Holyoke

"glorious master," declared: "By you I was
taught to pay a sacred regard to experience as
the source of all medical knowledge and by you
I was forbidden to resort to speculative prin-
ciples as guides to practice except where experi-
ence failed." In that tribute may be found the
keynote of Holyoke's teaching. His published
writings include: "A Letter . . . Respecting
the Introduction of the Mercurial Practice in the
Vicinity of Boston," Medical Repository, New
York, April 1798; "An Easy and Cheap Method
of Preparing Sal Aeratus," Ibid., July 1798; "An
Account of the Weather and of the Epidemics at
Salem ... for the Year 1786" and "The His-
tory of a Retroverted Uterus," Medical Com-
munications of the Massachusetts Medical So-
ciety, vol. I, pt. 3 (1808); An Ethical Essay, or
an Attempt to Enumerate the Several Duties
Which We Owe to God, Our Saviour, Our
Neighbour and Ourselves (1830), edited by John
Brazer; "A Meteorological Journal from the
Year 1786 to the Year 1829 Inclusive," Memoirs
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
n.s. I (1833), 107-216. He was the father of
twelve children, born to his second wife, Mary,
daughter of Nathaniel Viall of Boston, whom he
married Nov. 22, 1758. She died in April 1802.
His first wife, Judith Pickman, whom he married
in June 1755, died Nov. 19, 1756.

[A. L. Peirson, Memoir oft Edward A. Holyoke, M.D.,
LL.D. (1829), also printed in Medic. Dissertations . ..
of the Mass. Medic. Soc., IV (1829), 185-260; John
Brazer, A Discourse Delivered in the North Church, in
Salem . . . at the Interment of Edward Augustus
Holyoke (1829) ; W. L. Burrage, A Hist, of the Mass.
Medic. Soc. (1923) ; T. F. Harrington, The Harvard
Medic. School, A Hist., Narrative and Documentary
(1905)* I, 241-51; J. G. Muxnford, A Narrative of
Medicine in America (1903) ; H. A. Kelly and W. L.
Burrage, Am. Medic. Biogs. (1920); J. B. Felt, Annals
of Salem (1827); Andrew Nichols, "Geneal. of the

Holyoke Family," Essex Inst. Hist. Colls., vol. Ill,
No. 2 (Apr. 1861); "The Holyoke Family," •'« ^ *
77, The — -•-••

in G. F.

Dow, The Holyok'e Diaries, 1709-1X56 (1911); Salem
Gazette, Apr. 3, 1829.] G.A. B—r.

HOLYOKE, SAMUEL (Oct. 15, 1762-Feb.
21,1820), teacher, composer of music, was born
in Boxford, Mass., the son of Rev. Elizur Hol-
yoke, cousin of Edward Augustus Holyoke
[g.z>.], and minister for forty-seven years of the
Congregational Church in Boxford. His moth-
er, Hannah Peabody, was a daughter of Rev.
Oliver Peabody, a minister to the Indians in
Natick. The first child of this couple had been
named Samuel, but as he died in infancy the
second son was given the same name. He grad-
uated from Harvard College in 1789, then in
i793» tfpon the establishment of an institution of
higher education in Groton, Mass., he was called
to open the new school He began to teach in
one of the district schoolhouses, his term ex-

Homer

tending from May 17 to Oct. 5, 1793. Thus he
became the organizer of Groton, later Lawrence,
Academy. Holyoke had a fine voice and was
composing music before he had graduated from
college. His most popular tune, and his favorite
piece of music, was "Arnheim," which was writ-
ten when he was but sixteen years old, and dur-
ing the year of his graduation he contributed
several compositions to the Massachusetts Maga-
zine. From the year 1800 he lived much of the
time in Salem, whence he went to conduct sing-
ing schools and concerts in the neighboring
towns. For a while he had charge of the singing
in the North Society in Salem. He was a mem-
ber of the Essex Musical Association in that
town, and several of the annual festivals of the
association were held in his father's church in
Boxford. His first compilation, Harmonia Amer-
icana, was printed in 1791. His Columbian Re-
pository of Sacred Harmony, though not dated,
was entered for copyright on Apr. 7,1802. It was
dedicated to the Essex Musical Association, con-
tained over seven hundred tunes to fit the vari-
ous meters in several hymn books then in com-
mon use and named on the title-page, and was the
largest collection of tunes that had been pub-
lished up to that time. Many of them were of his
own composition. The period of his musical ac-
tivity began just at the time when William Bill-
ings was advocating the use of fugue tunes and
was proclaiming their brilliancy over the slower
tunes. Holyoke, however, did not approve of that
style, for he considered that the effect of such
music was trifling, and he therefore omitted it
from his collections. While teaching in Concord,
N. H., he was taken sick with lung fever and died
after a short illness in February 1820. He was
never married. In addition to the collections of
hymns already mentioned, Holyoke's works in-
cluded: The Massachusetts Compiler (1795)
with Hans Gram and Oliver Holden; The Chris-
tian Harmonist (1804); and The Instrumental
Assistant (2 vols., 1800-07); as well as compo-
sitions for special services. He also published,
beginning in 1806, several numbers of a peri-
odical, the Occasional Companion.

[Sidney Perley, The Hist, of Boxford (1880); H.
M. Brooks, Olden-Time Music (1888) ; Vital Records
of Boxford, Mass. (1905); Andrew Nichols, "Geneal.
of the Holyoke Family/' Hist. Colls, of the Essex Inst.,
Ill (1861), 57-61; The Diary of Wm. Bentley (4 vols.,
1905-14); F. J. Metcalf, Am. Psalmody (1917), and
Am. Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music (1925) ;
Quinquen. Cat. of the Officers and Grads. of Harvard
Univ. (1915)-] F.J.M.

HOMER, WINSLOW (Feb. 24, i8s6-Sept.
29, 1910), painter, was born in Boston, Mass.
He came of old New England stock, being de-
scended from Capt. John Homer, an English-

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