. 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
Bradford Paul Raymond 
 
 1846-1916 
 
 Wesleyan University 
 Middletown, Conn. 
 
 1916 
 
BRADFORD PAUL RAYMOND 
 
 O radford Paul Raymond, D. D., LL. D., President of 
 Wesleyan University and Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
 1889-1908, Professor of English Bible, 1908-1909, Professor of 
 Ethics and Biblical Literature, Emeritus, 1909-1916, died on 
 Sunday, February 27th, 1916. 
 
 At the vesper service in the chapel that afternoon, the death 
 of Dr. Raymond was announced to the assembly in the follow¬ 
 ing words:— 
 
 “It is my duty to make the sad announcement that 
 Bradford Paul Raymond, ex-President, more recently Pro¬ 
 fessor emeritus in Wesleyan University, died suddenly this 
 afternoon. He attended divine service as usual this forenoon, 
 and was conversing with a friend in his home, and then with 
 scarcely a moment’s warning he passed away from earth. In 
 youth a brave soldier of his country, in all his life a brave 
 soldier of the truth, a faithful and useful pastor, the honored 
 president of two colleges, a man of singular purity of character 
 and sweetness of spirit. ‘ Blessed are the dead that die in the 
 Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 labors, and their works do follow them.’ ” 
 
 On Wednesday, March 1st, the day of the funeral, all 
 college exercises were omitted except the morning chapel 
 service. That service was opened with the following words 
 by President Shanklin:— 
 
 “ Though a memorial service for Dr. Raymond is to be held 
 Sunday afternoon, it is peculiarly fitting that the faculty and 
 undergraduates of Wesleyan University should, as a body, 
 make this recognition of him who was the head of Wesleyan 
 for nineteen years, and whose personal character was one long 
 service to the men of Wesleyan. His life taught Wesleyan 
 men that integrity, the love of truth, and high, unselfish aims, 
 make, for any man in whom they meet, a rich and happy 
 life.” 
 
 3 
 
In the afternoon of that day, the funeral service was held 
 at Dr. Raymond’s home. The funeral services were con¬ 
 ducted by the Reverend William D. Beach, Pastor of the 
 First Methodist Episcopal Church, Professors Winchester and 
 Rice, and the Right Reverend E. Campion Acheson, D. D., 
 Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut. 
 
 On Sunday, March 5th, a Memorial Service in honor of 
 Dr. Raymond, under the auspices of Wesleyan University, 
 was held in the First Methodist Episcopal Church. President 
 Shanklin presided. Prayer was offered by the pastor of the 
 church. Addresses were delivered by Professors Rice and 
 Winchester, Rev. F. Mason North, D. D., who has been for 
 many years a member of the Board of Trustees of the college, 
 and Rev. Azel W. Hazen, pastor of the First Congregational 
 Church of Middletown. In arranging the plan of the memorial 
 service, it was understood that Professor Rice should give a 
 biographical sketch of Dr. Raymond, and that the other 
 speakers should speak of various phases of his character and 
 work as they had appeared to a colleague in the Faculty, to a 
 member of the Board of Trustees, and to a fellow-worker in 
 the civic and religious life of the town. The four addresses 
 are published entire in this pamphlet. 
 
 The profound respect and warm esteem felt for Dr. Raymond 
 by all who had been in any manner associated with him found 
 expression in resolutions adopted by various organizations in 
 college and in town. In this pamphlet are published the 
 resolutions of the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, 
 the Faculty, the College Body, the Wesleyan Chapter of 
 Commons Clubs, the Official Board of the First Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, and the Mansfield Post of the Grand Army 
 of the Republic. 
 
 4 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/dbtails/bradfordpaulraymOOwesl 
 
Address by 
 William North Rice 
 
 Bradford Paul Raymond, son of Lewis and Sallie A. Ray¬ 
 mond, was born in the little village of High Ridge, in Stam¬ 
 ford, Connecticut, April 22, 1846. His life therefore nearly 
 reached the traditional limit of three-score years and ten. 
 The influences of his childhood home revealed themselves in 
 his life and character. His father was a farmer, living on a 
 farm which he had inherited from a former generation. 
 Though possessed of no more than a common school education, 
 he was a man of vigorous and active intellect, the leader of a 
 debating society in which the farmers of that part of the town 
 were accustomed to meet, deeply interested in the affairs of 
 town and state and nation, and influential in local politics. 
 From him the son may well have derived his intense patriotism 
 and his wide outlook upon public affairs. For the influence 
 revealed in the profoundly religious spirit of the son, he was 
 chiefly indebted to his mother. A woman of great religious 
 earnestness, she prayed for her children, and she prayed with 
 them, and her prayers were richly answered. Her husband 
 had been in his early life not altogether in harmony with the 
 teachings of the more conservative Christian denominations, 
 but in his later life he was a member of the Methodist Church 
 and a teacher in the Sunday School. 
 
 Bradford was educated in the district school in High Ridge. 
 The little community supported no high school, but they were 
 fortunate in having some good teachers, who inspired their 
 pupils with a love of learning, and who led them somewhat 
 beyond the curriculum of the ordinary graded school. 
 
 When Bradford was fifteen years old, the controversy in the 
 nation over the slavery question suddenly flamed into war. 
 The farmers of High Ridge had been deeply interested in 
 political questions, and responded loyally when the call to 
 arms sounded on their ears. From almost every house along 
 the village street, one or more of the sons went into the army 
 
 7 
 
of the country. Two of the older brothers of the Raymond 
 family enlisted early in the war. Young Bradford waited 
 impatiently for the years to pass until he should reach the 
 minimum age of military service. When he reached the age 
 of eighteen, he could wait no longer. He left his home and 
 enlisted in the 48th New York regiment. He served in the 
 Fort Fisher campaign, but contracted malarial fever and spent 
 a considerable part of the period of his enlistment in the hos¬ 
 pital. He came home at the end of the war with his health 
 considerably broken, his body still shaking with malarial 
 chills. 
 
 Soon after his return he went to Red Wing, Minnesota, 
 whither an uncle and an older brother had preceded him. 
 Soon after his arrival there he experienced an intense religious 
 awakening. Earlier in life he had had a conviction that he 
 ought to enter the ministry of the gospel, but he was unwilling 
 to do so. In his new experience of religious life he gave him¬ 
 self unreservedly to the service of God. With an enthusiasm 
 like that which had led him into the army of his country, he 
 enlisted in the service of Christ, ready to go wherever he 
 might be sent and to do whatever duty might be assigned to 
 him. From that time until his death, his life was one of con¬ 
 sistent loyalty to Christian principle. 
 
 With his new outlook upon life he felt the need of a larger 
 education. About a dozen years before, a little college had 
 been established in Red Wing under the name of Hamline 
 University. In 1869 the institution lapsed into a state of sus¬ 
 pended animation. Subsequently it renewed its life in Saint 
 Paul. Young Raymond somehow acquired some sort of 
 preparation for college, entered Hamline University in 1866, 
 and remained in the institution until it closed its doors in 
 1869. During the last year of its existence in Red Wing, the 
 college was kept running largely by the efforts of Raymond 
 and another student, who persuaded instructors and students 
 to hold on till the close of the year, and begged money to pro¬ 
 vide for current expenses. Thus he served early an appren¬ 
 ticeship for the duties of a college president. 
 
 The life at Red Wing in still another way profoundly in¬ 
 fluenced the future career of young Raymond, for it was there 
 that he met Miss Uulu A. Rich, who was destined to be the 
 
 8 
 
light of his life and the mistress of his home for more than 
 two-score years. 
 
 When the college at Red Wing closed its doors, Raymond 
 went to Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, where he 
 completed the college course in 1870. The next three years 
 were spent in the School of Theology of Boston University. 
 There he became profoundly interested in the study of phil¬ 
 osophy, particularly in its relation to religion. 
 
 The seven years following his graduation from the School 
 of Theology were spent in the pastorate in New Bedford, 
 Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. Then came a 
 year in Germany, devoted to his favorite studies in philosophy 
 and theology. Returning from Europe, Raymond spent two 
 years more in the pastorate in Nashua, New Hampshire. In 
 all the churches that he served, he was greatly beloved. His 
 sermons were scholarly, thoughtful, spiritual; his kindness and 
 genial sympathy endeared him to his people as a friend and 
 counsellor. 
 
 In 1883 Dr. Raymond left the pastorate and entered upon 
 what was destined to be the main work of his life—the work 
 of college education. From 1883 to 1889 he was President of 
 Lawrence University, his alma mater. The high success 
 which he gained there as administrator and as teacher com¬ 
 mended him to the favorable attention of the trustees of Wes¬ 
 leyan University. November 19, 1888, Dr. Raymond was 
 elected President and Professor of Moral Philosophy in Wes¬ 
 leyan University, and he entered upon his duties in Wesleyan 
 at the beginning of the following college year. He held that 
 position in Wesleyan University until 1908. 
 
 The nineteen years of his presidency in Wesleyan were years 
 in which important progress was made in various phases of the 
 life of the college. Old South College reconstructed to serve as 
 an administrative building, the new North College which rose 
 from the ashes of the old one, the Scott Physical Laboratory 
 and Willbur Fisk Hall, the P'ayerweather Gymnasium, the 
 president’s mansion, the Andrus athletic field—are visible monu¬ 
 ments of the progress made in the material equipment of the 
 college during his administration. In 1889 the land and build¬ 
 ings of the college were valued at $400,000. In 1908 they 
 were valued at $885,362, and in addition $46,136 was invested 
 
 9 
 
as a fund to be used, when the proper time should come, in 
 the building of an astronomical observatory. The library, 
 museum, apparatus, and other personal property employed in 
 the uses of the college increased in value from $109,630 to 
 $197,643. The endowment in 1889 was $698,556; in 1908, 
 $1,460,783. 
 
 The value alike of the plant and of the endowment was more 
 than doubled. In the first year of Dr. Raymond’s administra¬ 
 tion the faculty numbered 19 and the student body 218. In 
 the last year the facult3^ numbered 35 and the student body 
 316. The increase in numbers of faculty and students was 
 respectively 84 and 45 per cent. 
 
 The great change in the life of the college from the old 
 system of fixed curriculum and narrow pedagogic methods and 
 faculty surveillance, to the freer modern life of elective studies 
 and individual laboratory work and student responsibility, had 
 taken place sixteen years before the advent of Dr. Raymond 
 at Wesleyan. He was profoundly in sympathy with the new 
 Wesleyan to whose presidency he was called. Important 
 changes made during his administration carried to a fuller 
 realization the ideals of the great reform of 1873. 
 
 The honor system in examinations took the place of faculty 
 espionage. Alas! We have not reached the millennium, but 
 no one of us in faculty or student body wants to go back to the 
 old system. A Committee of Conference was established, 
 including representatives of faculty and students, a committee 
 of which the undergraduate members form the College Senate. 
 The Faculty have not forgotten, and will not forget, that the 
 constitution of the college imposes upon them the responsibility 
 of government, and they have no disposition to abdicate; but 
 the better understanding which has come from the frank and 
 friendly discussions in the committee of conference, and the 
 stronger sense of responsibility which has been created in the 
 minds of the students as the result of the measure of self- 
 government with which they have been intrusted, have been 
 profoundly wholesome in the recent life of the college. 
 
 The greatest change which has been made in the curriculum 
 at am^ time since 1873 came just at the close of Dr. Raymond’s 
 administration. In the new curriculum the principle of elec¬ 
 tion is carried farther than ever before in this college. The 
 
 10 
 
only studies absolutely required for a baccalaureate degree are 
 algebra, geometry, rhetoric, and English composition. All 
 else is elective, and a student may become a Bachelor of Arts 
 without Greek and without any mathematics beyond algebra 
 and geometry. Yet this by no means implies that a student is 
 left to drift without any guidance. Excessive specialization 
 is prevented, not by the requirement of a considerable list of 
 specifically required studies, but by the group system, which 
 requires a student to elect a certain number of courses in each 
 of the great departments of human thought. The opposite 
 tendency to the dissipation of a student’s time in a multitude 
 of elementary courses without any advanced work, is counter¬ 
 acted by the system of major studies. 
 
 The men who in 1831 founded Wesleyan University were 
 profoundly religious men, and were not ashamed to be known 
 as Methodists. Their loyalty to Methodism found expression in 
 the very unfortunate name which was given to the institution. 
 But with all their denominational zeal they showed a spirit of 
 true liberality in the provision in the charter “ that no by-laws 
 or ordinances shall be established by said corporation, which 
 shall make the religious tenets of any person a condition of 
 admission to any privilege in said university; and that no 
 president, professor or other officer shall be made ineligible for 
 or by reason of any religious tenets that he may profess, nor 
 be compelled by any by-laws or otherwise to subscribe to any 
 religious test whatever.” Unfortunately, in 1870 a narrow 
 and reactionary spirit influenced the trustees of the college, 
 and a new charter was secured which provided ‘ ‘ that at all 
 times the majority of the Trustees, the President and a 
 majority of the Faculty shall be members of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church.” The close of Dr. Raymond’s administra¬ 
 tion was signalized by the adoption in 1907 of a new charter, 
 which abolished the denominational restriction imposed by the 
 charter of 1870, and provided “that no denominational test 
 shall be imposed in the choice of trustees, officers, or teachers, 
 or in the admission of students.” 
 
 During all his administration as President, Dr. Raymond 
 was also Professor of Moral Philosophy. The studies which 
 he taught, though varying somewhat from year to year, were 
 in general such studies as are now included in the department 
 of Ethics and Religion. His work in the class room was felt 
 
by many students as a profound moral and religious inspira¬ 
 tion. His mind was hospitable to the new truth which modern 
 science and criticism have discovered, but he taught ever in 
 the spirit of one to whom Christian faith is not a theory but 
 a life. And alike in teaching and in administration, the 
 purity of his character, his transparent frankness, and his 
 kindliness of spirit made him a benediction to the students 
 who came under his influence. His relation with his colleagues 
 in the Faculty was that of loving comradeship. 
 
 In 1907 Dr. Raymond offered his resignation of the presid¬ 
 ency, to take effect a year later. It was arranged that he 
 should remain as professor, and he looked forward to what he 
 hoped might be the happiest and most richly useful period of 
 his life. Relieved of the cares and perplexities of administra¬ 
 tion, he hoped to devote himself to investigation and teaching 
 in those studies in which from his student days he had been 
 profoundly interested. But his hope was disappointed. Instead 
 of recover)’ of health and vigor, the years brought only increas¬ 
 ing weakness. In 1908 Professor Raymond was granted leave 
 of absence, and a year later it became obvious that there was 
 no hope of such improvement of his health as would enable 
 him to do systematic work as a teacher. In 1909, therefore, 
 he became professor emeritus, and that was his relation to the 
 college until the time of his death. 
 
 In these years of retirement, Dr. Raymond’s patience under 
 limitations, and his purity, unselfishness, and gentleness, have 
 deepened the love with which his friends have regarded him. 
 He has seen the college that he loved advancing under other 
 guidance to a larger prosperity; he has seen his old colleagues 
 doing that work of investigation and of teaching in which he 
 had hoped to share. But he has trodden his narrow path 
 without envy and without repining. When for the last time 
 he stood in this pulpit, and spoke of that great hope of immor¬ 
 tality to which saints and seers and bards have borne witness, 
 and to which the risen Lord gave strong assurance, we knew 
 not how thin was the veil between him and the glories of the 
 life eternal. The light of the other world shone through and 
 illumined his spirit. One week ago he joined in the worship 
 of this church, and then in a moment he joined in the holier 
 worship of the church triumphant in heaven. “He walked 
 with God, and he was not, for God took him.” 
 
 12 
 
Address by 
 Frank Mason North 
 
 One must speak to-day in this presence in terms of the 
 heart. When the appraisal of character is made—the care¬ 
 fully balanced summary of the qualities which made Bradford 
 Paul Raymond what he was, and the judicial valuation of the 
 services which gave him his place among the potent workers 
 and constructive thinkers of his generation,—his name will be 
 starred for High Honors, the magna ciim laude , in the record 
 both of this University and of the Church. 
 
 But now we are thinking of our friend as, in and out among 
 us, he moved in home and church, in town and college. We 
 recall him in the relaxations of familiar fellowship, in the 
 sorrows, anxieties, the ministrations and delights of his ever 
 hospitable family circle, in the tests, the stimulation and the 
 humors of travel, in the play of repartee and the strain of 
 serious discussion, in the sobering responsibilities and per¬ 
 plexities of official administration, in the mental and spiritual 
 processes of platform and pulpit address, in the sacred intim¬ 
 acies of personal confidences, in the days of shadow and dread 
 when suspicion of the arrest of physical effectiveness hardened 
 into certainty, when the test, than which life brings scarce 
 any more exacting—the forced exchange of the ardor of the 
 advance for the quiet waiting for a foreseen and inevitable 
 end,—had come to him. 
 
 What drew us to him and held us as by hooks of steel ? 
 What gave us great contentment and refreshing in his friend¬ 
 ship ? 
 
 Perhaps, primarily, that he was jiatural. He was not indif¬ 
 ferent to the etiquette of life, but he could not be persuaded 
 to make the mode of things a main objective. He was quite 
 content without sash and epaulets, though he was found a 
 good soldier when he was scarcely more than a boy. It was 
 with amused reluctance that he yielded to the modern demands 
 for scholastic robing. He delighted in plain dealing and simple 
 
 i3 
 
ways. He was at home in high company and equally at home 
 with children or with the man of the street. His native dig¬ 
 nity set natural bounds to encroachment, but he was not 
 infrequently amused to find himself distinguished. He ever 
 felt upon his face the breath of his native hills. He was 
 reverent towards nature, and found a joy in the companionship 
 of the beings of every kind which God had made and in the 
 wonders of a world which to him was the work of his Almighty 
 Father. 
 
 Then, he was genuine. He could neither simulate nor 
 dissimulate. Imitation and pretense were alike foreign to his 
 nature. He was devoted to his books, and in the busy occu¬ 
 pations of his official life mourned aloud and often that he 
 could find so little time for these trusted friends of all the 
 ages. But he did his own thinking. It was a delight to 
 watch him in public address unfold, illustrate, and bring to 
 fruition a theme or a thought. He was genuine in his affec¬ 
 tions and his friendships. His conscience was not pampered. 
 His moral perceptions were without embarrassing hesitancies. 
 He was tolerant of others, both as to their thinking and their 
 defects of conduct. But he promptly recognized a sham, 
 whether it wore clothes and walked about, or took to type and 
 had itself bound in cloth or morocco. His genuineness kept 
 him from some successes and won for him many victories. 
 
 He was unselfish. He had a self, strong, ardent, patient, 
 purposeful. His achievement in life owed less to aptness of 
 circumstance than to strength of will. He aimed to do things 
 and to do them well. He was not softly indifferent to excel¬ 
 lence and success. To him life meant action,—action on his 
 own part, the interaction with forces and persons toward the 
 attainment of noble ends. He had high ambitions for the 
 University. Stones in its broader foundations were laid firm 
 and true by his industry and skill. Whatever there was either 
 within him or at his command he invested in this college, and 
 the investment will yield large dividends as long as the college 
 stands. 
 
 He had a self. He was a self. He was individual. He was 
 a strong personality. But he was rarely, if ever, self-conscious. 
 He was not self-centered. No one ever thought of him as a 
 self-seeker. He was intensely human in his interpretation of 
 
 H 
 
life and in his sympathies. His was a broad conception of the 
 significance of the Kingdom of God. To it, in his thinking, 
 belonged all learning, all industrial conditions, all social pro¬ 
 gress. He reckoned with himself as one of God’s men, whose 
 business in the world is not with themselves but with God’s 
 Kingdom. “ The Kingdom of God and His righteousness ”— 
 these, this man, this fine friend of ours, sought first. Selfish¬ 
 ness shrivels under the flame of such holy enthusiasm for 
 God’s will and God’s world. In men so controlled, it is 
 impossible that their ambitions shall coerce their ethics or that 
 their conduct shall be determined by sinister aims. God is in 
 all their thoughts and their life is the expression of His will. 
 
 Since the day when the hand of God touched his bonds and 
 released Bradford Paul Raymond for the free, open life he 
 loved, I have listened while one and another who knew him 
 well have spoken of him. It has all been in the language of 
 the heart. For myself, I have been moved to add a note to 
 the marginal references at one of the favorite verses of all 
 Christian aspiration. It is in Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. 
 Dr. Raymond, as a matter of fact, was rather devoted to the 
 great Apostle whose name he bore. He found stimulation 
 for both mind and spirit in thinking after him. He was eager 
 to follow him as he followed Christ. Alongside of Galatians 
 v, 22, 23, in my Bible, I have written the initials of my friend, 
 B. P. R. With him in your mind, his character, his temper, 
 his method, his achievement, weigh deliberately the words of 
 this wonderful trilogy of spiritual qualities. They describe 
 the very essence of character, the eternal standard of conduct. 
 Think of him, I .say, while you listen to the Apostle Paul 
 saying, 
 
 “The fruit of the Spirit is: 
 
 Love, Joy, Peace, 
 
 Long-suffering, Kindness, Goodness, 
 
 Faithfulness, Meekness, Self-control.” 
 
 What higher, what truer word can be spoken of our friend 
 than this, that there is no shock to taste, to intelligence, nor 
 to conscience, in writing here the name of Bradford Paul 
 Raymond ? 
 
 15 
 
Address by 
 
 Azel Washburn Hazen 
 
 “ Middletown has lost a good citizen,” has been a common 
 remark here of late. Few men have ever won the esteem of 
 this entire community as Dr. Raymond did. He made a con¬ 
 quest of us all, regardless of political or social lines. He 
 manifested a genuine and an intelligent interest in the well¬ 
 being of the city. He was never heard to speak ill of it. He 
 desired that it might prosper, and contributed his full measure 
 of thought, as well as of action, to that end. He was faithful 
 to his obligations as a citizen. When health and occasion 
 allowed, he was glad to speak to his fellow-men on themes of 
 secular or religious importance. His words were never idle, 
 but freighted with practical wisdom. His noble patriotism 
 often stirred the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
 as well as all others who felt its throb in his warm heart. His 
 sermons in our pulpits, and his addresses on special occasions 
 abounded in high thinking, clothed in language fitted to send 
 them home to the hearts of his hearers. It was a joy to him 
 to speak in public, not for his own sake, but for the sake of 
 others. His lofty eloquence will not soon be forgotten by 
 those who had the rare privilege of sitting under its spell. 
 
 Dr. Raymond was a firm friend of education for the people. 
 While at the head of a cherished institution for higher learn¬ 
 ing, he keenly appreciated the value of the public schools. 
 He contributed not a little to lessen the distance between the 
 University and the town, showing that the prosperity of the 
 former enhanced that of the latter. It is not easy to estimate 
 his influence in this regard. Likewise, he often lifted up his 
 voice in behalf of temperance and other wise reforms. You 
 never doubted as to where he would stand on questions per¬ 
 taining to the civic welfare. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this fruitful service, Dr. Raymond did 
 most for the town by the nobility of his character. The 
 fragrance of his upright and holy life was diffused wherever 
 
he went. Dean Stanley, speaking in Baltimore in 1878, 
 uttered these sagacious words: — “ The lapse of years has only 
 served to deepen in me the conviction that no gift can be more 
 valuable than the inspiration of a great character working on 
 our own.” And this stalwart character did its beneficent work 
 here for more than a quarter of a century. How was it built? 
 Hear the profound words of President Raymond himself: 
 “ The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 
 hope of immortality are doctrines supported by our ideals, 
 since these ideals cannot be realized without them.” He felt 
 that “other foundation can no man lay, than that which is 
 laid, which is Jesus Christ.” He had no need to use the 
 lamentable direction of another, — “Take my influence and 
 bury it with me.” Fellow-citizens of Middletown, let us 
 never forget that the master-key to a better future for our¬ 
 selves and for our beloved city is not that of circumstance, but 
 that of character. 
 
 Our friend has surely joined 
 
 “ The choir invisible, 
 
 Of those immortal dead who live again 
 In minds made better by their presence.” 
 
 “ The tidal wave of deeper souls 
 Into our inmost being rolls, 
 
 And lifts us unawares 
 Out of all meaner cares. 
 
 Honor to those whose words or deeds 
 Thus help us in our daily needs, 
 
 And by their overflow 
 Raise us from what is low.” 
 
 17 
 
Address by 
 
 Caleb Thomas Winchester 
 
 After these most sincere and moving tributes to the char¬ 
 acter and work of President Raymond as a pastor, teacher, 
 college president, citizen, it only remains for me to say a very 
 few words of him as we knew him in the ordinary work and 
 business of life as neighbor and friend, and of those traits of 
 his character that came first to our thought when we heard he 
 was gone and that will linger longest in our memory. 
 
 I think a great many people said to themselves last Sunday: 
 “ I have lost a friend.” Dr. Raymond made acquaintances 
 easily everywhere and with all classes of people; and all those 
 who knew him felt the charm of his genial, open nature. 
 There was nothing reserved or exclusive or distant about him. 
 Said a man to me on Main Street yesterday: “It is sad about 
 Dr. Raymond. I always liked to talk with that man. Some¬ 
 how, you could always totich Dr. Raymond.” Everybody 
 liked to talk with him; and so wide were his sympathies and 
 so broad and kindly his interest in all sorts of people, that 
 everybody found something congenial in him. The man on 
 the street or the man at the plow, the man in the office or the 
 man in the professor’s chair — they all could “touch Dr. 
 Raymond.” Some men like to talk for the sake of argument. 
 They are on the lookout for points of difference. Dr. Raymond 
 was always looking out for points of agreement and sympathy. 
 He was not one of your men who weakly assent to whatever 
 you say in a kind of lazy good nature; he had formed opinions 
 of his own on almost all subjects of discussion, educational, 
 political, theological; but his opinions were never narrow and 
 bigoted. There was nothing harsh, censorious, arrogant,, 
 about the man. His temper was essentially brotherly. In 
 all the twenty-seven years I knew him, I never heard him 
 say a single malicious or contemptuous word of any man. 
 A large-minded, warm-hearted, brotherly man! 
 
 18 
 
And what a cheerful man he was in all his days! And that 
 is saying much when we remember those later years. Cheer¬ 
 fulness is easy when life runs smoothly on as you would like 
 to have it; but Dr. Raymond had to bear one of the very 
 sorest trials that come to a man—the very sorest trial, I think, 
 that could come to a man of his temperament and his hopes. 
 When his mental powers were at their highest, all his larger 
 plans as yet only half realized, his love for the thoughtful 
 life of a student as yet undimmed and undiminished, then he 
 had to hear the imperative command: “Stop there! You 
 must surrender all your larger plans. You must not stand in 
 the preacher’s pulpit nor sit in the professor’s chair. You 
 cannot read or study or think intensely any more. You may 
 live on for years, perhaps, if you will practice an irksome 
 carefulness, but you can no longer do what you have been 
 hoping and preparing all your days to do. You must be, 
 hereafter, mostly a spectator in the great work of life.’’ That 
 was virtually the command that President Raymond met some 
 dozen years ago, when he knew that his inexorable disease 
 had fastened itself upon him. And how did he meet it? Like 
 a hero and a Christian. He turned away from his chosen 
 pursuits. He gave up those plans and labors to which his 
 life had been devoted. He tried to find satisfaction in the 
 outdoor life to which he was committed; in the varied observa¬ 
 tion of men and things in his occasional travels; in the renewal 
 of old friendships and the reviving of old memories; and, 
 above all, in the increased companionship of his own family, 
 his children and his grandchildren. Those of us w T ho saw 
 him constantly in those years know well how much of quiet 
 self-denial and restriction all this surrender meant. “ I can’t 
 read them very much now-a-days,” he said to me once in his 
 library, in a cheerful tone but with rather a wistful look about 
 his bookshelves. As I used to see him riding about the 
 country on horseback in those days, and knew how much 
 rather he would have been at home in his study, his temper 
 seemed to me nothing less than heroic. And through it all 
 he never lost his cheerfulness. His memory was stored with 
 an abundance of things that are honest and pure and just and 
 lovely and of good report to think upon. He had that excel¬ 
 lent gift of God—a quick sense of humor, genial but never 
 
 19 
 
sarcastic or with any trace of cynicism; and this humor was 
 more delightful in those years than ever. In fact, I sometimes 
 think he cultivated it all the more in those days which might 
 have been so cheerless. He tried to enjoy his “leisure,” as 
 he called it, and to make others enjoy it too. He was always 
 hopeful and cheery. It was always good to be in his company. 
 Still more characteristic of his noble and unselfish nature was 
 it that he never abated one jot of his interest in what had been 
 the great work of his life, now that he could himself no longer 
 conduct or share it; and he gave his most cordial and loyal 
 support to those to whom the work was now entrusted. Did 
 any one in all those years ever hear Bradford P. Raymond 
 utter a single word either of complaint or of envy ? I never 
 did. 
 
 How did he live so through those years? You know the 
 answer. He was a Christian man. He believed that the 
 steps of a good man, though they may not follow the paths he 
 would himself have chosen, are yet ordered of the Lord,—and 
 as we saw him, we believed that too. More than twenty 
 years ago he wrote a little book on Christian evidences, and a 
 very wise and beautiful little book I think it; but his life for 
 the last ten years has been a living epistle, teaching as no 
 words can, the kindness, the patience, the cheer and helpful¬ 
 ness that grow out of an unshaken faith in the Master’s love. 
 
 One week ago this morning he sat in his accustomed place 
 in this church and, at the close of the service, joined with the 
 congregation in singing the closing hymn. The last words of 
 that hymn were probably the last words of Christian verse 
 ever on his lips. 
 
 “ Green pastures are before me, which yet I have not seen; 
 
 Bright skies will soon be o’er me, where darkest clouds 
 have been. 
 
 My hope I cannot measure; my path to life is free; 
 
 My Saviour has my treasure, and He will walk with me.” 
 
 An hour later and he was gone. Much as we grieve, we 
 cannot but feel a certain solemn joy that it was not after a 
 period of long and wasting decay, but in an hour of Sabbath 
 quiet, in the peace and love of his home, that at last the 
 Master said, “It is enough ! ”, touched his heart, and called 
 him instantly home. 
 
 20 
 
SmiUttimts 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Board of 
 
 Trustees of Wesleyan University 
 
 The Trustees of Wesleyan University, with warm affection 
 for a cherished friend and profound respect for a noble charac¬ 
 ter, place upon the record this brief remembrance of Bradford 
 Paul Raymond, ex-President of the University, and, at the 
 time of his death, February 27, 1916, Professor Emeritus of 
 Ethics and Biblical Eiterature. 
 
 The presidency of Dr. Raymond extended over a period of 
 nineteen years, 1889-1908. It was the longest in the history 
 of the institution. Including the years of retirement from 
 actual teaching, he was professor of Moral Philosophy and 
 kindred subjects for more than twenty-six years. 
 
 When, at the beginning of the academic year of 1889, he 
 stood at the threshold of the great opportunity offered to him 
 by the election in the previous November, he had already been 
 for six years a college president. His Alma Mater, Lawrence 
 University, had called him to this high service when he was 
 but thirty-seven years of age. Before that his course of train¬ 
 ing had taken him through the perils and privations of war, 
 the struggles for a college education, the discipline of the 
 theological school, the intellectual and spiritual tests of study 
 in Germany, and, for several years, the experiences of a pastor. 
 His nature was like his thinking, simple, generous, straight¬ 
 forward, hospitable; and through these phases of varied 
 experience he gathered rich resources for use and investment 
 in the many vital years during which he was President of 
 Wesleyan University. 
 
 23 
 
Though he came a comparative stranger to trustees, faculty, 
 and students, he was received by all with heartiest welcome. 
 Soon he was found to be as profound as he was candid, as 
 strong as he was simple, as witty as he was brave, as firm as 
 he was gentle, as eloquent as he was companionable. He 
 became to many a wise counselor, to not a few a trusted 
 friend, to the college a safe and unselfish First Director, to 
 its constituency a representative, faithful ever to its interests 
 and ardent in devotion to its ideals. 
 
 Through the years came many tests both of wisdom and 
 courage. Discipline was to be enforced. Financial emer¬ 
 gencies were to be met. Adjustments of curricula and of 
 administrative methods were inevitable. Ideals and customs, 
 honored through long years, were to be interpreted in the 
 light of a new intellectual and social spirit. Elsewhere will 
 surely be written the story of progress and achievement. 
 Here we, who shared with him in the fellowship of this 
 service of administration during the score of years of his 
 presidency, make record of our admiration for the spirit in 
 which Dr. Raymond conducted the business, dealt with the 
 administration, and advanced the interests of Wesleyan Uni¬ 
 versity in this critical period of its development. 
 
 There was in him no liking for the spectacular. He was a 
 philosopher, and well he knew that growth is quiet. He was, 
 in the deepest meaning of the word so often misunderstood, a 
 Christian; and was well persuaded that the walls of a college 
 are invisible, and that they rise without sound of hammer. 
 Doubtless beyond the satisfaction that justly might come in 
 the enlargement of the material equipment and endowment, 
 the increase of the faculty and of the student body, and the 
 broadening of the curriculum, there would be in his modest 
 soul during these later years of physical infirmity a rare joy 
 that, in class after class for nineteen years, he and those asso¬ 
 ciated with him had been building into stalwart character the 
 rich realities of the eternal life. 
 
 24 
 
Grateful for the intellectual and spiritual ministry of Presi¬ 
 dent Raymond in Wesleyan University, and convinced that 
 the lengthening years will add new significance to the achieve¬ 
 ments of the institution while under his administration, the 
 Trustees count it a high honor to have shared in the aspira¬ 
 tions and endeavors of one so true and so noble, of one who 
 belongs so naturally in the succession of Presidents who 
 from the beginning have given to the University an exalted 
 leadership. 
 
 The Trustees direct that a copy of this minute be sent to 
 Mrs. Raymond, with the assurance of their profound sympathy 
 with her and her children in their great sorrow. 
 
 25 
 
The Faculty 
 
 We, the members of the Faculty of Wesleyan University, 
 desire to express our sense of irreparable loss in the death of 
 Bradford Paul Raymond, connected so long and so intimately 
 with the life of the college. In his presidency of nineteen 
 years Dr. Raymond showed himself untiring in his labors for 
 the growth and success of the institution of which he was the 
 head, and which owes so much to him. 
 
 As a man he was faithful and upright and true. His kind¬ 
 ness of heart, his courtesy and tact, his sense of humor, his 
 life of simple piety spent in the service of his Master, won him 
 the love of all who knew him. In his sudden passing away 
 we mourn the patriot soldier, the thinker and scholar, the 
 faithful friend and Christian gentleman. 
 
 26 
 
The College Body 
 
 Whereas, God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has seen 
 fit to take from our midst our beloved Professor and former 
 President, Bradford Paul Raymond, and 
 
 Whereas, we realize that there has passed from us an 
 honored President and inspired preacher of the Gospel, who 
 by his Christian spirit, loyalty to God and nation, and high 
 ideals of scholarship, has had a dominant influence in the 
 development of our University; be it therefore 
 
 Resolved, that we the members of the College Body of 
 Wesleyan University do publicly extend to the bereaved family 
 our deepest sympathy and condolence in this, their great 
 bereavement; and be it further 
 
 Resolved, that copies of these resolutions be sent to the 
 family of the deceased, be placed on the records of the College 
 Body, and be published in the Middletown papers and the 
 Wesleyan Argus. 
 
 27 
 
The Wesleyan Chapter of Commons Clubs 
 
 Whereas, it hath seemed best to the infinite Source and 
 Giver of all life to take from among us our honored elder 
 brother, friend, and counsellor, Bradford Paul Raymond, 
 ex-President, Professor emeritus, and eminent scholar; and 
 
 Whereas, we the members of the Wesleyan Chapter of 
 Commons Clubs feel very deeply so sudden and great a loss; 
 be it therefore 
 
 Resolved, that we extend our most sincere sympathy to 
 his family in their time of sorrow; and be it further 
 
 Resolved, that a copy of these resolutions be sent to Mrs. 
 Raymond, and that another copy be entered upon the records 
 of this organization, and that another copy be sent to the 
 Wesleyan Argus. 
 
 28 
 
The Official Board of the First Methodist 
 
 Episcopal Church 
 
 In the death of Bradford Paul Raymond, this church has 
 lost a valued member and each individual in it has lost a 
 beloved friend. 
 
 Undeterred by his arduous duties to the college of which he 
 was the head, and to the denomination at large, he threw 
 himself whole-heartedly into the work of this church. He 
 seldom missed a service which he could attend. In the prayer 
 meeting his voice was upraised in prayer, testimony, and song, 
 and in each we heard him with delight. To hear his out¬ 
 pouring of soul in the meeting was an inspiration; to shake 
 his hand afterwards and receive his hearty, genial greeting, 
 was a benediction. There are many of us who can never for¬ 
 get some word of appreciation or encouragement uttered in no 
 perfunctory or conventional spirit but in the true spirit of 
 Christian brotherliness. 
 
 Soldier of God and of his country, preacher of the gospel as 
 well from his daily life as from the pulpit, champion of the 
 highest ideals in education, civic life, and in all human 
 relations—in the long roll of men and women who by their 
 life and death have made this church rich in fragrant mem¬ 
 ories, Doctor Raymond holds a worthy place. 
 
 His kindly demeanor, his uncomplaining endurance, his 
 great faith in all that was good and noble in man, and his 
 supreme trust in the overshadowing providence of God were 
 long known to the people of this church. By the abiding 
 memory of these things he, being dead, yet speaketh. 
 
 “ Though our lips may breathe adieu, 
 
 We cannot think the thing “farewell.” 
 
 2 9 
 
Mansfield Post 
 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic 
 
 Whereas, our Divine Commander having transferred our 
 beloved comrade, Bradford Paul Raymond, from the earthly 
 field of operations to the spiritual field eternal, we loyally 
 submit to the order of transfer, though our hearts are filled 
 with sorrow over our loss, which is very great; and 
 
 Whereas, the feeling of abiding friendship, fostered amid 
 the trying scenes of war, bound our comrade to us in the 
 strongest ties of comradeship, making him one with us, and 
 of us, loyal, patriotic, true, and ever glad to promote our 
 uplift and general welfare; 
 
 Resolved, that the influence of his example will ever 
 abide with us as a constant incentive to right living, and that 
 we, sorrowing with them in their loss, extend to his bereaved 
 family our deepest sympathy. 
 
 Resolved, that, as a tribute of respect to his memory, 
 Mansfield Post Charter be draped for the usual period as 
 evidence of a departed comrade, that these minutes be spread 
 upon the records of this Post, and that a copy be presented 
 to the members of our comrade’s family. 
 
 30 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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