A few snippets of Harvey D. Little’s poetry

Harvey D. Little (1803-1833) was a poet and newspaper man in the Columbus, Ohio, area. He was married to Mary Howard (1809-1891), daughter of Horton Howard. (More biographical information on both of them can be found in the previous post. Or, read Coggeshall’s assessment of Harvey D. Little from The Poets and Poetry of the West (1860).)

I found some examples of Harvey’s poetry in the Forrer-Peirce-Wood Collection, and I just thought these were too cool not to share. (And I’m not even really a big poetry lover.)

I’ll post images and transcriptions. (Transcriptions were done by me.) To see the original handwritten poems, click on the images to view them larger on Flickr. (Also, notice the indentations in the originals; I typed them in, but they wouldn’t stay in the WordPress editor.)

All of these poems are from Sarah (Howard) Forrer‘s Album of “Original and Selected Pieces” of Poetry & Miscellany (Box 5, Folder 5), Forrer-Peirce-Wood Collection (MS-018), Dayton Metro Library (Dayton, Ohio).

Without further ado, here are the poems:

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This first one, Harvey wrote for his sister-in-law Sarah (Howard) Forrer, shortly after her marriage (1826) and the birth of her first child (Elizabeth, in 1827). I believe this poem was written in Harvey’s own handwriting, based on a few of his letters (also in the collection).

“To Mrs. Sarah H. Forrer” (1828)
By Harvey D. Little

I saw thee in thy maiden prime.– The rose of youth
Was freshly blooming on thy polish’d cheek,
Whose smile of innocence, and shades of meek
Expression mingled.– Even peerless Truth,
Was scarce more lovely in her pristine state.
Thou seem’d to us, some Peri from above,
That but to look on was to praise and love;–
Such was thy being,– such our changless fate.

Again I saw thee– when the bridal crown
Was gaily shining on thy polish’d brow,
And thy soft lips had breath’d the sacred vow,
That gave thee to another.– There stole down,
Thy cheek, a tear,– but not of sorrow,– no!
Affection’s fount was full to overflowing,
Thy heart’s warm rapture could not hide its glowing:
Thou didst not dream, for once, of future woe.

And yet again I saw thee.– Thy rich charms
Were heighten’d by a more majestic grace:
A lovely infant smil’d upon thy face,
As it lay fondling in thy guardian arms.
A mother’s hopes were in thy bosom; and her fears
Sometimes o’ershadow’d them,– as sombre care
Can cast a chill on all that’s bright and fear!–
Mayst thou ne’er have a real cause for tears!

Harvey D. Little
Columbus, Sept. 8th, 1828

To Mrs. Sarah H. Forrer, pg. 1 of 2

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Having the benefit of 150+ years of hindsight, I can’t help but be saddened a bit by the poem’s final line: “Mayst thou ne’er have a real cause for tears!” Sarah would outlive that baby by 13 years; she would lose two more children as children (her first son at age 8; a daughter at 1.5); she would lose her second (and by then only) son, as well as a son-in-law, within weeks of each other during the Civil War. Not to mention all the sorrow that befell the Howard/Little family in the years 1833-1834…

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I think the handwriting on this one may be Sarah’s. It’s a little hard to tell.

“Twilight Hour” (undated)
By Harvey D. Little

Twilight hour in month gray,
Herald of departing day,
Form’d by him who made the sun,
Ere creations work was done–
Oh! how dear thou art to me!
Clothed in vestal purity.

Twilight hour! thy pensiveness
Sooths my bosoms deep distress
Lulls to sleep each sordid woe,–
Gives to hope a brighter glow.–
Makes each passing scene appear
Far more pleasing, far more dear.

Twilight hour thy charms impart
A mournful sweetness to the heart,
By recalling smiles and tears,
Joys and griefs of far fled years:
Years that swiftly past away,
Joys that hastened to decay.

Twilight hour! in coming days,
Other bards may sing thy praise,
Love thy pensive charms which I
In the grassy tomb shall lie.
Far from sorrow far from pain
Far from every earthly stain.

There the storms of life are o’er–
There the wretched weep no more–
While the spirit wings its flight
To a world of endless light
Where bright orbs have ever shown
And in twilight hour is known.

Twilight Hour, pg. 1 of 2

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Twilight Hour, pg. 2 of 2

I just love this one; it has a good rhythm, and I admit, I’ve always preferred poems that rhyme. In a way, it’s almost eerie, knowing as I do that within a few short years of writing it, the poet himself “In the grassy tomb shall lie. / Far from sorrow far from pain / Far from every earthly stain.” Harvey was taken by cholera in 1833 at the age of 30.

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This last poem I want to share is signed “M. Little,” which I’m pretty sure is Harvey’s wife Mary (Howard) Little. It doesn’t say “by” M. Little, but I can’t find this poem anywhere. So I’m not sure whether Mary wrote it herself or if it was simply one that she liked and requested to copy it into Sarah’s album. I believe the original handwriting is Mary’s, based on other examples and letters written by Mary.

Untitled (undated)
[Author not specified]

Cling to the world in rosy health,
And drink its sweet alluring pleasures
Bow at the golden shrine of wealth,
And worship time’s deceitful treasures.
But know the hour of pain will come
And sickness bring its cloud of sorrow,
To wrap in gloom our happy home,
And quench the sunlight of tomorrow.

Twine ye the green bay wreath of joy
And bind it on the brow of gladness,
And let no warning voice alloy,
No whispering spirit breathe of sadness.
For full should be his need of bliss,
Where hold on time so soon must sever:
Who wins no other world but this,
And with it loses all forever.

Pale sickness with its train of woes
Misfortunes, penury, and grief
The mournful fate which autumn throws
Ov’er the sere and faded leaf,
The good man’s doom on earth may be,
And he may struggle long with fate,
But sweet’s the rest his soul shall see,
When worlds lie wreck’d and desolate.

M. Little

Untitled poem

Another somewhat gloomy poem, but again, I like it. It’s undated, so I have to wonder whether Mary copied this poem down before or after all the sadness that befell her little – er, Little – family.

“But know the hour of pain will come / And sickness bring its cloud of sorrow, / To wrap in gloom our happy home, / And quench the sunlight of tomorrow.”

In the summer of 1833, Mary lost her husband, two children, and both her parents in a cholera epidemic; the following spring, she lost her remaining two children to scarlet fever. She would eventually marry again and have 4 more children (one of whom died in the Civil War, but the other 3 grew to old age). I’m sure there were plenty of happy times in her life, too, but when I think of Mary (Howard) Little Affleck, I remember a woman who endured many, many sorrows.

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I hope you enjoyed the poems! I know I did.

Bio Sketch: Mary (Howard) Little Affleck (1809-1891), bearer of many sorrows

Mary Howard was born March 6, 1809, in Belmont County, Ohio, a daughter of Horton Howard (1770-1833) and his third wife Hannah Hastings (1774-1833).[1]

On September 21, 1827, in Franklin County, Ohio, Mary Howard married Harvey D. Little (1803-1833). On October 2, 1828, Mary was disowned by the Alum Creek Monthly Meeting for marrying contrary to discipline.[2]

Mary (Howard) Little’s signature, 1831 (Dayton Metro Library, FPW, Box 35, Folder 3)

Harvey Deming Little was born in 1803 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and came to Columbus, Ohio, with his parents around 1816. He apprenticed to a printer and was a newspaper editor and publisher for a few years, before turning to the practice of law around the time of his marriage. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the newspaper business, managing the Eclectic and Medical Botanist, a major proponent of his father-in-law Horton Howard’s An Improved System of Botanic Medicine.[3] Harvey also wrote many published poems, some of which were published in a St. Clairsville, Ohio, newspaper under the pseudonym “Velasques.”[4]

Harvey D. Little’s signature, 1827 (Dayton Metro Library, FPW, Box 35, Folder 7)

[For some examples of Harvey and Mary's poetry, see the post immediately following this one.]

Mary and Harvey had four children:

1. Caroline Augusta Little was born in 1828. [Check out this July 11, 1828, letter where Harvey talks about the new baby.]
2. Horton H. Little was born about 1829.
3. Richard Murry Little was born about 1831.
4. Harvey D. Little, Jr., was born about February 1834.

Mary’s family was devastated by the Columbus cholera epidemic of 1833. In less than three weeks’ time, she lost her parents, a sister, her husband, and two children to cholera. In the first week of August 1833, five-year-old daughter Caroline Little and four-year-old Horton Little both died. Harvey D. Little, Sr., died on August 22, 1833; he was about 30 years old.[5] Mary was left a 24-year-old widow, with one remaining child and another on the way.

In the spring of 1834, Mary lost her remaining two children to scarlet fever. Three-year-old Richard died on April 30, and three-month-old Harvey Jr. died on May 7.[6] Mary had lost her husband and four children within the span of one year, leaving her a childless widow at only 25 years old.

Tombstone of Harvey D. Little and the four children, brought here to Woodland Cemetery in 1851 (Photo by the author, 29 Oct. 2011)

On November 1, 1837, in Delaware County, Ohio, Mary married Dr. John G. Affleck (1802-1877), a widower with one daughter.[7]

John Gladstone Affleck was born in Scotland in 1802. He immigrated to Virginia in 1820 and studied medicine in Maryland. He was a doctor and newspaper editor in Belmont County, Ohio. John and Mary raised their family in Bridgeport, in Belmont County, not far from where Mary had grown up.[8]

John G. Affleck died February 5, 1877, at his home in Bridgeport, Ohio.[9]

Afterwards, Mary resided with her daughter Mary Sharp, first in Bridgeport, and later in Buffalo, New York. Mary (Howard) Little Affleck died April 24, 1891, probably in Buffalo.[10]

Mary and John had four children:

5. Harriet B. Affleck (1839-1912);
6. Howard Gladstone Affleck (1840-1862);
7. Edward Tullibardine Affleck (1843-1911); and
8. Mary Forrer Affleck (1849-?).

Harriet B. Affleck was born in July 1839 in Belmont County, Ohio. On September 30, 1858, she married Benjamin Clark Patterson (1827-1900). They had two children: John G. Patterson and George Edward Patterson. Harriet (Affleck) Patterson died February 24, 1912, in Belmont County, Ohio.[11]

Howard G. Affleck was born in 1840, in Belmont County, Ohio. From April 1861 to August 1861, Howard served in the 15th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company B, in the Civil War. From December 1861 to April 1862, he served in the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company H. On April 6, 1862, Howard was fatally wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. He lingered for several weeks before dying at his parents’ home in Bridgeport on May 15, 1862.[12] [For more on Howard Affleck's Civil War service, see "A Tale of Two Howards," especially Parts 1-3, here on my blog.]

Edward T. Affleck was born August 23, 1843, in Belmont County, Ohio. In the spring of 1864, Edward enlisted as a first lieutenant and adjutant of the 170th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War. He was taken prisoner at Winchester, Virginia, on July 24, 1864, but was eventually paroled in March 1865.  [For more on Edward Affleck's Civil War service, see "A Tale of Two Howards," especially Part 12, here on my blog.] On May 17, 1871, in Columbus, Ohio, Edward married Laura Walkup. They had four children: Howard Gladstone Affleck, II; Florence Affleck; Rankin Walkup Affleck; and Edward Tullibardine Affleck, Jr. Edward Sr. had several occupations over the years, including railroad clerk, wholesale coal dealer, bank cashier, and vice president of a dairy. Edward T. Affleck, Sr., died January 27, 1911, in Toledo, Ohio, where most of his immediate family lived.[13]

Mary F. Affleck was born in April 1849, in Belmont County, Ohio. On June 4, 1874, in Belmont County, Ohio, she married Joseph Frank Sharp (1848-?). They had nine children: Edward Affleck Sharp; Howard Gladstone Sharp; Marshall Forrer Sharp; Sarah Peirce Sharp; Harry L. Sharp; Helen G. Sharp, who married George A. Neubauer; Frank W. Sharp; Herbert M. Sharp; and one unidentified child. The family eventually moved to Buffalo, New York, where Mary probably died, sometime between 1920 and 1930.[14]

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This biographical sketch was originally written by Lisa P. Rickey in April 2012 for the Forrer-Peirce-Wood Collection (MS-018) finding aid at the Dayton Metro Library, 215 E. Third St., Dayton, Ohio, 45402; phone (937) 496-8654.

Additional information about the sketch’s subject can be found in that collection. For more information about the manuscript collection’s contents, please see the original PDF finding aid available in the Local History Room of the Dayton Metro Library, the OhioLINK EAD Repository entry, or the WorldCat record.

Please contact the Dayton Metro Library or this blog’s author for more information about how to access the original finding aid or the manuscript collection.

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[1] Howard Genealogical Information, FPW, 36:20.

[2] Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958 (database), FamilySearch, accessed 12 Mar. 2012, http://www.familysearch.org; Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, 4:1166;

[3] William Turner Coggeshall, The Poets and Poetry of the West: With Biographical and Critical Notices (Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster, & Co., 1860), accessed 12 Mar. 2012, http://books.google.com/books?id=c4ssJ5obTk8C, 116-118; Emerson Venable, Poets of Ohio (Cincinnati: Robert Clark Co., 1909), accessed 12 Mar. 2012, http://books.google.com/books?id=vZ5AAAAAYAAJ, 42-43; Berman and Flannery, America’s Botanico-Medical Movements, 48.

[4] Coggeshall, The Poets and Poetry of the West, 116. Coggeshall describes Harvey’s poetry at length and includes four of his poems. At least two of Harvey’s poems can be found in Sarah (Howard) Forrer’s Album of “Original and Selected Pieces” of Poetry and Miscellany, FPW, 5:5. Another example (“The Dead Father”) can be found in The Columbian Star, 14 Aug. 1830, 110.

[5] Ebenezer Thomas to Samuel Forrer, 9-20 Aug. 1833 [four letters], FPW, 1:15; Samuel Forrer to Horton Howard, 12 Aug. 1833 [two letters], FPW, 1:13; Ohio State Journal, 10 Aug. 1833, 24 Aug. 1833, 2 Nov. 1833; Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum Interment Database, accessed 26 Oct. 2011, http://www.woodlandcemetery.org. In 1851, the remains of Harvey, Caroline, and Horton Little were moved to Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.

[6] Ohio State Journal, 3 May 1834, 10 May 1834; John Howard to Samuel Forrer, 7 May 1834, FPW, 36:8; Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum Interment Database, accessed 26 Oct. 2011, http://www.woodlandcemetery.org. In 1851, the remains of Richard and Harvey Little Jr. were moved to Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.

[7] Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958 (database), FamilySearch.

[8] Obituary of John G. Affleck, The Intelligencer, 6 Feb. 1877, in Affleck Family: Obituaries, FPW, 36:6; A. T. McKelvey, “Mrs. Harriet B. Patterson,” in Centennial History of Belmont County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens (Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1903), accessed 21 July 2011, http://www.ohiogenealogyexpress.com/belmont/belmontco_bios_p.htm.

[9] Obituary of John G. Affleck, FPW, 36:6.

[10] Mellie Peirce to Howard F. Peirce, 24 Apr. 1891, FPW, 18:21; Mary Affleck to Mary (Forrer) Peirce, 1888-1891 [several letters, all postmarked Buffalo], FPW, 35:5.

[11] McKelvey, “Mrs. Harriet B. Patterson”; U.S. Federal Census, 1840-1910; Ohio Deaths,1908-1932, 1938-1944, & 1958-2007 (database), Ancestry Library Edition.

[12] Obituary of Howard G. Affleck, in Affleck Family: Obituaries, FPW, 36:6; American Civil War Soldiers (database), Ancestry Library Edition; U.S. Federal Census, 1840-1860; Sarah Forrer to Samuel Forrer, 9-24 May 1862 [three letters], FPW, 4:2; Howard Affleck to Mary Affleck, 10 Apr. 1862, Howard G. Affleck Civil War Diary and Mary Affleck Letter Book (Mss. A64-275), Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society, Buffalo, New York.

[13] McKelvey, “Mrs. Harriet B. Patterson”; Martins Ferry Historical Society, “Edward Tullibardine Affleck,” accessed 21 July 2011, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohmfahs/cw-affleck.htm; American Civil War Soldiers (database), Ancestry Library Edition; U.S. Federal Census, 1850-1910.

[14] McKelvey, “Mrs. Harriet B. Patterson”; U.S. Federal Census, 1850-1930; Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958 (database), FamilySearch, accessed 12 Mar. 2012, http://www.familysearch.org; Ohio, County Marriages, 1790-1950 (database), FamilySearch, accessed 12 Mar. 2012, http://www.familysearch.org.