1886 Gould’s Academy 1886 was the 50th anniversary year of the Maj. Gideon Hastings, 65, one of Mr. Goodwin R. Wiley, 40, was Secretary of the
Gould’s Academy trustees – skilled druggist and pharmacist – prominent
Mason – held the second highest office in the Grand Lodge – noted for his
excellent clerical work. Mr. William E. Skillings, 40, chaired the trustee’s
Executive Committee. He was president and principal owner of the Bethel
Steam Mill Company.
The
The
September 14, 2006
For years before and after 1886
Gould’s Academy had
helped many young
did not graduate from the academy.
However, year after year the town’s voters could not arrive at an
agreeable formula for providing free public high school education for their
children at either Gould’s Academy or at a separate town high school. Many
voters doubted that high school was essential to their children’s education.
To demonstrate the
“for and against” numbers involved, look at the special town meeting of
The
Gould Academy Journal
January 8, 1886, The Oxford
County Advertiser published a Gould’s Academy advertisement with the following
information: The spring term of Gould’s Academy will begin Tuesday, March 2, and
continue for 13 weeks. “Classical and Academic courses of study are established
and advantages are offered to thos
unable to follow one of the regular courses. Special courses will be formed
during the coming term to favor those who have been teaching during the winter.
For any other information address the Principal, A.F. Sweetser Bethel Maine. “
“Article 17 – to see if the
town will vote to raise a sum of $500 in connection with the Academy fund for
the support of a high school to be free for all scholars residing in town.”
3-19-1886 . Gould Academy is running full blast with about one hundred
scholars, many from distant towns. H.F. West, Esq., of Upton sends two daughters. Gould Academy: Gould’s Academy opened Tuesday, the 9th,
with one hundred scholars; A.F. Sweetser, Principal and Miss Cobb of Bates
College and Miss Susie B. Twitchell Assistants. The Trustees of the Academy
Fund decided that they cannot unite with the town in a free high school without
forfeiting their fund.
5-14-1886 (Advertiser) Thirty-four
teachers met at Gould’s Academy April 24th to be examined by the
Superintending School Committee of Bethel. Those receiving the rank of 90 per
cent and upwards were ten, viz: C.E. Valentine, Henry Hastings, Edith A. Philbrook,
Mary R. Eames, Ida Hazelton, Han B. Jewett, Ella B. Eames, May Harmon, Mary
Chpaman, Etta Howe.
7-30-1886
(Advertiser):
“Gould’s Academy, Bethel, begins its fall term August 24th under the
management of W.R. Howard of Belfast. A graduate of Maine State College,
assisted by Susie B. Twitchell, a daughter of S.B. Twitchell of Bethel and H.T.
Johnson, a graduate of Princeton College. We esteem this corps of teachers a
very strong working power, and the Executive Committee of the Trustees, of whom
William E. Skillings, esq., is chairman, is very fortunate in their selection
of so efficient a staff of instructors. Mr Howard is highly recommended as a
progressive scholar, especially efficient in mathematics and the sciences. Miss Twitchell we all know to be an exceptional
worthy preceptress of successful experience, and Mr. Johnson has studied two
years in a university in Germany and lived two years in France and is well up
in the languages. Miss Hall needs no recommendation from us as a teacher of
painting and music having spent several winters at the New England Conservatory
of Music in Boston and a lady we all know.
10-15-1886:The young ladies at Gould Academy gave a sociable last Friday
evening at Rialto Hall, which was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion. Games were
played, refreshments served, and when the time for going home came, all voted
that the girls knew how to manage an affair of the kind as well if not better
than the young gentlemen.
Bethel can boast of one of the best institutions of learning in the State,
Gould’s Academy, from which have gone forth into our vast country, men of
brains and intelligence and have taken their stand on the very pinnacle of fame
and made their mark in the world.
Professor Howard, A.M., and his
staff of assistants and teachers, led off by Mr. Johnson, a teacher of
languages, a gentlemen who graduated from one of the best institutions of
learning in all Germany, and other proficient helpers. The present number of
students is 82 and we are expecting a large increase for the winter term.
An Academy boarding house is being
talked up and is very much needed and we hope another year to introduce the
students of neighboring towns to a boarding house of minimum prices and good
appointments
1887
Other
prominent Ceylon Rowe, 48, Bethel merchant; Samuel B. Twitchell, 57, respected
legislator and farmer ; Gilman P.
Bean, 61; Addison E. Herrick,
Esq. , 39; Richard A. Frye,
Esq., 57; John M. Philbrook, 46,
successful livestock dealer; William
E. Skillings, 40, President of Bethel Steam Mill Co.; Alfred
W. Valentine, 45, Bethel’s school committee;
Spring term will
begin
1888
February 14,
February 28,
March 6,
May 5,
August 28, the fall term of Gould Academy commences
Sept. 4th, Tuesday, in charge of A. C. Dresser, A.B., principal,
with an able corps of assistants ( Prof. Linscott and Miss Wingate). Mrs. Abiel Chandler opens her house to school
boards at $2.50 a week.
December 4, the
fall term of
1889
12/17/1889: : Several students from West Bethel are going to Gould Academy this
winter – more intend to enroll in the spring and have made boarding
arrangements. Pref. Hall is fast gaining an excellent reputation as an impartial
worker in his calling.
1890
An above average
amount of news about Gould Academy circulated in 1890; much of it seems tied to
the energies, outreach and widened scope of interest of the new academy
principal, Arthur D. Hall who had been hired in August, 1889. On the other
hand, the Town of
The hand of
Professor Hall’s influence could be seen in four academy activities: (1)
expansion of the school’s library to include promoting its availability to the townspeople;
(2) the organization of a Gould Academy Athletic Association, (3) encouragement
of local teachers to apply for Normal Courses to help improve the quality of
education for local public school teachers; and (4) personally traveling
outside of Bethel Hill village to visit students and their families.
In January, Gould
gave public notice of its recently expanded library, also open to visitors,
that included two daily Boston newspapers, two county newspapers, Harper’s
Weekly as well as educational, scientific and literary journals. These
publications would be available in the newly arranged reading room.
March
news invited teachers to normal lectures at the Academy with lecture subjects
being Aids and Methods in Teaching, History,
In what seemed like a proposal to assume the academy into the town
school system, the 1890 annual town meeting warrant included this article for voter
consideration:
Art 26th. To see if the town will vote to accept the building and other
property now in the hands of the Trustees of Gould Academy, if said Trustees
shall vote to surrender the said property to the town; and to establish and
maintain said Academy as a free high school under the provisions of sections
30, 37, 38, and 39 of the Schools Laws of Maine, and to appropriate such sum of
money as may be necessary to support and
maintain said Academy as a free high school.
There was a clear ambivalence on the
part of
On May 22nd
at Ideal Hall the
In June, the trustees
announced that they had engaged Prof. Hall for another year.
The
academy advertised its fall term for 1890 as follows: Autumn Term Commences,
Autumn Term Commences:
Location is in the beautiful section of
the
Prof.
Arthur Hall, Principal
In September,
The newly formed athletic association
provided these two news items:
The Gould Academy
Athletic Association has just received $18 worth of tennis good from
Gould Academy Athletic Association
gave an exhibition at Ideal Hall on November 14th. The program
consisted of a variety of gymnastic events including the parallel bars and the
high kick. The high kick was won by Archie Grover with a kick that reached 7
feet and 10 inches. Young ladies presented a dumb bell drill - all of this from
the careful coaching of Prof Hall.
1891
January 20: The
village schools have closed and due to the shortness of the winter term a
private school has opened for those who wish to attend at the academy and
taught by Miss Inez Stewart. January 27: The second of the series of lectures being
given at
March 3: The winter term of
April 24: A
business college course of exercises is introduced into
May 15:
[Special to the
Gould Academy Alumni Association. For
some time it has been thought by the students of Gould Academy, that it would
be an excellent plan to form an alumni association, in order that at least once
a year, a reunion might be held of those scholars and classmates, who have gone
out from the Academy from year to year.
But
heretofore, no steps have been taken to carry out this plan, until at the close
of the last term, when through the
efforts of Prof. Hall, the two classes of ‘90 and ‘91 met at the Elms House and
formed such an association , electing the following officers: President, B.L.
Bryant; vice President, Maude Kimball; secretary, Alice Pride; treasurer,
Arthur Wiley. But we find that no accurate account has been kept for the last
twenty years, of the various classes. Partly because of the frequent changes of
teachers, and partly because there has been no organization upon whom this duty
would fall.
For
this reason we would ask, that all those who can give us information regard to
any of the se classes, of who they were composed, and as far as possible their
business and address at the present time, not only would confer a great favor upon
the present officers, but would help to carry out a work, which we hope will be
of some use to the institution., and productive of many pleasant gatherings in
the future.
Let
each one, for the moment, lay aside their many busy cares, and , in your thoughts
wander back to the many pleasant and profitable hours spend at the Old Academy,
and consider , whether or not, it would be pleasant to meet again, the same
boys and the same girls, only of “older growth,” with whom you enjoyed so many
happy days. This is what we are
striving to do, and we trust that we shall not be disappointed, but shall
receive the cordial aid of all the former students. Kindly address all
communications to the president at Bethel.
Note in the advertisement
above, printed in August 1891, that the academy calls itself “
September 8:
October 13: The
second annual field day of the Interscholastic Athletic League was held at the
(
November 27:
December 4:
1894
In the
"The 'Herald", a four page paper, setting
forth the (
1896
First edition of The Academy Herald was prepared to cover the 1896 -1897
winter term.
This first Herald contained 14 printed
pages plus front and back and inside covers. It carried 23 advertisements of
Editors:
Managing Editor
Cora H. Farwell
Assistant Editors:
(All
Winnifred Hall
Ethel M Richardson
Alice C Perkins
Ethel Eames
George H. French
Business Managers
Beatrice Kelliher,
Principal:
Fred W Flood, A.B.
Assistants:
Alice E. Purington
Henry L. Small
The first edition of the
Herald contained these articles: Editorial, “Old
Gould’s” (recollections), An Open Letter from F.O. Small, previous principal, “My
Favorite Poet – Sir Walter Scott”, “Quotations Applied”, “The Home of the Sibyl”,
Dryden’s Virgil, “Wanted” Someone to pronounce Latin for Latin beginners, …
continued, “Personals:” “In Memoriam”, “A Pleasant Occasion” , “The Philomel Society”,
“The Prize Examination”, “Sea Breezes” by Cornelia B. French. (Cornelia French was
the recent graduate remembered In Memoriam;
she died shortly after graduation.) Printed
below is the Personals column:
Norman Gehring is in
Alice Chamberlin is attending school in
Albert C. Eames, G. A. '94,
is now in
Fred Merrill, G. A. '96, is attending
George Merrow, '96, is teaching school at Bryants Pond.
Archer Grover is attending
the Maine State College at Orono.
Miss Cora Walton Hastings
is employed in the
Miss Jennie M. Wood is principal of the Grammar
school in
Favorite saying of the
girls: — "Miss Purington, please play us a waltz."
Miss Joan Stearns, '96,
lately of Shaw's
F. O. Small, a former
popular teacher of Gould's Academy, is now Principal
of Washington Academy,
Miss
Since the laughing girl, Lizzie Moulton,
graduated in '95, she has been teaching, but is now at the home
of her parents in
A Bethel Chair Company advertisement in the Business
Directory of the first Herald:-
1895 - 1896
Catalogue of the Officers and Students
of
Gould’s Academy
1895 – 1896
Printed at the News Office,
