USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Peacham > Caledonia County grammar school, Peacham, Vt. Report of the commemorative exercises, August 11-12, 1897 100th Anniversary > Part 2
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The chorus, under the leadership of Prof. Harry H. May, then sang "The Belfry Song."
Dr. Edward R. Clark then read a number of letters from the alumni. In most cases we can give only extracts from them, as space forbids all of them.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.
Edward Cowles, M. D., Superintendent of McLean Hospital. Waverly, Mass., described the semi-centennial as follows:
My brother Frank and I had been brought up from Rye- gate; we were two very small boys, dressed alike for the oc- casion, and for that reason, I suppose, were placed in the pro- cession next to the band. I have never heard since then such grand music. There were a great many people, but it seems to me now that, besides my grandfather and grandmother, almost everybody was an uncle, or an aunt, or a cousin. There is a vivid picture in my memory of the scene on Academy Hill- the long procession-the banners-the bright sunshine; it was the first great event that I can remember. While I remem- ber seeing the old Academy, it was in the new one that I went to school; and that was first in 1849. The delightful memories of my schoolmates-the boys and girls-and of the teachers that we loved, are almost as clear as if it were yesterday.
Ex-President Bartlett of Dartmouth College wrote:
My contact with the old Academy, its environments and history, began '11 years before the end of the first half of its existence. My knowledge of it has been somewhat close dur- ing a large part of its subsequent career, and my interest in it has continued unfailing to the present time. I think you cannot fail to have a very enjoyable occasion, and I trust you may have a celebration every way worthy of the ancient honor and renown of the institution.
W. C. Somers, of Sunny Dale, Kansas, wrote:
I hardly knew how to answer your invitation, whether to
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say simply, "accepted," or "received with thanks," or say a few words in reference to an institution so renowned for use- fulness. It is 53 years since I left Peacham to go to college. Success to the centennial.
Mrs. M. Gilmore, of Monroe, Maine, wrote:
I should be among the early pupils as I attended the school 70 years ago when the sessions were held in the lower room of the Academy. I have a distinct remembrance of the ar- rangement and location of the seats and the general appear- ance of the school.
Mr. Leonard Martin of Dixville, P. Q., wrote:
My reason tells me I am too far advanced in my dotage to make a speech. To me there is no place on earth like Peach- am. The people of Peacham are greatly indebted to the first Board of Trustees, for they considered it their duty to lay the foundations broad and deep, and make it a desirable lo- cation for the benefit of future generations. Peacham and its people are not faultless, but with all their faults I do love them still. I am glad I was born there, mostly because there I was brought in contact with men of large minds who had moved there for the benefit of the higher branches of educa- tion.
Mrs. Emma White Merrill, of La Crescenta, Cal., a grand- daughter of Ezra Carter, wrote:
As my grandfather was a teacher in the Academy and my husband's father a pupil, we should have a special and warm pleasure in attending the ceremonies, but living at the great distance it is impossible for us to be present.
Mrs. Calvin Morrill, of St. Johnsbury, East, wrote:
As I have passed my 86th birthday I can hardly hope to be with you. I recall very vividly the days of my allotment at the Academy. Mr. Bodwell was the preceptor. I well remem- ber his stately step as he walked to and fro over the hills of Peacham Corner. I do not forget the church at the top of the hill where Rev. Leonard Worcester of blessed memory expounded the law. His trumpet gave no "uncertain sound," but it rang out very clearly when Messrs. Worcester and Butler were imprisoned in Georgia for the crime of preaching to the Indians. Old things are passing away, behold many things are becoming new. I rejoice in the long and successful career of the Peacham school and pray that there may be yet many years in which it shall be a blessing to the community.
Mrs. Isaac W. Worcester, now in Clifton Springs, N. Y., wrote:
I have many tender associations with Peacham and it would have given me great pleasure to be present on this in- teresting occasion. I do not doubt that the occasion will be a very interesting one and I hope you will feel fully repaid for all your pains incident to such an occasion in the happiness conferred upon the many who will assemble together on Academy hill and revive the memories of the past.
W. D. Harriman, of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote a long letter
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suggesting that the graduates of the school meet every sum- mer and thus make Peacham a sort of local Chautauqua.
J. S. Stevens, of Peoria, Ill., wrote:
Many of those who attended the old Academy have played more or less of an important part in it all, and some have con- tributed materially in their chosen homes, to the advancement of mental, moral and material prosperity. Complete failures have been rare among the graduates of the New England acad- emies and colleges, and particularly those of Vermont and New Hampshire. Young men were educated or educated themselves for usefulness, and as the means of making a living. They were not sent to school or college because it was fashionable or popular, and because there was a surplus of means with which to defray their expenses, but for the purpose of fur- nishing and adding to their equipment for the active duties of life, wherever they might be. But very few wasted their meagre substance or their time in dissipation and idleness. Most of them, could their career be traced step by step, could give a good account of their stewardship. Peacham Academy laid the foundation for good work and good character in many of the sons of Vermont. The moral influence of the school and the neighborhood laid the foundation for many a character notable throughout life for honor, integrity,, conscientiousness and true manhood and noble womanhood.
B. Frank Stevens wrote from London the following letter:
Dear old school fellows: In my days the fellows always embraced the girls.
I have recently received several letters and I venture to reply to you collectively.
I am proud to be permitted to join in celebrating the cen- tenary of our school. We have lately been celebrating the fourth centenary of Columbus, the fourth centenary of Cabot, the cen- tenary of our national existence and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and now at last, but not least, we have the exceedingly interesting centenary of the Caledonia County Grammar School.
Even the oldest of those gathered together must rely upon history and tradition for the tale of the origin of the school, as not one of us was then present, though many of us may claim that we were within one of it.
The century was in its first octave when my father at- tended this school, sometimes boarding at Col. Blanchard's, the father of the venerable Col. Blanchard with whom I board- ed more than forty years later, and sometimes making the daily journey on horseback from Barnet. My erder brothers attended the school, but I do not know where they boarded.
By linking our parents' memories with our own we can span the interval of time from the foundation of the school down to the present celebration.
I hope some remembrancer will give us a chronological, biographical and historical account of the school and its stu-
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dents, its governors and trustees, its talented teachers, and synchronous Peacham preachers, all of pious memory.
. At your festivities memories will be falling as gently as snowflakes in a sugar orchard, and clustering as copiously as the wild fruits on Peacham's hills.
Our elder brothers and sisters from long distances fol- lowed the trails by blazed trees as laboriously as they followed their teachers through the tortuous paths of the three R's, readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic, but later when the new Academy was erected in the village those of us who are now near the stile at the threescore and ten milepost were un- consciously associated in daily attendance at school with many of those patriots who subsequently defended their country and made the southern streams run red with the crimson tide of life. But it is not my place to anticipate what the historian will tell, nor to encumber your thoughts with my poor words.
Naturally your festivities will be more or less convivial, and while it is impossible for me to be at your spread, as I should like so much to be, I may perhaps be allowed to send a sterling contribution and also a lot of American animals.
Our elder sisters may perhaps bring examples of their spinning and weaving much older and perhaps finer than mine, but as so many of the Peacham pupils learnt their art of draw- ing from that consummate master of animal drawing, Harri- son Weir, my dear old English friend, now hale and hearty in his seventy-fifth year, I send herewith a damask tablecloth designed by him and made in 1880 as being both useful and, I hope, acceptable for the occasion. I venture to hope it may be used not only at this centenary, but at the next, and in the meantime the principal of the Caledonia Grammar School, whoever he may be, may use it for banquets or other festivals of the school of ever blessed memory.
To each and to every surviving schoolfellow I send heart- iest good wishes.
Miss Anna H. Kidder wrote as follows from Tokyo, Japan:
Thank you for the Caledonian invitation to participate in the centennial festivities of the dear old academy. A working pupil still, I send no "regrets," but a heartfelt word of love and honor for the past and a Godspeed for the future.
My day was when Mr. Barnard and our sainted Thomp- son took the boys and girls from their busy mountain homes and stirred in them big hopes for useful living. The training I then received has been a potent factor in shaping my life into one of labor. Never, with my farthest reach, have I touched my ideal; yet I "press forward," for years and toil but brighten aspiration.
I wish there might be such a moving spirit among the stu- dents, old and young, who gather in Peacham-on-the-hills this summer, that the academy would receive a forward movement that would raise and keep it at the highest possible level for such a school to attain. Why should not our schools be the best in Vermont? Why should the graduation paper of any
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other academy be worth more than that of the Caledonia County Grammar School? Cannot those who, because they have been benefited there, are scattered over the world doing good, add this to their bounden duties, that of contributing at least one dollar a year toward upbuilding this institution of learning? I've wondered many a time why we, who have taken our life start there, were not more mindful of our Alma Mater! Let us now begin and help to make this place of instruction, so dear to us all, more helpful to the young men and women who are to fill its halls in the future! So many of the old friends of forty years ago have "gone over to the majority" that I should be well-nigh a stranger; yet I should so love to tread the old paths and look into the faces of those who will gather with you next month!
Will you accept two dollars of an order that goes by this mail toward the expense of the centennial, and two dollars, my first year's contribution to the fund I hope will be begun this year of grace 1897 for the Caledonia County Grammar School? Should the one appointed to receive this letter be one of the friends of '54-'61, remember, you, with all the old associates, are still to memory dear. I am on the altar of service. Some day we shall meet. May it be in peace in the Higher School.
Owing to the want of time many letters could not be read, and short extracts were given or mention was made of the fol- lowing: Mrs. Hannah Evans Hardy, of Boston; F. E. Sargent, of Anaconda, Mont .; Isaac B. Blake, of Peoria, Ill; C. W. Cowles, of Derby Line; Mrs. M. K. Holt, of Hardwick; Elsie H. Gould, of Evanston, Ill .; Martha F. O. French, Evanston; Sophia F. Orton, Chicago; D. F. Miller, Chicago; D. A. Clark, New York; Seraph S. Nelson, Coila, N. Y .; Dr. D. H. Good- willie, New York; H. T. Knight, Folsom, Cal .; John Paul, Newport; William G. Thompson, Cambridge, Mass .; Lydia Parker Ripley, Colorado Springs; A. Hagar, Plantagenet, On- tario; E. S. Paquin, Lower Cabot; Fred F. Thompson, Canan- daigua, N. Y .; C. C. Chase, Lowell, Mass .; Emily Damon Haines, Cabot; Mary Blanchard Baldwin, St. Paul; Edw. W. Wild, Keene, N. H .; Benjamin McLaran, San Diego, Cal .; Jane M. Varnum Booce, Green Mountain, Iowa; Clara J. Howie, Smith's Ranch, Cal .; Alice M. Bowman, Corralitos, Cal .; H. A. Marckres, San Jose, Cal; Dr. W. H. Welch, Larimore, N. D. Letters from Mrs. Ann Eliza Worcester Robertson, of Musco- gee, I. T., a pupil of C. C. Chase, and Mrs. Lucretia H. Mc- Lean Kimball, of Washington, D. C., arrived too late for men- tion or reading during the centennial exercises.
An interesting paper, prepared by Mrs. Abby Hitchcock Tyler, of Boston, Mass., and read by her before the Boston Alumni Association in May, 1897, was kindly loaned by her to be read on this occasion, but, to the regret of all her friends and the loss of all present, it was omitted owing to the want of time.
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REMINISCENCES.
After a medley by the Sherman orchestra, the chairman called upon the graduates for reminiscences.
Mr. William H. Ingraham, of Watertown, Mass., gave the following response:
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CALEDONIA COUNTY GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND FRIENDS:
When I received the notice of your anticipated reunion and your kind invitation to be present I said to myself, "I will go back to the old school and look upon the old scenes; meet, as I trust, the few that may remain and try to renew the past days and friendships." But I find so few of my schoolmates on this platform, and as I went through the cemetery on the hill yes- terday I found so many more there at rest that I felt the flight of the years very strongly. Well, sixty-five years is a long time in a man's life, and we old ones know that the shadows lengthen in the setting sun. Let us look back and see what changes have been made. The old school has kept right on sending out her scholars to take their places in the battle of life and fitting them to do their duty wherever they might be, but do we realize the changes in these sixty-five years-not a railroad in the country, hardly a steamer, not one crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and who dreamed of a tele- graph. A short time before I left this school there was a sur- vey being made to connect Lake Champlain with Connecticut River. The engineer, with his hands, was stopping at the hotel kept by Mrs. Brown, just at the lower end of your square. One day curiosity was excited by the posting of a notice that a steam engine or locomotive would be exhibited in Brown's Hall that evening. Like all boys full of curiosity I went to the hall. The engineer, I will call him, brought in his tin boiler on wheels with a small carriage with a seat or two for boys to take a ride, and commenced his lecture. He was a fluent talker, and while he moved his car he expatiated on what won- derful things would be done in the future. The canal engi- neer was a thoughtful man, and I stood between him and old Dr. Shedd, after the exhibition was over. The Doctor turned to the canal man and remarked, as in jest, "When this railroad is built, your occupation as engineer for canal work will be over." The engineer, for he was a scholar, stood a minute, re- flecting, and then replied, "It may be sooner than you think for." The handwriting was on the wall, and he read it.
Follow on, look to-day at the use of electricity. Four thousand years ago the Record says God asked Job, out of the whirlwind, "Can you make the lightning do your bid- ding?" And to-day humanity answers, "I can." We have chained the thunderbolt and sent it under the water, bearing
HON. WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN Secretary of Board, 1797-1812 President, 1813-1828
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messages three thousand miles, as it were, in a minute. We have hitched it to the car, and we carry the passenger at a good speed, ten miles for five cents; and where shall this human energy stop? We, not satisfied with moving on the earth, are scaling heaven with balloons. Drifting on the wings of the wind, we move along over mountain and valley. We ask, can this conveyance ever succeed? It is a bold man who answers, No; but I confess I have very little hope. Mother Earth still holds us by the everlasting law of gravitation to her bosom, and we can do almost anything while we have our foothold on her hosom, we walk fearless and erect as long as our feet press her solid base; but as yet the air is not our element for motion, and as yet, we, by nature, have hands and feet, but no wings. These thoughts crowd upon me as I look into your faces and remember my old school days in Peacham Academy, as we used to call it when we were boys; but I am taking too much time with old recollections, and thanking you for your kind attention I make way for others.
Dr. L. F. Parker said he came to Peacham Academy in 1840, a lively year politically, for the war cry was "Tippe- canoe and Tyler, too." The second time he came to the acad- emy he walked all the way from Coventry to Peacham and carried his goods on his back. He said that Mr. Chase was the best teacher he ever knew, and he thought he stood equal to any in the galaxy of academy teachers.
Mrs. M. E. Wheeler, of Portville, N. Y., said:
All my remembrances are of the old Academy on the hill. This new Academy belongs to a younger generation. I know the hills were steep and long, the snow was deep, and there were zephyrs upon that bleak hill, but it was all poetry then.
My first school days in the old Academy were about 1836. President Bartlett of Dartmouth was my first preceptor, a most faithful and thorough teacher. Especially I remember how care- fully he trained us in reading. My voice was stiff and I could not get hold of what was called, "The rising and falling in- flection." I remember how many times we went over and over these words: "By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," etc. At last I caught it, and that training has been worth more to me than a gold mine. For all my life, wherever I have been, where- ever I have boarded, or wherever I have been stopping for any length of time, it has always been my calling, my vocation to read aloud. There is always a demand for those who are ready and more than willing to read aloud, and the supply is never equal to the demand.
My next preceptor was Mr. John H. Lord, who died of cholera in Cincinnati, a comparatively young man. The next was Mr. C. C. Chase. Both were admirable, excellent teachers My next teacher was Miss Laura Bradley, and no words of
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mine can ever express my obligation to her. She was an inspiration to us. She had a magnetism or gift that brought out our very best, and sometimes our best was so much better than anything we had ever done before, we doubted if it was really our own work. She not only taught us what was in our school books, but she kept before us the highest ideal of woman- hood. I heard a little boy the other day say, speaking of his teacher, "I love her; I more'n love her." I can truly say of her, we loved her, we more than loved her, we almost wor- shipped her. Her school was opened and I think closed with reading the Bible, in which we all joined, and prayer. And those prayers were something never to be forgotten. As she stood with her hands clasped, her head a little raised, her eyes closed, she seemed to be speaking "face to face with the Almighty." We could not take our eyes from her face, we could not close our eyes as is fitting in prayer; they were riveted upon her face. It was a transfiguration.
Laura Bradley died in her early womanhood . Her sun went down long before noon. But, "That life is long which answers life's great end."
MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN.
Miss Abbie Chamberlain, of Washington, D. C., gave a sketch of Mellen Chamberlain, preceptor of the school in 1817 and 1818:
Mellen Chamberlain was born in Peacham, Vt., in 1795, the same year in which the Academy was chartered. He was the son of Gen. Wm. Chamberlain, the leading founder of the school. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1816, and taught the next year in Caledonia County Grammar School before beginning his legal studies. Later he practiced law in Castine, Me., and in Pittsburgh, Pa., until the failure of his wife's health forced him to seek a warmer climate in the West In- dies. After her death he dreaded the return to his desolate home and sought relief amidst the kaleidoscopic changes of European travel. He had become intensely interested in the new invention which had already attracted his attention dur- ing his winter's sojourn in Washington, and entered into the partnership which the letter mentions. Later, on July 29, 1839, Prof. Morse wrote as follows: "Before I left Paris we had closed a contract with Mr. Chamberlain to carry the telegraph to Austria, Russia, the principal cities of Greece and Egypt, and put it on exhibition with a view to its utilization." And again he wrote that "he parted from Prof. Morse in Paris to enter upon his expedition with high expectations of both pleasure and profit in October, 1838." From Paris he jour- neyed by Marseilles in France through Italy, went to Athens, Malta and from Palestine to Constantinople. There he set up the telegraph in the library of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, the American Missionary who afterward became the founder of Robert's College. They discovered that the instrument re-
REV. D. MERRILL Principal, 1821-1822 Secretary, 1842-1850
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quired to be perfected in some of its parts. Dr. Hamlin was convinced of the incapacity of Oriental workmen, and he ad- vised Mr. Chamberlain, he says, to seek the aid of skilled artisans in Vienna. Upon May 14, in consequence of the rapid course of the Danube between Drinkova and Orsoba, the steam- ers were not able to ply, and the link was supplied by boats that were towed, as upon our canals. When within one hour of their destination this towboat was overturned by the action of the water with that of the towline which was secured to the mast. There was probably great carelessness, for eleven out of fifteen passengers were lost. Mr. Chamberlain was in his cabin and was stunned by a heavy blow on the temple. His remains rest on the banks of this distant stream amidst a foreign race. He was not destined to see the triumph of this marvelous electrical force which has encircled the globe and intertwined our life with that of every nation of the earth.
Although the telegraphic click is still unheard in their na- tive town, Peachamites can claim an earlier, a more intimate, a less material link with this buzzing message-bearer, through the efforts of one of her sons.
Copy of a letter written by Mellen Chamberlain, Esq., to his sister, Miss Abigail Chamberlain, of Peacham, Vt., and read by Miss A. M. Chamberlain, of Washington, D. C., at the centennial of Caledonia County Grammar School, Wednes- day, August -, 1897.
PARIS, France, 19 Sept., 1838.
My Dear Sister:
I am still in Paris but go to London in a day or two to meet a ship that I expect will bring me the sinews of war. I have not yet decided whether to spend the winter at St. Peters- burg or Constantinople. I wish the wires of my Electro- Magnetic Telegraph were laid to Peacham and then I could talk with you as fast as I write this letter. Galvanism goes around the earth five times in a second; of course in one-tenth of that time I could speak with you. Having become a partner of Prof. S. F. B. Morse in his invention, he has taken America, Great Britain and France and left me the rest of the globe. This falls in with my humor for travelling, and affords me the best possible introduction to the best society in the coun- tries in which I visit. If it does nothing more than bring me into contact with savants, princes and emperors I shall be content. But if, as I rather think, these same personages will give me some thousands besides diamonds and make me count of the empire, why it will be better still. At any rate all Paris and The Institute are agog with the marvelous American ex- periment, and it will no doubt be adopted. I am proud of it as a fellow-citizen and of Mr. Morse's acquaintance and con- fidence. He is the son of "Geography Morse," and a fine painter, as you may have heard. Our Congress, you know, re- ported very strongly in favor of its adoption, and will try it
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by next year. I cannot doubt that a system so much cheaper and surer than that now in use will be adopted by all Govern- ments. I am not very greatly in love with what little I have seen of this people. One Yankee is worth a dozen of them at any time. I have been all over Paris for a week to get a machine that one of our turners would make in three days, and none of the best workmen in Paris could promise it in less than three weeks. I shall procure it in London. I have seen the king and queen at a distance; attended The Institute; dined with Gen. Cass (our American Minister), who really does us credit here; eaten frogs and thousands of nameless things. When you see me I suppose you will find me greatly improved. It is imperceptible to myself, but high company (I am on the fifth floor) is said to be very improving.
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