USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > History of the town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (first known as Narraganset township number three, and subsequently as Souhegan West) > Part 24
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closing he heard " Uncle Hugh" muttering to himself, " I swar, I'll pray for him, I will."
Near the close of Dr. Lord's ministry, there was trouble in the choir, and the singers, with the exception of Ambrose Seaton, the leader, left the seats. The minister read the morning hymn, but there was no response. Presently, the senior deacon rose from his seat in front of the pulpit, and called upon the congregation to unite in singing St. Martin's, himself leading off in a voice tremulous with age. For some time he sung alone, but before the hymn was finished he had a respectable following. During the performance the chorister was heard going down the stairs in the west porch, at least two steps at once, and after landing upon the common it was noticed that his steps toward his board- ing-house were of remarkable length.
In 1830 an organ was purchased of John Prentiss, Esq., and Mrs. Prentiss acted as organist many years.
Aaron Lawrence, then a young man, aided largely in this part of the Sunday services in the church. After Mrs. Prentiss left town he acted as organist, and as this means increased he spared neither time nor money to keep the peace among the singers and afford them all needful instruction and help in their performances. In 1864 a new organ was purchased of the Messrs. Hook of Boston at an expense of $1,000, one half of which was contributed by Mr. Lawrence. During this time Mr. Elbridge Hardy acted as chorister, assisted a portion of the time by Mr. Benjamin Kendrick and his family. In 1873 a new organ, built by G. H. Ryder, of Boston, was purchased, and used for the first time at the centennial celebration of the dedication of the meeting-house, 18 January, 1874. Since Mr. Hardy's departure William A. Mack, Hollis E. Abbott, Charles N. Merrill, Horace E. Woodberry, and Dr. Edward Aiken. have served as choristers. and Mrs. A. A. Rotel, Miss Annie Kent, Miss Sarah E. Aiken, and Miss Abbie F. Boylston, as organists.
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CHAPTER XIV. SCHOOLS, 1762-1882.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN IN RELATION TO SCHOOLS .- SALE OF THE SCHOOL LOTS .- THE FIRST EXAMINING COMMITTEE .- ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ACADEMY .- SCHOOL LOTTERIES .- CHARTER OF THE AUREAN ACADEMY, AND NAMES OF THE PRINCIPALS .- TEACHERS OF SELECT SCHOOLS .- APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS .- APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE TO DISTRICT THE TOWN FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES .- THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS .- THEIR NUMBERS AND LOCATION .- APPOINTMENT OF A TOWN SCHOOL COMMITTEE .- SCHOOL CHILDREN IN TOWN 1817-18 .- SCHOOL BOOKS IN USE IN DISTRICT NO. 1, OCTOBER, 1823 .- THE " LITERARY FUND."-ITS ESTABLISHMENT AND DISTRIBUTION. -DIVISION OF DISTRICT NO. 1 .- THE TWO DISTRICTS AGAIN UNITED, AND A NEW SCHOOL-HOUSE BUILT .- MR. ATHERTON'S GIFT TO THE SCHOOLS .- THE TOWN RE-DISTRICTED .- LEGACY OF AARON LAWRENCE, ESQ .- OUTLINE MAPS PURCHASED .- ABOLITION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS, AND AN APPRAISAL OF THE SCHOOL PROPERTY IN THE SEVERAL DISTRICTS .- LEGACY OF ISAAC SPALDING, ESQ.
I find no record of any schools in Souhegan West prior to its incorporation as a town. Probably private instruc- tion was given by Mr. Wilkins, or some other qualified per- son, to such as desired and could afford it.
At the annual meeting of the town in 1762 a vote was passed " to keep a school this year in five divisions, the
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selectmen to divide," by which we may understand the selectmen were to divide the town into five divisions or districts and employ a teacher, who should spend a part of his time in each district.
No mention is made of any effort being made to secure an appropriation for schools in the years 1763, 1765, and 1766. In 1764, 1767, 1768, and 1769, the town refused to make any appropriation for that purpose ; also at a special meeting held in May, 1769.
Finally the matter became a serious one. The selectmen were in danger of being "presented " for neglect of duty in the matter of schooling. So the town voted, at a meeting held 12 December, 1769, that " they will keep a school a part of this year," and granted the sum of thirteen pounds, six shillings, eight pence, to defray the expense of so doing.
At the annual meeting, March, 1770, they
" Voted to keep a school the ensuing year to teach the children to read, write, and cypher."
But no record remains that any money was appropriated for teachers.
March, 1771. Twenty pounds, lawful money, was voted for schooling, and the town directed that "the school should be kept some part of the time in several parts of the town." Also, voted that the people of the town " keep as many schools as they think fit, and each family that does keep a school shall be entitled to draw their proportion of the money above granted."
At a meeting held 9 March, 1772, the sum of twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, four pence, was granted for the support of schools that year. In 1773 the article in the warrant for the annual meeting relating to schools was referred to the selectmen.
A proposition to build several school-houses and to choose a committee to complete the same was rejected at the annual meeting in March, 1774.
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The lots reserved for schools by the proprietors of the township seem to have been sold about this time, as we find in the warrant for the meeting held 13 March, 1775, an article, "to see if the town would allow that part of the town that was originally called Amherst to use the interest of the money their school right was lately sold for in private schools," which they refused to do.
No record remains of any provision being made for schools in the years 1775, 1776, and 1777. Other matters of serious import engrossed the minds of the people in those years : but it is probable that the schools were not wholly neglected.
At the annual meeting in March, 1778, it was
" Voted to keep a grammar school the ensuing year."
And on the cover of the first volume of the town records are the following entries, in the hand-writing of Col. Nahum Baldwin, town-clerk and first selectman that year. 27 April, 1778,
" Agreed with Mr. William King to keep a town school at 6s. per day, and board him. Same day opened s'd school. 27 July, 1778, Agreed with Mr. Brown Emerson to keep a school in this town at 35s. D'r quarter. ye school commenced this day.
N. B., Town Clerk."
These were warlike times, and the fathers used warlike terms in the transaction of their business. So we find them voting, 8 March, 1779,
" That the town be divided into squadrons at the discretion of the selectmen, that the inhabitants may be the better accommodated with a school, and that each squadron have their part of the money that shall be raised for schooling, Provided they lay it out for that pur- pose."
The sum of £300 was granted for the support of schools this year at an adjourned meeting held 31 March.
In March, 1780, the sum of £600 was voted for the support of schools, and the manner of keeping them was referred to the selectmen.
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At the March meeting in 1781 the town voted to raise £10,000 for schooling, this year, and that " the schools be kept by each neighborhood classing together." It may be well to remember that this was in the days of the deprecia- ted continental "fiat" money. The next year they had reached " hard pan," as they voted eighty pounds for the support of schools. The same amount was appropriated in 1783.
In 1784 they did better, and appropriated £100, and directed the selectmen to divide the town into school districts, and each district had liberty to lay out their money as they pleased.
The sum of £150 was voted for schools in each of the years 1785, 1786, and 1787.
At a meeting held 10 April, 1787, the town voted to keep a grammar school in the centre district, this year, on con- dition that the district shall make up to the master in a private way what their proportion of the school money falls short of an adequate salary.
A disposition was manifested at this meeting to secure the services of such persons as teachers in the schools as were qualified for the work, and a committee, consisting of Rev. Jeremiah Barnard, Rev. John Bruce, and Augustus Blanchard, Esq., was appointed " to examine the abilities of school masters and mistresses," and it was voted that none but those that were recommended by them should be employed by any district as teachers of schools.
It was also voted that if any district should not school out their money within one year from the time it was granted, it should be paid into the town treasury for the use of the town.
One hundred and fifty pounds annually was granted for the support of schools from 1787 to 1793, inclusive.
At the annual meeting in March, 1789, the town voted to exense a number of persons who had joined themselves together for the support of an academy in this town from
21
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the payment of any school tax so long as they should support the proposed academy. The use of the town-house for school purposes was also granted to them.
Lotteries were popular in those days, and we find that when the projectors of the academy asked the legislature for an act of incorporation they asked for the grant of a lottery to enable them to support it. The senate, however, gave them leave to bring in a bill for the incorporation of the academy only.
In December, 1791, a petition was presented to the legis- lature by the academies in Amherst, Atkinson, Charles- town, Chesterfield, and New Ipswich, asking for the grant of a lottery to enable them to raise €5,000, which they proposed to divide equally among those institutions ; but the application was postponed to the next session, and was finally unsuccessful.
16 February, 1791, Joshua Atherton, Samuel Dana. Robert Means, William Gordon, Daniel Warner, John Shepard, Robert Fletcher, Nathan Kendall, jr., Samuel Curtis, Joseph Blanchard, Samuel Wilkins, and Daniel Campbell, esquires, William Read, Nathan Cleaves, David Danforth, Isaac Baldwin, John Eaton, David Stewart, Thomas Gilmore, Samuel G. Towne, James Roby, John Watson, Jeremiah Hobson, Ebenezer Taylor, Jonathan Smith, jr., and Ephraim Barker, of Amherst, Moses Kel- ley, of Goffstown, Isaac Cochran, of Antrim, Timothy Taylor and Jacob MacGaw, of Merrimack, and Stephen Dole, of Bedford, and their successors, were, by the legisla- ture of the State, formed into, constituted and made a body politic and corporate by the name of the AUREAN ACADEMY, which corporation was empowered to transact all business necessary to the support and maintenance of an academy, the end and purpose of which was declared to be "to encourage and promote virtue and piety, and a knowledge of the English, Greek, and Latin languages, Mathematicks,
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Writing, Geography, Logic, Oratory, Rhetoric, and other useful and ornamental branches of literature."
The corporation was empowered to have a common seal, which might be altered at pleasure, might sue and be sued, and hold real and personal estate, provided the income of the real estate should not exceed £300 annually, and that of the personal estate £700 annually, said sums to be reck- oned in silver at six shillings and eight pence per ounce, and the students in the academy were to be exempted from the payment of a poll tax.
An organization of the corporation was effected shortly after, and the school went into operation under the charge of Charles Walker, a son of Judge Timothy Walker, of Concord, N. H. He was succeeded by Daniel Staniford, Henry Moore, Jesse Appleton, William Crosby, William Biglow, Joshua Haywood, William Abbott, Daniel Weston, Peyton R. Freeman, James McPherson, and Thomas Cole. The school was in successful operation for some years ; but it was finally closed in 1801 for lack of adequate funds for its support.
A select school was kept in the village during the sum- mer months for several years afterward. Among the teachers of this school were Ephraim P. Bradford, George Kimball, James McKean Wilkins, John Farmer, Samuel Whiting, Abel F. Hildreth, and Gideon L. Soule.
The South-west parish having been incorporated as a separate town in January, 1794, but £120 was granted for the support of schools that year. Four hundred dollars was granted the following year.
4 January, 1796. The town voted that the selectmen assess such a sum of money for the support of a grammar school this year as they may deem necessary, and it was provided that each school class in town should have its proportion of said money. In March of that year $500 was appropriated for the support of schools the current year,
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and the method of keeping them was referred to the select- men.
18 April, 1796. A proposition to grant a portion of the money proposed to be raised for the support of a grammar school to the academy on condition that the town grammar school scholars should receive instruction in the academy was rejected, as was a proposition to grant a sum of money annually to the academy on condition that the town gram- mar school scholars should be taught therein in the branches required in a public grammar school.
Five hundred dollars was appropriated for the support of schools in 1797, and the method of keeping them was referred to the selectmen.
In 1798, 1799, and 1800, $600 was granted each year, which the selectmen were directed to appropriate according to law.
26 March, 1798. The selectmen were directed to call for all the money due for school land over $200, and let it on interest.
In 1801 $500 was appropriated to be laid out in an English school or schools, and the mode of keeping the Latin grammar school was referred to the board of select- men, who were directed to petition the legislature to repeal the law relating to grammar schools in shire and half shire towns.
13 April, 1801. Voted that the grammar school be kept eight months in the First parish and four months in the Second parish, this year.
15 March, 1802. $500 was granted for schools, this year.
2 March, 1803. $700 was appropriated for schools, $300 of which was to be used for the support of grammar schools, the centre district of the First parish to have $200, and that of the Second parish, $100, the balance to be divided among the other districts according to their taxes ; and it was provided that every person in town should have liberty to send to the grammar school, and that such school dis-
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tricts as were dissatisfied with their classification might be classed anew.
15 December, 1803. The Second parish was incorpo- rated as a separate town.
21 March, 1804. Voted to raise $500 for English schools, to be expended as usual, and voted that the grammar school money be appropriated according to law.
31 May, 1804. The selectmen were directed to re-district the town for school purposes.
At the same meeting the selectmen were directed to satisfy a mortgage in favor of Lemmons vs. Washer, the latter securing the town by mortgage; and they were authorized to appropriate a part of the money due the town for school lands to that purpose.
27 August, 1804. Daniel Campbell, William Fisk, Amos Elliott, Daniel Warner, and Ebenezer Taylor, were appoint- ed a committee to re-district the town for school purposes.
12 March, 1805. 8400 was appropriated for the support of schools, in addition to what the law required. In 1806, $680 was appropriated.
12 March, 1806. The committee appointed to re-district the town for school purposes made their report, which was accepted and adopted by the town. It was the basis, sub- stantially, of the school district system in the town until its abolition, and was a work of much labor and care. They divided the town into nine districts, the boundaries of each being given, and the names of the tax-payers. District No. 1 was the centre district ; No. 2, the Lovejoy district, in the cast part of the town ; No. 3, Cricket Corner, in the south- east part of the town ; No. 4, Christian Hill, west of the Plain ; No. 5, the Danforth district, south of Souhegan river ; No. 6, Pond Parish district, in the south-easterly part of the town ; No. 7, the Wilkins district, adjoining Milford : No. 8, the Campbell district, north of the Plain ; No. 9, Chestnut-hill district, adjoining New Boston and Bedford.
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This was the era of school-house building. Within two years nearly every district was in the possession of a new school-house.
From 1808 to 1814 $700 was appropriated annually for the support of schools, except in 1811, when $1,000 was raised.
In 1809 a committee, consisting of Rev. Jeremiah Barn- ard, Col. Daniel Warner, Charles H. Atherton, Esq., Sam- nel Bell, Esq., and Capt. John Secombe, was appointed and continued in office two years, when it was enlarged by the addition of Edmund Parker, Clifton Claggett, Peter Me- lendy, Capt. Daniel Campbell, Samuel Curtis, John Ellin- wood, Daniel Weston, Col. Robert Means, and Jedediah K. Smith, to its number. For some years a large committee was appointed, and much interest was manifested in the management of the schools. During this period Jacob Kimball, Robert Means, jr., Robert Read, Frederick French, Rev. Nathan Lord, Dr. John Farmer, Richard Boylston, Isaac Brooks, Esq., and other prominent citizens, served on the school board.
In 1815, and from that time until 1830, $800 was appropriated annually for school purposes, except in 1828, when the appropriation was increased to $850.
10 October, 1814. Samuel Wilkins, William Towne, Timothy Nichols, Ebenezer Taylor, and others, were formed into a new school district. A school-house was erected in this district shortly after, west of the Hollis road, near the house of Ebenezer Taylor.
The following statement of the scholars attending the district schools in Amherst in the winter of 1817-18 was published in the Cabinet 11 September, 1818.
Dist. No. 1, 109. Dist. No. 6, 62.
Dist. No. 2,
56.
Part of Dist. No. 7, 15.
Dist. No. 3, 30.
Dist. No. 8, 50.
Dist. No. 4, 46. Dist. No. 9, 39.
Dist. No. 5,
42.
Parts of two districts, 28.
Total, 477.
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The population of the town at that time was about 1,610. 29.6 per cent. of which were school children, as shown by the above statement.
March, 1822. Difficulties having arisen in District No. 6, Capt. Luther Dana, Nathan Kendall, William Fisk, Jacob Hildreth, and Robert Means, jr., were appointed a committee to inquire into their origin, the facts respecting them, and, if possible, to devise some equitable and just way of settling them, and report the same to the town at some future meeting. 16 September following, the com- mittee reported, agreeably to instructions, a plan for a settlement of the troubles, which was accepted by the town, and " peace and quietness again reigned in Pond Parish.
October, 1823. The following books were recommended to be used in the schools in District No. 1, by Charles H. Atherton in behalf of the prudential committee of said district :
Scott's Lessons, or Murray's Reader.
History of the United States, by Prentiss.
Cummings's Spelling Book.
Colburn's First Lessons in Arithmetick.
Daboll's Arithmetick.
Cummings's Geography.
Wilkins's Astronomy.
Murray's Grammar, revised by Allen Fisk.
Blair's Rhetorick.
Walker's Dictionary.
The committee were evidently favorable to home products, as the text-book on astronomy was compiled by John H. Wilkins, an Amherst boy, and the revision of the grammar was prepared by a son of Hon. William Fisk.
In 1830 the town appropriated $600 and its proportion of the literary fund, amounting to $431.88, for the support of schools, making a handsome increase in the amount of school money.
The literary fund was derived from a tax of one half of one per cent. levied annually on the capital stock of all
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banking corporations doing business under the laws of this State, and was evidently an outgrowth of the famous Dart- mouth College controversy.
It was to be used, as stated in the act providing for its assessment, "for the sole purpose of endowing and support- ing a college for instruction in the higher branches of science and literature," and it was provided that the said fund should " never be applied to the support of any insti- tution which was not under the control and direction of the State."
The idea of establishing a State university was afterward abandoned, and an aet was passed by the legislature, which was approved by the governor 31 December, 1828, directing the State treasurer to convert the stocks held by him for the literary fund into money forthwith, and divide the same among the towns according to their apportionment of the public taxes. Provision was also made for the contin- uance of the tax, and the amount received was required to be divided annually among the towns according to their proportion of the public taxes, to be by them expended for the support of schools.
By an act approved 22 June, 1829, the treasurer was authorized to pay the proportion of the literary fund dne each town to the representative of the town, who was to pay the same to the selectmen or treasurer of the town, and take a receipt therefor.
Commencing with 1831, and for several years thereafter, the sum of $800 and the town's proportion of the literary fund was annually appropriated for the support of schools.
3 February, 1838. John Secombe, Israel Fuller, and Elijah Putnam, were appointed a committee to divide school district No. 1.
At a meeting held 13 March following, they made a report defining the boundaries of the proposed districts, with the names of the resident and non-resident property-holders therein. Which report was accepted and adopted. The
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new distriets were organized, and a new school-house- latterly the steam-mill on the Plain-was built shortly after for the accommodation of the schools of the new district.
In the re-numbering of the districts soon after, the new district became No. 2; the Lovejoy district, No. 7 ; and the Taylor district, No. 10,-the other districts retaining their old numbers.
In November, 1839, much complaint was made of the multiplicity of class books in use in the schools, there being no committee to prescribe what books should be used, and it was suggested that it would be less expense and more satisfactory to those interested if a superintending school committee should be appointed by the town agreeably to the law then in force. This was not done until 1842, in which year Stephen Peabody, Jolin L. Hadley, Mason Ball, William T. Savage, and Francis P. Fitch, were appointed. Since that time the provisions of the law in that respect have been complied with.
From 1845 to 1851 $1,000 was appropriated annually for the support of schools. In 1849 three per cent. of the school money was voted to the " Teachers' Institute."
In 1848 the town's proportion of the literary fund amounted to fifty-nine dollars and forty-five cents. In 1859 it had risen to the sum of $114.24.
The sum of $1,300 was appropriated for the support of schools in 1858, and the sum of $1,200 in 1859.
At a meeting held 20 April, 1852, the town voted to unite school districts Nos. 1 and 2, thus restoring the old district No. 1.
In May, 1853, this district voted, by a two-thirds vote, to to erect a brick building, 60 x 40 feet, two stories in height, for school purposes, and the homestead of the late William Read, Esq. was purchased for a lot on which to build, Charles L. Stewart, Esq., its owner, contributing the sum of $200 toward the enterprise.
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A bell, the gift of Aaron Lawrence, Esq., was placed upon the new school-house 26 June, 1855, for which a vote of thanks was passed by the district 15 March, 1856.
In March, 1853, eleven copies of Webster's large quarto dictionary were presented to the schools in Amherst by Hon. Charles G. Atherton.
At the annual meeting in March, 1856, David Stewart and Joseph Mace were appointed a committee to examine and report if a new school district can with propriety be formed to accommodate the Irish families on the " Acre," near the Milford line, and they were required to report the result of their investigations on the first day of April following, at which time, after hearing the report of the committee, it was voted not to set off the new district asked for ;- ycas, 20 ; nays, 44.
The matter was again brought up, and the district was finally set off and organized, the location of the school- house being fixed by a committee consisting of Joseph Mace, George Walker, and H. A. Clark, 3 September, 1861.
A vote was passed 19 May, 1863, to re-district the town for school purposes, and the selectmen were appointed a committee to carry the vote into effect, with instructions to make a report of their proceedings by the first day of Sep- tember following. On that day they presented their report ; but some dissatisfaction being expressed, it was re-commit- ted, and they were directed to give notice to individuals, in districts where dissatisfaction exists, of a time and place for a hearing in their cases, and make report at an ad- journed meeting three weeks from date, at which time the selectmen again submitted their plan, which, after some discussion, was adopted :- ycas, 29 ; nays, 26.
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