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the young, particularly in exciting the power of observation and in 

 encouraging the practice of drawing, must be of great benefit in the 

 community. 



Mr. Jacob Batciielder of Lynn, in response to an enquiry, gave 

 the following brief history of the old Lynn Academy : 



The Old Lynn Academy, an institution associated with so many 

 agreeable reminiscences of our citizens well advanced in years, had 

 its origin in the desii-e of several public spirited individuals, to fur- 

 nish a coursii of instruction in the branches not taught in the com- 

 mon schools. They made the estimates of the amount required to 

 carry out their design, formed a stock company, purchased a lot of 

 land on the street south of the common, erected and furnished a 

 building with a tower and bell, after the usual pattern of the New 

 England Academy, fixed the price of tuition with a small sum added 

 for rent, and ofi"ercd the premises to a teacher willing to test the 

 experiment. 



The school was opened in 1805, under the superintendence of 

 Mr. William Ballard, who entered on his labors with enthusiasm, 

 which, in six months was so much abated, that he yielded his office 

 to Mr. Francis Moore, who was, hoAvevcr, scarcely more successful; 

 for at the end of one year he met and welcomed to liis vacant chair, 

 "the coming man," in the person of Mr. Ilosca Ilildreth, afterwards 

 the pastor of a parish in Gloucester. Determined to sustain his baric 

 amid the eddies and currents of an ebbing tide, Mr. Ilildreth had 

 recourse to a political life preserver ; and on the 4th of July, 1806, 

 delivered au oration to the Federalists in the first Congregational 

 meeting house, followed by a dinner in the hall of the Academy; 

 while the Democrats engaged in similar recreation at the hotel. 

 This expedient was so far successful as to carry him safely through 

 the year. 



His successor, Mr. Abiel Chandler, restored the six months' regim6 

 and was relieved by Mr. Abner Loring, who next year gave way to 

 Mr. Samuel Newell, whose feeble health constrained him, at the close 

 of the year 1808, to relinquish a profitless and exacting pursuit ; a 

 decision doubtless promotive of his own usefulness and fame, for he 

 subsequently engaged with ardor in the cause of foreign missions, 

 and, with his wife, the celebrated Harriet Newell, has left a glorious 

 record of faithful devotion to his chosen work. 



This rotation of teachers continued, often with many months' vaca- 

 tion, until the year 1835, when he who now addresses you succeeded 

 one who had just finished the norrqal term of six mouths — and, with 

 varying fortunes, witnessed the rising and the falling tides till the 

 year 1849, when the establishment of the public high school closed the 

 scene of struggle and toil and varying fortunes of the Lynn Academy. 



