USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 16
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15. The scholarly and cultural backgrounds of the Mather family of Lyme are forcefully presented in Mather, The Lineage of Richard Mather.
16. Roberts, Historic Towns of the Connecticut River Valley, pp. 59-61.
172 Educational History of Old Lyme.
Curdy Fund is a connecting factor in the present relationship between the department of education in Yale University and the board of education at Old Lyme.
From these brief histories one can understand something of the fiber of family life in this quiet agricultural town. Proud of its English ancestry each family wove into its Puritan sim- plicity a natural love of the aristocratic: land ownership, po- litical position and power on the sea. Its large number of able men testify, in a measure, to the general advantage of being well born, while the majestic trees, broad streets and fine homes bear witness to the refinement of their taste as builders.
Many other families not included in this brief survey have made their contributions to the social heritage of Old Lyme. Together they have created and perpetuated, through a con- tinued devotion to the ideals and ingenuity of their fore- fathers, a social environment which contains many of the cul- tural characteristics of their early English heritage. Old Lyme today is owned and controlled to a large extent by the descendants of these early families. Shipping and agriculture have all but disappeared, but the wealth which these indus- tries created still maintains many of the present generation on the large estates of their ancestors. The dominant group is still "Puritan" in religion and "Federalist" in politics, with that rich complement of cultural advantage which comes through the circumstance of a favorable social heritage.
The remainder of the population participates in the commu- nity life that is so engendered and accepts without antagonism the limitations which the social situation provides. They find personal satisfaction in sharing the unique reputation which has come to Old Lyme as a result of its ancient lineage and distinguished sons; they adjust themselves to the restrictive elements in its highly stratified social life and find serenity in its enduring beauty and financial security. Such a social herit- age has played a major role in the endless functioning of edu- cational experience.
VI.
The Development of Public Schooling in the New Town of Old Lyme, 1855-1935.
T HE incorporation of the area of the first ecclesiastical society of the ancient town of Lyme into the new town of Old Lyme in the year 1855 set apart as a political unit one of the oldest settlements in the state. It was into this section that Mathew Griswold led his followers shortly after the transfer of the Saybrook land and fort to the Connecticut colony in 1644, and here it was that the Rev. Moses Noyes came, in 1666, as a leader of the established church to aid in the incorporation of the town of Lyme. With them and their successors we have retraced, in as great detail as their records permit, all that can be known of the manner of life in those other days. We have studied their political organization, their religious life and practices, their economic needs and assets and the resulting social structure. In this situation we have watched them develop a system of public schooling suited to the fundamental needs of a widely scat- tered agrarian population. We have moved forward from a condition of early isolation and Indian warfare, through a period of social, religious and economic homogeneity, into a state of wide social diversity. We have passed through the hazardous years of bitter conflict and difficult social adjust- ment within the state and are now, in 1855, emerging into a period of better understanding and real organization.
The local social history of this period is sufficiently current to be familiar. It has been largely one of social survivals. The people have settled more firmly into the land of their fore- fathers. Family histories and family possessions have served as the basis of social status. Religious attitudes have followed along inherited lines, and political affiliations, changed some- what with the coming of woman's suffrage, have tended to follow the early Congregational-Federalist pattern.
I74 Educational History of Old Lyme.
Industry as such has played a very small part in the current history of Lyme. In 1865 I. O. Lay was listed among the manufacturers of the state, but shipping at that time had long since declined and manufacture was at best sporadic. This was from the beginning a period of intensive farming, dairying, sheep raising and gardening, but in more recent years even farming has declined.1 Sheep and cattle are few and garden- ing is in the main restricted to family needs. Little hay or grain is cultivated and the livestock which is raised has little commercial value. This livestock makes its greatest contribu- tion as a part of the pastoral scenes for which Old Lyme is now famous.
During these seventy-five years the population of Old Lyme has declined from 1,304 to 946. A similar decline, with a slight upward turn following 1900, appeared in the school census. The permanent population is largely of old stock rep- resenting some of the earliest settlers in the original town. The remainder of the population, and a very considerable part from the point of view of wealth, is made up of transient residents who are attracted either by the artist colony or by the unusual serenity of the place. They contribute greatly to the commercial life of the town and many, through their rare achievements, have added to its enviable reputation. At the same time their presence in large numbers has tended to raise the valuation of property far beyond its worth to the perma- nent settlers and has in some instances brought real hardships upon them. It is fair to say that this situation has been the basis of some very definite conflict of feeling not easily over- looked.
With these successive changes in economic life there has been here, as elsewhere, a trend toward higher specialization and less cooperative home and community enterprise. Church affiliations have grown equally diversified and town govern- ment has become the responsibility of highly specialized paid officers. With these changes the broad cooperative experiences which constituted the participating educational program of
1. Baker, Statistical Chart of New London County, 1854.
175
Public Schooling, 1855-1935.
earlier years have been taken over by skilled workmen. Co- operation as a method of handling public works has been re- placed by a system of specialization and noninterference. Similarly in the home, mechanical devices have replaced much of the earlier hand labor and household arts have been dis- placed by commercial products. Also, with the improvement of transportation and the increase in local land values, farm- ing has rapidly declined.
With these changes in the general way of living the posi- tion of the school has also changed. Before 1850 the school was an inconspicuous adjunct in the life of the people. Educa- tion was a part of the general life experience, while schooling, in Lyme as in the state generally, was a device for providing the minimum tool subjects required by law.
After 1850, with the great changes in the general character and tone of public life, schooling became rapidly more specific and more detailed. State legislation, under the stimulating leadership of Henry Barnard, faced the responsibility of a free compulsory-school system and Old Lyme with other towns encountered the problem of adjusting itself to a vigor- ous state program of more diversified and more centralized schooling.
In 1855, at the time of incorporation, the new town of Old Lyme had eight school districts. These were the same eight schools that had been organized in the First Ecclesiastical Society of Lyme before 1766 and the same eight districts that were laid out immediately after the Revolutionary War in 1783. With the exception of the Center School, which was in its third location on Lyme Street, these eight district schools bore the same names and were in the same places as when they were originally established. These eight district schools constituted the public-school system of Old Lyme at a time when the district school, the district-school committee, the rate system and all restricted local school practices were under the direct fire of the state.
The abolishment of school societies in 1856 was followed directly by a series of acts designed to establish a new system of public education in which the control of schools was re-
176 Educational History of Old Lyme.
turned to the towns. As this system developed, the schools of Old Lyme, like the schools of other towns in the state, were reorganized to meet the public demands. The details of this change, as they are to be found in the town and state records between 1855 and 1935, will constitute the last link in our study of education and schooling in Old Lyme, Connecticut. We shall study these in relation to the evolving state pro- gram, believing that the conditions to be found in Old Lyme are important not only for their local significance but also because they are typical of conditions which existed in many towns in Connecticut.
The decade following the abolishment of school societies was a period of rapid transition in the educational practices of Connecticut. Many new and somewhat revolutionary educa- tional objectives were set up and laws for their enforcement came in very close succession.
The compilation of the school laws for 1860 included many of these new enactments. Towns were to provide for the sup- port of schools; school districts were to remain as in school societies; powers and duties of school societies were to cease; records of school societies were to be deposited with town records; school officers were to remain in office; the town was to hold the local school fund; school visitors were to prescribe rules and studies; school visitors were to examine teachers, visit schools and make returns, and also to issue certificates of examination and approbation of teachers; teachers were to keep registers;2 the board of school visitors was to be elected annually; selectmen were to have the care and management of schools; school business was to be transacted in town meet- ing; and school districts were to fix the rate of tuition, with the amount limited. This rate was fixed in 1860 at not over $6.00 per year for a common school.3 In this manner legisla- tion affecting schooling became more abundant and more de- tailed.
In 1859 the drive against school districts was embodied in a law which provided for the closing of all district schools with
2. Report of the State Superintendent of Schools, 1864, p. 54.
3. Ibid., p. 23.
I77
Public Schooling, 1855-1935.
an attendance of twelve or less. Of the forty-nine such schools in the state in 1856, twenty-nine were closed in the three years preceding 1859 and others disappeared soon after. Coupled with this was the drive for graded schools and high schools in large population centers. Subsequently, in 1861, Connecticut recorded 5 high schools and 148 graded schools.
Also, with the intensive program for teacher preparation, came the plea for tenure in office. Over fifteen hundred teachers had attended the normal school at New Britain and increasing numbers held their positions for successive years.4 Simultaneously a gradual change was taking place in the em- ployment of teachers. More young women than young men were engaged as teachers in the district schools of the state. Such was already the case in Old Lyme in 1861 when three men were engaged at an average salary of $26.00 per month and five women at an average salary of $14.00 per month.5 The number of pupils per teacher was limited to forty or fifty. The greatest need of the schools of Old Lyme at this time, as given in the school visitors' report of 1862, was "more care on the part of district committees to secure thor- oughly qualified teachers and greater interest and liberality on the part of parents and friends generally in the common school cause."6
With the simultaneous improvement of public schools and the increasing financial pressure of war between 1855 and I 865, academies and seminaries decreased as high schools in- creased. Of the nearly fifty academies and seminaries incorpo- rated by the general assembly between 1793 and 1860 less than twelve continued in 1865. This alone was a significant change.
In the new town of Old Lyme school affairs were slowly introduced into the town reports. The first such reference ap- pears in the record of the routine business of the fourth town meeting held on October 6, 1856, when six school visitors were elected: Thomas S. Swan and Robert Champion for three years, David Morley and David S. Brainard for two years,
4. Report of the Connecticut State Board of Education, 1860, p. 13.
5. Ibid., p. 38.
6. Ibid., 1862, p. 33.
178 Educational History of Old Lyme.
and Russell S. Chadwick and Edgar B. Smith for one year. During succeeding years two school visitors were elected, each of whom were to serve for three years.
Beginning with that same meeting there was an annual re- port from the treasurer of the town deposit fund. The princi- pal at that time was $3,927.II. These reports continued until October 2, 1865, when it was voted "that the Town Treasurer make use of the money now in the hands of the Treasurer of the Deposit Fund and apply the same in payment of Town debts giving a Treasurer's Note for the same-also to make use of the funds that may hereafter be paid into the Treas. in the same way."" It appears that the town's expenses in furthering the war made this loan necessary.
The chief school business of 1859 was the receipt of a peti- tion from "Sundry individuals in the 3rd School District ask- ing for an extension of the south line of their district to the 'New Road' so called that leads to Higgins Wharf." This ex- tension was granted and ran to the Lieutenant River. This constituted the new southern boundary of the Sill Lane School.
During the five years between 1855 and 1860 only seven of the district schools are mentioned, but there is no report showing which seven are so included. In 1860 eight schools are referred to when a meeting of district representatives was called to consider "a school of higher grade."8
No further school business is recorded until 1864 when a committee of three persons, D. S. Brainard, James Griswold and T. S. Swan, was appointed for the purpose of reporting some plan for the improvement of schools. They were to re- port at an open meeting to be held on November 8. At this meeting they presented the following significant resolution9 regarding school consolidation:
Resolved that on the - day of - A. D. 18- the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and eighth school districts of this town shall be dissolved.
7. Old Lyme Town Report, 1865, October 2.
8. Ibid., 1860, October 1.
9. Ibid., 1864, November 5.
179
Public Schooling, 1855-1935.
That from and after said date all the territory now composed in the Ist, 2nd and 3rd districts with the inhabitants thereof shall be consolidated into a new district to be called the first union school dis- trict and all the territory now comprised in the fifth, sixth and eighth districts with the inhabitants thereof shall be consolidated into a new district to be called the 2nd Union School District and said con- solidated new districts shall be to all intents and purposes school dis- tricts of the Town of Old Lyme with all the corporate rights, duties and powers by law pertaining to school districts.
The Selectmen shall warn meetings to be held in each of said new districts on the - day of 18- at I o'clock P.M. for the Ist Union District at the Conference House and for the 2nd Union district at the School House in the present 5th District to elect officers for the said districts respectively to provide for selling or otherwise disposing of the corporate property of the same and for purchasing land and buildings or erecting suitable School Houses and maintain- ing and establishing schools of two or more grades in said dis- tricts.
It was then voted to adjourn the meeting until the first Monday in April 1865, and no further mention of consolida- tion was made until five years later when on October 4, 1869, a similar committee of three was chosen to report a plan for schools. This committee voted that the present system be continued, but that a new plan be presented at a meeting held by adjournment in April 1870. A committee of eight, one member from each district, was then voted to hold public examinations of pupils at the end of each school term. These public examinations were to be conducted by the school visitor. They were to be announced through printed posters for five days before the examination and were to be not more than one-half day in length. At the same meeting a committee of eight was voted "whose duty shall be to prepare a plan in ac- cordance with the laws of the State for a union of the school districts of the Town into two union districts."
An appropriation of $ 1,300 was also made for school pur- poses with the added stipulation "that the treasurer be di- rected to pay only the sum appropriated for schools." This meant that the interest from the town deposit fund and school
180 Educational History of Old Lyme.
fund were absorbed in this amount and the actual appropria- tion from town taxes was inconsiderable. Similarly, in 1871, "It was voted to appropriate for the support of schools during the next year such sum as shall with the receipts from the public funds for school purposes make in all the sum of Seven- teen Hundred Dollars and no more." This sum was to be distributed sixty-five dollars to the second district and sixty dollars to each remaining school district and the residue to be divided in proportion to the enumeration of January 1872. This indicates the dual system of distribution in practice at that time and the relation between local practice and state policy with regard to consolidation.
The Board of Education, created in 1865 to succeed the Superintendent of Schools of the state, strongly recommended the consolidation of district schools, believing that they pre- vented the further establishment of graded schools and in general checked progress. The following important conclu- sions were drawn from the results of the statistical survey con- ducted by the state board in support of their recommenda- tion: Connecticut was the richest state in the Union with the greatest wealth in proportion to population; Connecticut was first in the amount of improved land; Connecticut was among the first in the variety and value of her manufactured goods; and Connecticut had a large and increasing foreign population requiring schools. The position of Old Lyme with reference to education was clearly indicated. Of all the children enu- merated in the state, one-fourth were not in attendance at any school; and of the fifty-five towns listed according to the amount of money raised for each child enumerated, Old Lyme stood lowest for New London county and fourteenth from the lowest in the state.
The statistics on salaries in the state for the same ten years, 1856-1866, showed that the salaries for male teachers had increased from $29.00 to $49.00 per month and for female teachers from $17.25 to $22.60.1ยบ Statistics for Old Lyme were typical of this general conclusion.
10. Report of the Connecticut State Board of Education, 1866, p. 54.
18I
Public Schooling, 1855-1935.
Further statistics for 1867 show that only 53 per cent of the children enumerated in Old Lyme attended school. Also, of the towns listed according to taxable property appropriated for public schools, Old Lyme stood lowest in New London county and No. 161 among 163 in the state.
The great event of 1868 was the passage of "The Free School Law." It was passed unanimously by the senate and only four nays were registered in the house. It was cordially received by the masses and the rate bill, the menace of the ages, was buried beyond the hope of resurrection.11
By 1870 the favorable influence of this law in the state was shown in four definite directions: there was an increase in the number of schoolhouses; an increase in the number of pupils registered in winter; an increase in the number of pupils over sixteen years of age; and an increase in the number of pupils in average attendance in winter.12 These conditions provided outstanding evidence of the improved attitude toward public education. The report from Old Lyme for this year was especially encouraging.
All the schools in the town were provided with new books and new wall maps of the United States were secured through voluntary subscription. Public opinion also expressed itself as being in favor of the "Union System."18
On May 31, 1871, a great educational convention was held in Hartford. Educators and intellectuals from at home and abroad gathered in large numbers and at the close of the pro- gram the following resolutions were proposed and adopted:
Resolved that we recognize four epochs in the history of public in- struction in this State.
I. Its initiation under Hooker and Haynes, Davenport and Eaton.
2. Endowment of common schools by the foundation of the School Fund under the guidance of Hillhouse.
3. Establishment of Normal School under the recommendation of Gallaudet and Barnard.
4. Recent appointment of the State Board of Education and com- plete establishment of Free Schools.14
II. Ibid., 1869, p. 16. 12. Ibid., 1870, pp. III, 209.
13. Ibid., p. 209.
14. Ibid., 1871, p. 93.
182 Educational History of Old Lyme.
The law of 1870, fixing the school year at thirty weeks for schools having twenty-four or more children between the ages of four and sixteen, and twenty-four weeks for schools having a lesser number, was shown to be effectual as early as 1872. At that time the average school term in the state was eight months and twelve days, which was longer than that of any New England state and the longest in the country with one exception. This was followed immediately by a plea for com- pulsory education and compulsory vaccination.
The year following, Old Lyme voted to furnish free schooling for nine months during the year in all districts of the town desiring that length of school attendance. In this they were encouraged by the added state appropriation voted in 1871 of fifty cents for each child of school age. In 1874 the nine months' term was fixed for all schools in the town and the state appropriation was increased to $ 1. 50 per child.
An interesting new development appeared in the Old Lyme records of 1872 when it was "voted that the Board of Educa- tion be instructed to establish a school of a higher grade in ac- cordance with the provisions of the statute and that the house of C. J. McCurdy near Duck River where John Fratus lives and the other families who may occupy it be set off for school purposes from the 5th to the Ist district." On September 20, 1873, one year following, a special town meeting was called and a ballot was cast on the continuance of this high school. That this was a tense issue in the town at that time seems evi- dent from the brevity and context of the vote taken some two weeks later at the regular financial town meeting. "Oct. 6, 1873, Voted with reference to High School continuance. Yes 60, No 76.">15
The practice in connection with the hiring of teachers seems also to have fluctuated considerably during this period. Some years it was voted that the school visitors should hire all the teachers in the town, while in other years it was specifically stated that each school visitor should engage the teacher for his own district. At other times the district committee engaged
15. Old Lyme Town Records, 1873, October 6.
183
Public Schooling, 1855-1935.
the district teacher. Still another regulation in connection with the hiring of teachers was explained indirectly in two contemporaneous provisions-the first established an annual salary of thirty dollars for the acting school visitor, while the second stipulated that neither the district-school committee- men nor the school visitors should teach in the public schools of the town.
The year 1875 stands out in the educational annals of the state inasmuch as it was the end of the first decade of school administration under the Board of Education. It was a period of marked progress.16 More children were taught than ever before; their number increased 20 per cent; the number in at- tendance increased 30 per cent and teachers' wages per month were doubled. During the same period the school tax was three and one-half times as great and the budget for build- ings and repairs was increased fourfold. The total expendi- tures for ten years were twelve million dollars, which was equivalent to the total of the previous half century. The ex- amination of teachers was greatly improved and Connecticut had a higher percentage of public-school attendance than any state in the Union. Work certificates were required and the distribution of a state appropriation of $1.50 was urged for each child in actual attendance.
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