OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PREFATORY NOTE The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Hopkins Grammar School of New Haven was celebrated on June 17 and 18, 1910. The exercises of the first day were opened in Lampson Hall, on the New College Campus, at half past two in the afternoon. The order of proceeding was as follows: Prayer by the Reverend Robert C. Denison. Salutatory Address by William Theodore Ladd of Woodbridge, Connecticut, President of the Senior Class. Song, "We Meet Again To-night,” by the School Glee Club. Address to the Graduating Class, by Professor Henry Parks Wright, Ph.D., LL.D. Song, "The South," by the Glee Club. Valedictory Address, by Alfred Howe Terry Bacon of New Haven. Song, "Onward, Christian Soldiers," by the School. Presentation of Diplomas, by Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, LL.D., President of the Trustees. Announcement of Prizes, by the Rector. Song, "Star Spangled Banner," by the School. Benediction. At five o'clock a reception and lawn party was given by the Rector and Mrs. Woodford at their residence, Oak Hill, which was largely attended. In the evening the annual Senior assembly and dance took place at Hopkins Hall. The exercises on the second day began at Lampson Hall at half past two, and consisted of prayer by the Reverend Dryden W. Phelps, Litt.D., D.D. (H. G. S. 1872), and an historical discourse by Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, M.A., LL.D. (H. G. S. 1857). At five o'clock there was a reception at Hopkins House. The Alumni and the ladies of their families were received by Professor and Mrs. Henry W. Farnam (H. G. S. 1870), Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Adler (H. G. S. 1888), and Dr. and Mrs. Woodford. 287574 In the evening the Alumni and their families dined together in the rotunda of the Yale Dining Hall. Over a hundred were present, and among them were three, Elias M. Gilbert (H. G. S. 1839), Rev. Dr. Edward O. Flagg (H. G. S. 1840), and Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight (H. G. S. 1845), who were in the school when it was kept in the old schoolhouse on Crown street. Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin (H. G. S. 1857), the President of the Trustees of the School, presided at the banquet, and brief addresses were made by Rev. James Morris Whiton, Ph.D., of New York City, Rector of the School from 1854 to 1864, Rev. Edward Octavus Flagg, of New York City, D.D., LL.D. (H. G. S. 1840), ex-President Timothy Dwight, of New Haven, D.D., LL.D. (H. G. S. 1845), Ziegler Sargent, of New Haven (H. G. S. 1900), George Douglas Miller, of Albany (H. G. S. 1865), Arthur B. Woodford, Ph.D., the present Rector, and Walter Camp, of New Haven (H. G. S. 1876), Secretary and Treasurer of the Trustees. Dr. Flagg also read an original poem in memory of the Rector under whom he studied when at the School, Hon. Hawley Olmstead, LL.D. The two addresses and the poem follow this note. Copies of this publication may be obtained by addressing the Rector, Dr. Arthur B. Woodford, New Haven, for $1.00 per copy, bound in full cloth, postage prepaid. · THE EARLY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF NEW ENGLAND. Address to the graduating class of the Hopkins Grammar School, delivered June 17, 1910, by Henry Parks Wright, Ph.D., LL.D., Dunham Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Yale University and Dean of Yale College, Emeritus. I first heard of the Hopkins Grammar School when I entered Yale College as a Freshman. Nine members of my Class of one hundred and thirty-four, or one in fifteen, had received their preparation in this school. I had felt no small degree of pride at having my name in the catalogue of Phillips Academy at Andover, which was founded during the time of the Revolutionary War, and had been preparing boys for college for eightysix years; but at my first recitation in Yale, I met a classmate who had received his preparation in Hopkins, a school that was one hundred and eighteen years old when my school was founded. The Hopkins Grammar School was widely known, and had received pupils from all sections of the country. Of my nine Yale classmates who were Hopkins men, four came from outside New England, two of whom were from the South. The Civil War had not closed when these southern students entered college. During the twenty years immediately preceding the Civil War, boys had come to Hopkins from every southern state except Arkansas. Of these nine classmates, two went into business, one becoming the head of a large manufacturing company; four became lawyers of high standing, one of whom is a judge; two studied medicine, of whom one became Professor in the Yale Medical School; one studied theology, and he is now the Bishop of Connecticut. In accordance with the custom of England, from which the early settlers of Massachusetts and Connecticut came, the institutions in these colonies at which boys were prepared for college were at first called schools. These New England schools were modeled after the Grammar Schools of England with which the settlers were familiar. After the beginning of the Revolutionary War, when a feeling of hostility existed in the colonies toward the mother country, and everything English was discarded, the name school was no longer given to the newly established institutions of this grade, but they were called academies; during the next one hundred years more than seventy academies were incorporated in Massachusetts alone, with authority to hold trust funds for the purpose of education.1 Some of these existed for a short time only, and some have become high schools. The term academy had been used in England for institutions of learning founded by Non-conformists, to distinguish them from the schools of the Church of England. This may have suggested the name for secondary schools established in America at this epoch in our history. The use of the name in this country for a preparatory school continued beyond the middle of the nineteenth century. Το the early part of this period belong Phillips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Phillips Academy, Andover, and Leicester Academy in Massachusetts, and the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at Cheshire.3 The Dummer Academy in South Byfield, Massachusetts, is sometimes called the oldest academy in the United States; it was founded in 1763, thirteen years before the Declaration of Independence, but it was called the Dummer School for the first twenty years.* 4 Toward the close of the last century, with the return of our old affection for the mother country and our respect for its institutions, especially its educational institutions, the title 1 1 Report of Massachusetts Board of Education, Vol. XL. Appendix, pp. 180-345. 2 The same, p. 191. 3 Besides the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, several other academies were established in Connecticut between 1780 and 1860. The one at Greenfield Hill, founded and maintained by the first President Dwight, attained high reputation throughout the country. It was attended by persons of both sexes. The school at Lebanon, Conn., of which Nathan Tisdale was master, was established in 1743. Pupils came to it from Georgia and the Carolinas, as well as from the northern colonies. |