Page 37 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor
P. 37
CHAPTER II
POE’S FATHER AND MOTHER
Edgar Allan Poe was descended on his father’s side from a Revolutionary
hero, General David Poe. The Poes were a good family of Baltimore, where
many of them still live as prominent citizens. It is said that General Poe was
descended from one of Cromwell’s officers, who received grants of land in
Ireland. One of the poet’s ancestors, John Poe, emigrated from Ireland to
Pennsylvania; and from there the Poes went to Maryland. General Poe was
an ardent patriot both before and during the Revolution.
General Poe’s son David, the eldest, was not much like his father. In
Baltimore he enjoyed himself with his friends and played at amateur
theatricals with the Thespian Club. He was supposed to be studying law.
For this purpose he went to live with an uncle in Augusta, Georgia; but his
father soon heard that he had given up law to become an actor. General Poe
was very angry and after that allowed the young man to shift for himself.
Edgar Allan Poe’s mother was an English actress, whose mother had also
been an actress. She was born at sea, and as she went with her mother on
her travels from town to town, naturally the daughter learned the mother’s
art as a means of self-support, and in time became very successful.
At seventeen, her mother having married again, Elizabeth Arnold, for that
was her name, was thrown upon her own resources. She joined a
Philadelphia company, and remained with it for the next four years. In
June, 1802, she acted in Baltimore, and perhaps it was there that David Poe,
Jr., first saw her. She was pretty and gay, yet a good girl and a very fine
actress.
She soon married a young Mr. Hopkins, who had been playing with the
company, and for the following two years the young couple lived in
Virginia. It was then that David Poe, Jr., having left his uncle’s home at
Augusta and gone on the stage in Charleston, joined the same company. He
was not a very good actor; and he never rose to a high place in his
