USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Hatfield > Hatfield Annual Town Report 1860-1890 > Part 7
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1st. The teacher has full control within the school-room and in school hours, over the members of the school, subject only to the directions of the Committee.
2nd. Profanity, obscenity, rudeness or insult by pupils, in or about the premises, or anything whereby the morals or in- terests of the school are injured, is properly cognizable by, and subject to the reproof and correction of the teacher.
3rd. The authority of the teacher extends to anything that transpires in passing to and from the school, which may be detrimental to its welfare, such as truancy, quarrelsomeness, and indecencies.
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The decisions of the supreme courts of several States, (our own among others,) sustains teachers in administering disci- pline for conduct, words, and insults offered to themselves in presence of other pupils, outside of school premises, because such conduct has a direct and immediate tendency to subvert the teachers authority and beget insubordination.
4th. Pupils may be retained a reasonable time by teachers for purposes of instruction or discipline,-a practice which has been sanctioned by long usage and by the authority of School Committees, and has been found exceedingly useful.
These are the principles pertaining to the authority of the teacher, of course to be judiciously applied."
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE SCHOOLS.
Your Committee think that as a whole, the Schools in the town were prosperous during the last year. At the different examinations we spoke our words of commendation and cen- sure, and therefore here we forbear. Our schools are far from what we desire, but with competent teachers, faithful and hearty co-operation of parents and guardians, and liberal ap- propriations, we feel sure that they will be an honor to the town, and what the children, when grown to manhood and womanhood, will look back upon with gratitude and pride.
JOHN M. GREENE, REUBEN H. BELDEN, School Committee. DANIEL W. WELLS,
Hatfield, March 17th, 1866.
.
.
The town raised by tax, $1500,00 for Schools. No. of children between the ages of 5 and 15 years, 289.
Districts.
Schools taught by
Length of School in months.
Amount paid.
of Scholars.
ars under 5 years,
ars over 15 years.
Sum. Win.
Sum.
Win.
Sum. Win.
Sum. Win.
Sum. Win.
Sum. Win.
No. 1, Hill,
Lottie E. Graves,
4 3 1-10
$88,00
$79,43
39
39
24 13-80 31 25-62 24 9-80 29 97-124 30
1
No. 2, So. Center,
Mary C. Billings,
3 1-5
$96,00
32
27 51-64
No. 2, Upper Dep't
Sarah M. Smith,
3
$78,00
$82,90
45
39
2
No. 2, No. Center,
Sarah M. Smith,
33-20
$136,20
28
22 13-14
11
No. 3, West Farms
Hattie E. Stearns,
3
3 1-4
$81,00 $110,50 $83,25 $78,00
24
30
20 18-100 25 4-10
1
1
No. 4, W. Brook.
Mary J. Strong, Lucy A. Smith,
3 1-2
$101,50
50
38
2
No, 5, Pantry,
H. E. Hibbard,
Fannie S. Dickinson,
31-4
$175,50
59
51 63-65
3
4
3 1-10|$100,00 $91,63
32
36
Laura A. Field,
3
$72,00
37
38
33 1-80
; Mrs. M. E. M. Wilder,
31-5
3 1-4
23
19
29
22 11-20
3
M.Maria Harrington,
3
Whole No.| " Average attend. |No. of Sch']-[No. of Sch'l- ance.
8
L. Adelia Weeks,
REPORTS
OF THE
Selectmen and School Committee
OF THE
TOWN OF HATFIELD,
For the Year 1866-7.
NORTHAMPTON: TRUMBULL & GERE, ... PRINTERS. 1867.
SELECTMEN'S REPORT.
In settlement with the Treasurer, we find in his hands six hundred and sixty-two dollars and thirty-two cents, and due on Collector's Bill, ninety-two dollars and eight cents. There are some outstanding bills which will reduce that amount. The note of Miss Sophia Smith, amounting with interest to four thousand and twelve dollars, has been paid. There is a note still held by Nelson Clapp against the Town for one thousand dollars, which was borrowed to pay State Aid ; and also a note of three hundred dollars to Miss Sophia Smith, which was authorized by the town, to build new roads. The town has paid during the year, as State Aid, eight hundred and forty dollars, and there is due from the State a balance of fifty-two dollars and ten cents, making eight hundred and ninety-two dollars and ten cents, to be reimbursed by the State.
PAUPERS.
The expenses for paupers have been less than for several years past. At the commencement of the year the town was fully supporting five paupers, two of which were in Asylums for the Insane, and three were boarded with Mr. Anderson. Some of them being in feeble health, the weekly cost was greater than in previous years. Theodore Wells died very suddenly on the eleventh day of June. In the month of August, Rolla Wells came upon the town, to be fully supported, and was sent to Mr. Anderson's, but remained only two weeks and "ran away," taking his brother Asa with him, and where they now are is
4
unknown to us. Ann Dickinson, having been pronounced by physicians insane, was removed to the Asylum at Northampton, where she died on the twenty-third of November. Oliver Bardwell and Francis Abbott, at the Insane Asylums at Brattle- boro and Northampton, are the only paupers that have been fully supported by the town the past winter.
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.
The Expenditures for Highways and Bridges have been more than usual, on account of a new road and bridges. The County Commissioners having laid a road from near the house of Wm. B. Coleman leading to the depot, a town meeting was called to take action in relation to building said road. At the meeting the Selectmen were made a Committee to build the road. The order of the Commissioners for working the road not having been issued, we anticipated the order, and employed H. S. Porter to make that part of the road lying east of the Swamp Hill, and a short piece near the depot, thinking it for the interest of the town to have it done in the Fall rather than in the Spring.
The bridge over Mill River, near the depot, was undermined by the Spring freshets, and after consultation with experienced bridge-builders, it was decided to drive piles for the foundation of the new bridge. The bridge at West Brook was built with heavy stone abutments, believing it economy for the town to build strong substantial bridges, if the first cost is somewhat increased. We supposed that the bridge over Mill River, near the house of Levi Graves, would only need some slight repairing, but we found on examination that the timbers were so decayed that it was necessary to rebuild it, and it being late in the season, it was built in the same style as the old one, without stone abut- ments.
In the month of October, Mr. Thomas Sanderson of Whately, while crossing Hill Bridge, had his horse injured by breaking through. After notifying us of the same, he claimed that his horse was rendered nearly worthless, and demanded two hundred dollars as damage. We wished to avoid a law suit, but were not satisfied that the injury would be permanent, and declined to
5
pay the sum demanded. We saw the horse a number of times during the fall and winter, and as the horse had not fully recov- ered from his lameness, we settled with Mr. Sanderson by paying him seventy-five dollars.
We think that there is no subject that comes before the town, that is of more importance than that of providing good and safe Roads and Bridges, and yet after the town has increased the amount of money to be expended on Highways, and some of the Surveyors have expended much more than the amount of their tax bills, still it is evident to all who have traveled on our roads, that many of them are in bad condition. The Surveyors com- plain of the want of proper material to repair the roads in many parts of the town, and also the difficulty of procuring help when it is most needed, and when it would be of the most permanent benefit to the roads to have the money expended. All who have attended our annual Town Meetings know how difficult it is to procure men of experience and judgment, to take the office of Highway Surveyor, and when suitable men are found, to accept that trust, and have learned something by experience the best manner of repairing roads, they will generally decline serving a second term. We are of the opinion that some different plan could be devised by the town, that would be more economical, and give better roads.
1
6
EXPENDITURES.
OLD BILLS.
Paid Wm. H. Dickinson, for cash paid for Patrick
Dulligan, $ 19 90
Emerson L. Covill, for work on Highway, 1 00
Luman S. Crafts, for Land Damage, 225 00
S. D. Bartlett, for Overwork on Highway, 15 49
John E. Waite, 66
66
3 50
Rev. John M. Greene, services as School Committee, 29 00 R. H. Belden, 66 66 66 23 50
D. W. Wells, 66 66 66 16 95
Wm. H. Dickinson, services as Selectman and cash paid 75 50
R. H. Belden,
32 50
J. T. Fitch,
66
25 50
Hospital for the Insane, for board of Philena E. Orcutt, 84 50 66 66 Francis Abbott, 90 50
R. H. Belden, for cash paid for labor on Roads, 21 00
Trumbull & Gere, for printing Selectmen's and School Committee's Reports,
40 00
Elisha Hubbard, for cash paid for Schools, 10 00
$713 84
PAUPERS.
Paid H. Anderson, for support of Theodore Wells, $ 37 36
66 66 Asa Wells, 60 00
66 66 Rolla Wells, 6 00
66 66
Ann Dickinson, 134 01
Hospital for the Insane, (Northampton, ) for sup- port of Francis Abbott, 92 46
Hospital for the Insane, for support of Philena Orcutt, 74 28
Forward, 404 11
Brought Forward, 404 11
Insane Asylum, (Brattleboro,) for support of Oliver Bardwell, 130 00
0. Marsh, for keeping Transient Paupers,
22 50
L. S. Bliss,
66
66
60
6 00
Thomas Cutter, "
66
6 00
Dr. Myron Harwood, for medical attendance, paupers, 5 50 Wm. H. Dickinson, expense of Clothing for Paupers and Funeral Expenses of Theodore Wells and. Ann Dickinson, 59 20
R. H. Belden, cash paid, and services for Paupers,
25 60
$658 91
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.
Paid Herrick Anderson, for Labor on Highways and - Bridges, $225 07
Foster C. Anderson, for labor on Highways and Bridges, 25 00
Charles E. Kingsley, for labor on Swamp Bridge, 11 50
John McHugh, 66.
10 00
Thomas Cutter,
66
66
4 40
H. S. Porter, for building road to Depot, and Scra- per furnished the Town, 253 00
J. T. and Geo. C. Fitch, for Timber and Plank furnished, 516 32
E. F. Cooley, for drawing Stone, 27 00
Wm. H. Dickinson, for Timber and Plank, and cash paid for labor on Bridges, and for labor of men and teams, 198 82 R. H. Belden, cash paid and labor of men and team, 146 36 John T. Fitch, for services as Bridge Committee, 21 25
E. B. Wells, for driving Piles at Swamp Bridge, 52 00 W. Herrick, for Bolts furnished for Bridges, 37 45
L. S. Crafts, for Labor on Bridges, 53 15
Lorenz Seitz, 66 66
4 50
A. L. Strong, for Overwork on Highway, 34 52
$1,620 34 .
8
INCIDENTAL EXPENSES.
Paid Calvin B. Marsh, for collecting Taxes and posting Warrants, $104 35
A. M. Peck, for services as Sexton and recording deaths, 20 40
S. M. Smith, for Coffin for Ann Dickinson, 14 50
Eames, Sprague & Co., Stoves for Town Hall, 24 34
Thomas Sanderson, Damage to Horse, 75 00 W. D. Billings, Services as Town Clerk and Assessor, 77 15 George Wait, Services as Assessor, 17 50
Samuel P. Billings " 36 00
Wm. H. Dickinson, Cash paid for repairs on Town Hall, 34 04
George W. Hubbard, for meeting County Commis- sioners, 7 50
Joseph Billings, Services as Constable, 8 80
Joseph S. Wells, Services as Treasurer, and cash paid for Postage and Stamps, 29 25
$448 83
SCHOOLS.
DISTRICT NO. 1.
Paid Mary J. Strong, for services as Teacher, ฿91 00
Julian, " 66
66
63 00
H. A. Cook, 66 66
42 25
Wm. B. Coleman, for wood furnished,
44 00
" board of Teachers,
152 00
$392 25
DISTRICT NO. 2.
Paid Mary L. Childs, for services as Teacher,
$33 50
Nettie Owen
66
42 00
Mary C. Billings, “
and board,
181 50
Elizabeth Smith,
66
66
66
52 00
H. Porter, 66 66 66
110 00
Daniel W. Allis, for boarding Teacher,
33 25
Chas Coleman, 66 66 66
35 00
A. M. Peck, 66 66 66
52 00
S. G. Hubbard, 66 66 66
65 00
A. M. Peck, for wood furnished, 48 75
S. G. Hubbard,
66
40 12
$693 12
DISTRICT NO. 3.
Paid Helen McRae, for services as Teacher,
$48 00
Mary S. Watkins, 66 66
65 00
John W. Morton, for boarding Teacher,
42 00
Oscar Belden, 66 16 66
52 00
R. H. Belden, for wood furnished,
22 75
$229 75
DISTRICT NO. 4.
Paid Jane E. Cutter, for services as Teacher,
$36 00
H. A. Smith, for Teaching and Board, 60 00
H. Anderson, for boarding Teacher,
36 05
H. Anderson, for wood furnished,
22 75
$154 75
DISTRICT NO. 5.
Paid Lottie E. Graves, for services as Teacher,
$42 00
Nellie M. Pease, " 66
71 50
Hattie A. Pease, "
66
5 00
A. M. Richmond, for wood furnished, Henry Dwight,
38 00
E. L. Hastings, for boarding Teacher,
42 00
Henry Dwight " 66
52 50
14 50
$265 50
2
10
TOWN AID.
Paid Mrs. John H. Vining,
$40 66
Mrs. Charles P. Wait,
30 00
Mrs. John W. Field, Mrs. Edwin Graves,
39 01
80 01
STATE AID.
Paid Mrs. John H. Vining,
$112 00
John W. Field,
112 00
Edwin Graves,
112 00
Ebenezer C. Anderson,
112 00
Joseph Richards,
112 00
Alonzo Dennis,
112 00
Elizabeth Covil,
56 00
E. L. Covil,
112 00
$840 00
NOTES AND INTEREST.
Paid Note of Sophia Smith,
$3,750 00
Interest to
262 50
$4,012 50
OUTSTANDING NOTES OF THE TOWN.
Treasurer's Note to Nelson Clapp,
$1,000 00
" Sophia Smith, 300 00
$1,300 00
RECAPITULATION.
RECEIPTS.
Balance in Treasurer's hands March 23, 1866,
1,084 75
Amount of Taxes assessed, 13,764 20
State Treasurer, reimbursement of State Aid, 876 82
Corporation Tax,
281 44
Forward, 16,007 21
$189 68
11
Brought Forward,
16,007 21
Treasurer's Note, Miss Sophia Smith,
300 00
George W. Hubbard, Guardian of Philena Orcutt,
158 78
State School Fund,
118 35
From Sale of Hearse House,
14 00
$16,598 34
DISBURSEMENTS.
State Tax,
$4,260 00
County Tax,
1,294 44
Sophia Smith's Note and Interest,
4,012 50
State Aid,
840 00
Town Aid,
189 68
Old Bills,
713 84
Highways and Bridges,
1,620 34
Paupers,
658 91
Schools,
1,735 37
Incidental Expenses,
448 83
Orders of Abatement,
70 03
$15 843 94
Balance in hands of Treasurer to
new account, Amount uncollected by Calvin B. Marsh,
$662 32
92 08 754 40
$16,598 34
WM. H. DICKINSON, -
Selectmen R. H. BELDEN,
of
JOHN T. FITCH. 1 Hatfield.
JOSEPH S. WELLS, Treas'r.
March, 20, 1867.
·
ANNUAL Report of the School Committee
OF THE
TOWN OF HATFIELD,
For the Year 1866-7.
The amount of money raised by the town the last year for Schools was $1500. The town received from the State School Fund $118,35. Three Hundred of the Fifteen Hundred Dollars were, by vote of the Town, put into the hands of the School Committee, for the purpose of equalizing the length of the Schools in the several Districts. By error of the Treasurer, the $118,35 from the State School Fund were added to the $1200 remaining after $300 were subtracted from the $1500, and paid out to the Districts under the orders of the Selectmen. Thus the money from the State School Fund was inadvertently appro- priated twice. This makes the whole sum of the Town's money used for Schools during the past year, $1618,35.
The School Committee disbursed the $418,35, as follows :
To the Hill District $47, which enabled them to have twenty- five weeks of school for the Upper Department, and twenty-five weeks for the Lower Department. To the Center District $207, which enabled the North Center and South Center to have twen-
2
ty-five weeks of school each, and the Center Upper Department twenty-two weeks. To the West Farms District $107, which ena- bled them to have twenty-five weeks of school. To West Brook District $57,35, which enabled them to have twenty-four weeks of school. The Pantry District, with the money drawn upon the scholars, had twenty-five weeks of school.
The number of teachers employed during the year is fourteen ; two have been employed both Summer and Winter.
The number of children in the town between the ages of five and fifteen is 312, an increase of 23 on last year. The whole number of pupils in the schools is 320, an increase of 22 on last year. The number of pupils in the schools that have not drawn money by reason of their being under five or over fifteen years of age is 45.
The number of scholars in the schools that have not been ab- sent or tardy during the entire year, has been seven ; their names are as follows :- Lucy Coleman, Louisa Graves, Lucy A. Strong, Alice L. Bartlett, Melissa A. Dwight, Carrie A. Warner, and Henry D. Warner.
The teachers, in most cases, have been judiciously selected, have labored with commendable zeal and prudence, and met with as much success as our accommodations for the scholars, and our present school system would warrant us to expect.
SCHOOL HOUSES.
Your Committee feel it to be their duty to persevere in calling the attention of the town to the great evils arising from neglect to provide better places for some of the schools. We think we are prompted to this by a feeling of benevolence, i. e., a desire to guard the health, and promote the physical, intellectual, and moral well-being of the rising generation. It is not a wonder that that fell scourge, consumption, decimates our population, and that many others are invalids. There is cause enough in the small, unventilated, incommodious rooms in which some of our schools are kept. The seeds of disease are early sown, and in the very bloom of manhood and womanhood comes the bitter fruit. The private dwellings in this town are an ornament and honor to it ; but this cannot be said of the external appearance
or the internal arrangements and accommodations of some of the buildings in which we are attempting to educate our children, We consider them not only a fatal injury to the taste and better aspirations of the pupils, a means of preventing the growth of a public spirit, and of killing out even the innate desire of knowledge, but undesigned instruments of scattering through the town sickness, suffering, death. Youth is the time to lay in stores of health for the heavy duties of active life, and for old age. But what chance has a child for this, who is crowded into a little room, and made, for six long hours a day, to inhale the deadliest poisons, and to sit in the most constrained positions ?
To show that we are not drawing upon our imagination for these pictures, let us take some facts. The lower room in the school house in the Hill District, is 22 feet long by 21 feet wide, and seven and a half feet high. The number of cubic feet of air which that room contains is 3,465. The number of pupils in that school last term was 43. The room has no apparatus for ventilation. Physiology tells us that, in order to health, each person needs seven* cubic feet of air to inhale each minute. God has furnished pure air in the greatest abundance. All out doors is full of it at the height of 50 miles. Let these 43 schol- ars crowd into that school room. Twelve minutes have not pass- ed before that quantity of air has been inhaled by those pupils, the oxygen, or life-sustaining property, taken from it and incor- porated with the blood, and carbonic acid, which is a deadly poison, and hydrogen, made to take its place. Suppose twelve minutes to have passed. These scholars must now take that impure and deadly air into their lungs and breath it over, in the hope that some of the oxygen was left on the first breathing. And the next twelve minutes breathe it, still more impure, again. Not getting from it what the system demands, the pupils become restless, feel an aversion to study, have the headache, are weary, and lose their ability to attend to the instruction of their teacher. To require children to study and bring out the products of the brain under such circumstances is the same kind
* Dr. Cutter in his Physiology says, "No physiologist pretends that less than seven cubic feet of air are adequate for a man to breathe each minute, while Dr. Reid allows ten feet."
4
of insanity as to put a spider on a bed of live coals and ask it to spin its web. The spider will summon all its powers to leap from that deadly place. So all the powers of nature in a child, thus shut up, will struggle to get that child out of that poisonous place into the pure air. The restlessness, the headache, and all the discomfort of the child, are so many wise provisions of nature to secure its life and health.
But the school room to which reference is made above, is not the only one that needs the attention of the town. The upper room in the same district is not what it should be.
The North Center, and the Center in the rear of the Church, are but little better. Also the smallness of most of the school-rooms compels the pupils to be so crowded together that, if they had pure air, they could not study. Small scholars cannot and. should not sit still. But any motion is only an interference of one pupil with another.
Enlarged black-boards are also much needed in most of our schools.
The Pantry District needs to be furnished with a room, either by hiring or building, in which to put half of the scholars in the Winter term. Possibly all might be accommodated in one room in the Summer, when the number of pupils is smaller and the ventilation may be more perfect by open windows.
HIGH SCHOOL.
Under this head we would say that it impresses itself upon us more forcibly this year even than last, that as a town we are not doing our duty in respect to the facilities which we afford the young among us for education. We live in a country and an age when knowledge is not only usefulness, happiness, power, but a necessity. Two hundred and fifty years ago Shakspeare said, " Ignorance is the curse of God : Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."
John Lock said : " The difference to be found in the manners and abilities of men is owing more to their education than anything else."
Addison : " Anindustrious and virtuous education of children is a better inheritance for them than a great estate,"
Benj. Franklin : "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
Edward Everett : " Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the school- master, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant."
The inspired penman tells us that " Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and the strength of sal- vation.".
While the town is furnished with a sufficient number of Primary Schools, it has not one which is suitable to carry the scholars forward and fit them for the increasingly responsible duties of useful, intelligent, and virtuous citizenship. Everything valuable pertaining to the town in the next generation, depends upon the fitness which those who are now children, shall have for their responsibilities. What has passed for an education with us, is far less than will be needed by them. The educational standard in all of our towns is raised. A more complete education is demanded for the performance of private or public business, for wise action on social or political questions, and for filling offices of honor and trust. Ignorance puts the ban upon one and shuts the door of opportunity.
The pupils in our schools are, as far as qualifying them for citizenship goes, a trust committed to the voters of this town. The law makes their education the care of the town. This it does because their education is a public benefit. Property is en- hanced in value if it is in an intelligent and virtuous community. It is more secure. The social privileges afforded by it are better. There is not a worthy interest which is not promoted by the education of a community. So that it is just that all, whether parents or not, should participate in bearing the expense of edu- cation. All are benefitted. And it is easy to see that the edu- cation must be such as is suited to the times, in order to secure the benefits. More is now demanded for enlightened citizenship, -therefore more must be done to prepare for it. We are really pushing the children now on the stage forward to fight the social battles of their time,-to cope with infidelity, intemperance, vice in all its forms,-and social and political questions of the gravest im- portance. The whole world is brought within speaking distance of
3
6
them, and they must know more about it than we do. They will be met in their conflicts by skilled antagonists, and shall not we furnish them with the skill and the arms needed for an equal contest ? Four years ago you would have thought it madness to send out soldiers without equipments ? Is it any less madness to send our children unequipped into the battles that await them ?
We claim, in the language of the 28th Mass. School Report, that " the influence of a High School goes from the school to the family. Thus a good High School is adapted not merely for the cultivation and refinement of them who receive its imme- diate benefits, but it is calculated to exert a purifying and refin- ing influence upon society in general, to raise the tone of ed- ucation, to set up worthy objects as the end of life, to incite new thought, and start the rising generation from a higher level than that on which their fathers stood. Thus every parent has an interest in the High School, even though his children do not enjoy its advantages."
There is sometimes a concise kind of logic that leaps forth, Minerva-like, from the deepest convictions of the soul. It is too condensed for the intellect to unravel and articulate. Dr. John- son, when disputing with a fatalist, uttered the sentence, " We know we're free, and there's an end on't." President Lincoln when pushed on the subject of slavery, cut the gordian knot by the sentence, " If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." These are expressions of the profoundest convictions of the soul. But no more so than this :- If the education of the young up to a point to fit them for duty in the sphere in which we place them to act is not a duty, nothing is duty. This is an impulse, an instinct of the Christian heart.
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