USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 7
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Expenses of students were not heavy. In private families they were able to get board, with wood and lights, and washing and ironing, for one dollar and seventy-five cents to two dollars a week. At the Ladies' Boarding-house everything was supplied for one dollar and seventy-five cents. Boys in Colby Hall paid four or five dollars a term for rooms, and washing and iron- ing was additional. The charge for regular tuition ranged from three dollars and a half to five dollars ac- cording to the grade of instruction. The ornamentals were charged extra from one dollar to ten. Music on the piano or the seraphine with use of the instrument was priced at ten dollars. Art was relatively less ex- pensive. Polychromatic required an extra five dollars, monochromatic three, water colors and India ink two. Wax flowers were popular enough to demand three dollars, but penciling and penmanship were only one.
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Such small tuition charges made possible a large student body, but the aggregate income of the school was in- sufficient to permit of adequate salaries to teachers or even the expenses of maintenance.
Dr. Gardner in his historical address twenty-five years later said: "The first year was a hard and trying one for the teachers. Everything was new and crude. The number of students was large from the first. But the work of classifying, of arranging the courses of study, of establishing discipline, of founding the Literary Societies, of regulating the relations between the two departments - male and female, and generally of creat- ing an esprit de corps among the students, and of diffus- ing around them something like an atmosphere of scholarship - in a word, the right start, - this was the distinctive labor of the first year."
The first few years were such as to try the mettle of the youthful principal. The school had been open about a month when Professor Knight was prostrated with a prolonged siege of rheumatic fever, and it became nec- essary to engage Horatio N. Twombly, a Dartmouth senior, to take his classes. This circumstance threw more responsibility on the Principal. Before the winter was over Miss Carr married, and that necessitated obtaining a new teacher in the middle of the year. The large at- tendance of students, the second largest in any New Hampshire academy, and the presence of rounders, who tried one academy after another to see where they could get the most for slight exertion, presented many prob- lems of discipline and made it advisable to stiffen the requirements so as to get rid of the undesirables.
It is possible to visualize student life in the old town back in the days before the tocsin of war sounded on the hill and echoed down the valleys. Men and women toiled from sunrise to sunset on the farm, but the chil- dren were given time enough to go to school until their
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labor was too valuable in summer. Villagers plied their trades and shopkeepers hunted in the nooks and corners of their shelves for half-forgotten goods that might satisfy the demands of a fussy customer. Students were every- where about the community. Many of the homes gave them shelter, for the dormitories could not accommodate them all. Their presence gave a bustle to a community that without them would tend to become static.
The presence of the school supplied a tonic to the village and on occasion made colorful the appearance of the streets. Commencement Day was such an event. Democratic as is the American community, it is fond of display and Commencement supplied a fillip which the earlier training day gave. There were eight candi- dates for graduation in 1855. Those responsible for the programme were not content with a simple ceremony and the townspeople would have been disappointed without something more. There must be a procession of students and a band of martial music and oratorical fireworks from the graduation speakers. People moved happily along the streets, peddlers and hawkers were in evidence improving the opportunity to turn a penny. One would think to see it all that it must be a college Commencement at least, and the people were as well satisfied as if it had been. It was the gala day of the year.
Several of the graduates continued their studies farther. Butterfield, Cilley, and Gage went to Dart- mouth. Cowles, Plumer, and Porter entered Brown. Wetherby was admitted to the University of Vermont, and Chapin commenced a ministerial course at Newton Theological Institution. The two young women gradu- ates, Elizabeth H. Browne of New London and Susan M. Tracy of Concord, completed the regular course for women and received diplomas. During the first five years of the new regime in the academy the principal members of the faculty continued in their positions.
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This made possible a continuous policy and fixed the standards of scholarship and discipline. The number of teachers increased. Samuel K. Leavitt relieved Pro- fessor Knight of the natural sciences, leaving to him his specialty of mathematics. Caroline B. Eaton became associate principal of the Female Department, relieving Miss Prescott of the course in mental philosophy and assisting in mathematics. Miss Prescott relieved Prin- cipal Gardner of English literature and taught modern languages.
At the close of the fifth year Miss Prescott resigned and married the minister of the church, Reverend Lucian Hayden, who had come to New London follow- ing the three-year pastorate of Mr. Lane. She had proved her ability as a teacher, now she became the spiritual mother of the young people of the church while she kept the friendship of the academy girls and boys. Dr. Hayden remained with the church eleven years, un- til the health of both pastor and wife demanded a differ- ent climate and they went to the Middle West. To take Miss Prescott's place the trustees elected Miss Harriet E. Rice, sister-in-law of Dr. Alvah Hovey. Although Lady Principal her salary was only four hundred dollars a year. She was youthful and full of enthusiasm and she soon showed the qualities that later made her a useful missionary in Burma and Japan.
Teachers' salaries at best were low and the expense of living gradually increased, to advance with rapid strides as the Civil War came on. Teachers were over- taxed with the number of courses, the size of classes, the time required for the conscientious performance of their tasks, the hours spent in personal conference with students and in connection with their literary societies, but all this was undertaken and carried out as a part of the day's work. They were Christian men and women. They felt as if they were serving their divine
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Master as he had served the least worthy of those to whom he ministered, and they were happy in their work.
Trustee meetings were frequent and members, some of whom came from a distance, paid their own traveling expenses. The question arose whether the expenses should not be submitted to the executive committee, but a resolution to that effect was tabled and the matter was postponed indefinitely. The trustees deserved com- mendation for their unpaid service, often with a sacrifice of time and money that they could not afford, but they were loyal to their obligation and continued their free service cheerfully, until in later years the trustees voted that traveling expenses should be paid.
From the time of the reorganization of the Academy the financial problem of the school was never absent from the minds of the trustees. Realizing that it was a lack of endowment that had prevented the success of the old academy and of the other Baptist schools, they attempted at the outset to provide a remedy. Before long Reverend William H. Eaton, pastor at Salem, Massachusetts, was appointed financial agent in an at- tempt to raise a fund of twenty-five thousand dollars.
At the same meeting as the appointment of Mr. Eaton action was taken by the trustees which had its bearing on the history of the school in subsequent years as well as at that time. It was voted "that no part of the funds which may be given for the permanent endow- ment of the Institution shall ever be expended by the trustees, though the income or annual interest might be used, up to five hundred dollars, for the tuition of worthy selected students, and any excess above five hundred dollars might be used for the ordinary neces- sary expenses of the Board. The policy of advertising was authorized also according as the committee should decide. When the Board was unable to buy a piano for
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the school Mr. Eaton was requested to go to Boston and solicit the money for one or more. Small but annoying deficiencies made it necessary for the trustees to borrow sums of one or two hundred dollars or to leave unpaid certain individual claims. It was proposed to raise a contingent fund, but the plan was swallowed up in larger undertakings. A tract of land in Croydon and Grantham which had been presented to the Academy by a friend in Newport was turned over to Anthony Colby to satisfy a claim against the school of two hun- dred and fifty dollars.
Reverend W. H. Eaton must have made an irresistible appeal to the persons among whom he sought gifts, for he was able to report to the trustees that the fund of twenty-five thousand dollars had been subscribed in full. In gratitude to him the trustees appointed a com- mittee to make a minute of the success of the financial agent and to express the satisfaction of the Board. The committee reported on the following day "that it is with great satisfaction they have learned the successful result of his agency. Though the practicability of the plan was at first a matter of doubt on the part of not a few of the friends of the Institution, yet at the expira- tion of a term of service on the part of your agent of one year and seven months we have the gratifying an- nouncement that a permanent fund has been secured in good and reliable pledges to the amount of twenty- five thousand dollars, which places the Institution upon a firm basis . . . The committee are happy to be able to express their entire satisfaction in the course pursued by the agent in his labors, in his good judgment, con- stant application and gentlemanly bearing, and that he has so successfully commended the object of his mission. And, further, they recommend to the Board the adop- tion of the following: Resolved that as at all times it is proper to acknowledge God, from whom all blessings
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come, we at this time gratefully recognize his kind providence in the success of this enterprise, and that we now suspend business and devote a season to an ex- pression of devout gratitude for the divine favor which has attended our labors thus far; and in humble prayer that means thus placed in our hands may be safely preserved and wisely appropriated for the benefit of generations to come."
The trustees felt so grateful to the public that they passed a vote of thanks to "all who have so readily and generously responded to their solicitations and contrib- uted to give the Baptists of New Hampshire an Institute of high literary character upon so firm a basis."
The increased income made it possible to add one hundred dollars a year to the salaries of Principal Gard- ner and Professor Knight. This was voted in July, 1856, and about the same time the trustees paid two thousand and fifty-eight dollars to Anthony Colby in order to get a clear title to the Heidelberg, because he had advanced that amount of money beyond the amount of the public subscription. An insurance of one thousand dollars was placed upon the Academy building. The next year an attempt was made to agree with Mr. Colby on terms by which Colby Hall should become the property of the academy. He had paid for the old building, had moved it and fitted it up at his expense, and he felt that the time had come when he should be given a fair price. It proved impossible to reach terms satisfactory to both parties and the negotiations were unsuccessful. In the year following the matter came up again and appraisers were selected to put a price on the building, but nothing was accomplished. Again in 1859 the matter was taken up and the trustees voted to buy the property, but again the deal fell through. When it was apparent that the Board could not afford to pay the price asked, it was decided to rent the building from Mr. Colby. So the
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matter continued until 1865, when at last Colby Hall became a part of the plant of the school owned and paid for.
The resignation of the principals of the two depart- ments in 1861 compelled considerable readjustment. Mr. Gardner after eight years of service in establishing the school firmly on its foundations felt that he would like to enter the pastorate, and he accepted a flattering call to the prominent suburban church of Charlestown, Massachusetts. He expressed the situation frankly to the trustees and they regretfully accepted his resignation. Miss Rice was urged by the trustees to reconsider her resignation. Dr. Gardner wrote: "She brought to her department critical scholarship, youthful enthusiasm, and great energy of character." But she pleaded ill health and withdrew. Presently she became the wife of Reverend Chapin H. Carpenter, and went with him to Rangoon, Burma, from which they departed to Japan twenty-four years later.
With these resignations the first "octennial" of the school came to an end. Twelve hundred different stu- dents had been in attendance. One hundred and twenty- two had graduated from regular courses. Seventy-five had prepared for college. Their lives were enriched intellectually, and they caught something of the spirit of earnestness and consecration to duty that has been characteristic of the school.
There was a mutual recognition on the part of both teachers and students that they had a co-operative task. A spirit of earnestness pervaded the school. Most of the boys and girls were there because they were genu- inely interested in getting an education. Many of them labored hard to get the means for indulging in the lux- ury of attending the academy. They knew the devotion of the teachers if they did not always appreciate it, and their purposes were strengthened and their characters
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enriched by the contacts. They did not know the laws of psychology and sociology, nor did they fully under- stand the implications of religion, but they came to feel what devotion to duty meant and their academy experi- ence prepared them for the responsibilities that they would have to face in life.
Some of these responsibilities came sooner than they expected. The struggle for the preservation of the Union, about which they declaimed in their literary societies, was precipitated before the eighth year of the reorganized academy had arrived. The discussion of slavery had gone on so long that it was easy to believe that it would result in nothing more than talk. The debate had raged everywhere throughout the nation. In a New London town meeting an attempt was made to adjourn the consideration of town business to dis- cuss the Kansas-Nebraska question. The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court aroused the North to the abuse of power of the slaveholder and those who defended him. The episode of John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry was like a match in the midst of tinder. The formation of the Republican party, the election of Lincoln as president, and the secession of South Caro- lina excited the nation, but it was hard to believe that a long and bloody war was just ahead. Then came the Southern firing on Fort Sumter and the call of Lincoln for volunteers. And in the response the students and townspeople at New London were involved.
Some of the students in an adventurous spirit wel- comed a change from the classroom to the camp and en- listed promptly. Others felt an obligation resting upon them or were influenced by New London citizens. The martial spirit in town was strong and the record of the New London boys during the four years of civil strife was very creditable. After their return the veterans retold many times their experiences in camp and field
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and hospital, the Grand Army paraded proudly to church on Memorial Day, led by General Clough and Captain "Jack" Sargent, and the minister preached with unction to the "boys in blue." In after years the Messer Rifles were organized to preserve the spirit of loyalty and patriotism.
The number of boys who enlisted while they were in the academy was not large, but with those who had been in school before the outbreak of the war the roll of honor was creditable. The list follows:
J. Ware Butterfield, class of '55, Captain Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers
Reverend J. Parker Chapin, class of '55, Chaplain Military Hos- pital '62-'63
Dr. George L. Porter, class of '55, Surgeon United States Army '62-'68; Brevet captain and major 1865
Reverend Samuel W. Duncan, D.D., class of '56, Chaplain Fiftieth Massachusetts Volunteers '62-'63
George W. Estabrook, class of '56, Private Forty-fifth Massachu- setts Volunteers '62-'63
H. Kirke Porter, class of '56, Corporal Forty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers '62-'63
Charles T. Richardson, class of '57, Commissary Sergeant Forty- fifth Massachusetts Volunteers '62-'63
William J. Brown, class of '58, Major Eighteenth New Hampshire Volunteers. Killed at Fort Stedman, Virginia, '65
Samuel J. Alexander, class of '59, Captain Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers. Mortally wounded in Mississippi, '63
Henry C. Davis, class of '59, Captain Connecticut Infantry '62-'65 William L. Flagg, class of '59, Seventh Squadron, Rhode Island Cavalry
George H. White, class of '59, killed at Gettysburg, '63
Reverend Edward T. Lyford, class of '60, Chaplain Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers '63-'65
Dr. James I. Tucker, class of '60, Surgeon Military Hospital, Boston, '64-'66
Arthur T. Morse, class of '60, Captain South Carolina colored troops
Dr. George C. Howard, class of '61, Assistant Surgeon United States Army '64-'65
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Dura P. Morgan, class of '61, Private Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers '62; Hospital Steward, United States Army, '64-'66 George Scales, class of '61, New Hampshire Sharpshooters. Killed at Malvern Hill, July, '62
Samuel N. Brown, class of '62, Private Sixteenth New Hampshire Volunteers '62-'63; Private Eighteenth New Hampshire Volun- teers '64; Sergeant '64-'65
Marcus N. Holmes, class of '62, Fourteenth New Hampshire Vol- unteers; three years Sergeant and Lieutenant
Charles C. Jewell, class of '62, Hospital Steward United States Army '64-'66
Reverend Newell T. Dutton, class of '66, Sergeant Ninth New Hampshire Volunteers '62-'65; Major.
Franklin J. Tenney, class of '66, Private Eighteenth New Hamp- shire Volunteers.
Daniel W. Hoyt, class of '67, Private Fourth Massachusetts Heavy Artillery '64-'65.
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V STUDENT LIFE ON THE HILL. 1861-1868
T HE resignation of the two principals of the academy meant a new administration, if not a change of policy. The trustees moved promptly to fill the gap, electing Reverend George B. Gow as the new principal of the school and Julia A. Gould as lady principal. Mr. Gow was in his thirtieth year. He was a graduate of Waterville College and Newton Theological Institution, and was serving the Baptist church in Ayer, Massachusetts. His selection meant that the religious traditions of the school would be preserved. His de- partment of teaching was to be Latin and Greek lan- guage and literature, a heavy assignment in addition to the responsibilities of administration, but Martha J. Emerson taught the first year Latin, besides her particu- lar courses in French and rhetoric. Miss Gould, who took the place of Miss Rice, was assigned to the task of teaching classes in geology, mental and moral philoso- phy, and English grammar, a heterogeneous assortment which did not encourage thorough instruction unless she were a versatile genius. But the age of specialization in secondary schools was a quarter of a century farther off.
Professor Knight and Mr. Shattuck continued in the positions where they had been long established. Both were well liked and were unusually proficient teachers. Other members of the faculty were Dr. Charles W. Gleason, who gave lectures on physiology, and Sanborn Tenney, who discoursed on natural history. Rumor does not say whether they ever mixed up their bones
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and fossils, but it may be presumed that there was a skeleton in the closet and a few bugs in alcohol. The mineral specimens were probably in a cabinet in Miss Gould's room, hobnobbing with the ancient philoso- phers and Wayland on morals. The ornamental branches were taken care of by Emilie E. Adams and Ellen A. Howard. Adelaide A. Smiley was introduced to the academy as an assistant instructor at the munificent salary of two hundred dollars a year. Her promise of great usefulness was still in the bud.
The new administration interpreted the purpose of the school as threefold. It was intended to provide for those students who wished to prepare for college, for those who were looking forward to teaching, and for young women who could not expect to go to college but who wished to extend their intellectual training beyond the place where the district school left them. The cur- riculum was arranged with these objectives in mind.
The College Preparatory, or Classical, Course was shaped to meet the entrance requirements of the stand- ard New England colleges, especially at Waterville and Providence. As in similar schools the course consisted chiefly of Greek, Latin, and mathematics. Students in this course were expected to be present for four years of three terms each, but it was agreed that "students of somewhat mature minds and scholarly habits might teach in the winter and yet get the certificate of the faculty." Squads of boys whose most familiar imple- ments of warfare were the scythe and the hoe fought Caesar's battles year after year and plodded on Xeno- phon's historic retreat with more reluctant feet than when they followed the plow. They read a minimum of ancient history in English. Those who did not fall by the wayside in the classics were likely to flunk in algebra or geometry. To get into college was a danger- ous voyage between Scylla and Charybdis, and happy
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was he who landed safely in port at Commencement time and received his certificate as a master mariner. His examinations for admission to college might be even more serious than an old man's examination for an automobile license, but his academy record was a recommendation, even if he might not enter college on his principal's certificate.
The Normal Course provided preparation for teach- ing when state normal schools were few and students could not afford to go far from home. When this course of study was completed in the academy the pupil ob- tained a certificate of proficiency which made him an acceptable candidate as a teacher in town schools. School committees looked to the academies for their teachers as colleges looked to them for their neophytes.
The Ladies' Collegiate Course was no less valuable than the other courses and was richer in variety. Girls in their teens became so familiar with the angles and triangles of geometry and trigonometry that they should have been able to box the compass. They caught glimpses of the illimitable fields of science as they tasted of physics and chemistry, botany and zoology, physiology and astronomy. They wrestled with Butler's Analogy and the evidences of Christianity, and added the United States Constitution to the documents of ancient history and government. And Italian supplemented their earlier Latin and French. It did not seem wise to include Greek in the Ladies' Collegiate Course. It was recog- nized that "its value both as an acquirement and as a means of the best literary culture should not be over- looked by those who would acquire a solid education," but it would require an additional year. Yet the young women were encouraged to study Greek if possible. Already the policy of the academy was pointing towards a junior college without the name. More than once it was proposed that senior college courses should be
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offered equal in quality to those in the men's colleges, and Mrs. Chapin H. Carpenter, mindful of her edu- cational ideals for New London girls, made a gift of one hundred dollars for that purpose, but lack of sufficient funds prevented the realization of the ambition.
A Preparatory Course was arranged in 1862 for those who were not ready for the regular four years' courses.
The trustees had some doubt about the value of the "ornamental branches," but they were a part of the furnishing of an educated miss of the period and so they were provided for. It was customary to have sepa- rate teachers for music and for painting and drawing. Wax flowers did not stay in the curriculum very long. Teachers of the fine arts were poorly paid, yet they were expected to have a full schedule; if they did not they could expect to be asked to "hear recitations" in another department. Instruction in these subjects was open to all, but with additional charges for tuition. The faculty recommended that "every lady should attend during her course to Music, Drawing and Painting, so far at least as to understand the principles upon which they rest."
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