Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions — John H. Ingram, 1880, volume II — reading text

Thomas and William Poe were officers in Cromwell’s army, and Captain Thomas Pa, one of these brothers, “obtained grants of lands which were confirmed to him by Charles II. The greater number of his descendants can be traced, and one of them, Parsons Poe, went to America about one hundred and twenty years ago. He was heard from, for a few years after his arrival, but, after a while; nothing further was known of, or heard from him, so his family supposed he had died. He was descended maternally from the ‘Percys’ and the ‘Parsons’ of Birr Castle.”† “There is no good reason,” says John P. Poe, Esq., of Baltimore,” to suppose that the ancestors of Edgar A. Poe were descended from the Le Poers. John Poe, the progenitor of the family in America, emigrated from the north of Ireland, a number of years before the Revolution, and purchased a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, whence he afterwards removed to Cecil County, Maryland. At the time of the Revolution he was residing at Baltimore. His wife was Jane McBride, believed to be a sister knot a daughter, as frequently stated) of James McBride, Admiral of the Blue, and M. P. for Plymouth in 1755.”* John Poe’s age is not given, but his wife is said to have died in Baltimore, at the age of one hundred and six, and to have been buried in Westminster Churchyard.† In an account furnished by Mrs. Clemm (Edgar Poe’s aunt) of the poet’s ancestry, she states, “My father was born in Ireland, but his parents left there when he was only six weeks old, and he was so patriotic that he never would acknowledge he was any other than an American. He lived in Baltimore from the time of the Revolution; he took my mother there from Pennsylvania, a bride.” David Poe, the son of John, is stated by Mrs. Clemm to have married a Pennsylvanian beauty of the name of Cairnes, and to have removed with her to Maryland, where he settled in Baltimore, and became a prominent citizen, taking part in various patriotic labours, as may be seen by reference to Colonel Scharfs “Chronicles of Baltimore,” and other works of research. During the War of Independence David Poe greatly distinguished himself, and received the appointment of Quartermaster of the American forces in Baltimore. Mr. Didier states that in this position Poe, when the State funds were exhausted, frequently advanced money from his own private means, and, indeed, rendered such pecuniary aid to the State that he was ultimately ruined through it Be this as it may, in 1780, and the next few years, he is found to have purchased several lout of land in Baltimore, and to have been, apparently, a man of considerable wealth. Portions of the correspondence of General Poe — as he was usually styled after the war — with various distinguished Americans of the period, have been, preserved in the archives of Maryland, and will be found in Colonel Scharf’s work. General Poe, despite his foreign birth, was a most ardent patriot, and omitted no opportunity of manifesting his zeal for his adopted nationality. In 1781, when La Fayette halted in Baltimore, on his way to join the army of the South, a ball was given in his honour. During the festivities, it is related that the French general appeared melancholy, and upon being asked the reason of his depression, said that he could not enjoy the gaiety whilst his men were suffering so much for want of clothing. The hint was taken, and the neat morning the ball room was converted into a work-room; the citizens furnishing the needed materials, and the ladies making them up. Mrs. David Poe, it is said, personally cut out and superintended the manufacture of fire hundred garments, and her husband gave $500 towards their cost. For this graceful act of the Baltimorean ladies, La Fayette sent them a letter of thanks, dated July 3rd, 1781, which is duly given in full in Colonel Scharf’s “Chronicles.” When revisiting Baltimore in 1824, La Fayette referred in grateful terms to the kindness he and his troops had received from the Poe family, and on learning that General Poe was dead he paid a visit of respect to his widow. General Poe had several children, the eldest of whom was David Poet junior, father of the future poet; the second, George, whose descendants still live in Maryland; Stephen, who died on the Jersey Prison Ship during the War of Independence; William, who emigrated to the State of Georgia, where his descendants, one of whom is the Hon. Washington Poe of Macar, have filled many important posts;* and to these may be added, Maria, who became the second wife of William Clemm, a well-known citizen of Baltimore, and mother of Virginia, Edgar Allan Poe’s cousin and bride. Samuel Poe, a notable oddity of Baltimore nearly half a century ago, is also said to have been a son of General Poe. Many of this youth’s vagaries are still remembered, and some have even found their way into print. Of one of his practical jokes, a much-esteemed correspondent sends the following amusing account: — “At the time Samuel Poe was a youth, the Baltimorean Germans, who were not many in number, and were rather despised, raised a volunteer company they called ‘Die Jäger,’ which was generally referred to as ‘the Dutch Yagers.’ These honest ‘Dutchmen’ Poe selected as his especial butts. When they went out parading Poe would muster a lot of mischievous gamins, and march in their rear, sometimes giving orders in broken English, and sometimes chanting a doggerel canticle of his own composition, of which these are two couplets: “ ‘Ven you hears te great pig trum, Den you sees te Yagers come; Ven tey turns te corner apout, Den you schmells te sauer kraut.’ “This doggerel the boys used to sing in chorus, Poe strutting at their head like a drum-major, to the great mirth of the public. When they reached the place of parade Poe would halt his troop (followed by hundreds of spectators), and would burlesque the call of the roll, with the answers car excuses for absence; would inspect the company, would command manœuvres, &c., all in the wildest burlesque, to the infinite delight of his boys and a malicious public, but to the inexpressible anguish of the poor ‘Dutchmen.’ At last they could stand it no longer, and had Poe up to court. The charge was preferred, and the court asked Poe what he had to say. The youth, with the greatest gravity, said he was only indulging in a little innocent mirth that harmed nobody and did not disturb the peace; that the boys liked to see the ‘Yagers’ parade, and he put himself at their head to infuse a little military spirit into them; that as for his song, it was quite inoffensive, as their Honours could judge for themselves when he repeated it. And he then began intoning his famous chant, at which the court fairly broke down with laughter, and dismissed the case.” *  Mrs. Whitman was by birth a Power, and liked to consider herself as descended from the same ancestry as Poe. — J. H. I. †  Letter from James Jocelyn Poë, Esq., representative of the Riverston Poës. November 17th, 1875. — J. H. I. *  In letter dated May 1st, 1875. — J. H. I. †  E. L. Didier. “Life of Edgar A. Poe,” p. 21 . *  Letters from John P. Poe, Esq., of Baltimore. — J. H. I. John H. Ingram, “Appendix B,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. 253-255 APPENDIX B. WILLIAM HENRY LEONARD POE. INCIDENTS as romantic and contradictory as those related of his illustrious brother are told of William Henry Leonard Poe. The facts known of his life are few: he was the earliest born child of David Poe, junior, and Elizabeth his wife. The date of his birth is uncertain, but Mrs. Clemm states that he was the first grandchild born to her parents, and that it was for his sake that they became reconciled to his father, their eldest son, with whom they had quarrelled on account of his imprudent marriage and theatrical proclivities. It is very probable that the boy’s grandparents adopted the child from its earliest infancy, as is stated by Mrs. Clemm and some of the poet’s biographers; but Mr. E. L. Didier, in his “Life of Edgar A. Poe,” says, when “Henry’s” parents died, he “was taken to Baltimore, and educated by his godfather, Mr. Henry Didier, whose counting-room he subsequently entered.”* “William,” writes Mr. John P. Poe, his cousin, “died early. He was a man of taste and genius, and wrote many fugitive verses, which have been lost, but which are said to have exhibited poetical power of a high order.” And again, “The verses of William Poe are said to have had great merit, but we fear there is no prospect of recovering any of them. He died very early.”* Mr. R. H. Stoddard, in a sketch of Edgar Poe’s life, states that William Henry Leonard, “is described by those who knew him as possessing great personal beauty, and as much genius as Edgar!” (The italics are ours.) “He wrote verses,” continues Mr. S., “which were printed in the Minerva, a small weekly paper published in Baltimore; he was a clerk in a lottery office in that city; and he was not averse to the flowing bowl. This last circumstance, joined to his rejection as a lover, was probably the cause of his going to sea, and his subsequent ‘sailor’s scrape’ at St. Petersburg — for it was no more — out of which the dangerous and desperate adventure of his famous brother was manufactured.” This last allusion is to a story told by Griswold, and his copyists, of Edgar Poe having to be rescued by the American Minister to Russia, “from penalties incurred in a drunken debauch” at St. Petersburg. The entire legend is a fair sample of those fabricated about the famous poet: he never was in Russia, nor, in all probability, was his brother William. Mr. Eugene Schuyler, the well-known author, and formerly Secretary to the American Legation at St. Petersburg, kindly undertook to have the books and papers of the Legation and Consulate in the Russian capital, referring to the only possible period in which the incident could have occurred,† searched for us, and reports, with reference to the alleged ministerial intervention, “I find no record whatever of that circumstance.” But William Poe was in the navy, and might, therefore, have been to Russia, so it is fairly safe to transfer the anecdote to his shoulders, accordingly, Mr. Didier says of him, “He was very clever, but wild and erratic. Having quarrelled with his patron, Henry (sic) Poe determined to go to Greece, and fight for the cause to which the death of Byron had attracted the attention of the world. Young Poe arrived in time to participate in the last battles of the war. On the 24th of September 1829, the Sultan acknowledged the independence of Greece. . . . Poe accompanied the Russian troops to St. Petersburg, where he soon got into trouble and into prison. He was released by the interposition of the Hon. A. Middleton, the American Minister, who had him sent to the port of Riga, and placed on a vessel bound for Baltimore. Six months after returning home, Henry Poe died, at the early age of twenty-six,* leaving behind him the reputation of great but wasted talents.” *  Henry was his second Christian name; he was, apparently, named William, after his father’s brother. — J. H. I. *  Letters of May 2st and October 2nd, 1875 — J. H I. †  From 1820 to 30. During the time that Mr. Middleton was minister. — E. Schuyler. *  Mr. Didier avers that Poe’s parents were not married until. “the spring of 1806,” and within six months after the decease of a former husband of the lady. If such were the case, William Henry Leonard Poe must have been born from two to three years before his putative parents’ marriage, and could scarcely have had David Poe as his father: it would appear not improbable that Mr. Didier has mistaken some other scion of the family for William H. L. Poe, the poet’s brother. — J. H. I. John H. Ingram, “Appendix C,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. 256-257 APPENDIX C. ROSALIE M. POE. OF Edgar Poe’s sister, Rosalie M. Poe, little need be said.