USA > New York > Livingston County > Nunda > Centennial history of the town of Nunda : with a preliminary recital of the winning of western New York, from the fort builders age to the last conquest by our Revolutionary forefathers > Part 39
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In one of these pioneer settlements, Kingsville, he was born, in whose mem- ory this simple sketch is written. The early days of his life were passed under conditions so different from those of the present that it is difficult to realize that they could have existed within such recent times. My father remembered well when, on the frontier, at least, there were no railroads, no telegraphs, no great cities, no daily papers ; a time when wool was sheared and prepared, spun at a hand wheel, woven in a hand loom, colored and made into garments in each house ; a time when flax was raised by each family, and from it was made the family sup- ply of linen and of clothing : when there were no stoves or matches, a time when cooking was by the open fire-place and the brick oven, and when the only light was the pine knot and the tallow dip: when the shoemaker came to the house and the school teacher "boarded 'round"; when money was scarce, so that business was chiefly carried on by barter, and when, in fact, all life was keyed to the brave and homely pitch of pioneer times.
Yet that home which he remembered was a beautiful home; full of the light of love and grace of courtesy, and glorified by a womanly presence that softened every bare outline with nameless charm, and made the log house a very Bethany. How he loved to tell of the long winter evenings when the great open fire-place, filled with glowing logs. flooded the room with light ; when mother sat at her spin- ning wheel, and father, book in hand, gave out to his eager boys the hardest words in Webster's Spelling Book, or gathered them about him to hear brave stories of the Revolution in which his father fought, or to listen reverently to the Book ever central in that home.
These pioneer experiences, so diversified, touching life at so many points, were a wonderful preparation too, for his after services. It was here that he gained that seemingly inexhaustible store of information about everyday trades and occupations, and that loving acquaintance with the life of flower and tree and bird and beast which made him able to enter into the thoughts and feelings of all conditions of men, and furnished him with a wealth of homely and strik-
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ing illustrations. Here too the free life out-of-doors, the vigorous exercise, deve- loped in him that iron strength of sinew, that magnificent depth of chest which rendered him strong for years of anxiety and care, and made those broad shoul- ders of his able to carry lightly many burdens laid upon them.
When my father was about twelve years old, a young man who was to exert a very great influence upon him, took charge of the village school. The young collegian, fresh from his eastern Alma Mater, inspired in the boys in his charge an ambition for an education, and a desire to obtain it at whatever cost. After one of the Professor's talks on the subject, my father was walking home along the shady forest road with a school friend, and as they walked and talked he said. "I'll get to college. if it takes till forty." From this boyish resolve he never swerved, but through several years of most discouraging work and waiting, bided his time. For two years before starting to college, he worked in the harvest field in the summer, and taught school winters ; and during the last year of his life he inet men and women who spoke with gratitude of the influence upon their lives which he had exerted, teaching these country schools.
At last, when he was eighteen years old, the glad day came, and he set his face toward the college just founded at Rochester. And so the old coach run- ning from Kingsville to Erie rumbled away, bearing the brave young form in homespun gray, with mother's kiss warm upon his brow, and within his heart the blessings of a noble father, who had little else to give his boy than faith and honor. and the strong convicition that there were things of far more worth than houses or lands, or goid. Of the events of that journey to Rochester it is impossible to speak at length in this brief sketch; but that night spent on the streets of Erie. that run before day-break to catch the last boat down the lake to Buffalo, the shel- terless deck passage through all that bitter November day, the cheerful endurance of hunger and cold, if so the sacred hoard in the little black wallet might remain untouched, every detail of the pathetic, heroic little journey is precious to those who love him.
During his first year in college,-the second of the course, since he entered sophomore-he boarded himself in a little upper room on Prospect Street, deny- ing himself everything except the necessities of life, and eking out his meager re- sources by any work which offered itself. At the opening of the Junior year there was an opportunity to teach in Little Falls, of which he availed himself most gladly, and spent a happy and successful year teaching, continuing meanwhile his own college studies, and saving the money which should take him through his Senior year. On his return he passed the examination on the work of the Junior year, and was graduated with high rank the following June.
A summer spent at home, full of the anxious questioning of his own heart whether after all his education had fitted him for the work which he desired, and of the unkind taunts of those townsmen who all along had regarded the going to college as nonsense, was happily concluded by the offer of the position of principal of the academy in Nunda, N. Y.
After six years of successful work in Nunda, in 1860 he was married to Miss Emily Barrows of Trenton. N. Y., and removed to his old home in Kingsville. Ohio. He remained here in charge of the academy until 1868, when he went to Lowville, N. Y., to give the academy of that place an impetus and position among the educational institutions of the State which it has never lost. On coming to
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Rochester in 1871, he assumed control of the Collegiate Institute, a private school preparing boys for college.
The hope of entering the Christian ministry had never been abandoned dur- ing all his twenty years of successful teaching ; and when, in 1874, the opportunity offered of taking a course of study in the Theological Seminary while continuing his work as professor of Greek and Latin, he at once accepted it. On the comple- tion of his work in the Seminary, he was called to the pastorate of the Lake Ave- nue Church, a position which he held until his death.
In 1888 he was afflicted with serious trouble of the eyes, and his church gen- erously granted him a year's vacation. This year iny father and mother spent in most delightful travel. They were some time in Ohio and Tennessee, visiting friends and relations ; and then after a month in New Orleans, went leisurely on to Arizona and Southern California. In the course of their journey they visited brothers in Oregon, Utah. Colorado, Nebraska, Michigan and Tennessee. spent some time in the National Park, Colorado Springs. Salt Lake City and Chicago, and started toward home feeling thoroughly strong and ready for work.
On the arrival of the pastor and his wife, the church gave them a cordial and hearty reception. As a pleasant surprise, the walls of the audience room had been freshly tinted, the floors re-carpeted. and the pulpit richly draped. When the two, so long absent, entered the church, the entire congregation rose, and remained standing, while to the soft strains of "Home, Sweet Home," they passed up the aisle. Deacon Woodbury then addressed to them these beautiful words of wel- come, more than ever beautiful now when read through tears : My Dear Pastor and Dear Sister Barrett :
In behalf of this church and this community I welcome you most cordially back to your accustomed places among us. It is a sore disappointment to us, and to me most of all, that one of those who have occupied the place of pastor during your absence is not here to voice so much better than I can do the heartiness of our joy, and the sincerity of the welcome we would extend to you.
We have missed you sadly during this long separation, and in many ways. We have missed you from the pulpit. although the supply has been from the very best in the land. We have missed you from our social meetings. We have missed you, when we have gathered to remember our Lord in partaking of the emblems of his broken body and shed blood, which we have for so many years received from your hand. And we have missed you from our homes and firesides. Our joys have been incomplete in that you were not here to share them with us, and the peals of the marriage bell have been less merry because you could not join the hands and offer your congratulations and bestow your blessing. We have missed, too, the hearty grasp of that hand which you have so often extended to us in friendly greeting. But we have missed you most when the dark shadows of sor- row and bercavement have fallen across our pathways; for, although guarded so carefully and watched over so tenderly, death.has forced his way into some of our homes, and snatched from us our loved ones, even from our embrace. It is true your kind and loving words of sympathy and consolation have reached us from across the continent, but, in their passage, the cold mountains and the arid plains have robbed them of the fragrance of the gentle tones and glance of compassion- ate tenderness by which they are wont to be accompanied.
But we are glad you went away, and rejoice that we suffered privation, for it was for the benefit of these we love. It is a sincere pleasure to us to know that
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you have been enabled to read from the book of nature in some of its grandest lines, of the wisdom and power of the God we worship.
The night of sorrow is now passed, and the joy of the morning has come. . and we have met together to welcome your return to go in and out before us-"to weep with those of us who weep and to rejoice with those who do rejoice." We welcome you, as we trust, with renewed health and vigor, and pray the Lord of the harvest that you may be long spared to labor in his field. We welcome you to our homes and our fire-sides and to a participation in all our joys. Yes, and we welcome you, too, to a participation in our sorrows; for it is written, "Is it not better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting?"
Each presence in this large assembly speaks a personal welcome. These dec- orations and these flowers, in their beauty and fragrance, say welcome, and these walls and the ceilings, and even the floors, have put on a more pleasing aspect that they too might take part in this universal welcome. Again I say, welcome, a thousand times welcome.
DR. BARRETT'S RESPONSE
My Dear Brother Woodbury
It gives me especiai pleasure to greet you personally on this occasion; for during the past winter we were fellow travelers and sojourners together for many weeks in a distant southern city, and this is the first time we have met since six months ago when we said "good-bye" in New Orleans-you going eastward to the land of Flowers, and I westward to the Golden Gate.
But you come to me to-night, not as an individual-not on your own motion simply, but as the representative of this church and community. You bring hearty communications and kindly greetings : you come to extend to me and mine an af- fectionate welcome to the hearts and homes of this people once more, and so in response I say, not to you simply, but to this crowded assembly of friends and neighbors, to this entire community. "All hail!" It is not fitting that many words be said by me at this time, for if your fingers are tingling as mine are to join in friendly grasp with these hundreds gathered here to-night, a long address were an impertinence. It would be an unfeeling nature that could remain unmoved on such an occasion as this ; that did not respond heartily and tenderly to this sponta- neous welcome home on the part of this church and community.
As we came into this room through the door yonder, and while we were pass- ing up the aisle, there broke upon our ears the strains of that wonderful hymn of the heart, "Home, Sweet Home" --
"'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam ;
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
Our hearts responded a fervent Amen. We have reveled in pleasures for a year past-sometimes in palaces, though oftener in the lowly thatched cot- tage-sometimes by the mountains and again by the streams-under sunnier skies than bend above nis in Rochester. and amid flowers more lovely, because they have never felt the breath of winter. But there has not been a day in the year past in which our thoughts have not turned longingly towards the Empire State-towards the City of Rochester-the Ninth Ward-this church and this people. And we have often said there is no city like our city-no church like our church-no peo-
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ple like our people. And when at last, after traversing the length and breadth of the Pacific coast, our feet were turned eastward once more, we began to count first the months, then the weeks and the days, and finally the hours, that must elapse before we should be grasping hands that were friendly, and looking into eyes that were kindly, and feeling the genial glow of hearts that were warm and true. At last the longed-for heur has come, and we are standing before you face to face. We have heard your words of affectionate and hearty welcome, of loving and abid- ing confidence, and of devout thanksgiving to God for our safe return. These hearty and unaffected utterances of yours have been grateful to me and mine. We thank you most sincerely, and we can assure you that we fully reciprocate the warmth of your welcome-ours is as warm-the genuineness of your affection, for ours towards yours is a genuine-and the intensity of the joy you feel at this happy home-coming, for our joy has no bounds. We have come home ready for service, anxious to engage in the work before us, and almost impatient to put on the harness once more. We come with no half-hearted devotion to the work, but our whole mind and heart are yours for Christ and His Church. We shall need your co-operation and your prayers that we may be nerved for the conflict and be girded with power from on high. May God bless you and us for Christ's sake. Amen.
The plans formed and the hopes cherished at this glad home-coming were de- stined never to be realized. On Sunday, October 20th, oniy a few weeks later, he was transferred to a higher service. He had preached with great power and earn- estness in the morning, had attended a funeral in the afternoon, and was on his way to evening service, when "he was not, for God took him."
"Thus endeth the first lesson."
The work he did can never be fully written down. It might be said that he found the church full of bitter feuds and factions, he left it firmly united in Chris- tian harmony; he found it on the eve of disruption, he left it prepared for aggres- sive work; he found it unsettled on some of the fundamental beliefs of the denomi- nation, he left it clearly instructed and surely established in the faith once deliv- ered to the saints ; or, it might be recounted that he had baptised four hundred and eight believers on profession of their faith, that he had received from other churches two hundred and five, that the church had increased during his ministry from two hundred and sixty-eight to five hundred and forty-four members ; but after all was said, this is not the true record of his work. That lies hidden deep in the hearts of his people, whence God shall bring it in that day when we see not through a glass darkly, but face to face.
INTERREGNUM HIGH (SELECT) SCHOOLS
Principal Asher B. Evans, collegian, A. M. ; preceptress, Miss Alice Wemott ; first year, Holmes Hall ; second year, Session House.
Some of the students.
Philo Mosher, Albert Houghton, Corydon C. Olney, H. Wells Hand, John J Carter, William G. Tousey, William Cosnett, Aiken Aspinwall, George Gibbs. Clifford Bagley, Arthur J. Barnes, Fred Bell, Frank U. Davidson, Alonzo Olney, Scott Ferris, Joseph Lovell, John Loveli, Hiram Olney, Clemment McNair. Hiram Ashley, Jay Gallentine, Charles Warner. Arthur J. Barnes, Albert Barnes, W. Jackson Alward, Charles F. Peck, Albert Lewis, Julian Lewis, Marcia White,
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Eliza Tuthill, Alida J. Barron, Alice Gilbert, Harriet Barron, Mary Metcalf, Emma Metcalf, Jennie Grover, Anna Richmond, Anna Alward, Georgia Ricli- mond, Alamantha Safford. Mary Lovell, Mary Olney, Louise Ferris, Sophia War- ner, Kate Bell, Emma Gibbs, Sarah Dibble, Nellie White, Sarah White, Nellie Shaw, Emma Shaw, Susie Martin, Mary Willis, Julia Satterlee, Mary Page. Maria Dake, Emma Snyder.
Second year ( additional ).
William J. Reid, Thomas B. Reid, John P. Slocum, William Q. Huggins, Robert Balty, Griggs Bennett, Charles J. Swain, Kelsey Sanders, Channing Aspinwall, W. Y. Robinson, Robert Lovell, William Whitcomb, Charles Rich- mond, George King, Frank King, John Kiley, Richard Dowling, James Haver, Myron Haver, Edward G. Randall, David Randall, Charles Lowe, Marshall Mc- Duffee, Fred Grover, Eliza Crane, Carrie Willard, Carrie Wood. Fanny Wood. Mary Grover, Emma Wood, Eva Whitcomb, Hattie Gibbs, Emily Whitcomb, Fanny Peck, Libbie Arnold, Mary Linkletter, Kate Linkletter, Adell Linkletter, Nellie Warner, Maggie Sturgeon, \della Havens, Hattie Gibbs, Alma Turrill, Mary McDuffee, Celestia Rider, Libbie Mills, Kate Mills, Libbie \'rooman.
The second of this class of Select High schools was taught by the following teachers :
William G. Tousey, principal, A. B., B. D., LL. D., Professor.
Mary L. Pettit, preceptress.
Cornelia Tousey, primary department.
It was no longer called by the name of the former school, but given a name that was applicable to this class of schools. "The Nunda Public High School."
This school was very much like other schools of this class, except that it had a class in Phonography.
One of this class became proficient in this, and has a business college with all the improved methods of to-day.
The A. J. Barnes Business college of St. Louis, is a legitimate offspring of this select school.
John and Mary Kneeland were in attendance at this school, and being very young, considered the young principal decidedly austere.
Many of the scholars of the Evans High School attended. The class in Phonography were mostly special students, with this study only. Miss Pettit, Miss Willis and Mr. Barnes were of this number.
The third of these select high schools was taught by Rev. Henry B. Thayer and Mrs. Thayer.
The young people from the Presbyterian families were in attendance, besides others.
The fourth and last of these Select High Schools was taught by Colonel Thomas J. Thorp. A. B., and by Captain Joseph N. Flint, A. B., immediately after the war. Miss Thorp was an assistant.
The Union school, ever on the alert for 'skilled teachers, engaged Colonel Thorp and his sister for the next school year, and this put an end to this series of schools which were taught in the old Academy building.
Select schools for juveniles abounded about this time. Miss Martha Lake had taught one of this kind some years before. Miss Jennie Grover had a school for juveniles. And Miss Mary Willis had one later.
The new brick Academy made Select High Schools unnecessary.
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£
SELECT HIGH SCHOOLS
This class of schools, had they been properly housed in a good building, with an efficient brand of trustees back of them, would have been very successful. Some of the teachers have since become famous.
It is something to say, that Principal Evans was the greatest English speak- ing mathematician in the world. At the time he was in Nunda he had a class of six or seven in Hackley University Algebra. The class consisted of Albert Houghton, Philo Mosher, John J. Carter, Corydon C. Olney, Aiken Aspinwall, Clifford Bagley, H. W. Hand, W. G. Tousey. All the prize problems published in educational or other papers were solved by this class, or its teacher, but none of the scholars of that class who knew their teacher could solve any solvable pro- blem suspected his supertative superiority over every other American of English mathematician.
Captain J. N. Flint, A. B., of Yale, served for the balance wheel for Colone! Thorp, the latter furnished the fireworks, that is the enthusiasm, and Captain Flint, the ice cream that cooled them down to do something more than listen to the Colonel's eloquence. Speech was silver, but silence golden in this school. Colonel Thorp as a school commissioner, was a man in the right spot, he could manufacture enthusiasm enough in a two hours visit to any district school to last them, that is, the teacher and scholars, the rest of the term.
ASHER BENTON EVANS The Greatest English-Speaking Mathematician in the World
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The intense earnestness of Principal W. G. Tousey, then only a student, was so great that the younger members of the school think of him still as a mental ice- berg that froze them into a state of congested substance that made them frigid, even in summer time. . The elder ones saw prismatic beauties in his congealing dignity, and suspected what seemed like ice might be a white diamond, evidently he was not intended as a primary teacher. He fills his "chair" at Tuft's College as few could.
ASHER BENTON EVANS, A. M.
Asher Benton Evans. A. B., A. M., Madison University, was acknowledged to be the greatest English speaking mathematician of the world. This foremost American mathematician, distinguished scholar and educator was born in Tomp- kins County, New York, in September, 1834, he attended the common schools and for a time had a private teacher. In 1848 his father moved with his family to Somerset. Niagara County, New York, upon a farm. Here the lad pursued his favorite study with untiring zeal, from the age of seventeen until he entered college he taught in country schools winters. He was a student at the Wilsou Collegiate Institute in 1854, and was afterward prepared for college at Yates Academy. In the spring in 1858 he entered the Sophomore class of the Univer- sity of Rochester, N. Y., and in the fall of 1858 he entered the junior class of Madison (now Colgate) University, from which he graduated with honors in 1860. He then entered upon his life work as an educator at Nunda, Livingston County, New York, at the Literary Institute from 1860 to 1864; Penfield Aca- deny, 1864 to 1865; Wilson Collegiate Institute, 1865 to 1866; Lockport Union School, 1866 until his death in 1891.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY
Asher B. Evans was born at Hector, September 21, 1834, taught school and studied at various preparatory institutions, 1851-1858; attended the University of Rochester and graduated from Madison (now Colgate) University in 1860: was principal of various schools in Western New York from 1860 to 1891. He married Sarah Elizabeth Haines of Lockport, N. Y., May 16, 1869, was principal of Lockport Union school from 1866 until his death September 24, 1891. Beside his wife he left a son, William, and a daughter, Florence.
1867
The third Nunda Academy, housed in an ornamental brick structure, was by far the best of the edifices reared or utilized for that purpose. Everything was new, even to the faculty.
How Principal Charles Fairman came to be the man selected is not known, but that he proved to be just the man for the place has never been disputed.
He was first, last and always. a desirable teacher.
The faculty were at first:
Principal, Charles Fairman, A. M.
Preceptress, Mrs. E. M. Knowlton.
Principal Preparatory Department and teacher of Mathematics, James C. Foley.
Teacher of Ornamental branches. Miss Kizzie M. Dinn.
Teacher of Vocal and Instrumental Music, Miss Florence Davis.
Teacher of Primary Department, Miss Belle McNair.
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CHARLES FAIRMAN, LL. D. First Principal of Nunda Academy, 1867
1868
Graduate of this school, Maria Petrie.
The second faculty of this school was:
Principal, Edward Everett Spaulding, A. B., Taft's, 1859.
Preceptress, Mrs. E. M. Knowlton?
James C. Foley.
Primary, Miss Belle McNair.
1869
Graduates, Eva Whitcomb, Horace Perkins. Graduates, 187c.
Frances Tingley. married to Eugene Endicott, Mayor of Chelsea, Massachu- setts, agent Universalist Publishing House, Boston, Massachusetts.
Julia Lake, married to Byron Nugent, a merchant prince of St. Louis, who died April, 1908.
Seldon Kellogg, son of Rev. Kellogg, Oakland, was town clerk of Portage. Clara Kellogg.
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1869
Principal Blackstone.
1871
Principal, William H. Truesdale, A. B., Rochester University.
Preceptress, Mrs. Truesdale.
Assistant Preceptress, Mary Pettit.
Primary, Miss Fannie L. Tingley.
Graduates. Delia Hungerord, Loretta Jones, Seldon Mudge, M. D., *Ira Myers, Mary Nichols.
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1873-'74
Principal, Mr. Sinclair.
Principal, Mary L. Pettit, completed the year.
Assistants, Rev. C. B. Parsons and Fletcher Coffin.
Primary, Mary Willis.
Graduates.
*Carrie Gilbert continned her studies at Chelsea.
Carrie Hunt married Charles Wilcox.
Mary Packard, ( daughter of E. N. Packard, Esq.), Mrs. Richmond, Nunda. Mary Coffin, teacher, preceptress, musician, Mrs. Besinger, Pasadena, California.
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