USA > Pennsylvania > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Vol. I > Part 5
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In the seventy-five years of history now made by this College, its record is becoming well known. Not a few of its graduates have attained eminence. Its diploma is coveted. No young man, however limited his means, need be dis-
couraged, for if worthy he may look for reason- able help towards securing a thorough education. Good positions await deserving graduates. The extreme healthfulness of the location and the favorable conditions that surround the life of a student here are evident to young men of stud- ious disposition, who may be assured of a pleas- ant reception and of finding pleasing social re- lations.
PRESENT STATUS OF THE COLLEGE .- Possessed of an ample equipment, as it was thought to be a generation ago, the College has in many re- spects outgrown its material habiliments, its halls are filled to their utmost capacity, and its recita- tion rooms are crowded. It would seem as though evident necessity compelled the College either to greatly raise its standard of requirements for admission, which are already up to those of the other large institutions, and as high as the prep- aratory schools that supply the students can con- veniently attain, and thus diminish the number in attendance, or else enlarge several of its build- ings to provide increasing accommodations for growing numbers. The gymnasium, which when built in 1884 was thought so well adapted for its purposes, should be enlarged to double its present size. Every seat in the College chapel is taken, and it is a question how to place an incoming class of students. So through all de- partments is felt the pressure of numbers. A greater need, however, than anything so far named, is of a large endowment to meet the salaries and the current expenses which increase as buildings are added. The salaries of the pro- fessors are small, and there are few of them who have not received more remunerative offers elsewhere, but they stay on account of their love for the College and their devotion to its work. They are happy in the thought that their faithful services are appreciated. The fathers planned wisely when they located Lafayette College at the "Forks of the Delaware."
THE SOLDIER'S MONUMENT. On the southern edge of the campus of Lafayette College, where the declivity is most nearly precipitous, stands a graceful monument erected by the
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
Alumni Association in 1867 to commemorate the service of those former students and graduates of the College who fell in the war of the Union. It is located precisely in the axis of North Third street, and as the heavy foliage around it is kept carefully cut away, the visitor can see this memorial from any point on the main street of
SOLDIERS MONUMENT.
Easton for a long distance away, embowered in nature's green.
Few Colleges surpassed Lafayette in the per- centage of their graduates who served in the great war. Among the names of those high in rank we find Generals Andrew Porter, of the class of '38; Nathaniel Michler, '45; George B. Ihrie, '46; James L. Selfridge, '46; H. M. Hoyt, '49 (who was afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania) : T. F. Rodenbough, '54; Edward L. Campbell, '55 ; Charles A. Wikoff, '55 ; Duncan S. Walker, '62. Many others reached the rank of colonel, chap- lain, captain, etc. Sixteen fell in battle or died of wounds received on the field. Their names and their class are inscribed on two faces of the monument. Fronting the town in bold letters are the words "THESE DIED FOR THE UNION."
Soon after the close of the war a strong com- mittee was appointed to secure funds for the erection of a suitable memorial. The plan offered by J. G. Batterson & Co., of Hartford, Connecti- cut, was selected, and that firm constructed the montiment at a cost of five thousand dollars. A limestone foundation was set on the solid rock. The base is circular, forty-two feet in circumference, and is sur- mounted by a square block nine feet high, bearing the inscription "Erected by the Alumni Asso- ciation." Above this is a statute of a soldier on the field in the po- sition "At Rest," leaning on his musket. The monument is con- structed of Barrie granite. Its total height is twenty-seven feet.
On the occasion of its com- pletion a commemorative address was delivered by Major Henry T. Lee, a professor in the Col- lege, who had served with dis- tinction in the United States Heavy Artillery under General Abner Doubleday. This inter- esting address was afterwards published and contains the full muster roll of the college. In this connection it may be added that nine "Men of Lafayette" served in the Mexican war, and twenty-seven in the war with Spain in 1898.
PROFESSOR JAMES HENRY COFFIN, LL. D., was born at Williamsburg, near North- ampton, Massachusetts, September 6, 1806. He was the sixth in line of direct descent from Tristram Coffin, of Devon, England, who with eight others were pioneers in the settlement of the Island of Nantucket in 1659.
Being left an orphan, he went to live with his uncle, the Rev. Moses Hallock, under whose care he was educated. He graduated at Amherst Col- lege in 1828. After leaving college he engaged in teaching in Massachusetts, entering upon a profession in which he continued until the day of his death. He established one of the first manual
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
labor schools in the country at Greenfield, Massa- chusetts, which was known as the Fellenberg Academy. Leaving Greenfield in 1837, he went to Ogdensburg, New York, to take charge of a school there, and here remained until 1839. His scientific life dates from this time. Here he be- came interested in meteorology. In 1839 he left Ogdensburg to become a tutor in Williams Col- lege, where he remained five years. Here he published a work on the mode of calculating solar and lunar eclipses, which was extensively used. During the same period he devised the erection and superintended the building of the Greylock Observatory, on Saddle Mountain. In this ob- servatory he placed the first combined, self-regis- tering instrument ever constructed, to determine the direction, velocity and moisture of winds. An improved instrument for the same purpose he recently presented to the observatory at Cor- dova, Buenos Ayres. Leaving Williams College in 1843, he spent three years in teaching at Nor- walk, Connecticut. In 1844 an acquaintanceship began between the Professor and Captain M. F. Maury, U. S. N., which continued up to the time of the rebellion. Capt. Maury is well known for his investigations into the subject of oceanic currents and winds. In 1846 Professor Coffin accepted the position of professor of mathematics in Lafayette College, and for twenty-seven years his life has been spent in Easton. As professor of mathematics at Lafayette, Dr. Coffin won much celebrity, but his name will perhaps be more widely known through the country as a con- tributor to the reports of the Smithsonian Insti- tution, and for his investigations on the subject of winds and atmospheric changes. In this field he was a pioneer. Fifty-one years ago the Smithsonian Institution published a large quarto volume of Professor Coffin's on "The Winds of the Northern Hemisphere." For some years he was engaged on another work, which at the time of his death was nearly ready for publication. This volume, a treatise on "The Winds of the Globe," issued by the Smithsonian Institution in 1876, seven hundred and eighty-one pages and six plates, the largest numerical tables ever is- sued from the American press. Among his more
important mathematical works are a "Treatise on Solar and Lunar Eclipses," a work on "The Meteoric Fire-ball of July, 1860," "Astronomical Tables," "Conic Sections," and "Analytical Geometry."
The merits and learning of Dr. Coffin were not unrecognized. He was one of the first elected members of the National Academy of Science, and was a prominent member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at whose meetings he frequently read papers on meteorological subjects. At the time of his death, February 6, 1873, he was an elder in the Brainerd Church. He united with the church at an early age, and lived a sincere and devout Christian. A tablet erected to his memory, on the spot which was for so long a time his resi- dence, and on which Pardee Hall was built, bears the following inscription in his honor.
"IN MEMORY OF JAMES HENRY COFFIN, LL. D.,
Long a mainstay of Lafayette College, Pro- fessor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, 1846-1873, Vice-President and Col- lege Treasurer 1863-1873.
A tireless teacher and administrator, an officer of the church, a friend of the slave, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, author of "Winds of the Globe." He annexed the atmos- phere to the realms of science, and searched the highways of the winds and the paths of vagrant storms.
Born in Williamsburg, Mass., Sept. 6, 1806. Died in Easton, Pa., February 6, 1873. The class of 1866 has erected this tablet."
FRANCIS A. MARCH, LL. D., L. H. D., LITT. D., D. C. L., Professor of the English Language and Comparative Philology at Lafay- ette College, is a lineal descendant of Hugh March, founder of the family of that name in the United States, and who came early to New- bury, Massachusetts, and died there in 1693, aged seventy-three years. Of Judith, wife of Hugh March, little is known. The first reference to the family in the records of Newbury occurs in 1653, when Mistress Judith was "presented for wearing a silk hood and scarfe," but was dis- charged on proof that her husband was of "con- siderable estate." (Coffin, "History of New-
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
bury," page 58). In 1668 Hugh left his farm at the solicitation of his townsmen, and estab- lished an inn that was famous for many years. He was, like other New England inn-keepers, . projects, particularly the manufacture of fine cut- a "person of approved character and competent estate."
All of the four sons of Hugh March were officers in the colonial army during the French and Indian wars, one of them, Colonel John March (1658-1725) being especially distinguished as "the foremost military leader in New England up to the time of the Port Royal expedition," 1707, which he commanded, and "the failure of which may fairly be charged in part to the Gov- ernor, who sent him out, and to the officers of the 'Deptford,' which was the convoy of the expedition." (Johnson's Univ. Cyc.)
The line of descent from Hugh March and Judith, his wife, to Francis Andrew March, is as follows :
2. Hugh, b. Newbury, Mass., Nov. 3, 1656; captain in French and Indian war ; m. 1683, Mrs. Sarah Moody.
3. Samuel, b. Newbury, Mass., March 2, 1689 ; m. Ann Tappan (1686-1724), daughter of Jacob and Hannah Sewall Tappan.
4. Daniel, b. Newbury, Dec. 26, 1717, moved to Sutton in 1753, and bought a tract of land three miles long, beside the Blackstone river, in center of what is now Millbury.
5. Tappan, b. in Sutton (Millbury), 1749, died Oct. 2, 1809; m. Hannah, daughter of Na- than Patch, of Worcester.
6. Andrew, b. in Sutton (Millbury), Oct. 13, 1798, died at Albion, Pa., Feb. 20, 1874; m. Nancy Parker, of Charlton, Mass., who died Feb. 20, 1830, aged 25.
7. Francis Andrew March.
Dr. March was born in Millbury, Massachu- setts, October 25, 1825, in the central residence upon the estate there, then owned by his father. When he was three years of age his father, upon the building of the Blackstone canal through his grounds, close by his house, despite his vigorous opposition, sold the estate to his brother Nathan, and moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, taking up his residence in an old colonial man-
sion which he had inherited from his mother (a daughter of Nathan Patch, of Worcester). In Worcester he entered upon various business
lery, one of the first enterprises of this character in the country, and for which it was necessary to import English workmen.
Francis Andrew March thus began his educa- tion in Worcester. He received a notable stimu- lus in childhood in a kind of kindergarten in the family of the Rev. J. S. C. Abbott, then preaching in Worcester, in which Miss Collins, with in- genious contrivances and apparatus, made the children understand many things before the usual time. This helped him greatly in the public schools of Worcester, where his education was continued, as it enabled him to keep up easily with older boys and to make the most of the in- struction in these schools, esteemed in that re- gion as the best in the world.
A notable teacher in the high school at that time was Charles Thurber, afterwards known as an inventor of revolving pistols, who took an active part in the work of the literary societies connected with the school, and encouraged the boys to many kinds of literary work. There were many clever boys in the school, some of whom afterwards became distinguished. Among them were Horace Davis, president of the University of California, Brigadier-General Hasbrouck Davis, the college hero of his classmate (Pro- fessor W. D. Whitney ), and Judge J. C. B. Davis, Minister to Germany, nephews of the historian George Bancroft; President Thomas Chase, of Haverford, and his brother, Professor Pliny E. Chase ; Andrew H. Green, of New York City, and his brother, Oliver B. Green, of Chicago.
Worcester at this time was full of intellectual activity. The anti-slavery agitation was begin- ning, and Theodore Parker, Emerson and Wen- dell Phillips were stirring men's souls. Worces- ter was also fortunate in possessing the library of the American Antiquarian Society, a free and large collection of the best books. Francis A. March took an active part in all that was going on. In the literary societies he wrote prose and verse freely, took part in the acting of plays, in search-
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
ing for good old plays to act, and making new ones ; in the library he looked into books of many literatures ; and he was a leader on the play- ground as well as in the class-room.
Meanwhile misfortunes had fallen thick upon his father. His partner in the cutlery manu- factory had disappeared with much of his prop- erty ; a store in which he was interested had been destroyed by fire ; and, finally, his residence had gone up in smoke. At this critical point the Hon. Alfred D. Foster, of Worcester, a trustee of Amherst College, offered the boy a provision of $200 a year for a college course in that insti- tution. Entering Amherst in 1841, at the age of fifteen, he took at once a leading position in scholarship and in athletics. He was a prize speaker, and took first parts in the exhibitions, the highest undergraduate Amherst honors, and upon graduation received the valedictory appointment. He was president of the Alexandrian Literary Society, and a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities.
Some of the other prominent members of the class of '45 were the Hon. Henry Stockbridge, of Baltimore ; Prof. Marshall Henshaw, of Rut- gers ; President J. S. Lee, of St. Lawrence Uni- versity ; and J. R. Brigham, Esq., city attorney of Milwaukee, and regent of the University of Wisconsin ; with others, preachers, better known in India and Zululand and through the wilds of the west-Noyes, Tyler, Packard and Wood- worth.
Much of the best work done by Mr. March at college was done outside of the college class- room. He was especially interested in philosophi- cal studies, and had far-reaching plans for work in that direction. In his junior year he delivered the junior oration upon "Greatest-happiness Philosophy," and at commencement spoke upon "God in Science." His attention, however, was directed toward the study of Anglo-Saxon and of English by the lectures of Noah Webster, and the instruction of Prof. W. C. Fowler, his son- in-law, the author of the well-known English grammars.
Upon graduation, Dr. March went to Swan- zey, New Hampshire, and taught there for the
fall term, then to the Leicester Academy, where he remained two years and had many notable pupils, among others Oliver Ames, who became governor of Massachusetts. He here made trial of the plan of teaching English classics as Latin and Greek are taught. From 1847 to 1849 he was a tutor in Amherst, and again lived in the midst of high English studies. During this time he became intimately acquainted with Professor Henry B. Smith, the eminent philosophical and theological writer, afterwards of Union Theologi- cal Seminary.
Meanwhile he had decided upon a legal career, and had been studying law while teaching, and, during vacation, in the office of Mr. F. H. Dewey, a prominent attorney in Worcester. In 1848 he delivered the master's oration for his class upon the "Relation of the study of Jurisprudence to the Baconian Philosophy." This was a notable suc- cess, receiving special approbation from Rufus Choate, who happened to hear it. It was sought for publication in the New Englander, and was Mr. March's first article in a prominent review.
In 1849 he went to New York and entered as a law student in the office of Barney & Butler. Mr. Barney was afterwards collector of the port of New York. Mr. B. F. Butler had been Presi- dent Van Buren's attorney-general. William Allen Butler, his son, early well known as the author of "Nothing to Wear," and other literary work, and now a leader of the bar in New York, was also a member of the firm. In 1850, in partnership with Gordon L. Ford, Esq., father of Paul Leicester and W. Chauncey Ford, he entered upon the practice of law. After about two years he was attacked by bleeding from the lungs, and was sent to Cuba. There and at Key West he stayed until the following summer, when he returned to New York. Upon resuming legal work, the attacks of bleeding continued, and he gave up finally all hope of a legal career, and even of life. Seeking a warmer climate he then (through the Rev. Lyman Coleman, then preach- ing in Philadelphia, whom he had known at Amherst), found a position as teacher in a pri- vate academy at Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he stayed two years. In 1855 Dr. McPhail, the
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
head of the academy, afterwards president of La- fayette College, but at that time minister of the Brainerd Church at Easton, induced him to come to Lafayette as tutor. In 1856 he became Ad- junct Professor of Belles Lettres and English Literature; in 1857, Professor of the English Language and Comparative Philology. Since 1857 he has remained in this professorship, the first of this kind in any college. From 1875 to 1877 he was Lecturer on Constitutional Law and Public Law, and the Roman Law.
Dr. March's early work was in the direction of philosophical study. His articles in the Princeton Review upon philosophical subjects in 1860 attracted much attention, bringing him to the friendly notice of Dr. McCosh, still in Ireland, and leading to a correspondence with Cousin, who desired him to undertake the introduction of his works into America. Since the resignation of President McPhail, in 1863, Professor March has taken charge of the college classes in mental philosophy. Dr. March, however, was gradually turning his attention to the philological work for which he is so well known. He had taken up the plan of teaching the English classics in the same way as the Greek classics were then taught, making a thorough study of the text, word by word, in the light of comparative philology and literature, as well as of the life and times of the author to explain it. He tried this course first in the fitting schools in Leicester Academy, with success, and later in Lafayette College. The growth of such studies has been rapid. Many teachers in them have been trained in Lafay- ette. During his first years at Lafayette he heard many recitations upon general subjects, filling up all recitation hours. The comparative philology of each language was studied in connection with a classic in that language, and Dr. March took classes in Latin, Greek, French and German ac- cording to this plan, summing up the whole by general study of philology at the end of the col- lege course. When the Douglass endowment af- forded funds for the study of the Christian class- ics, Dr. March took an active part in the instruc- tion of the course. He also edited a series of text-books to be used in this course, entirely pre-
paring a selection of "Latin Hymns" which has been especially successful.
For many years Dr. March has taught Black- stone, and until late years took the classes in political economy, and Constitution of the United States. At about the time of the breaking out of the Civil war, he prepared a scheme of amend- ments to the Constitution of the United States, intended to bring about a peaceful settlement of the difficulties between the North and the South, which he advocated by letters to the New York Times and World. These amendments attracted much attention, and were introduced in congress, in the Virginia legislature, and elsewhere.
Dr. March's liability to attacks of bleeding continued for many years, and largely determined his manner of life. He had to shun all the excitements of general conversation as well as public speaking, and spend the time not occupied with active duties in gentle exercise, or quiet studies and rest at home. He walked much, and he took the classes in botany until Dr. Porter came, in 1866.
His linguistic studies, however, called for the making of new books and other use of the press to promote the study of higher English in our schools and colleges. From 1864 to 1871 he had always on hand the "Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Reader"; from 1872 to 1879 the "Douglass Series of Christian Greek and Latin Classics" : from 1874 onward, "Spelling Reform Documents", ad- dresses and correspondence; from 1879 to 1882 the direction of "American Readers for the Dictionary of the Philological Society of Lon- don"; from 1890 to 1895 the "Standard Diction- ary" of the Funk & Wagnalls Company, and dur- ing 1902 to 1904 in association with his eldest son, the "Thesaurus Dictionary of Words and Phrases". He has found time, however, to pre- pare papers for the yearly meetings of the Ameri- can Philological Association (he seems to have been the most frequent contributor), and for other learned societies, and for periodicals.
Professor March has received the degrees of LL. D. from Princeton, 1870; Amherst, 1871, semi-centennial ; Columbia, 1887, centennial ; Litt. D., Cambridge, England, 1896, and from
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
Princeton, in the same year ; and D. C. L. from Oxford, England, 1896. He was president of the American Philological Association in 1873 and 1895, and is now president of the Spelling Reform Association, having been re-elected an- nually since 1876. From 1891 to 1893 he was president of the Modern Language Association of America, being the successor of James Russell Lowell. He is the only American honorary mem- ber of the Philological Society of London. He is also honorary member of l'Association Fone- tique des Professeurs de Languages Vivantes, Paris ; vice-president of the New Shakespere So- ciety, London ; senator of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity ; member of the National Council of Education, the American Philosophical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, et al. He has been chairman of the Commission of the State of Pennsylvania on Amended Orthography, director of the American Workers for the His- torical English Dictionary of the Philological So- ciety of England, and consulting editor of the Funk & Wagnalls Co.'s "Standard Dictionary of the English Language."
Professor March was married, in 1860, to Margaret Mildred Stone Conway, a great-grand- daughter of Hon. Thomas Stone, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a . daughter of Hon. Walker Peyton Conway, for thirty years presiding justice of Stafford county, Virginia, and a sister of Moncure D. Conway, the well known author and lecturer. Mrs. March is also a great-great-great-granddaughter of Han- nah Ball, sister of Mary, mother of George Wash- ington, the same of Ann Ball, another sister, and a great-great-great-granddaughter of Baillie Washington, the father of Colonel William Washington and cousin of George Washington.
To Professor and Mrs. March have been born nine children, of whom eight are living : Francis Andrew, Professor in Lafayette College ; Peyton Conway, Captain. U. S. A .; Thomas Stone, superintendent of public schools, Susquehanna, Penn. : Alden, editor of the Philadelphia "Sun- day Press": Moncure, lawyer, New York City; John Lewis, Professor in Union College; Mil- dred, and Margaret Daniel. There are ten grand-
children : Katharine, Mildred, Francis Andrew, 2d Jr., Francis Andrew, 3d, Peyton Conway, Jr., Judith, Joseph, Moncure, Vivian, and Robert Peyton.
REV. SELDEN JENNINGS COFFIN, PH. D., was born at Ogdensburg, New York, Au- gust 3, 1838, and is the son of the late Prof. James H. Coffin, LL. D. His middle name is that of his maternal grandfather, a well-known minister in Berkshire, Massachusetts. He grad- uated with honor at Lafayette at the age of twen- ty, and pronounced the English salutatory. He went through college, expecting to take a posi- tion promised him in the U. S. Coast Survey, but under the influence of Dr. Cattell, in his senior year, he gave up this intention, and after teaching for three years in Bloomsbury, Easton and Towanda, he pursued a full theological course at Princeton, where he graduated in 1864. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1864, and ordained in 1874.
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