Rose Hulman Institute of Technology - Modulus Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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cipal labor of building the T. H. I., and contributed largely to the building of the E. T. H. and the roads to Crawfordsville and to Danville. Mr. Rose was not indifferent to religion. He contributed toward nearly every church in Terre Haute, and was always a pretty regular attendant at church. When he came west, Mr. Rose promised to visit his mother in Connecticut every year. This annual visit was often performed on horse back and rarely omitted, during his mother’s life. After her death he gave the old homestead to the town of Wethersfield, with $3,000 to improve it, and added $2,000 for the town library, and $12,000 to endow an academy. Mr. Rose dispensed many private charities unknown to any one but the recip- ients and himself, and for some years before his death was chiefly exercised in de- termining the most suitable way to dispose of his fortune to the best advantage of the community in which it had been acquired. One act in his life is especially unique and remarkable. He found that, for many reasons, the will of his brother, if executed under the laws of New York, would not accomplish his brother’s clearly defined intentions. He accordingly in- stituted legal proceedings, and after nearly six years of vexatious litigation, suc- ceeded in setting the will aside. He then became sole heir to an estate of $1,600,- 000. As the representative of his brother, therefore, voluntarily and without any compulsion, he disposed of this large sum in charities in New York in such a way as to carry out his brother’s intentions. Mr. Rose then began to arrange for the final disposition of his own estate, very large for that time and place. His principal donations were to the Ladies’ Aid Society, to the founding of the-Rose Free Dispensary, the Rose Orphans’ Home and the Rose Polytechnic Institute, in all over a million dollars in and about Terre Haute. This is a brief resumé of the principal events in the life of this distinguished man. Such events as would properly appear in a formal memoir; here we may be permitted to add a few traits, incidents, etc., that we have picked up here and A memoir of Chauncey Rose was compiled and published in 1883. From it the above data have been obtained.

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Chauncey Rose. HAUNCEY ROSE, founder of the Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana, was born in a retired farm-house, on the Wethersfield Meadows, in Connecticut, December 24, 1794, and died at Terre Haute, Indiana, August 13, 1877. John Rose, his father, was the son of John Rose, who emigrated from the highlands of Scotland early in the last century. Chauncey Rose survived his six brothers and sister, all of whom were without children: so that, when he died, also childless, at the age of 88, he was the “last of his race.” Chauncey Rose’s education consisted of a brief attendance upon the common schools of his district; but he inherited good health, and was endowed with en- ergy, courage, a strong intellect, and abundant common sense. His firmness of will did no discredit to his Scotch ancestry, and his unflinching integrity in pur- pose and act were marks of his Puritan nature. To this combination of traits was added the habit of self-reliance, bred in him by the careful training of his father; a trait that is the essential quality of all strong characters, and in Mr. Rose was conspicuous. Mr. Rose settled in Terre Haute in 1818. There were but two cabins in Terre Haute, and the nearest boarding place was at Fort Harrison. In 1819 he moved to Parke County and engaged in the business of milling. He sawed and furnished the lumber for the court house erected in the public square, and returned to Terre Haute in 1825. From that date (1825) Mr. Rose engaged in trade, and became one of the most popular and successful merchants of the region. His profits were judiciously invested in land, which he worked by the most approved methods, until, acre by acre, it gradually passed, with the increase of population, from farm lands into city lots. In these and other ways, open only to those who improve the opportunities of a new country, he amassed a large fortune. Mr. Rose was fore- most in securing the railroad transportation in the new state. He bore the prin-

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