Brush was a school-teacher. In several of these occupations Walt Whitman himself was past master, and he regarded all of them with concrete and passionate appreciation. We seem justified in suggesting that his ancestors seemed in very unusual ways to live again in his career.

Of Walt's father we know little in detail. He was a quiet, kind, industrious man, physically of large frame, solidly built, with a plain, strong face. He was regarded as markedly truthful and honest. Though a Quaker, descended from a long line of the same stock, he seems to have abandoned the perfunctory practices even of that faith. From what Walt now and then said in referring to his father, it could be seen that the father's attitude towards religion was much that of Thomas Paine and Elias Hicks, for both of whom he confessed the devoutest admiration. Like all the Whitmans this father, though fundamentally sluggish, was, when aroused, capable of memorable vehemence. And we know that Walt himself had stormy scenes with the old man. For, while Walt was never critical, he told us that his father sometimes strove to exert an undue parentalism which Walt had, out of self-respect, to resent. Walt would add that on such occasions his mother was invariably the peacemaker. Walter Whitman was a carpenter, serving his apprenticeship in New York when the nineteenth century was in its teens. He remained in the metropolis several years after his

industrial novitiate was passed. Subsequently he went to West Hills, where he entered upon business as a builder. He was recognized as a first-rate craftsman, always doing notable and conscientious work.

It must be constantly borne in mind that Walt Whitman's ancestors of both sexes, as far back as known, and in all their ramifications, with the possible exception of the great-grandfather of the poet's great-grandfather, Zachariah Whitman, who was a clergyman, were working people, possessed of little or no formal culture, and with no marked artistic tastes in any direction.

Of Walt Whitman's mother, and of the lifelong exceptional affection which existed between the two, much might be written, for, at this point, not to speak of the correspondence on both sides, the data is overwhelming. Everything goes to show how apt was Walt's own description of her: "Benignant, calm, practical, spiritual, an ideal woman."

We remember this grave woman in Camden. She was powerful and restrained, as is true of all exceptional personalities. She would have been regarded as absolutely illiterate by those who insist upon a fixed mode as necessary to culture. But though her most awkward weapon was her pen, she had much of Walt's own impressiveness of utterance even in the petty colloquialism of her domestic entourage. In those who were her neighbors, as well as in those who, coming to visit Walt, met her, this

VOL. I.

conviction of simple organic energy was inevitably produced.

It may be said here that all Whitman's ancestors, as far as known, were in the exact sense first-rate people - that is, they were strong, long-lived, moral without puritanism, rational, and many of them were reputed to have been exceptionally hospitable and charitable. There was no positive trace of degeneracy anywhere in the breed. Large families seem to have been the rule with the Whitmans. For instance, Nehemiah Whitman left four sons and two daughters. We have discovered the names of twenty-two men and women, the sons and daughters of five of these six. The other child probably had a family also, and the five had certainly other children of whom we have not the names. The material runs that way right through, though the curious lapse of the line with Walt's own generation seems to show that while the stream was uncommonly vigorous as long as it lasted, its roundup was sharp and quick.

We may seem to repeat ourselves at this point unnecessarily. But we do so for the sake of certain facts. It must be understood that Walt Whitman did not come from forty generations of clergymen or professional men or warriors in or out of arms, but from an unbroken sequence of plain men in the industries - the best, while the most obscure, soil of democracy.

Hannah Brush, wife of Jesse Whitman, Walt's

grandfather, was an orphan brought up by her aunt, Vashti Platt, who owned a large farm at the east end of Suffolk county, and kept a number of slaves. Hannah Whitman was an accomplished needle woman. She had taught school several years. She was shrewd and good-looking, sensible, cheerful, healthy

a woman of what is often called "the old school." The Whitman and Brush families contributed to the most ardent of the Continental "rebels" in Suffolk county. Major Brush was often and angrily denounced in the British proclamations and by the royalists of Long Island. He was confined for a time in the "Provost " in New York under the charge of the notorious Cunningham.

The Whitmans lived in the old home at West Hills (still standing, and used as a carriage-house and granary only a few years ago) from before the time of Nehemiah, more than a hundred years ago. They originally owned a large tract of land there, all or a large part of which descended to Nehemiah, who on his own account became a still more extensive landowner in and about West Hills. Nehemiah was born and died in the old Whitman house. One of Nehemiah's sons was a lieutenant in Col. Josiah Smith's regiment of the American army. He participated in the disastrous battle of Brooklyn and there lost his life. In "The Centenarian's Story," in Drum Taps, will be found some impersonal account of this portentous event.

Sarah White, Walt's great-great-grandmother, was a large, strong woman who lived to be ninety years old. She chewed tobacco, used opium, petted her slaves, and always had a crowd of "little niggers" about her. She was masculine in her character and demeanor, offensive generally to the strangers who encountered her, but a woman of sterling energy and vital force, who at bottom commanded respect and faith.

The Van Velsor family lived only two or three miles from West Hills on a solitary, picturesque road that wound up from Cold Springs Harbor.

Walt's mother's father was Major Van Velsor, and her mother's maiden name Naomi Williams. Naomi is described as a mild, gentle, sweet-tempered woman, fond of children, remarkably generous and hospitable in disposition, a good wife and parent. We are told that in dress she affected a Quaker simplicity. Naomi's mother was known as Mary Woolley. Her father was a Captain John Williams, who was owner of a vessel that plied between New York and Florida. Captain and Mrs. Williams had a family of two sons and eight daughters: John, Thomas, Amy, Sally, Peggy, Hannah, Clara and Molly are some of the names disclosed. Captain John was noted for his genial qualities and for his charity, and was known also as a man fond of physical good-living. His wife Mary was easy, good-natured, and with perhaps a deserved reputation for domestic shiftlessness.