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Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872) was very likely the most accomplished man to have been born within the boundaries of present-day Braintree. Although an indifferent student during his
early school years, Sylvanus displayed a remarkable memory. Then, during a
period of about seven years during which he went to live with an uncle and
attend school in Washington, New Hampshire, he seems to have found himself
academically. Ultimately, he entered Dartmouth College in 1803, led his senior
class scholastically, and was chosen to deliver the valedictory. However, before commencement he was appointed a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He completed the course of study in a year, graduating at the head of his class in 1808, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. In 1815 he was sent by the Army to France to study engineering and military science at the Ecole Polytechnique. Soon after his return in 1817, President James Monroe appointed him Superintendent of the Military Academy, a post he held for 16 years until resigning due to a disagreement with President Andrew Jackson.
During his long period of active service, he oversaw the extensive reconstruction of Forts Independence, Warren and Winthrop on Boston Harbor, as well as the engineering of other fortifications along the East Coast. Sylvanus Thayer retired as a Brigadier
General on May 31, 1863. Following his retirement, General Thayer, a bachelor,
gave about $70,000 to Dartmouth College to establish and endow the Thayer School
of Engineering, then the first graduate level engineering program in the nation.
Thayer also located and recommended the man who became the first, and then only,
professor and dean. He also provided $300,000 for creation of Thayer Academy in
Braintree, and $32,000 for a building and upkeep of Thayer Public Library in the
Town. The great man died in 1872 at the age of eighty-seven at his home in Braintree. Five years after his death, his relatives consented to his remains being re-interred at West Point. In 1883, the Thayer Monument was dedicated at the Academy. Each year since 1958, the Sylvanus Thayer Award has been given by the Association of Graduates to an outstanding citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify the Military Academy motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.” Then, on June 7, 1985 a U.S. postage stamp bearing the likeness of Sylvanus Thayer was issued at Braintree to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth. He is also memorialized in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City.
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The
improvements in the Academy’s programs he initiated were so positive and
far-reaching that he is known today as the “Father of the Military Academy.”
Indeed, by 1825, West Point was firmly established as the first professional
engineering school in the United States. This accomplishment has led to Thayer’s
recognition as the “Father of Technological Education in the United States.”
