EDWARD MINER GALLAUDET
GALLAUDET, EDWARD MINER. As an educator of a class of persons for whom the reception of ideas presents almost insuperable difficulties, Edward Miner Gallaudet, president of Gaulladet college, the only college for deaf-mutes in the world, has shown remarkable gifts and powers. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, February 5, 1837. His father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a clergyman and educator, was the first principal and founder of the American School for the Deaf in that city, and was especially remarkable for his ability as a teacher of youth and for the power to influence men. His mother, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, had a noble and elevating influence over her son. Pierre Elisée Gallaudet, a physician and one of the founders of New Rochelle, New York, and Noah Fowler, his mother's grandfather, a colonel in the Continental army, as well as the Reverend Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of Hartford and Connecticut, were among the more distinguished of his ancestry. While still a boy he showed much mechanical aptitude, constructing an electrical machine, and enjoying the use of tools. He was fond of keeping birds, fowls and rabbits. His health was vigorous; and he entered into the pursuits of his time of life with heartiness and pleasure. His home was in Hartford, with occasional visits to the country. By the death of his father when he was fourteen, he was left quite dependent on himself. He took a clerkship in a bank, which he held for three years, saving some money. He then entered Trinity college, Hartford, and was graduated as Bachelor of Science in 1856. His preparation for college had been made under his father's teaching and that of an older sister, up to the age of eleven years, when he had entered the Hartford high school, from which he was graduated in 1851. He received the degree of LL.D. from Trinity college in 1869, and from Yale in 1895. From 1855 to 1857, he was engaged in teaching in the American School for the Deaf at Hartford. He organized in 1857, the "Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb," at Washington, District of Columbia, and under his direction Gallaudet college for the Deaf
