The East Greenwich Academy (originally known as Kent Academy) was a private Methodist boarding school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA that was in existence from 1802 until 1943.
The school was founded in 1802 by eight prominent men from East Greenwich and Warwick, who served as stockholders of the school. The campus was built on five acres of farmland belonging to Ethan Clark, which overlooked Narragansett Bay. In 1841 the Providence Conference Seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church took over the school and by the mid-nineteenth century nearly three fourths of all Rhode Island teachers were alumni of the academy. After dwindling enrollment during the Great Depression and World War II, the academy closed in 1943. The town of East Greenwich purchased the buildings and used them as a school for several years until many of them were demolished in the 1960s. Around the same time, St. Luke's Episcopal Church purchased and demolished two of the other buildings. The headmaster's house with its ornate cupola still survives at 112 Peirce Street. [1] [2] [3] The school's gymnasium, Swift Gymnasium, also survives and is used for local events and is the site of the "Academy Players," a theater group named after the old academy. [4]
Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich was a prominent American politician and a leader of the Republican Party in the United States Senate, where he represented Rhode Island from 1881 to 1911. By the 1890s, he was one of the "Big Four" key Republicans who largely controlled the major decisions of the Senate, along with Orville H. Platt, William B. Allison, and John Coit Spooner. Because of his impact on national politics and central position on the pivotal Senate Finance Committee, he was referred to by the press and public alike as the "general manager of the Nation", dominating tariff and monetary policy in the first decade of the 20th century.
Mary Livermore was an American journalist, abolitionist, and advocate of women's rights. Her printed volumes included: Thirty Years Too Late, first published in 1847 as a prize temperance tale, and republished in 1878; Pen Pictures; or, Sketches from Domestic Life; What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and Other Lectures; and My Story of the War. A Woman's Narrative of Four Years' Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps and at the Front during the War of the Rebellion. For Women of the Day, she wrote the sketch of the sculptress, Miss Anne Whitney; and for the Centennial Celebration of the First Settlement of the Northwestern States, at Marietta, Ohio, July 15, 1788, she delivered the historical address.
James Mitchell Varnum was an American legislator, lawyer, general in the Continental Army, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country.
Kimball Union Academy is a private boarding school located in New Hampshire. Founded in 1813, it is the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States. The academy's mission is to "create a deep sense of belonging for every member of our community. Through intentionally designed experiences and challenges, our students develop the knowledge, voice, and character to live with purpose and integrity." It is located in the upper Connecticut River Valley village of Meriden, New Hampshire.
Orville Hitchcock Platt was a United States senator from Connecticut. Platt was a prominent conservative Republican and by the 1890s he became one of the "big four" key Republicans who largely controlled the major decisions of the Senate, along with William B. Allison of Iowa, John Coit Spooner of Wisconsin and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island.
Swan Point Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Established in 1846 on a 60-acre (0.24 km2) plot of land, it has approximately 40,000 interments.
Samuel Greene Arnold Jr. was an attorney and politician from Rhode Island. A Republican, he was most notable for his service as lieutenant governor and as a United States senator.
Nathan Fellows Dixon was a United States senator from Rhode Island. Born in Plainfield, Connecticut, he attended Plainfield Academy and graduated from the College of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at Providence in 1799. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1801 and commenced practice in New London County, Connecticut. He moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1802 and continued the practice of law, and also engaged in banking, serving as president of the Washington bank of Westerly from 1829 until his death.
Felix Hebert was a United States senator from Rhode Island. Born near St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, he came to the United States when his parents, Edouard and Catherine (Vandale) Hebert, returned in 1880 and resumed their residence in the town of Coventry, Rhode Island. He was the first person of French-Canadian ancestry to serve in the United States Senate.
Nathan Fellows Dixon III was a United States representative and Senator from Rhode Island.
John Allen was an eighteenth-century lawyer and politician. He served as a United States representative from Connecticut and as a member of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors.
Benjamin Tucker Eames was a U.S. Representative from Rhode Island.
Richard Steere Aldrich was an American politician. He was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and served in the Rhode Island State Senate and the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
William Daniel Brayton was a U.S. Representative from Rhode Island.
Albert Collins Greene was an American lawyer and politician from Rhode Island. He served as a United States senator and Attorney General of Rhode Island.
Susannah V. Aldrich was a 19th-century American author and hymnwriter from Massachusetts. She contributed prose and poetry to a number of papers and magazines. Aldrich died in 1905.
Emily Selinger was an American painter of still life and floral, author of travel writing and poetry, and an educator.
Marietta Bones was an American woman suffragist, social reformer, and philanthropist. In 1881 Bones was elected vice-president of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and annually re-elected for nine years. In 1890 suffragist Susan B. Anthony and supporters of the movement merged the National Women Suffrage Association into the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1882, Bones made her first appearance as a public speaker in Webster, soon to be Webster, South Dakota, where she later resided. She was an active temperance worker, and was secretary of the first Non-Partisan National Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1889. She took great interest in all reform and charitable institutions.
Marietta Stanley Case was a 19th-century American poet and temperance advocate. Her very best poems were entitled, "The Waning Century" and "Amorpatioe", the latter being written for the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), as well as "Amor Patriæ", written for her alma mater. She was one of the Connecticut women authors given creditable mention at the Cotton States and International Exposition.