Oldtown Folks

Oldtown Folks, novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1869 and dramatized by the author the same year.

Horace Holyoke, who has grown up in Oldtown, Mass., during the post‐Revolutionary period, describes the town's typical institutions, its preoccupation with theological discussion, and its leading citizens, scholarly Parson Lothrop and his aristocratic, Episcopalian wife, known as “Lady” Lothrop. Henry and Tina Percival, foundling orphans, are taken into the family of “Old Crab” Smith and Miss Asphyxia Smith, whose harshness and miserliness cause the children to run away, although they are brought back by Horace's Uncle Fly and Sam Lawson, the humorous idler and oracle. Tina is adopted by Miss Mehitable Rossiter, daughter of the former clergyman, and Henry lives with Madam Lothrop. On her annual Easter trip to Boston, the children attend Church of England services and meet leaders of Boston society, including Ellery Davenport, an aristocratic Revolutionary officer who resembles Aaron Burr. After the orphans are discovered to be members of a wealthy British family, Henry attends the academy at Cloudland, and then goes to Harvard with Horace, who falls in love with Tina. The girl marries Davenport, but her happiness is short‐lived, for Miss Rossiter's sister Emily appears to accuse Davenport of seducing her and being the father of her daughter. Tina adopts the child, and goes with her husband to Europe. Henry goes to England and becomes an Anglican clergyman. When the Davenports return to Massachusetts, Ellery becomes a political leader, and is killed in a duel. Two years later, Horace and Tina are married.