History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 161

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 161

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my will may be performed according to the true intent thereof; but if my said daughter-in-law, shall marry again, then this whole estate to fall into the hands of those my overseers and by them to be secured for my son William Denison's children, to wit William Denison, George Denison, and Sarah Denison, and by those overseers, to be improved for their well bringing up as aforesaid, and faithfully to be delivered unto the children as they shall come of age, to wit: the males at twenty-one years of age, and the females at eighteen ; and if any of the said children should die before they come of age, the survivors shall inherit the same, and if they should all die before of age, (the which God forbid, but we are all mortal,) then it is my declared mind and true interest of this my will that my grandson George Deuison the son of my oldest son John Denison, shall be the sole heir of that estate, ont of which he shall pay unto his four brothers to wit. John Denison, Robert Denison, William Denison> and Daniel Denison, ten pounds apiece in current pay, and also ten pounds in current pay unto his cousin Edward Denison, the son of my son George Denison ; and in token that this is my last will and testament, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 24th day of Jannary in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and ninety three-four.

" GEORGE DENISON" (Seal.)

CHAPTER LXXXII.

STONINGTON -- (Continued).

COMMON SCHOOLS-THE PRESS.

THE men who settled Connecticut left their homes in England and emigrated to this country not to ac- quire wealth or worldly honor, but to enjoy civil and religious freedom.

At home the laws forbid the free exercise of their religious opinions, and they had often been perse- cuted for them. They believed and taught the doc- trine that every man had the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and to read the Bible and interpret it for himself.

Now, in order to found a church based upon these principles, it became necessary that every member thereof should be sufficiently educated to read the word of God. Hence we find that every church of their order had its teacher, as well as its preacher.

The principal duty of the teacher was to educate the children of the church, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. After they were settled in this country, many of the churches continued their services in the churches : this was the case of the Plymouth and some of the Massachusetts churches. But in Connecticut, as soon as the popu- lation was sufficient, such teachers were employed in most cases to instruct the youth of the town. This was done in advance of any colonial legislative en- actments on the subject of common schools ; and in fact when laws were passed in relation to them they did little more than to make obligatory the practices which had grown up and been established by the founders of the several towns which composed the original colonies of Hartford and New Haven. These men did not come here either as isolated individuals from widely separated homes, entertaining broad dif- ferences of opinion on all matters of civil and religious concernment; they came with earnest religious con- victions, made more earnest by the trials and persecu-

tions which they experienced in the Old World, and such trials and sufferings doubtless nerved them to make greater efforts and nobler sacrifices in behalf of their religious convictions. The constitution of civil government which they adopted at the outset de- clared all civil officers elective, and gave to every in- habitant who would take the oath of allegiance the right to vote and to be voted for, and which practi- cally converts society into a partnership; made uni- versal education identical with self-preservation, for how could a government which derived its power from the people be preserved unless the people are sufficiently educated to read and understand all' questions connected with the administration of pub- lic affairs ? and how could the masses be educated and fitted for the discharge of a freeman's duty un- less some system of common schools are adopted by the State ? It was for this object, and to enable all to judge for themselves, in civil and religious matters, that common schools were instituted in Connecticut. The founders of this State were educated men, as thoroughly educated as the best endowed grammar schools in England could educate them at that period, and not a few of them had enjoyed the advantages of the great universities. These men would naturally seek for their children the best opportunities for edu- cation which could be provided, and it is the crown- ing glory of these men that, instead of sending their own children back to England to be educated in grammar schools and universities, they labored to establish free grammar schools and a college here amid the stumps of the primeval forests ; that instead of establishing family and select schools for the min- ister and magistrates' children, they labored to es- tablish a system of common-school education. The minister and magistrates were found not only in town-meeting pleading for an allowance out of the common treasury for the support of public or com- mon schools, and in some instances for a free scoool, but among the families entreating parents of all classes to send their children to the same school with their own.

How unlike the wealthy men of the present day was the course pursued by these men. Now select schools and boarding-schools are sustained by the aristocracy, neglecting the common school, once re- garded with so much confidence by the most eminent men of Connecticut.

The first law upon the subject of common schools in Connecticut was enacted by the town of New Haven, March 25, 1641, which provided for a free school in that town, under the care and management of the minister and magistrates, with authority in them to decide how much of the expense of such schools should be taken from the common stock of the town, and to adopt such rules and orders as they might deem best for the government of the schools. The next law passed in Connecticut relative to common schools was enacted by the town of Hartford seven years after

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its settlement, appropriating thirty pounds for its schools,-not as a new thing, but as one of the estab- lished institutions of the town,-providing also for a tuition fee in part for all able to pay, but poor chil- dren were to be educated at the expense of the town. In 1646, Roger Ludlow, Esq., compiled a body of laws for the colony of Connecticut, which provided that every township of fifty families shall maintain a school for the education of all their children, and as soon as such townships contain one hundred fami- lies they were to maintain a grammar school.

After the union of the two colonies of New Haven . and Connecticut, which took place under the charter of 1662, various publie acts were passed relative to common schools up to 1700, when the code of Con- necticut was revised, and the school laws in force at that time embraced the following particulars: that every town within this colony having the number of seventy householders or upwards, should be constantly provided with a sufficient schoolmaster to teach chil- dren and youth to read and write; and every town having a less number of householders than seventy should yearly, from year to year, be provided with a sufficient schoolmaster to teach children and youth to read and write for one-half of the year; and also there should be a grammar school set up in every shire-town of the several counties in the colony, viz. : Hartford, New Haven, New London, and Fairfield, and some discreet person of good conversation and well instructed procured to keep such schools for the encouragement and maintenance of such schoolmas- ters. It was further enacted that the inhabitants of each town in the colony should annually pay forty shillings for every one thousand pounds in their re- spective county lists, and proportionably for a lesser sum, towards the maintenance of the schoolmaster in the town where the same was levied ; and in such towns where the said levy should not be sufficient for the maintenance of a suitable schoolmaster, and there was not any estate given by charitable persons, or not sufficient, together with the levy aforesaid, for that use, in every such place a sufficient maintenance should be made up, the one-half thereof by the in- habitants of such towns and the other half by the parents or masters of the children that went to ' school. In this revision the same obligation was im- posed upon parents and masters that was contained in the code of 1650, relative to the training and edu- cation of children. The forty-shillings tax was col- lected in every town with the State tax, and paid pro- portionably to those towns only which should keep the school according to law. In 1708 a change in the school law was effected, so that the forty-shilling tax was made payable to the school committee, and this is the first mention of the appointment of a school committee distinct from the regular officers of the town. The provision requiring the money collected to be paid as above was repealed in May, 1726, re-enacted in 1728, and again repealed in 1750.

In 1712 another change was brought about by sub- stituting parishes for towns in the payment of the forty-shillings tax, ete. This is the first recognition of ecclesiastical societies in the management of com- mon schools, and was the first departure from the New England organization of common schools. By this act, however, the parishes were simply made school districts, and were still subordinate to the towns ; by degrees they came to occupy the place of towns in the system. Societies or parishes for relig- ious purposes were first established within the limits of incorporated towns to accommodate settlers too far removed from the old place of worship. About 1700 they were authorized to choose a elerk; in 1716, a committee; in 1717, a collector ; in 1721, a moderator ; and a treasurer in 1764. In 1726 a general law was passed providing for the organization of new socie- ties, and directing the time and manner of holding ing meetings. In 1717 the right of taxation for sup- port of the ministry was extended to schools, and by an act of 1795 the inhabitants were authorized to meet in a new capacity, and in 1798 this organization was perfected and substituted in the place of towns and ecclesiastical societies in our school system, and was continued until 1856, when the Legislature dis- solved these school societies and placed the school under the care of the town, thus returning to the first system of common schools established in Connecticut. It will be observed that up to 1714 the laws of Con- nectieut did not require the schools to be visited ; but that year an act was passed constituting the civil authority and selectmen a board of visitors, and di- recting them to report to the General Assembly any disorder or misapplication of the public money.

In 1717 the school laws were so changed that every society of seventy families were required to keep a school for eleven months of the year, and societies of less than seventy families half of the year, and the majority of householders in every parish or society were authorized to lay taxes for the support of the schools, and to choose a clerk and committee to order the affairs of the society. This was the first law con- ferring power upon societies to tax for support of schools.

From 1717 to 1750 but few laws were enacted con- eerning our schools, and those unimportant, save the one by which the seven townships belonging to the colony were disposed of and the avails applied to common schools. As this was the first fund consti- tuted by Connecticut for the benefit of her schools, I will give a brief history of it.

By the royal charter obtained in 1662 from King Charles, a title was secured to large tracts of uneul- tivated lands outside of the limits of the original townships, and the Legislature from time to time selected convenient tracts of land and laid them out into townships, and gave all proper encouragement to those who were willing to encounter the dangerous hardships of a new settlement. While many settle-

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ments were making in the northeastern part of the colony, a number of gentlemen from Hartford and Windsor in 1720 began the settlement of Litchfield, on the lands held in dispute by the Governor and company under the charter and the towns of Hart- ford and Windsor.

The town was laid out into sixty-four allotments ; thirteen of them were reserved for public uses, two for a clergyman, and three for schools. The origin of the controversy between the Legislature and Hart- ford and Windsor was this :

After the accession of King James II. to the throne of England, in 1685, the colony perceived that their chartered rights and liberties were in danger, and to preserve from the grasp of Sir Edmund Andros the lands unappropriated the General Court of Connecti- cut, on the 26th day of January, 1686, made a grant to said towns in the following words: "This court grants to the plantation of Hartford and Windsor those lands on the north of Woodbury and Matta- tuck, and on the west of Farmington and Simsbury to the Massachusetts line north, to run west to Housa- tonic River, provided it be not, or part of it, formerly granted to any particular person or persons to make a plantation or village." The design of this convey- ance, as stated by Dr. Trumbull in his "History of Connecticut," was that these towns should hold the land for the Governor and company or colony ; and as they had paid no valuable consideration for them, after the danger from Andros was past the Governor and colony claimed the land as fully as though no grant had been made. Hartford and Windsor, how- ever, on the strength of the grant of the court, and of their grant and settlement combined under it, deter- mined to persist in their claim and oppose the claim of the General Court. Finally, however, in 1726, the dispute was settled, and the General Assembly re- solved that the lands in controversy should be divided between the colony and said towns, and that the colony should have the western division, comprising the towns of Norfolk, Goshen, Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Salisbury, and Sharon; and Hartford and Windsor the eastern, comprising. Torrington, Bark- hampsted, Colebrook, Harwinton, Hartland, Win- chester, and New Hartford, and that Litchfield should not come into the division. The General Assembly appointed a committee to view these town- ships belonging to the colony, who reported in May, 1733, as their opinion that an act be passed by the Assembly granting all the moneys which shall be received from the sale thereof to the towns in the colony which were then settled, to be divided to them in proportion to the list of polls and ratable estate in the year last passed, to be secured and improved for- ever to the use of the schools kept in the several towns according to law.

This recommendation subsequently became the law of the colony, and in 1737 a committee was appointed to make sales of said land, and the moneys thus

realized and distributed constituted a fund for the support of common schools in the different towns of the colony.

In 1750 another revision of the laws took place, in which the main feature of the code of 1700 was re- tained, with some additional enactments concerning the funds of the Colony derived from the sale of the seven townships, the principal one being a law pro- viding that on any misapplication of the avails of said fund, the town misapplying should pay back to the Colony its share of said fund, and another pro- vision was that the selectmen and society committee were made a board to oversee and take care of said fund.

In 1766 a law was passed authorizing each town and society to divide themselves into proper and necessary districts for keeping their schools, and to alter and regulate the same as they shall have occasion, which districts shall draw their equal proportion of all public moneys belonging to such towns or societies, accord- ing to the lists of each district therein. By the prac- tical operation of the laws of Connecticut thus far cited, instead of embracing schools of different grades, was gradually narrowed down to a single district school, taught by one teacher in the summer and another in the winter, for children of all ages and in every variety of study. In 1784 the statutes were again revised, and that, too, by no less personages than Roger Sherman and Richard Law. At that period of our history the laws of Connecticut relative to com- mon schools embraced the following particulars : first, an obligation resting upon every parent and master not to suffer so much barbarism in any of their fam- ilies as to have a single child or apprentice unable to read the Word of God or the good laws of the colony, and also to bring them up to some lawful calling or employment, under a penalty for each offense. Second, a tax of forty shillings on every one thousand pounds of the lists of the estates was collected in every town with the State tax, and payable propor- tionably to those towns only which should keep the school according to law. Third, a common school in every society having over seventy families, kept throughout the year, and in every society with less than seventy families, six months of the year. Fourth, a grammarschool in every head county town to fit youth for college, two of which should be free. Fifth, in case of any deficiency arising in the payment of the teacher, after the amount raised by the forty-shilling tax and the local school fund, the sum required to be made up should be raised from the property of the society one- half, and the other half by 'a tuition fee to be paid by the parents or guardians of the scholars that attend school, paying alike to the head. Sixth, the selectmen and civil authority of each town or society were con- stituted a board of school visitors, and the selectmen were managers of all local funds belonging to the town or society, the interest of which was applied to school purposes. Seventh, societies were empowered

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

to divide their territory into school districts, and to tax themselves for purposes of common-school eduea- tion. In 1786 Connecticut surrendered to the general government for the benefit of the people thereof all its claims to a vast unappropriated domain stretching west beyond the western limits of Pennsylvania and New York, and which was included in her boundaries, as described, both in the charter of confirmation gran- ted by Charles the First, in 1631, to Lords Say and Seal, Lord Burk and others, and in the charter of government obtained from Charles II. in 1662, re- serving that portion of Ohio known as the Western Reserve, from the sale of which we derived our present school fund.

These lands were sold by order of the General Assembly in 1795 for $1,200,000, but what to do with the money was a most perplexing question. The General Assembly at first enacted that the moneys arising from the sale of the territory belonging to this State lying west of the State of Pennsylvania be, and the same is hereby established a perpetual fund, the interest whereof is granted and shall be appropriated to the use and benefit of the several ecclesiastical societies, churches, or congregations of all denomina- tions in this State, to be by them appropriated to the support of their respective ministers or preachers of the gospel and schools of education, under such rules and regulations as shall be adopted "by this or some future session of the General Assembly." The pas- sage of this resolution as a public act created a great deal of dissatisfaction throughout the State, and a repeal of this act was made a test question upon which the representatives were elected at the next election. The opponents to this measure finally triumphed, and at the next session of the Assembly this act was repealed. After an able and animated discussion as to the time and mode of sale, and the object to which the avails of the sale should be applied, in the public press, in town-meeting, in both branches of the Legis- lature, in every place and way in which the public mind could be reached. the subject was finally settled by the General Assembly at the May session of 1795, as follows :

That the land should be sold, and the avails should become and remain a perpetual fund, and the interest of the same should be applied to the support of schools in the several societies in the State, and divided among them according to the polls and ratable estate. By another section of this act, societies might by a two- thirds vote apply to the Legislature to have their pro- portion of said avails applied to the support of the ministry of all denominations in said society. This school fund was first controlled by a board of mana- gers ; during thirteen years it was managed by them, and the interest divided amounted to $426,757. The thirty-six bonds given by the original purchaser, and resting on personal security alone, had increased up to May, 1810, to nearly $500,000, most of which had from time to time been secured by mortgages on real estate.

In 1809, at the October session, a committee was appointed to look after the interests of said fund, and they reported that it would be best to intrust the care of the fund to one person.

In 1810 the Hon. James Hillhouse was appointed sole commissioner of the school fund, which office he held for fifteen years, and greatly improved the condition of the fund, increasing its value from $1,200,000 to $1,719,000.

The expense of keeping a district school in 1810 over the amount of the public money was appor- tioned among the proprietors of the schools according to the daily attendance; and in 1811 this was altered so as to authorize the apportionment according to the number of persons in attendance.

In 1818 the proprietors of factories and manufac- turing establishments were compelled by law to see that the children in their employ were taught to read and write and cipher, and that due attention is paid to the preservation of their morals. In 1818 our present constitution was adopted as the fundamental law of the State. By that instrument the school fund is consecrated as a perpetual fund in the following words : "The fund called the school fund shall re- main a perpetual fund, the interest of which inviola- bly appropriated to the support and encouragement of the publie or common schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof, and no law shall ever be made authorizing said fund to be directed to any other use than the en- couragement and support of common schools among the several school societies as justice and equity shall require." At several periods subsequent to 1820 efforts were made through the Legislature and elsewhere to improve the condition of our schools. At this time an impression seemed to prevail that the improve- ment in the common schools did not correspond with the increase of publie money derived from the school fund. So in order to make the money more avail- able, and deepen the interest in common schools, the General Assembly by repeated enactments has changed its legislation relating thereto. In 1810 a law was passed providing that the publie money should be divided according to the days of attendance of each person at school. The next year this law was so changed as to authorize the apportioninent of the public money according to the number of persons at- tending school. In 1825 the Hon. Seth P. Beers was appointed sole commissioner of the school fund. Under his administration, which lasted up to 1849, the fund increased and reached the sum of $2,049,482. The annual dividends to the several school societies in the State amounted to $97,815.16. Notwithstand- ing the splendid manner in which Mr. Beers man- aged the school fund, and the large increase of its dividends received and applied to the schools, there was a manifest lack of interest in their success on the part of the proprietors and parents of the children. To remedy this was the main object of the legislation

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of the State, which fell far short of its expectations. Nevertheless the General Assembly moulded its legis- lation to reduce our common schools to a more per- fect system, and at the time to impress on the public mind the great importance of education.

In 1836 the town deposits fund came into existence from the general government, by a distribution of certain surplus revenues between all of the States of the Union, this State receiving $764,670.60, which was distributed between the several towns in the State according to the population. One-half of the income, by a law of our State, was annually appropriated and used for the benefit of common-school education. In 1855 another law was passed dovoting all of the in- come of this fund to the support of common schools.

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 161

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317