USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > The sesquicentennial record : in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., May 18, 19, 1928 > Part 5
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it today in my profession as a student and teacher of the New Testament. The French that I was taught for one year, though of a rather simple sort, was all that was necessary in order to go on with reading, and was all I ever had except a worthless course for a year in college. The mathematics was sufficiently exacting, and carried us through trigonometry. The physics was meagre, but you could get that in college, and to work out a Latin sentence is really a very good introduction to inductive science. The frills, happily, were but few and were partly voluntary. It was a very serviceable preparation for the stage of education which was to follow. Two of the most important subjects. which I have always thought to have affected my mind in very notable measure, were not part of these years. I mean elementary Algebra, of which, before entering the Academy, I had adequately acquired the essential con- cepts (and that is the only thing that really counts), and
(Continued on page 72)
Page Thirty - five
ON THE WEST WIND By Winslow Homer
ANNE IN PURPLE By George Bellows
..
HORSES AT PALMA By John S. Sargent
The above reproductions are from paintings now in possession of Phillips Academy.
Page Thirty-six
Looking Backward-Facing Forward
BY GEORGE H. NETTLETON, '92 Chairman of the English Department, Yale University
F ORTY years ago an American journalist, Edward Bellamy, created a sensation with his book entitled Looking Backward. The title was still on everyone's tongue in my student days at Andover. Bellamy clubs arose in the land, taking Looking Backward as a sort of gospel of socialism. So influential a critic as William Dean Howells credited Bellamy with "a romantic imagination surpassed only by that of Haw- thorne" in American letters. For Looking Backward - as the sub-title, "2000-1887", suggested - was really a bold attempt to face forward - to set a prophetic picture of the "gude time coming" over against that of the America of 1887.
Our Andover anniversary has this double outlook. Like Janus, we meet the calendar, facing both backward and forward. The old graduates dream dreams of the past; the young men see visions. The middle-aged, mayhap, may follow the middle course - seeking to
reconcile retrospect with prospect. "The Future I may face now I have proved the Past."
"Looking Backward - Facing Forward" - this is to interpret Andover's anniversary in the double light of memory and imagination. For the garrulous grad- uate, mere memory may prove a dangerous path. Hard by, lies the easy pitfall to bottomless reminiscen- ces. For the prophetic graduate, mere visions may prove merely visionary. Let us take hearts of hope that Andover will prove a hospitable clearing-house where memory and imagination may have fair interchange.
In such reconciliation, Andover's anniversary is doubly significant. Many will interpret it in the light of her history and traditions. For Andover is at heart a historic school. Many will unite in voicing a common loyalty. For Andover is in spirit a community. And all who recall her birthright and inheritance will suggest a prophecy while they record a history. For the endur- ing tradition of Andover is service.
Andover in the Early Seventies
BY CHARLES MOORE, '74 Professor of Art; Author
T TNCLE SAM TAYLOR, for forty-four years Prin- cipal of Phillips Academy, was gathered to his fathers in January 1871, and Frederick E. Tilton reigned in his stead. Tradition told of the terrors of Uncle Sam's rule, not only for the indolent and the perverse, but also for the timid. Probably he was not so merciless as he was painted, but such was the memory he left.
Mr. Tilton came from the Newport high school. He was very tall, very slender, and his long legs made it hopeless for any boy to try to outrun him. He worked hard to maintain his predecessor's reputation for om- nipresence at night. On one occasion he dropped in on George Dunn, who roomed at Deacon Chandler's on the School Farm. Behind George's fireboard were the first street lamps provided for Zion's Hill. Quite heed- lessly the town authorities had left the lamps in the new lamp-posts, waiting for a moonless night. After an affable chat, Mr. Tilton retired, evidently pleased by his unexpected discovery of Dunn in his room. After two years of boy-chasing Mr. Tilton returned to New- port, to resume a successful career. The Class of '74 gave his portrait to the Academy.
Then came Cecil F. P. Bancroft, who knew intuitively how the boy-mind works. One day soon after his advent, he came to me in classroom and said, "Mr. Tyler found you visiting in Latin Commons during study hours." I assented. "Don't you think," he con-
tinued, "that you as a senior ought to be setting an example, instead of breaking the rules? I'm going to take off the demerits; but don't do it again." And I never did - without compunction. My cordial per- sonal relations with Dr. Bancroft continued during all his long life.
George Taylor, Uncle Sam's son, was the Middle Class teacher. The scholars at the top of the class thought he did not know much Latin and Greek, but he taught the majority of boys something, and he made the lessons interesting. Fellows went to him with their troubles, and he was an adept in running class politics so as to prevent frictions; and no one knew that it was he who saw that the right ones were elected.
With Dr. Bancroft came Mr. Coy as Senior Class teacher, - a tall, elegant, austere gentlemen. Soon he brought to Andover a beautiful bride, who so charmed the class that we gave her a mantel clock, as a wedding present. They were the parents of the great Ted Coy of Yale football fame.
To a junior the most envied being on earth was the president of Philo, in his naval cap of dark blue with gold cord. Next in importance came the three editors of the Mirror. Athletics were limited to baseball, and very limited at that. The match with Exeter was occasional. The old brick gymnasium was large (Continued on page 73)
Page Thirty -seven
New Hampshire and Phillips Academy
BY HUNTLEY N. SPAULDING, '89 Governor of New Hampshire
I SUPPOSE that in the eyes of most graduates and undergraduates of Phillips Academy in Andover, the main importance of the State of New Hampshire lies in the fact that it always has furnished our school with its chief and natural rival, Phillips Academy in Exeter. But it requires only a cursory examination of the records to find that other relations of interest and importance have existed and do now exist between Andover and the Granite State.
For instance, the history of our school shows that its most generous early benefactor from a financial stand- point was Dr. John Phillips of Exeter, second son of Reverend Samuel Phillips, born in Andover, December 27, 1719, who entered Harvard before he was twelve and graduated in 1735 with distinction. This Doctor Phillips was the founder of Phillips Academy in Exeter and for several years was president of the boards of trustees of both schools. In him we have a strong link from the very beginning between the two academies, and the two states of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire.
In the first year's enrolment of Phillips Academy, eight of the fifty-one students were from New Hamp- shire. One of the distinguished early graduates of our school, Joseph E. Worcester, maker of dictionaries, was a New Hampshire boy; and. as I glance hastily through the alumni list, I see the names of many others from this state. As an example, the late Chief Justice Charles Doe of our Supreme Court, and Moses Gerrish Farmer, a pioneer in electrical inventions.
New Hampshire's greatest gift to Phillips Academy, however, was made when, in 1873, the position of prin- cipal was filled by the choice of Dr. Cecil F. P. Bancroft, who was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, November 25, 1839, and graduated from Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, in the class of 1860. It is good to know that a fitting, permanent tribute is to be paid to his memory and the work he did as leader of our school for more than a quarter of a century.
Examining the records which accompany the por- traits in the collection at the State House in Concord, I find that Frederick Smyth of Manchester, governor of New Hampshire from 1865 to 1867, was a graduate of Andover. Fifty years later Rolland H. Spaulding of Rochester, of the Andover class of 1893, was the chief executive of the Granite State in the years 1915 and 1916. If he had not performed well the duties of the position the people would not have come to the same family again for a chief executive and have broken a New Hampshire record by electing his brother, of the Academy class of 1889, to be their present governor.
When the latter took office he found in his Executive Council a fellow graduate of Andover, Frank L. Gerrish, '74, of Boscawen. A prominent member of the State Senate was Eliot A. Carter, '05, of Nashua, and in the
House of Representatives, the chairman of the standing Committee on Banks was Harry L. Alexander, '02, of Concord. On the supreme bench is Oliver W. Branch, 97, of Manchester.
It was this governor's pleasure and privilege to ap- point as his own successor in the chairmanship of the State Board of Education Orton B. Brown, '88, of Berlin. In that department, James N. Pringle, '94, is a deputy commissioner of valued service. A coincidence without New Hampshire precedent is the fact that Mr. Brown's brother, W. Robinson Brown, '93, is the head of another important state department, the Forestry Commission. The Messrs. Brown are also the heads of the great Brown Company of Berlin, one of the State's chief industries, nationally famous for its industrial research work and the practical utilization of the re- sults of that work.
Other Andover graduates prominent in the business life of New Hampshire include Henry W. Brown, '96, of West Swanzey, Walter F. Duffy, '92, of Franklin, and Frank Huntress, '64, of Keene. Mr. Huntress has served in the Executive Council, as has Albert Annett, '82, of Jaffrey, and Arthur P. Morrill, '94, of Concord. Enos K. Sawyer, '98, of Franklin, has been president of the State Senate and Secretary of State. Dwight Hall, '90, of Dover, now Comptroller of the Port of Boston, was for several campaigns the chairman of the Republi- can State Committee, and is a trustee of the University of New Hampshire.
In the capitol city of Concord, a center of Andover influence in the State, four graduates of the school have been or are bank presidents, the late Dr. Charles P. Bancroft, '70, long time superintendent of our State Hospital; the late Dr. George M. Kimball, '75, the late William W. Thayer, '02, and Henry W. Stevens, '71, who is, also, president of the New Hampshire Historical Society. Two local judges are Eugene W. Leach, '98, of the Probate Court, and William L. Stevens, '99, of the Municipal Court. Mr. Leach is the successor of the late Judge Charles R. Corning, '74, several times mayor of Concord. Dr. James W. Jameson, '97, is one of the State's leading surgeons. Two of the oldest of our liv- ing graduates are New Hampshire men, Reverend Dr. S. H. Dana of Exeter, and Charles S. Parker of Concord, both of the class of 1864.
In the opening paragraph of this contribution, I spoke of the early connection that existed between the Phillips Academies in Andover and in Exeter. It is a fact in which we all rejoice that this connection con- tinues today through the fact that the Principal of Phillips Academy in Exeter is Dr. Lewis Perry of the class of 1894 in Phillips Academy at Andover. His splendid record in that place is a symbol of the service which Andover men have rendered and are rendering in various spheres of action in New Hampshire, in the nation, and around the world.
Page Thirty-eight
The New Traprock Expeditions
This is a letter from Dr. Walter E. Traprock, otherwise known as George S. Chappell, Yale '99. He is the author of a number of humorous books and spoke at Andover a number of years ago.
F. O. B. KAWA, GOWANUS CANAL, BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Chairman, Sesquicentennial Record, Bartlet Hall, Andover, Mass.
Dear Sir,
I wonder if you can spare a few inches of your col- umns for a word regarding the Summer Cruises backed by the TRAPROCK EXPEDITIONS, INC., cruises which I think will be of especial interest to Andover students and graduates. A word, at the outset, regarding the TRAPROCK EXPEDITIONS, INC. This organization is the result of the attention attracted by my early cruises in the converted yawl, KAWA, to the Filbert Islands in Polynesia, to the North Poles, both magnetic and geometric, and to other odd corners of the world.
To my amazement I found that there were thousands of young men of scholastic and collegiate age who were anxious to embark on a life of discovery and exploration. I was flooded with letters from writers who expressed their desire to go somewhere - anywhere, as long as it was not home, and a certain number of parents seconded their sons' wishes.
A majority were keen for the sort of thing which includes hunting, fishing and other forms of wild life, the wilder the better. Others preferred the soberer pursuits of the archaeologist and the ethnologist. TRAPROCK EXPEDITIONS, INC. was the inevitable result. We are now completely organized and ready to take on all comers. We promise to deliver the goods, strictly as advertised by our slogan, IF IT IS A DISCOVERY, WE HAVE IT !
Let me itemize a few of my attractions.
For the nature-lover and sportsman I have planned a trip into the New Guinea guano fields, in search of the great Titan-flies which are hunted with two-handed swatters the size of warming-pans. An idea of these little-known creatures may be derived from the fact that the spoor or fly-spot of the average male is from ten to fourteen inches in diameter, depending on the time of year. This trip will be in charge of Dr. Julian S. Mason, an Andoverian, by the way, who can both spot and swat flies with the best of them. His recent book, "What's Swat in the Guano Fields," is the best authority on this tricky and exciting form of hunting.
Ornithologists may prefer the novelty of my northern
cruise in to the habitat of the luminous ballock-bird, a curious creature which eats fog and lays phosphorus, giving the waters, especially at night, an odd, pie-eyed appearance. Here too, (off the coast of Latvia and Heliogabalus), is found the back-billed pemmican, an ornithological freak which has its bill in the center of its back. The back-bill is the only bird which lays its eggs by explosion, crashing them against a convenient berg with startling and pleasing effect. This cruise, also, is in charge of an Andover alumnus, Capt. Frank Nimrod Simmons, whose egg-manual, "Birds Which Have Laid for Me," is the vade mecum of tree-climbers.
To the archaeologist will appeal my trip into ancient Artesia where, for several years, the TRAPROCK Ex- PEDITIONS, INC. have been exhuming the ancient wells of this fascinating people. Within the past month my agents report that they have completed the excavation of a six-hundred foot well which has been sold, in twelve foot lengths, to one of our large pipe-organ companies. At the head of this work is a third Andover graduate, Prof. T. Benedict Clarke, dean of the digging fraternity, of whom Pres. Angell of Yale said aptly, "Professor Clarke was born with a silver shovel in his mouth."
For those interested in purely scientific research, my associate, Dr. Robert Sherwood of Harvard, has promised to repeat his intriguing lecture course which he calls "Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera.'
And so, dear sir, you see that I have something to offer for every taste. I plan to visit Andover, with Capt. Simmons, Dr. Mason, and others of my staff, during the forthcoming Sesquicentennial, when I shall hope to address the student body and explain in fuller detail my plans for the coming summer. If, in the mean time, you can find room for this hasty communica- tion, in order to prepare the ground, I shall be deeply grateful.
I remain, sir, very truly yours, WALTER E. TRAPROCK, F. R. S. S. E. U.
P.S. My faculty friend, Dr. Claude Fuess, one of the largest stock-holders in TRAPROCK EXPEDITIONS, Inc., has just wired me that Andover wishes to signalize my visit by conferring on me her D.D. (Doctor of Dand- ruff). Needless to say, I am all of a twitter.
W. E. T.
Page Thirty -nine
THE VICE PRESIDENTS CHAMBER WISHINGTO
Werch Twelfth Nineteen Hundred Twenty Eight
My dear !'r. Thompson:
The 150th birthday of Phillips Academy, soon
to be observed, is one of the more notable anniversaries in this current decade of national sesqui-centennials.
Established in the formative years of the
American Union, the chronicles of Phillips Academy have run parallel with the annals of the Republic. Samuel Phillips, Jr., its founder, was a friend of Washington, John Hancock signed its act of incorporation, and Paul Revere designed its seal. The sons of the institution have been in places of responsibility and honor in every epoch of our national life.
Phillips Academy has at all times kept step with the progress of the Nation, but in a more essential may there should be cause for gratification by Andover men as it reaches its sesqui- centennial. The institution, despite constant change, "has kept the faith".
It was founded for the primary purpose, as stated by Judge Phillips, of promoting "true Piety and Virtue", and its first Principal was enjoined "to regulate the tempers, to enlarge the minds, and form the Morals of the Youth committed to nis care".
Strict adherence to these foundation principles has brought it to its sesqui-centennial and will safeguard its future.
Very sinceroly yours,
Mr. A. P. Thompson, Chairman, Sesquicentenial Record, Bartlet Hall, Andover, Mass.
THE GOVERNOR
THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE HOUSE. BOSTON
21st February, 1928.
I count it a great privilege and pleasure in behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to extend my hearty congratulations to the trustees and faculty of Phillips Andover Academy on this One Hundred Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the Academy.
In the midst of our struggle for national in- dependence, ,a noble and far-sighted son of l'assachusetts. Judge Samuel Phillips, founded this institution. In the foundation grant, the donor set forth the intention "to found a school for the purpose of instructing youth not only in English, Latin, grammar, and arithmetic and those sciences wherein they are commonly taught, but more es- pacially to teach them the great end and real business of living."
Under the leadership of distinguished principals, the Academy has grown from humble beginnings to a great and finely equipped school, drewing its students from practic- ally every state in the Union and sending forth its grad- uates a splendid contribution to our national life.
I count it a happy ooincidence that this year which marks the One Hundred Fiftieth anniversary of the Academy marks the Twenty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Stearns' slevation to the principalship. I am pleased to pay tribute to him as a great leader of e great school. I would express the confident hope that Phillips Andover Academy, long a national institution, will continue with increasing success to discharge its responsibilities in training those young men who are so fortunate as to come under its fostering care.
Fulles
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Page Forty
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WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT: Twenty-seventh President of the United States and Chief Justice of Supreme Court
"I am glad to know that you are going to celebrate your Sesqui- centennial this May. Andover has a great tradition and a great reputa- tion. My two brothers, Charles and Peter, were prepared at Andover for Yale under Uncle Sam - Charles in the class of 1860, and Peter in the class of 1863. Charles is still living. I know and admire very much your Headmaster, Dr. Stearns, and Alfred Ripley and I were four years at Yale together in the same class, and are loving friends. I hope and know that your celebration will be a most noteworthy one in the history of educational institutions in this country."
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and son of Oliver H'endell Holmes, Andover 1825
"I send my best wishes with filial associations to Andover on the celebration of its one hundred and fiftieth year."
HENRY L. STIMSON, '83: Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Taft
"The priceless memories of Andover guide and sustain our standards even under the distant Southern cross."
HERBERT HOOVER: Secretary of Commerce
"I scarcely need recall to you that the greatest government experi- ment in human history was universal free education at public expense. "Today thirty million children attend our grade schools and nine hundred thousand youth attend our colleges and universities. Today we have more youth in institutions of higher learning than have all the billion and a half other people in the world.
"The great body of alumni of Andover must cherish the thought that their Alma Mater was one of the earliest fonts from which this educa- tional movement originated."
JAMES J. DAVIS : Secretary of Labor
"If a country has any greater glory than its number of great and good men of today, that glory lies in the promise of still greater goodness and character and wisdom that lives in the young men of tomorrow. Year by year the world is remade by its coming men, and its coming men are made by its schools. It is not for nothing that men look back to their school and call it Alma Mater, dear mother; and it is not only those who have been to those schools who should call them that. The schools of a nation are the mothers of all it has or is in imagination and mind. So it is more in gratitude than in empty congratulation that we should bid Phillips Academy, Andover, to add another one hundred and fifty years to its work of nurturing the manhood of the nation."
Page Forty -one
SIR HERBERT BROWN AMES: Financial Director of League of Nations Secretariat; lecturer at Andover, 1927
"No man can justly claim to be educated whose life is bounded by his native city, his state, or even his country. World relationships have changed completely during the past century. National isolation is today as impossible as the hermit life would be for the individual. In these days, when men fly across an intervening ocean and when a Secretary of State, sitting at his desk at Washington, can converse with a Foreign Minister in any of the courts of Europe, time and space and all nature's obstacles have been annihilated. Nations have grown so near that their relationships interlock in a thousand ways. If it is true that no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself, how much more is this the case with nations? When one suffers all suffer, when one prospers it increases the wealth of all the rest - even though we be unconscious of the fact.
"In a recent visit that I paid to Phillips Academy, I was well content to find the spirit of international sympathy pervading the school. Many have been the men, who, since the foundation of this institution, have here received the inspiration and the preparation that has enabled them to take a helpful part in the higher development of the American Nation. May we not hope that those who, in future years, go forth from its halls will also be filled with a spirit of international sympathy and understanding, so that they may help their country in bringing in and rendering perpetual an era of World Peace."
FREDERICK H. GILLETT: Senator from Massachusetts
"My interest in Phillips Academy dates from my college days, when the classmate who won the prize for the best entrance examination and who became my closest friend had prepared for college at Andover, and owed to his training there his success in the entrance examination.
"In those ancient days no preparatory school was more famous or eminent than Phillips Academy, and its renewed success of late years has drawn my admiration and sympathy largely because of the conspicuous contribution to that success of Dr. Stearns, the grandson of President Stearns, under whom I studied at Amherst, and whose memory I revere, and whose blood would surely ennoble any of his descendants.
"So it is an especial gratification to me to know that Phillips Acad- emy today still maintains that high standard and preeminence which distinguished it fifty years ago."
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