Volume 4

Universities and their sons : history, influence and characteristics of American universities, with biographical sketches and portraits of alumni and recipients of honorary degrees / editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain ; introduction by W.T. Harris.

Date:
1898-1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Universities and their sons : history, influence and characteristics of American universities, with biographical sketches and portraits of alumni and recipients of honorary degrees / editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain ; introduction by W.T. Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    134/530 page 122
    gamond, Worcester and Country Clubs, Worcester. On October 4, 1871, he married Mary Chandler, of Worcester; their children are : Chandler, Alex- ander H., and Rockvvood H. Bullock. ELY, Oscar Harvard A.B. 1859. Born in West Springfield, Mass., 1834; educated common schools, Townsend (Vt.) Academy, Williston Seminary (Easthampton, Mass.), and Harvard; taught school short time ; served in Civil War; Agriculturist in Holyoke, Mass., 1864 to present time ; Superinten- dent of Schools, 1866; City Treasurer, 1886; State Senator, 1890. OSCAR ELY, Agriculturist, was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, November 5, 1834, son of Russell and Lucy (Day) Ely. He is descended from Puritan ancestry who came to America in order to escape religious persecution under Charles I, and his original American ances- tor, Nathaniel Ely, whose name appears on the monument at Hartford erected to the memory of the first settlers of that place, was made a freeman at Cambridge in 1635 ; accompanied the Rev. Thomas Hooker to the Connecticut Valley in 1636 ; removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1659, spending the rest of his life in that settlement; and most of the Elys of that section are his de- scendants. His great-grandfather. Captain Joseph Ely, served in the French and Indian War with a company of rangers, which in April 1747 success- fully resisted an attack on the fort at Charlestown, New Hampshire, and was wounded in the forehead. The latter’s brother. Colonel Benjamin Ely, was a prominent and influential resident of West Spring- field, which he frequently represented in the Gen- eral Court, and he served in the Revolutionary War, participating in the Battle of Saratoga. He is also descended from the Days and Morgans, some of whom served in the Colonial Wars and the struggle for independence, and his grandmother, who was a Morgan, was the daughter of a soldier included in the capitulation of Fort William Henry. The sub- ject of this sketch spent his boyhood and youth upon a farm located in that part of West Springfield which in 1850 was set off and incorporated as the town of Holyoke, and rapidly developed into a city. He attended the common schools of his neighbor- hood and as he was fond of reading he eagerly sought all obtainable books. A love for poetry was engendered within him by reading Scott, Byron, Tennyson and Longfellow, but the work which seems to have influenced him most in the direction of a higher education was Macaulay’s Essays, a copy of which came to his notice in early youth, and he believes to-day that the read- ing of that volume sent him to College. A limited course at the academy in Townsend, Vermont, and one term at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massa- chusetts, prepared him for Harvard, where, in addi- tion to the regular course of study, he had the advantages of still further exercising his taste for English literature afforded by the innumerable liter- ary treasures contained within the alcoves of the University library, and he was graduated with the OSCAR ELY Class of 1859. Shortly after leaving College he went to Virginia, where for some time he presided over a school which was supported by several fam- ilies for the education of their children, and was there during the excitement attending John Brown’s raid, capture and execution. Having returned North just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he en- listed as a private in the Forty-sixth Regiment Massa- chusetts Volunteers for nine months’ service, which was performed mostly in North Carolina. He was discharged as a corporal in 1863 and after recover- ing from a severe attack of malarial fever contracted in the army, he turned his attention to farming, which he has since followed with gratifying success. Mr. Ely served as Superintendent of the Holyoke public
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3