The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-01-13
Kents Hill Seminary.

BY DR.. W. WINSLow OF RoXBURY, MASS.
My father, William Winslow, used to
quiz me in arithmetic and grammar
when / was in the Belfast High school,
and would often quote notes and rules
about parsing, etc., and tell me the very
page, and position on it, where could find
them in Lindley Murray's Grammar. l
never caught him in the wrong, though
often tried to do so. | wondered at his
phenomenal memory, but / never ques-
toned he source of his education. |
knew he had spent his boyhood on his
fathers farm and attended the little red
schoohouse in the Pitcher district on
the Belmont Road; that he had taught
school in country districts around Bel
fast successfully, where other teachers
had failed; one at Browns Corner hav-
ing been thrown out of window by a
riotous lot of big boys, who worked on
farms and went fishing on the banks
alternately, and that be mentioned sew
eral times something about Kent's Hill
and The Maine Wesleyan Seminary.
My Indifference, lack of curiosity, boy
ish BUSINESS and, perhaps, his modesty,
clouded the issue-left no active impress
sion upon my mind; yet, lately, after
sixty years delay, my association with
college affairs awoke memories of those
casual expressions and it flashed through
my consciousness that, perhaps, my
father was colIegeman, and resolved
to investigate.
No person but myself had a scintilla of
evidence. 1t was problem for Sher-
lock Holmes. l started with my father s
birth in 1907, calculated he had sought
higher education after he had begun
teaching, probably when 10 years of age.
and concluded from my mothers age
when married, and my own age, that the
ambitious student had attended some
high institution of learning, if at all,
between the ages of 10 and % years, or
between 1926 and 1885.
l appealed to the authorities at The
Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Readfeld,
to examine the records of the institution
during the ten years period above figured.
But there were no records to tell. Presi-
dent John 0. Newton kindly assisted my
quest and found outside the institution
two little blue catalogues of the year
1882, in which we were rejoiced to find
in the list of 123 men students There
were 20 girls enroIled) the names of
William Winslow and Joseph F. Hall, of
Belfast, Me.
In the absence of other records and
catalogues, it was impossible to deter
mine whether this was the year of grad
uation of the gentlemen. l Judge it
was, because remember my father had
once remarked in my presence that he
had refused the chair of English at the
Seminary because of the small salary.
The humble precious catalogue of
Maine Wesleyan Seminary, 1882, lies
before me. What record of the dusty
ages! The names Of overseers, trustees,
professors, instructors, and students,
male and female, recall to mind many
families known in boyhood scattered
from Narraguagus to Meddybemps and
beyond Miramachi, even around Passa-
gassawaukeag, Jay, Pownal. Brigham,
Shapleigh, Readfield, Fryeburg, Cor
ham, Norridgewock, Poland, Alfred,
Strong and other places, dear to the
hearts of early settlers, gave the names
of the noble host of friends. supporters
and educators, who established the hum