Laurenus Clark Seelye
President of Smith College (1837-1924)
Laurenus Clark Seelye (September 30, 1837 – October 12, 1924), known as L. Clark Seelye, was the first president of Smith College, serving from 1873 to 1910. He graduated from Union College (NY) in 1857 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and membership in Kappa Alpha Society. Seelye later studied at Andover Theological Seminary and the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. After serving as a Congregational Minister in Springfield, Massachusetts, he became Williston Professor of Rhetoric, Oratory and English Literature at Amherst College, where his brother Julius was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy. Under President Stearns, Amherst College in 1865 had 17 faculty and 203 students. Seelye taught at Amherst from 1865 until his election as President of the newly formed Smith College in nearby Northampton, Massachusetts in 1873.
Family
Seelye was born on September 20, 1837, in Bethel, Connecticut, to Seth Seelye (b Feb 28, 1795; d March 26, 1869) and Abigail (Taylor) Seelye. He is the brother of Julius Hawley Seelye, the fifth president of Amherst College.
Seelye married Henrietta Chapin, daughter of Lyman and Harriet (Sheldon) Chapin, of Albany, on November 17, 1863. They had seven children: Ralph Holland, Harriet Chapin (who would marry Benjamin Rush Rhees) Abigail Taylor, Arthur, Walter Clark, Henrietta, and Bertram.
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