USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > Lee : the centennial celebration and centennial history of the town of Lee, Mass. > Part 21
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THE HISTORY OF LEE.
The present school-houses are a great improvement on the olden time, but some of them are not as good, nor as well furnished as they should be in this wealthy and pop- ulous community. The difficulties in the way of an equi- table and generous management of the whole system of common school education are by no means small. The old district system, and the methods of eking out the ap- propriation by " boarding round," by furnishing fire-wood, or by a subscription school, were to be tolerated when no better way seemed possible, but a business-like and eco- nomical management of the whole system requires that the location and building of the school-houses, and the superintendence of the schools, should be a town respon- sibility. Districts once populous are now almost deserted. The tendency is to settle around business centers, and here the school-houses are wont to be overstocked, while the remote schools have not sufficient pupils to excite a generous emulation among themselves and keep the en- ergies of the teacher up to concert pitch. Since the abo- lition of the district system, all the public schools, the Hopland district excepted, are taught the same length of time, and all the children of the town, so far as is possi- ble, receive equal advantages for an education.
The whole genius and tendency of the Massachusetts system of public instruction has been to furnish the best possible training for all the youth in the State. The bare rudiments of education have not been deemed all-suffi- cient, but as the ability and circumstances of each town warranted the increased expenditure, the needful facili- ties for higher education have been required. In 1851 a special committee was appointed by the town to report on the advisability of establishing a Grammar School of higher grade, and then came up the question of establish- ing a High School, as required by law, in every commu- nity numbering 500 families.
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THE HISTORY OF LEE.
THE LEE ACADEMY.
This brief summary of the educational history of the town would not be complete without giving prominence to the establishment of the Lee Academy, which was afterwards merged in the High School. In the Spring of 1835, Alexander Hyde then a recent graduate of Wil- liams College, was induced by the friends of education in Lee, prominent among whom were William Porter, Sam- uel A. Hulbert, and Walter Laflin, to open a select school in the upper room of the Center school-house. This he did and continued teaching there for two years, attracting to his school some pupils from other places. He then left it to open a boarding-school at his own residence, but a public school of a high grade was now felt to be a necessity, and a meeting of the friends of education was called in February, 1837, at which William Porter pre- sented a plan for the organization of the Lee Academy Association. This was a stock company, the shares reckoned at $25. and each share entitling the owner to a vote. Seventy-five persons took stock in this company and committees were appointed to procure a site and plans for the Academy building. The committee on a site, reported the one on which the High School now stands, but the title to the land was in dispute between the American Bible Society, (to which it had been willed by Mrs. Tammy Adams,) and her heirs. The association purchased a quit-claim deed from the heirs and proceeded to build. The courts afterwards decided that the title was equitable in the Bible Society, but this Society freely relinquished all claim to so much of the Adams estate as was occupied by the Methodist Church and the Academy, in consideration of the buildings being occu- pied for the cause of religion and education.
The Academy building was completed in the Summer of 1837, and was formally dedicated Oct. 10, by an address
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from I. W. Andrews, who had been selected as principal of the school, at a salary of $400 and his board. With him was associated as assistant teacher, Miss Jerusha L. Perry. This school was conducted with varying success on its original plan as an academy, charging tuition for all pupils, both from the town and abroad, till 1851, when after a long struggle the High School was established and the building was leased to the town for a free public school. For a more minute history of the Academy, its teachers and results, see Prof. Barlow's address at the Reunion of the pupils at the time of the Town Cen- tennial.
THE LEE HIGH SCHOOL.
Prof. Barlow, has given so full an account of the High School in his address, that the following brief summary must suffice for this history, giving some points on which he did not dwell. The town had for some years con- tained the number of families (500) which the statute required for the establishment of a High School, but the inhabitants dwelling on the Hoplands contended that for all school purposes they were entirely a distinct corpora- tion from the town, and under no obligation to support a High School. There was much wrangling in town meet- ing for a series of years over this question, and it was not till Samuel A. Hulbert threatened to sue the town for violation of statute, the penalty for which was twice the amount the town ever raised in one year for school purposes, that the matter was referred to two eminent jurists, Messrs. Dewey of Williamstown, and Sumner of Gt. Barrington. These gentlemen, after a thorough in- vestigation of the law and the facts in the case, decided that the town was liable to pay the penalty unless the High School was established, and that the Hoplands were under obligation to unite with the town for its sup- port. Thus this long vexed question was finally settled, 33
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and in April, 1851, the Academy was converted into a free High School, the trustees renting the building to the town for this purpose, and the school committee employ- ing Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Hall, the former teachers of the Academy, to continue their labors.
The Academy Association however was still continued, and the rents received from the town were applied to the extinguishment of the debt of the corporation, and for repairs on the building. This arrangement continued till 1864, when the town school committee asked the Academy stockholders to transfer their stock to the town on condition that the town should continue to furnish a free High School. As no dividend had ever been paid on this stock and none was ever expected, and as the High School was successfully fulfilling the mission of the Academy, most of the stockholders were glad to trans- fer, and the town thus became possessed without expense, of sixty-four shares (a majority) of the stock, and had a controlling power over the building. A few stockholders refused to transfer their shares, but these have mostly died, and in no known instance has this stock been ap- praised among their assets. The old Academy corporation is still kept up, and the records are in the hands of the clerk, Mr.Wm. J. Bartlett. From these it appears, that the last meeting of the trustees was held June 20, 1866, so that practically the High School building is owned and managed by the town. That this school has done this community a great service is patent to all, and was specially manifest at the Centennial, when so many of its graduates returned and acknowledged their obligations to their alma mater. An alumni association was then formed, which it is hoped will still further extend the success of this institution. For a minute history of the High School see Prof. Barlow's address.
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THE SOUTH LEE BRANCH OF THE HIGH SCHOOL.
At the time of the establishment of the High School (1851), it was objected that the citizens of South Lee, while contributing to its support, lived too remotely to be much benefited by it. The town, appreciating this objection, voted to support a branch High School in South Lee, to be taught each Winter as long as the appropria- tion might last. Accordingly a room was hired in that part of the town, and a Select School taught there each Winter, generally for four months. The attendance at first was small, often less than a score, but of late years the number of pupils has increased, and the school is proving a greater success. It is attracting some pupils from Great Barrington (Beartown), and is furnishing means for a higher education to many who otherwise would not enjoy them. The only regret now is that the schools in this part of the town are not graded, so as to furnish facilities for instruction of a higher order through the entire year.
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
The history of the Lee Grammar School is a short one, for it was established in the Spring of 1876, and is not yet two years old. It is noticeable that there was the same opposition to the establishment of this institution that so long hindered the town from having a High School. For years, the school committee brought the subject before the town and urged its necessity from the crowded condition of the Common and High Schools, and in consideration of the numbers that never attained to the High School, but who ought to have better advantages for education than the common schools generally fur- nished. The Hoplands uniformly opposed the project, and as the law did not require the town to support such a school it was defeated year after year, till, finally, the town
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voted in 1876 to establish a Grammar School separately from the Hoplands, and appropriated a thousand dollars for fitting up the upper room of the High School building for this purpose and for the pay of the teacher. The room was new floored, furrowed out, plastered and furnished with the best school furniture, for less than $500, and is decid- edly the most commodious and pleasant school-room in town. The committee were fortunate in procuring the services of Mr. S. V. Halsey, a graduate of the High School, who had proved himself a thorough teacher in the com- mon schools, and six weeks had not elapsed after the town had made the appropriation before he opened his school. The Grammar School promises to be a permanent and beneficial institution in the town.
THE HOPLAND SCHOOL CORPORATION.
The town of Great Barrington 1770, January 22, voted that the settlers in the Hopland division should have the proceeds of the sales of land set apart in that section for schooling. 1782, March 18, on the Lee records is the vote that the town will "take care of the school lands." March 28 we read " the above land is voted to that part of the inhabitants belonging to the said Hoplands."
1790, May 31, the town voted that they had no objec- tion to the desire of the people of Hopland to be incor- porated into a society for supporting schools. The Hop- land district was incorporated March 7, 1791. An Ex- planatory Act was passed 1797, March 11, forbidding town assessments for school purposes on Hopland resi- dents. Still further powers seem to have been needed, and 1798, June 19, it was enacted that if the fund be in- sufficient, the Hopland district should have authority to levy taxes for such additional sums as might be needed and voted. In 1830, February 12, authority was given to divide the territory into school districts. The Hopland
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fund, now amounting to $1,600, with an income of $96, is still held separate, and managed by the Hopland peo- ple. A proposition was made, 1808, March 7, for the first time, and repeatedly since, that the town should raise an equal amount, and that thereafter the schools and school-houses in the Hoplands should be under the man- agement of the town committee in the same way as are the other public schools, but the proposition has never met with favor by the Hopland corporation, and the anom- aly remains of a town being divided against itself by arbi- trary lines on the vital point of education. The district system is by sufferance still retained on the Hoplands, though abolished by the general statute of 1869. Within the limits of this corporation are six districts, in which agents are appointed to hire the teachers and take care of the school property, but the Town Committee examine the teachers and have a general superintendence of the schools.
ADMINISTRATIVE : ROADS AND BRIDGES.
The laying out of roads was a frequent item of busi- ness transacted at the annual and special town meetings. The era of road making seems to have been about 1780. Many of the first settlers built their houses simply with reference to a convenient location for work on the land they had purchased. As the thoroughfares for common travel took direction, some of these original locations were found to be very far one side from the generally traveled ways. The town at first had not been very ex- acting in regard to the location of the roads, but laid out a highway wherever a family needed some such connec- tion with the outer world.
The first road or path from Springfield on the Connec- ticut to the Housatonic townships, was that used by General Amherst and his army in 1759, on his way from Boston to Albany. For many years after the Revolution
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this was known as the Great Road from Boston to Al- bany, and was the only road between those places that . crossed the County of Berkshire. It passed through the towns of Blandford, Otis, Sandisfield, Tyringham, Great Barrington, and so on up to Albany. Burgoyne's army, after the surrender at Stillwater, 1777, Oct. 17, passed over this road on their way to Boston, and spent one night in Tyringham. The turnpike from the Connecti- cut line through Otis, Becket, Lee, Lenox, and so on to the New York line, was granted in 1800. It was considered so important an event that Dr. Hyde preached a sermon on the occasion of its opening. It was given up as a turnpike in 1820, from Whiton's Furnace in Lee to the line of New York.
It was ordered by the House of Representatives, 1752, January 25, " that Elisha Hawley, with the assistance of the Stockbridge Indians, look out and mark out a horse road from Northampton to the Westerly part of the Government." Massachusetts Archives 46 : 324, 1753, December 4, mention is made of a road lately cut from Northampton to Albany.
The road to Lee branched off from the Great Road above named, passed over the ledges known as the Becket Stairs, and so on into the territory of Lee. It was at first a rough bridle or cart path, rougher than the wood roads of the present day through the timber land.
Various roads, previously traveled, were accepted, 1780, March 29, but as early as 1783, March 3, it was voted to discontinue several of the roads. In those days, it would seem that every one built his house where it seemed to him most convenient in carrying on his farm. Then he expected that the town would establish and maintain a road to his door. It is no wonder that in a very few years it was found necessary to abandon as needless, or
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too burdensome, such an endless variety of roads, lanes, highways and pent roads.
The surveyor would not now be considered " a skillful artist," as the phrase was in those days, who, in locating a public road, should not give courses and distances, but such loose, general directions as " past Ben Smith's po- tato hole," coming into " the old road leading through Dogtown." The first road located by accurate measure- ment, is the Stockbridge road, leading past Mr. Hyde's, altered at that point in 1807.
REPAIRING HIGHWAYS.
In 1789, the town voted that the whole territory should be divided into four districts for repairing highways, and that a surveyor should be appointed in each district to superintend repairs.
£150 voted for repairing roads.
4s. a day allowed for labor till October 1st, after that, 2s. 6d., and the same for team and plow or cart. Boys not 16 years old not allowed wages on the highway.
1799, $500 voted for highways.
1802, voted to buy 9 scrapers, one for each highway district.
1804, Selectmen to attend to all roads having no regu- lar record, make a survey and such alterations as they think proper.
$1,000 to repair; 1805, $800; 1823, $800 and $500 to repair bridges.
1862, authority to Selectmen to keep walks in village clear of snow.
1868, April 6, $1,305.56 were paid for macadamizing Water street road.
$800 appropriated to macadamize Main street.
1869, not to remove earth for repairs of roads, except in emergency, after September 30th.
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For many years past, the care of the roads has been in the hands of the Selectmen, who have employed a com- petent person to superintend the repairs.
TURNPIKES.
From 1787 to 1805, there was a mania for building turnpikes, similar to the railroad mania of later years. Turnpikes were everywhere, and the taxation of trans- portation was universal, but that transportation tax was not for many years felt to be a grievance. These roads greatly facilitated access to markets, and in the same de- gree increased the value of real estate on every route through which they passed. It is but a few years since the towns took them out of the hands of their proprie- tors, and assumed their support at the public charge.
The Tenth Massachusetts or Farmington River Turn- pike Corporation, was established 1800, June 16. The road began at the point where the Farmington river crosses the line between Massachusetts and Connecticut, and thence passed through Sandisfield, Bethlehem, now a part of Otis, Becket and Lee to Lenox Court House; thence, over the mountain through Richmond and Han- cock, to the New York State Line. The Tyringham and Lee Corporation, established 1805, March 15, connected points in these two adjoining towns.
In 1805, the town appointed a Committee to wait on a Committee appointed by the General Court to explore a route for a turnpike through this town -- to show a better route than the one contemplated, but to remonstrate against any turnpike through the town. The remon- strance did not avail, for the Housatonic Turnpike, from Whiton's furnace at East Lee, through Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, was granted in 1806.
1813, turnpike granted to Joseph Bradley's.
1824, turnpike from Lee to Sandisfield.
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1855, the Tenth Massachusetts Turnpike was laid out as a county road.
The mania for turnpikes has entirely passed away. They doubtless did service in their day, opening high- ways by means of corporations, when the towns were too poor to incur the expense. The impression was also prevalent that corporations, taking toll from travelers, would keep their roads in better repair than the towns would, and this, for half a century after the settlement of this country, was probably the fact. Toll-gates, how- ever, became in the course of time, a great nuisance, and one turnpike after another was given up till all were abandoned, and the towns assumed the entire responsi- bility of the roads. Some old fogies predicted that the highways would degenerate under town supervision, but their prophecy has not been fulfilled. The roads have steadily improved since turnpikes were abolished, and more especially since the making and repairing of them has been entrusted to some skillful roadmaker. When the custom was to allow every man " to work out his road tax," the roads had a very botched-up look. Turfs and stones disfigured them, and mud impeded travel. The material for road repairing was quite uniformly taken from the side ditches, and was more fit for the dung-hill than for a road-bed. Now, gravel is commonly used for road-repairing, and never were the roads of the town in so good condition as in this Centennial year.
The improvement in bridges has been as great as in the roads. The first bridges were mere foot-paths, often made by falling a tree across the stream. Horses and vehicles were expected to ford the streams. The first bridges were rude structures with log abutments and piers, on which were stretched huge hemlock logs hewn on one side so as to furnish a level surface for the plank-floor. These bridges were short lived, and needed
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constant repairs. Stone abutments and piers were early substituted for those built up of logs, cob-house fashion, but it was not till the first half century of the town was completed that the principle of the arch was applied to the building of bridges in this town. The first truss bridge was built across the Housatonic, at the upper end of the village, at what was then called " The Huddle. It was a poor affair compared with modern structures, but did not shake with every passing vehicle as did the old bridges, whose stringers were unsupported. The first iron bridge in town was built over the Housatonic on West Park street in 1876, and is a very substantial and handsome structure. The cost of this bridge ($3,700) was partly defrayed by individuals.
THE PITTSFIELD AND STOCKBRIDGE RAILROAD.
The Housatonic Railroad had been running several years to Van Deusenville and State Line, before what is now the main line of the road from Housatonic to Pitts- field was constructed. The extension from Canaan, the original terminus, to State line, was built in 1848. The project of a railroad through Lee was pushed with great energy by Samuel A. Hulbert, and others. The company, which built the road, was incorporated in 1848, and on the first of January, 1850, the road was opened. It is 22 miles long, and cost $440,000. It is operated by the Housatonic Railroad Company, which pays for its perpet- ual lease a rental of seven per cent. on the cost.
The opening of this road gave a great impulse to the business of Lee. It enabled the manufacturers to trans- port their raw material and manufactured goods, not only at much less expense but in much less time and with more certainty. Before the construction of the Housa- tonic road, a journey from Lee to New York was a tedious affair, especially in the Winter, when the Hudson
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river was closed by ice. The route was commonly via. Hudson City and thence down the river by steamboat. Before the era of steamboats, the passage down the river was as uncertain as the wind, sometimes occupying a week or ten days. Goods and passengers were conveyed up and down the river by sloops, and between Hudson and Lee by horse-power, the farmers doing most of the latter transportation. Railroads revolutionized all this ; and though some of the farmers thought and said that these roads would ruin the agriculture of the town, would make horses useless and oats worthless ; the result proved just the contrary. Agriculture, as well as manufactures, received an impulse ; real estate rose rapidly ; farms im- proved, and the material progress of the town was never so rapid as for a few years after the extension of the Housatonic road to Pittsfield. For this, the town is greatly indebted to Hon. Samuel A. Hulbert, who threw his mighty energy into the enterprise of constructing this road, and carried it through, in spite of all obstacles, by the force of his will, and indomitable perseverance.
LEE AND NEW HAVEN RAILROAD.
Public attention was early directed to the feasibility of a railroad from Lee, up the outlet of Greenwater Lake to West Becket, thence down the Farmington river to con- nect at the Connecticut State line with roads leading to Hartford and New Haven. As early as 1848, a company was incorporated to carry this enterprise into effect. The charter having expired without any thing being ac- complished, it was renewed in 1864, and four years were granted for the construction of the road. In 1867, the Legislature extended the time for construction to 1870, and in 1868, a State loan of $300,000 was authorized, on certain conditions, to aid in its construction. In 1869, at a special town meeting, held September 8, Lee voted to
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subscribe $75,000 to the stock of this road, and issue bonds in payment therefor, but no subscription was ever made though the vote was never reconsidered. In 1870, fresh efforts were made to raise funds, and the towns of Otis, Sandisfield and Tolland, subscribed $105,000 to its stock, Otis and Sandisfield $40,000 each, and Tolland $25,000. In this year, also, the time for the construction of the road was extended to June 5, 1872, the time in which the State scrip could be issued under the Loan Act. The necessary funds were not raised at this time, and again the Company went before the Legislature ask- ing an extension of time for construction till June 5, 1875, which was granted, but nothing in the Act was said about the extension of the State aid, the Chairman of the Railroad Committee saying that an extension of time was all that was necessary. September 20, 1872, subscrip- tions to the stock having been made, sufficient in the opinion of the directors to warrant it, a contract was made with J. B. Davis & Co., for the construction of the entire road from Lee to the Connecticut State line, a dis- tance of 25 miles, for $600,000. Work under this con- tract was commenced November 1, of the same year, and pushed vigorously. In the meantime, some doubt having arisen whether the Act, extending the time of construc- tion, continued also the promised State aid, a bill was re- ported by the Railway Committee, and passed in both Houses in 1873, revising and extending the Loan Act of 1870. This bill was vetoed by the Governor, May 16, 1873. Strenuous effort was made to pass the bill over the Governor's veto, but it failed, as also all endeavors subsequently to renew the State Loan. Work on the road ceased soon after the reception of the news of the veto, but not till after the contractors had expended nearly $100,000, and had been paid about $60,000. It is still hoped that direct railroad communication between
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