386 H. FOSTER BAIN 



the work of clearing off timber, chose prairie land. It thus hap- 

 pened that from early boyhood Samuel Calvin was familiar with 

 the great granite bowlders that mark the fertile prairies covered 

 by the lowan drift. Between farm work, school, and the usual 

 country sports, his time was fully occupied until about 1861, when 

 he entered Lenox College, at Hopkinton, near by. Lenox College, 

 was, and is, an excellent example of the small denominational 

 colleges that the pioneers of the Middle West founded so prolifi- 

 cally and supported with so much sacrifice. Without the equip- 

 ment of a present-day university, or a staff of world-famous pro- 

 fessors, it was still an excellent place for a young man desirous of 

 getting at the fundamentals of the simple college curriculum of a 

 half -century ago. Here Calvin remained and studied until near the 

 close of the great Civil War, when, in company with most of the 

 instructors and students who had not already gone to the front, he 

 enlisted in 1864 in one of the Iowa regiments. Fortunately the 

 war was nearly over. His military service was therefore neither 

 long nor was it distinguished, in the sense of taking him into great 

 battles. For the most part it was a period of dull routine, of guard 

 duty and of marching, of occasional small skirmishes with the 

 enemy, and a continual private skirmish for acceptable food and 

 some comfort. He learned the rudiments of a soldier's life and the 

 routine of camping — the latter much the more valuable to him. 



At the close of the war, Calvin, with many others no longer 

 young, went back to college to finish his studies. The college, 

 however, had been practically wrecked. The call for men had 

 taken both instructors and students, and while the buildings were 

 still there, the life of the institution had been nearly broken up. 

 After the ensuing reorganization Calvin found himself in the ranks 

 of the instructors rather than among the students, and the inter- 

 rupted college course was only completed as a result of much hard 

 private study. 



At Lenox College, among other members of the new faculty, 

 was Thomas H. Macbride, a graduate of Monmouth College, and 

 a man who had had the advantage, then unusual for teachers in 

 small western colleges, of study at the University of Bonn. Mac- 

 bride's interests centered in botany, and Calvin, while broadly 



