CURIOUS WORDS AND PALINDROMES. 1 95 



THE GROTON ANCESTRY OF GOVERNOR 

 ANDREW. 



The following account, with the footnote, is taken from 

 "The Life of John A. Andrew " (Boston, 1904), by Henry 

 Greenleaf Pearson : — 



In the month of July, 181 7, Jonathan Andrew brought his bride to 

 his little house in the country town of Windham, Maine. He was a 

 native of Salem, who for the sake of his health had some ten years 

 before settled in Windham near a married sister ; now, at thirty- 

 five, he was the prosperous owner of the " store," where the farmers 

 came to barter. His wife, 1 a woman of great personal attractiveness, 

 had, strangely enough for those times, pursued her vocation of teacher 

 until the age of thirty-three unmarried. The fjrst child of this union. 

 John Albion Andrew, was born on May 31, 18 18. 



CURIOUS WORDS AND PALINDROMES. 



The following article is taken from the Boston Sunday 

 Globe, for April 7, 1907: — 



In a letter to the Globe, Dr. Green writes as follows of the interest- 

 ing words called palindromes. He says : 



There are in the English language certain words, and sometimes 

 whole sentences of which the letters composing them, taken either in 

 direct or in reverse order, read the same. Such combinations are 

 called palindromes, a name derived from two Greek words, meaning to 

 run again, that is, the letters run or read backward as well as forward. 



When the first man met the first woman — whose name, Eve, by 

 the way, is a palindrome, — he may have introduced himself to her 

 thus : " Madam, I 'm Adam." In this supposed case I assume that 

 he spoke English, and not a Garden-of-Edenish dialect, and if my 

 supposition be correct, he made use of a palindromic expression. 



1 Nancy Green Pierce, born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, July 27, 1784, 

 married to Jonathan Andrew on July 14, 1S17, was the daughter of John Pierce 

 and Sally Farnsworth. Her father was born in Groton, Massachusetts, and 

 was connected with the family of President Franklin Pierce ; her mother, born 

 April 12, 1755, was one of the eight children of Deacon Isaac Farnsworth, of 

 Groton, and Anna Green, who were married December 4, 1744. (I. i, 2.) 



