USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume II > Part 51
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The report recognizes the division of the town into fourteen districts, which are named as follows :
West Centre. East Farms. Clark. Pine Hole.
East Centre.
East Mountain.
Town Plot.
Gaylord's Plain.#
Buck's Hill.
Horse Pasture.
Oronoke.
Sawmill Plain.
Plattsville.
Bunker Hill.
* It was enacted, in 1823, that " school societies shall have power to provide a hearse and pall for the burial of the dead, and to procure and hold lands for burying grounds, and to make regulations to fence the same and to preserve the monuments erected therein, and to lay and collect the necessary taxes for that pur- pose,-provided this act shall not affect incorporated religious societies which have separate burying grounds." t It fills pp. I to 10 of the volume above referred to. The minutes of the society meetings extend from p. 20 to p. 90, and on pp. 94 to 97 are a few transcripts of certificates given to teachers.
In two or three instances new names have come into use. Pine Hole has become Waterville (see p. 29), Horse Pasture has become Hopeville (p. 405), and of late years Sawmill Plain has been shortened into Mill Plain. In a list on p. 21 of the records Bunker Hill is called Tompkins district, but that name does not occur again. The name Gaylord Plain (p. 83) is now seldom heard.
490
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
The boundaries are given with the usual careful detail, and undoubtedly correspond pretty closely with those established before the destruction of the records. The division into fourteen districts was of course reached by degrees. How long this number had been established is not known, but the arrangement, so far as the outside districts are concerned, has remained substantially the same. As the result of various changes the East and West Centre districts became subdivided into Centre, North Centre, West Cen- tre and Bridge, and these in 1849 became incorporated as the Cen- tre district, under a government of their own.
In the reminiscences of Horace Hotchkiss, referred to on page 327, and in an article contributed by him to the Waterbury American of January 12, 1876, there are some references to the old district schools and descriptions of the school-houses which reproduce quite distinctly the condition of things during the borough period and before it. Mr. Hotchkiss says :
Besides the school-houses in the outlying districts, there were during my child- hood and boyhood only two, known as the East Centre and West Centre. Those in the village and those on the outskirts were much alike, and except for their open fire-places did not differ materially from school-houses still to be found in some parts of New England. The one room was lined, except in the spaces for the fire- place and the door, by a continuous writing-desk or board, with a bench in front of it. Both desk and bench served as tablets, on which initials or other rude figures were carved by ambitious jack-knives until little of the original surface was left. Within the area that has been indicated was a row of smaller benches for younger scholars,-benches without backs and so high that the little feet often could not reach the floor. I remember yet how fearful I was lest I should fall from my seat when weariness overcame me, one drowsy summer day, and how I crept beneath the writing desk, to sleep unobserved until found by my parents long after school had closed.
The books generally used were Webster's Spelling-book, with his likeness oppo- site the title page, Murray's Grammar, Morse's Geography, Daboll's Arithmetic, and, for advanced scholars, the Columbian Orator as a reading book and reposi- tory of pieces for declamation.
Of the two village school-houses, both were rude and inconvenient buildings, in which only the rudiments of knowledge were taught during two seasons of the year. In my boyhood the West Centre school-house stood greatly in need of repairs and alterations.
" Within, the master's desk was seen Deep scarred by raps official; The warping floors, the battered seats, The jack-knife's carved initial; The charcoal frescoes on the wall; The door's worn sill, betraying The feet that, creeping slow to school, Went storming out to playing."
1
As my father was a member of the school society's committee, he superintended the repairs. As there were no machine-cut nails in those days, the old wrought
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49I
THE SCHOOL SOCIETY AND THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
nails were carefully saved, and it was my daily task to straighten them, that they might be used again. When the alterations were completed, and the bell was placed on top, the building was regarded as marking quite an advance in school architecture.
The later fortunes of this school-house, which was originally the "first academy " building, are related in Volume I, in the history of that academy. Of the East Centre school-house brief mention is made elsewhere (page 74).
At the period referred to in these reminiscences the interest in education, or at least in the district-school system, had evidently reached a low ebb. It does not follow, however, that there was no good teaching in the schools, and the position occupied in the com- munity by the second academy (established in 1825) must not be forgotten. Besides, there were educational opportunities of a dif- ferent kind from these, which, in view of the remarkable industrial development that took place afterward in the town, must have been especially valuable to the boys of that day. In an article by the Hon. F. J. Kingsbury, which appeared in the Waterbury American of January 22, 1886, entitled, " How a Connecticut Boy was Educated Fifty Years Ago," the process of acquiring that practical knowl- edge without which the learning of the schools is of but little account is vividly described, and in such a way as to bring before us a many-sided view of life in Waterbury during the borough period.
I have been thinking how boys picked up their practical knowledge fifty or sixty years ago; how much that was learned was really in the way of amusement, and yet how valuable it was to them. I wonder if boys anywhere get now the same opportunity.
I grew up in a thrifty village of three or four thousand inhabitants. One of my grandfathers was a lawyer, the other a doctor. Both were farmers, as well. My father was a merchant. My business was to go to school, to do a few errands, to keep out of mischief and to amuse myself. School was not very exacting. There were long waits between the summer and winter schools. New teachers were always to be employed, and there were various delays. I had lots of time. All the mechanics of the village were Yankees. They knew me and I knew them. I was free at their shops and their tools. They were never too busy to look up things for me and give me a place in which to work, or, as it really was, to play. The carpenter would lay down his tools to grind a plane iron for me, and allow me per . haps to turn the grindstone while he ground one for himself; then he would show me how to set it in the stock. The shoemaker would supply me with unlimited " waxed-ends." If the bristle was broken he set a new one for me, and showed me how to do it for myself. He gave me an awl and a vacant bench, and I helped myself from the pile to bits of leather, with which I used to cover balls, or which I sewed into any shape I chose. After a while I could close up a pair of "quarters," and then I was taught to "last" a shoe. The harness maker gave me a spare "horse," and showed me how to throw my thread and make an even stitch, and after a little
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
practice allowed me to stitch on coarse "tugs." The blacksmith let me blow the bellows and showed me how to keep them full and not " suck fire "-which careless people sometimes did, burning the bellows and occasionally the shop. He told me that the pipe where the bellows went into the fire was called a " tweer," that it was spelled " tuyere," that he didn't know why, but as I went to school I had better find out, which I did; and he made me a hatchet. There was no tinsmith in town at first, but after awhile one came and I made friends with him. He sold me an old soldering iron very cheap, and he showed me how to "tin " it, how to try the heat by my cheek, and where to put the rosin, and then he let me solder together pieces of tin and burn my fingers. The cooper's shop was no end of fun. Partly perhaps from a sense of danger (for draw-knives and broad-axes and spoke-shaves were not things to be entered into lightly and unadvisedly, and I have a small scar on one of my knees now, acquired in practice with the first of these tools), I never got so far as to make a barrel, but I could put on a hoop at a pinch. I watched the hatter "bow " his fur, and then mat it and beat it up into " body," although I never tried this, and he gave me lots of "trimmings," which were circles cut from the outer edge of the body. And I well remember trying to yoke a pair of calves with some of them and getting thrown into the mud by the calves, who, though so much younger, were stronger than I, and didn't enjoy being tied together. By the time I was fifteen, and before I was sent away for serious study, I had made shoes good enough to sell and be worn, I could sew a fair harness stitch, I could cover a pair of bellows, mend tinware and solder lead pipe, and as to knitting garters and piecing patch-work, my mother taught me these at home on rainy days at a very early period of my education. I don't think I have exhausted, by any means, the list of things I learned by way of play. Indeed I remember now, how I held the plough to split corn furrows; and if the plough ran out, as it occasionally would, in spite of all I could do, when it struck a stone, the man who was " letting me help " didn't clear me out, saying I was more plague than profit-which was undoubtedly the truth-but patiently backed the team and set the plough in again for me.
I was not an exceptional boy at all. I remember several of my mates who did some of these things much better than I did; one especially who did some small etchings, and made fulminating powder at the imminent risk of hands, heads and eyes. He also made a pentagraph to copy drawings.
What a capital sort of training this was for a boy ! and I fancy almost any of the men who were boys fifty years ago and upward could relate a similar experi- ence.
We should infer from the dwindling records of the school society that that organization was rapidly parting with what vitality remained in it. The few men who were interested in it, and accustomed to attend its annual meetings, were evidently aware that something must be done to bring about a better condi- tion of things. Waterbury was approaching the dimensions of a city, and larger accommodations for its children must be provided. Accordingly we find that at the annual meeting, October 9, 1848, "Messrs. Nelson Hall, Charles Fabrique, Lucius A. Thompson, J. P. Blake and E. B. Cooke were appointed a committee to devise some more efficient plan for our schools, and report at some future meet- ing." The consultations of this committee ripened rapidly into a
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THE SCHOOL SOCIETY AND THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS.
plan which proved to be more productive of important changes than they could have anticipated. At a special meeting of the society, April 26, 1849, they presented a report "regarding the forming of a union or higher branch of common schools," which was accepted, and it was
Voted, To request the committees of the five central districts to call a meeting of their districts on Thursday evening next, to express by vote whether they would join as a union district or society, and also whether they would unite in petitioning the present General Assembly for an act incorporating said five central districts into one district or society.
A committee of twelve prominent men was appointed to address the meeting of the five districts, and lay before them the plans proposed for their adoption. The districts adopted the plans sub- mitted and agreed to ask for an act of incorporation, and on May 10, 1849, it was
Voted unanimously, That whereas the North Centre, Centre, West Centre, Bridge and Gaylord Plain districts in this society propose and contemplate apply- ing to the present General Assembly for an act of incorporation into one school district, with the necessary powers to enable them to establish and maintain a high school and primary schools in said district, therefore this society hereby assents to and approves of the same.
This terminates the record of the movement within the school society to establish a new Centre district .* Its organization upon the basis indicated left a circle of outlying districts under the old management, which was similar to that in other towns of the state. It consisted, as already indicated, of a society's committee having charge of the finances, a visiting and examining committee, and a local committee of one for each district. The society's committee and the visiting and examining committee have since been merged into one, known as the board of school visitors. The exceptionally complex system of school government which exists in Waterbury at the present time (1895) results from the existence of an incorpo- rated central district, independent on the one hand of the other school districts, and distinct on the other hand from the city. In addition to the town board and the eleven district committees, we have a Board of Education and a Finance Committee, whose sole province is to manage the affairs of the Centre district. The attempts at consolidation made from time to time have not thus far succeeded.t
* The volume of records contains minutes of annual meetings down to October 15, 1855, and then closes. The closing item refers to the report of a committee "on the subject of a new burying ground," and the appointment of a new committee "to make a further survey."
+ School societies have been abrogated by statute and their powers vested in towns and school districts.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
AN INCORPORATED SCHOOL DISTRICT-THE TWO CHARTERS-BOUNDARIES -A HIGH SCHOOL-THE FIRE OF 1870-BUILDING RECORD OF THE DISTRICT-A SYSTEM OF GRADED SCHOOLS-CLASSICAL STUDIES- EVENING SCHOOLS-A JOINT BOARD-VISITING COMMITTEE-ROMAN CATHOLICS WELCOMED-REVISED COURSE OF STUDY-SUB-DISTRICTS -THE SUPERINTENDENT-IMPROVEMENT SINCE 1880-KINDERGAR- TEN METHODS-THE SCHOOLS IN 1894-CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD AND THE COMMITTEE-SKETCH OF THE HIGH SCHOOL-ITS COURSES OF STUDY-REMINISCENCES-LIST OF PRINCIPALS-BIOGRAPHIES.
T HE application for a charter, referred to in the preceding chapter, was granted by the legislature at the May session, 1849. The affairs of the Centre district were conducted under its provisions for a period of thirty years, at the end of which, that is, in 1880, it was repealed and a new charter granted. The territorial limits, which are substantially the same in both instruments, are defined in the later one as follows:
Commencing at the lower end of Mad meadow, the same being the southwest corner of the city of Waterbury, thence northwesterly in the line of the city of Waterbury, to the northeast corner of William Geddes' dwelling-house, thence northerly in said city line to Sled Hall brook, thence westerly in line of said brook to Town Plot road, thence northwesterly as the line of said district now runs, to the Middlebury road, at a point twenty rods southwest of the dwelling-house of Michael Guilfoile, thence northerly to the highway, forty rods north of the dwell- ing-house of Edward Joy, the same being the present corner of said district, thence in a straight line to the mouth of Steele's brook, thence northeasterly to the south- west corner of a piece of land owned by the heirs of Samuel J. Holmes, lying a little northward of the dwelling-house of Edward Moran, thence to a bridge across Buck's Hill road, about fifty rods north of the former residence of Reuben Brown, thence to a point formerly covered by a building known as the Long Hill barn, thence southward to the highway, twenty rods north of the dwelling-house of T. and T. C. Kilbourn, thence to the Cheshire road, thirty rods east of the dwell- ing-house formerly owned by Elias Porter, thence in the same course to the Mad river, thence southwesterly to a swamp-oak tree, thirty rods southwesterly of the dwelling-house of Lucius D. Scovill, thence to the river at the lower end of Mad meadow, the place of beginning.
The territory thus defined is considerably larger than that after- ward included in the city, but there remained outside of it the circle of rural districts heretofore referred to.
The charter provides that on the first Monday in October of every year the legal voters of the district shall choose by ballot a
495
THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
board of education, consisting of seven members, and a district committeee consisting of five members; also a treasurer, two audi- tors and a clerk. The distinctive duties of the two boards, as set forth in the charter, are as follows:
The district committee shall have the general care and management of the con- cerns of the district; enumerate and make return of the scholars at the time and in the manner provided by law for other school districts; employ teachers approved by the board of education; make a list of the polls and ratable estate of all the inhabitants in said district whenever it becomes necessary for the purpose of tax- ation; shall exercise control over the expenditure of all moneys belonging to said district; make all contracts for furnishing of supplies, building and repairing of school-houses, and, with the concurrence of the board of education, abate such taxes as in their judgment ought to be abated.
The board of education shall have the control and management of the schools in the district; may appoint a superintendent of schools; examine, approve and dis- miss teachers, prescribe the course of study to be pursued in different schools; make such by-laws and rules for the regulation and discipline of the schools, not incon- sistent with the laws of this state, as they shall from time to time deem necessary; may dismiss from said schools any teacher or scholar who shall neglect or refuse to conform to such by-laws or rules, or for any other cause demanded for the wel- fare of such schools, and generally shall have the same rights and powers and per- form the same duties respecting the Centre school district, as may be by law pro- vided that school visitors of the town shall have respecting other school districts; and the board of school visitors of said town shall have no authority or jurisdiction over said Centre school district or the schools therein.
It is also provided that the annual meeting of the district for the transaction of all business other than the election of officers shall be held on the Saturday preceding the first Monday of October,-at which the district committee, the board of education, the treasurer and the auditors shall present their reports for the year .*
The first meeting of the newly incorporated Centre district was held on July 14, 1849, at Gothic hall, and the first work undertaken was the erection of a high school building. From the beginning, the chief motive prompting the citizens to seek incorporation was the desire to establish a high school which should constitute a part of the public school system, and take the place of the "academy," which in Waterbury, as in a good many other towns, had super- seded the "grammar school " of the earlier system. The character of the second academy and the quality of the work done in it are indicated in its history in the following chapter. The time had evidently come for reform and advance, and the establishment of a high school was promptly undertaken. The newly elected district
* The most important difference between the two charters consists in the provision in the latter one requiring a registry list of legal voters and an election of the school officers by ballot, after the usual manner of city and town elections.
496
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
committee, of which C. B. Merriman was made chairman, was in- structed to fix upon a place and agree upon plans for a Centre school-house, and report at a special meeting. On March 15, 1850, it was voted " that the district committee be authorized to purchase for the Centre district, at the price of $1900, four lots of land be- longing to the heirs of Miss Eunice Baldwin as a site for the Centre school-house," and the committee was made a building committee to erect a central school-house, but with the understanding that not more than $10,000 were to be expended, exclusive of funds
FIRST HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, 1851-1870.
received from the Waterbury academy. The erection of a building was promptly begun, and the Waterbury high school was opened January 27, 1851. In 1867 the building was enlarged by the erec- tion of a wing on the south side of it; but on the night of Decem- ber 15, 1870, the entire structure was destroyed by fire. Temporary accommodations for the schools were readily secured in factories which had temporarily suspended work on account of the hard times, and on the second and third floors of Gothic hall. But at a special meeting of the district, May 18, 1871, it was voted to build a new school-house on the Elm street side of the high school lot,-
497
THE SCHOOLS OF THE CENTRE DISTRICT.
materials from the ruins of the high school building to be used so far as practicable in its construction. At the annual meeting of the district, September 26, 1872, it was voted to erect a new high school building, at a cost of not more than $45,000. The building committee found this sum quite insufficient, and it was increased, March, 1873, to $58,000. While the work of building was going on, the high school was accommodated first in the Maltby factory and afterward in Way's building on Brook street.
The building erected in 1873 has accommodated the high school and the upper grammar schools from that time until the present, but
THE SECOND HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING; ERECTED IN 1873.
during the latter part of this period the inadequacy of the accommo- dations had been deeply felt by those interested. The subject of a new building was much agitated in 1892, and on November 18 of that year the district requested the city authorities to take action upon the question of extending Church street to the south line of the land deeded to the Bronson Library corporation, with reference to providing a site for a high school building in that quarter. Attention was afterward directed to other lots in other parts of the city, and at a special meeting of the district, May 9, 1895, it was
32
498
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
voted to erect a new high school building at a cost not exceeding $100,000. The Brown lot on East Main street was afterward selected as a site.
As the history of a school district-like that of an ecclesiastical parish-is usually, to a large extent, an account of the work it has done in the erection of buildings, it will be worth while to give here, in chronological order, the building record of the Centre district, in addition to this hasty sketch of the buildings provided for the high school.
At an adjourned annual meeting in October, 1849, the district committee was authorized to purchase the site originally selected by the Bridge district, and erect a school-house thereon; but at a meeting held in April, 1850, the vote was rescinded, and the committee was directed " to repair the school-house in the Bridge district, instead of building a new one."
On October 28, 1851, it was voted to purchase land and build a school-house . " below Scovill's factory, not far from Mrs. Stiles's."
On January 24, 1852, it was voted to purchase of William Denair a piece of land containing about thirty-five rods, lying on the east side of Mad river, provided the price of said land shall not exceed $230, and to build thereon a school-house the cost of which should not exceed $850. This was the first school-house erected on the Abrigador.
At the same meeting it was voted to build a school-house on land owned by the district near the dwelling of Edwin Sperry, provided it could be done for $1000.
In 1853, it was voted to purchase the following sites: a lot on Grove street at $500; a lot "on Mill plain, corner of Elm and the street that runs to the cot- ton-gin factory," $800; and a lot on the Prospect road, $500. It was voted (a second time) to buy land south of the high school lot, and also land near the residence of Nathan Cooke. On some of these lots, but not all, school-houses were built.
In 1856 it was voted to sell the building on Union square (the old East Centre school-house) owned by the district, if $1000 could be got for it. The North Centre school was removed to a new building in the rear of Grove street, near Cook street. The first story contained a primary school, and the second an intermediate. It accommodated all the children in this sub-district.
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