three co-founders of Morristown School were Francis Call Woodman, Arthur Pierce Butler, and Thomas Quincy Browne. Aiding their work to start the new school, a large donation from wealthy businessman Henry Lee Higginson (known for founding the Boston Symphony Orchestra) provided critical seed funding. The school also benefited from large financial gifts of three other notable philanthropists: businessmen Charles Francis Adams III, Larz Anderson III, and Joseph Lee. Adams (a great-grandson of President John Quincy Adams) and Anderson (a son of General Nicholas Longworth Anderson) graduated from Harvard in the same class year as Morristown School's co-founders. (Lee graduated from Harvard five years earlier.) Morristown School prepared its students for Harvard University, other Ivy League schools, and engineering schools. The school opened in September 1898 with 23 students and eight staff members. Just two years later, enrollment more than tripled to educate 75 students; the student body increased to 173 by 1923. In 1908, Morristown School achieved recognition as one of only two schools outside New England to send students to Harvard for ten consecutive years (1899–1908). Strengthening the connection with Harvard, Morristown School leaders hosted the Harvard Club of New Jersey. The club's April 1909 meeting brought visits from Harvard President Charles Eliot, New Jersey Governor John Fort, and New Jersey Chancellor Mahlon Pitney (later a U.S Supreme Court justice). Eleven years later, the Morristown School ran a $500,000 fundraising campaign to establish an endowment. Several Harvard graduates served on the campaign's executive committee, including graduates of Harvard and the Morristown School (writer Roger Burlingame, journalist Samuel T. Williamson, and businessman Felix Knauth). During World War I, 65 of Morristown School's first 103 graduates (63%) served in the U.S. military. Their service reflected the value of community service emphasized by Morristown School to its student body. During the war, students at the school raised funds to purchase and equip the Morristown School Ambulance. They then presented this ambulance to the American Field Service for use in France. The American Field Service awarded Morristown School a certificate and a brass plaque to show its appreciation for the ambulance. In 1913, a group of 40 of Morristown School's students helped the Morristown Fire Department extinguish a forest fire that had spread over three miles on Horse Hill; the students used portable chemical extinguishers to fight the flames. Nine years later, the full student body (173 students) helped fight a large fire