USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Mont Vernon > History of the town of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire > Part 14
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Per order of the Trustees, WM. H. CONANT, Clerk."
This was to be the first of a long list of alumni meetings, a somewhat detailed account of which will appear later on.
Mr. King had a fairly prosperous year. He was a most courte- ous and dignified gentleman. He was married either before the school opened, or during the first term, as Miss Elizabeth A. Neilson became Mrs. King before the school closed.
Mr. Augustus Berry was the fourth principal. Under date of October 12, 1855, the Trustees are recorded to have chosen Mr. F. O. Kittredge a committee "to wait on Mr. Berry and invite him to meet them." Also "instructed Mr. Berry to ascertain what Miss Bradbury's terms would be for assisting in instruction one year." The next evening Mr. Berry reported that Miss Bradbury would not want to stay less than $250 per year. It would seem to have been even more important to have recorded under what conditions Mr. Berry and Miss Bradbury began their work. No catalogue of 1855- 56 (Mr. Berry's first year) seems to have been published. But one was published under date of January 1, 1857, which must have cov- ered a portion at least of the year 1856, and perhaps it was intended to cover the whole of Mr. Berry's first year. It gives the names of the students in the "Male," and "Female" departments-the males numbering 66 and the females 52-being, no doubt, the number of different pupils for the year.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
The catalogue, under the head of "Expenses" says that "board can be obtained at various prices, according to the quality and dis- tance from the Academy. The usual terms per week are $2.25 for males and $2.00 for females." It was at this time that Mr. F. O. Kittredge's Mont Vernon House, (the old Cloutman tavern, ) which had been purchased by himself and Captain Timothy Kittredge on purpose to furnish boarding accommodations for teachers and stu- dents, was used for that purpose, and was announced in this cata- logue as available. Mr. and Mrs. Berry boarded there.
This catalogue gives the name of Augustus Berry, A. B., as Principal, and Miss Martha W. Bradbury as Preceptress and Teacher of French and Music.
The next catalogue is dated April 1, 1858, and was "published by the students," as the title page informs us. Miss Bradbury is succeeded by Miss Emily A. Snow (a sister of Mrs. Berry) as Preceptress. The number of students in the Male department foots np 89, and in the Female department, 75. But this is not very intel- ligible, and it is not certain just what time is covered. The names of George A. Bruce and George A. Marden are among those in this catalogue, though both left at the end of the summer term of 1856-57 and entered Dartmouth College in the autumn of 1857.
The next catalogue is dated April 1, 1859, and as before, is "published by the students." There were 96 students in the Male department and 86 in the Female department.
April 10, 1856, the Trustees chose a committee "to raise funds to pay the debt on the Academy."
June 18, 1857, a committee was named "to make the tax on the arrearages of the past year of the school, and to collect the same, and to obtain names to be responsible for Mr. Berry's salary another year."
June 28, 1858, the Trustees met to take measures to settle the Academy expenses in relation to hiring Mr. Berry another year.
July 2, it was voted by the Trustees to "continue the school another year, and that a committee be raised to make a bargain with Mr. Berry for his services as teacher." A committee was also chosen "to draw up a paper for the support of the school another year, and spend one day soliciting names or signers to bear their proportion of the deficiency if any should occur."
None of these committees seem to have reported anything, but the debts were paid, and the deficiencies were made up.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
July 1. 1858, the Trustees voted "to write to Dr. Ingalls Kit- tredge, of Beverly, in relation to the farm willed to the Academy by his father." But there is no solution of the mysterious vote on the subsequent records.
There seems to have been a permanent fund established during Mr. Berry's term of service, though just how much it amounted to, or how it was raised is not clear. Under date of May 15, 1857, the Treasurer's book contains the following entry: "Received of the Ladies' Circle in Mont Vernon, one hundred and sixty-seven dollars for a permanent fund for Appleton Academy, the interest only to be used yearly for the support of said institution. The above loaned to the Town of Mont Vernon."
In the Trustees' records for March 30, 1859, it was voted "That the treasurer obtain what donations he can for the Academy, and that he collect the interest on the fund, on or before the 1st of July next ; also that he obtain a note of Capt. Timothy Kittredge for the amount of the fund in his hands (8500), said note to be lodged with the Treasurer."
There are two more references to a "fund," but we look in vain for any clear information in the records. It is evident that there was some difficulty about insurance on the Academy, and under the last named date, the following queer vote was taken :
"Voted, that any persons applying to the Treasurer shall receive from him a receipt or certificate that they are proprietors in the House to the amount they have paid in towards the New Academy Building, and if they choose to get their property insured they can do so."
March 31, 1860, there is another reference to the "fund" in the choice of a committee "to wait on Capt Kittredge and ascertain if he intends to pay the interest on his fund annually which he promised the Academy when the debts were paid." April 13, the committee reported, and the report was accepted, but there is no clew as to what the report was.
This is the financial story of the school during Mr. Berry's stay. It was a constant task to keep the school going and the bills paid- but it was done.
As is seen by the figures given above, in numbers the Academy was growingly prosperous under Mr. Berry's charge. He was a man of rather stern demeanor, and called boys and girls alike by their first names, and was disciplinary in a familiar way. He was thor-
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
oughly conscientious, and did his best by all. Everybody gave him sincere respect and admiration as a teacher and as a man. He closed his connection with the school at the end of the summer term of 1860. In a letter written at the time of the quarter-centennial of the school, Mr. Berry said : "There was not a term while I was there, that there were not individuals who have since made their mark." "The period in which I had charge, I think was distinguished by nothing more than by the union of effort on the part of the citizens in sustaining the school, and its increasing prosperity was the result of that effort."
Miss Bradbury, his first assistant, was a most vivacious, charm- ing and delightful woman, and a brilliant teacher. Her pupils all doted on her. Miss Emily C. Snow, who succeeded her, and re- mained as long as Mr. Berry did, was also a most faithful and com- petent teacher.
Augustus Berry was born in Concord, N. H., October 27, 1824, the son of Washington and Maria (Dale) Berry. He fitted for col- lege at Francestown Academy, and graduated at Amherst College in 1851. He was principal of an academy at Limerick, Me , 1851-53, at Lyndon, Vt., 1853-55, Appleton Academy, Mont Vernon, 1855- 60. While at Mont Vernon he was licensed to preach by the Hollis Association, and often supplied the pulpit at Mont Vernon, and in the neighboring towns. After leaving Mont Vernon, he studied at An- dover Theological Seminary as a resident licentiate. and was ordained as pastor of the Congregational church at Pelham, N. H., October 30, 1861. It was his only pastorate. He died suddenly in the har- ness, of heart failure, after a service to one church of nearly 38 years, October 4, 1899, aged 74 years, 11 months and 27 days. He was married November 24, 1853, to Dora Richardson Snow of Dub- lin, N. H., who died March 15, 1873. January 30. 1877, he was married a second time, to Mary Currier Richardson, of Pelham, who was then a teacher in Bradford Academy, and who survives him, and is still (1906) a resident of Pelham.
Cecil Franklin Patch Bancroft was the fifth principal, who came fresh from Dartmouth College. where he graduated in July, 1860. the fourth in rank in a class of sixty-five. He was not only a brilliant scholar, but he became one of the most eminent of American educa- tors, being at his death in the twenty-eighth year of consecutive service as Principal of that famous fitting school Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass. He came to Mont Vernon with only the degree of A. B. to ornament his name. He died entitled to write A. M.,
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Litt. D., Ph. D., and LL. D., after the A. B., and with a record fully entitling him to the honors.
In a letter to H. Porter Smith, which is published in the "Annals" of Appleton Academy prepared by Mr. Smith for the Quarter-Centennial of the Academy, Dr. Bancroft said : "I went to Mont Vernon in August, 1860, and remained four years. My sister (now Mrs. A. Conant) was my assistant, and George A. Marden, Miss Sarah A. Stinson, and Miss Martha E. Conant, also had classes for a short time. At that time the Academy had a fund of seven hundred dollars, and no boarding-house. One fall I had eighty schol- ars, and it was regarded as a great success. One year, when all my 'big' boys had gone to war, my salary amounted to four hundred and twenty dollars, and some of the time I taught ten hours a day."
After naming some of the most prominent of his pupils, he adds : "The war interest was the great one in my time, and our schools all suffered for want of men and means. I remember W. H. Conant's coming in, pale with excitement one evening, in my first spring term. April, 1861, with the news of Massachusetts men slain in Baltimore. When I resigned in 1864, our armies were lying about Petersburg apparently idle ; prices went up, and receipts went down. and the wonder to my mind now is, that we accomplished as much as we did. But the people of Mont Vernon were always kind and ap- preciative, and my residence there, though not without many draw- backs to usefulness and happiness and personal improvement, was one for which I have every reason to be grateful. I was invited to the place without seeking it, and left it without pressure, to pursue my further studies. My interest in the school will never die. May the school flourish forever, and its friends rise up to make it a bless- ing to the ends of the earth, and to the end of time."
As usual the records are silent as to the coming of Mr. Bancroft or his assistant, and as to the arrangements under which he was to conduct the school. But at the annual meeting. March 30, 1861, a committee was appointed "to engage the services of Mr. Bancroft another year ;" and, if possible, "on the same terms as last year." These terms are now stated, viz ; "he is to take the school on his own responsibility, and if his receipts during the year do not amount to $900, he is to have the interest of the fund." In the language quot- ted above. Mr. Bancroft put the fund at $700. which must chiefly have been made up of the $167 received from the Ladies' Circle, and the $500 in the hands of Captain Kittredge.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
On this same 30th of March it was voted "that a committee be raised to prepare a communication to be presented to Hon. William Appleton of Boston, soliciting from him an addition to the fund of the Academy." The committee made a report, but "in consequence of the exciting war news" action was postponed. Mr. Bancroft said he would stay another year if the Trustees "would find him in wood," and they at once set about raising money to buy the wood.
Mr. Bancroft continued in charge of the school through to the close of the summer term of 1864, with a hundred dollars increase of salary, and with a release from the requirement to have an assistant during the winter and summer terms. As usual a subscription was started to raise the hundred dollars increase in salary, and for money enough to pay the Hillsborough Fire Insurance Company what was dne it for insurance.
Cecil Franklin Patch Bancroft was born in New Ipswich, N. H., November 25, 1839, and died at Andover, Mass., October 4, 1901. He was of plain, sturdy, honest patriotic New England ancestry. In childhood he was practically though not legally adopted by a Mr. and Mrs. Patch, of Ashby, Mass. He fitted for college at Apple- ton Academy, New Ipswich, graduated at Dartmouth in 1860, taught at Mont Vernon 1860-1864, graduated at Andover Theological Sem- inary in 1867. At his death, his close friend, the Rev. C. C. Carpenter, wrote as follows of him in the Congregationalist of October 12, 1901 :
"Although ordained to the Congregational ministry (at Mont Vernon, May 1, 1867) he was never a settled pastor, choosing teach- ing as his life work, a service long and grandly fulfilled. From 1867 to 1872 he was principal of C. R. Robert's institution for white youth on the summit of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., gaining the lasting affection of many men and women of the Southern States. After a year of European travel and study (in the University of Halle) he was elected in 1873 to the principalship of Phillips Academy-the position filled for thirty-four years by Dr. Samuel H. Taylor.
"He was a worthy successor of that great teacher, though with a rule less stern as befitted the changing times. With marvellous taet, with most kindly heart and most genial temperament, with a phenomenal remembrance of names and faces, seeming to know every 'Phillips boy,' from the oldest alumnus to the youngest under-gradu- ate, he impressed himself strongly alike on the student body and the hosts of alumni, about five thousand of whom had been in the school in his twenty-eight years of service. *
"As a citizen of Andover he was greatly honored and beloved.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Like his intimate friend, the late Professor Churchill, his heart and hand were in every good work, public and private. The University of the State of New York gave him the degree of Ph. D. in 1874, Williams College that of Litt. D. in 1891, and Yale University that of LL. D. in 1892. Since 1897 he has been a trustee of Dartmouth College. He was also a trustee of the state institutions at Tewks- bury and Bridgewater, and had been President of the Dartmouth Alumni Association, the Merrimack Valley Congregational Club, and of the Head Masters' Association of the United States. He found time to prepare many addresses on educational topics, and to write valuable articles.
"Dr. Bancroft was also, during the whole period of his princi- palship, a member of the board of trustees having charge of the Theological Seminary as well as of Phillips Academy. As resident member of the board and its clerk he had a large additional respon- sibility, which only his ceaseless activity and his genins for hard work and for minute details enabled him to meet.
"Dr. Bancroft married, May 6, 1867, Miss Frances A. Kittredge of Mont Vernon, N. H. She died in 1898. Four children survive, Mrs. William J. Long of Stamford, Conn., Cecil K. Bancroft, in- structor in Yale University, Phillips Bancroft, a student at Yale and Miss Mary E. Bancroft, a student at Smith College."
Mrs. Bancroft was the daughter of Capt. Timothy Kittredge, and was a pupil of Mr. Bancroft while he was Principal of Apple- ton Academy.
Again do the records of the Trustees fail in neglecting to record the engagement of Mr. Bancroft's successor, but during the summer, a committee were at work on the problem, and by the records of July 17, 1865, we find a resolution "expressing appreciation of the ser- vices of our worthy Preceptor, Mr. Towle," and a desire to retain him another year, and he was pledged cordial co-operation, and $250 in addition to the tuitions for the year ensuing-1865-66. This was Charles Augustus Towle, a native of Epsom, N. H., born June 20, 1837, fitted for college at Pembroke Academy, and at Pinkerton Academy, graduated at Dartmouth in 1864, was principal of Apple- ton Academy at Mont Vernon two years, 1864-65 and 1865-66, studied at Andover Theological Seminary, 1866-68, and graduated at Chicago Theological Seminary in 1869, ordained pastor of the Con- gregational church at Sandwich, Ill., June 9, 1869, and remained there until 1873; pastor of the church at South Chicago, 1874-76 ; pastor of Bethany church, Chicago, 1877-82; at Monticello, Ia., 1882-86 ; state superintendent for Iowa of the Congregational Sunday school and Publishing society, 1886-89, residing at Cedar Rapids 1886-89, and at Grinnell, Ia., until his death, February 22, 1899,
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
aged 61 years, 8 months and 2 days. While in college he enlisted for nine months in the 15th N. H., Volunteers. He was married Decem- ber 14, 1869, to Mary Jane Lay, of Chicago, who died May 8, 1881. Was married again August 30. 1894, to Ella Reinking of Des Moines, Ia., who survived him, with three sons and one daughter,-a mar- ried daughter having died in 1896.
Mr. Towle was a man of stalwart physique, aud a conscientious, hard-working teacher of sterling character. There are no catalogues of his day, so far as can be learned, and the school was diminishing in numbers. He had two lady assistants. one being Miss Martha E. Conant, and the name of the other is not recalled.
Joshua V. Smith, a graduate of Bowdoin College, succeeded Mr. Towle as principal, and is said to have remained two years, presum- ably 1866-67 and 1867-68. The only entry on the records (and this is on the 'Treasurer's book) which names Mr. Smith, is under date of June 25, 1868, crediting the treasurer with a payment of "$20.64 to J. V. Smith." There is no record of any meeting of the Trustees between July 17, 1865 and March 23, 1867.
On the last named date there was a meeting of the corporation "to take into consideration the expediency of offering the use of the Academy property to the State for a Normal School;" and it was unanimously voted "to make over to the use of the State for a Nor- mal School the Academy building and grounds, with library, philo- sophical apparatus, piano, cabinet, etc., so long as the Normal School shall be continued here."
A committee of three was appointed to communicate the action of the corporation to the State commissioner, and they were requested to communicate "what action the Town had taken relative to the establishment of a Normal School here."
The town had begun to agitate the matter, and December 25, 1866, at a special town meeting, it was voted "to instruct the Select- men to cause application to be made at the next session of the New Hampshire legislature for an enabling act giving to the town of Mont Vernon power to raise and appropriate money to aid the establishment of a State Normal School in said town."
It was further voted that the sum which might be raised should be $5000.
Evidently the work of keeping the Academy in operation was becoming burdensome. Conditions which have since almost abolished the country academy in New England had begun to come.
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Nothing, however, was done under the vote above recorded, and on the 18th of August, 1868, at a meeting of the Trustees, it was voted, as a means of broadening the interest in the school, "to make some addition to the board of trustees of gentlemen interested in the cause of education, resident among us," and Rev. Dr. Keeler, Mr. Albert Conant, Mr. William Stevens, Mr. H. H. Bragg and Charles J. Smith were unanimously chosen. These must have been consid- ered honorary elections, as the number of trustees was fixed.
August 24, 1868, a committee was appointed to make to the coming alumni meeting, to be holden August 26, some statement of the present conditions of the institution ; and at an adjourned meeting August 31, a committee was appointed to consider a proposition of William H. and Albert Conant, in regard to a boarding-house, which proposition is stated further on.
Meantime Mr. Smith had continued at the head of the school, which could hardly have been counted prosperous. There seem to have been no catalogues issued, and nothing further put on record concerning the Academy.
Sometime in the summer of 1868 there was a determined effort to secure a fund of $5000 for the support of the Academy. A sub- scription of a considerable amount was made, which resulted, in the end, in action at the meeting of the alumni as thus described in the Farmers' Cabinet containing a report of the meeting :
"It appeared that it had been in contemplation for some time to endeavor to do something toward raising a fund for the school, and put it on a firm foundation. As a step in that direction, William H. Conant of Mont Vernon and Albert Conant of Boston, had purchased the Campbell place (the old Dr. Kittredge place) which they proposed to fit up for a boarding-house for the school, provided a fund of $5000 could be raised. In a brief speech, George Stevens, Esq., the founder of the school, urged energetic action, and as evidence that his heart was in the work, booked his name for $500. Mr. Asa Stevens of New York, came down with a round 81000; and Messrs. William Stevens and F. O. Kittredge, of Mont Vernon followed with subscriptions of $500 each. Other sums varying from $25 to $200 were subscribed, and at the close of the dinner the sum of $4100.00 was pledged. A committee of ten (five ladies and five gentlemen) was appointed to solicit further donations, and it is hoped that the sum will be raised to $10,000."
The original subscription paper is in the hand writing of George Stevens, and is as follows :
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
We the undersigned, agree to give our several notes to the corpo- ration known as " Appleton Academy," for the sums set against our respective names, of which we will annually pay to the Trustees of said corporation the interest for the use of said Academy located in Mont Vernon. N. II., and for the support of a school therein, and the principal thereof we agree to pay in ten years from date. These subscriptions however are upon the express condition that a perma- nent fund of Five Thousand Dollars at least, including these subscrip- tions, shall be raised for the support and maintenance of said school in said Academy, of which fund no more than the income or interest shall ever be used for said purpose.
NAME. RESIDENCE. AMOUNT.
Geo. Stevens,
Lowell. $ 500
Geo. A. Marden,
Lowell, 100
Geo. A. Bruce,
Boston. 100
T. L. Livermore.
25
Asa Stevens,
New York. 1000
W. Stevens.
500
T. H. Richardson,
100
C. F. Kittredge,
100
F. O. Kittredge, 500
100
John Bruce,
50
Walter S. Conant.
100
H. P. Conant.
200
Augustus Berry.
25
Chas. F. Stinson,
25
Henry E. Spalding,
25
J. V. Smith,
100
J. E. Bruce,
Milford,
50
John F. Colby,
100
W. H. Curtis,
50
H. C. Shaw,
25
Mrs. J. J. Phillips.
100
Geo. E. Dean,
25
A. W. Bragg,
25
Geo. W. Ordway,
Chicago,
25
Geo. W. McCollom.
100
Chas. E. Conant.
200
Henry A. Kendall, 100
H. H. Bragg,
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HISTORY OF MONT VERNON.
Andrew Dutton,
100
HI. Porter Smith, 100
Benj. J. Boutwell, 50
Mrs. Loveredge, 50
D. E. Kittredge, 25
Timothy Kittredge. 500
C. F. P. Bancroft, Dated, Sept. 1, 1868.
50
The subscriptions were not in cash, but notes, which were printed as follows :
APPLETON ACADEMY.
WHEREAS, divers persons, of whom I am one, have agreed with each other and with the APPLETON ACADEMY, an incorporated educational institution, located in Mont Vernon, in the State of New Hampshire, to give and to pay to said APPLETON ACADEMY, each a certain sum of money, which he has set against his name upon a paper of subscriptions signed by him, and which is named in the note hercon written, in ten years from date, with interest to be paid annually, for the purpose of making in the aggregate a fund of not less than five thousand dollars, for the purposes of education in the Academical School of said body corporate ; which fund is to be managed and invested by the trustees of said APPLETON ACADEMY, and the income thereof and no more ever to be used for the purpose of giving education to the youth of both sexes, in the Latin, Greek, and Modern languages, and also in the various branches of a thorough literary, mathematical and scientific education in the English language ;
Now, in consideration of the above agreements and subscriptions, and of the acceptance hereof by said APPLETON ACADEMY, and that the said fund shall not be less than five thousand dollars, I hereby make the promissory note written hereon, the proceeds of which are to be used in the manner and for the purposes set forth above, and no other.
$100.
Mont Vernon, Sept. 1st, 1868.
Ten years after date, for value received, I promise the APPLE- TON ACADEMY, a body corporate, located in Mont Vernon, in the State of New Hampshire, to pay it one hundred dollars, with interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum, payable annually.
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