[Henry Fowle]. American philanthropist, born in Hanover, NH, on the 20th of February 1822. His name was originally Henry Welles Smith. He was graduated at Harvard in 1841, read law with General Benjamin F. Butler, and in 1846 was admitted to the bar in Boston, becoming prominent in his profession. He became interested in the New York Belting and Packing Company, and other profitable ventures, and in 1863, on the death of his son, retired from business. He determined to devote his life to the cause of the Christian religion, and, to that end, became a lay preacher in 1864. He became impressed with the necessity of a college for the higher education of women, and founded Wellesley College, at Wellesley, MA, at a cost of a million dollars and an annual endowment of fifty thousand dollars. It was opened in September 1875. He died in Wellesley on the 3rd of October 1881.
