Letter from F. W. Wildes to John Owen regarding Class Day in 1864
Series: Collections of the Harvard University Archives
Published: 1864
Language: eng
Subjects: Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1864; Grays Hall (Cambridge, Mass.)
Description: Letter discusses the students' proposal, submittted for a faculty vote, to 'rope in' a section of the yard on Class Day and admit people with tickets. There is also brief mention of the exhibition to be held in May, and of Grays Hall, a dormitory built in 1863 on the site of the first College building.
Notes: Formerly classified as HUD 6864.

Frank Waldo Wildes and John Owen were both members of the Harvard Class of 1864. At the time the letter was written, John Owen was serving as Sergeant Major of the 36th United States Colored Troops. Owen left Harvard in January 1864 to enlist, and returned to Harvard after his resignation in April 1866 to receive his degree as a member of the class.

Frank Waldo Wildes, wool merchant and real estate manager, was born on October 17, 1843, in Northborough, Massachusetts to Moses Bradstreet and Emeline Augusta (Heath) Wildes. He received his Harvard AB in 1864. Following graduation, Wildes worked as a woolen merchant in New York City and Boston before moving to Lawrence, Massachusetts for the manufacturing of worsted yarns. In 1875, he moved to Cambridge and began to manage real estate; in 1886, he moved to Newton Centre. Wildes married Helen Delia Hilger in 1869; they had four children. After her death in 1885, he married Frances Elizabeth Ball in 1886; they had one son. Wildes died in 1928.

John Owen, government official, was born on March 6, 1842, in Cambridge to John and Sylvia Church (Sampson) Owen. He enlisted in the United States Army in January 1864, serving as an officer of the 2nd North Carolina Volunteers, also known as the 36th United States Colored Troops; Owen resigned his commission on April 21, 1866. He received his AB in 1866 as a member of the Harvard College Class of 1864, and received his AM in 1870. Owen was appointed to a position in the Chicago post office in the fall of 1866, and was transferred to the Boston post office in March 1872, where he worked for over forty-two years. He married Mary Elizabeth Palmer in 1885; after her death in 1901, he married Jennie Hamilton in 1906. Owen died on May 8, 1915.