USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Reminiscences of Andover > Part 2
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And now we will return to the hill. On our way we shall pass Abbot Academy - " the first house built in New England, by a corporation, for the exclusive use of educating women "- for Ida Tarbell is mistaken when she states in a recent magazine article that Mount Holyoke Seminary was the first.
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On we go to the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who in a talk to the girls at Abbot, before the days when ladies were accepted public speakers, advanced the opinion that women should do whatever their gifts quali- fied them to do. If they tried public speaking their audiences would soon decide their fitness. Her own view of woman's sphere was that it was that of the home maker, but not of the merely housekeeper.
She was hardly a model housekeeper her- self. When the proceeds from her writings enabled her to pay a housekeeper, this good lady - the model for Miss Prissy in "The Minister's Wooing "- used to amuse us by her tales of things as she found them at her advent.
Mrs. Stowe's study was on the lower floor, between the parlor and the stairway. Here she wrote "The Key," " Dred," "Pink and White Tyranny," and all her later books. The adulation paid her abroad by people of great renown and rank never changed her quiet, simple manners, her unaffected kind- ness and friendliness. The offerings of all nations adorned her apartments. Here first was shown that portrait, always copied for writers of books and magazines, which isn't
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and never was, a likeness. She always wore her front hair in loose curls over her ears,- in the portrait it is carried back, etc. She was very hospitable. Grand times we young neighbors had then! Indeed it was the merriest epoch in " hill " history. The stern sway of Ma'am Porter and Ma'am Farrar was past. In winter we had levees every fort- night at the professors' houses, besides parties musical and social, walks, drives, and much tea-drinking together. There were large households in those days. One professor had nine children, and the theologues were numerous and pervasive. At Mrs. Stowe's, Prof. Stowe used to convulse us with his mimicry. So great was the gaiety fostered by Mrs. Stowe that the trustees began to frown on it as too much dissipation for the students. It was when Mrs. Stowe's father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, was President of Lane Seminary, and Mr. Stowe was a professor there and a widower, that Harriet Beecher became Mrs. Stowe. His first wife, who died soon after her marriage, was Eliza Tyler. Mrs. H. B. Stowe's first children were twins, whom she named, one Harriet Beecher and the other Eliza Tyler.
In "Old Town Folks" Mrs. Stowe at-
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tributes to her hero, Horace, singular psychological states. These states, and even some of the incidents, are reproductions of Professor Stowe's actual experiences. The presence of his first wife in his study at the Stowe house was often vividly real to him. She had been a very beautiful young lady, and Mr. Stowe was the successful rival of an artist. The disappointed artist never married. Years after, when his life was fading away, her image filled his thoughts and he deter- mined that his last work should be her portrait. As he worked, strength failed, but he struggled on to its completion and soon passed away. The likeness he bequeathed to Professor Stowe. It hung in his study - the front room toward Main Street, second floor.
When my father first moved from West Parish to the hill, 1851, Professor Stuart and wife were still living. He (the professor)
died the following year. The first and most eminent Hebrew scholar in this country, he communicated to his pupils in that now dis- credited study, much of his own enthusiasm. Mrs. Stuart's biography has been preserved in a published eulogy by Professor Park. Of their four daughters, Elizabeth was at that time the wife of Professor Phelps, then
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pastor of Pine Street Church, Boston. Later Sarah became the wife of R. D. C. Robbins, a man of striking physique, assistant librarian of the Seminary library. Mary Stuart be- came the second wife of Professor Phelps. Before (?) her marriage she translated many German works, at that time a rare achieve- ment. Abby became the wife of Rev. George Anthony.
Prof. Stuart and Dr. Woods, his associate professor, were men as unlike each other in character as in face and figure. Stuart was alert, restless, nervous - Woods of benign countenance and cordial manners, the great theologian of his day. " The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones," says the poet. So we remember Woods by his foible - his grasp upon money. Of this, many amusing anecdotes are told. Here is one I received from Mrs. Albert Abbott. In his day we had no caterers, and party refreshments were usually nuts, raisins, and apples. Dr. Woods when anticipating such an occasion at his house, went to Widow Johnson asking for some of her "nice apples," supposed to be better than his own. Then he went to Mr. Abbott whose store was on the corner down below Mr. Sawyer's, and
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taking a quantity of rags, asked Mr. Abbott to exchange them for nuts. Mr. Abbott was not in the way of doing business by barter, but did not know how to refuse Dr. Woods. In the evening many guests found uncracked nuts on their plates. These were frugally re- turned to Mr. Abbott with the request of money in exchange.
Two of Dr. Woods' daughters, Mrs. Law- rence and Mrs. Baker became authors of some distinction.
A subsequent dweller in the home built for Dr. Woods was Prof. Elijah Barrows, a good man tho' not equaling in popularity as a preacher his brother professors. One Sun- day a notable preacher from abroad was ex- pected to supply the pulpit but failed to ap- pear. It was necessary for Professor Bar- rows to meet the emergency. Aware of the disappointment his own appearance created, he looked solemnly over his spectacles and announced his text, " What doest thou here, Elijah." Scowls turned at once to smiles. Ida Tarbell in her articles on " Prominent Women in this Country," has truthfully told how conservatives were prejudiced against the abolishionist movement, by its women taking up public speaking in its behalf. I remember
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well the prejudice thus excited here. Saint Paul was freely quoted in condemnation. Not until the Civil War gave us such patriotic and eloquent orators as Anna Dickinson did we yield toleration.
Now it happened the Rev. Wm. B. Brown, pastor of the Free Church, was visited by his sister, Miss Antoinette Brown, a graduate of Oberlin and a licensed preacher. The lecture committee invited her to give one of the lectures in our course that winter. Prof. Barrows had already engaged to be one of the lecturers, but as soon as he heard that Miss Barnes was on the list, he withdrew. At Abbot the cantata, "The Haymakers," was given by the pupils. A little hay was piled on the platform to be tossed in accompaniment to the music. But as soon as acting began, Professor Barrows arose, called to his daugh- ter, " Sarah, this is no place for us," and left. I am told his grandchildren now act in dramas.
Professor Phelps was but twenty-eight years old when elected to his professorship here. He was but twenty-two when settled as pastor over a Boston church. No wonder his health failed early in his life. What a preacher he was! A lady, herself a person
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of rare scholarship and piety, said on hearing him, " He seemed to have come to us direct from the throne of God to deliver a message from Heaven, whither he expected at once to return."
Professor Shedd used to stir up our con- sciences mightily. The students had a saying, " Professor Shedd preaches the law - Pro- fessor Phelps the Gospel."
Professor Park! How can one in a few words compress a full, adequate appreciation or communicate to others a just impression of his value as a citizen, a teacher, a leader of thought for more than a generation !
An aged dweller on Main Street once said, " I love to see that man walk past my house, he looks so like the Almighty, so grand and solemn ! " As Professor Park once said of his neighbor, Samuel Taylor, "The very presence of such a man makes for righteous- ness," so of himself we realized that we were uplifted by his outgoing and incoming among us. Without him, Andover can never be the same as in his day. Of him, as a theologian, nothing can be added to the delineation given by Dr. R. S. Storrs. When he preached the house could not contain the eager crowds. The students followed him wherever he was
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to speak. Even when, like Paul at Troas, " he was long preaching," the Academy boys hung spellbound upon his words and could recall them long years afterwards. A teacher from Abbot Academy who had heard his fame, was asked after hearing him if her expecta- tions were realized. She replied, "I feel as if I had been hearing Plato or one of the old philosophers."
Besides his great thoughts and rare rhetori- cal gift, there was an indescribable something in his intonations which lifted common words into majesty, pathos, sublimity, and made them thrill.
Although his intellect chiefly impressed his students in the classroom, he had the tenderest sensibility, quick sympathy and deep religious feeling. In the revival in 1857 twhich so stirred our academies, no one else engaged in the meetings with such intense interest as Professor Park. Often as he opened the way to eternal life to the young and urged them to enter, his tears flowed and his emotion became almost too great to control. Not to his students was it granted to see him, as I have, in his visits to the sick, and heard him administer comfort to the dying by tender guidance through " the Dark Valley." Then
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how we ever looked to him for consolation when we laid our beloved in their last resting- places. He had no equal in funeral sermons and eulogies - though never extravagant nor attributing fictitious virtues.
Of his capacity for friendship he gave proof in his undying regard for his neighbor and associate, Bela B. Edwards. His keen sense of humor was the delight of his friends. Strange that such a man should, from his earliest connection with the Seminary, be the target for criticism and depreciation. Prof. Barrows once facetiously remarked, in allu- sion to his disposition, as we came down the avenue from Chapel through ankle-deep mud, " Now I suppose somebody will be blaming Professor Park for this mud."
was Professor Park who gave the
It Seminary its greatest renown, extending to other lands and drawing hither distinguished visitors from abroad. If one doubts it was his popularity which drew students, let him examine the catalogues and see how the middle class - his class - always exceeded the others in numbers.
As I have said, he was always the victim of detraction ; for an example of false reports, when Professor Shedd left the Seminary, it
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was said because Professor Park persecuted him for his different theological opinions. But Mrs. Shedd, when making her parting call at our house, alluded to this rumor and emphatically denied its truth, affirming that their relations had always been cordial and delightful.
Alas! that his old age was so saddened by unkind neglect and misrepresentation! The burden of old age with its consciousness of failing vigor of body and mind, the giving up of occupations which have given life its sig- nificance and value, the being left out and passed by in the new interests and activities of a younger generation - this is enough without the assaults of the envious.
Then, among the most observed dwellers on the hill was Dr. Samuel Taylor, popularly known as " Uncle Sam." His massive frame seemed replete with strength, and a force of character corresponded with the powerful physique. A puritan conscience was the key- stone of his mental structure. Woe to the idler, the sly-boots in that day! He believed in the moral efficiency of severity, for to him " life was real, life was earnest." Yet many an old pupil could testify to his beneficience. He was the leading classical scholar and
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teacher of his generation. Now-a-days we hear the great teachers of the past spoken of as " mere grammarians." While Dr. Taylor's little book, "Method of Classical Study," shows how deeply he entered into the analysis of language, what thoroughness he required, it indicates his attention to as much rhetorical quality as a young student is usually able to appreciate.
It was my privilege to be one of the only private class he ever consented to instruct. For years I never saw a fair morning dawn without recalling Dr. Taylor's rendering of the opening lines of the Fourth Book of the Aeneid - the discrimination and enthusiasm with which he compared these descriptive epithets with similar passages in English poets.
What a worker he was! Taking upon him- self the entire government of the school, hear- ing all the recitations of the senior class, being also clerk of the board of trustees, joint editor with Professor Park of the Bibliotheca Sacra and librarian of the Seminary library, yet he was always the one relied upon to arrange the details and superintend the execution of every public service of " the hill." Phillips Academy was not then so large a school, and the
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librarian had an assistant. Also Dr. Taylor's wife was a helpmeet.
Time fails to tell of those who built up the business of Andover. In the Souvenir of the 250th Anniversary, published by the Towns- man in 1896, this information is given.
Many " firsts " are credited to Andover - of the manufacture of flax, 1836; the powder mill in Marland Village; the first piece of worsted goods, Ballardvale 1842. The first American poetess was Anne Bradstreet of North Andover. Our theological seminary was the first theological school incorporated in this country. Phillips Academy was the first of its kind in the state and the country, and, as has been mentioned, Abbot Academy was the first incorporated school for girls only.
The November Club was the first woman's club to build and own its house in this state.
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