Miscellaneous Poems

Though literature was not, with my beloved father, a profession, the ensuing pages will bear testimony that his brain was not an idle one. Modest as was his own estimate of his abilities, he more than once expressed a purpose, whenever the convenient time should come, to gather his published and other written productions into a small printed volume. Had he lived to execute this design, it is not uulikely that, in the work of selecting, he would have cast aside some effusions to which the partial love and less severe taste of survivors willingly accord a permanent place, side by side with the worthiest things that he ever wrote. A considerable number of the pieces which are here brought together have appeared in print as newspaper contributions. Some of them, as occasion demanded, were publishcd in other forms. Others still were dashed off to beguile a leisure hour, or entertain a friend. I The fact of the appearance of this unpretentious colnme is not solely due to the remembcred purpose noted above, nor yet to the partial love of a, n only child. An instinctive prompting would of course incite her to the duty of gathering together and arranging, for convenience of reference and permanent preservation, the written productions of the dear departed one. But their present embodiment in book form is in great measure the result of the known wishes of many relatives and friends. Nothing need be claimed for the contents of this little volume on the score of poetic merit. Few if any of those who see it will be in the least disposed to criticise. It will for the most part be perused by loving friends. If merit there be, these will find it if faults, they will easily pardon and forget them. Inthe work of selection and arrangement, I have received valuable assistance and counsel from my honored grandfather, Jacob Wendell, Esq. Rev. Rufus Wendell has kindly supervised the proof reading, as the sheets were passing through the press, and has also prepared the In Memoriam sketches contained in the volume. For all assistance received in this labor of love, I wish to express my sincere thanks. ALBANY, May 1,1875. WELLINGT C O L N A YTO W N ENDEL e L ld, e st son of Jacob and Margaret F. Wendell, was born in Fort Plain, N. Y., on the 30th day of January, 1832. When about seventeen years of age he entered the office of the village paper, the Monigornev Phmix, as an apprentice to the printing business. He completed his apprenticeship in due course, and became an excellent practical printer. He was married Februa, ry 16, 1852, to Miss ADELINSE. CLOVERo, f Springfield, N. Y., an estimable lady of English parentage. IDA A ., their only child, was born July 14, 1856. Early in 1854, the subject of this sketch associated with himself as partner a former fellowapprentice, Air. Harrison Stnnsel, and purchased the Pltcenix establishment. The firm at once changed the name of the payer, and on March 9, 1854, issued the first nurnber of the Jlohawk Valley Register. Mr. Wendells proprietary connection with the paper with two successive changes in the style of the-firm continued until r May, 1859, when he sold his interest and removed to Albany. IIis withdrawal from the R e g k h was chronicled by his partner, C. W. Webster, Esq., in the following editorial Personal - As will be noticed by the perusal of the following card, Mr. Wendell, our late partner, has disposed of his property in the officeof the Register to Mr. Crounse, and severs his pecuniary interest in the establishment, with the present issue. Mr. Wendells connection with the paper dates from the very first number, and ours from an early period in the third volume...