USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Littleton > Proceedings of the Littleton Historical Society, No. 1 1894-1895 > Part 4
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That our Benjamin Shattuck was of Watertown parentage and the son of William, is shown by the record, fol. 423, lib. 33, in Middlesex Registry, of a conveyance by "Benjamin Shattuck of Littleton, clerk, et als.," (other heirs) of land in Watertown, December 18, 1732.
EDWARD FROST.
*SHATTUCK MEMORIALS .- Foot Note on Page 90, Referring to Error on Tomb Stone.
" A tradition has prevailed that Philip Shattuck was the father of Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, as stated in this inscription, but evidence has recently been discovered which proves a different relationship.
"The Worcester Registry of Deeds, Vol. XXXV, p. 439, contains a conveyance, dated January 12, 1748, of a lot of land in 'Naragansett township, No. 2," (Westminster) to Abner Holdin, from 'Benjamin Shattuck of Littleton,' belonging to the 'heirs and Descents of my Honored Father, Mr. William Shattuck, late of Watertown, Deceased.' And from old papers in the possession of the late David Kendall of Waltham, it appears that his real estate descended to him from Philip Shattuck through his son Benjamin Shattuck, and grandson Josiah Shattuck. These facts prove that Benjamin the son of Philip resided in Cambridge, and that Benjamin the son of William was the minister of Littleton. See also the conveyance of the heirs of William Shattuck to William Greenleaf." Middlesex Deeds Vol. XXXIII, p. 423.
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HISTORY OF LITTLETON SCHOOLS. Read at a meeting of the Society, February 22, 1895, by Albert Francis Conant.
No one with the least patriotism can study the early history of our country, and especially of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, without feelings of intense interest and pride, not only for the courage, fortitude and persistent effort displayed, but far more for their stern loyalty to truth as they saw it, their love of knowledge and the spirit of reverence, devotion and self-sacrifice which characterized them ; for their independence and foresight in the establishment, from the earliest dates, of the principles of self-control, self-taxation and self-government. It took such men as our forefathers were to conceive, establish and develop such a system of free public instruction as ours-a thing hither- to unknown in history. They could get out of the ruts of past customs and habits. They had broken away from home and country for conscience sake. They were largely dissenters from the church of England and earlier, their ancestors had separated from the church of Rome. They were independent in thought and action. "What of English precedents and customs they could use they did, what they could not they dropped. What new ones they needed they supplied. They insisted on universal educa- tion, not for the church's sake, but for the child's sake and the sake of the common weal."
John Boyle O'Reilly, in his matchless poem on the Pil- grims, says,
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"They could not live by king-made codes and creeds, They chose the path where every footstep bleeds.
Protesting, not rebelling, scorned and banned,
Through pains and prisons harried from the land."
The colony of Massachusetts Bay received its royal charter from Charles the First in 1628, eight years after the landing of the Pilgrims, and among its early acts, was a law making it obligatory on parents and guardians to educate their children and apprentices. In the earliest days each family taught its own children. The earliest free public school in the colony was in Boston, in 1635, when it was agreed " that brother Philimon Purmont shall be entreated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and nurturing of the children among us." The town of Dedham claims the honor of having established the first free school at public expense in the colony and in the world in 1644, and has recently celebrated its 250th anniversary, but it was nine years later than the above quotation. The Boston Advertiser, some two months ago, speaking of the event, says, " For the first time in the history of the world, the people were compelled, by law, to maintain schools for the education of all the children. Massachusetts therefore, has the majestic dis- tinction of originating the free public school. But the benefits have not been confined to New England. Out of the little clearings of eastern Massachusetts this system of free schools has spread over the broad domain of the American Union."
A few years later, 1647, the colony provided for the sup- port of schools at public expense in reading and writing in all settlements of fifty families or more.
Upon the ascension of William and Mary to the throne of England, these rulers granted a charter, 1691, whereby the "Colony of Massachusetts, Bay " became the " Province of Massachusetts Bay." The earlier laws of the colonists however were confirmed by the governor of the province and the council.
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In 1714, the settlement here was known under the name of Nashoba, but the following year the town was named Littleton. It was only a provincial town, a part of the province of Massa- chusetts Bay, and was at this date subject to the will and con- trol of George the First, who had just been proclaimed king at London. At that time he was a general in the German army, was born in Germany and could not speak English ; but the little settlement here, in common with the others in the prov- ince, was largely self-governed and the spirit of freedom pre- vailed.
We have preserved to us the earliest records of the town, nearly two hundred years old. In these we have the accounts of all that was done and all that was proposed, at all the " meet- ings of the freeholders" in those early days and in the quaint and peculiar language of the times. March 31, 1725, the young town " voted that the selectmen do provide a schoolmaster and do agree with him." The school was kept probably only six or eight weeks and in some private house, of the location of which no mention is made. He was paid at the end of the fol- lowing year. His receipt reads,
" December 19, 1726.
Received of Jeremiah Wood, Town Treasurer the full sum of 7 lbs. 4 shillings in full for my keeping school in the year 1725. (Signed) MOSES FOSTER."
Some evidently felt that the school had not been impartial- ly located, for next year, Jan. 17, 1726, a special meeting was called and it was voted " that there should be a schoolmaster." A committee was chosen, namely, Dea. Taylor, Jonathan Law- rence, and Matthew Powers. They were "to hire a school- master for said town, and they with the selectmen of the town are to judge where the school shall be kept." Again the follow- ing year the "4th Particular " reads "To see if the town will build a schoolhouse or not." It was not carried, but it was
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"voted that the town do have a school for half a year and to be a moving school and to move three times in ye said town where it will be most convenient." They chose a committee of three " to hire a schoolmaster for ye six months and so order where ye said schoolmaster do keep ye said school and to begin ye said school as soon as may be and to move three times after first settling of ye same three places."
At this date, fifty years before the Revolution, the town records give accounts principally of building "ways," blazing bridle paths and voting and collecting ministers' rates and the school tax and repairing the " grate bridge " over Beaver Brook. In 1724, twenty pounds (less than $100) was raised for town charges. Seven pounds for school. The town then bordered on Concord, (which included what is now Acton,) for a long dis- tance, from the " south side of Nagog pond to Stow Corner," being a short distance south of Boxboro' Centre, and the school, even if moved three times, would still leave long distances for most scholars to walk. Wolves and wild cats abounded in these forests then and the red man was not always to be trusted. In 1728, no record of a school. In 1729, again the question of a schoolhouse was voted down, but it was "voted, that the town will hire a schoolmaster that belongs to said town." Early instance of home protection. The names of the teachers who taught the first forty years are as follows :
Moses Foster, Samuel Gardner, Stephen Minott,
John Powers, Joseph Baker, Phillips Payson,
William Stephens, Samuel French, Willard Wheeler,
Benjamin Shattuck, William Sargent, Samuel Payson,
William Farr, David Barnes,
William Russell.
From 1729 until 1732, there is no record of a school being kept. The all-absorbing topic during this period was the " Gospel Ministry." Daniel Rogers had been hired by the town and ordained in place of Benjamin Shattuck in the early part of
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the year. (The separation of church and state had not taken place.) As autumn approached, the settlers began to consider the project of a winter school. Perhaps the new minister was an influence in that direction, at all events, August 21, 1832, we find, "Voted to hire a schoolmaster to keep school four months and to begin as soon as may be and to be seated in one place for four months." All along these years similar votes were passed, sometimes a " moving school " in three or more places, sometimes only in the centre. This was one hundred and sixty years ago. No schoolhouse had been built. The scholars were gathered into private houses here and there. The first instance of the division of school money was in 1749. " Voted to give liberty to sundry of the inhabitants of Littleton, that live in the South part of the town to draw of the treasurer, that part of the money which shall be their proportion to pay to the school, for the year ensuing and lay it out for schooling as they shall see cause." Previous to this time and for nearly one hundred years after this date, the doings of the town are only in the hand writing of the clerk. The printed reports in pamphlet form, or on single sheets, began within the memory of many here.
The records of this date were in the hand writing of Joseph Baker and had been for nearly forty years. Joseph Harwood's name appears as the next town clerk. Twenty-five years before the war of the Revolution this is recorded, "Voted that ye school shall move this year into several parts of the town and that a committee be chosen to state the places where ye school shall be kept and how many places said school shall be kept in to do justice to all parts." The salary of the schoolmaster was $2.50 per week and board. Yet this was high compared with the price of labor in other departments. Road builders re- ceived forty-five cents per day in hay time, and thirty-three cents the rest of the year, and provisions and clothing were higher
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then than now. March 1772, " Proposed to the town to see if they would supply the town with school-houses proper allow- ance being made to the present proprietors of the school- houses." The quotations are verbatim. Individuals had fitted up rooms in different parts of the town in which the scholars could be taught.
Many amusing articles appear all along. One voter who could not have been up with the times on the question of female education, thought that "to teach girls the back part of the arithmetic was a misappropriation of public funds." It sounds like a play upon words, but was evidently given in all seriousness. The question of woman's sphere was in the minds of men then as now. When shall we reach the age when the limitation of man's sphere shall be up for discussion ? The day will come when the only question of the limitation of anyone's sphere will be that of fitness.
We now approach the most eventful and interesting epoch in the history of the town, the time just preceding and during the war of the Revolution. The colonists here were among the foremost to remonstrate against and to resist the encroach- ments of George the Third upon their charter rights, but amid all the excitement and anxiety attendant upon that awful strug- gle for freedom, we find year by year the vote for school money. Even in those darkest days, when hope was almost gone, when the continental money had so depreciated that the town " paid five pounds (nearly $25) to Joseph Harwood for one bushel of corn for a soldier's family," and "paid Lieut. Samuel Reed 772 pounds (over $3000 in continental money) for his horse for the army " and over $50,000 was paid for beef in a single year in this single settlement, and similar accounts for pork, rye, blankets and stockings, yet there is no break in the regularity of the school.
We read, " May 14, 1781, Paid Asa Piper 336 pounds for
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keeping school and board," again in October same year, " Paid Thomas Wheeler three pounds, twelve shillings hard money for keeping school in the middle of the town." The latter term of school cost $15 in coin, the former term cost $1500 in scrip.
In 1784 "voted that the selectmen provide a schoolmaster and each quarter to have their equal proportion of said Master." Sometimes the school money was divided into four equal parts, and each " quarter " provided schooling for itself.
Near the close of the last century the town built four school-houses in the four quarters of the town, at a cost of about $300 each, and they were designated as the North, South, East and West school-houses. These were the first school buildings erected at the town's expense. For nearly a century the people had taxed themselves to pay the teacher, but private individuals furnished the rooms, often in their own homes, and usually free of cost, the wood being brought by the parents. The location of these school-houses occasioned intense discus- sion. The following votes were passed in rapid succession be- fore they were built. October 1795, " Voted to have five school- houses for the use of the town " and stated the location of each. April 19, 1796, " Voted not to build schoolhouses." May 9, " Voted to reconsider " and to build four school-houses, and granted $280 each, ($1120). November, " Reconsidered the vote to divide the school money into four equal parts," and "voted to divide it into five equal parts." Next meeting, "Voted to dismiss the article concerning building school- houses," but the article appeared again and they "Voted to ad- journ the matter until May." In May, " Voted to build three school-houses." June, "Voted to reconsider" and to build four school-houses and choose a committee for each, and four were built during the years 1796 and '97. They were located as fol- lows : North near Charles Watts's, South on Liberty Square, the common opposite the late Henry T. Taylor's house (where
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David Hall now lives), East near Elbridge Marshall's at the corner of the road leading to George Cash's and West on the now discontinued road leading from near the John Sanderson house to William B. Eastman's.
Capt. Joseph Harwood, School Committee for building South School House.
Col. John Porter, School Committee for building West School House.
Capt. Francis Kidder, School Committee for building North School House.
William Prentice, School Committee for building East School House.
The South district was a somewhat turbulent section of the town before and even after a part seceded to form Boxboro'. The school-house was located in six different places in a period of one hundred years. First as above stated on Liberty Square, near the Henry T. Taylor place, then moved on sleds across lots and located between the Joseph A. Priest house and the rail- road, then in 1822 sledded to the third location about half way back to the Frank Ford place, fourth the town built the brick school-house at Priest's crossing close to the track on the West side where the road now turns towards Samuel Sargent's. Soon after the Fitchburg Railroad was constructed, a wooden building, the fifth, was erected near Ford's brook, partly at the railroad company's expense. About 1870, this one was sold to Charles P. Hartwell, and moved away in sections, and the sixth and present one was built at a cost of $2700.
As late as 1809, there seems to have been no school-house in the center of the town, for we find this entry, " Use of Ira Roger's Hall for middle district $7.67." The scholars at the Common went part to the North, and part to the East schools. The names of the teachers who taught a hundred years ago sound familiar :
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James Green, Augustus Kimball,
Samuel Farrar, John Kimball,
Richard King,
Porter Tuttle,
William Muzzy,
Cyrus Hamlin,
Hannabal Hamlin,
Isaac Flagg.
The term "district" was first used to designate a school sec- tion, in 1798. Regular summer schools began to be taught early in this century, and the usual price paid the schoolmistress was $1.25 per week, board $1.00 more. Schoolmasters then received five to six dollars per week for the winter term, a summer and winter term being taught.
The names of the young women who first taught in Little- ton are :
Betsey Tuttle, Sally Whitcomb, Sophia Tuttle,
Mary Kidder, Anna Hartwell, Betsey Robbins,
Mary Jewett, Rebecca Warren.
Singing schools have occasionally been taught at the town's expense for the past one hundred years. In 1822, several changes in the location of school buildings were made, for the town paid Nathan Hartwell and Jonathan Wood $95 for mov- ing them. About 1832, all the school-houses, except at the Common, were rebuilt at a cost of over $400 each, and built of brick "so they could not be moved." They were six in number, not including the wooden one that stood just in the rear of the Baptist church at the Common, which was not rebuilt, that being the only one that ever stood in that village.
The North and West school-houses were built not far from the location of present school-houses. The South, as stated, just west of Priest's crossing, East, near Allen W. Kimball's and the Center, near the town hall, and Newtown at the foot of the hill near and opposite Mr. McKinley's. The amount of money raised yearly in the early part of the last century was about seven pounds, equal to $35, for schools; middle of last
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century about $200, yearly ; first of this century about $500, a year; middle of present century about $1000, a year, and for the last few years our schools have cost $3500 to $4000, yearly. In 1867, after a long and exciting struggle, the Center and Common united and the town built the first graded school-house at a cost of about $6000. Then followed the building of five other school-houses as now located at a cost of about $3000 each, so soon to be abandoned and sacrificed. The few who realized that the coming school was the graded school were then but a small minority.
The first agitation about a High School began in 1850. In 1853, the school committee recommended it in their annual report. Occasionally a fall term for advanced scholars was taught in the brick school-house close by the present town hall. Then followed the establishment of the High School in connec- tion with the Grammar School, both schools occupying the same room, the assistant teaching the Grammar School classes in the little nine by twelve recitation room adjoining.
Six years ago an additional room was built on the West school-house, thus establishing a second graded school in town. The same year were built the two rooms now occupied by the High School, thus enabling the High School to have separate rooms from the Grammar. Until recently the number of schol- ars has varied but little for nearly two hundred years. During the past five years there has been an increase, and that increase has been entirely in the East and West villages, principally in the East or Old Common.
Time will only permit to trace in few words the gradual in- crease in the number and range of studies pursued and the changes and improvements in the methods of instruction and supervision during the past two hundred years. Our earliest schools required only reading and writing to be taught.
Just before the building of our first school-houses, a great
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impulse was given to education here and in many surrounding towns. The war of the Revolution was over. Prosperity fol- lowed. The United States was an established government. The state had passed a law that in addition to reading and writ- ing, " instruction be given in orthography,arithmetic and decent behavior."
It should be noticed that, in all the laws enacted, they were not originated by the law makers but were the embodi- ment of practices which had already become popular.
For many years the minister alone looked after the schools ; later we find the doctor associated with him, and still later on sometimes non-professional men. Once only in our history has a lady officiated as superintendent of schools, namely Miss Hannah P. Dodge, who was elected in 1880 and 1881.
In 1827, the school district was made the unit for all school purposes, but the law was abolished about twenty-five years ago. It was the cause of much jealousy and waste of money here and elsewhere. It was about the date, 1827, that geography began to be taught here as a regular study.
Even "Harvard College did not require ancient and modern geography as a condition of admission until 1816." The qualification most requisite in a schoolmaster seventy years ago, was a strong physique and the power to govern.
Universal lawlessness, perhaps, was to be expected of the sons of the early settlers who, all their lives, had to fight the forces of nature in this new world. The pendulum of freedom often swings too far, even now, in the lives of later arrivals from the despotisms of Europe. They are like caged and re- strained animals let loose. They have to get used to freedom.
Statistics show that in 1837, over three hundred Massachu- setts schools were broken up by insubordination of pupils or the inability of teachers to cope with them. A common ex- pression among the old people in my young days, in reference
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to a new schoolmaster was, " Do you think he can handle the scholars ?" On the other hand, the first qualification of the school mistress was gentle manners and winsome ways. What a restraint to wild young boyhood were those summer schools of half a century ago! "Often there came into the lives of the youngest pupils, a personal influence, strong and lasting," Many boys of those days have reverenced womanhood through all their lives for it. Never will fade the impressions received in my own early life, at the South district summer school, when Miss Josephine Hartwell, now Mrs. Edward Fletcher, taught there. About 1830, the study of the spelling book be- came almost a craze. It was the marvel of my young days to witness the spelling matches of the old people. They could spell anything in the spelling book or dictionary. Then fol- lowed the years when mathematics received great attention. Many a pupil in the old district school was farther advanced in that study than is now required in the High School. Miss Hannah P. Dodge was the first woman who taught a winter term in Littleton ; then followed Mrs. George Stevens, and third Mrs. James A. Parker.
Only those who lived then can know of the rapid develop- ment of the older boys in school, in refinement of character and manners and in general deportment. To the women of that period are largely due the improvements in school management, in methods of discipline, and modes of correction. Women are needed today, in our colleges, in the professor's chair and as students, to quell the wild excesses, hazing and rushes, and the indecency and brutality of many initiation ceremonies of college clubs. Woman is needed in our halls of legislation and in our courts, in the interests of justice, mercy and purity. She is needed everywhere. Where woman should not be man better not go.
The most radical change, and one of great value, was the
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systematic classification of the early promiscuous work; the arrangement of courses of study and the separation of scholars into grades. It was my privilege and pleasure to teach the first graded school in Littleton in 1867. Our schools, and most of the schools about here, are divided into eight grades, requiring eight years to reach the High School. Concord has eight grades, two graded schools. The one at the Center, with eight rooms, each grade by itself, and one at the Junction, with four rooms, two grades in each room. The more recent changes of importance are the introduction of written examina- tions into the various grades, and the employment of profes- sional supervision. In 1857, our town stood the twentieth in the state in the relative proportion of scholars to the whole number of inhabitants, and at the time the state school fund was made, it stood fourth in the amount of money raised for schools per capita. Modifications and improvements in the public school will be made in the future as in the past, but the system of free public instruction will stand. It is firmly estab- lished in this country. The fear, that some express, that the schools of America are in danger because of the attitude of a foreign ecclesiastical power, I believe to be groundless. Edu- cation is its own protector. Those who receive their education in our schools will not assail them. Besides, the attitude of that power, clearly indicated by the signs of the times, will be less and less of opposition, and gradually one of approval and sanction. There may be an effort to capture them, but not to oppose or destroy them. No harm will come. Let politics and religion be kept apart. Let church and state be forever sep- arate. It is not necessary to spend vast sums for costly struc- tures to inflate our pride, but let us provide plain, ample, com- fortable rooms, wholesome and convenient appointments, and above all, thoroughly equipped and whole-souled instructors. Let virtue and morality be taught in which all men of every
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