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worship and rooms for a school. Like many other 

 institutions of a similiar character, the first few years 

 of its existence were years of struggle and varied for- 

 tunes. In 1828, a house of worship having been built 

 by Deacon Peirce on the lot adjoining the Academy, 

 both the house and the academy building, with the lots 

 on which they stood, were deeded to the Central Bap- 

 tist Society. Subsequently the Academy passed into 

 the hands of trustees, an act of incorporation 

 having been obtained from the State Legislature in 

 1835. The School was now in a languishing con- 

 dition, indeed, was almost defunct, so that its revival 

 to an ordinary mind seemed an herculean if not 

 a hopeless task. The number of its pupils had 

 dwindled down to fifteen, the building was old and 

 dilapidated, there were no funds, and there was no 

 apparatus, not even a blackboard upon the walls. 

 Under these discouraging circumstances the position 

 of Principal was offered to Mr. Jenks, with the un- 

 derstanding that he was to take the School into his 

 own hands, run it upon its merits, and pay all 

 expenses. Here was the great opportunity of his 

 life. He saw all the difficulties before him, but he 

 was not dismayed. He had been accustomed from 

 boyhood to habits of self-reliance. He had resist- 

 less energy, a courage that knew no danger, and a 

 boundless faith in the Supreme Ruler and Disposer, 

 to whom he had committed all his ways. Rejecting 

 flattering offers of other positions he accepted this 

 one, mainly, as he himself states, because this was a 



