USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume II > Part 67
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
1859
1
24
1,000
22
The Mountain
Near Sewall's falls bridge
1868
1
40
1,500
23
The Plains
Loudon and Pittsfield road.
1867
1
40
1,550
24
Turtletown
Near Turtle pond ..
1887
1
16
500
25
Snaptown
Virgin neighborhood.
1890
1
28
500
26
Ironworks
Southwest part of city
1856
1
40
1,000
27
Millville.
Near St. Paul's School
1862
2
73
1,000
28
Ashville.
Westerly part of township
1803 .
1
24
200
29
Old Number Four
1858
1
16
1,000
30
Stickney Hill. .
1857
1
40
800
31
Old Number Five Beech Hill district.
1816
1
20
100
89
3,737
$390,000
District No. 20, Penacook.
69
3,000
$364,500
Town District.
1858
4
200
9,000
8
New Rumford
ity.
Dimond neighborhood
From 1731, when the first school had its beginning, until the pres- ent time, 1902 (a period of one hundred and seventy-one years), more than one and a half million of dollars have been raised by taxation
1309
SCHOOLS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.
for the maintenance of the public schools ; while fully another half million has been expended for the construction and repair of school buildings. During this period it is safe to say that upwards of thirty thousand boys and girls, the children of five and six generations, have received the substantial portion of their educational training in the schools of this town.
The century just closed has been one of unparalleled expansion and progress. Concord, at its beginning, was little more than a country village, unimportant, perhaps, save in the character of its inhabitants. In 1775, when the first national census was taken, it was the seventeenth town in the state in population. In 1800 it had grown to be the twelfth, in 1810 it had become the seventh, in 1820 the sixth, in 1830 the fourth, and in 1890 it had passed all of its early competitors, taking rank as the third city in the state, the two manufacturing cities only having a larger population, while the state itself in the latter year was but a little more than two and a half times greater in the number of its inhabitants than a hundred years before. It is gratifying, also, to believe that the public schools have more than kept pace with the growth of the town. A few of these changes may be briefly enumerated : A tenfold gain in popula- tion, from two to twenty thousand. A proportionate increase in the number of pupils and teachers, though families are smaller in number now than in the olden time, and the rural districts have lost in popu- lation. The number of school buildings have increased to thirty-one, and the number of school-rooms from nine to nearly ninety, with a gain in the value of school property from three thousand to three hundred and ninety thousand dollars. In the earlier years, too, our school buildings were unplastered and unpainted, destitute of any- thing in the way of comfort and convenience, providing little more than shelter. Now they are models of convenience, in every way ade- quate for the purposes intended. In money raised for the support of schools, there has been an increase from four hundred dollars to up- wards of sixty thousand dollars annually, and in the cost per pupil from less than one dollar in 1800 to more than twenty-two dollars at the present time. But the improved character of the schools and the thoroughness of instruction which they afford is most gratifying. In systematic grading, in free text-books, in the introduction of new and important branches of study, the training of teachers and supervision of daily work, a great advance is apparent.
Happy we who were permitted to climb the rugged path to the rustie door of learning in the old schools of fifty years ago. Though the atmosphere was less purely intellectual than in these later days, and the pleasures of childhood dimmed by frequent exhibitions of
41
1310
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
strife aroused by the severities of diseipline-happily no longer neees- sary-there were yet eompensating virtues and they served well their day and generation. But thriee happy they who are privileged to enjoy the greater advantages of the present. May they drink deep at the fountain of knowledge, and its priceless blessings long abide.
To the teachers and pupils of the publie sehools, whose acquaint- anee and friendship I have enjoyed during a service of fifteen years as a member of the school board, this little sketeh of the early schools is affectionately inseribed.
"God grant, that when the day of life is done, Our sight may catch, beyond death's gath'ring mist,
The land of light, and the unsetting sun,
And where the school is nevermore dismissed."
CHAPTER XXXV. CONCORD LITERARY INSTITUTION.
JOHN C. ORDWAY.
An urgent demand for more favorable opportunities for instruc- tion in the higher branches of education than the common schools afforded, led to the early establishment of academies and seminaries in several towns in the state, in which young men might be fitted for college. The first of these to be incorporated was Phillips academy at Excter, in 1781. The success of this school, which from the beginning took high rank, led to the establishment soon afterward of others of a similar character but not as liberally endowed. New Ipswich, opened 1787, was incorporated and the academy built in 1789. Atkinson, the first to admit both sexes, was established in the latter year, through the efforts of Reverend Stephen Peabody, the minister of that town, and a few of his friends. Amherst, Ches- terfield, and Charlestown were established in 1791, Gilmanton in 1794; Salisbury, 1795, and re-established in 1809; Kimball Union, at Meriden, 1813; Pinkerton, at Derry, 1814; Pembroke, 1818; San- bornton, 1820 ; New Hampton, 1821, and Hopkinton, 1827. In 1833 the number of these academies in the state had reached thirty-eight, of which about thirty, Dr. Bouton says, were then flourishing. Many of these enjoyed the patronage of students from this town.
The people of Concord, interested in school affairs, had often seri- ously considered the desirability of establishing an academy at the capital of the state, but without definite results until the fall of the year 1834, when, Dr. Bouton says, "Mr. Timothy D. P. Stone, a young gentleman from Andover, Mass., came to Concord and pro- posed to open a high school or academy, if a suitable place could be provided for its accommodation." A proposition to erect a suitable building and open an academy met with favor, and a canvass for subscriptions for that purpose was made and the required sum obtained. The location of the proposed building was, as usual, a cause of some embarrassment. A site was first offered by George Kent ; then a proposition was submitted by people of the North end for the erection of the building on Stickney's hill, west of the court house. A third proposition was to accept a site offered by Richard Bradley, and a new subscription was taken up favorable to the last
1312
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
location. In the meantime a board of trustees had been chosen by the subscribers in favor of the location on the lot offered by Mr. Kent, and another by those in favor of the site offered by Mr. Bradley, when it was finally agreed to unite all the contributors and crect the proposed building on the land offered by Samuel A. Kim- ball, on the hill west of Union street, since called Academy hill. A final subscription for the building and for the purchase of additional land of Mr. Kimball was accordingly made, in shares of twenty-five dollars each, mostly by individuals residing in the main village, as follows : 1
Samuel A. Kimball, donation of land for building.
Woodbridge Odlin and Reuben Wyman, donation of land on the side of the hill east of Mr. Kimball's land,-needed for a street, etc.
George Kent, two hundred dollars.
David L. Morril, Isaac Hill, N. G. Upham, Joseph Low (part in apparatus), Nathaniel Bouton, Asaph Evans, Samuel Fletcher, Amos Wood, one hundred and twenty-five dollars each.
William Gault, Abiel Walker, Richard Bradley, Benjamin Thompson, John B. Chandler (part in apparatus), one hundred dollars eachi.
E. S. Towle (two subscriptions), ninety dollars.
Samuel Herbert, Robert Davis, eiglity-five dollars each.
Josepli P. Stickney, Horatio Hill, John West, Thomas Chadbourne, seventy-five dollars eachlı.
George Hutchins, sixty-two dollars and fifty cents.
Ezra Carter, Hall Burgin, Elisha Morrill, James Buswell, Peter Elkins, Isaac Clement, George W. Ela, Richard Herbert, Benjamin Damon (part in paintings), James Straw (in joiner work), fifty dollars each.
Samuel Evans, Edward Brackett, thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents eaclı.
John Whipple, E. E. Cummings, Joseph Robinson, Joseph Grover, William W. Esterbrook, John C. Ordway, Bradbury Gill, Abraham Prescott, Enos Blakc, Joseph C. West, Daniel Carr, William F. Goodell, Joseph C. Emerson, Ira H. Currier, Aaron Carter, Hazen Walker, Joshua K. Abbott, Hamilton Hutchins, William Low, George T. Pillsbury, Peter Renton, Josephi C. Wallace, A. B. Kelley, Samuel Coffin, Woodbridge Odlin, Josiah Rodgers, S. C. Badger, Gardner P. Lyon, E. S. Chadwick, Francis N. Fiske, Thomas Brown, C. H. Peaslee, Henry S. Robbins, J. B. Moore (note), Jolin J. Ayer, William Green (Plymouthi), Jolın Farmer (in books), Jolin Titcomb, Nathaniel Abbott, Jewett Bishop, James Whittemore, S. G. Sylvester, William Pearson, John Wheeler, cach in work; Asa Parker and Richard Worthen in brick work; and Aaron Morse, Daniel Dunlap, Woodbury Brown, Jacob Abbott, Samuel S. Colby, Cotton S. Brown, Philip Watson, Reuben D. Morse, Thomas Butters, all in joiner work; and Porter Blanchard, Elliot A. Hill, Crockett & Worth, in cabinet work, each twenty-five dollars.
Edward Philbrick, Samuel Morrill, Nathaniel Wheat (in apparatus), each fifteen dollars.
Lewis Hall, Jolin Miller, Reuben Wyman, Philip Sargent, Shadrach Scavey, Nelson P. Jolinson, Isaac Emery, Jr., Henry M. Moore (in work), each twelve dol- lars and fifty cents.
John Goss, Michael Tubbs, A. Capen, Jr., Jonathan Herbert, Seth Eastman, David Kimball, William West, ten dollars each.
John McDaniel, five dollars.
1 Subscription papers were circulated several times ; the above list includes the whole amount subscribed by each individual.
1313
CONCORD LITERARY INSTITUTE.
Total cash, three thousand eight hundred and forty-two dollars and fifty cents; work, seven hundred and twenty-five dollars; whole amount, four thousand five hundred and sixty-seven dollars and fifty cents.
A meeting of the subscribers was held February 18, 1835, for organization, and the following persons were chosen a board of trus- tees : Nathaniel Bouton, Ebenezer E. Cummings, Governor David L. Morril, Samuel Fletcher, Samuel A. Kimball, Isaac Hill, Nathaniel G. Upham, Hall Burgin, Thomas Chadbourne, William Gault, Abiel Walker, and Ezra Carter. The following day the trustees organized by choosing Reverend Nathaniel Bouton, president ; Reverend E. E. Cummings, secretary ; and William Gault, treasurer.
An act of incorporation was obtained and the building was erected on the site given by Mr. Kimball,-a conspicuous eminence on what was then called Sand hill, about one hundred rods northwest of the state house. A portion of the building stood upon the lot now owned and occupied as a residence by H. E. Capen, No. 12 Academy street. The main building, facing the east, was fifty-eight feet by fifty-four, two stories high, surmounted with a cupola containing a bell; entrance by two doors in front, one for each sex. The two apartments on the lower floor, one for each sex, were separated by a partition with sliding doors. In the upper story were rooms for library, apparatus, and recitations, with a capacious hall, thirty-five feet in width, extending the whole length of the building, and a stage for exhibitions. The cost of the building, furniture, etc., was four thousand six hundred dollars. Shadrach Seavey was the princi- pal contractor. The building was completed and publicly dedicated September 16, 1835, with appropriate exercises, including an address by the president, Rev. Dr. Bouton. School was kept in the town hall and adjacent rooms for a term or two before the building was ready for occupancy, and the female department, under the care of Miss Foster, was kept in the court house, in the winter of 1838, for the better accommodation of the young ladies.
The name of the institution was " The Concord Literary Institu- tion and Teachers' Seminary." It comprised four departments :
I. The Teachers' Department, for the instruction of young men and women who wish to prepare themselves to teach district schools.
II. The Academical Department, for instruction in the classics, and for preparing young men for college.
III. The High School Department, for those desiring a business or general education, without classical studies.
IV. The Preparatory Class, for those too young or too backward to take any of the other courses.
The institution was opened for instruction in the fall of 1835,
1314
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
with T. D. P. Stone, principal ; Miss Elizabeth Fuller, preeeptress ; Miss Rowena Coffin and Miss Mary K. Coffin, assistants ; and with an attendanee of two hundred and fifty-seven students.
Mr. Stone continued as prineipal until August 30, 1837, when he resigned to pursue the study of theology, and the teachers who sue- eeeded him were, in
1837. Two terms-Joshua D. Berry, and Miss Rowena Coffin, assistant. Mr. Berry resigned in February, 1838, to take charge of the academy at South Berwick, Me.
1838. Spring term-Eden B. Foster, Miss Sarah Foster; fall term-Charles Peabody, Miss Sarah Foster; winter term-Austin C. Heaton, Miss Sarah Foster.
1839. Spring term-Austin C. Heaton, Miss Sarah Foster; fall and winter- Charles Peabody, L. W. Peabody, assistant, and Miss Sarah Foster.
1840. Spring and fall-Charles Peabody, Miss Saralı Foster, Miss M. A. Rogers, music, painting, and drawing; winter term-Charles Peabody, Miss Dow, Miss Rogers.
1841. Spring and fall terms-William C. Foster, Miss Sarah Foster.
1842. Spring and fall terms-Clark S. Brown, Miss Foster, preceptress; winter term-Aaron Day, Jr., Miss Emily Pillsbury.
1843. Spring and fall terms-Aaron Day, Jr., Miss Emily Pillsbury.
The male teachers were all, or nearly all, college graduates. Mr. Stone was from Amherst college ; he afterward entered the ministry. Mr. Berry was from Portsmouth, a graduate of Harvard, and a man of exeellent attainments in seienee and learning. Eden B. Foster was a native of Hanover (Dartmouth college, 1837) ; associate pre- ceptor, Pembroke academy, 1838 ; he afterward studied divinity at Andover, and entered the ministry ; his first pastorate was at Hen- niker. Mr. Heaton was from Thetford, Vt. (Dartmouth college, 1840); he subsequently prepared for the ministry at Prineeton; his first pastorate was at Harper's Ferry, Va. Mr. Peabody was from Newport (Dartmouth college, 1839); after leaving Coneord he taught in New Bedford, Mass., and then studied divinity at Union Theological seminary, New York eity ; he traveled extensively through Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt, from 1846 to 1859, as agent of the American Traet society, afterward settling in St. Louis, Mo. William C. Foster,-brother of E. B. Foster,- (Dartmouth college, 1841), after leaving Coneord, graduated from Union Theologieal seminary, and entered the ministry ; his first pastorate was at Wilbraham, Mass. Mr. Brown was from Chiehes- ter (Dartmouth college, 1838) ; after teaching at Coneord and at . Hanover, he went South and became principal of a school at Pon- tookuck, Miss., where he was brutally murdered by the brother of a pupil whom he had properly corrected for some breach of discipline, June 11, 1855, aged forty. Mr. Day was from Gilsum (Dartmouth college, 1842) ; he was subsequently a tutor and teacher
1315
CONCORD LITERARY INSTITUTE.
in the South and West until his death in White Water, Wis., in 1855, aged thirty-five years. Of the female teachers, Miss Fuller was from Milford ; Miss Mary K. Coffin was from Boseawen,-a sister of Charles Carleton Coffin, the famous war correspondent of the Boston Journal, and author of the History of Boseawen and many other publications; she subsequently married Edmund Carleton of Littleton. Miss Foster had been a very successful teacher in the academy at Thetford, Vt., and Miss Rowena Coffin was from Water- ford, Me.
Under the charge of Mr. Stone, an especially fine teacher, the institution attained a wide popularity, having students from all the New England states, from New York, Ohio, and Alabama, and one each from Greece and Spain. In the first six years, from 1835 to 1840, inelusive, the number of pupils was,-females, six hundred seventy-two ; males, five hundred and eighty-seven,-a total of one thousand two hundred and fifty-nine, of whom about nine hundred were residents of this town.
Dr. Bouton, in a discourse delivered in 1875 on " The Growth and Development of Concord in the Preceding Half Century " (from which, and from files of original papers in possession of the New Hampshire Historical society, these facts have been obtained), says, " The whole number of pupils attending the academy up to 1843, was about nineteen hundred, among which may be found the names of many who have attained distinction in the various walks of life ; nine became preachers of the gospel, nine physicians, sixteen law- yers, several, distinguished educators, and others, sueeessful business men." Rev. Dr. J. E. Rankin, president of Howard university, Wash- ington, D. C., says,-" I was a boy of twelve when I went to the academy in Concord, in 1840. The school was an excellent one. My schoolmates were the sons of ex-Governor Morril, Reverend Nathaniel Bouton, and George Hutchins. There were older boys I remember well,-George A. Blanchard and Josiah Stevens. I remember May-day excursions for the trailing arbutus; swimming in the Merrimack, skating on it, too, in the winter. Indeed, Concord seems to me in memory an ideal village-it was only that, then- with an ideal population, where boys and girls were very niee, and life was especially attractive." Henry Wilson, afterward vice-presi- dent of the United States, was, perhaps, the most noted of the alumni. Wilson lodged in the home of the late Joseph Grover, on Centre street, and spent considerable time in the practice of public speaking in a barn which stood in the rear of his boarding-place.
Without any endowment, and embarrassed with a debt of eleven hundred dollars,-for some of the original subscriptions were in-
1316
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
collectable ;- the trustees, in March, 1841, applied to the town for relief, and received an assignment and transfer of six hundred shares in the Concord railroad, on which the first instalment had been paid. These shares were sold by the trustces to General Joseph Low for six hundred and seventy-five dollars. "Thus only partially relieved, and pressed with other difficulties, arising from sectional, political, and sectarian causes, the trustees, in March, 1844, decided to close the institution and offer the building for sale at auction." It was accordingly sold on the 10th of May following. It was bid off by Richard Pinkham, for himself, S. C. Badger, and Asa Fowler, for five hundred and forty dollars. With this sum the debts were dis- charged, and the academy closed its mission in 1844.
Among the names of pupils attending the school in its closing years, who are still living in this city (1901), may be found the following : Daniel C. Allen, Frederic Allison, Lowell Eastman, Amos Hadley, Charles II. Herbert, Isaac A. Hill, George F. Hill, Abraham G. Jones, Ilorace F. Paul, Gustavus Walker, Joseph B. Walker, Mrs. Sarah (Sanborn) Adams, Misses Alma J. Herbert, Louisa L. Kelley, Harriet S. Ordway, Mrs. Mary (Herbert) Seavey, and Mrs. Elizabeth (Upham) Walker.
Private schools were kept in the building for a year or two after- ward, when it was again sold to Isaac Hill, and removed. Out of it were constructed two large dwelling-houses and a part of a third, situated at the lower end of Main street, opposite Perley street.
The establishment of local high schools in many of the larger towns in the state soon greatly lessened the demand for such acad- emies, and with a rapidly diminishing patronage their number was gradually reduced, only those liberally endowed or receiving denom- inational support, long surviving. There are at the present time, however, nearly thirty in the state in a fairly flourishing condition.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE METHODIST GENERAL BIBLICAL INSTITUTE.
JOHN C. ORDWAY.
The Methodist General Biblical Institute-the only strictly theo- logical seminary ever maintained in the state-began its existence in Concord in April, 1847. A charter was obtained from the legislature the following June, and approved by the governor July 3d of that year. The names of the original corporators were Charles Adams, Osmon C. Baker, Abel Stevens, Dexter S. King, Elisha Adams, Ralph W. Allen, Minor Raymond, Lorenzo D. Barrows, David Patten, James Porter, Silas Quimby, Sanford Benton, Jefferson Hascall, and Newell Culver. The school had its inception, however, several years before, in a convention of Methodist ministers and laymen, delegates from every New England state, held in Boston, April 24 and 25, 1839, when, believing the time had fully come to make provision for a train- ing-school for religious teachers, the " Wesley Institute Association " was organized to promote the early establishment of such an institu- tion,-" one which should represent a broad and profound conception of humanity and of the divine purpose in the history of humanity." Under the efforts of this association, in 1840, the Methodist Theo- logical seminary at Newbury, Vt., was renamed " The Wesleyan Theo- logical Institute," and Reverend John Dempster was selected to be professor of theology, and Reverend John Wesley Merrill, A. M., was chosen to be the professor of sacred literature, when the new insti- tution should be established. As the needed funds were not yet provided, Reverend Osmon C. Baker, then principal of the Newbury seminary, and Reverend William M. Willets, continued to give theo- logical instruction to the students preparing for the ministry as before.
It had been previously agreed that if the Wesley Institute associa- tion should beeome at any time convinced that Newbury was not the best loeality for the theological school, they might remove it to one more eligible. After a trial of several years, Professor Merrill 1 says, the conviction became clear that to succeed it must be removed to a more central loeality, and at the close of the year 1846 it was deter- mined to make a change.
1 The writer is indebted to the late Professor J. W. Merrill, Mrs. Sarah (Sanborn) Adams, and W. F. Whitcher for much of the material contained in the above brief sketch.
1318
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
When this fact was known, some of the people of this town became much interested to secure its location here. The North Congrega- tional society having built a new and more modern church nearer the center of population, and wishing to preserve, in some useful way, its earlier home, offered gratuitously, for the acconunodation of this new theological school, its former place of worship, the old North church. The latter was a large and venerable edifice,-the main body of the house being nearly a hundred years old. It was of spacious dimen- sions, with an ideal location in the center of a beautiful triangular green campus of an acre and a half of land, with streets on three sides. This noble offer was gratefully accepted, and thus it came to pass, singularly enough, that " the first home of the first Arminian theological seminary in America was the free and cordial gift of a church and parish of Calvinists."
The old church was soon fitted up at the expense of public- spirited citizens of Concord, chiefly those connected with the Congre- gational societies. It was divided into two stories, with halls on each floor, running from north to south. A convenient chapel, with a seat- ing capacity for one hundred and fifty, was fitted up in the second story ; a lecture room, 44 x 24, and two recitation rooms, 24 x 24, on the ground floor near the east and west entrances. On the second floor, over the cast lecture room, was a reading-room, and next south of this a library. The remaining portion of the edifice was made into fifteen rooms or dormitories, all high, airy, and well lighted, for the residence of students, and furnished mainly by individual Methodist churches in New England. Few and unimportant changes only were made to the exterior. The east or main entrance opened into a tower surmounted by a belfry and steeple, upon the spire of which, one hundred and twenty-three feet from the ground, was perched the old, gilded-copper " potter," or weather-cock, four feet in height. This anomalous but lordly-looking chanticleer had kept watch and ward over the old church for sixty-four years.
On the westerly side of State street, a little northwest of the old church, a commodious dwelling-house was made into a boarding- house, where the students, in a club, under their own management, might board themselves at cost. All were thus provided for save the few who preferred either to board themselves in their rooms, or in private families. A course of study, essentially the same as that at Andover, Union, Newton, and other theological schools in the United States, was adopted, requiring to complete it three full years. No charge was made for tuition, and the rent for rooms was merely non- inal.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.