CLASS OF 1856

William Edward Barnard died July 11, 1910, on the steamship Mongolia, between China and Japan, on the return trip from the Orient to California. He took a severe cold at Manila, which developed into pneumonia. The deceased, son of William Kendall and Nancy (Denny) Barnard, was born in Boston, Mass., June 16, 1833, and prepared for college at Thetford (Vt.) Academy under Hiram Orcutt '42. After graduation he was for two years principal of the Caledonia County Grammar School at Peacham, Vt. He then went to Oregon, where he was principal of an academy at Dallas for a year, and was then for a year professor of mathematics in Willamette University at Salem. After a year's interim, spent partly in business in Walla Walla, Wash., he resumed his former position at Salem for a year. He was then for two years president of the University of Washington Territory at Seattle. Impaired health caused a change of work, and he was for four year deputy collector of customs for the Puget Sound district, and in 1869 went to Southern California and was for several years in business at Ventura, Hueneme, and Santa Barbara. In December, 1877, he removed to Oakland, Cal., and engaged in real estate and insurance business, from which he retired 'some five years before his death. He was a member of the city council in 1887. He was prominently connected with the Congregational church in Oakland, as he had been in his former places of residence. He was a man of the highest type of character, scholarly, public-spirited, generous to a fault, whose life was one of high ideals and unselfish service. He was married October 2, 1860, to Matilda Paine, daughter of Ebenezer and Ruth Clark of Canaan, N. H. She died October 26, 1897. They had six children, of whom two daughters and a son survive their parents.

Dr. Almond Orlando Leavitt died October 10, 1910, in the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, Concord, where he had been a patient since 1865. He was born in Grantham, N. H„ January 25, 1828. After graduation he studied medicine, and became an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy.

Benjamin Silliman Church was born at Belvidere, Allegany county, New York, April 17, 1836. He was a son of John Barker and Mary Trumbull (Silliman) Church, and was of distinguished ancestry on both sides. When ten years old he went to live with his grandfather, Professor Benjamin Silliman of Yale College, and attended various schools before entering the Chandler Scientific Department at Dartmouth in 1853. Soon after graduation he became assistant engineer of the Central Park surveys of New York, and in 1860 was placed in charge of the Croton river water supply of the city of New York, which position he filled with honor and ability for a period of years, when the rapid growth of the city was constantly straining the maximum carrying power of the aqueduct, and encroaching upon the margin of safety needed in reserve for emergencies. "Soon after this appointment, the Civil War broke out, and Mr. Church was granted leave of absence to enlist. He went out as captain of engineers with the Twelfth New York regiment, which was among those first to arrive in Washington after the first call for troops. He commanded the skirmish line of the first advance of the Army of the Potomac, made the first military maps in the enemy's country, and was the first prisoner of war captured while on this duty, escaping, however, almost immediately. He was disabled through an attempted poisoning by an unfriendly host, and for a time returned home. Returning, he was attached to the staff of General Yates, and served at Gettysburg, but health soon compelled his. resignation. Henceforth his life was given to his professional work, and he resumed charge of the New York water system. The city had rapidly outgrown the old Croton aqueduct, and an additional supply was imperative. A bill authorizing the projected increase had passed the state legislature, but it was reported that Governor Cleveland would veto the bill. The most dramatic incident in Colonel Church's career was his journey from New York to Albany and his visit to the governor late at night with so clear and convincing a statement of the situation that the governor signed the bill the next day, setting forth in full the memoranda of Colonel Church as his reasons for approving it. Far back, in 1868-9, Colonel Church had perfected plans for conserving the entire waters of the Croton river, thereby trebling the supply of New York, the scheme comprising feats of engineering never before attempted and regarded as impossible by many European authorities. In 1883 he was appointed chief engineer of the water supply, and carried through his plans to a triumphant success. In 1888 he resigned the position of chief engineer, and was made consulting engineer of the work. He was consulting engineer' for various systems of water supply ranging from Nova Scotia and Montreal to San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was for many years a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London, a member of the Academy of Science, and of the Century Club of New York. For many years he had been colonel of engineers on the staff of the First Brigade, New York National Guard. After a prolonged illness not considered serious, his death came suddenly, December 9, 1910, at his residence, 34 Gramercy Park, New York. He married in September, 1875, at Trinity Chapel, New York, Miss Mary Van Wyck, whose father belonged to the old Knickerbocker family of that name. They have one child, a daughter, Angelica Schuyler Church, who has already .won reputation as a sculptor of unusual abilitys Her equestrian statuettes and busts of well-known people have met with wide-spread notice among art critics, and she is regarded as destined to take a high place in the art world.

Secretary, Isaac Bridgman, 64 High St., Northampton, Mass.