Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 24

A fervent and impressive prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Sweetser, that the institution now being established may prove an instrumentality of great good in the education and refining elevation of the young men of our comunity during its entire continuance, that the corporation may be ever governed by wisdom from on high that they may be able to direct those agencies for good placed in their hands to the highest, wisest and most beneficent ends; and that the blessings of Heaven may be poured bountifully upon him through whose liberality this institution is now about to be established.

The letter of gift and instructions from John Boynton was read and adopted, and it was agreed that "a substantial compliance therewith be considered the condition upon which said fund is to be held and managed. "

The Board then proceeded to select two more members: Rev. Alonzo Hill, and Rev. Hiram K. Pervear, thereby complying with the requirement that three ministers be included in the membership of the Board. Dr. Hill, who for forty years had been pastor of the First Unitarian Church, was a graduate of Harvard and a member of its Board of Overseers. Dr. Pervear, a graduate of Boston University, was but thirty-four, and had just been installed as pastor of the First Baptist Church. Each of these men gave generously of his time and effort to promote the new institution.

No further elections were made by the Corporation until October 14,1865, when D. Waldo Lincoln became the eleventh member. Mr. Lincoln, son of Levi Lincoln, former governor of Massachusetts and first mayor of Worcester, was a man of many interests. He had been mayor of the city for two terms preceding the term of Phinehas Ball, and later became president of the Boston & Albany R. R. The twelfth member, chosen at a meeting on Feb. 27, 1866, was Charles H. Morgan, young superintendent of the Washburn & Moen Co., who later became the founder and president of the Morgan Construction Co. and of the Morgan Spring Co.

At this latter meeting James B. Blake, newly inaugurated mayor of the city, succeeded Mr. Ball as ex-officio member. Mayor Blake, also an engineer by training, was

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999