USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > The story of Duxbury, 1637-1937 > Part 2
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
studied in the junior, middle, and senior classes are those generally taken in the high schools of the state. Thus three years only are given to high school studies. Those who return for a fifth year are called ex-seniors. A considerable portion of each year's class remains for that fifth year. It seems desirable, therefore, that the course should include four years of high school studies."
This recommendation was put into effect. Within the academy building, a high school course of four years was arranged to supplement the classes al- ready formed. This course was directly under the supervision of the public school authorities. The assistant principal of the academy was the principal of the high school.
The added classes necessitated also an increase in floor space-the first major alteration in the academy building since its opening, sixty-four years previous. Laboratories and classrooms were pro- vided by the new construction.
In 1911, Herbert E. Walker resigned, the last principal to preside over Partridge Academy as it was originally conceived. His successor, Alton H. Hartford, who had been his assistant and had also been serving as principal of the high school, as- sumed the double role of principal of both schools. Then, in succession, Arthur J. Mott, Robert Cush- man and George E. Green served in the same ca- pacity.
In 1926, a complete reorganization of the school system and the construction of a new high school
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E
E. C. Turner, Photographer
Duxbury High School. Erected in 1927
Education
caused the abandonment of Partridge Academy. After a period during which it was owned by the town, the fine old building was destroyed by fire in 1933.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, smaller and less widely known private schools ex- isted in the town. One of those best known was conducted on St. George Street by Miss Mary Rice, who later, as Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, wife of the pastor of the Universalist Church of Duxbury, achieved national fame as an editor and author. During the Civil War she served as a member of the Sanitary Commission. As editor of Woman's Jour- nal, she shared with Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone the burden of pioneering in the unpopular cause of women's suffrage.
Other small private schools included those of Rev. John Allyn and Miss Mercy Delano, and later, the "Alden School for Girls" over which Miss Mary T. Jenkins and Miss Helen T. Nevers presided as principals.
Primary and grammar school work in Duxbury conformed closely to that pursued by most other towns in Massachusetts. District schools had been provided for by legislative decree in 1789. Twelve such ungraded schools were in use in Duxbury in 1869, when the legislature abolished the system.
In that year, a town meeting wrestled with the problem of reorganization of the school system in accordance with the new requirements. Six un-
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
graded schools in the eastern part of the town were replaced by four schools for the lower grades and a grammar school for the intermediate grades. Four newly organized schools replaced the six ungraded ones of the western district. The buildings to be abandoned were sold at auction; and the money thus raised was used in improving the buildings designated for further occupancy.
Since the eastern portion of the town had an in- termediate school, it was only natural that the western part should demand one also. Therefore, in March, 1871, the town agreed to the establish- ment of its second grammar school "not less than four months in any year when it shall appear that such a school will be attended by at least twenty scholars."
The town moved cautiously along a road which was still none too well known. Ungraded district schools in Duxbury did not disappear entirely until the reorganization of 1926.
To those familiar with the twentieth century emphasis upon the exercise of privilege and upon the demand for more and more privileges, it is of interest to note that in the nineteenth century, edu- cators appeared equally determined to teach youth to assume the responsibilities of citizenship and to develop the qualities of character which had made the privileges possible.
According to the school records of 1871, it was the custom, in the grammar school in the eastern half of the town, for the teacher to begin the regu-
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Education
lar sessions by putting a question to a pupil. If the latter could make the correct answer, it was his duty to frame the next question and to designate the next student who was to answer. This student then continued in the same manner.
Any pupil of an advanced class was expected to be able to take charge of the teaching of a lower class. In event of the absence of the regular teacher, he must be competent to direct the work of his classmates during the recitation period.
From the time when the Mattakeeset Republic was founded in the little school at Powder Point, character-development held a leading place among the purposes of education in Duxbury.
In 1880, there were three hundred ninety pupils in the Duxbury schools. Town appropriations for schools at that period averaged from $2900 to $3500, of which some $400 was from the dog tax and from money provided by the state for assisting in the support of local public schools.
Until 1884, parents had to supply their children with textbooks and whatever materials were re- quired for their school work. The state law requir- ing the towns to provide all necessary books and supplies went into effect on August 1, 1884. Rec- ords of 1886 show that the books and other mate- rials required for the schools in that year cost the town $320.89-considerably less than one dollar per pupil.
It was during the same year that organizations opposed to the liquor trade succeeded in obtaining
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
a statute requiring that children in the public schools be taught "effects of alcoholic drinks, stim- ulants and narcotics on the human system."
After some three years of discussion, the Dux- bury school committee joined with those of Scitu- ate and Marshfield to form a district to be under the direction of a superintendent. At a meeting held in April, 1889, with Col. H. A. Oakman of Marshfield as chairman, and C. F. Jacobs of Dux- bury as secretary, Frank W. Sweet of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was selected as the first union superintendent in this part of the country. Mr. Sweet began his new duties on May 15, 1889, served but a few months and moved on to take a similar position in Bridgewater.
He was succeeded by a Dartmouth graduate, Edwin H. Watson, superintendent of schools at Beaver, Pennsylvania. Mr. Watson began at once reconstructing the course of study and the grading of the schools.
He inaugurated conventions of the teachers of the district, urged consolidation of schools and rec- ommended that teachers be relieved of teaching more than one or two grades. During this period, business opportunities were so attractive that there arose popular demand for commercial instruction in the public schools.
In 1893, the promoters of the World's Columbian Exposition, America's first "world's fair," succeeded in interesting Massachusetts schools in sending samples of their work. Duxbury took pride in its
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Education
exhibit of nature study and in the "diploma" awarded by exposition officials.
The school committee report of 1894 indicates that the attractions of the Marshfield Fair must have been great: when the autumn opening of the schools was postponed two weeks to conform to the closing of the fair, an immediate improvement in attendance was noted. The postponement also re- duced the number of absences which had been caused by the necessity of helping to harvest the cranberry crop.
After a period of almost a year, during which Duxbury had no superintendent of schools, Dr. Edgar L. Willard, a Brown graduate, assumed the position in June, 1896. Withdrawal of Scituate from the district had caused the resignation of Mr. Watson.
In the meantime, Nathan T. Soule, who had re- turned to Duxbury at the conclusion of more than twenty-five years of teaching in various New Eng- land towns, had been persuaded to take charge of the new grammar school in Duxbury Hall building. It was the purpose of this new school to prepare pupils for Partridge Academy.
At the turn of the century, a report by Dr. Wil- lard indicated a change in educational viewpoint. He wrote: ". .. the old idea ... that the teach- ing of history was concerned only with the rehearsal of incidents of war and other national and inter- national difficulties has been partially supplanted by a more rational idea-that school history should
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
deal largely with the growth of social, civil, and re- ligious institutions." This idea, he concluded, char- acterized the new teaching of history in Duxbury.
Dr. John E. DeMayer served as superintendent from 1907 to 1909. He was succeeded by William E. Chaffin, who was superintendent until 1918 when the World War was entering its final phase. In September of that year, Frederick E. Bragdon be- gan his term as superintendent.
In 1915, during Mr. Chaffin's term of office, the Duxbury High School succeeded in winning for its graduates admission to the state normal schools without examination. In the same year the forma- tion of the Parent Teachers Association gave im- mediate impetus to the spread of knowledge of school problems and purposes.
It was in 1918 that the teachers of the town banded together in the Duxbury Teachers' Club.
The World War was forcing changes in every phase of American life. In accordance with re- quests of the War Commission, none but indispen- sable repairs were made in school buildings; im- provements were postponed indefinitely. All but vital services were curtailed or discontinued alto- gether. Talk of consolidation of schools for the sake of economy, regardless of educational need, was persistent. The teaching of patriotism was demanded, though there were vigorous differences of opinion as to the precise definition of patriotism.
The discovery that a high percentage of Ameri- can young men between twenty-one and thirty-one
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Education 1135643
years of age had been found physically unfit for military service shocked a smug public.
"The revelations of the draft," reported Super- intendent Bragdon, "are humiliating to American pride and make imperative the need for a more efficient physical training in public schools."
The agitation for physical training continued. In 1919, in describing the results of the military draft in the South Shore district of which Duxbury formed a part, Dr. N. K. Noyes, the school physician, said that of eight hundred men examined, six hundred fifty were rejected as physically unfit, and only one hundred fifty accepted as fit for service.
It required such an upheaval as a World War to arouse popular realization of the need for preventive and corrective work among school children to im- prove the physical and mental health of the nation. In Duxbury, a school nurse was engaged. The Parent Teachers Association began agitation for a school dentist. Physical education was not adopted as part of the school curriculum until 1936.
During the years immediately following the war, there were no significant changes in the school system. The Partridge Academy was still func- tioning.
On March 6, 1926, the town appropriated $130,- 000 for the purchase of a site on Alden Street and construction of a new high school there. A build- ing committee consisting of J. Dexter Randall, Benjamin F. Goodrich, Percy L. Walker, Theodore W. Glover, Jr., and John Simmons was selected to
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
arrange for the purchase of the land and the erec- tion of the building.
The first school activity in the new building was the graduation ceremony of the class of 1927, on June 14, 1927.
When the new school was opened for classes in the autumn of that year, new courses were added -compulsory manual training for boys of the sev- enth grade and domestic arts for the girls. Classes in Partridge Academy were discontinued.
In designing the new building, recognition was given to the increasing demands for extracurricular activities. A gymnasium-auditorium was included for athletic, social, and educational gatherings. Parking space near the school, designed primarily to care for the automobiles in which teachers and many of the pupils go to and from school, was equipped with flood lights; the designers appar- ently foresaw extensive use of the gymnasium- auditorium at night.
In the meantime, interest in extracurricular ac- tivities had been growing. The first issue of The Partridge, the high school paper, had been pub- lished in November, 1923. Dorothy Walker was the first editor; Miss Helen Mckay, teacher of English, was the faculty adviser. In the same year, the first annual award of the Franklin and Wash- ington medal, donated by the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution for excellence in United States history, was made to Robert J. N. Osborn, valedictorian of the class of 1923.
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Education
Organized athletics for both boys and girls had long since been provided. A school orchestra was formed in 1927. To a certain extent, such extra- curricular matters helped to widen the popular interest in the school.
In 1926, Superintendent Bragdon resigned. John H. Parker of Kingston served from April, 1926, to July, 1927. The town at that time withdrew from its union with Marshfield and Scituate and began to function as a separate school unit. In the same year, the principal of the high school, George E. Green, assumed the position of superintendent of schools.
In 1937, Duxbury public schools have an enrol- ment of three hundred ninety-eight pupils, of whom one hundred attend the high school. The town appropriation for schools for this year is $46,000, in addition to the dog tax and the usual state allot- ment. Of this, $1000 has been set aside for books and supplies-approximately $2.50 per pupil. It is interesting to compare these figures with those of the 'seventies.
In this motor age, distance has been rendered comparatively unimportant in education. Duxbury children are carried in a few minutes over distances which would have been considered almost prohibi- tive a decade ago. Modern road machinery has re- duced to a minimum the necessity for suspending school sessions in winter.
It is now possible to carry pupils to a school equipped with the best available facilities, where
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
they may be taught by well paid, well trained teachers. It is no longer necessary to take the schools to the children and to be content with in- ferior equipment and underpaid instructors.
If a boy of 1937 could escort a boy of 1837 through the present high school building with its gymnasium, laboratories, central heating plant, and facilities for motion picture and radio presentation of subjects of interest, he could show him much that was undreamed of a hundred years ago.
But the boy of 1837 still would be able to point out one advantage which he enjoyed in his little school over the creek at Powder Point, a feature for which engineers, architects and educators neglected to provide when they planned the building of to- day-the chance to fish through the floor.
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CHURCHES AND CEMETERIES
First Parish Church ( 1840).
Town Offices.
Partridge Academy (1844)
Duxbury Civic Center. Buildings erected about 1840.
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL PARISH (UNITARIAN)
By Elizabeth S. Peterson
I 'N the summer of 1632 was "gathered" the first church of Duxbury, a scion of the Plymouth church, and the second to be established in the Old Colony.
Probably before 1630, the colonists had cleared the fertile land north of Plymouth Harbor and had built there shelters for themselves and their cattle. On Sunday, it was their custom to return with their families for worship in the main settlement; and here, for better protection against the In- dians, they remained during the winter months.
In 1632, according to the records of Governor Bradford, "those that dwelt on the other side of the bay (called Duxberie), they could not long bring their wives and children to the public worship and church meetings here, but with such burthen, as grown to a competente number, they sued to be dismiste and become a body of themselves, and so they were dismiste (about this time) though very unwillingly."
A visitor to the church in the year 1632 would
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
have found his way to a small structure near the homes of the settlers in the southeast portion of the township and in sight of the bay. He would have been greeted by the ruling elder, William Brew- ster, in his gown and bands, as he, a layman, pre- sided over the church in place of an ordained minis- ter. Captain Standish and Barbara, his wife, John Alden and Priscilla, Jonathan Brewster, Henry Sampson and young Philip De La Noye, would have welcomed him to simple homes on the peninsula within the bay toward Plymouth, or a little far- ther inland by Eagle-tree Pond and a small tidal river.
In 1637, the year of the incorporation of the Town, which is five years younger than the Church, Rev. Ralph Partridge was installed as minister. He was a graduate of Cambridge University, a "gracious man of great abilities," formerly a clergy- man of the Church of England, who had been driven from his pulpit by Archbishop Laud. Mr. Partridge served until his death in 1658, "much honored and loved by all who conversed with him and faithful to his charge, notwithstanding the paucity and pov- erty of his Flock." 1
In 1647, there were eight churches in the Plym- outh Colony and twenty-four in Massachusetts Bay, which sent delegates to the Cambridge synod. Mr. Partridge was the delegate of the Old Colony. John Cotton, Richard Mather and Mr. Partridge were each requested to draw up a "model of church
1 Winsor, p. 137.
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Churches and Cemeteries
government according to the will of God"2 to aid the synod in formulating an acceptable plan.
Duxbury, therefore, had a share in the writing of the "Cambridge platform."
Upon his death, Mr. Partridge was succeeded by Rev. John Holmes (1658-1675), "a godly man . . . efficacious in the great and honorable work of preaching the gospel."
From 1676 to 1700, Rev. Ichabod Wiswall di- rected the affairs of the parish, assisted by Deacon John Wadsworth, whose descendants for at least four generations held the same office. Mr. Wiswall was sent to England in 1691 as a delegate to oppose the annexation of Plymouth to Massachusetts Bay. Increase Mather, delegate of the victorious Massa- chusetts Bay, bitterly taunted Mr. Wiswall with his defeat and referred to him as "the little wea- sel." 3
In addition to his duties as minister, Mr. Wiswall found time for the study of astrology, and wrote a poem on the comet of 1680. He died in 1700, much lamented by his people, and was buried in the old cemetery where his gravestone may be seen.
At a town meeting on April 3, 1706, it was voted to build "a new meeting house 40 feet long and 33 feet wide and 17 feet high in the walls . .. within 3 or 4 rods of the old meeting house now in being." At a cost of one hundred eighty pounds, Seth Sprague completed the building early in 1707. It
2 Winsor, p. 176.
$ Ibid., p. 184.
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
was located a little to the east of the old cemetery.
The ministries of Rev. John Robinson (1702- 1738) and Rev. Samuel Veazie (1738-1750) were turbulent and unhappy. The community was with- out ready money; yet the ministers felt the neces- sity of "living in the body." During this time, the colony was annoyed by the persistent visitations of Quakers whom they resisted and persecuted.
During the pastorate of Mr. Veazie came the Great Revival. When Plymouth was visited by Whitefield, controversy arose between the Old Lights and the New. Although Mr. Veazie em- braced the tenets of Whitefield, the majority of his congregation, led by Captain Samuel Alden, re- mained true to the Old Light. In 1750 Mr. Veazie was granted a dismission.
The pastorate of Rev. Charles Turner, begun in 1755, was a contrastingly happy one and was pro- ductive of great good to the town. Illness caused the retirement of Mr. Turner at the conclusion of twenty years of service. Thereafter, he was a dele- gate to the convention which debated the acceptance of the Federal Constitution and to the convention which drew up the State constitution. For several years he was a State senator.
Rev. Zedekiah Sanger of the class of 1771 of Harvard College was ordained one day before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and preached his first sermon on the text, "Ye shall proclaim liberty throughout the land and unto the inhabitants thereof."
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Churches and Cemeteries
During the pastorate of Mr. Sanger, the third meeting-house was erected on the site of the pres- ent structure, nearer to the geographical center of the town. It was under construction for more than three years and was, according to town records, completed in 1787. A painting of it may be seen in the vestibule of the present church, together with the plan of seating, one of the pew doors and the bell-yoke of this or possibly an earlier church.
In 1788, Mr. Sanger was succeeded by perhaps the most notable of Duxbury ministers, Rev. John Allyn, whose term of service extended to 1833, a period of forty-five years. As a preacher, he was, for his time, singularly free from dogma, "caring little for the trappings of religion, but much for its essence." His methods of expounding Scrip- ture and teaching ethics were all his own. His con- versation was frank, his wit pungent, and his com- mon sense strong.
As was usual in his time, Dr. Allyn combined the duties of preacher and teacher, and prepared youth for Harvard College and other institutions of learning. He accepted girls, as well as boys, as pu- pils. In his methods, he was more advanced than many teachers of that day; he sought to create in his students a desire to explore for themselves the subjects set before them. In good weather, he held classes under the trees in his orchard. Seated in his armchair, he had his pupils grouped about him.
The influence of Dr. Allyn's force and individual- ity has been felt in the community for more than
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
one hundred years. His home, one of the dignified, square white houses of Duxbury, stands near the corner of Alden and Tremont streets, next door to the home of Major Judah Alden, whose little daughter, Mary Ann, he instructed in Latin for one dollar a week.
By gradual process of thought, and without schism or controversy, the Duxbury parish became Unitarian early in the nineteenth century. In 1828 occurred its separation from the town.
In requesting the civil authorities to call the meeting of March 3, 1828, the petitioners stated that "precinct meetings have not been held for many years for the proper management of parochial affairs ... but the same were transacted by and in the name of the Town of Duxbury. . . . By the establishment of other Societies of Christians in said town, they are unable to manage their parochial affairs as heretofore they have done." Therefore, all persons qualified to vote on parish matters were summoned to elect new parish officers.
The petitioners, twenty in number, were headed by Gershom B. Weston and G. P. Richardson. At the meeting, Benjamin Alden, Jr., presided as mod- erator, Silvanus Smith was selected as clerk and Gershom Bradford as treasurer. Three assessors, a collector, a tithing man and a parish commit- tee were elected, and plans for a tax levy were made.
From 1834 to 1881 occurred the longest pasto- rate, that of Rev. Josiah Moore, for many years
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Churches and Cemeteries
principal of Partridge Academy, as well as minis- ter.
It was during Mr. Moore's incumbency that the present church was erected, the fourth to house the activities of the parish. Though a useful structure, the third building had been torn down, partly be- cause it had not been large enough to accommodate the congregation, and partly because it had not been imposing enough to satisfy some of the parishioners whom ship-building had made wealthy.
Among these was Ezra Weston, the second "King Caesar." The clock now under the gallery of the present church, brought there from the third church where it had first hung, was one of his gifts to the parish.
The size of the congregation was indicated by the number of votes cast at the parish meeting of November 25, 1839. The question was whether the new church should be near the old structure or on a new site nearer the main street. Ninety-two favored the old site; twenty-two the proposed new location. The parish members were all men. The new meeting-house, designed to seat a congrega- tion of one thousand, was dedicated on October 28, 1840.
The church records for April 10, 1841, read: "Resolved that the thanks of the Parish be pre- sented to Gershom Bradford, Esq. and the Rev. Josiah Moore for the manifestations of their deep Interest in Prosperity, Welfare, and Happiness of the Parish and in the advancement of the Christian
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