USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Bristol > History of the town of Bristol, Grafton County, New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
No. I. That part of Bristol village north of Newfound river and as far east as John Kidder's.
No. 2. From John Kidder's to David Powell's.
' Among the items of cost were, labor, 67 cents per day; boards, $4 per thousand, and nails $1.83 per thousand.
327
EDUCATIONAL
No. 3. From David Powell's and Jonathan Heath's to Samuel Andrews's, including John Spiller's.
No. 4. From Timothy Peaslee's to W. M. Pingree's, later the Webster place.
No. 5. From Jonathan Peaslee's, including Alexander Craig's and Col. Thomas Crawford's.
No. 6. From Alexander Craig's including Abraham San- born's, Daniel Brown's, James Sargent's, and Ezekiel Worthen's.
No. 7. From Abraham Sanborn's on east side of lake, summit of the hill and the Nelson neighborhood, including Peter Wells's.
No. 8. The Locke neighborhood.
No. 9. From Jonathan Jewett's to the Fifth district ; to Daniel Tilton's and James Fuller's.
Two years later, district lines were changed sufficiently to make another district- No. 10. In 1797, an unsuccessful at- tempt was made to raise money with which to build school- houses, and it was not till 1805 that any definite action was taken. Then the town voted not only to build a schoolhouse in each district, but also to raise $500 with which to do the work. A committee of one was elected for each district and allowed sixty-seven cents per day for his services. Before commencing this work the number of districts was increased to twelve. The town appears to have voted no further amount for its school- houses, and their care or completion was left to the several dis- tricts.
The people of Bridgewater were as generous in the support of schools as those in other towns, and, we might add, as change- able as those in other towns then and later. During the years from 1788 till 1811, the town would one year vote to raise $100 extra school money, the next year nothing ; again $300, and the next would call in all the interest money and expend that for schools.
The same lax methods of collecting the school tax that pre- vailed in New Chester existed in Bridgewater, consequently the town voted, in 1809, to wipe out the school tax of 1802, and to adopt a new method of collecting its school taxes. This was, to have a collector in each district. The town clerk, in recording the proceedings, called these the "distribution collectors" - not so bad a name after all.
During the last decade preceding the incorporation of Bris- tol, little light is thrown upon the educational interests of the town by the town records. There were slight changes in dis- trict lines, and each year the town raised $100 or $200 for schools in addition to what the law required, until 1819, when it raised $400. In only two years is there a record of a school committee having been elected.
The first schoolhouse, or the building first used for a school
328
HISTORY OF BRISTOL
in what is now Bristol village, stood just east of the residence of Rufus Eaton, on Summer street. It was a small four-roofed building about twenty feet square, and was used as early as 1790. This is the only one as far as known that was erected previous to 1805, and shows that the people in Bridgewater vil- lage provided a building in which to hold a school long before the town moved in the matter. This building is still standing, though not on the same site as then, being now utilized as a hen house. Dr. Timothy Kelly taught in this building in 1790. He lived at that time in a building that stood where William G. Kelley recently resided on Summer street. Dr. Kelly was a practicing physician, and, if an urgent call was received during a session of the school, he dismissed the school and made the time up at the close of the term. If the call were not urgent he made the patient wait. Mrs. Betsey Sleeper also taught here.
SCHOOLHOUSE ON WEST SIDE NORTH MAIN STREET.
Another early school was at the cabin of Oliver Blake, who lived where the Clay house was destroyed by fire a few years ago in the Nelson neighborhood. Mrs. Blake was the teacher. The first schoolhouse built by Bridgewater for this neighbor- hood stood about six rods west of the site of the farmhouse of Reuben Kidder, at nearly the highest point of the highway on the southwest slope of Bristol Peak. At this time the road on the hillside made a long detour to the west from this farmhouse. (See Highways.) It was on this old road that the schoolhouse was located. Here were thirty or forty scholars, coming from the east side of the lake, from the summit of the hill, and from the Nelson neighborhood. Among the teachers here were Samuel T. W. Sleeper and Plummer Dodge. The schoolhouse was destroyed by fire in 1816, and another was built at the foot of the hill near the one that now stands in old District No. 3, 110t far from the O. S. Hall, now the U. H. Kidder, farmhouse.
329
EDUCATIONAL
When Bridgewater erected a schoolhouse in what is now Bristol village, it was placed where is now the marble shop of Fred S. Fall, on the west side of North Main street north of Hotel Bristol. It was but little larger than the old one on Summer street, but at that date was more central. It continued to be used till after the incorporation of Bristol in 1819.
BRISTOL
At the first town meeting in Bristol, Benjamin Locke, James Minot, Abraham Dolloff, and Nathan Colby were elected a com- mittee to divide the town into districts. This committee report- ed at a special meeting held Nov. 6, following, dividing the town as follows :
District No. I comprised the territory north of Smith's river and south of a line on the north slope of New Chester mountain.
No. 2 included the whole of Bristol village.
No. 3 extended from the east line of No. 2, at the Worthen burying-ground, to Rowell Straw's, just east of where Solon Dolloff now resides, and included the Nelson neighborhood.
No. 4 extended from the eastern boundary of No. 3 to the Ten Mile brook.
No. 5 extended from the Ten Mile brook to the Bridge- water line on the River road, and also included the farms of Timothy Chandler and Stephen Thurston Brown, west of this road.
No. 6 included the Locke neighborhood.
No. 7, that part of the town next to Bridgewater line west of Bristol peak, including the greater part of the western slope of the hill towards the lake.
No. 8 included North Bristol,' and extended a short dis- tance north of the outlet of the lake on the west shore and to the Bridgewater line on the east shore.
No. 9 included that portion of the town west of the lake.
The schoolhouses erected by New Chester and Bridgewater were utilized by the new town to some extent, but during the first three or four years a considerable sum was expended by the several districts in building or repairing its schoolhouses. Dis- trict No. I expended $81.40; No. 2, $301.57 ; No. 3, $95.04; No. 4, $100.15 ; No. 5, $102.40 ; No. 9, $112.70. District No. 7 had no schoolhouse till several years later. The amount ex-
I The first schoolhouse for No. 8 stood on the east shore of the lake near Clark Fuller's home, about half way between the foot of the lake and E. T. Pike's present farmhouse. The next was in the woods on the turnpike south of the lake; the present oneis near the outlet of the lake.
E
330
HISTORY OF BRISTOL
pended in District No. 2 was for the purpose of completing the schoolhouse on Lake street, commenced by Bridgewater before the incorporation of Bristol. This was a building about 30 x 35 feet. It stood on the west side of the street nearly opposite the great elm near the residence of Dea. N. B. Buttrick, with a door in the south end, and was painted red.' The old-fashioned fixed seats were on an inclined plane, those for the boys on the west side facing the center, and those for the girls on the east. In the floor space in the center was an immense box stove for heating the room, and in the north was a large platform on which was a stationary desk about five feet square. Here ruled the master, sometimes with love, but more often with a beech rod or ferrule, and a trial of physical strength sometimes oc- curred. On one occasion, about 1847, the teacher, Reuben Rol- lins, was laid senseless on the floor by a blow with a stick of wood in the hands of one of the young men then attending school.
In 1829, $405. 17 of the amount received from New Chester on settlement, and $138.05, received that year from the state liter- ary fund, was set aside as a town school fund, the interest to be used annually for the benefit of schools. A few years later, this fund amounted to $874.35.
In 1839, when Bristol purchased a town farm, "a part" of the school fund was taken for that purpose, and the balance was evidently used for schools or other purposes, as in time this school fund entirely disappeared.
In 1845, the number of scholars in the village had become such that there was a call for a division of the district. A divi- sion of the school into two or more grades seems not to have been thought of. In the fall of 1848 the old red schoolhouse was destroyed by fire. This hastened a solution of the question con- cerning the division of the district, and, in 1849, the town voted to divide the village into three districts. The territory west of the middle of North Main street and the middle of Central Square, and the north side of Pleasant street, west of the river, comprised No. 10. The south side of Pleasant street, west of the river, and the south side of the river comprised No. II. The eastern part of the village remained as No. 2. A new schoolhouse was erected on the site of the red schoolhouse, for No. 10, which is now a two-tenement house owned by George A. Robie. No. 11 erected a small schoolhouse between South Main and High streets, next south of the present engine house, now a dwelling house, and No. 2 erected a two-story school- house on Summer street, now owned and occupied by Richard S. Danforth.
I In 1832, Eliza Jane Bowen taught in the red schoolhouse. She re- quired the scholars to halt at the door when leaving the room, make a bow or courtesy and say "Good-bye Miss Eliza Jane."
33I
EDUCATIONAL
While schoolhouses were being erected in these districts, schools were held where opportunity presented. One was held in the tailor shop of James Musgrove on North Main street and one in the hall over Daniel S. Smith's store, corner of South Main and Beech streets.
The matter of raising extra school money was generally left with the several school districts, though for a few years, commencing in 1872, the town raised $1,000 each year, giving $400 to Union district and the balance to the districts outside of the village, the more nearly to equalize the school advantages of the town.
In each district there was a prudential committee, whose duty it was to hire teachers and look after the material interests of the schools. A superintending committee, usually appointed by the selectmen, looked after the educational interests of all the schools, and was expected to make at least two visits to each' school each term.
The amount expended for schools in each district varied ac- cording to the amount of taxable property. In 1853, the small- est amount raised in any district was in No. 7-$8.40; but with this small amount the district managed to have a summer school of seven and one-third weeks for its twenty pupils. The largest amount raised that year was in No. 2-$86.56, and here the length of the school was twenty-two weeks. The total number of scholars in town this year was 288; average attendance in summer, 135 ; in winter, 202. The average monthly wages paid to male teachers was $13.40; to female, $7.96. The total cost of schools this year was $487.35 ; average cost of each scholar, $1.52.
Little attention was given to the comfort or attractiveness of the schoolroom. In 1855, it was thought worthy of mention by the superintending school committee that some of the dis- tricts had provided shades for the windows of the schoolhouses, and that No. 4 had discarded "the old stone hearth and fire- place with each particular stone eskew" and then had "a good and firm one of brick." This does not indicate that all the schoolhouses were still thus poorly provided for, but that some were. This year, by voluntary subscription, District No. 2 pur- chased a set of outline maps, but no reference books of any kind had yet found their way into a schoolroom in town.
Statistics concerning the number of scholars during the first few years after the incorporation of Bristol are not available but in every district the schools were large. The Locke neighbor- hood had a school of over thirty pupils, the Nelson neighbor- hood about the same, while the two districts combined now have less than ten. One reason for the decrease in the number of children in the out-districts is that many of the farms have been deserted. The attractions of the West, of city and village life,
-
332
HISTORY OF BRISTOL
have drawn the people from the cultivation of the hard soil of the hill farms, and the cultivated fields have been turned into pastures. What is known as the Smith pasture, lying partly in Bristol and partly in Bridgewater, on the hill, is composed of what was once thirteen farms, all supporting large families. Another reason for the decrease in the number of scholars is that the school age is now much shorter than formerly. Seven- ty-five years ago, when schools were kept only about six weeks in the year, every "child" from four to twenty-one years of age and sometimes even older, attended school. Now but few pupils over sixteen years of age are found in any of our town schools. If they attend any school it is the seminary or the college else- where. Another reason more potent than all the rest for the falling off in the number of scholars in our public schools is the decrease in the number of children born to American parents. ' Where seventy-five or even fifty years ago there were many families of a dozen or more children, to-day a family of half this number is a rare exception. In the year 1839, Bristol apparent- ly reached the high water mark in the number of children en- rolled as scholars. To show the great change that has taken place since then, we present here the number of taxpayers and the number of scholars between four and twenty-one years of age in 1839, and the number of taxpayers and the number of scholars in town, between five and twenty-one years of age in 1885, the last year before the town system of schools went into effect. It will thus be seen that the number of taxpayers has more than doubled and the number of scholars decreased by nearly one-half.
1839
1885
Taxpayers
Scholars
Taxpayers
Scholars
Dist. No. I
22
41
22
15
2
II2
I27
410
155
3
18
25
22
4
4
12
27
9
3
5
3I
40
IO
2
6
2I
36
2I
5
7
5
18
7
2
28
38
38
25
9
I6
63
25
I2
265
415
564
223
In 1883, Dr. George H. Calley, the superintending school committee, called the attention of the town to some of these startling facts. "He showed that since 1852 the number of scholars in the schools, outside of the village district, had de- creased from 157 to 59 -almost two-thirds; and nearly half of this decrease had taken place during the previous ten years. The money for the support of schools in these districts was $40
333
EDUCATIONAL
more than in 1852. In District No. 7 there had been no school for two years because there was not a scholar in the district ; while in No. 4 there were six weeks of schooling, and in No. 9, eight weeks, in the summer, with two pupils in each, and a fall school of ten weeks, with three pupils, one coming from Alex- andria. A majority of the school buildings were over fifty years old and generally dilapidated.
In his report Dr. Calley recommended a re-districting of the town, and the selectmen were instructed to appoint a committee to do the work. The residents of these districts were not, how- ever, a unit as to where the new lines should run, and no one could be found to serve as the committee. Accordingly matters drifted till 1885, when the legislature created the town district system. Unfortunately districts organized like Union District in Bristol were not disturbed, and the town district of Bristol, therefore, consisted only of the territory outside of the village. Under these circumstances the schools in the out-districts of Bristol failed of the full benefit of the law. An article was in- serted in the warrant for the annual school meeting of Union School District in March, 1886, to see if the district would unite with the rest of the town to form one district, but this was not agreed to.
The first school meeting of the town district was held at the town hall, Mar. 23, 1886, when C. H. Mudgett, Solon Dolloff, and Elijah Sanborn were elected members of the school board. The new board made few changes in the schoolhouses of the town under the new law. The schoolhouse near J. M. R. Em- mons's farmhouse was moved to near Solon Dolloff's for the ac- commodation of the pupils of former Districts 3 and 4, and a new house was erected in the northeast part of the town near the Pemigewasset, for the pupils of Districts 5 and 6. Schools were continued in Districts Nos. 11, 8 and 9, but discontinued in No. 7. These changes reduced the number of schools from eight to five. In 1900, the number of scholars in the town district was fifty-five.
Previous to the organization of Union District, the educa- tional advantages of the district schools were supplemented by private schools. In April, 1836, the following advertisement appeared in the New Hampshire Patriot: "Mr. Brownson would inform the inhabitants of Bristol and vicinity that he has opened a high school in Bristol village for the reception of gentlemen and ladies. From his experience in teaching he flatters himself that general satisfaction will be given. Tuition, $3 per term." How long Mr. Brownson taught is unknown, but a so-called high school was generally taught one term in the year and that
For many years previous to 1901 the school in District No. I accom- modated pupils from adjoining territory in Hill, and the revenue received from the town of Hill on this account materially lengthened this school.
334
HISTORY OF BRISTOL
in the fall. Amos Worthing taught a high school in the hall over Daniel Smith's store at the corner of South Main and Beech streets, and at an earlier date Polly Whittemore taught a school in the entry of the Congregational church. A small pri- vate schoolhouse was erected in the early forties for the use of Miss Mary Woolson, on North Main street, in the garden just south of the present schoolhouse. It is now the small dwelling next south of the residence of Gustavus Roby on Lake street.
About 1848, Levi Bartlett erected the building on the west side of North Main street, now used by Fred S. Fall as a mar- ble shop. This was designed for private schools and as a vestry for the Congregational church, and was generally known as the academy. It was provided with fixed benches like the school- rooms of that period and the roof was surmounted with a steeple in which was a bell. The late Hon. George W. Murray, of Canaan, kept a high school there soon after it was opened, and Rev. F. N. Peloubet, who now has a national reputation as a Sunday-school worker, kept school here one term. Miss Hat- tie Green and others also kept school here. A state teachers' institute was held here about 1855.
Mrs. Harriet E. Edgerly taught a private school about 1862, before her marriage, where is now the residence of Mrs. John C. Wheet on Spring street, and for some years after 1870 she taught in the small building that stands in the garden con- nected with the residence of Moody O. Edgerly on Lake street. About 1860, the wife of Rev. William S. Spaulding, associated with a Mr. Caswell and a Miss Spear, held a high school in the town hall. Miss Alia Briggs taught a private school in what was more recently known as the old Grand Army hall on Pleasant street ; and here Miss Ellen H. Fisher was teaching when she was engaged, in 1867, to teach one of the grades in the new Union district school.
Union School District No. 2.
Union School District No. 2, was formed by the union of Districts 2, 10 and Ir, in January, 1864. After the union, the schools in this district were continued as before till the new schoolhouse was completed. At a meeting of the new district held in the town hall, Mar. 11, 1864, it was voted to build a schoolhouse of brick at a cost not to exceed $3,500. In March, 1865, the limit of cost was placed at $5,000, and the committee was instructed to have the house completed by Jan. 1, 1866, but the time was subsequently extended one year. The exact cost of the building has never been determined, but it was in the neighborhood of $16,000,' exclusive of the annex.
I The schoolhouse tax raised for this building previous to March, 1875, was $11,079, and the notes then outstanding were reported as amounting to $4,875.
335
EDUCATIONAL
August 24, 1867, the district voted to adopt the Somersworth act and maintain a graded school, and Rev. Silas Ketchum, Rev. James Thurston, Rev. David Calley, and Hon. L. W. Fling were appointed a superintending school committee for this dis- trict. Subsequently the superintending school committee of the town had supervision of this school till the district was incor- porated in 1877.
In the summer or early fall of 1867, while the second story of the new schoolhouse was all one room. and before the seats were put in, a social gathering was held here that was largely attended by the citizens. The two cornet bands then in Bristol furnished music, and a pleasant evening was passed.
Schools were first held in the new building Oct. 7, 1867, with four departments. The teachers were: Primary, Sarah L. Day ; intermediate, Addie J. Emmons ; grammar, A. Melissa Gordon ; high, Ellen H. Fisher.
In 1884, the primary department was so overcrowded that a portion were accommodated in the Congregational vestry. In 1892, an annex was built to the schoolhouse for the intermediate department at a cost of $1,200, thus allowing the whole of the first story of the main building for the primary departments.
June 21, 1877, the legislature passed a special act incor- porating the district. The act provided for a board of educa- tion, consisting of six members, having the powers of both pru- dential and superintending school committees, to serve three years each, without pay. At the first annual meeting after the incorporation of the district, 1878, a full board of education, con- sisting of six members, was elected and $400 extra school money was raised. At the next annual meeting in March, 1879, the district voted not to raise any extra school money, whereupon five of the committee resigned. This was the first school meet- ing of Union District after the passage of the law allowing women to have a vote in school affairs; a large number were present, and three of their number were elected to fill the vacan- cies thus created. Women have taken part in each school meet- ing and been elected on the board each year since.
In time it became desirable that one member of the board should have the immediate supervision of the schools, and in or- der that the district might have authority to pay for such ser- vices, the law was amended in 1889. The amendment author- ized the board to receive such compensation as the district might allow, to be apportioned among the members according to the service rendered by each.
No attempt to maintain strictly a high school, where pupils could fit for college, has succeeded, simply for lack of pupils. The close proximity of several schools of a higher grade has drawn away so many that the district thought it not wise to maintain a high school for the few that remained. The last at-
336
HISTORY OF BRISTOL
tempt was in 1895, when A. L. Pitcher was employed as teacher at a salary of $800.
The length of schools in this district has been from thirty to thirty-nine weeks each year - usually thirty-six.
In 1900, the number of scholars in the town district was 51 ; the number of weeks of schooling, 19. The cost of schools was $489.05. The wages paid per month to teachers was from $20 to $30 ; average cost per scholar, $9.75.
In Union District the same year the number of pupils was 208 ; number of weeks of schooling, 36 ; the cost to the district, $2,536.01. Wages paid per week to teachers: High school, $15 ; other departments, $9 per week. Average cost per scholar, $12.19.
Inspectors of schools, or superintending school committees, were first elected in Bridgewater in 1810; in New Chester, in 18II. Previous to 1820, this office was filled but twice by elections in Bridgewater; in New Chester, each year. In Bris- tol this office was undoubtedly filled each year till 1886, when the town system of schools went into effect, but there were several years when there was no record of an election or appointment. From 1886, in the town district, the school board has performed the duties previously discharged by both the prudential and superintending school committees.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.