OCR Text |
Show Literary Club Takes Up Biographies The Ladies Literary Club met at the home of Mrs. J. F. Noyes Saturday Satur-day afternoon, Mrs. William Chip-man Chip-man being the as.si-.aing hostess. The program cf the afternoon was in keeping with Flag Day. During the afternoon A. B. Allen gave an interesting in-teresting and educational talk on the origin and uses of the American flag. Musical numbers were given by Mrs. W. R. Halliday who sang "My Country's Flag" and Mrs. C. E. Young who rendered "The Flag Without A Stain," Miss Naomi Halliday accompanying both. Late in the afternoon lunch was served, the menu for which centered center-ed around the national colors in keeping with the day. A short biography of Dr. Thomas L. Martin was given by Mrs. Joseph Nicholes, the first of a series of similar simi-lar sketches to be given by members of the club in the future, in which the progress made .by various people reared in American Fork, many of ' whom now are residents of all parts of the country, will be depicted. The j club member has the privilege of I selecting the person whom she will 1 write of and Mrs. Nicholes chose Dr. ' Martin, of Prove, well known in this city. The biography follows: From Immigrant To Professor Dr. Thomas L. Martin i He was the oldest son of James and Mary A. Lyso.ns Martin. Thomas .was born in 1885, in Low Valley, Yorkshire. England. During the years of 1901 to 1904 he was a child laborer in the coal mines of Great ' Britian, and in 1905, an immigrant,, noble of purpose, aspiring to Ameri- i can Citizenship of the superior type, i a.nd compelled by the loftiest motives ! of Christian idealism. j I Owing to the free school system j i here in America he soon became (enrolled, and made rapid progress in i the grades. He had a rich tenor voice and at that particular time music was first introduced into our schools by Prof. Mark Robinson and Miss Lottie Owen. Those musical Professors choose from the seventh grade a quartette, Thomas L. Martin, Milton Chipman, Ray D. Nicholes, and Au-! Au-! burn Chipman. Oh! how that quartette quar-tette could sing. They were called on to sing in church functions, school parties, clubs etc. j After graduating from the grade schools Thomas attended the Brig-ham Brig-ham Young University at Provo. j He married Hattie Paxman of this ! city June, 1911. So with the added care and responsibility of raising a family one would naturally think ! that would end his going to school, but not so with this energetic young man. A dear friend cf Iris said to him one day, "Thomas you connot hope to continue on to school now with no income, and your family ex-1 ex-1 pe.nses to keep up." He doubled up i his fists and replied "as long 'as I ' have strength in these arms of mine i I'll work my way through school and ' go on and on until I get my Ph. D." j In America his artistic soul caught I the full meaning of "Land of op-1 op-1 portunity; 'He can who thinks he 1 can,' and an education is the privilege privi-lege of every man who will pay the price." All this grew into a living challenge for a noble Britisher-American Britisher-American in whose veins flowed the blood of earlier patriots. Then on I to college, helped, not hindered by Iwife and children. Dr. Martin received his A. B. from ! the Brigham Young University at 'Provo, Utah, in 1912 and his Ph. D. from Cornell University in 1919. : Since then he has been principal of ' three different Academies. During ! 1917 to 1919 while at Cornell University, Univer-sity, he was assistant, instructor in soils. His major graduate work was , done in the field of soils and bac-; bac-; teriology. In 1930 he was a deligate ifrom America to the International I Soils Science Congress in Russia, and the International Botanical j Congress in England. He was ap-I ap-I pointed Professor of Agronomy at it-he Brigham Young University in I 1921. and still holds that honorable position. (June, 1934). o |