Fitch Poole was an American journalist, humorist, and librarian.
Background
He was born on June 13, 1803 in South Danvers (now Peabody), Massachussets, United States, the son of Fitch and Elizabeth (Cutler) Poole, and a descendant of John Poole who was an early resident of Cambridge, Lynn, and Reading, Massachussets.
Education
He received a common-school education and studied six months at Bradford Academy under Benjamin Greenleaf.
Career
After studies he carried on his father's business, that of dressing sheepskins. Following the depression of 1852, he withdrew from business activities. His first poems were addressed to his future wife Mary Ann, daughter of Enoch Poor. For diversion he modeled heads in plaster and commemorative medals. He also devised ingenious games for children.
As a member of a committee of the Essex Agricultural Society, his amusing reports in 1844 and 1849 on swine were widely quoted. As early as 1836 he wrote for the Salem Register his "Lament of the Bats Inhabiting the Old South Church in Danvers, " and the same year published in the Salem Observer a letter alleged to have been written by Lawrence Conant in 1713, describing an ordination in Salem. This fiction deceived historical students, though Poole quickly confessed himself the author.
In 1846 he became one of the editors of the Danvers Courier. Thirteen years later he began work on the Wizard (South Danvers), known after Poole ceased to be connected with it in 1869 as the Peabody Press. His poem, "Giles Corey & Goodwyfe Corey" (1850), in the Salem Observer, was followed by "Giles Core?? 's Dream" (1852), and by a second "Dream" (1858).
His articles and poems ridiculing the coalition forces that elected Boutwell governor of Massachusetts in 1852 were reprinted in part in Boston newspapers and were referred to as those of "a writer of rare wit and powers of satire. " For the Carrier's Address of the Salem Register, 1852, he wrote "The Political John Gilpins" in sixty-six stanzas. Two other Gilpin ballads appeared in the Wizard.
He was officially connected with the Mechanics Institute Library, founded in 1841, and in 1856 he became librarian of the Peabody Institute established in South Danvers by George Peabody in 1852. Here his knowledge of books, his love of order, and his unfailing industry enabled him to render service of value for the remainder of his life.
In February 1872 his eldest surviving son, Francis, died and the shock weakened Poole's health, his own death occurring a year and a half later.
Achievements
Politics
He wrote addresses for the carriers of newspapers, anniversary hymns, reminiscences of passing statesmen, and articles in defense of Whig policies.
Personality
He was tall and thin, slightly bent, with massive head, smooth-shaven face, clean-cut features, heavy brows, and deep-set eyes. His delicate sense of humor, his scholarly tastes, his knowledge of politics, history, and literature made his writings effective.
Connections
He married Mary Ann, daughter of Enoch Poor, on July 8, 1824; they had nine children, two of whom died in infancy.