History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 67
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 67

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Nearly all the members of the family to which he belonged, besides earning distinction in many offices of public trust, were noted in their day for their wealth and generosity. He was the most liberal of them all, though the least conspicuous before the public, owing to the modesty of his disposition and

his retiring habits ; but the others seem to have caught his munificent spirit, and to have emulously followed his example. His two nephews, Judge Samuel Phil- lips, of Andover, and William Phillips, of Boston, each of whom served in his turn as Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, aided him with their counsel and their means in several of his noble undertakings. In conjunction with the former he founded Phillips' Academy at Andover in 1778, during the darkest period of the Revolutionary war, a charter being granted to it by the Legislature of Massachusetts two years afterwards; the nephew contributed for this purpose six thousand dollars, the uncle gave thirty- one thousand dollars, about one-third of this sum being bestowed at the outset, and the other two-thirds in 1790. Lieutenant-Governor William Phillips gave six thousand dollars to the same institution in his lifetime, and left it a legacy of fifteen thousand dol- lars more in his will. Dr. John Phillips, of Exeter, was one of the trustees of this academy at Andover from its first organization till his death, and during the last five years of his life he was president of the board. Ile also endowed a professorship of theology in Dart- mouth College, served for twenty years as one of the Princeton College, N. J.

The academy was not established merely to give instruction in the various branches of secular learn- ing; it was also solemnly dedicated to the promotion of good manners, sound morality, and pure religion. This purpose of its founder is strongly marked in the constitution and laws, which were drafted by his own

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hand. "Above all," he says, " it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care ; well considering that, though goodness without knowledge is weak and fceble, yet knowledge without goodness is danger- ous, and that both united form the noblest charac- ter, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind." And "it is again declared that the first and principal design of this institution is the pro- moting of virtue and true piety, useful knowledge being subservient thereto." In conformity with this design, in October, 179I, the trustees appointed Rev. Joseph Buckminster, of Portsmouth, to be "a Pro- fessor of Divinity in the Phillips' Exeter Academy, and joint instructor with the Preceptor thereof," with a salary of one hundred and thirty-three and one-third pounds lawful money. He does not appear to have accepted this appointment ; but the office was revived in I817, and continued till 1838, Rev. Isaac Hurd, A.M., of Exeter, being the incumbent. It is probable that the founder looked forward to a time when the academy should cease to be a mere pre- paratory school for a thorough education to be com- pleted elsewhere, and should itself be developed into a college or a theological school or both combined.

At the same time the views of Dr. Phillips in re- spect to religious instruction were eminently liberal and catholic. He did not require the profession of any creed ; and two of the trustees originally ap- pointed by himself, besides three others of those who were chosen in his lifetime, and the first principal of the academy, Dr. Benjamin Abbot, held theological opinions that did not harmonize with his own. The school evidently was not intended to be, and has never been allowed to become, a mere sectarian insti- tution. One restriction is made, however, by a clause in the constitution established by Dr. Phillips, which declares that "Protestants only shall ever be con- cerned in the Trust or instruction of this seminary." In the solemn charge delivered by the Rev. Benjamin Thurston, in presence of the founder, to the first pre- ceptor of the academy this sentence occurs : "You will therefore, sir, make no discrimination in favor of any particular State, town, or family, on account of parentage, age, wealth, sentiments of religion, etc .; the institution is founded on principles of the most extensive liberality."

This charge formed a part of the inaugural cere- monies when the academy was formally opened, its first building set apart for its uses, and its first pre- ceptor, William Woodbridge, A.B., a graduate of Yale College, inducted into office, on Thursday, May 1, 1783. In the afternoon of that day, says the contem- porary record, " the Hon. Founder and Trustees, with many other gentlemen and a respectable auditory, attended in one of the meeting-houses in this town. The exercises began with singing, a prayer succeeded, by the Rev. Mr. Rogers, and an oration, on the Ad-

vantages of Learning and its happy Tendency to pro- mote Virtue and Piety, was delivered by Rev. David MeClure, A.M., with an address to the founder, trus- tees, and preceptor. The inaugurating ceremonies were performed by Mr. Thurston, a gentleman of the trust, with a particular address and a charge to the preceptor. Mr. Woodbridge, the preceptor, then pub- licly manifested his acceptance of the important charge, and pronounced an affectionate address to the trustees and auditory. A prayer was made by the Rev. Mr. Mansfield, and the whole was concluded by singing. Each part was performed with propriety and the solemnity suitable to the occasion ; the whole to universal acceptance."

Mr. MeClure's oration was published at the time, together with a copy of the academy charter granted by the Legislature of New Hampshire. Mr. Thurs- ton's charge, and the response by Woodbridge, also exist in manuscript, in the library of Harvard Col- lege, having been preserved by Mr. Mansfield. The original building, which was of small size and was afterwards converted into a dwelling-house, stood at some distance from the grounds on which the present academy edifice stands.

It is difficult to ascertain the precise amount of the funds with which the academy was originally en- dowed by its founder. At three different periods be- fore his death Dr. Phillips made over to the trustees considerable property in real estate, mortgages, and notes of hand, large portions of which needed to be held for several years before they could be profitably sold or converted into money. The original grant, dated Jan. 9, 1782, conveys real estate only, consist- ing of several parcels of land in Exeter, and farms or lots of land in a dozen other towns in the State. A second donation, made in March, 1787, was in promissory notes and mortgages, amounting to four thousand one hundred and sixty-four pounds lawful money ; and a third gift, which followed in 1789, was of a similar nature, but uncertain amount. Dr. Phil- lips died April 21, 1795, aged a little over seventy-, five years ; and his will, after reserving a slender life annuity to his widow, and a few trifling bequests, as tokens of affection, to his nephews and nieces, con- veys two-thirds of his whole remaining estate to. Phillips' Exeter Academy, and one-third to Andover Academy. Five years after his death, it appears from the treasurer's report that the trustees at Exeter then held as the property of the institution fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars in active funds, besides the Phillips mansion-house, then oc- cupied by Dr. Abbot, and the academy building and grounds. As it is stated in the same report that " all these sums have arisen from the benevolent gifts" of the founder, it is evident that his whole endowment of the institution amounted to at least sixty-five thousand dollars, or a little more than twice as much as he gave to the sister academy at Andover. Con- sidering the time and the place, this may well be

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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

called princely munificence ; nothing like it can be found in the history of this country up to the begin- ning of the present century. And if we look further to the many eminent men who have been educated at this seminary, a large number of whom could not have pursued their studies without the peculiar aids and facilities which it afforded, and to its influence in keeping up a high standard of scholarship and morals, while serving as a nursery for the principal colleges of New England, especially for Harvard, it may well be said that never was munificence applied to a nobler or more judiciously selected end.

But few particulars can be added to this meagre account of the life and character of Dr. Phillips. Tradition represents him as reserved and almost shy in his manners, punctilions in courtesy to others and in exacting the respect due to himself, strict in his notions of integrity and honor, and expansive only in his secret sympathies and his projects of far-reaching benevolence. We catch an interesting glimpse of him, as he appeared to those within his family circle, from a letter to Dr. Soule, the present principal of the academy, written by the late venerable Josiah Quincy in 1855, when the writer was already eighty- three years old. Alluding to the Phillips family, Mr. Quincy says, in his own warm-hearted way, " Would to heaven that I could express fully all that I feel, and all that lowe, and all that the country owes to that name and family ! John Phillips, your founder, I knew well, that is, as a boy of fourteen could be expected to know, and realize the worth of, a man of perhaps sixty. About the year 1785, I visited him at Exeter in his family, with my mother, who was his niece. I spent three or four days there, and partook of his simple meals. I heard him at his family de- votions. I shall never forget the patriarchal sweet- ness of his countenance, or the somewhat stern, yet not unattractive, manner in which he greeted and responded. He had an austere faith, softened by natural temperament and inherent kindliness of spirit. I rejoice that the spirit of his benevolence yet lives and breathes on the spot he selected for its abode, and that it bears the Phillips name upwards from its foundation to its height."

Mr. Woodbridge, the first preceptor of the academy, was compelled by ill health to resign his office in the summer of 1788, and in the following October, Ben- jamin Abbot, a gradnate of Harvard of that year, who had held a distinguished rank in his class as a scholar, was appointed his successor. It was a for- tunate choice; the reputation of the academy for scholarship and good morals, for harmony and affec- tion of the students for each other and for their prin- cipal, began with the opening of his administration, and continued till its close. It remains unabated to this day. The present head of the institution has always followed the spirit and principles of his ad- ministration, even while introducing such changes and improvements as the progress of the age in the

modes of teaching and in the range of scholarship rendered necessary.

Dr. Abbot's firmness and dignity of character, united with great natural sweetness of disposition and suavity of manners, served admirably to reduce to practice and enforce the laws. He never met the youngest academy scholar in the street withont lift- ing his hat entirely from his head, as in courteons recognition of an equal; and an abashed and awk- ward attempt to return the compliment was the urchin's first lesson in good manners and respect for his teacher. He had strong feelings, but a reserve amounting almost to timidity kept down the expres- sion of them, except when he deemed the interests of morality or religion were at stake, and even then the tones of his voice were low and his speech de- liberate, though his frame quivered with earnest- ness. His government was always successful because it was not in his nature to be stern or passionate ; and as he always allowed the offender time to delib- erate and become sorry for his fault before sentence was pronounced, the punishment never seemed un- just even to the culprit.

To those who never studied under Dr. Abbot this picture may seem overcharged ; but it was not mere accident which procured for him uninterrupted suc- cess and surpassing influence as head of the academy for fifty years, or which gave him snch pupils as Lewis Cass, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, Daniel Webster, Leverett Saltonstall, Nathaniel A. Haven, Joseph G. Cogswell, Theodore Lyman, Edward Everett, the twin Peabodys, John A. Dix, John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, George Bancroft, Jonathan Chapman, Ephraim Peabody, and a host of others whom the country delights to honor. It was partly good fortune and partly the exercise of a sound dis- cretion which procured for him, at different times during the half-century, such assistant instructors as Dr. Daniel Dana, Nicholas Emery, Joseph S. Buck- minster, Nathan Hale, Alexander H. Everett, Na- thaniel A. Haven, President Nathan Lord, Dr. Henry Ware, Jr., President James Walker, and Dr. Gideon L. Soule.

In August, 1838, Dr. Abbot, who had then com- pleted the fiftieth year of his services as principal and had begun to feel the infirmities of age, resigned his office. A large number of his former pupils, many of whom had attained the highest honors in professional and public life, assembled once more within the walls of the academy, to pay a fitting tribute of gratitude and respect to their venerated teacher at this golden period of his life. The Abbot Festival, as it was called, was a remarkable meeting, unprecedented in character, and as honorable to those who engaged in it with great interest and zeal as to him whose pro- tracted labors in the moral and intellectual culture of the young were there brought to a elose. Mr. Web- ster presided at the dinuer which was given on the occasion, and led the way in the hearty and eloquent

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expression of the sentiments entertained by the whole assemblage towards his and their old "master." Members of all the professions, judges and distin- guished scholars, ambassadors, and members of Con- gress followed, each with a tribute of admiration and respect for his former teacher or with some pleasant reminiscences of his school-boy days. Among those who thus spoke were Edward Everett, Judge Emery, Dr. Palfrey, Alexander H. Everett, Leverett Salton- stall, Jonathan Chapman, and John P. Hale. Songs were sung which had been written for the occasion by Dr. H. Ware, Jr., and Mr. A. F. Hildreth. In be- half of the old pupils, whether present or absent, Mr. Webster presented to their venerable teacher an elegant silver vase, as a token of their love and abid- ing reverence. His portrait, by Harding, had been secured for the occasion, and is now the property of the academy, and hangs in the chapel with Stuart's portrait of its founder and those of Webster, Cass, Bancroft, Hildreth, Sibley, etc. One white-headed man rose and claimed a distinction which, he said, " could belong to no other man living. You were his scholars, I was his teacher. It was little that I had to impart, but that little was most cheerfully given. I well remember the promise he then gave, and Provi- dence has been kind in placing him in just that posi- tion where his life could be most usefully and honor- ably spent."

This former instructor of one who had taught others for half a century was the Hon. Jeremiah Smith, a member of Congress from 1791 to 1797, afterwards chief justice, and subsequently Governor of New Hampshire. He resided in Exeter, and was for many years president and treasurer of the trustees of the academy, its prosperity being largely promoted by his , as this fund becomes available, the allowance to each foundation scholar can be increased, and the whole number of such scholars considerably enlarged. The scholarships at present are twenty in number, sup- plied by the original fund, and the gift of the late Jeremiah Kingman, of Barrington.

wise counsels and discreet management. In early life he had been an assistant instructor in Phillips' Acad- emy, Andover, and among his pupils he could men- tion two presidents of Harvard College, Dr. Kirkland and Mr. Quincy, besides Dr. Abbot. Judge Smith died in September, 1842, at the ripe age of eighty- two, and was buried in the old cemetery at Exeter, not far from the marble monument that covers the remains of Dr. Phillips. Dr. Abbot survived, in a serene and prosperous old age, till October, 1849, when he too, at the age of eighty-seven, rested from his labors. A few years after the festival, his former pupils subscribed two thousand dollars for the estab- lishment at Harvard College of the " Abbot Scholar- ship," the annual income from which is now devoted to paying the college expenses of some meritorious student from Exeter Academy.

For one great advantage which the academy has possessed from the outset over other classical schools in New England it is indebted to the wisdom and benevo- lence of its founder, who determined that meritorious students, whose circumstances required such aid, should not only have free tuition, but should be in great part maintained at the expense of the institu-

tion. Before 1800 the number of students "on the foundation," as it was called, appears to have been ten, which was perhaps one-sixth or one-eighth part of the whole average number. These foundation seholars were not distinguished in any manner from the other pupils, except by poverty and merit ; what they received, therefore, was not regarded as alms, but as rewards for scholarship and good character, and as necessary aid in prosecuting their studies. They bad all the privileges of the academy without charge, and their board and room-rent in private families were defrayed out of the funds. Of course, the hope of obtaining one of these "scholarships"- for such they really were-attracted many poor but able and ambitious students from a distance, and formed a bond for their good behavior and diligent effort while at Exeter. Their example diffused a spirit of industry and good conduct among their class- mates; they were freed from anxiety about their sup- port, and were fairly started on their course by being enabled to enter college while yet unencumbered with debt. Among them were some of those whose names have just been mentioned, and many other eminent graduates of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Bow- doin could never have obtained a liberal education but for this encouragement and help received at the beginning.

One of their number, John Langdon Sibley, gave a signal proof of his gratitude for the essential aid which one of these scholarships rendered him many years ago by making over to the academy an accumulating fund, now amounting to many thousand dollars, the whole to be ultimately applied to aiding students " of pov- erty and merit" in prosecuting their studies. As soon

But the trustees have not waited for further en- dowments before attempting to increase the useful- ness of the academy in this direction. Early in the present century the number of these scholarships was raised to twelve, and within a few years it has been increased to twenty. About fifteen years ago they erected on the academy grounds, at a cost of over twenty thousand dollars, a large brick building, called Abbot Hall, in commemoration of the services of Dr. Abbot, in which are furnished rooms for fifty students. A foundation scholar now has free tuition, the use of a modestly furnished room without charge for rent, and an average sum of one dollar and sixty-three cents a week towards the expense of his food. There is also a small fund to aid the needy in purchasing the necessary text-books.

About twenty years ago Mr. John Langdon Sibley, the librarian of Harvard College, contributed three hundred dollars for this purpose, partly as a bequest

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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

from his father and partly as his own gift, the income of which is to be applied to buying text-books, pro- vided that "no one can have any part of it if he uses opinm, ardent spirits, or tobacco in any form, except when prescribed by a physician." The only other additions to the original endowment by Dr. Phillips are a bequest by Nicholas Gilman, made many years ago, of one thousand dollars, the income of which is to be expended for instruction in vocal music, and one hundred dollars by the late Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, to purchase books for the academy li- brary.

While the funds of the institution have thus been liberally used in promoting the cause of classical ed- ucation and in assisting poor students, they have also been husbanded with great care and extraordinary sue- cess. The instruction afforded by the academy has al- ways been practically free to all, as only a very moder- ate charge is made for it to those who are able to pay, and this charge is uniformly remitted to those whose circumstances are such that the payment of it would be inconvenient. The productive funds of the acad- emy in notes and stocks now amount to two hundred thousand dollars, and its real estate, consisting of five or six aeres of land in the village, the academy building, Abbot Hall, and the house of the princi- pal, may fairly be valued at thirty-five thousand dollars more. The original endowment by the founder has thus been almost exactly doubled merely by savings from income and profitable investments, while all the beneficent purposes of Dr. Phillips have been car- ried into full effect, and no opportunity to extend the usefulness of the institution, even beyond his original design, has been omitted for want of aid from the funds. Probably a better or more successfully man- aged charity could not be found in the country.

The academy building, a wooden structure erected in 1794, to which wings were added about twenty-five years afterwards, was burned Dec. 17, 1870, and the present neat and commodious brick structure was erected in 1871, at a cost, including furniture, of about fifty thousand dollars. Its expense was defrayed by its alumni and other friends.

The academy was for many years exclusively a clas- sical school, but now embraces an English course, and practice in sacred music is also given to those mem- bers of the academy who desire it and have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the rudiments to enable them to sustain a part in easy church music.

In 1808 what was called an English department was created in the academy, under a separate in- structor, for the benefit of those who wished to be taught only mathematics and the physical and moral sciences. The instruction in this department, under the general supervision of the principal, was given by a "Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy," who was supplied on a moderate scale with the appa- ratns needed for chemical and physical experiments. Rev. Hosea Hildreth, an accomplished teacher and

thinker, held this post for fourteen years; and among his successors, those who held office for the longest time were Mr. Joseph H. Abbot and Mr. J. G. Hoyt, afterwards chancellor of Washington University at St. Louis. This branch of the academy was continued with good success for about forty years, when it was discontinued. The present English course was sub- sequently established by a gift to the academy from the late Woodbridge Odlin, Esq., of Exeter. An Eng- lish course of study has been established for the benefit of students who do not desire to pursue classical studies. The course extends through three years. At the dis- cretion of the faculty it may include Latin.

It is provided that ten students from Exeter may be received to this conrse free, if that number of compe- tent students belonging to the town apply who lack the means to pay the usual tuition fees.

There is now an average number of one hundred and eighty students in the academy at any one time, and of these about forty or fifty leave at the close of each academic year in order to enter college. Up to the present time about five thousand two hundred students have entered the academy.

As the institution is supported almost entirely by its own funds, it has never sought to attract students by offering to fit them for college in the shortest possible time, by excessive leniency to the undeserving, or by adopting showy but superficial modes of instruction. Mild but firm discipline and a high standard of schol- arship are easily maintained by a process of elimina- tion instead of punishment; the feeble, indolent, or insubordinate pupil after a short trial is privately told that he must seek some other school in which his errors may be corrected. A system of rigid classifica- tion is maintained, and no student is admitted except to a class for which he is fully qualified. The regular course of instruction covers only four years, three of which are occupied with studies preparatory for admis- sion to college, while the fourth corresponds to the freshman year at Harvard. The period thus allotted is so short that only young men of good talents and persevering industry are able to accomplish the re- quired work. The trustees have never been ambitious to increase the number of students in the academy, but only to maintain and advance its reputation for good morals, high scholarship, and hearty co-operation and good feeling between the teachers and the tanght.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714