USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 43
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The highest appropriation in the town is four thousand five hundred dol- lars. The town therefore is now liable to a fine of nine thousand dollars,- one-fourth of which, amounting to two thousand two hundred and fifty dol- lars, would be a total loss to the town.
Your committee are unanimous in the opinion that the town must, in some way, conform to the requirements of this law.
Located as our inhabitants are, there is no place where such a school can be established, and be of any value to more than one-fourth or one-fifth part of said inhabitants.
Your committee cannot therefore recommend the building of a school- house and the establishment of such a school at this time. They find, how- ever, upon inquiry, that Mr. Weld has established an Academy in Auburn- dale, in which all the branches required by the law for a High School are taught; and that Mr. Moses Burbank has established a similar school in Newton Centre; and that these teachers will admit into their schools all who wish to pursue such studies for five months in each year, upon the payment by the town of twelve dollars,- or twenty-four dollars for ten months for each scholar. This would be of but little or no value to any other part of the town, except those two villages; but as it would accommodate a greater number than the establishment of one school in any part of the town, and as it will be a conformity to the law, your committee recommend that such an arrangement be made with those gentlemen by the School Committee alter- nately, commencing with Mr. Burbank and continuing with him ten months, unless the law imposing this obligation upon the town shall be repealed.
Your committee further recommend that an application be made to the Legislature at their next session for a repeal of this law, so far as it applies to the town of Newton.
WILLIAM JACKSON, LEMUEL CREHORE, JOSEPH L. PARTRIDGE, MARSHALL S. RICE,
Committee.
It was afterwards ascertained that the town was not liable, under the law touching High School teaching, and the vote mak- ing the above provision was reconsidered.
444
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
But the march of progress in intellectual culture was not to be arrested. The public mind had been turned in the direction of a higher education, and the current could not be stayed. Notwith- standing the failure of the action of December 31, 1849, to accom- plish any valuable results, a more important movement was soon to take place. In the warrant for the town meeting of March 1, 1852, six successive articles had reference to the interests of the schools ; and at the meeting held on that date, these six articles were referred to a Committee of Eighteen, to consider and report at the adjournment. The action that followed is so important to the interests of education in the town of Newton that we give their names.
Rev. Barnas Sears, D. D.,
Hon. William Jackson,
Hon. Ebenezer Bradbury, Rev. Lyman Gilbert,
Dr. Henry Bigelow, Joseph L. Ellis,
James L. Harmstead,
T. H. Carter,
Seth Davis,
Jonathan Avery,
Isaac Hagar, Hon. J. Wiley Edmands, George W. Keyes, John Ward,
Dr. A. D. Dearborn,
Lemuel Crehore,
John W. Harbach,
Hon. David H. Mason.
The report of this committee was read at an adjourned meeting, March 15th, by Dr. Sears, the Chairman of the committee and Secre- tary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and accepted by the town. And then the town voted that the School Districts of this town be and hereby are abolished.
This was a most important step. A hundred and fifty years had passed away since the town voted " to build a school-house as soon as they can." A century and a quarter had elapsed, since they divided the town into three districts (in 1723), the east, the south and the west. The districts had gradually increased in number, in population, in wealth, in intelligence and in efficiency, till from three in number they had become eleven, and the salary of eight shillings a week, voted to John Staples, - being two shil- lings a day for four days in the week,- had changed to an appro- priation of five thousand dollars a year.
In November, 1850, the town passed a vote authorizing the School Committee to furnish the teacher's desk in each school with one copy of each text-book required by them to be used in the school.
3. Sears.
445
HIGH SCHOOL STUDIES.
At the last census of the districts, made in 1850, with reference to the distribution of the school appropriations, the table stood as follows :
DISTRICT.
CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS.
CHILDREN FROM 5 TO 15.
TOTAL.
AMOUNT OF APPROPRIATION.
No .. 1
36
81
117
$350
2
27
51
78
300
3
15
43
58
280
4
51
77
128
490
5
103
157
260
700
6
43
81
124
500
7
104
161
265
765
9
43
55
98
325
10
125
237
362
950
11
26
60
86
340
573
1,003
1,576
$5,000
The committee, whose report led to the important resolution to abolish the district, and to inaugurate the graded, system of schools, were appointed to ascertain what new buildings or repairs may be necessary for the Grammar and Primary schools to be substituted for the District schools, and to report plans of the new school- houses to be erected, with estimates of the expense of the same.
That committee, on the 29th of March, 1852, reported,-
That they find it essential to the establishment of the system of graded schools that provision should be made for the accommodation of two gram- mar schools, one at Newton Centre, and one for the grammar school for the [late] ninth and eleventh districts. Your committee, in view of the rapidly increasing population of the town, and consequent growing demand for school-houses, consider the erection of one story school-houses as injudicious and unprofitable. They therefore recommend the erection of two school- houses, each two stories high, sufficiently large to accommodate a grammar school upon one floor.
The same committee immediately afterwards submitted the fol- lowing report :
The committee to whom was referred the article in the warning for the Annual Meeting relative to High Schools, beg leave to report,-
That they have considered that subject no less in reference to the educa- tional wants of the town, than to its legal obligations.
By the 5th Sect. 23d Chap. Rev. Stat., towns of 4,000 inhabitants are required to maintain a school for the higher English branches and classic
446
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
studies for a term of not less than ten months : That these higher studies nec- essarily exclude from the school the common studies is not to be inferred either from the terms of the law, or the uniform practice of towns subject to its requirements. But in these towns, when divided into school districts, with schools kept for short terms, the addition of High School studies in any number of them would not answer the demand of the law. And in many towns of large territorial extent, subject to the section of the law referred to, the distance of travel to any one point has long been deemed an onerous requirement. Several towns so situated, including Newton, have at different times petitioned the Legislature to be released from the obligation to main- tain High School instruction. To remedy the evils complained of by these towns, the Legislature passed an act in 1848, permitting towns in which High School instruction is required, but containing less than 8,000 inhabitants, to. establish in said districts, as the School Committee may determine, two or more schools for short terms, but which, taken together, shall be equal to twelve months. It is therefore manifestly competent for the town to establish one school embracing High School studies for a term of ten months, or a larger number of schools having such studies for an aggregate period of twelve months, and to embrace within these schools the common studies usually assigned to Grammar Schools.
The question whether more schools than one shall be provided with teachers competent to instruct in these higher studies, properly belongs to the town; the question of their location is, by the law of 1848, assigned to the School Committee. In view of the increased expenditures demanded for material accommodations and increased instruction, by the adoption of a system of graded schools, your committee do not deem it expedient, at present, for the town to establish a separate, exclusive High School, in addition to the schools recommended by your committee. But in view of the ability of the town, and its position, surrounded by superior facilities for public school educa- tion, your committee deem it no less promotive of its material interests than of its highest intellectual and moral welfare, that its public schools should furnish the means of full preparation for a complete education to every pupil within its limits desirous to enjoy them.
With these views, your committee recommend that the School Committee be authorized to employ one or more instructors qualified to instruct in all the studies required by law to be established by the town.
The report was adopted, the appropriation for the support of the schools was raised to $6,000 and a vote passed to build two new school-houses, at an expense not exceeding $8,500, for the houses and land for the same.
The school-houses, thus provided for, were immediately erected, one at Newton Centre, the other at Newtonville. The committee determined to establish the first High School at Newton Centre, and built the house with reference to that end. Mr. John W.
U.S. CONANT.
BOSTON.
HIGH SCHOOL.
447
GRADUATES OF THE HIGH SCHOOL.
Hunt, formerly teacher at Plymouth, Mass., was the first in- structor.
The arrangement proved to be a success. The school was opened under the best auspices, and carried forward with enthusi- asm. Many of its earliest pupils attained a high rank in scholar- ship, intelligence and culture. Some of them passed to the Uni- varsities, and have become men of distincton.
The plan, however, was only a stepping-stone to something better. And in 1859, a resolution was adopted at the town meet- ing, March 7, recommending the establishment of a pure High School, to be located at Newtonville, "on a lot of land next to the entrance to Mr. Claflin's ground on Walnut Street."
The school was established, with much want of agreement upon its expediency, and the committee of that day speak of it as " an experiment, which they will continue to watch anxiously yet hope- fully, leaving the results to speak for themselves." It commenced with seventy-five pupils, all of whom were over fifteen years of age, under the instruction of two teachers. It at once engaged the interest and pride of the community, and through its whole career has justified its reputation, as a school furnished with all the means and appliances of the highest English and classical educa- tion recognized in our common-school system. Within ten years the school building, supposed at first sufficient to provide amply for the wants of the far future, was greatly enlarged. The force of teachers was doubled, and the pupils numbered nearly one hun- dred and fifty. The course of study was much amplified, and the facilities afforded in this institution for a thorough education were unexcelled by any similar school in the State.
The number of pupils who graduated at the High School from its foundation till 1873, when Newton became a city, is as follows :
YEAR.
BOYS.
GIRLS.
TOTAL.
YEAR.
BOYS.
GIRLS.
TOTAL.
1861
4
4
1868
2
7
9
1862
1
5
6
1869
4
8
12
1863
2
1
3
1870
4
11
15
1864
5
2
7
1871
4
4
8
1865
3
3
6
1872
7
5
12
1866
9
9
1873
11
7
18
1867
2
3
5
448
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
GRADUATES FROM A THREE YEARS' COURSE.
YEAR.
BOYS.
GIRLS.
TOTAL.
YEAR,
BOYS.
GIRLS.
TOTAL.
1873
12
8
20
1876
17
25
42
1874
11
12
23
1877
25
26
51
1875
21
26
47
1878
25
11
36
A training-school was established in 1872 to fit teachers for their work, designed for those only who had graduated from the High School, or had had an equivalent course of training elsewhere. To add to the facilities of art education, a collection of casts, models and flat examples were procured from England, and ar- ranged in the new art-rooms at the High School. "This collection is pronounced by the State Supervisor of Art to be unsurpassed by any collection in the State. It is a most liberal provision for culture in a useful and refining art. Its value to the pupils of the High School,- as in the years to come they shall have been pre- pared, by long training, for a right use and appreciation of it,- will be incalculable. It will serve not only to promote a knowl- edge of drawing as a utilitarian art, but will contribute to that æsthetic culture, which is essential to a symmetrical development. It reveals something of the poetry of architecture, in its models of Greek, Roman, Saracenic and Gothic ornamentation. It will . also, if rightly used, awaken an interest in classic art. The care- ful study of models of the highest types of the Greek conception of the beautiful, as embodied in works of art, will not fail to cre- ate an interest in the subject, and an appreciation of it. The use of this collection, and instruction in both model and industrial drawing in all its branches, is free to all citizens of the town.
." It may not be deemed unworthy of mention, that the schools of the town of Newton at the World's Exposition at Vienna, were represented by photographs of the principal school-houses, a large and carefully prepared chart, showing details of the school system of Newton, population, appropriations for education, etc., and a series of Newton School Reports ; and this representation won recognition from the government of the Exhibition, and the award to the town of Newton of a Diploma of Merit.
" The books of exhibit of the work of Newton schools placed in the Paris Exposition were also deposited, at the request of the Paris Educational authorities, in the Paris Museum."
449
SCHOOL-HOUSE PROPERTY.
From the Annual Report of 1873, the last year of the town government, Newton had seventeen school-houses, nine halls, fif- ty-nine school-rooms occupied and thirteen unoccupied, three thousand one hundred and eighty-four sittings for pupils, six male teachers, sixty-three female teachers, five teachers in special de- partments, total seventy-four. The school appropriation of March 3, 1873, was $73,000. The dog-tax of the year, $600, was also made to do duty as an addition to the educational resources of the town.
SCHOOL-HOUSE PROPERTY IN NEWTON.
The City Auditor's Report for 1877 gives the following estimate of the value of School-house property in Newton at that date :
1. High School Buildings, furniture and land,
$60,000.00
2. Mason School-house,
50,000.00
3. Hyde
66
66
20,700.00
4. Prospect 66 66
32,000.00
5. Prospect
No. 2, 66
66
7,500.00
6. . Oak Hill
13,000.00
7. Hamilton 66
66
30,000.00
8. Williams 66 66
28,500.00
9. Pierce 66
66
32,000.00
10. Davis
66
16,000.00
12. Claflin 66
33,000.00
13. Adams 66
66
22,500.00
14. Bigelow
66
34,500.00
15. Underwood "
25,300.00
16. Lincoln
6,000.00
17 Jackson
6€
15,000.00
School Apparatus,
6,000.00
66
13,000.00
11. Franklin 66
$445,000.00
29
CHAPTER XXXV.
WEST NEWTON .- NEW MEETING-HOUSE .- REV. MR. GILBERT .. REV. MR. DRUMMOND .- REV. GEORGE B. LITTLE .- REV. H. J. PATRICK .- SABBATH SCHOOL .- STATISTICS .- BAPTIST CHURCH. UNITARIAN CHURCH .- MYRTLE BAPTIST CHURCH.
THE earlier events in the history of the west part of the town have been surveyed in a previous chapter. (See pages 250-258.) Mr. Gilbert had been ordained colleague pastor with the Rev. Mr. Greenough.
In the year 1831,-the year of Mr. Greenough's decease, and not long after the ordination of Mr. Gilbert,-the church edifice was a second time remodelled, the galleries being removed, the square pews giving place to slips, and various other improvements being introduced. During the following year a vestry was com- pleted in the basement of the meeting-house, and six years after- wards, in 1838, additional alterations and improvements were made in the house itself. On the 26th of March, 1848, public worship was held for the last time in the old meeting-house, and the edifice was sold to the town. It continued to be used as a town hall and school building ; and, with alterations, enlargements and improvements, when Newton became a city, it was trans- formed into the City Hall.
The second church edifice was dedicated March 29, 1848. The cost was about $13,000. The sermon at the dedication was by Rev. Mr. Gilbert, from Acts XXVIII : 22, "But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." The sermon was. printed. The building received extensive repairs in 1870, and was re-dedicated in September of that year, the dedication sermon being preached by the pastor, Rev. H. J. Patrick, from Ezra VII : 27, "Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put
450
451
REV. LYMAN GILBERT.
such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem."
After the decease of Mr. Greenough, Mr. Gilbert remained sole pastor. He was still a young man. He had enjoyed the advan- tage of intercourse with his aged predecessor for more than three years. The experience of such a man must have been very valu- able to him. During all that period he had been growing into his methods, and by daily communion he imbibed his spirit. The mantle of the ascended Elijah rested on Elisha. The first pastor, in his work of half a century, had impressed his likeness on the church and society. The second was now to carry forward towards perfection that which had been so well begun. And, by patient and perservering toil, by watching every oppor- tunity of doing good, and living for the highest welfare of his people, he was the honored instrument of preparing the field for the, not more efficient, but more encouraging, efforts of those who were to come after him. The village had not yet started in that race of vigorous improvement which afterwards characterized it. But the day of its growth was at hand, and the seed, soon spring- ing up, has had a most prosperous growth.
REV. LYMAN GILBERT was born in Brandon, Vt., June 13, 1798. Both his grandfather and his father were connected with the army of the Revolution. The former, Luke Gilbert, fills a soldier's grave in Ticonderoga. The latter, Elam Gilbert, after the war, removed to Marlborough, Vt., and then to Brandon. In 1818, Lyman Gilbert became a member of the church in Middlebury, Vt., and was soon advised to study with reference to the ministry. In about eighteen months from the time he began the Latin Gram- mar, he entered Middlebury College, where he graduated in 1825, with the highest honors. The same year he entered the Theologi- cal Seminary at Andover, at the same time taking upon himself for one quarter, the duties of usher in Phillips Academy. Among his pupils here were Horatio B. Hackett, Ray Palmer and Jona- than F. Stearns, all of whom have held places of distinguished honor. Not long after the completion of his studies in Andover, he visited Newton, and was warmly received by the people and by the aged pastor, Rev. Mr. Greenough. After he had preached one Sabbath, Mr. Greenough, perceiving the impression his labors ad produced, said to him, "If you have made up your mind that you will not settle in a small parish, the sooner you are out of
.
452
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
town, the better it will be for us." Mr. Gilbert replied that he had " no such will about it, but was at the disposal of Providence."
. The parish proper at that time contained about forty families, and the church, about fifty members. The population was small, with no immediate prospect of essential increase. "The church edifice was an old-fashioned structure, small, but lighted with fifty windows, no blinds, square pews and swing seats, with no great waste of paint, outside or in." Mr. Gilbert received a unanimous and earnest call from the people to settle as colleague pastor ; and ·was ordained July 2, 1828.
In 1831 there was a season of special religious interest in West Newton, in connection with a "four-days' meeting," and many were admitted to the church.
Mr. Gilbert took a prominent stand as an early advocate of tem- perance, as well as of education. He was a member of the School Committee of the town, more than twenty years. In January, 1829, he delivered an anniversary address on Temperance, which was well received, and afterwards published by request. As already stated, the Society of which he was pastor, in process of time outgrew its old home, and the progress of the village justi- fied the erection of a new church edifice in 1848, in which Mr. Gilbert continued, for seven years longer, to preach to a loving and confiding people ; and, in return for their love and confidence, he brought all his talents to promote the welfare of the little flock. It is said that, on one occasion, he made his early skill in the use of carpenter's tools available for their edification, by presenting, in connection with a lecture prepared for them on Solomon's Tem- ple, a complete model of that famous structure, made with refer- ence to an accurate measurement of dimensions and proportions, the work of his own hands.
As long as the aged pastor lived, the two shepherds labored to- gether and fed the flock in blessed concord. Mr. Gilbert testifies that "his venerable colleague and himself lived together in all har- mony, mutual confidence and love, to the end of their earthly con- nection." And when Mr. Gilbert came to be sole pastor, the love of the people to whom he had given himself in his youth and to whom he had consecrated his manhood, when he felt it his duty to resign his charge, made it hard to sever the tie.
Mr. Gilbert received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury College, in 1850.
453
REV. GEORGE B. LITTLE.
Mr. Gilbert remained pastor of the church till January 2, 1856, twenty-six years and six months. His long period of faithful and unwearied service was an efficient means of building up the church and society.
On the day of the dissolution of Mr. Gilbert's pastoral relations, and by the same Council, Mr. Joseph Payson Drummond was or- dained as his successor, January 2, 1856. But in April, 1857, he was compelled by impaired health to retire from active service. His formal resignation, having been held under consideration sev- eral months, was accepted, and his connection with the Society was dissolved November 12, 1857, having continued a year and ten months. His life-work was ended, and the tired laborer rested on his sheaves at noon. He died at Bristol, Me., November 23, aged thirty-three. He was a native of Maine, graduated at Bow- doin College, 1843, and Andover Theological Seminary, 1853.
The fourth pastor was the Rev. George Barker Little, of Ban- gor, Maine, who was installed November 12, 1857; the installa tion sermon was by Rev. Prof. Phelps, of the Andover Seminary. But his health failed, and in February, 1860, Mr. Little tendered his resignation, hoping to find relief and restoration from a visit to Europe. The resignation, being not accepted by the church and society, was withdrawn, and leave of absence having been granted in accordance with the wishes of his people, Mr. Little sailed for Europe in the following March. His rapid decline, however, made his speedy return necessary, after an absence of only two months. He tendered his resignation a second time June 21. But so evi- dent was it that his life was rapidly fading away, that the church took no action concerning it. The Great Shepherd was about to dismiss him from earthly toils, and to fold him in peace. He died in Roxbury, Mass., July 20, 1860, aged thirty-eight years, having been pastor here two years and eight months. Mr. Little was dis- tinguished by his culture and his pulpit talents. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1843 and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1849, and was ordained in Bangor, Me., October 12, 1849, where he was pastor from 1849 to 1857, and then removed to West Newton.
The fifth pastor was Rev. Henry Johnson Patrick, of Bedford, where he was ordained November 16, 1854, and served as pastor till his removal to West Newton, where he was installed September 26, 1860. The sermon was by Rev. Prof. Phelps, of Andover
454
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
Seminary ; charge by Rev. R. T. Robinson, of Winchester ; hand of fellowship by Rev. J. M. Manning, of the Old South church, Boston ; address to the people by Rev. J. W. Wellman, of the Eliot church, Newton.
In 1863 the church received a generous bequest from the estate of Miss Sarah Baxter, one of its members, of five thousand dol- lars, on condition that it be increased to eight thousand,- the whole to be used in providing a parsonage, for the use of the pas- tor and his successors forever. The condition was fulfilled, and a parsonage erected in 1866, which was dedicated for the purposes of its erection in the spring of 1867.
In 1870 the church edifice, as above stated, was repaired at an expense of upwards of three thousand dollars. The organ, for- merly in the gallery, was removed to a recess constructed for it at the side of the pulpit, and a new pulpit took the place of the for- mer one.
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