Annals of Fifty Years: A History of Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass., 1829-1879

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Table Of Contents

Introduction,

PAOB V

Founding of the School, 1828-1829, n.

Appendix

Act of Incorporation, 249

Later Acts of Legislature, 251

Change in the Constitution, 251

List of Anniversary Orators, 252

An Address by Professor Park, 252

The Principal Gifts received by Abbot Academy, with Names of

the Donors, 256

Alumnae Association Fund, 256

Endowment Fund, 257

Semi-Centennial Gifls, 257

Scholarships, 258

Portraits, 258

Other Gifts, 258

ILLUSTRATIONa

1. Plan of the Grounds, before the title.

2. Abbot Academy, rear view, ••••••« 9

8. Maple Walk, Davis Park, 61

4. Smith Hall, 62

5. Academy Hall (interiors), 104

6. General view of the Buildings and Grounds, • • • . 149

7. Old Oak, Davis Park, 245

Introduction

As the Trustees of Abbot Academy requested its Principal and her First Assistant to write the History of it, plain justice requires that one of the Trustees should prefix certain statements which the historians have omitted. The authors of the volume have paid a due tribute of praise to every Principal who has preceded them in the government of the School, but have given no prominence to the work performed by themselves. For one and twenty years they have devoted their zeal and strength to the advancement of the Academy. Thus have they illustrated the benefits resulting from permanence in the administration of a school. They have persevered in laboring on one simple plan, and that plan has been one of regular progress. It is not fitting that their historical volume should be published without a distinct recognition of some particulars in which this progress has been apparent.

1. A new importance has been given to the History and the Philosophy of the English Language, as a branch of education for the young ladies of the Academy. One sign of the degree in which this department has been systematized and enlarged is the printed Statement of "Topics on the History of the English Language." This Statement was prepared by Miss Phebe F. McKeen. It contains carefully selected references to the books wliich illustrate the science and development of the language. It stimulates the pupils to investigate for themselves the philological topics.

2. Tiie study of the Latin language has become more exteni$ive and thorough than ever before in the Acadcmj. It is continued through the course of four years, and includes the study of Caesar, Tirgil, Cicero, Sallust, Livy, and Horace. The scholar who has faithfully pursued this course could pass the Latin examinations which are required for admittance into the best colleges or universities of our land.

8. New prominence has been given to the topical study of Ecclesiastical History. A decided interest has been awakened in the study by a pamphlet of forty-four octavo pages, entitled ^^ Syllabus of Studies in Church History ; prepared for the use of Pupils in Abbot Academy. By Philena McKeen." The Syllabus gives not only an outline, but also inspiriting hints, of the more important themes which ought to engage the attention of the pupil. It gives the titles of such books as will aid the reader in a free examination of the topics discussed.

4. An increased attention has been paid, and a new dignity has been added to the department of the Fine Arts. Some of the instructors in painting, drawing, music, and elocution have been qualified for their office by discipline in the Ifest schools of America and Europe. The philosophy and history of Art have been raised to a prominence before unknown in the Academy. Perhaps it may be said that the two departments last named have been created in the School by Miss Philena McKcen. She has collected a choice library of books on Art, and more than eleven hundred pictorial , illustrations. The pupils have thus gained a new interest in the principles of Aesthetics, and new attractions have been added to the School.

One paragraph might here be added in relation to the influence of these aesthetic studies upon the outward aspect of the Academy, — its grounds and also its grove.

Another paragraph might be added on the fundamental

INTRODUCTION. Til

character of the instruction given in the School. Dr. Samuel C. Jackson was accustomed to say that the study of Milton's Paradise Lost and of Butler's Analogy was pursued on a more thorough and comprehensive plan at Abbot Academy than at some of our best colleges or universities.

6. After a mere allusion to the two preceding topics it may be remarked that one feature which has distinguished the Academy during the last twenty-one years has been the personal influence of the Principal and the First Assistant in their social intercourse with their pupils. This influence has been largely exercised in encouraging their scholars to give oral analyses of the books- which they have read, and thus in educating them by educing their power to express their thoughts ; for the ability to tell what one thinks implies an ability to think for one's self. The same influence has been more largely exercised in addressing the pupils familiarly and socially on those ethical questions which are not discussed in the books, and therefore ought to be more thoroughly discussed in conversation. More largely still has this influence been exerted in the habitual use of the Bible as an intellectual and moral guide. Perhaps no one exercise in the School has done more to mould the character of the pupils than the plain and earnest conversations on the Book of books as read at the hour of morning prayer. The Bible has been compared to a garden. The mind itself may be planted in it, and thereby may have ^ vigorous growth. Tlie religious instruction in the School has been so happily blended with the aesthetic as to dispose and qualify tlie pupil to make her future home a happy one ; for a home is made happy by a love for the beautiful, and a reverence for the true and good.

In these and various other particulars tlie influence of the teachers in Abbot Aca-demy has been a silent one. Perhaps this is true of all wise teachers. They may perform deeds

VIU INTRODUCTION.

of historic interest ; they may publish words which coming years " will not willingly let die ; '' still they may exert their most penetrating and persuasive influence by the magnetism of their persons, by the inner breathings of their private life. The power of their words and deeds comes from the personality which lies behind them, and this personality is hidden from the world. It is a common remark that the noisiest operations of nature are not the most effective, but her more important works are performed in unbroken stillness. " Shallows murmur when the deeps are dumb." A letter written by Miss Phebe F. McKeen, and read to the Abbot graduates at their Semi-Centennial Celebration, illustrates the method in whicli an Abbot scholar has been made to feel her responsibility, not only for herself, but also for the School ; not only for the present, but also for the future ; has been impressed by the thought of her social liabilities, and been stimulated, in an unobserved and unobtrusive way, to transmit a benign influence to her successors in the School. The letter to the graduates proceeds :

" The one word which I want to speak to you is a word of gratitude ; gratitude for that of your own character which you have wrought into the Academy. You come back to the scene of your school-days, and find not one familiar face among the young girls who study your books, stroll in your walks, live in your rooms ; and you sadly feel that the places where you lived and loved know you no more ; it is as if you had never been there. But it is not so. We who have watched the coming and the going for a score of years, can assure you that you live here yet.

"A lady of Andover has just now presented our school witli a seal. The device, designed by one of our artist-graduates, represents a youtliful figure, full of spirit and grace, bringing a flaming torch, just as we like to think that not only the Academy herself, but every one of her daughters is

INTRODUCTION. IX

shedding light and warmth all about her. As the medallist was cutting the die for this signet the designer watched over his work, bidding him grave deeper here, and more delicately there, so that when it should be pressed upon the yielding wax the maiden with her torch would stand forth in her medallion, the true counterpart of the artist's ideal. Every school has its own die, and gives to character, manners, and scholarship, a certain impress of its own. So all these fifty years have been forming in Abbot Academy a certain ideal of womanhood, to which the plastic young natures gathered year by year fit themselves more or less perfectly, according to their material. What has fashioned this mould ? The founders sketched it ; teachers have been constantly working to perfect it, but at is you, our graduates, who have been determining, year by year, its proportions. The sterling virtues of some of you are deeply graved into its noblest lines ; your honest echolarship in the past demands a scholarship of the future to fill its measure ; the graces of your daily life constrain to their refinement the rough girl who never heard of you. Your healthy Christianity has given fulness and symmetry to the school-girl ideal here. All this is no fancy, no compliment ; it is the sober result of observation. It is harder to do wrong since you always did right; it is shocking to be rude since you showed how charming it was to be gentle ; it is impopular to be lawless since so many of you have showed how becoming it was to be womanly.

"And so we believe after the last one of us, who have known and loved each other here, shall have vanished, every life which has been nobly and sweetly lived in this school will blend in the tradition of the Abbot Academy girl of the past, and help to form the Academy girl of the future. Thus you will be the blessing of the School long after your name and face are forgotten."

Z INTRODUCnON.

It is the spirit of words like these which has animated the Academy whose history is detailed in the present volume. It has encouraged aspirations for excellence, and has stimulated the pupils to aim at a high ideal. The results of it lead us to inquire : What can we do for the Academy which has done so much in improving the character of woman ? The School cannot move forward and upward unless it receive a new and liberal endowment. Some of its needs may be named here.

It has one interesting Cabinet for illustrating Conchology ; another for illustrating Zoology. It has expensive models for illustrating Anatomy ; it has well-selected plaster casts for illustrating the great works of sculpture and for practical use in the art of drawing. It has costly pictures, a choice library, a powerful telescope. For all these instruments, however, it has no room. The utility of them is lessened by the fact that they are hidden from view and inconvenient of access. The apparatus for instruction in Chemistry and other branches of Natural Science needs to be replenished and enlarged ; but ev^n for the present apparatus there is no fit place. New Lecture-rooms are needed and a Studio which shall be worthy of the instruction given in it. These various necessities imply that the Academy cannot prosper as it should, unless a new and commodious edifice be erected for it.

" Prosper as it should," — why should it prosper ? Are there any peculiar reasons for enlarging its resources and thus quickening its advancement? Many. Some of them are the following :

1. The School has already justified its existence. It has proved itself to be no doubtful experiment. It has developed its power to live. Its age ought to be respected. A tree which is rooted and has flourished for half a century, has a claim for protection. It is by growth, not by manufacture, that a school attains its full value.

INTRODUCTION. XI

2. Tlie Academy is in an educational centre. It derives peculiar advantages from its proximity to the other schools of Andover. On this account, if for no other, it will continue to attract pupils from those families which are interested in Phillips Academy and the Theological Seminary. These pupils will come. It were unwise not to make a worthy provision for them.

8. As the Academy receives a benefit from the neighboring schools, so it confers a benefit upon them. Its prosperity is intertwined with theirs. Every benefaction which it receives it imparts to them. For example, an Art Gallery, as rich as that given to the Ladies' Seminary at South Hadley, would not only be a benefaction to Abbot, but to Pliillips as well, and to the Theological Seminary. So the three great Schools in Andover have a common interest in the erection of an Observatory for astronomical investigations. In the early days of Abbot Academy its importance for the neighboring schools was insisted on frequently and earnestly by Leonard Woods, Moses Stuart, Ebenezer Porter, Justin Edwards, Thomas H. Skinner, and B. B. Edwards. Time has verified the prediction of these, its early friends.

4. The social relations of the Academy give it a peculiar value. It avoids the perils of undue seclusion and also of undue publicity. It is in a village, neither too large nor too small, and the scholars are welcomed into families of Christian refinement. Its pupils have the advantages of country life, and yet have access to the Art Galleries, Museums, and Libraries of Boston and Cambridge. They are not collected into a single edifice, but live in three contiguous houses, and thus avoid the monotony which may endanger the physical and mental health.

The perusal of the following History will suggest other reasons for a new endowment of the School. It will remind the reader that at least three hundred graduates of the

XU INTRODUCTION

Academy have already filled, or are now filling, not only important, but eminently important, stations in our own, or in some foreign land. It cannot be that a school with such a history will be left to languish for want of funds.

When a writer begins a sentence he does not know that he will ever finish it. Tlie foregoing remarks had been already printed ; only one concluding remark was to follow ; the writer was in the act of penning a few words of gratitude to the authors of the History, when a telegram announced to him that one of the authors had been suddenly called from life. He was compelled, therefore, to suppress abruptly the intended sentence, and to substitute a brief Memorial of the author so unexpectedly summoned from her work. The Memorial cannot be a wortliy one, because the necessities of the press require that it be written in haste, and that it be limited to a few pages.

Miss Phebe Fuller McKeen was bom at Bradford, Vermont, on the twenty-first of July 1881. At the time of her decease she was forty-eight years old, ten months and thirteen days. She was descended from James McKeen, Esq., a magistrate of the remarkable band which emigrated from Derry, Ireland, to Londonderry, New Hampshire, in tlie Spring of 1719. He was connected by marriage with the family of the Rev. James McGregor, the first minister of the Londonderry church. Many descendants of this colony have become eminent in our land ; some of them, as Rev. Dr. Rufus Anderson and Dr. Samuel H. Taylor, have been conspicuous in the Schools of Andover. The imagination of Miss McKeen was early stimulated by the thought of her alliance with this brave company of " Scotch-Irish " emigrants. The first President of Bowdoin College, Dr.

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

Joseph McKeen, was one of her admired relatives who descended from this company. She was inspired to aim high, and to work well by the example of her father, the Reverend Silas McKeen, D.D. For more than half a century he was a faithful pastor ; about forty-three years at Bradford, Vermont, and about nine years at BeKast, Maine. He was a singularly diligent scholar, a prominent author, a solid preacher, active in the Charitable Societies of his day, and particularly zealous in enterprises for the religious training of both men and women.

The story of his household is important as illustrating the influences of a rural parsonage in New England. It was a household of educators. The two eldest daughters were accustomed in their youth to read the Greek Testament with ease. One of them became a teacher in the Academy at Gorham, Maine ; afterward in the Academy at Belfast, Maine ; subsequently in the Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire. The fifth daughter was an accomplished instructor in the Academy at Haverhill, New Hampshire ; afterward in the Academy at St. Johnsbury, Vermont ; subsequently, and for several years at the Mt. Holyoke Ladies' Seminary. She was endued with a true poetic genius. Some of her poems deserve to be perpetuated. She pursued her classical studies, pari passu, with her brother until ho entered the Sophomore Class at Dartmouth College. This brother was graduated with honor at Dartmouth, but like three of his sisters was called to an early grave.

The subject of this Memorial was the youngest of her father's family. In her girlhood, as in her womanhood, she was characterized by a sweetness of temper and a sprightliness of mind and manners. In her ninth year she was bereaved of one sister, in her fourteenth year, of a second ; in her nineteenth year, of her only brother ; in her eighteenth year she lost her mother, whose death was the result of an

XIV INTRODUCTION.

excruciating accident This early discipline left a deep impress on the sensitive nature of Miss McKeen. It did not repress her vivacity ; it rather quickened her benevolence- At the age of sixteen or seventeen she had consecrated herself to the service of her Redeemer, and she now felt a new impulse to make her life worth living. She first became a teacher at Haverhill, New Hampshire, aftei'ward in the Academy at Peacham, Vermont. She developed a genius for her work. Her delight was in moulding the minds of her pupils, especially in winning them to the love of true virtue. For about three years she was associated with one of her sisters in teaching at the Mt. Holyoke Seminary, and during the next three years she was associated with another of her sisters, Miss Philena McKeen, as an assistant instructor in the Western Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio.

In 1859 she was called to be the first assistant teacher in the Abbot Academy at Andover. Here for twenty-one years she has found a home, the more pleasant to herself because useful to others, the more useful to others because pleasant to herself. Few persons have combined more fully tlian she did, her happiness with her duty. The number of the Abbot pupils more or less directly imder her influence has been more than thirteen hundred. She has been a teacher twenty-eight years, and in all her schools the number of pupils who felt the impress of her mind must exceed fifteen hundred. Perhaps it is too much to say that all her pupils were, but it is not too much to say that they ought to have been, her friends. She bore them daily on her heart. She commended them in secret to her God.

Her mind was versatile, as . well as active. Her thoughts were not confined within the walls of her school-room. She wrote various Essays for the secular and religious newspapers. Some of her Articles — especially her patriotic words published during our civil war — were copied and

IMTBODDCnON. XV

recopied from one jouraal into unotlier. In 1872 ahe published a Tolume of three hundred and twenty-five duodecimo pages, entitled "Thornton Hall." In 1875 she published another volume, containing four hundred and eighty duodecimo pages, entitled "Theodora." Both of these works have been reprinted in England. In 1876 she published a third volume, of a hundred and eighty-seven pages, under the title of " The Little Mother and her Christmas." Throughout all her writings are seen the marks of her liveliness, vigor, high aspirations, delicate and pure sentiment. They contain many exquisite descriptions of natural scenery, ■ and breathe the tender spirit of her religion.

In 1875-76 she visited England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Holland, Bel^um, Germany, and Italy. She revelled in the Art Galleries of Eome, Florence, Bologna, Venice. Her written descriptions of the pictures and statues, the palaces and cathedrals, the Italian skies and the Swiss mountains, would form an instructive volume. Her chief delight, however, was in the classical associations of the lands which she visited ; in the ancient monuments, the ruins of old temples and theatres, the homes of departed heroes, patriots, and scholara ; in all the scenes which could illustrate the literature of Rome or Great Britain. She travelled as a scholar. Slie had prepared herself for her European tour by reading the best volumes on history and the fine arts ; and, again, her observations of European scenes prepared her to repcruse these volumes with new appreciation and delight. She put a large capital into her journeys, and thus derived from it a large interest, and the interest redoubled the capital, from which she drew stores of wealth for her scholars.

She took her foreign tour in company with her sister, the Principal of the Academy. Tlie two sisters have been associated as instnictors twenty-four years. Neither could be

Xn INTRODUCTION.

understood without the other. They involved, rather than complemented each other. Their union of mind and heart appeared to be something magical. It reminded one of Akenside's description :

** 'T was thus, if ancient fame the truth unfold, Two faithful needles, from the informing touch Of the same parent stone, together drew Its mystic virtue, and at first conspired With fatal impulse quivering to the pole ; Then, though disjoined by kingdoms, though the main Rolled its broad surge betwixt, and different stars Beheld their wakeful motions, yet preserved The former friendship, and remembered still The alliance of their birth : Whate'er the line Which one possessed, nor pause nor quiet knew The sure associate, ere with trembling speed He found its path, and fixed unerring there/'

" Neglect not the gift that is in thee." These were the words which seemed to be constantly addi'essed to Miss McKeen. She heeded them well. In the house and by the way, at the White Mountains and among the Adirondacs, on the ocean, and on the land, her heart turned to Abbot Academy, and she was storing her mind with suggestions for her work. She lived for it.

In the school-room she was distinguished for her clear thought and definite expression. She knew wliat she meant to say, and said it. As a critic of the English language she was exact, and few Professors in our Colleges are more precise teachers of the Latin. She looked through the details of language to its principles, and had the rare power of interesting her pupils in the thought while she explained the vehicle of it. Her taste also was delicate and accurate. She had an eye for the beauties of nature and art. Her criticisms on painting and sculpture were clean cut. Of poets and orators, novelists and historians, her appreciation

INTRODUCTION. XVll

was fine and discriminating. In her philosophical studies she was quick and keen, sometimes profound. Not many professional men have understood more clearly and admired more heartUy the writings of the great theologians.

She was an enthusiast in study, and thus imparted an enthusiasm to her pupils. She was original in her thinking, and her originality enkindled in others a love of thought. She was enterprising. The present volume is a monument to the resolute and progressive spirit of her sister and herself. Tracing the history of the Academy we can detect her influence, as a stream winding through a landscape and adorning it with lines of verdure. She was courageous. She inherited bravery from the old Scottish clansmen; she made it rational by her communion with the great truths of the Bible. She united a sisterly affection for her scholars with a kind of maternal authority over them. She was mild and genial ; but if her duty required her to act as a disciplinarian she could be firm and intrepid. Her conscience was fortified by the thought that the blood of the old Covenanters flowed in her veins, and the McKeens and the McGregors stood unterrified at the siege of Derry. She tempered her resolution with an habitual gladness ; she respected the laws of wit and merriment ; she illustrated in her daily life the remark of Thomas Aquinas : ^^ Joy is the necessary companion of virtue ; and to be truly virtuous we must do good with rejoicing; and for this reason, that were virtue melancholy we could not endure it long." Her physical system was frail, but she worked with the energy of one who never felt the inroads of disease. Her friends noticed in her the signs of pulmonary consumption, but she bore herself with fortitude and heroism. The death of her sisters and brother pre-intimated to her the manner of her own departure ; but she looked through the course of suffering which seemed to be mapped out for her and felt no fear.

XVIU INTRODUCTION.

Her delicate frame was lighted up witli love and trust. Her countenance was radiant with joy in God. When others were despondent her eyes beamed with hope. Her motto seeipied to be : "I know whom I haye believed.'*

Her associates persuaded her to spend the last winter in the city of Baltimore, and thus avoid the inhospitable climate of New England. She passed a pleasant winter with a noble-minded friend, a graduate of Abbot Academy. On the first of June she wrote her last paragraph in her journal, and began it with the words: "To-morrow I start for home." She referred, of course, to her earthly home. She had no anticipation of rejoining soon her father's family in heaven. On the second of June she entered the rail-car for her long journey. Her companion on the journey was the friend and pupil who had entertained her during the winter. She expected to ride during the entire night of Wednesday, and on the next day to leave Boston for Concord, New- Hampshire. Before she lay down to sleep in the palace car she repeated aloud the words of her favorite Psalm : " I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer tliy foot to be moved ; he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper ; the Lord is thy shade upon thy riglit hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from from' all evil : he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time fortli, and even for evermore." This Psalm was the expression of her habitual trust. If she had foreseen the hour of her death she might have repeated the same words, with the same composure. Slie sent no message to her friends; they needed none, and she was expecting to meet them in the morning. She

INTRODUCTION. XIX

uttered no parting instructions ; her life had been a lesson fit for continued study. In fact, though she was not aware of it, she had nothing to do but to die. When the cars had arrived at Jersey City, had left the railroad track, had been put on the transfer-boat, and were moving quietly over the waters to the Harlem depot, she seemed to enjoy the repose of the sail, and fell into a gentle sleep. After this tranquil hour the rumbling of the cars on the railroad recommenced ; she had again started for her New England home ; and at five minutes before one o'clock on the morning of Thursday she started for her home in tlie heavens. She crossed the river of death in uninterrupted peace. She died on a spot where perhaps no one ever had died, and perhaps no one ever will die. " No one knoweth " the exact place of her departure. Some of her pupils, coming and going, will cross the line from which she ascended, and will not think of it. They will only know that she was calm and serene when she met the king of terrors in the solitude of the night. Only three of all the persons on the railroad train had any suspicion that one of their number had left them for her upward journey.

The Principal of Abbot Academy left Andover on the morning of Thursday to greet her sister. With a buoyant heart she entered the appointed hotel, but her sister was not there. Tlie body lay in the sleeping-car. The Principal had expected to journey with the invalid from Boston to Concord, New Hampshire, on the afternoon of Thursday ; but she journeyed with the lifeless remains to the old Bradford home. For a few hours the remains rested in the church, and on Friday were laid in the burial yard of the revered household. The sen-ices at the funeral were impressive. The early friends of the loved one gathered around the delicate form with tears and sobs. They thought of the father and mother, the sisters and brother who had once been the delight of