USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 26
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About the middle of the seventeenth century the colony of Massachusetts passed a law that every town of fifty families should maintain a schoolmaster capable of teaching children to read and write, and every town of one hundred families should set up a grammar school, provided with a teacher qualified to prepare boys to enter the university, that is, Harvard College. And this law, in substance, was continued in force in the province of New Hampshire after its separation from Massachusetts.
For two generations or more, the limited population of Exeter required the maintenance of elementary schools only, and had not reached the number of families which obliged the town to support
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a grammar and classical teacher. But somewhere near the begin- ning of the last century the increase of inhabitants had probably made it necessary to provide facilities for the higher grade of in- struction.
At the annual town meeting in April, 1703, a vote was passed that the selectmen should hire a schoolmaster for a year, "to keep school three months in the old meeting-house, and the rest of the year at their discretion."
The next year the town voted to sell the old meeting-house, and "to build a school-house at the town's charge, and set it below Jonathan Thing's house next the river."
In 1706 the rather indeterminate vote was passed, that "the town would have a schoolmaster hired."
No school-house had been built in the spring of 1707, for the town then resolved :
That the school-house be built on the land the town bought of Mr. Coffin by the new meeting-house, forthwith ; to be thirty feet in length, twenty feet in breadth and eight feet stud.
There is no reason to doubt that this order was carried out ; and we may therefore picture to ourselves this first building erected purposely for a school-house in Exeter, standing on the opposite side of the way from the meeting-house, in dimensions one-half larger than the earliest known house of worship in the town. It was intended for the grammar or Latin school, without doubt. The records show that schools of less pretensions were also kept for longer or shorter terms in the more distant parts of the town.
LIST OF EARLY INSTRUCTORS.
We do not learn who filled the important station of head of the grammar school before the year 1714, but from that date the account books of the selectmen give the names of the successive masters, with few interruptions, to the close of the century. It will be observed that they were generally college graduates. The following is the list, which includes also the names of such teachers of other schools as are given.
Jonathan Pierpont (Harvard College 1714), 1714 and 1715 Nicholas Perryman* and Enoch Coffin (H. C. 1714), 1716.
* Mr. Perryman was a native of England, and a man of excellent education. He became a lawyer and practised in Exeter.
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Nicholas Perryman, 1717, 1718.
Joseph Parsons (H. C. 1720) and Robert Hale (H. C. 1721), 1720, 1721.
Robert Hale and John Graham, 1722.
Ward Clark (H. C. 1723), 1723, 1724.
Benjamin Choate (H. C. 1703 ?), 1729.
Elisha Odlin (H. C. 1731), 1730.
Nicholas Gilman, Jr. (H. C. 1724), 1731, 1732.
Cartee Gilman, 1732.
Peter Coffin (H. C. 1733) and William Graves, 1733.
Elisha Odlin, 1734.
Meshech Weare (H. C. 1735), 1735.
Cartee Gilman (on north side of river) and Edward Barnard (H. C. 1736), 1736.
Peter Coffin, 1736.
Maverick Gilman's wife (at Deer Hill), Cartee Gilman (on south side), 1737.
Nicholas Gilman, Jr., and Edward Barnard, 1737.
Elisha Odlin, 1738.
John Creighton (on Deer Hill road), Abigail Conner (at Mast swamp), 1739.
Woodbridge Odlin (H. C. 1738), 1739, 1740.
John Creighton (on Deer Hill road), 1740.
Joel Judkins's wife (on white pine plain), Elisha Odlin (at Deer Hill), 1741.
Woodbridge Odlin, 1741, 1742.
Jonathan Glidden (at Tuckaway), 1742.
Mr. (John) Phillips (H. C. 1735), 1742, 1743.
Elisha Odlin, 1743.
John Creighton, 1744.
John Chandler (H. C. 1743) and Nehemiah Porter (H. C. 1745), 1745. Nathaniel Gilman (H. C. 1746), 1746.
Nathaniel Gilman and John Creighton, 1747.
Stephen Emery (H. C. 1730?) and Nathaniel Gilman, 1748, 1749.
Cartee Gilman, Samuel Brooks (H. C. 1749) and John Creighton, 1749, 1750.
Ebenezer Adams (H. C. 1747) and John White (H. C. 1751), 1751, 1752.
John Feveryear (H. C. 1751), John White and Samuel Brooks, 1753.
William Parker (H. C. 1751) and Samuel Brooks, 1755.
Samuel Brooks, 1756, 1757, 1758.
Joseph Pearson (H. C. 1758), 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1765. Tristram Gilman (H. C. 1757), 1761.
Moses Badger (H. C. 1761), Dr. Joseph Tilton, Theophilus Smith, Jr. (H. C. 1761), 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770.
Joseph Pearson, 1770, 1771.
Philip Babson, 1772.
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Joseph Pearson, Abraham Perkins, Joseph Cummings (H. C. 1768), 1772, 1773.
John Frothingham (H. C. 1771), 1773.
Thomas Burnham (H. C. 1772), 1773, 1774.
Isaac Sherman (Y. C. 1770), 1774.
Joseph Pearson, William Fogg (H. C. 1774), 1778.
Dudley Odlin (H. C. 1777), 1779.
Nathaniel Healy (H. C. 1777), Dudley Odlin, William Fogg, 1780. Dudley Odlin, 1781.
Dudley Odlin, William Fogg, Nathaniel Parker (H. C. 1779), 1782. Joseph Lamson (H. C. 1741 ?), William Fogg, 1783.
Andrew Hinman, William Fogg, 1784.
Andrew Hinman, Joseph Lamson, John Morrison, 1785.
Leonard Whiting, John Morrison, 1786.
Rev. Isaac Mansfield (H. C. 1767), Jonathan Fifield Sleeper (D. C. 1786), Ephraim Robinson, Jr., William Peabody, 1789.
Isaac Mansfield, 1790.
Caleb Robinson, Jonathan F. Sleeper, 1792.
TOWN ORDERS CONCERNING SCHOOLS.
It may be of interest to give a brief synopsis of the action of the town, from time to time, in respect to their schools, in the last century.
In 1728 the town ordered that " the school shall be kept five months in the school-house, four months at Pickpocket and three months at Ass brook."
This yearly division of the instruction, so that the children of each section of the town might enjoy their equitable proportion of its advantages, was kept up for a considerable time.
In 1734 it was wisely determined that the school be kept the ensning year in the school-house or in the town-honse, "which the schoolmaster should think best."
In 1739 the following vote was adopted :
That there be £120 raised by the selectmen to be improved in schooling in manner following : the proportion of money raised within the limits hereafter mentioned be improved in keeping school in the town-house or school-house ; that end of the town called Ass brook to belong to the town school and the road that leads to Newmarket, and Pickpocket road as far as Richard York's, and the road to Philip Wadleigh's, and all the people that live thereabont ; all the people in those limits to be accounted to the town school, and the remaining part of the town to have their proportion of money to be improved in schooling.
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In the year 1742 the appropriation for schools had been in- creased to one hundred and forty pounds, and the selectmen were instructed " to hire a standing school in the town for the year ensuing ; and that the several branches of the town have their share of the money allowed to them in proportion to what they pay ; and in case the £140 voted be not sufficient therefor, that they be empowered to raise a sufficiency."
In 1747 the arrangement for schools adopted by the town was as follows :
Voted, That the selectmen raise so much money for the school as that the part paid by the inhabitants between Capt. John Gilman's on Tuckaway road and the little river on Kingston road, and on the neck road and so farther as to take in Major Ezekiel Gilman on Newmarket road and Peter Folsom on Hampton road, shall be sufficient to keep a Latin school, and that the money that the other parts pay shall be for keeping school as they shall agree o1.
Ou the twenty-eighth of April, 1755, at a meeting of the town it was voted that the selectmen "have liberty to part off a con- venient part of the town-house and build a chimney in it so that the town be at no cost for the same, but at the cost of private persons, and be for the use of the school."
In 1768 the town gave the selectmen authority to get the old town bell recast into a bell for the use of the school ; but as the people who lived outside its sound were to get no benefit from it, it was considerately added that the outskirts of the town were to be at no cost for it.
FORMATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
In the year 1805 a law was enacted by the Legislature of New Hampshire, providing for the separation of towns into districts for the purpose of maintaining schools. In conformity thereto the town appointed a committee to examine, and recommend a proper partition, and in 1807 voted to divide the town into six districts, as reported by the committee. From that time, for three-quarters of a century, the duty of providing instructors for the public schools was taken from the selectmen, and imposed upon the officers of the several districts. This law has since been changed, without disturbance to the school system of the town.
It would be impracticable to furnish a list of all the teachers, even if it were desirable. Among those, however, who have enti-
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tled themselves by long and faithful service to particular remem- brance, may be mentioned the Rev. Ferdinand Ellis, and his two daughters, Charlotte and Rhoda, Benjamin B. Thompson, a vet- eran instructor, and Sperry French, who has for above a quarter of a century had the charge of a capital grammar school.
The superintending school committees appointed by the town have ordinarily been gentlemen of education, interested in the subject, and cheerfully giving much ill compensated labor to the object of improving the means of instruction. Their efforts and recommendations have contributed greatly to bring the system of schools up to its present state of efficiency. Several of their reports have been models of the art of enforcing sound sense by pleasantry. Those of the late Professor Joseph G. Hoyt were as full of wit as of wisdom.
The present school board consists of Messrs. John D. Lyman, John A. Brown and George W. Weston.
Of the various changes in the State laws which experience has dictated, for the promotion of popular education, that which pro- vided for the grading of schools was one of the most important, and was adopted in the town in the year 1847. A High school was established, in district No. 1, to which pupils from the other districts were admissible, and the grammar and primary schools were kept distinct. A handsome house for the High school was erected near the old town-house, on Court street.
The High school has had for its principal teachers the following persons : Elbridge G. Dalton (A. M., Dart. Coll. 1855) from 1848 to 1853 inclusive ; Joseph Eastman (Dart. Coll. 1850) for 1854; Nathan F. Carter (Dart. Coll. 1853) from 1855 to 1863 ; Orlando M. Fernald (Harv. Coll. 1864) for 1864; Lewis F. Dupee for 1866 and 1867 ; John T. Gibson (Dart. Coll. 1864) from 1867 to 1869, and for 1871 and 1872 ; Frederic A. Fogg (Bowd. Coll. 1869) and Martin II. Fisk (Dart. Coll. 1852) for 1870; Albion Burbank (Bowd. Coll. 1862) from 1872 to the present time.
The Iligh and the grammar schools have always maintained an excellent standing, notwithstanding the fact that for the last twenty years their pupils have been exclusively boys. This was the result of the establishment of the Robinson Female Seminary, which was open to all the girls above the age of nine years, and qualified for admission to the grammar schools. The fears of some advocates of the co-education of the sexes, that this separa- tion would work injury to both, have thus far not been realized.
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In addition to the schools described, the town has also one sub- grammar school, two intermediate, five primary, and three un- graded schools. The whole number of pupils is four hundred and ninety-four. The school board highly commend the schools, but strongly recommend that some of them should be better housed.
THE ROBINSON FEMALE SEMINARY.
William Robinson, a native of Exeter, left the town after reach- ing his majority, to seek his fortune elsewhere. In this he was highly successful, and at his death in Augusta, Georgia, where he had resided for many years, he left a large property. After making, by his will, a handsome provision for his widow and rel- atives, he appointed the town of Exeter his residuary legatee, in trust, for the purpose of establishing a female seminary in which " the course of instruction should be such as would tend to make female scholars equal to all the practical duties of life ; such a course of education as would enable them to compete, and suc- cessfully, too, with their brothers throughout the world, when they take their part in the actual duties of life." In admitting appli- cants to the advantages of the seminary he directed that, "all other things being equal, the preference should always be given to the poor and the orphan." There is little doubt that Mr. Robin- son, in making this disposition, had in mind the academy in his native town founded by Dr. John Phillips, for the education of boys, and intended to make this a companion institution for the other sex.
His death occurred during the civil war, which delayed for a time the announcement to the town of the contents of his will, but in the spring of 1865 the tidings were received. The town voted to accept the bequest, and appointed agents to receive it. The amount realized was about a quarter of a million of dollars.
A plan for the establishment and regulation of the seminary was carefully elaborated by a committee, and adopted by the town, and received the sanction of the Legislature of the State. It provided for a board of trustees to whom the government of the institution was committed, to consist of seven citizens, to be elected by the town, one each year, and to serve for the term of seven years. Any girl resident in the town who had reached the age of nine years, and was qualified for the grammar school, was entitled to enter the seminary, and enjoy its instruction without the payment of tuition.
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In order that there should be no delay in affording the benefits of the gift to all, a school was opened in 1867 in the old town hall for girls, answering the above requirement, and experienced teachers were employed. It was also determined to procure at once a suitable lot of land, and to erect a building for the seminary thereon. This was not accomplished without some difference of opinion which produced delay ; but on the fourth day of July, 1868, the corner-stone of the seminary building was laid on a commanding part of the tract of land, of near sixteen acres, which had been purchased in the western part of the village. In 1869 the structure was completed, of brick, with a granite basement, and three stories in height.
The seminary went into operation in September of the same year. Eben Sperry Stearns, a native of Bedford, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard College in 1841, was the first principal. He remained in charge of the institution until the year 1875, during which time the school was thoroughly organized, and proved to be a success. Mr. Stearns then accepted the offer of the pres- idency of a normal college at Nashville, Tennessee, and left Exeter. His successor in charge of the Robinson Seminary was Miss Harriet E. Paine, who discharged the duties for three years with acceptance, and was succeeded by Miss Annie M. Kilham in 1878. She resigned the position after five years of faithful ser- vice, and George N. Cross, A. M., was appointed principal, who has managed the school with much success to the present time.
The course of study is arranged to extend over a period of eight years, and there is also a course preparatory to admission to col- lege of three years. As complete an education can be obtained at the seminary as at almost any other institution of the kind in the country. Of course, the great majority of the pupils do not com- plete the course ; out of an attendance of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five, the number of graduates averages yearly about ten only. But far the larger number of the pupils remain long enough to acquire an education which renders them "equal to all the practical duties of life," and are undoubtedly great gainers by the means of instruction which the liberality of the founder of the seminary has placed within their reach.
Most of the students of the Robinson Seminary belong to Exeter, though non-residents may be admitted upon the payment of a small tuition, and a few such are always in the school.
The corps of instructors at the present time are these :
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George N. Cross, A. M., Principal, Natural Sciences and Elocution.
Adeline A. Knight, Latin and Greek.
Martha F. Rice, B. L., Higher Mathematics, English and Composition.
Lucy Bell, Drawing, Painting and Art Study.
Oscar Faulhaber, Ph. D., French and German.
Eliza C. Lufkin, Language, History, Physiology and Reading.
Georgie W. Shute, English Grammar, Geography and Natural History.
Maria L. Grouard, Arithmetic, Algebra and United States History.
Cecilia F. Gustine, Vocal Music.
Bessie P. Ordway, Assistant in the Laboratory.
The present board of trustees consists of the following residents :
Charles G. Conner, Henry C. Moses, George N. Proctor, William Bur- lingame, Edwin G. Eastman, George W. Furnald and Charles H. Gerrish.
THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY.
John Phillips was a son of the Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover, Massachusetts, and was born there December 27, 1719. Under his father's tuition he prepared himself to enter Harvard College at the age of twelve years, and graduated in 1735. For a while afterwards he was employed in teaching, at the same time study- ing medicine and divinity. He was admitted to the ministry but was never settled over a parish. In 1741 he came to Exeter, and there made his permanent home, at first as teacher of a Latin school ; but afterwards engaged in trade, which he found very profitable.
As he advanced in years and increased in wealth, he was more and more impressed with the desire of employing his property for benevolent and charitable uses. He contributed liberally to the funds of the infant Dartmouth College, and joined with his brother Samuel in founding the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
But his special project was to establish an educational insti- tution in his own town of Exeter. This he wisely accomplished in his lifetime, and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing it char- tered, organized and in successful operation before his death. The Phillips Exeter Academy was formally opened on the first day of May, 1783. Dr. Phillips endowed it by gift and devise with property to the amount of about sixty thousand dollars ; far the greatest sum that had at that time been devoted to such an enterprise in the country. He drew up with anxious care a con- stitution for the government of the institution, nominated a board
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of trustees of whom he was one, and naturally the president ; appointed the instructors, and for twelve years until his death in 1795, virtually directed everything connected with the Academy.
For the first few years the principal instructor was William Woodbridge, one of a line of preachers and teachers ; but by reason of ill health he gave np the position, and a singularly felic- itous appointment was made for his successor, of Benjamin Abbot, a native of Andover, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard College, in 1788. He possessed rare qualifications for the place, an amiable disposition, sound scholarship, the power of command, a high sense of responsibility and honor, and the combination of qualities that are implied in the expression " a complete gentle- man." Under his efficient charge the academy soon acquired that pre-eminence which it still, after the lapse of a century, retains.
Dr. Abbot was most efficiently aided in his preceptorial duties by a succession of able men and accomplished scholars, not a few of whom became afterwards distinguished as presidents and pro- . fessors of colleges or in the various walks of professional life. The names of Hosea Hildreth, Francis Bowen, Daniel Dana, Samnel D. Parker, Joseph S. Buckminster, Alexander II. Everett, Nathaniel A. Haven, Jr., Nathan Lord and Henry Ware, on the roll of instructors, are vouchers that no "journey-work " was allowed to pass, among the pupils.
To the first of these, Hosea Hildreth, the principal and the academy were especially indebted. He was educated for the min- istry, and occupied the pulpit a considerable part of his life. But he had exceptionally valuable qualities as a teacher. He was not content to guide his pupils in the humdrum style of the old peda- gogues. He possessed much originality and humor, and strove to rouse the pride and ambition of the students so as to bring out the best there was in them. The formation of the " Golden Branch " society, for the promotion of scholarship and literary training, was due to Professor Hildreth. For fourteen years he devoted his best powers to the work of instruction in the acad- emy, and his influence was peculiarly stimulating and elevating.
Nor was the list of Dr. Abbot's pupils less remarkable, for the number of those who subsequently rose to the highest rank in scholarship and in literature, in political and professional position. Among thein were Lewis Cass, Daniel Webster, Joseph G. Cogs- well, John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, John A.
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Dix, George Bancroft, Richard Hildreth, and many others scarcely inferior to them in celebrity.
Dr. Abbot, after having rounded out his half century of useful labor, resigned the principalship in 1838, on which occasion there was a great assemblage of his pupils, to do him honor.
His successor was Dr. Gideon L. Soule, a native of Freeport, Maine, and a graduate of Bowdoin College in 1818. IIe had been a pupil of Dr. Abbot, and afterwards associated with him as a professor of ancient languages in the academy for a number of years. He was fully indoctrinated with the views and methods of his old preceptor, was a thorough classical scholar, and possessed rare natural qualities for the high post to which he was promoted. He was of commanding presence and dignified manners ; and understood well how to appeal to the best instincts of his pupils. Like his predecessor he had the gift of command, and was a thorough gentleman in the best sense of the term, courteous, high minded, just and generous in his treatment of all. He also was ably supported by the professors and teachers associated with him in his work. One of the number, now no more, was Professor Joseph G. Hoyt, afterwards appointed Chancellor of the Washing- ton University, St. Louis, Missouri. In some respects he was the counterpart of his predecessor, Professor Hosea Hildreth. Ile had much of the same impatience with outgrown methods, and much of the same power of impressing his own personality upon his associates and pupils. He was not only not afraid of novel- ties, but courted them. He never half supported a measure ; he was for it or against it with his whole might. The scheme of allowing greater liberty to the students, and of trusting more to their own self-government, he supported with characteristic warmth. He was in the board of instruction for eighteen years, and few of those connected with the academy from the beginning have left a more marked impress upon its management and char- acter than Professor Hoyt.
Although Dr. Soule was not one given to innovation, it was during his rule, and with his assent, that a radical change was in- angurated in discipline and methods in the academy. A wider liberty was allowed to the students ; they were treated more like men, and less like children. They were taught that in their con- duct they were to be governed by the unwritten code of propriety and honor which is recognized as the fundamental principle of every moral and enlightened community, and not by any set of
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written regulations. Instead of studying, as theretofore, under the eye of an instructor, they were permitted to prepare their lessons in their own rooms, and only required to assemble at the academy for recitations, usually thrice each day, and for prayers. This was a critical experiment to make, perhaps, and its success depended greatly upon the disposition of the pupils to wisely use, and not abuse, the greater freedom granted them. The reliance placed upon their good sense and self-control was not mistaken. The adoption of the new plan has never been regretted ; and the good effects of it are visible in the increase of manliness and self- respect among the great majority of the students.
After Dr. Soule had completed his fiftieth year of duty, as a professor and as principal of the academy, he retired from active employment, bearing with him the respect and cordial affection of his associates and of the numerous body of pupils who had enjoyed the great advantage of his instruction and his example.
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