USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > History of Westminster, Massachusetts (first named Narragansett no. 2) from the date of the original grant of the township to the present time, 1728-1893, with a biographic-genealogical register of its principal families > Part 29
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Several attempts since that date have been made to supply the inhabitants with better railroad facilities, but thus far they have been without avail. In 1869 Joel Merriam, an active and influential citizen, with sundry other persons, proffered a peti- tion to the General Court asking for a charter for a road "from Gardner to tide water at or near Boston," and at the March meeting of that year the selectmen were constituted a committee "to send in a petition to the Legislature in aid of the Petition of Joel Merriam and others." A committee was also chosen to cause the necessary survey for the proposed road to be made. Failing to obtain the desired charter, the town, on the 26th of April, caused a committee of three to be ap- pointed "to consult the Officers of the Vt. and Mass. Rail Road Corporation in reference to straightening said Rail Road through the town." Nothing appears to have come of this action and the matter rested for four and a half years, when, on the 4th of November, 1873, a committee of five was chosen by the town "to take into consideration the subject of a Rail Road from Pratt's Junction through this town to intersect with the Vt. and Mass. road at or near Gardner." This project, though deemed feasible, involved too great expense to justify, under existing circumstances, any further efforts towards carrying it into exe- cution, and it was therefore given up. Quite recently, inter- ested parties have devised a scheme for furnishing desirable railroad accommodations to the leading manufacturing estab-
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233
RAILROAD PRIVILEGES POSTPONED.
lishments of the place, by offering inducements to the Fitchburg corporation, now in possession of the Vermont and Massachu- setts franchise, to run a spur from the main line at Gardner to the central village, with a view of extending it ultimately to South Westminster, but as yet it has not secured the confidence and co-operation of the citizens at large to such an extent as to give much hope of its becoming, at a very early day, an accom- plished fact. According to present indications, the industrial interests of Westminster and the people generally will be obliged to content themselves with the facilities and privileges now enjoyed in this behalf, awaiting, in patient expectation, the time when some new enterprise within or without its boundaries shall take hold of the matter and carry it to a successful issue ; or when some existing corporation, watchful of opportunities for occupying new and profitable territory, shall see it to be for its interest to extend its tracks through this good old town- ship and in that way supply a need and gratify a desire long ex- isting, but existing thus far only to be postponed to "a more convenient season."
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CHAPTER XIII.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
THE COMMON SCHOOLS -WESTMINSTER ACADEMY - LIBRARIES - LYCEUMS, DEBATING CLUBS, ETC.
To the fathers and founders of New England, education was a paramount and fundamental concern. So thoroughly per- suaded were they of its essential value as a handmaid of reli- gion, as a factor in the development of social and individual life and character, and as a condition of human welfare and happiness, that they built in hackneyed phrase "the school-house beside the church," in order that together these two institutions might help to mold and shape to fine and noble issues the new civilization they hoped to establish as a perpetual heritage upon these newly occupied shores. Scarcely had they gained a foot- hold here, -while yet engaged in felling forests, erecting log- cabins, planting orchards, and bringing the virgin fields into a state of productiveness for the supply of their more immediately pressing bodily wants, they began to make provision for the proper training of the intellectual faculties of children and youth, and the needful storing of their minds with the rudiments of useful knowledge. As time went on and resources of various kinds increased, they enlarged their facilities for private and public instruction and made more accessible and more sure the means of popular education. "To the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our fathers," they said through their legislative representatives, "it is ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one of their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, &c." "And it is further ordered that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University," which had been previously established under the same inspiration. This occurred during the first generation of the settlement at Plymouth. It was the casting into congenial soil the mustard seed, which, though exceedingly small, was yet, in the providence of God and under the foster- ing care of men, to grow into one of the largest of trees, be- neath whose grateful, invigorating shade generations and ages
235
INTEREST IN EDUCATION.
to come, irrespective of race or sex, were to find rest and re- freshing, inspiration and delight.
The spirit and purpose of the parents, thus displayed, ani- mated and controlled their children. The early settlers of Westminster were not far removed by lineage from the found- ers of the public school system of Massachusetts, and they followed closely in the footsteps of those who had gone before them, in this behalf. Not that they began at once upon arriv- ing here to build a schoolhouse, as they did to build a meeting- house, but that in due time the former, under their wise direction, took its place literally beside the latter, becoming a permanently established and universally recognized institution of the community, to be sacredly maintained and fostered by themselves and their descendants as long as the town should stand.
Nothing appears in the records of the proprietors of Narra- gansett No. 2 to show that anything was attempted in the way of providing for the public instruction of the young in the growing settlement, for nearly fifteen years after it was first started. This can easily be accounted for, and in no wise im- pugns the motives or the conduct of those concerned in relation to this indispensable interest of human society. It can be readily understood how exclusively at the outset the time, the thought, the energy of the first-comers here were occupied in securing for themselves and their dependents a place of shelter, and the absolute necessities of physical existence. These things, with the provision they made for the public worship of God and the regular preaching of the divine word, precluded the possibility of their doing much beside, however urgent other claims might be. Moreover, as a matter of fact, there were for a number of years very few children on the premises. The earliest permanent settlers had sons and daugh- ters, but they were far grown towards maturity. Those arriving later were mostly newly-married couples-the husbands, per- haps, coming here to begin with as single men, to clear a few acres and get them into a tillable condition, build a rude dwelling, and then going back to some one of the lower towns for a bride to share with them the trying, uncertain fortunes of domestic life, the fires of which were first kindled upon the new-laid hearthstone before the new-built altar of conjugal devotion and loyalty. Probably there were not twenty, perhaps not a dozen, children of school-going age in the entire township when the first proposition to start a public school was brought forward. And these were so widely scattered as to render it impractica- ble, not to say impossible, to bring them together, day after day from their homes, for any purpose whatsoever. And it can be easily seen that thus conditioned, with few roads, or pathways even, through the wilderness, and the liability of attack from wild beasts, and from Indians as well, the establishing of a
236
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
school was, for many years, entirely out of the question. Nevertheless, schools were among things that were to be, when the proper time arrived.
The Common Schools. The first movement looking to that result took place in 1751. In an advertisement for a meet- ing of the proprietors to be held Dec. 4th, was an article
"9. To see if ye props will agree to keep a Reading and writing School this year or any part of it."
Whereupon it was
"Voted to dismiss the ninth Article in ye Advertisement."
Two years later the matter came up again in substantially the same form, with the same result, and there it rested till after the incorporation of the township was effected. At the second meeting of the legal voters of the district of Westmin- ster, held Dec. 24, 1759, one item of business was
" To see if they will agree to have a Reading and Riting School and to grant Money for the same."
Upon this article it was
"L'oted that they will have a Reading and Riting Schoole for three months in the middle of the town.
"T'oted that £6 be assessed and levied on the inhabitants of the District of Westminster for the use of the Schoole in Sd District."
Of what was done in the way of carrying these votes into effect, nothing is known. If a school was started, as was proba- bly the case, no record of it can now be found. On the 2d of March, 1761, a little more than a year afterward, upon the proposition "to see If they will have a Schoole and wheather they will have It Kept in Several Parts of the town and to Grant money for the Same," it was "voted that Eight Pounds be Raised for the support of a Schoole." The result of this vote and all particulars are left to conjecture, as before.
A year later more satisfactory details begin to appear, and a few facts pertaining to the early development of the school system are brought to light. Jan. 27, 1762, it was
"Voted to have a mooveing Schoole and voted that the Schoole be kept at Mr. Nathan Parker's house and Mr. Philip Bemises and at Capt. Daniel Hoar's and at Lieut Thomas Stearnses and an Equal Part of the time at each Place."
At a subsequent meeting the same sum as before ( £8) was appropriated in support of the school. Still later it was voted that "the Schoole shall be Kept at Deacon Holden's house in case the house can be obtained." Probably this was in place of the "mooveing schoole " previously provided for.
237
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED.
The next year, 1763, the appropriation for a school was in- increased to £13 6s. 8d., and the same amount was granted in 1764. It was voted this year, April 30th,
"To have a moveing schoole the Insuing year" "to Keep it in four places, viz. one Quarter of the time att Mr. Elijah Gibbses House, one Quarter of the time att Mr. David Bemuses, one Quarter of the time att the parting of the Roades Leading to Deacon Miller's & Insine Graveses Houses if a Schoole House is provided, and one Quarter of the time att the parting of the Roades Leading to Capt. Hoar's & Insine Wodwerds Houses or as near their as they can agree and as Near the other places as may be if that we Cant obtaine to Keep it att Sd places."
At the annual March meeting in 1765, the same sum was voted as the year before, and it was also
"Voted that the Schoole be Kept in the Same manner and places as agreed on Last year.
" May 26, 1766. Voted and Granted twenty pounds to Keepe the Schoole the present year.
"l'oted to Keep a Schoole five months in the town this present year ac- cording to Law. Sd Schoole to be kept in the winter Season, and Voted that a Woman's Schoole be Keept Seven months in the out Skirts of the town."
On the 22d of September this action was so far modified as to provide for keeping "a Reading and writeing School Steadyly this present year," and "a moving school in four places" -"att Mr. David Bemuses House," "at Mr. Joseph Horsley's House," "att Mr. Insine Woodwards house," and "att Lieut. Rand's house, one-quarter of the time at each place."
At the same meeting it was furthermore voted "to Build one School House," and "to Build it att the pound [near where Hobart Raymond's barn stands]." "Chose messirs David Be- mus, Lieut. Samll Whitney and Stephen Holden a Committee to Build the Schoolehouse." "Chose Mr. Stephen Holden Lieut. Whitney and Mr. Josiah Cutting to provid a Schoole- master."
The next month the location of the schoolhouse was changed to "the North-east corner of the meeting house Spott by the corner of Deacon Holden's Land [a little west of where Mr. G. S. Ham now resides]," and there it was finally erected. In providing for this, the first educational establishment in the town, it was
"Voted to build it twenty feet Square one Storey high and five windows in it twelve Squares in each window 7 by 9 the Chimbly att one Corner and Brick chimbly-the Lore flore Duble and Chamber flore single, the outsid Borded & the Ruf well Shingled a Duble Dore well hanged; the Sills sett twelve inches from the ground and well under pined with good stones and Sealed with good Bords in the inside & to be Eight feet Between Joynts - the Chimbly to be four Bricks & half Deep James & three feet & half Back.
"Voted that Abner Holden Build the Schoole house according to the above Dimentions for £16 5s. Lawful money and to be done by the first of June next."
238
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
Mr. Holden accepted this offer, and the money was appropri- ated in payment of the sum named at the next annual meeting, March 2, 1767, when £30 was also voted for the support of schools.
Notwithstanding what had been done in this behalf, the requirements of the law had not been fully complied with, and the district was fined for the delinquency. To pay this fine and costs, £12 8s. were granted at a meeting held May 25th of the same year. On the same day the account of Richard Baker "for boarding Abagail Whitney a school mistress" was allowed as was that of Elisha Marsh for boarding a schoolmas- ter whose name is not given. The following bill, also approved and ordered to be paid, speaks for itself :
"August 1766 the Decrict [district] of Westminster Deter to my wife Keeping Scooel four weeks and four Days the sum - - 1-3-4 "NATHAN PEIRCE."
The schoolhouse having been completed according to the terms of the contract, and accepted, it was on the 15th of October voted "to Keep the Schoole in the Schoolehouse till the first of March next." At the same meeting the district "allowed to Abigail Whitney one pound three shillings and four pence for Keeping Schoole Eight weeks lacking two days," and Captain Hoar, Abner Holden, and Captain Dike were appointed "a Committee to take Care of the Schoole till next March." This was the first school committee of the township, the selectmen previously having had charge of this department of public affairs. It appears that this committee was not authorized to employ teachers, inasmuch as two months after- wards, Dec. 15th, Abner Holden, Dea. Nathan Wood, and Lieut. John Rand were chosen "to provide a Grammer Schoole- master" in accordance with the vote that "no man Shall Keep Schoole in this place for the future but such as is approved of by the minester of the place and two ajasent neighboring minesters." Whether or not this rule applied to female as well as to male applicants for the position of teacher does not appear.
Having caught a glimpse of two of the early schoolmistresses of the township, Mrs. Sarah, wife of Nathan Pierce, and Abi- gail, presumably the daughter of Samuel Whitney, we are also introduced to two of the early schoolmasters in a report of the district treasurer made March 7, 1768, in which are the follow- ing items :
" July ye 6, 1767. Paid Moses Stearns £1 18s. 7d. for Keeping Schoole. 66 6. 14s. 8d. "
"Feb. ye 1, 1768. Paid {2 8s. for Mr. Samuel Hoar Keeping Schoole hear."
Moses Stearns was no doubt the son of John Stearns, and Samuel Hoar was unquestionably the son of John Hoar of
239
FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN TOWN.
Concord, one of the early proprietors of the township, and the grandfather of Senator George F. Hoar of Worcester.
At this point appears the original movement in the direction of establishing a school district system for the township. Pur- suant to an article in the warrant calling the meeting at the last- named date, it was
"l'oted [that] the Schoole be Kept in the several Parts of the Destrict viz. Voted the middle Squaderon Extend one mile and a Quarter as the Roades goe from the Schoolehouse Each way-Voted, that Mr. Joseph Horseley's House [on the estate now owned by Dr. Liverpool ] be the Senter of the South Squaderon and then Voted that Mr. Nathan Howard [who lived on the recent Thomas Merriam place] be the S'enter of the Northeast Squaderon to [keep] Schoole in ; Voted to Reconsider the vote with Respect to Keeping Schoole att Mr. Horsleys and Voted to Keep it att Capt. Dikes House [near No. 3 schoolhouse] and Voted that the fourth Squaderon be att Mr. Josiah Jacksons House [near where Lyman Allen recently lived] and Voted that Each Squaderon have their Equal proportion of the time of Schooling."
At the subsequent May meeting £30 were appropriated for school purposes during the year 1768, and Mr. Samuel Whit- ney was allowed £3 "for boarding the school-master twelve weeks." Dr. Jeremiah Everett, who had recently come to the place as the first of his profession here, was, on the 15th of December, "allowed £3 14s. 8d. in full of his account while keeping school." No doubt he, in this way, eked out the in- sufficient pecuniary returns of a limited medical practice.
At the annual meeting held March 6, 1769, in addition to the usual action in respect to a "Moving School," it was voted "that all the Inhabitants that live over the most Northerly River [Phillips' Brook] Draw their proportion of the Schoole money and Spend the same among themselves in Schooling." This privilege was frequently accorded in later years to families in this and other parts of the town, not conveniently located with respect to the regularly established schools.
In the year 1770, March 19th, votes similar to those of 1769 were passed, with the additional provision that "four months time be Spent in Keeping Schoole in the middle of the town from this Day."
Having thus sketched in detail the rise and permanent estab- lishment of the public school system of Westminster, tracing it year by year through the first decade of its existence, and noting the various steps in its early development, it seems necessary to mention only the more important features of its subsequent history, -marked changes that have taken place in its administration, new methods introduced in order to make it more effective, and whatever may have been done otherwise to promote its usefulness and increase its influence as an instru- mentality for advancing the interests of sound learning in the community, and for securing the intellectual training of all classes of the people.
240
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER, MASS.
At the annual meeting of March 4, 1771, adjourned to the 18th, the length of the public schools was fixed at three months each ; the four already indicated following each other in regular succession, and so filling out the entire year. The first was to be "in the middle of the town at the school-house; the second in the east part at Mr. Howard's; the third in the south at Mr. Horseley's ; and the fourth in the Northwest at Mr. Jackson's."
The need of buildings for school uses in the outlying portions of the town began to be deeply felt about this time, and the matter of locating and erecting them was becoming an increas- ingly important public concern. Under an article in the war- rant for the annual meeting of 1772, some action was taken upon the subject, but not proving satisfactory was afterwards rescinded. Later in the year, Sept. 7th, the subject came up again, when it was
"T'oted to Divid the Inhabitants into five Differant Squaderons and that the Schoole-house be for one Squaderon, and for the South Voted a Schoole- house be sett on the flatt Rock between Capt. Dikes and Hananiah Rand's [on the top of Graves' Hill where the road formerly crossed it] and North- erly a Schoole-house be sett on the flatt Rock below Capt. Rand's Rie field on the Top of the hill comeing from Mr. Cohee's [nearly opposite where Mr. Goodridge now resides] and for the Westward Voted that a Schoole- house be Set att the parting of the Roade by Mr. Nathan Weatherbee's [near the present site of the Beech Hill house] and also Voted to sett the Eastward Schoole-house att the parting of the Roade against Mr. Edmond Bemises house on Mr. Abner Holden's Land near the old well [a few rods southwest of the residense of George Harris, where some tokens of the building may still be seen]. Voted that each Schoole House be built Eight- een feet squaire, and that they be built by a Grant of money out of the Town."
Committees were chosen in each district or squadron to have charge of the work of erecting these houses in their several localities, respectively.
At this same meeting it was "voted to Sell all the Schoole lands within the Town [which then consisted of two hundred acres of upland and a meadow lot of some four acres], the money ariseing by Sale theirof to be Lett out to Intrest for the Benifit of a Schoole." Authority to do this was asked of the General Court and granted. The lands were disposed of and the proceeds invested and used as proposed, the income amount- ing to about £35 per year.
Dec. 1, 1773. The schoolhouses having been erected agree- ably to the votes of the town, the bills for the expense of them were presented by the several committees, accepted, and ordered to be paid. They were of the following amounts : For the one in the south part of the town, £21 9s. 2d .; in the north, £20 12s. IOd .; in the west, £21 15s. IOd. 2f .; and in the east, £21 4s. 8d. If.
Up to the year 1775 it was the custom to have the schools in town taught consecutively, thus not only adapting them to
241
INCREASING NUMBER OF SCHOOLS.
the existing scarcity of teachers, but enabling children to go from one district to another, if it was desired, thereby inereas- ing the amount of schooling received by them.
A change, however, was made in this regard in the year specified. At the annual meeting it was "voted that three Schools be kept at once in Town for the space of five Weeks," and on the 18th of December following, it was furthermore "voted to Keep a plural of Schooles during the winter season," "that four Schooles for Ten weeks Insueing be Keept att cach Schoolehouse exclusive of the East Schoolehouse and att the End of the said Tearme, Ten weeks be Keept in the East Schoolehouse," and "that The Schoole in the Senter and att the East Schoolehouse be keept by a Grammer master." In 1777. Jan. I, it was "voted to Keep Schoole ten weeks in each Schoole-house the Insueing year, and voted, that the Schooles be Keept all att once or as soone as masters can be procured," which shows that only male teachers were employed at that time, though the practice of having females for instructors which had previously prevailed, as already stated, to some extent, was resumed not long after, the different squadrons or districts being allowed by special vote to use a portion of the money assigned them for a "woman school" in the summer season.
Near the opening of the following winter, the town voted "that five Schooles be Sett agoine att once," that "each Quarter provide his own School-master," and that "each Schoole have its Equal proportion of money Exclusive of the most Northerly and Westerly people who may Draw their proportion of Schoole money and Spend it among themselves in Schooling."
The desire for a school building in the extreme west part of the town (now South Gardner) grew very naturally with the increase of population in that direction. For several years in succession the voters were called upon to act upon the question of erecting one there, but with adverse result. At length, on the 18th of January, 1779, the town voted "to build a Schoole- house in the Westerly part of the town," "and that it shall be set on Mr. William Bickford's Land on the County Roade or the Roade Leading to Mr. Timothy [Seth] Howard's [Heywood's] House where the major part of the Squaderon shall appoint." The house was erected pursuant to these votes, and was the first schoolhouse within the limits of the present town of Gardner. It stood on South Main Street, as it is called, some fifty rods northwest of the hotel near the dwelling of Mr. Amos B. Minott.
There were now six school divisions or squadrons in the town, among which the school appropriation, after allowing the most northerly people to draw their proportionate share to use as they saw fit, was equally divided. In December, 1779, it was made a requisite that the candidates for teachers should be "approbated" by the selectmen before being employed.
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