oj li CD m -D o a a m a THE DAYS OF A MAN VOLUME ONE 1851-1899 HULDAH HAWLEY JORDAN, 1876 THE DAYS OF A MAN BEING MEMORIES OF A NATURALIST, TEACHER AND MINOR PROPHET OF DEMOCRACY BY DAVID STARR JORDAN ILLUSTRATED VOLUME ONE 1851-1899 J '*"' h A' t\\ Jungle and town and reef and sea, I have loved God's earth and God's earth loved me, Take it for all in all! Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York WORLD BOOK COMPANY 1922 WORLD BOOK COMPANY THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE Established 1905 by Caspar W. Hodgson YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK. 2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO By way of advancing their ideal of service, which is expressed in the motto "Books that apply the world's knowledge to the world's needs," the publishers present The Days of a Man, by David Starr Jordan. In these memoirs the reader will find not only the fascinating story of an active life of human service, but evidences of a philosophy that embodies a real science of living. Dr. Jor- dan is a master hand at adapting scientific knowledge to the needs of men, and in these pages he reveals much of his secret of fur- thering human happiness and enriching life JDM: n-i Copyright 1922 by World Book Company Copyright in Great Britain All rights reserved TO BARBARA'S MOTHER WITHOUT WHOSE QUIET INSISTENCE THIS BOOK WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BEGUN AND EXCEPT FOR WHOSE KEEN SYMPATHETIC CRITICISM AND UNFAILING HELP IT COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN COMPLETED FOREWORD FOR half a century the writer of these pages has been a very busy man, living meanwhile three more or less independent lives: first, and for the love of it, that of naturalist and explorer; second, also for the love of it, that of teacher; and third, from a sense of duty, that of minor prophet of Democracy. If he had his days to live over, he would again choose all of the three. The friendly reader will not fail to note that the record is essentially objective - - simply the story of what one man did and saw in the world about him, being always eager to know the Cosmos as it is, and never unduly distressed at his inability to "remold it nearer to the heart's desire." The same critic - - should he read far — will also observe that the author rarely mentions any one of whom he must speak disparagingly, or ventures to judge harshly those errors in judgment or failures in will from which no one in public or private life was ever exempt. As stated in the text, this work is essentially a record of friendships; but even as thus considered it is far from complete. For in the author's varied ex- perience as teacher and as executive, he depended on the willing cooperation of his associates — aid granted in an unusual degree. To every one who has shown him sympathy and tolerance he is very grateful. In the actual working out of remembrances he has received help from many sources, most of all from his wife, who has wrestled with every para- graph, both in manuscript and proof. To Charles C vii 3 Foreword H. Gilbert and Barton W. Evermann he is especially indebted for jogging his recollection as to details in which they were concerned. As Agassiz often said, ''Memory must not be kept too full or it will spill over." He is further under obligation to Professors M. Anesaki of the Imperial University of Tokyo and K. Hara of the Imperial University of Kyoto, who gave a critical reading to Chapters xxvi and xxvii. Finally, for any errors in fact or interpre- tation which may have slipped through anywhere, he craves indulgence. DAVID STARR JORDAN March, 1921 C viii CONTENTS BOOK ONE (1851-1879) PAGE CHAPTER ONE i 1. Puritan ancestry - - John Jordan - - Rufus Jordan — Hiram Jordan - - Huldah Hawley Jordan — • John Elderkin Waldo 2. "Going West" -The Jordan farm-- A glacial pond — Cranberry pond - - Rufus Bacon Jordan -"The Human Harvest" -Mary Jordan Edwards 3. Birthplace — East Coy Creek — Gainesville — Early recollections -- Quilting bees -- The old clock -- Playing soldier — A long drive — No whipping - - To Rochester -- A tragedy of pride — Overpowering fear - - Timidity and mystery CHAPTER Two 19 1. Learning to study — "Speaking pieces" —The Red Eric — "False color sense" — Tendency in- herited— Mapping the stars — Mapping the world — Other reverberations — Eric's shells — Barbara's birds 2. Turning to Botany - - Flowers of spring — In- terest in flowers and trees — Portage and Sil- ver Lake — Difference in floras — Painting the flowers — No songbird 3. Dickens — Thackeray — Bret Harte — Macau- lay and the poets — The Atlantic Monthly — Introduction to politics — Abolition versus Union — Greeley and the Tribune — Harper's Ferry and Sumter — Emancipation — The call for men — War poets — Death of Lincoln 4. Castile Academy - - The Female Seminary — The study of French — John Lord Jenkins — Gainesville Zouaves - - Learning chess — A broken nose — In South Warsaw — Coasting /7V? Contents PAGE 5. Woods Hole and Noank — George Brown Goode • — Goode the naturalist — Goode the man — Verrill and Hyatt — Mystic River CHAPTER Six 129 1. Indianapolis — Indianapolis High School — Enter Gilbert — Maywood warblers - The Manual of Vertebrates — Marriage to Susan Bowen 2. McCulloch — Pauperism — Reed — Harrison — The McKinley tariff- - Dr. Fletcher — Riley — Thompson — Two friends at large 3. At Cumberland Gap — Shaler — The mountain camp — Butler University — Joint studies — Sisco of Lake Tippecanoe — The Johnny Darters - Rafinesque — Rafinesque in Kentucky — Catalogue of fresh-water fishes 4. Copeland's death — Indiana Medical College — Doctor of Medicine — Wiley — Not a clerical - Concerning medicine - - Great discoveries — Floating matter in the air 5. Efforts for a university position — Wisconsin — Princeton - - Vassar — Michigan — Cincinnati — Imperial University of Tokyo -- Handicaps CHAPTER SEVEN 1 54 1. Harlan and McCreary — Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge — White and black -- Ocmul- gee Basin — Stone Mountain — Hayes and Tilden — Greeley's defeat 2. Invention of the telephone — Speaking across the continent — Printing a letter — Explora- tion of Southern rivers — About Asheville - Buncombe County — Mitchell's Peak — The Santee Basin — Stephens — Rome again — Trout of the Northwest 3. Second trip South — A tragic situation — Change in angle of vision — The Rhododendron Trail - - Smash Wagon Ford — Falls of Tallulah Contents PAGE — Natural History talks — Native songs - Patting songs — Typical negro melodies —Re- ligious refrains — Beaufort — The Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond — Brooks 4. The "Baird School" -Theodore Gill --Mas- ter of Taxonomy — Coues — Coues' dread of visitors — His good advice • — Jordan and Gilbert — Dall and others — Edward Drinker Cope — Fishes of Ohio again — Joseph Henry BOOK TWO (1879-1891) CHAPTER EIGHT 183 1. Dissension at Butler — A dangerous move — Back into line — European trips 2. A sudden transfer — Successor to Richard Owen — Indiana University — Humbug or godlessness — Grand Old Men of Indiana 3. Abolition of competition — Robert Owen and Maclure — Say — Lesueur — The Owen Broth- ers — Neef — Troost — Too many drones — Rapp and the Angel Stone 4. New neighbors — The Bates School of Philos- ophy— The town — Only one at a time --An unpopular book — Early-day students — "The Hoosier Schoolmaster" 5. Geodes — Trailing Arbutus — Boisen — Brown County CHAPTER NINE 201 1. Government service on Pacific Coast — De- tails of investigation — Los Angeles — The Palos Verdes — San Diego — The "Last Chance" —"Mr. Law" — Big game fishing around Santa Catalina 2. Santa Barbara — Sudis — Flying Fishes — Method of flight — Opening Indian mounds — San Luis Obispo — The Black Current — Millie- Christine - - Monterey - The Hagfish — Mis- sion San Carlos -- Carrying the faith --An- il xiii 3 Contents PAGE 4. Old-school presidents - - Bionomics — Foibles of university heads — Value of higher educa- tion-- Making friends — Growth of Indiana University — A wise board of trustees — Alumni trustees — Death of Susan Bowen Jordan CHAPTER THIRTEEN 303 1. Alfred Russel Wallace — Henry George — Wendell Phillips — Beecher - - Western hospi- tality — Roosevelt and reform — Rooseveltian epithets — A joyous nature — Roosevelt as naturalist — Love of birds -- Rooseveltia brig- bami — Deep-sea explorations — Anent the An- anias Club --Civil Service in Alaska -- The tennis cabinet — "His Favorite Author" -At his best — Roosevelt's strength and weakness 2. The prey of spoilsmen - - Foulke -- Slain for the Republic — Merit, not politics -- Civil Service in Yellowstone Park --At the White House — McKinley's method - - Funston's promotion — The Mugwumps - - Partisan tricks CHAPTER FOURTEEN 319 1. A call to Iowa — President McBride — The Jardin des Plantes — In the mountains — A noted guide — "John Brown's body" — A second visit to Pensacola 2. Evolution of the college curriculum — The dregs of learning — A radical suggestion — Disper- sion of river fishes — Marriage to Jessie Knight — A Huguenot Puritan — Admiral Knight — Willoughby Lake — Quebec — Sainte Anne de Beau-Pre — Luray — Jordan's Law — Gemi- nate Species — Collecting in Virginia — Joint studies of classic fish and fish names -- A village lost 3. In Colorado-- A splendid find — Twin Lake Yellow Fin - - Uncompahgre Pass — Lost arts - Utah again Contents PAGE 4. Government investigation in the Yellow- stone — A painted chasm — "Story of a Strange Land" — A curious foreshadowing — Barren streams — Lupine Creek — Yellowstone River — Two Ocean Pass — • Bringing in new trout — Problem of the Golden Trout — Species formed in isolation — Helping nature out CHAPTER FIFTEEN 344 1. "Schaking" on the Britannia- -Fjord and fjeld — The Kaiser at Stallhjemskleven — Odde and the Skjaeggedal — On foot to Stor Ishaug — Birch gradation — A moonlight drive — House of the Thousand Terrors — Linguistic expe- riences — The Passion Play — The Alice Blanche — A mountain refuge — A life of devotion — Val Tournanche — On the Matter- joch — Snowbound in August — A dazzling world — An amazing disclosure 2. Function of the State University — White's telegram — Leland Stanford and his errand — A God of Love — Offer accepted — First visit to Palo Alto — Secretary Elliott — Guiding principles - Plan of organization of the new uni- versity — Coulter -- Swain - - Bryan — East in search of professors — An untried field BOOK THREE (1891-1899) CHAPTER SIXTEEN 365 1. Leland Stanford Junior — Plans for endow- ment — Laying the corner stone — Seeking expert advice — An offer declined 2. The tall tree — The University estates - - The fine art of horse breeding -- Motions of the horse — The kindergarten — Sale of the stud 3. Encina Hall — The architects of Stanford Uni- versity— The Quadrangles — The Patio - Color contrasts — The Arboretum — Palm Avenue C xvii 3 Contents PAGE 4. A California Trianon — Peter Coutts — Adorn- ing nature — Disappearance of the "French- man " — Alcoholic fauna - - Ordered out - Pioneering — A prohibition town — City fa- thers— Saving the live oaks — "Uncle John" 5. Naming the streets --Don Caspar de Portola — Provision for women — The Museum — In- stalling the general collections — Family treas- ures — The boy Leland 6. Our new environment — Sierra de la Santa Cruz — Sierra del Monte Diablo — Monte Diablo — The golden poppy — Miles and miles of bloom — The Lick Observatory — The Coast redwood — A noble outlook CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 394 1. Skepticism and apprehension — Advice and warning — Changed conditions 2. The opening day — A true Golden Age — The first faculty of Stanford University - - Turning to younger men — Stillman — The Indiana group — Some of the "Old Guard " - Not all re- mained — Non-resident professors — Harrison on International Law 3. Adventurous youth — Handling Encina - Dropped off the edge of the campus - - No smok- ing in the Quadrangle — Sunday services - Our padre 4. The Daily Palo Alto — The Sequoia — The Cha- parral— Early characters — Thoburn — "In Terms of Life" — Prayer-- "Four-leaved Clover" — Hoover — "De Re Metallica" - The women of Stanford — Friends and disci- ples— Wilbur — Not forgotten — The second generation 5. "Frosh" and "Prof" — Students of mature age — The first football game - - University out- ings— Senior-faculty games- "Fanned out" — "A Faculty Meeting" -The audience re- assured-- Successful vaudeville -- A contest in C xviii 3 Contents PAGE politeness — The "Antigone" — Die Luft der Freiheit 6. Changes in policy - - Limitation of numbers of both women and men - - Entrance requirements - Large liberty of election in preparation - Radical and conservative - - Why Eastern stu- dents came -- Educational ideals -- Charm of California -- Students as helpers -- Fraternity chapter houses CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 428 1. The Yosemite — Sequoia washingtonia -- Other giant conifers - - How to tell fir from spruce - Cheerful tales of the Sierra - - Yosemite and Lauterbrunnen - - Nevada Fall and Rheinfall 2. Floodmore — Joyous excursions -- Californiacs — "She first loved us" -Two seasons in Cali- fornia — The Missions -- San Diego — San Luis Rey — San Juan Capistrano — Santa Barbara — San Antonio — San Juan Bautista and Santa Clara — Dolores — The Pious Fund 3. A Chaucer scholar — Other strong men - - Smith as poet — Wing at home and abroad — Mary Sheldon Barnes — Kellogg — A varied career -Charlotte Kellogg -- George Clark -- Fair- clough's war service — Tried and true CHAPTER NINETEEN 447 1. California's first automobile -- University ex- tension— Luther Burbank — Tribute by De Vries — A reverent evolutionist — Moses and Howison — Pragmatism • Ritter — Phoebe Hearst — Susan Lincoln Mills — An auspicious combination 2. The singer of the Sierras — Coolbrith, Cheney, and Markham — "The Man with the Hoe" The splendid, idle forties - - The Land of Sun- shine group — The dean of anglers -- Good cit- izens too — Muir and Keith — Jack London — Frank Norris C xix 3 Contents PAGE 3. Ambrose Bierce — His awful humor — Fitch and Millard — A great occasion lost — Liter- ary journalists — A grim old fighter 4. Stebbins, Wendte, and Brown — Voorsanger — Other friendly neighbors — Olney — The Cooper staff — Stallard 5. Sutro — Valentine and Mills — A strong woman — General Lowe — The Mission Inn. — A Sac- ramento trio — The Bidwells — A monumental romancer — The Baron of Arizona 6. Welcome guests — An interesting career — A Bismarckian critic — Lapses from German grace — "Primitive" Americans -- Our greatest preacher CHAPTER TWENTY 478 1. Death of the founder-- Southern Pacific owners - An unforeseen dilemma — In the Probate Court — Leland Stanford's funeral 2. His early life — General merchant - - War gov- ernor — Railway builder — The last spike — United States Senator — Kindness of heart — Religious attitude — Freedom from entangle- ments of church or party — Training for useful- ness in life — Value of cooperation — Waste of labor - - To dignify labor - - An open road to edu- cation — Need of competent teachers — Suc- cess not measured by numbers — Equal educa- tion for women — Increase of individual effi- ciency - - Value of time - - Farm loan project 3. Defect in enabling act — Welton Stanford — The panic of 1893 -- Professors as personal servants — -The bag of gold — A monthly al- lowance — Contribution by professors — The crisis at Vina — The "freezing out" process - Pioneer reception — Stanch supporters 4. A staggering blow — Government aid to Cen- tral Pacific --Two valuations -- No help from partners — "Stopping the circus" —Favorable Contents PAGE decisions — Appeal to Supreme Court — Cleve- land's intervention — Harlan's decision 5. Obstacle of debt — Mrs. Stanford's anxiety — Putting Stanford into the California Constitu- tion — A valuable burden — The Jewel Fund — Efforts to legalize a last will and testament — A cold opinion — Forlorn hope — Rigid econ- omies — Blanket deeds — Unflinching devotion — A sacred trust CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 511 1. Need of a new residence — The "woodpecker tree" — The orchard — Our friends the quails — Other feathered tenants — Some monkey folk — Maternal yearnings — A simian Mazeppa — Loro Bonito — A difficult accomplishment — Coloratura duets — Furry invaders 2. Save the Redwoods — The Big Basin statute — California Redwood Park — The Pinnacles Reserve — Lake Tahoe — Desolation Valley and Heather Lake — The Tahoe dyke — Up and over Rockbound — Circuit of Lake Tahoe — The Bret Harte country — Plumas County — Lassen's Butte 3. An inclusive memoir on American fishes — Good helpers — University extension — "The Physi- cal Basis of Heredity" — Collecting at Mazatlan — New friends-- A nightmare — Love and science — Ygnacio — Our gringo Colorado — A paradise of birds — Good talkers — Hidden treasure — Ygnacio's escopete 4. The Pioneers graduate — The Yellowstone again — Mountain chipmunks — The Devil's Wood- pile — A national university — Hoyt's efforts — Opportunities for research — Influential advo- cates— Argument before the Senate — Real scholars not partisan — Discussions pro and con — Faction in science - - Election as president — After the great fire — Natural History groups H xxi Contents PAGE — Active and honorary memberships — Loro Bonito now learns the Stanford "yell" Mrs. Stanford's gratitude — Herbert C. Nash CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 545 1. Fur Seal problem — Elaine's mare clausum — Breeding homes — Roving habits — Disastrous effect of pelagic sealing — Contention of the Unites States — Paris Award 2. Early records — First estimate as to numbers — Land killing of males — My associates — A capable group — The British commission — Through Alexander Archipelago — A great achievement — Removal to Annette Island — New allegiance — Sitka — Glaciers and vol- canoes — Unalaska — Dolly Vardens big and small — Arctic flora — St. George 3. St. Paul --The Aleuts — The "Roblar Man" -Puzzled experts — Apollon's big halibut — To Zapadni and back — A tale of the Mist Islands — Deep-sea fishes — The first Bogoslof -The last 4. Life on the Pribilofs — The white seal — Count- ing harems — The old fellows leave — The little Blue Fox — Fox walks — An odd countenance Cruel eyes — Marie Corelli and the Gray Sea Lion — The Hair Seal 5. "Through storm and fog, by luck or log, We sail as Bering sailed" — Greater Britain — A tempt- ing offer — Stories told to children — Youthful critics — "The Care and Culture of Men" — "The Innumerable Company" — Foster and Hamlin — To end pelagic sealing — Richard Olney — Li Hung Chang 6. McKinley's Cabinet — John Sherman — McKinley and Sherman — John Hay - - Mar- rack's speech — "Lessons of the Tragedy" — We make the laws xx Contents PAGE CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 577 1. To Bering Sea once more — Klondike gold — Muir Glacier — Cleveland's idiosyncrasy — Bowers — "Steve" Elkins - - Moser to the rescue — An agreeable change - - War at Karluk - - Bel- kofski — The Sea Otter — Much gold but no food — A Treasury order — Costly disregard of national resources 2. Fair weather — A new factor — Attacks of Uncinaria lucasi — Complete eradication — Branding — Fencing a failure — The Fur Seal's stupidity — His teachable cousin — Short mem- ories— On the Satellite -- British discipline — The gay homes of Nikolski -- Luscious dishes — Bering's death on Tolstoi Mys — Steller's fate 3. Medni precedents — Picturesque Glinka — Moser confers a boon — Poetic inspiration — Sending for the mail — Hooper's tact and wis- dom — A master seaman — Fog as a blanket to sound — Trying to be funny — The Roble cat — Fatal detail — A frantic editor — "Scios- ophy" —A profitable hoax — Fur Seals extinct on Guadalupe Island 4. The diplomatic commission — British reluc- tance — Our predicament — A way out — Fresh complications — Vostochni invaded — Sir Wil- frid Laurier — Kakichi Mitsukuri and his strange offering — Foster calls on me for a speech 5. Fur Seal report — Treaty of 1911 — Credit where credit is due — Efforts to neutralize the treaty — Menace of unchecked pelagic sealing — Unsound reasoning — Killing of superfluous males a necessity — Value of expert knowledge — Continuous observation CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 613 I. Atrocities in Cuba — A special envoy — Sink- of the Maine — McKinley's advisers — Wood- xxiii H Contents PAGE ford unfairly discredited — Dewey at Manila — "Lest we forget!" — Anti-imperialism — See Mark Twain: "To a Person Sitting in Dark- ness"— Democracy turned imperialist — Eu- genic studies — Darwin on war selection — "The Blood of the Nation" — "The Human Harvest" — "War and the Breed" — Mrs. Stanford and world peace 2. To the Southwest — Lummis and The Land of Sunshine — Cliff-dwellings — Bound for the Grand Canyon — Primeval place — Erosion two miles deep — A tough job — Earth sculpture — Hairbreadth escapes of John Hance — The wrathful chub 3. On to Acoma — Pueblo towns and people — Communal defense — The Acoma mesa — Coro- nado visits Acoma — Revolt and massacre — Wise concessions — The house a fortress — Acoma trails — Pottery — Fine courtesy — Camera magic — Dizzy ways — Supplicating the gods — 'A gallo race — The white man's incantation 4. Enchanted Katzimo — Legend of Katzimo — "Disenchanting" the mesa — Hodge's expedi- tion— Evidences of habitation — A furious ride — Precarious hold — Trophies from the top — Safely down — The prairie dog — Bur- rowing owl — An astonished rattlesnake — Strange customs — Home-loving aborigines CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 638 i. A long holiday — Siestas alternating with fiestas — The adored Presidente — View from Chapul- tepec — An exquisite outlook — "Los Toros" at Guadalajara — Abundant hospitality — Great estates seized by the people — Striking contrasts — Mount Orizaba — Exotic lands — Alpine heights — A problem in Ichthyology — The coralillo — Diaz the man — La planta animal — My mother's death C xxiv U Contents PAGE 2. The Hall of Fame — Odd omissions — Civic Forum Medal — Medal of Honor 3. Camping in Kings River Canyon — An irrep- arable loss — Relics of antiquity — The North Palisade — "Yosemites" — University of Cali- fornia Peak — • Ouzel Basin — Stanford Univer- sity Peak — Breaking waves of granite — Alps and Sierras contrasted 4. Oom Paul's obstinacy — Britain's moral re- sponsibility— Imperial expansion — The Kai- ser's telegram- -A gross lapse — Why free- dom matters — Mob and herd instincts — Campbell-Bannerman — Smuts 5. Inauguration of Benjamin Ide Wheeler — "Eat- ing one's way through" — President Barrows APPENDIXES: A. Colonial Genealogy 665 B. Inaugural Address, Stanford University, Octo- ber i, 1891 688 C. Extracts from Certain Personal Letters of Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford 691 D. From "Lest We Forget" 695 E. Appeal of the Anti-Imperialist League, 1899. . . . 699 F. How Barbara Came to Escondite 701 G. Brief Mention of Certain Graduates of Stanford University between 1892 and 1899 707 C xxv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Huldah Hawley Jordan, 1876 Frontispiece OPPOSITE PAGE Hiram Jordan, 1886 6 Mary Jordan Edwards, 1873; Lucia Jordan Beadle, 1895; Rufus Bacon Jordan, 1860 14 Barbara Jordan, 1898 28 David Starr Jordan, August, 1868 44 John Henry Comstock; Anna Botsford Comstock; Melville Best Anderson; William Russel Dudley 56 John Caspar Branner, 1896 66 Andrew Dickson White, 1868 78 David Starr Jordan at Graduation, 1872 96 Louis Agassiz, about 1857 no David Starr Jordan, 1874 124 Susan Bowen Jordan, 1879; David Starr Jordan, 1880 . 132 Herbert Edson Copeland, 1876; Charles Henry Gilbert, 1880 140 The "Angel Stone," New Harmony 194 Ruined Mission of San Juan Capistrano 204 San Carlos Borromeo in Carmelo, 1880 212 Point Lobos 218 Mount Rainier 224 Reunion of Class of 1883, Indiana University, June, 1920 248 Rjukanfos, Thelemark, Norway 256 Matterhorn from Near Schwartzsee (Lac Noir) .... 262 Refuge Hut, 1881 268 Edith Monica Jordan, 1909; Harold Bowen Jordan, 1906 300 Jessie Knight Jordan, 1886 and 1898 326 Knight and Eric, 1908 354 Leland Stanford, Junior; Jane Lathrop Stanford; Leland Stanford 366 Horses on the Palo Alto Ranch 370 Inner Court, Stanford University, 1891 374 Outer Quadrangle, Stanford University, 1903 380 Inner Court and Memorial Church, 1909; Looking through Triple Arch, Inner Court, into Memorial Court .... 386 C xxvii 3 List of Illustratio?is *J OPPOSITE PAGE Charles David Marx; Ray Lyman Wilbur; Edward Curtis Franklin; Douglas Houghton Campbell 398 David Starr Jordan, 1891; Wilbur Wilson Thoburn; John Maxson Stillman 406 Herbert Hoover; Vernon Kellogg 410 Henry Rushton Fairclough; Clelia Duel Mosher, M.D. . 414 The President at the Bat, 1895 420 Redwoods, La Honda; Prune Trees, Santa Clara Valley 430 San Francisco de Assis de los Dolores in Fiesta .... 438 "Rolling Foothills "on the "Old Farm" 458 Leland Stanford, about 1890 480 Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford, 1850 494 Francis E. Spencer; Samuel Franklin Leib; Timothy Hop- kins 500 The Garden, 1898; the "Woodpecker Tree" 512 Barbara Jordan, 1895 530 Bering Sea, Showing Position of Pribilof and Commander Islands; St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska . . . 548 Joint British-American Commission for Fur-Seal Investi- gation, Unalaska, 1896 552 Sitka, Alaska 556 Fur Seal Rookery on Lukanin 560 Second Bogoslof as It Rose from the Sea, 1883 .... 564 Muir Glacier 578 Fur Seals on Old Landslide, Palata 592 Joint British-American Diplomatic Commission, 1897-98 602 Gateway to Acoma; On the Modern Trail 626 Partial View of Acoma Pueblo 632 Lummis-Jordan Party on Top of the Enchanted Mesa; Enchanted Mesa from the Southeast 636 Puente de Ixtla, Morelos, Mexico 642 North Palisade from Summit of Mt. Woodworth; Kear- sarge Pinnacles and Lakes 650 xxvii BOOK ONE 1851-1879 THE DAYS OF A MAN CHAPTER ONE "!F we know ourselves well," says Barrie, "we know our parents also." Conversely runs the old Shinto maxim, "Let men know by your own deeds who were your ancestors." Again, according to Erasmus Darwin more than a century ago, each man is but "an elongation of his parents' life." He is, in fact, the elongation of two lives - - and (be- hind these) of thousands of others more or less divergent, else he could have no individuality or be really himself. Such originality as may be his comes from new combination, not from acquisition. When a child is once born, "the gate of gifts is closed"; nothing more comes unsought. He may henceforth expect nothing new, but must devote himself to the adjustment and development of his heritage of potentialities received through father and mother. Each one, then, is a "chip of the old block," but not that alone; each is a composite of many chips of many blocks - - a fact which obligates me to say something about my ancestry. This was pwitan made up of common men — farmers, teachers, ancestry preachers, lawyers — and their womenfolk, all of the old Puritan stock, every one of their earlier forebears (so far as we know) having migrated hope- fully from Devon for the most part, or in some cases from London, to build up new fortunes in the free C i 3 The Days of a Man £1809 air of a New World. Among them occur the names of Waldo, Adams, Gary, Hull, Bacon, Holly, Fowler, Foster, Graves, Dimmock, Wight, Lake, and Drake,1 the line last named harking back in Devon to Drakes, Grenvilles, Courteneys, Prideaux, Gilberts, and De Quincys. John John Jordan, my great-grandfather, served in the Jordan Revolution; in after years he was justice of the peace at Moriah on the hills above Port Henry on Lake Champlain in Essex County, New York. Be- hind him and his father, Elijah Jordan, a Baptist clergyman of Litchfield, Connecticut, stood Rufus Jordan, supposed to be a certain Rufus known to have left Jordan in Devon to seek his fortune in America. John Jordan's old farm was a barren and stony tract strewn with crystals of red hematite, the common iron ore, which my father used for shot in squirrel hunting. Half a century later, and long after my grandfather, another Rufus Jordan, had sold this property, it acquired large value as one of New York's great sources of iron, and on it now stands the considerable town of Mineville. Rufus Rufus Jordan I remember as a dark and wiry little Jordan man with large black eyes, and an intense dislike for the political group which he called "the Feds." His death occurred in 1862, when he was seventy-nine years old. Of my paternal grandmother, Rebecca Bacon, I recall only that she was a slender, keen- eyed, quick-spoken old lady who sat by the winter fire. My father, Hiram Jordan, was born on February 12, 1809, which date, it will be remembered, was also the birthday of Darwin and of Lincoln. A little 1 See Appendix A (page 665). C 2 3 My Parents less than six feet in height, he was spare, wiry, and Hiram very athletic. As a youth he used to be able to J°rdan clasp his hands and jump through them, a feat I also was once able to perform, but which I have been unable to compass for a good many years back. A clever hunter in his earlier years, Father possessed a large degree of woodcraft, though later in life he refused even to own a gun. With no very marked originality, yet quick to see a point and adopt from others, especially from my mother, he was a keen observer, a man of great energy, and of considerable ability as a speaker. His conception of duty was firm and unflinching; he used no form of alcohol or tobacco, and spent a large part of the latter portion of his life fighting the liquor interests in his county. Having been a strong Abolitionist before the war, he was from the first a vigorous supporter of Lincoln's policies. Active in behalf of all educational move- ments, he served for a long time as trustee of the public school of his district, and as a teacher himself for ten or twelve years was locally noted for skill in instruction and maintenance of order. By religious belief he felt in harmony with Unitarians and Univer- salists alike, becoming finally a pillar of the local Uni- versalist church. Although of a cheerful disposition, he was undemonstrative and often silent for a long time if his feelings had been hurt. He never laughed aloud, so far as I can remember, but for that matter neither have I except in an elephantine way to amuse the children. My fun I always take internally. Huldah Lake Hawley, my mother, was born in Hulda Whitehall, Washington County, New York, July 9, Hawley 1812. A woman of large stature and strong, re- J°rdan ligious character, though liberal as to details of C 3 3 The Days of a Man £1837 faith, she had a distinctly original mind, a broad outlook on attairs, considerable native literary skill, and (for her time) a good English education. At writing she was rather clever. Of her verses, which he copied neatly in an elaborately ornate hand, my father was very proud.1 Mother, too, had been a successful teacher, and for some time after their marriage my parents maintained on the farm a private school with a few resident pupils. Of David Hawley, my mother's father, a man of large build and generous mind, with a personal influence unusual for a frontier farmer, I had little direct knowledge, as for some years before his death he suffered from ill health which confined him to the house. His father was the Reverend Sylvanus 1 One of my mother's poems, still preserved, reads as follows: WHAT is OUR HOPE? When we shall sink in drooping age, When friends depart, when sorrows rage, And earth's frail joys all fleeting go, What balm remains for mortal woe? Is this our hope that we shall reign With God, our Saviour, free from pain, While millions of his children dwell Mid ceaseless flames in endless hell? Though tender offspring there we see Wailing in hopeless agony, Yet we with heartfelt pleasure hear Their groans and sighs, nor drop a tear? Ah no, we hope that one and all Shall rise at their Creator's call, From sorrows, sin, and death made free, And all in Christ new creatures be. This precious hope can give us peace When all our earthly comforts cease And make us with our dying breath Shout, Where's thy victory, boasting Death? HULDAH JORDAN Gainesville, N. Y. January 22, 1837 C43 1830] W^aldo Ancestry Holly of Stratford, Connecticut, our different spelling of the surname having been adopted by the children of Sylvanus' first wife, Huldah Lake, of which group my grandfather was one. Huldah Lake Holly was regarded as a gifted woman, and for her my mother was named. Two of the Holly descendants of the last century, Alanson and Birdsall Holly, became distinguished civil engineers. My mother's mother, Anne Waldo, a third or fourth cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and reputed to be a person of uncommon refinement and depth of insight, I never knew. She belonged to a well- known family widely honored in Connecticut and Massachusetts, her father being Judge John Elderkin John Waldo of Canterbury, Connecticut, at the time a local leader of the "Federalists," who viewed with alarm the democracy of his age. In one of his speeches he decried the "hard times in Connecticut," and insisted that there would "never be good times again until every farm hand would once more work all day for a sheep's head and pluck." He then went on also to say that the trouble lay in the " little red schoolhouses scattered over the hills, which preach the doctrines of equality and se- dition." I should here explain that my mother, who preserved the record, was in no way sympathetic with these views of her august ancestor. To return now to my more immediate story, it was in the year 1830 or thereabouts that my grand- father, Rufus Jordan, accompanied by his wife Re- becca, his sons Hiram and Moses, and his daughters C 5 D The Days of a Man £1830 "Going Lucina, Lydia, Rebecca, and Mary, left Lake West" Champlain and moved across the country after the fashion of those times in what was afterward called a "prairie schooner" to the Great Holland Purchase in western New York, a group of townships then mostly included in the county of Ontario. The first halt was at Arcadia1 in what is now Wayne County, a rich farming country which nevertheless seemed to the wanderers less healthy than the Adirondacks from which they had come. Accordingly, after a stay of a few years, they moved still farther west- ward, settling in what was at that time a part of the township of Warsaw, then in the county of Genesee. The land they selected was high and rolling, crossed by the bright, clear headwaters of Oatka River, a smaller tributary of which became known as "Grandpa Jerdan's Creek." Later the southern half of Genesee was separated from the rest to form Wyoming, with Warsaw as county seat, the six-mile-square township south of Warsaw being first known as Hebe after the classical fashion of those days.2 This name was later changed to Gaines- ville in honor of General Edmund Pendleton Gaines of Virginia, a :