History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 138

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

by stating, that they derived the highest gratification in witnesing the regular order and highly respectable attainments of the schollars in the school kept by Mr. Samuel Preston, District N. 4, in the North Parish, und in the school kept by Mr. Amory Felton, District N. 11, in the South Parish.

The Committee conclude by earnestly exhorting all concerned to ex- ert all their influence and abilities to improve their respective schools by employing the best Instructors, by sending the children and youth to school as constantly and as many years as possible, und by affording them all the nid and encouragement in their power to attain at least a thorough acquaintance with the several branches, or, rather, rudiments of science which are taught in English schools."

Following the custom thus set in 1817, reports were for eighteen years annnally read at town-meeting and filed away. From 1835 to and including 1838 the re- ports are recorded at length, together with many in- teresting returns, in Dr. Shed's book of "School Records."

At the annual meeting of 1839, after Rev. Allen Putnam had read the report of the year then ended, it was recommitted with authority to the committee to canse as many copies of it to be printed as they should think proper for the benefit of the inhabitants. Israel H. Putnam appears in this earliest printed report as a teacher in No. 7; subsequently he was given the much larger school in No. 5. One of his successors in No. 7 was John G. Walcott, and following Wal- cott, in the winter of '42-43, was a young man from the Village, Augustus Mndge. Of the latter the com- mittee said, " the teacher seemed to feel an active in- terest, and the appearance of the school justifies us in saying that in his first attempt, he has succeeded in imparting that interest to his scholars." In the sequence of events, Mr. Putnam and Mr. Mudge are now associated the one as treasurer and the other as president of the Danvers Saving Bank.

Oliver A. Woodbury, who became a physician in Nashua, N. H., deceased, taught in No. 10. Among the lady teachers were Elizabeth P. Pope, Fidelia Kettelle, Margaret Putnam, Harriott A. Pope, Emily Gould and Hannah J. Putnam. The mention of the then young men, Putnam, Walcott and Woodbury, calls to mind the fact that just about this time they were themselves attending school at Pembroke Aca- demy, N. H. And this was a thing not uncommon among the ambitious young fellows of Danvers, who desired something more than the meagre education of a few weeks each winter at the home schools. They left their work and their wages not for the fun of a term or two at boarding-school, but to get the most out of it; sometimes spurred on by a friendly word of advice, but as often impelled merely by personal deter- mination. Quite a number went to Bradford, a few to Atkinson, N. H., and perhaps elsewhere, but Pem- broke seems to have been the favorite. In the few catalognes which have been preserved the following names appear of North Danvers young men and women who were at Pembroke about 1840 : Israel H. Putnam, Oliver A. Woodbury, Israel P. Boardman, Francis Noyes, Charles A. Putnam, Albert Putnam, Elias E. Putnam, Israel E. Putnam, Moses W. Put-

nam, Thomas M. Putnam, William Putnam, John G. Walcott, Joseph S. Black, Charles P. Preston, Aaron W. Warren, Charles H. Gould, Harrison O. Warren, John H. Porter, John Reed, Caroline E. Page, Sarah P. Page, Emiline Putnam, Nancy Putnam, Mary O. Black, Sarah A. Kent.

At Topsfield Academy there were, about 1830, these: Ezra Batchelder, James D. Black, Thomas J. Brad- street, Moses K. Cross, John C. Page, Charles Page, Ebenezer Putnam, Francis Putnam, William R. Put- nam, Henry F. Putnam, Charles H. Rhoades, Asa T. Richards, Richard West, Lydia Bradstreet, Harriet N. Page, Harriet Putnam, Clarissa Putnam, Elizabeth A. Putnam.

A fellow-student with some of these Danvers yonng people at Pembroke was a young man from Deerfield, N. H., who went to Dartmouth College, and helped to pay his way by teaching, winters. About Thanks- giving time, during his first year, he drove from his home looking for a school, and spent a night in Dan- vers with Oliver Woodbury, calling the next morning on "Uncle Moses," father of Israel E. Putnam, a young man of great promise who had died at Pem- broke, and by Uncle Moses he was taken over to the old General Putnam homestead to the shoe-factory of Daniel and Ahira Putnam, to see in particular the latter who was prudential committee-man, and to Ahira the young man made application to teach the district school, No. 4, the ensning term and was en- gaged. Julia Putnam, a daughter of the homestead, helping abont the household work which by well- established New England custom falls to Monday morning, noticed the arrival of the young stranger, and was interested in his errand for she was the teacher of the summer school. The young man's name was John D. Philbrick. It is a proud thing for Danvers that a name since so widely and honorably known should find itself connected with her annals. Mr. Philbrick tanght the No. 4 school three winters. He became engaged to Miss Putnam, and was married to her after his graduation, and after his great life- work was accomplished came back to these scenes of his early labors and of his early love to die. It is in- teresting to read in the light of his subsequent career what was said of the young student-teacher by the committee of 1839: "At the commencement of his term we feared that Mr. Philbrick might fail to meet the reasonable demands of the district ; but are happy in being able to state that both he and his school made progress that was highly gratifying to the com- mittee and creditable to themselves. We have seldom found in school so general and thorough acquaint- ance with the various marks of punctuation as was possessed here; and as a necessary consequence we found some of the best readers here that we have lis- tened to in town. The various recitations approached to uniformity in character and were very fair."

John Dudley Philbrick was born in Deerfield, N. H., May 27, 1818. He graduated from Dartmouth

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in 1842, having some weeks previous to graduation entered upon the duties of a position in the Roxbury Latin School. While at Roxbury he married, August 24, 1843, Julia A. Putnam, of Danvers. He next went to the Boston English High School, was master of the Mahew School in 1845-46, and achieved great reputation for his admirable work as master of the Quincy School, 1847-52. For a few years his labors were then transferred to Connecticut, first as princi- pal of the State Normal School, and again as State superintendent of common schools. In December, 1856, he was recalled to Boston by his election as superintendent of public schools, a position which, except for an interim of a year and a half, he held continuously until March, 187S. His published offi- cial reports during this term are a part of the standard literature of education. He was sent by the United States to represent our educational department at the Vienna Exposition in 1873, and again to Paris in 1878. From France he received the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and the Gold Palm of the University of France. St. Andrew's Univer- sity of Scotland conferred upon him, in 1879, the de- gree of D. C. L. He was one of the original incor- porators of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and remained on the board as long as he lived ; was ten years a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, and ten years a trustee of Bates' College. In his later years he was especially instrumental in the establishment of free evening schools and the State Normal Art School, and in the enactment of the truancy law and teachers' tenure of office act. He died at Danvers, February 2, 1886. In a private. letter to John G. Whittier, I. E. Clark, of Washing- ton, says : " I cannot express to you what a personal grief to me was the news of the death of Mr. Phil-

brick. . . . He was a great educator, I think worthy to stand beside Horace Mann in the memory of his countrymen." The immediate successor of Mr. Philbrick in this district school, of Danvers, was the man who is now librarian of the Boston Public Lib- rary, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, who also married a Putnam of the neighborhood, a daughter of Jesse.

Mrs. Philbrick has furnished these names of other old teachers in No. 4: Asa Cummings, long editor of the Portland Mirror ; Samnel, William and Eliza Preston (the latter Mrs. Nathan Tapley), Catherine, Elizabeth, Susan, William R., Francis P. and Julia A. Putnam, Dr. Joseph E. Fiske, Otis Mudge.

Dean Peabody, now clerk of E-sex County Courts, taught in Putnamville, beginning in 1843-44.

In the winter of 1846-47 a young man, now widely known as Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, taught the "senior department" of the Plains School. "This was Mr. Putnam's first experiment in school-keeping. He entered upon the work in his own district, and under peculiar disadvantages. Yet the committee present at the closing examination testified to the general good appearance of the school and its decided improve-

ment during the year." Charles A. Putnam, who became superintendent of schools in St. Louis and there died, taught at No. 4, in 1847-48. Freeman N. Blake, who some years ago became a permanent resident of Danvers, was teaching thirty-seven years ago in No. 12. Harrison Gray taught at No. 7. Ru- fus Sawyer at No. 10, in 1850. Arthur A. Putnam, brother of Alfred, son of Elias, lawyer, of Uxbridge, began his first experiment, 1852, where he grew up, in No. 3. John W. Sawyer, who recently died at the head of the Butler Insane Asylum, Rhode Island, was teaching in 1852 at the " little border school," in No. 10.

Other well-known names than those already given which appear in the list of teachers from 1840 to 1845 are,-Hannah Pedrick, Sarah A. Osgood, Han- nah P. Bradstreet, Sophronia Fuller, Asenath P. Pope, Sarah B. Pedrick, Almira A. Pntnam, Eliza W. Preston, Melicent P. Peabody, Matilda Peabody.

From 1845 to 1855,-Elizabeth Hopkinson, Clarissa A. Preston, Mary P. Tapley, Eliza W. Preston, Nancy Perry, Mary J. Sawyer, Adeline F. Bomer, Sophronia E. Tapley, Mary E. Porter, Nancy E. Boardman, Sarah E. Symonds, Susan Putnam, Julia A. Page, Lydia A. P. Tapley, Harriet Felton, Amanda B. Hood, Hannah P. Pope, Harriet A. Putnam, Lydia A. Felton, Mary A. Richards, Sarah J. Putnam, Harriet M. Putnam, S. A. Hyde, M. A. Wilkins, Pamelia Needham, Sarah F. Emery, Ann J. Emery, Ellen F. Towns, Cornelia Putnam, Sophia J. Richards.

In the year of the first printed report, 1839, the subject of high schools was first brought up. Wil- liam D. Joplin, John W. Proctor, Allen Putnam, Samuel Preston, J. M. Austin, Daniel P. King and Benjamin Porter were appointed to consider the propriety of establishing one or more such schools agreeably to the statutes. They reported that a ma- jority at least felt that the credit and interest of the town demanded better and higher schools than those existing. In view of the scattered location of the inhabitants, they said, it would not be practicable to agree upon a site for the establishment of one school to accommodate all, and, perhaps, it would be equally dif- ficult to agree upon two. Although there were wise men on this committee, the concluding paragraph of their report is a bit of that rare wisdom which confesses its own limitations,-

"They are satisfied that something onght to be done, and they hope something will be done ; but it requires wiser heads than theirs to deter- mine how it shall be done in a mauner that will prove satisfactory."

In the face of such an avowal it is not surprising that high schools remained in the realms of the ideal for many years to come. After three years some determined souls had the courage to bring up the subject again, it was referred to the school committee and that was the end of it. Then after one of the periods of Jacob's courtship, in 1849, it was brought up a third time, and again referred to the school committee. The next year, for the third time in its

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history, an indictment hung over the town. High- schools were no longer a matter of choice, but of necessity, and the citizens stirred themselves to get at once out of the unpleasant situation. J. W. Proc- tor, Samuel Preston, Moses Black, Jr., Andrew Nichols and Fitch Poole were appointed to act in concert with the school committee.

On Monday, the 8th of April, 1850, Rev. Thomas P. Field of the South Church read the report of this committee in town meeting. It was voted that he read it over again. And after various attempts at amendment, it was adopted.

The report begins,-

" It is obvious that the Town is under an absolute necessity of estalı- lishing a High School The Law on this subject is imperative, and we cannot neglect its requisitions, withont Incurring a heavy penalty. But so extensive is our Territory, and so scattered our population, that One High School will by no means satisfy the desires or meet the wants of our community. If we have One High School, we must have two, in order that all the Inhabitants of the Town, may participate in the benefits of Education, in the higher branches of knowledge. The Committee have considered the subject of uniting the High Schools, in some way with one or more of the District Schools, in order, if possible, to obivate the necessity of establishing Independent Schools. They have come to the conclusion, however, that no satisfactory arrangement of this kind can be made. It is uncertain whether any of the Districts would consent to it, and if they would, it is thought by the Committee that the plan could not be made to work, in a manner advantageous to the interests of either District or Iligh School education."

The committee proposed certain votes, which by the acceptance of the report, became the action of the town :

"First, That it is expedient to establish two High Schools, independ -. ent of the District Schools, -One in the North and one in the South part of the Town, the said Schools to be free to all the Inhabitants, under sncb uniform regulations for the admission of Pupils as the school con- mittee shall establish. That the School Committee he in- structed to provide two suitable school rooms, with Furniture and appa ratus, and establish High Schools, according to Law, as early as the first of May next, or as soon after as practicable."

On the third day of June, 1850, the two high schools were opened for the admission of such schol- ars as should pass the examination. Thirty-eight entered the south, thirty-one the north school. John P. Marshall, now of the faculty of Tuft's College, was the first principal of the north school. The building in which the north school was inaugurated was situ- ated on Conant Street, in a corner of the lot now oc- cupied by the dwelling of Roswell D. Bates. It is described by one of the original pupils as "a long, narrow and low structure, a little back from the road, with two large trees before it. The room was very low studded, at one end the desk and at the other the recitation platform ; between were only three rows of double seats. The pupils were of good age and abil- ity." The first examination was awaited with great interest. "In consequence of the desire of so many to be present at this time, it was deemed proper to hold the examination in the new spacious school- house at New Mills. The performances were of a high order, and most gratifying to the committee and the numerous visitors."

After a few months better quarters were found for

the school. On the present town-house lot was the chapel of the Wesleyan Society and, being then little or not at all in use, the real estate was sold to the town, and the meeting-house became a school-house. This chapel had been called the "Quail Trap," and the name clung to it so long as it was used as a school- house. When the town-house was built, the 'quail trap' was moved to Essex Street, where, ever since, it has been a residence in good and regular standing. At the close of the second term of the second year Mr. Marshall resigned to take a better position; A. P. S. Stuart succeeded him, and remained till the close of the fall term, 1853. Mr. Nathaniel Hills, late principal of the high school at Great Falls, N. H., was selected as Mr. Stuart's successor. Rev. James Fletcher succeeded Mr. Hills. The present principal is H. R. Burrington ; Miss S. F. Richmond, Miss Annette Sawyer, assistants.

By a letter dated London, 30th November, 1853, addressed to the committee of the Holten and Pea- body High Schools, George Peabody, in acknowledg- ment of the compliment paid him in the name of the south school, stated that he would transmit in the autumn of 1854, and thenceforth annually during his life, the sum of two hundred dollars for prizes as rewards of merit to pupils of both high schools at their yearly examinations, the entire amount to be common to both, and distributed as among the pupils of one school. The school committee determined " that a suitable medal shall be awarded and presented to every pupil who shall pass three years-constitut- ing the entire course-in either of these schools, and whose attendance, deportment and advancement shall have been uniformly satisfactory to the teachers and committee." Later, 1867, Mr. Peabody established a fund of two thousand dollars, the income of which has been annually devoted to the purchase of medals and books for graduates.

The first graduates of the Holten High School to receive the Peabody Medal were the

CLASS OF 1855.

Emily G. Berry.

Addison P. Learoyd.

Mary A. Black.

Charles Learoyd.

Harriet G. Bradstreet. Clarence Fowler.

Susan E. Perley. Samuel P. Fowler.

Mary F. Putnam. Jehn H. Parker.

Nancy W. Proctor.

Adrian L. Pntnamn.

Asenath A. Sawyer.

Daniel W. Proctor.

Elizabeth P. Swan.

In the spring of 1849 a lively episode occurred in No. 6. There the Rev. Daniel Foster, the preacher at the Wesleyan Chapel, was teaching, and things did not run smoothly between himself and the commit- tee. Rev. Mr. Eaton, one of the committee, went in to examine the school. He undertook to hear a class in geography, but Foster remarked that the time was up, and cut short the committee-man's questions by sending the class to their seats. Mr. Eaton called a meeting of the board and reported what had occurred, and the board voted " that the whole committee pro-

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ceed this afternoon to examine the school in District No. 6 ;"' and they all filed into the school-house at half- past one. Foster gave them seats, and went on with his business. In a few minutes the chairman, Mr. Braman, said: " We have come here to examine this school." "It was examined yesterday," said Foster, with the inference that it wasn't to be examined again. Then followed a scene. The committee or- dered scholars to stand up and recite, and the teacher told them to sit down. They were more in awe of their teacher than of the committee and they sat still and some cried. The committee finally withdrew as gracefully as they could, leaving behind a note in Foster's hands, informing him that he was forthwith dismissed.

At the adjournment of the annual meeting the matter was piping hot. The committee read a long report, covering nearly four newspaper columns, giv- ing the facts of the case and justifying their action. On a motion to print twelve hundred copies, Foster himself moved to strike out all concerning No. 6; followed his motion by a violent attack on the com- mittee and carried his point. And further, at the subsequent election, he was a successful candidate for membership of the board which turned him out, and the Rev. Mr. Eaton failed of re-election.

By an act of 1850 the Legislature gave towns the option of abolishing the district system. There was an immediate effort in Danvers to take advantage of this act. The larger expenses made necessary by the establishment of the two high schools just at this time gave a special incentive to the movement. In response to instructions to consider the subject of a radical change in the school district system with a view to greater economy and more efficient manage- ment, the school committee, through A. A. Abbott, Esq., presented in 1851 a very strong and clear report setting forth the desirability of abolishing the system. But Danvers never voted to abolish the system, thongh a number of attempts were made to secure this action. On March 24, 1869, the Legislature took the matter into its own hands and broadly enacted that " the school district system in the commonwealth is hereby abolished."

At the annual meeting of 1853 William L. Weston made a motion that a superintendent of schools be employed. Subsequently it was voted that the con- mittee be instructed to hire Charles Northend. Mr. Northend, a native of the northern part of the county, had been long and favorably known as a teacher; his name appears in the first printed report, 1839, as principal in No. 1. His salary as superintendent was at first eight hundred and fifty dollars. The great extent of territory to be covered, from the "Rocks" to " Beaver Brook," from the "Devil's Dish- ful" to "Blind-hole" must have made the occupation somewhat akin to that of a circuit-rider. Mr. North- end served faithfully a number of years, and was the first and only school superintendent of Danvers.

In April, 1841, a move was first made for the estab- lishment of what is now the Tapleyville district. Gilbert Tapley presented a petition with his own sig- nature and thirty others for a new district to be carved out of Nos. 5 and 6; but inasmuch as his brother, Asa, was on hand with a list of remonstrants twice as long, the petitioners were respectfully given leave to withdraw. They withdrew just five years, and at the end of that time a division of No. 6 was effected on the petition of its own district committee, and the northern part thereof set off as a new dis- trict,-the last-No. 14. No record of a dividing line was made further than to adopt the one described in the petition, which has not been found.

With the division of the town it became expedient to readjust the districts. Six districts, namely, Nos, 2 (Port), 3 (Putnamville), 4 (Beaver Brook), 5 (Cen- tre), 13 (Plains) and 14 (Tapleyville), together with a part of No. 6 (Collins House), were left to Danvers. One from each-S. P. Fowler, I. H. Putnam, Francis Dodge, Augustus Mudge, Calvin Putnam, Orrin Put- nam and Hix Richards-were appointed to renumber and relocate the districts. No alterations were made in the lines of Nos. 2, 4 and 13. A portion of No. 14 was annexed to No. 5, and another portion to No. 6. No. 5 previously had 141 scholars and lost 7; No. 14 had 193 and lost 49; No. 6, having but 31 left in Danvers after the division of the town, gained 66. The districts numbered 13 and 14 in the old town became 1 and 7, other numbers remaining un- changed.

A short time after the dissolution of the annual meeting at which this report was accepted, dissatis- faction was manifest in the calling of a special meet- ing to alter the new lines of Nos. 5, 6 and 7. It was then voted to annex all of No. 6 that remained in Danvers to No. 7, and to call the consolidated dis- trict No. 6, with the proviso that if a majority of voters residing south of a certain line should within thirty days express to the selectmen their wish to form a district by themselves, they should then be allowed to organize as District No. 7.

The people south of the given line did wish to re- main a district by themselves, and did not wish to be deprived of the old number, which had been a fa- miliar designation of their locality for more than sixty years, and in June the numbers were changed back, -No. 6 to the old " Turkey Plain " District, and No. 7 to Tapleyville.

In the mean time the people of the old Village district, No. 5, were having a hot little war. The people in the immediate neighborhood of the church, and so on to Tapleyville, wanted to be a separate district and have a school-house of their own. They were outnumbered in the district, but succeeded in obtaining a vote of the town for the division of No. 5 by a line crossing Centre Street four rods east of the house of John Roberts; and all that portion lying east of the line was established as District No. 8. A

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nice large school-house was erected just opposite the church; but the triumph of the seceders was short. Although they had fortified themselves with the opinion of eminent counsel, the division was tested by a suit at law and pronounced illegal. For a time the disappointed divisionists held out, and many of them actually let their places be sold under the ham- mer for the taxes levied for No. 5, and one man re- mained in Salem jail six months rather than pay them. But better counsels soon prevailed, the sold property was redeemed, and now only broad smiles wreath the faces of certain town fathers when the nearly-forgotten subject is mentioned.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 138

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538