Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn [1783-1851]

   
                                                                                                [copyright Maine Historical Society]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

   I realize that writing about Henry A. S. Dearborn and doing the man justice, in this blog, is a very difficult task that I've set for myself. Dearborn was not someone whose life can be told in a few paragraphs. He was a  renaissance man, a true visionary, an honest politician, a promoter of the common good for all citizens, a believer in the potential greatness of America and one who worked his entire life to help achieve that potential. He, also, was the creator of one of the most beautiful, planned spaces in America… Forest Hills Cemetery. 

     Forest Hills Cemetery would be his life's last accomplishment. Having planned and laid out Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1831as both a cemetery and an experimental garden, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dearborn was ultimately disappointed. Both from lack of enough private funding and opposition from lot owners at Mount Auburn to the creation of an experimental garden, there, he ended his involvement with that cemetery.

    Dearborn was born in Exeter, NH on March 3, 1783 to Henry and Dorcas Dearborn. The family traced their beginnings in America to Godfrey Dearborn's 1638 arrival in Massachusetts Bay Colony. He moved to Hampton, NH and died there in 1668. Henry A. S. Dearborn's father, fifth generation Dearborn, was born there in 1751. More about his father in a later post.

    The son was encouraged to become a lawyer. President Jefferson was among those who thought that he should. Dearborn, after opening a law office in 1807 in Portland, ME, realized that he did not want to make a living taking money from many who could not afford his services. Instead, he wanted to be giving something to people and not taking. President Jefferson appointed him to the Boston customhouse as a favor to Dearborn senior who was Jefferson's secretary of war. By the way until the end of WWII  the Secretary of War was the title of person who is know known as the Secretary of Defense. Saying that we are not going to war we're only defending ourselves is the Pentagon's ultimate spin on war. Now, there I go getting off on a tangent… I knew that would happen sooner or later. I'll try to stay on the subject at hand.

    Like many from Dearborn's generation of well off families whose fathers had fought for independence from England, he wanted to see America become a great nation. He set out to promote public works and establishments that were meant to benefit the new society. As the foremost of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society [and it's 1st president] Massachusetts Horticultural Society - History he felt that for America to be a great nation it had to include, among other things, a culture that embraced the beauty and importance of nature. 

    Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Brighton, and Dorchester were separate towns before being annexed to Boston in the later 1800s. Those towns besides being the locations of farms had some large estates. Many owners of those estates styled themselves as "gentlemen farmers"The Era of Gentlemen’s Farms | Winterthur Museum & Library Blog. That is, they experimented with developing new and better strains of flowers, fruits, and trees. Men like that joined Dearborn in the creation of the Horticultural Society, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and later Forest Hills Cemetery. The beginnings of the "Parks Movement" in America can be traced to them. The "Parks Movement"  was in answer to the growing congestion of the cities during the industrial age. As an example, the only public park in Boston, at that time, was the Boston Common and it was the first such in America in 1631.

     The creation of Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France in 1804 would become the inspiration for the “Rural Cemetery” beginning with Mount Auburn in Cambridge. Just as Paris was having difficulty finding space to bury within the city, so did Boston and all large cities in America. Not a unique concept was burying the dead outside the city; the ancients practiced that for centuries. Retro will always be fashionable when people forget the past.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in the 1836  essay "Nature" an espousal that nature needed to become part of man's everyday life. With the force of the natural world man had a divine learning tool that harnessed and nourished one's intelligence. Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau believed and wrote that the protection of the wilderness [nature] is the preservation of the world. Their thinking led to the realization of the importance of the natural world that the industrial age was beginning to devour [and continues to, today].

     As stated above, Dearborn was a visionary who saw that railroads were needed to connect New England to New York and beyond to the Great Lakes. He, also,  saw these railroads one day connecting the eastern portion of America to the Pacific Coast. Not only did he foresee these events but worked to make them happen. The Hoosac Tunnel THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.—Scribner's—December, 1870 was originally proposed by Dearborn as early as 1825 to pass under the Berkshires for the use of rail traffic from Boston to reach the Hudson River. Some called him "..an idiot." as the task would be impossible. Well the tunnel was dug and is still in use, today. Unlike some more recent tunneling, hereabouts, the Hoosac didn't begin to fall apart before it opened, or since.

     Dearborn didn’t do the actual digging of the Hoosac Tunnel but he did the actual planning and much of the planting of Mount Auburn and Forest Hills cemeteries. A labor of love for he knew he was creating something beautiful for the public. His ideal was the English country garden with the varied landscape and seeming natural plantings. He, also, was creating with Forest Hills a democratic cemetery; one that would be affordable to all classes of society whether rich or not. There would be space for single graves as well as the more expensive family sites.

     He was the mayor of Roxbury when he and his good friend and fellow landscaper, Daniel Brims, began the work of sculpting the initial 71 acres of Forest Hills Cemetery. As natural as Forest Hills appears, today, the grounds were sculpted. Dearborn chose the Seavern’s farm as the site for the new cemetery because of the  terrain. There were hills, meadows, ponds, stands of trees, with many outcroppings of the ubiquitous Roxbury Puddingstone. Much of that stone can be seen in the office, chapel, gate, and the terracing of Mount Warren. ANCIENT SOUVENIRS: Discovering Roxbury Puddingstone in Dorchester | Dorchester Reporter  I’ve included this link to describe Roxbury Puddingstone. There is so much BS out there about that stone but James Hobin explains quite well what and where it is.  Anyways, where was I? He, Dearborn that is, used that natural palate as an artist would use a painter’s palate to create what we see, today. Thousands of trees were planted. Many local varieties of trees and many imported ones enriched the grounds. At least one “witness-tree” [one that remains from the initial plantings] can be seen at the intersection of White Oak and Willow Avenues. That Red Oak is a little battered but still stands.. at least when I was last there. Hills were terraced to allow for level burial spaces with stones and roots removed to make the ground easier to access. The terracing is an excellent example of dry stone work. Dry stone work is the use of balance and the fitting of stones without a binding material. The nineteen century still had workers who could do this type of wall and terrace building. The best examples of terracing can be found on Mount Warren. Any concrete patching you’ll find, there, is a more modern fix. Consider that after 166 years the terracing still holds.

     Not only was the cemetery a final resting place but a place for all to come to to escape the city. The 19th century city was crowded and noisy with air not fit for breathing. There were no public parks. Boston had the Boston Common but that was in the center of town and not conducive to peace and quiet. Dearborn wanted to create, along with the cemetery, a place for people to come to for contemplation. A place for rejuvenation, a return to nature, a quiet place to escape to. So popular did Forest Hills become that by the end of the century admittance on Sundays was limited to lot owners, only. A practice, I’m sure, Dearborn would never have allowed had he lived that long. 

     So, with two “Garden” cemeteries to his credit I have thought that Dearborn preferred Forest Hills to Mount Auburn. The reason I believe that lies in the fact he had his parents removed from the Cambridge cemetery and interred in the Roxbury cemetery [Roxbury is now a neighborhood of Boston]. His mother is interment #1 followed by dear old dad at # 2. More about “dad” in a later posting. 

     I’m sure that I will be adding to this less than adequate description of Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn in the future… so, as they say, stay tuned and if the crick don’t rise there will be more……...