USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 28
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 28
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In 1908 the length of the Eliot school-house was doubled, the porch being moved forward, and two wings added, at a cost of nearly $10,000.
TEACHERS
Of the teachers subsequent to the Declaration of Inde- pendence there are a number that for one reason or another are referred to in the following pages, in several instances because of long service. Doubtless there are a hundred more that are worthy of a place in this town history, but an expression of our gratitude to them, and a fitting notice
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of their faithful labors, must be deferred to a special history of our schools, yet to be written.
Dorothy Hall, daughter of David, taught the West End school at least seven of the summer terms from 1776 to 1789. When she first had this school she was a minor, and her wages were paid to her father. She is called "Mifs Dolly" in our town records, and is said to have been a successful teacher in other towns as well as in Needham. Widow Elizabeth Drury, West End 1778-92, a noted teacher in several towns.
Samuel Coolidge, West End 1781-90. Sarah Townsend, 1781-8, usually taught in the Brick school-house.
Dr. Timothy Fuller, Harvard College 1787, a son of Amos, Great Plain 1783-96. Dr. Fuller died in 1799. Moses Alden had the school at the Upper Falls 1785-96, and ap- parently he taught the summer term in 1796, an unusual experience for a man in those days. Moses Kingsbery, Jr., Brick or West Meeting-house 1786-97.
Jonathan Gay, Jr., later prominent for many years as Capt. Gay, Great Plain or Brick 1798-1820, with the excep- tion of one term at the Upper Falls. Mary Harris, daughter of Ensign Michael Harris, usually taught the Brick school 1800-16, although she had the Great Plain school in the summer of 1806. Dr. Samuel Gould, Great Plain 1802-28, with the exception of a term at the Upper Falls in the winter of 1803/4. Israel Whitney, sexton, cobbler and town offi- cial, taught the Great Plain school in the winter of 1807/8, and at the Brick school-house four winters, 1812-16. Miss Abigail Walker, a teacher of whom various anecdotes are told, 1810-30, several districts, particularly the Great Plain. John Tolman Great Plain or South 1810-21. Mary Fisher, daughter of George Fisher, later Mrs. Leonard Battelle, South 1817-21. She was the Honorable Enos H. Tucker's first teacher, and he made her name familiar to the writer. Job Haskell, Great Plain 1824/5. George Hiram Gay and Ezra Fuller, both of whom lived to a great
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age, were recipients of his instruction and correction. Solo- mon Flagg began to teach in 1826 and for thirty-eight years was a schoolmaster in Needham and in other towns. He is identified with several districts, notably the West and South. Mr. Tucker, who at different times attended school in every district in Needham, and also in a district in Dedham, said that Mr. Flagg was his best teacher, and that he learned a great deal from him. Miss Lucy Dakin Hunt, Centre, or small school in the West, 1837-50, except 1847, when she was at the Great Plain. Gustavus Adolphus Somerby taught at the Centre in the winter of 1840/I. He belonged to a well-known Newbury family, and was prominent among the lawyers of Boston, gaining a reputa- tion as a keen and able counsel for the defence in the noted trial of Alley accused of the murder of Abijah Ellis.
Charles Hiram Dewing, later for many years superinten- dent of streets, South two winters, 1847/8 and 1849/50. Miss Charlotte Kingsbury, of a well-known West Needham family, 1848-65, North, East, Great Plain and Centre. Miss Kingsbury was a severe teacher, and stories are told of her skill in tripping up boys, and of medieval punishments. Adeline Maria Eaton, later Mrs. John M. Harris, 1849-63, East, South, Centre, but chiefly the primary school on the Great Plain. Miss Charlotte M. Sawyer, later Mrs. Luther Allen Kingsbury, North and Grantville 1853-65. She taught the latter school 1856-65, and her sister, Miss Harriet Elizabeth Sawyer, later Mrs. Ezra C. Dudley, East or West or Centre primary, 1854-9, and in 1865 succeeded Char- lotte at Grantville, where she taught in 1866. They were daughters of Otis and Charlotte Sawyer. Albert Palmer, A.M., Dartmouth 1858, later State Senator, and Mayor of Boston in 1883, was master of the Great Plain school five winters 1853-8, and his brother, Alanson, who was grad- uated at Dartmouth in 1860, and was A.M., had the Centre school two winters, 1855-7, and the South two, 1858-60. A third brother, Wilson, Dartmouth 1860, Albany Law
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School 1864, LL.B., taught the East school two winters, 1855-7, and the Centre four winters, 1857-61, a remarkable combination of brothers.
Miss Caroline Elizabeth Dewing, now Mrs. Wise, was one of Needham's best teachers and had the North school in 1856, '65, '66, '72-4, West primary in the winter of 1856/7, also summer terms, which included all of the pupils, 1857, '58, '63, '67, '68; Great Plain, upper school, winters of 1858/9, '60/1, summer of 1859, South winter of 1862/3, Centre 1864, '65.
Miss Angeline Elizabeth Hofses, Centre 1857; well- remembered as the teacher of the Centre primary for twenty- one years, retiring in 1878.
Isabella Sumner Kingsbury, assistant at the Avery School 1876- . Others who have taught for more than twenty years in Needham are: Martha Frances Kingsbury, Dwight School (grammar), Mary Maria Sutton (now Mrs. Thomas J. Crossman), Dwight School (primary) and assistant at the Kimball School, Mary E. Glancey, Harris School, Eliza- beth A. Lester, Eliot School and assistant at the Avery School, Florence E. Eaton, assistant at the Kimball School. Miss Sutton resigned at the close of the school year in 1910.
APPROPRIATIONS. - TEACHERS' WAGES
The appropriations prior to 1800 were: 1733-49 from £20 to £80, usually old tenor and badly depreciated, 1750 9, £13, 6s., 8d. when in hard money, and 1760-76 from £20 to £60, in money not always of the best quality. Of the £50 voted in 1745 £20 "of it [was] to be laid out for a School Dame and the other thirty pounds to be laid out for a School Mafter". Between 1735 and 1749 the ratio varied from three to seven shillings of currency for one shilling in hard money, and the wages of the men teachers were as high as £12, ios. per month and their board from thirty to thirty-five shillings per week. At this time £2, Ios. per month, in hard money, was considered fair pay, and board could be had at from five to
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six shillings per week. The wages of a woman teacher were about four shillings per week, hard money, and her board was reckoned at about two shillings.
The teachers were by no means all paid alike, as, for example, the town would board Mr. Vialas and his horse, and pay him in addition perhaps ten shillings per week, when in some instances a young man resident in the town received only ten shillings, although he boarded himself. It was also true of the women that some were in demand and when they taught in Needham were paid more than others. Appar- ently certain elderly widows were not in a position to dic- tate as to their compensation, although they may have been fairly competent teachers.
The average appropriation for schools was: 1781-90 £65, 1791-5 £110, 1796-9 $475.
During the War of the Revolution the teachers were paid in currency so greatly depreciated that in 1780 a man re- ceived £250 per month, equal, however, to not more than £3, Ios. in hard money, perhaps somewhat less. A woman was paid £84 for teaching four weeks, when from about 1763 to the beginning of the war the best female teachers, who boarded themselves, got but 5s. 4d. per week. After the war many of the women were not paid more than four shillings per week till subsequent to 1800, and even as late as 184I a young teacher, Miss Mary Adams, was paid $18 for a term of twelve weeks. From 1788 to 1795 the wages of the male teachers varied from Ios., 6d. to sixteen shillings per week, depending somewhat upon the efficiency of the teacher, and the board of a man was from five to six shillings per week, which when furnished by the town reduced his net wages accordingly. In 1793/4 Eleazer Taft, who was master of the South school, received nearly £1 per week, including his board and the care of his horse.
From 1795 to 1820 the pay of the teachers increased, and in 1804 some men could command $6.50 per week, and in 1819 $7.75, but in twenty years the cost of board had risen from
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$1.75 to $3.50 per week. During this period the advance of the women's compensation had hardly kept pace with the expense of living. In 1802 the board was more than one half of the teacher's wages, and had been for at least fifty years, but by 1820 the female teachers had been gradually advanced to $3 per week, and board did not then exceed $1.50 per week. In 1840 Needham paid the male teachers, exclusive of board, an average compensation of $19.97 per month, the board averaging $9.28 per month, and in 1850, without estimating the cost of board but including it, $35.36 per month. In 1840 the women received but $6.28 per month, and board averaged $6, making the total compen- sation $12.28 per month, but in 1850 there was a decided advance, partly due to the employment of women in the winter, to an average of $18.62 per month, including board.
STATISTICS
1840/1. Children in town between the ages of four and sixteen 387. Number enrolled in the schools: Summer 307, average attendance 208. Winter 373, average attendance 264. Under four years of age 45, over sixteen 27. Teachers: Summer 6 women, Winter 6 men, I woman. Aggregate number of months that school was kept: Summer terms, all districts combined, 23 months and seven days. Winter 24 months and seven days. Total 47 months and fourteen days.
There were also two private schools, presumably the Rev. Daniel Kimball's in East Needham and Mr. Adam's in West Needham, in which there were on the average 32 scholars, whose tuition amounted to $418. These pri- vate schools were kept an aggregate of 15 months, which was an increase of three months since the preceding year.
1850/1. Children in town between the ages of five and fifteen 387. Number enrolled in the schools: Summer 310, average attendance 241. Winter 400, average attend- ance 293. By districts: West 93, North 73, Centre 69,
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East 56, South 50, Great Plain 46. Nine schools. Teachers: Summer 6 women, Winter 5 men, 4 women. Aggregate number of months that school kept: Summer terms, all districts combined, 27. Winter 33. Total 60 months.
1860/I. Children from five to fifteen 561. Enrolled: Summer 471, average attendance 343. Winter 504, average attendance 390. Teachers: Summer II women, Winter 5 men, 7 women. Aggregate number of months of school: Summer 55. Winter 45.
1870/1. Children from five to fifteen 689. Number of individuals enrolled 818, average attendance 538. Teachers 2 men, 15 women.
1880/I. Children from five to fifteen 885. Individuals enrolled 1058, average membership 724, average attendance 628. Teachers 2 men, 25 women.
1881/2. Children from five to fifteen 509. Individuals 590, average membership 451, average attendance 388. Teachers I man, 13 women.
1885/6. Children from five to fifteen 453. Individuals 587, average membership 502, average attendance 444.
1890/1. Children from five to fifteen 479. Individuals 639, average membership 520, average attendance 473. Teachers 2 men, 16 women.
1900/1. Children from five to fifteen 592. Individuals 732, average membership 662, average attendance 603. Teachers 2 men, 20 women, not including the instructors in music and in drawing.
1905. Children from five to fifteen (September 1) 836 - boys 418, girls 418.
Individuals 830 - boys 416, girls 414, average member- ship 791.6, average membership per teacher 29.3, average attendance 736.5. Teachers 2 men, 28 women.
1910/II. Children from five to fifteen (September I) 896 - boys 468, girls 428.
Individuals enrolled January 1, 1911, 1075 - boys 559, girls 516. Teachers 3 men, 34 women.
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THE SCHOOL LAND IN DOVER
Mr. Timothy Dwight, an honored citizen of Dedham, gave to the town of Needham thirty-four acres of land in the Springfield Parish of Dedham for the benefit of the school, but he died January 26, 1717/18, without having executed the deed. This omission was remedied by his sons, Henry and Seth, who gave the town deeds in 1727, but, although the selectmen granted Andrew Dewing on November 13, 1727, the sum of £1, Ios. "for Gitting the Deeds & gitting of sd Deeds upon Record of a Certaine peac or parsell of Land Given sd [? by] mr Timothy Dwit Late of Deedham for the benefit of a School in this Town", there was trouble about the title as late as 1764. Quaint votes were passed in 1744, 1744/5, 1748, 1749/50, and committees repeatedly appointed "to git the Deeds " "Executed According to Law", as the second of these votes stated. The deeds were never recorded till June 1, 1876. Henry Dwight describes the land in his deed to the town as thirty and one half acres, sixteen rods, and as originally granted "to Peter Woodward deceast layed near the Indian Plantation called Natick upon a plaine within", and in Seth's deed the land is stated to be a part of "Natick Devident". From January 14, 1718/19, to modern times committees were appointed to care for this land, "Run the Lines", lease it, or to sell the wood. On May 20, 1745, the question was raised as to "the Towns power to fell the land that M' Dwight gave", and Captain Cook, Capt. Robert Fuller and Jonathan Smith were chosen to investigate, and to ascertain what it would sell for. In 1764 the town voted to sell the land, but six years later was convinced that in order to do so authority must be given by the General Court, and the committee which was chosen on May 23, 1770, to "Take a Plann of the School Land: Given by Mr Dwight to ye Town: Lying in Springfield the Forth Parrifh in Dedham:" was instructed on June 8 to "Put in a Petition into the General Court to
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Sell Said Land". John Jones, Esq., "Surveyer" of "Need- ham's School Lot in Dedham;" drew the "Petition to the General Court for Sale".
In 1776 wood was sold on the land, but that year a small portion of it was let "Under Improvement", and apparently in 1791 the town voted to let the whole of it, which would account for there being no income from the sale of wood for many years.
In 1795 the town declined to lease the land, and there were sales of wood in October, 1803, when the proceeds, chiefly represented by notes, amounted to $762, and the expenses to $18.14. Perhaps wood was sold in 1801, cer- tainly in June, 1816, there was an important sale, with Nathaniel Bullard as auctioneer; Solomon Flagg furnished "Rum for Vendue School wood". For half a century the income thus derived yielded the schools annually from $90 to $100, even more in certain years, as the fund was rein- forced by sales in 1825, 1839, 1859 and 1864. Only $205.33 was realized in 1859, as a part of the School Land had been burned over in 1855, but it amounted to $866.49 in 1864. This tract was taxed by Dover to the year of its sale, the bill for 1808 and 1809 amounting to $6.02 for two years, and that for 1898 to $11.06. The School Land was sold in 1902 for $6000, and became a part of the Cheney estate, the proceeds forming the Dwight School Fund.
In 1839 the town voted to sell some land and wood which it owned with individuals "in High Rock", and a partition was to be obtained if the other tenants in common did not wish to sell.
On December 31, 1739, Dea. Eleazer Kingsbery, John Fisher, Esq., and Dea. Jeremiah Woodcock were "Chofe a Committee to treat with Dedham Select men . . . Concern- ing the Land and money which was given for the ufe of the School". This was apparently Church land and school money possessed by Dedham, and not the Dwight land, as on May 29, 1755, Amos Fuller and Dea. Josiah Newell were
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chosen "to See what proportion of the Church Land formerly Granted to Dedham Belongs to Needham".
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Miss Thayer had a private school, presumably for girls, in West Needham in 1820. In 1826 the Rev. Daniel Kim- ball, who had been the principal of Derby Academy, Hing- ham, from 1808 to 1826, came to Needham, and opened a day and boarding school, or academy, for boys and girls, in his house at the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Mark Tree Road. Mr. Kimball personally conducted the school for about fourteen or fifteen years, and then his son Henry C. Kimball had charge of it for some two years, the school coming to an end about 1843. The writer has met a number of the pupils at this school, where studied the Honorable Alexander H. Rice, Governor of Massachusetts in 1876-8, and others of note. Elizabeth Hunt, later Mrs. Noyes, attended this academy, coming from Boylston, and there were other girls whose homes were in Worcester and vicinity. Charles Hiram Dewing, Charles C. Greenwood and Augustus Eaton were among the Needham boys who were day scholars there, the latter entering the school in 1841, after Henry C. Kimball had in a measure taken his father's place. The only criticism of the school was that the boarding scholars were not fed liberally, but as Mr. Greenwood was a day scholar this did not affect him, and he had a life-long affec- tion and reverence for Mr. Kimball, who was an active and useful man in the community. He died January 17, 1862, in his eighty-fourth year, and there is a sketch of his life in the History of Norfolk County, 1884. Mr. Kimball is chiefly remembered in Needham for his valuable services on the school committee.
For particulars of the building in which the Rev. William H. Adams kept his private school in West Needham from 1846 to 1852 see the account of the post-offices, as he was the first postmaster at Grantville.
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The Oakland Institute, a "Classical and English Boarding School for Youth of Both Sexes at Needham, Great Plain, Mass.", was opened on May 1, 1856, and the first entire school year was divided into two sessions of twenty weeks each, extending from September 10, 1856 to July 7, 1857, with three weeks' vacation from January 27 to February 18. Charles M. Dinsmoor, the principal, taught the English branches and Latin, Mrs. C.N. Dinsmoor, the "Preceptress ", was teacher of Mental and Moral Philosophy, as well as of certain English branches. William H. S. Ventres, A.B., Harvard 1855, taught Latin, Greek and Mathematics, and "Mdm." Urbino, formerly Miss L. Buoncore, gave in- struction in Modern Languages and Ornamental Branches. The tuition was from $200 to $240 per year for the boarding scholars, and $6 per quarter for the day pupils, who took only the "common branches", with an addition of $2 for the "higher branches". A second circular was issued, and one, or both, of these circulars stated that "the Institute building is new and spacious" with "all modern improve- ments " "situated on an elevation, it commands an extended view of the beautiful rural country around, which is unsur- passed in the variety of its scenery". The building had been erected by Mr. Dinsmoor especially for a school. Before coming to Needham Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmoor had had five years' experience as teachers in Framingham and Newton.
Under date of July, 1857, Lucius R. Eastman, Jr., as principal, informed the public by circular that the "Oak- land Institute" a "Classical and English School", at Need- ham, "will be resumed July 7". It was to be a day school, and the tuition $4 and $6 per quarter, each language taught to be $2 per quarter extra. The Rev. Adiel Harvey, who had been a Baptist minister in Weymouth, was the next principal of the Oakland Institute, and it was then a board- ing school for girls only. The Harveys were prominent in the social life of the town. On November 7, 1862, a "Musi-
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cal Soirée" was given, the music to commence at 7.30 o'clock in the evening, on which occasion some war songs were included in the programme. These "Soirées", which took place at the close of the school terms, are still remem- bered with pleasure. There were girls from the South and other distant sections among Mr. Harvey's pupils.
From 1867 to 1872 the Rev. Jonas Bowen Clarke, A.M., owned the property, and had a boarding and day school for boys there, the boarders rarely exceeding twenty in number, or the day scholars ten. Annual exhibitions were given in June in Village Hall, afterward Parker Hall, and the writer, who was a day scholar at this school from April, 1870 to the close of 1871, has a vivid recollection of those occasions, in one, or more, of which he had a part. Music was furnished by a fine band, and there was a special late train to Boston. Military drill had been a feature of this school, but was abandoned prior to April, 1870. Mr. Clarke called his school the Oakland Hall School, judging by the exhibition programmes, instead of Oakland Institute, which latter name had been used by his predecessors.
Mrs. Clementina B. Cummings owned the property for about ten years, succeeding the Appleton Temporary Home for Inebriates, and it was in her time a good summer board- ing-house known as "The Pines". Later the estate was bought by John Moseley, who removed the large building to May Street.
GRADUATES OF COLLEGES
The following young men born in Needham, or resident there at the time of entering college, graduated during the first one hundred and fifty years after the incorporation of the town: Jonathan Townsend 1741, Jonathan Newell 1770, Ephraim Drury 1776, Timothy Fuller 1787, Daniel Clark Sanders 1788, S.T.D. 1809, President of the Univer- sity of Vermont, Samuel West 1788, Calvin Whiting 1791, Luther Mills 1792, Nathan Plimpton West 1792, Isaac
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Morrill 1805, Joseph Palmer 1820, M.D. 1826, James Ritchie 1835, Benjamin Gage Kimball 1835, Henry Colman Kim- ball 1840, Joseph Emery Fiske 1861 (A.M. 1871), Andover Theological Seminary 1867. All of the foregoing graduated at Harvard College, and all received the degree of A.M. except Drury, Fuller and the Kimball brothers. George Ellery Clarke, A.M., was graduated at Williams in 1851. A large number of students have prepared for college at the Needham High School within the last twenty years, and some of them have had fine records in the great universities.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE
Wellesley College was founded by Henry Fowle Durant, a prominent lawyer of Boston who made his summer home in West Needham before the Civil War, and in 1864 owned about two hundred acres there. In 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Durant lost by death their only son, and consecrated the remainder of their lives to the service of others. The College was incorporated on March 17, 1870, as the Wellesley Fe- male Seminary, and the name was changed to Wellesley College on March 7, 1873. Mrs. Durant laid the first stone of the first building of this institution, which was destined to become great within a few years, on August 18, 1871, and on September 14, of that year, the corner-stone was laid. The land was given by Mr. Durant, and he bore the expense of the original, or Main, building, the construction of which he directed. It is beautiful and artistic inside and without, of fine proportions, and built in the best manner. It is in the shape of a double Latin cross, and more than seven millions of bricks, and twenty miles of steam, water and gas pipes were required. On September 8, 1875, the Main Building, which provided for thirty teachers and three hundred students, was opened for use; the first graduating class was that of 1879, which numbered eighteen, and from 1875 to 1885 more than twenty-three hundred students were registered. There were forty-one graduates in 1880, and in
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the autumn of that year the college had three hundred and seventy-two students, and others had applied, but could not be received for lack of room. Charles B. Dana gave to the college the old Church, which he had moved to his own land, and it was then intended for normal and graduate students, but in 1881 it became the main building of Dana Hall, a preparatory school, which later required several large buildings.
On May 27, 1880, the corner-stone of Stone Hall was laid, and in September, 1881, this fine building, the gift of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone of Malden, was opened for use. It is a dormitory for one hundred undergraduates, and cost $100,000. On June 10, 1880, the corner-stone of the College of Music was laid. This college is on a knoll, over- looking the lake, and was one of the munificent gifts of Mr. Durant. The College of Music was used in June, 1881.
These are the college buildings that existed when the College was within the limits of Needham, and the constant extension and expansion of this grand institution to the present time does not appertain to this town history. When the College opened its doors in 1875 there were twenty- nine professors and teachers, of whom Miss Ada Lydia Howard was the chief, and not only the first president of Wellesley College, but said to be the first woman in the world who held a college presidency. She served from 1875 to 1882, received the degree of Litt.D. from Mt. Holyoke in 1890, and died in 1907.
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