Two Country Boys and the Making of a Harvard Legacy

On this episode of Our American Stories, Harvard is often defined by its oldest traditions and its most privileged stories, but some of its lasting influence came from students who began far from that world. James Bradley Thayer and Chauncey Wright grew up in the rural corners of Massachusetts at a time when Harvard seemed reserved only for Boston’s elite. Their path into the university reshaped their lives in uneven ways, revealing how talent, timing, and circumstance can intersect. Andrew Porwancher traces how these two boys reached Harvard Yard and their ongoing legacy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories amid the halls
of Harvard Law. A professor of legend, James Bradley Thayer
shaped generations of students from eighteen seventy four to nineteen
oh two. His devoted proteges include future Supreme Court justices Holmes, Brandeis,
and Hand, just to name a few. This is the

(00:32):
story of how two country boys rose to the highest
heights of Harvard Yard. Their lives would have two dramatically
different fates. Here to tell the story is Andrew poor Wantcher.
Andrew is a professor of legal history at Arizona State University.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
There was little in the childhoods of James Bradley Thayer
and Chauncey Wright that suggested either of them was destined
for the rarefied quads of Harvard Yard. After all, in
their world, the world of ante bellum New England, the
typical Harvard Man belonged to what became known as the

(01:14):
Boston Brahmin, the elite of society. The sons of the
Brahmin grew up in the fashionable neighborhood of Beacon Hill.
They attended posh private schools. They stood to inherit vast
family fortunes. By contrast, James and Chauncey were born into

(01:35):
modest circumstances in a small town in western Massachusetts rural countryside.
Against the odds, James would earn an endowed share at
Harvard Law, where he mentored future generations of Supreme Court justices.
Chauncey would also come to teach at Harvard, ranking among

(01:58):
the most innovative and influential philosophers of his generation. This
is the story of their improbable rise into the Brahmin stratosphere,
and in equal measure, this is the story of their
enduring friendship along the journey. James and Chauncey were adolescents

(02:21):
when they first met in the eighteen forties in Northampton, Massachusetts,
a village of some four thousand souls. Chauncey visited James's household,
often sometimes staying for all three meals in a day.
The two boys passed their days trekking across meadows and
peeking into empty factories, and their exploration was intellectual as well.

(02:44):
Between the ages of eleven and twenty two, they would
school together, read together, discuss together. When they were teenagers,
Northampton experienced a strong religious revival, James later remembered, our
Chauncey remained relatively unaffected, showing early signs of his future

(03:05):
philosophical vocation. In James's words, Chauncey kept throughout an attitude
of amused observation, a state of mind which had in
it not merely the distrust or indifference of a Unitarian,
but the cool curiosity of a philosopher. Neither James nor

(03:27):
Chauncey anticipated in rolling at the nexus of the Brahmin universe,
Harvard University in Cambridge, mass James simply lacked the funds,
and Chauncey lacked the support of his father to attend
college at all. But a local town matriarch named missus

(03:48):
Am Lyman, who had a well earned reputation for helping
local youth, changed both of their lives forever. Missus Lyman
contributed to James's tuition, outfitted his room with furniture, and
even sewed shirts for him to wear in his new
life as a Harvard Man. She was equally determined to

(04:10):
see Chauncey take up a spot alongside James at Harvard,
but there were obstacles for here to clear to that end.
Of course, She first had to persuade Chauncey's father to
let him attend college, and Chauncey presented complications all his own.
The admissions test, which emphasized classical languages, was not exactly

(04:33):
focused on the kinds of subjects that Chauncey thrilled to.
Missus Lyman preemptively took measures to ensure that a low
exam score would not preclude Chauncey's acceptance to Harvard. When
he and James appeared in Cambridge in the summer of
eighteen forty eight for the entrance exam, they found that
Missus Lymon had already arrived in Cambridge herself to petition

(04:56):
the Harvard president on Chauncey's behalf. She told Ja James,
I have seen the president and said all I could
for Chauncey, and I have no doubt he will get in.
Missus Lyman's confidence proved well founded, as Chauncey would indeed
join James at Harvard. Chauncey, more than James, could readily

(05:18):
be termed a genius, James once recalled with a mix
of admiration and envy. It grew more and more surprising
to us to see how little he read and how
much he knew. James was consistently the more productive, organized,
and diligent of the two. Chauncey preferred to be a

(05:39):
drift in thought. It turned out that assiduous work, more
than raw genius, translated to a life of distinction. James
ranked far higher than did Chauncey in their graduating class.
Then in the early adulthood, James steadily succeeded at legal
practice well. Chauncey proved irregular in his work, his sleep,

(06:02):
and his diet. James married a proper Brahman daughter, both
Chauncey never married at all. Chauncey's recurring battles with depression
and alcoholism kept him from realizing his full potential. He
was still brilliant, writing influential essays about philosophy for taste
making publications. He even taught at Harvard, But in contrast

(06:26):
to James, who was graced with a named chair on
the faculty of Harvard Law, Chauncey was tasked merely with
the sporadic course on a temporary basis. James had reached
the center of the Brahmin circle, Chauncey only flirted with
its edges. It was in eighteen seventy five, when they

(06:49):
were in their forties, that James's journey permanently deviated from Chauncey's.
That summer, James retreated to his summer home on Mount
Desert Island off the coast of Maine. The island had
been the site of numerous trips over the years for
James and Chauncey. Under the summer skies, Chauncey would offer
his characteristically eccentric musings, which James and other friends jokingly

(07:13):
dubbed the Mount Desert philosophy. With James rejuvenating yet again
in Mount Desert that summer, he looked forward to welcoming
back his old friend once more. James received a letter
from Chauncey in early September indicating quote, if I do
not get from you any discouragement, I propose to go

(07:33):
down by the banger boat on Tuesday next. James went
to greet the banger boat's arrival at Mount Desert on
the appointed day, but Chauncey was nowhere to be seen,
and so James awaited the subsequent boate from Bangor, and
again Chauncey wasn't on it. James soon discovered why he

(07:56):
recalled instead of welcoming my friend, I opened the Boston
paper to read of his sudden death, and the date
of the paper was the day of his funeral. As
it turns out, Chauncey's landlord that discovered him unconscious, collapsed

(08:18):
over his desk, the victim of a stroke, likely induced
by his drinking habit. He died within a matter of hours.
James was, of course, deeply bereaved. They had forged a
friendship in boyhood that took them from the meadows of
rural Massachusetts to the quads of Harvard Yard. For decades,

(08:42):
they studied, conversed, and explored together. Yet James managed to
claim his stake in a Brahmin world that Chauncey never
inhabited quite as fully. And now, at the age of
forty five, Chauncey was suddenly no more. As James poignantly

(09:04):
mused when his death came, it brought to me the
sad reflection that I had been for many years near
a wisdom and a sweetness which I had but imperfectly appreciated.
It was my oldest and most intimate friend that had gone.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Andrew Poorwancher and he is a Jack Miller Center Fellow.
This story is adapted from his book The Prophet of
Harvard Law. The Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network
of scholars and teachers dedicated to educating the next generation

(09:47):
about America's founding principles in history. To learn more, visit
Jackmillercenter dot org. The story of the Harvard's Country Boys.
Here on our American Stories