USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1875-1881 > Part 37
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And your Committee trust that the town will adopt such regulations as will allow our citizens ample and agreeable fishing opportunities, and at the same time insure fish protec- tion, preservation and increase.
Respectfully submitted,
OSCAR I. STOWELL, SAMUEL PARKER, JR., J. H. CARTLAND, Fish Committee of Wakefield.
75
REPORT
OF THE
APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE.
WAKEFIELD, MASS., March 14, 1881.
The committee chosen by the town at the last annual meet- ing to recommend certain sums to be raised and appropri- ated for the year commencing April, 1881, would respectful- ly present the following report, viz. :
We would respectfully recommend that appropriations be made as follows, viz. :
For Payment of town debt, $5,000 00
Interest upon town debt, .
.
. 5,000 00
Support of schools, . 11,500 00
School Contingent Fund, .
1,000 00
Painting school houses, 500 00
Poor Department,
5,000 00
Fire Department,
2,200 00
Expenses of street lamps,
900 00
Town House expenses, (to include repairs to an estimated cost of $300), . Highways and bridges, (to include the amounts now due surveyors of the past year),
1,200 00
3,500 00
Repairs of sidewalks, to be expended where abuttors are willing to bear one-half of such expenses, and for laying of street crossings, 1,000 00
Salaries of town officers,
2,075 00
Miscellaneous expenses, . 3,000 00
Beebe Town Library, the funds now in hands
of the Town Treasurer from Dog-tax, and 300 00
Total, . $42,175 00
76
We recommend that the appropriation for salaries of town officers be divided as follows, and that the salaries and ex- penses of officers, other than those enumerated below, be charged as last year to the Appropriation for Miscellaneous Expenses.
For Town Treasurer, $50 00
Town Clerk,
100 00
Board of Selectmen,
. 400 00
Assessors, . . ·
350 00
Overseers of the Poor,
150 00.
School Committee, 200 00
Fire Engineers,
75 00
Auditors, 100 00
Tax Collector, for collecting tax warrant of
1881,
350 00
Constables and police services, .
300 00
Total, . $2,075 00
We also recommend that the compensation of enginemen for the year commencing May 1, 1881, be fixed at thirteen dollars, and a sum equal to the poll tax.
Respectfully submitted,
WM. S. GREENOUGH,
LUCIUS BEEBE,
T. E. BALCH,
JAMES F. EMERSON,
JAMES OLIVER,
WM. F. YOUNG,
THOMAS WINSHIP,
WM. H. ATWELL,
J. J. MANSFIELD,
JOSHUA WALTON, A. W. BROWNELL, E. E. OLIVER,
T. J. SKINNER, Sec'y.
Messrs. Levi B. Eaton and J. C. Hartshorne not having been present at any meeting of the Committee, have not signed the report.
77
POLICE REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDING FEBRUARY 28TH, 1881.
Whole number of arrests,
63
Males,
57
Females,
6
Americans,
16
Foreigners, .
.
47
Crimes for which arrested :
Assault and battery,
13
Drunkenness,
11
Disturbing the peace,
10
Maintaining liquor nuisances,
10
Vagrancy,
5
Larceny,
·
3
Cruelty to animals,
·
1
Exposing person,
·
1
Bastardy,
1
Fornication,
Defrauding boarding mistress,
.
1
Delivered up by his bondsman,
.
1
Assault on female child, .
1
Illegally transporting liquors,
1
Carrying concealed weapons,
1
Malicious mischief, .
1
Tramps provided with lodgings by police,
29
.
.
1
Threatening bodily harm,
.
1
.
.
The night police appointed by the Selectmen, one to serve throughout the night, and one to serve half of the night, have in a great measure suppressed rowdyism and disorderly con- duct on our main streets, and I think money expended for
78
night police can result only in good to the town and its citi -. zens, and I would recommend the continuance of a night po- lice. Following are the doings of the night police the past year :
Tramps provided with lodgings at lock-up, 20
Arrests made, ·
.
7
Bewildered persons assisted home,
6
Lost children 3
Store doors found open, .
8
Lodgings found for strangers, .
·
6
Called to suppress disturbance,
7
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM H. GRAY,
Chief of Police.
79
ASSESSORS' REPORT.
A copy of Valuation of the Town, in detail, having been already prepared and distributed, the Assessors consider it unnecessary to repeat the figures, and merely present the following valuation of Estates, Real and Personal, taxed in this town, May 1st, 1880 :
Real Estate,
Personal Estate, · .
$2,947,795 00 487,410 00
$3,435,205 00
Residents' Bank Stock, (National Bank of
South Reading, ) 45,310 00
Total Valuation, $3,480,515 00
Whole number of Polls, 1456, at $2.00, $2,912 00
Rate of taxation, $13.60 per $1000.
Total amount assessed, including Residents' Bank Stock and Overlay,
$49,630 78
Total number of Dwelling Houses taxed, 1036
Horses, 309
Cows, . 239
Sheep, . 0
Acres,
3734
Value of Real Estate and Machinery of Cor- porations, ·
$356,350 00
Value of Real Estate in Wakefield, exempted
by law from taxation, 145,500 00
Respectfully submitted,
. JAMES OLIVER, DAVID PERKINS, CHAS. F. HARTSHORNE, Assessors of Wakefield.
Wakefield, March, 1881.
ENGINEERS' REPORT.
The Engineers would submit the following report of the Fire Department of Wakefield, its condition, number of members, the houses in charge of the several companies, fires and alarms, losses and insurance, as far as could be ob- tained, number of reservoirs and their locations, and amount expended for the Department. The Department consists of one Chief Engineer, two assistants, and one hundred and twenty-five members, divided as follows :
Yale Engine Co. No. 1, sixty members.
C. Wakefield Engine Co. No. 2, thirty-five members.
W. H. & L. Co. No. 1, eighteen members.
Chemical Engine Co. No. 1, twelve members.
The Department has about seventeen hundred feet of hose, of which there are only thirteen hundred feet which your En- gineers consider fit for use at a fire.
The Yale Engine Co.'s house is located on Church street at the head of the Common, and is owned by the town. The Co. have expended considerable money in refurnishing their hall, and the members may well feel proud of their efforts in that direction.
The C. Wakefield Engine Co.'s house is owned by the town, and is located on the easterly side of Montrose school- house, on land owned by A. Gould, and rented to the town for $5 per year. 3
By vote of the town at its last annual meeting held in April, 1880, it was voted that the Engineers be requested to provide a company for the C. Wakefield Engine. Acting under that authority your Board appointed thirty-five men as members of said company, to serve for one year.
The Chemical Engine is located on the casterly side of
81
Main street, adjoining the provision store kept by J. W. Jen- kins, in a building owned by Charles Jordan, and rented to the town for fifty dollars per year. While their quarters are small and somewhat contracted, and hardly suitable for their accommodation, yet your Board find no other building so centrally located that will meet the demand and need of the Company at the present, and feeling that the town will have to provide more roomy and better accommodations for its Fire Department at no distant day, we do not consider a change of quarters advisable at present.
The Washington Hook and Ladder Co.'s house is located on the easterly side of Main street, in a building which was formerly the old town house, now owned by Warren Insti- tution for Savings, and rented to the town for one hundred and twenty dollars per year.
FIRES AND ALARMIS.
April 29th, 1880, fire on Avon street, in the house owned and occupied by D. H. Darling, caused by carelessness of children. Loss $25 ; insured.
June 12th, 1880, fire in W. J. Howland's drug store, caused by the breaking of a lamp. Damage small.
Aug. 6th, alarm of fire caused by the burning of a build- ing in Stoneham. The Department returned without going over the town line.
Oct. 23, barn belonging to L. Beebe and others. Loss $300 ; fully insured. Cause, supposed to have been acci- dental.
Dec. 8th, 1880, fire in Greely Merrill's building. Loss on building $30 ; insured. Loss to W. D. Parker on house- hold goods $50, on which there was no insurance.
The town has fourteen reservoirs, located as follows : Common, near the residence of C. W. Eaton.
Main street, opposite residence of E. Mansfield.
Main street, opposite the drug store of Dr. J. D. Mans- field.
82
Greenwood, near junction of Oak street.
Elm street, near the residence of the late James Eustis.
Corner of West Chestnut and Emerson streets.
Corner of School street and private way, near residence of Isaac G. Floyd.
Corner of Salem and Pleasant streets.
Park street, near residence of C. T. Harrington.
Corner of Richardson and Herbert streets.
Melvin street, near residence of M. Foley.
Lowell street, near residence of George H. Wiley. Albion street, near residence of James F. Woodward. Chestnut street, near residence of N. S. Dearborn. Private reservoir, near B. & M. Foundry.
The Engineers would recommend the building of a reser- voir near the Franklin school house.
Amount expended for the Department the past year, $1,609.84.
J. W. JENKINS, Chief. WILLIAM H. GRAY, Clerk.
83
REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
In submitting our annual report of the condition of the schools for the past year, our first duty is to acknowledge the generous manner in which the town responded at its last annual meeting to our request for funds, and express our grateful appreciation therefor.
At the close of accounts Feb. 28th, 1880, there remained unexpended of the regular appropriation the sum of $73.05, of the contingent fund, $35.86. There were some outstand- ing bills sufficient in amount to cover the money on hand. There also remained in the hands of the Committee the amount received from the Massachusetts State School Fund for the year 1879, $191.42, making a total of $300.33.
The town raised and appropriated for general school pur- poses, which includes teachers' salaries, janitors' services and fuel only, the sum of eleven thousand five hundred dollars, ($11,500) ; for school incidental expenses, and known as the school contingent fund the sum of one thousand dollars, ($1000), and for painting school house the sum of five hundred dollars, ($500), making a total sum at the disposition of your Committee for the care of school property and the nec- essary expenses of the schools of thirteen thousand three hundred dollars and thirty-three cents, ($13,300.33.)
We have expended of the regular appropriation eleven thousand three hundred thirty-eight dollars and thirteen cents, of the school contingent fund nine hundred and ninety-five
84
dollars and twenty cents, and for painting, seven hundred and thirty-seven dollars ; making a total of thirteen thousand seventy dollars and thirty-three cents.
The details of these expenditures may be found under ap- propriate heads in the report submitted by the Auditors. Suffice it to say that we have avoided all lavish expenditures, and endeavored to manage the finances with an economy commensurate with the matter in trust. A reasonable amount of money at our disposal inspired a good degree of confidence in our capacity to maintain a high position for our schools to meet any exigency likely to arise, and with- stand any assault made upon our corps of teachers by our watchful and far-sighted neighbors. The experiences of the year fully attest the wisdom of the appropriation. Occa- sions have arisen calling for prompt action and the immediate appropriation of several hundred dollars. Without it at our command the results would have been serious and perhaps disastrous. In discussing and making the appropriation for the coming year we invoke the same generous spirit. It is true that school committees have the right to exceed the ap- propriation made by towns for the support of schools, but it is a right never to be used to any extent except in the most extreme and aggravated instances. A principle engrafted upon our laws, not without thoughtful consideration, it has frequently proved the bulwark which has enabled our schools to withstand the shock of excited public opinion or calami- tously economical measures. We are not aware that any serious abuse of this power has been shown by the present agitation, which will recall and restate the reasons for its original enactment, and we trust, ensure its continuance.
OUR SYSTEM.
"Is our Public School System a Failure ?" is a question, the discussion of which has just now reached this latitude in its periodical course, agitated largely by penny-a-liners for lack of something more sensational, and occasionally bolstered
85
up in the affirmative by a writer of respectable pretensions. Richard Grant White, in an article lately published and wide- ly spread, makes a savage onslaught upon our New England system of public instruction, in which by odious compari- sons and unfair statements, he seeks to hold our common schools responsible for the prevalent vice and crime, as well as ignorance, of the period. The conclusion of his article is that the result of the system "according to the experience of half a century is deterioration in purity of morals, in de- cency of life, in thrift, and in all that goes to make good citizens, accompanied by a steadily increasing failure in the acquirement of the very elements of useful knowledge." A fair digest of hisargument logically putis :- In Massachusetts a public school system prevails ; in South Carolina it does not. In Massachusetts, with her large and crowded manufac- turing and mercantile cities, populated by the white race from every quarter of the globe, and of every grade of na- tive and acquired capacity, the percentage of crime is greater than among the white population in the more sparsely settled agrarian fields of South Carolina ; therefore the public school system has failed to accomplish the purpose for which it was established, and has become the parent of vice and igno- rance - a conclusion at once fallacious and absurd.
The fact is, that the history of our New England public school system is a history of a continuing series of suc- cesses not perfect yet, but growing toward perfection every year, in the light of added experience and knowledge. The history of any New England town for the last fifty years, with its growth in intelligence, mental activity and æsthetic culture, affords ample and sufficient evidence that Mr. White is utterly ignorant of the matter of which he writes, or mali- ciously falsifies for some malignant purpose. No intelligent schoolman will claim that the system has accomplished all that is possible, or that its friends have been always judi- cious, but it is claimed that it is founded upon correct prin- ciples, and that the experience of time, while laying bare its
86
defects has developed the solidity of its foundations and foreshadowed its possibilities. A system inaugurated in Massachusetts more than two hundred years ago, extended in some form into nearly every State in the Union, upheld en- thusiastically by the people of the country by their votes and their purses, commended in the highest terms by prominent educators at home and abroad, selected by wise men as among the best means to carry the blessings of civilization and religion to the dark portions of the world, its benign in- fluences are felt in every city, town and hamlet in the land. If its friends stand firm, and with conscientious fidelity strive to efface its defects and improve its methods, it will easily withstand the attacks of sectarian bigotry or snivelling criti- cism. While educators and thinkers orginate methods, and the public provides the means, Committees, teachers and pa- rents are to execute the plans devised. It matters little how feasible the scheme, if the execution be faulty. It mat- ters little how solid the foundation or how beautiful the pinnacle, if the column be defective and weak. It matters less how well-laid are the foundations of our public school system, if those who carry it into execution are faithless to their trust. For its success, Committees, teachers' and pa- rents are responsible, and sighting from different standpoints the same object should be visible to all. This means an agreement in purpose, and a co-operation in execution. The law of the Commonwealth imposes some duties upon Commit- tees which they cannot escape, while as to other matters they are armed with discretion, and as to such matters they in- vite friendly counsel and advice. The duties of teachers are largely regulated by law and the rules, but as to methods of execution they are left to their own judgment, subject to a supervision by the Committee, consistent with the mainten- ance of their own individuality. Parents are left without the limitations of law or the supervision of those higher in authority, hence they should exhibit a kindly feeling toward those who are thus encumbered. They should never forget
87
that for the time the teachers stand in law and in fact in place of parents, not animated, it is true, by the same parental affection, nor blinded by the same love to dangerous faults, but charged with a public duty toward a body of scholars, which outweighs personal considerations and individual pre- dilections ; therefore, the failure of a teacher to meet the ex- pectation of parents from their point of vision should not be hastily or angrily judged, but met with that degree of con- sideration which the difference in situation and purpose de- mands, and with the ever present recollection that the indi- dividual is subordinate to the public. It is comparatively easy for Committees and teachers to keep these principles in view, dealing with masses, but it is found quite impossible for parents sometimes to subordinate their ideas of personal good to the welfare of the masses, or subject their hastily- formed opinions upon partial and perhaps untruthful infor- mation, to the scrutiny of their own conscience, enlightened by the information elicited by a few sensible inquiries of teachers or Committee. We could publish many instances in which a kind-explanation and a cordial word have wrought wonderful good, and if we should publish some of the in- stances in which a cruel and uncalled-for note, or a sharp and untruthful criticism, have left a scar upon some devoted teacher's heart, it would not redound to the author's credit, but would give ample evidence of ignorance, or loss of both temper and judgment. If a child is peculiar, (as most all are), or if he is very nervous and excitable, (as he very fre- quently is after failure), or if everything in the school room is not just to his liking, it is far better to invite the teacher home to tea and spend the evening, have a friendly talk, and give the teacher an opportunity to observe something of the child's home life, management, surroundings, taste and dis- position, than to launch out into an invective against the school and the teacher. Possibly there may be a beam in thine own eye, O Parents, albeit there may be a mote in the teacher's eye. Let us then as executors of the law in its
88
broadest sense work together in a spirit of kindness and co- operation for the more perfect development of our system of public instruction, to the end that the safety and happiness of all our people may be engendered and enhanced by a wide diffusion of the blessings of education, morality and religion.
CHANGES.
As we have watched from year to year the mental growth of those under our supervision, the idea has grown upon us that there was a lack of discipline of the reasoning faculties ; that children of the ages of those whom we observe should have a better command of those powers. The defect seemed to be in power of concentration as well as ability to reason. As we sought to ascertain the cause, we discovered what is probably one of the causes, that in the anxiety to keep pace with other towns in variety of branches taught, and in matters outside of the school room, the important study of the prin- ciples of arithmetic had been somewhat neglected - not that the prescribed course had not been accomplished, but that the drill in its reason and logic had been shortened -that in years past the policy of some teachers had been to teach how to do instead of the logic of why. A single year of such teach- ing will effeminate the faculties to such a degree, and will induce such a habit of loose thought, that it may take years to overcome it. One of the elements considered was the written examination at the close of the last school year, and from which we compiled the following table, published not for the purpose of reflecting upon any one, but for the pur- pose of presenting to the town the real condition of the schools at that time in the science of numbers, which we be- lieve is named by thorough educators as the study which tends most to develop and strengthen the powers of thought and reason.
The first column shows the average per cent. obtained by all the scholars in a given school in arithmetic, grammar, geography and spelling, the second the average of the same
89
scholars in arithmetic, the third the average per cent. in arithmetic of those who passed, and the remaining columns show the number of scholars who were promoted upon the written examination, the number who were promoted upon scholarship mark for the year, the total number promoted, and the total number of failures to pass, in each school.
SCHOOLS.
Average in Wrtten Ex.
Average in Arithmetic.
Average in Arithmetic
of those who passed.
Passed on Written Ex.
Passed on Scholarship.
Total No. Passed.
Total No. of Failures.
Advanced Grammar
81.7
74.7
74.7 28
2 30
0
First Grammar
82.4
70.6
74.7 39
4 43
6
Second Grammar
66.9
43.7
49.9 27 19 46 15
Third Grammar
77.6
69.9
71.2 44
8 52
2
Second Intermediate
90.2 89.2
89.4 49
3 52
1
Third Intermediate
72.1
62.9
67.4 28
6 34 12
North Ward
57.8
45.4
67.2
2
3
5
4
East Ward
64.7
33.7 38.0
5
3
8
3
Greenwood
.
51.2
40.2
43.6
0
3
3
2
Franklin Street Intermediate
.
65.6
60.5
65.0
6
12
3
West Ward Intermediate
62.7 60.0
60.7
7 14 21 5
It will be observed that the percentage in arithmetic in every school was lower than the average of the four studies, varying from 2.7 to 31 per cent. Your Committee deter- mined at once as one step toward a remedy, to revise the course of study, and require arithmetic to be taught earlier
90
in the course and with a more thorough drill, and the ordi- nary work to be supplemented by an extended course of mental exercises. As another step, we determined to carry into effect a design long cherished, and delayed only on ac- count of the hard times, a change in text books. Walton's Series had been in use in our town from a time so far back that the existing records of the School Committee, covering a period of over twenty years, do not show their adoption, and had become in a great measure superannuated. After as critical an examination as we were able of several of the leading series now published, the Franklin, prepared by the same author, assisted by Mr. Seaver of Cambridge, was adopted, and the course assigned to each school. At the same time Warren Colburn's First Lessons, a book regarded with filial affection by every lover of mathematics, was adopted as a supplementary text-book in mental arithmetic. The good results of these changes are already apparent in many of our schools, and if any interested desire to see where little children are taught " to read and write and cipher too," they can do so any day by visiting Miss Stearns' room, and we can assure such that their time will not be lost.
During the summer vacation two other long-contemplated changes in text-books were made, one in Spellers, exchang- ing a book which experience had shown contained an unwise arrangement of words, for one which we trust will prove pre- ferable. The other was in the History of the United States. This study is commenced in the First Grammar School, and continued in the Advanced Grammar, and of course involves at its commencement the purchase of a new book by each scholar. The use of the old book was continued in the Advanced Grammar, and the new one introduced into the First Gram- mar, so that this change involved no extra expense to any one, as the new book cost less than the old one. The change was made because it was felt that the old book was too heavy in its matter and composition for scholars of the grades in which it was used, and because other books presented the
91
main facts of American History grouped in a more inviting manner. After an examination of eleven different histories of the United States, the one published by A. S. Barnes & Co. was adopted, not because it was in all respects the best, but because in our judgment it was the best adapted to the wants of our schools. These changes in text-books were welcomed by those who were familiar with the cause, and generally by the town, as shown by the alacrity with which the new books were obtained. We have caused an accurate account of the number of books and the expense involved in this exchange to be kept, and and we herewith submit the same :
EXCHANGED.
Franklin Written Arithmetic, 252 at 40c., $100 80
66 Elementary 122 " 16c., 21 96
66 Primary 73" 10c., 7 30
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