USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 6
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But it was more than the art of teaching which fitted him for the deanship. To the stranger he may appear to be a man of great reserve, absorbed in deep thought, almost ascetic and, were it not for his kindly eye, austere. Professor Wright is so unassuming that he sometimes appears to be a sphinx, but he is a keen observer and a shrewd student of human nature. Many a college youth has been astonished to find how much the professor knew about his life.
Now there are few college men to whom the time does not come when they need a bit of homely advice. These men will seldom voluntarily seek the help of which they only too clearly stand in need. Yet unless the word of counsel comes their lives may be embittered with the spirit of grouch. They would resent being directed by instructors of the private detective type, but sympathetic advice of the right kind, given in the right manner by one standing, in some respects, in loco parentis might change the whole tenor of their lives, and imbue them with the "Yale spirit" or the spirit of "Yale Democracy"-or rather inspire them to imbue themselves with it, for Yale is a college of personal choice and direction. When the word comes from the Dean, it always is the right word, coming in the right way, and it bears fruit.
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· Others there are who, in a strange community, sometimes per- plexed, sometimes discouraged, long for an expression of sympathy or helpfulness, or it may be, that this is what they are needing above all things without their being conscious of the fact. To be specific-a boy may find the expense of college too great for his resources, or, in the varied experiences of college life, a dilemma may arise which calls for a riper judgment and a richer experience than his own. Yale is indeed a college where before the end of the course is reached dis- tinctions as to worldly goods are forgotten and where every man has his chance, but the freshman or sophomore, struggling against an adverse fate, may for the moment lose sight of that fact for himself, reiterated though it is. Are there not hundreds of men to-day, occupying high positions of responsibility and usefulness, who can recall some slough of despond or doubt, which they passed through after entering college, and who were helped out of it by a few plain and simple words from the dean, perhaps unasked and unexpected ?
To the boy who was sacrificing his natural bent-toward litera- ture, for example-or who was losing the comradeship of college life that he might attain high stand, he whose record as a scholar is like a college tradition has said to him: "Your stand will take care of itself; no one will care in later years whether you were among the first five or the first fifty of your class. Put health first, indulge your fondness for literature, and above all get the best that Yale can give in the way of college friendships." To still another who sees no way opening before him of meeting his college expenses and who is getting anxious about the future, he suggests ways of getting on and says: "No man is so poor that he need leave Yale for lack of means. If he has good ability and the right spirit, he will find the means. A student who is supporting himself must have faith and should not be discouraged if he cannot see exactly how he is to get through another term."
More than professor, more than dean, he is literally "guide, counsellor, and friend." No one knows the depth of feeling beneath that seemingly impassive surface.
Professor Wright has been an efficient class secretary, and has published four editions of the history of his class, the last of which (1894) ranks among the best of the Yale Class Records. His annual reports of the Academical Department have in recent years
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become especially valuable, and are read by the graduates of the college with interest. He has published several articles in books and magazines, and has edited the Satires of Juvenal (Ginn & Co., 1901), including text, introduction, and commentary, which is quite extensively used as a text-book. He is a member of the College Church and his religion is his daily life. By walking and light gymnastics he gets the exercise to keep his well-proportioned body in good con- dition and does not age rapidly.
He has lived since 1879 in a modest home at No. 128 York Street. His wife is Martha Elizabeth (Burt) Wright of Oakham, whom he married July 7th, 1874. They have had four children, of whom all but one are living: Alice Lincoln, born at Oakham, July 13th, 1875; Henry Burt, born at New Haven, January 29th, 1877; Alfred Parks, born at New Haven, January 5th, 1880, and Ellsworth, born at Oakham, August 22nd, 1884. Alice is a graduate of Wellesley Col- lege (1897), and received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale in 1901, after a course of graduate study in English. Henry graduated from Yale in the class of 1898. He was president of the Yale Young Men's Christian Association in his senior year, and general secretary of the same for the three years following. He took his doctor's degree at Yale in 1903, and is now instructor in Greek and Latin at Yale. He was joint editor with J. B. Reynolds and S. H. Fisher of "Two Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901), and has published "The American College Course," an article in The Educational Review, and "The Campaign of Platæa," his doctor's thesis (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1904). Alfred was a member of the class of 1901 at Yale, but died in his senior year, on May 20th, about a month before commencement. He was the first scholar in a class of two hundred and fifty members, and like his brother was prominent in the religious work of the college.
RUSSELL HENRY CHITTENDEN
C HITTENDEN, DOCTOR RUSSELL HENRY, professor of physiological chemistry in Yale University and director of the Sheffield Scientific School, is well known to medical scientists throughout the world and comes of old English stock. The first of his name in this country was Major William Chittenden, an officer in the English army, who, having resigned, came to America from Cranbrook, Kent, with his wife, Joanna Sheaffe, in 1639, and settled in Guilford, Connecticut. Ancestors of the professor, on both his father's and his mother's side, fought in the Revolutionary War, and Thomas Chittenden was governor of Vermont from 1778 to 1797.
The professor is the son of Horace H. Chittenden, a business man in New Haven, and of Emily E. (Doane) Chittenden. He was born February 18th, 1856, in the University city. In earliest youth he manifested a special fondness for books and reading and when he entered the public schools was advanced rapidly. With the ambition to become a Yale man, he desired to have a thorough prepara- tion, and consequently finished his preliminary studies in Mr. French's private school, earning a large part of his tuition by giving instruction to pupils in the lower classes in Greek, Latin, and mathematics. At this early age, it is said, he displayed a remarkable aptitude for imparting knowledge and for inspiring others to work. His preference at that time was for the classics, but natural sciences came to have a fascination for him with the result that he concluded to take a course which should fit him to be a physician. The course he mapped out for himself, with such object in view, was comparatively novel in those days, in Europe as well as in America. To-day it is the only approved course-at Johns Hop- kins the only allowed course. It was to devolve upon him, as a life duty, to develop it for Yale and to be of greatest assistance in developing it on both sides of the Atlantic.
Chemistry as applied to physiology was his particular study. It was about this time that what is known as the "biological course"
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was planned at Sheffield Scientific School, but, while other branches had been encouraged, facilities were yet to be obtained for the more thorough study of physiology and physiological chemistry. In his senior year, an independent physiological chemistry laboratory was established. While, of course, it was under the charge of the professor, the care of it was intrusted to the hands of the young student who so keenly appreciated what
was needed. The formal appointment of laboratory assistant was given him a year before his graduation. That might be called the inception of a course to which many eminent physicians and scientists to-day owe their development.
When Professor Chittenden was graduated from Sheffield Scientific School, in 1875, with the degree of Ph.B., his thesis was accorded the honor of publication in the American Journal of Science and the further honor of being translated into German for publication in Liebig's Annalen der Chemie, at Leipsic. After graduation he was assistant and instructor in physiological chemistry in the school till 1882, when he was appointed full professor. The year 1878-79, he spent in Europe, chiefly at Heidelberg University, where he pursued his studies with Professor Kühne. His writings by this time were attracting wide attention, a series in the American Chemical Journal over a period of several years winning particular commendation.
In the summer of 1882, Professor Chittenden accepted an in- vitation from Professor Kühne to return to Heidelberg, where the long summer vacation was devoted to a joint investigation into the physiology of digestion. Though the professor was constrained to return to his duties at Yale in the fall, this was but the beginning of a considerable term of labor in conjunction with the Heidelberg authority, one early result of which was a series of invaluable con- tributions to the Zeitschrift für Biologie, published in Munich. All this information was welcomed earnestly by chemistry and medical students as throwing light upon subjects in digestion and nutrition hitherto lamentably obscure.
The Professor's ambition to build up the course he practically had created was being realized. Its importance, not only to the university but to the whole world of scientific learning, had been made manifest by his earliest work; recognition brought enthusiasm
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and he was incited to still further exertion. Students from other departments of the university, especially those who had the medical profession for a preference, were quick to appreciate the value of the instruction under Professor Chittenden and under his assistants whom the increasing work had made necessary. A member of the govern- ing board, he was appointed director and treasurer of Sheffield Scientific School in 1898 and treasurer of the board of trustees six years later. His services were much in demand. In addition to his duties at Yale, he was called upon to lecture on physiological chemistry at Columbia University, New York, from 1898 to 1903.
Another capacity in which he rendered service of great importance was as a member of the National Committee of Fifty for the investiga- tion of the drink problem. The volumes compiled by this body of deep thinkers cover the subject in all its details. Professor Chitten- den took up particularly the influence of alcoholic drink upon the chemical process of digestion and the effect upon secretion, absorp- tion, etc.
It is indeed fortunate for the field of science that Professor Chittenden has had a ready pen. Indefatigable in his laboratory researches, he has been no less ready and prompt to put the results of his labors into clear language in books and magazines, to be read of all men. His achievements in this latter direction alone are wonderful. In addition to what has been mentioned already, he became an associate editor of the English Journal of Physiology in 1890, and in 1896, associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Then he was active in establishing the American Journal of Physiology, of which also he is one of the associate editors. In all he has contributed over two hundred scientific papers on physiology and physiological chemistry to American and foreign journals.
Then there are his books, a mine of precious information. The first of special note is entitled "Studies in Physiological Chemistry" (three volumes, 1885-1889), a compilation of the investigations of himself and his pupils, furnishing material which has been utilized in all standard text-books since then. "Digestive Proteoly- sis" was published in 1894 and "Studies in Physiological Chemistry," Yale series, appeared in 1901, to be followed by "Physio- logical Economy in Nutrition," in 1904.
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He has been in constant association with leaders in thought and research. He was made a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1890. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Society, of the American Physiological Society (in the council since 1887 and president 1895-1904), of the American Society of Natu- ralists (president in 1903), of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of other kindred organizations.
Particular recognition of his eminent service to science was attested by Yale in 1880 when she gave him the degree of Ph.D. The University of Toronto honored him with the degree of LL.D. in 1903, and the University of Pennsylvania with that of Sc.D. in 1904.
In politics, Professor Chittenden is a Republican. His religious affiliations are with the Protestant Episcopal Church. A lover, as a student, of nature, he delights in outdoor recreation and he counts as chief among his pastimes that which was raised to a high art by Izaak Walton. His home, at No. 83 Trumbull Street, is presided over by his wife, who was Gertrude L. Baldwin. They were married June 20th, 1877, and have had three children : Edith Russell, B.A., Smith College, 1899; Alfred Knight, Ph.B., Yale, 1900, M.F., Yale, 1902, and Lilla Millard.
As an appreciation of what Professor Chittenden has achieved at Yale, a single sentence may be quoted from the address of President Daniel C. Gilman of Johns Hopkins University at the semi-centennial of Sheffield Scientific School. It was this : "Nowhere else in this coun- try, not in many European laboratories, has such work been attempted and accomplished as is now in progress on Hillhouse Avenue, un- observed, no doubt, by those who daily pass the laboratory door, but watched with welcoming anticipation wherever physiology and medicine are prosecuted in the modern spirit of research."
HENRY AUGUSTIN BEERS
B EERS, PROF. HENRY AUGUSTIN, of Yale University, was born in Buffalo, New York, on July 2nd, 1847. The name was formerly spelled Bere, and the subject of this biogra- phy is descended from James Bere, who came to this country in April, 1634, in the "Elizabeth," from Ipswich, England, with his brother, Anthony, and his uncle, Richard. After some years in Massachusetts, seemingly in Watertown and Roxbury, James removed to Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1659. Like so many others of the early Fairfield families, his descendants followed the line of the Housatonic River northward, to make their home in Litchfield County, in Woodbury, and later in Litchfield. For the most part they were farmers or country merchants.
So nearly as can be learned, Seth Preston Beers, grandfather of the professor, was the first of the family to chose a professional life. He may have been aided in his choice by the influence of the famous Litchfield Law School, where so many distinguished lawyers were graduated. After his course of study in that institution, he rose to prominence in the Bar of the State, particularly in western Con- necticut, and the strength of his name-the esteem in which he was held-must have done much toward securing for Litchfield County the title of "Democratic stronghold." Sent to the capitol as repre- sentative from Litchfield, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives several times and later was the choice of the Demo- cratic party for the governorship. One position of high responsibility which he held for a quarter of a century was that of Commissioner of the Connecticut School Fund.
The mother of Professor Beers was Elizabeth Victoria Clerc, and his father was graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, of which his father was at one time a trustee. He was admitted to the Bar, but turned his attention to commerce, engaging in the wholesale grocery business on "the dock" at Buffalo, New York. Later he was called to Washington, where he was head clerk of a bureau in the Depart- ment of the Interior, in Franklin Pierce's administration. He after-
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wards returned to Litchfield and devoted the rest of his life to assisting his father and especially to the management of the farm and gardens. Like his father he was a strong Democrat. Both, also, were earnest Episcopalians, and the elder, at his death, left the chief part of his estate to St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, of which for many years he had been senior warden.
Mr. Beers's grandfather on his mother's side was Laurent Clerc, born in La Balme, France, of which city his forefathers had been notaries and mayors for many generations. Clerc was a deaf mute. Educated at the Royal Institution in Paris and a favorite pupil of the famous Abbe Sicard, he came to America with Thomas Gallaudet and taught all his life at the first school of its kind in this country which is known to-day as the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb of Hartford.
The Professor in his youth divided his time between Hartford and Litchfield. In Hartford he had the advantages of the Hartford Public High School, from which he was graduated at the age of seventeen. Not only his father but several cousins and uncles on both sides of the family had been graduated from Trinity College, but he followed the tradition of the high school and decided to go to Yale. Before entering upon the collegiate course he took a year off, spending the winter in Buffalo and the summer in Litchfield.
At Yale, where he took honors and was graduated with the class of 1869, Greek, Latin, the modern languages, history, and political science were his favorite studies; and he took a post-graduate course in Anglo-Saxon and old French. While in college he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and Skull and Bones societies.
Following the steps of his father and grandfather, he studied law in the office of Pierrepont, Stanley, Langdell & Brown, No. 16 Wall Street, New York, and after six months, in May, 1870, was admitted to the Bar of New York State. For a year thereafter he was managing clerk in the law office of Merchant & Elliott on Warren Street, New York.
In 1871, he accepted an appointment as instructor in English at Yale University, and there he has remained, being promoted to an assistant professorship in 1875 and to a full professorship in 1880. Yale conferred upon him the degree of M.A.
He married Mary Heaton of Covington, Kentucky, on July 7th, 1873, and they have had eight children; Thomas Heaton, born June 23rd, 1875; Elizabeth Clerc, born October 21st, 1877; Katherine,
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born September 9th, 1879; Frederic, born December 18th, 1880; Dorothy, born January 21st, 1883; Mary Heaton, born August 6th, 1885; Henry Augustin, born August 28th, 1887, and Donald, born January 19th, 1889, all of whom are living. His residence is at No. 25 Vernon Street, New Haven.
Among his publications may be mentioned: "A Century of American Literature," 1878; "Odds and Ends," 1878; "Nathaniel Parker Willis," 1885; "Prose Writings of N. P. Willis," 1885; "The Thankless Muse" (verse), 1885; "From Chaucer to Tennyson," 1890; "Initial Studies in American Letters," 1891; "Selections from Prose Writings of S. T. Coleridge," 1893; "A Suburban Pastoral and Other Tales," 1894; "The Ways of Yale," 1895; "A history of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Cen- tury," 1899; "A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century," 1901, and "Points at Issue," 1904. In addition, he has contributed a large number of short stories, poems and essays to the leading periodicals, and articles to cyclopedias, dictionaries and other books of reference. All of his works have received the commendation of the reviewers, but by none is he known to Yale and college men in general better than by "The Ways of Yale," which the critics declared the best college book ever written in America.
In politics, the professor is true to the party of his father and grandfather. He has held no public office and contents himself with voting the Democratic ticket steadily and with doing what he can to disseminate sound democracy by pen and word of mouth.
Burton J. Hendrick in his article on "Some Literary Instructors at Yale" says: "Professor Beers prefers to surround himself with a few choice spirits, men who are attracted purely by the love of literature and who respond readily to the fine things of poetry and art. With these recitations become, rather, informal discussions ; and to men of this kind, men whom-in a literary sense-he knows that he can trust, the richness of his own nature readily unfolds itself. He is one of the most approachable men on the Yale Faculty ; in every way a congenial spirit and a bon enfant; one of the few professors who can throw aside the conventional trappings of the scholar and meet his undergraduate friends as man to man. It, there- fore, happens that many of the finest young men at Yale, especially those of literary bent, find their steps gravitating in the most natural way toward his little unfurnished room in Farnam College."
Sincerely yours Havel S. Luther
FLAVEL S. LUTHER, JR.
E ARLY in the seventeenth century, an Englishman, John Luther, emigrated to this country, and settled in Swansea, Massachu- setts. He was killed by the Indians in 1644, leaving a son, Hezekiah, the progenitor of the northern Luthers. This John Luther was the second in descent from Johannes Luther, a German, a brother of the great reformer, Martin Luther, who had settled in Sussex County, England.
It may not be altogether fanciful to attribute the sterling quali- ties of moral courage, fidelity to conviction, and directness of speech which have marked the Massachusetts and Connecticut Luthers to the sturdy, uncompromising temper of their remote German ancestors. The subject of this sketch is, however, the ninth in descent from the German settler, Captain John, and has in his veins numerous strains of the best Puritan stock.
His father, Flavel S. Luther, Sr., was born in Providence, R. I., but settled in Brooklyn, Connecticut, where his son, Flavel S. Luther, Jr., was born March 26th, 1850. Brooklyn is a typical farming town of New England, and was the home of General Israel Putnam and Godfrey Malbone, and the community is an admirable example of the industrious, intelligent, God-fearing descendants of the Puritans. Here the boy was subject to the educating influences of field and stream and outdoor life, and household helpfulness, and social self- respect which have made so many vigorous and able men. The relig- ious atmosphere of Puritanism has been sometimes repressive, but the social atmosphere of the old-time New England village has always been bracing, natural, and conducive to manly vigor and independence. Young Luther went to the schools which the village afforded, and was noted as a good scholar especially in mathematics. His father was engaged in mercantile business, and the acquaintanceship of the son with the farmers in a circuit of four miles was large. Thus he came to know American life and character from the foundation, even before he went to college. This, of course, might be said of many American
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country boys, but it is not every one that has the sensibility and the judgment to build on early experience a full comprehension of national character as Abraham Lincoln, Whittier, Emerson, and a few others of our eminent men have done.
His schooling finished, he went to Trinity College, Hartford, where he entered as sophomore in his eighteenth year, and was grad- uated at the age of twenty. He was, of course, too young to attain the highest rank in college, but he was graduated third in his class and took the first mathematical prize.
In the fall of 1870 he went to Troy, New York, and took charge of a parish school of one hundred members. His success as a teacher and disciplinarian was marked, though in addition to his duties he studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Coit, and was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Doane, as soon as he was of age.
In 1873, having previously married Isabel Blake Ely of Hart- ford, he was appointed rector of the large Episcopal school in Racine, Wisconsin. He devoted himself assiduously to the study of mathematics, and in 1876 was made professor of mathematics in Racine College, a position which he held till 1881, when he was elected to the chair of mathematics in Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He remained in Gambier but two years, for in 1883 he was called to the chair of mathematics and astronomy in Trinity College, Hartford, thirteen years after his graduation. He filled this position very accept- ably till he was elected president on the resignation of Dr. George W. Smith in the summer of 1904, having been acting president for a year previously.
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