New England Magazine - March 1900 - Page 103

New Ipswich Historical Society

Recap of Page 102

New England Magazine - March 1900 - Page 102

Page 103

Miss Lee has inherited much of her father's taste for antiquarian research and curio collecting. At the old parsonage or Lee house, the writer was shown a volume which would have set the heart of a bibliomaniac thumping with desire. This precious tome is a huge Bible, the ancient and yellowed title-page of which bears this legend:

"Enpriented at London in Flete Strete-At the Signe of the Sunne by Edwarde G. Hitchwiche the Last Daie of Ianuarie

Anno Domine 1548"

From the date this must have been one of the Bibles which by the royal decree of Edward the Sixth was ordered to be chained to the reading desks in the churches in England. Unfortunately, a previous owner had had new covers made for the antique volume, so the traces of the chain by which it had been bound were not visible.

To the ranks of workers in the arts and sciences this small inland town has contributed more than her quota. Nathaniel Duren Gould, the pioneer of singing schools, began this work in New Ipswich. He taught sixty thousand children all over New England during his career, and exerted a decided influence in favor of temperance and religion at a time when professional musicians were almost invariably tipplers and scoffers. Augustus Gould, his son, was a man of scientific tastes. He became a co-laborer with Agassiz, and was admitted to fellow- ship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was also a member of the American Philosophical Society. Jonas Chickering, too, whose name is known to-day all over the world, was born in New Ipswich, where as a boy of nineteen he undertook to tune the first and only piano in the village. Prompted by curiosity and a keen interest in mu sical instruments, Jonas took this piano, which had grown quite useless for want of repairs, entirely to pieces, and after infinite labor and many qualms of fear on the part of the owner, no doubt, succeeded in restoring it to its pristine tone. This effort was perhaps the mainspring of his ambition to become a piano maker. At all events he soon after came to Boston, and on the day of his arrival secured employment in Osborne's piano factory, at that time the sole one in Boston.

In reviewing the names of a long list of professional men who received their early intellectual training in New Ipswich, it is impossible not to recognize the very strong influence that the New Ipswich or Appleton Academy has exerted upon the community. After the close of the Revolutionary War the natives of New Ipswich began to consider the urgent necessity for an educational institution in their midst. The Farrars, Champneys, Prestons, Barretts, Appletons and Kidders had young sons up, who were now ready for school; and these and some other gentlemen of the town entered into a compact to maintain and support a school for the space of five years from the date of agreement, which was September 12, 1787. Two years later, 1789, a charter of incorporation was obtained, by which was "established in the town of New Ipswich, in the county of Hillsborough, an academy by the name of the New Ipswich Academy, for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue and for the education of youth in the English, Latin and Greek languages, in Writing, Arith-

(continued tomorrow)

On this day - January 14, 1898

William Jurian Kaula diary

14 JAN 1898

It has been a dispondent [sic] week for me.  It is one of those periodical fits of morbid discouragement during which all my work seems to be bad.  The result is generally so much time and useless waste of energy spent in silent misery.  I have been at work all the week nevertheless.

On this day - January 14, 1909

James Roger diary entry

14th (Thursday)

Frost, getting milder, rain at night, freezing as it falls.  Snow coated with thin sheet of ice.  David went to Royce in forenoon to draw wood and took turnips to Robbin’s in afternoon.  Installation at Grange 64 present.  Kimball had horses in our barn.