The Autograph Book of
Milo Walbridge Grow
“May all your days be of Peace
And all your eggs be fried in Grease.”
Milo Grow, and later his son Roy W. Grow, apparently used this little book to collect signatures and sayings from their friends and visitors.
Most of the signatures date from Dartmouth College, 1851, interspersed with others from Colquitt, Georgia, 1883, 1887. The book passed from Milo Walbridge Grow to his son, Roy Walbridge Grow, to his great-grandson, Will Smiley Grow of Colquitt, Ga., to Milo’s great-grandson Gerald Grow.
Wentworth Hall — a building Milo would have known when he was at Dartmouth.
The Autograph Book’s Contents
Inscription: For Roy W. Grow on his 1st birthday. From his affectionate father. M.W. Grow. June 1st, 1863.
At the time, as far as we know, Milo was at the Battle of Fredericksburg. A month later, Milo was wounded and taken prisoner at Gettysburg, and died in the Union prison at Point Lookout, Maryland, Jan. 24, 1864.
Keep pure my son, in all thy ways. M.W.G.
M.W. Grow. Dartmouth College. 1849
N. Lord. Dartmouth College, July 29, 1851 [This is Nathan Lord, president of Dartmouth College 1828-1863.]
Ira Young, Dartmouth College, Aug. 1851
H.L.L.Bodiford. (Colquitt, Ga.)
“A good name is rather to be chosen than many riches. The Bible.”
April 17th 1883.
[Possibly a relative of the Bodiford who married Milo’s widow, Kate Baughn Grow, known later in life as “Mother Bodiford.”]
Sam’l G. Brown. D.C. July 1851
E.D. Sanborn. A long Latin inscription.
David J. Noyes. Dartmouth College, July 29, 1851. Virtuous and honourable conduct is worth far more than it costs.
Friend Roy–
The large are not the sweetest flowers,
The long are not the loveliest hours,
Much talk does ot true friendship tell,
Few words are best–I love thee well.
Your everlasting friend
G. O. Loving
Colquitt, Ga. 8/20/87
To a friend
‘Tis not the fairest form tht holds
The mildest, purest soul within;
‘Tis not the richest plant that folds
The sweetest breath of fragrence in.
Your true friend,
J. M. Cowart
Colquitt, Ga. August 22, 1887.
Mr. R.W. Grow
May no presuming person
Write aught but faultless
Upon a page of this fair book
Sacred to Innocence and Truth
Your friend
Emma Cowart
Colquitt, Ga
August 22nd/ 87
May all your days be of Peace
And all your eggs be fried in Grease.
Your friend
M.D.Roberts
Colquitt, Ga
Oct. 31, 87
[Some of the residents of Colquitt did not cotton to the sophistication of Dartmouth graduates! This inscription was written on the day Milo’s son turned 25.]
Edward Aiken
Born April 10 1839, Rutland, Vt.
They who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth;
The tree of knowledge is not that of life.
Byron
Josiah Bartlett, Jr.
Born Jan 1, 1830, Waltham, N.H.
“The present time is big with the future.”
George Sullivan Burton.
Born 1831. Concord N.H.
“Vule, vule, longam formosa.”
Don Carlos Baxter.
Barton, Vt.
Geo. Bell
Chester, N.H.
Born June 1829
“For forms of faith, let furious zealots fight
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.
E. R. Chamberlain
Shady Dale [Ga.]
Natus Oct. 18, 1831, Georgia
“Manners make the man.”
Saml H. Folsom
Born Feb. 23, 1826
Hopkinton, N.H.
“Perseverace keeps honor bright.”
Chandler Freeman
Born Jan. 18, 1824. Hebron, Maine.
Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.
David B. French
Born Jan. 24th 1830, Bedford N.H.
“Be sure you’re right, and then go ahead.”
When any great designs thou dost intent
Think on the means, the manner, and the end.”
Wm. Cutting Grant
Natus Oct 1826 Chelsea, Vt.
Joshua G. Hall, Jr.
Natus Nov. 5th 1828 Wakefield, N. H.
“Honor seldom but winds a scar
As oft it loses all.”
John M. Hayes
Sanbornton, N.H.
Born Jan. 10. 1830
Chas. Hitchcock
Natus April 1827. Hanover, N.H.
“Nil reputans actuum, si quid
Imperirret agendum”
Yours truly,
Homer O Hitchcock
[Born] Westminister, Vt.
Jan 28, 1827
“Earn if you want; if you abound, import.”
J. D. Hobart
Born Dec. 29, 1826 Berlin, N.H.
“Virtue is the best epitaph.”
Gilbert E. Hood
Born Nov 21. 1824, Chelsea, Vt.
“Be prudent, firm, and bold“
E. G. Cooke
A. G. Hopkinson
Nat. 1824.
“Let me take the instant by the forward top.”
Linnington, Me.
M. Lamprey
Dartmouth Coll. 1853. Natus Dec 9. 1827
“Pitch thy behavior low; thy projects high;
So shalt thou humble & magnanimous be.”
Bethune
N. Lorde Jr. [This is N. Lord Jr., son of Nathan Lord above, who was Lieutenant Colonel, 5th Vermont and Colonel, 6th Vermont Infantry from September 1861 to December 1862.]
Born July 1831. Dartmouth Coll.
“Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours
And ask them what affront they bear to Heaven.”
John J. Pierce
Born Feb 2. 1828. Strafford, Vt.
“Life is a poor player.”
Byron
E. J. Quimby
Natus July 17. 1826 Hopkinton, N.H.
“Judge not of Kings by their (?) events.”
B. L. Ray
“Know that this dark earth is not thy home.”
1824 [born]
John Richards
Born Aug. 16. 1830
“The greatest truths are the simplest; so are the greatest men.”
James Rogers
Oct. 1828 Bradford, Vermont July 1851
“Nil Desperandum”
Edward Ashton Rollins
Born Wakefield. Dec 8th 1828. Great Falls
“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom
and the man that getteth understanding.”
Jonathan Ross
Natus Apr. 30th. 1826. Waterford, NH
“Death cannot come
To him untimely who is fit to die
The briefer life, the earlier immortality.”
Henry E. Sawyer
Manchester, N.H.
Born Warner N.H. July 14, 1826
“The life of man is summed in birthdays and in sepulchers;
But the Eternal God hath no beginning, He hath no end.”
H. H. White
Luther E. Shepard
Natus Dec. 28. 1820. Raymond, N.H.
“Tis vain to seek in men for more than man.”
J.A. Shores
Born Acton Me. Nov 23. 1827
“Life is a vision shadowy of truth;
And pain an anguish and the wormy grave
Shapes of a dream”
“There is a feeling within us tht loves to revert
To the merry old times that are gone.”
Isaac Coffin
Born Oct. 28th. 1829. Haverhill, Mass.
1851
“To thine own self be true.”
S. D. Storrs
Lapur, N.Y.
Dart. Coll. July 1831
Joseph H. Tyler
Natus Feb 11th 1825
Pelham N.H.
“Blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger
To sound what stop she please.” [Hamlet]
C. W. Willard
Natus June, 1827. Lyndon Centre, Vt.
Henry Willard
Natus Sept. 11, 1830. Troy N.Y.
“‘Tis not in mortals to commend success;
But we’ll do more, Semfronius, we’ll deserve it.”
R. W. Grow
Colquitt Ga.
Age 72. Aug. 20, 1932.
Born Colquitt Ga.
Oct. 22, [18]62
[Roy Walbridge Grow. Oct. 31, 1861 – Nov. 27, 1938. Son of Milo Walbridge Grow and Sarah Catherine Baughn. Husband to Lou Bush Grow.]
Charles Bell
Chester, N.H.
Born 1833
John H. Buttrick
Lowell
Dart. College. 1837
[On a page by itself, in pencil:]
“Bird of Paradise feathers”
The book concludes with two pages of signatures from all the members of the family present at a reunion, Thanksgiving, 1989.
Gerald Grow’s Home Page