Radio Script #749

Little Talks on Common Things

December 31, 1967

In a recent broadcast I mentioned Waterville’s “other academy”, for indeed more than a century ago Waterville had two rival academies. Several listeners have asked for more information about that long-defunct second academy. I find that it was twelve years ago, on October 9, 1955 that I first introduced into this program of Little Talks a bit of information about that other academy. Since that broadcast I have learned more about the school. So today I want to tell you in more detail about those rival schools in Waterville before the Civil War.

In 1828 the trustees of Waterville College (now Colby) decided to turn the somewhat informal preparatory department of the college into a separate school, to which was given the name Waterville Academy. In 1870, under Dr. James H. Hanson, the name was changed to Waterville Classical Institute, and some ten years later, when Abner Coburn donated a handsome new building and a generous endowment, the school got its present name — Coburn Classical Institute.

Colby College and Waterville Academy were sponsored and actually operated by the Baptists, who in the first half of the 19th century constituted the largest religious group in Waterville. Since 1820, however, another sect had come into prominence — the Universalists. Since most of the Protestant Churches in early Maine were conservative in both theology and discipline, the liberal views of the Universalists appealed to many people, and they grew rapidly during the period from 1820 to 1850. Less than ten years after the Baptist meeting house — the first secular church edifice in Waterville — had been erected, the Universalists were able to build their church on Silver Street, and they had it in operation several years before the third meeting house, the Congregationalists’, was put up on Temple Street.

So strong was the feeling between the various evangelical faiths that the liberals resented having to send their children to a conservatively controlled church school, if those children were to get education beyond the public common school. So, in various parts of Maine, the Universalists (their compatriots, the Unitarians, then had little strength in this state) established their own academies. The oldest was Westbrook Seminary in 1831, and only four years later came the Waterville Liberal Institute. In 1847 the Universalists started the Litchfield Liberal Institute, and in 1849 the Norway Liberal Institute.

The man who was chiefly responsible for founding the Waterville Liberal Institute in 1835 was Calvin Gardiner, who for nearly twenty years (1833 to 1852) was pastor of the Waterville Universalist Church. He doubled also as Principal of the Institute. The Universalist Societies responsible for school erected a building at the south corner of Elm and School Streets, where now stands a house occupied by the offices of several physicians. In the years 1839 and 1840, so popular had the Liberal Institute become that it actually caused the Waterville Academy to close. Indeed the Liberal Institute might have become Waterville’s only academy and might have survived for many years if it had not been for one man.

In 1843 James H. Hanson became principal of the reopened Waterville Academy. Except for a period when he presided over a similar school in Portland, Dr. Hanson continued as the head of the Waterville school under all three of its names -Waterville Academy, Waterville Classical Institute, and Coburn Classical Institute until his death in 1892. From the time when he first took charge until death caused him to lay down the reins, there elapsed the long period of almost half a century.

Dr. Hanson was a splendid teacher and a skillful administrator. He built the Waterville Academy from almost nothing to more than 200 students before the Civil War. What the situation was before he arrived is revealed by the following statement in the Centennial History of Waterville: “For about two years, 1839 and 1840, the Waterville Academy was closed. During that period the Waterville Liberal Institute attracted many students who would otherwise have attended the Academy.”

As late as 1852 the Institute was larger than the Academy. The Maine Register for that year tells us that, while the Academy had 70 pupils and a building worth $2,000, the Institute’s enrollment was 85 and its property valued at $3.000.

I cannot tell you exactly when the Waterville Liberal Institute closed. The Centennial History says only: “The Liberal Institute under the patronage of the Universalist Church, did good work until it became apparent that the field was already supplied.” We now know that the supplier of that field was the dynamic Dr. James Hanson of Waterville Academy.

In another section the Centennial History has an additional brief reference to the Liberal Institute. It says: “The Liberal Institute was a child of the Universalist Society and an evidence of the intelligence and enterprise of its members. The Baptist Society had the college for its mother; the Universalist Society had the Liberal Institute for its child.”

The last mention of the Waterville Liberal Institute in the Maine Register is in its issue of 1854. In every subsequent issue beginning with 1855 there is no reference to the school. I therefore assume that the approximate date when the school closed was 1855.

During the first half of the 19th century academies multiplied rapidly in Maine. Before the dawn of that century and twenty years before Maine became a separate state, and was still a part of Massachusetts, there were only five academies in the entire District of Maine. They were Hallowell and Berwick Academies, both founded in 1791; Fryeburg and Washington at East Machias, both founded in 1792; and Portland Academy in 1794.

By 1852 Maine had 67 academies, including the four liberal institutes controlled by the Universalists. Those having an attendance of more than 100 pupils in 1852 were the academies at Gorham, Bloomfield (a separate town that is now a part of Skowhegan), the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kents Hill, Westbrook Seminary, and the Norway Liberal Institute. Except for those five, none other of the 67 academies in 1852 had as many as 100 pupils.

Some of the academies at that time were indeed very small. Attendance at East Pittston Academy numbered only 25, and the same number were enrolled at Norridgewock Academy, and at the Gardiner Lyceum. Even Portland Academy had only 30 pupils and China, which had once been among Maine’s foremost academies, had only 32.

It is interesting to note the 1852 attendance at some of the academies that are still in existence 115 years later, in 1967. Fryeburg Academy’s enrollment was then 40 and Berwick’s 50; Lincoln at Newcastle enrolled 50, Hebron 60, Bridgton 60, North Yarmouth 80, Thornton 40, Foxcroft 77, Gould 48, Charleston (now Higgins) 40, Lee 50, and Monmouth 50. Some of the academies going strong in 1852, that have since passed out of existence, were Farmington, Warren, Cony, Titcomb at Belgrade, Parsonsfield, Lewiston Falls, Clinton, Newport, Union at Old Town, Standish, and the Oxford Normal Institute at South Paris.

All commentators on the common schools of a hundred and more years ago note the marked difference in enrollment in those schools in summer and winter. In summer the boys were needed on the farms, and their schooling was often restricted to the winter months. Hence we should not be surprised at the information in the Maine Register for 1852. There we are told that, while the winter enrollment in all the common schools of Maine was then 151,360, the summer enrollment was only 106,396. In other words attendance at school was 50 per cent larger in winter than in summer.

The same report tells us that the average wages of a teacher in Maine common schools was then $16.66 a month for men teachers, and $6.00 a month for women teachers. In the entire state the total amount spent on the common schools for the fiscal year 1850-51 had been $264,351.

By 1852 the movement that would result in the establishment of state normal schools was well under way. At that time it took the form of what were called Teachers’ Institutes, authorized by a law passed in 1850. That law said: “Whenever reasonable assurance shall be given to the board of education that a suitable number of teachers of the public schools in any county shall desire to assemble for the purpose of forming a teachers’ institute, and to remain in session for a period of not less than ten working days, the board shall appoint a time and place for said meeting, and shall draw upon the Treasurer of the State for a sum not exceeding $200 for said meeting.”

In the three years, 1849 to 1851, those county institutes were held each year in thirteen counties, with the largest number always in Kennebec. Its institute grew from 236 in 1849 to 277 in 1851. The smallest institute was in Aroostook, 37 in 1849 and 44 in 1851.

Many of our Maine people think the State Board of Education started in 1949, and that is true of the present state board, and it is equally true that Maine had no such board for more than 80 years before 1949, but before the Civil War Maine did indeed have an earlier State Board of Education, that had been founded in 1847. It consisted of one member from each of Maine’s then existing thirteen counties. The member from Kennebec County was Justin R. Loomis of Waterville, Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Waterville College.

And with that reference to Maine education more than a hundred years ago, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1968