USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1865-1872 > Part 45
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42
17
Jonathan Rawson
82
20
Benjamin Webber
53
Erysipelas.
21
Catharine Moynihan
2
Infantile.
22
Caroline E. Brown
2
7
25
25
Rowland F. Diekens
60
1
Brain Tumor.
December 4
Mabelle Spear
1
6
22
Dropsy on Brain.
8
Richard M. Cole
30
4
26
Chronic Diarrhea.
9
Ellen Boyd
32 7
Consumption.
15
Carrie F. Allen
5
2
17
Perlcarditis.
17
James Jones
25
4
Consumption.
20
Ellzabeth Sullivan
48
Cancer.
20
Sarah Convey
48
Lumbar Abscess.
21
Enoch Eugene Hall
2
Infantile.
22
Hugh Owens
48
24
Mary Loulsa Hunt
42
6
Heart Disease. Anæmla.
October
1
Joseph B. Lake
42
6
16
Scrofula.
11
John F. Doherty
13 5
Killed by Railroad Cars. .. ..
21
Nellie M. Parrott
1
4
Marasmus.
November 6
Dennis O'Keefe
33
Consumption.
Typhoid Fever.
Phthisis.
26
Bartholemew Foley
43
8
Dropsy on Brain.
September 2
28
Anna Grannahan
1
66
7
Willie D. Coolidge
2
22
Canker.
Diarrhea. Consumption.
17
Stanley Cook
1
Infantile.
27
George Willard
47
Consumption of Bowels.
Consumption. Canker.
Bright's Disease of Kidneys.
13
Samuel Curtis
14
Cholera Infantum.
Consumption.
Apoplexy.
Bearlet Fever.
Cholera Infantum. Paralysis of Heart. Cholera Infantum.
28
Lillian W. Pratt
72
Whole number of Deaths registered, 127.
Males.
Females.
Total.
January
3
4
7
February .
3
3
6
March
9
3
12
April
10
0
10
May
3
0
3
June
2
5
7
July
5
8
13
August .
13
10
23
September
9
4
13
October
5
3
8
November
6
3
9
December
4
6
10
72
49
121
Still-born .
6
Total
127
73
WOODWARD FUND.
-
TREASURER'S REPORT.
The managers of the fund, as designated in the will of the late Ebenezer Woodward, viz., the Selectmen, Town Clerk, and Town Treasurer, received from Frederick Hudson, Esq., the surviving executor of said will, the following-named securities, February 18, 1870 : -
6 Bonds U. S. Sixes, of $1,000 @ $1 17, $7,020 00
8
66 Portland Water, 1,000, @ 1 00, 8,000 00
5 Vermont 1st mort., 1,000 @ .80, 66 4,000 00 3 66 Equipment 1,000 @ 1 01, 3,030 00
5
66
66 66 500 @1 01, 2,525 00
C. H. Whitney's note and mort., 1,035 00
Henry Barker's
2,016 00
F. A. Brown's
66
2,838 00
$30,464 00
Less cash paid Frederick Hudson, excess paid by him on settlement, $374 17
-
- $30,089 83
The other property belonging to said fund consisted of the Greenleaf Farm, house and land on Spear street, house and land at Germantown, and three pews in churches in Quincy, two in the Congregational and one in the Universalist.
PROPERTY ACCOUNT.
February 1, 1872.
The bonds and other securities have been changed somewhat, the Spear street and Germantown estates and the two pews in the First Congregational Church having been sold, and the following constitutes the fund at this date, the bonds at the appraised value when taken : -
74
6 Bonds U. S. Sixes, of $1,000, @ $1 17, $7,020 00 8 Portland Water, 1,000 @ 1 00, 8,000 00
5
66 Vermont 1st mort. 1,000 @.80, 4,000 00
3 66 equipment 1,000 @ 1 01, 3,030 00
6
66 Hartford & Erie 1,000 @ .42, 2,520 00
1 Town note, 13,725 37
7 notes secured by mortgages,
13,177 50
Cash in treasury, 1,249 67
And the Greenleaf Farm, - $52,722 54
INCOME ACCOUNT.
Amount received from rents, interest on
stocks and other securities to Febru- ary 1, 1872, $5,583 67
Amount paid for repairs on buildings and
other necessary expenses, 1,219 31
Leaving a balance of income, $4,364 36
WYMAN ABERCROMBIE,
Treasurer.
75
PUBLIC LIBRARY OF QUINCY.
-
The Trustees of the Public Library ask leave to offer their first report relative to the foundation and progress of the institution committed to their care.
At the last town meeting in March, in addition to the sums ap- propriated for salary of librarian, heating and care of building, and from the proceeds of the dog tax, a further amount of twenty-five hundred dollars was assigned to the library on condition that an equal sum should be raised by private subscription. For this pur- pose, there had been contributed on the 1st of October by 1,033 in- dividuals, in sums ranging from ten cents to two hundred dollars, a total amount of $2,694.87, thus indicating at once how wide an in- terest was felt by all ages and classes in the success of the new undertaking. From these sources, the whole sum placed at the disposal of the Trustees, as by the account of the Treasurer of the Board, hereto annexed, has been $7,236.37, of which there has been expended $3,426.56, leaving a balance on hand at this date of $3,809.31. Besides this amount, there remains in the town treasury another balance of $627.73, remaining from the $1,000 set aside for the expenses of salary, lighting, heating, etc., - for which there is already due and to be drawn, the sum of $292.85. The balance in the hands of the Treasurer of the library will be reduced by unpaid bills for books, printing and other charges by the sum of $1,087.19 ; and still further by the appropriation by the Trustees of $2,500 to cover the expenditure for the books ordered and to be imported, and for certain other desirable purchases in this country. Adding to this balance $222.62, the balance which will remain in the town treasury, $334.88, it will be found that there will be in hand for the exigencies of the library during the coming year the sum of $557.50.
76
In consequence of unexpected delay and disappointment in the shelving and other preparations necessary to fit up the room in the Adams Academy in a manner suited to the conveniences of the library and the public, the Trustees were unable to open the read- ing-room for periodicals before the 4th of December. On the 11th of the same month the circulation of the books began. From this time until February 1st the library has been accessible to its patrons forty-three days, during which period there have been loaned 7,050 volumes - an average of nearly 164 per day. When it is considered that this delivery took place before any list of the books was printed, and when the only record of the numerical con- tents of the shelves was to be found in the manuscript shelf-lists, the proportion of use, in reference to the number of people to which the library was immediately convenient of access, is quite remark- able. At the first opening of a neighboring library which has since proved a great success, feeding a population within a ra- dius of a mile more than treble the whole number of inhabitants of this town, with a catalogue already printed, its first three months only gave an average circulation of 335 per day ; when in the same proportion as our library has begun, it should have issued over 500 volumes per day.
The library, now containing 4,607 volumes, of which 2,458 have been given, and 2,149 purchased, will be proportionately increased during the coming year. In this large number of donations is in- cluded the valuable gift of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, which comprises 1,650 volumes of congressional and other documents, and bound newspapers, making in this respect this library almost unique among the smaller libraries in New England, as furnishing unusual facilities to the student of our history in obtaining his- torical and political knowledge from original sources of the suc- cession of men and of events which have made of this country a great nation. Besides this donation, the Trustees would gratefully acknowledge the presentation of the desirable collections of the Quincy Lyceum, numbering 227 volumes, of the Adams Literary Association, of 215 volumes, of the Quincy Agricultural Library, of 182, and of the Quincy Book Club, of 24 books and 625 num- bers of periodicals, which were generously contributed by these organizations to assist in the formation of the infant institution.
77
The library is also indebted to the generosity of numerous indi- vidual donors.
Indeed, so diffused has been the interest in its success, that the reading-room is entirely supplied with periodicals at the expense of private individuals, instead of from the funds at the disposal of the Trustees, which could have been properly and judiciously used for this purpose.
In the selection of books, at the outset, the Trustees were guided by a simple principle, which experience has shown to be safe and economical, - to obtain immediately a considerable col- lection of books which were of general interest, and would therefore be read. Without undertaking to obtain every volume for which a wish was expressed, they have already purchased, or intend to purchase, such works as seem to them suitable. As the library in- creases in size, it will also naturally increase its number of books of permanent value. So far, the collection consists mainly of fresh and new books bv the most approved and most popular modern authors, - to which additions are constantly being made, - and it will grow in time to meet every reasonable demand of the popu- lation to which it furnishes a part of their intellectual and moral culture. In addition to the supplies obtainable at home, an order has been sent to England for works of importance not reprinted in this country, which, under the wise provisions of law, are im- ported by public libraries free of duty.
The number of names registered under the regulations prescribed by the Trustees as necessary to secure the safety as well as proper care of the books, amount at this date to 1,320, which number will materially increase, when the list of books just printed shall have found an entrance to every home in the town. In absolute freedom, and case of access, the library is not surpassed by any similar institution in the world. So long as the inhabitants ap- preciate this fact, and accept each volume loaned as a trust, so long can the Trustees continue the same liberal system of circu- lation.
In this connection it should be remarked that during the coming year it is expected that some plan may be devised whereby those living at a distance from the centre of the town may receive and return books without visiting the library in person.
78
The library has now ranged itself by the side of its eighty sister libraries in Massachusetts, and begun the beneficent work, in which all ages and employments may share alike. Whether it will prove the blessing anticipated by its friends will depend upon its proper use. Upon one point a word of caution should be spoken - the reading of the young and immature should always be supervised by parents, guardians, or discreet friends. It only needs further to be said that the Trustees will direct their best efforts to keep the institution on a line with the requirements of the time, in the hope that those who seek entertainment or knowl- edge shall find here what they seek.
They would express their grateful sense of the services rendered at the outset of the library by volunteers of both sexes, and also take due notice of the industry, zeal, and fidelity with which the librarian and assistant have attended to the various and perplex- ing details of the work assigned them.
In conclusion, the Trustees would recommend that the town should appropriate the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars for the expense of care, and maintenance of the library, and for the pur- chase of books, during the coming year.
Respectfully submitted,
WM. W. GREENOUGH, L. W. ANDERSON, HENRY BARKER, H. A. KEITH, CHAS. F. ADAMS, JR., CHARLES A. FOSTER.
QUINCY, Feb. 5, 1872.
Account of the Treasurer of the Public Library.
RECEIPTS.
Received of contributors,
$2,694 87
Town appropriation,
2,500 00
66 of the town appropriation for Librarian,
66 heating and lighting ($1000),
372 27
of town, amount of dog licenses,
1,669 23
$7,236 37
79
DISBURSEMENTS.
For Librarian, fuel and lighting,
$550 54
" Books,
1,900 00
" Fixtures in library room,
522 85
" Furnishing 292 55
" Printing and advertising,
52 00
" Stationery and blank books,
71 09
" Expressage, 22 10
" Sundry bills, 15 43
Balance in Treasury,
$3,426 56
$3,809 81
HENRY BARKER,
Treasurer.
QUINCY, February 5, 1872.
RULES OF THE LIBRARY.
I. Every resident of the town of Quincy, over the age of four- teen, shall be entitled to the use of the Library and reading-room, upon signing a promise to obey the rules.
II. The Library shall be open every week-day, from one o'clock to five in the afternoon, and from six o'clock to nine in the even- ing ; and also on Saturday morning from ten o'clock to twelve ; and at such other times as the Trustees may prescribe.
III. Every person entitled to take books from the Library may take therefrom one volume at a time, to be retained not more than fourteen days, unless it be a new or special work designated by the Trustees to be returned within a shorter time. No book shall be taken out again by the person returning it, or by any one of the same household, until after one full library day from its return.
IV. Any book retained beyond the time prescribed shall be sub- ject to a fine of two cents for each day's detention, and shall be sent for by the Librarian, and the messenger's fee charged to the borrower. No books can be taken out by any person owing a fine or charges, until the debt is paid, and until the book retained is restored or replaced.
80
V. All books shall be returned to the Library at such times as the Trustees may appoint by reasonable notice, under penalty of the fine of fifty cents, and if sent for, with the addition of expense of messenger.
VI. All injuries to books, beyond reasonable wear, and all losses shall be made good to the satisfaction of the Trustees. Any book not returned within one week after it has been sent for by the Librarian shall be regarded as lost. If the volume lost or injured forms part of a set, the whole set shall be replaced by the person liable, he being entitled to the damaged set.
VII. Books of reference, and such other works of special value as may be designated by the Trustees, shall not be taken from the Library without the permission of the Chairman, or two other members of the Board of Trustees.
VIII. Every person entitled to take books from the Library shall receive from the Librarian a card, on which the name of the person and the number of the book called for shall be written, and whenever a book is called for, or returned by, or on behalf of any person, the proper card must be presented : the person to whom the card belongs will be responsible for all books delivered, and for all fines and penalties incurred on its account.
IX. Persons visiting the Library will be required to deport themselves quietly, and to avoid all unnecessary conversation. No person, except the Librarian or the Trustees, shall be allowed to take books from the shelves.
X. Attention is particularly called to the following Act of the Legislature : -
" Whoever wilfully and wantonly writes upon, injures, defaces, tears or destroys any book, plate, picture, engraving or statue, be- longing to any law, town, city or other public library, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars, for every such offence."
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF QUINCY,
FOR THE
SCHOOL YEAR 1871-72.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR 1871-72.
WILLIAM S. MORTON, JOHN Q. ADAMS, WILLIAM B. DUGGAN,
H. FARNAM SMITH,
HENRY LUNT,
ASA WELLINGTON,
NOAHI CUMMINGS.
BOSTON : PRESS OF ROCKWELL & CHURCHILL, 122 WASHINGTON STREET. 1872.
REPORT.
IN submitting their annual report to the inhabitants of Quincy, the undersigned deem it proper to preface their observations upon the condition of the present school system of the town, by some suggestions as to the alterations and additions which have be- come imperatively necessary. The natural and regular growth of population during the last ten years has already filled to overflow- ing the school-houses which were thought by many to be unneces- sarily large at the time they were built, some fifteen or twenty years since. Successive Committees for years past have urged their enlargement without success. Still it has been possible to get along, after a fashion, by hiring rooms in neighboring houses. By such expedients the existing school-houses may be made to answer the purpose in all parts of the town but two. They are the rapidly growing settlement at Atlantic and the flourishing en- terprise at Wollaston Heights. There something effectual must be done, and must be done speedily.
ATLANTIC.
A careful canvass of the territory which is tributary to the Quincy School has disclosed one hundred and fifty-six school children exclusive of Squantum proper. Of this number all but six or seven live to the north and west of Squantum street, upon which the present school-house stands. Vastly the greatest num- ber dwell upon Atlantic street and the ways lying about and near to the station of the Old Colony Railway at Atlantic.
The striking increase of population manifest in this part of the town has taken place near that point, while the conformation of the ground and the presence of large tracts of salt meadows, un- suitable for building purposes, together with the tendency of dwell-
4
ings to gather about the railway station, have convinced the Committee that provision should be made for the education of the children of this community at a point nearer to the river than the Quincy School. The best site is not far from the station, upon the plane land to the north-eastward of it. It is urgently recom- mended that the Committee be authorized to obtain a suitable lot in that vicinity for a large school-house. The lot should be ample in size. The town is feeling seriously to-day the narrow and cramped dimensions of some of its school lots. It will feel it far more seriously when it becomes absolutely necessary to enlarge them. Then the land, which might have been had by the acre once, must be bought by the foot, if it can be bought at all. As soon as the land is secured the school-house should be put under contract. It is requisite that the new building should be of the most approved modern plan and appointment, and adequate for the comfortable accommodation of three hundred pupils. This esti- mate may sound large, but little is hazarded in predicting that the building will be filled to overflowing in less than ten years. It would have been an economy if the town had made the school- houses it now has twice as large as they are. The example of hundreds of children unable to find room in them to-day, the lesson taught by the insufficiency of the town-hall to meet the growth of population, and the indications all about us of a rapid filling up of the towns adjoining Boston, warn us not to be penny wise in this matter. The old Quincy School-house with the land upon which it stands should be sold, and made to pay as far as it will go for the new premises. If the land upon both sides of the turnpike, from Squantum street southward, is filled up in course of time with resi- dences, a situation for a school should hereafter be chosen more southerly than the present one, and a little more retired from the main road. That the Quincy School-house is utterly antiquated and inadequate to the demand upon it, the town has hereto- fore declared by its votes ; that it is situated badly for those who now attend it is obvious, and that the plan here proposed will ren- der it entirely superfluous there can be no doubt. It is therefore believed that there should be no delay in the prosecution of the proposed alteration, which will soon be inevitable, and can never be accomplished more cheaply.
5
WOLLASTON.
The establishment of a numerous community at a point but lately uninhabited, and the springing up of a village in one year where there was but one house two years since, has required the care- ul attention of the Committee. Temporary quarters were ob- tained by leasing for one year a small building, which has thus far proved adequate for the number of children who have as yet pre- sented themselves. But the influx at this point is very excep- tional, and will require very much ampler provision in the immedi- ate future. In May last the selectmen report only twelve school children upon a territory from which sixty-four now attend the schools at Wollaston Heights. The Old Colony and Newport Railway Company show by their reports that the passengers from the Wollaston station to and from Boston increased from 12,793, in 1869, to 48,270 in 1871. Such facts supply the most conclusive argument in favor of the wisdom of an ample preparation now for the future. A lot of land should be secured at once at a point upon Beale street, about one quarter of a mile distant westerly from the railroad, and near the house at present occupied for school purposes. The probable disposition of the population on this territory is now sufficiently indicated, and must in future be so largely influenced by the lay of the land and the position of the railway station that nothing is risked by fixing upon a permanent site for the public building for schools as soon as may be. It would be well not to delay the work upon it. It cannot reasona- bly be anticipated that the rooms now used will prove large enough for even one year like the last. Here, as at Atlantic, a true economy and a wise forecast will induce the town to provide now for the impending future. The house at Wollaston Heights should be in all respects equal to that at Atlantic, and should be calculated to seat at least three hundred children. It should be built during the approaching summer, and if this double bur- den seems to be too considerable for a single year, a part or the whole of the cost of these erections may be distributed upon fu- ture years by means of loans. By these means the increased population for which this anticipated expense is undertaken, may be made to share the load taken up for their benefit.
The Committee ask for authority to obtain the land and erect the buildings here, as at Atlantic, with all expedient rapidity.
6
THE SCHOOLS.
Passing from these matters of special importance to the usual subjects of the annual report, it may be convenient to look over the separate schools a little in detail, before giving a judgment upon their general condition and progress. This distribution of attention is the more natural from the custom of subjecting every school in town to a searching scrutiny by the whole Committee at the close of the school year in January. This duty was per- formed with a good deal of thoroughness by the Committee, and it is proper to communicate briefly some conclusions reached by them.
PRIMARIES.
It is needless to dilate upon the value and importance of any grade of schools. It is assumed that each is of equal value in its place. As to the Primary Schools, therefore, the first thing that strikes the examiner in this town is the great discrepancy between schools of the same class in different localities, - a discrepancy not now first manifested, but of old growth. The cause is not far to seek. Wherever it has been found possible to grade and classify most accurately and perfectly, there the progress is great. Where that is inconvenient or impossible, the progress is comparatively small. This statement is so true and so notorious, that no pains ought to be spared in future to collect all the school children of one district in one building. So far as this policy has been pur- sued, the Primary Schools in some parts of the town are divided into grades, between which there is an interval as wide as that between the highest Primary and the Intermediate School. In fact these old-fashioned names have ceased to be accurately de- scriptive, and often nowadays tend to mislead. There are really five grades of schools in the town system, although it is as yet only partially developed. It would be as well to gradually become accustomed to number the schools by some such scale, in- stead of insisting upon the confused classification which now pre- vails. A good example of complete classification is to be seen at the Willard School. The school of class five, there admirably kept by Miss Spear, is a model school for the very first step. Here
7
the alphabet, and the earliest essays at small words in reading and spelling complete the course. Thence the little ones pass to class four, in charge of Miss Locke, who leads them on with the most perfect, gentle discipline and care, to read with some ease in simple sentences and spell small words, to which the more ad- vanced class add the first notion of numbers. Then they are again passed on to class three, where Miss Newcomb, with the dis- tinguished success for which she has been so frequently com- mended, introduces them to their first acquaintance with geog- raphy, and advances them by constant practice in the simpler pro- cesses of arithmetic, and carries them forwards with their reading, writing and spelling. Each of these schools is excellent in its way, and together they form a complete and thoroughly efficient system. Side by side, as it were, with them we have a fair sample of the other method. Miss Cole keeps an ungraded Primary School at the railway village. She is a zealous and faithful teacher, and her pupils are precisely similar to those of Miss Locke or Miss New- comb, yet the school is not to be compared with either of these in any respect. It is to be hoped either that this school may be re- moved to the Willard School-house, whenever a sufficient building is selected there, or else that the railroad, which has recently been opened through that remote part of the town, may induce such an influx of population as will justify the building of a suitable school- house there, and the establishment of two or three graded schools in it. At present, the condition of that village, in respect to. its local school, is far from satisfactory.
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