THE CLASS OF 1876 FIFTY YEARS AFTER

At fifty years after graduation the survivors of any college class are sure to be in a minority. The class of 1876 at Dartmouth, with thirty-two living in a total membership of seventy-nine, is more fortunate than most. But the survivors are septuagenarians. The youngest living member passed his seventieth birthday last December.

At graduation the class numbered 69 in the Academic Department and 10 in the Scientific, the two departments being then quite independent of each other. Of the 69 who received the degree of bachelor of arts the following are living: Justin E. Abbott Summit, N. J. Herbert M. Andrews, South Bellingham, Wash. Rush P. Barrett New York City Herbert J. Barton Champaign, 111. William H. Brooks Holyoke, Mass. Carter E. Cate Cranston, R. I. Lot Curran Clark San Francisco Thomas Flint Brooklyn, N. Y. Francis G. Gale Waterville, Que. Samuel C. Gamble Circleville, O. George Goodhue Dayton, O. Frank H. Hardison Wellesley Hills, Mass. Louis V. Haskell Lincoln, Neb. Arthur Hay New York City Charles B. Hibbard Laconia, N. H. Edward T. Hodsdon Norfolk, Neb. Judah M. Holt Marshalltown, la. Theodore C. Hunt Riverside, Cal. Frank M. McCutcheon Charlestown, Mass. Samuel Merrill Cambridge, Mass. Henry G. Peabody Pasadena, Cal. Henry H. Piper West Medford, Mass. Benson H. Roberts Catonsville, Md. Edward P. Sanborn St. Paul, Minn. Edward C. Stimson Denver, Colo. George H. Tripp Fairhaven, Mass. Benjamin J. Wertheimer Chicago Charles H. Woods La Habra, Cal.

The three living members who received the bachelor of science degree are : Frank P. Hill Brooklyn, N. Y. Albro D. Morrill Clinton, N. Y. John A. Worthen Oakland, Cal. Francis P. Thayer Piermont, N. H.

Grouped by professions, the lawyers of the class have been the most numerous. Hibbard, salutatorian at Commencement a half-century ago, practices law in Laconia. He has been county solicitor and state law reporter, and was for years a partner of his father, Judge Ellery A. Hibbard. Stimson, prominent in athletics when in college, has for four decades been prominent at the bar of Colorado. He was for four years a District Court judge, and successively president of the Colorado Bar Association and the Denver Bar Association. In 1902 he was Democratic candidate for Governor of Colorado. Sanborn has for forty-five years practiced law in St. Paul, and was a partner of his uncle, Gen. John B. Sanborn (Dartmouth 1855), until his uncle's death. He was a member of the commission which drafted the pre,sent charter of the city. He is a brother of Judge Walter H. Sanborn (Dartmouth 1867) of the United States Circuit Court. Brooks has been a lawyer in Holyoke since 1879. He has a branch office in Springfield, and has made a specialty of corporation cases. Gamble, in Circleville, 0., has been active as a lawyer for more than forty years, but has found time to manage a large, farm as a side issue. Holt is a lawyer in lowa, but in impaired health. Hodsdon was a lawyer in Schuyler, Neb., from 1880 to 1908, and was County Judge for several years, but suffered a mental breakdown, and long ago retired from practice. Wertheimer as a lawyer and insurance adjuster lives in Chicago.

Among the deceased members of the class who were members of the bar are John Kivel (1855-1924) of D'over, chief justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire the last seven years of his life; Herbert D. Ryder (1850-1923) of Bellows Falls, Vt.; Martin E. McClary (1854-1915) of Malone, N. Y.; William Twombly (1850-1915) of Washington; John Foster (1852—1914) of Manchester; William M. Barnard (1856-1886) of Franklin, N. H.

The clergymen of the class have attained considerable distinction. Rev. Dr. Abbott spent twelve years of his boyhood in India, whe,re his father was a missionary. He returned there in 1881, being sent by the American Board, and until 1910 worked in that field. He has devoted much time to the work of revising the Marathi version of the Bible, and is now engaged in a study of the poet-saints of Western India. He has traveled widely seeking to improve the condition of the lepers of the world. Rev. Herbert M. Andrews we;nt to India in 1890 as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church, and remained in that service until 1913. In 1898 he became principal of a missionary school in the Himalaya mountains, and gradually broadened its scope, at his retirement the institution comprising a normal college and a successful college of arts. Rev. Dr. William S. Sayres (1851—1916) devoted many years to missionary service, in China and in sparsely-settled sections of Minnesota and Nebraska. From 1899 until his death he was general missionary and archdeacon of the Episcopal Church for the diocese of Michigan, with more than eighty mission churches under his care.

Rev. Dr. Cate was pastor of the College Church in Lewiston, Me., in the 'Bo's, and later holder of pastorates in Portland and Providence. Rev. Theodore C. Hunt came to college from the West, and spent the many years of his ministry in Arizona, California, Illinois and other Western States. Re,v. Francis P. Thayer was employed as a teacher and otherwise for many years, and at fifty-six years of age studied for the ministry. He has since held Methodist pastorates in several New Hampshire towns.

A clergyman of the class, now deceased, who deserves special mention is Rev. Joseph S. Small (1826-1880). At fortythree years of age, after a dozen years in the Baptist ministry, he set out to prepare for college. At forty-five years of age he entered Dartmouth, and graduated in 1876 at the age, of forty-nine. The few remaining years of his life were devoted to the ministry in Vermont, and he died in his pulpit at the age of fiftyfour. Always in earnest,, friendly and cordial in his relations with "the boys," as he termed his classmates, he commanded the highest respect of all.

Rev. Dr. William A. Barr (1856-1923) was dean of Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans. Rev. Dr. Clarence S. Sargent (1855-1921), son and grandson of Dartmouth men, was first in the Congregational and later in the Episcopal ministry. Rev. Sam M. Fairfield (1853-1908) was a lawyer in Boston, then a settlement worker in New York, and latterly a Methodist minister in California.

Of the physicians only Dr. Goodhue is living. He has practiced in Dayton, 0., since 1881, and his skill as a surgeon is especially recognized.

The physicians of the, class now deceased include Dr. Henry M. French (1853—1893), well known also as a bass singer;. Dr. John W. Staples (18551913) of Franklin, N. H., the class poet, once president of the New Hampshire Medical Society; Dr. Waldron B. Vanderpoel (1854—1915) of New York City, and Dr. Frank W. Mitchell (1852-1919), stroke oar of the college crew in 1875 and 1876.

A dozen members of the class found their chief field for activity in the teaching profession. Barton has been professor of Latin in the University of Illinois since 1891; Flint, for many years teacher of the classics in the Boys' High School in Brooklyn, now retired, is widely known as a Carlylian scholar; Morrill for more than thirty-five years has been professor of biology in Hamilton College,; Dr. Piper, the secretary of the class, is a member of the faculty of the Tufts College Dental School, and a former president of the Massachusetts Dental Society and of the American Academy of Dental Science; Rev. Dr. Roberts is at the head of the Roberts-Beach School in Catonsville, Md.; McCutcheon was for years a teacher in Boston, and Woods, now retired, was engaged in public school work in California for forty-two years.

William T. Dutton (1852-1914) was senior professor of mathematics and civil engineering in Allegheny College; Frank B. Sherburne (1852-1911), valedictorian of the class, taught classics in the Lowell, Mass.,. High School; Harry F. Towle (1852-1912) was a high school principal in the borough of Richmond, New York City; Rufus P. Williams (1851-1911) taught chemistry in the Boston English High School, and was the author of several successful textbooks.

Two of the class have done important work as librarians. Hill has been for twenty-five years at the; head of the public library system of Brooklyn, N. Y., and in 1905 was chosen president of the American Library Association ; Tripp, president of the class, has been in charge of the New Bedford Free Public Library since 1901.

in the public service Hardison has won wide recognition as State Insurance; Commissioner of Massachusetts. In 1912 he was chosen president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and he is now chairman of the State Commission on Pensions.

Dr. George H. Bridgman (1853-1925) after eighteen years of me,dical practice was appointed United States Minister to Bolivia by President McKinley. Five years later at his own request he was transferred to the consular service, and for four years was United States Consul at Kingston, Jamaica. Charles W. Whitcomb (1855—1922), writer of the class ode at graduation, was a lawyer, and for eight years State Fire Marshal of Massachusetts.

Two members of the class won fame as inventors. James F. McElroy (1852 1915), while employed as superintendent of the Michigan School for the Blind, took up the study of heating railway trains by means of steam from the locomotives, in order to reduce the danger of fire in case of wreck. A large share of the trains now operated on American railroads are heated by apparatus manufactured under his patents. William R. Patterson (1854—1916) of Chicago was granted many patents on underground and aerial telegraph and telephone cables, and processes of their manufacture, in the twentyfive years following 1880, and the "Patterson cable" is extensively used in all parts of this country and in foreign lands.

Lot Curran Clark, long a resident of the Pacific coast, is in the real estate business; Peabody has published several books of views—largely marine subjects—and is now engaged in the publication of lantern slides, especially of the National Parks; Worthen, also a resident of the Coast, has been hydraulic engineer; Barrett, educated for the bar has been an invalid for many years; Gale, a manufacturer of wire mattresses in Canada, is now retired; Haskell was in the banking business for many years; Hay, a mathematician with a taste for art, is employing the leisure of retirement in the study of painting; Merrill, a newspaper man, is author of a little book of sketches of members of the class.

Edwin A. Jones (1853-1911), leader of the college orchestra and glee club, and still more widely recognized as a musician in later years, was by his will a noteworthy benefactor of the town of Stoughton, Mass., Austin H. Kenerson (1855-1905), known and admired for his personal qualities in many circles, was a member of the publishing firm of Ginn & Cos.; Col. Edward H. Gilman (1855-1901) was for years prominent in New Hampshire politics.

The fathers of twelve members of the class were educated at Dartmouth, as follows: Richard B. Kimball '34, James Barrett '38, Charles Peabody and John Woods '39, Lyman T. Flint and John G. Sherburne '42, John B. Clarke, Leonard French and Henry F. Sanborn '43, Edward H. Greeley '45, Roger M. Sargent '46, Levi W. Barton '48.

Brothers of seventeen members of the class were educated at Dartmouth: James E. Barnard '84, James C. Barrett '74, John A. Barrett '79, Samuel A. Barrett '83, Jesse M. Barton '92, Arthur E. Clarke, '75, William W. Flint '71, Josiah W. Flint 'B4, Leonard M. French '73, Med., Adelbert H. Gale '75, Horace Goodhue '67, William B. Greeley '81, Arthur P. Greeley '83, John DeF. Haskell '77, Hermon Holt '70, Nelson A. McClary '84, Gyles Merrill, Jr., '72, Walter H. Sanborn '67, George B. Vanderpoel '68, Jacob J. We,rtheimer '75, Thomas W. D. Worthen '72.

Sons of twelve members of the class studied at Dartmouth, and children of twenty-five other members received college degrees elsewhere. Those who had sons in Dartmouth are Brooks, Gardiner, Gilman, Kenerson (two), Kivel (two), McClary (two), McElroy, Merrill, Patterson, Ryder, Staples and Tripp. Other sons and daughters of members to the number of fifty-five received college degrees. Of these five studied at Mount Holyoke, four each at Smith College and the University of Minnesota, three each at Beloit, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska and Wellesley, two each at Harvard, Annapolis, Brown, Colorado College, Lafayette College, Purdue University and Trinity College, and one each at thirteen other colleges.

The class has held eight reunions in Hanover, almost exclusively of the academic graduates. The average attendance has been twenty. Informal dinners have be,en held annually in Boston since 1884, the average number in attendance being between ten and eleven. The largest number present on any occasion was twenty, the smallest seven. Fifty annual class reports have been printed, the average number of page,s being about twentyone.

About six in ten of the class members have died, but the fact is noteworthy that of the ten men whose standing in respect to scholarship was highest only one has died from natural causes. Thompson and Paul met accidental deaths in early life; She,rburne, the class leader, committed suicide at fifty-nine years of age; Patterson died of arteriosclerosis at sixtyone, and six of the ten men, Hibbard, Piper, Sanborn, McCutcheon, Flint and Goodhue, are living, all in good health.

Fifty years ago athletic sports in the, colleges were less highly developed than now, and football was a more or less informal game in which an unlimited number of players took part. Intensive training was unknown. Of the fifteen men of the class who in the, Aegis of senior year were listed as members of the college or class crews or baseball nines—several ex celling in both sports—only one died under the age of fifty-eight. Seven died at ages ranging from fifty-eight to seventythree, and seven are living, active and in good health.

The thirty-two living graduates constitute 40.5 per cent of the number who received their diplomas in 1876. That this is a very favorable showing is evident from the chart, and explanation accompanying it, which is printed; herewith. These are taken from a book of biographical sketches of the class recently published.

"The number of men, in both the Academic and Scientific Departments, who at any time belonged to the class was 107," says the writer of the book. "Of these three died before June 29, 1876, the date of our graduation. The accompanying Survival Chart is based on the lives of 104 men who were living at the time when our college course ended. The average age of members of the class at graduation was about 23 years.

"The United States Government has published .Life Tables based on mortality reports relating to white male inhabitants of ten of the Northern States of the Union.* The curved line in the accompanying chart shows the probable number of survivors of 104 men for each year, starting at age 23, according to these Government tables. The irregular line shows the number of men of the class actually surviving on the 29th of June each year from 1876 to 1925.

* "United States Life Tables" (Department of Commerce, 1921), page 104.