USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, in 1630, to the present time, 1855 > Part 27
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" BIBLE PRINCIPLES.
"1. This church is independent, so far as relates to its internal organization and the regulation of its affairs; it controls the admis- sion, discipline, and removal of its members, according to its own understanding of the word of God.
" 2. This church will extend to other evangelical Congregational churches, and receive from them, that fellowship, advice, and assist- ance which the law of Christ requires. It will extend the usual rights of communion, and practise the usual transfer of members, according to its own convictions of duty.
"3. This church will grant dismissions and recommendations to those members who are in good standing, and who conscientiously prefer uniting with other churches of any evangelical denomi- nation, when they apply in a regular manner, and with a Christian spirit.
"4. This church deems it irregular, if any members withdraw from them, and unite in communion and worship with other churches, either on account of any offence, or on the plea of better edification, without giving notice to the church, and requesting a dismission.
"5. Any member having cause of complaint against another, in cases of personal offence, should immediately seek to have it removed in a Christian manner, the directions given in Matt. xviii. 15-17 being his guide.
" 6. In cases of offence against the church, it is the duty of any member cognizant of it to seek at once to have it removed, by per- sonal labor, before making it a matter of public complaint.
"7. It is a recognized principle in civil society, that every man shall bear his proportion to the support of its institutions. This
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
church regards it as equally binding upon the members of Christ's house, that they shall bear their just proportion to the support of the gospel.
"8. This church regards slaveholding, the traffic in and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, gambling, and such like things, as inconsistent with Christian character.
"9. This church affectionately, yet earnestly, entreats its members to avoid all connection with dancing assemblies, theatrical exhibi- tions, secret societies, and similar associations, as tending practi- cally to weaken the bond of Christian brotherhood, and to bring a reproach upon the cause of their Master.
The present house of worship was dedicated Feb. 14, 1849. Rev. A. B. Warner died May 26, 1853. Rev. Jacob M. Manning was ordained pastor Jan. 5, 1854.
GRACE CHURCH.
The liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal church was first used in public worship, in Medford, on Christmas Eve, A.D. 1847. About the same time, a hall was procured, and the services of a clergyman were engaged for a limited time, in the hope that it might be found expedient to form a parish. It soon became manifest that a sufficient number of persons were interested in the enterprise to justify this step, and a meeting was accordingly called ; and, on the 15th day of February, A.D. 1848, a parish was legally organized, under the name of Grace Church. In March following, the Rev. David Greene Haskins was chosen rector. In September, 1849, measures were taken for building a church. A conve- nient location was chosen, and a small but neat and beautiful edifice was erected, and, on the 11th of May, 1850, conse- crated to the worship of God.
Mr. Haskins retained the charge of the parish until February, 1852; when he resigned, and was succeeded by the Rev. Justin Field, the present rector.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
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CHAPTER VIII.
EDUCATION.
RELIGION, and love of liberty, brought our pilgrim ancestors 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, there- fore, was to legislate for the future. The establishment of schools, during the first years of their residence, was an impossibility ; and, consequently, domestic instruction was the only alternative. The Bible and Primer were the read- ing-books. In those towns or plantations 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 wilder- ness, 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 grandchildren still greater sufferers; for learning follows wealth.
The first movement for the establishment of schools took place under the administration of Governor 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 serions consi- deration, 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.
" 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 im- proved for and towards a free school, in some town in this jurisdic- tion, for the training up of youth in literature, for the good and benefit of posterity, - provided a beginning be made within one year after said grant."
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EDUCATION.
The occupants of the Medford plantation, being few and poor, secured instruction to their children by domestic teach- ing, 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 certifi- cates 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 originated in Massachusetts.
In 1671, Sir William Berkeley, first Governor of Virginia, 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 Robin- son, before the Pilgrims left Leyden, charged them to build churches, establish schools, and read the Bible with- out 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 Philemon Purmount "to teach the children ; for which he was to be paid thirty acres of ground by the public authorities." How
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
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 purpose, - 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 beginnings and opposite policies of two settlements : the one anathema- tizing 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 ignorance, pinch it with poverty, and curse it with irreligion ; the natural result of the other is to fill a state with freemen, 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 intelligence, 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 writing found special attention ; grammar and geography were thought less needful. The school was opened and closed with read- ing the Scriptures and the offerings 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, because their means were not abundant. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. The Rev. Mr. Porter 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."
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EDUCATION.
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." Heretofore, 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 esta- blished, 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 sobriquet 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 extremity, 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 num- ber of polls, and sometimes according to the number of chil- dren. 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 11, 1771 : " Voted to build the schoolhouse upon the land behind the meeting-house, on the north-west corner 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 required and deserved instruction equally with males ; we therefore find the first provisions for primary schools confined to boys. As light broke in, they allowed girls to attend the public school two hours per day ; and it was not until April 5, 1790, that the question was formally considered. On that day, a
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
committee was chosen to inquire "if it be expedient for girls to attend the master's school." The committee wisely recommended the affirmative ; 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 master- school separately, from the 1st of May to the 1st of October, four hours each day ; and that the boys attend four hours each day, - Thursday and Saturday afternoons being vacations." No one was admitted under seven years of age, nor unless he could read and spell. Woman, as the first instructor of man, needs a double portion of culture ; and, when we starve the mother, we curse the cradle.
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 Spell- ing-book, American Preceptor, Young Lady's Accidence, 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 knew the very things they proposed to teach him. They abounded with rules, without giving any instruction concerning the princi- ples 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 fur- nished 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 ap- propriated 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."
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EDUCATION.
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 accom- plished 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 " pri- mary 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, children 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. Some vestal dames, whom it would not be profanation to call " sacred," and who never seemed young to their pupils, continued, through many years, to teach the young their first steps on the high and perilous ladder of learning. With what fidelity they adminis- tered the accustomed kisses, alphabet, and birch, some of us can never forget. Twelve cents per week, paid on each Monday morning, secured to each pupil an abundance of motherly care, useful knowledge, and salutary discipline. Our town rejoiced in a " Marm Betty." After all, these schools were more important to society than the march of armies or the sailing of fleets ; for they laid well the first foun- dation-stones of that immortal edifice, - human character.
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 . 156
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
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
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 districts, 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 number 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 ter- ritory.
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 re- moved and placed near the alms-house, on land belonging to the town.
1833: Voted to build a schoolhouse in the eastern dis- trict, the cost not to exceed four hundred dollars.
The primary schools were taught by females, but not con- tinued. through the winter.
March 3, "1834: Voted that the school-committee be directed so to arrange the town-schools that the girls shall enjoy equal privileges therein with the boys throughout the year." This tardy justice to the female sex was not peculiar to Medford ; and we are now amazed that Anglo-Saxon men, living in a free commonwealth and, professing - the Christian religion, should have needed two hundred years to convince them that girls have an equal right with boys to all physical, intellectual, and moral development.
The new interest awakened in the cause of elementary instruction, by the friends of common schools, produced its effects readily in Medford; and, in 1835, the town chose a committee "to inquire how proper education might be more extensively and effectually promoted in the town." In this year a new schoolhouse was ordered, - the land and building to cost eight hundred dollars.
March 2, 1835 : The town appointed a committee to " in- quire into the best methods of conducting public schools."
This vote shows that the efforts of the school-reformers of previous years had not been lost on Medford. Among these early friends of a better system was a talented son of Medford, Mr. William Channing Woodbridge, who received from his father a knowledge and love of school-teaching, and who, as editor of the " Annals of Education," labored suc-
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EDUCATION.
cessfully for the great cause. His " Modern School Geogra- phy and Atlas " are proofs of his ability and enthusiasm ; and we deeply regret that all our efforts to learn more of his history and labors have been so unsuccessful. He is an honorary member of the Geographical Societies of Paris, Frankfort, and Berlin.
If another son of Medford has labored long and spent much for common schools, is it necessary that it should be noticed in this history ? The writer of this has maintained, that, under the circumstances, it is not necessary ; but he has at last been syllogized into the belief, that what was pub- licly done by a son of Medford towards the " education- revival." of 1835-7 belongs to the history of the town, and cannot be omitted without violating the rule followed in all other cases in town histories. Silenced rather than convinced, he yields to the wishes of those he has no right to disregard ; and, omitting all details, he consents only to the republication of a letter which first appeared in the Plymouth newspaper, Oct. 4, 1845, and was copied in the " Common School Jour- nal." The introductory remarks of the editor will sufficiently explain the facts.
" MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOLS.
" The communications in our former numbers, respecting the Bridgewater 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 yield- ed to write an account; but, as it connects itself so closely with the cause of education 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 com- pliment implied in such a request; but, my friend, the time has passed for such a necessity. Our battle with ignorance and preju- dice 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 educational 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 per- sons 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
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
knowledge of its nature and action. A good opportunity came to me without 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, &c. I hap- pened 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 Ger- man and Prussian systems of instruction. I was resolved to attempt the introduction of 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 commonwealth with monarchial insti- tutions. 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 address, my plan for Normal Schools. I took my stand upon this Prussian 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 establishment of Nor- mal Schools. I now began to lecture before lyceums and conven- tions, 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 mar- tius. I thought there was one place where I could rely on intelli- gence 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.
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" 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, &c. 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 re- commended itself to the reflecting; and, as I had studied it, I was
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