Ward, Thomas Wren III (Jr. 1844-1940 THOMAS WARD DIES: HARVARD CLASS '66 York Times 7-Current Jul 19. 1940; ProQuest Historical New spapers The New York Times 2003) THOMAS WARD DIES; HARVARD CLASS '66 Oldest Alumnus, 95, Former Banker Here, Friend of Justice Holmes and William James EX-AIDE TO LOUIS AGASSIZ With Scientist's Expedition to Brazil in 1865-Father Was College Treasurer, 1830-42 BOSTON, July 18 (AP)-Thomas Wren Ward, the oldest Harvard alumnus and a retired banker, died today at the home of a daughter at the age of 95. Mr. Ward was a member of the Harvard class of '66. At one time he was an assist- ant to Louis Agassiz on a botani- cal expedition to South America. Francis Perkins, a grandson, is mu- sio critic for The New York Herald Tribune. Member of Noted Family Mr. Ward, member of a distin- guished New England family, be- came Harvard's oldest alumnus last September on the death of Dr. John V. Apthorp. He was born in Lenox, Mass., Oct. 8, 1844, the son of Samuel Gray Ward and Anna Baker Ward. His grandfather, also named Thomas Wren Ward, was treasurer of Harvard from 1830 to 1842. Despite a deafness following an early illness, Mr. Ward entered Harvard in September, 1861, but withdrew two months later for pri- vate study in Cambridge, Mass. He re-entered Harvard in the Fall of 1862. joining the class of '66 His keen interest in exploration resulted in his again leaving the college in 1865 to join Professor Louis Agassiz, leader of a scien- tific expedition to Brazil. He was one of the members whose princi- pal activity was the collection of specimens of fish from the rivers between Rio de Janeiro and Para. He came back to the United States 1866 in February, 1866, and later that year took up his studies at Har- vard. He did not, however, formally complete the course. It was not until thirty years later, June 1897, that he obtained his degree as N.James Bachelor of Arts, receiving it as of the year 1866. During the Summer of 1866 Mr Ward worked as a clerk in the New York commission office of F. Con- sinnery & Co. He returned to Cam- bridge in the Fall to spend the aca- demic year of 1866-67 studying min- ing engineering at the Lawrence Scientific School. In 1867 he re- turned to New York and joined the Consinnery firm. Joined Kidder, Peabody & Co. Four years later Mr. Ward en- 1871 tered his father firm, S. and C. Ward & Co., bankers and Ameri- can representatives of Baring Brothers of London. He was with this firm until 1886, when on its dissolution he joined Kidder, Pea- body & Co. In 1895 he became as- sociated with the banking firm of Baring, Magoun & Co. He retired from the banking business in 1909 and spent the next two years in travel. On his return he took up residence in Boston and, in 1918, made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Charles Bruen Perkins, in Ja- maica Plain. Mr. Ward was close friend of the late Associate Justice of the Su- preme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and of the philosopher, William James, having met both while a student at Harvard. He also knew Ralph Waldo Emerson -Note He served on Harvard's and others of the Concord literary group. Mr. Ward was active almost to his death. In September, 1936, he Alumnae Visiting Commettee for attended the Harvard Tercentenary exercises in the Harvard Yard and he marched in the commencement processions of 1937, 1938 and 1939 He was not well enough to appear Philosophy, May 1903, a group as the oldest living graduate in the procession last June. He married Sophia Read Howard of Baltimore in 1872. Mrs. Ward Chaired by his cousin George died in 1918. Besides his daughter, he is survived by a son, Howard Ridgely Ward of Auburn, Calif.: grandchildren. His elder son, Lieut. Col. Cabot Ward, who died in funds to establish Emerson Hall B. Dar. This group Raised seven grandchildren and five great- France in 1936, was Commissioner of Parks in New York City from 1913 to 1917. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission Mumsie, Sophia Howard Ward, wife of Thomas Wren Ward 1911 Papa, Thomas Wren Ward Sf A The Cheese were 2015 52 The Saturday Club emotion that he sobbed and broke down. We Anglo-Saxons were embarrassed. Judge James M. Morton, Jr., addressed us on "Moorfield Storey the Lawyer" and made clear his three memorable triumphs in winning in the Supreme Court the "Grandfather Clause" case, the Louisville "Segregation" case, and the Arkansas "Due Process of Law" case, where twelve Negroes charged with murder had been tried by a judge and jury who were dominated by an armed mob of white men surrounding the courthouse. Storey argued that the verdict of murder against the Negroes was not given by "due process of law." The Supreme Court sustained him, and Mr. Justice Holmes of the Saturday Club wrote the opinion. The present writer had then the pleasant task of speaking about "Moorfield Storey the Man." All the addresses were printed in a little pamphlet which is probably quite forgotten now, but I find that I began by plundering Emerson's Journal. In July 1866, it appears that Emerson and Ellery Channing, together with four young ladies and three boys just graduating from Harvard - Ed- ward Emerson, Tom Ward and Moorfield Storey - were camp- ing on Monadnock. They struck bad weather, with rain and a north wind; and the second evening was so cold that the boys, who had given most of their blankets to the ladies and to the elderly gentlemen, spent the night in keeping up the campfire, while Storey, so lately an ornament of the Harvard Glee Club, sang, with Edward Emerson for chorus, a multitude of songs, to the great delectation of the company. That boy who worked and sang in the dark and cold, so long ago, singing not to keep up his courage, but simply because he had courage and gaiety enough for the whole party, was the same Moorfield Storey whom many of us knew until the end: a slender upright figure, the handsome face clear- cut in the firelight, playful, laborious, serene, invincible. What fascinated us in his old age was that same gaiety of heart. Children ran to him instinctively, as they did to Charles Sumner. They knew somehow that he was friendly. His very horses knew it, in his riding and driving days. Whether you saw him at play or at work - at the farm in Lincoln, the summer home on Cran- Bliss Parey "loor feild Storey 1845-1929, 11 The Saturday Club A Central Capleted ed . E. Forbes t J.H. Finley Jr. Marriage Notices from the New York Evening Post, 1801-1890 - New England Historic Page 1 of 1 My Membership NewEnglandAncestors.org Log Out Welcome Epp Site Search New England Historic Genealogical Society - Founded 1845 Help SECURITY Printer Friendly Page Home Research Libraries Store Education Center Main I Databases I Research Services I Forums I The Great Migration Shortcut to: Newsletter I Reference I Links Marriages from the New York Post, 1801-1890 Search Results 1 record was found for I thomas wren ward' in the following documents: Displaying records 1 - 1 Posted Orig. Record Year Record Date Rec. Type Baltimore Cathedral, April 29, Rev. Father Dougherty, Thomas Wren Ward of 1872 5/9 more Marriage N. Y. to Sophia Read, dau. of the late Charles Ridgeley Howard of Baltimore. 1 Back to Last Master Search Results page New Search Join NEHGS : About NEHGS : Site Map : Contact Us : Library Hours : Privacy Statement : Terms of Use/License OF Copyright 2001-2005, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Do not reproduce without permission. New England Historic Genealogical Society 101 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 USA (617) 536-5740. http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/database/NYPMarriages/default.asp?srcht = 11/29/2005 Louise Hall Tharp. The Story of Boston: Little, Bean t 6., 1959. lofl thuAAgassi 162 Adventurous Alliance Family of BostoN Brazilian Journey 163 his arm. 'I have here a most wonderful book. It is worth in money The James family evidently discussed all their plans together, and value [more than] any other book in Boston.'' And when his lis- William wanted to help along a decision as to the proper place to teners were sufficiently intrigued, Holmes said, 'Oh, I forgot to tell live. He favored Cambridge. "I think the society here must be you what book this is. It is Nat Thayer's check-book.'" That much pleasanter than elsewhere, not so mercantile; the natural beauty check-book was at Agassiz's service, practically without restriction. of the place, as soon as you recede a little from Harvard Square, is The student "volunteers" paid their own way, however, and among great The chief objection seems to me the bad walking in them was Nathaniel Thayer's son, Stephen van Rensselaer Thayer. spring, but that applies to every place but the city. We should "Ren" they called this agreeable young man, for whom Mrs. Agassiz not need to keep horses here." felt a certain quite understandable sense of responsibility. But "all this on the supposition that one or more of us remains Another volunteer was Tom Ward, son of Samuel Gray Ward, here to study. I feel very much the importance of soon making a the Boston banker and museum trustee. Lizzie Agassiz had known final choice of my business in life. I stand now at the place where Tom's parents when she was Tom's age. During his undergraduate the road forks. One branch leads to material comfort, the flesh pots, years at Harvard, Tom had dropped in at the Agassizs' for supper but it seems a kind of selling of one's soul. The other to mental dig- many a Sunday night and they were all fond of him. Then there was nity and independence, combined however, with penury. If I myself Walter Hunnewell, blessed with money and an amiable disposition. were the only one concerned I should not hesitate in my choice. "Hunney" brought along a new and by no means reliable contrap- But it seems hard on Mrs. W. J. 'that not impossible she,' 6 to tion called a "camera," which he was trying to learn to use. Photo- ask her to share an empty purse and a cold hearth. On the one side graphs would be SO much better than daguerreotypes better even is Science; on the other business (the honorable, honored and pro- than Burkhardt's drawings. ductive business of printing seems most attractive) with medicine Perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most eloquent which partakes of the advantages of both, between them, but which among the volunteers was William James. He was twenty-three at has certain drawbacks of its own. I fear there might be some this time. His letters to his brother Henry James, the future novelist, anguish in looking back from the pinnacle of prosperity (neces- and to his parents revealed his variable thoughts and feelings. He sarily reached, if not by eating dirt, at least by renouncing some was still unable to decide what to do with his life, he blew hot and ambrosia) over the life you might have led in the pure pursuit of cold, he tried but failed to be practical, so that his parents' patience truth." with him was remarkable. Yet he was aware of his faults and con- It never occurred to young William James that anyone could con- trite about them - a human, likable boy who could not yet grow up. ceivably fail in business, either with or without "eating dirt." But William had been studying art in Newport with William Hunt and he had fallen under Agassiz's powerful spell and he was leading up John LaFarge, doing well, but not well enough for his own satisfac- to this. "I want you to become familiar with the idea that I may tion. His earlier European education had left him unqualified to earn stick to Science and drain away at your property a few more years," a living and in 1861 he entered the Lawrence Scientific School. He he said. "If I can get into Agassiz's museum, I think it not improb- was full of advice when his family contemplated leaving Newport able I may receive a salary of 400 or 500 in a couple of years. I to become neighbors of the Agassizs on Quincy Street. "Cambridge, know some stupider than I who do." I confess does seem at first more like a place of transit than a home," William James went house hunting in his family's behalf and he wrote. "The college influence extends all around and makes every wrote to them (heading his letter "Christmas day" but leaving out house in its immediate neighborhood seem like a boarding house." the year, as usual): "I enclose another advertisement of a house, I of 2 I70 Adventurous Alliance Brazilian Journey 171 Emperor said he planned to abolish in Brazil. The discussion, how- Various delays connected with his plans for an exploration of the ever, was between the Emperor, Agassiz and Mrs. Agassiz, with the Amazon kept Agassiz in Rio. He could easily have used Sherman's Empress listening. This astonished Lizzie, who considered conversa- army, to go collecting for him, as William James had suggested - tion an art and part of a woman's duty. but he deployed his students and assistants as if they were an army The Agassizs were invited to the opening of the "Chambers" - anyway. Ren Thayer, son of Agassiz's patron, had probably never the "only occasion of the year when the Emperor wears his robes been on so much as a camping trip before. But Lizzie wrote of his of state." Lizzie said she felt exactly as if she were "at the Boston "return from a shooting expedition with Dexter, having been gone theater," except that she thought "Booth would have gotten it up ten days. They had cut their way through the woods, swum rivers better." The Emperor wore a "tight-fitting suit of white satin, white on horseback, and had all sorts of adventures but Ren seemed to have shoes with rosettes, a long train of green velvet embroidered with enjoyed them all, looked strong and hearty and brought back exce.- gold stars and carried by several small boys, a crown on his head half lent collections." a foot high and a golden sceptre in his hand some six feet long." She Ward was in the "first party for the interior," and Tom Ward Was thought the Emperor "did well to preserve his dignity" dressed like a boy who had probably never experienced anything much more that - "I must say, the Emperor is a very royal, noble-looking man, wild than Boston Common. He and his comrades were given "hur- not because of his state robes, but in spite of them." dreds of letters for the whole route, guides and a military escort pre- The Empress and the Brazilian ladies of the court were "magnif- vided, where one is necessary, and all arranged between Agassiz and icently dressed" and "one marvelous emerald glittered across the hall the emperor." Nevertheless they were very much on their own, five with a green glory quite startling to behold." It was a part of the white men who must stay on good terms with the natives and use Empress's "jewelled headdress." The Agassizs sat in the American their judgment as to the need of military escort. Others set out a week Minister's box which had a window at the back looking out over the later "to keep nearer the coast and explore the lower reaches of the entrance to the building. They watched the departure of the "Im- Rio Doce and Rio San Francisco." Agassiz would reach the Amazon perial procession" and looked down upon the state coach - "Portu- by coastwise steamer, meeting there the cross-country explorers and guese, some two hundred years old, the sides entirely of glass, the the second party from the rivers. roof of crimson velvet with a gold crown surmounting it." Eight horses drew this coach, and the Empress had a coach of her own.