USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 58
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
Though each School is assigned to a Special Committee, yet every member of the Board shall consider it his duty to watch over all the Public Schools of the City, to attend their examinations, and visit them at other times as his convenience will permit.
(Rules, Chap. 4, Sec. 9.)
Nelson.
Nelson.
CHAMBERLIN,
E. G. Cutler,
Principals.
125
ERRATA.
The following omissions were made in the School Report :
TEACHERS AND THEIR SALARIES.
Thomas Street, Grammar, Miss E. M. Aldrich, -
- $500. Providence Street, Sub-Primary, Miss S. J. Newton, - 450.
66
66
66
66
Miss M. T. Magennis,
-
450.
REAL ESTATE BELONGING TO THE SCHOOL DEPART- PARTMENT.
EAST WORCESTER (NEW) HOUSE.
Building-brick, three stories, six school rooms,
condition good, estimated value 15,000.00
Lot-121 by 150 feet or about 18,150 square
feet, at 15 cts. per square foot, 2,722.50 $17,722.50
EAST WORCESTER (OLD) HOUSE.
Building-brick, two stories, two school rooms, condition poor, size of building 30 by 52 feet, estimated value
Lot-27 feet front, 150 south side, 93 rear, 152 north side, or about. 9060 square foot, esti- mated value 25 cts. per foot, 2,265.00 6.265.00
4,000.00
Value of Real Estate, as before estimated, $296,260.35
Making the total value of Real Estate belong- ing to the School Department, $320,247.85
THOMAS STREET SCHOOL HOUSE
· Is 76 by 56 feet. 16
REPORT -OF THE- Directors of the Free Public Library.
To the Honorable James B. Blake, Mayor, and the City Council of the City of Worcester: The Directors of the Free Public Library respectfully present their Seventh Annual Report.
The Library may now be said to have fairly completed the first, or foundation period of its history. The term of office of those members of its first Board of Directors, who held their places longest, expired with the year 1865, surviving by a few months the life of its honored founder. He lived long enough to see the three depart- ments, each supplying a want long felt, in full and most be- neficent operation, the permanence of two of them secured by munificent endowments, the other, we trust, equally secure by its claim upon the liberality of the City Gov- ernment. The Directors for the past year, in the dis- charge of the duties of which they have now to render on account, have sadly missed his genial and revered presence, and his wise and sympathetic counsels.
The liberality of the City Government has adorned the library with a fine full length portrait of Dr. Green, by the hand of Mr. Wm. H. Furness, an excellent and cele- 2 brated artist.
Mr. Baker, the librarian, has performed the duties of his office with his accustomed fidelity, and to the satis- faction of the Directors. He has not confined himself to
128
the strict routine of his official duty, but has endeavored by advice and direction to aid persons who wished his assistance in the selection of books and choice of subjects for their reading. In this way he has performed an im- portant and unpaid service to a large number of persons.
During the whole of the year Mrs. Baker has acted as one of the assistants. Miss Callina Barnes, the other assistant, resigned her place on the first of April, the duties of which have been temporarily performed since. that date by Miss Emma Eddy. All of the assistants have discharged their duties to the entire satisfaction of the librarian and the Directors.
The original selection of books to be added to the Li- brary, subject to the approbation of the Board, and the special care and oversight of the Library, have been the duties of the Library Committee, consisting of WM. A. SMITH, Esq., chairman, Rev. E. CUTLER, Rev. J. J. POWER, Dr. GEORGE CHANDLER, and NATHANIEL PAINE, Esq., whose report is here submitted. It appears that six hundred and fifty seven volumes have been added to the Circu- lating Department during the year.
REPORT OF THE LIBRARY COMMITTEE.
To the Directors of the Free Public Library :
The tules and regulations of the Library requiring the librarian to "make to the Directors an annual report on the condition of the Library," renders unnecessary any extended report from the Committee on the Library, inasmuch as his report will give all the details of the condition of the Library, its accessions, the number of borrowers of books, the number of volumes circulated, and all matters pertaining to the workings of the Institution in each of its Departments.
The Library has continued under the immediate supervision of Rev. Z. Baker, Librarian, and Mrs. F. M. Baker, 2d assistant. Early in the year, Miss Callina Barnes, who had faithfully discharged the duties of 1st assistant from the year 1860, resigned her position, and Miss Emma Eddy has been acting in her stead to the present time, - the Library Committee having been empowered to make a temporary supply
129
until the vacancy should be filled. Your Committee found Miss Eddy acting as assistant under the direction of the Librarian, and concluded not to disturb the arrangement so long as it was satisfactory to the Librarian and 2d assistant. Measures should be taken at an early day to make a regular and permanent appointment.
At the meeting of the Board in October last, upon the suggestion of your Committee, they were authorized to cause to be printed a second appendix to the catalogue of the Circulating Department. The first supplement was issued in 1864. Since then a large number of books have been added, and the comfort and convenience of the Librarians, and the demands of the takers of books seem to justify the required ex- penditure. The work is in the hands of Mrs. Baker, and will be com- pleted as speedily as possible.
The annual examination of the Library was made by the Librarian and the Chairman of the Library Committee, and the result of the ex- amination will be shown by a reference to the Librarian's report.
The Board have approved during the year, six hundred and sixty (660) volumes recommended by this Committee, of which number, five hundred and fifty three (553) volumes have been purchased and placed in the Library at an expense of $1086 62. In addition to these, 104 numbers of the " Dime Series" of Novels and Tales, have been put in circulation, their cost being included in the total just given. Few of these will ever be classed among standard works, yet the demand for them has been great, one set having been already completely worn out in circulating. Harmless in themselves, they may stimulate the reader to desire something better, and thus serve a good purpose.
There may, and probably will be a discrepancy, in the statement of the volumes purchased, between the reports of the Librarian and of your Committee. The chairman in his catalogue records every vol- ume purchased, without reference to whether it is a duplicate, or to re- place some volume lost or worn out. The Librarian gives to the vol- ume which is to replace one lost, the same number which the missing volume had, without making in his catalogue any new entry. And so with duplicates, they take for convenience, the same number as the first purchase, and only new entries of actually new books are made by him. The Chairman's Catalogue gives all the purchases. The Librarian's only what might strictly be called new purchases.
The number of volumes added seems small, when compared with the number added in previous years, but we must keep in mind the ad- vanced price of books. In 1860 "about two thousand " books were purchased and. added, at a cost of eleven hundred and seventy dollars
130
and thirty-six cents," ($1,170,36.) In 1866, five hundred and fifty- three books have been added at a cost of ten hundred and eighty-six. dollars and sixty-two cents, ($1,086 62.)
While your Committee regret that no greater additions could be made to the Library, they desire to call attention to the class of works put in circulation during the year. While they have endeavored to keep pace with the publishers, so far as it is well to do so, and have selected from their lists the best works of History, Biography, Travels, Poetry, General Literature and Fiction, they have cared specially for the wants of the Architect, Mechanic, Farmer, Horticulturist and Nat- uralist, and have made valuable additions to the departments in which these several classes are particularly interested. It may be safe to say that in no one year since the establishment of the Library, have so many really desirable and useful works been placed upon its shelves.
The report of the librarian will show the accessions to the Green Library. No books have been purchased for that department, although it is not unlikely that some of the more valuable purchases for the Cir- culating Department may be transferred to it in due time. The coming year will probably enlarge the duties of the Library Committee and impose upon tbem the important duty of making selections of books for this portion of the Library.
For the Library Committee. WM. A. SMITH. Chairman.
The librarian reports that the whole number of books delivered for the year ending in July last, is 61,841, and that there were added to the list of borrowers for the year ending Jan. 1st, 1867, 1,224.
A printed catalogue of the books added to the circa- lating department since 1864, which is much needed, is nearly ready.
The librarian further reports that, while there is a slight falling off in the number of books lent during the year, as compared with the preceding twelve months, the increasing usefulness of the institution is proved by " the solid and useful character of the average of those delivered, - histories of all kinds and countries, books pertaining to the sciences, especially the natural sciences, biographies, and books of travel being in great and in-
131
creasing demand." " A tendency, too, is developing itself on the part of those using the Library, to make a study, sometimes more thorough and exhaustive than the re- sources of the Library will supply, of especial topics and epochs of history."
While the number of books borrowed and not returned is become so small as to be quite insignificant, the libra- rian is obliged earnestly to renew his complaint of the treatment which some of the volumes receive at the hands of the borrowers. The Directors trust that every citizen will feel it a personal disgrace, if in his hands, or in the hands of any of his family, such an outrage as the abuse of a book shall occur. There are few surer marks of a want of good breeding than of a want of respect for books. "A good book" in the golden words of Milton, " is not absolutely a dead thing - the precious life-blood rather of a master-spirit ; a seasoned life of man em- balmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." Such a treasure will command from every right thinking person something of the reverence due to the master-spirit whose intellectual life-blood it contains.
The librarian has received during the year
from fines, sale of Catalogues, &c., $188 45
On hand from last year, 109 45
$297 90
He has expended for all purposes,
193 38
Balance in City Treasury, $104 52
In order that the accounts of the Library may, as far as possible, be regulated by a system uniform with that adopted in other departments of the City Government, it was on the 13th of January, by the Directors, " Ordered. That the librarian be, and he is hereby directed, to pay
132
over to the City Treasurer, on or before the tenth day of each month, all moneys he may have received during the preceding month, from fines or from other sources; provided that any small bills paid by him and properly approved by the Finance Committee may be rendered as cash to the Treasurer.
The following is a list of the donations to the Green Library during the year with the names of the doners :
NAMES.
BOOKS.
PAMPHLETS.
· Department of the Interior,
35
Hon. Charles Sumner,
12
11
Hon. J. D. Baldwin,
8
1
Congressional Lbirary Committee,
4
2
Hon. S. Salisbury,
2
Henry B. Dawson,
3
Hon. P. E. Aldrich,
2
Mrs. S. B. Swaim,
1
Z. Baker,
1
J. E. Hilyard,
1
Wm. J. Tait,
1
Benj. F. Presbury,
1
F. H. Stevens,
1
Congressional Literary Catalogue,
Rev. S. Sweetser
1
St. J. Young,
1
Mrs. E. I. H. Putnam,
1
M. M. O. de Vries, Ibarra & Co.,
1
Chas. Wilder, Esq.,
1
Lee & Shepherd,
1
Andrew H. Green, Esq.,
1
1
Edward W. Lincoln, Esq.,
3
E. H. Heywood, Esq.,
18
Massachusetts State Library,
1
Charlestown Library,
1
Lowell Library,
1
Boston Mercantile Literary Association,
1
Providence Athenæum,
1
Detroit Young Men's Association,
1
Pennsylvania Polytechnic College,
1
Albany Young Men's Association,
1
Brooklyn Mercantile Literary Association, Peabody Institute,
1
Fall River Public Library,
1
Buffalo Young Men's Association,
1
Edward Earle, Esq.,
3
2
1
S. F. Haven, Esq.,
2
1
133
Fitchburg Town Library and Schools,
1
Waltham Public Library,
1
New Bedford Public Library,
1
Cincinnati Mercantile Literary Association,
1
Tyler & Seagrave,
1
New York Mercantile Library Association,
1
San Francisco,
1
John Boyden, Esq.,
65
Trustees of the Boston Pub. Library,
1
Hon. A. H. Bullock, 1
During the present year there have been added to the Circulating Department by donotions,
From Mrs. James Robinson,
5 vols.
Hon. S. Salisbury, 2 "
The Librarian, 1 «
Edward Conant, Esq., 1 4
Miss A. M. Stone, 1 4
The reading room which was first established as a dis- tinct department of the Library in 1865, has fulfilled the most sanguine anticipations of its friends. It has served not only to supply the leisure of a large number of our citizens with an instructive and delightful form of amuse- ment, and to give them an opportunity of knowing more thoroughly the manners and sentiments of distant communities, but it has served to attract to the Library itself, many persons who might otherwise have remained strangers to it. The taste for reading which the news- papers and the magazines have created, in many in- stances is not satisfied without more substantial food, which the shelves of the Library only can supply.
The directors deem it their duty to express in this connection their deep sense of obligation to their late president, Hon. Stephen Salisbury, who to his wise and faithful service to the Library, in all its departments, added that of a most munificent subscription to the fund of the reading room of which he was the principal founder.
This department has been during the year under the 17
134
charge of a committee consisting of Hon. D. W. LINCOLN, Chairman, Hon. E. B. STODDARD, NATHANIEL PAINE, Esq. Under their direction subject to the approbation of the directors the following, comprising fifty-six American, and forty-one Foreign news-papers and magazines, have been supplied for public use.
AMERICAN.
Globe,
Washington.
Advertiser,
Boston.
Commercial Advertiser,
Baltimore.
Commercial Advertiser,
New York.
Evening Gazette,
Worcester.
Evening Post,
New York.
Evening Transcript,
Boston.
Gazette,
Cincinnati.
Herald,
New York.
Inquirer,
Philadelphia.
Journal,
Boston.
Post,
Boston.
Republican,
Savannah.
Republican,
Springfield.
Spy,
Worcester.
Tribune,
New York.
World,
St. Louis.
National Intelligencer,
Washington.
Tribune,
Chicago.
Journal,
Providence.
Alta California,
San Francisco.
Commonwealth,
Boston.
Courant,
Hartford.
Home Journal,
New York.
Journal,
Louisville.
Mining Gazette,
Portage Lake.
New England Farmer,
Boston.
Palladium,
Worcester.
Ploughman,
Boston.
Reveille,
Fitchburg.
State Press,
Portland.
Sun,
Pittsfield.
Tribune,
Detroit.
Universalist, Albion,
Boston.
New York ..
American Agriculturist,
Army and Navy Journal,
Courier des Etats Unis,
66
Democrat,
135
Dwight's Journal of Music, Harper's, (Weekly) Round Table,
Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Atlantic, Bibliotheca Sacra,
Boston.
Every Saturday,
Gardener's Monthly,
Historical Magazine, ·
Horticultural,
Littell's Living Age,
North American Review,
Numismatic Journal,
Publisher's Circular,
Social Science Review,
Harper's Monthly,
Scientific American,
New York. Philadelphia. New York.
FOREIGN.
Bell's Life in London,
London.
Chronicle and Journal,
Cambridge.
Evening Mail,
London.
Freeman's Journal,
Dublin.
Journal,
Oxford. 1º
Mercury,
Scotsman,
Art Journal,
Artizan,
Engineer,
Examiner,
66
Once a Week,
Mechanic's Magazine.
66
Mining Journal,
66
Notes and Queries,
Punch, Tablet,
United Service Gazette,
Dublin. London.
All the Year Round, Athenæum, Bookseller,
..
Blackwood's Magazine.
Edinburgh.
Chambers' Journal,
Contemporary Review,
London.
Fortnightly Review, Cornhill Magazine,
Edinburgh Review,
66
Frazer's Magazine,
Gentleman's Magazine. 66 Law Magazine. ..
Boston. New York.
Philadelphia. New York. Boston. 66
Liverpool. Edinburgh. London.
Illustrated News,
136
London Review,
London.
Macmillan's Magazine,
Nature and Art,
66
British,
66
Reader,
Reveu des Deux Mondes,
Paris.
Spectator,
London.
University Magazine,
Dublin.
Westminster Review,
London.
Argosy,
66
The public convenience imperatively demands the ap- propriation of a much greater space for the reading room than the directors have had at their command for that purpose. The cabinet of the Natural History Soci- ety, which has occupied the basement under the Green Library, will probably be removed during the next year, when it is hoped that more ample accommodations may be afforded to this department.
The directors have had under consideration a proposal for the establishment of a Sunday reading room, where at hours not appropriated to public religious services, persons whose means do not permit them to supply them- selves with such necessaries, may find a room, warmed and lighted, supplied with an ample store of such books, magazines and news-papers, as the usages and opinions of our people indicate as suitable to the day. It has been estimated that, upon an average, twenty thousand of our population absent themselves from the public re- ligious exercises of the Sabbath. Making due allowance for the large number whose age, or health, or domestic duties render their absence unavoidable, it is still doubt- less true, that by a very great number, the Sunday is worse than wasted.
Many of this class, who are young persons, coming to the city from other places, having no agreeable homes or pleasant social relations here, may be attracted by such an institution to studies and employments suited to
137
the day, which they might otherwise be tempted to spend in idleness or vice. The Directors are not yet prepared to put in operation any plan for effecting this object, but it is hoped it may be a matter for careful consideration during the coming year.
The reading room fund is under the care and manage- ment of the Treasurer, NATHANIEL PAINE, Esq., subject to the oversight of the Finance Committee. The Trea- surer's Report is as follows:
Nathaniel Paine, Treasurer, in account with the Free Public Reading Room.
DR.
To balance of cash on hand, Dec. 28, 1865, $365 28
" cash interest on U. S. 7-30 bonds, 405 14
interest on City bonds, 300 00
subscription to fund, 100 00
Total receipts,
$1,170 42
Cr.
By cash paid for subscriptions to newspapers and periodicals, " cash for U. S. 7-30 bond,
$694 24
107 79
$802 03
Cash balance, Dec. 31, 1866,
368 39
$1,170 42
INVESTED FUND.
City of Worcester coupon bonds, 20 year, U. S. 7-30 bonds, 5,650 00
$5,000 00
Total invested,
$10,650 00
Cash on hand,
368 39
Aggregate,
$11,018 39
Respectfully submitted,
NATHANIEL PAINE, Treasurer.
138
The Committee on Finance for the year has consisted of Hon. E. B. STODDARD, Chairman, Wm. A. SMITH, Esq., and Dr. F. H. KELLEY.
The Committee report the following as the receipts and expenditures of the funds under their charge :
Balance of former appropriation in Treasury, $1,610 84 City appropriations for 1866, 4,450 00
Balance received from Librarian as by his
report, 104 52
$6,155 36
BILLS APPROVED AND PAYMENTS.
Bills of Z. Baker, books,
1,053 05
66 Grant & Bigelow,
134 96 --- $1,188 01
" T. W. Wellington, coal, 417 00
W. L. Halsey, 41 00 ----- 458 00
66 Worcester Gas Co., gas, 382 00
Salaries of Librarian and Assistants, 1,850 00
N. G. Tucker, plumbing,
43 76
A. Goulding, paper files, 10 90
J. S. Wesby, binding, 97 10
$4,029 77
Balance in City Treasury, 2,135 59
$6,165 36
As has already been said, the first or foundation period in the history of this institution may be considered over. But the Library will demand, none the less, the laborious and watchful care of its immediate guardians, and the liberal aid of the city. The supply of the Circulating Department and the Reading Room will be governed by the immediate wants of those who use them from year to year, the Directors endeavoring from among the
139
books and periodicals demanded by the reading public, to select those which will best minister to a healthy taste, and will foster an appetite for a more instructive and sound course of reading.
But it is in the department called the "Green Library," which, by the terms of its foundation, is to be kept “ in trust for the free use of the citizens and the public for- ever, as a Library of consultation and reference, but to be used only in the Library building " that the principal value of the institution, in the judgment of many of its wisest friends, must consist. The diffusion of knowledge among men may be accomplished, in a considerable de- gree, by the circulation, from hand to hand of the news- paper, the magazine, or such current literature in the form of books as makes the staple of the circulating li- brary. But the increase and creation of knowledge, the education of the makers of the books which are the guides and teachers of the common mind, cannot ade- quately be accomplished, without those larger and more complete collections which demand the ample funds, the ample spaces, the strict methods of arrangement and pre- servation, of the consulting library. To create such a library requires the combined effort of many men and many generations. The historian, the scholar, the phi- losopher, are the conduits through which the stream may be dispersed to enrich and adorn the face of the earth. Here is the reservoir.
" Hither as to a fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light."
It is not too much to say, that no city, however great its population or wealth, can attain a high rank among civilized communities, can escape being provincial and rustic, unless to its other institutions it adds a large and well chosen library.
140
The city of Worcester will be unworthy its position as one of the most influential communities of Massachusetts, unless those institutions which secure its intellectual ad- vancement and influence shall keep pace with its mate- rial growth and prosperity.
We may, in this particular, take a lesson from the capital of our own State. While the number of cities which have exceeded Boston in population, in wealth, in commerce, in political power, is too large to be easily reckoned, probably those known to history, which, in a period equal to that which has elapsed since her found- ation, have exerted an equal intellectual influence, could be counted on the fingers of the two hands. A recent examination by an accomplished critic of the eight lead- ing historians of the country, gave the name of Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Sparks, Hildreth, Ticknor, Parkman and Palfrey, all of them, but one, Boston men, and all of them men who received the mental stimulus that deter_ mined the direction of their lives from the institutions of Boston. In poetry, in oratory, in the sciences, mental and natural, a pre-eminence nearly as marked will be found to exist. This intellectual superiority is due to the fact, that at a time when its population and wealth were probably much below what ours is to-day, the public spirit of Boston established, on sure foundations, institutions for the mental culture of its citizens, and chief among them two of the best libraries in the country.
We may without extravagance anticipate for our own city a career more rapid and as splendid as that which has rendered Boston so eminent among the cities of the world. One hundred and forty-five years have elapsed since the foundation of Worcester. At the same age, Boston was an obscure town of fifteen thousand people.
141
Our varied and instructed mechanical skill, our network of railroads, our situation at the centre of a large, busy, and rapidly growing agricultural and manufacturing dis- trict, give promise of as great an increase in the future as Boston has gained. The mechanic arts, which are the chief employment of our people, pursued, not in a single direction, and not in large organizations owned and con- trolled by a few persons, but cultivated with that variety of pursuit, which gives each individual his choice of the fields of labor best suited to his capacities, tend, as all history teaches, to elevate a people even more than com- merce. By the common consent of all thoughtful ob- servers, popular liberty and intellectual intelligence go hand in hand with manufacturing industry. The govern- ing power in a mechanical establishment is, of necessity, a brain power. The processes of invention, of devising and constructing intricate machinery, are akin to and nearly resemble those mathematical investigations which are alike the strongest stimulus and the highest achieve- ment of the mind. Let us then build the foundations of our city on foundations broad and enduring, that she may, as she takes her place in the rank of populous and wealthy cities, emulate the foremost in her list of great names in letters, in arts, in every thing that ele- vates and adorns life.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.