"In 1810, Professor Shurtleff was united in marriage with Miss Anna Pope, only daughter of Rev. Joseph Pope of Spencer, Mass. Of her he said, 'She was truly an helpmeet--one who did me good and not evil all the days of her life.' By her vivacity and cheerfulness she was eminently fitted to comfort him in his hours of suffering and depression. But it pleased God to take her from him in March, 1826, after having enjoyed with her, during sixteen years, a degree of domestic happiness which rarely falls to the lot of man. He also lost two children, sons, in 1820, after a brief illness. Respecting the oldest, he had already begun to indulge very pleasing anticipations, although he was less than five years old at the time of his decease. Little did the speaker then know, when helping to carry to the grave the remains of these children, who, if they had survived, would now have been men of mature age, what hopes he was assisting to bury! But who knows the future? It was better they should die, than that they should live to dishonor him and themselves. The husband and father mourned incessantly, though not without resignation, for these bereavements, till the time of his own death. "In 1825, Professor Shurtleff was in very feeble health, from the spring till Commencement. The Trustees adjourned at that time to reassemble in November, supposing it might be necessary then to appoint another professor of Divinity. But by the blessing of God on medical advice and careful nursing, he was able to resume instruction before the meeting of the Trustees.