USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 23
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Samuel Alden
Ebenezer Fogg
Samuel McClure
John Bliss
Josiah Goodrich
Josiah Noyes
John Bush
Laban Gates
Mills Olcott
Urial Bascom
Phineas Gould
Levi Parks
Ebenezer Brewster
Ralph W. Gould
John Patrick
Amas A. Brewster
Ben. J. Gilbert
James Poole
Jedidiah Baldwin
Billa R. Gates
Elisha Parkhurst
John Bishop
Rufus Green
Sam'1 H. G. Rowley
Isaac Bissell
Abishai Goodall
Timo Staples
Isaac Bissell, Jr.
Paul Harriman
Cady Simons
James Culver
Joseph Hill
Nathan Smith
Daniel Converse
William Harris
George Smith
Josiah Chandler
John Holmes
Stephen S. Swett
Samuel Cleveland
Hezekiah Jones
Samuel Templeton
Benoni Dewey
Aaron Kinsman
Wm. H. Woodward
William Dewey, Jr.
Stephen Kimball
Amos Wardwell
Luke Dewey
Increase Kimball
Aaron Wright
Jabez A. Douglass
Ebenezer Knowlton
Jacob Ward
Moses Davis, Jr.
Richard Lang
Winslow Warren
Lemuel Davenport
Ebenezer Lee
James Wheelock
Caleb Fuller
William Loud
John Wheelock
Woodward B. Fitch
Caleb Little
Charles Whitney
Matthew Fairservice
John Mansfield
Ebenezer Woodward
2 The committee consisted of Ben. J. Gilbert, Mills Olcott, Richard Lang, Samuel Alden and Benoni Dewey.
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The record informs us that "the south end of Mr. Lang's Willes lot was proposed as a suitable place for said school house to be erected," also that another spot was proposed by Jedediah Baldwin; viz., "the acre lot, west of the College Green, belong- ing to David Hinckley, on which the Green Store now stands." This was the spot where the Tuck Building now is. But the record proceeds : "There appeared serious objections against each spot mentioned, and we could not agree upon either of them by vote." Both propositions were voted down.
The committee, however, was equal to the occasion, and pro- ceeding to action they purchased of Aaron Wright on Septem- ber 24, for $30, a lot at the top of the hill on the road leading to the river, the same where the building of the Stockbridge Association now stands (No. 1 School Street), and on March 3 certified to the selectmen the inability of the inhabitants of the district to agree, and with their approval proceeded in the summer of 1808, after advertisement, to build the house at a cost of $340.50, by contract with Solomon Jacobs, Jr., and Justin Cook.
The house, comprising a single room, was thirty-two feet long from north to south and twenty-eight feet wide, and ten feet high between the joists; it was well boarded and clapboarded, having nine windows, each with twenty-four panes of 7x9 glass, and was surmounted by a hipped roof. The entrance was through a closed porch at the north end. The method of heating at that time was by fireplaces, and it may be remembered that Dartmouth Hall was so heated as late as 1822, but the committee was as pro- gressive in the matter of heating as of building, and "believing it to be a measure of economy and to comport with the wishes of the inhabitants," it omitted building a chimney, with the design of substituting a stove, for the accommodation of which a hearth of brick, four feet square, was built near the center of the house, rising a half inch above the floor. The innovation was sanctioned by Dr. Nathan Smith, who certified to the district that he was "fully of opinion that stoves are better for warming school houses than an open fire place, both on account of economy and the health of the scholars." This involved the cost of a stove, estimated, "with the expense of transport," at $50, and, with other items, necessitated the raising of $112 beyond the original appropria- tion. The introduction of stoves into the other school houses of the town was a slow process, but some of them soon followed the example of district Number 1, for we find in the record of Num- ber 6 in October of 1813 the vote "to build a stove in the school
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History of Hanover
house," the money for it "to be raised on the grand list" and the building of it "to be set up at vendue." A committee of three was elected to inspect the stove when completed.
I do not find how long this house was occupied, or what became of it, or under what circumstances another was built, but, cer- tainly, before many years it was replaced by another and larger one on the same spot. This second house was a yellow, wooden build- ing of two stories, having a single large school room on each floor, substantially the same arrangement as in the Academy, the older scholars occupying the lower room and the younger the upper. It served its purpose until 1839, when it was removed a few rods down the hill, across the road, where it was used as a dwelling house until it was partially burned in the summer of 1915, and then torn down to make room for the present apartment house, Number 23 West Wheelock Street.
In the spring of 1836 the College students to the number of about fifteen attended the school meeting and appointed one of their number prudential committee, the agent for procuring teachers. The selectmen required him to give bonds, which he did, and he discharged his duties in a manner highly satisfactory. The teachers whom he employed were approved by the district and one of them was so well liked that she was retained the next year by another committeeman, a citizen of the village. In 1839 the stu- dents again took possession of the school meeting and chose one of their number as prudential committee, but after a few days he resigned and a citizen of the village was chosen in his place, who hired the teacher whom the student had selected. At the same meeting the students also carried a vote for a new school house. On the assembling of the Legislature in June the proceedings of the students became the subject of attention, following an appeal by the Democrats concerning it, and after determined opposition an act was passed, July 4, 1839, which deprived students in general of the right to vote in Hanover.
But the new school house was nevertheless built as voted, so that the students left a permanent and useful memorial of their exercise of power. The old house, as has been said, was sold, ยท moved down the hill and converted into a dwelling, and a brick house eighty-two feet long and twenty-eight and a half wide, one story high, having two rooms, was built on the old ground and continued to be occupied for school purposes until 1877.
It was early found to be too small. In 1844 it was necessary to have three schools, and it was ordered that one of them should
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be kept in a hired room. In 1845 it was proposed to build another school house somewhere north of the Green, but nothing was done. After a little, through inadequacy of accommodations and an evil reputation derived from a number of rude scholars, many of the children of the district were placed in private schools. For many years the village district was reputed as very "hard"; attendance was irregular and the children attending the school were rude and noisy. Teachers had a hard time and were some- times ejected. The constant complaint was of disorder and insub- ordination. In 1851 the school was reported as "nearly destroyed by the insubordination of a few of the older boys," and it was declared that unless there should be an improvement "it would continue to be a reproach to the village." Of one particular case about that time the following anecdote is told :
The school was afflicted with an outbreak of disorder rather more severe than usual; two teachers were successively driven out, and the school was closed. At that time Francis G. Hoyt was the minister in charge of the Methodist Church in the village. He was a man of quiet bearing, of medium stature but of power- ful physique. He was overheard to say that if he had nothing else to do he would keep the school in spite of the roughs. Professor Chase, who was then prudential committee of the district, with some difficulty persuaded Mr. Hoyt to undertake the task. Notice was accordingly posted that the school would begin at a certain date, but who would be the teacher was not announced. One of the troublesome boys was heard to say that whoever he might be, he could not stay long.
When the time came, much to the surprise of the boys, Mr. Hoyt came in and opened the school with prayer. The forenoon was taken up with preliminaries and there was more or less dis- turbance, of which Mr. Hoyt took no notice. The afternoon began a little more noisily. He then told the boys that he had come to keep the school and intended to do it, but added some words addressed to their better nature. As he turned around the boy who had boasted that the school would not continue made a con- temptuous gesture, and when Mr. Hoyt ordered him to step out into the floor he refused with an oath. Stepping to his desk Mr. Hoyt seized him by the collar with one hand and in an instant boy and seat lay sprawling on the floor at the other side of the room. Before the boy could recover himself Mr. Hoyt had him again buckled down over a bench and was applying a ruler vigorously to the "place where honor's lodged." The boy said
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History of Hanover
afterward that he was powerless in Mr. Hoyt's grasp. After a minute of this exercise the boy was sent to his seat, and was instantly ordered as before to come forward into the floor. This time he obeyed without delay, and Mr. Hoyt had no further trouble with the school.
Part of the trouble, which continued much the same for many years, was due to the system which placed so much power in the hands of a single person as prudential committee, and to the want of care in the selection of that officer, for often acquaintance with school affairs or school needs was the last thing considered in his election. In 1861 the district fell into a great turmoil upon the application to the selectmen to remove the prudential com- mittee, B. S. Caswell, on the ground of unfitness. After an excited hearing he was removed and the teachers changed, but the ejected teachers sued the district and recovered ; and when, in 1863, Mr. Caswell was re-elected to the same office, the suits were settled and the same teachers re-employed. Truancy was one of the ills from which the school greatly suffered, but so little was it regarded that in 1862 the district refused to ask the town to adopt the truant act, and it was not till five years later that rules for the repression of truancy were adopted by the prudential committee.
Up to 1867 the school in district Number 1 was conducted on the same basis as those in the other districts, but the number of scholars and the peculiar circumstances of the place rendered the system exceedingly inadequate and unsatisfactory. In that year, at the same time with an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a new school house, a determined effort was made to retrieve the schools. On the recommendation of a special committee, the district adopted, under the provisions of the Act of December 19, 1848, what was known as the "Somersworth Act," passed June 19, 1848, whereby it obtained the right to elect, in addition to the prudential committee, a superintending committee of its own, as well as authority to maintain graded schools, and high schools, if neces- sary, and enlarged powers of raising money for a school house. The first committee consisted of seven members;1 the next year but three were chosen, then two until 1874 when, and thereafter, again three.
Although a new house was not secured, in 1867 the old one was repaired and its use restricted to school purposes ; by vote of 1868 its use was extended to include religious meetings. But the school
1 E. D. Sanborn, S. W. Cobb, William Tenney, H. E. Parker, E. T. Quimby, J. A. Smith, and B. W. Hale.
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house itself was the insurmountable obstacle to improvement in the schools, and a determined agitation for a new house began in 1874. In the next year $4,500 was actually voted to repair the old house, but the non-contents (some of whom wanted to do more and others wanted to do less) combined to rescind the vote at a second meeting, and, by way of compromise, $500 was voted in August, 1875, and expended in the construction of a new privy. In 1876 truant officers were chosen for the first time, an indication of an improved sentiment. In 1877 the subject of a new house came at last to a favorable conclusion. After many meetings, in which different propositions were made, decided, reconsidered and amended or cast aside, a decision was reached. The old house was sold to the precinct for $1,000; $2,000 more was raised by tax, and $8,000 was borrowed and a new brick house of three stories, comprising four excellent rooms and a large hall, was built the same year on a parcel of land bought of Michael Mccarthy, with- out exceeding the appropriation, the total cost being $10,933.04. The plans and specifications for the building were made by Professor Frank A. Sherman, under whose immediate supervision the building was erected, he being one of a building committee of five, consisting of Joseph B. Morse, James W. Patterson, Frederick Chase, George A. Wainwright and Frank A. Sherman. The contractors were Mead, Mason and Company of Lebanon.
The effect on the schools was magical. Whereas before, two poor and disorderly schools were scantily attended a part of the year, there were soon four departments to which all classes sent their children with alacrity, and a high standard of excellence was attained. Soon the increase in numbers, which resulted partly from the improvement of the schools and partly from the growth of the village, outran all expectation. A regular high school was established in 1888, growing out of what had previously been a "higher department." By 1890 the building was recognized as inadequate and as lacking in facilities for the proper care of so many pupils, and suggestions of enlargement were heard. In 1895 the School Board reported that the "building no longer provides adequate and suitable accommodations." In a single room there were from fifty-five to sixty pupils, and to relieve the overcrowd- ing, recourse was had to the old school house, in which the precinct allowed a room to be temporarily used for the younger pupils. The building of 1877 had but four school rooms, with a maximum of forty seats each, and there were enrolled 183 pupils. The necessary addition to the school house was built in 1896, thirty-
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History of Hanover
three feet by forty-two, three stories high and corresponding in style with the old building, affording three new rooms, one large and two small, besides a large attic, then unfinished, and an abundant basement. The foundations were put in by Timothy Sullivan, the contractor for the superstructure was Lyman Whipple of Lebanon, and A. W. French supervised the work for the district. The total cost was $6,988.91.
In the same year a further impetus was given to the school by an agreement that was made between the district and William J. Tucker, President of Moor's Indian Charity School, by which the district secured the services of a teacher in the high school for three periods a day of forty-five minutes each for the five days of the school week, the district agreeing on its part to prepare pupils for college in the classical course. The result of this agree- ment was a more advanced standing for the high school.
The experience of growth that followed the building of the house of 1877 was repeated after its enlargement. Within a few years the enlarged building had become too strait and there was no chance for further expansion. Various plans and much dis- cussion resulted in the construction of a new building for the high school on a lot across the street from the existing building. This was opened in the spring of 1913, and the old building left to the grade schools. Additional teachers were introduced and a com- mercial course was added. The architect of the high school building was E. J. Wilson of Boston and the contractor was J. H. Davidson of the same city ; its cost was $30,048.50.
The change in the character of the school between 1877 and 1913 may be inferred from the fact that in that period the district invested $47,970.45 in buildings and grounds, and that the number of teachers rose from two to thirteen, the number of pupils enrolled from probably about forty to an average for 1913 of 295, and the annual cost of running the schools from $868.06 in 1876 to $17,193 in 1913, of which sum $1,893.50 was received in tuition from pupils outside the district.
The period of growth, however, still continued and though provision for the high school met the demand, it became evident with the increase of children in the district that the accommoda- tions for the lower grades were insufficient and perhaps unsuitable. The precinct and the school district had their separate needs, the first needing a new precinct hall, but the two organizations con- sisted of the same body of taxpayers and that their separate yet common interests might be duly considered there was established
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Schools
in 1917 by a concurrent vote of the two bodies a permanent committee of thirty, eighteen appointed by the moderator of the precinct and twelve by the moderator of the school district whose duty it was to confer with the precinct commissioners and the board of education in the preparation of the annual budget and all matters of common interest.
This committee continued two years, but by the end of that time it was evident that the most pressing need was for enlarged school facilities and in 1919 a committee was appointed to report upon the question of remodeling the old building or constructing a new one. The matter was tossed to and fro between committees until 1923 when it was decided to build a new house for the grade school, but as the estimated cost exceeded the existing assets and the legal limit of borrowing, it was also decided to postpone the erection of the building and meantime to raise $5,000 a year to be invested as an accumulating fund until it should be sufficient together with legal borrowing to pay for a new school house and its equipment.
As was natural there was disagreement as to the location of the new building, but after the question had narrowed to a choice of two sites, one on the school grounds near the high school building and one on the south side of Lebanon Street, near the edge of the village, it was settled by a referendum of the district in which the site on Lebanon Street was preferred by a vote of 160 to 51. The building, of which Larson and Wells were the architects, was erected in 1925 by W. H. Trumbull at a contract price of $65,961. The total cost, including land large enough for a play ground, grading, equipment and other needful preparations, brought the total outlay to about $94,000. The house was occupied at the opening of the school year, September 8, 1925.
The building was unique in plan. Its dimensions on the ground were 150 by 100 feet and it was but one story in height, except in the center where an auditorium capable of seating 400 rose to the height of a second story, and this was surmounted by a small cupola. Around the auditorium were arranged rooms for eight grade schools and also for the superintendent, principal and teachers. There were no stairs to climb and many exits gave means of safe, rapid egress.
In 1925-26 the total enrollment in the school had risen to 402, 198 in the grades, 66 in the junior high school, and 138 in the senior high school. The amount paid in salaries for teachers had risen from about $9,000 in 1915-16 to $23,554 in 1925-26; and
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History of Hanover
the total cost of running the schools amounted to $42,896, which amount was reduced by $4,751.40 received as tuition from pupils outside the precinct. In 1925-26 nine teachers were employed in the grade schools, and seven in the high school, in addition to a teacher of music for all schools.
The embarrassment which in former years resulted from the existence of two committees with divided powers was done away by the district, which promptly availed itself of the increased advantages offered by the Act of July 14, 1877, adopted at a special meeting in January, 1879, and in place of its two former committees chose a board of education of three members, increased to six in 1883, under which the schools have prospered beyond the most sanguine expectations.
As would be expected, the officers of the College have from time to time exerted a wide-spread influence for the improvement of common schools, an influence not confined to Hanover. In 1846, in connection with renewed interest exhibited throughout the State in the subject of education, provision was made by the Act of July 10 for a State commissioner of common schools at a salary of $600. Professor C. B. Haddock of Hanover, who was a member of the Legislature and chairman of the committee on education which reported the bill, was appointed the first incumbent of this new office in September, 1846, and served until July 1, 1847. He was a man of great ability, cultivation and interest in public affairs ; and he discharged the duties of his office in such a manner as to reflect great honor upon himself and to confer a lasting benefit on the educational interests of the State. As the law demanded at least twenty weeks in the year of undivided attention on the part of the commissioner, it was not possible for Professor Haddock to continue longer in the position. He was succeeded by the Rev. Richard S. Rust of Northfield.
By the Act of July 12, 1850, the state commissioner was replaced by a board of education, consisting of one commissioner for each county, one of whom, as secretary, was required to make the reports which had been previously required of the state com- mission. For Grafton County Professor John S. Woodman was commissioner from 1852 to 1855, and was president of the board from August, 1854. Professor James W. Patterson was com- missioner and secretary from August, 1857 to 1861, and Tutor Samuel A. Duncan was commissioner from 1861 to 1863.
As thus shown, the professors at Hanover took a leading part in the educational revival indicated and induced by these enact-
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ments. Among other similar activities a common school associa- tion was formed under their influence in the western judicial district of Grafton County and teachers' institutes were conducted by them at various places. In May, 1850, an institute was held at Hanover, continuing several days, and attended by 126 persons, of whom 70 were women. Professor Sanborn was president of the association. Various topics were discussed, and instruction and lectures were given by Professors Sanborn, Alpheus and Dixi Crosby, Chase, Young, Hubbard and Brown, and by Rev. Dr. Richards. A state teachers' association was organized, June 16, 1854, of which Professor Sanborn was president from 1859 to 1860. By the Act of July 6, 1867, the board of county commis- sioners was superseded by a State superintendent of public instruc- tion. From 1880 until 1893 this office was held by James W. Patterson, for many years a professor in the College before he was elected to Congress and to the United States Senate, and again a professor in Dartmouth after retiring from the superin- tendency. During his whole term of office he was also a member of the school board in district Number 1 at Hanover, and to his counsel and advice was due in no small part the success of the school.
In district Number 1, until the radical improvement of the public schools and the building of the new school house in 1877, many of the children of the village had been for a long period dependent wholly upon private instruction. Small private schools for young children were kept at different times in private houses. Moor's Charity School, kept in the Academy, furnished the higher instruc- tion intermittently until it was closed in 1849. A vivid picture of this school or Academy, as it was generally called, about the year 1821, is given by Mrs. Brinley ( a niece of Mills Olcott) in her life of her brother, W. T. Porter (p. 19f). Writing of her per- sonal experience, she said :
The Dominie, Archelaus E. Putnam, was only known to the pupils by the familiar name of "Old Put." He was an emaciated, narrow chested man, above the medium height; with a pale rigid face-eyes inexorable and full of danger, though chafed into a sick and pale dimness-and a mouth that vibrated betwixt a snappish irritability and an evident attempt to appear undisturbed and at times even jocular. With the utmost diligence in our studies, and the closest observance of the rules it was impossible to escape the humiliating blows of a mahogany ruler which carried out the bent of his humor from day to day.
Instinct and intellect, however, were quickened by its lightning strokes down to their secret springs of inspiration, and vigorous progress was the
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result in every department. The very atmosphere of Old Dartmouth at that period communicated a sturdy emulation in both parents and children. Scholarship was the all in all of the day. Infants were expected to lisp Greek before the appearance of the first tooth. Precedents of rare excel- lence among the graduates of the College were forever kept before the eyes of old and young. The whole country ringing with the fame of Mr. Webster, and the every day presence of Mr. Choate, then a tutor in College, in the rich bloom of his personal beauty, with a reputation more circumscribed but not less commanding within its sphere of display than the fame which sur- rounded him at the day of his death, gave impulse and courage to every young ambitious spirit within sound of the college or academy bell.
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