USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 48
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 48
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 48
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On November 7, 1814, the town passed a vote unlike any that we have ever met with in the doings of any other town, It voted " that the school money raised on the first Monday of May last shall be appropriated towards paying the expenses the selectmen were at for their attendance and expenses for the militia." Inter arma leges silent !
In September, 1821, the town voted to choose a superintending school committee of three, and Reverend Samnel Eaton, Alcot Stover, Jr., and Captain Stephen Snow were elected. Agents were also chosen this year for the different school districts.
In 1822 a school committee of seven members was chosen.
At a meeting of the town in September, 1828, it was voted that the school committee should not be paid for their services. As there is no evidence of any dissatisfaction with the committee, the above vote probably indicates the impression that existed in the town that the
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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF HARPSWELL.
honor of holding such a weighty office ought to be considered a suf- ficient compensation.
In 1834 a new division of the town into school districts was made.
In 1857 the town voted to dispense with a superintending school committee and to choose a supervisor. Thomas U. Eaton was elected to this office. From this time until 1862, inclusive, a supervisor of schools was chosen each year.
In 1863 the town abandoned the idea of electing a supervisor, and went back to the old plan of choosing a school committee of three.
SCHOOL-HOUSES AND TEACHERS.
The town in 1771 voted to build three school-houses, but it is not known whether they were erected that year nor where they stood. If they were all built at that time, it is probable that two of them, at least, were built upon the Neck. If the other was built upon Sebas- codigan Island. it was probably destroyed by fire, as according to very trustworthy traditional testimony the first school-house now known to have been built upon that island was not erected until about 1785. This school-house was first located a few rods south of the bmying- ground, but about 1845 it was removed to its present location, about two hundred rods north of where it formerly stood. This house has been often repaired and is still quite sound, and is annually used for schools.
In 1786, or a year or two later. the second school-house on this island was built on the land of Nathaniel Purinton. It was destroyed by fire in 1826, and the present building was erected soon after on the site of the former.
No information has been obtained in regard to the erection of school- houses in other portions of the town, and but little can be said con- cerning the early teachers here.
An Irishman by the name of Patch is said to have taught the first public school on Great Island. He kept a school in the old school- house for seven or eight winters. Some of the later teachers in that district have been Wentworth Dresser, a Mr. Hill, T. Coten, and Mr. Edgecomb, of Topsham, who is the present teacher there.
The first teacher in the second school-house was John Sullivan, also an Irishman. He is said to have been a good teacher, but addicted to habits of intemperance and accustomed to close his school for a week or more in order to go upon drinking " sprees." Among his succes- sors in that school have been Samuel Williams, Nathaniel Purinton, W. Dresser, Doctor Seward Garcelon. Jeremiah Hacker. S. Purinton, G. C. Smith, and the present teacher, Alvah A. Plummer.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
There are upon Great Island six school districts, and the schools average from sixteen to twenty-eight weeks each in length. From twenty to forty dollars per month and board are the wages to male teachers, and from two to six dollars per week and board to female teachers. Board is from two to four and a half dollars per week. The average number of scholars in each school is about twenty.
ACADEMICAL INSTITUTIONS.
The only school of this character in town was the HARPSWELL ACADEMY. Some of the prominent citizens, desirous of having better advantages of education offered to the children of the town than were afforded by the common schools, formed a corporation for the promo- tion of that object in the year 1859.
The first meeting of the Harpswell. Academy Corporation was held June 13, 1859, in Johnson's Hall. The Act of Incorporation was accepted, and a committee of three were chosen to prepare a code of by-laws. These by-laws, which were accepted at the next meeting, provided. amongst other things, that the annual meeting should be held on the second Monday in June, that the officers should consist of a president, secretary, treasurer, and a visiting committee of three, together forming a Board of Trustees; that the visiting committee should visit the school twice each term, and should have entire control of the school and building ; that the Board of Trustees should employ the teachers, fix the terms of admission to the school, and make all purchases ; and that " there shall never be a majority of the trustees elected from any one sect or denomination of Christians."
At this meeting, Paul Randall was chosen president, Harmon Pen- nell, vice-president ; Robert Pennell, secretary ; Henry Barnes, treas- urer ; and Clement Skolfield, Isaiah Snow, Stephen Purinton, Thomas Pennell, and Lemuel H. Stover, a visiting committee. A committee of three was also chosen to raise money and select a place for an acad- emy building. On July 2d of this year, the trustees voted to accept a lot of one fourth of an acre of land offered by David S. Dunning at the sum of twenty-five dollars, and very shortly after this a neat and substan- tial building was erected on that part of the Neck which is designated North Harpswell. The corporators, however, went in debt for the building. and accordingly, at a meeting held March 1, 1860, the academy was mortgaged in order to raise money to pay the indebted- ness. On April 18, 1865, the trustees voted to raise money by subscription to redeem this building.
How successful this attempt was, is not stated in the records.
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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF HARPSWELL.
The first term of school in this academy commenced Monday, Sep- tember 5, 1859, under the instruction of H. C. White, M. D., with one or more assistants. The rates of tuition were as follows : -
In Primary Department, per term $2.00
" Common English,
· 3.00
" Higher Branches, 66 4.00 .
" Drawing and Painting, 1.50 to 2.00
" Music, 6.00
For use of instrument, one dollar extra.
The school was kept up a few years, but finally failed from want of adequate support and encouragement. The building is still standing.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
THE first school-teacher upon Great Island was a man named Hob- by. He taught in private houses. Private schools were held in many families prior to the building of the first school-house, but there have been but few held in the part of the island where the second school- house is located. Stephen Purinton, however, is known to have had schools for his children. The only private teachers besides Hobby, who are remembered to have taught here in early times, were Messrs. Patch and Sullivan.
The first teacher on Orr's Island is said to have been a man by the name of Kinnecum, and the first one upon Merriconeag Neck is said to have been a Mr. Walker. Both of these teachers taught private schools.
The only teacher of a private school on the Neck beside Mr. Walker, of whom we have been able to learn, was Parson Eaton, who taught a few day-scholars in some of the higher branches. Although we have no positive information upon the subject, it is probable that Mr. Eaton's scholars were only those who desired to secure a higher edu- cation than could at that time be obtained at the common schools, and they very likely were the children of the more wealthy citizens.
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498
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE.
MONTL
AND
BOWDOIN COLLEGE IN 1821.
IN November, 1788, petitions were sent to the General Court of Massachusetts from the Cumberland Association of Ministers, as well as from the Cumberland County Court of General Sessions, for the incorporation of a college in that county. No decided action, how- ever, was taken on these petitions until 1790, when a favorable report was made by a committee of the legislature, to which the matter had been referred. In March, 1791, in consequence principally of the exertions of Honorable Josiah Thatcher, a senator from Cumberland County, a bill for a college, to be called the Maine College, passed the Senate, but failed to pass the House.
At the next session, in the winter of 1791-2, upon the motion of HI. Slocum, Esquire, a member from Bristol County, a committee was raised "to consider the expediency of establishing a college in the District of Maine." All mention of Cumberland County was avoided,
BOWDOIN COLLEGE AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE. 499
and the motion was made by a member from another county in order that no prejudice might be excited against the measure. Governor Eustis was appointed chairman of the committee, and a bill was pre- pared, establishing a college which was first proposed to be called Winthrop College, but which was called in the Act of Incorporation Bowdoin College, " the name being selected as one of the most hon- ored names that Massachusetts could boast." The bill passed the House at this session, but owing to a disagreement between the two houses in regard to the name and location of the college, the bill was not formally enacted until June 24, 1794, when it passed both houses and received the signature of the governor, Samuel Adams. The towns of Gorham, Portland, North Yarmouth, Brunswick, New Gloucester, Freeport, and Winthrop were pertinacious in urging their respective claims as being the most fitting seat of the college, and in some of them subscriptions were raised to secure the location. The town of Brunswick was at length selected as a compromise between the conflicting interests of the claimants, the citizens of the town having made what was considered at the time a valuable consid- eration for the preference.
The founders of this institution appear to have formed adequate conceptions of what such a college should be. Their evident design was, as expressed in their own words, to found a seminary which should " promote virtue and piety, and a knowledge of the languages and of the useful and liberal arts and sciences."
The government of the college was, by its Act of Incorporation, vested in a Board of Trustees and a Board of Overseers, the former consisting of thirteen, and the latter of forty-five members. The trustees are the legislative body, and the overseers possess a vetoing power. Five townships of land, each six miles square, of the unap- propriated lands in the then District of Maine, were granted for the " use, benefit, and purpose of supporting " the college.
" Immediately after the charter was granted, establishing an insti- tution which was to bear his family name, the Honorable James Bowdoin, of Boston, afterwards minister plenipotentiary at the Span- ish court, generously bestowed both money and lands, the estimated value of which was $6,800. The first meeting of the Boards of the college was held at Portland, December, 1794. In consequence, how- ever, of a deficiency of available funds (for the best lands of the State having been previously selected by other grantees, there was great difficulty in effecting a sale of the college townships, or any portion of them, without a sacrifice), eight years passed before the college went
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
into operation. Indeed, notwithstanding the original grant of the legislature, and the patronage of the individual already named, noth- ing but great zeal and unwearied perseverance on the part of the most active friends of the project carried it through to its accomplishment. Besides two stated meetings of the Boards each year, special meetings were occasionally called : but it was no easy matter to sustain the interest of all the members in an institution which as yet existed but in name, and it was always difficult even to form a quorum for the transaction of business. Committees were repeatedly appointed by the Boards to solicit donations, but the public had not then learned to give, and when thousands were needed, the amount contributed was small, and mostly in books. Mutual recriminations of inefficiency and neglect passed between the two Boards, and some were almost ready to despair of success "
Although but few donations were made to the college at this time, it is gratifying to know that neither the citizens nor the Pejepscot proprietors were unmindful of the benefit the location of the college in Brunswick would be to this town. Thirty acres of land were given to the college for its location by Captain John Dunlap, William Stan- wood, and Brigadier Thompson, though the college afterwards had to purchase a part of it from more rightful owners.1
The Pejepscot proprietors also, at a meeting held April 3, 1799, voted to give a deed of two hundred acres of land to the trustees, " for the use of the college forever."
The following were the original trustees and overseers of the college : -
TRUSTEES. - Reverend Thomas Brown, Falmouth ; Samuel Dean, D. D., Portland ; John Frothingham, Esquire, Portland ; Reverend Daniel Little, Wells ; Reverend Thomas Lancaster, Scarboro'; Hon- orable Josiah Thatcher, Gorham ; David Mitchell, Esquire, North Yarmouth ; Reverend Tristram Gilman, North Yarmouth ; Reverend Alden Bradford, Wiscasset ; Thomas Rice, Esquire, Pownalboro'; William Martin, North Yarmouth ; and the president and treasurer of the college.
OVERSEERS. - Edward Cutts, Kittery; Thomas Cutts, Pepperel- boro' ; Simon Frye, Fryeburg ; David Sewall, York ; Nathaniel Wells, Wells ; Reverend Moses Hemmenway, D. D., Wells ; Reverend Silas Moody, Arundel; Reverend John Thompson, Berwick ; Reverend Nathaniel Webster, Biddeford ; Reverend Paul Coffin, Buxton ; Rev-
1 John McKeen, Reminiscences of Brunswick in 1802.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE. 501
erend Benjamin Chadwick, Scarboro'; Reverend Samuel Eaton, Harpswell ; Reverend Samnel Foxcroft, New Gloucester; Reverend Caleb Jewett ; Reverend Alfred JJohnson, Freeport ; Reverend Eli- jah Kellogg, Portland; Reverend Ebenezer Williams, Falmouth ; Reverend Charles Turner, Sandford; Daniel Davis, Portland ; Samnel Freeman, Portland ; Joshua Fabyan, Scarboro'; William Gorham, Gorham ; Stephen Longfellow, Gorham ; Joseph Noyes, Fal- mouth ; Isaac Parsons, New Gloucester ; Robert Southgate, Scarboro'; John Wait, Portland ; Peleg Wadsworth, Thomaston; William Widgery, New Gloucester ; Reverend Ezekiel Emerson, Georgetown ; Reverend Jonathan Ellis, Topsham ; Jonathan Bowman, Pownalboro'; Edmund Bridge, Angusta ; Daniel Cony, Augusta ; Henry Dearborn, Pittston ; Dummer Sewall, Bath ; Samuel Thompson, Topsham ; John Dunlap, Brunswick ; Francis Winter, Bath ; Nathaniel Thwing, Wool- wich ; Alexander Campbell, No. 4 Washington County ; Paul Dudley Sargeant, Sullivan ; and the president and secretary of the college.
The site for the college was selected in 1796. It is situated on a plateau about three quarters of a mile south of the Androscoggin Bridge, near the pine plains. A beautiful grove of pines forms a part of the college grounds, and its proximity suggested the motto of one of the literary societies of the college.1
It was decided at this time to erect a building as soon as practicable, and in 1798 one was constructed of brick fifty feet long, forty feet wide, and three stories high. Owing to lack of means, however, it was not ready for use until the summer of 1802. In this latter year a wooden house was erected for the use of the president of the college.
About this time a part of the college lands was sold, and thus a new and more vigorous impulse was given to the growth of the college.
" In July, 1801, the Boards proceeded to elect a president. Among several candidates the choice fell upon Reverend Joseph McKeen, a clergyman of high standing, of Beverly, Mass. The selection was fortunate for the institution. Possessing sound judgment and great sagacity, President McKeen was enabled to give a wise direction to measures, and to establish precedents of great importance to the future stability and prosperity of the institution. Through his instru- mentality the tenure of office, a point which elicited much discussion, was established on a proper basis. In the following November, John
1 The motto of the Peucinian Society is " Pinos loquentes semper habemus" (The murmuriny pines we always have).
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
Abbot, A. M., Harvard, was chosen Professor of Languages. The President and Professor of Languages were installed September, 1802. Great interest was felt by the friends of learning and education throughout the Commonwealth in this undertaking, and the ceremonies of the inauguration attracted to Brunswick a large assemblage, in which were men of the first distinction in the State. For want of a building suitable for the occasion, a platform with accommodations for spectators had been ereeted in the pine grove in the rear of the ground where the college grounds now stand. The scene in which they were participating could not but have deeply affected the principal actors. On this occasion, the name of the college building, already erected, was proclaimed in due form, - Massachusetts Hall.
" On the day following this interesting occasion eight students were examined for admission into the college, two of whom came from the metropolis of the Commonwealth and its neighborhood, showing the interest and the confidence felt there in this new child of promise.
" The duties to which President MeKeen was called were arduous and highly responsible. For two years he was aided only by the faithful serviees of the Professor of Languages. The obstacles and the discouragements he was compelled to encounter in laying the foundation of an institution which was attracting notice and exciting much expectation in the community, without apparatus of any kind, and almost without funds, situated in a part of the country where superfluons wealth was not yet known, at a period when such an under- taking was a novel one, cannot now be duly appreciated. Before they were introduced to their labors, the president and professor visited the principal colleges of New England, that they might avail them- selves of the best experience of the time for the sneeessful manage- ment of the college. It should be mentioned as an honorable testimonial to the enlarged and independent views which governed the measures then adopted, that the reqnisitions for admission at once placed the new institution, in this respect, on a level with the oldest and best conducted institutions in the country, - a rank which it has ever maintained."
His house not having been completed in time, the president and his family, for a while, occupied rooms in Massachusetts Hall, the lower story of which had been fitted up, temporarily, as a chapel and recita- tion-room, and the upper portion for dormitories. There was no bell of any kind, and the pupils were summoned to prayers morning and evening by the thumping of the president's cane on the staircase.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE. 503
In addition to these daily devotional exercises, President McKeen also preached on Sunday, either in the meeting-house of the First Parish or in the college chapel.
In 1804, Samuel Willard was appointed a tutor, and took up his residence within the college. One or two resident tutors were chosen annually after this until 1824.
Soon after its incorporation Mr. Bowdoin presented the college with £823 4s., with a "request that the interest thereof may be applied to the establishment and support of a professorship of Math- ematics, and of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and that this . interest be added to the principal until a professor shall be appointed." To fill this professorship the boards, in May, 1805, elected Parker Cleaveland, A. M., Harvard, who was at that time a tutor at Cam- bridge. He was inducted into office in October. During this year the first chapel was erected. It was constructed of wood, with rooms for the library and philosophical apparatus in the second story. It was not designed for a permanent building, but was, however, enlarged and improved in 1817, and served the purposes for which it was built until 1845.
In 1805 the first literary society was instituted. This society, the Peucinian, was founded by Charles Stewart Daveis, Alfred Johnson, Nathan Lord, Robert Means, Enos Merrill, Benjamin Randall, Joseph Sprague, and Henry Wood, members of the three highest classes of the college. Robert Means was the first president. At first the society consisted solely of members of college, but in 1814 the mem- bers who had graduated held a meeting and, together with those belonging to the college society, formed a general society, of which Charles Stewart Daveis was elected the first president. With varying periods of prosperity and reverses, the society has continued to the present day. Its membership in 1858, the date of the last catalogue, was as follows : -
Whole number of members, 1,023 ; initiated members, 945 ; hon- orary members, 78; members of General Society, 882 ; members of College Society, 63.
The first Commencement of the college was celebrated in Septem- ber, 1806, when the first class was graduated. The following-named individuals composed this class : -
Mr. Richard Cobb, who died in 1837, aged 49; Mr. Isaac Foster Coffin, who died in 1861, aged 74; John Davis, who died in 1841, aged 62; Mr. John Maurice O'Brien, who died in 1865, aged 79; Moses Quinby, S. HI. S., who died in 1857, aged 71; Mr. George
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
Thorndike, who died in 1810, aged 21, and who also received his degree at Harvard, in 1807; Reverend Benjamin Titcomb, who died in 1829, aged 42.
At the same time the following fourteen persons, graduates of other colleges, received at their own solicitation honorary degrees : Eben- ezer HI. Beckford, of Harvard ; Oliver Bray, of Yale ; Jason Cham- berlain, of the University of Brunswick ; Thomas J. Eekley, of Harvard ; Jacob HI. Elliott, of Harvard ; Abraham Eustis, of Har- vard ; Jacob C. Jewett, of Harvard ; Thomas M. Jones, of Harvard ; Isaac Lincoln, of Harvard ; Samuel Orne, of Harvard and Yale ; Albion K. Parris, of Dartmouth ; Leverett Saltonstall, of Harvard and Yale ; Ichabod Tucker, of Harvard ; and Owen Warland, also of Harvard.
This being the first occasion of the kind in a portion of the Com- monwealth then looked upon as almost a wilderness, excited much interest throughout Massachusetts. A large number of people attended from the District of Maine, and many from Boston and vicinity. There was, perhaps, a larger attendance than has been usual since that time. This Commencement is memorable not only on account of its being the first one, but also on account of a storm of uncommon severity, which began the day before the one appointed for the exercises of graduation, and for three days raged without abatement. . The exer- cises were postponed one day, but were obliged to be held the next.
The successful working of the college at this time is shown by the fact that in 1807 forty-four students had been admitted to it, the library contained between fourteen and fifteen hundred volumes, and a philosophical and chemical apparatus had been obtained which was probably unsurpassed at that time by any in New England, except by that in Harvard University. A new building, subsequently named Maine Hall, was commenced this year. It was of brick, one hundred feet long, forty wide, and four stories high, and was intended for dormitories.
In consequence of the illness of the president at this time, his duties were distributed among the three remaining instructors. The tutor, Nathan Parker, A. M., Harvard, afterwards Reverend Doctor Parker, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, " a most efficient and able officer, both of instruction and government," performed regularly the chapel duties of the president during the vacancy in that office.
In September, 1807, in consequence of the death of President McKeen, it became necessary to choose his successor. Some perplex- ity arose in consequence of the number of applicants for the position,
BOWDOIN COLLEGE AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE. 505
but finally the Boards made selection of Reverend Jesse Appleton, A. M., Dartmouth, who was at the time settled in the ministry in Hampton, New Hampshire. His inauguration took place in Decem- ber of the same year.
" President Appleton brought to the discharge of his duties a con- scientiousness which forbade him to relax any effort, and a deep sense of responsibility both for the literary reputation and the moral and religious welfare of the institution. He possessed also rational views of collegiate discipline. great discretion, unshrinking integrity, an uncommon spirit of command, true love of learning, cultivated taste, habits of close application, and a delicacy and refinement of character which could not be surpassed. He had gained in a degree unusual for one of his age the respect of the clergy, both of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as may be inferred from the fact that in 1803 he was one of the two most prominent candidates for the Theological Chair of Harvard University. The selection of such an individual for the presidency of the college was deemed highly auspicious. But he was called at the outset to encounter peculiar trials. Not to mention the relaxation of discipline likely to ensue on account of the pro- tracted illness of the former president, and the interval between his decease and the coming of a successor, it was a time when there was throughout the community a tendency to looseness of sentiment and character. At no period in the history of our colleges has there been more recklessness on the part of youth. The habits of society, which then made the use of intoxicating liquors an essential even of common hospitality, exerted a most deleterious influence on all our colleges. . . . By the unwearied assiduity, however, of President Appleton, by a uniform system of discipline, great energy. and firmness tempered with parental solicitude for the welfare of his pupils, and the influence of high moral and religious principle, which pervaded in an uncommon degree all his intercourse with the students, the difficulties to which we have alluded were gradually overcome, and under his adminis- tration the college acquired high repute for good morals as well as sound scholarship."
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