USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 21
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No school that was so closely associated with evangel- ical churches in the nineteenth century could escape the influence of the missionary movement. That move- ment was a part of the genius of American religion. In a country where religion was a voluntary affair people must be persuaded to be religious. Pastors preached in their local parishes an evangelistic message, reinforced from time to time by revival exhorters. Evangelists with- out pastoral responsibilities went to the frontier settle- ments and preached the same gospel. This enterprise was organized in home mission societies. American Baptists organized home missions on a national basis five years before New London Academy was founded.
Hollis S. Westgate, Colby '59, was a typical home missionary. He obtained his college education at Dart- mouth and his theological training at Newton and Roch- ester, and even went to Germany for a year of foreign study. For a number of years he was a minister in the state of New York, but the Far West called him and he evangelized in Colorado and New Mexico. Later in life when ill health prevented his missionary activity he made a new settlement in Kansas and it still bears his name of Westgate. Harrison W. Stearns '63, a grad-
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uate of Brown and Newton, was a missionary in both Wisconsin and Nebraska. Dr. and Mrs. Truman John- son worked for two years in the schools of Indian Ter- ritory, where the children of Creek Indians and negroes who had formerly been their slaves were mingled for an education. Mrs. Johnson was Olive Jennie Bixby, whose father was a foreign missionary; she attended Colby with the class of '79 but did not remain to grad- uate. Edwin P. Hoyt, Colby '82, after graduation from Newton four years later served small churches in the East, and then he too became a home missionary.
Daniel M. Cleveland and William Fletcher were stu- dents for a time at Colby but neither graduated. Though they did not go West for their ministry they found a ministry of their own as home missionaries in rural New England, one as missionary of the New Hampshire and Massachusetts Baptist Conventions and as colporteur of the American Baptist Publication Society, traveling in a wagon through the churchless sections of New Hamp- shire, the other after a pastoral ministry in Maine serv- ing as missionary of the Maine Baptist Convention.
After the Civil War when it seemed needful that home missionaries teach in negro schools and colleges in the South, Martha J. Emerson '57, was appointed to Wash- ington and Alexandria, where she helped to take care of destitute freedmen, gathered the children into ele- mentary schools, and had a part in the founding of Wayland Institute. Two members of the class of '61 at Colby, Lucy A. Flagg and Julia A. Jones, taught at Wash- ington under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and Charlotte Clough worked under the Presbyterian Board. Laura F. Parker '81 taught in Hartshorn Memorial College, Richmond. Frederick K. Smith was at Colby with the class of '80, but he did not graduate. He became a home missionary with headquarters at Chinook, Montana. Chester A.
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Bentley '16, has been working as a minister to the Crow Indians in the same state.
The foreign mission enterprise was an expansion of the sense of missionary obligation among the church people of America, and a sympathy with the English missionary movement of the late eighteenth century. William Carey, a Baptist, was the pioneer of that move- ment. Baptists in America followed his career with in- terest, and contributed to the expenses of the Baptist Missionary Society of England which he had organized. When Adoniram Judson, a pioneer Congregational mis- sionary from New England, became a Baptist, the Bap- tists of the United States accepted him as their repre- sentative and organized their national foreign mission society. It was called at first the General Convention, but later bore the name of the American Baptist Mis- sionary Union. The society was active, particularly in India, where Carey had planted his English mission. Judson introduced the American Baptists to Burma. The year before New London Academy started the India missions were extended to the Telugu country of South India and to Assam. These countries therefore became familiar territory to the church people of New England who were interested in the missionary enterprise.
The foreign mission movement made a special appeal to women. Missionaries' wives found so much to do, especially in schools for the children, that unmarried women were in demand as helpers. To provide support for these the Baptist women of New England organized the Woman's Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1871. This society became the channel for pecuniary gifts and the guide of the study of local mission circles. There were local missionary societies long before the national organization came into existence. One of these was in New London, dating from 1814. It was inspired by the cent societies of Massachusetts, which made individual
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contributions of one cent a week. In twenty-four years the New London women contributed between four and five hundred dollars; in eighty-five years they raised $5,600. They were stimulated in their generosity by a visit from a returned missionary and his wife and an exhibition of idols brought with them into the old schoolhouse. After the national society was organized the New London women became an auxiliary of that organization, pledging themselves to give two cents a week per member.
One of the promoters of the national organization at its inception was Mrs. Alvah Hovey, wife of President Hovey of Newton, who twenty-five years earlier had been principal of New London Academy. Her sister, Harriet E. Rice, who followed Mary J. Prescott as lady principal at Colby, shared the missionary interest and resigned at New London in order to go to Burma as the wife of Reverend Chapin H. Carpenter. It was she who wrote to her sister from Burma: "I am not sure that you yourselves have not a work to do for missions - the founding of women's societies, auxiliary to the Mission- ary Union, as far as your ability and influence will allow. I believe that is the true course." Eleven women of the Newton Centre church organized a local society of which Mrs. Hovey was secretary. Dr. and Mrs. Hovey drafted a constitution for the general society that was organ- ized in Boston in the same year 1871.
During nearly twenty years of service at Bassein, Burma, Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter gained a remarkable hold upon the Karen people, and were very successful in introducing the principle of self-support, which has become a characteristic of the native churches in Burma. Later in life the Carpenters transferred their missionary work to Nemuru, Japan. Maria C. Manning, Colby '68, went to Bassein six years after her graduation, but the
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climate broke her health and after four years she re- turned home to die.
Julia Clara Bromley graduated from the academy in the class of '77. She offered her services for foreign mis- sions, and was assigned to Prome, Burma, to teach in a school there. She served only a few years when ill health compelled her return to America, but her early death so stirred the women of New London that they organized the Clara Bromley Mission Band. In the year of her death Edwin N. Fletcher graduated from the academy. He was the son of Reverend Stephen C. Fletcher, pastor of the New London church, and his home was in the par- sonage until he went to Colgate University and Seminary for his higher education. Deciding on missionary service, he received an appointment to East China in 1892, but he was invalided home after a few years as a result of malarial blood poisoning and died seven years after his original appointment. His son, Edwin T. Fletcher, be- came a missionary at Bassein, Burma, supported by the church at Riverside, California.
In spite of the discouragement of such sacrifice of youthful life, foreign missions have not failed to chal- lenge the energy and consecration of young people. Two other young women of Colby asked for appointments and were sent to Sandoway, Burma. Melissa Aldrich, a graduate of the class of '88, went first, and Melissa Carr, without waiting to graduate with the class of '91, soon followed. They lived in a house of their own to which they gave the name of Melissa Cottage, "a lovely spot," they wrote, "and here for two years we have daily eaten our dinner of rice and chicken, with love." Here they gathered the children whom they tried to teach Christian kindness and the rudiments of Western civilization. Miss Aldrich soon married Reverend Emil Tribolet, mission- ary at Bassein. Miss Carr with another helper continued to manage the school of one hundred and thirty pupils
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until she too yielded to ministerial solicitation and mar- ried Reverend William C. Whitaker, Colby '92.
Manuel C. Marin came to Colby Academy from Spain and graduated in the class of 1878. Seven years later he completed his theological course at Newton, and after a year of post-graduate study returned to his native land. For a quarter of a century he worked as a Protestant mis- sionary in a Catholic land under the American Baptist Missionary Union.
Jennie Bixby Johnson and her husband went from their Creek mission in America to Toungoo in Burma. She had spent her childhood there with her parents, Reverend and Mrs. Moses H. Bixby, of which she wrote in her delightful book called Child Life in Burma. She had the advantage of knowing the language of the people, and for nine years she performed the duties of a mission- ary's wife and medical helper until the failing health of her parents required her return home. L. Evelyn Carter graduated at Colby in the class of '90, married Reverend Penn E. Moore, and became a missionary in Assam. W. F. Beaman, who was at New London for a short time, was appointed in 1893 to Kiating, West China, where he and his family met the dangers which attend religious work in pioneer territory.
Two later teachers at the academy, like Harriet Rice, resigned their posts to enter foreign mission service. One of them was Alice C. Woods, who was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and preceptress at New London from 1906 to 1908. She married Percy R. Moore, who was also on the faculty at Colby, and went with him to Young Men's Christian Association work in China. The other was Florence E. Rich, who five years later than Miss Woods resigned her position as a Colby teacher to go abroad, marrying into the well known Jordan family of Freewill Baptists.
Colby alumni filled responsible positions as officers of
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missionary societies. Dr. Gardner for a time was home secretary of the Missionary Union, and Dr. Samuel W. Duncan was foreign secretary at the time of his death. Dr. A. J. Gordon was on the executive board of the society for almost a quarter of a century. Dr. William A. Hill '98, has been the secretary of the Department of Missionary Education of the Northern Baptist Conven- tion for a term of eighteen years, and Annie Cranska Hill has been a member of the executive board of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society for fifteen years. H. Kirke Porter of Pittsburgh was at one time president of the Missionary Union. Helen H. Clark '15, found a place of usefulness as secretary at missionary headquarters in New York City. Not a few alumnae of Colby have served on the boards of state societies and have been active in local mission circles.
The ministry is not the only means of religious and social service in these days, and both young men and women have gone out from Colby to work through such channels as the Young Men's Christian Association and social settlements. Arthur F. Newell graduated from the academy in 1908 and from Brown four years later. In college he was president of the Young Men's Christian Association and active in debating and newspaper work. After two years of graduate study at Harvard he was occupied with educational work among war prisoners. For several years he was on the staff of John R. Mott in the international division of Young Men's Christian As- sociation activity. Besides teaching at Robert College for a time he spent two years in England carrying out a programme of lectures and open forums in co-operation with the University of Bristol and workingmen's and co-operative organizations in an attempt to create a better understanding between English and Americans, and in the United States he has used similar methods for the same laudable purpose. Robert C. Dexter com-
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pleted his course at Colby in the same year. At Brown he won a prize in debate. Later he engaged in social and religious work, becoming director of civic affairs for the Unitarians in the United States. Edward R. Place '20, became a publicist in Boston.
Edward N. Folsom '82, was with his father in the scythe works at Scytheville for a time; later he became interested in the Young Men's Christian Association and was secretary in Middlebury, Vermont, and then at St. Johnsbury and at Waterbury, Connecticut. Harold P. Page '04, went to the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion in New York City. Mildred Crockett '20, after com- pleting her course at Oberlin College, was in Young Women's Christian Association service for a time before her marriage. Annie B. Westgate '67 went into social settlement work in Boston after teaching for a time, and her example was followed by Charlotte L. Spaulding, class of '74.
J. Fred Parker '74, George A. Pettigrew '80, and Henry W. Cheney '82, rose to high rank in Masonry.
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XIII
THE ALUMNI IN LAW, MEDICINE AND PUBLIC LIFE
T HE profession of the law had its attractions for not a few Colby students who debated various subjects in the literary society meetings and who saw in it a means to wealth, social standing, and possibly a politi- cal career. Country boys in New Hampshire had before them the example of Daniel Webster, who achieved re- nown in his profession and high place of politics. Any boy in the United States might hope to become president some day, and it is even possible that some Colby student cherished that ambition, though none ever attained to it. Colby alumni became governors and Congressmen and mayors of cities. Several were in the service of the United States government, others served in the humbler offices of city or county.
Conspicuous among them was George W. Emery, sole graduate in the class of 1854. He came to New London from New Hampton in company with Professor Knight when that school was moved to Fairfax, Vermont. Grad- uating from Dartmouth in '58, he studied in the law school at Albany, New York, and entered the law office of Benjamin F. Butler in Boston. After several years he decided to go to Tennessee where he engaged in plant- ing and milling. His legal training and business experi- ence qualified him for appointment as supervisor of internal revenue over a district that included Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He directed the activity of twenty-five hundred agents. When a man was needed to control sternly the Mormon
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country of the Far West, President Grant chose Emery as governor of Utah Territory. For five years he was a fearless administrator, and a genial host when the Presi- dent, the Emperor of Brazil, and other transcontinental travelers came his way.
The next three classes had their due proportion of young men who were admitted to the bar or entered public life through politics. Bartlett G. Cilley of the second graduating class went through college and opened an office in Andover, New Hampshire. Charles H. Bartlett of Sunapee was in the same class, but did not receive a Colby diploma; this did not prevent him from becoming mayor of Manchester. H. Kirke Porter was a classmate of Gordon and Duncan in the class of 1856. He went on to college and afterward became interested in locomotive construction, locating in Pittsburgh, and was very successful. He was not so absorbed in business that he could not find time for other things. He was ac- tive in religious circles, becoming at one time president of the American Baptist Missionary Union, and for a time he represented the state of Pennsylvania in Congress. The class of '57 at Colby turned out two lawyers. One of them was George W. Estabrook, who gained a reputation in Boston as an able advocate. The other was Edward B. Knight, the son of Professor Ephraim Knight. He found his opportunity in Charleston, West Virginia, where he was recognized as leader of the bar and in time was made a judge. He spent many summers in New London in his house on Knight's Hill and was an enthusiastic fisher- man. Calvin S. Brown of the class of '58 entered the army, and before the war was over had become a colonel. Later he was in government employ in the Land Office at Washington.
The class of 1859 was unusual both in size and quality. Seventeen young men and nine women received diplo- mas, including Adelaide L. Smiley. Eleven of them
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went to college, Dartmouth attracting most of them. Several of them went into the Army; Samuel J. Alex- ander was mortally wounded in the Civil War. Among them were two lawyers, William L. Flagg, who prac- tised thirty years in New York City, and J. Oscar Teele of Boston, who was long time a trustee of the Boston Public Library. James D. Stevens was in the Treasury Department at Washington, and J. Kendrick Upton, class of '60, a Wilmot boy, was assistant general superin- tendent of the Life Saving Service. In the course of political changes he resigned his position, but he was a writer on politics and an annual contributor on United States financial subjects to Appleton's Cyclopedia.
Merely to enumerate these names gives no conception of the wide range of responsibility that men like these took upon themselves. Some of them had unusual abil- ity, which the academy and college trained further; others of them merely did their duty as the day brought it to them. None brought dishonor to the school that had bred them among the New Hampshire hills, and they never forgot the days spent in the classrooms of the old Academy.
The class of '61 contributed another lawyer who be- . came a governor. John Quincy Adams Brackett was a Bradford boy with no advantages to start with, unless it was his name and his native ability. He aspired to Harvard College and proved his right to a place among the aristocracy by his class oration. He remained in Cambridge for his law training at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. Success- ful in his profession, he became politically ambitious. He was president of the Boston Common Council and was elected eight times to the General Court of Massa- chusetts. In that body he was speaker for several years. This career put him in line for promotion in a Republi- can state, and he became successively lieutenant gov-
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ernor for three terms and then governor of the Com- monwealth. In spite of his high station he maintained his interest in Colby Academy and accepted the presi- dency of the alumni association.
Four budding lawyers emerged from the class of 1860. Eben A. Andrews went to the Mississippi Valley for his practice, dying in Missouri about the end of the century. Daniel S. Dinsmoor was both lawyer and bank cashier in Laconia. James B. Fassett made his home in Nashua and was a noted official of the United States gov- ernment for a time. Orestes H. Keay found his sphere of operation in Boston.
The class of '61 made its contribution to the law in the person of Charles H. Sayward. He not only practised law in a Massachusetts town, but after filling town offices he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives and then to the Senate. He became a bank president and a judge, both evidence of his probity and his skill. The next class included Samuel N. Brown, who occupied a place of trust as register of deeds at Pena- cook, a position in which he was succeeded by his son of a later class at Colby. Charles L. Babcock, class of '63, was a county treasurer in Virginia. For a time Cyrus A. Sulloway, "tall pine of the Merrimac," was at Colby with the class of '63; his political ambitions carried him to Congress. John B. Clough and Obadiah W. Cutler graduated with the class of '64. Clough went on to col- lege and was admitted to the bar; later in life he became clerk of the court in Memphis, Tennessee. Cutler filled both elective and appointive positions, as mayor and collector of internal revenue.
Seven was the total number of graduates in the class of 1865, but several of them got a college education and became lawyers; Edward E. Parker became judge of pro- bate in Nashua. George H. Chamberlain, Frank Hi- land, and Jerome B. Porter all practised in Manchester.
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Colby men were ambitious to test their powers in the populous centers. The next class did not contribute a single graduate to the law, but it gave two to the ministry and one to medicine. Albert A. Osgood of the class of '67 found ample opportunity to practise the legal pro- fession in Kansas. Although that state had been admitted to the Union during the Civil War, old controversies still rankled and there was plenty of litigation. Carl E. Knight, class of '68, opened his office in Milford, Josiah H. Benton came to Colby from Vermont for a year, but did not complete his course. His legal career in Massa- chusetts was a distinguished one.
Few of those who specialized in the law failed to get a college education, but many of them received their technical training in the office of a practising lawyer in- stead of going to law school. It took a good deal of money and a stock of patience to go through the treadmill of preparation and then to wait for clients, and it is not strange that many of them took a short cut. Gilbert O. Burnham, class of 1870, fortified himself with a college preparation before he settled in Boston. Harry C. Had- ley of the same class dispensed with most of his prepara- tion and went to practising in Burlington, Iowa.
The class of '71 was rich in embryo teachers, but only one looked forward to the law as his particular province. This was Reuben E. Clark who took his college course at Brown, and after he had become a judge was given the degree of doctor of laws by both Brown and Harvard. The next class had only eight graduates, but all except two entered some one of the professions. John Y. Cressy decided that there was room for him in Manchester; the other lawyer was Herbert D. Ryder of Bellows Falls, Vermont. The class of '73 included Eugene L. Emery of Andover and Judge William M. Knight, who made his mark in Hereford, Texas.
The class of '74, like that of '59, numbered twenty-six
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members. It would have been strange if out of that number the law had attracted none to itself. Boyd B. Jones became a man of note as United States district attorney for Massachusetts, a position that demanded a thorough knowledge of the law, courage and good judg- ment. Tracy E. Sanborn went to law school as well as college, and was well equipped to be a county judge in Oregon with headquarters at Eugene. George W. Stone contented himself with a more limited sphere in Antrim. Charles L. Pulsifer and James F. Parker held public office. Pulsifer was mayor of Laconia, and Parker be- came deputy secretary of state in Rhode Island.
Colby took a vacation from cultivating the minds of aspirants for legal distinction, perhaps that it might do its best for two young fellows who were to gain dis- tinction. George F. Bean '77 was one of those likable youngsters who were sure to gain popularity with their fellow townsmen and it was no surprise when he was elected mayor of Woburn, the city of his residence. Loyal to the school of his boyhood, he took an active part in the alumni association. Two boys who did not gradu- ate gained prominence in public service. William A: Stone filled an important place in the New Hampshire government at Concord, and J. Otis Wardwell was a well known lawyer and at one time speaker of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts. He married Ella M. Eaton of the class of '77, a woman much beloved by those who knew her.
As the son of a New London physician Sherman L. Whipple was thoroughly at home in the academy from the time he was eleven, and as a young fellow of parts he was attracted to Yale, from which he graduated in 1881 as valedictorian of his class. He took a year to try teach- ing Latin and mathematics in the boys' high school in Reading, Pennsylvania, then returned to New Haven for his course in the Law School. He was one of three
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