New-York tribune., 1886-11-07
HARyARD'S BIRTHDAY. =
rwo HUNDRED AND FIFTY HONORABLE
YEARS sas-la s.. re-


rur STORY OF THK COLLEGE TOLD Bf EDWARD
EVERETT BALE.
u.r-.-, CoIleo. celebrates her two hundred and
sf,;e,b birthday in n series of soiemnities which
corar four dAvs Friday was the day of the Law
scbool Yesterday was the students day. In the
morning they had boatrace on the river. and at
Sanders Theatre, the great audience hall OF the
University a crowded audience heard GOOD ora
tou by Hamilton of the senior class, and pleasing
poem by Palmer. a senior who had been chosen by
the undergraduates for this service. In the after
noon game of football as PLAYED on jarvis tleld'
and in the evening characteristic students pro-
cession, with illumination, gave occasion ior
their pent-up enthusiasm to overflow. To-day the
Rev Mr.. Peabody. the new Plummer Professor
breaches In the chapel in the morning. the Rev.
DIR Phillips Brooks one of the college preachers.
in,the evening and the afternoon is given 10 per-
formance of appropriate music at Sanders Theatre,
much OF Il composed for the occasion by graduates
of the college. For this performance the best
artists in and near Boston have united. and the
chorus is made up of one or two hundred volce'
from graduates also.
Tomorrow Mr.. Lowell delivers an Grafton in
Sanders Theatre, and DR.. Holmes poem for all
who are fortunate enough 80 obtain admIttance.
For ladies' 4OO seats were assigned by lot TO 5000
applicants collstIon is to be served in the great
The Colony of Massachusetts, Ray. which founded
Harvard College in 1886, contained a larger pro-
norton of men educated in college themselves than
have ever lived in Massachusetts from that genera
tion 10 this; and probably there was never any
considerable community in the world which had so
large proportion Of college-bred men The leaders
of this Colony early showed their interest in public
education In 1885 John Winthrop Is found
ioined with others in the establishment OF Free
Grammar School in Boston, which was the founda-
tion of the Boston Latin School OF to-day. Ihe
next year. 1886, the General Court of the Colony
in a session which began on the Sth of September
pa sed an act which created the college This act
appears to have passed the 9th of October
which corresponds to-day to the 7th of November.
The record is in these words The Court agree to
give Four Hundred Pounds toward School OF
College " hereof Two Hundred Pounds shall be paid
the next year. and Two Hundred Pounds when the
work is finished. and the next Court TO appoint
where and what bulldlng."
This vote was undoubtedly urgently pressed by
Winthrop Fond students of the history OF the
college have found the immediate stimulus for tie
energy In which the plans for it we're pushed
forward in a letter to him from his sister, Lucy
Downing, who was doubling whether she could or
would remove her family TO wilderness In
particular she feared that the education of George
husband and this lai arrived in 1888 and as George
Downing was one of the hrst graduates in 1912.
there is some reason to connect the eagerness OF
Winthrop with his sisters entreaty. Downlngs s
grandson repaid any such debt which the younger
Cambridge then contracted to the older, IN his
munifcent endowment of Downing College.
The appropriation made by the General Court to
found Harvard is quite without precedent "
must appeal to gentlemen round me-" said Governor
Everett IN 1886, -whether, before the year 1856
they know of such a thing as a grant of money by
the English House of Commons TO fOund or endOw
q place of education. think there Is no such grant
before that period TIL long after aud therefore
| believe it is strictly within the hounds of truth
10 say that the General Court of the Colony Of
Massachusetts, Bay. which met in September. 1886
is the first body in which the people. by their
representatives. ever gave their own money to
found place of education. "
Whatever the good feeling of the General Court
or of their leaders it is certain that the enterprise
did not move forward with great alacrlty at lrst
In 1857. IL committee of twelve was appointed
to begin the college at Newtown. They selected
for it the place il now occupies Aweli organized
colony led by Hooker from England had estab-
lshed a settlement there, which they had' however.
abandoned, that they might remove to Hartford
The committee on the college made up from
long after the Court changed the name of "New-
town 90 Cambridge" in honor of the university
in England where so many OF its founders were
educated The enterprise still halted. however.
until in the next year. at the death of John har-
ward it fouad that be had left half his estate and
all his library to the college.
John Harvard was graduate of the English
Cambridge where he had been student Of
Emmanuel College. He arrived with his wife Anna
In America IN 1897, was made freeman at Charles
town at once, and intrusted with some duties
which show the respect paid to him there, and died
in 1888. He has been almost myth till within
year past so difficult has it been 10 trace his origin
Bat the assiduous work of the antiquaries has
shown at last he had beginning of days as well as
end OF years The names of his tatter and mother
have been found. The father Vas Robert Harvard
n butcher in Southwark. The mother was
katharine Rogers. of Stratiord-OnAvOn. and there
the two were married in 1908. Mr.. Justin insor
to whose carefdl historical research the reader IS
indebted for much of such information as IS IN his
hands has asked whether perhaps William SHAKE
speare were not ut the wedding, and whether on
retiring from il, after lie had heard Katharine
Rogers make her responses be did not write, " Her
voice was ever soft gentle and low, excellent
thing in woman" But to this question the anti
ouaries have thus far found no answer! Robert
Harvard died in the great plague. leaving two sons
OF whom John was one. His widow, who was the
keeper of an inn in Southwark-If only it had been
the Tabard married first a cooper, afterward
q grocer, but always they kept the inn As each
OF these died she left heiress of their property
She died and her property was divided between
John Harvard and his brother. The share OF John
was seventeen hundred pounds.
He had been educated in Emmanuel as has been
said. and had preached in Eug gland. tradition OF
the next generation intimates that he died in con-
sumption 1t may be feared that he crossed the
ocean in some hope of better health, at time when
the clinats of New England was not as well known
as il is now. Mr.. French, the sculptor has avaied
himself of this tradition and represents Harvard in
Che bronze statue at Cambridge, sitting back,
x;.ua =, h;s cbair thin fLce of disease