USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Bedford > History of the town of Bedford, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1891 > Part 4
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The house was dedicated July 8, 1817. Rev. Sam- uel Stearns, the pastor, preached the sermon, which was, later, published in pamphlet form. This was the first dedication service held in the town, it being con- trary to the New England spirit and custom when the first house of worship was completed.
James Wright, Jr., was appointed to the responsi- ble position of "sexton." His duties were carefully defined, not the least of which was "to carry into the house the basin of water for the ordinance of baptism, when requested."
The bell, imported from London by Jeremiah Fitch for the town, was first rung on the morning of July 8, 1817. Mr. Fitch contributed the clock to the town, which is ornamented with a gold-mounted eagle and balls, and still marks off the hours in the meeting-house; but the bell, being rudely handled in a sceming display of patriotism, was rendered useless and sold in 1863, by the First Parish, and has not been replaced. The cost of the meeting- house was $6623. The pews sold for a sum suffi- cient to liquidate the debt, and left a balance of $487, which was assigned for a ministerial fund, by a vote of the town. The "Page Fund" was of use in providing an annual singing-school, and in 1818 Leander Hosmer was employed by the town " To perform sacred music for said towu for ten dollars pr. year, on a Bass Viol, and furnish himself with a viol."
In July, 1818, a Sabbath-School was organized, which proved to be one of the first Church-schools in the country, the history of which, prepared by the author of this sketch, was published by the Trini- tarian Sabbath-school, in connection with the celebra- tion of its seventieth anniversary in 1888.
CHAPTER V.
-
ECCLESIASTICAL.
Separation Between Church and Town-Trinitarian-Congregational Society Organized-Their House of Worship-+Work of Unitarian Church aud First Parish-Death of Rev. Samuel Stearns-Stearns' Desceudauts- Church of Christ.
PROSPERITY followed the erection of the meeting- house, and peace and harmony prevailed until the autumn of 1831, when a difference in opinion, which had for years existed between the Trinitarian and Unitarian Congregationalists of New England, reached that point here, where the relation between the pastor and people was most severely tried. The love of the pastor of this town for his people, and their strong attachment for the one who had given the best of his life in their service, the regard of many for his feelings in his declining years, together with the unswerving fidelity of the pastor to the prin- ciples that he had proclaimed when ordained for the Gospel ministry in this town thirty-five years before, may be assigned as some of the reasons for the severity with which the storm beat upon the community. The church was rent asunder, and the remainder of the ecclesiastical history of the town, as regards the Protestant faith, will be viewed in two separate chan- nels, viz .: The First Parish with the Unitarian Church and The Trinitarian Congregational Society with the Church of Christ. The First Parish, and church connected with it, held the meeting-house, all of the funds and communion service, while the Trinitarian Congregational Society and associated church began their work with empty hands. June 4, 1833, the two resident male members of the church who remained with the First Parish met and chose as trustees William Page and Charles Spaulding, and adopted a new covenant, and accessions were made to their numbers. After the stated supply of Rev. Mr. Davis and Rev. Robert Walcott, Rev. Joshua Chand- ler, a graduate of Harvard College, was settled over the church and society. He was succeeded by Rev. George W. Woodward. In May, 1846, he removed to Galena, Illinois, and a series of stated supplies fol- lowed-the last of whom was Rev. Jonas Whitman, pastor at Lexington, who continued in charge until his death, in 1848. Services were then discontinued and the house of worship closed, until it was remod- eled in 1849.
In April of that year Rev. William Cushing ac- cepted a call to act as stated supply. Mr. Cushing took a great interest in education, conducting a pri- vate school in connection with his pastoral work; his successor was Rev. George W. Webster, who was in- stalled as pastor in August, 1860. Extreme peculi- arities, tending to mental disease, impaired his use- fulness, and after a year and a half, during which the
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church and society relaxed in vitality, he left the charge and entered the Union army from this town. The house of worship was closed for a period of twelve years. It was reopened in the autumn of 1869, and Rev. Grindall Reynolds took charge of the parish in connection with his pastorate at Concord. His call to the position of secretary of the Unitarian Association necessitated a change. Revs. Milstead and Russell acted as stated supply until 1884, when Rev. George Piper assumed the pastoral care of the society in connection with that at Carlisle. During his pastorate the meeting-house has been thoroughly remodeled, the church revived, and the ordinance- regularly observed. In addition to the income of the "Page and Hartwell Fund " the society is aided by the Unitarian Association.
The Trinitarian Congregational Society immerli- ately erected a house of worship on land given by Mr. Jeremiah Fitch, of Boston, a native of Bedford. The building-lot was directly opposite the Stearns man- sion, and was given in consideration of the regard of the donor for his neighbor, teacher, pastor and friend.
The relation between Rev. Mr. Stearns and the town was dissolved by a mutual ecclesiastical council, and he accepted a call from the Church of Christ and Trinitarian Congregational Society of the town, in their united capacity. Services were regularly held in the dwelling-house of Rev. Mr. Stearns until the society completed a meeting-house. Mrs. Hannah Reed presented the church with a suitable commun- ion service. Many of the citizens, who had but fil- teen years before, 1818, paid large sums for their pews in the town's meeting-house, had now freely given a tithing of their possessions for the erection of another house of worship, and, free from debt, the church and society resumed the work of proclaiming the gospel in the Evangelical faith. Rev. Mr. Stearns died in December, 1834, and the fourth and most notable pastorate was brought to a close.
The hody of Rev. Mr. Stearns was interred in the family vault in the old burial-ground, and there re- mained until the death of his widow, Madam Abigail Stearns, in 1858, when they were both deposited in cemented vaults ou the western slope of Shawshine Cemetery.
Ofthirteen children born to Rev. Samuel Stearns and Abigail French, eleven reached maturity. No other Bedford family has exerted so great an influence in the world of letters. They all received the highest advan- tages for education that the schools afforded. The five sons were all educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, CHAPTER VI. and at Harvard College, and the four who became clergymen attended Andover Theological Seminary. SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. Of thirty one grandchildren twenty-three are living. Almost all have received a liberal education. Of the grandsons, two are professional men and one an artist ONE of the highest of the municipal functions is education. This was incumbent upon the founders of Bedford by the act of incorporation : "Provided that of rare ability ; five granddaughters became teachers, four married professional men ; a number are au- thors of books or writers for leading periodicals. The the said town of Bedford do, within the space of three
descendants in the third and fourth generations are numerous and prominent in the world.
The young man who, in the flush of youth, dedi- cated himself to the higher interests of the people ot Bedford, had become old in their service and been gathered with the fathers. More than five hundred people of the town died and the entire membership ot his church had beeu gathered during his ministry. There were admitted to the church one hundred and forty-three members while worshiping in the new meeting-house, before the separation.
Rev. Jonathan Leavitt succeeded Rev. Mr. Stearns, and has been followed by Rev. S. Hopkins Emery ; Rev. Oren Sikes, who died in office Decem- ber 15, 1852; Rev. Henry J. Patrick, now of West Newton; Rev. W. J. Batt, now moral instructor at the Massachusetts Reformatory ; Rev. George Lewis ; Rev. Edward Chase ; Rev. Otis D. Crawford; Rev. George E. Lovejoy, now of Franklin, Mass .; Rev. Howard A. Hanaford, now of Winchester, N. H., and Rev. Edwin Smith, who took the charge August 1, 1886.
The church has a present membership of one hun- dred and eighty. That element in our nature which leads us to value things in proportion to their cost was plainly evident in the careful manner with which the people of this town who formed the Trinitarian Congregational Society guarded its interests, and that healthy activity that is generally found among societies that depend entirely upon their own efforts for support has been manifest through the half-cen- tury of its existence. No ministerial fund has been established. Small legacies bequeathed to the church have been applied to the promotion of the work and memorials of the donors added to the ornaments of the house of worship. In 1886 the house was repaired, enlarged and refurnished to suit the demands of the times, about $7000 being expended.
Adherents of the Romish Church have gradually settled in town, constituting a very respectable class in society, among whom may be found some of the most thriving farmers. Becoming weary of a journey of five miles to attend worship (as were the first set- tiers of the town), they erected a chapel in 1885, which is well furnished and adapted to their use ; they main- tain religious services in connection with the church at Lexington, Rev. P. J. Kavanaugh being the priest in charge.
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years from the publication of this act, erect, build and finish a suitable house of worship, and procure and settle a learned orthodox minister of good conversa- tion, and make provision for his comfortable and hon- ourable support, and likewise provide a school to in- struct their youth in writing and reading," Many of the founders of this town knew the worth of education through the want of it. Their parents had enjoyed literary advantages in the mother country, but in seeking religious liberty they had lost secular advan- tage, and in their struggle to establish homes in the wilderness had often failed to instruct their children in the rudiments of education. The children of the scattered settlers were by far the greater sufferers ; sit- nated four or five miles from the village, they could not attend the few weeks of school that were furnished, and doubtless some of the originators of this town never attended a school of any kind. Until 1733 the church was the only school, and during several suc- ceeding years the principal means of education. The minister was the instructor, and he was well supported. In January, 1732-33 the town raised five pounds, equal to about three dollars (according to Shattuck), for pub- lic school that year. This must have been an act of the new town to comply with the incorporation act- "space of three years"-and have been a provision for the winter only, as appears from the following record : "Of the School Reat that was made by the assessors in 1733, there was committed to Mr. Jacob Kendall, constable, to collect £5 10s. 7d., and to Mr. Richard Wheeler £5 16s. 2d.," making a tax of . £11 68. 9d., which, according to the same authority, was equal to about seven dollars in the currency of that time. In December, 1733, it was voted "to settle a moving school and hire a master, for which purpose an ap- propriation of ten pounds was made.
For several years one school only was kept and moved about as justice and convenience demanded. The teachers were generally selected from the people of the town, but in one of the carly winters, Rev. Ebenezer Hancock, of Lexington, taught the school and boarded with his sister, wife of Rev. Nicholas Bowes. The town bought a dwelling-house of Benja- min Kidder in 1741, for £12, okl tenor, and arranged it for a school-house. In 1742 the school moved into the four quarters of the town, and £10 was expended for the teacher's salary, he "boarding round." the following year the centre school was opened and £30 granted for its support. Previous to this but little attention was paid to giving instruction in any branch beyond those required by the ordinance of 1647, viz. : writing and reading. In 1744 a part of the appropri- ation was allowed for schools in the " quarters " to be taught by "school dames." In the succeeding four- teen years a school was kept at the Centre a few weeks in the winter and during the remainder of the year a " moving-school " was taught by a lady. Text-books were few and rule and the rod was applied without stint. One may judge of the monetary value of pro-
In
fessional services by the records of 1754-55, when Rev. Nicholas Bowes, the first minister of the town, dismissed in August 1754, taught the school in the following winter, tive months for £9 68. 8d., and boarded himself. In 1758 a "writing-school" was kept four months in the village and a " woman's teach- ing-school" six months in the quarters of the town, although it was years in advance of the legal require- ments. The interest in education was not abated during the Revolution, yet in two instances the teachers' services were gratuitous. Intelligent women gathered the children of the neighborhood in their dwellings and were rewarded by a vote of the town after the war ceased.
The people in the " quarters " were obliged to fur- nish house and fire-wood without public charge in order to have a school. The district bounds were not arbitrary as yet, and the most ambitious children would follow the school from one quarter to another, which was allowed if they furnished a share of the fire-wood. The consequent attainments and useful- ness of some families is evident in succeeding years.
In 1780, when Captain John Moore was chosen the first representative to the "Great and General Court," the town voted to have three months "writing-school" and six weeks " women's school" in each quarter of the town. The term " writing-school" was to desig- nate this department of education from the merely fundamental instruction of the "women's school." In the former "cyphering " was taught as well as writing, and also the principles of language and " decent behaviour." The "sums " were "set " by the teacher and the work done on unruled coarse paper and carefully saved as trophies of victory sel- dom won by the gentler sex. In teaching writing, the instructor was required to prepare the copics, give advice in the formation of letters and also respond to the oft-repeated calls " Please sir, mend my pen?" In March, 1790, there was a partial awakening to the demands of systematic education. The school-tax was assessed as a distinct rate, and the town voted that " such school masters as the law required " should be employed four months in the year, and four months writing-school should be kept at the centre, "and when the master had a very full school he should attend principally to those that write and cypher."
In 1789 the Legislature provided for districting the towns, and Bedford undertook the task, which proved to be a difficult one. For sixty years the only accommo- (lations for schools in the " quarters " were in private houses; but in 1792 a long and trying experience resulted in a vote to raise £100 with which to build a school-house in each quarter and made provision for a school to be taught in each. In 1793 the pride of the residents at the "centre" asserted itself in a vote " not to have any woman's school." The annual appropriation at the close of the century had reached the sum of $300. The closing years of the eighteenth
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century mark a very important epoch in the interests of education in Bedford. Rev. Samuel Stearns came, as the fourth minister to the town. He was an emi- nent scholar, young and energetic, and possessed of rare qualities for leadership, which he judiciously used. For more than thirty years every progressive step in education bears the impress of his cultured mind and careful hand. The limited advantages for education were not urged upon girls, and when one of the sex manifested a desire to push bevond the fundamental principles she was subject to ridicule. The evil, not confined to this town, received early cor- rection here. In 1797 Rev. Mr. Stearns inaugurated a female seminary, which was one of the very early insti- tutions of the kind in New England. Young ladies from this and neigboring towns were instructed by him iu the higher branches, many of whom were fitted for teachers and made most commendable rec- ords in the profession. The vote of 1790 "To employ only such masters as the law requires," cut off many ignorant aspirants for the office, but it did not reach the question of methods, and Rev. Mr. Stearns soon began to exert an influence in that direction. Rev. William F. Stearns, D.D., of Amherst College, records the following method for teaching the alphabet in the opening years of the present century, as practiced upon himself: " The master pointed with his pen-knife to the first three letters and said : 'That's A, that's B, that's C; now take your seat and I will call you by and by, and if you can't tell them I will cut your ears right off with this knife.'" This was doubtless an extreme case, but the reform movement of the nine- teenth century was well advanced before the youth were exempt from the caprices of teachers. In 1798 the town appropriated twenty dollars for a singing- school.
In 1804 the first system of by-laws for the govern- ment of the schools was adopted and put in force. Ignorance of teachers was guarded against. The win- ter school was regularly opened and closed with prayer. The Bible was read in all of the schools as often as once a day. The Assembly's Shorter Cate- chism was taught weekly, and every member under the age of fifteen years was obliged to carefully attend to such instruction. It was expected of all male teachers " that they frequently and carefully impress upon the minds of the youth the principles of virtue and piety, as connected with their responsibility and usefulness in life, and also highly essential to the support and well- being of our free Republican form of government, as required by law." For more than thirty years the Assembly's Shorter Catechism was one of the required text-books. Another text-book was Morse's Geogra- phy, the first book on the science published in Amer- ica. In the scarcity of text-books the "School Fathers " required it to be used by the "first class" as a "reader." In 1806 a school-house was built at the centre, in place of the old building that had been remodeled for school purposes seventy-three years
before. The annual appropriation then reached six hundred dollars and sixteen weeks of schooling were provided ; only two schools were in session at any one time, and pupils were not confined to district limits. This led at length to a bitter quarrel in the East District. The master lost all authority, and the committee failed to restore order or peace. The sev- eral sections were arrayed violently against one an- other. The east quarter boys were on one side called by their enemies "Shaberkins and Sharks." The boys from the centre and north were united as an op- posing force and named, from their locality, " North- quarter hogs and city pigs." No day was without its battle. Many parents sided with their children and things grew worse and worse, until the town took it in hand and voted, April 5, 1813, " To set off the East part of the town as a school district, according to law, and that they draw their proportion of the school money according to the valnation of estates in that section." A town library, chartered by the General Court, was now in a flourishing condition. Each school district had a " prudential committee " to attend to the local interests of the school, and the town annually chose a committee of inspection whose duty it was to regulate the text-books, to provide supplies for poor children and adjust all difficulties. An examination of all teach- ers was required as to moral and literary qualifica- tions. The by-laws were remodeled in 1819, and "master's schools" were required to be opened and closed with prayer, and the record further says, " which practice also is particularly recommended to the serious consideration of female instructors, who will be permitted to use an approved written form of prayer." It was found difficult to enforce rules and secure uniformity in text-books until 1827, when an agent was appointed to furnish supplies at cost, and was paid for his services, by the towns. This custom prevailed until 1884, when the State passed the law re- quiring towns to furnish all school supplies and made the schools literally free.
The people were now beginning to receive the bene- fit of the "Page and Hartwell Fund." A certain proportion of the income was required to be expended for teaching sacred music. A singing-school was inaugurated in 1827, and held annual sessions at the centre for the benefit of the whole town. In 1829 a two-story brick school-house was built at the cost of $2216.43. This furnished ample accommodation for the schools and for town business. The annual ses- sion of the singing-school for the benefit of the whole town was held in the " commodious" building until 1837, when the income for teaching sacred music be- came a denominational benefit. The apparatus of the school-room was meagre, indeed, until 1841. The open fire-place had given way to a close stove which necessitated the cutting of cord-wood sticks once in two, but this, with the "master's desk " and "battered seats" constituted the entire furnishings. A primitive volume called "The School-Book"
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was furnished each town by the State in 1806, in numbers equal to the districts. This town sokl the volumes at "vendue." In 1840 the School Committee filed the first school report. In 1841 the sum of one hundred dollars was appropri- ated for maps and philosophical apparatus. Efforts were made in 1841 and 1850 to establish a High School, but without success. The first printed report of the School Committee was circulated in 1847, and in the following year each district was furnished with "Webster's Dictionary." The annual appropriation for schools reached $800 in 1847, and $1000 in 1856. This amount had been annually increased by the in- come of the " surplus revenue fund." An unsuccess- ful effort was made about 1850 to establish a free pub- lic library, but an association was formed and a library started, by which superior advantages were furnished for a small compensation.
In 1850 the town received an unexpected benefit through the will of Zadock Howe, of Billerica, by which a seminary was founded and endowed for the benefit of this as well as other towns. The public gratitude was manifested by spreading a copy of the will upon the town records, and individual apprecia- tion was manifested by turning to the Howe School for higher instruction.
In 1852 the demand for a high school was gratified, and of $885, the school appropriation for that year, $285 was apportioned for the trial of the experiment. It was abandoned after a trial of two years. The school-house in each "quarter" of the town stood as " a ragged beggar sunning " after sixty years of hard service, and in 1854 new houses were built at the east and north, and the west was thoroughly repaired, and a new one was soon erected at the south. In 1856 the brick house at the Centre was torn down and the pres- ent building, combining two school-rooms with a town hall, was erected at a cost of $8524. Mr. Charles Lane, of Boston, presented a valuable clock to the town for its use in the new hall. He was the same person who fell some years later, at his own threshold in Dorchester, by the assassin's bullet.
The dedication of the new building was an event of much importance, as the principal parts in the exer- cises were taken by sons of the town. Mr. Josiah A. Stearns gave the dedicatory address and Mr. John F. Gleason a poem; among other speakers was Mr. Charles Lane, the donor of the clock.
The efforts put forth in the erection of the new town building had a stimulating effect upon education among all classes of society. The youth were inspired with commendable ambition in school work and their elders sought improvement through the lyceum. The town appropriation now reached $1000. This was in- creased to about $1200 by the income of the surplus revenue, and the State School Fund, which was estab- lished in 1834, The town expended the " surplus revenue," and increased the annual appropriations to $1100 in 1861. The half-day session of Saturday was
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