Word: ledyard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...John Ledyard brings new meaning to the word “trekkie.” Like modern-day “Star Trek” devotees, Ledyard had an obsession with the final frontier and exploration. However, back in 1786, when the intrepid Dartmouth College drop-out managed to walk through Scandinavia in the dead of winter, the last unknowns were still earthbound. James Zug’s lithe, aptly-named biography, “American Traveler,” delightfully follows the haphazard journeys of the first great American explorer, who sailed with Captain Cook, dined with Thomas Jefferson...
...Ledyard was born in 1751 to a pair of first cousins who had to run away from their homes in Groton, Conn., to get married. After his father died at sea, Ledyard went to learn business from his paternal grandfather—but the two were a mismatched pair. As a result, the older Ledyard diverged from the tradition of handing down his estate to his eldest son’s eldest son, leaving young John only 60 pounds—equivalent to almost $10,000 today. Not bad, but the estate was worth about...
Snubbed in the will, Ledyard headed north to the new Dartmouth College, which was not yet two years old. The entire institution consisted of only three log cabins buried in the rustic Hanover, N.H., woods. (It’s not much more of a happening place today.) But Ledyard sought to spice up life at the Big Green. He nettled the college president with cheeky requests for fencing lessons, and he audaciously organized a camping trip through knee-deep snow in the middle of winter. During a mysterious two-and-a half-month disappearance, Ledyard somehow managed to spend...
This undignified departure closed the door on a ministerial career, but, as Zug rightly points out, Ledyard would never have lasted long in such a strict, ordered profession. He joined a sea voyage to England in 1775, deserted, and was pressed into service in the Royal Navy as the Revolutionary War loomed on the horizon. In 1776, Ledyard seized the chance to serve on the renowned Captain James Cook’s third expedition, which hoped to discover a Northwest Passage to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
...Ledyard was lionized in American newspapers after word of his death reached the States. His exploits attracted the attention of the famed historian and future Harvard president Jared Sparks, Class of 1815. Sparks published a comprehensive biography of Ledyard in 1828, the first edition of which now lies in Widener. Almost two centuries before Captains Kirk and Picard, Ledyard had set the standard for world travelers. He had dared to boldly go where no man had gone before...