MAZLISH, Anne WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 1 of 2 CORSAIR The Online Catalog of The Pierpont Morgan Library NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT Search Results: Displaying 1 of 3 entries Previous Next Detailed Record Brief Record MARC Format Location: Archives--Papers (ARV) Call Number: ARC 1547 Record ID: 225379 Accession Number: ARC 1547 Author/Artist: Morgan, Frances Tracy, 1842-1924. Biographical Data: Daughter of Charles and Louisa Kirkland Tracy; wife of J. Pierpont Morgan. Title: Correspondence, Date of Writing: 1853-1902. Description: 1.55 cubic feet Summary: Consists of mainly incoming letters from family and friends including: Charles Tracy, Louisa Kirkland Tracy, Charles Edward Tracy, Mary Tracy, Clara Hoppin, Junius Spencer Morgan, J.P. Morgan, Jr., Juliet Morgan, Louisa Morgan, and W.S. Rainsford. Letter from her son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., dated Oct. 1891 describes the family's new yacht, Corsair. Outgoing letters are addressed to her sister, Mary Kirkland Tracy. Also contains a letter from Junius Spencer Morgan to J. Pierpont Morgan. Arrangement: Organized into two groups: Incoming letters and Outgoing letters; arranged alphabetically by correspondent and chronologically therein. Genres: Letters (correspondence) Associated Names: Hoppin, Clara Tracy. Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943. Hamilton, Juliet Pierpont, 1870-1952. Morgan, Junius Spencer, 1813-1890. Rainsford, W. S. (William Stephen), 1850-1933. Satterlee, Louisa Morgan, 1866-1946. Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885. Tracy, Charles Edward. Tracy, Louisa Kirkland. Tracy, Mary. Formatted Date: 1842-1924. Subjects: Corsair II (Yacht) Dept./Collection: Pierpont Morgan Library Archives http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?vl=1&ti=1,1&Search Arg=tracy&Search 3/30/2005 WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 1 of 2 CORSAIR The Online Catalog of The Pierpont Morgan Library NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT Search Results: Displaying 2 of 3 entries Previous Next Detailed Record Brief Record MARC Format Location: Archives--Bound Volumes (ARVBD) Call Number: ARC 0320 Record ID: 116384 Accession Number: ARC 320 Author/Artist: Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885. Biographical Data: New York city attorney, married to Louisa Kirkland. The couple had six children: Frances ("Fanny"), later Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan; Annie, later Mrs. Miller; Mary, later Mrs. Pell; Clara, later Mrs. Hoppin; Louisa ("Daisy"), who remained unmarried; and Charles Edward. Title: The log book : voyage from New York to Mount Desert Island, stay there, and return : autograph manuscript, Date of Writing: 1855 July-Sept. Description: 1 V. (113 p.) ; 21 cm. Summary: Documents the summer excursion taken by Charles Tracy, his family and friends to Mount Desert Island off Bar Harbor in Maine during July-September 1855. The journal records their travel to the island; Tracy's first impressions of the island; their activities, including their hikes, fishing trips, farm visits, conversations, and Sunday sermons; and his descriptions of the local landscape. Of particular interest are those entries in which he mentions the activities of his daughter, Fanny Tracy, and those of artist Frederic Edwin Church, a member of the party. The journal contains, too, examples of verse written by Charles Tracy as well as by some of his fellow travelers. Housed in: (square 8vo) 3/4 black leather cloth slip case. Genres: Diaries. Notes: Originally shelved as part of the Morgan Family Collection. Provenance: Autograph signature of J.P. Morgan with brief note in pencil on verso of front fly-leaf indicating that the journal was given to him by his mother, Frances Tracy Morgan, in 1916. Associated Names: Morgan, Frances Tracy, 1842-1924, former owner. Morgan, J.P. (John Pierpont) 1867-1943, donor. Credit: Gift; J.P. Morgan; 1932. Formatted Date: 1855. Formatted Place: United States Maine Mount Desert Island. http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search Arg=tracy&Search 3/30/2005 WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 2 of 2 Publications on: Mazlish, Anne. The Tracy log book : a month in the summer with original sketches and drawings by Frederic Edwin Church. Bar Harbor, Me.: Acadia Publishing Co., 1997. Subjects: Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885 -- -Diaries. Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885 -Journeys--Maine-Moun Desert Island. Church, Frederick Edwin, 1826-1900. Morgan, Frances Tracy, 1842-1924. Mount Desert Island (Me.)--Description and travel. Mount Desert Island (Me.)--Social life and customs. Dept./Collection: Pierpont Morgan Library Archives Previous Next > Record Options Select Download Format: Full Record Format for Print/Save Enter your email address: Email NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&SearchA Arg=tracy&Search 3/30/2005 WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 1 of 1 CORSAIR The Online Catalog of The Pierpont Morgan Library NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT Search Results: Displaying 3 of 3 entries Previous Next > Detailed Record Brief Record MARC Format Location: Reference Collection-Backlog (BACKLOG) Call Number: Call number not available--Ask staff member Record ID: 51964 Author/Artist: Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885. Title: The Tracy log book, 1855 : a month in summer : with original sketches and drawings by Frederic Edwin Church / edited by Anne Mazlish. Edition: 1st ed. Published/Created: Bar Harbor, Me. : Acadia Publishing Co., 1997. Description: 175 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm. Associated Names: Church, Frederick Edwin, 1826-1900. Mazlish, Anne. Subjects: Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885 -Diaries. Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885 --Journeys--Maine--Mount Desert Island. Mount Desert Island (Me.)--Description and travel. Mount Desert Island (Me.)--Social life and customs. Previous Next Record Options Select Download Format: Full Record Format for Print/Save Enter your email address: Email NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=3&ti=1,3&Search Arg=tracy&Search 3/30/2005 WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 1 of 2 CORSAIR The Online Catalog of The Pierpont Morgan Library NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT Search Results: Displaying 1 of 1 entries Previous Next Detailed Record Brief Record MARC Format Location: Archives--Papers (ARV) Call Number: ARC 1547 Record ID: 225379 Accession Number: ARC 1547 Author/Artist: Morgan, Frances Tracy, 1842-1924. Biographical Data: Daughter of Charles and Louisa Kirkland Tracy; wife of J. Pierpont Morgan. Title: Correspondence. Date of Writing: 1853-1902. Description: 1.55 cubic feet Summary: Consists of mainly incoming letters from family and friends including: Charles Tracy, Louisa Kirkland Tracy, Charles Edward Tracy, Mary Tracy, Clara Hoppin, Junius Spencer Morgan, J.P. Morgan, Jr., Juliet Morgan, Louisa Morgan, and W.S. Rainsford. Letter from her son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., dated Oct. 1891 describes the family's new yacht, Corsair. Outgoing letters are addressed to her sister, Mary Kirkland Tracy. Also contains a letter from Junius Spencer Morgan to J. Pierpont Morgan. Arrangement: Organized into two groups: Incoming letters and Outgoing letters; arranged alphabetically by correspondent and chronologically therein. Genres: Letters (correspondence) Associated Names: Hoppin, Clara Tracy. Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943. Hamilton, Juliet Pierpont, 1870-1952. Morgan, Junius Spencer, 1813-1890. Rainsford, W.S. (William Stephen), 1850-1933. Satterlee, Louisa Morgan, 1866-1946. Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885. Tracy, Charles Edward. Tracy, Louisa Kirkland. Tracy, Mary. Formatted Date: 1842-1924. Subjects: Corsair II (Yacht) Dept./Collection: Pierpont Morgan Library Archives http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search Arg=tracy&Search Code=NAME 3/30/2005 WebVoyage Record View 1 Page 1 of 2 CORSAIR The Online Catalog of The Pierpont Morgan Library NEW SEARCH RETURN To HEADINGS LIST RETURN To TITLES LIST HELP PREVIOUS SEARCHES EXIT Search Results: Displaying 1 of 1 entries Previous Next Detailed Record Brief Record MARC Format Location: Archives--Papers (ARV) Call Number: ARC 1547 Record ID: 225379 Accession Number: ARC 1547 Author/Artist: Morgan, Frances Tracy, 1842-1924. Biographical Data: Daughter of Charles and Louisa Kirkland Tracy; wife of J. Pierpont Morgan. Title: Correspondence, Date of Writing: 1853-1902. Description: 1.55 cubic feet Summary: Consists of mainly incoming letters from family and friends including: Charles Tracy, Louisa Kirkland Tracy, Charles Edward Tracy, Mary Tracy, Clara Hoppin, Junius Spencer Morgan, J.P. Morgan, Jr., Juliet Morgan, Louisa Morgan, and W.S. Rainsford. Letter from her son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., dated Oct. 1891 describes the family's new yacht, Corsair. Outgoing letters are addressed to her sister, Mary Kirkland Tracy. Also contains a letter from Junius Spencer Morgan to J. Pierpont Morgan. Arrangement: Organized into two groups: Incoming letters and Outgoing letters; arranged alphabetically by correspondent and chronologically therein. Genres: Letters (correspondence) Associated Names: Hoppin, Clara Tracy. Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943. Hamilton, Juliet Pierpont, 1870-1952. Morgan, Junius Spencer, 1813-1890. Rainsford, W. S. (William Stephen), 1850-1933. Satterlee, Louisa Morgan, 1866-1946. Tracy, Charles, 1810-1885. Tracy, Charles Edward. Tracy, Louisa Kirkland. Tracy, Mary. Formatted Date: 1842-1924. Subjects: Corsair II (Yacht) Dept./Collection: Pierpont Morgan Library Archives http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search, Arg=tracy&Search Code=NAME 3/30/2005 THE TRACY Log BOOK 1855 A Month in Summer Charles Tracy's Diary on Mount Desert Island With original sketches and drawings by Frederic Edwin Church Edited by Anne Mazlish History Journal ofth MOIST 1 (1998) A Research Adventure The Tracy Log Book of 1855 By Anne Mazlish At the outset of the Tracy diary project, my intent was to transcribe, as faithfully as possible, and then publish, an interesting and gracefully written account of a visit to Mount Desert Island in 1855 by a group of 27 people. These people represented the elite establishment of the East, primarily from Boston and New York, and were the first recorded summer visitors to the island. The diary told a story of island life here 150 years ago, and yet captured the same 'spirit of place that lures visitors today. It is proof that a faithful record often makes a bridge between the familiar and the strange. 2 The whole enterprise--the transcription and publication-looked simple at first. A publisher was quickly found when I approached the company that had reissued John Gilley of Baker's Island, a book by eminent scholar and summer resident, Charles W. Eliot. This little gem of a story had remained almost continuously in print since it first appeared in 1899. The publisher and I both agreed that the Tracy diary was likely to have an equivalent long-term appeal. Charles Pierce, director of the J. Pierpont Morgan Library in New York city, where the original manuscript of the diary was lodged, concurred with us and gave his blessing to the project. My initial research was engendered by my first reading of the handwritten manuscript of "The Log," as Tracy called it. Some months later, however, the research took on a life and direction of its own. It grew into a fascinating hunting expedition-acquiring intensity in the fall of 1996--which continues on to this day. Since the book's publication in June of 1997, additional questions have arisen, and new tidbits of information have emerged. For those of us engaged in running after history, it is often "the byways, rather than the highways, that unexpectedly turn out to be the more profound routes of illumination."4 This essentially describes my experience with the research project. 32 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 33 The Questions Raised after bush whacking up Sargent Mountain, a reconnaissance trip with the lady visitors in mind, Tracy wrote, "The question whether a lady could The questions raised by the diary and covered in part in this paper make the ascent was fully decided in the negative, with an exception in are: 1. What is the historical background for the diary that sheds light favor of leather bloomers"). Gentleman always wore long trousers, on the activities and events recounted, and on the attitudes expressed? jackets, ties and hats. As you can imagine, these visitors must have 2. Who were the people in the diary? What were their names (in some appreciated the generally cool weather of Mount Desert. cases). ages, background, professions, religions and attitudes? What happened to them later in life? 3. Who excised passages from the first The era of hotels had not yet arrived, and visitors lodged in guest diary transcript that I discovered at Jesup Memorial Library in Bar houses throughout the island. The Tracy party stayed primarily in Daniel Harbor, Maine (as well as the second transcript discovered after The Tracy Somes, Jr.'s Tavern in the village of Somesville. The building still stands, Log Book was in print)? Also, what was offensive about those passages to and today it looks much as it did back then, a warren of bedrooms with the person doing the editing in the 1940s, a hundred years after the diary numbers on the doors, in a house that is now a single family dwelling. was written? 4. Where were the original Frederic Edwin Church sketches Daniel Somes was also the customs official on the island, appointed by (about 50 of them in all)? Did any still exist? How could I find them? the chief customs officer in the port of Ellsworth. Somesville, once the 5. What other research and byways should I pursue? most prosperous center on the west side of the island, was losing its importance to the town of Tremont, of which Southwest Harbor was the In the process of answering the last question, a subsidiary story port; however, Somesville was still a substantial milltown dominated by through the life of James Kent Stone was revealed, and a theme of the the Somes family. diary, anti-catholicism. was enlarged. Here were examples of history's wayward, yet meaningful connections. Religion played a large and important role in everyone's life-- both the sophisticated summer visitor as well as local settler. In the diary, 1. - The Background the visiting party attends what was usually a four-hour church service which was reduced to three-and-a-half hours in deference to the party's In 1855 on Mount Desert, John Gilley, the familiar legend need for a longer lunch hour! Tracy's admiration for both the church in referred to previously. had recently married and was just settling into his Somesville (the only church), and its congregation was expressed newly-renovated farmhouse on Sutton's Island. Steamboat service to throughout the diary; (unusual, to his way of thinking, as it was comprised Mount Desert had begun only a few years earlier. Land travel was still by of mixed faiths). This admiration was tempered only by a slight criticism wagon, slow, plodding and full of breakdowns. Sailboats moved people of the ritual of the congregation rising for the last hymn of the day and around the local waters, and huge mackerel fishing fleets daily dotted the turning to face the choir "very irreverently." horizon. Charles Tracy writing about "the prospect" of the sea from the top of Sargent Mountain noted: The theme of religion is not only significant in The Tracy Log Book but impinges later, as well, on the lives of its cast of characters. In it was easy, and tempting to count those silvery motes this paper, the theme weaves a special influence. of sails, till my naked eye numbered 55, and I concluded that a telescope would have carried that number four 2. - The Families and Individuals Noted times as high 5 Three family groups dominated the party: the Tracy family, the Already there was talk of the war--the looming Civil War--which Fay family and the Stone family. The Tracy family consisted of the would begin six years later. The numerous tensions between North and diarist, Charles Tracy, a prominent New York lawyer, who made the diary South were often and much discussed. Childbirth was a risky undertaking record of the party's month-long visit, his wife Louisa. their six children, for both mother and child. Summer and native residents alike still dressed and a grown niece of Louisa's. Two of the daughters' names are rather formally. Long skirts, corsets, bloomers and picture hats out of significant in this paper. Annie Tracy and Frances Tracy. Frances not doors in summer were de rigeur for the ladies. (Speaking of bloomers, only figured prominently in the diary, but was also notable later in life 34 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 35 because of her marriage to J. Pierpont Morgan. It was the Morgan's eldest manuscript on blue paper. bound in its original diary form in hardcover. daughter who received as a wedding gift from her parents, all of Great The reading was done in the Morgan Library in New York, under the Head overlooking Sand Beach in Bar Harbor. Some of the daughter's watchful eye of the librarian who later told me of the existence of a descendants have summered continuously on Mount Desert Island since typescript copy at Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor. I was delighted that period. 8 to find the Jesup transcription, which I hoped would ease the burden of preparing the diary for publication. As I read through the Jesup copy, The Fay family consisted of Harrison Fay, a Boston merchant however, it didn't feel quite right. Something seemed to be missing, and who hailed from Brookline, Massachusetts, his wife Sarah and their five checking through my few sparse notes made at the Morgan Library. children. Of their children, only Cornelia Fay and James Fay are including a long quote from a passage about the Church in Somesville, I mentioned in the subsequent discussion. Again, both their names crop up realized that a couple of sentences had indeed been removed from that frequently in the diary. Cornelia Fay, the eldest daughter, was an passage. I began to develop other doubts about the fidelity of the entire accomplished musician whose piano had been brought up from Boston by Jesup typescript. boat for the duration of the visit. She performed daily for the group at morning and evening prayer services, and evening entertainments. She When I compared the copy from the Jesup (of which I had a served as the organist at St. Paul's Episcopal Church where the Reverend photocopy) with the original at the Morgan, I realized that the original John Seeley Stone was the pastor. Her younger brother, James Fay, was had been significantly edited in the transcription, including one entire the best friend of (James) Kent Stone, the eldest son of the Reverend entry. Why? What was the significance of what had been removed. I soon Stone. realized most excisions related to the political correctness of the time period in which the copy had been made. Some excisions reflected a The Stone family consists of the above mentioned Reverend concern for correct manners of the 1940s. The removal of references Stone and his second wife, Mary, and their three oldest sons who about illnesses seemed to be a Victorian throwback. A number of the accompanied them on the trip (the three younger children were left at original poems were also left out. The poems in the diary were what are home with whooping cough). Again, one child of this family stands out in called "occasional" poems, and may have appeared inadequate by 1940's the diary. That child is James Kent Stone, who by later marrying Cornelia standards and the ongoing twentieth-century revolution in poetry. Fay (although she was five years his senior) irrevocably linked the lives of these two families in a tragic bond. Although a diarist of 1850 might have been exceedingly formal in the way he referred to a fellow adult and traveling companion (always as There are two other individuals whose names crop up in the Mr. or Mrs. or Miss). in a private document, such as his diary, he was discussions that follow in this paper. They are Frederic Edwin Church, nevertheless free with his opinions. Were diaries of mid-nineteenth the noted Hudson River School painter, who seemed to be the initiating century SO frank that the 1940s editor felt some fundamental right to force behind the group's visit to Mount Desert, and the connecting link excise perceived prejudice? Or, did it mean that the opinions expressed in between the families mentioned. The other is Church's friend, Theodore the diary were perfectly reasonable ones to be held in 1850, but not Winthrop, apprenticed at the time in Charles Tracy's law office, and also acceptable in later years? Would Tracy have held back other ideas? (Sex a budding novelist. Later, he was also reputed to be the first casualty of no doubt.) What had been removed from the diary, I believed, was either the Civil War in 1861. These two friends, the oldest among the young significant historical material, and/or revealing about the personalities of men in the party, emerged from the account in the diary as rather dashing the individuals in the Tracy party. and attractive men. The following year, they would travel again together to Mount Katahdin, a favorite subject for the painter. I determined the excisions were solely an expression of the editor's beliefs, feelings and politics 100 years after the diary was written. 3. - Diary Deletions In two instances, the excisions related to a central theme of the a longer story that eventually emerged from my research, which I discuss near the My first reading of the diary was of the handwritten original end of this article. That theme was rooted in the historical battleground between the Protestant Episcopal (or Anglican) and Catholic faiths. 36 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 37 in comparing the two copies. Who, then, did the excising? Which Early on in the diary, Charles Tracy launches into a diatribe typescript was a copy of the other? Perhaps neither George Dorr, nor his against the Catholic Church, and returns to this theme in one or two secretary, Phyllis Sylvia, was the primary editor. Could it have been other entries. The impetus was a theological tract he was reading for Beatrix Farrand or Mrs. Thomas Cook? Now, I asked myself, which of recreation by an author named Lambruschini. So, here was an interesting the above harbored the sensibility behind the original editing? puzzle that I came upon early in my own effort to make a faithful transcription of the diary from the original. What was the title of the Mrs. Thomas G. Cook was eliminated after talking with her niece, book? What was the subject precisely? I was able to answer the question Anne Eristoff, who is also Charles Tracy's great-granddaughter and owner with surprising speed by telephoning Harvard University's interlibrary of the third bound, typewritten, but thoroughly faithful and unabridged. system. An efficient young man armed with a computer took only five copy of the diary. The copy had come to Anne Eristoff through her minutes to track down a book in Harvard's remote depository. Someone mother, Mrs. Cook's sister. Ms. Eristoff said it was highly unlikely that named Lambruschini had published a book in 1855 on the subject of the she wouldn't have known if Mrs. Cook had made a copy. Immaculate Conception, outlining the history and centuries-long argument within the Catholic Church leading up to such a It still seems probable that whoever made the typed transcription pronouncement." I borrowed the book and discovered that, indeed, the in Jesup and Northeast Harbor libraries, made it in the 1940s, at the time Immaculate Conception had just been proclaimed by the Pope in of the Second World War. It easily explains why the reference to the December of 1854, finally bringing to rest the question for Catholics and Reverend Samuel Bowker, pastor of the newly erected Somesville Church. a long. internal debate within the church. So this then was what had SO as being of "German descent" was removed. Which of these people did inflamed Tracy, ardent Protestant Episcopalian that he was! not approve of mentioning illness? Why were most passages about Annie Tracy's long, puzzling and fairly serious illness, at the time of the trip, I eventually returned all the excised bits to my new copy of the taken out? Even Charles Tracy's modest moans about an injury to his diary, but prior to that, I did some speculating about who might have knee when a wagon tipped over were removed. So, in the search for the excised the copy in Jesup Library. The first copy I saw at Jesup was in a editor of the 1940s copies of the diary, I to this day remain stymied. bound notebook, but there was also a photocopy (partial, with some pages retyped) stored in an envelope with Acadia National Park's return 4. - Frederic E. Church Sketches address. "G. B. Dorr," the park's first director, was written underneath the address. Below, in the center of the envelope, was written: "Tracy Diary Throughout the diary account, there are references to Frederic (reviewed Feb 3, 1940) and the initials "PSS" S.). Referring to a Church making sketches of the party during the visit. I calculated that. at biography of Dorr by Sargent Collier, 10 I found the name, Phyllis Sylvia, least, 30 to 50 sketches were probably made, and this revelation set me George Dorr's secretary. She was the probable transcriber, for by the off on a grand hunt for them. I thought, somehow, somewhere, one or 1940s George Dorr was blind, although it is still possible he was the one two might remain. Neither of the two principal caretakers of Church's who made the decisions about what passages should be removed from the remaining works, the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York city, and original. Olana Museum (Church's former home on the Hudson River). had any sketches which could be connected to the Tracy diary. All the Olana While the Tracy Log manuscript was at the printer's, I learned sketches had been published, and one of those, as it turned out, was in the there was still another typescript in existence in the Northeast Harbor style of the sketches in the Tracy diary. It was a drawing of a comic Library. According to librarian, Robert Pyle, this copy came from the dialogue between Church and his wife on Mount Desert, but it had estate of Beatrix Farrand, one of the country's foremost landscape obviously been produced at a later period, since he was not married at the designers. who lived in Bar Harbor. On one of the opening pages, it stated time of the Tracy diary trip. that Mrs. Thomas G. Cook, who had a cottage in Bar Harbor, was Charles Tracy's granddaughter. I made a hasty comparison of the Jesup typescript Luck was on my side in my search for Church's sketches from the with the copy in Northeast Harbor, discovering that they were very trip. I knew several Morgan family descendants who continue to summer similar. The same passages had been excised, which was my primary test on the island, which put me immediately on the right course. As it turned 38 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 39 out, it took only one letter and a follow-up phone call to a Morgan 5. Other Research and Byways descendant to begin to resolve the issue. She revealed little at the time, but promised to contact one of her cousins, the keeper of the Tracy Because of the wealth of information about the Tracys, the text I family history. One day, early in September of 1996, an envelope from had developed up this point about the diary began to seem lopsided. In this cousin arrived in the mail. It contained photocopies of 19 comic addition to biographical data on the Tracys, I had also researched Church drawings, in effect one long witty cartoon, illustrating a very specific and his friend, Theodore Winthrop, a noted nineteenth century writer, reference in the diary to Church's work! What I had been determined both of whom were originally identified in brief appended paragraphs in to find on the one hand, I secretly assumed I never would lay eyes on. I one of the Jesup Library copies. The previous summer, I had searched the was, of course, elated by a discovery which, I knew, would substantially interlibrary system for Winthrop's published work which included enhance the final published diary. biographical data. You may wonder why these sketches had not been found before? Each discovery, as I went along tracking people's lives, proved to It became apparent to me that no Church scholar had actually ploughed be a new adventure for me. One of Winthrop's novels, I learned, had a through the handwritten diary with any care. A surprising fact, since section based on his visit to Mount Desert with a particularly arresting Church plays such a prominent role in the diary's narrative. The descriptive passage of Schooner Head. That coupled with the beautiful descriptions of him reveal so much about his personality, his natural descriptions in the diary itself of the road to Schooner Head, and the exuberance and playfulness and, at the very least, would have produced great pleasure everyone in the diary took in their visits to the Lynam some delicious quotations about him. We know the sketches were seen by Farmhouse (nestled just below that dramatic headland), made me want to one scholar, but because they were unsigned, it seems reasonable to see it for myself. The original farmhouse, a popular guest farmhouse in its assume that the scholar in question must have been unsure of their day, was now gone. but in its place stood another house, and otherwise the provenance. Had he been familiar with the diary itself, he would have cove was much the same with Anemone Cove on one side and a view of immediately seen the connection. Even the generation of the Tracy Schooner head on the other. (The original farmhouse serves as a family that owns the sketches admit that it took them awhile to put two backdrop in the published book for a picture of George Dorr and a much and two together. older Frances Tracy Morgan.) The headland is now privately owned and closed to the public, but the owner kindly permitted me a discreet visit I immediately contacted, Anne Eristoff, the Tracy descendant under the watchful eye of his caretaker. It was a special treat to see for who sent the photocopies. I wanted to see the originals myself and myself the breathtaking and unusual feature that both Tracy and arranged to visit her on the Hudson River where she lives in her great- Winthrop SO beautifully describe. 13 grandfather Charles Tracy's house. En route, I made a side trip to Olana, Church's exotic former home, also on the Hudson, which is still much as But to continue with the process of assembling the diary, I now he left it, although now it is a museum and repository of a substantial had more than enough information about the Tracy Family, Frederic portion of his work. Eristoff, not only gave us permission to print the Church and Theodore Winthrop. What would I do about the other 20 or sketches, but also to reproduce two framed drawings by Church which he SO people? How much time did I have left for research? Not much as it had given to Tracy's daughters, Annie and Frances. Eristoff also showed was now the fall of 1996 and the diary was scheduled for publication in us her copy of the diary, a totally faithful transcription as it turned out, early June of 1997, with a manuscript and publisher deadline of March. which helped considerably in the final editing process, to clarify a few words and sentences. In addition, she filled in the family genealogy and Although there must have been a good deal of human drama supplied anecdotes about the Tracy family. So suddenly, there I was with among the 27 people squeezed into the Mount Desert Tavern, there are unanticipated riches, which created a whole new problem in terms of only hints of those feelings in the original diary. It is these hints which achieving a balance of information about the various people mentioned had to be fleshed out by the research, and in the light of slowly in the diary. accumulating information. Touring the Tavern today. the group's living situation appears somewhat improbable, especially in light of the fact that there were no bathrooms then. 40 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 41 With all this in mind, an intense and fascinating period of pushed on and found more information about the Stone family in a later foraging for information began that yielded weekly results while I was biographical dictionary, including the titles of two biographies about continually revising the introduction. Through February and March, some James Kent Stone. The Divinity School's librarian unearthed one of the of the lines of inquiry that I had thrown out earlier continued to bring in biographies from the basement storage. pieces of information, SO that right up to the deadline, March 15, 1997, I was adding to or modifying what I knew. At that point, I also had in hand a folder of Reverend Stone's personal letters and papers. They were written very much in the formal I began my searches with the Fay, Stone and Littell families in style of the day, similar to Charles Tracy's discreet style, in that they mind, as they all lived in Brookline at the time the diary was written (not only hinted at personal problems. I found nothing in them that revealed far from Cambridge, where I still make frequent visits). The research on Stone's reaction to his son's conversion. these families alone took me back and forth to the Brookline Library, the Episcopal Divinity School and Harvard University in Cambridge, and The biography of "Kent" Stone (as he was always called) found at even to the Harvard Club in New York, where James Fay's portrait hangs, the Divinity School had been written by a Catholic woman. From it, I and to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. where James Kent gleaned much information, equally surprising, but the tone was SO matter Stone's grandfather's bust stands in the reading room. The only of fact and the bias toward the Catholic point of view SO apparent, that remaining family, Titus, eluded me up to the last moment, and even then, instead of better understanding Kent Stone, I found myself unsympathetic the research produced a limited amount of information. to his behavior toward his parents, wife and his children. James Kent Stone and Anti-Catholicism A few weeks later, I began to revise my opinion when I got hold of the second biography via the interlibrary system. It was called Fidelis The bulk of my research, however, centered around the Fay and of the Cross, James Kent Stone, 15 Here was an account that laid the story Stone families who became more entwined later in life, and it was this out in a balanced and more complete way from both a theological and research that yielded the enlarged story which follows: personal point of view (including the fact that his father supported him in his decision, however painful it may have been for him). The book Knowing that the Reverend John Seeley Stone (of whom Tracy contained transcriptions of many personal letters: some between Kent speaks often and with admiration) was an Episcopal minister in and his mother, Kent and his wife, and Kent and his siblings or friends. Brookline, I telephoned the only Episcopal church with which I was There was also extensive information about both the Fay and Stone familiar in Brookline. The secretary there suggested that St. Paul's families and their interactions. although I had already tracked down the Church (a fine example of Upjohn's architecture)¹ was the existing basic facts about the Fay family in the Brookline Public Library. church in 1850, but no one answered the phone. I tried the Episcopal diocese office in Boston. With their help, I secured a complete outline of James Kent Stone became for me a central figure among the Stone's distinguished career, culminating as the first dean of the Episcopal individual stories of the many members of the party. It was his life drama Theological School (now called Divinity School) in Cambridge. The that deeply affected all members of the Fay and Stone families as well as Divinity School's historian became my guide, starting me off with several his immediate family, which included his wife, Cornelia Fay, the talented volumes of the school's history. I found a reference in one volume that musician of the Mount Desert party, and their three children. Here was a noted Stone's great grief the year his son converted to Catholicism. The recurring "unintended" theme of the diary. It was first laid out by Tracy son was James Kent Stone, the Reverend Stone's eldest boy by his second in an interior debate about Catholic theology and, later picked up and wife, an appealing young lad I had come to know in Tracy's diary played out in real events in the lives of many of the 1850 group, some of account. whom also figured prominently in the diary. That news came as a particular surprise because of the anti- A summary of Kent's life follows. He attended Harvard College16 Catholic bias expressed in the diary, and served as a warning bell for me. and traveled extensively in Europe before he was ordained like his father What was the Reverend Stone's specific reaction to his conversion? I in the Episcopal Church. Astonishingly. be fore the age of 30, he served as 42 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 43 the president of both Kenyon and Hobart Colleges. When his wife died must have heard at home as a child, and the prejudiced opinions he may unexpectedly, following not long after the birth of their third daughter, have been protecting his own children from: he converted to Catholicism. Some months later, he sent his three young daughters, ranging in age from a few months to seven years, off to a If these opinions were prejudices, how almost Catholic convent in New Hampshire, essentially wrenching them from impossible would it be for truth to penetrate them! I the bosom of their Fay grandmother and her family, where they were thought of the English language in which I had learned to cared for after the death of their mother. When the middle child died think and to impress my thoughts; and I remembered how suddenly in the convent, Kent had the two surviving daughters adopted by for three hundred years that tongue had been one vast a childless, Catholic, California family, against the wishes of his own engine of ceaseless attack upon the Roman Catholic mother and the entire Fay family. He would not be reunited again with his Church; 19 daughters (in any real sense) for 49 years, just before his own death. He spent most of the 49 years in a rigorous order of Passionist monks, Summing-up traveling the world as a missionary. This part of his life encompassed almost two thirds of his entire existence, and was a radical change from Perhaps, you think I've made too much of Kent Stone and the his first 30 years. A strange story. Catholic theme in the diary? It is by no means the dominant note of the manuscript. It is just the unexpected, continuous note or thread, and Individual lives often reflect the issues of their era. In 1855, anti- history is full of these eerie connections. Kent's conversion was a Catholicism was a respectable Protestant position. There was also dramatic event and wrecked forever his relationship with the Fay family. enormous tension within the Episcopal Church itself. between high who could not forgive him. James Fay, formerly his best friend as the church (closer in ritual and thinking to the Catholic Church) and low diary indicates, sought to have Kent committed as insane, after his church. It was the Oxford Movement in England that defined this split 17 conversion and his removal of his children from the Fay household. The In 1855, the majority of the populace in the United States was still conversion strained Kent's relations with his own parents, and destroyed Protestant. Far less so, by the time Kent Stone died in 1921, after many his personal family life. This act also impinged on the lives of many waves of Irish immigration. others in the diary account. When I read Kent Stone's writing about his conversion and how Still dangling in this story is the question of his sole descendant he gravitated from the low church Episcopalianism of his father to high and the sole descendant of the entire Fay clan, his and their grandson, church philosophy, I was able to understand how it was only a slight side- Michael de Cazeotte. Michael, who was the only child of Kent's oldest step intellectually for him to move into the Catholic camp. Much of the daughter, Mary, was named for the grandfather who adopted his mother. argument between the two faiths swirled around the issue of which was the What has become of Michael? Did Michael ever marry or have children? "true" church. Remembering how the Anglican (i.e., Episcopalian) If so, wouldn't Michael's granddaughter or grandson be alive today? I'm Church grew out of Henry VIII's political and personal needs, it was hoping someone will telephone some day, saying, "Oh, I know a de possible to follow at least one strand of Kent's thinking. Cazeotte family from San Mateo, California!" (one of the places where the daughters' lived). I'd like to ask his descendants what they know about I want to suggest that there were a number of personal reasons for their ancestor, Kent Stone, and how their family myths portray him? Kent's conversion. The fact that Kent chose to become a monk in a very austere order, rather than simply a Catholic cleric, which might have As I approach the end of the story of this research adventure, I allowed him to continue caring for and sharing a household with his cannot resist telling you about a couple of unexpected, and amusing bits daughters. seems significant to me. His intense grief over his wife's death of information that came my way last summer on the anti-Catholic appeared to leave him feeling frightened and alone. Add to that his theme, after the Tracy Log was published. When Tracy's great- special relationship with his mother, and his clear and apparent anxiety granddaughter was on the island, she told me two interesting stories on about taking responsibility for another person (child or adult). 18 Note the religious issue related to Tracy's forbearers. It turns out Tracy is also the following quotation from one of Kent's books, reflecting what he descended from the Knight, William de Traci, one of the four assassins of 44 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 45 Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This true tale was adapted into a play by T.S. Eliot called Murder in the Cathedral. This Desert Island, with original sketches by Frederic Edwin Church. This paper is foul deed had been arranged in 1170 by King Henry II, in his effort to based on a talk prepared for and delivered at the Northeast Harbor Library, gain ascendancy in appointments and political matters over the Catholic July, 1997, and at the Port-in-a-Storm bookstore, Somesville, August, 1997. 2 Church, whose rights Becket fiercely defended in his role as a leader of Schama, Simon, "Clio at the Multiplex." The New Yorker, 19 January 1998, p.40. 3 the Church. The lines Eliot hands to William de Traci in justification for Eliot, Charles, John Gilley, One of the Forgotten Millions, (Bar Harbor, Maine: Acadia Publishing Co., 1989). Originally published in 1899 in The Century the murder are eloquent with hypocrisy, but we can't blame Charles Tracy Magazine, later in book form as John Gilley: Maine Farmer and Fisherman, and for that. There is little doubt that Tracy would have been pleased by this prior to the present publication as John Gilley of Baker's Island. ancestor. Another ancestor was reputed to have fetched up, while fishing Schama, p. 41. one day, a giant cod with an anti-church tract inside its belly! This is a 5 Mazlish, p. 80. famous historical anecdote. This particular ancestor was the great-great- 6 Ibid., p. 79. 7 grandfather of Thomas Tracy who emigrated to this country, establishing Ibid., p. 77. 8 the Tracy family line in Norwich, Connecticut. One way or another, you Ibid., p. 43. Q can see how this particular thread of religious thinking is woven through Lambruschini,Cardina Luigi, A Polemical Treatise on the Immaculate Conception the Tracy family story! of the Blessed Virgin, written in 1842, published in 1855 by D&J Sadlier and Co., Boston, Ma., French translation by Mrs. J. Sadlier, and the Latin by a Clergyman. History is primarily story and recreates itself with the passing of The volume also included A History of the Doctrine by Father Felix, S.J. and learned appendices including The Declaration by Pope Pius IX, Dec.8. 1854. time. Sometimes, it emphasizes the byways and collisions in life's 10 Collier, Sargent, The Triumph of George B. Dorr, (Farmington. Maine: fundamental chaos. The story of the diary today is not the same story it Knowlton, and McLeary, 1964). was in 1855. The endemic fear of historians is that "the record of the 11 Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York. Church's sketches stored there are past might be fatally distorted by the enthusiasms and preoccupation's of fully catalogued in Gerald Carr's Frederic Edwin Church: Catalog Raisonne of the present" 21 It is a fear that cannot be fully assuaged. Sometimes. Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site, 2 vol. text and plates, Cambridge history is enhanced by present concerns, when the record keeper tries to University Press, 1994. 12 explain our continuing human predicaments. The anti-Catholic theme of Mazlish, pps. 81-109. 13 The Tracy Log Book is, I believe, a part of the structure in a continuing [In spite of Theodore Winthrop's reputation as an important novelist of the latter tale that began at some indefinable point, touched many intertwined lives, part of the nineteenth century, his works are very disappointing from the perspective and emerged dramatically in the story of James Kent Stone. of today's readers in terms of plot, characterization and literary excellence. A.M.] 14 Richard Upjohn (1802-78) was famous for his design of Trinity Church in New York city built in 1846. See also History of St. Paul's Church, Brookline. 1949. Interestingly enough, the individuals in the diary who are singled 15 Smith. Walter George and Helen Grace, Fidelis of the Cross, James Kent Stone. out in this paper, not only had significant roles in the diary but also later (New York: G.P. Putman's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1926). in life. Is that just coincidence, or does it carry meaning? This is not to 16 Harvard College is the undergraduate school within Harvard University. say that other individuals in the diary did not distinguish themselves in 17 The Oxford Movement A movement within the Church of England, originating at some way, but just that no record of them was found. It may be the Oxford University in 1833. It sought to link the Anglican Church more closely to researcher, afterall, who is at fault, even when the spell cast by the ghosts the Roman Catholic Church by emphasizing the apostolic and universal origins of of history remains a powerful impetus to push on in all directions and in the Church of England and by insisting those links were not broken by the spite of all obstacles. Reformation. In essence that the Church of England constitutes a branch of the holy Catholic Church, of which Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodox are also branches. Also known as "Tractarianism." 18 One known exception to his incapacity to nurture, during his many years as a Notes passionist monk, he grew close to a younger monk whom he brought into the order and to whom he became friend and father figure. (See Smith, Fidelis of the Cross...). 1 19 Mazlish, Anne, ed., The Tracy Log Book, 1855, A Month in Summer, (Bar Harbor, Mazlish, p. 164. 20 Maine: Acadia Publishing Company, June 1997). Charles Tracy's diary on Mount Anne Eristoff 21 Schama, p. 41. 46 A Research Adventure A Research Adventure 47