A neighbor who survived to a great age also told a story of Dr. Gray’s boyhood, which he said he had from Dr. Gray’s father:—
One day he had been set to hoe a certain amount of corn, and his father found him reading instead of at his work. He gave him his choice, to finish his task and then read comfortably, or to sit there in the field all day in the hot sun, which one knows is no pleasant thing in August, and read. He chose the reading, and his father said then, “I made up my mind he might make something of a scholar, but he would never make a farmer!” And so his farther education was decided.
[11] Asa Gray was the eldest of eight children, three sisters and four brothers, of whom there survive two sisters and two brothers.
[12] Dr. Gray visited Fairfield again in the summer of 1860 or 1861. He pointed out his old room, and told about some of the pranks he and his room-mate Eli Avery had played there as boys, especially once when they barred their room, escaped through the window by clambering down a rope, and then enjoyed the efforts of the master to break the door down. Oddly enough there was then a fresh panel in the door, as if a later generation had tried the same trick. There were a great many stories told of his exploits as a boy. But he said everything had been fathered upon him, and that few were really true. He was no doubt restless and active, and learning quickly and easily would have leisure for some mischief, but he said, “I always learned my lessons.” He loved to recall the long rambles through the woods on Saturday holidays, and how in early spring he and his companions would climb to a lookout and see where columns of smoke could be seen above the trees, and so aim for the spot where they were making maple sugar. There they would beg a little syrup, and, boiling it down over their own fire and cooling it on snow, make a candy more delicious than any confectionery of after life. He remembered how he trained himself to know the trees by their bark as he ran through the woods, without looking up at the leaves, having then the keen power of observation though no especial interest in botany. For, as he always said, his first fancy was for mineralogy rather than for botany.
And he told how when he was a medical student, as so many about him were smoking, he tried it too; it made him very sick at first, and took him some time to get accustomed to it. At last, as he sat one evening before the fire and smoked, he said to himself, “Really, I am beginning to like it. It will become a habit; I shall be dependent upon it.” And so he threw his cigar into the fire and gave up smoking entirely.
[13] In later life the novels were always saved for long journeys. The novel of the day was picked out, and one pleasure of a long day’s ride in the train was to sit by his side and enjoy his pleasure at the good things. The glee and delight with which he read Hawthorne, especially the Wonder-Book and Tanglewood Tales, make days to remember. So he read George Eliot, and Adam Bede carried him happily through a fit of the toothache. Scott always remained the prime favorite, and his last day of reading, when the final illness was stealing so unexpectedly and insidiously on, was spent over The Monastery, which he had been planning to read on his homeward voyage in 1887.
[14] It was established as a college in 1812, having existed as a school in the academy since 1809. There were then only five others in the United Stated: Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Dartmouth, and Baltimore. The war of 1812 with Great Britain made a demand for army surgeons along the frontier, and New York and Boston were too far to send the young men to be educated. Dr. Hadley was professor in the literary academy, and Dr. Willoughby, who had a wide medical reputation, was also in Fairfield. They planned a medical college, and applied to the legislature for aid; the sum of $5,000 was granted, and later, in 1812, $10,000. The first Faculty was organized by the Board of Regents of the New York State University, which had control of the educational institutions in the State. It grew rapidly in favor, and soon outnumbered the schools of the large cities. In 1820 the school had one hundred students, and increased to two hundred and seventeen later, and was the largest medical school in the country, except the one at Philadelphia. After the Albany and Geneva medical schools were established, it was seen there was no need of three so near together, and Fairfield Medical College was discontinued in 1840. In the list of graduates of Fairfield Academy were Albert Barnes, the noted expositor, General Halleck, of the United States Army, and James Hadley, professor of Greek at Yale and the distinguished linguist. In the records of the academy it is stated that “Asa Gray entered Fairfield Academy in the fall of 1825, and at the second weekly meeting joined the Calliopean Society of the institute. His handwriting on the register is still preserved, as well as all his doings as a boy while here, since he entered at an early age, being in fact much younger than the majority of the students.” He graduated from the medical college January 25, 1831 in a class of forty-four. His rank was seventeen in the class on graduation. The subject of his thesis was “Gastritis.” Two old catalogues are preserved at Fairfield. In the first there is the programme of studies at the academy for the year 1826; the other, dating January, 1832, contains a list of the professors of the medical college, the cost of instruction, and the outlines of two courses of lectures. One of them was given by Dr. Mather, who was a fellow student of Asa Gray’s, and who still, at over eighty, retains a lively recollection of the eager, active young man whom his friends already thought would make his mark in the world; the other by Dr. Gray himself. This was one of the first courses of lectures which he delivered. The ticket-fee was four dollars. He kept through life a certain love for medicine and surgery, and a lively interest in its science and progress. These old studies and the country practice he had with the physician who was always his good friend, Dr. Trowbridge, often served him on his journeys, when a regular practitioner was not within easy reach.
[15] Amos Eaton, 1776-1842. Graduated from Williams in 1799. Teacher, lecturer, and author of Manual of the Botany of North America, as well as of many reports on geological surveys.
[16] College catalogue of Fairfield, 1830-31.
[17] Lewis C. Beck, 1798-1853; professor in Albany Academy; author of Botany of the United States North of Virginia.