Biographies From the Men of Mark in Connecticut
Source:  Written by Colonel N. G. Osborn editor of "New Haven Register" in 1906

ATWATER, WILBUR OLIN, Ph.D., LL.D., one of the ablest and best known scientists of this century, educator, author, and the pioneer of some of the most important scientific investigations of the day, professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, the chief of the Nutrition Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture, whose earnest, thorough, and fruitful experiments in agricultural and physiological chemistry have made him a public benefactor and whose successful researches into abstract science proclaim him one of the greatest scholars of his day, was born in Johnsburgh, New York, May 3rd, 1844. He is descended from David Atwater, a native of Kent, England, who emigrated thence to America and became one of the original settlers in the New Haven Colony in 1635. He is the son of William Warren Atwater and Eliza Barnes Atwater. His father was a Methodist minister and a strong and active temperance worker in Burlington, Vermont, where he edited a temperance paper. William Atwater was a man of indomitable will and perseverance.

It was natural that the son of a Methodist minister should not spend all of his early years in one place and Wilbur Atwater lived in various small New England and New York towns in his boyhood. He had the priceless endowment of excellent health which found logical expression in a love of outdoor sports, especially the aquatic ones, swimming and fishing. He was eager to have a thorough education and worked to get it, both at farming and as clerk in a country store, and he considers the experience gained by this early labor a most useful part of his education. After gleaning sufficient preparatory knowledge from the public schools in the various towns where the family made their home he spent two years at the University of Vermont and two at Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1865. Two years' teaching followed this academic course and he then took a course in post-graduate study at Yale, which led to his taking his Ph.D. degree at that university in 1868. In 1870 he went abroad and spent two years in scientific study at Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich. Upon his return to the United States he took the position of professor of chemistry in the University of Tennessee, from which he resigned in 1873 to take the same chair at the Maine State College, where he stayed but a year as he was called to Wesleyan University, where he has been in charge of the chemistry department continuously since that time.

In December, 1873, Professor Atwater addressed the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture on the subject of agricultural investigations, especially in regard to scientific fertilizers and cattle rations, and put before that board the importance of having a government experiment station for that purpose. He finally secured state appropriations for the work, and an experiment station, the first in this country, was eventually established through his efforts. From 1875 to 1877 he was director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, and he is still a member of the board of control of that important organization. He was also the pioneer promoter of another important and fruitful enterprise, known as Investigations into the Laws of Nutrition and Food Economy, which resulted in the establishment of dietary standards which have since been regarded as authoritative by American students of domestic science. Actuated by the belief that the field of agricultural and physiological chemistry was a great opening for the student and experimenter, Professor Atwater continued his researches along those particular branches of science with the utmost success. He worked up statistics of food consumption and in collaboration with Professor Hempel of Dresden he elaborated a bomb calorimeter for determining the amount of potential energy in foods. He was one of the inventors of the Atwater-Rosa calorimeter which demonstrates the theory that the law of conservation of energy obtains in the living organism and aids in the study of many physiological problems, and for which he was awarded the Elliott-Cresson Medal in 1900. His work along this line was of fourfold importance, indicating the true economy in the use of food, the establishment of due proportions in diet, rules for quantity, and the revelation of many popular errors in diet. From 1888 to 1902 he was director of Storrs' Experiment Station and from 1888 to 1891 he was director of the Office of Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, which the Government had called him to organize as a central office or clearing house for the institutions of like nature all over the country and the medium by which they might keep in touch with similar institutions in Europe. In 1891 and 1893 he went to Europe to secure European contributors for the "Experiment Station Record" which he founded. From 1894 to 1903 he was special agent in charge of the Nutrition Investigations authorized by Congress and carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture. Since 1903 he has been chief of the Nutrition Investigations conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture. At the time of the World's Fair he collected and analyzed five hundred specimens of food materials on exhibition there. With F. G. Benedict, a fellow professor at Wesleyan, he conducted "An Experimental Inquiry Regarding the Nutritive Value of Alcohol" and served on the physiological sub-committee of the "Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Liquor Problem."

In addition to organizing and developing the National Food Investigations, directing the office of Government Experiment Stations and conducting his classes at Wesleyan, Professor Atwater has written over one hundred and fifty papers on scientific subjects. He has been a frequent contributor to the standard scientific journals and these writings and his lectures comprise much valuable and original scientific literature. In 1895 he published for the Government "Methods and Results of Investigations in the Chemistry and Economy of Food," a most important work.

As a teacher Professor Atwater is thorough, earnest, enthusiastic, and approachable. He has a remarkable gift of planning his work and of imparting his own scholarly knowledge. As an experimenter and investigator in the realm of science he stands in the foremost ranks and his deep interest in scientific research is embodied in his scientific library in Middletown, which is perhaps the most complete private library of its kind in this country. His intellectuality is that of a true student and scholar and his energy and perseverance in carrying out his mental ambition are equally great.

Professor Atwater has never narrowed his life to one of solely intellectual activity. He has taken a steady interest in politics and though formerly a Republican he styles himself at present a Mugwump, for he took exception to the Republican support of Blaine and is always "Independent" on local issues. He is an actively interested member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of late years he has also been actively interested in national temperance reform, both in this country and in Europe. He is exceedingly fond of outdoor life and enjoys hunting and fishing and life in the woods. As an alumnus and member of the faculty of Wesleyan he is greatly interested in the college life and growth.

In August, 1874, he was married to Marcia Woodard, by whom he has had two children.

He is a member of the Wesleyan fraternity, Phi Nu Theta, the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C, the American Chemical Society, the American Physiological Society, the Washington Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Societe Chemique de Paris, the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, associate member Societe d’Hygiene l’Alimentaire et de l’Alimentation Nationelle de Homme, corresponding member Societe Royal des Sciences Medicales et Naturelles de Bruxelles, foreign member of the Swedish Royal Academy, corresponding member of the Russian Imperial Military Academy of Medicine, associate member of the French National Society of Agriculture, and a member of many philanthropic organizations. This long list shows better than anything else Professor Atwater's broad interests, his international prominence in the world of science, and his active part in the intellectual life of his generation. In mind and achievement he is beyond doubt a great, practical, public benefactor, and one of the most advanced and able scientists of the age.

BENEDICT, FRANCIS GANG, Ph.D., chemist, educator and scientific writer, instructor and associate professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, president of the Middletown Scientific Association and author of "Chemical Lecture Experiments," was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 3rd, 1870. His father was Washington Gano Benedict, a man of indomitable energy and business integrity, whose occupation in life was the management of real estate and electric railways. Dr. Benedict's mother was Harriet Emily Benedict, and from her came his first great stimulus to intellectual activity.

A city-bred boy, endowed with excellent health and great mental vigor, it was natural that Francis Benedict should seek and acquire the highest education. His greatest interest was in the natural sciences, in the study of which he showed marked zeal and aptitude. Outside of school hours, in his early youth, he had a certain amount of manual labor to do, which inculcated valuable habits of responsibility and industry. He prepared for college at the Boston Latin School and the English High School in Boston, and then entered Harvard University, where he received his A.B. degree in 1893 and his A.M. degree in 1894. During his courses at Harvard he earned his way by acting as instructor in chemistry in the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston. After taking his Master's degree at Harvard, he went abroad and studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he was granted the degree of Ph.D. in 1895.

In 1896, soon after his return from Germany, Dr. Benedict became instructor and, later, associate professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, Middletown, and he has held the position continuously since that time. From 1895 to 1900 he was chemist at Storrs Experiment Station, and since 1898 has been physiological chemist of the Nutrition Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1899 he published his "Elementary Organic Analysis," and in 1900 his "Chemical Lecture Experiments," and he has contributed many interesting, original, and authentic papers to various leading scientific journals. He has conducted some very fruitful and important investigations into the nutrition of man with the respiration calorimeter. In the lecture room, the laboratory, and through the scientific press Dr. Benedict has done much to foster scientific research, and to conduct that research along practical lines. He is a true scholar, an able writer, a zealous and capable educator, and a most enthusiastic and authoritative scientist.

Dr. Benedict is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, the American Physiological Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the Middletown Scientific Association, of which he is president, the University Club of Middletown, and the college fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa. In creed he is an Episcopalian, and in politics a Republican. Boating is his most pleasurable summer diversion, and music his winter pastime. In 1897 Dr. Benedict married Cornelia Golay, by whom he has had one child. He believes the most helpful influence upon his work to have come from his private study, and the greatest incentive to success from his college chemistry professor, Josiah P. Cooke, of Harvard, with whom he was intimately associated during his college course. Dr. Benedict advises men to practice "total abstinence from liquors or tobacco, under the age of forty years." He is still a young man, and the scientific world may reasonably expect still greater results of his work.  Men of Mark Index

COFFIN, HON. OWEN VINCENT, ex-governor of Connecticut, president of the Middlesex Mutual (Fire) Assurance Company of Middletown, Connecticut, was born in Union Vale, Dutchess County, New York, June 20th, 1836. His first ancestors in America were Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffin, who came from England to Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1642, Tristram Coffin later becoming the chief magistrate of Nantucket. His father was Alexander Hamilton Coffin, a farmer by occupation.

The usual interests and tasks of life on a farm filled the days of Mr. Coffin's boyhood. Farming, reading, and school took most of his time. He was, and remains, very fond of music. His favorite study was natural philosophy, which he began to study at school at the age of nine. He inclined to very general reading, with a particular interest in history and with Cowper as his favorite poet. His education was acquired at the Cortland Academy, Homer, New York, and at the Charlottesville (New York) Seminary. At seventeen he went to New York to be a salesman for a mercantile house, and two years later, in 1855, he became the New York representative of a prominent Connecticut manufacturing firm.

In 1858, Mr. Coffin married Ellen Elizabeth Coe of Middletown, Connecticut, by whom he has had two children, a daughter and a son. The latter, Seward Vincent Coffin, is the only one now living, and is connected with the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Coffin was a strong supporter of the Union cause, though he was physically debarred from active service; but he furnished a substitute, though not required to do so.

He was president two terms of the Brooklyn, New York, Y. M. C. A., which aided largely during the period of the War in valuable field hospital work, and he was also active in the same work in connection with his membership of the New York Committee of the United States Christian Commission. In 1864 Mr. Coffin moved to Middletown, where he has since made his home. During his residence in Connecticut he has been connected as president, secretary, treasurer, and director with banking, railroad, fire insurance, manufacturing, and other business corporations. Since 1884 he has been president of the Middlesex Mutual (Fire) Assurance Company. From 1865 to 1878, when he suffered a serious breakdown in health, he was secretary and treasurer of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank of Middletown during the most important period and most rapid growth of that bank and he held the same offices and that of director for several years in the old Air Line Railroad Company. He has been for years and remains a director of the reorganized Boston & New York Air Line Railroad Company. In politics he has always been a Republican, but personally decidedly averse to standing for any public office, then, or later for other positions, until his candidacy for governor seemed to come in sight. From 1872 to 1874 he was mayor of Middletown. He was tendered a re-nomination by leading men of both parties and assured of unanimous reelection, but felt obliged by other engagements to decline. In 1887 and 1889 he served as State senator two terms, and was urged to accept the unanimous nomination when tendered for a third term, but pressure of business duties led him to decline. In 1894 he was nominated for governor. His popularity with the people carried him through, thousands of Democrats voting for him, and he was elected governor of Connecticut by the greatest majority recorded up to that time, a fact considered prophetic of his successful career as the chief magistrate of the State.

Mr. Coffin has been as prominent in ecclesiastical, intellectual, and social affairs as he has been in those of state and business. In church classification he is a Congregationalist. He was a member of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York, for many years, and after coming to Connecticut to reside joined the old First Church of Middletown, in which he retains membership. He was first assistant moderator of the Triennial International Congregational Council in Portland, Oregon, in 1898; superintendent of Sunday schools in Brooklyn and in Middletown for many years; moderator of the Congregational Council of Connecticut one term, and president of the Middletown Y. M. C. A., the Middletown Choral Society, and many other public or semi-public organizations. Though not a college man Mr. Coffin has had the honorary degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by Wesleyan University and is an honorary member of the college fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon. Aside from this Greek letter society he is not connected with any secret organization. He is a member of the old local literary society called the Conversational Club. The sports he most enjoys are shooting and fishing. He was for years president of the Middletown Rifle Association and he was vice-president of the Connecticut Rifle Association during the presidency of the late General Hawley. He is interested in athletics and considers regular outdoor exercise invaluable for people of sedentary occupations.  Men of Mark Index

CONN, HERBERT WILLIAM, Ph.D., biologist, educator, lecturer, author and practical bacteriologist, professor of biology at Wesleyan University, president and instigator of the Society of American Bacteriologists, founder of Agricultural Bacteriology, and one of the most eminent scientists of our day, was born in Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, January 10th, 1859. He is descended from John Conn, who came from Ulster County, Ireland, to the United States in 1730 and, on his mother's side, from John Barrows, who settled in Salem in 1635. Professor Conn's father, Reuben Rice Conn, was a watchmaker and jeweler and a man of marked integrity of character. His mother was Harriet Elizabeth Conn, a woman of great moral and spiritual strength and influence. The boy Herbert Conn was rather weak and sickly and he was brought up in a small city with few duties to perform outside of his school work. He was an ardent student and showed a propensity for scientific research at a very early age. He attended a private school, Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, Massachusetts, and then entered Boston University, where he received his A.B. degree in 1881 and his A.M. degree in 1883. He entered Johns Hopkins University in 1881, where he was granted the degree of Ph.D. in Biology in 1884. During his last year of study at Johns Hopkins he also taught in that university and he was acting director of the Johns Hopkins Summer Laboratory during the summer that followed.

In 1884 Mr. Conn became instructor of biology in Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and he became professor of biology in that university in 1887 and still holds the chair. He was biology instructor at Trinity College in 1889-1890; acting director of the department of zoology, Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute, in 1887; director of the Cold Springs Biological Laboratory 1890-1897; bacteriologist of Storrs School Experiment Station from the time it was founded until the present time and he has been lecturer on bacteriology at the Connecticut Agricultural College since 1901. He was the first to suggest and one of the chief organizers of the Society of American Bacteriologists, of which he was secretary for the first three years of its existence and of which he was president in 1903. He was the founder and has been for some time the chief exponent in America of the growing subject of Agricultural Bacteriology, which is today revolutionizing many agricultural methods and doing a work of the utmost importance in promoting health and economy. Some of his most valuable, radical, and fruitful investigations have been those concerning bacteria in milk products, of which scientific study Professor Conn was the pioneer in America. In 1905 he was made State Bacteriologist of Connecticut and director of the State Bacteriological Laboratory that was organized under his supervision. He has published about one hundred and fifty scientific papers upon this and kindred subjects, which have brought about definite and practical results. He was the first to prove that typhoid fever is distributed by oysters, doing so by investigations of an epidemic at Wesleyan. He is the author of "Evolution of Today," published in 1886; "The Living World," 1891; "The Method of Evolution," 1900; "The Story of Germ Life," 1897; "The Story of the Living Machine," 1899; "Agricultural Bacteriology," 1901; "Bacteria in Milk and Its Products," 1902; "Bacteria Yeasts and Molds in the Home," 1903; "Elementary Physiology and Hygiene," and "Nociones de Microbiologic," and also a series of widely used school textbooks on Physiology. Several of these books have been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian. In these books his treatment of his subjects is masterful, thorough, and modern, avoiding all unnecessary detail and aiming at a resume of salient points and a solution of practical problems. He writes clearly with no trace of pedantry and with apt and illuminating illustrations. He believes that the study of evolution is in a transition period and that the rising generation of students will study it from a new view point, and writes with so scientific and scholarly a caution that it is almost prophetic, and it is safe to say that his books will have true value in the coming as well as in the present generation. As a specialist on the bacteriology of dairy products Professor Conn has performed some very important and advanced experiments with most beneficial results. He spent three years in searching for a species of bacteria which the butter-maker might inoculate into his cream to insure a uniformly pure product and the adequate organism was obtained in 1893, and has been used with the most satisfying results in creameries all over the country. By the inoculation of "Bacillus No. 41" the growth of injurious bacteria is checked and cream and butter are given their own desirable flavor.

Professor Conn's able, thorough, and progressive work in scientific research has placed him among the foremost biologists of today. His recognized importance in scientific circles is due to his careful and fruitful experiments, his clear and authentic writings and lectures and his ability as an educator. In the advice he offers others we may discover the fundamental reasons of his own great success, for he says, "Aim to discover essentials and distinguish them from unimportant details. Place the emphasis of endeavor upon the essentials that count and don't waste energies in too much attention to unimportant minute." He has truly bent all of his energies to the pursuit of the branch of science that is his life work and, except for a constant interest in the Methodist Church to which he belongs, conscientious casting of his political vote, usually for the Republican party, and membership in his college fraternity Beta Theta Pi, he has no social connections. For relaxation he enjoys bicycling and mountain climbing, and, when tired, light fiction. In August, 1885, Professor Conn married Julia M. Joel, by whom he has had two children. Their home is in Middletown, the seat of his professional duties.  Men of Mark Index

HART, SAMUEL, D.D., D.C.L., vice-dean and professor of doctrinal theology and prayer book at Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut, secretary of the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, historiographer of that Church, registrar of the Diocese of Connecticut, president of the Connecticut Historical Society, and one of the most able and prominent clergymen, authors, scholars, and teachers of the day, was born in Say-brook, Middlesex County, Connecticut, on June 4th, 1845. He is descended from Stephen Hart who came from England to Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1635 and later settled in Hartford and Farmington. Dr. Hart's ancestry also numbers such distinguished names as Captain Thomas Hart, Lieutenant William Pratt, John Clark, Anthony Hawkins, Giles Hamlin, Richard Seymour, all of Connecticut, and Gen. Robert Sedgwick, Gov. John Leverett, Francis Willoughby, and Simon Lynde, of Massachusetts. Dr. Hart's father was Henry Hart, a farmer and bank cashier, who was justice of peace and judge of probate, and his mother was Mary A. (Witter) Hart, from whom he received the best kind of influence.

Spending his youth on a farm in a country village the boy, Samuel Hart, had plenty of work to do, helping his father on the farm, and plenty of satisfaction for the physical ambition of a strong constitution. He read eagerly and extensively, at first preferring books of travel, then showing an interest in mathematics, and still later pursuing broad and general courses of reading. His college preparatory work was done at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire and was followed by a course at Trinity College leading to the B.A. degree which he received there in 1863. The ministry was his self-chosen vocation and upon the completion of his academic course he entered Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, where he was graduated in 1869, receiving the same year his Master's degree at Trinity. During the last year of his course at Berkeley he was a tutor in Trinity College. He became a deacon in 1869 and was ordained priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1870.

Soon after his ordination Dr. Hart became assistant professor of mathematics at Trinity and three years later, in 1ST3, he became professor of that subject. From 1883 to 1899 he was professor of Latin at Trinity, resigning his chair in 1899 to become vice-dean and professor of theology at Berkeley Divinity School. Meanwhile, in 1885, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity and the degree of Doctor of Canon Law in 1899. Still later, in 1902, Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D. From 1873 to 1888 Dr. Hart was secretary of the American Philological Association and he was president of that association in 1892-3. Since 1900 he has been president of the Connecticut Historical Society; from 1894 to 1896 he was president of the Connecticut Library Association, and he has been senator of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity since 1892, High offices in the Episcopal Church have been as numerous and distinguished as his scholarly offices. Since 1874 he has been registrar of the Diocese of Connecticut, since 1886 he has been custodian of the Standard Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church, since 1892 he has been secretary of the House of Bishops, and since 1898 he has been historiographer of the Church. Among the societies of which Doctor Hart is a member are the American Oriental Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, the American Historical Association, the New Haven Historical Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Psi Upsilon college fraternity.

Doctor Hart's writings are as distinguished as his more active services to the intellectual and religious world. In 1873 he was the editor of "Satires of Juvenal" and in 1875 of the "Satires of Persius." and at about the same time he published "Bishop Seabury's Communion Office, With Notes." "Maclear's Manual for Confirmation and Holy Communion" was brought out under his editorship in 1895 and the "History of the American Prayer Book" in Frore's Procior in 1901. He is also the compiler of "Short Daily Prayers for Families," published in 1902, and he has been a frequent and eminent contributor to many of the best magazines. In all his works, whether lecture, commentary, sermon, speech, criticism, or devotional literature, Doctor Hart shows himself a keen and brilliant thinker, a careful, graceful writer, an ardent and consistent Churchman, a sound theologian, a thorough scholar, a devout Christian, and a leader and teacher of men.

KUHNS, OSCAR, A.M., L.H.D., author and educator, professor of Romance languages at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, was born in Columbia. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on February 21st, 1856. On both the paternal and the maternal sides he is descended from the oldest German and Swiss settlers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch. On his father's side his earliest ancestor in this country was Theobald Kuntz, as the name was then spelled, who was married at Lancaster, in 1745, to Maria Margaret Fortune, whose ancestors had left France at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and had gone to Germany. This Theobald Kuntz was the son of Johann Francis Kuntz of Waldmohr, Zweibrucken, Germany. On his mother's side Oscar Kuhns traces his ancestry to Bishop John Herr, leader of the Swiss Quakers who made the first settlement of Lancaster in 1710. His great-grandfather, George Kuntz, was in the Revolutionary War and his maternal great-grandfather, Frederick Brown, was with General Arnold at the battle of Quebec and served all through the Revolution. Professor Kuhns is the youngest of four brothers, two of whom, George Washington and Walter Brown, died in childhood. It was the unselfishness and kindness of his other brother, Henry Clarence, that alone made possible an academic career for Oscar Kuhns. Professor Kuhns's father, William Kuhns, a blacksmith and inventor, was a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a man of excellent mental endowment and strong religious convictions. He was interested in mechanics and applied science and was one of the first to work at photography, being a personal friend of Dr. John W. Draper, the founder of American photography. Professor Kuhns's mother was Rebecca Brown, a woman whose chief characteristic was intense piety, inherited from her Swiss-Quaker ancestors. He describes her as one "of a sweet and lovable disposition, who was universally loved and whose spiritual influence was very great."

Though he was born in a village most of Oscar Kuhns's boyhood was spent in the city. He was exceedingly fond of reading and study and did not allow himself to be handicapped by lack of funds in securing the best education. He prepared for college alone in the evenings after busy days at work as a clerk, and found time to become well acquainted with Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Dante, whom he loved and admired with the passion of a true scholar. He was graduated from Wesleyan University in 1885 and three years later received the degree of Master of Arts. Since then he has studied at the universities of Berlin, Geneva, Paris, and Rome and was granted, in 1904, the degree of L.H.D. by Dickinson College. He seemed to have a "call" to the study and teaching of languages, in which he had been interested from childhood, and he began to teach at Wesleyan, after receiving his Master's degree.

In 1890 he became professor of Romance languages at Wesleyan and he still fills that chair. His chief work outside of his immediate professional duties in the lecture room has been in writing and some very genuine and valuable literature has come from his pen. In 1895 he published his scholarly "Treatment of Nature in Dante" which proclaims the author to be a true student of that great master; indeed Professor Kuhns has been passionately fond of the great Italian poet since childhood. In 1904 he published "Dante and the English Poets," a most interesting piece of literary workmanship of which it has been said that "the amount of valuable material and data thus brought together is a matter for surprise and admiration." In 1903 appeared his well-known "Great Poets of Italy," an interesting history of Italian literature, which is thorough, accurate, and concise and covers material which most writers would have spread over many volumes. He is also the author of "German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania, a Study of the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch," an exhaustive history of those interesting colonists told in an entertaining and romantic but none the less authentic manner. He has also produced eight or ten successful text-books. His style is clear, coherent, and graceful and his method of writing is that of a thorough and original student, who is capable of the finest discriminations, and of an artist in the power of selection and condensation of materials.

Professor Kuhns is a member of the college fraternity, Psi Upsilon, of the Lancaster County Historical Society, the Modern Language Association, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is a Republican and in creed he affiliates with the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the sixth of April, 1892, he married Lillie B. Conn of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, by whom he has had one child, Austin Hubberd. Professor Kuhns makes his home in Middletown, the seat of Wesleyan, his Alma Mater, and the center of his professional activities.

RAYMOND, BRADFORD PAUL, Ph.D., D.D., president of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, educator, author, and preacher, was born in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, April 22nd, 1846. He is of English descent and traces his ancestry in this country to Richard Raymond, who came from England to Salem, Massachusetts, and was a freeman there in May, 1634. Dr. Raymond's father was Lewis Raymond, a farmer and a man of strong personality and intense convictions. He was a man of social inclinations, radical opinions, and democratic principles, and a firm believer in the "brotherhood of man." He was selectman in Stamford and otherwise active in town affairs. His wife. Dr. Raymond's mother, whose maiden name was Sallie A. Jones, was a woman of remarkably fine character and one who exerted a particularly strong influence upon her son's moral and spiritual life.

The boy Bradford Raymond was blessed with a robust constitution and health far above the average boy. He spent most of his youth in the country and as the family was large there were plenty of duties for him to perform on the farm and in the house. He was determined to acquire an education, even though it must necessarily be self-earned. From 1852 to 1861 he attended school in his native town, Stamford, and in 1861, when he was but fifteen, he taught school that he might earn the means of further education. Indeed he "tried everything going" as a means to that worthy end and worked at farming, teaching, singing-school teaching, basket making, and preaching for the accomplishment of his purpose.

Dr. Raymond spent three years at Hamline University, Red Wing, Minnesota, and subsequently took his academic degree at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. In 1873 he took his B.D. degree at the Boston University after a three years' course there. He was dominated by the conviction that he ought to preach and he was in the pastorate of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1871 to 1883. From 1874, the year following his ordination, until 1877 he was pastor of the Allen Street Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and from 1887 to 1880 he preached in Providence, R. I. In 1880 and 1881 he studied in Germany, at Leipzig and Gottingen and upon his return he received his Ph.D. degree at Boston University in 1881. He was pastor of a church in Nashua, New Hampshire, from 1881 until 1883, when he was called back to his Alma Mater, Lawrence University, to be its president and head. He served in that responsible capacity until 1889, when he was called to the presidency of Wesleyan University, the position he now holds. In 1896 he took a second trip abroad for further study at the German universities and returned at the end of a year. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the Northwestern University in 1894 and by Yale University in 1901.

As the head of Wesleyan University, Dr. Raymond has done and is doing most valuable work for the highest good of college and faculty and Wesleyan has advanced in every way under his administration. He has been highly instrumental in increasing and strengthening the material resources of the university, in preserving and purifying the "college spirit," and in raising the standard of scholarship. He has a strong personality and the faculty of leadership to a marked degree. As a scholar and educator he is of highest rank, for he has the gift of teaching and the mind of a true scholar. His generous sympathies and absolute Justice win the loyalty and admiration of the student body and his executive ability and scholarly methods make him a fitting head of the faculty. As a student Dr. Raymond is a man of high attainment in the field of philosophical, ethical, and theological study, and as a writer and speaker he is clear, forcible, and interesting. As a preacher he is one of the ablest of his denomination and his careful training, his eloquence, and his deeply religious nature make him a distinct "power for good" in the university. His chief written work, "Christianity and the Christ," which he published in 1894, embodies the views, beliefs, and personality of a deep student, a sincere theologian, an able writer, and a true Christian.

A life truly devoted to study has little time for social, fraternal, or political interests and Dr. Raymond is no exception to the rule suggested by this fact. With the exception of one year, from September, 1864, to July, 1865, spent in military service in the ranks of the 48th New York Regiment, he has spent his life in scholarlT pursuits. In politics Dr. Raymond is a conscientious Republican although he has never wished or held office. In 1873 he married Lulu A. Rich, by whome he has had five children and two of the five are now living.

As a scholar and educator, as a theologian and preacher, and as president of one of the oldest and finest New England universities, Dr. Bradford Paul Raymond holds a high place of his own making in intellectual life of Connecticut.  He is an admirable example of what ambition and determination may do to defeat the obstacles m the way of gaining  an education and of the importance of a strong and single purpose in life.  Men of Mark Index

WINCHESTER, CALEB THOMAS, educator, lecturer and writer, professor of English literature at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, was born in Montville, Connecticut, January 18th, 1847, and is a descendant of John Winchester, who was born in England in 1616, settled in what is now Brookline, Massachusetts, and died in 1694. Professor Winchester's father was Rev. George H. Winchester, a "plain and earnest" minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother was Lucy Thomas Winchester, a woman of quick intellect, refined tastes and gentle manners, to whom he credits "everything good" in his character. Through her, Professor Winchester is descended from Dr. Francis Le Baron, a native of France who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 1635 and who was, according to tradition, a French nobleman and refugee.

From the time he was seven until he was sixteen years of age Caleb Winchester lived on a small farm in southeastern Massachusetts, and for the hard but profitable experience in all kinds of work where farming is of the poorest he heartily thanks God. The labor strengthened his none too robust constitution and stored up health and vigor sufficient to keep him a well man all his later days, and, he says, "more than that, it opened my eyes to the charm of outdoors, taught me the ways of plants and animals and the look of land and sky. It taught me what manual labor is and what it costs, and gave me a first-hand knowledge of a most interesting set of opinions, customs and prejudices that I should otherwise never have learned." He was naturally a student, and though the range of reading accessible in his early life was not wide, it was good and afforded him an intimacy with history and poetry. His education was for the most part self-earned and was acquired at an academy in Middleborough, Massachusetts, at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1869. At the beginning of the following college year he entered upon the duties of librarian of Wesleyan and he has been connected with the college ever since.

In 1872 Professor Winchester took the chair of English literature at Wesleyan, and he has held it ever since, giving to the students courses that are both scholarly and popular and winning a place second to none in the field of literary appreciation and criticism. He has been a frequent and favorite lecturer at Amherst, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Wells, and many other colleges and institutions of learning and before many more general audiences. In 1880 and 1881 he studied abroad, mostly in Leipsic, and, though he took no degree there, he has since received the honorary degree of L.H.D. from Dickinson College. In 1892 he published his compact, stimulating, and scholarly book "Five Short Courses of Reading" and in 1900 he put forth a revised edition of this valuable work. In 1899 he published "Some Principles of Literary Criticism" which has the usefulness of a handbook and the merit of true literary worth as well. He has been a constant and well known contributor to a number of the leading magazines and journals. His last work, "The Life of John Wesley," issued in the spring of 1906, has received high commendation from the best critics.

Professor Winchester has made teaching his vocation and lecturing his avocation. As a teacher he is most certainly a master of the art, for he is enthusiastic and inspiring, approachable and sympathetic, thorough and earnest, with a lively interest in both subjects and students. His courses are among the most popular in the University, to which many go to specialize in English literature. The clear diction and incisive reasoning, deep humor and sharp wit, the charm of delivery, the keen, critical ability and strong intellectuality that have made him such a favorite on the lecture platform are all at their best in the class room. As a critic of Shakespeare he has given the literary world some truly original matter and his lectures on the Lake Poets of England and the English Essayists are real works of literature, so pure and graceful is his English, so thorough and sensitive his appreciation and so charming is his literary style.

Though Professor Winchester's life is one of devotion to his professional work, that devotion does not exclude but rather affiliates with the other "good things in life." He is a most sincere and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is an independent voter, having been a Republican until 1884, when, with many others, he was unable to support Mr. Blaine. His favorite out-of-door recreation is bicycling, in which he has found benefit and pleasure for fifteen years. Professor Winchester is a great lover of home life and is a man of most domestic tastes. In April, 1880, he married Alice G. Smith.

The love of the literary life grew gradually upon Caleb Winchester during his college days and determined for him a lifelong literary career. One has only to read or listen to his words to know that this love of literature is the dominating influence in his life and the cause of his great success. For the benefit of others he says: "Think less of your success and more of your work; have some one line of work to which you can always give your best energies and some pleasant fad to unbend on; always spend less than you earn, but otherwise don't pay much attention to money; marry a good woman and make a home, big or little, rich or poor matters not, but a home. If every one will do that, society is safe enough."  Men of Mark Index

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