Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-06-20
COLBY GRADUATES HEAR
BACCALA uREATE AND attend
MEMORIAL FOR COL. SHANNON
MEMORIAL SERVICES

services in honor of the late Col
Richard Cults shannon. of the class
of 1862, friend and benefactor of the
college throughout his whole life. The
exercises included singing by the
congregation and the college quartet,
and music by Max G. Cimbollek.,
Pres. Arthur j. Roberts so, in
speaking of Col Shannon. told of Col.
Shannons life in the college of those
early days. Col. Shannon as Young
| man had a great interest in athletics
and in physical exercises, which in
terest he maintained until his death
1t was through his efforts that the
first gymnasium, an open air affair,
was established by the college at Il
cost of s25. Pres. Roberts, in speak
ing of Col Shannon's activities in
the Civil war. said that when he had
asked the colonel if he had not been
actuated to enlist by love of adven-
ture, he replied that it was patriotism
and that alone which had taken him
from his books.
In speaking of Col. Shannon's many
gifts to his Alma Mater the speaker
told of the beginning of the Centen-
NAL drive for a half million endow-
ment fund, when Col. Shannon, at the
meeting held to consider WAYS and
means to raise the money, pledged
himself to give an amount equal to
that given by the General Education
Board. 1t was this gift which made
possible the achievement of the
endowment
How our hearts thanked God that
day for this gift of Col. Shannon to
Colby college" said the president.
In closing, Pres. Roberts gave an
account of the last day he had spent
with Col. Shannon. in New York.
when the man mad shown great inter
est in all things going on about him.
ana had borne himself as IA young
man might. Col. Shannon was a
man of simple, sincere piety. of gen.
tie speech anr manner. of great kind
ness and Astounding charity and no
bic generosity. Being dead. he vet
speaketh, and always will speak 10
the hearts of us who have known and
loved him"
Judge William Penn Whitehouse, a
ctasSmate of Col Shannon. and a
graduate of the college in the class of
1905, was to have been a speaker. but
was unable to be present and his
speech was read by Or. Herbert Car
lyle Libby 90. 1t is as follows:
Under the spell of awakened mem
ory' many of the scenes and Incl
dents of those earlier DAYS reappear
with such vividness of present real
lty that when in later years we make
our pilgrimage hither, we seem to he
returning to meet ourselves as we
then were.
ION the fifth day of October last.
Col. Richard Cults Shannon, a grad
uate of Waterville college in the
class of 1862. and one of the most
loyal and devoted friends and NUM-
hcent benefactors this college has
ever had. passed to the higher life
in the SIND year of his age. at his
home in Brockton. \. Y.
Many of the pleasantest memo
rles of my own college DAYS are
mingled with the cherished compan-
ionship of the congenial spirits in
the south division of South college
from 1859 to 1862, including Whit
ing s. Clark, my roommate the first
year, Alfred +. Buck. George Gift
ford, who was my law partner dur
ing the first year of my practice.
Richard Cults Shannon, Percival
Bonney. and Thomas Judson Neal.
And l well remember that on that
historic morning of April II. 1861,
my roommate, Percival Bonney was
the excited messenger who brought
from the bulletin board in the viii
lage to the college campus. copy
of that portentOus dispatch, Rebels
here" The air was already charged,
and this message came like an cleo
trio shock. The thrill of indignation
and horror with which it was re-
ceived by the students and the
mighty shout of approval which
greeted President Lincoln's proc
lamation three days later. calling for
"a, 600 volunteer soldiers cannot here
be described.
an a letter to his classmate,
George Clifford. Col. Shannon said,
you remember better than ] that
spring day Of 1861 when we heard
the maddening news of the first at
tack on the flag. And you remem-
Der, too, how you and Hall hunted
I'D somewhere an old drum, mus
tered everything about the college
xy.ll
charge as we'll as you could; led the
motley but deadly earnest band
through the frantically excited
town"
"Amons the foremost of the stud
euts from Waterville college who
answered the call of President LIN
coin was Richard Cults Shannon,
who enlisted May 10, 1861, as pri-
vate in Company II of the 5th Maine
regiment of volunteers. In October
OF the same year he was commits
stoned first lieutenant, and IN DC
tober 1862, he was commissioned
CAPTAIN and adjutant general, and
served continuously until the close
of the war, receiving the brevet of
lieutenant colonel.
soon after the war, Col. Shannon
went to Brazil, and was for several
years a resident of Rio de Janeiro.
In 1871, he received from President
Grant an appointment as secretary
of legation at that place and served
in that capacity until March 1875.
when he resigned. The following
year he took charge of an American
railroad enterprise. in Brazil and