The college was named for the Reverend John Harvard, who came to this
country from England in 1637, settled In Charlestown, and died the
following year. He left a legacy, including his library, to the new
institution of learning, which was a princely benefaction for the time.
As a suitable recognition for this first large donation, the institution
was called Harvard College. The exact place of Mr. Harvard's burial is
unknown. It was somewhere "about the foot of Town Hill." It was in the
old burial-ground near the old prison in Charlestown, in all
probability, and the monument to his memory, if not over his grave, is
likely very near it. The inscriptions on this monument explain the time
and cause of its erection. On the eastern side of the shaft, looking
toward the land of his birth and education, we read:--

"On the twenty-sixth day of September, A.D. 1828, this Stone was erected
by Graduates of the University of Cambridge in honor of its founder, who
died at Charlestown, on the twenty-sixth day of September, A.D. 1638."

This is in his mother-tongue. On the side looking toward the seat of
learning which bears his name is the following inscription, in classic
Latin:

"In piam et perpetuam memoriam Johannis Harvardii, annis fere ducentis
post obitum ejus peractis, Academiae quae est Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum
alumni, ne diutius vir de literis nostris optime meritus sine monumento
quanivis humili jaceret, hunc lapidem ponendum curaverunt." The
following is a literal translation:--

"In pious and perpetual remembrance of John Harvard, nearly two hundred
years after his death, the alumni of the University at Cambridge, in New