chronicle. The institution was never in a higher condition of prosperity
and usefulness, and when, in 1865, the trustees were perplexed by the
good news that Smith Hall was insufficient for the number of pupils from
out of town, Hon. George L. Davis of North Andover, who had for some
time been one of their number, happily solved the difficulty by buying
what was known as the Farwell estate, which joined the academy grounds
on the north-east corner, and presenting it to the school. It was
gratefully named Davis hall, and for many years has been occupied by all
pupils studying French, that language being the one ordinarily spoken in
the house. Previously Mr. Davis had added two acres of land in the rear
of Smith Hall, and in the autumn of 1865 assisted in the purchase of
the house belonging to Rev. J. W. Turner, on the southern boundary line
of the grounds. That house, known first as South Hall, is now German
Hall, German being spoken there in daily life, as French is at Davis
Hall. To the fact that pupils studying these languages are thus kept out
of the way of English speech for so large a portion of school hours is
ascribed their unusual success in the difficult accomplishment of easy
and correct conversation in a foreign tongue. The amount of Mr. Davis'
benefactions up to 1879 was more than $7,000.
At the annual meeting in 1870, the trustees expressed special
obligations to Mr. Nathaniel Swift, who had filled the office of
treasurer since 1852, and congratulated him upon the wonderful
transformation which he had wrought in the grounds. Instead of poor
stony pasture land were broad smooth lawns, gravelled walks, flower
borders, well-trimmed hedges, and rustic seats in charming spots, which
told not only of the exquisite taste which ever guided his hand, but of
his considerate thoughtfulness wherever the pleasure or comfort of the
pupils was concerned. During the autumn of 1877, in order to secure the
whole of the beautiful grove adjacent to their property, the trustees
bought fourteen acres, thus making their real estate something more than
twenty-two acres.
In the quarter of a century since Miss McKeen came to Abbot Academy,
besides these imperatively needed houses, and these greatly prized
acres, many valuable collections scientific, artistic and literary have
been added; but, as ever, the great want is room, that the pupils may
have the benefit of their use, which is impossible in their present
scattered condition. The school observed its Semi-Centennial in June,
1879, and extended a hearty welcome to nearly three thousand of its
alumnae. The position was favorable for a survey of its present
situation, its past history and its future prospects. Thorough
examination of the past proved it had done excellent work; its list of
pupils from all parts of the country, constantly increasing, showed it
had taken deep root, but its future prospects appeared to be imperilled
by its environment. On every hand it was crippled by want of buildings,
want of endowment, want indeed of everything necessary to the comfort of
a school. It was mentioned with amazement that half its collections were
packed in boxes, its books were in every room of the building, wherever
a shelf could find room, its pianos in the public parlors, and as for
its boarding accommodations, so insufficient were they, it is a wonder
to those familiar with the arrangements of the more recent girls'
schools and colleges, that Abbot Academy has any boarding pupils at all.
That it does, and frequently to its fullest extent, proves to the entire
satisfaction of thoughtful persons the superior character of its
instruction. Numerous highly valued and gratefully remembered gifts
flowed in at the Semi-Centennial, but no sums sufficient to warrant the
beginning of new buildings; so the teachers went on doing the best they
could, spite of their great disadvantages, and their best was so good,
that in 1884 the pressure became so strong, that several architects of
Boston and vicinity entered into a free competition, submitting plans
for the contemplated structures, and those drafted by Messrs Hartwell
and Richardson, were accepted by the trustees, who appointed a building
committee, consisting of Mr. Warren F. Draper, treasurer of Abbot
Academy since 1876, chairman; Prof. J. W. Churchill, Andover, and Mr.
James White, Boston. All these gentlemen are trustees, and in the
heartiest sympathy with the high aims of the institution. The plans thus
approved by the trustees were laid before the Alumnae Association at a
meeting in June, 1885, and enthusiastically approved. It was then found
that they had in their treasury an accumulation of small gifts amounting
to between seven and eight thousand dollars, which they had been
collecting for the purpose, and the announcement that the trustees, at
the first meeting held for the purpose, had subscribed $12,500, was
deemed very encouraging. Since that time the trustees have increased
their subscription two thousand dollars, and, through the efforts of
Miss McKeen, Andover people have pledged about $10,000. In short, about
$36,000 has been raised up to the present time. But new buildings will
cost $100,000; perhaps, even with the most vigilant and judicious
economy, $150,000. Where and how can the remainder be obtained? It
occurred to many friends that it would be a pleasant and perhaps a
profitable thing to have a social meeting in Boston to consider the
question and inspect the plans. Mrs. Daniel Chamberlin (before marriage
Miss Abbie W. Chapman), the popular and efficient acting-principal of
Abbot Academy in 1853, and now president of its Alumnae Association,
kindly offered her pleasant parlors in Chester Square for the purpose.
There on the 12th of January, was held a most delightful gathering,
where the speakers were as choice as they were felicitous, and the
company as rarely homogeneous as heartily interested.
Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington, one of the trustees, to whose
indefatigable efforts the occasion owed a large portion of its success,
called the meeting to order, and in the absence of Hon. Rufus S. Frost,
who had been expected to preside, invited Professor Churchill to the
chair. Professor Churchill whose gift of graceful speech never fails,
introduced with a few delightful words Prof. E. A. Park, who has been
president of the board of trustees more than twenty-five years.
Professor Park responded: "The roof of the first edifice for Abbot
Academy was laid the 28th of October, 1828. One week after that day I
became a member of Andover Theological Seminary. I heard at once of the
new and beautiful building; I think I was the first college graduate who
walked on the floor of the present Academy Hall. It was said to be the
best school edifice in Essex County or even the state of Massachusetts.
Thus it began its existence with an aspiration in fine architecture. The
style of this edifice is not so classical now as it was fifty-six years
ago. When the academy received its new telescope it was too poor to
provide it a suitable place. Therefore a dome was erected on the roof,
which disturbed the symmetry of the Grecian architecture. The telescope
does good service under the dome; but it is a sign of the indigence of
the academy. When I reflect on the progress made by other institutions,
I am astonished at the march of events. Twenty years after the founding
of Abbot Academy, the little settlement at Chicago had not been heard of
at Andover. When Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes received his first request to
provide a missionary for that settlement, he asked a friend of mine,
'Where is Kick-a-go?' That little settlement of 'Kickago' has now
received a fund of more than three million dollars for a city library.
When our academy was founded, no man in Andover suspected that
California would become one of our United States; but California has
recently received twelve million dollars for the founding of a
University. I was acquainted with the founder of Smith College in
Northampton, and also with the founder of Abbot Academy. In some
particulars the two ladies had a marked resemblance to each other. The
founder of Smith College gave to it four hundred thousand dollars; the
founder of Abbot Academy gave to it $10,109.04. Those four cents have
played a conspicuous role in the history of the academy. They have been
a sign of its indigence from its earliest to the present day."
"Abbot Academy has real estate valued at forty thousand dollars. Its
apparatus, library, furniture, etc., are valued at ten thousand dollars.
Its productive and available funds are valued at $33,636. This valuation
was made two years ago; and it is now safe to say that the whole
property of the institution, including real and personal estate, amounts
to no more than ninety thousand dollars. The number of books in its
library is 2,630. The number of its books relating to the fine arts is
233. The number of its art illustrations is 3,284. Still it has no
convenient rooms for its books, pictures, casts. They are highly
valuable, but are scattered in different and obscure places. It has a
good cabinet of specimens illustrating conchology. Where is the cabinet?
A large part of it I have never seen. It is kept in the boxes in which
it was sent to the academy. Where is the scientific apparatus? Where is
it?
"The rooms for the pupils are not large enough. Two students live by day
and by night in one small chamber. The passages between the rooms are
too narrow. The recitation rooms are too small and not well ventilated.
The teachers have no adequate support, and could readily obtain much
larger salaries for far less work in other institutions. For such
reasons the academy asks for an enlarged endowment. It needs $150,000
for its new buildings. Thus far it has received promise of only $36,000.
If it receive a generous increase of funds it will flourish; if it does
not, it will not flourish as it should. Other institutions will attract
its scholars. We cannot expect that future instructors will have a
spirit of self-denial equal to that of its present and past instructors.
"After his 7th of March speech, Daniel Webster said to the Bostonians,
'You have conquered your climate, you have now nothing to do but to
conquer your prejudices.' He meant that New Englanders had overcome the
laws of nature, which had provided them with little except ice and
granite; and nothing was left for them to conquer except their
prejudices against the system of slavery. Now the teachers of Abbot
Academy have conquered themselves, and there is nothing left for them to
subdue except the laws of nature. They cannot subdue these laws. They
cannot resist the attractions which other institutions have received
from large funds, commodious dormitories, and suitable lecture-rooms and
halls. The two Misses McKeen have devoted a high degree of skill and
energy to the upbuilding of this institution; but they have had a
superior ancestry. They inherited strength and fortitude. They descended
from the sturdy men and women who settled Londonderry, New Hampshire.
"James McKeen of Londonderry was connected by marriage with James
McGregor, the first minister of that town, who was a remarkable man. He
was asked to leave his New Hampshire parish and go to the First
Presbyterian Church in New York city. He declined. Londonderry was a
more promising field for usefulness than New York. Londonderry has since
succumbed. By the aid of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, New
York has gone ahead.
"A traveller walking through Fifth Avenue and then through the roads of
Londonderry can detect the superiority of New York with the naked eye.
Unless Abbot Academy receive a larger and richer endowment than it now
has, it will be to other institutions what the New Hampshire township is
to the commercial emporium of our land.
"Why not allow our academy to decline? What special reasons are there
for giving a new impulse to it? We ask for our new buildings because our
academy is the oldest incorporated institution in the land for the
higher culture of young ladies exclusively. Its age gives it a title to
support. The antiquity of a school is a rich treasure to it. Scores of
matrons, teachers, missionaries, have been trained in this school, and
have performed signal services in our Western settlements, in
Constantinople, in Japan, and in other distant parts of the world. The
affections of these pupils are still entwined around this ancient
academy. Again, we need our new buildings as monuments to the past
services of teachers who have adorned and honored the school. Their
example of faithful work and of exemplary self-denial ought to receive a
visible and fitting memorial.
"Still another reason is that the endowment for which we ask will
encourage future instructors to imitate the example of their
predecessors. I have been conversant with many schools, I have not known
one in which the principles of mental and moral philosophy, of the
English and the Latin language, and of the fine arts have been more
thoroughly and faithfully studied than in Abbot Academy. We do not
expect there will ever be a theatre or an opera in the neighborhood of
our academy; but we do expect that if we can obtain the pecuniary aid
which we need, our school will be the resort of ladies who will devote
themselves with zeal and care to the study of science, and more than all
to the study of the word of God."
Professor Churchill then spoke in a very forcible and interesting manner
of the aims of Abbot Academy, its wish to emphasize the home as well as
the school. In a second article upon the institution it is hoped his
remarks will be given in detail in connection with a more extended
consideration of the aim to which he referred. Mr. Hartwell, for Messrs.
Hartwell and Richardson, then explained the principal points of their
plans, drawings of which were hung upon the walls. He concluded by
expressing the heartiest interest in the academy and a most earnest wish
for the success of the good plans in its behalf. Mr. Porter read a
letter from Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, a portion of which follows:--
Abbot Academy has no superior. Its graduates go forth fitted
for life's true work. The education they have received has been
admirably adapted to form both mind and heart. It has had the
social, intellectual and spiritual elements in due
proportion.... I have sent six daughters to Abbot Academy and
do not fear to compare the result as seen in their training,
with the results attained in any other institution of our land,
provided the persons selected are of equal natural gifts. The
missionary work of Abbot Academy has been wide in extent and
noble in character, both at home and abroad; and should be
understood by friends of missions. It cannot be spared; its
work, its history, its example, make it one of our choicest
schools for the education of women, and I pray God it may be
abundantly, richly endowed.
Mr. Edwin Reed of Cambridge, who married an Abbot Academy graduate,
after felicitous compliments to the school, made a graceful, sparkling
speech, from which we quote,--"The wise, judicious, painstaking
administration of affairs there goes always to the roots of character,
and gives us:--
'The perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command.'
One uniform spirit of devotion to the highest good of all presides
there, and impresses itself on every pupil. Indeed, I am not sure, if I
had my way and could educate but one of the sexes, that I would not
take the girls, and give them the colleges of the land, in preference to
the present occupants. This would be hard on the boys, but, if I should
'turn the rascals out' and put their sisters in, it would be for this
reason, great men always have great mothers. No great man ever lived who
did not derive the native strength of his character directly from the
mother who bore him. Mothers impress their qualities on their sons, and
to get a generation of great men at the earliest possible moment, I
would adopt the order of nature and secure first a generation of great
mothers."
Dr. McKenzie spoke affectionately of the academy and its toilsome
growth, saying that almost every object in the school had its history.
He referred to the great force of the demands made by schools and
colleges, and said that it was a sign of health and vigor when a school
asked for better accommodations, because it had wider opportunities for
usefulness. Mr. Porter proposed a committee to attend to the matter in
this section, as follows, Rufus S. Frost, James White, Edwin Reed, C. F.
P. Bancroft, Mrs. Daniel Chamberlin, Miss Annie Means, Miss Caroline A.
Holmes, Miss Josephine Wilcox and Mrs. Laura A. W. Fowler. The committee
was subsequently enlarged by adding the names of Rev. Edward G. Porter
and Miss Mary E. Fowle. After the business the meeting adjourned to the
dining-room, where Mrs. Chamberlin had thoughtfully and kindly provided
a delicious entertainment, which fitly ended the delightful afternoon.
The Rev. Phillips Brooks acknowledged his kinship to the founder of
Abbot, and in substance said: "No institution so takes on personality as
a school. I see the various colleges almost as if they had features, and
we may have some such feeling regarding Abbot Academy. Then there is so
much in the quality of an old institution, if it keeps abreast of the
times. The period of the founding of Abbot was an interesting one. It
was a time when old ideas were being left behind and a new thought was
just taking the place of the old. Great processes, which have not yet
begun to fulfil themselves, had just begun to appear. No one can think
of the academy without feeling grateful for that religious character
which it is easier for an old school to keep than for a new one to
acquire. Then, too, there is an advantage in its location, for there is
much economy and much value in the educational atmosphere of a town like
Andover."
The plan provides for four buildings; the main or central one, where
the family life will be carried on, connected by corridors with the
smaller French and German Halls, and containing, not only parlors,
school offices, dining-rooms, and suites for teachers and pupils; but a
beautiful library, a spacious reading-room, and upon its third floor,
commodious music-rooms shut off from each other and the corridors by
walls and doors of such construction that sound cannot pass through.
French and German Halls furnish each a family sitting-room cheery with
open fires and charming with artistic finish; suites for pupils and
teachers, but neither kitchen nor dining accommodations, as all meals
are to be taken in the main building. To this purpose the western front
of the lower or basement story has been devoted. The young ladies coming
from the language houses pass by separate staircases to their own
dining-room on the north and south side of the central one, where the
English-speaking pupils sit. These side dining-rooms can be shut off or
thrown into the central apartment at will, and in this way freedom for
the foreign language is secured and the whole number of pupils
centralized; a more economical arrangement than the present one of three
separate kitchens. Indeed, apart from economy, and outside the great
advantage this plan affords to the students of French and German, the
Faculty of Abbot Academy emphatically prefer the division of the school
into distinct families; the cottage system insuring in their opinion
much greater certainty of health, and opportunities for the direct
personal influence important in the development of character. The fourth
building is the academy, where prayers and recitations will be
conducted, and where public gatherings will be suitably accommodated.
The three living-houses are arranged for one hundred and twenty-five
pupils only, two pupils occupy single beds in one bedroom and sharing a
parlor. The architecture is after the eleventh century Romanesque; the
material brick, with freestone trimmings, and the effect of all simple,
suitable, dignified.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Abbot Academy, then called Abbot Female Academy, was incorporated
Feb. 26, 1829; Moravian Brothers established schools for girls,
Bethlehem, Pa., 1749; Rev. Joseph Emerson opened seminaries for girls in
Byfield, Saugus, and Wethersfield, 1815; charter obtained for Adams
Academy, Derry, N. H., 1823; Miss Lyon's seminary, Ipswich, 1828;
Bradford Academy limited its work to girls, 1836; Mount Holyoke, 1835;
Vassar College, Smith College, and Wellesley College later, but dates
are uncertain, as confusion results from lack of definiteness as to
whether they represent the year of founding, opening, or incorporation.
[D] Miss Sarah Abbot, Founder of Abbot Academy, Andover, was born in
Andover, Oct. 3. 1762; married Nehemiah Abbot, first Steward of Andover
Theological Seminary, often called Divinity College; died in 1848, in
the house on Andover Hill, occupied for many years by the family of Dr.
Samuel C. Jackson, and now the residence of Prof. E. J. Hincks; buried
in the cemetery of the South Church, Andover.
THE ORIGINAL NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE.
BY REV. EDGAR BUCKINGHAM.
The magazine which first bore this title was established in the year
1831, by Joseph T. and Edwin Buckingham. There were not at that time
many monthly periodicals in the country; it was long before the days of
the _Atlantic_ and _Putnam's_. The _New-England_ originated in the
desire of my brother Edwin, who, at that date, was just twenty-one years
of age, to rise to a higher position than that of editor of a daily
paper. He had been for some years connected with my father, first, as
assistant editor of the _New England Galaxy_, and then of the Boston
_Courier_. People estimate very differently now the position of the
editor of one of our city dailies; but at that time, though such an
editor had an influence and a very great one, he could not be said to
rule so far in political and social life, and to be so nearly supreme,
as he has since become through the talents and labors of the Bennetts,
of Greeley, of Raymond, of Thurlow Weed, and of Samuel Bowles. It is
true, Mr. Bryant, of the _Evening Post_, was already at his station, so
was Joseph E. Chandler, of Philadelphia; and Gales and Seaton, of the
_National Intelligencer_; and Nathan Hale also, of the Boston
_Advertiser_, exerted an important influence, wherever that paper was
read. But an editor now addresses every day ten thousand or a hundred
thousand readers, where fifty years ago the issue of his paper was
limited to little more than a thousand copies. My brother Edwin felt,
apparently, that to be editor of a monthly magazine would bring him into
closer connection and intimacy with the leading men of literary eminence
throughout the country, and so the magazine was originated by him and by
my father on his account.
Edwin was an accomplished writer at that early day. He had not learned
the art at school; for he left school altogether when he was fourteen
years of age. At that early period of life, he entered into the
printing-office of the _New England Galaxy_, learning to set type, and,
shortly, came to have charge of the making up of the paper. My father
often said that the best school education one could get was at the
compositor's stand. Edwin early began to write for the paper, and I
remember, now, with what admiration an article of his on "Massachusetts"
was read more than sixty years ago, and while he was yet a boy. The
_Galaxy_ was sold in 1827; and my father and brother gave themselves up
more particularly to the editorship of the _Courier_. Before Edwin was
twenty-one, he spent some winters in Washington, as special
correspondent of the newspaper; and while there attracted no little
attention from the great men of the nation. He was a young man of active
habits, and during the trial of the Whites, at Salem, for the murder of
Joseph White, in 1830, at which Mr. Webster made one of his most
powerful efforts as a lawyer and advocate, Edwin reported the
proceedings. He drove down to Salem in the morning, and back at night
with the proceeds of his daily labor, over the cold and foggy marshes of
Lynn. Then he took a cold, from the effects of which he never recovered.
He used the severest remedies, and, in October, 1832, he sailed for
Smyrna; after spending some months there in a home where friendship and
kindness did all that nature and skill could accomplish, and finding all
means ineffectual, he started for home to die; but a few days before
reaching his native land he breathed his last. His remains were
committed to the deep in May, 1833. A cenotaph at Mt. Auburn
commemorates his birth and death. It bears the inscription of being
placed there by "Boston Mechanics." Edwin believed in the mechanic arts,
and in what are called laboring men. He had himself been of them. It was
fitting also his monument should be reared at Mt. Auburn; it was one of
the first stones erected there. He had been himself greatly instrumental
in carrying to success the project of turning "Sweet" Auburn, as it had
been called, into a cemetery where the ashes of the loved and
illustrious might be gathered for a final resting-place.