USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 63
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 63
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
High street, after having been used a while for storage purposes, was demolished.
The Old Road .- There is something to my own mind, very interesting in the name of this school house, standing as it does on the old colonial road, on which our fathers in colonial times, traveled from Hartford to New Haven, on foot, or on horseback, as there were no carriages for common people in those days, and if there had been, this road, a mere bridle path, would not have accommodated them. Originally, as we have seen, this district was called Northwest, but its tax payers did well in changing it to Old Road in honor of the historic thorough- fare on which its school building stands. The first school house of this district stood on the corner of Hicks and Colony streets, where the second was also built about 1843. This second school house, when built, was probably the finest school building in Meriden. It is still standing on its original site, serving some useful purpose for the Meriden Malleable Iron Company. The first school house was moved off when the second was built, and now forms part of a dwelling house on Britannia street, No. 51. Were this old building still standing it would be in strange contrast with the beautiful school house now standing a few rods east of its old location, which was built in 1875, at a cost of $15,000, and which, with its well kept and spacious school grounds, is one of our best district school houses. It has four large school rooms and two good recitation rooms. In 1863 this district, with two teachers, had a registration of 65, and returned an enumera- tion of 75; in 1889 it gave employment to six teachers, had a registra- tion of 275, and returned.an enumeration of 374.
The Northeast District .- This is one of the original seven that appear upon the town list of 1814. Its first school house is still standing near its original location, on Bee street, a quarter of a mile north of the present school house, just south of the track of the Meriden & Crom- well railroad, next the residence of Mr. William A. Ives. It has been slightly enlarged since it was used for school purposes, and now forms the dwelling house of Mr. Edward Fritz, is in good condition, and if " kept up" may last another hundred years. The present house of this district was built in 1868, at a cost of $1.500. The enumeration of 1889 gave 51. The attendance is small because so many of the enumerated children go to Prattsville and the Center.
The East District .- The first school house in this district was built sometime previous to 1814, and stood on the north side of the Middle- town road, on the corner, by Mr. Almon Hall's. What became of the building I do not know; probably it was not worth inoving, for I find from the Meriden land records that this year land was deeded by Samuel Baldwin for a school lot on what is now the estate of Hezekiah Dunklee. The house here built, which we may call the second East District school house, was used for school purposes till the easterly of the two present school houses was built, nearly opposite, 1846, to
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
be followed by the westerly, in which two as good schools are taught as are to be found in Meriden. The enumeration of the district in 1889 was 87; the seating capacity of the school house 82.
The Southeast District .- Here is, perhaps, the oldest of our school buildings, having been built in 1800-certainly the oldest that is still used for school purposes. I was once told by Mr. Eli Ives, who " gradu- ated " here, that it originally stood some twelve rods southeast of its present location. It was moved to its present site in 1847; a few years ago it was enlarged-almost rebuilt-refurnished with modern school furniture, and is now one of the prettiest, though perhaps the smallest, of our Meriden school houses.
The Farms District .- When the town was incorporated in 1806, and as late as 1837, this was called the Southwest district. Our Meriden fathers were in the habit of dividing the town into four highway dis- tricts, and as these were determined by " the crossing of the two turn- pike," as the records express it (the Hartford and New Haven and the Middletown and Waterbury). they bore the names of Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast; and it was very natural that they should, as far as they could, attach the same names to the school dis- tricts; so we are not surprised that the Old Road was called North- west, or that the Farms was called Southwest. Once on the record it is called " Falls Plain;" and I am glad that it is, for it shows us where Hanover children went to school before the Hanover district was formed, " Falls Plain " being the ancient name of all of that level tract in and around Hanover, derived from the beautiful falls of the Quinnipiac at Hanover and Yalesville. The first school house was built in 1800; repaired and enlarged in 1869; condemned by the school board in 1878; moved off and a new one built in 1879, at an expense of $1,500. It was built on a liberal scale; has seats for 68 pupils, and will answer the wants of the district for many years. This is our only overlying district -- i. e., the only district that reaches over into another town. It draws just about as many children from Walling- ford as from Meriden; the enumeration in 1889 was 71-38 from Meriden and 33 from Wallingford.
The West District .- The first school house in this district stood on the north side of Johnson avenue, opposite the place where the Good- year road comes into it. About the year 1850 it was moved on to the present school lot, on the corner of Johnson avenue and Spruce street, where it stood till the present house was built in 1870, but nearer the corner of the street, when it was purchased by Mr. William Johnson, who began to move it up the hill, but abandoned the design and tore it down; so that no part of the old West District school house now remains, unless some of its timbers have entered into the construction of other buildings. About the time that the old school house was first moved, say 1850, this district dropped the name West and took that of Ives, and was known as the Ives district till 1870, when it changed
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTV.
again and took the name of Northwest, which it still bears. About the time that the old school house was moved up the hill, the stone school house was built on the Deacon Allen road, and the district in which it stood resumed its old namne, West district. The present large and commodious school house of this district on West Main street began to be built in 1868-began to be built, I say, for it has grown from two rooms in 1868 to ten rooms in 1890. The two south rooms were built in 1868: the two north rooms in 1871; the two west rooms in 1877: two east rooms in 1883, and the two rooms still further east in 1885. And this growth of the school house represents the growth of the district, which in 1868 returned 174 enumerated chil- dren, and in 1889 returned 981.
This carries us through the original seven districts, and locates, I believe, all of the old school houses. They were, I may observe, all built pretty much alike, of about the same size, and furnished pretty much in the same manner; small, square, one story buildings, usually about 20 by 25, painted red if painted at all, furnished with the old- fashioned stone fire-place, with the large box pine desk for the master or mistress, and with the long, broad desk or shelf secured to the wall on two sides of the school room. This was for the older scholars -- those who had attained to the dignity of writing and ciphering. For younger pupils plain seats were provided, without backs or foot-rests, in the middle of the school room. These were usually made of plank or saw mill slabs, with stakes driven through them for legs in the manner of milking stools.
The Corner District .- This name does not appear on my list of 1814, nor can I get any trace of it till about 1830, when its first school house stood on the corner of East Main and State streets, about where Mr. Paddock's fruit store now stands. A gentleman who attended there in his boyhood speaks of it as "surrounded by a swamp," while an elderly lady, with a touch of poetry, refers to it as " nestling among the willows." The Corner school was kept here until 1836, when it was removed to a two story building which stood on the north side of Church street, near the southeast corner of the present Corner school grounds. This building, in 1853, was purchased by Mr. Noah Linsley, moved to the south side of Church street, and fitted up as a dwelling house. The district then purchased the building which had been erected for Mr. H. D. Smith, and where he and Mr. David N. Camp, who was associated with him in instruction, taught a most excellent high and select school. from 1847 to 1853, known as the Meriden Institute. They enlarged it from time to time, as the growth of the district required, and used it till the present brick building was built, directly in front of it, in 1868. Then the old building was sold to Mr. Jared R. Cook; part of it was taken down and its timber used in the construction of a house (the French roofed house that stands near the brook) on Cook avenue; the old chapel-like " Institute " was
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
moved bodily to King street, where it now stands, the first house from the corner of Orange street.
The "annexes" of this school on Willow and King streets were built in 1883 and 1887. The valuation of school property is now $97,- 500. The earliest enumeration I find recorded, that of 1865, gives 495; the enumeration of October 1st, 1889, gave 1,901, an increase of 1,406 in 24 years. Then five teachers did the work ; now 25 are em- ployed.
Hanover District .- This district first appeared upon the list in 1837. Before it was organized the children in the east part of it probably went to the Farms district, those in the north part to the West, while those in the west part went to the Plymert, a district in Cheshire, whose old school house stood on Cheshire street, near the location of the present school house, where some of our Meriden children have always attended, and where we paid for their instruction as late as 1876. I cannot fix exactly the date of the building of the first school house in this district; it must have been, however, before 1844, for in the Meriden land records, vol. 9, p. 324, I find recorded a deed from Dennison Parker to the Hanover School District of a piece of land on which the school house was then standing, and the deed bears date July 24th, 1844. I have no difficulty, however, in finding the place where it stood, as the Hanover people well remember-on the present school grounds, a little east of the present school building. It was a long, one-story building, containing two rooms. It now stands on Cutler avenue, not far from the residence of Mr. A. L. Stevens. While the new school house was building, and for some time before, the school was kept in a building on the opposite side of the street. The present school house was erected in 1868, at a cost of $11,000. It is one of our best school buildings, with four well lighted and well ven- tilated rooms, and with spacious and well kept school grounds. But, owing to the fluctuations of business and changes of population, there has been a falling off in registration and attendance the past ten or twelve years; for several years but three rooms have been occupied, and the enumeration of 1889 gave but 125 children.
Prattsville District .-- This is comparatively a new district. Its first school house, a plain two-story building, was built about 1849, and stood in the southeast corner of the present school yard, on the corner of North Broad and Camp streets. The present elegant building was erected in 1875, at an expense of $23,573. It is almost a model school house. It contains eight good school rooms, two good play rooms, and is but two stories high. In 1865 this district employed two teachers, had an average attendance of 50 scholars, and returned an enumera- tion of 137. In 1889 it employed seven teachers, had an attendance of 260, and returned an enumeration of 557. Before the organization of this district the children in this part of Meriden were obliged to attend the Old Road, the Northeast, or the North Center districts.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
The Railroad District .- This is probably our youngest district. Its name shows that it was not organized till after the opening of the Hartford & New Haven railroad in 1840, and we have reasons for be- lieving that its first school house was not built till about 1853. It was a plain, one-story building, which in 1868 was somewhat enlarged and raised to the dignity of two stories, in which form it still stands on its original site, the most northern of the present school buildings. A new building of two rooms was built to the south of it in 1875, and this enlarged by adding two more rooms in 1885, so that now the Railroad district has six large school rooms, one small one and one recitation room, in which are employed eight efficient teachers. In 1864 but one was employed. Then the enumeration was 137; in 1889 it was 464.
The public schools of Meriden now employ 87 teachers-9 men, 78 women. The enumeration of October 1st, 1890, gave 5,895, between the ages of 4 and 16. Of these, 4,355 were registered in the public schools, about 1,200 in the private and parochial. Of the remainder, 338, most were under 5 or over 14 years of age.
The Meriden High School was organized at the commencement of the school year in 1881. Before its organization high school studies were pursued in several of the grammar schools, in the higher depart- ments of which girls were prepared for teaching and boys for college. But April 12th, 1881, the town authorized "a school of higher grade to relieve the pressure on the grammar schools," and the school was opened in the Turners' Hall, which stood where the High School building now stands, on the corner of Liberty and Catlin streets, but was soon removed to the Prattsville school house, where it was kept till the German-American school building was completed, when it took rooms there, which it occupied till the present High School building was ready, in 1885. This, built at an expense (including land) of nearly $100,000, is one of the best high school buildings in the state of Connecticut. It is furnished with a valuable library, the gift of Hon. I. C. Lewis and Mr. Walter Hubbard; a working laboratory furnished with the most modern chemical and philosophical apparatus, by the liberality of Mr. Henry S. Wilcox; a set of valuable physiological charts, presented by Doctor Henry A. Archer; a costly cabinet of min- erals, presented by Reverend Doctor J. H. Chapin, and the use of the large and valuable collections of natural history specimens belonging to the Meriden Scientific Association, now, by courtesy of the High School committee, set up in this building. The school now (1891) numbers about 250 pupils, and graduates a class of about 30 each year.
There is now invested in the lands, buildings and furniture of the public schools about $350,000. The cost to the town the present year is $61,000, and to the districts perhaps $10,000 more.
The schools of Meriden were made free by vote of the town, Octo- ber 19th, 1863. At the annual town meeting, October 5th, G. H. Wilson, J. H. Farnsworth, W. E. Benham, John Parker and Russell B. Perkins,
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
were appointed a committee to consider the matter and to report at an adjourned town meeting October 19th; their report was accepted, and it was " Voted, That from the beginning of the current school year (September 1st, 1863), all public schools of the town shall be free, and the expense of said schools, heretofore defrayed from the avails of rate bills, shall be paid by the town."*
Of the private and parochial schools which are assisting in the education of the children of Meriden, St. Rose, Catholic, leads the way with some seven or eight hundred pupils; the German-American comes next with some 200; St. John's Lutheran follows with 108. and the Emanuel Lutheran with 100.
In the past other schools have played an important part in the same good work; among which " The Meriden Institute," a select high school, established by Mr. Henry D. Smith in 1847, and very successfully taught by him and Mr. David N. Camp till 1853, deserves honorable mention. Here " the higher English branches were taught, as well as French and mathematics, and the Greek and Latin required the enter Vale College." The number of scholars varied from 150 to 200. The " Institute " building stood where the German school building now stands-it is now a double dwelling house on King street.
Post's Academy, which stood where the house of Mr. Frank Rhind now stands, corner of Elm and East Main streets, built 1841, burned about 1846, gave good instruction in the higher branches. The school was first organized in the house of the late William J. Ives on Broad street. This was followed by the Meriden Academy, instituted by the Meriden Academical Company, and kept in the old Baptist church on Broad street, fitted up for the purpose, under the principal- ship of Mark B. Moore, James H. Atkins, Mr. Hill, William H. Ross. J. Q. Bradish, Samuel Young, Mr. Wilder and H. S. Jewett, from 1848 to 1865; followed in its turn by an excellent private school kept by Miss E. A. Landfear, in this and a neighboring building, till 1870.
Nor should the lesser private schools be forgotten. Miss Malone's, in Captain Collin's house, in East Main street; Mrs. Augur's, in her own house: Mrs. Bradley's on Colony street; Miss Osborne's on Wash- ington street, should all be enumerated among the educational agen- cies of the town.
Several lyceums and scientific associations have also been useful educational means. The Young Men's Institute, which flourished thirty years ago, and in 1855 had, by vote of the town, a large room assigned it in the town hall; the East Side and Up Town Lyceums; the debating so- cieties held for successive years in the Y. M. C. A. building: the Agassiz Association; the Chatauqua Circles which have flourished from time to time, one of which is now in successful operation; and the Meriden Scientific Association, Reverend J. H. Chapin, Ph. D., president; * Town Records, Vol. I., p. 386.
.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
Honorable C. H. S. Davis, M. D., secretary; which, though not incor- porated till 1887, is already sending its reports and " Transactions " all over the world -- none of these should be overlooked, or forgotten by one who would earnestly estimate the educational agencies of the town.
The early settlers of Meriden as a class were devout people and esteemed the privilege of attending public worship even at places so remote as the meeting houses of Wallingford and Kensington. Both were really far-removed by reason of the bad roads which made travel- ing difficult. Wallingford seems to have recognized this difficulty and, in 1724, voted in respect to the 35 families living in that section, " that they may hire a minister for four months this winter on their own charge." Probably this attempt at separate services led to the desire for an independent church in their midst, which, on the part of Wallingford, was granted, at the meeting held April 27th, 1725.
The following May Nathaniel Merriam and others petitioned the general assembly for the consent of the colony to such an arrange- ment, whereby " we may be made a District Society for setting up and carrying on and supporting the Public worship of God among ourselves, with such Liberties, powers and privileges as other such societies have and by law enjoy." The assembly granted the prayer and in 1725 was organized the " Meriden Ecclesiastical Society."
For the next two years the society had worship in the winter only, the meetings being held in private houses. A purpose to build a meeting house produced considerable contention as to the site, each thickly settled section of the district claiming the location. Even after it was decided to build on the west slope of the elevation, which became known as Meeting House hill, there was no hearty acquies- cence and some of the dissenters actually hauled away, at night, some of the timbers intended for the house, to a new site on another hill in that locality. "Of course such a step excited no small stir. The other party assembled amidst great excitement, and loud and bitter was the controversy. A town meeting was called and the very men and teams who had toiled all night to carry the timbers westward were compelled to haul them back to the old site, in broad daylight, amid the taunts and jeers of the assembled people."# In the light of subsequent events and, judging the two localities as we look upon them to-day, it would have been better to have selected the site the discontented ones preferred. The site first selected and upon which the meeting house was built, had no particular claims except a possible closer proximity to those who decided in its favor.
The house built upon the spot first selected was of the plainest style and was probably ready for occupancy in the fall of 1728. It was only 30 feet square, but was large enough to accommodate the district many years, in which it was kept in proper repair. In December,
* Doctor Davis, p. 212.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
1728, the Reverend Theophilus Hall began to preach in this house, and here, October 9th, 1729, it was resolved to form a church. After a day of fasting and prayer, on October 22d, 1729, was organized, of the following persons, the First Congregational Church of Meriden: John Merriam, Jr., and wife, Nathaniel Merriam and wife, Robert Royce, Samuel Royce and wife, Thomas Yale and wife, John Merriam, Bartholomew Foster, Robert Collins, David Levit, Ezekiel Royce and wife, Abel Royce and wife, Benjamin Royce and wife, Joseph Mer- riam, Dan. Balding and wife, Amos Camp and wife, Benj. Whiting and wife, Mrs. John Ives, Mrs. Benj. Curtis, John Hecock and wife, John Cole, Mrs. William Hough, Mrs. John Yaie, Mrs. Joseph Cole, Mrs. Nathaniel Royce, Mrs. David Rich, Mrs. Daniel Harris, Mrs. S. Andrews, Mrs. Tim. Jerom, Mrs. J. Robinson, Mrs. W. Merriam, Mrs. Jas. Royce. Widow Royce, Samuel Ives and wife, Ebenezer Prindle and wife, Mary Hough, Eunice Cole, John Way and wife.
On the 14th of December, 1729, Samuel Royce was elected the first deacon of the church, and on the 29th of the same month an additional deacon was chosen in the person of Robert Royce. On the same day Reverend Theophilus Hall was ordained the pastor, and served the church until his death, March 25th, 1767, in the 60th year of his age. He was born in Wallingford and graduated at Yale in 1727, when he was but 20 years of age, and all his manhood years were devoted to the ministry of this church, whose welfare was ever uppermost in his thoughts. He was, moreover, "a man of strong intellectual powers, much esteemed as a preacher, of great firmness and stability, and a zealous advocate of civil and religious liberty."* During his pastorate 250 persons were added to the church.
Mr. Hall lived near where is now Curtis street, in the southern part of the city, but owned a hundred acre farm north, which is now the central part of the city. On this he built a house for one of his sons, which later became the building known as the "Central Hotel," corner Broad and Main streets. His eldest son, Avery, became a min- ister, and was the pastor of a church at Rochester, N. Y.
The building of a new meeting house was agitated as early as 1750, and Mr. Hall offered to give a lot for the same on his farm, about a mile northwest of the old site. This place was so strongly opposed that, in April, 1752, Ezekiel Royce and Daniel Hough petitioned the assembly against its selection. They claimed that it was too far north to be taken as the center of population, and that another place, south of the spot, on Mr. Hall's farm, selected by the committee, could be reached by the people with far less travel. The assembly sustained the selection of the committee, and on the lot designated by it the new meeting house was erected in 1755. It was a plain frame build- ing, 50 by 60 feet, with interior arrangements after the manner of so- called two-story meeting houses of that period. In 1803 a steeple and
* Reverend James Dana. 34
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
bell were added. With some further improvements and repairs the meeting house was used until 1831, when the present edifice, on the southwest corner of Broad and Main streets, was erected, at a cost of $7,000. The original building has been much improved and better adapted to the wants of the congregation occupying it.
A historical event connected with this old Center church was the riot which took place there in the fall of 1837, in consequence of an anti-slavery meeting held in it by a Mr. Ludlow, an abolition lecturer, who visited Meriden at the request of Levi Yale, Julius Pratt, Fenner Bush, E. A. Cowles and a few other influential men. The announce- ment of the meeting by Mr. Granger, the minister in charge, had the effect of arousing much opposition, which culminated in acts of vio- lence on the evening the meeting was held. The door of the meeting house being barricaded by those inside, it was battered down by using a long stick of wood, and those inside were treated to the indignity of a shower of rotten eggs and other offensive missiles. Others, on leaving the building, were violently treated by the excited opposition outside, and several personal encounters took place. The affair was made the matter for several trials in the courts, which resulted in im- posing severe penalties upon those most active in fomenting the strife. The action of Mr. Granger in admitting such a meeting was criticised, but was finally approved by the society and the Consociation to which the church belonged. The sentiment of the church against slavery developed from year to year, until April 15th, 1846, when a strong position against it was taken in a resolution which declared it sinful and admitting of no justification in the sight of God.
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