USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > Haverhill Academy, Haverhill, N. H. Centennial Anniversary and Reunion, also dedication of new building, August 4, 5, 1897 > Part 3
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The pupils of Haverhill to-day are a favored class. A new building, with all the modern appliances, teachers up to date in modern methods and ways, a people full of interest in school affairs, all serve as a grand environment. We shall hope for great things in the near future, that salutary, strengthening inthiences will go out in every direction, broadening and deep- ening as they flow, and rendering many lives richer and nobler.
To all former friends and pupils, to all the pupils and good people of Haverhill to-day, I send a glad, prophetie greeting. Let us toil on and faint not, remembering, " we are immortal." till our work is done.
* Dr. Phineas Spalding died October 27, 1897, at the ripe age of 98 years, 9 months, and 13 days.
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MRS. MERRILL PEARSON.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
MRS. MERRILL PEARSON.
I have been urged to report what I could remember of my early school-days in this historic old building, known to us all as the " Academy."
It is a difficult thing for me to do, as in looking back through the mist of a long lapse of years, and a prolonged eventful life. many of the names and faces, once so familiar to a few of ns here to-day, have passed from our recollection, and time has obscured much, and indeed almost effaced memory's pictures of that remote period.
If I were able to recall those old-time experiences of our youthful years, and bring back the forms and faces of those personalities long since departed, or gone from the turmoil of this life, what a remarkable occasion this celebration would be ! But the remaining few of us are glad to be here, and review the past, look into each other's faces, and exchange greetings, which in all probability will be the last time for many. if not most, of us here assembled.
During the four-score years intervening since our childhood days, we have seen the wonderful developments of our glorious republic, which in that early period was a struggling infant nation.
We have witnessed its rise from the obscurity of a liberated British colony, to the mightiest of nations, surprising the world in taking the front rank in all of the elements of om advanced civilization, which to-day we enjoy.
We have passed through thrilling wars, and lived to see our country survive the severest test of republican form of govern- ment, the crisis of our terrible Civil War.
We have lived in the greatest age of the world's history, and watched the grandest progress in the way of skilful inventions,
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improvements in all kinds of life, and education known to the enlightened brain and ingenuity of mankind.
All these events pass before ns like a moving panorama, but we are here to speak of our much-loved academy, and the real interest of the hour centres within these rooms, and the time- honored village of old Haverhill.
It was seventy-one years ago that I became a pupil under the Misses Sophia and Eliza Williams. Geography, grammar, reading, writing, and spelling, with arithmetic, constituted the full course of study ; the latter was particularly diffienlt for me, but as I was quite accomplished in the spelling class, my aver- age was somewhat balanced by my inability at " sums."
Spelling was considered a high art, and much time and vital energy were used to discipline the young in that branch of edu- cation, and I distinctly remember how I studied ont the hard words, although we were often caught on the more simple ones.
During the winter term a man was engaged as teacher to accommodate a number of older boys, who could only attend during that season.
There comes to my mind one among this class who was often placed under rigid discipline when disobeying the rules; his name was Frank Williams. He was made to stand up before the other pupils and hold a book with his arm ontstretched until it became unbearable, and saying " my arm aches " would drop it for relief, when the teacher, who was Eliza Williams, would nse her ruler by a more than gentle rap, saying, "You should obey my rules, then you would not be punished"; and by such training he was brought under complete subjection, and became obedient to the rules, which in that day and generation were much more severe than at the present time.
As to my own deportment, I was a laughing, giddy girl, always watching for an opportunity to make fun and have a good time, rather than to attend to my books or improve my behavior.
In that day, children were allowed Saturday afternoon as a play-day, and even then we were required to commit to memory our Sabbath-school lesson, which consisted of many verses from the Bible, recited to our mothers, before being granted our holiday afternoon. Although now thinking of it as a good
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plan, at that time I looked no further than my own pleasure, and studiously went through the ordeal with no higher motive than being able to get out on the common, where we often met our chmums for games and frolics known to children in those days.
My father, Deacon Barstow, lived opposite the common ou the hill which slopes down to the Connecticut river, and just before deseending to the meadow, stood a linge boulder, which was a favorite spot for all children, and where innumerable basket hincheons have been served from that day to this.
In thinking over the list of girls who were my schoolmates seventy-one years ago, I am, with the exception of Mrs. Arthur Carlton, who is present with us, so far as I know the sole sur- vivor.
My most intimate friend was Eleanor Towle ; Charlotte Pear- son and my sister, Harriet Barstow, composed our immediate set.
There were, Elizabeth Woodward, Lucretia Woodward, Susan Woodward, Rebecca Hunt, Charlotte Merrill, Louisa Merrill, Olivia Atherton, and Johanna Carlton, all of whom, one after another, have passed into the eternal shadows, leaving only a bright memory for us to bring before those assembled to-day, in honor of the centennial of this historic building. I am sure if we could voice their testimony it would be a glad rejoicing that these old walls have been spared to stand, and are begin- ning another century, restored, and saered to the history of Haverhill, with its noble influences, and tender associations that have centered under this roof, and where so many good men and women learned their first lessons, which later developed them into strong, useful characters, peculiar and characteristic only to the sturdy New England type, and which our descend- ants will always feel proud to claim, in generations to come. during future years of the opening century.
I esteem the privilege of being with you on this notable ocea- sion as one among the crowning blessings of the evening of my life, and am thankful for the great pleasure of seeing yon all. and being once more among these old scenes of my long ago, youthful years.
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LETTER FROM B. FRANK PALMER.
Hon. Lyman D. Stevens, President :
DEAR SIR :- Your invitation to the reunion awakens the dearest memories of youth, and stirs the responsive heart-strings of one whose (tremulous) first steps on the plane of high pursuit were tak- en over the threshold of that Acad- emy Hall sixty years ago.
From that threshold, and from the age of adolescence to the psalm- ist's age, it has seemed but a short B. FRANK PALMER. race ; and I feel like appropriating a the answer of onr genial friend, the Autocrat of the Breakfast Ta- ble, in saying " I am seventy-two years young." My young friend Stevens can improve the statemeut a little.
When I entered the academy he was about to leave for Dart- mouth, since which time I have read with great pleasure of his merited success in gaining positions of honor and distinction. The same may be said of others of my young associates, a few of whom may be at the reunion.
Under the impulse arising from the sight of a picture of the old beside one of the new academy, recalling the early and thrilling events of a life still eventful and incomplete, I cannot restrain the pen, and you must hold it responsible for anything written which is not suited for the occasion, as I cannot be with you to voice my feelings better, and emphasize them with a warm hand-grasp.
But I find inspiration in the invitation, as it illustrates a beautiful truth which should be taught, that age, in men, is a matter of impulses and heart-beats, rather than of years. Life that is worth the living is always fresh and young.
The vital fluid flows from the brain, and the heart, coursing
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the entire system, if natural, many times in an hour, and the inspiring energy will be the same in age as in youth, if the spir- itual, mental and dynamic organism is attuned with the care the harper attends to his harp. And if the "harp of a thousand strings" has been neglected from infancy to fifty, it may still be re-attuned and found vibrant and resonant at eighty. See to your heart-strings. There are old men at fifty, and young men at eighty.
I could wish you to establishi in your new academy a psycho- physiological professorship to teach, "How to grow young from fifty to eighty."
At the reunion you will have some young old men ; and, as I think of no one better qualified, I suggest that your president, who has held the highest office in your state, be appointed to the professorship ; and if time with me is not up before I catch up with him in years, you may give me a date for a lecture, say in nineteen hundred and odd.
I am not trifling as to the main idea, and I cannot trifle with so important a matter, for (to borrow from Dr. Holmes again) my " traitorous eyes " go back on me as I stand on the psalin- ist's bound of grace, the last of a group of nine. Some one of you may stand the same. You found four of our class to invite, and some of them will not be able to be with you, still (in the beautiful language of Longfellow) you may be assured, as you surround the table, that other guests than were invited will be there-" not as solemn ghosts, to repress the joyfulness of post- prandial exercises, but as happy visitants, returned for a day. to the house and the scenes they so much loved, as to come uninvited." Then let them share with you, " the feast of rea- son and the flow of soul."
With deep regret that I cannot be with you in person, as I shall be in soul, I will close by giving my history from 1836 to 1897, as it can be done in two lines.
I did a little in the year 1846.
I have done a little better in 1897.
I have borrowed from Holmes at the start, and from Long- fellow in progressing, so that I know I have given two good quotations, and now by making a little change in a couplet
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which Whittier beautifully employed when at a similar reunion, I will take leave.
" Dear schoolmates, read between the written lines The higher grace of unfulfilled designs."
B. FRANK PALMER.
Philadelphia, Ang. 2, 1897.
"OLD SCHOOL-DAYS."
SYLVESTER DAN.A.
". And now the ceaseless turning of the mill of time, that never for an hour stands still," has ground out almost sixty and six years since I entered Haverhill academy at the com- mencement of the fall term of 1831.
I was accompanied by another boy from Orford, where our parents then resided. We boarded with Deacon Henry Towle, on the Piermont road, and walked home Saturday afternoons, returning to the academy Monday mornings. I remained in Haverhill over one Sabbath only, near the close of the term, and heard the Rev. Henry Wood preach. I have forgotten his text.
The preceptor of the academy then was Ephraim Kingsbury, Esq., who was born in Coventry, Conn., June 18, 1775, the day after the Battle of Bunker Hill, and graduated at Dart- month College one hundred years ago, in the class of 1797. During several years subsequent to his graduation his where- abouts and his occupation are not definitely known. He prob- ably followed the profession of a teacher; a part of the time at Orford.
In 1806, he was appointed a justice of the peace, as a resi- dent of Orford, but some years afterwards his name appears among those functionaries residing in Haverhill.
In 1807, he became preceptor of Haverhill academy, and so remained until 1812, when he was elected register of deeds for the county of Grafton, and had his office in Haverhill. The duties of his new position were so onerous as to necessitate his
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HON, SYLVESTER DANA.
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relinquishing the preceptorship of the academy. He still re- tained much interest in the institution, and was one of its trus- tees and secretary of the board.
He remained during fifteen years register of deeds by succes- sive elections, but at the election of 1827 he was superseded by the Democratic candidate, John Page, Jr., afterwards Governor Page.
The animated election of 1828 resulted in the restoration of "'Squire " Kingsbury to the office of register of deeds. Ilis incumbency, however, was short-lived, for at the election of 1829 he was again onsted, and that finally. Being then re- lieved from official duties, he again resumed his old position as preceptor of the academy, which he had abandoned seventeen years previously, and again served some three years.
He had great tenacity of will, was a man of ability and of ready speech, and frequently harangued the students upon their Inties and obligations, infusing such vigor into his remarks that they sounded very much like scolding. I dare say that we deserved all that we received of his tart admonitions. Upon one occasion, he deseanted after this manner, using language which left a deep impression upon my youthful mind: ~ You may as well try to build a house by laying the foundation in the air, you may as well attempt to shingle a roof by laying the first shingles on top, as to expect to be anything or to accomplish anything in this world withont application and hard study." These sentiments, so forcibly expressed, are now quite as pertinent as they were sixty-six years ago.
The preceptor was by no means always ernsty. Sometimes his tone was amiable, even laudatory. On one occasion, he highly commended a student, by the name of Brown, who daily came several miles from his home in Newbury, and was promptly in his seat at the opening exercises every morning.
During the term, there was a teachers' convention at Ply- month, and as Esquire Kingsbury proposed to attend, we had a holiday. He mounted an old sulky, and started. "He will be a big gun down there," said one of the students, and so he was. He was president of the convention.
A regimental muster occurred at Piermont, and we had an-
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other holiday. We boys at our boarding-house, fom in mm- ber, were anxious to be present at the very beginning of mili- tary performances at 6 o'clock in the morning. That, in our · estimation, was very important, very. So during the previous day we puzzled on brains in contriving some device which would certainly wake us up at A o'clock on the morning of the muster. We removed the minute hand from the linge dining- room clock, and placed a board inclining downwards from its face. On this board we put a heavy wooden roller, which was retained in place by a wire, balanced upon a pivot. attached to the board, and extending to the hour of four upon the face of the clock, so that when the hour hand would reach four, it would hit the wire and release the roller, which in its descent would overthrow a stack of chairs, and thereby arouse the household.
We went to bed, but our minds were so engrossed with the anticipated muster that we awoke very early. .. Have you heard the alarm? It must have gone off," said my room-mate. He was mistaken, for in a few moments the hour of four was reached, the roller was set in motion, and down came the chairs upon the floor, creating a miniature earthquake. After a hasty breakfast, we wended our way to Piermont, where we arrived long previous to any military operations. A muster in those `days was the great event which boys always enjoyed hugely.
At the close of the term we had an examination, at which outsiders were present. Among them was Joseph Bell, Esq., who, of all the sons of New Hampshire, was second only to Webster in intellectual gifts. This was followed by an exhibi- tion in the meeting-house. The usual amount of speaking was delivered, the most effective piece being the warning of the wizard to the Scottish chieftain :
" Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day When the lowlands shall meet thee in battle array; * * * For a merciless sword on Culloden shall wave, Culloden, that reeks with the blood of the brave."
To this a student by the name of Hall (afterwards, I think.
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treasurer of Massachusetts), representing Lochiel, and rigged out in kilts and other Scottish toggery, fiercely replied,-
"Go preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer," etc.
Then came the end, and the separation.
Esquire Kingsbury not long afterwards left the academy, and in 1835 removed to New York city, where he became the assistant clerk of the United States district court. I called upon him in December, 1854, and found him quite feeble. He died March 28, 1855, nearly eighty years old.
Ilis wife was a danghter of Captain Pratt of Orford, who commanded the Grand Turk, a successful privateer in the Revolutionary War. He had a son, Oliver, and also a daughter.
And now what changes have sixty-six years wrought! The old preceptor has been long since gathered to his fathers. I look over this large audience to discern the countenances of any of my old academie associates. I discover not one, although a few persons are found whose connection with the academy antedates my own.
I look over this beautiful village of Haverhill to behold a single individual who was then engaged in active business here. I find not one. They are gone, nearly or quite all gone to that " undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns," while a very few of us remain to represent, at this reunion, a bygone generation, whose history is fast sinking into eternal oblivion.
And now, my friends of the good old county of Grafton, my native county, and all others present, I bid you a final farewell.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHI.
Luther C. Morse was born in Haverhill, N. H., November 24, 1836. He attended Haverhill academy during 1847-'48, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1860, and was register of probate for Grafton county from 1861-1871, during the last
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six years of which period he also practised law. Later, he engaged in the cotton business in Tennessee for two years, and then became interested in Western mining enterprises, which business he has remained in since, being now located at Van- derbilt, Cal., where he has an assay office, and is interested in copper and gold mines.
LETTER FROM L. C. MORSE.
Mr. Chairman and Schoolmates of Hacerhill Academy :
I am not unaware of the responsibility I assume in address- ing so critical an audience, and I fully realize what the West has a right to expect, yet, happily, there is such a thing as rising to the occasion. . If I could gaze upon my male friends of thirty years ago, I presume I should find some of you look- ing older than you once did, but wearing better clothes. I may say here, that I know nothing whatever of the habitable parts of the West, having laboriously sought out portions where I would not be likely to crowd people. This may be attributed to personal politeness, but I have heard it hinted that it hap- pened from a sort of blundering perversity. (I don't wish this last to go any farther. ) You would not be much interested if I should elaborate the uneventfulness of the desert, and my personal adventures don't show np that merry side you find in the best fiction.
We have little here, except cats, which would remind you of civilization. No gardens, no theatres, no gossip, and we keep our good clothes in a truuk until eternal antiquity has tam- pered with the style thereof. We have a steam wagon and a schoolma'am, of which we are very proud-I mean the school- ma'am ; but she has gone to the bad down a side hill-I mean the wagon. The schoolma'am is said to have a bean some- where, and he had better stay there; the state of society is such he would not be safe here. The compensation for all this consists in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and it's a stern chase at that.
You flat people, by which I mean those wise and fortunate
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persons who live in a low altitude, can hardly realize the dilli- culties and afflictions of those heroic souls who haunt the rari- fied air until a sort of sympathetic thimess is set up, which is supposed to aceonnt for our sparse population.
'Much would I like to portray the West as the paradise of poetic perfection, but it is not for me to go tottering down the declivity of life, lying like a horse thief. On the other hand, I will say that a dear and intelligent friend assures me that the further West you go, the worse it gets.
In regard to portions of the West where things grow, con- sulting the best authorities, I find under a brave exterior a cer- tain strain of sadness, such as malaria, poverty, domestic infe- licity, and days when fish won't bite. On the desert is health, and we seldom lose large sums of money, though a worse thing may befall us. Last antin, I lost a fine reputation, in the following manner: In an election district about the size of Connecticut, I was one of a gang of four who voted for Mr. Mckinley, after which, nobody seemed to care much about shaking hands ; I didn't ask for credit at the store for several weeks, and the two or three little children, who are so charm- ing in a new country, severely soured on me. I was not pay- ing attention to any one at that time, so I don't know what she would have done.
Well, this state of things continued till after the return of prosperity, when, by dint of æsthetie culture, a high-bred cour- tesy, and an irreproachable private life, I climbed back to average respectability. The other three are still at large.
It may be of interest to the statesman and ethnologist to know why I changed my politics. I had been a consistent Democrat for some years, when a man came along, who I have sinee learned was an artful politician, and said : " I once knew a man of great natural ability, whom yon somewhat resemble, who had been out of luck for twenty-nine years, and then went to a fortune-teller, who told the man to change his politics ; and as soon as he did so, he began to pick up money in the road, which he has continued to do ever since." Silly as all this sounds, it made a deep impression on my mind, and almost before I knew it myself I had flopped.
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If the West looks unfinished to-day, please remember we have not had time to complete it. If you would see a mighty empire, surpassing in wealth, luxury, and grandeur the wildest vision of the maddest poet, wait a hundred years,-and it might be well enough to take a lunch along.
One of half a dozen great men-I don't now remember which one of us it was-once said, that a literary reunion, by its very nature, enshirines a given element of commonplace atrocity and reminiscence.
The picture of the academy calls up other pictures fifty years old. I was a lad of ten, and boarded in the family of Deacon A. K. Merrill, and I have often wondered since if it was my influence and example, at that early age, that caused the dea- con to become so eminently good a man. If so, I would rather like for it to appear in print. His family papers might contain some acknowledgment. This and other things remind me that back in the far away, when eloquence was on a higher plane,- in fact, when I was making one of my first important speeches. and had arrived at that critical point where I was not doing very well,-Mr. Rix, of pleasant memory, being on a front seat, remarked, sotto voce : " He is running empties now." I was very sad, but, still under the spell-binding impulse, could not stop until, at last I heard, sweeter than applause, a sympathetic voice, still Mr. Rix's, saying, " Sonny, sit down."
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHI.
Daniel F. Merrill was born in Stratham, N. H., in 1812, and fitted for college at Hampton academy. He entered Dartmonth college in 1832, and was graduated in course. After leaving col- lege he was principal of Haverhill academy for two years, and then his health failing, he went to Mobile, Ala., and was a sue- cessful teacher in that city for twenty years. In 1860 he returned to Haverhill, and again was at the head of the acad- emy for several years. He then went to Washington and was a clerk in the treasury department from 1865 to 1886. He mar-
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ried Luella B., daughter of Jacob and Laura (Bartlett) Bell, and they had a family of six children. . Mr. Merrill is a man of the highest character, and has led a most useful and honorable life.
REMINISCENCES.
D. F. MERRILL.
That part of the history of Haverhill academy from 1835 to 1813 has been assigned to me to relate, but I will have to con- fine myself principally to the two years when I was first con- nected with it as teacher.
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