USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 23
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Orlo J. Wolcott, "Jeweler and manufacturer of Silver table and tea Spoons, dealer in all varieties of Clocks, Watches, Jewelry, Stationery, etc., etc.," was located on the west side of the old turnpike, just opposite the road to
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the present Railroad Station. Mr. Wolcott's Jewelry store was burglarized in 1843, and Watches and Jewelry to quite an amount were stolen.
In the Library "Scrap-book" is found the following "Bit of History:"
"The early history of Thurston's Block, which is now being torn down, November, 1897, takes us back to names now forgotten in town, except by a few life-long residents. It was built by Amos Manley for a Jewelry Store some sixty years or more ago, and when in a few years Mr. Man- ley sold out his business to Orlo J. Wolcott, this building was bought by Oliver B. Butler, who occupied it as a shoe store until his death in 1866. It was afterward owned and occupied as a dwelling-house by Lockwood Perkins, now of Colebrook, then by Mr. Thurston, who added to it for a tin- shop and store. Mr. Wolcott built a new shop for himself, just south of this old Jewelry store, and lived in the old house which is still standing at the corner of "Station Place," until he built his house which is the one next to the "Bank Building." He occupied this house until his removal to Ripon, Wisconsin, in 1858, when he sold the house to Mr. Asa G. Pettibone, who was then the Cashier of the Norfolk Bank. The small Jewelry store was used for a va- riety of purposes after Mr. Wolcott left town, and has since been torn down.
Mr. Oliver B. Butler, dealer in Boots and Shoes, whose name is mentioned above, was for many years a well known business man and resident of the town. He came here when a young man and built a small shop just east of the green, near the site of the present residence of Mrs. Dr. Gidman, which he occupied until he bought the old Jewelry store of Mr. Manley, as is mentioned above. He was, as advertised, "Manufacturer, and dealer in all kinds of Boots and Shoes." He is mentioned at length elsewhere. This first shop of his was made into a small dwelling-house, and was for many years the home of "Aunt Bilhah Freedom."
THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE AND CONFERENCE ROOM.
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SCHOOLS.
We find but scant material for a history of the very early schools of this town, but such votes of the town and other record and mention of the schools as we have been able to find will be gathered in this chapter, not always in chronological order probably.
The manner of teaching as well as the matter taught in those later years of the eighteenth century would doubt- less seem very primitive to persons at the present day. In the "Annals of Winchester" there is an interesting account of a school exhibition in that town in the spring of 1794, from which I will quote, as it shows what the Winchester boys and girls of those days could do, and nothing of a sim- ilar record of the Norfolk schools of that day has yet come to light.
Mr. Boyd says: "Little of detail is known in respect to the schools supported in the districts prior to 1795. We know, however, that several schoolhouses were built, and that they swarmed with pupils. We know, too, that good teachers were employed, and that the mass of the people were well instructed in all the branches of common school education. We have before us some of the early reminis- cences of a lady born in 1786, which illustrate the school customs and mental culture at the period referred to, from which we extract her notice "of the great day of examina- tions and exhibitions," when eight district schools assem- bled in the large unfinished meeting-house. in the winter of 1793-4.
"The reading and spelling of the schools occupied the forenoon, and the afternoon was devoted to dramas, comedies, orations, etc. One corner of the church was enclosed in curtains, and each school took its turn behind the scenes to prepare for their special exhibi- tions on the stage. The late Deacon Levi Platt was the teacher of the school to which I belonged. Well do I remember the directions given by him to the little girls, as to dressing their hair for exhibi- tion, viz .: The night previous our mothers were to wet our heads with home-brewed beer, and our hair was to be combed and braided very tightly before going to bed. In the morning the last thing after we were dressed for the exhibition, the braids were taken out
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and the hair lay in waving lines all over our shoulders. Among the variety of things he taught us was the practice of spelling a whole sentence all together, or more particularly the first class.
"In the afternoon each school had its oration, poem, dialogue, comedy or tragedy, etc. The boys of this period were remarkable for their successful imitations of every kind of business. Mock courts were held. Writs, attachments, and executions were all made out in due form. A statute book of laws was compiled, specifying a great variety of things contrary to law, for which culprits would be arrested, tried and punished. Witnesses were summoned, examined, cross- examined, impeached, etc.
A newspaper was edited and published weekly, by some of the scholars. It was ruled in columns, had editorials, news, anecdotes, advertisements, etc. These boys at that time were none of them over twelve years old."
What a glimpse the report given above furnishes us of the teachers and the young people in the schools 100 years ago; of the mental activity, their resources in way of amusements and entertainments.
The writer well remembers what a great event 'examina- tion day' was in one of the small district schools here in Norfolk at the close of the winter term of school, fifty and more years ago; how we were reminded daily by our teacher for weeks beforehand, what we would be expected to know in our various studies, and what we would be asked to do on 'examination day, when Mr. Eldridge would be there,' and our parents and other visitors, and how the importance of being well prepared for that great event was held up before us for weeks in advance ;- a type of 'the dread judgment day.'
School districts were established in this town at an early day, as the records abundantly show, and schools that were up to the time were maintained. In 1762 Mr. Robbins, the first minister here, opened a high school, or Academy as it might now be called, in which, with other branches, he taught the languages, and fitted a large number of young men for College; continuing his school until the later years of his life.
December 21, 1767, in town meeting it was "Voted, that where ten families or more in any part of the town shall agree together to
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set up and keep a school among themselves, and shall do it to the acceptance and satisfaction of the selectmen of the town, they shall draw their part of school money in said town, according to their lists."
March 18, 1777. "Voted, that the middle district for schooling shall have liberty to set up a school house on the meeting house green, about four or five rods northerly from said meeting house, of 30 feet long and 20 feet wide." This first school house was built on the green, but nearly in front of where the Academy stands, on the S. E. side of the green. When the school house with the Conference room in the second story was built in 1819, where the stone Chapel now stands, on "the green," Mr. Lemuel Aiken owned the place and lived in the house just south, and he was not pleased at having the school house built in front of his land, thus taking the front of the best lot he had, and the best location anywhere around the green, and so long as he lived he never felt really reconciled to it.
December 14, 1780, it was "Voted, that from Goshen line on the road northwardly to and including the now dwelling house of Friend Thrall be made a distinct district for a school, and draw their pro- portion of public monies."
1783. "Voted to set off a school district taking in Titus Brown's Farm on the north, and to take in all the inhabitants south on Goshen road, Elias Balcom, and the two families of Sweets."
Quoting from Roys' History :- "We again find it interesting to trace their slow but sure progress in improvement in the incipient stage of the settlement. While they were engaged in the important pursuit of building their meeting house, sufficient it would seem from the zeal exhibited, almost entirely to engross their attention and occupy their time, yet they were not unmindful of the necessity of educating their children, and preparing them for future useful- ness. Schools were early established and encouraged by every means in their power. Limited indeed were the means ;- their funds were low and their books few. The following books composed the library of the pupil :- the Bible, the New England Primer, contain- ing the assembly of divines' Shorter Catechism, Dilworth's Spelling Book, containing a few pages of grammar, his Schoolmaster's As- sistant, containing the ground rules of arithmetic, and some rules quite too abstruse for the juvenile scholar. The writing scholar took his first lesson on the bark of the white birch, or was restricted to the use of a few sheets of paper whereon to learn that useful art. His indulgent and kind mother made his ink from the bark of the soft maple or the berries of the sumach. His ingenious father made him an ink-horn, properly so called, of the tip of a cow's horn, and set it in a round wooden bottom. Thus accoutered he hied away with cheerful steps to his school house, in some instances far dis-
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tant, there to spend the day in the sultry and confined summer heat. or the piercing cold of winter. The teachers were instructed from the same source and in the same way, taken for a few weeks from their domestic employments to "teach the young idea how to shoot, and pour instruction into the mind."
One still living, speaking of the district schools here three-quarters of a century nearly ago, says: "In the South End District we then had a large school, and one of the best in town, with the best of male teachers for the winter to be had in the region; men competent to teach Algebra and the higher Mathematics,-Astronomy, Chemistry, and other Sciences."
In those early days the only pens in use were quill-pens, and a necessary requirement of every teacher was ability to make these pens, which required some little skill and practice, in the use of a "pen-knife," and in the Yankee art of fine whittling, which art possibly not all the young la- dies of the present day possess.
Mr. Salmon Swift, a native and for most of his life a well known and respected resident of the town, now past four score years of age, who attended school in the centre dis- trict here, writes regarding early schools: "Sereno Petti- bone, brother of Judge Augustus Pettibone, was the first to teach a select school in town. He was thoroughly edu- cated, and a man of ability. He taught in the Conference- room. The lower room was always occupied by small chil- dren; sometimes they numbered as high as a hundred and over, and the school in the upper room was partly to re- lieve the pressure in the room below. Some of Mr. Petti- bone's scholars were Mr. E. Grove Lawrence, Dr. James Welch, Frederick Mills, and other young men of that day. I can recall the names of some of the teachers; there was a Mr. Cross, a Mr. Swift, and others. As I write the mem- ory of those childhood days comes back to me very vividly. The school-house, the door, with a split panel, the benches and walls covered with jack-knife carvings, and then the memory of the punishments that I received. I stood very high in that regard; much higher than anyone else in
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school, but somehow I never could account for it. That fact never seemed to excite the envy of the rest of the school.
"The teachers in that early day were, some of them, very cruel and tyrannical. I recall one by the name of George Duncan, who taught in the lower room. One of the older boys who no doubt had 'felt the halter draw,' indulged in a verse of poetry. It was this :-
" I saw the devil flying south ; He had George Duncan in his mouth. He turned around and dropped the fool, And sent him here to keep our school."
"I think Mr. Duncan was thrown out of school. At any rate the one after him, whose name I have forgotten, was thrown out by the large boys. He had a ferule about eigh- teen inches long, with square holes through it, that at every blow would raise a blister, when he feruled any of the pupils.
"Many funny things take place as we pass through life, which give a zest to our existence, and are indelibly fixed in our minds, although not of much consequence. Such a case was a boy about fifteen or sixteen years old who at- tended our school. He was bright enough, but a sad tru- ant to his books. He had to spell out his words, but when he thought he was all right for three or four words he read with great rapidity. The principal reading book in schools at that time was the Testament. We were reading where Christ says, "woe unto you ye blind guides who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." This boy read it with great rapidity, "strain at a gate and swallow a corn-mill."
I quote from an address read by Mr. Henry H. Eddy, Li- brarian at the Norfolk Library, at the "Celebration of its Tenth Anniversary, March 6, 1899." "As early as 1768 the town voted to open and support a school at the Center, if ten, or even six families were found who needed that help. This was the conduct of the town in matters of education during all the ensuing years, and in 1780 the parsonage,
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the grounds where the Robbins' School now stands, and the school lands were leased for 999 years. In 1796 the School Society was formed, and all school funds trans- ferred to their hands, as hitherto the church and state had been one in many cases, and all religious and secular duties had been directed by the church society.
"Rev. Mr. Robbins' school at the Parsonage was in a flourishing condition at this time, and Rev. Thomas Rob- bins in his diary makes mention of boys being refused entrance, as the complement of scholars was full; also of his examining his father's scholars from time to time, and at various intervals of having complete charge of them, while his renowned father was absent at Williams Col- lege attending to his duties as trustee of that institution, or perhaps at some neighboring town attending a confer- ence of divines.
"In 1798 Isaac Holt left a legacy of $45 to the society, the interest to be expended for the schooling of some worthy child. The first lady teacher of whom I have record is a Miss Phoebe Guiteau,-a member of the old Guiteau family of this town, which furnished several doctors and prominent officials to the community. She taught before 1800, but further than this there is no record. Between 1800 and 1819 Mrs. Sarah Reeder was the most prominent teacher,-a talented and accomplished lady, whose select school was well patronized, and the maps dated and made by the scholars have come down to this day. Miss Zilpah Grant was for a term a pupil of Mrs. Reeder.
"This school continued for many years, and at last a Mr. Stephen Peet was at the head of it. During this same period Mr. Sereno Pettibone held a school in the Butler house at the North End for the benefit of the families in that part of the town,-and at Pond Hill, then known as the Paug District, Miss Susannah Welch taught and flour- ished between the years of 1809 and 1816. As the number of scholars increased the Society felt the need of larger accommodations, and in 1819, at a cost of $1,000, built the old Conference Room on the site of the Battell Chapel.
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The upper part was used as a conference room for the church, and for many years also as a school-room, and the lower room for the Center school.
"Rev. Mr. Peet, the successor of Mrs. Sarah Reeder, was probably the first teacher to make use of the new build- ing, and he was helped from time to time by young college graduates, among them being a Mr. Henry M. Swift, a Mr. Cross, and a Mr. Willis.
"Among the many names of women who taught between the years 1820 and 1830, that of Miss Alice Welch seems to take the foremost place, and to be surrounded by mem- ories filled with affection and devotion. Some of the oldest towns-people can still recall the hours spent under her care and guidance. She was a woman of superior mind, and not only looked after the mental training of her schol- ars, but also of the spiritual, for she took especial pains every Saturday afternoon to give a scripture lesson to the children, either from a certain topic chosen beforehand, or from the "Assembly of Divines' Catechism."
"Monday morning was also a special half day set aside for religious exercises, when the children were made to repeat the sermon of the day before,-and the inattentive and forgetful ones did not always love the first exercise of the week or reach a high state of perfection in it.
"As was the custom in those days, she boarded in the different homes represented in her school, and it was al- ways a red letter day for a scholar when it came his turn to take the teacher home.
"She also taught two seasons in the East Middle district, and when she went to the people in the North district, many of her former pupils from the Center, notwithstand- ing the added walk to and from school, followed her, to have the benefit of her instruction. During the seasons of 1828 and 1829 she kept a select school in the Conference Room, and from there went to Mr. Joseph Emerson's School at Byfield, not returning again to Norfolk in her capacity as teacher.
"Another teacher of this period was Miss Susan Ames,
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who kept an independent school in a small building, for- merly the office of Mr. Edmund Aiken, an Attorney,-which stood between the old Aiken-Dowd house and the Eldridge residence. She in turn was succeeded by Miss Cornelia Rockwell of Colebrook, who came from there to take the school, and continued in charge during the period Miss Welch was teaching at the North End.
"The successor to Miss Welch as teacher of the school kept by her in 1828 and 1829 was Miss Eliza Norton. She was a woman of influence and character, and her name and memory are dear to all who attended her school. She continued her school in the Conference Room, while Miss Stark kept a school of different grade in the room below. Twenty pupils was the average for the school, patronized by most of the families in the Center. The elder Mr. Battell was deeply interested in it, and paid the tuition of two pupils and saw that the furnishings of the place were kept in good condition. A new stove appeared at one time, and the entire place was reseated at his expense.
"Miss Norton taught for most of the period between 1832 and 1836, when she was succeeded by her brother, John F. Norton of Goshen, who was so successful that by 1838 there were upwards of seventy pupils under his charge. The next year, the need of still greater accommodations being felt, an Academy Corporation was formed for the purpose of building an academy, and in 1840 such a building was erected on the east side of the Green, for the sum of $2,000. As the career of Mr. Norton had been so successful he was appointed first principal, and continued as such until du- ties outside of the town took him away." "John Foote Nor- ton, son of Dea. Lewis Mills Norton of Goshen, was born September, 1809. Graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary 1837. Spent some months travelling in Europe. Became principal of the Academy in Norfolk in 1838, which position he held for four years. Was pastor of a Church in Athol, Mass., and several other places. Died in Natick, Mass., Nov., 1892."
At a meeting of the Ecclesiastical Society April 29, 1839,
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it was "Voted to accommodate Rev. John F. Norton with the use of the Conference Room for his school for one year, he to be uninterrupted by any meetings during school hours, and without expense to him; and should there be wanted any ordinary and necessary repairs in consequence of his use of it, the expense shall be defrayed by subscrip- tion."
The writer feels fortunate in being able to insert here a copy of a "Catalogue of the Trustees, Instructors, Books used, Tuition, etc., of Norfolk Academy for the year 1840," this Catalogue having been preserved by the family of Ed- mund Brown, Esq., whose two sons and two of his daugh- ters were enrolled as students:
"Trustees.
Augustus Pettibone, Esq., President.
Benjamin Welch, Jun., M. D., Clerk.
Joseph Battelle, Esq.
Rev. Joseph Eldridge.
"Instructors. John F. Norton, Principal. Mrs. H. F. Norton,
Dudley Norton.
Hiram Gaylord.
Edward Norton,
Joseph Battelle, Jun.
Robert Norton,
Warren Cone."
Assistants."
"Norfolk Academy.
"This institution, situated in Norfolk, Litchfield County, Conn., has been in successful operation under the direction of its present principal for nearly two years. The place is healthy and easy of ac- cess; the inhabitants are moral; the government of the school is strict but mild, and it is the aim of the Instructors to make the course of studies practical and thorough.
Board, including washing, fuel and lights, may be obtained in respectable families at from $1.50 to $1.75 per week.
Tuition per quarter of eleven weeks.
For the common English branches $3.00.
For the higher English branches $4.00.
For the Ancient Languages and French $5.00.
The next Term will commence February 8 :- the Summer Term May 5 :- the Fall Term August 18 :- the Winter Term November 17.
Among the books used in the Academy are the following :- The Bible, Webster's Dictionary, National Preceptor, Reader's Guide, Smith's Grammar, Daboll's and Smith's New Arithmetic, Mitchell's Geography, Comstock's Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, Aber- crombies's Mental Philosophy, Burrett's Geography of the Heavens,
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Watts on the Mind, Goodrich's History of the United States, Whelp- ley's Compend of History, Playfair's Euclid, Day's Algebra, Flint's Surveying, Harris' Book-keeping, Manual of the Constitution of the United States, Boeuf's French Grammar. French Lessons, together with the standard preparatory works in the Latin and Greek Lan- guages.
The books used in the Academy can be obtained in the village at the current prices.
A neat and commodious edifice has been erected for the Institu- tion during the past season."
In the Library Anniversary address, further mention is made of the primary school, practically a 'kindergarten,' of which Miss Margaret Nettleton, late Mrs. Rollin Beecher, was the successful head, as follows :-
"The last of the old fashioned private schools was kept by Miss Margaret and Miss Desiah Nettleton between the years 1849 and 1871, in their house, now occupied by Mrs. Mary Aiken Curtiss. Morals and manners played as im- portant a part in its curriculum as any branch of learning. The great sunny room on the south was used for the school, and the boys and girls sat upon long benches placed across the room. Miss Margaret taught the pupils their letters, and by her gentle rule over them acquired an influence for good that made a lasting impression on the young boys and girls, and her face seemed beautiful to all her scholars. The Bible was one of the principal sources of in- struction, and each pupil recited a verse every morning, and by the time they were eight years old were supposed to know the names of the books of the Old Testament by heart. Miss Desiah, with other useful things, taught the children sewing, and both boys and girls were compelled to take up this useful branch of learning, and by the time they were through the school, could work on the pieced counterpanes of that day. The favorite mode of punish- ment was to shut the misbehaved in the narrow back hall- way, and leave them there in the dark until repentance came. The great honor was to be allowed to fill the water- pail at the spring, the other side of the brook, on the old parsonage grounds, and after trudging back with it, some-
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times losing much in the return journey, to ladle the water out to the other scholars, in the large tin dipper provided for the purpose."
Mr. William B. Rice succeeded Mr. Andrews as principal of the Academy, commencing in 1846, and during all his residence here he was a member of the School Board, and one of the School Visitors. He was a native of Williams- burg, Mass., a graduate of Williams College, and for twelve years taught the Norfolk Academy, being the most suc- cessful teacher the Academy ever had. While he was prin- cipal, the school was large, flourishing, and had a wide rep- utation, drawing, especially for the winter terms, pupils not only from this and the adjoining towns in this county, and from towns in Massachusetts, but also a considerable number of young men from New York City, Staten Island and vicinity.
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