USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 37
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
During the thirty-nine years of the union of the two provinces the laws were all, of course, the same ; and these, in regard to education, we find re-adopted by New Hampshire when she again became a separate province. The first law establishing town schools was enacted in 1647. It may be interesting in these days, when some are seeking to remove the reading of the Bible from our common schools, to repeat the preamble of this law, as indicating the views and feelings of those who gave us our sys- tem of free schools: "It being one chiefe project of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scrip- tures, as, in former times, keeping them in an unknowne tongue, so in these latter times by perswading them from the use of tongues, so that at least the true sence and meaning of the orig- inall might bee clouded with false glosses of saint seeming deceivers ; and that learning may not bee buried in the grave of our forefathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our indeavors : it is therefore ordered etc."
The following from the town records of Hampton during this period gives us some information in regard to our early New Hampshire schools, and the way in which the schoolmaster was then supported ; it is a record of an agreement, on the 2d of April, 1649, by John Legat, "to teach the children of, or belong- ing, to our town, both male and female, (which are capable of learning,) to write and read and cast accounts (if it be desired), and diligently and carefully as he is able thus to teach and in- struct them, and so diligently to follow such employment at all such time & times this yeare insuinge as the wether shall be fitting for the youth to come together to our place to bee in- structed ; & also to teach & instruct them once in a week or more in some orthodox catechise provided for them by their parents or masters. And in consideration hereof we have agreed to pay or cause to be payd unto the said John Legat £20, corne & cattle & butter, att price current, as payments are made of such goods in this towne, and this to be paid by us quarterly, paying £5 every quarter of the yeare after he has begun to keep school."
It would seem that New Hampshire from the first has recog- nized her duty to give the means of a common education to all the children and youth within her borders. During the period of her connection with the Massachusetts colony, from 1641 to 1680, she seems to have been in full accord with the latter in earnest efforts to promote general education. When she again became a separate province we find, among her early enactments, one in 1693 requiring the selectmen in the respective towns to raise moneys by assessment on the inhabitants for the building and repairing of school-houses and for providing a schoolmaster
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for each town of the province, under penalty of ten pounds in case of failure. In 1719 every town of fifty householders or up- wards was required to provide a schoolmaster to teach children to read and write, and every town of one hundred householders was required to have a grammar school kept by "some discreet person, of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues." The penalty in case of towns' failing to comply with the law was twenty pounds, to be paid towards the support of schools within the province where there may be the most need. Two years later a law was passed enacting that " if any town or parish is destitute of a grammar school for the space of one month, the selectmen shall forfeit and pay out of their own estates the sum of twenty pounds to be applied towards defraying the charges of the prov- ince". Grand jurors were especially required to present all violations of the laws in regard to the providing for schools. Besides the assessment of taxes for the maintenance of schools in the incorporation of towns, grants of land were usually made for school purposes.
At the Revolution, when New Hampshire became an indepen- dent state, there was included in the constitution then adopted a provision making it the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of the government of the state, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools. This still remains a constitutional requisi- tion of New Hampshire. In 1789 the assessment of taxes for school purposes on the inhabitants of cach town was required to be at the rate of five pounds for every twenty shillings of their proportion. Two years later the sum was increased to seven and a half pounds on every twenty shillings.
In 1805 the district system was established, towns being em- powered to divide into school districts and raise and appropriate moneys for school purposes. The effect of this system at the time was greatly to further the cause of education. By multi- plying the centres of care and control with respect to schools it widened an acquaintance with all matters pertaining to public schools and deepened the interest in them. In bringing so closely home to every man the care and maintenance of the com- mon school, the influence of the district system in educational affairs was very much what the influence of the town organiza- tion was upon the citizen in civil affairs : great benefits arising in either case from the interest and acquaintance with the mat- ters pertaining to them being made so individual and universal. For seventy years this system has answered well the purposes of its establishment. Not until of late years, as the centres of our population have changed, has it been felt that it could be super- seded by something better.
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In 1807 the assessment for school purposes was increased to seventy dollars on each dollar of the proportion for public taxes, and the law was repealed requiring the shire and half-shire towns to maintain a grammar school for instruction in Latin and Greek ; this instruction being left mainly to the select schools and academies.
In 1808 the system of appointing superintending school com- mittees was established, the law requiring them to visit and in- spect schools at such times as should be most expedient and in a manner conducive to the progress of literature, morality and religion.
In 1818 the school tax was raised to ninety dollars for every one dollar of the proportion.
In 1827 a bill was introduced into the legislature so excellent and comprehensive in its provisions, that its passage by a very large majority and becoming a law marks an era in the history of common schools in the state. The spirit of the bill may be understood by its enjoining " presidents, professors and tutors of colleges, preceptors and teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth, to take diligent care and use their best en- deavors to impress on the minds of children and youth commit- ted to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and jus- tice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their country, human- ity and benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality."
In 1829 the Literary Fund, raised by an annual tax of half of one per cent. on the capital stock of the banks of the state, and originally designed, at the time of its establishment in 1821, for the "endowment or support of a college for instruction in the higher branches of science and literature," was by law distribu- ted among the several towns according to their apportionment of the public taxes, "to be applied to the support and maintenance of common free schools, or to other purposes of education."
In 1833 an act of the legislature made it the duty of select- men to furnish, on application, to needy children the requisite school books ; a duty by subsequent legislation now devolving upon superintending school committees.
The following resolutions, passed by the legislature of 1834, indicate views and feelings entertained with regard to public instruction :
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened : That the instruction of our youth and the general diffusion of knowledge afford the surest means of perpetuating our free institutions and of securing the stability and happiness of this great republic; and that we recommend to the several towns throughout this state to cherish with guar- dian care our primary schools, and to make such liberal provisons as shall afford the greatest facilities to the attainment of knowledge in early life.
And be it resolved, that we view our high schools, academies and semina-
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ries of learning as powerful allies in promotion of the cause of common ed- ucation ; and that, while we view it desirable that a greater proportion of our youth should be nurtured in these nurseries of science, we do hereby recommend to all such institutions to adopt, as far as possible, the "manual labor" or "self-supporting" system, uniting bodily vigor and mental improve- ment, thereby extending to the poor as well as the rich, the united advan- tages of physical and intellectual cultivation."
At the winter session of 1840-41, the amount of school money was increased to one hundred dollars on each dollar of the apportionment ; and at the same session an act was also passed allowing the grading of schools where the pupils num- bered fifty or more. Three acts of importance in their relation to the subject of education were passed in 1846 : one relating to the support of teachers' institutes ; another, of stringent pro- visions, made more effective by further legislation in 1848, secur- ing public instruction for children employed as factory opera- tives; and a third act establishing the office of state commis- sioner for common schools. The establishment of this office marks another era in the history of common-school education in the state. Professor Charles B. Hadduck of Dartmouth Col- lege was the first commissioner appointed under the act, whose name, efforts and influence as associated with it were of great value. His successor, the Rev. Richard 'S. Rust of the North- field Institute, also filled the position with honor and success.
This office, though abrogated four years after its first estab- lishment, has, under different names, virtually continued for more than a quarter of a century since. The salutariness and indispensableness of a suitable head and supervisor of our sys- tem of public instruction is likely to be permanently felt and acknowledged.
At the summer session of the legislature in 1848 an act was passed giving District No. 3 in Somersworth the power to act independently in the matter of grading and managing its schools, with particular reference to the establishment and support of a high school. This act, made of general application in its pro- visions at the winter session of the same year and further supple- mented two years later by increased powers in regard to raising moneys for a high school, has proved of much importance and value. At the same winter session of 1848 the annual assess- ment of school money was raised to one hundred and twenty dollars on the apportionment.
In 1850 the act establishing a state school commissioner was repealed, and a new act passed for the appointing of county school commissioners and organizing a board of education for the state comprised of said county commissioners. This act continued in force for seventeen years, when it was superseded by an act establishing a board of education to consist of the
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governor and his council and a superintendent of public instruc- tion, appointed by them, who should be the secretary of the board, have in charge the management of the county teachers ' institutes, and also, under the general direction of the board, have a wide and minute supervision of all matters relating to the interests of the common and high schools of the state.
In the winter session of 1852 and 1853 the assessment of school money was raised to one hundred and thirty-five dollars on each dollar of the apportionment, and at the next session to one hundred and fifty, the following year to one hundred and seventy-five, the next year to two hundred, twelve years later to two hundred and fifty; while the year previous an act was passed to increase the literary fund by a tax on the deposits in sav- ings banks by non-residents, and in the year following an act was passed to set apart the proceeds of the sale of state public lands as a school fund. In 1870 the assessment of school money was made three hundred and fifty dollars on the apportionment. In 1859 an act was passed establishing a board of education for the Union School District of Concord, elected by the district, and which by subsequent legislation was made available to any similar districts adopting it; an act of much value in giving efficiency and character to the supervision of graded and high schools.
In accordance with a legislative act of 1870, a State Normal School was established, and after several generous offers to se- cure its location from the villages of Fisherville, Mont Vernon, Walpole and Plymouth, it was finally located in the latter place, and put in successful operation in March, 1871.
In 1870, also, an act was passed allowing towns to locate schools independently of the old district system, designed to supersede the latter, which, from a variety of causes, has in some places become unsuited to the changed position and wants of our population.
The state is now' expending annually considerably more than four hundred thousand dollars in support of some three thou- sand schools attended by over seventy thousand children. The money thus expended is furnished by the state school tax, the literary fund, the tax on railroad stock in towns allowed to be expended for schools, the interest in some places of local funds, and in a very large number of districts by additional private subscription.
The school legislation of New Hampshire has always been simple and never excessive, but still fostering and progressive. The subject of education has been the one theme in regard to which there has been little fluctuation and no diminution or di- vision of interest from the earliest period in the history of our
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state. Besides our college, with its several departments, aca- demic, medical, scientific and agricultural, which for more than a century has steadily advanced in character and influence, an honor to the state and a blessing as wide as has been the scattering of its alumni over the land and over the world, we have also had in progress at different times three or four theo- logical schools, two of which, the Gilmanton Theological Sem- inary and the Methodist Biblical Institute, were eminently use- ful. Our academies are unsurpassed in character and in number unrivaled as compared with our population, while our public schools have never fallen into neglect unless some exception be made in times like those of the French and Indian wars when society was in confusion, or during the War for Independence, when the inhabitants became greatly impoverished, while bur- dens and taxes were greatly increased. Fostered by the state, cherished by the educated and intelligent, and among these emi- nently the clergy, prized and upheld by all classes, our public schools have steadily advanced in the amount and character of the instruction given in them, in the adaptation of their grades to different ages and acquirements, in the architecture of school edifices and in the furnishing of the school room ; while, at the same time, greater pains have been taken to deepen the interest of the community in them, as well as aid teachers in their qual- ifications by teachers' associations, teachers' institutes, public lectures, and finally by the establishment of our State Normal School.
CHAPTER CII.
THE ACADEMICAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
BY PROF. H. E. PARKER.
In common with the other settlers of New England, the people of New Hampshire from the first placed a high estimate upon edu- cation. Knowing that in a free state, where the people govern, it is indispensable that they be virtuous and intelligent, the devel- oping of such a population has never been lost sight of. Hence the laws have carefully looked after the instruction of the young, that not a child might grow up in ignorance either of its moral duties or of those branches of knowledge which should fit it for successful citizenship. There has also been a desire not only to
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secure universal instruction in common and rudimentary branches, but to encourage a higher education and furnish facilities for all who wished to gain it; indeed, to stimulate as many as possible to seek for it. The first law in regard to common schools en- acted in the state after the Revolution required not only the rais- ing of moneys in every town " to be expended for the sole pur- pose of keeping an English grammar school or schools, for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, but in each shire or half-shire town the school kept shall be a grammar school for the purpose of teaching the Latin and Greek languages, as well as the aforesaid branches." Although, sixteen years later, this last provision was repealed, yet the spirit which originally led to its enactment led subsequently to the founding of academies in various parts of the state. The means requisite for the erection of suitable buildings for these institutions and often for partial endowment were the result, frequently, of the munificence of some single individual, sometimes of a few, and again by the contributions generally of the citizens of a place.
These academies have gradually dotted over the surface of the state. In many a place they stand side by side with the village church, the chief architectural ornaments of the town ; and as the Sabbath bell from the latter has convened within the sanctuary walls the Sabbath worshipers from brook-side and hill-side far and near, so the academy bell on the week day has just as widely from the same firesides gathered the youth for secular instruction, the latter, however, daily introduced by morn- ing religious services, and often concluded by similar evening devotions. These academies have aimed to give superior ad- vantages of education. They have instructed the youth of both sexes in the common and higher branches of a good English education, they have fitted young men for college, and prepared teachers for our common schools. The influence of these in- stitutions has been very great and excellent, contributing so largely, as they have, towards elevating the standard of intelli- gence and of character among the young people of the state.
The first academy established in New Hampshire was that of Phillips Academy at Exeter, chartered by the state two years be- fore the Revolutionary war, and opened for students the same year with the close of that struggle. Its founder, John Phillips, LL. D., a graduate of distinction from Harvard University, be- sides large gifts to the colleges of Dartmouth and Princeton, and also to the academy of the same name at Andover, Mass., gave to the academy at Exeter over sixty-five thousand dollars, a noble endowment for such an institution at that day. This academy in its long career of unvarying distinction and success as a classical school, and now for some time devoting itself solely
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to fitting young men for college, has been without a superior in our country in the sphere it has sought to fill. It has furnished its advantages to some four thousand students, towards one half of whom have entered college, and among these have been some who have won positions among the most eminent of the land, in scholarship, literature and statesmanship, in the pulpit, at the bar and on the bench.
Five years later the academy of New Ipswich was chartered, "for the purpose," in the words of the charter, "of promoting piety and virtue, and for the education of youth in the English, Latin and Greek languages, in writing, arithmetic, music and the art of speaking, practical geometry, logic, geography, and such other of the liberal arts and sciences or languages as opportunity may hereafter permit." Such language, as well as the preamble of the charter-"whereas the education of youth has ever been considered by the wise and good as an object of the highest consequence to the safety and happiness of a people, as at an early period of life the mind easily receives and retains impres- sions, and is most susceptible of the rudiments of useful knowl- edge,"-together with the concluding provision of the charter exempting all the properties of the academy from taxation and its students from a poll tax, a favor granted by the state to other similar institutions, indicate the spirit with which such charters were given. This institution, whose name was changed subse- quently to Appleton Academy, honored in its list of instructors and graduates, still maintains its high position.
Five other academies were chartered by the state prior to the close of the last century, at Atkinson, Amherst, Chesterfield, Haverhill and Gilmanton, the first and last of which, aided by endowments, have continued in useful operation to the present time. Since 1800 some fifty additional academies have been established, some of which have risen to a position of promi- nence and distinction.
The history of Kimball Union Academy at Meriden has been of no ordinary interest. The conception of it originated with a young clergyman in a neighboring town, who had enjoyed the advantages of foreign travel and, having been greatly impressed with the character of the English classical schools, was led to the desire of seeing a similar institution established in his neigh- borhood, that should not only maintain a high standard of in- struction but assist young men to the gospel ministry. The idea was adopted by other clergymen, and at an ecclesiastical convention comprised of two neighboring ministerial associa- tions, one from Vermont and the other from New Hampshire, it was decided to go forward and found the contemplated institu- tion. At a subsequent meeting of this convention it was de-
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cided to call an ecclesiastical council to inaugurate the matter. This council was convened at Windsor, Vt., and was comprised of delegates from the General Associations of Connecticut, Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire, and from the General Con- vention of Vermont. Among these delegates were President Dwight of Yale College, Professors Porter, Woods and Stuart of Andover Theological Seminary, and three of the professors of Dartmouth College. The convention, having been opened with religious services and a discourse by President Dwight, pro- ceeded with care and deliberation to prepare a constitution for the contemplated academy, the provisions of which were in the main, two years later, included in the charter given by the legis- lature of New Hampshire in 1813. The academy was located at Meriden in this state as a result of a donation at that time of six thousand dollars by the Hon. Daniel Kimball of Meriden, who also at his decease left by bequest to the institution the principal part of his estate. The academy very appropriately took the name of its earliest principal donor. Commencing operations in 1815, for a quarter of a century its advantages were enjoyed by young men only, but in 1840 the institution was opened to the admission of young ladies as students also. Founded upon a basis of very high educational and religious aims, prosperous from the first, with an attendance of late years averaging between two and three hundred annually, it has as- sumed a front rank among the best similar institutions of the land, and its influence has been vast and good.
Pinkerton Academy at Derry, incorporated a year later than Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, went into operation the same year with the latter and has similarly had an honorable, useful career maintained to the present time. It also derived its name from its two earliest generous donors, the brothers Major John Pinkerton and Deacon James Pinkerton of Derry.
Several of the prominent academies of the state have been especially fostered by distinctive religious denominations. Such is the "New Hampton Literary Institution," especially sustained by the Freewill Baptist denomination, whose site and buildings were originally and mainly obtained through the munificence of a liberal resident of that town, Rufus G. Lewis, Esq. Such is the very flourishing "New London Literary and Scientific Institu- tion," generously cherished by the Baptists and without a rival among the schools patronized by that denomination. Such is the "New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female Col- lege" at Tilton, an honor to the Methodist denomination. Such also is "St. Paul's School" for boys, the attractive Episcopal in- stitution at Millville. Concord, incorporated by the legislature in 1850, and greatly indebted for its foundation to the generos-
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