USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Hanover > A history of the town of Hanover, N.H. > Part 24
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After the close of the Academy the boys of the village prepar- ing for College were remitted to private tutors or sent to academies at a distance.
Of the private schools of the past I am able to give but imperfect particulars. Most of them have been devoted principally to the instruction of girls. Advertisements in the Dartmouth Gazette suggest different subjects and methods of instruction at different times. Thus, in 1801 we learn that John C. Divine had a dancing school at Graves Hall at the rate of $4 for thirty-six lessons. In December, 1803, the art of shorthand writing was taught by a transient teacher at 8/ for the course. In March, 1805, the village paper announces the opening of a school, by a "Gentleman and Lady," for the instruction of young ladies, in the second story of the Academy. The forenoon was to be occupied in reading, needle work and painting, and the afternoon in common English branches. Those who were taught painting, embroidery and fine needle work paid $3 a quarter, and others paid $1.50. In the following winter the village school was kept in the same place. In April, 1813, Joseph Perry, the master of Moor's School, and a lady opened a school, to continue one or two quarters, similar to the school of 1805.
The Gazette of April 23, 1817, contains the following adver- tisement :
Young Ladies' Academy
The public are informed that a school for YOUNG LADIES will be opened on Monday next in the Hall of the Academy in this place, under the immediate direction of Miss M. R. Poole, late preceptress of the Academy at Limerick, who will instruct in plain and ornamental needle work, paint- ing and embroidery-also in those branches that are usually taught in an English Grammar School. The terms of tuition for those who attend to painting and embroidery will be three dollars per quarter; for those who attend to the other branches above mention two dollars. If a sufficient encouragement is given the School will continue two quarters.
LEMUEL MERRILL, Preceptor.
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Schools
Following this was an enterprise, somewhat more permanent, as it lasted until the autumn of 1820, conducted by Miss Eliza- beth Roby in the house afterward known as the "Acropolis" on the crest of the ridge just above the present North Fayerweather Hall. In the Gazette of March 11, 1818, appeared the following advertisement :
BOARDING SCHOOL
Miss Roby returns her sincere thanks to her friends for the very liberal encouragement which they have given her school. As she wishes to enlarge her establishment, she solicits the continuance of their patronage; and would inform them and the public, that she will be happy to receive such youth as they may please to entrust to her care. She proposes instructing in Read- ing, Writing, English grammar, Rhetorick, Composition, Arithmetic, Geog- raphy, History, Plain and ornamental Needle work, Drawing and Painting. Particular attention will be paid to the morals and manners of her pupils. Terms of instruction $3 per quarter-those who wish for board, can be accommodated on the reasonable terms of $2 per week, including washing. From an experience of several years in the business of instruction, she hopes with a degree of confidence to satisfy the reasonable expectations of her patrons. Hanover, March 11, 1818.
The next recorded attempt of this kind was a boarding school for young ladies, which developed into a more extended plan. It was commenced in 1840 by Mrs. Maria B. Peabody, the widow of Professor David Peabody, who had died in October of 1839. Her school was kept in the house, previously occupied by the Peabodys, at the northeast corner of the Green, where Webster Hall now is, and gained in a few years a widespread reputation, drawing many pupils from distant sections. It was devoted almost wholly to boarding scholars from abroad. Mrs. Peabody had a dignified and commanding presence, great executive ability and an extraordinary talent for her vocation. Though repeatedly enlarged the house was never adequate for the reception of all the applicants, the greatest number received at one time being about forty. It goes without saying that so many young ladies, drawn from families of the highest standing in different parts of the country and housed within a stone's throw of the College build- ings, could not fail to be a disturbing element in the minds of the students. The "Nunnery" and the "Nuns," a nomenclature uni- versally adopted from the almost cloistered seclusion in which the young ladies seemed to the students to be confined, furnished a center of attraction and a subject of conversation of more general interest than any since enjoyed, not even excepting the athletics of modern days. But rarely did any scheme of flirtation, however
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History of Hanover
ingenious, get the better of Mrs. Peabody's sagacity. Those who are interested to have a picture of the internal economy of the school may find it, perhaps a little overdrawn, in a little book by Miss Woolsey (Susan Coolidge), once a pupil there, entitled "What Katy Did at School."
Mrs. Peabody conducted the school with constantly increasing reputation for ten years until, in September, 1850, she married the Rev. Daniel Furber of the class of 1843 and removed to Newton Center, Massachusetts. She was succeeded in the school by Mrs. Laura C. Dickinson, who herself surrendered it in turn at the end of a year for a like reason. It was then taken by Pro- fessor O. P. Hubbard, who conducted it with unabated success for five years in the house where it had so long been. In 1856 he removed the school to his own house, which he had temporarily given up, at the northwest corner of the Green, after adding a third story and otherwise enlarging it. Here the school was main- tained until 1865, when Professor Hubbard with his family and the school removed to New Haven, Connecticut.
The Peabody house, when vacated, was taken by Mrs. Julia M. Sherman, a daughter of Daniel Hoyt of Sandwich, New Hamp- shire, who, with the aid of her daughters, continued a similar school of like grade and equally high standing until 1863, although her school differed from the others in receiving more freely day scholars from the village.
The closing of these two "family schools" was in many respects a serious loss to Hanover in a business, educational and social aspect, of which the vacant seats in the corners of the meeting house on Sundays (and indeed of the respective galleries oppo- site) were, until the house was remodeled in 1877, a constant reminder. In those corners the young ladies, whose attendance at church was required, were wont to sit, facing the pulpit, the audience and the galleries, in which the juniors and sophomores were required to sit. Mrs. Peabody's pupils, and afterward Mrs. Sherman's, occupied the northeastern corner and Professor Hub- bard's the corresponding seats on the other side of the house.
Contemporaneous for a time with Mrs. Peabody's, another young ladies' boarding school was kept by Rev. and Mrs. John M. Ellis in the house afterward destroyed by fire, on the south side of Elm Street, where No. 3 now is. This school was comparative- ly small and was continued but a few years, between 1843 and 1845. It was succeeded by a school kept by Rev. and Mrs. David Kimball, but this school also was short lived. Professor E. D.
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Schools
Sanborn also received a limited number of young ladies into his family for instruction from 1863 to 1868.
Of private schools for children that existed from time to time it is not possible to make a correct list, but a few may be enum- erated.
About 1830 Miss Chapman had a school in a house which stood where the Tuck Drive now leaves Main Street, and in the same house, about 1845 to 1847, a school was kept by Miss Thomp- son, who afterward had a school in the house which stood where Wheeler Hall now is. Between Miss Chapman and Miss Thomp- son a school was kept by Miss Oliver in the house now belonging to the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. In 1850 Miss Colburn had a school in the chamber of the old store on the west side of the Green, on the site of Robinson Hall; it was afterward removed to the western school room in the Academy building. In 1854 Miss Esther Douglass kept a school, said at one time to have had fifty- eight scholars, in what is now No. 10 Lebanon Street. In the late sixties Miss L. J. Sherman had a small school in the little building placed for the purpose on the north side of the lane leading to the cemetery, near where South Massachusetts Hall now stands. In 1869 she removed her school, which she enlarged to a boarding and day school with the title of "Home School," to the northwest corner of Main and Wheelock Streets, and again, in 1887, in company with her sister, Miss Celia Sherman, to the southeast corner of Main and Elm Streets. In the seventies Miss Hattie M. Field had a small kindergarten school at her home, just above the present tavern.
CHAPTER XVII
FIRE PROTECTION ; THE VILLAGE PRECINCT
O N April 6, 1781, the Legislature of New Hampshire passed an act to promote the extinguishing of fires, especially for the benefit of Portsmouth but applicable also to such other pre- cincts as should adopt it.
The act provided for the election of any suitable number of freeholders, of approved ability and fidelity, who should be denomi- nated firewards and have as the distinguishing badge of their office a staff five feet long, painted red and headed by a bright brass spire six inches long, and who upon notice of the breaking out of a fire were required immediately to repair to the place and vigorously exert themselves to stop the fire and protect property. They had authority to require assistance, to destroy buildings in order to prevent the spread of the fire, to suppress disorder by force and to direct the labor of all persons present. If any refused obedience they were subject to a fine of ten pounds.
The firewards had also power of supervision and control of the repair of buildings which were defective in their chimneys or in other points. It was also required that all houses of certain dimen- sions should be provided with fire buckets and ladders. This act, which itself was substantially a re-enactment of older laws, con- tinued in force unchanged until 1828 and through various revisions until the present time.
Systematic precautions against fire began to receive attention at Hanover in 1792. In that year the College trustees at a meeting in May turned their attention to procuring a supply of water for that and other purposes, and voted
That Jonathan Freeman be requested to procure (as soon as may be) a well to be formed and a pump to be placed in it and appurtenances in the yard back side of the College for the use of the students and a fountain in the president's pasture back of the College for supply of water in case of fire.
In January, 1793, the Trustees passed the following vote :
Voted that thirty pounds be advanced by the financier towards procuring a fire engine provided so much be necessary for one moiety thereof deducting such proportion of said thirty pounds as shall be equitable for the executive
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
authority of the college to pay which proportion is to be agreed on and settled between said authority and the financier.
But the citizens were not ready to do their part and the matter slumbered. The agitation resulted, however, in the adoption by the town at the annual meeting March 12, 1793, of the Portsmouth Act,
With this proviso that Sd act extend and be in force no further then What is Called the Colledge plain in Sd hanover and With This further proviso that the town be envolved in no expence arising from the adoption of Sd act.
Rufus Graves, Bezaleel Woodward and Ebenezer Brewster were chosen by the town as firewards for the College Plain and were duly sworn. In like manner firewards were chosen by the town in 1796 and 1798. In the spring of the latter year serious alarm was occasioned in the village by two fires in the College building. Twice in the early months of 1798 the new Dartmouth Hall was in jeopardy from fire. The more serious alarm occurred on Sunday morning, March 6, during the church services. The fire originated from the fire place (there being then no stoves) in the northwest corner room of the second story and extended to the rooms immediately above and beneath. It was discovered just as the forenoon exercises were ended, and by the "spirited exertion of the inhabitants and students for about an hour was extin- guished. Had it continued a few moments longer without dis- covery the College and a number of buildings would likely have been destroyed." It was a narrow escape from a great calamity. The damage was about $100.
The danger to the library, the philosophical apparatus and the museum, which were housed in the building, aroused the excited feelings of various members of the faculty according to their varied interests, Professor Smith, the librarian, urging the saving of the books, Professor Woodward thinking of the air pump, and President Wheelock wishing to save the stuffed zebra.
The immediate result was an attempt to provide means for fight- ing fires in the future. Esquire Gilbert wrote, March 24, to Hon. Jonathan Freeman, then member of Congress, in Philadelphia :
We have lately been much alarmed by the breaking out of fire. The College has been twice in jeopardy within a few weeks. The alarm has had the good effect to engage the inhabitants in serious measures to defend against the future ravages of this dreadful enemy. A fire company is form- ing, and a considerable sum is subscribed, and more probably will be, to procure an Engine, buckets &c.
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History of Hanover
President Wheelock also wrote him at the same time :
The people have revived the idea of an engine, and are much engaged to procure one. Indeed it seems very necessary for the College and inhabitants that there should be one in this place.
A subscription of about $300 was raised under the energetic direction of Richard Lang, one of the firewards, who in March again wrote to Mr. Freeman at Philadelphia with a view to the purchase of a "water engine :"
The inhabitants of this vicinity have met and issued a subscription paper for the purpose of securing a water engine. The people appear spirited and subscribe very liberally indeed. They made choice of me to receive the paper and immediately on any one subscribing I take a note payable to me on the first day of Sept. next. Tis the united voice of all the people in this place requesting me to write to you and request you immediately on your receiving this (if your honor pleases) to make every inquiry at Philadel- phia respecting the cost of an engine, one that will throw water over the College, and of the first quality.
We do not know what occasioned a hitch in the business, but the next we hear of it is on January 6, 1801, when Mr. Gilbert again wrote to Mr. Freeman: "We have at length organized our fire society in this place, and we hope to raise money enough the present winter to purchase an engine at Philadelphia if the Trus- tees of the College shall have been pretty liberal." In spite of it all the movement came to nothing, so far as appears, and we hear of no other step in that direction for many years.
The vote of the town in 1793 seems to have been regarded as ineffectual for the legal adoption of the Portsmouth Act-perhaps because of the limitations attached to it-and in 1800 the warrant contained an article for adopting the act anew, but no action was taken though firewards were again chosen by the town in 1801 and annually thereafter until 1807. There seems then to have followed a period of still greater indifference, as no firewards appear to have been chosen until 1825, excepting in 1820, and then, perhaps, in connection with the inception at that time of a new enterprise for furnishing water by an aqueduct.
An article is again found in the warrant for the annual meet- ing in 1821, to see if the town would adopt the Portsmouth Fire Act, and a committee consisting of Benjamin J. Gilbert, John Durkee, Augustus Storrs, Mills Olcott and Ebenezer Adams was appointed to consider the question and report, but there is no record of their report if one was made.
On the 19th of May, 1824, at a special town meeting held at the meeting house on the College Plain, it was voted to adopt the
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
Portsmouth Fire Acts, excepting the fifth section of the Act of 1781, relating to the destruction of houses by firewards, to prevent the spread of fire. The firewards to be chosen under the provi- sions of the act were to be only "for the village at Dartmouth College," and their duties to be "limited to that school district until otherwise directed." At the same meeting the town also adopted the Act of June 28, 1823, relative to police at Portsmouth, the fourth section being applied "only to the highways, streets, lanes, alleys, and other public places in that part of the town known and called by the name of School District Number 1, and so much of said 4th Section as relates to playing at ball, or any games in which ball is used, be applied to those high streets lanes and alleys only, , and not to the public common in front of Dartmouth College set apart by the Trustees thereof among other purposes for a play ground for their students."
The College authorities about this time, probably in 1822, pro- mulgated the following
REGULATIONS IN REGARD TO FIRES
The value of the property in the College Buildings, as well that of the Students, as of the Corporation, and the peculiarly exposed state of this property, make it important to exercise a strict attention and carefulness in regard to FIRES! It is therefore, enjoined upon Students, to observe the following
REGULATIONS:
I. Andirons must be used in all open fire-places, and the shovels and tongs kept in good repair.
II. On leaving a room, or retiring to bed, burning wood must be covered by the ashes, or so disposed of as to be in no danger of falling upon the floor.
III. Brooms or brushes used about a fire, should be carefully examined before they are set aside.
IV. When stoves are used, frequent observations should be taken of the condition of the pipe, and nothing combustible should be left in contact with the iron or near it.
V. Ashes must not, at any time, be taken up, or deposited in wooden vessels, nor left in the closets, or halls, nor thrown from the windows.
VI. Persons authorized to remove ashes, or to burn the chimnies, must always have free access to the rooms, and not be obstructed in their duty.
VII. Straw must not be thrown from the windows, nor left in the vicinity of a building.
VIII. A bucket, filled at night with water, should be kept in every room.
IX. In case of an alarm" of fire, the students will repair to the scene, with their buckets partially, or wholly filled, as it may happen at the time, and be ready to form themselves, upon the instant, and act under the direc-
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History of Hanover
tion of the President, or such other officers of College, as may have charge of the whole, or any department of duty.
On June 23, 1824, at "the store of John Carpenter," there was organized in the College district a fire company, styled "Hanover Engine Company, Number 1," in which were enrolled from time to time many of the most prominent citizens. The late Chief Justice Perley, while College treasurer, was for a while its captain. Their engine, for which a subscription of $320 was raised in the village, consisted of a wooden box into which the water was con- veyed by buckets and then forced out by a pump in the center of it. A few years later a new machine, provided with a copper tank and suction apparatus, was procured from Boston at a cost of about $600. This machine through many vicissitudes and by the aid of many repairs served the purpose of the village for nearly forty years. It was purchased by subscription and managed and con- trolled by the engine company and housed in a small building in the rear of the south end of the Tontine. Membership in the engine company was not a matter of chance enlistment, but of regular and formal appointment, as shown by the following form used in such cases :
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Grafton SS.
To of Hanover in said County . Greeting.
The Firewards of said town of Hanover, for the year reposing especial trust and confidence in your fidelity and ability, do hereby choose and appoint you a Fire-Engine-Man in the Engine Company, No. 1, in said town, until lawfully discharged, or until this warrant is revoked by the Firewards, for the time being, of said town. You are therefore, diligently and carefully to discharge all the duties incumbent on you as a Fire-Engine- Man, according to law.
Given under my hand and seal this day of Anno Domini,
18
Chairman.
Clerk.
On the back was the endorsement of the selectmen :
Hanover A. D. 18
This certifies, that within named, has been legally appointed, and is bound to perform the duties of an Engine-Man, in Engine Company No. 1, in said Hanover.
Select-Men of Hanover.
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Fire Protection; The Village Precinct
At the annual town meeting of 1830 the Fire Act of December 16, 1828, was adopted, excepting sections 7 and 9; and the 10th section was restricted in its application to persons "in the territory bounded as follows : Westerly by Connecticut River, Southerly by Mink Brook, and easterly by a line that will include the Presi- dent's farm so-called." Firewards were to be selected within these limits.
In 1843 fifty dollars was raised by subscription to build a new house for the engine and fire apparatus. Thanks were given in the village paper, together with a list of half a dozen persons who, being insured, declined to contribute. The engine company now exhibited considerable animation.
On October 6th 1843 Hanover Engine Company No. 1 held its annual meeting at the Union Coffee House (where the "Tavern" now is). After the business meeting the company sat down to a splendid supper which did much credit to the taste and liberality of Mr. Pratt the landlord. Various appropriate sentiments were given and Captain Dobie sang several favorite songs. We are gratified to learn that the supper was got up on strictly temperance principles and that it was not found difficult to be jovial on cold water. 1
In 1845 the Trustees of the College voted $200 for a new fire engine, provided the citizens would make it up to $1,200. The inspector reported that "since the late disastrous fires in the vil- lage the inhabitants have proposed raising that sum for engine and leading hose."
Up to this period whatever of municipal fire organization existed here was under the authority of the town, but on the 21st of November, 1855, on petition of E. W. Carter and nine others, there was organized, though not without considerable opposition, under the General Act of July 6, 1849 (Chapter 116, Compiled Statutes of 1853), a village fire precinct covering the same territorial limits as the first school district. Plans were set on foot at once to build an engine house and reservoirs, and Ira Young, Harvey Wright and Joseph Emerson were appointed a committee to carry them out. But it was found easier to vote than to build a house, and at a meeting held on November 17, 1856, it was voted to buy a building owned by Russell Smith "for a engine House and Hose and Ladder." This building, for which $300 was paid, stood on Main Street opposite the Tontine, having been built a good many years earlier by Jabez A. Douglass for a store and at times used for a post office. Its second story at this time
1 People's Advocate, October 14, 1843.
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History of Hanover
consisted of a small hall, and the lower story was easily dis- mantled and fitted for the reception of the fire apparatus. A por- tion of it was also improved, and used by the town until 1863 as a lobby for the temporary confinement of culprits. In 1857 it was ordered that the annual meetings be thereafter held in March, instead of November, and according to later warnings meetings were held in "the hall of the Engine house."
In 1866 five new reservoirs were constructed in different parts of the village at a cost of $400, and a new fire engine was pur- chased at Seneca Falls, New York, with the necessary hose, at a cost of $978.55. Another and larger engine was bought at second hand from Concord in 1868, for $500, including a quantity of hose. This was secured through the efforts of S. W. Cobb and Elijah W. Carter, who bought it on their own responsibility when hand engines were replaced by steam engines in that city. It continued in use in the village until the establishment of the gravity system in 1893, when it was sold for $125. The engine of 1828 was, after several attempts at a sale, at length disposed of piece-meal in 1874 for about $150.
The engine house on Main Street was too small for the enlarged equipment and a new place was sought that should be both central and sufficient. In 1875 it was proposed to buy the Episcopal Church at the corner of College and Lebanon Streets, but it was found that the precinct had no legal authority to buy the building, and it was not until January of 1878 that, in connection with the movement to build a new school house, the precinct bought of the school district for $1,000 the brick house at the top of the hill leading to the river. Its own house on Main Street was sold for $1,500, and the excess over the cost of the school house was put into repairs and alterations, to make suitable provision for the fire apparatus. The exchange of buildings was, of course, a transfer from one pocket to the other, as the precinct and the school district were one and the same as far as property and voters were concerned, differing only in organization and in the assessment of taxes. The precinct seemed to have secured a new location and better quarters for nothing, and the school district a new school house without loss to the precinct. In remodeling the building a good hall was obtained for ordinary public meetings; later it was occupied on Sundays for religious meetings, and in 1877 it was given over to the use of the Stockbridge Association for the evening.
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