He began as a boy ...

working his own way in New England, having been born at Yarmouth, Maine, in 1866. He studied telegraphy, and finally became telegraph operator and railroad agent out in California as a boy of sixteen. He then took up stenography, and occupied positions successively as reporter, proofreader and bookkeeper in Boston. His ambition was to work his way through college, and he finally entered Harvard in 1891, graduating four years later with a degree of A.B.

MORE =} Horatio W. Dresser Correspondence ~ 1930