USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 39
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The appropriation for schools was for many years £50. In 1774 it was raised to £60; in 1786, £80; in 1790, €85; in 1795, £130; in 1796, $500; in 1800, $600. In 1762 the town was " presented for not setting up a grammar school, and the selectmen were chosen to defend the town against it at the Court."
In 1761 -62 votes were passed ordering that the grammar school should be taught at the house of Edward Durant.
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In 1796 the citizens voted " to provide five stoves to warm the school-houses." As late as 1780-85 Rev. Mr. Blood, the first pastor of the First Baptist Church, Newton Centre, pieced out an inadequate salary by keeping the winter school at Oak Hill two seasons.
A new interest was awakened in the cause of education in connection with the action of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and especially
as a result of the efficient labors of Hon. Horace Mann, its secretary, who was a citizen of West Newton. The schools had been conducted for many years without much variation from the estab- lished routine, except as the growth of population from time to time demanded increased accommo- dations. This routine contemplated mainly nine or ten school-houses, chiefly of one story and con- taining but a single room, with a schoolmaster for a certain number of weeks in the winter months, and a schoolmistress in the summer. At the period indicated, about 1854, judicious citizens, deeply in- terested in the cause of education, of whom the late Dr. Henry Bigelow and the late Hon. D. H. Mason were among the foremost, - and it is in their honor that two of the school-houses are named, - began to counsel the citizens in town-meeting to adopt measures looking to a more generous course of training for the young. The first efforts were
merely tentative, because the people in many in- stances were not prepared to relinquish their ancient customs for new and untried measures. But after warm debate a resolution was passed to establish graded schools throughout the town, except in the Oak Hill district, which was remotely and there- fore peculiarly situated, and the citizens of that part of the town were not willing to accede to the new arrangement. Two grammar schools, one at Newton Centre, the other at Newtonville, were to be provided with masters all the year round, com- petent to prepare young men for college. Tavo new school-houses were erected, - one at Newton- ville, a few rods north of the railroad station, where three or four ways met; the other at Newton Cen- tre, nearly on the site of the present Mason School- house. The school at the Centre was in charge of J. W. Hunt, Esq., formerly of Plymouth, the first master, and proved a success. The building was afterwards removed to a lot on the opposite corner of Station Street, to make room for a much larger and more convenient structure, and was finally transferred to a lot near the southeast part of Wiswall's Pond, and became Crane's machine- shop. The new school-building was burned by an incendiary, and the present Mason school-building took its place. The school did excellent service as a mixed high and grammar school, until the public interest in education demanded a still fur- ther advancement, and the present pure high-school edifice was erected at Newtonville in 1858-59. The appropriations for schools, showing an inter- esting increase in the progress of years, indicate the growing intelligence and liberality of the citi- zens. From £ 50, the earliest appropriation, and which remained fixed at that sum for many years, and from $600, the appropriation in 1800, the advance has been in an ever-increasing ratio. In 1870 the amount paid for educational purposes was $117,252.98, and the value of school prop- erty owned by the town was $327,600. In 1873 the last town grant for schools, before Newton be- came a city, was $73,000. In 1878 there were in the city eighteen school-houses, eighty-six teachers, 3,359 pupils; total expenditure for schools in 1878, $83,208.63, or $24.77 per capita, the expense of every pupil curolled. The whole number who graduated from the high school from 1861 to 1878 inclusive was 315; males 140, females 175. The first class (1861) numbered four, all females ; the last class (1878), thirty-six ; the largest class (1877) numbered fifty-one. In the class of 1878
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twenty-five were males and eleven females. The class of 1866, nine in number, were all females.
Various private schools have been taught in Newton in different parts of the town, as well in its earlier as its later history. In 1765 Charles Pelham of Boston opened a private school in the house formerly owned by the Rev. John Cotton, in Newton Centre. Judge Abraham Fuller at a still earlier date had a private grammar school, and in his will he left a bequest of £300 to the town of Newton, as the foundation of an academy to be known as the Fuller Academy, to promote higher education. The amount was left to be paid by his executors, and did not come into the possession of the town till after the death of his son-in-law, General Hull, whose affairs became embarrassed, and he was unable during his lifetime to pay the bequest. After his decease a piece of land was conveyed by his heirs to the town in settlement of the claim, and the Fuller Academy was ereeted at West Newton, on Washington Street. After a few years the building was sold, and became the seat of the first normal school for young ladies in Massachusetts, which had been previously located for a brief period in the town of Lexington. It has since become the classical school of the Messrs. Allen.
Mrs. Susannah Rowson opened a female acad- emy and boarding-school at Newton Corner, in the brick portion of the building since known as the Nonantum House, in the early part of the present century. She was the daughter of a British officer, a woman of many accomplishments, and an author of considerable reputation. Her school was at- tended by young ladies from remote states in the Union and from the West India Islands. She taught also, either before or afterwards, in Med- ford, Roxbury, and Boston. Many items of her personal history are preserved in her novel entitled Rebecca, which, under fictitious names, is a record of actual events and occurrences in the days of the American Revolution. She is said to have been a very courtly woman, and paid special attention to the carriage and manners of her pupils.
Mr. Seth Davis was a teacher of high and de- served reputation in West Newton, where he taught first in the public school, and afterwards in a private academy of his own. Many who subse- quently became distinguished men in Newton and elsewhere were among his pupils, and his teaching in higher branches was altogether in advance of the teaching of the period. It is said that the
Rev. Mr. Greenough on one occasion expostulated with him for instructing his pupils in astronomy, -a favorite study of the venerable master; but with a natural genius for teaching, great capacity, and keen conscientiousness, he endeavored to give his pupils the highest and best in his power. The influence of Mr. Davis as an enterprising citizen has been highly beneficial to the town. Most of the trees which adorn the streets of West Newton were set out by him. The large elm in front of the old tavern-house, so called, was set out by John Barber, who gave to the town the land im- proved for the West Parish Burial-Ground, and was the first male tenant of it. A woman who had died of small-pox had preceded him. . After Mr. Davis relinquished teaching in West Newton, ou account of the pressure of other duties, his daugh- ter, Miss Harriet L. Davis, took up the work, and was a most successful teacher until she was eom- pelled by failing health to dismiss hier school. Her father gave instruction to her pupils on certain days of the week in astronomy, geology, ete., and when she was laid aside by sickness, he continued the sehool for several weeks, hoping for her res- toration.
Under the influence of a newly awakened educa- tional zeal, the first normal school for the instruc- tion of female teachers was commenced in Lexing- ton, Massachusetts, and afterwards removed, under the auspices of that great educator and philanthro- pist, the Hon. Horace Mann, then residing in West Newton, on Walnut Street, to the village of his abode. It was his favorite plan to keep the school under his constant supervision. The school found its home in the building of the Fuller Acad- emy, which was bought for that purpose. The Rev. Cyrus Pierce, called generally Father Pierce, was the first teacher. A model school was estab- lished in the immediate vicinity in connection with the normal school, where the pupils of the latter had opportunity by personal teaching to put to practical use the instruction they received. This school, afterwards under the care of Mr. Eben Stearns, continued for a few years to have its seat in West Newton, where it was a most successful enterprise. It was removed afterwards to Fram- ingham.
The late Marshall S. Riee, Esq., for twenty- seven years the town-clerk of Newton, and holding office when the town obtained incorporation as the city of Newton, came into Newton Centre, in 1824, and established a private school for boys, in
a
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which more than a thousand pupils received a por- tion, either greater or less, of their education. His residence and school were on Centre Street, in the mansion formerly the estate of Henry Gibbs, Esq., from whom Gibbs Street receives its name, nearly opposite the first parish meeting-house. In this ancient house the ordaining council of ministers and delegates met and dined together on the occa- sion of the ordination of Rev. Dr. Homer, Febru- ary 14, 1782. The apple-trees in the orchard north of Mr. Rice's house were raised from the seeds planted by his own hands, and the two fine maples in front of the house were brought by him in his chaise-box, when they were saplings of a foot in height, from New Ipswich, New Hampshire. Mr. Rice died February 24, 1879, aged seventy- eight years and eight months, - a man universally respected and lamented.
In the year 1830 an academy was commenced at Newton Centre, under a board of nine trustees. The land occupied by the academy building on Centre Street, nearly opposite Grafton Street, and now occupied as a dwelling-house, was given to the board of trustees for that purpose by Marshall S. Rice, Esq. An addition was made to the estate in 1831, by purchase, for the purpose of erecting a boarding-house. This was a flourishing school for many years. The first preceptor was Mr. El- bridge Hosmer, who was followed in succession by Messrs. Ebenezer Woodward, Rev. John B. Hague, Bartholomew Wood, and Rev. E. H. Barstow, who was the last teacher. After this the academy build- ing was sold for a private residence. The boarding- house, in 1866, became the seat of a home and school for young girls, orphans and others, rescued from the haunts of vice in the neighboring city of Boston. This benevolent institution was, in all its history, under the charge of Mrs. Rebecca B. Pomeroy, an efficient, self-denying, and faithful friend and ministering angel in the military hospi- tals of Washington during the civil war, and spe- cially in the home of the chief magistrate of the nation, Abraham Lincoln. On a Sabbath afternoon, June 14, 1868, one of the inmates of the house set fire to the building, and it was burned to ashes, and the site has remained unoccupied till the pres- ent time. The Home was reorganized in the house formerly owned and occupied by Mr. Ephraim Jackson, southeast of the Theological Institution, and continued till 1872, when it was disbanded. Four little orphan girls, members of this institu- tion, became the nucleus of the Orphans' Home,
established on Church Street, Newton, in Novem- ber, 1872, and which afterwards was removed to the Episcopal parsonage, which was purchased for its use.
Professor Charles Siedhof, from a German gymn- nasium, kept a family school for boys from about 1848 to 1853, in the southernmost of the two houses erected for professors on the Institution land at Newton Centre. Both these houses have since been removed, and now stand, altered and enlarged, on Cypress Street. The school of Pro- fessor Siedhof was afterwards removed to the old Clark house on Centre Street, south of Wiswall's Pond, now occupied by Mr. Jepson.
Lasell Female Seminary, in Auburndale, was com- menced in the fall of 1851, by Professor Edward Lasell. The large building occupied by the insti- tution was erected in the same year. Professor Lasell died soon after the institution was opened, and it was taken in charge by Josiah Lasell, a brother of the professor, and a brother-in-law, George W. Briggs, Esq., under whom it enjoyed a marked degree of prosperity. In 1864 the property was purchased by Professor C. W. Cushing. In 1873 it was acquired by ten gentlemen of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and reopened under the superintendence of Professor Charles C. Brag- don. About eighteen hundred young ladies have been attendants of the school.
Moses Burbank taught a classical and high school for boys from 1848 to 1852 in the basement of the First Baptist Meeting-house at Newton Centre. This was both a boarding and day school. Sev- eral other and more recent private schools have existed in different parts of the town, which have held a high rank and done honorable service; but it is unnecessary, as they belong to the latest times, to speak of them particularly.
The First Baptist Church in Newton was organ- ized July 5, 1780, numbering thirty-eight mem- bers. There had been members of the Baptist denomination in the town many years previously. Mr. Jonathan Willard, of Newton Lower Falls, joined the First Baptist Church in Boston, Decem- ber 7, 1729. Noah Parker joined the Second Baptist Church in Boston, July 21, 1749. Several others, later, joined the Baptist Church in Leices- ter. May 14, 1753, Noah Wiswall and others presented a petition to the town that they might be released from paying a ministerial tax for the
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support of the clergymen of the town, they being conseientions Baptists. But the town voted that their petition be not granted. March 15, 1756, John Hammond and others, who were Baptists, requested of the town that they might not be rated for the support of the ministry ; but their request was inet, after some debate, by a prompt refusal. In 1774 ten persons - John Dana, John Kenrick, Caleb Whitney, Thomas Parker, Eben Bartlett, Joseph Hyde, Nathaniel Parker, Thomas Tolman, Widow Abigail Richardson, and Elisha Bartlett - addressed another memorial to the town, certifying that they were Antipædobaptists, and generally worshipped with people of that persuasion. In June, 1776, the town, urged by the importunity of these repeated petitions, at last exeused James Richards and Edward Hall from paying the minis- terial taxes, and four years later the First Baptist Church was formed.
In the autumn of 1740 Rev. George Whitefield preached in Newton and the vicinity, and a general interest in religion attended his ministry. From his labors sprang a movement which resulted in the formation in several towns of Separate, or New Light churches, so ealled. A church of this name was organized in Newton. They held their assem- blies at the house of one of their members, Mr. Nathan Ward, who became their pastor. Most of the members afterwards adopted the views of the Baptists, and formed the nucleus of the First Bap- tist Church. They held their meetings at first in dwelling-houses, and afterwards in a school-house, the worship being conducted by Deacon Jonathan Richardson and Mr. John Dana, and occasionally by visiting ministers. They continued their wor- ship in this manner nearly twenty years. In the spring of 1780 Mr. Elhanan Winchester, who after- wards embraced and preached the doctrine of uni- versal restoration, visited Newton, he being then a Baptist, and several persons received baptism at his hands, who were embodied into the church July 5, 1780, as before stated, by public ceremo- nies, probably in a room in the house of Noah Wiswall, since the home of the heirs of Deaeon Luther Paul. The first pastor was the Rev. Caleb Blood, who continued to serve the church till Jan- nary 24, 1788. When he became pastor the number of members was seventy-three ; at his dis- mission, ninety-two; number of admissions, nine- teen.
The vote to build a church edifice is dated Jan- uary 17, 1781. The dimensions of the church
were to be forty feet by thirty-two, and the expense abont £300 specie, or $1,000. The land was given for the building by Noah Wiswall. Dread- ing the encumbrance of a debt, the parish was sev- eral. years in accomplishing the enterprise, and it was not till April, 1795, fourteen years after the commencement, that the edifiee stood complete. During this period a subscription had been set on foot five times for the purpose of carrying on the work. The frame of the house still stands, trans- formed into a dwelling-house, on the east side of Wiswall's Pond. A vote was passed March 19, 1782, " that the singing be carried on, in a general way, by reading a line at a time in the forenoon, and a verse at a time in the afternoon:" In the first meeting-house 'no person could have a pew who subseribed less than £10 towards the build- ing. The church contained twenty wall-pews, that is, six on each side and four on each end, and " four pews back of the body seats." In 1802 the house was enlarged by the addition of seventeen feet to the west side, which gave space for twenty-four new pews. The salary of Mr. Blood was £ 60, " and the loose money contributed on the Lord's days." The contribution-box was carried around on the lower floor every Sabbath, and in the gal- lery only once a month, until the year 1815. Rev. Joseph Grafton was ordained pastor June 18, 1788, having received a call after he had preached sixteen Sabbaths. The salary promised him was for the first year £55, equal to $ 183, to be paid quarterly, "and after that to make such additions as his necessities require and our circumstances admit of." After Mr. Grafton became pastor, in addition to the salary and eight cords of wood, £ 20 a year were granted " in consideration of the enhanced price of the necessaries of life." Several members of the parish purchased for £ 75, or $250, " half the place that Mr. Blood used to own," and gave it to Mr. Grafton as a " settlement," or pres- ent, in token of esteem and good-will. This estate was the triangular estate owned and occupied by the late George C. Rand, Esq., and bounded by Centre, Homer, and Grafton streets. The value of the whole estate, therefore, at that period was only $500.
The society was incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts, and the act of incorporation signed by the governor February 12, 1821. The ministry of Mr. Grafton extended over a period of forty-eight years and six months, and he had many I hearers, not only citizens of Newton, but from sev-
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eral of the neighboring towns. The whole number admitted to the church during this period was five hundred and sixty-seven. In consequence of the increasing infirmities of Mr. Grafton, through age, Rev. Frederic Augustus. Willard, of Worcester, was elected colleague pastor, and installed November 25, 1835. A new meeting-honse was erected on the present site in the year 1836, the land for which was a donation from Mrs. Deacon Eben White, Sr., formerly Mrs. Elizabeth King, a member of the church. The house, as originally finished, con- tained seventy-six pews, of which six in the north- west corner were appropriated, free of rent, to be occupied by the students of the Newton Theologi- cal Institution. The clock, the gift of Deacon Reuben Stonc, was transferred from the former meeting-house. The last service in the old meet- ing-house was the funeral ceremonies of the senior pastor, who died December 16, 1836, aged seventy- nine, having been pastor nearly half a century. The number received into the church during Mr. Grafton's ministry was five hundred and sixty- seven. His remains rest in the cemetery on Cen- tre Street. The monument commemorating his virtues and attesting the affection of his people was erected through the efforts of the late Thomas Edmands, Esq., to whom the public is indebted for the neat and faithful inscriptions. After two years and eight months Mr. Willard left Newton, and was settled in Abington, South Danvers, and Needham, and was lecturer on chemistry in Louis- ville, Kentucky, and died in Philadelphia in 1866. During his ministry seventeen were received into the church.
The fourth pastor was Rev. S. F. Smith, whose service continued twelve years and six months, - from January 1, 1842, to June 30, 1854, -and during that period one hundred and six were ad- mitted to the church. The fifth pastor was Rev. Oakman Sprague Stearns. His term of service began September 23, 1855, and closed May 31, 1868. During his ministry two hundred and two were received into the church. The sixth pastor was Rev. William N. Clarke, whose term of service commenced May 16, 1869. The church edifice, erected in 1836, painted white on the outside, and having a spread of elegant crimson damask be- hind the pulpit within, was wholly reconstructed in 1855-56, and the low tower, formerly in the middle of the east front, was replaced by the steeple on the southeast corner and the low tower on the northeast corner, as at present. The church
has been twice since altered and improved, - in 1869 and 1874. A supplementary chapel was erected at Thompsonville in 1867, for a neighbor- hood Sabbath-school.
After the decease of Mr. Meriam, the fourth pastor of the First Parish, in the year 1780, the town and parish having become distinct from each other, the First Church and society united in calling Rev. Jonathan Homer to be their pastor, and the invitation was accepted. The ordination occurred February 14, 1782. At the public service in the meeting-house the church formally renewed their call, and the pastor elect in like manner renewed his acceptance of it. Dr. Homer graduated at Harvard University in 1777, and received the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity from Brown University. His entire ministry as sole pastor of the church was forty-four years. His whole residence with the church was fifty-one years and six months. During his ministry a new church was built, the fourth from the commencement of the town, and dedicated November 21, 1805. His principal study for many years was directed to ascertaining the precise condition in which the English version of the Bible was left by the translators of King James, and the successive variations in the text in the translations of Wickliffe, Matthewe, Tyn- dale, Coverdale, Rogers, and the rest. Dr. Homner manifested great enthusiasm in this branch of study, and wrote many notes, which he proposed at a future time to publish. But he left them at his decease in a scattered and disordered state, so that no use could be made of tliem. Dr. Homer died August 11, 1843. Dr. John Codman of Dorches- ter preached on the occasion of his funeral. No- vember 14, 1827, the infirmities of Dr. Homer being such as to require aid in the pastoral work, Rev. James Bates was ordained colleague pastor, and they both resigned the charge simultaneously, April 7, 1839. Rev. William Bushnell was in- stalled pastor in May, 1842; resigned Decem- ber 13, 1846; died April 28, 1879. Daniel L. Furber was ordained December 1, 1847.
The Common at Newton Centre was given to the town as a training-field probably as early as 1700. There is no formal record of the donation, but tradition ascribes the gift mainly to Jonathan Hyde, Sr., who died in 1711, at the ripe age of eighty-five years. Mr. Jackson thinks he may have given nearly two thirds of it, and that more
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than one third was given by Elder Wiswall or his sons. In 1702 Mr. Hyde also gave to the select- men of Newton in trust half an acre of land near Oak Hill, for the benefit of the school in the south part of the town. This half-acre of land was sold after many years, and a small fund accumulated from the proceeds, which was divided among the inhabitants of the south school-district by vote of the town, pro rata, according to the taxes which each one paid. This Jonathan Hyde had twenty- three children, to whom he distributed his property by deeds of gift a few years previous to his de- cease. Various records show by incidental testi- mony that the Common was regarded and used for many years as the property of the town; besides which, the existence of bound-marks and fencing and undisputed possession for a hundred and sev- enty years seem to indicate a sufficiently secure title.
A similar tract of land, to be used also for a training-field, was given in 1753, by Captain Jo- seph Fuller, to the military company of Captain Ephraim Williams and their successors forever. This Common was located at Newtonville, near Washington Street; but in 1787 the land re- verted to the heirs of the original proprietor, they paying the town for it the sum of two pounds. This insignificant price shows how little value was at that time put upon real estate.
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