USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 39
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
From 1902 to 1939 Mansfield was engaged in the general prac- tice of medicine. In the latter year he retired and moved from his old home in Boston to Los Angeles. During the first World War, he was a member and chairman of Selective Service Board No. 7 of the City of Boston. He was also an operative in the De- partment of Justice. Mrs. Mansfield served as a volunteer clerk on the Selective Service Board. In World War II, Mansfield was an air-raid warden. His wife worked for two years with the Red Cross. He writes that the latchstring was always out for visiting servicemen to whom they tried to bring a touch of home life.
He was a lecturer and examiner for the National First Aid As- sociation of America, and medical examiner for Emerson College and the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1898 to 1900 he was a member of the Boston City Council, and served as a member and chairman of the Board of Bath Trustees of the City of Boston from 1908 to 1910. He was a trustee of Emerson College and, before his retirement, belonged to the Harvard Club of Bos- ton, Boston Athletic Association, Charles River Club, Common- wealth Club, and Cohasset Yacht Club. He is a member of most Masonic bodies and the Shrine.
FREDERICK WHITING MANSUR
F OR several years after graduation," writes Mansur, "I was em-
ployed as one of the clerks in the office of the Nashua River Paper Corporation in East Pepperell, Massachusetts. Later I was with the Three Millers Company in Boston as one of their sales- men.
"Since then I have been on the retired list and really haven't anything of interest to report."
Mansur was born April 20, 1871, at Groton, Massachusetts, the
431
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
son of Isaiah Melvin and Sarah Louise (Parkhurst) Mansur. He prepared at Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge. He was with our Class for four years and received his A.B. at our gradu- ation. He spent the year 1897-1898 at the Law School.
He married Mary Isabelle White, April 18, 1900, at Boston. Their sons are: Melvin White, born December 5, 1907; and David Parkhurst, born August 21, 1912. During World War II, Melvin, a member of the Harvard Class of 1930 (A.M. 1932), was a lieu- tenant commander in the United States Naval Reserve. David was a technical sergeant in the Army of the United States.
RICHARD MARCY
M ARCY did not return a questionnaire. He was with the Class from 1893 to 1895 and then transferred to Dartmouth Col- lege, where he received an S.B. in 1898. At the time of the Second Report he was in the employ of the Boston & Maine Rail- road Company with headquarters in Watertown, Massachusetts. He was later associated with the Fitchburg Railroad and in June, 1906, he formed a partnership under the name of Marcy & Com- pany for the retail coal business in Waltham, Massachusetts. The following year operations were extended to Belmont under the name of Marcy Brothers & Company, Incorporated.
Marcy was born June 25, 1876, at Albany, New York, the son of Henry Sullivan Marcy (Dartmouth College) and Emeline Josephine (Perham) Marcy. He prepared at Browne and Nichols School, Cambridge. On November 9, 1910, he married Florence E. Goodwin.
ROBERT MARCY
A FTER leaving college," writes Robert Marcy, "I worked in the Foreign Freight office of a railroad in Boston. Then I went to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and became associated with the Fitchburg Coal Company. I have been there ever since."
Marcy was born June 23, 1874, at Troy, New York, the son of Henry Sullivan Marcy (Dartmouth College) and Emeline Jose-
432
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
phine Perham. He prepared at Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge. After four years with our Class, he received his A.B. at our graduation and spent the following year at the Law School. His brother, Richard Marcy, is also a member of '97.
Marcy married Helen Whitcomb Ball, October 2, 1906, at Bel- mont, Massachusetts. Their children are: John William, born March 10, 1908; and Robert, Jr., born April 7, 1911. There are five grandchildren, three boys and two girls.
* WYLIE CHURCHILL MARGESON
W YLIE CHURCHILL MARGESON died August 31, 1933, at Brooklyn. The son of Charles Inglis and Sarah Emma (Robinson) Margeson, he was born February 25, 1875, at Hantsport, Nova Scotia, where he attended high school before entering college. He took a B.A. at Acadia College in Nova Scotia in 1896, then came to Harvard, where he took an A.B. in 1897. Returning to Acadia College, he received an M.A. in 1898. Following a year of teaching at the Hillside Home School, Spring Green, Wiscon- sin, he taught for two years at Kalamazoo College. In 1903 he received an LL.B. at the University of Minnesota, and entered law practice in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Subsequently he moved his practice to Kalamazoo and later to Grand Rapids. In 1906 he took an M.P.L. from George Washington University and the following year moved to New York City, where he practised independently until 1911, specializing in patent law. In that year he became a member of the firm of Kiddle & Margeson. His memberships included the Bankers' Club of America, the Cana- dian Society, and the American Bar Association.
On January 18, 1911, at Brooklyn, he married Elsie Augusta Rutter, who survived him. Their only child, Alice Rutter, was born January 16, 1912.
+ ARTHUR MOSS MARKS
A RTHUR MOSS MARKS was born November 1, 1875, at Meridian, Mississippi, the son of Israel and Esther ( Ritterman) Marks, and attended Sachs Collegiate Institute. He was four years with
433
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
the Class, taking an A.B. in 1897, with honorable mention in his- tory. He died at Mamaroneck, New York, on October 1, 1898. He was unmarried.
ISAAC EDWARD MARKS
M ARKS did not return a questionnaire. When last heard from, he was an official in the Marks-Rothenberg Company, a mer- cantile establishment in Meridian, Mississippi, with which he had become associated after leaving college. He was also a director of the Bigbee Valley Railroad Company, as well as president of the Merchants Association and director of the Chamber of Com- merce and the Kiwanis Club.
WILLIAM PETER MARSEILLES
M AIL sent to Marseilles at 19 East 37th Street, New York City, was returned by the Post Office in January, 1947, and the Secretary has not been able to discover his correct address. When last heard from, he was engaged in engineering in New York.
He was born September 17, 1873, at Philadelphia. The son of Peter and Rebecca (Schofield) Marseilles. He was in the Scien- tific School from 1893 to 1895. On March 1, 1898, he became asso- ciated with the Latrobe Steel and Coupler Company and later he was with the Illinois Steel Company. In 1910 he formed the Electric Company of America of Niagara Falls, New York, with Dr. P. Heroult, inventor of the electric steel process. Two years later he became general manager of the Southern Aluminum Company, organized by the French aluminum syndicate. In 1915 war conditions forced the sale of the company to the Aluminum Company of America, and early in 1916 Marseilles opened his own engineering office in New York City. He also entered the automobile business.
He married Marie Elizabeth Richards on November 13, 1901, at Oak Park, Illinois. They had one son, William Peter, Jr. Their grandchildren are Marie Loretta Marseilles and William Peter Marseilles, 3d.
434
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
HIRAM STANLEY MARSH
M Y life has been very uneventful," reports Marsh, "but like nations which have had no history, it has been a happy one. My principal interests have been my family, my business, and, in the earlier years, my work as church organist. Outside these three interests, I have always had some interest in current events - local, national, and international - but wholly from the sidelines. I have never sought office of any kind, nor has office sought me.
"Looking back, it seems to me that I have not done the world very much harm, nor yet very much good. Perhaps my reception in the next world will be like that of Kipling's Tomlinson. How- ever, this is only our Fiftieth. There is still a possibility that by the time our Seventy-fifth rolls around I shall have achieved some- thing sufficiently good (or bad) to make my report that time more interesting than this one."
Marsh, the son of Walter Hiram and Lizzie Sophia (Wilder) Marsh, was born August 11, 1875, at Hudson, New Hampshire. He prepared at the Winchester, Massachusetts, High School. After four years with our Class, he was graduated magna cum laude. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He spent the first three years after graduation at the Boston office of the Butterick Pub- lishing Company, Limited. Since December, 1900, he has been with the Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Company of Cambridge.
He married Edith Berrell Fettretch, February 22, 1909, at New York City. Their children are: John Stanley, '32, LL.B. '35, born May 12, 1910; and Jean Elizabeth, born October 8, 1915. There are four grandchildren.
Marsh's son served in World War II as a lieutenant colonel in the Army of the United States. "In World War II," Marsh writes, "I kept the 'home fires burning.' My daughter and her children and husband lived at my house while he was engaged in war work at the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratories. My daughter-in-law and her baby also lived with us while my son was in the service in Africa. Our small house was filled almost to overflowing, and we lived through whooping cough, mumps, and chicken pox, also grippe and tonsilitis, and the crying of a new baby for its first six
435
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
weeks, but, nevertheless, we enjoyed our 'World War activities,' and look back on them as much more of a pleasure than a patriotic duty."
In World War I he took part in Liberty Bond and Red Cross drives.
+ NAPOLEON BONAPARTE MARSHALL
N APOLEON BONAPARTE MARSHALL, who died June 5, 1933, at the United States Veterans Hospital in New York City, served during the first World War as a captain in the first national negro regiment in New York, the Fifteenth, which he helped to recruit. He went overseas on December 12, 1917, and saw action on sev- eral fronts before receiving the wounds which later brought about his death. His body lay in state in the armory of the 369th In- fantry, the name which had been given the Fifteenth, and burial was in the Arlington Cemetery.
Marshall was born July 30, 1873, at Washington, D.C., the son of Alexander and Letha (Gray) Marshall, and prepared for Har- vard at Phillips Exeter Academy. He was in college from 1893 to 1895 and during 1896-97, and was in the Law School during 1895-96 and 1897-98. Thereafter his interest in law and politics was concentrated on improving the condition of the American negro. He practised law in the firm of Marshall, Garrett & Wheaton in New York. In one of his cases he was of counsel in the Supreme Court of the United States. He spent six years of his career in Haiti with a government appointment.
On June 23, 1906, at Washington, D.C., he married Harriet Aletha Gibbs, who survived him.
As an undergraduate Marshall gained no little reputation as a runner as well as a scholar. He was a member of the Mott Haven Team and during each of our four years in college he was a winner of the 440-yard dash in the Inter-class games as well as the Uni- versity Track Athletic Cup Association during our sophomore year.
436
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
+ CHARLES ABBOTT MARTIN
C HARLES ABBOTT MARTIN, who died December 6, 1930, at Berlin, New Hampshire, was born August 24, 1873, at Lowell, Mas- sachusetts, the son of Laurin and Kate Smith (Hovey) Martin. He prepared at the Lowell High School and Phillips Academy, Andover, and was at Harvard from 1893 to 1896. He was for two years associated with the Merrimack Manufacturing Company of Lowell and the Salt's Textile Manufacturing Company of Bridge- port, Connecticut. After a six months' tour of Europe, he spent a year with the Cochita Gold Mining Company of Albemarle, New Mexico, then took a trip through California and Mexico, and later entered the paper industry. He was for a time superintend- ent of the Cherry River Paper Mills at Richwood, West Virginia, and later went to the Burgess Sulphite Fibre Mills of the Brown Company at Berlin, New Hampshire, where he remaind the rest of his life.
Much of his time Martin devoted to his hobby, arts and crafts, becoming widely recognized as an authority on creating jewelry and artistic arrangements of silver, copper, and enamel. Though he was quiet and unassuming, his presence was felt by his asso- ciates and by his employees, for whose welfare he was always concerned.
He was survived by his wife, the former Marion Elizabeth Herring, whom he married September 12, 1911, at Berlin.
+ PHILIP DANA MASON
PHILIP DANA MASON received his A.B. degree in 1897, but his social affiliations were with the Class of 1896, with which he entered college. His obituary is included in the 25th Anniversary Report of that Class.
NEWMAN MATTHEWS
TN my case," writes Matthews, "leaving college as I did in '95, I am looking back over more than fifty years. It was with deep regret that I left Harvard, but circumstances compelled me to do
437
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
so. Having had theological training and some ministerial experi- ence before entering college, I was ordained to the ministry at Scranton, Pennsylvania, in September, 1895.
"After pastorates at Scranton, Randolph, New York, Kane, Pennsylvania, and St. Petersburg, Florida, I returned to New England in 1913, where I was installed as minister of the West Parish (Congregational) of Andover, Massachusetts. I continued with this church until December 31, 1937, when, at sixty-nine years of age, I retired from active service. Since then, I have done considerable supply work.
"When my successor at the West Church became ill, I took over the work again for a year and a half until his successor was chosen. For several years I have broadcast from Station WLAW at Lawrence.
"All through the years I have had many dear friendships with people in all stations of life. There has been a satisfaction in my work that I cannot fully describe. Although never rugged, I have been very fortunate in these latest years in enjoying good health, though with slowly declining strength. My father was a minister, and I became a minister without realizing how much it meant and involved, but so deeply satisfying have I found this work to be that had I to live my life over again I would freely and gladly choose it again.
"This period has been marked by a remarkable change and progress in religious thought. I have rejoiced greatly in this and in this respect, at least, I am happy to have lived during such a period."
Matthews, the son of Matthew Henry and Susannah (Bowes) Matthews, was born December 14, 1868, at Drayton, Ontario, Canada. He prepared at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachu- setts. His marriage to Elizabeth Tomlinson took place October 23, 1895, at Lawrence, Massachusetts. Their son, Medwin, was born October 25, 1896. There are two grandchildren: Norris Matthews, Columbia '43; and Margaret Elizabeth Matthews, Bucknell '47.
In World War I, Matthews' son was a member of the Student Naval Training Corps at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
438
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
nology. In World War II, he served as a lieutenant commander in the U. S. Naval Reserve, Civil Engineer Corps. Norris was a lieutenant (j.g.) in the Naval Reserve Amphibious Force.
Matthews is the author of the "Historical Manual of West Church and Parish, Andover, Massachusetts."
* ALFRED PENRHYN MEADE, JR.
A LFRED PENRHYN MEADE, JR., died at Washington, D.C., on No- vember 28, 1937. The son of Alfred Penrhyn and Hortense (Hildegarde) Meade, he was born August 9, 1873, at New York City, and prepared for Harvard at St. Paul's School. The outdoor life of topographical and geological engineering attracted him, and in 1901 he became a member of the United States Geological Survey. The experience he gained in mapping difficult terrain stood him in good stead when he was appointed a captain of En- gineers in the Intelligence Section of the Second Army Staff in France in August, 1917. In this capacity he supplied information on enemy movements by constructing maps from aërial photo- graphs.
He was discharged in July, 1919, having received a citation at St. Mihiel and another in the Argonne. With his sergeant, he then started the Pearson-Meade Lithographic Corporation in New York, still continuing with the U. S. Geological Survey. His vigor- ous life, both as a soldier and a civilian, resulted in a general breakdown. In 1933 he suffered a paralytic stroke from which he never recovered. The Class may be proud of this member, who gave so much of his skill to the service of his country in a manner requiring bravery and courage.
He was survived by his wife, the former Alice Davies, whom he married on April 15, 1907, at Washington.
STEPHEN DOUGLAS MERRILL
S TEPHEN DOUGLAS MERRILL died at his home at Cider Hill, in York, Maine, on May 28, 1944. He was born at Newport, Maine, May 11, 1863, the son of William Lovett and Lucinda
439
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
(Stimpson) Merrill. He was prepared for college at the Newport High School and entered the Lawrence Scientific School as a special student in 1893. In our Twenty-fifth Report, he wrote:
"Unfortunately for me, I had to give up college at the end of the first year on account of a nervous breakdown, and devoted my remaining energy for a year or more to the rebuilding of my strength. Then I entered Tufts Medical School, and received the degree of M.D. in June, 1899. Again I collapsed with the old trouble, and for years, by travel and life in the open, found re- newal of energy and health. I was obliged, however, to give up all hope of practising my profession if I expected to keep what I had won with so many disappointments. So I took up a business life, acting as representative of the Metropolitan Coal Company."
He remained with this company until 1938, when he retired from active business. He purchased a farm in York, Maine, seek- ing once again a life in the open and devoting himself to the cultivation and care of a large garden, and merchandising its prod- ucts throughout the neighboring communities. A great lover of flowers, he devoted much of his time, also, to the growing of many and varied species; his gladioli, in particular, won for him a wide recognition among the leading floriculturists of New England. His knowledge of birds, too, was quite out of the ordinary, and he delighted in the study of them.
Although the end of our freshman year brought his college car- eer to a close, Merrill's affection for and devotion to our Class was inspiring in its intensity. He seldom permitted a reunion or Com- mencement to pass without a return to Cambridge, glowing with enthusiasm and radiating his happiness among us all. It was my privilege to attend his eightieth birthday party at Cider Hill. On that occasion, at his insistence, together we gave the '97 Class cheer to the amused bewilderment of all the assembled guests. So passes a gallant spirit and the most loyal of classmates!
Merrill was married at Boston, on October 4, 1893, to Lisbeth Straine. Shortly after their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in 1918, Mrs. Merrill died. He was later married to Winifred How- land Rogers, who survived him.
H. T. N.
440
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
JOHN MAY MESERVE
F OR the past thirty-six years," reports Meserve, "my life has been devoted to farming, although outside activities have taken much of my time. I have been much interested in the political life of Hudson, Massachusetts, and have served in many offices and boards. I was a selectman for twenty years (retiring voluntar- ily ), fire engineer, a member of the school committee, and of the law committee. I also served on the board of survey and special committees.
"At present, I am a member of the Town Finance Committee, the Republican Town Committee, a trustee of the Masons, a direc- tor of the S.P.C.C. for Hudson, and a fence viewer. I presume this last office came to me because no one else would accept it.
"I have been a deacon and treasurer of the Federated Church for twenty-five years and served on the Church Finance Com- mittee as well. Finance has always interested me, and I have served for ten years as vice-president and a member of the Board of Investment of the Hudson Savings Bank.
"My son has just been released from the Army with the rank of colonel and is still working with the Army Transport Command at Fort Totten, New York. We have two grandchildren to bless our old age.
"I have been too busy to travel much, but my wife and I took the time to make a tour of the Gaspé Peninsula and a five months' trip by auto to the West Coast. My chief interest in life is my family and the older I grow the more it is centered there.
"Farm life is always interesting. There is not a dull moment in it and monotony is unknown to one who uses his eyes and his brain. There is no money in it except for those who specialize in a big way and then they have to have luck to succeed. My annual balance sheet always shows a loss in money, but, on the other side, there is a long list of intangibles which money could not buy and which make life really worth living.'
Meserve, the son of Alonzo Meserve, Bridgewater Normal School, and Abbie Marilla May, Bridgewater Normal School, was
441
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
born December 1, 1874, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He pre- pared at the Public Latin School in Boston.
"I lived at home through my entire college course," he writes. "My parents had a large family and it was their ambition to send all their children through college. They did this with one excep- tion, and that was because of sickness. This explains why I had to live at home instead of at the college, and it may also explain why I received a cum laude at graduation. I made few friends at college due to my living at home, and I had no money to spend on social or athletic activities. By living at home, I gained a wife who has been worth more to me during all these years than any num- ber of friends I might have made."
Meserve summarizes his years since 1897 by reporting that he was a student in Europe for two years, a teacher for five years, a photographer for five years, and a farmer and town official for thirty-eight years.
He married Winifred Clara Bliss, June 26, 1901, at Allston, Massachusetts. Their son, George Donald Meserve, was born January 24, 1903. Meserve has two Harvard brothers: the late Edwin Alonzo Meserve, '07; and Harrison Gowell Meserve, '11.
During World War I, Meserve was a member of a Legal Ad- visory Board and was a Four Minute speaker. In World War II, he was chairman of the Communications Committee of the Hud- son Chapter of the Red Cross.
CHARLES EDWARD MIDDLETON
M IDDLETON did not return a questionnaire. He was born Octo- ber 14, 1868, at Madison, Indiana, and attended Purdue University before coming to Harvard. He was in the Lawrence Scientific School during 1893-94. He took a B.C.E. at Purdue and became inspecting engineer with G. W. G. Ferris & Company in Pittsburgh, next, chief inspector of Upper Union Mills, Carnegie Steel Company, and then superintendent of Plate Mills for the American Steel and Wire Company. This was his occupation at the time of the Third Report. In 1934 it was learned that he was
442
HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
with the Barium Steel Corporation. The Secretary has received no news of him since that time. On December 27, 1904, he mar- ried Mary Elizabeth Stewart at Pittsburgh.
+ MORGAN MILLAR
M ORGAN MILLAR, who was with the Class from 1895 to 1897 and took an A.B. in 1898 as of 1897, died August 24, 1935, at Warsaw, New York, where he had been pastor of the Congrega- tional Church until his retirement. After leaving Harvard, he was for several years secretary to Edward Everett Hale. He then be- came pastor of the Unitarian Church in Newton Center, Massa- chusetts, before entering the Divinity School of Yale University. There he continued his work in English literature and received an A.M. in 1907. He participated in the preparation of Kent's Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament and Kent's and Smith's Early Prophets. He was ordained in the Congrega- tional Church and was called to the Olivet Church, Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1913 temporary retirement was forced upon him by ill health, but five years later he was able to accept the position of pastor in the Congregational Church of Warsaw.
On August 3, 1910, at Bridgeport, he married Harriet Hogg, who, with two sons, Melville Beattie, '32, born January 19, 1912, and Bradford Price, '35, born March 19, 1914, survived him.
FREDERICK PRAY MILLER
A' FTER graduation from the Harvard Law School," reports Fred- erick Miller, "I had hard sledding for some years, having no financial or social background. In 1908 I became associated with the late Harvey L. Boutwell, for many years city solicitor for the city of Malden and a former member of the Governor's Council. I stayed with him until November, 1916, engaged in the general practice of law.
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.