USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 20
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 20
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > New Britain > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 20
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
The change in the school law made in 1856, by which school societies were abolished and the care of schools again remanded to towns, did not affect the schools of New Britain, especially, as the society had been conterminous with the town ; but in Berlin it brought the schools of the two school societies under the direction and supervision of one board instead of two. Before the act was passed, there were four districts in the First Society, or Kensington, and five in the Second, or Worthington. In the former, there were 202 children between the ages of four and sixteen, and in the latter, 285, or in all, 487, of whom 395 were registered as attending school some part of the year.
At that time the school committee reported the schools as being in good condition with an increased interest on the part of parents. The nine districts have been continued, one new school-house has been erected in the South district in Worthington, in which an old one was burned in 1886. Some of the other school buildings have been improved and the schools have been maintained with efficiency, providing for all except the most advanced pupils, who have been sent to schools in New Britain, Hartford, and elsewhere.
ACADEMIES AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Though provision was made for Common Schools by Farmington and by the three Ecclesiastical societies in the town of Berlin, and afterwards by the corresponding school societies, the people did not depend upon these schools wholly for the school education of their children. By pri- vate schools and academies they sought to supplement the public schools and secure a better education than these unaided could give. At a town meeting held in Farming- ton, February, 1793, John Treadwell, afterwards Governor Treadwell, John Mix, Timothy Pitkin, Jr., and Seth Lee were appointed a committee " to devise a plan for the forma- tion of a new school in the society to give instruction in some of the higher branches of science not usually taught in common schools." No record appears of the report of this committee. It is possible that the ecclesiastical strife
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EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS.
which agitated the community between 1790 and 1795 diverted the attention for a time from school matters.
In 1816 an association of gentlemen residing in Farming -. ton, desiring to secure opportunities for higher education, contributed a thousand dollars, to which the society added six or seven hundred. With this sum an Academy building was erected, containing a convenient school-room and a lecture-room for the society. This Academy was maintained with efficiency for more than twenty years, providing the op- portunity for higher education to students from Farmington and neighboring towns. Simeon Hart was for many years the principal, and after retiring from this position, he had a successful boarding school for boys in Farmington, in which he was assisted by Edward Lucas Hart. The " Old Red College," as it was often termed, located on the site of the present Female Seminary, and once the residence of Colonel Noadiah Hooker, under the charge of his son, Edward Hooker, was noted as a place of preparation for college and professional life, especially for students from the Southern and South western States.
In 1844, Miss Sarah Porter, daughter of Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., opened a school for girls. This school, small at first, and composed entirely of students from Farmington and a few neighboring towns, was soon noted for the excel- lence of the instruction given and the pains taken to secure the proper elements of character. Superior teachers were employed in the different departments, and the number of students increased until the school became a Seminary with a national reputation, receiving young ladies from all parts of the country. The accommodations have been improved, until a large number of students are provided with healthful surroundings and favorable appliances for receiving an edu- cation.
In the parish of New Britain, before the revolutionary war, Mary Clark, a' daughter of John Clark of Stanley Quarter, had a Private School on East Street, then the most populous part of New Britain. She had pupils from this
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
parish and other places ; some scholars came from Hartford. One of the earliest schools after Miss Clark's, of which a . record is found, is indicated by a subscription paper still pre- served, which reads as follows :
"Whereas schooling is necessary for the education of children, and we the subscribers being desirous of having the school continued and kept two months longer by Miss Polly Smalley, in the South East district of New Britain, and as the society money is expended, we each of us promise to pay Elijah Smith on demand our equal portion of the cost of keeping the school the said term according to the number of scholars we send. As witness our hands. New Britain, August 27, 1784."
To this paper were affixed the names of twenty sub- scribers, having in all thirty-nine children, for whose school- ing there was to be paid one shilling two and three-quarter pence each, the salary of the teacher for two months being two pounds and eight shillings. This school was on East Street, and was taught by Polly Smalley, a daughter of Dr. Smalley. She taught for some time in the public school. Similar subscription schools were established at other times and in other districts, particularly in Kensington, Worthing- ton, and in Stanley Quarter. The ministers were interested in education, visited the schools, and aided in establishing and maintaining the subscription schools. Dr. Smalley also took students into his own family, having more than twenty during his pastorate. Some of these afterwards became eminent as clergymen or jurists .*
In 1813, at the instance of Thomas Lee and Seth J. North, a Select School was established nearer the center of the town, and Miss Almira Hart became its teacher. Miss Hart had already taught in the Academy at Berlin, and her thorough qualifications and winning manners drew to her many of the elder girls and boys of the parish, who were very much benefited by her instructions. At different times during the next fifteen years, other select or private
* Among these students were Nathaniel Emmons, D.D., eminent as a theo- logian ; Oliver Ellsworth. afterwards Chief Justice of the United States ; Jere- miah Mason, LL.D., an eminent jurist and a United States Senator ; and Ebenezer Porter, D.D., president of Andover Theological Seminary. ยท
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Ethan A. Andrews
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EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS.
schools were established and maintained for a limited time ; some of these were in the district school-houses, and opened only during the vacations in the public schools. For several years, between 1814 and 1822, Professor E. A. Andrews, LL.D., had a Select School at his house in Stanley Quarter. Three of the daughters of Joseph Shipman were school teachers, and one of them had a Private School in her father's house on Stanley Street, after Professor Andrews' school had closed.
In 1828, a new impetus seems to have been given to the efforts for securing private instruction. A school was established in a room in the Smalley house, then Deacon Whittlesey's, located on East Main Street. It was designed. chiefly for the younger class of pupils, and was so well attended that Alvin North fitted up a more commodious; room for it at his own residence at the corner of East Main. and Stanley streets. The same year that this school was. established, an association, under the name of the "Conference. House Company," erected an Academy building near the new Congregational church on East. Main Street. Among. the largest contributors to this enterprise were Samuel Hart, M.D., Seth J. North, Henry North, and Joseph 'Shipman,. though many others contributed money, materials, or labor. Alfred Andrews had the charge of the building, and when it was completed he taught in it for two or three seasons. He was succeeded by Nathaniel Grover and Levi Nelson Tracy, both graduates of Dartmouth College. Lemuel Downing, Nancy Smith, Sarah Voce, and Mary S. Patterson, were teachers in this school. At first the school occupied but one room, but the number of students became so great that the rooms in both stories were filled. Thoroughly qualified teachers were employed, and the influence of the school was felt not only in New Britain, but in surrounding parishes. Several young men were fitted for college at this Academy, four, all natives of New Britain, entering Yale College from this school at one time, all of whom graduated with credit. and honor in 1842.
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
At the time the Academy was filled with older pupils, a Primary School was successfully taught in a school-house built for the school on Main Street, nearly opposite the South Congregational church. Nancy Smith, Maria S. Thompson, and Caroline Lee, successively taught in this school. Elijah H. Burritt, an elder brother of Elihu Burritt, for a time owned the building known as the " Stone Store," on Main Street, and occupied it with a Boarding and Day School, where instruction was given in the higher English studies and in the ancient and modern languages.
In 1843, Miss Thirza Lee established a Seminary for young ladies in the building erected for the purpose by her father, Thomas Lee, at the corner of Main and West Main streets. The school was popular for a few years. In 1849, Miss Lee married and removed from the place, and the school was then given up. At the suspension of this school, or shortly before, a small but pleasant school-house was erected by Henry North, near his home on Main Street, and a school for girls was successfully taught by two young ladies from Mt. Holyoke Seminary. Major A. Nickerson and wife had, for a short time, a Boarding School at the corner of Park and Orchard streets. There were also a few other private schools for a brief period previous to 1850. These efforts indicate the desire of the people for better opportuni- ties than the Common Schools afforded, and show the high value placed upon education when the place was only a village. Many of the men and women who afterwards gave character to New Britain were educated in these schools ; and many others from surrounding towns received their school education in them.
In 1852, Rev. T. D. P. Stone, who for two years had been Associate Principal of the Normal School, established a Family School in his own house on Elm Street. Rev. J. M. Guion, about the same time, opened a Private School for boys in the north part of the borough. As both these gen- tlemen moved from New Britain soon, these schools were continued but a short time. Two or three small primary
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EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS.
schools were opened between 1860 and 1870, the one continu- ing the longest time being taught by Miss Mary Porter, on Orchard Street.
In 1869, in response to a written request signed by a number of leading citizens, including several members of the Board of School Visitors, steps were taken for the establish- ment of the New Britain Seminary. A building was erected at the north end of Camp Street, designed primarily as a school for young ladies. Before it was opened, however, the applications from the parents of boys were so numerous that arrangements were also made for a boys' department. The school was opened in April, 1870, under the charge of David N. Camp, principal, and Ellen R. Camp and Anna I. Smith, assistants. A primary department was added in the autumn, and for many years the school, kept as a boarding and day school, was full, having pupils from surrounding towns and from other States and countries, as well as from New Britain. Mr. Camp retired from the school in the autumn of 1881, and was succeeded by Lincoln A. Rogers, A.M. The semi- nary was continued under the charge of Mr. Rogers until the close of the summer term in 1885. In the autumn the building was occupied by departments of the model and practice schools connected with the State Normal School, and these schools have been continued in it.
During the pastorate of the Rev. Luke Daly, a school- house was erected near the Roman Catholic church for the children of families belonging to the Roman Catholic com- munion. The school was continued a few years by this church, when by a special arrangement of the pastor and the school visitors, the school was placed under the manage- ment of the School Board, and was supported by the town as a public school. In 1877, the Roman Catholic Church erected a commodious building on Lafayette street, for a school for girls. In 1879, both these schools passed into the care of Rev. Hugh Carmody, priest in charge of the Roman Catholic Church, and they have since been under the sole control and management of the priests of that church, by
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
which they are supported. In 1889, the number registered in the Roman Catholic schools was 1,234, with an average attendance of 1,175.
One of the first academies of Connecticut, incorporated by the General Assembly, was .Berlin Academy in Worth- ington. It was opened in the autumn of 1801, Thomas Miner, a graduate of Yale College, being principal. Worth- ington Street was at that time becoming the business center of the town. The school was well attended during the winter of 1801-2, and at the May session of the legislature it was incorporated as an Academy. The corporators were Roger Riley, Giles Curtis, Samuel Porter, 2d, Joseph Galpin, and others. The school was continued for some years by Dr. Miner, and received students from Kensington, New Britain, and adjoining towns, as well as from Berlin. Emma Hart and 'Almira Hart were both students, and then teachers in this Academy.
These two sisters, better known afterwards as Mrs. Emma Willard and Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, also had a Private School which was attended by both sexes in the house of their father, Captain Samuel Hart, on West Street. There were other small private schools more commonly taught in rooms in dwelling-houses in Worthington or Kensington, and generally temporary in character. The old academy having been suspended for some time, in 1831 a new company was formed, styled the Worthington Academical Company. This company erected a school building on Worthington Street, and for several years a flourishing school was maintained in it. Ariel Parish, afterwards Principal of the High School, Springfield, and Superintendent of schools, New Haven, was one of the teachers. Edward L. Hart, another graduate of Yale College, and afterwards teacher of a private school in Farmington, was also principal in this Academy.
CONNECTICUT NORMAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL.
In 1838, before a Normal School had been opened in America, individuals in the parish of New Britain subscribed four thousand dollars " towards establishing a County Semi-
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nary for the education and training of teachers for common schools." For some reason the plan contemplated was not carried out at the time. When the General Assembly, in 1849, passed the act for establishing a Normal School or seminary for the training of teachers, and the Board of Trustees created by the act called for proposals from cities and towns, New Britain, with a population of less than three thousand, and at the time only a parish of Berlin, promptly offered to provide a suitable building, apparatus, and library for the use of the Normal School. There was raised by con- tribution $16,250, and the New Britain Educational Fund Com- pany was organized, to build, furnish, and prepare the neces- sary buildings, and make all necessary provision for the school.
Proposals had been received by the trustees to locate the school in the city of Middletown, and in Farmington, South- ington, and some other towns ; and it was after the first of February, 1850, before the persons in New Britain interested in the enterprise were informed that their proposition would be accepted ; but on the 15th of May, or in about three months, a building was prepared, and the school was opened. To make the necessary provision, the Educational Fund Company bought the town hall then in process of erec- tion, made alterations to adapt it to the needs of the school, secured additional land, and erected a larger building .* The trustees in their first annual circular, issued in 1850, say :
* The original building, or town hall, 70 feet long by 42 wide, was two stories high with a basement. The basement was occupied by entrance halls, dressing-rooms, laboratory, and furnace rooms ; the first story by the high school room, trustees' room, and principal's room, also used as recitation rooms ; and the upper story by the Normal School proper, with a small principal's room, and a gallery, in both of which recitations were held. The addition or east wing, opened in June, 1851, was three stories above the basement, 76 feet long by 48 wide. In the basement were school-rooms for the intermediate and primary departments of the model schools, with additional halls and dressing rooms. On the main floor the high school room was extended to the east side of the new building, and with four additional rooms, afforded accommodations for three hundred pupils in this department. The second story provided a Normal School room, with seats for two hundred and twenty Normal students, and a publie lecture hall, so arranged as to be connected with folding doors with the Normal HIall, placing nearly the whole area of the building in one audience room when required. In the upper story was the library, four recitation rooms, and a hall 72 feet by 20, for declamations, etc.
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
" The Normal School was located permanently in New Britain, on the 1st of February, 1850, after full consideration of the claims and offers of other towns, on account of the central position of the town in the State, and its accessibility from every section by railroad ; and also in considera tion of the liberal offer on the part of its citizens to provide a suitable building. apparatus, and library, to the value of $16,000, for the use of the Normal School, and to place all the schools of the village under the management of the Principal of the Normal School, as schools of prac- tice."
The trustees appointed Henry Barnard, of Hartford, Principal of the school, and Rev. T. D. P. Stone, of Worces- ter, Associate Principal. The school was opened for the re- ception of pupils May 15, 1850. The number of pupils in attendance during the first term was sixty-seven : thirty-seven ladies and thirty gentlemen. The whole number of different students during the first year of the school was one hundred and fifty-four. In June, David N. Camp was appointed a teacher in the school, and entered upon his duties a few weeks later.
At the close of the short session in September, 1852, Mr. Stone tendered his resignation, and in December of the same year, John D. Philbrick, of Boston, was appointed to the position made vacant by Mr. Stone's resignation. On the first of January, 1855, Mr. Barnard resigned his official con- nection with the school ; Mr. Philbrick was appointed Princi- pal and Superintendent of Common Schools, and David N. Camp was appointed Associate Principal. In January, 1857, Mr. Philbrick resigned the offices of Principal and Superin- tendent of Common Schools, and Mr. Camp was appointed to fill the vacancy. Rev. Charles F. Dowd was appointed Associate Principal in 1857, and resigned in 1858. He was succeeded by Henry P. Buckham, who resigned in 1865. His place was filled by the appointment of John N. Bartlett.
The change in the law in 1865 placed the Normal School under the charge of the State Board of Education, consisting of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and one member from each congressional district. Mr. Camp resigned as Principal in 1866.
David M.Camp.
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EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS.
The General Assembly, in 1867, passed the following resolution, which caused the suspension of the school :
" Resolved, That the comptroller of the State be, and he hereby is, directed to draw no further orders on the Treasurer of this State in be- half of the State Normal School, than what is necessary to pay the debts incurred under contracts already existing."
The school remained closed for two years, when by act of the General Assembly provision was made for its re-opening. Homer B. Sprague was Principal in 1866-67. I. N. Carleton was Principal from the re-opening of the school in 1869 un- til 1883, when he resigned and was succeeded by Clarence F. Carroll.
The General Assembly in 1881 appropriated seventy-five thousand dollars for a new building on condition that the town of New Britain would appropriate twenty-five thousand for the same purpose. The appropriation was made and the building was erected on a commanding site overlooking the city and the country to the east of New Britain. The new building is 126 feet in entire length by 85 feet in width, the foundations and underpinning being of Portland brown stone and the walls above of brick. The building is heated throughout by steam. It provides study, recitation, and other rooms for the Normal School, and school rooms for a part of the Model and Training Schools. It was opened and occu- pied in the autumn of 1883.
Since the new building was finished much attention has been given to the study of methods, and their application in the Model and Training Schools.
In the Normal School building, besides the Normal School proper, there were opened a Kindergarten and two depart- ments of the Model School, and in another building near, three other departments of the Model School, in all of which the Normal students have lessons in methods. There has also been a large increase in the appliances of the Normal School since the new building was open. The introduction of manual and industrial work, the opening of the gymna- sium, and the careful and systematic training of the students
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
in physical exercise have added to the opportunities pre- sented by the school, and made its work more complete.
The teachers in the Normal and Model Schools in 1889 were, Clarence F. Carroll, principal, Ralph G. Hibbard, Helen F. Page, Arthur B. Morrill, Clara W. Mingins, Carrie A. Lyle, Mary M. McCann, Mary P. Foskett, Ellor E. Carlisle, M. Gertrude Fenn. Emma L. Cartwright, Fannibelle Curtis, Edith Gooding, Jennie Darlington, Lucy C. Catlin, Julia P. Rockwell, Jennie E. Chapin, and Geo. P. Phenix. Misses Page, Lyle, McCann, Cartwright, and Darlington, were each in charge of a department of the Model Schools, and Misses Mingins and Curtis of the Kindergarten.
CHAPTER XIII.
LIBRARIES AND NEWSPAPERS.
LIBRARIES.
THE early settlers of Farmington, New Britain, and Berlin, had little access to books, except to the very limited number of volumes owned by a few of the most intel- ligent families. There were no public libraries of any kind, no Sunday-schools, and no books in day-schools, except the Bible or parts of it, the psalter, a speller, and sometimes a reading book or catechism. Books were costly and not easily obtained.
To supply to some extent the absence of books, and to provide reading for themselves and their families, a few neighbors or friends would associate, purchase a few volumes and have them passed from family to family, under regula- tions which secured the careful preservation of the books, and, at the same time, gave each proprietor an equal privi- lege in the use of these treasures. As an example of this associated ownership of books, in Stanley Quarter, New Britain, some years before the revolutionary war, four brothers, Thomas Stanley, Noah Stanley, Timothy Stanley, and Gad Stanley, with Nathaniel Churchill and Elijah Francis, purchased Henry's Commentary in six volumes, by sending to England, and the books were carefully read in each family.
One of the first libraries of Farmington appears to have originated with a few boys who met under the church horse sheds, and organized a plan of joint ownership and exchange of the few juvenile books which they could obtain. Their scheme was perhaps as wise and successful for them as the joint ownership of commentaries and other costly books by their elders.
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
The foundation of the old Farmington Library Company was probably laid in the revolutionary period or soon after. Its records have a "Catalogue of the Library begun in 1785." In 1801, and afterwards for some years, it was called the " Montlily Library," perhaps in reference to the time of draw- ing and holding the books. During the winter of 1813-14, this library company was dissolved, and the Phoenix Library was formed, the best books of the old library being retained in the new. Elijah Porter, who had been librarian of the Monthly Library from 1796 to 1813, became librarian of the Phoenix Library on its organization, and held the office until 1826. On March 17 of that year, the Village Library, which had been established before 1818, was united with the Phoenix Library, and the librarian of the former, Capt. Selah Porter, became librarian of the united library, until 1835, when he resigned, and Simeon Hart, Jr., was appointed in his place. Some dissatisfaction having been found with the organization of the Phoenix Library Company, on February 18, 1839, a new association was formed to take its place, under the name of " The Farmington Library Company."
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