CLASS OF 1846
George Thorndike Angell, founder of the American Humane Society, president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, life-long philanthropist and benefactor of animals, died at his apartments in the Hotel Westminster, Boston, on the morning of March 16. He had been ill for some time, but only for a fortnight had the illness been serious. Mr. Angell was born in Southbridge, Mass., June 5, 1823, being the son of Rev. George and Rebecca (Thorndike) Angell. His father, a Baptist minister, died in 1829, leaving his mother, a woman of strong character, to maintain and educate her son by teaching in private schools in Lynn, Salem, and other cities. Young Angell came to Boston at the age of fifteen, and for two or three years worked in a dry goods store on Hanover street. The earlier part of his college course was taken at Brown University, whence he came to Dartmouth. For three years after graduation he served as usher in the Mather Grammar School in Boston, meanwhile reading law in the office of Hon. Richard Fletcher'06. For the next two years he continued his law studies with Charles G. Loring, and at Harvard Law School. Being admitted to the bar in 1851, he formed a partnership with Samuel E. Sewell of Boston, and was soon engaged in a large and lucrative practice. In 1866 Henry Bergh organized the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Mr. Angell became interested. Two years later, a horse race from Brighton to Worcester which resulted in the death of both horses aroused him to found the Massachusetts society of the same name, of which he has since been president. As soon as the work of the society was fairly on its way, Mr. Angell began the publication of Our Dumb Animals, and by vote of the organization printed 200,000 copies of its first number. Soon after he went to Europe, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Animal World, and in the formation of the Ladies' Humane Educational Committee of England. While abroad he attended and took an active part in the international congress of societies at Zurich, Switzerland. On his return to the United States he wrote a number of pamphlets, including: "Five Questions Answered," "Transportation of Animals," and "The Check Rein." His tracts have had a wide circulation, and some of them have been translated into many foreign languages. In 1882 he organized the Parent American Band of Mercy, which now has over 71,000 branches, and in 1889 the American Humane Education Society, the first of its kind in the world. To this society he gave several thousand dollars, and was elected its first president. As director of the American Social Science Association, he gave much time to investigations into the growth of crime in the United States, and into means for preventing it. Mr. Angell was an indefatigable worker, and a man of simple habits, who looked much younger than his years. Besides his tremendous general activities, he was forever attending to small details. Every day for years hundreds of pigeons were fed at the windows of his office in Milk street, and when war was made on the English sparrows, Mr. Angell became their champion. In March, 1872, he was married to Miss Eliza A. Martin of Nahant, Mass., who survives him, without children.
Secretary, Dr. J. W. Barstow, Gramercy Park, New York City
