USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 17
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In 1867 Mr. Lowe invented his machine for the manufacture of ice, which came into general use. In 1872-3 he brought out his water-gas process for producing light and heat, which was adopted in over two hundred cities. He revolutionized the gas industry in the United States, making water-gas by the addition of crude petroleum, thus lowering the cost of gas. An observa- tory at Mount Lowe, near Passadena, California, and an inclined railroad leading thereto were built through the efforts and finan- cial aid of Mr. Lowe.
One of the pioneers in the field of electrical discoveries and inventions in this country was Moses Gerrish Farmer, born in Boscawen, February 9, 1820. He fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and spent three years at Dartmouth College, leaving before graduation because of ill health. He was preceptor
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at Eliot Academy, Maine, and later taught in the Belknap School at Dover. From 1847 on his attention was given wholly to scientific pursuits. His recreation was the study of music and he was fond of mathematics. His experiments in electricity were begun in 1845, when he invented an electro-magnetic engine. In 1846 he constructed a small electro-magnetic locomotive and a short electric railroad and lectured upon the subject in many towns and cities. He showed also how electricity could be applied to use of torpedoes and sub-marine blasting. Another invention of his was a machine for striking alarms of fire on church bells, and still another was the electro-magnetic clock. His fire-alarm was used in most of the large towns of the United States and Canada. He made important discoveries in electro-metallurgy, making copper brittle as glass. The gyro- scope kept continually in motion by electricity may lead to a railroad of one rail. Then followed an instrument for sending four messages at the same time over a single wire. The printing telegraph was another invention. His house at Salem, Massa- chusetts, was the first one ever lighted by electricity, in 1858. It cost too much then for general use. He came near to making gold by a mixture of platinum and copper. In 1868 he con- structed the largest thermo-electric battery ever built up to that time, and made a new copper wire encased in steel. He furnished thirty thousand insulators to one telegraph company. In 1872 he accepted a professorship in the United States Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, for giving instruction in electricity and chemistry as applied to the art of war. He invented a flying machine and predicted the telephone and storage battery. He and his wife were among the originators of the summer school at Green Acre, in Eliot, Maine, and she was the builder of the Rosemary Cottage in the same town. He died at Chicago, May 25, 1893.
The first mowing machines used in New England were manu- factured by Walter A. Wood, who was born in Mason, October 23, 1815. His father, Aaron Wood, was a wagon-maker and the son worked in his father's shop till 1835, when he obtained a position in a machine shop. Meanwhile his father and family had removed to New York State. The study of Walter A. Wood was particularly directed towards farming machines, one of the first results being an improvement of the Manny reaper then in
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use. Two hundred of such improved machines were sold by Mr. Wood. His business increased rapidly. In 1853 he sold five hundred of his machines for mowing, reaping and self- binding. Between 1853 and 1869 his sales multiplied twelve times, being six thousand in the latter year. In 1884 he sold more than eighty-four thousand of his farming machines and implements. He had taken out thirty patents and had manufac- tured three-quarters of a million of machines. Of the agricul- tural implements sent abroad ninety per cent. were made by Mr. Wood. He received a medal from Queen Victoria and the decoration of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon III of France. Twice he was elected representative to the United States congress. He died January 15, 1892. He enriched many others while he was enriching himself, and made farm work lighter and more remunerative. Walter A. Wood made the swinger of the scythe a dim memory of the past.
Nehemiah S. Bean, born in Gilmanton in 1818, may be said to have gone to school in a machine shop and there learned some- thing better than algebra. In 1854 he took charge of the loco- motive work of the Essex Manufacturing Company of Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1857-8 he constructed the first steam fire- engine, and under his direction six hundred such engines were built. They came into common use in all parts of the civilized world.
Robert Parker Parrott, son of the Hon. John F. Parrott, was born in Lee, October 5, 1804. He was appointed a cadet in the United States military academy in 1820 and graduated in 1824 as second lieutenant of artillery. He served in various garrisons in the West and at Portsmouth, studying law mean- while, and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1830. For a time he was in the ordinance bureau in Washington. His commission as captain in the army was resigned, in order that he might become superintendent of an iron and cannon foundry at Cold Spring, New York. After years of study of rifled cannon he invented the famous Parrott gun, of cast iron girt about with hoops of wrought iron. One of these was fired over four thousand times before bursting. The gun was first used at the battle of Bull Run and throughout the Civil War rendered good service to the northern army.
From 1844 to 1847 Mr. Parrott was judge of the court of
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common pleas for Putnam county, New York. He died at Cold Spring, December 24, 1877.
Sylvester H. Roper was born in Francestown, November 24, I823. When a boy he manifested remarkable precocity in mechanics. At the age of twelve, though he had never seen a steam engine, he constructed a small stationary engine, which is preserved in Francestown Academy. Two years later he made a locomotive engine and shortly afterward saw one for the first time in Nashua. After pursuing his trade as a machinist several years in Nashua, Manchester, New York and Worcester he made his residence in Boston, in 1854. About this time he invented the Handstitch Sewing Machine, an improvement on anything of that sort previously made. In 1861 the hot-air engine was one of his inventions, superseded by the gas engine. He also experi- mented with steam carriages and invented breach loading guns of different patterns. Among his later inventions was a machine for manufacturing screws, a furnace of superior design and an automatic fire-escape.
Chapter XIV PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AND INSTI- TUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
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Chapter XIV PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AND INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
Division of Towns into School Districts-The Curriculum of the Little Red School-House-Wages of Teachers-School Funds-Superintending School Committee-Grading Leads to High Schools-State Commis- sioner of Common Schools-Succeeded by a Board of Education- Superintendent of Public Instruction-District System Abandoned and the Town System Re-established in 1885-Recent Enrollment-Teachers' Institutes-State Teachers' Association-Scope of Education in Sec- ondary Schools-Normal Schools-Academies-Kimball Union Academy -Colby Academy-Tilton Seminary-New Hampton Academy-St. Paul's-School at Holderness-Proctor Academy-Phillips Exeter Academy-Pinkerton Academy-Brewster Free Academy-Robinson Seminary-High Schools-The State College at Durham-Dartmouth College, Its Recent Rapid Growth.
A LREADY the history of education in New Hampshire has been sketched down to about the year 1800. Since then great progress has been made, particularly within recent years. The old system of town-schools, received from Massachusetts, continued in vogue till the year 1805, when a law was made empowering towns to divide into school districts and giving to each district the right to raise money by taxation for school purposes. This greatly increased the number of schools and led to the building of school houses more conveniently situated. Before that time the town-school was often an itinerant affair, sometimes held in a private house, and pupils had to go long distances. The attendance was very irregular, and even down to the year 1850 or later the yearly complaint of school officials was, that many went to school in a leisurely sort of way, when- ever it was convenient. In those early days the town-schools were' taught by "masters" and twenty weeks in a year were quite enough. In the district schools that followed a term of nine or ten weeks in the winter and as many more in the summer were thought to be sufficient for the education of youth. A "master" taught the winter term, and some "schoolma'am"
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taught in the summer. The reason of this was, that boys twelve or more years of age were needed on the farm during the sum- mer, and so they got only ten weeks of school in the winter. This was enough to give them opportunity to review what most of them already knew in arithmetic, to learn to spell some more hard words, to commit to memory by repetition the choice selections in Town's Readers, and to practice penmanship accord- ing to varying copies set by the teachers. It was some time after the beginning of the nineteenth century before geography and English grammar were commonly taught in the district schools. About 1850 it was first recommended that physiology and hygiene be taught, and in 1857 the commissioners advised that vocal music and drawing be taught, yet these branches of study were frequently neglected, many teachers being incompetent to instruct in such higher education.
A century ago the boys in the winter term were frequently unruly, and even within fifty years it was considered a trium- phant feat in some districts, if the big boys could put the "master" out of a window of the school house into a snow drift. Com- plaints of insubordination frequently came to the ears of school authorities. It was learned after a time that refined and well educated ladies could keep order as well as male teachers, and sometimes better, and so the schoolma'am was employed both summer and winter. A special reason for this was, that the wages of female teachers were much smaller than those of men. The first recognition of schoolmistresses by law was in 1826. As late as 1847 reports show that male teachers were receiving an average wage of $13.50 per month, exclusive of board, and they boarded around, while female teachers received only an average of $5.65 per month. The common seamen received higher wages than the male teachers and the girls in the cotton and woolen mills fared sumptuously as compared with the schoolma'am. Of course for such wages competent instructors could not be obtained. The best teachers to be had in winter were college students, who thus earned something to help them through college. If they happened to have a natural gift for imparting knowledge and awakening enthusiasm for study, all went well, for Nature has always been the best Normal School. Young misses fifteen years of age and upward taught a dozen or so children in the lonely country school house in the summer, and
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sometimes they needed education as much as the children under their care. It is surprising how much and how fast children and youths learned in those days. Those who had any appreciation of their opportunities studied earnestly, and such could learn without a teacher. The weeks of schooling simply held continu- ous attention to text books, and pupils learned much from one another. The teacher kept order and heard recitations, and the pupils did the rest. A friendly and popular teacher could produce excellent results, if he knew very little. His spirit inspired the boys and girls to learn for themselves.
Before 1850 there was no uniformity of text books, and un- necessary classes had to be formed. The children of the poor had difficulty in providing themselves with books, and so the school authorities of each town were empowered to provide books for such as in their judgment needed help. Doubtless some towns were divided into too many districts for the accom- modation of a few, and thus the schools were too small for highest efficiency. There can be greater interest in a class of forty than in one of four pupils. In 1847 there were reported two thousand three hundred schools, for which were expended $120,000, or twenty thousand dollars more than the law then required. But that was only a little more than fifty dollars a year for the average school. The number of scholars of school age was 75,000 and the average attendance was 55,000.
In a preceding chapter mention has been made of the literary fund. By a law enacted in 1821 banks were taxed fifty dollars for every one thousand dollars they had in circulation, or one per cent. on their capital stock, afterward confined to the tax on the capital stock. The original aim was to collect money for the establishment of a State College, as a rival to Dartmouth College. This scheme was abandoned in 1828, when the fund accumulated amounted to $64,000. Then the fund was distribu- ted among the towns according to the apportionment of the public taxes, to be used for the support of common schools. Since 1848 the fund has been distributed in proportion to the number of children in each town over four years of age, who have attended the common schools at least two weeks in the preceding year. The average yearly income from this source at that time was about $18,824. In 1876 it rose to $27,000, or forty- three cents for each scholar. It now amounts to between $30,000
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and $40,000 annually. It was increased in 1866 by a tax on deposits of non-residents in savings banks and later by a tax on deposits of non-residents in other similar institutions. In 1868 the proceeds from the sale of public lands were set apart as a school fund. Later a tax on dogs was applied to the same use, amounting in one year to $39,000.
In 1827 a law was enacted, requiring the annual appoint- ment of a superintending school committee of not less than three or more than five in each town to examine teachers, visit and inspect all the schools in their respective towns twice a year, use their influence to secure attendance of pupils, determine what text books should be used, and make a written report. They had the legal control of the public schools. Since their reports were not sent to the secretary of state for publication, the towns and the State at large learned little from their efforts, and not much improvement in the public schools resulted. Two years later the office of prudential committee was created. They were chosen annually, in the month of March, in each school district, except in the town of Portsmouth, which had a special law, and their duty was to have care of the school houses and make repairs, to hire teachers and provide board for the same, to furnish fuel, and to determine when the terms of school should begin and end, giving due notice to the superintending school committee. In 1872 a law was passed permitting women to be chosen as members of the prudential committees.
Annual assessments were made for the support of district schools. The rate had risen in 1840 to one hundred dollars to every dollar of the public tax apportioned to the town. Since then by successive enactments the rate has risen to seven hundred and fifty dollars to every dollar of the public tax. For instance, if in every $1,000 of the general State tax a town must pay $50, then there may be raised seven hundred and fifty times fifty dollars for school purposes.
In 1840 legal permission was given to districts to grade their schools, whenever the number of pupils was fifty or more, by making two or more divisions according to age and acquirements. This opened the way five years later for High Schools, which might be formed by uniting two or more contiguous districts of any town or towns, for the instruction of the older and more advanced pupils. Such High Schools have gradually taken the
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places of the old academies, of which there were about eighty before the year 1850. Some academies still serve as the High Schools of their respective towns, with free tuition to inhabitants of the town and a small fee paid by students from other towns. According to the law of 1845 "the teachers of every High School must be competent to teach (in addition to the branches pre- scribed for the common schools) history, philosophy, chemistry, bookkeeping, surveying, algebra, rhetoric and logic, all which branches and the ancient and modern languages may be taught in such high schools." By philosophy was meant what is now called physics. The teaching of surveying was very rare. Lan- guages, mathematics, history and a term in each of the natural sciences made up the usual curriculum of the high school, and special attention was given to the fitting of boys, and later of girls, for college.
In 1846 the office of State commissioner of common schools was created by law. Said commissioner was appointed for two years by the governor with advice of council. The bill was introduced into the legislature by Professor Charles B. Haddock of Dartmouth College, and he was the first person appointed to the office. The commissioner was required, at a salary of $600, to spend at least twenty weeks of each year in visiting the schools and giving public lectures, making an annual written report of the state and statistics of the public schools. Since that date there has been printed a school report every year or bi- annually, and that date marks the beginning of decided improve- ment in school houses, teachers and general efficiency. Many of the school houses were found to be scarcely fit for out- buildings, unattractive, lonesomely situated, poorly lighted and heated, and unsanitary. The "knowledge-box," as it was some- times called, had no other allurement than the knowledge to be gained therein. Everything about the district school in those days betokened penuriousness. The endeavor was to have the education of children cost the taxpayers as little as possible. Here economy and retrenchment had their proper field of opera- tion.
In 1850 the office of State Commissioner of Common Schools was discontinued and a Board of Education was established, made up of a commissioner for each county, ten in all. These were appointed by the governor and council annually. They
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were required to spend at least one day in each town of their respective counties every year, "for the purpose of promoting, by addresses, inquiries and other means, the cause of common school education." They were also to take charge of any teachers' institute held in their respective counties, and to recom- mend such text books as they judged best to be used in the common schools, as well as to give attention to methods of instruction, modes of government and discipline. For all this labor they received from sixty to one hundred and eighty-five dollars annually, according to the size of the county, making the total expenditure for supervision of the ten counties about $1,200, which was reduced to $800 in a time of financial stringency. Something extra was allowed for stationery, printing and postage, but nothing for traveling expenses, except when they all assem- bled at Concord to make out their annual report. The superin- tending school committees of the various towns were required to report to the Board of Education, and many of such reports, or extracts from them, were printed in the annual reports. In 1867 the office of county commissioners was abolished and instead was created by legal enactment the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which has continued down to the present time (1916).
This officer is appointed biennially by the governor and council and has general supervision and control of the educational interests of the state. A part of his duty is to lecture throughout the state, hold teachers' institutes, and visit and inspect schools. Since 1913 two deputies assist him in his work. A printed report is issued biennially. The office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has been held by Amos Hadley, 1867-69; Anthony C. Hardy, 1869-71 ; John W. Simonds, 1871-73; Daniel G. Beebe, 1873-74; John W. Simonds, 1874-76; Charles A. Downs, 1876-80; James W. Patterson, 1881-92; Fred Gowing, 1893-98; Channing Folsom, 1898-1904; Henry C. Morrison, 1905-to the present, 1916.
In the year 1885, largely through the influence of Super- intendent Patterson, the district system, that had lasted eighty years, was abandoned, and the old town system of schools was re-established. The main reason for this change was, that popu- lation had increased in cities and villages, and decreased in rural districts, so that of the 2,684 schools in the State 804, or nearly
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one-third, numbered twelve pupils or less each, and 307 schools averaged six or less. Thus there was a serious waste of money and effort. One school house fitted for fifty pupils had three, and school districts that once had from seventy to one hundred pupils had none, by reason of abandoned farms and removal of the population. After the readoption of the ancient town system some towns paid the expense of transporting pupils from a distance to the school centrally situated. Thus better grading was possible, and more enthusiasm was kindled among the children and young students. The same amount of money pro- vided for longer terms of school, and all the children of a town had equal privileges. A school board of three persons in each town has charge of all the schools, thus taking the place of the superintending and prudential committees of previous times. The effect of this new system was to blot out within ten years four hundred and fifty-eight of the smaller schools, to increase the average length of schools throughout the State by more than a month, and to add to the average pay of teachers, thus securing more permanence and efficiency in the profession. Provision was made by law that any town after five years of trial of the new system might return to the old system by a majority vote of all the voters in the town. The opportunity was closed by a new school law in 1892. In 1890 the value of school property was $2,578,257 and the entire revenue for schools was $751,266. There were 2,302 schools and nearly 60,000 pupils enrolled.
The statistics for the years 1913-14 may be useful for com- parison. Then there were registered 63,991 pupils in the public schools, 13,684 in parochial schools and 1146 in private and institutional schools, making a total of 78,821. Thus from four thousand to six thousand were unaccounted for. Over ninety- two per cent. of the children in school were in attendance every day. At the same time evening schools in eight cities and towns enrolled 1,468 students, with an average attendance of over four- teen weeks. By the attendance act of 1913 children are required to remain in school till they have finished the eighth grade or have reached the age of sixteen. From the eighth grade they pass in increasing numbers to the High Schools. Ninety-two per cent. of those who enter the first grade graduate from the eighth.
Teachers' Institutes were at first held from time to time in convenient localities by aid of voluntary contributions. In 1840
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a law provided that any town might raise by taxation for such institutes five per cent. of the amount assessed for the support of schools. Subsequent legislatures cut down the amount for such purpose to three per cent. and two per cent., and in 1862 teachers' institutes were abolished by law, perhaps because of retrenchments due to the expense of the Civil War. In 1868 institutes were revived and again abolished in 1874. By a law of 1883 the State Superintendent of public instruction is required to hold at least one institute each year in each county of the State. For the maintenance of such institutes a fund has been established by the sale of state lands, the income of which is used for this purpose. During the year 1913-14 there were in attendance 1802 teachers and 112 members of school boards of various towns. A broad range of educational topics is discussed and usually some notable educator from another State con- tributes expert knowledge. The cost of twenty-seven institutes in 1913-14 was only $1,285, and how could that amount of money be better expended? Teachers must be continually taught as well as pupils. .
In the year 1913 was published a history of the State Teachers' Association, prepared by Isaac Walker, for forty years the honored principal of Pembroke Academy. The book reviews the work of sixty years. The Association was the result of a preliminary meeting called at Manchester, April 3, 1854, and the organization was effected at Concord June 15th of the same year, when one hundred teachers were in attendance. The writer says that New Hampshire had then "a Greek chorus, com- posed of tried and true politicians, and called the State Board of Education," who heartily approved the formation of the State Teachers' Association. Clergymen took an active part in its early meetings. At its second meeting teachers subscribed over twelve hundred dollars for a State Normal School and pledged them- selves to raise $2,500 each year for a term of five years for the support of such an institution. At this time the State was expending six thousand dollars annually for the maintenance of teachers' institutes as the only means for the professional instruction of teachers. The Association led to the establish- ment of the New Hampshire Journal of Education in 1857. It was issued monthly and soon had four hundred and fifty
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