USA > Maine > York County > Parsonsfield > A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine > Part 6
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Chase Boothby has had a long and very successful career as a school teacher,. having taught ninety-five terms, making twenty years. He began to teach in 1834, and has continued down to a very recent period. He was distinguished for imparting knowledge to his scholars, as well as for good government. His dis -. cipline was of the persuasive kind. By encouraging every effort which his scholars
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made, he threw a silken net around them so quietly and adroitly that it was unper- ceived; and they were held by its soft and strong threads in willing and perfect obedience. They were ready to do anything he wished with the greatest alacrity. This I learned from personal observation, having once had the opportunity of examining one of his schools when I was on the board of Superintending School Committee of Parsonsfield. He also had a great faculty of inspiring his scholars with a love for learning, and advancing them rapidly in their studies. His schools were always reckoned as among the best in town.
George O. Burnham commenced teaching in 1840, and taught six years, princi- pally in Biddeford. He qualified himself thoroughly for his business at the Com- mon School in his own town, and at Limerick Academy while under my care. He gained the reputation of being a good disciplinarian, and for aptitude in im- parting knowledge to his pupils. He was one of Biddeford's most popular teachers.
Dominicus Ricker also began to teach in 1840, at the age of eighteen. He taught at Parsonsfield, Topsham, Cherryfield, Newfield, Saco, and Biddeford, the whole time amounting to about thirteen years. For his first school, he received ten dollars per month besides his board, that being the usual price paid at that time for teachers when first beginning to teach. For the last, he was paid sixty dollars per month, including board. He was well acquainted with the human mind, and governed his schools on philosophical principles. He made it an ob- ject, first, to gain the confidence of his scholars by kind treatment, and showing them that he was interested in their improvement; and then of their parents by visiting them at their homes, and conversing with them, in a friendly manner, on such topics as would be interesting to them, never finding fault with their children, but commending them if they had commendable qualities. He be- lieved that, when the good-will of the parents and children is gained, there is generally little difficulty in governing a school. He was industrious and conscien- tious, devoting his whole attention to his school, and preparing himself every day thoroughly for his work. In this way, he created a spirit for study among his scholars, and his schools were, therefore, popular and highly profitable.
Burleigh Pease taught school for a longer time than any other teacher of Par- sonfield of whom I have any knowledge, except Ira C. Doe. He commenced in 1843, and taught thirty years. He brought to his business a preparation and dis- cipline of mind larger than are usually possessed by school teachers, having graduated at Waterville College, now Colby University, and, in addition, had pursued a legal course of study, and been admitted to the bar in Portland. His qualifications, therefore, were of the highest order. He taught in several places, but principally in the city of Bangor. While there he had charge of the Boys' and also of the Girl's High School, and at one time had seventeen assistants. He excelled as a disciplinarian, so much so that his name was sufficient to restore order in the schools which he took after other teachers had been obliged to aban_
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don them. This power of governing is a natural trait, which appeared in his earliest boyhood. He was always noted for his decision, firmness, and indomita- ble perseverance in whatever he undertook. His teaching was thorough, and always gave the highest satisfaction.
Frank P. Moulton has had a large experience in teaching. He began in 1869, in Parsonfield, and taught in Sandwich, N. H., Yarmouth, Turner, and Lewiston. These schools were taught before he graduated from Bates College in 1874. After his graduation he was for some time principal of the High School at Littleton, N. H., and for eight years teacher of Latin and Greek in New Hampton Literary Institution. He has just been elected sub-master of the High School at Wal- tham, Mass. The whole time of his teaching amounts to eleven years. In order to secure good recitations in these languages, he makes it a special object to have his scholars understand the story of what they read, and does not permit any, if possible, to leave the recitation seats till they fully comprehend the literal meaning of the text which they translate. He not only teaches these branches critically in their grammatical forms and idioms, but also makes a prac- tical application of them in acquiring a knowledge of the English language, by selecting some word or words in the lesson, and requiring his scholars to give all the English words derived from them which they can recollect or find in the dic- tionary, thus leading them to form a habit of tracing words to their original, and also making them acquainted with a large number of important English words for future use. He has always been a very successful teacher, as the long time he has been engaged in teaching and the important positions which he has held amply prove.
Among the teachers who have taught a long time, William B. Wedgwood, Cy- rus F. Brackett, and John H. Rand might also be mentioned; but, as their teach- ing has been principally as college professors, they will be noticed among the . college graduates by an able hand, who will do full justice to their eminent abilities.
There are other teachers of Parsonsfield who have pursued the business of teaching for several years, and successfully, but I cannot mention them in detail without extending this address to too great a length. I will name a few. Alvah Doe taught in Parsonsfield, Newfield, and other places about seven years; Samuel D. Marston, in Parsonsfield, Newfield, Sandford, and Shapleigh, and in New Hampshire, at Eaton and Tamworth, six years; Joseph Wedgwood, in Parsonsfield and Saco, and in New Hampshire, at Eaton and Effingham, about six years; John W. Piper, in Newfield, Parsonsfield, Limington, Scarborough, Saco, Wells, and in Virginia and Illinois, about eight years.
I am unwilling, even at the risk of being charged with impropriety for speak- ing of myself, to close these sketches of the male teachers of Parsonsfield with- out enrolling myself among them as one who has taught a long time. I first be- gan to teach in 1828, in Effingham, New Hampshire, and afterward taught in
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Parsonsfield, Limerick, Alfred, and Biddeford. I taught Limerick Academy six years, and Biddeford High School ten, making, with the common schools taught, about twenty years.
Several lady teachers of Parsonsfield have taught for a considerable length of time, and with good success, but I know the names of only a few of them.
Mary Sweat, the sister of the late distinguished Doctor Moses Sweat, com- menced teaching about 1815, and taught in the Morrison district in Parsonsfield, and in Effingham, New Hampshire. She was also, for some time, assistant in Limerick Academy. She was my first teacher, and I was led many a day to and from school by her protecting hand. I remember her, at a later period of my boyhood, as a cultivated lady of genteel manners, and fine personal appearance. She had the reputation of being an excellent teacher, and I have heard my father say that she had a remarkable faculty of comprehending the meaning of an au- thor, and was the best lady grammarian he ever knew. After an absence of about thirty-five years, I had the honor of receiving a call from her as one of her old pupils. She lived to an age of nearly fourscore years and ten (about eighty- nine years), to enjoy the happiness of a cultivated mind and a well-spent life.
Ann Marston was engaged in teaching a little more than six years. She began to teach in 1843, and taught in Kennebunkport, Newfield, Parsonsfield, Tam- worth, New Hampshire, and Biddeford. By her kind treatment of her pupils, she gained their confidence and good-will, and secured thorough recitations in their studies. She had the faculty of preserving good order in her schools, and an aptitude for imparting knowledge. She gained a high reputation as an effi- cient and thorough teacher, and her services were eagerly sought by all who desired good schools and thorough teaching.
Mehitable F. J. Wedgwood began teaching in 1847, and taught fifty-six terms, making about thirteen years-a longer time, I think, than any other female teacher of Parsonsfield. She taught in Newfield, Porter, Parsonsfield, Limerick, Monmouth, Cornish, Freedom, New Hampshire, Wolfborough, New Hamp- shire, Limington, Hollis, Biddeford, and Buxton. She was well qualified, of great industry, and gave excellent satisfaction as an accomplished and thorough teacher.
Nancy Bailey began to teach about 1849. She taught six years in Biddeford, and gave good satisfaction. She was a good disciplinarian, and scholars made good improvement under her tuition. Her sister Caroline also taught four years in the same place, with marked success.
Hannah E. Pray has been a teacher for about five years. She first began to teach in Parsonsfield, in 1868, and afterward taught in Freedom and Ossipee, New Hampshire. She was assistant in the High School at Cornish, in Liming- ton Academy, in Portland High School two years, and in Smithson College, In- diana, one year. She also taught music in Parsonsfield Seminary and other places. By her ability, close application to study, and judicious school manage- ment, she gained an excellent reputation as a competent and successful teacher.
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HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
The first High School in Parsonsfield, of which I have any knowledge, was opened at the Middle Road Village, * through the efforts of Hon. Rufus McIn- tire and Noah Tebbetts, Esq., in the fall of 1830. Although the common schools had been steadily improving from their commencement down to this time, yet they did not afford a sufficient education for the wants of the people. A school was needed in which more branches were taught without incurring the expense of sending scholars out of town, and paying high tuition. This need the High School was intended to supply. It was taught by Bion Bradbury, and continued only three months. It was greatly in advance of the common school. In addi- tion to the common English branches, instruction was given in history, astrono- my, natural philosophy, rhetoric, algebra, and the Latin language. Mr. Brad- bury was an excellent scholar, and the school made good improvement under his tuition. High Schools were afterward kept in different parts of the town for one term, in the fall season, for many years, and had a great influence in improving the education of the people.
The good effect of this temporary High School at the Middle Road Village called the attention of several of the leading citizens of North Parsonsfield to the importance of a higher and more extended course of education than could then be obtained at the High School; and it was then determined to erect an academy building and open a school at that place, to be continued through the year, and in which a regular course of study might be pursued in all the English branches usually taught in academies, and students be fitted for college. The school was opened on the first Monday in September, 1832. It was not incorporated till Feb- ruary 6, 1833, and was called Parsonsfield Seminary. The first trustees were Elder John Buzzell, President; Doctor Moses Sweat, Secretary; Honorable Rufus McIn- tire, Honorable Nathan Clifford, Robert T. Blazo, Esquire, Elder Henry Hobbs, Elder Samuel Burbank, Isaac Felch, Colonel Simon J. Whitten, Samuel Allen, Major Thomas Churchill, and Benjamin McKenney. The institution was in operation about fifty years, from 1832 to 1881. The Principals who had charge of it during this time were Hosea Quimby, Edward P. Weston, Moses M. Smart, t John Fullonton, Oren B. Cheney, Porter S. Burbank, George H. Ricker, John
* I have been informed that a school was opened in this village, for one or two terms, as early as 1818, in which the higher branches were taught, and scholars were admitted from other places. It was kept by a gentleman of the name of Senter, from Centre Harbor, New Hampshire. It was not called a High School. That name is of quite recent origin in this country. I do not remember having heard it used till 1828 or 1830. According to the Cyclopedia of Education, there was no free High School in the United States outside of Massachusetts, forming a part of the common school system, till 1837, when the Phila- delphia High School was established. In Scotland it dates back to quite a remote period, as in the case of the Edinburgh High School, which was in operation in the early part of the sixteenth century.
t He was also Principal of the Biblical School, of which he was largely the originator, and which was established, in connection with the Seminary, by the Free-Will Baptist denomination in 1840, being designed for the education of young men for the ministry. In 1842, it was removed to Lowell, Massa- chusetts, and then, in 1844, to Whitestown, New York. He was Principal of the school ten years, from 1840 to 1849, terminating his connection with it at Whitestown. It is now located at Lewiston, Maine.
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A. Lowell, George S. Bradley, Jonathan G. Leavitt, Reuben V. Jenness, Mal- colm McIntire, William R. Thompson, Addison Small, Israel P. Quimby, Mad- ison K. Mabry, James Linscott, Orestes A. Kenerson, and Thomas F. Millett.
Of the wisdom of those men who founded Parsonsfield Seminary, no one can doubt. The beneficial influence which it exerted throughout Parsonsfield and other towns in Maine and New Hampshire, and in other States, cannot be over- estimated. Teachers in great numbers were educated here, and others laid a solid foundation on which to build the superstructure of the professions which, as doctors, lawyers, clergymen, or scientists, they intended to pursue. Many were fitted for college, who afterward completed a college course, and have pur- sued a successful career in the different occupations and professions in which they chose to engage. Members of Congress, presidents and professors of col- leges, governors and missionaries to foreign lands are among the numbers who obtained their early education at this Seminary. There is scarcely a State in the Union in which there is not some person who once attended this school, to say nothing of those in foreign lands. But this institution is closed. The buildings stand in their pristine beauty, but no sound is heard in their halls. They are in- habited only by the pleasant memories of the past; but the same education, or a better one, is now needed by the people of Parsonsfield as was then furnished by that Seminary.
Have we anything to take the place of that grand old school ? I think we have. It is the Parsonsfield Free High School, which was opened in the Seminary build- ing in September, 1881, with Harry L. Staples as Principal, who has the honor of being the first teacher of that school. His successors are David T. Timberlake, Silas A. McDaniel, and Morius Adams. The town was fortunate in having one of its own citizens of sufficient means and generosity to endow such a school. Such a citizen deserves more than a passing remark.
Elisha Piper was born January 22, 1796, and was left an orphan at seven years of age, his father, Benjamin Piper, having died at the early age of thirty-three years. He was the oldest child, and the care and support of the family, consist- ing of a mother, brother, and two sisters, naturally devolved on him. Having had the assistance of a hired man for a few years, he assumed, at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, the entire management of the farm left by his father, and with the aid of his younger brother, Benjamin Piper, made it, before he was thirty years old, by superior cultivation, walling and cross-walling, and by im- provements of buildings, one of the handsomest and best farms in town. He was a person of uncommon industry, of a kind disposition, and of the highest integrity and moral character; and by these qualities, he gained the confidence and respect of the community in which he lived. Although he had only a com- mon school education himself, he desired to confer the advantages of a higher education on his successors. By his persistent labor, genius, and good judgment, he acquired a large property for one having no greater facilities for accumulating
GEO.W. WALKER & CO. BOSTON 4
Elisha Chiper
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HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
wealth, as he never engaged in trade or speculation of any kind. All this prop- erty, the accumulation of a lifetime of eighty-one years, and amounting to eleven thousand and fifty-six dollars, he gave freely and of his own accord to his native town, to establish a Free High School for the education of all its inhabitants. He died March 22, 1877. He had no children of his own, but by this noble gift he has made all the children of the town his by adoption; and, although he has rested from his labors here personally, he is still working with his money, and doing perhaps a greater work than while living. His name will be held in grate- ful remembrance by the young and the old in generations yet to come. May others who have the means imitate his example.
It is evident that he intended that the High School should be equal, at least, to the old Seminary, but be placed on a more permanent basis, and, besides, be free. It becomes a question how this idea can be best carried out to its full ex- tent. I hope that it will not be thought inappropriate if I venture to give my views on this subject.
First, the school, it seems to me, should be permanently located, which, I have no doubt, was the design of its founder. In my opinion, a great part of its suc- cess depends on this. Teachers want a permanent home. Parents, when they send their children to a school, want to know what accommodations they are to have, and when they have found them satisfactory, they wish that they should remain there undisturbed till they have completed their course of study. Besides, apparatus, cabinets, and libraries can not be removed from place to place with safety. The place where the school is located is of the first importance. It should be a place which is easy of access to all the inhabitants of the town. It should also be one which has conveniences for boarding, so that scholars, especially young ladies, will not be obliged to walk long distances in the winter season, or in rainy weather, and thus expose themselves to sickness and other inconveniences. It should be a place where there is an opportunity of attend- ing religious services regularly on the Sabbath, and, if it could be, a place which possesses natural beauties, where the scholars would be inspired with a love of nature, and acquire a taste for the beautiful. No donations for increasing the en- dowment can be expected until the school is permanently located.
Second, courses of study should be prepared for the High School, and also a course for the common schools of the town. Regular classes should be formed in the latter, and be continued unbroken from one term to another, till the mem- bers are qualified to enter the High School. They should be examined by the Superintending School Committee of the town, at the end of the school year, and receive a certificate of their qualifications, which would entitle them to admis- sion to the High School.
The course of study for the common schools should embrace spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history of the United States, and a manual of morals and politeness. There should be for the High School
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an English course of three years, a mixed course of four years, and a classical course of three years, for preparing scholars for college. These courses should be modeled after those of the best high schools in the state; and, if so, the Parsonsfield Free High School will be equal, if not superior, to the old Semi- nary in its best days. The English course should embrace, at least, English grammar and analysis, arithmetic, book-keeping, natural philosophy, chemistry, algebra, rhetoric, physiology, history, geometry, zoology, botany, trigonometry and surveying, geology, mental philosophy, and moral philosophy. The mixed course should embrace the studies of the English course, and the Latin and French languages. The classical course should embrace the Latin and Greek languages, and the other branches now required for admission to college.
It is thought by some that the Latin and Greek languages should not form any part of a high school course of study. It is said that they are dead lan- guages, and are of no use to us now. This can hardly be said, with propriety, in the sense in which the term is generally understood by the people-that is, that they have entirely passed away, and have now no connection with any other language whatever. They are both spoken, in a modified form, at the present time-the Latin in Italy, called the Italian language, and the Greek in Greece- not very much more changed than the English language has been since the time of Robert of Gloucester, the poet, who wrote in the thirteenth century.
It is said by recent philologists that a proportion, varying from ten to thirty per cent of our English words commonly used by our best writers, is derived from the Latin and Greek .* The proportion so derived, when compared with all the words in the English language, is much greater. "A trustworthy estimate of the derivative words found in our great dictionaries makes nearly five-sevenths of them to be of classical derivation," t that is, from the Latin and Greek. New words derived from these languages are added every year, as new branches of science are developed. The scientific names of objects belonging to the natural sciences, as botany, zoology, and physiology, are nearly all Latin, or Greek Lat- inized. So in medicine and law, there are many words, phrases, and sentences which are all Latin, and need to be understood. While learning the Latin, we are also acquiring a large part of four other languages-the Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, which are founded upon it, and, in a great measure, grew out of it. These languages are often called, by philologists, dialects of the Latin. Besides this, a large vocabulary of English words and synonyms is ac- quired which are necessary to fit scholars to become ready speakers and good writers, and which can be acquired in no other way.
The study of the Latin and Greek languages can not be excluded from our high schools without serious detriment to them. Every high school should be able to fit students for college, otherwise many a brilliant scholar will be de- prived of a college education, not being able to incur the expense of going from
* Professor Whitney's Life and Growth of Language.
t The same author. Also Trench-English Past and Present.
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home to be fitted at some other school. If, however, a scholar can remain only a year or two in the high school, it would be better for him, unless he intends to pursue a profession, to devote his attention to English branches. Important as these languages are, as being the basis of a thorough education, and indispensa- ble to the professional man and the scholar, too much attention has undoubtedly been given to them in our colleges in former times for the generality of stu- dents; and some of these institutions, seeing this, have left the study of them optional after the freshman year, thus giving more time to be devoted to the natural sciences, which have become of so much more practical importance than formerly. It may be thought by some that it is a long time to devote to study, to complete any one of the courses that have been named for the High School, but it should be remembered that, aside from the happiness which the attain- ment would bring to the individual, much more can be accomplished in life, in the same time, by the educated than the uneducated person. Educated labor is also much better remunerated than uneducated; and, when usefulness is consid- ered, the difference is much greater in favor of education.
Third, the school should receive an additional endowment of at least three times the amount now possessed, and be continued through the year, with the usual vacations, unconnected with any other school, to make it of the high order necessary to meet the present wants of the town. The money should be held by the town as a sacred trust, and invested in town, county, state, or gov- ernment securities, so as to be forever free from the possibility of being lost. A good school must have good teachers. The qualification of teachers of first- class high schools are very extensive, embracing the whole circle of the sciences. Probably no profession requires more learning. They must, therefore, be liber- ally paid for their services, so that they may be able to make teaching a profes- sion for many years or a lifetime, as no teacher of such a school can be useful, in the highest degree, till he has had an experience of two or three years in the business, and time to perfect himself in the numerous branches of learning re- quired to be taught. Teachers should not be often changed, as it usually greatly retards the progress of the school.
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