The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 31

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Weare > The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888 > Part 31

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It was voted at the annual meeting in 1780 to raise £900 lawful money for the support of schools. This seems a large sum, but it must be remembered it was depreciated currency. Then they made a law that the town shall be divided into school districts by the selectmen and that "no person shall absent from one Destrict to another without the consent of the major part of the district or of the selectmen." The schools were kept, although there was an effort made later in the season at a special meeting to discontinue them.

267

SCHOOL LOTS.

1781.]

And then, 1781, those who could not afford to have schools in war . times again obtained the majority, and there were no public schools in Weare for several years. Master Hogg went on with his private one east of Sugar hill, and Mistress Brown taught occasionally in the south part of the town. It was also the custom in many towns at this period to dispense with the grammar school and vote to save the selectmen harmless from all cost and expense that shall arise on account of their not maintaining one.

But in 1785, the war being all over, they had no excuse to let their children grow up in ignorance. So they raised £60, lawful money, instructed the selectmen to divide the town into districts and provide the schools in each. From this time schools have been kept in Weare each year.

The Robietown proprietors, as has been told, reserved lots eight, in ranges two and five, good land - for schools. Wild and uncleared, they yielded no income. So in 1778 the town chose Nathaniel Fifield, Ezra Pillsbury and Abner Hoit a committee to contract "to fall and clear fifty acres on the north school lot, the men who do the work to have three years income and they are to leave it well in grass." This was done, and in time a small sum was yearly realized.

But the town was not satisfied. In 1779 an attempt was made to put the school, minister and ministry rights in a way of improve- ment "for the use of the schools in said town forever." This seemed a diversion of the ministerial lots from their original pur- pose, and of course the church people rallied and voted down the proposition.

Then the matter of revenue from the school lots slumbered till 1783, and when the town woke up, the first proposition was to build a house and barn on the cleared lot. But the majority refused to build, and they then chose John Robie, Timothy Worthley and Obadiah Eaton to take care of the religious and school lots to the best advantage.

Yet the leading men of the town still thought they should be sold and a school fund created, and so at the annual town-meeting in 1785 they voted to dispose of them at vendue to the highest bidder and chose the selectmen a committee to meet with the proprietors' committee and make arrangements for the sale. But few were present at the meeting when this vote was passed.

It raised a storm. The opponents of the measure had a meeting called at once, and the friends of it had the following article inserted

268

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1786.

in the warrant: " To see if the town will vote to sell the school- house right and put the proceeds at interest ; the principal not to be reduced ; the man who has it to give a bond or security that it shall not and the interest to be for the support of schools." Doubts had been raised about their having any legal authority to do this, and so they had another article to see if they would choose a committee to petition the General Court to pass a law legalizing such a sale. At the meeting the majority voted these propositions down, or in the words of the town record it all "went to the negative."

But the friends of schools would not let the matter rest. They brought it up the next year, 1786. Now they had the majority and chose John Robie, Capt. George Hadley and Jonathan Dow a com- mittee to take care of the school lots, and to petition the General Court for liberty to sell them. But the Court neglected or refused to pass a law legalizing the sale, and the matter went over another year.

Then the friends of education, in 1787, determined to rent the school lots for a term "as Long as Wood groes and Warter runs." The town voted this and chose the selectmen, also Samuel Brooks Tobie and Nathaniel Weed a committee to do it. But again there was a violent opposition ; the committee hesitated ; they did not wish to make themselves unpopular; the year went by; nothing was done; the friends of the measure were disheartened, and it was not moved again in town-meeting for three years.

But it was continually discussed, and in 1790 John Hodgdon,*

* JOHN HODGDON, sixth son of Israel and Mary (Johnson) Hodgdon, was born in Dover, N. II., April 22, 1745. From his childhood he was fond of reading, and in one way and another he managed to acquire an excellent practical education, though he attended school but seven days. He drew up all his contracts, deeds, bonds, and obligations of every description; was a good land surveyor, made neat plans of his work and computed the contents by triangulation.

One of the few amusements of his busy life was the solution of problems in " Thomas' Farmers' Almanac " and in the newspapers of that early day.

On the 18th of November, 1771, he purchased of Joshua Corliss, for the sum of £217 16s., the nucleus of the farm at Weare, on which he lived and died. A log house then stood on the premises, but he at once erected a small frame house (about 20 x 12 feet, still standing), which soon gave place to the substantial honse now occupied by his grandson, Moses A. Hodgdon.

John Hodgdon had the usual experience, with rather more than the ordinary suc- cess, that attends pioneer life. Forests gradually disappeared, barns were built, or- chards planted ; and by industry and economy, field was added to field, pasture to pasture, until the "Hodgdon farm " became one of the most noted in the county. He also owned land in Hillsborough, Antrim, Unity, New Boston, Fishersfield and many other towns. In 1799 he purchased of the "Westford & Groton Academy Grant " a large tract of land in the eastern part of Maine, on which the town of Hodgdon now stands. In company with others, he purchased unsold lands in an old grant called the "Packer Right," which involved him in much litigation. In conducting his numerous law-suits, he manifested so much skill and ability, that the late Judge Jeremiah Smithi once said : " I would rather have John Hodgdon associated with inc in a land-suit than any lawyer of the New Hampshire bar." Gov. Samnel Bell, with whom John Hodgdon was associated in real estate transactions, - notably one pur- chase of 31,600 acres in Grafton County, -onee made a similar statement Judge Smith and Governor Bell were his counsel until they were severally raised to the Bench. To a grandson of John Hodgdon, Judge Levi Woodbury once said: "My

269

SALE OF SCHOOL LOTS.

1791.]

Jabez Morrill and Samuel Philbrick, a strong committee, were chosen to sell or lease school lot eight, range five, now under im- provement; they were instructed to loan the proceeds on good security, so that they might be kept intact, the interest to be used for school purposes, and they were to petition the General Court for liberty to do this. As usual, there was violent opposition to the measure, and a meeting was called to reconsider it, but the oppo- nents were not strong enough to do it, and the committee sold the lot and conveyed it by lease to James Hogg. He at once sold one- half of it to Ebenezer Peaslee for £202 14s. lawful money, one- fourth to Jonathan Peaslee for £78 10s. 6d. lawful money, and one- fourth to Nathaniel Fifield for £78 10s. 6d.

In 1791 it was voted that the last committee stand in full power in regard to the school lot and funds, and the selectmen were in- structed to pay John Silley and Jabez Felch for the improvements they had made on it before it was conveyed.

Two years later, in 1793, the town chose John Hodgdon, Samuel Philbrick and Ithamar Eaton to sell the other school lot - eight, in range two. They attended to the duty and sold it to Cutting Favor for $629.

The proceeds were carefully invested, the committee being honest and faithful to their trust, and for many years the town had a good income to lengthen out the schools.

first case was a land-suit, in which John Hodgdon was plaintiff, and much curiosity was manifested at the bar to see who would be the successor of Smith & Bell. The case was well prepared, and the jury gave me a verdict. This case was a great advantage to me, and from that time I had an established reputation, that gave me a very large docket."

Many anecdotes are related in which John Hodgdon's ready sarcasm was very effective. On one occasion when he drove up to the court house at Amherst, where a crowd had assembled, a youthful aspirant to legal honors, called out in a patroniz- ing tone, -" Well, Mr. Hodgdon, so you've come again!" "Yes," he replied, "but if I had no more business here than thee has, I should n't come."

" We must look out for Mr. Hodgdon's sharp tongue," was a common phrase among the lawyers.

Aside from his larger real estate transactions, Mr. Hodgdon bought and stocked many farms for others to cultivate, and was one of the founders of a factory at Hills- borough Bridge, which at one period he carried on alone. He interested himself in improving stock of all kinds. In 1812, he purchased, and brought from Exeter, in his chaise, a Merino buck; about the same time, he bought, on the Connecticut river, a Merino ewe, for which he paid $125, and ten half-breed lambs, for $300

John Hodgdon was a man of large and powerful frame, about six feet one inch in height; thin but muscular, usually weighing about 212 pounds. In politics he was an openly avowed Federalist, looking more at national than local interests. He had an abiding faith in the simplicity of Christianity as taught by the society of Friends, and was a constant student of its distinctively doctrinal works.

He was a man of clear, vigorous intellect, sternly upright, always knew his own mind, and had little patience with indecision and inefficiency. He had an inexhausti- ble fund of ancedote, was quick at repartee in rhyme, as well as prose; pitiless in his satire against meanness and pretence, but kindly and genial.

John Hodgdon married, Jan. 22, 1772, Susannah, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Hussey, of Somersworth. He died Jan. 15, 1821; Susannah, his wife, died Dec. 6, 1841. Issue - Moses, born Aug. 22, 1773. Abigail, born.Aug. 7, 1778; married Daniel Breed; died April 11, 1802.

270

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1784.

As we have seen, towns with a hundred families were to keep a grammar school continuously. Our town had one before the Revo- lution. But the citizens did not take to it kindly after the war was over and omitted to provide one. The attention of the selectmen was called to the law, and in 1784 they put an article in the warrant for town-meeting, to see how much money the town will raise to support a grammar school the present year. At the meeting the town voted not to raise any. Some one threatened to complain of the selectmen, who were themselves liable, and the town voted to pay all the cost that shall arise against them for not having a gram- mar school kept. For the next three years they had none. Then some one, who was aggrieved, presented the selectmen at the Sep- tember term of the Court of General Sessions at Amherst, and they were fined £10 for their neglect. The town voted at a meeting held Dec. 6, 1787, to pay all the cost and save the selectmen harmless.

But they did not let the matter rest; the selectmen in 1788 petitioned the legislature to remit the fine they had incurred for not keeping a grammar school for one month. They gave as reasons : (1) The scattered condition of the inhabitants, (2) their inability to keep one, and (3) that no man requested a grammar school. They added that it was more for the advantage of the town to hire several masters who could teach good English than to have a grammar mas- ter to teach the tongues. John Robie, John Hodgdon and Ithamar Eaton were the selectmen who signed this petition .* The legisla- ture granted it, remitting the fine, and John Robie, our town-clerk for so many years, carried the resolve of the General Court to Am- herst and had the fine abated. He was paid 9s. for his trouble.

This case, with others, accomplished the repeal of the law of 1719 relating to grammar schools and of enacting a new school law, which required that the selectmen assess annually a sum at the rate of £5 for every twenty shillings of the town's proportion of the public taxes. It was to be collected and applied to the sole purpose of

* " We your Pertitioners Humbly Sheweth that the Selectmen of weare have been presented to the Court of General Sessions of the peace in Said County for not keep- ing a grammer School by which meanes we are Liable to pay a fine of ten pounds for one month Neglect the town Considering their Scattered Situation as well as their in- ability Conclud it would be more to the advantage of Said town to hire Several mas- ters that could teach good English and at Such Seasons as they Could Reep most ad- vantage from Said Schools was the Reason their was Not a grammar School hired as the law Directs no man in Said town Required it Therefore we your pertioners humbly Request you would Release and Remit Said fine your pertitioners Shall Ever pray

" Dated at weare June 6th, 1788

- Town Papers, vol. xiii, p. 642.

JOHN ROBIE JOHN HODGDON Selectmen " ITHAMAR EATON ).

271

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

1785.]

keeping an English grammar school or schools for reading, writing and arithmetic, except in shire or half shire towns, which shall also keep a grammar school to teach the Latin and Greek languages. Persons to be qualified to teach had to produce a certificate to that effect from some able and reputable school master, learned minister, the preceptor of some academy, or president of some college. The selectmen were liable for the school money if they failed to assess and collect it. Our town had no more grammar schools for teach- ing the "tongues," and the citizens were happy.

The town, as has been told, naturally divided itself into districts at the outset, and there were the Mountain Road, the New Boston Road, River Road, Philbrick's, North Road or " Shuggar hill," Cen- ter Road and District by Captain Atwood's.

This arrangement continued until 1779, when at the annual meet- ing the citizens voted that the town shall be divided into school dis- tricts by the selectmen. This was legislation by the town, for there was then no state law about school districts. Under this vote as many as eleven districts were established : - Friends, School hill, Caldwell and Barnard hill districts being added to the above.

The town was very jealous that some of the scholars would not go to school in their own proper districts, and so they made a further law, " that no person shall absent from one district to another with- out the consent of the major part of the district or of the select- men." In 1785 the town passed nearly the same vote, and the selectmen were to divide the town into districts and provide the schools in each. This law lasted only one year, for we find that in 1786 it was voted that the selectmen and assessors make the districts "and that no district shall not infringe upon any other." There was evidently some crowding, or a disposition not to abide by the division made by the town.

At the annual meeting in 1792 the town chose a committee of seven* to make the division. They divided the town into fourteen districts, which stood till 1805, when the state made a new school law, and the town, acting under it, chose a new committee and made another arrangement.

* The committee were: John Hodgdon, Ithamar Eaton, Ezekiel Cram, James Emerson, John Page 2d, Ichabod Eastman, Richard Philbrick. They named the districts as follows: "1. Tobie, 2. Philbrick, 3. Bayley, 4. Morrill, 5. Atwood, 6. Worthley, 7. Emerson, 8. Barnard, 9. Brown, 10. Eaton, 11. Fifield, 12. Peaslee, 13. Center, 14. Caldwell," and the schools were taught that year in Nos. 1, 6, 12, 13 and 14, by Joseph Sherborn; Nos. 2, 3 and 4, by John Silley, Jr .; Nos. 5 and 9, by Mas- ter Staritt; No. 7, by Master O'Nail; No. 8, by Richard Adams; No. 10, by Jonathan Fisk, and No. 11, by Chase Hadley.

272

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1785.

The first schools were kept in the barns or houses of the citizens. When and where the first school-house was built we do not know ; no one has told us, but it was probably at South Weare, and the next one on School hill, built as early as 1785. It stood till 1792, when the district was broken up and the Brown district, near East Weare, and the Eaton district, were formed.

The first mention of a school-house we have found is in the town clerk's book, 1787. In the warrant for a special town-meeting, to be held December 6, was an article to see if the town will vote to build school-houses in such places as shall be appointed and what method the town will take for building the same. No record was made of how the citizens voted on this article, and it was probably passed over or went to the negative. Two years later, 1789, a similar article was put in the warrant, to see if the town will vote to build school-houses and where they shall be located to "Comadat" the town to the best advantage, and if thought proper, to choose a committee for the same. This article fared the same way. There is no record that anything was done.

The town was negligent, and some of the districts would not wait. Without authority they went forward and built houses for them- selves. No doubt the first one was a rude log structure, square, "four roofs," coming to a peak at the top, the door in the south- east corner, rough benches for seats, placed on an inclined floor on the west side, no desks, the master's platform on the north side, on which was a rough table, a pile of wood on the east side, and a great stone fire-place with a huge chimney stack in the center, around which the children, when tired of sitting, would march to the music of their own voices. The first school in the new school-house in the Brown district, East Weare, was kept by Master O'Nail, on the strict moral-suasion plan. It is told that, in marching round the chimney one day, Patsey Schearer, a large girl, when she got opposite the teacher, who was sitting on the platform, stooped over and gave him a "bouncing buss." O'Nail cried out, "Now, Pat, that is too bad, right here; you ought to have waited till we got home."

The selectmen, in 1793, put an article in the warrant to see if the town will build a school-house in each district by a tax in propor- tion to the school tax and give credit to all districts that have already built houses. At the meeting held March 12th, the town voted to do this.

273

SCHOOL-HOUSES.

1794.]

It was a good vote, but they did not carry it out. Nothing was done, for we find that in 1794 the selectmen put another similar article in the warrant "to see if the town will build Convenient School houses so as to have one in each district, by a public tax ; to choose a committee to see that said houses are built, to give credit to such districts as have built or part built houses in any district that will serve said purpose, to appraise them and their present value to go towards compleating them." This article shows what had been done, that some districts had school-houses and others had none, but there is no record that the town acted upon it at the meet- ing or built any school-houses this year.

The town passed a strange vote on the same subject in 1800. It was that each district might go forward and build a school-house at its own expense. If they could not agree upon its location the selectmen would fix the same. If any citizens would not pay their part, then those who do pay shall own the house; those who do not pay can come in by paying. The town was very kind.

The first school-teacher, as we have seen, was a school-dame. After the Revolution the town seemed to prefer masters, and the law contemplated them. There were a great number of foreigners teaching in the country, and Irish school-masters were plenty in Weare. All male teachers went by the name of masters. Among the most .popular of these was Master Richard Adams. He was a very pious man and also very profane. He was once praying at home, when his old sow with a litter of pigs came into the kitchen. Adams heard her, stopped and said to his wife, "Jennie, Jennie, you damn bitch, drive that cussed old sow out of the kitchen," and closing his eyes he went right on with his prayer.

Once he taught on Sugar hill and had as many as twenty great boys, each six feet tall, among his pupils. One day they marched in single file, and one of them seized a burning brand from the hearth and shouted, "Shoulder firelock." Master Adams ordered "Ground firelock, damn ye," and gave the leader a blow at the same instant which felled him to the floor. The boys behaved first-rate after that, gave no more military orders in school, and several of them, in time, became teachers.

He was very particular about the way the scholars should stand, and when he saw a certain boy standing, arms behind him, palms open, he told the school that if they saw a great lazy fellow doing that, to put coals of fire in his hands. Master Adams soon stood

274

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1794.

that way himself, and the same youth crept behind him and put a live coal in his palm. The teacher swore, jumped, rubbed his hand, then laughed and said "Good boy ! good boy!"

When he taught at Weare Center he had more scholars than the school-house would accommodate, and he put some up-stairs on a thin floor full of cracks. Skipper John Chase, then a bright, good- natured boy, was one of these, and he had a pin hook attached to a string which he let down to hitch in the girl's noses. Adams saw it, called Skipper down, told him he would get one "damned etarnal hushing," and ordered him to go and get a stick such as he thought he ought to be whipped with. The boy went out and got a long willow and cut it half off in many places. When the master lifted it to strike, it "flew all to pieces," and he was so pleased with the boy's wit that he told him to go back and see if now he could not do a little studying. In this way he made himself popular, and without doubt was the best teacher Weare ever had.

One of his rules, which applied to himself as well, was that no scholar should step inside of the school-room with his hat on. It chanced one time that he forgot himself and violated the rule. One of the boys saw him, went slyly behind him and crushed the mas- ter's hat down over his eyes, hurting him badly. Adams said to him, "God bless my soul, my son, you are a nice fellow," and at once took out and gave to him a silver shilling.

Master Adams lived west of Burnt hill, in a log house, at first. He had one frail child, a daughter, who, he said, was not worth raising. She grew up, became strong, married a wealthy man and supported her father in his declining years. The old man was very grateful and spent the last of his days with her in Canada.

Old Master Robert Hogg was also an excellent teacher and dis- ciplinarian, but not quite so popular. The boys thought he was too strict, so they met, decided to commence war on him the next day and chose Joseph Felch, Jr., " a great broad-shouldered six-footer," captain. When the time came Captain Felch stepped to the wood- pile behind the chimney, took a stick, put it to his shoulder, saying, "Shoulder arms." His men all sprung to their feet for action. But Master Hogg was too quick for them. Shouting " Ground arms," he caught up a cudgel and knocked Captain Felch senseless to the floor. His men were so dismayed at seeing their leader fall that they at once took their seats, and the school was perfectly orderly all the rest of the term.

275

THE DARK DAY.

1780.]

Master Jacob Hale, of Hopkinton, taught school in Fifield's dis- trict on Sugar hill in 1785. They had a log school-house there then. Hale was an astronomer and loved to go out nights to look at the stars. A great many things were lost during the winter in that school district, but no one suspected that Hale took them. He was too nice a young man for that. When the snow was gone and the spring had come, Colonel Fifield, while fixing fence on the edge of a woods, found under a great rock two harnesses, hoes, shovels, iron bars, some hams, shirts, sheets and pillow cases enough for several families, and had the pleasure of restoring them to their respective owners. It could not be proved that Hale did the mischief.

Many other excellent masters* taught in Weare about this time, among whom, in the Hodgdon district, was Samuel Bell, afterwards United States senator and governor of New Hampshire.

We close this chapter on schools at the end of the last century. Early in the present one the state made great changes in the school laws relative to school districts, houses, committees and text books, all which will hereafter be told.

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The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 31

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co. Number of Pages: 1240

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240