USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Princeton > The history of Princeton, Worcester county, Mass. from its first settlement; with a sketch of the present religious controversy in that place. Designed for the use of the inhabitants > Part 3
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CHAPTER III.
Education. First Schools. Division of the town into School Districts. Erection of School-houses. Re-division of the town. Present Appropriations for Educa- tion. English and Classical School. Scenery. Wachusett. Little Wachusett. Pine Hill. Waters. Products. Statistics.
THE cause of education has never been essentially neglect- ed by the yeomanry of New-England. They have not, per- haps, been adequately alive to all its important interests, yet
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
the time has never existed, when the extorted earnings of the physical man have not been freely and profusely bestowed upon the cultivation of the moral and intellectual. During the trying and oppressive times of the revolution, our fathers kept constantly in view the truth, that men were no less to be formed, than soldiers procured ; that the district school-house, with its wide-open doors, was as necessary to rear sons to re- ceive and preserve, as it had been fathers to achieve a glorious independence. Consequently, while our towns were compell- ed to make large and oppressive loans for the support of the army, the appropriations for education were rarely, if ever, di- minished. This was the last item of expense to be cut off, and every effort of private retrenchment and economy to sup- ply increasing public obligation, was to be made, before this would be yielded. The first effort for the establishment of American Independence as certainly dates at the commence- ment of our district schools, as the first movement for its over- throw will in their abridgement or destruction. Educate the sovereign, be he prince or people, if you would have an en- lightened government, is a truth not written down among the maxims of politics, because it is too legibly inscribed in the dictates of common sense to need a place there. Amid all party dissensions, the surest means of triumph, for an honest party, is to educate the people. Educate the people, and I care not, so far as political consequences are concerned, if you let loose among them the whole race of demagogues, from the arch fiend that stirred rebellion ere earth came from chaos, down to the veriest party knave that rants on the "insulted people's violated rights" in a district caucus. I underrate not the means of external defence, but I read more security in the thick clustering colleges, academies, and schools, that are springing up in our land, than I could in the rearing on every furlong of our coast and borders, fortresses and batteries, strong enough to bid defiance to a world, and peopled with men each as brave as " Thermopylæ's glorious dead." I read more safety in the humble scholar, with a backload of books, traversing the new settlements of our western wilderness, than in our na- vies riding the ocean, or our armies coursing the land. These indeed protect us from external foes, while they not unfre- quently create more deadly ones within. The other annihi- lates both. There is nothing more cheering to the patriot's heart ; there is nothing that writes more legibly permanency
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
on our institutions, than the awakening interest in common school education.
Although our fathers possessed not the facilities for education, which we enjoy, considering their means, they had less occa- sion to blush for their efforts, or their attainments. Amid the rude dwellings of a new settlement the humble school-house was second only to the equally unpretending church. But the erection of a school-house by no means was the date of the first efforts of the settlers to educate their children. At least it was not so in Princeton. For years before this, prob- ably before the settlement of half a dozen families,* a small room in some one of the block-houses was dedicated to the cause of learning. Previous even to this, the child had in most cases received the first rudiments of an education from the best of all sources, maternal instruction. For some years the only schools kept in town were those at private houses, supported mostly by private contributions. The first public school was kept by Mr. Samuel Woods, in a house on the farm at present owned by Capt. Nahum Wilder. The pre- cise year of this school it is impossible to ascertain. It was probably about the time of the District's incorporation. The first appropriation of the District for schooling, on record, was in 1764, when six pounds, about $27, was voted for this pur- pose. In 1766 this sum was increased to 100l. old tenor, equivalent to 13l. 6s. 8d, which was still further increased in the following year. The town had not as yet been divided into districts. The practice was for the selectmen to address a kind of warrant to the people of a neighborhood, directing them to procure a schoolmaster, and allowing each neighbor- hood the sum which they paid. Of course the poorer neigh- borhoods were sufferers. The following is a copy of one of these warrants,'or directions, addressed to Robert Cowden and sixteen others, and dated January 4, 1768.
" You are hereby ordered to procure a Schoolmaster to ye approbation of ye selectmen, and Improve in ye use of School- ing what you are assessed in ye School Rates, and when you have so done you may have orders to draw ye same out of ye District Treasury.
Sum total of your School Rates £3,5,2,1."
* Any one need but run his eye over the old record of births in the town clerk's office, to be convinced that half a dozen'families constituted a very respectable school district.
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
In December, 1769, the town was first divided into school districts, or squadrons, as they were then usually termed. These were six, the positions of which are indicated by the names. The town then numbered one hundred and nineteen families. Of these thirty-six were embraced in the middle District, composed of what now constitutes Districts Nos. 1 and 9. The " Southerly Division" contained twenty families, and was composed of present Districts Nos. 5 and 6. The " Easterly Division," consisted of the present District No. 4, and numbered ten families. The "Westerly Division," com- posed of district No. 7, and a small portion of No. 8, contain- ed eighteen families. The "Northwesterly," consisting of the remainder of No. 8, and one or two families from No. 1, con- tained fourteen families. The " Northeasterly," and only re- maining division, embraced district No. 2, and what of No. 3 then belonged to the District of Prince Town, and contained twenty-one families. The greater part of the present school District No. 3, did not belong to the District until its erection into a town, in 1771. This division of school districts shows at once the population of the different parts of the District, in 1769, and has been of material assistance in settling its origin- al limits as incorporated in 1759. By the aid also of this list. of names, which is found in the first volume of the town re- cords, with a little labor any one curious in such matters might probably ascertain the original proprietor of every farm in town, and trace its conveyances down to its present owner. It is doubtful, however, whether the value of the information would be at all proportionate to the labor of its acquisition.
Although the town was divided into districts, in 1769, no school-houses were erected until some time subsequent. In January, 1771, " each squadron" had liberty from the town " to build their own houses," but none of them seem to have availed themselves of this great privilege. And in March following it was voted, that " a School House be Built in Each Squadron of ye Town at ye Town Cost, and that a School House be Built in ye Middle Squadron twenty feet square, and that one Hundred Dollars be allowed for ye Building ye same, said Money to be Raised in ye Middle Squadron, and ye other Squadrons to be assessed by ye same Proportion for ye Building ye other School Houses, and if any money is left it shall be converted to ye use of Schooling in ye Squadrons." A committee of three in each Squadron was also chosen at
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
this meeting to carry the above vote into execution. In 1772 this vote was so far reconsidered, that it was voted, "to rate each squadron separately," and an application was made to the " Quarter Sessions" to confirm this vote. In 1773 the town again became dissatisfied with this last vote, and voted a sec- ond reconsideration, and to build the houses as first stated. The one in the middle squadron was accordingly built a short time after, at an expense of 267. 13s. 4d. This house stood a short distance north of the present congregational meeting- house, and was burnt in 1789. The other five school-houses were completed in the following year. These houses stood, with the exception of that of the centre district, until 1797, when new ones were erected, which remained until 1836, when the town again commenced rebuilding them. Soon after the destruction of the centre school-house, the present town house was erected, (entirely, I believe, by private mu- nificence,*) in which the centre school was kept until the division of the district, and the erection of school-houses Nos. 1 and 9, in 1811.
In 1792 a new division of the town into school districts was made, not essentially varying, with the exception of No. 9, from the present divisions. In 1789 the appropriation for schooling was 50l. which was divided as follows :- To the " Middle Squadron," £21,15,3,1; to the " Northeasterly," £10,10,5,1; "Easterly," £4,15,3; "Westerly," £6,2,6,2; " Northwesterly," £8,9,8; the "Southerly," £8,6,11,2. The annual appropriation for the same object now is $810, which is divided equally among the nine districts. In addi- tion to this, $44 70 is received from the school fund of the State, making in all $854 70 raised for purposes of public education. Of this, three-fourths is expended in a man's school, which usually commences about the first of December of each year, and continues ten weeks. The remaining fourth is expended in a woman's school, which keeps about an equal time during the summer months. The studies pursued in these schools are those of a common elementary education, viz. reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, grammar, and occasionally, if desired, the higher branches, as natural phi- losophy, chemistry, algebra, &c. The selection of the text
" The school-house in No. 6 was also built by the district, and surren- dered to the town on the occasion of their making an appropriation for its repair. The districts were not numbered until 1799.
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
books is left entirely to the examining committee, who, to- gether with a prudential committee, have the whole manage- ment of the money expended. The number of children attending the public schools this year, (1837,) was 378, con- sisting of about an equal number of each sex. In addition to the sum raised for schooling by the town, a much larger amount is paid by individuals for the education of their chil- dren.
In the fall of 1828, by the munificence of John Brooks, Esq. the English and Classical school in this place was open- ed. In addition to fitting up a building for the accommodation of the school entirely at his own expense, and purchasing a costly philosophical apparatus for its use, Mr. Brooks obligated himself to pay the instructor three hundred dollars, annually, for three years, exclusive of the profits arising from the tuition. The people of the town, however, owing to their religious contentions, never seconded the liberal efforts of the founder. Each denomination of Christians seemed indisposed to patron- ise, in the least, a school, which was not under the control of an instructor, sectarian enough to inculcate exclusively their own peculiar religious views. A large number of scholars were consequently sent from the town to the neighboring acad- emies, a circumstance as illiberal and injudicious, in a portion of the people, as it was discrediting to a school, which is now universally conceded, during the first three years of its exist- ence, to have known no superior in the vicinity. Such a pro- cedure in the inhabitants was of course deadly disheartening to the friends of the school. Yet, notwithstanding these un- toward circumstances, it was tolerably well supported while under the management of Mr. Goddard, who possessed, in an eminent degree, all the requisites of a successful teacher. In 1831, Mr. Goddard left it for other employments. From this time until 1835, it continued under a succession of teachers, supported by the liberal contributions of Mr. Brooks and the other proprietors, into whose hands it had now passed, to maintain a sickly existence. It is now kept usually about six months ; three in the spring, and three in the autumn, of each year. Probably about $300 is now annually paid to this school. In addition to this, private schools are kept by fe- males in the district school-houses during most of the summer months, in which they are unoccupied by the town. There is, besides these means of improvement, a valuable social
4
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
library in town, of some six hundred volumes. Altogether, the people of Princeton are by no means behind their neigh- bors in the matter of education.
Scenery. Miss Martineau, in a recent work, speaks of "the advantage that it is to the work-people to have their dwellings and their occupations fixed in spots where the hills are heaped together, and waters whirl and leap among the rocks." This advantage is enjoyed in an especial degree by the inhabitants of Princeton. Theirs is a town of hills. The scenery is picturesque and beautiful. Its natural features are far from striking to a stranger; and the extent, rather than beauty, of the prospect, would attract his notice. Yet the highly-wrought cultivation, which the farmer has bestowed upon a soil, in itself uninteresting, has made the scene one of uninterrupted beauty. Mountain, forest, field, and meadow, succeed each other in the picture, in new and pleasing varie- ties. The hand of the utiltarian is indeed the only one, which has, as yet, encroached essentially upon the domain of nature. No smilling gardens, rejoicing in their thousand varieties of fruit and flowers, here meet the enraptured eye. No white cottages, half hidden amid the surrounding shrubbery ; no princely seats, boasting almost a European splendor, add rich- ness to the scene. The waving grain, the golden corn, " the cattle on a thousand hills," the farm-house, arrogating only a puritan neatness and simplicity, are all the ornaments which cultivation has added to the original beauties of nature. It is the absence of the highly-wrought things of art, which gives the scenery its rural beauty, of which the visiter, deep em- bosomed within the hills, may find every variety. While, through all, reigns that quiet and beautiful serenity most pe- culiarly characteristic of a New-England country town. The laborer's whistle, the ploughman's jargon, the streamlet's mur- mur, the sound of waving forest-boughs, and the merry song of birds, alone disturb the solitude, and, with a pleasant in- trusion, break the dreamer's meditation.
-- " The city's stifling heat, Its horrid sounds, and its polluted air,"
have no existence here. The genial gales of health, the balmy breeze of the mountain, the buoyant air of the hills, fresh from the forest's borders, the streamlet's margin, "the maize leaf and the maple bough," breathe a salubrity
"As if from heaven's wide open gates did flow, Health and refreshment on the world below."
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
The most prominent feature in the natural scenery of Princeton is the Wachusett. This mountain is situated in the northwesterly part of the town, and is the highest peak of the range of hills, which nearly environ it. The general ele- vation of the circumjacent country is 1100 feet. The moun- tain rears its conical head 1900 feet higher, making its total elevation above Massachusetts Bay, 3000 feet. The base is covered with a heavy growth of wood, which, dwindling to mere shrubbery as you approach the top, gives the mountain, when seen from a distance, an exceedingly beautiful appear- ance. The hand of art could hardly have shorn its sides to more exactness, than nature has displayed, in proportioning the growth of wood to the ascent. The summit is little more than naked rock. Immense quantities of the blueberry bush contrive, however, to find support in the meagre soil, and, in the proper season, amply repay the trouble of a visit, in a treat of delicious fruit. A small octagonal tower, of about thirty feet in height, was erected on the summit in 1828. This has, however, become so shattered by the winds and the developments of its frequenters' organs of destructiveness, that it is now nearly useless, and the aspirants for immortality, who carved their names upon its sides, may now sigh over their futile labors, and learn the lesson of earth's transitoriness.
The prospect from this mountain, of a clear summer morn- ing, is delightful in the extreme. To the observer from its top, the whole state lies spread out like a map. The neighboring hills, sinking into comparative insignificance, pre- sent an even outline to the beholder. On the one hand, is visible the harbor, distant, in the nearest point, forty-eight miles. On the other, the Monadnock is seen rearing its bald and broken summit to the clouds, while the distant Hoosick and Green mountains fade away in the distance, and mingle with the blue horizon. The numerous and beautiful villages, scattered intermediately in all directions, give a charm to the scene, hardly surpassed by that of the far famed Holyoke. Somewhat of the artificial richness of the scenery of the lat- ter mountain is perhaps wanting here. Yet the lesser beauty is amply compensated by the greater extent of view. At the foot of the mountain, on the easterly side, is a small sheet of water, which, seen from the summit, as it reflects the rays of the morning sun, presents a scene for richness and beauty, on a limited scale, rarely surpassed.
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
This mountain is somewhat celebrated, in early Indian his- tory, as a place of frequent resort for the natives of the vicin- ity. Mrs. Rowlandson, wife of the former minister of Lan- caster, the narrative of whose captivity and sufferings is familar to every reader of Indian history, was here released. The spot, on the east side of the mountain, where this scene occur- ed, is still pointed out by the inhabitants. The hostile Indians had, however, all disappeared before the settlement of the town ; and the only ones that now resort to it are straggling doctors, skilled to cure every ill of humanity with the roots and herbs it furnishes.
In 1825, at the inauguration of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency, an attempt was made by the inhabitants, at the suggestion of the late W. N. Boylston, Esq. to substitute the name of Mount Adams for that of the time-honored Wa- chusett. Accordingly, on the fourth of March, a grand cele- bration was had, and, amid the parade of soldiery, the firing of cannon, and the shouts of the people, the old mountain received its second christening. In the evening, an immense bonfire of pine wood and tar blazed on the top, while the deep bellowings of the cannon, probably for the first and last time, reverberated around its summit, and awoke, in the still- ness of the night, the echoes of its forest sides. The evening was still and dark, and peculiarly adapted to such a display. The flames, streaming to the very clouds, and tinging them with deep and glowing crimson, reflected by the snow upon the ground, presented an appearance at once sublime and beautiful. The merry notes of music floated melodiously on the evening air, disturbed at successive intervals by the thun- ders of the cannon from the summit, which, rumbling and rolling among the neighboring hills, at last died away in their bosom. But the old mountain, much as it respected its owner and the distinguished personage he would honor, understood not the sound. "The pother o'er its head" disturbed not the quiet serenity of its bosom, and it still responded only to the good old Indian name, which it early received at the baptis- mal font of its first wild possessors. Nor did the people ever cease to think Wachusett, if they occasionally indulged them- selves with saying Mount Adams. "Stage house" was soon run up on the sign-post of the village inn, to fill the place once occupied by " Mt. Adams Hotel." Mr. Adams himself soon after bid adieu to the " White House," when the moun-
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
tain paid its respects to the public through the columns of the " Massachusetts Spy," and became universally Wachusett Hill.
The mountain is largely frequented during the summer months by visiters, and, at this season, adds much to the beau- ty, interest, and business, of the town.
To notice all the principal hills in Princeton, would be to describe its whole territory by sections. Two are, however, deserving of mention. They are Pine Hill on the east, and Little Wachusett on the west, of the mountain. These are both considerable eminences, and, situated elsewhere, would doubtless be of no small attraction. Here they sink into comparative insignificance, being never visited, except for game or berries, in each of which they abound. The former of these, as its name indicates, is covered with a thick growth of pines. It rises rather abruptly to about half the height of Wachusett, and is 900 feet above the surrounding country, and 2000 above the ocean. Little Wachusett is of about an equal elevation, and is partially covered with wood, chiefly the walnut. The ascent of the latter hill is less difficult than either of the others.
Waters. Princeton being the height of land in the state, very little water flows into it except from the clouds. An early American writer says of the neighboring town of Ash- burnham," so much water doth not run into the town as would fill a man's boot." The same is scarcely less true of this town. Of course, as they rise entirely within its limits, there are no large streams flowing from it. The waters of the smaller ones divide, about equal portions flowing east to Massachusetts Bay, and west to the Connecticut. The chief streams are East, South, and West, Wachusett brooks. These all rise at the foot of the mountain. The first, uniting with other small streams, flows east, and is the source of the Nashua. The second runs nearly south into Quinepoxet pond. The third flows southwest, and constitutes the east branch of Ware river, and empties into the Connecticut. Upon this last stream a small cotton factory is built, at the west part of the town, called Valley Village. Here, in addi- tion to the factory, are several mills, a store, and post-office. Another cotton factory, of about an equal size, formerly ex- isted on East Wachusett brook, in the east part of the town. This was burnt in the winter of 1836. Except these in-
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
stances, no farther use is made of the waters of these streams than to turn common grist and saw mills.
Quinepoxet is the only natural pond wholly within the town. This is a small sheet of water in the southerly part, which still retains its Indian name. It covers something like fifty acres. A small portion of Wachusett on the northern, and Wanchatopick, or Rutland pond, on the southeastern, border, lie within the town. All these ponds are famous, es- pecially the two former, in the annals of the sportsmen of the vicinity.
Products. The population of Princeton is mainly occupied with agricultural employments. Few manufactures exist be- yond the wants of the town. The shoe business has been introduced within a few years to some extent, and now gives employment to several workmen. Immense quantities of palm-leaf hats are manufactured by the female part of the in- habitants. Aside from these, with the exception of those em- ployed in the above-mentioned factory, and the few mechanics which the wants of the town support, the whole people are devoted to agricultural pursuits. As the land is best adapted to grazing, the chief products of the town are beef, butter, and cheese. Little grain is raised beyond that necessary for home consumption. Large quantities of wood, either in its original form, or that of charcoal, are carried to the neighboring towns, particularly Worcester. This has been found a profitable business, especially the sale of charcoal, and kilns of brick, of capacious dimensions, have been built for its manufacture in the vicinity of some of the largest wood-lots. In 1831 there were 4021 acres of wood land in the town, and 7495 devot- ed to grazing ; in all, more than half the whole area of the town. Of the remainder, 531 acres were occupied as tillage land, the product of which, during the same year, was 339 bushels of wheat, 1034 of rye, 3893 of oats, 5813 of Indian corn, and 367 of barley. There were also 1240 acres of En- glish and upland mowing, the annual product of which was
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