USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Billerica > Celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Billerica, Massachusetts, May 29th, 1855 > Part 6
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societies in town for their unvarying courtesy and kindness toward me, for the period reaching back to 1814, and embracing down to the present hour. I beg to assure you all, that it is in my heart, as in by- gone years, so in the future, to be with you in your prosperities and in your adversities, rejoicing and weeping with you. And your beloved children gath- er close around me as my chosen companions to that higher world, where through the rich mercy of our God, we hope to meet the generations that have gone before us, and with them to dwell forever in heavenly mansions. Imploring upon you, respected and belov- ed friends, the best of Heaven's blessings, I present to you in connexion with this occasion, the following sentiment :--
Billerica .- Honorable and honored, in its past history, by its in- telligence, public spirit, social harmony and Christian virtue, - may its Schools, and the Seminary of the " beloved Physician," its churches, its friendly associations and efforts, and its domestic altars, give to its future history a glory still brighter and ever brightening.
No. 6 .- The Howe School .- The " gramer schoole " of Colo- nial days- the right arm of our educational system.
Responded to by GEORGE FAULKNER, M. D., of Jamaica Plains, one of the sons of Billerica.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :- We have an ancestry worthy to be traced. The first settlers of this town were of the Puritan type. The germ of all that two centuries has developed on these shores was in the mind and character of the Pilgrim Fathers .- The high regard they manifested for the welfare of the young, is a charm in their character and compels our admiration ; in their great sacrifices, in all their thoughts, the training of their numerous children had
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almost the first place ; for their children they crossed the sea. They were themselves a peculiar people " winnowed out of three kingdoms." They came here with the best culture the Old World gave- with the learning and wisdom of their time, and to all their other attainments they added their own stern integ- rity. Thus disciplined in life and virtue they found- ed here in exile and poverty, a Commonwealth with a complete educational system at the beginning .- Thorough, systematic, public education was their own idea, the work of their own hands, and by it they hoped to perpetuate a race like themselves. They es- tablished our Common Schools; but for them "to read, write and cypher," was not enough ;- they had grappled manfully with great questions of state, and though defeated and driven away, their hearts were unsubdued and they sought to fit their children to carry on and carry out any just conflict that might be before them here ; their sons must therefore be edu- cated in the knowledge of the past,-in classic and University learning. For this end two hundred and nineteen years ago Harvard College was founded by the Puritans. Eleven years after, in order "yt learn- ing may not be buried in ye grave of or fathrs in ye church and Commonwealth," the General Court of Massachusetts provided by statute for preparation for college as a public concern ; every town of one hun- dred families or householders was put under a fine of 5£ to be paid into the school fund if it failed to pro- vide a public master "able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fited for ye University." Thus the fathers.
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Ours is a driving, practical age, and everything is aimed at immediate results. Again and again in dif- ferent quarters a call is made for a breaking up of the old routine of a learned education, and for some meth- od of saving time in the preparation for a scholar's life. Once in a century a Benjamin Franklin is found among statesmen and philosophers, or a Hugh Miller appears in the highest walks of science, and then we hear some say, "is not College learning after all a piece of old fogyism ?" Honor to the self-made man ; all honor to self-made scholars ! But, be it remem- bered, these men have been and ever will be, the ex- ceptions ; the supply has been furnished to the com- munity from the followers in the beaten track, and so it will be ; hence the old method of classical educa- tion holds on and extends its claims while all efforts to displace it are spasmodic and abortive. The tried means of thorough mental discipline are the Greek, the Latin, the Mathematics ; add to these the Sacred Writings and you complete the platform on which public education rests. Reflect a moment on the mul- titude occupied from day to day, now and formerly, in editing, printing, selling, teaching and studying the Classics, the Mathematics and the Scriptures, and you see that he is an adventurer who shall propose to sup- plant these studies by any others. The College is, therefore, a fixed and essential part of our system of education.
In what I have said I have had in mind the gener- ous bequests of Zadock Howe - the wise citizen, the lamented friend. Dr. Howe was eminent in his pro- fession and reached its highest honors. As a man he
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was prudent, far-seeing and sagacious. Neither wealth nor friends were his inheritance. He began life as an humble artisan. His advantages of education were very limited even for that day, being confined proba- bly to the most ordinary kind of common schools .- But his mind had vigor and diligence; and without the privileges or honors of any higher institution of learning, he early took an enviable place in a difficult profession.
In memory let us honor him as the self-made man; let us honor him for that deep knowledge of men and things which led him to break away from the narrow bounds of his own carly advantages, and made him keenly alive to the necessity of a high order of gener- al and professional education. He certainly was un- like most, men ; in his history there is one trait of character that shall be noted by friend and stranger, and for it he shall be held in honored remembrance so long as the love of sound learning shall remain ; it is this,- he enters life successfully through blind and rugged paths, and he says not " follow me," " do as I did," but makes it his lifework to provide for youth in all the future a smooth and beaten road.
The sons and daughters of Billerica gathered here to-day, look in vain for his well known face and timid form ; he is no more in these streets or at our fire- sides, yet he is still with us, for the full fruits of a life of uncommon industry and frugality he has laid cheer- fully on the altar of learning, and at the very doors of his townsmen and friends. In the particulars of his public munificence he has imitated the method of the forefathers and revived the spirit of the old statute al-
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ready alluded to. " Having a desire," he says, "to promote the cause of education in the town of Bil- lerica where I reside, and the vicinity thereof," &c., and these words truly illustrated and showed this to be emphatically the desire of his heart. In his daily and nightly rounds through long and lonely years, this de- sire was the quiet, silent, untold ambition of his soul - buoying him up in seasons of weariness and de- spondency. It is not merely education, else had he given his money into the school treasury -; but it is education of a defined and elevated kind, “ an Acade- my for the education of youth."
Dr. Howe was a man of careful words, and when he calmly wrote the word " Academy " he meant just that, no more, no less. "The school," he says further in his will, "is not intended for the admission of small children, but for instruction in the higher branches of an English education, and such other stud- ies as are required of young men preparatory to en- tering College." Mark well, I entreat you, his word; write deep in your memories, my townsmen and pa- trons of the High School, the estimate the venerable donor himself puts upon the University education of our fathers, and its value to you and your children ; cherish with tender regard, and seek to perpetuate in the minds of those who shall come after you, the no- ble sentiments of the founder of the Howe School.
But I cannot stop till I call on you to notice how the mind of the first settlers appears again in Dr. Howe's bequests. Before any provision whatever is made for a school, three thousand dollars is given to the Massachusetts Bible Society. This sum is given
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without any condition ; and he directs that it " be paid from the first available funds my executors may receive from my estate." Whatever else may come short this gift must be made sure ; first of all and be- fore all the Bible is to be scattered abroad, that liber- ty, learning and religion may have a right basis throughout the land. Over this bequest the fathers shall rejoice in their heavenly home ; and henceforth let every man speak, with mingled emotions of grati- tude and reverence, the name of ZADOCK HOWE.
No. 7 .- The Members of the Medical Faculty - whether natives or practitioners in town .- Highly successful in curing the diseases of others, they have not been unmindful of the important proverb - " Physician heal thyself."
Responded to by AUGUSTUS MASON, M. D., of New York, formerly a practitioner in Billerica.
Mr. President :- There are other physicians pres- ent, natives of the town, more intimately acquainted with its history and traditions, and therefore better able to make a proper reply to this complimentary sentiment. There is little, however, in the silent and unobtrusive practice of our profession to leave its mark upon the annals of the town. Provision was made by law for the minister and school-master, but then as now, the doctor and lawyer were considered able to look out for themselves. The country physi- cians of those earlier years were better read in the book of experience than in theory or science. A year or two spent in the office of some extensive practitioner sufficed for study ; then mounting his horse, with his saddle-bags for his apothecary shop, he was prepared to look up his location. But we must not premise
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from his simple equipment that he did not do good service for humanity. Necessity made him skilful in the adaptation of his limited store of remedies to meet the varied exigencies of sickness, and gladly was he welcomed as a messenger of relief, as through winter snows and summer heats he toiled laboriously in his ill paid and self-sacrificing vocation. Happily he liv- ed at a period when if fashionable remedies were un- known, from simple habits of the people, fashionable diseases were so also. That wonderful"engine, the press, had scarcely begun its work, and the quack medicine bottle had not taken violent possession of the cupboard. No princely hotels had taken root in the pill box; no ducal villas arose from the profits of sarsaparilla. The people still had reverence for the minister, and faith in the physician. Those carly generations have gone to their rest. Side by side sleep the physician and the patient,- their names un- known; but we will not forget with what fortitude and sacrifice they sowed the seed whose beautiful har- vests we reap. If we come down to the days of '76, we touch upon times better known .. There are those present who recollect Dr. Danforth in his declining years. He presided at that meeting when the men of Billerica pledged their lives and fortunes in advance to the principles of the declaration of Independence. If the noble Warren was foremost in the wider field of the city, the country physicians were not behind him in patriotism in their narrower spheres. Here Dr. Bowers, a native of the town, led a long and use- ful life. Here died Dr. Howe whose monument in yonder grave-yard attests his claims upon your grati-
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tude. His eulogy you have just heard fitly spoken. And younger men, too, have died here, in the full tide of professional zeal, and happy in your confidence. Foster, Brown and Hill, whose names are familiar as household words.
Shall I speak of the friendly relations which exist- ed between the physician and the people in the olden time. Mrs. Lee, in her memoir of Rev. Dr. Buckmin- ster, has given us a picture of the old and favorite physician. Dressed in the fashion of the day, he picks his way through the muddy streets, his hat complete- ly off at the meeting of every townsman, and every child is his particular care. " From all the fresh young lips of the little girls, he takes a tribute as he passes ; they hold up their rosy faces, charmed with the familiar courtesy of the much enduring man, and feeling richer for what they have given." If in the changing fashions of society these external manifesta- tions of regard are rare-no matter; if deep within the heart kindness and worth still keep alive the same feelings of confidence and respect.
Dr. Mason closed with the following sentiment :-
The Physician and the Family .- May their relations of friend- ship and confidence ever be such that his presence will be as gladly welcomed in health, as it is eagerly sought after in hours of sickness.
No. 8 .- Our Common Schools .- Caskets containing the jewels of our State ; we look with confidence to the ruling powers to see that they are rightly set.
Rev. BARNAS SEARS, D. D., was invited to be pres- ent and respond to this sentiment; but the meeting of the Board of Education, of which he is the Secre- tary, being appointed upon the same day, rendered his services there indispensable. The following let-
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ter written by him has been received by the Com- mittee :-
Sir :- In responding to this sentiment, I cannot enter upon the wide range of remark suggested by it. The subject requires extended discussion ; the occa- sion demands brevity. I rejoice, therefore, that this audience, and the citizens of this town stand in no need of such a discussion. There is evidence enough that the importance of our system of free schools is appreciated here. Were I in a condition to review the history of this town, I know that the connection of its prosperity with its schools would make an es- sential part of it. Could I trace the individual lives of its enterprising citizens, I am sure that their suc- cessful industry would owe something to the intelli- gence given them in the school-room. The mere ele- ments - the instruments of knowledge acquired there, give immense power to the possessor. Compare per- sons so educated with the uneducated mass who come to us from the shores of Europe, who cannot read even the newspapers (and there are such), nor keep their own accounts, nor write their names, and see what free schools do for the common people. Our coun- try's political, social and moral condition is, to such a degree, the result of our system of education, that to ignore it as one of the causes of our success and hap- piness would be an unpardonable blunder.
But what may we reasonably expect of it for the future ? The times have changed ; the spirit and cus- toms of society are so different from what they once were, that we can scarcely foresee what the end of it all will be. The schools have changed ; and, in most
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respects, are undoubtedly improved. But whether they have power, however well managed, to counter- act all the evils incident to the present habits of the people, is not so clear as I wish it were. Have not the families something to do more than is now done ? Are not the young to be taught and trained at home to some old-fashioned virtues, which are much missed at the present day ? May the patriotic sentiments awakened in the minds of the citizens of Billerica this day, lead them to a determination to give to their sons and daughters a domestic training to industry, modes- ty, and submission to order and proper authority, which shall be referred to with gratitude and pride at the next centennial celebration. Let the public school lean upon the arm of her sister institutions, the fami- ly and the church, more sacred than herself, and then, if properly managed and cherished, she may contribute her share to the happiness of the new age upon which we are entering, as she has upon the two centuries now gone by.
No. 9 .- The legal profession in connexion with Billerica .- While we award ample justice to the talents and integrity of the liv- ing - of the honored dead, we would say, that the names of Dexter, Locke, Crosby, and others, will be long held in respectful remem- brance.
Responded to by GEORGE H. PRESTON, Esq., of Bos- ton, one of the sons of Billerica.
It is hardly fair, Mr. President, to call upon a lawyer to speak, just after dinner, and in the midst of agreeable company,-two facts tending so much to make him at peace with himself and with all the world. Lawyers, sir, are very much like a certain reverend gentleman of whom I have heard, who was
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so gifted in prayer that he was invariably called upon at all religious meetings to make the opening prayer, till he thought it high time that some of the younger members of the profession should take his place. So at the next grand conference gathering, our friend ab- sented himself till after the appointed hour. But the company waited. Coming in at the door, he saw the state of affairs at a glance, and with hasty strides as- cended the pulpit, and performed the accustomed ser- vice. As he descended, he was met by one of the brethren, who, taking him by the hand, said :- " Brother, you always pray very well, but you pray best when you are a little mad." And so it is, sir, with the lawyer. He talks best when he is a little mad. Give him "a case " with two sides to it,- or a case with one side, for he'll soon make another,- and he is in his element. He'll talk as long as you please. Then he can get a " little mad." Why, sir, he will writhe and twist and roar like Milton's "tawny lion, striving to get free his hinder parts." But to call upon him to speak, when every thing and every body is smiling and agreeable is giving him no chance at all. T'en to one he will make a failure of it ; and if he breaks down in the middle of his story, it is your fault, sir, and not his.
But the Lawyers have the advantage of the minis- ters in one point, and that is - that everybody always believes just what the lawyers say; it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them Beelzebub! and what is more, the lawyers always be- lieve it themselves. I wish I could say as much for the ministers. And so, sir, I am encouraged to say
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something of this same open-faced, plain-dealing, truth-telling sect, as they are, or have been, as well in the world in general, as in the town of Billerica in particular.
It is not in the earlier but in the more advanced stages of society that the law flourishes as a profes- sion. The first occupation on the settlement of a new country is that of the farmer,- for to live, he must have wherewithal to eat; and this comes from tilling the earth. Food, shelter and clothing - these are the necessaries of life ; then ease and competence - then wealth,- then the arts, sciences, and liberal profes- sions flourish,- luxuries, if you please, which men can then afford to indulge in - for law is an expen- sive luxury. Consequently it is not probable that there was in the town of Billerica, for more than a century from its settlement, any person properly a lawyer, but justices of the peace only. Undoubtedly there were other causes for this; perhaps everybody told the truth in those days, and needed no lawyer to tell it for them. It is plain they could not have im- migrated thither from abroad, for there was an early regulation requiring of strangers settling in the town a certificate of good character. Probably the old Pu- ritan hatred of lawyers had not yet died out, for the Puritans, you know, drove away every lawyer who came here - the Brown's at Salem, Morton at Merry Mount, and finally Letchford, who was by an express law forbidden to argue any man's case except his own, which rendered his practice so limited that he left the - country. It was in a similar spirit that Aben Ben Hasson wrote. "They have in England," said he,
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" priests for their souls, physicians for their bodies, and lawyers for the injury and destruction of both."
The first lawyer of note in Billerica, and were he a native of the town it might well boast of him, was the Hon. Samuel Dexter. Mr. Dexter graduated at Har- vard University in the class of 1781. He commenc- ed the practice of the law in the adjoining town of Chelmsford, whence after a few years he removed to Billerica, and located himself in that part of the town known as " the Corner." Here he followed his pro- fession for some years. But it soon appearing that the talents and abilities of Mr. Dexter eminently fitted him for a higher and more extended sphere of action, he removed to Charlestown and subsequently to Bos- ton, where he soon stood side by side with Sullivan, Parsons, Otis, Ward, and the most eminent members of the Suffolk Bar. He was subsequently U. S. Sen- ator; he was Secretary of War under the elder Adams, and Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson. IIe was the first President of the Massachusetts State Temperance Society, the first Society of the kind, I believe, in America. In 1815-16, he was a promi- nent, though unsuccessful, candidate for Governor of this Commonwealth.
Hon. Joseph Locke, though not a native of Billeri- ca, was for more than a quarter of a century, one of its most honored citizens, and in the active practice of the law in this and the adjoining towns. He is as- sociated with my childhood, and therefore within the recollection of most of you. He was an able and acute lawyer, and ranked with the first lawyers of this county. I find his name at the very commencement
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of our Massachusetts Court Reports in 1804, opposed to the most eminent lawyers of that day. He enjoyed the confidence and respect of the community in which he lived, and held various public offices of trust and responsibility. Later in life Mr. Locke removed to Lowell, when that city sprung up, as it were, in a day, and eventually filled the office of judge of a city court with honor to himself, with justice and impartiality to others. The death of Judge Locke is still fresh in your recollection.
There is yet another, sir, of the legal profession, who, like those I have named, was not a native of your town, though he has been one of you for thirty years, or more, but of whom, perhaps, it does not be- come me to speak. But, sir, permit me in passing to say, that during this long interval, in which he has rejoiced with you in your joy, and mourned with you in your sorrow, in which he has seen the young grow to manhood, the middle aged grow old, and the aged die, there is none among them all, the living or the dead, who have at any time received his counsel or advice, either professionally or otherwise, but would this day bear witness that that counsel and that ad- vice have always been upon the side of peace, and good will, and brotherly affection,- the peace-maker first, the lawyer afterwards. And if " a case " came at last, it was none of his making, but - a decree of fate.
Besides these, sir, there are those, who, though na- tives of Billerica, have pursued their professional career in other places. Hon. William Crosby, of this town, graduated at Cambridge in 1794; he was for some years a counsellor at law in Maine, then a part
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of this Commonwealth, subsequently a Senator of the Commonwealth, and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in that State.
Oliver Crosby graduated at Cambridge in 1795, practiced his profession in Dover, N. II., for nearly thirty years, and subsequently removed to Maine and devoted himself to agriculture.
Artemas Rogers, a graduate of Cambridge in the class of 1809, followed his profession at Henniker, N. H., for some years, where he evinced talents and legal abilities of the highest order.
Thus much for the lawyers of Billerica, as individ- uals ; and now a word or two of them as a profession.
The lawyer, sir, is not so unlike the rest of man- kind as men are wont to imagine .. Compare him, for instance, with the farmer. The farmer fells the for- ests, digs up the roots and stumps, and prepares the earth for seed ; the lawyer overturns or undermines the hostile facts in his case, digs up facts on his own side, which perhaps never were facts, and never ought to be dug up, and prepares them for the jury. The farmer scatters seed over the land ; the lawyer scatters dust in the eyes of the jury. The farmer breaks a colt ; the lawyer breaks down a witness. Both are producers - both consumers. The farmer produces corn and potatoes ; the lawyer - nothing. The far- mer consumes his own crops, and the lawyer's time and wits ; and the lawyer consumes the crops, and the farmer too,- for he creates a bill of costs, and the bill of costs eats up his client.
It is a true saying - as a man thinketh, so he is. The same man, who, if a lawyer, would be a trickster;
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