The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-14
Chr 8utlanA Daily Gtobe.
FRIDAY, AUGUST H. 1874.
From Troy Press Of Wednesday.
81 c. A."
COMPLETE HISTORY OE THE
EKON CONFERENCE ACAD-
ENVY AE POuLTNEY, va.
Li.t oi che Faculty from the Bc"
ginning.
FRIDAY, AUGUST IA, 1874.


The grand reunion of students Of the
Troy Conference Academy, and Of the Rip
ley Female College, will take place to-
morrow at Poultnoy, VT The reunion cX-
crcises will commence at . p. M, and be
held in the academy park, if the weather
is favorable; if not favorable, they will be
held in the Methodist church. The So
ciable at the academy in the evening will
commence at o'clock. A committee will
be at the depot on the arrival of the trains
to assign guests to places Of entertainment.
THE PROGRAMME
has been already published. The morning
train over the Troy and Boston railroad
& 45) Thursday, will reach Poultney
about I 1 80 a. m.
In view of the reunion we have thought
best to furnish our readers with a
COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE TROY CONFER
ENCE ACADEMY.
The Troy conference was founded in 1888
| by being set off from the New York confer
encc. 1t xas bonded north by the Cana
da line, and extended south to point about
fifteen miles south of Albany. Its eastern
| boundary was the summit of the Green
Mountain range in Vermont and Massachu-
sets, while westward it extended to the
wilderness of Northern New York, and to
a line passing north and south in the neigh
borhood of Canajoharie.
The pioneers ofthe Troy conference were
such men as Tobias Spicer, Noah Levings,
Truman Seymour, Charles Sherman, Buell.
Goodsel, Sherman, Miner, Cyrus Prindle,
S D Ferguson, Ephriam Goss, Joseph
Ayres, Joshua and David Poor, and Sey-
mour Colman. Truly there were giants in
those days.
These men comprehended the education
al wants Of the church, and at their first
conference { session agitated the subject
of
\ CONFERENCE ACADEMY,
decided to establish one, and called for bids
for its location.
Near the geographical centre of the con-
ference, in the State of Vermont, and less
than half a mile from the line between Yer
mont and New York, is the quiet rural VII
LACE OF Poultney, then, as ever since, noted
for its beauty, healthtulness, temperance
good order and freedom from influences
b"..sfsi 10 a school.
The location and the generous eifar'
made by the peopic % r~-l.-@s, ranse(
this place to be selected by the Troy con
ference at its session in 1884 as the sea
of
THE TROY CONFERENCE ACADEMY.
A charter was obtained from the legisla
ture of Vermont in the autumn of 1884
with the following corporators, whose sue
cessors were to be appointed by the Troy
conference, viz John Stanley, Benjamin
Barnet, Samuel Hooker, Tobias Spicer
Samuel ID Ferguson, Noah Levings, Sher
man Miner, Peter c Oakley and Timoth!
Benedict.
The conference appointed Rev Tobia
Spicer as agent, who, aided by Rows. Cyru
Prindle, Sherman Miner, Joshua Poor AM
ID Ferguson and by the corporation o
5 the preachers generally, made Il thorough
canvass of the conference to solicit fund
! for erecting the building. The donation
ranged all the way
FROM THE CENTS TO $500.
l Allhonor to these early patrons of learn
ing They gave Of their penury only lie
their successors possess but a 1.-THE of thei
5 breadth OF view, enthusiasm and devotion
Z and the glory of the latter Troy confer
ence academy will exceed that Of the form
], err The walls of the building were
p ERECTED IN 1886.
a 1t was finished and opened for student
in September, 1887. The character of tn
building is like the grand men who planne'
it, for although thirly-eight years old it
walls show scarcely Il crack, while inter
nally it has the freshness and convenience
of modern structures. 1t stands at the ives
5 end of Main street. facing and filling it, re
: tired twenty rods, with well shaded law
:. in 'front.' Il magnificent primeyal grove o
i rock naples on the north side, and twenty
i eight acres of beautiful land for its site
;, Beautiful for situation is Troy conferenc
o academy. A select school was kert b,
!. Rev Spencer Madison in building stand
ing on the site of the present academy il
F.. 1885. Troy conference academy prope
= was opened in said old building, under tn,
direction of the trustees, in 1886. From
the very first the number of students wa
large, and the school assumed the elevate,
rank and character which it continued I
maintain as long as it was under the con
troll of the conference. This leads to a
explanation of some financial disasters tina
it experienced, which have been quite gen
orally misunderstood. The building cost
\ OVER $4,000
debt of more than half of this amour
/ La, Il L.. A,
trustees had not available assets sufiicien
to pay even the annual interest on thi
debt. In 1913 the debt had increased b.
, the accumulation of interest to over $50,
600 An effort was then made to obtai
money by subscription, and by TIE sale o
scholarships to pay this debt. The nom
inal amount required, together with certain
assets which the trustees had, was obtained
but the shrinkage of subscriptions, togethe
with an embarrassment arising from schol
arships and the increase of interest, still
left a debt OF over $4,000 in 1866. Durin
all this time, however, the literary depart
ment of the school flourished incompatible
the current receipts equalling the curren
expenses, the institution
RANKING ALL OTHERS
of a similar kind, maintaining an enviabl
reputation and sending forth annual,
streams of influence to treshen and fertiliz
the entire conference and much of the re
- gons beyond.
Y A debt of 81 900 that can not be paid
as fatal as one of 100000, and as tn
conference and the trustees were mutual
disheartened they concluded, after an expo
n rience of eighteen years, to abandon In
% enterprise, and having an opportunity the
, leased the institution in perpetuity to Re
Joshua Poor. The misapprehension re
= ferred to and which lost the institution NOR
Is friends than anything else, was that thi
le nightmare debt arose from the operation {
y the school. If the facts had been general
lie known, and the conference made to unde