SAMUEL APPLETON.

SAMUEL APPLETON was the oldest member of a family whose name, during the last half century, has been intimately associated with the prosperity of Boston, and with all of its most important interests. He himself might have been singled out as a model of what a merchant should be. Alike high-minded in gaining and public-spirited in using his means, in his industry and liberal enterprise, his scrupulous uprightness and large beneficence, he was one of the most marked men of a profession which includes within its ranks so much of the energy, enterprise, and talent of New England.

Mr. Appleton was a native of New Ipswich, N. H., and was born June 22d, 1766. He commenced life with no advantages, except the inestimable one of being trained in childhood in the home of judicious and excellent parents. His father, Deacon Isaac Appleton, was one of the most respected citizens of New Ipswich, but, like all his neighbors, was subject to the deprivations and hardships of what then was a newly-settled country.

In a family of twelve brothers and sisters, Samuel was the third. Except such instruction as he received at home, all his opportunities of education were confined to a few interrupted weeks each year, from the age of ten to sixteen, in the district school. He, however, made such good use of his opportunities, that, at seventeen, he was himself selected to teach a school, and was so successful that during the succeeding winters, and so long as he was willing to engage in the office of teaching, his services were in great request in his own and in the neighboring towns. To the

day of his death he took the greatest delight in recalling the scenes, the friendships, and the labors of these seasons of school-keeping, when the teacher often had scholars older than himself; when he was sometimes obliged to be a hard student at home that he might keep in advance of his pupils at school, and when his sovereignty over the young republicans about him required the exercise of prudence and selfcontrol as well as vigor.

At twenty-two years of age he joined a party of young men in settling a township in Maine, the conditions being that they should have each alternate lot, provided they would build a house, and clear up a certain number of acres. In this occupation two summers were employed, and the various experiences of frontier life, the hardships encountered with the hopeful hearts of youth, and the expedients by means of which difficulties were overcome, were the subjects of much amusement in after years. But labor on a farm was not to his taste. It was evident that his special gift was not for handling the axe and guiding the plow. He had an early desire to become a merchant, and, the way opening for acting out this inclination, he entered into business in the country; first at Ashburnham, in company with Col. Jewett, and afterward at New Ipswich, with Charles Barrett, Esq. These fields, however, were too narrow for his ambition. In 1794, at the age of twenty-eight, he established himself as a merchant in Boston, and from that time his career was one of uninterrupted and honorable prosperity and usefulness. In 1799 he visited England, and having formed a partnership with his younger brother, Hon. Nathan Appleton, he was for many years engaged very extensively in the importation of English goods. At a later period he was largely interested in the cotton manufacture, which, with a wise foresight of the future industrial wants of the country, had been introduced through the agency of his brother, acting in connection with two or three asso

ciates, first at Waltham, and afterward at Lowell. As he grew older he gradually withdrew from business, and at length retired from any active participation in it. But he retired from business only to give his thoughts more exclusively to objects of kindness, charity, and public utility.

One of the beautiful traits of his character was his strong attachment for every thing connected with his early life. He never forgot his birthplace, and its interests were his interests. In any matter relating to its general welfare, he would have been very sorry if the people of his native town had forgotten to ask him for his aid. Among other things, the academy, which was largely indebted to his liberality for the funds which have placed it on a permanent foundation, will be for him a lasting memorial. His early friends never lost their hold on his interest, and there was no part of his life which he took such pleasure in recalling as he did the scenes and labors and struggles of his youth. One of the sure tests of an unspoiled heart, he carried through life the affections, the simple tastes, and the cheerful, hopeful feelings of his earliest years.

A stranger on seeing him, we think, would have been first struck by his apparent simplicity and open-hearted honesty. It was in his manner, in his look, and in the tones of his voice. There was no mistaking it. He was an honest man. Without subterfuge or disguise, incapable of any thing indirect or underhanded, he had no concealments of his own, and any thing in the form of a secret was to him a trouble and a burden. He knew of but one way of speaking, and that was, to say straight on, the truth. It was a principle grown into a necessity of his moral life. He did not know what else to say. It might be difficult to utter it, but he really could not help it. And so out of the simplicity of his nature his yea was yea, and his nay, nay. This was allied with the kindest and tenderest feelings. No one felt more pain in giving pain to another. But though he