Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 18

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 18

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The Rev. James H. Merrill was the third pastor. Graduated at Dartmouth College. 1834; Andover Theological Seminary, 1839. Teacher in academy at Fryeburgh, Me., 1835-1837. Ordained Nov.

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

26, 1839. Settled at Montague, Mass., 1839-1855. Installed over the West Church, Andover, April 30, 1856 ; is now their pastor.

Seminary Church. - Previous to 1816, the people connected with Phillips Academy and the Theological Seminary had worshipped with the " Old South Church." On the twenty-second day of August of that year, a new church was organized in the seminary, and was under the direction and control of the trustees. That mode of conducting the affairs of the church, was changed on the first day of November, 1865, when a properly Congregational church was duly organized by a council, and contained seventy members.

Soon after the First Seminary Church was formed, in 1816, William Bartlett, Esq., of Newburyport, the generous donor, erected a large and " elegant " building of brick, ninety-four feet long and forty feet wide, containing a chapel, library, and three lecture-rooms, which was com- pleted and presented to the seminary, and was publicly dedicated Sept. 22, 1818. The pulpit of this church was supplied by professors of the seminary, including such men as Dr. Woods, Dr. Porter, Prof. Stuart, Prof. Emerson, Dr. Skinner, Dr. Justin Edwards, and Dr. B. B. Edwards, and others.

This church has recently erected a beautiful gothic chapel, 120 fect long, 53 feet wide, with seating for 528 persons. It is built of rubble masonry, and has a tower at the north-west corner, rising to the height of 128 feet. The inside finish is of ash, the windows of stained glass, with a wall of elegant soft tints. The building is situ- ated in the corner of the seminary grounds, and faces west. The stone is from West Andover, trimmed with light Ohio stone, and Connecticut red sandstone.

The services of dedication were held Oct. 2, 1876, Prof. Egbert C. Smyth preaching the sermon.

A Methodist church was established in this town in 1830, with preaching in the " Bank Hall"; a meeting-house was built soon after, and, at times, the society seemed to flourish ; but, in 1840, it began to give out, and the building passed into other hands.

In the latter part of 1832, a Baptist church was recognized, the public services of recognition being held in the Old South Church, by invitation, Oct. 3, 1832. Their meeting-house was dedicated Aug. 28, 1834.

The Rev. James Huckins, installed Aug. 28, 1834; resigned, Oct. 25, 1835.

The Rev. George J. Carlton, installed June 15, 1836 ; resigned, Oct. 5, 1838.

The Rev. Nathaniel Hervey, invited Aug. 11, 1839 ; left, -, 1841.

The Rev. Benjamin S. Cobbett, ordained Feb. 8, 1842; resigned, Oct. 5, 1847.

The Rev. Silas B. Randall, eame Oct. 1, 1848 ; left, Oct. - , 1849. The church dissolved itself Dec. 8, 1857; many of its members uniting with the church at Lawrence. July 28, 1858, a new Baptist church was recognized. The Rev. William S. Mckenzie as pastor,

Litchfield. The present pastor is the Rev. Henry R. Wilbur.

Protestant Episcopal services were performed in Andover for the first time in 1835, the Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, of Kentucky, officiating, in Bank Hall. The first meeting in reference to the formation of a society, was held July 28th of the same year. The first parish meet- ing was held Aug. 6, 1835. The first communion was April 3, 1836. During the years 1837 and 1838, fourteen members from the Old South were dismissed, and became communicants with this new church, which had taken the name of "Christ Church." Their new church edifice was consecrated Oct. 31, 1837.

Rectors. - The Rev. James H. Tyng, 1836; the Rev. Joseph H. Clinch, 1837; the Rev. Samuel Fuller, D.D., Oct. 1, 1837, to June 26, 1843; the Rev. George Packard, 1843-1845 ; the Rev. Henry Waterman, December, 1845 -June 5, 1849 ; the Rev. Samuel Fuller, D.D., Oct. 1, 1849 - Oct. 1, 1859 ; the Rev. B. B. Babbitt ; James Thompson. The present pastor is the Rev. Malcomb Douglas.

A Universalist church was founded in 1837, and a meeting-house built in 1838. Public services have been very irregularly sustained, and for several years entirely suspended, and the building is now used for school purposes, on Main Street.

" The Free Christian Church," of Andover, was organized in 1846, with forty-four original members, fourteen of whom were from the Old South Church. It was organized by a council of churches, May 7, 1846, although services were held by them several Sabbaths earlier. For several years services were held in the Universalist church ; but, in 1849, the Methodist church was purchased, removed, and remod- elled for their use. The pastors have been the Rev. Elijah C. Win- chester, February, 1846 - September, 1848 ; the Rev. Sherlock Bris- tol, October, 1848 - October, 1849 ; the Rev. William B. Brown, August, 1850 - April, 1855; the Rev. Caleb E. Fisher, June, 1855 - May, 1859 ; the Rev. S. C. Leonard, September, 1859 ; the Rev. E. S. Williams ; the Rev. George F. Wright is the present pastor.

Religious services were first commenced at Ballardvale in 1847. First, a Sabbath school; and then evening meetings were conducted by persons from neighboring churches and the seminary. Episcopal services were held in Depot Hall till August, 1849. Worship in that form not receiving sufficient support, a Union Society was formed, and a preacher employed for six months. At the end of that time, he joined the New England Conference, and gathered a Methodist church about the early part of 1850. The Methodist Society erected a meeting-house in 1851. Services have been held somewhat irregu- larly, they not having been able to support a resident preacher.

The Union Society repaired to Union Hall, where they maintained public worship till the erection of their new meeting-house, which was dedicated to public worship Sept. 3, 1866. The Rev. Henry Solo- mon Green has been their pastor since its formation, in 1854. He was installed by a council of Congregational churches, April 1, 1855. Their new house has a seating capacity for three hundred persons.

Phillips Academy is the oldest incorporated academy in the State ; was founded April 21, 1778; incorporated Oct. 4, 1780. It had its origin in the liberality of Hon. Samuel Phillips, of Andover, Mass., and his brother, Hon. John Phillips, of Exeter, N. H., sons of the Rev. Samuel Phillips, the first pastor of " Old South Church," Andover. The original design of the founders was rather a private establish- ment, to be under the personal supervision of the donors, than a pub- lic high school. The first object of this institution is declared to be the promotion of virtue and true piety ; the second, instruction in the English, Latin, and Greek languages, together with writing, arithmetic, music, and the art of speaking ; the third, practical geometry, logic, and geography ; and the fourth, such other of the liberal arts and sciences, or languages, as opportunity and ability may hereafter admit, and the trustees shall direct.

Although these two Phillips brothers furnished the means for estab- lishing this institution, there is still another that deserves more than a passing notice, - one who was the "real projector and chief patron of Phillips Academy." It was the Hon. Samuel Phillips, Jr., a grandson of the Rev. Samuel Phillips. "It was the favorite work of his life "; and although overwhelmed with the cares and duties incident to public life and office throughout the exciting days of our struggles with the mother country, yet he found time to plan and to carry out his original ideas of a classical school in his native town of Andover. He suc- ceeded in diverting funds of his father and his uncle, of which he was the legal and presumptive heir, and inducing them to endow this school as joint founders. They entered heartily into his plans, and intrusted him with the labor of executing the same. The first thing to be decided upon was the location of the school. Efforts, earnest and repeated, were made to obtain a location near his own and his father's residence, in the North Parish, and many attempts were made to pur- chase the present site of Dr. Thomas Kittridge's house, with the grounds adjoining. Failing in this, they began to look elsewhere, and during the month of January, 1777, made their first purchase of

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

land of Solomon Wardwell, situated on the present southerly corner of Main and Phillips streets, and extending along the old road as far as the old well, on the common, south-east of the first printing- house, containing twenty-two acres, or thereabouts, besides another lot of seventeen acres on the opposite side of Main Street, in the westerly part of the present seminary grounds. On the first of March, the same year, another purchase was made, of twelve aeres, on the north side of Phillips Street, along the line of Main and School streets, northerly, extending nearly to the English dormitories, and to the west a short distance beyond the old " Abbot House "; also, twenty- eight acres lying west of the first parcel in the first purchase, on the south of Phillips Street ; with another lot of thirty acres, over the hill as far south as the old cross-roads, also thirty-two acres. - making in all one hundred and forty-one acres, which, with the buildings, and two hundred acres in Jaffrey, N. H., and $5,380 in money, were given for the support of a "Free School or Academy in the South Parish in Andover."

On the first lot of land, first mentioned, stood an old carpenters shop, which was immediately removed to the northerly corner of Main and Phillips streets, upon the south side of the late Samuel Farrar's door-yard, and fitted for a school-room for the new institution. The building was thirty-five by twenty feet, and finished in the plainest possible manner, with accommodations for about thirty scholars. Soon after the purchase of these lots of land, Judge Phil- lips removed from the North Parish to the old " Abbot House," which is now standing on Phillips Street, and which has become invested with much historic interest. In the meantime a constitution had been prepared, and a board of trustees - consisting of Hon. Samuel Phillips, A. M., Hon. John Phillips, LL. D., Hon. William Phillips, Hon. Oliver Wendell, A. M., Hon. John Lowell, LL. D. , the Rev. Josiah Stearns, A. M., the Rev. Elias Smith, M. A. , the Rev. William Symmes, D. D., the Rev. Jonathan French, M. A., Ilis Honor Samuel Phillips, LL. D., the Rev. Eliphalet Pearson, LL. D., Mr. Nehemiah Abbot - had been formed. The first meeting of the board of trustees was held in the west room of that house.

Here this institution may be said to have had its birthplace. In this house Judge Phillips resided for a time. and afterwards it became the residence of the successive preceptors of the school, - Eliphalet Pearson, Ebenezer Pemberton, and Mark Newman. When the theo- logical seminary was founded, Dr. Leonard Woods occupied the house, and here he gave his first course of lectures on divinity. At that time, on all the territory known as "Andover Hill," were but two houses, besides the new academy building, - one t.ear the site of the " Abbot" Professor's House, the other a few rods south of the old printing-house.

This first school exceeded the expectations of the founders, and as the numbers increased, it was deemed advisable to apply to the Gen- eral Court for an Act of incorporation, which was granted in October, 1780, and the original name of "Phillips School" changed to "Phillips Academy." The Rev. Eliphalet Pearson was appointed by the trustees as the first principal, and Joseph Mottey as assistant in the new insti- tution, which has grown from one of the earliest to one of the most prosperous of any in the country, one that has been as useful in pro- moting the object of its founders, viz., "piety and virtne," as any to be found.

This school had been in existence but two years before it was found to be too small for the purposes intended, and as early as 1780 the subject of a new school building was agitated. The plan and location were finally determined upon in 1784, and in 1785 a building was com- pleted. On the thirtieth day of January, 1786, the school removed into its new quarters. This building was a two-story edifice built of wood, with library, recitation-rooms, and study-room on the lower floor, arranged for one hundred pupils, and a spacious hall on the second floor, for exhibitions and other public uses. The old school- honse remained on the original site several years, and was used as a

singing-room, and afterwards for storage, till it was sold and removed in 1803, and remodelled for a dwelling-house, which was torn down several years since. The new building was built at the joint expense of the two original founders, and Hon. William Phillips, of Boston, at a cost of $13,166.66, and stood on an open lawn, near the south-west corner of the present seminary lawn, and just west of the new library building, corner of Main and Salem streets, till destroyed by fire in January, 1818.

During the following year a new building was erected, of hick, eighty feet in length, and forty feet in breadth, two stories high, with a cupola, which was used for school purposes, till the erection of the larger building on School Street. in 1865. This building served the purposes for which it was erected upwards of fifty years, and is now used as a gymnasium, and stands a little distance south of the semi- mary buildings. In the meantime a stone building was erected for the increasing patronage, and was known as the English Academy, or " Old Stone Academy," which was destroyed by fire in 1864.

The present academy building, situated on the south side of School Street, is an elegant brick structure, with slate roof, fifty feet wide by ninety feet long, with two high and lofty stories above a light and airy basement. The upper room is used as an exhibition hall of the full size of the building. which is well lighted from the roof, and has a seating capacity for twelve hundred persons. The spire from the top of the building is about one hundred feet from the ground.

The first and second stories are used for recitation, instrument, library, and coat rooms, &c. In these rooms are distributed photo- graphs of large size and valuc, representing scenes in Rome, Pom- peii, and other ancient cities of the Old World. The cost of the building was $45,000.

As the relation this institution has sustained to the literary life of the nation, not only through its educational instrumentality, but in an even more direct manner, is of the most intimate description, it makes it a proper object of notice at this time.

The number of educators whose training for useful service in va- rious colleges was begun at Phillips Academy, Andover, is very large. Among the pupils of its very first year were two, who became respect- ively a Tutor and a President of Harvard College, were John Abbot and Josiah Quiney. Mr. Quincy was a son of the patriot known in history as Josiah Quiney, Jr., and after having spent six years at the academy, graduated at Harvard, in 1790, and was subsequently its President for sixteen years, from 1829 to 1845. Mr. Abbot, who both was born and died in Andover, graduated at Harvard in 1784, was for five years a Tutor in the college, and in 1801 was elected Professor of Languages at Bowdoin College, being one of the first two officers of that new institution. He was afterwards its Librarian and Treasurer. The academy also fitted for college [1784-1786] Ben- jamin Abbot, who gradnated at Harvard in 1788, and became the first Principal of Phillips Academy, Exeter, which position he filled for fifty years ; [1784-1786] John T. Kirkland, a graduate of Har- vard in 1789, and President thereof from 1810 to 1828; [1784-1786] Micah Stone, Harvard 1790, for several years Tutor at Harvard ; [1787-1789] Joseph Mckean, Harvard 1794, afterward Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard ; [1789-1790] Timothy Alden, Harvard 1794, President of Alleghany College ; [1794-1795] Samuel Willard, Harvard 1803, Tntor in Bowdoin College ; [1796-1797] Thomas A. Merrill, Harvard 1801, Tutor and Treasurer of Middle- bury College ; [1796] Levi Frisbie, Harvard 1802, Tntor and Pro- fessor of Latin, Natural Theology, Moral Philosophy, and Political Economy, at Harvard ; [1797-1801] John White, Harvard 1805, and afterward Tutor at Harvard ; [1798-1799] John Farrar, Harvard 1803, Tutor and Professor of Natural Philosophy at Harvard ; [1798- 1801] Benjamin Burge, Harvard 1805, Tutor at Bowdoin; [1805] Samuel P. Newman, Bowdoin 1816, and first Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Bowdoin, from 1824 to 1839; [1805] Daniel Poor, Dartmouth 1811, President of Batticotta College, Ceylon ; [1810-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

1814] Charles D. Cleveland, Dartmouth 1827, Professor of Latin and Greek in Dickinson College, and of Latin in the University of New York ; [1811-1813] Asa Cummings, Harvard 1817, Tutor at Bow- doin ; [1814-1815] Samuel Williston, founder of Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Mass. ; [1815-1823] Leonard Woods, Jr., Union College 1827, and President of Bowdoin from 1839 to 1866; [1816- 1818] Luther Wright, Yale 1827, First Principal of Williston Semi- mary ; [1816-1819] Jonas Burnham, Bowdoin 1823, Principal of Farmington Academy, and otherwise prominently connected with educational work in Maine; [1822] John Kendrick, Professor in Keuyon and Marietta Colleges ; [1820-1823] William A. Stearns, President of Amherst College from 1854 to 1876; [1831] Abner J. Phipps, Dartmouth 1838, for many years Ageut of the Massachusetts State Board of Education ; and [1853-1854] William T. Harris, now Superintendent of Schools, St. Louis, Mo. Other educators, gradu- ates of later years, space would fail us to mention. A cursory exam- ination of the catalogue shows that fifteen of the students of the academy have become presidents of colleges, and sixty, at least, professors in colleges and professional schools. Other teachers would form a legion.

Of strictly literary labor, many of the individuals named above have performed not a little. President Quincy was the author of a delightful memoir of his father, Josiah Quincy, Jr., which was re- edited by his daughter, Miss Eliza Susan Quincy ; of a history of Harvard College, in two volumes ; of a municipal history of Boston " during two centuries "; of a life of John Quincy Adams, and of other works. President Kirkland published a number of commem- orative discourses and historical papers, and wrote a life of Fisher Ames, which is, perhaps, the most important of his printed works. Prof. McKcan wrote much on historical topics, - a life of John Eliot being one of his publications. Prof. Farrar published largely through the instrumentality of the American Academy, of which he was sec- retary, and prepared a series of text-books in science for his college classes. Prof. Newman published treatises on rhetoric and political economy. Prof. Cleveland was, perhaps, better known even as an author than as an instructor ; the list of his published works,-chiefly text-books,- comprising nine or more titles. Among theni are com- pendiums of English and American literature, and an edition of Mil- ton's Poetical Works. Prof. Cummings was formerly the editor the " Christian Mirror"; and President Woods, besides having at one time edited the "Literary and Theological Review," has published a translation of Knapp's Theology ; of the Hakluyt Manuscript, edited by him, a full account was given in the "Literary World " for May, 1877.

From 1787 to 1792, Phillips Academy had for a pupil Charles Pinckney Sumner, the father of Charles Sumner ; and from 1792 until 1794, by a curious coincidence, Stephen Longfellow, Harvard 1798, and Charles Lowell, Harvard 1800, afterwards respectively the fathers of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell, were schoolmates in the institution.

But in more direct ways than any we have yet mentioned, has Phillips Academy, Andover, contributed to our literary history. Octavius Pickering, the famous law reporter and editor, and the author of a " Life of Timothy Pickering," his father, studied here in 1803-1806; Joseph E. Worcester, the lexicographer, in 1805 ; Rev. Dr. Leonard Withington, the Newburyport divine and commentator, in 1809-1811; Eleazer Lord, editor of "Lempricre's Biographical Dictionary," and author of a number of works ou financial. religious, and scientifie thenies, in 1810; George P. Marsh, the author of the well-known treatises on the English language and on " Man and Nature," in 1816 ; the late lamented Edmund Quincy, jonrualist, his- torian, and novelist, in 1817-1823 ; Nathaniel P. Willis, in 1821-1823 ; the Rev. Dr. Hubbard Winslow, author of a number of widely read theological and religious works, in 1818-1820 ; the late N. S. Dodge, magazinist and journalist, in 1823-1825; the late Prof. Henry B.

Hackett, D. D., foremost among American Biblical scholars and writers, in 1823-1826 ; the Rev. Dr. Ray Palmer, the hymn writer, in whose " My faith looks up to Thee," Christians of every sect are glad to join, in 1823-1826 ; Charles K. Whipple, journalist, in 1824-1827 ; in 1824-1825, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and his brother, John, in 1825-1826 ; and in 1826-1828, the late Rev. Dr. James M. Mac- donald, of Princeton, author of the " Life and Writings of St. John." Of journalists, there were also Sidney E. Morse, in 1802-1805, and his brother, Richard Carey Morse, in 1803-1805 ; of librarians, Timothy Farrar, of the Dartmouth College Library, in 1801-1802; Henry A. Homes, of the New York State Library at Albany, in 1823-1826; and Isaac P. Langworthy, of the Congregational Library, Boston, in 1833-1835 ; and of the servants of art and science, if we glance at them, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the painter and tele- graph inventor, in 1802-1805 ; and Horatio Greenough, the sculptor, in 1814-1815. Ministers, of course, it is not our purpose to men- tion, though the list includes such names as Joseph Tuckerman, 1792 ; John Codman, 1793-1794; and William Goodell, 1811-1813; nor can we include the great company of public-spirited citizens who, by other than literary lives, have contributed to the intellectual advance- ment of their race ; for example, William Wheelwright, 1814, who made such signal improvement, to this end, of his residence in Sonth America. Indeed, if we were to confine this enumeration strictly to literary workmen, and should undertake to continue it down to the latest date, and follow out what the great mass of living graduates of Phillips Academy are at present doing in the world, with the pen, we should speedily lose our way in a wilderness. We will only, there- fore, add that, of the successive instructors in the school, Dr. S. H. Taylor, Prof. C. A. Aiken, John J. Owen, Drs. Lyman Coleman, Alonzo Gray, S. R. Hall, W. H. Wells, Charles A. Young, and Mr. James S. Eaton, are all known by their printed works as well as by their proper educational careers.

Theological Seminary. - The Theological Seminary of Andover had its origin in Phillips Academy. In the year 1789, Hon. John Phillips, a donor to that institution, in furtherance of an early desire for the religious education of the people, donated the generous sum of $20,000, " for the virtuous and pious education of the youth of genius and serions disposition " in this academy. In his last will he left one- third part of all the estate of which he died possessed, " for the benefit more especially of charity scholars, such as may be of excelling genius and of good moral character, preferring the hopefully pious ; and such of those who are designed to be employed in the great and good work of the gospel ministry, having acquired the most useful human literature in either of these Academies, or other seminaries, may be assisted in the Study of Divinity (if a Theological Professor is not employed in either of the two forementioned Academies) under the direction of some eminent Calvinistie minister of the Gospel, until such time as an able, pious, and Orthodox Instructor, shall at least in part, be supported in one or both these Academies, as a Professor of Divinity ; by whom they may be taught the important principles and distinguishing tenets of our holy Christian religion."

To this fund Hon. William Phillips, of Boston, bequeathed the sum of $4,000 in aid of the same design.

In June, 1807, the trustees of the institution, expecting other dona- tions to the theological fund, applied to the General Court for power to hold real estate for educational purposes, and obtained the follow- ing Act of incorporation : -

" Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

" Whereas, the Trustces of Phillips Academy have petitioned this Court for liberty to receive and hold donations of charitably disposed persons, for the purpose of Theological Institution, and in furtherance of the designs of the pious Founders & Benefactors of said Academy, and, whereas it is reasonable that the prayer should be granted ;

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Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 18

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett Number of Pages: 450

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450