CLASS OF 1858

For an account of the life record of the late Professor Young, we have drawn upon an appreciative sketch published in the Hanover Gazette, under the initials of Professor D. C. Wells:

"Hanover has lost the most distinguished of her native born sons in the death of Professor Charles A. Young, which occurred at his home on North Main street upon Friday, January third.

"He was born upon Dec. 15, 1834, in the old colonial house which was recently set back to make room for the Tuck Building, and, which, long the home of his sister, is still known as the Proctor House. Bis father, Ira Young, a native of Lebanon and a graduate of Dartmouth of the class of 182$, was at that time professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Dartmouth College. His mother was a daughter of Professor Ebenezer Adams, Dartmonth 1791, who held the same chair in Dartmouth from 1810 to 1838.

"Both grandfather and father were men of unusual force and attainments. Professor Adams was one of the strong supports of the College as an administrator and teacher in those stormy years, as well as a large factor in the civic affairs of his day.

''Professor Ira Young, whom some of our older residents still remember, was noted as a scholar, and as a teacher had that rare gift of expression possessed in still greater degree by his more famous son.

"Charles A. Young early gave promise of unusual ability, entering college when only fourteen and graduating at the head of the class of 1853. After teaching for two years at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., he studied a year at Andover Seminary, and then became, in 1856, professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy in Western Reserve College, Ohio.

"In 186 he was for a time on miiltary duty as captain of a company of three months' Ohio Volunteers. In 1866 he returned to Dartmouth College to take, with eminent fitness, the chair of natural philosophy which had been held in succession by his father and grandfather.

"For the next eleven years his home was the house now occupied by Professor Lyman and Superintendent Hunter. It then stood where Wheeler Hall now is. He had married, in 1857, Augusta Mixer of Concord, N. H., who was a woman of attractive personality with a marvelously sunny disposition. She, with the three children, born in Ohio, helped to make Professor Young's home memorable in the social life of those years.

"While a resident of Hanover he was interested in all. the affairs, of this community, and was serving as a deacon of the College Church when, in 1877, he was called to the professorship of astronomy at Princeton. The twenty-eight years that followed were crowded with those varied and valuable original contributions to astronomical knowledge that received the recognition and honors of the scientific world.

As a teacher he was loved by his pupils, who bestowed upon him the name of 'Twinkle,' and showered upon him to ens of affection when in 1905 growing infirmity compelled him to resign his active professorship in the university.

This event was also marked by a fare well dinner to Professor Young at which his colleagues and friends united in their tributes of appreciation.

"Mrs. Young had died in 1901. Their relations had been characterized by unusual tenderness, which had about it a fine quality of mutual reverence.

"Their daughter Clara, widow of Professor Hiram A. Hitchcook, with her son, had joined the household in Princeton and returned to Hanover with him in 1905. Her illness and death, in 1906, threw a still deeper shadow over the sunset of his life. For the past two years Professor Young has been a familiar figure upon our streets, which seemed almost his by ancestral right.

"As far as failing strength allowed he entered into the life about him, and his bright eye and cheery greeting will long be remembered by those fortunate enough to know him. He was shut in from the bright sun he loved, and to the knowledge of which he had contributed so much, but a day or two when he gently departed.

"The funeral was held at his home upon Sunday afternoon. Mr. Janeway, a former pupil of his at Princeton, conducted the services with fine appreciation, a few friends sang the hymns he loved, and Doctor Leeds spoke most fittingly out of a long and intimate friendship. The bearers were Professor Lovett, his successor in the chair of astronomy at Princeton University, and Professors J. K. Lord, C. F. Emerson, and John M. Poor of the Dartmouth faculty. Two sons, Charles Ira of the Westinghouse Company, Philadelphia, and Frederick A. of Washington, and a grandson, Charles Young Hitchcock, of Hanover, survive: also his brother. Rev. Albert A. Young of Winona Lake, Ind., with his daughter Miss Anne S. Young, professor of astronomy in Mt. Holyoke College; and his sister, Mrs. Adeline E. Proctor, widow of Professor John C. Prootor, with her daughter Sarah, wife of Professor Fay, and sons, Dr. John H. Proctor of Newport, R. I., and Charles A., assistant professor of mathe-matics in Dartmouth College.

"It would not be appropriate to recount here the scientific achievements of Professor Charles A. Young. In the application of the spectroscope to the problems of solar physics he was first and foremost; but though great as an investigator he always felt that his first duty was toward his pupils, and as a teacher he was unsurpassed in his ability to state difficult problems clear- ly and concisely.

"This quality, warmed by a genial humor, he carried into his more popular public addresses which made his name and face familiar outside the college halls of Princeton, Dartmouth, and Mt. Holyoke.

"After all it is as a man that his friends will love to remember him—the simplicity and modesty of his bearing, the kindliness that his smile expressed, the humor that sparkled in his eyes, and his childlike and profound faith in things spiritual behind the things of sight.

"Born in this community, an heir to its best inheritances and privileges, he brought to it honor and renown, and to it he returned to be gathered to his fathers."

Secretary, Rev. Silvanus Hayward, Globe Village, Mass.