Bennington

MALTBY, William Jackson

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, pp 195-196

(extracted from a section on the history of Dorset, Bennington County, 
Vermont; author's source was a biographical sketch in the "Bangor Daily 
Evening Press")

William Jackson MALTBY was born 17 April 1831 at Sutton [Worcester County], 
Massachusetts, son of Rev. John MALTBY. In his second year he was entrusted 
to the care of his maternal grandparents in Dorset [Bennington County, 
Vermont]. Everything there favored the perfect growth of his physical, 
intellectual and moral powers. He early entered Burr Seminary and fitted for 
college, when but fourteen. For a short time, however, he became connected 
with Phillips Academy, Andover ["Phillips Academy" in Andover, Windsor 
County, Vermont, or "Phillips Exeter Academy," sometimes referred to as 
"Phillips Academy," in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts?], and there, in 
the family of his uncle, Samuel JACKSON, D. D., contracted the commencement 
of chronic throat disease. In 1847 he entered Yale College, and graduated in 
1851. The winter of 1851 and 1852 he taught at Machias [Washington County], 
Maine; the two following years at Elmwood Institute, Norriston [Montgomery 
County], Pennsylvania; then for a few months in a school at Unity [Waldo 
County], Maine. In 1853 he was received into membership with the Hammond 
Street Church, Bangor [Penobscot County, Maine], of which his father was 
pastor, and during the winter of 1853, and 1855, became connected with the 
Theological Seminary there.

Travels [edited]: Sailed from New York; arrived in Hamburg November 1855, 
renewing his acquaintance with German and Hebrew; winter at Hermansburg, as 
pupil and teacher in the Moravian Mission School, under pastor HARMS; spring 
1856 returned to Hamburg and commenced a pedestrian tour through Germany, 
Tyrol, Switzerland, accomplishing a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles a 
day; winter 1857 at the University of Berlin [where he attended lectures] on 
Theology, Biblical Criticism and Geography; summer 1857 toured Northern 
Europe; for six weeks studied Norwegian and Danish, attending lectures at the 
University; passed through Hammerfest, the most northern town in the world; 
returned south through Sweden and Russia to Stockholm; in all, a journey of a 
thousand miles; spent winter at University of Copenhagen studying Icelandic, 
Danish, Finish, old English, Mesogothic; April 1858 returned to Berlin; 
following spring and summer visited cities of Germany; gave some time to 
study of French in Geneva; crossed the St. Bernard [pass]; journeyed 
southward through Genoa to Rome, Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii; November left 
Italy for Egypt; five months studied Arabic, Nile voyage, desert ruins, 
Thebes, Red Sea; May 1859 Jerusalem; through Syria and Palestine; July 
Constantinople, and remained with his uncle Mr. HAMLIN through the year, 
making excursions in the vicinity, to Broosa and Mt. Olympus, and engaged in 
the study of Modern Greek. left 01 January 1860 for University at Athens; 
after three months there, toured Greece; midsummer studied Italian at 
Florence; September at Madrid via Marseilles. There he received notice of 
his appointment as Professor elect of Modern Languages at Bowdoin College, 
and hastened to complete his preparatory work; devoted eleven hours a day to 
Spanish; October planned journey through southern Spain and Portugal, France, 
and British Isles, planned to go home spring 1861.

In February last [the date this sketch was written is not given], 
intelligence was received from Mr. PRESTON, U. S. Minister at Madrid, that 
after much suffering, Mr. [William Jackson] MALTBY had fallen victim to 
typhus fever, and on the first morning of the new year was laid to rest in 
the quiet of the English Protestant Cemetery. Life's preparatory work was 
completed, [but] God called him, and among strangers, in a strange land, he 
[died]. During his absence, Mr. MALTBY had furnished the papers at home with 
letters for publication, and at the time of his death was engaged as a 
correspondent of "The New York World."

Submitted by Cathy Kubly