Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.[11]
Coolidge's family had deep roots in New England. The earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.[12] Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth.[13] His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives.[14] Coolidge was also a descendant of Samuel Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War.[15]

The Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont

Coolidge as an Amherst College undergraduate

Early career and marriage
Education and law practice
Professor Charles Edward Garman
Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then St. Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class. As a senior, he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated cum laude. While at Amherst, Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman—a Congregational mystic who had a neo-Hegelian philosophy.
