GEORGE MILFORD HARMON was born in Thorndike, Maine, November 28, 1842. His father was a farmer with limited means; but in 1850 he removed his family to Biddeford, where his children were given the advantages of good schools.

Here the boy became acquainted with many of the men who were interested in the founding of the new college in Medford, among them the Rev. Dr. James P. Wiston, then principal of Westbrook Seminary, who appealed to the boy's natural desire for learning, and urged him to shape his thought toward a college course. But the means for such an undertaking seemed to be beyond his reach, and the desire remained such only, until, in the High School, he came under the influence of Mr. Edward A. Rand, now an Episcopal clergyman in Watertown, Massachusetts. An excellent teacher, kindly, energetic, and faithful, Mr. Rand encouraged a large class of boys to fit for college. Most of them entered Bowdoin, but young Harmon preferred Tufts, which he entered in 1863.

On graduating in 1867, the Divinity School not having yet been established, he entered at once upon his work as a minister in the town of Rochester, Vermont.

But Mr. Harmon felt the need of more thorough professional training, and the feeling grew with every year he spent in his work. So, after preaching three years in Vermont and two in Michigan, he resigned his pastorate and returned for a three years' course in divinity at Tufts. After graduating in 1875 he settled over the church at Adams, Massachusetts. Here he was married to a young lady of his own name, in 1876, and they now have three children. In 1880 he removed to Peabody, Massachusetts, and in 1882 to Galesburg, Illinois, where he was called to the double office of pastor of the church and teacher in the newly-established theological de

Professor Harmon was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1893.