USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Conway > History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917 > Part 13
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In 1773 it was voted to build a schoolhouse as near the meet- ing house as the ground will admit and that the dimensions of said house shall be as follows, viz .: twenty-five feet in length and twenty-two feet in breadth; and that Jonathan Whitney, Elias Dickinson, and Alexander Oliver be a committee to build said house. A century elm tree was in 1867 planted upon the exact spot supposed to have been occupied by this primitive institution. It was also voted to have six months' schooling the present year. Two months of said schooling shall be kept in the center of the town, and the other four months to be divided in the extreme parts of the town by the selectmen where they shall think proper.
For the year 1774, the town voted to allow thirty pounds to be laid out in schooling in the following manner, viz .: one third to be kept at the house of Samuel Hooker, one third at the school- house, and one third at the house of Deacon Allis. Israel Gates, Jonas Rice, and Daniel Parker were chosen a new committee
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
mittee to finish the schoolhouse. In 1775 the voters were en- grossed with the matters relating to the Revolutionary War and at the town meeting in March it was voted not to raise any money for schooling the ensuing year.
After a lapse of a year, during which no school was opened in the town, it was voted in 1776 to have a public school, and to divide the town into five equal parts or squadrons. There was but one public schoolhouse-the one at the center-until 1783, after which temples of learning began to multiply to meet the demands of a rapidly increasing population.
Reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic were the subjects set before the scholars of those days, although about 1791 a town vote decided that Latin and Greek should be taught. The absurdity of this remarkable effort to leap at a single bound from the rudiments of English into the classics presented itself, however, without much delay and the vote was hastily rescinded.
Who was the first school-teacher is not known, but one of the early ones, known as Master Cole, is preserved in tradition as a singular pedagogue. It is told of him that when he came over from England he brought not only his military manners,-for he was a soldier there,-but his uniform and his sword, and these he used to wear each morning to school; where arriving, he would awe his scholars into trembling submission by his fierce dignity and military discipline.
In March, 1777, it was voted to appropriate thirty pounds to be divided as heretofore for school purposes. The following year it was proposed by the voters that the children of both sexes be numbered and taken from five years old to thirty-one, and that each draw his proportion of money that the town shall raise for schooling the present year; and that each squadron, when squadroned out, shall be obliged to lay out its propor- tionable part of money aforesaid within said year, provided each man have liberty to send his children to what squadron he please; provided also that no man shall send to more than one squadron. This resolution was acted upon and it was voted to proceed to the above projects with regard to schooling the en- suing year. Eighty pounds was appropriated for the use of the school this year. A committee of seven, consisting of Noah Look, Israel Rice, Israel Gates, Noah Belding, Oliver Wetmore,
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THE SCHOOLS.
Lucius Allis, and Robert Hamilton, were selected to squadron out the town for schooling and take the number of children according to the proposals aforesaid. Each of the squadrons was empowered to select its own master.
As the town continued to increase in population the school districts were increased in number until at one time there were sixteen schoolhouses, located as follows: Pumpkin Hollow, Center, Burkeville, Poland, South West, Guinea, Cricket Hill, Hardscrabble, South Part, Boyden, Hoosac, Broomshire,
THE BURKEVILLE SCHOOL.
Harding, North Shirkshire, South Shirkshire, and Franklin. With the adoption of a graded school system leading up to the high school, the schoolhouse at Pumpkin Hollow, which had been built on the first site of the Congregational church, was used exclusively for the grammar grade. In 1902 a modern four-room building adapted to the work of all grades under the high school, was erected at Burkeville. One by one the out- lying districts have ceased to maintain separate schools until now only five of these schoolhouses are in use, viz .: at Broom- shire, Boyden, South Part, Poland, and South Shirkshire. The aggregate attendance of these five schools in 1916 was seventy- four. The total enrollment of all pupils below the high school was one hundred and ninety-seven.
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
In 1888 the state passed a law permitting two or more towns to unite for the employment of a superintendent of their schools. Conway was one of the first towns in the state to avail itself of the provisions of this law. It united at once with Williams- burg, Whately, and Sunderland. They obtained for their first superintendent, in 1889, Hon. Justus Dartt, formerly state superintendent of schools in Vermont. The plan has resulted in great benefit to the schools of the town. The present district for the employment of a superintendent is composed of Conway, Deerfield, Whately, and Sunderland.
HIGHER EDUCATION.
The people of Conway have always cherished high educa- tional ideals. As we have seen, Greek and Latin were once proposed for the district school curriculum. Without however going to this absurd extreme, young men were encouraged to continue their studies and in many cases to enter college. An old catalogue of Westfield Academy gives the names of six young men from Conway enrolled in 1813. They were Henry Clary, Solomon Farnum, Nathaniel Goddard, Luther Hamilton, Pliny Merritt, and Austin Rice. When Amherst College was founded in 1821 Conway citizens contributed two thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars. Elisha Billings, himself a graduate of Yale before coming to Conway, served as trustee of Amherst from 1821 to 1825. George Howland served as trustee from 1879 to 1888 and Walter Howland, Esq., served as trustee from 1895 to 1905 and as treasurer of the college from 1903 to 1908. Conway has been represented at Amherst by the following graduates: John A. Nash and Joseph K. Ware in the class of 1824; Lincoln Clark, 1825; Henry W. Billings, 1834; Daniel Rice, 1837; William W. Howland, 1841; William Howland, 1846; Richard S. Billings, 1847; William F. Avery and George Howland, 1850; John Avery, 1861; Walter M. Howland, 1863; Francis A. Clary, 1864; John Howland, 1876; Edmund B. Delabarre, 1886; Frank A. Delabarre, 1890; Everett M. Delabarre, 1906.
When Mount Holyoke Seminary was chartered in 1836 Conway people contributed one thousand four hundred and five dollars. Joseph Avery served as trustee from 1836 until his death in 1855 and Austin Rice served as trustee from 1858 until
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THE SCHOOLS.
his death in 1880. Mrs. Elizabeth Mead, president from 1890 to 1900, was born in Conway, the daughter of Col. Charles Billings. Mrs. Mead was the last president of the Seminary and the first president of the college. The following graduates are from Conway: Caroline Avery and Lois W. Rice of the class of 1845; Paulina Avery, 1850; Clara L. Dickinson, 1855; M. Elizabeth Childs, 1856; Susan M. Clary, 1863; Sarah G. Clark and Myra M. Jenkins, 1864; May E. Field, 1905; Harriet E. Totman, 1914; C. Pauline Sikes, 1915; Dorothy W. Pease of the class of 1918 is taking the full course. The following have taken special or partial courses: Elmira Barr, Mary Avery, Harriet Arms, Mary Bates, Caroline Dickinson, Phebe Allen, Mary Batchelder, Elizabeth Howland, Charlotte Rice, Martha Clary, Susan Tilton, Aurora Clark, Harriet Godfrey, Fannie Barber, Mary Fiske, Fannie Stearns, Sarah Page, Alice Aldrich, Elizabeth Perry, Clara Dickinson, Mary Billings, Anna Newhall, Lenora Dill, and Sylvia Parsons. Five of the above, including Presi- dent Mead, have been members of the faculty. Paulina Avery taught 1852-53; M. Elizabeth Childs, 1859-70; Susan M. Clary, 1863-77, and Myra M. Jenkins, 1864-66.
Records, gathered more or less at random and necessarily in- complete, show that the following young people graduated from colleges other than Amherst and Mount Holyoke: Yale, John Avery about 1830; William C. Whitney, 1863; Frank E. Wing, 1886. Williams, Harvey Rice, 1824. Hamilton, H. G. O. Dwight, 1827. Wesleyan, Henry Bannister, 1836. Clark, Albert Sanderson, 1897. Holy Cross, George Dacey, 1913. Massa- chusetts Agricultural, Herbert J. Stack, 1912. Goucher, Ger- trude Pease, 1901. Smith, Marguerite Dobson, 1916.
The number of those who in various schools have pursued courses of study more or less extended beyond the high school grade is literally too numerous to mention. Teaching has been a favorite occupation with both sexes, yet eight Conway boys have been physicians and fourteen have been lawyers. Of the latter four became judges and one, William C. Whitney, LL.D., was Secretary of the Navy in the Cleveland administration. Thirty-seven have been ministers of the Gospel.
The youth were encouraged to seek a higher education. The pastors of the churches often tutored their promising young
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
people. Mary Lyon after graduating from Sanderson Academy studied for a time with Rev. Edward Hitchcock, then pastor of the Conway Congregational Church. Mr. Hitchcock soon after became a professor at Amherst College and later the president. Mary Lyon taught a select school in Conway about 1821 and later founded Mount Holyoke Seminary with Dr. Hitchcock as her trusted adviser. Thus Conway has always felt a peculiar interest in these two institutions.
MRS. PERRY'S SCHOOL.
Miss M. Elizabeth Childs, a daughter of Horace B. Childs of Conway, graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary and as we have seen taught there for eleven years. She married Rev. H. D. Perry and came to Conway in 1870 to care for her aged father. She soon began to tutor students from Mount Holyoke who had failed in examinations and this led to the opening of a boarding school for girls. The school was appropriately named for its beautiful situation "Hill View." The first class to grad- uate was in 1874. The school continued for twenty-four years and about two hundred young ladies in all were enrolled as pupils. The students came from twenty different states and territories of the Union, and from three provinces of Canada. Three pupils were enrolled from Bulgaria. A large portion of the graduates went direct to Mount Holyoke, for which they were especially prepared.
SELECT SCHOOLS.
Deacon John Clary kept a select school in the South Center from 1831 to 1843 and gave it such high rank that many pupils from other towns attended it. His dwelling was two miles and a half from the school, to and from which he went each day, and during the twelve years he traveled about nine thousand miles. Then a similar private school was kept up for several years in the old Town Hall at the South Center. The building was owned by different individuals, who gave the use of it for this purpose. The school was taught chiefly by young men from college. John Emerson, grandson of the first pastor, Follet, Fletcher, and Henry J. Patrick were long remembered as men of inspiring personality. The pupils of this private school paid tuition, and bought their own books and supplies.
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THE SCHOOLS.
CONWAY ACADEMY.
But a better building, devoted exclusively to the school, was felt to be needed. Many made sacrifices in erecting it. Among these numerous contributions were four hundred dollars bequeathed by Calvin Bartlett, one hundred and fifty dollars presented by Gen. James S. Whitney, one hundred dollars by Asa Howland, and one hundred dollars by Rufus Graves. So general was the interest that the voluntary gifts amounted to twenty-three hundred dollars. Academies were doing a great work in those days and this school was given that name. It was controlled by a corporation called a prudential committee, consisting of fifteen men, among whom were Rev. George M. Adams, who was president, Dr. E. D. Hamilton, treasurer, and David C. Rogers, secretary. These men bought four acres of land as the site for the new building. This site was admirably selected, midway between the three villages, almost in the exact center of the town, retired, and with a beautiful outlook to the east. The building was of two stories, and the first term opened in December, 1853, with Charles D. Fitch and Miss Felicia H. Emerson as teachers. Later John W. Underhill and his sister, Miss Laura P. Underhill, had charge of the school for two or three years. The chief funds were still expected to come from the pupils. Hence as many as possible were secured, irrespective of any definite standard of scholarship, and these were favored with a great variety of recitations, suited to their degree of progress. A catalog printed in 1858 gives the names of two hundred and thirty-one pupils as having been connected with the school up to that time. These pupils represented twenty-seven towns in four states.
Meanwhile it was necessary to eke out the salary of the teachers by voluntary contributions. Among others, Mrs. George M. Adams, wife of the Congregational pastor, contributed three hundred dollars from her private funds, 'to meet these current expenses. A picnic brought in one hundred and eighteen dollars for the same purpose. After less than ten years of such exertions to support the school, its fine building was destroyed by fire in 1861. But there was no disposition to give up effort to furnish the boys and girls a fair education, without going out of town for it. Insurance on the old building was recovered to
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
the amount of fifteen hundred dollars. A one-story building was planned, of the same dimensions on the ground as its prede- cessor, being about twenty-five by fifty feet, with seats for nearly fifty pupils in its larger room. Subscriptions were again started. Several, as Whitney, Tupper, L. Stearns, gave one hundred dollars each, others fifty dollars, and a long list twenty- five dollars. The new building cost two thousand, five hundred and seventy dollars, and was not fully completed until 1864.
For many years the school was run on the old plan of securing as many scholars as possible for the price of their tuition. Those wishing to study the languages must pay five dollars a term; those desiring a good English course must pay four dollars; while a passable English education might be secured for three dollars and fifty cents a term. Teachers of varied capacity were obtained according to the prospects of a small or large school. Discipline must not offend parents, or there would be a loss of scholars and shortage in funds. But in 1886 the prudential committee turned over the control of the school to the town, a general committee was appointed, and the academy changed to a high school. This was in line with the evolution of the school system in other places.
CONWAY HIGH SCHOOL.
In 1886 there came another important step in the school's evolution, through the adoption of regular courses of study patterned after the best high schools in the state. The English course extended three years; the Latin and English, four. Graduation exercises were to mark their completion and merit to be recognized in the appointments. The first class graduated was that of 1888. The graduates by classes under the present system have been: 1888-Elizabeth Johnson, Lila Sinclair; 1889-Angie L. Freeman, Emma F. Adams, Jennie A. Rice; 1890-Irene L. Boyden, Nellie M. Brown, Louise Townsend, Luna Rice, George W. Townsend, Charles J. Higgins; 1891- Belle Holcomb, Charlotte Howland, Susie Pease, Harold Howes, Charles D. Rice, Franklin Stowe; 1892-no graduates; 1893- Florence Howland, Mamie Cook, Grace Pease, Agnes Stowe, Minnie Cook, Robert Burnham, Albert Sanderson, Leroy Seffens, Ella Howes, Nettie Hopkins, Hattie Field, Amy Hopkins,
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THE SCHOOLS.
Eva Day, Etta Keyes, Mabel Batchelder; 1894-no graduates; 1895-Mary Bartlett, Mary D. Rice, Sylvia Parsons, Earl E. Miller, Harold Day, Delos Atkins; 1896-Darwin Sanderson, Bertha Allis, Alice E. Rice; 1897-Hattie Clary, Edith Field, Elizabeth Field, Gertrude Pease, Loula Pulsifer, Mollie A. Mullins, Alice Mason, Ellen Dougherty, Charles T. Field; 1898-Jessamine Sikes, Clarence Flagg, William D. Field, Marcellus Cook; 1899-Fannie Clary, May E. Field, George H. Hopkins, M. Gertrude Peck; 1900-C. Pauline Sikes, Alfred C.
ACADEMY BUILDING-PRESENT HIGH SCHOOL.
Field, Winifred Allis, Winifred Johnson, H. Merrill Pease; 1901-Cora M. Hassell, Mary F. Sanderson; 1902-Minnie Batchelder, Jessie Cook, Louise Cook, Minnie Mason, Bertha Rice, Sarah Totman; 1903-Margaret Sikes, Arthur Forgette, Wilbur C. Field; 1904-Mabel Bond, Winifred Field; 1905- Anna Bement, Walter Buck, Mary Holcomb, Elizabeth King, Gertrude Leonard; 1906-Blanche Fortin, Grace E. A. Field, Mary Hopkins, Ethel King, May Turner; 1907-Leon Bardwell, Lucy Bement, Bertha Stone, Lucy Wilder; 1908-Maud Bond, Helen Johnson, Isabelle McFarland, Viola Morton, Eva Wells; 1909-George Dacey, Roy Hart, John Parker, Bertha Connelly,
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
Ruth Hopkins, Harriet Totman; 1910-Bertha Adams, Gertrude Howland; 1911 -- Anna Chute, Margaret Dacey, Leslie Rice, Mary Totman, Ruth Totman, Leon Wells; 1912-Raymond Boyden, Sumner Boyden, Winifred Laidley, Newell Morton, Sylvia Morton, Myrtle Parker; 1913-Mildred Mason, Edward Parsons; 1914-Sherman Arms, Charles Cooper, Richard Totman, Edna Graves, Clara Twining, Jeanette Sinclair; 1915- Howard Boyden, E. Ray Hardie, Charles Mckenzie, Louise Burnham, Vera Eldridge, Marion Jones, Beatrice Reed; 1916- Mark Germain, Harold Hassell, Russell Wells. Of the one hun- dred and thirty-three graduates named above, nine continued their studies in college and twenty-one in other educational institutions.
In 1889 an effort was put forth to arouse added interest and support for the High School through giving a public dinner at which men of note were invited to give addresses. These dinners were given annually for ten years and were occasions of much enjoyment. Prominent among the speakers were Dr. Samuel Harris, Dr. Edward Hitchcock, son of President Hitchcock, George W. Cable, George Howland, Dr. Charles B. Rice, Dr. Benjamin Hahn, Dr. Charles F. Rice, and Dr. Sidney W. Bridg- man. Marshall Field was invited to attend one of the dinners and this led to his presenting a check for five hundred dollars. William C. Whitney sent a gift of one hundred dollars and a like sum came from Fisher Ames, and from Marshall Field's brother, Henry Field. These presents, with the receipts from the dinners, put a fund of about twelve hundred dollars for the school into the hands of the school committee. In 1916 a field of about five acres in the rear of the town hall was purchased with this fund for a public park and playground. In addition the town holds a bequest of one thousand dollars from George Howland, the income of which is to be applied to books of reference for the use of the High School.
An Alumni Association was formed in 1910 and each year a pleasant reunion is held with a banquet and after-dinner speak- ing. The enrollment of the High School for the year ending June, 1916, was thirty-four.
Marshall Field
CHAPTER VIII. THE FIELD MEMORIAL LIBRARY. BY REV. CHARLES B. RICE, D.D.
It is not purposed to follow in detail the events in the life of Marshall Field any further than as they are connected with the gift of the Field Memorial Library to his native town. The out- lines only, or what might be thought of as the natural metes and bounds of that remarkable life, are given.
In the early years of their family life the home of John Field and Fidelia Nash, his wife, stood upon what is known as Field's Hill-toward the southeastern part of the town of Conway and about a mile from the center. The twin summits, rounded and grass covered, are conspicuous objects from every direction. They command beautiful prospects on every side; but especially eastward over the wide valley of the Connecticut River which they overlook by an elevation of a thousand feet. Marshall Field in his later life was accustomed to say that one might travel far over the world and see nothing finer. The house stood at the highest point of the road, but sheltered a little by a hundred feet of the higher land rising above it toward the west. The building has since been removed; and the family seat indeed in later years was changed.
There were born to John and Fidelia Field nine children, three of whom died in infancy. Of the remaining six, Chandler, the elder, became a farmer and died in early manhood: The second, Joseph Nash, was for a time a banker in Iowa, but has now lived for several years in England as the head of the English branch of Marshall Field & Company. The youngest brother, Henry, was a member of the Chicago firm and is not now living. There were two sisters, Helen E., who became the wife of Lyman D. James of Williamsburg, and Laura, who married Henry Dibblee of Chicago.
Marshall Field received his early education in the public schools, and largely in the district known as Pumpkin Hollow- a district long a classic center despite its name. When he was seventeen years of age he took a place at Pittsfield in what was
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HISTORY OF CONWAY.
then a country store. At twenty-one he went to Chicago and obtained employment with Cooley, Wadsworth & Company, afterward Cooley, Farwell & Company, one of the leading com- mercial houses of the city. His ability soon made itself known. In 1860 he became a junior partner in the firm. In 1865 he united with Potter Palmer and L. S. Leiter in organizing the firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter, which afterward became Field, Leiter & Company. Outliving the great fire of 1871, the firm became Marshall Field & Company, and it rose swiftly and steadily to a foremost place among the mercantile houses of the whole world.
From 1821 there had been in Conway what was called The Social Library. It was owned in shares and was long kept at the house of John Howland at Pumpkin Hollow. The drawing of books was usually on Thursdays of each second week, after the church prayer meeting. The books were few, mostly histories, biographies, and sketches of travel. Their quality was of more account than their number; and they were in their day of in- estimable value. In 1870 this library, with eight hundred books, was removed to the town office then in the building of the Conway Bank. By the burning of the bank building January 12, 1878, all the books were destroyed excepting about one hundred. The proprietors then made this library over to the town, and at a meeting held March 4, 1878, a Town Library was established.
Marshall Field had knowledge of these things, and he gave liberally to aid in this new enterprise. Generous contributions came also from R. R. Graves, from Richard Tucker, and from Mrs. R. R. Graves, with $400 from the estate of William B. Fay, a man who knew the worth of the old library.
The opening of this Town Library took place November 15, 1878. There were at first 710 volumes, including those saved from the fire. The town itself gave for several years its share in the "unexpended dog tax"-by which indeed in like ways of enlightenment the dogs made themselves useful in many towns-the amount in Conway being in all about $1,000. Books also valued at about $1,000 came from the State Library Commission.
Anticipating here a little the record, it may be stated that when Mr. Field's gift of the free public library had been made,
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THE FIELD MEMORIAL LIBRARY.
the town, at a meeting held November 5, 1901, voted to make over its library containing then 2,800 volumes to Mr. Field; and he in turn directed the trustees of the Memorial Library, after keeping whatever books they might wish to use, to give the rest to some Franklin county towns that might then have no library. About 2,500 volumes were accordingly distributed in nearly equal shares to the towns of Hawley, Heath, and Lev- erett.
The matter of a free library had thus been long in Mr. Field's mind. In 1899 he visited the town with a landscape architect and chose the site for the building, and engaged distinguished architects to prepare the plans. The Act of Incorporation for the library was approved May 4, 1900. By the terms of the Act the Corporators, or Trustees, were to be five in number, and were all to be citizens of Conway. By a modification later it was required that four at least should be Conway men. These Trustees were empowered to fill vacancies in their own number. The Trustees as originally appointed were: William G. Avery, Eugene F. Hunt, Samuel H. Clary, Henry W. Billings, and Arthur P. Delabarre.
By the Fourth of July, 1900, the corner stone was in readiness to be laid. There had been a tendency in Conway, not uncom- mon in all our towns, to gather public observances of every patriotic quality about that anniversary day. On that day, too, the farmers with a sense of propriety, and with consequent meas- urable comfort, could leave their fields and their crops. On this occasion there was a large assemblage of the people with visitors from abroad upon the parsonage grounds of the Congre- gational church. Here a hospitable dinner was served by the ladies of the society. A procession was then formed with Henry W. Billings, Esq., as marshal, and with music by the Sunderland Band. They marched down and around the hill and assembled beneath an elm near the northwest corner of the parsonage lands. Rev. Edward D. Hinchliffe, of the Methodist church, read appropriate selections from the Scriptures, and Rev. Charles S. Pease, of the Baptist church, led in prayer. Walter M. How- land, Esq., of Chicago who is also a son of Conway, delivered the address, which is here given in full.
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