USA > Maine > Waldo County > Unity > A history of the Town of Unity, Maine > Part 11
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Before the so-called free high school was instituted only a few boys and girls went to boarding school or seminaries like Kent's Hill, Oak Grove Seminary or Freedom Academy.12
Most of the teachers were young inexperienced spinsters, although men desiring a professional career began their career as school masters. Among these early teachers were: Dorcas Knowles,18 Clarissa Berry, Martha Stone, Eliza A. Sinclair, Louisa Adams, Ach- sah Waterman, Charles Greenleaf, Rinaldo Elder, William H. Hobby and Amos Mussey.
Great interest was at all times manifested in the schools; there were frequent visitations by the school committee, school agents and other officials. In the expense account of Joseph C. Small, first select- man for 1826, this term appeared: "June 22, to one half day visiting school in the sixth school district . .. fifty cents." And again, July 25th "To visiting school in the ninth school district, . . . fifty cents." Also on August 13th for visiting the school in the eighth district.14
In 1822, the town discussed the subject of building a grammar school, but no action was taken.15
About 1828, a second school house was built by the joint efforts of the men in the first district. This one-room school was situated on the west side of the road ascending Quaker Hill. (In recent years it has been known as "the old red school house," but during its occupancy was known as the Mussey School because Edmund Mussey was one of the men responsible for its completion). This school served the community, until it was closed in 1894, when the pupils were sent to the village. About 1838 a new brick schoolhouse was erected on the site of the present Masonic Hall. This was the second school house built in the village district.16
13. "Treasurer of the Town of Unity, please pay Dorcas Knowles or bearer ten dollars, it being due her for teaching school in the first district in said town A. A. 1828. Unity August 29, 1828". This is pay- ment for one term of summer school, probably of ten weeks work, or at one dollar per week. Another similar illustration, "Pay to Clarisa Berry or bearer ten dollars it being due for teaching school in the eighth district. Unity 30th December 1829." Another instance, Mar- tha Stone was paid sixteen dollars for teaching school in the Josiah Harding district for the year 1829. The town seemed slow in re- munerating their servants for in each case they were paid in the fol- lowing year. Ms. receipts in possession of author.
14. Ms. bill of Joseph C. Small presented 1827, author's collection.
15. Unity Town Records, Book I, March 11, 1822. Warrant ar- ticle 27: "to see if they will build a town house and establish a gram- mar school."
16. Maine Farmer, February 29, 1840. "A very fine and spacious brick school house with a cupola suitable for hanging a bell has also been built recently. There are thirteen school districts and six hundred and two scholars; three hundred and forty-five are represented as taught by masters and two hundred and seventy-two by females."
Some of the teachers over a long period in District School Number one besides Greenleaf were: Dorcas Knowles, Rinaldo Elder of Freedom, Achsah Waterman, Amos and Milton Mussey, Nelson Dingley, Jr., Hannah Berry, William Henry Hobby, Clement Jones, George Varney, Clara Webb, Mary E. Berry, Otis Cornforth, Clara Vickery, Lois Varney, and many others all of Unity.
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CHARLES GREENLEAF
The ghost of Charles Greenleaf lies at rest. How the modern world would have tormented him - its rapid pace, the chaotic madness of the twentieth century would have been alien to his precise manners, and the polite niceties of his speech. How he would have abhorred the slang, and slovenliness of speech so prevalent today.
Charles Greenleaf was appreciated in those gentle households of dustless parlors, inhabited by spinsters who drank tea from dainty china cups. Who was Charles Greenleaf? Time has erased much of biographical data about this schoolmaster and grammarian of a cen- tury ago. His contemporaries knew little about him. Greenleaf was an elusive figure, even to those who knew him. No one knew the full secret of his life; today the scanty light which falls about his career justifies some conjecture concerning him.17
Charles Greenleaf appeared in Unity about 1828. If he followed the usual pattern of his life, he taught a number of terms of school, and, then, suddenly as he appeared, he slipped away to another town. After an interim of months Mr. Greenleaf re-appeared as chipper as though his absence had never been noticed. At any rate he slipped in and out of homes of a hundred different families with the familiar- ity of a shadow, and only strangers remarked upon the oddity of our little schoolmaster's eccentricities. Indeed, Mr. Greenleaf had a habit like the sun of periodical appearance and disappearance. His stays, usually of several months' duration, would suddenly terminate; then, quietly like an Arab, he would steal away, leaving behind a sort of disbelief of his having existed. Following his death, a former pupil wrote, "he might be said to have a habit of foot journeys, for he in- dulged in them with a persistent irregularity that defied alike mathe- matical calculation or whimsical guessing."
In time he became a familiar sight - the slight figure with its crown of scanty gray hair; his bright keen eyes enhancing a clean shaven face; his boyish manner of glancing up, then his habit of gazing down, as if to avert the curious stare of the unfriendly.
Greenleaf's itinerant ways inbred in him the rather eccentric habit of carrying all his possessions in green cambric bags. Each bag was uniformly sewed in an oblong shape with a capacious mouth at the top. Every new possession demanded a fresh bag. "He had a very large one for his overcoat, a moderate size one for his vests, and a diminutive one for his thimble". What a strange figure ambling along the dusty roads was this solitary man carrying his green parcels.
In the households where he boarded Greenleaf evinced two par- tialities; tea and baked beans. The spare little man with his superior culture and abstemious ways was welcome in the humble dwellings of his benefactors. One host found cause to remark that, "Old Green-
17. Mary F. Hussey, "The Story of Charles Greenleaf, Republican Journal, March 2, 1882.
Charles Greenleaf (1792-(1870)
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leaf is queer, but then he don't eat much, and he brings his own tea."
His fondness for tea sometimes provoked the kitchen help. He had a connoisseur's true appreciation of tea. Greenleaf preferred to make his favorite beverage precisely five minutes before a meal, when the busy housewife was in the midst of her last minute preparations. No matter about the admonitions or the scolding, Mr. Greenleaf was always deprecatory, silent, but persistent and Sarah's brown bread or yeast rolls suffered the consequences. Once when a group of farm- hands were devouring the baked beans vociferously and eagerly, Greenleaf asked with an air of utmost gentility, "A little more of the beans, if you please, I see they are going very fast."
Concerning his capabilities as a teacher, we know only that he taught several terms of school, in Unity and surrounding towns. That he accomplished his aims in his endeavors, two quaint diplomas, surviving in his own handwriting, offer proof of his educational achievements.
Both old diplomas were found among papers of S. Stillman Berry, a pupil. After the fifteen year old boy had completed his course in grammar with Greenleaf, his instructor penned in a fine Spencerian hand the following testimonial:
"This certifies that Master Stillman Berry has taken lessons in Eng- lish Grammar under my tuition during two of my regular terms, in which time he has arisen from entire ignorance of a single principal, rule, or definition in this branch, to what may be fairly called a thor- ough scholar in the same; whilst the past has, heretofore, generally been that persons who have pursued this branch have made it one of their principal studies for seven, eight and ten years and have even then fallen short of a critical knowledge of it; it may be said much to the praise of Mr. Berry for, assidually (sic) and readiness in acquiring this part of learning that he has in the short term above mentioned made such attainments in grammar as is a thorough and fair examina- tion would cause him to smile in a comparison in the same with some of the most critical scholars in our country.
(signed) Charles Greenleaf. Unity, December 5, 1829."
Throughout his life Charles Greenleaf pursued his profession earn- estly; however, spending his spare moments compiling a grammar for publication. His grammar book occupied all of his free time. On most subjects, especially concerning his past, Greenleaf was very re- ticent. However, when discussing his book and his topic, he talked with a fervor which made his expression, usually faded and evasive, glow with excitement. He asked only for a quiet corner for his work and a certain degree of privacy. One bold individual, more curious than kindly, inquired the grammarian's age. Greenleaf rose, walked in a stately manner to his room, returned triumphantly with an authori- tive volume, whereupon he opened to a page and pointed to the statement, "It is not polite to ask a person his age."
Perhaps portions of his Grammar were published. What disap- pointments and heartaches the aging schoolmaster suffered, we know not. Greenleaf was introvertive by nature. Always choosey of his
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words, he interfered in no one's affairs, and his sensitive pride and dignity required the same treatment of him by his fellowmen. The years passed with his stays lengthening and his long wanderings less frequent.
No one knew his life's story. Many guessed, but they never ascer- tained the real truth. One morning when he did not appear at his usual time, his friends discovered that Greenleaf had passed away in his sleep. No relatives were known, and his little green bags of per- sonal effects were relegated to the attic chamber. Greenleaf became a legend, and the dust gathered upon the cambric sacks. Many years later, quite by chance, little girls playing in the attic ransacked the old clothes of the dead man, and discovered in the worn pockets, a packet of letters upon which were written, "A curse on the one who shall open this." Inside were found a letter, written in a woman's hand, and a child's picture. The story unfolded. Greenleaf had left his wife and infant child while he was a principal at a village school. He re- turned, but his absences from home recurred; then, suddenly he com- pletely deserted his family. Why? The reader will have to arrive at his own conclusions. Did he feel some inadequacy as a father and husband? Was his wife unbearable? These secrets have passed into the oblivion of local history. The faint shadow of Charles Greenleaf, dim though it is, remains that he, among many, taught and inspired and held aloft the ideals of education to youth in an age when educa- tion was for the few.
A teacher renowned for his exceedingly severe discipline was Reu- ben Files, who about 1840 was Nelson Dingley's first teacher. Young Dingley wrote that "Files as a teacher made himself felt in more ways than one." " ... faint shadows flit by now and then of a piece of leather sewed together and stripped with hair, about a foot in length, which at times performed sundry antics over the backs of delinquent youths."20
Teaching conditions or teachers did not usually meet the best of standards. This was particularly true of the country schools in the period from 1850 to 1900. The schools were operated as cheaply as possible with only a minimum of facilities provided. Oftentimes the attitude of the families reflected considerable apathy. An 1867 school committee report stated, "We would beg to call your attention to some of the many obstacles in the way of greater advancement and general good of our schools. First a general indifference on the part of the parents ... the indifference of our citizens to the cause of education is too plainly shown at our annual town meeting. If this spirit is al- lowed to prevail, we may write Ichabod in our history, thy glory has departed."21
20. Edward Dingley, Life and Times of Nelson Dingley, Jr., Kala- mazoo, Michigan, 1902, p. 5.
21. Unity Annual Report, 1867, W. F. Chase, Otis Cornforth, and Clement R. Jones, School Committee.
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Dr. John Main, school supervisor for 1872 reported:
Some of our school houses are totally unfit for occupancy for any- thing but swine, and in cold weather, even they could hardly be kept comfortable without improved facilities for heating. In no district in town have I met with globes, outline maps (or other wall maps) or in short any of the school room accessories so essential to thorough in- struction. I am aware that in recommending the purchase of such things by the town or districts, I may be met with the objection so often raised by many, that 'they and their parents never had any such aids and got along very well.' True, and no less to me, perhaps, that they and their parents lighted their rooms with tallow candles, but does that prevent their appreciating a better illuminating agent?22
Dr. Main berated the parents for neglect of the schools and for skimping on money. The doctor strongly urged them to visit school and encourage their children. He also took them to task for not pay- ing a sufficient wage to the teachers. "It is not economy to employ a poor, or even a medium teacher, because he may be procured for low wages. Nor yet employ one you know nothing of and who comes without recommendation. The only way to secure good schools is to pay good wages and hire teachers of known ability."23 In that year the average wage paid male teachers in Unity was thirty dollars and seventy-five cents a month, and women received twelve dollars and sixty-eight cents a month.24 As late as 1872, Unity had twelve dis- tricts and only ten school houses, but only four were reported in "good condition." Only one was recorded as a "graded" school.
The school report of 1873 ran in much the same vein. This report likewise recommended that the town hire teachers of experience in- stead of hiring anyone because it is possible "to get him cheap". "If we have good teachers, we shall have good schools and pupils will be interested ... and will not have to be jawed or whipped twice a day to get them to school".25
During the nineteenth century Unity maintained from ten to thir- teen district schools. There were at least three, the so-called Farwell, Wood, and Worth Schools in south Unity, another if you include the one on Quaker Hill; there were two on the Albion road, one about two miles from the village,26 and another almost to the Albion town line near the Fowler cemetery. There was one in the village; one on the Troy road; one on the road above E. D. Chase's and another just beyond Charles Ware's near the railroad crossing. All these schools were kept open until 1895, when the school committee and super- visor recommended consolidation.
22. Annual Report of State Superintendent of Common Schools, Maine, 1872 "Appendix". Sprague, Owen, and Nash, Printers, 1872, pp. 114.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., pp. 114-115.
25. Ibid., 1873, pp. 101-102.
26. Almost opposite the Ralph Waning's house, called the Park- hurst school.
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In October, 1894, the committee advised the citizens "to sell and convey the school houses and recommend that a town meeting be called for that purpose."27 Accordingly at the town meeting the Unity citizens voted to sell the "schoolhouse in what was District Number one." James Cook bought it and turned it into a cheese factory.
At the March town meeting of 1895 supervisor Libby, as chairman of the school committee, read the recommendations concerning the revision of the several school districts.
"The superintending school committee hereby submits their report of recommendations of location of the school houses in the town of Unity to be numbered hereafter as follows: location number one: at Unity village to accommodate scholars from and including J. H. Ames, Ben- jamin F. Chase, Eldon Ward, O. J. Farwell and B. B. Stevens' farms.
Location number two: at the crossroads near H. B. Mitchell's dwell- ing house formerly stood to accommodate scholars from and including, Edwin Woods, Stephen Stewart's, John Murch's and J. A. Adams'. This being a union of former districts number ten and twelve.
Location number three: near where William Crosby formerly lived in the old district number nine, to accommodate scholars from and in- cluding E. H. Moulton's, John Smedbury's, Fred Cornforth's, Joseph Stevens', and Joseph Farwell's.
Location number four at Farwell's Corner to accommodate scholars from and including Frank Mussey's, John Perley's, A. W. Fletcher's, Newell Harding's, Samuel Webb's, and Edward Robert's, and the rest of old district number one not included in new district number one.
Location number five: near George Worth's to accommodate the scholars in what was the old district number seven, not now classified.
Location number six between Amaziah T. Woods', and Cookson's Corner to accommodate scholars in what was formerly known as Dis- tricts number five and six.
Location number seven, near Albert Rackliff's to accommodate scholars in what was districts number three and four, not now classi- fied.
Location number eight, near Eben Dodge's.28 In this district we recommend a union with Unity Plantation ... we are with respect your obedient servants."29
James Libby, Jr.
- After discussing this report briefly the inhabitants voted to accept locations one, four, five, seven, but rejected locations two and three. Thereupon, they voted "to locate a school house near William Cros- by's; rejected location two; voted to allow the school house in districts number five and six remain where they are, the supervisor to con- tinue the suspension of districts six and nine if he thinks advisable."30
In 1897 the town built a school called the Kelley school,31 which was in use until the middle nineteen thirties. The Worth and Far- well schools closed their doors due to shortage of teachers during the war and have not reopened. Finally, the scholars on the main road
27. The committee consisted of James Libby, Jr., Otis Cornforth,
N. B. Parkhurst, Fred Hunt, Jacob Ames, W. H. J. Moulton, and A. W. Fletcher.
28. Located on "The Prairie."
29. Unity Town Records, Book III, 1864-1895, pp. 496-497.
30. Ibid, pp. 491-493.
31. Taber, History of Unity, p. 18. This served for a consolidation of Fowler and Parkhurst schools.
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between Albion and Troy were transported to the village schools; therefore the schools were closed. The south Unity people always sensitive about the closing of either the Farwell or Woods schools united and have been quite successful in keeping at least one country school open. The other schools mentioned in the 1895 report func- tioned briefly, but now have been closed about twenty-five years.
Out of the scores of teachers about whom there are existing rec- ords, the short biographies which follow mention a few of the out- standing teachers. Some of them repeated their success in other states, but it was in Unity that they received their education and experience.
Sarah E. Collar was born in Unity on December 29, 1838, the daughter of Samuel Collar. She began teaching when she was a teen- age girl and taught forty-seven years in the public schools of Maine.32 She was a teacher of outstanding ability as testified in the supervisor's report of 1867.
In Miss Collar as a teacher, we find experience combined with un- common ability. She is entirely successful in her endeavor to render to the schoolroom a place of pleasure rather than abhorrence to her scholars. Her manner of instruction is simple combined with thorough- ness, giving her whole time and concentrating all her energies to the advancement of those entrusted to her charge. In short, Miss Collar ranks and is a first class teacher and in the opinion of your committee her school was best in town.33
She taught a good many terms in Unity and later taught in the public schools of Lewiston. She was teaching until almost the time of her death in 1910.
Otis Cornforth was born in Unity in 1833, the son of Richard Cornforth. He taught in several district schools of Unity and was greatly beloved. He began teaching in the late eighteen fifties and continued for more than twenty-five years. In 1867 Cornforth was teaching in district number nine and was already one of Unity's leading educators. The report of 1867 said that Cornforth was one "who fully sustained his former reputation as a teacher."34 "This district merited the approbation of their teacher by their uniform courtesy and kindness" reflecting Cornforth's capabilities. Otis Corn- forth, who was teaching in 1891 in the Farwell Corner School was reported having taught "upwards of fifty terms of school".35
Clara B. Vickery was born in Unity in 1847, the daughter of Eli and Clarissa Vickery. After receiving her common school education in the "red school house" on Quaker Hill, she commenced teaching in the district school, teaching several terms in the same little school house. She was a "first class teacher" and always conducted her schools with great success. A report of about 1875 praised her highly
32. Epitaph on Sarah Collar's tombstone.
33. Unity Annual Report, 1867, "Report of Superintending School Committee."
34. Ibid.
35. Unity Annual Report, 1891. District Number eight.
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saying "it is unnecessary to make further comment or eulogize upon her fine teaching ability."36 The town held her in such high esteem that she was elected in 1875 as supervisor of schools, a rare thing for a woman in those days. At the town meeting of March 1876, after hearing her oral report, the townspeople gave her standing tribute and a vote of thanks for her outstanding work in education.37 Need- less to say, she was reelected to the supervisor's position, which she held until she was married in 1878 to Eugene Boulter.
Lois Varney was born in the town of Albion in 1851, the daugh- ter of Jedediah Varney, who was a leader of the Friends Church in Unity. She received her education in the public schools of Unity, but later attended the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, although she had taught school in the Fowler district and on Quaker Hill before she completed her education.
In 1876, she accompanied the Perleys to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and shortly afterward began tutoring the children of a wealthy Friends family in that city. Later she taught in the schools of Poughkeepsie, New York. As a teacher she had few peers. She was an inspiration to those whom she taught. Her high intellect, and her personality made her an exceptional person.38
Olive Gould was born in 1858 in Albion, of a Unity family on the maternal side. Miss Gould was a very competent and skillful teacher and much liked by the different school districts in which she taught. A school report for the year 1891 spoke of her as "a teacher of su- perior ability." She taught her first term in south Unity and later hired to teach at the village. Her total experience amounted to fifty-two years.39
Laura G. Hunt was born in 1872 in Unity, the daughter of Fred and Lucy (Thompson) Hunt. Miss Hunt went to the village schools of Unity and then attended Maine Central Institute, Pittsfield, Maine. In 1893 she started her teaching career in the village public school. She was a successful teacher from the first, although the supervisor remarked that her discipline was mild as "frequently the case with young teachers."40 Following her Unity teaching she taught in Wa- terville, and Augusta. During the last years of her life she taught the primary grades at Unity village.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL
Before 1846 not much emphasis was placed upon secondary train- ing. Whether a high school was established before this is not known,
36. Ms. Supervisor's Report 1875 in author's possession.
37. Unity Town Records, Book III, 1864-1895, March 6, 1876, p. 251.
38. Every summer about the first of June she came to her old home in Unity from Portland where she lived the last twenty-five years of her life. The author knew her well, and marveled at her remarkable mem- ory and interest in all things past or present.
39. Letter from Olive Gould of Albion, February 17, 1948 and July 16, 1948 to author.
40. Town Reort, March 5, 1894.
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but it is extremely doubtful. However, at this time considerable in- terest was shown and probably the first high school actually open- ed about 1846 or 1847.41 In 1849 William H. Hobby opened a "select school for young ladies and gentlemen" in Unity village. This school was called a High School, where training was offered to those especially desirous of teaching for a profession. Hobby's school opened on September 3, 1849 for eleven weeks. In 1851 and 1852 several public-spirited villagers attempted to establish a Unity Academy. These ten men, James B. Murch, Nelson Dingley, William R. Chand- ler, Josiah Harmon, Joseph Chase, Elijah Winslow, Rufus Burnham, Hiram Whitehouse, Benjamin Fogg, and Dexter Waterman were "constituted a corporation by the name of stockholders of Unity Academy ... and have a common seal, elect trustees, to manage their affairs take and hold estate personal and real, that they may receive by donation the annual income of which not to exceed two thousand dollars and said income to be faithfully applied to the purpose of education."42 Evidently they proceeded no further than this act of incorporation. Probably lack of funds defeated them.
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