THE OLDEST ALUMNUS

(From the William's Alumni Review)

The Philadelphia Public Ledger of June 14 has compiled a list of the oldest living alumni of sixty different institutions. The second on the list, Rev. A. P. Botsford, D.D., L.H.D., of Union College, is the father of the editor of the Alumni Review.

Who is the oldest living alumnus of an American college or university? The distinction seems beyond doubt to belong to John Aikman Stewart, of New York, who is still more or less active in business at the age of 103. He is chairman of the Board of the United States Trust Company and often is to be found in its offices at 45 Wall street. He was born August 22, 1822, in New York, was a member of the graduating class of Columbia in 1840, and his present connections include a trusteeship of Princeton University, director of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Globe Indemnity Company of Liverpool, and the Globe and Star Insurance Companies in America.

The Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Botsford, of Woodbury, N. J., undoubtedly is the second oldest alumnus, his age being 98 and his class at Union College, 1847. Five other alumni are within three years of the century mark, Mr. Stewart being the only alumnus who has passed that age.

Dr. Botsford has some other claims to distinction besides being the second oldest living college graduate. He is the oldest living graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was licensed as a preacher of the Gospel in 1851, being graduated the next year. He is believed to be the oldest Presbyterian minister in this country and he is the oldest living member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Upsilon fraternities. His chief pride is that he saw his two sons, his two daughters, two grand- daughters and one grandson all graduate from college. Dr. Botsford, although past 98, does not wear glasses except to read and his hearing is as keen as a child's.

A study of the longevity of the American college graduate, which consisted of a poll of all American and Canadian colleges established prior to 1865 conducted by Robert J. Pilgram, secretary of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, has revealed that sixty-two alumni are ninety years old or better. A similar number are between eighty and ninety years of age.

The oldest living alumnus of a Pennsylvania college is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall in 1854. He is Emmanuel James Bonbrake, of Chambersburg, aged 93. Pennsylvania's second oldest alumnus is Dr. William Moore Guilford, 92-years-old resident of Lebanon, who was graduated from the Medical School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1852.

"It may be interesting to note," Mr. Pilgram said yesterday in an interview, "that after graduation from college E. J. Bonbrake suffered a physical breakdown which forced him to retire temporarily from public life. He attributes his advanced age to the care of his health which his breakdown necessitated. Until very recently, however, Mr. Bonbrake continued his law practice in Chambersburg and Franklin County."

Mr. Pilgram added that the greater proportion of the sixty-one oldest alumni are clergymen, and he explained their longevity as due to their more secluded, less strenuous, and better regulated lives.

Here are the names of America's oldest living graduates, according to his list:

John Aikman Stewart, 103, Columbia University, 1840.

The Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Botsford, 98, Union College, 1847.

George Casimir Dessaules, 97, Georgetown University, 1848.

Mrs. Laura Higgins Beadle, 97, Mount Holyoke College, 1848.

John „ Donnell Smith, 97, Yale University, 1847.

Mrs. Marie D. Moorhead, New York State Teachers' College, 1846.

Louisa E. Vance, 96, Illinois Woman's College, 1855.

Lewis Bissel Dougherty, 98, University of Missouri, 1847.

Mrs. Tabitha Curry Lee, 96, Judson College, 1847.

The Rev. John D. Pope, 96, Hamilton College, 1856.

Mrs. Lucy Putnam Thompson, 96, Wheaton College, 1851:

Charles S. Hardee, 95, University of Georgia, 1848.

The Rev. George D. Ferguson, 95, Queen's University, Ontario, 1851.

The Rev. William C. Pond, 95, Bowdoin College, 1848.

Dr. William M. Richardson, 94, University of North Carolina, 1851.

Charles E. Harwood, 94, Williams College, 1852.

Mrs. Rosanna Baldwin Walker, 94, Oberlin College, 1855.

Frank Moody Mills, 94, Wabash College, 1847.

The Rev. Dr. E. W. Rice, 94, Union College, 1854.

Stephen J. Northrop, 93, University of Michigan, 1861.

George W. Chamberlin, 93, University of Vermont, 1854.

Emmanuel J. Bonbrake,* 93, Franklin and Marshall, 1854.

Samuel H. Jackson, 93, Dartmouth College, 1860.

General Henry L. Abbott, 93, United States Military Academy, 1854.

Allan H. Smith, 93, Eureka College, 1861.

Henry N. Penfield, 93, Oberlin Colege, 1861.

Mrs. Sarah Waggoner, 92, Oxford College for Women, 1857.

Henry V. Perrin, 92, Hillsdale College, 1860.

John M. Woodson, 92, Centre College, 1853.

James N. Gamble, 92, Kenyon College, 1854.

Dr. William M. Guilford, 92, University of Pennsylvania, 1852.

Dr. Ephraim Miller, 92, Allegheny College, 1855.

Dr. Jonathan S. Prout, 92, George Washington University, 1853.

The Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher Tefft, 92, Brown University, 1858.

Ezra F. Mundy, 92, Rutgers College, 1852.

Samuel W. Williams, 92, Ohio Wesleyan University, 1848.

Dr. William F. Warren, 92, Wesleyan University, 1853.

Dr. Merritt H. Eddy, 92, Middlebury College, 1860.

John B. Parkinson, 91, University of Wisconsin, 1860.

Dr. William J. McSurley, 91, Miami University, 1856.

John H. Hewson, 91, Hamilton College, 1853.

William W. Folwell, 91, Hobart College, 1857.

W. J. McDaniel, 91, Emory University, 1856.

Robert Hayne Pearce, 91, Furman University,- 1855.

J. C. Pitchford, 91, Wake Forest College, 1855.

Lady William V. Van Horne, 91, Knox College, 1856.

The Rev. Henry Colman, 91, Lawrence College, 1587.

Mrs. Henry Colman, 90, Lawrence College, 1857.

Isaac Seligman, 90, College of the City of New York, 1853.

Angus K. Campbell, 90, Marietta College, 1856.

W. B. Smith, 90, Bethany College, 1853.

The Rev. Dr. Louis A. Bikle, 90, Gettysburg College, 1857.

Cosmelia Hirst, 90, Antioch College, 1892.

Colonel A. T. McKinney, 90, Austin College, 1853.

The Rev. Oliver S. Dean, 90, Lafayette College, 1858.

Mrs. Frank B. Sherman, 90, Hillsdale College, 1862.

Andrew Jackson Weaver, 90, Tufts College, 1859.

Mrs. Sallie R. Hall, 90, Western College, 1857.

Mrs. Kate W. Hanby, 90, Otterbein College, 1857.