History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 55

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 55

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The pay of the earlier teachers was small. Mr. Epes, in 1677, was to have twenty pounds from the town, and if that was not enough with tuition to make sixty pounds, the selectmen were to make up the balance. If it was more than enough, he was to have it and be free from all taxes, trainings, watch- ings and wardings. In 1699 Mr. Whitman was to "have fifty pounds in money, each scholar to pay twelve pence a month," and " what this lacked was to be made up out of the fund sett apart for grammar schools." Thus the compensation ran along for some years with slight variations, but, on the whole, slowly rising. Mr. Nutting had ninety pounds in 1729. At the close of the eighteenth century the master of the English school had one hundred and fifty pounds and " found ink," and the grammar master one hundred and thirty pounds, and nothing said about ink. In 1803 each of the four school mistresses " is to have a salary of one hundred dollars and four cords of wood." In 1819, when Thomas Henry Oliver (General H. K. Oliver) succeeded Mr. Clark in the Latin school as "usher," it was at a salary of six hundred dollars, and in 1824, as " assistant," he had nine hundred dollars and Mr. Eames, the master, twelve hundred dollars. The same salary was paid to Oliver Carleton in 1840, while

Rufus Putnam, as master of the High school, had one thousand dollars. The masters of the other schools had seven hundred dollars each and the assistants from two hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars. Teachers in the primary school received one hundred and fifty dollars. Perhaps this part of the story may as well be completed with brief allusion to salaries paid in 1887. The master of the High school has two thousand two hundred dollars ; the sub-master, one thousand five hundred dollars; the first assistant, eleven hundred dollars ; other assistants and principals of primary schools, six hun- dred and fifty dollars ; male principals of grammar schools, one thousand eight hundred dollars; one female principal one thousand five hundred dol- lars; assistants in grammar and primary schools, five hundred dollars.

In the days when those small salaries were paid, a year of teaching was a year indeed. The school-bell was ordered to be rung (in 1700) at 7 A.M. and 5 P.M. from March Ist to November 1st; at 8 A.M. and 4 P.M. the remainder of the year, "ye school to begin and end accordingly." A half-century later the only vaca- tions were " general election, commencement day and the rest of that week, fasts, thanksgivings, trainings, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons." This, says Felt, was a liberal allowance compared with what their predecessors had enjoyed. Now we have, in all, full three months' vacation besides Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Are our boys and girls more healthy than those who went to school "from morning to night," and " the year round ?" For nearly two centuries the girls were not granted the same privileges as boys. They went to school four days in the week from 11 A.M. to 12.30 P.M., and 4.30 to 6 P.M., from April 1st to October 1st, the idea being, evidently, that they needed but little educa- tion.

A State Normal school for girls was established in Salem in 1854. The city provided the site and erected the building at a cost of about $13,200. The State reimbursed $6000 of this amount and the Eastern Railroad Company contributed $2000 additional. The building was enlarged in 1870-71, at a cost of $25,- 000. It was dedicated on September 14, 1854, having been opened for the admission of pupils on the pre- vious day. Richard Edwards was principal from the opening to September, 1857; Professor Alpheus Crosby from October, 1857, to September, 1865, and Professor Daniel B. Hagar from September 6, 1865, to the present time. The aims and methods of the school are best stated in the language of the circu- lar :

" The ends chiefly aimed at in this school are, the acquisition of the necessary knowledge of the Princi- ples and Methods of Education, and of the various branches of study, the attainment of skill in the art of teaching, and the general development of the men- tal powers.

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" From the beginning to the end of the course, all studies are conducted with especial reference to the best ways of teaching them. Recitations, however excellent, are not deemed satisfactory unless every pupil is able to teach others that which she has her- self learned. In every study the pupils in turn occu- py temporarily the place of teacher of their class- mates, and are subjected to their citicisms as well as those of their regular teacher. Teaching exercises of various kinds form a large and important part of the school work."

Private schools have always been an important fac- tor among the educational agencies of old Salem. The first mention which Felt, in his Annals, makes of these institutions is under date of January 1, 1770, when, he finds, Daniel Hopkins, who was afterwards a minister in Salem, had leave to open a private school for reading, writing and arithmetic. He adds that a teacher in one of the public schools had "re- cently taught in the evening on his own account." We can hardly believe that for one hundred and forty years after the settlement here there were no private schools. That they existed, but are unrecorded, we have no doubt. Two years and a half after the above leave was granted, Charles Shimmin is advertising to instruct children and youth in English, book-keep- ing, geography, astronomy, etc. A year or so later (1773) Elizabeth Gaudin opened a school to instruct young ladies in plain sewing, marking tent and Irish stitch. In about 1780 Mrs. Mehitable Higginson, widow of John Higginson, who died in 1818, aged ninety-four years, with her daughter Mehitable, began a private school, which she kept many years, and which became of great repute. Nathaniel Rogers and his wife, Mrs. Abigail Dodge Rogers, parents of the Messrs. Rogers, leading merchants in Salem during the first half of this eentury, kept a famous school during the latter part of the last and early in this century. Thomas Cole came from Marblehead and opened the well-known female school in 1808, and continued until about 1834, when he resigned on account of his health. He lived eighteen years after- wards, and was an active member of the school com- mittee.

In 1782 Mr. Bartlett adds composition and history, and in 1783 Nathan Reed adds grammar and elocu- tion. It will be seen that the branches taught in private schools were mainly additional and supple- mentary to those in the public schools. In 1802, says Felt, William Gray, Benjamin Pickman and others, " desirous to afford their sons the privileges of a school with few pupils, under a teacher of high character and attainments, and subject to their immediate con- trol," concluded to have such an establishment. They employed Jacob Knapp, and in 1803 built a school-house for him. The number of pupils was limited to thirty, and Mr. Knapp's salary, which was twelve hundred dollars the first three years, was for the remaining five years fixed at the, for those times,

munificent sum of two thousand dollars. This school was in Church Street, and later moved to the vicinity of the common. A similar school, known as the Sa- lem Private Grammar school, was begun in 1807, on Chestnut Street, where the Phillips house now stands. Several other schools, on a similar plan, were opened in different parts of the city about this time. The public schools appear not to have given satisfaction. The town was economizing, and began, as usual, with the schools. A vote to build a new house was revoked in 1820, and the old one repaired ; teachers' salaries were reduced. The higher branches, like geography, history, grammar and elocution, appear to have been long finding a place in the school course. A census taken in 1820 revealed 2760 children of school age, of whom 225 boys, out of some 1300, were in private schools. From 1806 to 1820 Felt finds seventy-five advertisements of private schools. In 1816, the year before the course of study in the public schools was enlarged, seven masters set up private schools, and it is believed that half the children in town attended them. The enlargement of the course reduced the private schools by one-half. In 1826, however, there were 69 private schools, with 1686 pupils, the amount of tuition being $18,836, against $8592.89 paid by the town. Four-fifths of the amount paid for private tuition was for girls and small children of both sexes, they not having been provided for properly in the town schools. . Eleven years later there were 70 private schools, with 589 males and 1001 females, the cost of tuition being $22,700, while the cost of the publie schools, with 1236 pupils, was $8877. The number of private schools had been reduced to 49 in 1843, with 972 pn- pils, at an annual cost of $13,594.75. The public schools instructed about 2000 pupils at a cost of $14,816.86. Thereafter the number of private schools diminished until, aside from the parochial schools, there are now less than a dozen. The number of pupils attending them is 365, out of a school popula- tion of 5140. The three Roman Catholic parochial schools contain 917 girls and no boys.

In closing this chapter it seems not inappropriate to say a word about the schools of Salem as they exist to-day, just two hundred and fifty years after Mr. Fiske began that " first free school." The High School had, in 1887, an enrollment of 216, and the average attend- ance was 180. The corps of teachers consist of a mas- ter, two male and five female assistants. The grammar schools are five in number. The Bowditch, for both sexes, with a male principal and twelve female assist- ants, had a membership of 479; the Bently, for girls only, with five female teachers, 176; the Phillips, for boys only, with a male principal and seven female as- sistants, 267; the Saltonstall, for both sexes, with a principal and seven assistants, 255; the Pickering, for both sexes, with a principal and four assistants, 174.

The primary schools showed the following member- ship: Bently, 163; Bertram, 148; Browne (six teach-

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ers) 193 ; Carlton, 173; Endicott, 169; Lincoln, 195 ; Lynde (five teachers), 217; Oliver (five teachers), 222; Pickman, 133; Prescott, 135; Upham, 152; Naumkeag, 110- making a total of 3546.

Those primary schools not otherwise mentioned had four teachers. There is an "unattached " teach- er, who goes from school to school to relieve the prin- cipal while she supervises the work in other rooms. The Naumkeag, located in the house on Ropes Street, is an ungraded school. It is intended for such pupils as cannot be conveniently classified in the graded school, but its patronage is now entirely of French Canadian children, who must be taught the English language first of all, and its various branches subsequently. This school was established in 1869, and is in charge of a principal and one assistant. Evening schools are kept through the fall and winter months-one for boys and one for girls. The attend- ance has always been small and somewhat irregular. The course of study is of a somewhat miscellaneous character.

The courses of study in the several schools do not differ materially from those now generally pursued in all public schools. Added to the common branches of learning are music, under the direction of a special instructor, drawing, history of the United States, and physiology and temperance hygiene. All books, slates, pencils, stationery and general supplies used in the schools are, by law, furnished to the pupils free of expense. The cost of introducing these, in 1884, for 4000 pupils was about $9000, in addition to the $2000 worth then in the school-houses. The cost was somewhat above the average for the State. The cost of replenishing, in 1885, was above $5000, and in 1886 $6200, which is also above the average for the State. This latest addition to the expense of maintain- ing free public schools, however, makes them free in fact as well as in name. The child may now come to them "without money and without price." The total cost of the Salem schools in 1886 was $81,507.16.

CHAPTER VII. SALEM- (Continued).

LITERATURE.

BY GEO. B. LORING.

WHILE we contemplate with profound interest the material growth of a community, and trace its pro- gress in agriculture and commerce and the arts of life, we turn always with more attention to the intel- lectual operations by which it has taken its stand among the thoughtful and cultivated. The work of man's hands is always interesting, but the fruits of

his mental toil arrest our most solemn attention, and take us into a higher atmosphere where dwells his divine genius. The development of letters in a new - ly-settled country is always slow. Men engaged in organizing States have no time for books. Author- ship is a work of established government, developed industries, a prosperous condition. The defenders of a frontier and the organizers of war seldom write his- tories or poems. Achilles fights and Homer writes. When States are to be organized, and towns founded, and farms outlined, the scholars are obliged to wait for their turn. The adage "inter arma silent leges" should include also et literc. In the early colonial days of our country the work of the conditores imperi- orum was so constant and pressing that there was nei- ther time nor opportunity for intellectual work, other than that which belonged to the church and the state. Until within fifty years American literature has been a prediction, and it required all the scholarly enthu- siasm and confidence in the American mind, which Mr. Everett, just then returned from the schools of Europe, possessed to foretell the effect of free institu- tions on the public mind here. When he pronounced his oration at Harvard in 1824, in which he appealed to the scholars to do their duty, and placed before them the picture of a great literary republic, just then beginning to dawn, he was obliged to look back upon a feeble and meagre contribution by American authors to the libraries of their country. At that time no poet greater than Joel Barlow had appeared among us. Charles Brockden Brown was the chief novelist. Hutchinson stood foremost as a historian. No scientist had either explored or written, except Franklin, at once scientist, essayist, statesman, diplo- matist. That long array of poets, and historians, and novelists, and essayists, and scientists, and jurists, and statesmen, and divines, which now fills the world with their brilliant performances, and has placed the literature of the United States along with that of any other nation, ancient or modern, has accom- plished all its work since that prophecy of Mr. Ever- ett was made. Great declarations had been pro- claimed, urgent protests had been put forth, essays upon forms of government had been written, sound constitutions had been organized, the pulpit had threatened with vehemence and exhorted with religious fervor, theological disputations and moral essays filled the colonial libraries. There was no necessity for gratifying the imagination, which at that time had but a small abiding-place. The surrounding reality was more remarkable than any tale that could be told. And the songs of Zion appealed to their hearts with a warmth unknown to the most fervid lines of love.

All these influences were especially strong in the community of Naumkeag. The leaders of the colony were men of deep thought, strong convictions and stern purpose. They had an abiding faith, and they always held themselves in readiness to defend it. It

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was a liberal education to listen to the sermons of Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton, the pastor and the teacher of the First Church, and to the pro- found philosophy and radical doctrines of Roger Wil- liams-all scholars of Oxford and Cambridge. The public utterances of Hugh Peters, preacher, civilian, manufacturer, merchant, more than filled the place of an attractive volume. Harvard sent into the Sa- lem pulpit the brilliant but deluded Noyes, the com- manding Curwin, the devout Fisk, and in later colo- nial days Barnard, the pious and prudent, and Dun- bar, the fervid and patriotic. Stepping aside a mo- ment from his official duty, the Rev. Mr. Higginson published "Generall Considerations for the Planta- tions in New England, with an Answer to Several Objections ; " and " a true relation of his last voyage to New England."

This hook was published as early as 1629. It sets forth the reasons for supporting the settlement, es- pecially at Naumkeag, and defines its object to be the planting of the Gospel on these shores, the erec- tion of a refuge for Christians, provision for the poor and needy who could not procure homes in England, economy of living in that extravagant and wasteful age, a supply of education for the poor, the support of a particular church and to set an example of faith and devotion to the cause of Christ.

Roger Williams, who commenced his remarkable career in Salem, began his work of authorship in 1643. In that year, during a voyage to England, he composed his " Key to the Language of America," the first treatise on the subject prepared on this con- tinent. This was soon followed by a book entitled the " Bloody Tenent," in which he denouneed the views of John Cotton, that it was the duty of the magistrate to regulate the doctrines of the church, to which Cottou replied in a volume called the " Bloody Tenent washed and made white in the Blood of the Lamb." To this Williams rejoined in " The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody by Mr. Cotton's endeavor to wash it White." In these books he most earnestly maintained the doctrine of religious toleration and entire freedom of conscience. His last publication, so far as known, is entitled " George Fox digged out of his Burrows," a book which appeared in 1672, in reply to Fox's " Defence of the Quakers." Prior to this, however, he published, in 1652, " The Hireling Ministry none of Christ's, or a Discourse touching the Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ," and the same year "Experiments of Spiritual Life and their Preservations." He also addressed many letters to John Winthrop and John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Connecticut from 1633 to 1635. In all these works, written during a stormy life, and amidst scenes of the greatest trial and excitement, will be found that vigor of thought, independence of feeling, philosophi- ical power and devotion to strong conviction for which Roger Williams was distinguished.

HIugh Peters entered upon his varied career in this

country October 6, 1635, at which date he landed in Salem. He was settled as the successor of Roger Williams December 21, 1636, and while performing most efficient service as minister of a parish, he de- voted himself to regulating the police force of the town, to encouraging commerce and manufactures and to the general welfare of the community. Educated at Jesus College and Trinity College, Cambridge, he commeneed life as a comedian, but soon took holy orders in the Church of England, and was for some time a lecturer of St. Sepulchre's, London. He soon, however, became a non-conformist and fled to Hol- land, where it is said he " used his powerful eloquence and pulpit eccentricities with great effect," until he emigrated to America. It was with this mental cul- ture and this remarkable experience that he com- menced his labors as pastor of the First Church in Salem, and pursued his literary career. He was the author of "Good Work for a Good Magistrate," 1651, in which he recommends the burning of the histori- cal records in the Tower ; "A Dying Father's Last Legacy to his Only Child," 1660, and " a number of political tracts, occasional sermons," etc. He also published " Amesii Lectiones in Psalmos, eum Epist. Dectic," 1647. The opinions of historians and biog- raphers with regard to Hugh Peters differ widely. He is called a grand imposter and an arch-traitor on the one side, and on the other side he is eulogized as a martyr to the cause of civil and religious freedom, a pure and able divine and a devoted philanthropist. That he had extraordinary ability and immense en- ergy no man can doubt, nor can we fail to recognize his influence in raising the New England colonies into a position of power and effeet, which is still felt throughout the country.

In 1690 Thomas Maule published "Truth Set and Maintained,"-an ardent plea for the Quakers as a means of spreading the Gospel. He was indicted for the publication of a book, " wherein is contained divers slanders against the churches and government of this province," and for saying at the honorable court in Ipswich " that there were as great mistakes in the Scriptures as in his book." He was, however, ac- quitted.

It seems proper to record here the mental attain- ments and efforts of a youthful prodigy who, while he left no mark of his great powers, occupies a place in the list of those who represent the early culture and scholarship of Salem. Nathaniel Mather, a son of Increase Mather, lies buried in the Charter Street Burying-grouud, with the inseription on his grave- stone, "an aged person who saw hut nineteen winters in this world." He was born in 1669 and died Octo- ber 17, 1688. He was graduated at Harvard in 1685. At sixteen he delivered an oration in Hebrew, and ranked among the first scholars of his time. When a mere child he repented in sackcloth and ashes that he had "whittled on the Sabbath-day, and thus re- proached his God by his youthful sports." At twelve

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he cried out "Lord, give me Christ or I die." His brother, Cotton Mather, says of him, "Nor did he slubber his prayers with hasty amputations, but wrestled in them for a good part of an hour together." He died at nineteen, "an aged person," as recorded on his grave-stone in the Charter Street Burying- ground, and left, it is true, a most slender record be- hind him. But the scholar who contemplates his career will admire his geuius and will picture to him- self the brilliant work he would have accomplished for mankind and his country had his life been spared and his promise been fulfilled. His memory belongs to the community where his ashes lie and his radiance illumines the dawn of letters in the colony.

In Salem Village the Rev. Peter Clark, an able and earnest minister, published in 1752 a "Defeuse of Infant Baptism," and in 1760 "The Doctrine of Orig- inal Sin Vindicated Again." In 1728 he published a sermon at the ordination of William Jennison at the East Church. He died in 1766, aged seventy-five.

It will be noticed that authorship has thus far been confined to the clergy. Until 1700 the provincial and colonial theocracy was complete. The clergy organized the State, constructed the laws, provided municipal regulations, exercised a general and close supervision of public affairs and directed the current of literature. The libraries of that day were full of volumes of sermons, moral essays, treatises on theol- ogy, books of devotion, all well exemplified by the numerous productions of Roger Williams and Hugh Peters.

At the opening of the eighteenth century the cur- rent of thought changed. The manifest mistakes of the preceding three-quarters of a century were fully realized, and the law-givers were busy in reforming the code, and the publicists and theologians com- menced the work of explanation. The State had be- come organized; the theory on which it was con- structed had become operative; the doctrinal contesty were largely over ; and the minds of the community had settled into a degree of repose which created but few active anthors and writers. The Indian wars commenced, and for many years the active forces of the colony were engaged in the horrors of forest war- fare. The strong men organized train-bands; the brave mothers kept careful watch of the homes; the clergy who were not engaged in active military ser- vice inspired the hearts of the people with faith and courage. From the breaking out of the Indian wars until the close of the French war the opportu- nity for study and meditation was small ; and during the remainder of the century, which was occupied by the War of the Revolution and the civil conflicts of the construction of the Constitution, the thought of the people was turned to questions of state; and the science of government occupied very largely the minds of those who were engaged in literary work. In public debates, in the newspaper press, in a flood of pamphleteering, may be found the fruits of the

mental effort of the day. There was neither time nor opportunity nor inclination for poems or novels ; and theological disputations were suspended before the all-absorbing topics which a great struggle for freedom, and a great declaration and defense of pop- ular rights, had created. Science asserted itself, it is true, from time to time. Franklin pursued his ohser- vations on electricity, and, so far as Salem is con- cerned, Judge Andrew Oliver published in 1772 "An Essay on Comets," "Papers on Lightning, Thunder Storms and Water-spouts," and an account of a dis- ease among the Indians, while Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford, was imbibing here, as an ap- prentice in John Appleton's shop, his passionate love of science.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 55

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