The Harvard Register Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...a long period a living link between recent times and a remote past. In the biography this incident is said to have occurred in "one of the college buildings "; but at the time of its occurrence there were only two dormitories in existence, old Stoughton and Massachusetts. The former was taken down in 1780. The window pointed out in 1807 must consequently have been in Massachusetts. I have therefore no hesitation in relating this incident as a part of the history of Massachusetts Hall. Moreover, from the incidents related, it seems to be a necessary inference that the window Was in one of the four corner rooms of the third story. In the night of January 24, 1764, during a violent storm of wind and snow, Massachusetts came near to destruction by the fire that consumed Harvard Hall. The wind "driving the flaming cinders directly upon its roof and that of Stoughton, " they blazed out several times in different places, nor could they have been saved by all the help the town could afford, had it not been for the assistance of the gentlemen of the General Court, among whom his Excellency the Governor was very active; who, notwithstanding the extreme rigor of the season, exerted themselves in supplying the town engine with water, which they were obliged to fetch at last from a distance, two of the college pumps being then rendered useless." This fire occurred during the occupancy of Harvard Hall by the General Court, who had adjourned to Cambridge in consequence of the prevalence of the small-pox in Boston. During the siege of Boston, when Cambridge was occupied by a part of the American army, College was dispersed; the library was first transported to Andover, and then a portion of it brought back to Concord, where a number of students wer...