ABSTRACT
A Congregational Calvinist, and Harvard president since 1781, Joseph Willard had been saddled with the unenviable responsibility of bringing the college back to pre-war normality after the convulsions of revolutionary wartime. Daniel's torturous but ultimately successful examination day crowned years of his father's efforts to provide his children with the best foundation for success that he could manage. The Lincoln children grew up in the house their father had bought from John Hancock situated just outside Worcester's town center. While Worcester County quarreled with itself, several of the leading men, including Levi Lincoln, took matters into their own hands and formed a joint-stock company with the purpose of setting up a college preparatory school as an “academy for the higher branches of education.” Willard's system of public examinations and competitions designed “to excite the students to a noble emulation” had two obvious benefits, in Willard's view.
