USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > An historical address : delivered in Keene, N.H., on July 4, 1876, at the request of the city government > Part 3
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In 1828, we find from the Town Records. that there was an endeavor to establish a high school, Rev. Z. S. Barstow, Rev.
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Thomas Russell Sullivan, pastor of the " Keene Congregation- al (Unitarian) Society," Gen. Justns Perry, Aaron Hall (son of the deceased minister of that name) and Azel Wilder, being a committee on that subject. It was also "voted that the instructor of this school shall not endeavor to inculcate, in school, doctrines peculiar to any one religious sect, nor dis- tribute to his scholars any religious publication." It was agreed that the school might be kept during the first year, seven, and during the second year, eight months." "which," it · was urged, "is at least three and four months longer than a school has usually been kept by a master." It appears from minutes kept by the late Dr. Barstow, (secretary) that after two or three months spent in writing to the presidents of Dartmouth, Amherst, Middlebury, and Yale Colleges, Mr. Edward E. Eels, a graduate of Middlebury College, was en- gaged as high school teacher for two months. at $25 a month, independent of board. His term expired January 29, 1829. Subsequently, Mr. A. H. Bennett was the instructor for three months, "at $40 a month, including board." So short-lived was this school.
The next time we hear of a high school, it has leased, in 1853, the Keene Academy building, erected about sixteen years previous, and taken its principal, the efficient William Torrance, with Miss Louisa P. Stone, of Newburyport, as as- sistant. Mr. Torrance, two years afterwards, died. The pur- chase of this Academy edifice was afterwards secured by pro- cess of law. What would the persons. who. forty-seven years ago, found it so hard to raise $300 dollars a year for a high school teacher, have said, could they have seen, in vision, our new and spacious high school building, completed this year, at a cost of about $50.000?
We find that at the .. State Common School Convention " at Concord. June 6th, 1843. the meeting was called to order by Hon. Salina Hale, of Keene, and that the committee for Keene were Hon. S. Hale. Rev. A. A. Livermore (who suc- ceeded Rev. T. R. Sullivan, in 1836) and Mr. Isaac Sturte- vant. * Mr. Livermore's services to the town in behalf of edu-
* Mr. Livermore was the author of a Commentary upon the Gospels, " Acts," and " Romans; " of a Prize Essay, solicited by the American Peace Society, and a volume of Sermons.
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cation and temperance were unstinted. He was a man made to be loved. On May 11th, 1843, an address was delivered at the annual meeting of the " Cheshire Common School Asso- ciation, at Marlboro', by William P. Wheeler, which appears to have been published. Thus early did this lamented advo- cate, whose loss is so fresh, seek to identify himself with the well-being of the community. Mr. W. S. Briggs has shown me "The Keene Directory for 1831," from which it appears that the number of " scholars " that year was seven hundred and sixty-eight. In 1875, the number was one thousand four hundred and forty-seven.
In 1845, and for a short time previous, a " Teachers', Insti- tute " was established in the county, by private subscription.
On March 12, 1850, Keene votes seventy-five dollars for a "Teachers' Institute," on condition of the co-operation of other towns in the county.
Yet any word, however brief, concerning educational mat- ters in Keene, would be incomplete, which did not chronicle the "School for Young Ladies and Misses," in which, under date of 1817, Miss Fiske and Miss Sprague advertise that they shall " pay all possible attention to the improvement of the manners, morals and minds of their pupils."
. On April 11, 1811, at the age of twenty-seven, Miss Catha- rine Fiske began her school in Keene, which, in May, 1814, under the designation of "The Female Seminary," was con- ducted for twenty-three years, with signal success, until her death in 1837. Miss .Fiske had been engaged in teaching for fifteen years, before coming to Keene. Rev. Dr. Barstow, in an obituary sketch, published in the Boston Recorder for Sep- tember 1st, 1837, estimates that during the thirty-eight years of her service, more than two thousand five hundred pupils came under her care. IIe commends especially " her tact in eliciting'the dormant energies of some minds, and the stimu- lus afforded to those that were apt to learn." One friend of mine had scarcely set foot in Canada, when a lady said : " So you are from Keene? I was once there myself, at Miss Fiske's school !" Another friend found that she had scarce 1 reached Spain, when she was favored even there, with some reminiscence of Miss Fiske's school. Miss Withington, after-
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wards the late Mrs. Stewart Hastings, and Miss Barnes, now Mrs. T. H. Leverett, were among the teachers associated with Miss Fiske in her school. Miss Withington conducted it for a while after Miss Fiske's decease.
The Directory of 1831 records the existence of the Cheshire Athenaum, with six hundred volumes ; Joel Parker, president. The " Keene Book Society," which had existed for a num- ber of years previous, reports Rev. T. R. Sullivan, as presi- dent, Salma Hale, and S. Dinsmoor, Jr., as executive com- mittee, George Tilden as treasurer and librarian, J. W. Prentiss as secretary, with two hundred and seventy-five vol- umes. The "Keene Forensic Society and Lyceum" (Joel Par- ker president) also greets our eyes on these pages. Ten years later, we find a discussion advertised on the part of the " Keene Lyceum," upon this subject : "Is Great Britain justified in her war against China?" Evidently, without the intervention of a distant " Lecture Bureau," the minds of the residents were not in complete stagnation, while they had a Lyceum and De- bating Society, marshalled by such a man as Joel Parker.
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Our later "Keene Athenaeum" was established in 1859. The "Free Public Library" in which is was merged, and which is sup- ported by an annual grant* from the city, (which name the old town took upon herself in 1874) now numbers about three thousand volumes. Might not steps have been taken still earlier, toward founding such a library, had Keene devoted her share of the famed United States " Surplus Revenue " in a way different from what is indicated, in the following vote?
" Voted," March 8th, 1842, " That the public money of the United States, deposited with the town, by the Act of January 13, 1837, and all interest which has accrued thereon, be di- vided equally among those persons, being American citizens, who were residents in the town on the first day of January last, and who shall continue to reside therein until the first day of April next, and who shall be taxed in said town for their polls or ratable estate, the current year, and such other persons, being citizens and residents, as aforesaid, as may be over seventy years of age, (paupers excepted) and are there- by exempt from taxes." Seven thousand eight hundred and
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* Five hundred dollars in the year 1876.
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THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICACO
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seven dollars, it appears, was the sum thus jingled into the pockets of the people. The town of Provincetown, Mass., put their share into a plank sidewalk over their drifting sands. They were determined to have some common benefit from the money, even although it were not an eminently intellectual one.
How much the "Keene Harmonic Society" and the "Keene Musical Association," chronicled in the Directory of 1831, paved the way for the prosperous annual Musical Conventions with which Keene has been identified for a score of years- who can tell ? *
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On March 9, 1847, on motion of Hon. Phineas Handerson, a committee was appointed to devise ways and means for building or procuring a town hall. The cost, aside from the tower and " extension," a much later expense, appears, from the committee's report of March 12, 1850, to have been : for land, $1,750 ; whole cost, including land, $15,816.89.
The building erected by the "Cheshire Provident Institu- tion for Savings "t a few years since, is a fine monument to this beneficent enterprise. It is seldom that for more than two score years, a treasurer is spared to witness the extending sweep of such a movement, and even to see a second institu- tion; of kindred character. But Mr. George Tilden, who handed their books to the depositors in "the day of small things," now renders the same office to the grand-children of many whose hands have long since crumbled into dust.
The "Natural History Society." organized a few years since, has served to develop a wholesome zeal for the study of na- ture on the part of our youth, and has held its meetings with marvellous assiduity, and is steadily collecting a museum.
A " Society for the Better Protection of Animals " was or- ganized last year, at the urgent entreaty of the late Mrs. L.
*This 1831 Directory mentions the Farmers' Museum newspaper as established in 1828. In addition to the oft quoted New Hampshire Sentinel, the American Vers, conducted by the late Benaiah Cook, was in circulation in Isil, when the writer came to Keene, Mr. H. A. Bill was then the editor of the Cheshire Re- publican. The Sentinel and the Republican have long had sole possession of the field.
t This Bank was chartered in July, 1833, and went into operation in September, with Mr. Tilden as treasurer. Its deposits are now about $2,000,000.
# The " Keene Five Cents Savings Bank," established in 1868. Its deposits now amount to 8714,000. Let posterity understand that we have also, four " National Banks" in Keene.
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M. Handerson, our lamented postmistress, and was largely aided in the maturing of its constitution by the late Hon. William P. Wheeler.
On March 14, 1860, the town accepts the one thousand dol- lar bequest of the late David A. Simmons, of Roxbury, Mass., (a native of Keene) "toward the relief and comfort of such of the poor of the town, requiring assistance therefrom - es- pecially the aged and infirm; " a condition of the bequest being that the selectmen shall keep the same well invested; and distribute only the income.
A residence of a quarter of a century among you, prompts me to say, that I have never known the place for which its resi- dents cherished a greater attachment. How dear these hills and forests and streams are to them !
Rev. Dr. George G. Ingersoll,* (who, in 1850, retired hither for the last thirteen years of his life) in a poem recited at the . centennial dinner, in 1853, after we had listened to Hon. Joel Parker's address at the town hall, exemplifies this strong local attachment, in these words :
'. The Keene that was, dream of an earlier year, Its very name was music to my ear. Like some sweet, far-off, visionary scene, My very name for Fairy-Land was " Keenc." The Keene that is, pride of Ashuclot vale, With heart and tongue, I bid thee hail !
Where better seek, where better hope to find, Rest for the frame, yet not to starve the mind ?
In this sweet spot where Nature does her part To meet the earnest cravings of the heart,
With friends and books and blessed memories, -
One might, with Heaven's blessings, look for peace, Beneath our hills which rise on either side,
By sparkling streams, which through our valley glide.'
A most interesting feature in the life of Keene. has been the semi-annual terms of the Court. From the lips of Judges no longer living. I have rejoiced to hear the testimony, that the manners of our court room, the professional courtesies of the members of the bar, one toward another, were in refresh-
* He was the only son of Major George Ingersoll, Commander at West Point, N. Y., from 1796 to 1801. Major Ingersoll died six weeks after retiring to Keene in 1805, when his son George was but eight years ohl.
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ing contrast to what might be witnessed here and there in other quarters of the State. May the same spirit go into the new century ! Keene has furnished six members of Congress, all from this profession ; Peleg Sprague, Samuel Dinsmoor, Senior, Joseph Buffum, Salma Hale, James Wilson, Jr., and Thomas Mackay Edwards.
Samuel Dinsmoor, and his son Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., have been the only Governors elected from Keene ; Levi Chamber- lain of the Cheshire bar, being at one time the opposing candi- date, of the latter. Mr. Chamberlain, well knowing that in Keene the men of his own political stripe preponderated, playfully suggested, with his characteristic mirth, that to avoid putting the State to so much trouble, Mr. Dinsmoor and he had best " leave the case out" to the decision of the friends and neigh- bors by whom they were best known !
It was a memorable scene, when in the sunlight of the afternoon of May 20th, 1861, the late Ex-Governor Dinsmoor stood upon the platform erected for the occasion, on Central Square, and, in presence of a multitude, said, as he introduced to them Hon. James Wilson, still happily spared to us, (both decorated with the red, white and blue ;) " Amid the general gloom which pervades the community, there is, yet, one cause for congratulation,-that we at last see a united North." Representing differing political organizations, these honored men served to typify the patriotism, which, in that trying hour, fused so many hearts in one. How the women, moved with a common purpose, toiled week after week, year after year, in connection with the "Soldier's Aid Society," or to help the benevolent work of the United States Sanitary Commission !* How like romance sound some of the surprises caused by the · handicraft of the New Hampshire women.t A Dublin soldier- boy, in his distant hospital, gains strength to scan the names inscribed upon his album-quilt, and is strangely stirred, as the
* So early as March 11. 1862. the town votes three thousand dollars for the relief of wives, children, or parents of volunteers.
t After the subsidence of the war, five hundred dollars a year were paid by a combination of persons in the various religious societies, for two or three years, to the " Keene Freedman's Aid Society." The" Ladies' Charitable Society" unites as it has for many years, the sympathies of all the parishes. The " Invalids' Home" has been lately founded chiefly by the efforts of the " Keene Congrega- tional (or Unitarian) Society"; its chief benefactor being the late Charles Wilson, who left to the Home the sum of one thousand dollars.
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names grow more and more familiar, until at last he sees the hand-writing of his own mother.
As we recall those memorable days, how that company of the Second Regiment, moving forth from our railroad station, at the signal of prayer, comes back to our minds, and those tents of the New Hampshire Sixth, as for weeks together, they whitened the plains beyond the Ashuelot! How shall I speak of the courage, the patience, the devotion of such men? I abandon the attempt. In summer and winter, week in and week out, they have their perpetual orator. There he stands in brazen panoply of armor ! If you have never heed- ed him, you will not heed me ! But in his meditative attitude, to me he speeks, not wholly of the storm-cloud of battle, nor of freedom dawning upon millions of a once enslaved race ; he seems to dream besides, of brighter days for his country, days when "men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." The time shall come when no living tongue among their com- rades shall be left to tell of Lane and Leverett, of Metcalf and Flint, Crossfield and Rugg, and Howard and Cheney, and their associates, who returned, not alive, to the dear old home! One by one, all who bore part in the gigantic con- test shall have passed onward. Yet even then, God grant that those silent lips may speak eloquently to the future dwell- ers in this happy valley, of those sons of Keene, who in behalf of their country presented " their bodies a living sacrifice."
Ye living hosts of the departed, gathered invisibly with us to-day, ye who ploughed these stubborn furrows in years gone by, ye, who watched for the midnight war-whoop, ye, who in later days, were summoned to the field by the Revolutionary tocsin, or who flew to your Country's defence in the War of the Rebellion, pray that we may enter upon the new century de- termined to hold all who fill offices of honor and trust in the nation, to a rigid accountability, yet at the same time cherish- ing fresh faith in the expanding destinies of the Republic ! And ye, an unseen host, who are coming after, ye, who, a hundred years from to-day, beguiled by your earth-dream, shall call us all, " dead," we beg you not to forget us wholly,
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as you, in your turn, gather here ! Here's a warm hand for you across the arches of the coming century ! We pledge ourselves, God willing, to be with you then, though your " eyes " should be " holden " that you shall " not know" us ! Remember how dear this valley was to us! It can be no dearer to you ! Carry education, temperance, literature, re- ligion, to a higher, purer pitch than we have! And say "Amen," as we do, to these time-honored words of Sir Wm. Jones, which we leave with you as our benediction :
" What constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlement or labour'd mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd ; Not bays and broad arm'd ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; Not starr'd and spangled courts 1
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No :- Men, high minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ;- Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aim'd blow
And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain ;- These constitute a State !" $
£ 84251.97
5990H
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