USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 35
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
Ladd's son, Alexander, was graduated with the Harvard Class of '23, and Robert is a member of '27.
In World War II, Ladd's grandson, Henry Mather Bliss, Jr., volunteered for service in the American Field Service and was sent to Burma. Ladd himself worked for the Red Cross during both world wars.
+ WILLIAM LAIMBEER
W ILLIAM LAIMBEER was born February 23, 1875, at New York City, where he prepared for college at the Berkeley School. His parents were William Elisha and Josephine Maria (Daly) Laimbeer. He left Harvard after our freshman year and entered the banking and brokerage business, becoming a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He was with the firm of Bishop, Laimbeer & Company until its dissolution, when he continued in business independently. He died on August 3, 1913, at Hemp- stead, Long Island, New York.
On May 29, 1902, he married Clara Sutton Bloodgood, who died December 5, 1907. On October 30, 1909, he married Nathalie Schenck. Their daughter, Nathalie Lee, was born January 15,. 1911.
+ FRANK FITTS LAMSON
F RANK FITTS LAMSON was born November 29, 1872, at Salem, Massachusetts, the son of William Stickney and Mary Anna (Abbott) Lamson. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and
383
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
took an A.B. with the Class. Having majored in chemistry, he sought employment as an industrial chemist and worked first in a dye-house in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and later in the printing department of a cotton mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he was promoted to the position of technical superintend- ent. After about ten years in this employment, he suffered a breakdown. When he was sufficiently recovered, he entered the employ of a Boston corporation of which his father was president. He became interested in osteopathy and finally chose it as a pro- fession, receiving his diplomas and registration certificate at the age of forty-four after four years of study. He died on May 24, 1924, at Newton, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife, the former Lena Marston Josselyn, whom he married at Man- chester, New Hampshire, on December 9, 1902, and their daugh- ter, Mary Elizabeth.
WILLIAM WOART LANCASTER
I' IN the entire fifty years since graduation," reports Lancaster, "I have written no books, articles, or plays, received no medals, held no public office, or participated in either World War I or World War II as a member of any government organization. Yet I have been quite strenuously occupied this half-century. I gave some idea of the first twenty-five years in my previous re- port. Here are some of the highlights of my twenty-five years since 1922.
"In the early part of this second period, I became a member of an old law firm whose name is Shearman & Sterling & Wright. During all of this latter period, I have been in charge of the run- of-the-mill legal affairs of the National City Bank of New York, assisted in this task by many talented partners and associates. In 1924 I aided in setting up in France a French subsidiary of the bank, which erected for itself a splendid building in Paris. The building served as German Staff Headquarters in the current war. The Germans did not help it particularly.
"In 1932 I went to Russia in the hope of bringing about some adjustment of American claims, particularly those of the National
384
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
City Bank of New York. Trips to Moscow remind me a good deal of the journeys of brave knights in the fairy tales who seek to rescue fair maidens from fiery dragons. The knights sometimes escape alive but leave unchanged the relations between the fair maidens and the fiery dragons. Such was my own trip to Moscow, but it was an interesting experience. It brought me in contact with a number of people who have bulked quite large in later Russian history and I have continued to know some of these people and their successors even unto the present day.
"In 1934 I was in Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, and England. In Spain I remember my son Stephen noticing in a side street in Barcelona the forbidden flag of independent Catalonia, and we encountered here and there expressions of opinion which forecast the disastrous civil war so soon to break out. In Switzer- land my then young son and I had two confidential interviews with one of the great industrialists who was supporting Hitler. He wanted me to assure my New York colleagues that they held Mr. Hitler in the palm of their hands, that he was a tool and would be discarded when he had accomplished their purpose, which was the crushing of Communism. In Germany I was told that I was in the land of 'Bunk,' where all the preposterous ideas which mankind had discarded throughout the ages were in full sway. I heard there of the plan to depopulate certain regions in Europe so that they could be occupied by the superior German people.
"At some time prior to World War II, and after the first election of Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency, I negotiated the sale to the Haitians of their national bank of issue, known as the Banque de la Republique d'Haiti. They and the Banque have, since that time, lived quite happily and prosperously together.
"After the entry of the Germans into Poland, I was of some assistance to the Dominican Republic in establishing there a cen- tral bank on the model of that in Haiti so that now the Island of Hispaniola supports two central banks, one among the French- speaking Haitians and the other among the Spanish-speaking Dominicans. The Dominican bank, like its Haitian prototype, has been profitable and its possession has pleased its owners.
385
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
"Early in December, 1940, at the request of Mr. Hull, I tried to arouse among my friends some fear of the war which Mr. Hull felt was rapidly approaching the shores of the United States, but my friends, like Senator Wheeler of Montana, felt that their sources of information were superior to those of the State Depart- ment, and my efforts were not successful.
"In connection with the frequent investigations of Pearl Har- bor, it is interesting for me to remember that on November 7, 1941, I had information through the State Department that in their opinion war with Japan was inevitable unless Japan gave up her insistence upon a free hand in China. This information did result in a number of people being evacuated from Japan who other- wise might have been caught there, but it received no general credence.
"Early in World War II, I became interested in medical relief to Russia. This subsequently extended to an interest in shipping all kinds of supplies to Russia for the use of the Russian people. Russian Relief raised large sums of money which it spent in the United States in the purchase of seed, clothing, artificial limbs, penicillin, to say nothing of countless other similar articles. We were inspired by the thought of the tremendous devastation to which the Russians had been subjected and we were also con- cerned to help the Russians remain in the war. Many of us had a vivid recollection of the almost Germany victory in World War I because the Russians were forced out of the war. We did not wish Western Europe and the United States to incur that peril again. Even today it gives me a shiver of apprehension to think what might have happened on D Day if the two hundred German legions which had been dissipated in Russia had lived to meet us on the beaches of the Cotentin Peninsula.
"During World War II, I was chairman of the board of an or- ganization known as the Foreign Policy Association. The presi- dent was General Frank R. McCoy whose name is well known in military and diplomatic history. We published thousands of pamphlets which were used in connection with the education of American troops. Other pamphlets which we published we used to interest the American people in the importance to them of our
386
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
relations with foreign countries. Under our auspices former President Hoover at Philadelphia declared his views, and the late President Roosevelt in New York made his important declaration of foreign policy at the time of the recent presidential election.
"I remember a good many years ago there was a comic opera in which occurred the lines: 'What makes the business man tired only the business man knows.' I have given a few instances of what may have made me tired during the last twenty-five years, but they have not only made me tired, they have made for me a very absorbing life. They have also given me opportunity to form warm friendships with all sorts and kinds and conditions of men at home and abroad. They have not succeeded in giving me influence sufficient to send my sons to Harvard. The sons have preferred Columbia. Their preference is probably due to the triumph of environment over heredity.
"Most biographies and many autobiographies omit much refer- ence to the subject's family unless the family relation is on the Socratic or Tolstoian model. Though it breaches this rule of reticence, I herein record the fact that my wife and children have had a great deal to do with my life and have been a major factor in my happiness. My wife's views have influenced my views, and I believe mine have influenced hers. What of achievement I have had has been the result of mutual sympathy and mutual endeavor.
"My brief history may answer the question as to how a New York lawyer may put in some of his time. It does not answer your question as to what are, in my opinion, life's 'durable satisfactions.' I think one answer would be found in a paraphrase of Mark Twain. It is one of life's 'durable satisfactions' to try to get through it alive. One's family and one's friendships I would say would fill out the rest of the picture. To try to base a 'durable satisfaction' on a feeling of having advanced civilization involves too many definitions and too much emphasis on what can at best be only a minuscule contribution. God bless my classmates and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."
Lancaster, the son of Stephen Symonds Lancaster, Amherst '68, and Mary Ingelbert Woart, was born September 12, 1874, at Augusta, Maine. He prepared at the Coney High School in
387
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
Augusta and other schools, and was privately tutored. After three years' work with our Class, he was graduated magna cum laude. In 1896 he entered the Law School, where he received his LL.B. in 1899. His brother, Edward Sewall Lancaster, was graduated with the Harvard Class of 1912.
Lancaster married Elizabeth Lansing Greig, August 26, 1918, at New York City. Their children are: Stephen Symonds, born June 22, 1919; Mary Carlisle (Mrs. Walters), born October 20, 1921; William Woart, Jr., born March 6, 1924; and Elizabeth Lansing, born September 26, 1926. There are two grandchildren.
His clubs are the Harvard, University, and Broad Street Clubs of New York City, Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., Man- hasset Bay Yacht Club, and Augusta (Maine) Country Club. He is a member of the Bar Association of the City of New York, County Lawyers' Association of the City of New York, American Bar Association, Council on Foreign Relations, Economic Club of New York, Academy of Political Science, New York State Bar Association, and the American Foundation for Tropical Medi- cine.
He has served as a director of the Gubernatorial Banking Cor- poration, as chairman of the board of the Foreign Policy Associa- tion, and as national secretary and a member of the executive committee of Russian War Relief. His daughter, Mary Carlisle, served in World War II in the A.W.U.S.
+ SAMUEL WALTER ROSS LANGDON
AMUEL WALTER ROSS LANGDON, great-great-grandson of the Rev- S erend Samuel Langdon who was president of Harvard during the American Revolution, was born September 12, 1873, at Stock- ton, California, where he died December 30, 1938. The son of Wal- ter Ross and Edwa Worthington ( Dorsey ) Langdon, he prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy. He received his A.B. de- gree after only three years in college. During his college years, his classmates saw too little of him, since he lived at home and spent a great deal of time in the Boylston Chemical Laboratory. Yet his profound store of diverse knowledge and his charming
388
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
conversational manner made him a popular member of any com- pany.
In 1900 he took an M.D. degree at the University of California. For twelve years he practised medicine in Stockton and about 1912 retired to Winston, Merced County, to give all of his time to his orchard interests there and to his agricultural interests in the San Joaquin Valley. In 1931 he returned to Stockton as a psychiatrist, having charge of the entertainment and recreation of the patients at the state hospital. He took an active part in medical societies and in the affairs of the Episcopal Church.
On September 28, 1904, at Oakland, California, he married Mary Eva Root, who, with their two children - Samuel Walter Ross, Jr., born January 8, 1908, and Edwa Worthington Dorsey, born July 10, 1916 - survived him.
FREDERICK ADAMS LAWS
F REDERICK ADAMS LAWS was born April 4, 1876, at Bedford, Massachusetts. He came to Harvard from the Concord, Massa- chusetts, High School, and received an A.B. degree in 1897. He returned to Harvard as a special student in the School of Business Administration, where he was registered during 1908-09 and 1909-10. He entered the employ of James C. Freeman, real estate and insurance broker, Boston, and later was associated with the foreign exchange department of the American Express Company. For eight years he was superintendent of the Harvard Co-opera- tive Society, and in 1911 he joined the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, Boston, where he became assistant to the treasurer and was later placed in charge of the company's credit department of its New York selling agency. He died on December 7, 1912, at New York City, following a brief illness. He never married.
As an undergraduate, Laws worked with a quiet determination, choosing subjects best designed to give him a liberal academic education. He was particularly interested in English and was a contributor to the Advocate. His drawings for the Lampoon and for Class Day tickets showed his artistic talent. In his later years he was secretary of the Economy Club, a member of several com-
389
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
mittees of the Colonial Club, and organizer and secretary of the Harvard Square Business Men's Association, and a member of the governing board of the Under Forty division of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. For several years he was a member of Battery A, Field Artillery, of the Massachusetts Militia.
WILLIAM LAWTHER, JR.
L AWTHER, the son of William and Annie E. (Bell) Lawther, was born January 22, 1874, at Dubuque, Iowa. He prepared at public schools in Dubuque and at Phillips Exeter Academy. He was with our Class for two years as a special student.
He married Eleanor Mary Shields, October 11, 1899, at Du- buque. Their children are: William Shields, born September 23, 1900; Eleanor (Mrs. Howe), born October 1, 1903; Elizabeth (Mrs. Miller), born March 2, 1906; and Robert Emerson, born February 2, 1912. William is a member of the Harvard Class of 1923, and Robert received his LL.B. at the Harvard Law School in 1936. There are five grandchildren.
During World War I, Lawther served as chairman of the Four Minute Men. He was chairman, in World War II, of the Second War Loan drive. His son, William, served in the U. S. Naval Reserve.
Lawther is president of the First National Bank of Dubuque. He is a member of the Dubuque Golf Club, Commercial Club, and Dubuque Lodge, B.P.O.E.
* HENRY LAMPART LEDAUM
H ENRY LAMPART LEDAUM was born February 28, 1872, at Neuchâtel, Switzerland. His parents were Pierre Henry and Ida (Lampart) LeDaum. He received his early education in the public schools of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and in the Preparatory Department of Ohio Wesleyan University. He was at Harvard only during 1896-97, taking an A.B. with our Class. In addition, he held an A.B. from Ohio Wesleyan University and in 1903 received an A.M. from the same institution. After leaving
390
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
Harvard he studied at Heidelberg University and travelled widely in Europe for several months. In the fall of 1897 he became an instructor in French at Northwestern University. Six years later he became professor of Romance languages at Epworth Univer- sity, Oklahoma, where he remained a year. In 1905 he moved to the State University of Iowa, to take charge of the department of French, Italian and Spanish. At the time of his death on March 10, 1913, at Grand Forks, North Dakota, he was a professor at the University of North Dakota, which honored his memory by devot- ing a day to services for him.
In addition to his teaching, LeDaum was able to do much writing. He edited Edmond Rostand's Les Romanesques, wrote a lecture on "The Song of Roland" which was delivered under the auspices of the Whitney Society, and at the time of the Third Report he was preparing a "Syllabus" for French and Spanish classes and an edition of L'Aiglon, of Rostand. During his summer travels he established relations between the universities of this country and Italy, through the Dante Alighieri Society, arranging for annual visitors and lecturers, and in Mexico studied educa- tional methods and arranged for trained teachers to go there from the United States. In Canada he studied the remains of French civilization and of French speech. His major work, which was incomplete at his death, was a Syllabus of French Speech, a phonetic system of teaching French to English-speaking peoples. On April 9, 1898, at Delaware, Ohio, he married Marie Elizabeth Spires. Their children were Henry, Jr., born January 1, 1899, and Bonnie Ruth, born June 19, 1909.
* HENRY TURNER LEE
H 'ENRY TURNER LEE, son of William Hill and Julia (Turner ) Lee, was born June 27, 1872, at St. Louis, where he attended Smith Academy. He came to Harvard from Georgetown Univer- sity in Washington and was with the Class only during 1893-94. During that year he rowed on the Freshman crew. He left col- lege to engage in farming and stock-raising in Boone County, Missouri, carrying on at the same time a variety of activities in
391
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
the political affairs of the state. Although he held no high politi- cal office and at one time declined nomination to an important state post, he was a delegate for a number of years to all state and judicial conventions and in 1904 was a delegate from his con- gressional district to the Democratic National Convention. He was appointed by the governor of Missouri to his staff as a brigadier general. On April 25, 1900, at St. Louis, he married Katharine de Hart Patterson. Their children were Wilson Turner, born February 26, 1901; Julia, born April 20, 1903; and Phoebe Hunt, born May 14, 1910. Lee died at St. Louis on December 20, 1923. His wife and children survived him.
+ OLIVER LENTZ
O LIVER LENTZ died April 28, 1940, at Reading, Pennsylvania. The son of Levi Rudolph and Sarah Mary (Koch) Lentz, he was born August 28, 1872, at Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, and at- tended the Palatinate College at Myerstown, Pennsylvania, before coming to Harvard. In 1900 he took an LL.B. at Dickinson Col- lege and then entered law practice. He became active in Demo- cratic politics in Pennsylvania and served as assistant city solicitor and as controller's solicitor in Berks County. At one time he was a candidate for election to the state senate. He was also prominent in fraternal organizations in Reading. During the first World War he was a captain in the Infantry and was stationed at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, and Camp Lee, Virginia.
He was survived by his wife, the former Susanna Burkholder, .and two daughters.
+ MERTON CHANNING LEONARD
M ERTON CHANNING LEONARD died October 21, 1928, at Bridge- water, Massachusetts. He was born July 23, 1869, at Norton, Massachusetts, the son of James Herbert and Albina Mari (Walker) Leonard. He prepared for Harvard at the Bridge- water State Normal School and entered Harvard in 1894, taking an S.B. magna cum laude in 1897. He then began his career as a
392
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
teacher, which included positions in a Vermont normal school, Bates College, the Higher Normal School in Tokyo, a Wisconsin normal school, and the Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was a past president of the New Jersey Science Teachers' Association, the High School Department of the State Teachers' Association, and the Bridgewater Club of New York and vicinity. He was for ten years a member of the New York Public Lecture Corps, his subject being "The Real Tokyo." Dur- ing the first World War he spoke eighty times as a "Four Minute Man." He had delivered and published many scientific addresses and magazine articles.
He was survived by his wife, the former Edith Iola Irving, whom he married at Lewiston, Maine, on August 2, 1899, and three children - Agnes Iola, born March 29, 1902; Lois Marion, born December 8, 1908; and Eliot Boyden, born February 21, 1905. Another son, Samuel Irving, born December 8, 1900, died in Panama in 1921.
+ FRED CHARLES LEWIS
F RED CHARLES LEWIS, who died December 21, 1934, at Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia, was the son of John Lawrence and Emma Jean (Sandilands) Lewis. He was born February 14, 1875, at Montreal, and came to Harvard from the Washington, D. C., High School. After a brief period of engineering in Montreal, he went to West Virginia, where he was in charge of a coal mine until 1908. He then turned to farming, in which he was still en- gaged at the time of the 25th Report, when he wrote, "I am still . in the land of the living and perfectly happy to be. It is a grand world, even if man does try to abuse it. I am still farming, had some hard knocks in deflation, but have no kick coming." No in- formation has been received concerning the interval between that time and his death.
393
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
FREDERIC THOMAS LEWIS
N o two persons are alike," observes Frederic Lewis, "and the learned biologist, Jennings, calculated that the chance of the production of his own personality by his immediate parents was but one in five millions of billions. Differing in interests from others in my family," Lewis continues, "I was born in Cambridge, on the Boston side of Harvard Square, where I lived at home throughout college years. It was rural. A Jersey cow was pastured across the street. Memorable was my first sight of a trim sparrow flirting white tail feathers as it flew, and on Cambridge Street I gathered beautiful Promethea moths, now largely exterminated. In summer, at the ancestral home on Cape Cod, there were conchs and cowries that whalers had brought. The flora of pond margins, sea beach and the moraine was captivating.
"Conscientious and studious at the Cambridge Latin School, I attained with difficulty a rank of fifteen in a class of thirty. In- credulously my mother heard the doctor's diagnosis, 'overworked and underfed,' for there was plenty to eat and no work.
"At Harvard, by studying no harder, but abandoning Latin School subjects for botany, zoology, and geology, the result was different and altogether delightful. Reluctantly I entered the Medical School as a field of applied biology, and on graduation was accepted as a teacher of microscopic anatomy of the nor- mal human body and an investigator of prenatal development of the rabbit and pig. There I have remained on the hands of the medical faculty all these years. Indeed, I am fond of New England.
"I recall one public service with satisfaction. In 1904, Park Street Church in Boston was to be sold for a million dollars and demolished. The final decision lay with the pew owners, nine men supporting the pastor and advocating sale, six men (includ- ing my father and myself) opposed, and four elderly and retiring ladies who could make a majority. On the day of the meeting I visited all four and persuaded them to attend. Their presence prevented 'an irreparable civic calamity,' as Professor Norton wrote to me. 'Park Street Church,' he said, 'is of incomparable
394
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
value as an essential part of that image of Boston which her sons and her lovers carry in their hearts.'
"The spread of suburbs, not so easily stayed, 'levels knolls and ridges, drains or fills the swamps and meadows, sweeping away woods, groves, thickets and orchards to make place for crowded houses or closely cultivated truck farms: little of beauty or interest remains.' Yet a presidential veto was required to halt the aban- donment, ordered by Congress, of the Parker River Wildlife Refuge. At committee hearings of the State Legislature from 1910 to 1915, I was authorized to represent the Boston Society of Natural History in matters of conservation, with endorsements by Presidents Eliot and Roosevelt. It proves difficult to detain a vanishing Eden.'
"And what impossible thing would I do in '47? How good it would be to be back with '97, all as freshmen, electing for myself modern physics, mathematics and chemistry as adjuvants of biol- ogy, while classmates chose the social sciences and learned to govern this country."
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.