History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 27

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 27

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The old masters devised their own penalties and fought their own battles. The victory was usually with the master, but sometimes with the pupils. In the latter case it only remained for the master to walk out or to be carried out. I 'myself have seen a master take his hat and leave. The Rev. Warren Burton, who wrote the pleasant little book entitled ; "The District School as it was," tells of one of his masters whose name was Augustus Star. Master Star was a hard and cruel man and the boys rose in their rage and might to depose him. They carried him bodily to the brow of a hill, whose sloping sides were slippery as glass from being used by the boys in slid- ing down-hill. Without sled or toboggan the nauglity boys shot Master Star down the slippery way, while the wag of the school shouted : "There goes a shooting Star!"

Mr. Sherman, formerly mayor of Lowell, who at- tended the district school in the two-story building (already described) which stood upon the site of the present Green School building, has given us some very amusing reminiscences of that early school. "The time of the teacher," he says "was about equally divided by drilling in Colburn's 'First Lessons,' and punishing the boys." One of the punish- ments consisted in sending the offenders through a trap into the dark cellar to remain there till close of school. " We always had a good time down there," says Mr. Sherman, "the principal fun being see-saw, for which game some old planks and the wood-pile afforded us facilities, and so being sent into the cellar, like being compelled to sit among the girls, came to be denominated as capital punishment. One day, using the sticks of wood as levers, we removed one of the large stones in the wall at the rear of the building, and after that we used to crawl out and roam over the woods and swamps, which extended westerly from the building up to 'the acre.' It was an unlucky day for us when our master discovered our mode of egress-some boys not getting back from the woods in season to go up when called at the close of the half- day. Among the punisliments resorted to, one was to require unruly boys to seize a long iron staple fastened to the ceiling for holding up the stove-pipe and liang upon it with no other support; another to hold out heavy books horizontally ; another to stoop down and with the fingers hold down a nail in the floor ; another to have clothes-pins put astride the nose ; and another, worst of all, to sit upou pointed Master Bassett, who taught the school about

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three years, had ten or twelve of these stools of peni- tence, and would frequently have as many boys out on the floor at a time, bent in a sitting posture and balancing themselves upon the sharp ends of the sticks. These sticks were pyramidal in form, about one foot high and three inches square at the base."

Those old district school days were far from being days of peace and harmony to the excellent School Committee. We at this day read with surprise the violent opposition made to the introduction into these schools of Colburn's first lessons, and other school- books prepared or recommended by Warren Colburn. This remarkable contest between the School Com- mittee and the people of Lowell I will describe in as few words as possible. The Swiss philosopher, Pesta- lozzi, had recently published to the world his new theory of the science of education. He taught that understanding should take the place which memory had occupied, and that in giving instruction we should proceed from the concrete to the abstract, and not, as heretofore, from the abstract to the concrete. I cannot, perhaps, more clearly give a popular view of this question than to propound and solve before the reader, by both the old and the Pestalozzian method, the following simple mathematical problem : " Ij two pounds of beef cost forty cents, what will three- fifths of a pound cost ?"

By the old method, we are taught to go by the rule and place the forty cents as the third term, the three- fifths of a pound as the second term, aud the two pounds as the first term, then to multiply together the second and third terms and divide the product by the first, and, presto ! we have the answer. It is not toc far from the truth to say that neither the old arithmetics nor the old teachers were wont to give any reason why this trick of legerdemain, the old " Rule of Three," gave the true answer.

But Pestalozzi would teach us to throw aside all abstract rules and appeal directly, in the following manner, to the pupil's understanding: "If two pounds of beef cost forty cents, one pound will cost half of forty cents, that is, twenty cents. If one pound cost twenty cents, one-fifth of a pound will cost one-fifth of twenty cents, that is, four cents. If one-fifth of a pound cost four cents, three-fifths will cost three times four cents, that is, twelve cents, which is the result sought."

When I was a boy, I studied arithmetic according to the old method. I learned the rules and went strictly by them, and the answers came out as if by magic. I do not recollect that I ever recited a lesson in arithmetic or gave a reason for any of my processes. I well recollect my surprise and embarrassment when a new master asked me the novel question, if I could tell why, in applying the " Rule of Three," the product of the last two terms divided by the first gave the true result.

I was confounded, and, though I had studied arith- metic several winters, I had never thought it to be the

province of the teacher to ask, or of the pupil to answer, such novel questions.

The merits of the Pestalozzian theory of instruction are now so fully conceded that it is hard for us to be- lieve that our fathers so angrily opposed the new philosophy, or that they should regard it as imperti- nent and unjust that a pupil, who had obtained a correct answer by a rigid application of an abstract rule, should be called upon by the teacher to go be- yond the rule and give a reason for his process.

As I have already said, one lawsuit even was once instituted in Lowell to avenge the violated honor of the old modes of instruction, and it required all the wisdom and forbearance of the excellent members of the School Board to reconcile the people to the new methods of instruction. Eveu teachers were some- times found in the opposition, and Mr. Colburn him- self sometimes took charge of a class in school, in order to exhibit the best method of applying the new and improved theory of instruction. So violent was the opposition that when the committee's report recom- mending the use of Colburn's books was laid before the town-meeting, a motion was made and passed to put the report under the table, and theu followed another motion that the School Committee be put under the table! The moderator, however, refused to put the latter motion as being, perhaps, somewhat too personal-so unwilling were our fathers to ex- change a system which demanded the memory of ab- stract rules for one which awakened the thought and appealed to the understanding of the pupil.

It is remarkable how little thought our fathers were wont to put into their mathematical processes. Prof. Quimby, of Dartmouth College, has told us of a man whom lie discovered up in New Hampshire or Verinont, who possessed the mnost intense enthusiasm for mathematical science. The professor was de- lighted with his discovery. "Surely," thought he, "here is another example of the poet's mute, in- glorious Milton." But the professor's enthusiasm was somewhat dashed when, on one occasion, in dis- cussing some abstract questiou in mathematics, his newly-discovered genius remarked that there was one thing he could never quite understand, and that was why in addition we must carry one for every ten. " But," added he with decision, "you've got to do it, or the answer won't come out." The friendship of the two scholars was short-lived.

But the great historic contest in regard to the Low- ell schools occurred in 1832, when, after trying the district system for six years, and learning its inade- quacy to meet the wants of the people, the School Board resolved to establish, instead of the six district schools, two large graded schools completely classified after the manner of the graded schools of Boston and Newburyport. To accomplish this object required the erection of two large school-houses, at the ex- pense of about $20,000. To this proposition there arose, even among the first men of the town, the most

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determined opposition. Mr. Kirk Boott, the most influential citizen of the town, protested that the town was already in debt and could not afford so great an outlay,-that sufficient and suitable provis- ions had already been made in the public schools for the poor, and, as for the rich, they would never pa- trouize the public schools, but would for their children seek better modes of instruction. Hon. Luther Lawrence, afterwards mayor of the city, Hon. John P. Robinson, the most talented lawyer of the town, and other leading men arrayed themselves against the School Board. At the town-meeting, called to take action upon the expenditure of $20,000 for the erection of two large buildings for graded schools, in a long protracted and violent struggle, Dr. Edson, single-handed and alone, advocated the expenditure, and triumphed over all opposition by a majority of eleven votes. Almost immediately another town-meeting was called in order, if possible, to rescind the vote. Lawrence & Robinson, both eminent lawyers, appeared in opposition ; but there was no flinching, and Dr. Edson still triumphed by a majority of thirty-three votes. The opposition sur- rendered and the two school buildings now known as the Edson and the Bartlett School-houses were erected. Such was the inauguration of our present system of graded grammar schools.

It was with evident and justifiable pride that Dr. Edson, in his address delivered at the opening of the Colburn School, recalls the fact that within thirteen months after this violent contest was ended, upon the visit of Henry Clay and Governor Lincoln to Lowell, both Kirk Boott and Mr. Lawrence waited upon these distinguished men into the South (now Edson) School, and showed them the schools in very successful operation. The doctor's victory was complete.

Having thus spoken of the inauguration of our school systemn, we will turn to the history of individ- ual schools.

EDSON SCHOOL .- Of the grammar schools the most interesting and best preserved record is that o! the Edson School. The history of this school de- serves the first mention, for it reaches back ahnost to the incorporation of Lowell as a town. Its name has several times been changed. First, it was known as the district school of " District No. 5." Its earliest teacher was Miss Anna W. Hartwell, of Littleton, whose humble salary was $1.93 per week and board. She was an amiable and accomplished lady. Her term of service was, short, but it was long enough for her to capture the heart of a member of the School Board, Hon. J. S. C. Knowlton, editor of the Lowell Journal, and one of the first citizens of the place. Mr. Knowlton subsequently removed to Worcester, where he was elected State Senator, mayor of the city and sheriff of the county. The second teacher of the school was Joshua Merrill, who for many years bore an honorable name as an instructor, and whose death in Nov., 1889, at the venerable age of

eighty-seven years, has removed one of the most eon- spicuous of the founders of the Lowell schools. To him I am indebted mainly for the history of the Edson School.

Mr. Merrill began to teach on Nov. 5, 1827, in a small house standing on Middlesex Street, near the spot on which the Free Chapel now stands. He had at first about seventy-fivc pupils on the humble salary of $6.23 per week, out of which he paid his , own board. It was in truth a day of small things. But Master Merrill was a man of the right mettle, and he entered upon his work with enthusiasm, and hoped for better things. And better things eame, for in 1830 he received the munificent salary of $300 per year, with which he was so contented and so happy, that he took to himself a wife, whom he felt abun- dantly able to support, and who still lives in the city of Lowell.

Let me again in passing speak of the small house iu which Mr. Merrill first taught. It was originally designed and used as the counting-room of the Hamil- ton & Appleton Companies. It was the building occu- pied by our High School when it was first opened in December, 1831, under the principalship of Thomas Clark, now Bishop of Rhode Island. The building was long since removed, and is now on the south side of Middlesex Street, and is the third house west of Howard Street. It has been enlarged and raised upon a brick basement, and has been divided up into several small tenements.

In November, 1829, the Edson School, still under Master Merrill, took possession of the new brick building, now known as the Free Chapel, and was called the Hamilton School, from the prominent part which the Hamilton Company took in sustaining it. The school-room was a curiosity. It had been fin- ished under the direction of Mr. Beard, a member of the School Board, who, in architecture, was an origi- nal genius. The pupils sat with their baeks towards the teacher. Master Merrill was obliged to occupy a sort of high pulpit, for, when he stood down upon the floor, he could barely see the heads of the larger pu- pils rising above the tall desks. The benches were sanded to save them from being cut by the boys, but tlic rough surface made such havoc with the clothes of the children that the mothers compelled Mr. Beard to remove the saud aud repaint the desks. The apparatus for heating had this remarkable pecu- liarity : that the aperture through which it was ex- pected that the hot air would euter the school-room simply conveyed a current of cold air from the sehool- room out into the chimney. After running the fur- nace day and night for some time in vain, a stove for burning wood was substituted in its place and all was quiet again.

Many a ficree battle about text-books, discipline, ete., did Master Merrill wage in those troublous times, but he was sustained by the School Board and lie firmly held his position. He accepted the situation,

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and when he could not do what he would, he cheer- fully did what he could. When he could not ride, he was contented to go afoot.

At this point it will not be amiss to turn onr atten- tion to the contrast between the present time and sixty years ago in regard to the labors and rewards of a faithful teacher in the public schools. The teacher of the present, with his salary in the neighborhood of $2000 annually, with his vacation of nearly one-fourth part of the entire year, with his pupils classified ac- cording to age and attainments, with his well-trained assistants, convenient and spacious school-room, with a thousand devices to promote the cleanliness and comfort of his apartment, and the quiet and order of his pupils, would find it hard to return to the days of good Master Merrill.

Of those days, in addition to what I have already written, I will give below an extract from Mr. Mer- rill's own account, premising, however, that Mr. Mer- rili's lot was not an exceptionally hard one for those early days, for he was in the service of some of the most progressive and cultivated men of the country. Of these men were Rev. Theodore Edson, Warren Col- burn, Dr. John O. Green, Hon. J. S. C. Knowlton, all of whom in 1827 were members of the Superintend- ing School Committee. They were men of liberal culture. It should also be added that Mr. Merrill began to teach in Lowell nearly five years after the work of building the great manufactories had begun. But the following extracts will show that if men did not hesitate to invest liberally and even munificently in great industrial enterprises, they were hardly to be accused of extravagance in their support of public schools.

"In the afternoon," says Mr. Merrill, October 23, 1827, "I returned to New Hampshire. As I could not go by car or stage, I walked."

On the preceding day he had made the following agreement with the School Board, as certified to by I. A. Beard, district clerk :

"The Committee agreed with Joshua Merrill to teach school 13 weeks, 5 days each week (omitting Saturday), and to pay his own board, for Ssf) He is also to be at the expense of coming and return- ing."

"On Nov. 5 I commenced my school. The second day I received a formal visit from the Superintending Committee. Mr. Colborn ingnired . if I was familiar with the use of his first lessons. I informed himn I was not, never having used it in school. He was then regnested (I think by Dr. Edson) to exercise a class in it for my benefit, which he did."

" During the five months I had 91 different scholars. [Mr. M., it seems, had no assistant.]"

In 1831 Mr. Merrill was offered an increase of five dollars per month in his pay if he would leave the Hamilton School and become the teacher of the Mer- rimack School. It would seem from the following reflection that this tempting offer sorely perplexed his mind : " I thought if I should leave the Hamil- ton, where I was giving satisfaction, and should not be successful at the Merrimack School, it would be a serious disappointment. When or where could I

expect to get another yearly school with such a gen- erons salary,-$300 per year ?"

It was specified, in his formal agreement with the committee, dated February 22, 1831, that "the vaca- tions in the conrse of the year should be left to his discretion, but not to exceed one month." By this arrangement neither party gained or lost, for he was paid for the time which he actually taught, and so the more vacation, the less pay.

The following indicates the attitude of some of the citizens towards the School Committee and the schools :

"The door-bell rang. I went to the door. There stood a stranger to me, although an old citizen. Holding np his whip, he said : 'Is your name Merrill?" 'It is,' I responded. 'Yon are not very large,' said he, 'neither am 1; but I will horse-whip you. What did you pin- ish my boy so for?' This specch was mingled with terrible oaths, which I will not name. I iuquired his hoy's name, and then told him that I had punished his boy for disobedience to the rules of the School, made by the School Committee, and that I should certainly do the same again in like circumstances. 'If you are dissatisfied, go to the committee with your complaints.' After bestowing a very liberal amount of. curses mpon the committee and myself, he left, and I escaped the promised whipping."

"Dr. Edson came in one day, and said to me with a good deal of earnestness : ' Well, Mr. Merrill, what do you think ? Can you manage the school?' I replied unhesitatingly : 'I can if I have good health and a good School Committee to hack me up.' He said : 'The Commit- tee yon shall have.' "

I give the above extracts as, perhaps, my best means of defining the status of a schoolmaster sixty years ago. It was in accordance with the spirit of the times. It is only in more recent years that public school-teachers have felt assured of liberal and gen- erous treatment at the hands of the parents of their pupils and the patrons and supervisors of their school. Of course, there were noble exceptions ; but too many of the old teachers looked upon their posi- tions as if held by a doubtful tenure, and even upon the times of peace as a sort of armed neutrality.

On the 23d of February, 1833, the school moved into the building now known as the Edson School- house, where it was made a graded school, and was first known as the South Grammar School, then as the First Grammar School and, finally, as the Edson School. The latter name is surely most appropriate, for this is one of the two graded schools for the establishment of which Dr. Edson so persistently and so bravely fought. Master Merrill continued the teacher, with a salary, at first, of $500, which was subsequently, from time to time, increased. He resigned his position in 1845, and was succeeded by Mr. Perley Balch, who, in 1870, was succeeded by Mr. Ira Waldron, who, in 1872, was followed by the present principal, Mr. Cal- vin W. Burbank. On December 22, 1888, this school contained 457 pupils, and for 1888 the percentage of attendance was 90, and the number of assistant teach- ers in constant service 11.

BARTLETT SCHOOL .-- The Bartlett School next claims our attention. I have already referred to its estab- lishment, for it was one of the two over which there was, in 1832, such a violent contest in town-meeting.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

In its first years it occupied the two-story building (already referred to) on the site of the present Green School-house. It was then called the Merrimack School, and was first taught, for a short time, by a lady, who was paid by the Merrimack Company, and who was sueceeded by Mr. Joel Lewis, who, after a service of about one year, was suceeeded, in 1825, by Mr. Alfred N. Bassett, from Atkinson, N. H., the teacher whose peculiar modes of punishment, as given by Mayor Sherman, we have already deseribed. Mr. Bassett resigned in 1829. His sueeessor, Mr. Wal- ter Abbott, of Milford, N. H., taught only one year, and was followed by Mr. Reuben Hills, of Hancock, N. H., who was the teacher of the school when, in 1833, it was moved into the house near the North Common, which it now oeeupies, and became a graded sehool, known as the North Grammar School .. Mr. Hills resigned in 1835. Mr. Jaeob Graves was the prinei- pal of this sehool from 1835 to 1841, and again from 1843 to 1847; Mr. G. O. Fairbanks from 1841 to 1842; Mr. O. C. Wright, from 1842 to 1843; Mr. J. P. Fisk, from 1847 to 1856, the school, from 1849 to 1856, being called the " Hancock School." The Haneoek Sehool and the Adams School being united in 1856, under the name of the Bartlett School, Mr. Bement, the present ineumbent, was then made principal of the consolidated school.

This school received its present name from Dr. Elisha Bartlett, the first mayor of Lowell, a man of such exalted eharaeter that I might, perhaps, eall him not only the first mayor of Lowell, but also the first eitizen of Lowell.

On December 22, 1888, this school contained 344 pupils. The percentage of attendance for 1888 was 91. The number of assistant teachers in constant serviee was 8.

HIGH SCHOOL .- Our High School was opened in De- eember, 1831, under the principalship of Thomas M. Clark, now Bishop of Rhode Island, in a small build- ing, on Middlesex and Elliott Streets, in which Mr. Merrill first taught. Mr. Clark was only nineteen years old, and the house was so small and the teacher so young that the bishop onee playfully remarked before a Lowell audienee that the reasons why he flogged his boys so seldom were, first, the house was too small for the operation ; and, seeond, he was afraid the boys would turn round and flog him.

For a long time the High School lived a very no- madie life. We find it first in the lower room of what is now the Free Chapel, on Middlesex Street; next in the upper room in the present Edson School-house ; next in Concert Hall, which was near the site of the store of Hosford & Co., on Merrimac Street ; next in the present Bartlett School-house; next in the attic of St. Mary's Church, on Suffolk Street, a room now used for a Catholie parochial sehool, and next, for a second time, in the Free Chapel. Thus, for its first nine years, like the ark in the wilderness, it wan- dered from place to place, till at last, in 1840, it

"pitched its moving tent" on Kirk and Anne Streets, where, for forty-nine years, it has enjoyed a peaceful, quiet home.

Its first principal, Bishop Clark, who served from 1831 to 1833, still hves. Next followed Rev. Dr. Nicholas Hoppin, who served from 1833 to 1835, who died four or five years since; next, from 1835 to 1836, Franklin Forbes, Esq., who beeame, after leav- ing Lowell, the very successful agent of the Lancas- ter Mills, and died in 1877 ; next, from 1836 to 1841, Hon. Moody Currier, recently Governor of New Hampshire; next, from 1841 to 1842, Nehemiah Cleveland, Esq., who devoted his last years to literary pursuits, and died in Westport, Conn., in 1877 ; next, from 1842 to 1845, Mr. Forbes a second time ; next, Charles C. Chase, the writer of this article, from 1845 to 1883, a term of service of thirty-eight years, almost three times as long as that of all his predecessors, and next, Frank F. Coburn, Esq., the present prinei- pal of the school.

The teachers of the school at the present time are as follows: Principal, Frank F. Coburn ; Assistants, Frank B. Sherburne, Cyrus W. Irish, Mary A. Web- ster, Marietta Melvin, Elizabeth McDaniels, Harriet C. Hovey, Charlotte E. Draper, Alice J. Chase, Susie L. D. Watson, Adelaide Baker, Jennie L. Allen, Maud Hadley. Besides these regular teachers the oc- casional teachers are : Thomas W. Graves, in pen- manship, Walter E. Owen, in musie.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 27

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226