Town annual report of Chelmsford 1898, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Town of Chelmsford
Number of Pages: 86


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > Town annual report of Chelmsford 1898 > Part 3


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ZIBA GAY, President. OTIS P. WHEELER, Secretary.


40 90


37


AGGREGATE OF APPROPRIATIONS, RECEIPTS, AND EXPENDITURES.


1


ACCOUNTS.


Appropri- ations.


Expendi- tures.


Surplus.


Deficit.


Schools, Appropriations.


$7,700 00


Fund .


231 29


Dog tax


477 50


Teaching


$7,103 10


Care of houses.


501 37


Fuel.


50 00


49 25


$ 75


Incidentals.


300 00


419 97


119 97


School text books and supplies.


Receipts


47 99


800 83


52 84


Superintendent of schools


Receipts


750 00


900 00


300 00


Support of poor.


Receipts


1,745 63


3,527 70


217 93


Highway


45 70


5.532 18


186 48


State aid, receipts.


873 00


1,056 00


183 00


Repairs of public buildings ..


6 00


482 81


176 81


Indigent soldiers and sailors.


Receipts.


311 50


520 80


109 30


Town officers and committees


1,500 00


1,575 40


75 40


Cattle inspection.


Receipts


219 68


425 00


5 32


Collection and abatement of taxes.


700 00


671 97


28 03


Care of village clock ..


50 00


50 00


Care and improvement of cemeteries


150 00


75 00


197 97


27 03


Adams library


800 00


800 00


Miscellaneous expenses.


Receipts.


384 22


596 97


87 25


Completion of soldiers' records


300 00


49 17


250 83


Memorial day


50 00


50 00


Street lighting.


1,000 00


85


949 64


51 21


Note-school-house loan ..


1,200 00


1,200 00


Well and wind-mill, West Chelmsford ..


State road, North Chelmsford.


1,500 00


1,460 40


39 60


North Chelmsford library .


400 00


400 00


School-house furniture, N. Chelmsford.


175 00


186 66


11 66


Sanitary accommodation, N. Chelmsford


·150 00


165 56


15 56


Land damage, road N. Chelmsford to Tyngsboro, note.


537 50


414 50


123 00


100 00


School-house No. 1, unexpended balance


5,461 90


5,317 88


144 02


៛37,222 76


$37,489 19


$1,414 81


$1,681 24


266 43


266 43


$37,489 19


$37,489 19


$1,681 24


$1,681 24


Appropriations.


$26,055 00


Amount of orders. Deficit.


$37,489 19


Receipts.


11,167 76


266 43


$37,222 76


$37,222 76


JOSEPH E. WARREN, ARTHUR H. SHELDON, WILLIAM H. SHEDD, JOSEPH A. PARKHURST, WALTER R. WINNING,


selectmen.


Receipts


Interest


480 00


480 00


200 00


54 84


145 16


Receipts


300 00


Receipts


100 00


1,449 22


$644 90


Apparatus


700 00


450 00


2,000 00


5,300 00


200 00


300 00


Receipts


Land damage, state highway ..


100 00


REPORT OF CATTLE INSPECTOR.


Stables inspected. 45


Whole number of cattle examined physically 965


Placed in quarantine and tested. 211


Condemned


138


Cattle examined at slaughter houses


332


Number condemned.


3


Glandered horses killed .


2


The state has paid the cattle owners of the town about $4,820 for cattle taken.


The farmers who have had tuberculous cattle taken from their barns, have disinfected and whitewashed their stables.


E. C. PERHAM, Inspector.


AUDITOR'S REPORT.


We have examined the accounts of the Treasurer for the year ending February 28, 1898, and find his receipts and payments prop- erly entered and vouched for, and a balance of one thousand one hundred sixty-one and thirty one-hundredths dollars ($1,161 30) in his hands


We have also examined the vouches in the hands of the selectmen and find in their hands receipts amounting to thirty-seven thousand four hundred eighty-nine and nineteen one-hundredths dollars [$37,489 19], vouching for orders for same amount drawn by them on the Treasurer and paid by him.


We find assets :


Cash in treasury .


$1,161 30


Tax of 1896 uncollected.


$1,988 65


Interest accrued on same


139 20


Tax of 1897 uncollected .


6,963 89


Interest accrued on same Due from state :


208 91


9,300 65


State aid to January, 1898 ..


850 00


State aid for January and February, 1898 .. .


206 00


Military aid to Janvary, 1898


182 50


State aid for school superintendents and


teachers .


435 50


State aid for cattle inspector


-212 00


Balance of corporation tax.


325 16


2,211 16


Due from other sources :


Lowell & Suburban Electric R. R. Co., land damage.


414 50


Lowell & Suburban Electric R. R. Co., grading (estimated).


275 00


County on account State highway


100 00


789 50


Deposits in Lowell Savings Banks, cemetery trust funds.


1,574 49


$15,037 10


Liabilities :


Notes (temporary loan) . $11,500 00


Note (land damage loan). 537 50


Notes (schoolhouse loan) .


10,800 00 $22,837 50


Emerson cemetery improvement fund


144 00


Amount carried forward.


$22,981 50


40


Amount brought forward


$22,981 50


Kimball fund and interest


$122 11


Silver fund and interest.


158 02


Day fund and interest.


102 00


Emerson fund and interest


226 69


Carlton fund and interest.


150 50


Marshall fund and interest.


102 00


Edwards fund and interest


207 85


Wood fund and interest.


305 32


Shed fund.


100 00


Coburn fund.


100 00


1,574 49


Unpaid bills (estimated)


400 00


Tax abatements (estimated) .


200 00


600 00


$25,155 99


Balance, deficit .


$10,118 89


GEO. F. SNOW, MARTIN ROBBINS, ELISHA H. SHAW, Auditors.


Chelmsford, March 4, 1898.


List of Jurors as prepared by the Selectmen, March 18, 1898.


Bartlett, Erastus A.


Byam, Frank C.


Brown, James


Durant, George E.


Draper, William L.


Daw, Walter


Day, George W.


Dutton, Charles H.


Emerson, Harry B.


Fowle, William R.


Fletcher, Robert


Green, Oliver M.


Garland, Samuel J.


Howland, Edgar G.


Lee, William M.


Merrill, Frank G.


Perham. Albert P.


Parkhurst, Alfred G.


Parker, Newell E.


Parker, Edward F.


Perham, Walter


Read, Albert S.


Reed, Arthur E.


Suttle, Arthur J.


Simons, Walter S.


Sheehan, Thomas P.


Stetson, George G.


Snow, George F.


Sweet, George W.


Sampson, James A.


Smith, George H .- N. C.


Worthen, Frank W.


JOSEPH E. WARREN. Chairman.


COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.


MIDDLESEX, SS.


To either of the Constables of the Town of Chelmsford, in said County,


GREETING:


In the name of the Commonwealth aforesaid, you are hereby required to notify the legal voters of said Chelmsford to meet at the Town Hall at Chelmsford Centre, on Monday, the twenty- eighth day of March current, being the fourth Monday in said month, at nine o'clock in the forenoon, then and there to act on the following articles, viz .:


Article I. To brose a Moderator.


Article 2. To hear reports of Town Officers and Committees, and act thereon.


Article 3. To determine the manner of collecting the taxes.


Article 1. To determine the manner of repairing the highways, townways and bridges.


Article 5. To choose all necessary Town Officers.


Article 6. To act in relation to the list of jurors prepared by the Selectmen.


Article 7. To raise and appropriate such sums of money as may be required to defray Town charges for the current year.


Article 8. To see if the Town will authorize the Treasurer to borrow such sums of money as may be required for the demands upon him, in anticipation of the taxes of the current year, and payable therefront.


Article 9. To see if the Town will vote to grant licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors for the current year.


Article 10.


To see if the Town will authorize the Selectmen to act as its agent in any suit or suits which may arise during the current year; also in such other matters which may arise requiring in their judg- mert the action of such agent, and to employ counsel there:or.


43


Article 1I. To see if the Town will authorize the Selectmen to -


procure a seal for the use of the Town, or act in relation thereto.


Article 12. To see if the Town will vote to accept the gift of one hundred dollars, in trust from George F. Snow, executor of the estate of Abbie A. Wheeler, the income of the same to be expended in forever keeping in repair the Samuel F. Wheeler burial lot in West Chelmsford Cemetery.


Article 13. At the request of the Chelmsford Veterans Asso- ciation, to see if the Town will appropriate the sum of one hundred dollars for the observance of Memorial day, or act in relation thereto.


Article 14. At the request of E. H. Chamberlain and twenty- four others, to see if the Town will vote to employ one or more night police in the several villages of the Town, as a possible prevention of burglary, and for the better protection of property, or act in relation thereto.


Article 15. At the request of Harry B. Richardson and fifteen others, to see if the Town will raise and appro- priate the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars for conveying to and from school the children who live near the Lowell line in North Chelms- ford, or act in relation thereto.


Article 16. To see if the Town will make an appropriation to the North Chelmsford Library Association, on con- dition that the books of said Library shall be free to all inhabitants of the Town, or act in relation thereto.


Article 17. At the request of James W. Moore and others, to see if the Town will vote to discontinue and cease to use as and for a public highway, the old road in North Chelmsford leading northeasterly from the new road known as Princeton street extension, from where said old road leaves said Princeton street, thence through land of Ferrin and others to a way known as Dartmouth street, or act in relation thereto.


Article 18. At the request of George A. Parkhurst and Henry S. Perham, to see if the Town will vote to accept the provisions of Sections 267, 268 and 269 of Chapter 417, Acts of 1893, authorizing the election


44


of Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor in accordance with said Chapter, or act in rela- tion thereto.


Article 19.


To see if the Town will raise and appropriate the sum of one thousand dollars for the purpose of lighting the streets in the several villages of the Town, or act in relation thereto.


Article 20. To see if the Town will vote to accept a town way as laid out by the Selectmen, beginning at the turnpike, so called, in North Chelmsford, near the house of Henry Miner, and running easterly along said Miner's land to and intersecting with the street running from said turnpike to the depot. Said road is graded and land given.


Article 21. To see if the Town will vote to accept town ways as laid out by the Selectmen, as shown on plan of streets on Homestead land, as drawn by O. F. Osgood, C. E., December, 1897. Said streets are mostly graded and land given.


Article 22.


At the request of H. S. Perham and others, to see if the Town will vote to grade and put in proper condition the grounds about the Adams Library, raise and appropriate a sum of money therefor, or act in relation thereto.


Article 23. At the request of the School Committee, to see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the transportation of pupils to and from school in the Town of Chelmsford, the money to be expended at the discretion of the School Com- mittee, or act in relation thereto.


Article 24.


To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of six hundred dollars for the purpose of procuring a pure water supply at the Almshouse, provide bath rooms and sanitary accommoda- tion, as required by the State Inspector, or act in relation thereto.


And you are directed to serve this Warrant, by posting up attested copies thereof at the Post Offices in the Centre of the Town, South Chelmsford, North Chelmsford, West Chelmsford, and at the School-house at East Chelmsford, ten days at least before the time appointed for holding said meeting.


Hereof fail not, and make return of this Warrant with your


45


doings thereon, to the Town Clerk, at the time and place of hold- ing the meeting aforesaid.


Given under our hands this eighteenth day of March in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.


JOSEPH E. WARREN, ARTHUR H. SHELDON, JOSEPH A. PARKHURST, WILLIAM H. SHEDD, WALTER R. WINNING, Selectmen of Chelmsford.


I have served the foregoing Warrant, by posting up true and attested copies of the same at the places above mentioned, ten days before the day of holding said meeting.


J. P. EMERSON, Constable of Chelmsford.


Chelmsford, March 18, 1897.


ANNUAL REPORT


OF THE


SCHOOL COMMITTEE


AND


SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS


OF THE


TOWN OF CHELMSFORD


FOR THE


YEAR 1897=8.


LOWELL, MASS .: COURIER-CITIZEN COMPANY, PRINTERS,


1898.


REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.


To the Citizens of Chelmsford :-


Your School Committee respectfully submits the following report. It has seemed best to the Committee to devote their an- nual report to the consideration of school finances and school buildings. Financially the past year has been an unqualified suc- cess, as all the appropriation has been expended and quite a sum beside. A legacy of unpaid bills from the previous year; the oc- " cupancy of new buildings; an increase in the number of pupils throughout the town, and the failure of building committees to keep their affairs entirely separate from the appropriation for schools, are among the causes necessitating an increased expendi- ture. No expenditure has been made without careful deliberation on the part of the Committee, or which, in their judgment, could well have been omitted. Transitional periods are necessarily ex- pensive and your Committee makes no apology. An appropria- tion of $10,000 will be necessary to maintain the public schools of Chelmsford for thirty-six weeks during the ensuing year.


The new buildings at Golden Cove and Chelmsford Centre are substantial and practical buildings for school purposes. The Fuller-Warren furnaces have not proven such large consumers of fuel as was anticipated. The estimated consumption of coal, based on the data at the command of your Committee, was nearly double the amount actually consumed, and coal on hand to the amount of $441.88 is another cause of increased expenditure. The other school buildings are fair with one exception-school- house No. 5 is unworthy of the town of Chelmsford.


There is great and immediate need of increased school facili- - ties at North Chelmsford and the town is urged to take such


4


action as will secure them at once. - The Committee would call the attention of all to the appended report of the Superintendent, and strongly favors a careful consideration of his recommenda- tions.


The following school calendar has been prepared :


1898.


March 28 .- Spring term begins.


April 19 .- Patriots' Day, holiday.


May 30 .- Decoration Day, holiday. June 17 .- Spring term closes.


September 6 .- Fall term begins.


November 18 .- Fall term closes.


November 28 .- Winter term begins.


December 23 .- Christmas recess begins.


1899.


January 2 .- Christmas recess closes. February 22 .- Washington's Birthday, holiday.


February 24 .- Winter term closes. March 20 .- Spring term begins.


April 19 .- Patriots' Day, holiday. May 30 .- Decoration Day, holiday. Juge 16 .- Spring term closes.


STEWART MACKAY, J. A. PARKHURST, R. W. E. MILLIKEN. GEO. A. BYAM, F. H. CHAMBERLIN. H. R. HODSON, D. P. BYAM.


School Committee.


SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.


To the School Committee of Chelmsford :-


I herewith present my second annual report as District Su- perintendent of your schools.


STATISTICS.


Number of pupils enrolled, 699.


Average membership, 552.49.


Average daily attendance, 513.53.


Number of tardinesses, 1,462.


Tardinesses per pupil, 2.85.


Dismissals, 820.


Dismissals per pupil, 1.6. Per cent. of attendance, 92.7.


My last report recommended that in taking the school census the ages be given in years and months. This was kindly consid- ered and acted upon. The result has been of great aid to me in looking up parties, and granting labor certificates. It gave me something that came from the parents to compare with the school registers that have the same data coming from the children. By going carefully over the registers I found many names that the Assessors did not have; I also found that they had quite a number of names that did not occur on the registers. This can be ex- plained, in part at least, by showing that any pupil who had attended school during some time of the year would have his name on the school register, but in case he had moved away before the time of taking the school census he would not be found by the Assessors ; on the other hand a pupil who had recently moved into town would be recorded by them, but would not be found on the school register. It is not probable that information from these two sources will ever agree, but a comparison of them is likely to bring more accurate results by far than a consultation of one alone.


I took the trouble during the summer vacation to cyclostyle the names and ages of all the pupils of the town as obtained from


6


both sources, and placed copies in each school room, and with each truant officer. Good results have come from it.


I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Assessors for their assistance and to express the hope that the practice may be continued.


It occurred to me to say that the schools have much improved during the last year, but after looking over the school reports for the last twenty-five years with much interest and profit, I have concluded to forego that ·pleasure. It seemed probable that it would have a too familiar sound to be of much interest. While no one in the past has shown himself so well satisfied as to indicate that there was no room for further improvement; yet if the confi- dence and hopes of the past were well placed it seems as though we must be so near that wrongly supposed ideal state that the prog- ress of a year would be hardly perceptible. If we feel inclined to discount the credulity of the past we may well hesitate to express too much satisfaction with the present when we remember that it must be subjected to test in the light of the future. The fact is, all those important changes that tend to lift humanity come- very slowly, and it is only as they reach out and embrace the masses that they become permanent.


QUOTATIONS.


Let me quote from some of the above-mentioned reports:


1869-70.


"I. The common schools of Chelmsford can never be made perfect: 2. It cannot be expected that with our scattered popula- tion and with our present scanty appropriation, our schools can be brought to the same standard of efficiency attained to in popu- , lous towns and cities. We are left, therefore, to aim as high as we reasonably can, and to strive to attain to the largest possibility.


"The public schools will be what the sentiment of the people demands they shall be.


"There are two plain paths to improvement in the efficiency of the schools, viz .: 1. Increased length of schools, say about thirty weeks' tuition in each school during the year. This will make it probable that a teacher will engage to teach for a year in- stead of a single term.


7


"The second plan, which, perhaps, might not be so universally acceptable, is to establish several schools of higher grade for ad- vanced scholars, to which pupils from every section shall be ad- mitted.


"The event which has possessed the largest emphasis is the death of the old district system. Again and again the question has been proposed to the citizens of the town, 'Shall the district system live?' and as often has the response returned, 'Let it live.' But now it is no more.


"In the history of the past school year we are able to chroni- cle a fact unparalleled in the history of the common schools of Chelmsford, viz .: that during the entire year, with but one ex- ception, peace has prevailed throughout our borders. The petty feuds prevailing in more than one district were a fruitful source of harm to the schools. These now slumber with the system whose progeny they were.


"Experienced teachers have been employed, and in several cases for successive terms in the same school.


"The schools have been of unequal length.


"The whole number of pupils enrolled in the winter term was 501. Of these 92 were in the Centre schools, 163 at the North and 41 at the West.


1870-71.


"Schools No. 7 (near the West, now closed) and No. 5 (Byam's) were discontinued, and at a subsequent meeting schools No. 2 (North Row) and No. 4 (South Row) were placed on the same list. These schools, after remaining 'out in the cold' a short time only, were kindly restored to the fold.


"With many citizens, realizing the need of yearly schools under permanent teachers, affording to advanced scholars tuition in the higher branches of learning now sought in academies and private schools in neighboring cities and towns, the School Committee respectfully requested of the town, in regular town meeting, an additional appropriation of $1000 to carry into effect a plan designed to meet the above necessity. Said plan was as follows: I. To elevate the grade of the grammar schools already existing at North Chelmsford and Chelmsford Centre


S


with perhaps that of the school at West Chelmsford. 2. To open these schools to all of requisite qualifications from every section of the town. 3. To allow the remaining schools to exist as they were, giving privileges to such as from choice or necessity would not attend the schools of higher grades.


"Our fellow citizens chose to give the matter hardly respect- ful consideration, and the appropriation was flatly refused.


"This is a fitting place to remark that statute law now brings relief and provides more than was sought."


1871-72.


"Sessions of three hours each half day are none too long either for the endurance of the child or the accomplishment of the purpose for which public schools are instituted.


"We recommend the establishing of higher grade schools in localities to meet the wants of different sections. The statutes of the Commonwealth make this imperative, and it remains simply for any citizen to enter complaint in the matter before the proper tribunal to secure the coveted good."


1874-75.


"Whether consolidation of portions of former districts No. 2 and No. 7 cannot be advantageously effected, making the number of schools one less, thereby adding to the length and efficiency of all, is worthy of the careful consideration of the present School Committee and of all friends of education in town. This inight require an annual appropriation of a small sum of money, to be expended under the direction of the committee, for the purpose of carrying children remote from school.


"Your committee would officially express their regret at the action of the town in abolishing their high schools. If imper- fections existed in their organization or operation (and that was undoubtedly true) it would seem to have been the wiser course to have reformed and improved rather than to have destroyed.


"No. 8 (North Primary). This large school of no less than ninety-three children continued during the hot summer term, and was packed into the little room in the rear of the grammar school. It was pronounced too large by the committee in charge.


9


For want of a school room the Town House in the fall, and the Congregational Vestry in the winter were brought into requisition."


1877-78.


"No. 8. (North Primary). Crowded to the number of sixty in a room unfit for thirty unless better ventilated. This room being without any desks, the teacher is utterly debarred from the privilege of introducing a variety of valuable exercises into the school, and much time is actually wasted, while the health of all who occupy the room is being seriously impaired, if breathing poisonous air is ever an injury."


1879-80.


"(North Primary). The number was quite too large for one teacher to do justice to, and the effort severely taxed her physical powers, while it prevented that advancement of the scholars which were else possible.


"The only remedy which your committee has to suggest for the above difficulty (small schools), is for the town to appropriate money for the conveyance of children as provided by statute."


1880-81.


"In the opinion of your committee the most satisfactory solu- tion of the difficulty (small schools) would be for the town to vote an appropriation to give some compensation for the conveyance of pupils as provided by statute, and as successfully. practiced in many of the towns of the Commonwealth."


1882-83.


"Although the gentlemen (Hon. J. W. Dickinson, Secretary of the State Board of Education, and Mr. E. A. Hubbard, Agent of the State Board of Education,) found some things to criticise, and pointed out to the committee and also in their public remarks, the better results which would be obtained by combining the small schools, they considered our schools compared favorably with the average of those throughout the Commonwealth."


1889.


I find this article in the town warrant, at the request of N. C. Saunders, Henry S. Perham and Geo. A. Parkhurst:


10


"To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate money to pay for the transportation of the pupils to the public schools, or act in relation thereto."


1891-92.


"We would call the attention of the town to the crowded con- dition of the schools at the North and Centre villages, especially in the primary departments. At the North village the primary department has over seventy pupils."


1892-93.


"The closing of the small schools, the providing room in the villages, the transporting of scholars in the outlying sections to the graded schools in various villages, is, we believe, a thing that will be done at no distant day by our town, as it is done by most of the towns around us."


1893-94.


"The attention of the citizens has been called, in past reports, to the crowded condition of the schools in the North and Centre villages.


"It would seem wise to consider the matter of abolishing the schools in some of these districts, and arrange for the transporta- tion of pupils to larger and centrally located graded schools."




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