USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 43
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No further attempt of importance was made until the organiza- tion of the Law and Order League November 21, 1888. A number of the citizens of the town met in the Young Men's Christian Association rooms, and organized a league for the suppression of drunkenness and the illegal sale of liquor. The officers elected were Rev. P. M. Frost, president ; John Smillie, C. L. Clay, vice- presidents ; Charles A. Farr, secretary ; Fred Goodall, treasurer ; Rev. F. G. Chutter, Rev. A. A. Hoyt, Rev. G. C. Waterman, Rev. L. D. Cochrane, C. D. Tarbell, Isaac Calhoun, M. D. Cobleigh, executive committee ; D. C. Remich, prosecuting officer.
The interest in this work became wide-spread, and a movement
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Temperance.
was made to form a branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Littleton.1. July 27, 1881, a meeting was held in the Episcopal Church, which Frances A. Willard was expected to ad- dress, but in her absence the Rev. George C. Osgood explained the methods of work usually followed by the Union, and a permanent organization was effected which has been an active force ever since that time. The following officers were chosen : President, Mrs. Evarts W. Farr ; vice-presidents, Mrs. Frank G. Weller, Mrs. G. C. Waterman, Mrs. Ray T. Gile ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Francis F. Hodgman ; recording secretary, Helen Osgood ; treas- urer, Julia Allen. A committee, consisting of Mrs. Henry C. Red- ington, Mrs. Allen J. Church, and Mrs. Charles T. Tarbell, was chosen to formulate the work. April 12, 1882, the Union met in the Congregational vestry, and Mrs. G. W. Osgood was chosen president in place of Mrs. Farr, who resigned after a year of ear- nest effort. One of the means employed to accomplish their purpose of impressing on the minds of the children the evils of the use of intoxicants was a temperance Sunday-school, of which Minnie Til- ton was superintendent, and Mrs. S. C. Sawyer, Mrs. George H. Tilton, and Lydia Cobb, assistants, and children were not only taught the evils of intemperance, but encouraged to sign the pledge. Julia Coleman's Catechism on Temperance was intro- duced into the schools of the town through the untiring zeal of Mrs. H. H. Southworth, Mrs. Charles Eaton, Mrs. Henry L. Til- ton, Mrs. Catherine P. Chickering, Mrs. Oscar Parker, Mrs. Edgar Aldrich, Mrs. Ray T. Gile, Mrs. Thomas Carleton, Julia A. Allen, Anna L. Brackett, and others. Through their influence the pupils in the High School wrote essays on the effect of alcohol on the brain and human system, and prizes were given for what were regarded as the best of these by the Union. This was only one branch of their work. At the same time the jail and almshouse department was taken up, and, June 18, 1885, a committee con- sisting of Mrs. Eaton, Mrs. Southworth, and Mrs. Rand visited these places ; and this has become an annual custom, and a com- mittee each year carries flowers, gifts, and a message of hope and cheer from the Union to the unfortunate inmates. On town meeting day, in 1883, a free lunch was served in Union Hall by the ladies, with the hope of saving from temptation those voters who were accustomed to frequent saloons at the noon hour. This was so successful that it was repeated for four years, when the effort was discontinued and the Selectmen were petitioned to close
1 This sketch of the organization is condensed from an article prepared by Ellen Josephine Austin.
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History of Littleton.
the saloons on election day. At the same time petitions were sent to the Saranac Glove Company and the Scythe Factory Company, praying that they refuse to employ intemperate men.
A good idea of the wide field of the activities of this organiza- tion may be gathered from a statement of its efforts in different directions. A law was enacted, as a result of petitions circulated by the Union, requiring instruction in physiology and hygiene, giving special prominence to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics on the human system. Petitions were also circulated by them, urging that the prohibitory law be re- tained ; that the exhibition and sale of stories of blood and crime be prohibited by law ; that the editor of a village paper be re- quested to remove from his paper an advertisement of Rock and Rye ; that the Legislature make woman suffrage the law of the State; that the Nuisance Act remain on the statute books ; the so-called Polyglot petition was circulated by Mrs. E. Josephine Austin, and one hundred names procured ; a petition to close the Columbian Exposition on Sunday ; to the Webb and Pullman Car Companies to abolish smoking compartments in their cars ; to the New Hampshire Legislature to raise the age of consent ; a letter was sent to the landlady of a large mountain hotel, asking her to desist from treating her invited guests with punch of any kind ; an organized effort was made to suppress the sale of tobacco and cigarettes to boys. All but two of the dealers signed an agree- ment to this effect. An attempt to prosecute a case of the illegal sale of liquor was abandoned, after procuring a search warrant from a justice of the peace in Lisbon.
The Sunday-school was merged into the Band of Hope, and this later was termed the Loyal Temperance Legion and was under the charge of Mrs. Aaron Eastman. This activity in juvenile work gave the Littleton branch the title of the Banner Union.
A home for fallen women was established in Manchester, called the Mercy Home, and the Union furnished what is called the Lit- tleton Room, and has contributed $250, part of this being the pro- ceeds of a Demorest medal contest at the Congregational Church which was in charge of Mrs. E. Josephine Austin. Boxes at the railway station and in the barber shops were supplied with tem- perance literature. Contributions were made for a State flag ; the Nebraska temple ; to Harley mission in Michigan ; to the Ramabai fund ; to the reading-room at North Stratford ; for rescue work in Michigan ; to Chicago ; for lumbermen, money, a library with case, and comfort bags ; for sending unfortunates to the Keeley Cure,
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MRS. GEO. W. OSGOOD.
MRS. SOLON L. SIMONDS.
MRS. ELLEN B. FARR. MRS. GRANVILLE C.WATERMAN. MRS. N. H. KNOX. MRS. JOSEPHINE AUSTIN. MRS. S. C. SAWYER.
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Temperance.
8656. A drinking fountain was placed in position on Main Street at a cost of $127.20. The organization is in the front rank in influence, and possesses the true missionary spirit.
The presidents since Mrs. George W. Osgood resigned have been Mrs. N. H. Knox, Mrs. F. A. Robinson, Mrs. M. S. Waterman, Mrs. S. L. Simonds, Mrs. S. C. Sawyer, Mrs. S. L. Simonds again, in 1895, Mrs. J. C. Osgood, Mrs. E. Josephine Austin, Mrs. Albert F. Nute, and Mrs. Alice C. Webster.
Mrs. N. H. Knox was also president of the State Woman's Christian Union, and was State delegate to the national con- vention in Philadelphia, and Mrs. E. Josephine Austin attended as delegate the national convention at Baltimore in 1895.1
The thirteenth State convention was held in Littleton, at which Mrs. Frank B. Phillips gave the address of welcome. It has at present a membership of seventy-five, and is accomplishing good work in all its different departments. Mrs. Alice C. Webster is president ; Mrs. S. C. Sawyer, corresponding secretary ; Mrs. Ella B. Chapman, recording secretary ; Mrs. D. C. Phillips, treasurer.
Great as the evils of intemperance were in the early days of our history, there is a pronounced tendency at present to magnify their extent and picture the town as having been a Sodom without the redeeming number of righteous citizens. This habit doubtless springs from the love of paradox and a desire to magnify the virtues of the present at the expense of the past. The truth is that the Littleton of old was a comparatively temperate town. Influences for the amelioration of conditions that were the growth of generations were early at work. The National Tem- perance Society, the first society in the country in the interest of temperance, was organized in Boston in 1827, and the follow- ing year an auxiliary society was formed here. It must have been among the earliest in the State. Its membership was large and influential. Subsequently the Washingtonians and the Sons of Temperance flourished and served to keep the town well to the front at a time when public sentiment in every community was antagonistic to any effort at reform except through the agency of moral suasion.
When the railroad was extended to the town, conditions were
1 The Union has elected delegates and alternates to the State conventions since 1882 as follows : Mrs. S. C. Sawyer, Mrs. N. H. Knox, Mrs. Ray T. Gile, Mrs. E. Al- drich, Mrs. F. A. Robinson, Mrs. Henry F. Green, Mrs. H. H. Southworth, Mrs. L. J. Austin, Mrs. Rosette W. Kenney, Mrs. L. M. Buswell, Mrs. Sarah J. Danforth, Mrs. Jennie L. Smith, Mrs. H. C. Libby, Mrs. Frank B. Phillips, Mrs. Aaron A. Eastman, Mrs. J. H. Hoffman, Mrs. S. L. Simonds, Mrs. D. C. Phillips, Mrs. B. R. Carbee, Mrs. T. E. Cramer, Mrs. Ella B. Chapman, Mrs. A. F. Nute, and Mrs. Mary Sherborn.
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History of Littleton.
changed in a marked degree. Littleton became the centre of the lumber business, and a large nomadic population connected with this industry made it their headquarters. They were an improvident race, and their earnings were freely spent in excesses that sometimes brought them under the restraining influences of the police courts. Their conduct was naturally credited to the town, and was mainly responsible for the irregularities that existed from 1850 to 1870. When the railroad was built to Lancaster and the White Mountains, this disturbing element was lessened but not entirely removed. Another and somewhat analogous cause of many of these infractions of the peace comes from the fact that for many years Littleton has been a market town, where the products of neighboring towns have been disposed of and from which supplies have been drawn. The liquor traffic, like all com- mercial enterprises, is governed by the law of demand and supply ; hence the town has suffered on account of the sins of men who were not numbered among its citizens and for whose conduct it was in no wise responsible.
Nor should it be forgotten that "law enforcement " at the period when the prohibitory law was an experiment was attended with difficulties and vexations unknown in recent years, and re- quired a high degree of moral as well as physical courage on the part of those who invoked the agency of the law for the suppression of the traffic. Deacon John Merrill and Dr. Adams Moore were among the first to institute legal proceedings, with the result that some of the dealers were required to pay a fine and costs, while the deacon was hung in effigy and the doctor's horse had its tail shorn by infuriated ruffians. The prosecutions under the direc- tion of D. C. Remich and others connected with the several soci- eties that have been organized for the purpose of eliminating the liquor traffic from our list of business enterprises were effec- tive in driving many dealers out of business, but not in prevent- ing the sale of intoxicants in the town. Closing a bar or saloon enlarged the sales by druggists, and transferred the transporta- tion of spirits from the freight department of the railroad to the express company. The results were largely on the credit side of the public ledger, for immense good was accomplished, but the fiction that the traffic was ever entirely suppressed is not tenable. The suppression of open bars and lounging-places for tipplers was achieved, which was a great triumph for good morals. It may justly be claimed that as much was done here in the direction of extinguishing the sale of liquor as a beverage as is possible of accomplishment under like conditions anywhere.
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Temperance.
The prohibitory law of 1855 was many times amended and always with the purpose of strengthening it, except by an amend- ment to the so-called Nuisance Act, passed by the Legislature of 1897, which provided that the determination of the question of " nuisance " should be left to the jury instead of the court. Under the Act of 1855 many abuses gradually came into existence, some of an intolerable character more detrimental to the public welfare than those it was designed to cure, and the question of its repeal was made the principal issue in the election of 1902. The people by a decisive majority decided in favor of repeal, and the Legislature of 1903 enacted the license law now in force. The chief features of the present statute are the creation of a State commission whose powers include the issuance of all li- censes, and qualified local option covering saloons only. The first expression of the voters of the town under this law was given at the annual March meeting in 1903, when the vote was strongly against license. The matter of licensing druggists to sell for medicinal, and dealers in hardware for mechanical, pur- poses was not submitted, as under the law these are a matter of right. The law has not been in operation a sufficient length of time to test its advantages or defects.
VOL. II. - 27
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History of Littleton.
XLIII.
SCHOOLS. 1
BY MRS. LYDIA DREW JACKSON.
N EXT to the meeting-house, the school-room was dear to the hearts of the settlers of New England, and New Hamp- shire early felt the obligation of training for good citizenship the youth within her borders. While under the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts, she seems to have been in full accord with the educa- tional spirit of her sister colony, and when she became a separate province one of the earliest legislative enactments, in 1693, re- quired the selectmen of each town to raise money by assessment to build and repair school-houses, to provide a schoolmaster, and imposed a fine of ten pounds in case of failure to comply with this provision. In 1791 a law was passed in New Hampshire requiring every town of fifty householders to provide a school- master to teach pupils to read and write, and every town of one hundred householders to establish a grammar school, with a fine of twenty pounds for non-compliance. In the Constitution adopted by the State in 1784, is a provision making it the duty of legislatures and magistrates to cherish the interests of literature and science and all seminaries and public schools, and an assess- ment of taxes for that purpose is provided for. The builders of the State had the interest of her citizens at heart; but Belknap, the historian of New Hampshire, says that when the leading men of a town were themselves persons of knowledge and wisdom, they would provide means of instruction for the children, yet when the case was otherwise, they would evade the law.
The citizens of Littleton belonged to the former class, though, because the inhabitants were few in number and their resources scanty, it is not until 1791 that we find the first record of an appropriation for establishing a public school in Littleton, when sixteen bushels of wheat were voted " for the use of schools next winter." As a bushel of wheat was worth at that time 75 cents, this appropriation was equivalent to $12. The next year the same appropriation was made, and the town was divided into
LITTLETON HIGH SCHOOL.
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Schools.
Upper, Middle, and Lower Districts, the dividing line of the Upper and Middle being at the parting of the State and County roads near the Wheeler farm. The Lower and the Upper were subdi- vided in 1795 and 1799, and in the latter year a new district was created, thus anticipating the action of the Legislature in 1805, which empowered towns to divide into school districts and raise and appropriate money for school purposes.
Prior to this time the schools had been organized and main- tained by the town under the direction of the Selectmen. The necessity for economy had overcrowded the schools. It was thought that by multiplying the centres of control the interest of each individual would be awakened, and a more constant super vision of the schools assured; and in compliance with this law the town chose a committee of eight to make the division into school districts. This committee - David Goodall, John Millen, James Williams, Peter Bonney, Joseph W. Morse, Andrew Rankin, John Nurs, and Samuel Rankin - reported at an adjourned meet- ing held March 26, 1805, at the house of Jonas Nurs. This report was rejected, and the meeting proceeded to district the town to suit itself, though along the same general lines followed by the committee. The language of the record is somewhat obscure, but it is evident that eight districts were established at this time, for the meeting proceeded to elect an officer to build a school-house in each district, and these were eight in number: Bethuel White, Abijah Allen, Isaac Miner, James Jackson, James Williams, Barney Haskins, Joseph W. Morse, and Alexander Albee. The meeting also chose eiglit collectors of school taxes, one for each district, as the law required. The districts then established retained their numbers for nearly a century, though as occasion required they were subdivided, until nineteen districts in all were created. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 lay on the Connecticut River, begin- ning at Dalton line and extending to that part of Lyman which is now Monroe. These districts, before the numbering in 1805, were popularly known by the name of some member of the district prominent in the community. No. 1 was called the Cushman District, after Parker Cushman; No. 2, the Williams District, after James Williams; No. 3, the Rankin District, for James Rankin ; No. 4, the Carter District, for Daniel Carter.
The district newly created in 1799, called the Gile District after John Gile, was subsequently numbered 5. "It began at the south line of the land owned by Silas Wheeler (where Albert Orr resides), ran toward Concord, now Lisbon, far enough to include the Jonas Nurs place (now owned by Frank Fitch), and
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History of Littleton.
thence extended in the direction of the cross-road that ran by what is now known as the Robins place, half-way to the Rankin Mills." No. 6 was the Meadow District, along the Ammonoosuc River to Lisbon (then Concord). No. 7 was Mann's Hill and that part of Farr Hill not included in No. 5. No. 8 comprised all the territory included in Union School District in June, 1902. In 1811 No. 9 was set off from No. 4, but was rejoined to its original territory in 1875. In 1811 also No. 10, Farr Hill, was set off from No. 5 with a small strip from No. 7. In 1814 parts of Dis- tricts 3 and 5 were set off as No. 11. In 1823 No. 12 was created from the northeastern portion of No. 1 along Mt. Misery. In 1828 No. 13 was constituted out of the territory on Mt. Eustis, and No. 8 was extended to the Bethlehem line.
In 1833 the town found it necessary to appoint a committee of three, consisting of Ezra Parker, Joseph Palmer, and Joseph Robins, to re-establish district boundaries, and their report was accepted at the next town meeting. Five years later, No. 14, now known as the Apthorp District, was set off from No. 8. No. 15 was also created from No. 8, and comprised all the territory in the district west of the Dr. Burns place (now School Street). In 1850 parts of 2, 3, aud 5 were formed into District No. 16, but these districts in 1877 received again the territory they had ceded, as the necessity for this district no longer existed. In 1853 No. 17 was formed from that part of No. 8 lying south of the Ammo- noosuc River. No. 18 was formed in 1854 from that part of No. 11 near Partridge Pond, and in 1859 No. 19 was. established by uniting a part of No. 11 with the northerly section of Walker Hill in Lisbon.
The district system established by the law of 1805 was greatly strengthened by the law of 1827, which deserves more than a passing mention, as it was much superior to any previous school legislation in its comprehensiveness, including all that was good in past enactments and adding several new provisions of great value. In short, therein was contained the nucleus of the modern system of the government and supervision of schools.1
1 This act of 1827 is important as being the basis of the modern school system in this State. It required the Selectmen to levy a tax to be computed at a rate of $90 for every one dollar of their proportion of public taxes (the proportion of this town in 1828 was $3.82), " to be appropriated to the sole purpose of keeping one English school or schools within the towns and places ... for teaching the various sounds and powers of the letters of the English language, reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetick, geography, and such other branches of education as may be necessary to teach in an English school. .
Section 2 provided for the division of the money raised among the districts.
Section 3 required the Selectmen " to appoint a superintending school committee
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Schools.
As time passed on, the district system, which at first answered well the purpose of its establishment, did not accomplish the best results. Division into so many districts rendered the sum avail- able for each very small, and it was necessary in some instances to have a very short term of school or to hire inferior teachers. These conditions brought about an effort to re-establish the town system. This aroused the advocates of the district system, who strengthened the law in 1843 by procuring an act which required the Selectmen, under penalty of $100, to make a division into school districts upon the application of eleven legal voters. This led to an abuse of the system in many towns, and in some it was carried to a ridiculous extreme. In our own town in 1844 a district was created containing the farms of Jonas Temple, Parker Cush- man, and a few others on the Connecticut River ; but the good sense which this community has ever evinced must have prevailed, since the district was never organized. The opponents of the district system renewed their efforts, and in 1885 a law was passed abol- ishing that system, and by this act the number of districts in the State was reduced from eighteen hundred and ninety to two hun- dred and seventy-five. This law did not affect districts formed by special act of Legislature, of which there were forty-six in New Hampshire at that time, - among them the Union School District in Littleton, which was organized in 1866 under the Somersworth
consisting of not less than three nor more than five persons," whose duty it should be to examine teachers, to visit the schools, and "enquire into the mode of discipline and proficiency of scholars and to use their influence . . . that the youth in the several districts attend the schools." It gave them power to dismiss teachers for cause, and expel scholars.
Section 4 authorized the committee to provide the text-books to be used much as at present .. . make reports, etc., etc.
Section 6. Schoolmasters to be citizens of the United States, and other provisions as to qualifications, certificates, etc.
Section 7. Penalty for neglecting to assess the tax doomed the Selectmen to pay the full amount required by law, etc.
Section 8 was as follows : " And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the presidents, professors, and tutors of colleges, and the preceptors and teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth to take diligent care, and use their best endeavors, to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their country, humanity and benevolence ; sobriety, industry and frugality ; chastity, moderation, and temperance ; and all other virtues which are the ornaments of human society. And it shall be the duty of such instructors, to endeavor to lead those under their care into a particular understanding of the tendency of the before- mentioned virtues to preserve and perfect a republican form of government, and to secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness; and the tendency of the opposite vices to slavery and ruin." (Session Laws of 1827, pp. 213-217.)
Another law, passed at the same session, authorized towns to raise money to build or repair school-houses.
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History of Littleton.
Act of 1848, which authorized any school district, when the num- ber of pupils exceeded one hundred, to keep a high school as the interests of education might require. In 1857 the Legislature authorized contiguous districts to unite for the same purpose.
The school-houses erected in 1805 by the committee appointed for that purpose were rude, unpainted structures, and all probably resembled that erected in District No. 2, which Luther B. Town thus describes : " I first attended school in 1818. The school-house was a small, low-posted building, one end of which was occupied by a large fireplace. Around the other end and the sides ran a long plank bench with no desks in front. The only furnishing pro- vided for the teacher was a chair - no table, no reference books, nor any of those supplies which are so lavishly provided at the present day. The walls were bare; in fact, the whole interior and exterior were severely plain, and the instruction provided within the walls was equally simple in its character. This build- ing fell to pieces in 1830, so we had no school that year; but in 1831 a new house was built which had desks as well as seats, but were all unpainted and faced the teacher in four rows with three aisles between ; one side of this was occupied by a fireplace also, and even then the teacher had no table or desk."
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