USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 18
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That the early settlers and proprietors of Haverhill were fully alive to the advantages arising from institutions for advanced education is proven by the efforts they put forth to secure for the town the location of Dartmouth College which had been chartered by Governor Wentworth in December, 1769. What might have been is of course not history, but the story of what Haverhill narrowly missed is at least an interesting one. The Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock had for some years maintained an Indian Charity School at Lebanon, Conn., but circumstances had arisen which made advisable its removal, and coincident with its removal its enlargement into an academy, seminary, or college. Dr. Wheelock was inclined at first to locate in New York or Pennsylvania, but his attention was later directed to the Coös country in New Hampshire, and as early as 1767 a movement was inaugurated on the part of several towns in the Connecticut Valley to secure the college location. In January, 1768, the Rev. Peter Powers wrote Dr. Wheelock from Newbury, recommending
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that region as the best in the Connecticut Valley, though he expressed little confidence of benefiting the Indians of the locality. He wrote:
The Indians who come here are a miserable, abandoned, drunken, frenchified popish crew, so effectually prejudiced against religion that there seems little hope of doing them any good, though perhaps some of their posterity may be reclaimed; but the school may be of advantage to about a hundred new townships in this part of the country.
A little later Col. Israel Morey and others of Orford recommended this town, and then the claims of Lyme, Campton and Plymouth were urged. The Rev. Ebenezer Cleveland had been sent out by Dr. Wheelock, during the summer and autumn of 1768, to investigate and make report on desirable locations for the college in New Hampshire. He first visited Campton, Plymouth and Rumney and was disposed to favor one of these towns, preferably Campton. He next visited Coos on the Connecticut River.
The inhabitants of that new country were universally much engaged to have the school fixed there, both from a respect to Dr. Wheelock's person and a regard to the general design. . . Several places were more especially set up-namely, Haverhill, Pier- mont, Orford, Lebanon, Plainfield, Claremont, Charlestown and Walpole-those in which it appeared the greatest donations would centre. . . . Large subscriptions have been made and are still making which centre in particular towns, the principal of which were Haverhill and Orford. Their situation is very pleasant, and their soil very fertile,-their lands so much improved and so fertile that there is already a sufficient supply of provisions for the school. At Haverhill is a farm of about 600 acres of excel- lent land, about 150 of which are under good improvements-all within two bows of the river, which is a sufficient outside fence; and it is otherwise suitably divided and secured by good fences, has on it a large and well finished barn on one bow and also a good corn- barn on the other bow; also a good gristmill and sawmill, and something for a house. It is beautifully situated in the centre of the town and other lands may be had to accommodate it here, 5,600 acres are already subscribed for that end. At Orford they have already subscribed 2,100 acres of land and about £80 sterling in labor and materials for building. Besides the offers already mentioned, upwards of 2,000 acres are subscribed on condition it shall be fixed in either of the above mentioned towns.
The English patrons headed by Lord Dartmouth upon whom Dr. Wheelock relied for financial aid and support wrote him from London under date of April 3, 1769:
We are unanimously of the opinion that the most advantageous situation for carrying on the great purposes of your school will be in one of the townships belonging to the district of Cowass in the government of New Hampshire, agreeably to the proposal of Governor Wentworth and the gentlemen who have generously expressed their intention of contributing to that design; but whether Haverhill or Orford may be the most eligible for this purpose, we must leave to your judgment to determine. According to the best information we can procure of the state of those towns, we think you may give the pref- erence to the former, especially if the farm which you mention as very convenient for an immediate supply of provisions can be procured upon reasonable terms.
The charter of the college bears date of December 30, 1769, and this was followed by the grant of the town of Landaff to the college, January
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25, 1770. The competition for the location of the college began afresh. Governor Wentworth's views as to location were made known to Dr. Wheelock in a letter under date of January 29, 1770: "Upon the whole I consent to Bath, Landaff or Haverhill, the college to have at least one hundred acres adjoining, and to stand not less than a mile from the river." Col. Israel Morcy of Orford wrote Dr. Wheelock that his judgment favored the selection of Haverhill.
Col. Alexander Phelps, son-in-law of Dr. Wheelock, was the principal agent in securing the charter, and acted for him also in fixing the location. He set out Janaury 30, 1770, from Portsmouth for Coös, expecting to meet Dr. Wheelock there. In a letter to a correspondent that same day Dr. Wheelock wrote of the location "three towns are bidding for it, Haverhill, Orford and Hanover." This is the first mention of Hanover in any official correspondence, but in September, 1769, Dr. Edward Freeman of Mansfield, Conn., in writing to his son Jonathan who had settled in Hanover said, concerning the location of the college: "I have heard transiently that Dr. Wheelock thinks likely in Hanover, or in Orford, or in another town. I know not the name. The doctor, as I hear, says Hanover is settled with the most serious, steady inhabitants." Hanover and Lebanon, so far as they had been settled at all, had been settled from Connecticut, a fact not without significance.
Colonel Phelps must have understood that he had authority from Dr. Wheelock to fix the location, in case he did not meet the latter in Coös. Leaving Portsmouth January 30, 1870, he spent the month of February and a large part of March in Coös. After a thorough examina- tion of the offers made he selected Haverhill and made contracts for the purchase of materials and the erection of the buildings. The site deter- mined upon as shown by plan, preserved in Chase's History of Dartmouth College, was just above the village of North Haverhill opposite the Great Oxbow, on the plain which was then the principal settlement of the town, and a part of which was later taken as a site for the Grafton County buildings. No more beautiful location could be imagined.
Deeds of neighboring lands, partly given and partly purchased, on both sides the river, including some of the best of the Great Meadow were executed (some to the College and some to Wheelock) and deposited in the hands of Colonel Bailey, Colonel Porter and Mr. Coleman, awaiting Wheelock's acceptance. Of five thousand acres lying in Haverhill, Newbury and Bath, the subscriptions are preserved, running four-fifths to the college and one-fifth to Wheelock. Besides outlying lands, there were given 180 acres on and near the Great Oxbow, and 165 acres of adjoining high lands for business purposes. The plan exhibits but a part of it. There was a barn 45 feet by 30 completely finished and a small house 16 by 16, finished on the outside. There were also subscriptions for money, materials and labor (even down to the 'macking two pear of lethern briches') for which notes were to be given by June 1st, payable by October 1st with interest; and contracts were made for other materials and buildings.1
1 Chase's History of Dartmouth College, pp. 130, 131.
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In the warrant for a meeting of the Haverhill proprietors to be held April 6, 1770, there was an article "to see if the proprietors would give anything to Dartmouth College, Dr. Wheelock, or Colonel Phelps, or either of them, as an 'incouragement' for said college being fixed in said township." The proprietors made generous response. They "voted to give to Revd 'Elitzer' Wheelock, D. D., fifty acres of land in Haverhill lying on Capt. John Hazen's Mill Brook (Poole Brook) where there is a convenient waterfall for a mill and to be laid out in a convenient form for a mill, provided Dartmouth College should be located in Haverhill." These fifty acres would be near, if not indeed adjoining, the site selected by Colonel Phelps for the college, and were of the greatest possible value, in connection with the sawmill privilege, to aid in the erection of buildings.
The official correspondence indicates that all these proceedings were known to Governor Wentworth and had his cordial approval, and Colonel Phelps seems to have entertained no doubts as to his authority as the representative of Dr. Wheelock in determining on the Haverhill location. Colonel Phelps was not a Haverhill partisan. He had large interests in Orford, and at first made active to secure the location for that town, but he assented to a transfer of the Orford interest and support to Haverhill.
The action of Colonel Phelps in selecting Haverhill led to a great out- cry on the part of the disappointed towns, and there was a union of the towns of Plainfield, Hartford, Lebanon, Norwich and Hanover in favor of the latter place. The interests of Hanover seem to have been placed in the hands of James March, an acquaintance of Dr. Wheelock and an early and prominent settler of the town, and he began a most active campaign. He wrote to Dr. Wheelock under date of March 13, 1770, attacking, at least by insinuation, Colonel Phelps:
I would also take the liberty to inform you that the people in these parts imagine that the colonel (Colonel Phelps) does not give a fair representation, and they think not with- out reason for their imagination, for Mr. Powers has told John Wright that the colonel, being in company with Colonel Moulton, put the question whether Colonel Moulton would give him half his interest he had in Orford if he would get it in that town, adding that his interest there did not cost Colonel Moulton so much as it had cost him in that business, Colonel Moulton telling him that he would take it into consideration and send him a letter with the promise of fifty pounds if he should obtain it at Orford; at which Colonel Phelps showed great resentment for so trifling a sum being offered. This here, together with much of his talk, gave them to suspect that if he be not bribed, his is trying to advance his own interest.
It became freely charged that Colonel Phelps had sold the college to Haverhill. His letter to Dr. Wheelock dated March 22, 1770, from Hebron, Conn., whither he had returned after concluding his negotiations at Haverhill which he believed to be final, speaks for itself. The follow- ing is a part:
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As you remember, I set out in the affair in November last expressly instructed by you to "transact the whole affair relative to said college according to my own prudence," with the advice of such as I should think fit to consult; also that when the charter should be obtained and recorded, then I should proceed to take the deeds of land given to the school and yourself, in doing which your express direction was that I should keep my "eye on getting as much land near and convenient for speedy improvement for the present support " of your family and school as might be, and that I should bring home the several offers to induce the preference for a site of the school in the several places, and the governors reasons for preferring the place we should choose to fix it in; and also that I should see what "materials for buildings might be had on the spot," viz .: Boards, etc. And in order to execute my commission, I was obliged to show the same to His Excel- lency and the rest of the Trustees in New Hampshire, who considered you as the prin- cipal actor in the whole affair, and as such acting with them by me, and I also considered myself as personating you in the whole affair. .
. The occasion of my writing at this time is a hint which is spreading that in my late tour in the affair of the college I acted without book, which is spread and is spreading by such persons as I fear you will have reason, when too late, to consider as angues in herbis, let their present connections with the college be ever so near, which hint, if it should reach the governor, will not serve any good purpose. . I had the happiness to gain the governor's friendship to the college and to you, when it was most certainly very cold; and as I left him a hearty friend in these regards, I hope he will continue such. His friendship lost will hardly be regained. As to such lands, such laborers, etc., which I engaged, if it is likely you shall not have them, I wish I might know, if my knowing would not disserve your cause, that I might write to them, which I promised to do, and now have no opportunity.
In the latter part of May or early in June Dr. Wheelock made his first visit to Coös, and visited the different towns which had made bids for the location of the college. He, of course, visited Haverhill, though there is no record of how long he remained. He was in Hanover the first week in June, when Colonel Phelps joined him and his party. Additional sub- scriptions to those already made for Hanover or Lebanon from Charles- town, Claremont, Cornish, Plainfield, Lebanon and Hanover, and from Hartford, Norwich and Hartland across the river, were handed in. He then proceeded to Campton. While there he received a letter from Gov- ernor Wentworth and the other Portsmouth trustees earnestly and unan- imously recommending that the college be built in Landaff, or if that were impracticable, in Haverhill. While at Plymouth Dr. Wheelock wrote his wife under date of June 25, and referring to the letter he had received from the Portsmouth trustees while at Campton said: "I am setting out tomorrow to wait upon the gentlemen, and hope to convince them that what they propose is impracticable. Mr. Moses Little and Colonel Bayley are with me and design to set out tomorrow morning for Portsmouth."
It is evident that Dr. Wheelock went to Portsmouth with his mind fully made up to locate the college in Hanover. On arriving there Colonel Bayley, who accompanied him, made his final appeal for Haverhill in the following letter:
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PORTSMOUTH, June 29, 1770.
Honble and Revd-In the capacity of agent for the Towns of Newbury and Haverhill I promise and Ingage (if Dartmouth College is placed in said Haverhill in New Hampe) that out of the subscriptions of said Haverhill and Newbury and the town of Bath, that three thousand acres shall be laid out in a convenient farm at the Corner of Haverhill adjoining the southwest corner of the town of Landaff and one thousand acres more laid out in a gore in Bath adjoining said town of Landaff and the three thousand acres in Haverhill as above. And also engage to give five hundred acres more to the Honble and Revd Trust of said College for the use of said College in a handsome farm Round said College if it is set in sd Haverhill. Provided it is not set on Lands already laid out, which if it is, to lay out said Five Hundred next adjoining in a convenient form, as also to make and raise a frame for a Building two hundred feet long and Eighteen feet broad, one story high, or frame and labor to that value. The above I promise to perform at or before the first day of November next. The frame I promise to set on demand. Witness my hand,
JACOB BAYLEY.
The above offer of the 4,000 acres adjoining Landaff was in response to a request made by the governor and the Portsmouth trustees, as this would bring the college lands into one body, Landaff having been granted to the college. The 500 acres on which the college should be set would be the commodious and beautiful site above North Haverhill, overlook- ing the Oxbow, which had been selected and accepted by Colonel Phelps a few months before.
But Dr. Wheelock had made up his mind. He wanted a town in which the college should be supreme, and Hanover offered to give him within its limits the smaller town of Dresden. Hanover and Lebanon had been granted to and thus far settled by friends and acquaintances of his from Connecticut, "more serious and steady" than the settlers of Haverhill, from Hampstead, and Haverhill and Newbury, Mass. It may also have been deemed by him that these Connecticut friends and ac- quaintances, would be more amenable to his wishes than men like Col. John Hurd, Col. Asa Porter, Jacob Bailey, Charles Johnston and men of like character and ability, who were the leading spirits in Haverhill. The choice was made of Hanover and Dr. Wheelock before the summer had passed was already living "in his log hut in the wilderness" almost before Haverhill had discovered that that which it had every reason to believe in March had been gained beyond question, was irrecoverably lost. It can be conjectured what might have been the history of the college in the light of subsequent events, but after all it would be only conjecture. Dr. Wheelock did not escape criticism, and attacks were numerously made in which his motives and honor were seriously impugned.
The early settlers of Haverhill did not, because of their failure to secure the college, abandon efforts to provide facilities for a more liberal educa- tion than their town schools afforded. The controversy with the Pier-
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mont proprietors over the boundary between the two towns having been settled, the settlement at the disputed "Corner" began to grow and plans for an academy were made. In the latter part of 1792, or carly in 1793, Col. Charles Johnston, Major Samuel Bliss, and John Page, with several others erected a building between the present Pearson hall and the new academy building in what was then Colonel Johnston's field, for an "academy and other purposes," and in 1794 the legislature granted an academy charter, the trustees named being the three above mentioned with the addition of the Rev. Ethan Smith. The petition for the charter set forth the erection of the building and that "a young gentleman (Moses P. Payson, afterwards of Bath) had been employed and that about thirty pupils had already engaged in pursuit of an education in the arts and sciences." The object of the institution was stated to be "to promote religion, purity, virtue and morality, and for instruction in English, Latin and Greek languages; in writing, music and the art of speaking; in geom- etry, logic, geography, mathematics and such other branches of science as opportunity may furnish." The academy was one of the earliest in the state. Phillips at Exeter began its work ten years earlier in 1783. Apple- ton at New Ipswich was incorporated in 1789, Atkinson in 1790, and Gilmanton in the same year with the Haverhill institution. The first building of wood was burned in 1814, and this was succeeded by the brick building just a little north of the old,-now Pearson Hall-which was erected under the supervision of Edmund Stevens. The building as it stands at the present time after the lapse of more than a century, is a fine specimen of the architecture of the time, and furnishes ample evidence of the thorough workmanship and good taste of the builder.
The establishment of the academy was a prominent factor in promoting the growth of the village, and with the later removal of the courts from Horse Meadow, and the centreing of the various stage lines, Haverhill Corner became in a few years the leading and most prominent village in northern New Hampshire. The influence of the institution in promoting the culture and refinement for which the village was early notable is hardly to be overestimated, while its wider influence in the life work of its hundreds, if not thousands of pupils in town, state and nation is incal- culable. In the first half century of its existence and for some years later, it furnished Dartmouth College with an exceptionally large number of students. Its early rolls or catalogues have not been preserved, but a comparison of some of the earliest with the Dartmouth general catalogue show that thirty per cent of the young men on its rolls were also gradu- ates of Dartmouth.
Some of the early lists of students, with the number of weeks attendance and the amount charged for tuition, which were reported by preceptors to trustees are still in existence and these are interesting as indicating the
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OldAcademy Haverhill.N.H.
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families availing themselves of the privileges furnished by the new educa- tional institution. There were forty students in attendance for the term or quarter beginning December 2, 1801 and ending March 1, 1802. The list is as follows:
Clark Atkinson
William Smith
Esther Miller
Harriet Sprague
Sukey Smith
Charles Bailey
Michael Gray
Rebecca Gilman
Sukey Ladd
Samuel C. Webster
Ephraim Corliss
Olive Bailey
Amos Bailey
Eliza Webster
Levi Gleason
Charles Johnston
Harriet Webster
Phineas Mitchell
Deborah Corliss
Sukey Webster
Hannah Ladd
Sukey Swift
John Page, Jr.
Phineas Bailey
Samuel Brooks, Jr.
William G. Page
Joshua Whittier
George Brooks
Samuel Page
Agur Platt
Joseph Boynton
Louisa Corliss
Grove Sanders
Charles Boynton
Sally Johnston
Moses Webster
Cinthia Boynton
Hannah Johnston
Haynes Johnston
William Tarleton
Clark Atkinson was a Latin scholar, and the tuition charged for eleven and two-thirds weeks was $2.33. The other thirty-nine are listed in English, geography, etc., and the tuition bill was $1.96 each.
In the third quarter of 1805, ending August 24, consisting of fourteen weeks there were sixty students in attendance. The tuition charge was $2.80. The list of pupils is interesting as showing the changes which had taken place in the personnel of students:
William Smith
George K. Montgomery
Cynthia Boynton
George W. Brooks
Mira Montgomery
Jonathan Burnham
Hannah Brooks
Ralph Webster
Caroline Bliss
Michael Johnston
Sukey Webster
Harriet Sprague
John Osgood, Jr.
Lucy Boynton
Paul Sprague
Paul Sprague
Caleb Knapp
Lydia Ball
Joseph Edmunds
Samuel Gookin
Sukey Ball
Charles Johnston
Caleb Stevens
John Ford
James Morris
Henry Ward
James Gould
Chas. Eastman
Nathaniel Merrill
Lucinda Merrill
Walter Webster
Ebenezer Little
Edmund Carleton
David Tyler
Sukey Smith
Harry Woodward
Nancy Lee
Fanny Smith
Gardner Smith
Hannah Dow
Eliza Smith
Noah Kimball
George Howard
Sally Elkins
Dorcas Kimball
Samuel Janes
Samuel Pearson
Timo. Bedel
Nath1 Mitchell
Joseph Mckean
Mary Bedel
Miss Ramsey
Polly Pearson
Laban Ladd
Betsey Cross
Sally Ward
Levi Ladd
Miss Vaner
Parkhurst
J. Sanborn
It is greatly to be regretted that all these early lists have not been preserved, but the names in those here given are familiar to those who have
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acquainted themselves with the early history of the town. They sug- gest the character of the families which in its early years were patrons of the academy.
It is the character of the teacher which counts for the success or failure of a school, and the list of preceptors of the academy from the beginning till 1880 when it was merged into the town school system is a notable one. In his address at the centennial anniversary of the academy, in 1897, the Rev. J. L. Merrill gave an exceptionally interesting sketch of these pre- ceptors of which liberal use is here made with grateful acknowledgment.
Moses P. Payson was the first preceptor, who later as a resident of Bath, accumulated a fortune and won an enviable reputation in both branches of the state legislature. He was succeeded in 1796, by Thomas Snell who remained but one year, later studying theology, became a clergyman of prominence, dying in 1862 at the advanced age of 87. He was followed in 1797 by Sebastian Cabot, who also became a clergy- man and lived till 1853. Stephen P. Webster, a graduate of Harvard, in the years of his administration, left his impress on both school and town. He was prominent in the affairs of the town and was honored by his townsmen with every official position within their gift. William Lambert, 1800-05, later entered the legal profession. Abner Emerson was principal in 1805, and was succeeded in 1806 by David Shaw who graduated from Dartmouth in that year. During his long career as a lawyer in Haverhill, he maintained an active interest in the academy, and served it as trustee. Joseph Bell was principal in 1807, studied law later, was admitted to the bar in 1811, and became one of the most prominent in his profession both in New Hampshire and later in Boston. Ephraim Kingsbury was principal in 1807-11, and was succeeded by Isaac Patterson, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1812. Charles John- ston who became preceptor in 1813 was a grandson of Col. Charles John- ston. He later studied theology with Rev. Grant Powers and Dr. Lyman Beecher and entered the Presbyterian ministry. Joseph Merrill, a Dartmouth graduate of the class of 1814, taught while studying law with Joseph Bell, but became a Congregational minister and was pastor in Dracut, Mass., at a time when all the Congregationalists of Lowell attended his church. E. J. Boardman, who was the first principal in the new brick academy, taught in 1816-17, and was followed by Cyrus P. Grosvenor in 1818, whose administration was not successful. Later he won an enviable reputation as an educator, and was president of Central College, New York. Jesse Kimball, who succeeded him, made a deep impression for good upon his pupils. He was followed for one year by Joseph Porter who in turn was succeeded by Andrew Mack, who had been a tutor at Dartmouth, before coming to Haverhill and who re- mained for a period of seven years, the school enjoying a period of great
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