Sketch of the life, character and work of Alonzo Crittenden, A.M., PH.D., late president of the Packer collegiate institute

Introduction

The following Memoir of the life and character of the late Alonzo Crittenden, Ph.D., is published under the auspices of the Board of Trustees of the Packer Collegiate Institute, of which till the time of his death he was the honored Principal.

It has been the primal aim of its Author to present to the reader a true likeness of this excellent man, just as he stood, day by day, for sixty years, before teachers and scholars, an animating and inspiring presence, commanding the respect of all as a faithful guardian, guide, and friend.

To hundreds and thousands of those who have been associated with him in a work which he so much loved, or have profited b}' his instructions in the several Institutions over which he presided, such an aid to memory as this book afifords must possess an abiding interest.

In calling to recollection the traits of character that distinguished Doctor Crittenden in his

4 INTRODUCTION.

educational life, the testimony of those who were co-workers with him has been freely supplied : while others whom he led in the paths of knowledge bear concurrent witness to the vigilance and vigor of his administration, and to the happy impress made upon the heart by the high moral purpose which he steadfastly enforced.

In the course of the following narrative the felicities of his home — a home that divided with the school the affections of his warm and loving heart — are brought conspicuously to view, as well as the beautiful hospitality that characterized his rural retirement.

For him the country had many charms, and his love of nature and his love of friends combined to make his hospitality delightful to all who were privileged to visit him.

This interesting volume closes with the words of eulogy so happil)^ spoken by the various clergymen of our own and the neighboring city, and with appropriate resolutions adopted by Boards of Trustees, of this and other Institutions, at the time of his death.

A. A. Low, President of the Board of Trustees.

Brooklyn, March lo, 1885.

Chapter I. Early Days

PAGE

Parentage — Birth — Childhood — Education — College Life — Goes to Albany — Mary Warner — Marriage — Offspring, . 9

CHAPTER n.

THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY.

Reminiscences of Old Scholars — Appreciation of the Trustees — Professor Horsford's Memories — Dr. Crittenden's Account — Tribute of Pupils, ...... 27

CHAPTER HI.

THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY.

Call for Meeting of Citizens — Invitation to Dr. Crittenden — Letter of Acceptance — Move to Brooklyn — Professor Alonzo Gray — Academy Built — Opening — The Principal — The Library — Anecdotes, ....... 42

CHAPTER IV.

LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY.

Discipline — An Old Teacher — Religious Influence — Dr. Spencer — Sorrows — A Change of Professors — The Fire, . . 60

6 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.

PAGE

A Generous Offer — Erection of the Building — Dedication — Golden Years — Financial Ability — Principles of Government — Anecdotes, 74

CHAPTER VI,

TRAITS OF CHARACTER.

Quick Intuition — Constancy of Friendship — Revivalist — Unlimited Power of Forgiveness — Story of Two Sisters — Judicious Charity— Repartee — Illustrations, . . .93

CHAPTER VII.

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE.

War Record — Ph.D. — European Trip — His Daughter's Death— The Silver Wedding, II2

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAST DECADE.

Home Life — Somerville — Rothstein Lodge — A New Daughter — Correspondence — The Milton Shield — Signing his Will, 129

CHAPTER IX.

A SAD SPRING-TIME.

The Last Birthday — Estimate of an Old Teacher — A Base Attack — Offers his Resignation — Trustees Refuse to Accept — Letter from Professor Eaton — Death of Mrs. Crittenden — The Alumnae Association, . ... 149

CONTENTS. 7

CHAPTER X.

A GARNERED SHEAF.

PAGE

The Professor's Illness — Death in the Home — Last Visit to Washington — Last Visit to the Packer — Fading Away — The End — Journalistic Eulogiums — The Last Obsequies, . i68

Appendix

I. Tributes to the Character of the late Professor Crittenden 199

II. Funeral Addresses, 215

III. Extracts from Letters of Condolence, .... 229

IV. Resolutions of Sympathy, 235

ALONZO CRITTENDEN.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY DAYS.

Parentage^ — Birth — Childhood — Education — College Life — Goes to Albany — Mary Warner — Marriage — Offspring.

T~\AY after day the coffin-lid covers one and another whose life-work, done well and bravely, is accomplished, and the grave hides forms and faces whose absence makes blanks in domestic circles and solitude in human hearts ; yet society closes over the vortex with scarcely a ripple to mark where the lives were lived. There are others, however, who because of peculiar gifts or graces, or it may be of the exceptional position which they have occupied, have so struck the roots of their individuality into the hearts and homes of the community, that when they fall, a great cry goes up and many are inclined to ask, " Who is left to take their places and to carry on their work ?"

Such was the late Principal of the Packer Collegiate Institute and President of its Faculty of Instruction. A pioneer in the cause of the higher education of women, he entered upon his life-work at a period when to be a teacher of girls did not seem to promise either a brilliant or influential career. But he toiled on patiently, devoting to his work his best energies and his ripest judgment, subordinating to it private interests and social and domestic life ; and his reward has been to live to see the enthusiasm of his early years placed in the foremost ranks of the onward progress of civilization. He has lived to see education for young women stand in the estimation of the community on the same plane with that provided for young men, and to have Wellesley and Vassar and Leroy and Cornell and the Harvard Annex attest what others following in his steps have done for our girls.

Dr. Crittenden was a pioneer, and pioneers are not usually idealists, nor do they grasp their

EARLY DAYS. II

weapons with gloved hands and go forth into the wilderness delicately shod. They must take life as they find it, make the most of their appliances and their materials, and leave it for coming generations to do the finer work of polishing and adornment. "Those who try educators of 1825- 1850 by standards of to-day will surely fail to appreciate the real service they rendered," says a correspondent.

The records of such a life should be preserved if only to afford to another time and generation an example of what persistent energy, spotless integrity, and consecrated devotion to one object can accomplish when joined to reverent and active Christian faith.

But such a life is difficult to chronicle, since its memorials exist partly in files of old and faded letters, and still more largely in the affectionate memories of those to whom its subject has been at once a father and a friend. Moreover it is by individual traits, or it may be by marked idiosyncrasies, that a man is distinguished from his fellows — his kindliness, his humor, his quickness at repartee, the trick of gesture, the sudden glance, the smile full of meaning — all of which are difficult if not impossible to reproduce.

The writer has done what she could do to present a life-like picture of the man with his sterling virtues and kindly traits, his distinctive peculiarities, and his loving, tender heart. Yet while appreciating the honor done her by those who have placed in her hands this " labor of love," she realizes ever more deeply her own inadequacy for its performance.

Alonzo Crittenden, A.M., Ph.D., was born in the town of Richmond, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, April 7, 1801. He was the youngest but one of ten children, all of whom he outlived with the exception of an elder brother, Alvan, who, though for many years a great invalid, survived his distinguished brother by almost a year. One sister died young ; all the other children reached the years of maturity.

Like most of the distinguished men of our age and country, the subject of this sketch was a selfmade man. His father, Levi Crittenden, a substantial farmer, well known and highly respected in Berkshire County, came to Richmond when a young man, it is said as a mule-driver, from the South, though by birth he was a New-Englander. He was noted for his clear, cool judgment, and many incidents of his ready wit are traditional among the inhabitants. He is reported to have been a man of great physical strength, and the story is told of how one day when a neighbor was extremely abusive to him, he quietly picked the man up and dropped him over the fence. Another incident, showing the same intuitive perceptions joined to ready presence of mind which so distinguished the son of the Berkshire farmer, is thus told by his grandson :

" My grandfather, sitting at his front door one day, saw a man on horseback passing. Something in his manner caused the thought to occur to him that the man had stolen the horse on which he was riding. Going to the stable and saddling his own horse, he pursued. Looking back, and seeing he was being followed, the man whipped up. My grandfather whipped up. Soon both were on a dead run. My grandfather's horse was the faster. The man was brousfht back and locked up, and the horse on which he had been riding' put in the stable. Some hours after, and while my grandfather was reflecting, somewhat uneasily perhaps, that he had arrested a man against whom no charge had been made, without a warrant, and on a mere suspicion for which he could scarcely give a reason, some persons came up, and describing the man and the horse, asked if any one answering to the description had been seen. To their astonishment, my grandfather told them he had both man and horse in custody. It turned out that the man was a horse-thief."

Levi Crittenden married a lady of Guildford, and took her at once to his newly-established home in Richmond. Here his children were born, and here they grew up surrounded by all the influences of the beautiful scenery of Berkshire County, and here the temperate frugality and comparative hardships of the farm-Ufe of the period developed in them manly independence and rugged strength. Better still, they were always surrounded by an atmosphere of the highest literary culture, and in daily companionship with such men as the Seargents, Primes, Fields, Sedgwicks, and Wests.

EARL V DA YS. 1 5

Growing up thus among the rocks and hills ot the Bay State, with a training that had in it no elements of effeminacy, the New England boy developed a tenacity of life which, in spite of his extremely delicate constitution, carried him safely beyond the fourscore years supposed to exceed the ordinary limit of human existence. To the same influences, perhaps, we may trace the sturdy independence which would not allow him to burden his father with the expense of a liberal education, which nevertheless, his ambition fired by the literary atmosphere he was constantly breathing, he resolved to have.

Alonzo attended the village school until he had learned all it could teach ; then, like so many other boys of the county, went to the Lenox Academy, where he made such good use of his time that he was prepared for college at sixteen. Proceeding at once to Schenectady, he entered Union College, then under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, whose influence could be ever afterwards traced in his life and teachings.

The young collegian carried with him only fifty dollars of his father's money, a part of which he brought back at his first vacation, having by school teaching paid all his expenses and laid by enough money with which to commence the next term. He continued this practice throughout his college life, — which was by this drain upon his time necessarily protracted a little longer than is usual, — and never again cost his father anything.

Dr. Crittenden's college course does not seem to have been especially marked by anything but faithfulness and energy ; indeed, through life the successful and honored Principal was not so much distinguished for his scholarship as for other traits which go to build up beauty of character and to insure a high degree of success. He was, however, admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an honorary distinction conferred only upon those whose scholarship is above the ordinary grade. Moreover, so good was his record, and so well had his supplementary career of teaching fitted him for the position, that at his graduation in 1824 he, a young man of only twenty-three years, was unanimously called to take part in the instruction of the Albany Female Academy, of which he soon after became Principal : a responsible position which he held for almost twenty years.

Of Mr. Crittenden's social life in Albany very few records have been preserved. The family correspondence of that period has been almost totally destro)'ed ; a few old pupils and teachers have kindly contributed their reminiscences, and an occasional remaining document preserved among the archives of the Albany Female Academy has been consulted and embodied in this work.

Dr. Charles E. West, himself an educator of ripe experience and deserved popularity, has in the article which the reader will find in the Appendix drawn a vivid picture of the '' small community of brilliant and cultivated people" among whom Mr. Crittenden began his life-work. In this community he was not only a welcome guest, but also a power. His popularity was great, and he numbered among his personal friends and intimates many of the really great men whose names are catalogued by Dr. West.

But alas ! they have all passed away; their mute lips refuse to bear their testimony : he outlived his generation, and it is a second and a third which now rise to call him blessed.

The valuable correspondence which he must once have possessed has all perished, only a stray letter or two from old friends being found among his papers. One from his esteemed pastor. Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague, relates mainly to the marriage-ceremony which he performed for his young friend, thus uniting him with the noble woman who stood by his side for so many years as strengthener, counsellor, and friend ; the wife whose well-being was ever his chief solicitude, and whose death left him for a few brief months in a loneliness which he said he never before imagined.

Dr. Crittenden was a man who always held on to his friends, and the tie between him and his Albany pastor was one of peculiar strength and life-long endurance. It continued unbroken, in spite of changes of residence and pastoral relations, until the venerable doctor was called up higher some few years before his former parishioner.

Mr. Critt6nden's old pupils can doubtless recall how often he quoted Dr. Sprague's teachings and opinions. During tlie latter years of the old pastor's life he indulged in the harmless hobby of collecting autograph letters, poems, etc. Dr. Crittenden interested himself in procuring these, and several of the later letters which have been preserved refer to this subject. The following is a specimen :

February i6, 1S74.

My Dear Mr. C:

I know not what to say to you for your great kindness in procuring for me and sending to me so many invaluable autographs. I do thank you from the bottom of my heart, but that does not begin to do justice to my gratitude, I leave you to imagine the rest. . . .

I rejoice in all the prosperity of Packer Institute, as illustrating the clear vision of its illustrious Principal. I am yours most gratefully,

W. B. Sprague.

If the mental and spiritual status of a man is, as some assert, to be measured by his reverence for his wife, Alonzo Crittenden's must be a high one. No sketch of him would be complete that did not give due importance to the life, personality, and influence upon him of Mary Wright

Warner. Miss Warner was born in Canaan, Columbia County, four miles from the early home of her husband, January 30, 1806. Her father was Elias Warner, whose venerable form and snowy hair were familiar to all the old pupils of the Brooklyn Female Academy, where he was book-keeper for several years ; her mother died when her little girl was barely nine years old. She is represented by those who knew her in the early days when she first came to Albany as extremely beautiful. We who knew her in middle life and as age crept over her well remember the tall, stately figure, the dignified mien, the strong individuality of feature marked alike by kindliness and common-sense, and the blending of a certain homely sympathy which made her a person to be confided in while respected. So we Brooklyn girls felt about her, and so no doubt felt the Albany girls of an earlier day.

One of these writes :

" Miss Mary Warner comes up before me as a graceful, tall, dignified person, teaching me day by day, winning my early love. To her was written my first letter. How I wish I had her answer ! Soon after, Miss Warner returned to Albany as Mrs. Crittenden."

Another old pupil says :

" I remember when I was a young girl how handsome she was, and I was afraid of her as I should have been of a queen or some one very far above me. Then when I was older, I felt it was the greatest favor that she would talk with me or treat me as a friend. I really loved her. She is associated with some of my earhest memories, when probably she did not know that small eyes and a small person were watching and admiring."

A letter of condolence written after her death by a former teacher in the Packer Institute thus speaks of this rare life-long companionship, as it appeared to a younger generation who knew Mrs. Crittenden in the later years of sorrow and pain which preceded her death :

" I feel almost as though my words should be those of congratulation, because of the beauty of the life so long your own, because of its rarely perfect accord with yours, because of the light from Heaven which illumined its entrance into the world which knows not pain nor death. It is a blessed thing to come to the earthly end of our closest ties with no need for one thought of selfreproach, no memory save one unbroken recollection of harmonious love. So I must needs count you rarely happy now, as in all these years you have been faithful and more than faithful to your first love. For you the past holds only sweetness, and the future only joy unspeakable."

Miss Mary Warner possessed a happy talent for versification, which she continued to exercise till the closing years of her life. Many of her pleasant little impromptus, written upon birthday occasions or in presenting and acknowledging gifts, still remain to attest the writer's talent and good feeling.

From among the little poems preserved in the family archives the following is selected, not so much because it is better than others, as because it exhibits that somewhat rare thing, the love of a husband and wife not cooled by the wear and tear of life, but as freshly beautiful and replete with sentiment as when two young hearts beCame one half a century before :

A Birthday Tribute. ■ April 7, 1877.

Friend of my youth, and of my riper age, Whose history blends with mine along life's page, We've walked together through the rolling years, Bearing each other's burdens, hopes, and fears.

Accept the thanks I ever owe to thee For all thy faithful care and love to me ; Forgive each word and every act of mine That could have grieved a heart so true as thine.

The shades of evening now begin to fall Across the path that ends for us and all ; May heavenly light, with ever-kindling ray, Direct our course along the shadowy way !

And when the works of earth are fully done. Our days all spent, our earthly courses run. May faith assured look longingly above To meet our Lord, the Lord of Life and Love !

Your Affectionate Auld Wife.

Possibly this peculiar talent, prized at all times by Mr. Crittenden, first attracted his admiration for the young poet; but her more substantial qualities soon won his heart, and on August 5, 1829, the pair were married. Soon after they opened the boarding-house for the Academy, over which the 3-oung matron presided with such executive ability and graceful dignity for so many 3^ears, first in Albany and afterwards in Brooklyn.

Concerning Mr. Crittenden's choice of a wife, Rev. Dr. Fulton in his funeral address says:

" Dr. Crittenden believed in a womanly woman, not in a manl}- woman or a womanly man. He found a womanly woman in his wife. Because of this fact he trained women to be women ; not women's rights women, nor women with missions especiall)-, but women to beautify homes, to gladden life, and to carry out in life God's conception of woman when he placed her beside Adam in the garden of Eden. Mrs. Crittenden was cultured and fitted to adorn an)'- circle, but she shone with most beautiful lustre in her home."

It was as " house-mother" that Mrs. Crittenden shone pre-eminently. Often at the head of a household of sixty or seventy, she was always equal to the occasion, never worried or flurried, doing with her might what her hands found to do. Watching with the sick, lending a S3^mpathizing ear to troubles whose importance could only be measured b}' the suffering they inflicted ; caring

EARL y DA VS. 25

for her own little family, entertaining largely, doing her own share of church-work and taking her part in public charities, Mrs. Crittenden's life might advantageously bear the test of a comparison with Solomon's "virtuous woman."

Three children crowned this happy marriage : Catherine Seymour, born in Albany, May 16, 1S30; Edward Warner, born in Albanv, October 19, 1835 : and Eliza Seymour, born after the familv had removed to Brooklyn, in 1845.

On these children all the love of Mr. Crittenden's afifectionate heart which was not absorbed by his wife was centred. Never was there a man of stronger family affections ; he lived again in his children, and alas! suffered through them the deepest sorrows of his generally happy and successful life. But one of the three lives to mourn his loss : the others — the little one who, though dying almost in infancy, was to him ever a stillliving reality, and the grown-up and accomplished daughter whose early death brought sorrow to so many hearts — both went before to welcome his home-coming at the last.

Of little Lillv he was wont to sav, " When the shepherd wants the sheep to follow, he carries the lambs in his bosom." The eldest daughter married Charles H. Dana of Brooklyn, lived long enough to present two little granddaughters to take, if possible, her place in her father's heart, and then faded away in her early womanhood at beautiful Mentone, on the Italian shore.

No doubt ere this he has met the three dear ones, mother and daughters, by the golden strand of that country * where there shall be no more sea."

Chapter II. The Albany Female Academy

Reminiscences of Old Scholars — Appreciation of the Trustees — Professor Horsford's Memories — Dr. Crittenden's Account — Tribute of Pupils.

A /r R. CRITTENDEN'S history during the twenty years of his Albany life is largely that of the Academy at whose head he was placed. Its details have been difficult to gather, though multitudes of elderly women who remember their old instructor " in the kindness of their youth' speak with loving remembrances of his just severity tempered with kindness, and of the inspiration he gave to their lives.

One of these earlier pupils writes:

" I fear I cannot recall the daily life of over fifty years ago. While in Mr. Crittenden's department I remember him as a young gentleman of pleasing manner, seeing all our foibles as it were at a glance, guiding us, making us feel the necessity of culture, genial, kind, truly desiring our best good. I remember his saying to me, ' Not a lazy thread in your body, only too full of mischief ; you must apply yourself to study.' Once hearing a recitation in geography he said, ' Young ladies, go to your seats and study a half-hour,' I saucily replied, ' I know the lesson :' and I do be- Heve, after making me sit down alone, he asked me about every question in it. He had made up his mind I should miss, and I did linger on the last question. However, I conquered ; and his ' Well done ' put us both in a good humor. We girls always thought nothing escaped his critical eye.

"■ I feel deeply grateful to Mr. Crittenden for his implanting in my mind high aspirations. My youngest daughter was placed at the Packer; his greeting was always so pleasant, she learned to love him as I did."

A touching testimonial concerning those early school-days comes from a lady of over eighty years, who was one of the last visitors our venerable friend ever received, and whose acquaintance with him began in a remarkable way.

When a young woman, she married, and went with her husband to reside on a large tract of land in Canada, from which during some political convulsions they were obliged to fiee suddenly in the night, leaving all their possessions behind them. They reached Albany in a state of absolute destitution, and Mr. Crittenden, who had known the lady in her girlhood, at once gave her employment as teacher of the harp in his family, and so provided for herself and her husband till the political storm had blown over and they were able to return to their luxurious home. She writes:

September 6, 18S4.

Dear Madam:

I have just received your letter, and it has caused my soul to thrill with some of the dearest and sweetest memories of my friend Mr. Crittenden, who still lives in the hearts of thousands now ready to spring forward and testify to the good which they have received from him, and to bequeath their own deep love and reverence for him to their offspring. . . . For forty years I knew him, and in all that time the beauty of his character with each passing decade shone forth with a greater lustre, until he reached the side of the blessed Master in whose service he had spent his life. True, he had taught worldly science; but he never forgot the spiritual. He never forgot that Science and the great Book of inspiration upon which our faith is founded can go hand in hand and each dignify the other. This gave an irresistible force and charm to his teaching, and insured the happiest results. I had the honor and pleasure of possessing the friendship of this good man, together with that of his lovely family, and I esteemed it far beyond riches.

Yours very sincerely,

K. D.

The following letter comes from a life-long friend and pupil living in Montreal, w^ho was wont till the close of her life to consult her old teacher in cases of perplexity and claim his sympathy in affliction and sorrow :

" It was my privilege to be placed under the care of the late Mrs. and Dr. Crittenden at the age of fourteen, and during the four years I remained with them I experienced a loving care which endeared them to me for life. Dr. Crittenden's large sympathies and wonderful discernment of character gave him a magnetic influence over his pupils. The results of the labors of such a life can know no limit, they are as boundless as eternity. Thousands now living will ever remember with gratitude his loving, earnest, neverto-be-forgotten voice of counsel. His large heart

THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 3 I

was always ready to cheer and comfort and protect the unfortunate and weak-hearted. His hospitality knew no limit, and he had the happy faculty of making a favor conferred felt to be a favor received by him."

The pupils who boarded in Mr. CRITTENDEN'S family were, of course, better acquainted with him than the day-scholars, and their reminiscences of him are the fullest. Many of the Southern girls remained with him during the vacations, and to these he often stood in a relation of temporary guardianship. Some of these retain very warm recollections of their early friend. A lady in Greenville, South Carolina, writes :

" In the years 1842 and '43 I was his pupil and a member of his family. He impressed me as one who was well furnished with the knowledge, the characteristics of mind, the qualities of heart and courtesies of life which made him the thorough teacher, the true leader who pointed out the wrong while he encouraged the right, — the tender guardian, the kind friend with a ready sympathy for those who were in trouble, and the true gentleman who honored woman in his intercourse with his pupils. I can remember occasions, when embarrassed and excited, a word or look from him would put me entirely at ease. While he was just in administering- reproof, words were never wasted, and when they had effected their purpose sunshine was at once restored ; all was in the past, not to be brought forward again.