Putnam patriot., 1919-07-11
The Scholar In Reconstruction

The address was as follows:
The Scholar In Reconstruction
Mr.. President, Students, Ladies and
Gentlemen:
1t gives me very great pleasure to
be privileged to fill or attempt to fill
this position.
At the original installation of this
Academy on February a, 1902, that
then eminent member of my profess
sion, John Mcclellan, Esq, in his
speech of dedication, said: 'The ed
ucation of children and youth is one
of the highest and most important du-
ties of mankind" In that opinion
fully concur and therefore would con-
slider it an honor to be chosen to de-
liver the graduating address at any
one of the surviving old New England
academies, for all of which l have a
profound respect. This academy,
moreover. has for me a special appeal
even upon three grounds In the first
place | was born and reared in the adj
joining town of Thompson and so IN
my academy days, the first half dec
ade after the Civil War, was within
the territorial jurisdiction of Wood
stock Academy. The one time IA
nous private academy of Parker Il
Rawson in Thompson, and the Llppett
School of like general grade in Put
nam, each of which | attended for a
brief time, had both ceased and of
good right should have prepared for
college here. That, however, CHANGED
to be one of the few periods of par
tial eclipse on the part of this school,
and therefore it was thought better
that l should go elsewhere for that
training. Still today i very much re-
greet that | cannot claim to be an
alumnus of this ancient school. Bet
ter late than never; and so today
am here, at the beginning of my old
age, to tender to this ancient seat of
learning, in the home of my ances-
tors, the fealty and reverence due
from a son and to ask her pardon that
l did not stand by her in the hour of
her need. There were others, how
ever, who did stand by her then, and
thanks to them she survived and still
lives to bear aloft upon this historic
hilltop the torch of learning with
light undimmed.
The second ground of special APP
peal to me consists of the fact that
really and truly l am myself, by de-
scent, more than half Woodstock and
therefore can claim an inherited share
in her glories, prominent if not the
chief among which l count this insti.
tuition. My mother was born anc
reared upon a Woodstock farm, just
south of this place, hardly more thar
stones throw distant. Hence
through her l am half Woodstock
While she finished" as the term usee
to be, at the noted Wilbraham Acad
envy. | have no doubt that she attend
ed here several terms. 1t is curl
Gus coincidence that in her schoo
DAYS, the late thirties, this academy
was suffering one of its few period!
of depression, the same as 1T was II
my corresponding time. 1t please'
my fancy to think that if she were liv
ing she would be delighted to know
that her only surviving child has II
her old school been accorded this pos
of honor Moreover, one of my pa
ternal great grsndmothers was
daughter Of a branch of the OLE
Woodstock Corbins, and one of m.
paternal great great grandmother
was a daughter of the Woodstocl
Holmes, born and reared on Wood
stock farm. and married to my ances
tor in 1742 by the Rev. Abel Stiles
very likely in the old church here, o
rather its predecessor. Hence, as yo'
may readily see, l am by descent II
large part Woodstock.
The third special ground of appea
which this academy has for me lie
| in the fact that at one time in tn
thirties an own cousin of my father
Matthew Mills of Thompson, was it
principal. He was graduate o
| Brown, of the class of 1884, an
spent his manhood life teaching i
different New England academies
principally in the famous Boston Lat
in School. In the early part of hi
teaching career he taught for a brie
time here. 1t is a curious thing tina
as the records of the academy for tina
| period have been lost and traditio
| has to be relied upon for that time
/ the tradition had come to be that m
uncle, Nathaniel Mills, was the on
who taught here, but my investiga
lions have made the correction.
| think that you will all admit tina
| have established genuine relation
ship with Woodstock and therefore a
inherited right to partake in the nor
ors of this venerable institution. Sal
/ Napoleon to his soldiers beneath tn
I Pyramids, Forty centuries loo
down upon YOU" Upon US today fror
this academy more than century o
the best life of New England look
down upon US, a stimulus to all tina
is good and noble
| Every old school has its own pecu