Coming East from Dubuque to Chicago, it is inspiring to an Eastern man
to see how the life of this busy metropolis of the West is guided and
influenced by the Eastern-trained man and woman. On the same street with
the great University of Chicago is Chicago Theological Seminary. I had
a delightful interview with the man who presides over this institution,
training the virile young men of the West for the work of the Christian
ministry and also for work in the mission field. This man is Dr. Ozora
S. Davis, a graduate of St. Johnsbury Academy and of Dartmouth College.
Dr. Davis attended St. Johnsbury Academy during the principalship of
that gifted and consecrated Christian gentleman, Charles E. Putney,
Ph. D. A powerful influence for righteousness exerted by the quiet but
inspiring personality of this educational leader is now felt throughout
the world. Truly the fourth verse of the nineteenth Psalm is applicable
to this former principal of a New England academy: "Their line is gone
out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world."
H. PHILIP PATEY, '86.
_Journal of Education._
It is fitting that Mr. Putney's work and influence as an officer in the
church in whose service he was so constant and faithful should receive
some mention. While serving as principal of St. Johnsbury Academy during
some of its most prosperous years and largest enrollment, he found time
to serve actively on the board of deacons of the South Church, to teach
a large class of students in the Sunday school, and to be unfailing in
attendance upon the mid-week meeting. He was a pillar in the church he
loved. And while in the Academy he maintained the religious traditions
on which it was founded, he recognized that it was in the church that
these traditions found their source and inspiration.
On his removal to Burlington he took up similar relations with the
College Street Church, and continued them to the end of his career,
loyal to its interests and liberal in its support. If fine distinctions
are to be made between vocation and avocation it would be difficult to
determine to which institution the terms should be applied as his life
is reviewed.
C. H. MERRILL,
_Vermont Missionary._
It was not my privilege to sit at the feet of Mr. Putney as a student.
In about the year 1870, I attended prize-speaking at the high school
of Norwich, Vermont, and was told that the young principal was a Mr.
Putney. Something about the man appealed to my boyish senses and I
wished that I might know him, but lack of confidence prevented my making
myself known. An acquaintance was formed three or four years later at
St. Johnsbury. For a time, I was associated with Mr. Putney in certain
lay-religious work and came to know him well, if not intimately,--a
friendship which ever after continued. After the death of Mrs. Hazen,
I received a beautiful letter from Mr. Putney, written laboriously by
a shaking hand, but it expressed so much in a few words, characteristic
of his genuineness, it is a letter that will ever be preserved among
my most cherished possessions.
What was the subtle something that so appealed to me that long-ago
evening at Norwich? It seems to me it was the unspoken sympathy of the
man which touched the lives of all who came in contact with him even as
the fragrance of a flower permeates the atmosphere. Surely he lived a
life that is well "worth the telling."