Oak family register, 1906

PDF page 78, printed page 70

← Page 77 (printed p. 69) All pages Page 79 (printed p. 71) →

Unproofread OCR text, not checked against the scan above. Report a misreading via family feedback.

70
HENRY LEBBEUS OAK
and misapplied energies?
Of his college career his cousin, L. O.
Merriam, writes
:
"In college
it was just the same.
Before we had finished the
first term of our Freshman year, Henry had dropped into his cus-
tomary place among the
first.
While his class rank was always
good, his popularity with the class-mates was even better.
He
devoted a great deal of time to the gymnasium, with remarkable
success.
But one
in the
class could compete with him
in ath-
letics.
"When we reached the dignity of Sophomores, he had estab-
lished
himself as a leader and could always be depended on
to
do his
full share both as a scholar and an athlete.
Of course, he
had to take a hand in the 'larks' then considered a necessary part
of the Sophomore
year, and
there
as elsewhere was second
to
no one."
The whole class were suspended for "cutting" one of the reci-
tations of an unpopular tutor, and refusal to apologize and "make
up."
That young Oak was considered a leader
is shown by the
fact that he was the last to be allowed to return.
This
evidently made him
dissatisfied
with
Bowdoin,
for he
soon
left Bowdoin
for Dartmouth.
Of his
life
at Dartmouth,
I
have not been able to get details, his cousin quoted above having
entered
the army and
the
currents of
their
lives never having
again joined.
But that Dartmouth held her place
in his esteem
is established by the
fact that
to his "alma mater" he
left one
of the two published sets of his
historical works
in eleven vol-
umes.
From his autobiography we quote:
"During the college course he taught four terms in the public
schools of Exeter, Garland and Westport, Me., with one term of
high school
in
his native village.
Later he taught one year as
assistant
in
the
Morris
Academy,
Morristown,
N.
J.
As
a
teacher he had but slight success, not liking the profession, and
having no natural fitness for
it."
Having been a pupil under him,
I can testify that in school he
was
a
strict
disciplinarian,
and
kept
the
scholars
"up
in
the
collar" and
imparted
plenty of
instruction,
but by
fear
of
hia
rod rather than by the force of his arguments.
He was a snccesg-
ful, though not popular teacher.
No labor was too great to help
an ardent seeker after knowledge, and no punishment too severe
for an indolent or unruly pupil.
When the war of
'6i broke out, Henry was eager to enlist, aa

← Page 77 (printed p. 69) All pages Page 79 (printed p. 71) →