USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 7
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93
" THE MASTER'S SCHOOL."
and then practiced munificence or meanness when the rest came, as the natural disposition prompted.
Water for the use of the school was brought twice a day from Mr. Hall's, at the corner of School and Wash- ington streets. In the large open shed to this house was the pump, and few if any children ever passed without stopping for a " drink of water ; " real thirst had little to do with it we imagine.
A pleasant excitement was occasionally created in the school-room by the downfall of the entire length of stove- pipe, with a crash and a dust, only second to an earth- quake, to childish imaginations. Then Mr. Hall was sent for to put it up again, and it was quite delightful either to sit and watch the process, or be sent out to play while it was going on. Anything was a godsend which broke up the routine and monotony.
In winter, when "the master's school " was kept down stairs, it was a great pleasure to the pupils of the upper school to go down occasionally to hear " the great boys " declaim, and the rounded periods of grand oratory, from Cicero to Patrick Henry and Edward Everett were rolled out and sent the blood thrilling through childish veins as the studied elegance of few orators or actors since has caused it to thrill. They were admired, those young ora- tors, in the school-room by their youthful audience, but how they were feared when out from under the master's eye, because they wore long blue frocks, had stentorian voices, and kicked foot-ball furiously. There were many changes of masters, a new one being hired almost every winter. What would be thought in the present days of school courtesy, of a teacher who should throw an open knife across the school-room at a disorderly pupil, or launch a mahogany ruler at another, which striking upon a desk should split, and inflict so serious a wound upon
94
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
the victim that a strong boy should faint at the sight? Yet such events as these have occurred within thirty years in this school-house, and the teacher continued his school through the winter, only being advised to slightly modify his methods of discipline. The rattan and the cane were in daily and almost hourly use, but the schools were far less quiet and orderly than at present.
There was no teacher so thoroughly identified with the building as Miss Catherine, daughter of Charles Stearns, Sen., of this town, who taught the year round for twenty- five years. In all this time she never lost a day by ill- ness. The schools were of course ungraded in her time, and the pupils were from four years old upwards, as long as they chose to attend. The amount of real work, hard work, done in this school seems marvelous. There were from fifty to sixty pupils during the several years of the writer's familiarity with it, and there were four classes in reading and spelling besides " the little children."
Written Arithmetic was taught as far as simple inter- est. Mental Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, History of the United States, Goodrich's Universal History, Nat- ural Philosophy, Roman Antiquities and Mythology, Blake's Astronomy, Composition, Map-drawing, and Writing, each received attention, and there was no lack of thorough reviewing. These studies were not all pre- scribed by the School Committee, but great freedom of choice was left to the teacher and first class.
The elder pupils often rendered the teacher assistance in instructing the younger ones. Besides all this, needle- work was allowed, and Miss Stearns often fitted her pupils' work out of school hours, this being wholly gratuitous service. After the school had above sixty regular pupils Miss Emily Reed was appointed assistant to Miss Stearns. Soon after, she was appointed principal in another school,
95
REV. DR. PIERCE.
and for thirty years gave this town her best energies. Both these ladies were conscientious and laborious teach- ers, yet for many years the highest price paid them was but two dollars and a half a week.
During a period of many years, there was a Prudential Committee, but the entire management of literary affairs connected with the schools devolved upon Rev. Dr. Pierce, the minister of the First Parish for fifty years.
Rev. Mr. Shailer of the Baptist Church was also active in school matters during the entire period of his residence in the town, but Dr. Pierce being many years his senior, was always authority in all open questions, and for years was the only active committee man. He it was who visited the schools, examined the pupils in their studies, and made such suggestions as were deemed expedient.
His visits were received with great delight by most of the pupils, mingled with a sense of awe, and a great de- sire to please. What a hush fell upon the buzzing and restless school when his step was heard ascending the school-house stairs. He rapped upon the door with the head of his cane, and as the teacher opened the door the pupils were expected to rise, and remain standing while the venerable gentleman walked up the aisle to the plat- form, set his cane in one corner, hung his hat upon the top of it, and seated himself at the teacher's desk. We said venerable, for Dr. Pierce was venerable long before he was old. His snow-white hair and his dignity of man- ner impressed even the most careless, yet he was never feared by the children, as fault-finders are feared, though he was a good critic.
How he puzzled the grammar class with all sorts of in- tricacies, and how delighted he was when we could man- age the knotty passages in parsing " Thompson's Sea- sons." How he brought forth an inexhaustible series of
96
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
hard words for the spelling classes from his wonderful memory, and delighted in confronting us with some jaw- breaking proper name from the Old Testament. He capped the climax one day by giving out to the first class, " Honorificabilitudinitatibusque." To his astonishment one pupil had heard the word before and could spell it, in the old style, going back to the first syllable in pronoun- cing it after every successive syllable. Then his love of antiquities, and his wonderful memory of dates and anec dotes, made him most entertaining, as all his teaching and examining were interspersed with these varieties as they were suggested by whatever might be in the lessons. When he had criticised the classes and told his stories, and his rich sonorous voice had joined the childish ones with " Greenville " or " Old Hundred," he rose to go, and the school, rising, remained standing while he passed out, bowing right and left as he went. " Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old
man." Young America needs many a lesson to-day in common courtesy to the aged. Of the pupils who figured conspicuously in this old school, a volume might be writ- ten, but this is not the time or place, for most of them are still grappling with the problems of life. But there are still tenderly remembered, the sweet young girls who faded early from sight and fell asleep before sorrow or care cast a shadow over them ; and brave and manly boys who went forth to serve their country and whose fate is marked by a little flag and a withered wreath in yonder cemetery.
But we must take leave of the old school-house. It overflowed into the town hall, and the old stone school- house in Walnut Street, and still the children came, springing up like Roderick Dhu's men, till the town pro- vided new and ample accommodations ; and the old build-
97
GOOD-BY TO THE OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE.
ing, no longer wanted, was sold to George W. Bird, the apothecary, in 1855, who moved it to its present location and altered it into the dwelling and shop now occupied by A. A. Cheney, watchmaker. One would think his clocks and watches might catch the echoes of the old walls, and be heard in the stillness of night ticking out the spelling book and striking the changes of the multi- plication table.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SHARPS. - CURIOUS OLD PAPERS. - THE SEWALLS. - ED- WARD DEVOTION. - CAPTAIN WINCHESTER. - THE GRIGGS FAMILY. - HARVARD STREET, CONCLUDED.
L EAVING School Street to proceed up Harvard Street, we find the first house to be that of Esquire Sharp, on the left hand side, standing now next to Cousens' Block, but formerly on the high bank at the entrance to Harvard Avenue, on the left. The only other house on that side of the street before arriving at the present site of the house of William Griggs, was the house of Cap- tain Robert Sharp, on the site of the present house of J. C. Abbot, Esq. (We are writing now of forty or more years ago.) . On the north side of the street was no house from Aspinwall Avenue to the house occupied by Charles Stearns, Sen. All the land on both sides belonged to the Sharps. This name, like that of many of the other old fam- ilies, is extinct ; but through a line of female descendants, the ancient Sharps " still live," in the families bearing the names of Clark, Davis, Jones, and Craft, in this town, and through the Buckminsters, in the families of Rev. Dr. Lothrop, George B. Emerson, and Judge Lowell, of Bos- ton and Brookline.
We will go back more than two hundred years, and trace downwards something of the family history. Robert Sharp was of English origin, and came to Boston in the ship Abigail in 1635, from London, aged twenty years. It would seem that he lived at Dorchester for a while, as
99
THE SHARPS.
he came from there to Brookline, or Muddy River, in 1650, with Peter Aspinwall, and the two bought a great tract of land, one hundred and fifty acres, of William Colborn. The ancient deed, bearing the above date, is still preserved in the Aspinwall family. Harvard Street was not then laid out, and School Street was but a part of the lane leading to the Aspinwall house from the " Watertown road," as Washington Street was then called. Four years later Harvard Street was laid out through their farms, and the Davis property, etc .; " Peeter Asppenwall," William Davis, and others ap- pointed by the town authorities of Cambridge being au- thorized to lay out the street.
The ancient dwelling house of the Sharps was near the present corner of Harvard and Auburn Streets, on what is now Mr. Harris's lawn. The old cellar, and an Eng- lish cherry tree which was near it, were to be seen within the memory of persons now living. Robert Sharp died in 1654, and in 1656 we find recorded a petition of his widow, who has already consoled herself with a second husband, that "Peter Aspinwall and Thomas Meekins " be appointed guardians for her three minor children, Jolin, Abigail, and Mary. It is proposed that Aspinwall "take ye two daughters and finde them meate, drinke and ap- parell, learne them to reade, to knitt, to spine, and such Housewifery, and keepe them either to ye day of marriage or until ye age of eighteene ; for which said ' Peeter' is to have ye vse and profitt of ye house and land, yt was said Sharps, only ye said Peeter besides bringing up ye said daughters, in consideration of ye benefit of said house and land, alow ye sonne £5 per annum. (Thomas Meek- inne's had the sonne to bringe up to his trade.)" Signed January 15, 1656, witnessed by Abigail Clapp, Relicte and Administratrix to the Estate of the late Robert Sharp." Nine years later, on April 15, 1665, we find a petition of
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100
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
the mother that the guardians be discharged, they having fulfilled their trust. . At this time John, the eldest, is twenty-two years of age and married, Abigail seventeen and Mary twelve.
We hear no more of the " sonne John," till the begin- ning of the year 1676, when he writes a letter to his old guardian, Thomas Meekins, which we copy entire for its exquisite quaintness.
[Address.] " This for Loving Master Thomas Meekins living at Hatfield. This deliver.
" LOVING AND MUCH RESPECTED MASTER : -
" My love is remembered to you and my dame hoping you are wel as I am at the writing hereof, blessed be God for it. My wiff desiars to be remembered unto you and my dame, and wee are yet in our habitation through Gods marsi, but we are in ex- pectation of the enimi everi day if God be not the more marsi- ful unto us.
" I have been out 7 weeks myself and if provisions had not grown short we had folood the enimi into your borders, and then I would have given you a visit if it had been possibel, for I went out a volintere under Captain Wadsworth of Milton, but he is coled hom to recrout about their owne town, so I left off the desire at present.
" There is many of our friends taken from us. Cap Jonson of Roxberi was slaine at Naragansit, and Will lincoln died before his wound was cured ; filip Curtis was slane at a wigwame about Mendham, but we have lost but one man with us these wars. My mother bose is ded and my sister Swift. I pray remember my love to John Elis and his wiff, and the rest of our friends, and however it is like to fare with us God knows, and wee de- siare to comit all our affairs into his hands.
" So having nothing els desiaring your praiars for us, I rest, " Your Sarvant, JOHN SHARPE .* " Mudiriver 8 of the 1 mo. 1676."
* Dr. Pierce, in his Town Hall Address, 1845, speaks of the Lieutenant who
101
LIEUT. JOHN SHARP. - ROBERT SHARP.
On the eighteenth of April following, occurred the memorable fight at Sudbury, in which Captain Wadsworth and Lieutenant Sharp were both killed. Those who are familiar with the history of King Philip's War will re- member the horrible atrocities practiced upon the wounded in this battle. It is only to be hoped that poor John Sharp was killed outright, early in the contest.
The old stone which formerly marked the spot, bore the following inscription : -
" Capt. Samuel Wadsworth of Milton, his Lieut. Sharp of Brooklin, and twenty-six other souldieis, fighting for the defence of their country were slain by the indian enemy April 18, 1676, and lye buried in this place."
A few years since a tasteful monument was erected upon the spot.
Lieutenant John Sharp left four children, Robert, William, Martha, and Elizabeth. The son Robert mar- ried Sarah Williams of Roxbury. In 1690 a campaign was planned against the Indians at the north, in which he bore a part. A writing which lies before us, from his own hand, is worth transcribing. It is as follows : -
" Know all men by these presents that whereas, I, Robert Sharp of mudyriver in the county of Suffolk in newingland be- ing bound out to the warr, and leaving some conserns behind me, doe therefore ordain and constitute my loveing father Steven Williams of Roxbury in the counti aforesaid my lawfull attorny for and in behalf of myseulf in all things to act and doe in all things both to pay and receive debts, and to plead and to be im- pleaded and to be discharged and to give discharges, to imprison
fell at Sudbury, as " Robert Sharp." This was incorrect. See Town Records of Sudbury, and Eliot Church Records of Roxbury, quoted in "New England General Register," vol. xi. p. 257. All the old writings prove his name to have been John.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
and to be imprisoned, and in all things to act and doe as my lawful attorny for my advantage and to lett out my lands and to take rents and to sell and dispose as if it were myseulf, and in all and everi respect as is above expressed I doe leaue my conserns for the time of one yeer after the date hereof if I return not in witness of the premises I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 16 of aprill 1690. ROBART SHARP."
" Witnes. Andrew Gardner, Samuel Craft, Sen."
Like his father this Robert " returned not ; " he per- ished in the expedition to Canada.
The bones of Robert Sharp had not had time to whiten in the Canadian forests, before his widow married Mr. Thomas Nowell. She seems to have been unfortunate in her husbands or fatal to them, for in 1694, less than four years from the time her first husband went to the " warr," she was the widow of Thomas Nowell and made a will in favor of her children by Robert Sharp, of which we will" transcribe one clause only.
" I, Sarah Nowell, the relict of Mr. Thomas Nowell, late of Muddy River in their Majesties Province of Massachusetts Bay in Newengland deceased, being about to intermarry again with Mr. Solomon Phipps, son of Mr. Solomon Phipps of Cambridge, & &c, I do therefore by these presents before my said intermar- riage, for and upon divers good and weighty causes, reasons and considerations me thereunto moving. And also that I may testify and demonstrate the naturall love and affection which I have unto Robert Sharp and Sarah Sharp the children which I had by my former husband Robert Sharp, And that I may faith- fully discharge that duty unto which both by the law of God and nature I stand obliged by providing as well as for their future good and comfort as well as for my own, and also for their decent and laudable education if it should please God to take me away from them or deprive me of doing any further for them,
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103
THE BUCKMINSTERS.
I do therefore by these presents aforesaid not privately, but with the knowledge of the said Mr. Solomon Phipps make, ordain, and constitute this my will for the attainment of the ends pre- mized in manner and form following."
The will then goes on to bequeath all " the housing and lands " to Robert, and sixty pounds in money to Sarah, with twenty additional pounds, to be paid to her by Robert at two different times after he comes of age. Sarah also was to receive various household goods, includ- ing " one silver cup, three silver spoonds, three gold rings and one silver girdle "- whatever that might be.
There lies before us the bill of sale of " a neagroe Woman named Rose," which the above mentioned Mr. Thomas Nowell purchased of a Mrs. Abigail Davis in 1693, which piece of property this enterprising widow probably retained for herself, as there is no mention made of such a chattel in the will.
· As there is no occasion to follow the widow further, we return to the children of the Lieutenant. William, it seems, on coming to manhood removed to Pomfret, Conn., and some years afterwards sold out all his Brookline in- heritance to his nephew, Robert, his brother Robert's son. He was a resident here in 1704, as his name is on the pe- tition for a separate township from Boston. Martha Sharp was destined to be the ancestor of a distinguished posterity. She married Joseph Buckminster, a native of this town, and they removed to Framingham, then the outskirts of civilization, and lived the life of pioneers.
Her son Joseph was a colonel in the army, was a se- lectman of that town twenty-eight years, and town clerk thirty years. For thirty years he also represented the town in the General Court and died when over eighty, beloved and respected. Her grandson William, son of the above- mentioned colonel, was a distinguished man. He, too,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
held the office of colonel, and commanded a company of minute men from Barre, at the battle of Bunker Hill, and was wounded there.
Another of Martha Sharp's grandchildren, a brother of the last mentioned, was a clergyman, and from him in a direct line descended the distinguished Dr. Joseph Buckminster of Portsmouth, and his son Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, the beloved and talented young minister of Brattle Square Church in Boston, who died so deeply lamented.
His sister, Eliza Buckminster, wife of the late Thomas Lee of this town, was the author of "The Life of the Buckminsters, " " Naomi," " Parthenia," and other works.
As Martha Sharp's descendants are still numerous, in most cultivated circles, others among them may yet dis- tinguish themselves for culture or patriotism.
As we have found no record of Elizabeth Sharp's mar- riage it is probable she died single.
We now return to Robert, the young son of the Robert who perished in the Canada expedition. He was but two years old when his father left upon the fatal march.
As soon as we hear of him in his early manhood, after his marriage to his wife Susannah, he holds the office of constable of this town. Soon after this we find him des- ignated as captain. Captain Robert (the third of the name it will be remembered), was a shrewd, successful man in business, as his accounts and other papers indicate. The original large tract which his great-grandfather bought had been divided and subdivided among the de- scendants, and it seems to have been his great aim to re- cover as much of it as possible, as from time to time deeds were recorded showing that he had made purchases of various lots varying from a few rods to several acres. He also boarded or pastured sheep, cattle, and horses in
105
ANCIENT ACCOUNT-BOOK.
great numbers for people living in Boston. All the land from the corner of School and Washington streets, on the north side, to a line above Park Street, extending across beyond Harvard Street, to the Longwood marshes along the river, above the Aspinwall lands and below the present Stearns' lands was at one time his property and was probably most of it grazing land. A glimpse into the prices and customs of those early days in our own town, is afforded by these long preserved papers.
The early settlers, as is well known, were obliged to barter instead of giving and receiving cash payments, and Captain Sharp did not always get paid in money for his " Sider," as we find on his ancient parchment-covered ac- count-book the credit which he has given one individual for " orringes," another for "naels," another for a " gren- ston and a pair of stillyards." In one place he allows ten pence for one " orring," and in another two shillings and eight pence for four.
The explicitness with which the expense of each item of an outfit of clothing is recorded, in the quaint old spell- ing of those days, is entertaining. We give a specimen.
" Paid Thomas Sharle for Cloas.
s. d.
For a hatt
3 30
For a shurt .
0 90
For Britches
15 0
For Stockens
3 6
For a coat
. 200
Thus the " cloas," it will be seen by reckoning a little, cost a little less than thirty dollars, in United States money.
In another place is the receipt which Abigail Story, a long-forgotten school teacher, gave Captain Sharp for £3 16s. for keeping school.
8
106
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
Mr. Sharp had hired laborers who came and went as farm hands do now, but he also had a man who was bound by indenture to him by his master, Joseph Little, of Bos- ton, for three years. This man is described in the inden- ture as "Dunkan Mackeever late of Bellenock in the county of lonon Derry," and the writing obliges Captain Sharp to " supply his said servant with Sufficient meat, Drink, washing, lodging and apparrel fitting for such a . Servant, and at the end of Said Term shall Dismiss his said Servant with two suits of apparrell suitable for Every part of his body." This is signed by "Duncken Ma- Keever."
But the Captain's good wife Susannah needed help in the great farm-kitchen, and it was obtained on this wise :
BOSTON March 12, 1749.
. Received of mr. Robart Sharp iun Ninety-eaight Pounds old tenor in full for a Negro girl named Luce belonging to the Estate of Mr. Hez'h. Barber.
(Signed.) EUNICE LANERD.
An old order issued by the assessors of this town to Constable Robert Sharp in 1719, instructs him to collect the sum of thirty pounds from the inhabitants of the town for the town expenses of that year.
Captain Sharp built and occupied a house which stood on the site of the present residence of J. C. Abbott, Esq. It was a large square house, was never painted, except the window frames, which being white made the house, which was black with age, a very conspicuous object on Harvard Street. It remained there until about twenty- five years ago.
Captain Sharp died in 1765, aged seventy-seven years. He left a son Robert and four daughters.
The will left by Captain Robert Sharp proves him to
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107
THE SHARP FAMILY.
have been a man of wealth for those days, and in it he provides abundantly for his " beloved wife Susannah," and puts in a clause which allows, or enjoins her to be- stow all that is over and beyond her own requirements upon such of her children as treat her best. There was real estate belonging to this family in the town of War- wick, Mass., which was then called " Gardner's Canada," it being a part of a large tract in the northwest part of the State which was assigned to soldiers (or their heirs) who served in the Canada expedition. Ashburnham, it will be remembered, was a part of the same tract and was called " Dorchester-Canada."
Among other effects which the Captain left to his wife was a negro slave, Jane, and a silver tankard. This silver tankard was presented by Mrs. Sharp to the First Con- gregational Church in this town in 1770 and is still pre- served. She did not long survive her husband.
All the " housing and lands " became the property of the son Robert, who it seems by old papers still extant was kind to his mother, and carried out his father's inten- tions with regard to the property.
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