The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-07-20
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though they quite spo led the land By
it; but they knew of no other way
and it was severe penalty to be gull
ty of transgressing this town order. L
was a long time before the present way
of clearing new land was practised
The first adventurer herein was John
Scranton, upon the top of good, hill
of land, now the property of Mr.. Rug
giles. He cleared about an acre.
"The inhabitants We're amazed
first at his courage, that he would
venture so far, about two miles int
the wood, to labor; then at his folly
that he should think a crop of wheat
would grow in such way. So strangt
are new things to the werld. But
they were perfectly astonished wher
they saw twenty bushels of the best o.
wheat reapcd at harvest from tonl,
three pecks of seed on an. acre o.
ground sown in that manner, by such
tillage.
"Experience, from whence almost
all useful knowledge, especially in
husbandry, is derived, convinced them
ut the truth and the same spirit
spread, and the woodlands soon be
came fields of wheat" ts.l1 IN I
Nine years after that winter march
through the wilderness, the Connect.
cut colonists began to contribute q
little toward the support of Harvard
College, each family being requested
by the legislature to give one peck oi
wheat per annum. When the colony
was seventeen year cid, a project was
seriously discussed of founding col
lege of their own; but it was thought
best, Tor while longer, for all New
England to unite in supporting Har-
ward In the year 100, when Con
nccticut contained twenty-eight towns,
and fifteen thousand inhabitants, the
clergy of the colony formed themselves
into society for the purpose of es
tablishing a college in Connecticut.
There was meeting of this society
soon after, to which each member
brought from his own precious little
store of volumes those which he
thought suitable, and laying them up
on table, said these words:
81 give these books for the fountl-
ing OF college in this colony"
The number Of volumes thus col
lected was only forty; were all sod
folios of the olden time. The trustees
took possession of them, deposited
them in safe place, and they formed
the nucleus around which gathered
the venerable institution now called
Yale College. Other books We're at,-
ded; a little money was given; and
orc gentleman presentsd six hundred
and thirty seven acres of land, and
engaged to supply all the glass and
nails that should be necessary to build
the college. The Legislature agreed to
give sixty pounds year toward the
support of the institution, and this
they did for fifty-four years.
TIE college was ready to receive
pupils in the spring of 1902. The
first who entered was Jacob Hem
mingway. who, from March to Septem.
ber, remained the only student. But
in September the number of students
was increased to eight; tutor was
appointed to aid the rector; and the
college entered upon its long and hon
orable career.
One of the earliest settlers of New
Haven was an English gentleman,
named Thomas Yale, who arrived in
1888; and, after remaining twenty
years in the colony, went back to Eng
land, returning to America no more.
He took back with him to his native
land his son, ElIhu Yale, little boy
ten years of age, born in New Haven.
This son, after growing to manhood
in. England, went out to seek his for
ture, rs SO many young Englishmen
did, and do, to the East Indies, where
he married a fortune; and, returning
to England, was chosen Governor of
the East India Company. That he
was man interested in learning. if
not possessed of it, we may infer from
the TACT that he was a Fellow of the
Royal Society-that honorable institu-
tion to which Newton and Franklin
communicated their discoveries. =.
Hearing what was going forward in
his native Connecticut, he sent over,
from time to time, donations of hooks
money and merchandise, for the benc-
fit of the new college. Some of his
gifts arriving just in lime to aid the
trustees III the construction of a new
at New Haven, they named
the cdifice Ya'e College, and this
name was finally assigned, by common
usage, the institution itself 1t was
grand day in New Haven, in Septem-
Der, 17l8, when the first Commence
ment took place alter the completion
of this building. In the presence of
the Governor, the legislature, the
judges, the clergy, and a great etn-
course of specatCrs from far and near,
one of the trustees read memorial in
Latin, which concluded thus
1--WE, the trustees. having tle honor
of being int usted with an. affair of so
great importance to the commoh good
OF the people, do, with one consent
agree, determine, and ordaiu, that
our College House shall be calle,l by
the name of it's mrnifcent patron, antf'
shall b, named YALE COLLEGE: that
this province may keep and preserve
a lasting monument of such generous
gentleman, who, by so great benevo-
ence and generosity, has provided for
heir greatest good, and the peculiar
,dventage of the inhabitants both in
,he present and future ages"
On this joyful occasion an Grafton
vas prohounced by one of the trustees,
n which he extolled the generosity of
7 ale in the most glowing terms, Eight
students received their bachelors de-
gree, and the ceremony concluded with
IN oration in Latin, pronounced by the
Governor of the State, in which the
of Mr.. Yale was again
warmly commended.