well as to the scores of girls who cherish its memory tenderly. The
highly successful term of Miss Nancy J. Haseltine was all too brief, and
after her, Miss Maria J. Brown and Miss Emma L. Taylor, sister of Dr. S.
H. Taylor, filled the last three years of the first thirty of Abbot
Academy. In September, 1859, the present principal, Miss Philena McKeen,
entered upon her duties, bringing with her from Oxford, Ohio, her
sister, Miss Phebe F. McKeen, as first assistant. Miss McKeen's
management of affairs has been as wise as fortunate, as disinterested as
successful, and Abbot Academy now stands among the very first of the
girls' schools in the country.

The year 1862 is memorable as being the first of a series pleasant to
chronicle. The institution was never in a higher condition of prosperity
and usefulness, and when, in 1865, the trustees were perplexed by the
good news that Smith Hall was insufficient for the number of pupils from
out of town, Hon. George L. Davis of North Andover, who had for some
time been one of their number, happily solved the difficulty by buying
what was known as the Farwell estate, which joined the academy grounds
on the north-east corner, and presenting it to the school. It was
gratefully named Davis hall, and for many years has been occupied by all
pupils studying French, that language being the one ordinarily spoken in
the house. Previously Mr. Davis had added two acres of land in the rear
of Smith Hall, and in the autumn of 1865 assisted in the purchase of
the house belonging to Rev. J. W. Turner, on the southern boundary line
of the grounds. That house, known first as South Hall, is now German
Hall, German being spoken there in daily life, as French is at Davis
Hall. To the fact that pupils studying these languages are thus kept out
of the way of English speech for so large a portion of school hours is
ascribed their unusual success in the difficult accomplishment of easy
and correct conversation in a foreign tongue. The amount of Mr. Davis'
benefactions up to 1879 was more than $7,000.

At the annual meeting in 1870, the trustees expressed special
obligations to Mr. Nathaniel Swift, who had filled the office of
treasurer since 1852, and congratulated him upon the wonderful
transformation which he had wrought in the grounds. Instead of poor
stony pasture land were broad smooth lawns, gravelled walks, flower
borders, well-trimmed hedges, and rustic seats in charming spots, which
told not onl