Introduction
Dr. Sarah Donnell Wolverton
DR. SARAH DONNELL WOLVERTON was born in Mattoon IL in 1880. Her family came to Camden in the 1880s; her father, John K. Donnell, operated a grocery. The Donnell family lived for a time on King Street, below Mercer Street, in Gloucester City before moving to 555 State Street in North Camden. John Donnell operated a grocery in Philadelphia in the 1890s.
Sarah Wolverton grew up in Camden, where she received her education in Camden’s public schools and at the Raymond Academy. She went on to graduate from the Girl’s Collegiate Institute in Philadelphia in 1899, and the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1903. After graduation, she interned in 1904 at the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women, and was a resident at Children’s Hospital in Staten Island NY from 1904 through 1906.
After marrying then Camden County Prosecutor Charles A. Wolverton in 1910, Dr. Wolverton’s career in medicine would follow a different path. Her husband was a well known attorney and public figure, and soon involved himself in politics. He served as an assistant State Attorney general, and was a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1915 through 1918. Charles A. Wolverton was elected to the House of Representatives from Camden in 1926, and remained Camden’s Congressman until 1959.
The 1920 Census shows the Wolverton family, which included son Donnell K., born in 1912, living at 330 State Street. By the end of the decades the family home was at 505 State Street.
Her son, Donnell K. Wolverton, graduated from Princeton with honors in 1938, and subsequently went into law.
Dr. Wolverton’s medical activities were mostly related to medical institutions. She sat on the Board of Governors of the Camden County Tuberculosis Hospital, and on the Board of Directors of the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women. She also was a member of the Camden County and Camden City Medical Societies, and of the New Jersey and the American Medical Women’s Associations. She was also active in affairs of Camden Lodge 293, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
Dr. Sarah K. Wolverton died in 1938. Survived by her husband and son, she rests at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden.
Lawyer Weds Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Charles A. Wolverton Takes Woman Physician for Bride
Assistant Prosecutor Charles A. Wolverton and Dr. Sara M. Donnell, of State street, Camden, were married last night by Rev. Dr. William H. Fishburn, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Miss Violet Donnell, sister of the bride, was maid of honor, while Roy Heisler attended the groom. Mr. and Mrs. Wolverton will live at West Collingswood.
The bride is a graduate of the Woman’s Hospital, Philadelphia, and was on the resident staff of the West Philadelphia Hospital and Staten Island Hospital. Mr. Wolverton is one of the best known young lawyers in South Jersey.
505 State Street
505 State Street — home of the Wolverton family
Prominent Women Are Patronesses for Elks Show, ‘Hi-Hat’
Camden Courier-Post —
Patronesses for the musical comedy, “Hi-Hat” to be staged in the auditorium of the Elks Club, Seventh and Cooper streets, on January 12, 13 and 14, include many prominent women from this city and the suburbs.
Cast in the show are more than a hundred men and women well known in Elks circles in addition to talented amateur players.
The patroness list is announced as follows: Mrs. Albert Austermuhl, Mrs. Howard Dudley, Mrs. John A. Schlorer, Mrs. Frank Fithian, Mrs. Roy R. Stewart, Miss Matha [sic] Henkel, Mrs. Charles W. Letzgus, Mrs. Homer H. Letler [?], Mrs. Samuel Kilpatrick, Mrs. Stanley Mattison, Mrs. A. Lincoln Michener, Mrs. David B. Robinson, Mrs. H. Harry Jones, Mrs. Arthur Schlorer, Mrs. Lee G. Taylor, Mrs. Wellington E. Barto, Mrs. Edward J. Kelly, Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, Mrs. Garfield Pancoast, Mrs. Frank S. Van Hart, Mrs. James Scott, Mrs. Harry Teitleman, Mrs. D. T. Stackhouse, Mrs. Samuel A. Dobbins, Mrs. Charles S. Straw, Mrs. Stanley Bleakley, Mrs. Albert Poland, Mrs. Joseph Hill, Mrs. Claire Ferato, Mrs. William Sauerhoff, Mrs. Rud. Preisendanz, Jr., Mrs. Walter J. Staats, Mrs. Jacob Furer, Mrs. Hiram Budd, Mrs. Jarrett Sauerhoff.
Mrs. George Fisher, Mrs. Peter J. McGuire, Mrs. T. Yorke Smith, Mrs. William A. Sayers, Mrs. Winfield S. Price, Mrs. C. W. Reesman, Mrs. Edward Hoxworth, Mrs. William Townsend, Mrs. Ray. Van Sant, Mrs. Albert Tallman, Mrs. William Lehman, Mrs. William Huff, Mrs. Law. Callahan, Mrs. William Huff, Mrs. Frank Hineline, Mrs. Floyd Somers, Mrs. Samuel Payne, Mrs. Robert MacIntosh, Mrs. Edw. O’Brion, Mrs. Arthur Scott, Mrs. Roy Veasey, Mrs. Robert Boyd, Mrs. James MacMillan, Mrs. Walter Tushingham, Mrs. Thomas Jack, Mrs. John S. Carroll, Mrs. Lewis Lee, Mrs. Edw. Ferat, Mrs. William Lorigan, Mrs. Thomas Hughes, Mrs. Allen Redfield, Mrs. James Thompson, Mrs. Howard Ledyard, Mrs. Roy Lanning, Mrs. John Rodan, Mrs. Dr. Sopnick, Mrs. Dr. Cutler and Mrs. Ephraim Wescott.
Patrons, Patronesses Announced Today for First Military Ball
Camden Courier-Post —
Patrons and patronesses for the first military ball of the Camden Post No. 960, Veterans of Foreign Wars, to be held on Friday evening February 3 in the Elks auditorium, Seventh and Cooper Streets, are announced today.
The following prominent men and women are listed: Mrs. J.W. Connor, Miss C.M. Day, Mrs. J.H. Forsyth, Mrs. H.J. Goodyear, Miss B. Graham, Mrs. R.E. Green, Mrs. E.F. Haines, Mrs. J. Hood Jr., Mrs. W. Hurley, Mrs. J. Jarrell, Mrs. T. Keefe, Mrs. J.F. Kobus, Mrs. L. Liberman, Mrs. F.L. Lloyd, Mrs. M.A. Logan, Mrs. T.P. McConaghy, Mrs. F.F. Neutze, Mrs. L.K. Marr, Mrs. J.A. Pennington, Mrs. M.E. Ramsey, Mrs. E. Truax, Mrs. S.M. Shay, Mrs. W.J. Staats, Mrs. B.G. Tarburton, Mrs. R.W. Waddell, Mrs. E. Watson, Mrs. E.P. Wescott, Mrs. C.A. Wolverton.
David Baird Jr., William T. Boyle, Isaac Ferris, William Hurley, John Hood Jr., John Jarrell, Victor King, William J. Kraft, Thomas Keefe, Joseph F. Kobus, Hon. Edmund B. Leaming, Dr. A. Haines Lippincott, James H. Long, L.K. Marr, Dr. Thomas P. McConaghy, Hon. Frank F. Neutze, Samuel P. Orlando, Albert E. Simmons, Edwin Watson, Ethan P. Wescott.
Quintet in Crash Near Hightstown Dodge Serious Hurt
Camden Courier-Post —
A caravan of 25 automobiles followed the buses to Sea Girt. Five Camden motorcycle policemen cleared the way to the county line in Pennsauken township, then returned.
Anxiety over the accident to the car of Robert Brice, which overturned two miles from Freehold on the Hightstown-Freehold road, was relieved when word was received from the Freehold hospital that none of the five persons injured, four of them relatives of David Baird, Jr., was critically hurt.
Brice has been driving trucks for the fire department for many years. He told Congressman Charles A. Wolverton that it was his first serious accident.
Mr. and Mrs. Wolverton showed rare presence of mind when they went to the aid of the victims. They lost no time in removing them to the hospital, four in Mr. Wolverton’s car and one in the automobile of Surrogate Donahue, of Monmouth county.
Mrs. Wolverton, a graduate of Women’s Medical College, Philadelphia, helped Dr. Reynolds, of the Freehold hospital, dress the wounds of the injured.
The four Baird relatives, were Mrs. Mary Kane, 42, of 411 Chambers avenue, cuts on the left hand; Robert B. Brice, 211 Elm street, driver of the car, injuries to the legs and body; Mrs. Alice Peak, 804 Cooper street, eleven stitches in arm, and injuries to body and face, and Mrs. Mary Brice, wife of Robert, slight hands and neck cuts. The fifth victim was Mrs. Emma Miles, Forty-fourth street and Westfield avenue, recording clerk in the office of the Camden county clerk, who is believed to have been injured internally.
Mrs. Peak and Mrs. Miles were taken last night to the Baird home. Mrs. Miles had improved enough today, however, to go to her own home.
400 Friends Pay Homage To ‘Good Gray Poet’
Camden Courier-Post —
Men and Women From Many Sections Visit Walt Whitman’s Tomb and Old Mickle Street Home on His 114th Anniversary
“It’s just a little street where old friends meet”
That’s Mickle Street where Walt Whitman, the “Good Gray Poet,” once lived, and old friends came back here from near and far yesterday to mingle under the portals of the house in which he wrote his famous works, on the 114th anniversary of his birth.
Among them was Mrs. Augusta K. Dole, 71, of Metuchen, whose husband has been a sports writer on New York newspapers for 45 years.
“They call it a dingy street and some are ashamed to return and say they lived there,” Mrs. Dole said. And with a gesture of the hand she pointed out the homes of some of neighbors, who became famous.
Among them was Button; famous artist [architect]. Another was the grandmother of J. B. Van Sciver.
“I lived at 319 Mickle Street when I was a young lady,” she said. “I was one year old when we moved into the house right across the street from Whitman. I remember when he lived on Stevens Street before he moved to Mickle Street.
Knew Whitman Well
“We lived at the Mickle Street address about 15 or 16 or 20 years; I knew Whitman well. He always stopped and exchanged greetings with me. I frequently saw him on the ferryboats crossing the rivers.
“I want to take issue right here with those who have questioned his chastity. He was more like Christ than anyone else. I saw him admiring me as a young woman one day on a ferryboat.”
“Years later I read a description of myself in one of his works. I did not begin to read his work until 30 years ago. He wrote of the true things in life. He wrote of life as it is and as we see it. I am glad to come here today at the invitation of the committee,”
Mrs. Dole sat in the last chair in which the poet rested before his last illness. She was introduced to Dr. Alexander MacAlister, who was his personal physician in his last illness and who is a member of the Walt Whitman foundation.
Then she posed with an etching by Lewis Daniel, New York artist, at the Walt Whitman art gallery, 641 Market Street. It is one of 14 the young artist drew on “The Song of the Open Road.” Two lines taken from the book are sketched under the etching as follows:
“The earth is crude and incomprehensible at first— Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first.”
400 Visit Home
More than 400 guests visited the home of the poet during the day to be welcomed by members of the foundation. Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, wife of Congressman Wolverton, was chairman of the reception committee.
Many of the guests visited the tomb of the poet in Harleigh Cemetery where the door is ajar at his request “that his spirit may come and go as I choose.’” But no flowers were placed there as he requested none.
Born on May 31, 1819, near Huntingdon, Long Island, he had a varied career as a writer, war correspondent and poet. During the Civil War he ministered the wounded of both the North and South at Washington. He spent the last 19 years of his life in Camden, where he died in 1892.
Under the bed in his second story front bed room today is a huge metal bathtub, which he designed for use in his invalid days. His library, horsehair furniture, his favorite rocking chair and a cane with which he knocked on the floor to call his housekeeper.
Some of his writings, manuscripts and other works are the property of Miss Ann Harned and Madge Barton Feurer. They are now at the New Jerseyanna Exhibition at the State House at Trenton.
New Painting Viewed
A new painting of Walt Whitman has been completed by Byron T. Connor, of 4320 Manor Avenue, Merchantville, and is now on display at the Hotel Walt Whitman. The painting was completed in three weeks, so as to be ready for the birthday ceremonies.
Later it will be moved from the hotel and placed either in the Whitman home or hung in the lobby of the Walt Whitman Theatre.
Miss Harned, daughter of the late Thomas B. Harned, one of Whitman’s literary executors; Joseph Praissman and Mrs. Martha Davis curator of the Whitman home, were members of the anniversary committee headed by Mrs. Wolverton.
With few exceptions, members of the Walt Whitman Foundation attended yesterday’s program, including Dr. Macalister, chairman; Dr. Cornelius Weygandt, vice chairman; Mrs. Juliet Lit Stern, Joseph M. Conover, Mrs. Helen Taft Manning, Mrs. Allen Drew Cook, Mrs. Nicholas Douty, Dr. Herbert Spencer Harned, J. Frederick Harned, Roy Helton, William T. Innes, Eldridge R. Johnson, William H. Ketler, Dr. Rufus M. Jones, former Mayor Victor King, Oscar Wolf, John Frederick Lewis, Jr., Dr. Bliss Perry, Harrison S. Morris, Agnes Repplier, former Mayor Winfield S. Price, Vernon Whitman Rich, Dr. J. Duncan Spaeth, Dr. Felix E. Schelling, Dr. Robert E. Spiller, Mrs. David Abeel Storer, Frederick Von Nieda and Ralph W. Wescott.
Among the visitors was former Assemblyman William H. Iszard, who is secretary of the committee, which acquired the home as a national shrine. Iszard sponsored legislation in the Assembly for its upkeep.
Campaign Planned by Salvation Army
Camden Courier-Post —
Executives of Organization Discuss Budget for Camden and Propose Drives
Plans for a campaign to raise funds to cover the budget of the Salvation Army Corps here were discussed yesterday at a meeting of members of the executive board at Hotel Walt Whitman.
William D. Sayrs, chairman of the committee presided and requested that a successor be appointed. The nominating committee selected Earl Lippincott, chairman; Mrs. Arthur Casselman and John J. Robinson, vice chairmen.
Brigadier James A. Harvey, commanding the Philadelphia region of the Army reviewed the work accomplished at the Camden headquarters, under direction of Captain Charles W. Schafter.
An itemized report of receipts and expenditures together with a budget outline were submitted by Captain Schaffer.
Included among the members at the meeting were Reverend John Pemberton, Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, Mrs. Casselman, Mrs. Mary W. Kobus, Herman Hensgen, Joseph Tweedy, Frank C. Propert, and Robinson.
Other members of the committee include Howard Hemphill, George C. Baker, Patrick Harding, Dr. James Rodgers, Dr. F. William Schafer and Dr. Albert Pancoast.
Saurman Bridge Club Luncheon
Camden Courier-Post —
Miss Norris Saurman, of Grove Street and Maple Avenue, Haddonfield, entertained yesterday at luncheon followed by bridge for the following members of her club: Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, Mrs. Joseph Hackett, Mrs. Einar Dale, Mrs. James Polk, Mrs. Walter Carroll and Mrs. Thomas Trappe, of Merchantville, and Mrs. Josiah Hatch, of Delair.
Donnell Knox Wolverton, 1933
Donnell Knox Wolverton, Princeton University graduate, June 1933
Son of Wolverton Is Honor Graduate
Camden Courier-Post —
Youngest in Course at Princeton to Receive A. B. Degree
Donnell Knox Wolverton, 20, son of Congressman and Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, was graduated with honors yesterday at Princeton University. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the youngest graduate in his course.
Wolverton was a member of the university glee club, was active in promoting political discussion and forming political clubs at Princeton. He organized and was president of the Republican Club of the university, and last year he delivered a nationwide radio address from New York City under the auspices of the National Student Council, emphasizing the advantages of promoting political thought among college students.
Wolverton was also active in the Wig-Clio Debating Society of Princeton. He lives at 2 Oak Terrace, Merchantville.
In connection with his regular course, he also took a course in military science, graduating with honor, which entitles him to a commission in the Reserve Officers Corps, Artillery Unit. The granting of his commission as a Second Lieutenant, however, must necessarily await his twenty-first birthday in October.
In the fall, Donnell will take up the study of law either at Harvard Law School or the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
Salvation Army Names Lippincott
Camden Courier-Post —
Camden Unit Makes Real Estate Broker Chairman of Advisory Boards
Earl R. Lippincott, real estate broker, has been named chairman of the advisory board of the Camden unit of the Salvation Army, succeeding William D. Sayrs.
Elections of officers for the group were held yesterday following a luncheon meeting at Hotel Walt Whitman. Vice chairmen of the organization include John J. Robinson and Mrs. Arthur J. Casselman.
Other officers include Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, treasurer, and Miss Elizabeth Magill, secretary.
Members of the executive committee selected the following committees: Woman’s committee, Mrs. Arthur H. Holl and Mrs. Wilfred W. Fry; finance committee, Dr. F. William Shafer, William D. Sayrs, Frank C. Propert, Mrs. Wolverton and Mrs. Holl; property committee, Howard Hemphill, John J. Robinson, Herman E. Hensgen, Arthur J. Casselman and George C. Baker; public relations and publicity, Rev. John Pemberton, Joseph G. Tweedy, Mrs. Mary W. Kobus, Dr. Albert B. Pancoast and Patrick H. Harding; program committee, Dr. James Rodger, Propert, Robinson, Tweedy and John L. Shannon.
Reserve Officers Wear New Uniforms
Camden Courier-Post —
Eighth Annual Ball Made Brilliant Spectacle by ‘Dress Duds’ for First Time
Brilliant in the new “dress uniform” that makes an American soldier seem a foreign diplomat in a Hollywood setting, the South Jersey chapter of the Reserve Officers’ Association shone resplendent last night.
It was the eighth annual military reception and ball of the organization, held in the ballroom at the Hotel Walt Whitman, and the first time the new uniform was worn at a formal occasion in Camden.
The grand march, which satred [sic] at 11 p. m., was led by Brig. Gen. Joseph M. Rector, of Jersey City, surgeon-general of the United States Reserve, and Mrs. Alton P. Mathis, wife of Lieut. Alton P. Mathis, president of the organization. They were followed directly by Congressman and Mrs. Charles A. Wolverton, with about 100 couples in line.
The procession was a gorgeous, scintillating spectacle, in which the handsome dress uniforms of the men blended with the evening gowns of their partners.
The guests of honor included General Rector, Major Walter C. Hackett, executive officer at Camp Dix; Commander George W. Keefe of the Naval Reserves, Camden district; Lieut.-Col. Frank A. Mathews, judge advocate general’s department, New Jersey National Guard; Col. E. O. Howell, Ocean City, Commander of 309th infantry reserve; Lieut.-Col. Barrett Glover, U.S.A. retired, Mayor of Haddonfield; Major Frank Chapman, Jersey City, president of New Jersey Reserve Officers’ Association; Major Frank E. Boston, Lansdale, Pa.; Colonel Warren Hood, Vineland; Major Holmes J. Paullin, U.S.A.; representing Major Gen. Frank McCoy, U.S.A., commandant of the Second Army Corps area.
Harleigh Cemetery
Harleigh Cemetery — Camden, NJ
Walt Whitman Acclaimed as ‘International Prophet’
Camden Courier-Post —
Wescott Recalls Friendship with Poet at Ceremonies Here Marking 120th Anniversary of his birth; Donaldson Tells of Buggy Gift
By Walter B. Batezel
Acknowledged by the world as the poet of democracy, Camden’s own Walt Whitman was acclaimed here yesterday on the 120th anniversary of his birth as the “prophet of a new internationalism.”
This interpretation of Whitman and his famous “Leaves of Grass,” which introduced free verse to the world and the rugged liberty loving character of America so lustily praised in his songs, was offered by Ralph W. Wescott, of Haddonfield.
Wescott was one of three speakers for the Walt Whitman Foundation which is charged with maintenance of the Whitman home at 330 Mickle Street as a literary shrine. Also speaking on Whitman were Thomas B. Donaldson, Philadelphia insurance man, who as a boy knew Whitman, and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Conover, also of Philadelphia.
The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Camden County Historical Society, Euclid Avenue and Park Boulevard. Wescott, former comptroller of customs of the Port of Philadelphia and son of the late Judge John W. Wescott, who was an intimate friend of Whitman in Camden and who twice nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency, based his lauding of Whitman as an “international prophet” upon excerpts from Whitman’s books.
Urged Universal Freedom
“It is the very catholicity of the man which causes us to celebrate his birthday anniversary,” said Wescott. “He has been seen as the precursor of socialism and the completely going anti-socialist.”
“We almost shrink from news abroad, and we are bound to consider what Whitman’s response would have been. In his poem ‘Salutation,’ I think we find in Whitman the prophecy of a new internationalism, a poem in which he asked for universal freedom against slavery, and called for an international brotherhood.”
“It is unique and significant that on this 120th anniversary of Whitman the New York World’s Fair acclaims him by statue and adulation, and in 1876 during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia Whitman indited a poem addressed to foreign readers in which he directed their attention to ‘the peculiar glory of the United States’ as something ‘vaster, saner, more splendid in comradeship, knitting closer all nations and humanity.’”
“Whitman himself wrote poets were necessary to fulfillment of a world brotherhood because their work was needed to vitalize the message of statesmen.”
Preached Good Will
“In the British-written preface to Whitman’s ‘Specimen Days in America,’ which he wrote in Camden and Laurel Springs, there occurred the sentence ‘Whitman preached goodwill between common people of all nations.’ In all the things written of him, Whitman said he liked that description best.”
“So, in Whitman’s own words we find the real message, and as expressed in one of his poems, and so which was an obsession with him in his declining days—we instinctively seek a ‘universal, comprehensive solidarity of man.’ There was no braver or more humanistic American writer than Whitman, nor more humanistic statement for the world than his ‘Leaves of Grass.’”
“Boyhood Recollections of Whitman,” by Donaldson, whose father Blaine Donaldson, of Philadelphia, was a benefactor and fast friend of Whitman, regaled the little literary group of 40 which appeared to honor the birthday of the “Good Gray Poet.”
It was Donaldson’s father who, anxious to aid the paralytic poet in reaching the outdoors, wrote to all of America’s most famous writers and asked they subscribe to a fund to purchase a pony and buggy for Whitman.
Great Writers Gave
The contributors to the fund, Donaldson said, included Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, John Burroughs, Robert W. Ingersoll, Rutherford B. Hayes, General Phil Sheridan and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
“Hayes and Sheridan were frequent visitors to our home,” said Donaldson, “as was Henry Irving, the actor. Sheridan came often to sniff brandy and Whitman met these men there, but Walt came chiefly for mental regalement and food, because my mother was a good cook.”
“I was a lad of eight to eleven years when Whitman made his visits, and no matter who was there Whitman always dominated the room. In fact, he loved my father so much that he requested that my father be a pallbearer for him.”
“My sister and I sat in his lap often, and we liked that because he looked like Santa Claus, and most children were drawn naturally toward him. He was different and comradely. I can pay tribute to Walt’s whiskers because he didn’t chew tobacco, not then anyway, if later.”
“Walt had the eyes of a stage manager and nothing escaped and no matter how distinguished the audience, Whitman was the boss. His favorite pastime at our home was dipping bananas into sherry wine and eating them as though they were lollypops.”
“It was in 1885 that my father decided to get Walt a pony and buggy, and when the outfit was purchased as a gift from America’s greatest writers to Walt. I was commissioned with a guardian to drive it to Camden.”
Pony Was Groggy
“When I got the pony there in the afternoon Whitman came out and said: ‘Bless me,’ and got in right away. Walt then took to the open in later days, but he soon began to complain the pony was ‘groggy and too slow.’ A few days later Walt turned up at home with a three-gaited horse.”
“The horse obviously was too spirited for Whitman’s crippled condition, and when this was drawn to his attention he said, ‘There is no sense in giving me a crippled horse. What does a helpless hulk like me want with another cripple? This horse is lithesome.’”
“I have some mementos from Whitman which I cherish, but most interesting of all was his personality. To know him was better than any souvenir of him, and in the language of today he had ‘umph!’”
“Mrs. Davis, who took him and who loved him as a mother would, caring for his every wish, was a kind, genial soul, and she in fact, supported Whitman while he saved his money for a monument to himself.”
Full of People
“I recall Whitman’s last days, when my father visited him. Father came home and said the house in Camden was full of people hovering over him with pencil and paper to catch his last words, and that few of them had gone down into their jeans to give him a cent.”
“But over all, I think our attitude toward Whitman must be an offering of our mentality, and our tribute is one of admiration and affection.”
Mrs. Conover paid memorial tribute to Dr. Alexander Macalister, former physician to Whitman, who died last November, and who was president of the Walt Whitman Foundation; Mrs. Sarah D. Wolverton, also a member of the foundation, who died last year; Mrs. Alice Walker Griffiths who lived in Camden at the George Whitman home while Walt lived there, and Mrs. Ruth Stafford Goldy, both of whom died last year. It was at the Stafford home in Laurel Springs that Whitman recuperated from his paralytic stroke.
Mrs. Conover said she was not “impressed by recent documents on Whitman” which she generally described as “insolent,” and said “nearness of approach and intimacy are necessary to get to a cosmic soul.”
“The most direct way to Whitman is through ‘Leaves of Grass,’” she said.
She then told of a recent incident on the finding of a first edition of “Leaves of Grass,” owned by “an unappreciative New York bootlegger,” and in which was found a manuscript of one of Whitman’s poems, “A Backward Glane O’re Traveled Road,” and the title of which had been written and changed three times by the poet on the manuscript.
Cites Honors to Poet
Mrs. Conover also called attention to the Sprague collection of Whitmania on exhibit this year in the Library of Congress, dedication of the Whitman statue at the World’s Fair yesterday, and issuance of a postage stamp in his honor.
“Whitman sailed his ship in deep waters,” she said, “and paid no attention to the shallows. He was the world’s greatest optimist, and under these tremulous, troubled and fear-filled times we should follow as Americans his words, ‘My foothold is tenoned and mortised in granite.’”
Mrs. Conover lauded Mrs. Martha Davis, curator of the Whitman house, as “a stout-hearted disciple of Walt Whitman.”
Wescott, in behalf of the Whitman foundation, presented to the Camden County Historical Society a picture of the Walt Whitman home for its archives. The picture was received for the society by Mrs. A. Haines Lippincott.