USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 7
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While teaching mathematics and astronomy in Hartford, Pro- fessor Luther acted as consulting engineer for the Pope Manufactur- ing Company, in the development of the bicycle. One of his inven- tions is used on every bicycle, and was of so much value that the company voluntarily made him a handsome present in addition to his salary. Like many Connecticut men, the inventive faculty is strongly developed in Professor Luther. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and had he devoted himself to the profession of mechanical engineering would no doubt have achieved a marked success. As it is, practical knowledge of mechanics is only one of the many sides in which his interest in modern life is mani- fested. -
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FLAVEL SWEETEN LUTHER, JR.
Professor Luther, or, as we must now call him, President Luther, is in many ways peculiarly fitted for an educator. His life has been spent in teaching, and the fact that he began with schoolboys widened his experience, as did also the fact that he taught in the Middle West as well as in New England. He was in his youth a noted athlete, and his interest in outdoor sports helps to put him en rapport with young men. The beautiful athletic field of Trinity is due almost entirely to his exertions. Understanding students and sympathizing with' them as he does, he is still a stern disciplinarian whenever the vital interests of the institution over which he presides are at stake, and he possesses the power of discerning when a breach of discipline is vital, and when it is venial. By nature genial and sympathetic, long experience and natural common sense have made him a discerning but lenient judge of human nature as manifested in American youth, and an executive at once prompt and judicious. He joins to this a theoretical knowledge of the science of education, and a practical knowledge of the necessity of modifying the rigid laws under the limi- tations of circumstances and of individual cases.
As a clergyman he is familiar with the best literature of our lan- guage, and as a man of science he is in accord with the modern spirit. This is a rare combination, more rare perhaps in our country than in England-the combination of the technical man with the man of gen- eral culture in the "humanities."
President Luther is an admirable speaker ; direct, simple and sin- cere, always enforcing a comprehensible point, and rising at times to forcible and eloquent presentation, or to some poetic illustration flow- ing naturally from the subject. He speaks entirely without notes, and in a conversational manner. He is an excellent preacher, and his sermons to the students have not been equaled in appeal to the higher natures of young men since Thomas Arnold preached to the boys at Rugby.
President Luther received the well merited degree of LL.D. from his alma mater in 1904, just previous to his formal inaugura- tion.
Trinity is fortunate in finding one of her graduates so thoroughly competent to assume the multifarious duties of the presidency, and one so devoted to the profession of teaching that he has repeatedly declined the pastorates of large churches, and one so devoted to her
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that he refused the presidency of Kenyon while a professor in his own college.
A modern college president must possess some knowledge of the general principles of modern education. He must not be exclusively technical, but it is necessary that he understand the bearing of modern science on modern training. He must be entirely devoid of the dis- trust of scientific thought and scientific methods that mark many clergymen. He must love teaching and have sympathy with youth and a general comprehension of the way in which young men can be developed. He must have had long experience in the profession of teaching. He must possess executive ability and energy enough to keep things moving, and tact enough to keep them moving in the right direction. He must know when to be firm and when to yield slightly in the interests of conciliation, and, when he is firm, he must be firm without being brutal. He must be enthusiastically interested in the college he serves, and not given to magnifying his office. He must be able to discern among the many young recruits to the teaching pro- fession, the ones who will second his efforts with zeal, and who are likely to make their mark in science or learning. In addition to this it is highly desirable that he possess the power of making brief ad- dresses on all imaginable occasions, and of presenting succinctly all college questions to the trustees and the alumni. In a word, he must be a man of ability in several distinct lines ; a scholar, an administra- tor, a man of affairs and a judge of human nature. President Luther combines as many of these qualifications as any man in the country, and is consequently entitled to be considered a man of mark, for fifteen years hence he will have made his mark in the educational world. In one respect he may not prove equal to the foremost of his colleagues, and that is in the ability to persuade men of wealth to interest themselves in his college. Our educational institutions do not pay their way in dollars and cents. Every year the income deficiency is made up by donations from friends. A college with a surplus from invested funds at the end of a fiscal year would be an anomaly in the educational world. But the gifts to a college usually come in small sums, and President Luther will attract these, for there are many who know that he is doing a good work with insufficient means. If he should ever suggest to some very rich man that a gift to Trinity College would serve the highest inter-
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ests of society, such suggestion will be made in a frank, open manner, and without any undignified solicitation. We are inclined to think, however, that the rich man will be left to find out the situation for himself, for there are rich men in our country who are ready to help an institution which is helping the country, and are heartily sick of the skillful cajoling and flattery to which they are subjected by applicants for their bounty, and President Luther does not know how to flatter. He does, however, seem to know how to excite the enthusiasm and in- terest of the alumni, and the respect and regard of his students.
CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON
P ROFESSOR JOHNSON was born May 8th, 1836, in the house of his maternal grandfather, William W. Woolsey, at the corner of Rector and Greenwich streets, New York. The lot is now occupied by one of the tall office buildings which add to the conven- ience as much as they detract from the beauty of the lower part of the city. At that period Canal Street was the upper limit of the closely built part of New York, and many of the old New Yorkers lived in the lower part of Broadway. Through his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Dwight, daughter of Mary Edwards Dwight, Professor Johnson is descended from Jonathan Edwards. His paternal grand- mother was Katharine Livingston Bayard, daughter of Nicholas Bay- ard. His grandfather on his father's side was William Samuel John- son of Stratford, the president of King's College, now Columbia Uni- versity. While he was still very young his parents moved to Owego, Tioga County, New York, where he lived till he went to college. The country was then undeveloped and the journey of nearly a week was made in a carriage to Albany. Even when the road was made south- west through Pennsylvania to the Hudson at Newburgh, the journey by stage to New York occupied three days and two nights. The neigh- borhood was much in the condition so well described by Cooper in the "Pioneers." The facilities for education were very meager and con- fined largely to the family. Professor Johnson's mother was a woman of refined literary taste and taught her children French and Spanish and read to them the English classics of the period, making them learn much of Scott's poetry by heart. An English clergyman, stranded by chance in the back country, taught Latin and Greek, pay- ing more attention to the translation and scanning than to the gram- mar. Euclid and algebra were taught largely by the father. At the age of sixteen, however, the lad was able to enter the sophomore class of Yale College and to maintain a fine standing, especially in mathe- matics. After graduation he became an apprentice to a machine shop in Detroit, Michigan, and reached the dignity of a journeyman. A
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malarial fever injured his health so much that he returned and studied law in an office in Owego. The practice of the profession was not agreeable to him and, in 1865, he became assistant professor of mathe- matics in the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Here he remained for six years and then engaged in the manufacture of steam engines and agricultural implements at Owego. In 1883 he became professor of English literature at Trinity College, Hartford, where he has re- mained ever since. For some time previous he had done considerable literary work in the magazines of the day.
While living in Hartford Professor Johnson has published a small volume of verse and a number of text-books and a volume of literary essays. His "Outline History of English and American Literature" has met with a large sale, especially in the West. For some time he acted as literary editor on the Hartford Courant and contributor to the editorial page. He also contributed for several years, up to 1885, to the editoral page of the Hartford Times and frequently to other journals. He is at present engaged on a history of Shakesperian Criticism, though it may be considered doubtful if he finishes it.
Professor Johnson married, in 1871, Elizabeth Jarvis McAlpine, who died in 1881, leaving two children, Woolsey McAlpine and Jarvis McAlpine, now of Hartford. Two years later he married Ellen Wads- worth Terry of Cleveland, whose parents, Dr. Charles Terry and Julia Woodbridge, both of Hartford, had gone to the Western Reserve in early life. She, too, died in 1896.
HENRY FERGUSON
P ROFESSOR HENRY FERGUSON was born in Stamford, of a family long and honorably connected with business in New York City. He was graduated from Trinity College with the degree of A.B. in 1868. Soon after his graduation he went with his brother Samuel on a sailing vessel in the Pacific. The ship was burned and the crew and passengers took refuge in two boats. One of these, under the command of the mate, was never heard from. The other, in charge of the captain, laid a course for the Sandwich Islands and after a voyage of forty days reached one of the smaller islands. The sailors and the young Fergusons were so nearly exhausted that they had to be carried through the surf by the natives. An account of this remarkable experience published in Harper's Magazine was written by Samuel Clemens, who was on the island at the time, and it is one of the first, if not the very first occurrence of the signature, "Mark Twain," in an Eastern magazine. Samuel Ferguson died in California soon after and Henry studied theology in the Berkeley Divinity School. In 1872 he was made rector of Christ Church in Exeter, N. H., and in 1878 rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, in the same state. In 1883 he became professor of history and political economy in Trinity College, a position he filled with distinguished credit until commencement in 1906, when he resigned to become rector of St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H. In 1873 he married Emma J. Gardiner, daughter of Professor Gardiner of the Berkeley Divinity School.
Professor Ferguson is a man of broad interests and multifarious learning. His original specialty was Hebrew, and his "Essay on the Use of Hebrew Verbs" (1880) gave evidence of careful research. His professorship compelled wide reading in history and his books "Four Periods in the Life of the Church" and his "Essays in American History" show accurate scholarship in a different field. He received from his Alma Mater the degree of M.A., in 1875, and of LL.D., in 1902. He is a member of all the associations for political and
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social science in our country and of the British Economic Association, and also of the Century and University Clubs of New York. He has travelled extensively in Egypt and Europe, and, indeed, has visited every quarter of the globe. His time and ample means have been devoted to two objects, scholarly culture and doing good to his fellow- men.
Besides his literary and academic activity Professor Ferguson has always been ready to devote himself unselfishly to the service of the community. He has been for several years an active and energetic member of the Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Hartford, and has held steadily in view the theory that the system of parks in a modern city should be developed not solely with the idea of beautifying the urban surroundings, but to furnish places of recreation to the chil- dren of the city. The debt of the people of Hartford to him and to several other public spirited citizens in this regard can hardly be over- estimated. It is a service which is unpaid, except in the satisfaction of having done good and by the recognition of the few who know how important its future effects will be. Future generations will enjoy the parks of Hartford without giving a thought to the names of the men to whom it is due that they form a well connected whole, devel- oped on a systematic plan and acquired at a comparatively small cost. In taking the rectorship of St. Paul's School, Professor Ferguson is actuated by the idea that he can be useful in moulding the character of a large number of boys with whom he will come directly in contact. The headship of a large and well established school offers a sphere of even wider influence than the professorship in a college and involves more constant labor. It is a sacrifice in a man of Professor Ferguson's age to assume a new task, a sacrifice of comfort and ease to the desire for usefulness.
KARL WILHELM GENTHE
P ROFESSOR GENTHE was born at Leipzig, Germany, in 1871. His father was an officer of the University and the boy enjoyed the excellent advantages of the German school system. He early showed a bent towards natural science, to the developing of which the influence of his mother contributed. Upon graduation from St. Thomas's "Gymnasium," he made zoology his special study in the University and received the degree of Ph.D., "summa cum laude," in 1897. The following year he came to Boston, Massachu- setts, where he acted as private tutor for a year, and then went to the University of Michigan as instructor in zoology. There he remained for two years and then came to Trinity College in 1901 as instructor. In 1903 he was made assistant professor of natural history, a posi- tion which he still holds. He has contributed to German and Amer- ican scientific periodicals, is a fellow of the "American Association for the Advancement of Science" and the "American Society of Zoölogists."
Professor Genthe is recognized as an authority in his specialty and an accomplished microscopist. At the same time he is a man of multifarious acquirements, a type of the German "Gelehrte." He is widely read in general literature and in philosophy, and an unusually retentive memory enables him to acquire the substance of a book from a single reading. He is hardly less a master of modern psychology than of his own specialty. It can hardly be doubted that in ten years he will rank among the best informed zoölogists of the country and he deserves to do so even now. His philosophical training enables him to correlate his knowledge of the science of physical life with the doctrines of the wider field of psychology and ontology, and prevents him from narrowing his mind to the bare classification of facts with- out regard to their bearing in the great questions of life. Although a learned man in the fullest sense he is a patient and successful teacher of beginners, capable at once of starting his pupils in the right path and of accompanying them no matter how far they wish to go.
Early in 1901 Professor Genthe married Martha Krug, herself one of the few German women who have earned the title of Ph.D. at Heidelberg.
BP. Raymond
BRADFORD PAUL RAYMOND
R AYMOND, BRADFORD PAUL, Ph.D., D.D., president of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, educator, author, and preacher, was born in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, April 22nd, 1846. He is of English descent and traces his ancestry in this country to Richard Raymond, who came from Eng- land to Salem, Massachusetts, and was a freeman there in May, 1634. Dr. Raymond's father was Lewis Raymond, a farmer and a man of strong personality and intense convictions. He was a man of social inclinations, radical opinions, and democratic principles, and a firm believer in the "brotherhood of man." He was selectman in Stamford and otherwise active in town affairs. His wife, Dr. Raymond's mother, whose maiden name was Sallie A. Jones, was a woman of remarkably fine character and one who exerted a particularly strong influence upon her son's moral and spiritual life.
The boy Bradford Raymond was blessed with a robust consti- tution and health far above the average boy. He spent most of his youth in the country and as the family was large there were plenty of duties for him to perform on the farm and in the house. He was de- termined to acquire an education, even though it must necessarily be self-earned. From 1852 to 1861 he attended school in his native town, Stamford, and in 1861, when he was but fifteen, he taught school that he might earn the means of further education. Indeed he "tried everything going" as a means to that worthy end and worked at farming, teaching, singing-school teaching, basket making, and preaching for the accomplishment of his purpose.
Dr. Raymond spent three years at Hamline University, Red Wing, Minnesota, and subsequently took his academic degree at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. In 1873 he took his B.D. degree at the Boston University after a three years' course there. He was dominated by the conviction that he ought to preach and he was in the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1871 to 1883. From 1874, the year following his ordination, until 1877 he was
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pastor of the Allen Street Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and from 1887 to 1880 he preached in Providence, R. I. In 1880 and 1881 he studied in Germany, at Leipzig and Göttingen and upon his return he received his Ph.D. degree at Boston University in 1881. He was pastor of a church in Nashua, New Hampshire, from 1881 until 1883, when he was called back to his Alma Mater, Lawrence University, to be its president and head. He served in that re- sponsible capacity until 1889, when he was called to the presidency of Wesleyan University, the position he now holds. In 1896 he took a second trip abroad for further study at the German universities and returned at the end of a year. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the Northwestern University in 1894 and by Yale University in 1901.
As the head of Wesleyan University, Dr. Raymond has done and is doing most valuable work for the highest good of college and faculty and Wesleyan has advanced in every way under his adminis- tration. He has been highly instrumental in increasing and strengthening the material resources of the university, in preserving and purifying the "college spirit," and in raising the standard of scholarship. He has a strong personality and the faculty of leader- ship to a marked degree. As a scholar and educator he is of highest rank, for he has the gift of teaching and the mind of a true scholar. His generous sympathies and absolute justice win the loyalty and admiration of the student body and his executive ability and scholarly methods make him a fitting head of the faculty. As a student Dr. Raymond is a man of high attainment in the field of philosophical, ethical, and theological study, and as a writer and speaker he is clear, forcible, and interesting. As a preacher he is one of the ablest of his denomination and his careful training, his elo- quence, and his deeply religious nature make him a distinct "power for good" in the university. His chief written work, "Christianity and the Christ," which he published in 1894, embodies the views, beliefs, and personality of a deep student, a sincere theologian, an able writer, and a true Christian.
A life truly devoted to study has little time for social, fraternal, or political interests and Dr. Raymond is no exception to the rule suggested by this fact. With the exception of one year, from Sep- tember, 1864, to July, 1865, spent in military service in the ranks
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of the 48th New York Regiment, he has spent his life in scholarly pursuits. In politics Dr. Raymond is a conscientious Republican, though he has never wished or held office. In 1873 he married Lulu A. Rich, by whom he has had five children and two of the five are now living.
As a scholar and educator, as a theologian and preacher, and as president of one of the oldest and finest New England universities, Dr. Bradford Paul Raymond holds a high place of his own making in the intellectual life of Connecticut. He is an admirable example of what ambition and determination may do to defeat the ob- stacles in the way of gaining an education and of the importance of a strong and single purpose in life.
FRANCIS GANO BENEDICT
B ENEDICT, FRANCIS GANO, Ph.D., chemist, educator and scientific writer, instructor and associate professor of chemis- try at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, presi- dent of the Middletown Scientific Association and author of "Chemical Lecture Experiments," was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 3rd, 1870. His father was Washington Gano Benedict, a man of in- domitable energy and business integrity, whose occupation in life was the management of real estate and electric railways. Dr. Benedict's mother was Harriet Emily Benedict, and from her came his first great stimulus to intellectual activity.
A city-bred boy, endowed with excellent health and great mental vigor, it was natural that Francis Benedict should seek and acquire the highest education. His greatest interest was in the natural sciences, in the study of which he showed marked zeal and aptitude. Out- side of school hours, in his early youth, he had a certain amount of manual labor to do, which inculcated valuable habits of responsibility and industry. He prepared for college at the Boston Latin School and the English High School in Boston, and then entered Harvard University, where he received his A.B. degree in 1893 and his A.M. degree in 1894. During his courses at Harvard he earned his way by acting as instructor in chemistry in the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston. After taking his Master's degree at Harvard, he went abroad and studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he was granted the degree of Ph.D. in 1895.
In 1896, soon after his return from Germany, Dr. Benedict became instructor and, later, associate professor of chemistry at Wesleyan Uni- versity, Middletown, and he has held the position continuously since that time. From 1895 to 1900 he was chemist at Storrs Experiment Station, and since 1898 has been physiological chemist of the Nutrition Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1899 he published his "Elementary Organic Analysis," and in 1900 his "Chemical Lecture Experiments," and he has contributed many in-
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teresting, original, and authentic papers to various leading scientific journals. He has conducted some very fruitful and important investi- gations into the nutrition of man with the respiration calorimeter. In the lecture room, the laboratory, and through the scientific press Dr. Benedict has done much to foster scientific research, and to conduct that research along practical lines. He is a true scholar, an able writer, a zealous and capable educator, and a most enthusiastic and authoritative scientist.
Dr. Benedict is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, the American Physiological Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the Middletown Scientific Association, of which he is president, the University Club of Middletown, and the college fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa. In creed he is an Episcopalian, and in politics a Republican. Boating is his most pleasurable summer diversion, and music his winter pas- time. In 1897 Dr. Benedict married Cornelia Golay, by whom he has had one child. He believes the most helpful influence upon his work to have come from his private study, and the greatest incentive to suc- cess from his college chemistry professor, Josiah P. Cooke, of Harvard, with whom he was intimately associated during his college course. Dr. Benedict advises men to practice "total abstinence from liquors or to- bacco, under the age of forty years." He is still a young man, and the scientific world may reasonably expect still greater results of his work.
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