The Exeter Lyceum

by Barbara Rimkunas

This “Historically Speaking” column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, February 12.2016.

Buried on the last pages of the Exeter News-Letter in late January of 1834, was the following notice: “At the request of a number of Gentlemen of this town, notice is hereby given that a meeting will be held at the Court-House, on Thursday evening…for the purpose of organizing a Lyceum in this town.” It was buried so deeply that the editor felt impelled to add another notice to draw attention to the first notice, “We ask the attention of our readers in Exeter, to a notice in another column, on the subject of forming a Lyceum in this village.” What’s the big deal? And what was a ‘lyceum,’ anyway?

In the early part of the 19th century, New England village life was generally accepted to be sleepy. Or, to put it another way – dull. The years blended into one another with seasonal regularity. The only holidays were the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Exeter was a bit more exciting than most towns given that the county court met in town. The few diaries and memoirs from the period indicate that attending court sessions to hear the great lawyers of the day argue cases was great entertainment to many people. But on the whole, there wasn’t much to do.

In 1829, Josiah Holbrook of Millbury, Massachusetts, published a book called American Lyceum outlining a movement to create ‘Lyceum Associations’ throughout the country. Taking its name from the ancient Greek word for Aristotle’s public meeting place, the idea according to Holbrook was to, “improve each other in useful knowledge and to advance the interests of their schools.” Meetings were held weekly with speakers pulled from a variety of fields. Open to all ages, the topics were generally more appealing to adults. What child, after all, would want to sit through an hour-long discourse on “The Dominion of the Sea” by Stephen Phillips or “Phrenology” by Dr. William Perry? The announcement for Samuel Bell’s lecture, “England in the Eleventh Century,” carried with it the warning: “Boys under 15 years of age will not be admitted unless in company with their parents or guardians who will be responsible for their conduct.”

The Lyceum movement took off across the nation. Abraham Lincoln – an unregarded circuit court lawyer - spoke at the Springfield Young Men’s Lyceum in 1838 on the topic of “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.” It’s been estimated that by the mid-1830s there were more than 3,000 lyceum societies across the country, although most were in the northeast. Holbrook himself traveled from town to town speaking on the benefits of the movement. Aside from the obvious educational dividends, he also felt that the programs created a general improvement in conversation. “Subjects of science, or other topics of useful knowledge, take the place of frivolous conversation, or petty scandal, frequently indulged, and uniformly deplored, in our country village,” he wrote. One can only imagine Exeter’s townsfolk going about their business on a Thursday, the traditional market day, discussing “What is the true mission of woman; her place and part, her true sphere in life,” instead of the usual gossip.

I may joke, but the lyceum movement does appear to have challenged local discourse. A speaker at the Portsmouth Lyceum in 1834 speaking about the private character of George Washington “is said to have closed his discourse by asking if that great man should revisit the earth, to which of the political parties that divide the country would he attach himself?” The editor of the Exeter News-Letter pondered the question with a great deal of ink. “We think the gentleman who propounded it would agree with us, that it is much easier asking than answering it. The New Hampshire Gazette, however, has given it serious consideration, and has come to the conclusion that he would undoubtedly be found, cheek by jowl, with the Jefferson Democrats. The Portsmouth Journal has not decided the question; but, as it seldom agrees with the Gazette on anything disputable, it will probably frown indignantly on such a location of the General, and insist on enrolling him in the ranks of the National Republicans. The Editor of the Spirit of Inquiry would probably make him a seceding Mason. For our own part, although we have no disposition to get into a controversy upon the subject, we think the worthy General would stand aloof from all parties – think for himself – act like an honest man – and patronize the News-Letter!”

Lyceum societies flourished during the years leading up to and following the Civil War. Exeter’s lyceum waxed and waned over the course of its history. There’s no trace of it in the mid-1840s, but it surfaces again in the 1850s and was wildly popular in the 1870s when it combined lectures with musical programs. Speakers, who had come largely from the local population in the lyceum’s early days, were hired from a speaker’s bureau by the end of the century. Many famous social reformers began their movements by speaking on the lyceum lecture circuit. The 1874 Exeter Lyceum Bulletin lists Susan B. Anthony, who had just voted in a presidential election, as a potential speaker, “Guilty or Not?” P.T. Barnum gave lyceum talks on temperance. Horace Greeley came to Exeter in 1853 to speak on “the Life and Career of Henry Clay.” Popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher was a much sought after speaker – until a sex scandal cut his career short. The Exeter Lyceum Bulletin noted, “Henry Ward Beecher’s price for a lecture in Exeter is $350. Even at that price he would doubtless be a profitable investment for a Lyceum Course; but, on account of the pending law suits in the Brooklyn scandal affair, no positive engagement could be made with him after October.” Too bad, people would surely have flocked to hear the dear clergyman with a sordid past, not to mention it would keep a damper on local gossip.