History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 27

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 27
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 27

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Public Schools .- The history of the public schools of Concord for the first century of its existence as a town is not unlike that of other towns of its popula- tion and wealth. Up to 1805 there was no such or- ganization as a school district known to our statutes. The several towns, by their selectmen or by com- mittees, had been divided into sections for school purposes, as convenience required, and the school money raised by law was parceled out to them. In 1805 an act was passed which authorized the division of towns into school districts, to be accurately defined and bounded, and empowered to hold meetings and raise money for the purchase, repair and erection of school-houses.

The first school established in Concord was in 1731, and its support was assumed by the town in 1733. It was taught by a master hired by the selectmen, and

The financial statement is as follows: Earnings, - labor of convicts from May 1, 1884, to May 1, 1885, $17,456.75; visitors' fees, $302.10; rent, $202; board, for many years was kept in four different sections of

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the town, viz. : East Concord, West Concord, Hop- kinton road and Main Street. After 1766 winter schools were supported in each of those localities. The first school-house in Concord was built in 1742, and stood at a point near the northeast corner of the State-House park. There it remained until near the close of the last century, and at the beginning of the present century there were only about nine school- houses in Concord owned by the town.

As early as 1800 an unsuccessful effort was made by the town to divide the territory of Concord into school districts and to raise money for the building of school-houses in such districts. This effort was successfully renewed in 1807. The town appointed a committee of twenty, with the selectmen, to divide the town into school districts, in accordance with the law passed two years before, and that committee re- ported sixteen districts definitely described.

The first committee to visit schools, appointed by the town, was in 1818, and the report of such com- mittee was first ordered to be printed in 1827, for distribution among the inhabitants.

In 1845 the Legislature passed a law for the estab- lishing of High Schools, and in 1848 the Somersmith Act. In the compact part of the town there were at that time three school districts, numbered nine, ten and eleven, and the school-house accommodations were very limited. An unsuccessful attempt was made, in 1847, to unite the three districts for the sup- port of a High School. In 1850, District No. 10, the central one, adopted the Somersmith Act, and estab- lished a High School in a brick building erected in 1846, on the site of the present High School building, School Street, and which was taken down in 1863. In 1856 the effort to consolidate the three districts proved successful, and the result was the establish- ment of

UNION SCHOOL DISTRICTS, from which date there was rapid improvement in our schools and school build- ings. At that time the management of the schools was placed in the hands of a prudential and superintending school committee. In 1859 an act was passed by the Legislature authorizing the election, by the district, of a Board of Education, to consist of nine persons, the terms of office of three of whom should expire each year. The object of this was to secure more permanent management of the schools, and avoid sudden change in teachers and methods of in- struction. The Board of Education discharged the duties of both prudential and superintending com- mittees, through a financial agent and sub-committee. Their duties becoming onerous with the increase of schools, two attempts were made to place a large share of the work in the hands of a superintendent of schools. In the fall term of 1862 and winter term of 1863, Henry E. Sawyer, principal of the High School, was directed to spend part of his time in the lower grades of school, and did so, performing efficient service in the grading of these schools. In the fall

term of 1873, Amos Hadley, a member of the Board of Education, was elected as principal of the gram- mar schools, with power to supervise the schools of other grades, and continued in that position until March, 1874. In July, 1874, an act was passed au- thorizing the appointment of a superintendent of schools, and the office has been filled by Daniel C. Allen and Warren Clark, respectively, to August 1st, this year, when Louis J. Rundlett entered upon the discharge of the duties of superintendent.

The following gentlemen have served upon the Board of Education since its creation, the first nine named being elected September 10, 1859, and having their terms of office determined by lot :

Henry E. Parker, David Patten, dosiah P. Nutting, Caleb Parker, John P. Bancroft, Peletiah Brown, P. B. Cogswell, Asa Fowler, Joseph B. Walker, Samuel C. Eastman, Hazen Pickering, John V. Barron, Lyman D. Stevens, Abraham J. Prescott, Amos Hadley, Elisha Adams, William M. Chase, Ilenry J. Crippen, Albert HI. Crosby, Oliver Pillsbury, Charles P. Sanborn, Samuel B. Page, Daniel C. Allen, Warren Clark, J. C. A. Hill, A. B. Thompson, S. C. Whitcher, John H. George, Everett L. Conger, George W. Crockett, Daniel B. Donovan, John C. Thorn, Charles R. Corning.

The present members of the board are P. B. Cogs- well, Henry J. Crippen, William M. Chase, George W. Crockett, Charles R. Corning, Daniel B. Donevan, J. C. A. Hill, A. B. Thompson and John C. Thorn. The officers are P. B. Cogswell, president, and Daniel B. Donevan, secretary.

Since the creation of Union School District there has been almost a total revolution in the school- houses of the district. At the present time only three rooms are occupied which were in existence previous to 1856,-two on Union Street and one on Spring Street. In 1858 the Merrimack and Rumford Grammar School-houses were erected ; in 1863-64 the High School building and the Bow Brook house; in 1865 the Franklin Street house; in 1870-71 the Penacook house; in 1873 the Plains and Fair-Ground house; in 1873-74 the Walker house; in 1878 the Chandler house. The cost of these houses has been about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, all of which has been raised and paid by the district, so that it is free of debt.

There were 32 schools in the district the past year, viz. : 1 High, with 4 teachers; 10 grammar, 9 inter- mediate, 11 primary and one mixed, with one teacher each. There was also also employed 1 teacher of drawing and 1 of music. The High School has three courses of study,-English of three years, and academic and clerical of four years each. The number of pupils in the several grades the past year were,- High, 199; grammar, 495; intermediate, 447 ; pri- mary, 675; mixed, 26,-total, 1842, which is about nine-elevenths of the whole number of pupils attend- ing the public schools in the city. The graduates of

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the High Schools take and hold good lead in the colleges and other institutions of learning which they enter, and the school is steadily increasing in reputa- tion for thoroughness of instruction. Nearly two- thirds of the teachers now employed in the district are graduates of the High School. The average expenditure for the schools, exclusive of free text- books, is about twenty-five thousand six hundred dol- lars a year, of which sum the district raises one-fourth or more by extra tax beyond what the law requires. It also furnishes text-books free to the pupils of the school.

Outside of Union School District there are three districts, with Boards of Education and graded schools, viz. : No. 3, at West Concord, with primary, intermediate and grammar schools; No. 12, at East Concord, with primary aud grammar schools ; No. 20, at Penacook, with primary, intermediate and grammar schools. There are also fourteen outlying districts, with from one to three terms of school a year, and with from three to twenty-seven pupils each. The appropriation of the city for schools is twenty- two thousand two hundred and twenty-five dollars yearly, to which is added extra tax raised in three districts, literary fund, etc., making altogether about thirty-one thousand six hundred dollars.

ST. PAUL's SCHOOL 1 is one of the best known of all church classical schools, as distinguished from colleges like Trinity, Hobart and Racine. It was founded and partially endowed by a distinguished lay- man of Boston, Mass., George Cheyne Shattuck, M.D., who has so generously used his wealth for the benefit of the church, not only in New England, but also in Maryland, Minnesota and other dioceses.

St. Paul's, whose buildings are now about twenty in number,-presenting, as one approaches, quite the appearance of a little village,-is situated in a charm- ing and salubrions region about two miles from the centre of the city. There, in a lovely, picturesque valley, by the borders of a pretty little lake, sur- rounded by lofty hills, Dr. Shattuck founded his in- stitution. From small and modest beginnings it has grown in less than thirty years not only to take its place in the front among church schools, but also, as the honor lists in our leading colleges and universities show, it sends out, year by year, pupils who rank not below those who come from Exeter, Andover or any of the oldest and most famous academies of the country.

Dr. Shattuck was a firm believer in the church as an educator ; to him education meant character, and included something far beyond mere book-learning. His desire was that the spirit of the Book of Common Prayer should be the foundation of the work to be done, and that the sort of tone which we understand by the word gentleman, in its best and highest sense, should pervade the establishment and insensibly

mould all who came under its influence. In short, a public school of the same general character as Eton, Harrow, Rugby aud Winchester was in his mind, though he was too wise to have any idea of extem- porizing any of those growths of centuries under such totally different social and political circumstances. His purpose was admirably expressed by the follow- ing words in the deed of gift :

"The founder is desirous of endowing a school of the highest class for boys, in which they may obtain an education which shall fit them for college or business, including thorough intellectual training in the varions branches of learning ; gymnastic and manly exercises adapted to preserve health and strength the physical condition ; snch æsthetic cul- ture and accomplishments as shall tend to refine the manners and ele- vate the taste, together with careful moral and religious instruction."

This brief statement is itself worth a passing no- tice for its modesty and reticence. There are not a few occasions when "the unsaid is better. than the said." There are here no grandiloquent promises (so easy to make on paper) of the great results that are going to be accomplished; no baits thrown out to en- tice parents and pupils. The church (which was to be the corner-stone of all) is not only not thrust prominently forward, it is not even mentioned. Only such matters are spoken of as all judicious parents would agree upon as desirable. In short, it is implied that deeds, not words, are the only test, for "every tree is known by his own fruit."

With these general views, Dr. Shattuck, in the year 1855, devoted what had previously been his country- seat to be the nucleus of the school which he con- templated. But it need hardly be said that no build- ings, however costly or commodious, can make a school. There can be no school without a master, and the master is useless unless boys come to be taught and trained. After several attempts to satisfy himself, the founder at length succeeded in securing, to preside over the first organization of the scheme, the Rev. Henry Augustus Coit, M.A., now Doctor in Divinity, by diploma from Columbia College, New York. This gentleman, the present head-master-or, as he is called, rector-of St. Paul's School, a South- erner by birth, and educated by Dr. Muhlenberg at College Point, may, with strictest propriety of speech, be considered the second founder, and, in a true sense, the veritahle creator of the institution which has be- come so celebrated. Though then only about twenty- six years of age, he was already a fine classical and belles-lettres scholar. He fully entered into the en- lightened views of Dr. Shattuck, and brought to the work even a more enlarged conception of what such a school, rightly and cautiously conducted, might event- ually become. This conception was, perhaps, in- creased or intensified by a visit to England made by Dr. Coit in 1868, during which some of the English public schools were inspected. St. Paul's opened in 1856 with some five or six boys, sons or relations, and friends of the founder. It was from the first an in- corporated institution, and the act of the Legislature of New Hampshire bears date June 29, 1855. No

1 By Rev. Hall Harrison, M.A., in 1884.

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advertisement setting forth the claims or supposed merits of the school ever appeared. There was at the very beginning a simple statement in the church papers of its title, its situation, and the names of the rector and members of the board of trustees. Among these there have always been some names well known among churchmen, such as Bishops Chase, Niles and Neely, Judge Redfield, E. N. Perkins, Esq., Dr. Samuel Eliot, Richard H. Dana, Esq., C. P. Gardner, Esq., John H. Swift, Esq., of New York, etc. The founder himself was not a member of the board, and, with his usual modesty, never allowed his name to be prominent, though ever ready to give his advice and assistance.

Among these trustees it will not be considered in- vidious to name specially Dr. Samuel Eliot, formerly president of Trinity College, Hartford, and more re- cently superintendent of public schools in the city of Boston, whose zeal for the cause of sound education is equaled only by his profound knowledge of the sub- ject and his practical acquaintance with the best methods to be pursued. His reports, as superintend- ent, are written in the choicest English, and will be found full of wise suggestions to parents and teachers. They are worth keeping for reference.

The rector was aided at first by only one or two masters, and everything was necessarily on the small- est scale, while the first foundations were carefully laid. But the boys who left him showed so manifestly the good results of their education in the large sense of the term, as well as the soundness of their instruc- tion in the various branches of the curriculum, that the reputation of the school rapidly spread; applica- tions for admission began to pour in, and these chiefly from families of culture and good standing in various sections of the country. These applications have kept up without break ever since, to a degree almost, if not quite, unprecedented. The writer has fre- quently heard of parents who would enter the names of sons only seven or eight years old, that they might be ready to secure expected vacancies five or six years later. There has never been the least occasion to so- licit scholars, the buildings, after the first two or three years, being always filled to their utmost capacity. There was a nameless something about the tone and manners of the pupils-a bracing influence about the moral atmosphere which the boys breathed-that was very taking with people of culture and refinement ; and the more the pupils were known, the more eager did the parents of others become to secure these same advantages for their sons. In a word, the boys them- selves became, unconsciously, the very best advertise- ment, and no other ever was needed.

What special principles of management have pro- duced these happy results it would not be easy, and would certainly take too long to tell. When Dr. Ar- nold introduced his quiet, but still almost revolution- ary reforms, upon taking charge of Rugby in 1828, the boys used to say, "It is a downright shame to tell

Arnold a lie, for he believes it." So, for one thing, it may be said that at St. Paul's the boy is trusted from the moment that he sets foot upon the grounds. It is quietly assumed that he will conduct himself as might be expected of a gentleman's son, and there is everything in this assumption as a power in govern- ing. Saving the necessary mapping out of the day for study, and the requirement of strict punctuality, there are probably not many homes where there are fewer arbitrary rules than suffice for the St. Paul's boys.

The writer well remembers standing among a group of visitors in 1865, on the occasion of Dr. Muhlen- berg's first and only visit to St. Paul's. Dr. Kerfoot, then president of Trinity, and Dr. Coit were standing by. Dear old Dr. Muhlenberg ( whose name can never be mentioned without reverence) called himself the school-father of Drs. Kerfoot and Coit, and surveyed St. Paul's with no little pride and affection. At last he broke out with this : "Henry, I have been walking all around, watching the boys, and talking with a good many of them, and I want you to explain some- thing. I have seen a good deal of boys at old College Point, but I appeal to you and Kerfoot if we ever had anything like this. Why, I had some very hard cases there-really troublesome fellows ; but your boys are all gentlemen. Now, how do you manage it? What's your secret ?" The reply I have forgotten. It was probably a gentle suggestion that the old gentleman, in the kindness of his heart, was taking too favorable a view of what he saw, notwithstanding that he in- sisted that he knew how to look below the surface. Such, however, was the impression made on Dr. Muhlenberg as he walked over the grounds and freely mingled, in his inimitable way, with the boys, watched their sports and overheard their careless talk with one another.

On St. Peter's Day, 1858, the corner-stone of a chapel was laid-the gift of the founder-and on St. Paul's Day, in the year 1859, the building was conse- crated by the bishops of New Hampshire and Con- necticut. This chapel has ever been the centre, so to say, of the holy and peculiar influence of the place. The services have always been reverent and beautiful, the music (under the charge of Mr. James C. Knox, a graduate of the school), in which the boys naturally take great interest and delight, has been church-like and elevating, and the Sunday sermons of the rector (who, like the late Dr. De Koven, is a preacher of rare power) have been peculiarly adapted to inspire his hearers, older and younger, with a love of virtue and religion and an ardent desire to reach the highest excellence in all things. There never was any approach in the chapel services to excess in what is now called "Ritualism," but there was always the truest reverence and dignity, and a hearty obedience to the spirit of the Prayer-Book. The Church Cate- chism was the basis of all the religions instruction. With a rare perception both of the desirable and the

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attainable, the rector seems to have felt that, while a large company of loyal and impressionable boys could be very easily made "ritualistic," it was a harder and a far worthier task to try to make them moral and religious-manly and healthy in their piety. Nor will those who understand the character of boys doubt for a moment that his instinct was an eminently wise one. The original chapel was intended to accommo- date about forty boys; it was enlarged to more than double its former capacity in 1868, and being now (1884) wholly inadequate, preparations are making by the alumni to build an entirely new and extremely beautiful structure at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. This amount is already raised, but the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars in addition is needed for the endowment of the chapel, to provide for heat- ing, lighting and repairs.

In the year 1865, after the breaking up of St. James' College, in Maryland, Dr. Coit was happily joined by his brother, the Rev. Joseph Howland Coit, M.A. who had been professor of mathematics and natural science in that institution. A teacher of the very first order, of wide and varied culture and of the same general educational views as his brother, he became vice-rector, taking charge of the scientific side of the school, and proving an invaluable addition to the corps of masters, as well as a judicious adviser on the board of trustees. At this period the school numbered between seventy and eighty ; in the chapel the boys had overflowed into the seats designed for the neighboring population, who loved to attend the services, while for additional dormitories varions adjoining houses were gradually purchased and added to the school property. In 1869 the Upper School, a handsome three-story granite building, was erected, with kitchen, dining-room, matron's apartments, etc., in a separate house near by. To this were added the Lower School for the youngest boys, in 1870; the Rectory, in 1871 or 1872; the large school-house, with school-room and recitation-rooms, in 1873; the In- firmary or Sanatarium in 1877. The last large edifice, called "The School," in which the vice-rector resides with the main body of the boys, is pronounced by competent judges to be one of the most complete school buildings to be found anywhere in the country. This takes the place of the original house of Dr. Shat- tuck, which was destroyed by fire in 1878.

The funds for these numerous and costly structures have been, to some considerable extent, given by the founder and other generous friends of St. Paul's, but they have also been in large measure derived from the income of the school itself, which the rector has ex- pended, as far as possible, for the permanent improve- ment and growth of the institution. The salaries of the various masters,-several of whom are married,- and their rooms and houses, are probably larger and more comfortable than in many other schools and colleges. But, obviously, St. Paul's could not have grown to such a size in so short a time without the

wisest financial management; for the fortune of the generous founder was not at all one of those colossal ones by means of which, in some few instances, a school or university has been launched into life with every material equipment, including a sufficient en- dowment to pay the salaries of professors and teachers. St. Paul's has been built up rapidly, indeed, but still gradually, by the wise economy and unceasing labor of the rector and his able assistants.

The course of study includes six forms, of which the sixth is the highest, and a preparatory or "shell," thus covering in all seven years. The students are prepared to enter the freshman and sophomore classes in Harvard or in any American college. Not a few, after completing the extended course, enter upon business without proceeding to college. There is also a fine gymnasium and all the usual athletic sports, especially the famous English exercises of cricket and rowing have been encouraged from the very start. A stranger is generally much struck with the happy home-like life of the place, and the healthy, manly, ingenuous appearance of the boys as he sees them gathered in the chapel or engaged in sports upon the spacious playgrounds.

The daily routine is, generally speaking, as follows Rise at 6.30 (a little later in winter) ; breakfast at 7 : short morning prayers in the chapel for the whole school at 8; school-work until 12; 12 to I, recreation ; 1, dinner ; 2 to 4, recreation ; 4 to 6, school-work ; 6, supper, followed immediately by short evening prayers ; after which the boy is free to use his time as he pleases (except one hour of study) until bed-time, which is 9 o'clock for most, and 10 or 10.30 for the oldest pupils. Immediately before bed-time, at 9 o'clock, a short space of some ten or fifteen minutes, known as " Bible-hour," is invariably devoted to the silent reading of the Holy Scriptures-generally the appointed Gospel lesson of the day. This custom was probably inherited from Dr. Muhlenberg's school, at College Point, Long Island, where Dr. Coit received his earliest school education, from which place Bishop Kerfoot also had previously transplanted the usage to the College of St. James, in Maryland.

There are three separate refectories or dining-rooms : One at the Upper School, one-the largest-at "The School," and a third at the Lower School. This arrangement, while considerably increasing the ex- pense, contributes greatly to the comfort and home- like character of the daily life. The dormitories are admirably arranged, each "alcove " being practically a small private room, while the older boys in the sixth form have bed-rooms combined with their " studies " in the Upper School. The Anniversary Day, also called Founder's Day, is celebrated early in June every year. It is a great fête-day for the boys, their parents and their friends; there is a grand cricket- match and feast, and a special sermon and service in the chapel. The "old boys " assemble in force, thus keeping up their own love for the " happy hills,"

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 27

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520