Emerson College - Emersonian Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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CHARLES WESLEY EMERSON

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CHICKERING HALL

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Dpa Ohaples Wesley Emerson In the year 1638 Thomas Emerson, who was of a family knighted by Henry VHI, came from England and settled in the little Massachusetts town of Ipswich. From him descended Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wendell Phillips, I’hillips Brooks and Thomas Emerson, who was the father of Charles Wesley Emerson. The story of the life of Dr. Emerson, like the stories of the lives of other great men, might l)e simply and briefly told. He was born in J’ittsfield, Vt., on the 30th of Xovember, 1837. His early life was passed amid the rugged hills and peaceful valleys of his native state. His early education was re- ceived in the public schools, and under the special tutorage of his father, a man of liberal education, refined tastes, and high intellectual power, who in- stilled into his son’s mind a love of study, a desire for research and a power of independent thinking which marked the progress of his entire life. .Vfter completing his work in the public schools and the higher courses in English, classical and scientific lines with his father he pursued the study of theology under the guidance of the Rev. Dr. Tyler of X ' ermont. M ' hcn but nineteen years of age he preached his first sermon, and two years later was ordained by the Association of Congregational Alinisters of W indham County, Trmont, to the ministry. For twentv years he was engaged in this work, being settled respectively in Halifa.v, Brookfield and .Xorthfield, ’t., and later in Fitchburg, and then in Chelsea, Mass. The desire for broad- er culture lead Dr. Emerson to take a course in medicine, receiving his M. D from one of the medical colleges in Philadelphia, and to i)ass through the departments of I-aw and O-atory in Poston Hniversity. Ever a student, he devoted himself to e.xtensive reading and study of history, art science and literature. Once he heard it said that not twenty in a generation really (lerstood the philosophy of Plato, and for years he pored over the works of the ancient Greek, resolved to be one of the twenty. It was the writer ' s pri- vilege to listen to Dr. Emerson in the pulpit but once, when he preached from the text, “X ow ' abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these