USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > History of the town of Acton > Part 29
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With this session was inaugurated the full four year course. Two types were offered to meet the needs of those who did and those who did not anticipate further work in college. This was a most important innovation. The details are given herewith as a matter of record.
CLASSICAL COURSE
First Year
Fall
Latin
Arithmetic
Civil Government
Winter
Latin
Arithmetic
Physiology
Spring
Latin (Ceasar) Arithmetic
Physical Geography
Second Year
Fall
Caesar
Algebra
Physics
English Literature
Winter
Caesar
Algebra
Physics
English Literature
Spring
Caesar
Algebra
Physics
English Literature
1 Mr. Charles received a salary of $1000.00 and Miss Fletcher $450.00. Sixty seven scholars enrolled.
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Third Year
Fall Virgil or French Plane Geometry
English History
Winter
Virgil or French
Plane Geometry
English History
Spring
Virgil or French Plane Geometry English History
Fourth Year
Fall
Cicero or French
Zoology General History
Winter
Cicero or French
Astronomy
General History
Spring
Cicero or French Chemistry
Political Economy
ENGLISH COURSE
First Year
Fall
English Grammar Civil Government
Arithmetic
Winter
English Grammar Physiology
Arithmetic
Spring
English Grammar Physical Geography Arithmetic
Second Year
Fall
Rhetoric, English Literature
Algebra
Physics
Winter
Rhetoric, English Literature
Algebra Physics
Spring
Rhetoric, English Literature
Algebra Physics
Third Year
Fall
Fall French Plane Geometry Geology
Winter
Winter French
Plane Geometry
Elocution
Spring
Spring French
Plane Geometry Botany
Fourth Year
Fall
French Zoology Solid Geometry or General History
Winter French Astronomy Solid Geometry or General History
Spring French Chemistry
Solid Geometry or Political Economy
Readings, declamations and compositions throughout each course. Book-keeping once a week.
This move respecting the high school was but one of several which in toto showed that Acton was beginning to really take hold of the whole school set-up in a forthright manner. The South-East school,1 which had been dragging along for several years with but six or eight scholars, was discontinued, and the pupils from that section, including
1 The site was on the east side of Concord St. near its junction with Parker St.
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those who might be ready for high school, were transported to the South village at town expense by Mr. W. S. Jones.2
Immediately thereafter arrangements were made with some fifteen citizens in remote parts of the town, having children of high school age, to defray transportation expenses. Those living in North Acton received nine dollars per child per term, those in East Acton seven dollars, those in the Centre six dollars, and those in West Acton three dollars. It appears that each family was at liberty to transport its child or children in whatever manner seemed best. Those from the West village, since for them the train was available, received the lowest reimbursement. In the case of Mr. Hammond Taylor, who lived in the old Brabrook house, near the intersection of Pope road and Strawberry Hill Road, the problem was acute and the seven dollars he received was no honorarium. His children could, by walking a generous mile along a back country road, arrive at the East Acton depot, make a change at Concord Junction, and eventually arrive at South Acton if the Gods were propitious. The largest sti- pend went to Mr. Charles I. Miller, station agent at North Acton for his three eldest children, Samuel, Alice and Ella.
The new four year course appears to have given rise to a decided esprit-de-corps among the scholars. In November of 1893 there was published the first number of a monthly journal entitled the ACTON- IAN, the contributors to which were all members of the school. This was the first organized literary production, so far as is known, of any Acton school group. Superintendent Dixon was proud of the effort and made it a point to give it special emphasis in his annual report.
The same zeal carried over into other interests. It was during this period that the group gave an entertainment in the town hall, which showed a profit of fifty dollars, for the purchase of a piano.
These evidences that a new line of thought had taken hold of the community outlook on school matters was most pleasing to the con- structive minded citizens of the town but they realized that only a beginning had been made. The method of stove heating was inade- quate; the laboratories for the High School were largely non-existent; and at the first opportunity the schools at the North and East should be merged with the Centre.
During the year 1894, in compliance with state action, the town provided a flag for the several school rooms and initiated the custom of saluting the flag each morning.
Thus far in its career Acton had taken no official notice of the fact that not all the nights were illuminated by bright moonlight. Certain individuals, to be sure, had installed lamps of their own and main-
The building and grounds were purchased from the town for $126.50 by Mr. S. A. Jones of South Acton.
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tained them at personal expense as a civic gesture to the wayfarer. In the town report of March 1884, however, there appears the first recog- nition of the street lighting problem. Twenty five persons, all residing in what is now known as precinct two, are listed as having been paid two dollars and sixty cents per lamp per year. In addition the Acton Centre Improvement Society maintained fifty one lamps spread all over what is now precinct one, and the West Acton Lighting Association was responsible for thirty six. In toto the town made reimbursements totalling three hundred dollars.
An excellent specimen of these early lamps, now illuminated by electricity, stands in front of the residence of Mr. Irving Duren in the Centre, and another in the yard of Mr. Horace Tuttle.
It was also during the busy decade ending in 1890 that the quarry- ing in the town began to assume major proportions. For years there had been shallow strip cuttings to supply guide boards, bar posts, paving blocks, and slabs for underpinning. None of these produced in volume because they were two or three man enterprises in general.
Sometime during the year 1882 Mr. David Harris, together with Mr. Timothy Sullivan, while driving down the old road from Granite- ville saw a huge boulder that attracted their attention as experienced quarrymen. They secured permission to split the rock and while working on it discovered a ledge of prime granite. As a result, after some exploratory drillings the company of Harris, Prescott and Sulli- van came into existance and one of the town's busiest industries thrived for decades. At present, in the personage of Mr. Ray Harris, the youngest of the twelve children of the founder of the project, and his son, the business is going into its third generation. Two or three other sons, as they came to maturity, were also associated with their father or launched out for themselves.
At the end of sixteen years of successful partnership the elder Harris (1851-1936) a native of Wales, bought complete control of the business. In the meantime hundreds of thousands of tons of first grade stone had come out of the great hole where derricks, winches, steam drills, and hand sledges kept a small army of workers busy the year round. Because of its location in an isolated forest many persons in town knew only in a vague way that the quarry existed unless they were reminded of it by the periodic blasting. Down at the finishing sheds there were the signs of activity that could not possibly be ignored. Here there was constant clinking of hammers as master craftsmen wrought in the obdurate stone. On the railway siding there were always flat cars in process of being loaded with curbing, door- sills, monumental blocks, and huge rough stone being shipped un- trimmed to far places to be there cut by local workmen for special purposes.
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The Harris quarry was distinctive in that in one or two places the ledge had faulted and caused a condition known among geologists by the term "slickensides". This can best be explained to the layman by saying that the stone skin of the earth had cracked, both long and deep, and that during that primeval upheaval the two faces of the fissure, rubbing together under prodigious pressure, had become heated and polished and to some extent chemically metamorphosed as compared with the adjacent rock. In consequence, by careful quarrying, hundreds of slabs could be removed having one face of a distinctive texture and coloring highly prized for decorative purposes. The general effect was that of watered silk in pastel shades of green and cream, which, when properly finishd by skilled workmen, was comparable to choice marble.
Today the plant is completely modernized. The huge derricks are gone, the hand letterers have been replaced by slick methods of sand- blasting, and with much less noise and confusion a large volume of business is still turned out with neatness and dispatch and shipped by truck. What used to be an area covered with railroad tracks, steel cables, and stone chips is now a sort of private park with a pictures- que fish pond and facilities for local picnics.
For several years it had been obvious to many that the town should be divided into districts to facilitate voting, particularly for state and national elections. In consequence it was decided at the March meet- ing of 1892 to lay out convenient precincts. Along with this move went two others of importance, namely, to elect all town officers on a single ballot, and to elect the selectmen, one from each precinct, for terms of three years. There was some opposition but a motion to rescind failed of passage. So the Centre became precinct one, the South precinct two, and the West precinct three as at present. Subsequently the lines were altered a bit to permit John Kelley, at Kelley's Corner, and Sidney Richardson, whose son Paul now lives on the old homestead, to be assigned to precinct three.
At the national election in the autumn of 1892, the first to be held under the precinct system, the results were as follows;
Precinct 1 Precinct 2 Precinct 3
Democratic Party
59
67
40
Republican Party
83
90
96
Prohibition Party
0
0
12
People's Party
0
2
0
The surprisingly high Democratic vote was undoubtedly due to the high regard of the general electorate for the honesty and ability of Grover Cleveland. Percentagewise the Democratic vote was thirty seven per cent of the total which appears to be a record for the town except in the case of the Bull Moose split of 1912. In this con-
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nection it is interesting to note that in the campaign of 1940 the vote was Wilkie 1131, Roosevelt 348 and in 1948 Truman polled 335 to 1219 for Dewey. In the landslide of 1952, with nearly ninety four per cent of the registration appearing at the polls Eisenhower carried the town by 1714 to 355.
In addition to the fire at which Rev. James Fletcher lost his life there was at about the same time another one that may have given the citizens cause to think in terms of modern equipment as it was then understood. The large general store that stood just northeast of the Monument House was operated by a stranger to Acton who, according to some, had been unsuccessful in competition with the old established firm of Emery Taylor. In any event on a wild and windy night Woodman's store burned completely to ashes. It was a perfect night for a spot of arson, if such it was, since there was a howling wind and no rain. Partially burned shingles were carried as far as the Great Road and the whole eastern half of the Centre village was in danger of as great a holocaust as that of Civil War days. By sheer luck no other buildings were close enough to be subjected to the direct heat and what brands lighted on roofs were speedily extinguished.
As a result the town voted in the spring of 1893 the hitherto un- precedented sum of fifteen hundred dollars for fire pumps of the type now only seen at firemen's musters. Despite their crudity they were a vast improvement on anything the community had owned hitherto. With all their shortcomings they were to serve until the arrival of a water system and modern power pumps.
To those readers who cannot recall that era it may be of interest to know just what the sequence of events was in case of fire, at least for the Centre village. The others were not too superior to be of note.
If the fire was somewhat outside the village the distressed home owner either aroused some one in the village by telephone or, failing in that, hitched up his horse to a light wagon and drove pell-mell to the town house, climbed in the window at the right of the entrance (it was always left unlocked) and started ringing the massive and heavy toned bell in the clock tower. On a clear night, with a sturdy ringer, the bell has been heard in Westford and hence it is needless to say that the whole village was immediately aroused. The author's childhood home was scarcely a hundred yards distant and he can still shudder at the recollection of the impressive tones of that old bell bursting forth into the calm of the night as his father dressed and was out of the house before it had clanged more than a few dozen times.
The first farmer that could get a pair of horses hitched to a plat- form wagon or a hay rigging set out for the town hall. Usually several arrived at about the same time. Numerous others arrived on foot and all repaired to the long, low shed to the rear of the town
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hall that housed the pump. Heavy plank lay in the shed to serve as an inclined plane to load the pump on to the transporting vehicle and the several loads of volunteers set forth for the conflagration hoping that no essential accessories had been left behind and that when they arrived at their destination there would be some respectable source of water.
If it was the summer season and everything went favorably it might happen that a stream of water would be playing on the fire in fifteen minutes. If, on the other hand, it was a harsh winter night with the thermometer dallying around ten or more below zero, and the house- owner lived far out of the village, and if the fire house was half submerged by the drifts of a driving blizzard, and if the doors were frozen shut, and if, to cap the list of misfortunes, the valves of the old hand tub were frozen solid, the result was pathetic. The frenzied owner could merely sit around and watch his domicile disappear.
Upon one occasion a barn caught fire in a blinding thunder shower. The volunteers turned out in force but emptied the well in about ten minutes. Fortunately there was a small brook, actually a rill, a few rods away, which normally would not have supplied water rapidly enough for the pump but due to the shower it held up amazingly and the fire was subdued.
Sometimes, even under favorable conditions, a fire right in the village in the daytime could not be handled. Such was the case of the old Barker Cider Mill in South Acton which burst into flame one Sunday morning about 1902. Across the road was a deep water hole, fed by a spring, planned for just such an emergency. But with three engines sucking from it the thousands of gallons it contained were soon exhausted. In the meantime the huge storage tanks on the top floor were opening under the heat and their contents was flowing down the hill and along the gutter on Central Street. Some bright mind conceived the idea of building a dam and pumping cider instead of water. Hence the hot cider went round and round until it was dissipated in steam and all but a small portion of the mill lay in ashes. Anything can happen at a rural fire and from the standpoint of Acton's heavy drinkers that Sabbath morning witnessed the ultimate in pathetic wastefulness.
All this leads up to the fact that within a few years the town began to agitate the revamping of the whole fire fighting system and a com- mittee was authorized to test the various chemical engines on the market. The real solution came with the installation of town water and modern equipment such as is now in use but that day was still far in the future.
In connection with the Acton cider mills some comment should be made. In many parts of the country a cider mill is merely a small
262
affair that turns out a few hundred gallons of fresh apple juice, from carefully selected fruit, which in some cases is even washed before being ground! The idea is that it will be consumed within a few days as a pleasing drink.
The Acton mills, such as the one operated at South Acton by Mr. Henry Barker and Mr. Fred Burke, the Parker mill, and the one that stood a few rods east of the Kinsley Road and functioned under the aegis of the late James Kinsley until he assumed the office of post- master, were in reality vinegar factories. These mills turned out thousands of barrels of cider which was stored in huge tanks and eventually shipped to the vinegar dispensing companies.
Under these conditions it was not necessary to be too prissy about the fruit. Any incidental worms or rotten spots were readily taken care of by the acetic acid that soon formed and by the sand filtering. More than one Acton boy of that day dipped into a thousand gallon tank under the presses and drank deep and long, completely non- chalant as to whether the apples coming through the grinder had been readied by some meticulous health officer.
The soft residue pulp that came from the presses was piled outside at the rear of the mill and was hauled away by the farmers as inciden- tal fodder for their cattle. The ox cart of Mr. Frank Pratt was a frequent visitor for this purpose. By one of those not infrequent quirks of usage the pulp was locally known as "pumice", due un- doubtedly to its spongy character. It was, of course, a misnomer since the word properly defines a type of lava.
In a season when the fruitage was heavy, a combination of wind and rain could mean thousands of bushels arriving at the mill, at twenty cents a barrel. Wagons loaded to the limit would now and again form a queue a hundred yards long at the Barker mill where Mr. Fred Burke functioned for many years as owner and manager. The mills have all gone, the last being the Barker mill which burned for the second time in 1952 while operating under the name of the J. W. F. Von Lear Co. The ruins, now being slowly torn down piece by piece by a local resident, stand stark and desolate as though mourning for a departed era.
During this year also Mr. Moses Taylor1 gave to the Library the beautiful oil painting, "THE DEPARTURE OF THE MINUTE
1 Mr. Moses Taylor owned and operated for many years the farm where Mr. Dunn now lives on Taylor Rd. He held many responsible positions in town affairs and was in 1882 the representative for the towns of Acton, Concord, Littleton, Stow, and Boxborough in the state legislature. When the project for the building of the library was pending Mr. Taylor, rather than have it fail, spent a thousand dollars to have the ground cleared of existing buildings and made ready. A more detailed account of his personal life is given in Fletcher.
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MEN", by Acton's leading artist, Mr. Arthur Davis. The Minute company is depicted as leaving the house of its captain, whose wife, standing by the door, is taking a last look at the living form of her husband and the father of her sick children. Mr. Luther Conant, in his report for the Library committee made the following comment:
"It has been the aim of Mr. Taylor and the artist Mr. Arthur Davis, to have the representation as nearly histori- cally correct as possible. Fortunate is the town that can furnish alike the donor, the subject, and the artist of so valuable a work."
The next year Mr. Conant, possibly inspired by the gift of Mr. Taylor, presented to the Library another Davis painting, namely, that of the Acton company leaving for Lowell on the morning of April 19, 1861.
Mr. Davis, who later became Acton's librarian, was a gifted and accomplished artist. He belonged, as one might expect, to the naturalistic school of his era. Scores of canvasses and etchings came from his hands and all of them were meticulous in line and detail. One never had to guess what the painter intended to portray. He had the good fortune a few years before his death to have his extant collection shown in the Concord Library through the kindness and interest of Mr. David Little whose brother designed the Concord public library.
At this same time Mr. Wilde showed his continued interest by making a settlement of five thousand dollars the interest of which was to provide for the purchase of books.
On April 19, 1895 Acton staged one of its greatest celebrations. The occasion fell on the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of Concord Fight but the main reason for the festivities was the dedication of several historic markers appertaining to the Revolution. A prominent participant in the affair was Mr. Reuben Law Reed, for many years the town's inveterate patriot and a walking encyclopedia on Revolutionary data.1 Although he was not on the committee guiding the events of the day he had long been active in agitating the placing of proper memorials of enduring native granite.2
In preparation for the events of the day the committee rented a huge circus tent from a Boston firm and had it erected under the
1 Mr. Reed was a conspicuous character about the countryside for many years. His shoulder length hair and pontifical demeanor attracted attention wherever he went and he was always on the go. He was an ardent member of the Bunker Hill Historical Society, was perpetually involved in historical researches con- cerning the Revolution and possessed a staggeringly dependable knowledge thereof.
2 Committee chosen by the town consisted of E. Faulkner Conant, Chairman, Daniel J. Wetherbee, Isiah Hutchins, John Fletcher, Frank H. Whitcomb, Luther Conant, Augustine Hosmer, Anson C. Piper, Charles J. Williams, Oliver W. Mead.
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supervision of Mr. William H. Kingsley at a spot between the town hall and what is now known as Woodbury Lane. Needless to say, the village youth were impressed at the raising of the great supporting masts, which were painted a staggeringly brilliant blue.
The following excerpts from the Boston Journal of April 20, 1895 give a vivid picture of the events of the day.
"The little town of Acton, the birthplace of the foremost heroes of both the Revolution and the Civil War, was the scene of the greatest celebration of Patriot's Day, the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the Concord fight.
It was a gala day for the cluster of pretty villages, men, women and children all leaving their homes to attend the fete. Flags and bunting fluttered in the breeze on every hand, the whole town being dressed in its best for the occasion.
The day could not have been more perfect. It was as beau- tiful a morning as ever dawned in the uncertain month of April, and delightful summer zephers fanned the cheek, while a kindly sun bathed the patriotic scene in a golden glow of sunshine. Booming cannon and pealing bells aroused the town at sunrise. The celebration was a complete success, the exercises were carried out without a hitch and all Acton was happy at the result, while the visitors had naught to say but words of unstinted praise.
With the arrival of the first train at nine o'clock in the morning, when the stirring music of two bands sounded on the quiet air, the celebration commenced and it was not until the early hours of this morning, when the last strains of the waltz at the grand hall had ceased, and the last dancers sought their homes, that the one hundred and twentieth an- niversary of Concord fight was over and Acton rested from her fete.
At nine o'clock the first formal exercises of the day began, when Hon. Luther Conant, President of the day, met the committee on arrangements at the railway station to wel- come and receive the invited guests and other visitors, who arrived by special train.
At sunrise, noon, and sunset the bells pealed and the cannon boomed. During the intervals the bands gave con- certs on the common."
The first of the memorial stones to be dedicated was the one erected near the site of the Captain Joseph Robbins house a hundred yards east of Woodlawn Cemetery. Again quoting from the Boston Journal we learn that
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"Conspicuous by the roadside is a big rough boulder with the side facing the highway inscribed
SITE OF HOUSE WHERE FIRST ALARM WAS GIVEN IN ACTON! MORNING OF 19TH OF APRIL 1775. CAPT. ROBBINS! CAPT. ROB- BINS! THE REGULARS ARE COMING.
Hardly a single farm house can be seen from this historic spot. The graven stone stands on the crest of a small hill, while in all directions extend the rough stone walls which mark the boundaries of the pastures and fields.
Rev. Franklin Parker Wood of Acton invoked the divine blessing and Hon. Luther Conant, President of the Day, in- troduced as one of the older citizens, whose memory of the patriotic days was still fresh, Mr. Moses Taylor, who read an interesting paper in regard to the history of the spot.
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