Phillips Andover in the Early 20th Century (June 5, 2014)

Arnold G. Tew's Phillips Andover urn (circa 1912)

As I have written previously here at The Prism, my paternal grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, lost his father in a tragic train accident when my grandfather was just three months past his sixth birthday.  His father was hit and killed by a train in Providence while on his way to work one day.  About 7 or 8 years later my grandfather was accepted to attend Phillips Academy -- Andover (“Phillips Andover”) prep school in Andover, Massachusetts.

A.G. Tew (kneeling) with classmate on
Phillips Academy -- Andover campus
circa 1913.

Since the family was of very modest means and probably barely considered middle class, it has always been an unsolved mystery about how my widowed great grandmother was able to afford to pay for her son’s attendance at Phillips Andover.  There is speculation that there might have been some insurance settlement for the death of my great grandfather, but that is unexplored and remains mere speculation.

My grandfather was lame from a congenital defect in one knee that could not be corrected despite at least two surgeries.  As a result of his knee malady, he was not able to play sports and so he read with a passion and skipped one or two grades prior to high school based on his academic performance.  The family circumstances and his scholastic ability probably contributed to his being accepted at Phillips Andover in about 1910.

1913 photo believed to have been taken by my grandfather.

In 1912, my grandfather was one of eight students at Phillips Andover from Rhode Island.  He was a “Junior Middler” or sophomore in the Classical Department.[1]  His mother, Margaret "Maggie" Tew, ran a rooming house in Andover and my grandfather was living in that home along with at least two other Phillips Andover students (William Joseph Hever of New York, NY and Phillip Williams Burges of Petersham, MA).  Unfortunately, the address of my great grandmother’s rooming house in Andover in 1912 is not yet known and perhaps never will be.

Phillips Andover had several school-owned dormitories or "cottages" in 1912 -- Bancroft, Bartlett, Eaton, Abbot, Andover, etc. – but there were also several rooming houses in addition to “Mrs. Tew’s.”  There was Mrs. Clark’s, Mr. McCurdy’s, Mr. Fletcher’s, Miss Merrill’s and Mrs. Whitney’s to name just a few.  All together the cottages and rooming houses provided a residence for the 566 Phillips Andover students in 1912.

Period post card from CardCow.com showing some of the student resident cottages at Phillips Academy -- Andover.

A.G. Tew's room in 1913-1914 -- Andover Cottage 9.

For some unknown reason, I have never yet visited Phillips Andover, but my blogging friend, Barbara Poole of Life From The Roots blog,  has generously shared some current photos of the campus taken during her recent visit there.  Barbara's photos can be viewed here.  I do have two of my grandfather’s yearbooks – Pot Pourri – from 1912 and 1914, several photographs from my grandfather’s time at Phillips Academy, and some images from a vintage postcard website (credited below).  Between Barbara’s blog post showing Phillips Academy today, and the photos shown here, a sense of the changing face of Phillips Andover over the last century can be seen.

The Academy Building (1912)

The new indoor swimming pool (1912)

South Hall under construction (April 26, 1912)

The new baseball diamond (1912)

A period post card from CardCow.com showing some of the academic buildings at Phillips Andover in the early 20th century.

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[1]  The four years at Phillips Andover consisted of the “Junior” or what would be called the freshman year in most high schools today (when the PA students were then called “preps”); the “Junior Middle” or sophomore year; the “Middle” or what would be recognized as the junior year in most high schools today; and the final “Senior” year.

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Photos of the Andover urn and of A.G. Tew and his classmate from the personal collection of the author.

Period post card images from CardCow.com as described.

Photographs of the Academy Building, the new indoor swimming pool, the construction of South Hall, and the new baseball diamond are all from the author's copy of the Phillips Andover 1912 "Pot Pourri" yearbook that belonged to his grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, Sr.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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One Hundred Years Ago Today (almost)

I missed it by two days!  

Since the northeast got hit Sunday (December 8, 2013) with the first major snowstorm of this winter season, it would have been perfect if I had paid closer attention to my grandfather's 1913 diary and posted this two days ago -- but I was otherwise occupied and blew it.

All too infrequently during this year I have posted excerpts from the diary kept by my paternal grandfather when he was 16 - 17 years old in 1913 and a student at Phillips Andover in Andover, Massachusetts.  

It turns out that the last entry in my grandfather's diary for 1913 occurred on December 8th.  The 8th of December 1913 was a Monday and Andover was hit with its first snowstorm just as we have had our first on December 8, 2013 -- one hundred years to the day later!

My grandfather's last diary entry for 1913 reads as follows . . . 

          "Today we have our first snow storm which amounts to

      anything. It went down to about 15 today and the wind

      is blowing a gale of about 60 miles an hour.  There is

      about 3 inches of snow." 

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Scan of the December 8th entry in the 1913 "A Line A Day" diary of Arnold G. Tew.  The original diary is in the personal collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Treasure Chest Thursday (June 6, 2103)

A few weeks ago I posted a scanned image of my paternal grandfather's 1912 yearbook from Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.  Today is a Treasure Chest item that is the companion to that book -- my grandfather's 1914 Phillips Andover yearbook known as the Pot Pourri.  This was the yearbook for my grandfather's last year at Phillips Andover.

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The scanned image of the 1914 Pot Pourri is from the original yearbook in the collection of the author.  

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (May 31, 2013) -- One Hundred Years Ago Today!

As I have written elsewhere on The Prism this year, I am very lucky to have the diary written by my paternal grandfather, Arnold G. Tew,  in 1913 while he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.  From time-to-time this year I am posting entries from the diary.  

As shown above, my grandfather wrote the following on May 31, 1913 -- One Hundred Years Ago Today! 

                    Harvard Varsity beat Andover this afternoon in baseball 4 to 0.  Swett had to play

                    the whole game himself.  He knocked a three bagger in the ninth.  Hardly anybody

                    had their lessons for to day on account of the excitement of yesterday.  I managed

                    however to get a C+ in Latin Comp. by looking over Web Otis's paper.  Parmalee

                    was as "sore as a wet hen" in French class because everybody asked foolish

                    questions so he wouldn't get to the lesson.  Mr. Leonard gave us a Harvard New

                    Plan English paper for an exam to day. 

The "excitement" Arnold referred to was captured in his diary entry the day before -- May 30, 1913.

                    Today being Decoration Day we had no school: only had to go to chapel at

                    9.00 to 9.15 A.M.  The Andover-Exeter Track Meet was a tie 48 to 48 but

                    Andover won 7 firsts and Exeter only won 6.  The stars for Andover were 

                    Rodman, who won both hurdles, Macrae, who won the 100 yd. and got third

                    in the 220 by mistake, and Capt. Crary, who got second in 100 yd. and got

                    first in the 220 yd.  Exeter was so glad they held us to a tie -- for the meet was

                    ours by right -- that they celebrated in Exeter.  We didn't though.

My grandfather's room at Phillips Andover
 where he wrote most of his 1913 daily diary entries.

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Scanned images of documents in the personal collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (May 24, 2013)

Phillips Academy -- Andover, Massachusetts circa 1913

The above photograph of buildings at Phillips Andover is believed to have been taken by my paternal grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, Sr., with his Kodak "Vest Pocket" camera in or around 1913. He was a student at Phillips Andover during this time.

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Photograph from the personal collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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One Hundred Years Ago Today at Phillips Andover

As I have written elsewhere on this blog, "My paternal grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, attended Phillips Academy, Andover [Massachusetts] from 1910 – 1914.  During 1913 and 1914 he had what was called “A Line A Day” diary.  It is a small (4 ¾ in. by 5 ¾ in.), leather-bound volume with gilt-edged pages.  The diary was able to accommodate five years of entries with four ruled lines per day.  I came into possession of the diary going on three years ago.  I have transcribed all of his diary entries for the years 1913 and 1914 -- except for those that were erased or presumably torn out by my grandmother decades later due to either her sensibilities or desire to protect the image of a nearly seventeen-year-old boy she never really knew.  The diary is a wonderful trip into the language, teen slang, objects and interests of the period as well as one boy’s experience of prep school life at Phillips Andover at the beginning of the last century."

From time to time this year, I plan to post odds and ends from my grandfather's diary one hundred years to the day after he wrote them from his room at Phillips Andover.  Here is his entry from April 11, 1913 . . . 

The entry reads: "Was quite a rainy day still the temp. was quite high.  The question for debate at Philo was 'Resolved, that the U.S. government should give independence to the Phillipines [sic].'  Blackall upheld the aff. with Woodward assistant and Boynton upheld the negative with Woodbridge (assis.).  Irving gave select reading from the anonymous poem 'How He saved St. Michael's.'  Abbot gave the topics of the week."

It is interesting to read that one hundred years ago today prep school students were debating the merits of the U.S. granting independence to the Philippines.  The Philippine Revolution began in 1896 while the Philippines was a colonial possession of Spain.  When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 after American intervention in Cuba, U.S. attacks on various Spanish possessions -- including Pacific possessions -- led to U.S. involvement in the Philippine Revolution.  Commodore George Dewey, who was in Hong Kong, sailed to Manila with the U.S. Navy Asiatic Squadron and defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898.  The Navy then transported the leading Filipino revolutionary, General Emilio Aguinaldo, back to the Philippines from his exile in Hong Kong.  Philippine independence was proclaimed on June 12, 1898 from the Aguinaldo mansion in Manila, but the June 1898 declaration was never recognized by the United States or Spain and the Philippines (along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, parts of the West Indies and Guam) was ceded to the United States from Spain as part of the 1898 Treaty of Paris.  The Treaty was signed December 10, 1898, but it was not effective until April 11, 1899 -- one hundred and fourteen years ago today (which is probably why Philo posed the debate question it did on April 11, 1913 -- the 14th anniversary of the effective date of Treaty of Paris whereby the U.S. ignored the Philippine Declaration of Independence)!

An artist's depiction of the June 12, 1898 Declaration of Independence
from the Aquinaldo family mansion in Manila

The machinations of the Treaty of Paris (1898) and the U.S. denial of the Philippine Declaration of Independence led to the Philippine-American War that ended only when General Aguinaldo was captured by the U.S. and subsequently accepted the sovereignty of the United States over the Philippines.  Resentment and resistance continued in the Philippines until the U.S. granted independence to the Philippines after World War II on the 4th of July 1946 in the Treaty of Manila.  Until 1964, the Philippines shared the 4th of July with the U.S. as their independence day celebration.  Responding to pleas from historians and nationalists the Philippines legislature in 1964 passed a law designating June 12th as the actual Independence Day for the country.  The U.S. presence in the Philippines, however, did not end until November 1992 when the U.S. flag was lowered at Naval Station Subic Bay and for the first time since the 16th century there were no foreign military forces on Philippines soil.  Both Subic Bay and Clarke Air Force Base (closed in November 1991) were heavily damaged by the June 15, 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which was about eight times as forceful as that of Mount St. Helen in the U.S.  Volcanic ash covered the bases to a depth of one foot or more.

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Diary photos by the author.

Drawing interpreting the June 12, 1898 Philippine Independence Day from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Independence-day1.jpg as a file available from the Wikimedia Commons which allows its free use with attribution (provided here via the above link).

"Philo" is the Philomathean debating society (the other one at Phillips Andover in 1913 - 1914 being Forum).  My grandfather was Secretary of Philo in the Fall Term and Treasurer in the Winter Term.

"Boynton" is Nehemiah Boynton, Jr.  "Woodward" is John Blossom Woodward.  "Irving" is actually John Middleton Erving.  

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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