History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 25

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 25

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1812, Feb. 29th. Charter of Friends' Academy signed by Elbridge Gerry, Governor of Massachut- setts.

1813, Dec. 3d. The trustees are notified that Sam- uel Elam, of Newport, had bequeathed to the academy all his printed books and papers.

NEW BEDFORD.

1830. Additional land presented by W. Charles Morgan, Esq., and others.

1855, May 9th. Repeal of the first article of the by-laws, which made membership in the Society of Friends a condition of appointment to the office of trustee.

1855, Sept. 19th. The department for girls made entirely distinct from that for boys.

1856, June 11th. A building committee appointed to erect a new school-house on land recently pur- chased on Morgan Street.

1857, May 7th. Dedication of the new building.

1860. The building enlarged and remodeled.

1869. Male and female departments completely consolidated.

References for further information : Historical Sketch of the Friends' Academy, prepared for the Centennial Year, to which is appended a presentation of the course and methods of instruction at present pursued. New Bedford : Fessenden & Baker, Print- ers, 1876. The historical sketch was contributed by Thomas R. Rodman, Esq., the remainder by John Tetlow, A.M., then principal of the academy. His- tory of New Bedford, by Daniel Ricketson, Esq., pp. 325.

History of the New Bedford Public Schools .- The first movement to establish a regular system of public schools in New Bedford, in conformity to the laws of the commonwealth, was made in 1821. Prior to that time the only free school which had been sup- ported at public expense was one intended for the poor alone; and "it was in every sense," says Mr. James B. Congdon, " a poor school."

The wealth of the town was intensely hostile to the movement. The only man of wealth who acted with the people in the matter was John Avery Parker. But the attempt succeeded. A school committee was appointed, an appropriation of twelve hundred dol- lars was voted, and the town was sub-divided into school districts.

A year or two after the opponents of a free-school system rallied their forces and were successful. Upon the question of appropriating twelve hundred dollars for schools, the friends of public education were voted down. But the triumph of the contestants was not of long continuance, for the very next year the neces- sary sum was appropriated to support the schools, and active opposition to them, as the system was then constituted, ceased altogether.

But when, after an interval, there was a movement for the establishment of a High School, it excited acrimonious hostility. Its enemies rallied in force, and were repeatedly successful. But its friends as . often renewed the struggle, and finally the opposition gave way and a high school became one of the per- manent features of the public-school system of the town.

From that time forward the schools grew more and more deeply in popular favor, and as the town in- |

creased in numbers the appropriations were increased in proportion, until the original grant of twelve hun- dred dollars, in 1821, had grown to the sum of twenty- one thousand two hundred and twenty-five dollars in 1846, when a charter was granted and accepted, and the town became a city.

Nothing occurred worthy of note for many years. The constitution of the school system and the methods of instruction followed closely the traditional types then prevailing in Massachusetts. The ideal of "school-keeping" was very low before, and even for some time after the middle of the century the phil- osophy of education as exemplified in our public schools was extremely vague and indeterminate, and many of the methods of instruction had nothing to recommend them except that that was the way chil- dren had always been taught. Horace Mann, in 1840, painted a humiliating picture of the average Massachusetts public school, and it is commended to the careful study of those fossilized grumblers who denounce the reformed methods of instruction as damaging innovations of the good old ways, when they themselves went to school; but although the New Bedford schools attempted no departures from the beaten track, they had at all times many teachers of superior ability, who verified in the happiest man- ner the adage, as true as it is trite, that "as is the teacher so is the school;" and the character of the schools of New Bedford, in general, was no doubt above that of most New England schools.

It was fortunate for the High School, in the days when the institution was regarded by many as a doubtful experiment, that it had for its principal Mr. John F. Emerson, a man of admirable character, fine culture, and peculiar aptitudes for his vocation. Such a man will make any school which he may undertake a success, and Mr. Emerson's administration concili- ated the opponents of the High School, and multiplied its friends, until, when he resigned his position in 1861 on account of impaired health, after many years of faithful and eminently useful service, it was firmly established in the favor of the community. His pupils, one and all, speak of him in terms of the high- est respect and regard. His lifelike portrait hangs in a conspicuous place in the hall of the new and noble High School house, an honor which he richly earned.

As the years wore on, and the schools increased in size and number as the city grew in population, the school committee found the task of supervision too exacting to be faithfully performed by gentlemen who had each his own personal business to transact. The result, it was evident, was a total lack of system in the management of the schools, and an unjust irregularity in their oversight. Some were measurably cared for, others were almost totally neglected, and there was lacking a central force to give unity as well as direc- tion to the whole.

In this condition of affairs the plan adopted for relief

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by several other cities who were in like circumstances, of employing a superintendent of the schools, began to be discussed and gradually to grow in favor, until at length, in 1861, Mr. Abner J. Phipps was elected su- perintendent, and was placed as the executive officer of the school committee in control of the schools. Mr. Phipps had won an enviable reputation as a gen- tleman of excellent ability, critical scholarship, and capacity to govern and teach youth in a superior manner, during a long term of service as principal of Friends' Academy in New Bedford.

As his office had been lately created and had yet to establish itself in public favor, he pursued a judicious course in attempting no considerable changes in the old order of things. He was content to let system and methods remain undisturbed, satisfied with labor- ing to supply the defects in executive work which had specially occasioned his appointment. He held the office until the beginning of the year 1864, when he resigned to take a similar position in the city of Lowell.

In February, 1865, Rev. Henry F. Harrington, of Cambridge, was elected to succeed him. Mr. Harring- ton had passed through a peculiarly advantageous ex- perience to prepare him for his duties, as he had borne a prominent part in the formation of the school sys- tem of the then newly-founded city of Lawrence, had afterward been superintendent of its schools, and sub- sequently an active member of the school committee of the city of Cambridge. He immediately entered upon the duties of his new office, and as soon as he had acquainted himself with the condition of the schools, began-having the sympathy and co-opera- tion of most of the leading members of his school committee-that series of reforms and improvements which have secured for the schools of New Bedford a distinguished position among the schools of the State. It has been claimed by the New Bedford school com- mittee, and the claim has never been disputed, that their schools have been invariably pioneers in the practical exemplification of the admirable methods of instruction which now prevail, that there is not one of them which, so far as New England is con- cerned, did not have its origin in their own city.

The reorganization of the primary schools, and the substitution of intelligent and attractive methods of learning to read, learning numbers, etc., in place of the old rote methods, were accomplished in 1865. In 1867 the "New Bedford Manual of Instruction" was prepared and adopted. There were at the time no hand-books of the kind in New England, and only two or three in all the United States. This manual was so well approved that it was copied entire into the volume of the reports of the State Board of Edu- cation in the following year, and thousands of copies were distributed by private subscription in the nor- mal schools and among the school committees and teachers of the State. It was the source and basis of wide-spread reforms, and a new and enlarged edition,

embodying the practical wisdom which had been ac- quired meanwhile, was printed in 1874.

In 1869 a beginning was made towards the intro- duction of supplementary reading in the shape of three hundred subscriptions to the Nursery, a child's magazine, for use in the primary schools. This was the first practical recognition in New England of the great principle, now so widely and heartily accepted, that it is only reading much which can confer the ability to read well.

In this way step after step was taken to rid the schools of whatever there might be of defect in the processes of study, and to introduce truer and better ways. As might be expected from this earnest and resolute feeling after the best, mistakes were some- times made. Experiments were tried, some of which resulted in failure. But if there had been a timorous halting to undertake lest the result should be disap- pointing there could have been no vital energy of operation, no well-grounded and substantial progress. It is to the great credit of the New Bedford School Committee that they have uniformly allowed their superintendent untrammelled opportunity to make proof of his ideals, willing to run the risk of an occa- sional failure for the sake of assured successes. Thus the New Bedford school work is the first of actual experiment. Nothing is practiced because recom- mended or practiced in other quarters; nothing is omitted which it has not been proved to be judicious to omit.

The studies of the schools are selected and ad- justed to each other on clearly defined principles, so that all the school work has a direct and intelligent purpose. The most important study is considered to be language. This is pursued diligently, having paramount attention, through all the grades and de- partments of the school system, from the little pri- marians of the thirteenth or entering grade to the young men and women of the first or graduating grade in the High School. The means employed are an abundance of interesting reading, and the fre- quent writing of compositions in the various forms pertaining to that exercise. The specific ends to be gained are the acquirement of a full and ready vocab- ulary and the capacity of easy and accurate expres- sion through speech and with the pen, and this, joined to a thorough knowledge of the four funda- mental rules of arithmetic, is what Edward Everett called " an excellent education." This study is also intended, incidentally, to develop the power of orig- inal thought, and to lead to a relish for pure, inform- ing literature.

The perceptions are held to constitute the most trustworthy instrumentality in the acquirement of accurate conceptions of material things, therefore all studies are to be illustrated by means of objects to as great an extent as may be conveniently possible.

No study is to be pursued merely for the sake of mental discipline, on the ground that there is no time

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NEW BEDFORD.

for such study. Mental discipline is recognized to be one of the essential elements of a good education ; but in our public schools only so much can justly be furnished as can be attained through the systematic pursuit of the practical information which is provided in the course of study. The attention given to arith- metic is abridged to the limit of the few topics which are desirable for practical use in life, while the com- paratively useless details in geography and history with which the text-books on those subjects are crowded are omitted.

The proper relations of mental to moral instruc- tion, that vital subject, have been set forth in a late New Bedford Annual School Report as follows :

" Mental education has no inherent moral force. It is the obedient vassal of character. As the needle follows the lead of the magnet, so the intellect follows the lead of the sentiments, and if they be corrupt mental education becomes only a promoter of evil. The training of the sentiments, then, is incalculably more important than the training of the mind; and in all conflicts between mental training and character training, as regards the appropriation of time, of effort, or of money to one or the other, mental training is always to give way."

The efforts thus put forth for the best possible school system and school work have received an incalculable advantage from the benefits derived from the "Sylvia Ann Howland Fund." This fund is the fruit of a gift of one hundred thousand dollars to the city in the year 1870 by the lady whose name it bears, the income to be divided between the Free Public Li- brary and the public schools. It is an admirable pro- vision of the donation to the schools that no portion of the avails are to be devoted to any purposes which the city is legally bound to provide through taxation. The city pays six per cent. for the use of the fund, and thus the school committee have had in possession annually since the year 1870 to expend for the good of the schools the sum of three thousand dollars. They have been enabled to supply all needful appli - ances to secure the best possible results of study,- books of reference and for reading, apparatus and cabinets for scientific illustration, museums for ob- jective teaching, maps, globes, musical instruments, and all the other appurtenances of a thoroughly fur- nished school-room. And so greatly have these as- sistances given interest to the vocation of the teachers, as well as high tone and character to the teaching, that several teachers who have been offered higher salaries to go elsewhere have declined on the sole ground that they could not bear to surrender the ad- vantages derived from the "Howland Fund."

It is a singular fact that the only three instances in the history of Massachusetts in which large sums of money have been given by private munificence for the good of public schools should have occurred in Bristol County,-in New Bedford, Fall River, and North Easton.

The organization of the school system is as fol- lows: There are five departments, viz., High, Gram- mar, Primary, Country, and Mill School Departments.

These departments (except the Mill School) are sub-divided into thirteen grades, whose total corre- sponds with the number of school years. Of these grades the Primary Department includes four, the Grammar Department five, and the High School De- partment four. They are designated by numbers, the youngest in the list being the thirteenth.

There are twenty-two public school-houses in the city. Of these a portion are quite old, and will have to give place before long to new and better structures. Others have been reconstructed, and will serve their purpose for many years longer, while several are new and are replete with every convenience. The city government is very liberal in furnishing additional accommodations for the ever-enlarging number of pupils. An excellent school-house has lately been completed at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars.

The High School house is a model edifice, of im- posing proportions and a striking and pleasing style of architecture, while the interior is faultless in its carefully-studied arrangements. It has eight school- rooms, two art- or draughting-rooms, a library, a philosophical lecture-room with apparatus-room at- tached, a chemical laboratory thoroughly fitted at great expense, in which twenty-four pupils can work at the same time, clothes' room and dressing-room, and a hall which will accommodate more than a thousand persons. The cost of the building was one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.

The Mill School is an exceptional institution, de- signed to serve two purposes,-the chief one to give children who work in the mills a more fitting educa- tion than they could obtain by being classed in the regular grades, the other to allow the pupils in the regular grades who are constantly at school the op- portunity of uninterrupted progress by preventing the drawbacks which would be incident to periodical increment by children discharged from the mills, who are not capable of being classed with regular pupils without clogging the wheels of progress. The Mill School is admirably taught and highly valued.

The total appropriation for the New Bedford schools for the year 1883 was eighty-three thousand eight hun- dred dollars. There were in service during the year 1882 one hundred and fifteen teachers, of whom only seven were men.

Aimwell School is located on North Street, near Foster. Mrs. W. H. Knight, principal ; Mrs. George O. Buckley and Miss Mary L. Smith, assistants.

The New Bedford Free Public Library .- The commonwealth of Massachusetts, recognizing from the earliest period of its history the educational influ- ence of public libraries, gave the assistance of its legislation in the promotion of their establishment and management.

Early in the present century laws were enacted

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giving corporate powers to the proprietors of social libraries, many of which had been established in various parts of the commonwealth, and under the provisions of the law the number was increased, their condition made permament, and their management rendered convenient and effective.

But a few years after the incorporation of the town of New Bedford, the want of books and the inability of most of the inhabitants to procure them led to a combination of effort for that purpose.

The early settlers of the village of Bedford were intelligent, as well as industrious, frugal, and virtuous. They were so far enlightened as to understand the value of books, and they saw clearly that the remedy for individual inability to procure them was such a combination of means and efforts as would render the united ability the property of each.

Several such combinations were formed in New Bedford previous to the passage of the act conferring upon them corporate powers.

The proprietors of Dobson's Encyclopedia were the earliest to form this social and profitable arrange- ment. For our unlearned and isolated people this work was a library in itself. Eagerly and thoroughly were its pages read and consulted, and the well-worn volumes now in the Free Public Library bear testi- mony to the fact, so creditable to the people of the village.

The Library Society followed. This was a more comprehensive effort. The desire for books had out- grown the ability of Dobson to satisfy. The Social Library followed. This was a vigorous, well-directed, and well-managed association. The good sense of all recognized the wisdom of combination, and in the union there was found strength. The three associa- tions were united, and the New Bedford Social Library had a long, prosperous, and profitable career.

When the passage of the State law allowed the proprietors to become a body corporate, advantage was taken of its provisions. For nearly half a cen- tury this valnable collection of books was the princi- pal source whence was supplied the desire of the people for knowledge and intellectual recreation. "Library-day" was always a welcome day. There was in attendance generally a large number of intel- ligent seekers, and the result of that intercourse with books for which this library provided was a marked and most promising and interesting feature in the five and six thousand.

characters of the young men and women of New Bedford.

The act to authorize cities and towns to establish and maintain public libraries was passed by the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts, May 24, 1851.

The ordinance for the establishment and govern- ment of a free public library in New Bedford was passed Aug. 16, 1852.

The first movement in the undertaking was an un- successful one. It was made in the City Council July 8, 1851, by Warren Ladd, then a member of the pop-

ular branch of that body. The order was only to con- sider the expediency of the measure. It passed the Common Council without a dissenting voice, but the aldermen non-concurred. It will be seen that this movement was but forty-five days after the passage of the enabling act.

On the 27th of May, 1852, a large petition, headed by James B. Congdon, was presented to the Council.

The petition was referred to the Committee on Public Instruction, who reported on the 14th of June. They recommended an appropriation of fifteen hun- dred dollars for the establishment of the library.

In their report the committee attach great import- ance to the fact that they had been assured that, "provided the authorities should, by the passage of the order making the appropriation asked for, estab- lish the principle that the maintenance of a free city library for the continuous education of the people will be the settled policy of the city," the five thousand. volumes of the New Bedford Social Library would be transferred to the city.

Quoting the words of James B. Congdon, through whom this offer of the proprietors of the library was made, they say, "With such a foundation to build upon, with the appropriation now prayed for to give it a position for immediate and extended usefulness, the library would open to our inhabitants the means of innocent enjoyment and of valuable acquisition, and be a source of commendable pride to our citizens."

But the Free Public Library had, in fact, been es- tablished before the presentation of the report. The appropriation bill for the year, which had already passed, contained an item of fifteen hundred dollars for the library. Councilman Pitman, who was a member of the committee to whom the petition was referred, had anticipated the favorable action of the Council, and had introduced and carried an amend- ment to the bill making the appropriation as above stated. This amendment was made previous to the presentation of the report of the committee. The ap- propriation bill passed July 20, 1852. The date of the adoption of that amendment is the date of the establish- ment of the New Bedford Free Public Library.

The library was opened for the use of the people and the delivery of books on Thursday, the 3d day of March, 1853.

The number of volumes at the opening was between

It is an interesting and creditable fact that the New Bedford Free Public Library is the only public library established under the law of 1851, excepting that in Boston, noticed by Edwards in his elaborate " Me- moirs of Libraries," published in London in 1859.

The six thousand volumes with which the library opened have now increased to abont forty-three thou- sand.

1 Hon. Robert C. Pitman, one of the present judges of the Superior Court of the commonwealth.

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NEW BEDFORD.

The building now occupied by the New Bedford Free Public Library was erected in 1856-57. Its cost was about forty thousand dollars. It is built of brick, with granite underpinning and steps and freestone ornaments.

The corner-stone of the building was laid on the 28th of August, 1856.

Of the library building the upper rooms only are occupied by the library. The principal room is neat and tasteful in its architectural features and conve- nient in its arrangements. It has two tiers of alcoves, one on the floor and one on the gallery, which is car- ried around the whole room, excepting on the north end where the stairs lead to it. An iron railing divides the alcoves from the visitors. Reading-desks outside the railing contain the periodicals, which are acces- sible to all, and seated at these desks the visitors are, in addition to these, furnished with any books they may wish to consult. The delivery is at a table at the north end. A stand for newspapers occupies a central position in the room. Six other rooms are occupied for library purposes, four for books, one for the trus- tees, and one for the convenience of the librarian and his assistants.

The library has had a growth unexpectedly rapid, and at this time the want of more room is severely felt.

The trust funds established for the benefit of the library are three.

The first upon the list is the George Howland, Jr., Fund. Its amount is the sum of two years' salary of George Howland, Jr., as mayor, sixteen hundred dol- lars.

Under the will of Charles W. Morgan there was paid to the city by William J. Rotch, his executor, the sum of one thousand dollars, which constitutes the Charles W. Morgan Fund.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 25

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818