Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, and was placed
temporarily under Professor Adams in algebra and Euclid, under
Professor James Marsh in Latin, and under Tutor Rufus Choate in
Greek; and these gentlemen pronounced him fitted for college. He
was subsequently put to the study of Hebrew, under the Rev. John
L. Parkhurst, and was sent to Exeter Academy; but in 1823 he
entered college, passed through the four years' course of study
without a rival and far beyond rivalry. His power of acquisition
and retention was marvelous.
"After his graduation, he spent four years at Hanover; the
first, as the preceptor of Moor's Indian Charity School, and the
following three as tutor in the college. He subsequently spent
nearly two years at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass.
He was appointed to a professorship of Latin and Greek in 1833.
In 1847 he was released from the Latin and became professor of
Greek only, which office he held until 1849, when he resigned;
but he remained professor _emeritus_ until his death."
Professor Crosby was one of the earnest Greek scholars of eminence that
New England can boast, being precocious in his scholarship, and so a
little in advance of Professor Felton, of Cambridge, who was a year or
two older. Both graduated in 1827, Felton at Harvard, and Crosby at
Dartmouth; and this, as it happens, was the year in which the first
Greek lexicon, with definitions in English, came into the hands of
pupils in any part of the world. It was the work of John Pickering, a
Salem man, who for many years stood almost alone as a great Greek
scholar in America, having preceded Crosby and Felton by more than
thirty years. The young men took up the work where Pickering laid it
down, and began not long after they became Greek professors in their
respective colleges (Felton in 1832, and Crosby in 1833,) the task of
preparing grammars, readers, and editions of authors, for the studious
youth of the land. Crosby's Greek grammar and his edition of Xenophon's
Anabasis soon came into common use, and have been of great service in
promoting the elementary instruction of thousands of Greek scholars
since; as also have Felton's Reader and his editions of Aristophanes,
etc. The learning of Hadley, Goodwin, and other recent professors has
gone beyond that of these pioneers in extent and accuracy, but it is
doubtful whether they have done so much for rudimentary scholarship.
Professor Crosby belonged not to us alone, but to all New England,--to
the whole land. Our country is poorer by the loss of an eminent scholar,
one of that small band of classical scholars in America who are known
and honored at foreign seats of learning. In the latest, freshest, and
most original Greek grammar of Professor Clyde, of Edinburgh, the author
acknowledges his obligations to four distinguished scholars, three
Europeans and one American; and the American is Professor Crosby.
Professor Crosby published "A Greek and General Grammar"; "Greek
Tables"; "Greek Lessons"; an edition of Xenophon's Anabasis; "Eclogae
Latinae"; "First Lessons in Geometry"; also many religious and political
tracts, and elementary school-books, which have been widely useful among
the freedmen and Indians.
PROF. THOMAS R. CROSBY, M. D.
PROF. THOMAS RUSSELL CROSBY, M. D., youngest son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was
born in Gilmanton, N. H., October 22, 1816, and died at Hanover, March
1, 1872. He married Louisa Partridge Burton, daughter of Col. Oliver
Burton, U. S. A. He graduated D. C. 1841, taking also, at the same time,
his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He practiced in Meriden and
Manchester, was chief surgeon in Columbian College Hospital, in
Washington, D. C., during the war, became professor in the Medical
College in that city, and afterwards professor in Dartmouth College.
During much of his professional life he was an invalid, but was
indefatigable in habits of study, steadily advancing to posts of honor
and reward, both as practitioner and teacher.
* * * * *
The faculty of Dartmouth College say: "We would record with deep sorrow
the decease of Dr. Thomas R. Crosby, Professor of Animal and Vegetable
Physiology in the agricultural department of the college, and Instructor
in Natural History in the academical and scientific departments; and
that we have a profound sense of the loss sustained by the college and
the community in the departure of one who, to all the virtues that
adorned his character, added such fullness, variety, and accuracy of
scientific and professional attainment as fitted him for signal
usefulness in the several positions he occupied."
His brother Josiah bears this testimony of him in a letter, after he had
passed away: "I have always considered him equal to any of the brothers
as a general scholar, and, decidedly, as the best medical scholar of us
doctors; and, although he had not an opportunity of performing so much
surgery outside the hospital as others of the family, yet what he did
shows conclusively that he was competent to any emergency. He had all
the requisite qualifications for a good operator,--a correct knowledge
of anatomy and great self-possession."
[Illustration: C H Sawyer]
COL. CHARLES H. SAWYER.
BY REV. GEO. B. SPALDING, D. D.
Charles Henry is the eldest son of Jonathan Sawyer, the sketch of whose
life precedes this. He was born March 30, 1840, at Watertown. N. Y. At
ten years of age, on the removal of his father to Dover, N. H., Charles,
who had already become quite advanced in his studies, was sent to the
district school in that place. The district school, although it has been
supplanted by what is regarded as an improved system of education, had
its own distinctive merits. The six years' training in it, under
competent teachers, was sufficient to give young Sawyer a thoroughly
practical education in those branches which are found to be essential to
success in business life. Books can do little more than this. Experience
must complete the training process. At sixteen years of age, it being
determined that Charles was to enter into the business of his father, he
was placed as an apprentice in the Sawyers' woolen-mills. The business
to which a young man is to devote his life affords the very best means
for his education in it. It proved to be so in this instance. The young
apprentice, as he progressed from one stage to another, had the finest
of opportunities for acquiring a full knowledge of all the diversified
interests and sciences which belong to such a great industry. There is
scarcely a branch in natural philosophy, physics, or the mechanical arts
that is not intimately connected with the manufacture of woolens. But
the manufacturing processes embrace only a part of the activities and
requirements of such a business as the Sawyers. They are their own
buyers and sellers in all the great markets of our own and other lands.
Superadded to mechanical knowledge and skill, there must be the large
intelligence, the clear foresight, the quick, unerring judgment, which
belong to the accomplished financier. In this manufactory, based upon so
varied knowledge, and calling into activity so many of the strong mental
powers, Charles found a grand school, and such proficiency did he make
in it, that when he came to his manhood he was abundantly qualified to
take upon himself the duties and responsibilities of superintendent. He
was appointed to this position in 1866. No small share of the
distinguished success which has come to this establishment may be fairly
attributable to the fidelity and perseverance in service, the keen
sagacity and the great enterprise, which Charles H. Sawyer has brought
to its every interest. In 1873, when the company became incorporated, he
was admitted to the firm, and, at the same time, was appointed its agent
and one of the directors. Since then he has been elected its president.
Mr. Sawyer has served in both branches of the Dover city government; was
a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1869 and 1870, and again in
1876 and 1877, serving on the committee on railroads, incorporations,
judiciary, national affairs, and as chairman of the committee on
manufactures. In 1881 he was appointed, by Governor Bell, a member of
his military staff with rank of colonel. Mr. Sawyer is now acting as
director of the Strafford National Bank and the Portsmouth & Dover
Railroad, and trustee of the Strafford Savings Bank. He is a member of
the Masonic order, taking a personal interest in all that concerns its
prosperity. In 1867 he became a member of the Strafford Lodge, and was
master in 1872 and 1873. He is a member of the St. Paul Commandry of
Knights Templar, of which he has just been elected eminent commander for
the fourth time.
Mr. Sawyer, in 1865, was married to Susan Ellen Cowan, daughter of Dr.
James W. and Elizabeth Cowan.
Mr. Sawyer is not only a man of affairs, taking a deep personal interest
in the various movements of politics, finance, and industrial life, but
he is a man of large reading and is well acquainted with the best books
and thoughts of the times. His judgments of men and measures are
singularly free from partiality and prejudice. His conclusions are
deliberately formed, and based upon a broad comprehension of all the
related facts. His sense of justice is strong; his intellectual
qualities are admirably balanced. He never is otherwise than perfectly
poised. With all this he has the warmest heart, the quickest sympathies,
great kindness of manner, and utmost geniality of spirit. In the reserve
of his nature he withholds himself from all impetuous demonstrations;
but, when the occasion demands, his influence, his advice, his
friendship are put forth with commanding effect. Nature made him on a
large scale, and books and experience and increasing converse with the
best phases of social life are developing him into rare strength and
symmetry of character.
[Illustration: Anthony Colby]
GOV. ANTHONY COLBY.
ANTHONY COLBY is known in his native state as a typical "New Hampshire
man." Born and bred among the granite hills, he seemed assimilated to
them, and to illustrate in his noble, cheerful life the effects of their
companionship. His great heart, sparkling wit, fine physical vigor, and
merry laugh made his presence a joy at all times, and welcome
everywhere. His ancestry, on his father's side, was of English, and on
his mother's, of Scotch-Irish, origin. The first member of his father's
family that removed to this country settled in the town of Salisbury,
Mass., in 1740. He bore the name of Anthony Colby, and was a member of
the so-called "Test Association."
Joseph Colby, the father of Anthony, was born in Hopkinton, N. H., near
Beech Hill, in 1762. He died in 1843. Of his brothers, two, James and
Nathaniel, settled in that town, and another, David, in Manchester, near
the sea, in Massachusetts. During the last century, Joseph bought a
portion of land under the "Masonian Grant" from Mr. Minot. Then the
restriction of ownership in the state was that "all the white-pine trees
be reserved for masting the ships of His Majesty's royal navy." Each
town was required to set apart a portion of land for a meeting-house,
and the support of the gospel ministry; for a school-house and the
support of a school, as well as a military-parade ground.
In the organization and settlement of the town named New London, and in
the needs of the settlers, both civil and religious, Joseph took an
active part. He began clearing land in that part of the town now called
Pleasant street, at the north end of Pleasant pond. He early established
trade for himself with Newburyport and Salem. The state legislature then
held its sessions in Portsmouth. Of this, he was for fourteen
consecutive years a member. He was a political leader, and an
uncompromising Federalist. For fifty years he was a stanch member of the
Baptist church, of which Rev. Job Seamans was the first pastor, and he
was for some time president of the Baptist state convention.
He married Anne Heath, a direct descendant of the Richard Kelley family,
of which Judge Kelley, of Exeter, was a member. Her immediate relatives
took part in the Revolutionary war. Members of the family live in
Newbury, Mass. The family of Joseph Colby consisted of two sons and two
daughters. The eldest daughter, Sarah, married Jonathan Herrick; the
second, Judith, married Perley Burpee. Both of these daughters were
settled beside him. Mrs. Burpee still survives. The two sons of Joseph
Colby never left their father's household. Joseph, the eldest, spent the
most of his life in the gratification of his literary tastes, and a
species of journalism. Anthony, born in 1795, was of a lively
disposition. A pleasant vein of humor ran through his character, making
him enjoy a joke, while a native prescience led him to project himself
into every kind of progress. A keen insight into the character of men
gave him an almost unlimited influence over them. He never passed
through college, but his faculties were broadly developed by the
condition into which his genial and vivid nature led him. His father's
home was so guarded and in every way provided for, that ample
opportunity was afforded him to follow the pursuits and activities that
were congenial to him. He married, at an early age, Mary Everett, whose
modest and refined Christian character greatly influenced him. A more
favored home could hardly be imagined than that in which his three
children were born, and which is still held sacred by them. The steady
support of a grandfather's established character, the stimulus of a
popular father, joined to the affection of a devoted grandmother and the
delicate influence of a lovely mother, created an atmosphere, of solid
content and peace as blissful as is to be found this side of heaven. His
eldest son, Daniel E. Colby, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1836.
He married Martha Greenwood, and now lives in the paternal home. His
daughter married, in 1851, James B. Colgate, and lives in New York, as
does her brother Robert, who married Mary Colgate. Robert also graduated
from Dartmouth College, and studied law with Judge Perley, at Concord,
N. H.
The prominent characteristics of Anthony Colby were manly self-reliance
and intrepidity, joined with quick sympathy and faithfulness in
friendship, which made men trust and love him. His father's identity
with the state gave him a wide knowledge of its resources, industries,
and inhabitants. He was interested in the affairs of the entire state,
and was always ready to sacrifice the interests of his private business
for those of his townsmen. There was no neighborhood or personal
difficulty in which he did not willingly take the responsibility of
bringing help or reconciliation. His tender sympathy, benevolence, and
personal authority were sufficient to adjust the differences and rights
of all who sought his assistance. He was strictly and absolutely a
temperance man, never tasting spirituous liquors, and always using his
influence to save young men from the use of them. His nature was
many-sided enough to find some points of agreement with men whose habits
differed from his own.
He established a line of stages through his native town before any
system of railroads had been extended through the state. He afterwards
became president of the Concord & Claremont Railroad. He possessed, in
an unusual degree, an ability to create in his own brain and carry into
practice business activities. He saw and felt how labor could be well
applied, and, while a young man, built himself, in a part of the town
then almost a forest, a grist-mill, carding and fulling mill. In 1836 he
was instrumental in establishing a scythe-factory which was carried on
by the use of the same water that had been used for the mills. In this
enterprise he was associated with Joseph Phillips and Richard Messer,
both of whom had learned the trade of scythe-making. In the vicinity
there grew up directly a flourishing village.
In politics, Mr. Colby was always conservative. He was first elected a
member of the New Hampshire legislature, in 1828, and afterwards held
nearly every higher office of trust in the state. Daniel Webster was his
personal friend. Their fathers, who lived in the same county, only about
twenty miles apart, were many years associated in the legislature, of
which they were members, from Salisbury and New London. The friendship
between himself, Judge Nesmith, of Franklin, and Gen. James Wilson, of
Keene, was _more_ than simple friendship,--they were delightful
companions; of essentially different characteristics, the combination
was perfect. Daniel Webster was their political chief, and his vacation
sometimes found these men together at the Franklin "farm-house," and at
the chowder parties up at the "pond." The Phenix Hotel, under the charge
of Col. Abel and Maj. Ephraim Hutchins, was the central rendezvous,
where a great deal of projected statesmanship, a great deal of story
telling and fruitless caucusing were indulged in, down to the revolution
of 1846, when the Democrats lost their supremacy by the admission of
Texas as a slave state, when John P. Hale went into the senate. Anthony
Colby was then elected governor. Mr. Webster wrote him earliest
congratulations. With the usual backsets of a radical change, the Whig
party held the front until Mr. Webster made his Seventh-of-March speech
in 1850, on the fugitive-slave bill. Following up that speech by another
on the Revere-House steps, favoring the enforcement of that law, and
addressed to New England men, in which he said, "Massachusetts takes no
steps backward," he placed his friends in a most trying predicament.
Mr. Webster and his Boston body-guard made an effort to hold the Whig
party solid to his position. It could not be done. The Abolitionists
stood forth in full panoply, indiscriminately and precipitately
aggressive, thanking God for the fugitive-slave law, and that Daniel
Webster was its promoter and defender. He wrote to Gov. Colby, urging
him to stand firmly by him and help bring the public mind to this new
standard. The governor was perplexed. Privately he expressed himself
after this fashion: "New Hampshire men vote for the fugitive-slave law!
This whole business is like crowding a hot potato down a man's throat,
and then asking him to sing 'Old Hundred.'" He wrote Mr. Webster that he
would do all that he could for him as a friend, although the law was
odious to him.
There was held, that summer, a Baptist state convention. It was a full
convention, for the churches were in a ferment, and many of them
disintegrating upon the slavery issue. He was sent as a delegate from
the church of which he was a member. A set of resolutions was reported,
of a very violent and denunciatory character, directed against the
fugitive-slave law, Mr. Webster, and both political parties, threatening
expulsion and disfellowship to those members of churches who did not
come out with an open and square protest upon this subject. The
discussion was all one side until the advocates of the resolution had
aired their opinions to their own satisfaction. Then, the governor,
seeing his opportunity, quietly arose and moved an amendment to the
resolution inveighing against Mr. Webster personally. He felt the fight
to be a single-handed one, and would go through it alone if necessary.
Presently, a candid brother seconded his amendment with a few
suggestions. Other brethren applauded. Then the storm set in from the
other side, and the convention became disorderly. It was as if the
better elements of New England life were in one grand convocation. This
was the first public discussion of the situation. The contest was as
brilliant a one, on a modified scale, as any intellectual and emotional
contest that we read of. The governor's only hope of reconciliation was
by settling down on his own popularity with the members of the
convention, and, avoiding the principles involved, appealing to their
generosity as a personal favor. With tears in his eyes and in faltering,
grieving tones, he besought them most solemnly to spare his life-long
friend the denunciation contained in that one resolution, and accept his
amendment. The convention agreed to it. He sent a report of the
proceedings, with an explanatory letter, to Mr. Webster: but he was not
satisfied. There the matter dropped. These true-hearted friends saw,
silently, the scepter of leadership declining in Mr. Webster's hand, and
sadly lamented, what they could not prevent.
No Whig had held the office of governor, until the election of Anthony
Colby, since the election of Gov. Bell, an interim of seventeen years.
Gov. Colby being rallied upon his one-term office, said he considered
his administration the most remarkable the state ever had. "Why so?" was
asked; when with assumed gravity he answered: "Because _I have satisfied
the people in one year_, and no other governor ever did that."
His spirit attached him to military life. He was early promoted to the
rank of major-general. This experience turned to his account, when,
during the trying years of our late war, in 1861 he was appointed
adjutant-general, and subsequently provost-marshal, of New Hampshire.
At this time his son Daniel E. Colby was appointed adjutant-general. The
governor always alluded to this service as the saddest of his life,--to
encourage and send forth to almost certain death the young men of the
state whom he loved as a father. This was his last prominent office in
state affairs; and so faithful was he in it, that, although nearly
seventy years of age, he went often to the front to acquaint himself
with the condition of the soldiers and share their hardships with them.
In 1850 he received from Dartmouth College the degree of A. M., and the
same year was chosen one of the trustees of the college. He was
interested in the best possible educational advantages of the young, and
in every way promoted them. Through his energy, in a great degree, the
academy in New London has arisen to its present flourishing condition.
His son-in-law, James B. Colgate, of New York, has generously endowed
it, and aided in placing it upon a solid basis. The trustees have
conferred upon it the name of Colby Academy.
Gov. Colby's second wife, Eliza Messenger Richardson, of Boston, by her
accomplishments and true Christian character embellished and enlivened
his declining years, while the devotion of his children cheered the
seclusion of his last days.
Said an illiterate woman, to strangers discussing his character in the
cars, "Governor Colby carries the very _demon_ of honesty in his face."
It was his unfailing sense of duty and trust in God that won for him the
vast respect of the public, and esteem of a large circle of private
friends.
Sunday evening, July 20, 1875, he died, peacefully, in the home of his
father, at the age of eighty years, and was buried in the cemetery of
his native town, by the side of his parents.
[Illustration: Very Truly
Wm E. Chandler
April 1882]
SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
BY HON. JACOB H. ELA.
WILLIAM E. CHANDLER, the second son of Nathan S. and Mary A. Chandler,
was born in Concord, N. H., December 28, 1835, and educated in the
public schools of that city and the academies of Thetford, Vt., and
Pembroke, N. H. He began the study of the law in the office of George &
Webster and George & Foster in 1852; graduated from the Harvard Law
School as LL. B. in 1855; and in 1856, before coming of age, began
practicing in Concord with Francis B. Peabody, Esq., now of Chicago.