Richard Henry Dana III

Richard Henry Dana III (January 3, 1851 – December 16, 1931) was an American lawyer and civil service reformer.

Richard Henry Dana III
Born	(1851-01-03)January 3, 1851 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died	December 16, 1931(1931-12-16) (aged 80) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Education	Harvard University
Occupation	Lawyer
Spouses	Edith Longfellow ​ ​ (m. 1878; died 1915)​ Helen Ford Mumford ​ (m. 1922)​
Children	6
Parents	Richard Henry Dana Jr. (father) Sarah Watson (mother)
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Early life

Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 3, 1851, the son of lawyer and politician Richard Henry Dana Jr. and Sarah (née Watson) Dana (1814–1907). His paternal grandfather was poet and critic Richard Henry Dana Sr.^[1]

Dana graduated from Harvard University. In 1874, he looked back on those years: "Days in college were happy-go-lucky times, even for the most studious and athletic."^[2]

Career

Dana was the author of the Massachusetts Ballot Act of 1888, the first state Australian ballot (secret ballot) act passed in the US.

Dana wrote a substantial biography of his father, Richard Henry Dana Jr. He became a friend and financial adviser to Hosea Ballou Morse,^[3] whom he introduced to Theodore Roosevelt.^[4]

He was a major leader of Mugwumps, especially through his editorship of the Civil Service Record. His people took credit for passing the state's 1884 civil service law, which was a stronger version of the federal Pendleton Act of 1883. Both laws were enacted to limit the effect of political patronage, thus disrupting the spoils system. The goal were improved morality and increased efficiency. It was also designed to contain the rising political power of the Irish Catholics.^[5]

He died at his home in Cambridge on December 16, 1931.^[6]

Legacy

The papers and photographs of Dana, together with material relating to him collected by his son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, and his sister, Elizabeth, are held at the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. ^[7] Some family financial records are held at the Houghton Library, Harvard, these include correspondence between Dana and William Penn Cresson, relating to the Cresson's biography of Francis Dana.^[8] A number of letters are in the Abernathy Collections at the Middlebury College library, though these may be by his father. ^[9] A substantial collection of family papers (including 293 bound volumes and 81 boxes) is held at the Massachusetts Historical Society.^[10] Family papers are also found at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library.

Personal life

On January 10, 1878, Dana married Edith Longfellow (1853–1915), the daughter of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Before her death in 1915, they had four sons and two daughters.^[6] Edith's brother, Ernest Longfellow, disinherited some of their children for holding socialist and pacifist beliefs.^[11] Their children were:

• Richard Henry Dana IV (1879–1933), a World War I conscientious objector and architect.^[12]
• Henry "Harry" Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881–1950),^[13] who became a gay liberationist, previously acquitted of a 1935 morals arrest.^[14]
• Frances Appleton Dana (1883–1933),^[15] who married Henry Casimir de Rham, a grandson of Charles de Rham, in 1905. She befriended Franklin Roosevelt but died in 1933 of suicide.^[16]
• Allston Dana (1884–1952)^[17]
• Edmund Trowbridge Dana III (1886–1981), who married Jessie Halladay. She committed suicide in 1915.^[18]
• Delia Farley Dana (1889–1989), who became a socialist and feminist; she married fellow socialist Robert Hare Hutchinson in 1913.^[19]

After Edith's 1915 death,^[20] he remarried Helen Ford Mumford (1865–1934) in 1922.^[6][21]

References

1. Eliot, Samuel Atkins, ed. (1909). Biographical History of Massachusetts. Vol. I. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Biographical Society. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
2. Fairbank, John King, Martha Henderson Coolidge, and Richard J. Smith. H. B. Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. University of Kentucky Press, 1995: 16. ISBN 0813119340
3. Fairbank, John King, Martha Henderson Coolidge, and Richard J. Smith. H. B. Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. University of Kentucky Press, 1995: 102. ISBN 0813119340
4. Fairbank, John King, Martha Henderson Coolidge, and Richard J. Smith. H. B. Morse: Customs Commissioner and Historian of China. University of Kentucky Press, 1995: 189. ISBN 0813119340
5. Edward H. Miller, "They Vote Only for the Spoils: Massachusetts Reformers, Suffrage Restriction, and the 1884 Civil Service Law". Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2009): 341-363. – via JSTOR
6. "Richard Henry Dana Dies in Cambridge". The Boston Globe. December 16, 1931. p. 10. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Finding Aid for the Richard Henry Dana III (1851-1931) Papers" (PDF). Nps.gov. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
8. "Dana family. Dana family financial records: Guide". Oasis.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
9. "Abernethy Collections". Middarchive.middlebury.edu. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
10. "MHS Dana Family Papers, 1654-1950:Guide to the Collection". Masshist.org. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
11. "LONGFELLOW'S SON CUTS OFF NEPHEWS; Professor Dana and His Brother Lose $50,000 Each for "Socialist Opinions." LEAVES ESTATE OF $509,901 Collection of Paintings, Left to Boston Art Museum, Valuedat $65,078. $200,000 to Boston Museum. Longfellow Home Trust". The New York Times. October 24, 1922. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
12. "RICHARD H. DANA, ARCHITECT, DEAD; Grandson of Longfellow, the Poet, Formerly in Firm of Murphy & Dana". The New York Times. November 30, 1933. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
13. "DR. DANA IS DEAD; FORMER EDUCATOR; Grandson of Longfellow and Noted Author Had Been on Columbia Faculty". The New York Times. April 28, 1950. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
14. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (April 5, 1935). "H.W.L. DANA IS ARRESTED.; Grandson of Longfellow Accused by Boy at Cambridge". The New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
15. "MRS. HENRY C. DE RHAM. '; Granddaughter of Longfellow and Richard H. Dana". The New York Times. October 7, 1933. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
16. Calhoun, Charles C. (2004). Longfellow : a rediscovered life. Internet Archive. Boston : Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-7026-0.
17. "ALLSTON DANA DIES, A DESIGN ENGINEER; Served on George-Washington and Triborough Bridges. Descendant of Longfellow". The New York Times. May 13, 1952. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
18. "MRS. J. H. DANA A SUICIDE.; Coroner Finds That Minneapolis Woman Threw Herself Into Surf". The New York Times. June 19, 1915. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
19. "SOCIALISTS MARRY.; Miss Dana and R.E. Hutchinson Will Go to New Zealand". The New York Times. June 27, 1913. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
20. Gale, Robert L. (December 30, 2003). A Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Companion. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-313-32350-8.
21. Cambridge Tribune, March 4, 1922