Only Three of the Class Left 



Of the original 94 members of the 

 class of 1S55 who received their degrees, 

 only three survive— Mr Abbot. Louis 

 Arnold of West Roxbury and James 

 Kendall Hosmer ot Minneapolis. At 

 four score years and eleven, the sec- 

 retary of the Harvard Class of K55, 

 has by no means lost his zest for class 

 reunions. With robust enthusiasm, Mr 

 Abbot is arranging now for the 70lh 

 anniversary of his class. 



In about a week, according- to pla 

 the reunion will begin. "The Cast 

 win be class headquarters. Jnless the 

 arrangements are upset by something 

 Qver which they have no control, the 

 three members of '55 will foregathei 

 week hence in the Abbot residence 



swap reminiscences ot their days in col- 

 lege which he^an almost a decade, he- 

 fore the Civil vVar. 



It was a famous class, '55, a class 

 that sent forth into the world Phillips 

 Brooks, Alexander ■lea.--! Robert 

 Treat Paine and H 



Edw 



Ha 



Ab;j 



a lice 



ident 



beside his lifelong i : ■ - , 

 Emeritus Eliot, at the head of the 

 Harvard Commencement Day proces- 



^'"I'am about two -r :^ . - ■ than 

 Dr Eliot," said Mr ' ■ i'^" 



luctancs to malie h'.i 



discussion had been f ;-::'-': ' but 

 he was younger than I when he went 

 to college. We used to so to Sunday 

 School m King's Chapel together. That 

 was a long time ago. I ^'as born in 

 Beverly." 



Phillips Brooks' Chum 



■■T t'-unk it was In 18« that I entered 

 the E'i^'.n-. I-:-.tin School. Who were 

 ^am-' boys there in my 



i j,^,; Wra Charl^ W. 



BUot, i , ' Higginson, Eoberi 

 Treat Paine, PliilUps Brooks. 



"My brother went to the Latin School, 

 too. But he left to enter West Point 

 In 1850. Ilir^ C"" soi- 

 «er eost ' 

 would liavf - 

 went off to liie in.:ii.iry n;;. - Uen 



Robert B. Lee was the commander 

 there then, and CuaUs Lee was my 

 brother's classmate. 



"There Is really no excuse," said Mr 

 Abbot, checking himself, "for writing 

 me up in the newspapers. But. my 

 brother— well, he was a great man. I 

 say, was. He's SJ today, you know, and 

 at 94 a man is not very active." 



He went on to talk about his brother, 

 one of the last of the Civil War Gen- 

 erals, but eventually the conversation 

 reverted to his own career and experi- 

 ence In life. 



He told of his long friendship with 

 the late Henry Lee Higginson and with 

 Dr Eliot, and of his school-day associ- 

 ation with Phillips Brooks. 



"I suppose I was Phillips Brooks' 

 closest chum," he remarked. "I was 

 the only college roommate he ever had. 

 We lived together for a year, over on 



HillLird St, -yes, -we ussd to go to 

 chapel torether oven, Womteg. ChaEeT 

 was eomplilsory. We didn't mind It. 



, .. • , i-.. ii:,,. r.j!' the 70th 



- A['l-M-ir friiinrl hi m self the mam SUP- 

 rif h;s Fn-iriiiv .--ittp.T ne was graduat- 



rom colleae. and for seven years he 



lined in Cambridge, teachmg first 

 private school and then actmg- as 



!.-.. y.t ''-ii-vq,-.-! in the period when 

 ■■, B vriuiTr rnpTiiber of 



, \ ; .•MMir.leted 



Oi 



Who sent hini out to 

 represent a group of T 

 cler.'i in the period ot fi 

 competition, whei' 

 were engaged m a 

 first Kast and ^.v 

 ti'i;.:- ■ ' 



ipirita of that period 



T. B'i) 



setts buprt 



■urt. 



Controlled TUctwork os Railroaiis i 



Retaining Cambridge ;Tf nit? l^frji 

 re-sidenoe. Edwin H. Aon 

 years made his home 

 Before he was io ha beca:.i _ ■ i- 



dent and tilusteo of me V, iseonsin , 

 Central and operated the road for the 

 bondholders.' Under his direction, and 

 after a long struggle between conflict- 

 ing groups, the Wisconsin Central asao- * 

 elated lines were consolidated. 



At one time this W-year-oId Tankei 



controlled c neti^'.-^ ■ ■ ; -m-;: 



the State ot V. ■ 



GEORGE AUGTJSTTTS PEABODY 



>Hr was the avitiof ot the Wis 



'tf?entra! plan oi: rorporate organi; 

 under '.v,:.-!. i-.h.ii-o' ! ar^ 



is belie 



6d to 



ha 



bee] 



th! 



of 



This 

 first 1 



scheme out of which the other fonns 

 of "votlnf; fusts" have originated. 



In 1 f ' Ii 111 It ni i r ident 

 and ti^ 1 ri 1 - 1 111 Cen- 



tral in 1 1 n hf- I II 1 1 ■ IKH h K-Us 

 also president ot the Chicago. Wiscon- 

 sin & Minneapolis Railroad and of the 

 Milwaukee & Winnebago, as well as 

 a director of the Korthcrn Pacific and 

 it 1 \ J L 1 1 1. Santa Fe 



Meanwhile, he bad moved back to 

 Cambridge, and for years made fre- 

 quent trips out to headquartei-s m Chi- 

 cago, finally anticipating retirement by 

 building the ''castle" at the comer of 

 ,Giardon and Fallen sis, a quiet resi- 

 dence for his declining years. 



The Northwest Ordinance 



In his Interview for the Globe, Mr I 

 Abbot made only casual and random ' 

 references to his career- as a pioneer 

 railroad magnate, but all this is to be 

 found in "Who's Who," which also 

 states that with another official he es- 

 tablished the first car ferry for en- 

 trains, a ferry 54 miles long, across 

 Lake Michigan 



During a busy life, Mr Abbot has 

 also found time to lecture at Harvard 

 and at the Universities of Michigan, 

 Chicago and California, and to write 

 technical articles for the magazines. 



Sirs Ahbot. who was Miss Martha T. 

 Steele of Portland, Me, Is also living. 

 While he was waiting for her to pre- 



pare for an automobili 

 mer railroad tMesld 

 of the Harva; 

 througii the 

 pointing out 

 than Dane i.-s piesnn 

 the first draft of thi 

 for the ffovernmeent 



the for- 



ilary 



Ordinance of 17S7 

 f the great North- 



I anoi 



do'= 

 Hale/ 



was a jNcw Ilaniyi-nlreite. m- 

 down into Connecticut l^or his 

 ! and married Rebekali Hale, a n 

 Nathan Haie. 



.Lbbot, 

 1 !;lde, 

 went 

 bride, 

 ece of 



Csptnrcd hy the Trench 



"Mv grandfather r.n niv mother's side, 

 Henr" i if r,::. Irn' in Beverly and 

 ■^a« Salem. He 



roaiT n Dane, his 



next : ' ■ rrly. and was 



thB e.^acutur of Dune i will. 



, Here, standing beneath a portrait et 

 this ancestor. Mr Abbot related a thrtlV 

 big sfcin- ot Gvandtathsr Laroom s har- 

 ' nil!.' pxre>-i.-n''e at sea during the Na- 

 poleonic Wars. 



'•Because n( Kapoleon's Berlin De- 

 is and the Bi itish Oraers in Coun- 

 ■ said Mr Abbot, "grannfather Lar- 

 , had a hard time avoiding capturs. 

 Finally his vessel was seized by the 

 French, and the crew were interned in 

 Italy. 



"But Napoleon grew tired of feeding 

 the Yankees, so he put them all on an 

 old vessel called the Margaret ana let. 

 them sail for home. The vessel was 

 poorly ballasted, was soon waterlogged, 

 and about two and half days out of 

 Gibraltar she foundered. To make mat- 

 ters worse, a half dozen of her cre-w 

 yan away in the longboat, leaving tha 

 re.-t to shift for themselves. 



