USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 19
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prosperity, a large number of its graduates going to Dartmouth. Nathan G. Dow taught for a year, became a lawyer in Boston, winning marked success in his profession.
In 1829 Ephraim Kingsbury again became the head of the school, and made efforts to raise its standard and extend its scope. Mr. Kingsbury was for many years a resident of Haverhill, was a lawyer by profession, but was active in many directions, was town clerk, treasurer, register of deeds for many years, superintendent of schools, secretary of the academy trustees and was regarded as an authority in matters educational. Infirm- ities of temper, however, extravagance of speech and conduct often brought him into needless collision with his pupils, his townsmen and his brethren in the church, leading to his excommunication from the latter. Arthur Livermore says of him: "Kingsbury was of comely proportions; his pale face denoted refinement, reserve, and the infirm health that made him irritable. I remember him and his cleanly office, redolent of paper and the folios which covered the walls." Though excommunicated from the Congregational Church, he evidently did not become a Methodist. On one occasion while those of the latter faith were holding a tent meeting on the Common and were somewhat demonstrative "Squire Kingsbury went to the door of the tent and read the riot act to the meeting." He removed to Connecticut about 1834 and later to New York where he died in 1855. An example of his extravagance of speech was furnished in an address he made against the acceptance by the town of a piece of bank wall on the Oliverian highway when he said of the stone used in its construction, "I could put any three stones in it in my eye and wink with perfect ease."
Mr. Kingsbury was succeeded by Ambrose Vose, an experienced teacher who remained one year, when Joseph T. Bodwell was principal for ten years. During his term he was assisted by his Dartmouth class- mate, John Lord, later Dr. John Lord, lecturer and historian. There was never but one John Lord. While teaching in the academy he had a name for each of his pupils, suggested by some individual peculiarity. He became a Congregationalist clergyman. He was not adapted to parish work, but was delightful on the platform, and his "Modern History for Schools," "The Old Roman World," "Ancient States and Empires'" and "Beacon Lights of History" are his monument as a historian. His examination for ordination to the ministry, before a Council of Congrega- tional ministers and laymen is said to have been a somewhat drastic one. His eccentricities were even then suspected as was also his thorough orthodoxy. "Mr. Lord," said one of his venerable inquisitors, when the subject of disinterested benevolence had been broached, "would you be willing to be damned for the glory of God?" "I have not yet arrived at that state of grace," the harassed candidate replied, "but I
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am willing this Council should be." He was ordained. He was a thoroughgoing, extreme independent, or Congregationalist in matters of church polity. He simply had no use whatever for ritual, no sympathy or tolerance for the rites and ceremonies of the Protestant Episcopal church. He intended his only son for the Congregational ministry. He was not a brilliant boy, but had managed to get his A. B. at Dart- mouth, and was to enter Andover according to his father's plan. During the vacation season, however, he electrified his father one morning at breakfast by saying, "I've decided not to go to Andover. I am going to be an Episcopal minister, and wish to go to the seminary in New York." The plans and hopes cherished by Dr. Lord for years were rudely shattered, but he acquiesced. "I think you have, perhaps, decided rightly, the Episcopal ministry is your appropriate place; you will make your mark; you have no brains, no learning, no religion, God help you." The son did not live to realize either his own ambitions or those of his father. Mr. Bodwell after his two years service in the academy took a theological course at Highbury College, London, on the advice of Mr. Gibbs, then pastor at Haverhill, and his first pastoral charge was in England where he married. Trained to speak without manuscript, he was much in request as a lecturer and as preacher on special occasions after his return to this country. He was for many years previous to his death, professor in the Hartford, Conn., Theological Seminary.
Peter T. Washburn was the successor of Mr. Bodwell. He later became distinguished at the Vermont bar, and was governor of the state having previously rendered distinguished service in the war for the Union. Daniel F. Merrill was principal in 1836-37. He was of the Dartmouth class of 1836, a born educator, and the best part of his life was devoted to teaching. He left, on account of his health, after two years service, and taught in Mobile, Ala., for upwards of twenty years. He returned to the academy again in the autumn of 1860, and was at its head till 1865, when he went to Washington as clerk in the Treasury Department for a period of twenty years.
H. H. Benson was principal in 1838, and later became a Congregation- alist clergyman. He was succeeded in the fall of 1839 by John P. Hum- phrey, who, like many of his predecessors, became a Congregational clergyman, and for twenty years was a successful pastor in Winchester, later in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and Winchendon, Mass. H. H. Hazeltine, a classmate at Dartmouth, succeeded him as preceptor of the academy while the building was occupied by the courts. After the trustees had come into full possession of the academy, an opportunity was given for greatly enlarging the scope of the work. Thorough repairs with neces- sary alterations were made in the interior of the building and in 1846 Rev. Herman Rood became head of the school with Miss Catherine Hitchcock.
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as lady principal. There had previously been a separate department for girls which had been sustained for much of the time from 1818 to 1832. At the head of this had been Miss Ruth Phelps Morse, Miss Harriet Marsh and Miss Kent, whose school won deservedly a fine reputation. Her schoolroom was on the second floor of Henry Towle's building. Miss Hitchcock, assisted by Misses Susan and Jane Rood, in French, instru- mental music and drawing, gave the separate girls department great popularity. She was the daughter of President Hitchcock of Amherst College and became the wife of the Rev. H. M. Storrs, D. D. She was succeeded by Miss Lucinda R. Dewey in 1847. When Mr. Rood resigned in 1849 the academy passed under the control of Rev. John R. Beane, a retired teacher then living in Haverhill, who agreed to maintain a female seminary for three years if the trustees would guarantee him the sum of two hundred dollars a year, which they did. Among the teachers in this period were Mrs. Laura M. Carpenter, Miss Hannah Page and Miss Catherine McKean. With the expiration of Mr. Beane's contract in 1852, the school struggled under adverse circumstances until 1854, when the trustees came to its assistance with a guarantee fund of five hundred dollars a year, and secured the services as principal of Edward A. Charl- ton, a graduate that year of Dartmouth, who had good success during the single year of his administration. He was the author of "New Hampshire As It Is." Chandler Richards, Dartmouth '55, succeeded him in 1855, and Halsey J. Boardman, and Edward M. Denny were teachers in 1856 and 1857. Mr. Boardman became a successful Boston lawyer, and Mr. Denny rendered distinguished service in the Civil War. Miss Mandana F. Buswell was assistant principal from 1854 to 1857, when she became principal for the next four years, and she was succeeded by Daniel F. Merrill who remained at the head of the institution till 1865, when Miss Buswell returned for part of the year. Benjamin M. Hill taught in 1867 and Dr. Kelley in 1869.
During the next ten years, until in 1880, the academy was merged into the public school system, the trustees granted the use of some of the rooms in the building to parties who conducted private schools, and in the latter part of this period school districts numbers One and Seventeen were given accommodations in the building for district school purposes. When the academy became in 1880 a part of the town school system, it retained and still retains its old corporate name of Haverhill Academy, though as a public high school, its work is upon different material, its course of study, and its aims and purposes are different from those of the old historic academy. Its subsequent history has been that of the public school system.
The New England academy filled an important place in the develop- ment of New England character and life, and among these New England
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academies that of Haverhill holds an honored place. Scores and hun- dreds of its graduates have filled positions of prominence and usefulness in public and private life. It never had the benefit of an endowment, except the comparatively small sum of five hundred dollars, the gift of Mrs. Mary P. Webster. It depended on the sums received from tuition, and the contributions made by trustees and others to meet current ex- penses. Its existence was a standing example of and lesson in self- reliance. Many pupils did such work as came to their hands to earn money to pay board and tuition, and in the first half of the last century "high cost of living" had not been invented. One dollar a week would pay all necessary expenses except those for tuition and textbooks. Nathan Clifford, afterward associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, came up from Rumney and did night and morning chores for his board, in the home of John Nelson, and there were many others. Arthur Liver- more, who was a boy student in 1819-20, in his reminiscences at the Continental in 1891, mentions among the pupils of his time, Andrew S. Woods, chief-justice of New Hampshire; Levi Bartlett and Horace N. Soper, successful in medicine and law in New York; Benjamin W. Bouney, a leading lawyer in New York City; and Warren D. Gookin, Cuban sugar planter and New York shipping merchant. Some of the names of others who were students both in former and later years, and who have won distinction in professional and business life indicate the usefulness of the institution. Among those entering the ministry may be mentioned Michael Gray, Charles Johnston, Stephen S. and Carlos Smith, sons of the Rev. Ethan Smith, John L. Benjamin and Charles H. Merrill, sons of Dea. Abel K. Merrill, Levi Rodgers, Franklin P. Wood, Charles H. Barstow, Charles N. Flanders, and Lucian H. Tracy. The names of George Barstow, lawyer and historian; John Kimball, lawyer in New Hampshire and Vermont; Alfred Barstow, lawyer and jurist in California; Prescott Hunt, manufacturer in Boston; James W. Bell, successful decorator; William Merrill, New York banker and broker; Joseph B. Morse, educator; Peabody A. Morse, lawyer and jurist in Louisiana and California; George W. Morse, distinguished inventor; Thos. L. Nelson, lawyer and U. S. circuit judge; Isaac S. Morse, prom- inent Massachusetts lawyer; James H. Pearson, wholesale lumber dealer, Chicago; John A. Page, banker and Vermont state treasurer; John Reding, Boston commission merchant; Jonathan B. Rowell, lawyer and congressman, Illinois; Lyman D. Stevens, successful lawyer in Concord; Edward B. Wilson, wholesale dry goods merchant, Boston; Nathaniel Wilson, successful lawyer in Maine; Moses S. Page, watch and diamond dealer, Boston ;- these are a few who went out from the academy to win more than ordinary success, position and fortune.
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Of the influence of the academy on the village and town of Haverhill the Rev. J. L. Merrill in his centennial address fitly said:
The village of Haverhill owes its early reputation for culture and refinement largely to the academy. The fact that the courts sat here and were frequented by the most able lawyers in New Hampshire, when Ezekiel Webster, Jeremiah Smith and John Sullivan were members of the bar, was no small advantage to the place. Neither was it any slight thing that the Congregational church of the village was one of the strongest and most intelligent in this vicinity, and Rev. Ethan Smith lifted high the standard of ministerial requirements for this church. The travelers also that passed through here from north, south, east and west were not, of course, an unmixed blessing but they gave the citizens of Haverhill the opportunity of meeting a great variety of people, and the intermingling of divers characters helps to polish the mass. More potent, however, than all things else was the academy, to keep high the standard of intellectual attainment.
Few families felt that they had done their duty if they had not given their children a taste of academic culture, continuing them in this school from one term to several years, according to the appetite of the pupil and the financial ability of the parents. Parents who were not self moved to do this felt the contagion of their environment. It was the thing to do in Haverhill, and consequently people who might not have thought of it in some places gave their children academic advantages here.
The academy had a strong influence on the district schools of the town and vicinity. The fall and spring terms were the fullest. In the first quarter of the last century 8 per cent of the young men in attendance at the fall term were teaching district schools in winter. The institution was normal school as well as academy.
The academy as a part of the public school system of the town has maintained excellent rank as a high school, and in doing the work of such school it has had principals and teachers well qualified, fit successors of the old academy principals and teachers. It is the teacher after all that makes the school. Better results have been secured by the erection of the new academy building which was formally dedicated in 1897. In these latter years it has been greatly aided by the income from the hand- some bequest of the late Samuel F. Southard amounting to about $10,000 -a bequest the more notable in that it was made by one who only enjoyed the privileges of the academy for a comparatively brief time, and who was not a nativeof the town, and in that it constitutes the only permanent fund by which the school benefits. Mr. Southard was born in Charlestown, May 17, 1813 [see Genealogy] and came to Haverhill with his parents when but nine years of age. His father, Aaron Southard, with his twin brother Moses, purchased the Col. Asa Porter farm, and on the portion which fell to his lot after the death of his father, he spent his life an enter- prising, successful farmer. He was successful because he merited and won success. "A citizen of sterling integrity, kind and generous feelings, frank and manly bearing, he enjoyed the friendship and esteem of the leading men of his section of the state." He died May 4, 1893, and Ha- verhill Academy was made his residuary legatee.
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The old academy building was by no means abandoned when the new one was erected in 1896-97. When the question arose as to the disposi- tion to be made of it Mr. James H. Pearson of Chicago, a former resident, offered to put it in repair, and convert its interior into a village hall and library. This he did, and the first floor is now transformed into a hand- some and commodious hall, with convenient stage and stairways leading to the dressing room above. On the second floor is kitchen, banquet room on one side and on the other there was a well furnished room for the free library until it was removed to the county building on Court Street in 1916. The building is still the property of the Haverhill Acad- emy, and furnishes supplementary advantages and privileges for the school.
In what Haverhill has done and attempted to do in educational matters, she has no reason to decline comparison with other towns in the state. Indeed the town may well be proud of its educational history.
By the first division of the town into school districts, four were created all on the river. As population increased these were divided and sub- divided until before the return to the town system of schools there had been no less than twenty districts, each with a schoolhouse of its own, though some of them had been abandoned for school purposes; but divi- sion and subdivision having spent its course reunion and consolidation had already set in. These twenty districts were situated in different parts of the town something as follows:
1. Haverhill Corner, south of the Brook, now part of the Academy dis- trict.
2. Ladd Street.
3. North Haverhill.
4. Pine Plain, house on the river road near Bath line, now transformed into a dwelling.
5. Brier Hill, house on main road known as Pine Plain district.
6. East Haverhill, house near foot of Morse Hill, in what has been known as Jeffers neighborhood.
7. Union district with Piermont, abandoned.
8. Pike.
9. Haverhill Centre, house now demolished, stood at junction of Lime- kiln, and County road to Benton.
10. Haverhill Centre, house at junction of County road, and road leading to Colby hill.
11. Brier Hill, house stood on road leading from main road to Swiftwater.
12. Horse Meadow, little brick school house now transformed into a tea house.
13. Woodsville, now as Woodsville Union High School district separate and distinct from the town system of schools.
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14. East Haverhill.
15. District of which the old stone town hall was the centre.
16. On the Pond road to the road leading from Swiftwater to Benton, school building not now standing.
17. Haverhill Corner, south of Court Street, now part of Academy district.
18. On the road about midway between "the Brook" and Pike, aban- doned.
19. The Powers district, on river road between North Haverhill and Ladd Street, abandoned.
20. Limekiln district, house stood near top of hill on road from No. 9 to No. 6, abandoned.
Under the town system schools have been abandoned in districts num- bered 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, 19 and 20.
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CHAPTER IX
CIVIC AND POLITICAL
TOWN MEETINGS FROM 1800 TILL 1918-WHAT WAS DONE AND WHAT FAILED-NEW NAMES-EXCITING EVENTS-NEW TOWN HALL AND CLERK'S OFFICE-TOWN SEE-SAWED-APPROPRIATIONS GREW LARGER YEAR BY YEAR.
HAVERHILL town meetings have usually indicated an active interest on the part of the voters not only in matters pertaining exclusively to the town, but to those of the state and nation as well. With the beginning of the nineteenth century party lines began to be drawn, and in no state in the Union perhaps was there a more rigid regard for such lines, both in state and nation, than in New Hampshire, and Haverhill was imbued with the New Hampshire spirit.
Until 1788, there were no November elections, except quadrennially for presidential elections. State and county officers were voted for at the annual March meeting, when town officers were chosen, appropriations made and other necessary town business was transacted. For many years New Hampshire's vote in March was the first in the great national campaigns, and as an indication of the temper of the people, and a sign of the times, it excited national interest. Times were seldom dull politi- cally in New Hampshire, and Haverhill was a typical New Hampshire town. Voters kept themselves informed on the issues of the day. Town meetings were spirited affairs, frequently lasting two days once indeed seven days. Politically the town see-sawed, and elections were often close, and the contests were often productive of intense bitterness of feeling between neighbors. National, state and local politics had its influence on educational affairs, on religion, and social life. The town meetings, with their results, were a reflex of town life, and furnished a most interesting field for study. The votes taken, the appropriations made mark the progress of the town. The list of town officials, even the minor ones, tell the story of "Who's been Who" in Haverhill. The list of moderators, clerks, treasurers, selectmen and representatives to the General Court will be found in a separate chapter.
1801. At the annual town meeting, March 10, at house of Samuel Bailey, officers chosen were: Collector of taxes, John Kimball, who was lowest bidder for the office, 16 cents on the £; constables, Daniel Stevens, Moses Porter; highway surveyors, Jona. Elkins, Avery Sanders, Moody Bedel, Ezekiel Ladd, Joshua Howard, Charles Bruce, John Sanborn; fence viewers, John Page, Joshua Howard; surveyors of lumber, Stephen
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Morse, John Clark; tythingmen, William Cross, William Abbott; hogreeves, Joseph Bliss, Cyrus Alden, John Montgomery, Richardson French. The vote for governor was, John Taylor Gilman, Fedr. 61; Timothy Walker, Rep. 12.
1802. Annual meeting at meeting house. Collector, Capt. Daniel Stevens; constables, Daniel Stevens, Zechariah Bacon; Highway sur- veyors, Michael Johnston, Avery Sanders, Ephraim Skinner, Joseph Ladd, Nathaniel Runnells, Stephen Morse, John Kimball, Joshua How- ard; surveyors of lumber, Stephen Morse, Jr., Richard Gookin, Moody Bedel; tythingmen, Jacob Woodward, Charles Bruce; sealer of weights and measures, Benjamin Standring; hogreeves, Stephen Morse, 3d, Samuel Ladd, Daniel Stevens, Jahhleel Willis, Daniel S. George, Moses Abbott, Moses Horn; vote for governor, John T. Gilman, 58; John Langdon, 18. Appropriations: for highways, $600; schools, $333.34; town charges, $200; preaching, $300.
1803. Annual meeting at house of Joshua Howard. Collector of taxes, Moses Abbott at 5 cents on a dollar; constables, Moses Abbott, Daniel Stevens; highway surveys, David Webster, Avery Sanders, John Montgomery, Phineas Ayer, William Dame, Samuel Gould, John Kimball, Ebenezer Whitaker; surveyors of lumber, Uriah Ward, Nathaniel Merrill; fence viewers, Nathaniel Merrill, John Page; tythingmen, Amos Horn, William Abbott; hogreeves, David Stevens, Bryan Kay, Uriah Ward; vote for governor, John T. Gilman, Federalist, 74; John Langdon, Republican, 22. Appropriations: highways, $600; schools, $333.34; bridges, $70; town charges, $200; sexton for ringing meeting house bell one year, $25. Voted for "smallpox by way of inocula- tion."
1804. Annual meeting at meeting house, March 13. Vote for governor, John T. Gilman, Federalist, 86; John Langdon, Republican, 29. A board of assessors was chosen for the first time, Moody Bedel, Nathaniel Merrill, John Montgomery. Appropriations: highways, on Main road, $300; on back roads, $300; town charges, $100.
At the meeting November 5, for election of presidential electors, the Federal ticket headed by Oliver Peabody received 81 votes; the Jeffer- sonian or Democratic ticket headed by John Goddard, 33. New Hamp- shire, by a narrow margin, swung away from Federation and voted for Jefferson.
1805. Annual meeting, March 12, at dwelling house of Benjamin Morrison. Vote for governor, John Taylor Gilman, Fed., 90; John Langdon, Dem., 64. Party lines were not so closely drawn as to prevent Charles Johnston, Federalist from receiving 135 votes for treasurer, and Samuel Brooks, another Haverhill Federalist, the same number, only one vote being cast against each.
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1806. Annual meeting at meeting house, March 11. Vote for gov- ernor, John Langdon, Democrat, 75; Oliver Peabody, 55. The Demo- crats also elected their candidate for representative to General Court, Nathaniel Merrill, but Samuel Brooks, Federalist, received 131 votes for register of deeds, practically a unanimous vote. Collector of taxes, Moody Bedel, at 3 cents on a dollar; constables, Moody Bedel, Zacheus Bacon; highway surveyors, Amos Blood, John Pike, Richard Gookin, Nathaniel Merrill, Amos Kimball, Ephraim Wesson, Ebenezer Whitaker; surveyors of lumber, Jacob Ladd, Peter Johnson; surveyor of wood and sealer of weights and measures, Samuel Brooks; tythingmen, Samuel Ladd, Peter Johnson; poundkeeper, Samuel Ladd; hogreeves, Joseph Elkins, George Woodward, David Mitchell, Isaac Pearson, James Sanders, Zach. Bacon, Moses' Morse, Jacob Abbott. Appropriations: schools, $300; highways, $500, in labor; town charges, $200.
1807. Annual meeting at meeting house, North Parish, March 10. Governor vote, John Langdon, Democrat, 66; Oliver Peabody, Federalist, 34. In the entire state this year only 16,861 votes were cast, of which Langdon received 13,912. Collector, Zach. Bacon, 3 cents on the dollar; constables, Zach. Bacon, Jacob L. Corliss; highway surveyors, Michael Johnston, Uriah Ward, Richard Gookin, Timothy A. Edson, Richardson French, John Kimball, Caleb Morse; fence viewers, John Page, Zachariah Bacon; surveyor of lumber, Gen. Moody Bedel, Capt. Stephen Morse; tythingmen, Mr. John Smith (he had been deposed from the ministry a year earlier, for gross immorality), Andrew S. Crocker, Esq .; pound- keepers, Samuel Ladd, Nathaniel Merrill; sealer of weights and measures, Samuel Brooks; hogreeves, James Porter, John Jeffers, Jesse Woodward, Zach. Bacon, Edward King. Appropriations: schools, $300; town charges, $200; bridge and highways, $800, one third to be paid in money to be laid out under the direction of the selectmen. Voted to allow David Ladd $40 on account of sickness in his family.
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