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 59
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together, kept by Ann Moulton. Seven private schools, besides the academy, were kept in the center of the town during the year. The committee report of the schools in district No. 10: " The school eom- prising the older scholars has hitherto been found difficult to govern and almost impossible to interest in study. Term after term has passed with little, if any, visible improvement, but the past winter the school has been under the direction of Josiah Stevens, Jr., and the government of the school has been excellent. This has been secured without resorting to the rod, and great improvement has been made in all the branches taught in the school. The term closed with an exhibition highly creditable to the instructors and scholars. Prizes were given to eight scholars for excellent reading."
In August, 1844, district No. 9-in consequence of the growth of the town in that direction by the opening of the railroad to Bos- ton in 1842, the beginning of extensions northward, and the rapid increase in population, and consequent necd of increased school accommodations-purchased of William M. and Elvira Carter, a half acre lot, on the corner of State and West streets, and erected thereon a new two-story wooden school building. The latter con- tained two rooms on the first floor, with an unfinished hall above, but a few years later, in 1847, the hall was finished and occupied thereafter by a grammar school. The old brick building near Main street was sold in January, 1845, to Benjamin Rolfe, and converted into a dwelling-house, for which purpose it is still used. Among the prominent teachers in the latter school may be mentioned Pea- body A. Morse, Jonas D. Sleeper, Doctors William H. Smart and A. H. Robinson, and Sidney Webster, who was private secretary to President Pierce during the presidential term of the latter, and after- ward a distinguished lawyer in New York. The same year, district No. 11, to relieve a similar pressure at the North end, purchased the old Quaker meeting-house, removing it to the lot on the corner of State and Church streets, in the rear of the brick building, where another school-room was fitted up for the younger children.
Prosaic school-days were greatly enlivened in the late forties with highly enjoyable social festivities. As early as 1844, school pienics came to be a feature of the summer school, and were hailed with delight. These were generally held at " Paradise," a beautiful grove of old-growth pines on the east side of the road opposite Blossom · hill,-a lovely spot from which was had a charming view of the broad meadows to the east, the meandering river with its fringe of alders, and the sandy bluffs and wooded hills beyond. An afternoon in this beautiful park was a great delight to the young, and seemed almost a foretaste of that real paradise toward which, as the shadows
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lengthen, we shall all some day turn with wistful eyes and longing hearts. Later in the decade, sleighrides became a joyous feature of the winter terms. Along in January, when winter was at its height, when the great white moon " tipped with silver " all the landscape, and the sleighing was at its best,-the great boat-shaped six-horse sleigh, well supplied with warm fur robes, was brought whirling around before the schoolhouse door with a flourish, and quickly filled with smiling boys and girls packed closely together, with a row of the smaller boys clinging to the sides of the barge "like icicles depending from overhanging eaves." These excursions were gen- erally made to Fisherville, Loudon, and other nearby towns. The first was always a favorite resort, and the old Washington House, and what is now Bonney's, were long famous hostelries. The start was usually made in the middle of the afternoon, giving time at Fish- erville for a visit to the cotton mills, by the boys and girls, hand in hand, and then a return to the hotel for supper. The bill of fare was sumptuous for those days, -- oyster stews, great, bountiful plates of snowy-like cream toast, Shaker apple sauce, pies of many kinds (for New Hampshire was even then within the "pie-belt " ), large, flaky cubes of sponge cake, coffee ad libitum, and a dessert of nuts and raisins. How the landlords could ever make themselves whole with such a " spread " before hungry boys, for a " quarter," must ever remain one of the unsolved mysteries. The evening was given up to games and sometimes dancing in the little hall over the sheds; but the ride homeward in the still hours of the early morning was the sweetest time of all. The old greybeard in buffalo coat, standing alone on the driver's box, complaining bitterly of the cold, cracked the whip to speed his shivering horses, wildly swinging his arms to warm his icy fingers, but down in that cozy sleigh-nest the air seemed as balmy as in June, while a gentle stillness reigned, save when a burst of song was heard, and a sweet peace prevailed, akin to that which passeth understanding.
How lasting are the impressions of youth. Fifty years have passed since then, and still, in quiet hours, with dreamy, half-closed eyes, one hears again the soft music of the sleigh-bells, the song and shout and laughter of merry voices, feels the warm breath upon his cheek and the soft clasp of a loving hand, almost as clearly as in the long, long ago when life was rosy, fresh, and new.
The schools in Concord, and throughout New England generally, were greatly benefited by the combined efforts of those distinguished educators, Horace Mann of Massachusetts, and Henry Barnard of Connecticut,-both of whom labored with great power between 1840 and 1850 to revive public interest in education and improve the sys-
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tem of public schools throughout the land. The effect in this state and in this town was very gratifying,-important changes were made in the laws relating to the schools, and more liberal provision made for their support. The severity of corporal punishment, so long employed in school discipline, was strongly denounced; it became unpopular, and was less frequently resorted to. The committee in their report for 1845 say: "Our system of schools has been very materially improved. A new interest has been awakened, and school conventions have been held in nearly every county in the state. Two state conventions have also been held and another is called to meet in this town in June." The same year a law was passed permitting the town of Portsmouth to establish, and support by public tax, a high school, and making its provisions applicable to other places, when adopted by a vote of the inhabitants.
In 1846 the town voted to adopt this law, and under its pro- visions for uniting contiguous districts, another attempt was made to unite districts Nos. 9, 10, and 11 for that purpose and erect a new high school building. Special district meetings were called, and No. 10 voted in favor of the proposed union, but the other two held aloof, and after much discussion, declined to enter into such an alli- ance. "Nothing daunted, however, by the refusal of its neighbors to co-operate, No. 10 determined to have a new building and estab- lish a needed department of instruction in the higher branches, even if it must be done single-handed and alone." The old Bell school- house, which a half century earlier had been the joy and pride of the town, had now become antiquated and out of date, and was doomed to suffer the penalty of old age and share the fate of its earlier asso- ciates. It was shorn of its glory and sold for removal to the South end. A new building of brick, the second on the same lot, was erected in the fall and winter of 1846-'47. It was slightly rectangu- lar in form, 70 x 45, two stories in height, with a cupola on the east- erly front containing a bell. The street floor contained three rooms for primary and intermediate grades, and the floor above, two assem- bly rooms and a small recitation room. The east room of the second story was assigned for a higher grammar school, and the west room (the larger of the two) and the recitation room were for the new high school. There was a door on the east end, rarely, if ever, used, another on the north side for the boys, and a third entrance on the · south side for the girls. The halls were simply passage-ways very dimly lighted. The north side of the building was dark and gloomy from its close proximity to the Unitarian church. In general appear- ance this edifice much resembled the academy buildings of that period, after which it was probably fashioned. In this building the
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Concord high school had its beginning. Hall Roberts1 was the first principal (1847-'48), with a lady assistant. The school numbered about seventy-five pupils. "School-time " in those days was an- nounced by a ringing of the cupola bell for five minutes, a pause of the same length, followed by a slow tolling of the bell for a similar period, when two short strokes indicated "doors closed." "When the bell begins to toll, stop all play and run to school," was a smart little couplet which oft fell upon juvenile ears.
Miss Ann Roby, daughter of the North end publisher, was keeping a primary school in the main aisle of the Old North church about 1840- '47, with a hundred pupils. One night in early autumn, when the " ninety and nine " were dis- missed, one of the little lambs of the flock could not be found, and search was made higli and low. The town crier was summoned later, and preparation made for a general search, when one of the anxious neighbors, visiting the church with a lantern, found the little one sleeping sweetly in one of the old-fashioned high- backed pews.
Second High School .
The state passed an act in 1846 providing for the appointment of a commissioner of common schools,-making it the duty of such officer to personally inspect the public schools, deliver addresses, and in other ways promote the cause of general education. Concord, by a vote of the town (yes, 71, no, 559), opposed the creation of this office. The title of this official was subsequently changed to that of superintendent of public instruction.
The brick schoolhouse at the North end was enlarged in 1847 to provide further accommodations for the increasing number of school children. District No. 20, at Fisherville, a few years after severing its union with the Boscawen district, built a small schoolhouse on the Rolfe estate, which was soon outgrown, but is still standing on Rolfe street, and is used as a dwelling-house. About 1847 more room became necessary, and a new two-story wooden building was erected on Summer street, at a cost of three thousand dollars. It was large and well arranged for those times, and a credit to the district. But
1 Mr. Roberts was from Somersworth, a graduate of Waterville, Me., now Colby college, in 1836, and had been a professor at New Hampton seminary before coming to Concord. He afterward kept private schools, first in the Athenian hall, and afterward in the Baptist vestry for several years, with varying success,-when, becoming interested in local busi- ness matters, he gave up teaching. He was soon afterward chosen a director in the State Capital bank, and was president of the latter from July, 1860, until his death, which was quite sudden, October 13, 1862, at the age of 49. He was buried at Rollinsford.
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in February, 1877, it was destroyed by fire, and the present brick building was built in the fall of the latter year, and enlarged in 1892, and now accommodates about three hundred pupils.
In this year, 1847, the town for the first time appropriated for the support of schools a sum of money, eight hundred dollars, in excess of the amount required by law.
In June, 1848, the state passed a law known as the " Somersworth Act," which permitted a school district in that village to manage its school affairs separate from the town. It further authorized the establishment of graded schools, including a high school, or school in which the higher branches should be taught, and contained another feature of still greater importance, that of empowering school districts to borrow money for the erection of new school buildings. In Decem- ber following the law was amended so as to apply to any school dis- trict in the state which should adopt its provisions. District No. 3, in 1849, was the first in Concord to adopt this act and build a new school- house at a cost of six hundred dol- lars. District No. 10 was the next to fall into line in 1850. Fisherville, No. 20, followed in 1851, and No. 18, Bog Road, in 1861. Each district had its own committees.
The same year, 1848, District No. 1 purchased a lot " on the north side of the road leading from Horse Hill bridge to Courser Hill; about thir- teen rods west of the Milton barn," Penacook Grammar School. and built a new school building. County teachers' institutes were held for the first time the same year. Reuben W. Mason was principal of the high school in 1848-'49, with Miss Louisa C. Foster and Miss Martha Eaton assistants.
The annual appropriation for the support of schools was one thou- sand two hundred dollars in 1829-'30, one thousand four hundred dollars in 1831-'33, one thousand five hundred dollars in 1834-'36, two thousand and seventy dollars in 1837-'40, two thousand dollars in 1841-'46, three thousand dollars in 1847-'48, six thousand dol- lars in 1849, and four thousand dollars in 1850.
Gilbert L. Wadleigh had charge of the high school 1848-'49. He was from Sutton, and taught the high school at Bradford 1847-'48, studying law with M. W. Tappan, and afterward with Judge Fowler of Concord. He was a man of fine physique, with a genial and kindly nature, thorough in instruction and excellent in discipline. His pre-
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dominating characteristics were sound judgment, ready wit, and the exercise of clear common sense in his vocation.
In 1850 the number of pupils attending school two weeks was one thousand six hundred and eighty-five, about one fifth of the whole population. The average attendance was one thousand three hundred. The average length of the winter terms of school had increased to eight and two thirds weeks, and the summer schools were kept about ten weeks. The total cost for the year was four thousand two hundred and nineteen dollars, an average cost per pupil of two dollars and fifty cents, based upon the whole number attend- ing, and upon the average attendance, three dollars and twenty-four cents. The average wages of male teachers per month, exclusive of board, is given as eighteen dollars and fifty cents, and of female teach- ers, six dollars and fifty-three cents, with board furnished by the dis- tricts.
Names of some of the early teachers not previously mentioned :
Died, in this town, April, 1813, George Graham, a schoolmaster, advanced in years. Town Records.
In district No. 17, Stickney Hill:
1817-'18. Abraham Gates, Jr. (two dollars and twenty-five cents per week), Nancy Green (fifty cents per week).
1819. Nathaniel Carter (three dollars per week).
1820-'21. John Little, Ann Carter.
1821'-22. Abraham Gates, Jr., Rebecca Green.
In district No. 18, Iron Works:
1823. John Parker, Rebecca Green.
1824. John Parker, Mary Abbott.
1824-'25. Albemarle Cady, John Parker, Mary Grcen.
1825-'26. Nathan K. Abbot, Clarinda Baker.
1826-'27. Albert Baker, Clarinda Baker, Clarissa L. Morrill.
In district No. 7:
1826. Annie Cheever.
Conspicuous among the many faithful teachers who served between 1815 and 1850 were a trio of deacons, each of whom taught the win- ter schools in one or more districts for a great many years. They were Deacons Ira Rowell, John Jarvis, and James Moulton. The former taught for sixteen and the two latter for twenty-five years each. They were men of sterling character and sincere piety, and if not proficient in Greek and Latin, they were, nevertheless, well- equipped by nature and mental training for the service in which they engaged. They believed that education applied to the spiritual and moral needs of children, as well as to the purely intellectual, and endeavored to instil into their minds the inestimable value of sturdy moral character, and its influence for good in all the relations of life.
Nathan K. Abbot, whose home was on the west shore of Long
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pond, now owned by Albert Saltmarsh, was another early teacher of long and faithful service ; his tombstone in the Old cemetery bears a simple inscription of his own choosing, "A teacher of common schools for twenty-five years in succession." In the school and in the neigh- borhood the influence of these men was always for the right, and their names well deserve to be perpetuated in the annals of the town.
There was one feature of the old-time schools that was heroic, and that was the discipline. Our forefathers were believers in a very literal translation of the holy scriptures, and gave willing heed to the admonitions of the Israelitish king, to train up a child in the way he should go, and spare not the rod. An aged citizen, who, in his youth, had experienced many striking exemplifications of the spirit of this text, used to say that his flesh always tingled when he listened to the reading of that innocent passage, even after he had passed the allotted age of man, and there are many others to whom it brings a sort of "creepy " feeling still. The sweeter passages with which the pages of scripture abound were quoted less frequently in the earlier days, or at least left impressions less lasting upon the young. The dangers of frontier life and its accumulating discomforts developed in our ancestors a certain sternness of character and gravity of deport- ment which an environment less discouraging would have softened. Fathers who were clearing the forest, building stone walls, planting and tending the scanty crops of the field, and mothers who were no less constantly employed in preparing the necessary food, spinning and weaving the material, and cutting and making the clothing for large families of children, had little time to consider the salutary in- fluence of moral suasion, or practise it in their daily life of ceaseless toil.
A restless desire, too, for the blessings of complete civil and religious liberty, led our fathers to look with a little suspicion upon everything which had the semblance of unreasonable restraint. The manifestation of this characteristic was very pronounced during the Revolutionary War and the period closely following. This spirit of belligerency which so quickened the energy of the fathers was reflected in the minds of their children, and begat a desire on the part of the latter for unrestrained personal freedom, even in the school-room; and for want of adversaries more deserving of their resentment, they soon began to look upon the pedagogne as at least a severe taskmaster, and sometimes, not wholly without cause, as a petty tyrant in his limited domain. This led some of the larger boys, fretting under the restraint of wholesome discipline, to become refractory, and when an irksome task was imposed, or some unusual
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demand made upon them, they were inclined to defer obedience, when open hostilities were likely to follow between pupils and teacher, sometimes to the discomfiture of the latter. One of the favorite correctives in very general use for the training of young children, was the parental or slipper method, inaugurated by our grandmothers, and practised by matronly teachers of the dame's school. This was of the nature of a counter-irritant, and when forcibly applied and properly concentrated upon the "spherical portion " of a diminutive boy, was apt to induce results at least temporarily favorable. As children advanced in age and the ten- dency to disobedience increased, various forms of punishment were resorted to by the teacher to enforce obedience to the rules of the school and lessen the evil effects of insubordination. The patriarchal remedy of " laying on of hands " was a popular panacea of the time and the method most constantly employed. The passes were admin- istered with great vigor and rapidity, and many a spirited boy has been reduced to subjection by this means, but rather by its magic than its mesmeric influence.
As the boys grew older still and became more bold in their acts of disobedience, the heavy ruler or ferule was brought into frequent use, and later on the leather strap played an important part. If the master of a winter school was inexperienced, wanting in physical strength, or lacking in courage, he sometimes found himself o'er- mastered by the larger boys and pitched headlong out of the window and into a snowdrift, and the boys for a time in possession of the school-room. Occasionally, thoughtless or culpably negligent parents took sides with their children, and some were found who slyly boasted that their boys could " handle " the schoolmaster. It was not long before physical strength began to be looked upon as a qualification quite as important for a male teacher of the winter school as mental ability and scholarly acquirements; muscular development became as much a requisite as intellectual training. Indeed, there is good authority for saying that in the rear of at least one schoolhouse lately standing in one of the outlying districts of this town, a large cobble-stone was purposely kept to test the strength of candidates for the position of master, and that applicants were expected to be able to lift it with ease and hurl it a given distance in the presence of some member of the committee, as a satisfactory exhibition of physical strength. There were instances, rarely occurring, let us hope, in the memory of those now living, when the severity of the discipline became positively brutal if not almost inhuman in character. The written testimony is preserved of an eminent lady of unimpeachable veracity, a native of this city
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and the daughter of distinguished parents, who records that a female teacher, Miss -, as late as 1820, slit a boy's ear with her pen- knife for some minor offense, sending a thrill of horror through the school, and that a little girl had all the pretty curls cut from her head by her angry teacher, throwing the child into violent spasms of distress and fear. A clergyman, before quoted, says,-" Master S., who taught the school at the North end about 1820, used to hang his pupils by the wrists, who did not behave to suit him, on large nails or spikes all about the house. The ropes used for the purpose were the old style of red silk handkerchiefs. Where he got so many was the most amusing part of it, but once when he had twelve of us suspended he said he had plenty more handkerchiefs and was ready to use them if necessary."
Instances of open rebellion between pupils and teacher occurred at rare intervals, one of which was graphically described by an aged citizen in 1884, who said,-"John Bartlett, who taught the winter school in the Old Bell, about 1822, was a terror. His selection as a teacher was against the protest of many of the inhabitants of the district. He was young, not much over twenty-one, and of course without much experience. At the beginning of the term he pro- vided himself with a riding whip, instead of the usual ferule or ruler, which he frequently displayed, inciting manifestations of disobedi- ence on the part of his pupils. In the course of a few weeks, signs of open rebellion were unmistakable. Three young men whose names were Samuel Green, Abiel Chandler, and James Eastman, were the especially offending pupils. Green lived with his uncle, Dr. Peter Green, whose dwelling was on the lot upon which now stands the residence of Henry Robinson; Chandler lived with his father, and Eastman was an apprentice to Captain Richard Ayer. The trouble began by Chandler's declining to read when called upon, whereupon Bartlett, without seeking an explanation, gave the pupil a smart cut with his whip, which so angered the latter that he made immediate response with the only weapons at his command, his fists. The struggle soon assumed such magnitude that the other two boys came to the support of their comrade. The boys did but little strik- ing, but strove to wrest the whip from the teacher's hands, the latter using the weapon with all his might on the bodies and heads of the resisting pupils ; the girls became frightened and ran for their homes, while some of the boys made equal haste to summon the committee. General Low, who lived near by, was the first to respond, and he soon restored order and dismissed the school, but the event served to fan the flames of discord among the citizens composing the two hostile political parties, and the result was a succession of school
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meetings of a very bitter character, at which spicy specches were made by Joseph Low, Isaac Hill, Richard Bartlett, a brother of the young teacher, Reverend John L. Blake, Benjamin Parker, and many others. One party was in favor of continuing Mr. Bartlett to finish the term, but a majority opposed such a course, and the result was the engagement of another teacher; but the school was in a thoroughly demoralized condition for a long time. The teacher and his friends insisted upon an apology from the unruly boys. Green complied, Chandler was considered sufficiently punished to atone for the part he had taken, but Captain Ayer, who had a good deal of the old Roman in his make-up, refused to allow Eastman to make any excuses, much preferring he should fight it out to the bitter end, and promised to protect hint from any loss or harm he might sustain in consequence. The lad was indicted at a term of court held at Exeter, and Captain Ayer employed Ichabod Bartlett to defend him. The case was called for trial at the next term of court, but after a little testimony, generally of a ludicrous character, was taken, it was thrown out of court by the presiding judge. The feeling continued for some years, growing less as time passed by, and was finally forgotten."
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