USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Ashfield > History of the town of Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts from its settlement in 1742 to 1910 > Part 16
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The teacher, a young woman not yet twenty, calls up the little classes. They respond promptly, each answering to his
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number, filing into the space between the desks, and seating himself with folded arms upon the recitation bench. Each in turn rises and recites. Through reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, they wind their way, staggering and tripping a little from bashfulness in the presence of strangers; but the smallest girls and boys pipc their replies in a ringing treble, and spell out the hard words in one syllable, and even two syllables, with a readiness and accuracy which areremarkable. Theolder children figure out rcally intricate sums upon the blackboard, and one, the oldest, shows a ready knowledge of the elements of physiology. The school committee man in his kind way, quietly asks ques- tions not in the book, simple problems, although the little folks rather shiver at these questions "out of his head," but they answer so as to show that they have not learned by rote merely, but do actually understand what they have studied.
One of the visitors looks at a boy who is helpful at home, who can mow, and hoe, and milk, and do a hundred necessary chores, yet is a little fellow still, and will try to catch him. "What is the capital of Kentucky"? Certainly the boy will say Louis- ville. But he promptly answers "Frankfort." "What is the capital of Louisiana?" "Baton Rouge." "What is the largest city in Ohio?" "Cincinnati." Here is a little shaver whose father came from Ireland some years since, and settled among the country hills. He is just six years old, and he spells so nimbly that even a school committee man might be surprised.
They are evidently hearty, merry children, who do not creep like snails unwillingly to school, who are not driven, but wisely led. They have picked in their gardens the bright flowers which are in the bowl upon the stove, and in the metal tumbler on the teacher's desk. They have studied well, they have learned a great deal, yet school is a pleasant place. It is kept for six months in the year only, except when there may be a subscrip- tion school, for the children are needed at home, and among these remote hills the farmer's family is his help as well as his pride and joy.
This is the beginning of their citizenship. These are the roots of American civilization. This is the work which the reflective spectator of the frame school house in the Paris Exposition meditates.
It may be interesting to note the distances scholars were obliged to travel to school. For a time when there were six families in Spruce Corner they were obliged to send their chil- dren to the Plain school; then a log schoolhouse was built on
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the old road south of where Wells and Charles Taylor now live. The Steady Lane district extended northerly to the Buckland line, so that the children of Jonathan Howes, four in number, had to walk from what is now the lower end of the state road near Charles Howes' up past David Williams', now F. H. Smith's, to the schoolhouse on the corner near Allison Howes'. David Williams had a large family of children who went to the same school. As has been noted, Briar Hill schoolhouse stood mid- way between the two roads east of Alvan Cross' house and for a time the children on what are now the Underhill and Ward farms went to school there. Two or three miles were sometimes tramped and no bills were presented for "Conveyance of Pupils."
In the early days before the limits and organization of the districts were defined and completed, school sites were some- times changed with scant formal proceedings. It is related that in the Northwest neighborhood, the schoolhouse was at the foot of the hill near the Buckland line, but the people on the hill thought the house "had been there long enough" so one day they gathered their teams together and went down and drew the building to the top of the hill nearly half a mile farther south, this without vote or order from any authority.
To show the way our schools were managed eighty years ago we give a few verbatim extracts from the District account book for South Ashfield.
Joseph Barber school committee for the year 1824.
Hired Minerva A. Bennett to teach the school sixteen weeks at 4s. (663c.) per week to begin the first Monday in May 1824. January 29, 1825, Received the school order $31.54.
Jan. 29, Paid M. A. Bennett $10.67.
1825, March 1, Paid George Hexford $20.
May 1825 Anson Goodwin School Committee.
Rec. of Joseph Barber $0.87 district money.
Hired Eliza Barber to teach school twenty Weeks at $0.75 per week to begin first Monday in May. The district voted to pay 16 weeks out of town order, the other four by poll.
Rec. of Abner Rogers $5.92.
Paid G. Hexford $7.00.
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Hired Flora Graves to teach school cight wecks at 75cts per week.
Jan. 1825 Rcc. the town order $31.54.
June 15, Paid Flora Graves $6.00.
June 20, Paid Eliza Barber $9.00, $6 for town order, $3 for poll.
Nov. Mr. Stephen Hayward was hired to teach school 3 months at $12 per month to be paid by the town money, 1 by poll.
Apr. 3. Paid Mr. Hayward $19.33 town's money and $12 for poll school
1826, May, Hired Louisa Rice to teach school 20 weeks for 75 a weck.
Sept. Hired Louisa Rice to teach a poll school 8 weeks for 75 cts per week.
Board and wood werc contributed by the district.
In 1827 Samuel Bassett taught the winter school for $12 per month.
SANDERSON ACADEMY ASHFIELD.
CHAPTER XI
THE ACADEMY AND LIBRARY
Sanderson Academy was established by the Rev. Alvan Sanderson in 1816. It is doubtful if previous to this there was any school of higher grade than a common school. Mr. San- derson had been pastor of the Congregational Church for eight years, when his health failing, he resigned his pastorate and opened this school. He continued the superintendence of it only a year, when he died. At his death it was found that he had left a fund of about $1,500 for the support of the school. Mr. Sanderson was only thirty-six years of age at the time of his death, but the proofs of his self-sacrifice and disinterested- ness come down to us in so many ways, that his memory should not be forgotten by the people of this town.
The board of trustees was organized soon after Mr. San- derson's death and was incorporated in 1821 under the name of the "Trustees of the Sanderson Academy and School Fund." Flourishing schools were held for ten or twelve years after this. Up to 1832, nearly one thousand pupils had attended the school from this and adjoining towns. Mary Lyon entered the school as a pupil in 1817, and was afterwards employed as teacher for several years, mainly as assistant, but for several terms in 1827 and 1828 as principal. In 1832, there seemed to be a decline of interest in the school. The fund left by Mr. Sanderson was nearly all spent in repairs on the building and in other ways, and there is no record of trustees' meetings for three years. In 1834, the interest revived somewhat, and from that time to 1866, meetings of the trustees were kept up and schools maintained for the whole or part of the school year. After 1866 no meetings of the trustees were held for eleven years, although there were one or two terms of school held each year-some very successful, usually as a private enterprise. In 1877, Professor Charles Eliot Norton and George William Curtis, who some years before had established their summer homes in Ashfield, endeavored to
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awaken an interest in the neglected institution. The records were hunted up, the board of trustecs reorganized, and Professor Norton placed upon the board. Money was raised by sub- scription for repairing the building, Messrs. Norton and Curtis heading the list each with a liberal sum. The school was opened in the fall of 1879 and has had three full terms each year up to the present time.
The first decade of the Academy seems to have been a very prosperous one. The trustees were fortunate in 1817 in securing Elihu Burritt for a teacher and Mary Lyon as a pupil. Mr. Burritt was an excellent teacher and a man of scholarly attain- ments. He was the author of a "Logarithmetick" and "Bur- ritt's Geography of the Heavens," an excellent class book on astronomy. The worth of Miss Lyon was early discovered and she was employed as preceptress in 1822. She continued in the school as assistant or principal for a portion of the time until the spring of 1828, after that teaching in Buckland several terms. It is doubtful if any teacher in Sanderson ever created such a moral and intellectual awakening as Miss Lyon. The impetus given to education by this and her Buckland schools must have been marked. Teachers from surrounding towns, by recommendation of Colonel Leavitt and other friends of education, came to her school to learn the best methods of in- struction. Miss Lyon writes that there is much interest in education and that she has visitors to her school almost daily. It is evident her heart was in the school and that she was sen- sible of the favors received from the family of Esquire White, with whom she made her home, and also from the other trustees. In 1823, when assistant with Mr. Converse, she writes: "The academy in which I am now engaged is an infant institution. The founder, Rev. Alvan Sanderson, was governed by the purcst motives and I consider it a privilege to aid in carrying out his benevolent design. Many of its present guardians are my friends and from them I have received many favors. This is the school where I was principally educated, and to which I feel in no small degrec indebted." And on leaving the school in 1828, she writes: "I find that this academy, where I have
,
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received so much instruction and where I have labored so much from time to time, has taken a firmer hold of my affec- tions than I had supposed. It seems like bidding an old friend farewell, whom I do not expect to meet again." In the three biographies of Miss Lyon by Fidelia Fisk, Dr. Edward Hitch- cock, and that of Miss Gilchrist recently published, full accounts are given of her life in Ashfield.
An advertisement in the Hampshire Gazette of October 24, 1827, reads:
Sanderson Academy-The winter term of fourteen weeks in this Academy commencing on the 10th of December next, will be devoted exclusively to the instruction of FEMALES, under the care of Miss Mary Lyon. The course of instruction will be essentially the same as was pursued the last winter, with the addition of Chirography. The price of board, including fuel and lights, from $1.17 to $1.25. Tuition for the whole term of fourteen weeks, $3.50, to be paid at entrance.
As the course of instruction, though short, will be systematic, it is important that the pupils should enter at the commence- ment.
After Miss Lyon's withdrawal from the school Mr. Robert A. Coffin taught about two years. In his catalogue of the term ending November, 1829, he says: "In the course of instruction pursued in this Institution, the three principal objects of atten- tion are, fitting young gentlemen for college, furnishing well qualified instructors for our common schools, and disciplining the minds and increasing the information of those who connect themselves with us, without intending to pursue extensively a literary course." Mr. Coffin was an excellent teacher, as some now living can testify. He was the author of a very original and practical text book on Natural Philosophy.
Up to this time probably nearly one thousand different pupils had attended this school. A note in one of the treasurer's bills at the close of the year 1826, says that six hundred and twenty pupils have attended this school. Of these, two hundred and fifteen were from out of town, seventeen had fitted for college, and forty-five had become teachers.
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The records arc somewhat mcagre for quite a portion of the time up to 1879, when the board of trustees was rcorganized, but we give the names of nearly if not all the teachers employed up to that timc. Some were employed for one term, others for several.
Rev. Alvan Sanderson, Elijah H. Burritt, Abijah Cross, Mary Lyon, Amasa Converse, A. Clark, B. B. Edwards, Horatio Flagg, Hannah White, Joseph Ladd, Robert A. Coffin, Rev. Lot Jones, Rev. Silas Blaisdell, P. Emory Aldrich, Mr. Hum- phrey, Ephraim Leonard, Rev. Francis Williams, Mr. Bonney, Horatio M. Porter, Henry L. Dawes, W. W. Mitchell, Rev. Hyman A. Wilder, Alden Porter Beals, Rev. Wilbur F. Loomis, Rev. William A. Lloyd, Abner T. Sherwin, Dr. E. R. Wheeler, Dr. Daniel M. Priest, Frederick G. Howes, B. Ellsworth Smith, Miss Sarah Stone, Miss Nettie Wilson, Miss Sarah Forbes, Mrs. W. E. Ford, Miss Lydia Hall.
The late United States Senator Dawes taught in the spring and fall of 1841. Mr. Dawes leaves the record of a good dis- ciplinarian. It is related by one of his scholars that when one of the smart village boys attempted to play one of his favorite tricks upon the teacher, a nervy arm seized his collar and laid him in a horizontal position so suddenly that, as he afterwards expressed it, he didn't know how he came there. After Mr. Dawes came W. W. Mitchell, afterwards a prized teacher in the Chicopee High School and Hopkins' Academy of Hadley. It is evident that Mr. Dawes and Mr. Mitchell appreciated at least a portion of their school, for cach of them took a wife to himself from among his pupils, Senator Dawes marrying Elccta, daugh- ter of Chester Sanderson, and Mr. Mitchell, Lucy, daughter of Anson Goodwin.
Later Hyman A. Wilder, afterwards missionary to South Africa; Alden Porter Beals, since a successful teacher of high schools in Connecticut; Wilbur F. Loomis, a popular and much loved tcacher for several terms, afterwards pastor of the Con- gregational Church at Shelburne Falls; W. A. Lloyd; Abner T. Sherwin and others have been employed. In 1871, Mr. Mitchell
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assisted by Miss Lydia Hall, now Mrs. Miles, taught a success- ful school, the fall term numbering sixty pupils.
The first trustees of the institution were no common men. As the description comes down to us, it must have been a notable gathering when they rode into the village to attend the meetings in the humble academy building. The scholarly and dignified Rev. Joseph Field of Charlemont, the devout Rev. Josiah Spaulding of Buckland, the respectable Esquire Billings of Conway, Gen. Thomas Longley of Hawley, "a General and gentleman everywhere, and never off duty," the lawyer, Esq. Paine, the town magistrates, Esq. White and Esq. Williams, and the state senator, Dr. Enos Smith. An old lady ends her description of these men, "Why! There were giants in those days." Among the trustees added soon after its incorporation were Rev. Theophilus Packard of Shelburne, Rev. Moses Miller of Heath, Rev. Edward Hitchcock of Conway, after- wards president of Amherst College, Dr. Atherton Clark, Rev. Thomas Shepard, Asa Sanderson, Dimock Ellis and Samuel Bement of Ashfield. Trustees afterwards chosen were Hiram Belding, Sanford Boice, Samuel W. Hall, Moses Cook, Alvan Perry, Esq. Mr. Perry was active in the repairs of the Academy in 1854, as was also A. W. Crafts, another of the trustees. H. S. Ranney, Esq., served continuously on the board for forty-five years and was for twenty years its President. Rev. Lewis Green, late of Greenfield, was for a number of years on the board and was a warm friend of the Academy.
Among the men who received their early education at this Academy are twenty-nine who became ministers, and four at least who became lawyers. Many of these fitted for college here. Some of those who became preachers were Alvah Lilly, William Bement, Rufus B. Bement, Elijah Paine, William P. Paine, John C. Paine, John Alden, Melzar Parker, Hart Pease, Adiel Harvey, Charles S. Porter, Morris E. White, Francis Williams, Oliver M. Sears, also Leonard Bement, Willis Ranney, Francis Gillette, lawyers, and Alonzo Lilly, a successful busi- ness man, all from Ashfield. The students from Hawley who became preachers were Alfred Longley, Moses Longley, Rufus
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Taylor, Timothy Taylor. Other students who entered the ministry were Benjamin F. Brown, William Williams and Alvan Stone of Goshen, John R. Bigelow of Cummington, Jeremiah Pomeroy of Southampton, Jeremiah Hall and Orrin Johnson of Colrain, Levi H. Corson, Shelburne, Erastus Dick- enson of Plainfield, and Lebbeus Rood of Buckland. Later came Joseph Hall, for twenty-five years principal of the Hartford High School; Rev. Henry C. Perry, missionary to Turkey; Rev. Robert Hall, late of Somerville, Mass .; Eugene C. Gardner, Springfield's esteemed architect; and last, but not least, Dr. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University.
At the Ashfield centennial, forty-five years ago, there were many kind and appreciative words for the institution, from men who had been its pupils. The historian, Rev. Dr. William P. Paine, said: "Many residents of this and other towns, in the early and palmy days of the institution, availed themselves of its privileges, and a speedy change in good order, intelligence and intellectual aspirations was marked. Many were prepared for college who have served in the various professions and in business with honor and success. The good influence of this enterprise has been quite manifest in the town for the last half century. It now has many sons and daughters ready to rise up and do it homage."
To revive the interest in this old and honored institution and to place it again upon a permanent footing was a problem over which Messrs. Norton and Curtis labored. The narrow path across the lot from one summer house to the other was well worn by the frequent visits back and forth, and with other and broader subjects, plans for the little Academy were often dis- cussed. To repair the old and dilapidated academy building which stood opposite the hotel, seemed to be the first thing to do. A paper was left at one of the stores to receive subscrip- tions for that object. After remaining there several weeks with only a few dollars on the paper it was sent for by Messrs. Curtis and Norton and when returned, had on it their names for a liberal sum, I think $300 each, "Provided an equal sum be raised from the citizens of the town in two weeks." This
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looked like business; the trustees and others interested woke up, the town was canvassed, the money raised in the specified time, and the academy building thoroughly repaired. Mr. Norton was chosen one of the trustees and plans were formed for raising a fund for the institution which should make it self- supporting for three terms in the year. Circulars were sent to sons and daughters of Ashfield, and other means adopted for raising funds. Among these were the Ashfield Academy din- ners. As these became somewhat noted, we quote from the Greenfield Centennial Gazette and Boston papers a list of the speakers at those dinners so far as they are there given.
September, 11, 1879-Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard, Rev. Lewis Green, Josephus Crafts, W. W. Mitchell, Col. Hart Leavitt, Dr. Josiah Trow, Prof. W. F. Sherwin, George William Curtis. August, 1880-Prof. Norton, Rev. Arthur Shirley, Joseph Griswold, William Dean Howells, Rev. J. F. Moors, Col. Leavitt, Rev. J. B. Harrison, Prof. Fisk of "Sanderson," M. G. Clark, the Orientalist, Rev. J. W. Chad- wick, G. W. Curtis. August 25, 1881-Prof. Norton, Charles Dudley Warner, Prof. G. Stanley Hall, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, Rev. J. F. Moors, Fred'k G. Howes, Rev. Mr. Matthews, Hon. George Sheldon, Judge C. C. Conant, G. W. Curtis. August 24, 1882-Prof. Norton, Josephus Crafts, Rev. Lewis Greene, Prof. G. Stanley Hall, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, V. M. Porter, in the Legislature of that year, G. W. Curtis. August 29, 1883- In the absence of Prof. Norton, Mr. Curtis presided. William Whiting, M. C., Prof. Perry, Rev. J. F. Moors, Prof. Hall, S. T. Field, Esq., Major Henry Winn, Rev. J. W. Chadwick. August 22, 1884-Prof. Norton, Prof. Fisk, Prof. Hall, Rev. Ames, then of Philadelphia, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, William Hall, G. W. Curtis. August 27, 1885-Prof. Norton, Prof. Hall, C. P. Cranch, J. B. Harrison, James Russell Lowell, G. W. Curtis. August 26, 1886-Prof. Norton, Prof. Hall, Rev. J. W. Chad- wick, W. D. Howells, G. W. Cable, Fred Howes, G. W. Curtis. August 25, 1887-Prof. Norton, President Hall, Charles Dudley Warner, Hon. Geo. Sheldon, G. W. Curtis. August 23, 1888- Prof. Norton, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, J. B. Harrison, President Seelye of Smith College, Geo. W. Cable, G. W. Curtis. August 22, 1889-Prof. Norton, Prof. Hall, Prof. F. A. Tupper, Rev. C. B. F. Pease, Joseph H. Choate, G. W. Curtis. August 28, 1890-Prof. Norton, Chauncey Boice, Solomon Field, Timothy
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G. Spaulding, Rev. P. V. Fineh, Prof. Hall, Sehoolmaster Mitehell of Cummington, Charles Goodwin, G. W. Curtis. August 27, 1891-Prof. Norton, President Hall, Rev. J. W. Chadwiek, Edward Atkinson, Rev. Robert Collyer, Hon. Ed- ward J. Phelps, G. W. Curtis. 1892-Mr. Curtis having died, there was no dinner. 1893-Prof. Norton, Hon. Wayne Me- Veagh and Stanley Hall were the principal speakers, and toueh- ing words of eulogy of Curtis were spoken by all. 1894- Charles Dudley Warner, John W. Chadwiek, Archibald Howe, Rev. C. B. F. Pease. 1895-Prof. Norton, Ex .- Gov. William E. Russell, Prof. A. H. Tolman. 1896-Prof. Norton, Hon. Wm. H. Riee of Albany, Miss Lizzie M. Curtis, Prof. Thomas of Lake Forest University, Illinois, Rev. Mr. Chadwiek and Rev. Mr. Pease. 1897-Prof. Norton, President Mendenhall of the Woreester Teeh., Frank MeVeagh and the Rev. Dr. Randtaler of Chicago. 1898-Prof. Norton, Dr. Philip S. Moxom of Springfield, Booker T. Washington, Hon. Sherman E. Rogers of Buffalo. 1899-Prof. Norton, Sen. H. C. Parsons of Greenfield, Rev. Dr. A. H. Plumb, Charles Dudley Warner, Miss Lizzie Curtis and Dr. Chadwiek. 1900-Prof. Norton, Prof. Josiah Royee of Harvard, Richard Henry Dana, Dr. G. Stanley Hall. 1901-Prof. Norton, Ex .- Gov. D. H. Chamber- lain, Hon. Charles S. Hamlin of Boston. 1902-Prof. Norton, E. Burritt Smith of Chicago, Louis E. Erich of Colorado Springs. 1903-the 25th and last-Prof. Norton, Dr. G. Stanley Hall as "Sanderson Academy's sample seholar," Frederiek G. Howes for the Trustees, President Pritehett of the Mass. Institute Teeh., Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Sir Frederiek Polloek, and Prof. Norton's Valedietory.
Professor Norton was aware of failing health and vigor and at the close of a quarter of a century of the dinners he decided it best to eease his eonneetion with them. General regret was expressed at their cessation and some pressure was made to have them continued, but the trustees felt that without Mr. Norton at the head, it would be very difficult to sustain their reputation. There were some people from out of town who attended most of the dinners during the twenty-five years. There were those who eritieised some of the views expressed by Mr. Norton very severely, but none doubted his sineerity or eould but respeet the fearlessness with which they were spoken. Time and a broader charity will probably show that he was
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nearer right than his criticisers. The people of the town grew to feel a pride in the reputation of the dinners and when the town was annually canvassed for supplies, gave freely what was asked, then many of them went to the dinner and paid a dollar a plate for the privilege. Some one lady usually had the general charge of the dinner, selecting her assistants and the waiters. Among those having charge and giving efficient service were: Mrs. Benjamin Carter, Mrs. Joshua Hall, Mrs. Almon Bronson, Mrs. Alvan Hall and Mrs. W. E. Ford. The trustees who were active with Professor Norton in making the general arrange- ments for the dinners were Rev. Lewis Greene, Esquire Ranney, A. D. Flower, Alvan Hall and Charles A. Hall. The total net receipts from the twenty-five dinners and the triennial fairs held were about $7,400.
When Mr. Sanderson first located the Academy here, there were only two dwellings on that side of the street west of the corner, so that the students had sufficient playground without dis- turbing the citizens. But in time, as the population of the village increased, houses were built near the lot, and there was trouble between the occupants and the pupils, so that at times the selectmen were called upon to prohibit ball playing and other games in the street fronting the Academy. In 1885, Mr. John W. Field of Philadelphia, who had also made Ashfield his summer home, hearing of the trouble with the boys, investigated the matter and finally bought a lot of three and one-half acres near the village, which he presented to the Academy as a play- ground for the pupils. The lot was named by the trustees the "Field of Ashfield, " in honor of its giver. In the winter of 1887, Mr. Field died. His remains were brought here for burial, as he had expressed a desire to be buried in the cemetery near his summer home, in the town which he had come to respect and to love. July 27, of the same year, the trustees received a letter from Mrs. Eliza W. Field, the wife of Mr. Field, in which she said:
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