6 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
a white bonnet fastened closely by a bow under the chin. Her 
husband’s features also were well formed but with the taut 
expression characteristic of a man ‘accustomed to fighting 
Satan. Cyrus came naturally by his handsome and intelligent 
looks. 
When the father became pastor of the Congregational 
church at Stockbridge, the salary was six hundred dollars a 
year—which was much more than the redoubtable Jonathan 
Edwards had received in the same settlement several genera- 
tions earlier. ‘There were two daughters and eight sons to be 
brought up on this income. Cyrus was the eighth child and 
seventh son. ‘Three other sons achieved distinction in Amer- 
ican history—David Dudley Jr., Stephen Johnson, and Henry 
Martyn. ‘The name of another son, Jonathan Edwards Field, 
born before the family moved to Stockbridge, indicates an 
admiration by the parents for that ardent revivalist; Jonathan 
became a lawyer and politician. 
The oldest son was David, fourteen years older than Cyrus. 
He became a famous lawyer and jurist in New York, especial- 
ly prominent in the troubled years following the Civil War, 
when a number of outstanding legal cases were argued. Some 
of his cases came before the United States Supreme Court 
when his brother Stephen was a member of that august body. 
He acted for Jay Gould and James Fisk Jr. in the notorious 
Erie Railroad litigation; he defended the Tammany politi- 
cian Boss Tweed; and he represented Samuel J. Tilden in the 
dispute over the election of 1876, when Tilden really was 
elected president but was defeated by Hayes in the electoral 
college. 
David's greatest achievement was his aggressive work for 
the codification of the common law. He helped to bring 
together divergent and confused rulings into a systematic 
code that had some semblance of order and clarity. His pow- 
erful influence was exerted to simplify legal procedure and 
make it understandable; for example, by changing the num- 
