USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > A centennial history, 1837-1937, Colby Academy, Colby Junior College > Part 9
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On the whole the boy had an agreeable experience while he was a student on the hill. He held his own in debate in the Euphemian Association and once refused an election to a society honor, apparently from personal pique. The girls liked him, and he returned their smiles with interest. Among his personal archives he preserved an invitation which read: "The Ladies' Literary Associa- tion respectfully presents the enclosed ticket to Mr. -- , soliciting his presence at their annual public meeting." He was honored by the Messer Rifles, which addressed him as follows: "Dear Sir: In behalf of the Messer Rifles I desire that you should respond to a Toast at the Levee, Monday evening, February 22nd, 1869. Should you
108
STUDENT LIFE ON THE HILL. 1861-1868
accept, or I might say grant, the request please let me know as soon as convenient. It is hoped that you will favor the audience with response to some sentiment upon which, should you desire to make previous prepara- tion, it can easily be arranged. Please accept the en- closed ticket."
The boy had good principles and under the influence of the church he became interested in personal religion. Not infrequently he went to meeting forenoon and afternoon and to two prayer meetings in the evening. One Sunday he read sixty-six chapters in the Bible. He went with the other fellows to revival meetings and ad- mitted that he was "getting somewhat serious." The time came when he felt himself converted and joined the church. He went out from the academy to become one of the leaders in the field of education.
This boy is a sample of the students who passed through the academy in the years following the Civil War. They were crude when they arrived on the hill, ir- responsible and sometimes irrepressible in conduct, but warm-hearted, teachable, and learning fast in the impres- sionable years of adolescence. To see such a boy grow in intelligence and manliness made a teacher's job worth while, even though it meant long hours, poor pay and meagre fare. There were choice spirits among the teach- ers. Their names signified little, and some of them were like "ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing," but they gave of their best while they stayed and the boys and girls were better for having met them.
It cost the student a relatively small sum to remain in school. Doubtless the farm missed his labor at times but he was available for vacations. The total expense of the boy with the diary for a single year, including board, tuition, and miscellanies, was one hundred and fifty dollars. His expense account for a single month shows how a boy got along on the hill with a sum that
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
in these days would fall far short of meeting even the necessities.
Candy
.05
Getting hair cut .10
Society tax
.50
Gum .10
Writing book
.30
Orange
.05
Troches
.08
Euphemian Pin
2.68
Postage
.09
Corn cake
.04
Ticket to concert
.30
Getting watch fixed and
Tuition
5.50
ring for same .18
Matches
.04
Horse to go to Sunapee
.25
Looking glass
.08
Expenses for festival
1.35
Physiology
.75
Ride on stage .25
Various things
2.00
While the school went on its way, sending out class after class to join the workaday world, the church on the hill was making history. Reverend Henry F. Lane who succeeded Dr. Dodge after his departure to Hamil- ton, was a young man just completing his theological course at Newton Theological Institution. He was an acceptable preacher and a friend of the students and a spirit of cordial co-operation prevailed between school and church, but Mr. Lane went back to Massachusetts after three years, leaving the church to search for a new leader. The choice fell upon Reverend Lucien Hayden of Saxton's River, Vermont. He was a man of greater age and experience, and his ministry of more than eleven years was marked by steady accessions to the church and by a spirit of harmony and goodwill. The church profited from the deepened religious interest that again was sweeping across the country; seventy-five were received into membership by baptism.
Reverend Frederic D. Blake succeeded Dr. Hayden. He had graduated from Waterville College and from Newton Theological Institution in the class of 1864, where he had been an instructor in Hebrew during his senior year. He had had four years of pastoral service
110
STUDENT LIFE ON THE HILL. 1861-1868
at Gardiner, Maine, and he was to remain four years in New London. In 1873 he was succeeded by Reverend Stephen C. Fletcher, a Maine boy who had interrupted his college course at Waterville to enter the army, where he was promoted to the position of lieutenant colonel, and then after two years at Newton Seminary had settled as pastor in Wilton, New Hampshire, to remain for six years. When Mr. Fletcher came to New London the trus- tees voiced the hope officially that there would be good fellowship and mutual helpfulness between the church and the school. They expressed the wish that church members and students might meet on Sunday evenings for united conference and once a month sit together in covenant meeting. Mr. Fletcher's pastorate of fourteen years was a time of ingathering into the church. Twice in the fair month of June he led large numbers of candi- dates to the baptismal waters, forty-two in 1877 and seventy-two eight years later. During the fourteen years two hundred and eighteen were baptized. Students came and went, bringing and carrying away their church let- ters, but the total membership of three hundred and forty-nine was the largest that the church had up to that time.
The town of New London was prospering. It had a population of nine hundred and fifty-nine in 1870, real estate valued at $290,730, and nearly forty thousand dollars on hand or at interest. It was still burdened with a war debt of more than nine thousand dollars, but it was able to make such town improvements as to renovate the town house and to build a tomb in the cemetery which cost one hundred and fifty dollars. The village of Scytheville was flourishing under the spur of its manu- facturing. Mechanics Hall was built for entertainments and religious services. Schoolhouse and cottage meet- ings had been held, but now the people felt as if they could afford to have a minister of their own, and they
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
settled Reverend Lewis W. Phillips at a salary of six hundred dollars. But misfortune fell upon the com- munity as business declined, and the church people had to content themselves with Sunday afternoon preaching by the pastor of the church on New London hill.
In 1874 Otterville too organized a church. This was called the First Union Religious Society of Otterville, and was composed of twenty-nine members. For several years church services were held with preaching by the New London minister and students of the academy, and later occasionally by a Sunapee minister.
Nearly one hundred years had passed since the pioneer settlers of New London had begun to clear the forests and cultivate the fields. Prosperity had come as a result of hard labor. Thirty years had rolled away since New London Academy first opened its doors and success seemed assured if only sufficient equipment could be provided. What would the new decade give to town and school?
112
VI BENEFACTIONS AND BUILDINGS. 1860-1880
B EFORE the Civil War it was evident that the New London Literary and Scientific Institution would find it difficult to compete successfully with schools of similar grade at New Hampton, Meriden, and Tilton unless it had better equipment. This became more evident as the prosperity that came to the North even during the war raised the standard of living of the people. People in the towns were beginning to build and furnish more expensive homes. They were demand- ing more from the schools for their children. Public high schools, which in all the states numbered only one hundred in 1860, increased to eight hundred in the next twenty years, and in them tuition was free and improved equipment was being provided. The older academies could not hope to attract students and to educate them satisfactorily unless they had an endowment fund suf- ficient to pay for good teachers and equipment that would meet the reasonable needs of the pupils.
The old Academy building was too small to provide sufficient class and assembly rooms, and the Ladies' Boarding-house was inadequate for dormitory and din- ing accommodations. Sensing the increasing demands and the local deficiencies, the trustees of the Institution began to talk about a new building and a committee looked about for a proper site. None of them knew where the money might come from, but people were making money and some of it might reasonably be cap- tured for education. The approved way of raising money
113
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
for religious and educational purposes was to appoint a financial agent who would go about among the churches and talk from the pulpit, if he could get the consent of the minister, and then interview persons of means and benevolent disposition. It was thought at first that Principal Gardner would be willing to act as agent, but he declined and soon resigned from the head- ship of the school. Then the trustees prevailed upon Dr. Eaton, who previously had raised twenty-five thou- sand dollars, to start a second campaign for fifty thousand.
The war delayed pushing the enterprise, but the idea of building better accommodations did not slumber. A committee of the trustees recommended the construction of a brick building and quarters for the women students, and they cast longing eyes on the site at the top of the hill. Dr. Eaton and another of the trustees were asked to prepare essays on "a model academic school for both sexes." They could talk about it even if funds were not in sight.
When it was apparent that the trustees were in earnest in their endeavor to put the academy on its feet, Mrs. James B. Colgate proposed to make a gift to the school of twenty-five thousand dollars on condition that the academy raise seventy-five thousand dollars more. Susan F. Colby had stamped her personality upon the infant academy. She had helped to revive it in its dormant period when she was associated with Alvah Hovey in the middle 'forties. Though she became a teacher at New Hampton for a few years she kept her love for New London, and after she married James B. Colgate and shared with him the rewards of a successful business she was glad to seize an opportunity to ease the financial difficulties of the school that she had helped to found.
Heartened by this spirit of goodwill, the Board voted to try to meet the conditions that were proposed. The Baptist constituency of the academy was not wealthy but
114
MRS. JAMES B. COLGATE (SUSAN COLBY COLGATE)
BENEFACTIONS AND BUILDINGS. 1860-1880
the school had many friends, and the trustees had faith to believe that the objective might be realized. They therefore voted to "open a subscription paper of one hundred thousand dollars." They hoped that the pro- ceeds might provide for a small endowment fund, and that it might be possible also to buy more land and put up a modern building of brick and stone on the crest of the hill. It was necessary to spend several thousand dollars to buy the land, but the site was worth more than it cost. On the top of the hill a school building would be a landmark for the countryside. Up there one could catch glimpses of far horizons, and the winds that brought ozone to the lungs might blow away the cobwebs in the students' minds. Beside the white church the school would stand as the witness to the Puritan tradition that church and school belonged together.
The response to the public appeals of Dr. Eaton were encouraging. The campaign continued until the final effort to reach the goal was made at Commencement in 1867, and the new fund was announced as completed. "Then was sung a real jubilate," said Dr. Gardner in his quarter centennial address in 1878. "It was felt that the straits were passed and open water lay ahead, and all sails were set for a bon voyage on the ocean of the future."
Meantime James B. Colgate was elected to member- ship on the Board and gave generously of his business ability to promote the interests of the school. Men like John S. Brown and Deacon Henry H. Brown of Fisher- ville were generous. John Conant of Jaffrey subscribed eleven thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven dollars to the fund to go towards an agricultural department. When it became apparent that money enough would be in hand for the new building, the trustees appointed a building committee and planned to commence construc- tion. The corner-stone of the new edifice was laid with due ceremony on the 28th of July, 1868. The exercises
115
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
included a prayer by Reverend K. S. Hall of Lakeport, an address on "Our School" by Dr. Eaton, who had pulled the stroke oar in the enterprise, and a general history of the school by the New London minister, Rev- erend Lucien Hayden, D.D. Then very appropriately three former principals, Gardner, Gow and Sawyer, in- dulged in reminiscences, and a statement was made by John S. Brown of the building committee concerning the new building. Then followed the impressive part of the ceremony, when Dr. Cummings, the President of the Board who was well along in years, deposited the box, and former Governor Colby and John Conant laid the corner-stone. Both were old men and Mr. Colby had to lean on his crutch, but he performed his part with dignity, remarking afterward: "Two old cripples playing master masons!" Amos Hadley delivered the final ad- dress, and the ceremony ended with the doxology and benediction.
The contents of the box that was placed with the corner-stone were various. There were a photograph of the building, a copy of the historical sermon of Dr. Cummings, a report of the Board of Education of New Hampshire, another of the State Prison, and still another of the Insane Asylum. The ancient Greeks would hardly have thought these last favorable omens for an institu- tion for youth. Perhaps they were overbalanced by the Baptist year book, anniversary minutes, copies of the Christian Era and the Watchman and Reflector, and Baptist articles of Christian faith. Then went in the by-laws of the academy, a list of subscribers to the fund, a history of the church in New London, and various photographs. For good measure there were added Con- cord newspapers, United States scrip and silver coins, and postage and revenue stamps. No one could say that the New London Literary and Scientific Institution was not supplied with abundance of collateral.
116
BENEFACTIONS AND BUILDINGS. 1860-1880
On the day after the laying of the corner-stone the trustees anticipated future needs by appointing a com- mittee to lay a plank sidewalk from the store at the Four Corners to the new academy building on the crest of the hill. In the fall another committee was delegated to plan for the furnishings of the building, and an auxiliary committee of three women was named in order that they might make a special appeal to the women friends of the school. Seven months later the trustees voted to authorize the building committee to borrow twenty thousand dollars in order to complete the building at once.
Everyone looked forward to the dedication as a red letter day in the history of New London. Not since the dedication of the meeting-house forty years before had there been a celebration comparable to it. The building was ready on the day planned in connection with Com- mencement, the seventh of July, 1870.
The programme of dedication was an elaborate one. The talent of the Baptist denomination in New England was drawn upon for original hymns, and illustrious representatives came to pay their tribute in public speech. The day was young when the people gathered at nine o'clock for a preliminary session. After devo- tional exercises an original hymn was sung, written by Julia G. Foster, former lady principal of the academy. Then came an address in behalf of the building com- mittee by Reverend W. H. Eaton, D.1)., another by Rev- erend E. E. Cummings, D.D., for the trustees, and still another by Horace W. Willard, President-elect of the academy. Music followed and then a fourth address, this time by Governor Onslow Stearns, and the singing of "America" concluded the programme.
At two o'clock the people gathered again for the dedi- cation. After a selection by a quartette and an introduc- tory prayer by a former pastor of the church, Dr. Lucien
117
THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
Hayden, now of Indianapolis, an original hymn was sung written for the occasion by Dr. S. F. Smith, the author of "America."
"Sow ye beside all waters, The seeds of love and light; And train your sons and daughters To wisdom, truth and right. Open fresh founts of beauty Along life's devious road; Fashion the soul to duty, And lead it up to God.
Prepare the peaceful bowers, Where opening minds shall wake, As rosebuds into flowers In blushing fragrance break; Water with skillful teaching The springing germs of thought, Onward and heavenward reaching, With coming glory fraught.
As priests - of God anointed To keep this high behest - To take the work appointed, To do such bidding blest. Here shall new gems be fitted, With mild, fair light to shine: The toil to us committed; The help, O God! is Thine."
Then Dr. Alvah Hovey, President of Newton Theo- logical Institution, spoke on "The Worth and Influence of this Institution." Memories of his own efforts to sus- tain the school twenty-five years earlier must have been in his mind as he spoke. A dedicatory prayer was offered by Reverend William Lamson, D.D., of Brookline, Massachusetts. A third original hymn was sung, written by Mrs. Galusha Anderson of Newton Centre, Massachu- setts. Not satisfied with so much of speech and song, the people listened to three more addresses and as many musical selections before they broke up the assembly.
118
BENEFACTIONS AND BUILDINGS. 1860-1880
Professor G. D. B. Pepper, D.D., of Crozer Theological Seminary delivered an address on "The Proper Educa- tion of Woman," Professor John L. Lincoln of the Latin Department at Brown University spoke on "The Value and Aims of Classical Study," and Professor E. P. Quim- by of Dartmouth College discoursed on "The Value of Mathematical Studies." New England people liked their programmes long, as the Scotch are famed for liking their whiskey straight. The farmers had knocked off for the day and the school had placed it as a red letter day in its calendar, and why should they not attend faithfully when eminent men had come from far to give them of their wisdom and gifted women had fallen into rhyme for their edification. People were accustomed to the leis- urely pace of horse and buggy days; it was not the twen- tieth century.
The new building was constructed in the ornate archi- tecture of the period. It was of brick with granite trim- mings, and was finished in hard wood from New Hamp- shire forests. The builders took pride in the local origin of the materials. Sand was brought from Little Sunapee and clay was drawn from Sutton Mills for the bricks which were burned in kilns located on the grounds. The stone foundations and finishing were hauled from King Hill. The structure towered three stories above the ground and had a mansard roof. Two towers in harmony with the rest of the structure rose still higher. The belfry tower was one hundred and eleven feet high, command- ing a wide sweep of vision. In it was a pendulum one hundred feet long, which vibrated as the building felt the blasts of winter beat upon it.
The building had a total frontage of one hundred and eighty-six feet. It was really two buildings in one con- nected by a corridor, the academy proper and the ladies' boarding hall. The west wing, eighty by sixty-two feet, was intended for academic purposes. On the first floor
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
were the library, the reading room for men students, a Latin room, a mathematical room, a scientific classroom and a laboratory. On the second floor were a chapel, a "back chapel," and two recitation rooms. The third floor had an unfinished hall which was appropriated temporarily for storage. The east wing, ninety by forty- five feet, was intended to provide rooms and boarding accommodations for one hundred young women. On ยท the first floor were two parlors, an office, a music room, a steward's room, a room for the lady principal, and several bedrooms. The second floor contained a reading room as well as rooms for the students, and the third floor had dormitory accommodations. The necessary arrange- ments were provided for dining-room, kitchen and laundry, and the basement gave space for gymnastic facilities. The long corridors and balconies were con- venient places for mild exercise.
With the utilization of the new building certain changes were necessary. Henceforth young women stu- dents must board in the academy building with the women teachers, unless there were "urgent reasons" to the contrary. Board was priced at three dollars a week, which included fuel and lights, washing and plain iron- ing. There must have been some provision of a special nature for tucks and furbelows. Room rent was accord- ing to location, ranging from six to fifteen dollars for a single occupant, with the sum cut in half for two in a room. An exception was made with regard to these regu- lations in the case of girls who boarded themselves in private houses. The faculty must approve all such cases. The school owned a large dwelling-house which was used for that purpose. Girls were still instructed to bring overshoes and umbrellas, and a water-proof cloak was added, since it rains hard in New London and the girls of 1870 were expected to do their utmost to keep dry. If a girl wished a carpet in her room she must supply it
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BENEFACTIONS AND BUILDINGS. 1860-1880
herself. She must bring along sheets and pillow cases, towels and table napkins and a fork. A white dress should be in her trunk for anniversaries and a suitable costume for gymnastics. To heat the new building the trustees voted to cut one hundred cords of wood from the Springfield woodlot.
Something must be done to make the accommodations for young men more satisfactory. Their hall was an antique, but they would have appreciated a structure more modern than historic. As they piled the wood on their stoves on a January night, they probably thought more of the steam heat that the girls enjoyed than of the ecclesiastical and town history that had been made in the building in which they lived. The trustees did what they could for them, but they could not make bricks without straw. Repairs were made to Colby Hall, new furnishings were provided, and the former ladies' board- ing house was made over for additional use and was furnished properly. The young men had to supply their bedding, towels, and napkins, with a napkin ring and a fork for table use. Presumably the institution provided knives and spoons, but forks were still something of a luxury and napkins might get mixed up among boys who were not accustomed to their use. Hence the ring, which must be "well marked."
Colby Hall was the scene of many student pranks, often at the expense of the teacher who was in charge of the building. Such incidents were most numerous be- fore the days of athletics, when students had little op- portunity to work off their energies. One such event occurred during this period in the history of the academy. The teacher was not unpopular and most of the boys believed, as one of them expressed it, that "he would go blind in one eye and deaf in both ears" rather than carry tales to the principal. But they would see how far they might go in mischief, so they staged a "shirt-tail drill."
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THE FIRST CENTURY OF COLBY
At the midnight hour when all should have been asleep the upper halls were filled with boys decked out in the long nightshirts of the period, burning candles and sing- ing lustily. All was quiet on the first floor front where the teacher slept. That was disappointing. They would make another test. Perhaps the teacher was so sound asleep that he had not heard the commotion. Someone suggested rolling down a few trunks to the first floor, and it was done. The din was terrific, but apparently the professor slumbered on. Then the boys agreed that if he was good enough to let the escapade pass in that fashion they would plague him no more. They went to bed, and never again was he annoyed seriously.
A favorite amusement was rolling the iron ball used for the shot put down three flights of stairs in the middle of the evening study period. There was a certain other teacher in charge who used to come out of his room at the foot of the lowest flight and get the ball and hide it. Of course that spoiled all the fun. The boys resolved to get even with him, and the next time they tried their game of bowling they heated the ball hot and then rolled it down. The unguarded language of the teacher when he picked it up and dropped it can be imagined.
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