Letter from Stephen Longfellow to Jabez Kimball, 1797 December 10

Stephen Longfellow wrote this letter to his friend Jabez Kimball on December 10, 1797. The letter was addressed to Kimball in London-Derry, where he was studying law. The letter is lighthearted, and Longfellow recounts various happenings at Harvard since Kimball's graduation the year before. Longfellow informs him of developments in Phi Beta Kappa, the Hasty Pudding Club, and his "attention to the ladies."

Gift of Rev. Henry Wilder Foote, March 1958.

Title supplied by cataloguer.

Stephen Longfellow was born in Gorham, Maine on March 23, 1776. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1798 and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1801 and became a prominent lawyer in Portland, Maine. In 1814 and 1815, he was a delegate to the Hartford Convention. Longfellow received an L.L.D. from Bowdoin College in 1828. He and his wife had eight children, including the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Stephen Longfellow died in Portland, Maine on August 3, 1849.

Jabez Kimball was born on January 21, 1772 in Hampstead, New Hampshire. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1797 and an A.M. in 1800. He was a tutor at Harvard from 1800 to 1801, after which he practiced law in Chesterfield, New Hampshire and Haverhill, Massachusetts. Jabez Kimball died in Haverhill on March 19, 1805.