The  charter  was  approved  July  11.  The  securing  of  the
act  of  incorporation  was  attended  with  some  difficulty.  The
subject  of  a  charter  first  came  before  the  New  Hampshire
legislative  committee  on   incorporations,  which  body,  not


CONTOOCOOK   ACADEMY.  205

comprehending  the  significance  of  the  name  "  New  Church,"
were  disposed  to  treat  the  matter  with  supreme  indifference.
Isaac  D.  Merrill,  however,  was  a  representative  for  this
town,  and  a  member  of  the  committee  on  education.
Through  his  influence  and  official  position,  the  charter  be-
came a  fact.  Although  the  work  of  building  was  not  com-
pleted, yet,  upon  the  act  of  legal  incorporation,  a  meeting
was  held  in  "  Academy  Hall,"  among  the  lumber  and  shav-
ings, and  the  organization  effected  as  follows  :

Abiel  Silver,  president ;  John  Burnham,  vice-president;
William  Howe,  N.  A.  Davis,  Horace  C.  Stanley,  Ebenezer
Morrill,  Paul  R.  George,  Samuel  L.  F.  Simpson,  Hamilton
E.  Perkins,  and  Joseph  Dow,  directors ;  Abiel  Silver,  John
Burnham,  Isaac  D.  Merrill,  and  Alonzo  Currier,  executive
committee ;  Abiel  Silver,  Rev.  William  B.  Hayden,  and
Asa  Kimball,  property  board  of  trustees.  On  the  :24th  of
August,  George  L.  Kimball,  Isaac  D.  Merrill,  and  Samuel
L.  F.  Simpson  were  chosen  a  committee  to  arrange  for  a
term  of  school.
The  first  term  of  Contoocook  academy  began  in  the
autumn  of  the  same  year,  with  about  eighty  pupils.  Am-
brose Wayland  Clark,  of  Dartmouth  college,  was  principal.
He  remained  but  a  short  time,  owing  to  a  more  advan-
tageous opportunity  for  employment.  In  1858,  Rev.  George
H.  Marston,  of  Limington,  Me.,  came  to  Contoocook  to  be-
come the  successor  of  the  Rev.  Abiel  Silver  as  minister  of
the  New  Church,  and  also  to  take  charge  of  the  academy.
