Representative women of New England/Sarah P. M. Greene

by Mary H. Graves

Sarah Pratt McLean Greene was born in Simsbury, Conn., in 1856, daughter of Dudley Bestor and Mary (Payne) McLean. Her father was a son of the Rev. Allan McLean and his first wife, Sarah Pratt, and a descendant in the fourth generation of Allan McLean, a native of the island of Coll, Argyleshire, Scotland, who sailed from Glasgow in 1740, arrived in Boston in September, and settled in Connecticut.

Allan¹ McLean married in 1744 Mary Loomis, a descendant of Joseph¹ Loomis, of Windsor, Conn. Their son. Captain Alexander² McLean, married in 1768 Johanna Smith, and resided in North Bolton, now Vernon, Conn. Their fifth child, the Rev. Allan McLean, born in 1781 (Yale College, 1805), was pastor of the Presbyterian church in Simsbury for fifty years. He was a man of wealth for those days. But he loved his worldly possessions only as they benefited others. After a busy and useful life he died in 1861, "full of years" and greatly beloved.

Mrs. Mary Payne McLean, the mother above named, now a widow, residing in Simsbury, was born in Canterbury, Conn., being the daughter of Solomon and Hannah (Bishop) Payne. On the paternal side she is a descendant of Thomas Paine, of Eastham, Mass., and numbers among her ancestors Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance, who both came in the "Mayflower" in 1620, and Nicholas Snow, who came in the "Ann" in 1623. Through these early colonists she is akin to not a few Cape Cod folk of the present day.

Thomas Paine came over when a lad of ten or twelve years (tradition says, with his father, of the same name). He married, about 1660, Mary, daughter of Nicholas¹ and Constance (Hopkins) Snow. Their son, Elisha² Paine, married Rebecca³ Doane, grand-daughter of Deacon John¹ Doane, of Plymouth and Eastham, who served seven years as Deputy to the General Court, about the year 1700 Elisha² Paine removed to Canterbury, then a part of Plainfield, Conn. (Some of his descendants, as seen below, have spelled the name Payne.) His son Solomon,³ horn in Eastham, was ordained in 1746 as pastor of the Separate church in Canterbury. Solomon,⁴ born in 1733, son of the Rev. Solomon³ and his second wife, Priscilla Fitch, was a farmer in Canterbury. He married Mary Bacon and was father of Elisha,⁵ born in 1757 (Yale College, 1780), who married Anna Dyer. Elisha⁵ Payne and his wife Anna were the parents of Solomon,⁶ named above, father of Mrs. McLean.

Mrs. Priscilla Fitch Payne was a grand-daughter of the Rev. James Fitch, of Saybrook and Norwich, Conn., and his second wife, Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason, of Norwich, for many years commander of the colonial forces and nine years (1660-69), Deputy Governor of Connecticut.

Dudley B. and Mary P. McLean had five children, all born at the McLean homestead in Simsbury. The eldest child, Hannah Bishop McLean, married William H. Greeley, and for some years resided in Lexington, Mass. She is now a widow living in Cambridge, her son being a student at Harvard. Charles Allen McLean (deceased) is survived by his wife and two children. John Bunyan McLean, educator, is now a professor in the Westminster School in Simsbury. George Payne McLean, lawyer, born in October, 1857, was Governor of Connecticut in 1901 and 1902.

Sarah Pratt McLean, the fourth child in this family of five, grew up under careful home training. She attended both district and private schools during her childhood, but studied far more with her mother, a woman of broad culture. The old Pvu'itan ideas and ideals prevailed in the McLean household. The sacredness of th(> Sabbath was impressed on the children's minds, and the parents strove to have all the influences of that home good and elevating. Books there were in plenty, and when Sarah, or Sally, as she was called, was sent to Mount Holyoke Seminary, she was well equipped to do good work. Her mind was stored with general reading. She knew and loved nature, and was frankly interested in all her new experiences. The rules were rigid at Holyoke, and some of the regulations seemed irksome, even to one brought up in a Presbyterian minister's family. But she stood well in her classes, and made warm friends of girls anil teachers. Even at this time her literary talent showed itself, and one of the poems which she handed in as a composition was sent away by her teacher for publication. The verses called "De Massa ob de Sheepfol" she wrote when she was only a young girl, though they were never printed until they were put into the mouth of Mxanna, a character in her second book, "Towhead."

She remained at Mount Holyoke two years. A classmate who had left school earlier to teach on Cape Coil, being unable to continue with the work, urged Miss McLean to take the school. She decided to do so, nmch to the sur- prise of her family; and, almost before they could accustom themselves to the idea, she had gone to the scene of her labors. She found her- self amid surroundings that were full of strange- ness. Sailors on .shore were a new type to her. The idioms of the people, their customs and traditions, impressed her with their novelty. For five months she taught and learned at Cape Cod. After reaching home, she used, at odd moments, to put upon paper recollections of these months, until they took on the form and sequence of a book. Since this was done simply for her own entertainment and with no thought that the manuscript would meet other eyes than her own, she used the familiar names ; and, when the story seemed finished, .she put it in a box, and shoved it away on an ujiper shelf in her grandfather's library, dismissing the matter from her mintl. A kinsman living in Boston, in touch with the makers of books, happening to express the desire that Miss McLean would write .something for publication (since he had noticed that she was a most clever letter-writer), she took the manuscript down from the library shelf, and, without con- sulting any one, nailed a cover on the same little wooden box which had held the loose sheets all this time, and drove to the village express office to speed the literary venture on its way. Then she returned home to await the verdict. The suspense was brief . The pub- lisher sat all night over the manuscript, and wrote the next morning that he wished to bring it out at once. Miss McLean informed him that the names were familiar in the locality where she had been; but he was a young mem- ber of the hrm, and it was his first venture in publishing, as it was hers in novel-writing. The story, moreover, was ideal and not intended to be taken literally. For these reasons suffi- cient importance was not attached to the fact that local names were used. The book met with great favor, passing from edition to edi- tion. But presently the people on the Cape began to show that they felt themselves ag- grieved. This caused the author the keenest pain. She could not forgive henself then, nor can she now. Still there was "naught set down in malice," and surely the gracious pictures of their deeper experiences are depicted with so gentle a touch that it would seem the sketcher and the sketched might still across "the narrer neck o" land" clasp friendly hands. Her pub- lishers were desirous to have something further from her pen, and she hurriedly prepared a second book, "Towhead." Stories under her name appeared at intervals in various maga- zines, and a compilation of these formed her third volume, which was called " Some Other Folks." She had written two others, "Last- chance Junction" and "Leon Pontifex," when in 1887 she became the wife of Franklin Lynde Greene, a Westerner, educated at Annapolis. In the West, where she spent her married life of a few brief years, twin boys were born to her, but of these she was soon bereft. In 1890 Mr. (ireene died, and, widowed and childless, Mrs. Cireene returned to New England. Several ensuing years were passed in rest and travel. She took a European trip, and subseiiuently tarried at different points in Nova Scotia, visiting also various parts of Maine. It was after these summers in Maine that she wrote " Vesty of the Basins," a book that has had phenomenal success. In this case, though local characters are sketched with a free hand, and the dwellers in a small place know that their own manners and lives furnish the basis of the story, they read its pages with delight, and their frequent letters of appreciation show the deep love they bear the author. A well-known Englishman says of "Vesty" : " I have read it a dozen times, and 1 shall probably read it a dozen times more. With each re-reading I am struck anew with its wonderfully strong portrayals of character and the sjiarkling wit and humor that alternate so subtly with the writer's deep, pathetic insight into life's mysteries. To my mind it is the great American novel." "Vesty," as well as "Cape Cod Folks," has been recently dramatized.

In fairly rapid succession Mrs. Greene wrote "Stuart and Bamboo," "The Moral Imbeciles," and "Flood Tide." In 1902 was published by Harper & Brothers "Winslow Plain," a picture of life in a quaint New England village fifty years ago, a story "told as Mrs. Greene alone can tell it, with the brightest optimism." In this book are found some rare poetic gems. One special charm, indeed, of all this writer's works consists in the many beautiful, helpful passages—quite aside from the enthralling interest of the story itself—that one desires, to read again and again. Said a certain appreciative critic, "I never read any of Mrs. Greene's stories without longing to see all these fine, quotable extracts collected in a volume by themselves, a volume to which I could turn whenever I feel 'the blues' coming on."

Mrs. Greene is a woman of fine presence, with a face which bears beauty, merriment, and tenderness. She tells a story with exceptional skill, in a voice so rich toned and musical that it might belong to a Southerner.