Doctor James' wife was buried at Rock Springs, Iowa. She was a woman of talent and fond of society, which in his later days Doctor James did not care for. Mrs. Dr. Anna Richmond, a niece, now deceased, lived in St. Louis and knew Doctor James when he was a civil engineer under Silas Read, who was then Surveyor General. She told me that it amused the city folk from St. Louis very much to have Doctor James call for them in a cart drawn by oxen and take them to his . home near Rock Springs. He desired to have Mrs. Richmond study botany. True to the instincts of the James family, Mrs. Richmond was a pronounced temperance woman. Mrs. Estelle D. Fogel of Ames, formerly of Burlington, tells me that she had a conversation with a neighbor of Dr. Edwin James at Rock Springs. This woman was then a small girl but remembers Doctor James as a philanthropist. He had the good-will of all of the neighbors. They called on him for treatment but he would never take any pay for the same. They knew nothing of the family. The lady remembers his help in the care of escaped negroes. In Denmark, he hid the negroes in a stone house, and in Burlington helped conceal them in a cellar. At night he would pilot them across the river, at one time taking them across in barrels. Mrs. James would give the children pies and cakes. That Doctor James was a good husband I am confident from Dr. Wm. Salter's testimony and the following touching tribute paid to his wife in a letter to Dr. John Torrey: Burlington, Iowa, Mar. 3rd, 1854. My Dear Sir: Your kind favor of Jan. 13th would not have remained so long unanswered had I not at the time I received it and ever since been walking in the valley of the shadow of death with a dear friend, an almost life-long companion, whose remains I committed yesterday to the grave. And now let me thank you for calling up by your most acceptable letter the pleasant memories of the long buried but never forgotten past. It was one of the chief pleasures of my earlier and most cherished recollections of my later life that I could number you among my friends and truly thankful am I that you have not forgotten me nor those delightful studies and pursuits that formed the connecting tie of our earlier and more joyful, but perhaps not better days. And now for an answer to your home question, "What have I been doing these last fifty years?" As this world counts doing; little or nothing. It did not take me long to discover that it was not for me to "make my mark upon the age," and having settled that point to my own satisfaction [ determined to make it on myself. I said, "I will rule my own spirit" and thus be greater than "he that taketh the city." "I will not love the world or seek to honors or possessions that the love of the Father may be in me and his peace rest upon Looking back across the chilling shadows of the evening and the more sunny tracts of middle and early life I see not much to regret in my course of inaction and passiveness as to the things of the life that is. What have I gained in relation to that to come? My condolence in the future has not been strengthened nor my hopes made more bright by what I have done, suffered and encountered here. me.' But as I feel myself approaching the chill and foggy domains of theology, to walk in which may and should be wholly distasteful to a true lover of nature like yourself, I will say no more about these things, unless it should happen that you, having had experiences, may be conscious of something in this line which might be valuable by way of exchange with an old and true friend and a lover of all knowledge and all truth, especially such as bears upon the interests and prospects of our higher and better natures. As I am no longer bound to any one spot of earth by family ties (my only son is married and settled in business in Du Buque) it enters into my day dreams that I may yet go forth to gather weeds and stones and rubbish for the use of some who may value such things, and perhaps drop this life-wearied body beside some solitary stream in the wilderness. In the meantime it would afford me the truest satisfaction to grasp your friendly hand once more or to be in the habit of frequent intercourse with you by letter. Most truly yours, E. JAMES. BECOMES SURGEON OF THE U. S. ARMY. HIS WORK FOR TEM PERANCE. Soon after his marriage Doctor James was appointed surgeon of the United States Army and was stationed at Ft. Crawford, now Prairie du Chien, then an important post. Mr. James H. Lockwood* in an article on the Early Times and Events in Wisconsin states that Mrs. Julianna Lockwood asked and obtained Doctor James' assistance in starting a Sunday school in 1825; the first one established in Ft. Crawford. His study of the Indian language began in that place. He did not, however, remain very long but was transferred to an* Collections of the State Historical Soc. of Wis., Vol. 2, p. 168. other post. While in Mackinac he became a great friend of the Chippewa Indians, into whose language he translated the New Testament, from Hebrew Chaldaic. As a result of his missionary work five hundred converts were made. In the tribe was a man named John Tanner, who had been stolen from his home in northern Ohio when five years of age. The Indians became much attached to him and treated him as one of their own tribe. He married one of the squaws and became very intemperate. Doctor James induced him to give up his bad habits and promised to write the story of his life and give him the proceeds, which he did. It was called Tanner's Narrative, and one thousand copies were sold.* The following letter has to do with his work on Tanner's Narrative: My Dear Brother: Mackinac, Aug. 10th, 1827. The Reverend Mr. Torrey, by whom I intend sending this letter, is the principal of the Mormon family at this place. He will remain but a short time in Albany and if it is convenient for you to show him any attentions you will thereby confer a favor on me. I have thought of sending by him thirty or forty sheets of Tanner's narrative, but it is doubtful whether you would have time to give them any examination before his return. I will thank you to send by him those I sent to Henry by Gen. Scott, that is, if he has forwarded them to you. If my labors meet with no interruption I shall have completed the narrative in less than a fortnight and there will be matter for about 300 open octave pages. One hundred pages more I shall wish to append to the work in the form of dissertations, notes, vocabularies, etc. I am doubtful whether you will think this work worthy of publication, but for my own part I feel confident that as important in its kind as any relating to Indian affairs. If Tanner himself would travel to procure subscriptions the circulation of the book might be somewhat extensive. This he is willing and anxious to do and will do provided I shall see such a prospect of success as to advise him to this measure. But he is a poor man and unable to lose the miserable place he now holds of interpreter to the Indian agent here, unless some certain prospect of an equivalent should be offered him. He has a large family of halfbreed children for whose support and education he is disposed to make great and certainly very laudable exertions. Mr. Perry, if you would speak to him respecting this man might possibly not confirm all the impressions you have received from me. There appears to have been A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, United States Interpreter at Saut de Ste. Marie, during Thirty Years Residence among the Indians in the Interior of North America. Prepared for the press by Edwin James, M. D., New York. G. and C. & H. Carvill, 1830. |