I spent the winter of 2014 researching, discovering and pondering the likes of Mr. Edwin Conant, the boy he was and the man he became. I must say that I would be hard pressed to find a pedestal of proper size and stature to hold my respect and admiration for this distinguished gentleman. He was born in Sterling, resided here for a mere twelve years, but left, in perpetuity, a part of his heart, soul and conscience for all of us. Many people know of Edwin Conant, but few know more than his gift, in the name of his daughter Elizabeth Ann Conant, of the Public Library to Sterling in 1885.

There is so much more to know about this man. Even though our research is months old, we have so much more to do and many more places to visit to complete the task.

At 75 years old, Edwin was the benefactor of the Sterling Public Library in the name of Elizabeth Ann Conant, his daughter who died at the age of 48 in 1883.

When Edwin passed in 1891, this gift to our town was followed by a list of other bequests including money, documents, books, writings, furniture, buildings and other property too long to list here.

What sort of man leaves such a remarkable legacy to all the inhabitants of the Town in which he was born but lived so few years? What motivated his generosity? What built his character?

He was amongst a rare breed of men that deeply treasured the gift of freedom , the fight still fresh in their minds, and held all men to the highest standard of moral excellence, responsibility and honor. It is odd indeed that Edwin, such a great citizen, is only briefly mentioned in the History of the Conant Family in England and America written by Frederick Conant in 1887.

So here is a brief account of his life and of his daughter Lizzie.

The Beginning

Edwin Conant made his way into the world on a summer day in Sterling. Relief Conant, wife of Jacob and the daughter of Moses Burpee and Elizabeth Kendall Burpee, just twenty years old, gave birth to Edwin on Monday, August 20, 1810.

In fact, that very same day, Mass General Hospital was conceived by petition drafted by Dr. James Jackson and John Collins Warren in Boston. These were the times of significant accomplishment and remarkable virtue. James Madison was beginning his term as President of the United States following Thomas Jefferson who had just left the office and Abraham Lincoln was born just the year before.

Edwin’s Father Jacob was a well-to-do businessman, farmer and Justice of the Peace representing Sterling. (The term Justice of the Peace originating in England in the 12th century, it was the Attorney of the day). Jacob was very proud and provided Edwin with all the advantages of his wealth and stature.

Sadly, from an early age, Edwin was no stranger to death. He lost his Mother the day after Christmas in 1814 when he was just four-years old and his little sister Elizabeth in 1816 when he was six. The loss of those he loved had a enormous impact on his life.

Edwin attended public school in Sterling until he was 12 and was transferred to Leicester Academy in preparation for college. In 1826, at the age of 16 he entered Harvard and graduated among the top of his Class in 1829. He was among the venerable and quite famous “Class of 1829”, sharing the limelight with notables such as Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Edwin was a high-minded thinker. It was evident in his writings, correspondence and speeches. He participated in a conference during Commencement exercises at Harvard in 1829 “Natural, Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History, considered in relation to the Tendency of each to improve and elevate the Intellectual Faculty”.

Conant taught in Sterling for two winter sessions during his tenure at Harvard and was asked to address the Chocksett Hill School on February 24, 1829 at the close of winter studies. He referred to himself as “Old Master” in his written address. He writes:

“This place has been to you the scene of many wayward frolic, of many a childish gam bob. You have here laughed and sported together year after year, caring only for the present, thoughtful of tomorrow and seemingly unconscious that you are never to be troubled with my cares beyond those of the present hour… I knew no other condition, I doubted not that the world was all friendly. But when I was torn from the companions of my childhood, and removed to a distance from kindred and home, and placed among strangers, I found, to my sad disappointment, that I was of little consequence to the world around me, and that none but myself cared for my comfort and welfare. Then it was that I learned to value the joys, and thousand social endearments of home. Then it was, that I learned duly to estimate the consolation which springs from the mature sympathy of school-fellows. Then, and not til then, did I know what it was to want a friend to smooth down the bed of sickness… For it is a law of nature, that we know not the worth of our enjoyments, until the time arrives when they are to be interrupted. Then, and not till then, do we feel the wants of them… I want you to reflect upon the many happy hours you have here enjoyed, that you may, in after years, when surrounded, perhaps with disease, and danger, and death, receive comfort and consolation by the retrospection. It will be so delightful, yet so deeply affecting, when old age is upon you, to tell over the scenes and the frolics of your school-boy days! … I have been acquainted with many village schools, but none did I ever witness so much mutual good will, so great manifestations of true and sincere friendship, as I have witnessed in this. You have always seemed to me, to constitute one great Family; and I have often thought you are indeed a band of Brothers and Sisters!…
For my own part, having spent two winters with you, I am, and shall always be ready to bear testimony to your depth of sympathy and kindly feeling as friends, and your faithfulness and diligence as scholars. During the last winter, my attention was so strongly attracted by these qualities, and by the kindness with which I was uniformly treated, that I formed an attachment to you, which not ever time, but death alone can sever…
And am I no more to have my ears greeted with the endearing title of Master? – a title which has always suggested to my mind, so many pleasing emotions! … Be assured, I shall not forget you.”

Edwin was 19 years old when he wrote this.

After graduating Harvard, he studied law with Rejoice Newton (1782-1868) and William Lincoln (1801-1843—Author of History of Worcester, Massachusetts From Its Earliest Settlement to September 1836) and at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge.

On Independence Day, July 4, 1831, at the 50th anniversary of the Town of Sterling, Edwin addressed the Towns-people with an oration.  It was an inspiring event filled with pomp and circumstance.  In the light of the battle for independence, here are a few of his words:
“…In the upright and honest discharge of public and private duty within our narrow spheres of action, let us do what we can to avert it. And if the cloud which some have been farsighted, or imaginative enough to believe is gathering over our heads, shall indeed burst in wrath upon us, let us not, like recreant sons of worthier sires, shrink from any exertion which liberty and country may demand at our hands. But may heaven grant, that that demand may never be made, that successive years may but harden and cement the temple which has been reared to freedom, that here the dominion of error may be constantly narrowed and the empire of light and truth extended, that the fair model we hold up for the world to admire and imitate may ever be kept in the freshness of original beauty, that so the consummation  of mans highest earthly reign of equal laws and the rightful elevation of moral excellence.”

He returned to reside in Sterling briefly on September 19, 1832, and opened his law office. He was also appointed to the Division of the Militia of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Quarter Master by Levi Lincoln, the Governor of Massachusetts, an involvement he would honor for many years.

During this period, his Father Jacob was serving in various official posts in Sterling government, which he did the last thirty years of his life.

His Father’s example and Edwin’s fine education would prepare him for a career as Justice of the Peace / Attorney and a very successful  businessman.  His papers and journals along with the ledgers from the Registry of Deeds contain pages and pages of  his mortgages, purchases, loans and deeds. He certainly followed in his Father’s footsteps in this regard.

Edwin took little time to establish himself in the Town and County and moved his residence and practice to Worcester in 1833.  Sterling was far too small a Town to contain his aspirations and capabilities. He purchased the estate of his former friend and Sterling resident, Isaac Goodwin, on Lincoln Street.

He later moved to a mansion at the corner of Harvard and State Street which, after his death, was donated to the Natural History Society in 1891 (The Natural History Society changed its name to the Worcester Science Museum in 1960 and eventually the EcoTarium in 1998).

In 1833, the 58th year of independence of the United States of America, Edwin Conant was promoted to Major with the Division of the Militia of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Governor Levi Lincoln.

Maria Estabrook (daughter of Joseph and Ruth Estabrook of Royalston, became Edwin’s first wife in 1833. They had two children, Elizabeth Ann Conant in 1835 and Helen Maria Conant in 1837.

He always had a soft spot in his heart for Sterling and was so well respected, he was asked in November 1835 to deliver the dedicatory address for the dedication of the Town Hall (1835 Town Hall) which had just been completed.

Tragedy stuck soon thereafter. On the day before Christmas, 1837, his youngest daughter Helen passed away, just 7 months after she was born. Edwin’s Father Jacob, then Treasurer for the Town of Sterling, passed away in the same year, 1837.

In 1842, as part of a Board of five Trustees, Edwin was appointed to the Board of the Worcester State Lunatic Hospital (Worcester State Hospital) by Governor John Davis. The hospital was barely 10 years old.

Maria, Edwin’s wife, was the next to perish. She died at the age of 35 on August 22, 1848, two days after Edwin’s 38th Birthday. Edwin married again on January 29, 1850. His second wife, Elizabeth S. Wheeler was the daughter of a Unitarian Reverend Joseph Wheeler Jr. of Harvard. They were married for 29 years losing her in 1879.

After his second wife died, Edwin was left with only one immediate family member, his daughter Elizabeth Ann. She was t his pride and joy and they were very close. She took over the caring of the household and lived with her father all of her life.

Lizzie, Elizabeth Ann Conant, for whom the Conant Public Library was dedicated, was extremely well educated studying French, Latin, Greek, English Literature, History, Natural Philosophy, Geometry, Poetry, Composition and Religion. She was educated in the finer things in life as well including music, deportment and dance. Her high school days were spent at Classical and English High School in Lincoln Square. This school was once known as the Worcester Latin Grammar School until 1845. John Adams, became the head of this school in 1755 before he went on to become the 2nd President of the United States. To add some historical context, Elizabeth attended High School in Worcester at the time Worcester hosted the first National Convention on Women’s rights in October 1850.
Journals tell us that long after high school, Elizabeth studied religion quite extensively, even into her early thirties in Cambridge under the tutelage of Reverend E. H. Hall.

It is important to note the ever-presence of Edward Henry Hall (1831-1912) who graduated from Harvard in 1851 and Harvard Divinity School in 1855. It was during this time that he also taught religion to Elizabeth Ann Conant in Cambridge. Between 1869 and 1882, Reverend Hall was minister of the Second Congregational Church of Worcester and from 1882 to 1893 of the First Parish and Church in Cambridge as well as Army Chaplain during the Civil War. E. H. Hall gave the Memorial Address for Elizabeth Anne Conant upon her death. He gave the Memorial Address for the Memorial Building, the Conant Public Library and he presented the benediction for Edwin Conant upon his death.

Elizabeth Ann Conant passed on December 4, 1883. Worcester Spy reported “A light has gone out in many hearts with the death of Miss Conant, and some of us, even outside her home, cannot but feel that life is less worth living in her absence… In her was found a rare union of common and uncommon sense, of judgment in practical affairs, and thoughtful interest in the intellectual and spiritual questions which concern us all most deeply, of constant, untiring devotion to home duties, and earnest activity in helping the needy abroad, of a warm heart and quick sympathies, with a clear, penetrating, and cultivated intellect. To all these were added vivacity and courage, with a vein of fun also, which made her society a delight.”

Edward Henry (E.H.) Hall wrote “Living in an apparently narrow sphere, she made it a large sphere by the energy, the rare intelligence, the unselfish devotion with which she labored in it, and the wide interests which she made her own. Loving first all of her home, and seeming to give entire self to it alone, she yet found an opportunity to share in all the useful activities of the community, while at the same time letting none of the intellectual life of the times pass by unnoticed. None can have become acquainted with her without noting the rare blending in her character of the best practical sagacity and executive capacity with the finest culture of feeling and thought. None saw more promptly or clearly than she in every emergency the exact thing to be done, none knew better the right means to accomplish it… None have ever labored with her without learning invaluable lessons of patient devotion, and at the same time of intelligent and discriminating benevolence. In her death, the poor have lost the best and wisest of friends. In her death, too, the young have lost the most skilled and thoughtful of guides, most keenly alive to their higher needs, most quick to discern whatever was good in them, most intolerant of whatever was shallow or insincere. Outside her home, the poor and the young received the largest portion of her life. With qualities that fitted her for the largest service, she held her best gifts at the command of the obscurest of her fellows… Alas, how well others know what they have lost, – the loyal friendship, the stimulating companionship, the eager mind appreciative of all that was the choicest, the exacting judgement content only with the best that other minds could give, the penetrating intelligence, searching the truth to its depths, the wholly beautiful and self-renouncing life, to be seen and known no more! “

Not long after Elizabeth’s death, Edwin Conant donated a 100 acre parcel of land he owned in Holden to the inhabitant’s of Sterling , the proceeds of which were to be used to begin erecting a memorial building in his daughter’s name. When all was said and done, Edwin donated more than $6,000 to construct the Conant Public Library. The memorial address, again by E. H. Hall ends with; “Why may we not hope that her pure presence will always be felt within the walls which to-day we dedicate, and touch with finer influence all that goes forth from them on errands of enlightenment and cheer?”
There are numerous letters of sympathy in Edwin Conant’s files. Received between Elizabeth’s death in 1883 and the dedication of the Library in 1886. Pictures of Elizabeth along with the Memorial booklet were mailed to friends of Conant. These letters were treasured to the end of his life.

After 1883, Edwin Conant was ill for many years. It was apparent that the death of his daughter, the last member of his immediate family did much to bring about his decline in health. He continued to live in his mansion on State Street in Worcester. At his side all these later years was his nurse, Henry K. Cady, who was also at his side at his funeral.

Edwin Conant died on March 2, 1891. He had been the oldest living member of the Worcester County Bar. His modest funeral was attended by noted Worcester businessman and politicians as well as a contingency from Sterling including Osgood, Bartlett, Heywood, Kendall, Fitch, Wilder, Brown and Houghton (the Sterling attendees were 1/2 hour late due to a train delay).

The legacy he left behind has lasted more than a century with no signs of decline, and rightly so. He was a citizen of incomparable honor, virtue and principle rarely seen in America today.

At a special session of the superior court of Worcester, in his memory, Attorney H.E. Hill, Col. Williams and A.P. Rugg held a memorial service. Judge Emory Aldrich said, “He was a man of rare qualities of mind… There is no man in the city that I know who is possessed of so many noble qualities and of so much wealth, who was little known in the community at large, as was Mr. Conant. He was highly spoken of by his neighbor. I regarded my acquaintance with him as an honor… His rare intelligence, cultivated mind and dignified manner marked him. He was one of the most self-contained men I ever met.”

The retelling of a his time with us would not be complete without the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote “A Story of Twenty Nine”. The concluding verses were:

As nearer still and nearer
The Fatal stars appear,
The living shall be dearer
With each encircling year
Till a few old men shall say,
“We remember ‘tis the day –
Let it pass with a glass
For the Class of ‘29”

As one by one is falling
Beneath the leaves of snows,
Each memory still recalling,
The broken ring shall close,
Till the night winds softly pass
O’er the green and growing grass,
Where it waves on the graves
Of the Boys of ‘29

Robert McKay Jones
Chair
1835 Town Hall Committee