USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 27
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In 1864 Rev. John Ryan took charge of the Medford Church, and was a most earnest worker ; and under his administration the church on Salem Street was erected, and the first service held on Christmas, 1855. This church was then in Medford ; but the land on which it stands is now, by Act of the Legislature, a part of Malden.
Mr. Ryan was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Scully, who was succeeded by Revs. McShane and Carroll.
In 1868 Rev. Thomas Gleason was appointed to this church, and much success attended his ministry.
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1
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
March 24, 1876, the Catholics purchased the church of the Trinitarian Society on High Street, and at Easter of the same year held their first service ; Rev. Mr. Gleason superintending the church on Salem Street, and also the new one on High Street.
In 1883 the church on High Street became a separate parish, and the Rev. Richard Donelly became the pastor, and at this time (1886) occupies that position ; and the society is prospering under his faithful pastoral care.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
CHAPTER XI.
EDUCATION.
RELIGION and love of liberty brought our Pilgrim an- cestors to Medford; and as these principles sprang in them from intelligence and virtue, so they revealed to them the need of intelligence and virtue in their offspring. To educate, therefore, was to legislate for the future. The establishment of schools, during the first years of their residence, was an impossibility ; and, consequently, domes- tic instruction was the only alternative. The Bible and Primer were the reading-books. In those towns or plan- tations where a clergyman could be supported, he usually occupied much of his time in teaching the young ; and it was common for boys to be received into the minister's family to be prepared for college. Those pastors who had been silenced in England, and who came here to minister to the scattered flocks in the wilderness, were men of strong thought and sound scholarship ; and they kept up the standard of education. From the necessities of their condition, however, it is apparent that the children of our ancestors must have been scantily taught, and their grand- children must have been still greater sufferers ; for learn- ing follows wealth.
The first movement for the establishment of schools took place under the administration of Gov. Prence ; and, at his suggestion, the following order was passed in the Colony Court, 1663 : -
" It is proposed by the Court unto the several townships in this jurisdiction, as a thing they ought to take into their serious consid- eration, that some course may be taken, that in every town there may be a schoolmaster set up, to train up children in reading and writing."
Later, the Colony offered a substantial inducement for the establishment of what would seem to be a higher grade of school :-
TRINITY METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WEST MEDFORD.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
"In 1670 the Court did freely give and grant all such profits as might or should accrue annually to the Colony for fishing with a net or seines at Cape Cod for mackerel, bass, or herrings, to be improved for and towards a free school, in some town in this jurisdiction, for the training-up of youth in literature, for the good and benefit of pos- terity, -provided a beginning be made within one year after said grant."
The occupants of the Medford Plantation, being few and poor, secured instruction to their children by domestic teaching, and by using the schools of the neighboring towns. Towards the support of those schools, they were required by law to contribute ; and that they were benefited by them, is apparent from the fact, that all the persons who appear, through a series of years, as officers in the town, were well educated. The leading idea of emigration to this country, and the spirit of the age, would not allow them to neglect education. They provided for it in a way that did not require public record at the time.
In 1701 the penalty imposed by the legislature upon towns for neglecting to provide grammar schools was twenty pounds. It was required that "the schoolmaster should be appointed by the ministers of the town and the ministers of the two next adjacent towns, or any two of them, by certificates under their hands."
These early resolves concerning schools and education indubitably prove two things : first, that our Puritan Fathers believed that the establishment of schools was a duty they owed to justice and humanity, to freedom and religion ; and, second, that they had resolved that these schools should be FREE. Here, then, was a new idea introduced to the world, -free schools ! And, from free schools and congregational churches, what could result but republicanism ? They held our Republic as the acorn holds the oak. It is important to state that free schools origi- nated in Massachusetts.
In 1671 Sir William Berkeley, first governor of Vir- ginia, writes to the king thus :-
" I thank God there are no free schools nor printing-presses here, and I trust there will not be this hundred years ; for learning breeds up heresies and sects and all abominations. God save us from both !"
Now look at Massachusetts. The Rev. John Robinson, before the Pilgrims left Leyden, charged them to build churches, establish schools, and read the Bible without
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
sectarian prejudice. He said, "I am convinced that God has more light yet to break forth out of his holy word. Receive such light gladly." Our fathers acted on this wise, Christian, and republican advice, and engaged Phile- mon Purmount "to teach the children ; for which he was to be paid thirty acres of ground by the public authori- ties." How accordant this with that noble resolve of New England, to establish a college, "to the end that good learning may not be buried in the graves of our fathers " ! It is cheering to read in the early records of Medford, when a special town-meeting was called for this only pur- pose, - viz., "to see if the town will have a school kept for three months," -to find every voter in favor of it, and at the end of this vote appending these immortal words, - " and THIS SCHOOL SHALL BE FREE."
Here we have, in short compass, the different begin- nings and opposite policies of two settlements : the one anathematizing free schools and printing-presses ; the other doing all it can for free inquiry, universal culture, and progressive truth. The natural result of one system is to overrun a state with slavery, darken it with ignor- ance, pinch it with poverty, and curse it with irreligion : the natural result of the other is to fill a state with free- men, to enlighten it with knowledge, to expand it with wealth, and to bless with Christianity.
We should never cease to thank God that our ancestors, though surrounded by savage foes and doomed to poverty and self-denial, laid deep the foundations of that system of common schools which is now the nursery of intel- ligence, the basis of virtue, the pledge of freedom, and the hope of the world.
The course of instruction was narrow and partial. Each hungry child got a crust, but no one had a full meal. The New-England Primer was the first book, the spelling-book the second, and the Psalter the last. Arithmetic and writ- ing found special attention ; grammar and geography were thought less needful. The school was opened and closed with reading the Scriptures and the offering of prayer. The hours were from nine to twelve o'clock, and from one to four. Thursday and Saturday afternoons were vacations.
For the next fifty years the inhabitants of Medford sup- ported their schools at as cheap a rate as they could, be- cause their means were not abundant. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. The Rev. Mr. Porter
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
acted as private teacher, and doubtless rendered great help . to the cause of education.
1700 : Neal says, "Hardly a child of nine or ten years old, throughout the whole country, but can read and write, and say his catechism."
Nov. 30, 1719, a special meeting was held, " to see if a school shall be established for four months. Voted in the affirmative. Also voted that the town will allow Mr. Davi- son three pounds money for keeping the school the time above said, and also to diet him for the town." Hereto- fore schools had been kept in private houses ; but Feb. 22, 1720, it was voted to build a schoolhouse.
Dec. 12, 1720 : Two schools proposed and organized for the first time ; one for the west end, and the other for the east. Mr. Caleb Brooks was engaged to keep the west school for three months, at two pounds per month ; Mr. Henry Davison the east, at the same price.
In these ways, primary instruction was provided for. Although, in their votes, they used the word "established," it could not be strictly true ; for there was no school established as we understand the term. Money raised for schools was not at first put among the town charges, but raised as a separate tax. Schools were any thing but perennial : they could hardly be dignified with the title of semi-annual, and sometimes almost deserved the sobri- quet of ephemeral. At first they were kept in a central "angle," or "squadron," which meant district ; the next improvement was to keep a third of the time in one ex- tremity, a third in the opposite, and a third in the centre. Sometimes the money raised for the support of the school was divided according to the number of polls, and some- times according to the number of children. The church and the school were, with our fathers, the alpha and omega of town policy.
Oct. 5, 1730 : "Voted to build a new schoolhouse." Same day : "Voted to set up a reading and writing school for six months."
March II, 1771 : "Voted to build the schoolhouse upon the land behind the meeting-house, on the north-west cor- ner of the land."
1776: "Voted that the master instruct girls two hours after the boys are dismissed."
By a traditional blindness, we charitably presume it must have been, our early fathers did not see that females re-
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
quired and deserved instruction equally with males ; we therefore find the first provisions for primary schools con- fined to boys. As light broke in, they allowed girls to at- tend the public school two hours per day ; and it was not until April 5, 1790, that the question was formally con- sidered. On that day, a committee was chosen to inquire "if it be expedient for girls to attend the master's school." The committee wisely recommended the affirm- ative ; whereupon, at the next town-meeting, it was voted " that girls have liberty to attend the master-school during three summer months."
June 20, 1794: " Voted that females attend the mas- ter-school separately, from the Ist of May to the Ist of October, four hours each day ; and that the boys attend four hours each day, -Thursday and Saturday afternoons being vacations." Same date: "Voted, that no children, whether male or female, be admitted into the public school under the age of seven years, nor then unless they have been previously taught to read the English language by spelling the same ; and as this regulation will probably exclude many who have heretofore attended, therefore it is
" Voted, that the selectmen are hereby empowered to pay school-mistresses for instructing those children who are excluded from the public town-school, and whose parents are unable to defray such extra expenses.
" And as the great end of the public school is to furnish the youth with such a measure of knowledge that they may be able to read and write with propriety, and under- stand so much of arithmetic as may fit them for the common transactions of life; therefore, Voted, that the selectmen and school-committee be desired from time to time to make such regulations in the school as may best answer the above purposes."
The course of study was, for the most part, meagre and impoverishing. The healthy curiosity of the mind was fed on the dryest husks of grammar, arithmetic, spelling, and reading. Whatever could be turned to pecuniary gain was the great object in the selection of studies. Webster's Spelling-book, American Preceptor, Young Lady's Acci- dence, Pike's Arithmetic, and Morse's Geography, were the mines out of which pupils were commanded to dig the golden ores of all useful knowledge. The books were made with very slight apprehension of a child's mode of thought. They seemed to take for granted that the pupil
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
knew the very things they proposed to teach him. They abounded with rules, without giving any instruction con- cerning the principles out of which the rules rose. It was somewhat like lecturing on optics to the blind, or on music to the deaf.
May 5, 1795 : On this day, the town voted to build a brick schoolhouse behind the meeting-house. They agreed "to give William Woodbridge two hundred and twenty pounds, with the old schoolhouse, to build it." This house consisted of one large room, sufficient for sixty or seventy children, and was arranged after the newest models, and furnished with green blinds. On the north side sat the girls, and on the south the boys, constantly tempting each other to laugh and play.
March 1, 1802 : " Voted that the 'Royal' donation be appropriated to pay the schooling of poor children, as last year.' "
May 6, 1805 : Voted to procure a lot for a schoolhouse near Gravelly Bridge. Voted " to choose a committee to look out a piece of land at the west end of the town, procure materials (for a schoolhouse), and report their doings at March meeting."
March 7, 1807 : Voted to enlarge the schoolhouse, and dig a well. After this was done, the girls and boys were taught in separate rooms. Until this time there had been but one public free school in the town, and this was all that was then deemed necessary. It was taught by an accomplished master through the year. After this time two schools were not too many, and the town cheerfully sustained them. No provision had been made for what are now called "primary schools ;" and therefore every parent was obliged to pay for the schooling of his children until they had reached the age of seven, when they could lawfully enter the grammar school. So late as 1813, chil- dren under seven years of age were, by vote, prohibited from entering the grammar schools.
The "dame-schools," or, as they were often called, the "marm-schools," were numerous. Twelve cents per week, paid on each Monday morning, secured to each pupil an abundance of motherly care, useful knowledge, and salu- tary discipline. After all, these schools were more impor- tant to society than the march of armies or the sailing of fleets ; for they laid well the first foundation-stones of that immortal edifice, - human character.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Since 1799 a law had existed in the town, pledging it to pay for the instruction of poor children at the dame- schools.
Whittling seems native to New-England boys. March 7, 1808, the town voted to repair the seats and benches in the schoolhouse.
In 1817 female teachers for the female department were preferred. They taught through six months only. In 1818, when Medford had two hundred and two families, the expenses of the schools were as follows : -
Master for one year, at $20 per month . $240
Board for the same, at $3 per week . 1 56
Master, four months, at $20 per month 80
Board for the same, at $3 per week . 52
Three female teachers twenty-five weeks each, at $4. 300
Rent for schoolhouses for female schools . 45
$873
April 7, 1823 : Voted to build a new schoolhouse "on the front line of the burying-place."
Nov. 1, 1824: Voted to divide the town into two dis- tricts, to be called Eastern and Western; and the $1,200 voted this year for the support of the schools was to be divided equally between the districts. In 1825 the num- ber of children in Medford under fourteen years of age was 525 ; and the thickening of population in new places made it necessary to multiply schoolhouses, and scatter them over the whole territory.
1829 : Voted to build a schoolhouse of wood, in the west part of the town. This was placed on the Woburn road, on land bought of Jonathan Brooks, Esq. In 1831 it was removed and placed near the almshouse, on land belong- ing to the town.
The primary schools were taught by females, but not continued through the winter till 1837.
At this period a wave of unusual interest in educational matters was passing over many of the States, and attained its greatest height in Massachusetts. In 1830 the Amer- ican Institute of Instruction was organized, which, though national in name and object, was largely composed of Massachusetts men. It aimed at reform and progress, and proved itself most efficient in accomplishing its ex- alted purpose. A royal impulse was imparted to the educational machinery of our State, which from that time
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
began to work with wonderful activity. Favoring laws were enacted. A State Board of Education was estab- lished. Normal schools sprang into existence, and the public schools of the State soon began to assume the form and features they wear at the present day.
Among the foremost workers in this reform was one of Medford's own sons, -one whose memory is still fragrant among us, and to whom the town. owes perpetual gratitude for the labor devoted, in later years, to her own schools, and to the rescue of her early history from oblivion.
The difficulty of firing the masses with the zeal of the leaders, together with Mr. Brooks's persistency of effort and the ultimate triumph of his cause, will readily appear from the following letter, published first in the " Old Col- ony Memorial " at Plymouth, and afterwards copied into the "Common School Journal." The introduction by the editor will sufficiently explain its origin.
" MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOLS.
" The communications in our former numbers respecting the Bridge- water Normal School and the late annual address before the pupils, have induced a friend of Mr. Brooks to write him, and ask about his first movements in the Old Colony. He reluctantly yielded to write an account; but, as it connects itself so closely with the cause of edu- cation in our Commonwealth, we think our readers may be glad to see it. - Old Colony Memorial.
" BOSTON, Sept. 2, 1845.
" MY DEAR SIR, - You ask me to print my address delivered at Bridgewater before the Normal School. I thank you for the compli- ment implied in such a request ; but, my friend, the time has passed for such a necessity. Our battle with ignorance and prejudice has been fought in the Old Colony, and the victory is ours ; and there had better not be any parade of the old soldiers quite yet. Some educa- tional antiquary, in his pardonable weakness, may show my lectures fifty years hence, as they sometimes show old cannon. They are fast growing into the sear and yellow leaf ; so pray excuse me.
" You ask about the educational movements in the Old Colony with which I was connected. The story is very short, and to most persons must be very uninteresting.
" While in Europe, in 1833, I became interested in the Prussian system of education. I sought every occasion to enlarge my knowl- edge of its nature and action. A good opportunity came to me with- out my seeking it. The King of Prussia had sent Dr. Julius of Hamburg to this country, for the purpose of collecting information concerning our prisons, hospitals, schools, etc. I happened to meet the doctor in a literary party in London, and he asked me to become his room-mate on board ship. I did so, and for forty-one days was with him listening to his descriptions of German and Prussian sys- tems of instruction. I was resolved to attempt the introduction of
.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
several parts of the system into the United States. I formed my plan, and commenced operations by a public announcement, and an address at Hingham. I found some who understood and appreciated my views, and I worked on with a new convert's zeal. In 1835 I wrote and published; but few read, and fewer still felt any interest. I was considered a dreamer, who wished to fill our republican Com- monwealth with monarchical institutions. There were some amusing caricatures of me published, to ridicule my labors. These did me more good than harm. I worked with precious few encouragements. I occupied Thanksgiving Day of 1835 in advocating, in a public ad- dress, my plan for normal schools. I took my stand upon this Prus- sian maxim, 'As is the teacher, so is the school?' I thought the whole philosophy was summed up in that single phrase, and I think so still. I accordingly wrote all my lectures with reference to the establish- ment of normal schools. I now began to lecture before lyceums and conventions, and had many stormy debates, and a wonderful scarcity of compliments. The noise and dust of battle began at last to bring many to the comitia, until we got quite a respectable campus martius. I thought there was one place where I could rely on intelligence and patriotism, and there I resolved to go. I accordingly published in the newspapers, that a convention would be gathered at Plymouth, in court week, 'to discuss the expediency of establishing a normal school in the Old Colony.' The friends of common schools assembled, and a private room held us all. But soon the truth spread, and my friends in Hingham and Plymouth came up generously to the work. We felt that the two great ideas of the church and the schoolhouse, which our Pilgrim Fathers brought to this shore, were to be carried out, and ever trusted in God they would.
" But this narrative is growing too long. In a few words, then, let me add, that I found conventions to be the best missionaries of the truth ; and I gathered them in Plymouth, Duxbury, New Bedford, Bridgewater, Kingston, Hanover, Hanson, etc. The Old Colony was ready to take the lead ; and we began with petitions and memorials to the Legislature, all recommending the establishment of normal schools. How many hundred pages I wrote on this subject during 1834-6, I dare not say. It was the subject of my thoughts and prayers. The wisdom of the Prussian scheme recommended itself to the reflect- ing ; and, as I had studied it, I was invited to lecture in each of the New-England States. I went to Portsmouth, Concord, Nashua, and Keene, N.H .; to Providence and Newport, R.I .; to Hartford, Conn .; to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. I went through our own State, holding conventions at the large central towns. All this time I seemed to have little real success. I began to despair. I returned, after two years of excessive toil, to my professional duties, conclud. ing that the time had not yet come for this great movement. One evening, in January, 1837, I was sitting reading to my family, when a letter was brought me from the friends of education in the Massa- chusetts Legislature, asking me to lecture on my hobby subject before that body. I was electrified with joy. The whole heavens, to my eye, seemed now filled with rainbows. Jan. 18 came, and the hall of the House of Representatives was perfectly full. I gave an ac- count of the Prussian system, and they asked if I would lecture again. I consented, and, the next evening, endeavored to show how far the Prussian system could be safely adopted in the United States.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
" Here my immediate connection with the cause may be said to stop ; for one of my auditors, the Hon. Edmund Dwight, after this,, took the matter into his hands, and did for it all a patriot could ask. He gave $10,000 for the establishment of normal schools, on con -. dition the State would give as much. This happily settled the matter. A 'Board of Education' was established, and they found the man exactly suited to the office of secretary ; and at Worcester, Aug. 25, 1837, I had the satisfaction of congratulating the American Institute, in a public address, on the realization of wishes which they had for years cherished. Mr. Mann entered upon his labors that day, and the results are gladdening the whole country. May God still smile on this cause of causes, until schools shall cover the whole world with knowledge, and Christianity shall fill it with love!
" My friend, do not misinterpret my letter by supposing that I originated these ideas. Oh, no! They were picked up by me in Europe. There had been an attempt at a teachers' seminary at Lancaster; and the American Institute, unknown to me, had dis- cussed the subject before I was a member; and the idea was not a new one. All I did was to bring it from Europe with me, and talk about it, and write about it, until the Old Colony adopted it. 1 hope the many early friends I had there will believe me when I say, that, without their generous and steady co-operation, I should have failed in my plans. The normal schools are of Prussian origin, but let us not mourn on that account. The beautiful foun- tain of Arethusa sank under the ground in Greece, and re-appeared in Sicily ; but I have never read that the Sicilians mourned for the appearance of that foreign blessing among them.
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