USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1877 > Part 4
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3
3
Typhoid Fever
9 7
14 Edward Matthew
17 Ellen (Donovan) Wade
46 4
66 20 Freddie James Pieree 20 Benjamin Duval
39
28| Levi Tirrell .
61 |11 21
Weymouth.
4 Consumption Heart Disease
Disease or Cause of Death.
Place of Death
Plympton. Weymouth.
14 Julia Ann (Sutton) French 16 John M. Kearney . . 17 Margaret H. McCarthy 18| Anna (Bates) Burrell .
24 Annie Morgan Long
6 Sarah Fiteh (Locke) Beleher
11 19 Chol'a Int'm. Dropsy of Brain Old Age 1 Stoppage
10 Alice Amanda Park Brooks 10 Abbie Louisa (Cushing) Pool
59
AGE.
Date of Death.
Name of Deeeased.
Years.
| Months.
Discase or Cause of Death.
Place of Death
Sept. 21 Sarah Vinsorn (Pratt) Porter
56
11 |17 Consumption
Weymouth.
"
13 Beulah (Blanchard) Derby
80
8
7 | Paralysis
13 William H. Slattery
1
11
5 Scarlet Fever
14 Alden Lane Ewell
8 Cholera Infantum
15 Ellen Stanton
16
5 2 Consumption
3
1 Accident
9
6
5 Diphtheria
2 21 Croup
21 Emma Louise Robinson
22 John Clavin .
22 Walter Carleton Pratt 22 Julia Smith
6
11 7 Diphtheria
18 Unknown
24 Mehitable (Allen) O'Mara
90
5 Dysentery
66
26 Female child of Warren and Jo- sephine Tirrell
3
Oct.
1 Hannah (Hayden) White 3 Reuben Hollis .
57 67
2 15 Paralysis
8
6 | Diphtheria
1
8 Consumption
I
2 Teething .
11 24 Cholera Infantum Typhoid Dysentery 5
2
Cholera Infantum
66
16 Abigail Briggs Field
3
7 10|Diphtheria Drowning
43
Consumption
6.
26 Eva Maria Forsaith .
8
1|13 Diphtheria
Nov.
1 Female child of Mitchell and Mary Fitzgerald
Still-born
70 5 20 Pneumonia
2 6 10 Brain Fever
16
2 17 Diphtheria
6 5 22 Diphtheria
26 1|21 Pneumonia
3 22 Spasms
10
9 Congestion of Lungs
13 John B. Hart .
10 18 Typhoid Fever
66
25 Male child of John and S. Rhines .
Still-born
Dec. 2 Benjamin Wales Orcutt .
1 28 Bilious Typhoid Fever 31 11 18 | Pulmonary Tuberculosis 43
4
4 25 Diphtheria
..
4 Thomas Oliver Gerrold
1 6 Consumption
10 23 Cancer
5
Thomas Donovan
32
Heart Disease
5 Female child of Irville and Clara R. Waterman
Still-born
8 Mary A. Tobin
15 Frank W. Blackinton
29 53
17 John Goodman .
20 John Londergan 27 Consumption
4 10 Fibrous Tumor
66
21,Consumption
31
1 Consumption
..
2
5 26 Scarlet Fever Inflammation of Stomach
$6
24 | Catherine (Welch) Canon
8 5 Congestion of Lungs
66 25 Charles Stewart Clapp 26 Asa Hollis .
11
5 1'Drowning .
4 7 Congestion of Lungs
..
31 Mary Hunter Robinson
2 27 Diphtheria
66
1
1
5 |Cholera Infantum
13 Margaret A. McGovern .
30 Maria Ellen Hall
28 Canker 13 Cholera Infantum
1 Consumption
7 Marion Howard Dow 11 Nathaniel Tirrell Shaw 12 Ruth Whitmarsh French
76
18 Daniel Curry
41
3 Mary S. (Lincoln) Manuel . 3 Alfred F. White
4 Ida May Gerrold
2
7 |Elizabeth Lee Gerrold 8 Annis A. (Edson) Matthewson 9 Thomas Conaihan
9 | John Londergan
3
E. 18
2 Mary Elizabeth Blanchard
4 John Farmer Hopkins .
5 Hannah Alline
73
7|22 Croup Consumption Dyspepsia
66 22| Nancy Jane (Ford) Vining 50 1
23 Bertie Custance 23 Edmund Kiley
23 Martin Logan .
60 64 77 8 25 Dropsy .
27 Thomas McGrath . .6 28 Charles Brown Bates
46
15 Almira Jane Paul 15 Geo. Maynard Bowker 21 Catherine Healey
8 7 13 Diphtheria Diphtheria
4 Walter P. Tirrell
9
5 Geo. Herbert Raymond 6 John Clark
3
20 Margaret (Butler) Hanley
Days.
60
The marriages, births, and deaths are presented for examination by parties interested, who are requested to notify the town clerk of any inaccuracies that may be found ; thus far all errors reported have been .corrected. Of the two hundred and thirty-six births registered in the year 1877, one hundred and twenty-nine were males, and one hundred and seven were females.
The parents of these children were born as follows : One hundred and forty-seven in Weymouth, one hundred and thirty-six in other towns of Massachusetts, in New England States three hundred and twelve, in New York three, British Provinces thirty, Ireland one hun- dred and six, Sweden two, England three, Scotland two, France one, other places fourteen.
Of the one hundred and seventy deaths recorded for the year 1877, sixty-five were among persons of foreign parentage. The excess of births over deaths for the year 1877 is sixty-six.
Respectfully submitted.
FRANCIS AMBLER, Town Clerk.
WEYMOUTH, January, 1878.
REPORTS
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
AND
Superintendent of Schools,
OF THE
TOWN OF WEYMOUTH,
For the Year 1877.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
THE School Committee of Weymouth respectfully submit to the town their Annual Report, as follows : -
The amount of money placed by vote of the town, at its last annual meeting, in the control of the committee for the support of schools, was twenty-seven thousand dollars ($27,000), to wit: twenty-three thousand and five hundred dollars ($23,500) for teachers' salaries and incidentals, two thousand dollars ($2,000) for repairs of school prop- erty, and one thousand and five hundred dollars ($1,500) for super- vision ; and at a later meeting the further sum of three hundred dollars ($300) for expense of new school at the Town House. In addition to this they have received from other sources the sum of one thousand five hundred and ninety-one 167 dollars ($1,591767), which was appli- cable alone to the objects first named. Although your committee believe that a larger amount could have been judiciously expended for these purposes, yet, in view of the long-continued and extreme depres- sion in all our business interests, these sums, asked for by them and cheerfully granted by the town, were, in their judgment, as large as a wise regard for the requirements of other equally imperative demands upon the diminished incomes of our citizens would permit the com- mittee to ask them to contribute for this department of public service.
While, therefore, aware that the salaries of teachers in this town are materially lower than in many others of equal population, and especially than in the towns near Boston, and that we suffer in some degree from the fact that successful teachers are more liberally paid by other communities, yet for the reasons indicated we do not deem a present increase in our salaries the proper method for overcoming these disadvantages ; but instead, the committee will aim to make our own High School the chief source from which to recruit our corps of teach- ers, thus practically increasing their compensation by reducing their expense for board.
With this purpose as one of the principal objects, we have, during the past year, revised the course of study in these schools, introducing a " normal" drill in the elementary branches of study, accompanied
64
by experimental teaching of a primary class, as a part of the regular course of education in these schools.
This effort for a home supply of teacher, we expect to result in promoting the mental discipline and raising the standard of qualifica- tions among our teachers, and consequently in the improvement of our common schools. Keeping in view the advancement of the interests of these schools, the committee will, we trust, in the future as in the past, give the preference in appointments to vacancies to teachers res- ident in this town. Yet it happens not infrequently that the vacancy to be filled was caused by the failure of the last teacher in respect to discipline or instruction, or perhaps by failure in both of these respects, thus leaving the school in a disorderly condition, or at least " below grade," so as to require the services of an energetic teacher, of suc- cessful experience, for its early restoration to proper rank and disci- pline. To such positions, those in charge of other schools in this town are usually unwilling to be transferred, and especially if such transfer would carry them away from home; but such changes are occasionally practicable, and result in creating vacancies which afford to beginners favorable opportunities for acquiring experience in teach- ing. More frequently, however, the alternative before the committee is either to place a young and inexperienced teacher in a difficult posi- tion, with hazard to her reputation and ultimate success in her profes- sion and to the interests of the school over which she may be placed, or to seek a teacher from abroad, whose past success has been such as to warrant the expectation that she will conquer the difficulties of the position for which she is selected.
If a larger number than heretofore of those graduating from our High Schools, who desire to teach, would accept temporary engage- ments in other towns, and especially in those where the school system, as administered, favors a more frequent change of teachers than our own, they would thereby increase their chances of securing perma- nent situations at home, and avoid much of the anxious waiting which is unpleasant to the candidate as well as to the committee.
In reporting upon the progress of our schools during the past year, and their condition at its close, the committee desire to express their gratification at the results of the efforts for their systematic grading commenced about four years ago. The fact of having had three super- intendents during that period has necessarily made our progress in this direction less marked than if one mind had carried into execution the plan which it initiated ; but notwithstanding this obstacle, and others resulting from the lack of well-located and convenient school-rooms, and the scattered location of pupils, the system has become well estab-
65
lished in all, or nearly all, our schools, and its good effects in many are obvious and encouraging.
In respect to order and discipline we can speak in terms of commen- dation of much the larger number of the schools, and as a whole, we believe they compare favorably with their condition in former years ; but we must except from this commendation two or three, in which the failure to maintain discipline is such as to require the most earnest efforts of the teachers in charge for improvement in this regard. Be- lieving that the unrestrained manifestation of a spirit of insubordina- tion and disregard for lawful authority on the part of youth not only hinders their progress in the acquisition of useful learning, but also disqualifies them for the right discharge of the duties of good citizen- ship, we cannot doubt that persistent neglect or continued inability on the part of teachers to prevent frequent and glaring exhibitions of this spirit by pupils under their charge is a fault of the most grave charac- ter, and scarcely to be outweighed by the possession and use of the highest abilities in all other respects.
Following the later custom in this regard, the committee will not attempt detailed reports of the progress of each school in its several branches of study during the year, but instead will make, briefly, a few suggestions which, although not equally applicable to all, may not, we trust, be wholly inappropriate to the circumstances of any school.
In these branches of study, reading stands at the head of the list, and deservedly, not alone because some proficiency in this is essential to the acquisition of other learning, but because it is of equal and vital importance as a means of self-culture, and of influence upon others ; but each of these results depends largely upon the thoroughness with which this art is acquired. Mastery of the words of an exercise, and ability to pronounce them in order with fluency, is indeed a necessary preparation for reading, but it is an abuse to dignify with that name a performance in which the pupil has only attempted this and no more. Although no one will deny this, as an abstract proposition, yet, in practice, many pupils indicate no purpose or desire to go much beyond this point in the study of reading ; and consequently this branch of study, in the higher more especially than in the lower grades of our schools, is greatly undervalued and neglected.
The committee recognize with satisfaction individual exceptions of excellence, both in methods of instruction and in acquirements in this most important art ; and they entertain the hope that these instances may be so multiplied as to embrace, within the next year, a majority of teachers and pupils.
In teaching writing in our schools there is a great diversity in the
5
66
quality of the instruction imparted and the results gained. A few only of our teachers have uniformly trained their classes to write neatly, legibly, and rapidly, but a much larger number have succeeded in exhibiting very creditable specimens in penmanship from that portion of their pupils possessing more than ordinary aptness for this art, while a very considerable number of them have, either through neglect to devote the necessary time and care, or from some natural inaptitude, usually failed to graduate good writers.
The employment, permanently, of a special teacher of penmanship would, in our judgment, furnish the adequate remedy for defective instruction in this department ; but we do not deem it proper, at the present time, to ask for the increased appropriation which this change would require. Until such an addition to our corps of instructors is practicable, it will be the duty of teachers of all grades to unite in an earnest effort to raise materially the standard of attainment in this important study.
The cognate art of drawing was introduced into our schools during the year prior to the last, in compliance with the provisions of law, and succeeded to such a degree as to demonstrate the practicability of mak- ing it an attractive and useful study ; but since the termination of the engagement of Mr. Brackett as instructor, the interest of many teach- ers has sensibly declined, and in some instances there has resulted a censurable neglect of duty in this regard.
A gradual improvement in the methods of teaching written arithme- tic, we think, has been observable in the lower grades of our schools, with corresponding readiness and thoroughness on the part of pupils in illustrating and explaining the problems of this science, and we may reasonably hope that the better preparation in this study of those enter- ing the grammar grades will permit them to give some time while in these upper grades to new branches of study, without lessening the opportunities for mental discipline derivable from mathematical drill, heretofore enjoyed by graduates of these schools.
During the full year of forty weeks, forty-two schools, employing forty-seven teachers, have been maintained, and an additional one, at the Town House, since the fifth day of September last.
Of these, twelve are of the Primary, eighteen of the Intermediate, eleven of the Grammar, and two of the High school grade, and they are located as follows : -
In Ward 1 . . . . 2 Grammar . . 2 Intermediate . . 2 Primary.
In 66 2 . .
. . 2 66
. . 4
66
. . 5 66
In 3 . . 1 High . . 3
. . 3
. . 3
In 4. . . . 2
66
· · 4
66
. . 1 66
In " 5. . 1 High . . 2
. . 5
. . 1 66
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The High Schools, the upper Grammar in Wards Two and Five, and the Pratt Grammar in Ward Four, have each an assistant teacher.
Eight teachers have resigned their positions during the year, viz., Miss Sarah B. Goodwin, assistant in the North High School; Miss Mabel F. Harlow, of the Athens Primary ; Miss Mariana Holbrook, of the School-Street Intermediate ; Miss Nettie L. Poole, of School- Street Intermediate ; Mrs. Annie H. Garey, of the Pleasant-Street Primary ; Miss Clara F. Perry, of the Perkins Lower Primary ; Miss Lizzie Dyer, assistant in Pratt Grammar ; and Miss Maria Torrey, of the Pond-Street Intermediate.
Nine new appointments of teachers have been made during the year, viz., Miss Helen A. Fiske, assistant in North High School; Miss Nettie L. Poole, to the School-Street Intermediate ; Miss Cora H. Alger, to School-Street Intermediate ; Miss Mary A. Webster, to the Commercial-Street Primary ; Miss Helen H. Blanchard, to the Perkins Lower Primary ; Miss Nettie L. Poole, to the Athens Primary ; Miss Mary L. Dyer, assistant in Pratt Grammar ; Mrs. Mary E. Hutchin- son, to the Pond-Street Intermediate ; and Miss Mary E. Riley to the Centre Intermediate, at Town House.
Miss Josephine A. Raymond was transferred from the Commercial- Street Primary to the Pleasant-Street Primary.
The only new school established during the last year was that at the Town House, which was authorized by a special appropriation for the purpose by the town.
After careful inquiry, the committee were able to find no room suit- able for this school, and for want of any better accommodations have located it in one of the anterooms of the Town Hall. It seems neces- sary to the comfort and to the health of this school that a larger room be furnished for it ; but if the town shall decide to build a schoolhouse, we think a location in the Second Ward, in the vicinity of the manu- factory of Messrs. Clapp, would reasonably accommodate those now in this school, and 'afford, in addition, room for the increasing school pop- ulation in the vicinity indicated. We recommend that this house be designed for the accommodation of Primary and Intermediate grades only, having two rooms of about the size of the Adams Schoolhouse. The erection of a new schoolhouse on Broad Street, in Ward Two, will, when completed, enable the committee to vacate the unsuitable . room now used in that ward, and to add a much-needed Upper Inter- mediate school to those now in operation, thus supplying all the pres- ent urgent needs of the central part of that ward. Both the Middle- Street and High-Street houses are, however, very far below the pres-
68
ent standard in respect to comfort, convenience, and general appear- ance, and we hope that the town may soon feel able to supply their places with more attractive buildings. The Perkins Schoolhouse in Ward Three is of the same class as the two last named, and the same reasons for furnishing a substitute exist in this case.
The assistant's room in the Pratt Grammar Schoolhouse is small, and wholly unfit for the constant use for which it is now required. The committee deem it practicable to enlarge this room by the addi- tion of a few feet to the front of the upper story of the house, leaving the lower story open, in portico style, or with small additional cost to erect a wing, connecting with the stairway, of sufficient dimensions for a convenient recitation-room, without incurring an expense proportionate to the benefits resulting from it to teachers and pupils.
The Upper Intermediate in the Central Street School consists of two of the most difficult grades, and would gain much from a division, while the Union-Street and Pond-Street Schools would be relieved by the transfer of the pupils of their Upper Intermediate classes to the Central-Street School; but this change cannot be made until a room is provided. This may be done at the least cost by an addition to the Central-Street Schoolhouse, and the good results reasonably to be anticipated would, in our judgment, amply justify the expenditure required.
ESTIMATES.
The committee estimate the expense of the maintenance of our public schools for the ensuing year as follows : -
Salaries of forty-nine teachers for ten months
$21,750 00
Salary of one teacher for four months . 136 00
Fuel, care of rooms, and incidentals .
4,000 00
For repairs of schoolhouses .
$25,886 00
2,000 00
If the amount received for dog licenses is added to the school fund, as in the last two years, and no new school of higher grade than the Grammar is established, your committee believe that an appropriation of twenty-four thousand and five hundred dollars ($24,500) for the support of schools the ensuing year will, with the other resources, defray the necessary expense for that object, with an additional appro- priation of $2,000 for repairs.
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GRADUATES OF THE HIGH SCHOOL IN 1877.
NORTH SCHOOL.
GEORGIANA W. FREEMAN.
REBECCA H. NASH.
MABEL LAMSON.
HARRIE I. REED.
JOHN D. MCINTOSH.
ALICE G. SMITH.
CHARLES C. NASH.
SOUTH SCHOOL.
ELMER E. BELCHER. BATES TORREY.
QUESTIONS USED AT THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION TO THE HIGH SCHOOL, JULY 6, A. D. 1877.
ARITHMETIC.
Each correct answer counts 10.
1. A lady bought 6 silver spoons, each weighing 3 oz. 3 pwt. 8 gr. at $2.25 per oz. and a chain weighing 14 pwt. and six gr. at $1.25 per pwt. What should she pay for her purchase ?
32 + 24
2. 5 : § of § equals what?
3. What is the difference between 23 divided by .23, and .23 divided by 23?
4. Find the interest of $76.25 for 2 months and 17 days at 4} per cent.
5. A sold two lots of land for $260 apiece, gaining twenty per cent on one, and losing twenty per cent on the other. Did he gain or lose, and how much ?
6. What sum of money will yield as much interest in 2 years at ten per cent as $800 yields in five years and three months at six per cent?
7. Sold a house for $300, receiving in payment a note on three months, which I immediately had discounted at a bank at six per cent. What was the cash value ?
8. A owes B $300 to be paid in four months, $500 in six months, $200 in eight months. and.$400 in ten months. What is the equated time for the payment of the whole ?
9. A line 244 ft. long will reach from the top of the wall of a fort, which is situated on the bank of a river, to the opposite side ; the width of the river is 240 ft. Find the height of the wall.
70
10. A garden, 8 rods long and 3 rods wide, has a walk around the outside, four feet wide. What will it cost to grade the walk at 30 cents a square yard ?
GRAMMAR.
10
1. Write two examples of each part of speech.
10
2. Give the first person singular number of the verb " to be," in 1 each tense of the indicative mode.
5
3. Give the first person plural of the verb " work," in each tense of the potential mode.
8
4. Write three examples of adjectives irregularly compared ; also three adjectives (not relating to numbers) which cannot be compared. 14
5. I walked two miles to church ; being fatigued, I was compelled to sit down and rest on my way. Parse the words and phrases printed above in italics.
8
6. What is a substantive clause or phrase? Give an example. 10
7. What is a proposition ? A sentence ? A compound sentence ? A complex sentence ? What kind of a sentence is this? " He is a wise youth who improves his time." 12
8. Put the following sentences into correct language : -
(1.) It was hard for him and I to let things lay in that shape.
(2.) There was n't but two persons there; those were a woman and a boy each of whom felt themselves to be alone.
(3.) He don't speak good grammar nor none of the rest of them.
(4.) He spoke real smart; smarter than all of them.
13
9. Divide and punctuate the following sentence : -
Hark I hear the tread of armed men come on invisible enemy like a rock I await the worst you oh what a mistake not foes but friends ye are after all.
10
10. Analyze the following sentence : -
Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun.
71
GEOGRAPHY.
1
Each correct answer counts 10.
1. Name the States and Territories of the United States of America.
2. What five lakes in British America ?
3. Bound Ecuador and give its capital.
4. What large gulf north and what large island south of Aus- tralia ?
5. Where is the Zambesi River, in what direction does it flow, and into what waters does it empty ?
6. What groups of islands between the Indian and North Pacific Oceans ?
7. What large lake in Central Africa ?
8. Bound Turkey, and give its capital.
9. Name five of the longest rivers of Asia ; and in what direction do they flow ?
10. Give five seas south of Europe.
HISTORY.
12
1. What were the principal settlements made in this country by the English? By the Dutch? By the French ? By the Spaniards ? 12
2. Give the dates of the first settlements in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 1
8
3. What religious sect settled Pennsylvania? Maryland? Massa- chusetts ? Virginia ? 10
4. State the causes of the Revolution, and the place and date of the termination of the last battle of the war. 1 10
5. What nations had land forces in this last engagement, and what had naval?
10
6. When was Boston evacuated by the British? What were the principal events of 1776 ?
10
7. State some causes of the second war with England, and the date and place of the signing of the treaty of peace.
72
10
8. Name the Presidents who lived in Virginia at the time of elec- tion, and the date of inauguration of each of these.
8
9. When did the War of the Rebellion commence, and what event practically ended it ? 10
10. What State first seceded from the Union, and when ; and who was President at that date ?
SPELLING.
1. Omniscient. 18. Pavilion.
35. Sacrilegious.
2. Exhilarates.
19. Consecutive.
36. Inaugurated.
3. Privileges. 20. Stereotyping. 37. Scythe.
4. Emissary. 21. Peccadilloes. 38. Wizard.
5. Parricide. 22. Grieves.
6. Prejudice.
23. Believing. 40. Cipher.
7. Ascertained.
24. Dazzling. 41. Copyright.
8. Misspell. 25. Recollect.
42. Robberies.
9. Cancellation. 26. Quarreling. 43. Prairie.
10. Embarrassed.
27. Precipitated. 44. Ankle.
11. Vermilion. 28. Remittances.
45. Transient.
12. Fictitious.
29. Reprieve. 46. Echoes.
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