USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 24
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The name, "Grammar School", as then used, signified a school in which Latin and sometimes Greek was taught, the grammar being essen- tial to the understanding of the language. In the past century the term has signified a school in which English grammar was taught, while at present the term seems falling into disuse along with the study itself.
In January, 1703, "voted ten pounds money in addition to the ten pounds granted Dec. 1702", and it was voted that "the Selectmen should obtain a schoolmaster for the present year as cheap as they can."
April 19, 1703, "voted that the Selectmen shall take care to build a convenient house for the town to keep school in, and to get it done as cheap as they can, to stand in some convenient place, betwixt the meeting house and the burying place." (Vote seems not to have been carried out) .
March 5, 1710-11, "voted to have a gramer Schoolmaster to keep schoole in ye Town for the year ensuing and to be paid by the town the selectmen to obtain and hold sd Schoole in such place and places in the Town as they shall Judge best to promote Larning."
March 3, 1711, "voted that Capt. Johnson, Capt. Bancroft, Henry Collins Jr. and William Merriam be chosen to obtain a schoolmaster and agree with him and to settle the schools as shall be judged best."
The above reminds us that in those days "agreeing with the school- master" and "settling the schools" had not become the prerogative of the school committee, as is now the case; in fact, the duly-elected and legally-qualified school committee of the present time had not been dis- covered. And doubtless their one grammar school, held for three months each winter, was held in hired quarters till later than 1711. In his "His- tory of Lynn," which he wrote in 1829, Alonzo Lewis explains that "In clearing the forests and obtaining a subsistence the early settlers had little leisure for their children to spend in study; and a month or two in winter, under the care of the minister, was the principal opportunity which they had to obtain the little learning requisite for their future life. The consequence was that the generations succeeding the early settlers, from 1650 to 1790, were generally less learned than the first settlers, or those who have lived since the Revolution."
March 2, 1718, "voted that the Selectmen obtain a schoolmaster and agree with him, the school to be kept in four parts of the town, viz. the body of the town, over the bridge, the Woodend, and the new portion as near as may be in proportion to each part's bigness as shall be ordered by the Selectmen ; having regard to some help for the Rev. Mr. Shepard in preaching."
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The project of building a schoolhouse met with difficulties, not the least of which was the growing rivalry as to its location. The outlying sections were unwilling that the middle of the town should monopolize the school. As a compromise, it became the custom to move the school- master about; but even then it was impossible to satisfy all the districts as to the portion of schooling and season of the year alloted each. In 1720 we find John Lewis teaching in Lynnfield, in Saugus (over the bridge), on the Common, and at Woodend, all of which were important parts of early Lynn.
A schoolhouse was built in 1728. On March 28 of that year it was "voted that the school shall not be moved this year and the Selectmen to look a convenient place for to set up a schoolhouse on." By October 21 they had made such progress with their problem that they held an- other town meeting and voted "that there shall be two schoolhouses builded in the town ; the one betwixt Richard Johnson's house and Godfree Tarbox's house, the other on the westerly side of Mower's Hill."
Mower's Hill was the hill between Tower Hill and East Saugus, as they are known today. But the west-end people were not satisfied with this solution, for on June 30, 1731, they succeeded in passing a vote in town meeting "that one of the schoolhouses shall be removed to Mill Hill" (Water Hill). It remained there until 1732, when the west-end champions were overpowered, and it was "voted to move the schoolhouse to the place where it formerly stood; also, it was put to vote to have a Committee to regulate the School. It past in the negetive."
That schoolhouse seems to have taken to wandering habits like those early schoolmasters, for no sooner was it settled in "the place where it formerly stood" than another town meeting was called, and on Nov. 22, 1732 N S," voted, that the School House Bee Removed from the place where it now stands that is in Latons Lane so Calld (our present Frank- lin Street) to a knoll in the middle of the Comon."
Now came the time when three months of schooling each year was not enough. They had school the year round and many years passed before our modern long summer vacation came into use.
Town Debts to Mr. Jonathan Parpoint for Keeping Scoole Beginning
December ye 12th 1732 at 65 pounds pr year 16 5 0
June 12, 1733 Mr. parpoint for keeping scoole one quarter. 16
5
0
Sept. 12, 1733 Due for keeping scoole one quarter. 16 5 0
Dec. 12, 1733 Due for keeping scoole one quarter. 16 5 0
The following financial records are a little confusing in their fluctua- tions of value. But they help us realize the growing need of a more stable currency in the colonies.
June 13, 1738 Mr. Richard Mower began the scool for ye rate of 65-0-0. May 14 Richard Mower, Gentleman, begged of for a fortnit to be absent.
Sept. 13, 1738 paid Richard Mower one quarter scooling 16-5-0.
Oct. 11th Mr. Richard Mower began to keep ye school this day at 95 pounds per yr.
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EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS
Mar. 30, 1744 Mr. John Lewis Junr. began to keep schoole at the rate of 100 per yr. Aug. 6, 1744 John Lewis began at 120-0-0.
The following items seem to relate to "Mr. Nathanell Henchman"
Aug. 8, 1749 By keeping Scool from this day till July 16, 1750 at 220. 15 0 pounds pr year old tenor is 206
By keeping Scool from September 5th 1750 to December 5th, 1750 att 67 10 0 270 pr. year old tenor is.
Dec. 5th By keeping scool from Dec. 5th 1750 to Dec. 5th 1751 att 280
pounds pr year old tenor is 280 0 0
1752 Docter Nathaniel Henchman paid for keeping school for a quarter
9
6
8
33 weeks to Sept. 13, 1753. 23 14 8
33
1
4
May 5, 1752 Paid Ebenezer Bancroft for room to keep school in 0
6
0
Same date Jeddiah Wellman for keeping school in North Parish 5 10 0
Same date Capt. Elishaw Newhall for a Rome to keep school in.
0
6 0
556 8 0 of year to Dec. 12
July 5, 1756 This day Capt. Richard Mower opend ye Scule at the north part of the town at the same rate as has of late been given in this town 28 pounds per y old Tenor Lawful money 37-6-8
May 5, 1759 To see whether the town will Settle a Schoole in the Body of the town To be Statedly kept through the year and allow the North and West parishes to Draw the proportion of money they Shall pay towards the Support of Sd Schoole upon Their providing Schools among themselves at Such Seasons of the year as will best Suit them to the amounts of Sd Share.
It was put to vote and past in ye Negetive.
The reader of these chapters will understand how fragmentary are the sources from which a history of early Lynn schools must be con- structed. Let us pass to more recent years.
The Society of Friends had a semi-public school of their own in Lynn for nearly half a century. Hon. Nathan Mortimer Hawkes, in an ad- dress delivered in 1907, makes vigorous comment upon the peculiar fea- tures of this school, declaring that "thus was established a full-fledged and original Parochial school on the soil of Puritan Lynn."
"Sundry persons of the Quaker Society" on March 2, 1776, presented a petition "for the Grant of a Peace of Land to Sett a School House on." The "Peace" was not granted, but the next year they established their school. The schoolhouse stood "half way up Quaker Meetinghouse Hill" and has been erroneously claimed to be "the second school set up in Lynn." The location was on Broad street, just below Silsbee. Their original schoolhouse was moved away and another, built in its place, after- ward became the "Union Store" of olden times.
In 1784 application was made to the selectmen for the proportion of money which Friends were annually paying for the support of the public schools, to be refunded to them, to be used by them for the sup- port of this Friends' School. The request was refused at first but after- ward it was granted and the grant continued till 1821, about thirty-five
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years. But when the Lynn Methodists tried to arrange the same plan to establish sectarian schools of their denomination upon their share of the public funds, it was voted in town meeting, February 23, 1792 "that the Methodists do not draw their part of the school money back."
Micajah Collins was the master of this Friends' school during most of its existence. One of his schoolboys in 1814 was D. Wendell Newhall, who has written the following description of his schoolmaster as he re- members him: "His figure and noble mein, spectacles on nose, silver buckles on shoes and breeches, a clean white stocking, a pendant watch- chain and seal, a white neck-cloth, that peculiar cut vest and drab short- bellied coat, and those eyes peering out over the school, hushing the whole school into that Quaker quiet." The writer of the foregoing description, speaking of the punishments he remembers in Master Collins' school, mentions various "educational" devices common to many schools of that day. He remembers "the leather, the wooden ferrule, a something to stride the nose, a bone for the mouth, and the tony-hole." These last contrivances have so fallen into disuse that few of us understand what is meant.
"A something to stride the nose" was also in use in the school at the westerly end of the Common about 1810. There it was known as a "nose- gay," being fastened astride the nose with a contrivance somewhat like a clothespin, and the boys thus decorated were obliged to stick their heads out of the windows for the amusement of passers-by. "The bone for the mouth" was not particularly appetizing. The victim was made to open his mouth as wide as possible, and a stick, the "bone", was placed be- tween his teeth to hold his jaws apart. The pose became most uncom- fortable and the victim was required to face the other children, greatly to their amusement and his own mortification.
About 1800 the Woodend School stood at the head of "Fresh Marsh Lane" on "School House Hill". Fresh Marsh Lane is now Chestnut street and the hill is at the end of Collins street. Half way up the middle aisle of this school was a scuttle hole for wood, where unruly boys were fre- quently shut up until the cold and darkness and shame brought them to repentance. Perhaps such dark holes in other schools may have served as Tony Holes, just as the Dunce's Corner and stool and cap once had their run of popularity as educational devices.
The changes in the schools of Lynn in all these years provide a most interesting subject for study. The punishments always seem to be remembered after other experiences fade away. Supporting a book on the hand at arm's length or holding down a nail in the floor were refine- ments of punishment compared with methods sometimes employed. The daily cries of "Fight, fight", "Ring around", are no longer heard in the school yards, and the gangs of "Beach Streeters" or "Highlanders" or from "Wapping" no longer wage deadly battle through the streets with snowballs or sticks and stones.
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EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS
A few years ago one school gained notoriety from its custom of pun- ishing whisperers by tying a long stocking over their mouths. The par- ents objected, the daily papers featured their protests, and the authorities ordered it stopped, not as cruel or abusive, but as insanitary. The slates that have done service for centuries have been banished for a similar rea- son. Before there were arithmetics, the master would set all the sums on the slates, and the busy rattle of the pencils was the music of the arithmetic hour. But now that is no longer heard because the slates were found insanitary. Future generations may wonder why, but as for those of us who remember how they were "cleaned off", we'll say they were.
Nathan B. Chase, writing in 1870, states that in 1800 there were only two public schoolhouses in Lynn, one at the westerly end of the Common and the other at Woodend. He has given us an interesting de- scription of the latter. "It was about 25 by 40, set up four feet from the ground on pasture stones. It had a pitched roof and a chimney at each end. To one there was a large fireplace, to the other a large box stove, the iron plates of which were an inch thick, put together with iron rods at the four corners. It stood in the back part of the center aisle and was heated with white pine wood. The scholars went to the fire by classes on a cold day, taking their turns from the first class downwards. On one side of this fireplace was the front entryway, on the other was the teacher's desk. From the front to the rear the ascent of the floor was about five feet, and going up to the back seats seemed like going up a small hill."
"From the first class downwards" suggests that middle-aged Lyn- ners today remember that in their schooldays, the "Master's Class" was the "first grade," and the lower grades were given the larger numbers, the reverse of the present day custom. In that same comparatively mod- ern time it will be remembered that school always kept Saturday fore- noons in Lynn and a few neighboring towns along the North Shore, al- though not the custom elsewhere. This afforded a Wednesday afternoon holiday much prized by pupils and teachers.
In old times scholars were required to contribute coppers for buying brooms and water buckets, and to take turns in sweeping the house. Mr. Chase says "the master frequently stayed after school-hours to set copies and make and mend pens for the school. He kept the goose-quills and the more quills he cut up, the greater the profits. Sometimes the school- master would add to his salary by keeping an evening school in winter and a five o'clock school in the summer." Scholars left school sometimes at twelve years of age and went to work learning to make "slaps" or "cacks" or at binding shoes. One tells how, after going to work at that tender age, he used to go to evening writing school with a turnip in one pocket for a candlestick and a candle in the other to light his desk by.
Of recent years the "portable schoolhouses" have become too numer-
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ous in Lynn, affording a temporary solution of the housing problem, as the growth of population continually outstrips the erection of suitable buildings. In a few days the carpenters take one of these "Alladin" structures apart, move the sections to some overcrowded school, screw them together in the schoolyard, and have a shelter for a teacher and forty children. They are suited better for a climate milder than ours, their toilet facilities are not ideal, and they should not be allowed to be- come permanent.
The one-room portables have some resemblance to the ancient school- house which is still preserved in the rear of the Lummus home on Frank- lin street. A century ago it stood at the end of the Common, about where the Soldiers' Monument now is, and was then one of Lynn's best schools. In this building Alonzo Lewis conducted the first Sabbath school in Lynn. The Lummuses have shown a commendable pride in preserving this old relic in which Thomas J. Lummus attended school when a boy. At that time he had as his seat-mate the youthful William Lloyd Gar- rison.
The word "seat-mate" suggests the old double seats that many now living will remember, allowing two boys or two girls to sit together, while sometimes as a punishment a boy and girl were made to occupy the same seat. Some country schools had these seats and desks made of thick pine plank, the seats being fastened to the front of the desks. A later pattern was of thinner hard wood, with iron standards. In earlier times a board table was used, six or more pupils sitting around it upon benches that had no backs.
Visiting the old Lummus school with its arched ceiling, one may be reminded that the winter firewood used to be stored in the attic until, one day in the Franklin Street school, a cord and a half of this fuel was precipitated to the room below, carrying with it plastering, timbers and flooring. Fortunately the children were out at recess. After this the wood was kept in the cellar.
Many changes mark the stages of school evolution. A few years ago the teachers' platforms were cut away, so that now the teachers are on a level with their pupils. The superior aloofness with which the throned schoolmaster might look down upon his "subjects" has given place to a mingling of teacher and pupils, with an increasing sense of companion- ship, and now the teacher spends much of her time circulating among her pupils as she teaches, giving individual assistance instead of always sitting at her desk "hearing classes."
In some' Lynn schoolhouses you may still see the old recitation plat- form extending across the back of the room, where the classes stood in line when called to recite. It was better than "toeing the crack" in the front of the room, for that would hide the children in their seats from the sight of the teacher. In some schools a long bench was nailed to the wall on the rear platform so that the classes could sit, rising in turn
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EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS
when called. Modern graded schools have missed all the interest of classes standing in line to recite, with the smart children working up to the "head," while the dunces are left at the "foot."
Introduction of modern sanitation has relieved the schools from un- speakably unwholesome conditions. Heating and ventilation are accom- plished facts, eyesight is conserved by proper seating and lighting, text- books and supplies are furnished to all pupils free, while telephone ser- vice in all large schools gives an efficiency of management otherwise impossible. Truly the world does move.
The earliest records in the possession of the Lynn School Commit- tee date from March 16, 1812, but after that date they are not continuous. Then the "Superintending School Committee for the Town of Lynn" met at the Lynn Hotel and organized. They voted to buy a book to keep their records in, planned to have their first quarterly visitation Monday, April 27, and voted that they would meet at Rev. Mr. Frothingham's house at nine o'clock.
Free text books came into use in Massachusetts in 1884, and scholars must not write upon them. Before that the inscriptions inside the cover were a delight to the owner, especially in the olden times. Sometimes over his name he wrote:
"Don't steal this book, Not on your life, For I have got A big jack knife."
Or perhaps the doggerel said:
"Don't steal this book, For if you do, The Devil will Be after you."
Showing a different spirit :
"Master William Brown, 2nd This is his book, This is his pen, He will be good, The Lord knows when."
Original book-plates are not the sole property of schoolboys. The Lynn School Committee, having bought themselves a new record book, had its inside cover page appropriately inscribed with the following words:
SCHOOL COMMITTEE of LYNN-1812
The strongest dictates of our soundest reason Require each member to be here in season.
"Punctuality is the life of business"
Essex-41
.
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"On April 27 this Committee visited the schools in Wards 1, 2, 3 and then adjourned to the following day when they visited the schools in Wards 4, 5, 6, being the whole of their duty." That closing phrase tells its story. It was "the whole of their duty" to visit the schools four times in the year and examine them. On Monday, June 22, they again met and visited the several schools, recording that "the schools were found in as good condition as could be expected." Another terse though somewhat vague expression, appearing several times in their records, is that "the school was found in a state of progress."
No longer was it the custom to vote in March meeting to have the selectmen find a schoolmaster and agree with him. The school commit- tee had become a settled fact. Each district or ward had its local com- mittee to hire the teacher and equip the school, while this general com- mittee, comprising one member from each ward, had been elected to ex- amine the schools and advise the local committees. Instead of visiting, all in one body, in July of 1813, the committee divided its labors. Tim- othy Munro, chairman, visited the Asa Newhall school, Abner Ingalls the John Phillips school, Dr. James Gardner the Nathan Hawkes school, Richard Mansfield the Mary Phillips school, John Pratt the Nahant school, and Jonathan Makepiece and Samuel Hallowell had a school assigned each. About twice a year the committee held its meeting at Breed's Hotel, sometimes recorded "Lynn Hotel", these meetings being usually at the end of a day spent in their quarterly visitations. On January 25, 1813, the secretary paid Thomas A. Breed's bill of $14.58, which came out of the year's draft on the town treasurer for $29.86 for the expenses of the committee. Landlord Breed's bill included both the use of his room and the refreshments furnished. Next we find forty words completing the entire records for nine years :
1816 Visited the schools statedly thro the year and reported a new order of things, which was accepted by the Town Committee are J. G. S. V. Z. A. J. P. E. C. R.
July 8, 9, 10 Visited all the schools except Swampscott and Nahant.
N. B. From the above date to May 10th, 1825, no records have been handed down from any committee to their successors.
From 1825 the records are quite complete, indicating increased authority and greater interest and efficiency.
The salary received by the masters was $100 per term, payable four times a year. Hannah Johnson was paid $58.50 but the other names were of men, including Amos Rhodes, Jesse Price, Asa N. Swinnerton, Alonzo Lewis, John W. Morrill, Jeremiah Sanborn and others.
The committee voted to hold their examination of the schools in a different way. All were to go together but each member was to have a distinct part of the work. Reading and spelling were to be examined by Messrs. Nelson and Ingalls, penmanship by Mr. Breed, arithmetic by Dr. Gardner, grammar by Messrs. Green and Lummus, and geography by Dr. Haseltine.
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EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS
Benjamin Mudge has written: "In all my schooldays, which ended in 1801, I never saw but three females in public schools, and they were there only in the afternoon, to learn to write." This may explain why so many women of that time made their cross in witnessing legal papers. Judge Newhall explains that "previous to the 19th century hardly any girls attended the public schools", and then gives three reasons for this: "First, they were needed at home; second, the studies were not thought necessary for their sphere; and third, it was not proper to have boys and girls so closely associated." At first the employment of women as teachers met with considerable opposition. The change seems to have been creeping in since about 1820, until now the women teachers out- number the men, ten to one. There are interesting records bearing upon this subject of sex distinction.
13th June 1825, Met as by adjournment. The school (at Swampscott) was under the tuition of Miss Judith Phillips and consisted of 16 males and 19 females that were present.
Voted: That it is expedient that all the schools in town be supplied some part of the year with a male teacher; and that we recommend to the Ward No. 1 that they employ a male teacher for four months between this time and next March.
Voted to adjourn to the female department in the Chestnut St. on Wednesday next at 2 o'clock P. M.
15th June 1825 Met in Chestnut' St. Committee all present, also the Ward committee. This school contains 60 females but the average number was stated to be 75 and the whole number of subjects 86.
Thursday 23d inst. Visited the Western schoolhouse near Tower Hill which was under the care of Miss Raddin.
Voted: To recommend to the committee of the western ward to employ a male teacher at least three months, and the same for the female deparment at Woodend. In the latter case at least, the advice of the general committee was followed by the ward committee, for we find that January 20, 1826, they "visited the Misses' School under the care of Mr. Lewis." Note that after Alonzo Lewis became its master, "the female department" of the Chestnut Street school in Woodend became the Misses' School.'
Monday 20 Feb. 1826 The town having authorized the Selectmen to draw on the Treasurer for the sum of $60 to be awarded to the three most successful in- Woodend became "the Misses' School."
Voted: To award the $60 in three amounts, $25, $20, and $15 to the schools that have shown the greatest improvement during the past year.
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