#06 - Hijinks & a High School Romance
Gus Attends Hebron Academy
Cathy Jewitt, Author
John Meader, Photo & Content Editor
Hebron Academy in the spring of 2021, with Sturtevant Hall in the center and Sturtevant Residential Home on the left. Photo by John Meader.
Three friends. Marguerite Milliken, Irwin Libby, and Gus. Photos courtesy of Phillips family.
The sentiments scrawled on class photos haven’t changed much since Gus graduated from high school in 1919. His friend Irwin Libby wrote, “Here’s to Gus - the man that made the class of ‘19 famous. I am sure no one will forget the last English class we had.” Marguerite Milliken penned, “You sure can recite Aunt Shaw’s Pet Jug to perfection. My, but you’re a lady killer, Gus!”
The Hebron yearbook describes Gus as “our foremost Shakesperian interpreter.” His dramatic recitation of Holman Day’s poem which featured Uncle Elnathan Shaw drinking a jug of hard cider and falling down the cellar stairs undoubtedly was a memorable event. A few days later in a more formal setting Gus recited another Day poem at the Annual Prize Speaking Program; John W. Jones tells the story of “the homeliest man in town” who fearlessly cares for his neighbors during a smallpox epidemic. [^1]
Hebron Academy Class of 1919. Augustus Phillips is first on the left in the third row. Photo courtesy of Hebron Academy Archives.
History of Hebron Academy
by Harold E. Hall.
Photo by John Meader.
With high school matters of the heart and classroom hijinks in mind, we traveled to Hebron Academy to learn more about Gus’s alma mater. We met with David Stonebraker, retired historian and archivist, and Beverly Roy, Assistant Director of Development. They welcomed us to Sturtevant Hall and the Bell-Lipman Archives. We spent a delightful morning with them, hearing stories about Hebron’s past and perusing materials from the collections to help us better understand Gus’s high school years. Dave and Bev brought early 20th century Hebron Academy to life.
Cathy talks with Beverly Roy and David Stonebraker at Hebron Academy, May 2021. Photo by John Meader.
By the time Gus arrived at Hebron in 1916, the school had been welcoming students to its campus for over one hundred years, first opening its doors in 1805 and committed to teaching the liberal arts and sciences. Its iconic Sturtevant Hall was built in 1891. In 1967, Gus photographed this Romanesque and Colonial Revival brick building, almost 50 years after he graduated.
Gus’s postcard #150 of Sturtevant Hall, 1966. Courtesy of Penobscot Marine Museum.
Top: Sturtevant Home.
Bottom: Atwood Hall. [^3]
In Gus’s day most of the female students lived upstairs in the old Sturtevant Home on the hill, and males were housed in Atwood Hall on the east side of campus. The communal dining room was downstairs in Sturtevant Home. “The dining room proved a pleasant feature of school life, providing an opportunity for all students to break bread together, and becoming in effect a new department introduced into the School,” writes Harold Hall in History of Hebron Academy. [^2] Boys arrived and departed at mealtime from an outside door that led directly into the dining room. Students socialized after dinner at the small stone bridge down the hill from Sturtevant Hall; everyone knew what “meeting for bridgework” meant.
The Dining Room at Sturtevant Home, circa 1919.
Photo courtesy of Hebron Academy Archives.
The stone bridge with Sturtevant Hall in the background. The girls dorm, Sturtevant Home, was just out of view on the left side. The boys dorm, Atwood Hall, was just out of sight on the right. The bridge was the perfect spot to meet and socialize. [^4]
Marguerite referred to the adolescent Gus as a lady killer. As members of Bellevue, the boys social club, Gus and his peers attended dances and chaperoned outings with young women from Alpha, the girls social club. Not all interactions were structured, and bridgework was an opportunity for some unsupervised socializing. An anonymous poem titled Ode to Hebron Fussers - no author revealed - is included in the 1919 yearbook:
ODE TO HEBRON FUSSERS
Oh, Hebron Fussers gone stark mad,
It seems to me ‘tis quite the fad
To fall in love with any lass,
Or golden image made of grass.
The fattest grab the leanest there,
‘Tis true, by every star I swear.
A mushy glance, a throbbing heart,
Two hands are seen not far apart;
She hands advance another glance,
And sparkling eyes begin to dance;
A praise or two and all is thru
For Prof. has taken me from you. [^5]
On everyone’s minds as much as the hijinks and romance was The Great War. Just as the boys at the fictional Devon School (modeled after Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH) in John Knowles’s A Separate Peace are impacted by World War II, students at Hebron were well aware of World War I and its ramifications. [^6] A Hebron Academy graduate from the class of 1914 had been the first Maine casualty of World War I in the First Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Faculty members resigned to join the war, and students left to enlist. [^7]
First Battle of Cambrai, France, World War I. [^8]
Letters from Gus to his parents during these years relay both everyday and war-related events. In April 1917, he wrote:
“I have had to get a pair of baseball shoes since I came here, so I am short of money. I think that if you give me five dollars that will last me quite a while. . . We are having the military drill as usual. Some of the boys have joined the naval reserve and they have got to go within a week . . . We had a fire today while French class was reciting. We saw smoke [in] back of a building out across the campus as we happened to look out a window. Every last one of us ran down there. It was a grass fire and had we not been there the fire under the furious wind might have spread it to an uncontrollable degree. We at last put it out with bags, brooms, and fire extinguishers and returned to classes.”[^9]
USS Eagle (1898-1920) underway in 1898.
Luther Phillips sailed on her in 1918. [^10]
Gus also kept up with news of his older brother Luther, who had graduated from MIT and enlisted as a Navy Coxswain. In 1918, Luther was commissioned as an ensign, sent to the US Naval Academy, then assigned to the U.S.S. Eagle for duty off Cuba and the Florida straits as a gunnery officer. Gus came close to enlisting as well, but Headmaster William Sargent convinced him to continue his studies. [^11]
Acadia’s stone bridges are found along the miles of carriage roads, today set aside for walkers, bicyclists, and horses. Photos by John Meader.
Just as Gus’s life at Hebron was composed of both ordinary and profound events, he discovered a number of significant changes were happening back home on Mount Desert Island. Several seasonal residents were undertaking major projects. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was overseeing the construction of a network of carriage roads and stone bridges. George Dorr was establishing Lafayette National Park (renamed Acadia in 1929). And Joseph Curtis was working with Gus’s cousin Charles Savage on plans to preserve Thuya Lodge and the Asticou Terraces, just down the road from the Phillips house. Forty three years later, Gus would carve 48 cedar panels for the entrance gates to the new Thuya Garden, which Savage had designed and created for visitors to enjoy when they walked up the Terraces to visit Thuya Lodge. [^12]
Thuya Garden gates, carved by Gus in 1962. Photos by Cathy Jewitt in 2017.
Ordinary life also continued for Gus. During the summer months he worked for his father, who had a truck garden and produce business; it was Gus’s job to deliver vegetables and milk to local customers.
Little did the lady-killer know that his life would change forever one summer before he returned to Hebron. One of Gus’s favorite deliveries was to their neighbor Carrol Sargent Tyson, Jr.. Gus, a budding artist, was drawn to Tyson, an accomplished artist and ornithologist from Philadelphia. Tyson painted both plein-air impressionistic landscapes and detailed, realistic portraits of Mount Desert Island birds. [^13] By the summer of 1917, Tyson and his wife were in need of a governess who could live and travel with them and care for their two young children.
Mary Craig, circa 1918. Photo courtesy of the Phillips family.
While delivering an order to the Tyson family, Gus was greeted at the servants’ entrance by their new hire, Mary Craig. And just like that the customary stops at the house on Peabody Drive became opportunities to linger and chat. By the time Gus headed back to Hebron at the end of the summer, Mary had promised to keep in touch.
With the change of seasons, the Tysons left their summer home in Northeast Harbor. As Mary travelled with the Tysons, she wrote postcards to Gus. In turn, Mary received postcards from Gus that highlighted his Hebron activities. A typical card from Gus to Mary mentions the fun he had at the Hebron seniors banquet, held at the Poland Spring House. As their relationship deepened, the correspondence grew into lengthy letters.
Gus sent this postcard to Mary after an event at the Poland Spring House in January 1919. Courtesy of the Phillips family.
After a guided trip with Gus and his father in the Maine North Woods, the sports pose after a successful hunt. Photo courtesy of the Phillips family.
Correspondence continued after Gus graduated. The 1919 Hebron Academy yearbook describes Gus’s accomplishments and further states, “We all wish “Gus” the greatest of success at Colby.” [^14] However, Gus did not matriculate at Colby College the following fall. At the end of October he mailed Mary a letter which described his experiences on a scouting/hunting trip with a friend in the North Woods. In November he purchased land and a homestead—23 acres in Greenfield, Maine, near his father’s sporting camp. His dad was a Registered Maine Guide, and Gus worked with him taking “sports” on hunting and fishing trips. Gus’s values required him to establish a home and have steady employment before he felt qualified to ask for Mary’s hand. On April 26, 1922, Gus and Mary were married in Pennsylvania. After a brief honeymoon, they settled in Greenfield to begin their new life together. [^15]
Gus’s giant 6”X9” aerial postcard #475 of Hebron Academy in fall, 1966. Collection of the author.
More than forty years after graduating from Hebron, Gus returned to his alma mater with a camera and took photos to turn into postcards. In 1966, he recorded an order from Hebron Academy for 6,000 mixed postcards of the school and its grounds with a down payment, “the remainder to be paid upon delivery in spring.” In 1968, he recorded another order from the school: 6,000 giant aerial postcards of the campus in fall. The giant aerial was so popular that the following year he added a summer aerial to the Hebron selection. [^16]
Gus’s “giant” aerial postcard #280J of Hebron Academy in the summertime, 1967. Collection of the author.
Gus’s postcard #151 of the Hebron Community Baptist Church, adjacent to the academy, in 1966 (left) and John’s view in 2021 (right).
The local Baptist Church played an important role in the founding of Hebron Academy in 1804. Postcard courtesy of Penobscot Marine Museum.
What went through Gus’s mind as he flew over his alma mater in the 1960s? How much did his high school experiences and the expectation that he would live up to the school motto to trust, honor, respect inform his actions as an adult? His recitation of Holman Day’s poem Aunt Shaw’s Pet Jug and his love for Shakespeare nourished his penchant for storytelling. The respect afforded him as “a teller of tales” led to folklorist Richard Lunt’s including Gus in his book Jones Tracy: Tall-Tale Teller from Mount Desert Island, where Gus shares his version of several Jones Tracy tales. [^17]
As John and I explored the Hebron campus in 2021, we talked about Gus's arrival at Hebron in 1916. We discussed what we had learned from Bev and Dave about what high school was like over 100 years ago. This led to the four of us sharing a few of our own stories and remembering our own moments of excitement, angst, fear, tears, humiliation, and success. In turn, we felt a connection to the adolescent Gus, navigating his high school years.
Photography by John Meader. Historic photos and documents courtesy of Hebron Academy Archives.
Special Thanks:
The Penobscot Marine Museum and Photo Archivist Kevin Johnson for preserving The Phillips Collection and continued support, Assistant Director of Development Beverly Roy and retired Hebron Archivist David Stonebraker at Hebron Academy for generously sharing stories, history, and artifacts from the HA Archives, Mary Jane Phillips Smith for sharing family history and continued support, Rhumb Line Maps for technical support and hosting, and John Meader Photography for photo editing.
Partners for the Postcards from Gus blog:
Sources, further reading:
1. Holman Day’s poems:
“Aunt Shaw’s Pet Jug” from Holman Day’s book Up in Maine (Boston, Massachusetts: Small, Maynard & Company, 1900), accessed July 19, 2021. Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55341/55341-h/55341-h.htm#link2H_4_0003.
“John W. Jones” from Holman Day’s book Pine Tree Ballads (Boston, Massachusetts: Small, Maynard & Company, 1902), accessed September 10, 2021. Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55342/55342-h/55342-h.htm#link2H_4_0005.
2. History of Hebron Academy:
Harold E. Hall, History of Hebron Academy 1804-1972 (Published by the Trustees of Hebron Academy, 1979).
3. Sturtevant Home and Atwood Hall:
Sturtevant Home: Hebron, Maine, Sturtevant Home, Hebron Academy. Postcard by The Hugh C. Leighton Co., Manufacturers, Portland, ME,
U.S.A. Printed in Frankfort 0/Main, Germany No5781.
Atwood Hall: Photograph by John Meader, May, 2021.
4. Student dining room in Sturtevant Home:
Harold E. Hall, History of Hebron Academy 1804-1972 ( Published by the Trustees of Hebron Academy, 1979), p.104.
5. “Fussers” poem:
“Ode to Hebron Fussers” from The Hebron Semester (Commencement Number, June 1919), p. 22.
6. A Separate Peace:
Cover image of A Separate Peace from December 1984 Random House Publishing Group Mass Market paperback.
7. Harold T. Andrews and the Battle of Cambrai:
Leslie H. Dixon, “Harold T. Andrews, of Hebron Academy, first Maine casualty in WWI, Sun Journal, May 25, 2017, https://www.sunjournal.com/2017/05/25/harold-t-andrews-hebron-academy-first-maine-casualty-wwi/.
8. “First Battle of Cambrai, France, World War I,” photograph Q6291, John Warwick Brooke, collections of the Imperial War Museums, accessed
August 12, 2021.
9.Life at Hebron in 1917:
Personal letter: Augustus Phillips to Fred I. and Cora Justina Phillips, April 2017, collection of the author.
10. USS Eagle, from “War in Cuba,” 1898. Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1977, Naval History and Heritage Command, accessed August 30, 2021.
11. Luther, Gus and enlistment:
Phillips family papers: Biographical information pertaining to Luther S. Phillips.
Personal Letters: Headmaster William E. Sargent to Augustus Phillips, collection of the author.
12. Early 20th century events on Mount Desert Island, Maine:
Constructing carriage roads and stone bridges on Mount Desert Island:
Ann Rockefeller Roberts, Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads: The Untold Story of Acadia’s Carriage Roads (Camden, Maine: Down East Books, 2nd edition, 2012).
Establishing Lafayette National Park (Acadia):
Ronald H. Epp, Creating Acadia National Park: The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr (Friends of Acadia, 1st edition, 2016).
Joseph Curtis, Thuya Lodge and Garden, Asticou Terraces:
Letitia S. Baldwin, Two Island Gardens: Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden, Asticou Terraces & Thuya Lodge (Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve, 2008).
Cultural and historical background:
Sargent F. Collier, Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park - An informal History (Camden, Maine: Down East Books, 1978).
13. Carroll Sargent Tyson, Jr. life and art:
Arader Galleries: Lithographs from The Birds of Mount Desert Island (Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, etc.) and biographical information: https://aradergalleries.com/collections/carroll-sargent-tyson1877-1956.
Woodmere Art Museum: Oil painting of The Mouth of Somes Sound and biographical information: https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/the-mouth-of-somes-sound.
Prescott Schutz, Carroll S. Tyson 1878-1956 A Retrospective Exhibition (New York: Herschel & Adler, 1974).
14. The Hebron Semester, p. 9.
15. Phillips family narrative timeline, collection of the author.
16. Augustus Phillips, handwritten entries in sales notebooks, collection of the author.
17. C. Richard K. Lunt, Jones Tracy: Tall-Tale Hero from Mount Desert Island *(Northeast Folklore Society, 1st edition, 1968).
*Note: The cover title differs from the interior title page. The cover reads Jones Tracy: Tall Tale Teller From Mount Desert Island.
