USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Peacham > Caledonia County grammar school, Peacham, Vt. Report of the commemorative exercises, August 11-12, 1897 100th Anniversary > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
There he met Webster, Clay, Calhoun, that great tri- umvirate. There he counseled with Chase, Hale, Hamlin, Seward, Sumner, Giddings, Garfield and Blaine. There he an- tagonized such men as Soulé, Stephens, Davis, Toombs and Cobb. He was the peer of them all, and he knew it. The North and the South were about to submit to the arbitrament of war the question of African slavery, which human argument could never settle. The tragedy was ready. The stage was ready. There being no Trustees to say him nay, Stevens was ready. The first shot fired in '61 upon the Stars and Stripes rang up the curtain. Stevens hated slavery with a hatred that verged on madness. All the years of his political life, yes, and his life in the Caledonia County Grammar School, had been fitting him for this crisis that was upon the country. While politi- cians and statesmen even were looking for a compromise, he was determined upon the extinction of slavery. Every arrow of ridicule, wit, sarcasm, or invective from his twanging bow was aimed straight at the throat of the black monster. From the first Stevens saw what many of the great leaders did not see, that the conflict would be protracted, desperate, bloody and prepared accordingly.
As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he wield- ed more influence, probably, than any other man in America. Every morning during those four redhot years of war and grief and blood, Congress watched to see what the "perform- ance" of the great Commoner was to be. Every evening the daily papers were scanned, here in Peacham, by gray-haired men to see what the "performance" of their old schoolmate "Thad" had been the day before in Congress.
Knowing perfectly well that the war must be pushed with all vigor until slavery was uprooted from the land, he used the immense resources of the North to hurl upon the cohorts of treason and rebellion the mighty hosts of freedom until the power of the South was crushed and slavery destroyed at Appomattox.
Nor was the play ended even then. What a spectacle for gods and men to see the great Commoner, now an old, gray- headed man, feeble, tottering on the brink of the grave, drag the recreant Andrew Johnson from the highest position on earth to the bar of the American Senate, and there impeach him of high crimes and misdemeanors. His last part was to see the last three amendments to the Constitution practically as-
HON. C. O. THOMPSON Principal, 1859-1860, 1862-1864
-55-
sured. Then the curtain fell. The tragedy was ended. His life work done.
He has been called cruel and hard-hearted. It has been said that he forgot the companions of his youth. He has been called unsympathetic and ungrateful.
Thaddeus Stevens was no Puritan. I do not claim it; but a grateful nation freed from the curse of slavery, redeemed, blood-bought, long ago threw the mantle of charity over his faults.
Do you call him cruel and hard-hearted? His executor found $100,000 in notes and accounts not to be collected, be- cause his debtors needed the money more than he.
Do you say he forgot the companions of his youth? Visit the Peacham Juvenile Library Society, which he founded while a boy here in school, and endowed generously at his death, for your answer.
Do you say he was unsympathetic and ungrateful? Read the beautiful tribute he paid his mother. Witness the money he bestowed without stint upon her to gratify her every wish, and then visit that mother's grave on yonder hill, covered with "roses and other cheerful flowers," which her illustrious son out of his grateful filial heart has ordained to bloom perenni- ally so long as Peacham has a corporate existence.
In a humble cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because open to black men as well as white, he ordered his grave to be made, and in that grave over which no granite shaft can ever be erected firm enough to typify the solidity of his character, high enough to transcend his rugged virtues; around which no work of art fashioned by the cunning hand of man from purest gold can symbolize the boundless affluence of his life, reposes the mortal form of him who was and is the crowning glory of Caledonia County Grammar School.
Alumni, alumnae and friends:
I have thus tried to bring briefly before your minds a pic- ture of the school, with its attendant circumstances, as it has accomplished its mission during, practically, the 19th century. It has been a grand work in the most glorious century of the world's history; a century which through art, science, litera- ture, invention and Christianity has brought the human race nearer the image of God than any other.
In this beneficent work, this unpretentious school, with extremely limited means, has done fully its share. Her alumni and alumnæ have been well to the front in every worthy cause. In Congress halls, in politics, in the pulpit, at the bar, on missionary fields, among the defenders of their country, in all the crowded walks of business, they have reflected glory and honor upon their Alma Mater.
Standing as we do to-day upon the threshold of the 20th century, it would be interesting, indeed, were we able to be- hold what it and the school will accomplish for mankind dur- ing the next hundred years. But we may not lift the veil. To-
2
-56 -;
day we can only say with another: "The past, at least, is se- cure."
After music by the Neapolitan Orchestra the following poem was read by Prof. H. D. Wild of Williams College:
CENTENNIAL POEM.
A night of stars on memory's lonely shore Brought songs to one who listened from afar. Sad parting songs, by youthful voices sung, Thus far together had they tasted life As life is at the first, and hand in hand Had wrought and loved. But now at length had come The time that tries the secret soul if it Be gold or dust. A sigh, a kiss, a pledge Of holy faith to shining purposes, And they had passed forever from the calm
Where trusting youth enwraps itself with youth Into the stormy place of larger self,
As streams that mass their joy through pleasant lands,
Until wide ocean with its boisteorous arms
Breaks them to waves that break on distant shores.
But on the morn there came another song Across the waves, clearnoted, joyous now, With organ peal of action rising to The diapason of man's conscious strength, While suddenly o'er all there burst and swelled
The chorus of reunion; and it seemed
A song of Peacham, and its hills and streams.
O place of peace among the hills, Where brooks speak gently to the farms In stir of solitary mills, And vale to vale bends wooded arms. We greet thee, place of peace!
Thy rocks are stern, but rich the green That covers them. . Strong are thy sons, But gloried with the softened mien Of books, whose culture overruns Thy longer history.
Yon cedar grove, where breezes cool Their panting breath, and August noons Rock lazily on sedgy pool In stolen couch of midnight moons, Thee, too, we know and love.
Thou mighty rock, from crag uptorn And dropped in distant vale, a place Of childhood's play, deep waterworn To shelves and crevices, thy face All mossy-grown we greet
-57-
And yonder stern, tree-bristling peak, The view point of a forest's fame, Long may the heavenly breezes speak Sweet solace for its sulphurous name, Majestic Devil Hill.
And Harvey's pond, deep-watered gem That gleams to charm its mountain loves, May suns ne'er cease to shine on them, Or balsam winds like wings of doves In flight to touch its shores.
Thou, Old Academy, thy shrine We seek to-day. Thy learning's light Has shone for us, and now let shine To thee from us, serene and bright The flame of reverence.
And so to-day we celebrate the past And present; parting, union, a true growth; While over all the flash of memory Plays like the moment of the midday sun That lightens up the forest openings To fresher green, and in their foliage depths Warms all the tangles to a genial smile. Across the seas a queen crowns sixty years With homage and applause from all the world. Amid the quiet of a country town A hundred years have crowned another queen. No boom of guns from fairy-lighted ships, No tramp of armed men from farthest East Along the streets of centuries, no crowds To shout in every tongue, "Long live the queen." The world knows not. Yet our procession line Shall be as memorable, of those who left These doors to serve their home and land and God, To fight a noble fight, and not for life To lose the grounds of living. Peace of woods And mountain winds shall silent blessings breathe As here we crown our venerable queen.
What changes hast thou seen within these years, Born sister to a nation's liberty! Wide sweeps of forest turned to fertile farms, The river's roar outnoised by factories, The red man's trail outtrodden into roads, Until at last the steam lived in the iron And sent it on to touch the Western coast, Making a place of hope of unknown lands. And even as New England's hard-raised wheat Has multiplied on plains of Washington,
-58-
So that clear thought that gave thee origin Has spread in harvest of a thousand schools. And thou hast seen the eager world move on, Until in all the clash of destiny
One land, thy land, outgrows its infancy And stands with ancient England, eye to eye, And proudly smiles at war-spiked Germany. Republics rise and fall, and yet these walls Hear quiet, hourly classes as of yore, And even while the star of Greece declines Declensions here are still of ancient Greek. Yet, though the world be elsewhere wholly mad, In still redemption places it is sane; And peaceful learning sources such as this Send freshening breezes to earth's vilest air In shape of mighty souls, the foes of wrong, Who first learned here to think and feel their way To truth and righteousness and liberty.
I saw in vision a fair Western land, And groups of youths that seemed to gather flowers, Some thoughtlessly, some earnestly, but all With joy; One wore the golden rod of wealth Until it drooped. Another plucked a rose And said, "This shall be fame;" but soon it passed. A lily on one's bosom spoke of love, And he beheld no other flower save this. But, looking soon, I saw no lily, but A face of tears. Yet one there was in all Whose face was bright with learning's keen desire, And, walking there, he seemed proprietor, And he alone. Pausing before each bloom He drank in all its beauty, scent and form, And marked its coloring and tracery The golden-rod was blessing him with wealth Although he plucked it not. The rose was his But faded not. The lily's love was his, Without the tears; and when he passed the gate I followed him and saw a man whose face Shone with the light of knowledge, and his skirts Were scented with the rich perfume of all The flowers. So passed he out into the world.
Academy of years! Thy life work this, To set a mental goal beyond the earth, And shed the light of culture over all, That indefinable rich air of thought, Of better feeling and of keener sight That makes life joy and man almost a God!
Beloved Academy! No shining word Befits thy century's fame. The heart
REV. LYMAN WATTS Principal, 1860-1862
-59-
Would breathe unspoken tribute and unheard By all save thee. Of this a part Be memory of happy student days; A part be faith in future years; But more than all and deeper be the praise We give thy struggles, hopes and fears. Calm is thy history as meadow-stream That opens slowly from its source Through widening, greener fields to break in gleam At last in some still water-course.
But thou hast fructified thy town and state, And many a one at thy release
Has made his distant way with step elate
To spread the lessons of thy peace.
Thou, dear Academy, e'en though unchanged,
Go on. The light that now fulfills
A hundred years of hope shall still undimmed
Reflect afar from Peacham's hills.
After this poem an adjournment was made till 2 o'clock p. m.
AFTERNOON.
Before the afternoon toasts the morning programme was finished, which included a selection by the Sherman Orchestra and a paper by Principal C. H. Cambridge, presenting
THE PRESENT CONDITION AND THE FUTURE PROS- PECTS OF THE SCHOOL.
Many things have changed and are changing still, both in methods of private school work in general and in the relation of this school to its constituents, things too well known to be more than referred to.
In place of a room for recitations only, with the students lodged at random about the village, the modern private school follows the dormitory system, bringing its pupils into that con- stant and intimate relation with each other and with their teachers which is expected to develop the moral character as it is done in the best home life.
With so many academies and high schools established in neighboring towns, this has become largely a local school, draw- ing its pupils from Peacham and those nearby towns which do not lie upon a railroad. Its number of pupils remains al- most the same from year to year.
These things being so, what are the future prospects of the school? That the school has fewer pupils than it had 40 years ago; that they no longer come from distant places, seems to me referable to changed conditions outside the town and out- side the school, and by no means matter for discouragement. That a school or college should always be growing in number
-60-
of pupils; that every Freshman class should be "the largest ever entered," is not at all necessary to its continued success. If this school was once more to draw its pupils from distant counties and states it must change wholly its traditions and equipment, build a dormitory, and gather its pupils into a family. A boarding school which takes day pupils is trying to harmonize different and opposing systems. This State does not lack good boarding schools, and if I had the power I would not add another to their number. I believe the school does not need to look all abroad for its field, but that the one where it is placed is enough for honor and for use. If it can assure to every boy and girl within the circle of its present influence the opportunity for as wide a training as the times demand, no school has a brighter prospect.
The average publie high school is made up, like the manu- facturing town where it is situated, of various nationalities, and while not all its best pupils are of New England stock, it is not reasonable to expect appreciation of knowledge, readi- ness of apprehension, or that fund of home culture which is the best foundation for good school work, among children none of whose ancestors could read and write.
If a boy is bound to go into the shop or mill, and is kept in school only by parental force, his life there is not likely to be of benefit to himself or without serious discomfort to his teacher.
If one might have a school in all ways just what he would like it, what would he seek? First, that the pupils should have good natural ability, so that dunces were few. Then that they should have a mind to work, so that their own energy might be directed to learning instead of mischief, and the energy of their teachers be expended in teaching, and not in nervous worry over efforts to keep order and secure attention.
Now, in my opinion and that of Miss Dimond, we have found a close approach to the ideal school. Not all our pupils are intellectual wonders, and not all of them are absolutely devoted to study, but from our previous experience and from the comments of those to whom we have described the work of the school we believe no boys and girls can be found more apt to learn, more attentive or more well disposed than those we have had under our charge during the past two years. In such a body of students, and in the certainty of its constant renewal from like sources, lies hope enough for the future prospects of the school.
The business of educating boys and girls is like any other business in this respect. You need an equipment, modern ma- chinery and raw material near at hand. The material of schol- arship and of future honor is ever growing up in the children or this town. But just as lack of capital may cripple a manu- facturing business, so the Academy lacks money to do its work in the best way as other schools are doing theirs. Every school and college lacks money, and would, though all the
HON. C. A. BUNKER Principal, 1867-1895
-61-
wealth of Klondike were poured into it. Any one familiar with the school can see certain directions in which its useful- ness to the community and to the future might be increased.
The purchase of school books is a serious charge upon pupils of slender means. Now that the public schools of the State are provided with free books the Academy is at a disad- vantage. Often pupils will not take studiesc because a new book must be bought, and various and differing editions of the same book lead to confusion. If we had a fund of two or three hundred dollars, books might be provided by the school, and a small term charge on each book would replace it when worn out, thus keeping the fund intact. One academy in this State has long had such a fund, and its usefulness is constant and evident.
The lack of a physical laboratory greatly hampers our work. At present we cannot fit pupils for college in the course without Greek, where a definite amount of laboratory work is required, and the note book of the pupil is demanded as evi- dence of the practical nature of such work.
There is no study more fascinating or more serviceable than physics when properly taught, none more dry and life- less both for tecaher and pupil than text book recitations of how things behave. Four or five hundred dollars is very much needed for apparatus. With a horseradish bottle and a test tube all chemical work may be done, and we get along well enough in that subject, but the electrical apparatus which was ample in 1797 is somewhat inadequate to-day. It is a discour- aging and impossible task to teach physics without apparatus. There is no need of saying anything about the importance of a gymnasium and of systematic bodily training. Our pupils do not, many of them, lack exercise in various direc- tions, but they do lack in Winter time an outlet for surplus energy since the ancient sport of sliding down hill is utterly closed to them. A small sum of money would go far here.
An inadequate teaching force is our chief hindrance. That ancient person who said, "I have taken all knowledge for my province," probably taught in some academy of his time, and was called upon to give in rapid succession instruction in a dozen different and unrelated subjects. Things have changed since his day. It is only now and then a person knows everything well enough to teach it. With the number of pu- pils we have we ought, in justice to them, to have another teacher, to make our recitation periods longer, and to give each teacher fewer subjects.
New England is covered with dead academies, flourishing once during the life of one or two good teachers, dying linger- ing deaths because there was nothing back of them but glory. They became training places for young collegians, who taught a year for experience and their board and clothes and then went elsewhere to earn some money.
I am very tired of hearing the decadence of this town and
-62-
school spoken of by outsiders gently and sadly, as one men- tions the virtues of some moribund great-grandmother.
"Let children hear the mighty deeds their fathers wrought of old." Let them consider also how best to have some deeds of their own talked of in their turn.
I regret that I could find no way to present to you any future prospect of the school that did not depend on an in- crease of money.
There is less need of apology on this occasion than usual. Such a body of friends as this school possesses will not see it crippled.
It was my task to set before you the hopes and the needs of the Academy. Its needs are numerous enough, not so vast that some of them may not be met. As long as this lovely land sends up its sons and daughters to the ancient school, its hopes are great.
M. E. M'CLARY'S REMARKS.
M. E. McClary of Malone, N. Y., was the toastmaster of the afternoon, and his introductory remarks were:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends of Our Academy:
To have been asked to act as Toastmaster or pacemaker at this banquet, is a delightful honor and one for which I am surely grateful.
We have met to pay honor to an academy and a town. For many years these two have had our love and respect, and to-day we offer to the dear old school, a crown decked with a hundred laurels, and beaming with the love of a thousand hearts.
I feel that it is good for us to be here; to again grasp the hand that a few years ago was held in friendship, and with a keen enjoyment of the present, to recall the past and to be- speak a glorious future.
Thirty years ago, Peacham was to me the "Promised Land," and when, after a couple of years, I crossed the Jordan, I found the milk and honey, and if my memory serves me, I saw one or two of the Giants. As to the Grapes, the feelings of others who are present to-day keep me silent.
For four years, Peacham was my home, and about the home of Col. Jacob Blanchard are clustered the dearest mem- ories of my boyhood. It seems to me that I know every rod of land in town. It would fill me with pride to speak of the glory I won on the Mountain, at Green Bay and Peacham Hol- low, as an embryo keeper of schools, but it would not avail me, for surely some urchin must be here who would rise up and call me down.
It is, however, proper, that to-day I should give this tribute to Peacham Academy and Charles A. Bunker.
If I have ever had any true success as a teacher during fourteen years of work in that line, I owe it first to Charles A. Bunker and my training in the Teachers' Class at Peacham Academy.
MRS. ELSIE MERRILL 1873-1882
-63-
A quarter of a century, and yet it seems only a day, since together with some of you who are here now, we choose sides in that parting class, played baseball till the bell stopped ringing; kept steady hours because we had to, and went home with the girls from the lyceum, except sometimes when for reasons better known to Mary than to me, we didn't.
Friends, talk about juries and clients, verdicts and fees, but they are not in it with our school days at Old Peacham.
But I forgot that my pleasure to-day is not to speak, but to toast, or roast those who do, and I ask you to join with me in enjoying the feast that our friends have provided.
Wherever under the Eastern or Western sun, Englishmen gather, the first toast is to "The Queen," and in that is voiced English pride, English power, English love as well as English majesty. As our first toast, I give you to-day,
OUR COUNTRY.
The Land of Intellectual Freedom. Born in the throes of battle; its mission, peace; and I ask you to respond by stand- ing and giving three cheers for the flag that stands for a nation for which our fathers died, and which we, their chil- dren, love. (Cheers.)
We have with us to-day a gentleman whom Vermont has delighted to honor; one whose name has been closely connect- ed with this Academy and the work for which it stands. It is not limited to-day, but can open the throttle, put on full steam and break the record.
OUR GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE.
No brighter star upon our Country's flag, Shines for us all, wher'er we roam,
No son who blushes to own his birth, We love thee still, our own dear home.
Hon. Charles J. Bell.
VERMONT, OUR GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE.
It is a name to which her native-born sons and daughters are ever loyal and true.
It is only a few square miles of green mountains, rugged hills, fertile valleys, sparkling lakes and rippling brooks, that cost the blood of many of the sons of her adoption to become an independent state in this Union, and in that struggle for independence she won for herself a name that is written in fetters of gold upon the pages of our nation's history.
It is a State so small in area, that if in the larger States, would hardly be considered more than a township. Yet from her timbered hills and fertile soil she has produced ample means to build for herself tasty and comfortable farm houses, large and warm barns for the cattle, and scattered along her
-64-
valleys are many pleasant hamlets, with here and there a busy manufacturing city. She has given liberally of her means to send the Gospel to the heathen world, and has given with an unstinted hand and in many instances to the last dollar to boom sections of the country in other parts of the United States that would not have sold for a sheep pasture at home.
It is a State rich in agricultural and mineral wealth. She equals any in her product per acre of hay, corn and potatoes, upon her hillside pastures are quietly grazing the dairy cow which produces the sweetest of milk and butter that is al- ways in demand. She can boast of the largest butter manu- factory the world ever knew, in the busy part of the season making nearly 23,000 pounds per day. Her maple sugar product has a flavor no other State can produce, and in quan- tity she exceeds the best, producing nearly one-half of all manufactured in the United States outside of the cities of New York and Chicago, where they have no maple trees. Her moun- tains are rich in marble, granite, copper and slate; her gold lies nearer the surface than in most other States.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.