USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 19
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Pinkerton Academy at Derry was founded by two brothers of Scotch ancestry, John and James Pinkerton, in 1814. It has been liberally endowed by John H. Pinkerton of Boston, son of James. Piety and learning were the corner stones. A constant stream of graduates has flowed toward Dartmouth College. It now has over two hundred students, about an equal number of boys and girls. Instruction is given in agriculture of a practical character ; also in dressmaking, millinery and household arts. The expense is moderate, and self-help is encouraged. This school has good buildings, modern conveniences, good discipline and instruction. The young man or woman in pursuit of knowl- edge can find it here, and incidentally can also have a good time.
The Brewster Free Academy at Wolfeborough is the suc- cessor of the old Wolfeborough and Tuftonborough Academy, which was founded in 1821. In 1866 the building was leased to the Christian Society and was called the Christian Institute. In 1870 the name was changed to the Wolfeborough Institute. The charter was renewed in 1877, and then the name was the Brewster Free Academy, in honor of John Brewster of Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, a native of Wolfeborough, who heavily endowed the school, so that the income may amount to $40,000 annually. All expenses are paid from the income. It is free to all who behave and study well, and thus it is a real addition to the public school system. Text books also are free. The
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campus of forty acres slopes down to Lake Winnipesaukee. There are the large main building, erected in 1894, a dormitory for girls, and a chemical laboratory. A dormitory for boys is under consideration. Board in private families is inexpensive. The report of 1916 shows an enrollment of one hundred and sixty-five students. There are several courses of study besides the classical. Here is a chance to get an education, amidst beauti- ful and helpful surroundings, on terms of equality, and at the least possible expense.
Other institutions that have had a useful career are Pem- broke Academy, that was founded in 1818 and is still flourishing, Coe's Academy in Northwood, Dow Academy in Franconia, and Sanborn Seminary in Kingston. The last was endowed with $121,000 by Edward S. Sanborn, a native of Kingston. It has eighty-five pupils, half of them from towns other than Kingston.
There have been few educational institutions for girls only. The Adams' Female Academy flourished at Londonderry for more than half a century after 1823 and was made famous by Miss Mary Lyon, afterward at the head of Mount Holyoke Seminary, now Holyoke College. The Tilden Female Seminary in West Lebanon was conducted successfully for thirty-five years. The Robinson Seminary at Exeter was founded in 1867 by William Robinson, a native of Exeter. It fits young ladies for college and to manage a household. The tuition for pupils who reside in Exeter is free, for others forty dollars a year. Text books are free to all. Board in private houses can be had for from four to six dollars per week. New Hampshire has no separate college for young ladies, though such are being admit- ted to the State College at Durham every year in increasing numbers. St. Mary's Diocesan School for girls was established at Concord, in 1885, under the auspices of the Protestant Episco- pal Church. It has thirty-six house pupils, and twenty-three day pupils. The annual expense is given as four hundred and fifty dollars for board and tuition.
Elegant high school buildings have been erected in the cities and larger towns of New Hampshire. These furnish courses of study and instruction equal to any of the private institutions. The long established and well endowed academies, like the old churches, when they are rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing, are monopolized by the privileged classes to
THOMPSON HALL, N. K. COLLROK
MORRILL HALL, A. H. COLLAUE
LIBRARY, N.H.C.
GYMNASIUM, N.H.C.
NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS
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a large extent. The cost is beyond the ability of the toilers, and some of them the middle classes can not afford. The high schools have more of the democratic spirit, while morals and manners are not so safely guarded and well trained.
The parochial schools of the Roman Catholic Church are found in most of the populous cities.
THE STATE COLLEGE.
The crowning institution of the public school system of New Hampshire is the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, at Durham, destined to become a State Uni- versity and almost that now in spite of its name. It was estab- lished at Hanover, in connection with Dartmouth College, in 1866 and was based upon a land grant made by the United States government, valued at $80,000. Here Culver Hall and Conant Hall were erected, which afterward came into the possession of the college. Congress made some appropriations. The num- ber of students in attendance was small and disappointing. Some thought that the institution ought to be separated from the college. The inducement to do so came in 1891, when an act of the legislature required the trustees to terminate its connection with Dartmouth College and to remove from Hanover to Dur- ham. This was because Benjamin Thompson of Durham had bequeathed property to the institution amounting to $800,000 with its accumulation of interest down to 1910, when the income of $32,000 annually became available. The State appropriated $100,000 for building purposes in 1891 and an additional appro- priation of $35,000 was made in 1893, when the college entered upon its new and expanding career. New buildings have been added from time to time, made necessary by the rapidly in- creasing number of students and by new courses of study. Its campus has great variety of landscape, with much natural beauty. The college owns three hundred and eighty acres, of which seventy are forest and one hundred and twenty acres are in tillage. There are hill and dale, orchard and woodland, meadow and stream, gardens and greenhouses, race-track and athletic field. Two dormitories house the young women and a large brick dormitory for young men was finished in 1915.
The growth of the college has been phenomenal. In 1893 only thirty students were enrolled and there were seven pro-
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fessors in the Faculty. Now, in 1915, there are five hundred and eighteen students, about eighty of whom are young ladies, and the Faculty number fifty, besides twenty-three instructors and assistants that belong to the staff of the Agricultural Experi- ment Station. Probably three thousand students have already availed themselves of the advantages of this institution, induced in many cases by the reasonableness of expense, which need not exceed three hundred dollars yearly. There are also a goodly number of scholarships that pay the regular tuition of sixty dollars,-and some pay more,-as well as opportunities for par- tial self-support. There is an excellent gymnasium and the athletic field adjoining welcomes often enough teams and ball clubs from other New England colleges.
The college has a dozen large brick buildings, besides barns and greenhouses, and the number has to be increased about every year. Dormitories for clubs of students and fraternities are scattered through Durham village. The lands and buildings alone are worth half a million dollars. A firm basis has been laid, and the future growth of the college is assured. The appli- cation of science to agriculture has made farming in New Eng- land a new and attractive business, demanding educated brains as well as muscle. The trolley, the telephone and the rural delivery of mail no longer leave the farm house in lonely isola- tion. Good roads are bringing the markets nearer. Will women become farmers, and is this the reason why they are admitted to New Hampshire College? Why not? Indeed, this is actually the fact and one of growing importance. Women are now com- peting with men in every activity that demands educated talent. With a little capital some of them can manage a farm as well as men and make and save more money thereby.
If we look at the list of subjects taught, some of us wish ourselves young again and back on the old farm with our heads full of scientific knowledge, able to toil with skill and imagina- tion. Here they study soils, seeds, farming machinery, domestic animals and their proper care, orcharding, horticulture, forestry, botany and chemistry. If one does not like country life, one can here become fitted to be a chemist, an electrical or mechanical engineer, a surveyor, a teacher, and to handle a great variety of tools. The student learns to do things as well as to philoso- phize about them.
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The military drill, optional in the senior year, is popular when the watchcry is "preparedness." The exercise and the knowledge thus acquired is of value and may be utilized by the nation in time of peril. Such drill will be discontinued when the nations shall learn war no more, or when an international army, under the direction of a Peace Commission, shall police the peoples of the earth, or when the federation of the world shall have been secured.
New Hampshire College recognizes that it should be an educator of the people at large as well as of the students that flock to Durham. Bulletins of very valuable information go forth from the Experiment Station. "A College on Wheels" is the name given to its Extension Service, that sends lecturers throughout the State to teach farmers how to raise fruit, hay, stock, etc., that makes exhibits at fairs, and enrolls whosoever will in agricultural reading courses.
The college has prospered under the successive administra- tions of Presidents Charles S. Murkland, William D. Gibbs, and Edward Thomson Fairchild. The last was elected president in August, 1912, coming from a long career of educational work in the West. One does not have to strain the eyes to see this institution grow under his tactful and wise management. For seventeen years Prof. Charles H. Pettee, LL.D., has been the dean of the college, going with it from Hanover to Durham, and assisting in the planning of its buildings. He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College and of the Thayer School of Civil Engineer- ing, and has been associated with the New Hampshire College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts for more than forty years, the friend of all students and promoter of many good works.
Higher education by the State is taking the place of educa- tion by Christian denominations, without any perceptible loss to Christianity. New Hampshire ought to have at least one college where young women have equal privileges with young men. New courses of study have been opened recently to young women at Durham, especially in domestic science and household arts. They have courses also in language, history, philosophy and mental science. Why not the fine arts, music and literature? All these departments will be added in due time, and the name will be changed to New Hampshire Uni- versity. Let the expenses be kept as low as good health and
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comfort will allow, and the sons and daughters of farmers and mechanics will gather here for life's inspirations and guidance. Such material will produce during the next fifty years the leaders of the State.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
In the preceding volume the history of Dartmouth College was sketched down to the conclusion of the great "case," wherein Daniel Webster and others saved it from the clutches of Gov- ernor Plumer and the legislators, who wanted to make it a State University. Francis Brown was then president of the college, and he worked himself to death in its behalf, dying of consump- tion in 1820 at the age of twenty-six. He was a native of Chester, a graduate of Atkinson Academy and of Dartmouth College, and pastor of the church at North Yarmouth, Maine. His successor in the presidency was the Rev. Dr. Daniel Dana of Newburyport, who by reason of ill health resigned after six months. The Rev. Bennet Tyler succeeded him and held the office eight years. At this time the college had a military drill and the students contrived a showy uniform, a fad which was short-lived. The college buildings comprised the chapel and Dartmouth Hall, where were twenty-five rooms for students, the greater number preferring to room in private houses. Nearly all were poor and taught school during the winter vacation to pay college expenses. The college was in debt and had little endowment, but all this time it was turning out the great men of its history. The pursuit of knowledge under difficulties has its rewards. If man can not live by bread alone, neither can a college thrive on so much money that it feels its need of nothing else. Such were the limitations that recitations were held in students' rooms and there was no clock in the college. The discipline was very strict. The "Freshman's Bible" laid down rules and regulations that were generally disobeyed. Cards, dancing and theatres were thought to be very sinful, and each day began and ended with chapel exercises. Athletic sports were almost unknown, except that a football was kicked here and there about the campus.
In 1828 the Rev. Nathan Lord became president of the college and remained in office till 1863. He was born at South Berwick, Maine, November 28, 1792, and graduated at Bowdoin
DARTMOUTH HALL
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College in 1809, thereafter serving as pastor of the church at Amherst. He was a man of strong character, wise, tactful, firm, courteous. His word was truth and law; a college rebellion could not swerve him from his purpose. His wisdom was shown in the choice of his colleagues in the Faculty. Students poured in to the number of about three hundred and fifty, and the college rivaled Harvard, Yale and Princeton. An observa- tory was built and quickly followed two brick dormitories, Thornton and Wentworth Halls. Then came Reed Hall, to contain the library, mineralogical museum and philosophical apparatus. In 1851 the Chandler School of Science and the Arts was founded by Abiel Chandler by a bequest of $50,000. The Chandler Scientific course of study has developed from this benefaction, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science. In this course the modern languages have taken the place of Greek and Latin. Morning prayers were transferred from before breakfast to half past eight and the chapel service at the close of the day was abolished in 1860.
About the year 1847 President Lord was converted from being an abolitionist to an advocate of slavery as a divine insti- tution, a necessary evil, like war and pestilence. This position he endeavored to fortify by argument in print. His theory was tolerated till the Civil War broke out, and then came such disapproval from the public press and resolutions of conventions that President Lord felt forced to resign. The abolitionists could not bear his accusation that they were attempting to subvert the moral government of God. They interpreted differently the text, "Cursed be Canaan." The trustees of the college voted a resolution opposed to the declared views of President Lord on slavery and the war, and he at once sent in his resignation. The remaining seven years of his life were spent in Hanover, in retirement. To his credit it was remembered that he had built up the college and sent forth into active service 2,675 graduates. Let his many virtues and good deeds counterbal- ance his one serious defect of judgment.
The Rev. Dr. Asa Dodge Smith of New York was elected president in 1863 and held office till 1877. During his administra- tion the Thayer School of Civil Engineering was founded by Sylvanus Thayer, who was a graduate of the college and an early superintendent of West Point Military School. The en-
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dowment amounted to $73,000. The gifts to the college during the period of his presidency were nearly a million dollars, of which Tappan Wentworth gave one-quarter with instructions that none of it should be used till it had increased to half a million. Those were the days when the president had the mag- nificent salary of $1,800 and the full professors had $1,100 per annum. The tuition fee was raised to sixty dollars in 1867. In 1869 the college celebrated its centennial under a big tent raised upon the campus, amid great enthusiasm and mirth. The Bissell gymnasium was built in 1866, then thought to be a wonder, for it was ninety feet long and had bowling alleys. The Dartmouth Cadets had real guns and uniforms, and militarism revived for a time. The Agricultural Department was inaugura- ted and Culver Hall was built to house it a little later. Presi- dent Smith resigned, December 22, 1877, by reason of poor health, and died on the first day of the following March. The college was growing rapidly during his term of service.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel C. Bartlett succeeded him in the presidency, coming from a professorship in Chicago Theological Seminary. He was quite a different sort of man from his pre- decessor, called by one writer a "live wire." There were dissen- sions in the Faculty, and some sought his removal, but he held on till 1892, and oppositions subsided to a large extent. He secured the gift of a new chapel from Edward A. Rollins of Philadelphia. Six fully endowed professorships were added. Wilson Hall, a fire-proof library building, was erected by the gift of $65,000 from George F. Wilson. Other buildings were Bartlett Hall, for the Young Men's Christian Association, Wheelock Hall, Culver Hall and Conant Hall, the last two for the Agricultural Department. During this period the alumni came to have a representation among the college trustees. Over $700,000 in buildings and endowment were added to the posses- sion of the college. The Mary Hitchcock Hospital was erected, having close relations to the Medical School. Intellectual abil- ity, stubborn independence and an iron will seem to have marked the successful reign of President Bartlett.
Then came the sagacious, courteous, broad-minded and kind-hearted William Jewett Tucker, admired and beloved by hosts of friends. He had graduated from the college in 1861 and had been a leader in the liberal ranks at Andover Theologi-
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cal Seminary as professor of sacred rhetoric. For fourteen years he had served as one of the trustees of the college and so knew well its condition and needs. At once there began a flow of students toward Dartmouth. New dormitories had to be erected, fourteen of them in fourteen years, of handsome brick construc- tion, capable of lodging seven hundred students. Enormous plants furnish steam heat and electric light to all the college buildings. The water supply system has been made complete. When old Dartmouth Hall was burned, straightway the alumni contributed $250,000 to build a better and larger hall, in 1904. A larger gymnasium, at the time the finest in the world, took the place of the Bissell. Dr. Ralph Butterfield of Kansas City left $141,000 to the college, most of which was spent in erecting Butterfield Hall as a museum of natural history, archaeology and ethnology. Mr. C. T. Wilder of Olcott, Vermont, built the physical laboratory named Wilder Hall at a cost of $109,000, and later gave $75,000 more. The Fayerweather bequest, after long litigation, yielded $223,381 to the college. Edward Tuck, of the class of 1862, increased the endowment to the value of half a million dollars, as a memorial to his father, Hon. Amos Tuck of the class of '35. The Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance was established as a department of the college, calling forth an additional $135,000 from Mr. Edward Tuck for a suitable building. Other gifts have made up his benefactions to the amount of $1,200,000. Lewis Parkhurst of the class of '78 and Mrs. Parkhurst gave the beautiful administration build- ing, known as Parkhurst Hall, in memory of their son, Wilder Lewis Parkhurst, who died at the beginning of his sophomore year in Dartmouth. The corner stone of Webster Hall was laid in 1901, one hundred years after the graduation of Daniel Webster, when there was a great celebration, only excelled by the dedication of the new Dartmouth Hall in 1904, when the Earl of Dartmouth, great-great grandson of the one for whom the college was named, was present with the Countess and their daughter, Lady Dorothy Legge.
President Tucker felt constrained by ill health induced by long care and labor to resign in 1907, yet lingered two years longer, till his successor could be found. This was Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols, a former professor of physics in the college, who had made himself distinguished as an investigator in his beloved
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field of study. Toward the end of the year 1915 he felt con- strained to resign the presidency in order to return to alluring experimental work in physics at Yale. The college grew in number of students, new buildings and endowment during his years of administration. In 1913 its total assets were valued at $5,450,281. It keeps its "Dartmouth Grant" of twenty-six thousand acres in the northeast corner of the State. The year- book of 1914-15 reports 1,391 students and ninety-seven pro- fessors and instructors. There are eighteen Greek letter socie- ties. The name of Dartmouth is respected on the athletic field of old universities. Dartmouth College, not yet ambitious to be called a University, is more than an educational institution of New Hampshire. It is one of the great national assets. Its graduates and its influence are scattered all over the country for good. It has outstripped the far-seeing hopes of its founders. Indians and negroes are still welcome, for nobody has ever been excluded because of race, color, or previous condition of servi- tude. The necessary expenses are moderate, and self-helping students are encouraged.
In 1916 Dr. Ernest Martin Hopkins was elected President of Dartmouth College, an alumnus of the college and its secretary for several years. He has made for himself a reputation as a doctor of human brotherhood and good comradeship in industrial occupations, a leader and inspirer of young men.
Chapter XV HONORED SONS AS EDUCATORS ABROAD
Chapter XV
HONORED SONS AS EDUCATORS ABROAD.
An Innumerable Company-Alonzo A. Miner-Thomas Sherwin-Gov. Augustus C. French-Elisha B. Andrews-John S. French of Sandwich Islands-Bishop Philander Chase-Col. Carroll D. Wright-Jeremiah E. Rankin-Cecil F. P. Bancroft-Prof. John P. Marshall-Horace M. Hale-Laura D. Bridgman-John Eaton-James A. B. Stone-Henry T. Durant, Founder of Wellesley College-Eben C. Sprague, Chancellor of the University of Buffalo-Prof. Bradbury L. Cilley-Prof. Samuel Graves-Oren B. Cheney, President of Bates College-Carrol Cutler, President of Western Reserve College-Prof. Alpheus Crosby.
A BRAHAM could count the stars as easily as one could num- ber up the teachers who have gone forth from New Hamp- shire. Here only a few of the more prominent can be mentioned. Already it has been stated incidentally that Bowdoin College got its first two presidents, McKeen and Appleton, from New Hamp- shire, and it may be added that President Allen went from Dart- mouth to Bowdoin.
Alonzo A. Miner was born in Lempster August 17, 1814. He studied in town schools and academies till he was sixteen years of age and then taught four years before becoming principal of an academy in Cavendish, Vermont. Later he had in charge a school at Unity, N. H. He was ordained a Universalist clergy- man in 1839 and after serving as pastor of churches in Methuen and Lowell, Mass., he was called to a church in Boston, where he spent many years of great usefulness. For a score of years he was on the board of overseers of Harvard College and on the Massachusetts State Board of Education. He was president of Tufts College from 1862 to 1875. As a temperance worker and reformer and as an opponent of slavery his voice was often heard in the pulpit and on the public platform. The Prohibition Party of Massachusetts made him their candidate for governor. One of his opponents declared that "Dr. Miner was all right, if he would let rum alone." Harvard gave him the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Tufts made him a Doctor of
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Laws. He was author of several books and pamphlets and was the prime mover in the establishment of the Universalist Pub- lishing House in Boston. At one time he was editor of the "Star of Bethlehem." He presented $40,000 to Tufts College to found Divinity Hall. As an advocate of temperance and legal prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages he was in the front rank and was president of the Massachusetts Temperance Alliance, 1870-86. He is said to have preached 6000 times and to have married 2974 couples. After more than forty years of service in one church he died in Boston June 14, 1895.
Thomas Sherwin was born in Westmoreland March 26, 1799, and died in Dedham, Mass., July 23, 1869. His father removed to Temple, where Thomas worked on a farm and attended a country school as he had opportunity. Then he served an apprenticeship to a clothier in Groton, Mass., having a vacation which he spent in Groton Academy. Struggling against poverty he worked and borrowed his way through Harvard College, graduating in 1828. Then he taught an academy in Lexington one year. In 1826-7 he was tutor in mathematics at Harvard College. Then he became a civil engineer and worked on the construction of dry docks in Charlestown and Kittery navy yards. For a short time he had a private school for boys in Boston, whence he was called to be submaster in the Boston English High School, and after ten years was promoted to be head mas- ter of the same, continuing in this work for the rest of his life. He made his school famous for its efficiency. He was the author of two books on Algebra, that were in use as text-books. Under his instruction in Boston were 3937 boys, and the impression of his character was lasting with many. He was the originator of the American Institute of Instruction and president of the same. Also he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology owes much to his helpful activity. Another of his honors was the presidency of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, in 1845. He deserves to be remembered as one of the leading educators of the United States.
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