Amanuensis Monday - Early Life of Carl John Anderson

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin – some we never met – others we see a time in their life before we knew them. A fuller explanation can be found here.

Amanuensis Monday is a popular ongoing series created by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch.

One of the amazing things that I found in Dad's basement stash a year ago was this letter written by my great-grandfather, Carl Johan Anderson. It is chock-full of the details of his early life that we all crave. It was written in Swedish and translated by his son, my great-uncle Elmer Carl Ragnar Anderson. Carl Johan wrote this letter about fifteen years before his death.

EARLY LIFE OF

CARL JOHN ANDERSON

Letter written in Swedish. Envelope marked "Only to be opened after my death"
Translation by Elmer C. Anderson.

      To my wife and children or to those that outlive me to read after my death.
      We have this day the 23rd of January 1941.
      I have long thought to write this but never have until now. No man knows when his time come to leave. It is best that it be done now before it is too late.
      I know that my children want to know something about their forefathers but as I myself do not know about them from further back than my own parents so I can not therefore give anything very enlightening.
      I was born on a small "Torp" that was called "Lomåsen" which was part of a Gård (Farm) of an estate named "Algerstorp," Elfsbor Län, Tranemo församling (church congregation) the 14th of June 1866.
      My Father's name was Anders Svenson and my Mother's name was Anna Katrina Månsdotter. My Father was born in "Algerstorp". My mother was from "Småland" but I do not know the name of her birthplace. Her father was a soldier and it seems that I remember hearing it told that he took part in the Finnish War in the years 1808-1809.
      My Father was a "Smed" by occupation which means a Blacksmith and was also a "Jordbrukare" which means a Farmer.
      As I was the youngest of five children my parents were already elderly when I was born. My Father died "Annandag Påsk" (which is the day before or the day after Easter) in 1873 at the age of 56 years. This left Mother with two children, one my sister 11 years old and I at the age of six.
In her poverty she accepted a job working for Patron Solomon Larson at "Limmareds Herregård", a large farm. Her duties were to take care of the barn, to feed and milk 50 cows and also care of the smaller animals on the farm. I remember she worked both day and night for 50 Kroner [1] for the years work. This sum was not enough to take care of her own expenses let alone that of her two children.
My sister Josephina was farmed out to work for a family for food and "keep" at the age of twelve.
I was sent to work at the "Limmareds Glasbruk" (Glass factory) at the age of 8 years and stayed there for 4 years. During these four years there was little or no schooling. Many bad habits were learned from the many young boys working and living there with no family supervision. He says in Swedish "så många barn some flick leva vild tutan tillsyn [2]."
      The pay for the work that started at 3 o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon was 6 kroner a month. My Mother had to supply and get my food to me. I Can't figure to this day how she did it for 6 Kroner.
      When I was 12 years of age I was sent to an older brother who was "Torpare" under Katrinsberg in "Revesjö församling" (Congregation). There I went to school 3 days each week for two years time and this was about all of the schooling I had.
      When I was 14 years old I started my shoemakers apprenticeship with by Brother-in-law Per Johan Bengtson who had married my sister Josephina. Here I was for 6 years. During this period I was confirmed in the Tranemo church the 23rd of October 1881. During these six years I worked for my food and clothes and when I was 20 years old I had clothes made of cotton but no money.
      Then I moved to Svenljunga and worked for Carl Anderson at Carslund. Here I received 4 Kroner a week and board and in time I was able to buy Custom Clothes that I needed so badly.
When I was 21 years old I was taken for Military Service to "Frista Hed" in year 1887. Service lasted 21 days.
      Between ages of 19 and 21 I realized that it would be difficult to get anywhere in Sweden. Then I began like many others to think about America. The process of accumulating money for travel was the hardest problem. It was finally accomplished thanks to the poor but true friends eight of whom signed notes at a Bank in Svenljungs for 150 Kroner.
      This money paid for my passage from Göteborg Sweden to Portland, Conn. When I arrived at my destination I had slightly more than one dollar in American money left.
      The journey started from home the 23rd of March 1888 and from Göteborg the 25th on the North Sea boat "Romeo" which brought us to Hull, England. From there a ride by train across England to Liverpool where we waited for 3 days before boarding the steamer "City of Chester" of the Inman Line. After a stormy passage landed in New York the 8th of April. We had to sleep on the floor in the old "Castle Garden" (Customs Clearance) until we were processed. The next move was to board a Connecticut River boat which brought me to Middletown, Conn. and then by ferry across the river to Portland, Conn. At that time there was no bridge across the river.
      Sought work in Portland and New Britain with no success. Then I came here to Manchester the 30th of April the same year working first for Shoemaker Martinson. After a few weeks obtained work in the Silk Mills starting work near the end of May (date forgotten) but at the end of July I was laid off. Made my "keep" with Shoemakers work until the end of November when I started steady employment at Cheney Brothers Silk Mills which lasted until December 1938 when I due to old age and reduced physical state especially eyesight I retired from work having worked for this company for 50 years.
      My life as Husband and Father is so well known that I will not write about that. Will only give some advice regarding my Funeral. I have always lived as a retiring type of individual and would like to have my Funeral held from my home but not from the church and also let it be private. No flowers except from Wife and Children. Also use the cheapest casket you can find as I feel that a cheap casket is good enough to rot in the ground. The above is not an order. I just want it to go the way as I myself would do if there to plan it.
      I forgot to mention my Mother's age. She was born the 12th of May 1822 and died the 6th of May 1911, six days under age of 89 years.
      I am writing this so that my descendants should have some information about their forefathers. I am using the Swedish language in writing this account as I know my children can understand it and if they wish to translate it to English. And last of all I ask forgiveness for all my faults and mistakes I made as a Husband and Father and lastly to thank my wife who has stood by my side all of these years. Also to thank my children who have made my old age free from sorrow and backed me financially.
      There could be more to write about but this will be all. I hope what I have written stays in the family and not broadcast. I wish you all the best of luck and good future also that God be with you all during all of your days is hoped by your Husband and Father.

                                                                                                    Carl J. Anderson

[1] I haven't yet been able to determine what that might be worth today, but from Carl's description, it seems like it was barely enough to live on.

[2] Per Google Translate: "so many children who were living wild without supervision"

Amenuenisis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story Part 22 - Reflection

This is the final installment of my grandfather's story; part family history and part autobiography.  At the end, he looks back.

Howard & Dagmar Matthews - 50th Anniversary Party September 1981

Matthews-Anderson 50th Anniversary Weekend

This, then, is near the end of a story which has encompassed a period of great change, a period that started with simpler things like street cars and steam engines and biggies pulled by horses, and hand-wound phonographs, since superseded by taxicabs, buses, private cars, huge trucks, superhighways, jet airplanes, television, computers, space flights and satellites.

It has been a period of great opportunity for me; a period in which I had the privilege of changing course, getting away from the coal mines, going back to school after a five year gap, going on to college and graduate school, attaining a CPA degree, experiencing living and working in two of the largest cities in our country, seven years with a prestigious international auditing firm in its New York office, fifteen years in the business management of the prestigious University of Chicago, which included travel in the Near East and England and, finally, nineteen years participation in the management and growth of my alma mater, Wesleyan University.

This was not a result of pulling on my own bootstraps. I had much help and support from many others. Nor was it an over-ambitious or deliberate exercise in ladder-climbing. Rather, it was my good fortune to have been prepared by education and experience to accept opportunities as they appeared.

What remains is an assessment. Was it worthwhile? It was, certainly, to have returned to school, for that made me aware of an entirely new world and gave me access to it and its benefits, many of which I might not have enjoyed otherwise. Yes, for me personally, professionally and socially, all that I put into it has been worthwhile. I can only hope that along the way I have made significant contributions to others, but that is for others to judge. That hope is better expressed in these verses of our Eclectic hymn, composed by Stephen Henry Olin of the class of 1866:

TELE MYSTICA

Across the loom, in level lines of light

Are stretched the woof-threads, even, strong and bright.

Their precepts spun from honor, truth and right.

Shine fadeless there.

So may we live that when our lives shall end,

Some memory of us with that web may blend,

And still some strength or beauty to it lend.

So may we die.

As I said a few installments ago, my next transcription project will by my grandmother's letters home during the Near East trip my grandparent's made for The Oriental Institute, but I need to organize things and get more of those photographs scanned so it will be a few weeks at least before I start that.

In the meantime I'll be posting about the Genealogy Do-Over and some other recent finds, including my trip this weekend to Manchester, Connecticut which included meeting a cousin!

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story #21 - "Retirement"

After my post last week I realized it would be better for there to be two more posts of my grandfather' story so this will be the second to last installment and next week will be the last.  In this installment we learn a bit more about his time with Wesleyan and then his 'retirement'.

It was necessary to purchase many neighborhood properties to provide land for this construction, to protect the neighborhood and to provide faculty housing. This involved the purchase of 204 properties in the immediate vicinity of the campus at a cost of $6.4 million.

Negotiations with the City of Middletown made possible the closing of Mount Vernon Street between Church Street and Wyllys Avenue and the widening of Vine Street and construction of the retaining wall along its east side, both of which streets were important to the later development of Foss Hill; and the closing of Wesleyan Place to make way for the first stage of the Science Center.

Along came the probability that coeducation would be resumed at Wesleyan and the question of how and where the ladies would be located,-on the existing campus, on a new campus adjacent to the men's campus, or at a distance? It seemed wise therefore to acquire land as a "hedge against the future". This was accomplished, 1960 to 1967, by the purchase of four large farm properties south of the city near the Durham line for a total cost of $1.14 million. When, later, it appeared that coeducation could be accomplished on the existing campus, the farm properties were named Wesleyan Hills and the Hill Development Corporation was formed to develop it has a housing project.

All of these things, plus frequent travel to Columbus, Ohio, in connection with the Press, added to the 'normal' day-to-day operations of the University and budgeting and spending and reporting to the President and the Board and its Committees, made up a very busy and interesting life for me. I always regarded it as 'more fun than working'. Nevertheless, somehow I found time to participate in outside activities, such as:

• A corporator of the Liberty Bank for Savings for 27 years.
• A corporator of the Middlesex Memorial Hospital.
• Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Middlesex Area of the Connecticut Bank & Trust Company.
• President of the Rockfall Corporation.
• President of the Russell Library.
• Member of the Board of Finance, the Retirement Board, and the Mayor's Advisory Committee of the City of Middletown.
• Member Republican Town Committee.
• Chairman Woodrow Wilson High School Building Committee.
• Member Town Hall Building Committee.
• Member State Republican Planning Committee.
• Director Middletown Chamber of Commerce.
• Member Commission on Aid to Higher Education, State of Conn.
• A Commissioner of the Jones Fund for Charity.
• A member of the original Advisory Committee on Middletown Redevelopment.

Victor L. Butterfield, who had been in poor health, resigned the Presidency of Wesleyan in 1967 at age 63. He was succeeded by Edward D. Etherington who resigned shortly thereafter to run for public office who was succeeded by Colin G. Campbell. Mr. Etherington urged me to stay on after I reached the regular retirement age of 68, but I declined and retired as of October 31, 1969 after having served Wesleyan for 19 1/3 years as its Vice President for Business Affairs and Treasurer.

I have found plenty to do to keep me active both mentally and physically. I continued as President of our town library until 1975 when we completed, after many months of study, a revision of its By-laws which did away with the self-perpetuating Board and, under the revised rules, gave citizens nominated by the City membership on the Board. This made possible city financial support of an addition to and renovation of the building, completed in 1984.

I remained until 1977 on the Commission for Aid to Higher Education (Federal grants) to which I had been appointed by Governor Dempsey in 1967.  I continued as Commissioner of the Jones Fund until 1975. I took on a few new ones: served for two years on the Finance Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies, and am currently on the Investment Committees of the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Saint Lukes' Home.

The care of our yard at 147 Old Mill Road has very happily consumed most of my fair-weather time. Our interest in the growing of roses began with four bushes we planted 20 or more years ago at 135 Mount Vernon street, and we brought them with us in 1970 when we moved here. Here, although the yard was well-equipped with shrubbery and grass areas, it had no flower beds or vegetable gardens, so we first developed annual and perennial beds and, later, other areas for raspberries, strawberries, vegetables and, finally, seven beds for roses and mums. Over the years we have planted a total of 72 rose bushes of which 48 survive. The survivors are a mixture of Hybrid Teas, Grandiflores, Floribundas, Flora-Teas, Climbers, Shrubs and the 'unknowns' from Mt. Vernon St.

In the next installment of my grandfather's story, he looks back on a life in a time of great change.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews Story #20 - Wesleyan University

The 20th and second to last installment of my grandfather's story brings us to another big change in his career and brings him back to Wesleyan.

Olin Library, Wesleyan University 1952

In March 1945 both Swarthmore College and Brown University tried to persuade me to consider joining their respective administrative staffs as Treasurer. President Wriston of Brown was a member of Wesleyan's faculty when I was an undergraduate and I took one of his history courses. He was President of Lawrence College for 12 years before he became President of Brown. In addition to writing me many long letters, he telephoned me frequently, usually at breakfast time, trying to persuade me to come to Brown as treasurer. Finally I settled it by saying I was happy at Chicago where I was making good progress both as to salary and responsibilities. I gave the same answer to President Nelson of Swarthmore.

In late '48 or '49, Billy Calder, a banker, who was filling in as Wesleyan's Treasurer, wrote to ask whether I would be interested in moving to Wesleyan. I indicated some interest in looking into the position as Connecticut had always looked inviting compared to the flatness of Chicago. I had kept in touch with Wesleyan, somewhat, through the Chicago alumni club of which I was President and had visited the campus for class reunions, and the comparison with the University of Chicago made Wesleyan with its endowment of around $9 million, look rather small. And it was at this time that I had been promoted to Business Manager at Chicago.

After being visited by the Chairman of Wesleyan's Board of Trustees, talking with the Chairman of the board's Finance Committee while vacationing in New England and being visited by President Butterfield, finally Wesleyan's offer came.  The title would be Vice President for Business Affairs and Treasurer, although at an initial salary slightly lower than Chicago's. We decided to make the change.

33 Lawn Avenue, Middletown - The Matthews new home

My training and experiences at Chicago plus that of CPA provided an almost perfect background for the usual responsibilities of a college business officer, and my 7 years in public accounting with PMM & Co were invaluable in what was required in Wesleyan's purchase, operation and (15 years later) sale of that fine publisher of elementary and high school books and magazines, such as Current Events and My Weekly Reader, American Education Press, to the Xerox company for 400,000 shares of its common stock, worth at that time $56 million.

The net benefit to Wesleyan for the 15 years it owned and operated the Press, after taxes and all other editorial and operating expenses, was $32 million, but the sale over a period of years of the 400,000 shares of Xerox common stock, increased the total benefit to Wesleyan to more than $100 million.

During the 19 years of my tenure, the aforesaid plus gifts and legacies, such as the Davison bequest of $6.2 million and the Surdna (Andrus) Foundation gift of $8 million, plus gains of $29 million on sales of other investments, even after the appropriation of $36.6 million for physical plant improvement and expansion, increased Wesleyan's endowment to $150 million at book (cost) and $145 at market value as of June 30, 1969.

The prospect of these financial gains enabled Wesleyan, even as early as 1951, to initiate planning which resulted in the following:

• faculty salaries and related fringe benefits increased to the "AA" rating of the American Association of University Professors
• kept the student tuition fee to 30% of actual cost per undergraduate
• improved and added to the physical plant

The major new facilities added during this period were: Davison Art Center, Library Rare Book Room (both made possible by gifts of Harriett and George W. Davison), Public Affairs Center, Foss Hill Dormitories #1 and #2, Lawn Avenue Dormitories and Butterfield Colleges, McConaughy Dining Hall, Science Center and Science Library, Hockey Rink, John Wesley House and addition, Judd Hall major alteration, North College major alteration to centralize Administration, Bridge to South College and major alteration of South College, renovation of the President's house, new Tennis Courts and parking area on Vine Street, Center for the Humanities (behind Honors College) to provide large meeting room and to restore original decorations first floor. Planning for the Center for the Arts was included in this period although construction did not begin until after my retirement.

The aforesaid required enormous amounts of my time in working with the Building and Grounds Committee of the Board, in the selection of architects, in the awarding of contracts and competitive bidding, in travel to New York City to confer with architects and the drawing of plans and actual construction proceeded, in weekly meetings with the architects on the site, etc.

Next time, we learn more about my grandfather's time at Wesleyan and how he still kept involved in important work in retirement.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story #19-Chicago University

Change came to the Oriental Institute and my grandfather would spend the war years working over at the University itself as you will read below in the 19th installment of his story.

In 1938 the Rockefeller Foundation decided not to continue their support of the Oriental Institute beyond the then existing balances of their commitments (several millions) because, as they explained, they had been supporting a man, Dr. James Henry Breasted, now deceased, rather than an institution. This meant a sharp reduction in the field work of the Institute, eventually the termination of all except the Epigraphical Survey at Luxor, Egypt. Naturally, this presented me with a question as to my future but this was immediately solved when the Chancellor of the University, Robert M. Hutchins, urged me to stay on to assist with the necessary reorganization of the Institute and then to move over into the administration of the University of Chicago as a whole, as assistant to the then Business Manager, William B. Harrell. Initially I spent half time in each position but in less than a year I moved across campus to the office of the Business Manager, full time. This proved to be a good decision for by 1949 I had progressed from Assistant to Associate and finally to Business Manager, Special Projects, concerned with Government sponsored research projects.

These were interesting and very busy years, initially concerned with the normal operations of the University of about 8,000 students, the majority of whom were doing graduate work for advanced degrees in many fields. In addition the University operated Billings (general) Hospital, Lying-In Hospital, Bobs Roberts Hospital for Children, the Goldblatt Memorial Cancer Hospital, the Orthogenic School for retarded [sic] children, International House, etc., all of which were on campus. There were fine dormitories for both men and women, fraternities in their own houses, excellent dining facilities, gymnasiums, libraries, laboratories, etc. In addition it operated its own Laboratory Schools, kindergarten through high school.



Howard B Matthews, Christmas 1949

My early years in the Office of the Business Manager were of necessity learning years for even the physical plant, which extended for a half dozen blocks along the Midway and for three blocks in depth, all connected underground by tunnels through which steam heat from a central plant and electricity from transformer vaults were carried, was a formidable layout to learn. But my boss, William B. Harrell, was a good teacher. Over a period of time he gradually relinquished one after another project and turned them over to me. Thus eventually I had under me the Departments of Buildings & Grounds, Residence Halls and Commons (5 dining halls), the Bookstore, Faculty and Staff Housing (apartment houses), the University of Chicago Press which had its own printing plant and bindery, the Bursar who collected all student fees. Of course, each of these was headed by very responsible individuals. In addition, I had to deal with several Unions representing all of the non-academic employees of the aforesaid departments, plus the hospital employees, exclusive of the doctors. It all added up to an interesting, diversified responsibility.

World War II (1941-1946) changed many things. For the few male students left on campus we rented fraternity houses to house them. The women's halls and dining facility were retained but all of the mens' were vacated and turned over to the armed forces. In addition, Bartlett Gym and Sunny Gym, outfitted with double-decker beds and greatly expanded toilet facilities were used to house Army, Navy and Air Force men. Hutchinson Commons was their dining facility. The Orthogenic School was used for Navy Signal training. We rented the Ford Airport, south of the City, and equipped it with 12 light planes for Navy Pre-Flight training. Medics were in training in our Medical School and Meteorology training was given on campus. All of this involved not only the preparation of the spaces (and they never relinquished any of their rules, like so many square feet per man and so many men per toilet), and the obtaining and preparation of food, for all of which I had a very loyal and competent staff, but also the hours of negotiating contracts with each of the services involved and this latter was my responsibility.

At the same time, the Physical Science Departments of the University were involved in the research called the Manhattan Project, which resulted, on December 2, 1942, in the first successful chain operation of an atomic "pile", located under the West Stands of Stagg Field, one block from my office. Involved in this project were such men as Nobel Prize winners Arthur Compton, Enrico Fermi and James Franck. Everything was highly secret; some of these men didn't even use their own name on campus; they were renamed, like in this telegram which Fermi sent to Conant at Harvard to announce the successful pile reaction: "The Italian navigator has just landed in the New World."




Energy.gov - Government Photo/Plaque installed on the 5th anniversary of the chain reaction.



Energy.gov - Government Photo/End of Stagg Field WWII

My connection with the aforesaid was in providing space for what was going on and seeing that these areas were restored to their former condition when the project ended. (This included determining that the buildings were free of contamination. For this purpose I had a team of scientists, headed by Professor Walter Bartky, on whose advise I relied.) Whole buildings had to be vacated [for the Manhattan Project], - Ryerson Physical Laboratory, the Mathematics Building, etc and additional space had to be acquired in the Museum of Science & Industry, and the entire Armory on the edge of Washington Park was rented and altered for the Army Corps of Engineers.

The end/purpose of this was so secret that until the day of the first atomic reaction under the West Stands I did not know what that was, although I had been "cleared" of course and was issued the necessary ID badge. And when we rode the night train to Washington on matters of a secret nature we were not permitted to be in the same sleeper with Fermi and others for fear a slip of the tongue might identify him.

Eventually, as the war ended the University resumed its normal operations, the dormitories and other academic buildings were restored to their former uses, the lease to the Ford airport was terminated and the planes were sold. But the University of Chicago was not a place that stood still for very long. Mr. Hutchins activated his "4-year College" plan for which very bright students combined the last two years of High School with 2 years of College level study and thus offered a savings of two years to attain a Bachelors degree. We provided a special dormitory for these students. A Research Institutes Building, a Social Science Center, and a new Administration building were constructed. The Lasker estate with its large estate house, a complete golf course and club house, greenhouses, and acres of fields in which chrysanthemums were grown, was given to the University by this wealthy retired advertising man. We operated this for several years as a private golf course and each autumn sold mums, but it was a losing operation and eventually the estate was subdivided and sold as building lots. Many of my weekends were tied up in this.

Next time, another move.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews Story #18-Chicago Bound

In the last installment of my grandfather's story, he accepted the position of Financial Secretary of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and he and my grandmother prepared to move from East Orange to Chicago.

Lunch with Dr. & Mrs. Nelson in the temple at Edfu. (My grandmother Dagmar Anderson is in the middle.)

So we took off in our good little Chevy and drove to Chicago in April of 1935. There we lived in the Windermere Hotel (opposite the Museum of Science and Industry, near the lakefront) until our apartment on 57th Street, near the University, was made ready. This was in the Hyde Park section of Chicago, before that area had become run-down.  We lived in that small-town-like area for 15 years, within a half dozen walkable blocks from my office at the University. And the winters were cold! But pausing briefly in University buildings along the way, I continued to walk. In fact, during the war years I had no choice, for in a burst of patriotism, we sold our car. Not the same Chevy, but a couple of models later.

The personnel of the Oriental Institute was a very interesting group,-the Chicago administration and faculty and especially the field staff, many of whom returned from the Near East during the off-season each year and worked on the recording of the past season's field work or on publications. Some, instead, continued their studies in England or Europe.

As Financial Secretary of the Institute my responsibilities included control of the budgets, sending operating funds and supplies to the four expeditions then operating in the Near East: the Epigraphic Expedition, located at Luxor, Egypt, where they were not excavating but copying the inscriptions on on the walls of the temples in that area; the Megiddo Expedition in Palestine which was excavating the site of Armageddon; the Persian (now Iran) which was excavating the site of the Temple of Darius and Xerxes at Persepolis; and the Syrian Expedition at Allepo, near Antioch. In addition, the Institute in cooperation with the Egypt Exploration Society of London, was engaged in publishing the large folio volumes of paintings copied from tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and this required frequent contact with Sir Allen Gardener and Nina deGaris Davies in London. And at the headquarters in Chicago there was the extensive publishing of the results of the aforesaid four active expeditions plus others whose field work had been completed or terminated, such as the Sakkhara Expedition at Memphis, near Cairo. The five active projects abroad required our operating in five different currencies, in addition to USA dollars: Egyptian Pounds, Palestinian Pounds, Iranian Rials, Syrian Livres, and English Pounds.



Anderson, Dagmar Alice Viola and Matthews, Stephen David ca 1936



Matthews, Stephen David

Within our first year in Chicago, Steve was born, Charles Breasted retired from the Institute and I was promoted to his post as Executive Secretary of the Institute, and his father, James Henry Breasted, the head and founder of the institute, left on an inspection trip of the Institute's Near East activities, -- a trip from which he never got back to Chicago. He took ill on the return trip and was hospitalized and died in New York City. Before he left on that trip, Dr. Breasted said, "now, Matthews, I want you to take the next trip". A member of the staff, Egyptologist John A. Wilson, succeeded Dr. Breasted as Director of the Institute.

In 1938, Dagmar and  I did the rounds of the Institute's expeditions in the Near East and its activities in London and at Oxford. Dagmar went along for "the woman's angle". Steve, then less than age 2, we left with Dagmar's brother and wife, Elmer and Isabel Anderson, in Manchester, Connecticut who graciously agreed to care for him while we were away. These were the days before trans-ocean flights. We left New York on the Italian liner REX on February 26, 1938 and returned on the English Aquitania on June 1, 1938. All of our travel was by water, train or automobile, as we were told one does not learn much in flying over a country. Details of the entire 3 months are contained in my own ITINERARY AND CALLS a copy of which is appended hereto, and in my diary and Dagmar's letters, both of which are in a Blue ring binder. In a Red binder there is a selection of the best of more than 1,000 pictures I took on this journey. Inspection of the diary reveals that my record is purely factual in that it relates to duty call s on persons, institutions, museums, etc., whereas Dagmar's letters to the folks back home, which they saved and returned to us, are a beautiful record of her reactions to the people and the countries we visited,--very worth-while reading.

The photos below are just a few of the many gorgeous photos that my grandfather took during this amazing trip-of-a-lifetime. I hope to share more in the future as I transcribe my grandmother's letters from the trip after I am finished with my grandfather's story.  You should absolutely click on them to enlarge to full size, especially those of hieroglyphics which you will then be able to see in amazing detail.  This album of photos and ephemera is one of the greatest treasures I own.

Statue of Liberty from the REX February 26, 1938

On the way to Sakkarah

Dagmar bargaining - Baghdad, Iraq

More at Edfu with Dr. & Mrs. Nelson

Pay-day

On the way to the temple at Edfu

My grandparents in London.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story #17 - Fortuitous Happening #3

Riverside Church 2013

In the 17th installment of my grandfather's story things are changing again...

During the 3 years that I lived on the Columbia campus, I attended Fosdick's Riverside Church, just a few blocks away from my dormitory. I became an usher there, but since I did not possess striped trousers and a morning coat I was not allowed to usher on the main floor but was assigned to the balcony! I also joined the Men's Club and attended its weekly dinners. This was the prelude to fortuitous happening #3, for there I became acquainted with a man who later was responsible for my having the opportunity to go to Chicago. This began with a phone call from an attorney in New York who said that he knew of an opening in Chicago that might be of interest to me and would I care to come to his office in Rockefeller Center to discuss it. He gave his address as the top floor of Rockefeller Center. I happened to be working on an audit of American Cynamid in that same building, so at 10 the next morning I went up to the top floor and only then realized whose attorney my caller was, for over the arched doorway was the name: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Although he attended services at the Riverside Church, I had never met Mr. Rockefeller but I had seen him there. His attorney explained that the opening was Financial Secretary of a place called the Oriental Institute, one of the graduate schools of the University of Chicago. Mr. Rockefeller personally and three of his family's foundations were supporting the work of archaeologist James Henry Breasted, the head and founder of the Institute.  If I was interested he would have me meet Mr. Breasted's son Charles, Executive Secretary of the Institute who was then at a hotel a few blocks away.  I expressed interest (although at that point it was mostly curiosity) so the attorney then handed me an envelope addressed to Charles and suggested that I walk over to where he was staying. I learned later from Charles that the message in the envelope was, "Here is your man".

Charles was a handsome 6½ feet tall, in his 30s, married (2nd time) to Martha Greenway, the daughter of Congresswoman Greenway, whose family ranch comprised most of the state of Arizona. He looked and talked like an actor, didn't give me much opportunity to talk so I listened and was attracted to his beautiful description of the far-flung operations of the institute in the Near East. I promised to think about the position and let him know whether I was interested enough to come to Chicago to learn more about it. I talked it over with Dagmar. We were then bombarded, every couple of days, with long telegrams urging me to visit the Institute. About two weeks later I went to Chicago by train.

I arrived early so had time to tour the campus on my own but with the help of my knowledgeable taxi driver who, although he didn't always know the name of a building, knew what went on in them. He described the Lying-In Hospital as "that place where they get the babies." I was impressed by the University's handsome Gothic limestone buildings, library, medical school and hospitals, nursery, grade and high schools, and the surrounding theological seminaries; and as well with the fine Oriental Institute building which housed its museum, staff, editorial and administrative offices. It all lived up to Charles' vivid descriptions as we toured the building and later at lunch in the high rise apartment where for the fist time in my life I was confronted by an artichoke!

So I returned to East Orange and conveyed my enthusiasm to Dagmar. We decided to make the change. When I informed the Personnel Manager at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell of this he asked me to see and talk with Douglas Dewar who was the top partner of the firm. He expressed concern, said an educational institution would provide me with little challenge, said that if I stayed with PMM in 10 years they would be paying me $75,000 per annum. I replied that 10 more years of the PMM pace would probably kill me. When he realized that I was determined to leave, Mr. Dewar said, "you have nothing to fear; just remember that you know twice as much as most of the fellows you will meet out there". My friend, Mike Berrien, VP of the Hanover Bank, I thought I was foolish, too. But I stuck with our decision and an audit of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, in which I was then involved, was the last I was to do for PMM. I left the firm with a check in hand for all the overtime I had endured.

Some items of interest from old records: The rent for our first apartment in East Orange was $65 per month but when the depression hut us we moved to one at $45; our food budget had to be reduced from $50 to $40 per month. Commuting to New York cost $7.86 per month. In 1933-34 we had the courage to dabble in the stock market. Three stocks that cost us $782 we later sold for $1,292! $230 of this windfall went into a second-hand 2-door Chevy. The cost of our initial furniture was $669.14. Many of the items we still have: the maple bedroom set, the desk and chair in the study; our first dining room table is now in use by the Curate of Holy Trinity (in Middletown, CT).

Next time - Work at the Oriental Institute and a trip to the Near East.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story #16 - Post-Wesleyan

In the 16th installment of my grandfather's story he is deciding what to do after Wesleyan, working and studying in New York City and getting married.

By the time I reached my Senior year at Wesleyan, I decided that Business would be my career field. I was accepted at Harvard Business School and was assured of financial help by Mrs. Manville, but the burden of debt I had already incurred and the fear of adding to it influenced me in a decision to embark at once in business. At that time the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants was appealing to liberal arts college seniors to consider going into Public Accounting under a program whereby they would place graduates with CPA firms regardless of whether they had any knowledge of accounting. Their program was based on the expectation  that men with a liberal arts background supplemented by the CPA staff on-the-job training would up-grade the accounting profession.

I applied and was sent by the Institute to be interviewed by a New York City firm. I was received by the top partner of the firm who engaged my in an hour-long conversation of Plato! However when I learned that this firm, although highly regarded, was not national in scope, I decided to talk it over with Mike (Cornelius) Berrien, a Vice President of the Hanover Bank (now Manufacturers Hanover) in New York, who graduation from Wesleyan in 1896, was a member of my fraternity and had told me that if I ever needed a recommendation he would give it. He agreed that a connection with a large national and international firm would be preferable. He then scribbled a note to Andrew Stuart, a partner in Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., 40 Exchange Place, N. Y. City and told me to deliver it. I did and was hired effective the following September, 1928.

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co was, still is, large, with offices all over the USA and the world. The New York City office was a staff of 400. They gave a series of training classes for their junior staff members but, in addition, I enrolled in the School of Business at Colombia University, attended evening classes there for three years, 1928-1931, and lived in John Jay Hall on its campus. the classes met from 6 to 10 pm which meant that frequently I had my evening meal at 10:30. At the end of my three years, the Dean of the school urged my to give up my job and take a year of day-time classes in order to qualify for an MBA degree. I could not afford it, wanted to get married and anyway my goal was a CPA degree, which is a State-granted degree and, at that time, required 5 years experience in accounting and auditing in addition to passing State examinations. Perhaps this was a mistake in my part, as ears later, the top partner in PMM & Co told me they no longer hired anyone without an MBA degree. However, by this time, I was beginning to think I did not wish to stay in accounting all my life, but I continued to study on my own after we were married and at the completion of 5 years in public accounting took the State exams. On January 30, 1934 I was notified that I had passed all of the exams in Auditing, in Theory and Practice, in Accounting and in Law. (Of the 1,500 who sat for these exams 4 ½% passed them). I was granted my degree (CPA) by the University of the State of New York as of March 16, 1934 and a short time later was admitted to membership in the American institute of Certified Public Accountants and have remained a member in good standing for 48 years as of 1983.

My work as a member of the NYC staff of PMM & Co was enjoyable, tedious, demanding, tiring and exciting. It was varied: Cartiers and American Cynamid on 5th Avenue; banks and brokerage houses on Wall Street and in Newark; manufacturers in Rome and Rochester, NY; the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, etc, etc. The Cartiers assignment was an interesting one. It involved determining, in the place of the management, the amount of commission to be paid each salesman, each month. This may sound simple but it was not. It involved reviewing all of the charges to customers accounts (none of their customers every paid cash) and all of the credits for payments and items returned. And if a salesman had received a commission for an item later returned, it was deducted from his future earnings. And there were other complicated rules that had to be observed; the rate of commission, was it to be shared with another salesman, etc. so that the work of an independent auditor was desired. And the amounts involved were fabulous.

The hours in public accounting were horrendous, especially in the first 3 months of the year when, for weeks on end, we worked every night until midnight. And at other times, bank audits and brokerage house audits, which always were "surprise" audits, required that we stay on the job the first day until all the cash was accounted for and all vaults secured. I arrived home many nights at 1:00 am and had to be up and off again at 7 the next morning.

These were not easy times. The great depression brought bank closings, stock market failures and many people out of work. The size of PMMs staff was reduced 50% but fortunately I was retained although at a 10% reduction in salary the first year of our marriage. But with Dagmar's good management we lived through it, budgeted entertainment at 50¢ per week, dabbled in a few investments and even bought a second-hand Chevy.

The happy couple with Dean Chanter

Dagmar and I were married on September 19, 1931 by Dean William George Chanter of Wesleyan University (an ordained Methodist Episcopal minister) at Dagmar's brother's home in Manchester, CT. The pastor of her own Lutheran Church had refused use of her church by a non-Lutheran minister. The reception was held at the home of her parents. We set up housekeeping in East Orange, New Jersey, from whence I commuted to New York via the Lackawanna railroad. My brother Charles and his wife Nellie also lived in East Orange and he commuted to his job as Assistant Treasurer of the Pittston Company in the Empire State Building in New York.

Next week, in my grandfather's words, fortuitous happening #3.

Amanuensis Monday-Howard Matthews' Story #15 - How Glee Club Changed His Life

Glee Club & Jibers (a quartet) were a huge part of my grandfather's life at Wesleyan and as promised you will see below how Glee Club changed his life.

In 1926 and again in 1927 the Glee Club won the Intercollegiate championship in the competition held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In both years our leader was Calvin Kuhl, '27. He was a violinist, had perfect pitch. He led the Jibers also, would listen to a phonograph record, write all four parts on a blackboard and then tell us we were going to sing that piece at the concert that night. In 1928 I succeeded him (not in ability) as leader of the Glee Club. We took fourth place that year. Our coach was Edward H. Laubin, Choirmaster of Hartford's Asylum Hill Church who was made available to us through the generosity of John Spenser Camp, Treasurer of the Austin Organ Company.

The Glee Club traveled almost every weekend by bus to give concerts in nearby cities, schools and Alumni affairs. During Christmas vacation we made longer trips, sometimes by private Pullman car. We sang at the old Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the Penn Athletic Club, the Hill School, Wellesley College, and many other places. Many of the concerts were followed by a dance with music by our own orchestra, the Serenaders. It was at one of these in Manchester, Connecticut High School on March 27, 1926 that I was introduced to a young lady by the name of Dagmar Anderson who, beginning with the Prom dance in 1927 was my guest at all subsequent campus dances and in 1931 became my bride.

Program from South Manchester High School - the night they met!

Wesleyan University Eclectic House Prom Dances 1927

Close-up of Howard Matthews & Dagmar Anderson from above photo

The Jibers were in demand.  In addition to singing at all Glee Club concerts, we sang between the halves at basketball games in Fayerweather Gym, traveled with the President to some of the Alumni Clubs, and occasionally made money by singing at banquets. In 1927 we were hired by Travellers Insurance Co. to sing for several weeks on WTIC radio in Hartford. Cal Kuhl did all of the musical arrangements for this. We were paid $20 each plus travel and dinner.

I had been a member of the Olla Podrida (Wesleyan Yearbook) Board in my junior year and in the Spring was elected Editor of the 1928 edition. Later, when I was elected to be leader of the Glee Club for 1928 I had to decide between the two as College Body rules did not permit one person to hold two major posts, so I gave up the Editor post and dropped back to Associate Editor.

The College-wide winter prom and the individual Autumn and Spring fraternity dances were elegant affairs. Prom weekend began on Friday night with a dance and midnight breakfast in Fayerweather Gym. This was a formal affair with printed programs in which each dance with your guest would have been signed up weeks in advance. On the following day, Saturday, each of the 12 fraternities held a dance in its own house (formal dress but cut-in dances) and a tea dance on Sunday afternoon. Thus, as Dagmar says, in those days you had better come equipped with something better than jeans; the girls needed two long gowns for the formal parties, another outfit for the tea dance, plus daytime wear for the athletic games viewed in daytime hours.

For the Prom weekend the men vacated their fraternity houses and turned them over to their female guests and chaperones. No men permitted above the first floor. The men moved in with the lower classmen in the college dormitories. For the Autumn and Spring dances the female guests were put up overnight in faculty and neighbor's homes. Meals were served in the fraternity houses and there was much singing.


It is sad to me that having lived a very productive, interesting and accomplished life, my grandfather was still bothered by Glee Clubs 4th place finish in 1928 almost 60 years later.  Letters from their coach, sponsor and the Alumni Association speak to their excellent performance that night and the opinion of many that they should have placed in 1st or 2nd.  He kept them, but they don't seem to have helped in healing that wound.  Wesleyan did release about a dozen Glee Club performances on cassette tape some years ago and I was also able to find them online.  They did include two performances from my father's time in the Wesleyan Glee Club, but not from my grandfather's. I wonder if the Wes library would have them?

Amanuensis Monday-Howard Matthews' Story #14-On to Wesleyan

Eclectic House - October 1924 (Second Row from Bottom-Fourth from left)

In the 14th installment of my grandfather's story he tells us about life at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

In my undergraduate days at Wesleyan, freshman and sophomores were required to take courses from a list designed to assure that they were exposed to all of the disciplines. Only in the junior and senior years were we allowed freedom in the choice of courses outside our Major.

As I said before, I continued Greek, language and literature and art, under Professor Heidle all four years. But I majored in Philosophy under Professors Andrew Campbell Armstrong and Cornelius Kruse. Armstrong and Woodrow Wilson, following their graduatation from Princeton, joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1888, and Armstrong stayed for life.

I tried to broadened my interests by taking a variety of courses. I had European and USA History under Dutcher and Wriston (Wriston later became President of Brown); Biology under Greenleaf, and a magnificent Physiology course for seniors under Schneider; Geology Religion and Ethics under Dean Chanter; Astronomy under Sitterly and Slocum; Psychology under Landis, Economics under Tuttle, German under Baerg; Philosophy of Education under President McConaughy and Logic under Kruse. In addition Physical Education was compulsory.

Annual Invitation Banquet of Phi Nu Theta - 1924

Eclectic House ca 1924

I was fortunate in my choice of Phi Nu Theta (Eclectic) as my fraternity. It was the oldest of the 12 fraternities then at Wesleyan, housed in a fine new house built in 1916, designed by Henry Bacon who designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. In addition to all of the fraternities, Eclectic was essentially a literary society, which, through its Wednesday evening meetings provided each of its members with four years of experience in the writing of essays and critiques. In addition to the critique of a brother's essay, the chair called on each member present to express his reaction to the paper. The meetings were formal, coats and stiff collars were required attire. No one had the floor unless he addressed the chair and was recognized by the chair by name. The latter was quite a task for the senior who occupied the chair at the initiation meeting in the autumn and at the annual meeting in June for these were attended by large numbers of alumni each of whom had to be addressed by name. I had the assignment for the annual meeting in my senior year. I spent the entire day at the front door of the house obtaining and memorizing the names of returning alumni. At the meeting I missed one name; that of an alumnus who arrived late!

Eclectic was usually the first, never lower than second or third, in the academic standing lists issued by the Dean's office. The upperclass brothers really worked on the freshmen and went out of their way to help them. We soon learned that it mattered not that you had been high man in your prep or high school; here practically all of the competition had that background.

My extracurricular activities at Wesleyan included singing in the college choir Sundays both for the pleasure of singing second bass in a male group as wel as for the 50 cents per week that we were paid. In those days daily and Sunday chapel attendance were required. Two proctors who sat in the balconies made note of the empty seats, which, if they were not accounted for by excuses from the Dean, merited demerits.

Jibers - Bohn, Sid, Cal & Howard

 I sang second bass in the Glee Club all four years and in the Jibers (quartette) for two years. In the latter I took the place of Wendell Phillips '26 for whom I substituted occasionally in my sophomore year, after having learned all of the songs by ear.

Next week, more about the Glee Club and how it changed his life.

Amanuensis Monday - Howard Matthews' Story #13 - More from Wyoming Seminary

1928 Franklin

In the 13th installment of my grandfather's story he recounts more of his time at Wyoming Seminary, and his preparations for Wesleyan University.

Towards the end of my senior year at Wyoming Dr. Sprague asked me if I possessed evening clothes and if not, would I care to come to his home that evening to try on a tuxedo and full-dress outfit that had belonged to a wealthy resident of Wilkes-Barre, now deceased. The idea of wearing a dead man's clothing did not exactly enthuse me, but upon Dr. Sprague's insisting that a man shouldn't go to college without proper clothing, I agreed to appear and in due course I stripped to my underwear in the Sprague parlor and tried them on.  They did fit fairly well and only slight alteration would be needed, so I became the proud owner of the two outfits and I wore them at Wesleyan Glee Club concerts and dances my first two years of college.  Eventually they wore out and I never again possessed more than a tuxedo for formal wear.

My roommates in the Belfry suite were Ben Cowan, who was a member of the Varsity football squad and Business Manager of the yearbook; and Ted Hughes with whom I roomed at Wesleyan also. Ted was the school electrician at Seminary and one of his duties was to pull the switch at 10 pm, the official lights out time in the dormitory rooms. Out of sympathy for us older fellows who couldn’t go to sleep that early the wiring for the Belfry suite became mixed up with the hall lights circuit, adding an extra hour of light to our work days.

The three of us were a little older than most of the students but this did not deprive us of either the normal horseplay that went on or the assessed penalties that were meted out. Water fights were a favorite late evening sport. One evening as we were throwing water bombs at the boys who roomed in the back wing of our dorm, one of our bombs hit a faculty member who was just arriving for the 10 pm bed-check. We were summoned to the President’s office the next day. The President asked which one of us hurled the bomb that hit the Professor and when there was no answer he said he would have to throw all three of us out of school. We then explained that since all three were throwing we didn’t know which one hit him. Thereupon Doc gave us 10 demerits apiece and told us to walk them off by doing “guard duty” on the back campus. This kept us too busy to get off campus during the hours between end of classes and dinner time.

Eight men from the class of 1924 chose to go to Wesleyan: Bennett, Bittenbender, Bronson, Hughes, Matthews, Olmstead, Price and Stone.

I prepared financially for Wesleyan by selling Fuller Brushes. In ten weeks I was able to clear $750. Fortunately, my brother Charles and his good wife Nellie provided me free room and board that summer and each following summer of my college career. At that time Wesleyan’s tuition fee was $400 and I was given a half scholarship, but with the added costs of  a room in Clark Hall, books, clothing, travel, etc. my $750 was soon over-committed. Fortunately I was pledged to a wonderful fraternity, Phi Nu Theta (Eclectic), the oldest of the 12 then at Wesleyan, and earned my meals by waiting on table in its dining club, 3 meals a day, 7 days per week. I continued that job in my sophomore year and then was elected Steward of the Eating Club for the next two years. This involved billing and collecting the weekly board fee from our members, paying the staff and the bills of the food suppliers.  Thus my food was earned the entire four years. The rest of my cash needs were my by summer jobs and loans.

One of my Fuller Brush customers in Carbondale was Mrs. W.A. Manville, a well-to-do widow. When I delivered her order she asked whether I could drive a car as she had just lost her chauffeur. So for the remaining few weeks of the summer of 1924 I did part-time driving for her. In the spring of the next year (my first at Wesleyan) she wrote and asked if I would drive her full-time the following summer. I demurred, saying that my summer earnings had to be at least $750. She replied that she would pay me that much, so I accepted and drove for her each summer for 4 years. This helped me not only financially but also educationally and socially.  She was a wonderful person, a Virginian, well-educated and widely travelled, and she was an excellent conversationalist. Her car was a Franklin; she purchased a new one every year and in them I drove her and her friends over a good part of northeastern USA and Canada. She did not believe in a partly filled car. Consequently, on those trips she sat in the front seat next to me and the back seat would be occupied by her sister, Mrs. Robert Jadwin, wife of the president of the First National Back, by Harriet Pascoe, a wealthy maiden lady, and by Jane Butler another maiden lady, a real Yankee. All were interesting people and their conversations, which I could not avoid hearing, were, to me, an education in the niceties of life enjoyed by high-minded, wealthy, Christian people. I was not treated as a chauffeur. On these long trips I arranged for the hotel reservations, looked after their luggage, stayed at the same hotels and had my meals with them. Between longer trips I took care of Mrs. Manville's yard, drove her on shopping tips to Scranton and New York City, drover her and her friends to their country club for lunch, and kept the Franklin shined.

Miss Harriet Pascoe knew of my limited resources and she volunteered to help with loans whenever I needed help. By the time I was graduated in 1928 I owed her several hundred dollars and, in addition, I owed the Methodist Church Student Loan Fund $600. When I repaid her, Miss Pascoe remarked that she had given similar loans to several young people but that I was the only one who had repaid the loans. Years later I learned that in her will was a statement, "If Howard Matthews owes anything on the loans I have made him, it is forgiven."

A couple of years later, before we were married, when Dagmar came to Carbondale to meet my family, she met these two delightful ladies also. And in the 50's after we came to live in Middletown, May Manville and her niece Mary Jadwin visited us at 33 Lawn Avenue. Mrs. Manville stayed overnight and the next day we took her back to Mary's home in Woodbridge.

Next time, he's off to Wesleyan.

Amanuensis Monday - A New Life

In the last installment of my grandfather's autobiography, he had decided that he wanted to continue his education after leaving public school to work and assist his family financially.  He had interviewed for a spot at a prestigious prep school, Wyoming Seminary, but was told that there were no jobs available to help him pay his tuition, room and board.

I returned home and a week later was visited at home by Dean Fleck, bearing this message from Dr. Sprague: "Come on down with your $90 and we will see you through". Of the fortuitous happenings in my life, this was #2. #1 was Malachi Glennon telling me to get out of the mines.

So, having left Pittston High School at the end of my Sophomore year, 5 years later, at the age of 21, I was admitted to Wyoming Seminary as a member of the Junior class. I had difficulty only with 3rd year Latin. I was just too rusty to pick it up, so after a two week trial Dean Fleck suggested that I switch to first year Greek. I did so and thereafter had no trouble with any of my courses. My age was no embarrassment as there were others of my age at Wyoming--wonderful fellows, many virtually plucked out of the coal mines, given jobs firing the steam boilers, working in the laundry, cleaning classrooms. Several like Andy Salata and Joe Donchess became first class football players at Wyoming and later in college. In those days Wyoming seldom lost a football game. I was given a job waiting on table, 3 meals a day, in the school dining room. Pocket money and money for books I earned at odd jobs such as tending Mrs. Butler's furnace in Forty-Fort, a 2-mile hike before breakfast, and vacuuming her house carpets on Saturday morning.

In the Spring of my Junior year as I was leaving daily chapel, Dr. Sprague, from his position behind the pulpit, pointed at me and said, "Thompson, I mean Matthews, did I tell you that you can have the bellringer job next year; well you have it". In my two years at Wyoming, Doc Sprague never got my name right; it was always "Thompson, I mean Matthews."  [The bellringer job] was great news. It covered tuition, room and board' "room" was a two-room suite on the top floor of the men's dorm, right under the belfry tower. The bell rope came down into a closet located in the living room. The job was to ring the bell to announce everything from 6:30 get out of bed to 10:00 pm time to get to bed, and lights out, also the beginning and end of each class, daily chapel, meals and study hall. In addition, I was to climb to the top of the Chapel Tower each Saturday to wind and oil the clock mechanism housed there. But it also meant eating at table in the dining hall and free time to devote to extra-curricular activities such as dramatics, a vocal quartette and the editing of the school yearbook "The Wyoming".

All students were required to take a once-a-week course in public speaking. Preparation consisted of reading a short article in a magazine and then using it as a topic for a speech.  No notes were permitted. Once you were called upon, you were on your feet and on your own. Some of the speeches on the outlawry of war (remember--World War I had just ended) interested me that I joined a group of fellow students who spoke on that subject in churches up and down the Valley.

Boarders who made their honor roll were permitted to study in their dormitory rooms; those who did not were required to study until 9:30 pm in a faculty supervised room in Nesbitt Hall. In my Senior year my extra-curricular activities, especially Editorship of the yearbook, resulted in my landing in Study Hall. This soon proved to be wasteful as I was imprisoned for two hours there and could have accomplished the same amount of study in one hour in my dorm room. When I complained to Dean Fleck about this and pointed out that I needed that extra hour for other things that could not be accomplished in Study Hall, he agreed and released me on the condition that I get back on the Honor Roll by the next exam period, I did.

Math under Adams, English under Miss Fisk and Trebilcox, History under Wolfe, Dramatics under Miss Scurman and Worth Howard were all enjoyable and contributed much to opening up a new world for me. Then came the question of college. Three members of the faculty were graduates of Wesleyan [in Connectucut]. Two plugged for Wesleyan. Another, a Dartmouth graduate plugged for his alma mater. But Professor Pedro Gillot, my teacher in second year Greek, just assumed that I would go to Wesleyan. He had me on my feet every day parsing, declining, conjugating and admonishing me: "Matthews, I don't want you do disgrace me when you continue Greek at Wesleyan under my old teacher, Professor Heidel". (I did take 4 more years of Greek at Wesleyan and Heidel never asked me to parse anything; all he required was a good translation. At the end of my Senior year he offered me an Assistantship which would have led to an MA degree and I have often wondered how different my life might have been had I accepted, but I was already deep in debt and would have been more so had I accepted, so I declined with thanks).


In the next installment my grandfather shares more about life at Wyoming and preparations for Wesleyan which included, of course, earning money for his tuition and other expenses.