USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Shirley > Shirley uplands and intervales; annals of a border town of Middlesex, with some genealogical sketches > Part 8
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All these schoolhouses were of wood. The North, East North, South and Middle North were on the same lots on which they stand today. The East School stood almost on the Fitchburg Railroad tracks near the Mitch- elville Crossing. The Pound Hill School stood in the corner of land now Mrs. Lynch's, on the northeast corner of the cross roads made by Centre and Hazen roads. Mr. Samuel Longley says that the Pound Hill School- house had two windows to the west and two doors to the east on the front, one into the schoolroom and the other into the woodshed. The teacher's desk stood in the northwest corner with a window seat behind. In the middle of the wall space was the chimney with the fireplace, and a window seat extending to the eastern wall. On the east side of the chimney was a shelf for hats. There were two windows on the west side also, with another window seat in the more northern. In front of the teacher's desk was the "recitation space," and then the desks; the girls' section on the eastern side, and the boys' on the western. The desks were made of two-inch plank, and were not changed until after Gov-
Window seat.
Chimney
Window seat.
Teacher's desk
Fire-place
Window seat
Wood Shed.
Recitation
Space.
Hall.
Desks
Desks Girls' Side.
Boys' Side
Alley
THE POUND HILL SCHOOL, ABOUT 1850
Hat Shelf.
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OUR SCHOOLS
ernor George S. Boutwell taught there in the winter of 1834-35.
Some time during the first quarter of the nineteenth century Leander Holden and Joseph Hazen went to school at Pound Hill, and Artemas Longley, father of Samuel, taught them. Mr. Longley was a very strong man, and one day pulled Leander over the desk by his coat collar to punish him for some misdemeanor. Lean- der told the story one day to Joseph, who remarked that "he should think it was pretty hard on the buttons." Leander answered, "Gad! he didn't mind um buttons."
The village schoolhouse was square, with a hip roof. It had three tiers of seats placed on inclined floors. This school stood for many years after it was sold, south of Mr. Thomas L. Hazen's house.
The routine of the town schools went on for a number of years without any change of unusual interest. Some- times they had a school committee and sometimes they did not; but when they had, by law, to make returns to the state, the committee became an established fact. The first report to the state was in 1837, and gives several interesting items. There was that year a pri- vate school with twenty-five scholars, which means that one district wished for more education than the town furnished. The average wages of the teacher that year, including board, were $28.12 a month for males and $10.72 for females! The list of books used was also given: Emerson's Spelling Books, Pierpont's Reading Books and Popular Lessons, Colburn's, Adams's and Emerson's Arithmetics, Smith's Grammar, Olney's, Smith's and Parley's Geographies, Goodrich's, Worces-
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ter's and Parley's Histories, Blake's Philosophy and Barret's Astronomy. The next few reports cast a light on the board of the teachers. A "male" was boarded for $7.71 per month and a "female" for $5.17.
In 1840-41 the first trouble with the Shakers was reported. They took their share of the school funds, but refused to have their schools examined. When remonstrated with by the school committee they an- swered that "this decision came down from the Head of Influence," and was irrevocable. The school committee in its report says that this means that the order has come from the parent society in Lebanon, N. Y., and that they can do nothing; but as the Shakers always have kept a good school, they hope it will be all right. The same year the town received fifteen dollars from the state to institute district school libraries. The districts did have these libraries, and one of the books from one of the east schools was still in the possession of the late Mr. J. E. L. Hazen.
In 1842, the town took the care and repair of the schools away from the districts, and installed the single desk and seat in all the schools. The committee this year reported also on the benefit of the large maps of the United States and the newly installed blackboards. Up to this time all but the South School were warmed by open fireplaces, and the committee recommended that stoves with proper ventilators and "a large bowl of water" be placed in the other schools.
A few statistics of the schools of this period may be interesting to serve as a comparison with those of our day.
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OUR SCHOOLS
CHILDREN
District No. I (North Centre)
48
2 (Pound Hill)
28
66 3 (South Village)
51
4 (South East)
38
5 (North East)
50
6 (North)
44
7 (Shakers)
18
This was the number of scholars in 1840. The teachers for the year were as follows:
SUMMER
WINTER
No. I. Eliza Gibson
George E. Martin
No. 2. S. M. Livermore
Cyrus Kilburn
No. 3. Miss Farewell
Cyrus Kilburn
No. 4. Susan Bennett
George W. Tuttle
No. 5. Miss A. Boutwell
Miss Susan Jones
No. 6. Miss Harriet Dodge
William A. Davis
No. 7. Miss A. Godfrey
Mr. W. M. Montieth
277
In 1843, Number 5 School, at the east, was burned, and the town at first refused to help build a new one. Later the town appointed a committee to build the new schoolhouse. It was to be of brick, which, for econ- omy's sake were to be burned at the Shirley poor farm. The next year the town bought the schoolhouses and their sites from the districts, deducting the proportional price from each voter's taxes. School Number 6 was rebuilt of brick in 1845, and later in the year Number 4 was authorized to be built. Number 6 cost $477, with ten dollars to Mr. E. C. Andrews for more land.
The years 1848 and 1849 saw a good deal of unrest in school matters. District No. 3 in the village was too large and unwieldy, according to some, and so it was divided by Catacoonemug Brook into two districts,
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Number 8 being that part north of the Brook. This called into being the little brick school just northeast of our grammar school, where in later years General Butler is said to have spoken on one of his political journeys. The next year the town house was built, with its schoolroom in the north end, which gave more accommodation at the Centre and relieved the conges- tion in the little wooden building, which still served as the North Middle School.
Mrs. Harriet Dodge Holden has written of the old Centre School; she says, "I went to school very young- in front of my house were woods; and I think the old schoolhouse was moved to the corner of the road leading to Ayer, in the woods. I remember nothing else of the building, only that it was moved onto land on the Lu- nenburg Road,* where Mr. Jennerson stored sumach berries to sell. Later it was a dwelling occupied by troublesome inmates (Gerry Mills, a mulatto). One night when vacant it went up in smoke." Some one else has said that it was blown up, so that no more un- savory occupants should trouble the neighborhood.
All through this period of our school history the men, or boys, who taught were principally college students. Strangely enough I have come across a leave of absence granted by Harvard College to Edward A. Flint, who taught school in Shirley in 1849. It is sufficiently inter- esting to insert.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING LEAVE OF ABSENCE TO TEACH SCHOOL
I. No leave of absence to teach school shall be granted for a longer time than thirteen weeks, including the time for going and returning, unless by a special vote of the Faculty.
*The Little Turnpike.
DR. JAMES O. PARKER
HON. LEONARD MOODY PARKER
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2. If any student, who shall have had leave to keep school shall be absent longer than thirteen weeks, or the time ex- pressed in such special date, including vacation, his connection with the University shall cease.
3. Every student who has been permitted to keep school, shall report himself to the President, on the day of his return, and deliver to him a certificate signed by his name, of his hav- ing kept school the whole time of his absence, except what was necessary for going and returning.
Harvard University.
Cambridge, Dec. 14, 1849. E. A. Flint has leave of absence to keep school on the above terms, his leave of absence commencing on the 7th of Decr JARED SPARKS
The later school has almost too much resemblance to the present to be very picturesque, though it will be so in fifty years more. In 1855, Districts Three and Eight were given leave to reunite, and the Middle and South Middle districts had new brick schoolhouses. The custom was for the voters of each district to come to- gether to consider their own school problems, like a miniature town meeting. The records of the Pound Hill School District (No. 2) and the North District (No. 6) are still extant, beginning in 1843. A few of the items are interesting, as showing what questions they consid- ered germane.
Aug. 3, 1855
Voted to set the new school house on land of Joseph Hazen's and Dr. James O. Parker's opposite the old school house. March 8, 1864
The members of school district No. 2 met agreeable to notice and choose T. H. Parker moderator and E. S. Parker* clerk and Lafayette Warren Prudential Committee, Abner Wheelert clerk protem.
*Son of T. H. Parker.
+T. H. Parker's farm hand.
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Voted to accept the report of the Prudential Committee last year.
Voted to purchase two cords of oak wood and one half cord of soft pine to be brought and piled corded cut once in two split and put into the school house by the 15th of September. Herman Hazen bid it off at 5.87-2 per cord.
Voted to have the Summer School commence first monday in June, winter term first Monday in December.
Voted that each voter of the district on Fast Day set out a tree around the school house.
Voted to dissolve the meeting.
E. S. PARKER District Clerk
In 1857, they held a meeting at the school, at which Philemon and Silvanus Holden were present. Ephraim Warren accused them of stealing sheep, and this led to a hand-to-hand fight. As long as the school stood, as a schoolhouse, blood from the affray could be seen on the walls, and Philemon thereafter carried a scar.
X OUR DOCTORS
MANY stories centre around the physicians of the town, some funny, some tragic, but at the bottom bear- ing witness to lives of self-denial and homely heroism. Doctor William Worcester came from Tewksbury some- where about 1769 and stayed a few years, but the first settled doctor we had in Shirley was Doctor Benjamin Hartwell. He was the son of Joseph and Phebe Hart- well of Lunenburg, and was born in that town July 18, 1759. He and his next younger brother, Reuben, both lived in Shirley. Reuben lived on the road between Groton and Lunenburg, diagonally opposite the north brick school. Tradition says that this was one of the first framed houses in town. Both Reuben and Benja- min were rather prominent citizens. Doctor Benjamin studied medicine with Doctor Going of Leominster and came here in 1781; in 1782 he took to himself a wife from Leominster. Mr. Chandler says that her name was "Marial" Nichols; her gravestone calls her "Merit." It is not known where they lived till 1785, but in that year they built the house in which the Reverend Howard A. Bridgman now lives, and set up housekeeping there. He bought that year from Phinehas Whitney, the ad- ministrator of George Chase, fifty acres which Chase had bought of Seth Walker and Joseph Sheple. Seth Walker lived in a house whose cellar-hole can still be seen beside a tall elm in the wall along Mr. Lawton's land on Centre
DOCTOR BENJAMIN HARTWELL'S HOUSE, CENTRE ROAD
ציוימי
11-5
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OUR DOCTORS
Road. It is about a hundred and twenty-five feet south of the bars, into the Longley pasture. The hole is so near the road that the fence passes over it. A little east is the depression where the well once was. Mr. Walker's farm was mostly the land occupied by the pasture of the heirs of Melvin W. Longley, in part of which Mr. C. E. Goodspeed lives, and the western part of the land of Mr. F. J. Lawton. The land was bought by Walker of Joseph Sheple in 1748. Centre Road was laid out in 1754, and ran along the eastern bounds of Walker's land part way, then through William Longley's* land to Jonathan Page's; t in other words it turned across the Longley land through what is now the cow run, across Whitney Road, and back of Parker Road to where the old meeting-house stood in Mr. Barnard's field. The fifty acres contained two houses; the widow's dower with a house upon it, which was what is now the older part of the Adams house-the Chase house; and also the old Walker house. We cannot tell which of the two he lived in till his own house was done but it was probably the Walker house. The same year he sold all of it except a house and one quarter of an acre of land, and three acres from the southerly end of the Chase farm, to Joshua Longley of Lunenburg, who immediately began the house which his descendants occupy to this day. Doctor Hartwell and his wife had ten children, eight girls and two boys, born in their house on the knoll. Doctor Hartwell's practice must have been enormous, for in his
*1734. 60 acres to John Comrin of Boston, Middlesex Deeds, 35-417. Sold later to David Fletcher of Westford. It was 133 acres lying east and north of the Chase-Walker land.
tThe field now owned by Mr. William E. Barnard.
11
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birth records I find that he attended cases in Townsend, Pepperell, Harvard, Groton, Lunenburg and Leominster, besides those in Shirley. His records cover a period of nearly forty years, from January 1, 1803, to August 27, 1843, during which time he brought eleven hundred and nine boys and girls into the world, an average of almost one a week for forty years. And this does not count the years from 1781 to 1803; so in all there were sixty- two years of service.
Two stories are told of him which bring his life before us graphically. A man had come all the way from Townsend on snowshoes. It was a serious case, and the roads were impossible for horses or teams in the drifted snow. So they started for Townsend on snowshoes. Somewhere on the way the messenger said he could save a considerable distance by making a cut through the woods. So after travelling for some time they came around to their own snowshoe tracks again. The man said that he was tired and must sit down and rest. The doctor re- fused to allow him to do so, and told him that if they should once sit down they would never rise again. Then the doctor began to go forward, using as a guide the mossy side of the trees, and by following this indication they found their way out of the woods.
Another tale is more amusing, and it holds up a mirror to the times. It was a case in Groton .* "There were several women present with whom he was pretty well acquainted, and they undertook to get him tipsy on black strap. He stayed awhile until several of the women did not care to try to stand up; then he went out and mounted his horse. His travelling was mostly on horse-
* Samuel Longley of California is responsible for this.
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OUR DOCTORS
back in those days. He had not gone far when his horse began to rise up from the ground. The farther he went, the higher it rose. He found that that would not do, so he got off and putting his arm over the horse's neck and held him down and walked. He had several calls to make on his way home, and would just stop at the door, inquire after the patient and tell her to con- tinue the same treatment until he should call again." The poor doctor, of course, could not let go his horse's neck, or he could never have got it down again, and the horse might have risen like Pegasus, never to alight. "When he reached home he got the saddle and bridle off from his horse and turned it into the pasture. He then made his way to his bedroom, and found his bed going round the room; but he stood still until it came around to the right place, made a spring and landed safely on it. He stayed there until he got rested. The doctor was by no means an intemperate drinker but in those days everybody thought he must bring out the bottle when the minister or doctor called." Mr. Longley adds that Doctor Hartwell "always had a kind word for me." Last winter we came across an old broadside which we have framed. After the horse story that Mr. Longley has told us so vividly it comes in rather naturally, and we can't help wondering if it is the same horse.
STOP THIEF.
STOLEN out of the pasture of the Subscriber, on the night of the 12th of Sept. last, a large well built dark brown Horse, almost black: with all his feet white up to his foot lock joints, a star in his forehead as big as the top of a wine glass and white on his nose, part of his off eye white and has been pricked in his tail with two cuts on a side, a natural trotter, five years old: the thief has been discovered with the horse at Kennebec
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SHIRLEY
river at Hallowell, by the name of JACOB NASH, tho a fictitious name. The fellow supposed is of a middling size with a clear dark brown hair and eyes, round faced, well built, speaks soft, and belongs to the Free Masons, and by the name of Page: a shoemaker by trade; whoever will take up said thief and him secure, and return the horse, shall have Thirty Dollars reward, or Fifteen for either and all necessary charges paid by me.
BENJAMIN HARTWELL. Shirley, Feb. 5, 1801.
Doctor Hartwell lived to a good old age, and when he died his estate was administered by his eldest son, Jephthah. At the time he died he owned the pasture and mowing just east of the brick Pound Hill School. After his death, James Parker delegated Phinehas Whitney to go to Boston and buy of the doctor's heirs the two pieces of land. Priest Whitney bought the land in his own name, and so, when he returned and Joseph Hazen made him a better offer, he threw Parker over. Joseph Hazen began the next morning to plow one end of the field with his oxen. His sons stood at the gate to keep Parker out. But Parker, believing the field to be his, got in, and plowed all the morning. At last there was a compromise, and Hazen kept the land.
3
1812 jeny in Hartwell
Mr. Chandler says that Doctor Hartwell "continued to be called to the sick-beds of those who had known him in earlier life, even unto old age; and, by his timely wit and free converse, would sometimes reconcile to their situation patients whom his prescriptions were powerless
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OUR DOCTORS
to relieve." After reading James Parker's diary and his accounts of his illnesses, and the medical assistance rendered, it is hard to believe that doctoring was very scientific among country physicians of the time. "1809, Nov. 23d. I kept house. Doc' Haskell came and bled me, left a Puke & medesin." "1810, Sept. 28. Hark- ness Brok his thigh on the eg by falling out of the cart." "Nov. Ioth I Mrs. Parker and Harkness went to Dr. Carter's; he bathed his Limb with nerve ointment the first time for 7 weeks." In 1826, Thomas Harkness Parker was ill, and James Parker in his diary describes the course of the illness and its treatment at great length. The description may not be of interest to our medical brethren but perhaps it may be to the modern layman.
March 31st Harkness sick, I cald Dr. Parker in at 5 P. M., and at 5 A. M. the next morning, & stayd until 2 P. M., & put him into a warm bath, and cald at evening &c. Harkness in great pain.
April 2ª. Dr. Parker came to Harkness at 5 A. M. Bled him &c. The pain abated, but he was week.
3rd H. Clark sat up with Harkness.
5th Harkness not so well. Hazen Clark went after Dr. Carter. He did not come. Dr. Parker cald at 9, gave H. a Puke; it easd for a while, but did not move the case. Parker cald at 5 A. M. gave H some Magnitia, which move down and releaved H. James went after Dr B. Croft He did not come.
6th Hazen C. went after Dr. Carter. Carter came at 12 o'clock. Parker cald at 2, and at evening. Harkness gaining, we think. I paid Dr. Carter one Dollar for his Visit.
7th Harkness not so well. Stephen M. Longley sat up with Harkness. He rested better, slept quietly, the fever began to abate we think.
Harkness finally got better, but sceptics might think that nature did it after all. James Parker always went to the Lancaster doctors for some reason, when he could,
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though his kinsman, Doctor Augustus G. Parker, was living in the village and doing a great practice.
One morning Joseph Hazen, who was plowing, un- hitched his horse at ten o'clock, and went for Doctor Parker. The doctor had started on his rounds and Mr. Hazen followed through Lancaster and Harvard, till he got home at six o'clock, to find himself the father of a fine girl, for the doctor had come and gone.
Doctor Parker died in 1843 and Doctor Hartwell in 1845, leaving no doctor in the town but young Doctor James O. Parker. Immediately there was an influx, as the rhyme has it:
"Dr. Dowse caught a louse, Dr. Parker shook it, Dr. Hills made a pill, And Dr. Streeter took it."
Doctor Dowse and Doctor Streeter stayed but a short time, as there were so many doctors. The story goes that there were seven boys named after Doctor Streeter and that our late town treasurer, Herman Streeter Hazen, was the only one that lived to grow up. He says that he really wasn't named "Streeter," for the town record of his birth shows that his middle name was Frederick. The other two doctors stayed, though Doctor J. O. Parker joined the great flood of those who went to Cali- fornia in '49. Apparently there was some family diffi- culty, and I fear the old trouble which has hurt so many men-that of indorsing other men's notes and becoming liable. His letters home are quite interesting both for the light they shed on California, and on Shirley too. He writes to his parents from San Francisco December 30, 1849:
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Dear Parents:
I have heard from you but once since I left home. That was by letters sent by the steamer of the middle of August. The letters I got about the last of November.
I suppose you feel anxious about me. Just let me say, that I am well & comfortably situated; & am in practice. Am pay- ing two hundred and twenty-five dollars per month for a chamber- one dollar a meal for board-charging sixteen dollars a visit to a patient. So we go it. The coming year is to be one of great business in this country. Thousands of people are coming here. Towns are growing up in a week as it were. Every- thing is done upon the canter. A man lives about as long here in a month as he would in New England in a year. When I wrote you in September, I said this town must, some day suffer immensely by fire. It has. Last Monday morning a fire broke out & destroyed $1,000,000. worth of property. Already there are five new buildings erected, boarded and shingled. There is no delay here. Go ahead is the motto. At this time it is very pleasant. Weather quite mild. We scarcely need a fire, but the ground is extremely muddy. The commu- nication with the mining country is nearly cut off on account of the impassable state of the road, rendered so by the rains. They will not improve much till after the cessation of the rainy season, in March. Then people will flock down from the mines with their gold after something to eat, to wear, & to get rid of the scurvey. Then too there will be a host of new comers from the States, from South America, from Mexico and all parts of the world. Such a crowd as will then be here will make business lively. People are here from every nation almost on earth. Yet, perfect order prevails. The carrying of weapons of defence is perfect nonsense. I rode over two hundred miles without any weapon at all, with only one com- panion and much of the distance we travelled in the evening.
In 1850 he writes home to his brother in regard to his affairs, in particular of our distinguished citizen, "Squire Gerrish," .so called. Doctor James writes, "Follow him up. I gave him no lease of the house, nor of any part of it. I made no verbal agreement with him ex- tending farther than April Ist, 1849. That a man whom
DR. JAMES O. PARKER'S HOUSE
mma
mailly
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I have assisted & endeavored to benefit as I have Gerrish should take the course he has makes me indignant in the extreme. It shows not ingratitude only but base- ness and corruption. Does he suppose because I am in California that I am out of creation?" I fear that others had somewhat the same opinion of the squire. They say that one day the squire met Hazen Clark and Peter Tarbell. He asked them up to have a glass of wine from his fine old glasses, which he took down with great ostentation from the cupboard. They were very small, and Peter knowing the quality of the wine, felt some disgust when he saw that he was to get scarcely a taste, so he said, "Squire, these are the smallest glasses for their age that I ever saw." The squire took the hint and brought out the cider mugs.
In 1851 cholera was rife and evidently caused his parents at home much concern. So to calm their fears Doctor Parker wrote: "Went through the cholera safely. That cholera is something of a disease. I at- tended a man just down from the mountains who died of it & was buried in such a hurry that about a $1000 of gold was buried with him. After a week it was missed, the body was exhumed & the gold found in a belt around the body." Before he left in 1851, the Vigilance Com- mittee had taken the place of the "perfect order" that he speaks of two years before. The doctor brought home sufficient to pay all his debts and have enough left to keep him from caring to do more than his slightly indolent nature suggested as comfortable. He lived for many years respected as one of the ablest men the town ever had. His last years were darkened by trouble over the Parker school fund. Many who remember him
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