USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts : from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879 > Part 42
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To proceed with the narrative, Mr. Willard said in 1825, " few institutions of the kind have probably ever done more good. Many have already been taught there, who but for its establishment would have been much less favored in their op- portunities for learning."
The academy was now located on the Old Common. The Latin grammar school-house which was erected near the house of Mr. Stowell in 1790, was moved across the river, and on to the Common, for the accommodation of the academy. Here it remained until the academy building on the Common in the Center was built in 1825. Afterwards the old house started again on its travels, and finally reached its present location in the rear of the house of John A. Rice, in South Lancaster, where it serves the purpose of a meat market.
The teachers of the academy, while on the Old Common, seem to have been superior men ; some of them have acquir- ed a wide reputation. The first was Silas Holman, M.D. He was here in the summer of 1815, and then removed to Maine, where he was a practising physician.
526
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Jared Sparks had charge of the academy one year, from the autumn of 1818. He was graduated at Harvard in 1815, and was tutor there two or three years after leaving Lancas- ter. He became distinguished as a clergyman in Baltimore, as the editor of the North American Review, and as president of Harvard University. His most lasting title to fame is found- ed on his biographical and historical labors.
John W. Proctor, a graduate of Harvard in 1816, had the care of the academy one year. He was afterwards attorney and counsellor at law in Danvers, where he maintained a re- spectable rank in his profession, and as a public man.
George B. Emerson, who was graduated at Harvard Uni- versity in 1817, and was a tutor therein from 1819 to 1821, taught the academy two years from the summer of 1817. Mr. Emerson ranks as one of the foremost educators in the country.
The next principal was Solomon P. Miles, a graduate of Harvard in 1819, and tutor from 1821 to 1823, who conducted the school through the two years commencing with August, 1819. He was afterwards preceptor of the high (English classical) school in Boston.
Nathaniel Wood, another Harvard graduate, 1821, and tu- tor in the years 1823 and 1824, was here two years, closing in 1823. He studied law in Boston, and afterwards settled in Fitchburg, where he was a leader of the bar during a long and busy life. He was a member of the Senate of Massa- chusetts, and also a delegate to the Constitutional Conven- tion in 1853.
Levi Fletcher was at the head of the school from August, 1823, about one year. He was a graduate of Harvard Uni- versity, like his immediate predecessors, having taken his degree in 1823. In 1825 he was chaplain on board the frig- ate Macedonian.
The next preceptor was Nathaniel Kingsbury, who belong- ed to the class of 1821, in Harvard, but left during the third year. He came to Lancaster in the fall of 1824, and con-
527
LETTER OF MISS PEABODY.
tinued at the head of the school during several sessions. The academy sustained a high character for discipline and instruc- tion.
He was followed by John H. Warland, formerly a well- known editor, Martin Lincoln, father of Mrs. Prof. Wal- ton, Mr. Cummings and Henry Kimball, still kindly remem- bered by many pupils.
As already stated, the academy was first opened on the Old Common about 1815. At that time several important families lived there, and Mr. - Higginson, father of Col. T. W. Higginson, was residing in Bolton. These families naturally set up the school in the place most convenient to themselves. Be- fore following the academy to its new location in the Center, it will be pleasant to linger awhile, and in the company of one who was familiar with the brilliant circle on the Old Common, learn something of literary life there nearly sixty years ago. The following extract from a recent letter of MISS ELIZABETH P. PEABODY, widely and favorably known in this country and abroad, as an author and educator, gives a view of one stratum of society in Lancaster which could be derived from no other source. She came hither in 1820, with her father, who was a physician. There were three daughters in the family, who have since become distinguished. One was the wife of Haw- thorne ; another of Horace Mann, and the third is the writer from whom we quote.
" It had been represented to us that a girls' school was wanted, and as I had been educated chiefly by my parents for a teacher, I was to have this school. This proved a failure, for it was not a good locality for a girls' school, especially one that must depend for scholars on other places, because there was a boys' school there, and boys were boarding all over town. Nevertheless I did keep school there more than a year, and had some pupils from out of town, nearly as old as my- self, and one was older."
She then speaks of the founders of the school, and some of the first teachers, whose names have been given already.
528
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
With such instructors the school had great success. The wri- ter proceeds : "Many boys were sent to board in town, and . go to the school. There were also two young southerners named Allston, who were confided to the care of Mr. Lyman Buckminster, who was paid a liberal salary to prepare them for college ; and he called to his aid Mr. James G. Carter. Mr. Carter was the most intimate friend of Warren Colburn who had inspired him with his own idea of reforming educa- tion.
The old Stillwell house, so called, which was purchased by the state for the Industrial school for girls, and which was burnedin 1876, was occupied, at the time of Miss Peabody's res- idence here, by " Capt. Richard Cleveland and his very re- markable wife. Capt. Cleveland had retired on his fortune gained in a successful mercantile career begun in Salem, where both he and his wife were born, and whence he first set sail for India as a sea-captain in the employ of Hasket Derby, senior. But he soon worked on his own account, and was one of those navigators who organized the wide commerce of Salem. He was a noble, original, heroic character, who, in- spired with the love that was eventually crowned by a most happy marriage, worked with the enthusiasm and self-devo- tion of an old knight of the days of chivalry, to win a for- tune for his bride elect, and with a kindred high sense of honor. His two volumes of voyages indicate the exception- al character of his career. In the course of it he met and united in a bond of friendship, (as exceptional as his love,) with Mr. Shaler, who subsequently bought and lived in that same house."
Pleasantly mingling her own life here with that of the cul- tivated friends among whom she moved,-one of the young- est and most accomplished of them all, though only seven- teen,-Miss Peabody proceeds. " As soon as we arrived in Lancaster, we were called upon by Dr. Thayer, who gave me his youngest daughter for a pupil ; and Mrs. Cleveland called and invited me most cordially to her house, where
529
EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL.
every evening there was an assemblage of all those who were interested in education, a subject in which Mrs. Cleveland was wholly absorbed, having herself educated her three boys with help in the last years, of Messrs. Sparks, Emerson and Miles, to all of whom her hospitable mansion was a home, and she was their most respected and beloved counsellor. She had studied Rousseau and Pestalozzi without losing her own originality, and she believed a true and natural educa- tion the foundation stone of the national edifice. The even- ings at her house were the greatest inspiration to all these educators. I had my own ideas already very strongly fixed as to the principles, and was very eager to learn methods more natural than those of the ordinary schools. There was a gen- eral educational Revival at this time.
" There I met Colburn, and learned from his own lips his idea of making children discover and make the rules of arith- metic, which he proposed to teach very differently from the manner in which his arithmetic came to be taught. He be- lieved his plan of leading children to discover, could be ap- plied to every science. Mr. Carter undertook to carry it out in the science of geography. Colburn suggested to me that it was the true way to teach grammar. But it was not merely new methods of intellectual education that were discussed at these symposia at Mrs. Cleveland's, but the necessity and method of building up character on the Christian and heroic ideal, of inspiring children with the power to educate them- selves-anticipating Fræbel."
Passing over for the present, other passages in the letter of Miss Peabody, the following is pertinent to this place. " The mother of Rev. William H. Channing, a magnificent specimen of noblest womanhood, was a cousin of Mrs. Cleve- land, and had recently left Lancaster when I went to live there. She had retired thither in her early widowhood, and put her son at the academy. At her house had died the cele- brated Miss Eloise Payne, elder sister of Howard Payne, who was called the American Roscius when a boy, and who is still
34
530
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
known by his beautiful song 'Home, sweet home.' This gift- ed woman lies under a simple monument in the graveyard on the Common, which was erected by the now venerable John G. Palfrey, who was-a pupil of the father of Eloise, and school companion of herself, and who thus wished to testify his re- spect and love for the inspirer of his youth and companion of his studies.
" When I think of these two years of my life at Lancaster, it seems arrayed in all the glory of the Ideal. The enthusi- asm for study among the young people ; the enthusiasm of educating in the teachers; the extraordinary beauty of na- ture, the classic music which always formed part of the enter- tainment, and which Mrs. Cleveland always played to her husband, who enjoyed it so much that she never allowed any visitor to interrupt it; Mr. Cleveland's unwordly nobility of character, all blend to make it an oasis in the desert of this 'work-day world.' Life has never seemed to me tame or uninteresting anywhere ; but this season is glorified in my memory not merely by the subjective enthusiasm of my own youthful season, but by the objective reality of so many rare individualities congregated together."
The writer of the above left Lancaster in 1822 or 1823, and the academy was transferred two years later to the Center. Mr. Willard informs us that a " subscription to erect a new building in the center of the town " was made in April, 1825. A large and ample sum was obtained for this purpose with but little difficulty. The land just south of the church-the town hall has since been placed between-was given by Messrs. Horatio and George Carter, who with their brothers, also sub- scribed most liberally to the undertaking. A new and very tasteful building of brick, two stories in height, with a cu- pola and bell was erected. It was intended to add to the academy, a " distinct and permanent school for females," but this part of the plan does not appear to have been realized. Instead of that, girls were admitted to the advantages of the academy.
531
THE ACADEMY REVIVED.
Nathaniel Kingsbury, already mentioned, held the position of principal after the academy was established in the Center, but the duration of his mastership has not been ascertained. The school seems to have declined, and the Records of the academy do not give the names of successive teachers, if any there were, for several years.
About twenty years after the building was completed and the academy was opened in the Center, a change was effected by the formation of a new company. A meeting of gentle- men interested in the education of their children, in a " good private school," was held, March 9, 1847, in the academy building. Henry Swift was chairman, and Wilder S. Thurs- ton secretary. Mr. Swift explained the object of the meet- ing, and remarks were made by Messrs. Washburn, Lincoln, Whiting, Humphrey, King, Thurston, Shaw and Vose upon the expediency of the undertaking. The meeting resolved to purchase the building, if practicable, and to see how many shares would be taken by the company present, at $25 per share. Sixteen shares were taken on the spot, and a com- mittee, - John M. Washburn, Henry Swift and Dr. Lincoln - was chosen to procure subscriptions to purchase the build- ing. Fifty shares were needed for buying the building. Rev. Charles Packard and Capt. Shaw were added to the commit- tee, who were requested to report "regulations for the gov- ernment of this company."
At a meeting held one week later, the committee reported . in favor of applying to the legislature for an act of incorpo- ration. This was agreed upon, and the committee were di- rected to petition to be "allowed to hold real and personal estate to the value of twenty thousand dollars." Here follows a list of the original subscribers, with the number of their shares.
Henry Swift,
4 shares. |
Orice King,
1 share.
Stedman Nourse,
1
66 Nathaniel Gage,
1 66
John H. Shaw,
1
J. M. Washburn, 2
66
·
Henry Lincoln, 1 S. J. S. Vose, 1 66
532
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Joel W. Phelps,
1 share.
Josiah Fay,
1 share.
Charles Humphrey,
1
Wilder S. Thurston, 1
..
Thomas B. Warren,
1
G R. M. Withington, 2 Alanson Chase, 1
66
John G. Thurston, 2
George Stratton, 1
George Howard, 1
S. H. Turner,
1
Matthew P. Woods,
2
Charles Sawyer,
1
66
Charles Packard,
1
Samuel Carter,
1
Jacob Fisher,
3
Ephraim Fuller,
1
Luther Billings, 1
66
Henry Wilder,
2
Anthony Lane,
2
..
James Pitts & Co.,
1
Charles L. Wilder,
2
Hollis Davis,
1
Nathaniel Chandler,
2
John Bennett,
1
Ezra Sawyer,
2
Solon Whiting,
1
Sidney Harris.
1
Samuel A. Hastings,
1
66
Others soon became proprietors by purchasing shares of the original subscribers, or new shares. These were George M. Bartol, Jeremiah Moore, Jonas Goss, Dolly Chandler, G. F. Chandler, Peter T. Homer, Curtis P. Smith.
An act of incorporation, signed by Gov. George N. Briggs, April 7, was obtained, which authorized the " Lancaster Acad- emy to hold real and personal estate " amounting to $25,- 000, which was to be devoted "exclusively to the purposes of education." This act was accepted, June 7, when an or- ganization was effected, and a rule adopted that each proprie- tor, whatever his number of shares, should be entitled to only one vote. The following officers were chosen : Henry Swift, president ; John M. Washburn, secretary ; Charles Packard, John H. Shaw, John G. Thurston, Henry Wilder, Charles Humphrey, Ezra Sawyer, Henry Lincoln, trustees.
The president reported, August 23, that the academy build- ing had been bought for $1,100, when it was voted to put the house in order, and to procure a teacher. Rev. Charles Pack- ard was chairman of the committee for the latter purpose. The building and lot were purchased of John Bennett, James Pitts and Moses Stow of Lancaster, and Joseph Whitney of Bolton.
66
Ephraim C. Fisher,
1
66
533
MR. KIMBALL'S SCHOOL.
The meeting in May, 1848, requested the trustees to " ad- vertise for a teacher, and offer the use of the room rent-free, with such assurance of aid as they can obtain." Action was taken in June, looking to an arrangement with District No. 13, for procuring a teacher in connection with the district. In July a committee was chosen to obtain a teacher.
At a meeting, April 16, 1849, the committee having the care of the building were authorized to rent the upper rooms to the town for a year from the first of September, for sixty dollars, with the privilege of removing the partition, and erecting additional seats at the expense of the lessees. It appears from the Records that the committee, May 7, were authorized to grant the use of the upper rooms, on the same terms, to Mr. Henry C. Kimball, provided the town did not want them for the purpose of a high school. Turning to the town Records, we find, under date of June 11, that a vote was passed in favor of two high schools, one of which was to be in Clintonville, and the other in the Center, to be kept ten months. Probably an arrangement was effected for that year, and perhaps Mr. Kimball was the teacher. The next year the town was divided, and its population being dimin- ished about one-half, it was not required by law to sustain a high school.
The next year the use of the upper rooms was granted to a competent teacher, and the lower room to school district No. 11, for forty dollars. By the division of the town, dis- tricts No. 10 and 11 had been set off, and the old district No. 13 became No. 11, or the Center district. Mr. H. C. Kim- ball had the use of the upper rooms for a year from the first day of September, 1850. Mr. Kimball had charge of a school in the academy building for several years. In 1851 he had the free use of the upper rooms, besides the sum of twenty- five dollars for fuel and incidental expenses.
Efforts were made by some of the proprietors in 1851 and the year following, to sell the property and divide the pro- ceeds, but without success. The rent of the lower rooms to
534
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
the district, brought into the treasury from forty to sixty dol- lars a year. In 1854 an arrangement was proposed with the town for the use of the lower rooms during five years, at an annual rent of sixty dollars, and fifteen per cent. on all moneys needed to improve the rooms ; or for one hundred dollars per annum, the corporation making all necessary repairs and addition of furniture.
Several meetings were held in the year 1854 with reference to selling the academy building to the town, for the use of district No. 11, and finally it was voted to make the sale for the sum of twelve hundred and fifty dollars, with the follow- ing among other conditions, viz., " the upper rooms, together with the wood room below, or rooms of equal convenience and accommodation in the immediate vicinity, shall ever be re- served, rent-free, for a high school or academy, to be under the control of the trustees and their successors." This was passed by a vote of seventeen to fourteen, but the seventeen voters held only twenty-two shares, while the fourteen held twenty-seven shares.
November 15, at a meeting held this day the trustees were authorized and requested to "execute a deed of conveyance of the academy lot and building to the town of Lancaster," for school purposes. This was passed by a vote of eighteen to two. In consequence of this action, a vote was passed, April 16, 1855, authorizing the treasurer to pay the several shareholders $26.28 on each share held by them.
It is not necessary to recite the farther proceedings of the corporation, while it existed, or notice any changes in its or- ganization. The use of the upper rooms of the academy was given to Mr. Kimball until 1861, a period of nearly fourteen years, when he withdrew, owing to the stringency of the times. The war of the rebellion was raging, one of the ear- ly effects of which was to withdraw scholars from private schools. Mr. Kimball was held in high esteem.
Mr. S. W. Hathaway was granted the free use of the " academy rooms and all the apparatus and privileges belong-
535
UNION OF THE ACADEMY AND HIGH SCHOOL.
ing thereto," by a vote passed April 18, 1862. Mr. Edward Houghton had a similar privilege.
In 1863, October 6, Mr. William A. Kilbourn was granted the free use of the academy, and also fifty dollars for the year beginning on the first day of December. A similar grant of money had been made to Mr. Kimball. Mr. Kilbourn had charge of the academy until the winter of 1872-3, and con- ducted it with vigor and success. At a meeting, May 30, 1870, it was voted to "tender the use of the upper room in the academy building to the school committee." At the town meeting on the seventh of March preceding, a vote was passed to send scholars properly qualified to the Lancaster academy, under the charge of Mr. Kilbourn. The academy had now the use of the upper town hall, and the town had the use of the upper rooms in the academy building, by a mutual arrange- ment. The academy and high school were united two or three years, when the academy corporation was dissolved, by a vote passed on the first of March, 1873. Since then the town has maintained a free high school.
THE SCHOOL OF HON. JAMES G. CARTER.
Mr. Carter took his degree, with high honors, at Harvard in 1820, and soon entered upon his work as an educator. He began in the house of Mr. Wilder, on the Old Common, but soon came to the Center, and opened his school in the Pop- kin house, (now the barn of Wm. H. McNeil). He soon proved himself " worthy of the family name of Rev. Thomas Carter, of whom Gov. Winthrop said, 'he was apt to teach.' He gathered around him, as pupils, a family of young men. They were boys who needed, for a time, a closer supervision than the college faculty could give. Some of them were of southern birth, and these especially taxed his wisdom and patience to the utmost."
The statistics of his school are not at hand, but it is known that he gave special attention to his scholars four or five years,
536
HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
when he became interested in other literary and educational work. However, he taught, with the assistance of others, sev- eral years longer, while giving attention to other pursuits of a private and public nature.
Mr. Carter took an active part in the plan for removing the. academy from the Old Common to the Center in 1825, and for a time had the principal care of the institution. Besides, his general influence in favor of a higher condition of the schools, was very great.
" For more than twenty years," says one who holds his memory sacred, " young men at the most critical point in their history, were placed under his influence, and to him many a useful and honorable life owes its success."
The personal influence of Mr. Carter over his pupils was peculiar. Says one of his pupils, "it was never his habit to reprove the boys in cach other's presence, but they always felt that the master's eye was on them. The power of the eye in discipline, was a vital point in his educational system. A tremendous force lay in his steady, searching glance. It was like the touch of Ithuriel's spear ; before it all false and con- temptible things shrank to their true proportions."
PROF. WILLIAM RUSSELL'S NORMAL SCHOOL.
In the year 1853, May 11, the " New England Normal In- stitute " was opened, on which occasion an address was de- livered by Prof. Russell, stating the origin and design of the school. He had been engaged as an educator for many years, and stood in the front rank of his profession. A Normal In- stitute had been started by him in New Hampshire, but he was induced by flattering prospects to undertake a new en- terprise in Massachusetts. The public spirit of the citizens induced him to select this town as the seat of the institution. There were already two or three Normal schools in the state, but it was believed that an institution of higher grade would meet a general want.
537
NEW ENGLAND NORMAL INSTITUTE.
The school started under the most favorable auspices, with an able and accomplished corps of teachers, and an encourag- ing number of scholars. The following gentlemen and ladies were in the list of instructors : Prof. Russell, principal ; Dana P. Colburn, Henry C. Kimball, Herman Krüsi, Sanborn Ten- ney, William J. Whitaker, Mrs. C. T. Symmes and Miss Anna U. Russell, besides assistant teachers and occasional lecturers. Among the lecturers were Lowell Mason, Calvin Cutter, Prof. S. S. Green and Francis T. Russell.
There were about eighty scholars during the first term. The total number for the academic year 1853-4, was one hun- dred and thirty-nine. These came from towns in all parts of the state, and from seven or eight different states.
Such a school was an honor to the place, and a benefit to the commonwealth. But it was soon brought to an end. Per- haps its success hastened its close. The state was stimulated to raise the standard of attainment in the Normal schools. In this way the necessity for the "Institute " was removed, and as a private enterprise it could not compete with public in- stitutions. The ground was cut from under the Institute and it ceased to be in the autumn of 1855. But it had wrought a good work whose influence will be felt, far and wide, for a long time to come. It demonstrated what a Normal school should and might be, and raised the standard of education in public schools of every grade, as well as in academies and other private seminaries. Thus this apparent failure was one of the most fruitful efforts of Prof. Russell's noble and be- neficent life.
There have been other private schools in the town, of dif- ferent grades, and taught by competent teachers. But suffi- cient space has been given to the subject, and other matters are pressing for room. It may be truly said that in recent times, the public schools, including the primary, grammar and high schools, are so good that there is little call for pri- vate instruction.
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