USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > North Reading > History of North Reading > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
The system of apprenticeship still maintained in the North Parish. One might think that in a farming community it would not be necessary to bind out young men in order that they might learn the trade of hus- bandmen. But they did just the same. Here, for instance, is an old paper dating back to the year 1782 which states that Mary Eborn binds out her son, Moses Eborn, to Ebenezer Upton in order that he might learn the art of husbandry. The boy is bound for five years, four months, and twenty-seven days and is to work for his master and at all times to uphold his honor. The consideration was, board, two suits of clothes, one suitable for work and the other for wearing on the Sabbath, and twenty pounds of lawful money when the period was completed. Asa Sheldon in his life and reminiscences says that as late as the end of the century he, at the age of eleven, was bound out to one Daniel Parker of North Reading. His father was to receive $20.00 and he, at the close of the period would receive $100.00. There was, however, a chance to earn a little extra money by cutting fagots, before sun up in the morning, after dark at night, or on rainy days.
Shortly after this, the spirit of the Revolution, the freedom for which the fathers fought, began to penetrate and the system was done away with. Then there was also more of an opportunity for going west. Ohio was being settled and other states of the northwest territory followed, so the old system had to give way.
There were slaves, too, in the old North Parish. Not many for the families were largely self supporting and did not need the assistance of slave labor. The first John Upton in his will and inventory listed a twelve-year- old colored boy, and there were two or three more mentioned in some of the later accounts. Rev. James Flint, in his bi-centennial address, tells the story of "Old Jona," a slave of one of the Flints.
After the days of the American Revolution conditions began to change. Not rapidly but gradually the change began to be felt. These changes were due, not to the influx of a new and foreign element, but to the changes in the economic conditions. So far as the population was concerned it remained quite stationary until after the First World War. The railroad came in the 1840s, but this did not disturb social life. To be certain there was some breaking away from the old Puritan traditions, and it was about this time when people went of an evening, to the old poor-farm house to dance the quadrille, the polka and the square dances. Then the aftermath of the Civil War made other minor changes. Those whose memory goes
[ 26 ]
back to the days of the seventies say that then they sometimes stayed out until two o'clock and danced. These were the venturesome spirits. Clara Louise Burnham, however, in her book, "No Gentlemen," the plot of which was laid in North Reading, pictures a staid and orderly society, without any of the excesses one notes in more modern times. But a more liberal spirit was slowly developing. Soon thereafter came the gay nineties and one can note its reflection even in North Reading.
Various and new organizations came into being at this time. There was a North Reading Improvement Society for the men, and for both sexes The Out Door Club, and the Kunkshamooshaw Club, and there was the inevitable Lecture Course. The nineties were also the time of a grow- ing interest in athletics. The "go-as-you-please" race craze struck town in the early part of the nineties, and then with the turn of the century the street cars came to enliven the interest already displayed in baseball. It was then easier to get about than it had been in the days of the ox-cart, so each town and each Y. M. C. A. had its baseball team. And the North Reading fans were certain they had a superior aggregation. These were the days before the professional teams had really hit their stride. This was what spelled the death knell of local athletics. Soon it became easier to watch than it was to play in the game.
It was the automobile which quickened this march away from the home-town league and the local athletic contests. The horseless carriage made it easy to go to the next town and see what the folks there were doing. Then came the moving picture theater with its cheap melodrama. which was not exactly an improvement on the entertainment of the gay nineties. Soon the staid manners and customs of the earlier days were all gone. The old-fashioned husking bee with its red ears and the possi- bility of a kiss from the lady selected could not compete with the moving- picture house where the lights were always low and the invitation for love making ever present on the screen.
In the last quarter century the social organizations have changed. There is no longer an interest in purely literary pursuits, and in the im- provement which came from the lecture course. To meet the new demands there was organized in 1911, the Upland Club, with the object of promoting intellectual and social culture among its members. Then in 1912 Mrs. James Fairbanks started the West Side Women's Club with Mrs. Mary A. Bailey as president. Earlier than this, in 1904, there had been estab- lished, in North Reading, a chapter of the National Patrons of Husbandry or the "Grange" which has contributed greatly to the social life of the town. For a while there was a Board of Trade, but business life has not been sufficient to keep it going. During the last year the author of these lines has started a men's organization called the North Reading Men's
[ 27 ]
Union, which, it is to be hoped, will minister to the social and spiritual needs of the men.
In the early days courtship and marriage was a serious and orderly proceeding. There is no evidence that the people of our town "bundled" as they were known to have done in Pennsylvania. If a young man so much as addressed a young woman without her parents' consent he was subject to a fine of five pounds. In 1649, the old records state, Matthew Stanley was fined five pounds, two shillings and six pence for winning the affections of John Tarbox's daughter without her parents' consent. We are amused at such incidents because they are to us evidence of the lack of liberality on the part of the Puritans. But if John Tarbox were living in our day, one wonders just what difficulties he might face. Since his daughter seems to have been of a venturesome turn of mind, she would be hard to follow. Her father would be chasing her from roadhouse to road-
THE MODERN COUNTERPART OF "YE OLD TAVERN," ON MAIN STREET
house and thence to some out-of-the-way parking place and it would all end in a shot-gun marriage. Then a few years later the daughter would quietly make her way to Reno for a six-weeks residence and divorce. On her return she would begin a search for more adventure and all the while there would not be a letter "A" on either her arm or her breast.
[ 28 ]
Not only have we become more lax in our home ties, but in other ways as well. There seems to be a growing interest in the use of liquor, as noted before, and in those other social excesses which its use invariably brings. Betting and games of chance are far more prevalent now than ever before. Our public dances go from one extreme to the other. We have passed from the days of the "turkey-trot" and the "bunny hug" to
THE MODERN SALOON
the "rhumba" and the "shag." That is, the free and liberal group has. There are still a great number of conservative people in North Reading and elsewhere who still enjoy a waltz or a two-step and there are those who never dance. But those that belong to the class to which the daugh- ter of John Tarbox did, have thrown off restraint.
Since the beginning of the Second World War in 1941, there has been an increasing disruption in the normal processes of life. There is gas rationing, oil rationing and food rationing. In order to buy these com- modities it is necessary to secure from the local Rationing Board the "points" which are handed out, in accordance with the needs of each householder. The number of "points" necessary for a gallon or a pound varies in accordance with the abundance or the scarcity of the article. Without these one cannot buy, unless he chooses to deal in the "black mar- ket," where, for a little higher price, buying can be done without "points." From time to time the Office of Price Administration has attempted to stop
[ 29]
this practice. They have prosecuted a few of the offenders but still the "bootlegging" goes on. In spite of it all, however, it can be said that the O. P. A. has in a measure controlled prices so that we do not have as much inflation as there was in the last war or even during the Civil War and the War of the Revolution. So far we are not troubled with the old and new tenor money as were our fathers.
Beginning with 1930, North Reading, along with the rest of the coun- try, began to feel the pinch of financial crisis. This one was a little more severe than the one the town experienced in the seventies and the nineties of the last century. Being a farming community these periods of low financial barometer did not strike the town with the force of the more recent one. Our population has increased and there is a large proportion of our residents who work in Boston and elsewhere. So when the stock market crashed and the banks began to fail the number of unemployed in North Reading began to mount. The new "allotments" started before and after the conflict did not help in this matter. The Martin's Pond area, Liberty Acres off West Park Street, and the "allotment" on the old Poor Farm were filled up with working people now without work. Bravely North Reading tried to meet the emergency. As to the extent of the help rendered compare the figures for 1929 with those of 1941. These two dates are selected because they are at the beginning and the end of the crisis and will give a better picture than the figures for 1935 when the de- pression was at its height. In the earlier year there was spent for public welfare and relief, the sum of $4,177.42, while in the later year the amount was $41,795.71. This figure, however, does not quite tell the whole story. Besides this amount the town distributed food valued, by the Federal Gov- ernment, at $14,490.22 and clothing valued at $4,552.25.
The administration of all this public relief has undoubtedly weakened our morale, or, at the best, it has changed our attitude as to the function of government. The Federal Government was very generous in distributing the money necessary for the labor costs of public improvements, such as new highways and public buildings. But the town, anxious to keep the local tax rate down, was loth to start anything involving a large outlay for material, confined itself to minor projects such as a few streets and what was intended for a public park at the center of the town. These were the days of "boon-doggling" and make-believe enterprises. Since it was a relief project no one felt the necessity for doing much work. Hence there were current a number of jokes about the laborers on these W. P. A. projects. The men were said to have padded shovels and leaning rests. One current story had it, that a man died on the job and the undertaker was forced to wait until quitting time before he could tell which one actually was dead. But the pay came just the same and as an outcome a great number was pauperized. They lost that good old Puritan virtue of
[ 30 ]
industry and as a result this same demoralized group are doing but little more in the war industries than they did when they handled the pick and shovel. This is entirely possible since the national government has en- gaged in a war program which pays the manufacturer for raw material and a percentage on all labor costs.
Not only has there been a loss in business integrity but the prevailing high wages have attracted many of our women into industry. Some women with small children have been lured away from their homes while the children have been left pretty much to their own devices. The children are expected to attend school and then wait at home for the return of father and mother. Some of the older boys and girls take advantage of the situ- ation and play truant. One wonders just what the outcome of all this will be. In twenty-five years from this date we will begin to reap the harvest, whether good or bad.
١
[3]]
CHAPTER 111 EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
Historians generally have over-rated the interest of our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors in the cause of education. The tendency has been to take a few general statements made by some Divine, and the laws passed from time to time, as accomplished facts. The law of 1647 was to the effect that there should be a school in every community where there were fifty families, and a grammar school in every community of one hundred families. Then in 1693 this law was strengthened by the imposition of a ten-pound fine annually for the violation of the law. "There shall also be a grammar school set up in every such towne and some discreet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues, procured to teach such school." This law was still further strengthened in 1701 by imposing a fine of twice the amount specified. It was also stated that the grand jurors were to report all breaches of the law. The master of all such schools was to be certified by the local minister and the ministers of two adjacent parishes. By 1711, however, this ecclesiastical control began to weaken, for it was thereafter possible for the selectmen to approve the master.
All of this sounds very good and it seems to indicate that there was a lively interest in education. But as one might easily guess, the law was not very faithfully carried out. There was a tendency to evade and pro- crastinate. In the first place it was hard to find teachers. Those "well instructed in the tongues," or college graduates were not so numerous and then, when found, they did not want to come for the small stipend the town proposed to pay. Then, too, the Grammar School was not as popular as it might have been. Why should farmers and entrepreneurs be required to spend time wrestling with Latin and Greek, was a question that must have been frequently asked. So, although the Town of Reading had one hundred families there was no Grammar School and in 1680 it was com- plained of to the General Court. Even at that, it was not until 1706 that John Rogers, for twelve pounds per year, was hired to teach a Grammar School. Reading, however, was not the only town that neglected. Five years earlier than the date just given the Town of Haverhill presented this question in town meeting, "Whether the town was compelled by law to establish a Grammar School." The proposition passed in the negative, but for their trouble the town was indicted and fined. They were ordered to get a school master as quickly as possible. In 1701 when the Town of Malden was complained of to the Court she was able to show that there
[ 32 ]
were really only ninety-four rate-paying residents. This seems to have been the situation all through the colony. Wherever possible they dodged the issue.
Of course the situation in Massachusetts, with a lax enforcement, was much better than it was in some of the other colonies. Take Virginia for instance. From there Governor Berkley wrote home that he thanked God there were no schools in Virginia and he hoped there would not be for a hundred years. It was his opinion that education only bred strife and contention. The New Englanders were of a different mind. They had an interest in reading for they wanted to be able to interpret their Bibles, and being Calvinists, they were not averse to doing a little "casting of accounts" on the side. Even though they did not always send their chil- dren to school they were taught how to read and figure at home. Yet we should not presume to state that every New England family learned to read and write. And this is the evidence. After the parish of North Read- ing was established, in 1718, a petition for the common land within the parish bounds was presented at the town meeting. Of the twenty-six, whose names were attached to the petition, ten of them had an "X" with the words, "his mark." If such a large proportion of the most influential could . not write, what about the remainder?
The first mention of school in connection with the North Parish, is an item in the town report for 1693. In dividing up the school money for the year, one pound was to go to the part north of the river. There is no further evidence as to just how the money was used. Perhaps the wife or daughter of one of the residents kept school for a little while. Or perhaps there was a regular school and the children carried wood to replenish the fire as was specified in the ordinance of 1701. The next item in the records appeared in 1715, when it was voted to give the North Precinct their pro- portionate share of the school money. There is also the corresponding vote which appeared for the same year in the Parish records. "Voted to lay out the school money that the town will give us, in school at home amongst ourselves." They also voted that Joseph Upton, Sr., "should settle the school in the lower end and John Harnden was to settle the school in the upper end."
This indicates that the first schools of North Reading were moving or roving schools. There was no stated place for the school to be kept. But always there was a front room with an open fireplace in the home of some enterprising citizen. In fact the records seem to indicate that there was a bit of rivalry in securing the school. In 1733 it was voted that Ebenezer Damon, Mr. Edward Hirkcom, and Mr. Joseph Upton be a committee to provide a place or places to keep school in for this present year. Three years later the assessors were made responsible for this task. This rule then prevailed for the next twenty years.
[ 33 ]
There is also evidence to support the contention that the interest in "schooling amongst ourselves" was not as lively as it might have been. Sometimes the town did not send along the proportionate share of the school money and the North Precinct did not always press the matter, until they finally decided to raise their own funds direct. In 1721 there was a vote to choose a committee, "to request our part of ye school money in ye town, yt we might have it to lay out in schooling of our children amongst ourselves." As the organization of the Parish became better established the interest in education 'grew and as stated the school money was raised in the parish rates.
The first mention of a school house one finds in the old records is an item in the minutes of 1745. It was then voted not to build a school house this present year. Nothing more was said about the matter for almost ten years. Then in 1754 the Parish voted that some particular persons have liberty to set a school house on land near the meeting house "at their own cost." Apparently the majority were not, even then, interested in school houses. They were interested in pounds, where the stray cattle were kept, pending the payment of a fine. A little later the town decided on a stone pound, but as yet the majority voted down the proposition of a school house.
When this school building was erected by "some particular persons" it did not mean that all those of school age came to this central building. Doubtless those who built it hoped that in stating the school for the year the assessors would make this their first choice. If they did they were bound to be disappointed: Sometimes there was school in the east part and in the west part, while the school house by the meeting house was ignored. Usually the term was a period of two months. Thus in 1769 the vote was for a term of two months at or near Jabes Uptons and other two months at or near Isaac Uptons. But the regular school house must have had its advantages over the private dwelling. By. 1773 there was another private school house near Mr. Abraham Sheldings and soon there were two others in different parts of the town.
It is not likely that these early schools were Grammar Schools where the curriculum included Latin, English and the casting of accounts. Read- ing, writing and arithmetic were undoubtedly the subjects dealt with, along with the inevitable catechism and the teaching of the Bible from the old horn book. The first mention of a grammar school was in 1770, when it was voted to have such a school in the school house by the meeting house. And the teacher must have been Jonathan Kidder, for his name from that time forward is mentioned frequently in the treasurer's accounts. But even the grammar school became a moving school. In 1777 it was voted that the grammar school be kept in two parts, two months at Tabar Upton's, and at the school house by Mr. Jessae Uptons, ye year ensuing.
[ 34 ]
Five years later it was to be in three places. Then by 1785 it would seem that these schools had become more or less stationary, for it was voted to raise ten pounds to enlarge the grammar schools, this money to be divided as the town money is divided. All the while there had been growing a new interest. Manifestly all were not interested in preparing for college, so in 1794 it was voted to have English schools in each ward along with the grammar school. 1381522
When the pupils entered school they were supposed to know how to read and write a little. The beginning was made at home under the in- struction of the parents or an older brother or sister, or in a special private school presided over by some enterprising widow. These "school dames" were paid a fee by the parents of the children and there was no charge on the town. It is a matter of dispute as to just when the towns began to pay these "school dames." The earliest record of payment in the Parish of North Reading is in 1774. In that year the treasurer jotted down this item: "paid Mrs. Ruth Herrick, one pound and five shillings for keeping school in the north end." From that time forth there are frequent refer- ences to women teachers. In 1776 there appeared this item: "paid Archelaes Macentire, sixteen shillings and eight pence for boarding the school dame," which school dame was the same Mrs. Herrick. Eleven years later still there were at least four women teachers: Robert Mason's wife, Amos Upton's wife, Mrs. Elizabet Foster, and William Flint's daughter. Each of these, according to the records, received varying sums for that year. Or perhaps we might better say that the husbands or fathers received the money, for apparently it was not binding when the money was given to a woman who had a husband or father. From this time on, until the end of the century there were various women teachers. The last reference to Dame Schooling appeared in the minutes for the March meeting of 1802. "Voted to raise $60.00 for dame schooling."
The remote parts of the parish also received due attention. In 1771 it was voted that five pounds of the pew money be given to the distant parts for schooling. Two years later this sum from the church funds was increased to six pounds. And where were these remote parts? Well, New Marblehead was the place most often mentioned.
With the coming of the Revolution there was a disruption in the school program. For the year 1778 there was no school and the next year there was only a limited program. After the peace there was a state con- stitution providing for various changes in the school system. After 1789 the towns were definitely divided into school districts. Later these dis- tricts were given a corporate capacity, which enabled them to hold prop- erty and build school houses. A reflection of this is seen in the vote of 1785. "Voted to raise fifteen pounds to enlarge the Grammar Schools, the money to be divided as the town money is divided." Then in 1802 there .
[ 35 ]
were some changes made in the wards, and both the grammar and the English schools were to be in three places. In their enthusiasm the town fathers voted $1,000.00 for four new school houses. Later this vote was rescinded and the wards allowed to build their own school houses. But there remained some interest on the part of the town, in the school house, by the meeting house, for at a subsequent meeting the fathers voted money for its repair. For some years more, they also voted to supply the wood for the wards.
The old days when the assessors were empowered to state the schools for the coming year had passed forever into the discard. In 1812 the fol- lowing three men, Daniel Graves, William Eaton and Thomas Sawyer, were constituted as a school committee with full powers to act in all educational matters. There were four regularly constituted wards or districts, with the interesting names of Back Row with a school house on North Street, Pudding Point with a school house on Park Street West, Lower End with a school house bordering on the Riverside Cemetery, and The Neck with its building originally on Chestnut Street but later moved to Haverhill Street. Three of these old buildings are still to be seen, two of them are dwelling houses and one a garage. The old High School building as well as the Grammar School that stood near the center of the town have also found an interesting place in the new scheme of things. For some years they served the Turner Truck Body Co. as a paint shop.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.