Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/50

 WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS ARRIS, WILLIAM TORREY, educator, philosopher, author and journalist, has been United States Commissioner of Education since September 13, 1889. He was born at North Killingly, Connecticut, September 10, 1835. He is a son of William and Zilpah (Torrey) Harris. His grandfather, Thomas Harris, lived in Scituate, Rhode Island, and he is a descendant of Roger Williams, Lawrence Wilkinson, William Torrey, John Greene and others well known in Connecticut and Rhode Island history. In an article, entitled "How I Was Educated," Commissioner Harris tells the story of the early years of his struggles and triumphs in acquiring knowledge.

"About sixteen years of my early life were spent on a farm in the northeastern part of Connecticut, practically shut in by the woods, and a mile distant from the nearest neighbors. The farm was large and my grandfather employed many laborers, so that we formed a small colony by ourselves. At the age of four I began attending the district school in the traditional 'red school-house,' a mile and a half distant. I suppose I learned to read a little, but remember only my interest in the older boys and girls there. It was a great event to find playmates. The following summer I had learned to read, and I read and reread the pieces (in our school reader) of my own accord at home, until I quite mastered them. After I had learned to read, finding an old Latin grammar about the house, I committed to memory a long list of Latin phrases and sentences with their translations, and gained commendation by repeating them to my uncles and aunts. When I was eight years old I attended also the winter session of the school. The chief text-book was Noah Webster's elementary 'Spelling Book,' which is still sold at the rate of twelve hundred thousand copies per annum. In my days this book was learned from cover to cover. Its influence was great and salutary.

"When I was twelve years old we had a schoolmaster who knew some Latin, and with him I began to study that language. I place before all studies in value in the district school, the reading