USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 15
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BOOKS TO BE USED.
Marshall's Spelling Book; Worcester's Dictionary.
For Reading Books. - Bible ; Worcester's Primer, Second Book; Introduc- tion to Third Book; Third Book, and Rhetorical Reader.
Text-books in 1347. Grammars. - Sanborn's Analytical; Abridgment of Normal School.
Geographies. - Parley's New; Childs's United States, and Smith's.
Arithmetics. - Emerson's North American, First Part; Colburn's First Les- sons; Burnham's Scholars' Companion.
The above list, authorized by the new law, was designed to prevent the evil of teachers coming from different institutions and introducing their favorite text-books, thus subjecting the parents to frequent and expensive changes. A majority of the school-houses reported as in good repair, and at least tolerably convenient. "The use of more hemlock would improve the appearance of some of them." One dis- triet complained of as " without spelling-books" ! The above report is very long, covering more than twenty of the large pages of the town record book, besides the two pages for tabular statement, but it con- tains valuable suggestions. It seems that the town voted, as usual, to exense the committee from visiting the schools only the year before ; but the new State law requiring it meanwhile went into New State law. effect, neutralizing this vote and giving rise to the long and able argument in favor of school committees' visits found in the present report.
For 1848, report, with tables, fourteen pages. Webster's Spelling Book, Mitchell's Geography, Wood's Botany, Cutter's Physiology, Davies's Algebra and Arithmetic now found in list of text-books. "No. 1 [Tin Corner] school one of the best in town." .. No. 2 [Bridge], a very poor house and two teachers in one room." .. No. 8 [Centre ]. not classed as among our best. . . . Lack of interest."
112
+
HISTORY OF SANBORNTO.N.
1819, report thirteen pages, no tables. "Town's Readers" rec- ommended because the .. Rhetorical" is too difficult. Complaint made, especially from No. 11, that certain -
" Parents, feeling, as it appeared, a strong opposition to the means used for bettering the condition of our schools, permitted elght of the larger scholars to stay at home, when they found the connuittee were to visit the school, very much to the griet of the teacher and sorrow of your committee "!
1850, report nine pages ; teachers' names not specified. "Voted not to read " ; an argument against large and extravagant school-houses !
Condition of
orhools, 1548
1851. Two of committee paid 833 cach, and one (A. Bodwell) $30. Report much condensed (three and one half pages), but abounding in excellent hints, probably from Mr. Bodwell's pen ; his last official school service. .. But one really good school-house in town," and that in No. 4. Most of thein destitute of underpining, hence " windmills !" Each should contain at least sixty square feet of blackboard. Prudential committee's motto should be " The good of the school " and not " The benefit of a friend." Parents do not visit. Schools and teachers briefly noticed, but no distinction of male or female, summer or winter.
1860. A valuable report of eight pages was given. Names of prudential committees for first time entered under each district.
Number of Number of scholars, 670 ; weeks schooling, 397; number
scholars, Isov. of districts having schools still 26, which was soon after reduced, by the falling out of several districts, to ouly 21 in 1869.
As to "School Funds," that of the town amounted in 1837 to $3,008, partly .. secured by notes and mortgages on real estate," and partly .. by notes alone, considered safe and good." The interest of this was, by vote of 1827, " divided among the districts of the town, in proportion to the muunber of scholars in each from the age of four to twenty-one years " (one year, 1831, " between three and twenty-one"). This and the " Literary Fund" of the State, divided in
Condition of the same way, and the amount required to be raised by School Funds.
law, were thought a sufficient amount for school purposes, and the article in the warrant for " raising money for schooling " was uniformly dismissed in town meeting for many years. In 1856 the amount of " school tax " assessed, as required by law, was $1,850.00 Money from State .. Literary Fund" 165.55
Money from .. School Fund " of the town 173.55
Whole amount of school money $1,659.08
113
EDUCATIONAL. HISTORY.
The amount of money expended in 1860, similarly reckoned, was 81.863.08. When, however, the " Literary Fund" was lost, in 1866, the town began to raise $300 more than the law required (in 1869, $500 additional), and in 1870 it was found necessary to raise $100 in the old town alone, in order to secure an amount of schooling propor- tionate to that enjoyed before the division. The school money of Sanbornton proper has since varied from $1,300 to $1,500 (in 1873, $1,502.69), nsnally with an extra appropriation ; though the dog tax, mexpended for damages to sheep, applied by statute to the support of schools, has sometimes, on alternate years, taken the School appro- place of such appropriation. The school money of Tilton priations in
Sanbornton
has varied not much from $1,000 per annum, which is at
wid Tilion. liberal appropriation for their six schools. According to the report of 1880, $1, 119.98 was paid by the selectmen to their several school districts, though nearly $55 of this sum came to districts Nos. 1 and 2 in Sanbornton, and $53.46 to No. 1 alone.
To notice a few miscellaneous items in the educational history of Sanbornton : a prime regard was early and always entertained for the moral and religious training of the young. Long before the era of Sun- day schools, it was well remembered by Mrs. Abigail Wallace that when she first went to one of Master Perkins's schools, taught at
Former reli- gious instruc- Lion.
the Renben Rollins place ( near the present Clark's Corner),
" Parson Woodman used to come up to the school on Sat- urdays and teach the children the Catechism." Fathers Crockett and Bodwell likewise took a deep practical interest in the schools, and the latter was accustomed to teach pupils privately - mostly his neighbors' children - at twenty-five cents an hour.
Dr. Obadiah E. Durgin, late of Portland, Me., taught several terms in town before the beginning of his professional life, and introduced atlases for the study of geography, - Cummings and Hil-
Atlases intro-
duced. liard's being the earliest variety. They excited a good deal of interest among adults as well as youth. For example, Mr. Jonathan Chase, then over seventy years of age, purchased one, and made it a great study, " feeling prond" that he could "ascer- tain the distance between London and Constantinople by the scale of miles" ! As another item of interest, Jonathan T. Chase and George W. Crockett are said to have cultivated a piece of rye together (over A crop of rye sonth of the Deacon Chase, present Perley place). The lot Motre's yiell was not satisfactory, as they only harvested one and geography. one half' bushels ; but this they took down to Lovejoy's store, and exchanged for a Morse's geography !
The late Master William Hayes, who commenced his teaching in the Bradbury Morrison District ( Franklin), when at a venerable age
.
114
HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
(1876) sent us from his Illinois home the following list of eight Large Gauilk. families who furnished ninety scholars in his own district,
where he afterwards taught : -
MI :. ILALVES'S LIST.
Names. No. of l'upila ..
1. SAMUEL JANCES
12
2. Col. STEPHEN GALE
14
3. JOHN P. HAYES 10
4. Capt. Jacon Tu.rox 8
5. Col. JIMMIAn TIL.TON . 11
6. JEREMIAH SANBORN, ESq. 11
7. JAMES HERSEY, ESq. 10
8. Major Jons Mountiso . 14
-
Total
90
For a full list of the teachers in town, including the above (already named) . see Appendix B.
We close this chapter with an interesting doemment from one of the Belwol keeping above teachers (alludeil to on page 104), being . Extracts
bolca of Jacob from notes made by Mr. Jacob N. Knapp, of Walpole, N. Knapp. concerning his school-teaching in Sandbornton and neigh- boring towns, written by him, Nov. 7, 1859, when he was eighty-six years okl " : -
" In the winter of my seventeenth year, I received an invitation to teach school for three months in Loudon, near Concord, N. II. . 1
Hls teaching
in Loudon; schoolmaster's wages were at that time six dollars a mouth and children's board. My school consisted of about forty pupils. It was com- dress.
posed of both sexes and of all ages. Most of the children under ten years of age wore leather aprons, reaching from their chins to their aukles. These aprons, after being worn a little time, became striped and shining with bean porridge, which in winter made the principal food of the children. Many of the little girls took snuff: it was the fashion. . . .
"When the time of my engagement had expired, I went home [to New- buryport, Mass. ], and remained there until June, when, with a bundle in a handkerchief suspended from a statt over my shoulder, I started again into New Hampshire to seek a school. The third day, weary and a little dis- heartened, 1 went aside from the road into a thick wood, where nothing but heaven and the trees of the dense forest saw me, knelt, and in filial imporinnity asked for aid and direction. I came into the road again with renovated hopes. Next day I reached Buscawen, a town about thehe miles above Concord, and stopped at the house of Mr. Atkinson, an nurle of my mother, where I was very kindly received. Mr. Atkinson told me
* 'These numbers will be found corresponding very nearly with the genealogies of the given families in Vol. 11 .; but the children could not all have been schoviable, or certainly not at the same time.
115
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
that a Mr. Bamford, of Sanbornton, was a few days before inquiring for a schoolmaster. I soon set out for Saubornton. I went into the First idrodue. ilest house that I came to in the town, to inquire the way to Mr.
boruton. Bunford's. Esq. llersey, the owner of the house, soon becaine acquainted with my wishes, and said, 'Bainford's district is -mall and obscure. We want a schoolinaster. You had better stay here with us.' After making some inquiry about the size and character of the school, I gladly availed myself of his suggestion. There was then no school committee. The selectmen engaged the schoolmasters. The Squire quickly had two horses saddled and led to the door; for at that time there were no wheeled car- riages, except ox-carts and ox-wagons, in the town. The Squire
Belection.
Iliced by the mounted one of the horses; I mounted the other. On our way we took Capt. Jacob Tiltou with us. Found the selectmen assembled. I was immediately engaged at the highest wages, - six dollars a month and board.
"The next day the school was opened. I was constantly employed four years, either by the town or at the expense of the district. As there was a man in the district who had expected to teach the school, Watched with and as supposed, was watching for me to halt or trip, some of iuleresl. the principal married women of the district frequently came into the school, and then went about the district praising the stripling teacher. IIcaven bless the memory of their maternal hearts! A number of little inci- dents tended to give me some notoriety. Soon after I began my school I went to Northfield, an adjoining town, to see a meeting-house raised. There I met three other schoolmasters. One of them, an Englishman, had in his land a copy of Addison's . Cato.' He proposed a trial in reading
Tle roling among us four instructors. The multitude heard the challenge,
challenge al
Norddietd. and formed a ring round us. The Englishman selected as the trial passage the last part of the first scene between Marens and l'ortius, and read it with theatrical tone and emphasis.' Next came Master Fuller [probably Fullington or Fullerton]; then Master Clark. Then came my turn. The ring, probably in sympathy for my youth, declared loudly in my favor. Not long after this a person sent me some verses of his own com- posing, requesting me to write an equal number of verses upon the same subject. I had never written a line of verse; but here was another cleallenge. Not to accept it would have been thought an acknowledgment of
Portie tour- inability. Pride impelled, and I produced twelve lines, the man- hament. ber which my challenger sent to me. The district decided upon this comest betweeu a young cockerel and spurred rooster, and promounced that both might crow, but that their young schoolmaster might crow the loudest ! This was my first and last poetic tournament.
" Another occurrence increased my notoriety. In my school I had often ised signals instead of words. A stranger, an intelligent-looking man. came without ceremony or apology into my school. I handed a chair. The exer- cises in reading and spelling for the day were about to comunence. 1, as ushal, gave with the ferule one tap upon the table. The first class came out from their desks on to the open door, and stood in a line. On receiv-
Order in his ing a slight sign, the head pupil read: then the next, and so on setivols. to the last. At receiving a bow from their teacher, each one bowed or courte ind and returned noiselessly to his or her desk. Two maps upon the table called up the second class, who were exercised and disimissed
116
HISTORY OF SANBOUNTON.
in the same manner. Three raps called up the thihhl class. This divf-lon closed the exercises. The school was then disimissed. The stranger, as l afterwards learned, was a Mr. Hodsden, a Quaker. The speechless manner of calling and distulssing the classes probably Impressed him as hav ing sothe analoxy to n tQmaker characteristic, and he elreulated the pralses of the school wherever he went.
" About this time the wild land which find been appropriated by the charter of Saubornton for the support of schools [ Lot 20, Second Division] was to be leased at auetlon in itty-acre lots for the term of uine hnudred and uluety-uine yours, Interest to be paid anmally, secured by mortgage on other lands (see 1. 101). Having some time previous to the anetlon examined the Inverts in the lots, I bid off' 'No. 4.' No question was raised about my belly actival tul. of lawful age. Mr. William Durgin, with whom I then boarded, mortgaged his farm in my behalf. The price that my land was struck off at was $7.50 an aere. It was the best lot of the whole seven. I Immediately laid ont ten acres into two-acre lots and let the felling of the trees to several per- sous at $1.75 per ucre, to be paid in an order upon the town. The land was very heavily wooded. Eight sturdy woudmen were swinging their axes at the same thne. The crash of falling trees was tremendous; but sweet minsie 10 my hopeful ears ! On the adjoining lots the same merciless hayoc was going on. It was a pleasant sight to me then; but now, when I look back upou that scene, and see those stately, towering oaks, with the sylvan nobility of maple, birch, and beech, lying prostrate in promiscuous contusion, I feel Havoe among the trees. a sort of sympathy with them, as if there might be a veretable consciousness, and think that I hear them deploring the loss of their inherited possession and rural glory, chartered to them hy primeval Nature, and in expiring groans deprecating the destructive claims of civilizu- tion. In July the fallen trees were . lopped'; that is, the branches that stood up were ent off that they might lie compactly by the sides of the trunks. In Angust, upon a day and hour agreed upon, we, and all who had contiguous lots, set fire to them. It was a splendid exhibition ! More than seventy aeres were in one sheet of fame ! After rain had extinguished the tires, my father, who a short time previously had moved into Sanbornton, * went to work with my broth- ers Benjamin, Samuel, and William [sce Knapp Genealogy] (Joseph was too young to work), to clear the land and mirrow in wheat. The next year we put up a framed house, que story high, three rooms upon the loor, and may father, with his family, moved on to the land .* The clearing Lol cleared was a heavy job. The trunks of the trees and the largest branches, not being much burned, were to be ent into logs ten or twelve feet long, drawn together by oxen, and by the help of ' skids' and levers ralled into large piles and burned. Some of the trunks were more than three feet in diameter. These (to use a phrase then in vogue) were ' ningered off','-that is, burned off by laying smaller logs across them and placing fire in the junction; and as often as the smaller log burned off it was shoved on again, repeatedly, until the trunk was severed inta convenient lengths. This was going on as ansiliary, while the axes were applied vigorously upon the more moderate sized trunks. On Saturdays I gave a helping hand.
* It seems probable, from these expressions, that the Knapp family must have come to this town some ten years earlier than is stated in Vol. II. p. 422 [5].
117
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
"The people there and then considered it a privilege to board the school- master. To accommodate them, I boarded in thirteen different
Boarding the families, and thus became intimately acquainted with every indi- vidual in the district. The price of board was four shilling- and sixpence a week. Lived well : fat beef and pork, lambs, and poultry, in their seasons ; butter, honey, and drop cakes abounded ; coffee, tea, and cream were liberally supplied. The people were social in temper and habits. Family visits in winter were frequent. On one of these visits, in company with a young man of the family in which I then boarded, his mother, a very corpulent woman, not over spry, and his sister, also a bouncer, I was turned out of a sleigh into a very light but deep snow! There the stripling schoolumaster lay, almost suffocated, overlaid by the old lady, who could not get up until the daughter recovered her thoughts and helped her mother of me! The son had as much as he could do to keep the horses from running, aud could not come to the aid of his mother! We soon recovered from our tilt, and rode ou langhing !
Laughcible . adventure.
"At this time there were in Sanbornton two settled ministers, - one of them Orthodox Congregationalist, the other Baptist, -two physician-, five schoolmasters, but no lawyer. The people were constant in their attendance on Sunday services. Many walked from two to four miles to attend public worship; for there were no wheeled vehicles less than ox-carts in the town.
The schooloss- The roads were too rough for light carriages. Most families Ler's impres- kept a horse, but two persons only could at one time ride, one sious of Sau- on the saddle, the other on a pillion. Factories of woollen or col- burulull. ton were nuknown in this region. Each family manufactured its own clothing. Every mechanic art was in a comparatively imperfeet state."
[NOTE. - We have thus given the paper of the venerable Mr. Knapp entire for the sake of "mity," though treating of several points unconnected with schools or education; yet all appropriate to this stage of our history. Ilis. slightly egotistic style will certainty bepardoned in a veteran of nearly ninety year's describing the scenes of his youth. His labors as teacher were seem- ingly continued to the original " Bridge District." ]
CHAPTER XII.
ACADEMIES AND SEMINARIES.
"Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts ; Suo there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Trills her thick warbled notes the summer long." - MILrox.
"Then we dipt in all
That treats of whatsoever is : the state,
The total chronicles of man, the mind,
The moraly, something of the frame, the rock,
The star, the bird, the fish, the shell, the flower,
Electric, chemie laws, and all the rest,
And whatsoever can be taught and known;
Till . .. we issued gorged with knowledge." -TENNYSON.
I. - THE SANBORNTON ACADEMY, AT SANBORNTON BRIDGE,
SHOULD be mentioned first in order, as it was earliest incorporated, " Dec. 20, 1820." Our principal knowledge of it has been derived from its first catalogue, a printed document of one sheet, which was published October, 1821. We learn from this that Hlou. Its first cata- Daniel C. Atkinson,* Jonathan Ayres, Esq., Robert Bar- logic.
ber, Esq., Rev. Abraham Bodwell, Rev. John Crockett, James Clark, Esq., Stephen Gale, Esq., Matthew Perkins, Esq., Jere- miah Sanborn, Jr., Esq., Jeremiah Tilton, Esq., Peter Wadleigh, Esq., and Woodbury L. Orne, ex oficio, were the twelve trustees. 1. Mr. Orne was the first preceptor, - for how long afterwards in- known, - and Miss Caroline Chaplin preceptress. ( Mr. Trenck Orne was the teacher of pemmanship.) The total number of pupils was one hundred and two. Of the fifty-six gentlemen, twenty-one were from Sanborntou, thirteen from Northfield, twenty-two from other towns, and thirteen are marked with an (*), denoting that they were " Latin and Greek scholars." Of the forty-six ladies, twenty-one
* The " llistory of Boscawen" says of Judge Atkinson, in his relations to the Sanbornton Bridge Academy, " He obtained its charter, and more than helped to build that institution."
119
ACADEMIES AND SEMINARIES.
were from Sanbornton, thirteen from Northfield, and twelve from other towns, none studying Latin and Greek. This academy was in session only during the springs and falls. The building was owned, in part, by the School District No. 2 (after the burning of their school-house), while yet the lower or district school-room was occu- pied by the preceptors of the academy with their .. dead-language classes," and the preceptresses had the rest of the school in the academy room above. From this circumstance some confusion ex- ists as to who the academy preceptors really were, in distinction from the district teachers. 2. Aaron Bedee Hoyt, son of Moses and Anna Iloyt, of Sandwich, is known to have been the second preceptor, for one year at least. lle afterwards lived and has re-
Subsequent preceptors. cently died in Sandwich. There followed him, at longer or shorter intervals, -3. Samuel Delano. 4. Mr. Stowell. 5. Peter Clark. 6. Jolm Corser. 7. James Hersey, Jr. 8. Bart- lett Corser. 9. Amos II. Worthen. 10 Asa P. Cate. 11. Miss Nancy Freuch. 12. Mrs. Nancy C. Gilman, and possibly others. 13. Prof. Dyer II. Sanborn was the last principal, from March 14, 1842, for three and one half years, when, in 1845, this institution was virtually merged in the school then opened under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; at least, by the starting of the latter at Sanbornton Bridge the former was no longer needed.
The old academy building, of two moderate stories, stood on the brow of the first eminence north of the village, on the
The Academy building. Gulf road, a little cast of the present seminary buildings, giving rise to the name " Academy Ilill." It continued to be used many years, as previously, for the district schools, but had become considerably dilapidated, though of a sound frame, when, in 1871 or 1872, it was moved to the Northfield side of the river and set up for wool storage and finishing rooms by the "Granite Mill Company," though still retaining its pristine form and proportions.
11. - THE WOODMAN SANBORNTON ACADEMY
Received its name from Mr. Aaron Woodman, youngest son of Rev. Joseph ; who, being a prosperous merchant, latterly in Boston, gave liberally for its building and endowment, but suddenly died in little more than a month after the Act of its incorporation was approved at Concord, " June 27, 1826." This Act was signed by Henry Hubbard, Speaker of the House, and Matthew Harvey, President of the Senate. By the provisions of the same, Hlou. Nathan Taylor and Revs. Abra- hamn Bodwell and Jolin Crockett of Sanbornton, Rev. William Patrick of Canterbury, Jeremiah 11. Woodman of Rochester, Aaron Woodman
120
HISTORY OF SANHOUSTON.
of Boston, Drs. Benaiah Sanborn and Thomas P. Hill, Jonathan Moore, Abel Kimball, Jesse Ingalls, mul Peter Hersey, all of San- bornton, were made a body politie by the name of the .Net of theor- " Trustees of the Woodman Saubornton Lendemy." They Pusallvls.
were allowed to hold real estate, with an annual income of not over $500, and personal estate not exceeding $10,000; were to elect their own officers and till vacancies in their Board. .. The Lead- emy is established at Sanbornton, where a building for that purpose is already erected." This building had been raised and mostly completed
Building the year before (1825), land having been leased for that erected. purpose by Dr Sauboru, extending south to within six or eight feet of the present Congregational meeting-house. David Lane is remembered to have stood very coolly upon the topmost timbers of the cupola, nailing on the caps, while his friend Charles Lane was trembling for his safety on the ground below. David L. Nichols had evidently been teacher prior to the meeting of the trustees, Aug 10, 1826, as a committee was then chosen " to get Mr. Nichols's terms for continuing the school." Ile promises Contract with fiat principal. to do so nine months from that date, himself furnishing needful assistants, receiving all the tuition and the interest on the funds for one year, while the trustees were to furnish fuel dur- ing the inclement season. The Constitution and By-Laws were pre- sented at a meeting held in Abel Kimball's inn (late Boutwell House), Sept. 15, 1826, providing that -
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