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

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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

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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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the iLaw Department. !iJThisUwasI'in the autumn of 1863, and though still .,..-,, ,..,, ,,..,,,,,,,..,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,, ,, engaged in the course, he was given admission to the bar in 1864 by the Washtenaw Circuit Court. In the spring of 1865 he received his diploma at the hands of Thomas McIntyre Cooley. In May of the same year he married Miss Harriet E. Hooper of Ann Arbor, a lady not only respected but Cher- ished wherever known. i Very soon after his marriage he went to Europe, intending to stay long enough to take some note of important methods and affairs which were for- eign to him, and to gratify a long felt desire to see with his own eyes some of the wonders and places to which his early reading had lent a perennial inter- est. But this visit was cut short. In about ten months he was called back by the severe illness of his father, and this interruption was protracted until IS76. In that year he again crossed the ocean and remained for over twelve months, and during this sojourn proceeded as far as might be to complete his original design. . After returning he adhered to a resolution long previously adopted to make his home in Detroit, and in due season to go into practice there. Not being ready, however, to set up an independent office, he engaged himself at a salary with Judge Douglas and S. D. Miller, Esq., for about a yearg but when this engagement was terminated he opened an office of his own, which has been continued to the present time. In running over the foregoing incidents and recalling the memories of vanished years, the writer has pleasure in alluding to the fact that whilst Mr. Barbour was keeping his chambers in Ann Arbor he passed some months in the writer's otlice, and busied himself in clearing up difficulties which the lecture-room had not wholly obliterated. The intercourse of that period is recollected with the liveliest satisfaction, and the relish of it was too enjoyable to permit itself to fade away amid the subsequent episodes of life. If the writer felt at liberty to give rein to his own favorable impressions he would take pleasure in saying many things which must at this time remain unspoken, It is due to our friend to withhold now what might at a later time be as per- missible as necessary. But some liberty must be taken now. It was said of the greatest of Americans that Providence made him childless that the people might call him father, and most persons no doubt have seen something deeper than fine sentiment in this exquisite expression, The truest spirits require something- beyond themselves to love and struggle