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“The selectmen were empowered to examine into the character and habits of all persons seeking residence, and to admit none who were idle or immoral.

“The town also encouraged desirable persons to settle by making them grants of land, etc. Ministers and masters of grammar schools were exempt from taxation.”

theological seminary.—general view.

In few places can the local features of the great Revolutionary struggle be as well studied as in the ample and well-preserved records of Andover. It would take many pages to tell what the town did in council and on the field, in business, and at the fireside, to encourage the patriots. So loyal was the town that its citizens were greatly trusted, and a portion of Harvard College library was sent there for its greater safety.

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A pleasant description of the town is given by Thomas Houghton, an Englishman, who, writing from Andover in 1789, mentions several characteristics of the people at that period. He says: “One thing I must observe, which, I think, wants rectifying, that is, their pluming pride when adjoined to apparent poverty,—no uncommon case!”

He adds that they grow “their own wool, which they also get spun, weaved, and dyed, and both the gentlemen I am with, Hon. Samuel Phillips and his father, who is a justice of the peace, generally appear in their own manufacture, in imitation of the British.”

south congregational church.

“As to property, it seems so well secured from principle in the people that there is not such use of locks and bolts as in England. Even where I am, we have five out-door and sixty-two sash windows; yet all the barage on the doors is a wood catch on the door-snek.” ...

“Oh, what a country has Britain lost by her folly! But this is too large a field to dwell on in a letter; the subject, from even poor me, would easily draw forth a volume.”[E]

Among the early students in Harvard College, from Andover, was one who was destined to immortal renown. When the rebellious spirit against England began to rise, Samuel Phillips, whose father, by the same name, was then the representative to the General Court, was one of the most earnest to fan the sacred flame. Choosing “Liberty” as the theme, while in college he wrote: “We should watch against every encroachment, and with the fortitude of calm, intrepid resolution oppose them. Unborn generations will either bless us for our activity and magnanimity, or curse us for our pusillanimity.”

In 1775 he is chosen to represent the town in Provincial Congress, to be held at the meeting-house in Watertown.

His great life-work now began, a work which will be more fully described hereafter. In all the relations and duties of student, patriot, business man, judge, lieutenant-governor, and founder of Phillips Academy, he won for himself a good report, and helped to lay lasting foundations.

“Phillips School,” as it was at first called, was opened April 30, 1778, in a “rude building of one story about 30 × 25 feet, done off temporarily in the plainest manner for the purpose, and not intended for more than thirty or forty scholars.” From this small beginning the school has developed into the widely-famed Academy, which numbers more than three thousand graduates, and under whose instruction have passed about eleven thousand pupils. The limits of this article prevent a notice of those alumni who have become justly famous, and also of the very strong faculty of instructors, at whose head stands one of the foremost of American educators, under whose wise direction Phillips is fast becoming the synonyme of Rugby, and is already one of the important sources of supply of student-life for Harvard and Yale.

In 1785 the “joiner’s shop” gave place to a new academy, which stood west of where Brechin Hall now stands, and which was burned in 1818. The third academy, erected in the same year, is now used as the gymnasium. In 1865 the present academy came into being. It is a noble structure, with excellent facilities for educational work. Its spacious hall, where occur the commencement exercises, and the annual contests for the various prizes, is adorned by the portraits of many of the Academy’s illustrious dead.

The new laboratory is a part, already finished, of the proposed building, for the use of the classes in the natural sciences.

For want of funds in hand, only the east wing has been built, and this is now occupied by the class in analytical chemistry. When completed, the building will be a beautiful and a convenient structure. The walls will be of pressed brick laid in red mortar, with dark granite base, and Nova Scotia sandstone trimmings. The roof will be covered with Monson slate. The basement will be eleven feet high, mostly above ground, and will serve for the force-pump, heating apparatus, and for rough storage.

The chemical laboratory will occupy the main floor, and will be a room 40 × 30 feet. Abundant light and air are to be supplied by windows on three sides, and the system of ventilation will be excellent.

The advantages aimed at in this building are, ample space, freedom from dampness, abundant light, the means of speedy and complete ventilation, good drainage, a minimum of absorbing surfaces, and a minimum of fire risk. The building, when completed, will have a small side-room for books and balances, a private laboratory for the instructor in charge, a spacious lecture-room, a drawing-room, cabinets for the various collections in geology, mineralogy, etc., now inconveniently distant, a dry store-room, also corridors, closets, and janitor’s quarters, complete.

The chaste and time-honored seal of Phillips Academy was the gift of John Lowell and Oliver Wendell, the grandfathers of Oliver Wendell Holmes; and probably, though not certainly, was engraved by Paul Revere.