USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > The record of the town meetings, and abstract of births, marriages, and deaths, in the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1887-1896 > Part 47
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We are met here to commemorate a great event. Two hundred and fifty years ago this very day, the inhabitants of this town by vote in town meeting assembled established a free public school and made an appropriation for its support. The proprieties of this occasion forbid the contention that this was the first school of the kind in Massachusetts. But, if our ancestors were not the first in the breach, they were "not slack at least to follow those who might be so."
But whereon the site of the first free public school supported by general taxation may have been, or whatever obscurity may surround that question, it is clear that, in the cause of educa- tion, the towns were in advance of the State. The establish- ment of free public schools by the towns did not follow but preceded and led to the celebrated Colonial Act of 1647. This law, passed three years after free schools were established in Dedham, made education in Massachusetts universal and free. For the first time in the history of the world, the people were compelled by law to maintain schools for the education of all the children. Massachusetts, therefore, has the majestic distinction of originating the free public school.
It was, indeed a great event. Referring to this law and the institution of Harvard College, the great historian, George Bancroft, says :-
In these measures, especially in the laws establishing common schools, lies the secret of the success and character of New England. Every child, as it was born into the world, was lifted from the earth by the genius of the country, and in the statutes of the land, received, as its birth-right, a pledge of the public care for its morals and its mind.
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But these benefits have not been confined to New England, Out of the little clearings of Eastern Massachusetts this system of free schools has spread over the broad domain of the Ameri- can Union. According to the latest statistics, 13,484,572 pupils are enrolled in the public schools, and the total expenditures of these schools amount to $163,568,444. annually.
The joyous shouts of the children of the common schools, ringing over the hills and through the valleys of the land, span the continent from ocean to ocean, and proclaim to the world the assured perpetuity of the Republic. New states vie with the old and those most recently admitted to the Union hold no second place in the excellence of their public schools. At the recent Columbian Exposition, I was struck with wonder at the quality of the school work exhibited by the distant State of Washington. It would have done no discredit to the best schools of the city of Boston. These schools thickly dotting the entire country, and affording educational facilities for a population of 70,000,000, retain the same fundamental character and purpose, are controlled by the same authority and are supported in the same manner of the little school established in this town 250 years ago today. The methods of teaching have improved. The instrumentalities of discipline are not what they once were. The branches taught have wonderfully in- creased in number. But the essential qualities of the school remain the same.
The distinguishing feature of these schools is that they are controlled by the people and supported by general taxation. This brings them into harmony with our American form of government. They are Democratic. They are Republican. In them the pupils breathe the pure, cheering air of the Declaration of Independence. " All men are created equal " floats gently through every schoolroom like the sweet refrain of some angelic song. A child attends such a school not by privilege or by favor, but by right. He is there by the right of American citizenship, the strongest and proudest title on the face of the
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earth. Above him is the flag of his country. Around him is the protecting arm of the constitution. He may be poor, his jacket may be coarse, his shoes may be broken, but in the public school he has no superior, though his neighbor may be arrayed like Solomon in all his glory.
Herein lies the grandeur, the dignity, the power and the beneficence of our common schools. Herein lies their superiority to all private schools, however richly such schools may be endowed, or however learnedly they may be conducted. Today these free schools are a blessing beyond price to all the people, and a tower of strength beyond estimation to our American representative government.
The riches of the commonwealth, Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health ; And more to her than gold or grain, The cunning hand and cultured brain.
For well she keeps her ancient stock, The stubborn strength of Pilgrim Rock ;
And still maintains, with milder laws, And clearer light, the Good Old Cause !
Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands, While near her school the church-spire stands ; Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school.
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
THE CHAIRMAN,-Ladies and Gentlemen; our High School was established in 1851. The first teacher was our respected fellow citizen, Mr. Charles J. Capen; but at the end of a year he was called to a more responsible post in the Boston Latin School, where he has been to the present time, respected and honored and revered by thousands of men who are now leaders of society and in business in Massachusetts. His successor, Mr. Slafter, took up the work in our High School and carried it on with remarkable success for a period of forty years. To him has been assigned the duty to-night of making the historical address, and I am sure it could not fall into hands more worthy of it. I now have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. CARLOS SLAFTER.
IV.
ADDRESS.
BY THE REV. CARLOS SLAFTER.
THE observance of an anniversary is a pleasant, and sometimes a most profitable, way of expressing our interest in past events; and, as the centuries roll on, we learn what events are sufficiently important, or have so promoted human welfare, as to call for such recognition. That we have good reason for celebrating to-day the anniversary of a Dedham Town Meeting, will, we trust, become apparent as we examine the work which was there accomplished.
On the first day of January, the eleventh month of the year 1644, as time was then reckoned, two hundred and fifty years ago to-day, the freemen of Dedham assembled in their small,
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half-finished, hay-thatched meetinghouse. It was the day for choosing their town officers, viz., a man to keep the Town Book and also to act as one of the Seven men; Six others to make up the Seven who had general charge of the town busi- ness and were afterwards very appropriately called Select Men ; three Surveyors who had the care of the roads; and two Woodreeves, to look after the fences, the forests, and the fire- ladders, by means of which the householders were obliged to furnish ready access to the roofs of their thatched dwellings.
But before they elected these officers, they transacted the business which makes this town meeting the most remarkable in the annals of Dedham. Though many of you here present may be familiar with the story of this meeting as it appears in the third volume of the printed records of the town, yet it seems fitting on this occasion to refresh our memory of the facts as they were recorded by the hand of Michael Powell who was chosen that day to keep the Town Book.
The record opens as follows : "1644. At a meeting the first day of the Eleventh month. Assembled those whose names are under written with other the Inhabitants of this Town."
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We may remark here that it was a custom, which had been generally observed up to the time of this meeting, but which was not continued much later, to record the names of the free- men who were present at the general meetings of the town. A roll of those entitled to vote in town affairs, and whose duty it was to be present, was called over before they proceeded to business, and fines were imposed on those who were absent or tardy. On one occasion, seven years later, Sergt. Daniel Fisher was "deputed to call the Rolle of the Townsmen " to the nun- ber of eighty-four. There are only half as many recorded as present at this meeting ; and as you listen to the reading of the record, if you are of the old Dedham stock, you will no doubt recognize the names of some of your ancestors. Not one of them has a middle name, as you will see ; nor have they any fine titles to distinguish them : but still you will have no occa- 1
sion to be ashamed of them ; for we shall find that they were all
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
of one mind in the truly creditable business they then and there transacted. The forty-two names are as follows :-
Mr Jnº Allin past" Jnº Huntinge, Eld": Hen: Chickering Tho Wight Jnº Thu[rston] Anthony Fisher Jos Fisher Dan: Fisher Jnº Luson: M" Ralph Wheeloc[k] Jnº Gaye: Willm Bullard Jnº Bullard Robt Crosman Hen Wilson Jnº N[ewton] Edw: Coluer Hen Smith: Nath Colborne: Nath Aldus Hen Phillip[s] Sam11 Morse: Dan Morse Jnº Morse: Jos Kingsbury Jnº Dwite Lamb: G[enere] Edw Kemp: Edw Richards Tho Leader Geo Bearstowe: Jonath Fairba[nks] Mich Powell Mich Metcalfe: Juno" Jnº Metcalfe Jnº Frary: Eli: Lusher: R[obert] Hinsdell: Pet Woodward: Jnº Guyle Rich Euered Robt Gowinge &ce:
From these forty-two men a host of able men have descended. We at once call to mind five college presidents; the two Dwights of Yale, the two Wheelocks of Dartmouth, and Everett of Harvard: three governors of states ; Everett of Massachu- setts, and the two Fairbankses of Vermont. Fisher Ames, Ded- ham's most distinguished son, was a descendant of the Anthony Fisher of our list. How many other men of worth and renown sprang from this ancestry, we should doubtless be surprised to learn.
The record proceeds in the following terms :-
The sd Inhabitants takeing into Consideration the great necesi- tie of prouiding some meanes for the Education of the youth in or sd Towne did with an Vnanimous consent declare by voate their willingnes to promote that worke promising to put too their hands to prouide maintenance for a Free Schoole in our said Towne
This sentence is an admirable and complete expression of the motive and spirit which characterized this meeting. There was no word of dissent from the noble purpose they had in mind. They were all determined to support the School which they were about to establish. They had evidently weighed the sub- ject and were ready to assume as citizens the responsibility of educating the children of the Town. This conclusion being
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deliberately and clearly announced in the foregoing preamble, the more explicit provision for the free school is expressed in the following words :-
And farther did resolue & consent testefying it by voate to rayse the some of Twenty pounds p annu: towards the maintaining of a Schoole m" to keep a free Schoole in our sd Towne
This was a vote to raise money, and it means to raise it by taxation ; and as the vote is to raise twenty pounds per annum, the action of the town was plainly intended to be continuous. Subsequent acts of the town show clearly that this was a provi- sion for seven years.
That this sum of twenty pounds was to be raised by a general tax is distinctly implied in the next clause of the record which is as follows :-
And also did resolue & consent to betrust the sd 205 p annu : & certaine lands in or Towne formerly set a part for publique vse: into the hand of Feofees to be presently Chosen by themselues to imploy the sd 20£ and the land aforesd to be improued for the vse of the said Schoole: that as the profits shall arise from ye sd land euery man may be proportionably abated of his some of the sd 20£ afore- said freely to be giuen to ye vse aforesaid And yt ye said Feofees shall haue power to make a Rate for the nesesary charg of improuing the sd land: they giueing account thereof to the Towne or to those whome they should depute
John Hunting Eld' Eliazer Lusher Francis Chickeringe John Dwight & Michael Powell are Chosen Feofees and betrusted in the behalfe of the Schoole as aforesaid
Here we see a provision is made for abating proportionably every man's sum of the twenty pounds per annum, whenever the land should yield a sufficient profit. This means simply an abatement of Taxes in a certain contingency. The land, forty acres of unimproved or wild land, had been "set apart for pub- lique use" two years before : but there is no indication that it ever brought much income to the school. It may have paid some
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
incidental charges ; but probably it never caused any abate- ment of taxes.
Thus we see how in that Town Meeting held 250 years ago to-day, the freemen of Dedham established a free public school supported by general taxation. It was put into the hands of feoffees, five of the best men of the town, and they managed it for the next seven years without any interference by others.
We have good grounds for believing that it was immediately organized by the feoffees. There are in the town records occa- sional references to the school, just enough to indicate that it was performing quietly its appropriate functions. Before refer- ring to these more particularly, allow me to say that through the kindness of Mr. Fisher Howe, Jr., of Chestnut Hill, there has been placed in our hands a copy of the nuncupative will of Henry Deengaine, a physician and one of the early proprietors of Ded- ham. He died in Roxbury on the 8th of December, 1645. On that day he made this will in the presence of the Rev. John Eliot, the well-known Apostle to the Indians. It is in the handwriting, and bears the signature, of Mr. Eliot as witness ; and also that of Gov. John Winthrop, before whom it was testified to by the said witness. In this will there is this clause: "He gave the school in Dedham 3£ to be paide out of his house & lands there."
This is the only gift known to have been made to the Dedham school before Dr. William Avery's donation of £60 in 1680. There is no record showing that the Deengaine legacy was paid over to the school; but the will is satisfactory evidence that there was a school in Dedham in 1645.
Coming back to the Town Records we find that in February, 1644, the seven men put a portion of the Training ground into the hands of the "Feofees for ye free Schoole in Dedham" for the use of the school "from this present day unto the last day of the Eight month which shalbe in ye yeare 1650." This was a six years use of the land and plainly implies that the school had already begun its work. In 1648 a school house was resolved to be built; it was planned by the Select men ; was erected in the
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Spring of 1649; and the builder, John Thurston, was paid by a Rate eleven pounds and three pence. A feoffee for the school was chosen in 1648 soon after, and because of, the removal of Michael Powell to Boston, where he was one of the founders, and after- wards the ruling elder, of the Second Church. Also at different times the school house was repaired or improved at the expense of the Town.
But in 1651, at the expiration of the seven years, the select- men in the records speak of "the time of the Covenant in ye Schoole keeping" as "being expired." With whom had this Covenant in the school-keeping been made, is a question no one has yet been able to answer. The records of the feoffees, which in view of the character of the men must have been carefully kept, have unfortunately been lost; but there was a covenant with some one who kept the school, and we deem it proper to say that tradition and reasonable conjecture both point to Mr. Ralph Wheelock as that master. He was resident in Dedham all those seven years, but was seldom engaged in other town business during that time as he had often been in previous years. At the time when the selectmen were considering the plan of a schoolhouse, there is this brief, but suggestive, record under date of Dec. 12, 1648: "Mr. Wheelock's motion for advice an- swered." Is it not possible, and even probable, that the school master wished to be advised as to the school-house they were in- tending to build ? It is not unreasonable, to say the least.
In 1652 Mr. Wheelock became a resident of the new town of Medfield ; and in 1655 was teaching the first school of that town.
In what house or building the first years of the Dedham school were spent is not a matter of record. There is very good reason for supposing that, as in some other towns, the primitive meeting house served as the first school-house. All public meet- ings were held there, and except in the coldest winter weather it would be as comfortable for a school as for public worship. Perhaps in some of the severest days Mr. Wheelock might "forego the school," or entertain it at his own house, as Michael
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
Metcalf sometimes did. In those old times school children did not expect as many comforts as the present generation require. Their own homes we should think intolerable ; and of their school and meeting-houses, I do not dare to say what we should think. On the score of comfort it would be hardly safe to specu- late as to the accommodations required by the school-boys of 1645.
The first school-house erected in Dedham stood near the meeting-house, on ground now occupied by the Unitarian vestry. Two, and probably three, successors held the same position, so as to be often designated in the records as "the school near the meeting-house."
But in 1651, the covenant in the school-keeping having ex- pired at the end of seven years, the school again became the sub- ject of Town action. The freemen assembled in the little meet- ing-house on the first day of January. Sergt. Daniel Fisher called the roll of eighty-four freemen, and their third vote is thus recorded :-
It is resolued that a Schoole for ye education of youth in our Towne shall be continued & mayntayned for the whole tearme of Seauen yeares next. and that the settled mayntenance or wages of the School m' shall be 206 p ann at ye leaste
A Towne stocke shall be raysed. to ye sume of 206. at ye least
So we see that the school is to be continued ; and nothing less than twenty pounds must be raised and offered as pay to the school- master. How much more he might be paid, the town did not seem to care. That was left to the judgment of those intrusted with the management of the school. The Town was solicitous chiefly that too little should not be invested in their thus far suc- cessful adventure.
To rightly appreciate the action of the Town during these years, we must bear in mind that it was entering upon a new method of supporting schools. When the inhabitants of Ded- ham, in January, 1644, marked out so definitely this scheme of supporting a school by general taxation, it seemed to be "eir own original plan, dictated in a great measure by ne-
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cessity, that mother of useful inventions. Everything in Dedham, except giving away land had to be done by Rates; and it was perfectly natural that taxation was the foundation on which they began to build their school system. It was clearly the controlling idea of those who shaped the action of that meeting; and it received the earnest approval and support of all who were present. And in 1651 this system was by vote continued for another seven years.
And so, to-day, we commemorate the beginning of Dedham's free public school, which has suffered no lapse from that time to the present.
There is one matter relating to a change in the manner of raising the schoolmaster's salary which, as it has sometimes been misunderstood, we do not feel at liberty to omit. In 1651 some of the rate-payers evidently felt that they, whose children or wards received all the direct benefits of the school, ought to contribute a larger share to the expense of its support. This subject was considered by the select men into whose hands the care of the school had come by a vote of the town; and also a committee had been appointed "to ripen the case " and pro- pose their thoughts to the town. The result was that on the 17th of May 1652, the select men made this record of their conclusions :-
Concerning the Schoole. these ppositions ar to be tendered to the consideration of the Towne for the mayntayning therof for 7 years
1 that all such Inhabitants in our Towne as haue Male childeren or servants in thier families betwixt the age of 4 and 14 yeares. shall paye for each such to the Schoolem". for the time being or to his vse at his assignment in Towne in Currant payement the sume of 5s yearely pvided that such children be then liueing and abideing in our . Towne
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2 And w so euer these sume fall short of the sumes of Twentie £ shall be raised by waye of Rateing vpon estates. according to the vsuall manner
This was not a charge for tuition, but a direct tax on all male children of a certain age whether they attended school
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250TH ANNIVERSARY.
or not. There is no record of the town's accepting this Rule of levying a tax on boys: yet she probably did so, and with reason ; for her boys were some of her most valuable assets, and, by giv- ing them an education, she proposed to make them still more valuable.
But supposing there were twenty of these boys,-this is cer- tainly a generous estimate,-five pounds would be raised by this juvenile poll tax, and fifteen pounds would be levied on estates, " according to the usual manner." But in 1653, about a year after the rule was proposed, a School Rate was put on record in which over seventy persons were taxed in sums varying from twenty-one shillings seven pence to two pence ha-penny : and as the sum total of the rate fell short of what was due the school master by a little over nineteen shillings, the deficit was taken from the " overplusse " of the country Rate ; so that the whole salary of that year appears to have been paid by general taxation.
But the records,-and we must accept them as true,-show that for many years, in fact till near the close of the seventeenth century, the school rate was very often a mixed one; consisting of a poll tax of from three and a half to five shillings on the boys of the town, amounting to a quarter or a half of the teacher's pay, leaving the rest of the school expenses to be met by a tax on estates. The records, however, leave us no chance to doubt that since January 1, 1644, old style, not a year has passed in which the citizens of Dedham have not taxed their estates for the support of free public schools, one or more.
I venture to say here that the action of the Town of Ded- ham in 1644 had no small influence on the school legislation of the Massachusetts Colony. Within three years after Dedham's decisive action, the General Court made the free public school a part of her political system. Now it is an interesting fact that Eleazer Lusher, one of the original board of feoffees of the Ded- ham school and probably the chief projector of the same, was a deputy, or representative, from this town to the General Court almost continuously, that is sixteen years, from 1640 to 1662, Michael Powell and Francis Chickering, two other feoffees, were
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also several times members of that honorable body. Who could give better advice on the subject of popular education than these men who were at the time administering the Dedham plan of a free public school? Who would be more zealous and hopeful than they who were witnesses to the success of an experiment conducted under their own hands? Public opinion, enlightened by this clear demonstration of what is possible in an intelligent community, soon shaped itself into wise legislation. It is not improbable that these Dedham delegates were at first regarded as extremists in the matter of schools-educational cranks in the parlance of the present day : they were, indeed, in advance of most, if not all, of their neighbors in solving the problem of free public school education ; and for that reason we would do them appropriate honors to-day.
And while we contemplate the growth of the institution which they planted by their hard earned means, and nourished by their personal care and exertions, we are excited to still greater admiration of their enterprise, wisdom and forethought. It would be useless to attempt here an account of the growth of this institution in Dedham, keeping pace, as it did, with the increase of the population and the advance of educational ideas, -at first, one little school under the care of Ralph Wheelock, probably, and in the primitive thatched meeting house ; a few years later, a somewhat larger number gathered in the new schoolhouse which was combined with a watch-house leaning against its chimney, and having "an aspect 4 several ways."; later still, after King Philip's war, and his tragic abdication, when the town expanded freely and rapidly without fear of savage foes, a period of migratory school-teaching, dividing the master's year among three precincts or parishes; after that, several schools in four or more sections of the broad township; still later, masters' schools in the winter, and mis- tresses' schools in the summer in the various neighborhoods as con- venience or necessity determined ; then again, the regular school districts defined by statute, those pure and enterprising democ- racies, each desiring to excel the others; after that, the
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