The Andover Townsman – June 7, 1895 – Vol. 8 – No. 34 – Page 4
Mr. French died on Friday of last week, May 31, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Sarah F. Abbott, of old age, being in his ninetieth year.
He came from a remarkable family. His grandfather, Rev. Jonathan French, was the second pastor of the South Church, from 1772 to 1809. One of his daughters married Rev. Samuel Stearns of Bedford, and was the mother of eminent ministers and teachers, including President Stearns of Amherst College and Rev. Dr. Jonathan French Stearns. His son, Rev. Jonathan French, D.D., married Rebecca Farrar of Lincoln, a sister of Prof. John Farrar of Harvard College and of ''Squire Farrar," well known to the elder residents of Andover as the long-time treasurer of Phillips Academy. Dr. French was pastor in North Hampton, N.H., for fifty-five years. Of his eleven children, all of whom lived to mature life, and seven of whom are still living, Jonathan was the oldest.
Jonathan French entered Phillips Academy in 1821, the same year with Chief Justice Ames, Dr. William M. Rogers of Boston, and N. P. Willis, the poet. He studied two years in Dartmouth and graduated from Union College in 1829. In early life he taught considerably, at first in Upper Canada, afterwards in the vicinity of the ancestral home of the Frenches at Braintree and Manchester-by-the-Sea. While living at Braintree in 1857, he married, his wife dying three years later. Since 1877 he has resided in Andover, his sisters, Mrs. Abbott and Miss French, kindly caring for him, as the increasing years brought to him increasing physical and mental infirmity. Until within a year or two he has delighted to relate reminiscences of the Andover of his school-boy days—"Pomp and Rose" of Pomp's Pond, the boys who roomed with him at Dea. Blanchard the doings of the "Social Fraternity," and the annual exhibition of 1825 in the old Brick Academy (the "Gym."), when he graduated and delivered an original "Ode on Ambition," following Oliver Wendell Holmes's graduating piece on "Fancy," the same which Dr. Holmes recited as his after-dinner speech at the centennial of 1878. He kept up a pleasant acquaintance with Dr. Holmes, and received a letter from him not long before his death.
Mr. French retained to the last the old school courtliness of manner. While coming out of the Seminary Chapel a few Sundays before his death, he slipped upon the steps and received a severe injury. Quickly rising he apologized to the students who were standing by, saying, "Excuse me, young gentlemen, I am ninety years old."
His funeral was attended at Mrs. Abbott's, on Monday afternoon, by his pastor, Rev. F.R. Shipman, and Dr. Bancroft, a quartette of Academy boys singing his favorite hymn, "Abide with me." He was buried in the Old South Cemetery, in the "Parsonage lot," where his grandfather was buried eighty-six years ago.
Mr. French died on Friday of last week, May 31, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Sarah F. Abbott, of old age, being in his ninetieth year.
He came from a remarkable family. His grandfather, Rev. Jonathan French, was the second pastor of the South Church, from 1772 to 1809. One of his daughters married Rev. Samuel Stearns of Bedford, and was the mother of eminent ministers and teachers, including President Stearns of Amherst College and Rev. Dr. Jonathan French Stearns. His son, Rev. Jonathan French, D.D., married Rebecca Farrar of Lincoln, a sister of Prof. John Farrar of Harvard College and of ''Squire Farrar," well known to the elder residents of Andover as the long-time treasurer of Phillips Academy. Dr. French was pastor in North Hampton, N.H., for fifty-five years. Of his eleven children, all of whom lived to mature life, and seven of whom are still living, Jonathan was the oldest.
Jonathan French entered Phillips Academy in 1821, the same year with Chief Justice Ames, Dr. William M. Rogers of Boston, and N. P. Willis, the poet. He studied two years in Dartmouth and graduated from Union College in 1829. In early life he taught considerably, at first in Upper Canada, afterwards in the vicinity of the ancestral home of the Frenches at Braintree and Manchester-by-the-Sea. While living at Braintree in 1857, he married, his wife dying three years later. Since 1877 he has resided in Andover, his sisters, Mrs. Abbott and Miss French, kindly caring for him, as the increasing years brought to him increasing physical and mental infirmity. Until within a year or two he has delighted to relate reminiscences of the Andover of his school-boy days—"Pomp and Rose" of Pomp's Pond, the boys who roomed with him at Dea. Blanchard the doings of the "Social Fraternity," and the annual exhibition of 1825 in the old Brick Academy (the "Gym."), when he graduated and delivered an original "Ode on Ambition," following Oliver Wendell Holmes's graduating piece on "Fancy," the same which Dr. Holmes recited as his after-dinner speech at the centennial of 1878. He kept up a pleasant acquaintance with Dr. Holmes, and received a letter from him not long before his death.
Mr. French retained to the last the old school courtliness of manner. While coming out of the Seminary Chapel a few Sundays before his death, he slipped upon the steps and received a severe injury. Quickly rising he apologized to the students who were standing by, saying, "Excuse me, young gentlemen, I am ninety years old."
His funeral was attended at Mrs. Abbott's, on Monday afternoon, by his pastor, Rev. F.R. Shipman, and Dr. Bancroft, a quartette of Academy boys singing his favorite hymn, "Abide with me." He was buried in the Old South Cemetery, in the "Parsonage lot," where his grandfather was buried eighty-six years ago.
The Andover Townsman – June 7, 1895 – Vol. 8 – No. 34 – Page 4
Mr. French died on Friday of last week, May 31, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Sarah F. Abbott, of old age, being in his ninetieth year.
He came from a remarkable family. His grandfather, Rev. Jonathan French, was the second pastor of the South Church, from 1772 to 1809. One of his daughters married Rev. Samuel Stearns of Bedford, and was the mother of eminent ministers and teachers, including President Stearns of Amherst College and Rev. Dr. Jonathan French Stearns. His son, Rev. Jonathan French, D.D., married Rebecca Farrar of Lincoln, a sister of Prof. John Farrar of Harvard College and of ''Squire Farrar," well known to the elder residents of Andover as the long-time treasurer of Phillips Academy. Dr. French was pastor in North Hampton, N.H., for fifty-five years. Of his eleven children, all of whom lived to mature life, and seven of whom are still living, Jonathan was the oldest.
Jonathan French entered Phillips Academy in 1821, the same year with Chief Justice Ames, Dr. William M. Rogers of Boston, and N. P. Willis, the poet. He studied two years in Dartmouth and graduated from Union College in 1829. In early life he taught considerably, at first in Upper Canada, afterwards in the vicinity of the ancestral home of the Frenches at Braintree and Manchester-by-the-Sea. While living at Braintree in 1857, he married, his wife dying three years later. Since 1877 he has resided in Andover, his sisters, Mrs. Abbott and Miss French, kindly caring for him, as the increasing years brought to him increasing physical and mental infirmity. Until within a year or two he has delighted to relate reminiscences of the Andover of his school-boy days—"Pomp and Rose" of Pomp's Pond, the boys who roomed with him at Dea. Blanchard the doings of the "Social Fraternity," and the annual exhibition of 1825 in the old Brick Academy (the "Gym."), when he graduated and delivered an original "Ode on Ambition," following Oliver Wendell Holmes's graduating piece on "Fancy," the same which Dr. Holmes recited as his after-dinner speech at the centennial of 1878. He kept up a pleasant acquaintance with Dr. Holmes, and received a letter from him not long before his death.
Mr. French retained to the last the old school courtliness of manner. While coming out of the Seminary Chapel a few Sundays before his death, he slipped upon the steps and received a severe injury. Quickly rising he apologized to the students who were standing by, saying, "Excuse me, young gentlemen, I am ninety years old."
His funeral was attended at Mrs. Abbott's, on Monday afternoon, by his pastor, Rev. F.R. Shipman, and Dr. Bancroft, a quartette of Academy boys singing his favorite hymn, "Abide with me." He was buried in the Old South Cemetery, in the "Parsonage lot," where his grandfather was buried eighty-six years ago.
Mr. French died on Friday of last week, May 31, at the house of his sister, Mrs. Sarah F. Abbott, of old age, being in his ninetieth year.
He came from a remarkable family. His grandfather, Rev. Jonathan French, was the second pastor of the South Church, from 1772 to 1809. One of his daughters married Rev. Samuel Stearns of Bedford, and was the mother of eminent ministers and teachers, including President Stearns of Amherst College and Rev. Dr. Jonathan French Stearns. His son, Rev. Jonathan French, D.D., married Rebecca Farrar of Lincoln, a sister of Prof. John Farrar of Harvard College and of ''Squire Farrar," well known to the elder residents of Andover as the long-time treasurer of Phillips Academy. Dr. French was pastor in North Hampton, N.H., for fifty-five years. Of his eleven children, all of whom lived to mature life, and seven of whom are still living, Jonathan was the oldest.
Jonathan French entered Phillips Academy in 1821, the same year with Chief Justice Ames, Dr. William M. Rogers of Boston, and N. P. Willis, the poet. He studied two years in Dartmouth and graduated from Union College in 1829. In early life he taught considerably, at first in Upper Canada, afterwards in the vicinity of the ancestral home of the Frenches at Braintree and Manchester-by-the-Sea. While living at Braintree in 1857, he married, his wife dying three years later. Since 1877 he has resided in Andover, his sisters, Mrs. Abbott and Miss French, kindly caring for him, as the increasing years brought to him increasing physical and mental infirmity. Until within a year or two he has delighted to relate reminiscences of the Andover of his school-boy days—"Pomp and Rose" of Pomp's Pond, the boys who roomed with him at Dea. Blanchard the doings of the "Social Fraternity," and the annual exhibition of 1825 in the old Brick Academy (the "Gym."), when he graduated and delivered an original "Ode on Ambition," following Oliver Wendell Holmes's graduating piece on "Fancy," the same which Dr. Holmes recited as his after-dinner speech at the centennial of 1878. He kept up a pleasant acquaintance with Dr. Holmes, and received a letter from him not long before his death.
Mr. French retained to the last the old school courtliness of manner. While coming out of the Seminary Chapel a few Sundays before his death, he slipped upon the steps and received a severe injury. Quickly rising he apologized to the students who were standing by, saying, "Excuse me, young gentlemen, I am ninety years old."
His funeral was attended at Mrs. Abbott's, on Monday afternoon, by his pastor, Rev. F.R. Shipman, and Dr. Bancroft, a quartette of Academy boys singing his favorite hymn, "Abide with me." He was buried in the Old South Cemetery, in the "Parsonage lot," where his grandfather was buried eighty-six years ago.
Family Members
Advertisement
Advertisement
