Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1921-12-09
PART TWO
Relation to Middlebury College

Recently public men have spoken OF
the Grammar School as being the same
as Midd.ebury College, or as being a
part of the College. Such statements
are misleading and absurded,y untrue.
Middlebury is small place with so
few interests that many of its most
versatile citizens have always been &C
tive in relatively large proportion OF
its undertakings, some in practically
all. Such men were Gama.iel Painter,
Peter Starr, Samuel Swift, DR.. William
Bass, General William Nash, John W.
Stewart, Lyman E. Knapp, Editor Z.
H. Thorp and John M. Thomas. Thus
has happened that many OF the mem
bers of the Grammar School Corpora
ton have been graduates Of Middle
bury College Beng an educational en-
terprise, the majority of its members
have naturally been sought among men
of good education, the great majority
of whom, residing about Middlebury,
are naturally Middlebury College men,
The same of course will be found true
in other Midd.ebury activities, except
those in which a college education is
not cons dered a qua iication. Never
theless many of the trustees have had
no connec ion whatever with Middle
bury College. 1t is interesting to note
that when Midd.ebuiy received its vii
lage charter OF 1892, the frs. three
names i trustees elected under 1t
were all of citizens whose names are
so to be found on the roll OF Gram
mar School trustees. None OF these
three were graduates or ns,ructors OF
the College Evidently down to this
date and probab y for many decades
thereafter the llage regarded its
grammar school with PRIDE and the
thought had not been born that the
interests of the two were not alike.
Some times trustees OF the grammar
school have been elected from the
county outside of Middlebury as be-
fits a county institution. Neither OF
the last two trustees added to the
board lin 1ol6 and 1921 respectively
are in any way connected with the
college.
The histories of all Middlebury edu'
cational Institutions are naturally in
tertwined. We have seen that the
high school grew out of the grammar
school. Likewise the grammar schoo
gave birth to Middlebury College, in
that President Dwight of Yale, visit
ing the village in 1893, when the
academy" was nearly completed, and
finding the citizens prone to think
NJ ddlebury worthy to have future
college, seized the strategic moment
to encourage the citizens to try for the
higher institution also This he did at
the home of Samuel Miller, one of the
Grammar School, Board, as is COM
memorated on the tablet erected by
Mr.. Saunders in front OF this same
home The Grammar School records
are silent as to proceedings between
1897 and 1902. They record only char
ter and gifts. We know, however that
the wooden structure that President
Dwight found nearly completed n li9e
was of three stories and eighty by for
ty feet. and a far larger building thar
the grammar school needed when il
was opened in 1899; and that accord
ingly the college chartered in 1870 by
Legislature which met in the ole
court house located on the County
Green in front of the present cour
house, and now serving as exhibitor
hall on the fair ground was EXTENDED
the privilege of joint occupancy. The
college was then without land or en-
dowment 1t hoped for support from
the same public spirited citizens who
had so generously endowed the gram
mar school. 1t is probable, therefore
that this joint use of the east college
as it came to be known in later years
was acquiesced in by the grammar
school both from the ne;ghborly help
one another kindness of those days
and to meet the desire of the SO don
ors of the grammar school that they
be spared an unnecessary drive Iol
funds so soon after the first No iric
ton existed between citizens and then
various educational institutions. In
stead Middlebury took pride in them
all as community supported enter
pr.ses. These same citizens and thel
children were to respond ever more
generously again and again during th'
next half century to calls for funds tol
the first buildings and the repeated de
fc.ts of the college. The records dis
close that in August, 1902 the donor!
of the initial $4,l50 were convened t
hear how their gifts had been expend
ed and that they expressed satisfac
ton" with the proceedings of the cor
poration in locating Mddlebury Col
lege in their building
In 1903 a Ladies Academy was erect