Two uncles had graduated from Williams College, and his two older brothers, Sidney Lewis and Edward Leeds, completed the course at Dartmouth in 1883, but his own desire for a college education was not to be gratified. Although he was enrolled in the preparatory department of Oberlin College during a part, at least, of the school years 1880-1882 and 1883-1884, severe headaches which now made their appearance rendered continuous application to study impossible and finally compelled a change of plan. He had entered the middle preparatory class in the fall of 1885, but was taking some work in the college department and rooming with a sophomore, Thomas D. Wood, now Dr. Wood of Teachers College, Columbia University. What happened just at this time may be told in his own words.[279] “The advent of one of Dr. Sargent’s graduates, Miss Delphine Hanna, now Dr. Hanna, had brought to our minds in a more vivid way then ever before, that there was really such a thing as scientific teaching of gymnastics, genuine body building. We had both of us been very much interested in the gymnastics and athletics of the college, had identified ourselves thoroughly with all the work that was going on in these lines, and had read as far as we were able what had been written on the subject at that time. Blaikie’s _How to Get Strong_, particularly the chapter entitled ‘What a Gymnasium Might Be and Do,’ filled us with enthusiasm. One Sunday afternoon we took a long walk out into the woods, and sitting beside a rail fence (I can picture the situation even now), we looked forward to the future of physical training. We spoke of the relation of good bodies to good morals, we thought of the relation of bodily training to mental training.... The glimpse which we secured that day of the future has remained ... a prophecy of the work which each of us was to do....”