Dec 28, 2024
In 1861, a gentleman writing under the nom de plum “Peak House” submitted his exciting discovery to the care of the Medfield Historical Society, and I am here to reveal this discovery to our community as we take our first shaky steps into the year 2025. First, here is a bit of background. In March of 2024, we published my article about the Medfield Lyceum Gazette, a short-lived publication of the Medfield Lyceum. We explained that “the Lyceum movement, named for Aristotle’s famous school in ancient Greece, began in New England in the early 1800s… sparking widespread enthusiasm for adult education, training, and learning of all kinds. By the mid-1800s, people were flocking to classes, lectures, authors’ appearances, and myriad venues of learning.” This anonymous man submitted an essay, titled “Rocky Woods, the Garden of Eden” for publication in the Gazette.
In this essay, he contends to prove that Medfield’s own Rocky Woods was the actual location of the Garden of Eden, supporting the claim with his own evidence. Instead of reading this essay merely as a wonderfully entertaining piece of Medfield History, I decided to dig a bit deeper. Why, I wondered, would someone write this particular essay at this particular time? There had to be something in the cultural consciousness that would have understood. Indeed, Medfielders of 1861 had a lot on their plates with the startup of the Civil War, but this essay is really about the impact of Charles Darwin.
Darwin’s famous Origin of the Species (full title: On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) was published in 1859 and would permanently impact modern thinking. If human beings were the result of a continuous evolutionary process, and not a separate, Divine creation, then religious believers had to rally in defense of Creationism—and the idea that the Bible can be interpreted literally. Our anonymous essay writer,“Peak House,” was attempting to do just that, but perhaps with a satirical tone that I will let readers infer as they will.
The three-part thesis is presented in the essay:
“The question of the location of the Garden of Eden has never been settled, and although it has been generally placed near the mouth of the Euphrates, it is allowed nothing in that region indicates fertility, and there is more conjecture than certainty in this location of the first abode of our race. It will be conceded, I think that three things are essential to the proper location of the Garden, first that it had something to do with Adam, second that it had something to do with the Serpent, and thirdly, that it had something to do Death”(MHS file, Medfield Lyceum). What has Rocky Woods to do with Adam? The author asserts that “this famous Woods, a portion of it at least, is still in the possession of a descendant of Adam, and although this fact is not sufficient of itself to establish the identity of the Garden, still in connection with the second fact it acquires strength and amounts almost to conviction” (MHS). In William Tilden’s History of Medfield we can find ample references to the Adams’ properties for two centuries in Medfield.
Having established the somewhat labored connection between Rocky Woods and Adam, the essay writer now hastened to prove that the area is linked with the Serpent. In the MHS archives, I recently searched for nineteenth-century references to Rocky Woods, and repeatedly came upon tales of snakes, some reportedly seven or eight feet long. In fact, I found nearly nothing else reported, only snakes. Our essayist tells us that “the Serpent was an important character in the ancient Garden, and who does not know know that Rocky Wood (sic) is full of serpents that all the heels of all the men of Medfield ay and of Dover too, can not crush their heads and destroy the accursed race. That primoriginal serpent must have been distinguished among reptiles, who does not know that the rattlesnake is the prince of serpents and arbitrary monarch of the woods, being the only one in this region that has still, as Milton says, the mortal sting ‘(t)hat brought death into the world/and all our woe,/with loss of Eden.’” Thus, Rocky Woods is home to the Serpent.
The essay triumphantly concludes with proof of Death’s association with Rocky Woods. Remember, this was a time of widespread scholarship, being the age of the Lyceum. The essayist writes, “(it) is well known to all who have received a collegiate or liberal education, that Mors is the Latin for Death, and it is a remarkable fact that one of the family of Mors still owns a portion of the Woods, and lives on its border. Rocky Woods, therefore, being in the Adams family, filled with serpents of a distinguished breed, and subject in part to Mors or Death, is unquestionably the site of the Garden of Eden, and he who doubts this would doubt anything.” Even today, the casual follower of Medfield History probably knows that Morse, as well as Adams, are significant names in our town’s history. Thus, the three-part proof is completed, and “Peak House” signs off with this farewell to the Editresses of the Lyceum Gazette: “and now, gentle ladies, I respectfully commit this discovery to your care, hoping that your sagacious minds will be able to follow up my discovery, and fully establish the claim of Medfield to the melancholy distinction of containing that garden from which our great Progenitor was driven so long ago. Peak House”
Progenitor? What above Eve? Ah, “Peak House,” learned gentleman of 1861, writing to the Editresses of the Lyceum Gazette, why do you not mention our great Progenitress as well? The full transcription of this essay is below, for the Medfield Community to read for the first time in 214 years. One thing is certain: we should be glad this theory cannot be proven. Medfield is our own Garden of Eden, of course, but just imagine how this theory of Creation, if proven, would affect our property taxes!
Transcript of letter from “Peak House” to Medfield Lyceum Gazette
Rocky Woods, the Garden of Eden
written for no.2 of the Lyceum Gazette
Lady Editresses,
Understanding that one department of your learned paper is to be devoted to antiquarian researches, I am induced to send you for publication “a short speculation, which, though involving a great theological question, is of peculiar interest to our village, and must be deeply exciting on account of its novelty, if not on account of its depth. (sic: no closing quotation mark)
The question of the location of the Garden of Eden has never been settled, and although it has been generally placed near the mouth of the Euphrates, it is allowed nothing in that region indicates fertility, and there is more conjecture than certainty in this location of the first abode of our race. It will be conceded, I think that three things are essential to the proper location of the Garden, first that it had something to do with Adam, second that it had something to do with the Serpent, and thirdly, that it had something to do Death. Now, most learned Editresses, I hope to satisfy you that while the tract between the Tigris + Euphrates does not answer to one of these conditions, the Rocky Woods, the glory of Medfield, fully answers to them all. I find, most learned ladies, that this famous Woods, a portion of it at least, is still in the possession of a descendent of Adam, and although this fact is not sufficient of itself to establish the identity of the Garden, still in connection with the second fact it acquires strength and amounts almost to conviction.
It will be recollected, most learned ladies, that the Serpent was an important character in the ancient Garden, and who does not know know that Rocky Wood (sic) is full of serpents that all the heels of all the men of Medfield ay and of Dover too, can not crush their heads and destroy the accursed race. That primoriginal serpent must have been distinguished among reptiles, who does not know that the rattlesnake is the prince of serpents and arbitrary monarch of the woods, being the only one in this region that has still, as Milton says, the mortal sting “That brought death into the world/and all our woe,/with loss of Eden.”
Now all that is wanted to complete my argument, most learned ladies, is to prove that Death has still and interest in the Woods, and this we can do beyond any reasonable doubt. It is well known to all who have received a collegiate or liberal education, that Mors is the Latin for Death, and it is a remarkable fact that one of the family of Mors still owns a portion of the Woods, and lives on its border. Rocky Woods, therefore, being in the Adams family, filled with serpents of a distinguished breed, and subject in part to Mors or Death, is unquestionably the site of the Garden of Eden, and he who doubts this would doubt anything.
And now, gentle ladies, I respectfully commit this discovery to your care, hoping that your sagacious minds will be able to follow up my discovery, and fully establish the claim of Medfield to the melancholy distinction of containing that garden from which our great Progenitor was driven so long ago.
Peak House