USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Westfield > History of the town of Westfield; comp. for the public schools from Greenough's History of Westfield in the Annals of Hampden County and other sources > Part 5
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When the war was ended, and the impressive words of Washington had been spoken to the officers, who, through so many years, had been his companions in toil, privation and "on the perilous edge of battle," General Shepard again returned to his little estate to maintain him- self and those dependent upon him by his toil in the fields. He did more. His simple style of living, his exemplary conduct, his public spirit, his Christian endeavor and his neighborly kindness furnished a model for younger men and kindled their aspirations for a noble life. Though his opportunities for intellectual culture had been restricted in vonth, and though the routine of camp life had allowed little oppor- tunity for adding to his general knowledge, such were his common sense, his bravery, his high character for uprightness and intelligence, that the people were ready to trust him to perform the highest and most delicate services for the public good. He was chosen state representa- tive, senator and councillor. He was three times elected representative tc Congress. The governor of Massachusetts appointed him to treat with the Indians of Penobscot. The United States government appoint- ed him to treat with the Six Nations. He served in many town offices and was deacon of the church for twenty-four years. He was a large. well formed man, six feet in height, compactly built, not corpulent, and weighing something more than two hundred pounds. His personal ap- pearance was impressive. On training days, when, with others, he came out to observe the evolutions of the military companies during the elos- ing years of his life, Mr. Bates, then a boy, says of him: "When I re- «all his large, imposing figure, bedecked with his trusty sword and erim-
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son sash, the modest insignia of his rank, accompanied by Adjutant Dewey, with the bright point of his spontoon glistening in the sun, and heard the whispers 'There's the general,' I remembered the awe, not- withstanding his genial face, with which he inspired me."
After the reviews and evolutions were finished the soldiers were dis- charged. "Then came the greetings and shaking hands with the gen- eral."
Speaking of his character, Mr. Bates adds: "The man, who for more than thirty years, was in the service of his country, in places of high emolument, the man who was esteemed by Washington and was his companion in all the battles of the revolution, who, being detached for that purpose, fought with Gates at the battle of Saratoga and contribut- ed to the surrender of Burgoyne : the man who, notwithstanding his sim- ple and frugal habits of living, in his small brown house, his constant and energetie labor, in the favorite business of his life, went to his grave a poor man ! What a record is that to leave of him ? No taint of mean- ness or dishonesty ever attached itself to him. IIe was distinguished for his good character and his unbending integrity.
The rank and file of the leading men of Westfield during the In- dian wars and the war of the revolution furnish many examples of worthy and valiant men. Our limits forbid the notice of more than one, though his contemporaries were equally worthy.
"Eldad Taylor," according to the local historian. J. D. Bartlett. "the last son and child of Minister Taylor and Ruth Wyllys, his second wife, was born in 1708. He lived to become one of the eminent men of Westfield, both in church and state." Thongh not himself a clergy- man, he was closely related to several, as his father was a lifelong min- ister, and each of his five sisters married a minister. In 1741, the year of the settlement of Rev. John Ballantine. Mr. Taylor became deacon and was prominent in caring for the interests of the church. His large family, including several sons, well sustained the honor of the name in public and in private life.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
Before the town was organized the settlers provided a school for their children. After the incorporation of the town the selectmen an- nually, in town meeting, were required by vote of the town to provide a schoolmaster and to pay him a specified salary. No stress of war was deemed sufficient to excuse the town from caring for the school. The schoolmaster in the earlier days often received his pay in grain at the prices fixed by the town. Such was the scarcity of money that pav. ments were often more promptly made in grain than in cash. The con- tract with the schoolmaster was a matter of sufficient importance to be at times recorded upon the town books. For instance :
"December 16, 1703. These presents testify an agreement made be-
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tween the select men and Joseph Sexton in behalf of the towne of West- field we is as ffowlleth viz :- The said Joseph Sexton is hereby bound and obliged to keepe schoole from ve day of ve date hereof untill the fifteenth dar of April nexte ensuing all we time hee Doth Ingage to use ye best of his skill and industry soo far as he is capassatated to teach children to read & wright wn sent to schoole during said terms.
"2nd. The Select men as aforesaid in behalf of ve towne Doth In- gage to pay to ye afore sd Sexton or to his order ve sums of ten pounds att or before ye afour sd terms shall be expired Viz. Wht at 5s per bushell, Good white pease at 4s, 6d pr bushell, Ry at 3s. 3d. per bushell. Indian corn at 2s 4d per bushell, barley at 3s per busbell in any or either of ye afoursd species being good and merchantable. This ve afon sd parties Doe acknowledge to be ye trew intent and meaning of the a four'sd bargaine in every particular.
"Entered by order of the selectmen.
"Attest :
Joseph Sexton. Town Clarke."
If the spelling of these early records is defective, this should be re- membered : There was no fixed standard of spelling available for the common people, beyond the limited lists furnished in spelling books. Johnson's dietionary was not published until after the middle of the eighteenth century. Walker's dictionary was published a score of years earlier, but its vocabulary was limited and it was rarely seen in rural communities.
That Latin was taught by the town or grammar schoolmaster is evident from the vote passed in 1724 respecting Mr. Isaac Stiles, whom the town promises to pay "fifty pounds for keeping the school one year, that is to say the three summer months, he shall be obliged only for keeping the Latin schoolers."
Yet when there were not pupils in the school studying Latin the seleetmen do not seem to have been required to obtain a college grad- uate as teacher, but might obtain a "scolar or some other fit person."
In several towns the grammar school became at times migratory. There were reasons why families living on Union street and in Little river district should wish to bring the school to their neighborhoods. January 15, 1774, the town voted not to move the grammar school from place to place. It was customary to charge tuition to those attending the grammar or town school. Votes similar to the following frequent- ly occur. December 2, 1698, it was voted "that all boys capable to go to school, their parents or masters to pay three pence a week for readers and four pence a week for wrighters." The grammar school was in part to prepare for college. As there were no higher institutions dur- ing the first century after the incorporation of the town open to women, one reason for the attendance of girls at the grammar school was want- ing. The main reason, however, for their non-attendance was that the opinion prevailed that it was neither needful, fitting nor wise to edn- cate girls beyond the ability to read and to write. The duty of educat-
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ing boys was recognized. The duty of educating girls was disregarded after they had learned to read and write.
In a vote passed April 26, 1705. the first mention of girls as pupils of the town school occurs. They are to pay th: same tuition as boys "if they goo," but all boys from 7 to 12 are to pay "whether they go or not.'
The town took no action respecting the "Dame" or primary schools for many years. These seem to have been maintained by private effort. With. or without schools, all children, in respectable families, were taught to read, for it was deemed the duty of parents to see to it that their children were trained to read the Bible.
At the town meeting, held March 9, 1719, action was taken recog- nizing one other school than that taught at the center or fort side of the town. It was voted "to allow forty-five shillings towards the school over Little River." In 1724 three pounds were voted "to be improved in hiring a schoolmaster there this winter season." May 13, 1725. the town voted to "give the widow Catherine Noble twenty-five shillings a month for keeping school so long as the town sees cause to improve her in that service and if she sees cause to assent to it." This appears to be the first recognition in the town records of a female teacher.
The wood for fuel was furnished the school by the parents and guardians of the pupils. In December, 1698. the town voted that "such persons that send their children to the school shall provide a load of wood for each scholar ; it is to be understood that boys from 4 to 14 are to pay." This action seems to be but the legal enforcement of a cus- tom that for many years obtained in the country towns.
Westfield Academy was chartered June 19, 1793, though not open- ed for the admission of students until January, 1800. The scholarly and energetic minister of the town, Rev. Noah Atwater, for three years previous to his settlement, in 1781, a tutor in Yale college, evidently had much to do with the founding of the academy. The minister in most of the settlements was the educational, no less than the religious, leader of the community. Mr. Atwater seems to have been especially earnest in caring for the culture of the young. At times he joined the work of teaching to that of the ministry, that he might help boys on toward col- lege. The state authorities willingly granted the act of incorporation of Westfield academy, as there was no other institution of the sort in Western Massachusetts. It was the fourth academy incorporated in Massachusetts.
That the academy might be established the town voted L600 to- wards its endowment. The act of incorporation named General Wil- liam Shepard and others as trustees of Westfield academy. "to be and continue a body politie, by the same name, forever." The trustees were authorized to hold lands or other estate, the annual income of which should not exceed $2,000. In 1797 citizens of the town had subscribed $1,000. In response to a petition of the trustees half a township of land in the district of Maine was granted by the legislature in aid of the acad- emy. The sale of this land and private subscriptions so increased the
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funds that a building was completed in 1799, at a cost of about $5.000. llon. Samuel Fowler, agent for building the academy, in town meeting, April 13. 1803. reported the cost to be L927 10s 8d.
On the first of JJanuary, 1800, the building was opened with appro- priate dedicatory exercises. Rev. Joseph Lathrop of West Springfield preached the sermon, taking for his text Ps. 144:12. In the closing paragraph occurs this passage: "This day introduces a new year-the year that closes the eighteenth century from the era of your redemption. On this day we are assembled to dedicate to God and commit to his blessing this infant seminary, hoping that here 'our sons will be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones pol- ished after the similitude of a palace'-that here formed to useful knowledge, pions sentiments, and virtuous manners, they will bring honor to God, do service to men in their day, and transmit to another generation the pious principles and the excellent wisdom which they here imbibe."
The sermon was followed by a brief address, and the presentation of the keys to Hon. Samuel Fowler, president of the board of trustees. The following passage occurs in the first part of his address: "We have assembled this day for the delightful purpose of dedicating and setting apart this building for the important design of education, that the rising generation may be instructed in the various branches of hu- man and saered erndition.
"We rejoice that this happy lot has fallen to us and that we have an opportunity to impart a small portion of our property in laving the foundation of so useful an institution.
"The attention of the citizens of this commonwealth to the educa- tion of the rising generation affords a most pleasing prospect of the future support of religion, science and morality. These are grand pil- lars on which this country has been raised to its present opulence and splendor and on which the principles of our most excellent frame of government must be continued and supported."
Preceptors following Peter Starr, the first preceptor, were: Henry (1. Martindale, afterwards member of congress ; Lyman Strong. Alfred Perry, M. D., Horatio Waldo, Sanl Clark, Theodore North. Sylvester Selden, Francis L. Robbins, Samuel M. Emerson, Alfred Stearns, Charles Jenkins, Stephen Taylor, Flavel S. Gaylord, George W. Bene- diet, Elnathan Gridley. Alvan Wheeler, M. D., Parsons Cooke and Emerson Davis, who resigned in 1836, after fourteen years' service. to become pastor of the Congregational church. The above named, with one exception, were graduates of Williams college.
In his brief sketch of Westfield, printed in 1826, Preceptor Davis thus outlines the condition of the academy :
"The building was repaired in 1824. It has two school rooms on the lower floor and on the other a large hall and lecture room. The in- stitution is furnished with a sufficient quantity of chemical and philoso- phical apparatus for illustrating the general principles of those sciences. There is also a respectable collection of minerals for the use of the acad-
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emy. Instruction is given in the departments of natural history to those who wish. Terms continue eleven weeks-tuition is three dollars per quarter. During the fall. winter and spring quarters, twenty-five cents in addition is paid for fuel, sweeping, bell ringing, &c. Present number of students 110. About three thousand have been educated at this academy since its establishment, many of whom hold conspienous stations in life, and many others are useful members of society. The funds of the academy are $5000."
The preceptors following Emerson Davis, between the years 1844 and 1856, were: Ariel Parish, William W. Woodworth, Rev. Hubbard Beebe, William C. Goldthwaite, Ephraim Flint, William C. Butler, and Moses Smith.
Many ushers and many ladies of superior ability and of generous culture left the impress of their character and teaching upon students in attendance. Among the lady assistants, or preceptresses, was Miss Emma Hart. from Connecticut, who afterward married Dr. Willard of Troy and established the famous Troy female seminary, one of the first schools in the country to provide adequate higher instruction for wom- en. Miss Philena Carpenter, preceptress for several years, added to her other accomplishments skill in teaching needle work and painting. Pictures painted under her instruction were much appreciated in many homes. Another, among many others who won and who deserved high esteem, was Miss A. Elizabeth Stebbins, afterwards the wife of Norman T. Leonard.
When Westfield academy was founded it was the only institution of the sort in Western Massachusetts. During the following half century rival institutions, better endowed, sprang up, and free high schools be- gan to be established. This academy became but one of many institu- tions occupying territory once exclusively her own. William G. Bates was the soul of a movement to prevent the decline of the institution. We quote from him :
"It became apparent to the friends of the academy, that, in its ap- pointments, it was in a situation where a large expenditure should be, and must be, made, to prolong its usefulness. The building, though an elegant one for the time it was erected, had become dilapidated and old. It was still comfortable, and might by repairs have been made still more so : but it was 'behind the times,' in its extent and in its architectural beauty. It was therefore determined to erect a new building as an ad- dition-or rather, to erect a new academy, and have the old building subserve the part of lecture rooms, and other similar purposes. An ad- dress was accordingly prepared and printed, addressed to the alumni and the friends of the academy. A response was made to the applica- tion, by, in some cases, very generons subscriptions. A contract was made for the building, and on the 31st of July, 1857, the cornerstone was laid. with imposing ceremonies, and an address was delivered by Mr. Bates, and original odes were sung by a chorus of voices. The future seemed prosperous, and the donors felt that their benefactions had been judiciously expended."
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J. B. Holland was appointed preceptor in 1858. Circulars had been sent to the ahimmi to aid in securing students. The school opened with a full attendance. It was soon evident that the decline of the academy could not be permanently arrested. The rise of the Westfield and other high schools, the development of Williston seminary and other well endowed institutions within the territory once exclusively the territory of the Westfield academy made it impossible withont a large endowment to restore its pre-eminence or to continue its new life. Mr. Holland resigned in 1864. Charles F. Durfee was preceptor for a year. Mr. Geddes attempted to maintain the school another year. In 1867 the grounds and building were sold to the town of Westfield and have since been the premises of the high school The trustees added the proceeds to the fund of the academy to acenmlate until there should be suitable opportunity to use the same. in the words of the charter, in "promoting piety, religion, and morality, and for the instruction of youth in such languages, and such of the liberal arts and sciences, as the trustees shall direct . '
We may not pass from the institutional life of the academy without again quoting from Mr. Bates. In his bi-centennial address, delivered October 6, 1869, on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of Westfield, alluding to the academy, he said :
"It would be a pleasing retrospect if we were to pass over the first two-thirds of the present century, and record the names of those at whose feet, from time to time, we have sat for guidance and for instruc- tion ; if we were to recall those early companions, with whom we stray- ed, and played, and perhaps toiled along the paths of learning-com- panions dear to us then-of whom we felt, 'very pleasant hast thou been to me, my brother'-but oh, how doubly dear now, as one by one they faded from our sight, leaving us more and more alone, like a city, which sits solitary, and yet is full of people-in the world, but not of it, among men, vet not of them, andsighingfor the unselfish friendship of those who made our young hours happy ; if we were to estimate the effect which the establishment of the institution has wrought upon the material in- terest of the town, its moral influence upon the people, and the height- ened tone it has given to its intelligence and its virtue: if we were to consider what a result has been produced upon the world at large. by more than nine thousand people, who have gone out from it, to all parts of the civilized globe. But the topic is too vast for the occasion. ] may say, however, in regard to it as a part of the history of the town. that the proximity of other institutions, endowed by enlightened liber- ality, with ample funds, enabling them to provide more numerons teach- ers, more extensive apparatus, and more commodious boarding accom- modations, inaugurated a rivalry against which this almost nendowed institution could poorly struggle. The buildings and grounds, which lad come down to us, were accordingly sold. The estate of the academy is invested for increase, until by accumulation, angmented as I trust it will be, by future benefactions. it shall again spring forward into a field of usefulness.
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"My fellow citizens, I say now, in as full faith as I said to you on the 31st of July. 1857, 'Westfield academy will never die! It was born to be immortal ! It was incorporated to be and continue a body politic forever'; and if this generation shall pass away with a deluded apathy to its interests, it will find, in a generation perhaps now unborn, friends who will rally around it, with the zeal of its first founders, and rejoice with exceeding great joy, in its returned prosperity."
Mr. Bates proved his faith by his works. Before his death he deeded to the trustees of the Westfield academy, in aid of its purposes. real estate which he valued approximately at ten thousand dollars. The trustees of the academy. in recent years, have secured the end for which it was established by using the income of its fund in extending the course of study and in increasing the efficiency of the high school; the trustees also actively co-operate with the school committee of the town in the management of the school ; hence the history of the academy is in a measure merged with that of the high school. We turn to its history.
The High School .- The first movement toward the establishment of a high school, as appears from the town records, was the appointment of a committee. in 1837, to procure a site and to build a town house and a high school building.
When the town house was completed it contained rooms in the first story for a high school, while the second story was a town hall.
Though no arrangement was made by the town for that purpose, the academy continned to provide, as heretofore. for the instruction of those who continned their studies after leaving the grammar grades.
In 1845, when the state board of education were about to provide a permanent abode for the normal school. the town offered to sell the first story and the basement of the town hall to the state for the use of the normal school for the sum of $1,500; but if the board preferred to erect a separate building the town offered to give $500 for that purpose.
At the April meeting, 1855. the town appropriated $1,000 "for the high school and for fitting up rooms for that purpose."
The school opened in the town hall building the same year. H. E. Daniels was the first principal, Miss H. N. Fletcher (afterwards Mrs. L. R. Norton ), the first assistant. These were succeeded by Almon B. and Mrs. Clapp. The succeeding principals were A. H. Bingham, C. D. Ilills. E. A. Booth. H. H. Tuttle, A. E. Gibbs, Henry Dame, John Welch and James McLaughlin.
In 1867, as we have seen, the building and grounds of the Westfield academy became those of the high school. The town, in 1889, purchased the Ives property and thus extended the grounds towards the south. In that year the town also voted $26,000 for the reconstrnetion and en- largement of the high school building. During that year, also, an ar- rangement to continue for a term of years was completed between the trustees of the academy and the town, by which the income of the acad- emy fund, upon certain conditions, should be used to improve and to extend the work of the high school. In carrying out this arrangement the trustees co-operate with the school committee.
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In September, 1890, the new building was ready; a larger faculty had been carefully selected, and a more extended course of study had been prepared by the incoming principal. The school entered upon a new era of usefulness.
During the year the rear wing-the old academy-was burned. It was replaced by a brick wing adapted to the needs of the school.
Herbert W. Kittredge was appointed principal in 1890. As the result of his thorough teaching, careful administration, and tireless energy, and loyal co-operation of competent teachers in the several de- partments, the school has reached a foremost rank in the high schools of the state.
The Atheneum .- In 1864 Samuel Mather, Hiram Harrison and Cutler Laffin, their associates and successors, were incorporated under the name of the Westfield Atheneum. Mr. Mather gave $10,000 as a permanent fund for the maintenance of the library and is designated on the records as the "founder of the institution." Mr. Harrison gave about the same amount in land, and the building which he erected upon it, on Main Street. on the present site of the U. S. Whip Co. The pro- ceeds of the sale of this property now constitutes the Hiram Harrison fund.
$10,000 were raised by subscription for the purchase of books. The donors were Henry T. Morgan, $3,500: Cutler Laffin and Charles Jess- up. $1,000 each ; William G. Bates, Edward B. Gillett, George L. Laffin and Sammel Fowler, $500 each. Smaller sums were donated by other parties. The legacy of Addison C. Rand, $5,000 and that of Fanny B. Bates, $1,000, and donations from others, of less amount, have been received. The Ed. Taylor fund, $700; Leonard Fund, $700; R. B. Roh- inson Fund, $2,500; Frances Abbott Fund, $100, and an ineome of $500 from the Frederick Morand fund.
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