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Henry D. Thoreau:
Obituaries
Salem
Observer, 10 May 1862
Death of Henry D. Thoreau. We regret to notice the death of this charming
writer at Concord on Wednesday. The Transcript remarks that his disease was
consumption, and his last hours were among the calmest of his life. Thus has
passed away one of the most original thinkers our country has produced. His
works will always be read with profound attention, as no man ever lived
closer to Nature, and reported her secrets more eloquently. His “Walden”
and “Week on the Concord River” are striking marks of his genius. A
writer in the April “Atlantic Monthly,” in an article called “The
Forester,” gives a fine estimate of the rich qualities of his mind, and
now that the “white-winged reaper” has come to bear him hence, that
paper will be studied with a new interest. Henry Thoreau’s place in
American literature is among the best.
National Almanac and Annual Record, 1863
THOREAU, DAVID HENRY, died in Concord,
Mass., May 6. He was born in that town, July 12, 1817, graduated at Harvard College in
1837, taught school for three years altogether, was a member of the family of Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and, after giving up teaching, supported himself by manual labor as a farmer,
pencil-maker, painter, surveyor, and carpenter. He made frequent pedestrian excursions to
the woods and mountains of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, &c., lived for more than
two years in a solitary hut constructed by himself in the woods near Concord, acquired
considerable fame as an eccentric philosopher, and was the author of two remarkable
works,—“A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers” (1849), and
“Walden; or, Life in the Woods” (1854), and some posthumous works since
published. He was never married.
Harvard Alumni Necrology (1864)
[Class of] 1837.—David Henry Thoreau
died in Concord, Mass., 6 May, 1862, aged 44 years. He was son of John and Cynthia
(Dunbar) Thoreau, and was born in Concord, 12 July, 1817. His father, who was a
pencil-maker, son of John and Jeannie (Burns) Thoreau, was born in Boston. His grandfather
came from St. Helier, on the Island of Jersey, and was of French origin. A Burns left
property in Sterling, Scotland, to his wife, the said Jeannie Burns, and said it was worth
attending to; but the papers to obtain it, though three attempts were made, never reached
Scotland. This was about fifty years ago. His grandfather had a brother Philip in the
Island of Jersey. he was a cooper; but business was dull; and he shipped as a sailor on
board a vessel in which John Adams went to France, in the American revolution. He came to
this country about 1773. After the termination of the war, he went into business at No.
45, Long Wharf, Boston, in a very small way, in company with a Mr. Phillips, under the
firm of Thoreau and Phillips. He accumulated a large property, and removed to Concord,
where he died of consumption about one year afterwards, in consequence of a cold caught in
patrolling the streets in Boston, in a heavy rain in the night, when a Catholic riot was
expected, about 1801. His first wife died not long before he did; and he married a Miss
Kettle, of Concord, sometimes spelled Kettell, by whom he had no children. Mr.
Thoreau’s mother was daughter of Asa and Mary (Jones) Dunbar and was born in Keene,
N.H. Her mother belonged to the Jones family of Weston. Her father, Rev. Asa Dunbar (H.C.
1767), was a minister in Salem, and afterwards a lawyer in Keene, an eminent freemason;
died 22 june, 1787, aged 42 years, and was buried with masonic honors. Young Thoreau was
fitted for college at Concord Academy by Phineas Allen (H.C. 1825). While in college, he
kept school six weeks in Canton, and boarded with Orestes A. Brownson. They studied the
German reader together very industriously, and talked philosophy till eleven o’clock,
nights. Thoreau became sick, and was obliged to leave his school. This was in his junior
year. After graduating, he taught the public school a few weeks; then a private school in
Concord two or three years. Not long afterwards, he spent six months as a private tutor in
the family of William Emerson (H.C. 1818), on Staten Island, N.Y. For two years at one
time, and one year at another, he was a member of the family of Ralph Waldo Emerson (H.C.
1821) in Concord. With the exception of the six months at Staten Island, he resided
constantly in Concord, leading chiefly an agricultural and literary life; supporting
himself by his own hands, being a pencil-maker; often employed as a painter, surveyor, and
carpenter. Nearly every year, he made an excursion on foot to the woods and mountains in
Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and other places. For two years and two months
continuously, he lived by himself in a small house or hut of his own building, about a
mile and a half from Concord village. He was well known to the public as the author of two
remarkable books, “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,” published in
1849; and “Walden, or Life in the Woods,” published in 1854. These books have
never had a wide circulation, but are well known to the best readers, and have exerted a
powerful influence on an important class of earnest and contemplative persons. He led the
life of a philosopher, subordinating all other pursuits and so-called duties to his
pursuit of knowledge, and to his own estimate of duty. He was a man of firm mind and
direct dealing; never disconcerted, and not to be turned, by any inducement, from his own
course. He had a penetrating insight into men with whom he conversed, and was not to be
deceived or used by any party, and did not conceal his disgust at any duplicity. As he was
incapable of the least dishonesty or untruth, he had nothing to hide; and kept his haughty
independence to the end. He was never married.
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A
Note on the Text: Source: Joseph
Palmer, Necrology of
Alumni of Harvard College, 1851-52 to 1862-63 (Boston: John Wilson and
Son, 1864) pp. 430-432.
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