In passing in review the record of the life of John H. B. Latrobe, it seems almost incredible that one man should have been gifted with excellence in so many and so widely-diversified directions, and have succeeded in accomplishing so much. It is one of the very rare exceptions to be met with in this world.

John H. B. Latrobe, son of Benjamin H. and Mary Elizabeth (Hazlehurst) Latrobe, was born in Philadelphia, May 4, 1803, and died at his home in Baltimore, Maryland, September 11, 1891. For a time the family resided in Washington, where his school education was commenced, and he then attended Georgetown College and the school conducted by Mr. Carnahan, who subsequently became president of Princeton College. Later young Latrobe became a student at St. Mary's College, where he remained until his appointment to a cadetship at West Point, from which he resigned in 1821, after the death of his father. General Thayer, who was the superintendent at West Point while John H. B. Latrobe was there, wrote to him in 1864, as follows:

"Forty-two years have not effaced from my memory the regret and disappointment I felt when, near the close of 1821, your resignation was handed me, for I had counted on you as a future officer of engineers. You were then at the head of your class and without a rival. Had you waited a few months before resigning, you would have been the recipient of the highest honor and prize the academy and government could bestow as a reward for distinguished scholarship and merit."

The death of his father, however, had made this resignation a necessity, and upon the return of his mother with the younger children to Baltimore, young Latrobe entered the law office of his father's friend, General Robert Goodloe Harper. He was admitted to the bar in 1825, but as he was without great personal influence, his acquisition of a practice was necessarily a matter of time, and in the meantime he set about other ways of increasing his income. Gifted as an artist and a writer, he called these arts into practical use. His yearly contribution to the Atlantic Souvenir was a novelette; for Sanderson's "Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence" he wrote the life of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton; "The Picture of Baltimore," another product of his facile pen, was illustrated with outline drawings of the public buildings; in "Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book" he furnished both plates and letterpress; he illustrated "McKenny's Tour to the Lakes." Before he was admitted to the bar he had already commenced "Latrobe's Justices' Practices," which when finished went through a number of editions, Mr. Latrobe revising the eighth edition himself in 1889, when he was eighty-six years of age. As a poet his lines were graceful and not without considerable merit. His interest in military affairs was an active one for some years after his return to the city of Baltimore, and he served as an aide to General Harper, at that time in command of the Third Division, Maryland Militia. In this connection he had an important post to fill in the reception to General Lafayette in 1824, and at various times was in command of the Chasseurs of Lafayette and the First Baltimore Sharpshooters, and while on a visit to Philadelphia was captain of the First Baltimore Light Infantry.

Mr. Latrobe was the means of organizing what was ultimately known as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanical Arts, the first exhibition being held in the concert hall in South Charles street, which was used as a lecture room until more convenient quarters were secured in the Athenaeum building. It was organized originally, September 5, 1824, by John H. B. Latrobe and several others, and destroyed by fire, February 7, 1835. When it was reorganized, December 1, 1847, Latrobe was selected to deliver the opening address, and was connected with it for many years.

While still engaged with his legal studies, he delivered a course of lectures on history and geography at the Apprentices' Library. In the meantime, the skill with which he had conducted such cases as were entrusted to him had not remained unobserved. In 1828 he was employed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to secure the right of way from Point of Rocks to Williamsport, and from that time onward was connected with the railroad company as its counsel. He was appointed counsel for the foreign creditors of Maryland in 1841, and it is due to the measures which he originated that the payment of interest on the debt of the State was resumed.

[U.S.] President [Zachary] Taylor appointed him one of the "Visitors" to West Point in 1849, and his colleagues chose him as president of the board. He visited Europe several times, and while there in 1857, as counsel for the firm of Winans, Harrison & Winans, the Russian contractors, he conducted their affairs so successfully that he was given what was at that time considered an enormous fee, $60,000, and was retained by this firm as their special counsel.

Mr. Latrobe was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, prepared the first map of the colony in Africa from the descriptions of an agent of the society, and in association with General Harper bestowed upon the rivers and settlements the names by which they are known at the present time. He was instrumental in securing an appropriation of $200,000 from the State to be utilized in the transportation of emigrants from Maryland, and the constitution and ordinance for the temporary government of the Maryland colony in Liberia, at Cape Palmas, were his work. It was due to his activity in this connection that in 1853, while president of the Maryland State Colonization Society, he was elected president of the American Colonization Society. He aided his effective work in this direction by no less effective publications and addresses in various other States, and was devoted to the scheme throughout his life.

He was invited by the King of Belgium in 1876 to represent the United States at the meeting called by the king at Brussels, with a view to organizing an International Association for the Exploration of Africa, and when this was effected Mr. Latrobe was elected president of the American branch.

Political honors had very little attraction for him. Although nominated by the Democratic party in 1829, at a time when the city had but two representatives, Mr. Latrobe declined the honor. His reason for this course of procedure was that his professional duties demanded his attention to the exclusion of political matters.

As an inventor he is best known through the "Latrobe Stove," also known under the name of "The Parlor Heater," and a variety of appellations, which is in familiar use throughout the United States. He was in especial demand as a patent lawyer, as his knowledge of mechanical principles gave him an advantage not to be overlooked. He organized and incorporated the telegraph company over whose lines the first telegraphic message was sent, and by means of introducing Morse to President Harrison of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, succeeded in interesting the latter in the new idea. He had a very peculiar and practical theory about utilizing scraps of time, which very many people allow to go to waste, and this was the secret of his being able to accomplish what seem to be almost marvellous results. He was eighty years of age when he purchased a typewriter and learned to use it with a fair amount of rapidity.

The honors showered upon Mr. Latrobe and the offices he held are almost numberless. He delivered the address at the laying of the cornerstone of the Masonic Temple in 1866, was chosen grand master of the fraternity four years later, and was reelected for nine successive years, when he declined another reelection.

When the cornerstone of the new City Hall was laid in 1867, he was chosen to make the address, and was selected by the citizens of Baltimore to receive it from the building committee. He was appointed commissioner from Maryland to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and so active was his work in the commission up to the close of the exhibition that the thanks of the Society for the Better Observance of the Sabbath were tendered him for having been instrumental in closing the exposition on Sundays.

He was a member of the Board of Visitors of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, and was later chosen vice-president, an office he filled many years. He was one of the founders, and president, of the Maryland Historical Society, and one of the regents of the University of Maryland. As chairman of the Public Park Commission, his work was of a most excellent character. He served as president of the Maryland Academy of Art until its collections were transferred to the Peabody Institute, and it was due to his efforts that the casts were obtained which are now in the gallery of the Maryland Historical Society. For many years he was president of the "Proprietors of the Greenmount Estate," and was one of the original purchasers with a view to turning it to its present purpose.

Mr. Latrobe married (first) Maria, daughter of Dr. James Steuart, of Baltimore; (second) Charlotte Virginia, daughter of Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne, of Mississippi. Children: Ferdinand C, a sketch of whom follows; Osmun, who lived in Europe for a number of years after the Civil War, during which he served on the staff of General Longstreet, then returned to Baltimore; R. Steuart; John H. B. Jr., a lawyer; Virginia, married the late Judge Cogswell, of New Jersey; and Lily, married Dr. Frank B. Loring, of Washington, D. C.

Editorially one of the Baltimore papers said of Mr. Latrobe, in part:

Maryland has possessed in this country no man who accomplished so much in so, many different directions as John H. B. Latrobe. To have done one of a dozen things that he did would have been more than one man in a thousand achieves in a lifetime. To have done all that he did, was to crowd a long and noble career so full of achievements that its retrospect seems an almost impossible record.

In reviewing his life it is difficult to decide whether to bestow the higher praise on the thoroughness with which he did each thing, or on the facility with which he did all things, and the only way out of the embarrassment is to admire the universality of his ability, the wonderful endurance of his mental and physical powers, and the unflagging steadiness of his purpose. The lifework of such a man is his best eulogy. He achieved fortune and fame outside of politics by the pure force of his ability and integrity. Labor was to him both duty and pleasure. He aimed at success, and he succeeded, and with it all he maintained the purity and rectitude of his character, and left a reputation which should be an incentive and an encouragement to every young man. It was a noble life, nobly lived.
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John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe attended West Point for three years from 1818 - 1821 but was forced to resign when his older brother and father died in order to take care of his family in Baltimore. He resigned in his senior year as head of his class. He won a Gold Medal for the best design of a Monument to Kosciuszko at West Point. As a lawyer he was Chief Counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He was an architect in his own right. He was involved with colonization in Liberia, Africa and was President of the American Colonization Society in 1853. He was involved with litigation between Nicholas Roosevelt and Robert Fulton about the vertical wheel on steamboats. He was involved in the incorporation of the Magnetic Telegraph Company and the Western Telegraph Company to conduct and carry the electro-magnetic telegraph, invented by Morse, over lines alongside the B&O Railroad between Baltimore and Washington. The first message was, " What hath God Wrought". He was Counsel for the Ross Winans Railroad interests in Russia. He was President of the Park Board of Baltimore and was involved with the purchase of land for Druid Hill Park. In 1846 he was granted a patent for improvement in stoves. This was known as the "Latrobe Stove". Although over 300,000 were in use, he never got any financial rewards for it. Parts were cast in the foundry and built at the Bartlett-Hayward Company in Baltimore until 1910. It was similar to the "Franklin Stove". He was the first president of the Maryland Historical Society. He was Aide-de-Camp under Gov. Thomas Swann.

Charles Joseph Latrobe had visited him in Baltimore. John H. B. Latrobe met his English cousins while on a visit abroad. John H. B. Latrobe writes, "While in London I made acquaintance with my first cousin, the Rev. Peter Latrobe, who had succeeded his father as senior Bishop of the Moravian Church, an admirable gentleman, a Christian, and a man of learning and accomplishment". He goes on to write, "My maternal grandfather has been mentioned by me in the commencement of this letter, but I have said nothing of my grandfather on my father's side, whose authenticated claim to a descendant from the historical family of the Bonevals of France was a preliminary to the marriage of my Uncle Frederick with the Baroness Stackelberg, of Dorpat, Livonia."He then goes on to discuss the coat of arms as follows: "While I am on the subject, I may as well state the tradition as regards my coat of arms. Three escallop shells on a blue bar across a white shield. The crest a hand holding an anchor, The hand and forearm issuing from clouds, motto, Tutto Si Fa (Nothing is Impossible). The origin of this coat is said to have been as follows: A remote ancestor, going as a man at arms to the Crusade indicated by the shells, bore himself bravely, was knighted, and on his return to Italy has his arms emblazoned there. A simple shield, three escallop shells, and the Italian motto, "Nothing is Impossible." Religion ran in the family, it would seem. The hand and arm issuing from the clouds and the emblem of hope are very religious in their meaning."

He had lived in Baltimore at the northeast corner of Charles and Read Streets. The office building now at this location is still called the Latrobe Building.

Interestingly, he and his immediate family show up twice on the 1850 census. In Aug 1850 he is listed on the Anne Arundel Co., MD census along with 7 children and 13 servants/workers. In Sep 1850 he is listed in the Baltimore census along with 6 children and 6 servants. His summer home (farm?) was valued at $26000 while his home in Baltimore was valued at $30,000. Listed among his children in Anne Arundel Co. is a Charlotte C. aged 16 (between the ages of Ferdinand and Osmund). She does not appear on the Baltimore 1850 census. In the 1870 census he is listed as being aged 75, having 7 servants, and born in England. His funeral was at Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, corner of St. Paul and Chase Streets.1547
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John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe, lawyer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 May, 1803, was appointed a cadet in the United States military academy in 1818, but resigned before graduation, on account of the death of his father. He then studied law with Robert G. Harper, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and has been in active practice for sixty years.

In 1828 he was engaged by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company to secure the right of way for the road, and has since been engaged as counsel for the company. He was the founder of the Maryland institute, and after its destruction by fire in 1835 assisted in its reorganization.

He has been identified with the American colonization society since 1824, and for many years has been its president, and prepared the first map of Liberia, and united with General Harper (who named the territory Liberia) in giving the other names on the map by which the places are now known. He originated and devoted himself to the interests of the colony of Maryland in Liberia, founded by the Maryland state colonization society at Cape Palmas, to which the state of Maryland contributed $275,000, and which continued, under a charter, ordinance, and instructions prepared by Mr. Latrobe, an independent and prosperous government of colored people for more than twenty years, until it united itself to the elder government of Liberia proper.

It was his conspicuous agency that led to his election, on the death of Mr. Clay, to be president of the national society in 1853. He is also the president of the Maryland historical society, which post he now (1887) holds. He was invited by the king of the Belgians to be present, as his guest, at the first meeting of the Association for the exploration of Africa, and is the president of the American branch.

He is the inventor of the "Latrobe stove," called sometimes the "Baltimore heater," or the "parlor heater," of which in 1878 there were 30,000 in use in Baltimore alone, and which has since come into general use in the United States. In 1849 he was appointed a member of the board of visitors to West Point, and was chosen president.

Mr. Latrobe is the author of various papers that he has read before the Maryland historical society, which have been published by that body, and he delivered an address on "The Capitol and Washington at the Beginning of the Present Century," in Washington, 16 November, 1881 (Baltimore, 1881). He has published "Biography of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton" (Philadelphia, 1824); "Justices' Practice " (Baltimore, 1825; 7th ed., 1880); "Scott's Infantry and Rifle Tactics," condensed (1828); "Picture of Baltimore" (1832); "History of Mason and Dixon's Line" (Philadelphia, 1854); " Personal Recollections of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad" (Baltimore, 1858); "Hints for Six Months in Europe" (Philadelphia, 1869): "Odds and Ends," a volume of poems (printed privately, Baltimore, 1876); " History of Maryland in Liberia" (Baltimore, 1885); "Reminiscences of West Point in 1818 to 1822" (1887); besides a series of children's books (1826) and four novelettes.1556
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John Latrobe studied law, and from 1828 until his death he was regularly retained as counsel for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but he appeared in many independent cases.

He helped his brother find employment with the B&O Railroad.

He was a founder of the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts and of the Maryland Historical Society. He was a prominent supporter of the African colonization of Liberia and in 1853 succeeded Henry Clay as president of the American Colonization Society.1555,1620
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John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe was the son of noted American architect Benjamin H. Latrobe and Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst Latrobe. He was born in Philadelphia on May 4, 1803, the first son of his father's second marriage.

Latrobe was a "jack-of-all trades": writer, attorney, inventor, and artist. Latrobe's childhood was spent in Washington, DC, where his father, Benjamin, Sr., was chief architect of the U.S. Capitol building. He and his younger brother, Benjamin Jr., were educated at home, and in schools in Washington and Baltimore. They studied at Georgetown College from 1815 to 1817. John entered West Point in 1818, where he studied civil engineering. For financial reasons, he was forced to return to his family after his father's death in 1820. The Latrobes moved to Baltimore in dire financial straits, living off the sales of Benjamin Latrobe's library and property that Mrs. Latrobe had owned in New Jersey. At age 18 John studied law with his father's close friend, Baltimore attorney Robert Goodloe Harper. Latrobe opened a law practice in Baltimore with his brother Benjamin, but it was not large enough to support both.

Benjamin moved to New Jersey where he practiced law and studied surveying. John became involved with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from its early days. On July 4, 1828, the entire population of the city of Baltimore (70,000 people) was on hand to witness the grand parade launching the railroad on its way west to its eventual goal-the Ohio River. Marchers in the parade represented Maryland bankers and businessmen, as well as all the city's trades and crafts: blacksmiths, carpenters, painters, printers, whitesmiths, hatters, bakers, ropemakers, and on and on. Leading the parade, and poised to take a prominent place in the ceremonial "laying of the First Stone" of the railroad, was a group from the Grand Lodge of Masons. At their head was 25-year old John H.B. Latrobe. He and his fellow Freemasons were swept up by the excitement and marched to the site of the First Stone in West Baltimore. It was a spectacular beginning for the B&O, but no less for Latrobe who would be part of that "grand scheme" for the rest of his life.

Latrobe's early legal work for the railroad consisted of securing releases from property owners for the right-of-way along its proposed route. He became adept at speeches promoting the B&O, and was instrumental in securing deeds and rights-of-way to Point of Rocks in Frederick County in 1828 and 1829. Latrobe also made a name for himself with his representation of the B&O during the controversy and court cases between the railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company over rights-of-way along the Potomac River between Point of Rocks and Harpers Ferry.

As counsel for the B&O, he became involved in most aspects of promoting and raising revenue for the line. He made many of the financial and political arrangements that allowed the line to be built. Among his accomplishments were: the building of the Washington Branch from Baltimore to Washington, DC; the 1836 “Eight Million Bill” in the Maryland legislature, which gave the B&O $3 million in stock subscriptions and allowed it to continue building westward; laying the groundwork for the relationship with Baring Brothers & Co., the London banking firm; and helping to resolve legal issues with the state of Virginia in building the line to Wheeling on the Ohio River.

In addition to his legal work, Latrobe was an accomplished artist, known as a landscape painter and illustrator. His best-known invention is the "Latrobe" stove. He became a central figure in the movement to colonize Liberia with freed slaves from the U.S. His painting, "Maryland in Liberia," shows the settlement Cape Palmas, part of a large area of Liberia named "Maryland" because of Latrobe's support of the American Colonization Society there.

In Baltimore, Latrobe was a well-known cultural figure as a founder and president of the Maryland Historical Society, a founder of the Maryland Institute for Promotion of the Mechanical Arts , and a member of the commission that established Druid Hill Park.

He was married twice, first to Margaret Steuart in 1828. They had one son, Henry (1830-1876) before her death in 1831. His second marriage to Charlotte Virginia Claiborne (1815-1903) produced seven children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Their eldest son, Ferdinand (1833-1911) was a businessman and mayor of Baltimore. John H.B. Latrobe died in Baltimore on September 11, 1891.1619
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John was Grand Master of the State of Maryland in the Masonry. He was appointed a cadet at West Point in December 1817 at fourteen years old.1622
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Among my play mates, while we lived on the Avenue [Pennsylvania Ave. Washington D.C.], I remember the children of Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, 1801-1813, and an intimate friend of our family. He had the reputation of being one of the greatest financiers of the age. He lived not far from the Capitol, in an odd-looking house with an immense garret.1623
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Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, 1809-1813, was one of my father's friends, that I often saw at the Avenue house. I remember him most distinctly a tall, straight, well-made man, who wore powder, and dressed in a blue coat and metal buttons. His daughter Susan was a friend of my sister Julia and was my second sweetheart, and 'reigned supreme until, when eleven years old, I fell desperately in love with Ann Van Ness, the daughter of a leading man in Washington, a friend of my father, our near neighbor at the Avenue house. She afterwards married Arthur Middleton, I believe.1624
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It must have been sometime in 1811 that we moved from the Navy Yard House to a large three-story house on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, about half way between the Capitol and the President's house.

There was the same collection of pleasant people around my father and mother at the Avenue house that I have spoken of, and in addition was Madame Bonaparte, the beautiful wife of Jerome Bonaparte, whose name, in connection with the imperial family, is historical.

I remember her well she had, almost to her death, the wit and vivacity of her early days. Intimate in my father's family, she was unquestionably one of the most attractive of my mother's visitors. Ten or twelve years afterwards, and when I was a member of the bar, I met her in society in Baltimore, still beautiful and attractive, and still later by some twenty years or more, an old acquaintanpe was revived, when all that remained of her beauty was the sparkle of her dark eyes, when no one could have recognized in the clumsy old woman, in a well-worn bonnet and faded cloak, the beautiful and attractive ornament of society in the days of Mrs. Madison. But Madame Bonaparte, as she liked to be called, was still as bright and clever as ever.1625

Note: There is an interesting story that follows in this narrative about the life of Madame Bonaparte and the refusal of both her father and of her father-in-law Napolean Bonaparte to recognize her marriage. “Position, rank and money were her gods.”3
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It was at the Avenue House that I first saw Francis S. Key (author of the 'Star-Spangled Banner') and Henry Clay. Mr. and Mrs. Clay were frequent visitors, and here I had the honor of having my ears soundly boxed by Mrs. [Dolly] Madison.

I had been on some outdoor errand, and was loitering along with my hat down over my ears on the gravel path, which was between the poplars which separated the carriage drive from the brick pavement in front of the house, when I suddenly found an immense gray horse on either side of me. Escaping under the belly of the horse on my right, I ran as hard as I could home, and hid myself.

At that time the President drove four grays, and I had been caught between the leaders. Being sent for into the parlor, I found Mrs. Madison and my mother, and the former, who was standing up at the time, seized and shook me, saying as she boxed my ears, 'You young villain, you scared me out of my senses.' My mother shook me into the bargain, to make me stop crying, and I was dismissed in disgrace.1626
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In December 1817, when he was fourteen years old, Mr. Latrobe was appointed a cadet and directed to report at West Point for examination in September of the following year.

A letter from Mr. Latrobe, Sr., to his father-in-law, Mr. Isaac Hazlehurst, gives his reasons for sending his son to West Point.The letter is as follows:

Washington, March 9, 1817.

Isaac Hazlehurst, Esq.

Philadelphia.

My dear Father:

As you have so lately seen our son John, and have had an opportunity of knowing what sort of a boy he is, both as to disposition, interests and growth, I need not describe him. He is in most respects everything a parent could wish, and his faults are partly those of his age; partly those of his extreme forwardness in bodily growth and mental development.

He is, in fact, conscious of great superiority over all his companions of the same age, and he governs their bodies and minds rather despotically. I am not without apprehension that with such a constitution and strength, and with such a fearless mind, the faults which now appear most reprehensible in him will be much augmented as he grows up; although his goodness of heart may somewhat repair the injurious effects.

Independent of the haughty manner which he, even in our family, does not always lay aside, we have no serious fault to find with him. We must now consider what part he is to act in the world. The reputation of the family on both sides forbids our looking to any profession but that of a gentleman for him. If he is to be a lawyer or a physician, he must receive a college education of three years at least. If a merchant, his time in any respectable counting-house will be extremely expensive to us. But as I am retrieving my affairs very rapidly, I am not in any doubt as to my being able to defray the expenses of his education, and I confess even now I could not have a more useful assistant in my office. But he ought to go from home, and that soon, and if it were otherwise desirable, I would much prefer to bring him up to any other profession.

One of our most intimate friends here is Colonel Bomford of the Ordnance. He is a man of considerable professional merit, as well as private worth, and he and John have formed a very close acquaintanceship. Very unequal, but other wise very intimate. Colonel Bomford has filled his heart with the advantages of an education at West Point, and whatever else he may submit to be done with him, nothing will so well satisfy him as to go to West Point. The advantages which this career afford are:

First: His education will cost us nothing, and it will be of the very best kind. He will learn to speak French fluently, and become an excellent mathematician, draftsman and chemist.

Second: His pay $19.00 a month will clothe him, and in fact $100.00 per annum will be ample additional allowance for other expenses. He can spend two months annually at home.

Third: The severe military discipline he must undergo, the early hours and exercise among the mountains, appear necessary to his indolence and the development of his constitution.

Fourth: As a preparatory education for civil department of his preference, he cannot possibly have a better.

Fifth: In three years he is entitled to a Second Lieutenancy, and may then stay at West Point or be employed at some fortification which may then be in the course of construction. He may then at twenty-one or twenty-two, if I live so long, take my place and continue as an architect or civil engineer.

The objection seems to me to be comprised in one, namely, a determined taste acquired at West Point for military life, yielding in our country neither profit nor honor. We are now anxiously debating on the point, believing that in May or June we will be able to place him in a military school with advantage, but to your wishes we are determined to submit.

(Signed) "B. H. Latrobe."1627
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As soon as the family was settled in Baltimore, I joined them, having been sent, while the moving was going on, to pay a visit to my grandfather Hazlehurst, whose country residence at 'Clover Hill' near Mount Holly, N. J., had been for many years a place of reunion.

It was on this occasion that my uncle lent me his horse 'Sportsman.' I had driven across New Jersey, by way of Freehold, to pay a visit to my sister, Mrs. Roosevelt, matters that I mention only to show that at fourteen I was regarded as more worthy of confidence than boys of that age usually are.1628
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In Baltimore I was sent as a day scholar to Saint Mary's College....These were pleasant days, and it still stirs my heart to recall them. One of my most intimate friends in my Saint Mary's days was Sam Eccleston, older than I was and one or two classes ahead of me, a fine gallant boy, full of talent and gifted with great eloquence even as a boy. He afterwards entered the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church and died Archbishop of Baltimore.1629
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[T]here were some ten or a dozen boys awaiting their examination. This I underwent the next morning, wrote a sentence from dictation, read it aloud, did a sum in the rule of three, another in decimals, and was then declared worthy of being admitted to the [West Point] Academy. This was on the 28th September 1818, when I was duly recorded as being fifteen years and five months by the Post Adjutant.... I remember the Adjutant looked at me with surprise when I told him my age and said something about my looking young when I was old, for I certainly looked old when I was young. And now commenced the West Point period of my life, successful in spite of all the drawbacks of my schoolboy experiences.1630
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Looking back at my West Point career, I am afraid I cannot say that I was a saint there. I was fond of fun, and took my share of the risks of being found out. Luckily for me, perhaps, there were then no demerit marks. Punishment consisted in extra hours of guard duty, or in having to go upon the police squad and sweep the barrack yards on Saturday afternoon. The account was settled in this way on the spot, instead of a balance being allowed to accumulate to tell at the end of the four years, in regulating one's standing for the army.

An event of my West Point life was a visit which my father paid me, bringing with him my brother Ben. They remained a day or two, during which my father, with his wonderful conversational powers, popularized himself with the Professors and those of my friends who were introduced to him.1570
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[The death of my father] created a change in my future. A good deal of correspondence took place, and ultimately it was determined, on the advice of my father's dear friend, General Harper, that it would be better for me to resign, enter his office as a student of law, and look forward to taking charge of the family and attempting its support by the time the means of my mother were exhausted. As soon as this was determined on, it was carried into effect. I resigned my cadetship, and came to Baltimore in the middle of my last year, in December or January 1821-22.

I have often thought since that this was a mistake, that I should have remained until the end of my term, for my failure to do so has ever since imposed on me the necessity of a long explanation, when asked when I graduated.

While I remained at the Academy in my fourth year, I fully maintained my position at the head of the class, and there is no doubt that I would have maintained it to the end. But then again, once actually in the army, with my strong predilections for the calling, it is not impossible I might have continued there, when it was clearly my duty to take my father's place and be at the head of the household.

So, with regrets, of course, but willingly at the same time, I sent in my resignation, bade my dear old comrades 'Good-bye,' and, falling out of the ranks of the military, fell in among the civilians.1631
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John has a friendship with Civil War general John Gibbon.1632