OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 237 



error was sure of detection. The forts in Boston Harbor have been 

 the training-school of many of the best master mechanics of the State ; 

 and no one of them will ever forget the stately majesty of his figure, as 

 he appeared before them, day after day, with a large expanse of ruffled 

 shirt-bosom, a black hat and cotton umbrella, and stood for hours, 

 under a broiling July or August sun, superintending the dumping of an 

 earth-cart in the precise spot pointed out by his umbrella, with as much 

 apparent interest as if he were locating a siege-gun. 



General Thayer was never married; and the considerable wealth 

 which he accumulated during a long life of public service, distinguished 

 by strict faithfulness and unswerving integrity, he devoted to public 

 uses. His college and native town received the chief share of his 

 benefactions ; but our Academy was not forgotten, and enjoys a legacy 

 of one thousand dollars from his estate. 



Charles Folsom was born at Exeter, N.H., on the 24th 

 of December, 1794, was elected a Fellow of the Academy in 1827, 

 and died on the 8th of November, 1872. He was prepared for 

 college at Phillips Academy in his native town, joined the Sophomore 

 Class of Harvard University in 1810, and was graduated with high 

 reputation as a scholar in 1813. During the year following he took 

 charge of the Academy at Hallowell, Maine, then returned to Cam- 

 bridge to study divinity as a resident graduate. In the spring of 1816, 

 upon President Kirkland's recommendation, he accepted the appoint- 

 ment of chaplain and schoolmaster to the midshipmen of the flag-ship 

 of Commodore Chauncey, and his successor Commodore Bainbridge, 

 destined for the Mediterranean squadron. Here Admiral Farragut 

 was one of his pupils; and when, in the autumn of 1817, Mr. Folsom 

 was appointed consul ad interim at Tunis and left the ship, the young 

 midshipman Farragut obtained leave to accompany him and to con- 

 tinue his studies under his direction. They remained at Tunis for 

 more than two years, and until the arrival of a successor in the con- 

 sulate, and then rejoined the squadron. In after years the distin- 

 guished Admiral was never weary of acknowledging how much he 

 owed to his early friend and tutor, for whom he always manifested 

 the most affectionate and reverential regard. Returning to Boston in 

 1821, he was appointed Tutor in Latin in Harvard University, was 

 two years afterward made Librarian, and officiated for a year or 

 moi-e as Instructor in Italian. He subsequently became a partner in 

 the printing-house bearing the name of the University Press, and in 

 this relation took charge of the proof-reading, in which delicate func- 



