{"id":1065,"date":"2023-11-27T19:40:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T19:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/?page_id=1065"},"modified":"2023-11-27T19:40:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T19:40:26","slug":"stephen-longfellow","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/students\/stephen-longfellow\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Longfellow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Wayward Older Brother<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone at Bowdoin knows Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but he was not the only member of the Longfellow family at Bowdoin. His older brother, Stephen, was also a part of the Class of 1825. Stephen was born in Portland, Maine, in 1805. He was the eldest of eight children and named after his father, Stephen, one of Portland\u2019s most prestigious attorneys. However, Stephen, Jr. always found his father less admirable than the military men in his family. One of his uncles was a laureled Commodore and another had achieved great success in the navy. His grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, was also a general in the Revolutionary War. Stephen spent his summers on Wadsworth\u2019s farm in Hiram, tending to the cows and getting to know his grandfather. Clearly, the boy was inspired, as he loved to spend his free time planning fortifications and reading military histories. Henry\u2019s early academic talent is well-known; he was enrolled in school from the time he was three. Stephen, however, was not far behind as he attended the same school from at least the age of five. The Longfellows grew up next door to Edward Deering Preble and close by to John Dafforne Kinsman and Frederic Mellen. They also attended Portland Academy together with Patrick Henry Greenleaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Stephen was 16, he went with his brother to Brunswick to take the Bowdoin entrance exams. Both boys passed, but due to Henry\u2019s young age and Stephen’s willful habits, they spent their first year of college at home. Clearly writing remote essays from your childhood bedroom was a way of life far before 2020. Sophomore year the brothers moved to Brunswick and stayed with Reverend B. Titcomb, a family friend. The home where they lived is today\u2019s Harriet Beecher Stowe house. The Titcomb home was spartan and strict, especially compared to what Stephen was used to in Portland. Still, the boy wasted no time getting in trouble at Bowdoin. Just two months into the year, he received his first fine for neglecting a declamation. This was just the first of a long line of citations the Executive Government gave him for ignoring his responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Junior year Stephen and Henry escaped Titcomb and moved to a room on Winthrop\u2019s third floor. This only gave the elder Longfellow more license to accumulate bad habits. He received ten fines for unexcused absences his junior year alone. Senior year, the Longfellows stayed in Winthrop and Stephen moved from skipping class to causing more serious trouble. On Christmas Day 1824, he threw a party in his room involving a bonfire and lots of alcohol. The college quickly found out about it, due to the fact they caught Horatio Bridge screaming mid-party from Stephen\u2019s window. Longfellow\u2019s crime was only compounded by the fact that he was, \u201cinattentive to the appointed studies of his class and \u201clately purchased spiritous liquors to introduce them into the college.\u201d Bowdoin suspended Longfellow for four months and sent him to Kennebunkport to study under a reverend there. When the reverend sent an update in May, the college was not happy. Apparently during his suspension, Longfellow \u201cdrunk spiritous liquors to excess\u201d several times. As such, Stephen was suspended again until August. Despite his unrepentant behavior, the Government still allowed the elder Longfellow to graduate. Unsurprisingly, though, he was not given a class rank nor any of the honors of his younger brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, Henry and Stephen returned to Portland to study law with their father. The prospect excited neither brother. Henry dreamed of a literary career and Stephen wanted to follow his mother\u2019s family into the military. Henry managed to achieve his dreams, as he was offered a professorship at Bowdoin based on his exceptional undergraduate work. Stephen, however, did not have the same opportunities. As his father\u2019s eldest son, he was obliged to sacrifice his dreams and join the family profession. In 1828, he passed the bar and joined his father\u2019s firm as a partner. But his heart was not in the work, and he took his first possible chance to escape. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson appointed a Portland judge named William Pitt Preble as ambassador to the Netherlands. Perhaps because of the close connections between the Longfellows and the Prebles, the judge took Stephen with him as his private secretary. With great regret, Stephen returned to Maine a year later and rejoined his legal career. In 1831, he married Mary Ann Preble, the daughter of the judge who sponsored him. The Longfellows had their first child in 1834, but he died in infancy. Luckily, their five other children survived. They were named Stephen V, William, Ellen, Henry and Mary Ann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of Longfellow\u2019s life was spent in the familiar pattern of legal work and caring for his family. Those close to him admired him as a good friend and intelligent man. Still, it was widely acknowledged that Stephen was unsuited for his career. He was too introverted to do well in the brash and conflict heavy world of law. He was skilled at learning information but struggled to articulate his conclusions. And his heart always longed for the military career beyond his reach. Longfellow died in 1850 at the age of 45. His life was generally viewed as one of wasted potential. However, some of his children had the opportunity and discipline to follow their passions in a way that their father did not. Specifically, Stephen V became a lieutenant in the revenue service. So even if the elder Longfellow lived his life in the shadow of other\u2019s achievements and expectations, he left a powerful legacy behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wayward Older Brother Everyone at Bowdoin knows Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but he was not the only member of the Longfellow family at Bowdoin. His older brother, Stephen, was also a part of the Class of 1825. Stephen was born in Portland, Maine, in 1805. He was the eldest of eight children and named after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":828,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1065","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1066,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1065\/revisions\/1066"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/class-of-1825\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}