Wellesley College - Legenda Yearbook (Wellesley, MA)

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Fowle and his wife were reputed to be the handsomest bride and groom ever married in Newton; and their eight children, especially three of the daughters, were famed for extraor- dinary- beauty- It is said that the father would sometimes steal out of the house and close the blinds to shelter his three Graces, as they sewed or read by the window, from the lingering looks of the passers-by. The standing toast through Middlesex County was the couplet, origi- nating with Robert Treat Paine, — To the fair of every town, And the Fowle of Watertown. ' It was on many accounts a remarkable family, and one of peculiar interest to Wellesley College. The mother, Mary Cooke of Newton, was the daughter of Abigail Durant of Newton, from whom our founders take their name, and the sister of Susanna Cooke, who married Dr. Walter Hunnewell of Watertown, a Harvard graduate of 17S7, these being the parents of our neighbor across Waban. The youngest Miss Fowle, the all-admired Adeline, married Mr. Samuel Welles, who came to be the leading American banker in Paris. Mr. Welles was born in Natick, and from his father ' s family the town of Wellesley received its name. A sister of Mr. Welles, tiie banker at Paris, married her first cousin, Arnold Welles of Boston; and the Welles estate, now enlarged and known as the Hunnewell estate, was inherited by their daughter, the late wife of the present proprietor. But we must not let these fascinating Fowles fly away with us. Our concern is not with the beautiful Charlotte, who married Benjamin Wiggin, a successful American banker resident in London ; nor with the gentle Maria, whose husband dreamed of the burning of Moscow at the verv time wlien the conflagration was in progress; nor with the gallant young midshipman who fell in a duel with a British naval officer; nor with the graceful Eliza, who was said to be the only woman in Boston who could wear the long shawl elegantly; nor with the dazzling Adeline of Paris and Versailles, who, after the death of her husband, Mr. Welles the banker, married the Marquis de La Valelte, a diplomat who rose under Napoleon III. to be Minister of Foreign Affairs, and, later, Ambassador to the Court of St. James. But there are two of this brilliant household group in whom Wellesley has ever) ' right to be interested : Harriet, most intellectual of all the children, a passionate lover of books, the soul of honor, impulsive and imperious, with an irresistible charm of her own, who became the mother of Mr. Durant; and John, the Major Fowle already mentioned, who became the father of Mrs. Durant. Major Fowle was a man of two-score years when he made the acquaintance of Miss Cazenove. He had served in the War of 1S12 on the New York frontier, and had taken part, 13

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other leading citizens of Geneva sufTering the samfe outrage. Not all of the Genevan aris- tocrats were so fortunate as the Cazenoves, who were acquitted and released, their reputation for goodness standing them in stead. Recognizing the precariousness of the times, and seeing the business of the city in confusion, they escaped to Holland, and thence to America. In Philadelphia the brothers met two sisters resident in that city, although natives of Balti- more, whom they afterwards married. Mrs. Durant ' s grandmother was Hogan bv name, of Scotch-Irish extraction, of American birth, of the Roman Catholic faith, — yielding in later life to the Protestant, — and of culture quite exceptional for the women of her day. The perfection of her French is a family tradi- tion and example. She was an excellent Latin scholar, trained by her father, a teacher of eminence, and she was widely read in history ' and literature. Her husband, in facing the rude American conditions of a century ago, displayed the characteristic energy and enterprise of his family. This young Swiss refugee, in company with the Hon. Albert Gallatin, carried the first millstones across the Alleghanies, established flouring mills in the backwoods of Western Pennsylvania, and set up at Uniontovvn the first glassworks in this coimtrv. John Jacob Astor oflered him partnership in his great fur venture ; but ]Mr. Cazenove decided to try his fortunes as a shipping merchant, and would gladly have settled in Philadelphia, then the most considerable seaport of the United States. He was deterred, however, by the ravages of yellow fever there, his wife ' s younger brother being among the victims. The horror of this pestilence, as it raged throughout Philadelphia and New York at intervals during the last decade of the preceding century, may still be realized from the graphic descriptions of our first American novelist. Reading Charles Brockilen Brown ' s Arthur Mervyn, or Ormond, one does not wonder that ]Mr. Cazenove .sought a safer home in Alex- andria, Virginia. The five sons and five daughters who in time enriched the household had the benefit of unusuallv good schools, kept, in part, by women from Massachusetts. Mrs. Diuant ' s mother received her earlier education in these, but was sent, like her sisters, to Mme. Greleaud ' s boai ' ding school in Philadelphia, for the accomplishments, while the brothers were despatched to Geneva. On a visit to Boston, in the winter of 1S30, Miss Pauline Cazenove, singularly fair and winning, met Major Fowle, of the United States Army, and after some months consented to become his wife. The Fowles of Watertown were no less interesting a familv than the Cazenoves of Alex- andria. Captain John Fowle, of English descent, had done good senice in the War of the Revolution, which swept away most of his propertv, together with that of man} ' another patriot. He was a man of lofty principles, not only hating evil, but despising it. Captain

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witli tliat illustrious corps known as Scott ' s ]5rigade, in the Niagara Campaign, remaining at the head of his company through the battle of Lundy ' s Lane, regardless of the wound he had received early in the action. He was much engaged, later, in the Indian wars on the frontier, in Arkansas and Minnesota. He was, like his father, a man of purest integrity, his nickname being Honest Jack. A strict disciplinarian, he was a commander who could command him- self. Card-playing, for instance, had been an accustomed pastime at home, but as soon as he noted its demoralizing effect upon the soldiers in garrison, he woidd no longer allow it either to his men or to himself. He made it understood that he counted it an aHVont to he invited to a card party; and so resolute and consistent was his opposition to cai ' ds in garrison, tliat his superior officers were embarrassed to be discovered b3- him in a game. There was nothing petty in his natme. Even the keeping of accounts was given up by him, because he would not, as he said, attach such consequence to a sixpence. Major Fowle exemplified the truth of the poet ' s words, The bravest are the tenderest. He appears to have been cjuite the ideal lover, yet with a margin of courtesy and kindness for others than the sovereign lady. A sister of his betrothed refers to him, in a letter now vellowed with the years, as the most thoughtful and considerate man for one in love we ever knev -. ' And another of these treasured letters of long ago bears this enthusiastic testimony : Sophia, Charlotte, and myself have unanimously agreed that since the creation of the world no lover ever was half so attentive and agreeable as the Major. The marriage took place in May of 1S31, and on the thirteenth of June in the following year was born, in Alexandria, the daughter without whcjm Welleslev College would never have been. She was a traveled baby. At the age of three months she journeyed on a pillow to Sault Ste. Marie, where Major Fowle was stationed. It was no easy trip in those early days. There was one little strip of railroad in Western New York, but apait from that and boats of one sort and another, the travelers had to depend on such rude vehicles as they coidtl obtain over frightful roads with gaping holes, of which it was said you could lose a wagon in anv one of them and never miss it. The little party went to Fort Brady by the last boat of the fidl, and were ordered to take their departure by the first boat of spring. The conditions of life there at the Sault were rough and primitive. Yet by the infrequent mails, carried on snowshoes or by dog teams, cheery letters went out from the brave young bride and her proud husband to the anxious people at home. The playful tone of the letter from which the following extracts are taken, a letter from Major Fowle to one of his wife ' s sisters, written in midwinter from the icebound, fort, shows how warm and happy were those wedded hearts among the snows. 14