A Sailor in College: 1864

The following appears in the November 1864 edition of The Friend, the Honolulu-based publication of Samuel C. Damon of the American Seaman's Friend Society:

The valedictorian at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, Jacob W.H. Ames, Newport, N.H., at eighteen years of age, was a sailor before the mast, not acquainted with much more than his letters.

At twenty-four he has graduated at the head of his class, competing with twenty-three good scholars, all of whom, doubtless, have enjoyed the usual educational advantages.