CHARLES EDWIN MAYO.

"Cape Cod, the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts, behind which the State stands on her guard, with her back to the Green mountains, and her feet planted on the floor of the ocean, boxing with northeast storms," has been the home for many generations of sturdy, brave, and fearless men. Inured to hardships, coming to these shores for conscience' sake, the New Englander has stood for what is best in our newer civilization.

It has been said of Brewster township, on Cape Cod, that the tide ebbs out a greater distance than at any other place in the world, and that it has been the home of more sea captains than any other town, considering the number of its population.

The subject of this sketch, Charles Edwin Mayo, was born at Brewster, Massachusetts, October 26th, 1827, the son of Jeremiah Mayo and Mary Paddock Clark Mayo. His was an ancestry of which to be proud, and from which he inherited many strong traits. He was lineally descended from nine of the passengers of the Mayflower. These were Elder William Brewster, for whom his native town was named, with his wife Mary; Alice and William Mullens, with their daughter Priscilla; John Alden, Thomas Rogers, and Stephen and Giles Hopkins.

His colonial ancestry contained thirty-eight names, including men who played a prominent part in the affairs of state, members of the General Court, governor and governor's assistants, captains of companies in King Philip's war and the Pequot war, and of Miles Standish's company.

One of these worthies, Governor Thomas Prence, was gov ernor of the colony for twenty years. Bishop Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of the English church in this country, was one of his ancestors, who had a great and moulding influence on church and state.

Mr. Mayo's father, Jeremiah Mayo, was a sea captain, sailing from Boston to foreign ports. He visited the battlefield of Corunna a few days after the battle beween the French and English, and saw the prisoners that were taken in the fight, a miserable, wretched looking lot. He was familiar with the details of the battle, and would grow eloquent as he spoke of the heroism of Sir John Moore. Among his son's autographs, that of Sir John Moore was greatly prized, probably because of his early admiration for this hero.

In 1815 Captain Jeremiah Mayo visited Havre just after the battle of Waterloo, and, on being approached by the emissaries of Napoleon in regard to bringing him to this country, he agreed to do so, knowing that, if caught, his vessel and cargo would be confiscated. He heard before sailing, however, that Napoleon had surrendered himself to the English. Many voyages were made to Russian and European ports.

In the home at Brewster there were hung on the walls a map of the United States and a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, as means of furnishing food for thought for the young children of the family.

Many nights when a boy, Charles would copy the signatures on the Declaration of Independence, and after a few trials became quite expert in the imitation of any of them.

In 1835 the Brewster Academy was opened, and Charles Edwin Mayo began his school training. Among the text books then in use was Goodrich's History of the United States, with Emerson's Questions. The class in grammar used Pope's Essay on Man. Other studies were natural philosophy, chemistry, rhetoric, botany, algebra, and logic. Much attention was paid to composition and declamation. In the fall of 1837 Mr. Benjamin Drew, of Plymouth, superseded Mr. Washburn, the previous teacher. On opening his school Mr. Drew wrote upon the blackboard, "Order is Heaven's first Law," and to this motto he strictly adhered, as did also his pupil, the subject of this sketch, through life. During the many expeditions made with his teacher, Mr. Drew, his taste was formed for the best in literature, which he always retained. It was this habit, then formed, which was more fully gratified when he removed

to Boston, where he was able to obtain books and information which could not be obtained in his native town.

In 1842 he was sent to school at Sandwich, Mass., and there his teacher, Mr. Crowell, wrote to his father: "I wish to write a word regarding your son. I love your son, and I wish him to be educated. My great reason is, because it seems to me he should be; he has the mind, the habits, the qualities, that ought to be cultivated. I must say I can almost envy his talents in view of his age." His should have been a professional life. Charles was a member of the First Parish church of Brewster, then Congregational, and his father was an active man in its affairs.

In 1844 Charles left for Boston, to enter the hardware store of Montgomery Newell. During this first year in Boston he joined the Mercantile Library, and attended regularly the Lyceum lectures; his evenings were spent in reading and study. It was always his desire to see and hear the best, and he never lost an opportunity of hearing men of note, who were so numerous at that time. During his stay in Boston he heard such men as Sumner, Choate, Webster, Phillips, Holmes, Garrison, Pierpont, Parker, Burlingame, Frederick Douglass, and also Jennie Lind, and all the noted actors and actresses of the day. Here he also heard Louis Kossuth, whom Whittier styled

"the noblest guest

The Old World's wrong has given the New World of the West."

In no other city of our country is so much interest felt in the preservation of historical memories, and so much effort expended to snatch from oblivion the buildings and sites of earlier days. Mr. Mayo, surrounded in these formative days with the love of the past, early showed his attachment for the places and persons that had helped to found the strong, stable national government of which we are all justly proud. It was during his stay of seven years in Boston that he became associated with his cousin, Charles Mayo, in accumulating historical and genealogical notes of the Mayo family; and in that work his natural love of old documents and newspapers was fostered, so that his friends, knowing this, made him the

recipient of many papers of value, all of which were his most loved and prized possessions.

Deciding that a drier climate might be more beneficial to his health, he moved to Cincinnati in September, 1852, where he remained during the winter; and in the spring of 1853 he made a visit, by boat, to New Orleans, spending a month on the trip. Upon his return he stopped for a few days in Cincinnati, and then embarked for St. Paul, Minnesota, on the steamboat "Nominee," of which Russell Blakeley was captain, arriving here May 27th, 1853. Here he lived to see the change from a frontier western town to the present city. Soon after coming to St. Paul Mr. Mayo engaged in the hardware business, entering the store of Francis S. Newell, but spending a portion of the first summer here in assisting Mr. Halsted in surveying Warren and Winslow's addition. His tall stature, six feet four inches, served him well as a surveyor, Mr. Halsted saying that he was the best chainman he had ever employed. In the fall he entered business for himself with Mr. Elkanah Bangs and Mr. F. S. Newell, under the firm name of Charles E. Mayo & Company.

The following anecdote will illustrate his kindly nature. In the summer of 1854 he was called to a frame house in the rear of his store, by the wife of a sick man, who wanted his help. He went and found the man sick with cholera, without proper bed, furniture, medicine, or care, which he at once proceeded to give, carrying over to the house furniture and a mattress from his own room, calling a doctor, and remaining with them until the man's recovery was assured.

His mother, writing him soon after this act of charity, said: "A charitable deed done to a fellow creature, a stranger, sick with cholera, though nothing more than was your duty to do, gave me more heartfelt satisfaction than mines of gold would have done."

His sister, having come west to make a visit, wrote: "Charles and I started from St. Paul January 22nd, 1856, for Boston. We rode in a covered sleigh four days, and one night in a stage coach, before we reached Dubuque." What a difference betweeen the time it then took to travel and that of today!