Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1921-04-22

College, Doctor Edward D. Collins, is
well known generally throughout the
state but even in Middlebury where
he has lived for several years the de-
tails OF his varied and active career
had never been published The Cam
pus, the weekly newspaper of the I'M
dergraduate body, featured in its last
issue a biography of the founder OF
the Department OF Pedagogy of Mid
dlebury upon whom the executive re-
sponsibilities of the entire institution
have now devolved, pending the APP
pointment of a successor to Doctor
John M Thomas. The story of his
struggle against and triumph over ap-
parently adverse circumstances in his
boyhood contains message that will
be read with interest. The doctor
made himself in spite of big Difficult
ties and therein lies the lesson that
cannot be taught in the classroom from
the cold print of a textbook. The
Campus reporter wrote as follows.
DR.. Collins was born in Hardwick,
Vermont, December II, 1869, thus be-
ing four days younger than DR.. Thorn
as His father died when he was a
small child, and his family was sepa-
rated, he being taken into the family
of l. D. R. Collins, and later adopted
as his son. His early education was
such as the country schools of the
northern frontier afforded. At l6 he
went to work in lumber mill and the
hard work and small pay furnished him
incentive to get an education, He en-
tered the Lyndon Institute and COM
pleted commercial course, assisting
his father who was a country merchant
On the advice of the principal of the
Institute, his father encouraged him
to take another years schooling, and
he did so. The friendliness of his
teachers stimulated his ambitions still
more, and the idea of some time going
to college entered his thoughts He
then secured a country school and
taught it after the fashion of the times,
and later was offered a post with
large pulp and paper concern which
was more lucrative than teaching, and
gave him opportunity to use his knOwl-
edge of bookkeeping, store keeping,
and mill industry. After year of ex
perience in the store and lumber
camps, during which he acted as book
keeper, pay master, shipping clerk, and
storekeeper, he decided to make a
break and fit for college
He re-entered Lyndon Institute in
December Just before his Goth birth
day, and the following school year
passed the entrance examinations for
Yale entering the Class Of 1896 with
out a condition. He was badly handi-
capped in his freshman year by his too
rapid preparation and the necessity OF
earning his way. In the sophomore
year he secured work with the college
authorities making out schedules, and
doing various work in the office of the
dean This year he was the Wyllys
Belts prize man of the class, and at
tanned Phi Beta Kappa rank He sang
in the Apollo Club during his first two
years at Yale.
After graduation he received a Eel
lowship appointment in the graduate
school, and started work for a doctor
ate. He received the degree of Phi. D.
in 1899, in history. His interest in his
tory centered in the colonial period,
and he wrote a monograph which was
published by the American Historical
Association under the title of Com
mittees of Correspondence of the
American Revolution. In the pre-
paraton OF his thesis he began the in
vestigation of the British Slave Trade
to America and followed this study in
He was granted special per-
mission by the Lords of the Treasury
to inspect all the books and records OF
the Royal African Company, the great
slave trading corporation of the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries, be-
ing the first person who had systema
ticaly gone over the books and records
of this corporation since its confisca
ton. After the completion of this in
he spent several weeks in
travel on the continent, much OF it on
foot, and visited France, Belgium, Gerl
many, Switzerland, and Italy, withI
probably as small an expenditure as
any traveller in those countries since
the Middle Ages.
He returned to Yale with results OF
his study embodied in his doctors the
sis, "The Royal African Company" and |
received his doctor'ss degree in 1899.