Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897, Part 34

Author: Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1897
Publication date: 1947
Publisher: Cambridge : Printed for the Class
Number of Pages: 800


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 34


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61


"Economic sociology, which deals with cause and effect on groups of human beings, became my special field of interest; the


370


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


problem of the survival of the English-speaking civilization, the focus of my attention.


"Pressure of population on food supply seems theoretical to the American mind, in view of our many empty acres. I saw it spread before me, in full significance, throughout my first travels in the Orient in 1897-1898, from Japan westward to Egypt. This strug- gle for existence and the terrific power it could generate were in my mind when, in a letter from London in May, 1898, I set down my belief that the U.S.A. and the Britannic nations, in order to survive, must join forces. Further study and travel, including twice again around the world by other routes, strengthened that conviction.


"On sailing from Capetown in December, 1912, I began an ex- position of the subject to present to a little circle of '97 men. The pages, during the next twelve months, grew into a book. Year by year, ever since, I have been talking and writing (very little for publication) on the same subject, pointing out: that we are in an inter-civilization competition, selecting the fittest to survive; that a civilization is better than ours if it can cut down our food supply by any method; and that our civilization was in danger from Germany and Japan and would later be in danger from Russia and China. I refrain, though with difficulty, from quoting myself here - not from modesty.


"Why not draw our group line so as to include less than the English-speaking civilization? Why not so as to include more? I assume that we of the U.S.A. are not eager to adjust ourselves to a lower standard of living and to fewer freedoms than we now have; i.e., to longer hours of harder work for less material reward and to abridgment of our privilege to think, speak, worship, and, in many respects, to act as we please. If, as is now true, we Ameri- cans alone are not strong enough to guard these things we value, we may, by joining with others to form a larger group, give up some part of our good things for the sake of guarding the rest. Obviously, the process is self-defeating if the group line is ex- tended beyond what is necessary for adequate strength. We do not wish to be outnumbered, plundered, and finally obliterated.


"Our remote ancestors learned to utilize fire, with resulting


371


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


changes of tremendous import. Now, in September, 1946, we have begun to utilize the split atom. Great changes are forecast. Fire, however, did not change the basic laws of living things. I do not think the split atom can. I believe the human animal will continue to seek food and to breed. I am hoping my group will be successful.


"Many persons of diverse races, colors, nationalities, and reli- gions, in many different places around the globe, have shared their thoughts with me - to my enrichment. Here I name three: Roland Burrage Dixon and Robert Darrah Jenks, our classmates; and Rae Baldwin, Ph.B., University of Chicago, '02, a teacher of mathematics at Hunter College, with whom I first talked on the Labrador in 1908. Together we have tramped, canoed, and camped on both sides of the equator. We have discussed subjects ranging from war-time conservation of goods and services to how to rid the lawn of dandelions, from diet to currency devalua- tion, comparative governance and ancestor worship. She is the most interesting and delightful person it has been my luck to meet."


Kennedy, born March 12, 1875, at Roxbury, Massachusetts, is the son of George Golding Kennedy, '64, A.M., '67, M.D. '67, and Harriet White Harris. He prepared for college at Hopkinson's School in Boston, and received his A.B. after four years with our Class. He received an LL.B. in 1906. His brother, Harris Ken- nedy, a member of the Harvard Class of '94, received his M.D. in 1898.


Kennedy married Rae Baldwin, September 29, 1910, in Edin- burgh, Scotland. He is the author of The Pan-Angles: A Consid- eration of the Federation of the Seven English-Speaking Nations, published by Longmans, Green & Company in 1914, second im- pression, 1915.


+ LEWIS BENEDICT KENT


L EWIS BENEDICT KENT, who was with the Class only during freshman and sophomore years, died April 15, 1933, at Bos- ton. He was born October 5, 1871, at Corry, Pennsylvania, and


372


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


at an early age moved with his parents, Archibald Flynn and Emily Amelia (Keeler) Kent, to Jamestown, New York, where he attended the public schools before coming to Harvard. He left college after two years and went into mining in Arizona, remain- ing there until 1903. He then returned to the East, making his home in Newtonville, Massachusetts, and becoming claim agent for the Boston & Middlesex Railroad. He later entered the law office of Powers & Hall in Boston. From 1911 until his death he was a staff member in the legal department of the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company.


He is survived by his wife, the former Florence Aurelia Haw- kins, whom he married at Buffalo on October 17, 1901, and their three children - Emily Aurelia, born February 23, 1904; Edgar Hawkins, Law School '34, born September 1, 1908; and Lewis Raymond, born November 6, 1914.


+ CHARLES HENRY KENYON


C HARLES HENRY KENYON died at New London, Connecticut, on July 8, 1945. He was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on July 19, 1873, a son of Charles Henry and Emeline (Bentley ) Kenyon, and was prepared for college at the Norwich Free Academy. Leaving Harvard in 1895, he became associated with the A. B. Pitkin Machinery Company, as its treasurer - and, later, with the National Machinery Company of Providence, Rhode Island, as its president and treasurer. In 1912, because of ill health, he dis- posed of all his business interests, seeking recovery in an out-of- door life on his Groton, Connecticut, estate, at Eastern Point, on the eastern shores of the Thames River and New London Harbor. "It was in this town," he wrote for our Twenty-Fifth Anniver- sary Report, "I was drafted into politics, so my slogan was: 'Better Roads for Eastern Connecticut,' and, after serving on the local Board and being crowned 'Road Commissioner for Groton,' I was nominated and elected Representative to the Connecticut Legis- lature for 1914-15. It was my good fortune to be assigned to one of the most important committees of the Legislature, known as the Committee on Roads, Rivers, and Bridges, which included


373


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


auto legislation. We succeeded in establishing, by statute, a trunkline system of highways for the State, and 'removed politics' from the Highway Department. To prove the latter statement, there is now an excellent road on either side of the Thames River from which you may view and follow the Harvard-Yale races by auto, and my old town (Groton) has cement roads from end to end. I will have to admit that the new road leading along the Thames River to our Harvard Quarters was slow to materialize, but we finally got it built as a 'war measure,' to help win the race."


Restored to health Kenyon returned to Providence, and entered the bond business with the firm of Messrs. Newton P. Hutchinson & Company.


He was married at Arlington, New Jersey, on April 5, 1899, to Clara Hankey. They had two children: Clarice Hankey (Mrs. Lewis), June 21, 1900; Charles Henry, Jr., July 26, 1906.


* FRANCIS KERNAN KERNAN


F RANCIS KERNAN KERNAN died March 11, 1944, at Syracuse, New


York. He was born in Utica, March 16, 1875, the son of John Devereux and Kathleen (Peebles) Kernan. His grandfather, Francis Kernan, was then United States Senator from New York.


He received earlier schooling in Utica, but during the year be- fore he joined '97 he rounded out, in Cambridge, his preparatory knowledge under the Widow Nolan, who, with his little Boston bull, was a familiar Harvard Square sight through the gay nineties.


Throughout his four college years Kernan's youthful spirit and activity were outstanding. He rowed No. 3 on our freshman crew and played football. But he attended his courses and passed happily and comfortably through the four years to graduate with our Class.


He then studied at the Buffalo Law School, where he received the degree of LL.B. in 1899. After gaining admission to the Bar, he became a member of the firm of Cox, Kimball & Kernan of Buffalo, but by 1903 he was needed to help carry on the old family firm of Kernan & Kernan of Utica, founded in 1835, and one of the oldest law firms of the state. He entered that firm in


374


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


the fall of 1903 and was the senior partner at the time of his death.


On September 10, 1902, he married Mary M. Spratt at Ogdens- burg, New York. Their children are: Francis Kernan, Jr., '24 (married Maud Tilton), born June 29, 1903; Mary (Mrs. Gilbert Butler ), born November 29, 1904; Thomas Spratt, '29, born No- vember 14, 1907; Richard Dickinson, '31, born December 20, 1909; and Walter Avery, '36, born December 1, 1913. Kernan also had three Harvard brothers: John Devereux Kernan, Jr., '00; Robert Peebles Kernan, '03; and Hubert Dolbeare Kernan, '05. It is a genuine Harvard family. All four of his sons saw service dur- ing World War II, two in the Army and two in the Navy.


Until nearly the end of his life Kernan was a dynamo of energy. For example, at one moment he decided that Utica needed a tennis club for athletic and social purposes; next, he, with two friends, collected members and money; shortly he had plans drawn, and in six months he had the building up.


And so, quite naturally, he was not completely buried in musty law tomes. He was graduated from law school, but then, in later years, he was graduated in part from the law into an able man of important affairs.


In our Twenty-fifth Anniversary Class Report he wrote:


"I still claim to be engaged in the practice of the law as a mem- ber of the firm of Kernan & Kernan of Utica, New York. I must admit, however, that during the past ten or twelve years, a con- siderable portion of my time has been occupied by business enter- prises."


First he went into the timber business and then into the paper business in Canada, which, he said, had the great advantage of furnishing opportunities for the best of hunting and fishing, and in these he was eminent. Later he became interested in a steel- stamping company and then in a textile mill. To all these he ap- plied his energy and his sound business judgment. In 1923 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Equitable Life Assurance Society and later to its Executive Committee.


Such was the varied, busy life of our classmate. He had many fine qualities, but it was his warmth of spirit that appealed to his


375


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


friends, and we shall not forget his hearty greeting, which was but a partial expression of his sturdy friendship.


F. M. W.


HOMER HUNTINGTON KIDDER


K' IDDER was an assistant in English at Harvard College from 1899 to 1900, became an instructor, and continued at Harvard until 1901. During the next four years he travelled abroad, and in 1906 became assistant editor of The Bellman of Minneapolis. He remained in this position for a year.


During the first World War, he served with the Red Cross in France and, from 1919 to 1922, in Austria. Later he was engaged in anthropometric work for Harvard in North Africa. From 1929 to 1940 he excavated in France.


"Soon after returning to the United States in 1942," he writes, "I had a cerebral stroke at Berkeley, California, and have been on the shelf ever since."


Kidder, the son of Alfred and Kate ( Dalliba) Kidder, was born February 20, 1874, at Marquette, Michigan. He prepared at Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge. He was in college six years, three of which he spent as a special student, and received his A.B. with distinction in 1899. While an undergraduate he was a member of the Signet Society, Institute of 1770, D.K.E., and Hasty Pudding Club. He married Lucille Billingsley in January, 1908. This marriage ended in divorce and he married Lilia Silvia della Morena, October 27, 1927, in London, England.


Kidder is the author of The Central Ojiburas, published in 1929; and various articles on the prehistory of France, written with his wife, including: "Fouilles du Puy-de-Lacan," 1932, "A Magdelenian Site in France," 1932, "Le Puy-de-Lacan see Grav- ures," 1936, "Une Ebauch de Sculpture Magdalenne," 1939, and, with Alfred Barnes, "Differentes Techniques de Debitage," 1936. He was awarded membership in the Legion de Honneur.


376


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


+ SAMUEL CHARLES KIMBERLY


S AMUEL CHARLES KIMBERLY died July 26, 1933, at Grayling, Michigan. He was born at Saginaw, Michigan, on August 25, 1874, the son of Charles Samuel and Susan Elise (Hanchett ) Kimberly, and attended Michigan Military Academy and Phillips Exeter Academy, before coming to Harvard. After a year in the Law School, he entered the law office of Benton Hanchett in Saginaw, later moving to the West Coast and still later to Colo- rado, where he stayed until 1906. While in Colorado, he was asso- ciated with the United Light & Power Company. In 1906 he returned to Saginaw, where he practised law and maintained real estate interests. He never married. Members of the Class who were associated with him in musical clubs will recall his quiet charm.


JOHN HENRY KIMMONS


N o direct word has been heard from Kimmons since the Fifth Report when he wrote: "After leaving Harvard in 1898, I taught for three years in the Blaine High School, West Superior, Wisconsin. Since that time I have been teaching in the Austin High School, Chicago, Illinois."


More recently he has moved to San Juan, Texas, and your Sec- retary is disappointed that he has not been able to secure later information.


Kimmons was born October 5, 1870, at Springfield, Missouri, the son of Bartley B. and Lucy Ann (Whitsell) Kimmons. He attended Drury Academy in Springfield and took an S.B. at Drury College before coming to Harvard in 1895. He received an A.B. in 1898.


+ ALBERT EDWARD KING


A LBERT EDWARD KING was one of the leading scholars of our Class who devoted his long and active life to one of the most important branches of the public service - school teaching. For forty-five years he was a teacher of mathematics or principal of


377


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


one after another of the most important high schools in Brooklyn, New York.


He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on October 26, 1876, the son of Charles Francis King, a well-known writer of textbooks of geography, and Elizabeth (Boardman) King. From the Rox- bury Latin School he entered Harvard with the Class of '97, graduated with honors and membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and received his A.M. in 1898. He married Florence Wilhelmina Aiken in Boston on December 27, 1904. He died after a very brief illness on August 14, 1945, at New York City, survived by his wife, a son, Richard Henry, born February 8, 1906, and a daugh- ter, Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. Skinner), born May 5, 1916.


Immediately after leaving Harvard, King began his career as a teacher in secondary schools, first for one year in Plainfield, New Jersey, and then in New York City, where for more than forty years he was, in increasing degree, an important member of the public school faculty. After twelve years his ability won promo- tion to the post of principal of an important high school, whence he was further advanced to the head-ship of the recently estab- lished Mckinley Junior High School in Brooklyn. He was hon- ored by office in various professional organizations and became president of the Schoolmaster's Club of New York. He was the author of several textbooks on mathematics.


Our Class is honored by the life story of this able, modest, in- dustrious, and useful man, who contributed year after year, as his strength and abilities permitted, to one of the most useful and altruistic of vocations, the guiding of adolescent youth along the ways which lead to learning and wisdom.


D. C.


+ CYRUS AMBROSE KING


C YRUS AMBROSE KING died September 6, 1929, at Brooklyn, New York. The son of Samuel and Sarah Ann ( Cusick ) King, he was born June 19, 1867, at Plum Tree, Indiana, and attended schools in that state, receiving an A.B. from the University of Indiana in 1893. For three years following he was principal of the high school at Decorah, Iowa. In 1896 he entered the Gradu-


378


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


ate School at Harvard and after a year of study took an A.B. de- gree. In 1898 he received a Master's degree. He returned to the University of Indiana in 1900 as an instructor in botany, continu- ing his studies towards a doctorate, which he received at Harvard in 1902. In that same year he moved to New York City, which remained his home until his death.


For four and a half years he taught biology at the DeWitt Clinton High School and then became head of the department of biology at the Erasmus Hall High School. At various times he was president of the department of botany of the Brooklyn Insti- tute; chairman of the New York Syllabus Committee and of a State Regents Examination Committee; a member of the Botani- cal Society of America, the Genetic Society, and the Scholarship Committee of Long Island; and a fellow of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science. Although older than most of his associates at Harvard, he made many friends there. One wrote of him: "He was distinguished as an educator and citizen, while his high character and genial nature won the ad- miration and affection of all who came to know him."


He married Myrtle Ella Taylor on August 15, 1894, at Pierceton, Indiana. She, with their two children - Dorothy, born October 18, 1901, and Harold Taylor, '30, born November 20, 1908 - survived him.


+ FRANCIS HARRISON KINNICUTT


F RANCIS HARRISON KINNICUTT died July 3, 1939, at Far Hills, New Jersey. The son of Frank Parker and Elenora (Kissel) Kinni- cutt, he was born November 13, 1875, at New York City, and attended Cutler's School before coming to Harvard. After gradu- ating cum laude, he entered the Law School, where he received an LL.B. in 1900. He then went into the law office of Evarts, Choate & Beaman in New York and in 1909 joined the staff of Hunt, Hill & Betts, later becoming a member of the firm. He resigned from that firm in 1916 and practised law independently. In 1932 he became associated with the firm of Iselin, Riggs, Ferris & Mygatt, of which he was a member at the time of his death.


379


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


In 1903 he enlisted in Squadron A, New York Cavalry. In 1916 he re-enlisted and went with the squadron to the Mexican border. The following year he was discharged from military service be- cause of ill health. Soon after the United States entered the first World War, he became an assistant on the War Trade Board, serving until May, 1919. The following winter he collaborated with Mr. Boris Basol on his book, Socialism vs. Civilization.


Kinnicutt became intensely interested in the matter of immi- gration to the United States and was a leader in the fight to keep quotas in direct ratio to the ethnic groups existing in the United States at the time of the 1890 census. His interest was based on the belief, as he stated it in the 25th Report, that "the inferior quality and excessive quantity of our immigration during the last forty years have become a serious menace to our racial integrity and Anglo-Saxon civilization." He was influential in organizing the American Committee of Good Will, which sought the main- tenance of friendly relations between the United States and other English-speaking countries, and also helped to form the Allied Patriotic Societies, Incorporated. He found time from all these activities to run his farm at Far Hills, in which he was greatly interested.


In August, 1931, he married Margaret Chanler Emmet, who, with their two children - Francis Harrison, Jr., born July 18, 1934, and Margaret Chanler Emmet, born July 18, 1936 - sur- vived him.


At the time of his death, Mr. Jarvis Cromwell wrote in a letter to the New York Herald Tribune, "His (Kinnicutt's ) influence must necessarily be great, indeed, and his life stands as an example of what a truly intelligent private individual may accomplish for the public good by wholehearted allegiance to a high ideal."


BERNARD STALLO KITTREDGE


B' ERNARD STALLO KITTREDGE died March 29, 1936, at Cincinnati, where he was born January 13, 1874, the son of Edmund Webster and Virginia Elizabeth (Gholson) Kittredge. He pre- pared for college at Adams Academy, Quincy, Massachusetts, and


380


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


was at Harvard from 1893 to 1895. He then entered the Cincin- nati Law School, taking an LL.B. in 1897. Until his retirement from active business in 1922, he practised law and was associated with the Parsons Wagon Company of Cincinnati, of which he was president for many years.


Kittredge was twice married - on February 27, 1900, at Wood- stock, Vermont, to Mary Frances Collamer, and on June 10, 1915, to Margaret Roberta Gorman. The latter, with his three daugh- ters - Louise Collamer, born July 10, 1901; Anna Elvira, born April 4, 1918; and Margaret Elizabeth, born August 21, 1920 - survived him.


+ ALLEN HOWE KNAPP


A LLEN HOWE KNAPP was born February 20, 1864, at Genoa, New York. The son of William and Irena Swift ( Carpenter ) Knapp, he attended the State Normal School at Mansfield, Penn- sylvania, before coming to Harvard. He was in the Lawrence Scientific School from 1895 to 1897, receiving an S.B. cum laude. His career was entirely in school work. For three years he was principal of the Canton, New York, High School and for six years held the same post in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For nearly twenty-one years he was head of the Department of Mathematics in the Central High School of Springfield, Massachusetts. His death occurred in that city on January 24, 1927. He was survived by his wife, the former Myra Belle Hammond, whom he married at Elkland, Pennsylvania, on August 14, 1889, three children - Edna Pauline, born December 8, 1890; Ruth Agnes, born January 24, 1901; and Allen Harold, born January 31, 1909 - and two grandchildren.


Knapp was active in Masonic circles, having been Past Master of St. John's Lodge of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was for sixteen years a deacon in the South Congregational Church of Springfield. He maintained a loyal interest in Harvard and at his death was chairman of the Scholarship Committee of the Con- necticut Valley Harvard Club.


381


FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT


+ GEORGE WASHINGTON KNOBLAUCH


G J EORGE WASHINGTON KNOBLAUCH was born February 21, 1876, at New York City, where he died on March 11, 1937. The son of Charles Edward and Gertrude (Wiebe) Knoblauch, he attended Sachs' Collegiate Institute before coming to Harvard and received an A.B. cum laude in 1897. Until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he travelled in the West and in Mex- ico. Enlisting in the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the Rough Riders, he served in Cuba as trumpeter in Troop K. After the war he spent about two years in the West and in 1901 entered the Columbia School of Mines, taking the degree of Mining Engineer two years later.


The exact extent of his business affiliations is not known, but for a time he was a mining engineer with the Central Chile Copper Company, Panucillo, Chile. In 1910 he was engaged in a land and agriculture venture in Mexico, but four years later political conditions there had become so unsettled that he returned to the United States and took up farming in Dutchess County, New York. When the United States entered the first World War, he tried to re-enter the armed forces but was at first unsuccessful. In 1918 he entered the Remount Division of the Quartermaster Department and served in this country until his discharge. He then entered the employ of the Mexican Petroleum Company and was with this firm at the time of the 25th Report. He never married.


ALEXANDER HAVEN LADD


INCE my last report to the Class," writes Ladd, "there have S been very few changes in my life. I still live in Milton and my travels have been confined to the United States. My greatest pleasures have been watching my children and grandchildren growing up and successfully meeting their problems.


"My opinions on the past decade of federal government activi- ties are not printable. This does not apply to the military and naval services, which have accomplished wonders."


382


HARVARD CLASS OF 1897


Ladd, the son of William Jones and Anna Russell (Watson) Ladd, was born July 28, 1874, at Chicago. He prepared at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. After four years with our Class, he received his A.B. in 1897. He married Elinor Ware Merriam, October 12, 1898, at Milton. Their children are: Miriam (Mrs. Henry W. Bliss), born January 19, 1900; Alexander Haven, Jr. (married Barbara Wick), born July 31, 1901; and Robert Watson (married Helen Richmond), born December 20, 1903. There are ten grandchildren.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.