USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
the remonstrance and Request of us the Subscribers Inhabitance of the town of Hanover Humbly sheweth them in our Gudgment and Canded oppinnion, View that the whole Conduct of sd town in the matter of Schooling is preju- ditial to the Inhabitence of this town in Respect of Raising money to the Value of one hundred-& fifty pounds & to put it into the hands of Certing men (Called a Committy) to Lay out sd money With the advice of Destrick Whereas it ought to have been Voted that those men Called a Comty aught to have been confin'd to Lay out Said my by Direction of the magor part of the Votes in the Destrick to Which of right it belongs: We considering the Heavy burden of Depts this town is now under that thay Do not nor Can not Discharge With out impoverishing there familyes to a Suffering Condi- tion. the Debt of paying a Very Large Sum to the Selectmen for their time & trouble in the matter of the small pox, & also for thair Going to Gole for Not paying the Money Due to the State of Newhampshire to Gather With a number of Debts Due from sd town to Indivials some in Execution others Called for of Long Standing Likewise that the Inhabitance of this town is assessed to pay a large some of money Which in fact have ben before assessed & the Grator part have been paid therefore the Raising the afore- said Sum for Schooling is unresionable unjust & uneaquel Signed by Eliada Brown, Timothy Owen, Bezaleel Davis, David Wright, Elijah Wright, Amasa Wright, Zadoc Brown, Luther Lincoln, John Ordway, Asa Parker, William Hall, James Murch, Samuel Hase, John Buswell, James Houston, Benja Tiffany, David Eaton Jr, Webster Hall, Jeremiah Trescott.
But the progressive party again carried the day and on the 18th of May renewed the tax, reducing it, however, to £100, including the £30, raised by order of the State under the act above mentioned. Doubts being raised as to the effect of the rescind- ing vote, it was ordered at a meeting held in November that the committees chosen at the last annual meeting "Stand and receve
1 The committees for the several districts were : No. 1, Dier Willes, Benoni Dewey, Joseph Green; No. 2, Capt. Samuel Kendrick, Eleazer Porter, Zenas Coleman ; No. 3, Maj. Otis Freeman, Dea. Nathl Wright, Capt. Saml Slade ; No. 4, Dea. Joseph Curtiss, Lt. Peter Knapp, Russell Freeman, Esq .; No. 5, Lt. Silas Tenney, Wm. Chandler, Israel Camp.
220
History of Hanover
thair Eaquil proportion of the tax and Lay out the Same in pay- ing Both Marsters and Mistresses Which are imployed in Sª Destricks the present Year." In 1791 the committees were directed "to Set up Schools in Sutch place or places Within Sª Destricts as the Destricts shall agree to," on being notified. In 1795 it was ordered that the avails of the school lands should be appropriated at the discretion of the selectmen. The school com- mittee was reduced in number to a single person for each dis- trict, who, with the advice of a majority of the district, should employ a teacher and collect the school tax in his district.
The annual tax for school purposes was the same, £100, until 1799 inclusive, with the exception of 1796 and 1797, when it was £120. Prior to 1795 it was payable, as at first, equal to wheat at 5 / per bushel. In that year it was made payable in specie, and in 1800 and 1801 it was payable in dollars ($333.33). From 1802 to 1806 the annual tax was $400, in 1807 it was left to the select- men to assess merely the proportion required by law.1
In 1794 changes were made in the districts in the north and northwest parts of the town, and the southeast part was set up into a separate district, while the Greensborough district was established, adjoining the College district on the east, "to begin one mile from the College and extend to the east line formerly called the Dresden line," marked at this time by an old stone bound on the north side of the brook road twenty or thirty rods west of the brick house of E. P. Merrill. The number of dis- tricts was thereby increased to nine, and in 1800 to ten. The dis- trict system thus adopted by the town seems to have been, up to 1805, outside the requirements of law. By the Act of December 28, 1805, the authority of towns to make such division was first recognized and regulated, and the districts empowered to acquire school houses. In the execution of this law a special meeting was held, June 29, 1807, at which the ten existing districts were recognized and their limits then for the first time recorded. Other
1 This proportion was increased by the Act of Dec. 10, 1791, to £7. 10 for each 20/ of the State tax apportioned to the towns, and by subsequent acts on each dollar of the State tax so apportioned, as follows: June 15, 1799, $35; Dec. 13, 1804, $45; June 18, 1807, $70; June 27, 1818, $90; Dec. 23, 1840, $100; Jan. 5, 1853, $135; July 2, 1853, $150; July 15, 1854, $175; July 11, 1855, $200; July 5, 1867, $250; July 2, 1876, $350; March 1, 1893, $400; March 28, 1895, $500; March 22, 1901, $600; March 8, 1905, $750. In 1799 the tax, until then chargeable only upon residents, was extended over improved lands of non-residents, and in 1804 over their unimproved lands likewise. In 1919 the law was radically changed, requiring the town to levy a tax of $3.50 on the $1,000, for elementary school purposes; for high school, adminis- tration and statutory obligations an additional tax must be levied. For 1926 the precinct levied a tax of $30,500 for these purposes.
221
Schools
districts were formed in later years, mainly by subdivision, until their number reached eighteen.
The division of 1807, like that of 1797, began with the College district, which was called Number 1 and extended as far north as Camp brook. Number 2 was again the northwesternmost dis- trict of the town, but between it and Number 1 was inserted Number 6, taken from the earlier Numbers 1 and 2. To the east of Number 1 lay Number 9, the Greensborough district, extend- ing as far as the two-mile line. North of this was Number 4, while to the east of Numbers 4 and 9 lay Number 5 in the "Mill Neighborhood." Easterly of Number 6 and northerly of Number 5 lay Number 3, at Hanover Center, while north of this and east of Number 2 lay district Number 7. East of Number 5 was Number 10, and Number 8 lay in the southeast part of the town, bounded on the west by Numbers 5 and 10 and on the north by Number 3. The district north and east of Moose Mountain was not included in these lines.
This arrangement of districts continued for fifteen years, when Number 11 was organized in the southeast corner of the town, lying between 10 and 8. In 1822, after two years' wrangling, Number 12, made from sections of 3, 5 and 8, was set up east of Moose Mountain. Four years later, again with much contro- versy, Number 3 was divided and, with a part of Number 5, became Number 13, the original number being applied to the northern part about the Center. Another division of Number 3, in 1828, gave a new district to the north, numbered 14. In March of 1830 Number 15, in the extreme northeast part of the town, and in December of the same year, Number 16, lying east of Moose Mountain between 12 and 15, were organized. Three years later Number 17 was taken from Numbers 4 and 6 and 1, extending easterly from the river along the Wolfeboro road. The last division was made in 1853, when Number 18 was set off in the southeast part of the town from the Ruddsboro district, between 10 and 11. It contained but three families, those of David Walker, Isaac Babbitt and Joseph Paddleford. The occa- sion of the formation of this district was the necessity of a new school house in district Number 11. The site chosen was at a considerable distance from these families, which contained chil- dren enough of themselves for a "goodsized school." The three families, therefore, were able to secure the establishment of a district of their own and to build a house for their own use.
'Before the division of 1807, school committees for the exist-
222
History of Hanover
ing districts, without any express warrant of law, continued to be annually elected by the town. Down to 1794 each committee con- sisted of two members, after that, of but one. By the Act of December 22, 1808, each town was required annually to appoint three or more suitable persons to visit and inspect the schools of the town "in a manner which they might judge most conducive to the progress of literature, morality and religion," and in default of their election the selectmen were required to perform their duties. In obedience to this requirement, "Inspectors" were chosen annually from 1809 until 1821. Sometimes they were named for the whole town, and sometimes, one for each district.
The Act of July 6, 1827, transformed these inspectors into a "superintending" school committee of enlarged powers, consist- ing of not less than three nor more than five persons to be appointed by the selectmen, and at the same time made provision for the annual election of one committeeman in each district (precisely as this town had practised for many years), who should relieve the selectmen of the burden of employing teachers and providing for the needs of the school. He was to be styled the prudential committee, and was to be chosen by the town, or, if the town should so determine, by the respective districts. The Act of July 4, 1829, made this committee to consist of not more than three members, to be chosen by the district. The require- ment that the superintending school committee should consist of not less than three was changed by the Act of July 2, 1851, and henceforth the town varied between two and three.
This system, with some modifications, prevailed until the aboli- tion of the districts by the law of 1885. That act abolished all districts except special districts, and made the town a single dis- trict. The property of the districts was to be taken over by the town on appraisal, and each district was to have the benefit of its own appraisal. The records of the districts were to be turned over to the town for safe keeping and preservation. The former superintending and prudential committees were to be supplanted by a school board of three members, who were to hold office three years, one retiring each year. It was to be the duty of the board to provide schools, according to their judgment as to place and time, so as to give all scholars equal advantages, as far as prac- ticable. At the end of five years the towns, if dissatisfied with the results of the single district, might re-establish the separate district system.
Under the old system each district acted independently of the
223
Schools
other districts. The Act of June 26, 1838, authorized school districts to purchase land, not exceeding two acres in amount, for school purposes, but apparently the old Hanover districts had houses before that time, although in many cases I have not been able to ascertain the time of their building. Of the school houses in Number 1 an account will be found farther on. Of the other districts, there is mention in the town records for 1794, of a "school house in the Mill Neighborhood," the later Number 5, which probably lasted until the erection in 1852 of the house now in use. In the latter year a house was built in Number 7, and in the next year, one in Number 6, and in 1855 one in Number 8. Houses seem to have been built in Numbers 18 and 11 in 1853. The first house in Number 17, built probably at the organization of the district, was of brick, but it gave way to one of wood, built immediately behind it, in 1872, which is reported as "beauti- ful in its proportions and admirable in its arrangements, an honor to the district," and which has since been converted into a dwell- ing house. The house in Number 2, repaired and moved in 1914 to the east side of the road, at the intersection of the County (now State) road and the road leading over Huntington Hill, once stood on the west side of the road, and probably is the original house of the district, as Mr. L. D. Tenney, who was a boy in the neighborhood, when over eighty years of age remem- bered it as an old house in his boyhood. It was provided with new desks, the old ones being transferred to the house in Number 6, which up to that time had used the original benches. The house in Number 13 was built in 1828.
It is altogether probable that the houses of the other districts were built soon after the organization of the districts, and cer- tainly they were lacking in conveniences. Under the system of school oversight then employed, they fell into decay as time went on, and became the text for constant rebuke in the school reports. Thus in 1851 the committee said :
The school houses of Hanover do not represent the intelligence or wealth of the citizens. Many of them are a standing reproach to the districts. Some of our school houses are imperfectly provided with blackboards and chalk. Only one school in town has a set of outline maps. Not one has a globe or a book of reference.
In 1852 there is a similar report and the caustic reference to district Number 5 was perhaps the effective cause of the new house that was built there in the following summer :
A large number of our school houses are cold and inconvenient.
224
History of Hanover
In district number 5 the teachers think that nearly one half the value of the school the last winter was lost by a cold and uncomfortable house. .... Our school houses are in general our poorest buildings, and many of them unfit for the purpose of instruction.
The new school house in Number 5 was not built without long consideration and some opposition. It was first proposed to repair the old house, but when it was decided to build a new one the question of a location arose, and when a new site was chosen on the south side of the brook several persons felt aggrieved and presented a remonstrance, which was heard by a committee consisting of John S. Woodman, John Terry and N. W. Thomp- son, non-residents of the district. The decision of the committee was adverse to the remonstrants and the location as chosen was confirmed.
Other districts besides Number 5 seem to have been stirred to action by these reports. Thus, as already stated, a new house was built in 1853 in Number 6 at a cost of $250, and in that year Number 3, whose house by 1834 was already old enough to need some repairs, voted a considerable sum for that purpose. The records do not show whether the repairs were actually made, though presumably they were, but, if they were, they were so far from satisfactory that the question of a new house was urged in 1856. It was negatived and further repairs were ordered. Again the question of a new house came up in 1864 with the same result, but this time more extensive alterations were made at an expense of nearly $500. In like manner district Number 14 agitated the question of a new house, or repairs on the old one, in 1862, and ended with repairs and alterations in 1863 at a cost of about $300. The houses in districts 9 and 10 were a constant target for the criticisms of the school reports, that of Number 9, which in 1862 was spoken of as a "dilapidated house," being closed in cold weather in 1874 "as wholly unfit for its pur- pose," and that of Number 10, which in 1871 was "unfit for use," was in 1887 still in an "unsuitable condition."
The records of most of the districts have not been turned over to the town clerk as required by the law of 1885, but a few, like those of Number 3, give interesting information regarding the schools. Thus, there were paid in 1837 in Number 3, $9 for the summer school and $17 for the winter school, and $11.21 for "boreting" the teacher, "boarding round" apparently not having come into use. By 1850 $16 was paid for twelve weeks of sum- mer school and $16.50 for nine weeks of winter school. The
225
Schools
account of 1842 shows the frugality of the management, the expenses given below exactly equaling the "monney" received. The length of the schools is not given.
Summer school
$13.
Brought up
$43.27
Winter school
22.50
Washing house
.50
Repairs
4.04
Blackboard
1.01
Building fires
.56
Dipper and pail
.55
Glass
.25
Wood
2.92
$45.33
In early days it was customary to auction off at the school meeting, to the lowest bidder, the furnishing of wood for fuel, but afterward it was furnished by the different families from which children came to school in proportion to the number of the chil- dren. Boarding around continued, at least in Number 3, until the establishment of the town district. In Number 5 the follow- ing vote was passed in 1832:
Voted that the instructress board with the inhabitants that are situated near the school-house through the summer, and that the master board with those that are situated at the out skurts of said District, that the mistress teaching the winter school shall board at one place while teaching the winter school.
This arrangement continued for several years, growing a little more definite as time went on, so that in 1839 we find the record : "John Huntoon boards the school-mistress through the winter term of school at one dollar per week." This price for board con- tinued for several years. The length of the schools differed greatly, that of the summer schools varying from three to five months ; in the latter case the opening was about the first of May. The winter schools were seldom more than twelve or thirteen weeks long, and sometimes not more than nine. At first the length was usually determined by the vote of the district; but as it depended somewhat upon the amount of money to be expended, it was later left to the discretion of the committee, together with the hiring and pay of the teacher ; yet occasionally instructions were given, as in 1824, when district Number 5, in answer to a request from the committee,
Voted the School seperating the Mails and Femails, to have three months mans Schools and two months of the womans.
In 1831 it was
Voted to have 14 weeks mans school and 10 weeks womans school the ensuing Winter both schools to commence about the first of December.
226
History of Hanover
How long this double school continued the record does not disclose, but in 1865 and again in 1866 it was left to the dis- cretion of the committee whether there should be one or two schools. Probably the discontinuance dates from that time. A record of 1854 shows what the attendance may have been :
Voted to have a Committee of three appointed by the Chair to report the number of Schollars they would think that would attend School this ensuing winter and to report to the Meeting. .... Said Committee after consulting found thirty-nine Schollars now in the district and reported that in their opinion that there would be forty-four Schollars attend the School this winter ensuing. Motioned to have the Schools both kept in one room the ensuing winter. Voted they would not.
That the schools of the smaller districts suffered from the same troubles of truancy and non-attendance as the schools of the Plain is implied in the record of the March meeting of Number 5 in 1859, when it was
Voted that the Prudential Committee instruct the Teachers to refuse to excuse any schollars unless they have a written request from their Parents.
And it was further
Resolved that the owners of the Store and Shops in this District be requested in behalf of the District not to allow the Schollars of the District to remain in the Store or Shops during school hours, unless 'by the consent of their Parents or guardians.
From 1790, as now, district Number 1 included the College Plain and in early times was spoken of as the "Dresden district." School privileges here, however, had been enjoyed from the earliest settlement in 1770, in connection with the elementary department attached to the College under the name of Moor's School, the village children being taught by the same instructor and such assistants as he chose to employ. This association was kept up, at least in the winter, certainly as late as 1800. Mr. William Dewey, who attended the school, gives an interesting account of its method, which reminds one of the "blab schools" of the Southern mountain region. He writes :
Up to 1791 the school was kept in the old college edifice which was demolished in that year, and the school transferred to the new Academy. Four-fifths of all the school instruction that I ever received was within the walls of that old college building. All manner of instruction would be going forward at the same time in one room-Greek, Latin, arithmetic, reading, writing and what not? The Latin and Greek would occupy almost a third of each half day, and constantly during the other hours the business of the moment would be distracted by some student shouting out a word he wished to be rendered.
227
Schools
The connection, though conducive to economy, and in a man- ner necessary, was, it is no surprise to learn, distasteful to both parties. The instruction in the school was regulated by the President of the College, and naturally was occupied to a large extent with those studies that had regard to the preparation for the College course, rather than appropriate to a village school and, on the other hand, members of Moor's School were some- times impatient of the connection. Notwithstanding the mutual dissatisfaction with the scheme, its advantages were so obvious that it continued in operation, as has been said, as late as 1800.
It is probable that the town of Dresden, during the six years of its existence between 1778 and 1784, had a school committee and in some form a school tax, to meet their proportion of the expenses. Perhaps the expense was met by private contribution. The records seem all to have perished, but the following unsigned document, accidentally preserved, indicates something of the kind :
Hanover 7 July 1786
Whereas a considerable part of the proprietors of Dresden School Society made application to warn a school meeting in order to build a school house or provide a place that it can be kept in-The President very generously gave the district the offer of having a room in the College for that purpose till there could a house be built; but his scholars wont suffer it: therefore the proprietors of Dresden School District are warned to meet at the College Hall next Monday at five o'clock P. M. to take such measures as they may think proper in order that we may have a school, and do any other business that they shall think proper to be done.
School Committee
The disagreements, whatever they were, evidently subsided. No school house was then built, and the joint arrangement con- tinued with more or less regularity. In December, 1803, as we learn from the columns of the Gazette,1 the town school was kept in "Little's Hall," which was in the house now Number 25 South Main Street, but in December, 1805, it was announced in the same columns 2 that the winter term of the town school would begin the first Monday in January at the Academy, perhaps in the second story room, formerly occupied by the printing office, where in the preceding April a young ladies' school had been announced.3
Early in 1807 the people of the College district took measures to avail themselves of the powers conferred by the Act of 1805.
1 Dartmouth Gazette, December 23, 1803.
2 Dartmouth Gazette, December 13, 1805.
3 Dartmouth Gazette, April 5, 1805.
228
History of Hanover
Upon application, the selectmen, on April 22, called a meeting of the district, to be holden at the inn of Benoni Dewey, May 21, to provide for the building or purchase of a school house. It was thereupon discovered, evidently, that the town had not as yet by formal records taken the necessary steps to make the act operative, and the meeting came to naught. As soon as the defect could be remedied by a special town meeting, held in June, a second application to the selectmen issued in another meeting of the district, which was called for August 10 at the hall of Samuel Alden. As illustrating the methods then thought necessary, it is of interest to note that the warning was separately served by Jedediah Baldwin, under the direction of Mr. Gilbert, on sixty- nine persons, whom he enumerates in his return and certifies to include every person in the district qualified to vote in town affairs. To fifty-four persons he gave personal notice and fifteen others were served by written notices left at their houses.1
The meeting came as near unanimity as school meetings gener- ally do in such matters. James Wheelock was chosen moderator and Jedediah Baldwin was chosen clerk. It was voted to raise $320 for the purpose of building a school house and providing utensils, and a committee of five was chosen to execute the vote.2
1 The list is interesting as giving the residents of the village at that time, although a few of those mentioned lived outside the village. The return certi- fied that the list includes all the voters in the district, and yet there do not appear in it the names of John Hubbard, Roswell Shurtleff, and John Smith, all professors in the College at that time.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.