USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
The trustees appointed a committee of four to plan the course of study and to select teachers for the opening of the fall term. They instructed the committee to make a special effort to secure Professor Ephraim Knight of New Hampton for the department of mathematics, for his reputation was well known. They voted defi- nitely to open the school on the last Monday in August, and appointed committees on building and boarding ar- rangements. To three of their number they gave the responsibility of selecting one or more agents to collect money for an endowment; without such an endowment the academy would probably meet the fate of the earlier schools. Dr. Cummings was asked to visit the associa- tions of Baptist churches and present the needs of the school at New London.
These acts of the Board of Trustees mark the begin- ning of the new period of the academy's history. From the origin of the school the self-perpetuating incorpora- tors of the academy constituted the legal corporation and were spoken of as corporators, but they did little more than meet once a year, choose trustees, and leave to them the executive direction of the school. They went so far as to instruct the trustees to take action look- ing toward a change of name for the school and an ex- pansion of the Board itself so that it might represent properly the Baptists of the whole state. The incorpora- tors voted "That the trustees be requested to apply to the next session of the Legislature for an amendment to the charter so as to provide: First, that the name of the corporation be the New London Literary and Scien- tific Institute; second, that the number of trustees to be chosen by the corporation should be twenty-four, seven of whom shall constitute a quorum, that three-fourths of said twenty-four shall be members of Baptist churches
68
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
in regular standing, and shall reside in New Hampshire and without the limits of New London; third, that said trustees so elected from time to time shall be members of said corporation during the time they shall hold said office, entitled to vote and act as members thereof for said period." The provision for Baptists was to get the backing of that denomination, and the clause requiring a majority of the trustees to be residents outside of New London was to broaden the constituency of the academy.
As a consequence of this action of the corporators the trustees took the necessary steps to meet the request. The Legislature granted the change of name in 1854, and the next year changed it again from "Institute" to "Institution." In 1875 the number of trustees was en- larged to twenty-five, but fifteen years later the number twenty-four was restored, and at that time the charter was changed so that the trustees should be the corpora- tion, with all the rights, duties, and functions of the cor- porators transferred to them. Since 1903 the trustees have been chosen in three classes for a three-year term, one class being chosen every year.
One can imagine the satisfaction with which the friends of education learned that the academy at New London was to be maintained, the anticipations of boys and girls who were athirst for an education, and in par- ticular the gratification of the people of New London that the school on the hill was not to be permitted to die.
While the school had been in existence as New Lon- don Academy it had not been necessary to provide dormitory accommodations. A large proportion of the students were from the town and non-residents were boarded in New London families. The Academy build- ing was therefore all that was needed. That building was at once put into repair and refitted for classrooms. Dormitory accommodations would certainly be needed
69
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
if there should be a large influx of students from out of town. It was then that the townspeople expressed their appreciation of the decision to continue the school on the hill by contributing generously to the expense of construction of the Ladies' Boarding-house, later known as The Heidelberg. The new building was a frame structure, sitting back from the street in the midst of its own grounds with space enough in front for a lawn. It was large enough to accommodate forty students and the women teachers besides providing dining and kitchen quarters. In spite of its lack of modern con- veniences the building served the purpose for which it was intended, and hundreds of alumnae can recall with pleasure the friendships that were enjoyed there and the pranks that were played in spite of the vigilance of the teachers. Construction was pushed through the sum- mer and the building was ready when the school opened on the twenty-seventh of August. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Hanaford were imported from New Hampton to be steward and matron of the new building.
Now that the girls were provided for it was a problem to know what to do with the boys. Anthony Colby solved it by buying at auction the old meeting-house by the cemetery and appropriating it for the school under the name of Colby Hall. It was already an historic structure, delayed in its building but used for years for religious and civic purposes by the whole town. There the first ministers had preached and made announce- ments of matters that affected the whole town. There the town meetings had been held and elections carried on. There gatherings of the townspeople took place for various purposes. But the time had come when it had served its original purpose. After a struggle between the Cemetery Hill faction and the Colby Hill faction the town had voted to erect a new town house on the present site, and to guard against any overt act of resentment had
70
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
voted that if anyone should break glass or do any injury to the town house he should spend a month in the House of Correction, in other words at the poor farm. The old pews were appraised at thirty-four cents each, and the building was knocked down to Anthony Colby for $118.80. When it had been removed to a position between The Ladies' Boarding-house and the new town house and had been remodeled, it supplied twenty rooms for the boys and the men teachers, and on the first floor space enough remained to provide quarters for the Euphemian Association and the United Friends, the two literary societies of the men students. Each room was supplied with a double bed, a table, two chairs, washstand and mirror, and a box stove, but students must care for their own rooms and provide fuel. The danger of fire was great with red-hot stoves and whale oil lamps, but somehow the years went by without a conflagration. As among the girls study hours must be observed and other strict regulations must be respected, but Jack was not altogether a dull boy.
Colby Hall thus reconstructed was to be the home of hundreds of young men for the next seventy years. Here they found new associations and cemented ties of friend- ship that lasted for a lifetime. Here they learned habits of study that served them well when they went on to college and professional school or themselves became teachers in grade and district schools. Here their effer- vescent spirits found vent in pranks played upon one another, or in devising ways to get the better of the teachers. They learned how to outwit the lady principal and to communicate with the girls at the Ladies' Boarding-house by grapevine telegraph. They had their favorites among the teachers and they resorted some- times to a specific method of showing their spite. On one occasion they constructed an effigy of an unpopular male teacher and strung it up on a tree on the front
71
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
campus. But the eagle eye of Professor Knight, who lived opposite, fastened upon it, his decisive action brought it down, and the public exhibition was nipped in the bud.
Professor Knight was a particularly difficult man to deal with. He had a way of leaving the students at the end of a limb from which they had to make an awkward descent. They expected to hear from their escapade of the effigy the next morning in chapel, but their in- structor thought it better to keep it to himself. The students never knew when he might reveal it to their undoing.
Even worse than the effigy incident was the expedi- tion of the town hearse. A number of the boys con- spired to run the hearse down the hill on a certain eve- ning and leave it for responsible parties to draw it up again. Without their knowledge Professor Knight dis- covered their intention and after dark he betook him- self to the hearse, opened the rear doors and crawling in drew them nearly together. In due time the boys ar- rived and, ignorant of his occupancy, gleefully hauled the austere conveyance down the hill. Just as they were about to abandon it the bearded face of the instructor in mathematics was projected from the door and in genial tones he said: "Well, boys, you've given me a fine ride down the hill, now suppose you pull me back to the top." If they refused the consequences were un- thinkable, if they consented the muscular effort was severe, but crestfallen they carried out the arduous labor and went home sadder but wiser young men. Professor Knight never referred to the matter again, but the story leaked out later on.
For such pranks as these and for acts of meanness a number of the boys were expelled from time to time. A certain boy who later was a national figure had a brother who was a freshman at Brown with whom he
72
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
corresponded. In one of the letters that went from New London the writer relates the sauciness of two or three of the students to the teachers and the insulting slurs in one of the society papers, and ends by saying: "There are a number of mean fellows in the United Friends." Allowance must be made for his point of view, since he was a member of the Euphemian Association, but it is undeniable that there were undesirable characters in school.
One of these incorrigibles found out that his father was being informed by mail that the boy must leave school and he diverted the message through a friend at home so that his own version of the story should reach home first, and he announced at the academy that he should stay in school as long as he pleased. The spirit of insubordination was felt even inside the literary societies to the detriment of their standards.
It would be a mistake to suppose that this spirit per- vaded the school generally, but the senior who wrote the letters, who seems to have been of the right sort, wrote disparagingly about his teachers. "Prof -," he says, 'is terrible lazy this term. I never knew him so much before. If there is a little wind or snow he seems to think that he is too weak to endure it." Of a lady teacher he says that he does not learn half the mathe- matics he could get from Professor Knight. He writes further: "I will tell you of the ladies what I can. You perhaps know that Miss Prescott is not here this term. Mrs. Eaton is principal but hears her old classes. A Miss Muzzey is associate principal and hears Miss Prescott's classes. I believe that Miss Prescott is to be back in the spring. Professors G --- and K -- inhabit a new house just this side of the tavern opposite Greenwood and Burpee's store. Therefore the ladies do not fear them much. They carry on pretty hard, I guess." He does not make it quite clear whether he means the girls in
73
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
the boarding-house or the aforementioned ladies of the faculty, since they all bore the label of "ladies."
The boy correspondent kept his brother informed of his progress in study. At times he groaned over his les- sons as boys will. He blamed the Latin teacher for not giving enough attention to the subjunctive mood, but indicates that the matter was remedied later by saying: "By request 'Prof' is going to drill us on that till we know something about it."
The boy was not a New Englander and he complained frequently of the New London weather as well as of the teachers in the academy. He does not like the wind as it howls over the hill. Writing on a Sunday in mid-January he says: "Wednesday it began to blow in real earnest. It blew for two days and nights from the northwest. Last night the southeast wind set up opposition and all day it has continued with unabated fury. Since Wednes- day then it has been
"Blow on blow,
And cover the face of the earth with snow."
Therefore we had no Bible class this morning, no serv- ice in the church forenoon or afternoon, and no meeting this evening. It has been very dull, but I have been reading and took a walk boldly facing the storm."
He liked to get his brother's letters and he thanked the "collegiate" for such advice as the older brother sent him. "I look with gladness," he writes, "to the time when your well-filled eight pages shall be borne by the rugged team over the hills of the granite state to this place, where undisturbed save by the rustling wind and the crackling of the good stout logs the student may pore over the musty pages of the Greek and Latin, and where the waterfowl may dip in the great Sunapee lake."
When April came and the softer winds began to melt the snow and the sap began to run, he felt better than
74
ยท
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
in mid-January, and he writes to his brother how he "arose about 5 and after 11/2 hours study, in company with a few companions, went about 3/4 of a mile through the woods to a sugar house. 'Twas a splendid morning and we had a grand time. The sap was frozen and after breaking the ice we had some of the most delicious sap I ever tasted. 'Twas thick and sweet. I wish I could send you some. I think they have not yet commenced to boil."
It was thoughts of the summer that led him to rhap- sodize in anticipation even earlier in the season. "What a grand time we shall have," he writes, "if we shall be permitted to travel a little ways 'out West.' How old Niagara will roar with pleasure as it sees two new young travelers gazing upon its stupendous workmanship. How Saratoga will hold out its hands to welcome us to its delightful companionship. How will the bell that first boomed out when the Declaration of Independence was signed and sealed ring out its glad tones at the approach of a collegiate. How the days of William Penn will come up fresh before us as we tread the city streets laid out by him. How the old Alleghanies will resound as we go whirling and whizzing over its peaks and crags."
The committee of the trustees on the selection of teachers had gathered together a faculty which was be- lieved to be a strong one. The engagement of Ephraim Knight was a master stroke. His selection inspired con- fidence in the wisdom of the committee and in the future of the academy. Recently he had received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Brown Uni- versity and the trustees would have been glad to make him principal, but he preferred to remain in the ranks. His advice was given readily in the making of plans and purchase of equipment. The academy found a principal in George W. Gardner, a recent graduate of Dartmouth College and serving as principal of Black River Academy
75
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
at Ludlow, Vermont. The committee believed that he possessed the qualities which would command the re- spect and esteem of both students and patrons of the school. A salary of six hundred dollars was voted for the Principal, who was to teach the ancient classics and English literature, and the same sum was voted to Professor Knight, whose department of instruction was mathematics and the natural sciences. Elegant pen- manship was an art in those days and John P. Shattuck was engaged to teach it; he was still giving instruction in the Academy eighteen years later.
Miss Colby was no longer available as Lady Principal since she had become Mrs. James B. Colgate of New York. Mary J. Prescott, a member of a prominent Bap- tist family in Concord and a former student at New Hampton, was asked to take that position and to teach mental and moral philosophy. Her salary would be only three hundred dollars a year, but how could a woman expect more than half the wage of a man, even if she was worth more? It would pay for her clothes and for board at one dollar and seventy-five cents a week. Mar- tha J. Carr of New London, younger sister of Nancy Carr, a student in the New London Academy in 1840, was chosen to be teacher of modern languages, painting and drawing, at the meagre salary of six dollars a week. She soon resigned to marry Benjamin P. Burpee, and her place was filled by Frances H. Chase, Preceptress of Pembroke Academy. Marion E. Burritt was the first teacher of French, Julia M. Dickinson was teacher of instrumental music, and Mrs. Gardner gave similar in- struction for a year until her health broke, and taught the girls the popular art of making wax flowers. Those dear old wax flowers, which adorned the parlors of the period by the side of the family album on the center table or on the mantel or the what-not in the corner, have gone with the samplers and the wreaths of hair and
76
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
the dried flowers and grasses to moulder in the attic or on some mid-Victorian scrap heap, but they were a marvel in their day.
It was unfortunate that the academy was compelled by lack of funds to pay such small salaries that it could not retain teachers and to refuse requests for small in- creases even for the principals. One music teacher was to have the tuition that was paid for music and the use of one piano as her sole compensation. She refused to continue long unless she were paid one hundred dollars a quarter, which was out of proportion to other salaries. Assistant women teachers had to start at two hundred and fifty dollars or even two hundred dollars a year. One teacher was dismissed because it was expected that her services would not be needed on account of declin- ing attendance. The trustees voted that if the teacher of drawing and painting should find herself not fully occupied with her own department, she should give the remainder of her time to hearing recitations in other departments. Several of the teachers during this period resigned on account of ill health.
The school was divided as formerly into male and female departments. English and classical courses were provided for the men, each covering three years. For the young women a preparatory as well as a three years' discipline was provided; within a short time (1856) the trustees voted that the regular course for young women should extend over four years. It was expected that many students would be absent during a part of the year teaching district school, and that was taken into account in the arrangement of the courses. The young men took the classical course if they were preparing for college, with plenty of Latin and Greek. The English course was strong in mathematics and was designed to qualify for civil engineering, mechanics, or the scientific courses in college. Young women studied Latin, French, and
77
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
Italian, a term of rhetoric and another of English litera- ture, and the usual amount of mathematics. Their course also included several sciences, political economy, moral and mental philosophy, and natural theology. Then there were the "ornamental branches," music, painting, drawing, and wax flowers.
The trustees appointed an examining committee of nine to visit the hill and see that the students were getting what they came for, and the young women were given diplomas if the examinations were satisfactory and the full course of study was completed. A careful record was kept of individual attainment on a score of one to five, and reports were sent to the parents of the students.
Regulations were "strict but kind." It was announced in the catalogue that there would not be many of them, but that they must be observed. Both manners and mor- als were dealt with. The list of prohibited indulgences included smoking, drinking intoxicating liquors, carry- ing firearms or keeping gunpowder. Since they were accustomed to these practices at home, this was some- thing of a hardship to some of the students. Relations between boys and girls were more strictly regulated than in their local villages and schools. Walking, riding, or visiting between them was forbidden except by special permission from the principals of both male and female departments. That was too formidable a hurdle to be faced unless courage was strong and ardor aflame. No young lady was to receive callers on Sunday, or visit away from her boarding place at any time during the term without a teacher's excuse obtained beforehand. When a girl must venture into the out-of-doors she must remember to be equipped with umbrella on rainy days and with overshoes for snow or slush.
It was required that students attend church both morning and afternoon on Sunday. Careful observance of Sunday was a part of the church tradition that was
78
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
not yet vitiated by Sunday movies and ball games, and students did not have a gasoline nag at the back door of Colby Hall or the Ladies' Boarding-house for a trip to Newport or Claremont or the White Hills. Chapel at- tendance on week days was compulsory and there were no cuts. While these externals did not constitute re- ligion in the minds of those who formulated the resolu- tions, they were regarded as conducive to those inner attitudes of the soul which are vital to religion, and there was withal a certain propriety in maintaining traditions which were admitted generally to have value.
Students seemed genuinely interested in religion, judging from the events. For a time the Sunday eve- ning meetings of the church were held at the Academy, and a school prayer meeting, which was voluntary, was held on Friday evenings. Once a week Principal Gard- ner held an inquiry meeting, which was well attended. Several of the students professed conversion and con- ducted themselves as if they meant it. So pervasive was the interest in personal religion that even class sessions were interrupted for prayer and conference, and twenty persons, most of them students, joined the church. This gladdened the heart of the new minister, Reverend Henry F. Lane, who had come recently to fill the place left vacant by Mr. Dodge. Church and school were in close accord, and pastor and teachers worked together cordially. The religious interest in the school was a part of a widespread revival of religion, which in 1857- 58 swept over the country, when daily noon prayer meetings were held in the large cities, and people took time to consider the claims of their spiritual natures. Seventy-five persons were baptized and became members of the church in New London. Both Gardner and Knight were ordained while they were on the faculty of Colby Academy, and they preached frequently at North Sutton.
79
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
Unfortunately school conduct did not always square with religious profession. Doubtless the boys and girls intended to be irreproachable, but regulations were still necessary. That no misdemeanor might have ex- cuse it was decreed "that every departure from gentle- manly and ladylike deportment by any student in his or her intercourse with the teachers, fellow students, or students of the place, in school or out of school, in public or private, shall be considered actionable on the part of the Board of Teachers." It appears that some of the students were careless about becoming involved in petty debts. It was therefore stated expressly that "no minor shall be allowed to contract debts during his or her connection with the Institution, except by writ- ten permission from parents, guardians or teachers." The New London merchants were informed of these regulations, and the two principals acted as bankers when the students needed cash for purchases. The sting in the tail of the resolutions was a threat of expulsion, for it was announced that "offenders, after being dealt with kindly, and appeals to the better principles of their natures having failed, may distinctly understand that they cannot longer remain connected with the Institution."
After all it is only the few who are not law-abiding and most of these regulations were not needed for the large majority of students, but prohibitions were stressed in those days. Boys and girls were eager to come to school, because through the door of education lay the pathway to advancement. They were not in school because father paid the bills and a good education was a help towards social standing.
Three hundred and thirty-five different students at- tended classes during the first school year. Only one of them completed the course of study, George W. Emery, but he became distinguished enough as governor of
80
NEW LONDON INSTITUTIONS
Utah Territory to shed glory on the academy which he attended with the other three hundred and thirty-four. It had been the custom of the New London Academy to list student names by terms, since many did not re- main throughout the year, but in the new catalogue classification was by the year, by departments and courses, then in a summary the total figures were given for each term. During the first full year the attendance was largest in the fall term, reaching two hundred and ten, the spring term was next in order with one hundred and thirty, while the summer term numbered only seventy-five and the winter term sixty-three. Many students remained out to teach in the winter and in the summer they were needed on the farms. The male de- partment outnumbered the female department one hundred and ninety-five to one hundred and forty. Four times as many boys were in the English course as in the classical, while the proportion among the girls was three to one.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.