University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Regent Levi Lewis Barbour. I-IE CASTALIAN has been pleased to request a sketch of a prominent member of the present Board of Regents. The invitation conveys a compliment by no means undervalued, and had it fallen to an accustomed pen, there would have been little chanceffor hesitation. It is certainly true that the writer's relations to the regent are such as to excite a desire to comply, but even a sense of this friendly partiality serves to implant a tinge of diffidence. But nothing being now left but submission, we may come directly to the subject. ' The purpose of this paper is to present a brief memoir of Honorable Levi Lewis Barbour. His father, John Barbour, and his mother, Betsy Morton Bar- bour, were residents of Monroe, in this State, in 1840, and their son was born there in that year. The father though a life-long sufferer from ill health, was a man of vigorous sense, marked business capacity and most winning manners. He had too, a fine sense of humor. He was frequently chosen to offices of trust, and in 1846 sat in the legislature through the session rendered memorable by the sale of our railroads and the adoption of the last revision of our stat- utes. He died in Detroit. The mother, now a venerable woman, is residing with her son. Notwithstanding the infirmities which age has brought to a frame never robust, her mind is as clear and her heart as tender and as much alive to sympathy and charity as in the morning of her life, and this is saying much. Born with an admirable understanding and blessed with many love- able qualities, she has lived an example of the noblest type of American womanhood. Surely our expectations would be strangely disappointed were the son of such parents to go through life without making society thankful for his having lived. In 1841 the family removed to the vicinity of Battle Creek, and in 1843 the writer first saw the future regent. He was then in petticoats, and his father brought him into church in his arms. His appearance at the time is distinctly remembered, and the circumstance is not forgotten .that the solem-

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f-v RECENT LEVI LEWIS BARBOUR

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nities of the surroundings were not quite sufficient to awe him into silence. He volunteered to assist the service and proceeded to reinforce the choir. Our noble school system during many tedious years was rather a scheme upon paper than an actuality, and the splendid advantages now so bounte- ously held out to Michigan's youth had no existence in the early years of Mr. Barbour. There were some rude beginnings scattered here and there, and occasional germs of sectarian foundations. The great University was slowly emerging like the domes and pillars of a coral island, and it remained for our early educators to appropriate the parts as they happened to appear, and be thankful for so great a boon. The want of public accommodations was so common that recourse was often necessary to private or select schools, as they were called, and a course of preparation for the university meant a H rough and tumble hunt for sufficient learning to insure the student a wel- come by a body of learned men at Ann Arbor, who were expected to supply a university education without buildings or books or instruments or money. Shortly before the close of the first half of the century, a new spirit seemed to appear. The cause of education, which had well nigh slumbered for a time, suddenly revived, and everywhere a general uprising was visible in favor of schools and improved educational plans. This fresh impulse, so exhilarating in its effects in other places, did not fail to reach Ann Arbor. The signs of new life and rapid transformation were everywhere. But time was needed, and the rapidity of the progress varied. Some places went fast and some lagged behind. It was part of the experience of Mr. Barbour to be in the current when the shoals had only begun to disappear. In making the most of l1is opportunities he boxed the compass at Battle Creek and then passed one winter at the Kalamazoo College. During intervals he recited to private persons among his friends, and at one time had much assistance from I-Ion. George Willard. This vagrant method having been carried as far as was deemed wise, he sought admission to the University and was allowed to enter. Such had been his diligence under difficulties that his right was unquestioned. This was in the fall of 1859. The great institution had made mighty strides in the few years subsequent to the revival. He continued until 1863 and then graduated in the literary department. Having previously determined to adopt the law as a profession, and allured by the fame of the great masters who had already lifted their branch of the University to national renown, he proceeded to enter