Harlan Page Amen Biography from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Surname: AMEN Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1915 Page 739 HARLAN PAGE AMEN, A.M., Litt.D., for eighteen years principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, whose sudden death on Sunday, November 9, 1913, deprived Exeter of one of its foremost citizens, was born at Sinking Spring, Ohio, April 14, 1853, the son of Daniel and Sarah J. (Barber) Amen. The Amen family is of Huguenot origin. Branches use the form Ammen and the late Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen was a kinsman of Dr. Amen. After attending the common schools in his birthplace, Mr. Amen was for two years a pupil at the High school in Portsmouth, Ohio, when he was obliged to seek employment. This he found in a congenial post, a clerkship in a Portsmouth bookstore. Meanwhile, encouraged by his former teacher and friends, he devoted all available time to reading and study. In the fall of 1872 he came East and was by the late Dr . Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, of Boston, to whom he brought letters of intro- duction, induced to enter Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he was graduated in 1875. Despite the fact that he was compelled to support himself, Mr. Amen maintained a high rank in scholarship throughout his course. He also found time heartily to enter into other phases of school life, religious, social and athletic. In strength and agility few were his equals and he was a member of a school crew. From the Acad- emy he went to Harvard, where he was graduated in 1879, likewise with high rank. Throughout his course at the Academy and at Harvard his roommate was William DeW. Hyde, now president of Bowdoin Col- lege and a trustee of the Academy. Choosing teaching as his profession-in which at least two class- mates, Dr. Hyde at Bowdoin and Prof. William B. Hill at Vassar, have achieved distinction, Dr. Amen was in 1879-82 instructor in classics, mathematics and English at Riverview Academy, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In 1882-95 he was its instructor in Latin and Greek and also joint prin- cipal. In the latter post he revealed an administrative ability that brought steadily increasing prosperity to Riverview and led to his election in June, 1895, as the seventh principal of Phillips Exeter Academy. For two years he was also professor of Latin. He had since given sole atten- tion to administrative work. Page 740 Under his wise and far-seeing administration the ancient school has wonderfully prospered. The number of students has increased from 191 to 570, of teachers from 10 to 32. The curriculum has been enriched. The helpful system of advisers has been instituted, as has preceptorial instruction for boys in need of this help, and other salutary changes have been quietly effected. Finely appointed dormitories, Alumni hall, the Merrill buildings, the Davis library, the Plimpton fields and other valu- able additions have been made to the physical equipment of the school. A crowning achievement was the raising of the urgently needed teach- ers' endowment fund of $350,000. In the discharge of this difficult task Dr. Amen visited every section of the land, devoting practically an en- tire school year to the work. He literally gave himself to the school, never sparing himself in discharge of the manifold duties and responsi- bilities of his principalship. Phillips Exeter has been signally fortunate in the succession of great teachers who have devotedly served her, but to none does she owe more than to Harlan Page Amen. The great school of to-day is his best memorial. The numerous messages of regret, sympathy and condolence re- ceived after death feelingly tcstified to the esteem in which he was held by leaders in educational work and to the strength of his hold on the affection of former pupils and the alumni in general. In his premature death the Academy sustained a loss, the magnitude of which can hardly be realized. Williams College in 1886 conferred upon Mr. Amen its honorary A.M. ; Dartmouth, its Litt.D. in 1911. At the last commencement pre- vious to his death he was elected an overseer of Harvard College. He was a member of many scholarly societies, among them the Archeologi- cal Institute of America, the American Philological and the American Historical associations and the New Hampshire Historical society. He was an honorary member of the American Whig society of Princeton University. He was a member of the New England association of Col- leges and Preparatory Schools, of which he was president in 1909-11; the Head Masters' association, which he served as preident in 1910; the Harvard Teachers' association, of which he was president in 1900 ; the New Hampshire association of Academy Teachers, its president in 1900, and the Massachusetts School Masters' club, of which he was vice- president in 1910-11. He had been president of the Harvard club of New Hampshire. He was a member of the New Hampshire committee on the selection of Rhodes scholars at Oxford from this state. He also held membership in the Twentieth Century club of Boston and the University club of New York. As a citizen of Exeter Dr. Amen was thoroughly loyal to the old town and intereted in all pertaining to its welfare. His life touched the community at many points. The Cottage hospital was dear to him. He contributed $1,000 to its building fund, had given other proofs of interest and had long served the hospital as a trustee. He was a zealous mem- ber of Phillips church and one of its deacons. He had served the New parish as assessor and otherwise. He was chairman of the trustees of the Merrill Institute and of judges at the High School and Seminary Merrill prize contests. He was a director of the Exeter Banking Com.- pany and of the Exeter and Hampton Electric company and a former di- rector of the Exeter, Hampton and Amesbury Street Railway company. Page 741 He was a trustee of the Joseph C. Hilliard estate, from which the Acad- emy will eventually receive $200,000 or more. So far as other cares per- mitted Dr. Amen was zealous in the discbarge of duties pertaining to these varied posts. He was an associate of Cincinnati Memorial hall and a member of the Renaissance and the Musical clubs. He was a Mason of Knight Templar rank, a member of Star in the East lodge and his other affiliations in Poughkeepsie. In political faith Dr. Amen was a staunch Republican. He attended the last Republican national convention as an alternate delegate-at-large from New Hampshire. As previously stated, Dr. Amen had traveled widely in this country. He had also visited Mexico and had made several trips to Europe. When circumstances permitted, he was wont to spend the summer vacation at Mt. Desert, Me., where at Hancock Point he owned a tract on which he planned to build, at Lake Sunapee or among the White Mountains. Their charms were fully known to him and had a strong hold upon him. He was naturally a member of the Appalachian club. Appreciative of the best in literature, Dr. Amen was a lover of books and collected a large library, which comprises many rare and valuable works. Shortly before his death he announced his intention to give to the Academy 5000 vol- umes as a memorial of his late wife. Music and art powerfully appealed to Dr. Amen, as did all the finer things of life. Generous, broadminded and sympathetic, he was quickly responsive to every appeal, whether from a student in distress or any in special need. Courtesy and kindness ever characterized him. To his intimates he was the most genial arid delightful of men. He was at his best in his home, as those can testify who have been privileged to enjoy his hospitality. Its inner shrines are private and sacred, It may be said in closing that in Dr. Amen Exeter lost a citizen of the finest qualities, who had endeared himself to the entire community. On April 5, 1882, Dr. Amen was married to Mary Browne Rawson, of Whitinsville, Mass., whose death on August 18, 1901, at Lake Sunapee, was a sore bereavement. Dr. Amen has left three daughters, the Misses Margaret R., Elizabeth W. and R. Perne Amen, and a son, John H. Amen, a member of the Upper Middle class at the Academy.