Contoocook Academy, Maple Street, Contoocook, NH USA, 1856
The
image above is taken from an old print that shows the Contoocook Grade School,
formerly the Contoocook Academy, which stood on Maple Street where the Maple
Street School is now located. The print is on glossy paper, and perhaps was
cut out of a magazine article or brochure; it is from the collection of Mr.
Leslie C. Townes of Contoocook, New Hampshire.
C.C. Lord, in his Life
and Times in Hopkinton, N.H., had a bit to say about the academy:
- The first term of Contoocook
academy began in the autumn of the same year [1856], with about eighty pupils.
Ambrose Wayland Clark, of Dartmouth college, was principal. He remained
but a short time, owing to a more advantageous opportunity for employment.
In 1858, Rev. George H. Marston, of Limington, Me., came to Contoocook to
become the successor of Rev. Abiel Silver as minister of the New Church,
and also to take charge of the academy. He was associated with Miss Amy
Andrews of Boston, Mass., who afterwards became his wife. He remained till
some time in the year 1862. Since that time there have been different teachers
in charge of the institution. John C. Ager, Thomas B. Richardson, Sullivan
C. Kimball, Rev. Charles Hardon, and others have taught for longer or shorter
periods.
- Contoocook academy
stands on the high land south-west of the village of Contoocook, on a site
purchased by the corporation of William Howe, for the sum of $150. It is
a neat building, two stories in height, containing Academy Hall above and
drawing- and recitation-rooms below. In the tower is a bell.
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