USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1843-1859 > Part 33
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dict the impression already given. Something more is needed in the prevailing tone and temper of a large portion of the pupils to evince a desire for knowledge, or a disposition to discharge completely and with alacrity all the duties of the place. To this end, each teacher may be required to contribute a proper proportion of good influence; but to the Principal, who is primarily responsible for the general spirit of the school, the Committee and the community must chiefly look for its greater efficiency.
But the conditions of entire and absolute success in a school of this character will bear frequent reiteration. They are these : 1. Proper and efficient instructors, teachers of tried excellence in teaching, of consistent life and de- portment, of dignity, suavity, devotion,-qualities, unfortu- nately, only completely combined in the very greatest of earth's great men. 2. Generous and hearty pupils, diligent in study, correct and courteous in deportment, obedient to rules, honorable in purposes, and guided by a determination to use well all the privileges. 3. A confiding and magnani- mous community, more ready to see graces than defects, and willing that each person should do his own work in his own way. 4. A vigilant, intelligent, educated, practical, business- like, devoted School Committee, (not at all resembling this Board,) not to act as taskmasters, or to keep the school, but to encourage and counsel and reprove, with equal fidelity, whenever occasion shall arise.
If the Somerville High School has had all these, it has had entire and absolute success. In so far as it has wanted in any one of these respects, it has not absolutely succeeded ; and it has a right to ask that each member of this company of agents shall hereafter do more for it. There can be no better motto for all who are thus interested in its welfare, than that which some friends placed over its desk, at its very opening, " EXCELSIOR."
The Committee have thus given unusual prominence to this subject in the Report, because they have been aware
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that it has been much on the minds of their fellow-citizens as well as on their own, and because it seemed that these opinions, maturely formed after many hours of discussion, with the best reason, for being both careful and candid, properly belonged to the community, and were claimed by the law of the Commonwealth ; especially as they can be presented, not as the voice of one person, but as the con- current and unanimous testimony of this Board.
Extra Instruction .- During the latter part of the year, a good opportunity presented itself for this Board to secure, at a reasonable rate, the services of a competent teacher in the vocalization of the elementary sounds of our language. As this is indispensable to good reading, and the want of it is an evil which is heard every day, and especially on all public occasions, the Committee employed Mr. D. S. Smalley, a gentleman eminently qualified for the work, to give a series of lessons to the teachers, and to go through with a course of careful drilling exercises of this kind in each school, on the condition that the teachers should voluntarily give their own time, not their school hours, for their own improvement. The experiment has been a complete success in nearly all the schools ; those which were previously best trained, strangely enough, getting the most advantage from this extra aid. The Committee are happy to add their testi- mony to that of others, to the advantage of Mr. Smalley's faithful and systematic elementary drill. And the teachers may reasonably be expected and required to maintain the advantage thus secured.
It is a matter of congratulation that the ensuing year will witness the introduction, by law, of a new method of choos- ing the School Committee. Hereafter only one-third of the Board can be changed in any one year by the action of the citizens. This plan will effectually prevent those sudden commotions of public sentiment, which often open the way for unkind and injurious feeling among the citizens, and are
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seldom, if ever, so far as the schools are concerned, followed by any good results.
The history of Somerville, in this respect, is probably much the same as the history of many other towns. Since 1852, there have been several sweeping changes in the con- stitution of the School Committee, as follows : In 1853, when the majority of the Board was composed of new mem- bers ; in 1854, when nearly all of the Board of the preced- ing year was changed, and in 1856, when every member save one of the Board of 1855 was displaced, and a majority of the rejected Board of 1852 was replaced.
The school policy of this town was thus four times sub- jected to radically different management in the short period of five years. It can scarcely matter what prospective advantages were thus contemplated ; the result must have been, each time, more or less hazardous to the welfare of the schools, and productive of increased expense in conduct- ing them ; and it must have signally defeated all hope of a regular and consistent system of school management.
It would be absurd to attempt to restrain any legitimate progress by mooring our school policy to the custom of pre- ceding years. And a consistent policy,-that is, a policy consistently embracing the best good of the pupils,-is not in a town, more than in any one school or family, an unvary- ing or uniform policy. Nevertheless, it will need no argu- ment to prove that sudden innovations, suggested by inexperience, are, to say the least, hazardous. And there are so many considerations which determine the action of the Board, and fix, in their view, the standard of success or failure, that it can scarcely fail to be prejudicial to the schools, whenever the School Committee is so changed, that the incoming Board has no available method of getting at the information which the outgoing Board had acquired by a year's attention.
This subject was presented as a suggestion of the last Committee in their Annual Report. But the statute since enacted, has rendered the plan then commended a compul-
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sory one throughout the State. While several of this Board, for personal reasons, held a strong desire to be released from their onerous and often perplexing duties, a sufficient number, happily, have been re-elected, to acquaint their associates with those committee-secrets which are quite indispensable to successful effort.
In closing their labors for the year, the School Committee recur with much satisfaction to the fact, that all the action of this Board, from first to last, has been marked by a spirit of entire harmony, and by cordial good will. On important business, the discussions have resulted, in most cases, in unanimous votes. So far as their efforts have satisfied their constituents, it has been gratifying to themselves. But better than this is the conviction, that the work accomplished, or attempted, has been undertaken with no other desire than to serve the great cause of a sound and generous education of all the school children of Somerville. In surrendering their trust to their successors, they venture to bespeak for them the hearty and just confidence of the community, and for the schools, on their part, the most vigilant and success- ful guardianship.
Respectfully submitted,
AUGUSTUS R. POPE,
GEORGE H. EMERSON, CLARK BENNETT, ISAAC F. SHEPARD, JONATHAN BROWN, JR.,
CHARLES H. GUILD,
NATHANIEL J. KNIGHT, MARTIN DRAPER, JR., Superintending School Committee.
SOMERVILLE, March 14, 1858.
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SELECTMEN'S REPORT.
In relinquishing the trust reposed in them by their fellow townsmen, the Selectmen feel that it may not be improper in them to make a few remarks in reference to the occur- rences of the last year, accompanied with such recommenda- tions as they believe may be adopted with advantage to the town.
In accordance with suggestions made at the last annual meeting, and by the aid of an extra appropriation voted in April, for the purpose of carrying out these suggestions, an attempt has been made during the year, to improve the main road on the southerly side of the town,-that extending from Porter's Hotel to East Cambridge,-in the hope that it might be demonstrated to our citizens, that, within the limits of the town, there may be found suitable materials for keeping the highways in proper condition, without the burden of unusual taxation. While the operations upon this important thoroughfare have not proved entirely satis- factory, it is nevertheless clear that much good has been done, since this road,-which has been subjected to the severest test, in consequence of the mildness of the present winter,-is now in really much better order for travelling than at any previous period in the history of the town. More than a mile of the work was done with gravel pro- cured from the bed of the road, near the Franklin School- house on Milk Street ; but this gravel, which had the appear- ance of being well adapted for such a purpose, has proved
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to be very inferior, so that its further use, on the travelled portion of our highways, would not be prudent or advisable. It would, however, furnish an excellent material in making sidewalks, to which it is to be hoped the town will instruct their surveyors, hereafter, to devote more attention. The result of the efforts which have been made for several years, to improve the roads, has led the present Board of Select- men to believe that a method may be fixed upon to accom- plislı this desirable purpose, so that it can be pursued with a vigor becoming our position and our relation to the me- tropolis of New England. A heavy body of slate stone,- with which our territory abounds,-covered with a very thin coating of gravel, has, wherever this system has been tried, proved serviceable, and if the adoption of such a method was understood to be the established policy of the town, a speedy improvement might be looked for with some degree of confidence. Among the incidental advantages to be derived from the pursuit of a plan of this kind, would be the active employment upon the ledges during the win- ter, of all who may be permanently engaged in the highway department, in order that they may be able to serve the town as efficiently at this season as during the other portions of the year.
But for the nature of the soil peculiar to this township, the expense, attention and labor of the last year would have produced a much more marked improvement in the high- ways; as it is, we have no occasion to be dismayed by the result of our efforts, which will, if patiently pursued, ultimately redeem the town from an evil which is felt by all of our citizens, to be the greatest drawback upon its prosperity.
We have the satisfaction of knowing that all the roads have been kept in a safe condition, and that no accident has occurred during the year sufficient to warrant a claim upon the town for compensation.
The monetary difficulties of the last autumn,-producing as they did a depression in every kind of business, and
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threatening to exhaust the means of support of many among us whose dependence was upon their daily labor,-led the Selectmen, early in November, to offer employment upon the ledges, at fifty cents per day, to such worthy residents as should be in need of aid. The effect of this step, upon the treasury, was to consume, about the first of January, the appropriation made for the use of the surveyors of high- ways ; but on the seventh of that month, at a meeting called for another purpose, the town sanctioned the course adopted by the Selectmen, and placed under their control the further sum of $1,500, to be expended in the same manner. The treasurer's statement will show that this sum has been slightly exceeded ; but, while all the expenditures charge- able to the highway service have been about $4,000 above the annual allowance made by the town of late,-it is be- lieved that, in consequence of the accumulation of broken stone at the ledges, produced by the employment of extra labor the present winter, the expenses of this department for the coming year may be very much reduced.
The limited assistance thus opportunely furnished to a large number of our residents has afforded great relief ; and, while the town has cheerfully supplied the means that were necessary, it is confidently believed that it has received in labor what will ultimately prove to be a full equivalent. Beyond this, it should be a source of gratification to know- what all of our citizens can learn-that many of those who were thus employed have not only been saved from pauper- ism, but from a calamity greater and more lasting in its results,-the loss of self-respect.
In the upper part of the town,-on the northerly side of Walnut Hill,-extending towards Medford, about half a mile of road has been built, by order of the county commission- ers, at an expense of $500, the cost being $100 less than was appropriated for this object at the April meeting. This road will at present be of little use to the town, but was looked upon by the commissioners as necessary to the convenience of a considerable portion of the citizens of Medford. When
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extended in the direction of Porter's Hotel, it will be of greater value to some of our own residents.
Florence Street, near the line of Charlestown, under authority granted to this Board, has been accepted as a town way, but the statute requires that this action should be ratified at some public meeting of the citizens.
Milk Street,-east of Medford Street,-has been re- surveyed, exhibiting many encroachments thereon. Parties interested have been ordered to remove all obstructions, and it will be a duty of the next Board of Selectmen to see that this order is enforced.
Petitions for the acceptance of Dane, Oak, Kent and Union Streets were referred to this Board, and they feel called upon to report that in their opinion no public benefit commensurate with the outlay could accrue to the town in return for the burden of supporting the streets above-named as town-ways. Without alluding to other reasons for this opinion, it may be well to state that three of these streets are crossed by the Fitchburg Railroad, and, by a recent statute of the Commonwealth, it might be adjudged that the town shall erect gates at these points, thereby causing an unusual and perhaps perpetual tax upon its treasury.
Within two years, the Selectmen have reported adversely on petitions for the acceptance of eight new streets, and it seems proper to call the attention of citizens to the practice, -too common among us-of opening streets, courts, and other passage-ways, by the owners of land, with exclusive reference to its sale, and with no regard whatever to the general improvement of the town. A want of knowledge and experience, cannot, in our case, afford any plea for a continuance of such a practice, since directly before us lies the city of Boston, which, after expending hundreds of thousands of dollars, to remedy the evil, is still burdened with an enormous annual tax in consequence of a disregard, in its early settlement, of providing for a proper survey and partition of its territory. Would it not be true economy for the town to procure a well executed chart of its whole
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area, with prospective avenues delineated thereon, the boundaries of present streets accurately marked, and proper grades indicated ; at the same time letting it be publicly understood that henceforth the town will adopt as public ways, only such avenues as harmonize with this survey. Land upon streets thus prospectively indicated would command a higher price, and this fact alone would be sufficient to secure the co-operation of the owners them- selves, few of whom would be found willing to risk a sale upon passage-ways which it was known the town would never adopt.
A reservoir for water has been placed at the end of Central Street, Winter Hill, the expense, $450, having been defrayed by the joint contributions of the citizens in that neighbor- hood, and the town. Other localities stand greatly in need of similar security from the dangers of fire, and it is some- what surprising that the town has not oftener been called upon to pay one-half the expense, in accordance with a standing vote to do so.
In the condition of the fire department no material changes have occurred, and the organization as it now exists is believed to be as efficient and well regulated as any estab- lished for like purposes in the neighboring towns. The addition of a few smaller engines-such as could be man- aged without a regular company-is well worthy the attention of our citizens, as being likely to supply all their wants of this description for several years.
Constant watchfulness has been exercised to prevent the recurrence of incendiarism, attempts at which have been much less frequent the past year than for a long time pre- viously. The safety of property will be promoted by liberal appropriations to enable the Selectmen to pursue with vigor any who may be suspected of this cowardly offence. It behooves every well disposed resident of the town to aid, by every means in his power, the efforts of the proper authori- ties to ferret out and bring to justice the perpetrators of this basest of crimes.
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As guardians of the interests of the town, the Selectmen were induced early in the year to appoint a suitable person to examine critically the accounts of the late and present Collector. This duty was performed thoroughly, and the report made to this Board satisfactorily disposes of an apparent discrepancy.
The southerly side of the town is now in part supplied with water from the Cambridge Water Works, liberty hav- ing been given to that corporation to lay pipes under a portion of our streets.
To prevent infringements of the law by visitors from the neighboring cities, it has been found necessary on Sunday, during the summer months, to employ a small police force.
The line between Medford and this town was examined in November, as required by statute, and a proper record of the present condition of the boundary has been made.
The Somerville Horse Railroad Company have liberty to lay tracks for the running of cars on the side of the road, from Charlestown, through Broadway, to the top of Winter Hill, and through Washington, Milk, and Elm Streets, to a point at the extreme westerly part of the town; and there now seems to be a reasonable prospect that before midsum- mer the greater portion of our population will be able to avail themselves of a rapid, frequent and comfortable mode of communication with the chief city of the Commonwealth.
Within a short time, tolls have been abolished on the two bridges between Cambridge and Boston, over which full one-half of our people find their way to the latter city. The time cannot be distant many months, when the two other bridges lying between us and the metropolis will also be free, and an occasion for rejoicing furnished to all of our citizens. The effect of these measures upon the growth and improvement of the town cannot but be highly beneficial.
Notwithstanding the almost universal derangement of business which the last season has witnessed, the prospects before us at this time could not well be more hopeful. With a beautiful territory, contiguous to the commercial
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centre of New England ; with avenues thereto, heretofore burdened with tolls, and now about to be made free; with the best of schools ; with improving roads ; with a design- now only awaiting the advent of spring to be put in execu- tion-for the hourly passage of cars through our principal streets ; with a moral, healthy and intelligent population, most of whom are able to provide themselves with the neces- saries, and many of them with the luxuries, of life; with numerous other advantages to invite settlement within our limits ; and with little wanting, perhaps, but an exhibition of public spirit, enterprise and taste on the part of some of our largest landholders, in erecting dwellings, and fencing and adorning unoccupied lots, may we not look forward to the future with encouragement ?
JAMES M. SHUTE, JOHN S. EDGERLY, JOHN C. TENNEY, SAMUEL HAMBLIN, SAMUEL TRULL,
Selectmen of Somerville.
FEBRUARY 27, 1858.
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TREASURER'S REPORT.
The undersigned, in submitting his Report, desires to make a few explanations, and to offer a few suggestions. It will be seen by the report of 1857, that there was a sum in the treasury on the 1st of March of that year, of $2,940.46, but it should be remembered that it was also stated, that there had been expended but $3,200 of the $10,000 which had been raised for the erection of the Prescott School- house, leaving an unexpended balance of $6,800; of which remained in the treasury only $2,940.46, making an actual deficit, at that time, of $3,859.54; to meet which was a balance of the uncollected tax for the year 1856, of $3,705.48, of which now remains uncollected, $910.50.
There is now a floating debt of $12,630, to meet which there is
Cash, . ·
$3,845 13
Uncollected tax for 1856,
910 50
Uncollected tax for 1857,
5,970 33
$10,725 96
Showing an apparent deficit of $1,904.04, but an actual deficit of nearly double that sum, for a portion of this tax will never be collected, if we take as a rule the past history of the town.
Taking this view of the matter, the undersigned would suggest the necessity as well as expediency of raising, by taxation, the present year, a sum of $4,000 to $5,000 more
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than shall be deemed necessary for the current expenses of the town, to relieve itself from this temporary indebtedness.
It should be remembered, that $1,500 of this indebted- ness was incurred by the express vote of the town, to meet an unhappy contingency resulting from the almost entire prostration of business last fall. This $1,500 was voted for highway purposes, and should be added to the appropriation made in the spring, of $8,100, making a total appropriation of $9,600 for highways.
Statement of the Receipts and Disbursements of the Treas- urer of the Town of Somerville, from March 1, 1857, to March 1, 1858.
RECEIPTS.
Cash on hand, March 1, 1857, . $2,940 46 Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on
two months, . 1,000 00
Received of the abuttors on account of grading Myrtle Street, .
116 57
Received of the abutters on account of grading Lin- wood Street,
157 79
Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on three months,
2,000 00 Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on four months, .
3,500 00
Borrowed and received of Irene G. Arnold, on demand, 1,100 00
Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on three months, 1,500 00
June 22. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on two months, . · July 29. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere
1,000 00
Bank, on three months, · 2,000 00
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July 7. Borrowed and received of Nathan Tufts, on three months, $2,500 00
Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on sixty days, . 4,000 00 Aug. 10. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on one month, 2,000 00
Oct. 1. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on one month, 1,000 00
Received for two dog licenses, .
2 00
Oct. 7. Borrowed and received of Nathan Tufts, on three months,
2,500 00
Received of the Commonwealth, on account of School fund, . 254 58 Received by hand of A. Welch, for use of Town Hall, 3 00 James M. Shute, for use of Town Hall, 5 00
Nov. 21. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on two months, . 2,000 00
Dec. 22. Borrowed and received of John Peabody, on demand,
1,000 00
Dec. 3. Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, on two months,
2,000 00
Received of the inhabitants of Winter Hill, one-half the expense of building reservoir in Broad way, 220 00
Dec. 26. Borrowed and received of the Bank of North America, on three months, . 3,100 00
10 00
Received of Oliver Foy, on account of his assessment for grading Linwood Street, . · Received of the Commonwealth, on account of military services of Somerville Light Infantry, . · Received of A. Welch, for sundry persons towards building a crossing on Milk St., near the Bleachery,
325 50
Received for a horse sold D. A. Marrett, ·
40 00
Received of J. C. Magoun for P. Egan, for board of his child, .
15 00
Borrowed and received of Nathan Tufts, $2,500 00
Nathan Tufts, 1,500 00
4,000 00
Borrowed and received of the Lechmere Bank, . 2,000 00
27 00
Cambridge M. F. I. Co., 3,000 00
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Received of Abram Welch, for one horse collar, One year ago there remained uncollected of the tax of 1856, . . $3,705 48
$1 50
Now uncollected of said tax, . 910 50
2,794 98
Amount of tax assessed for 1857, . . $42,659 52
Less by county tax, . $2,519 78
Less by discounts and abate- ments,
1,448 12
Less uncollected, .
5,970 33
9,938 23
32,721 29
$80,834 67
DISBURSEMENTS.
SCHOOLS.
Paid W. G. Shattuck, for four blackboards, $24 00
D. A. Marrett, for soap, pails, &c., 4 21
W. G. Shattuck, for 24 Primary School chairs, . 17 52
Worthington, Flanders & Co., for advertising for teachers, . 4 37
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