REV. JOHN W. HAYLEY, SECOND OLDEST GRADUATE DIES
The death of Rev. John W. Hayley of Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on October 3, removed from the active alumni lists the second oldest among the graduates of the College. Death resulted from an accident in the house where Mr. Hayley was living alone and although suffering from a broken hip and the effects of exposure he lived for more than a week subsequent to the accident. He is a native of Tuftonboro where he was born on June 8, 1834, and at the time of his death had passed his ninety-third birthday. A graduate of New Hampton Institute, Dartmouth College, and Andover Seminary, he had held pastorates in four of the New England states, having been settled at Eastport, Maine; Temple, New Hampshire; Lunenberg and Westminster, Vermont; and in the Massachusetts towns of Pottersville, Duxbury, Tyngsboro, Drury, and Dana. He had also been a professor in the Union Christian College in Indiana and was the author of several books. A few months previous to his death, when he was about to change his residence, he sent a considerable portion of his library to the Dartmouth College Library where it now is.
In commenting on Mr. Hayley editorially the "Carroll County Independent" writes: "Not only Tuftonboro but all New Hampshire loses in the death of Mr. Hayley a lover and a friend. It was his dearest wish to see a public library building erected near the center of the town to house the two thousand volumes that are now stored in a private house. Not long before he died he gave the land for a building lot. After he retired from the ministry and returned to his native town Dr. Hayley wrote and published 'The History of Tuftonboro.' His last book, 'The Funny Side of Things,' was still in manuscript when he died. That was a brave soul which, stricken with the infirmities of age, long since bereaved of his wife, and separated from his children by the width of a continent, living entirely alone except for his four pet cats and his five tubs of flowers, could yet write a book on the funny side of things."
A man of learning, unfailing sense of humor, and distinct originality, these characteristics appear in his will, a small portion of which appear below:
