USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Walks & talks about historic Boston > Part 24
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deluder." The Puritans began to teach the children almost at the moment of landing. The records show that on the 13th of April, 1635, a Free School was established, and from that hour to the present, the inhabitants of Boston have cherished and fostered these invaluable institutions, so that the history of the Boston schools is, in a good degrec, the history of the people themselves. It has been the aim and pride of each generation subsequent to the founders, not to deface or mar the walls of our fathers' building, but to beautify, perfect and adorn them, extending their area, and elevating their towers of grandeur in all strength and fair proportion.
Our ancestors enforced upon the towns by penal enact- ments, the obligation to support free public schools, and in- angurated a policy, which, in after years, induced their de- scendants to provide by law for the compulsory school attend- ance of all children. They were determined that the "onld deluder," should have no chance in Boston. In no direction does the generous public spirit of Bostonians, show so con- spicuously as in the support of their schools. This is attested in the vast sums expended for schoolhouses and apparatus ard the generous salaries paid to the teachers. Add to this the sacrifice of property for the good of future generations, and it stands forth without a parallel in the world's history.
Philemon Permont became schoolmaster in 1635. In 1639 Mr. Wheelwright joined him. The school was free, supported by subscription, according as each man felt disposed to give. Daniel Maude came to the office in 1646. Maude was a min- ister and on his removal to Dover, N. H., Benjamin Thomp- son came some years later, a very learned man and a poet. Ezekiel Cheever came next, and is rgarded as the father of American Pedagogues. He elevated the character of Boston schools and it was conceded to be the principal school of the land. The first District Writing School was kept by John Cole in 1684.
In 1713 Captain Thomas Hutchinson built a schoolhouse at his own expense, which was known as the North Latin school. The same family built a schoolhouse in 1718 in Love Lane. There was another Writing School on Mason Street. There was but one school kept open during the Siege of Boston, and that was kept grauitously by Mr. Oliver Dupee. In November 1776, all the schools resumed under the care of the Selectmen. The oldest volume of Town Records shows a subscription list for the support of schools, headed by Sir Henry Vane,
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who gave fro, as did also Governor Winthrop, and Richard Bellingham. In 1641 the town voted to apply the rent money from Deer Island to support public schools. For over two centuries Boston Schools have been supported from the pub- lic treasury. Previous to 1789, boys, only, were taught in the public schools, of which six were in existence at that time. The records show that the examination of the schools by the Seelctmen was quite a ceremonious affair. There were present, besides the Selectmen, the ministers of the town, overseers of the poor, representatives to the General Court and leading citizens. The Educational Committee gave a report of their examination, the number of pupils in each school and all "the pupils in very good order." No wonder the little fellows were still and fixed to their seats, at seeing thirty pairs of knee buckles, breeches and long hose come parading into the school- house, all in a row, with their ruffles, wrist bands, cocked hats, powdered wigs, and spectacles, to say nothing of parsons' gowns and doctors' saddle bags. Verily it must have been a rare sight to look at !
The extent of instruction in those days was in the branches of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. In 1789, the people of the town saw the necessity of improvement in the existing system and voted for instruction of both sexes. There should be one school where the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages should be taught and there should be one Writing and one Reading School at the South, at the Centre and at the North parts of the town, where children of both sexes should be taught. The Boston Latin School is a venerable institution of learning. If we may judge from the language of our ancestors its origin seems to have been in hostility to his Satanic majesty in the Statute words, "it being one chief project of Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures as in former times, keeping them in unknown tongues, that so at last, the true source and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers."
As we have said, the school building was first located on School Street, in the rear of King's Chapel. Later, (1812) it occupied a building on the site of the Parker House. In 1844 a large brick school edifice was erected on Bedford Street, one-half being occupied by the Latin School and the other half by the English High School. The latter school was es- tablished in 1821, and was a progressive step in popular edu-
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cation and its complete success not only satisfied the most sanguine expectations of its friends and promoters, but also gave an impetus to a similar provision for the girls of the city. Tl:e Latin school has had some famous masters, and the Eng- lish High has also been especially favored in having been un- der the guidance of very excellent men and able instructors.
FiL
The Latin and English High School Building on Bedford Street, 1860
Among the teachers of New England, there was none who stood higher in his profession, or who was more truly loved and honored than the late Thomas Sherwin. "He had a re- markable completeness of character and a well adjustment of all his powers, which gave symmetry and beauty to his moral and intellectual nature : combined with which he united widely gathered knowledge, a thorough mastery of whatever subject he had investigated and the conscientious use of all he was and all he knew for the advantage of others. These traits with his unselfish disposition and genial spirit, won for him universal regard, and made him a competent judge on every side, and one of the leading characters of his time,-a wor- thy model for the encouragement and emulation of progressive
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minds." Under his guidance it was considered, that in thor- oughness the English High School of Boston ranked next to West Point. An English gentleman was appointed to visit the schools of this country and upon his return he made his report to Parliament. In it he said: "Taking for all in all and as ac- complishing the end at which it professes to aim, the English High School of Boston, struck me as the model school of the
U. S.CONANT BOSTON
English High and Latin School, Montgomery Street
United States. I wish we had a hundred such in England."
No record of Boston schools would be complete without an extended notice of the great and valuable services rendered by the Hon. Horace Mann, who did so much in making them the model schools of the country. While a resident of the town of Dedham, he was elected a member of the Legislature where he served ten years, four years representing the town and six years as a member from Boston, whither he removed in 1833. A brilliant and thorough scholar, he saw that the time had arrived for an advance in the system of public school instruction and he advocated the establishment of a State
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Board of Education-which was organized in 1837, with eight members, Mr. Mann being a member and the first secretary. Here he worked with great zeal and efficiency and it was prin- cipally through his influence and exertions that the whole pol- icy of the State in regard to public schools was revolutionized, which made Mr. Mann a conspicuous figure in the educational circles of two continents. He visited Europe and made an ex- haustive study of the popular educational systems there. In 1852 he was nominated by the Free Soilers for Governor of Massachusetts and on the same day he was elected to the presi- dency of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. He acecpted the presidency of the college and carried the institution through a series of financial and other difficulties.
The First Church
One of the very first acts of the Colonists upon their ar- rival in New England was the formation of a church. The Covenant signed by those early settlers of Boston, July 30th, 1630, was the foundation of the First Church.
We are told that the groves were God's first temples, and these God-fearing men and women held their first meetings during that first summer under the shade of a great oak, lit- erally "in a house not made with hands."
The first meeting house was built in 1632 and had mud walls and a thatched roof, and stood on the corner of State and Devonshire Streets, where the Brazier Building now stands. It was a rude but substantial building. The first pastor was the Rev. John Wilson, who lived near by on his farm, and he had for a colleague, the highly esteemed Rev. John Cotton formerly the pastor of old St. Botolph's, Bos- ton, England.
In 1639, the church had become too small, and in 1640 a new edifice was erected on Cornhill (now Washington Street) where now is located the Rogers Building, opposite State Street. Since those early days, this First Church has had many locations, but it has always retained its original name. The cost of this second edifice was met by weekly church collections, which shows, that, even in those early days, the people of Boston believed in supporting their church by voluntary contributions, and not by rates or taxa- tion by law.
This second meeting house was destroyed in the confla- gration of 17II, the greatest of the eight great fires that Boston had then, experienced, but was rebuilt.
On Market Street, nearly opposite the front door of the church, stood the whipping-post and the stocks, and we are told that the first prisoner placed in the stocks was the car- penter, Edward Palmer, who built them in 1639. The town fathers were incensed at his exorbitant bill for their con- struction, and they laid their strong hands upon him, and he forthwith spent an hour as a prisoner of his own creation.
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and as a forbidding example to like grasping merchants with whom the early town may have been afflicted. In 1801 the stocks stood on State Street, near Change Avenue. We are told that during the fire which destroyed the church building some sailors who climbed to the church cupola to try and save the bell, were cut off by the flames and perished. A brick edifice on the same site replaced the wooden one, and in 1717, or thereabouts, a large clock was put on the build- ing, which was probably the first time-keeper for public use
First Church, Boston. 1632, Corner Devonshire and State Streets
in Boston, if not in America. There were some quaint old laws and customs in the Puritan churches of those days. In 1646 it was the custom of this First Church to fine absen- tees from church service three shillings each. In these mod- ern days when the audience rooms of churches are made so comfortable in every way for the worshippers, we can scarcely realize the hardships endured by church goers of a hundred years and more ago. The heating of an audience room in those days would have been considered an unneces- sary expense. The services were unusually long, the ser- mons generally an hour or more in delivery, and through it
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all the people sat and shivered. Under such a test of endur- ance small boys grew restless and their elders grew sleepy. An attendant was always present to look after such cases. He walked up and down the aisle during the services armed with a long pole, with a solid wooden ball at one end.
First Church, 1639
When he caught sight of a sleeper, he administered a vigor- ous tap on the offender's head, if a man, or boy, but in the case of a woman he had a pole in which was a fox's tail, and this he would draw across her face. Judge Sewall, in his diary, says, that "one Sunday at the Old South Church, the worshippers were so cold that their coughing interfered with the sermon, and the Sacrament bread was frozen as hard as pebbles." In 1721 the Second Church was built on Hanover
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Street, and after that the First Church was popularly known as the "Old Brick."
In 1760 there was another disastrous fire, and again the church edifice was destroyed. The Town House (Old State House) was also burned and more than 30 buildings. In 1761 another church edifice arose from the ashes. On March 5, 1770, the bell of the Old Brick Church gave warn- ing to the citizens of the Boston Massacre. In March, 1776, after the siege of Boston, General Washington with some of his troops attended service at the First Church, and then adjourned to the Bunch of Grapes tavern on the corner of State and Kilby Streets, to refresh the body.
The last service in this old church building was held July 7, 1808, and on the 21st of the same month they worshipped for the first time in their new meeting-house in Chauncey Place, now Chauncey Street, on the East side, about half way between Summer and Bedford Streets. That section was then a fine residential quarter. Here the solid men of the town lived, and between the years 1805 and 1850, there were a large number of churches in that section. There was the new South, on Church Green; Trinity Church on Sum- mer Street, corner of Hawley Street; Federal Street Church, on the corner of Federal and Franklin Streets; The Holy Cross Cathedral on the corner of Franklin and Devonshire Streets: Rowe Street Baptist Church on the corner of Bed- ford and Rowe Streets; the Second Church on Bedford Street, between Chauncey and Washington Streets; the Mar- iner's Church at the foot of Summer Street; the Essex Street Church on the corner of Rowe Street and Essex Street. Across Washington Street, was the Winter Street Church, Park Street Church and St. Paul's Church. Of that large number only Park Street and St. Paul's Churches remain in their original location. The onward march of business and the change in the residential district has driven them away.
In 1868, the property on Chauncey Place was sold and a lot purchased on the corner of Berkeley and Marlborough Streets, on which the society erected a most beautiful stone structure costing $325,000, having a seating capacity of about 1,000 persons. The difference between the first house of worship built by Winthrop and his associates, with its mud walls and thatched roof, and the present magnificent edifice, marks, as well as any other illustration which can be given, the advance which 250 years have brought about.
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But the most interesting memorial in that elegant archi- tectural church edifice is the original Church Covenant in- scribed on one of the stained glass windows: "Prosperity may bring change and progress in material things, but there is no mark of change in the expression of Christian fellow- ship."
At No. 27 State Street is the following Tablet: ON THIS SITE STOOD THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE IN BOSTON 1632-1640
Also another Tablet:
Site of the First Meeting House in Boston-Built A. D. 1632. Preachers: John Wilson, John Eliot, John Cotton. Used before 1640 for Towne Meet- ings, and for Sessions of the General Court of the Colony.
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The First Church, 1916
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KING'S CHAPEL.
This quaint old Church building stands on its original site on the corner of Tremont and School Streets and was the first Episcopal Church in New England. It is now a Unitarian Church. The first edifice was of wood and was built in 1689, and Robert Ratcliffe was the first Rector. In 1754 the present stone structure was erected. Its plain and
King's Chapel
simple architecture, although overshadowed by the larger and more imposing modern buildings, is still a fitting type of those sturdy, serious minded men who built it, and of those, who, for generations, worshipped witihin its walls.
In 1804. the tower was blown down in a severe storm. In 1878, the City of Boston seriously considered the re- moval of Kings' Chapel. with the adjoining burial ground, and erecting a new Court House on its site. "The interior of the Church, with the high old fashioned pillars, and stained glass windows, is remarkably attractive." In Revo- lutionary Days, General Washington, during his stay in Boston, worshipped in this church, and the pew he occu
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pied is pointed out, with pardonable pride, to the visiting stranger. The genial Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, was a regular attendant at this church and devotedly attached to its interests. On its 200th Anniversary in 1888 he contributed a poem which was full of historical reminiscences. There are some who remember him in his later years, as he used to stand in his gallery pew during the singing of the hymns. Writing a loving letter to his friend, Phillips Brooks, in 1888, he says of Kings' Chapel: "In that church I have worshipped for half a century. There on the fifteenth of June 1840, 1 was married; from that church the dear companion of so many blessed years was buried. In her seat, I must sit, and through its door I hope to be carried to my last rest- ing place." His last desire was respected, he was buried from that church. In his poem, "The Rhymed Lesson," he makes the bells of Kings' Chapel, Brattle Street, the Old South, Park Street and the Old North on a Sunday morning, blend their tones in one gospel of reverence, hu- manity and mutual toleration. Its insertion here, we deem appropriate :
"The Chapel, last of sublinary things,
That stirs our echoes with the name of Kings,
Whose bell, just glistening from the font and forge,
Rolled its proud requiem for the Second George,
Solemn and swelling, as of old it rang,
Flings to the wind, its deep sonorous clang ; The steeple pile, that, mindful of the hour
When Howe's artillery shook its half-built tower,
Wears on its bosom, as a bride might do, The iron breastpin which the Rebels threw Wakes the sharp echoes with the quivering thrill Of keen vibrations, tremulous and shrill, Aloft, suspended in the morning's fire Crash the vast cymbals from the Southern spire ; The Giant, standing by the Elm-clad green His white lance lifted o'er the silent scene, Whirling in air, his brazen goblet round, Swings from its brim, the swollen floods of sound, While sad with memories of the olden time,
Throbs from its tower, the Northern minstrel's chime, Faint, single tones, that spell their ancient song, But tears still follow as they breathe along."
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The original bell in the tower of Kings' Chapel was from the famous White Chapel Foundry, England, and was hung in 1772. This bell was cracked while being tolled for evening service May 8, 1814. It was replaced by a bell cast in 1816 by Paul Revere at his foundry in Canton. It weighed 2437 pounds and was the heaviest bell cast at the Revere Foundry. The contract entered into with Paul Revere was that he should take the old bell and allow 25 cents a pound for its metal. He was to make the new bell
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Interior of King's Chapel
in all respects, size, shape, weight and tone as near as possible like the old bell. This he accomplished success- fully by using the old metal and adding a little of his own composition. His pay for the new bell completed was at the rate of 41 1-2 cents per pound. During his life time, Paul Revere cast 398 bells, and the Kings' Chapel bell was his 16Ist.
This burying ground is the oldest in the city proper. According to accurate records, the first burial in this ceme- tery was on February 18, 1630, the year that Boston was founded by John Winthrop. For 30 years it was the only burial place of the town.
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Here Governor Winthrop, his son, and grandson were buried; the two latter were Governors of Connecticut. Here also were buried Governor Shirley, who built the famous Colonial mansion in Roxbury, Lady Andros, wife of Governor Andros, the Rev. John Cotton, the famous di- vine, pastor of the First Church of Boston, John Daven- port, the founder of New Haven, Connecticut ; John Oxen- bridge and Thomas Bridge, pastors of the First Church
Tomb of John Winthrop
and many other well known persons of Colonial days in Boston, including Major Thomas Savage, of King Philip's War fame. In one of the tombs were deposited the re- mains of the wife of John Winslow, who, as Mary Chil- ton, according to tradition, was the "first woman to touch the shores of Cape Cod."
The United States aby in the War of 1812 On the Ocean and the Makes
The war of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, was brought about by the aggressions of British cruisers upon American commerce. For several years the continent of Europe had been engaged in the Napoleonic wars. The "man from Corsica" had laid Europe prostrate at his feet and had been consecrated "The High and Mighty Napoleon, the First Emperor of the French."
England allied herself with the Continental powers, in the attempt to crush Napoleon, and her fleets had almost swept French commerce from the ocean. There remained but one obstacle to her becoming complete mistress of the Seas, "and that was the American merchant marine, which. taking advantage of the troublous times in Europe, had assumed considerable proportions. American ships, fly- ing a neutral flag, had free access to the ports of England and France, and other European ports and were doing a large and profitable carrying trade."
British ship owners and naval officers looked on with envy, foreseeing a formidable rival, whose power must be crippled, and these represented to their Government. that the Americans, under the guise of neutrality, were se- cretly aiding the French.
The British Government at once revived an old law, known as the "rule of 1756," concerning neutrals, and or- ders were secretly issued authorizing British cruisers to seize, and British Admiralty Courts to condemn, as prizes, Ameican vessels and their cargoes that might be captured by British cruisers. "These depredations which were nothing, more or less than 'highway robberies" were often made under the most frivolous and absurd pretexts, and they aroused the most intense indignation throughout the United States."
Under such conditions commerce began to dwindle. and became scarcely more than a coastwise trade, for American vessels were subject to seizure by both British and French cruisers, and the United States had no navy to protect its merchant ships.
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"The feeling in America was intensified by the haughty assertion and offensive practice of the British doctrine of the right of search for suspected deserters from the royal navy, and to carry such suspected persons away without hindrance. The right of search and seizure had been strenu- ously denied, and its policy condemned because American sea- men might be thus forced in the British Service under the
Battle between the "Constitution" and the "Guerriere"
false pretext that they were deserters. This had already hap- pened. It had been proven after thorough investigation, that since the promulgation of the "rule of 1756," nearly three hun- dred seamen, a greater portion of them Americans, had been taken from vessels, and pressed into the British service." In 1807, occurred the affair of the British man-of-war Leopard, and the United States Frigate Chesapeake,- when a broadside was fired into the latter vessel, and four men taken from her crew, one of whom was hanged at Halifax. "In 1808, the British Parliament, with an air of
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great condescension, passed an act, permitting American trade with France, on condition that vessels engaged in such trade, should first enter some British port, pay a transit duty and take out a license." Matters continued to grow worse for four years, until forbearance ceased to be a virtue. For America to hesitate and submit longer to such treatment was rank cowardice. President Madison sounded the War trumpet in his Annual Message, in No- vember, 1811. "The House of Representatives, led by that brilliant speaker, Henry Clay, then only thirty-four years of age, determined that indecision should no longer mark the councils of the Nation." The Committee on For- eign Relations, Peter B. Porter, Chairman, submitted an energetic report on the 29th of November, in which the British Government was arraigned, on charges of injus- tice, cruelty and wrong. The Report stated, "To sum up in a word, your Committee need only say, that the United States, as a sovereign and independent power, claims the right to use the ocean, which is the common and acknowl- edged highway of Nations, for the purpose of transport- ing, in their own vessels, the products of their own soils, and the acquisitions of their own industry, to a market in the ports of friendly nations, and to bring home in return such articles as their necessities or convenience may re- quire, always regarding the rights of belligerents, as de- fined by the established law of nations." Great Britain in defiance of this incontestable right, captures every Amer- ican vessel, bound to, or returning from a port, where her commerce is not favored, enslaves our seamen, and in spite of our remonstrances, perseveres in these aggressions. To wrongs so daring in character, and disgraceful in their ex- ecution, it is impossible that the people of the United States should remain indifferent. We must never tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our reach. The sovereignty and independence of these States, purchased and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, but as the inheritance of our pos- terity, are deliberately and systematically violated. And the period has arrived, when, in the opinion of your Com- mittee, it is the sacred duty of Congress, to call forth the patriotism and resources of the country. By the aid of these and the blessing of God, we confidently trust, we
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