Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887, Part 14

Author: Gay, W. B. (William Burton), comp
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., W. B. Gay & co
Number of Pages: 824

USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 14

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).

The labor upon the school-houses was paid for by the day, the carpenters receiving 2s. 4d. for fall work, 2s. 8d. for summer work ; the laborers received 2s. a day in summer, Is. 6d. in fall, the last named sum being about equiva- lent to twenty-five cents.

Apparently the " North " school-house was in the present "City " district, and the parents in " the West St.," by the present North Amherst church, felt aggrieved at this location, for in 1767 it was voted " to keep the scool one

130

TOWN OF AMHERST.

Month in the West St. North End," and the next year it was voted that "the North Scool to be kept one halfe the Time in the West Street." In 1771 it was " Voted that the Select Men Set up a new school at the North End of the District the space of six weeks in addition to the present school." In 1778, " Voted that a school be kept three months at the North school-house, also three months in the West St. in the Northern part of the town." But in January, 1779, the first vote in town meeting, after choice of moderator, was "That the money raised for the use of Schooling in the North part of this Town be expended in the North school-house." The controversy had its usual termination, for in January, 1786, the town voted " To Allow a rea- sonable reward to those Persons who built the school-house in the Northerly part of the Town on the road leading to Sunderland."

The effort to accommodate North Amherst and "the City" in a single school- house was unfortunately renewed when the schools came to be graded, and while two schools were kept for primary scholars, the older children were sent to a cross street half-way between the two villages. As this location was con- venient for nobody, it had the merit of being impartial, at the price of remov- ing the children from all the salutary restraints of surrounding homes and people. In 1787 the town voted "to allow the people in the North East part of Amherst [now the City district] eighteen pounds in case they shall build for the town such a school-house as is built in the North West part of the town." Apparently the City people outdid their neighbors, for in 1788 it was " Voted to allow thirty pounds for building the school-house in the North East part of the town."

The first school of advanced grade in Amherst was taught by Josiah Pierce, who had been master of the Hadley grammar school for eighteen years. From 1766 to 1769 he taught alternately in each of the middle school-houses, keep- ing a private school for older scholars in the evening. He was a graduate of Harvard college, and sometimes preached in neighboring pulpits during the absence or illness of the minister. Judd's History of Hadley says that his salary was thirty-two shillings ($5.33) and board per month. In 1772 the district voted " to Improve M'r William Gay Ballentine for six months " as master of the grammar school. Mr. Ballentine had been a classmate at Har- vard of the Rev. Mr. Parson's son, and came to Amherst to study theology with his classmate's father. In 1777 the stress of war caused the town to vote "to improve English Schoolmasters only," and the study of Latin ceased for a time. It is of course unknown to how great an extent it had been previously taught, but the fact that six Amherst boys are known to have been sent to college indicates that the master had some pupils in the dead languages. Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr .. and David Parsons graduated at Harvard in 1771, Ebenezer Boltwood two years later, David Kellogg and Ebenezer Mattoon attended Dartmouth college, graduating respectively in 1775 and 1776, and Aaron Kellogg graduated at Yale in 1778. Compared with other towns Amherst has always sent an unusually large number of her

I3I

TOWN OF AMHERST.

sons to college, many of whom have attained a high degree of distinction and usefulness.

The early schools were of short terms, and the younger scholars attended but a single summer term in the year. More importance was then attached to home instruction, especially in manual labor, than has been customary since. In 1773 it was " Voted to allow five month schooling to each quarter of the town, in that part of the year when the Select men Shall Judg most profatable for the Inheabitants." "Voted to be at the Expence of twelve month schooling for grammar schooling in the Winter ceason." In 1780 there was to be eighteen months' schooling in the six schools or three months' at each school. The town passed a similar vote for the next year, and this was probably the length of the school sessions for many years. In 1778 the town voted " that the Persons who send scholars shall provide wood for the schools." Schools were sometimes dismissed because the supply of fire-wood was exhausted.

The graded system of public schools now almost universal in the larger towns of Massachusetts was introduced into Amherst in 1860. There was a bitter opposition to this system in town, and it was delayed for many years after its introduction in other parts of the state, Its working has not been altogether free from the criticism made at its introduction that it would prevent the sons of workingmen from obtaining the education which had for- merly been given during the winter terms when the older boys were not needed for farm work as they would be in summer. Still, the town's schools are an object of pride to the citizens who yearly expend nearly $10,000.00 upon them. The number of school children reported by the assessors in 1885 was 600. The appropriation of the town the same year was, for schools $8,800.00, and for school-books $2,000.00, making the average cost of the schools about eigheen dollars for each scholar.

The high school has three courses of instruction, a classical, designed to fit young men for college, an English and Latin, chiefly taken by young ladies, and an English course in which the only foreign tongue studied is French. The two former courses require each four years for their completion, and the last is completed in three years.

The school buildings are distributed in various parts of the town, the center village having two large brick structures, the high school on School street receiving the scholars of the grammar grades as well as of the high school proper ; the Amity Street school-house, containing the primary and inter- mediate grades. East Amherst district has one large school-house with rooms for the various classes of the respective grades below the high school. North Amherst has three school-houses, one of them having double rooms for the grammar and intermediate grades respectively ; the other two being both of primary grade, one in the " West Street" and the other at " the City." The more scattered population south of the centre village requires five small-

I32

TOWN OF AMHERST.

er schools, called respectively " Mill Valley," "South Grammar," "South Green," South East" and " South West."

Amherst College .- It was during the second war with Great Britain that Amherst academy, which was the stepping stone to Amherst college, was opened. Even before the Revolution a movement had begun for the estab- lishment of a college or collegiate school in Hampshire county, and as soon as the county recovered its prosperity after the financial disasters of that long war, the efforts were renewed. Northampton was anxious to secure the honor of being an academic town, but the clergy of the vicinity seem to have favored Amherst from the commencement of the effort. Amherst academy was opened in 1814. and formally dedicated in 1815, although it was not char- tered until 1816, owing to opposition. Samuel Fowler Dickinson, Hezekiah W. Strong and Rev. Dr. Parsons were very instrumental in founding this academy. Dr. Parsons donated the land for the academy building, and was the first president of the board of trustees. The state made a conditional grant of half a township of land in the present state of Maine in aid of the academy, which flourished for several years, the number of pupils being at one time one hundred and eighty, one-half of them females. Mary Lyon, the well-known founder of Mt. Holyoke seminary, studied here in 1821, and many others of note first climbed the hill of knowledge at this academy. The building occupied the present site of the Amity Street school-house, just west of the Amherst House. It was never endowed, and with the passing away of the need of academies, upon the introduction of a graded system of schools and the establishment of free high schools for advanced instruction, it lost its non-res- ident support and was finally swallowed up by the Amherst high school. The building was torn down in 1868 to make room for the new town gram- mar school building.

It was through a charity fund that Amherst academy grew into Amherst college. An effort to raise money for the educating of promising but needy youth who wished to enter the ministry, revealed the fact that friends of the movement would subscribe more readily if the establishment of an institution of higher grade was contemplated. At the same time the desire for the removal of Williams college to a place of more convenient access seemed to be favorable to the project of a new college in Hampshire county. The friends of Williams college at first favored Northampton for the location of this institution, but as the legislature refused to charter a new institution, it became necessary to fall back upon the charter already obtained for Amherst academy. Fifty thousand dollars as a charity fund was quickly raised, and in 1820 the trustees of the academy began the erection of the first college building, Noah Webster delivering an address at the laying of the corner stone. Col. Elijah Dickinson had given the land, nine acres, the present location of the Amherst college buildings, and friends of the enterprise con- tributed both material and labor, and in September, 1821, a brick structure four stories high and 30 x 100 feet was completed. The trustees of the acad-

I33

TOWN OF AMHERST.

emy had already (May, 1821,) chosen Zephaniah Swift Moore as president of the "Charity Institution," as they called it, and he resigned the presidency of Williams college to accept his new position, bringing to Amherst a large number of his former pupils at Williamstown. The inauguration of the pres- ident and the dedication of the college took place September 8, 1821, the ceremonies taking place in the First church, which was located near the site of the present college observatory. Noah Webster presided and Rev. Dr. Leland, of Charleston, S. C., preached the sermon.

The college opened with forty-seven students, two of whom were suffi- ciently advanced to enter the senior class. There were two professors be- sides the president. The latter was to teach theology and moral philosophy, while the two professors, Rev. Gamaliel S. Olds and Joseph Estabrook, were respectively assigned to the departments of mathematics and natural philoso- phy, and that of the Latin and Greek. The present "North College " was erected during the presidency of Dr. Moore, and a president's house (now occupied by the Psi Upsilon society). At the first commencement, in 1821, there were two graduates, Pindar Field, who founded and superintended Am- herst's first Sunday-school, and E. S. Snell, afterwards professor. They re- ceived Latin testimonials that they had completed a regular college course, but could not receive degrees as the charter of the academy did not authorize the conferring of degrees.

Dr. Moore's death (June 29, 1823), at the early age of fifty-two, was a se- vere blow to the college, but in the following October Rev. Heman Hum- phrey was installed as his successor, and the prospects of the institution ma- terially brightened when, in 1825, it finally succeeded in obtaining a college charter from the legislature. It is said that one of the questions of the pre- ceding political campaign was the granting of a charter to the college, Gov- ernor Eustis, the successful candidate, favoring, and his opponent being ad- verse to the granting of the charter. After an early measure of success, Dr. Humphrey's presidency became embarrassed by financial difficulties and a threatened split upon the question of slavery. He resigned in 1844, and was succeeded in 1845 by Prof. Edward Hitchcock, during whose adminis- tration the endowment funds of the college were largely increased and its prosperity permanently assured. Rev. William A. Stearns, the next presi- dent, was inaugurated November 22, 1854. During his presidency the college was the recipient of over $75,000.00 in donations, the officers of instruction increased from eleven to twenty-one, with a proportionate increase of the number of students. The new buildings erected in his administration, Will- iston hall, Walker hall, and the College church, were architecturally a great improvement upon those erected before. President Stearns died June 8, 1876, and Prof. Julius H. Seelye was inaugurated as his successor May 24, 1877.

The college grounds embrace about thirty acres of land, to which five more acres is to be added by a purchase now being completed (August,

10%

I34

TOWN OF AMHERST.

1886). In addition to the college buildings, technically so called, the vari- ous secret societies own a number of chapter houses, which are an ornament to the town, in addition to fulfilling their society requirements. The building used for the college library, recently enlarged and admirably fitted for its pur- poses, contains about 45,000 volumes. The new Pratt gymnasium enables the students to seek physical development, and affords a place of training for the various athletic exhibitions and contests, second only to the Hemingway gymnasium of Harvard college, and far surpassing the ordinary facilities of college gymnasiums. In its art museum and its collection of bird tracks named in honor of President Hitchcock, and its collection of Indian relics, the college offers unusual opportunities to the lovers of sculpture, of paleon- tology and of aboriginal remains to pursue their favorite lines of study. Amherst college was the first to admit the students to a share in the govern- ment of the college, and at present all cases of college discipline are referred to the "Senate," a body of students elected by their fellows and presided over by the college president. So successful has been this mode of solving many vexed questions relating to the government of college students, that in its essential features it has been adopted by nearly all of the larger colleges.

Amherst college has ever been noted for its deep religious influence, and it has been said that no class has ever graduated from its halls without having passed through a revival of religious interest. In questions of educational methods, the position of the college was tersely defined by President Seelye at the commencement dinner in 1886, " Not as eager for changes as Har- vard, we are not as afraid of them as Yale." Prof. William S. Tyler has now held the professorship of the classical languages for fifty years, and in honor of this unusual event in college history the president of the institution at the commencement dinner of 1886, asked the alumni to respond to his sentiment, "O king, live forever," and the heartiness of the ovation rendered spontaneously to the genial professor left no doubt of his popularity with the many hundreds who have been taught no less by his character than by his learning.

In 1885-86 the college faculty consisted of thirty-two officers of instruction, and the students were classified as follows: resident graduates, 3 ; seniors. 77 ; juniors, 74; sophomores, 101 ; freshmen, 100 ; total number of stu- dents, 355. The total number of graduates from 1822 to 1881, has been 2,614. Among the large number of Amherst's sons who have rendered dis- tinguished service to their fellow men may be mentioned as theological leaders, Profs. B. B. Edwards (1824) and George Harris (1866), of Andover Theo- logical seminary, and President R. D. Hitchcock (1836), of Union seminary. Prof. H. B. Hackett, of the theological seminaries of Newton and Rochester, was graduated at Amherst in 1830. The college has furnished the churches with a large number of gifted and consecrated workers, at the head of whom stand Henry Ward Beecher (1834), Bishop Huntington (1839) and Rev. Richard S. Storrs (1839). William Hayes Ward, the editor of The Inde- pendent, graduated in 1856. Ex-Gov. Bullock, of Massachusetts (1836),

I35

TOWN OF AMHERST.

Horace Maynard, of Tennessee (1838), Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania (1844), with others of Amherst's sons, have held high political offices. Francis A. Walker, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, belongs to the Amherst class of 1860, as does also George L. Goodale, the professor in charge of the botanical department of Harvard university. Two hundred and sixteen graduates of the college served in the Union army or navy ; 1,024 have been ordained as clergymen, and 105 as foreign missionaries.

Massachusetts Agricultural College .- In 1864 a second college was located in Amherst by vote of the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural college, which had been incorporated the year before by the state legislature, and was at that time " the only college in the United States designed exclusively for the education of farmers." The nucleus for the funds of this institution was the grant of public land given by congress in 1862, for the maintenance of at least one college in each state " to teach such branches of learning as are re- lated to agriculture and the mechanic arts." The state of Massachusetts re- ceived 360,000 acres of the public domain under this grant, one-third of which was appropriated to the institute of technology, in Boston. As an inducement for the location of the college within its limits, the town of Am- herst donated $50,000.00 for the erection of buildings. The college bought 3832 acres of land from six proprietors, and the institution was formally opened in October, 1867, when a class of thirty-three students were admitted. The college has never received such private bequests from friends as have sufficed to give other institutions a permanent endowment fund, and has depended mainly for its support upon the appropriations generously made by the state legislature.

The total number of graduates is 245, non-graduates (those who have pur- sued a partial course) 406. Of the 650 whom this college has thus educated, 221 are now engaged in business, and 175 are in agricultural pursuits of some kind. The presidents of the college have been Hon. Henry F. French, 1864- 1866 ; Rev. Dr. P. A. Chadbourne, 1866-1867 ; Col. William S. Clark, 1867- 1879; Charles L. Flint, 1879-1880; Levi Stockbridge, 1880-1882 ; Rev. Dr. P. A. Chadbourne, 1882-1883 ; James C. Greenough, 1883-1886 ; H. H. Goodell, 1886.

The early success of the college was due in large measure to the active and energetic ability of Colonel Clark, who made the institution to be known not merely in this state, but also in far away Japan, whose agricultural college at Sapporo was modeled upon this, and organized by President Clark, who re- ceived a year's leave of absence to start the college, and which has ever looked to Amherst for gifted and energetic teachers. Colonel Clark is the only president who has held the office long enough to stamp his own personal influence upon the college, and much is due to his ability as an organizer and his active energy as a worker. ¡ The presidency of Dr. Chadbourne from which much was hoped, was cut short in 1867 by the failure of his health, and again in 1883 by his untimely death. President Greenough in his brief adminis-

136

TOWN OF AMHERST.

tration accomplished a great deal for the college in securing the erection of new buildings, which were greatly needed. South college, the library and chapel, and the president's house and barn, together with the buildings of the experiment station will remain as the testimony to his usefulness in fur- thering the interests of the college, and of the confidence of the state's repre- sentatives in his administration.

The funds of the college are the gift of land from the United States and a grant of nearly $150,000.00 by the state. In addition to the income of these funds the state has made appropriations for the various needs of the college amounting in all to $395,500.00.

The grant of $10,000.00 for free scholarships, first made in 1883, is an- nually made in accordance with the law of April 16, 1886. In 1885-86, the college faculty consisted of twelve instructors and the catalogued students numbered, seniors, 11; juniors, 27 ; sophomores, 22 ; freshmen, 23 ; total, 83-all but ten of whom were residents of Massachusetts.

In connection with the college there is an agricultural experiment station, established in 1882, where experiments are continually being made in all branches of agriculture, reports of which are published and distributed for the benefit of the farmers of the state. Prof. Charles A. Goessman, the college professor of chemistry, is the director of this station, whose board of manage- ment consists of seven persons, of whom the ex officio members are the gov- ernor of the state and the president of the college.

Private Schools .- Mount Pleasant Institute, a private school for boys, was organized in 1846 by John A. Nash. The buildings erected especially for a school have a beautiful and healthful location on an eminence half a mile north of the village of Amherst. In 1853 the Institute was bought by Hen- ry C. Nash, and conducted by him until 1877. From that time to 1884 it did not exist as a school ; but in 1884 W. K. Nash, son of H. C., took the school and is conducting it at the present time.

Mrs. Williams's school for young ladies and misses is located on South Prospect street. Rev. R. G. Williams and Mrs. Williams have been engaged in teaching many years, and have been in charge of large institutions. Mr. Williams's health having failed, Mrs. Williams proposes to continue her life work in Amherst. The assistance of first-class teachers in every department has been obtained, so that pupils can have the very best instruction.

Libraries .- The first public library in Amherst was begun in 1869, when the North Amherst Library association was formed by public spirited citi- zens of North Amherst. Its first books were purchased by subscription, and although a public library, it did not become a free public library until 1876, when the town made an appropriation for the purchase of books for this library. For many years the town has annually appropriated $100.00 for this purpose, and the citizens of North Amherst add to this from year to year by their united efforts. The number of volumes at the opening of the year 1886 was 1, 189.

I37

TOWN OF AMHERST.

The library at the center village, now containing about four thousand vol- umes, the use of which is free to all citizens of the town, began in a book-club formed in 1872. The next year an association was formed, and a three days' fair netted over six hundred dollars for the purchase of books, etc. A small association at East Amherst united with this, and the library thus com- menced contained about 750 volumes. At present the town makes a small annual appropriation for the purchase of books, and the directors of the association secure additional contributions by fairs, entertainments, or sub- scriptions. The library both needs and deserves the generous gifts of the public spirited, which will erect a suitable building for its accommodation, and also increase its income and its power for good.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Not far from 1745 there came to Hadley third precinct (now Amherst), Nathan Dickinson, a native of Hatfield, where he was born in 1712. He brought with him his wife, Thankful Warner, and three children ; and March 30, 1746, a fourth child was born to him at his new home in the third pre- cinct. His wife died soon after coming to Amherst, and he married Joanna Leonard, of Westfield, and after her death he married a third wife, Judith Hosmer. He died in Amherst August 7, 1796, at the ripe age of eighty-four. Of his thirteen children all but four seemed to have lived to have families of their own. His oldest son and namesake, Nathan Dickinson, Jr., was about ten years of age at the time of his father's coming to Amherst, having been born in Hatfield in 1735. He married in Amherst, Esther Fowler, and died August 3, 1825, aged ninety years. Seven of his eight children were mar- ried, and one of them, Timothy, his oldest son, was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1785, and became pastor of the church in Holliston, where he died in 1813.

Samuel Fowler Dickinson, son of Nathan, Jr., was born in Amherst Oc- tober 9, 1775. His father was a farmer in East Amherst, and his mother, Esther Fowler, was from Westchester, Conn. He fitted for college with Judge Strong, of Amherst, entered Dartmouth college at the age of sixteen years, and graduated in 1795. Though the youngest of his class he received the second appointment, the salutatory oration in Latin. After leaving col- lege, and teaching one year in the academy at New Salem, he completed the usual term of study in the law office of Judge Strong, and then established an office of his own in his native place. He early united with the West Par- ish church, and at the age of twenty-one was elected one of the deacons, an office which he held nearly forty years For fifteen years, from 1804 to 1818 inclusive, he was town clerk, was frequently employed as the agent and ad- vocate of the town in litigated questions, and served in the legislature twelve years, in the house of representatives eleven, and in the senate one, being chosen first in 1805. He was ranked among the best lawyers in Hampshire

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.

Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887, Part 14

Author: Gay, W. B. (William Burton), comp Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., W. B. Gay & co Number of Pages: 824

Author: Gay, W. B. (William Burton), comp
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., W. B. Gay & co
Number of Pages: 824