Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Colby Books Colby College Archives 1967 The Man of Mayflower Hill: A Biography of Franklin W. Johnson Ernest Cummings Marriner Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbiana_books Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons Recommended Citation Marriner, Ernest Cummings, "The Man of Mayflower Hill: A Biography of Franklin W. Johnson" (1967). Colby Books. 1. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbiana_books/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Books by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. The Man of Mayflower Hill A BIOGRAPHY OF FRANI{LIN We JOHNSON Ernest C. l\1arriner WATER VILLE, MAINE COLBY COLLEGE PRESS 1 967 Copyrigbt 1967 by Colby College Press Scanned by the Colby Library- Printed in the United States of America by The Anthoensen Press, Portland, 1\/laine TO RICHARD NYE DYER WHOSE VALUED COUNSEL MADE POSSIBLE THIS BOOK Contents 1. A Maine Boyhood 1 II. College Student 14- III. The Tides of Fundy 27 IV. The Coburn Decade 36 V. Widening Horizon 50 VI. Wounds of War 60 \TII. Teacher of Teachers 67 VIII. The Call of Alma lVlater 80 IX. lVloveor Die! 88 X. Keep Colby! 1Viove Johnson! 96 XI. The Dream Comes True 104 XII. More Than lVIayflowerI-l ill 1 14 XIII. The Golden Years 127 Foreword ;\L WAYS willing to talk about Colby College and its ambi­ fi tious project to move to a new site, Franklin Johnson was extremely reticent about himself. He wrote no memoirs, he kept no diaries, he left no record of his career before he came to the Colby presidency. Dr. Johnson's accomplishments as the Man of lVlayflower Hill can be depicted in some detail, because not only is there volu­ minous public record, but also available are the presidential files of those exciting years. Not so accessible, however, are the shrouded years of his boy­ hood and youth, his principalships at Coburn and Chicago, and his professorship at Teachers College, Columbia University. Very little in print, or even in writing, has come to light on the long period of time between Johnson's birth in 1870 and his coming to the Colby presidency in 1929. It is from the lips of those who knew him at various times during that period that his life story has principally unfolded. IVlanype rsons have been helpful in assembling this hard-to-find material. Foremost is [VIrs. En1ily Heath Hall, who gave devoted, unselfishattention to both Dr. and l\1rs. Johnson during their final years. From her vast fund of information, gained by close associa­ tion, l\1rs. Hall has supplied many details and has corrected im­ pressions that would have led the biographer into error. For information about Johnson's boyhood thanks are due to IVIrs. Dora Bean and her daughter, l\1rs. Gerald Judkins, of Dry­ den; to IVIiss Lena Noyes of East Wilton; to Principal Merton Hamlin of Wilton Academy; to Mrs. Doris I-I ardy Haweeli of Worcester, IVIassachusetts; and to Miss Lucinda Bean, present occupant of the Bean Hill Farm in Jay. An account of the Calais years has been rendered possible by the kindness of l\1rs. Edna Spurling of Calais; l\1iss lVlildred Holmes of Eastport; Mrs. Winnifred Lord of PacificGrove, Cali- . Vll V111 Foreword fornia; [vIrs. Patricia Lamme of Vvalsenburg, Colorado; and Dean B. Rideout of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. One might suppose that an account of Johnson's principalship of Coburn Classical Institute would be easy to ,vrite, since that school is located in Waterville, but such is not the case. Few per­ sons now living remember Coburn at the dawn of the present century. But among those who do recall the Johnson time at Coburn and have been helpful are 1V1rs. William Abbott Smith, Mrs. Marguerite Percival I{nauif, Dr. Ralph Reynolds, Miss Sarah Young, Dr. Henry R. Spencer, and Dr. Edward G. Starr of the American Baptist Historical Society. Light has been cast on the Chicago years by John B. Kenerson of the Chicago office of Ginn and Company, ,vhere Johnson's college roommate, Dana Hall, was long the senior partner; by Principal William Congreve of the University of Chicago High School; and by l\1iss Ida Depencier of the Laboratory Schools. ] ohnson' s service in W orld War I has been illuminated by the recollections of Dr. Samuel Waite Patterson, professor emeritus and historian of Hunter College, who served with Johnson in the Surgeon General's office. Almost all of Johnson's contemporaries on the faculty of Teachers College have now passed from the scene, but the vener­ able Thomas H. Briggs remembers well the days when he and Johnson worked together on IVlorningside Heights. Dr. Wilbert Carr, who followed Johnson from the IVIidwest to New York and from there to Colby, has given valuable assistance. Thanks are especially due to Earl H. Smith, Director of the Colby News Bureau, whose skill with the can1cra made several of the illustrations in this volume possible, and to Dr. Richard Cary, Director of the Colby College Press, for his careful preparation of the manuscript for the printer and his meticulous reading of the proofs. It was President Robert E. L. Strider of Colby ,vho first sug­ gested that the writer attempt this biography, and Dr. Strider has . Foreword L"X: taken time froln his pressing duties to advise on the manuscript and on the proofs. I-Iis penetrating advice has not gone unheeded. The heaviest debt of all is owed to Richard N. Dyer, Assistant to the Colby President, who has assisted generously and effec­ tively at every stage of the 'vork. Without his inspiration, his friendly prodding, and his unfailing day-by-day assistance, the job would not have been done. To Dick Dyer, therefore, this book is appropriately and affectionately dedicated. CHAPTER I A Maine Boyhood , , HEN Franklin Johnson envisioned Waterville's May­ W flower Hill as a new site for Colby College, it was not the first time he had lifted up his eyes unto the hills. He was born on a hill, from which even higher hills and western mountains offered . an InspInng VIew. In the northwest corner of the town of Jay, lVlaine, where the three towns of Jay, Wilton and Chesterville converge, there rises an eminence known as Bean Hill. A short distance south of Bean's Corner, where Routes r 33 and r 56 intersect, an unimproved dirt road leads off to the east. The curious traveler who turns on to that country road drives up a steady incline for nearly a mile, when, having risen two hundred feet from the black-top road, he comes upon the only habitation on the dirt highway, an ancient set of farm buildings overlooking the broad valley below. In that farmhouse, on August r7, r870, Franklin Winslow Johnson was born. Almost nothing is known about Johnson's paternal ancestry. I-lis father, John Sullivan Johnson, had come to the Franklin County area soon after the Civil War. Whence he came or who were his forbears we do not know. Not a single scrap of paper has come to light about him, and traditional accounts, especially after the passing of nearly a century, are unreliable. One such account makes him a dashing young man, attractive to all the girls. The girl who captured him was Elizabeth Winslow. Diligent search has failed to reveal the marriage record. Perhaps it did not take place in Maine, although that seems most unlikely. The public records of Franklin County towns are silent about it. But that the couple were legally married there is no shadow of doubt. Had it been othenvise, gossip in a rural area where everyone knew everyone else would have blackened Elizabeth Winslow's reputation, espe­ cially in the light of later events. On the contrary, she was a highly respected member of the Franklin County community all her life. The tradition that the gay young blade, John S. Johnson, swept I 2 Th e Man of Mayflower I-fill young gullible Elizabeth Winslow off herfeet in a blaze of infatua­ tion does not fit the facts. Elizabeth was no teen-ager when she married John Johnson. She ,vas born on December r 5, r 833, and was thus thirty-six years old when her son was born. Although we do not know the date of the marriage, there is evidence that it must have been later than r865 and earlier than r870. Our own guess­ and it is a circumstantially supported guess-is r 868. Even if Eliza­ beth married in r866, she would then have been thirty-three years old. Concerning the age of John Johnson at the time of the marriage we cannot even make an educated guess. He may well have been younger than his wife. If Franklin ] ohnson's paternal ancestry cannot be traced back beyond his father, it is quite otherwise with his maternal lineage. The Winslo\vs traced descent from John \iVinslo,v of the Plym­ outh Colony and his lineal relative who once commanded Fort Halifax on the Kennebec and gave his name to the town of Wins­ low. Members of the family had settled in the Wilton area before r 800, and one of them, Franklin Winslovv, was the grandfather for V\Thom Franklin Winslow Johnson was named. To that grand­ father and his V\Tife, Rose Ann Ro\vell Winslo\v, there ,vas born on December I 5, r 833, a daughter whom they named Elizabeth.