USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 28
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The two distinguishing principles of the Shakers have been and are celibacy and communism. The founder and some others have received, as some think, special revelations from God, the result, as others think, of hypnotic trance. Some have objectified their fancies and have seen the Lord. Orderly and moral conduct and financial prosperity have marked their career. They are careful to admit to their society only the sincere and truly repentant. No private property is allowed. The peculiar dancing and marching ceased long ago, and their preaching and religious services have little to distinguish them from other denominations. The Shaker societies are a sort of compound of convent and monastery for Protestants who would withdraw from the world and live a quiet, unambitious life. The society at Enfield was founded in 1792, under the administration of Job Bishop, who once welcomed President James Monroe as a visitor in truly laconic style, "I, Job Bishop, welcome James Monroe to our habitation."
The history of the Universalist Church in New Hampshire begins with the preaching of the Rev. John Murray in Portsmouth, in 1773. One of his converts was the Rev. Noah Parker, of a distinguished family, who long was an ardent exponent of that faith. The first Universalist church, in Portsmouth, was founded in 1780. Four others were in existence in 1800, and the first general convention of the denomination was held at Winchester, in 1796.
6 Hist. of the Freewill Baptists, by Rev. I. D. Stewart, pp. 46-7.
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Itinerant preachers quickly scattered the doctrine in the towns bordering on Massachusetts and along the Connecticut river. The movement was largely intellectual and drew in those who were dis- satisfied with the partialism of Calvinism. It was a revolt of head and heart against a monstrous system of divine government as formulated by logic on erroneous premises. In the orthodox churches there had been ministers and laymen who for a long time had cultivated the Eternal Hope, just as there are now thousands of Universalists in theory, who belong to other denominations. The Calvinists had been forced by logic to admit and assert that all for whom Christ died would eventually be saved. Starting from that premise it was only necessary for the Universalists to show from the Bible, that Christ died for all. The controversy was between a limited and a general atonement, as then understood. Some irre- ligious persons jumped to the conclusion that all would be saved in the next world and were ranked as Universalists, without uniting with that denomination or any other, overlooking the plain truth, that salvation is not by theory, but by character. The belief, that sin and suffering must in the course of the ages cease, has been growing in theological thought and in the spiritual intuitions of many of the wisest and best. Such a conclusion seems to many a necessary deduction from the character of God as a being of infinite wisdom, love and power.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century began the division of the Congregational churches into Unitarians and Trinitarians. The movement had little spread in New Hampshire, since only four churches and two parishes took the name Unitarian. The majority of church members then, as now, could not define and state their beliefs on abstruse philosophical subjects, and many Trinitarians, so called, have been in reality Tritheists or Modalists, to use ancient theological terms. Neither theory has much affected religious life and character. There seems to be no good reason why honest people can not worship together and love one another, in spite of conflicting theological opinions. The early Unitarians differed but little from the Universalists as to final conclusions. The former contended for the brotherhood of man, and the latter for the father- hood of God. The Unitarians said that man was too noble a being to be damned, and the Universalists said, that God was too good a being to damn him. The deity of Christ was preached by early
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Universalists, while the Unitarians were satisfied with his divinity. All denominations unite when they try to imitate him and reproduce his spirit.
Methodism had its origin among scholars, at Oxford Univers- ity. John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield and "the Seraphic Fletcher" were its leading spirits. Its founders intended it only as a revival movement within the Anglican Church, but opposition led to the formation of a new denomination in England after the death of John Wesley, who as a scholar, preacher, organizer and evangel- ist has few equals in the history of the entire Christian Church. Intinerant preachers introduced Methodism into the colonies as early as 1766, but it did not reach New Hampshire till 1790, when that celebrated man, Jesse Lee, brought it to Portsmouth. He and others visited the place from time to time and a class was formed. No Methodist church was organized in Portsmouth till 1808, and the only Methodist church in New Hampshire before the end of the eighteenth century was that established in Chesterfield in 1794. Itinerant lay-preachers were soon vying with the advance guard of other denominations in spreading the gospel of Methodism. Full of zeal and remembering that Wesley had said, "The world is my parish," they sought to establish classes and churches in cities, villages and wherever converts could be gathered. Few of the itin- erants were educated in the schools and colleges, but lay-preachers were often men of great natural gifts, well acquainted with the Bible and with the love of God and man flaming in their souls.
The Methodists were more liberal even than the Freewill Baptists, for while both offered salvation to "whosoever will," the Methodists allowed every believer to choose his own mode of baptism, and most of the converts preferred sprinkling to im- mersion. The class-meetings were a distincive institution, now fast vanishing away, in which every member from week to week told something of his religious experience, to free his own mind and lend encouragement and advice to others. Stress was laid upon the emotional and almost the miraculous in the experi- ence of conversion. The Methodists revived the New Testa- ment doctrine of the Witness of the Spirit, and some gave it an exaggerated interpretation. According to tradition, unless one could tell the room in the house and the board in the floor and the nail in the board where he was converted, he lacked positive
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assurance. There was something more for him to seek and find. This sometimes led to fanaticism on the one hand and discouragement on the other. Strange subjective experiences were mistaken for evidences of divine forgiveness. Visions were seen and voices heard and nervous thrills felt, varying with temperament and education, with fastings and vigils. In spite of errors and extravagances the doctrine that the divine Spirit reveals His presence in the human spirit, convicting of sin and testifying to pardon on genuine repentance, contained a mighty truth and accounts for the spread of Methodism more than any other factor. It was opposed to the Calvinistic dogma, that only the elect of the elect could know their sins forgiven. If all the elect were to be assured of their salvation, it would be equivalent to a separation of the sheep from the goats in this world, and would foster presumptuous sins. Their docrine of non-assurance was thus formulated and handed down by opponents,-If you seek it, you won't find it; if you find it, you won't know it; if you know it, you haven't got it; if you have it, you can't lose it; and if you lose it, you never had it. To this may be offset the argument of a colored boy, who said that he would not like to get religion and not know it, for fear that he might lose it and never miss it.
Thus at the end of the eighteenth century there were at least four strong bands of itinerant preachers, with different types of Christian doctrine and experience, proselyting from the old established orthodox church and winning adherents from among the ungodly. There was no longer a State Church, and the most fastidious person might easily find a religion to suit him. If he could not, he was at liberty to invent one, or to go without any,-if he could.
It would seem as though so many different kinds of re- ligion, propagated with zeal and self-sacrifice, would quickly have produced a better state of morals, yet we read that from the time of the revolutionary war till the close of that century immorality prevailed to an unusual degree. Some assign as reasons therefor the introduction of French infidelity and laxity of morals that accompanies an army. May it not be, however, that more stress at that time was laid, by all the churches, upon correctness of creed and emotional experience than upon
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God's orthodoxy, which is conformity of life and conduct to the highest known standard of moral law. Ministers and deacons were allowed the use of intoxicating liquors, not always to moderation, and the holding of slaves. Lotteries were organized and patronized by leaders in the churches. It is no wonder that gambling and intoxication were known in the logging camps. The records of the churches show that the social evil was as often brought to light among church members as it was exposed in the civil courts among the "world's people." Church discipline was lax, and too often a profession of faith was a substitute for reformation of conduct. Back- sliders remained in the churches, to nullify its influence for good. There were no Sunday Schools for the training of the young, and the catechism was neglected in most of the homes. The lawlessness, which we now read of as rampant on the western frontier, was then known in the border towns of New Hampshire and Vermont. The public inn took the place of the modern saloon, and the corner grocery store was well stocked with New England rum. There can be, as a possi- bility, morality without any acknowledged form of religion, but there can not be true religion without conformity to moral law. The eighteenth century had not felt the full force of that truth.
Chapter XIII THE SCHOOLS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Chapter XIII
THE SCHOOLS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
O NE of the first schools in New Hampshire of which there is any record was at Dover Neck. In 1658 Charles Buckner was employed to teach reading, writing, casting of accounts, and Latin. The town voted twenty pounds for this purpose. He was chosen clerk of the writs in 1662 and in 1668 he was of Boston. Doubtless there were schools in private houses before the date here given. In 1647 Massachusetts enacted a law, that townships of fifty freeholders should sup- port a public school. Philemon Purmont and Daniel Maud were schoolmasters in Boston in 1635 and 1636. The former removed to Exeter in 1638 and the latter became minister at Dover Neck in 1642. Probably both of these taught school in New Hampshire before Charles Buckner. John Legat was employed by Hampton, in 1649, to teach the children of that town.
In 1693 a law was enacted, requiring the selectmen in the respective towns to raise money for the building and repairing of school-houses and for providing a schoolmaster for each town, under penalty of twenty pounds in case of failure.
In 1708 the Council and Assembly voted that a Latin school be kept in Portsmouth. The schoolmaster was to have fifty pounds per annum, besides tuition fees determined by the selectmen. It was a free school for "writers,readers and latinists." Portsmouth was required to pay twenty-eight pounds, Hampton, eight pounds, Exeter, six pounds, Dover, six pounds, and New Castle, forty shillings. The plan was to continue two years, and selectmen were responsible for the raising of the money. This was the first Latin school in New Hampshire.1
In 1718 it was voted that the selectmen be empowered to hire two school masters for Portsmouth, one for the Latin School and the other to teach "reading, writing and cyphering."2
1 N. H. Prov. Papers, III., 365.
2 Id. p. 718.
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In 1719 every town of fifty householders was required to provide a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing, and every town of one hundred householders was required to have a grammar school, kept by "some discreet person, of good con- versation, well instructed in the tongues." Failure to provide such schools subjected the selectmen to a fine of twenty pounds. In 1722 Dover was exempted from maintaining a grammar school by reason of the Indian war, and in 1727 Londonderry was exempted from supporting a grammar school, considering the infancy of that town, providing they have two schools for writing and reading.
School-houses were rare at first, and a room in some farm- house served the purpose as well. The acquisition of knowl- edge depends but little upon external surroundings. The curri- culum was confined to three studies, but those who learned to read had the firm basis of scholarship. All that was needed thereafter was a few good books, the contents of which were mastered completely. They had more than books to study. Men and nature were ever at hand. People thought more when they read less. There was no cramming for examina- tions. There were no graded schools. Geography, grammar, algebra, the sciences, history, philosophy,-these and much more that public schools now have were then unknown. But they learned much then, the things that were of use, how to do things. The boys learned to raise everything that would grow on a farm, without any scientific knowledge of agricul- ture. They could tell all the different trees in the forest and what they were good for. They knew the wild animals and how to shoot or trap them. They could handle the tools of carpenter and mechanic and make farming implements and rude articles of furniture. Why should not such knowledge be reckoned a part of a liberal education? Is anything gained by leaving out the useful arts and studying ancient languages? The struggle for existence and progress in material gains was a school for those early days, a school that developed character and abilities. Then men were drawn out, educated, evolved, and became strong to do, to bring things to pass. One may be stuffed with literature and become an imbecile.
The schoolmasters were sometimes the ministers, or grad-
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uates of Harvard who were gathering a little money and ex- perience preparatory to a profession, or emigrants who had come to a new country to seek their fortune. Among the latter were some notable men from Ireland, well trained in the schools of their native land. One of these was John Sulli- van, father of General Sullivan of Durham. He spent his life as a schoolmaster in Berwick, Maine, and in Somersworth. In the latter place he swept and took care of the meeting house to increase his earnings. The possession of several languages did not make him too proud for manual labor.
Hercules Mooney was another Irish schoolmaster, prob- ably from Trinity College, Dublin. He came to America in 1733 and began teaching in Somersworth. He taught in Dur- ham from 1751 to 1766. He had a captain's commission in 1767 and took part in the Crown Point expedition, being cap- tured and robbed when Fort William Henry was taken by the French and Indians. Afterward he taught in Lee, where he was selectman and representative to the General Court. He rose to rank of major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel in the Revolution. Later he removed to Holderness, where he repre- sented the town four times. He died in 1800 and was buried on his farm about a third of a mile from Ashland. Few men of his time did more for the development of New Hamp- shire. The nameless impress of his character was upon hun- dreds of pupils, and he rendered great service as a military and civil officer.
Henry Parkinson was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1741, of Scotch parents, with whom he came to America in 1744. After graduating at Nassau Hall, Princeton, he came to Lon- donderry, whence he went into the revolutionary army as quartermaster and served about two years. After living some years in Francestown and Pembroke he taught a superior school in Concord from 1784 to 1794. Then he removed to Canterbury and till his death in 1820 he taught the classics and fitted not a few students for college. His fame as a teacher drew sixty pupils, among whom he was beloved and revered.3
Edward Evans, born in Sligo, Ireland, came over about 1760 and settled in Chester, where he was the only instructor
3 Granite Monthly, Vol. V., pp. 215-219.
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for several years. He was commissioned as Adjutant and served throughout the Revolution, fighting at Bennington and in the Jersey campaign. He is said to have taught his children in the fields. While resting from their work in the shade of a tree they listened to his instructions and wrote down rules and problems on birch bark. He lived at Salisbury after 1775. For a while he was private secretary of General Washington and also of General Sullivan.
Other noted Irish schoolmasters were William Donovan of Weare, Maurice Lynch and Tobias Butler of Dublin.4
It is not to be supposed that all the schoolmasters of New Hampshire were of the sort indicated by these choice specimens from the Emerald Isle. In 1771 governor John Wentworth thus addressed the legislature ;- "The insufficiency of our pres- ent law upon the subject of schools must be too evident, seeing that nine-tenths of your towns are wholly without schools, or have such vagrant foreign masters, as are much worse than none; being for the most part unknown in their principles, and deplorably illiterate."
It was not till 1789 that a law was made, requiring in- struction in arithmetic to be given in the public schools. At the same time shire towns and half-shire towns were required to maintain grammar schools for teaching also Latin and Greek. School districts might be organized by authority of law in 1805, and in 1818 this was made obligatory. Sometimes the schoolmaster taught a singing-school in the evenings. The flogging of unruly and unstudious boys was customary and expected. To spare the rod was to spoil the child. Some schoolmasters ruled "with a rod of iron," metaphorically speak- ing, or literally with a ferrule and birch switch. They boarded around, and sometimes the school moved from house to house, or was kept in a barn or shop. The education received was just as good. There were many private, or family schools, to which a few neighbors might send their children. These sup- plemented the public schools.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century began the era of town Academies. Almost every populous and ambitious
4 Irish Schoolmasters in the American Colonies, by John C. Linehan and Thomas H. Murray.
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town had an academy or seminary, which took the place of the modern high school. In such institutions boys were fitted for college, and sometimes girls were allowed the privileges of such schools, though the higher education of girls was not much in favor. The first academy of which we learn was Williams Academy, in Windham, commenced in 1768 by the Rev. Simon Williams. It continued till about 1790. Among its pupils were the Rev. Joseph McKeen, first president of Bowdoin College, the Rev. Samuel .Taggart, who became a member of congress, Dr. John Park, and Governor Samuel Dinsmoor. The academy had forty or fifty pupils, some of whom came from Boston and Salem. The neighboring towns availed themselves of its privileges, and many a young man here got started on an honorable and useful career.
The Phillips Exeter Academy was opened in 1783, founded by John Phillips, son of the Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover, Massachusetts, where he was born December 27, 1719. He was brother of the Samuel Phillips who founded the Phillips Academy, Andover. The two institutions have been friendly and progressive rivals ever since their beginning. John Phillips was fitted for Harvard by his father, at the age of twelve, and was graduated in 1735. He studied medicine and divinity but was never settled over a parish. He came to Exeter as a teacher and afterwards went into trade, by which he secured means to aid liberally Dartmouth College and to found the honored institution that bears his name. His gifts and legacies to the Academy amounted to sixty thousand dollars, the great- est sum, up to that time, that any educational institution in the country had received. The days of Leland Stanford and company had not yet come, and the New England colleges could not start out with an endowment of twenty millions of dollars. John Phillips was president of a board of trustees named by himself and virtually managed the Academy till his death, in 1795. The first Principal of the Academy was William Woodbridge, succeeded by Benjamin Abbot, who was immedi- ately followed by Gideon F. Soule. Among the early professors of note were Hosea Hildreth, Francis Bowen, Daniel Dana, Samuel D. Parker, Joseph S. Buckminster, Alexander H. Everett, Nathaniel A. Haven, Jr., Nathan Lord and Henry
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Ware. Many of its pupils have reflected honor on the insti- tution, such as Lewis Cass, Daniel Webster, Joseph G. Cogs- well, John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, John A. Dix, George Bancroft and Richard Hildreth.
The first term of tuition at Atkinson Academy commenced April 1, 1789, though the institution was not incorporated till 1791, twenty-four years after the incorporation of the town. Soon after its birth young ladies ventured to present themselves as students, with some misgivings and criticisms, but their example was soon followed, and the institution has been co- educational. It at once attracted many students from other towns and is still flourishing as a beacon light upon a hill. About the year 1800 it had ninety pupils, afterward increased to one hundred and forty. The early Principals of the Academy were Moses Leavitt Neal of Londonderry, Daniel Hardy of Pelham, Samuel Moody of Newbury, Silas Dinsmore of Wind- ham, Stephen P. Webster of Haverhill and John Vose of Bed- ford. These became honored men as educators and legislators.
The town of New Ipswich had its grammar school before the Revolution wherein the ancient languages were taught. In 1787 an association of men became responsible for the main- tenance of an academy for five years. The tuition was twelve shillings quarterly in advance, and John Hubbard was the first preceptor, at a salary of sixty pounds annually. He was after- wards professor in Dartmouth College. The academy was in- corporated in 1789, the second institution of the kind in the State. It was aided to some extent by Dartmouth College and was a fitting school for that institution, sending ten students there in 1791. It has been co-educational and for a long time annually sent one young man of the town to college. "Among them we enumerate a President, a Professor and a Tutor of a College; twenty clergymen, three of whom have become mis- sionaries; eight physicians, twelve lawyers, four of whom have become judges; and numerous instructors." Thus it was writ- ten in 1852.5
Gilmanton Academy was chartered in 1794. The teachers and students were exempted from military duty. The academy "is to encourage and promote virtue and piety and the knowl-
5 Hist. of New Ipswich, p. 213.
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edge of the English, Greek and Latin languages, Mathematics, Writing, Geography, Logic, Oratory, Rhetoric, and other useful and ornamental branches of Literature." The first building was destroyed by fire in 1808. Within five weeks another building was erected. A considerable village grew up around it, and here were held town meeting and the county courts. Grants of land were made to aid it, and its property was freed from taxation. Hon. Joseph Badger was first president of the board of trustees, and Peter L. Folsom, a graduate of Dartmouth College and a citizen of the town, was the first preceptor, hold- ing that office six years. He was succeeded by Calvin Selden, afterwards a prominent lawyer in Maine. The academy has flourished from its beginning and at times has had one hundred and twenty-five students. Its teachers and alumni have con- tributed much to the welfare of the State.
Deerfield Academy was founded about 1798 by the leading men of that own. Phinehas Howe was its first preceptor, who served till 1812. Later the academy building was sold to the Parade School District and was destroyed by fire in 1842.
Chesterfield Academy was incorporated in 1790, though the Rev. Samuel Crosby had opened a school there as early as 1780. He was succeeded by Abraham Holland as Preceptor, and Abner Cheney followed him. The Rev. Dan Foster had also a select school in Chesterfield from 1796 to 1810.
Charlestown Academy was incorporated in 1791. Peter Stone had given some money to establish it. Sheldon Logan was its first preceptor. This school is said to have ranked, for a long time, as second only to Phillips Exeter Academy and to have attracted students from all neighboring towns and even some from southern States. The original academy build- ing was two-story and stood on the common, a few rods from the old meeting house, at the Centre village. It was burned in 1859. The new building after that became a High School.
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