The first headmaster was Clark Phelps Howland of Yale University, who reported in 1884 that "It is the aim of the school to give thorough instruction, and to encourage in its pupils a desire for the real rather than the showy, and to develop the moral as well as the intellectual element." The initial tuition fee for the Academy was $24, or $300 for students who wished to board in the headmaster's home. While Elizabeth Taber did not stipulate any particular religious affiliation for the academy, Howland claimed that Tabor "will probably always be under the management of those who sympathize with the Congregational faith." Howland was succeeded by Dana Marsh Dustan, Dartmouth B.A. 1880, A.M. 1883 (1893–1901), Nathan Chipman Hamblin, Harvard B.A. 1892 (1901–1910) and Charles Edward Pethybridge, Amherst B.A. 1906 (1910–1916).