USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 27
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That the East Parish be two Districts, and that the divisional Line be at Ward's Brook the bridge on the Town Road & to run on a Northward Line to Montsweague Brook & so on to the Line of the West Parish -
DAVID SILVESTER JAMES TUPPER
Voted to accept the foregoing report.
Committee
FRANCIS COOK, Town Clerk, pro tem.
But the district school-houses were not built until 1805 and 1812. In the year 1791, Pownalborough, having more than two hundred families, was indicted for having no public grammar school and for that matter, no public school of any sort. Silas Lee, Esqr, was then the agent for the town, which was fined £87 and costs £3-5-2. The fine was for the support of the schools. The school- district system was established in 1800 while Maine was still a part of Massa- chusetts, and was maintained by the first school law passed in 1821, by the State legislature, but the next year one town after another received the privi- lege of abolishing its districts. In the spring of 1792, the town hall on Hodge Street was raised,3 and in it two schools were held. It was built on the eastern side of the street, but moved before it was finished to higher ground on the op- posite side of the road; in other words it was erected in what was later the garden of Hon. Henry Ingalls and hauled across the street to the site now oc- cupied by the Episcopal rectory. There was a very small building on the same lot a little to the northeast of the town house. The house stood on the rock which is there and is believed to have been the oldest school in town. David Quimby who was here in 1795 was one of the teachers, and Master Tilton was teaching in town before 1796.
In the basement of the town hall was a school for the smallest children, and there before a great open fire "Marm Davis" would dry the stockings of the in- fant class, while the wee tots fell asleep and tumbled off the benches, dreaming, perhaps, that Santa Claus would fill them 'ere they wakened.
The master's school was in the first story. The room on the north side was
3. Vouchers found among the selectmen's papers indicate that the town house remained unfinished until 1812 or later.
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unfinished for many years after the building was erected, and it was in that room called the gymnasium, that the boys on the fire-list sawed the cord wood for the open fires, the only means of heating the schoolroom in those days. In addition to the fire-lists were the sawing and splitting-lists, and the sweeping- list which was composed entirely of girls. Here at the town hall was the first location of District School Number One, or the center district.
Noyes Payson Hawes was one of the schoolmasters and Samuel Holbrook presided here in 1832.
In 1 800 the annual town meeting was held in the school-house at Wiscasset. This school-house was a large, square, one-story building which stood near the center of the Common, about half-way down the hill from the Congregational Church. It closely resembled the present school-house in Alna. Master Stewart presided over this institution of learning and had from one hundred to one hundred and fifty students under his care.
The center district appears to have been domiciled in various parts of the town. In 1810 this district paid to Henry Roby, the cashier of the Lincoln & Kennebec Bank, "school rent for a room in the Bank" and Caleb Smyth re- ceived compensation for "fitting up a school room in the bank." About this time also, Abiel Wood received rent from the town for the use of a school- room in the second story of Washington Hall, the hotel then standing on the corner of State and Court Streets, where Christopher Averill afterwards built the house now owned by Mrs. Jesse White. These streets are now called Main and Summer. In this hall Otis L. Bridges (Attorney General of Maine in 1 842) taught the school which Rachel Quin and little Miss Davis attended.
Lincoln Hall, formerly the old wooden Court House, built about 1793 at the foot of the Common and later sold to Colonel Hilton, who moved it to the lot next west of the Whittier Tavern, housed in its former jury room, a school taught by women, one of whom was Miss Waters.
In 1802, the Rev. Hezekiah Packard succeeded Rev. Alden Bradford as pastor of the First Parish Church in Wiscasset. He lived on the place now owned by Mrs. Mary Metcalf, and there at his home he maintained a private school for six boys. He also ran a small school in the second story of the minia- ture Custom House of Francis Cook, which stood next to his dwelling on State Street, and which was doubtless the nucleus of the organization that developed into the Wiscasset Academical Association.
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Schools
The District Schools
The town, in 1805, voted to build two school-houses, one in the north dis- trict and the other in the south district, and to provide schoolmasters to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. The school-house in the north district was built of brick and it was placed on the eastern side of the West Alna road. Some years later it was taken down and replaced by one of wood, but the old inhabi- tants still persist in calling it the "little, old, red brick school-house" despite the fact that it is now built of wood and painted yellow.
The south district school-house was built in 1805-1806, almost in the center of the south district of Wiscasset, on land obtained from Capt. Joshua Boyn- ton, who owned the farm that was afterward held in possession by Solomon White, and on the road which led from the Crotch to Montsweag. The south district embraced all of the land south of Colonel Sevey's, with a northern line extending from Pottle's Cove to Montsweag Brook. This district was afterward divided and made into two districts with a school-house for each di- vision. At that time, when a settler's family amounted to a baker's dozen, it in- cluded between forty and fifty families.
The school classes were mixed, containing both large and small children. The schoolmaster was addressed as "Master" and the schoolmistress as "Marm." Teachers not only inculcated the "art of cyphering" but were re- quired "to emend their manners as well." Boys, on entering or leaving the classroom were obliged to "make their manners" when they reached the threshold, by facing the master and making a bow. Girls were required to make a curtsy, then pronounced "kirchie."
The south school-house was a wooden building, painted yellow, about thirty feet square, with proportional height, one story and a flat roof. It had six windows giving on three sides, two on each side excepting the north side. These windows were protected by strong wooden shutters which were closed at night and when there was no school, but open when the school was in session, thus shielding the glass, which was scarce and expensive, from random stones. The boys took turns in making the fire and sawing the logs which were brought sled length. These were eight or nine feet long and required one cut to fit the fire- place. There was a regular formula for building the open fire which required a back log three or four feet long and more than a foot in diameter, a top stick of corresponding size, and a fore stick, with small wood and kindling material. This pile once ignited would, with a little kindling last all day, but as it was not
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lighted until school began, scholars formed semi-circles around the fireplace to warm themselves when the room was cold.
Every family kept a flock of geese in order to supply the scholars with quills. The master was the autocrat of the schoolroom; he wrote the rules and posted them on the walls; he set the copy for the writing class and administered corporal chastisement when his rules were broken or flouted. One or two of the early masters were dismissed for indiscriminate use of the ferule, but for the most part, the south district was fortunate in its choice of teachers. Most of the children started off at eight o'clock in the morning, dinner pail in hand, to walk two miles and remain for seven hours. Spelling bees, in which the entire school
took part were conducted by Master Ezra Stevens. Caleb Smyth, called by the children "Fiddler Smyth" on account of his proficiency on the violin, kept a singing school there as long ago as 1812. The tunes he taught were those that were then in vogue, the productions of Billings, Holden and others, namely: "Invitation," "Paradise," "New Jerusalem," "Devotion," "Russia," "Com- plaint," "David's Lamentation" and others of the same kind.
Several years afterward Mr. Harrington from Damariscotta, an exceptional singer with a melodious voice, taught a singing school in this school-house and the book he used was Village Harmony.
This little school-house, firmly planted on a rock, was the center of the so- cial, political and religious life of the district. For a number of years religious meetings were held by persons of different denominations, and Nathaniel Coffin, then clerk of the courts, held meetings there every Sunday afternoon. His services consisted of singing, reading the Scriptures, prayer, an exhorta- tion, reading a printed sermon, another prayer followed by singing, and then the closing of the meeting. Prior to 1820, Mr. Coffin started a Sunday school which was held at nine o'clock in the morning. That same year Mr. Bartlett or- ganized a sabbath school in the village. Both of these ventures were successful. Sabbath schools were then something new, although it was stated by Mary Catherine Boyd, that the very first Sunday school in Wiscasset was started by her mother, Catherine Light, and "Polly" Thaxter as early as 1812, and that it was held in the house on Middle Street now occupied by William Southard.
The Charitable Society of the South School District for the Benefit of Widows and Orphans held their gatherings in that school-house. Among the early teachers in that school were, besides Ezra Stevens who has already been mentioned along with Fiddler Smyth, "Daddy" Peters, "Pilgrim Hodge" with his writing book, William W. Jenkins, Nathan Newell, John Richards,
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Jonathan Edwards Scott, Nathaniel Packard, John Boyinton, Jr., and Valen- tine Nutter Cushman.
The South School District was legally organized on Tuesday, June 22, 1 826. One day about sixty years ago, this useful little gathering place caught fire and burned to the ground.
With the increasing population, other district schools were opened in the out- lying districts. In 1857, there were the Center School District; the West School District; the North School District; the Southeast School District; the South School District and the North West School District, built in 1828 on the old Indian trail. The districts lasted until replaced by the graded schools.
Each district had a school committee composed of three or more prominent citizens, and a school agent whose duty it was to collect the school tax and en- gage and pay the teachers. The compensation of one female teacher in 1827, was one and one-half bushels of wheat which was weekly contributed by the neighbors.4
Wiscasset Academy
With the advent of the Rev. Hezekiah Packard had come a popular desire for the facilities of a higher education in this town. We find in the January issue of the Eastern Repository, 1807, the following notice:
BRICK BUILDING
The subscribers will receive proposals for erecting and completing a Brick Building 40 by 30 feet, two stories, the walls 27 feet high, the walls of the first story the length of two bricks thick, of the second story, one and a half; a cellar under the whole 7 feet deep; one side and one end underpinned with hewn stone.
Any person wishing to contract for the Brick & Stone Work, either to find materials or to do the work; or to furnish materials and complete the wood work of said Building, are desired to call at the store of William Taylor, where a plan may be seen.
SAMUEL ADAMS WILLIAM BOYD WILLIAM TAYLOR
These three men were the committee appointed to provide a brick building for the Wiscasset Academical Association and the school-house then built on Warren Street is still standing.
The following year, March 12, 1808, twenty-five prominent citizens se- cured a charter from the General Court of Massachusetts, and from that time
4. Taken from the description of D. Y. N. in the Seaside Oracle, July 22, 1876.
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until 1923, this building was in continuous use as a school. It is at the present time the headquarters of the American Legion and is also used as a polling place.
The Wiscasset Academical Association issued "forty shares of stock at $ 100 each and purchased land and erected a building commodious for their pur- pose." Rev. Hezekiah Packard was elected president, and Samuel Adams, secretary. The charter members were the following men:
Abiel Wood, Jr.
Zebediah Thayer John Boyinton
Moses Carlton
William Taylor John Elliot
Moses Carlton, Jr.
Silas Piper
Nathaniel Austin
William Nickels
Convers Lilly Joshua Danforth
Thomas Nickels
Carpenter Winslow
Thomas McCray
William M. Boyd
James Hodge
Ezekiel Cutter
William Bragdon
David Otis
John Anderson
Hezekiah Packard
Caleb Lord
Samuel Adams
Alden Bradford
It was said that this building was for the school service of Dr. Packard. We find however (June 8, 1809) that it was "Voted that a committee of two be ap- pointed to agree with Mr. Chamberlain as Preceptor of the Academy,-when Abiel Wood, Jr., Esqr and Alden Bradford, Esqr, were chosen for that pur- pose." That year the academic grade of schools was in successful operation. Miss Stephenson of Cohasset, Massachusetts, was preceptress, and at a regular meeting of the Trustees of the Wiscasset Academical Association it was voted: "That a Committee of two be chosen to agree with Miss Stephenson for her in- struction in the future, and Rev. Hezekiah Packard and Samuel Adams were appointed for the purpose above mentioned."
In this institution the late Professors William Smyth and Alpheus Spring Packard of Bowdoin College received their early training, and with the excep- tion of a brief period of service at Gorham Academy, the latter's first experi- ence as a teacher after his graduation, was in the employ of the Wiscasset Academical Association.
At the opening of the Academy an address, delivered by Rev. Alden Brad- ford in the classic and exalted style of that time, was published in the Republi- can, the Wiscasset weekly newspaper.
Capt. John Binney, who was commandant of Fort Edgecomb, and a resi- dent of this town because the garrison quarters at the fort were overcrowded, has left some interesting letters in which he records the school condition of
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Wiscasset. He writes of Miss Stephenson that "she was a fine girl, a woman of tolerable sense, but annoyed by a Captain Parker" who tried unsuccessfully to make love to her. He wrote that there was a town school for boys and girls, many private schools and a select school kept by Miss Clark to whom he sent his children.
The academical grade was supported entirely by private subscription. The Association called for no land grant townships, as did other academic associa- tions, to create a fund out of state gratuity, and we think never had any state aid.
In the curriculum of the Academy the Bible held a prominent place. The Monday morning school exercise was a Bible lesson. The influence of the higher grade of education continued for years and broadened into neighboring towns. Its organic existence continued until 1848, and was under the preceptor- ship of Frederick Adolphus Sawyer, a college graduate. Until that date the academy was fostered by some of the most eminent citizens of the Point, among whom were Hon. Samuel E. Smith, at one time governor of Maine; and Wilmot Wood, Esq., that courteous, cultivated gentleman "whose example was worth more than precept." Both of these men were active and efficient members of the Board of Trustees.
In June, 1848, the Academy had eighty-seven students of both sexes, and carried a curriculum of instruction in common English, with classical courses in Greek, Latin or French, with an optional course in Italian or Spanish, and in music and drawing. The average cost was five dollars for the term of elev- en weeks. Soon, however, controversies arose and political influences inter- fered resulting in the complete collapse of this organization. It came about that this higher grade of education was supplanted by, or reverted to, the old com- mon school method. The last principal of the Academy was Frederick Adol- phus Sawyer, who later became United States Senator from Tennessee. He died at Sewanee.
In 1854, Wiscasset had no school service but that of the town school, and it was then that private schools sprang up all over the village. Dr. Daniel K. Kennedy at once moved to organize and support a high school by a self-im- posed tax. The private high school thus begun was maintained until the State intervened to create a system of graded schools. The plan was a new one and opposition developed, but the townspeople of the village district were de- termined to meet the issue and secure the state benefaction for the organization and support of a high school grade and to establish a graded school system for its youth.
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Graded schools were tried for four years before they were finally adopted. The result of the test was made at a district meeting, May 22, 1873, when the Hon. George B. Sawyer, Benjamin F. Smith and others led off in the effort to abolish district schools. Mr. Smith made such an able and convincing speech on that occasion, that the vote for graded schools was carried by a large majority.
The district school system was not finally abrogated until 1893, the towns having, up to that date, the option of remaining under the system which was a direct inheritance from Massachusetts.
When the graded schools, high, grammar, intermediate and primary, were installed, the curriculum of the high school, started on a schedule which would fit students to enter college. It had a higher ranking than that of the Wiscasset Academical Association of 1808. Its diplomas and fitting certificates have en- tered its graduates at Harvard, Bowdoin and many other colleges without con- ditions. The valedictorian 5 of the class of 188 1 at Harvard, entered that col- lege with no other preparation save that received in the schools of Wiscasset.
Free high schools were formed in 1873, the State bearing one-half of the amount expended on them. In 1889, all towns were required by law to provide free textbooks.
Every town is now obliged to have a superintending committee of three members, and, except in a very few instances, these members are elected for three years by the town at the March meeting. There are from thirty to thirty- six weeks in a school year, and the school census is made annually.
Among those who, by personal sacrifice and untiring zeal in the betterment of Wiscasset schools, deserve mention are Rev. Uriah Balkam, John Boyinton and Dr. Clarence Peaslee. Dr. Balkam offered himself as a sacrifice to the wel- fare of the schools, and by his enthusiasm and earnestness laid the foundation of his departure from this place. At a later epoch in their history, Mr. Wilbur F. Merrill was most diligent in mastering our school laws and in superintend- ing the work of the graded schools. The present principal of the high school, Charles Sumner Sewall, whose connection with the schools of Wiscasset has covered a period of more than thirty years of faithful and efficient service, needs no higher tribute than the esteem and devotion accorded him by both teachers and students.
5. Henry Edwards Scott.
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The Latin Grammar School
In following the development of the Academy we have omitted other school matters. On December 20, 1816, a Latin Grammar School was established in Wiscasset. Alpheus Spring Packard, the eldest son of Rev. Hezekiah Packard, who had that year graduated from Bowdoin College was chosen as its precep- tor, and the school committee composed of Daniel Quinnam, Nathaniel Cof- fin and William Taylor, promised him their "aid and countenance." Rev. Hezekiah Packard was appointed the official "Visitor of the school & to assist with his advice in forming and administering such regulations as may be useful."
I is school was "to be opened on Monday the 30 Inst. & kept all the year or until the Town shall order otherwise." The school was to consist of fifty pupils to be apportioned among and received from the several school districts as follows: from the Center School District, twenty-five; South School Dis- trict, eleven; Northeast School District, nine; and Northwest School District, five.
"The qualifications for admission shall be good moral conduct and submis- sive orderly behaviour." This school was instituted at the common expense, to afford the poor as well as the rich an opportunity of instructing their children in the higher branches of learning.
The school committee resolved that, "In the Latin Grammar School shall be taught spelling with definitions in Perry's Dictionary & Mathematicks in- cluding surveying, navigation, etc .; also Rhetorick, Grammar, Geography & the Latin & Greek Languages. There shall also be daily readings or recitations from the Bible." At the close of the quarter the following premiums were dis- tributed: A Bible to Mary A. Brooks for superior attention to Scriptures. She had repeated one thousand one hundred and forty verses and read three hun- dred and fifty-seven chapters during that term. It was unanimously agreed that Mary had earned her Bible.
A Testament was given as a prize to John Boyinton for his general good con- duct, and a History of England to Thomas White for good deportment. Porter's Evidences of Christianity was given to Jesse Robinson for excelling in Latin; and a slate to John Cushman for excelling in arithmetic.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the school committee voted to ad- mit an additional number of scholars as follows: from the Center District,
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seven; from the South District, three; from the Northeast District, two; and from the Northwest District, two, making in all sixty-four pupils.
Mr. Alpheus Packard kept school five and a half days in the week at ninety dollars per quarter.
In March, 1817, the committee visited the Latin and English schools and after due consideration came to the following resolution :
That in addition to the Latin School there ought to be two descriptions of schools in the Center District. The first to be called the Primary school and the second to be called the English school, and that none be admitted to the second or English school until he has read through the books taught in the Primary school, and upon examination by the Eng- lish master is found qualified to enter the lowest class in his school. ...
This explains why there was a primary school here before the graded schools were introduced.
Alpheus Spring Packard did not remain in Wiscasset for more than two years. He became, for a short time principal of Hallowell Academy, and from 1819 to 1824 he was a tutor at Bowdoin College. There has been nothing found among the old records to show that the Latin Grammar School sur- vived his departure.
The Monitorial School System
At the meeting of the school committee, April 21, 1826, the question of the advisability of establishing a monitorial school system, that is, one of pupil teachers, arose. In considering what improvements could be made in the sys- tem of early education the committee made the following . . .
REPORT
That they deem the cause of early education of primary importance, and that in the system adopted, there ought to be a distinct and practical regard to the capacity, attention and progress of pupils; the convenience, authority and success of masters; and to the interest and gratification of parents. With this impression, and after inquiring into the state of our schools, and ascertaining the facts within their reach, they are unanimously agreed, that though they attach no blame to any who has the care of our schools, there is a manifest defect in their management and instruction; and that a great improvement may be made at a small additional expense. From various statements made in recent publica- tions, and from fair results of actual experience in our own country and abroad, that they are deeply impressed with the vast utility of the Monitorial System, and are fully of the opinion that it is applicable to the schools of this place. . Therefore, as the result of their de-
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The Academy. Photograph by Brayton.
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FIFI
House built by William Thaxter. The first Sunday School was held here.
The Old Blockhouse in Edgecomb. Picture taken in 1880.
Schools
liberations, and as the expression of their ardent and united wish, the Committee recom- mend the speedy establishment of a Monitorial School, and that all the children in the several districts, who shall be found qualified for admission may become members of it, and enjoy its privileges. . . .
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