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
. 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 ...
of
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.
[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.
See also
* 78th Massachusetts General Court (1857)
* 79th Massachusetts General Court (1858)
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