Barnard School for Boys - Bric Yearbook (Fieldston, NY)

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OUR HEADMASTER

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WILLIAM UVWNSSTON HAZEN LLD if , + ,,c fff , Q ff l l!fi'7' ff iff fl A X X K x '11 425 V n 1 1

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Tl-lEl936BARNARDBRIC 'e a 'TTT' A-+we e William L. Hazen - A Word Sketch ITM' jbllofwing artifle qua: prepared by a member UVM' Brit Board. life feel :hal it fzciflpro-z'e yn deep inleferl to all readerr, parlifulurfy in :hir Golden Jubilee l'eur.J ?i1 jn May 4, 1861, at Elizabethport, New Jersey, the subject of this article X jstarted on his journey of some seventy years. Though born in a seaport his j lx jvoyage did not begin as that of the sea. His parents Aaron Coursen Hazen 'L x and Sarah Young Hazen were landlubbers and he trekked with them in the . days of his infancy across the plains and over the hills 'till they were safely ensconced and delightfully situated on a farm in one of the beauty spots of Northern New Jersey. The name of the place Tranquillity-not far from Hope and Amity and through them all ran a beautiful stream called Stillwater, From the names you can readily imagine that there had been Quakers living here with their l'thee and their thy and their little old Quaker bonnets. Here the Hazens in the '60's and early ,7O's lived as farmers just as their ancestors on both sides had done before them. How they had ever wandered away to Elizabethport does not quite appear. It must have been simply an incident in the story. At any rate the Hazens are now here among the hills of Sussex County, N. J., just simply farmers, a family of eight. In those days the life of a farmer was complete in itself, each member of the family having certain duties to do. The one member of the family we are now interested in was then known as Willy Hazen. Willy went to school to the little red school house on the hill at the early age of three along with the teacher who happened to be living with the Hazens at that time. It was very kind of the school teacher to relieve the household of one of the younger ones of the family for the day. Even in those days the rest period was in vogue at the school house on the hill, and Willy took advantage of it by sleeping at the feet of his teacher under her desk on the raised platform. As the years crept upon the shoulders of our hero, regular duties were given to him about the farm. He was appointed guardian of the ducks and geese and each night he followed the brook which flowed by the home to bring back every duck and every goose to be shut up for the niglit, safe from any fox or weasel that might be hiding in the offing. Did you ever see in the spring time a brood of ducklings or goslings besporting themselves along a country brook or pond? That's the time for a young country boy to live! You can well imagine how important he feels when upon him devolves the care of attending to all this young life. And then it was his duty to get the mail every day from the village. He would go to the barn, get in the manger with bridle in hand and succeed in putting it over the horse's head and in some way getting on the horse's back-and then off to the postofhce, a mile or so away. Such feats of horsemanshipl Bare back, barefooted, sometimes pulling up at the postolfice standing up on the horseis back instead of astride of the old nag. One day they found little Willy senseless on the manure heap just outside the barn door. He had been kicked there by the horse. And then the cows. It was his duty to go after the cows every night. The pasture was some distance away and with his faithful companion, the dog Shep , he would start. He would not always find the cows waiting for him in the pasture, and he would follow the cow paths calling Co Bos, Co Bos, Co' Co '.l, ln the course of time he and the dog Shep would corral the cows and drive them home. And then came tlie Crash of 1873. The Hazen's ceased to be farmers and the head of the family became a merchant in Newark, N. I., and little Willy became a grocer boy, no longer little Willyl' however but Will Hazen at the age of 12. He is no longer doing his share each day in getting the milk ready for market, but is selling it. He no longer attends to the ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys on the farm but he is helping to plan for their sale at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. He ceases to attend the little school house on the hill and is able to take advantage of the