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 8
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"Of his modes of teaching and governing his pupils, he was wont to give very amusing descriptions, from which it might be inferred that he was not a pattern of patience in the treatment of those who were slow to learn. Some of these he classed among the ex quovis ligno-s, as he called them, being an abbreviation, I suppose, of the proverb, Non ex quovis ligno Mercurius fit. But his brighter boys, especially when, in after life, they became distinguished men, he was accustomed to laud in grandiloquent terms."
Other anecdotes more or less characteristic of this singular man, and more or less trustworthy, might be adduced. But we must stop some- where.
That Mr. Moody was a preacher, and did sometimes officiate in that capacity as late as 1776, I regard as an unquestionable fact, although the only evidence or intimation of it, I have ever seen, is contained in an autograph letter, yet preserved, and written that year, by my grandfather, Rev. John Cleaveland of Ipswich, to his son, Dr. Parker Cleaveland, who had been a pupil of Moody, and who was then practising his profession in Byfield. In that letter Mr. Cleaveland states that he is about to leave home as a chaplain in the continental service, and that he has written to Master Moody to use his influence with Mr. Blydenburg, and persuade him to supply the Chebacco pulpit during his absence, and requesting Mr. Moody, in case Blydenburg could not come at once, to perform the ser- vice until he could come.
A single word here in regard to Mr. Moody's father, of bandanna notoriety. In "Sketches of the Moody Family," his use of the uncouth veil, is ascribed to remorseful grief for having, in early life, accidentally killed a beloved comrade. The reason assigned by himself, as I remem- ber long since to have heard, was an impression received during his ex- perience as a judge, that his countenance was naturally and terrifically stern, and that this was a serious disqualification in one who was profess- edly a bearer of good tidings. I believe he adopted the custom on his first admission to the pulpit. But why attempt to account for the vaga- ries of insanity !
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XVI.
APPENDIX.
A QUESTION OF INCOMPATIBILITY CONSIDERED.
A QUESTION OF INCOMPATIBILITY.
At that meeting of the Trustees, Dec. 30, 1789, in which they received and accepted the resignation of Mr. Moody, the following vote was passed : " It being the opinion of the Trust that the offices of Preceptor and Trus- tee are incompatible, and ought never to be held by one person at the same time, it is therefore voted-that no Preceptor of the Academy shall ever hereafter be eligible as a Trustee." When Mr. Moody's infirmities had so far impaired his usefulness as to make it desirable that he should retire, his presence in the Board had undoubtedly embarrassed the Trustees, and hence the vote. In 1836, the propriety and expediency of repealing this resolution, was referred to a Committee of the Board, and was decided in the negative. On this point of incompatibility, I beg leave to express 1 my dissent from the opinion above stated.
What does experience say about it? By the constitution of the two great academies which bear the name of Phillips, the Principals of these Schools are ex officio Trustees. At Andover and Exeter this relation has existed for more than eighty years, a time, one would think, sufficiently long to test its character and tendencies. Has it been found injurious ? Have those institutions suffered in consequence ? Has anybody complained ? Were not Pearson, and Abbot, and Newman, and Adams, men, whom any Board of Education might be happy to rank among its members ? Would those bodies which have so long enjoyed the counsel and co-opera- tion of my friends Dr. Soule and Dr. Taylor, be willing to dispense with their opinion and advice in matters relating to the schools which they conduct with so much honor to themselves and such advantage to all ?
Has this conjunction of offices proved detrimental to our colleges ? In all of them, so far as I know, the presiding member of the immediate government is also the President of the executive Board. I see no rea- son why the Byfield doctrine, if correct, should not apply equally to the case of Presidents Dwight, and Quincy, and Appleton, and Hopkins.
And how stands the reason of the thing? As I view it, the teacher and principal of the School, if fit for the place he holds, has qualifications for the office of trustee, which no other person can have. Better far than any body else, in or out of the Board, he knows the condition and wants of the institution under his care. The style of discipline and the course of study, -every thing, indeed, which pertains to the internal arrange- ments and practical working of the school, should be left mainly to him on whom it devolves to carry the whole into effect. Men never work so heartily, or so effectively under the plans of others, as when developing their own. Throw the responsibility on the teacher's shoulders, and let him have all the praise which belongs to success -all the disgrace which hangs on failure. If, with such opportunities, he comes short of the mark, the remedy is at hand, and there should be no hesitation in applying it.
Another reason for making the Principal of a School one of its Trustees also, is found in the fact, that it would tend to give him con- sideration and importance in the estimation of his pupils. For them there should be no power in the school superior to that of the master.
XVII.
APPENDIX.
ARNOLD AT RUGBY .. THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES.
I do not see how discipline can be effective and thorough, when the im- mediate executive is denied the privilege of making and of enforcing his own rules. There must be School Committees and Boards of Trust- and their duties are specific and important-but, as a general rule, the less they attempt to interfere with the actual conduct of the institutions under their care, the better it will be for all concerned. Auspicious in- deed, for the cause of education, will be the day when those who devote themselves to the arduous and honorable vocation of teaching, shall take the stand, so firmly and nobly assumed by Thomas Arnold when he took charge of the school at Rugby, and so successfully maintained by him during the whole period of his head-mastership. What that stand was, learn from the following remark of his pupil and friend Stanley :
" With regard to the Trustees of the school, entirely amicable as were his usual relations with them, and grateful as he felt to them for their ac- tual support and personal friendliness, he from the first maintained that in the actual working of the school he must be completely independent, and that their remedy, if they were dissatisfied, was not interference, but dismis- sal. On this condition he took the post, and any attempt to control either his administration of the school, or his own private occupations, he felt bound to resist 'as a duty,' he said on one occasion, 'not only to himself, but to the master of every foundation school in England.'"
THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE. (See page 29.)
DR. ARNOLD, the most successful teacher and educator of our time,- perhaps we might say of any time, -thus expresses the result of his re- flection and experience : "The study of language seems to me as if it was given for the very purpose of forming the human mind in youth; and the Greek and Latin languages, in themselves so perfect, and, at the same time, freed from the insuperable difficulty which must attend any at- tempt to teach boys philology through the medium of their own spoken language, seem the very instruments by which this is to be effected."
The great principle which should lie at the base of school-and, to a great extent, of college education, -regulating the amount, and kind, and course of study, -guiding and inspiring both the teacher and the taught -was tersely yet perfectly expressed by Dr. Arnold, when he re- marked that "it was not knowledge, but the means of acquiring know- ledge which he had to teach." "You come here," he said to his Rugby boys, "not to read, but to learn how to read." Again, writing to Mr. Justice Coleridge, he says; "I care less and less for information, more and more for the pure exercise of the mind; for answering a question concisely and comprehensively, for showing a command of language, a delicacy of taste, a comprehensiveness of thought, and a power of com- bination."
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XVIII.
APPENDIX.
ISAAC SMITH.
PRECEPTORS ELECTED. APPLICANTS.
VII - Page 35. ISAAC SMITH AS LIBRARIAN.
In preparing for publication the first printed catalogue of Harvard College Library, Mr. Smith was aided by Stephen Sewall, who had been Professor of Hebrew, and by Hezekiah Packard, then a young graduate, afterwards Tutor in the College, and, for many years, the minister of Wiscasset in Maine, a man highly esteemed, and to whom, as the father of friends, early loved and still dear, I acknowledge a grateful debt.
THE PRECEPTORSHIP. ( See Page 56.)
The record of the Academy shows that the office of Principal has, more than once, been tendered and declined. We have mentioned the Rev. JACOB ABBOT of Hampton Falls, who was chosen to succeed Mr. Smith. In 1821, Mr. SIMEON PUTNAM, then a successful instructor in North Andover, was chosen but did not accept. In 1850, Mr. ROGER S. HOWARD, a teacher well and favorably known in Newburyport and in Bangor, was invited to take charge of the Academy, but declined, although his appointment was coupled with permission 'to travel in Europe,' before entering on duty. Soon afterwards, 'Mr. CASE,' who had, so far as the Record shows, no other name, was 'unanimously chosen' but replied in the negative. After the retirement of Mr. Chute, Mr. HENRY B. WHEEL- WRIGHT, then of Taunton and now of Boston, was appointed Principal, but did not accept. From what I know of those gentlemen, ( Mr. Case excepted, of whom I know nothing ) I am quite sure that there was not one among them, who would not have fully justified the choice of the Trustees, had his decision been the other way.
In more than one instance of a vacancy in the mastership, the fact has been advertised, and applications have been invited. In numerous cases, the letters and recommendations of the candidates are still on file. Among my own competitors, though I did not know it then, were JOSEPH H. JONES, now the Rev. Dr. Jones of Philadelphia, who had been my colleague at Brunswick - and JOHN SEARLE TENNEY, whom I had known as a college student. Neither of these gentlemen, I venture to say, now regrets that a place, which then seemed to him so desirable, was given to one less worthy than himself. For Mr. Tenney, who twice sought the office, it was a narrow and fortunate escape. He would have made, un- doubtedly, a good schoolmaster, but what would have become of the CHIEF- JUSTICESHIP ? There was another of my friends, the late ALFRED W. PIKE, -whose many admirable qualities, -but for certain idiosyncracies, which stood unfortunately in the way, -would have placed him among the most successful of New England teachers, - with whom the head-ship of Dummer Academy was an object of life-long desire, and of repeated ap- plication. He might have found disappointment even in this 'happy val- ley' of his imagination ; - still, I have often regretted that he was not permitted to make the trial.
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XIX.
APPENDIX.
ASSISTANTS : SAMUEL WEBBER. NATHANIEL LORD.
ASSISTANT TEACHERS.
During the first twenty seven years of the school and Academy, I find, with one exception, no mention of any regular Assistant. There were teachers, indeed, of writing and arithmetic. An instructor in the French language was sometimes hired. But these employés had, we may presume, no special responsibility or influence. Even that Professor of dancing, whose unceremonious introduction to the school, has been de- scribed, was not probably looked up to as one of the 'Faculty.' It is a remarkable proof of the systematic efficiency of Master Moody that he managed, and managed well, so large a school with so little help. But, in justice to others, we should remember that he owed much to circum- stances ; - to the homogeneous character of the school-to the simple rou- tine of its studies - and to his absolute control of all its details. Eighty pupils engaged in the same course of learning, and arranged in four or five classes, can be taught with more ease and satisfaction, than half that number, who are pursuing various studies, and who are necessarily divided into numerous sections.
On the 25th of May, 1786, the Trustees held a meeting in conse- quence of the indisposition of the Preceptor. The result was that Mr. Joseph Moody was sent to Cambridge with a letter from the Trustees to the President of Harvard College. This letter stated that there were then in the Academy "a number of fine youths," "some of whom were candi- dates for the university" that year, and who must go elsewhere unless some "learned and prudent assistant" could be obtained. "The Trust have heard a Mr. Webber and a Mr. Ware handsomely spoken of for their literary talents, but they are strangers of whom they have no knowl- edge. Mr. Ware is also said to be distinguished for his skill in composition and the art of speaking, which would be very useful here." The ques- tion, as between the future occupants of the Mathematical and the Divinity chairs, was decided in favor of the former, and HENRY WARE's rhetorical skill was lost to the Academy. SAMUEL WEBBER, a Byfield boy and a pupil of MOODY, acted as his authorized assistant, during that summer and autumn, and through the winter which followed. His monthly stipend
was ten pounds. Of his success or failure no record remains. It is fair to presume that mathematical studies were not neglected during his con- nection with the school. From Byfield, Mr. Webber went back to Cam- bridge as Tutor. In 1789 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Harvard College. During the last four years of his life, which terminated suddenly in 1810, he was President of the University.
It is not till 1801 that we find any farther mention of an Assistant. At a meeting held in June, the Preceptor was authorized to engage an Assistant for a year at an annual salary of three hundred dollars. The increased ability of the Trust to provide the means of instruction, is the reason given for this vote and appropriation. Under it, Mr. NATHANIEL LORD was engaged and held the office for a year. Mr. Lord, a Cam- bridge graduate of 1798, was justly reputed an accurate scholar and great
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XX.
APPENDIX.
NOYES. TAPPAN. PERLEY . BAILEY.
in statistics. After his ushership in Byfield, he taught, for some time, the famous grammar-school in Old York. Returning to Ipswich, his na- tive town, he became, not long after, Register of Probate for Essex County, and discharged the duties of that office, for more than forty years, with an exactness and fidelity seldom surpassed. Mr. Lord's connection with Dummer Academy did not cease with his ushership. His three sons were there prepared for college.
MOODY NOYES was Mr. Smith's next assistant and held the place about eighteen months. Mr. Noyes had been fitted by Mr. Smith, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1800. His home was in Newbury- port, where, in 1821, he died.
Then for six quarters more, coming down to September, 1805, the assistant's post was held by ENOCH SAWYER TAPPAN. This gentleman was a son of the Rev. Dr. Tappan, the Professor of Divinity at Cam- bridge, and graduated in the class of 1801. He afterwards settled as a physician at Augusta in Maine, where he died in 1847, after a life of usefulness and virtue.
During a part of the year 1806, JEREMIAH PERLEY Jr. performed the Assistant's duty. Mr. Perley was a native of Boxford, had been a pupil of Preceptor Smith, and had graduated at Hanover in 1803. He settled in Hallowell, Maine, as a practitioner of law, and there died in 1834. Mr. Perley was a man of good abilities-with a large stock of inherited wit, which he kept under constant culture, -and with many amiable and companionable qualities. Mr. Willis' interesting work, "The Lawyers of Maine, " contains a faithful sketch of Mr. Perley's life and character, from the pen of one who knew him well.
During the remaining years of Mr. Smith's stay, the attendance was very small, and he had no occasion for aid. Dr. Allen appears to have done his own work, aided, however, in regard to writing and arithmetic, by advanced pupils. The only evidence of any assistant employed during the eight years of Dr. Abbot's Preceptorship, belongs to the year 1812, when Joseph Noyes Jun. was paid a small sum for services as an "assist- ant." This is readily accounted for by the fact that the attendance dur- ing this period did not average more than ten pupils.
JOSEPH NOYES, brother of the now venerable Trustee, Capt. Daniel Noyes, was fitted for college, but ill health kept him at home. He had a good reputation for scholarship and was repeatedly called in to aid the Preceptor, - although not acting officially as assistant. This amiable inva- lid died in 1823.
EBENEZER BAILEY assisted Mr. Samuel Adams for a short time. From Newburyport, where he afterwards taught, he went to Boston, and after having successively and successfully presided over two of the public schools, opened a private school for young ladies, which soon became famous. This ac- complished scholar and teacher -this delightful man -died suddenly, while he was yet in his prime, from the effects of an accident. Among the valued treasures of my memory is the still unfaded record of his friend- ship. TAYLOR G. WORCESTER, Mr. Adams' last Assistant, ( see Discourse,
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XXI.
APPENDIX.
ASSISTANT TEACHERS : WHEELWRIGHT. CANNON. APPLETON.
page 45 ) is a younger brother of the distinguished lexicographer, graduated at Harvard, in 1823, taught awhile, studied theology at Andover, was li- censed to preach, but soon gave that up-taught school again, and went deep into Swedenborg, not only studying but translating portions of his works. In 1834 he took charge of the farm in Hollis, N. H., which had come down from his great-grandfather, and on it still labors with his own hands. Of his seven children, two sons have borne arms against rebellion, while his four daughters have served honorably in the army of school- teachers.
The first Assistant of my procuring was Mr. ISAAC W. WHEELWRIGHT. He was then just out of College, where he had been my pupil for three years. He aided me in the Academy during the summer term of 1822. Then he went through the theological course at Andover, and served one year as assistant in Phillips Academy. Having received his license, he began to preach. But a nervous habit of peculiar excitability soon com- pelled him to relinquish all thoughts of the pulpit. In 1827, I again se- cured his valuable aid, which was continued through the academic year. He then taught awhile in Newburyport, and, for a short time, in New Orleans. Then, with a commission of inquiry from the American Bible Society, he visited the western states of South America. Having reached the republic of Ecuador, he yielded to the persuasion of the President, and opened a school. Under the patronage of the Government, he was thus employed for four years, at Quito among the mountains, and at Guayaquil upon the coast. After three years at home, he went again to South America, and opened a school in Valparaiso-the residence, at that time, of his energetic and prosperous brother, William. This enterprise, for which his familiarity with the French and Spanish tongues peculiarly fitted him, he conducted, for nine years, with good success. Soon after his final return, he carried into effect a dreamy wish of his youth, by purchasing the old Parsonage house and glebe of Byfield Parish. After a day of considerable travel and fatigue, my friend is spending his eve- ning in this still spot. Long may he enjoy the shelter and the shade, under which the first and the second ministers of Byfield pondered their homilies -and the third minister worked up his political anathemas, and Barbour planned bee-hives, and Durant wove beautiful tissues of ingenious speculation, and more than all, where Trowbridge and Parsons -great master and greater pupil-discussed the grand principles of law, and the younger of them laid the broad foundation of that intellectual power, to which we still look back as gigantic and unequalled.
During the autumn term of 1822 I had the aid of FREDERIC E. CAN- NON, then a student in the Andover Divinity School. Mr. Cannon, a few years later, was settled as a clergyman in central or in western New York. He is now a Doctor in Divinity, residing without parochial charge in Geneva, New York.
My next Assistant, JOHN APPLETON, came in December, 1822, having just before graduated at Bowdoin College, where he had been my pupil during his Freshman and Sophomore years. It was pleasant indecd to have thus with me in the school, and in my family, a youth of fine at-
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XXII.
APPENDIX.
ASSISTANTS : MC DOUGAL. FRIEND. TAYLOR. PROCTOR.
RICHARDS.
tainments and much promise, whom I had already learned to value. Af- ter several months of good service in the school and of voracious reading when out of it, he left me to become a lawyer -settled in the rising town of Bangor - soon rose to eminence at the bar -and has now, for many years, held a distinguished place on the highest judicial bench in Maine, being, at the present time, Chief Justice.
WILLIAM MCDOUGAL came next-a native of Gorham, Maine, and a graduate of Brunswick in 1820. McDougall was an excellent scholar, but possessed, unfortunately, a cold, slow temperament, with a constitutional tendency to gloom. After he left Byfield, he held the office of tutor in Bowdoin College for two years. Having practised medicine for a year or two in Maine, he removed to Pennsylvania, and thence to Georgia, and thence to Alabama, and thence to South Carolina, and finally back to Alabama. During a part of the time he was in the practice of his pro- fession, but was more frequently occupied in teaching. He died in 1852 at Wetumka, Ala., where he was at the head of a literary institution.
For several years I conducted the school with only such aid as I could obtain from well advanced pupils. In this respect I was much favored. It was seldom that there were not some young men in the school, quite competent to hear the junior classes, and not unwilling to lighten their own expenses, by lightening also the labors of the master. Among those to whom I was indebted for valuable aid in this way, I make grateful record of the names which follow. I give them without special regard to chronological order.
ARIEL P. CHUTE and FREDERIC A. ADAMS, were afterwards Princi- pals of the school, in which they had been assistant pupils. WILLIAM FRIEND, though working as a shoemaker in Daniel Nelson's shop, near by, when I took the Academy, had already studied and read much. While with me, he got ready for college, and then proceeded a good way in the college course. Joining the Episcopal church, he went through the Seminary at Alexandria, and was soon after settled over a parish in Vir- ginia. During the four years' warfare which has carried death, desolation and mourning, into so large a portion of that beautiful State, I have thought often of my former pupil and assistant. I trust that he is yet safe, and that he will come safely out. CHARLES C. TAYLOR, was of Rowley, and graduated at Bowdoin in 1833. He too was an Episcopalian, settled as Rector of a church in Michigan, and died early in his minis- try, greatly esteemed and regretted. I received much assistance at differ- ent times from that truly worthy young man. BENJAMIN PROCTOR, HUMPHREY RICHARDS, and CHARLES N. TODD, were all of them Row- ley boys -and gave me their aid, though in different degrees. Proctor graduated at Bowdoin (1834), studied medicine, and, after a while, went into mercantile business in Louisville, Ky. He died a year or two ago, on a farm near the capital of Wisconsin. He was a young man whom I valued and in whom I could confide. Richards, amiable and excellent youth ! - became a preacher of the Baptist persuasion, but his ministry was soon terminated by death. Todd is, I believe, yet living. . From
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XXIII.
APPENDIX.
CLEAVELAND. DOLE. HATHAWAY.
Amherst College, (1839) he came out a teacher-and this vocation he has followed in, I do not know how many of the States. He is now con- nected, I think, with a literary institution in the capital of Indiana. GEORGE WASHINGTON CLEAVELAND, of Salem, was with me two or three years, and showed himself apt to teach as well as to learn. He is now a settled minister in Harborcreek, Penn., a small town on the shore of Lake Erie. GEORGE THURLOW DOLE: This young man served two ap- prenticeships. In 1822 he went from Dummer School to Paul Moody's seminary, then just opened in Lowell. Under that famous master, he became, in a few years, an excellent machinist. Then, actuated by a high sense of duty and an ardent wish to do good, he re-entered Dum- mer School, graduated in due time at Yale and at Andover, and has been, ever since, a preacher of the Gospel : - useful, undoubtedly, but who will say more useful than he might have been, had be stayed to become a leader among the busy thousands of Lowell, with that great workshop for his parish.
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