Cheshire Academy - Rolling Stone Yearbook (Cheshire, CT)

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History of Cheshire Academy For over a hundred and fifty years the educational institution at Cheshire has maintained an honorable record and has rendered valuable service to the cause of education. Throughout the nineteenth century and now during the second half of the twentieth, its roll of graduates includes names famous in history, politics, education, finance, and society. It has drawn students from many foreign countries: Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama, and from the continent of Europe, students from Holland, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Latvia, Spain and France. There have also been students from England and China. One might say that the Cheshire Academy, in one of its several forms since 1796, is known all over the civilized world. The foundation of Cheshire Academy as an educational institution was determined in 1792 by the first Episcopal Bishop in America, Samuel Seabury. It was not, however, until April 28, 1796, that the cornerstone of the Academy was laid and the school officially opened by the Reverend Tillotson Bronson. Doctor john Bowden was chosen Principal at the annual Convention at Cheshire, in june, 1796, when a constitution was drawn up and a board of twenty-one Trustees was elected. The first building, Bowden Hall, was completed in the autumn of 1796 by the people of Cheshire. Scarcity of funds necessitated the granting by the State Legislature of a lottery to raise the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. Col- lege degrees, however, were not permitted by the Legislature. The Reverend William Smith succeeded Doctor Bowden in 1802, and three years later the Academy was incorporated by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut. During the following years the Academy went through several changes of prosperity and adversity. Then in 1862 under the leadership of Doctor Sanford Horton, the Academy was established as a flourishing military school which attracted students from far and near. These were the days of the Civil War and three famous members of the Alumni were Admiral Foote, General Wheeler, and Secretary Welles. The thoughts of students naturally gravitated towards army life, just as they did during the past years when the present Academy included a junior R.O.T.C., Military Science and Aviation Science among the courses offered. The last Principal of the Episcopal Academy, upon the retirement of Doctor Horton in 1892, was Eli D. Woodbury who served the School unspar- ingly for seven years. At the end of this period the Trustees of the Diocese of Connecticut leased the school for ninety-nine years to the Trustees of the Cheshire School, Inc. The buildings were entirely renovated and the school placed on a thoroughly modern basis. In 1917 the Academy, under the name of Roxbury School, was under the Headmastership of Mr. Walter Ferris, the father of Stuart Ferris who is now a member of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Arthur N. Sheriff, the present Headmaster, took office in 1922 and it was during his regime in 1937 that a Charter was granted by a Special Assembly in Hartford, and the school was named Cheshire Academy. Mr. Sheriff by preserving the best of the traditions of the past and including many modem features has made Cheshire Academy one of the most outstanding institutions of learning in the country. 4

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