USA > New Jersey > Union County > Westfield > Historical sketches of Westfield Meeting and School > Part 2
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).
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THE SCHOOL AS I KNEW IT
The schoolhouse faced the South with a large open front, brick paved porch which somewhat sheltered the two doors opening into the two class rooms. A pon- derous key unlocked the doors. The large room on the west was twice as large as the one on the east. The large room had a stove in the middle of it. The teachers made the fire and kept the room tidy, with the assistance of the pupils. The big cellar or basement provided an important place as a rainy day playroom. The small room had three windows, two looking toward the road and one toward the Meeting House. The stove was on the east side of the room. A few years later this room was divided, making a classroom and a cloak room.
Two large desks, eight feet long and divided to ac- commodate four scholars each, were used by the larger children. Each of these desks had a top on hinges to lift up and all of the books, papers and slates were kept inside. Everybody had a slate on which to work arith- metic problems.
The smaller children used the twin desks with fixed tops ; two scholars sitting side by side on a seat fastened to the desk behind them. There was room underneath the top for books and slates.
Howard B. Lippincott recalls "For outside activities, we had a very fine see-saw with cross seats and handles to hold on to. It also had a brake which was out of repair in later years. Its capacity was 12 or 16. I think 16. Dr. Joseph Warrington, a country doctor, was re- sponsible for the see-saw and it was very popular."
The coming of Helen Marshall to Westfield in 1877 brought in a new era in education in the rural schools of this neighborhood, in that it was the first experiment in preparing pupils to enter the freshman class at our colleges. Previously it had been necessary to send chil- dren to Race Street, Westtown or the preparatory school at Swarthmore College. The matter of improving the schools had been under consideration for more than a year, a concern of Clayton Conrow. He wrote to Edward H. Magill, president of the Swarthmore College, and in
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a few days he had a reply recommending Helen Marshall. She was teaching in a public school at West Chester, Pa. The large classes in the public school made it very strenuous work and she wished to change to a Friends School where the work would be less exacting. But at Westfield she actually taught twelve grades until there were thirty pupils, when Abbie Evans came in as a second teacher in 1879.
Before making her decision, Helen Marshall arranged to come to Westfield and was met at Riverton station, taken to the schoolhouse where some of the Committee were in waiting to meet her. After a thorough inspection of the property she accepted the position.
I was a boy of twelve and remember vividly that 7th day 4th Month, 1877 when father brought Helen Marshall to our house for lunch. As they drove up the lane my older brother and I were watching through some knot holes in the carriage house to get a good look at our future teacher, as she got out of the carriage and was ushered into the house.
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WESTFIELD IN HELEN MARSHALL'S TIME
Sarah C. Hutchinson
Helen Marshall came to Westfield in 1877 and stayed with us seven years. In that time with the excellent cooperation of Abbie Evans (1879-1882) remembered for her teaching of grammar, and Charlotte Brewster for the next two years (1882-1884) she taught all the grades and college preparatory. It was a splendid school. As many as eight were prepared for Swarthmore and Mt. Holyoke colleges in those years.
Miss Marshall always started the school day with a Bible reading, reverently, impressively she read. Do you remember perhaps once a week, classes would be asked to stand and for clearer enunciation repeat the lines? "Oh thou that rollest above! Round as the shield of my father's!" and from Hamlet "Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounce it to you trippingly on the tongue. Do not mouth it as many of our players do!"
*Note: The number to enter the Freshman Classes at Swarthmore and Mt Holyoke was increased to more than a score, (I think 23), in the years that followed, as the solid foundation laid by Helen Marshall was con- tinued until 1898 by the employment of College graduates as teachers who were able to carry on the good work.
In 1882 Miss Abbie Evans left for the Sophomore Class at Swarthmore College and Charlotte E. Brewster, a June graduate came to us. Perhaps her teaching of Latin stands out most vividly to the historian-the pupils re- member it yet.
And did we wear hoop skirts? Oh no, hoopskirts were quite out by that time, though I do remember one dear old fashioned lady who wore one, not at school however. But most of us did wear aprons. Yes, the teacher, too, white ones certainly. Dresses extended well below the knees, there were no high heels. Silk stockings were not prevalent ; in Westfield, unthought of. Most of us wore short hair.
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An iron fence around the grounds was new in those days. The girls, from a slight hill near the meeting house, would run and jump the fence. Surprisingly to relate, there were no casualties. In those years there was no well water or city water. "Clara and Lillie you may go for a pail of water," and if the next lesson was ready, off went the girls, and next time the boys, glad to be out carrying the pail on a pole between them, gaily swinging along to Dr. Janney's pump in the heart of the village of Westfield. "And did you have one tin cup apiece?" Oh no, we had one tin cup for everybody. Those teachers certainly produced a school that was a blessing to the neighborhood !
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ASSISTANT TO HELEN MARSHALL Abbie Evans
I went to Westfield Friends school as a teacher after my graduation from Friends Central School. It had been said that when the number of pupils rose to 30 there would be need of an assistant. I was that lucky assistant, for Helen Marshall was principal. She was a fine teach- er and I have always valued my experiences under her guidance. I enjoyed my work, with the children of my neighbors, friends and relatives. I know very little of the school since I left it to go to Swarthmore College, but I know it has been a fine institution for the neighborhood and still is.
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SOME INTERESTING HISTORICAL NOTES ON NEW JERSEY, BURLINGTON COUNTY AND WESTFIELD
George Fox Visits Friends 1672
George Fox in his religious visit to America in 1672 crossed and recrossed New Jersey. He landed in Mary- land from the Barbadoes. I quote from his journal : "We departed from thence (Newcastle) and got over the river Delaware not without great danger of some of our lives. When we were over we were troubled to procure guides : which were hard to get and very chargeable. Then we had that wilderness country to pass through, since called West Jersey, not then inhabitated by English : so that we have travelled a whole day together, without seeing man or woman, house or dwelling place. Sometimes we lay in the woods by a fire and sometimes in the Indians' wigwams or houses ... At another Indian town where we staid the king came to us, and he could speak some English. I spoke to him much and also to his people; and they were very loving to us. At length we came to Middletown, an English plantation in East Jersey and there were some friends."
After visiting in Long Island and Rhode Island he came back to East Jersey at Shrewsbury. He says "They are building a meeting place in the midst of them, and there is a monthly and general meeting set up, which will be of great service in these parts." Later in coming south, he says "The next day, 7-12-1672, we swam our horses over a river about a mile at twice, first to an Island called Upper Dinidock and then to the main land having hired Indians to help us over in their canoes."
Burlington Island was once called Upper Dinidock. They had stayed at an abandoned house the night before in what is now Burlington. George Fox continued south- ward to Maryland where he attended the general meet- ing for all Maryland Friends, near Tredhaven Creek.
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Baltimore Yearly Meeting was established the same year, 1672. He speaks of the gatherings there: "Of the com- mon people it was thought there were sometimes a thou- sand at one of those meetings. I went by boat everyday. four or five miles to the meeting and there were so many boats at that time passing upon the river, that it was almost like the Thames . .. One of the justices said, 'He never saw so many people together in that county'!
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NEW JERSEY PURCHASED BY FRIENDS William Penn Writes the Charter
George Fox was much impressed with New Jersey as a suitable place for settlement of Quakers, where they would be free from persecution. On his return to England in 1673, he stated his hopes to William Penn and other prominent Friends and asked them to be on the watch to buy New Jersey if it should be offered for sale. They did not have to wait long before Lord Berkeley did offer his half share of West Jersey for sale. It was quickly purchased by two Friends, John Fenwick and Edward Byllynge for 1000 'pounds (less than 1/2c per acre) and Fox and Penn realized their opportunity to establish a Quaker Colony in America. Differences arose between Fenwick and Byllynge, and William Penn was asked to act as arbitrator, and when Edward Byllynge became financially involved William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas were appointed Trustees of his interest in West Jersey with power to sell his holdings for the benefit of his creditors.
A second purchase was made in 1680 by these Friends and others from the Duke of York. This grant conveyed the soil and government of West Jersey and included the free use of all bays, rivers and waters for navigation, fish- ing, free trade or otherwise. And finally in 1681 William Penn and eleven associates purchased East Jersey from Lady Carteret for 3400 pounds.
John Fiske, the eminent historian, in his "Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America" refers to the sale of West Jersey to Friends in 1674 as "one of the pivotal events in American history as it soon resulted in bringing Wil- liam Penn to the new world."
"The purchase of 1674 is an event of the greatest his- torical significance for it marks the beginning of the first great Quaker experiment in American Colonization" says Edwin P. Tanner whose "Province of New Jersey" should be read by every student of West Jersey history.
The Quaker leaders turned their attention to drawing up a charter or frame of government and on 3rd Month 3rd, 1676, the "Concessions and Agreements of the pro-
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prietors, free holders and inhabitants of West Jersey in America" were adopted and signed by William Penn and about 150 others who had proprietary rights in the province.
Chapter XV of this charter reads "That these conces- sions, laws or charter of fundamentals be recorded in a fair table in the assembly house; and that they be read at the beginning and dissolving of every general free assembly. And it is further agreed and ordained that the said concessions, common law, or great charter of fundamentals be writ in fair tables in every common hall of justice within this province; and that they be read in solemn manner four times every year in the presence of the people by the chief magistrate of these places."
To the people was left the settlement of all matters of a local character ; the proprietors reserving to themselves merely the shadow of government. The people assem- bled yearly on the 26th of 3rd Month to elect ten honest and able men for the office of commissioners and on 10th Month 1st to elect general assemblies. They also di- rectly elected their local justices and constables. Equal assessments and taxation were guaranteed, but above all absolute religious toleration was assured upon the assertion in Chapter XVI of the Concessions and Agree- ments "that no men, nor numbers of men upon earth, hath power or authority to rule over men's consciences in religious matters; therefore it is consented, agreed and ordained that no person or persons whatsoever, with- in the said province, at any time or times hereafter shall be any ways, upon any pretence whatsoever, called in question, or in the least punished or hurt either in person estate or privilege for the sake of his opinion, judgment, faith or worship towards God in matters of religion."
The right of trial by jury by twelve good and lawful men of his neighborhood was assured before "any in- habitants of West Jersey should be deprived of Life, Limb, Liberty, Estate, Property or anyways hurt in his or their Privileges, Freedoms or Franchises." Here in this charter are set forth the elementary principals un- derlying the "Bill of Rights" which formed so prominent a part of the later Federal and States constitutions" says Lee in his "N. J. Colony and State."
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It was working with the Quaker settlers of New Jersey that gave William Penn his first inspiration for his holy experiment. By drawing up the Concessions and Agree- ments he first experimented in legislation and laws. It was he who signed the deed with Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas as trustees for Edward Byllynge for the land here about us when it was sold by its first Quaker owner.
Judge Richard S. Field in his "Provincial Courts of New Jersey" said of the "Concessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants of West Jer- sey in America"-"A more beautiful fabric of free gov- ernment has never been reared. It should be forever embalmed in the memory of all Jerseymen; never was there a more comprehensive act of religious toleration and never was it violated either in its letter or its spirit. That could be said of the Quakers of New Jersey, which could not be said of the Puritans of New England, that they suffered persecution and had learned mercy."
Note: In addition to the books mentioned in the text I. am indebted to George DeCou not only for many of the facts but even for words and phrases used in "Burling- ton : A Provincial Capital."
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FRIENDS BELIEVE IN EDUCATION
The Quakers were among the earliest exponents of education in the American colonies. Of special signifi- cance was the attitude of the founder of the Quaker col- ony, William Penn, whose holdings included a large part of West Jersey and who exercised a powerful influence in shaping the educational policy of the Quaker settle- ments. The value to society of vocational training is set forth as follows: "Whereas the possibility and wel- fare of any people depend in great measure upon the good education of youth and their early instruction in the prin- ciples of true religion and virtue and qualifying them to serve their country and themselves by breeding (train- ing) in writing and reading and learning of languages and useful arts and sciences, suitable to their sex, age and degree; which cannot be effected in any manner or so well as by erecting public schools for the purpose."
In his letters to his wife, William Penn says also: "For their learning be liberal. Spare no cost, for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved; but let it be useful knowledge such as is consistent with truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain conversation or idle mind; but in- genuity mixed with industry is good for the body and the mind too. I recommend the useful parts of math- ematics, as building houses or ships, measuring,, survey- ing, dialing, navigation, but Agriculture especially is my eye. Let my children be husbandmen and housewives, it is industrious, healthy, honest and of good example."
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THE INFLUENCE OF QUAKER SCHOOLS
"From the time of the early settlements until after the public school system had become thoroughly established (1871) the Quaker schools conducted in connection with the various Quaker meetings under the control of the Society of Friends were an important factor in New Jersey education." C. R. Woodward in "The Develop- ment of Agriculture in New Jersey" continues: The Quakers relative advanced standards of education were reflected in their agriculture, which on the whole was intelligently and successfully conducted."
Dr. George H. Cook was the first director of the New Jersey Experiment Station and was a wise and forward looking leader, and was well liked and appreciated by the farmers of the state. He attributed the prosperity of the Quaker farmers in 1867 largely to education. "The influence of education in agriculture can hardly be over- estimated. In the counties along the Delaware river, which were settled by the Friends, school houses were always built with their meeting houses, the Teachers were paid by the society and the school was free to all. The influence of this is seen in the advanced agriculture of these counties. It is the best in the state and I have no doubt, the best in the United States."
This reminds me of Heulings Lippincott's comment, that the two benches of men who faced the meeting at Westfield, during the time he was growing up in the 1850's, were representative of the best rural citizenship of the country.
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Westfield Monthly Meeting-house built in 1859
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