USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newbury > The first century of Dummer Academy. A historical discourse, delivered at Newbury, Byfield Parish, August 12, 1863. With an appendix > Part 4
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Grammar. There was no escape. The consequence was that they became complete masters of these interesting manuals. "I began," says one of his pupils, who has long been known as an able and popular teacher - "to translate Greek with Dr. Allen, and from the first lesson to the last, was obliged to learn every thing about every word of every lesson. The effect of his thoroughness was what every good scholar would expect. From thus getting a perfectly exact knowledge as far as I went, I learned to love Greek better than any other study, and have retained the affection to this day. The sufficient reason was, I made a better beginning in it, than in anything else, and what I learned, I learned better than I ever learned any. thing before."
I remember an agreeable drive which I took from Newburyport to Topsfield, one pleasant evening of Septem- ber, 1811, in company with my townsman and friend, BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD. Though younger than he, I had got a little the start of him in one respect, being then on my way homeward from College, while he was going home from school. Our conversation, of course, turned on school and college, but Dr. Allen and his skill
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as a teacher formed the prominent theme. Whenever that came up, my companion was enthusiastic. A few years later, and Mr. Gould had himself become the most successful, the most distinguished classical teacher in the country. For the revolution which he produced in the Boston Latin School, and for the impulse which he gave to classical learning among us, who can tell how much is due to Dr. Allen and Dummer Academy !
Nor was it to the boys only of Boston, that Dr. Allen rendered excellent service, when he was drilling his five and twenty lads upon this spot more than fifty years ago. That school for young ladies, which so long stood at the head of such institutions in our metropolis, and to which so many matronly women now look back with pleasant and grateful memories, was established and con- ducted by one who still acknowledges his obligations to Dr. Allen - and who, though entitled by long and honor- able service to retire from the field - miles emeritus-is yet in the harness and working for the cause about as hard as ever .*
Dr Allen went from this place to Philadelphia, and a little later to Hyde Park on the Hudson, where he died several years ago.
His successor here was Dr. ABIEL ABBOT. This gen- tleman, on the score of heretical opinions, had just been ejected from his ministry in Connecticut, and his case had awakened interest and sympathy in this region. This circumstance may have turned attention to him in connec- tion with the Academy, but he had claims to such con- sideration on far higher grounds.
Mr. Abbot had prepared for College at Andover, un- der Master Moody's distinguished and accurate pupil, Eliphalet Pearson, graduated at Cambridge in '87, taught, as Assistant, for two years in the Academy at Andover,
*Mr. George B. Emerson is a highly efficient member of the Massachusetts Board of Education.
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and for one year as Tutor at Cambridge. When set- tled in the ministry he still kept up his classical reading, and that habit continued to the last day of his long life. As the head of a school Dr. Abbot was less efficient than his immediate predecessor, and considerably more amiable :- a man to be loved for his equanimity and kindness - a man to be respected for his ability and learn- ing. From all that I have been able to gather re- specting him, he was, like Mr. Smith, better fitted to carry forward the scholar already well grounded and anxious to make progress, than to spur the indolent, or control the wayward. Though he was, perhaps, too gentle, too easy a man for such a place, I am not aware that his pupils ever took advantage of his good nature. My friend, the late Dr. BENJAMIN HALE, formerly Professor at Han- over, and for many years President of the College at Geneva, N. Y., and whom, until within a few weeks, I hoped to meet upon this occasion - has often told me of the pleasant and profitable days which he passed with Mr. Abbot, while reading some of the advanced studies in a College course.
But I must leave the farther consideration and illus- tration of that gentleman's excellencies, to such persons as Judge Tenney, Hon. Allen W. Dodge, Mr. Joseph Hale Abbot, or to the Rev. Doctors John Paine Cleaveland and Joseph Huntington Jones-all of whom, if I mistake not, were pupils of Dr. Abbot, and all highly competent to speak for him as well as for themselves.
Dr. Abbot was here about eight years, with an atten- dance which was never large, and which, towards the close, became very small. He returned to the ministry, and officiated many years. Down to his decease, at the age of 93, his intellect and affections remained unimpaired.
Soon after the resignation of Mr. Abbot, which took effect in the spring of 1819, the Trustees made choice of Mr. SAMUEL ADAMS. This gentleman was a native of
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SAMUEL ADAMS.
New Rowley. After getting his degree at Harvard in 1806, he opened a private school in Salem, where he taught for a number of years with good success. Returning to Rowley with his accumulated earnings, he built a house, married, and went into the shoe-manufacture-a business which has since built up the thriving village of Georgetown. He was beginning to be known and valued as a man of education and general capacity, and, when appointed Pre- ceptor of this Academy, was a member elect of the Mas- sachusetts Senate.
When Mr. Abbot left, the school room was again shut up, and remained closed for a whole year. During this period of repose, the present academic building was erected and finished. The fact that the school was to re-open under circumstances so favorable, became generally known and attracted considerable attention. On the eleventh of April, 1820, when Mr. Adams began his work here, he had the same number of pupils as Master Moody at his out- set 57 years before. In the course of the year this num- ber rose, I think, to nearly or quite 50. Mr. Adams was in poor health when he came, and the arduous duties and anxieties of so large a school, hastened, probably, the pro- gress of disease. He had scarcely entered on his second year, when it became evident to himself and to all, that his malady threatened an early and fatal termination. He resigned in August, but consented to retain the office six weeks longer. At the close of vacation he was unable to return, and died in Dorchester, in the autumn of 1821, at the house of his brother-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Codman.
Mr. Adams was a man of considerable ability-a fair scholar-by taste and habit better qualified for the Eng- lish than for the classical department -methodical and prac- tical rather than literary. He was a good disciplinarian -an upright man of a truly religious spirit - respected by his pupils, but, I think, not largely gifted with that peculiar power which stimulates the mind and gains the
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heart of youth. Whatever of geniality might be lacking in him, was more than made up to those students who were members of his family, by the sympathizing kindness of his gentle partner. And in this connection let me say, and appeal for proof to many within hearing, that Mrs. Adams was not the only one, who, occupying here the same position of arduous responsibility, has so endeared herself to those who came under her care, as to leave on their minds the imperishable traces of gratitude and affec- tion.
I received notice of my appointment early in October, 1821, and a few days later took charge of the Academy. The school, then in the middle of a term, consisted of about twenty five boys, and was under the care of Mr., Tay- lor G. Worcester, who had been acting as Assistant to Mr. Adams. I found here a bright, pleasant set of schol- ars, which soon increased. Severe as the season was, I still recall with pleasure my first winter here. With five years of experience as an instructor in schools and in College, the cares and duties of teaching were not new to me. But the position brought other cares and unwonted responsibilities. My appointment had been accompanied with a special request of the Trustees that I should have a family, and open the Mansion-House to as many of my pupils as it would accommodate. It was an arrangement, which, in the paucity of boarding houses, seemed almost essential to the prosperity of the school. But with it, of necessity, came also a large, additional care. Fortunate the teacher, who can dismiss his solicitudes when he dis- misses his school. Far otherwise the case with him who must look after and provide for his pupils by night as well as by day. Such oversight was mine for more than fif- teen years. With a house full of lively boys to restrain and to regulate, I had, as you will readily believe, but little time for play. Always confining, often inconvenient, sometimes annoying, the arrangement certainly was. But
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it had its advantages. It brought me into closer relations with the youth of my charge, and gave me better oppor- tunities of acquaintance and of influence than I could other- wise have had. It promoted the general prosperity of the school, for many attended it who would have come on no other condition.
Can I forget to mention here that this domestic care was shared and lightened by one whose ever-watchful over- sight and unvarying kindness are yet gratefully remember- ed, as I have reason to know, by some, at least, who look back to boy-days in the old Mansion-House-one, whose gentle memory still endears to me, and will ever endear these quiet shades ?
Notwithstanding the celibate precedents of Masters Moody and Smith, I would advise the present occupant, and every bachelor incumbent in the future, to have a family of his own, where be can have some part of his charge under domestic watch and ward. The arrangement will inspire confidence and attract pupils from abroad, while it will prove a source of power and usefulness at home. Nor is this all. In a spot so retired and so exempt from the excitements of life-amid a community uncommonly sparse and not eminently social,-the Principal of Dummer Academy should have a home that will keep him busy and happy, if he would drive far away the surly demon of discontent.
It was during my first summer here, that the Society of the Sons of Dummer Academy was founded. Mr. DUD- LEY ATKINS TYNG, after many years of residence in Bos- ton and in Cambridge, had retired from public service, and was spending the evening of his day where its morning rose. A pupil and admirer of Moody, he felt a warm interest in the Academy, and to his prompting and exer- tions the association just named owed its existence. Its first meeting, June 22, 1822, was held in Newburyport, and consisted of the following gentlemen: Dudley Atkins
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Tyng, Oliver Prescott, Nathan Noyes, Jacob Gerrish, Jona- ·than G. Johnson and Eleazer Johnson, Junior. At the second meeting, June 29, Jeremiah Nelson, Edward Sprague Rand, and Alfred Pike were present, and, with those first named, deserve to be held in honored remembrance as the founders of the society. A preamble adopted at this meet- ing thus announces the design of the projectors :
" The objects of this institution, besides the cultivation of friendly intercourse and social affections amongst its members, are to promote and extend the usefulness and reputation of the Academy; to excite a laudable emulation in the pupils for the time being, by the distribution of honorary premiums among those who shall be distinguished by diligence in their studies, by conformity to the rules of the Academy and the directions of the Preceptor and other instructors, and by habitual decency and correctness in their general deportment; and, as the funds shall be competent, to make additions to the library and to pro- cure such philosophical and astronomical instruments as may be thought useful and proper for the improvement of the pupils."
Of nearly one hundred members elected at the second meeting, more than half had been pupils of Master Moody. Of these, eight individuals constituted themselves Patrons of the Society by the required payment of fifty dollars each. These were William Prescott, William Ingalls, Patrick T. Jackson, David Moody, William Parsons, Gorham Parsons, Edward S. Rand and Daniel Sargent. Six became life- members, each paying twenty dollars, namely, John Brom- field, William Bartlett Jr., Benjamin A. Gould, Daniel N. Poor, Benjamin Poor and William Sawyer.
The fund thus raised with the addition of annual pay- ments from other members enabled the society to offer prizes for meritorious conduct and scholarship. Dies were procured for two silver medals, with appropriate legends
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and devices .* From this time, so long as I was con- nected with the Academy, the Society made annual awards of money, books or medals to the pupils whom I recom- mended as entitled to such distinction.
The regular meetings of this association were held at the Academy on the day of the annual examination. From 1822 to 1840, there were but two failures, and these were unavoidable. Since that time the society of the "Sons" has had only a spasmodic existence. Its convocations have been rare and irregular. Its appropriations have been for occasional and specific objects ;- to defray, for instance, the cost of entertainments and the publication of catalogues. Within the last fifteen years there have been just three
meetings. On these occasions, three or four old gentle- men assemble-have a little talk-reëlect the officers ( if still living) -and then the whole concern relapses into a state of tranquil hybernation. Fortunately the principal of its fund remains intact, and will be perfectly safe, so long as the venerable Treasurer of the Society and of the Acad- emy shall continue to flourish in green old age.
Alumni of Dummer Academy! I commend this socie- ty to your attention and regards. Here is a medium already provided through which you can act. In its or- ganization and its fund you have the nucleus of an insti- tution, which needs only numbers and energy to make it highly influential and useful. Join it: its membership is open to all, and the terms of admission are easy. Join it, and give warmth, life and motion to the now torpid mass.
In the autumn of 1824, Mr. Tyng brought before the Trustees a plan for increasing the usefulness of the school by the creation of an agricultural department. A com-
* The larger medal bore a profile figure of Governor Dummer and a wreath with the motto, Ferat palmam qai meruit. The smaller medal had on its face the old Man- sion House in relief, and for its legend, Crede te posse et potes: Moody's favorite maxim with a variation. Vid. Aeneidos Lib. V. 231.
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mittee to whom the subject was referred, soon after re- ported that they had conferred with Trustees of the State Agricultural Society, who had expressed their willingness to undertake the establishment of an agricultural institution, on condition of receiving a long lease of the Academy lands, to be used as an experimental farm. No change was proposed in the existing school, unless to make it more strictly classical. Mr. Tyng, Judge Wilde and Dr. Nathan Noyes were commissioned to take charge of the negotiations and arrangements. For a while everything looked favorable, and the Trustees went so far as to give their tenant a three months' notice to quit.
But the officers of the State Society on more mature consideration declined to cooperate in the measure except as individuals. A petition for aid was then presented to the State Legislature, which proved unsuccessful. Thus ended one of the many attempts which have been made to establish an agricultural school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The agricultural project was, for some cause, unpopu- lar in Byfield, and although no suggestion nor favorite of mine, was followed by an unpleasant state of feeling, which involved both me and the school. Though a source, for the time, of serious discomfort and of real injury, the cloud at length dispersed, and, thenceforward, my relations with this community were entirely harmonious. The school, after a temporary depression, more than recovered its previous prosperity, and went on, for years, without material varia- tion.
The annals of such institutions, however. important their current of events may seem, at the time, and espe- cially to those who are immediately concerned, must ever be somewhat monotonous. The years, as they run on, do little more than to repeat themselves. There is the same stage, -the scenes enacted are substantially the same,-only the performers change. It is not strange, therefore, that
NEWBERRY
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NEHEMIAH CLEAVELAND.
I find, in the retrospect, but little that calls for commem- oration on this occasion.
The attendance here during the period referred to, though small in comparison with more favored schools, was respectable for Dummer Academy. I well remember that, at first, I sometimes had fears lest the places of depart- ing pupils should remain unfilled. But experience soon taught me the sources of supply, and gave me confidence in them. I saw that circumstances which I could not con- trol had fixed the maximum of attendance, and felt 'well- content' when I reached, or came near it.
During the nineteen years of my continuance here, I was but twice away from my post-a month each time- which I employed in excursions south and west. Soon after I settled here, the Lyceum era, if I may so term it, began, and public lecturing, a thing hardly known before, gradually became a regular occupation. I found some va- riety, if nothing more, in occasional compliance with calls of this description. I remember, particularly, a short course of chemical lectures before the Newburyport Lyceum in the winter and spring of 1830. They must have had some attractions, for the list of members rose, at once, from tens to hundreds, and compelled us to adjourn to one of the meeting-houses, in which I somewhat sacrilegiously appear- ed with my bottles and gases. To most of my large audience the principles and phenomena of chemical action, illustrated by experiment, were, I suppose, novel and ex- citing, and to this fact I attributed the popularity of those lectures. If really worth but little, as I am ready to concede, they cost the good people who flocked to hear them, literally nothing beyond the expense of the chemicals. Such was the usage of those days. The lecturers of our time may truly say-" We have changed all that."
In 1836, I suggested. to some of the Trustees the idea of erecting another dwelling-house on the Academy grounds ;- partly to provide more accommodation for the
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boarding of pupils-but especially as a means of securing for the school a permanent Assistant. It was my belief -and I have seen no reason to change it-that an ex- penditure, to this end, of some $2000 or $3000 of the fund, which was then in good condition, would be a profit- able investment for the Academy. The proposition was well received, but unfortunately it gave rise to visions of improvement and of greatness much too fine to be realized. They would reorganize the school. There should be an English Department and an English Teacher independent of and co-equal with the Classical. There would be some outlay at first-but the augmented expense would be more than met by the enlarged attendance which was to result from the new arrangement.
They did me the honor to ask my opinion of the plan. Years of experience and observation on the spot, had qualified me to form some estimate of the probable success of the project, and I felt sure that Dummer Acad- emy had in store, no such future as imagination seemed to have spread before the eyes of those gentlemen. My doubts were not concealed. But it was decided that the experiment should go on. Accordingly, a new house was erected-the old mansion was altered and refitted-and a Teacher of good repute was put at the head of the Eng- lish Department.
The Academy under its new organization went into operation in the autumn of 1837. But, notwithstanding that the change had been extensively promulgated by cir- culars and advertisement, there was no increase in the attendance. Unhappily, this could not be said of the ex- penses, under which the fund was fast melting away. At the end of the third year the financial tendencies of the experiment had become decidedly alarming, and a Commit -. tee of the Trustees was directed to confer with the two instructors, and inquire whether they could suggest some remedy. I did not wait for the conference. As the
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shortest method of solving the problem, I sent in my resig- nation. The step was one which I could then take with- out reluctance and without great regret. Byfield had been a pleasant home, but I had lived there long enough. The ill-judged alteration in the constitution of the Academy had spoiled it for me, and I was rather thankful than other- wise for a decent pretext to retire.
Need I say that it is with conflicting emotions of satisfaction and regret that I recall and retrace my life and labor here? Can you doubt that in imitation of other foolish people, I have often wished I could live over again that middle portion of my years, -guided by the light of a larger experience, and aided by a calmer and riper judgment ? If in the matter of training and instruc- tion, especially in the department of classical study, I ac- complished much less than I would gladly have accomplish- 'ed, let the miscellaneous character of the school not be forgotten. There are, I presume, some here who know how difficult it is to make classical instruction thoroughly successful, in an institution where there are no fixed times or qualifications of admission,- where the classes are neces- sarily numerous- the number of teachers small-and the branches which must be taught, many and various.
But, after all, in the actual working of affairs, it hap- pily turns out that most of us do better than we know. Whatever of error or of deficiency there may have been in my administration of Dummer School,-and I am conscious that it was liable in both articles of the impeachment,- still I was not without evidence at the time, nor have I been without frequent and gratifying manifestations since, that my time and efforts were not all misspent :- a conso- lation for which I am not ungrateful .*
* I certainly should seem ungrateful, were I to make no mention of one special expression of regard. Eight years after I left Byfield, I received at my home in New York, an invitation to attend a meeting of my former pupils. I found them assembled in our old school-room, and received a cordial greeting. Addresses and a presentation followed, and then came dinner with toasts and speeches. It was truly a re-union of the most agreeable kind - an occasion cheering to me, and, so
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FREDERIC A. ADAMS.
Mr. PHINEAS NICHOLS, who was the first and only head of the English Department, had been, for several years, a successful teacher in one of the public schools of Ports- mouth, N. H. He brought with him a pleasant family and made the old Mansion House a good home for the boys. In the discharge of duty he was assiduous and faithful-as a man, he was amiable, discreet, and practical. His administration of the English Department, was, so far as I know, satisfactory to the Board. Mr. Nichols re- mained in Byfield until the autumn of 1842, his position during the latter part of the time, being that of Assistant only. The experiment having, at that time, reached the stage of total collapse, he returned to Portsmouth, and again took charge of a public school. As a teacher, as a citizen, and as a municipal officer, he stood high in that community, and his sudden death, hardly one month ago, called forth a general expression of regret.
It was to me a pleasant circumstance that my imme- diate successor in office here-Rev. FREDERIC A. ADAMS- had been my pupil and my assistant-and that I knew him to possess abilities and scholarship of a high order. Mr. Adams, after his graduation at Hanover, had taught school in Washington, had been a Tutor of Dartmouth, and, when called to the Preceptorship, was a settled minister in Amherst, N. H. Considerations partly of health, and part- ly, perhaps, of taste and temperament, inclined him to re- sume the vocation of teacher. The Academy, when he came, was still laboring under its self-imposed burden, and although that soon dropped off from general weakness, the weakness itself remained. At the time of reorganization, the Trustees had imposed a partial tuition-fee upon scholars
far as I could perceive, pleasant to all. I could never forget that day and those young men, even if I had not a constant reminder in the valuable token of their regard which I then received. An account of the proceedings, with Mr. Northend's speech and extracts from the reply, was given in the Boston Daily Advertiser, Sep- tember 23, 1847.
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