USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Leicester > Brief history of Leicester, Massachusetts > Part 7
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The range of studies was very varicd. Students were fitted for college, while in the English depart- ment the lowest common branches were taught. Dr. James Jackson, English preceptor in 1796, says, "I believe all my pupils had learned the alphabet before I saw them. I taught spelling, reading, writing, English grammar and arithmetic, and perhaps, to a few of the pupils, some of the higher branches." The charge for tuition was one shilling per week for the elassics, and nine pence for English branches.
The institution soon found itself embarrassed in its finanees. The currency was depreciated. The Shays' Rebellion "threatened the country with civil war. The income of the funds was so reduced that it was necessary to dispense with the services of the principal preceptor. The " large and elegant house" soon proved inadequate and uncomfortable, and came to be looked upon, in the words of an early teacher, as " theold, rick- ety, inconvenient Jewish house," of which theseats werc
"old and crowded," and which was heated by an " old- fashioned box-stove," so that "teachers and students " were " infested and inflated with steam and smoke." Measures were taken as early as 1786 to rebuild, but there were no tincans, and the institution was forty pounds in debt. It was a gloomy period in the his- tory of the infant academy. In the general depres- sion the school had become greatly reduced in num- bers. In this emergency the town again showed its intelligent appreciation of the value of the institution, and, notwithstanding the embarrassed condition ofits own resources, appropriated fifty pounds toward the salary of the preceptor, who received, in addition, the amount of tuitions.
The trustees had already appealed to the churches for funds; they now turned to another source. It was at a time before moralists and Christian men had come to understand the true character and demoral- izing tendency of the lottery system. The trustees obtained permission of the Legislature, and issued a lottery "for the repairing Leicester Academy and making additional buildings thereto."
The public were urged to purchase tickets on the ground that " the Academy at Leicester is established for promoting piety and virtuc, and for the education of youths, etc." Rev. Mr. Conklin was one of a com - mittee to ask the General Court for an extension of time and an increase of the amount from £600 to £1200; $1419.22 was thus raised for the academy. In 1792 the Legislature made a grant of a town in Maine to the academy, which, in a few years, added $9,200 to the funds of the institution. With the adoption of the Federal Constitution confidence and prosperity returned to the country, aud the academy felt the re- action. In 1804 the funds had inercased to $16,703.68.
After long delay and various changes of plan, the new building was begun in 1805. A half-acre of land east of the original lot had the year before been pur- chased of Mr. Dall, of Boston, for seven hundred dollars. Still further addition of land was made by gift and later by purchase of Dr. Austin Flint. The architect of the new building was Rand White, of Leicester, who received as remuneration $9.84.
The corner-stone was laid on the 14th of May with much ceremony. A procession, consisting of "Artif- icers," the corner-stone drawn by seventeen horscs, a band of musie, the president of the board, the build- ing committee, and trustces, magistrates, selectmen of Leicester, citizens and students of the academy moved through the streets to the place, the stone was laid by the master-builder and the object of the structure was stated by the president, who offered prayer.
The procession then passed into the meeting-house, where there were further exercises. The building was ready for occupancy in January, 1806. It was of three stories, with a cupola. It was dedicated on the 4th of July, 1806. Again a procession was formed on the Common, consisting of the band, students, preceptors and trustees, and moved from the old to the
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new building, where the structure was received by the board, and the president, Dr. Sumner, delivered an address. At the church, whither the procession passed, prayer was offered by Dr. Sumner, and Dr. Aaron Bancroft delivered an address on the " Import- ance of Education." Ou both of the occasions de- scribed, Dr. Sumner, with great white wig and trian- gular eocked hat, was a conspicuous figure. The cost of the building was $9,054.36. It was built by the "job" in a very unsatisfactory manner. The founda- tions were not sufficiently firm and "settled," causing the building to be "raeked and injured." It was hastily and unskillfully covered and finished, so that "the winds and storms of heaven " had free access. The subsequent expense and labor of repairs were fruitless, and after twenty-six years it gave place to the present structure.
Apparatus for the illustration of the sciences had already been purchased, eonsisting of globes, a tele- seope, mieroscope, electric machine, thermometer and surveying instruments.
It was at first understood that the principal was re- sponsible for the management of the school, but it is evident that the two departments soon became quite distinct. Dr. James Jackson, who was English pre- ceptor in 1796 and 1797, says, "The schools were conducted quite independently of each other," and that he believed that the principal " had no right to control 'him.' Certainly, he never did." In 1821, however, the trustees, to prevent all misunderstand- ing, declared the principal preceptor the authoritative head of both departments. The English teacher presided over his own school-room, with power to punish. One of the penalties was the imposition of fines; this, however, was, by vote of the trustees in 1834, prohibited, and at the same time expulsion was made subject to the approval of a committee of the trustees. For many years corporal punishment was resorted to in eases of discipline, and there are still traditions of severe inflictions and even of struggles in the school-room, and of guilty boys, in thoughtful mood and with sad apprehensions, accompanying the principal from the academy to the gloomy seclusion of his own barn.
The funds of the academy after the erection of the second school building in 1806 amounted to $8,992.21. In 1814 Captain Thomas Newhall left a legacy of $1,000, and $1,000 additional for the tuition of pupils in town residing over a mile from the academy. Small sums were afterward subscribed at different times, and the State gave land in Paxton, which had been held by an alien, and had "escheated " to the Commonwealth, which was sold for $400.
In 1823 "sundry individuals in the town of Leiees- ter, procured by subscription a philosophieal ap- paratus, and presented it to the academy, eost over $500." That year the academy received its first con- siderable legacy. Captain Israel Waters, of Charlton, " was," in the language of Governor Washburn, "the
architect of his own fortune." IIe was born in Sutton. A poor boy, he pressed his way to wealth by his own industry, enterprise and determination. His business was the manufacture of leather, in the northerly part of Charlton. He made the academy his residuary legatee, and established the Waters Fund, "for the purpose of supporting an instructor, or instructors, of the Congregational Calvinistie order " " in the town of Leicester forever." The will provided, in case of the removal of the school from town, that the trustees in town should take the fund and use the interest for maintaining a public school, ealled the Waters School or Academy. If the time should come when there would be no such trustees, the seleetmen were to fulfill the trust. The amount received from this estate was something over $8,000.
In 1831 the academy received $4,686.36 and also the avails of ecrtain lands in Maine and Vermont from the estate of Hon. Isaiah Thomas, the distin- guished Revolutionary patriot, original publisher of the Woreester Spy, and founder of the American Antiquarian Society ; and the same year $250 by the will of Hon. Nathaniel Maccarty, of Worcester. In 1832 the value of the funds was $21,970.67. The building of the new academy in 1834, with the other expenses, reduced the amount, so that in 1844 it was only $13,611.72. The next year Hon. Daniel Waldo, of Worcester, for seventeen years a valuable member of the board of trustees, left the academy the sum of $6,000, to constitute the Waldo Fund, the interest of which was to be used for the " payment for able in- struction in the various branches of knowledge, etc.'
It is, however, to James Smith, Esq., of Philadel- phia, that the institution is most largely indebted for its endowment. He was born in Rutland, January 20, 1788, came to Leicester in 1810 a pale-faced, poor boy, all his worldly goods tied in a pocket handker- chief. First a clerk in the store of Colonel Thomas Denny, whose danghter Maria he married in 1815, he became an; aged in the manufacture of eard cloth- ing. The foundations of his wealth were laid in the period of the last war with England. In 1836 he re- moved to Philadelphia, where he continued the same business. Some years ago, addressing the students of the academy, he said: "I early in life formed this determination, that I would be useful." That resolve was the key-note of his life.
He helped many who were in straits. He took especial pleasure in aiding young students, especially those who were fitting themselves for Christian work. He gave during his life, and in his will, liberal dona- tions to various literary institutions. In 1852 he gave to the academy $10,000, on condition that $5000 additional should be raised. The condition was eom- plied with, Honorable Stephen Salisbury and Joseph A. Denny, Esq., contributing $1000 each, Thomas Denny, Esq., of New York, J. Wiley Edmands, of Newton, Ichabod Washburn, of Worcester, and John A. Smith subscribing $500 each, and other individ-
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ual sums varying from $100 to $5 cach. In 1877 he placed in the hands of the trustees $15,000, to be added to the amount already given, thus making the Smith Fund $25,000. This fund became available in 1879, after his death.
Benjamin Stone was principal of the academy from June, 1784, to October, 1787; Amos Crosby from October, 1787, to July, 1788. He was a native of Brookfield and graduated at Harvard in 1786; after- ward a lawyer in Brookfield. He is described as "a man of great quickness and ready wit and with con- vivial tastes and habits" which developed into dissi- pation. Samuel Sumner, son of Dr. Sumner, of Shrewsbury, was principal from October, 1788, to July, 1790, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1786, after- ward a clergyman. David Smith from July, 1790, to May, 1792; a native of Ipswich, graduated from Harvard 1790; afterward a elergyman. Ebenezer Adams, after teaching one year in the English depart- nrent, was principal from May, 1792, to July, 1806; born in Ipswich in 1765, graduated from Dartmouth in 1791. Ile is represented as one of the ablest, most beloved and most successful of the early principals of the Academy. He passed with the institution through its gloomy period of depression, into the dawn of its returning prosperity, and did much to shape its future character. From July, 1806, to October, 1807, Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore discharged the duties of prin- eipal, while at the sanre time pastor of the church. Simeon Colton was principal from October, 1897, to February, 1809. Luther Willsou from February, 1809, to August, 1812; born in New Braintree ; graduated from Williams in 1807. Josiah Clark from March, 1812, to August, 1818; born in Northampton 1785 ; graduated from Williams in 1809; afterward pastor of the church in Rutland and many years a trustee. Bradford Sumner, one term, 1818 and 1819; graduated from Brown in 1808. John Richardson, from Feb- ruary, 1819, to August, 1833; born in Woburn, grad- uated from Harvard in 1813. He is remembered as a thorough disciplinarian, a good scholar and instructor. Luther Wright, from August, 1833, to August, 1839; born in East Hampton and graduated from Yale in 1822. Ile was a man of great vigor, a good scholar and effec- tive teacher. Under his administration the school greatly increased in numbers. He was afterward prin- cipal of the Williston Academy, Easthampton.
In 1832 the second academy buikling was sold for four hundred dollars. The new building was erected on the site of the old. Mr. Elias Carter was the architect. It is of brick, three stories in height. It was one lrundred and two feet in length, the centre forty-two feet by forty, and the wings thirty feet square. The east wing has in part been occupied by the principals and their families, and the west as a boarding-house. The upper rooms were for the asso- ciate preceptor and students. The building was completed and finished in the winter of 1833, and on the 25th of December was dedicated.
Addresses were made by Rev. George Allen on be- half of the trustees, and Mr. Luther Wright, the principal preceptor. The subject of Mr. Wright's address was "Education." It was published, to- gether with a "Brief Sketch of the History of Lei- cester Academy," prepared under the direction of the building committee. The cost of the edifice was ten thousand dollars. Mr. Wright was principal for six years, with Mr. Joseph L. Partridge as assistant, and also Miss Elizabeth Holmes during the last four years. She was the first female teacher of the academy and held the position twelve years. During the period of Mr. Wright's administration the school greatly increased in numbers.
Joseph L. Partridge followed as principal from August, 1839, to November, 1845. In his time the number of pupils reached one hundred and seventy - five, which is believed to be the largest in its history. He was born in Hatfield in 1804 and graduated from Williams in 1828. He has been on the board of trustees for fourteen years, and, residing in Brooklyn, N. Y., is still, at the age of eighty-four, a regular at- tendant upon its meetings and an active and valuable member.
Josiah Clark, Jr., born in Leicester in 1814 and graduated from Yale in 1833, was principal from January, 1846, to January, 1849, when he became principal of Williston Seminary. The academy at this time held high rank as a fitting-school. "I am sure," says Hon. W. W. Rice of Mr. Clark, in his centennial address, "that he might have been the great master, but Leicester let him go." "He was an accomplished scholar, courteous in manner, but decided in principle, with a clear head, a large heart and a beautiful spirit."
The English department was also conducted with marked ability for ten years, from 1834, by Luther Haven. Barritt A. Smith was principal from July, 1849, to August, 1852.
From August, 1852, to June, 1860, Alvan Hyde Washburn was principal. He was a man of high character, excellent scholarship and refined taste. Ile afterward became an Episcopal clergyman. He was killed in the fearful railroad accident at Ashtabula, Ohio, December 29, 1876, not a vestige remaining to mark his identity.
After the large increase of funds in 1852, extensive alterations and improvements were made in the building, at a cost of about forty-two hundred dollars. The main building above the school-rooms was eon- verted into a large and attractive andience-room, and named Smith Hall.
In this hall are hung portraits of benefactors and trustees of the institution. The re-dedication took place October 26, 1853. Hon. Thomas Kinnieutt spoke for the trustees, and Mr. Washburn, the prin- cipal, delivered an address upon "Old and New Methods," which was published.
The town in 1856 organized a high school under
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the requirements of the State law, and other schools of the same nature were multiplied in the vicinity. As the number of pupils in the academy became reduced, the school was closed at the end of the summer term of 1860, and remained suspended till January, 1862, when it was re-opened, with ten pu- pils, under William B. Phillips, a graduate of Brown University in 1856. In April the term opened with forty pupils, and H. G. Merriam was engaged as teacher in the English department.
Mr. Phillips left at the end of the year, and John Avery had charge of the school one term. He was born in Conway, and graduated from Amherst in 1861. He was an eminent linguist, Oriental scholar and author, and afterward was professor in Iowa Col- lege and Bowdoin College.
Henry G. Merriam, after teaching in the English department a year, was made principal in May, 1863, and resigned June, 1865. Ile was graduated from Brown University in 1857. In 1862 the boys of the school were organized into a military company, and afterward into a battalion. Mr. Merriam, a thor- ough disciplinarian and teacher, conducted the school with ability and energy, and under his ad- ministration the numbers increased to about one hundred, and all the rooms for students were erowded. It was in the time of the war, and the military training met a popular need. Company, battalion and skirmish drill became important feat- ures in the daily exercise of the pupils and promi- nent attractions in the publie examinations. The effect of this training appeared in the erect bearing and grace of the "Leicester Cadets." They were received with favor when they appeared in Worees- ter on parade and drill. The government, on rec- ommendation of the academy, readily gave commis- sions to a number of young men, and they went immediately into active service. In 1863 a proposi- tion to make the school a State military academy was taken into consideration ; and on the 2d day of August a State Commission visited the school, and expressed much gratification with the proficiency of the military training. The Hon. Edward Everett was chairman of the commission, and addressed the pupils in his peculiarly felicitous and eloquent manner.
George W. Waite, of the class of 1861 at Amherst, was principal from August, 1865, to April, 1867, and Wm. C. Peckham, elass of 1867, Amherst, from June, 1867, to June, 1868. Darius P. Sackctt, a graduate of Yale 1866, was principal preceptor from August, 1868, to March, 1871. His administration raised the school to a high rank in discipline, scholarship and general character, not far surpassed in the previous history of the academy. Ile is now principal of the Sackctt School, in Oakland, Cal. Charles A. Wetmore succeeded him, in March, 1871. Ile was born in Norwich, N. Y., November 8, 1843, and graduated from Hamilton College in 1869. He was an enthusiastic and inspir-
ing teacher, entirely devoted to his work, although a great sufferer from asthma the last year of his life. In the summer of 1874 he went to Jefferson, N. II., for his health, where he died suddenly July 6th. James O. Averill, of the class of 1870, at Amherst, was prineipal one year, from August, 1874, and D. Newton Putney, three years, from August, 1875.
In 1867 the meeting-house of the First Church was purchased and removed to its present position, in the rear of the academy. The upper part was con- verted into rooms for students and the lower into a gymnasium.
In the summer of 1878 the school was again sus- pended, in order that the funds might accumulate sufficiently to warrant extensive repairs and better provisions for its work. These improvements were made at a cost of six thousand one hundred dollars. The school-rooms were finished in ash; the labora- tory was reconstructed and fitted for practical use for students in chemistry and zoology ; and a new, con- venient and attractive hall was finished in the east wing for cabinets and the department of physies. It is named " Murdock Hall," in honor of Mr. Joseph Murdock, at whose expense the work was done, and who has furnished it with a telescope, sets of globes, charts and other facilities and adornments. He has also refinished the gymnasium.
In 1887 Dr. Pliny Earle presented to the academy his valuable eabinet of shells and minerals, collected in connection with his extensive travels in various parts of the earth. It contains probably over twelve thousand specimens, many of them rare and beauti- ful. He also provided an appropriate case, and en- dowed the cabinet with a fund of one thousand dol- lars.
In 1888 Mr. J. Bradford Sargent, of Leicester, fitted a room in the tower of the gymnasium as a weather station, and furnished at at large expense with a set of meteorological instruments, which for delicacy and beauty are supposed not to be equaled.
In the fall of 1882 the academy was reopened with Mr. Caleb A. Page, a native of Burlington, Me., a graduate of Bowdoin College, in 1870, as principal. He still retains the position. The school is organized in three departments: The classical and scientifie four years' courses, and the three years' business course. The number of pupils has been about eighty. Since the reorganization many members have been prepared for different col- leges, and for normal and technical schools; while others have gone from the business department into eligible mechanical and mercantile situations.
The eentennial anniversary of the academy was celebrated September 4, 1884. A large number of the former members of the institution assembled in the morning at the academy building-among them Edmund J. Mills, of Sutton, a pupil in 1803, and then in the ninety-fifth year of his age. An address of welcome was given by Rev. A. H. Coolidge, the
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president of the board of trustees. An historieal tor of the eotton-gin; Hon. William L. Marcy, Seere- tary of State, United States; Ilon. William Upham, United States Senator from Vermont; Rev. Gardiner Spring, D. D., New York; Ilon. John Davis, United States Senator and Governor of Massachusetts; Hon. address was given by IIon. W. W. Rice, and a poem by Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D. The company, to the number of seven hundred, then took dinner in a Yale tent on the Common. Rev. A. Huntington Clapp, D. D., presided in a very felicitous manner. Among the | Ebenezer Lane, Chief Justice of Ohio; Colonel Thomas addresses were those of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver Ames, A. L. Patridge, Esq., Dr. Thomas Ilill, Prof. F. A. March, Judge Asa D. French, John E. Russell, Esq., Colonel Homer B. Spragne, Rev. M. B. Angier, Rev. A. C. Dennison, Rev. J. L. Jenkins, Judge C. C. Estey, Mr. Wm. B. Earle and Rev. Samuel May. Dr. Pliny Earle read a short original poem, as did also Captain J. Waldo Denny and Rev. A. C. Denni- son. The occasion was one of rare interest and pleasure. In the evening there was a delightful reunion in the academy. An Association of the Alumni of Leicester Academy was organized, of which Hon. Oliver Ames, now Governor of Massachusetts, was made president. The association has since then held an annual reunion at the Leicester Hotel, in June.
The academy has numbered among its trustees such men as Hon. Moses Gill, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts; Colonel Rufus Putnam, one of the founders of the North West Territory; Ilon. Levi Lin- coln, Attorney-General, United States; Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty, pastor of the Old South Church, Worces- ter; llon. Dwight Foster, United States Senator; Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D. D., pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Worcester; Hon. Nathaniel Paine, Ilon. Aaron Tufts, Ilon. Daniel Waldo, Samuel M. Burnside, Esq., lon. Levi Lincoln, Governor of Massachusetts; Hon. Abijah Bigelow, Hon. Stephen Salisbury, Hon. Samuel Mixter, Ichabod Washburn, Rev. Seth Sweetser, D. D., Hon. George F. Hoar, United States Senator; Hon. A. D. Foster, Rev. Horatio Bardwell, D.D., Judge Henry Chapin, Rev. Sammuel May, and many other prominent men of Leicester, together with former teachers and pupils of the academy elsewhere mentioned. Many of the teachers of the academy afterward became distin- guished in other positions. Among these are Rev. John Pierce, D. D., for fifty-two years pastor of the church in Brookline; Theodore Dehon, D. D., Bishop of South Carolina; Dr. James Jackson, for many years at the head of the medical profession in Boston; Dr. John Dixwell and Dr. George Shattnek, also eminent physicians in Boston: Hon. Timothy Fuller, father of Margaret Fuller, Representative in Congress; Rev. John N. Putnam, the learned Professor of Greek in Dartmouth College; Prof. Francis A. March, of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania; William F. Poole, the eminent librarian, author of "Poole's Index " and " Index of Periodicals"; Ilon. W. W. Rice. for ten years member of the national House of Repre- sentati ves.
Only a few of the many pupils of the academy who have become distinguished can be mentioned: llon. Samuel C. Crafts, representative and Senator in Con- gress and Governor of Vermont; Eli Whitney, inven-
Aspinwall, United States eonsul at London; Hon. David Henshaw, Secretary of the Navy; Rev. George Allen; Hon. Charles Allen, Representative in Con- gress and judge; Dr. Levi Hedge, professor in Ilar- vard College; Hon. Emery Washburn, Governor of Massachusetts; Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., president of Harvard University from 1862-68; Charles C. and Isaae 'T. Burr, merchants in Boston; Ilon. Pliny Mer- rick and Hon. Benjamin' F. Thomas, judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; Rev. A. H. Clapp, D.D., Judge Asa D. French, Hon. Oliver Ames, Governor of Massachusetts; Ilon. Edward F. Jones, Colonel of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment and, Lieutenant-Governor of New York.
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