Portland, Maine 04101 United States
1:00 pm-2:00 pm
“How glad I am that he is only my nephew. If he were any nearer I could not endure it…” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on his nephew, Stephen Longfellow VI On January 3, 1880, Stephen Longfellow VI, 45-year-old nephew of the celebrated poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, walked into a bank in Boston and presented a check for $1000, signed by his famous uncle. He was promptly arrested and jailed for forgery and the story became front-page news across the country.
A grand jury indicted Stephen and he was held for a criminal trial in the superior court. But that trial never happened. A day after the grand jury reported its findings, Stephen Longfellow VI disappeared, subsequently becoming lost to time, and vanishing from the historical record completely…until now!
MHS guide James Horrigan has discovered new information on the fate of Stephen Longfellow VI that fills a seven-decade-long hole in research and scholarship on the life and times of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Join us as he shares how he used 21st-century research techniques to put together the pieces of a 19th-century true crime story and solve this baffling mystery!
Guests are invited to visit the Wadsworth-Longfellow House immediately following the program. Image: William Pitt Preble and Stephen Longfellow, Portland, ca 1853, Collections of Maine Historical Society, Maine Memory Network Item 104510 About the presenter: James V. Horrigan is a writer and performer and is about to begin his 18th season as a Guide at the Wadsworth-Longfellow House.
His work has appeared in Portland Magazine, Down East Magazine, Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland Press Herald, The Bollard, the Boston Globe Magazine, and Islands Magazine. He lives in Scarborough with his wife Lauren and their children Helen and George. Free & open to the public. Registration is kindly requested.