Ralph Goodrich writes from Hobart College

Augusta Goodrich's younger brother Ralph attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, from 1855 to 1858. These two letters were written from Ralph to his sister Augusta near the close of his Junior year and near the beginning of his Senior year at Hobart. Also included is a composition written during his senior year. A biographical sketch of Ralph Leland Goodrich appears in the footnote below. The pictures were provided by the Archives Department of the Warren Hunting Smith Library, Hobart & William Colleges, and were presumably taken during his college years. It is interesting to note that at the outbreak of the Civil War, Ralph initially joined the confederate army, serving in Company A of the 6th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.

Ralph Leland Goodrich, ca. 1856-1858
AV/Media Services Dept., Hobart & Smith Colleges
(click on pictures to enlarge)

I have intended to answer your letters written more than a year ago and a few straggling ones this year, but I have put it off from time until now & I resolved to write you before I did to every one else. I have been rather busy this year, too busy I think for my health. I have not very good health now and am sick with a bad cold and since the warm weather is coming on, I hope to be well.

I have not heard from home yet whether they have received a letter from you this term or not, but I suppose they have and forgotten to say anything about it. It is very pleasant here, not when it is warm which is very seldom. The trees leaved out in less than a week and everything is coming in very rapidly. They were planting corn and sewing grain the last of May and first of June. I try to enjoy myself here as much as I can and probably will succeed. Every few days we have boat rides and the like for exercise and it is very good and invigorating exercise. The lake [1] opposite the College is about two miles wide, and we have got so we can row over and back again with two or three in, and rowing in about three quarters of an hour. The seniors were out rowing one day and they came up to a dock where the water was about twenty feet deep and one of them trying to show us expertness was going to leap upon the dock, and instead leaped into the water and the rest had the pleasure of pulling him out.

I am now in my third term Junior course but a little more than one year is left. It seems but a short time ago when I entered [college here] and I can hardly realize that I have been within the walls of my “alma mater” almost two years. We have a very good and pleasant course of studies this term. We read Greek and Latin this term and will be the cost in our course. We have a Play of Aechylus and Cicero’s Philosophical works, Astronomy, Paley’s Evidences of Christianity and Cousin’s Psychology. We do not have Hebrew in this course, but German, French as the regular course, and Spanish and Italian if any one chooses to study them. I think I shall study Spanish or Italian during my senior year. Do you think it would be advantageous? I am going to try to study Civil Engineering also.

I read some time ago about a college about to be created in Kansas.[2] How soon will it go into operation? I suppose it is already under control of the Methodist denomination. Are they going to establish any others? A disagreeable circumstance has happened that I fear will injure this college some. The whole Sophomore Class was suspended about four weeks after the beginning of this term indefinitely, and which amounted to almost expulsion. Their recital door was locked and their prof[essor] wanted them to recite standing up in a small hall hardly large enough to turn around in – they consequently refused. The faculty had no right to compel the students to recite in the hall when their recitation room doors are locked. If it is proved that the class locked the door, they are fined and the matter goes no farther. But the Prof[essor], by the way a dutchman, laid the matter before the faculty and said that he had been insulted by them and especially by four who were the first to run. The Prof[essor] refused to hear the class until the matter was adjusted. The faculty was compelled to take it up and accordingly they suspended the four [students] for four weeks for disobeying college rules. This was so irregular and so far beyond their power the whole [Sophomore class] asked to be suspended also for they had done nothing more than the others. They removed here about two weeks and the faculty did not know what to do, and sent them all home saying that the four could come back when the four weeks were up and the rest when they handed in an apology. But they say that they will never hand in an apology and the four say that they will not come back unless the others can come also without giving an apology. Thus it amounts to expulsion. Several have asked for dismissal but the faculty will not give it and all of them with the exception of one or two who did not intend to go through college think of going to Union [College] next term.

There were about a hundred students at the time; more than have ever been here. A great many who have been at other colleges, and leading men too, say that the reason this college does not prosper as well as it ought is that the faculty search out and find the offender and punish him with suspension and very often with expulsion for any little offense which would be overlooked on other colleges. This morning the Class was to leave a black flag half masted not seen on the Chapel Cross. The night before, when it was put up, was very stormy and whoever put it up must have had a hard time of it.

Have you received a schedule of our Junior Exhibition? They all say that it passed off very well. When do you intend to make us a visit? I hope it will be the summer I will be graduated. Uncle advises me to study Civil Engineering and thinks it will be good business until I can get enough to land his account. What do you think of the plan?

I purchased a Latin [book] for brother James Griffing and sent it home for them to send in a bundle. Last vacation they had not yet an opportunity to send it. Do you think you can get it through the P. Office safe? I wish you would write to me soon and I will try to answer it. Hoping that you are well.

Please excuse mistakes and bad writing. A senior is in my room learning to play on the violin and makes awful work.

I received your kind letter at the beginning of this term. It did not come until I had started for Owego. Still it was pleasant and agreeable to find a letter for me so soon after my arrival. It was just at such a time when I am particularly fond of receiving a letter from home or any of our family. My health was very poor when I left college, but by hard toil in the hay and harvest’s fields I have, I think, recovered all that I had lost. So far this term we have had an extraordinarily easy time as all seniors generally do have, and I try to employ myself in other studies during my leisure hours as well as I can. I generally find enough to do, for there are good libraries here though not very extensive.

Thursday, September 10th was the day for a regatta on Seneca Lake. Of course we all attended as it was something new, having before got excused from the recitations of the day. I procured a Latin Dictionary from a student when James wrote several months ago, and Ma wrote to me to send it home so she could put it in a package, which she intended to send [to you] when she had a chance. But I found them at home this last vacation, of little use to you there. I think they will have a chance to send them this fall – at least I hope so.

The last letter I received from home, they wrote that they had received a letter from [our] brother James and he said that he did not intend to come home to get a housekeeper by no means. What does he intend to marry? One of those “Potawatomies” or whatever barbarian name you call them [there in Kansas Territory]. I suppose their beauty has captivated him. Does he think of returning home [to Owego] very soon? About myself going to Kansas after I graduate, very soon after, I cannot say. But I think it is very doubtful. Uncle said last summer that he would advise me to get a situation in some good law office and study with a lawyer of good standing, that is, if I intend to study law which he advises me to do rather than anything else. In all probability I shall if I can get a good place, after that, if I can, I may possibly go west.

In October, I plan to go to Cato [New York] to see our friends there. Our folks want me to go very much and they believe that we’ll have a pleasant visit. It will be an easy matter to make up the lost recitations. Most of them will be lectures on chemistry. Dr. [Benjamin] Hale [1797-1863], the President [of the College], has been very unwell so far this term and nearly all of last vacation. He has now the brain fever and we have to make as little noise as we can. It was thought at the beginning of the term that he would be able to attend the recitations in a week or two, and it is doubtful whether he recovers. If he should die now, it would be a sore loss to the College. It would be impossible to obtain another man to fill his place as well as he has.

The season was very backward and it took us almost the whole vacation to finish the summer work, and managed to keep well and work most of the time. A year ago I had a felon on my hand covered by a blister, which laid me up for a week or two. A great many in college think it is degrading to labor, on their studies and especially on a farm. I hope I shall never learn by any kind of philosophy to despise work though I do not particularly desire farming. I rather have work of a different character [in mind].

The poor freshmen have to go through their regular course of studies, with another course of “ducklings,” “smoking out” and all kinds of training administered by the hands of the sophomores, free, for nothing. One freshman named Rising, nicknamed “Emptings” got a whole pail of water thrown on [him] through his window as he was preparing to go to bed. I shall write soon to [our] brother James as I believe I owe him a letter. When you see him, please tell him to write to me and also give my love to him. Write soon and believe me your ever affectionate brother, -- Ralph L. Goodrich

The following composition on the subject of Napoleon Bonaparte's death was written by Ralph Goodrich and delivered in Medical College Hall on October 7, 1857.

Death had unfolded its sable wings over the couch of a dying man in that lonely, storm beaten isle. The sun had set beneath the dark waters of the West, and night which saddens the heart in the presence of the dying, bespoke the eternal sleep to which the warrior was fast approaching. The surging billows beat with sullen mournful sound against the rock bound shore. The thickening clouds and the solemn will of the elements proclaimed the fury of the storm to come. The darkness and the wind increased and cast over the isle an impenetrable gloom. The ocean fiend was awakened in mockery of the storm within. The roar without struck fearfully on the ears of the weeping watchers and rang like a death knell on the soul of the restless prisoner. Phantoms were beckoning him to the spirit land. No siren mystic echoed on his soul as if alluring it away. No woman’s voice which he had heard enraptured in the glittering galaxy of kings again rang on his soul. He who with more than earthly affection had clung to him in glory and in shame had gone to her eternal rest. While the ignoble offspring of the Caesars’ gloated in his triumphs and splendors, spurned and forsook him in the desolate isle, she was in the gay circles in the home of her fathers. But the name of her whose eternal love he had inspired, his friend when others forsook him lingered on the dying man’s lips. Though ambition and power were his gods at whose glittering shrines he paid abject homage, yet memory brought up the joys of the past with that being whose image was with him in death. In that far off isle of the ocean amid a night of gloom and storm the spirit of Napoleon passed to the Great Tribunal.

The child of destiny was no more. The conqueror, the hero, who spurned the banded powers of Europe was no more. No imperial splendors which he had erected followed him to the grave. His companions in arms, the heroes of a thousand battles, of Russian disasters gave no token over the tomb of him they loved. A few faithful friends followed him to the narrow house, to moulder in a land of enemies, far away from his country he had loved so well. Many of his companions in arms, the heroes of Egypt, of Palestine, Marengo, Austerlitz, Eylau and Craonne had fallen by the foes he had raised. The warrior who had survived the malaria of Egypt, the ice and storms of Russia, who had worn the diadems of the greatest empire in the world, was left to a lingering death in the bleached rocks of the Atlantic. How solemn the contrast, the terror of Europe, the wonder of the world in the pangs of death amid the angry storm without. His had been a life of storm and gloom. They were with him even in death. His was a life of splendor and power; the darkness of sleep without dreams was before him. He was dying the death of a prisoner, a storm of 200 raging within. Five years before he had bid farewell to his country which he had made the gem and the wonder of earth to sink into decay. Sighing for the veterans who wasted away in strife and with storms, he dropped a tear over their memory bank and green in the hearts of his people. Thy war chariot rolled over the enameled plains of the east, on the flowery banks of the Rhine, the field of Waterloo leaving behind desolation and death, the flowers still grow in the valleys, the violet and lily still bloom on the Seine. No brother, no wife nor son followed him to the grave. No dirge of a mourning nation echoes over the isle. The wild sea birds cry and the mournful murmurs of the surge are the only music which mingle with the storm. Death had dispelled a dream more glorious than mortals had ever known before. Tears have rolled away and he now slumbers on the banks of the Seine among the people he had loved so well. “His body is buried in peace but his name liveth ever more.”

Hobart College
October 7, 1857
Spoken Wednesday afternoon in Medical College Hall.

[1] Lake Seneca.

[2] Referring to either Baker University in Baldwin or Bluemont College in Manhattan.

[3] Ralph Leland Goodrich, lawyer and philologist, was born in Owego, N. Y., Aug. 27, 1840, second son of Silas and Mary Ann Goodrich. The family is an old and honorable one in England, as evidenced by the coat of arms granted to Nicholas Goodrich of Devonshire in 1610, and brought to America by his son William in 1643. William Goodrich settled in Wethersfield, Conn., and was the ancestor of the family in this country. So far as is known, most of the family were Tories in the revolution. Capt. Eliakim Goodrich, grandfather of our subject, removed from Glastonbury, Conn., to Tioga County, N. Y., in 1799, and with his cousin, Judge Noah Goodrich, purchased 3,000 acres of land. Silas Goodrich, father of our subject, fought in the war of 1812; and in 1828 was married to his fourth cousin Mary Ann Goodrich of Glastonbury, Conn. The son was educated at Owego Academy under the preceptorship of Prof. William Smyth, a graduate of Belfast University. He subsequently entered Hobart College, where he was graduated in 1858, afterward taking up the study of law. In 1859 he removed to South Carolina, and for some time taught the languages in an academy at Camden. He traveled extensively in the Southern states, and wrote many articles for the periodical press on the scenery and people of the region. At the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted as a private in the Confederate service, but toward the close of the war was offered the commission of captain of engineers in the Federal army. In 1866 he accepted a deputy clerkship in the U. S. courts at Little Rock, and in 1873 was appointed clerk of both the U. S. circuit and district courts, which important and responsible position he still holds, being known as one of the most efficient, attentive, and accurate officers in the department of justice. He possesses rare scholarly attainments; is conversant with German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and is well read in the literature of each. In 1879 he took up the study of the Sanskrit language, without other assistance than occasional correspondence with Prof. C. R. Lanman, of Harvard University. In a few years he became a proficient Sanskrit scholar, and has published several excellent translations from the Vedas, and sundry studies in philosophy, mythology, and ancient religions. He has acquired a fine library of over 6,000 volumes on his favorite subjects, and is constantly making additions. Recognized as a learned linguist, he enjoys the particular distinction of being almost wholly self-educated in the advanced researches he has made, in the midst of a busy career. In the world of letters, he has won prominent recognition by membership in the Pali Text Society of England, the American Oriental Society, and the American Philological Society. He is a 33d degree Mason, and has contributed to the literature of the order. He is well known in literary and social circles in Little Rock. He is a democrat in politics, and in religious faith an Episcopalian. He was married, Aug. 8, 1875, to Dora E., daughter of Hiram A. Beebe, of Owego, N. Y. They have one child. Source: National Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 7, p. 363