USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Tercentenary history of Newton, 1630-1930 > Part 8
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
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sympathies were with the nation which had befriended the colonies in the Revolution. They did not appreciate the close commercial relations of New England with the mother country which made that section willing to endure risks and even insults for the sake of trade. Jefferson's adoption of the policy of an embargo upon foreign trade, in the belief that America should remain isolated as far as pos- sible from the international conflict, exasperated the New England merchants and those who had dealings with them.
In company with other New England towns which charged the party in power with accepting the dictation of Napoleon, Newton protested like the good Federalist town that she was, concluding her statement with words which reveal the personal interest of the people in the prosperity of the ports. "We are not immediately concerned in navi- gation," they said, "but as commerce is the great source through which we derive the means of our support, as the articles of our growth and manufacture are mostly exported to a foreign market, we are equally concerned in its wel- fare with those whose resources are shipping; for a diminu- tion in the value of every article of our growth, and an advance in price of every kind of foreign produce and manufacture leave us a scanty reliance on the bounties of nature for the comforts of life. We always have and still deem it our duty to obey the laws of our country. But such is the unequal and oppressive operation of the em- bargo, that we cannot believe that any real, true-hearted American can consider passive obedience and non-resist- ance a virtue. We therefore request that Congress will, without delay, remove this unwelcome and distressing measure."
Neither town protest nor the appeal of the General Court of Massachusetts to Congress had any apparent effect, but the embargo was removed in 1809. The coun- try drifted into the War of 1812 because of continued
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hostility to Great Britain and the arrogant attitude of that nation toward American sailors. The war was unpopular in Massachusetts. The usual occupations continued with- out interruption, and the most interesting event for the inhabitants of the north side of town was to watch "Madi- son's ships," four-horse wagons, heavily loaded with sup- plies for Boston, trailing along Washington Street.
The advent of the railroad was the principal event in the history of Newton in the first half of the nineteenth century. A corporation was formed, known as the Boston and Worcester Railroad, with the intention of construct- ing a line through Watertown and Waltham, but the oppo- sition of those towns was so strenuous that it was decided, largely through the efforts of William Jackson, to secure a right of way through the open country of Newton. The road was opened for traffic as far as West Newton, or Squash End, on April 16, 1834. The locomotive and the engineer were imported from England. The first run was made from Boston to Newton in thirty-nine minutes. The railroad company advertised to run trains from Boston at 6.10 a.m. and 3.30 p.m., returning about an hour later. Tickets were to be obtained at thirty-seven and a half cents each at the ticket office in Boston or of the "master of the cars" at Newton. Railroad stations were located at Angier's Corner, Hull's Crossing, and Squash End.
The first station at Newton stood near Centre Street. It had a belfry intended for a bell which would announce the arrival of trains, but no bell arrived. A restaurant was provided for the delectation of patrons. The second sta- tion was near its present location, but at that time a track was on each side. The approach was on a curve, and twice trains were derailed. The "Knickerbocker" cars were built, as in England, with compartments and a running board on the outside for the conductor. Sometimes pas- sengers sat on top of the cars, protected by an iron railing.
OLD NEWTON RAILROAD STATION
NOLMEN
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It was not until 1852 that the Charles River Railroad was built from Brookline to Needham through the south side of town. Early in the century stages began to run. One was from Upper Falls to Boston through Newton Centre. This gave connection with the trade centre for those who were in business at the Falls, and offered a means of conveyance to any of the public who from time to time needed to go on a journey. The stage left Upper Falls daily at nine in the morning and at three o'clock started on the return trip from Boston. A second stage ran from Upper Falls to West Newton to connect with the railroad after it was opened, and a third connected Newton Centre with Newton, where were both railroad and post office.
In the days of stage coaches the tavern held a place of vantage for townsfolk as well as travellers. There they could hobnob with persons who were driving through, enlarging their mental horizons and cementing friendships with a foaming beaker of ale or a glass of whiskey or rum. The convivial habits of the frequenters of the tavern and the magnetism which it possessed for idlers did not im- prove the reputation of any one who spent much time there, but tavern keepers were an important adjunct of the village. Angier's at the Corner, White's at West New- ton, Mitchell's and Bacon's at the Highlands, the "Manu- facturers' Hotel" on the Worcester Turnpike at Upper Falls, where the Boston and New York stages went by, Hoog's at Lower Falls and its rival, Wales's Inn, for the business which the Albany stages brought, all made New- ton known outside, and were social centres for those who enjoyed the company of good fellows. John Barber kept a tavern near the meetinghouse at West Newton about the year 1767, and bartender though he was he enjoyed the honor of being the first to lie in the cemetery at West Newton.
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When the tavern ceased to draw the crowd, the forum around the cracker barrel in the village store took its place. The village store was a feature of the Newton hamlets before the century was far advanced. Murdock's at the Corner and Pigeon's at Lower Falls are instances. For most people it was too remote for frequent visits, but for those who lived near it was a convenient gathering place from early morning until the shutters were closed for the night, and it was a temptation for the farmer who drove in to stop and bear his part in the discussions that never palled upon the habitual loafers. When the post office first came it usually had a corner in the store and that served as an excuse for a daily visit, though few persons received mail once a week. It was the day's event to watch for the stage or the railroad train, to see who was coming from or going to town, and to meet friends and neighbors. With the advent of the railroad the depot, as it was called, became a favorite resort of young people, considerably to the scandal of the censors of the town's morals.
The town gave too little attention to the social and intellectual needs of the young people. The farmers were prosperous but they were reluctant to spend money for schools, and libraries for the public were hardly dreamed of. They had no idea of the need of play for the children or amusement for the older boys and girls. They remem- bered the husking bees and quilting parties of their own youth. They did not frown too heavily on country games, like blind man's buff or fox and geese. When singing schools were available they were glad to have the young people attend. But church sociables were slow to gain standing, and dancing and theatre going were at best of doubtful propriety. The home was still the assembling place of parents and children, and fireplaces were slow to give way to such modern improvements as stoves. Candles still glowed in the candlesticks on the high mantels, corn
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and chestnuts popped over the hot coals and apples and cider went the rounds in the evening, and when the family tumbled into bed after evening prayers the most biting cold of the unheated chambers was mitigated by the warm feather beds.
The nineteenth century brought some improvement in education. About the time the town was divided into wards seven school districts were delimited. The town already had paid for the schoolhouses which originally had been erected by popular subscription, and had put stoves into them. Most rural schoolhouses of that day were square, one story structures, with benches on both sides of a middle aisle, and with a stove or fireplace for heat. Each cost only a few hundred dollars, and neither teacher nor pupil performed his task with alacrity or efficiency. But the little red nurseries of education were far better than outside New England, and penurious though the towns were the schools were being improved slowly. By 1813 Newton was spending a thousand dollars a year on the schools. The leaky building at the Highlands was rebuilt. But the conservatism of the town is evident from the reluc- tance to enlarge the curriculum. Seth Davis, who had come to Newton about 1800, was a teacher in the north and west districts in 1810, and he ventured to introduce geography and map drawing into his schools, and even to have declamations. These innovations were reported in the homes of the pupils and caused so much excitement that the town held a special meeting on the subject. After a heated discussion it was decided by vote that map draw- ing might be permitted but declamations were tabooed. Davis tired after a little of such restrictions, and opened a private school of his own. By that time a committee appointed to consider the better regulation of the schools reported, recommending that parents buy more school books for their children, adopting Walker's Dictionary
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and Murray's Reader as standard texts, and prescribing daily religious exercises and the use of the New Testament as a reading book. The committee thought that the num- ber of pupils of school age was too large for the existing accommodations, but instead of proposing to enlarge the buildings or build new ones it advised parents not to send children under seven years old to the winter schools when the older boys and girls were in attendance during the slack season on the farms.
The law of Massachusetts required the election of a school committee in every town after 1826. Accordingly the town chose Reverend Alfred L. Baury, rector of St. Mary's Church at Lower Falls, Hon. William Jackson, and Deacon Elijah F. Woodward as its committee, adding next year the names of Reverend James Bates, the colleague of the aged Dr. Homer at the First Parish Church, and Seth Davis.
By 1840 Newton had eleven public schools, and six years later better buildings replaced several of the older one-room structures. Discussion as to the feasibility of a high school began. Music teaching was introduced in 1845. The schools were not yet graded. Citizens ambi- tious for their children had reason to be impatient. Out of forty-eight schools in Middlesex County Newton had the lowest percentage of attendance, only forty-three per cent. Teachers were poorly paid. Parents were often critical and lacking in cooperation, and many sent their children to one of the private schools in town. In 1847 the town com- menced the wiser policy of building better buildings, with special attention to ventilation, and repairing leaky roofs and uneven floors. The schools soon felt a new impulse and were on the way to a different position among the towns of the Commonwealth.
A unique experiment was possible in 1848 because of the presence of the state normal school within the precincts
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of Newton. Through the efforts of Horace Mann, the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, the school was moved from Lexington to West Newton to the profit of the district school which included West Newton and Auburndale. An agreement was made by which a model school was formed with the best methods of instruc- tion, and normal school pupils were admitted to try the experiment of teaching as assistants of the master. The school was held in the basement of the town hall, and was kept open throughout the school year. This arrangement lasted until the removal of the normal school to Framing- ham in 1853. An epochal event in the history of the New- ton schools was the appointment of a committee, whose report resulted in the abolition of the district schools and the adoption of a graded system after 1852.
An unusual number of private schools flourished in Newton early in the nineteenth century. Judge Fuller's private school was the first of these, existing before the Revolution. At his death in 1794 he left a legacy of three hundred pounds for founding an academy in Newton. In 1832 the money was available and Fuller Academy was built on the corner of Washington and Highland Streets in West Newton, but classes were maintained for two years only. Afterward it was bought for the use of the normal school, and subsequently became the West Newton Eng- lish and Classical School.
It was in 1817 that Seth Davis opened his private school on Waltham Street, West Newton. He had a schoolroom so arranged that he could sit in the centre and keep an eye on the boys ranged around the room in private stalls. He kept sharp discipline and he had a genius for teaching, so that his school was successful and popular. For more than twenty years the prosperity of the school continued, until he was ready to retire except as he assisted his daughter, who fitted pupils for college. Davis was fond
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of the study of astronomy and he gave public lectures to those who were interested in the subjects of science.
About the time of General Hull's departure for Michi- gan Mrs. Susannah Rawson took over the house at the Corner for one of the first girls' seminaries in the United States. She was the daughter of a retired seaman of the British navy who settled in Hull, Massachusetts, only to be banished during the Revolution. Back in England his daughter married a trumpeter in the Royal Horse Guards. She was a successful authoress, publishing novels and poems, and she was able to draw to her school in Newton a choice clientele from all parts of the United States and even farther away. The mansion so famous already became later the property of John Richardson, who about 1837 added wings to the building and opened it as a hotel. From that time to the Civil War, before the hotels of the New England seashore and mountains had made those resorts famous, the Peacock Inn, as it was called, was extremely popular during the summer season with people of Boston. Later as the Nonantum House it enjoyed much patronage, and served the needs of the locality for a hotel.
The presence of the normal school attracted visitors and even residents to Newton. Horace Mann's reports on educational conditions in the country as compared with Germany aroused opposition but attracted attention to him and the normal school at West Newton. Horace Mann had won a reputation for himself as a lawyer and legislator before he devoted himself to education. He was public-spirited, interested in temperance, instrumental in the establishment of the insane asylum at Worcester, the model for similar institutions throughout the country, and later in life he was a member of Congress and subsequently president of Antioch College. But his great contribution to the times was the initiation of epoch-making changes in the system of public education. He originated the normal
THE OLD STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, AT WEST NEWTON
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schools of Massachusetts and the teachers' institutes and conventions, and he did not hesitate to criticize the exist- ing schools until he had compelled them to reform. He made Massachusetts schools respected throughout the United States.
A number of private schools were in operation for varying periods of time in Newton Centre. Two of them achieved more than a local reputation. For more than twenty years after 1825 Marshall S. Rice conducted his private school, principally for boys, at Gibbs Place. The Newton Female Academy was founded near by. Its teacher, Miss Leach, received the munificent salary of $350 a year. In the boarding house day pupils could buy a dinner for ten cents each. The school flourished under several managers, and by 1850 it had fifty pupils. The range of study was wide, including modern languages as well as Latin, rhetoric and literature, philosophy, history and sci- ence, music and drawing. Frequent changes of teaching and management eventually injured the school. Reverend E. H. Barstow changed it to a boys' school in 1851 and so conducted it for nine years. By 1860 it had become a boarding house. Later the boarding house building was purchased for ten thousand dollars for the Home for Orphan and Destitute Girls of which Rebecca Pomroy was matron, but within less than two years the old building was a prey to the flames.
In 1825 Newton Centre became the seat of a theo- logical school for Baptists of New England. That denomi- nation was growing rapidly, and some of its leaders in Massachusetts were aware of the need of a training school of high grade for ministers. Andover Seminary had been established in 1808, and was serving the Congregational churches admirably. Two attempts had been made to create theological departments in Baptist colleges at Washington, D. C., and at Waterville, Maine, but with-
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out much success. The Massachusetts Baptist Education Society had been organized in 1814 to aid students for the ministry, and about ten years later the Society appointed two committees, one to plan the institution and find a suitable location, the other to raise the necessary money. The site chosen was Institution Hill where the Peck estate of eighty-five acres was purchased with the Mansion House for a little more than $4,000. For about the same sum alterations were made to prepare it for occupancy and classes were commenced in November, 1825. Reverend Irah Chase, D.D., of Washington was the first professor, assisted shortly by Reverend Henry Ripley, D.D., who was called from a pastorate in Georgia. The location at Newton Centre was selected because it was near Boston and yet free from its distractions, and several Boston men were willing to contribute to its establishment. Farwell Hall was erected as a dormitory, and with the remodelled Mansion House the school was fairly well equipped. The course of study was established on a high level, presup- posing the completion of a college course. The Bible, studied in the original Hebrew and Greek, Christian theol- ogy, church history, and the art of sermonizing, together with the practical duties of the ministry, constituted a three-years' discipline.
It was easy to plan a suitable course of instruction, but not so easy to secure money enough to pay professors' salaries. One or two men might constitute the whole fac- ulty for two or three small classes, but if the school was to obtain an enviable reputation specialists must be secured to teach. For many years it was a constant effort to make the income meet the expenditure. It was slow work rais- ing an endowment, and various devices were used to get Baptist churches to subscribe annual contributions. The most liberal benefactor of the school in its history was Gardner Colby. The third building on the hill was named Colby Hall in his honor.
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The third professor, Reverend James D. Knowles, was invited to the Institution from a pastorate in Boston. The names of Professors Chase, Ripley, and Knowles are in the names of streets in the neighborhood of Institution Hill. Reverend Barnas Sears, D.D., a graduate of the school, was chosen president of the Institution in 1839, and remained at the head of the school until nine years later he succeeded Horace Mann as secretary of the Massa- chusetts Board of Education. Dr. Sears later became the president of Brown University, and subsequently the secretary of the Peabody Education Fund. While a citizen of Newton he was interested in the educational progress of the community, and he was chairman of the committee whose recommendations transformed the district school arrangement into a graded system in 1852. The same year that Dr. Sears became president and professor of Christian theology Reverend Horatio B. Hackett, D.D., came from the department of classical languages in Brown University to fill the chair of New Testament Interpretation in the Newton Theological Institution, where he remained nearly thirty years, winning for himself and the school a more than national reputation through his scholarship.
It is only in recent years that the idea of continuation schools has become popular among those who wish to broaden their education, but long ago the library and the lyceum served a similar purpose. Both had an early devel- apment in Newton. As far back as 1798 a library was started in the West Parish called "The Social Library Society in the West Parish of Newton." The plan was to procure books that were "calculated to raise the genius and mend the heart," and it included history, travels, biography, theology, political papers, and literary works of prose and poetry. The expenses were to be met by those who were willing to pay a small sum for the use of the books. Another local library, called the Adelphian Library,
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was organized in 1826. It was housed in the school of Seth Davis at West Newton until he disposed of the academy in 1839, and he himself acted as librarian. A part of the books were kept in the vestry of the First Church for the benefit of Newton Centre people. The advocates of temperance believed that sober people needed to read, and it was by the mutual efforts of those interested that books and shelves were provided.
A number of influential persons in Newton became deeply interested in temperance reform. About the time of the War of 1812 discussion of the evils of intemper- ance became outspoken in the country. Reverend Lyman Beecher made Litchfield, Connecticut, notorious by means of several temperance sermons which aroused widespread attention. The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance came into existence in 1813. A dozen years later the American Temperance Society was born in Boston. That event stirred several of the leading men of Newton to an active propaganda. A local temperance association was organized, the first in New England, called the Newton Temperance Society and Lyceum. William Jackson, Samuel Hyde, Elijah F. Woodward, Marshall S. Rice, John Kenrick, and Reverend Joseph Grafton, con- tributed to its expenses. They were ridiculed as fanatics, but they disregarded criticism. For several winters the association held weekly meetings in West Newton, with popular debates on various subjects, started the Adel- phian Library, and created the Institution for Savings in 1829 for the encouragement of thrift among the people of Newton. Its first president was William Jackson.
The temperance society was wise in its methods of gaining the confidence of the people. Everyone was will- ing to admit the value of a savings bank and a library. At the weekly meetings of the society the subject of temper- ance shared discussion with such subjects as history,
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science, and practical methods of agriculture. Temperance sentiment strengthened, and the people accepted what- ever sumptuary laws were adopted by the state. In 1853 the town voted against granting any licenses to sell intoxi- cating liquors. It shared in the ebb and flow of temperance sentiment in the years that followed, did its part in shut- ting off public sale through prohibition, and supplied its quota in this as in other reforms.
The experiments in improvement and culture were increased in 1848 by the formation of an association at Newton Corner called the Newton Book Club. Twenty- six persons became subscribers and one hundred and eleven books were purchased for the benefit of the public. Its success encouraged the organization of the Newton Liter- ary Association. The next year an old library in Newton Centre was turned over to it, new books were bought, and the privileges of the collection were offered twice a week to the reading public. Out of that library came eventually the public library of the town. Still another organization contributed to the enlightenment of the public mind. This was the formation of the West Newton Athenaeum in December, 1849. It was a library association of those who were willing to subscribe for shares at ten dollars each, and it was intended for the social culture as well as the intel- lectual gain of the shareholders and their families. The lyceum proved popular for only a few decades in New Eng- land, but the varied program of the West Newton Athe- naeum preserved its popularity longer than most. Lyceum Hall was a place in Newton Centre, originally intended for the town hall, where lyceum lectures were held for the edu- cation of the people.
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