The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-02
The LATE B. G. N0RTHR0P
A MERITED TRIBUTE TO A LONG
AND USEFUL LIFE.
Left an Impress for Good That Long VIII
Remain-The Funeral Service of the
Deceased.

Remain-The Funeral Service of the
Deceased.
Impressive funeral services were
held in Clinton Saturday noon over
the remains of the Rev. B. Grant
Northrop, d. D., LII. ID. The services
were held in the First Congregational
church, and were conducted by four
clergymen friends Of DR.. Northrop, the
Rev. Thomas A. Emerson of Clinton,
DR.. Ray Palmer of New Haven, the
Rev. George w. Banks of Guilford and
the Rev. w. A. Ames of Essex.
Many friends of the dead man were
present to pay their last respects, and
the casket was covered with flowers.
The honorary pallberres were George
e. Elliott and e. e. Post of Clinton,
Prof. Arthur M. Wheeler Of New Ha-
ven, the Rev. George w. Banks of
Guilford, the Rev. f. E. Lewis of Had
dam and the Rev. w. f. Ames of Es-
sex. The body was brough to New
Haven and inferred in the Grave street
cemetery.
The New York Evening Post of Sat
urday pays the following just and
highly merited tribute to the memory
of the deceased, speaking in particu-
lar of his long and earnest work on
village improvement and his import
ant connection with Arbor day:
This quarter of a century of official
connection with the board of education
constituted an honorable record if it
had been confined to the remarkably
efficient work along conventional lines
which DR.. Northrop did for the school
systems of Massachusetts and Connec-
ticut between 1857 and 1883. But what
gave this man his distinction, and rem
dered his life one of uncommon service
to his generation, was his steadily in
creasing devotion, during his official
career, and for many years afterwards,
to the education of the American peo-
pie in things which are really matters
of public education, but are outside of
schools and text books.
DR.. Northrop was the great apostle
of what will be called Village improve
ment.' Born and bred in New Eng
land, respecting the stern virtues of
the Yankee character, he early saw
how thrift had obscured taste, and
how the old Puritan distrust of art had
developed ad isregard and even con-
tempt for beauty when it was easily
within reach. Going from one rural
town to another in two of the oldest
state, year after year, he found what
should have been the most attractive
villages neglected, unkempt, even re-
pulsive, simply because nobody tried
to improve their natural advantages.
The ambition to work reform was
supplemented by the sense to perceive
what needed to be done and the execu-
tive ability to devise practical ways of
doing it--for DR.. Northrop had those
qualities by which the ankee brings
things to pass, and might have become
a rich man if he had cared for wealth
through opportunities more than once
held out to him by those who appre-
ciated his rare talent for business.
The Village improvement society
was the machinery through which DR..
Northrop worked This was an organ
ization Of the more spirited people in
the town to look after the sidewalks.
see that good street crossings were
maintained, have trees set out in
proper manner, encourage the growth
Of shrubs and flowers, make attractive
lawns, establish drinking fountains,
abolish old carelessness about the dis
position of refuse and rubbish-in
short, by a score of methods, transform
what had always been sordid looking
village into a place which became a
delight to the eye and a solace to the
mind. The pioneer society Of Stock
bridge, Mass, which long ago made
that town famous, was DIR. Northrop's
model, and for many years he lectured
and wrote to introduce the same meth
DDS elsewhere, with tn enthusiasm, a
power, and success in making con-
verts, which age could not abate until
the end of his life. He visited over
forty of the states and territories, and
aided in organizing hundreds of socie-
ties in all parts of the country.
A natural outgrowth of this village
Improvement work was the mans de-
votion to tree-planting on a larger scale
than for the mere adornment of a
street or a lawn. While secretary of
the Connecticut board of education he
was commissioned, in 1877 to visit Eu-
rope and examine the schools of for
estry and forest plantations, as well as
the Industrial schools, and report for
the benefit of the schools and people of
his state, with an especial view to en-
couraging the reclamation of waste
lands by the propagation of trees. This
led to his becoming the earnest advo-
cate of tree-planting and the originator
of Arbor day as an annual occasion for
such planting in connection with the
public school system. Almost every
state in the Union now keeps Arbor
day.
This varied work in the education of
public taste, as well as in the develop
ment of the public school system, was
carried on for period longer than the
lifetime of a generation. 1t made Dr.
Northrop great civilizing force. He
leaves this world a distinctly more
beautiful, more agreeable and more ele-
waiting world to live in than he found
it. He set in motion forces which will
continue the work of improvement that
he began, and his influence will live
long after him.
Young men who have ambition to
serve their generation complain, with
too much reason, that a public life, in