USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown, Connecticut, past and present > Part 3
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With funds available, the Selectmen were relieved of much of the burden in administration of the schools. The Newtown School Society was formed in 1796 and took control for some forty years.
By 1839 the School Districts were granted powers to elect their own officers and to levy taxes, and for three-quarters of a century this was the method employed. Probably only in Connecticut could such a poor system have endured so long. Always a conservative State, not given to change, per- haps she prided herself on possessing qualities like unto her own grey stone walls; solid, fixed, uncompromising.
As the years passed, each District in the Town became to a large extent self-contained, like a collection of separate villages. Many had their own Church, a mill or factory and a store or two, as well as a School. The Districts continued to set their own courses of study, and although there was a Central Board of School Visitors, their recommendations appear to have been as often resented as followed.
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How the teachers made out is hard to comprehend. In 1842, Polly Beers was paid $1.50 per week. In 1846 the North Center School hired Hannah Fairchild at the extravagant sum of $2.50 per week-but she had to pay her own board. Supplying teachers was indeed a problem. Often the winter term was taught by a farmer with a little education, but the summer session might be in the hands of a very young girl who could claim only a district school · training: but if she happened to have a relation on the School Board her posi- tion was fairly secure. Of course she might be years younger than some of the boys in her classes, but that seemed not to matter.
From the present-day point of view, the schoolrooms of those times were hair-raising. In the early years only a fireplace provided heat, later to be replaced by a central wood-burning stove. Around the walls was a sharply sloping shelf which was used as a desk, too steep to keep the books from sliding off. Ranged in front of this, with their backs to the teacher, the pupils sat on hard wooden benches too high for their feet to rest on the floor. These devices of torture were deliberately designed to keep the young mind on the work at hand. (But did they ?- One questions.) As late as 1877 modern desks were voted down in one school; such luxury was no doubt considered degen- erating. Drinking-water often had to be fetched in a bucket from the nearest farm, and of course one dipper served everybody's needs. Sanitary arrange- ments would just better be skipped in this account! The value of firewood was deducted from the tuition of the student providing it, and when it wasn't provided, the school closed. These were the days of the famous McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, and pupils progressed, not by grades, but from Reader to Reader.
Over the long years the history of each District has its own "human interest," but in a brief outline such as this, the hopes, heartbreaks and satis- factions cannot be covered. But one situation in Gray's Plain district is too amusing to omit. About sixty years ago the Committeeman appointed his own daughter to be teacher, and though defeated for his office the next year, he maintained that the young woman was still authorized to hold her position. The incoming administration objected to this, and locked the girl out of the schoolhouse. Nothing daunted, she promptly conducted classes on the steps outside the building with her own brothers and sisters as scholars, the only children who turned up. Her father resented this situation, forced open the schoolhouse door and installed his daughter inside. Whereupon the other faction appeared, (armed, it was accused, with axes), ousted teacher and pupils, and locked up the schoolhouse again. Finally the matter was settled in favor of the newly elected Committee after an expensive lawsuit which kept the school closed for seven months. At last it was re-opened to the blowing of horns, flaunting of placards and general rejoicing throughout the District.
After such a tale, perhaps it is not surprising to learn that dissatisfaction with many of the District Schools caused private institutions to be organized in several parts of Town: Taunton, Main Street and Sandy Hook, each of which continued for varying lengths of time.
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The founding of the Newtown Academy in 1837 was brought about by the conviction that education should not stop at the District School level. Money was privately subscribed and the Academy was built on the site of the Newtown Savings Bank. It was immediately popular and flourished with great- er or less success and in several different buildings until 1902.
By this time the need for a free public high school was so obvious that the Town rented part of the Academy building and the High School was established. Unfortunately the funds appropriated for education were never sufficient, teachers' salaries were too low and services were non-existent. In 1916 the State Board of Education disapproved of the Newtown school system, a matter of mortification in the Town's history.
About this time many dissatisfied parents withdrew their children and again formed a school of their own. When the High School burned down in 1920, both factions reunited and started afresh in the basement of Trinity Church.
At this point, that Patron Saint of Newtown, Miss Mary Elizabeth Hawley, steps into the picture. Aware of the crisis in the Town's educational system, Miss Hawley in 1922 gave a large sum for the construction of The Hawley School, and Mr. Cornelius B. Taylor donated Taylor Field for a playground at the same time.
With Newtown's educational problems happily solved as of that date, this historical outline of the school system will close.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
It would seem that Newtown was too remote from the contest of England against the French and Indians in 1757 to be at all concerned by it, but such is not the case. We know that thirty men from the settlement enlisted in the King's forces during that year, and the death of two has been recorded.
Also Newtown was made aware of the struggle for supremacy between the Mother Country and France by a picturesque incident which brought the war home to all. This was the result of the British seizure of Nova Scotia in 1755. The tragic story of the deportation of the Acadians is familiar to most of us through Longfellow's "Evangeline", but it may be a surprise to learn that we had an Evangeline of our own here in Newtown.
When the British wrenched the Acadians from their homes, they scattered some seven thousand or more of them in the Colonies from Maine to Louisi- ana, and Connecticut was forced to accept her share. Three hundred of the unhappy people who were landed in New Haven were distributed around among the neighboring settlements, and Newtown received a family of husband
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and wife, a son and a daughter. At once (April, 1756) the Town appropriated a "sum of suitable measure to provide for the French family dwelling among us," and a few months later a committee was instructed "to take a view and pitch upon a place to build a small house for the neutral French family among us, and to allow them as much land for the use of and benefit of a garden as they shall judge, the Town bearing the expense thereof."
For seven years a Committee "to take care of ye French Paul" provided for the strangers. The son was "bound out" to Zadock Sherman and presum- ably was taught a trade, as was customary in those days.
The last entry in the Records concerning the family is dated April, 1763. The Town could not send them away nor force them to leave, but in that year it could and did give them "free liberty to move out of Town and go a-visiting their relations or friends."
What became of them? Did they ever return? Did the daughter marry a Newtown boy? We shall never know, but let us hope that Newtown's Evan- geline met a happier fate than that of Longfellow's heroine.
"THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN HATH ABDICATED THE GOVERNMENT "י.
It is tragic that the history of a quiet country Town like ours cannot be told without recording the outbreak of war, with all its attendant disruption and distress.
The revolt against the British Crown of course did not come about sud- denly, and Newtown was aware of the gathering storm clouds. But for many of the townspeople the situation was peculiarly unhappy because of the strong Tory sentiment cherished here.
Connecticut has been called "the land of steady habits," and some of the conservative country districts were reluctant to give up loyalty to the Mother Country. In 1770 half of the 350 families in Newtown were members of the Church of England, and other ties were strong. All through the years, largely due to the accessibility to the seaports, Connecticut citizens had not been entirely out of touch with the homeland.
Few decisions could try men's souls more than those faced by our fore- bears. Evidently they could hardly believe that the situation was actually real, because on March 6, 1775, the Town officials sent a "memorial" to the Gen- eral Assembly asking if "ye unhappy Diference that now Subsists between the parent State and her colonies" can be true, "or is it all a geast ?"
The men of the settlement were not unfamiliar with military practice and discipline. The Train Bands of the Colony had operated since 1650. All men
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over sixteen (Church officials excepted) had been taught to bear arms and to "have in continual readiness a good muskitt or other gunn fitt for service." As far back as 1734 the inhabitants were taxed to provide the Town with "pouder, Bullits & flints."
The Tories paid dearly for their loyalty to the King. In several cases people fled to Canada and their property was confiscated. In one instance a husband escaped while his wife remained to struggle with the farm. The brave woman was left unmolested and in this way she saved the property until her husband's return.
The Tories learned to hide their guns (and themselves) under the barn or elsewhere when raiding parties of Continentals descended upon them. A favorite pastime of the raiders was to eat up the food supplies of the household . and to poke with bayonets any Tory found in bed.
A letter from General Washington to one of his officers warned that this was "a very disaffected part of the country and the Tories will be desirous to give any information in their power." Shortly before, a Newtown man, Robert Thompson, had been hanged here as a spy. The Records give us no details of the case.
It was reported to the General Assembly in 1775 "that on or about the 23rd day of November, 1775, there were a number of Tories in said Town (Newtown) inimical to the United States; and that about 200 men, the friends of Liberty under the command of Lieut. Col. Ichabod Lewis, proceeded to Newtown and remained there two days, in reducing and disarming said Tories." One can imagine what was meant by "reducing and disarming."
The first Act of the Connecticut General Assembly in October, 1776, was to approve and uphold the Declaration of Independence. Newtown had no representatives listed at that session. Whether none were elected or whether they were Tories and refused to give approval is not known. The Town had been sending delegates to the Assembly since 1747, but an Oath of Fidelity "to the Government established in this State under the authority of the people" was now required of all holding office. Perhaps the pill was too bitter for the Newtown Representatives to swallow.
Although no action of the war took place in Newtown, the burning of Danbury in 1777, the skirmish in New Haven in 1779 and the winter en- campment of General Putnam in Redding made every nearby community fully aware of the conflict.
In spite of the Tory sentiment, the Town officially was loyal to the new Government. Many men enlisted in the Continental Army. Caleb Baldwin, Town Clerk like his son after him, (together they served the Town seventy- eight years), was promoted to the rank of Major. The Selectmen carrying on at home, duly handled the problems presented in obtaining the Town's share of salt and of "pigg" iron allotted by the State. Caring for the families of the soldiers was entrusted to Jabez Botsford and Richard Fairman. Another com- mittee (Jabez again, Job Burmill and David Curtis) was authorized to draw on the Town Treasury to provide clothing for the soldiers.
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Twice smallpox broke out and the officials had that to cope with too. At first they approved of inoculation as a means to prevent its spread, later the method was "negatived in full in open Town Meeting."
There are several references in the Records to "Unfriendly Persons in Town." Die-hard Tories, presumably, who either held out against the Oath of Fidelity, or who took it under suspicion of insincerity. No quarter was granted even to home-town boys who had joined the British forces: when Nathan and Calvin Turner deserted from the King's Army and returned, they were ordered out of Town.
On the other hand there was "no objection to the wifes and Families of Ephraim Betts and Elias Skidmore Repairing to Long Island there to Tarry with their Husbands Going under the Direction of the Authority and Select- men." Today this sounds like an odd arrangement.
Again and again the Town's quota of men was filled, though sometimes with difficulty. Supplies of flour, beef and pork were packed in barrels and forwarded to the forces in the field, as well as supplied to the fatherless fami- lies at home. In 1778 War Loans were solicited. Of the nine contributions from Newtown, two were made by women.
With the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781, the war was brought to a close, but recruits were drawn from Newtown to fill the Army and the State Guard as late as 1783. Gradually the men came home, the fields were planted again, the Town threw off the nightmare of war and accustomed itself once more to the pursuits of peace.
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Spot
*
FE
ROCHAMBEAU
entering NEWTOWN
THE FLOWER AND CHIVALRY OF FRANCE IN NEWTOWN
His full name was Maréchal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Count de Rochambeau. He was fifty-six. The years had left only wisps of fine graying hair on his freckled skull so that now the scar of an old cavalry saber wound -from the Battle of Minden-was revealed. Somehow, his years had been the hardest of all possible years, yet he was not old, he told himself. Long before he was only Jean Baptiste Donatien and now he was lieutenant general of the armies of France, leader of the most garrulous, dashing, and betitled swarm of young soldiers the world had ever seen; Pontgiband; du Bourg; Berthier ; the Comte de Deux-Ponts; de Chastellux. When chosen to lead them in this secret thrust against Britain, it made him flush now to remember his words: "I swear to serve his Majesty in this commission with all my zeal, until my dying hour." He was overjoyed to have been rescued from oblivion to lead the armies once more.
He and his division of French troops had spent a very agreeable winter and spring of 1780-1781 in Newport, Rhode Island. In his diary, Berthier recorded his impressions of this new country: "One would not believe a man would ever think of seducing a girl-girls having extraordinary freedom. Their parents continually leave them alone with young men-they kiss without consequences. When two lovers decide they are suited to each other they tell their parents and from that moment are constantly together, even to sitting up half the night talking after their parents have gone to bed-all without taking liberties. In Connecticut it is even the custom for two lovers to retire during the day-especially the evening-and to pass several hours together on
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a bed-they call this bundling-and talk over their future happiness. I have gone into several bedrooms and found them thus, which didn't disturb them in the least." Newport was "peopled by honest people of all religions, living simply and without jealousy of any kind. Their blood is extraorinarily pure. All the women are pretty and fresh, which is due to the regularity and sobri- ety of their life and the very healthy climate." No wonder they regretted leaving this Utopia, but leave they must for orders had come from General Washington to join his forces in his operations against the British.
So the westward march began on June 18th from Providence where they had been camped since the 8th. In all, Rochambeau's forces consisted of six hundred artillery, six hundred cavalry, and thirty-six hundred infantry. The artillery and the infantry made up four regiments, marching a day apart. To set an example, some of his officers walked the long distances at the head of their regiments. The people of the countryside were enthusiastic over his resplendent French army. "Magnificent in appearance, superb in discipline, with banner and music, and all the pride and pomp of war, it passed in four divisions --. They were followed day after day by long lines of baggage- wagons and stout carts bearing chests of silver money guarded by French soldiers." When they reached Hartford, the press was extravagant with praise. "A finer body of men was never in arms, and no army was better furnished with everything necessary for a campaign. The exact discipline of the troops, and the attention of the officers to prevent any injury to individuals have made the march of this army through the country very agreeable to the in- habitants; and it is with great pleasure we assure our readers, not a single disagreeable circumstance has taken place."
While these regiments were on the march through Hartford, Farmington, Middlebury and Woodbury, the cavalry corps of the Duc de Lauzun was covering the left flank to the southward. They passed through Derby, crossed the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers and struggled up a steep hill into New Stratford (now Monroe). "Weary as the army was with the ascent, an array of six hundred men with all the splendor of gold lace and nodding plumes, the horses bravely caparisoned and the retinue of 'five-cattle teams' that had been hired to convey the heavy baggage was a rare sight." This flanking op- eration had been timed well, for on the same day, June 28th, Rochambeau and his first regiment reached the Housatonic River at Newtown.
It wasn't as wide nor as deep a river as the Connecticut which they had been ferried across the week before. On the direct line of march was a pole bridge, strong enough for light equipment and the infantry. The heavy equip- ment must use the fording place. The most difficult pieces were the siege guns and the brass mortars, squat iron buckets that weighed four tons each, stand- ing no more than three feet high, capable of arching a hundred pound iron ball high into the air so it landed with earth shaking force as if dropped vertically from above. The muzzles were plugged, vents capped and eight teams of oxen strained to haul them up the further bank and woeful was the labor with poles and floats when a rolling rock broke a gun carriage wheel.
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But cross they did for these guns were necessary in Washington's plan to reduce Clinton's fortifications around New York and capture the city.
As the troops and equipment made the crossing they took the road di- rectly away from the river, past apple orchards and farms somewhat remini- scent of Normandy except for the stone walls that had lined the road all the way from Providence and through fields rippling with ripening wheat and that strange grain, maize, or corn, as some called it. The scouts were directing the army to Newtown, to the camping ground in the meadows southwest of the village.
On the evening of June 28th, Count Rochambeau was established in the Inn across the road from the church with a pock-marked rooster weathervane. He had met the local citizens with their strange foreign names like Beardslee, Fairchild, Brisco.
Intermittently for three days the troops marched past the Inn. Rocham- beau was proud of his men-they had obeyed his orders and there had been no trouble with the citizenry in all the long march. As he watched them come up the hill from the river he realized that they made a thrilling spectacle for these country people. The splendor of the uniforms must be beyond their imagining-the Bourbonnais in black and red, the Saintonge in white and green, Royal Deux-Ponts in white and the artillery in blue with red facings, white spatter dashes and red pompons. Even their hats, peaked fore and aft, were different from the American three-cornered cocked hat.
As the troops passed, summer sun glistening on the cannons, Rocham- beau considered his many problems. Had he adequately guarded all ap- proaches to the town? What did it signify that Clinton had moved troops from Long Island to New York? Would a force of British be moved up the coast by boat to Fairfield, marched overland twenty miles to strike him in his present disorganized state? Would this strange new war be decided by a battle at this backwoods town of Newtown?
It had been tentatively planned that Washington would meet him at New- town, and in fact the general had already moved his army from West Point across the river to the east bank of the Hudson some fifty miles away. Why hadn't he received word from Washington?
Which was the better plan, to lay siege to New York, reduce Clinton's fortifications with his so laboriously moved cannon and the guns of de Grasse's ships of line, and attack with their combined twenty or thirty thousand soldiers? Or should the combined armies dash madly south some five hundred miles as that boy Lafayette wanted and capture Cornwallis in Virginia? Neither plan looked too feasible, but then in a war of maneuver over vast distances, nothing ever looked too feasible.
Would the wheelwrights be able to repair the rolling equipment-how long would it take to regroup his army-how much food could the town fathers supply? A knock on the door. A young Continental officer-ah, news from Washington.
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"Lieutenant Colonel David Cobb with dispatches from General Washing- ton."
"Yes, Colonel." A mere boy, and a colonel? The dust on his uniform he could understand, but did it have to be so threadbare? Well, maybe the Ameri- cans could use some of the 6,000,000 livres coming from France on new uniforms for the staff officers. "You will find refreshments in the dining room" -they didn't call him "Papa" Rochambeau for nothing. And now the dispatch.
Camp near Peekskill, 27 June 1781
Sir: I have the honor of receiving your Excellency's favor of the 23rd instant from Hartford. It would have given me the greatest pleasure could I have made it convenient to meet you at Newtown, but independently of many arrangements which are necessary at the first taking of the field, I am detained by the hourly expectation of the Chevalier-de-la-Lauzun. I am pleased to find that your idea of the position which will be proper for the troops under your command coincides with my own and I shall be happy in giving your quarter- master general every assistance in reconnoitering and making out your camp. Lieutenant Col Cobb, one of my aids-de-camp, will have the honor of delivering this letter and will return to me with any dis- patch or message your Excellency may wish to communicate, or should you rather incline to come forward from Newtown before the army Col Cobb will be proud to attend you. I shall be much obliged if your Excellency will present to Count de Barras by the next occasion my sincere thanks for the readiness with which he was pleased to accept the proposition I had the honor to make him through your Excellency. I am, &c.,
George Washington
The Count de Rochambeau
On June 30th an urgent dispatch arrived from Washington requesting that Rochambeau "push on his troops with greater haste than he now intends, and by a different route from that now in view" in order to participate in a surprise maneuver. The utmost secrecy was urged due to the Tory elements about.
Reply:
Newtown, June 30, 1781
Sir: I was at Count de Rochambeau's this evening when I received your Excellency's dispatches. General Chastellux was immediately sent for, and the heads of departments consulted on the new intended route of the Army. The Count inquired whether your Excellency was acquainted with the removal of the Yagers and some other troops
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from Long Island to New York. I assured his Excellency was per- fectly acquainted with it and all the other movements of the enemy at New York and that your Excellency would never undertake a matter of this kind but upon certain intelligence and the surest ground of success. The Count was perfectly satisfied with the plan proposed and assured me that duty as well as inclination prompted him to comply with your Excellency's wishes. Orders are accordingly given for the march of the first brigade in the morning, and the Duke's legion which is now at New Stratford will undoubtedly march at the time proposed, 12 o'clock.
The rest of the army will follow when the other division arrives which comes up to-morrow. The Count in his letter wishes an answer from your Excellency by to-morrow night. It would be more agree- able if it came sooner. I am, &c.,
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