USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, for the year 1881-1882 > Part 32
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"Though seed lie long in earth,
It shan't deceive the hope?"
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To make up the required £1000, the town of Leicester pledged one half, on condition that the Academy should not be removed from town ; and the remaining half was contributed by individ- uals of different places ; Lieut. Gov. Gill of Princeton giving £150; Col. Thos. Denny and Capt. Thos. Newhall of Leicester, £100 each; Jeduthan Baldwin of Brookfield, £100; Reuben Swan of Leicester, £50: Dr. Austin Flint of Leicester, land of the value of $160 ; Joseph Allen and Timothy Bigelow of Wor- cester, each £30 ; Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, £20, and others.
The act of incorporation was passed March 23, 1784, and the Trustees met and organized on the 7th of April. Hon. Moses Gill, (Lieut. Gov., and subsequently acting Gov. of the State) was elected President of the Trustees, Rev. Benjamin Conklin of Leicester, Vice-President, Rev. Joseph Pope of Spencer, Secretary, Joseph Allen Esq. of Worcester, Treasurer, and Col. Ebenezer Crafts of Sturbridge, Steward and Butler. This last is rather to be viewed as a compliment to him, as he never re- sided in Leicester, while he always kept a lively interest in the Academy's welfare.
Benjamin Stone was engaged as principal Preceptor, and the school was opened on Monday June 7, 1784, with three pupils, to wit, Samuel C. Crafts and Ephraim Allen of Sturbridge, and Samuel Swan of Leicester. Soon after, Eli Whitney of West- borough, whose name as an inventor has since been so univer- sally known, joined the school, and the number of pupils during the term rose to twenty. In the second, or autumn term, with two Preceptors-Mr. Thomas Payson being in the English de- partment-the number rose to between seventy and eighty.
The first scholar fitted for college was the aforesaid Samuel C. Crafts, son of Col. Ebenezer Crafts. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1790, went immediately with his father to Ver- mont, aided him in founding the town of Craftsbury, was for sixteen years Judge and Chief Justice of one of the courts, was Governor of the State two years, and a Representative and Senator in Congress, "commanding the respect and esteem of all." He died in 1853, at the age of eighty-five. Being the first of nearly five thousand young persons, who have resorted to Leicester Academy for an education, this brief notice of him will doubtless be of interest.
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The salary of the Principal was at first £50 .- only $167-and he was to be "at the expense of his own support." When Mr. (afterward Dr.) Pierce was here, ten years later, his salary was £60. ($200) and the second year $250. For years the Academy struggled for its life, and at times seemed on the point of utter failure. But "help came, though slowly," and "it has never failed" says Gov. Washburn, writing in 1855, "to supply the aid of a well-regulated and well-diciplined school, under teach- ers of competent and often eminent qualifications."
This paper allows no opportunity of a detailed statement of the course of study, which continued to steadily advance with the growth of knowledge, and as the public needs became man- ifest. In 1798, for the first time, globes, a mieroscope, an electrical machine, a thermometer, and a set of surveying in- struments, were procured. The study of Chemistry, in a small way, was introduced in 1813. In 1823, the sum of five hundred dollars was given, by residents of Leicester, to procure philo- sophical and astronomical apparatus. Instruction in French was given in 1828.
Very early the custom of an Annual Exhibition was estab- lised, and the scholars soon began to give dramatie performan- ces in connexion with the same. Thus, in 1790, we learn that Addison's "Cato" was acted entire ; and the late Hon. Abijah Bigelow of Worcester, was one of the boy-performers. Rev. Dr. Pierce says, "Plays were acted in the meeting-house, which was crowded to its full capacity," and he gives an amusing ac- count of one called "The Scolding Wife," in which, to quote his own words, "the heroine acted her part to universal admiration."
From the commencement of the school pupils were admitted of both sexes ; and says Washburn, "the Trustees and the pre- ceptors seem to have understood,-what is now so well settled- that, in educational training, the same intellectual processes were to be pursned with one sex as with the other ; and there- fore they adopted the same system of text-books and instruction for each," and he emphasizes the "snecess" which, he says, has "always distinguished this system."
In May, 1835, the Trustees voted to employ a female teacher which raised the number of teachers to four, and this continued
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many years. Miss Elizabeth Holmes was the first of these. She held the position from 1835 to 1848, thirteen years, to general acceptance ; and her death, in 1849, was attended with every mark of regret and respect.
A brief list of some of the benefactors of the Academy, sub- sequent to the original ones already named, here follows :
In 1811, Capt. Thomas Newhall of Leicester, gave $1,000. In 1824, Capt. Israel Waters of Charlton gave by will about 88,000. In 1831, Isaiah Thomas Esq. of Worcester, gave by will $5,000. In 1845, Hon. Daniel Waldo of Worcester, gave by will $6,900. In 1852, James Smith Esq. of Philadelphia, gave $10,000, and at his death, by will, the further sum of 15,000 making his total gift $25,000.
Portraits of Capt. Waters, of Isaiah Thomas Esq., of Hon. Daniel Waldo, and of James Smith Esq. are in the principal hall of the academy.
Mr. Smith, with his first donation, made the condition that $5,000 more should be subscribed by the friends of the Academy. This was done : about $3,000 of the amount being contributed in Leicester, and the remainder from Worcester, Spencer, Ox- ford, Princeton, Dorchester, Boston, New Haven, and New York. Of the amount given in Leicester, $1,000 was from the late Joseph Addison Denny, of whom a portrait is in the Academy Hall. Capt. Waters' gift the first and only one to which a theological condition was attached. He required that the instructor or instructors, to receive the benefit, should be "of the Congregational Calvinistie order."
Many things of interest must here be wholly passed. But the fact that in obtaining funds in the early days of the Academy's existence, recourse was twice had to a public lottery, by leave of the Legislature, is too curious to be omitted.
But the old Jew Merchant's building had become entirely inadequate to the Academy's needs, and had fallen into decay besides. The Trustees bought more land, in the rear of their estate, in 1804 ; and on the 15th day of May, 1805, the corner stone was laid of a large, commodious, and handsome building, on the site of the present one ; the Rev. Dr. Sumner of Shrews- bury, then President, conducting the services, which were with
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much ceremony and impressiveness. The old building was sold for a trifling sum, and removed. A portion of it still stands on Pleasant street, occupied as a dwelling house by Mr. George Hatch. The new building which was of wood was dedicated July 4, 1806, the Rev. Dr. Sumner offering the prayer and the Rev. Dr. Bancroft of Worcester delivering "An Oration upon Education." This building, which had cost upwards of $9,000, equal perhaps to double the amount now, proved to have been unfaithfully built, and was a constant source of trouble, in all weathers, so that, in 1832, when it was but 26 years old, it was decided to take it down and erect another in its place.
The present brick building is the successor of that dedicated in 1806. It was built in 1832, at a cost of $10,000, and was dedicated in 1833. Considerable sums have been expended upon it, from time to time. For nearly fifty years a large and flourishing school has been maintained in it, usnally with four regular teachers ; having also a residence in it for the principal and his family, rooms for the teachers, many dormitories for scholars, and a boarding-house. In the lapse of the half cen- tury, it has come to need extensive alterations and repairs ; and these are now in progress, at a cost of some $6,000.
When the present meeting-house of the First Congregational Society was built, in 1866, the old meeting-house was sold to the Trustees of the Academy, who removed it to the rear of the Academy, converting it into dormitories for scholars, and a gymnasium with extensive apparatus. The present funds for the endowment of the Academy amount to $50,000.
The names of some of the leading persons in the government of the Academy are as follows :- Hon. Moses Gill, Hon. Levi Lincoln, Senior, Rev. Dr. Joseph Sumner, Rev. Dr. Aaron Bancroft, Gov. Levi Lincoln, Hon. Seth Washburn. Rev. Benj. Conklin, Rev. Zephaniah S. Moore, Rev. John Nelson, an ex- cellent likeness of whom is in the Academy hall ; Hon. Dwight Foster, Rev. Joseph Pope, Hon. Joseph Allen, Hon. Abijah Big- elow, Col. Thomas Denny, Dr. Austin Flint, Hon. Nath'l P. Denny, Hon. Daniel Waldo, Samuel M. Burnside Esq., Alfred D. Foster Esq., Rev. Dr. Horatio Bardwell, Hon. Emory Wash- burn, Ichabod Washburn Esq., Joseph A. Denny Esq., Hon.
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Thos. Kinnicutt, -all well known citizens of Worcester County.
Among the teachers not now living, have been Ebenezer Ad- ams. afterwards Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philoso- phy, in Dartmouth College ; Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore, afterwards President of Williams College ; Hon. Bradford Sum- ner, John Richardson, Rev. Josiah Clark, father and son, Rev. Dr. John Pierce, Rev. Theodore Dehon, afterwards bishop of South Carolina ; Dr. James Jackson, Dr. John Dixwell, Dr. George C. Shattuck, Hon. Timothy Fuller, Hon. Waldo Flint, Hon. Emory Washburn, Charles S. Henry, Luther Wright, Al- van H. Washburn, Charles A. Wetmore, and, if one still living may be named, Hon. William W. Rice, our present Representa- tive in Congress.
Prominent among the pupils of the Academy, in addition to Gov. Crafts of Vermont, and Eli Whitney the inventor, were Hon. William L. Marcy, Secretary of State of the United States ; Hon. William Upham, a Senator from Vermont; Rev. Gardi- ner Spring, D. D., Hon. John Davis, Governor of Massachu- setts ; Hon. Ebenezer Lane, a Chief Justice of Ohio ; Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, for many years U. S. Consul at London ; Hon. David Henshaw. Secretary of the Navy of the United States ; Rev. George Allen, Hon. Charles Allen, member of Congress and Judge ; Hon. Pliny Merrick and Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas. Judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts ; Dr. Levi Hedge, Professor of Logic and Philosophy in Harvard College ; to which should be added, with special honor for the many good works he has done in the Academy's behalf, the Hon. Emory Washburn, Governor, Judge, Law Professor in Harvard College, &c. "And if to these I were to add," says Mr. Wash- burn, "the names of those once pupils of the Academy, who have made their influence felt as the graceful, and dignified, and gifted wives and mothers of the leading men of their day, the task, though a pleasant one, would require a degree of time and labor which is not now at my command."
The Centennial of Leicester Academy approaches ; its friends, who then shall be living, will assemble in the spring of 1884, to celebrate that event, to recount its various fortunes, and to speak of the inestimable services it has rendered, in the cause
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of good learning, to this community, to the Commonwealth, and to a much wider circle, during its first one hundred years. It will be a good day for the old and honored school ; for it will tell of a history which began earlier than the form of govern- ment under which we are now living, a history which began immediately after the war for the independence of America had closed ; and it will commemorate the labors of men sharing largely the patriotic and unselfish spirit which carried the coun- try through the long, weary years of the war. It will tell of Ebenezer Crafts and of Jacob Davis who, prompted, it is hardly too muchto say inspired, by the love of country and a high pur- pose to do something to save it from the fatal consequences of ignorance and its allied evils, (being resolved, in the words of the early Puritans, that "learning shall not be buried in the gra- ves of our fathers,") came to this town, purchased building and land, and gave it a free gift forever, to the cause of education ; selecting this place, I am sure, not wholly from the accidental circumstance of a suitable building being for sale, but also be- cause of the eminent character of leading citizens here, whose services throught the Revolution had honored Leicester, and had placed the names of Allen, Henshaw, Washburn. Green, Conk- lin, Sargent, Denny, Newhall, Livermore, Ward, and others. high on the roll of worthies, both in council and in the field. It will tell of the liberal response which this town, though crip- pled by the war, made to the call for aid to the new-born school. It will tell of the generous donations of many men and women. It will tell of the long line of instructors, whose modest and patient labors here proved a lasting blessing to a long array of pupils ; and of the many men who have gladly and freely given, as Trustees, invaluable time and service, to build up the Acade- my, and to nourish its growth. It will be an honorable story, of which neither the Academy, nor the county, nor the town will need to be ashamed. The Academy, and its great constit- uency of pupils and friends, need not hesitate to admit any errors or defects which may have attended its administration in the past, for such are inseparable from human affairs ; but they can truly say that these, if such there were, were exceptions to
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its large and beneficent career ; and they can point, with hon- orable pride, to the great company of citizens. useful and emi - nent in all walks of life, men and women of the highest charac- ter, who went forth from Leicester Academy, and who, wher- ever they have lived, have been of "the salt of the earth."
It is easy to be won from things of the past when the present puts forward claims like those of the ice- cream and strawberry collation furnished in Memo- rial Hall by the hospitable people of Leicester, and not to rend too suddenly and entirely the historic associations of the hour the graceful and pleasant young ladies' committee, Misses Emma Pierce, Sara Coolidge, Mary Coolidge, Belle Hatch and Ruth Hatch, who ministered at the feast, were attired in the silks and brocades of their grandmothers' days, with high combs, powdered hair and face patches,- a charming reproduction of the antique.
After the collation the party went to Mount Pleas- ant, a short mile from the town, where a magnificent view of the surrounding country was enjoyed. They also had the pleasure of examining the house of Mr. Tarleton, built in 1771, by Joseph Henshaw, a Bos- ton merchant, as a country seat. Its original wain- scots, cornices, balustrades, &c., were exanined with much interest. This place was once the residence of an eccentric individual, Lewis Allen, who came from Shrewsbury. He was a tory of the rankest sort during the revolution. It is related of him that in
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accordance with his own desire he was buried near the house, and close beside the road, "so that he could hear the news from Boston as the stages went by." A brief visit was also made to the Cemetery just west of the centre, where dates as far back as 1740 were found upon headstones.
Returning to the village the party stopped at the residence of Mr. L. D. Thurston, and examined with great interest a rare old clock, the property of Mrs. Joseph A. Denny. Its case is ornamented with quaint raised figures in Chinese designs, and its metal-dial tells the hour, the day of the month and the age of the moon, while at the top is a group of sun, moon and stars, which move regularly. It was brought from England by Thomas Prince, 1714- 1717. When the late owner, Mr. J. A. Denny, was in England, a few years ago, he endeavored to de- termine the age of the clock, and found the descend- ants of its maker, Thomas Wagstaff, making just such clocks in London, in the location occupied by the family for centuries. His story of the clock prompted them to the examination of their family records, kept in rusty iron boxes, and it was found that the Thomas Wagstaff who made the clock died in 1610, which settles its rank to the title of the oldest clock in this vicinity.
The party left Leicester at 7: 40, with cheers for their generous entertainers, and reached the city an hour later, driving to the rooms, where a brief meet- ing was held, at which President Crane thanked the
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members and friends for their attendance and co- operation ; and a committee, including Messrs. H. M. Smith, Clark Jillson, H. L. Shumway, F. P. Rice and William H. Bartlett, were appointed to prepare and transmit a formal expression of the thanks of the Society to the people of Leicester for their generous assistance in securing the success of the excursion. The committee reportde the following resolution :-
Resolred, That The Worcester Society of Antiquity desires to express to the Citizens' Committee and residents of Leicester, their appreciation of the graceful hospitalities and generous and hearty co-operation which made the visit of this Society to Leicester on Saturday, July 8th, an occasion long to be remem- bered. Leicester will never fail to retain its long honored place as an educational centre, and its delightful home associations, so long as its citizens cherish, as at present, a worthy pride in 4 the past of the beautiful town, and prove themselves worthy to maintain and carry forward the work so well begun in the early day.
The September meeting was held on the 5th inst. seventeen persons being in attendance. An assess- ment of $1,00 per member was voted, to defray the expense of publishing the Proceedings of the Society for the current year.
A special meeting was held Sept. 19th, at which the death of Mr. William Howard Bigelow of New Haven, Conn., an active member of the Society, was announced, by President Crane. The biographical sketch of the deceased, furnished for the annals of
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the Society by himself, was read by Mr. Albert A. Lovell, together with a memorial. Both were or- dered printed in the Proceedings.
SKETCH OF WILLIAM H. BIGELOW.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
Wm. Howard Bigelow was born in Easton, Washington Co. N. Y., Dec. 21, 1829. He was in the eighth generation from John Bigelow who immigrated from Suffolk, England, about the year 1636, and settled in Watertown, Mass., where he died July 14, 1703.
LINE OF ANCESTORS.
Through Joshua of Watertown, son of John ; born Nov. 5. 1655 ; died Feb 21, 1745. Through John, son of Joshua, who settled in Colchester, Conn. between the years 1706 and 1709 : born Dec. 2, 1681 ; died March 8, 1770. Through David, son of John, who lived two miles south of Marlboro Center, Conn. : born 1706 ; died June 2, 1799. Through David, son of David. who lived about one mile to the N. E. of Marlboro centre. C't. ; born May 7. 1732 ; died Oet. 6. 1820. Through Erastus, son of David, who married Lucy Root of Marlboro, Conn .. June 1. 1789, and emigrated to Easton, Washington Co. N. Y., where he cleared a farm in the heavy native forest, built saw-mills. and for many years manufactured lumber which was rafted down the Hudson River and marketed in Albany; born Feb. 11. 1765 ; died July 15, 1855. Through Anson, son of Erasmus. and father of Wm. H. He married Eliza Moors of Hudson. N. Y., Oct. 23, 1823, and settled on a farm near his father's home. He was Supervisor of his native town many years and member of the N. Y. State Legislature. The later years of his life he spent in Cambridge. N. Y .. having retired on a comfort- able fortune : born Dec. 20. 1794 : died Sept. 15. 1869. Anson and Eliza, his first wife, brought up four sons and two daughters. . It is believed that these ancesters were all farmers.
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On the farm in Easton Wm. H. grew up to the age of seven- teen, working summers and attending district school winters. At the above age he passed out from the influence of the home- stead, which was one of a strong moral and Christian character, and prepared for college largely in Washington Academy, Cam- bridge, N. Y., though attending one term in Union Village Academy, N. Y., and another term in Burr Seminary, Vermont. In the fall of 1849, he entered the sophomore class of Williams College, Mass., and graduated in a class of fifty-one members, in the year 1852. He did not know enough to be a farmer, and for that reason. his father used to say, he sent him to college. His studies went smoother to him than farming ; he sustained a respectable stand as a scholar and spoke on the Junior, Adel- phie Union and Commencement stages.
He was deeply impressed with great moral and Christian prin- ciples, by the instructions and characters of two of his precep- tors, Prof. Albert Hopkins and Pres. Mark Hopkins. In the spring of his Senior year. he resolved to lead a Christian life, and from the spring following has been a member of some Chris- tian church, and for many years a Superintendent of Sunday schools. After his graduation, he taught during the fall term in Brattleboro. Vt. assisting Rev. Roswell Harris, and com- menced the study of medicine, reciting to Dr. Willard Arms.
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The following winter, 1852-3, he assisted the Rev. James Tuffts in Monson Academy, Mass., and after commencing the spring term was interrupted in his work with an attack of hem- orhage of the lungs. Following the advice of medical counsel, he terminated his connection with this institution of learning immediately, and, influenced further by the knowledge of the hereditary tendency to consumption which menaced him, aban- doned all literary and professional hopes and sought an active out-door life in the West. The summer of 1854 he spent with a corps of Engineers running the preliminary line of the Iowa Central Air-line Railroad. first carrying the chain, then the staff and then the compass. Ile turned his attention subsequently to surveying farms, selecting government lands and locating land warrants in Iowa, and finally located in Sioux City Iowa, having organized the firm of Bigelow & White which commenced the real estate and banking business in the spring of 1856.
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On the 18th of Nov., 1856, he married Mary Ann Hayes, daughter of Dea. Russell Hayes of West Brattleboro, Vt., and went to Sioux City for permanent residence. Two sons were there born to them, Russel Anson, born June 2, 1859, and Wm. H. Jr., born July 22, 1861. He served one year as Mayor of Sioux City, and was appointed by President Lincoln in the spring of 1861 Register of the Land Office at Sioux City. He discharged the duties of this office until the spring 1864, when he resigned and moved to Chicago, and became a member of the firm of Bigelow Brothers, manufacturers and dealers in lumber. This firm, as thus organized, consisting of three brothers, Anson A., Charles H. and Wm. H., has continued the business to the present time (1881) with uniform and growing financial success. From the fall of 1869 Wm. H. has been a silent partner, being compelled by the breaking down of his nervous system to with- draw from the active management of the business and give himself up to travel and recreation for the restoration of his health. Accompanied by his family he spent two winters in Florida, and in 1872 crossed the Atlantic and spent two years travelling in Europe.
Returning in 1874, with health somewhat improved, he, with his family, repaired to his wife's ancestral estate in West Brattle- boro, Vt., which she had inherited. being the only heir of her parents, and there settled down in the old homestead, built in 1795 by her grandfather, Rutherford Hayes, who was the grand- father also of ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes.
For the purpose of educating his sons, a temporary home has been made in New Haven, Ct., where he has resided much of the time for the past four years. Interested in Genealogical studies, he became interested in his own ancestral race, and in 1877 published a small volume which exhibited the result of his researches. Feb. 20. 1879, a third son was born to them. who recieved the name of Hayes.
The close of this brief biography leaves its subject in the en- joyment of comparative health, possessed with enough of this world's goods to satisfy a moderate ambition, and blest with a wife that God has spared to him, worthy of his love, and three sons who, he hopes, will be able to do more for the world than he has been able to do himself.
MEMORIAL.
BY ALBERT A. LOVELL.
On the 22d day of August last past, an Active Member of this Society, William Howard Bigelow, died at his home in West Brattleboro, Vt., in the 53d year of his age. His life, though burdensome by a constant warfare against the attacks of hereditary disease, well filled with usefulness and with all that makes life worth living, has closed, and we stand as it were by a new made grave, and think of the lesson such a life teaches, well worth a young man's study and an old man's reflections. A life, which from its purity, its truth and steadfastness of pur- pose left the world better than it found it, and from which went out the best and noblest influences. In the quiet and seclusion of a farmer's home his early days were spent, and guided by the counsel and direction of devoted Christian parents, in him was formed a strong moral and Christian character, which ever proved a sure and steadfast anchor though all the storms and vicissitudes of life. It is not for me to furnish any sketch of his life, as that has already been supplied by his own willing com- pliance with the request of the Society, but rather let me present those traits and characteristics of mind and heart which com- bined to make the man.
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