Lyceum Phoenix of Friends School - Phoenix Echo Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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The will of Obadiah Brown was made in 1814, at the same time that his father offered to donate the land to the School. The will was also in the handwriting of Moses Brown. The significant thing about it is, that the father and son were so united in this noble undertaking that their names were inseparable in the history of the Institution. No Friends School student can fail to remember with increasing satisfaction and pride that this largest donation to any school in this country at that time, by i55o,ooo, was the product in whole or in part of the first manufacture of pure cotton cloth in this nation. That his school came forth as a direct result from the infant manu- factures of the country, which industry has contributed more to the prosperity of New England than anything else in her annals. Here, then, the School and the textile arts have developed together, set in motion, both of them, by the same noble, humane, and patriotic citizens, and we can well assume that they have, from their feeble beginning, been mutual aids and supports to each other. A Committee was appointed, Sixth Mo., 11th, 1814, to consider of the proposed donation ofiland by Moses Brown, which Com- mittee reported to the Meeting of Sufferings two days later, as follows: The Committee appointed in the case of the dona- tion to the Yearly Meeting School, proposed by our Friend Moses Brown, at the last Meeting, have attended to their appointment, and have viewed the Lot of land proposed to be given, for that purpose, and are of opinion that it affords a pleasant and healthful site to erect such a building upon, that it contains about six or seven acres of pretty valuable wood, beside what the Donor pro- poses to take off, for his own use in a convenient time, for the building if carried into effect, that it is situated about three- fourths of a mile from the compact part of the town of Providence and Friends Meeting House there, and about the same distance from the college, the lot contains a quantity of stone suitable for a part of a building, and in addition to the proposed donation of land, the owner has offered access to his farm adjoining for what stone may be further required. Signed in behalf of the Committee by Samuel Rodmanf' This report was accepted.-XII. for Szj Ref., Vol. ff,f. 169. , The Yearly Meeting on the 14th inst. approved of their action, and in its desire to stimulate interest in the cause, after relating that

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the subscriptions thus far only furnish an inadequate sum of 39,000 to erect buildings with, it breaks out in the following words: We tenderly exhort Friends to be liberal, in their subscriptions, accord- ing to the means afforded to them, remembering that we are only stewards of the goods we possess, that we hold them by a very un- certain tenure, and that a righteous and benevolent disposition of a part of them may call down a blessing upon the remainder.- Y. M. Rec., Vol. ff,j1. 372. The Meetings for Sufferings in the First Mo., 1816, decide to con- struct one building, to contain one hundred students, with one roof to cover both sexes, instead of two buildings, one for each sex, as had been thought expedient at one time. The meeting is informed, Fifth Mo., 1 816, that the location is determined and that the digging for the foundation has begun. The form described is that of the pres- ent central building, with wings forty-two feet long. The Yearly Meeting is informed in 1817 QRM., Vol. ff,p. 3135 that the out- side of the building is nearly completed, but that it will require 87,000 more than they now have to finish and furnish it, they had expended about 518,000 already. The meeting again appealed to Friends to support the enterprise vigorously. This was not in vain, the money was furnished, and in the Sixth Mo., 1818, the Yearly Meeting appointed a School Committee whose distinguished successors continue to this present day. This Committee was, we are pleased to note, composed both of women and of nien.-Rec., Vol. ff,p. 327. p Not vainly the gift of its founder was made: Not prayerless the stones of its corner were laidg The blessing of him whom in secret they sought Has owned the good work which the fathers have wrought. The year which witnessed the opening of the School where it now stands, First Mo., 1st, 1819, was distinguished by important events. The fearful riot at Manchester, England, originating in a denial of representation in Parliament, the same cause which drove our fathers into rebellion, which was the starting point of modern re- form agitation in England, of which Manchester was ever after the storm centre. The Carlsbad Resolutions 5 a reaction against liberal opinions 5 destroying the freedom of the press in the German Confederation, 4