USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 21
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per order, Gorham Parks, Chairman
The most significant fact about these proposals is that they reveal an effort to correct the same evil conditions that prevailed in 1800, and that two decades had made little progress in reducing to conformity and cooperation the insurgent character of these independent school districts.
This report was adopted by the town and a copy sent to the clerk of each school district. Furthermore, it was voted that the General School Committee report annually "the situation in the schools at such meetings as they may think proper, and that they serve without pay." This report was little more than a gesture or an expression of wishful thinking. To be sure the problems were focused, but that had been done before, and we shall find the same enumeration of evils running through the committee reports for years. By 1821 a small consolidation of school districts had been effected, but little more accomplished. Deacon Samuel Morse, a former teacher, was agent in the central district, and here there was progress but always limited to the grudging concessions the back-district folk were willing to convey to the villagers.
In 1820 Maine became a state and its first school laws in 1821 were modelled closely on those of Massachusetts. Hence the situ- ation was little changed. There was no stipulation as to the length of the school year, but a new requirement was laid down, to wit, that there should be spent on schools a minimum of forty cents for each inhabitant. The great weakness of divided authority still remained inherent in the system. In fact, Maine school laws be- tween 1820 and 1845 aided little in the progress of education. They limited themselves merely to defining and clarifying the status quo.
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The only laws of lasting significance were: provisions for collect- ing school statistics (1825 and 1833); the setting aside of twenty townships of the public lands, the proceeds from the sale of which were to be used as a permanent school fund (1828); and the use of the state bank tax for public instruction (1833). These financial provisions were destined over the years to add substantially to the development of the school system.
One may wonder who the teachers were in these years. An exact identification is difficult even with the family names avail- able, but James G. Groton of the General School Committee sub- mitted to the town in 1825 a bill for his services in examining teachers, masters, and mistresses. Both lists contain many familiar names and show that the daughters of some élite families were not above trying a hand at schoolteaching. The lists follow. Mistresses: Wellman, Levensaler, Caroline Howard, M. Howard, Trowbridge, Lash, Parker, Eliza Davis (grandmother of Clara and Dora Gay), Currier, Larry, Cushman, Davis, Cole, Rawson, Kaler, Clark, and Bruce. Masters: Miller, Blackstone, Daggett, Haskell, Adams, Moore, Stilkey, Light, Bruce, Lindley, Davis, Sides, Eaton, Perci- val, C. Kaler 5th, and Larmond. This list shows a number of mas- ters less by only one than the list of mistresses, the balance being explained by the fact that the men invariably taught the winter schools when the larger and older males of school age received their modicum of education. In these years it was a hardy female indeed that ever essayed instruction in a winter school.
Another element of curiosity in the modern mind is how this district system functioned: very honestly and changelessly in a few districts and very badly in many others, depending on the district and its agent. Fortunately the clerk's record5 in one of the better managed districts has been preserved, which affords an insight into the simple operation of the school in District No. 3, in the early century. As previously indicated, each district managed its own school. A warrant was issued by the selectmen and served on some member of the district requiring him to summon a meeting of all voters in the district. At this meeting a moderator was elected to preside, a clerk to record the proceedings, and a School Agent who was the purchasing agent, the hiring agent, and the accounting agent. At the end of his term he settled with the clerk who was the auditing officer. For example, Henry Winslow, agent for District No. 3 for 1825, drew from the town treasury $31.35; paid Caroline Howard, the teacher, $31.35.
Ezekiel Winslow, agent for 1827, drew from the treasury $40.95. Paid Charles Bruce, teacher, $25.73; paid Caroline Howard $13.00; paid Peter Ludwig for wood $1.89. The price of a year's
5Record of Clerk for District No. 3, 1825-1874, in possession of Mr. Ruel Eugley, Waldoboro, Me.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
supply of wood and the teachers' pay are interesting features. Prob- ably due to the number of the children in the district and the lim- ited size of the schoolhouse at this time, a girls' school was held for a term and a boys' school for a term. For example, in the year 1829 it was voted in the district that one third of the money for the year be expended on "a womans' school." The female session usually started the second Monday in May or the first in June, and the men's school the first Monday in October, an arrangement which would release the boys for the spring and summer work. In winter the house was heated by a wood fire, and the wood supply was usually furnished by the lowest bidder. In 1831 Peter Prock fur- nished, delivered, and piled up in the entry the half year's supply for $2.42, and the second half year's supply for $2.50. In 1836 Peter Ludwig furnished the full year's supply for $4.34. For the year 1837 the full expense of maintaining a school in this district was as follows:
Paid Boyed Miller for teaching the mens' school
$26.00
Paid for a dipper
.08
Paid for a chair
.75
Paid for a pail
.33
Paid for wood
2.50
Paid Margery Kennedy for teaching the womans' school 14.00
Total expended
$43.66
In 1840 this district built a new schoolhouse. Its size and structure may probably be taken as typical of schoolhouses of the period. The building was 24' x 20', with walls nine feet high and with five windows in the body part with fifteen lights each. It was bid off to James Crammer for $199.00. Another item of interest in the clerk's record is that of May 2, 1846, when it was "voted that boarding the mistress be sold to the lowest bidder. Sold to George Achorn for 70 cents per week." A rather unusual expense for the period was the sum of thirty-nine cents paid to Peter Ludwig for washing the schoolhouse. There was also an outburst of generosity in 1852, when it was voted "to have all this year's money expended in a womans' school to begin in September." Apparently the dis- trict sometimes had the conviction that education was not essential to males. This record runs down to 1874. The annual expense for the school in this year was $132.50, an increase of three hundred per cent in forty years, which would seem to show a slowly grow- ing realization that education was something worth spending money for.
The inadequacy of the educational setup in the town was recognized by the most discriminating families and attempts were made at having private schools, of which we catch only an occa-
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sional glimpse. For example, Bertha Brown, writing to Jane Ann Reed in Boston around 1834, observes: "Miss Lashe's school is the only one in the village this winter. How do you think Mrs. - would succeed with a school in this place? I think if she could add French to other branches she might obtain a number of schollars here." Colonel I. G. Reed, writing to Charles in Boston under date of November 2, 1837, remarks: "Mr. Whitman keeps a private school and Mary attends it," and again under date of August 11, 1841, "Edward is still keeping what is termed here 'a high school' and has 24 scholars. He gives great satisfaction to parents and chil- dren and appears to be pleased with the employment."6 Other fam- ilies resorted to instruction in the home at the hand of tutors or the head of the family. For example, in 1837 John Bulfinch inserted an article in the town warrant and secured the sanction of the town "to be set off from his district and draw his own school money." Deacon Morse and the Reverend D. M. Mitchell sought the same privilege in 1838, but the town voted "to dismiss this article from the warrant," and for the time being at least no further favors were accorded to the villagers in such matters.
By 1837 the school appropriation had risen to $1250.00, but further indications of progress were few. Reaction was still in the saddle and the efforts of the school committee to assert even its legal rights in district affairs were checked by the town in the meeting of April 2, 1838, when it was voted "that the Superintend- ing School Committee be directed not to visit the schools unless requested by the agent and that in case of difficulty in the district." This vote was a clear indication of existing discord, and of the dis- tricts rejecting even the very limited central controls required by law.
Regularly at the meetings through these years it was voted that "each school district be authorized to choose their own agents," which kept the control of school affairs a rather strictly district matter. The Reverends Mitchell and Starman held positions on the school board for many years, the other members varying from year to year. By 1840 the school appropriation had advanced to $1360.00, which cannot be construed as an increased interest in education, but rather to the increase in population and conformity to state law which required an appropriation of forty cents to each inhabitant for support of the schools. This is shown rather clearly in the appropriation of 1841 which set no stipulated sum but sim- ply voted "to raise for schools the sum required by law."
By 1842 the back-district folk, sure of their own power, gra- ciously voted at the meeting of March 7th that "the central school [District No. 6] be empowered to choose its own school commit-
"Letters in possession of Dr. Benjamin Kinsell, Dallas, Texas.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
tee and agents who shall have all the powers that can be granted by Section 19th, Chapter 17th, of the Revised Statutes." Such a vote reflected the desire to limit the jurisdiction of the School Committee to the central district. Apart from this consideration and from the legal angle, this vote could carry no weight, and its only value lay in the fact that whatever was done in the central district would be beyond the criticism and the political retaliation of the back-district people. Hence while meaningless it was doubt- less expedient. With a free hand in the village area the district by request proceeded to annex Squire Bulfinch's bailiwick and those of other border residents who were eager to share in the coming educational dispensation.
Fifteen hundred dollars for schools was the annual appropri- ation for a number of years through the fifth decade of the cen- tury, and the personnel of the committee remained made up of the more competent village folk. In 1844 Mr. Starman failed of re- election for the first time in many years and the committee was made up of James Groton, Parker McCobb, and John H. Kennedy, but in 1845 Mr. Starman was re-elected to membership. Despite the fact that the members of the committee were able men, every effort made at progress was nullified by the district organizations whose agents for the most part were the complaisant tools or vic- tims of district mass psychology.
Up to this point this picture of the first forty-six years of nineteenth-century education in Waldoboro has been pieced to- gether from fragments of evidence. That it is not untrue or exag- gerated becomes entirely clear from the more detailed documen- tary evidence furnished in the years 1847 to 1850, for beginning with 1847 the revised statutes required the Superintending School Committee to make an annual report on the condition of the schools. These reports, to be sure, are the work of laymen, and some are stereotyped and superficial, while others are courageous and penetrating, depending on the personnel of the board, but all are highly revealing of the evils pervading the town's educational system of the mid-century, for they were so obtrusively apparent as to be obvious to the lowest village nitwit. These reports tell the story more clearly than can any comment or analysis of the his- torian, and are, as they should be, presented here in an excerpted form as an accurate appraisal of the merit of our school system, unchanged and unchanging through the first fifty years of the nineteenth century.
The first annual report was made to the town at the meeting of March 15, 1847. In it the committee conceded the laxness of its own administration, but exonerated itself in a large measure by placing the blame on the district agents; of the teaching staff some
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teachers were adjudged excellent. Others it alleged were not defi- cient in mental qualifications but were lacking in "an aptness to teach." The committee then advised that an investigation should be made of all teachers to see how many had received the required legal certificate from the committee. Such a recommendation was clearly an unmitigated piece of pussyfooting, for any responsible committee should have known this better than anyone else, and in lieu of such a recommendation should have presented the facts to the town as a matter of its responsible knowledge. It next recom- mended that it be empowered by the town to "appoint a certain day for the examination of teachers," a power it already held under state law. Such an attitude and such recommendations are the best evidence of the degree to which its powers had been usurped by the districts, and of its own impotence in the face of the political power wielded by the back-district folk.
· The same confession of weakness runs through the balance of the report, but since it reveals conditions as they were, the con- clusions of the report are here offered:
In regard to the schools your Committee cannot give as favorable report as a whole, as they wish your schools would warrant them to give. Some schools were highly satisfactory both in their discipline and im- provement, and reflect much honor to them and their teachers, while some other schools have been very irregular and unprofitable, not only because of immediate influences in those schools, but by influences and temptations outside the schools. In some cases a large number of scholars left the school before it closed, and were very irregular and tardy in attendance when they did go. And though your Committee have not expelled but one scholar from school, yet some may have left fearing they would be expelled if they did not go in advance. And though your Committee withhold names now, they would suggest that in the future the Committee embrace in their annual Report the names of all scholars expelled from school, and the offence for which they were expelled as "a terror to evil doers," and a great safeguard to the peace and improve- ment of our schools.
Your Committee would also inquire whether the time has not come and the state of our schools does not require that we should be furnished with teachers of a higher and much higher order of qualifications than many of those who have formerly attempted to teach our youth. We need those who are qualified to teach scholars who cannot avail them- selves of the privileges of our Academies and High Schools. Studies of a higher order than those now taught in our schools would be of sensible benefit. . . . Your Committee are deeply impressed with the importance of a more general interest in and study of English Grammar, - the foun- dation of all language. .. . In some schools not more than one to five, in others not more than one to ten who should be attending to grammar, are now paying any attention to it.
Strangely enough this report was followed promptly by a vote of acceptance, which was little more than a formality in that it left the vicious dual management of the schools untouched. But
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
elsewhere there was progress. Mr. Starman, old and ill, did not stand for re-election to the school committee. The next year a Teachers' Institute was established for a term not exceeding three weeks and was held in connection with the examination of teach- ers. This was in reality a school for teachers which aimed at in- struction in the basic techniques of teaching, and at the introduc- tion of common methods and a uniform system in the town's schools. For the brief period of its existence it was under the direc- tion of Albion P. Oakes.
Of even greater importance was the election of the new Con- gregational minister, the Reverend John Dodge, as chairman of the school committee. In this role he proved himself a man of courage, energy, and vision, and under his direction there were some gains. He did not hesitate to call things by their real names, to assert the power of the committee against the district agents by dismissing their incompetent teachers, expelling unruly pupils, pub- lishing their names, and facing the town with cold, unpalatable statistics in reference to the conditions in its schools. His report is the most illuminating document at hand and to date in our sketch of early Waldoboro schools. Its gist follows in abbreviated form as presented to the Town Meeting of March 20, 1848. The statis- tical section affords a real insight into the casual attitudes of the population with reference to schooling.
The document shows twenty-nine districts in the town and 1620 scholars. This year there was available $1687.98 for the sup- port of the schools. By this money twenty-seven summer schools and twenty-three winter schools were "kept." Nine of the sum- mer teachers and eleven of the winter teachers were from out of town. In the districts where winter schools were held, there were 1583 scholars. The whole number in attendance at these schools was 887, and the average attendance was 637. The committee ex- amined fifty-three teachers
which occupied 46 days; spent 55 days visiting schools; removed one teacher from District No. 4 on account of failure in discipline, and ex- pelled six scholars for refusing submission to the rules of the school, viz., Warren Sidelinger, Dist. 28; Washington Shuman, Dist. 10; Solomon Broadman, Josiah Mink, Benjamin and Aloin Bornheimer, Dist. 11 .... In some cases the shortness of the schools and the irregular attendance have rendered the improvement very small. ... Schoolhouses in several of the districts are an insurmountable barrier to proper progress in edu- cation .... One indispensable appendage to every schoolroom is a black- board,
and the report recommends that each district have one.
In some of our schools there can hardly be said to be any system at all, and no two schools in town, except taught by the same individual, bear any resemblance to each other. .. . There were ten teachers whose
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services we believe the town would be better off without. ... The es- tablishment and praiseworthy success of our Academy the past year has materially affected the standing of some schools. Pupils from various districts have given attention to Algebra with other higher branches. . . . In the future your Committee recommends the winter teachers be quali- fied and examined accordingly.
This report is the plainest and most candid summary of con- ditions in Waldoboro schools up to 1848. It undoubtedly made enemies for Mr. Dodge. Whether it was instrumental in forcing his resignation from the school committee is not known, but he did resign in November 1848. This fact seems to have altered not at all the new note of vigor and fearlessness in the policy of the committee, and the Reverend O. B. Walker, the Baptist pastor, carried on even more valiantly than Mr. Dodge, and in the 1849 report hinted at evils never before mentioned in connection with the administration of schools in the town. This report spared no one and no thing.
It opens on a note of sincere regret respecting the resignation of the former chairman, Mr. Dodge, and then proceeds to the candid evaluation of the contribution made by Squire Bulfinch, who had been appointed to the vacancy, disposing of the Squire's contribution in these words: "John Bulfinch, Esq., was chosen to fill the vacancy, which change in the Board will account for all the apparent neglect to those schools which our former chairman visited with such prompt regularity." The Report shows twenty- eight districts in the town and then adds quite frankly "though one district, No. 8, has neither schoolhouse, schollars or money." The report then continues: "The number of schollars as returned last May is 1661, and the money raised for their benefits $1782.57. In view of these facts the question arises where are the 1661 schol- lars that so small a number attend school, and of your $1782.57, - not all of that sum is expended for school services." This was a new development or perhaps the disclosure of one already long existent. It certainly must have jarred the assembled citizenry, for of all things money was always the first to command their interest and consideration.
The committee then reported that only a part of the school registers had been returned, and that some of those returned were very incomplete. Without these registers it was impossible to com- plete the attendance, but "the committee, reckoning from the reg- isters returned, [find] less than one half have been regular in their attendance," and the committee continues, "the great importance of a more general and regular attendance should claim your serious attention." The committee goes on to state that "in the examination of the registers of five districts there are $48.62 more than has been expended for school instruction. .. . " [Italics mine.] The inade-
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quacy of houses is stressed. "It is impossible for schollars to learn when suffering from cold and every storm pelting their heads through broken windows." There are still no blackboards, and too much of the school money goes to out-of-town teachers, and it adds significantly: "Among the thronging competitors those gen- erally have been most successful who gave the lowest bid for the district. ... Cases have occurred where persons conscious of their unfitness teach without certificate." This led the committee to recommend that "no agent allow a teacher to commence school without first presenting this evidence of his lawful qualifications." The report stamped its approval on the Institute but added: "Though a superior practical teacher was secured to conduct it, it is to be regretted that so few of the male teachers availed them- selves of its benefits . . . be it to the praise of your female teachers 22 out of 28 attended."
Included in the report is a resolution of appreciation passed by the Institute "to the Superintending School Committee and to Mr. Albion P. Oakes, our able instructor for his indefatigable labour and deep interest." The expense for the Institute for the past year, it may here be added, was $42.96. The report continued with the recommendation that "the annual report be published with all the statistical facts contained in the school registers." The report calls attention to the state law whereunder teachers forfeit their pay "unless the register for his or her school, properly filled out, completed and signed, shall be deposited with the School Com- mittee." The report then added that "one third of the teachers have failed to comply with this law." This report was signed by the Reverend O. B. Walker and William H. Sides. Squire Bulfinch withheld his signature for obvious reasons.
The town was certainly impressed by this report, probably because it had long been vaguely aware of the scandalous state of its educational system, and because of the suggestion of the mis- use of public funds. It promptly approved the committee's rec- ommendations; appropriated $50.00 for the continuation of the Teachers' Institute; ruled that no district agent employ any teacher unless they produce a certificate from the Superintending School Committee; instructed the selectmen not to draw any orders for school money until the teachers had deposited their school registers with the school committee, and ordered that the report of the com- mittee be printed next year for the benefit of the town.
This was progress with a rush, that is, provided the instruc- tions issued were adhered to - only a remote probability. It seems a certainty that this committee kept the ball rolling so long as the two determined and energetic pastors held positions on the board. They saw to it that the Institute became a regular service, and at
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the March meeting of 1850 the first printed report of a school committee was distributed by the Reverend O. B. Walker. It was unfortunate that the pastorate of the Reverend Walker was ter- minated in 1850, and that the Reverend John Dodge who re- placed him did not remain in Waldoboro after 1853.
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