Miles Rock—an intrepid naturalist, civil engineer, astronomer and Civil War soldier—was one of fve men who composed Lehigh’s frst graduating class, the Class of 1869. Born in Pennsylvania, his life journey began in the farmlands of Lancaster County, continued through the Civil War, included time in the 1st Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps and U.S. Signal Corps, and led to a distinguished career that took him throughout the Americas to theWest Indies, Guatemala and elsewhere. More than 120 years after his death, Rock’s relics and records have now made their way to Lehigh, where they will be preserved and made available for research. His great-great-grandsons, brothers David Grace and Chris Grace, recently donated enough material to fll a large cargo van—fve steamer trunks packed by Rock’s son following his death, along with six bankers boxes, a suitcase, two garment boxes and several rolled wall maps—to the Lehigh University Libraries Special Collections. “These are materials that tell a full story ... This is just an amazing collection with so much research potential,” said Lois Black, the curator for Lehigh’s Special Collections. Rock is the only alum to have served in the Civil War, and it is the frst time the university had received a Civil War uniform, she said. “The insights the collection will provide into the life of one of the frst self-made Lehigh graduates, and the frst Lehigh Alumni Association president, are truly priceless,” said Boaz Nadav Manes, Lehigh University librarian. “We feel extremely fortunate to receive such an intimate gift from his descendants.” Some of the trunks hadn’t been touched since Rock’s death in 1901. One of them, bearing his initials, also includes a tattered sticker for the Hotel Grunewald in New Orleans—now The Roosevelt New Orleans. The slots inside are flled with newspapers from Rock’s lifetime. There are also mementos from his time at Lehigh, including an “autograph book” signed by friends like Henry Sturgis Drinker, a mechanical engineer, lawyer and author who went on to become Lehigh’s ffth president. A Special Connection to Lehigh Rock was devoted to Lehigh, even naming his son Alfred Mayer after his favorite professor Alfred Marshall Mayer, who was in charge of what was then the Department of Astronomy, David said. “We were really hopeful we would fnd a place where it wouldn’t get lost in a larger collection or some remote collection where no one knew about it,” Chris said. “Lehigh was a natural frst choice.” Lehigh also made Rock’s impressive career possible, David added. “It’s where he was introduced to science, astronomy and surveying,” he said. Rock was the eighth of 10 children. The majority of men during his time were farmers who never left the county they were born in, according to the blog Roots andWings Research by KristinWenger, a Lititz-based professional genealogist and educator, who is a descendant of Rock’s sister, Caroline. Rock’s achievements were even more remarkable considering his father, Peter, died when Rock was just 5 years old. Because of this, the children were “farmed out” as apprentices or farm laborers to live with other families, Wenger says in her blog. While education beyond the eighth grade was extremely rare in 1850s Lancaster County, she writes, Rock somehow managed to attend college and launch his remarkable career. When Rock died in Guatemala following a bout of severe food poisoning, his son Alfred retrieved the items from Rock’s home in the Central American country and brought themback to the family home inWashington, D.C. Alfred died three years later in a mining accident in Mexico, and his sister Amy Cordoba (Rock) Ransome assumed possession of the items until her death in 1942. After a few generations, they ended up in David and Chris’s childhoodhome inupstateNewYork. Every time aNational Geographic Special came on television, their mother would remind the family that there was a scientist and adventurer in their past—Miles Rock. “He was a central fgure in our family’s stories and our grandparents’ house was flled with things associated with that side of the family,” David said. When the brothers’ parents died and their house was sold, the collection was moved into storage in Boston, where Chris lives. In October 2021, he rented a cargo van, 3 2 | L E H I G H B U L L E T I N 3 2 | L E H I G H B U L L E T I N
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