USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume II > Part 57
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The town, probably as early as 1767, had been partially divided into neighborhoods or parishes for school purposes, and the school money raised by the town distributed equitably among them by the selectmen. But at the town-meeting in 1800, it was voted that the selectmen be a committee for dividing the town into school districts, and that one man from each district where there is a schoolhouse be added to the committee. The selectmen were John Odlin, Jonathan Wilkins, and Henry Martin, to which committee were added the following: Jacob Carter, who lived at Millville, Isaac Dimond of Dimond's Hill, Samuel Davis, West Village, Timothy Dow of Horse Hill, Enoch Brown of the Borough (Fisherville), and Joseph Potter of East Concord. There was probably a small school building in each of the locations named. Under this vote giving the committee authority to act, although no subsequent report of their proceed- ings appears, one or more districts were probably established soon afterward. Notable among the latter was the Federal School dis- trict or society, organized in 1801, the records of which have been preserved and are in the possession of Isaac N. Abbott of Dimond Hill. It embraced the territory now familiarly known as the Dimond Hill neighborhood. The proprietors were Asa Herrick, Isaac Dimond, John Batchelder, Israel Dimond, Daniel Clark, Oliver Flanders, John Shute, Jr., David Blanchard, Warren Bradley, Abner Dimond, Eben Fisk, John Dimond, and Samuel Whittemore. A constitution was adopted, defining the objects of the society and providing for the annual election of a moderator, clerk, and three directors, and prescribing their duties.
The first meeting was held October 29, 1801, at Ensign Dimond's, for the purpose of agreeing upon some method for uniting the two districts hitherto known by the names of Mill Road and Hopkinton Road districts. Asa Herrick was moderator, John Batchelder, clerk, and Lieutenant Asa Herrick, Daniel Clark, and Daniel Stickney were appointed to agree upon a location that would accommodate both districts, and report. Warren Bradley offered to give a half acre of land for the schoolhouse, which offer was accepted. Subse- quent meetings were held November 12 and 19,-at the latter it was voted to unite the two above named districts and build a school- house. The signers to this agreement, in addition to those given above, were Abner Flanders, Robert Knowlton, Benjamin Powell,
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Benjamin Clark, Murray Bradley, James Currier, Joseph Sherburn, Stephen Hall, and Nathan Ballard. It was also voted to build the schoolhouse on Pine Hill, near Stephen Hall's, and that it should be twenty-four by twenty-eight feet, with twelve-foot posts, a hip roof, and the sides covered with sawed clapboards; and Isaac Dimond was given the privilege of building a pulpit in it for his own benefit. The completed structure was to cost one hundred and forty dollars. It should then consist of seventy-five rights or shares, and each member should have the privilege of sending all his children to school. Tuition for outsiders was fixed at fourteen cents per week, but after a year or two this was thought to be a little excessive, and it was reduced to ninepence. The cost of maintaining the school was to be assessed upon the inhabitants according to the proportion of their town tax. Jacob Dimond, the son of Ezekiel Dimond, one of the original settlers, kept the school in that district for many years. It is probable, Dr. Bouton says, that he kept the first school ever taught in that district, in an old, uninhabited house. This Federal district was continued as an independent district until November 2, 1807, when, by a vote of the inhabitants thereof, it became the seventh school district in Concord, and organized as such. The new district voted to pay two hundred and thirty-five dollars to the proprietors of the former distriet for the schoolhouse owned by them and the land on which the building was located. It is probable that other rural districts were organized about this time and in much the same way. Some of the old district records, frag- ments of which have been preserved, are a curiosity.
It was the custom at annual meetings, after the election of officers, to provide for a supply of fuel and the board of the teacher. This was done by auction, the awards being made to the lowest respon- sible bidders. The records of these transactions, by the clerk, begin properly enough, by votes to vendue the wood, and the board of the school-mistress, but some of the unlettered scribes soon hit upon a more abbreviated but less elegant form of expression, so that after a few years the entries simply read, " voted to vandoo the wood," " voted to vandoo the school-marin," ctc. The prices thus obtained by competitive bidding would seem to have been ridiculously low at times, but it is to the credit of the well-to-do people that care was always taken to provide a comfortable boarding-place for the teacher, where she would be treated as an honored guest,-the privilege and benefit of her society being considered an equivalent for any peeun- iary sacrifice. In some periods teachers were obliged to "board around " with the parents of all the pupils, a few days in a place, the saving thus made being applied to lengthen the terms of school-
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ing, but this plan was not always acceptable, and some declined to serve under such conditions. The names of teachers employed in the early years seldom appear upon the records,-the choice of the latter generally being left with the committee.
The school appropriation was four hundred dollars each year from 1800 to 1804, inclusive ; five hundred dollars in 1805-'06, and eight hundred dollars in 1807. In the latter year the town voted "That Samuel Butters take care of the boys in the meeting-house on Sundays." Butters had a way of managing the boys when others failed.
" Perhaps, at times, the switch with emphasis applied And left those deep impressions which very long abide."
In 1805 the state passed a law permitting towns to form and organize school districts, define their boundaries, and erect new, or purchase and repair schoolhouses already in use; and in 1807, by another law, made such action imperative upon the town authorities. In April of the latter year, the town appointed a special committee to carry the provisions of these laws into effect. This committee was made up of the selectmen, Ebenezer Duston, Enoch Coffin, and Edmond Leavitt, and one man from each section of the town where orders have been drawn annually for school money ; from the latter were added, Richard Ayer, Nathaniel Rolfe, Samuel Davis, Nathan Ballard, Jr., Asa Herrick, Asa Kimball, Abel Baker, Stephen Far- num, Levi Abbot, John Garvin, Moses Abbot, William Eastman, and Jonathan Virgin. The committee reported May 25, recommend- ing a division of the town into sixteen districts, as follows:
No. 1. At IIorse Hill, embracing the most northwesterly section of the town, north of Contoocook river. (In 1837-'38, this district was subdivided by the selectmen, and for a few years two schools were kept, one at the East and another at the West end.)
No. 2. The Borough, west and southwest from what is now Penaeook village. (This district was subdivided by the seleetmen in 1817.)
No. 3. West Coneord village.
No. 4. That part of West Parish south of Horse Hill, formerly the Ezra Abbot, now the Elbridge Dimond, neighborhood.
No. 5. Bceel Hill, west of Long Pond to Hopkinton town line. The Flanders and Emerson neighborhood. Formerly known as the Carter distriet.
No. 6. Little Pond, the Ballard neighborhood.
No. 7. Aslı Brook, on the old road to Hopkinton, three and a half miles from Main street.
No. 8. Millville, now vicinity of St. Paul's School.
. No. 9. The southerly seetion of the main village below Pleasant street.
No. 10. The middle portion of the town, embracing that seetion lying between what is now Pleasant and Centre or Montgomery streets.
No. 11. The north end of the village, that portion north of Centre street.
No. 12. East Coneord village, from Federal Bridge southeasterly.
No. 13. North Concord. Sewall's Falls seetion.
No. 14. Snaptown. The extreme northeast seetion of the town, between Snow's
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and Hot Hole Ponds and the Canterbury town line. Now known as the Rufus Virgin neighborhood.
No. 15. Turtletown. About Turtle Pond, on the Oak Hill road to Loudon.
No. 16. The Garvin's Falls section, on the east side of the river near Pem- broke, between Merrimack and Soucook rivers.
The report of the committee, confirming that which had been par- tially done years before by general consent, and completing the divi- sion of the town into districts, was ratified and approved.
In later years other subdivisions were made and new districts formed as follows :
No. 17. In June, 1816, a portion of district No. 7 was annexed to district No. S, and a portion of the latter set off and made a new district, No. 17, at Stickney Hill. This latter district included a part of Hopkinton, for school purposes, and in 1848 formed a union with a district in that town. Subsequently these districts separated, but were again united in 1857.
No. 18. In 1819 the selectmen by a vote of the town formed another district, No. 18. It embraced a part of the territory between the Bog road and the Bow town line, and has since been known as the Iron Works district. The Concord part of the latter was set off to No. 23, in 1849.
No. 19. March, 1818, the northerly portion of No. 12 was set off and made a new district, No. 19. The schoolhouse was built on the main road leading from the East Village to Canterbury where the Shaker road begins, near the Congre- gational church. In 1843 districts Nos. 12 and 19 had one school together again, and in 1871 the territory embraced in No. 19 was added to No. 12 once more, and No. 19 abolished.
No. 20. District No. 2 was divided by the selectmen in 1817, the easterly por- tion, known as Chandler's Bridge, afterward Fisherville village, organizing as No. 20. A part of Boscawen, contiguous, was united with this district, the latter then furnishing the larger number of pupils.
No. 21. District No. 13 was divided in 1833, and the southerly portion made a new district, No. 21. A new schoolhouse was built on " The Mountain," about midway between the church at the East village and Sewall's Falls on the road to Canterbury.
No. 22. In March, 1834, a portion of No. 4 was disannexed or set off and made a new district, No. 22. A part of Hopkinton was included in the latter. In March, 1847, this new district, except the farm of John Alexander, which was assigned to Hopkinton, was added to and became a part of No. 4 again; and No. 22 was abolished.
No. 23. In the southwest corner of the town near the Bow line, No. 23 was forined in 1834, and a school established the same year. Subsequently, this dis- trict uniting with Bow, its number was assigned to a district in the northwest part of the town. In 1848 the latter was abolished. Afterward, old district No. 23 severed its connection with Bow, but in 1878-'79 the union was again restored by a decision of the supreme court, adverse to the legality of the action by which a dissolution of the districts had taken place; following this decision a new schoolhouse was built in 1878, but the district was so entirely controlled by Bow that pupils from the Concord portion of the district would not attend the school for some time.
No. 24. In 1835 No. 12 was further divided, and that portion of the district lying east of Sugar Ball and extending to Soucook river, was set off to form a new district on the Plains, No. 24. A schoolhouse was begun the same year, but appears not to have been completed until 1841, when the town gave some assist- ancc. A master's school was kept for the first time in the winter of the latter year. Some changes in the boundary lines were made in 1846, and in 1847 tlic number of the district was changed to 22. Later still, a portion of old district
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
No. 17, in Concord, and 18 in Hopkinton, in the Farrington's Corner and Turkey River neighborhood, appear to have organized as a district once more and taken the number 24.
No. 25. In the extreme northerly portion of the town; probably formed by the selectmen in 1843 or 1844.
Nos. 23, 25, and 1. An attempt was made to unite these districts in 1845, but no definite action was taken until March, 1848, when the town voted that a con- siderable portion of district No. 23 be disannexed from said district and united to No. 20, and that the remainder of said No. 23, together with all the territory now included in Nos. 1 and 25, embracing all the land in said town north of Contoocook river, except what is hereby annexed to No. 20, be united and con- stitute district No. 1, and Nos. 23 and 25 be abolished.
The boundaries of districts Nos. 7, 8, and 10 were somewhat changed in 1846. The farm of Josiah Stevens was disannexed from the latter and annexed to district No. 8. The latter included what is now known as " Pleasant View," the residence of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.
District No. 4 (West Parish, south of Horse Hill and the Contoo- cook river) was organized February 1, 1808, with Captain Samuel Davis, moderator, and Timothy Carter, clerk. The inhabitants voted " that the schoolhouse now in said district be a district house, and that Timothy Carter, Lt. Ezra Abbot and Moody Dow be a commit- tee to repair the same." Captain Davis, Ephraim Carter, and Ezra Abbot were elected the first school committee. The board of the master was struck off to Captain Davis for one dollar and fifteen cents per week. The latter served as moderator and Captain Tim- othy Carter as clerk almost continuously from 1808 to 1821, and Elbridge Dimond was clerk nearly every year between 1841 and 1874; the old records are still in the possession of the latter. Lucre- tia Farnum, elected in 1833, was probably the first woman elected a member of the school committee in this town. Long neglected re- pairs made to the schoolhouse, and the mending of the andirons for the fireplace in that year, give evidence of her industry.
In 1808 the tax for school purposes was extended to include the unimproved property belonging to non-residents, hitherto exempt, and the law was further amended so that the money thus raised should be appropriated " for keeping an English school or schools for teach- ing the various sounds and powers of the letters in the English language, reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, geography, and such other branches of education as it may be necessary to teach . in an English school." The standard for teachers was again advanced and a certificate of good character from the minister or selectmen required. The appropriations for the support of schools continued to be made in annual town-meetings, the selectmen distributing the money among the several districts in proportion to the tax paid by the inhabitants residing therein.
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Up to the time of the organization of school districts, the select- men had managed all the affairs of the town. They were generally men of excellent character, but with only a common school education, sometimes almost wholly unlettered, yet possessed of good business ability, sound judgment, and practical common sense in the adminis- tration of public affairs. These officials had not only hired the teach- ers and managed the schools for nearly three quarters of a century, but had cared for the church, rented the pews, and furnished a sup- ply for the pulpit when the town was without a settled minister; but henceforth the schools were placed under the direction of pruden- tial committees, composed of from one to three members chosen annu- ally by vote of the inhabitants.
Joseph B. Walker, in an address delivered in 1864, at the dedica- tion of a new high school building, recalls the names of a few of the early teachers, prominent among which are those of "John Coffin, a native of this town, and a graduate of Dartmouth college 1791." Coffin afterwards taught school many years with great distinction in New York city, where he died in 1852. Master Hogg, before men- tioned, and Master Parkinson, were two excellent old Scotch-Irish teachers, who for years " wielded here, with equal skill, the primer and the birch." Robert Hogg was a resident of Dunbarton. He taught the winter schools in this town in more than one of the dis- tricts, from about 1770 to as late as 1804. He was employed in the East village in the latter year, and one of his pupils has said : "He taught arithmetic verbally, using the fingers, kernels of corn, or pieces of chalk in demonstrating his work. He was very severe upon offend- ers against his rules in school." The boys used to call him, in sport, " Old Birch." He died in Dunbarton in 1806. Henry Parkinson taught school in this town for several years. He was a graduate of Princeton college in 1765. At an early period of the Revolution- ary War he entered the army as quartermaster. After the war he spent the most of his time in teaching, and later removed to Canter- bury, where he died May 23, 1820, aged seventy-nine years. Upon his tombstone in the old burying-ground at Canterbury Center is in- scribed the following brief epitome of his life, written by himself in Latin : 1
'T was Ireland that gave me birth and America that reared me.
I was trained at Nassau Hall. I became a teacher and soldier and I toiled with my hands.
Thus have I run my race, and now the earth enfolds me and I slumber in the (niet dust as peacefully as on my mother's breast.
Hither come, my dear friend, behold, and forget not that you, too, must surely die. So farewell, and take heed?
1 Translation by John F. Kent, principal high school.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Master Caleb Chase, a graduate of New Jersey college in 1766, came to Concord about 1771, taught school for some time, winning favor, and was town clerk from 1787 to 1795. "Solomon Sutton did valliant service at East Concord."
William Rolfe, a native of this town, taught school both here and at Sanbornton between 1795 and 1802; "pretty harsh in discipline, but a superior teacher." He entered the ministry and settled in Groton in 1803, and died there in 1828. Reverend Abraham Burn- ham, of Dunbarton, taught school in the "Old Bell " in this town about 1805-'06. Levi Woodbury, afterward governor of the state, taught the school at Millville about 1808, and Joshua Abbot was the teacher at Oak Hill the same year.
Nathaniel H. Carter, author and poet, the most gifted intellectually perhaps of all our carly teachers, kept the schools in districts Nos. 4, 5, 7, and 8, beginning as early as 1808 or 1809; and Peter C. Farn- ham was a teacher in the 5th district in 1810.
The names of other early teachers in the rural districts, mentioned by Dr. Bouton, include those of Timothy Carter, about 1787, Abel Wheeler, about 1794, Jacob Farnum and Nathan Ballard, Jr., about 1795, Christopher Rowell, Jr., about 1796, Moses H. Bradley, about 1808, and later still Isaac Farnum and Richard Potter, Jr., all in district No. 3; Dr. Thomas Carter, Henry and Abial Rolfe, Robert Davis, and Samuel Coffin in district No. 4; Richard Bradley, George Kent, Thomas D. and Jacob A. Potter, in district No. 5 ; Abel Baker, Ezra Ballard, Jacob Eastman, and Henry E. Rogers in district No. 6; Timothy Johnson, John Bradley, Samuel Whittemore, Richard Pot- ter, and Albert G. Wilkins in district No. 7; Thomas and Ezra Carter, Jonathan and Seth Eastman, John C. Hall, William B. Wil- kins, and Charles Ballard in district No. 8.
The late Asa McFarland, in a small volume of biography, published after his death, makes mention of another small school building in the center of the town in 1809, saying: "I think my first teacher was a Mrs. or Miss Clough [then pronounced Clow] and the apart- ment in which her pupils assembled in the latter year was in a one- story building standing on the northeast corner of Centre and Main streets."
The number of school children in town in 1810 was a little more than five hundred, and one or more new school buildings had been erected in the outside districts during the few years immediately pre- ceding.
The records of district No. 5 date from January 31, 1816, at which time a meeting was held at the house of John Flanders for organiza- tion. Moses Abbot was chosen moderator and John Flanders clerk.
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April 1 another meeting was held, at which the district voted to pur- chase a lot, two rods square, of Isaac Emerson, " west of the mudhole near his house, and as nigh the mudhole as will be convenient on the west side of same." It was further voted to build a new schoolhouse 18x22, "and that it be finished as well as the schoolhouse by Cor- poral Ezra Abbot's." The contract for the building was given to John Dimond, Jr., and the cost was one hundred and fifty-eight dol- lars and four cents.
Asa McFarland, in the volume before mentioned, says of later years : " In 1816 I passed under the control of Miss Sarah Thorn- dike, who was a teacher in one of the apartments of the Bell school- house. It was regarded as a privilege of no small character to be a pupil in this house, especially after the winter schools ceased and tuition terms were kept. This building, in the first years of my being beneath its roof, was superior to any other in the town used for edu- cational purposes. The bell was one of the cherished institutions of the central portion of the town. Our diversions did not differ very much from those of school children of later days, but we were taught to respect the aged. Colonel Gordon Hutchins, a soldier of the Rev- olution, resided on the corner of Centre and Green streets. This venerable man often passed the schoolhouse, and when we were out at recess, and Colonel Hutchins passed, leaning upon a staff, all the pupils ranged themselves in line and bowed or courtesied to the hon- ored pilgrim. Respect for superiors was a fundamental and constant inculcation at that time in the Bell schoolhouse. In due time I passed into the higher department, or " man's school," as it was then called. Master Johnson was the first male teacher I remember in this school. He had very heavy eyebrows and chewed tobacco to excess. Beneath a broken square in a window back of his desk there usually lay a large pile of quids of exhausted tobacco. He used to make excursions home during recess to refresh himself, it was said, with other drink than cold water. I call to mind as subsequent teachers, Allen Fisk, Addison Searle, afterward chaplain in the navy, Charles F. Gove, afterward attorney-general of New Hampshire, and Dudley Leavitt, who achieved wide reputation as a mathematician and as author of the almanac which bears his name. Mr. Fisk was a good but not too severe disciplinarian. Gove was a very passionate man, and punished refractory pupils as some ship-masters deal with men under them upon the high seas. Of Mr. Searle I have only faint recollection. Dudley Leavitt was all bows and smiles to the school. He was good nature personified." Another gentleman describes the latter, whom he knew intimately, as an excellent teacher, excelling in mathematics, and in mental arithmetic was nearly the equal of that
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
wonderful prodigy, Zerah Colburn. He was excessively affable, and would often cross the street, when time permitted, to greet and pass a pleasant word with his pupils or other acquaintances.
The late Woodbridge Odlin said, some years ago: " My first teacher, about 1815, was Miss Thorndike, in the dame's school. She used a small birch stick to quicken the moral faculties when I was at a tender age. The next teacher was a Mrs. Carter, whose instrument of punishment was made of two pieces of leather sewed together, with a piece of lead in one end and a sort of handle on the other. When she took us into her lap, we fixed our eyes upon the earth and accepted the situation with such fortitude as we could command. One application extinguished all desire to have the experiment repeated. The first teacher in the master's school after I entered was Reverend Jacob Goss. He was a good teacher and gave ex- cellent satisfaction. He was followed by George Stickney, James Moulton, Jr., Jolin Bartlett, Samuel G. Wells, and others. There was not then, as now, sufficient money to keep the schools in session throughout the year. The amount raised was divided between the female department in the summer and the male department in the winter season. Consequently, the larger room was generally occupied in summer by some one who taught a private school. Mr. Wells was a very successful teacher. Like some other teachers of that time, he usually had an enormous quid of tobacco enclosed between his cheeks, and his frequent and copious expectorations made the platform in front of him a sight to behold."
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