Addresses At The Inauguration Of Rev.l. Clark Seelye, As President Of Smith College, And At The Dedication Of Its Academic Building, July 14,1875...
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Addresses At The Inauguration Of Rev.L. Clark Seelye, As President Of Smith College, And At The Dedication Of Its Academic Building, July 14,1875
Smith College
C.W.Bryan and Co., 1877
Laurenus Clark Seelye was an American educator, who taught English literature for about ten years and was president of Smith College.
Background
Laurenus Clark was born on September 20, 1837 in Bethel, Connecticut, United States, the descendant of Robert Seely who was captain of one of the vessels of John Winthrop's fleet, which sailed from England to Salem, Massachussets, in 1630.
His parents, Seth and Abigail (Taylor) Seelye, were both descended from Puritan families that had for some seven generations been thrifty farmers and merchants, and pillars of the Congregational Church. He was the youngest son of a large family and, partly on account of his delicate health, was surrounded in youth by more tenderness and affection than was usual among his undemonstrative kinsfolk.
Education
His second brother, Samuel, then minister in Wolcottville (now Torrington), Connecticut, prepared Laurenus Clark for college, and in 1853 he entered Union College at Schenectady, New York, graduating in 1857, shortly before he was twenty.
His theological training was begun in the Theological Seminary at Andover, but in his second winter his health was such that he was sent to Europe. He traveled widely through Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Egypt, and Palestine, spending in all nearly three years, and in 1861-62 completing his theological studies in Berlin and Heidelberg.
Career
His first and only charge was the North Congregational Church of Springfield, Massachussets, to which he was inducted in January 1863. Here he ministered for two and a half years with great acceptance.
In 1865, influenced partly by a return of the bronchial affection that had been the cause of his leaving Andover, he gave up his church to accept the Williston professorship of rhetoric, oratory, and English literature at Amherst College, where his brother Julius Seelye was then professor of philosophy. This position he filled with marked success for eight years, when he resigned to accept, after much hesitation, the presidency of Smith College, which it was proposed to open in the neighboring town of Northampton. Here he found his life work.
In 1870 Sophia Smith of Hatfield had left somewhat less than $400, 000 to found a college for women, and in the following year it had been chartered by the Massachusetts legislature. But the endowment seemed so inadequate that at first Seelye refused to undertake the responsibility. In 1873, however, he accepted, and from this date his whole energies were devoted to the interests of Smith College.
The history of Seelye's life from 1873 to 1910 is the history of his college. After his retirement in 1910 till his death, he continued to live in Northampton, taking an interest in church and state, and serving for three years on a commission on the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst.
In 1923 he published The Early History of Smith College, and in 1925 Prayers of a College Year was published posthumously.
L Clark Seelye died peacefully in his sleep, at home, on October 12, 1924.
Seelye was active in the local Congregational Church, serving on church committees and preaching an occasional Sunday sermon.
Personality
Though in appearance and manner Seelye displayed some of the austerity of his Puritan forebears, his fundamental warmth earned him the affectionate devotion of both students and faculty.
Connections
On November 17, 1863, Laurenus Clark Seelye married Henrietta Chapin of Albany, descended from a Puritan stock similar to his own. He was survived by his widow and five children.