Saltonstall Name Appears in First Directory and in Latest

In an article in the current issue of the Alumni Bulletin, Clifford K. Shipton '26, Custodian of the Harvard University Archives, gives an amusing account of the chain of Saltonstalls that have periodically lent their name to the directory of Students of Harvard. "Our Harvard Saltonstalls," he calls them. In fact at the World's Columbian Exposition one of the Harvard exhibits was the Saltonstall family tree.

Unfortunately for either Harvard or the Saltonstalls, the chain is not complete, for Harvard was not here when the first family immigrant, Sir Richard, came over. His son Henry graduated in the first Harvard class, whence he went back and became a fellow at Oxford. His nephew Nathaniel graduated in 1659, Nathaniel's son Richard II in 1695, Richard III in 1722, Richard IV in 1751. All four of these carried the escutcheon of justice in Haverhill.

About Richard II Mr. Shipton says: "Even domestic life then had its adventures, for tradition says that a discontented slave girl once placed gunpowder beneath the massive family bed and blew it and the Colonel through the roof. When the bed came to rest, right side up and some distance from the house, the Colonel popped out, remarking, 'I know who did that.'"

Nathaniel II, brother of Richard IV, graduated in 1766, and was also a justice of the peace in Haverhill. His son became Leverett I, Class of 1802, and with him begins the glory of the Leveretts. He became Mayor of Salem, Speaker of the House, president of the Senate, and a member of Congress. Leverett II, 1844, was a Democratic Civil Service Commissioner in Washington.

"Many a Harvard student has drunk away his father's fortune; Leverett Saltonstall, who made no money as a politician, altered the pattern by selling his famous wine cellar to put Richard Middlecott through college with the Class of 1880." Richard V went into the law. His son, Leverett III, graduated in 1914, went into the law, and is now Governor of the Commonwealth.

The chain does not stop where Mr. Shipton has left off, however, for the pages of the directory are now graced with the name of Leverett IV, a member of the Class of 1939. His family have set a precedent which he will have to maintain.

"The Saltonstalls," Mr. Shipton concludes, "have never sought great wealth. . . . Content with a comfortable fortune, they saw no virtue in leisure, but labored at the tasks they chose.