USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Westport > Westport in Connecticut's history, 1835-1935 > Part 2
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1883.
MOSES SHERWOOD
SARAH B. CRAWFORD
1884.
MOSES SHERWOOD
1933 SARAH B. CRAWFORD and
1885.
CHARLES MILLS
J. KENNETH BRADLEY
1886.
GEORGE B. SMITH
1935
.SARAH B. CRAWFORD and
1887.
HENRY P. BURR
HERBERT E. BALDWIN
JUDGES OF TOWN COURT IN ORDER OF APPOINTMENT
John F. Godillot
Joseph Adams J. Kenneth Bradley
TOWN CLERKS
1835. . EDWIN WHEELER
1886-87 ... HENRY P. BURR
1835-1838. LEWIS RAYMUND
1888-97. .. WILLIAM J. FINCH
1839-73 ... JOHN W. TAYLOR
1897-1911.JOSEPH G. HYATT
1873-79 ... EDWARD J. TAYLOR
1912-14 ... W. J. WOOD, SR.
1880-81 ... HENRY P. BURR
1915-34 ... E. C. BIRGE
1882-85 ... WILLIAM J. FINCH
1934 ...... WILLIAM A. KRAUSE
1875-76. .. WILLIAM BURR WRIGHT
EDWARD W. HUBBELL
1877-78 ... ALBERT RELYEA
1927 SARAH B. CRAWFORD and
1880.
JOHN W. HURLBUT
1929
EDWARD W. HUBBELL and
1868.
CHASE H. KEMPER
1915 HARRY R. SHERWOOD
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
CHURCHES
SHE young men were not allowed to stand at the en- trance of the meeting-house to make comment on those who came to church ..... The delinquent who so far forgot the honor due to the House of God and to his betters, was ordered into church by the sentinels on duty, and if he forgot himself in church he was melted into propriety by the fixed gaze of the minister, the ruling elders and the deacons, as well as the constables, the grand jurors and tithing men, whose duty it was to watch for such offenders". (Schenck, History of Fair- field, vol. 2.)
There sits the culprit, ramrod straight but wriggling in- ternally, trying desperately to find an avenue for his eyes through this barrage of disapproval. It is a terrible tempta- tion to sum him up with one of those colloquial phrases which sometimes so accurately hit the mark-AND WAS HIS FACE RED.
There is absolutely no intention here to be diverting at the expense of our worthy ancestors. They came over here to escape religious intolerance. If they became for a time even more intolerant than their opponents in England, it is perhaps a natural swing of the pendulum. They had so great a fear of being subordinated again to other religious views that they closed every possible avenue for the infiltration of beliefs to which they could not subscribe. Also it was a rugged life they lived; a stern religion was inevitable.
The church and the parish were the community in the early days. Each had its separate function. The parish managed the secular affairs and called the pastor. It voted the taxes for the work of the church, for the minister's housing and salary, and for other purposes. It appointed selectmen to care for what were called the "prudentials" of the parish. It ap- pointed a person to sweep out the meeting-house and beat the drum to summon people to meeting. It appointed a sheep master. It ran the schools.
The church, in its capacity as such, attended to the spirit- ual part of religion, conducted cases of discipline and shaped
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the life of the community by its inspiration and teaching. Only church members could hold civil offices. To make certain that they would be controlled by the proper wisdom, their public meetings and elections were held at the meeting-house. The minister's house was the executive mansion of the community.
In 1711 such a parish and church were established in the Green's Farms section of the present Westport. Previous to that time residents of the Farms had paid taxes to and attended the church in Fairfield. It was difficult. From Henry Gray, Jr.'s place at Compo it was eight miles and sixty-six rods to the meeting-house. That was a long distance.
The Connecticut General Court was petitioned in 1708 to set aside that part of Fairfield west of the Sasco River as a separate parish. Fairfield objected. It would mean loss of taxes and of control over the projected district. The petition was renewed, however, and granted in 1711. There were then 270 inhabitants of the new parish.
The first parish meeting was held on June 12th of that year. Then the Machamux meeting-house was built. Since that time without break the Congregational Society of Green's Farms has held an important place in community affairs.
The first meeting-house soon became too small. Another was built in 1740 opposite the Colonial cemetery. This was burned by the British during Tryon's raid of 1779. The third was erected on the present site. It burned in 1852 and the church still in use was then raised.
The Rev. Daniel Chapman was the first minister, serving the people for 36 years. Following him came the Rev. Daniel Buckingham. He officiated for 25 years. Then the beloved Rev. Hezekiah Ripley was called. He remained for 54 years. This is an astonishing record-three men holding the pastorate of a single church for an aggregate of 115 years. The present minister is the Rev. Herbert S. Brown.
In 1832 a number of members of the Green's Farms Con- gregational Church began a new organization near the growing center of the village than called Saugatuck, and erected its meeting-house on the south side of what is now State Street,
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
where it still stands. Three years ago the one hundredth anni- versary of this church was celebrated. Its present minister is the Rev. Richard T. Elliott.
Methodism reached Westport in 1790. For some years preaching was carried on in private homes and then in the ball-room of a tavern near the present Poplar Plains church. The owner of the tavern became converted under the preaching of the Gospel and donated the land on which the Poplar Plains church now stands. To serve the growing population nearer the center of Westport the church on East Church Street was erected and dedicated in 1852. The pastor is the Rev. H. H. Mower. The Saugatuck Methodist Church was built in 1852 The pastor is the Rev. Edgar M. Brown.
Up to 1835 Episcopalians dwelling in the present area of Westport were forced to attend church in other communities and at considerable distances. Certain members of St. Paul's parish in Norwalk lived on the west side of our Saugatuck River. They decided to build a church nearer at hand. Thus the first Christ Church structure was erected where the Compo Inn now stands. In 1885 the present Christ Church was dedicated. Its rector is the Rev. Harry A. Barrett.
The Memorial Church of the Holy Trinity was created to meet the needs of a group of members of Christ Church who lived on the east side of the Saugatuck. The corner-stone was laid in 1860; the building was consecrated in 1863. It stands on the site of the old Disbrow Tavern. The rector emeritus is Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie and the rector, the Rev. Arthur H. Moffat.
The first Roman Catholic service was held in Westport on November 21, 1853, when mass was celebrated in the old Universalist Church, now the Sherwood apartments on Main Street. In 1860 the first church was erected on the site of the present Compo Apartments, and in 1898, the present Church of the Assumption was constructed on Riverside Avenue. The Rev. Richard Carroll is the pastor.
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1921 and the church building on Imperial Avenue was dedicated in the same year. Since June; 1922, the Rev. E. C. Wenzel,
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pastor of the Lutheran Church in Norwalk, has also conducted services in the Westport parish.
It is unfortunate that there has been here no space in which to describe more fully the history and accomplishments of each church in Westport. Although their control of secular affairs in the town is not so complete as it was back in the early days in Green's Farms, nevertheless their influence is very great if more subtle. They are dedicated to good works. They serve. Without them the community would be a poor place in which to live.
WEATHER PROGNOSTICS (From Watson's Annual, 1825)
The resounding of the sea on the shore and the murmur of winds in the woods without apparent wind, shew wind is to follow. The obscuring of the smaller stars is a sign of tem- pest. If two rainbows appear, it will rain. If the sky be red in the morning it is a sure token of winds or rain, or both. If the sun or moon look pale, then look for rain. If fair and bright, expect fair weather. If red, winds will come. If the sun seem greater in the East than common, it is a sign of rain. If in the West about sunsetting, there appear a black cloud, it will rain that night or the day following, because that cloud will want heat to disperse it. If mists come down from the hills, or descend from the heavens, it promises fair hot weather. Mists in the evening show a hot day on the morrow, circles about the sun if red and broken, wind. If thick and dark, it shows winds, snow or rain, the same about the moon. Thunder in the morning, if it be S.W. and the wind be there, denotes a tempestuous day, also a rainbow or water gall in the West, a stormy, wet day. "Sun dogs" in the morning or evening is a sign of cold, wet, windy weather-especially in winter time.
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
AGRICULTURE
ARMING has gone through many changes in this town during the last hundred years. At the beginning of that time the principal products to be turned into cash were grain, hay, butter and cord wood. These were brought from all the surrounding country by ox teams. Later came the onion industry, which reached its height here in the three decades, 1860-1890. Onions were taken to the docks by horse team. Following that period and lasting to the present came the era of market gardens and dairies. The output of these is largely absorbed by local markets and distribution is by motor truck. Much of the acreage formerly used for onions and other farm crops is now planted with suburban homes.
Boats a hundred years ago furnished the connecting link between the farmer and his market. If we could have stepped aboard one of these craft as it was leaving the Saugatuck River for New York in April or May of the 1830s, we should probably have found her loaded like this: in the hold, some two hundred bushels of oats, ten or twenty bags of rye flour, one hundred and fifty tubs of butter (averaging about twelve pounds each), ten barrels of eggs, fifty or more boxes of hats, boxes of combs, boxes of axes, and a great many bundles of unknown content. On deck there would be five or ten calves, and in the cabin or on the quarter deck ten or fifteen passengers. On the boat's return we should have found bales of mackerel, a few barrels of wheat flour, molasses, sugar, several hogs- heads of rum, pipes of brandy and barrels of gin for the grocers, barrels of logwood for the hatters and dry goods boxes for the farmers' wives.
Agriculture was profitable hereabouts during those decades when onion growing reached its peak. The Southport White, Yellow and Red Globe Onions were developed in this vicinity. They were in great demand and brought a good price-as much as ten dollars a barrel in the New York market for selected white varieties and from one dollar fifty up for the red and yellow. Labor was furnished largely by immigrants
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
imported from. New York and boarded by their employers. Ox or work-horse teams supplied the power. That there was considerable rivalry between owners is shown by the fact that at the Norwalk Fair of 1880 a string of thirty-five pairs of yoked cattle was exhibited by the Greens Farms Farmers' Club. It is interesting to note that today there is but one pair of oxen in the entire township.
The farmers were progressive. The Greens Farms Club was active for more than sixty years, covering a wide range of subjects. Wheel hoes and drills were designed and manufactured here to meet increasing needs.
Probably the two outstanding farms in this period were those of Talcott B. and Henry B. Wakeman, lying on opposite sides of the shore road. In December, 1881, Mr. T. B. Wake- man reported as follows on his season's operations: Expenses- for help on the farm, $1800; estimated board for hired men, $1050; for help in the house, $200; for seed, $450; for fertilizer, $805; for packing fruit, $150; feed bought, $200; for his own time, $2000; for incidentals, $200; a total of $6855. Sales- radishes, spinach, etc., $554; currants, strawberries, grapes, peas, etc., $2612; potatoes, $467; onions, $2853 (955 barrels); nursery stock, $600; total sales up to the time of the report, $6786. On hand for sale at the time of the report: white onions, $2800; red onions, $2875; hay, $300; potatoes, $300. This makes a grand total of $13,061 for produce sold and to be sold, or a paper profit of $6206 over and above expenses which included $2000 for the owner's time-a nice showing. He also had about 80 tons of salt hay and 100 pounds of onion seed, the value of which was not estimated.
Agriculture here underwent a great change about the begin- ning of the present century. Onion growing died out. Market gardening for the local trade took its place, and farm property began to be valued not according to what it could produce in crops but by what the city dweller would pay. If high or near a stream, stony or wooded pastures became worth more than fertile, well-tilled fields. Thus Westport, a community of farms from the time of its settlement, is being converted into a suburban town.
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
SCHOOLS
HERE is such a wealth of material concerning the his- tory of the Westport schools that it is hard to con- dense it into the short space allowed for this article. We will, therefore, confine ourselves to a review of some of the most interesting facts in the Westport school history of the last century.
It is recorded that the first school was started in 1703, probably in the section in Green's Farms where the boulder now stands. Records show that another school was built in 1740, which stood for fifty years. All the early schools were under the jurisdiction of the parish society of Green's Farms.
In 1835 we find the town divided into school districts as follows:
Green's Farms, Compo, East Saugatuck, West Saugatuck, East Long Lots, West Long Lots, Coleytown, Poplar Plains, Cross Highway and in 1852, mention is made of a school- house having been built in South Saugatuck.
The early schools were often placed on the roadside, on ground unfit for cultivation. The inside arrangement of these early school rooms was similar in each case.
The slanting desks and slab benches for the use of the older children, with benches in the middle of the room for the little ones, and a desk for the teacher comprised the furniture in the old schoolhouse. The scholars sat facing the windows, and when lesson time came they simply turned out and faced the teacher, still occupying their seats. For reading, each pupil stood up when his turn came. When the hour came for writing, those not in that class were required to sit on the small benches while the others occupied every available seat at the desks. The copy was set by the teacher, who mended the quill pens for the children. Later, when the boys could use their jack-knives handily, they could wait on themselves.
School began promptly at 9:00 o'clock and closed at 12:00 for an hour at noon, and the school was dismissed promptly at 4:00. Mr. Coley says that when he was a teacher in Coley-
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town he was so prompt about dismissing school that the neigh- bors used to watch and set their clocks by it.
The school year was originally divided into two terms, from the middle of October to the 1st of April being the winter term. Then there was a vacation of from one to three weeks, and from the end of that vacation to the 1st of October was the summer term. A male teacher was generally employed to teach the winter school and a female for the summer, at a salary $5.00 less than was paid to the male teacher. Thanks- giving and Friday or Saturday following, in some districts New Years, in others Christmas, Fast Days and the Fourth of July, were the holidays. The minister, the family doctor, and one other man more or less prominent in town affairs were the school board. It was easy enough to procure a cer- tificate. In many cases examinations were entirely dispensed with. The teachers boarded around in the early days, staying from one to six weeks in a place.
In the early years of this century school was kept all day Saturday. In 1844 the greater number of the districts employed a teacher for five and a half days a week. The teachers seemed to teach according to their own inclination. Sometimes they would keep school all day one Saturday, and then the following Saturday would be a holiday.
It was not until 1872 that the long summer vacation was allowed to the schools.
Daboll's Arithmetic is a name as familiar in the homes of those scholars of by-gone days as the Bible. Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic were the three mighty R's in those days, and quill pens, box stoves, gads, rulers and ferules are school fur- ยท niture which belonged to the past generation. But what of the strong men and women who attended these district schools? Were they not men and women to be proud of, and did they not acquire some of their strength of mind and body in these old buildings, even if they were not air-tight or properly heated?
Cross Highway was the first district to have outline maps, and the first to have a library, both of which were donated by Mr. Ketchum about 1860. At that time this school was the best-equipped school in the town.
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
It was in 1845 that Westport took over the supervision of all the schools in the town. Previous to this time Green's Farms, and East and West Long Lots had been under the supervision of the Church Society.
There have been many private schools in Westport since the early days, prominent among them being The Adams Academy, opened in 1830 and taught by Ebenezer B. Adams from 1837 to 1867, during which time he had 653 pupils. The Academy building was given to the district for a public school- house about 1883 by Robert Martin. Then there was Mr. Richard's Willow Tree Seminary, Miss Leavenworth's School, Rev. Mr. Coley's Boarding and Day School, and the schools of the Misses Gray and the Misses Downes and many other private schools.
Horace Staples of Westport conceived the idea of a school for higher education in Westport. The Staples High School was the result. He built it and endowed it. It was opened in 1885. At first the students paid tuition, but later it became a free high school. The present governor, Wilbur L. Cross, was a former principal. The school has been of inestimable value to the youth of our town, giving to many of them the advantages of higher education which otherwise would not have been theirs.
In 1902 the Town Committee was instructed to purchase text books and necessary supplies required by children in public schools; said books to remain the property of the town, and to be loaned to the pupils.
The enumeration of the pupils at this time was 853. Ten years later the enumeration was 1052.
In 1914 the town of Westport voted the consolidation of the district schools and in 1916 the town voted to put an addition on Bridge Street School, which was badly overcrowded. These were the first steps toward the thoroughly modern system of education which we are now enjoying.
In 1917 the town voted to build a new school on Myrtle Avenue, thus providing for the children of East and West Saugatuck, Cross Highway, Poplar Plains and Coleytown. Edward T. Bedford gave a very substantial sum toward the building of this school, which was named the Bedford Elemen-
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tary School. In 1929 a number of rooms, including an audi- torium, were added.
In 1925, Mr. Bedford's generosity was again expressed in helping to build the new Green's Farms School. This school consolidated East and West Long Lots and the lower Green's Farms four-room school.
In 1926 the Bedford Junior High School was opened. This school housed the 7th, 8th and 9th grades.
The closing of the district schools necessitated bus trans- portation for the outlying districts.
It was found, in 1930, that the Bridge Street School was inadequate to accommodate the children of that district. As a result a large up-to-date building was erected, and the name changed to Saugatuck Elementary School.
Since 1903, eleven superintendents have given their ser- vices to our town. For several years Fairfield and Westport combined in engaging the superintendent.
This brings us up to the present. Let us pause for a moment . to make a comparison between the schools of the olden times and the schools of today with our enumeration of over 1500. Think of the small, poorly ventilated, poorly lighted, poorly heated class rooms where one teacher taught perhaps sixty children, in a room having from four to eight grades; and in contrast think of our bright, sunny, well-ventilated, well- heated class rooms of today where a teacher has one grade with an average of thirty to thirty-five pupils.
In our modern, up-to-date schools we have an auditorium, where the children have the opportunity of gaining poise and self-confidence in appearing before the public. The children enjoy these assembly programs. How different was the feeling of the children in the olden days when they had to "speak a piece" on the platform.
The present-day children have the benefit of supervision in Art, Music, Physical Education and Domestic Science. The idea of supervision was unheard of in the old days. There are cafeterias in each school providing warm lunches. Milk is available to all the pupils who desire it. Compare this with the cold lunches the children carried long ago.
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Every school has its library with interesting books available to all the pupils.
Bus transportation is provided for all children living more than a mile from the school. In contrast, think of the long walk some of the children had years ago.
Nowadays, the children have the frequent, sympathetic and understanding visits of the superintendent. The children feel that he is their friend, and they feel that they know him per- sonally. In the olden days the school visitors appeared but several times a year. The children did not know them person- ally, and sometimes stood in awe of them.
The health of the children nowadays is safeguarded in all possible ways. A school nurse is on full-time duty. It is her aim to have as few absences as possible due to illness. With this idea in mind, the nurse inspects the children in all schools as frequently as she can, by rapid class inspection, excluding any child showing signs of contagion. These excluded children are followed up by home visits. Preventive measures are taken whenever possible. Opportunities have been given for immuni- zation against diphtheria, vaccination, and chest X-ray for early diagnosis of tuberculosis. Eye tests are given to every child in Westport each year. By means of the audiometer hearing tests are also given annually.
The teeth of the children are well taken care of by a dental hygienist who divides her time between the three elementary schools.
Due to the thoughtful generosity of the Woman's Town Improvement Association, a Dental Clinic is available to the school children of Westport. This Dental Clinic has been of great benefit to the Westport children.
It can be seen that big strides have been made in safe- guarding the health of the children during the last century.
The Westport School System is managed by the School Board. This board consists of three elected members.
The present enumeration in Westport schools is 1580. These children are enrolled in five different schools. The teach- ing staff is made up of a superintendent and 64 teachers. Could we but see the list of teachers who had ever taught in
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WESTPORT IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY
Westport it would be a long, long one. In the olden days before the schools were consolidated, each school district was inde- pendent of the other district. Each district was proud to record the names of all teachers who served in the district, and rightly so. Full praise and respect to all those teachers of the past who did such a good piece of work in educating the youth of West- port. They did not have the facilities that we have now, yet who can deny that they did a splendid job of education.
Some of these superintendents were also principals of the High School. They all gave their best to Westport and then went to other places to continue their life work- some to Massachusetts, some to New York and some to other places in our own State.
From this brief review of Westport's school history it can readily be seen that great progress has been made along edu- cational lines in our town. The School Board, Superintendent, principals and teachers are trying to give to Westport the very best educational advantages in their power.
SHIPS AND SAILORMEN
SHE next time you walk across the State Street bridge pause and turn your mind back to the middle of the last century-that is, if you have sufficient power of concentration to shut out the clang of the trolleys, the back- firing of the buses, the grinding of the trucks, and the shrilling of Harvey Allen's police whistle as he straightens out a traffic jam in the bottleneck at the entrance to Main Street.
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