BULLETIN OF YALE UNF FITY OBITUARY RECOR OF YALE GRADUATES I915-I916 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN Twelfth Series No 9 June 1916 BULLETIN OF YALE UNIVERSITY Entered as second-cla^s matter, August 30, 1906, at the post office at New Haven, Conn, under the Act of Congress of July 16, 1894 k The Bulletin, which is issued monthly, includes 1 The University Catalogue 2 The Reports of the President and Treasurer 3 The Pamphlets of the Several Schools 4 The Directory of Liung Graduates THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY, NEW HAVEN, CONK OBITUARY RECORD OF GRADUATES OF YALE UNIVERSITY Deceased during the year ending JULY 7, 7976 INCLUDING THE RECORD OF A FEW WHO DIED PREVIOUSLY HITHERTO UNREPORTED ' [No i of the Seventh Printed Series, and No 75 of the whole Record The present Series consists of five numbers ] K \9i*r-- OBITUARY RECORD OF GRADUATES OF YALE UNIVERSITY Deceased during the year eliding JULY I, 1916, Including the Record of a few who died previously, hitherto unreported [No 1 of the Seventh Printed Series, and No 75 of the whole Record The present Series consists of five numbers ] \ YALE COLLEGE (ACADEMICAL DEPARTMENT) David Fisher Atwater, B.A. 1839 Born October 29, 1817, in North Branford, Conn* Died May 2, 1916, in Springfield, Mass David Fisher Atwater, a descendant of David Atwater, who came to New Haven Colony in June, 1637, ln tne ^P Hector, was born October 29, 1817, in North Branford, Conn , where his father, Rev Charles Atwater (B A 1805), held the pastorate of the Congregational Church His mother was Mary, daughter of Miles and Abigail Ann (Beach) Merwin and sister of Rev Samuel Merwm, a graduate of the College in 1802, two years after the death of Mr Atwater in 1825, she was married to Mr Abijah Fisher His preparatory training was received at the Wilton Acad- emy in Wilton, Conn , and in 1835 he entered Yale, grad- uating from the College four years later He took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Yale in 1842, after spend- ing two years in the Medical Department and serving for a time as assistant physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City 2 YALE COLLEGE He then opened an office in Brooklyn, N Y, and built up a large practice. For several years, he served as health officer, and, during the cholera epidemic of 1848, he had charge of the hospital for the insane at Flatbush He was at one time surgeon of the Sixty-fourth Regiment, New York State Infantry He served on the Board of Alder- men, and was a charter member of the American Medical Association, the New England Society of Brooklyn, the Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, and of the Church of the Pilgrims of Brooklyn. In 1853, on account of impaired health, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and gave his attention to the care of property m that city, where he was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church Returning to the East in 1864, he settled at Bridgeport, Conn During his residence of nineteen years there, he was a director of the Bridgeport National Bank and of the Public Library Since 1883, his home had been in Spring- field, Mass, and for a long time he was an active worker in the South Congregational Church, being its auditor for a number of years He was a member of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club Dr Atwater had had the distinction of being the oldest graduate of both the College and the School of Medicine since 1911 He had continued various activities up to within a short time of his death, which occurred at his home on May 2, 1916 Until recently, Dr Atwater took his daily walk, and read the papers His faculties never failed He was buried m Peabody Cemetery at Springfield He was married in Sharon, Conn, September 14, 1848, to Sarah A, daughter of Dr John Sears and Almira (Gould) Sears and a direct descendant of Elder Brewster and Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony Her death occurred February 13, 1910 Their two children,—Mary Merwih and Charles Brewster, the latter a non-graduate member of the College Class of 1879,—survive Dr Atwater was a nephew of Rev Jeremiah Atwater (BA. 1793), first president of both Middlebury College and Dick- inson College, whose sons, William and John Phelps, grad- uated from the College in 1827 and 1834, respectively, the latter being also a graduate of the School of Medicine in 1837 He was related to Rev Dr Lyman Hotchkiss Atwater (B A 1831) and Wyllys Atwater (B.A 1843) I839-1844 3 1 George Slocum Folger Savage, B.A. 1844 Born June 29, 1817, in Upper Middletown (now Cromwell), Conn Died August 6, 1915, in Chicago, 111. George Slocum Folger Savage, son of Absalom Savage, a sea captain, and Sarah (Wilcox) Savage, was born in Upper Middletown (now Cromwell), Conn , June 29, 1817 He received his preparatory training at the academy at Cromwell, and in 1840 entered Yak as a member of the Class of 1844. In the fall after his graduation from the College, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, but after a year returned to New Haven, and completed his theological studies at Yale On September 28, 1847, he was ordained at Middletown, Conn., as a home missionary of the Congrega- tional Church, and the following day left for the West to engage in missionary work under the auspices of the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society. He became pastor of the Congregational Church at St. Charles, 111, the following November, and continued there for the next twelve years During part of that time, he served as corresponding editor for the Prairie Herald and the Congregational Herald In i860, having accepted st position with the American Tract Society as secretary for the West, he removed to Chicago, 111, where he had since made his home He severed his connection with that organization in 1870, and became Western secretary for the Congregational Publishing Society. Two years later, he accepted an appointment as financial secretary pi the Chicago Theological Seminary, a position which he field until 1886 Since that time, he had held no salaried position From its inception in 1854 until 1903, he had served as secretary and a director of the Seminary. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Gnnnell College in 1870 and tby Chicago Theological Seminary in 1903 v Since 1850, he had been a trustee of Beloit College. Dr Savage was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions He was one of theN founders of the New West Education Commission, which did such excellent work through its schools among the Mormons, and a faithful supporter of it until it was absorbed by the Education Society of Boston. In 1868, he 4 YALE COLLEGE became an associate editor of the Congregational Review, which, after the great fire of 1871, was merged with the New Englander During the Civil War, he was made a member of the Sanitary Commission, and served as an unofficial chaplain. Dr Savage died at his home in Chicago, August 6, 1915, after a gradual failure of strength, due to old age. He was buried in Graceland Cemetery in that city His first marriage took place in Cromwell, September 28, 1847, to Elizabeth Prudden She died in March, 1886, and on February 7, 1888, he was married in Chicago to Mrs Margaret Gordon (Russell) Hyde, daughter of Andrew and Margaret (Gordon) Russell and widow of Rev James Thomas Hyde, DD (BA. 1847). She survives him Dr Savage had no children. John Edmands, B.A. 1847 Born February 1, 1820, in Framingham, Mass Died October 18, 1915,-m Philadelphia, Pa John Edmands was the son of Jonathan Edmands, a farmer, and Lucy (Nourse) Edmands and a direct descend- ant of Walter Edmands, who came from England to Con- cord, Mass , in 1639 He was born February 1, 1820, in Framinghara, Mass , where his ancestors had settled in 1748, and received his preparatory training at Phillips Academy, Andover Before entering Yale m 1843, he was for a time employed as a carpenter He had charge of the Brothers in Unity library in Senior year, was graduated with Phi Beta Kappa rank, and spoke at Commencement. From graduation until 1856, with the exception of the year 1848-49, which he spent as teacher of English in the district school at Rocky Mount, N C, he remained at Yale, studying theology and serving as an assistant in the College Library. In 1847, he published "Subjects for Debate, with References to the Authorities " His home had been in Philadelphia, Pa, since 1856, when he assumed charge of the Mercantile Library in that city During his forty-five years of active service there, he acquired a wide reputation as a book expert, and devised systems of classification and a numbering scheme for libraries which have been put in ^ 1844-1849 5 use all over the country. He prepared bibliographies of "Junius" and "Dies Irae," as well as a number of others, and compiled a list of historical prose fiction which, at the time of its publication, was more complete than any pre- vious list. Besides contributing extensively to various publi- cations, including the Library Journal, he edited for a number of years the Bulletin of the Mercantile Library He was made librarian emeritus in 1901, but continued to visit the library regularly and to retain his interest in it He was one of the original members of the American / Library Association, and one of its first vice presidents, and also served as head of the Association of Pennsylvania Librarians for some years.