USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
It was the thought of the leaders of the Baptist State Convention that the school at New Hampton might become a training school for students for the ministry who could not go to college. During the colonial period of American history theology had been studied in col- lege, where it was regarded as the queen of the sciences. Then for their technical training ministerial students studied with an eminent minister in his home, observed his methods of pastoral service, and incidentally wooed one of his daughters. Times had changed, theology had lost its pre-eminence, and a few theological seminaries
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had been founded, like Newton Theological Institution, as professional training schools. But Newton required a college course before admission to the Seminary. It was desirable that high educational standards should be set for the Baptist ministry, but not a few young men of worthy ambitions and fair ability could not afford the time or expense of four years at college and three years in the seminary. It was to provide for such students that the Baptists of New Hampshire decided to establish a theological department at New Hampton.
Several students looking forward to the ministry were in the academy as early as 1829. Four years later the theological department was organized, a separate en- dowment was planned and a library was started that should be distinct from that of the academic depart- ment, and two agents were appointed to raise money. Reverend Eli Smith, D.D., a graduate of Newton Theo- logical Institution, was put in charge of the whole school, with the responsibility of giving instruction in the field of biblical theology and pastoral duties. He was assisted in sacred literature and ecclesiastical history first by Reverend J. Newton Brown, D.D., subsequently by Reverend James Upham, D.D., both men of standing and ability. Thus New Hampton occupied a prominent place as a conserver of the educational and religious in- terests of New Hampshire Baptists.
In spite of the popularity of New Hampton it was im- possible for many young people to go so far away from home. For such as these similar schools nearer by were talked about and three of the associations of Baptist churches undertook to found or foster such schools. When the Portsmouth Association met in 1835 it was urged by several citizens of Hampton to establish an academy in that town. The result was Rockingham Academy at Hampton Falls. The Association appointed annually a board of trustees of nineteen men, built a
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building, which was dedicated with an address by Rev- erend Baron Stow, D.D., pastor of the Portsmouth church, and elected Reverend Oliver Thayer the first principal. The response was immediate. One hundred and fifty-one boys and girls poured in from the farms and villages the first year. The school flourished for several years under the leadership of different principals, but the gifts of the churches declined and after a career of twenty years it was compelled to close its doors. Even- tually the building was sold for a factory.
A similar history must be told of the attempt to es- tablish the Hancock Literary and Scientific Institution. In the same year 1835, which saw the origin of Rock- ingham Academy, the Milford and Dublin Associations of Baptist churches planned to provide for the needs of the young people in the southern part of the state. The charter makes it plain that moral and religious instruc- tion was regarded as indispensable, but it was announced distinctly that no sectarian designs were involved. The charter read: "It shall be the primary object of this in- stitution to furnish the means of a thorough elementary education in science and literature," and "It shall be the duty of the instructors to inculcate and to endeavor to impress upon the minds of the youths who may here resort from time to time such moral and religious prin- ciples as shall, by the blessing of God, prepare them for usefulness and respectability in the various departments of life, and for happiness in the world to come." The high purpose of the founders unfortunately did not prop the finances of the school. It opened with two hundred and seventy-nine students in attendance dur- ing the first year and struggled for existence until 1851, when like the school at Hampton Falls it surrendered to the inevitable.
In the Newport Association the same question of academic education was a subject of frequent discussion,
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and New London was the town proposed for the loca- tion of a school. The New London ministers were be- lievers in education. Reverend Oren Tracy was a grad- uate of Waterville College and a friend of the district schools in his own town. He urged upon the Association to found an academy which would be worthy of com- parison with Rockingham and Hancock and New Hamp- ton. When Reverend Reuben Sawyer succeeded Mr. Tracy at New London he was assiduous in encouraging the experiment. He was a graduate of Hamilton Theo- logical Seminary, and knew the value of a good educa- tion for the young people of his parish. In New London Anthony Colby, who succeeded his father, Joseph Colby, as the leading man of the town, was not only friendly to the idea of locating the academy at New London on general principles, but he had a personal interest in securing a teaching position for his daughter Susan, who had attended the academy at New Hampton, sup- plemented later by a course at the Emma Willard Sem- inary at Troy, New York. Martha and Mary Greenwood and Sarah Burpee of New London also attended the academy at New Hampton.
The convergence of these interests brought about the organization of the New London Academy in 1837. The Legislature was asked for a charter and it was granted to eleven citizens of New London as incorpora- tors. Their names deserve to be recorded for their in- terest in the new experiment. Squire Joseph Colby and his son Anthony were of course on the list. Captain Perley Burpee, whose wife was Judith Colby, Squire Jonathan Greeley, who married Polly Shepard and lived on the site of the Prescott farm at Crockett's Corner, John Brown, son-in-law of Josiah Brown and Sarah Seamans, Captain Jonathan Herrick, who kept a tavern opposite the Colby house for many years and married Sarah, daughter of Joseph Colby, Deacon David Everett,
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who was a deacon of the Baptist church for twenty-five years, Captain Samuel Carr, who married Nancy, daugh- ter of Squire Greeley, and made his home on the land later owned by Alvin F. Messer on the crest of the hill, were all men respected in the town and living near enough to the center to assist in the establishment of the academy close by. Walter P. Flanders was a young grad- uate of Dartmouth College, who married Susan Greeley and became a well known lawyer in New Hampshire, and after 1850 was a prominent man of affairs in Wis- consin, his later home. Jonathan R. Addison of Buck- lin's Corner represented the north end of the town, and Captain Marshall Trayne the earlier center on Cemetery Hill.
The charter bore the date of the fourth of July, 1837. It read as follows:
CHARTER
"An Act to incorporate the New London Academy
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives in General Court convened That Joseph Colby, Jona- than Greeley, Walter P. Flanders, Anthony Colby, David Everett, Samuel Carr, John Brown, Marshall Train, Perley Burpee, Jona- than Herrick and Jonathan R. Addison and their associates, suc- cessors and assigns be, and hereby are incorporated and made a body politic and corporate, by the name of the New London Academy, and by that name may sue and be sued, prosecute and defend to final judgment and execution, and shall have and en- joy all the powers and privileges and be subject to all the liabili- ties incident to corporations, for the purpose of promoting and improving the means of education and instruction in morality, science and literature.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That said corporation may establish an institution in the town of New London in the county of Merrimack, for the education and instruction of youth in useful knowledge, may erect, own, and maintain suitable build- ings therefor, and may hold real and personal estate to any amount not exceeding twenty thousand dollars, and that all gifts, dona- tions, bequests or legacies that may from time to time be given or
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bequeathed to said institution may be received, held and possessed, or be sold and disposed of by said corporation for the use and benefit of said institution, and the interests, rents and profits of the same applied by the corporation in such a manner, as will best promote the object of said institution.
Section 3. And be it further enacted, that Joseph Colby, Jona- than Greeley, Walter P. Flanders or any two of them, may call the first meeting of said corporation to be holden at some suit- able time and place in said town of New London, by notifying the members thereof, by public advertisement in any newspaper printed in Concord in said county, two weeks successively before the day of meeting, or by posting up written notifications at least seven days prior to said meeting, at two or more public places in said town of New London, stating the object of said meeting, when the manner of holding future meetings may be regulated and any business relating to said corporation transacted.
Section 4. And be it further enacted, that said corporation may hold any sum, not exceeding four thousand dollars in real estate, actually in the use and solely for the benefit of said institution, free from taxation. Provided, the town of New London consent to the exemption of said taxation.
Section 5. And be it further enacted, That said corporation at any meeting duly notified and holden, may make rules, regula- tions and by-laws, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the state, for the management of the interests and concerns of said corporation and may appoint such and so many officers and teachers as they may think proper, and prescribe their powers and duty.
Section 6. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent this or any future Legislature, alter- ing, amending or repealing the same when the public good may require it."
Those who were responsible for the school proceeded promptly to exercise the powers granted by the charter. In anticipation of the founding of the academy Anthony Colby, Perley Burpee, John Brown, and Walter P. Flan- ders had purchased the tract of land lying along Main Street from Seamans Road to the Four Corners. The price paid was three thousand dollars. In 1840 five acres of this property were turned over to The New London Academy in consideration of the payment of fourteen
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Juley &~ Son
MISS SUSAN COLBY Daughter of Gov. Anthony Colby First Teacher of New London Academy
NEW LONDON ACADEMY. 1837-1853
hundred dollars, with the proviso that the land should be retained by the school in perpetuity. A public sub- scription for an academy building was opened and the people of New London responded promptly and gen- erously.
The Academy building which was erected was unpre- tentious, as befitted a village whose dwellings were mod- est. The education that the school would give was far more important than the external equipment. Yet the building rose two stories high and was crowned with a belfry, which gave it distinction. It has stood for a century in its humble place, meeting the emergency when its more elegant successor fell a prey to smoke and flame, a reminder of those who taught and studied in its classrooms in the first years of the school.
The school was opened for instruction in the early summer of 1838. At first it was organized for girls only. Susan F. Colby was principal and Martha E. Greenwood was her assistant. Miss Colby was at that time only twenty years old, but she realized the responsibilities of her position and with seriousness and courage she under- took her task. She believed that life was good, that use- ful service and happiness were open for everyone. Her spirit is revealed in a few sentences published by the Young Ladies Literary and Missionary Society of New Hampton, of which she was at one time secretary: "Every object by which man is surrounded, and which composes the vast extent of nature, is fitted to yield, in some way, its share to human happiness ... Every faculty of the mind is a source of extensive pleasure . . . In the sub- lime pleasures of morality, in the full exercise of all the social affections, and in the performances of all the social duties which arise in society, is felt a delight intense and exquisite, such as no one can realize who has not felt its influences in the depths of the heart . . . From the low- est pleasures of the senses to the lofty pleasures of re-
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ligion, may be traced a succession of enjoyments to the soul of man, and accessible to all; and were it not that the soul is immortal and unlimited in its capacities, our cup of happiness would constantly overflow."
It was her privilege, like that of Mary Lyon at Mount Holyoke Seminary that same year, to be the inspiration in a school of higher learning to young women who longed for the advantages that their brothers and friends enjoyed in college and academy. Mary Lyon was more experienced and her particular interest was in a college where rich and poor together could receive physical and intellectual and moral training which would fit them for a life of service and happiness. Susan Colby's enter- prise was only an academy, but her purpose for her girls was the same. Both believed that young women should be given an opportunity to study English and modern languages as well as Latin and mathematics, that they should learn the secrets of science and delve into the profundities of philosophy. Both did what they could to establish high standards in curriculum and classroom.
In the New London Academy the first year's course was intentionally simple, for the pupils who came from the district schools must not find the transition to the Academy too difficult. English grammar, mental and written arithmetic, drawing, and United States history, constituted the major part of the course, but to test their mettle they were introduced to Wayland's Elements of Moral Science, Natural Philosophy, and Watts on the Mind. In the second year students completed the study of arithmetic and commenced algebra, substituted an- cient for American history, continued their drawing, and extended their adventures into the fields of chem- istry, "the geography of the heavens," "the philosophy of natural history," and botany. They studied rhetoric and English composition, and undertook the mysteries of both the Latin and French languages. The curric-
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ulum can easily be criticized as too diffuse in its intro- duction of subjects, but at least it opened up a wealth of educational opportunity to the girls, and it provokes to admiration of the ability of two girls of twenty to teach such a variety of subjects.
The outline of courses for the third year designated only nine instead of eleven subjects, but some of them sound rather formidable. Imagine a New London girl who has wakened to a temperature of twenty below zero and ice in her water pitcher, and who perhaps walks a mile and a half to school, sitting down to Abercrombie's Intellectual Philosophy, Elements of Criticism, and Ex- amination of Language. For good measure she must wrestle with French idioms and the propositions of Euclid, the rational problems of natural theology, and a map of the heavens from Ursa Major to the Southern Cross. Triumph of mind over matter! They antedated Mary Baker Eddy by half a century. The fourth year brought back Latin and moral science into the cur- riculum, with a continuation of intellectual philosophy, English composition, and drawing. Italian, logic, and Butler's Analogy opened still larger realms of knowledge and thought.
The privileges of such a school as this were not re- stricted to young women. During even the first term one small boy of ten was admitted to sit at a desk in the face of twenty-six girls. This was Nahum T. Greenwood, brother of Martha Greenwood, the assistant teacher, who learned then the rudiments of arithmetic which he was to need during his thirty-two years of service as treasurer of Colby Academy. A "Male Department" was organ- ized for the second term, beginning in September, 1838. Dyer H. Sanborn, who was announced in the cata- logue as Dyer H. Sanborn, Esq., A.M., was recommended therein as a man of experience and fidelity in preparing students to teach or "pursue any of the more solid
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branches of education." He was approved to the trus- tees because he had had experience as the first principal of Hopkinton Academy, which was founded ten years earlier. He was assisted by Curtis C. Merserve. Fifty- four "gentlemen" responded to the invitation to enroll under their guidance, while sixty-five ladies were cata- logued in the "Female Department." The curriculum for the young women was planned for two terms be- tween May and December, but they might elect courses to be taken with the young men during the winter and spring terms.
The opening of the academy at New London was an event second to none in the history of the town. It pro- vided better education for the boys and girls of the com- munity. It brought to them a new appreciation of what people thought about who were interested in something besides their daily occupations. It linked the town up with the movement in education which was creating academies, normal schools, and colleges both East and West. It gave a tone to the community which it has not lost, and a reputation among the towns of the state.
Most of the students came from humble homes in New London and vicinity. They came from the district schools of the West Part and Low Plain and nearer at hand, from the farmsteads of Messer and Burpee and Morgan hills, some of them with the hay seeds in their hair and the smell of the barnyard on their clothes. The farms claimed most of the boys in the summer time and there were chores to do the year around. Sutton and Springfield, Bradford and Warner, sent their quotas, while others came from remoter New Hampshire towns. Nine were from outside of the state, including five from Massachusetts, one each from Maine and Ohio, and two brothers from as far away as Michigan. Their mother was Emily Maria Sargent of New London, who married John Quincy Adams Wood of Tecumseh, Michigan.
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She founded a young ladies' seminary at Ann Arbor in the same state, but she sent her boys to the academy and herself returned to New London in later life.
The Burpee, Colby, Everett, Herrick, Sargent, Sea- mans, and Shepard families were represented among the New London students. Benjamin P. Burpee was a mem- ber of the first class. He stayed in New London, married Martha Jane Carr of the same class, and raised five chil- dren. He was honored with every town office, and was county commissioner and captain in the state militia. His later life was spent in Manchester. Robert L. Colby, whose name also is listed on the first page of the first catalogue, went to Dartmouth College and then to New York and Boston for his education in the law, and sub- sequently was prominent in both legal and business concerns in the metropolis. Artemas W. Sawyer, the minister's son, went to Dartmouth College and Newton Theological Institution, and after a term in the pastorate in Massachusetts and New York states returned to New London as principal of the Academy. After five years he was called to Acadia University in Nova Scotia, where as professor and president he made his mark on the college and on the graduates who scattered through the Maritime Provinces and over the border. Robert Stim- son studied at Dartmouth and became a Universalist minister in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and was chaplain of the Sixth New Hampshire Volunteers in the Civil War. Sylvan S. Hunting was grandson of Deacon Ebenezer Hunting who went to jail for a principle. The young man went from New London Academy to Har- vard Divinity School and became a Unitarian minister. He coo served as chaplain in the Civil War, serving the Twenty-first Michigan Volunteers in that capacity. After the war he was minister of churches in Illinois and Iowa. Hezekiah C. Bickford was a New London boy, who was in the first class in the academy and fond of
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study resolved to be a physician. Besides private study in doctors' offices in Newport, Rhode Island, and New Hampton, New Hampshire, he spent some time in Han- over as a Dartmouth medical student and returned to his home town to practise. For six years he lived in the General Clough house, then sold his practice to Dr. S. M. Whipple and went to Massachusetts for twenty-five years of service in Billerica and Charlestown. His grand- nieces, Florence and Elizabeth Bickford, attended Colby Academy a half century after Hezekiah.
William H. Shepard of the second year class in the Academy went to Nashville, Tennessee, to work on a city newspaper, and in the gold excitement of '49 tra- veled by wagon overland to California. In those days a covered wagon required one hundred days to cross the plains and mountains between Missouri and California, and William saw no house or woman in all that time. When Shepard went west, Chapin H. Carpenter, son of Reverend Mark Carpenter, who succeeded Reverend Reuben Sawyer as minister of the village church, was a boy of fourteen, who in his turn after preparatory, col- lege, and seminary training went east to missionary serv- ice in Burma and Japan.
Thus widely did the influence of the school make it- self felt from the very beginning. Young men went out to become teachers and ministers, physicians and busi- ness men, never quite the same in purpose and character as they would have been without the school. Nor was the stamp of the school impressed upon the boys alone. Among the young women of the first classes was Nancy Greeley Carr, daughter of Captain Samuel Carr of Col- by Hill and granddaughter of Jonathan Greeley. When Martha Greenwood resigned from the teaching staff to marry Daniel E. Colby, Nancy Carr was promoted to fill her position while still a student in the Academy. Four years later she married Ebenezer Thompson and
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had six children. It was a relative of her husband who left four hundred thousand dollars to found the state college at Durham and the Thompson family was prom- inent in New Hampshire. Mary T. Greenwood, sister of Martha and Nahum, was valedictorian of the second class in the Academy. Through the influence of Profes- sor Calvin E. Stowe and his wife Harriet Beecher Stowe, in whose home she visited, she went to Ohio and taught school. In Kentucky she founded the Greenwood Sem- inary for young women before she married Reuben Runyon of that state. Later in life both Mrs. Daniel Colby and Mrs. Runyon resided again in New London in the Colby mansion.
The school life so auspiciously begun continued with a large attendance of students, but with a changing faculty. Miss Colby's service was transferred after a time to New Hampton where she had the satisfaction of being lady principal at her own alma mater. Dyer San- born gave place to Truman K. Wright of whom the Executive Committee of the Trustees felt able to say in the catalogue that it was confident that it ran no haz- ard in saying that he was "a thorough and popular teacher" for the situation that he occupied. After a year's experience they felt happy "in being able to state to the public that they have engaged the continued services of Truman K. Wright for the year to come, than whom we are confident there is not a better, either to watch over and give a proper bias to the hearts of the young, or in rearing the tender thought, and in aiding the youth in advancing through those sciences which they may see fit to prosecute." This statement was signed by Reuben Sawyer, Secretary of the Executive Committee, who must have known whereof he wrote.
It was the misfortune of the school that its principals remained so short a time. They averaged only two years each. They were Dyer Sanborn, Truman K. Wright,
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Curtis C. Meserve, Averill Comings, Alvah Hovey, Joseph B. Clark, V. J. Walker. Of them all Alvah Hovey is the best known. When he came to New Lon- don he was fresh from the classic halls of Dartmouth and expected to go on to Newton Seminary, but lack- ing funds he was constrained to pause along the way and impart some of the knowledge that he had acquired. He boarded at the Burpee homestead and came to feel
an affection for the town. Before he came to New Lon- don the school had been closed for a time. He reorgan- ized the courses, taught almost twice as much as was customary, and approved himself to pupils and trustees alike, but when he left after five terms no one dreamed that he would revisit the hill twenty-five years later the honored president of Newton Seminary.
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