COL. F. L. TOWN '56 LEAVES COLLEGE $250,000 BEQUEST

The will of Colonel Francis Laban Town '56, which was filed for probate in the courts of San Antonio, Texas, on Monday, January 8, contains a bequest to Dartmouth College of $250,000, or one-half the total value of the estate.

Colonel Town died recently at his home on Grayson street in San Antonio, Texas, where he had spent the years since his retirement in 1896. Before his death he was among the four oldest living-graduates of Dartmouth College, the oldest being Leander Nute '54, of Portland, Me. Colonel Town was a member of the class of 1856 while at Dartmouth, and received the degree of M.D. in 1860 from the Dartmouth Medical School. He retired from active service in the army in 1896, and returning to Dartmouth in 1898 was awarded the degree of B.S.

Colonel Town was born Jan. 11, 1836, in Jefferson, N. H. He was appointed an assistant surgeon in the United States Army in the time of the opening of the Civil War, and in 1865 was given the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel. In 1868 he was promoted to the rank of Major and in 1889 to that of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1894 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon General and given the rank of Colonel. He retired as such two years later.

Other beneficiaries of the will are the town of Lancaster, N. H., and several charitable institutions.

Bequests totalling approximately $355,000 have been left to Dartmouth recently. The largest single bequest is that of Colonel Town. A bequest of $50,000 is the gift of Gen. Frank S. Streeter, for thirty years a member of the Board of Trustees, who died at Concord, N. H., Dec; 11. Another clause of the will of General Streeter left the sum of $10,000 to President E. M. Hopkins. In addition to these bequests the College will receive slightly over half of an estate estimated at $75,000 by settlement out of court of a dispute concerning an unsigned will of O. C. Clement, of Corinth, Vt., which left the entire estate to the College. The will of Samuel R. Bond '55, of Washington, D. C., contained a bequest of $15,000 to the College.