This year's Auction which will be held on March 21st.  It is the club's largest fundraiser.  Tickets will be $60 per person or $450 per table.  Chris and Claudia hope all Rotarians will be involved by securing one donation to the auction, by obtaining an ad for the booklet, by donating a bottle of wine, and by coming to the event with others.  The Hawthorne Hotel will donate 2 drink tickets per person as well as the 2 bottles of wine per table.  This year will have a tighter schedule than last year, and will will include a live auction item of 12 bottles of single malt scotch.

 

 

This week, our speaker was local historian, Jim McAllister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim started with a humorous story about John Quinn, and Jim's dog, Scrubrush...that had one eye.  All the children would come up to see the dog and pet it, but were a bit afraid when they saw the dog only had one eye.  So, John Quinn, got a prosthetic eye from his "inventory", and attached it to a keychain for Jim.  Then, whenever the children would ask what happened to the dog's eye, Jim would pull out the keychain and say, "Here it is!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, was a Salem Valentine's Day love story about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody.  Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College.  He was very handsome, but was a recluse.  When he was 7 years of age, his father died, and Hawthorne grew up emotionally detached from that time forward.

 

Hawthorne anonymously published Twice Told Tales in 1837.  A friend from college, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, gave a big review for the story, and Hawthorne became a local legend.  Hawthorne would also later get assistance from another college friend, future President Franklin Pierce.  Mary Crowninshield Silsbee, daughter of Nathaniel Silsbee, a prominent sea captain, US Senator, and founder of the US Customs Service, had her eye on young Nathaniel.  She grew up in the now "Knights of Columbus" building on the common.  She was vain and beautiful, but also problematic, a troublemaker and a liar.  She had money, wrote poetry and very much wanted to meet the handsome Hawthorne.  After his father's death, Hawthorne became very close to his mother.  Hawthorne was very naive about women.  Hawthorne needed money and a job, and Mary told him she would perhaps get him a job at her father's custom house, if he considered marriage.  She told Hawthorne her publisher tried to seduce her so that Hawthorne would defend her honor.  He sent letters to the publisher and ultimately discovered that Mary was trying to manipulate him. That ended the relationship.

 

The next women in Hawthorne's life were the Peabody sisters, Elizabeth and Sophia.

 

Of the Peabody sisters, Elizabeth was very famous, and she was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson.  She was connected to very important people.  Her sister, Sophia, suffered from migraine headaches and spent most of her time upstairs, away from guests, and did not come down from her quarters to meet Hawthorne when he came to visit Elizabeth.  Hawthorne and the Peabody girls had been friends as children, but hadn't seen each other in years.  Elizabeth was head-over-heels in love with Nathaniel.  He led Elizabeth on, and she believed he was in love with her as well.  One day, Sophia came downstairs, and Nathaniel saw her for the first time since when they were childhood friends. He leapt to his feet to greet her, and Sophia soon became enamoured of him.  Elizabeth saw the attraction between her sister and Hawthorne, and wrote him a goodbye letter, and then moved to Newton.  She knew that it was over between her and Nathaniel, even though she was wildly in love with him.  Hawthorne spent much time with Sophia, but there is speculation that he was actually engaged to both sisters. 

 

Because of the pressure of the relationships, Hawthorne moved to western MA to Pittsfield. (It was rumored that he was a spy for the government.)  He came back 2 months later.  Elizabeth had moved back to Salem during his absence.  She set out to help his literary career.  She visited his sisters, and got him a job in the Boston Customs House.  She sent a copy of Twice Told Tales to Emerson, Horace Mann, and William Wordsworth.  She became a publisher of his work, but lost money in the process. 

 

In Twice Told Tales, Hawthorne had written a story called "The Gentle Boy".  He had a friend publish it.  Sophia offered to do the illustrations.  They worked together and became closer because of it.  Elizabeth saw the romance grow, and realized that no matter what she did, she could not win Nathaniel's heart.

 

Hawthorne went to visit Elizabeth, but she embarrassed him with her imperious manner.  He then became engaged to Sophia.  After much discussion regarding wedding plans and dates, the couple spontaneously married in 1842.  Sophia was an invalid, and Hawthorne was a recluse...neither was expected to get married.  They ended with a wonderful love story, and had 3 children.

 

 

Congratulations to Juli Lederhaus for being Rotarian of the month!

 

"We stand in life at midnight, we are always on the threshold of a new dawn."~Martin Luther King, Jr.