History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 148

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 148

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In 1848 the town of Worcester, leaving its village life, became a chartered city. There were then fifty- two teachers, something less than three thousand scholars, and the annual expenditure was about fif- teen thousand dollars. All the powers and duties of the several school districts and their overseers now passed into the control of a School Committee, of which the mayor is, ex-officio, the head.

The present High School building was dedicated to public use in the year 1871. The need of greater ac- commodation having long been apparent, it had been suggested that the old building be taken for other uses and a suitable structure erected. After some years of delay the matter was approved by the School Committee, and their report, accompanied by a peti- tion signed by more than a thousand citizens, was laid before the City Council. This body, by its com- mittee on education, forthwith entered on the duty of erecting a building which, it was hoped, would answer the public needs for many years. The old building, as has been said, was removed, and the new one put on the same lot, bnt a few feet farther west. The city was then passing through an era of great prosperity, and the views of the committee in charge of the work were of a liberal order. It is . not to be doubted that the comprehensive mind of the then mayor, James B. Blake, largely shaped the plans that were adopted. By a happy fortune the preparing of a design was entrusted to Mr. H. H. Richardson, who, though then but little known, was soon to achieve fame as America's great architect. He was the junior of Gambrill & Richardson, archi- tects, of New York. In this early work the breadth of treatment and leaning toward the classic, so char- acteristic of Richardson's later productions, are easily observable. To relieve the expansive front he proposed a square clock-tower, which, rising to nearly twice the height of the main building, sh uld end in a very graceful and slow-tapering spire. Four smaller spires, set on the corners of the chief struct- ure, gave correspondence to the whole work. The material being brick, various colors were introduced, and to some extent a whitish sandstone, that har- monized well with the rest. This striking design

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was accepted, and the work committed to builders, the Norcross Brothers, who have since carried to completion many of the most remarkable works of this gifted man. The designer and the builder, the mind and the head, thus fitly came together. The building has three floors, on the upper of which is a large hall used for assembling, for general purposes, all the pupils. There are, beside this, nineteen lofty and well-lighted recitation or lecture-rooms, with proper accommodation for five hundred scholars. At the present writing the number in attendance is much beyond that, and it is plain that before many months other arrangements will need to be made. The original division into a classical and an English department is observed, and the course of study is such that a graduate is quite competent to make un- limited advance thereafter in the way of self-culture without recourse to any college. The modern lan- guages receive special attention both as literatures and colloquially, and the instruction in physics, the general sciences and mathematics, is justly regarded as very good. From the classical department the pupils go with honor to a dozen different colleges. The present principal, Alfred S. Roe, an alumnus of Wesleyan University, has had charge of the school during eight years, and has the aid of an able corps of teachers. They are twenty-two in number,-nine men and thirteen women,-sixteen being graduates of college, and all of some collegiate training.

The interest of the people in the High School is well indicated by the many gifts which liberal citi- zens have made from time to time for the purpose of adding to its efficiency or beauty. At the opening of the old High School building, in 1844, Stephen Salis- bury purchased, for the use of the pupils, a set of philosophical apparatus that was very complete for the time. In 1859 Alexander H. Bullock, afterward Governor of the Commonwealth, established a fund for the purpose of giving medals annually to profi- cient students. This fund was later, by consent of the donor, changed to a fund for the benefit of the library and the purchase of apparatus. When the present building was dedicated other free-minded citi- zens gave a clock for the tower, a bell, bronze foun- tains and works of art. Of late years, too, the cus- tom has become established for retiring classes to put , on the walls, or in the lobbies of the building, some portrait or bust of famous men, of the ancient or modern days.

Many other noble gifts have been added, and a fine memorial tablet placed on the walls, testifying to the service of the High School boys in the armies of our country.

The present situation of the schools may be briefly described. The city owns over forty buildings, used exclusively for school-keeping, ranging from the elaborate High School to the humblest suburban school-house. These are valued, stating it roundly, at one million dollars. More than three hundred

teachers are employed, and the total enrollment of pupils is over fourteen thousand. The expenditure for school purposes last year was two hundred and forty thousand dollars, being about one-fifth of all the taxes paid in the city. These figures are drawn from the annual report of 1887.

The care of the schools is vested, as before said, in the mayor and a committee of twenty-four persons. Each ward of the city has three members in the com- mittee, the term of office being three years. One member is chosen by ballot at the annual election, in each ward, and thus no more than a third of the committee are new to the work at any one time.

Certain standing sub-committees are named by the mayor in January of each year. These consist of five or six persons each, and have certain special matters left to them. Thus, there are at present five standing committees,-i.e., on school-houses, on books and apparatus, on teachers, on appointments and on finance.

There are also minor committees of visitation, named by the committee on appointments, whose duties are specially to visit and oversee the doings of the school to which they are assigned. Thus, in theory, at least, every school has frequent visits by its special committeeman, and is also open to the calls of any and all members of the committee. Both the minor and the standing committees report their doings and recommendations to the full com- mittee, at a stated monthly meeting.

It would appear readily, from the foregoing, that the citizens chosen to these honorable and responsi- ble duties are in daily close touch with the schools. But it is a truism that in these busy and material days few citizens are found able, even if willing, to give their time freely to the public concerns. It is therefore fortunate that the Commonwealth has pro- vided a medium between the School Committees and the pupils, in the person and office of a superinten- dent of schools. The appointment of such an agent, being first authorized by law in 1854, has become habitual in all the larger towns of the State. Three men, before the present incumbent, have held that office in Worcester, viz .: Rev. George Bushnell, in 1858; Rev. J. D. E. Jones, during seven years up to 1865; and Col. B. P. Chenoweth, during two and a half years following the late war.

The present superintendent, Albert P. Marble, Ph.D., entered upon duty in October, 1868. He is a graduate of Colby University, and is, at present, president of the National Educational Association. During the twenty years of his service the cares of the office have more than doubled with the increase of the school population.

There was a time, fresh in our memory, when the duty of a committeeman, after the teacher had been engaged and sent to his work, was to attend at inter- vals, look important and ask a few hard questions. Everything else took care of itself.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

To-day the superintendent of schools in Worces- ter is the chief of a great bureau of administration. He is a director of hundreds and thousands who unite in work as he orders.

Far from being able frequently to visit one teacher after another, and supervise his or her particular mode of teaching, he must sit in the centre, and see that the great business goes on in all its departments. The danger is, that a " machine" will be created, and individuality of teacher and pupil be everywhere im- paired. Such a result is especially to be feared where, as here, the schools being of necessity graded, the pupils go from one to another by stated examina- tions. A distinct effort to avoid this evil, and to pro- mote originality rather than system, has been a char- acteristic of the present superintendence of the Wor- cester schools. Among the means to this end have been the frequent assembling of teachers in confer- ence, the urging upon them of private culture and the finding for pupils subjects of study or reading supplementary to the usual books, and designed to enliven their mental frame. In the matter of ex- amination for promotion, while there is a formal ex- ercise of that nature in the schools, both teacher and pupil are aware that the final test is the judgment of the teacher, based on daily notice of the pupil during the term past. Thus the much - complained - of strain of examination day, and the weeks before, is to a large degree avoided. Thus, too, the schools become a field of training for the many, and the av- erage scholar, apt to be slow, is not made to suffer that the few brightest may shine forth.

A most useful adjunct to the public schools is fonnd in the State Normal School. This is one of several schools established in different parts of the Common- wealth, in order to teach the teachers the art of teach- ing. It is doubtless true in this art, as in that of poetry, that the greatest is born, not made. Never- theless, as it is possible to teach the elements of the poetic art, so it must be to show the moderately well-equipped scholar what it is to teach, though na- ture may not have given him the grand secret for himself. The State Board of Education, by a resolve (of the General Court), which went into effect in June, 1871, were authorized and required to establish a Normal School in the city of Worcester; and the trustees of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital were au- thorized and required to convey, for this purpose, a tract of land of not more than five acres, to be located by the Governor and Council, within certain limits. An appropriation of sixty thousand dollars was made, upon condition that the city of Worcester should pay the Board of Education, for the purposes named in the resolve, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. This condition was promptly complied with. The tract was located by the Governor and Council September 2, 1871, and a few days later the conveyance was made by the trustees of the hospital to the Board of Education and its successors, in trust, as directed.

The Normal School was opened to pupils in Sep- ber, 1874, the present principal, E. Harlow Russell, then assuming charge. The tract of land taken was a part of what had been called Hospital Grove, on a hill of considerable height, and with ledges of rock cropping out here and there. The stone for the building was quarried on the spot, and a massive and sufficiently imposing structure prepared. From any part of the grove one looks down on the bee-hive of Worcester, where, within a stone's throw, every kind of industry, in wood or iron, is pursned, and from the top of the building an extensive view may be had, ranging over several neighboring towns. The inner arrangements of the building are of a specially con- venient and liberal sort, being devised by the princi- pal, according to comfort and good sense.

The Board of Education, in 1880, declared the object of the school as follows :

The design of the Normal School is strictly professional, that is, to prepare io the best possible manner the pupils for the work of orgall- izing, goveroiug and teaching the public schools of the Commonwealth. To this end there must be the most thorough koowledge, first, of the branches of learning required to be taught in the schools ; second, of the best methods of teaching these branches; and third, of right men- tal training. The time of one course extends through a period of two years, of the other through a period of four years, and is divided into terms of twenty weeks each, with daily sessions of not less than five days each week.

The studies of the two years' course are such as prop- erly to fit the ordinary scholar for usefulness in the lower grades of the public schools, and a diploma to that effect is awarded. The four years' course being much more comprehensive, the student is required to take up Latin and French, with the privilege of Ger- man and Greek. During both courses very special attention is given to the science of education and the art of teaching, and the graduate goes forth a well- fitted teacher for any school whatever. The required age for admission, in young men, is seventeen years ; in young women, sixteen years. If the applicant proposes to teach in the Massachusetts schools, his tuition and all text-books are free; otherwise there is an annual fee of thirty dollars. The principal is assisted by seven accomplished teachers, and the number of pupils in the last year was almost two hundred. Since the opening of the school there have been three hundred and forty-five graduates. A fea- ture of the Normal School, which attaches it closely to the city public schools, is the apprenticeship system, so called. This is described in the annual catalogue, as follows :

The student, after three terms, or a year and a half in the Norma School, is allowed to go into one of the public schools of the city of Worcester to serve as assistant to the teacher of that school ; to take part in the instruction, management and general work of teaching un- der the direction of the teacher ; and even to act as substitute for the teacher for an hour, a half-day or a day, at the discretion of the latter and with the approval of the superintendent. One student only at a time is essigned to any one teacher ; but each student serves io at least tbree grades of schools in the course of his terin of service, the dura- tion of which is six months or half a school year. After finishing his apprenticeship the student resumes his course at the Normal School, spending another half year there before receiving his diploma.

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WORCESTER.

Regarding this system, it is not, of course, claimed that it is new. On the contrary, it is drawn from the experience of European countries. In its application here it has fully met expectation, and receives the constant approval of the School Committee. It should be said that the apprenticeship is voluntary-but those who look forward conscientiously to teaching are glad usually of the opportunity to see what they can do.

The anniversary of the Normal School, with its accompanying address, is one of the most interesting occasions that the round year offers to Worcester resi- dents. Among those who have made formal addresses have been William T. Harris, LL.D., Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D., Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, President G. Stanley Hall, now of Clark University ; Charles Dud- ley Warner, Professor E. S. Morse, of Salem, and John Fiske, of Cambridge. Thus is the graduate, ! as he takes leave of the still home of delightful study, cheered on his road to culture by the persuasions of ripe minds and bright wits.

II. INCORPORATED INSTITUTIONS.

COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS .- The inspiration to the founding of this institution came from the Right Reverend Benedict Joseph Fenwick, second bishop of Boston. It had long been a wish cherished by him to establish within his domain an institution for higher secular culture. The opportunity seemed to be at hand when, in 1842, the Rev. James Fitton, who had built a seminary for young men on the slope of Packachoag Hill, in Worcester, offered to give what he had there, with sixty acres of land, to the bishop. The site and the offer were altogether such as were desirable, and steps were at once taken towards the carrying out of the great project. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus, being asked to assume charge of the enterprise, did so in the autumn of 1843. Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy was appointed president, and temporary occupation was made of the old seminary and other small buildings, pending the erection (which was at once begun) of an imposing structure of brick and granite. With few students, and amid much financial distress, the work was urged forward. In 1846 the founder, Bishop Fenwick, dying, his body was brought and laid in the small cemetery, almost within the shadow of the college. In 1849, a class being almost ready to graduate, it was thought well that a charter of incorporation be asked from the State, so that the customary degrees might be granted. The application was refused when laid before the General Court, but another expedient presented itself. The young men being certified as worthy of a degree, in whatever department, the Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia, granted them the corresponding degrees, and so continued to do for many years.

In the year 1852 the college met with a misfortune which came near ending its career, the buildings

being almost entirely destroyed by an accidental fire. The loss was said to be fifty thousand dollars, witlı no insurance. Not enough remained of the buildings even to shelter the students, so that one hundred of them were billeted in various friendly houses in the city on the night following the fire. This calamity led to a temporary suspension of the college, and many feared a permanent abandonment of the enter- prise; but such was not the mind of its faithful friends. They came promptly to the rescue, money was contributed, new buildings begun, and in October of the year following Holy Cross was again ready to receive its students. During the fourteen months that had passed since the fire the students had scat- tered into many other institutions, and the number that returned was small. The opening was really a begin- ning, as if on a new foundation. The college, however, throve and grew, though slowly, and began to gain, as an institution, the favorable regard of many who were not Catholics. Among these was the great Gov- ernor, John A. Andrew. He visited the college in 1862, and attended the annual Commencement of the year following. It would appear that he was much impressed with the value of the training given, for he personally suggested to the faculty the wisdom of again applying for a charter of incorporation. The Legislature of 1865, when a charter was asked for, was found to be of different mind from that of 1849, and the much-desired instrument was obtained without opposition. It gives the faculty power to confer all such degrees as are usually conferred by colleges in the Commonwealth, except medical degrees.

The present situation of things at Holy Cross may be briefly described. One vast brick building, three hundred and twenty feet long, contains the lecture and recitation rooms, the library, chapel, dormitories for two hundred students, and the necessary apart- ments for the president and faculty. The president, Samuel Cahill, S.J., is assisted hy a corps of twenty professors and instructors. The schedule of studies is in accord with that usually approved by the So- ciety of Jesus, the course being ordinarily completed in seven years. The student is made familiar with the best Latin and Greek authors, while, side by side with these studies, goes a course in mathematics, ex- tending to the highest branches. The modern lan- guages receive special attention, as well as history in its manifold relations. In the last year of a student's stay he is especially trained in rational philosophy and the natural sciences. It is obvious that the pro- duct of study, as here pursued, is an exact and careful scholar, of high general culture. As might be naturally supposed, a considerable share of the graduates turn towards the priesthood, yet far the larger part are found to engage in the secular professions and in the varied employments of the day, whereby wealth and station may be secured.

THE WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE .- This

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

institution originated in a fund of one hundred thon- sand dollars, given by John Boynton, of Templeton, in Worcester County. His purpose was to found a school, free to all residents of the county, wherein young men might learn, in addition to the ordinary subjects of study, some or all of the useful mechanic arts. The project commended itself to other men of philanthropic mind, and epecially to the Hon. Stephen Salisbury and the Hon. Ichabod Washburn, both of whom added large sums to the original gift. The citizens of Worcester united also in a liberal sub- scription, so that, at length, the endowment amounted to nearly a half-million dollars. The institution was incorporated in 1865, and the work of preparation so pushed on that in November, 1868, the doors were thrown open to students. The charter gave the name of the institution as "The Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science ; " but this somewhat cumbrous title, however expressive of the founder's intention, was changed in 1887, by special act of the Legislature, to that given above. Two theories were entertained as to the proper scope of the school. Should it be chiefly a school of the manual arts, add- ing thereto some knowledge of the scientific side of industrial processes ? Should it, on the other hand, be a school of science, adding, however, a sufficient manual knowledge to enable the student intelli- gently to direct or engage in industrial processes ? Probably most persons expected the former theory to be adopted, and looked forward to the produc- tion of a class of skilled workmen, but the second view prevailed with the governing body of the insti- tute, and remains to-day the policy of the school.

Charles O. Thompson, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and a specialist in chemistry, returning from an examination of the best European polytechnic schools, was placed at the head of the faculty. He proposed a three years' course of study, afterward extended to four years, with a standard of scholar- ship higher than most young men who at first came for instruction could attain. The proportion of grad- uátes was therefore small during several years, and some persons doubted if the aims of the principal were not unreasonable. Fortunately his views pre- vailed, though the future of the Institute was for several years a matter of grave doubt. As the grade of scholarship required became known, more capable students presented themselves, and the weaker stayed away ; so that at length the high ideal was met, and the graduates began to be everywhere allowed the first rank among men of scientific ability. Professor Thompson retired from the post of principal in order to assume the organization of a similar institute at Terre Haute, Indiana, from which post he was soon unhappily removed by death. He was succeeded by the present principal, Homer T. Fuller, Ph.D., who assumed duty in 1883. The institute has now fifteen professors and instructors, and one hundred and fifty students. The buildings, used exclusively for in-

struction and practice, are four in number. Boynton Hall contains the offices of administration, the chapel, lecture, recitation and drawing-rooms. In the Wash- burn machine-shop, work is practically done in wood and iron, certain machines of which the institute has the control being sold to all parts of America. The Salisbury Labratory, a new building, contains the mechanical, chemical and physical laboratories, and the lecture-rooms connected therewith. This build- ing is a gift to the institute by Stephen Salisbury, who has also devoted to public uses a considerable piece of land, the Institute Park. In a fourth build- ing is the magnetic observatory, with special appli- ances for isolation and accuracy. The established course of study is mainly scientific, with competent instruction in the modern languages. Those students who purpose to become mechanical engineers are taught practically the art of construction, being re- quired to devote a specified part of their time to prac- tice in the machine-shop.

Schools like the Polytechnic Institute are obviously a result of the material development of our country. The world is over-grown with wealth, and all the wealth only stimulates to the discovery of new ways of adding to the accumulation. Mines must be opened, ores reduced by new methods, the secrets of chemistry laid open, bridges built where our fathers would have deemed it impossible, mountains bur- rowed, and canals constructed that the navies of con- tinents may pass by short-cuts from one ocean to another. That all this may be best done, requires just the kind of man that may be found in the insti- tute graduates. "Studies," said my Lord Bacon, " serve for delight, for ornament and for ability." At the institute, it may be said that they serve for ability. The careless young man, whose parents want him to get a taste of cultivation, finds this school unconge- nial. The ordinary levity of student life has little lodgment, and ability to do has more weight than all other considerations. The graduate goes forth a capable director in the special industry he has chosen for himself, a good chemist, engineer, constructor, a captain of industry.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 148

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