The Starry Crown

Centennial Web Edition 2004

Poems by Aaron Southwick 1904

Aaron Southwick published his collection of poems "The Starry Crown" at the press of the Clay Center, Kansas, Dispatch early in 1904. Here are some poems from The Starry Crown.

Aaron Southwick (no middle name) was born in Danby, Bennington Co. VT, 8 March 1830, the second oldest of six children of George Southwick and Louisa Tenney. George Southwick descended from Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, 17th century Quaker settlers (and later martyrs) in Massachusetts. Aaron's younger brother Jacob Southwick was killed in the Civil War, in the 13th Michigan Infantry at the battle of Stones River (east of Nashville TN). Four sisters may all have had descendants, but there was probably no contact with them after the 1930's.

The family moved to Ohio in 1833, residing in several places in OH and IN. In 1853 he moved, probably with his whole family, to southern Michigan, where he farmed, and married Annette Eliza Fairbanks, a descendant of Jonathan Fairbank of Dedham MA, and also of John Richmond (Jr.) of Taunton MA, who married Mayflower descendant Abigail Rogers. Their first four children were born in Michigan, before they relocated to KS in 1869, where their youngest son Earnest Alonzo Southwick Sr. was born in 1875.
[aaron and annette southwick.]

The Southwicks were Quakers, and probably Aaron Southwick was raised in that faith, but Annette was not, and in KS Aaron was a member of the Methodist church. In 1898 he joined the Christian Science church, and was the reader of the new congregation in Riley. He must have been involved in Christian Science well before that, since Earnest Alonzo Southwick Sr., who left KS well before that, was a Christian Scientist.

Aaron Southwick graduated from what was probably a teachers' college, the Vermilion Institute in Haysville, Ashland Co. OH, and taught school for 13 terms, in OH and MI and also in KS.

On arriving in eastern KS Aaron Southwick purchased 160 acres of land in what later became the town of Riley, and built Union House, the first house there. The picture of Union House ("Residence of A. Southwick, Riley Center") is from the Historical Plat Book of Riley County, Kansas Bird & Mickele Map Co., Chicago 1881 p. 57 from the Riley County Genealogical Society, 1986.
[union house.]

He farmed briefly at first, but soon became the postmaster of Riley Center, as well as operating a grocery store and an inn, probably also teaching school. He acquired a half interest in the Riley Center Independent in 1879. (The paper must have been handset, since the Linotype had not yet been invented.)
[nettie southwick.]

The Southwicks had five children. Four sons survived into old age, and three family lines descend from them in the 21st century. A daughter, Nettie Alice Southwick, died in her fourth year in 1869, and it was said that Aaron grieved for her all his life. A photograph of her survives in the book.

Aaron Southwick died 6 April 1909 in Iola, Allen Co. KS, with interment in Riley Cemetery in Riley KS, with Annette Fairbanks; her name appears on the monument but his does not. Supposedly he died of pneumonia after refusing to see a physician.

A prolific poet, Aaron Southwick was known as "the Bard of Riley". Early in 1904 he published a book of poems, The Starry Crown, at the press of the Dispatch, in nearby Clay Center KS, about 200 pages, blue cloth boards, 12 x 7 cm, no copyright. The Clay Center Dispatch is still in existence a century later, but they have no record of publishing the book. The book includes photographs of the poet, his wife, his daughter Nettie, and his mother Louisa Tenney Southwick, as well as photographs of unidentified individuals and of floral, presumably funerary arrangements. As a poet he is a competent maker of verses in the style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edgar Allen Poe, with influences of Tennyson and John Greenleaf Whittier. In about 1850 he compiled a notebook of verses and drawings, possibly while a student at the Vermilion Institute; this notebook is in the possession of Jane Richmond in Los Angeles. [starry crown title page.]

Aaron Southwick's great-grandson Robert Southwick Richmond writes this page a century after the first publication of The Starry Crown. Transcriptions of some of the poems though not the entire book.

Return to Bob Richmond's site map

E-mail Bob Richmond

Posted to the Web May 28th, 2004.
Additions made June 2nd, 2004.