found on, 430, 458; HDT observed flora and fauna minutely, 469–70

  Monson, ME, 334, 339

  Montmorenci, Falls of (Quebec), 297–98

  Montreal (Quebec), 296, 299

  “Moonlight” (HDT), 364

  Moore, Capt. Abel, 105

  Moore, George, 15, 54, 57

  moose and moose-hunting, 219, 336, 416; HDT horrified at slaughter of, 336–37, 340, 353; witnessed second moose kill, 416

  Moosehead (railway steamer in Maine), 334–35

  Moosehead Lake (ME), 334–35, 406, 409, 441

  “Moosehunting” (HDT lecture), 393

  moral choice, 250–52

  Morton, Samuel G., 366

  Mott, Lucretia, 320; and Seneca Falls Convention, 320

  mouse, at Walden, 202, 229, 354; P. Ward’s children’s story about it, 535n55

  Mud Pond Carry (north Maine woods), 412

  Muir, John, 489–90

  Munroe, James (publisher): HDT paid off debt to, 343; printed A Week, 263, 272, 285; returned unsold copies, 343

  Munroe, William, 38–40; competitor with John Thoreau and Co., 39–40

  Musketaquid: Indian people, 4–5, 16–17; origin of name, 13, 269 (see also Concord River); River, 3, 9; Valley, 6, 13

  Musketaquid (John and HDT’s boat), 99, 106, 110; sold to Hawthorne, 134

  Myerson, Joel, 523n63, 528n56

  Nantucket, MA, 370; Atheneum, 369–70

  narcolepsy, 157

  Nashoba, MA, 16; “Praying Town” of Indian converts, 4–5, 16–17, 273

  Nashua, NH, 107

  Nashville, NH, 108

  Natick, MA, 423

  National Academy of Design (NYC), 153

  National Academy of Sciences (Philadelphia), 366

  National Anti-Slavery Standard, 348

  national park system, envisioned by HDT, 341, 444

  Native Americans (Indians): artifacts of, 3–5, 91, 99, 108, 284, 426, 428, 437–38; ecological economic system of, 11–12, 14–15; languages of, 66–67, 92, 338–39, 427, 428; 17th-c. decimation of, 4–5, 12–15; stereotypes of, 5–6, 407, 410, 420, 426–27; survivors of 17th-c. decimation, 5–6

  HDT’s evolving view of, 339, 410–11, 419–20; HDT interviewed Penobscots, 305, 461; HDT’s “Indian Books” (research), 280, 282, 420. See also Polis, Joseph

  Indian Island (and Oldtown, Maine), Penobscot reservation, 218, 340, 408; almost deserted (1857), 407; HDT’s negative reaction to (1846), 218; positive reaction to (1854), 340

  individual tribes: Abenaki, 338, 411; Dakota (“Sioux”), 486–89; Dakota War, 488–89; HDT collects clothing of Dakota, 488, 567n70; mistreatment of Dakota, 488; Musketaquid, 4–5, 16–17; Ojibwe, 427–28; Penacook, 107; “Praying Indians” of Nashoba, 4, 16–17; Wabanaki, 338–39, 371. See also Indian Island (ME), Penobscot reservation; Native Americans (Indians): Indian Island (and Oldtown, Maine); Native Americans (Indians): Penobscot

  location: on Cape Cod, 280, 371; in Concord, 5–6, 11–17, 99, 217, 305–6, 408, 428, 461, 522n25, 536n91; in Maine, 95–96, 218–19, 334–35, 340, 407–12; in Minnesota, 486–89; on Nantucket, 371; in New Bedford, 378–79, 389; in Quebec, 299; at Walden, 16, 204

  Penobscot, 67, 109, 217–18, 305–6, 334–40, 407–19, 428, 536n91; struggle for modernization and sovereignty, 340, 407–8, 414, 418–19. See also Polis, Joseph

  Penobscot and related technologies: basketry, 5, 217, 371, 408, 428, 461, 512n4; canoes, 305, 335, 340, 408, 411, 418; snowshoes, 340, 343, 550n68

  Penobscot guides as HDT’s teachers: J. Aitteon, 335–36, 338–39; L. Neptune, 218–19; J. Polis, 407–19

  “Natural History of Massachusetts, The,” (HDT), 131–32; as HDT’s first original writing, 132

  nature, 44–45, 128, 129; HDT’s intimacy with, 201, 305, 308; humans involved in cycles of, 173–74; indifference of, 129, 278; love of, 44, 123, 147, 151–52; Nature, xx; speaks through HDT, 289; wild nature, 89

  Nature (RWE), 18, 73, 83, 88, 276

  Nauset, MA, 279

  Nawshawtuct Hill, 3, 9, 10, 13, 14, 44, 77, 398

  Neptune, John (Penobscot governor), 340

  Neptune, Louis (Penobscot elder), 218–19, 221, 225

  New Bedford (MA) Lyceum, 368

  New Bedford Mercury, 389–90; review of Walden, 360

  Newburyport, MA, 281

  Newcomb, Charles King, 133, 158–59, 368

  Newcomb, John Young (“Wellfleet oysterman”), 279, 282, 404–5

  New England Farmer, 39

  New England Non-Resistance Society, 139

  “New England Reformers” (RWE lecture), 168

  “New Humanists” (Romantic Hellenism), 69; influenced democratic ideals, 69–70

  New Jersey, 259

  New London, CT, 151

  Newman, Lance, 568n87

  New Monthly Magazine, 149

  New Views of Society, Christianity, and the Church (Brownson), 75

  New York, NY, 149; disparaged by HDT, 157; as literary marketplace, 149, 156–57

  New-York Daily (or Weekly) Tribune, 155, 182; announced HDT’s “poor health” (1861), 492; published HDT on tree succession, 472; published reports by M. Fuller, 238; published women’s rights articles by Elizabeth O. Smith, 320, 367. See also Greeley, Horace

  New York Times, review of Walden, 360

  Niagara Falls (New York/Canada), 112, 481–82

  “No Government” movement, 250

  Nonresistance, 139–40, 211; vs. civil resistance, 251

  North Twin Lake (ME), 222

  Notre Dame, Cathedral of (Montreal), 296, 302

  Oakes, Smith, 292, 545n45

  O’Connor, Dick, 520–21n8

  Ojibwe (Indian people), 427

  Old Manse, 18, 47, 79, 134, 176, 498. See also Hawthorne, Nathaniel

  Old North Bridge, 79, 107, 115

  Oldtown, ME, 95, 334; almost desert
ed in 1857, 407

  “Old Virginia” (freed slave and settler), 30

  Ontario, Lake, 482, 490

  Orleans, MA, 278

  Ornamental Tree Society, 53

  Osgood, Ellen Sewall. See Sewall, Ellen

  Osgood, Rev. Joseph, 114, 309; escorted HDT to Cape Cod shipwreck scene, 277

  Ossoli, Giovanni, Marquis d’, 290, 292, 293; and son Nino, 290

  O’Sullivan, John, 149, 158, 249; coined “Manifest Destiny,” 168; liberal reformist views of, 149; published HDT essays, 155–56; supported Texas annexation, 207–8. See also Democratic Review

  Paley, William, 70; On the Duty of Submission . . . , countered by HDT, 251

  Panchatantra (Vishnu Sharma), 145

  Panic of 1837, 80–81

  Panic of 1857, 424–25; affected Thoreaus’ graphite business, 427

  panoramas, 295, 300, 545n50

  “Paradise (To Be) Regained” (HDT), 155–56

  Pardena, Celesta, 290–91

  Parker, Theodore, 78, 141, 345, 368, 447; criticized HDT essay, 116

  Parkman, Prof. George, murdered by J. Webster, 68

  partridges, HDT’s “radiant” entry about, 136

  Peabody, Augustus, 62

  Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 78, 88, 97–98, 119, 326, 392, 481; as Dial publisher, 131, 148; first published “Civil Disobedience,” 248–49, 263; a founder of Temple School, 97; and HDT, 137; as pioneering educator, 97–98; Record of a School, 78, 97; sells Thoreau pencils, 165–66

  Peeling (now Woodstock), NH, 109

  Peirce, Prof. Benjamin, 67, 310

  Pellico, Silvio, 140; My Prisons, 210

  Pemigewasset Valley (NH), 109

  Penacook (Indian people), 107

  pencil manufacture, in America, 38–40, 515n42, 516n43; HDT improved processes of, 94, 164–66. See also John Thoreau & Company

  Penn, James (early church leader), 59

  Penny Magazine for children, 237, 538n17

  Penobscot (Indian people). See Native Americans (Indians)

  Penobscot River (ME), 217–18, 335

  Pequot War (1636–37), 16

  Perkins, Henry Coit, 543n17

  Perkins School for the Blind, 118

  Perth Amboy, NJ, 392

  Pestalozzi, J. H., 9

  Petrulionis, Sandra Harbert, 536n83, 563n139

  Phalanx, The, 161

  Phillips, Wendell, 142, 327, 368, 456; and Anthony Burns protests, 345; defended by RWE, 168; first Lyceum talk, 142–43; HDT on, 185; public refutation of his critics, 166–67; second Lyceum talk, 166; third Lyceum talk, 184–85

  Pilgrims, 12; and Indians, 13; landing at Plymouth, 310

  Pillsbury, Parker, 466, 479; visited dying HDT, 495

  Pindar, translated by HDT, 158, 162

  Pinkham Notch, NH, 430

  Pittsfield, MA, 174

  plant life, essential to humans, 203

  plant succession, hypothesized by HDT, 384–86, 470–71, 485. See also ecology, in HDT’s thinking; forest history; “Succession of Forest Trees” (HDT)

  “Plea for Captain John Brown” (HDT), 451–53; found no publisher, 453; popular responses to, 451–53; published, 456

  Plymouth, MA, 121, 228, 310; HDT visited Plymouth Rock, 310

  Plymouth, NH, 109, 432

  Poe, Edgar Allan, 153

  “Poet, The” (RWE essay), 170

  poetry, English, 123; Chaucer, Gower, Douglas, 123; Gray, 434; Tennyson, 144, 145, 434; Wordsworth, 123, 434

  Polis, Joseph, 407–20, 427, Fig. 37; believed education essential, 418; encountered D. Webster, 414; fought for Union, 497; guided HDT’s party, 408–9; HDT concerned over Polis’s reaction to Maine Woods, 421, 497; at home everywhere, 419; and moose hunting, 416; oneness with nature, 410–12; religiousness of, 558n23; taught HDT “all he knew,” 407–13, 416–18; wide experience as Penobscot leader, 407–8, 418

  Polis, Peter (Pielpole) (Joseph’s brother), 428

  Polk, James A., 207; pro-slavery politics of, 207–8

  poll tax, 209

  Pomola (spirit of Katahdin), 219

  Portland, ME, 217, 262, 281

  Pottawatomie Creek murders, committed by John Brown, 445

  Potter, Daniel F., 85, 531n119

  Prairie du Chien, WI, 483, 489

  Pratt, Minot, 363, 385, 442, 452, 562n105; son married Anna Alcott, 424

  “Praying Indians” of Nashoba, 4, 16–17

  Present, The, 154, 161

  Presidential Range (White Mountains, NH), 431

  Prichard, Elizabeth, marries Edward Hoar, 461

  Prichard, Frances Jane (Fanny), 425

  Prichard, Jane Hallett, 532n1, 550n73, 560n76

  Prichard, Moses, 27, 39

  Provincetown, MA, 280, 367

  Putnam, Rev. George, 78

  Putnam’s Monthly magazine, 302, 333; HDT’s quarrel with, 302

  Quakers, 25, 320, 393

  Quakish Lake (ME), 221

  Quincy, Josiah III (Harvard president), 57, 77; critical of HDT’s attitude, 79; inflexible grading system of, 63, 73, 76, 78; reaction to Dunkin Rebellion, 64; recommended HDT for teaching position, 95; tolerated HDT’s green coat, 60, 82, 95

  racism: Agassiz’s ideas as a basis for, 458–59; disproved by Darwin theory, 458–59; “scientific” justification for, 366

  railroad, 163–64, 191, 330, Fig. 20; transformed Concord, 181, 236–37

  Raleigh, Sir Walter, 142

  Ramsey, Alexander, 487

  Rasles, Sebastian, Abenaki dictionary, 427

  Red Jacket (Seneca leader), 76; HDT named boat after, 76–77

  Red Owl (Dakota spokesman), 487

  Redpath, James, 464; published “Plea for Captain John Brown,” 456

  Red Wing (Dakota leader), 489

  Red Wing, MN, 483

  Redwood, MN, 486

  religion, 93, 116; Asian religions, 145–46, 381–82; in Concord, 47–49; and conscience, 49; controversies over, 48, 146; devolution of, 49. See also Bhagavad Gita; blasphemy; Buddha and Buddhism; Christianity

  resistance, 215, 248–52; ultimate meaning of, 253–54; united civil disobedience of Concord citizens, 465

  Revere, Paul, 18

  Revolution of 1776, 17–18, 279

  Revolution of 1848 (Paris), 238

  Reynolds, Rev. Grindall, 465, 495, 561n89; served at HDT’s funeral, 499

  Rice, Charles, 62, 80

  Richardson, James, 62; quoted, 82

  Richardson, Robert D., Jr., 546n60, 554n32, 564n7

  Richelieu River (Canada), 296

  Ricketson, Daniel, 362–63, 382, 388, 402–3, 423–26, 434, Fig. 30; could not bear to pay final visit to HDT, 497–98; and death of HDT’s father, 436–37; and family, 369–70; HDT entertained Louisa (Mrs. R.) and daughter Anna, 401; HDT reciprocated visit, 378–79; last visit and last letter from HDT, 492–93; met and hosted HDT, 369, Fig. 31; sensed political “crisis,” 448; was stuck with Ellery Channing “problem,” 389–90; visited ailing HDT, 378

  Riordan, Catherine, 328–29

  Riordan, Johnny and family, 328, 549n40

  Ripley, George, 74, 78, 111, 119, 265, 272; letter of recommendation for HDT, 95. See also Brook Farm

  Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 17–18, 26; aided Mary Dunbar, 33; baptized infant HDT, 34–35; death of, 134; faced secession of dissenters, 47–48; as leader of First Parish Church, 28, 58; proposed Revolutionary monument, 79

  Ripley, Sarah Alden Bradford, 58, 88, 498, 555n71

  River Meadow Association, 442; commissioned HDT’s river survey, 442–43; members include HDT’s closest friends, 442

  Robbins, Susan (Mrs. Jack Garrison), and family, 201

  Robinson, David, xviii, 527n26, 553n16

  Rocky Mountains (WY), 500

  Rogers, Nathaniel P., 169; HDT praises, 169–70

  Rossi, William, 542n87, 542n4

  Round, Phillip, 550n65, 558n18

  Rouquette, Adrien, 362

  Rowlandson, Mary, 5

  Rowse, Samuel Worcester, 361, 36
3; reactions to his portrait of HDT, 361, 388

  Royal, Mount (Quebec), 299

  Rozier, Mrs. John, 379

  Ruskin, John, 425; HDT and Modern Painters, 426

  Russell, Charles, 62

  Russell, E. Harlow, 476, 568n87

  Russell, John Lewis, 361–62, 421, 433

  Russell, Mary, 114, 310, 404, 478, 493; HDT’s “Maiden in the East,” 121; married Marston Watson, 228

  Saddleback Mountain (Mount Greylock, Adams, MA), 174, 271, 481

  Salem, MA, 260, 433; Hawthorne at, 324

  Salem Charitable Mechanic Association, 165

  Sales, Francis, 66

  Salvages (rock formation off Cape Ann, MA), 433

  Sanborn, Franklin B., 170, 360, 372–73, 375, 442, 448, 462, 497; antislavery activism of, 446–47, 453, 455; arrested and rescued (1860), 464–66; discovers Darwin, 458–59; first biographer of HDT, 372; ran school in Concord, 373, 463; took part in Harpers Ferry raid, 451, 562n114

  Sanborn, Sarah (Franklin’s sister), 464

  Sartor Resartus (Carlyle), 78

  Sattelmeyer, Robert, 519n41, 542n87, 546n60, 565–66n38

  science, 272, 274; HDT on, 306; HDT reads voraciously in, 308; HDT’s visceral feeling for, 288; importance of, to HDT, 228–30, 275; “quiet bravery” of, 132; science’s “mistake,” 426; scientist as poet, 307; value, for HDT, of Darwinian theory of natural selection, 457–60

  Scituate, MA, 103, 105, 106, 111–13, 309

  Scott, Sir Walter, 297

  scripture, 145, 274; allied with science, 274; HDT’s writing as, 191–92, 271, 355

  Sears, Rev. Edmund, 455

  “Secret Six” (John Brown supporters), 447

  Sedgwick, Catherine, 149

  self-culture, 87–88

  self-reliance, 82; “Self-Reliance” (RWE essay), 120

  Seneca Falls Convention, 320

  “Service, The” (HDT), 117

  Sewall, Caroline (Ward), 103

  Sewall, Edmund (Ellen’s brother), 100; HDT’s attraction to, 104

  Sewall, Ellen, 104, 124, 309, Fig. 28; courted by John, Jr., 111–12; HDT’s love for, 105; HDT’s rivalry with John over, 105; marriage to J. Osgood, 114; rejected John and HDT, 113–14

  Sewall, George, 104

  Sewall, Rev. Edmund Quincy (Ellen’s father), 113, 309

  Seward, William, 317

  Shackford, Charles C., 559n43

  shanties, of Irish laborers, 164, 187–90, 191

  Shattuck, Daniel, 46, 284

  Shattuck, Lemuel, 12, 398

  Shaw, Hon. Lemuel, 465

  shipwrecks: on Cape Cod, 276–78; at Fire Island, 290–94, 538n7

 

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