The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-11-09
OLDEST LIVING
 YALE GRADUATE ONCE BRIDGEPORTER
0r. ID. F. Atwater Was Practic- ing Physician Here and a
 Bank Director
Also Served on Library Board Hast of Glass of 1839- He is Now 95 Years Old Recollection of Old Yale
Csprinefield Republican)

(SpringfeId Republican,
 YaIe's oldest living graduate. pr. David F. Atwater Of s2 Maple street, celebrated his 95th birthday recently and the day was one which was of in terest to Yale alumni throughout the country For over year now Dr. Atwater has held this unique digtinc- Aion. and the oldest living graduade as one who remembers Yale in the early history Is always held in high honor Throughout the Yale body The ex- perience which pr. Atwater has had in outlying all of the members of the class of 1889 at the college and of 1S41 at the medical school, as well as the great proportion of those in the class es that fololwed him in the university, is an impressive one, and he has many interesting "reminiscences of New Haven in the days when he knew it. His own attitude toward his position as oldest living graduate he expressed humorously in a letter to the Yale alumni at the Western Massa chusetts association dinner last winter, when he said that the thought embarrassed him on account of the old adage, The good die young.''
 pr Atwater's family has long been distinguished for prominence in Con- necticut affairs. One ef his ancestors. David Atwater, a planter of the New Haven colony. lived on the Neck in early days having come to American Tn the Hector, in ''the goodly conn pany of Rev. John Davenport, Theo- philuS Baton and others" The Att water elm SC1ll SIand1n9, was plautGQ in 174s by David Atwater. a descend- ant of the early settlers who came to New England in 16s6.
 Dr.. Atwater was born at North third son of Rev. Charles Atwater, a graduate Of Yale in the class of 1895; Che latter studied theology under the the #as ordained to the ministry and in stalled in the Congregational church on March 1, 1so9 Dr. Atwater. entered
 z-- 4E-e -fe,r~ riod in the history of the college when Dr. Jeremiah Day, Yale. 1795s held the presidents of1ice. The doctor is just. fains many notable names, among them United States Senator Dawes Of Massachusetts. Prof. Josiah D. Whitney ssgc leading man of letters. and foun- Ger of 'Bristed scholarshdp;" Gen. Henry R. Jackson, rigadder-general in Hoods army and United States minis ter 1n Mexico; James iO. Pufnamf chancellor of the university of Buff faio and United States minister to Bel Eiurn. and Prof. Enoch Fitch Burr Of Amherst college.
 Memories of old Yale
 The doctors memories of the college date back to the days when all en- trance requirements were on the clas- sfcs and when examinations were con- ducted orally from the gallery of the chapel The bl1ildings4were @ row of plain brick dormitories with brick EQAU2A 1m the u11QQ1S, ana an 4I1GO0uI1 and lyceum building in which recita- tfons were held, the whole group be- ing enclosed by the famous old wood sa s xale fsnce Tdnosr IoFes u,t;na ana fires to heat the buildings, friction matches not yet being patented and being only an exclusive luxury which England They were regarded as a great source Of danger. The different canditionS are also realized by the fact fDr discussing the development of steam ships and holding that 1t would never be possible to build them capable of crossing the ocean safely. Mail came into New Haven once & day by stage from New York, over the Boston Post road via Bridgeport, and while Dr. demonstrafion Of iivermen against building the railroad between Hart ford and New Haven because 1t would iujure their business. The New Haven and Northanpton canal was then a means of transportation of freight and passengers, passenger boats leaving daily for Northampton. Modern pay CTS of high prices would be impressed 6y the fact that the ordinary price of room and board in New Haven then was from g to 8 a week Feeling be men was not of the best and riots be- tween town and gown were not in- frequent. the classes cao osing their their smallest man as Minor Bully in anticipation of such times.
 The secret society Of Skull and water entered the collega but he saw the anizatiOn of several other inn portant Yale institutions. The Yale literary magazine was founded in his freshmen year. and the Yale chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity was established when he was a sophomore. organizations of the social life, Lon onia." Brothers in Dnity,'' and 'sCal- fope,' being the thre large ones, each having its own library and existing L In modern ssathletfc" college, against vvhics1 criticism is heard, had appar- enaly % not yet S Seyelopsd. for the doctor small gymnasium which was little used.
 After having spent two years in the study of medicine, part Of which time Dr. Atwater served as assistant physi- elan at Bellevue hospital in New York, he received his degree from the Yale memories of that year is of a banquet in New York given by the mayor in honor of Charles Dickens. who was fca-
 Met Father Mathew
 At the end of the year Dr. Atwater opened an office in Brooklyn, where l he continued for nearly 12 years in the | During most of that time he was l health physician to the city, and was for one year a member of the board Of aldermen The following incident | of those days the doctor recalls with | real pleasure One day, as he was driving by the municipal building in | Brooklyn, Mayor Hall called to him. ! On reaching the mayor, the doctor was to Father Mathew, the Irish | temperance reformer. whose Crusade | of 183Ss' was memorable in it's results Throughout Great Britain and Ireland. i E Atwater enjoyed greatly taking l fne good father in his carriage to St. | Patrick's cathedral, where he was about to celebrate mass. He has many recollections of well known people of i those days, among them Father Mathew, the famous Irish temperance ard Tonnu lind uhnp, bo !