History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 48

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 48

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The buttery came to be a recognized department of the College, where students could purchase provisions, beer, cider and other extras, in order that they might have no excuse for frequenting the public-houses and taverns in the town. The butler was authorized to sell his wares at an advance of fifty per cent. beyond the current price, and from this profit he derived a

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part, if not all, of his salary. He and the cook were enjoined to keep their utensils clean, to scour the kitchen pewter twice every quarter, and the drinking vessels once a week or oftener. Among the other duties of the butler, he was required to "wait upon the President at the hours for prayer in the Hall, for his orders to ring the bell, and also upon the Profes- sors for their lectures, as usual ; " to "ring the bell for Commons according to custom, and at five o'clock in the morning and nine at night; " to "provide candles for the Hall," and to "take care that the Hall and the entry adjoining be swept once a day and washed at least once a quarter, and that the tables and forms be scoured once a week (except in the win- ter season, when they shall be scoured once in three weeks, or so often as the Tutors shall require it)."

Despite these explicit regulations and the fines mulcted for the infringement of them, there were fre- quent cases of grumbling and disobedience on the part of the students, and of neglect or of undue parsimony on the part of the butler and steward. Before 1747 permission to board in private families was generally granted, whereat the Overseers were displeased and voted that it would be "beneficial for the College that the members thereof be in Commons." After a struggle lasting more than two years the Steward, to whose mismanagement and "scrimping " the students' discontent was attributed, was discharged and a new one appointed. That same year (1750) the Corpora- tion voted "that the quantity of Commons be, as hath been usual, viz. : two sizes of bread in the morning; one pound of meat at dinner, with sufficient sauce (vegetables), and half a pint of beer ; and at night that a part pie be of the same quantity as usual, and also half a pint of beer; and that the supper, messes be of four parts, though the dinner messes be of six." The Overseers persisted in their recommendation that all students be compelled to board at Commons ; the Corporation, on the contrary, deemed that so sweep- ing a law would be unwise. But the former, in 1757, passed a resolution that it would contribute to the health of the students, " facilitate their studies and prevent extravagant expense," if they "were re- strained from dieting in private families ; " and as an inducement, it was further voted "that there should be pudding three times a week, and on those days their meat should be lessencd." In 1760 the Corpo- ration prohibited students "from dining or supping in any house in town, except on an invitation to dine or sup gratis ; " but this law could hardly be strictly enforced, because many students had still, through lack of accommodations in the Halls, to lodge outside, and some of these probably continued to " diet " at private houses. In July, 1764. the Overseers recommended that no student should be allowed to breakfast in the town ; that breakfast be thenceforth furnislied at Com- mons; that either milk, tea, chocolate or coffee be provided ; and that students, if they preferred, might prepare their breakfast in their own chambers, but

might not eat it in one another's chambers. The completion of Hollis Hall, in 1764, enabled most of the students to lodge in the College, and they, to- gether with all Professors, Tutors and graduates, were obliged to board at Commons. There was a rebelliou in 1766, caused partly by the refusal of the College officers to grant excuses for absence from prayers, and partly by the poor quality of the food; among other grievances the Steward had served bad butter for many weeks past.

Of the fare previous to this time, Dr. Holyoke (Class of 1746) said : "breakfast was two sizings of bread and a cue of beer; evening Commons were a pye." Judge Wingate (Class of 1759) wrote: "As to the Commons, there were in the morning none while I was in College. At dinner we had, of rather ordinary quality, a sufficiency of meat of some kind, either baked or boiled ; and at supper we had either a pint of milk and half a biscuit, or a meat pye or some other kind. [Commons] were rather ordinary, but I was young and hearty and could live comfortably upon them. I had some classmates who paid for their Commons and never entered the Hall while they be- longed to the College. We were allowed at dinner a cue of beer, which was half a pint, and a sizing of bread, which I cannot describe to you. It was quite sufficient for one dinner." Before breakfast was reg- ularly served at Commons, there was much disorder in getting the morning or the evening "bever" at the buttery-hatch. In the mêlée the bowl of milk or choc- olate might be upset, and "sometimes the spoons were the only tangible evidence of the meal remain- ing."

During the Revolutionary War new difficulties in- terfered with the satisfactory management at Com- mons. This was one of the grievances addaced by the students when they petitioned the General Court to be moved back from Concord to Cambridge. In August, 1777, the Corporation, in order "that the charge of Commons may be kept as low as possible, Voted, that the Steward shall provide at the common charge only bread or biscuit and milk for breakfast ; and, if any of the scholars choose tea, coffee or choco- late for breakfast, they shall procure these articles for themselves, and likewise the sugar and butter to be used with them ; and if any scholars choose to have their milk boiled, or thickened with flour, if it may be had, or with meal, the Steward, having seasonable notice, shall provide it; and further, as salt fish alone is ap- pointed ... for the dinner on Saturdays, and as this article is now risen to a very high price, and through the scarcity of salt will probably be higher, the Stew- ard shall not be obliged to provide salt fish, but shall procure fresh fish as often as he can." In 1783 the Faculty voted that in future no students should "size" breakfasts in the kitchen, nor take their dinner from the kitchen on Lord's Days.

In 1790 a new code of College Laws was published, in which the old prohibition against dining or sup-

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ping with townspeople (except gratis) was reiterated and, among other things, students were required to give notice to the Steward on the first Friday of cach month what they wished for breakfast during the month. The fine for eating out of Commons was one shilling, raised, in 1798, to twenty cents. At Com- mons the students sat at ten tables, in messes of eight on each side. The Tutors and Seniors occupied a platform raised eighteen or twenty inches. Down to 1771 the custom prevailed of placing students accord- ing to the rank of their families, the lists, written in a large German text, being hung up in the Hall, and those students who belonged to the " first " fami- lics had the privilege of helping themselves first at table. The waiters were students, paid for their ser- vices, and generally respected by their classmates. Boiled meat was served on Monday and Thursday, roast meat on the other days; each person had two potatoes, which he must peel for himself. "On ' boiling days' pudding and cabbage were added to the bill of fare, and, in their season, greens, either dandelion or the wild pea." Cider had taken the place of beer at meals, each student being allowed as much as he wished. "It was brought to the table in pew- ter quart cans, two to each mess. From these cans the students drank, passing them from mouth to mouth, as was anciently done with the wassail bowl."]

Of course, complaints never ceased. At one time the butter was "so bad that a farmer would not take it to grease his cart-wheels with." At other times, when the Steward had furnished, for the sake of economy, nothing but veal or lamb for weeks together, the students would assemble outside the buttery and set up a concerted bleating and baaing, as a hint for him to vary their diet. In 1790 the Steward became one of the financial officers of the College, and his purveyor's duties were transferred to the Butler and Cook.2 In order to prevent the students from " resort- ing to the different marts of luxury, intemperance and ruin," the Buttery was made "a kind of supple- ment to the Commons," where they could procure, "at a moderate advance on the cost, wines, liquors, groceries, stationery, and in general such articles as it was proper and necessary for them to have occa- sionally, and which, for the most part, were not included in the Commons fare. The Buttery was also an office where, among other things, records were kept of the times when the scholars were present and absent." In 1801 the Buttery was abolished, it having for some time previous "ceased to be of use for most of its primary purposes. The area before the entry doors had become a sort of students' exchange for idle gossip, if noth- ing worse. The rooms were now redeemed from traffic, and devoted to places of study. The

last person who held the office of Butler was Joseph Chickering, a graduate of 1799."

The handing out of supper from the kitchen-hatch was the source of constant disturbances ; but the Fac- ulty made a long struggle to preserve this ancient custom. At last, however, after repeated failures, they desisted, and from the year 1806 supper was served regularly at Commons in the Hall. A record of the Faculty for August 31, 1797, is worth quoting : "The time of the Butler's Freshman being greatly taken up with the public duties of his station, and with the private concerns of the Buttery, and his task being laborious, Voted, That in the future the Butler's Freshman be excused from cutting bread in the kitchen, and that it be cut by the servants in the kitchen." In 1807 discontent over Commons led to one of the liveliest rebellions in the history of the College; among other violent acts a student named Pratt at dinner did " publicly in the Hall insult the authority of the College by hitting one of the officers with a potatoe." That same year the Professors, Tutors, the Librarian, graduates and undergraduates were required to take all their meals at Commons, but the fare seems not to have improved. In 1819 a row occurred in Commons between the Sophomores and Freshunen, which caused many suspensions, and furnished the theme of the mock-heroic poem, The Rebelliad. Four years earlier Commons had been removed from Harvard Hall to the just-completed University Hall, where they were held till their abolition in 1849. In 1818 the wages of the waiters were reduced ; each waiter received board gratis for three-quarters of the time during which he was in service. In 1823 the "Master of the Kitchen " was directed to furnish no more cider at breakfast or supper; and the next year wine was denied at the Thanksgiving Dinner. In 1825 students who obtained permission might board at a private house; but they might not lodge outside of the College unless the Faculty approved. President Quincy purchased in England plate to be used at Commons, each article having the College seal: during the Civil War this service was sold, being bought chiefly by the alumni, who thus secured mementoes of an obsolete phase of Harvard life. After 1842 the College renounced responsibility for Commons, which was assumed by a contractor, who rented the rooms in University and provided the food. At length, in 1849, Commons were abolished, as they had come to be patronized by less than one-sixth of the whole number of students residing at the University. "This state of things," says President Sparks, in his report for that year, "afforded a clear indication that, whatever advan- tages may have been derived from this arrangement in former times, it was no longer necessary .. It was resolved, therefore, to leave the students to procure their board in such private houses as they might select. . . The experiment has now been tried for one term, and with such success as to make

1 11all's " College Words and Customs," 1850, p. 75.

2 In 1872 the title of Steward, who had long been the Treasurer's agent at Cambridge, was changed to Bursar.

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it improbable that the Commons will again be re- vived."

It cannot be denied, however, that the system, in theory at least, was a good one, for it provided food at moderate rates to a large number of students. The trouble was that, in the effort to economize, the qual- ity of the food was poor, and the quantity scanty ; so that while poor students might tolerate it for the sake of getting a college education, those who came from more prosperous families were inevitably dissatisfied. And with the increase of prosperity throughout the country the number of well-to-do students naturally exceeded that of the poor. For fifteen years, there- fore, the students boarded at private houses, either singly or in clubs, except that in 1857 the College conducted a restaurant at the old Brattle House. In 1864 Dr. A. P. Peabody interested Nathaniel Thayer in the subject of students' board, which now cost more than some of those whose means were small could well afford to pay, and he offered $1000 to- wards the re-organization of Commons. The old rail- road station (situated near the site of the present Law School) had been bought by the College, one of its rooms being then occupied by the Regina Bon- arum, or "Queen of the Goodies," as the head bed- maker was nicknamed by the students. The Corpor- ation consenting, this building was properly fitted up, and the Thayer Dining Club ate in it, beginning in 1865. The number of students who desired to par- take of the Club's Commons soon exceeded the capa- city of the rooms; and Mr. Thayer contributed $5000 (to which some other subscribers added $2000) to build an addition. The management of the Club was left to its members, under the supervision of a Facul- ty committee of three. Upon the completion of Me- morial Hall the Thayer Club was expanded into the Dining Association, and, in the autumn of 1874, Com- mons were removed to Memorial Hall, where they have ever since been held. The Association consists of a President, Vice-President and of two directors from each School and each College Class; the Presi- dent and Vice-President are elected by a general vote, the directors by a vote of the members of their School or Class who belong to the Association. No wine, beer or other alcoholic drinks, and no tobacco may be used in the Hall. Dinner, originally served at 2 P.M., is now served from 5.30 to 6.30 ; breakfast, from 8 to 9; lunch, from 12.30 to 1.30. The price of board is charged on the students' term-bills. The number of boarders at Memorial Hall is about 700, and as there are usually many more applicants than car be seated these must wait for vacancies to occur. The food is unquestionably much better than was ever supplied by the old Commons, and, although grumbling is frequently heard, the majority of the students appreciate the advantages they enjoy. Thus the difficult problem of feeding the students has been successfully solved ; they control the manage- ment of Commons, and can therefore provide such

fare as the majority desire, while the College, as is right, keeps the accounts. In 1889 the Foxcroft Club was organized, where students can procure plain food at even cheaper rates than at Memorial Hail-thirty- five cents a day being sufficient to satisfy an econom- ical student of small appetite.

In conclusion, I will set down for purposes of com- parison, the price of food at Commons at different periods. In 1664-65 it was about 75 cents per week ; in 1765, $1.22; in 1805, $2.24; in 1806, $1.89; in 1808, $1.75; in 1833, $1.90; in 1836, $2.25; in 1840, highest, $2.25, lowest, $1.75; in 1848, highest, $2.50, lowest, $2; from 1864 to 1890 the price at Memorial Hall has varied from about $3.75 to $4.25; Foxcroft Club (1890), lowest about $2. The cost of board in private houses, or at "Club tables," has always been dearer than at Commons. A member of the Class of 1846 tells me that in his time excellent fare was fur- nished for three dollars per week, and more than four dollars was considered an extravagant price. At the present time private board may be had at from five dollars to eight dollars per week.

PRAYERS .- The history of the religious services in the College, like the history of Commons, deals with a very interesting side of student life. Enforced at- tendance at prayers was the cause of almost as many rebellions and protests as was scanty food in the Hall. The writer on this subject in The Harvard Book, states thus concisely the various places where the religious exercises at Harvard have been held: "Originally religious services were held by each class in their Tutor's room ; afterwards all the students came to- gether in Commons Hall or the Library ; and later an apartment in the old Harvard Hall was used as a chapel. In 1744 Holden Chapel was erected, which was a building of one story, entered by the door at the western end, the seats of which, with backs, were ranged one above another, from the middle aisle to the side walls. Soon after 1766 a room on the lower story of the new Harvard Hall was taken for devo- tional exercises. Here likewise the seats rose one above another, the Freshmen occupying those in front, the Sophomores sitting behind them, the Juniors and Seniors coming next; while on either side of the desk, which was at the end nearest the street, were seats for the instructors and others." While the College was in exile at Concord (1775-76), recitations were held there in the court-house, and prayers in the meeting-house. On the completion of Massachusetts Hall, services were held in the Chapel in the upper part of that building, until 1858, when Appleton Chapel was erected, and has since served for both the week-day and Sunday worship of the College.

From the earliest time the students had attended the First Parish Church on Sundays. This was re- built in 1756 (on the southwest corner of College Yard, near the present site of the old Law School), and an agreement was made between the Corporation and the First Parishioners, by which the front gallery was re-

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served for students, and a pew on the floor for the President and his family ; and the College, having agreed to pay one-seventh of the cost of the building and all future repairs, had also the right to use it on Commencements and public occasions. It was soon found that the students put so little into the contribu- tion box that in 1760 the Corporation, voted "that the box should not be offered (ordinarily) on the Lord's Day to the Scholars' gallery, but that instead they should be taxed towards the support of the ministry, in each of their quarterly bills, nine pence lawful money." In 1816 the connection between the Col- lege and the First Parish Church was severed, and the Sunday worship of the students was conducted in the Chapel in University Hall by officers of the Di- vinity School. The Church was taken down in 1833, when its successor, the present First Church, was erected.

Since the College was originally a seminary, founded by a church-going people for the especial purpose of training np youths to become ministers, it is not sur- prising that the rules concerning prayers and worship were strict. In President Dunster's time it was re- quired that, "Every Scholar shall be present in his Tutor's chamber at the 7th houre in the morning, im- mediately after the sound of the Bell, at his opening the Scripture and prayer, so also at the 5th houre at night, and then give account of his owne private read- ing. Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in Theoreticall observations of the Language, and Logick, and in Practicall and Spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability ; seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth under- standing to the simple. Psalm cxix, 130." The Laws, Liberties and Orders adopted at that time (1642-46) also state, ¿ 5: "In the public church assembly, they shall carefully shun all gestures that show any contempt or neglect of God's ordinances, and be ready to give an account to their Tutors of their profiting, and to use the helpe of storing them- selves with knowledge, as their Tutors shall direct them. And all Sophisters and Bachelors (until them- selves make common place) shall publicly repeat sermons in the Hall, whenever they are called forth." And again, § 14: " If any Scholar, being in health, shall be absent from prayers or lectures, except in case of urgent necessity, or by leave of his Tutor, he shall be liable to admonition (or such punishment as the President shall think meet), if he offend above once a week,"

The President himself conducted the daily services in the Hall. The undergraduates translated in the morning the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, and in the evening, they translated the New Testa- ment from English or Latin into Greek ; but Fresh- men were allowed to use the English Bible. After this reading the President expounded the passages

read, and then closed with prayer. Once President Rogers's prayer was much shorter than usual. " Heaven Knew the Reason !" wrote Cotton Mather ; " the scholars, returning to their Chambers, found one of them on fire, and the Fire had proceeded so far, that if the Devotions had held three Minutes longer, the Colledge had been irrecoverably laid in Aches, which now was happily preserved." The translating was not popular, and students shirked it as often as they dared. In 1723 it is reported that the attend- ance by Tutors and graduates at prayers was good, but not at the readings; but that the undergraduates at- tended both. In 1795 it was ordered that the students during the prayer and at the blessing should stand facing the desk, but that they should sit during the reading from the Scriptures.

The morning service was for a long time the occa- sion when students made a public confession of mis- conduct, and when the President announced the names of those who were to be punished by degradation, ad- monition or expulsion. Many records of these con- fessions are preserved. I quote a few: President Leverett's Diary, under date of November 4, 1712, reads : " A. was publickly admonish'd in the College Hall, and there confessed his Sinful Excess, and his enormous profanation of the Holy Name of Almighty God. And he demeaned himself so that the Presid *. and Fellows conceived great hopes that he will not be lost." Again, March 20, 1714, Leverett says of Larnel, an Indian who had been dismissed : " He re- mained a considerable time at Boston, in a state of penance. He presented his confession to Mr. Pem- berton, who thereupon became his intercessor, and in his letter to the President expresses himself thus : ' This comes by Larnel, who brings a confession as good as Austin's (St. Augustine), and I am charitably dis- posed to hope it flows from a like spirit of penitence.' In the public reading of his confession, the flowing of his passions were extraordinarily timed, and his ex- pressions accented, and most peculiarly and emphat- ically those of the grace of God to him ; which indeed did give a peculiar grace to the performance itself, and raised, I believe, a charity in some, that had very little I am sure, and ratified wonderfully that which I had conceived of him. Having made his public confes- sion, he was restored to 'his standing in the College." Tutor Flynt writes in his Diary, November 4, 1717 : "Three scholars were publicly admonished for thiev- ing and one degraded below five iu his class, because he had been before publicly admonished for card- playing. They were ordered by the President into the middle of the Hall (while two others, concealers of the theft, were ordered to stand up in their places, and spoken to there). The crime they were charged with was first declared, and then laid open as against the law of God and the House, and they were admon- ished to consider the nature and tendency of it, with its aggravations; and all, with them, were warned to take liced and regulate themselves, so that they might

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not be in danger of so doing for the future ; and those who consented to the theft were admonished to be- ware, lest God tear them in pieces according to the text. They were then fined, and ordered to make res- titution two-fold for each theft." President Wads- worth relates that the public confession of B., who had been engaged in disorder, was read in the Hall, after morning prayer, June 29, 1727. "But such a disorderly spirit at that time prevailed, that there was not one undergraduate in the Hall besides B., and three Freshmen ; there were also the President and the two Senior Tutors, but not one Graduate Master or Bachelor besides them. When the Scholars, in thus absenting from the Hall, refused to hear a confession of, or admonitions against, the aforesaid disorders, it too plainly appeared that they had more easy and favorable thoughts of those disorders themselves than they should have had ; the Lord, of his Infinite grace in Christ, work a better temper and spirit in them." As late as May 26, 1786, there is record of a public confession in the Chapel.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 48

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034