Andover Academy

“ The wide prospect from Andover Hill is suggestive of the world-wide fame of the school; and the lovely elm-shaded park, in which stand the buildings of the Theological Seminary, and the church where the members of the academy worship, is a hardly less peaceful and charming scholar’s retreat than are those of the college gardens of Oxford and Cambridge. ”

“ The deluge of growing civilisation sweeps away such relics of the past so rapidly that their scarcity gives them exceptional value. The buildings of Andover Academy and of the Harvard University are not, in themselves, comparable to Eton or to King's College, Cambridge. ”

“ All we have are bad, the common reading and writing ones not excepted; but of schools which we have to fit boys for college, I think the Boston Latin School and the Andover Academy are the only ones that deserve the name, and much I doubt if they deserve it. There is much truth in the remark so constantly made that we are not old enough for European perfection, but we are old enough to do well all it is worth while to do at all ”

“ After preparing himself in the Phillips Andover Academy, he entered Harvard University, and was graduated in 1821, with that famous class to which belonged Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Hatch, Edward Loring, and Francis Cabot. ”

“ The Andover Theological Seminary was founded in 1807, under the auspices of the Congregationalists, but is open to Protestants of all denominations. It has five professors and generally more than 100 students. Tuition and room rent are free to all, and additional aid is given to indigent students. The Abbot Female Academy, for the education of female teachers (founded in 1829) , is also a flourishing institution. Andover has a bank, four churches, and two hotels. ”

“ 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, [Pg 152] 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 ”

“ In the spring of 1866, he was on his way to Phillips Academy, Andover, with the one hundred dollars in hand,—or rather with one hundred and one dollars; and, as he had been advised to start with one hundred, he gave the odd dollar to a poor man on the road. At Andover, while an earnest student, he was an untiring Christian worker. He taught in a mission-school, took part in prayer-meetings, and conversed on the subject of personal religion with many school-mates, winning thus friends to himself and souls to Jesus. ”

“ The eagerness of the colored people to obtain at least a rudimentary education has ever been a most encouraging sign. The young man who last year walked fifty miles with his trunk upon his back that he might enter school, recalls the zeal of the late Dr. Goodell, of Constantinople, who, in his youth, also walked sixty miles, with a trunk strapped upon his back, that he might enter the Phillips Academy at Andover. The demand for teachers from the Normal schools—quite beyond the ability to supply them—is one of the surest indications that the schools are meeting an urgent need. ”

“ It was football all the way through, and upon it Andover won. The visitors found early in the game that it was practically useless to attempt to buck the Academy centre for any substantial gains, and so devoted most of their attention to close end plays, going generally just outside the tackle. The Academy ends did practically nothing in the way of tackling, and each time a gain was made it was on an end play, aided by good interference. The Academy players, on the other hand, found they could make good holes in the centre of the line, and through them made a number of gains. ”

“ Naturally enough the infant institution took her name, for, though Abbot Academy has received many donations since Esquire Farrar electrified her by his decided advice, "Surplus money! Use it to found an academy in Andover for the education of women!" she is still its largest as well as its first giver. ”

“ In the February number of this magazine will be found an interesting article upon Abbott Academy, and in following numbers articles, now in course of preparation, will be published upon the Theological Seminary and Phillips Academy.
[B] The history of the town has been carefully written by Miss Sarah Loring Bailey, and her volume of “Historical Sketches of Andover” is very valuable. ”

“ He then removed to Plainfield, N.J., where he was made rector of the academy. In 1803 he was chosen principal of the Bacon academy, Colchester, Conn., where he remained seven years, when he removed to Andover, Mass., as principal of Phillips academy. Here for twenty years he directed the preparatory training of many of the nation's greatest minds, and as well helped to organize and advance numerous charitable associations, which have since become of national renown. ”

“ FUESS, CLAUDE MOORE. Old New England school. il *$4 (3c) Houghton 373 17-13971
A history of Phillips academy, Andover, founded in 1778. Among the chapters are: A Puritan family; The founders; The founding of a school; An eighteenth-century pedagogue; The founding of Andover theological seminary; The School and the Hill in the mid-century; Student societies and enterprises; Some baseball stories; Football and its heroes; Phillips academy in the twentieth century. ”

“ Every Andover man loves his school, not only for the fun and scrapes that he had there, but for the good that he has received from it. Many of his strongest friendships were formed there, and much of his success at college and in after-life has depended on the associations made at school, while those who have not gone to college feel that they gained at Andover an education by no means scanty. ”

“ All sects have a right to assemble at the meeting house, and at seasons of public worship it is generally occupied by one or the other. It is believed that in few places has greater harmony prevailed among the different denominations, than in Andover; and it is to be hoped this christian liberality, so creditable to the people, will always characterize them.
There are in Andover fourteen school districts, in twelve of which are well-finished school-houses. A public school has for several years been kept near the centre of the town ”

“ Her sons have gone forth to dare and to do upon every field of honorable enterprise. Thousands of pupils have pursued their studies here, and carry precious memories of the schools, of teachers, and influences,—in a word, of Andover. ”

“ In these games feeling often runs high, but such things as fights are very rare. At such times Andover and Exeter men speak disrespectfully of each other, but the chances are that one's best friends at college may be these very opponents, and perhaps one likes them all the better for having once done them an injustice.
But Andover does not go in for athletics alone. In their studies the boys are so well trained that at college they usually take high position in their classes without any difficulty whatever. For those who are inclined to literary pursuits there is the Phillipian to try for. ”

“ But I feel confident that he has good speed, which careful and systematic training is sure to bring out. He will make a valuable acquisition to Andover's athletic team. Some day he will be as good a man as his brother. ”

“ There was commenced the American Temperance Society, which in our crowded cities has before it a work of which even wakeful eyes do not yet see more than a glimpse of the importance." It was, therefore, natural that the first incorporated school for the higher education of girls in this Commonwealth should find its birthplace in Andover; and that the first public meeting of which we have any record whose sole object was the education of girls, should have been held in its South parish, Feb. ”

“ The educational and business interests are nobly conducted and carried to great success, and the current life is representative of good old customs and earnest strivings for the best things.
A careful study of Andover life, such as Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D., had evidently made before writing his address for the dedication of the Memorial Hall, leads one to feel, what he has so well stated:—
“The more we look into the history of Andover the more we feel how thoroughly it is a characteristic New England town. ”

“ And, disgusted with myself and lamenting my ingratitude to my father, I proposed to leave Cambridge, and return to Andover, to which, to my surprise, my father readily acceded. I engaged excellent board and parlor, and hired a horse daily for exercise, and employed three private teachers in English, Greek, and Latin, and I studied fifteen hours a day for six months, and acquired a [Pg 11] more critical knowledge of principles than I had obtained in all my life. I gave my English teacher two dollars an hour, who devoted four hours a day in recitation and explanation. ”

“ I sometimes doubt if there are any happier children growing anywhere than the boys and girls of Andover used to be. I was very fond of the boys, and cherished no objection to their privileges in the house. But when one went down, on a cold day, to the register, to write one's chapter on the nature of amusements in the life to come, and found the dining-room neatly laid out in the form of a church congregation, to which a certain proportion of brothers were enthusiastically performing the duties of an active pastor and parish, the environment was a definite check to inspiration. ”

“ The professors did not direct our eyes to the mountain tops or call attention to the bringers of good tidings from other quarters than the Christian Revelation, as explained by its scholars and writers. Even such a phenomenon as Emerson did not make a profound impression on the average mind.
A tone of old-fashioned piety pervaded the establishment. A weekly prayer-meeting, always attended by one of the professors, though officially rather than as a stimulator, was much in the manner and spirit of similar exercises at Andover. The students were cautioned against excessive intellectualism. ”

“ What has Andover given to the world? There is the East. There is India. There is our Western coast, where rolls the Oregon. There are our colleges and churches at home and over seas. In these she has given the world immortal names that were not born to die. It is said that no man now living can read even the alphabets of all the languages through which her sons have sought to interpret the Word of God to the world. Think the graduates of Andover out of it at that time, and sacred literature and religious results would drop immeasurably below their actual attainments. ”

“ There never has been a people without a God. The author of the hymn so much used in our great revival of national feeling was in Andover to study theology and produced our most common expression of patriotism. Andover was well born. She has beauty in her own right. This is evident since the first time she sat for her picture. My relations have been such, that it falls to me at times, having visitors from a remote part of the land, to entertain them and to show them the East. For typical New England towns I have usually taken them to Plymouth, Concord and Andover. ”

“ The seniors at these schools, and the men who graduated from them last year and are now entering Freshman year at college, can combine in this movement, and I feel sure that if they are careful and thoughtful in their methods, they can heal this breach which has been a painful one for every Exeter and Andover graduate, and an unexplainable one for outsiders who have looked upon these two schools as strong exponents of the healthy spirit of scholastic sport in America. ”

“ Many other worthy men, and valuable members of society, have lived and died in Andover, to whose injury should we attempt to pay a just tribute, it would swell this little sketch beyond its intended limits. ”

“ I gave my Greek and Latin teachers two dollars an hour, who each taught me two hours a day. I permitted no one to visit me, save my teachers, and my only recreation was a ride, on horseback every day. Large as my bills were, my noble father paid them without a murmur. The only serious mistake I made during my residence at Andover, was a journey to Washington, by invitation of Nathaniel P. Causin, Jr., who, during his visit to Providence, while I was in the Post Office, was introduced to me by Tristam Burges, Jr. ”

“ The same might justly be said concerning Andover and Lawrenceville.
It is for this reason that I so sincerely hope that the graduates will take some steps this fall, and open the new era of friendship with a football game. Let each school be willing to make concessions, and in the end they will find that they have gained tenfold in self-respect and self-satisfaction for each concession they made. ”

“ And Dan liked what the catalogue said about the school’s purpose: “The object of the Academy is to furnish the elements of a solid education. The discipline is not adapted to boys who require severe restrictions, and the method of instruction assumes that the pupils have some power of application and a will to work. The purpose of the instructors is to lead pupils to cultivate self-control, truthfulness, a right sense of honor, and an interest in the purity of the moral atmosphere of the school.” ”