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Note: Rufus Bassett Howland was born 14 Sep 1851. He was an intelligent man of kindly disposition and quiet humor. He was loved dearly by his younger brother, Arthur C. Howland. Rufus was 20 years older that Arthur and was almost a father to him. The only time his daughter ever knew of her own father to cry was when Uncle Rufus died in 1923 of cancer. Earlier Rufus had come to be with the family in Philadelphia in order to have the best medical advice at the university of Pennsylvania. The family must have been told there was nothing that could be done and he returned to Trumansburg. Rufus married Eleanor Dale (born 3 Dec. 1855) on 27 Jun, 1878. There were three children, Susan, born 15 Jan 1886; Charles born 10 May 1888; and Eleanor, born 23 Nov. 1889. Charles lived only two months, and Eleanor lived five years. Rufus' wife died 2 Aug. 1892, probably of diphtheria, and he never remarried. His sister Elizabeth came to live with him and Susan. In 1868 Rufus entered Cornell, graduating in Civil Engineering in 1872, the first full four-year class to graduate. His class gave the University an avenue of elm trees which I can remember and hope have not succumbed to the elm blight. Upon graduation, he taught for a year in School District #1 and in the fall of 1873 started teaching at Wyoming Seminary. Rufus taught mathematics and was dean of boys at Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pa. until his retirement in 1917. Summers were spent at the family homestead in South Danby. In 1917 Rufus bought the house in Trumansburg and moved there. Here his brother, Arthur, and family would often join him for summer vacations. On the five acres, in addition to the large white clapboard house, there was a big red barn, a chicken house, and of course a well near the back door. The eight members of the family would sit around the dining room table, Uncle Rufus, a deeply religious man, always said a blessing before dinner. There would be much conversation and a lot of joking. Uncle Rufus had grown very deaf. Susan, his daughter, always sat on his right and in a quiet voice would repeat whatever he had missed in the conversation. He was always able to hear her. Uncle Rufus was kind and gentle with us children and he and my father and brothers would go off on what appeared to be to be very adventurous expeditions. Dad sometimes called him "reckless Ruffie."
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