History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 168

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 168

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Under the act of incorporation, the first master was SAMUEL WIGGLESWORTHI, son of Rev. Samuel of the Hamlet. He graduated at Harvard iu 1752, and taught the school two years, 1757-58. His salary was £40. He afterwards practiced medicine. BENJAMIN CROCKER, before mentioned, taught two years, 1759- 60. JOSEPH How succeeded and taught one year, 1761. His salary was £33 6s. 8d, He graduated at Harvard in 1758, married Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Thomas Berry and died March 26, 1762, at the age of twenty-five, and his wife May 6, 1759, at the age of twenty-two years. DANIEL NOYES, who is sketched in "Registrars of Probate," kept the school thirteen years, 1762-73 and 1780, at a salary of £46 138. 4d. THOMAS BURNHAM, a graduate of Harvard, in 1722, kept the school five years from 1774, at a salary of £50, and than entered the army, where he attained the rank of major. After the war he taught six years, 1786-91; then one year, 1793; then eleven years, 1807-17, when, in 1815, the income was $205 .- 78, a total service of twenty-three years. NATHAN- IEL DODGE, a graduate of Harvard in 1777, taught two years, 1779 and '84. JACOB KIMBALL, a gradu- ate of Harvard in 1780, taught one year, 1781. REV. JOHN TREADWELL, a gradnate of Harvard in 1758, taught two years, 1783 and '85. DANIEL and JOSEPH DANA, graduates of Dartmouth College in 1788, taught two years, 1792 and '93 respectively, at a sal- ary of £65. SAMUEL DANA, a brother of the above Daniel and Joseph, and son of Rev. Joseph, of the South Parish, and a graduate of Harvard in 1796, taught three years, 1797-99, when, in 1797, the in- come was $139.66. JOSEPH MCKEAN, a graduate of Harvard in 1794, taught three years, 1794-96. His salary was £80. He became a minister and a professor in Harvard College. AMOS CHOATE, a graduate of Harvard in 1795, taught seven years, 1800-6. He was afterwards registrar of deeds for the county. GEORGE CHOATE, a graduate of Harvard in 1818, taught four years, 1818-21. RICHARD KIMBALL taught nine weeks in 1822, " for the income of the school lands." CHARLES CHOATE, son of Hon. John, tanght in 1823-24 on the same terms. STEPH- EN COBURN taught in 1825; RICHARD KIMBALL in 1826, when the income was $165.23 ; JAMES W. WARD in 1827; NATHAN BROWN in 1828; DANIEL PERLEY

in 1829; DAVID TENNEY KIMBALL, JR., in 1830; JOSEPH HALE in 1831-33, when, in 1831, the income was $163.61 ; TOLMAN WILLEY in 1834 ; DAN WEED, JR., in 1835-40; EBENEZER S. STEVENS in 1841; DAN WEED, JR., in 1842-45; GEORGE W. TEWKS- BURY in 1846; EZRA W. GALE in 1847-48; CALEB LAMSON in 1849. Arrangements were made with REV. JOHN P. COWLES, of the Seminary, to instruct the grammar scholars, at forty cents a week, per capita, 1850; then with the town for a High School, wherein BENJAMIN P. CHUTE taught, 1851-52; Jo- SEPH A. SHORES, 1853-56 ; ISSACHAR LEFAVOUR, of Beverly, 1856-74. In 1874, when the present Man- ning School was established, the feoffees arranged with the trustees and town, to meet the obligation of the enfeoffment, and practically have contributed since then three hundred dollars annually.

Present Value of the Fund .- The condition of this trust, March 28, 1887, according to the treasurer's re- port, was as follows : "263 old rights in Jeffrey's Neck, 2 house-lots in Revere, school-farm in Essex, Little Neck, deposit in Savings Bank, town notes, Lynn water-bond and cash, valued at $11,514, and yielding an income of about $500."

The school has been practically in the control of the town from a very early period, by right, assump- tion, or agreement, and since 1851 has been popular- ly called the Ipswich High School. Along near the close of the first century, and again near the close of the second, it was less efficient than at other times ; and perhaps, on the whole, has not attained to the very high distinction hoped for by its founders, yet it has been a permanent good always, and most of the time of excellent worth. The trust is now rapidly growing in pecuniary value, and wisely managed, as now, will be in the future a large and efficient educa- tional support.

THE MANNING SCHOOL.

The Founder .- This school was established in 1874. Dr. Thomas Manning, from whom it took its name, was the founder. He was son of Dr. John Manning, who died in 1824, at the age of eighty. six years, after a long, useful, public service, especially given-aside from his professional service-to the cause of educa- tion. Dr. Thomas inherited his father's sterling qualities, his generons public spirit, and perchance excelled him. He was devoted to the prosperity of the town, energetic in advancing her business inter- ests, and, when in age he bethonght him " to set his house in order," as a crowning service of his life, he devoted the greater part of his ample fortune to the purpose of establishing "a High School in the town of Ipswich, which should be free to the youth of the town of both sexes."

He was born Febrnary 7, 1774, and died February 3, 1854. He gave the property to Richard H. Man- ning, of Brooklyn, Francis C. Manning, of Boston- brothers-and Francis H. Blanchard, of Waltham, in trust, and provided that the school-house should be built and the school begun in the year of the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, the cost not to ex- ceed one-third of the devise.

The Trust .- The doctor's son, however, thought that his father's long and serious illness in his old age had

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

improperly influenced the making his will, which made what was thought by many an inadequate pro- vision for him, and he contested it, and it was disal- lowed. The son then paid all the minor bequests, and, to carry out the views of his father, generously gave the trustees, in 1857, about one-third of the remain- der, the sum of $10,000.

Here Mr. Blanchard declined to serve and Mr. Otis Kimball was elected to the vacancy. The board thus constituted made and declared the deed of trust. In 1869 Mr. F. C. Manning died, and Mr. Joseph Ross, of Ipswich, was elected to his place ; and in April, 1874, Dr. Y. G. Hurd was appointed a trustee in place of Otis Kimball, who had then died. About this time Otis Kimball, Jr., was elected.

Other Bequests .- When the century was nearly completed and the honse was to be built, and the fund was found too small to meet the desired end, providentially came to hand the generous bequest of $4000 from DR. JOSEPH GREEN COGSWELL, of New York and Cambridge, one of Ipswich's most distin- guished sons and a gentleman of unusual scholarly attainments. About this time, too, one of the trus- tee, MR. RICHARD H. MANNING, contributed the princely sum of $15,000. The present condition of the trust, exclusive of the buildings and land, which cost $32,000, is about $40,000.

The House and Appointments .- The school-house is a two-story, square structure, with mansard roof, and has rooms for cabinets, apparatus and recitations, and, on the third floor, a spacious and serviceable hall. The architectural design was by Edward R. Brown ; the interior design, by George W. Archer; the trustee supervision of the work, by Joseph Ross and Dr. Y. G. Hurd; and the design of the furniture, by Joseph L. Ross-all Ipswich men.

The cabinets illustrative of natural history and mineralogy, and the apparatus for chemical and philosophical experiments are excellent. In 1842 Mr. Abraham Hammatt donated to the school his pri- vate cabinet of minerals, which, with additions pre- sented by friends of the school, is now large, choice and well arranged.

Its Dedication .- Thus the trustees were enabled to meet the desire of the founder in establishing the school. It was dedicated in the afternoon of Wed- nesday, August 26, 1874. The exercises were con- ducted by the trustees and the school committee of the town, and consisted of addresses, the reading of a paper on the Genealogy of the Manning Family, and music. The president of the trustees, in his opening addresses, remarked : " The noble legacies of the dead and more noble gifts of the living have completed and furnished a structure which the citi- zens of Ipswich may look upon with grateful pride and satisfaction."

Mr. R. H. Manning, secretary and treasurer of the trustees, on the same occasion said, that the equip- ments of the school were ample to prepare students for professional studies, but its special object was " to lay the foundation, and do what time and opportunity may allow towards the superstructure of a useful education of all the children of the town." " The school has but little to do with regularly organized religious matters." It was open for "all who are

qualified to receive its instructions without distinc- tion of sex, color, race or religion." " While, there- fore, it will be quite within its province to do much for those who intend to make literary pursuits the business of their lives, its purpose will rather be to provide an education which, through its general influence as well as by its special teaching, shall tend to make all who receive it able to perform the common duties and enjoy the common blessings of life ; to make them better observers and thinkers, and consequently better farmers, engineers and men of business ; and also, by laying a good foundation, better lawyers and doctors and ministers and states- men ; and above all, better neighbors and citizens ; better and manlier men and better and more womanly women."

The Principals .- The teachers have been Martin H. Fiske, 1874-80; George N. Cross, 1881-82; A. M. Osgood, 1883-84; aud George M. Smith, the present incumbent. The school has graduated one hundred and twenty-three pupils, and is now, more than ever, growing in popular favor and influence.

The Trustees .- The Board of Trustees, as at present constituted, is Dr. Yorick G. Hurd, president ; Rich- ard H. Manning, secretary and treasurer; Joseph Ross, Otis Kimball and Theodore F. Cogswell.

RICHARD HENRY MANNING.1- The subject of this sketch was born in Ipswich, February 1, 1809. His name at first was Henry. It was after his father's death, which occurred in 1815, that he as- sumed his name. His mother, whose maiden-name was Lydia Pearson, died when he was only a few months old, and soon after he was taken home by his grandfather, Dr. John Manning, and his wife, Lucy Bolles, with whom his father also lived until his death. The grandfather was a leading pioneer of woolen manufacturing in Massachusetts, if not the first. The father also engaged in this business in the old building which stood where the "Caldwell Block" now stands. A good mathematician and surveyor, he was, for one winter at least, master of the district school, and his little son, six years old when his father died, was subject to his instruction. The death of his grandmother, with whom his early years were very happy, consigned him to the care of his paternal aunts, whose good intentions sometimes failed of meeting the requirements of the sensitive and grow- ing boy. It was probably on this account that he acceded to their plan for sending him to Dummer Academy, in Byfield, where the preceptor was Nche- miah Cleaveland, who had married his cousin, Abby P. Manning. But it was a heart-breaking business to leave his grandfather, who had been very kind to him and to whom he was very necessary, and he dared not trust himself to say good-bye, but stole away early in the morning. The experience entered on so pain- fully was very beneficial, Mr. and Mrs. Cleaveland proving admirable directors of his studies and help- ing the formation of his character with affectionate and judicious guidance of his habits and his tastes. To a period of repression succeeded a period of genial growth. " I have often thought," he wrote not long before his death, "that if I had grown up from

1 By Rev. John W. Chadwick, Brooklyn, N. Y.

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R.H.Manning.

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early childhood with more sunshine and less wind, I should not have wrapped the cloak of reserve so closely about me, and might have been less censo- rions, of gentler and more considerate speech, and altogether a more agreeable member of society." But if he ever was censorious, harsh, or inconsiderate, it must have been at a period to which the memory of his later friends did not go back.

In 1825, after about eighteen months at Byfield, his school-days came to an end, and on the day before the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 24th, he entered on his business life in Boston, which continued with a single change of employers till he removed to Philadelphia in 1831. At this time his intellectual tendency of mind and earnest- ness of character had already sensibly declared them- selves. With no taste for dissipation, refusing the summer evening punch and winter Sunday toddy proffered by his employer, in whose family he lived, he devoted his leisure hours to the reading of well- chosen books and to various literary exercises under the auspices of the Mercantile Library Association, of which he was a director. He was a lover of the poets as well as of the historians and novelists, and could " drop into poetry" himself upon occasion, once keeping up for some time a tilt of verse, incognito, with Mrs. Frances Osgood, not unknown to fame; and he never got to be so practical or scientific but that he could revert to this early habit. He was fond of re- vising the hymns sung at church in accordance with his scientific predilections, and he often turned a graceful rhyme to bless some birthday festival or other happy anniversary of home and friends.

Within a year after his going to Philadelphia he be- came a partner in the firm of Farnsworth & Manning, and the confidence with which he had inspired his employer in Boston was evidenced hy his willingness to go security for him to the amount of several thousand dollars. In Boston he had not taken kindly to the Unitarianism of his employer, but in Phila- delphia, coming under the influence of Dr. Furness, he became an ardent Unitarian, and with increasing liberality and growing satisfaction in rationalistic and scientific methods, he remained a Unitarian until his death, connected for the last thirty-five years of his life with the Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., of which he was a trustee for several terms, and in which he was always greatly loved and honored for the wisdom of his counsels and the goodness of his heart. It was during his stay in Philadelphia that he made the acquaintance of Frances Augusta Moore, who hecame his wife Jan. 15, 1835, and died in March, 1839 . leaving a daughter Adeline. Mr. Manning was again married, Nov. 7, 1840, to Sarah P. Swan, who died leav- ing a daughter Sarah, Dec. 21, 1841. The domestic hap- piness, twice laid in ruins, was again renewed June 29, 1843, when he married Mary D. Weeks, who remained until his death the fit companion of his earnest purpose and generous heart. They never wearied in "devising

liberal things " for those of their own household and for many far and near who were in need of such encourage- ment and help as they could give. The children of this marriage were Henry Swan and Mary Channing, and their children, with those of the daughter Sarah, were the crowning happiness of Mr. Manning's later life. Through all the vicissitudes of his domestic life, from 1835 until her death, in 1880, his sister Elizabeth was a member of his family, with a mother-heart for ;all his children and a helping hand for every needful work.

Mr. Mauning's business life in New York had hardly begun when the great fire of 1835 and the financial crash of 1836 gave a sudden check to his incipient prosperity. With a conrageous heart he set out again, this time alone, as a dry-goods jobber, and he re- mained in the same business till 1851, with two or three different partners at different times. After a year of leisure, he entered into partnership with Wil- liam C. Squier, of the New Jersey Zinc Company. In 1855, with the same partner, he took the selling agency of the Passaic Zinc Company, and made no further change for the remainder of his active busi- ness life, which terminated only four years before his death. His partner testifies, that in the thirty- two years of their connection, they never had one hour's misunderstanding or one word of anger or re- proach. His year of leisure, 1851, was marked by one of the most agreeable and characteristic episodes of his career. For some years he had been deeply interested in the teachings of Fourier and other writers upon social reorganization. With others, he had induced the Rev. William Henry Channing to come to Brooklyn as minister of a society wholly free from any conventional limitations. Mr. Channing was profoundly interested in social questions and stirred up a generous enthusiasm for them in the minds of his hearers. For two or three years there was a series of parlor meetings, at which the times and the eternities were discussed with equal warmth. To these meetings came many able men and women- Horace Greeley not the least among them, and Mar- garet Fuller, in Mr. Manning's estimation, the great- est; or, at any rate, the ablest talker. For several months she was a member of his family, while on the staff of the New York Tribune. In the summer of 1850 Mr. Manning boarded at the North American Phalanx, the New York "Brook Farm," with sev- eral friends and their families. The doctrines of social reorganization which he had been brooding on so long, were thus practically tested, and the result was so assuring that in 1851 he built a cottage on the Phalanx grounds and spent the summer there. This was the episode to which we have referred. Mr. Manning always maintained that the failure of the movement was owing more to accidental circum- stances than to intrinsic causes, and held to the necessity for changes in our present social order in the direction of co-operative life.

Mr. Manning never forgot his native town and had

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at all times relations of kinship and affection with many Ipswich folks; but that which brought him into the closest and most gratifying contact with his former townsmen was his connection with the "Man- ning School." His uncle, Dr. Thomas Manning, dying in 1854, left nearly all his moderate fortune in trust to him, his brother Francis and Francis H. Blanchard, of Waltham, for the establishment and maintenance of a High School in Ipswich. The will was contested by the only son of Dr. Manning and it was disallowed by the Probate Court. But after the son had paid all the minor bequests of the will, he gave one-third of the sum remaining, about ten thousand dollars, to the trustees named in the will, with which to carry ont his father's wishes. As only one-third could be spent for the building, it seemed best not to build until investment had considerably increased the sum in hand. The investment was made by Mr. R. H. Manning, and so successfully, that in 1874 the original sum had increased to more than forty thon- sand dollars, and then the bonds representing the whole amount were stolen by a thief, who had fol- lowed Mr. Manning into his office. The loss of no other money could have been so hard, but though his cheek was for a moment blanched, the next morning (New Year's day) he made his nsual round of calls with his habitual cheerfulness. Of the stolen money, he at length recovered the larger part. What could not be recovered, he made up; adding to this a sum which, with a bequest made in his will, constitutes an amount more than double that originally in hand. These were the benefactions of a man of moderate means, of whom a friend has said that "he was wisely economical, in order that he might be nobly gener- ous." But he gave the school more and better than money. He gave a well-selected library, into the choice of which he put hundreds of thoughtful hours. He gave his constant oversight and private counsel, and several times some well-considered public word in furtherance of the cause he had so much.at heart.

Mr. Manning apprehended his position as a citizen in the most serious manner. He was always deeply interested in State and national politics and in ques- tions of municipal reform. His anti-slavery senti- ments dated from the beginning of the great debate. Horace Greeley had no more honored friend, and he made him one of the administrators of his will. He was a stanch Republican, and when the ordeal of battle succeeded to the strife of words, he was proud to have a soldier-son, and with the co-operation of his wife and sister, did what he could for the allevia- tion of the suffering and sorrow of the time. His connection with civil service reform was close and earnest from the start, and the last public duty he assumed (but did not livo to perform) was that of an examiner under the civil service rules. His last ill- ness began October 25th and he died Nov. 2d, 1887.

There was no more hospitable roof than his in all the land, There was welcome under it not only for

the fortunate and happy who could bring their health and cheer, but for those who had been bruised and maimed in life's hard fray. Madame Znlavsky, an exile from Hungary, the sister of Louis Kossuth, had her last sickness here. The gravity of Mr. Manning's mind and character attracted to him many wise and noble spirits. He had a genius for friendship, and his friends were often persons of exceptional ability and worth. Horace Greeley and Margaret Fuller have been already named. Samuel Johnson, the Salem thinker and reformer, was another. Professor E. L. Youmans, with whose scientific thought he was en- tirely sympathetic, was perhaps the closest of them all But he did not demand high culture and ability from all bis friends. To be simple and sincere and kind was a sufficient claim on his regard ; or to be in need of any help that he could give. He had a gift for doing " Little kindnesses which most leave undone or despise."

An "advanced thinker" always, he never lost the art of sweet, old-fashioned courtesy. He was remark- able for the comprehensiveness and balance of his powers. With great practical ability he united an admirable gift for speculative thought, and while thus profoundly intellectual, he was pre-eminently a "man of sentiment," without ever being sentimental. His feelings were extremely sensitive and warm. And so it was that, however admirable in every wider sphere, it was in his home-life that he revealed his most es- sential character. He wrote such letters as men used to write when as yet there was no penny post. They were not often long, but they were always care- fully considered and gracefully expressed. For other forms of literary expression he was well equipped. His printed speeches and addresses and the papers that he published upon various subjects, thongh but few, are evidence that if he had devoted himself ex- clusively to a life of thought and literary expression, he might have won an enviable fame. But there is nothing to regret. He could have done no better than to show by his example that a life of constant and exacting business cares can be conjoined with intellectual pursuits and noble charities and genial fellowship, and such social usefulness as is still alive and operative when the places that have known us know ns no more forever.

THE DISTRICT SCHOOLS.

Origin .- This system has been the growth of years and exigencies. In 1642 the town voted that there be a free school. Such a school was to teach " read- ing, writing and cyphering." In 1664 MR. ANDREWS was invited to teach. In 1695 NATHANIEL RUST, JR., taught at Chebacco, and the following year was in- vited to settle as master. In 1702 Chebacco was al- lowed to erect a school-house on the common, and in 1713 WILLIAM GIDDINGS was master there. Iu 1714 the town voted to have a school in the watch-house, and in 1719 it was used for the same purpose. WIL- LIAM SONE, a fisherman, by reason of sickness, was granted a room in the Almshouse for a school. The

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Hamlet voted March 10, 1730, to build a school-house for their accommodation ; and on the 30th the town appropriated one hundred pounds for three masters for the First, Chebacco and Hamlet Parishes. This was the sum paid by Gifford Cogswell in settlement of the Grammar School claim. The First Parish had £41, the Hamlet committee £20, the Chebacco com- mittee £20, Mark How for West Parish (afterwards Linebrook) £4188. 9d., Moses Davis for his neighbor- hood £6 11s. 10d., and Deacon Fellows for his neighbor- hood £24s., thus outlining the present district system. The selectmen, May 22, 1732, engaged HENRY SPIL- LAR to teach, and granted him the use of one end of the Almshouse for that purpose.

- Supervision .- The committee of the First Parish agreed with him to teach a quarter for eight pounds. No further appropriation was made till ordered by the Conrt of General Sessions, when, 1740, the Gram- mar School (which see) and the reading and writing schools were served together. In 1742 eighteen pounds of the school rents, old tenor, were "ad- judged " to each Chebacco and Hamlet, and twenty- eight pounds of said rents, old tenor, " to those parts of the First Parish as have least benefit from the Grammar School," and the same year the selectmen were to visit the schools once a quarter, and invite the minister to attend with them, the germ of our present committee supervision.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 168

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