USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 58
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
As early as 1636, the General Court had appropriated £400 toward the establishment of a college at Newtown. This is said to have been "the first body in which the people, by their repre- sentatives, ever gave their own money to found a place of educa- tion."
As to the means employed by the Town to provide instruction to the children during the first forty years, the records do not enlighten us. The teaching was, probably, mainly provided by the good mothers at their homes. In cases where these lacked the necessary qualifications, the good minister, doubtless, aided. He had received a collegiate education in England, and he found means while in this Town to prepare one of his sons for Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1662. It was the duty of the selectmen, as we have seen, to have a vigilant oversight in the matter.
We have sufficient evidence that by some means these duties were attended to. Boys then of school age were afterwards chosen to administer the affairs of the Town. The records pre- served to us, in their handwriting, show them to have possessed the proper qualifications for those duties. Deeds and other legal instruments are found with the names of the men affixed, usually in a plain, legible hand. Their wives, however, are often obliged to sign by the hand of another, showing that it was not, in those days, looked upon as an essential accomplishment in girls to be able to write.
The provisions for the religious instruction of the children are given in the following record made by the minister, Rev. John Fisk:
4-2d - Some agitation there was about ye way of proceeding in
58 - catechising our younger persons; & for ye males concluded upon ye Lord's day in afternoon.
for ye females, upon ye day after our Lecture constantly at 3 of ye clock in ye afternoon at ye pastors house.
The first record of a teacher appointed by the Town is as follows:
Samuel Fletcher is Apointed to be a scolle master for the year 1696 by order of the selectmen.
THOMAS PARKER, Clarke.
552
HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
Of the qualifications of this first schoolmaster, Samuel Fletcher, we must infer that they were at least fair, as he after- wards became prominent in the affairs of the Town, occupying at different times the offices of town clerk, treasurer and selectman.
The Town now contained one hundred families, and the statute, as we have seen, required a school of such grade as to prepare youth for the University.
A word here in regard to the condition of the Town records. The earlier records were transcribed by order of the Town in 1742. In this transcript I find nothing relating to the schools. If this portion of them was transcribed, it must have been in another volume which is not to be found. I have been obliged, therefore, to consult the original records. They are somewhat dilapidated, dim and time-worn.
The record following the one I have given, is evidently incomplete. It reads as follows:
May the 12: 16: 98 the towne being mr edward emerson scoolmaster for the year 1698.
This teacher belonged to that family of Emersons which numbered among its descendants Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord. The Town granted him land at different times, perhaps as compensation for his services. He married a daughter of Cornelius Waldo. His house stood where Mr. Allen Cameron now lives, in Westford Centre.
For the year following the record stands:
Chelmsford Agust the 26th 1699
the selectmen of said towne Apointed Samuel Fletcher Junr schoolmaster to Learne young persons to write: on the Day Above said Select men Apointed for Scooldames: Deacon Fosters wife Jno Wrights: Moses Barretts wife and Joshua Fletchers wife Here recorded by me
Samll Fletcher Towne Clerk.
There was, at this time, no schoolhouse in Town. The children gathered at the house of the nearest teacher or school- dame. The selection of these teachers must be governed somewhat by their location, so as to accommodate the children in the different sections of the Town. Deacon Foster lived upon the north side of Robin's Hill. Joshua Fletcher lived at the Stony Brook district, now in Westford. Moses Barrett lived south of Robin's Hill. John Wright lived at the Neck, so called, now Lowell. This section was called the Neck or the Great Neck. Concord River Neck was what is now called East Chelmsford.
For the next two years no grammar school was maintained. It was common for towns to be complained of and fined by the Court for their failure to provide suitable schools. We are obliged to record that Chelmsford was not an exception.
At a General Towne Meeting March 30th 1702 A proposition was mad whether we should apply ourselves to ye General Court
553
PAPERS BY MR. H. S. PERHAM
by our Debety in Reference to our being presented to the quarter session & finned at sd court for not haveing a Grammar Scool yt we may endeavor by a petision to sd general court to be eased in our greivanc on yt account.
this was voted in ye Afirmitive
the day above it was voted yt ye selectmen should draw up a petision to present to ye General Court & send it by our Debyty
In August, the same year the Town chose a committee to "agree wt A scoolmaster for sd Towne."
September 4:1702 captain Bowers cornet Hill & Eleazar Brown Sen Agreed wt Sir Weld to be our scoolmaster half a year for £15 ye sd Sir Weld begun to keep scool on ye 1st of October 1702
This was Thomas Weld, a son of Rev. Thomas Weld, the first minister of the church of Dunstable. The title Sir was applied to college graduates. He had just completed his studies at Harvard. He died in 1704. This is the first record in which compensation to the teacher is mentioned. The sum, fifteen pounds for six months' services, shows the amount necessary at that time to obtain teachers qualified to prepare young men for the University. The only record for the next year reads:
April the 28th 1703
on the Day Abovesaid capt Bowers and mer: Emerson wer chosen to joyn with the Selectmen to Agree with a scoll master to save the Towne from A fine.
If a school was maintained in 1704, the record of it is omitted. In 1705 appears the following:
Chelmsford May the: 28 1705 the selectmen of sd towne Appointed Moses Barron and Eben wright Scole Masters to teach young parsons To Right And one the Day a bove sd the wido' Burdg the wife of John Snow the wife of Israll Prockter the wife of old tom Cory the wife of sargent Samuell Foster war Appointed scools Dames for the teaching of children to Reed
Recorded By
Moses Barron Town clar
This record is interesting in that it defines the duties of the teachers. The schoolmasters were to teach writing and the schooldames reading. Fortunately, we are able to judge of the qualifications of one of these writing teachers, Moses Barron, as the record stands in his hand-writing. He write a plain, heavy hand with no attempt at graceful curves or fine shading. No punctuations are used except in the date. He is profuse with his capitals, and decidedly original in his manner of spelling. It is fair to say, however, in justice to the memory of Moses Barron, that most of the records which appear in his hand-writing, as town clerk, are quite an improvement on the one I have given. He must have been a man of worth, as he was chosen by the Town, at different times, to the offices of selectman, representative to the General Court, and town treasurer.
The latter he held at the time of his death in 1719.
554
HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
Ebenezer Wright, the other schoolmaster, lived at the Neck. This, as we have seen, was the Lowell section of the Town. There were three brothers of that name, John, Joseph and Ebenezer. In 1692 they all lived in this section.
John Snow, whose wife was schooldame, dwelt in the Stony Brook valley, near where Westford Depot now stands. That neighborhood was called the Stony Brook Houses.
Schooldame Corey lived in the south part of the Town, near Great Brook, now in Carlisle.
An interval of several years now occurs in which the records furnish us no light upon the subject of our inquiry. The grammar school was felt to be a heavy burden and had not been sustained. In 1710, the Town paid "To Moses Barron for a jurney to Boston and entring a petition to the genorall as to an easmnt of our gramer Scoole and to a Jurney to Cambridge as to our presentment for want of a gramer Scoole."
At "A Generall Towne Meting March the 7th:1709-10 Voted that the selectmen shall agree With a man to teach children and youth to Wright and sifer and kep scool in Chelmsford."
In 1711, "The Selectmen are appointed By the uote of the towne to provide a Scoolmaster as the Law Derects."
Five pounds were paid, in 1712, "To mr Cheney for being our Scoolmaster," and "at a genorall towne meeting December 12: 1712 the towne uoted that It was thare minds to have a Scoole master."
From this time forward, the Town was not without a school for some part of each year, although the grammar school had not yet become firmly established. The Town was called upon to answer to the Court for want of one in 1714, 1716, 1721, and again in 1726.
At a "Town Meeting May the: 12th 1718, voted to Petition the genorall court that the fishing place at Pattuctt may be granted to Chelmsford for the benifit of seporting a scoole in chelmsford the fishing place one the south side meremack." What action was taken upon this petition does not appear. The privilege asked for was a most important one. Allen, writing in 1820, says: "The quantity of salmon, shad and alewives, caught in Chelmsford annually may be computed at about twenty-five hundred barrels, besides a large quantity of other fish of less value." The name "Merrimack signifies in the Indian language a sturgeon."
As the settlements extended each year farther from the centre of the Town, the question of the location of the schools became an important one, and sometimes occasioned lively contests. An article annually appeared in the warrant for the March meeting similar to the following:
To agree and Vote in what part or parts of the said Town the Grammar School or other Schools shall be Kept the year ensuing, and to act in that affair as shall be thought proper.
555
PAPERS BY MR. H. S. PERHAM
In 1716 the Town
voated that the scule master shall keep scule in the fore quarters of the town one month at a time in one place
Voated that the selectmen shall determine wheir the fore quarters of the town are
This was a duty which must have taxed the wisdom of the fathers of the Town.
Mr. Nathaniel Prentice, of Cambridge, was the schoolmaster for the years 1718, 1719 and 1720. He graduated from Harvard College in 1714. He was afterwards the second minister of the church of Dunstable, where he labored until his death in 1737. The following is the language of the contract between Mr. Prentice and the Town:
Chelmsford September 22d 1719
The select men have agreed with mr Nathaniel Prentice of Cambridge to keep scoole in Chelmsford from the firs of october next ensuing the Date untill the firs Day of Aprill 1720 the above sd Nathaniel Prentice does oblige himself to keep scoole six hours every Day in sd term except it be Saturday Dayes which he is alowed for him self For which sd prentice is to have eigteen pounds.
The name of Mr. Prentice is signed to this contract in a bold and graceful hand. There is no suggestion of Christmas Holidays in this agreement. The school, as we have seen, rotated between the four quarters of the Town. Let us accompany Mr. Prentice in his rounds.
The first month would be at the centre of the Town. At the end of that time, he dismissed his pupils and moves, perhaps, to the Stony Brook neighborhood, five miles away. There, in a room of some convenient dwelling, he organizes his classes, before the blazing log fire in the great open fireplace. His text- books are as primitive as the other accessories. In reading, Nasons says, "it was the New England Primer, with its rude cuts of Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale, and rustic rhymes, such as
"The idle fool Is whipt at school."
After his brief month here, he must go to meet the boys and girls at the South End. And, like the others, we may suppose them to have been hearty, ruddy and boisterous youths, from their active out-door life.
And if Mr. Prentice's pupils did not acquire the proficiency in Algebra and Latin, which pupils of the same age in our schools possess, who shall say that they had not a compensating advantage in the possession of more robust health and lively animal spirits. Nervous disorders induced by lack of exercise, and the inhaling of the vitiated atmosphere of the crowded schoolroom, was, probably, not common at that day. The South End school was
556
HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
usually kept near where the South Chelmsford schoolhouse was afterwards built, on the road leading by the house of Mr. Quimby to Carlisle.
The next month would be at the North End. This included, besides the present Number Two District, all that part of the Town to the north and northeast, including what is now Lowell. The late John Parkhurst told me, that in his boyhood he had met at the old Number Two schoolhouse, John Farrar, and other boys from West Chelmsford, and the Adams boys, Benjamin and Thomas, from North Chelmsford.
We have now come to an important event, the building of the first schoolhouse. In 1718, the Town granted three rods and a half of land for that purpose, at "the most easterly corner of the buring Place." [Where the brick school was later built. The land was laid out to William Fletcher by the Town and by him given to the builders.]* The cost, about one hundred dollars, was paid by subscription. The names of those citizens who contributed to this worthy object have been preserved in the record which reads as follows:
The names of those that built and finished the Schoole house And What Each man gave thereto
mr Stoddard 2: 0:0 Nathall Butterfield 1: 0: 0
Moses Barron
1: 0 :0
Samll Barron 1: 0: 0
Josiah Fletcher 1: 0 :0 Benone Perham 1: 0: 0
Deacon Waring 1: 0:0 Eben Parker 1: 0: 0
Eben Foster
1: 0:0
John Burge
0: 10: 0
Edward Spaulding 1:10:0
Benj Parker
0:10: 0
William Fletcher
1:10:0
Richard Stratton 1: 0: 0
John Bates 1: 0:0
Joseph Foster
0:15: 0
Stephen Peirce
1: 0:0
Benjamin Adams 1:00:00
Moses Parker
1:10:0
Edward Foster
00:15:00
John Dauest
0:10:0
The second schoolhouse must have been built very soon after, for a road was laid out, in 1720, from the "North School house" (leading over the home meadow and Carolina plain.) The building stood a few rods east of the "Owl's Nest Green House," at a turn of the road by the old Middlesex Turnpike. It is probable that this schoolhouse also was paid for by subscription. There is no evidence that the Town raised any money for such a purpose prior to 1794.
Mr. Prentice was succeeded by Joseph Whipple, who taught from 1721 to 1724. A difference of opinion existed as to the merits of Mr. Whipple's teaching. It was settled by a Town meeting, in 1724, which
"Voted that the Petition of Moses Parker and nine others freeholders who Petitioned that the Schoole master be Dismissed and a committee chose to Provide another in his Room be dismissed" *See plan No. 21.
+Probably meant for Davis.
557
PAPERS BY MR. H. S. PERHAM
Mr. Thomas Frink, of Sudbury, followed Whipple. He taught till 1727, when the Town paid John Spaulding "to wait upon Mr. Frink home."
Josiah Richardson and Isaac Richardson taught one year each. Joseph Lovett, two years, Jonathan Mills, one, and Samson Stoddard, five, ending in 1734. The latter was a son of Rev. Samson Stoddard, and graduated from Harvard College, in 1730. He became one of the leading men of the Town, was a colonel in the militia, and held many offices of trust. The Town of Stoddard, N. H., was named in his honor.
After Mr. Stoddard, no teacher remained longer than two years, until 1750, when Oliver Fletcher took charge of the schools and continued six years. He was a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1735. He was a man of great worth of character. [Bridge refers to his death, which occurred in 1771, as a "great loss."] Allen says of him: "His piety and integrity gave him great ascendancy over his fellow-townsmen, and secured their esteem and confidence."
In 1747, the Town
Voted that the Grammar School be kept in the middle of this Town the year ensuing, and that the out scirts of sd Town shall have their proportionable part of money that is paid for schooling allowed to them for to provide Writing Schools for them- selves and that all the sd Schools shall be free schools for the sd Town
Voted that the Middle of sd Town shall be allowed to extend Two miles each way from the Meeting house
Voted That each end of sd Town shall be allowed to have three months schooling in the most suitablest season in this year ensuing for writing schools: as their proportionable part on sd Towns cost.
One clause in this vote, "that all the said schools shall be free schools," and another at a later date, that there shall be "No schools at town cost but grammar school," indicate that supplementary schools were sometimes maintained at private expense.
A record appears in 1755 which shows the character of the services which each teacher was expected to render:
Oliver Fletcher, Grammar & writing six months. Ebenezer Gould, three months writing school. Daniel Procter three months reeding, Righting & Cyphering school.
With the first of these, Oliver Fletcher, we have already become acquainted. He was an elegant penman. His copy most of us would be glad to be able to imitate today. So much, however, cannot be said for Daniel Procter. It would be a mark of ingenuity in his pupils if they could write as badly. Let us hope that his strength lay in the other branches, "reeding & Cyphering." Thomas Rice succeeded Oliver Fletcher in the grammar school. He continued several years.
558
HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
In 1764, Peter Spaulding was employed, and he was followed by Samson Stoddard, Jr., a son of a former teacher of that name, and a graduate of Harvard, and after him Vryling Stoddard, also of the same honorable family. He graduated from Harvard in 1765. Allen says of him: "He became an eminent instructor of youth in this place."
Now let us go back a little and follow the action of the Town in fixing the location of its schools. This question was decided by vote in town meeting, but was often far from satisfactory to the people in the more remote sections of the Town. The method usually adopted for the grammar school was to divide the time between the different sections of the Town, or to "circulate ac- cording to town vote." Occasionally it would be continued throughout the year at the centre of the Town.
This was the case in 1724. Two citizens, Joseph Underwood and Ebenezer Wright, recorded their "decent against the settle- ment of the School." One of these, Joseph Underwood, lived at what is now the centre of Westford. The other, Ebenezer Wright, had removed from the Neck, and was now living upon the present site of Edwin Heyward's house near Chamberlin's Corner in Westford. The next year the wish of the dissenters was respected, and the "west end" was given four months' school.
The town was soon relieved of the necessity of providing for the "west end," as it was incorporated as the town of Westford, in 1729.
In 1730-31:
At a meeting of the selectmen Pursuant to the Town vote for Removing the Scoole in three severall places in the Town it is ordered that the School master keep Schoole in the Schoole hous in the midle of the Town from the first of November Last past Thirteen weeks and then to Remove to the north end and keep schoole at the Dwelling house of Jonathan Bowers (or in some other convenient place where the neighborhood shall appoint) the space of six weeks and then to Remove to the South end of the Town and keep school at the Dwelling hous of Samll Procter (or in some other convenient place where the neighborhood shall appoint) the term of seven weeks which will fulfill the half year agreed upon.
Jonathan Bowers here mentioned lived at the Neck.
A record in 1753 contains the first mention of a schoolhouse at the South End. It stood near the Paignon place in South Chelmsford. It has since been converted into a dwelling, and is still standing. The North End school was kept that year at the house of James Parkhurst, which stood a few rods west of the Number Two schoolhouse.
The reason for holding this school at a dwelling house appears in the diary of the parson, Rev. Ebenezer Bridge, who records, "Catechised the children at James Parkhurst's the school-house
559
PAPERS BY MR. H. S. PERHAM
being unfit." In 1756, the school was kept "one-half in the north end and one-half in the south end." But the plan adopted in 1757 was finally settled upon as causing the least friction.
This was to divide the time between the three sections of the Town, the north end, the centre, and the south end. This method continued with but one or two interruptions until for formation of the school districts in 1792.
In the distribution of the schools in 1755, it was "voted that the writing school shall be kept three months in the north end of the Town att the school house & three months at the dwelling House of Robert Peirce." Robert Peirce lived near the present residence of Orlando Blodgett on Chelmsford Street. The house faced a road, now discontinued, which ran back of Mr. Blodgett's house. This was afterwards the home of Benjamin Pierce, the distinguished father of a distinguished son, President Franklin Pierce.
In 1767 a reading and writing school was kept "2 mos at school house in the neck."
This is the first mention of a schoolhouse in this section. It stood upon School Street, not far from the old cemetery.
Other grave and important matters were now coming forward to engross the attention of the people and put school questions in the background.
But, during the distressing times of the Revolution, the schools were by no means abandoned. In 1781, in addition to the grammar school, the Town voted
Nine months Righting school 3 mos in Neck so called extending from Mr. Timothy Clarks to the mouth of Concord & to Mr. Simeon Moreses & to Mr. Joseph Pierieces So by Mr. Philip Parkers
Voted one month schooling at Newfield one month at Mr. David Spauldings one month in Concord River Neck so called & five weeks on the mill road so called & eight weeks at or near Mr. John Adams.
This record is valuable, as it defines the limits of the Neck district, and furnishes a basis for estimating the population here one hundred years ago. Timothy Clark here referred to, lived at Middlesex near where Baldwin Street terminates at the river. Simeon Mores lived upon what is now Moore Street. The house of Joseph Pierce was near the present city farm buildings, and Philip Parker's was upon West Pine Street near the Highland school. This district embraced, then, all of what is now Lowell, excepting Belvidere, Centralville and Pawtucketville; and all of the children then living here, excepting the few who attended the grammar school four miles distant, were accommodated with a three months' school in the little red schoolhouse upon School
560
HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
Street. It would require a pretty commodious building to accommodate the ten thousand school children in the same district today [1890].
After the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1789, the times became more tranquil and prosperous, and school questions again came uppermost. The school district system now began to develop. In 1792, the management of the schools was, for the first time, placed fully in the hands of a school committee.
The change was not made without a struggle, but, after repeated adjournments and reconsiderations, the Town voted:
That a select committee be chosen to provide the grammar school masters and all other School masters & that said com- mittee proportion Inspect and Regulate Said Schools.
Nine persons were chosen to constitute this committee, one from each district or "squadron."
The next step was to provide schoolhouses for those districts not already so provided for. In 1794, it was
Voted to raise £250 for the purpose of building schoolhouses each squadron to draw their own money for building their school- house, location decided by vote of members of squadrons.
In the year 1800 the Town supported twelve schools at an expense of six hundred dollars. They were located as follows:
At the middle of the Town, now District 1. At the North Schoolhouse, now District 2. Near Ebenezer Parker's, South Chelmsford, now District 3. At Mill Row, now District 4. At Squadron by Capt. Benj. Fletcher's, now District 5. At Concord River Neck, now District 6. At Schoolhouse by Simon Stevens's, now District 7. At Newfield, now North Chelmsford, District 8. At Grate Neck, now Lowell. At Samuel Marshall's, also Lowell, corner Parker and Powell Streets. At schoolhouse by Joseph Adams' and at schoolhouse by Benj. Chamberlain's. [For location of School Districts, see Map No. 9.]
One of the two last named was, undoubtedly, in Carlisle, where the schoolhouse now stands, north of Great Brook, and the other in Lowell. This portion of the Town had now begun to increase in population. A map of the Town made in 1794 shows on this section a clothier's mill, iron works, five saw mills, and two gristmills.
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.