Deaths

Deaths

Rev. Samuel Hopkins Willey died January 21, at the home of a daughter in Berkeley, Cal. He was a son of Darius and Mary (Pulsifer) Willey, and was born in Campton, N. H., March 11, 1821, thus having at his death nearly completed his ninety-third year. His preparation for College was obtained at Kimball Union Academy. After graduation he studied at Union Theological Seminary, and finished his course there in 1848. He was appointed a home missionary to the new region of California, and was ordained for this service in New York City Nov. 30, 1848. He reached California in February, 1849, and began his work at once at Monterey, holding the first Protestant service in that city. In the same year he was appointed chaplain of the Constitutional Convention called to draw up a constitution for the new state. In the same year he went from Monterey to San Francisco, and organized there the Howard Presbyterian church, of which he continued to be pastor till 1862. At once he saw the need of the children of that city for education, and by gathering them and marching them in procession through-the business section of the city, he convinced doubters of the need for schools. Thus he was the founder of San Francisco's public school system. In 1855 he went East to seek money for establishing a college, and in 1860 the College of California, of which he is universally regarded as the founder, began its existence. This was later turned over to the state, and became the University of California. From 1862 to. 1870 Mr. Willey was vice-president of the college. He was then for ten years pastor of the Congregational church at Santa Cruz, and then to 1889 at Benicia. From 1889 to 1896 he was president of Van Ness Seminary in San Francisco, and thereafter lived in retirement at Berkeley.

In 1875 Dartmouth conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1910, at the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the College of California, the University made him a Doctor of Laws.

Dr. Willey put on record much of the history which he had so prominent a part in making, and published "Ten Years' Ministry in California," 1859; "History of Howard" Presbyterian Church," 1869; "History of Santa Cruz," 1876; "Thirty Years in California," 1879.

Sept. 19, 1849, Dr. Willey was married in Monterey to Martha N. Jeffers of Philadelphia. She died a few years since. They had three sons and three daughters, of whom William J. Willey, Mrs. Anna B. Pray, and Mrs. Edward Grey survive. Another son, Henry Ide Willey, died some three months before his father.

CLASS OF 1857

Daniel G. Wild died February 13 at his home, 91 St. James Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Wild was the son of Elisha and Lucinda (Rix) Wild, was born in Royalton, Vt., May 2, 1833, and obtained his preparation for college at Royalton Academy. During his college course he was principal of the academy at Washington, N. H., and after graduation taught one term in the academy at Canaan, N. H. In December, 1857, he went to New York and continued the study of law, which he had already begun. In 1858 he was admitted to the bar, and practiced with marked success till Jan. 1, 1899, when he retired. In his practice, he was distinguished by the exercise of a peculiarly sound judgment and by great business sagacity.

Dec. 24, 1862, Mr. Wild was married in Washington, D. C., to Mary Stevens, daughter of Rev. John Havel and Sophia C. Griswold, who survives him, with their only son, Frank G. Wild, a graduate of Amherst in 1886, who was his father's partner and later successor in practice.

Mr. Wild's death leaves ten survivors of the class of 1857.

CLASS OF 1865

Erastus Barton Powers died February 18 at his home in Maiden, Mass., of Bright's disease, after an illness of some length. Mr. Powers was a son of Larned and Ruby (Barton) Powers, and was born in Cornish, N. H., January 31, 1841. Samuel L. Powers '74 is a younger brother. He prepared for college at Kimball Union Academy, and in College became a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa, graduating as valedictorian of his class.

For two years after graduation he studied at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1867. He opened practice in Chicago, and continued there until he was burned out in the great fire of 1871. Then returning East, he became principal of the high school at Wareham, Mass., where he remained till 1877, going then to Nashua, N. H. in a similar position, and remaining there till 1883. He then resumed the practice of law, becoming his brother's partner in Boston. In 1886 this partnership was dissolved, and thereafter he practiced alone.

Mr. Powers had lived in Maiden for thirty years, and had served nine years on the school board, during which he was for five years its chairman. In politics he was a Democrat. His wife, who died three years ago, was Emma F. Desse of Wareham. Their only child, who survives them, is Mrs. Clarence W. Clark of Maiden.

In school and at college Mr. Powers was pre-eminent as a student, his rank being the highest that has been awarded since the graduation of Chief Justice Field in 1855. He devoted the greater part of his life to the study of literature and philosophy and his record will stand as that of a splendid student and a man of great intellectual power.

CLASS OF 1866

Dr. Horace Eugene Marion died suddenly of heart disease in Boston on the evening of February 8, while riding in his automobile with his wife to the home of a brother- in-law.

Dr. Marion was the son of Abner and Sarah (Prescott) Marion, and was born in Burlington, Mass., Aug. 3, 1843. The late Dr. Otis H. Marion '73, was a younger brother. He fitted for college at Atkinson (N. H.) Academy, and in 1862 he entered Amherst College, soon leaving to enlist in Company G, Fifth Massachusetts Infantry. This was a nine months' regiment, and saw service in North Carolina, being mustered out July 2, 1863. Later, in 1864, he enlisted in the same regiment under a call for volunteers for three months, was second sergeant of the company, and was stationed at Fort McHenry, near Baltimore.

After the completion of his first term of military service, Mr. Marion entered Dartmouth, taking the course of the Chandler Scientific Department, and being a member of the Phi Zeta Mu fraternity, now Sigma Chi. After graduation he began at once the study of medicine, and took his medical degree at Dartmouth in 1869.

In January, 1870, he began practice in Brighton, Mass., and with the exception of time spent abroad in travel and study, he had since remained in practice there without a break, having made several calls upon patients on the day .of his death.

Dr. Marion had been president of the Middlesex South District Medical Society, and was a member of the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Association of Boards of Health, the Boston Society of the Medical Sciences, the Boston Obstetrical Society, and the Boston Medical Library Association. He was a charter member of Francis Washburn Post, No. 92, G. A. R., and was for manyyears its surgeon, and for two years its commander. From 1875 he was assistant Surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia,. from 1877 surgeon of the Fourth Battalion of Infantry, M. V. M., with the rank of major, and for some years from 1879 medical director of the hirst Brigade, M. V. M., with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In Masonry, Dr. Marion was a past master of Bethesda Lodge of Brighton, and a past district deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge. He belonged to the University and St. Botolph Clubs of Boston, the Beverly Yacht Club, and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

Jan. 4, 1880, he was married to Catherine Louise Sparhawk of Brighton, who survives him, with a daughter, Eva Prescott Marion, and a son, Gardner Sparhawk Marion.

A communication in the Boston Transcript contains a tribute to Dr. Marion from which we quote : "One of . a vanishing type—the general practitioner, the real family doctor —he gained a place in the respect and affection of many homes which can never be filled by another, now that he is gone. Not only as the beloved physician, but as the genial, warm-hearted friend, will he be sadly missed. Always ready with his counsel and service; ever standing for the truth and the right at all costs; he has been these fortyodd years an ideal servant of human welfare and lover of his kind. Yet in spite of all this breadth of service and prominence in the community, he was modest, reticent, and unassuming almost to a fault."

CLASS OF 1871

William Byron Orcutt died February 18 at his home in Winthrop, Mass., of a complication of diseases.

He was born in Georgia, Vt., February 26, 1845, and fitted at the New Hampton Institution at Fairfax, Vt., entering Dartmouth at the beginning of sophomore year. He was a member of Kappa Kappa Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa,

After studying law with Senator Baibridge VVadleigh at Milford, N. H., and Col Thomas C. Livermore of Boston, he began practice in January, 1874, at Clinton, Mass., removing his office to Boston in 1880. He had since practiced in that city, making a specialty of equity cases, in which he often served as master.

For four years his home was in Boston; then in Quincy, Mass., for fourteen year, where he was assessor and for a time chairman of the Democratic city committee: and finally in Winthrop, where he was active in town affairs, serving as chairman of the cemetery commission and on other town committees.

December 22, 1874, Mr. Orcutt was married to Katie E. Wheeler of Milford, N. H., who survives him, with six of their sever, children. Among these are Harold William '00 and Leslie Warren '05; Julian DeWitt, deceased, was for a time a member of '01

CLASS OF 1909

Edward Plumer Norris of Portsmouth, N. N., died at the summer home of his parents in Epping, N. H., January 24, after a illness of pulmonary tuberculosis.

HONORARY

Samuel Billings Capen, who received the honorary degree of A.M. in 1893, died of pneumonia January 29, in Shanghai, China, having gone abroad in September for a journey in the Far East as president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and American representative of the World Peace Foundation.

Mr. Capen was born in Boston, Dec. 12, 1842, and after graduation from the Quincy Grammar and English High schools of that city entered upon a business career, in which he was notably successful, becoming finally secretary, treasurer, and director of the Torrey, Bright and Capen Company. He was also .for many years director of the Howard National Bank. From 1889 to 1893 he served on the Boston school board.

He was an active member of the Central. Congregational church of Jamaica Plain, and prominently identified with the missionary activities of his denomination, beside? being closely interested in many other philanthropic and reform movements. He was Resident of the board of trustees of Wellesley College, to which office he was elected in 1905. In 1899 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by both Oberlin and Middlebury Colleges.

Dec. 8, 1869, Mr. Capen was married to Helen Maria, daughter of Dr. John W. Warren of Boston, who survives him, with a son and a daughter.