BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



BY HENRY I. BOWDITCH, M. D. 



James Deane was born February 24, 1801, at Coleraine, Franklin County, Mass. 

 He was the eighth child of Christopher and Prudence Deane. His father was a 

 lineal descendant from James Deane, one of the earliest settlers of Stonington, Conn., 

 whence he removed to Coleraine, soon after his marriage. His home was humble 

 in kind, but placed most magnificently near the summit of one of the highest hills 

 in Franklin County. Monadnock and Wachusett lay immediately within sight, and 

 a few steps from the house enabled the boy to reach a height whence he 

 could, at a glance toward the wide horizon, see all the southern Massachusetts 

 hills. An intense love of nature and beauty seems thus to have been awakened 

 in him from his earliest years. 



His father was a hard-working farmer, of a strong mind, and rather puritanic, 

 conservative character. His mother was a woman of sterling piety, good sense, 

 and of a more genial nature. She died when he was about fifteen years of age ; 

 and he always cherished her memory with that strength of feeling that every 

 true-hearted son has for a noble mother. Her death made a profound impression 

 on him ; and a desire to quit home, and to seek his fortune elsewhere, took pos- 

 session of him from that hour. 



In very early life he attended the district public school during the winter ; 

 and subsequently he was allowed to attend, for one term, Deerfield Academy. He 

 was likewise permitted to study Latin for a time, under the direction of Isaac 

 B. Barber, Esq., a lawyer of Coleraine. Later in life he studied French. 



If we may believe his own account of himself, he was a clownish youth ; but, 

 as one of his schoolmates states, there was a nameless something about him that 



