History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 53

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 53

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HARVARD JOURNALISM .- Harvard journalism has not, on the whole, taken so high a rank as might be desired ; it has not, for example, kept the plane which the students' publications of Oxford and Cambridge have held. And yet undergraduates have, from time to time, been connected with the Harvard journals who have later achieved a reputation in literature. The first paper published was the Harvard Lyceum, July 14, 1810 ; among its editors were Edward Everett and Sam- uel Gilman, author of "Fair Harvard." It expired in 1811, after eighteen numbers had appeared. The Harvard Register, an octavo of thirty-two pages, was issued in March, 1827, but died from lack of support in February, 1828, although George S. Hillard, R. C. Winthrop, C. C. Felton and E. H. Hedge were on its editorial board. The Collegian, starting in February, 1830, ran out after six numbers. O. W. Holmes was one of its contributors, and furnished several pieces which have since been republished in his collected works. Harvardiana had a longer life (September, 1835-June, 1838), and had J. R. Lowell as one of its editors. The next venture, The Harvard Magazine, was launched in December, 1854, and, although some· times on the verge of foundering, floated till July, 1864. Among its originators were F. B. Sanborn, Phillips Brooks and J. B. Greenongh. In 1866 ap- peared a new Collegian, but after three numbers it was suppressed by the Faculty. In May, 1866, the Advocate, a fortnightly, was issued, and it has had a prosperous career ever since. In 1873 The Magenta (whose name was subsequently changed to The Crim- son) was founded, and ran successfully till 1883, when

it was consolidated with the Daily Herald (founded in 1882). Previously to the Herald, in 1879, The Echo, the first College daily, had been started. In 1876 an illustrated fortnightly, The Lampoon, was founded, and soon extended its circulation outside of the College, through the clever skits and parodies of Robert Grant, F. J. Stimson and J. T. Wheelwright, and the comic cartoons of F. G. Attwood. Its publi- cation ceased in 1880, but in the following year a new series was begun. The Harvard Monthly, more solid in character, was founded in 1885. Moses King, a member of the Class of 1881, published an illustrated monthly, called the Harvard Register, from January, 1880, to July, 1881.

SPORTS AND GYMNASTICS .- We have no record of the games and sports in which the students of the 17th century indulged. Freshmen, down to the Rev- olution, were required to "furnish batts, balls and footballs for the use of the students, to be kept at the Buttery." Drilling with the train-hand was a favor- ite diversion of our ancestors, and as it seems to have been followed by a good deal of drinking, the Harvard Faculty rarely allowed students to "train." In days when the Freshmen were fags, they, at least, did not lack physical exercise, often of a peculiar kind. In N. Ames' Diary we meet such entries as these : " June 26 (1758). President's Grass Mow'd." "July 1, finished the President's hay." Hunting was also to be had in this neighborhood, for the same diarist re- ports, "Sept. 10 (1759) a Bear seen. Men hunt him." "Sept. 11. Bear kil'd, a dance this evening." "Sept. 26, a Bear kill'd by Brall Bliss & others." There was skatiug, too, on Fresh Pond. Frequent fights, or rushes, took place between the two lower classes. A writer in the New England Magazine (vol. iii, p. 239) describes "a custom, not enjoined by the Govern- ment, [which] had been in vogue from time imme- morial. That was for the Sophomores to challenge the Freshmen to a wrestling match. If the Sopho- mores were thrown, the Juniors gave a similar chal- lenge. If these were conquered, the Seniors entered the lists, or treated the victors to as much wine, punch, etc., as they chose to drink. ... Being disgusted with these customs, we [Class of 1796] held a class- meeting, early in our first quarter, and voted unani- mously that we should never send a Freshman on an errand; and, with but one dissenting voice, that we would not challenge the next class that should enter to wrestle." The Harvard Washington Corps, a military company, was established about the year 1769, and from its motto-Tam Marti quam Mercurio was called the Marti-Mercurian Band. It flourished nearly twenty years; was revived in 1811, and was finally disbanded in 1834.

The first regular training in gymnastics was given by Dr. Charles Follen, who, about 1830, set up appa- ratus on the Delta. At that time swimming was the favorite sport, and as the Charles River had not yet been turned into a sewer for Brighton, its waters were

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clean. Rowing-parties made their rendezvous at Fresh Pond. Colonel Higginson 1 tells of a member of the Class of 1839 who was cited before the Faculty on the charge of owning a ducking-float there, and when he pleaded that it was in no way a malum prohibitum, he was told "that no student was al- lowed to keep a domestic animal except by permis- sion of the Faculty, and that a boat was a do- mestic animal within the meaning of the statute." Cricket, base-ball and foot-ball, but of old-fashioned,. crude varieties, were played at that time. The last " was the first game into which undergraduates were initiated, for on the first evening of his college life the Freshman must take part in the defense of his class against the Sophomores." About 1844, Belcher Kay opened a gymnasium.

Rowing began in earnest in 1844, when the Class of 1846 bought an eight-oared boat, the "Star," which they re-named the "Oneida." "It was 37 feet long, lapstreak built, heavy, quite low in the water, with no shear and with a straight stem." Other boats, the " Huron," the "Halcyon," the "Ariel " and the " Iris," were almost immediately purchased, each be- longing to a club. In 1846 a boat-house was built. The races took place among the various college clubs and also with outsiders. On August 3, 1852, the first inter-collegiate race was rowed at Centre Harbor, on Lake Winnipiseogee, between the Harvard " Onei- da " and the "Shawmut," of Yale, the former win- ning by about four lengths over a two-mile course. The next race with Yale, in 1855, on the Connecticut at Springfield, was won by the Harvard " Iris," when short outriggers were used for the first time, and the steering was done by the bow oar (Alexander Agassiz). The next year the first University boat was built at St. John, then the chief rowing town on this side of the Atlantic ; and the Harvard crew competed in the usual 4th of July regatta on the Charles River. In 1857 Harvard, having been defeated by Boston clubs, ordered a six-oar shell of Mackay, with which (June 19, 1858) she won the Beacon Cup, and beat a workingmen's crew on July 4th. This year was organ- ized an Inter-collegiate Rowing Association, com- posed of Harvard, Brown, Yale and Trinity, but, owing to the drowning of the Yale stroke-oar, Dunham, just before the race, the regatta was abandoned. Yale, Brown and Harvard met on Lake Quinsigamond in 1859, and the last won easily, repeating her victory in 1860. Then followed a lull till 1864, when Harvard was beaten by Yale. The annual race between these two colleges took place at Worcester down to and in- cluding 1870-Harvard winning seven out of nine times. Sliding seats, used first by Yale in 1870, were adopted by Harvard in 1872; the Ayling oars were introduced from England at Cambridge in 1870, and from time to time improvements were made in the outriggers and row-locks. The most famous

of all the races in which Harvard competed was rowed against Oxford, from Putney to Mort- lake, four miles and three furlongs, on Aug. 27, 1869. The crews consisted of four men with a cox- swain, and Oxford won by six seconds in 22 min. 413 sec. The college regattas were now revived, and were held at Springfield in 1871-73, and at Saratoga 1874-76. Amherst and Cornell each won twice, and Columbia once. But this system did not commend itself to Harvard and Yale; the number of crews entered (eleven in 1873 and thirteen in 1875) caused many fouls and disputes, and, beginning with 1877, Harvard and Yale agreed to row by themselves. Since 1878 their annual race has been held on the Thames River, at New London, two or three days after Commencement. Harvard has usually rowed a preliminary race with Columbia. In 1874 Robert Cook introduced the " Oxford stroke " at Yale, which was adopted and perfected by W. A. Bancroft (H. U. 1878), the oarsman to whom, more than all others, Harvard owes its aquatic prestige. In order to bring out and train as many oarsmen as possible, the sys- tem of "Club crews " was encouraged during the seven- ties, but these were superseded (1879) by Class crews, which compete every May over the Charles River course. Freshmen races with other colleges-Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, &c .- have been kept up. The methods of training have under- gone great changes. At first, oarsmen trained for only a few weeks before the race ; then, a very severe diet was insisted upon ; finally, for the past fifteen years, the training has begun in the autumn and continued throughout the college year, but the food and drink allowed have been more rational. About a fortnight before the race the 'Varsity crew goes to New London where quarters were built for it in 1881, and receives final instruction from a coach. Harvard's great lack, during recent seasons, has been a competent coach. The recently completed Weld Boat-house will, it is hoped, encourage rowing as a pastime for students who do not belong to the 'Varsity or Class crews.

Base-Ball, the second in importance of University sports, is even younger than Rowing. It originated, apparently, in the old game of rounders. Up to 1862 there were two varieties of base-ball-the New York and the Massachusetts game. In the autumn of 1862 George A. Flagg and Frank Wright organized the Base-Ball Club of the Class of '66, adopting the New York rules; and in the following spring the city of Cambridge granted the use of the Common for prac- tice. A challenge was sent to several colleges: Yale replied that they had no club, but hoped soon to have one; but a game was arranged with the Brown sophomores, and played at Providence June 27, 1863. The result was Harvard's first victory. Interest in the game grew rapidly. On July 9, 1864, Harvard encountered the Lowell Club-then the most famous in New England-on the Boston Common, but was defeated. Class nines were organized, and from the

1 Harvard Book, i, 188.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

best of these the 'Varsity nine was made np. For several years the chief contests were between Har- vard and the Lowells or the Trimountains, and,- among professionals-the Athletics, of Philadelphia, and the Atlantics, of Brooklyn. In 1868 the first game with Yale was played. From that year until 1871 Harvard had a remarkable nine, of which A. McC. Bush was captain and catcher. In 1869 it made a long tour, playing the strongest clubs in the country, professionals as well as amateurs, and all but defeating the Red Stockings of Cincinnati, then the champions. After Bush and his colleagues left col- lege Harvard was less successful during several years, but under the captaincy of F. W. Thayer, "78, it was again the leading college club. He invented the catcher's mask-an invention which bronght about the greatest possible change in the method of play ; sacri- fice hits, base-stealing and curve-pitching-which was declared an impossibility by instructors in physics- came in at this time, and added to the precision of the game. Since 1878 Harvard, although frequently victorious, has had but one excellent nine, that of 1885, captained by Winslow. The nine trains in the Gymnasium during the winter, and is coached by a professional ; but recently the Faculty has forbidden it from playing matches with professionals. The most remarkable game on record was played by the Harvards and Manchesters in 1877 ; it lasted twenty- four innings, neither club making a run, Games in Cambridge were played on the Delta, until that was chosen as the site of Memorial Hall; then Jarvis Field was converted into a ball-field. About 1876 base-ball and foot-ball were played on Holmes Field ; and a little later a cinder fifth-mile track was laid out on Jarvis by the Athletic Association. About seven years ago Holmes Field was regraded, a quar- ter-mile track was laid and the base-ball diamond fixed there. Jarvis has since then been given up to foot-ball and tennis. In 1889 a large field belonging to the Norton estate was leased for athletic purposes; it is now proposed to reclaim the large tract of marsh land belonging to the College on the further side of the Charles, in order to furnish sufficient space for all possible athletic needs.

Foot-ball, which has lately come to be par excel- lence the autumn sport, was played in desultory fash- ion up to 1873, when the University Foot-ball Asso- ciation was organized. The team consisted of fifteen players, and more dependence was placed on indi- vidual speed and strength than on concerted play. Gradually, experience suggested improvements, and at Princeton and Yale more than at Harvard the standard of the game was raised. The number of players was reduced to eleven, and in 1880 the Rug- by rules were adopted. In 1885 the playing was so rough that the Harvard Faculty refused to allow the Harvard! team to compete; but this prohibition was removed the following year. In 1889, however,

brutal acts, tricks and " professionalism " again called for a remedy, and Harvard, having withdrawn from the "triangular league " with Princeton and Yale, is now negotiating for the formation of a "dual league " with Yale in foot-ball, base-ball and general athletics, similar to the agreement in rowing.

The Old Gymnasium, built in 1860, sufficed, for a time, for the needs of the students, but with the rapid increase in the membership of the college after 1870, the building became overcrowded, and in 1878 Au- gustus Hemenway (H. U. 1876) gave the College the new Gymnasium, which, in size and appointments, surpassed any other in the country. The Athletic Association, founded in 1874, has stimulated the growing interest in physical exercise by holding Winter meetings (at which there are sparring, wrest- ling, fencing, tumbling, jumping, tugs-of-war, etc.) and Spring meetings (at which there are running, leaping and other out-door sports). The best Harvard athletes (since 1876) have competed at the Intercol- legiate Games at Mott Haven, where Harvard has stood first nine times, Columbia three times, and Princeton and Yale once each.

Of the other athletic organizations it is unneces- sary to speak in detail. Cricket, although venerable, has never been able to compete in popular favor with base-ball. Bicycling was introduced in 1879, almost simultaneously with Lawn Tennis; the latter has perhaps done more than any other sport to improve the general physique of the students. La Crosse, Sparring, Canoeing and Shooting have all their vota- ries; and the introduction of Polo indicates the in- creasing number of wealthy students. Under the superintendence of Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, the Di- rector of the Gymnasium, students are examined and assigned the apparatus best adapted to their several needs. Track athletics are also in charge of an as- sistant. The Faculty, by appointing a Committee to confer with the officers of the various organizations, and to superintend the games, have shown their de- termination to prevent athleticism from being pushed to a harmful extreme. The problem that confronts them is comparatively new in America, and by no means has a satisfactory solution yet been found. As yet there is not here, what there has long been in England, a large body of gentlemen athletes, who pursne sport for its own sake : our public opinion is determined by professionals who fix the standard and set the pace. College athletes emulate them, to the detriment of the amateur or gentlemanlike spirit which should rule college sports. And since more and more young men go to college for the sake of the excitement and amusement to be had there, or be- cause they excel in athletics, the Faculty have to de- vise means for curbing the excessive athleticism towards which these tend, while allowing, at the same time full scope for the normal and wholesome exercise of the great majority of industrious students.

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IV. CONCLUSION.

It would be a grateful task to record, if space per- mitted, somewhat of the lives of the many men who, during the past two hundred and fifty years, have co-operated either by gifts or money or by their learning, patience and devotion, to the growth and welfare of Harvard University. No other institution in this country has had so long a life, aud to none other have so many of the best efforts of society been de- voted age after age. The existence and fostering of the College at all, what are they but proofs that at every period a certain portion of the community have recognized the inestimable benefits that spring from the dissemination of Truth ? We cannot too often repeat that buildings and rich foundations do not, of themselves, constitute a University,-that the Truth of which the University should be the oracle can be taught only by wise and true men. And if you look down the list of those who for two centuries and a half have governed and taught at Harvard, you will find no lack of such men. They have differed accord- ing to the times in which they lived and worked in their views concerning Truth, but they have been harmonious in their conviction that Truth, and noth- ing else, should be taught here.

When Harvard was founded, the unexplored forests stretched almost to Cambridge; the early teachers may have kept their flint-locks by their desks, against a sudden sally of the Indians. But in spite of these actual dangers, in spite of the absence of all the higher appliances of education, the seminary grew. It embodied the ideals and hopes not only of this neighborhood, but of the whole New England Colony. We have seen how at first, being the offshoot of a theocratic community, Harvard was bound, on the one hand, by the Church, and, on the other hand, by the State. The Pilgrims who came to Plymouth, the Puritans who settled Boston, did not believe in liberty of conscience ; they desired to worship God after their own fashion, and were intolerant of any other wor- ship. And for two generations, as we have seen, they imposed their rigid rules unchallenged on the College. But at the beginning of the 18th century the community was already made up of considerable numbers of non-Calvinists, and among the Calvinists themselves there were degrees of strictness. All through that century there was a conflict between the liberals and the moderates, and, although the former happily prevailed, the Orthodox Church still excluded members of other denominations from taking part in the Government or the instruction of the College. Significant is it that the first conspicuous benefactor of Harvard in the 18th century was a Baptist. Not until 1792 was a layman, James Bowdoin, elected to the Corporation; and, although the election, a dozen year later, of Henry Ware to the chair of Theology plainly indicated the beginning of the end of sectarian control, it was not until 1843 that the Board of Overseers was open to clergymen of any denomination.

That year, therefore, is a landmark in the history of Harvard; in that year she was emancipated from bondage to a single sect.

Even longer was her servitude to the State. Co- lonial and Provincial Governors, their Councils, and the General Court exercised from decade to decade an ex officio control over the College. To them the teachers had to look for salaries, and we have seen how often they looked in vain, how many wore themselves out for a mere pittance, and how President after President was hampered and persecuted by the law-makers in Boston. Nor did their condition improve when Massachusetts became an independent Commonwealth ; for the State retained its control, but shirked the obligations which that control im- posed, and at last cut off all subventions. The Col- lege, forced to support itself, and proving that it could do so, demanded that in justice it should govern its own affairs ; but, although experience showed how per- nicious is the mixing up of education with partisan- ship, it was not until 1865 that the Legislature at last released its hold. That year is the other great land- mark in Harvard's career; it witnessed her emancipa- tion from the State, and the transfer of the conduct of her affairs to those most interested in her pros- perity-her alumni.

From restrictions to liberty has been likewise the course of her progress in other things. Once, all studies were prescribed ; now each student is free to choose the studies most congenial to his tastes and talents. Restrictions as to worship, dress and diet have all passed away ; we read of them now in the old books, with feelings not unlike those aroused by the sight of mediæval instruments of torture at Nurem- berg,-they belong to another time; the wonder is that men could have thought them profitable or necessary at any time.

We discern three critical periods in the develop- ment of Harvard : first, that covered by the adminis- tration of Leverett, when the attempts of the Mather faction were frustrated, the relations between the Cor- poration and the Overseers were fixed, the old Charter was revived, and the munificence of Hollis and other benefactors strengthened the resources of the College ; second, Kirkland's term, when the College was ex- panded into a University through the creation of de- partments of Medicine, Law and Divinity, when methods of instruction were reformed, and when more liberal views of religion began to be held, however timidly ; third, the present administration of President Eliot, during which, besides marvelous growth in the College and Schools, and besides the erection of many buildings and the creation of new departments, there are to record the recognition of what a university should be, and the endeavor to raise every department tothe level of that recognition. At no other period has Harvard had so decisive an influence on the educa- tional standard of the United States as between 1870 and 1890 ; and henceforth,-freed from the trammels

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of Church and State, loosed from the bonds of obsolete methods, with the consciousness of noble work achieved, with equipments and appliances undreamt of even half a century ago, with not merely a strug- gling colony but a vast nation within reach of her voice,-what may she not achieve as the guardian and imparter of Truth !

CHAPTER V.

CAMBRIDGE-(Continued).

THE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BY REV. A. P. PEABODY, D.D.

THERE never was a time when Harvard College was not, or had not, a Divinity School. The training of ministers was the prime purpose of its establishment. For the first quarter of a century more than half of its graduates became ordained ministers and several of the unordained are known to have been preachers. The Hollis Professor of Divinity always had Divinity students under his tuition ; while the Professor of Hebrew did what he could to enable every under- graduate to read the Old Testament in its original tongue.

The first movement toward the increase of the teaching power in this department was in 1811, when, by the will and from the estate of Samuel Dexter, an endowment accrued to the College for a Lectureship on Biblical Criticism. Rev. Joseph Stevens Buck- minster was appointed lecturer, and had delivered a single course of lectures before his death in 1812. Rev. Wm. Ellery Channing succeeded him, holding the office but one year. In 1813 Andrews Norton was chosen Lecturer, and first as Lecturer, then as Pro- fessor, gave instruction in the Criticism of the New Testament till 1830. In 1814 the Hollis Professor, the Professor of Hebrew and Mr. Norton received the first regular class of students in Theology,-a class of six, all of them graduates of that year. This class completed its course of study in 1817, and has been followed by an unbroken annual series of classes of virtual graduates in theology, though the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was not conferred till 1871

In 1813 Samuel Parkman, of Boston, gave the Col- lege a township in Maine " for the support of a Pro- fessor in Theology." After this gift became availa- ble for its purpose, it was increased by the donor's son, Rev. Dr. Francis Parkman, and, thus aug- mented, is the present, endowment of the Parkman professorship.

In 1815 the President and Fellows addressed a cir- cular to the friends of the College, representing the need of added funds for theological education. The

result was a fund of nearly thirty thousand dollars, and the organization of an active and efficient " Soci- ety for promoting Theological Education in Harvard University."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 53

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034