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Welcome to Governor Dummer Academy
America's oldest independent boarding school.

One Elm Street
Byfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
508-465-1763 Voice
508-462-1278 Fax
Home: www.gda.org

A 200-year Chronology

Founded in 1763 by the will of Lt. Governor William Dummer, Governor Dummer Academy was the first and is the oldest boarding school in continuous existence in North America.

Launched under the British union jack, "Dummer School" was officially incorporated by the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1782, that Act signed by Governor John Hancock, House Speaker Nathaniel Gorham and Senate President Samuel Adams, and the seal crafted by patriot silversmith Paul Revere.

The school opened to 28 pupils in the Little Red Schoolhouse, which then sat on the lawn of the Mansion House, with master Samuel Moody at the helm.

The Dummer School and Master Moody, who reigned for 27 years, sent forth many of the leaders of the Bay Colony and of the young nation - educators, jurists, statesmen, doctors, ministers. The two Massachusetts men to sign the U.S. Constitution had Dummer School ties: graduate Rufus King (1773) and Nathaniel Gorham, who sent his son. Massachusetts Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons, the original author of the Bill of Rights, was also a graduate.

Through tough times and flush times, the Academy has persevered, adaptability the key.

The 4,000 living graduates span the world and seek new frontiers as adventurers and entrepreneurs, as well as businessmen, scientists, industrialists, even an M.P. in the Dummer family's native land.

The two brick and mortar remnants of the original school, the Mansion House and the Little Red Schoolhouse, have been changed over the years - enlarged, abridged, moved, renovated for new uses.

Since the first day in 1763, the school's primary mission has been to "fit boys for college" and with strong moral fibre "from habitual right living and ever-present example." That charge has been given to a total of 26 headmasters.

The colorful and eccentric Master Moody, described in historian Ewell's History of Byfield (1904), held forth "in long flannel gown and a tasseled smoking cap, with a full assortment of instruments of punishment within easy reach... and switches of various sizes adapted to the boys' different ages." Harvard graduate and strict disciplinarian, he offered "a liberal education" heavy in the classics, Latin and Greek, and democratic in fashion.

He was succeeded by master Isaac Smith (1790-1809) who, though considered inferior as a disciplinarian and teacher of Latin and Greek, was regarded as much Moody's superior in "general scholarship and polite culture."

Among the masters to follow were Nehemiah Cleaveland (1821-40), a gentleman of the old school and scholar "whose bosom friends were Homer and Virgil" (An 1835 catalogue notes that students receive instruction in the common branches of a merely English education."), and Marshall Henshaw (1853-59), reputed to have "a somewhat cold exterior but a warm heart," and who represented "thoroughness itself in teaching."

Samuel Moody was the first and only master until 1786 when he called Samuel Webber to be his assistant, hence no need to be called "head" master, and even after more than 100 years, there was a master and assistants.

By Perley Horne's time (1896-1904) there was offered an uncommonly wide selection of courses including Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, chemistry, math, English, history, advanced math and natural sciences, with Latin and math occupying the most time, and English not far behind. There were 150 recitations a week for a faculty of five, and daily required themes - 40 to 200 words in length on any subject, "to teach fluent and correct expression." Daily consultations were held and representative papers appeared regularly in the Dummer News.

Individualized instruction was already in the works according to the catalogue of 1898: "The needs of the individual are consulted with an aim to develop the best in him."

Dr. Charles Ingham, who called himself "principal," arrived in 1907 and rejuvenated the school, bringing it from 18 boys to 70 in 1930, and adding many new facilities among them Moody House, Pierce Hall, Lang Gymnasium, Mason Cottage, Noyes Library (the school's first), Morse Field and the Ould Newbury Golf Course. He set the foundations for the Eames era, during which the school grew "from provincial respect to national prominence."

When he arrived in 1930, headmaster Edward Eames first eliminated the name that had caused some abuse. "The Dummer School" became Governor Dummer Academy, thus giving the founder his due, said Mr. Eames, though others recall that boys from other schools loved to poke fun.

Another innovation was the Glee Club, which Mr. Eames assigned to newcomer Arthur Sager. It became one of the most popular extra-curricular activities of all time; 14 years after it started, nearly 80 percent of the school tried out.

The Eames concept of character through hard work in the classroom and on the field extended to plain hard work. The seniors of 1932 drained the athletic field and the following fall, students built a new hockey rink. This was followed by an outdoor board running track - two 85-foot straightaways with semicircles connecting at the ends, each banked at 20 degrees. Every student gave three hours a week to the project.

The World War II years brought some memorable adaptations to the school routine and some added responsibilities as well: faculty member Benjamin Stone was named warden of the immediate school area, to protect against air raids, conduct blackout drills and plant buckets of sand on each floor - for use against incendiary bombs as required. First lady Eleanor Eames was Post Warden of District 7 in Byfield, and all faculty wives "without exception" were knitting for British relief agencies and for the Red Cross. Art Sager was captain of the Fire Brigade and he and his students mastered "The Red Wing," an 1850 hand pumper purchased by Mr. Eames and loaned to the school for the duration.

Ted Eames also hired many of the faculty who were determined to make the school the finest of its kind even in the worst of times. Seven of them, honored at the Old Guard dinner in 1985, represented 274 years of teaching at the school.

Eames retired in 1959, having served longer than any other headmaster (two years more than Master Moody) and bringing the school to 226 students from 17 states and five countries.

Valleau Wilkie took over until 1972, and saw the Academy through its Bicentennial celebration, the addition of an ice rink, chapel, arts center, community service - and girls. Thereupon Jack Ragle, who wrote the Governor Dummer Academy History (1963), guided the academy into the '80s and coeducation. He is credited with hiring exceptionally able department heads and administrators, reviving the alumni association to bring the extended Governor Dummer family back to campus, and emphasizing the arts.

Peter W. Bragdon became the 26th headmaster in 1983, further strengthening the concepts of community, character, caring and accountability and taking an "inalterable stance" that Governor Dummer will be "the finest of the small boarding schools." He also renewed the Harvard connection.

Dummer School was overseen in its early years by trustees from that venerable institution which preceded it by 127 years. Harvard College supplied the teachers and was the college for which most of the boys prepared for some time. Until 1848, there were July and August classes, with vacation dates revolving around the opening and closing of Harvard, and as late as 1898, master Horne and all three assistants were Harvard graduates.

Headmaster Bragdon has two Harvard degrees; the assistant headmaster, two of the four new faculty members, and the chairman of the board of trustees are also Harvard graduates.

While originally a boys' school, Dummer School admitted women for two periods in the late 1800s. The catalogue of 1873-74 admitted for the first time, briefly, "The school is now open to young ladies," and neighbor Carrie Knight Ambrose graduated from Dummer Academy in June, 1876, winner of the Moody Kent Prize for general excellence. About 1897, girls "from the vicinity" were again enrolled as "day scholars," but by 1904 they were gone until 1971. They were admitted as boarders as well as day students in 1973, and today represent 42 percent of the student body.

Class distinctions and entrance requirements were less specific in the early days, when many pupils went on to college at age 14 or so. One young Smith boy was put under Master Moody's tuition simply "as soon as he could appreciate such a privilege."

In this century, the Academy has generally had four "high school" classes: seniors, juniors, sophomores and fresh men - though for many years there was an Upper School (for a while the older students were called seniors, upper middlers, lower middlers and juniors) and a Lower School for grades six through eight, which prepared young men for the Upper.

In 1943, as a "counterbalance to the loss of older boys of draft age," Governor Dummer Academy again accepted eighth graders - among them Ashley Eames, son of the headmaster. Students have also been admitted from time to time, though not at present, for a "P.G." or "post graduate" year. This was true for a number of returning veterans at the end of World War II, and on occasion for international students who needed more preparation before going on to an American university.

The percentage of boarders has varied over the years, as has the geographic distribution. The diversity was acknowledged by former Archon editor Arthur H. Cole '07, when he described the "almost bizarre" composition of the football team in the autumn of 1906: "Here was a small, reserved New England preparatory school sporting a lineup with a Brazilian at center, a Mexican at one tackle, a Cuban at fullback, a Moseley of Boston playing one half back, and Booker T. Washington, Jr., the other.

Today there are 63 freshmen, 93 sophomores, 92 juniors and 99 seniors; a total of 200 boys and 147 girls, 228 boarders and 119 day students, hailing from a total of 22 states and 10 countries.

Athletics have long been an important part of the school, though in Master Moody's day swimming in the Parker and Mill Rivers served for bathing purposes as much as for exercise.

In the early 19th century, Deacon Daniel Hale, who lived next to the Academy in what is now Boynton House, "took boys to board" for six shillings or $1.00 a week. There was no gymnasium in those days, and historian Ewell reported some time later that "the scholars seem to have vented their youthful exuberance of physical spirit on the good Deacon's windows and furniture. I am glad to say that, despite these ill-omens in their boyhood, some of those who tried the good Deacon's patience became eminent in various useful callings."

By 1898, athletic sports "of all kinds are encouraged as pure recreation," according to the catalogue, as the trustees and master believed them to be "an essential part of a normal education, and the necessary expenses are not met by permitting profit to be made through the games."

It was customary, throughout Perley Horne's headmastership at least, for faculty members to play on Academy teams. A Dummer News photograph of the football team circa 1903, shows Mr. Horne himself playing left tackle ("especially strong in opening holes on offense, but less efficient on defense"), with William Dudley Sprague (headmaster 1904-06) at quarterback in what looks very much like the T formation. In the spring of 1904, faculty member/coach/ outfielder Frank Moody won the batting title by hitting .514, one point above the third baseman, who was a student.

The catalogue of 1912-13 notes that "The football and baseball fields are conveniently located. The diamond is skinned and ballasted. Tennis courts and a pond for skating are close at hand on the school property."

"As there is game to be found in season on marsh and river," it went on, "permission may be obtained by the older boys to keep and use shotguns; This does not apply to pistols and rifles." Boys were also "encouraged to bring their canoes or boats."

On March 1, 1763, 16 months after the death of Governor Dummer, his friend the Rev. Moses Parsons of the Byfield Parish Church preached at the opening of the new Dummer School. His daily record reads: "Dumr Charity School begun prayd ther in ye morng." His text on the momentous occasion was Isaiah 32:8 -- "But the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand."

By 1848, many of the ancient rules still applied: "Every student shall regularly attend public worship on the Sabbath, and each was to be "prepared to give some account of the sermons on the Monday following, unless prevented by indisposition or excused by his parents or the Preceptor." Many are the memories of the boys who walked two miles down the road to the "little white church," later brick, on a Sunday morning, before the Academy's own chapel was built in 1963.

At the Byfield Parish Bicentennial in 1902, a Mr. Kidder gave pleasant reminiscences of his coming, in his boyhood 68 years before, on foot, with a small bundle in his hand, from New Hampshire to "Dummer."

William Dummer Northend, class of 1830 and trustee, recalled how "one boy after another walked the six miles (from Newburyport) to the Academy and back (three miles each way) daily."

By 1835, three stage coaches running between Newburyport and Lowell passed by the school daily, and nine of ten of the same public conveyances, running between Boston and Newburyport, passed as often within 60 rods of it. The Eastern Rail Road reached Newburyport in 1840, putting the coaches out of business.

Still, walking was the conveyance for the nearby students, and one young lady wrote in the Dummer News of May 1897 that "My walk to school this morning was very disagreeable. Just after I came by Glen Mills, a man driving five or six cows overtook me. I suppose the cows were perfectly harmless but . . .they kept as close to me as possible."

The Georgetown, Rowley and Ipswich electric railway followed in 1900 and switched by the Milestone just below Sunset Rock. Cars left the Academy every half hour for the aforementioned plus Newburyport, and one important feature was that the railway brought to the Academy dances "young ladies from as far as Rowley and Haverhill."

Arthur Cole '07, editor of the "new" Archon in 1904, later recalled the "tedium of commuting an hour's journey each way (from Haverhill) on the interurban trolley line," but admitted his appreciation of the "social resources of a trolley car" and "the possibilities of adventure, as the day we were nearly catapulted from our seats when the motor man sought to avoid battle with a family of 'wood pussies' crossing the track."

While Governor Dummer Academy has long been a school of national and international attendance, it has continued, per the will of its founder, to serve its community.

His summer house had, after all, been the political, military and social center of the life of the colony while he was acting governor, and "drew around its hospitable board the noblest men and fairest women of that aristocratic era." It was fitting that Master Perley Horne should be chairman of the Byfield Parish Bicentennial in 1902, with the meetings held in the mansion.

William Dummer intended that the committee which built the original schoolhouse be composed of "five freeholders of Byfield Parish" plus the minister, and for its first 19 years, the school flourished under the guidance of Byfield residents. Incorporation by the legislature removed the Byfield restriction, but the Academy continued to be strongly influenced by Newbury and Byfield people.

Historian Ewell wrote glowingly of the connection. "Byfield has a wonderful record for first things, but Dummer Academy is the most illustrious of all the things in which she has taken the lead . . . It has bestowed blessings upon over 2000 youth from all parts of our country and beyond, and has wonderfully stimulated and gratified the love of letters in Byfield."

"The opening of the Academy," he concluded, "made Byfield an intellectual centre of the country."

For many years, day students from Byfield Parish received a scholarship of $100, and in 1936 that privilege was extended to worthy boys from all Newbury as well. At the 175th anniversary in 1938, the Trustees voted full scholarships to the same, though the numbers were later restricted.

The Town of Newbury held its annual town meeting in Lang Gymnasium for many years, allowing the students a firsthand study of the unique New England form of government. A library for the town of Byfield was set up in the Mansion House toward the end of the 19th century. Today, as for the past 15 years, GDA students do community service in Newbury and Newburyport.

Celebrations themselves are a part of the heritage. The Centennial of the founding of the school was held on Au gust 12, 1863, on the lawn of the Mansion House, in a great tent borrowed from the Essex County Agricultural Society. The program included "two prayers, four hymns (three of which were written for the occasion) and three speeches," one of which was an historical overview by Nehemiah Cleaveland, a student of master Isaac Smith early in the 1800s and headmaster himself (1821 to 1840). The banquet was followed by a 30 minute break and 17 after-dinner speeches.

More than 1,200 guests turned out for the 175th on June 9 and 10, 1938. The high point was the dedication of the restored Little Red Schoolhouse, the long-time dream and gift of the Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse of Newburyport, also donor of the Morse Flag. The ceremony was followed by the Senior Sing on Sunset Hill, and a 1,000 guest annual Commencement dinner on the second day.

John H. Morse, class of 1885, captain of the first Dummer football team, and donor of the Morse Athletic Field, participated in both the 125th in 1808 and the 150th in 1913, and attended the 175th in 1938. Likewise, Miss Jessie Degen, a longtime friend and neighbor of the school (her house across from Ingham served as a home for a master and some boys), also attended the 125th, 150th and 175th celebrations.

The Bicentennial was preceded by a "kick-off' event in Boston on October 20, 1961, featuring the 200th Anniversary of the reading of Governor William Dummer's will. Master John Witherspoon, in full colonial regalia, was the reader.

The actual two-day Bicentennial event, May 24 and 25, 1963, included a panel discussion by prominent educators, a dinner and multi-school concert on Friday and a convocation on Saturday with an address by Arthur H. Dean, advisor to President Kennedy on disarmament.

Who was Governor Dummer? | A 200-year Chronology | Photo Album | True Stories