John Greenleaf Whittier ... when I saw the photograph, I paused because something about the name was familiar, and I don't read much poetry. I looked behind me, on the bookshelf, and there it was; old, tattered and so well read it was hard to make out the title anymore, an 1871 copy of Whittier’s Poetical Works.
I’d found it in a second hand shop in the San Francisco Bay Area, 15 - 20 years ago. Before it belonged to me, it belonged to William Penn Deane.
It reads …
“Mrs. Olive W., wife of Wm Penn Dean, passed from earthly suffering to heavenly rest April 21, 1895. Mrs. Dean was born in Wilton, Me., March 10, 1852, being the daughter of the late Gardiner Chase, and the youngest of a family of four sons and three daughters. She was united in marriage with Mr. Dean Sept. 14, 1870, and for eighteen years they resided in Temple, after which they removed to Farmington. Mrs. Dean was a lady of rare sweetness of spirit, possessing in a marked degree the happy faculty of making many lasting friends wherever she went. It seemed the habit of her life to look on the bright side of things, and many have been blessed by her cheerful spirit, kindly words and loving helpful deeds. She was always ready to assist in every possible way those about her, and she strove to make home the most delightful spot on earth to her dear ones.
Last August she suffered an attack of la grippe, from which she never fully recovered and which resulted in consumption. Her sufferings, which have often been extreme, have been borne with remarkable patience and resignation, and the constant presence of her Saviour was her joy and support. As the hour of her departure drew near she was ready for the call of the Master, and commending her loved ones to the Comforter, she passed in holy triumph to be with Jesus. The funeral services were held at the residence and were attended by a large number of sympathizing neighbors and friends.
A faithful husband, an affectionate son and a daughter, three brothers and a wide circle of friends are saddened by the calling away in the midst of her usefulness one who was very dear to them, but they are assured that their present loss is her eternal gain.”
******
And on the very last page, Mr. Deane has glued another poem in. It is a poem I haven’t been able to find anywhere else but it is vaguely reminiscent of To Everything There is a Season.
The Reception Poem
The good Book says there’s a time for all things -
A time to keep silent, a time to sing.
A time to weep when friendships sever,
When you are sad and I am sad,
And we all are sad together.
But of all the time I never miss,
I enjoy most a time like this.
When words and smiles are like summer wreaths,
When you are glad and I am glad.
And we all are glad together.
Congratulations are in the air,
They lightly fall upon yonder pair -
Bride and bridegroom, one forever,
You wish them joy, I wish them joy
We all wish them joy together.
The bride on the schoolroom has turned her back,
Though success as a teacher she never did lack.
To instruct one pupil henceforth she’ll endeavor.
You wish them success. I wish them success.
We all wish them success together.
In their childhood homes they were joy and light,
With their voices of cheer and their smiles all bright
O, there are ties it is hard to sever!
You bless them, I bless them,
We all bless the together.
May their home be all that’s meant by the word,
Where love abides and children are heard.
May peace and contentment forsake them never.
Thus you pray, thus I pray,
Thus we all pray together.
May the hand of industry supply every need,
May all these friends prove true friends indeed.
Leaving them now in the hand of Our Father.
You say good-night, I say good-night,
We all say good-night together.
ERA.
Years ago I traced Wm. Penn Deane’s line back to his great great grandparents in Plymouth, Massachusetts. When I was finished, I folded the chart up and put it in the book. It's faded now and needs to be redone.
I searched to see, if all these years later, I could find anything more about Mr. Deane, but his first and middle name tend to complicate things by bringing up the wrong results. I do think he might be …
a school supervisor - William P. Deane in Temple, Maine in 1883.
I find the name of a teacher on one document curious; she is Grace Whittier. There is that name again.
The father of William Penn Deane (1842) was William Deane (1801); all I have been able to find out about him was he was a farmer, but the father of William Deane (1801) is Cyrus Deane (1766) and I did find something interesting about him in an article about gravestone carvers.
“Cyrus Deane was born in 1766 and died in 1856. He lived and worked in Taunton, Massachusetts. Deane may have learned to carve from an in-law, Ebenezer Winslow of Berkley, Massachusetts. He cross fertilized two completely different schools of carving as had Barney Leonard: Taunton River Basin and Plymouth County, producing very interesting winged effigies in the seventeen eighties. He was a skilled letterer. Upon his marriage in 1791, he moved to Maine where he lived and died. It is not known if he carved there.”
Source: Walker - Blake's Backgrounds of Identified Gravestone Carvers
There is a story here ... very possibly more than one. For now the cdv of John Greenleaf Whitter will go with the book and I will keep searching; hoping one day I’ll stumble across a photograph of
William Penn Deane
or
Olive Woodman Chase
And some well meaning soul will have written their names on the back.
Interesting
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