Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1White, Andrew Dickson
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Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1
White, Andrew Dickson
Cornell University; Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918
I also found at the university other admirable men, and
among those to whom I became specially attached was
Thomas M. Cooley. When he had become chief justice
of the State, and the most eminent writer of his time on the
Constitution of the United States, he was still the same
man, gentle, simple, and kindly. Besides these were
such well-known professors as Fasquelle in modern
literature; Williams, Douglass, and Winchell in science;
Boise in Greek; Palmer, Sager, and Gunn in medicine
and surgery; Campbell and Walker in law. Of these
Judge Campbell was to me one of the main attractions
of the place--a profound lawyer, yet with a kindly humor
which lighted up all about him. He was especially interested
in the early French history of the State, to which he
had been drawn by his study of the titles to landed property
in Detroit and its neighborhood, and some of his discoveries
were curious. One of these had reference to an
island in the straits near Detroit known as ``Skillagalee,''
which had puzzled him a long time. The name seemed to be
Irish, and the question was how an Irish name could have
been thus applied. Finally he found on an old map an earlier
name. It was <I^>le aus Galets, or Pebble Island, which, in
the mouths of Yankee sailors, had taken this apparently
Celtic form. Another case was that of a river in Canada
emptying into the straits not far from Detroit. It was
known as ``Yellow Dog River''; but, on rummaging
through the older maps, he discovered that the earlier
name was River St. John. To account for the transformation
was at first difficult, but the mystery was finally
unraveled: the Rivi<e!>re St. Jean became, in the Canadian
patois, Rivi<e!>re Saan Jawne, and gradually Rivi<e!>re Chien
Jaune; recent geographers had simply translated it into
English.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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