History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 146

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 146

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The library has been selected with the purposes of supplying popular needs and a variety of tastes, and has a large collection of scientific books and of works relating to the applications of science to the indus- trial and particularly the mechanic arts.

A reading-room was established in 1864. That is supplied with many reviews, magazines, scientific and other papers.

The library and reading-room can be used only by members of the Mechanics Association and their families. Both are extensively used. They are maintained by an annual appropriation by the trus- tees of the association. The amount of that the present year is $1500.

This sketch embodies information furnished from the records and reports of the Mechanics Association by its treasurer, William A. Smith, Esq.

LIBRARY OF THE WORCESTER COUNTY LAW LI- BRARY ASSOCIATION .- The association organized June 21, 1842, under the provisions. contained in Chapter 94 of the Massachusetts Statutes of 1842. For a history of the laws which have been made by the Commonwealth respecting law library associa- tions, further references may be made to the General Statutes of 1860, Chapter 33, and to the Public Stat- utes of 1882, Chapter 40. See also the Statutes for 1882, Chapter 246, and those for 1885, Chapter 345.

Before the establishment of the present library there appears to have been somewhere in Worcester a meagre collection of law books, which the court and bar were at liberty to consult. Little is known, however, regarding the earlier library.

The existing collection is one of the best working law libraries in the country. The books in it are nearly all recent purchases, and they have been care- fully selected with reference to the actual needs of occupants of the bench and members of the bar. The library contains complete sets of all the reports

of the United States Courts and of the courts in the different States and Territories of the country and in England and Ireland, and a very full collection of books which treat of English and American law in all its branches. It is also rich in English and Ameri- can periodical law literature. Additions are contin- ually made to the library. It has been of great advantage to the institution, that for thirty years it has been zealously cared for by Hon. Thomas L. Nel- son, who is now the judge of the United States Court for the district of Massachusetts. It is well known that for twenty years Judge Nelson has been almost alone instrumental in securing means for building up the library and in selecting books to be added to it.

Fees paid by clerks of courts into the county treas- ury up to the amount of two thousand dollars are payable to the treasurer of the Worcester County Law Library Association. To this source of income must be added fees received by the county treasurer from clerks of courts, which have been collected by the latter, in the processes of naturalizing foreign-born men, and occasional special grants from the county commissioners. That board is allowed by law to make such grants, in its discretion, to the Law Library Association from moneys in the treasury of the county. The cost of the services of an assistant librarian and minor running expenses of the library amount to about six hundred dollars annually. The remainder of the income, which is a somewhat variable amount, but always a handsome sum of money, is available for the purchase of books. The library has received one gift which deserves mention. It consisted of eight hundred volumes, which were given to it by the will of the late Charles D. Bowman, Esquire, of Oxford, in 1858. There are now more than eleven thousand volumes in the library. When an addition was made to the South Court-House, in 1878, a large room was provided in it for the use of the library. That room is now occupied by it. The library is open the secular days of the week between the hours of 9 A.M. and 1 P.M. and from 2 to 5 P.M. Every inhabitant of the county is entitled to use the books of the Law Library, subject to such regulations as may be pre- scribed by the association which manages it, with the approval of the Supreme Court. The present libra- rian is T. S. Johnson, Esquire.

Several portraits of eminent, past and present, members of the Worcester County bar adorn the library room. Of those which have been given to the association and accepted by it, the portraits of the following judges, all deceased, hang in that room : Pliny Merrick, Benjamin F. Thomas, Charles Allen, Dwight Foster, the first two and the last having occu- pied seats on the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court. and the third having been chief justice of the Super- ior Court. Beside these portraits are others of the late Peter C. Bacon, and of United States Senator George F. Hoar. In the library room there is also a photograph from a portrait of Charles Devens, one of

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the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court. Portraits of Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, and of his son, Gov- ernor Levi Lincoln, and of Governor Emory Wash- burn have been placed on the walls of the court- room in the stone court-house, and a portrait of Ira M. Barton, formerly a judge of Probate, hangs in the Probate Court-room, in the same building. These belong to the Law Library Association.

The information contained in the foregoing sketch has been obtained from William T. Harlow, Esquire, clerk of the Worcester County Law Library Associ- ation, and from another officer of the society.

LIBRARY OF THE WORCESTER COUNTY HORTI- CULTURAL SOCIETY .- The Horticultural Society be- gan to collect a library in the year 1844, four years after its formation and two years after it became a chartered organization. The library is in the build- ing of the society, 18 Front Street, which was dedi- cated in the autumn of 1852, and is called Horticul- tural Hall. Before it was moved to that place, in 1861 or 1862, it had for many years been kept in the office of Mr. Clarendon Harris. The library began in a humble way under the fostering care of Doctor John Green, the first president of the society, Frederick W. Paine, Isaac Davis, Samuel F. Haven, William Lincoln, Anthony Chase, Samuel H. Colton, Claren- don Harris and others, and has grown gradually to its present size of about two thousand bound volumes. It also contains six hundred pamphlets and unbound periodicals.

The works in the library treat of horticulture in all its branches. It also contains two hundred volumes relating to agriculture. While the library owns many books of historical interest, its strength lies in works on horticulture and agriculture which have been published during the last forty years. It has a good collection of sets of English, French and American periodicals that belong to the department of horti- culture. The library has been carefully selected with reference to the wants of its users. Books may be taken to their homes by members of the society. About three hundred volumes are taken out yearly. Probably twice as many are consulted in the library room every year.

brary and for providing periodicals for the reading- room.

The late Judge Francis H. Dewey recently left to the society a fund of one thousand dollars, the income of which is to be used for buying books for the library. The librarians of the society have been Anthony Chase, 1844 to 1851 ; Clarendon Harris, 1851 to 1862; Edward W. Lincoln, 1862 to 1871 ; George E. Francis, 1871 ; Edward W. Lincoln, 1872 to 1874; William T. Harlow, 1874; John C. Newton, 1875 to 1879; Charles E. Brooks, 1879, present incumbent.

The information embodied in this sketch has been obtained from Mr. Brooks, the librarian, and Mr. Edward W. Lincoln, the secretary and enthusiastic friend of the Horticultural Society.

LIBRARY OF THE WORCESTER COUNTY MUSICAL ASSOCIATION .- The association was formed in 1858, but did not begin to collect a library until five years later. Before 1863 it hired such musical works as it had occasion to use from publishers and others. It now has a very valuable musical library. It possesses more than sixteen thousand volumes of oratorios, can- tatas and other large choral works, which have been brought out by the association at its concerts and fes- tivals. It has scores and orchestra parts for about twenty such musical compositions. Besides the larger works it owns nearly five thousand copies of chorus selections from various authors, in sheets. The col- lection of the Worcester County Musical Association stands in New England next to that of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston in the size and value of its library of choral works, and probably exceeds greatly in those respects every other musical library of a similar kind in this section of the country. Mr. George W. Elkins is the present librarian aud has held that position for many years.

LIBRARY OF THE WORCESTER CHORAL UNION .- The Worcester Mozart and the Worcester Beethoven Societies united November 16, 1866, under the name of the Worcester Mozart and Beethoven Choral Union, and the new organization was incorporated, with the name of the Worcester Choral Union, March 31, 1871. The act of incorporation was accepted in the follow- ing year, and officers were chosen September 9, 1872. The present librarian is Mr. G. Arthur Smith. The library consists of three thousand one hundred and fifty-four volumes and pieces of music. No additions have been made to it for several years, and at the present time (February, 1889) it is packed in boxes and stored in the basement of one of the churches of Worcester.

Although, strictly speaking, none but members can use the books of the Horticultural Society, it should be added that the library is administered in the spirit of general helpfulness and that information can really be obtained from it by all persons who need it. The large room which it occupies is used as a reading- room, and that is supplied with the current numbers The facts given in the last two sketches were fur- nished to me respectively by Mr. A. C. Monroe, secre- tary of the Worcester County Musical Association, and Mr. G. Arthur Smith, the present librarian of the Worcester Choral Union. of leading horticultural magazines and papers of England and America. The library is inferior to that of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Boston, but is still one of the best collections of its kind in the country. An annual appropriation of LIBRARY OF THE WORCESTER SOCIETY OF AN- TIQUITY .- The Society of Antiquity was formed in three hundred dollars is made by the Horticultural Society for the maintenance and growth of the li- | 1875. 'It began to collect a library two years later.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

That became at once available for the use of members of the society, but it was not opened to the public at stated hours, according to the plan observed to-day, until 1883. The library possesses six thousand one hundred and seventeen volumes, and seventeen thou- sand three hundred and forty-two pamphlets. A considerable portion of it consists of town histories, genealogies, and works treating of other subjects of especial interest to persons making investigations of the kind which members of such an organization as the Society of Antiquity would wish to engage in. The library grows almost wholly by gifts. The largest and most valuable of those which it has re- ceived is the library of the late Rev. George Allen. That was bought with money raised by subscription, by Hon. George F. Hoar, and presented to the society. The largest sums of money were subscribed by the late Mr. David Whitcomb, and by Mr. George Sum- ner. Mr. . Allen's library numbered twenty-three hundred volumes and a like number of pamphlets. Besides containing books of other kinds, it " has been pronounced by competent authority to be one of the best representative collections of the New England theology of the olden time ever brought together" in this vicinity. This gift was received in the spring of 1884. Early in the following year Mrs. Charlotte Downes, of Washington, D. C., presented to the society the library of her late husband, Mr. John Downes. Both Mr. and Mrs. Downes had, at an earlier period, been residents of Worcester. The "Downes collection," as it is called, comprises four hundred and seventy-nine volumes, fifty-eight pam- phlets, besides a noteworthy accumulation of six hundred and thirty-one almanacs, broadsides, papers, manuscripts, etc., which had been bronght together by its former owner during the passage of a long life. It contains copies of twelve different editions of the " New England Primer," among them a copy of the original work issned in 1779, and a number of publi- cations of Isaiah Thomas for children and other per- sons. The Society of Antiquity needs a fund, the in- come of which may be expended in the care and management of the library, and in buying books for it. The books now in the library are largely used. They are roughly classified as they appear on the shelves, but the library has not, as yet, either a printed or a manuscript catalogue. Members of the Society of Antiquity are provided with keys to the door which opens into the library rooms, and people gen- erally can use the books at certain hours in the week, which can be found out by reference to the City Direc- tory.

This sketch embodies information obtained from the printed Proceedings of the Society of Antiquity and from Mr. Franklin P. Rice, an influential mem- ber of that society.

LIBRARIES OF COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, &C .- In the library of the College of the Holy Cross there are about 15,000 volumes. These, writes the librarian, are

"arranged, for the present, in three principal rooms : the Theological, the Historical and the Academic ; with a fourth apartment for miscellanies." He adds that as the library "is mainly intended for the use of the Faculty," and is made up of works which were bought with regard to the needs of the college and of several collections of books which have been be- queathed to it by Catholic clergymen, " theological and literary works" predominate in it. The library possesses an interesting black-letter Bible, in Latin, dated 1487, works by a group of the literati of the period of the Renaissance, copies of early editions of some of the English classics and other noteworthy volumes. While the students in the college have access to the general library " by means of their pro- fessors," they have special libraries to use, that are owned by societies to which they belong.

The library of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute contains 1,560 bound volumes and 1,200 pamphlets ; that of the State Normal School, Worcester, 7,105 vol- umes (2,396 reference-books and 4,709 text-books); that of the Worcester High School, fully 2,000 vol- umes, exclusive of the text-books belonging to the city of Worcester; that of the Worcester Academy, 500 carefully-selected volumes ; and that of the High- land Military Academy, 1,000 volumes. Other public and private schools also have small libraries. In the rooms of the Superintendent of Public Schools there is an interesting and somewhat extensive collection of text-books and of works which treat of schools and education.

LIBRARIES OF HOSPITALS, &C .- In the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, a State institution, there is a patients' library of about 1,900 volumes; 200 or 300 volumes are added to it ycarly. These are bought with the in- come of money left to the hospital by Miss Abigail Wheeler and Miss Sarah C. Lewis. The bequest of the former amounted to $4,600, that of the latter to $1,300. The library is divided among different classes of books in about the following proportions : Fiction, 42 per cent .; Travels, 7 per cent .; History, 12 per cent. ; Biography, Il per cent. ; Science, 2 per cent .; Poetry, 4 per cent .; Religious works, 2 per cent. ; bound magazines, 20 per cent. The hospital has a medical library of about 300 volumes.

The Worcester Insane Asylum, also a State institu- tion, is not provided adequately with books, having only about two hundred volumes in all for the use of physicians and patients. The trustees have no fund in their charge, the income of which may be spent in the purchase of books, but they have lately voted a small appropriation to be used in fonnding a li- brary for patients. The superintendent is allowed to buy medical books in the exercise of his discretion, and the hospital is gradually acquiring a working library of books relating to the specialty of in- sanity.

The City Hospital has a medical library of about two hundred volumes and a collection of plates. It

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has the income of the Curtis fund, one thousand dol- lars, and of the Sargent fund, five hundred dollars, to use in making additions to this library.

The patients' library consists of about two hun- dred bound volumes of miscellaneous contents, and has thus far relied in its accumulation upon the vol- untary contributions of friends. The hospital has the nucleus of a library for nurses. At present this contains only about a dozen volumes and some pam- phlets, but the superintendent expresses the hope that it may soon be increased. It is intended that this library shall be made up very largely of works which treat of nursing and the care of the sick.

The Worcester County Homoeopathic Medical So- ciety has a library of about one thousand volumes.

OTHER LIBRARIES .- The Worcester Natural His- tory Society has a little library of three hundred and ninety bound volumes and about a hundred nnbound volumes and pamphlets. The library which it nses at the camp in summer is additional to the one in its rooms, and consists at present of one hundred and fifteen volumes. A reading-room, supplied with magazines, is open to members of the society.

The library of the Chamberlain District Farmers' Club is usually included in a list of Worcester libra- ries. It consists only, however, of about fifty vol- umes of agricultural reports, reports from agricnl- tural colleges and experiment stations, and United States consular reports.

There are a few libraries in Worcester, intended for grown-up persons, which are connected with Protestant religious societies in the place. The most important of these, perhaps, is the Bangs Library of the old Second Parish. This library was founded by Edward D. Bangs, who will be remembered as having been for several years Secretary of State in this Commonwealth. Mr. Bangs was a member of the Second Parish, and at his death left to the society the "sum of four hundred dollars, as a perpetual fund for a parish library, the income of which is to be applied to the purchase of useful books, particu- larly such as may be adapted to the religious and moral improvement of the young." The late Stephen Salisbury, also a member of the society, left to the Second Parish the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, the income of which is nsed in buying books for the Bangs Library. The library consists at present of 1020 volumes.

The Library of the Jail and House of Correction contains five hundred volumes. It is made up of stories, histories, biographies, religious works and a selection of books made with especial reference to the wants of Roman Catholic prisoners.

There is a collection of books in the rooms of the city clerk at the City Hall, which, as well as other libraries in different offices in that building, is val- BY EDWARD B. GLASGOW, A.M. I .- PUBLIC SCHOOLS. uable for municipal purposes. It is unnecessary to state that there are Sunday-school libraries belong- IT appears from the ancient records of Worcester ing to different churches in Worcester. Mr. Jonas G. that an ineffectual effort " to provide a writing master

Clark has given a somewhat large collection of books to the university which he has fonnded in Wor- cester. Very little is known, as yet, regarding the library, which still remains in Mr. Clark's possession. It is certain, however, that it contains many val- uable works and numerous specimens of choice binding.

This chapter is devoted to giving a history and description of public libraries. It may not be im- proper to state here, however, that in the library of the late John B. Gongh, the temperance orator, now in the possession of his widow, there is, perhaps, the best collection of the illustrations of the late George Crnikshank to be found in the world. Mr. Gough always hailed from Worcester when travel- ing and had his letters directed to him here, although his late residence, now occupied by his widow, is in the adjoining town of Boylston.

Among the libraries belonging to Catholic in- stitutions there are, besides the library of the Col- lege of the Holy Cross, which has been described already, the " Sodality Library " in the Catholic In- stitute which belongs to St. John's Parish and con- sists of twelve hundred volumes, miscellaneons in character, which are used principally by members of the Sodality and of St. John's Guild, but which others who wish to do so may read ; the library in the school-honse on Vernon Street, which is called the Sunday-school library, and which is also owned by St. John's Parish. This consists of two thousand vol- umes on various subjects, but selected with reference to drawing out and developing moral qualities in the young, and is nsed mainly by attendants at Sunday- school, although free to other who may wish to use it ; a library of one hundred and fifty reference and other books in the rooms occupied by the school of the highest grade in the same school-house; the Sodality library in the Convent of Mercy, on High Street, which consists of nine hundred and fifty vol- umes of histories, hiographies, devotional works, tales, etc., for the use chiefly of grown-up persons ; the library of St. Anne's Church, which contains five hundred volumes of a miscellaneons character and that of the Young Ladies' Society connected with the Church of the Sacred Heart, which consists at pres- ent of three hundred volumes.

CHAPTER CLXXXIII.

WORCESTER-(Continued.)

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to instruct the youth " was made at a town-meeting held in December, 1725. Worcester was then, as it might be said, but just established ; for though some lands had been granted in this vicinity as early as 1657, various accidents, including the two wars of " King Philip" and Queen Anne, had prevented any permanent settlement until 1713.

The persons who had failed to obtain the writing- master in 1725 were not dispirited thereby ; for a few months later, at a town-meeting, it was voted that the selectmen provide a sufficient school. Never- theless, the end was not yet accomplished. In De- cember, 1726, the question being raised again at a town-meeting, it was decided not to have a school. The great question would not, however, settle itself in so easy a manner. It arose once more in May, 1727, and a committee was named to provide a school- master for one year. This would seem a substantial settling of the matter; and in January, 1728, as we find it recorded, the town granted sixteen pounds, ten shillings to pay the schoolmaster, but it also then authorized the assessment of other moneys to meet a penalty. The committee of May, 1727, had not attended to its duty, and no school had been set up ; but the men of Worcester, hard-headed and positive, after the fashion both of Puritan and Saxon, were not thus to be trifled with. Certain citizens made complaint, and the town was " presented " by the Grand Jury for not providing a school. In con- sequence, the inhabitants of Worcester had to pay the charges of the legal process, viz., two pounds, eight shillings, six pence. This drastic remedy for neglect seems to have worked a cure; for thereafter the records, by direct or indirect mention, show that a school or schools were habitually maintained.

By the year 1731, there being then one hundred householders, as it is believed, it would seem that the needs of the town in respect to schools had much in- creased. Not only a schoolmaster was provided, but it was voted that a number of " school dames, not ex- ceeding five," should be employed for the benefit of the small children in the remote parts of the town. This was the beginning of a custom, not then nor for many years afterward legalized, of employing women as teachers. It was supposed that a school- master could be a man only, and that the term, as found in the laws, had no inclusive meaning as re- gards the feminine side of humanity. But common sense and the general convenience at last wrought a change in the interpretation of the law. The early schools of course were migratory, going here or there as circumstances might permit, having no fixed place and no exclusive building. The town seems to have thought itself rich enough in 1733 to build a school- house, and provision was made for a very modest structure, " twenty-four feet long, sixteen feet wide," to be placed near the centre. The committee in charge of this matter moved with such slowness, that full five years passed before the building was raised ;

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 146

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464