All Scholars
CROSBY, Alpheus
- Date of Birth: October 13, 1810
- Born City: Sandwich
- Born State/Country: NH
- Parents: Dr. Asa, a surgeon, & Abigail Russell C.
- Date of Death: April 17, 1874
- Death City: Salem
- Death State/Country: MA
- Married: Abigail Grant Jones Cutler, 27 Aug. 1834; Martha Kingman, 12 Feb. 1861.
- Education:
B.A. Dartmouth, 1827; study at Andover Theol. Sem., 1831-3.
- Professional Experience:
Preceptor Moor's Charity Sch. (Hanover, NH) 1827-8; tutor Dartmouth, 1828-31; prof. Lat. & Gk., 1833-7; prof. Gk., 1837-49; supt. public schools, Newburyport, MA, 1849-54; agt. Mass. Bd. Educ, 1854-7; princ. Mass. State Normal Sch. (Salem), 1857-65; ed. Massachusetts Teacher; The Right Way.
- Publications:
Tables Illustrative of Greek Inflection (Boston, 1841); A Grammar of the Greek Language (Boston, 1842-4; rev. ed., New York, 1873); Conservatives and Reformers: A Pamphlet for the Times by “Quintus” (Boston, 1843); The Expedition of Cyrus the Younger and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand (Boston, 1844; rev. ed. New York, 1875); Greek Tables for the Use of Students (Boston, 1846); First Lessons in Geometry (Boston, 1847); Greek Lessons (Boston, 1849; rev. ed., New York, 1873); The Second Advent (Boston, 1850); Ξενοφῶντος Κύρου Ἀνάβασις (Boston, 1862; 8th ed. 1870); The Present Position of the Seceded States (Boston, 1865); Greek Tables Revised (New York, 1871); A Compendious Grammar of the Greek Language (New York, 1871); A Lexicon to Xenophon's Anabasis (New York, 1873); The Anabasis of Xenophon (New York, 1875).
- Notes:
Alpheus Crosby virtually taught himself Greek and mathematics sufficiently well to enter Dartmouth at the age of 13. He was the leading scholar of his class and when he returned as tutor he joined the college church with the intention of entering the ministry. After 20 years of teaching he retired to Newburyport, MA, to work on his Greek grammar and to act as superintendent of schools. As principal of the normal school at Salem, he raised standards and expanded the library. Students remembered him as an enthusiastic teacher who communicated his deep love of Greek. He showed enthusiasm likewise for the cause of Abolition, editing during the Civil War a journal devoted to the movement, The Right Way, in which he wrote on the reconstruction of the South. Following the War, he edited a series of textbooks aimed at the recently freed slaves. At Salem he was a member of the Essex Institute and was president of the Salem Athenaeum. He also served as an examiner in classics for Harvard.
- Sources:
NatCAB 9:97; NYTimes (19 Apr. 1874) 1; WhAmH 197.
Papers: Correspondence at Baker Library Special Collections, Dartmouth.
- Author: Ward W. Briggs, Jr.
