USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 42
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"She dreamed the incident with Squire over ex- actly and thought her fate was settled. No, she did not marry him."
Bygone Embden schools - with dipper and bucket at the entrance door - were not the trim establishments of modern days. With stern and capable teachers - from Seven Mile Brook and elsewhere - and with sturdy pioneer scholars what a fond picture to look back on! New methods with newer gen- erations undoubtedly serve the cause of learning well. But those big school rooms of yore, thronged with motly girls and boys! Cheerless rooms if one recalls only the shadeless windows, the teacher's desk bare of flowers and reference books but ele- vated on a little platform by the side next the highway ; cheerless if one recalls the blackboard with gaping joints, the broken crayons and rag erasers, which, if vigorously used, filled the air with chalk dust; cheerless when viewing the one-piece desks and benches, built double of well planed pine whereon boys carved industriously with their jackknives, or the long back bench for older scholars and the row of deskless front benches for reci- tations. How boldly the ancient stove - warped and red from winter conflagrations in its "innards" -stood forth on its brick base and displayed, like a great arm, the long rakish fun- nel that led chimneyward !
But cheerful, throbbing with human interest, were those school-rooms of yore, once the processes of learning were in motion, when teacher's bell sounded to action at 9 a. m. and
it
556
EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
boys and girls, big and little scrambled to their desks and to a semblance of silence.
From Bible reading in the morning to spelling classes when the western sun was getting low the daily routine proceeded through seven winged hours with a fifteen minute recess fore- noon and afternoon and an hour for midday dinner. Good ro- bust work was required. Discipline was rigorous against tend- encies to mischief. There were hard studying with moving lips, figuring with slate and pencil, calls for teacher's help with problems in arithmetic and bashful recitation manners. A school week was four days of two sessions each and one session Saturday. When teacher lived afar all day sessions on alter- nate Saturdays earned a fortnightly two days' visit home.
And who rises to remark that pine board benches were not easy to sit upon, or that window light was bad or that the tin dipper harbored germs for precious tots to quaff ?
CHAPTER XXXIII
SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
Over eastward in Embden - nearer now by time and furlongs than in wilderness days- six rural schools within a few years were well under way. Roughly each district was two miles square. Distances over forest paths and through deep snows handicapped attendance but good instruction, as measured by humble circumstances of the settlers, was provided. Erecting schoolhouses was a slower matter. By 1820 when Maine became a separate state hardly half the little units had made a start toward building.
The districts by 1823. were three up and down the Kennebec road and three up and down the Canada Trail. Each three was rather evenly spaced between 'Anson and Concord boundaries. Nearest the southern line on the respective roads were the John Gray school (No. 1) and the John Wilson school (No. 6) ; mid- way the town were the Stevens-Thompson school (No. 2) and the Dunbar school (No. 5) ; northward were the Bowens Mill, or Caratunk Falls school (No. 3) and the Berry school at Clark corner (No. 4).
Vicissitudes of changing population did not materially affect the six districts thus organized and numbered at the 1823 town meeting. A few household schools there were to convenience dissatisfied farmers or to compose factional disputes. Occasion- ally there were bitter contentions. After voting a new school- house programme in 1819, the No. 2 district besought the town in 1824 to join it to the John Gray school and have the school- house "in the center from Ebenezer Colby to David Stevens house." This was refused till two years later, but no sooner was such action taken than there was vigorous request to undo it. Eventually the town did reconsider its vote of 1826. While early and late in town history there were incessant transfers of families from one district to another, in essential lines, these six
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
eastward seats of learning remained till well into the present century.
Some of them dwindled in scholars, but probably not in schol- arship; three grew into big and. locally famous schools with sufficient funds for two or more annual terms by the best talent of Embden and adjacent towns. One especial school was No. 3 at Bowens Mills, with the Berry and the Dunbar schools not far behind it. Between 1845 - when the town was approaching its heyday - and 1870 the census of scholars in these six eastern districts together with the allotment of school funds to them stood as follows in five year periods :
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
Scholars
Funds
Scholars
Funds
Scholars
Funds
1845
17
$19.12
49
$55.12
56 $ 64.12
1.850
22.
25.08
44.
50.16
42
47.88
1855
30.
71.66
29
55.68
55. 106.37
1860
26.
50.20
18:
36.60
54.
95.34
1865
33.
84.20
18
48.20
42.
100.80
1870
20
69.60
22
76.56
38.
132.24
No. 4
No. 5
No. 6
Scholars
Funds
Scholars
Funds
Scholars
Funds
1845
32.
$ 36.00
40
$ 45.00
2. $ 2.25
1850
22
25.08
51.
58.14
25
28.50
1855
27
52.74
46
77.25
9.
22.58
1860
35
65.50
57
96.90
24. .
46.80
1865
41.
98.40
50.
120.00
22
57.80
1870
36.
125.28
36.
128.78
22 88.12
Meager these sums may have been but zeal for education assured efficient expenditure of money and the schools prospered. Bright pupils progressed to the high school at Solon and to the academy at North Anson. It was a long time before appropria- tions increased and then in the main through state legislation. Embden school funds in 1845, with 443 scholars in the entire town, were $500; in 1855 there were 375 scholars; in 1860 there were 420 scholars for which latter year each scholar drew $1.76. The school fund then amounted to $772.43, of which $582.60 was the per capita tax, $133.87 was from the bank tax and $55.96 was interest from the sales of ministerial lands. Money for
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SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
schools was increased during the Civil War. Embden's 366 scholars in 1864 drew $819.16. They were 351 in 1866 with a total fund of $900.57 but in 1870, when the town had but 308 scholars, each drew $3.48 from a total of $1,123.50, of which $1,042 was per capita tax, $56 interest from sale of lands and $25.50 from bank tax.
By that time teachers were paid higher wages. Women received for the summer terms $20 and upwards, where 25 years earlier prevailing wages had been half of that, or less. Nelson Walker's $114 for the winter term at Holbrook school in 1869 was then the record price for men. John Caswell, who later resided at North Anson, got $29.25 in 1845 for teaching the term at No. 5, then his home district ; Daniel Bunker, Jr., half-brother of Samuel Bunker at North Anson, was paid $19.12 for a term that year in the John Gray school and $21 for another term, the same year, in No. 3, while Moses Campbell of Strong, brother of Given Campbell over on Seven Mile Brook, was teach- ing the winter term in No. 2 for $28.59. Of course a dollar's buying power was considerably more in 1845.
There was an urge about 1819 toward building schoolhouses in these eastern Embden districts when the Cragin school building had been up for a decade and two more school districts were forming on the west side. The John Gray school, No. 1, then designated as the south district, eastern ward, had led off March 30 of the previous year (1818) at a meeting, where Benjamin Colby, Jr., the first selectman, was moderator and Andrew Mc- Fadden officiated as clerk. It was voted then to build a school- house "in the usual form, eighteen feet square, and to set said house in the center of said district from Anson line to Mike Fel- ker's south line." The meeting appropriated $150 "to build said house" and Joseph Young, John Gray, Jr., and Andrew McFad- den were named a committee to superintend. One seventh of the unsettled land in Embden, or 16 parcels of 1757 acres, were subjected to a levy to aid this educational enterprise. It yielded $24.20.
Official record of this meeting indicates that the John Gray district in 1818 comprised the same territory as in 1806 when but
ney
lati en
ati ere
-
-
1
9.5
60
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EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
two school districts were provided for on the Kennebec road. But on Saturday, January 2, 1819, there was a meeting at Moses Thompson's house of freeholders in "the Middle School district, Eastern Ward," with Jonathan Stevens as moderator and Stephen Ayer - who not long before had moved thither from the Canada Trail - as clerk, at which it was voted with some particularity to build a schoolhouse at a cost of $170, Moses Thompson and Jonathan Stevens to oversee construction. The meeting directed that the building be 20 feet long, 16 feet wide, 9 1-2 feet between joists and have "6 fifteen squared windows." There was a vote also "to set it on the east side of the main road by Reuben Thompson's dwelling house" and Jonathan Stevens "agreed to build said house, finish the outside and lay the floor and hang the outside door and have it done by the last of September next for $114. Likewise to underpin the house in a workman like manner. Said door to be hung with iron hinges." An assessment of $29.61 was laid on 17 parcels of unsettled land. owned by non-resident proprietors and comprising 1954 acres, toward paying for this building.
The schoolhouse down the road in the John Gray district was erected promptly. Constable Joseph Young's warrant called for the town meeting to assemble there in April 5, 1819. And this new schoolhouse "in the eastern ward, south class" also sheltered the September town meeting that year. Other than those in the Cragin schoolhouse, these were the only Embden town meetings to have been held at that time in a public structure. Probably Jonathan Stevens likewise reared the new schoolhouse by Reuben Thompson's with dispatch and hung the front door with iron hinges although records are silent on both points. The middle district, eastern ward (No. 2), organized in 1823, appears not to have infringed upon the territory of the south district, eastern ward, but to have been a division of the north district.
The south district, middle ward (No. 6), built its schoolhouse contemporaneously with district No. 2 by the ferry and Reuben Thompson's. Indeed on Jan. 4, 1819 - Monday following the Saturday meeting at Moses Thompson's - there was an assem-
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SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
blage in No. 6 with Andrew McFadden, first selectman, as mod- erator and Benjamin Colby, Jr., as clerk. It was voted to build a schoolhouse at a cost of $250 and "to set it on the ground that the old frame stood on." Whether this meant there had been a previous frame schoolhouse in No. 6 or that "the old frame" was some private structure fallen into decay is not told. Capt. William Thompson, Luther Cleveland and Benjamin Young were named a committee to have charge of the work. This interest- ing item was put down "Voted to build 20 feet square and to have two chimneys in said house." A sum of $55.16 was raised toward this building by a levy upon 19 parcels of unsettled lands of the non-resident proprietors comprising 2314 acres. The first town meeting that assembled there was August 5, 1820. From that date this schoolhouse had nearly all town meetings till it was burned in the late autumn of 1838. The last town meeting there was on September 10 for the election, at which Embden gave Edward Kent 106 votes and John Fairfield 84 votes for governor.
The Bowen's Mill district (No. 3) erected a schoolhouse in 1820-21, when it had 41 scholars. A special tax of $122.65 was levied Jan. 19, 1821, and $38.32 upon 19 parcels of land under non-resident ownership, comprising 1586 acres, to pay for this structure. There were then 16 resident property owners in the district as follows: Benjamin C. Atwood, Cyrus Boothby, Wal- ter Boothby, Daniel Sayage, Christopher Thompson, John Walk- er, Jr., Ralph Wells, Caleb Williams, Cyrus Williams, Daniel Williams, Ebenezer Williams, Francis Williams, Isaac Williams, Joanna Williams, John Williams, and Jacob Young. There was no very great increase of pupils in the next decade and by 1833, the district still had but 41. However, the schoolhouse, for some reason was not acceptable and a meeting was called for June 18, 1825, when with John McFadden (1783-1864) as moderator and with Christopher Thompson, then a farmer of 35 on the John Gray mill lot close by Caleb Williams, as clerk it was voted to raise $180 for the construction of a new building. One article in the warrant was to see "what the district will do with the
H 1
562
EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
old schoolhouse in said district." Nothing was left on record to indicate what action the meeting took on this article.
A special levy of $14 was made upon school district No. 3 Jan. 8, 1832, of which Caleb Williams paid $2.05, Christopher Thompson $1.86 and Cyrus Boothby $1.82. The twelve other heads of families in No. 3, subject to the levy, were: Charles Crymble, Hartley Dunton, William Dunton, William Sally, Ed- ward Savage, John Walker, Ralph Wells,. Chandler Williams, Isaac Williams, John Williams, Sewell Williams, and Zachariah Williams.
The new schoolhouse of 1825, repaired or finished in 1832 stood almost 50 years. It sheltered some of the largest school terms in Embden history and a succession of famous teachers - Thad- deus Boothby, Amos Hutchins, Elisha Purington, Rev. Hartwell Churchill, Zachariah Williams, Warren Thompson, Jerome Spaulding, Simeon Cragin, Jr., Sarah Wentworth, Alden F. Ma- son, Sybil Paine, Amos Heald, Henrietta Daniels, Edward Sav- age, grandson of Dr. Edward; Leroy T. Carleton of Winthrop, Faustina Felker and Lyman C. Jewett. While there were several masters from Seven Mile Brook in this list, Sarah Wentworth and Sybil Paine hailed from the same locality. Sarah Went- worth (1838), daughter of Andrew and a woman of exceptional attainments had taught in the big No. 12 district in '56, '58 and '59 before she came for a term at No. 3 in '60. She married in 1862 Bateman Conforth, a successful man of China, Kennebec County.
The house was replaced in 1873 with a new structure by Daniel K. Williams. The late Willard A. Paul of Solon, afterward a physician of Boston, kept the first term there in 1874, boarding with George C. Patten. On the last day of the term Grant Witham, then a scholar, read a poem, composed by Jotham Witham, his father, which began :
It was in the year of '73 Wherein our district did agree That a new schoolhouse they would build And have it furnished as they willed.
t-
TOP LEFT) SARAH (WENTWORTH) CONFORTH, HENRIETTA (DAN- ELS) ROWE, ELIZABETH P. NORTON IN CENTER, ADDIE L. WALK- IR AND MINERVA McF. HAWES.
565
SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
This house of '73 likewise had a long succession of populous terms and capable teachers. The names of young men and women presiding at that No. 3 school between then and 1890 included Ella M. Thompson, Gertrude Millay (Mrs. Heminger, now of Waterville) daughter of Edgar; Harrison Salley, Byron McIntyre of Solon, Maud A. Parkman who married Leslie Mc- Intyre ; Levi Richardson, Solon, as stern a disciplinarian as Edgar Millay; Sadie L. French, Caddie and Lola Churchill, Emma J. Tibbetts, Jennie Nichols, Sarah Patterson, Naomi Stevens, Emma Atwood, Tensie L. Weymouth and B. L. Williamson, New Port- land; Charles R. Tupper, deceased, Starks; Lora Moore, Anson, sister of Cyrus; Anson Hilton, Roe E. Mantor, J. C. Parsons, Alice E. Dunbar (Mrs. Henry Jackson), Elmer Willard, Charles E. Ball, who continued as a teacher and superintendent till his death in 1926; Nellie Irvine (Mrs. John Howland), Solon; Charles L. Williams; Mark L. Pullen, North Anson; John B. Carville, Stratton ; P. P. Hilton, Moose River, afterward a county commissioner ; Abbie E. Andrews, Sarah Patterson Baker of Solon; Josie Moulton, W. W. Greaton, John F. Suckling and Walter B. Suckling, Moscow, a talented young man who died soon after graduation at Colby in '88; Walter Canham, Tensie L. Allen, Susie Reed, A. A. Knowlton, Willard C. Eaton, J. F. Whitney, Bertha Bailey (Mrs. Ben Roberts), Nellie Hutchins, Edwin F. Ladd (1859-1925), Starks, who graduated from the University of Maine in 1884, became chief chemist and then president of the North Dakota Agricul- tural College and, after holding numerous scientific offices died as a United States Senator; Belle Hunnewell (Mrs. Nelson Curtis, Solon) whose interest in educational matters continued after her husband's death and who now draws a teacher's pen- sion ; and Fred A. Dinsmore, Anson, whose death after a long illness was mourned by a large circle. He -like several others in the above list - taught extensively in other Embden schools. He enjoyed entertaining country people with popular songs, which he sang to his own accompaniment on an organ. One of these selections ran :
566
EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
Oh, it's while riding on an elevated railway There are many funny sights you'll see.
The first schoolhouse in the Berry district (No. 4) at Clark's corner was built in 1830. Joseph Gray, as tax gatherer, collect- ed a special levy of $200.57 from the school district in 1831 for this purpose. There were then 15 property owners resident in No. 4-Levi Berry, Benjamin F. Berry, Samuel Berry, 1st, Lemuel Witham, Eli Clark, Ebenezer G. Clark, Jonathan Carl, Ebenezer Hutchins, Robert Crosby, Ephraim Dunlap, Abram Doe, Samuel Berry, 2nd, George Berry, Micha S. Howard and Richard Delling. The apportionments among these fifteen ran from a minimum of $4.29 for Abram Doe to $26.70 for Levi Berry and $29.11 for Lemuel Witham. Albert E. Millay, nephew of Edgar and a resident of New Portland, taught the last school in this house.
The Dunbar schoolhouse in district No. 5 was authorized Dec. 15, 1825, at a meeting called by the senior Nathan Thompson. With Jonathan Fowler moderator and Robert Wells clerk, it was voted to build "in the northwest corner of Samuel Clark's land or as near that as land can be obtained to set it on." This was east of the Dunbar place of later days and the schoolhouse is still remembered. The annual town meeting of 1839 and two or more meetings in the 40's were held there. The Clark's cor- ner by the Berry school was a farm afterward owned by Eben- ezer, Samuel's son.
There was another meeting of district No. 5 on Dec. 26, 1825, when Robert Wells was the lowest bidder for the construction at $273. It was voted to raise $280 "for defraying necessary charges" and assessment was made accordingly on "polls and estates of the inhabitants and estates of non-resident proprie- tors." Nathan Thompson, who then resided a half-mile east of the Canada Trail, Isaac Salley and Moses Ayer were named the building committee.
A like sequel attended several schoolhouse enterprises of Embden's early days. The first appropriation did not suffice. Thus it was with the No. 6 school of 1819-20. A meeting there
567
SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
Oct. 7, 1826, on warrant to Capt. William Thompson with James Y. Cleveland, moderator, and Reuben Wilson, clerk, was ad- journed to Oct. 20 "to lett the finishing of the school house to the lowest bidder." The finishing was "sold" to Benjamin Young for $159 "to be paid in wheat at $1 per bushel, rye and corn at 75 cents per bushel cash." An appropriation of $170 was voted and James Y. Cleveland, Benjamin Colby, Jr., and Luther Cleveland named to superintend the work.
Aaron Gray (1805-1848) son of John, Jr., sponsored a meet- ing Apr. 17, 1830, called by Joseph Gray (1798-1832) son of Joshua, and by Lemuel Witham, as selectmen, in district No. 1 "to see if the District will move and repair their school house and what method the district will take to finish said school house. "'
This meeting was indecisive and fragmentary entries indicate there may have been a stiff fight over the proposals. William W. Gould, then town constable and tax collector, had difficul- ties in getting the money on a special assessment and Thomas Salley resisted payment of his share of the tax. Apparently some of these proceedings were carried to Norridgewock, then the county seat and one delinquent was taken at least up to the jail door. Another meeting of the district was called for Jan. 15, 1831, on a warrant to Daniel Spaulding. It convened at the residence of John Gray, Esq., "to see what method the dis- trict will take to provide a stove for the school house" and also to outline a method "for the finishing of said house." A plan of action was agreed upon and the following July, Joseph Gray, who had become collector and constable that year, had a commitment of a special schoolhouse tax of $56.67 for district No. 1. The records do not show whether or not this was in addition to a special levy of the previous year for a similar purpose. The levy of 1830 was upon the following townsmen : Benjamin Colby, Hartley Colby, Jonathan Spaulding, Daniel Spaulding, Thomas Spaulding, William Spaulding, Christopher C. Spaulding, Wesley Gray, Aaron Gray, John Gray, Luther P. Gray, John Gray, Jr., Thomas Sally, Elijah Wilson, Joseph Gray, Joshua Gray, Joshua Gray, Jr., heirs of John Gray and
S opr e na
568
EMBDEN TOWN OF YORE
John Wilson. John Gray paid the largest amount, which was $9.88, Benjamin Colby 99 cents, Jonathan Spaulding 18 cents, Thomas Sally 78 cents, John Wilson, 44 cents. No. 1's school money for 1836 amounted to $15.54.
In spite of abundant fuel, the adequate heating of school- houses was quite a problem, particularly as to stoves. Capt. John Walker in the third school district called a meeting for Saturday Jan. 7, 1832, "to see what sum of money the District will vote to buy a stove and make other repairs to said house."
Even as on Seven Mile Brook, the teaching force for these six school seats eastward was supplied in no small measure by not- able family groups. They were recruited considerably from Embden families; also from families in Concord, Bingham, Solon and Anson. From these schools, too, came some teachers of wide reputation - one of them Guy F. Williams from No. 3, long principal of Anson Academy.
Thaddeus Boothby belonged to a large family group of teach- ers in northeast Embden through a period of 30 years. Jewetts of Solon and Felkers of Concord, with whom he was allied by marriage, kept the same schools after Thaddeus had gone to other tasks. He lived halfway between No. 3 and No. 4 and in 1864 his family was transferred from the first to the second of these districts. He started as teacher in the Stevens school (No. 2) with two terms in '48 and '49 when there were 40 scholars. His three other terms in Embden were at No.3 in '53, '56 and '57. Amos Hutchins had been master there in '48. Elisha Pur- ington, then one of the leading schoolmasters of several towns, had two terms there in the same period. It was a difficult school then and long afterwards. There were 60 scholars in the Pur- ington years.
Mr. Boothby's son-in-law, Lyman C. Jewett (1846-1927) of Solon had the same school, No. 3, in '68, '70 and '72, receiving $75 for the term in 1870. He was highly regarded and during his long career was selectman, justice of the peace and school superintendent in his native town. His sister, Lucy C. Jewett, who taught for 30 years and spent her last days, unmarried, on the old Jewett homestead in South Solon, had the Berry school
569
SIX SCHOOL SEATS EASTWARD
in '67 and '69, while their cousin, Daniel Webster Jewett, born in Solon but afterward of Skowhegan, kept the Berry winter term of '70 for $77. Clara A. Jewett, of another branch of that family, who kept No. 3 in '69, was esteemed in all that region. She was born at Sangerville in 1850 a daughter of Walter G. and Flavilla (Wilson) Jewett. When an older sister - namesake of her mother - was burned to death there in 1851 the parents returned to their native Solon, where Clara in 1876, married Sherman Gray of Embden. They lived a few years at Bingham and then at Gardiner, Oregon, where she died in 1926. Mrs. Gray was descended on her mother's side from Rev. Obed Wil- son, pioneer preacher of Starks and Bingham.
Felker kindred, of Concord, whose forbears were of Embden, supplied teachers to the latter town. Webster Felker, of Con- cord Corner, son of Daniel and a brother-in-law of Thaddeus Boothby, was master of the Moulton school of 1853 and five years later of the Berry school. He died young and lies with his parents on a Concord hillside. His brother, Corydon (1833- 1920), was paid $75 in 1859 for teaching the big No. 5 school. Their cousin, Faustina, daughter of Isiah of Concord, kept the Berry school in '66 and No. 3 in '67, and after marrying Syl- vester Healey was many years at Concord Corner. The Healeys, too, were Embden teachers and two of these Concord daughters were on the roster of Embden "marms." Besides Faustina there was her sister, Cyrena F. (1842), who served in '60 and '61 as the teacher in the Berry district.
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