USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > Lee : the centennial celebration and centennial history of the town of Lee, Mass. > Part 3
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
help to make the condition of the civil and religious life of all God's creatures as free and as strong and as happy as he finds or fancies his own to be, when his heart is filled with the joys which cluster around his own quiet fireside. Ah, fortunate America, whose radiant homes are a perpetual pledge and inspiration to high national privileges and a beneficent government !
The honor of being patriot soldiers we cannot all claim ; but we can claim, as citizens of the republic of letters, an interest in their deeds beyond that which he feels, whose calling does not need the undis- turbed quiet of the peaceful reign of law. All literary pursuits are fostered by freedom. In the interest of patriot scholars, therefore, I thank our patriot soldiers for compelling and making possible the continuance of that peace which gives leisure and opportunity for in- tellectual labor. None owe them a greater debt of gratitude than do the men of letters, and, happily, they can partly pay this debt. The pen records the achievements of the sword, and keeps green the name and fame of him who wields it. Cicero uttered a significant truth for nations and for individuals, when he declared that but for the Iliad the same grave that held the body of Achilles would also have entombed his name. But let it never be forgotten that while the student trim- med his lamp the soldier lighted his camp fires ; while the scholar preached truth and freedom, the soldier practiced and defended them ; while the former threaded the academic walks, the latter marched along the valley of the shadow of death. Recorded honors cluster over their graves, and every place in which a soldier's dust reposes has been consecrated forever and ever to the country for whose gov- ernment and liberty he gave up his life. And until years shall cease to roll and human hearts to beat, there will never be a man, in what- ever rank of life you find him, who, with the memory and the glory of the brilliant achievements of the Army of the Republic before him, will not gird and guide himself with a higher sense of the spirit and power of truth, of justice, of humanity and of right. Our companions "are lost to human sight, but not lost to the Omniscient eye, not lost in the august reckoning in which institutions and persons will be called to account, not lost in the distribution of palms, not lost in the award of crowns and jewels."
This hour belongs both to the living and the dead. It goes back along the track of noble lives, and it points forward to heights yet un- attained. What need I say more? If such lives and such deeds and such deaths are possible as the fruit of the intellectual and moral and religious instruction to be had without distinction and without price, by every child in the land, the problem is solved and the claims of education must be acknowledged.
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
It remains for us patriots, all, whether scholars or soldiers or citi- zens, to highly resolve to welcome and to divinely entertain the pure, sweet spirit of Liberty.
" Who cometh over the hills, Her garments with morning sweet, The dance of a thousand rills Making music before her feet? Her presence freshens the air, Sunshine steals light from her face. The leaden footstep of Care Leaps to the tune of her pace, Fairness of all that is fair, Grace at the heart of all grace ! Sweetener of hut and of hall, Bringer of life out of naught, Freedom, oh, fairest of all The daughters of Time and Thought !"
" Tell me, young men, have ye seen Creature of diviner mien,
For true hearts to long and cry for, Manly hearts to live and die for ? What hath she that others want ? Brows that all endearments haunt, Eyes that make it sweet to dare, Smiles that glad untimely death, Looks that fortify despair, Tones more brave than trumpet's breath ; Tell me, maidens, have ye known Household charm more sweetly rare ? Grace of woman ampler blown ? Modesty more debonair ? Younger heart with wit full-grown ? Oh, for an hour of my prime, The pulse of my hotter years, That I might praise her in rhyme Would tingle your eyelids to tears, Our sweetness, our strength, and our star, Our hope, our joy, and our trust, Who lifted us out of the dust And made us whatever we are !"
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
" Maiden half mortal, half divine,
We triumphed in thy coming; to the brinks
Our hearts were filled with pride's tumultuous wine : Better to-day who rather feels than thinks :
Yet will some graver thoughts intrude And cares of nobler mood :
They won thee : who shall keep thee ? From the deeps Where discrowned empires o'er their ruins brood, And many a thwarted hope wrings its weak hands and weeps, I hear the voice as of a mighty wind
From all Heaven's caverns rushing unconfined,- ' I, Freedom, dwell with knowledge : I abide With men whom dust of faction cannot blind To the slow tracings of the Eternal Mind; With men, by culture trained and fortified,
Who bitter duty to sweet lusts prefer, Fearless to counsel and obey :
Conscience my scepter is, and law my sword,
Not to be drawn in passion or in play,
But terrible to punish and deter, Implacable as God's word,
Like it a shepherd's crook to them that blindly err. Your firm-pulsed sires, my martyrs and my saints, Shoots of that only race whose patient sense Hath known to mingle flux with permanence, Rated my chaste denials and restraints Above the moment's dear-paid paradise : Beware lest, shifting with Time's gradual creep, The light that guided shine into your eyes : The envious Powers of ill nor wink nor sleep ; Be therefore timely wise, Nor laugh when this one steals and that one lies, As if your luck could cheat those sleepless spies, Till the deaf fury come, your house to sweep !' I hear the voice and unaffrighted bow :
Ye shall not be prophetic now, Heralds of ill, that darkening fly Between my vision and the rainbowed sky, Or on the left your hoarse forebodings croak From many a blasted bough On Igdrasil's storm-sinewed oak,
That once was green, Hope of the West, as thou. 4
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Yet pardon if I tremble while I boast, For thee I love as those who pardon most."
" Away, ungrateful doubt, away ! At least she is our own to-day ; Break into rapture, my song, Verses, leap forth in the sun, Bearing the joyance along Like a train of fire as ye run ! Pause not for choosing of words,
Let them but blossom and sing Blithe as the orchards and birds
With the new coming of Spring ! Dance in your jollity, bells,
Shout, cannon, cease not, ye drums,
Answer, ye hill-sides and dells, Bow, all ye people, she comes. Radiant, calm-fronted as when She hallowed that April day : Stay with us! Yes, thou shalt stay,
Softener and strengthener of men, Freedom, not won by the vain, Not to be courted in play,
Not to be kept without pain !
Stay with us! Yes, thou wilt stay,
Handmaid and mistress of all, Kindler of deed and of thought,
Thou, that to hut and to hall Equal deliverance brought! Souls of her martyrs, draw near, Touch our dull lips with your fire,
That we may praise without fear Her, our delight, our desire, Our faith's inextinguishable star, Our hope, our remembrance, our trust, Our present, our past, our to be, Who will mingle her life with our dust And make us deserve to be free !"
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
Mrs. M. M. Frissell of Kingston, N. Y., being intro- duced read the following poem, prepared at the request of the Committee :
The pilgrims of this century, In this new land of ours, Might vainly search for classic shrines, For antique mounds or towers ; Or measure gifts with those who cross The sea to offer gems, And golden gifts with ardent prayers, To papal diadems.
Yet shrines we know, with spell as strong To summon pilgrim feet, As those in legends held or sung, Since faithful lips repeat Dear names of home, of church, of school, Trio to us infallible !
Laden with memories of these, We therefore come to keep A loving festival, near by Where our forefathers sleep. Along these streets, on these fair hills, By Housatonic's shore,
Happy the few of us who find Our old homes' welcome door !
The more pass on as strangers pass, And strangers ask the name Of many a one, whose fathers here Once dwelt secure in fame.
"Tis the old tale ! but we must turn To find our mustering place ; Where is the old church of our youth ? Altar of faith and grace, Where even Summer birds found rest Beneath her sheltering eaves ; To children of her covenant Much more she welcome gives ! Alas ! alas ! " burned up with fire," Gone for this many a year ! And though another, fairer house With worshippers sincere,
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Stands where it stood, and where they met, Who made those courts so blest, On us a cold, gray shadow falls,- This place is not our rest. Old homes and church alike are gone Still must our pilgrim quest go on.
Now seek we still some unchanged spot, With bated breath and fears, Lest touch of time by man or fate, In thirty, forty years, Hath made familiar places strange, Us old-once young together.
Broken forever youthful ties, And left us doubting whether Some common loves and tastes remain,
That call us to one place again. Ah ! there's the old Academy, We greet it, roof and wall ! There, there it stands beneath the cliff, So plain, " so natural !"
The very same where first it stood Full forty years ago. Mature, yet not infirm in age,
Strong still its work to do. Within we note some changes slight, Like wrinkles in a face That used to wear but dimples bright, Have dared to claim a place ; We yield us to the old-time spell,
The place we sought this answers well, 'Twas part and parcel of that age, That, in their honest way, Our fathers builded, like themselves, This plain Academy.
They " builded better than they knew," Those self-denying sires, Living or dead their plan we praise, While it our theme inspires.
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Utility to them seemed meet : For them the classic lines Of Art and Beauty had not shaped Fair models to their minds. Unto their simple, untaught eyes, No wood outmatched the pine ; No inlaid floors, no frescoed walls Did taste and skill combine ; They only sought a plain, strong tower, Whence learning's lamp might shed A steady ray, unquenched in years, When they, less taught, had fled This lower life, elsewhere to find Reward of service to their kind. What cared we then for plenishings ? Our school-rooms seemed complete, Maidens' and youths' dear company Made lessons doubly sweet. Then emulation wrought its charm, Curbed by the tie that springs, When sex with sex seeks mastery In tasks which learning brings. Co-educators then were we, Without the thought of harm,
That later rose to vex the schools, And raise a brief alarm ; Because sex-fellowship in knowledge Aspires to step from here to college !
How dear are they whose names with ours, Answered the call of school ! Their forms, their laugh, come back again, As soothing breezes cool, As evening airs that fan the brow At thoughtful twilight hour, While we forget the weary day, And care's perplexing power :- We think of them, we speak their names, Dear school-mates loved in truth, Bright tablets in our memories Hold these immortal youth,
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
With tears we, whispering softly, say, Dead school-mates, every one, Come fill your place with us to-day, 'Tis empty else and lone ! We long have mourned your youth and love, Ye mourn not in that world above !
Brimming with life and zeal and hope, We all looked forth together On the great world behind, before, The scholar's best endeavor ; That world of learning boundless grew, And we young dreamers then Caught glimpses of far-beckoning lives Awaiting earnest men; Of broader, fuller, happier ways, All narrow ones we scorned, Reward of patient student days, As each his task performed, We know some found the goals they sought ; Some but a tether, strong, To quiet, useful, homely lives,- As worthy praise in song As they who touched the ideals of youth, Happy in fulfilled dreams,
When passing years fresh honors brought, And joy's renewed beams.
To highest teachings constant now Most blest are they who here
Can trace their later, steadfast lives, To influence of some year
When teacher's counsels wrought a spell Upon a wayward mind ; And friendly comrades, healthful sports, Their saving help combined.
Beyond the added honors given To teachers honored here By worthy pupils,-worthier grown, As nobler grew their sphere,- We now recall, with calm delight, Those crowned with fellowship in light.
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
How wise they seemed, those old school-teachers, Whether as school-men or as preachers !
Dare we approach them here and dream We are more nearly peers, Than in the years we have recalled.
Our ignorant young years ? We will not drag our idols down, Nor yet presume to be Equal to those who helped us climb Aloft, toward the sky ! Teachers and school-mates, ever kept
In memory sweet and green, Linked with this old Academy,
Like fragrance hid, unseen, Within the homes whereto we turn,
Dwellers by mount and sea, Our hearts towards school-life scenes will yearn, Ever most faithfully.
We greet thee, old Academy, With true loving loyalty ; As pilgrims kneel the shrine before, As children hail the household door, We old-time school-mates will implore Blessings alway on thee !
The following Reunion Hymn, prepared for the occasion by Miss P. A. Holder, a former teacher of the School, was then sung :
MISS HOLDER'S REUNION HYMN.
From o'er the hills a glad voice calls, On waiting hearts its welcome falls ; Our year of jubilee has come, And bids our scattered band come home ; Come home, to rest from toil and care, Come home, in love and joy to share, Come home, and on this festal day Gain strength to tread life's onward way.
We gladly come, we gladly come, To greet within this dear old home
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The friends beloved of other days, On hallowed scenes again to gaze, To tread once more the classic ground, Where purest pleasures we have found, To brighten still Love's golden chain, And strengthen broken links again.
A joyful song, a joyful song We raise, and still the strain prolong, And lift our hearts in grateful praise To Him whose love hath crowned our days, Who leads us through green pastures fair, Where streams of crystal waters are, And still guides all who seek His love, To perfect peace and rest above.
Soft voices sweet, soft voices sweet, From hours flown by on swift-winged feet, Of memories tender whisper low, And thrill our trembling spirits now ; Still may this treasured love of old, Our hearts in sympathy enfold, Until in Jesus' love complete, As one in His dear home we meet.
THE REUNION DINNER AND SPEECHES.
After the exercises on "Fern Cliff," a procession was formed, and under the direction of Chief Marshal, T. L. Foote, marched to the dinner tent headed by the Lee band. There were exactly 279 in the procession as it passed down Main street. This number was increased by the addition of those who had not gone to the " Cliff," so that at the tables 358 were seated. After the viands had been thoroughly discussed, the speaking was opened by Pres. I. W. Andrews, of Marietta College, Ohio, the first Principal of the Lee Academy. He told the circum- stances of his call to his first position ; how, four weeks before his graduation at Williams College, Squire Porter, President of the Board of Academy Trustees, rapped at
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his door one morning and offered him the place, which he accepted. When the Academy was dedicated, he, the first Principal, made the dedicatory address, and that was his first essay in educational literature. On his roll for the first year were 110 names ; he had found about a doz- en of those pupils here. He then spoke of some of his old pupils who have since passed from earth-of Charlotte Porter, one of the most brilliant girls he ever knew; and Charles Hulbert, whose noble qualities and manly char- acter made his death so deeply felt. The first day of his second year at Lee he received a call to Marietta. He went, and there he had stayed. Only two-Stephen Thatcher and Leonard Church-are living, of the men who composed the Board of Trustees when he was princi- pal. Since his connection with Marietta College, citizens of Lee had been especially liberal towards it,-giving $5,000 within a short time after his going there, and add- ing some fifty per cent. to that amount since. He could not but rejoice that his life-work had been begun in Lee, and that he was able to come back to so interesting a cel- ebration.
The next speaker was E. A. Hubbard, now agent of the Massachusetts Board of Education, who became Principal of the Academy in 1845, and remained for six terms. He was married, he said, in '44, and with his wife started West. They had got only as far west as Lebanon Springs when their funds gave out, and so they began to work there. They opened a school, but had continued it only three months when they were burned out. He then re- ceived and accepted an invitation to come to Lee. Mr. Hubbard told, with good effect, of a skillful bit of diplo- macy he indulged in at the close of his first term. He had only 41 scholars, and as he was running the school as a private venture, he was naturally anxious to increase the number. So when the examination drew near, he 5
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told his scholars they needn't expect to be questioned on what they knew, but rather on what they ought to know, and cautioned them all, if they couldn't answer his ques- tions, to say, promptly and loudly, "I don't know." The plan worked to a charm. The "I don't knows" came thick and fast during the whole examination, and his pat- rons, when they saw how ignorant their children ap- peared, at once determined to give them another term of instruction. Lee pride was aroused ; the people wouldn't have their children so ignorant, and in consequence Mr. Hubbard opened his second term with seventy-seven pu- pils, nearly double the number of the first. From Lee he went to Northampton, as High School Principal there. He thought he had gained the affection of some of his pupils, at least, for when he came back on a visit, a few months after, one of them threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, and she had done the same thing to-day.
Mr. Hubbard's speech was followed by music, after which an interesting " memorial poem," written by Miss P. A. Holder, and addressed to the High School pupils from 1856 to 1862, was read by Rev. Dr. Flint, who sup- plemented the reading with some words of his own. He alluded, as one of the sweetest things coming to his mem- ory at this time, to the late S. A. Hulbert, whose grand character he warmly commended. Dr. Flint read a letter from Merced, Cal., giving some facts about the Houghton family, the younger members of which were his pupils, and full of reminiscence of the old school days.
Rev. Dr. Edward Taylor of Binghamton, N. Y., intro- duced as the " pioneer bell-ringer of the Academy," made one of his characteristically happy speeches which have given him a wide fame as a brilliant after-dinner speaker. It was true, he said, he was the " pioneer bell-ringer." The earlier teachers had told how committees had waited
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on them to secure them for their position; he had no committee to wait on him. He wanted to be the janitor and to ring the bell, that thus he might get his tuition free. He sought the office, it didn't seek him. It was hard work for him, but the instruction that President Andrews gave was worth all it cost. When he was jan- itor he had a way of hiding the key in a place he thought nobody knew. But he used to find evidences of some- body's having been in the building before he got there in the morning. He puzzled over it for a long time, and it never was quite clear to him how the key's hiding place was found, till, that very morning, some one said to him at the door of the Academy, " You hid it under the steps," and the fellow's name was Dwight Thatcher. While he was janitor, he used sometimes to get notes from Principal Andrews. One in particular he recalled. It was in rela- tion to the fact that the floor had not been as thoroughly swept as was desirable. He would take this opportunity to say to Dr. Andrews that he had received his "little note." He recalled how scared he and "Liph " Wright were once to receive a billet, signed "I. W. A.," to the effect that they had better make less disturbance in school. He knew they had acted like angels, and so he went to Dr. Andrews about it and found that, after all, he was not the writer. Dr. Taylor then told how Deacon Hyde had started him for college, as he had so many others, and he felt deeply indebted for that first impulse. He wanted the town to do more and more for public education.
The next called upon was Rev. Dr. E. W. Bentley of El- lenville, N. Y. He first entered the Academy, he said, on the 4th of March, 1841, the day of President Harrison's inauguration, and most of his school exercises that day occurred in the belfry. He remembered attending, in those early days, a laughing-gas exhibition in the Acad- emy building, and how "Jim" Wakefield, under the
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influence of the gas, pitched into jolly Dr. Welch, and how Edward Taylor tried to jump over the stove but didn't. Of his old associates in the Academy, nearly all were gone. He could see but three or four faces here that he recognized. He was sorry his old teacher, Mr. Kimball, whom he loved from the bottom of his heart, was not here to speak for himself, on this very pleasant occasion. Mr. Bentley told several good stories, and made a very enjoyable speech.
Franklin Chamberlin of Hartford, the Centennial-day Orator, thought not enough had been said of the first Teacher who made the Lee Academy possible-Alexan- der Hyde. Such an impulse was given to education by the starting of Mr. Hyde's School, that it was perfectly impossible for the town not to provide better public in- struction for its children. To Mr. Hyde was very greatly due the great progress Lee has made in education within the last forty years. The speaker accounted for his present lack of hair, by accusing Mr. Hyde of having pulled it out in those early days ; but, if he did, its want was more than supplied by the ideas he put into the head beneath it.
Mr. Hyde was then called upon to defend himself against the hair-pulling charge. He pleaded "not guilty," though he admitted once taking his youthful pupil by the hair-and he thought he deserved it. He spoke briefly of some of his early scholars-of Charles Hulbert, Addison Hunt, Charles Bassett, too early remov- ed; Addison Laflin, Mansfield Lovell, the brilliant Caro- line Laflin, of Charlotte Porter, and others.
W. J. Bartlett said he represented the stay-at-home class, having had energy enough not to go away from Lee. He was a member of the Academy from 1837 to 1843, graduating in the latter year as valedictorian of his class. He presented an old exhibition programme, with
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an original tragedy, comedy, etc., acted by himself and others, and also original essays, which he thought then were unsurpassable. Mr. Bartlett stated, that he was dis- tinguished as perhaps the only boy who had been under the instruction of both Mr. Hyde and Dr. Andrews.
Wellington Smith spoke, as a citizen of Lee, of the feeling in which the High School is held. The town is proud of it. In the course of instruction it gives, it is fully equal to the College of forty years ago. The citi- zens all mean to sustain it and have no fear of its declin- ing in usefulness or influence.
The speaking then came down to the younger gradu- ates, the first called up being Charles May, who said that instead of the " grog" the fathers would have felt called upon to tender their guests, he would give a good strong decoction of " brag." The High School had good ground for bragging. The valedictorian of '68, at Williams, was one of its graduates; the man who led the Williams class of '71, during Freshman year, when preparation especially tells, and who graduated with high honor, was also one ; honor men at Williams and Trinity Colleges in '73, went from here, as did also the valedictorian at Brown in '74 and at Williams in '75. Such remarkable success was due to the conscientious faithfulness and the scholarly ability of the present Principal.
H. R. Gibbs of Boston, spoke pleasantly of his connec- tion with the school, and of the many pleasant hours he had spent there. He happily excused himself from mak- ing a lengthy speech, by quoting the Latin sentiment, E parvulo parvum, which he freely translated, " From a little man a little speech."
C. B. Bullard, Chairman of the Executive Committee that had arranged for the Reunion, spoke briefly of the pleasure it gave the resident graduates to see so many former members of the Academy and High School at this
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