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 63
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Luther Batchelder Pillsbury, of Bridgewater, a former teacher of the high schools of Reading, Hopkinton, Bridgewater, and Charles- town (all in Massachusetts), was principal of the high school during the fall term of 1882.
John Fuller Kent, of Newton, Mass., who had served seven years as submaster in the high school of his native city, became principal at the beginning of the winter term in 1882. He found the school in good condition, and brought to the discharge of his new duties all the requirements for success. A man of fine physique, six feet four, well proportioned, robust in health, and with a capacity for hard work, his success was very marked.
At the annual meeting of Union district in 1884 it was voted to supply all pupils in the public schools with free text-books-such action being permissible under the statutes-and five years later, 1889, the law was made mandatory on all towns in the state, when the other districts fell into line. The cost to Union district the first year was about one thousand eight hundred dollars, two thirds of which amount was expended for the high school.
The chemical laboratory for the latter was fitted up in the summer of 1884, and the change to one daily session only, for the high school, from 8:30 a. m. to 1:30 p. m .- a new departure-went into operation after the Christmas vacation the same year.
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The legislature of 1885 passed a law abolishing the district system of schools and adopting the town system, with the proviso that at the expiration of five years towns that preferred to do so might return to the old district system again. In a friendly suit brought soon after- ward by Union district, the supreme court rendered a decision that the law was not applicable to special districts organized under the Somersworth act. As a consequence, Union district and districts Nos. 3, 12, and 20 continued as before, while the remaining fourteen districts were consolidated under the name of the Town district. The result of this change was to abolish a few of the smaller schools in the latter, in consequence of the greatly-diminished attendance, and convey the children to adjoining districts more populous. The little schoolhouse in No. 5, one of the primitive abodes of learning, with ideal surroundings, about which little feet oft strayed in years gone by, now stands silent and desolate, like the harp on Tara's walls, " as if its soul had fled."
Prominent among those who have served for many years on the school board of the town district may be mentioned the names of Isaac N. Abbott, George H. Curtis, Abial Rolfe, William W. Flint, William P. Ballard, Fales P. Virgin, Albert Saltmarsh, and George T. Abbott. The first, in 1902, had served for forty-four years. They well deserve and fully share the approbation of their fellow-citizens.
Warren Clark retired as superintendent of schools in the summer of 1885, and Louis J. Rundlett (Dartmouth, 1881), of Bedford, a grammar school teacher in Penacook for some years, was elected his successor.
The third story of the Walker school was fitted up for class-rooms in the winter of 1885-'86, to provide for the increase in the number of pupils in the lower grades in that section of the city.
The high school cadets were organized in December, 1886. The arms and equipments were purchased with funds amounting to over four hundred dollars, obtained by subscriptions. General A. D. Ayl- ing was the first instructor, and the city hall was used as a drill room until the destruction of the high school building by fire in the spring of 1888, when it became necessary to use the hall for a school- room, and the cadets gave up drilling for a time. In September, 1892, the drill was resumed, with Captain James Miller, U. S. A., as instructor. At the annual school meeting, in March, 1893, the dis- triet voted to make military drill a part of the high school course of instruction, and assume the expense, and in April, following, Captain H. B. Brown was appointed drill master. In September, 1893, Gen- cral Ayling was again clected instructor, and the cadets were organ- ized as a battalion of two companies. The latter resigned in the
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summer of 1897, and Captain Charles L. Mason was appointed instructor, and is still serving. Two companies of girls were organ- ized in 1898, with light arms, and under officers of their own choos- ing. The capital city affords no prettier picture in summer time than a sight of these lightly-tripping young girls in bright dresses and with wavy tresses going through their manœuvers on the beauti- ful green lawn west of the high school building.
The cadets have had five prize drills, the first in the spring of 1888. Their uniform was regular army fatigue cap, blue short coat and white pants, until the beginning of 1897-'98, when the blue and white were changed for cadet gray.
District No. 15, Oak hill, built a new schoolhouse on the site of the old brick one in the summer of 1887, which is still in use. Sixty years ago this school numbered between forty and fifty pupils, while at the present time the whole number could be counted upon the fin- gers of one hand.
Manual training for boys had its beginning in the same year, an appropriation of one thousand two hundred dollars having been voted the year before to provide for its introduction. The school was opened in January with eighty-two pupils from the high and grammar schools, with George O. Cross as instructor. It was kept in the one-story school building on Spring street which had been fitted up for the purpose with carpenters' benches and the necessary wood-working tools. The loss of the high school the next year left the grammar and primary schools resident in that building without an abiding-place, and to accommodate these the manual training school was moved to rooms on the west side of Main street near Warren, where it remained until the completion of the new Kimball school building in 1890. In the latter year, both primary schools in the Spring street building were transferred to the Kimball, and the manual training school returned to its former home. Mr. Cross, after three and a half years of service, retired in the summer of 1889, and Fred E. Browne of Tilton was chosen to succeed him. Mechanical drawing was added to the course of instruction in 1890, and in November, 1891, the school was further equipped with lathes for wood turning, operated by electric power. In 1893 Mr. Browne, the second principal in chronological order, resigned, and Edward F. Gordon was chosen his successor. Pattern-making was made promi- nent in the work of the school in 1898, and in 1899 lathes for iron turning and boring and other machinery were added to the equip- ment, and elementary instruction in iron work introduced. The school met with popular favor from the beginning.
Following the practice of larger cities, an evening school was
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opened at the beginning of the winter term in 1887-'88. The school was held in the city hall, the corners of which were parti- tioned off with curtains and used for recitation rooms. One hundred and fifty-one pupils, mostly males, whose ages varied from nine to seventy years, were enrolled with an average attendance of about fifty. Robert A. Ray, Cornelius E. Clifford, and Miss Addie P. Tit- comb were teachers. The studies pursued embraced reading, writ- ing, spelling, arithmetic, history, grammar, and bookkeeping. The next winter, 1888-'89, the school was kept fifteen weeks, in the same place, with an attendance somewhat less in number and dwin- dling from week to week. Mr. Ray was principal, and Reuben E. Walker (now Judge Walker) and Mr. Clifford, assistants. In the winter of 1889-'90, the school was transferred to the Union Street schoolhouse, with Mrs. Rosa Akerman as principal, and Miss Sarah F. Ballard assistant. Seventy different pupils registered, seventeen of whom came only one night; soon afterward the number dropped to forty, with an average attendance of only twenty-one. At the close of the term, owing to the constantly diminishing and irregular attendance, it was deemed unprofitable to continue it longer. An evening school was also kept in Penacook in the winter of 1887-'88, when it was discontinued from similar lack of interest and irregu- lar attendance.
Private schools, supported by tuition fees, adding greatly to the educational privileges for the young people of the town, followed closely the opening of the first free schools in 1731. The short and infrequent terms of the latter were so inadequate that the teachers employed by the town, after the close of the terms of school pro- vided at the public expense, generally opened private schools if suffi- cient patronage could be assured. Following this practice, private or tuition schools were kept by James Scales, Joseph Holt, Timothy Walker, Jr., Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford), Robert Hogg, Mr. Parkinson, and probably nearly all of the early teachers. Dur- ing the Revolutionary War general destitution prevailed ; the town was unwilling to burden the people with taxes, and frec schools lan- guished greatly and were probably suspended a part of the time, so that private schools became the principal, if not the sole, reliance dur- ing that period. The names of many of the earliest of these "mind builders," deserving honorable mention, are lost in oblivion ; but for- tunately the advertisements in the little newspapers, which began to make their appearance about 1790, reveal the names of the larger number in subsequent years, and enable us to perpetuate the story of those who did so much to mould and shape the character of succeed- ing generations.
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Mr. Dinsmore, in September, 1791, " gives notice to parents and others in Concord and adjoining towns, who are destitute of schools for their children, that he has opened a school in the district formerly occupied by Mr. Parkinson1 in this town. He teaches Reading, Writ- ing, Arithmetic, and Geography at three shillings per month ; schol- ars providing fuel for their comfort in cold weather." This teacher proves to have been Samuel Dinsmoor, of Londonderry, afterward governor of the state.
John Coffin, A. M., of this town, a famous teacher, taught in 1792.
Master Edmund Eastman, a popular teacher, kept a school in the town house in 1793 and 1794.
Mr. Stinson, "who has lived the major part of his life in France and Quebec," kept a French grammar and pronouncing school in the Mason's hall about 1800.
In May, 1802, the proprietors of the " Union schoolhouse " announce the engagement of Josiah Noyes as instructor. "The reputation of the teacher, the accommodations in the house, and its local situation they believe to be a sufficient inducement for many to give a prefer- ence to this school ; terms one dollar and a half per quarter for English studies, and one dollar and seventy-five cents for Greek or Latin."
Mr. Johnson (perhaps Ebenezer Johnson, from Ellington or Will- ington, Conn.) kept school in this town in 1803 and 1804.
Abraham Burnham, of Dunbarton (Dartmouth college, 1804), taught in Concord between 1804 and 1807.
James Titcomb, probably from Newport, commenced keeping school in July, 1808, in the Union schoolhouse, providing instruction in all the ordinary branches, and also surveying, navigation, etc .; tuition twenty cents per week. In November of the same year a "Ladies' Academy " was opened for the instruction of young ladies in the common and higher branches, including plain and fancy needlework, tambouring, etc.
Nathaniel H. Carter kept public and private schools in this town in 1808 and 1809, living (with Richard Bartlett and Charles G. Haines, two boys sixteen to seventeen years old, who afterward became distinguished) in the bachelor home of Colonel Philip Carri- gain, at the North end. Bartlett and Haines were receiving gratui- tious instruction in preparation for college from Colonel Carrigain, who had previously tutored Carter. Isaac Hill also came to Concord in the latter year,-a beardless youth, barely twenty-one years old,- and made his home for a time in the same family. Carter subse- quently became eminent as an editor, author, and poct, and spent
1 Parkinson lived on the Hopkinton road (now Pleasant street) near Main, a short distance from the store of Manley & Partridge, the site of which is now occupied by Norris's bakery, and taught school in the center of the village.
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some time abroad for his health, always delicate. In 1828, suffering with consumption, he visited for the last time his old home in this town, near the banks of the Turkey river, and soon after, seeking health in foreign travel, died and was buried at Marseilles, France.
Miss Ruth Hutchins, daughter of Levi Hutchins of the West vil- lage, taught school in this town in 1809 and 1810, and in 1812 married Daniel Cooledge, a bookseller and a prominent Quaker; they afterward removed to New York city, where she died in 1863, aged seventy-four years.
Mr. Boynton kept an English school in the main village in 1810.
Miss Green (probably one of the daughters of Dr. Peter Green), opened a "Young Ladies' Academy " at the town house in May of the same year. "The usual branches as well as needlework, tambouring, ctc., will be taught."
Carlton Chase, of Hopkinton, afterward Episcopal bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire, taught a district school in Concord street in 1811-'12.
Mr. Johnson, probably the before mentioned Ebenezer Johnson, opened a new school, February, 1811, " informing his many friends that he will instruct young men and women in the ordinary branches, the languages, oratory, and composition ; terms $2.00 per quarter exclusive of wood."
John West, Jr., representing the proprietors of the Union school- house, announces May 11, 1812, that " A young lady from Boston, who has been an assistant to Mrs. Rowson for a number of years past, and who has from her the highest recommendations, has been engaged to teach the ' Ladies' Academy' in this town the present season. Ladies from out of town can be accommodated with genteel boarding near the school."
Allen Fisk, of Amherst (Dartmouth college, 1814), kept schools here in 1814 and 1815.
Master Johnson, oft described as " the man with the shaggy eye- brows," came again in 1816.
Addison Searle, of Temple (Dartmouth college, 1816), came to Concord as a teacher soon after graduation ; he officiated as minister of the Episcopal church between 1819 and 1820, and in the latter year became a chaplain in the navy.
Charles F. Gove, of Goffstown (Dartmouth college, 1817), began · teaching in Concord shortly after his graduation. He was afterward a lawyer, and about 1848 or 1849 was appointed superintendent of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad company. He died in Nashua in 1856.
Miss Boardman kept a school for young ladies in 1817; this was
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Miss Nancy Boardman, daughter of Colonel Amos Boardman, of South Reading, Mass., who, in July, 1819, became the wife of Sam- uel Fletcher. Fourteen years later, in 1833, Mrs. Fleteher again resumed teaching, opening a school for young ladies in the dwelling- house of General Sweetser, opposite the Merrimack County bank. She was a woman of rare gifts, and was held in high esteem by her townspeople. She was president of the Female Charitable society from 1838 until 1842, and died in the latter year, aged fifty-four years.
John Rogers, of Newburyport, Mass. (Dartmouth college, 1816), kept a private school here in 1816 and 1817, and perhaps longer; he afterward became a physician in Boscawen, where he died in 1830, aged forty-two years.
James Howe, of Jaffrey (Dartmouth college, 1817), kept school in Concord in 1817-'18. He was afterward a minister in Pepperell, Mass.
Miss Frances Mary White kept a school for young ladies from 1817 to 1823, in which were taught the various branches of common and ornamental education ; a few young ladies from out of town boarded at the house in which Miss White resided, and attended the school.
Miss Mehitable Cook kept a school for young ladies, beginning May, 1819, in the hall over the Concord Lower bank, opposite the Phenix hotel ; and Ahimaaz B. Simpson, probably from New Hamp- ton, a Dartmouth undergraduate, taught school in the Union school- house in the spring and summer of the same year; this school was called the Coneord academy.
About this time Miss Annie Cheever, of Bow, was teaching public and private schools in the southwest corner of the town, which after- ward beeame district No. 23. The late Dr. Robert Hall says, "Annie Cheever taught school for many years in our seetion of the town, two years at least in a chamber in my father's house." Over in the East village, Miss Blanchard of Peacham, Vt., "Master Brown " from Exeter, Abiel Foster of Canterbury, Susan Smith, and Sarah Austin, eldest daughter of Aaron Austin, the innkeeper, kept schools between 1816 and 1821; the school of the last named was held in the Austin tavern.
About 1820 Dudley Leavitt kept a school in which special atten- tion was given to chemistry and electricity. "No pains spared to render thic acquisition of useful knowledge easy and pleasant to those who may attend this school." Leavitt was from Stratham or Excter, and studied Greek and Latin with Parson Smith of Gilman- ton, and afterward settled and kept school in Meredith. His manners
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were charming, and with Roger Ascham, the Yorkshire pedagogue, and tutor to Queen Elizabeth, he believed that "children are sooner allured by love than driven by beating to obtain good learning." If more of the early teachers had been like Leavitt, the world would have been a happier one to live in, and the pathway to learning a pleasanter one to follow for the boys and girls of that and subse- quent generations.
George Stickney, probably son of Daniel Stickney of this town, kept a school in 1820-'21; he was at the same time chorister at the Old North meeting-house.
Jacob C. Goss, of Henniker, kept a private school in the same years ; he was a graduate of Dartmouth college, 1820, and of Ando- ver Theological seminary in 1823; he was a preacher for many years ; he died in this city in 1860, and became the first permanent tenant in Blossom Hill cemetery.
Reverend J. L. Blake, A. M., of Northwood, a graduate of Brown university, 1812, and an accomplished scholar, was principal of a " Young Ladies' Literary School " kept in Concord in 1821-'23. He was assisted by Misses Mary Ayer, Laura Hastings, Rhoda M. Rich- mond, in the literary branches, and Monsieur Peyre Ferry, teacher of the French language. He was rector of the Episcopal church from 1819 to 1823. Dr. Bouton says,-"Captain Partridge and the Nor- wich cadets visited Concord, June 24, 1822, and in the evening the young ladies of Mr. Blake's school presented a standard to the cadets with appropriate addresses." Mr. Blake was the author of " Blake's Historical Reader," and wrote or compiled during his life fifty works, chiefly as text-books for schools, several of which were published by Isaac Hill of this town, and used in the schools of this state for many years.
Peter Worden, a Quaker, from New York, taught a private school in the main village in 1822; he married Mary, a daughter of Levi Hutchins. Worden preached occasionally, and held religious services at one time in the West Concord schoolhouse; he removed soon afterward to Virginia, where he died a few years later.
Benjamin Bordman, successor to Rev. Mr. Blake, kept the " Lit- crary Seminary " in 1823 and 1824, and perhaps later. He was assisted by Miss Bordman,-probably a sister,-and Miss Mary Ayer, daughter of Richard Ayer, who afterward became the wife of Isaac Frye Williams, a well-known merchant of the past, whose store was on the site now occupied by the Colonial block. This school was kept for a time in the new brick schoolhouse at the North end. Mr. Bordman later studied law and opened an office at Ossipee ; he mar- ried Anna, daughter of Thomas Stickney, Jr., of this town. The
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school, after Mr. Bordman's retirement, was continued by the Misses Ayer and Bordman until 1826, while Miss Bordman alone was keep- ing a female seminary here as late as the fall of 1828. A sister, Miss Lucretia Bordman, was also a teacher of private schools here for some years.
John Farmer, the historian, who came to Concord in 1821 and lived here until his death in 1838, was a tutor and prepared young men for college. The late Reverend John LeBosquet, author of the life of Dr. Farmer, for whom he had great admiration and love, was one of his earlier pupils.
George Kimball kept a school in 1823-'24, "in the schoolhouse near the meeting-house." He gave up teaching in the latter year, and was editor of the Concord Register from 1824 until 1827, during which time he changed the title of the paper; he afterward removed to Alton, Ill., and became prominent in the anti-slavery crusade.
Catherine Kendall, daughter of Nathan Kendall of Amherst, taught both public and private schools in the west room of the old Bell schoolhouse in 1823-'24. She was a cousin of Franklin Pierce. In 1838 she married David Steele, a lawyer of Hillsborough Bridge. She celebrated the one hundred and second anniversary of her birth May 12, 1903. Among her pupils, in 1824, were the children of Isaac Hill, Joseph Low, Sampson Bullard, and William A. Kent.
Edwin B. Stevens, of Claremont, opened a private school near the meeting-house in May, 1824; academic instruction ; and board in respectable families, one dollar and thirty-three cents to one dollar and fifty cents per week. Stevens, a young man of great promise, was drowned, with his classmate, H. B. Morse, principal of Ports- mouth academy, June 22, 1825, on returning to Portsmouth from a trip to the Isles of Shoals; a violent gust capsized the boat, and Stevens and Morse, with three others, were lost.
In the Iron Works district, Joseph Hazeltine, son of Ballard Haz- eltine, was teaching between 1820-'24; he was a potter by trade but a good teacher as well ; and Sarah Morrill, daughter of Dr. Samuel Morrill, Moses Kimball, of Hopkinton, and Charles H. Peaslee, of Gilmanton, were teaching in the East village about the same time. Peaslee was then an undergraduate; he settled in Concord, became prominent as a lawyer and politician, and held many public offices, including that of member of congress from 1847 to 1853.
Mr. Rolfe began a second term of a private school August 1, 1825. This teacher was probably Horace H. Rolfe, of Groton, a teacher of some repute, who went South a year or two later and died in Charles- ton, S. C., in 1831, aged thirty years.
Joseph Robinson of this town taught public and private schools in
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Concord from 1825 to 1829; he was small in stature, but sprightly, capable, industrions, and energetic ; he kept an excellent school and was much liked by pupils and parents, and highly commended by the committee. He afterward became prominent in politics, and held many offices of trust.
About 1826 Miss Abby Ann Muzzey, of Lexington, Mass., kept a school for young children on Main street at the South end, and a little later Miss Betsey Walker had a private school in a small build- ing on the west side of Main street, near the corner of Fayette. This building was removed to Chandler street, when Judge Burgin came to Concord from Allenstown and built the brick building now the home of St. Mary's school. Miss Walker was a famous teacher in those days for the younger children. Major Lewis Downing, Jr., and many others, few of whom are now living, attended successively both of these schools.
A course of study in astronomy was commenced at the court house in 1828, under the instruction of an experienced teacher ; misses and lads over eight years of age were invited to join the classes. More attention, it would appear, was given to this branch of study in the early part of the century than at the present time. Evening classes of boys and girls gazing skyward were quite common up to about 1850, but since that time are rarely seen. A school for instruction in stenography was kept in Concord as early as 1825-'26; Horace Steel was the teacher.
Reverend Abraham Hilliard, of Cambridge, Mass., a noted classical instructor, taught school in the old court house and in the Mason's hall, over the Lower bank, in 1827-'28. He was a fine scholar but a great snuff-taker; he never used the rod or ferule. A French teacher, named Mahew, taught a private school here for some time about this period.
Miss Sarah L. White conducted a school for the instruction of young ladies in the higher branches in rooms over the Lower bank, beginning in 1828, while in the same year the " Proprietor's School " was kept in the town house, under the charge of Nathan Brown, late preceptor of the academy at Ipswich, Mass. Mr. Brown was from Stratham, and afterward a merchant in New York. Reverend N. W. Williams, Moses Eastman, and William Kent, a committee of the proprietors, had supervision of the school.
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