Nichols Academy published by Dr. James Lawson Conrad Jr.

Dr. James Lawson Conrad Jr.'s  Nichols Academy: The Spring on the Hill 1815-1931 was recently published by Nichols College. Autographed copies are now available in the Nichols College Bookstore for $14.95.

Nichols Academy is a rich and lively educational history describing the intellectual power which flowed from the Dudley, Massachusetts, Academy in the early formative years of industrial growth.

Beginning in the mid-1700's, Americans frequently used the word "academy" to describe a school offering courses for students who had finished elementary school. Conrad describes how academies were powerful transforming forces to the surrounding rural societies, improving the overall quality of local education with the introduction of an evolving, practical curriculum and by educating women and men in a humanist tradition.

While there were over 1,000 academies in New England by 1850, most of these disappeared or were absorbed by public high school systems. Nichols Academy was one of the few which later became a private college.

Conrad's history is chronological and begins with Amasa Nichols, owner of the Nichols Cotton Factory in Dudley, and an increasingly active group of rural New England Universalists who believed that proper secondary school education was a necessity.

Nichols began to construct the first academy building next to the town common by 1814 or 1815, with the first students enrolled by 1819.

Nichols Academy's first Board of Trustees was a very distinguished group which included four of the most highly respected Universalist leaders in New England: Hosea Ballou, Paul Dean, Edward Turner, and Thomas Jones. After founder Nichols left the Board of Trustees in 1823, local citizens from Dudley, Oxford, Charlton and Southbridge began to dominate its membership.

There was accelerated change in the Academy after 1865. This process included the activities of the state, the town, and of Hezekiah Conant, a former Academy student and Rhode Island Industrialist. After 1871, the new Academy served both as Dudley High School and as a "fitting" school for college-bound students.

Conrad follows the Academy's efforts to survive after the death of Conant. When local students no longer enrolled in sufficient numbers, the Academy had to be closed briefly in 1909 until the Board of Trustees made the decision to lease the Dudley Hill property to Bethel Bible Institute in 1923 and then, in 1931, to Nichols Junior College of Business Administration.

Nichols Academy's legacy is that it changed the lives of young men and women from rural towns throughout our region.

Dr. James Lawson Conrad, Jr.
Dr. James L. Conrad, Jr. is the resident historian for Nichols College. He is considered an authority on Samuel Slater and the American textile industry, as well.

His long history with Nichols College began in 1957 with his appointment as director of admissions. He later joined the faculty in 1963 and was promoted to professor of history in 1973. From 1973-1979, Conrad served as dean of faculty before returning to the classroom in 1980. From1998-2000, he served as vice president for external academic affairs.

Conrad received an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an A.M. from Clark University, a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and an honorary D. Humanities from Nichols College. He currently resides with his wife Bunny in Dudley, Mass. They have two sons, Michael and Jeffrey.