USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Wenham > The history of Wenham : civil and ecclesiastical, from its settlement in 1639, to 1860 > Part 7
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The sphere of public instruction was enlarged in 1742, so as to include " cyphering," in addition to the branches taught, as appears from the record of an agreement with Mr. Jonathan Perkins, Nov. 30, 1742, “ to keep a school in our town, to teach our children to read, write and cypher, six months from date." Arithmetic has ever since maintained its place in our public schools. The following is a specimen of the certificates given in those times, to teachers. " Jan. 14, 1743. Mr. Jonathan Perkins having been agreed with to keep a school in our town for six months, we being well satisfied of his ability for that service, and his sober and good con- versation, do approbate the said Jonathan Perkins
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to keep a school in our town, for the time agreed on, he continuing in such conversation." Remem- bering the influence which the teacher must al- ways exert over the morals as well as the minds of his pupils, they were anxious to secure one who should teach by the correctness of his example as well as by precept.
The care of the schools was left mostly to the selectmen. They hired the teacher and determined the length of the school, and the place where it should be kept. It was not till 1772, that a com- mittee was appointed, especially to take charge of the schools, nor was it done habitually, till consid- erably later. The wages paid to teachers varied very much with the state of the currency, but it was generally worth from $4 to $8 a month, beside board.
In 1746, Mrs. Elizabeth Kimball was “ approved of and approbated to keep school in our town, to teach children and youth to read and write, she having behaved in sober conversation." This ap- pears to have been the first instance in which a fe- male teacher was employed by the town.
Three different schools continued to be support- ed in different sections of the town, and separate teachers employed for them, until the year 1770, when it was voted, that " a grammar school be con- stantly kept in this town, the year ensuing, and that provision be made for the support of the same." It was moreover voted " that a committee 10*
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be chosen to provide a schoolmaster, and to appor- tion said school, according to the tax in this town." This school, which seems to have been removed from district to district, as occasion re- quired, was continued for several years. In 1779, it was taught by Rev. Mr. Swain, in addition to his pulpit and pastoral labors. For this service he re- ceived, in the depreciated currency of the times, £300, which might have been worth $50. In 1780, £1,500 were raised for the support of schools ; but when we remember that £75 of this " continental paper" was worth only £1 of hard money, this sum will not appear so extravagant. The old system of having three schools, and dividing the money for them equally among the districts, was resumed in 1782. After the Revolution, the amount of school money raised for many years, was £30, or $100 annually. In 1798, it was $200; in 1812, $250; in 1828, $300; in 1838, it was further increased to $400. Besides these appropriations, $10 to $20 were annually raised for supporting a school in the extreme east part of the town, the children of which had also the privilege of attendance at the Neck. Since 1840, this section of the town has been formed into a new district, and received its share with the rest, in all the appropriations of the town.
In 1806, a vote was passed " that the selectmen and the committee, chosen in each school ward for procuring schoolmasters for the time being, shall
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be a committee for the purpose of visiting schools with Rev. R. Anderson, for the better manage- ment of schools agreeable to law." Since 1817, the general superintendence of the schools has been entrusted to a committee annually chosen by the town for the purpose. This committee were instructed in 1822, to prepare a series of rules " for the better examining and governing the sev- eral schools. These rules were approved in town meeting, and entered at length upon the records. They specify the studies taught in the schools, viz .: reading, spelling, defining, writing, grammar, arith- metic, and geography, and prescribe the mode of examination in each. Much importance is also at- tached to moral and religious instruction, to regu- lar and punctual attendance, and to training in good manners. The school committee were in- structed in 1851, to prepare and cause to be print- ed for general distribution, a summary of the laws of the State respecting education, and also such particular rules as they judged essential for the benefit of the schools in town. These regulations were approved by the town, and have since con- tinued to constitute the school code.
The annual reports of the school committee have, for many years, been of great utility, in keeping before the people, the condition and wants of our public schools, and thus exciting and main- taining a general interest in the cause of education. They also furnish a body of useful information re-
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specting the history and state of the schools at va- rious periods. Had we a series of such reports, extending back to the settlement of the town, we could hardly estimate their value and interest. But unfortunately the history of our public schools has to be made up from the detached hints and brief notices, which happen to be preserved in the early records.
By the returns of the year 1859, it appears that the number of children within the town, between the ages of five and fifteen years, was two hundred and thirty. The total number of pupils in the summer schools, was one hundred and fifty-eight; in the winter schools, two hundred and thirty, the average attendance for the year, being one hundred and sixty. The present year, 1859-'60 $800 have been appropriated by the town, for pub- lic education, besides $48 received from the State school fund. The course of instruction has also been considerably lengthened by private schools, which have been taught in some of the districts.
The school-houses of the town, five in number, were built before public attention was directed, as it has recently been, to the improved construction of these buildings. They have, however, been re- paired, and are well arranged and in a good condi- tion.
Massachusetts has always regarded her system of public and universal education with peculiar favor. Commenced in the infancy of the State,
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and ever nourished with assiduous care, it has ac- quired, and is likely to retain a strong hold upon the hearts of the people. Its object is to provide for all, the means of obtaining an education suffi- cient to make them useful, intelligent, and respect- able citizens. But this end can only be obtained by constant care and vigilance. Laws, and school- committees, and even teachers, can accomplish but little without the aid and co-operation of parents and guardians. The intellectual as well as the moral character of the child is mainly determined by home influences. If stimulated and encouraged by parents and friends to improve every opportu nity for acquiring useful knowledge, children will seldom fail to make progress at school. But if they meet with only coldness and indifference at home, the best teachers and the best instruction will accomplish but little. In no other way can the present exert so direct and so efficient an influ- ence in shaping and moulding the character of fu- ture generations, as in the education of children and youth. From our public schools are to come forth the men who must soon occupy the promi- nent positions of social and public life, and carry on the machinery of the world. What shall be the future character of the people of Wenham, for en- terprize, intelligence and morality, depends mainly upon the influences exerted in the education of the rising generation. In view of these things, let every parent, every patriot, and every good citizen
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take a deep and lively interest in the prosperity of our public schools. Let them provide neat and comfortable school-houses, as well as competent and faithful teachers ; let them visit and inspect the school in which their children are laying the foundation for an immortal future. The old monks had a method of erasing ancient writings from parchment, and substituting others as they chose. But no art, no device, can wholly erase from the mind of the child the characters early impressed upon it.
The town of Wenham once had a public library, which no doubt had considerable influence in dif- fusing information and a taste for reading, among the people. Like other libraries, however, its vol- umes became old and worn, and as no funds were provided for obtaining new works, its contents be- came scattered and much reduced, and what few remained were finally disposed of. Within a few months an association has been formed for the purpose of purchasing new and standard works, as they may issue from the press. A small but select library has thus been formed, of about one hun- dred volumes, which we trust may yet be the nu- cleus cf a large and valuable collection.
We know of no way in which a liberal, patriotic and philanthropic citizen could do more for his na- tive town, than in making a donation for, we will not say a large, but a select and well-chosen library. Wenham has several sons who might do this, and
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thus lay the people of the town under lasting obli- gations, without their feeling the slightest incon- venience from what they had given. Danvers has been nobly endowed by the princely generosity of one of its sons, and Beverly, yet more recently, has procured an excellent library by subscription among its citizens. We do not anticipate so great things for Wenham, but we think that any one, who would give five hundred or even one hundred choice books, would be conferring a benefit of in- calculable value on the place. In a town like this, there are often young men of active minds but limited advantages, to whom access to such a libra- ry would be worth more than its entire cost. Many a restless spirit might be saved from a career of vice, perhaps from ruin, disgrace and prison, by pre-occupying his mind with a taste for useful and instructive reading. An amount of intelligence and general information might thus be diffused through the community, such as can hardly be es- timated. Will not some one be public-spirited enough to take the lead in this good cause, and thus secure the lasting gratitude of his fellow-citi- zens ?
During several winters lyceums have been or- ganized, and courses of lectures delivered by vari- ous distinguished writers and speakers. Within the last two years there has been a debating club, and thus far it has been well sustained. Every ju- dicious enterprize of this kind is deserving of gen-
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eral and cordial support. It was in institutions of this kind that many of the leading spirits of the present age received their first impulse and early training. They foster intellectual activity, and fur- nish the youthful mind with subjects for thought and motives for thinking. They also furnish dur- ing the long winter evenings, a source of amuse- ment at once interesting and profitable. Such in- stitutions, when properly conducted, often become a source of benefit, not only to those who are im- mediately engaged in them, but also to the com- munity in which they exist.
The want of a higher education than is furnished by our common schools has been at times seriously felt by the people of Wenham. So long ago as 1810, the town voted to grant to " the subscribers, for an academy, the privi- lege of setting the same on the common, in said town, during their pleasure." The attempt, however, to establish this institution, appears to have been a failure, and those who were anxious to enjoy such advantages were compelled to resort to neighboring towns. Of late years a private school has been several times attempted in the vestry, but with much inconvenience from the want of a suitable room. To provide a suitable place for such a school, was an inducement to the erection of the present Town House. A large and conve nient room was there fitted up, and furnished with the necessary apparatus for instruction. A school
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was here opened, in 1854, by Mr. C. L. Edwards, a graduate of the Westfield Normal School. After re maining in Wenham, about a year, Mr. E. removed to Kansas, and his place was soon after assumed by Mr. Francis M. Dodge, a native of Wenham, and a graduate of Waterville College. Mr. Dodge con- tinued his school for two years, and with a good degree of success. More recently the school-room has been engaged by the third district, and occu- pied by the grammar school. During the intermis- sions of the latter, a school for instruction in the higher branches, has been kept most of the time. We hope for the interests of the town that an in- stitution of this kind may yet be established and receive a liberal and permanent support. Our com- mon schools are valuable and important, but they can never do the work of this school. Crowded as they usually are, their teachers can have but little time to impart instruction in the higher branches of study, without neglecting the younger pupils. In such a town as. this, there is always a sufficient number of young people, with those who will come from adjoining towns, to support such a school generously, and the influence of such an in- stitution in promoting intelligence, and improving the character of our people, and in making Wen- ham a desirable place of residence to families from abroad, can hardly be estimated. The character of our common schools will always be found to rise or fall according to the state of the schools above
11
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them. There is no surer mode of diffusing intelli- gence among the masses, than to provide and sup- port the higher institutions of learning.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
THE first provision for extinguishing fires was made by a vote of the town, in 1821, " That the selectmen procure six ladders and three fire-hooks, for the use of the town, to be equally divided among the three separate districts. In 1835, a fire company of twenty-five members was organized, of which Franklin Hadley was chosen foreman, and Rufus A. Dodge secretary and treasurer. The same year the town voted to raise $100 to build an engine house and to procure the necessary ap- paratus. An engine costing $200, was purchased by subscription. This company continued in effi cient operation for several years, but was at length disbanded, and the engine sold.
In 1849, the fire department was re-organized and established on a new and efficient basis. A new engine was purchased, towards which the sum of $900 was furnished by the town. A new and con- venient engine house was also erected, and all the ap- paratus essential for the successful operation of the machine, was procured. The company, which at first contained forty-eight members, was organized by the choice of B. C. Putnam, foreman, and J. H.
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Felt, treasurer and clerk. It has since been con- tinued in successful operation, and on one occasion has been the means of preventing what might have proved a serious fire. It has always enlisted the sympathies and good will of the citizens in general, and of the ladies in particular. By the latter, an elegant banner was presented to the company, Sept. 25, 1850, which was received and acknowl- edged in an appropriate address by the foreman. The company then repaired to the lake, and with their friends and invited guests partook of a boun- tiful collation provided for the occasion. On the same day a silver trumpet was presented by the company, as a token of their confidence in the skill and fidelity of their gallant foreman, Mr. B. C. Put- nam. Every thing passed off pleasantly and to the satisfaction of all concerned, showing that firemen may be honorable and high-minded gentlemen, and not the mere machines, nor the factious and quar- relsome rowdies, which they are sometimes consid- ered.
PROFESSIONS.
I AM not aware that Wenham has ever been hon- ored by being the residence of a practising lawyer. The inhabitants have always been of a peaceful character, and lawsuits have been seldom known among them.
The history of the medical profession is almost
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as soon told. Rev. John Fisk, the first minister, had been educated as a physician, and was thus ca- pable of attending to the wants at once of the body and the soul. After his departure, the town remained for more than a century without a physi- cian, being supplied from the adjoining towns. About the year 1763, the name of Dr. Isaac Spof -· ford appears among the residents of the place, but he seems to have soon left. Tyler Porter, Esq., was educated as a physician, and was for many years a citizen of the town, but, for some reason, never practised his profession. His son, Tyler Porter, Jr., studied medicine and settled in Newbu- ry, but died much lamented, at the early age of twenty-six. Dr. Wm. Fairfield, son of Benj. Fair- field, and a native of Wenham, was a distinguished physician and surgeon in the French war. After the close of the war, he returned to his native town and resumed the practice of his profession. He lived on the place now occupied by Mr. Wm. Por- ter. His business soon increased so much and became so extensive in Beverly, and even Salem, that he at length removed to the latter city, where he became distinguished for his skill and success, and acquired a large and lucrative practice. He died of small pox, Oct. 10, 1773, at the age of forty- two. A highly complimentary notice of him ap- peared in the Essex Gazette* of that date, which speaks in the highest terms of his proficiency, skill,
* For the use of this paper I am indebted to Dr. John Porter, whose mother was a daughter of Dr. Fairfield.
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and success in the medical art, and of the excel- lence of his private character. Obituary notices of this character were far more rare and significant in those days than they now are.
Dr. Barnard Tucker, was a son of the minister of Newbury. He graduated at Harvard College, in 1789, and afterwards practised several years in Beverly. Subsequently he removed to Wenham, and lived upon the place now occupied by Mr. Charles Brown. He was well versed in the French and Spanish languages, in which he was much employed as an instructor. His profession seems never to have engrossed very much of his time or attention .* He had a kind heart, and was remarkable for gentleness of disposition, and sim- plicity of manners. Ultimately he removed to his native place, where he is supposed to have died.
In 1826, a vote was passed at a regular town meeting, that the selectmen be a committee to wait on Dr. Samuel Dodge, and invite him to settle among them as a physician and surgeon. This was certainly a high compliment to pay to one who was a native of the town, and well known to most of its inhabitants. In accordance with this request, Dr. Dodge soon after took up his resi- dence in Wenham, where he practised his profes- sion with general satisfaction, until his death, Oct. 30, 1833, at the age of forty-four.
* A bill of his, charging 2s. 6d. for two professional visits to his mother, has been shown to me, by Col. Porter.
11*
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Soon after the death of Dr. Dodge, Dr. Nathan Jones commenced the practice of his profession in Wenham, where he remained until his removal to Beverly, in April, 1858.
The author of this history, a graduate of Yale College, of the class of 1852, and subsequently of the Pennsylvania Medical College at Philadelphia, commenced the practice of medicine in this town, July, 1855.
THE BURIAL GROUND.
THE small eminence lying near the main road from Wenham to Beverly, and a little to the north of the lake, was probably appropriated as a place of burial, at the first settlement of the town. In- scriptions on grave stones, erected as early as the beginning of the last century, can still be deci- phered, while others, covered with moss and crum- bling with age, belong to a period still more an- cient. The number of deaths within the town, since its settlement, would probably exceed two thousand, or nearly twice its entire present popu- lation. A few of these have been buried in tombs or private grounds, and a considerable number from the east part of the town, have been carried to the grave-yard in Dodge's Row, a little south of the Beverly line. But much the larger portion have doubtless been buried in the ground we have just described.
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No account has been preserved of the choice or dedication of the spot. As early as 1750, a com- mittee was appointed " to settle the boundaries of the burial-place, with the neighboring proprietors, and in order hereunto, applied themselves to the town books for some record or grant made to the town, but could find none." An arrangement of the boundaries was accordingly made by a special committee, and the whole suitably enclosed. A piece of land adjoining the old ground, on its northerly side, was given to the town by the late Dea. Nathaniel Kimball, and here most of those who have recently died, have been buried. Every part of the older portion of the ground has been so taken up that scarcely a single spot can now be found unoccupied.
More recently, several acres have been purchas- ed, upon the hill which lies east of the present burial-ground, and laid out in lots to suit the con- venience of purchasers. When these grounds are fitted up and ornamented as we trust they will be, few country towns will have cemeteries more at- tractive than Wenham.
It is only within a few years that public atten- tion has been directed to the subject of adorning the last resting-places of the dead. In former times, the grave-yard was often selected for its sterility, and worthlessness for every other pur- pose. Some barren and desolate spot was usually chosen, without a tree to shade it, or a flower to
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adorn it, and where all surrounding objects were fitted to inspire only terror and gloom. Our an- cestors in Wenham, whether from a better taste or by accident, were more fortunate in their selec- tion, and though but little care has been taken for the arrangement and decoration of the grounds the locality and the objects by which it is sur- rounded are well suited to cherish that spirit of thoughtful and pensive meditation which we natu" rally feel in visiting the resting-places of the de- parted. The quiet stillness of the spot, the peace- ful beauty of the neighboring fields and hills, with occasional glimpses of the tranquil lake, mirrored in soft repose, unite to make the spot almost the ideal of a rural burial-ground, as happily described by the poet :-
" How sweet the scene around me now, A little church-yard on the brow Of a green, pastoral hill ; Its sylvan village sleeps below, While faintly near is heard the flow Of the soft, summer's rill ; A place where all things mournful meet, And yet the sweetest of the sweet, The stillest of the still. "
Among the points of particular interest, are the graves of the village pastors, five of whom lie bu- ried in a row, near the centre of the ground, while two, Messrs. Newman and Gerrish, lie in another part of the yard. The monument over the grave
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of Mr. Gerrish, is a large, horizontal slab of sand- stone, placed on the spot by a vote of the town, more than sixty years after his death. Unfortu- nately, on account of the crumbling and unsub- stantial nature of the stone, the inscription, which is in Latin, has become almost illegible. Mr. Ger- rish was, for nearly fifty years, the minister of the town, and, perhaps, more than any other man, has left his mark upon its character. Near his grave is one which is supposed to be that of Rev. Anti- pas Newman, the second pastor of the church, who died Oct. 15, 1672. No stone appears to have been erected over his grave. Thus out of twelve pas- tors who have been settled over the church in Wenham, during a period of two hundred and fif- teen years, seven have died among their own peo- ple, and their graves are with us to this day.
Among the oldest monuments yet standing, are those of Sarah, wife of Walter Fairfield, who died Dec. 18, 1710; Ruth, wife of Thomas White, died 1713, aged 80; Sarah and Skipper Balch, who both died in 1714. A series of small stones, with half legible inscriptions, tells of the afflictions of John and Martha Gott, whose entire family of three sons and, two daughters, was swept away between Oct. 29th and Dec. 5, 1737. Their names and years alone are recorded, without any expression of repining or even of sorrow ; it was a grief too deep for tears.
It is interesting to trace the changes in the form
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