USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 48
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XLVII
THE LIGHT BREAKS
The sense of value imposes on life incredible labors, and apart from it life sinks back into the passivity of its lower types.
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
TR HE END OF THE NINETEENTH century saw the turn of the corner in the drab annals of education in Waldoboro. To be sure, the change did not come as a quick illumination from Heaven, but it came slowly and at first with frequent reversion to the patterns of an older day. There was for a while a floundering period, with the town groping for an adjustment to an impinging world in which the tempo of change seemed to be ever accelerating. Many of the changes in the schools were forced rather than voluntary. The shrinking pupil population was compelling the town to con- solidate some of its now numerous tiny districts, and to build new schoolhouses in locations sufficiently central to serve changing necessities. It was to meet such needs that the houses at Flanders' Corner and Winslow's Mills were built in 1897 and 1898, the two representing a consolidation of four older and smaller school dis- tricts.
There were also signs of a changing psychology in the town in its relation to its educational obligations. Some evidence of this may be found in 1897, when $500 was raised for a "Free High School," and when, for the first time in the hectic life of this institution, no strings were attached as to location. The next year the same amount appropriated, specified that the school should be in District No. 6 (the village), and for the first time the Super- intendent of Schools was elected by ballot in open Town Meeting. William H. Miller, a local attorney, was the first superintendent so elected. It is highly doubtful if this method of choosing the head school official was an unmixed blessing, for annually he was exposed to the spite and grudges of the electorate, and these were always numerous, especially so if the official had been competent and fearless in his administration of school affairs. And so it came to pass that there was a rapid rotation in office on the part of
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superintendents. As the earth turned they came and went, Lawyer Miller in 1898-1899; Katherine F. Hennings in 1899-1900; Dr. George H. Coombs in 1900-1901, and Joseph B. Welt in 1901. Here the mad march slowed down for a time and the succession clung to Mr. Welt for a few years, in some degree, perhaps, due to his political adroitness, or perhaps to the fact that he was a representative of the back-district areas and successfully sensed the psychology of his fellow suburbanites. On the whole this method of selecting superintendents, which continued for many years, was an evil second only to that of the old district agent, for it rendered practically impossible the introduction of any program involving continuity into the schools, and it discarded the services of a man as quickly as he may have acquired a little experience and a spot of competence. Clearly the old era of bungling was not entirely over.
Around the turn of the century the high school appropria- tion was holding around the $500 level, and the amount raised for "common schools" in 1900 had reached the $3,200 mark. There was, however, at this time no real consistency in such financial support. It varied according to the mood of the voters, or as times were "good" or "hard." The time of the expert in education had not yet come, and the office of the top school official carried with it small respect. Year after year it was voted that "the salary of the Superintendent of Schools shall not exceed the minimum required by law," but as a matter of meager justice he was allowed $2.00 extra per diem when he used a team to visit the schools in the outlying districts. In 1901 the appropriation dipped. The high school received $300 and the common schools $2,804. From this time on with occasional setbacks, however, the amounts raised for education climbed slowly, reaching in 1904 the $800 figure for the high school and $3,400 for the districts. There was also some further consolidation of schools, but this was an issue that could be handled only in repeated tries.
In the main the town voted rather consistently to have schools maintained in districts where the number of pupils was less than the minimum required by law, although it sanctioned no in- crease in appropriations for the maintenance of such schools. In fact, it was highly satisfied with this thin dilution of education, but even the sheerest stupidity seems ultimately to break over into a sense of awareness of itself, and in a December meeting of 1907, probably made up largely of villagers, a committee was appointed "to reorganize the number of the various schools in this town and submit a report." The warrant of the same meeting carried in article 37 the query "to see if the town will vote to join a school union in employing a Superintendent of Schools." This was the
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first step toward a pattern which ultimately was to prevail through- out the state, remove from the hands of amateurs the educational destiny of the town, and place it under the control of men trained in this specific field. It was the beginning of the most fruitful edu- cational policy in the town's history, but at this time it was a rather radical gesture, and the meeting voted to leave the matter to the discretion of the School Committee. This, to be sure, was the equivalent of a death sentence for the measure and so it proved, but it was an idea that would not stay buried.
In 1908 Joseph B. Welt's administration of schools came to an end. This tenure of eight years was a remarkable feat in Waldo- boro education, and one that had required real political finesse. His regime in the schools had been a routine one. It was honest and conscientious, but followed the old rule-of-thumb procedures that had been the vogue in the schools since the time when men re- membered naught. He was succeeded by Frank A. Perry, a native of Massachusetts, and a man of some academic training. Mr. Perry gave to the schools the customary routine administration, which was all perhaps that the town deserved, as it continued its annual practice of voting that "the Superintendent of Schools receive the smallest amount per diem allowed by law." The only merit in this stipulation lay in the fact that the town had reached the point where it recognized at least the laws of the state. Mr. Perry went out of office in 1914. His short and faltering step in the direction of modernization of the schools may possibly have had an echo in article 20 of the March 1914 warrant, which read: "To see if the town will vote to instruct the Superintending School Com- mittee to issue a pronouncement to school teachers that henceforth more attention be paid to the far-famed three R's." This article was laid on the table. Its only importance probably lay in revealing the fact that that basic decay in education had set in which has reached rather shocking proportions in our own times.
The year 1915 marked a renascence in public education in the town. From this point appropriations for schools increased steadily with only minor and temporary fluctuations. In March 1915, $4,500 was set aside for common schools and $1,300 for the high school. In 1920 the level had risen to $6,000 and $1,800 respectively. Five years later the high school was receiving $2,500. By 1930 the figures rose to $3,500 and $8,500. The increase in appro- priations has been a steady one down to the present, where the costs of education are the largest single item in the budget of the town. The long cultural lag has ended in our own time.
In this same time-span other basic developments were afoot. In 1915 Dr. V. V. Thompson was elected Superintendent of Schools and was allowed $2.00 per day plus travel expenses. Two
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years later the town voted "to join other towns for the purpose of employing a Superintendent of Schools so as to receive State aid." This move, made apparently under duress, resulted in the first school union, which was with Friendship for a three-year term. Dr. Thompson was elected superintendent of this union for a two-year term with a salary of $450 per year, of which sum Friendship paid $150. In 1923 the present School Union No. 73 came into being with Bremen, Nobleboro, and Warren the con- stitutent towns. The Reverend Robert L. Sheaff was elected super- intendent with a salary of $1,850 provided jointly by the towns. Thus the administration of schools assumed the pattern which has continued its fruitful development into present times.
Meanwhile the Old Brick Schoolhouse, built to fit the more primitive needs of an earlier day, was demonstrating all too clearly its inadequacy and obsolescence. Accordingly in 1918 the town appropriated $500 for "inside repairs." In 1924, $700 more was raised; a central heating plant was installed and fire escapes were added. This generous gesture in the direction of modernization may have been prompted by the fact that in 1922 a committee of seven headed by Percy E. Storer had been authorized to investi- gate the feasibility of a new high school building. As usual the town dawdled along over the years with this expensive concept, and five years later, in 1927, it made its first concrete move by voting $2,000 to start a sinking fund for the purchase of land and the building of a high school. In 1931 two articles appeared in the warrant. Article 17 proposed to appropriate the entire "Town Hall Account" and "transfer the same to a new school building fund." Article 25 proposed that the same account be trans- ferred to "road building." The school builders won and there- after events moved swiftly toward a new school. In 1932 it was voted to transfer "the overlay account and Bank Stock tax to the High School Building account."
The year 1933 came and the full weight of the Depression was making itself felt in uncomfortable ways, and the town was confronted by many vexing problems. This led in the March meeting to the indefinite postponement of an article "to purchase land, grade it and erect a High School building." At this point the deus ex machina was introduced for the happy solution of the little tragedy - or comedy. It came in the person of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it came so unexpectedly that four months later (July 26) it was voted "that a Committee of Five" be appointed to act with the School Board to investigate the proposition of building a high school building, if advantageous arrangements could be made under the National Industrial Re- covery Act. The committee reported favorably and on December 7, 1933, it was "voted to construct a new High School Building."
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Another major move, as we have said, in the improvement of the schools was that of consolidation. In early days there had been thirty-one district schools in the town. This was the era when back-districts were back-districts, and families were large. With the shrinkage in population following 1860, the town found itself maintaining a goodly number of skeleton schools, with low- salaried, untrained teachers and a consequent deterioration in in- struction. This condition, carried over from year to year, gradually became clear to the blindest. Hence some amelioration commended itself to common sense, but more especially to thrift. Accordingly in the March meeting of 1926 the moderator was authorized to ap- point a committee "composed of members of the School Board and six others to investigate school conditions, to determine the feasibility of consolidation and the cost of the same." Thus was the issue raised. But there was plenty of the old inertia on hand, and substantial numbers of those who resisted stubbornly the closing of schools in their districts. For twelve years this issue writhed its way along like a wounded serpent toward the attain- ment of its goal, with some schools in this period first closed and then reopened by vote of the town. From 1938 on a marked acceleration set in, in discontinuing schools, and ten years later only one of the old district schools, that at North Waldoboro, was operating outside the precincts of the village.
The old district school to which the "districteers" clung so tenaciously until it became a landmark and a relic was at its worst an institution where some learned to read, write, spell, and "figger" in their fashion, and where a considerable minority fell consider- ably short even of this lowly standard. In the few districts where it functioned at times at its best, it was a center of loyalty and pride, and of considerable social effectiveness in the development of the young. Its day is now over. It has become the legend of the little red schoolhouse. The generations of the future will do little more than wonder smugly what it was like. That its tra- ditions at their best may be preserved in a limited way as one of the landmarks of our past, there is added at this point an account of the closing day exercises traditionally known as "the Last Day of School" of nearly three quarters of a century ago in one of these old schools. The scene is the old Slaigo schoolhouse now the residence of Joseph Butters, a nephew of the teacher at that time. The period is the early 1880's on a certain Thursday in late winter. The writer of this somewhat florid account is Hugh J. Anderson Simmons, the Slaigo reporter for the local paper, whose home was the present Foster Jameson residence. His is the narrative which follows:
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SCHOOL EXHIBITION AT SOUTH WALDOBORO
The Winter term of school in the Slaigo district, closed Thursday of last week. This school has been under the instruction of Miss Linda C. Stahl. Length of term 10 1-2 weeks; whole number of scholars in at- tendance, 12; average attendance, 11. Following is the roll of honor, the names of those not absent during the whole term: Genie Wiley, Frances S. Hollis, Nancy J. Collamore, Dora S. Hennings, Belle S. Sampson, Ina Fish, Inez Fish, Clara E. Hennings, Herman K. Hennings. The prize for not being absent was drawn by Frances S. Hollis. This is the third term that Miss Stahl has taught here. She is an experienced and efficient teacher, and has always given excellent satisfaction. The exhibition on Thursday evening excelled any entertainment that was ever put upon the boards in Slaigo, and we doubt if it was ever equalled by an exhibi- tion in a country schoolroom. At an early hour the schoolhouse was crowded to its utmost capacity, and some were unable to gain admit- tance. Sampson's full orchestra furnished excellent music. The teacher was kindly assisted by a few of the young people of this and the Goshen district, because the small school was inadequate to furnish sufficient characters for all the plays. The program, which was ably and success- fully performed, was as follows:
1 - The Greeting Song, by the school.
2 - Introductory Address, by Dora S. Hennings.
3 - Select Reading by Mimie T. Sampson.
4 - "1783 and 1883" by Inez Fish and Frances S. Hollis.
5 - Recitation by Kate Hennings, entitled, "My Little Pocket Book."
6 - Recitation by Ella Simmons.
7 - Dialogue entitled, "Aunt Matilda and her Nieces," by Belle S. Sampson, Dora S. Hennings and Nancy J. Collamore. This was nicely performed by each of the characters while Belle S. Sampson as the old lady, could not be excelled by a girl of her age.
8 - Song, by Mimie T. Sampson, and Belle S. Sampson.
9 - Recitation, by Clara E. Hennings, entitled, "My Favorite."
10 - Drama, "A Thorn among the Roses," the following being the cast of characters: Mrs. Candor, Principal of Rosebush Insti- tute - Bernice D. Simmons; Patience Plunket - Linda C. Stahl; Lucy Woods - Ina Fish; Bessie Travers - Inez Fish; Jane Turner - Belle S. Sampson; Augusta Stevens - Frances S. Hollis; Maria Mellish - Genie Wiley; Bridget Mahoney - Mimie T. Sampson; Tom Candor - Cyrus Newbert; Job Seed- ing - Alfred B. Sampson.
11 - Select Reading, by Genie Wiley.
12 - "Who will be President?" Characters: Miss Jane Juliana Jen- kins - Genie Wiley; Mrs. Dorcas Davenport - Linda C. Stahl; Miss Emily Eaton - Frances S. Hollis; Mrs. Fanny Furbelow - Mimie T. Sampson; Tommy Furbelow - Nelson Collamore. This play won the admiration and applause of the whole au- dience, and the witty retorts of Nelson Collamore just brought down the house.
13 - Dialogue, entitled, "How She Made Him Propose," by Romeo and Juliet. It would be "too utterly too," to speak of this pro- duction, except to say that it brought down the house, and that we feel like some other fellow, since we have had the ques- tion popped to us.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
14 - Declamation, by Herman K. Hennings, entitled, "I wish I was Grown Up.'
15 - Drama: "Witches in the Cream; or, All is Fair in Love," Char- acters: Harry Holystone - Cyrus Newbert; Hezekiah Rackof- bones - Nelson Fish; George Gayford - Charles Fish; Mrs. Churndasher - Linda C. Stahl; Clementina Churndasher - Inez Fish; Miss Pickspiders - Ina Fish.
16 - "The Little Brown Jug," played and sung by Flora Fish, Ina Fish, Inez Fish, Nelson Fish. This was decidedly the richest presentation of the evening. Nelson Fish, who handled the "Little Brown Jug," and played the drunkard, is a born actor, and he was loudly applauded by the audience.
17 - Recitation, by Belle S. Sampson, entitled, "The Scholars Fare- well."
18 - Closing Song, by the School.
The whole program was carried out without a single failure. The whole school, without exception, have done their very best, and the free and easy manner which they appeared upon the stage, without embar- rassment, is worthy of commendation. We cannot refrain from speaking in particular of Miss Mimie T. Sampson, Miss Genie Wiley, Miss Ina Fish, and Miss Inez Fish, who appeared in quite a number of different acts and scenes; their graceful appearance, refined accomplishments, elaborate recitations, appropriate and elegant costumes, won the admira- tion of all present, and proclaimed each a star of unclouded lustre. We are proud of the graceful and imposing appearance of the young ladies of Slaigo, when upon the stage before the public.
ROMEO
Work on the new high school building, authorized by vote of the town at a meeting held December 7, 1933, got under way slowly. The cornerstone was laid in 1935 without ceremony, save that certain papers and photographs were sealed in a copper re- ceptacle and placed in the cornerstone. Among these papers was one which detailed the incidents leading to the construction of the building, and since it contains most of the relevant facts, it is offered here as a portion of this chapter. It follows:
The lot upon which the new Waldoboro High School is erected was formerly the property of the First Congregational Church of Waldo- boro and was presented to the town of Waldoboro for the purpose of this building.
The original deed to the church was from Samuel Morse and it conveyed the lot to Denny McCobb, Payn Elwell and Charles Samson, a Committee of the Proprietors of a certain Meeting House "now erect- ing in said Waldoboro" to be holden in trust for all persons who "now are or hereafter may become Proprietors in and of said Meeting House by paying their amount of their subscription for defraying the expense of purchasing land and erecting said Meeting House." This deed is dated April 13th, A. D., 1820 and is recorded in Lincoln County Registry of Deeds in Book 115 at Page 11.
Although later, many changes were made in the Church, and in the Church Society, the title to this lot remains as it was originally granted with the exception that each of the pew deeds given by the Trustees carried with it an interest in the land and a right of way to the pew.
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Therefore, in 1935, when the conveyance was made to the town, it became necessary to bring a Bill in Equity in the Supreme Judicial Court for the purpose of having trustees named to make conveyance. This Bill in Equity was entitled "By Information of Clyde R. Chapman, Attorney General, First Congregational Church of Waldoboro, Maine vs. Prop- erty of Waldoboro, Maine, known as the property of the First Congre- gational Church of Waldoboro, and all Persons Interested Therein."
By virtue of a decree in the above named Bill in Equity, which was signed April 15th, A.D., 1935, a deed of the premises was made to the Inhabitants of the Town of Waldoboro by Emma Trowbridge Potter, Louise Bliss Miller, Josephine Storer, Mary I. Boothby and Mary E. Elkins as Trustees.1 This deed is dated April 16th, A. D., 1935 and is re- corded in Lincoln County Registry of Deeds in Book 409 at Page 28.
The pipe organ, which was formerly in the Church, was presented to the First Baptist Church of Waldoboro and is now installed in that Church. The bell of the Church, which was made by the Paul Revere Company, was presented to the town for the new High School building and is now on that building and is used for school purposes.
The New High School project was first started at a Special Town Meeting held on July 26th, A. D., 19332 when, by virtue of an article in the warrant, a Committee was appointed to investigate various lots suit- able as sites for a new high school building and report at some future meeting. This Committee was composed of the following citizens: Victor V. Burnheimer, Percy E. Storer, Sanford L. Winchenbach, Lawrence T. Weston and Enoch B. Robertson.
This Committee reported at a Special Town Meeting held on No- vember 30th, A. D., 1933 on the various lots suitable for the new school building and also reported that under the Public Works Act passed by the Federal Government, the Government would loan and grant enough money to erect a new school building. The Committee recommended making application to the Government for a loan and grant for the pur- pose of erecting a new High School building. The report of the Com- mittee was accepted and the town voted to construct a new High School building on the Congregational Church lot which was offered to the town for this purpose by the Congregational Church Society at this meeting and was accepted by the town.
The town then voted to borrow from the Federal Government un- der the Public Works Act the sum of twenty-nine thousand, seven hun- dred dollars for the purpose of a new school building and a Building Committee of five was elected to act in conjunction with the School Committee in the erection of the building. This Committee was com- posed of the following citizens: Foster E. Jameson, Lawrence T. Wes- ton, Thomas Brown, Charles Rowe and Agnes L. Creamer. The Super- intending School Committee was, at this time, composed of the follow- ing citizens: Dora H. Yorke, Sanford L. Brown and Roland A. Genth- ner, and the Superintendent of Schools was Albert L. Shorey.
At the annual Town Meeting held in March, 1934, it was voted to accept the bequest of five thousand dollars left to the town under the will of Mary E. Storer and to appropriate the same and transfer it to the New School Building account.
The Selectmen made application of the Federal Government for a loan and grant and, at a Special Town Meeting held on August 21st,
1The last surviving members of this church.
2This chronology of events is not identical with that recorded elsewhere in this chapter, which is based on the Clerk's recording of the minutes of this and sub- sequent meetings.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
A. D., 1934, the town voted to authorize the Selectmen to sign the con- tract with the Federal Government for a loan and grant for the erection of the School.
The first agreement with the Federal Government was dated Sep- tember 10th, A. D., 1934 but this agreement was amended on March 2nd, A. D., 1935 and was signed by the Selectmen. This amendment raised the amount of the loan and grant to cover the equipment for the building.
It was later discovered that the town could dispose of its bonds to be issued for the erection of the building at a lower rate of interest by selling them to the citizens of the town, so on application to the Gov- ernment, a further and superceding agreement was made with the Gov- ernment for a grant only, which grant was not to exceed the sum of seventeen thousand one hundred dollars. This final agreement was dated June 17th, A. D., 1935.
The town secured the services of Bunker and Savage, architects, of Augusta, Maine, and the plans were drafted and accepted by the town.
After the call for bids, J. R. Partridge of Augusta, Maine was de- clared the lowest bidder and was awarded the contract. On the 3rd day of June, A. D., 1935 a contract was signed by J. R. Partridge and by Fred Y. Winchenbach, Fred L. Burns and Thomas Benner as Selectmen of the town, for the erection of the building at the base figure of $49,065.29.
The Federal Government first sent to Waldoboro Engineer Inspec- tor Louis C. Wood and later, in July, 1935, sent Wallace F. Brown in place of Mr. Wood.
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