Merit Scholar List

150th Anniversary
Honor List of the George Peabody Merit Medal Scholars
Courtesy of the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody

1855
from School Committee Report on Peabody Prizes - "...determined that a suitable medal shall be awarded and presented to every pupil who shall pass three years, - constituting the entire course, - in either of these schools (Peabody and Holten), and whose attendance, deportment, and advancement shall have been uniformly satisfactory to the teachers and committee. The die, from which the medals are to be struck, will soon be completed, and the following individuals, who have accomplished the amount required, will be entitled to a "Peabody Medal," and will receive the same at an early day. It is hoped that each and all, thus favored, will feel a strong and sincere determination to have their subsequent deportment and standing in life such as will do them credit, and thus honor the Peabody Medal and the generous friend to whose liberality and thoughtfulness they are indebted for this act of encouragement. By habits of industry and perseverance, by acts of kindness, by manly and upright deportment, and by fidelity in all of life's relations and duties, they will best their appreciation of the gift and the giver. "
Helene Aborn | Mary B. Harrington | Mary P. Burding | Mary J. Floyd |
Mary J. Lowe | Mehitable C. Proctor | Elizabeth D. Crane |
Elizabeth Tilton | Elizabeth Southwick | Elizabeth L. Evans |
Emily H. Poole | Emily A. Lambert | Sarah A. E. Proctor |
George A. Osborne | George S. Osborne | Thomas Carroll |
Samuel Brown

Second Peabody High School on the second floor of the Town Hall on
Stevens Street in South Danvers. Courtesy of the Peabody Historical Society.
"The first principal of the second Peabody High School was J. W. Colcord. This school
took over the whole building when the new town hall was built in 1882. Some years later
the building was enlarged. It served as the high school until 1903."
- John Wells, The Peabody Story

1856
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "During the year, the Peabody Medal has been completed, and awarded according to the plan adopted the previous year. The Medal has been awarded to eighteen scholars, all of whom had satisfactorily passed a three years' course of the school. During the year, a new regulation has been made, which
we hope will tend to increase the interest of scholars, and set as a healthy stimulus. The teachers are required to keep a true and accurate record of the scholarship and deportment of each scholar, and at the close of the year print it in schedule form, and distribute copies of it among parents and visitors. We are glad to see that the interest in this school has not abated; and we hope that the expectations of its friends will be fully answered. The following graduates have received the Peabody Medal."
John W. Sawyer | Charles Learoyd | J. H. Parker | Clarence Fowler |
S. P. Fowler | A. L. Putnam | Moses N. Hunt | James B. Putnam |
Harriet W. Preston | Ellen M. Bates | Madaline L. Black | Susan F. Perley | Elizabeth P. Swan | Emily G. Berry | Harriet G. Bradstreet |
Mary F. Putnam | Mary A. Black | Luella S. Silvester

1857
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "At the close of school upon Examinations-Day a number of books - purchased with proceeds from Mr. Peabody's donation - were distributed among certain scholars, the apportionment being made in accordance with a schedule of scholarship and deportment furnished by the teachers, and the length of time which the scholars had respectively been connected with the school. The Peabody Medal was conferred upon the following scholars, graduates of this year:"
Catharine Flint | Sarah J. Smith | John H. Manning |
Alfred S. Osborne | Levi Preston

1858
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "The exercises of the graduating class were, in the highest degree, creditable. Composition has received much attention, and the exercises in this department were of a high order. The valedictory was an excellent production, evincing good habits of thought and conciseness of style. This whole number received the Peabody Medal and valuable prizes."
Hannah C. Nutter -1st Prize | Mary Abby Teel | Sarah A. Morrison |
Abbie E. Simonds | I. F. Poor | Ellen A. Perkins | Mary P. Proctor |
Maria A. Perry | E. H. Pemberton | E. Jacobs | Annie H. Lord |
M. E. Davis | Annie Smith | Lizzie M. Poor |

1859
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "Last year the usual distribution of books to deserving scholars was made at the close of the school upon examination. The Peabody Medal was conferred upon the following pupils, graduates of this year:"
Sarah F. Daniels | Mary L. Merrill | L. M. Phillips | Carrie Spencer |
Augusta C. Lord | S. J. C. Needham | Sarah S. Skinner | Helen S. Shedd |
Ellen Torr

1860
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "At the close of the exercises, a presentation of books was made in accordance with Mr. Peabody's donation, "as rewards of merit to the pupils at their yearly examination." These gifts were of nearly equal value, thus obviating. in a good measure, the grave moral objections, which, in the opinion of many, lie against the system of the graduating class, twenty one in number. This is the largest class which has yet left the school."
Abbie H. Allen | William Brown | Eliza A. Folsom | C. A. Goldthwait |
Hattie Hardy | Addie Little | Mary E. Lord | Ellen D. Newhall |
George F. Osgood | Mary J. Peaslee | Sarah E. Perkins |
Abbie Phelps | Lucinda Poor | Eliza F. Price | Augusta Proctor |
Sarah E. Perry | Edward W. Proctor | Mary B. Rood | Edward B. Trask |
Jane Tufts | Ada F. Woodbury
from South Danvers Wizard, 3/21/1860 - Piano for the high school donated by George Peabody with $250 from his Boston bankers.

1861
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School - "...In the distribution of the Peabody Prizes, at the examination, reference was had to both Scholarship and Good Deportment. According to an announcement made early in the year, special prizes were given for excellence in Deportment. It is thus within the power of all to participate in their distribution. The Graduating Class present an unusually small list of names. But - the previous class having been much larger - as are also the two classes which remain
- it is presumed that this is due to causes which are accidental, and not of a permanent nature."
Susan S. Baker | Sarah E. Elliot | Susan W. Jacobs | Ellen Pierce |
Isabel A. Upton | Caroline Wilson | Andrew W. D. Murray

from School Committee Report: Peabody High School: "The Peabody Medals and Prizes
were bestowed on the under-named graduates, at the annual examination:"
Mary E. Archer | Georgiana Beckett | Lucy E. Brown | Sarah P. Buxton |
Marietta Galeucia | Susie L. Grey | Maria Howard | Arabella G. Hodgkins |
M. Anna Kimball | Ella Marshall | Lizzie Newhall | Mary E. Osborne |
Eliza N. Winchester | George M. Foster | J. Henry Frye | Sumner E. Glines |
Jeremiah Mahoney | Hazen Osborne | Frank Upton | Frank M. Wilkins

1867
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School: "Peabody Medals,
showing no difference in rank and books of various value, according to scholarship
and deportment, were distributed to the following graduates, a medal being also awarded to
Theodore M. Osborne, who, though prevented by ill health from graduating with the class
of 1866, had completed the required course:
John W. Berry | Otho Galeucia | Charles H. Haskell | Frank D. Hutchinson |
Lucy A. Emerson | Eliza S. Little | Lizzie Meeder | Abbie F. Pierce |
Susan M. Shove | Ella M. Winchester | Ellen E. Wheeler |
Theodore M. Osborne

"It is especially fitting, my friends, that the work of education should be
zealously carried on in this ancient town and county, that we do no discredit
to the ancestors who inaugurated that work. The first land holder of Danvers
- John Endicott - was the first to suggest the system of free common schools,
to which Massachusetts owes so much, and which, from the little germ planted
in this very town two hundred and fifty years ago, have grown up to bear fruit
not alone for this locality and State, but it has spread its branches more and
more widely, and is shedding its blessing on every portion of our great country..."
- George Peabody at Danvers, Danvers Monitor Extra, April 17 1867

1868
from School Committee Report: Peabody High School: "An increasing interest attends
the graduating exercises in the Peabody Institute. The best close to the labors of the annual examinations, seems to be that happy afternoon, when parents and teachers see the latest results of their fare in the matured efforts of our scholars. The Trustees of the Institute have the Committee's thanks for so readily co-operating with them, in giving the Institute for the occasion. There is an appropriateness, too, in distributing the Peabody silver, under a Peabody roof, and as it were, in the donor's bodily presence. Additional interest attended the recent distribution of medals from the fact that the first impressions from the new dies were used. The old dies having become injured, it was found necessary to procure a new form. We are happy to report that the new medal bears a favorable comparison with the old.
The following are the names of those receiving the Peabody Medal:
John O. Buxton | Marion A. Clark | Orlando A. Foster |
Martha A. Peabody | Nellie E. Potter | Arabella M. Sargent

1869
"Only $2400 Amount Appropriated for the Peabody High School in 1869"
by John O. Buxton, Salem Evening News 1933
from School Committee Report, Peabody High School: "Mr. George Peabody has now furnished us with a permanent fund from the income of which silver medals of equal value are presented to all members of the graduating class without distinction. Beside these medals, books of considerable value were also presented to the graduates at the late exhibition, By vote of the Committee this was also done without distinction of rank, except
that the most costly book was considered a first prize. This was won by Miss Sarah A. Swett, after being closely contested by two or three others. Miss Maria L. Sanger,
of District No. 2, received a prize for the best examination on admission to the High School. Miss Lizzie M. Wilson. of District No.3, received a prize for being the best fitted
scholar in a class having the best average upon examination for admission to the High School. The following are the names of the Graduating Class of 1869:
Georgiana Beede | John Bresnahan | Caroline R. Brown |
William A. Crowdry | Willis E. Flint | Edwin O. Hyde | George E. Hills | George W. Knight | Georgiana Newhall | Caroline G. Osborne |
Harriet A. Poor | Emily L. Spiller | Frank W. Stanley | Sarah A. Swett |
Abby F. Wilson | Warren Wilson