USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > Sandwich > Sandwich, New Hampshire, 1763-1963 : bi-centennial observance, August 18 through August 24. > Part 5
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Up to the 1830's and 40's we read of tax lists in the various districts. Apparently the cost of building or repairing a school was totaled and "voted by the inhabitants" to be levied against each family in the dis- trict, quite possibly according to the number of children, or according to the ability to pay. We do find in many districts the wealthier citizens paying the most. Money for running the schools was allotted to each dis- trict by the town which had a resident and non-resident school tax in 1807.
While we are on the subject of the early schools, it might be interest- ing to look in on a few and see what they were like. The Potash school, the earliest Lower Corner school, North Sandwich and possibly others
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had sloping floors "so the school master had an excellent view of all pro- ceedings." We learn on authority that the Lower Corner school was about 25 feet square, heated by a fireplace, supplied by a huge pile of trees and four-foot wood outside which was brought in and thrown on the fireplace by armfuls. To be safe from sparks a hearth extended some ten feet beyond the fireplace with a low front seat, as the safe distance for warm- ing. All from the back seats came down by turns to thaw out. Frocks and flannel gowns were not able to keep boys and girls in tolerable comfort. The early history of this school is lost but from an account book of Arven Blanchard's there is an entry for pine boards, nails and shingles delivered to the school in April 1877, indicating that the building was old and in need of repair then, altho we notice they had hard usage and seemed to need repairs often. The enrollment must have been large, for Mrs. Sadie Martin tells us that when her father, Charles Skinner, first went there to school, he carried a little chair for himself from home, and sat by the stove. (After 1860 a stove is mentioned in reminiscences instead of the fireplace, and the sloping floor had by then disappeared.) Lower Corner school is linked with Potash on Little's Pond. Harry Blanchard used to recall that he went to Potash for the spring term and to Lower Corner for fall and winter, possibly because the latter was warmer.
As to the subjects taught, we find for the winter term at the East Sandwich school that all of the pupils studied reading, spelling, penman- ship and arithmetic, half studied grammar and geography; two had phy- siology and bookkeeping, and four algebra, while composition and history were omitted entirely. Natural and mental philosophy is listed as being taught on Maple Ridge. Surveying was taught at one school - Daniel Beede, incidentally learned mathematics, trigonometry and surveying from a minister in East Kingston. Teachers taught best the subjects in which they were most interested. Physiology was added to the curriculum, ap- parently on pressure from the powerful Temperance group, who believed the study would show the young people the grave consequences of drinking and keep the boys from using tobacco as well.
At the Penn school up in the Notch, opened June 1, 1824, (imagine a school opening on June 1!) Article IV in a long list of rules and regu- lations read: "They shall not steal, lie, fight, quarrel, snowball, scuffle or use any vulgar or profane or wicked words." George E. Gay, teaching in North Sandwich in 1866 remarked that his twenty-four boys were "gentle- manly, kind and obedient." (These were the Quimbys, mentioned before). Yet he like so many teachers complained that the great fault was tardi- ness. The same paragraph includes the comment: "The school had a clock, the only school in the north to have one." Did teachers ever consider that maybe the pioneer homes didn't have clocks, either ?
In 1853 Monroe in West Sandwich had twenty-two children in the winter term "in a building in bad repair, without blackboards and other necessary equipment." And the Bennett Street school, as reported in 1866, had no library or reference books, no maps, charts or globes, and no clock or thermometer. Even so, Miss Hattie Sias, the teacher, considered it well
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Sandwich Elementary School
furnished with textbooks. Miss Sias, incidentally, had been a pupil herself just the term before. Teachers were youthful in those days.
Even in the 1880's and 1890's the pay of a teacher was very low, but probably in line with labor and commodity costs of the time. Herman H. Quimby, teaching in the '90's was paid $32 a month; Annie E. Watson, J. Sumner Watson, and George S. Hoyt $28 each. John B. Hoag received $14 monthly plus board which was reckoned at eight dollars a month. Linnie M. Bean (Mrs. Page) received $8 in cash per month and her board at an equal amount. Other teachers of the 1890's remembered today were Albert B. Hoag, the doctor; Alice N. Hoag, Evelyn Russell, Eva M. Smith and Bessie Blanchard.
But the enthusiasm of the teachers was not weakened because the return from their labors was so small and their schoolrooms often so poor, for their were numerous classes formed in subjects not required. Emma Sanborn taught astronomy and English history to three pupils. Mabel Quinby had fifteen in a natural history class one year, and twenty-one the next. Fannie Huntress taught fourteen in a drawing class; Georgieila Smith taught all her pupils to sing, as did Emma Sanborn and Florence Webster.
These little school houses, each serving a settlement of families, served also as social centers and for prayer meetings; the schoolhouse was indeed the center of life in the community.
Around 1866 state law required towns to change from the district
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system to the town system, but allowed a return to the earlier practice after five years should a town meeting majority so vote. In 1891 Sandwich schools were on the new basis, and the School Board's experience over the trial period showed that it was of benefit to the town. Thirteen schools had been operating. By 1934 there were only five: Lower Corner, Chick's Corner, Center Sandwich, North Sandwich and Whiteface. First to close was Whiteface, then Chick's Corner; then Lower Corner school became, for a brief while, a Junior High. By then talk had started and rapidly had come to a head about the practicability of building a central school. The feat was accomplished in 1950, and the highlight of Old Home Week that year was the `dedication of the new building. Mrs. Arthur Brown, chairman of the ceremonies, arranged an excellent program, with not one Adams but two on the platform: our Governor, Sherman Adams, and the then president of the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Arthur S. Adams, since become head of the American Council on Education. The State Board of Education was represented; District Superintendent Almon Bushnell was at hand; architect Irving Hersey of Durham and a representative of Leon Keyser, Inc., the building contractor. Dr. Robert S. Quinby, chair- man of the Building Committee stated the total cost was around $108,000, of which $80,000 had been raised by the town, and the balance represented contributions. Dr. Quinby, who saw the project through from start to finish, paid special tribute to the architect, Genl. Philip B. Fleming, Genl. Raymond B. Moses, and Mr. H. Wadsworth Hight of the Quimby Trustees, "all of whom" he said, "gave sound counsel and timely aid." Other mem- bers of the School Board serving on the committee with him were Mrs. Grace Ainger and Mrs. Alice Smith, and she, as chairman, received the keys of the new building from him.
Much of the equipment in the classrooms was presented by towns- people or friends of Sandwich, in some cases as memorials. Leslie Burrows of the sixth grade raised the bright new American flag on the gleaming new flagpole, while Mrs. Alice Pierce, principal, and the school children flocked around at salute and then sang the national anthem. It was a mo- mentus moment in the life of Sandwich, and one that has never been regretted. There was among many, of course, a sentiment for the "little red school houses" of their youth. However today children from all parts of Sandwich know each other, study, work and play together, and their parents, brought into the life of the school through PTA and other ac- tivities, have a true Sandwich allegiance. Contrasted with the huge school enrollment of the last century, attendance at the new school has averaged a hundred or less. By contrasting the Sandwich population in 1830 at its peak figure of 2743, our current check list of 495 tells the story.
THE SANDWICH ACADEMY
It is interesting to note the comparatively short time which elapsed between the settling of Sandwich and the beginning of its first secondary school - the Sandwich Academy. It was located in a building on the grounds of the present Chestnut Manor and functioned from 1837 to 1849. The Academy was chartered in 1824 and is mentioned in the N. H. Register for 1844. Trustees included some of the best known names in the vicinity at that time, and students, too, were in most cases from well-known families of wealth and culture. Instruction was given in all the studies
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required for college admission; in the French language, and in all those English studies usually taught in contemporary institutions. Among the teachers were John R. Varney, who held a professorship of mathematics at Dartmouth for a time, and later went into law; Joseph McGaffrey, Dartmouth graduate, and an accomplished scholar; and Aaron B. Hoyt, a man of vast information, and one of the Academy's best instructors. Hence, with these men on its staff, the Academy must have been an in- stitution worthy of Sandwich in the days when it was one of the important towns in the state.
The last term of school was in the fall of 1849. The building was then either torn down or moved.
BEEDE NORMAL INSTITUTE
The History of Education in New Hampshire by George Cary Bush tells us that "Beede Normal Institute was established in 1839 by Daniel G. Beede, who remained its head for more than thirty years, and built up a very successful school without receiving any (financial) help from friends or from the state. Numbered among his thousands of pupils have been found some of the brightest and best teachers in the High and Common schools of the Granite State." Mr. Beede's grandfather Thomas settled on Beede Hill in the west part of town in 1772. The boy attended the dis- trict school called Ethridge, where "Master" Dudley Leavitt is "said" to have taught, and possibly the two came together at that time; for later, the young Beede spent one or two winters as a pupil in Master Leavitt's home in Meredith. He was only 16 when he taught his first district school. In 1830 he enrolled at New Hampton Literary Institute for one year, and later taught for awhile in Bangor, Maine. Mr. Beede was in ill health for a long time while carrying on the affairs of the normal school, and eventu- ally he had to suspend it in the 1870's. Ten years later his wife, associated with a Miss Emma Sanborn, revived the school and carried it on for an- other ten years, winning the affection and respect of her pupils just as her husband had.
OTHER SCHOOLS OF THE 1800's
There was also George Dorr's high school about 1875, held in the upper part of James Smith's tin shop just west of his home. It was a good school as Mr. Dorr, presumably fresh from college, was an excellent teacher. Christopher Fellows taught penmanship in this school. It did not last long as Mr. Dorr left town to study for the ministry. He came back on one occasion, however, to preach an Old Home Sunday sermon.
A second Sandwich Academy has come to light, held perhaps in the 1850's or later, in Grand Army Hall (or Skinner Hall) on Main Street. It was conducted by Rev. Albert Ethridge, who could have been connected with the McGaffey family that settled in Whiteface. Charles O. Hodgdon was a pupil, also Mrs. Levi Stanton, Sarah and Susan Ann Sherman, Mary Abbie Smith and Charles H. White, among others. Miss Susan E. Hale was preceptress.
A NURSERY SCHOOL
Did you think the nursery school is a modern innovation? In 1859 Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Weeks conducted such a school in the home of Beede
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Weeks, the latter's father. This was the house formerly occupied by the Sandwich Home Industries. The late Angela Smith, her sister Ella and brothers Alphonso and Frank, all got their earliest schooling in the Weeks home, also the little Folsoms who lived nearby in the old Hanson House (now the Corner House).
QUIMBY SCHOOL
With the closing of the Beede Academy about 1890, and these other advanced schools even earlier, there was a long period when Sandwich young people had to go out-of-town for an education above the elementary grades. Many went to New Hampton Institute, some of the boys to Tilton, others traveled to distant states. Some of those going to the New Hamp- ton Institute rented a room to save money and fed themselves, largely from supplies brought from home on the weekends. There is a story about a young lady of Sandwich on her way back to school in the family rig when, on Wentworth Hill, the horse became frightened, started to run and the carriage was overturned. Overturned, too, and spilled out every- where was the hamper of food-cakes, tarts, and even more robust items like part of a joint, perhaps-all scattered along the dirt road and rolling down the dusty hill. Whether the victim dieted the next week or went back home, we do not know.
During these years the people of Sandwich were thinking of the pos- sibility of having a high school in town, but, while it cost considerable
Quimby School 1921 - 1963
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to send the children away, it would cost much more to build a high school. However, the wish was to become true when the town received the gift of the Alfred Quimby Fund. Alfred Quimby, grandson of Capt. Aaron Quim- by, who, as a young man, set forth from his home on Maple Ridge to make his way in life, well knew the value of an education. He had discussed it frequently with his three good friends who later became his trustees: Arthur M. Heard, George W. Weed and Warren J. Moulton. Mr. Quimby's wealth at the time of his death in February, 1918, was said to have been about a quarter million dollars, of which $200,000 plus the $10,000 which he left to the Free Will Baptist Church, was given to Sandwich. Over the years the trustees have administered the fund wisely and for lasting and beneficial purposes; but at the beginning they felt the need for a high school was paramount to everything else.
The lower Town Hall was fitted up as a schoolroom for use until more permanent quarters could be obtained; and with the purchase of the present school property, thru repairs and alterations, the present com- modious building was soon able to accommodate the pupils, twenty in number. In late years there have been further changes and the enrollment has reached 50 or more, some of the pupils coming from Moultonboro and Tamworth. The school started with a headmaster and a teacher for the department of domestic science. Later a third and again a fourth teacher was added.
During this time the school had a splendid orchestra, and the school paper, "The Seekon," won medals for three successive years for distin- guished merit that were awarded by the Columbia University School of Journalism.
As the town of Sandwich has been intensely proud of its high school, it was somewhat of a shock the past few years to discover that it was not measuring up to state requirements, These, based on our present ac- celerated plan of living, required much more in the way of mathematics, science and kindred subects, and altho the school made every effort some five years ago with extra equipment and personnel to meet these increased standards, there seems to be more and more detail which a privately en- dowed school with a limited enrollment cannot possibly live up to.
So in the spring of 1963 when the town learned definitely that the Quimby Trustees could no longer afford to run the school (the cost per pupil was far above the state average), by vote they agreed to join the Inter-Lakes Cooperative School in Meredith to which the town of Center Harbor also belongs. Two people from Sandwich will sit on the Inter-Lakes School Board, Meredith and Center Harbor each having two also, and one at large. Those elected are Charles G. Burrows and Barbara S. Hoag, both members of the present Sandwich School Board which will go out of exist- ence on July 1, 1963. The Sandwich elementary school will also come under the control of the Cooperative, but it is not thought likely there will be any radical changes as a result of the new arrangement.
Sandwich marches on with the changing times, as it has kept in step from its 1763 beginning-no, not actually in step; rather always a bit ahead of its compatriots in everything worthwhile and progressive.
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ORGANIZATIONS
Sandwich has so many organizations that sometimes there are not enough nights in the week for all of them to meet.
Red Mountain Lodge No. 68, F. and A. M., is the oldest, and celebrat- ed its one-hundredth anniversary June 17, 18, and 19, 1960. James H. Beede was head of the Centennial Committee, with Robert N. Peaslee co-chairmen; also Arthur B. Brown, Roger Deming and Charles G. Bur- rows. A regular Masonic meeting was held on the Friday night with past masters filling all chairs. District Deputy Grand Master Arnold L. Topham of Plymouth was guest at this meeting. On Saturday evening the Masons and their guests enjoyed a banquet served by the members of Bearcamp Chapter O. E. S., then repaired to Town Hall where a semi- public meeting was conducted. Honored guest was the Grand Master of the Lodge of New Hampshire, Percy H. Bennett. Following a fine ad- dress, he bestowed several 25 year awards and other honors. Sherman Parsons of Wolfeboro was present then 99 years old, and was accorded full honors, having reached his 75th year as a Mason. Mr. Parsons has since passed his own centennial year, and each birthday receives warm greetings from his hometown folks.
An outstanding feature of the meeting was the reading of "A Short History of the Lodge" by James H. Beede, of which he was the author. Beautifully written, and presented by Mr. Beede with real feeling, it was a fine contribution to the Centennial. Mr. Beede is a past master of Red Mountain Lodge, and Past District Deputy Grand Master of the
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SAN* CH - STORCAL SOCIETY
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Sandwich Historical Society Building
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8th Masonic District. All the regular officers of the Lodge took part in the Saturday session, and Worshipful Master Robert N. Peaslee presided. Rev. Walter Lee Bailey opened the meeting with an invocation, and the benediction was asked by Arthur B. Brown, Past Master & chaplain of Red Mountain Lodge. On Sunday morning the Lodge attended church in a body, thus closing their Centennial observance.
Masonic Hall on Main Street, Center Sandwich, was built about 1847, originally as a carpenter shop. From the time the Masons received their charter in 1860, they met on the upper floor of this building. The car- penter, Daniel Folsom, made their furniture, still in use. Later he sold the adjoining house and shop to John M. Quimby and the Masons bought the shop from him. The lower floor was rented until about 1915 when the Masons decided to keep the whole building for their own use. The hall was renovated in 1933 and again in 1958. It is known as the smallest Masonic Hall in the state.
Bearcamp Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star observed its fiftieth anniversary on October 18, 1961. The actual date was October 11, but because of Sandwich Fair, the event was postponed. Mrs. Edrie Burrows and her son Charles were at that time worthy matron and worthy patron respectively. The affair, held in Masonic Hall, was colorful, with many wearing old-fashioned costumes, including the visiting grand officers. The ritual of 1871 was used. Mrs. Lillian T. Heard, a charter member, was presented flowers. Eighteen members of Meredith's Ellacoya Chap- ter attended, that being the sponsoring chapter for the Sandwich group back in 1911. Over the 50-year period Bearcamp Chapter had had 28. worthy matrons and 1 grand patron-Arthur Brown in 1945. Starting with eight members, the chapter has had as many as a hundred, and at. the time of the celebration had eighty-eight.
MOUNT ISRAEL GRANGE
Mount Israel Grange was organized December 22, 1890 on the upper. floor of a building now gone, Skinner Hall, also called Grand Army Hall, located on Main Street between the present Wm. A. Heard house and the one occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hutchins. Civil War veterans apparently bought it as a meeting place and rented it out for dances and plays; hence the second name. The Grange met there, and sometimes in a part of Masonic Hall, until in the early 90's they bought their present. meeting place from the Quakers. For the remodeling J. Alphonso Smith supplied lumber sawed out at Uriah Hoag's mill on Red Hill River, and Hacker Hall of North Sandwich did the work making a second story and other improvements suited to its new use.
SANDWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In 1917 the Sandwich Historical Society was formed. The idea of such an organization originated with Mrs. Carl G. Beede who noticed so many old things and family treasures being taken out of town after auction sales, and thought it would be nice if they might be preserved here along with valuable old records and other historical material. When the idea became known it caught fire and a fine group of Sandwich people, most of them Sandwich-born, began taking an active part in starting the . enterprise. From this beginning in 1917 the Society was formed and a . house rented just north of the Beede school building.
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The Old Home Week excursions began in 1920, acting on Dr. Warren J. Moulton's suggestion that a field day and picnic would be a pleasant way for all to learn about unfamiliar sections of the town. The first one took an interested company to the Notch where they left their cars for wagons and hayracks and saw where cellar holes and trails indicated former homesites. Col. Charles B. Hoyt had arranged for the large lumber company then operating to take the party at Carter's Mill on a logging train for a several miles' ride to a lumber camp-an exciting diversion into the wilds of Sandwich Range.
This was but the beginning of a long series of Historical Excursions, and the start of an accompanying series of pamphlets, of which the latest is No. 43, issued in 1962.
Meanwhile, the Society was incorporated, and had secured perma- nent quarters in its present building, the former Elisha Marston place, which had been bought from Mrs. Emma Gilman for $2000. Thirteen hundred of this amount was pledged at the 1927 meeting. The Society occupied only part of the building for the first eleven years with Mrs. Gilman living there as caretaker. In 1937 they converted the barn into a museum of local history, the house for special displays. Now it is open several days a week summers and on Sandwich Fair Day, October 12.
The museum is rated as one of the best collections of early Americana to be seen anywhere. Of particular interest is the replica of an old country store and postoffice; also the collections of tools, kitchen utensils, locks and keys and powder horns, arranged so painstakingly by the late Herbert O. Warner; and the shoemaker's tools collected and arranged by the late Carl G. Beede.
It must be said, too, that not many towns in the country have their house-to-house history so minutely recorded as has Sandwich in the Historical Society pamphlets. They were started at a time when many of the "older people" were about and gladly reminisced about the old days. The various writers, a different group for almost every excursion, did painstaking research, and also went out ahead of the Excursion to mark the points of interest. In historical circles the Sandwich Society is recognized as having accomplished a unique thing in its building and books and the town should certainly be proud of its outstanding accom- plishment.
OLD HOME ASSOCIATION
Sandwich has an Old Home Week Association, begun here a year ahead of Governor Rollins' proclamation of 1889. It functions every August when a gala week is planned. Intended originally for the folks coming back to their old homes, it is now a time of enjoyment for all our many visitors, many of them summer residents who look on Sandwich now as their second home.
THE SANDWICH WOMAN'S CLUB
The Sandwich Woman's Club is a boon to the community, standing for "intellectual social development and united effort for community welfare," was organized in 1928, and became a member of the General
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Federation of Women's Clubs in 1934. Twenty-one presidents have served it, and it has now close to sixty members. A few years ago the Club started selling plates illustrated with Sandwich scenes, a different one each year, a venture which proved very remunerative. The club has raised a scholarship fund from which several $50 scholarships have been given to Sandwich girls graduating from Quimby. Doubtless the Club will transfer the emphasis to a Sandwich girl graduating from Inter- Lakes High School in Meredith, now that our students will be going there. Another work the Club is carrying on through its Garden Committee is the beautification of Sandwich. Mrs. H. Wadsworth Hight keeps in close touch with the N. H. Roadside Associates, and many prizes have come to the Sandwich Club as a result of her endeavors. She has some seventy or more school children raising flower gardens; she gives them seeds, bulbs and plants, and later takes pictures of the summer's results. Actually this has been her own project for years. The roadside triangles planted to pansies, the church and school plantings, and the picnic tables set out in pleasant spots, are the combined work of the Garden Com- mittee.
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