Old Days at Beverly Farms

by Mary Larcom Dow

Miss Ober was always a great reader, she chose the best books and kept in touch with the topics of the day. We all remember her long walks in the woods and fields, her delight in the first spring flowers and the song of the birds; she shared Bryant's regret in the autumn, but her winters were made cheerful by her hospitality at home. Friends were always dropping in to read, to sew or to have a good game of whist in the afternoon or evening.

Another quotation from "A New England Girlhood" seems appropriate here.

"The period of my growing up had peculiarities which our future history can never repeat, although something far better is undoubtedly already resulting thence. Those peculiarities were the natural development of the seed sown by our sturdy Puritan ancestry. The religion of our fathers overhung us children like the shadow of a mighty tree against the trunk of which we rested, while we looked up in wonder through the great boughs that half hid and half revealed the sky. Some of the boughs were already decaying, so that perhaps we began to see a little more of the sky than our elders; but the tree was sound at its heart. There was life in it that can never be lost to the world."

In reading this charming biography one is impressed with the strict doctrine under which Lucy Larcom was brought up. Miss Ober's theology was more liberal. The church at the Farms was established in 1829 under the auspices of the First Parish in Beverly, (Unitarian) it was called simply the "Christian Church" and it was some years before it became Baptist. Miss Ober was an active and devoted member of the church and a good helper in parish work.

It seems as if their common interest in the church and love for flowers must have first attracted her to Mr. James Beatty Dow, to whom she was married in 1889. Mr. Dow was a Scotchman with the virtues of that race. Of course he had a good education, he was a gardener by profession and a successful one. Beside his work for the church and the Sunday school he was interested in civic affairs; at one time he was representative at The Great and General Court and he was a member of the School Committee of Beverly.

Mrs. Dow did not give up her school until ten years after her marriage but she paid more attention in equally successful manner to housekeeping and social duties. Miss Miller, her friend from the days of the Wilmington School, was a constant and welcome guest. They loved books, they read and played together, they formed reading clubs to discuss works of importance and enjoyed poetry and good fiction. There were flashes of wit and a lightness of touch in Mrs. Dow's approach which were quite un-English, they may be attributed to her Larcom ancestry. The Larcoms were the La Combes of Languedoc, Huguenots who escaped to Wales, later moved to the Isle of Wight, and thence came to New England in the ship Hercules in 1640. The Obers came from Abbotsbury in England in early days, there is every reason to believe that they were also of Huguenot descent, by name "Auber," but this is not proved.

The years passed rapidly, the quiet life at the Farms broken by little excursions to the theatre, concerts and visits to friends in Boston, with occasional trips to the White Mountains, New York and other places. There were endless interests and accomplishments and enjoyments. The World War brought grief and tragedy and abounding opportunity for sympathy and action; by no one was a saner interest taken in all its phases than by Mary Dow.

As time passed and strength failed, Mrs. Dow never grew old; she joked about her "infirmities" but we did not see them. She mastered them and kept on in her lively active interests and duties to the end.

During the winter of 1919-20 Mr. Dow was very ill. His wife nursed him with too great devotion and her strength gave out. Mercifully, she was spared a long illness, she died on the eleventh of June, 1920. Mr. Dow lingered until the sixteenth of September.