Charles Wentworth Upham (May 4, 1802 – June 15, 1875) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Upham was also a member, and

President of the Massachusetts State Senate The president of the Massachusetts Senate is the presiding officer. Unlike the United States Congress, in which the vice president of the United States is the '' ex officio'' president of the United States Senate, in Massachusetts, the president o ...

, the 7th

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

, and twice a member of the

State

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Upham was the cousin of

George Baxter Upham George Baxter Upham (December 27, 1768 – February 10, 1848) was an American politician and a United States Representative from the U. S. state of New Hampshire. Early life Born in Brookfield in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Upham attend ...

and

Jabez Upham Jabez Upham (August 23, 1764 – November 8, 1811) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, brother of George Baxter Upham, and cousin of Charles Wentworth Upham, both were also U.S. Representatives. Born in Brookfield in the Province of ...

. Upham was later a historian of Salem and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 when he lived there.

Biography

Charles Wentworth Upham was born in Saint John in the New Brunswick Colony of

British Canada British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

on May 4, 1802 to Col. Joshua Upham, Supreme Court Justice of New Brunswick, and his second wife Mary Chandler. Joshua Upham was born in Brookfield, MA in 1741 and died in England in 1808. Charles W. Upham married Ann Susan Holmes on March 29, 1826. She was the daughter of Rev. Abiel Holmes and Sarah Oliver Wendell. Ann was the sister of Dr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

Charles and Ann had 15 children all born in Salem, Massachusetts and only four survived to adulthood; Charles Wentworth Upham Jr. born in 1830 and died at the age of 30 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, married to Mary Haven, no children; William Phineas Upham born in 1836 and died in 1905,

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

, married to Cynthia Bailey Nurse and had two daughters (Mary Wendell Upham and Elizabeth Upham); Sarah Wendell Upham born 1839 and died unmarried at 25; and Oliver Wendell Holmes Upham born in 1843 and died in 1905, Salem, Massachusetts, married to Caroline Ely Wilson, one daughter (Dorothy Quincy Upham, b. 1881) and one son (Charles Wentworth Upham, b. 1883). He attended Harvard in the class of 1821, and was a member of the

Porcellian Club The Porcellian Club is an all-male final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts",, p. 171: source for 1791 origins ...

. A classmate and former friend of

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, Upham was an opponent of the burgeoning

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

movement and later engineered for

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

to be dismissed from his job at the Salem

custom house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting c ...

.Baker, Carlos. ''Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait''. New York: Viking Press, 1996: 123. He also arranged for

Jones Very Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare, and many of his poems were Shakespea ...

to be institutionalized at McClean Asylum. Senator

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

once referred to Upham as "that smooth, smiling, oily man of God". In 1858, Upham was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> Upham died on June 15, 1875, in Salem, Massachusetts.

Publications

*
Life, Explorations and Public Services of John Charles Fremont
'. Ticknor and Fields, Boston, MA. 1856 *''Salem Witchcraft with an account of Salem Village and a history of opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects''. Frederick Unger, New York, 1978 (Reprint), 2 vv. *"Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather A Reply". Morrisania, N.Y. 1869. Public Domain. Project Gutenberg free eBook. *''Lectures on Witchcraft Comprising a History of the Delusion in Salem in 1692 (1831)'' Kessinger Publishing (Reprint), 2003. *''A Discourse Delivered on the Sabbath After the Decease of the Hon. Timothy Pickering''. Kessinger Publishing, United States, 2010 (Reprint). *''Eulogy on the Life and Character of

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

''. BiblioLife, LLC, USA (Reprint), 2009. *''Memoir of Francis Peabody, President of the Essex Institute''. Pranava Books, 2008 (Reprinted on demand from 1868 edition. *''Letters on the Logos (1828)'' Kessinger Publishing, 2003 (Reprint). *''Life of Sir Henry Vane, Fourth Governor of Massachusetts in the Library of American Biography, conducted by Jared Sparks Vol IV.''

References

*Ellis, George Edward:
''Memoir of Charles Wentworth Upham''
(1877).

Notes

External links

* * *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Upham, Charles Wentworth 1802 births 1875 deaths Harvard Divinity School alumni Politicians from Saint John, New Brunswick Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Massachusetts state senators Presidents of the Massachusetts Senate Mayors of Salem, Massachusetts Massachusetts Republicans Massachusetts Free Soilers Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Members of the American Antiquarian Society 19th-century American politicians

Biography

See also

Publications

References

Notes

External links