EMMELINE LARCOM.
In Lucy Larcom’s touching poem, “My Childhood’s Enchantress,” will be found a loving tribute to this mother-sister, to whom she owed so much in her youth and all through her life. It was she who first taught Lucy the use of the pen, and encouraged and helped her in all her literary efforts. She was the oldest own sister of Lucy, is the “Emelie” in the “New England Girlhood,” and to her Lucy wrote almost her first, certainly her first printed, letter, in 1834, just after their mother had moved to Lowell. This is from her autobiography, printed in The Lowell Offering. She says:—
“Dear Sister,—We have got a sink in our front entry. We live in a three-story brick block, with fourteen doors in it. There is a canal close by. But no more of this. We arrived safe after our fatiguing journey. We are in good health, and hope you enjoy the same blessing.”
In writing of her to me, Lucy says:—
“I was transplanted quite early in my childhood, and grew through girlhood and womanhood under her care. The ten or twelve years of my residence there were certainly very important years to me. My natural bent towards literature was more encouraged and developed at Lowell than it would probably have been elsewhere; and I have always called the place a home in remembrance.... We were often writing to each other, and there never was any break to our affection since my childhood. I think she was almost a perfect woman.”
I remember Emmeline as a motherly young woman whom the rest of us looked up to, as one much superior to ourselves; and, in recalling her influence over her younger companions, I think she must have done a great deal towards inciting them to learn to think on earnest subjects, and to express their thoughts in writing. She was tall and stately, with curling hair, and was much prettier than Lucy; she had a face full of sunshine, and, like Lucy, the bluest of blue eyes. She was conspicuous among the group of the original writers for The Lowell Offering, as well as The Operatives’ Magazine.
She was an enthusiastic student, reading abstruse books in the intervals of mill-work, and so becoming familiar with mental and moral science; or she would study mathematical problems, of which she usually had one or two pinned up before her, to occupy her thoughts at her daily toil. The Rev. Amos Blanchard, a very scholarly man, said of her that she was the most intellectual woman in his church, of which she was also one of the most faithful and self-sacrificing members, giving herself unreservedly to all good works.
She married the Rev. George Spaulding, and with her husband and her sister Lucy went, in 1846, to Illinois, and spent the greater part of her life there, as a clergyman’s wife, useful, happy, and beloved.
She did not write much after her marriage, and, as she said, would not consider herself an “authoress” at all. She died in Newcastle, Cal., July 17, 1892, leaving her husband, one son, and three daughters. The manner of her death was most enviable. As Lucy wrote me, “she made herself ready for church, but it was heaven for her instead.”
At my request Lucy wrote to Emmeline, not long before her death, asking for her recollections of The Lowell Offering times; and she replied as follows:—
Newcastle, Cal., May 27, 1892.
Dear Sister Lucy,—I have been stirring up my treacherous old memory, hoping to respond to the request of Mrs. Robinson for accurate items in regard to the “Improvement Circle of our girlhood.”... I am very sure indeed that I was an interested and original promoter of it. It seems to me that Harriot Curtis might have suggested it. She was the most intellectual person in my circle of acquaintance at that time. We worked in the same room, and near each other, long before the Improvement Circle had an existence.... She was a mental stimulus to me, and we freely discussed all subjects that came to hand. I think ... that Louisa and Maria Currier, who were Universalists, and Laura and Mary Ann Spaulding, who were Baptists, were among the first members. If I recollect rightly, also Abby Goddard and Lydia Hall.... We had essays and discussions. I was not present at the meeting at Mr. Currier’s. I think Mr. Thomas was invited there, and the “Circle” was probably invited to meet at the Universalist vestry. The first Offering made its appearance soon after.
I had “A Sister’s Tomb” and an article commencing, “Oh, you have no soul,” and one other, in the first series.
I did not attend any of the meetings at the Universalist vestry, so am unable to say who suggested The Offering. I should think it very likely that Mr. Thomas might have been the one to do so. But the writers had been developed before he knew them. I am quite sure he was much interested in it. I remember that he complimented my verses as the gem of the number.... It was very soon after this that some of us began another Circle-meeting in the vestry of the Congregational church; and out of that grew The Operatives’ Magazine.... I think, as you do, that very much has been made of what was to us a mere recreation, and the most natural thing in the world for a circle of wide-awake, earnest girls to do.... Nearly sixty years have passed since those days; but they are pleasant to remember, and I suspect they held the prophecies of many a pleasant future, of which it might be interesting to know the fulfilment. I did think I should be able to do better, and perhaps write a page for Mrs. Robinson; but you see how I have not succeeded.... Here endeth, with love,
Big old Sister Emmeline.