JULIA WARD HOWEJULIA WARD HOWE(1819-1910)"We all are architects of fate,Working in these walls of time,Some with massive deeds and great,Some with ornaments of rhyme."—Henry W. LongfellowJulia Ward Howe was born May 27, 1819, in New York City. Her father, Samuel Ward, was a wealthy banker, and her mother a descendant of the Marions of South Carolina, being a grand-niece of General Marion.Both parents came from families of refined and scholarly tastes, and little Julia directly inherited her love of good books. Her mother died at an early age, leaving six little children, Julia, the fourth, being then only five years old.Julia, who from babyhood had given promise of superior intellectual attainments, received special attention from her father. Mr. Ward was anxious that she should know the joy which only true knowledge and right living can give. He did not wish her to become merely a fashionable girl with no thought of doing anything in life but amuse herself. Every advantage was given her, therefore, for reading, and the best teachers in music, German, and Italian were selected for her.Julia well repaid this care. She showed great fondness for books, and at nine years of age was studying Paley'sMoral Philosophyin a class with girls twice her age. At fourteen, she was an accomplished musician. Her friends thought she should devote her life to music, but she was equally fond of literature. At sixteen she wrote her first poem. Her brother, Samuel Ward, Jr., shared in all her tastes, and together the brother and sister enjoyed the society of the most noted musicians and literary men and women of the day, the poet Longfellow being one of their closest friends.The death of their beloved father brought a change in the home, and the family went to live with an uncle, Mr. John Ward. Julia continued to spend her time in the cultivation of her mind and in the enjoyment of the fine arts. She excelled in the study of the German language, reading Goethe, Schiller, Swedenborg, Kant, and other great German poetsand philosophers, and translating much of their work. She wrote many verses and began to dream of publishing a play.In Boston, Julia Ward was a welcome addition to the circle of distinguished literary people then living there. She met Margaret Fuller, Horace Mann, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson. All were charmed with the brilliant and intellectual young woman from New York. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a philanthropist and reformer, was one of this delightful group.Dr. Howe, a graduate of Brown University, was deeply interested in the Greek War for Independence. He went to Greece to offer his services as a surgeon and for the purpose of organizing hospitals, but later took such an active part in the war that he endeared himself to the Greeks for his assistance and sympathy. Contracting a fever, however, he was obliged to leave Greece for a better climate. For some time he traveled abroad, studying and attending lectures.But to help others was his sole object in life. At that time there were no schools for the blind in the United States. Through Dr. Howe's influence, men of wealth became interested in this matter and helped him to establish such a school. Going again to Europe,to investigate such schools in foreign lands, he was temporarily turned aside from his project by the condition of Poland, oppressed as it then was by Prussia. In consequence of the assistance he gave this unhappy country, he was arrested, and imprisoned for some time.All the world knows now of Dr. Howe through his kindness to Laura Bridgman, a child, who at the age of two years, and before she had learned to speak, became blind and deaf through a severe illness. When she was about eight, Dr. Howe took her into his home and taught her to read, write, do needlework, and play the piano. His success with Laura was so great that he, later, gave almost his entire energy to work for feeble-minded children and in this accomplished many wonderful results.Dr. Howe fell in love with Julia Ward. Two such souls could hardly meet and not love each other. Though he was eighteen years older than she, similar tastes and aims naturally united them.Their marriage took place when Julia was twenty-four years of age. Soon after the wedding, Dr. and Mrs. Howe made an extensive tour of Europe. For five months they lived in Rome, where their first child was born.On their return to Boston, Dr. Howe bought a large estate near the Institute for the Blind, of which he was a Director, and in this happy home were born five more children. While a devoted mother, Mrs. Howe still found time to continue her studies, reading the Latin poets and the German philosophers, and all the while writing essays and poems for the magazines.At the age of thirty-five she published her first volume of poems entitledPassion Flowers, and two years later, another calledWords for the Hour. She also assisted her husband in editing theBoston Commonwealth, an anti-slavery newspaper, for in this cause both became leaders, being associated with Garrison, Sumner, Phillips, Higginson, and Theodore Parker.In 1862, Mrs. Howe published in theAtlantic Monthlyher best known poem,Battle Hymn of the Republic. This inspiring hymn reached the prisoners in Libby Prison through Chaplain McCabe, who sang it to celebrate a victory of the Union troops. After Chaplain McCabe was released from prison, and while he was lecturing in Washington, he narrated this incident. This attracted the attention of the public, so that the beautiful hymn soon becamepopular throughout the country. Later, it became the battle cry of the Union army, being sung by the men as they marched into action.When Colonel T. W. Higginson urged Mrs. Howe to sign a call for a Woman Suffrage Convention to be held in Boston, she not only signed, but attended the Convention, and later became intimately associated with the movement, often making speeches on the subject.She was a delegate to the Congress for Prison Reform in England, where, besides speaking earnestly against the flogging of prisoners, she also urged arbitration as the means of settling international disputes. In her own country, she organized the Women's Peace Festival, with the object of turning the attention of women to the horrors and needlessness of war. Thus we find this remarkable woman always in the van of progress and generally much ahead of her time.In 1876, after a brief illness, Dr. Howe died. Mrs. Howe then took her daughter Maud to Europe, where she remained for two years, trying by travel to dull the sharp edge of her affliction. It was at this time that Mrs. Howe took up the study of Greek, in which she became very proficient, and the study of which she kept up until her last illness.For a long period of years Mrs. Howe lectured andwrote on subjects which concerned the social improvement of mankind.Almost her last appearance in public was at the reception given to the representatives of twenty-seven nations by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. Mrs. Howe read an original poem written for the occasion. While she read, the entire audience stood respectfully, and as she sat down, all joined in singing theBattle Hymn of the Republic. Her really last appearance in public was but two weeks before her death, at the inauguration of the second president of Smith College, at which function she was given the degree of LL. D.Mrs. Howe died October 18, 1910, at her country place in Portsmouth. She will long be remembered for her work in the anti-slavery cause and for the advancement of woman, for her literary merits, and for her beautiful domestic life.
JULIA WARD HOWE
JULIA WARD HOWE
(1819-1910)
"We all are architects of fate,Working in these walls of time,Some with massive deeds and great,Some with ornaments of rhyme."—Henry W. Longfellow
"We all are architects of fate,Working in these walls of time,Some with massive deeds and great,Some with ornaments of rhyme."—Henry W. Longfellow
"We all are architects of fate,Working in these walls of time,Some with massive deeds and great,Some with ornaments of rhyme."—Henry W. Longfellow
"We all are architects of fate,
Working in these walls of time,
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme."
—Henry W. Longfellow
Julia Ward Howe was born May 27, 1819, in New York City. Her father, Samuel Ward, was a wealthy banker, and her mother a descendant of the Marions of South Carolina, being a grand-niece of General Marion.
Both parents came from families of refined and scholarly tastes, and little Julia directly inherited her love of good books. Her mother died at an early age, leaving six little children, Julia, the fourth, being then only five years old.
Julia, who from babyhood had given promise of superior intellectual attainments, received special attention from her father. Mr. Ward was anxious that she should know the joy which only true knowledge and right living can give. He did not wish her to become merely a fashionable girl with no thought of doing anything in life but amuse herself. Every advantage was given her, therefore, for reading, and the best teachers in music, German, and Italian were selected for her.
Julia well repaid this care. She showed great fondness for books, and at nine years of age was studying Paley'sMoral Philosophyin a class with girls twice her age. At fourteen, she was an accomplished musician. Her friends thought she should devote her life to music, but she was equally fond of literature. At sixteen she wrote her first poem. Her brother, Samuel Ward, Jr., shared in all her tastes, and together the brother and sister enjoyed the society of the most noted musicians and literary men and women of the day, the poet Longfellow being one of their closest friends.
The death of their beloved father brought a change in the home, and the family went to live with an uncle, Mr. John Ward. Julia continued to spend her time in the cultivation of her mind and in the enjoyment of the fine arts. She excelled in the study of the German language, reading Goethe, Schiller, Swedenborg, Kant, and other great German poetsand philosophers, and translating much of their work. She wrote many verses and began to dream of publishing a play.
In Boston, Julia Ward was a welcome addition to the circle of distinguished literary people then living there. She met Margaret Fuller, Horace Mann, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson. All were charmed with the brilliant and intellectual young woman from New York. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a philanthropist and reformer, was one of this delightful group.
Dr. Howe, a graduate of Brown University, was deeply interested in the Greek War for Independence. He went to Greece to offer his services as a surgeon and for the purpose of organizing hospitals, but later took such an active part in the war that he endeared himself to the Greeks for his assistance and sympathy. Contracting a fever, however, he was obliged to leave Greece for a better climate. For some time he traveled abroad, studying and attending lectures.
But to help others was his sole object in life. At that time there were no schools for the blind in the United States. Through Dr. Howe's influence, men of wealth became interested in this matter and helped him to establish such a school. Going again to Europe,to investigate such schools in foreign lands, he was temporarily turned aside from his project by the condition of Poland, oppressed as it then was by Prussia. In consequence of the assistance he gave this unhappy country, he was arrested, and imprisoned for some time.
All the world knows now of Dr. Howe through his kindness to Laura Bridgman, a child, who at the age of two years, and before she had learned to speak, became blind and deaf through a severe illness. When she was about eight, Dr. Howe took her into his home and taught her to read, write, do needlework, and play the piano. His success with Laura was so great that he, later, gave almost his entire energy to work for feeble-minded children and in this accomplished many wonderful results.
Dr. Howe fell in love with Julia Ward. Two such souls could hardly meet and not love each other. Though he was eighteen years older than she, similar tastes and aims naturally united them.
Their marriage took place when Julia was twenty-four years of age. Soon after the wedding, Dr. and Mrs. Howe made an extensive tour of Europe. For five months they lived in Rome, where their first child was born.
On their return to Boston, Dr. Howe bought a large estate near the Institute for the Blind, of which he was a Director, and in this happy home were born five more children. While a devoted mother, Mrs. Howe still found time to continue her studies, reading the Latin poets and the German philosophers, and all the while writing essays and poems for the magazines.
At the age of thirty-five she published her first volume of poems entitledPassion Flowers, and two years later, another calledWords for the Hour. She also assisted her husband in editing theBoston Commonwealth, an anti-slavery newspaper, for in this cause both became leaders, being associated with Garrison, Sumner, Phillips, Higginson, and Theodore Parker.
In 1862, Mrs. Howe published in theAtlantic Monthlyher best known poem,Battle Hymn of the Republic. This inspiring hymn reached the prisoners in Libby Prison through Chaplain McCabe, who sang it to celebrate a victory of the Union troops. After Chaplain McCabe was released from prison, and while he was lecturing in Washington, he narrated this incident. This attracted the attention of the public, so that the beautiful hymn soon becamepopular throughout the country. Later, it became the battle cry of the Union army, being sung by the men as they marched into action.
When Colonel T. W. Higginson urged Mrs. Howe to sign a call for a Woman Suffrage Convention to be held in Boston, she not only signed, but attended the Convention, and later became intimately associated with the movement, often making speeches on the subject.
She was a delegate to the Congress for Prison Reform in England, where, besides speaking earnestly against the flogging of prisoners, she also urged arbitration as the means of settling international disputes. In her own country, she organized the Women's Peace Festival, with the object of turning the attention of women to the horrors and needlessness of war. Thus we find this remarkable woman always in the van of progress and generally much ahead of her time.
In 1876, after a brief illness, Dr. Howe died. Mrs. Howe then took her daughter Maud to Europe, where she remained for two years, trying by travel to dull the sharp edge of her affliction. It was at this time that Mrs. Howe took up the study of Greek, in which she became very proficient, and the study of which she kept up until her last illness.
For a long period of years Mrs. Howe lectured andwrote on subjects which concerned the social improvement of mankind.
Almost her last appearance in public was at the reception given to the representatives of twenty-seven nations by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. Mrs. Howe read an original poem written for the occasion. While she read, the entire audience stood respectfully, and as she sat down, all joined in singing theBattle Hymn of the Republic. Her really last appearance in public was but two weeks before her death, at the inauguration of the second president of Smith College, at which function she was given the degree of LL. D.
Mrs. Howe died October 18, 1910, at her country place in Portsmouth. She will long be remembered for her work in the anti-slavery cause and for the advancement of woman, for her literary merits, and for her beautiful domestic life.