USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Brief history of the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts; prepared in connection with the celebration of old home week, July 26-31, 1903 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
In considering the schools of Fairhaven under the District School system, a system which dated in our state from 1789, and which Horace Mann said was the " most unfortunate law on the subject of the common schools ever enacted in this state," we must think of Fairhaven which then included Acushnet, as containing nineteen districts, extending from Long Plain to West
88
Island, the teachers in each district appointed by the local committeeman and virtually responsible to him alone.
It is true the town committee had a certain veto power on appointments and dismissals, but seldom was it used. One notable use of this sanitary power was recorded in the case of a teacher who had been summarily dismissed for flogging the son of the prudential committee, but who was restored to his desk by the town committee. But such instances were rare.
It will give a better idea of the condition of affairs in those " good old days" if we describe the buildings which sheltered the children of Fairhaven in their school days. The typical school- house which fairly represented at least fifteen of the nineteen buildings was a low one-story wooden house, about fifteen or sixteen fect by twenty, ontside measurement, unpainted, "but embellished with jackknife engravings on all sides," many of these cuts being extremely offensive and obscene.
There were no blinds but occasional shutters, probably to protect the windows against stone throwing.
Inside were no curtains at the windows, no blackboards, or if there was an instance here and there of a blackboard it was rarely used. Near one schoolhouse was found the school black- board floating in the mill pond where it had been for nearly a year.
In another school a zealous committeeman endeavored to show the teacher and pupils the use of the board, and drew a map upon its surface, which was found intact when he visited the school three months later. There was no means .of ventilation, the seats, each holding from three to six children, were arranged on three sides of a hollow square facing the centre, where a stove kept the temperature at 80° to 90°.
Thirty or more children in high seats, where their feet could not touch the floor, were packed closely as they could be stowed, with absolutely no ventilation except the cold winds blowing in through the loose window casings, causing one committee in its
..
-
---
FAIRHAVEN HIGH SCHOOL
89
yearly report to say the "only thing which saves the children from sudden death is the fact that the house is not tight." There were no woodhonses, so the wood was often wet and soggy.
There were no vestibules, the outer clothing of the children hung around the schoolroom, plastering was falling down, smokepipes were sometimes repaired with paper stuffed in the cracks.
To quote from a school report in the early 40's, " For one thing we are thankful, the stove is so cracked as to allow the sparks and ashes to fall on the muprotected floor, which gave promise that the building might go off one day in a rapid con- sumption. Indeed, the teacher had already been obliged to betake herself to the water cure. Indeed, such zeal on her part we could by no means approve."
The sanitary appliances would seem at this day incredible, two or three of the schoolhouses having absolutely no out- honses, and one school having such a building opening directly into the entry, within four feet of the inner door, while inside the schoolroom, a few feet away, was a fire of blazing wood.
Until about 1843 all sorts of books were used in the schools. What books the children had at home they brought to school.
Class recitation was impossible. Sometimes thirty or forty recitations a day would be gone through with.
An effort was made in that year to secure uniformity and a list of books was prescribed.
This list, which was a good one for the times, was in main as follows: Worcester's primer, National spelling book, Smith's geography and atlas, Omey's primary geography, Goodrich's U. S. history, Webster's school dictionary, Bailey's algebra, Blake's philosophy, Parley's history, Bible, Political class book, Hitch- cock's bookkeeping, Emerson's first, second, and third class readers, Emerson's part arithmetic, physiology.
Another hopeful sign was the placing school libraries in many of the buildings in accordance with a vote of the legislature
.
90
which anthorized districts to expend $30 the first year, and a small sum in succeeding years, to establish and maintain such libraries. The influence of Horace Mann, the ablest State Superintendent of Education that ever presided over the edu- national interests of any commonwealth, is constantly manifest in the very interesting school reports of this period.
Meanwhile the teaching force in too many instances was not much better than their buildings. Teachers " boarded round," untrained girls taught in Summer, men the Winter schools, which were often in charge of whalemen, home from a voyage, with a chance to occupy a few leisure months on shore with teaching country schools.
Parents seldom or never visited the schools. It seemed to be the purpose of the Prudential Committees to let things slide along and save expense. As one critic expressed it. .. The best way for a School Committeeman to make himself popular is to say nothing, spend nothing, and do nothing."
In constructing the houses described above, a school report of this period says of the method, ". They first put on the build- ing committee a house carpenter, because he can tell how to build the cheapest, second, perhaps a ship captain, because he has been accustomed to stowing the hold of a ship, third, a farmer who leaves the details to the others."
At this time with 1100 children of school age in town, three-fourths of the children in the village during the Winter and four-fifths in Summer received no benefit of the schooling such as it was. In fact, one district voted that no children over ten years old should attend school in Summer, and none under ten should attend Winter school.
Yet at this time the rules were that every scholar who " shall be absent from school in consequence of domestic service on washing day shall make up the recitations thus lost."
It was the untiring zeal and unsparing criticism of certain broadminded men on the town committees, who for years kept
11,
ROGERS SCHOOL
91
up a constant fire of argument, ridicule, and appeal, which gradually brought the community to its senses.
They unflinchingly criticized men and methods-One Pri- dential Committeeman sought to be indicted." One school- house was likened to an " old man whose manifold vices are written on his every feature and imprinted on every limb, covered with rags whose very appearance invites death to rid himself and the world of so loathsome a thing."
Even so early as 1841, was started an association in different parts of the town " whose object is to acquire and diffuse, by means of lectures, disenssions, and otherwise, information concerning the common schools and the best means of improving them, the members of which have resolved, among other things, to be themselves frequent visitors of the schools."
In 1841 it was already suggested that the districts be grouped together so that one school could be made to accom- modate three or four districts. It is supposed that four or five schools, if properly located, would be sufficient for the whole town. In 1843 and for years after it was urged that the District system be abolished. Dr. Sawyer and other forceful men who honored the town by serving upon its school committee pressed the expedieney of the change. They also advocated the employ- ment of a town Superintendent of Schools forty years before such an officer was elected. They attempted grading the schools. A grammar school was started in April, 1843, by making over the old district school house on Centre street. Three schools were planned for this building, a grammar school, a medium school, and an infant department. We find in 1846, Hiram W. French as principal and Margaret Kempton, assistant. In 1844 these progressive committeemen even urged a sewer to drain the Cen- · tre street lot.
There was manifest bitter sectional feeling in the School committee of 1847-8. So intense was the feeling that two in- dependent committees issued school reports, the two from the
92
north end of the town standing together, while three from the south end, or what is now Fairhaven proper, resenting the attitude of the Committee from Acushnet, took the stand that teachers and Committeemen should not be the same individuals, it being a fact that both Committeemen from Acushnet taught winter schools. The feeling between the sections was not allayed till the town was divided and Acushnet set off. With varying success yet always at a great disadvantage the district schools continued till 1869 when they were abolished by act of the Leg- islature. Of the system, Geo. S. Boutwell, who was State Secretary of Instruction in 1859 said: It was a "system ad- mirably calculated to secure poor schools, incompetent teachers, consequent waste of public money, and yet neither Committee nor district, nor town be responsible therefor."
Before the establishment of the High School in 1852 private schools flourished. On April 13, 1798, a meeting of citizens was held at which it was agreed to build an .Academy between the villages of Oxford, 50 ft. and half by 24 ft. half, two story high." The agreement was signed by Isaac Sherman, Benj. Lincoln, Levi Jenne, Noah Stoddard, Nicholas Stoddard, Killey Eldridge, Thomas Delano, Jethro Allen, Joseph Bates, Robert Bennett, Reuben Jenne, Nicholas Taber, and Luther Wilson. The school was established and opened on May 1, 1800, under Galen Hicks and Sally Cady.
In 1802 it was taught by Richard Sawyer, and later in the year by John Nye and Abiah Haskell. Other teachers in later years were Messrs. Ward, Quimby, Pike, Zabdiel Sampson, and Lewis Bartlett.
Public and religious meetings were held in this building, and it proved a certain centre for public functions. In the Bris- tol Gazette of 1815, a military company was advised by adver- tisement to meet for drill in front of the Academy.
The Academy, which was first called the New Bedford Academy, cared for pupils of both sexes.
.
£
£
ROGERS SCHOOL ANNEX
93
Lewis Bartlett afterward opened a private school on Spring street, which was well attended and provided a good grammar school education.
About 1840 a young ladies' boarding school which also ad- mitted young children of both sexes was opened by the Rev. William Gould, and was very well patronized by Fairhaven and New Bedford people. This proved a very popular school for a number of years, many of the pupils of the school still living in the vicinity. A school for young children was successfully carried on for many years by Miss Mary Stoddard in the build- ing on Washington street, directly across from the house of the Protecting Society.
In the 70's a good private school was taught by Frederick Hitch. Other schools were opened and had varying success, until the character of the public schools was so well established that the need for private schools no longer existed.
At a meeting of the School Committee on Nov. 1, 1851, it was voted that the High School commence its first term, Jan. 26, 1852.
The building now occupied as a High School was originally used as a Methodist Church, and was refitted and adapted to school purposes at an expense of about $4500.
Mr. M. L. Montagne was transferred from the Centre St. Grammar School and made principal of the new High School at a salary of $80 per month. Miss Angeline B. King and Miss Hannah A. Bryant were elected assistants.
The conditions for entrance were stated by the Committee as follows: "A good knowledge of arithmetic through simple interest, English, Grammar in parsing, Geography sufficient to be familiar with maps, reading and spelling."
Out of 95 applicants, 70 were admitted, and the High School was launched. From the first it proved a success, and the courses as planned, compared very favorably with the course of similar institutions anywhere in New England. Text books
94
at that time were ernde and dry, technical and nattractive as compared with books in use in our schools today, but they were solid and substantial, and though we might justly criticise the wisdom of analyzing Milton for Grammatical Construction, and rather question the capacity of High School pupils to profit much from Watts " On the mind," yet the pupils seemed to thrive on the diet and the school prospered.
The School Committee still showed an intelligent interest in details of school work, and we come across such phrases as this in the yearly reports. "The parsing by the first, second, and third classes in Milton .was very correct.'" >Concerning one school visited the writing was not much to boast of."
A familiar complaint which has been echoed by every com- mittee for over fifty years as though permanently recorded on a phonograph cylinder, read to turn on in each succeeding report, appears in the report of 1852-3. "Your Committee are gratified (later Committees were not so grateful) with the knowledge that Miss Walker's services are eagerly sought after by other School Committees with increased compensation."
The next year the Committee urged the employment of an agent "whose business it shall be to attend to the intellectual welfare" of the school children. "Such an individual will be considered as indispensable for the intellectual health as the physician is for the corporeal." Of one teacher whom many will remember it was said " Miss Dean ( Lois) is one of the most energetic and efficient teachers we have ever seen."
Among many good teachers in the schools of the town at this time, Mrs. Margaret Fairfield, who taught for many years in the Centre St. School, was highly commended in the reports of the Committee.
They who recently listened to the eloquent Decoration Day address of Col. Geo. L. Montague, will be interested to know that District No. 15 was taught by him successfully one Winter.
COOKING SCHOOL ROOM - ROGERS SCHOOL ANNEX
C
1
MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL- ROGERS SCHOOL ANNEX
£
95
Mr. J. P. Allison succeeded to the principal's duties at the High School in 1854.
The first two graduates of the school to enter college were John D. Taber and Isaac Delano, who entered Middletown and Yale respectively.
That the standard of admission to the school was to be kept up is evinced by two facts : The Committee were constant- ly urging the raising of the requirements, and out of 35 who ap- plied in Oct. of one year soon after the school was established, only 19 were admitted. The successive principals of the High School from its institution in 1852 to the present time are as follows: M. L. Montagne, 1852 ; J. P. Allison, 1854 ; Geo. E. Thatcher, 1855; C. P. Rngg, 1857: Albert Hale, 1861; D. A. Caldwell, 1865 ; HI. Winslow Warren, 1865 ; M. R. Chase, 1866 ; E. Whipple, 1866; C. C. Woodman, 1867: A. Sanford, 1869; D. A. Caldwell, 1870; H. C. Crane, 1870; G. A. Nichols, 1871; Vincent Moses, 1874; D. A. Caldwell, 1874; G. H. Tripp, 1879; L. R. Wentworth, 1881; F. W. Elliott, 1884; Z. W. Kemp, 1885; L. B . Varney, 1889; HI. HI. Tucker, 1890; E. L. Chapman, 1891; II. L. Freeman, 1891: E. B. Gray, 1896; E. A. Hafford, 1897; W. A. Charles, 1899.
The schools of Fairhaven received a fresh inspiration and all educational interests were quickened into new and lasting activities by the erection in 1885 of the Rogers School building, a gift to the town of his birth by Mr. Henry HI. Rogers.
In place of the old red schoolhouse of the 40's described in the opening pages of this paper, the town's children now had an opportunity to enjoy the best of everything that should tend to make the scholars' life pleasant and helpful. Large, well heated rooms ; attractive grounds; blackboards, the great desiderata of the former committeemen, lining every wall : airy corridors; pictures on the walls, in place of the children's clothing hung over broken plaster. The children were naturally impressed by their pleasant surroundings, and it is a fact that the words of the donor
96
of the building, asking the children to respect the building and see that no defacement of its walls should mar its beauty and usefulness, have been serupulously observed, and I doubt if a school building in Massachusetts shows fewer evidences of malicious or thoughtless injury at the hands of its pupils.
The Rogers School was opened in the Fall of 1885.
The town rose to the occasion and in 1886 voted to employ a Superintendent of Schools who should be principal of the High School. Mr. Z. W. Kemp first occupied this position, followed by successive principals of the High School till 1897, when by a union with Mattapoisett and Acushnet a District Superintendent was elected. Mr. E. B. Gray held this position till 1901 when he was succeeded by Mr. F. M. Marsh, our present Superin- tendent.
The enormous influence for good exerted by the Rogers School and by the election of a Superintendent of Schools, can hardly be appreciated except by a close observer of school affairs, so constant and so steady has been the improvement, and so ready are we as a community to accept civic improvements as a matter of course.
But every visitor and new comer to our town, especially if he was ever a resident of this locality in early times, notes and marvels at the improvements.
To enumerate a few of the improvements in the educational facilities now offered to the youth of the town, will perhaps fit- tingly illustrate the results which have been accomplished since the Rogers School was opened.
Music was introduced as a regular study in 1891 with Miss Jennie HI. Tripp as the first teacher, followed by Miss Tucker and later by Miss Trowbridge.
The Fairhaven High School Association was formed in 1894, a society which aims to keep alive interest in the High School and serves as a centre around which cluster the traditions and
OLD OXFORD SCHOOL-NORTH STREET
97
memories of old school days, and from which radiate present day activities looking towards the improvement of the school.
The first work of this Society was expended on the lawn of the High School.
Mr. Rogers has been President of the organization since its formation.
A delightful observance was held of the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the High School on January 26, 1892, when exercises were held at the High School, and a banquet, tendered by the President to the members of the Association, was given at the Rogers School in the evening.
The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary on January 26, 1902, was still more elaborate and covered two days of appropri- ate and impressive services, including services in the church, mock session of school in the Town Hall, exercises at the school- house, and a banquet at the Town Hall in the evening. Over 500 former members of the school attended the various exercises.
Prizes for excellence in English composition are now annu- ally awarded by the High School Alumni Association, and in all ways they endeavor to keep alive interest in the old school.
The Educational Art Club was organized for the purpose of adorning the walls of the school rooms with appropriate works of art, which would help to cultivate a side of the child's nature not reached by text-books.
By various entertainments, this society has raised about $800, which has been used with the purpose stated above, and every school room in town has at least two pictures or casts, with properly tinted walls for a surface background. Some of the rooms have had $100 expended by the Society in decoration and the results have been uniformly gratifying.
Drawing was introduced into the schools as a regular study in 1900. Miss Grace Covell was the first instructor followed by Miss Ethel Brown, the present teacher.
The Oxford Schoolhouse was erected in 1896 by the town,
98
and is an excellent school building, well arranged and com- modions.
Typewriting and stenography, in connection with a com- mercial course of study, was introduced into the High School in 1900. Sewing was introduced in 1901.
A notable exhibition of the school work of all grades was given in the Spring of 1901, and created great interest.
Through the liberality of a friend of the schools in provid- ing for their installation and maintenance, manual training and cooking were put into the school course in the Fall of 1902, and have proved extremely satisfactory, thus rounding out the course of studies, giving the youth of the town an opportunity for a practical education offered by few towns in the country.
For more than ten years the children from Sconticut Neck have been transported to the Rogers School, and recently the pupils from certain grades at Oxford and from the schools in the east part of the town have been brought to the same school, giving them the same advantages as the children of the village. The experiment has proved successful ; they enjoy much greater educational advantages than it would be possible to give them in their several localities. They have a matron to supervise the younger children during the noon intermission, and everything possible is done to make their school life happy and profitable.
.
The Pease fund was established by the will of Abner Pease who left certain real estate and $5000 in personal property to provide for the education of the children living in the section of the town lying between the mill pond and the river and com- monly designated as the Pease District. The income was used for this purpose and was of material aid in maintaining the school in this district, till the completion of the Rogers school made it advisable to close the school in this locality, and give the children the advantages of a graded school.
By a decision of the Court, the income of the Pease fund is used for procuring apparatus, supplementary reading, etc.,
.
NEW OXFORD SCHOOL NORTH MAIN STREET
99
and is very helpful in adding to the school income, and allowing the committee to buy extra supplies for the needs of the schools. This division of the Pease fund has proved to be an advantage not only to the schools of the town in general, but indirectly extremely beneficial to the children of the Pease district since it has opened up to them the greater educational facilities which the Rogers school offers.
We have given credit above to certain faithful and broad- minded citizens who have in past years served the town with dis- cretion and zeal as members of its school committee. A notable instance of such devotion to duty is to be found today in the person of Job C. Tripp who has been closely identified with the schools of Fairhaven for fifty years. Though not always upon the committee, yet his interest has never wavered ; he has seen the progress of the schools from the district school of 1850 to the modern school of 1903 ; he has watched with interest and helped with valuable advice, and none more enthusiastic than he at the present high standard of our schools.
Among the distinet educational agencies of any community are the libraries which more and more are helping to supplement the training and education of the schools. In Fairhaven the district school libraries referred to above were in general use in the schools, while even as early as 1800 there was a circulating library well patronized. The Fairhaven Library Association incorporated in 1860, with Dr. George Atwood as President who held the position during the nearly forty years of its existence, was well patronized and provided a good collection of well chosen books for the subscribers. For many years Mr .. Warren Delano contributed toward its support, and it was able by rigid economy to exist as a useful and dignified element in the culture of the community till its career was ended with the establishment of the Millicent Library. In 1884, the Thalia club was formed, a so- ciety which produced dramatic performances with the purpose of aiding the Fairhaven Library Association, with the ultimate
100
purpose of starting a building fund for a town library. It ren- dered timely assistance to the cause it favored, and its career though brief was not inglorious.
In 1891 the corner stone of the Millicent Library was laid, a building which was planned as a memorial to Millicent Gifford Rogers, and given to the town by the children of Mr. H. HI. Rogers, who has generously provided it with an ample endowment for its perpetual support. The Millicent Library was dedicated with appropriate ceremony on January 30, 1893, and at once com- meneed a work of phenomenal activity and success. Enshrined in a beautiful building admirably adapted for library purposes, managed on an extremely liberal plan, the library has been of great value to Fairhaven, to its citizens, and to its institutions. Open every day in the year, with its privileges extended freely to neighboring communities as well as to the town itself, it has circulated more books per capita than any library in the country. It has granted special privileges to school teachers and has catered to the proper wants of school children, and its influence for. good has been and is far reaching and eminent. The first librarian was Mr. Don C. Stevens, succeeded in 1901 by Mr. Drew B. Hall, the present librarian.
In closing this brief account of the history of the town's educational agencies, it is fair to say that never has the outlook for the schools been so good as it is now. With good buildings well equipped, with faithful teachers interested in their work, with the general interest more and more displayed by parents in the work of the schools, with liberal appropriations readily granted by the citizens for the furtherance of school work on broad and progressive lines, the schools of Fairhaven reflect credit upon the town and give promise of providing that oppor- tunity, which should be the heritage of every youth of America.
STANDARD PRINT. NEW BEDFORD, MASS.
-
£
2
SCHOOL DECT
J
FAIRHAVEN SCHOOL DEPARTMENT BARGE 1903
6057
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.