USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Holyoke > The story of Holyoke, Massachusetts in painting and in prose > Part 2
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The zeal of Dr. Carl Allen brought Holyoke into the front line of attack on tuberculosis which was the topmost cause of death among young people at the beginning of this century. The germ that caused the disease had been isolated and its contagious nature confirmed. What was needed was educa- tion to secure public backing for the isolation of active cases to prevent the spread of the contagion, and to provide curative measures.
The Holyoke Tuberculosis Association was formed to assume this social and medical responsibility. Dark and crowded rooms had to go, con- taminated milk must be eliminated and sanitoria provided. Meanwhile the medical world was developing new therapies, and early detection was made possible through the Roentgen rays.
In 1907 when Dr. Allen started the campaign against tuberculosis,
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there were eighty-seven deaths yearly in Holyoke from that scourge of youth. In 1952 only two died from the disease, and deaths from tuberculous menin- gitis today are a rarity. The Christmas seals have become a happy method of raising funds locally to combat the Great White Plague.
Three quarters of a century ago the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was established to remedy the neglect that had been the lot of too many children. Not only can the sadness of the child be relieved, but positive lessening achieved of teen-age delinquency and lifetime unhappiness that stems from early insecurity. The Holyoke branch was set up in 1918. Today every effort is exerted to reestablish broken families instead of punishing parents, and placing children in foster homes. This has to be done with trained social technique and by men and women who are devoted to such work. In the cure of causes of neglect whether due to sickness, alcoholism, lack of work, or broken marriages, Holyoke is and has been well served. One added factor in making these results possible is the State law that empowers the S.P.C.C. to take cases to court when other methods fail.
When the first decade of this revolutionary 20th century was passing, social consciousness was rising over the land. John Spargo came to Holyoke to address a meeting sponsored by the Y.W.C.A. He showed with figures that the death rate of babies in Holyoke was one of the worst in the country. Included were the deaths of the little orphans at Brightside, many of them brought there from out of town sick and neglected.
Mrs. Sumner Whitten, then head of the mother's club of the Y.W.C.A., was inspired by the facts to lead a crusade for improvement of conditions in Holyoke. Mr. Spargo had planted the idea that the problem was not a matter of charity but concerned the citizens' government as public health. A survey of the city was undertaken by Mrs. William G. Dwight at Mrs. Whitten's direction. Figures thus brought to light showed that on one short street in Holyoke, more babies died under one year of age than in all of ward seven. So it was possible to stir public interest of mothers who loved their children regardless of status or place of residence.
The first move was to find a pure milk supply. This was not too simple in the absence of laws requiring clean stables, healthy cows, and the pasteur- ization of milk. Next came the question of distribution. Mrs. Whitten enlisted the active interest of Mayor John J. White and his administration who favored the project as worthy of municipal support. The Holyoke Infant Hygiene Association was formed with Dr. Fred H. Allen as medical
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director and the Holyoke Municipal Milk Station was opened in June 1911 on lower Sargeant St. at the corner of Bridge in the section where the infant death rate was highest.
The results of this organized effort for improvement in child health in Holyoke led to state legislation that required pasteurization of all milk sold in Massachusetts. Dairies had to be inspected and herds tested for tuber- culosis at frequent intervals.
To meet the requirement that had been enacted as a state law a few years later that all municipally financed projects must be directed by city officials, the Legislature approved an act creating the Child Welfare Com- mission as a part of Holyoke's official public health service. Supervision of the health of the child was covered from before birth until school age, that is, pre-natal and post-natal, infant and pre-school care was furnished. Prep- aration and distribution of formulas in iced pails to substations, immunization against smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, physical examina- tions and follow-up work in the homes were provided. The little ones thus guarded have numbered two thousand or more per year for the past forty- three years. Fewer and fewer deaths have been recorded in mothers and pre- school children. During these fruitful years the direction has been in the hands of Dr. Allen and Dr. E. P. Bagg, with the assistance of many volunteer physicians and dentists who have given their services regularly and generously. But the work could not have succeeded without the devoted cooperation of many specially trained nurses who have taken personal interest in their assignments.
Holyoke thus, along with the rest of the world, has eliminated that frightful early mortality among infants and children. The milk station, necessary at the start, is no longer needed since ice boxes abound and there are no more devastating epidemics of summer diarrheas. Smallpox is no longer rampant, diphtheria has been eliminated, and tetanus is under control. Safe- guards however must not be relaxed.
That is the story that lies behind the rapidly descending scarlet ribbon on the chart in the mural. In reality, it should no longer be termed a record of mortality. It is a veritable life-line.
Holyoke Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts spark a fine spirit among the many boys and girls who begin at age seven as Cubs or Brownies and carry the high principles of scouting into their daily living. The promises they make together for loyalty and service give a brighter basis for all their days.
In 1921 Holyoke Girl Scouts received their charter. A personal friend
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of Juliet Low, founder of Girl Scouts in America, came to Holyoke to gather together troops and their leaders. Almost at once a full program of girl scout- ing was in action. Mrs. John M. James was the first Girl Scout Commissioner and gave wonderful leadership as long as she lived. Through the years the Girl Scout membership has remained around one thousand more or less- not for lack of prospective scouts but for leaders.
The Boy Scout charter was granted in 1926. What a good time they have had between Mt. Tom and Aldrich Lake out under the slopes of Mt. Holyoke. Wonderful terrain lies hereabouts for hiking and the other aspects of scouting. Alumni of the first groups are writing fine records all across the world where wars and sundry vocations have taken them. Usually the Boy Scouts number one thousand, and here too the cry is for more young men to guide the eager lads.
Summer camping programs of both Boy and Girl Scouts, the Y.M.C.A., the Boys' Club, the Tuberculosis Association, the Salvation Army and many of the churches have sent thousands of children away from crowded homes for better health and recreation.
Then too, the boys of Holyoke one thousand strong have had the bless- ing of the Holyoke Boys' Club since 1892. A new city was growing by leaps and bounds in that era. Holyoke was becoming conscious of its social obliga- tions. There was a special need of something for teen-age boys who had no chance for recreation except with street gangs.
A group of men selected from the several churches headed by Joel S. Webber, took over an old church building on Main St. Tools and machines were installed for craft work, trade classes were set up, and a place provided for reading and playing games.
The late Frederick S. Webber followed his father's leadership and headed the campaign for a new building. Since the fine new home of the Boys' Club was built on Race St., it has drawn large numbers of boys every year. Excellent sport programs have been developed especially in the past decade under Tom Foley who had in fact a boys' club in his own home. Hol- yoke is grateful to him. All the years since the beginning there have been young men who were eager as leaders to share with the boys the work for cleaner and happier boyhood.
Holyoke has the distinction of being the first city in Massachusetts to move for municipal playgrounds. Mayor Nathan P. Avery gathered a small group of people to this end in 1908. The late Principal John J. Lynch, William J. Howes, Mrs. William G. Dwight, and Mrs. John J. Finn met with
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Mr. Avery to prepare legislation to make city playgrounds possible in the State of Massachusetts. A statewide referendum was passed with a sweeping vote in Holyoke. In 1919 they came into being. Also the first public swim- ming pools in Massachusetts were set up in Holyoke playgrounds in 1925.
A separate account would be needed to do justice to all the good works of the Holyoke School System in behalf of children. In addition to school inspection service by doctors and nurses, special problems like loss of hearing and sight impairment are detected and provided with special treatment. School work has been brought into the homes of handicapped children who were unable to compete with their fellows, and special classes are provided for the backward pupils. Nor should we forget the splendid liaison that is provided between teachers and parents in the Parent-Teachers Association to supple- ment routine work of the schools for the better progress of Holyoke's future citizens.
The hospitals too have provided expert and devoted care for our children. Standards and facilities are constantly being improved to keep pace with the advancement of knowledge. Likewise the constructive work of the Holyoke Public Library and the Holyoke Museum of Natural History and Art must not be passed over. Librarian Gilbert C. Rich with his able assistants and Curator Marie Schurr with hers, have done much to interest children in reading, music, and the vital problems of conservation of our natural resources.
A better start for children is the best augury for a better world. The heart of such beautiful conceptions has been explored by the Indian poet Tagore thus, "On the seashore of endless worlds, the children meet with shouts and dance. Children have their play on the seashore of the world."
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THE STORY OF EDUCATION IN HOLYOKE
WYATT E. HARPER
Formal education began in the region that is now Holyoke in 1802 when the first school was opened in Ireland Parish which was a political division of West Springfield centering in the area now called Elmwood. Caleb Humes- ton was voted a stipend for boarding the teachers, Miss Sally Clapp and Miss Lovina Humeston for the three month term of their teaching. All children and servants were to be sent to school, "to read and learn catechism." Subjects taught were reading, writing, and ciphering. Books in use were limited to, "readers, rhetorics, and the Bible." For each pupil enrolled in school the parent had to supply one fourth cord of wood to keep the "school seasonably warm." Farm boys kept coming to school winter after winter until they were quite grown.
As the population of Ireland Parish increased, other one-room schools were opened. Soon there were seven, spread out according to dispersion of population. Many of these early schools remained standing as landmarks of early Holyoke until near the turn of the century. One was across from Crafts Tavern, one at Depot Hill, another on Homestead Avenue. Two of them were of red brick, one near Whiting Hill, the other on the County Road to Northampton.
Education in these early schools was of a simple nature to fit the needs of a people who tended their farms, kept their homes, and brought up their children within limited horizons. Life in Ireland Parish was simple and direct. Horses, cows, sheep, hay, rye and barley were the concern of liveli- hood. Enjoyments were of the homely, rustic kind. Independent subsistence was the premise of each farmstead. Education of the times reflected the simplicity of this life.
A Massachusetts school law of 1780 required towns having a hundred and fifty or more families to maintain a grammar school. Ireland Parish created such a school in 1818. For many years this single grammar school sufficed for the whole area.
A most noteworthy educational effort of the early days was Parson Rand's Academy. Here for the modest fee of twenty-five cents a week boys of the region were instructed in the classics and mathematics. The purpose of the school was to prepare for college and the Christian ministry. Girls
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were instructed from time to time. Classes were held in the parsonage on Back Street; but around 1830 the school was moved to a building on the County Road near its junction with the road to Westfield.
Parson Rand was the outstanding man of his day in local education. Not only did he conduct his own private academy for twenty-five years, but also taught in the town school as well. Boys who later became outstanding clergymen of the valley learned their Latin and Greek under his tutelage. When Parson Rand retired, William Gamewell took over and changed the name to Gamewell Academy. Rand Academy or Gamewell Academy was not a public high school. In a rudimentary way it was Holyoke's version of the New England Academy which in other New England towns of that period exercised a profound influence upon early American education. The Ireland Parish High School Society was formed in 1840.
At mid-century workers by the thousand came to Ireland Parish to work in the newly constructed mills. Overnight the New England village became an industrial town and within a generation the industrial town became a city. This was the phenomenal growth period which constituted the forma- tive era of the Holyoke educative system.
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Records of the Holyoke School Committee which was created at this time show nine school districts and thirteen schools. There were five hundred and thirty-seven scholars and attendance was poor. Great stress was laid upon the quality of teachers. Energy, character, ability in discipline, and aptness to teach were held indispensable qualities in a teacher. Parents were urged to show interest in education by visiting the schools. Successes and failures of various teachers were written up in the town report for all to read.
Holyoke High School was established in 1852 with Stephen Holman as preceptor. Holman was an able man, "who quickened the dull, strength- ened the feeble, and restrained the impetuous." School kept for a time in the Gallaudet block on High Street and then moved to the Chapin block at the corner of Race and Dwight. Here was Parsons Hall where graduation exercises were held for many years. In 1862 a new high school was built, the Elm Street School.
The new high school offered two courses leading to diplomas; a thorough course of two years in "English Branches," constituting a practical business preparation, and a four-year course in the classics which prepared for college. College preparation still consisted of the study of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and French. Instruction in English as a language and literature was not to begin until 1891.
Graduates of the town grammar school were carefully examined as to their fitness to enter the senior school. Tests were given in the chief grammar school subjects, geography, history, grammar, and arithmetic. Sample questions were: "Name the political divisions of South America." "What discoveries were made by John Cabot and Sebastian?" "What is case?" "Decline Who, He, It, Boy." "Divide 10 by 78." Grammar school masters exercised a wide constructive influence upon the people of the community. Outstanding among them down through the years, Hiram Bartlett ("Daddy") Lawrence, John A. Callahan, William E. Judd, and John J. Lynch were to write their impress indelibly in the Holyoke life and spirit.
Enrichment of curriculum appeared in this formative period, to be carried forward by succeeding educators from generation to generation. Two pioneer superintendents contributed powerfully to early Holyoke education, E. S. Kirtland who served during the seventies and brought about the con- struction of many needed school buildings, and Preston W. Search who stressed the importance of the individual pupil and set up the high profes- sional standards now maintained by Holyoke teachers. Interesting and
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useful subjects were added from time to time to make education more vital in the lives of the pupils.
In 1870 a state law became applicable to Holyoke requiring free instruc- tion in industrial or mechanical drawing for persons fifteen years of age, in day or evening schools. At the same time the committee voted that "Music being an important branch of education ... both music and drawing be taught." Soon the high school basement was converted for use as a Chem- istry laboratory. As the importance of health and physical education came to be realized, Holyoke employed the first calisthenics instructor to be em- ployed in New England. Drawing and penmanship came in for increased emphasis. Gradually there emerged a kind of education fitted to meet the needs of the children of the community.
Just before the end of the 19th century, the high school moved into its present building on Pine Street. Education for Holyoke as we know it today began to take shape. Courses in Manual Training, fine and industrial arts, domestic arts and sciences were provided. A commercial department was established signalling the definite beginning of vocational education. Facilities were extended for athletic and physical education by the construc- tion of the gymnasium and swimming pool. An extensive playground system was projected. The Vocational School was created to provide apprenticeship training in the skilled trades. Patrick J. Garvey founded the Evening High School which he was to direct for so many years. In recent times curriculum enrichment has come into full flower with the creation of courses in Household Economies and Homemaking, practical business training, music, dramatic arts, speech, applied science, journalism, driver education, and distributive occupations. The Holyoke High School Band founded by Fred Grady and now directed by Edward Nowak is a source of constant pride to the city.
Two nationwide movements have influenced the character of Holyoke education. One was the reorganization of school systems with reference to the creation of junior high schools for children of early adolescent age. The other was the democratization of the high school with the passage of laws compelling children to remain in school up to the age of sixteen. Both move- ments have had powerful results in helping the schools to serve the com- munity. The creation of the junior high school gave to boys and girls in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades a curriculum fitted to their needs. It permitted pupils to explore along the lines of their interests and aptitudes. It laid the groundwork for preparation for life and life work. It provided
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specialized teaching. The passage of the compulsory school age laws made of the high school a great peoples' school.
Today the Holyoke school system offers the most complete program of public education to be found in New England. Beginning with nursery schools and kindergarten for the very young and carrying through to a degree- granting junior college for Holyoke young men and women who seek to further their higher education in the city, this program encompasses every educative gradation needed by the peoples' children.
William R. Peck has been Superintendent of Schools in Holyoke for almost thirty-five years. He has shown power in administration, combining in rare degree capacity to envision the ideal and the practical ability to carry it out. Always he has answered the need with the offering. When it de- veloped that crippled children could not come to school, he sent the school to them through special teachers. To give opportunity to new peoples from foreign lands he created Americanization classes, teaching self-government and instilling love for the new country. Always he thought of the individual pupil. Mentally handicapped boys and girls were given their opportunity for success. Education in Holyoke is conducted with reference to the future of America. A most important goal is high-grade citizenship.
Some of the interesting phases of present-day education are eye-saving classes, and lip reading classes, and training for speech defectives. A well equipped trade school in the country is available for boys who wish training along the line of mechanics. A practical class has been organized recently in distributive education.
At the upper level of the Holyoke educational ladder stands Holyoke High School where for three full years the youth of Holyoke are privileged to be a part of the miracle of America, democratic secondary education. Dr. Howard Conant devoted his life to the development of this greatest of all democratic institutions. To this school come boys and girls from homes at every economic level and social scale, each with a different personality, each with a different outlook on life, differing from each other in race, creed, and color. Here they work and team together, acquiring a community of culture and the emotional heritage of a common American ideal. Here they learn beauty and truth and loyalty are ageless.
Mr. Peck has not been alone in his efforts to give Holyoke the best that is to be had in modern education. Behind him, supporting him when the going was hard, is a long line of able and unselfish citizens who have served as mem- bers of the school committee with devotion; Nathan P. Avery, J. B. Weis,
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August Bausch, William Dupre. Devoted women have written their names large as teachers and administrators in the Holyoke schools; Jenny Scollay, Esther Greeley, Dr. Marcella Kelly, and Marie Weis Hazen on the Board.
But, the glory of education in Holyoke today, as it has always been, is in no small part the faithful teaching of the unsung, underpaid teachers who in an obscure and often unrecognized way keep the light of our American civilization and culture burning. Dedicated especially to them, the mural painting is a lasting memorial. In keeping with tradition, the artist has depicted himself as the serious-minded instructor of art as he might look some years hence.
THE FIRST HOLYOKE HIGH SCHOOL
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6
ATHLETICS EDWARD P. BAGG, M.D.
When the spotlight is turned upon Athletics, it can readily be seen that no artist could do justice to the galaxy of Holyoke's sons who have excelled in many branches of sport. This forest of celebrities assuredly would be obscured by the great abundance of trees, big ones. So the mural painter must resort to allegory as Sante Graziani has done for the Holyoke Public Library in these notable examples of what has been called the highest form of art.
At first glance there appears to be a jumble of athletes, each one appar- ently intent upon his own specialty, yet caught in a live, rhythmic grouping in vivid, distinguishing form and color. In the background are the fields and equipment that are essential. The message is both bright and clear. Meticulous critics, however, might insist that any pole-vaulter who relied upon so slender a reed of bamboo would surely come to grief, or that football backs would collapse under helmets of such heroic mold. But would they
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not thus be throttling genius who intended perhaps to win attention by arous- ing observation, critical or otherwise? To put it boldly, they might justly be termed captious.
Back in the good old days when men were men in spite of long under- wear and the elastic gussets of their congress boots, Reuben Winchester, agent of the Holyoke Water Power Company, organized Holyoke's first professional baseball team. Graduates of local sand-lots subsequently helped to develop Holyoke's excellent playgrounds ward by ward that provide our youngsters, boys and girls too, with healthful recreation. "Dudes Park" the site of our library building was a busy place in the gay nineties. The dudes are gone long since, but boys still are boys and play impromptu games there on the restricted lawns to this day.
Many of those amateur athletes went on to professional athletic careers. Jack Doyle, the dean of Holyoke's professional baseball players, is an out- standing example. He was John J. McGraw's catcher on the original Baltimore Oriole team. At eighty he continues his active touch with baseball today as a talent scout for the Chicago Cubs. "Smiling Micky" Welch pitched for the New York Giants, and "Tommy" Tucker covered first base for the Boston National Club. Around the turn of the century, Tom Dowd was the first left-fielder of the Boston Red Sox, while Jack Hannifin played short-stop for the Giants and the Athletics. Neill Sullivan pitched himself via the Har- vard Law School into a lucrative career as a corporation lawyer in Wall Street.
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