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THE EXPERIMENT IS BEGUN
[5]
THE original resources of the Institute were entirely inadequate, even
when measured by the standards of 1865. David Whitcomb probably
realized this and, by inducing John Boynton to establish the school in
Worcester, hoped to obtain additional endowment as well as building
funds.
The good angel of the project from the first was Stephen
Salisbury. Lacking his aid it would undoubtedly have failed. Before
the school had opened he had donated in land and money an amount
nearly equal to the original Boynton gift, and was later to contribute
much more generously. The first of his gifts, following the completion
of the building fund, was an instruction fund of $10,000, the income
of which was to be used to pay instruction costs or for books or
apparatus. This gift of November 28, 1866, was followed nearly a year
later by an additional donation of $50,000 for a similar purpose. The
letter of gift discloses a measure of his character.
The change in the value of money has so impaired the efficiency of the
Fund which John Boynton, Esq. most generously gave as the foundation
of this Institute, that our citizens cannot have that confidence in
the financial strength of the enterprise which is needed to invite
assistance and cooperation, and to insure success. To remove this
difficulty in some degree, and to encourage contributions from other
citizens, which will hereafter be desirable and necessary, I offer to
the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, Fifty
Thousand Dollars, to be held in trust for the following uses
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