USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Barrington > A history of Barrington, Rhode Island > Part 41
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The following memoranda illustrate the business side of the tuition schools of that period :
Nov. 29, 1817. An agreement was made between Alva Carpenter of Seekonk, a member of the senior class of
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
Brown University, and the subscribers of the North District, Barrington, by which said Carpenter was to open and teach a school for the term of three months, at $13 a month ; to commence December 1 ; to teach the branches usually taught in Common English schools, viz. : reading, writing, arithmetic, English, grammar, geography, etc."; the sub- scribers to furnish, "at some convenient place, good and sufficient board, lodging, etc.," and to pay each his propor- tion of the expenses of said school, according to the number of pupils sent to said school. It appears that there were fifty-one scholars who attended, and the tuition was about $1.75 a scholar for the full term of three months.
The first report of the school committee to the town, as to funds received from the state, was made April 21, 1830, and was as follows :
BARRINGTON, April 21st, 1830.
The Committee of the Town of Barrington under the Free School Act, report as follows as regards the public money appropriated by the State for said Town :
For the summer school in North District
$9 50
For winter school
66
19 00
28 50
For summer school in South District
8 33
For winter school 66
17 13
25 46
For summer school in East District
21 50
For winter school
Amt. $75 46
BENJ. MEDBURY for the Committee.
From this date the school committee has made an annual report to the town covering financial and educational condi- tions.
It appears from a report made to the General Assembly in 1828, that Barrington had three schools, kept winter and summer, and in 1832, three schools 113 pupils, a male teacher three months in winter, a female teacher three months in summer.
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INTERIOR BARRINGTON HIGH SCHOOL.
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HENRY BARNARD.
In IS40 the State Census showed the population of Bar- rington to be 549; under fifteen years, 193 ; between five and fifteen of school age, 128; the town appropriated $50 for schools, the first made by the town; received from State $160.30 ; total, $210.30.
North District; children, 7S; money for summer and winter schools
South District; children, So; money for summer and winter
East District; children, schools .
$80 II schools . 42; money for summer and winter $47 55 .
It was not until what was called the awakening of 1843, that public education received the general attention at all proportioned to its importance. The movement then inau- gurated in the State Legislature by Hon. Wilkins Updike, and the appointment of Hon. Henry Barnard as School Com- missioner of the State, by Governor Fenner, lie at the foun- dation of nearly all, in the history of public schools in our State or town that can be reviewed with any high degeee of satisfaction. Since that period no friend of education in our State need be ashamed of the progress made and the success that has been achieved. Of this movement, Barrington was one of the first to reap the advantage. Two new school buildings were soon erected, and a third was repaired and re- fitted. The new building in the South or Nayatt district, was one of the best of its grade in New England. Its furni- ture and fixtures were after the best models of the time. Through the efforts, chiefly, of two members of the district, the school was furnished with an excellent library of six hundred volumes, which, in connection with other influences, did much to elevate the standard of education in the town.
Mr. Barnard, in his report on school architecture, inserted a cut of the new Nayatt school house, and said of it, "The new schoolhouse in Dist. No. 2, Barrington, is the most at- tractive, convenient, and complete structure of the kind in any agricultural district in the state-and, it is believed, in New England."
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
The building was 40 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 12 feet high, and built after working plans by Tefft of Providence, and cost $1,200. The desks, seats, ventilation and heating, maps, blackboards, globes, and other apparatus were the best then furnished, and the school furnishings reflected great credit on the district.
A comparison of a few items in the statistics of the town in 1844 with those of 1875 and 1895, will throw some light upon the progress of the cause of education during the inter- vening periods.
In 1844 the population of the town was 549; the number of children under fifteen years of age, 188; the aggregate value of property in the town, $316,733; the amount ex- pended for public schools, $241.56, of which $75 was raised by taxation, or $1.29 per child.
In 1875 the population was 1, 185 ; number of children un- der fifteen years, 332; the aggregate value of property in the town, $1,494,805 ; number of pupils enrolled, 166; aver- age number belonging, 124; average attendance, 109; num- ber of graded schools, four ; average length of schools, nine months and thirteen days; State appropriation, $485.65 ; town and district appropriations, $3,683.17; total appropria- tions, $4, 168.82 ; value of school property, $11,000. In 1885 the population was 1,394; children between five and fifteen, 225 ; value of town property, $1,917, 750 ; number of pupils enrolled, 222 ; average number belonging, 164; average at- tendance, 136 ; length of schools, nine months, nineteen days; money from State, $837.16; from town, $2,300; from all sources, $3,704.22 ; value of school property, $9,500; cost per month for each pupil's instruction. $1.95.
In 1895 the population was 1,668 ; number of children between 8 and 15, 240 ; value of town property, $2, 161,900 ; number of pupils enrolled, 262 ; average number belonging, 186 ; average attendance, 166; average length of schools, IO months ; money from State, $1,019.98; money from town. $4,700 ; from all sources, $5,987; value of school property, $11,000; cost per month for each pupil's instruction, $2.43.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
Barrington has elected a person as school superintendent for more than forty years. Rev. Francis Wood held the office in 1855, and his successors have been Rev. Francis Horton, Thomas W. Bicknell, Rev. S. Brenton Shaw, Isaac F. Cady, Mrs. George Lewis Smith, Fred P. Church, Rev. W. M. Chapin, and George Lewis Smith. Mrs. Smith was the first woman to occupy the office of superintendent in our town schools, and had prior to her marriage been one of the most successful teachers of the town.
One of the most important acts of the town in educational progress was the establishment of a public high school in 1884. This subject was first brought to the attention of the people as a much needed and practical measure, by the writer, while Superintendent of Schools, in his report made to the town, April, 1868. It was suggested that the estab- lishment of a high school in Barrington would add another to the various advantages the town then possessed for attracting the best class of people to the town, as well as afford better opportunities to the boys and girls then seeking a better education than the common schools could give. It was also urged that a high school would elevate all the grades below it, and would aid in the preparation of teachers for our own and other towns. Two years later, in 1870, Mr. Isaac F. Cady, principal of the high school in Warren, for twenty-five years, at the earnest solicitation of the people, erected buildings for a school and a dwelling house, on land he had owned for several years at Prince's Hill, and opened the Prince's Hill Family and Day School, in Barrington. His idea was to have a few family or boarding pupils, living under his influence in his own family, - the balance of the school to be made up of day pupils from the town. This excellent school continued until 1880, when, on account of ill health Mr. Cady was obliged to give it up. Part of the time he had an assistant for the younger scholars. The largest number of pupils at one time was forty-seven. Sev- eral were fitted for college. The school year began with the first Monday in September, and consisted of four terms of
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
ten weeks each, with one week recess between terms. The tuition was ten dollars per term. The family or boarding scholars paid four hundred dollars per year for tuition, books, stationery, board, and washing. The building erected for the school cost, including fixtures, about $3,000. After Mr. Cady closed his school, he with others, notably Mr. D. A. Waldron, started the Barrington Public Library, and Mr. Cady's schoolhouse was used as a library building until the erection of the town building. The town high school was also held in this building when first started. The Trustees of the library concluded it was not conducive to the best in- terest of the library to have the school in the same room, and requested the school committee to find other accommoda- tions for the school, which they accordingly did. The value of a school of a higher grade than the district schools had been so clearly illustrated by Mr. Cady's school, that the people felt the need of a town high school, and the following resolution was presented to the town at the annual town meeting, April 2, 1884, by Mr. George Lewis Smith, one of the earliest and warmest advocates of the measure :
" Whereas, It appears to many of the taxpayers that the children in this town who are advanced in their studies can be educated to much better advantage if placed in a graded school by themselves ; and whereas, some of the schools are now filled to or beyond the capacity of the school-rooms, and many parents feel obliged to send their children to other towns for their common school education ;
Resolved, That the School Committee be and they hereby are instructed to secure a suitable room at an annual rental of not exceeding $200, to properly fit and furnish the same, and to establish a school for such scholars, residing in this town, as shall pass such an examination as said committee may prescribe, and said committee shall employ a suitable male or female teacher in their discretion, at a proper com- pensation, and incur such other expenses as are right and proper to conduct said school, and that the same shall be paid for out of the appropriation for public schools.
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HIGH SCHOOL.
The resolution was adopted by a vote of 74 yeas to one nay vote.
The School Committee followed instructions, and the Bar- rington High School was opened in Mr. Cady's school build- ing at Prince's Hill, with about thirty pupils, under the principalship of Mr. J. N. Eno, on the 30th of August, 1884. Mr. Eno taught a single term, until Nov. 21, 1884, and was followed by Mr. B. F. Thurston, whose services extended from Dec. 4, 1884, to March 6, 1886. Mr. S. M. Abbott took charge of the school March 29, 1886, and left Aug. 3, ISS9. Mr. Walter H. Russell was principal from Aug. 29, 1889, to June 30, 1894. The present principal, Mr. R. F. Colwell, has had charge of the school since Sept. 3, 1894. The female assistants have been Miss Laura F. Parker, Miss Harriet L. Weeks, Miss Gertrude Walker, Miss Elizabeth Penny, and the present assistant, Miss Elizabeth Waite. When the town hall was erected, provision was made for the accommodation of the High School, and in 1888 the school was transferred to the new quarters, where it is supplied with valuable apparatus, a good reference library, and all the furnishings required for the comfort and advancement of the pupils. The High School has a graded course of studies, in- structs in mathematics, the sciences, language, history, liter- ature, etc., and prepares pupils for college, has accom- plished all that its early advocates and friends claimed for it, and is now a permanent factor in the educational agencies of the town. One of the best evidences of its usefulness is the record of the graduating classes of the school. Several of these graduates have entered the State Normal School ; others have entered college, and one, Miss Jessie G. Tiffany, is a graduate of Pembroke College, the women's department of Brown University. Under "College Students" and " Normal School Pupils " will be found the names of several graduates of the school.
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
GRADUATES OF THE BARRINGTON HIGH SCHOOL.
Class of 1888.
Ella M. Kirby, Walter T. Anthony, Willard A. Bourne,
Margaret Ellen Kirby, Mary Elizabeth Smith, Benjamin E. Martin. Edward D. Anthony, Jennie B. Horton,
1889. No graduates.
1890.
Jessie G. Tiffany,
Hannah Holmes.
1891.
William Watson,
George A. Anthony, Laura Smith.
Elliot Lewis, Edward Holmes,
1892. Abby E. Holmes.
1893. Sarah Smith.
1894.
Russell W. Baker,
Elizabeth C. Holmes,
Melvin F. Church, Marion L. Read.
1895.
Wilmarth H. Colwell, Arthur Covell,
John McEleny,
Lucinda M. Burke, Florence Martin, Clara E. Gardiner,
Marcia E. Burt.
1896.
John S. Colwell, George Smith, Alice Bates,
Marion K. Smith, Sybil E. Covell, Mattie E. Bowden.
1897.
Floy Montrose Granger Lewis, Helen Gertrude Medbury, Ruth Lathrop Anthony, Ina Everette Watson Maxfield,
Charlotte Dunbar Field, Alice Brown Gardiner, Ida Lizzie Gardiner, Phanuel Bishop Covell.
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STUDENTS IN THE NORMAL SCHOOL.
GRADUATES OF RHODE ISLAND NORMAL SCHOOL FROM BARRINGTON.
Entered.
Graduated.
Harriet A. Rea, . Sept., IS71
June 2S, IS72
Taught ever since she graduated at Doyle Avenue Grammar School.
Cornelia M. Goff, . Feb. 7, IS72 Jan. 22, IS74
240 Lockwood Street, Providence.
Sarah Leonard Horton, . Sept., 1873 - June 25, 1875 Married H. M. Williams in IS92.
Mt. Vernon, Westchester County, New York.
Mary Kellogg Cady, Barrington Center, . Sept. 1, IS74 June 25, IS75 Mrs. G. H. Whitcher, 12S Broadway, Providence.
Florence Nightingale Heath, Bar. Center, Feb. 7, 1877 Jan., ISSI
Mrs. Fred P. Church.
Mary A. Cornell, Grad. Warren High School, Sept., ISSo Deceased. Mrs. Austin A. Darrah, Warren, R. I.
Jan. 27, ISS2
Abbie M. Martin, Barrington Center, . .
Sept., ISSO
Jan., IS83
120 Hanover Street, Providence, R. I.
Lillia M. Boyden, Sept., IS84 June 2S, 18S9
Married Henry F. Keach, IS92. Greenville, R. I.
Katherine F. Doran, Nayatt Point, Sept., ISS4 July 1, 18S7
14 Creighton Street, Providence. Teaching at Smith Street, Providence.
Ella Margaret Kirby, Grad. Bar. H. S., . Sept., 1888 June 28, 1889
Jesse Goodwin Tiffany, Grad. Bar. H. S. . Sept. 2, IS90 Jan. 15, 1892 Graduated at Brown University, Class of '97.
Teaching at a school (boarding and day) of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
Lucinda May Burke, Drownville,
Sept. 3, 1895 June IS, 1897 Teaching in Auburn.
STUDENTS AT THE RHODE ISLAND NORMAL SCHOOL, FROM BARRINGTON, NOT GRADUATES.
Entered.
Rachel A. Tiffany, .
Sept., 1871
Waitie Allen Matteson,
Sept., IS74
Hattie A. Bowen,
Feb., ISSI
Ellen T. Tobin,
. Feb., 1832 Joanna E. Godfrey,
. Sept., ISS2
Martha W. Miller, .
Sept., ISS2
Emma E. Staples, Sept., 18S2
Maggie Ellen Kirby
. Sept., ISSS
.
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
The town is well provided with schoolhouses, with the best of modern equipments. The pictures of these houses and grounds, with the teachers and pupils in attendance, taken May 11, 1898, are the best description that can be given of the physical status of education in Barrington at the close of the nineteenth century. Barrington has a school committee of five members, elected by the town for a term of three years ; a salaried superintendent ; a male prin- cipal and a female assistant teacher of the High School, and six female teachers of the primary and grammar grades ; the town owns school property to the value of about $11,000; it expends between $5,000 and $6,000 annually to furnish a common school education to about 200 pupils. These with the statistics given above, furnish the facts by which to de- termine the progress of the town during a century of free schools, and the basis for calculating the advance that may be made during the century to come. The advantages for education for Barrington children have been supplemented by private tutors and private schools in and out of town. During the ministries of Rev. Solomon Townsend and Rev. Samuel Watson, students prepared for college and the min- istry under their instruction.
In 1842, Miss Eliza C. Smith and Miss Judith R. Bowen opened a private school at the Forest Chapel, located on land on the east side of the main road and north of the rail- road, at Barrington Centre. The school was an excellent one, but was discontinued at the end of two years. Rev. Francis Wood conducted a private school in his own house, about 1848. The writer bought and studied his first Latin grammar while at this school. Between 1853 and 1865, a private school, English and Classical, was conducted in the hall of the Remington tavern, by the brothers Clapp, and later by Rev. Mr. Walker. Between 1830 and 1840, a number of Barrington pupils attended a private academy at Washington Village, Coventry, R. I., and, in later years, the classical school at Seekonk ; and the schools of Providence have been patronized by Barrington students. Several
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ST. ANDREW'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
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ST. ANDREW'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
others, among whom was the writer, attended school at Thetford Academy, Thetford, Vt. The most successful private school of Barrington was conducted by Mr. Isaac F. Cady, from 1870 to 1880, to which reference has been made under High Schools.
THE ST. ANDREW'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
This school had its origin in the benevolent spirit and labors of Rev. W. M. Chapin, rector of the Episcopal Church in Barrington. At first a few pupils at his own residence satisfied him of the need of such a school. Mr. Chapin afterwards associated with him in the work, Mr. W. F. Keach, Mr. E. J. F. Coleman, Mr. Charles C. Gardiner, Mr. Zechariah Chafee, Mr. Charles A. Warland, Mr. W. O. Blanding, Mr. W. W. White, Mr. George Gordon King of Newport, and others, in sympathy with his plans to furnish a home and school for boys who needed the opportunity of a fair chance to develop into good and noble men. St. An- , drew's Industrial School was begun in 1893 at Barrington, R. I., to give a home and training to homeless and helpless boys. When the first boy came in June, the school had nothing but the rent of some land and a good barn on Rumstick Point assured for one year. The boys' food was promised for the summer, in return for work. The second summer the boys lived in a little house they had themselves built on the farm. As time went on the number of boys in- creased, and, though no one to this day knows how, the money for their support came in. A permanent home was leased for them in 1895, after two years of temporary expe- dients. Then the full purpose of the school began to take shape. The gift of $1,000 came without warning. In 1895 the Joshua Bicknell house and ten acres of land were pur- chased, and a corporation was formed to hold the property. Membership in the corporation is open to men of any or no denomination. The President is the Bishop of Rhode Island, and he appoints and removes the Chaplain of the school. School training, farming, gardening, carpentering, and other
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industries occupy the pupils. "The Hardy Memorial Build- ing," erected by Mrs. Hardy in memory of her husband and "The Andrews Cottage," and a barn, have been erected on the property, and seventeen acres of land have been added to the first purchase. Warden Chapin states the purposes of the school briefly as follows : "First of all, we want to give these boys a real home. This requires a woman's in- fluence, and it necessitates that there shall not be a large number of boys in the house. So we plan for a series of cottages, each accommodating fifteen boys with a house mother. We now own one house and hire another. Sec- ondly, this is a school. The boys are taught all the em- ployments on a small farm, the planting and cultivation of the gardens and the fields, the care of the barn and of the live stock. They are also taught something of carpentry ; and now, in the Sloyd room, will get a more scientific edu- cation. The study in books is to go on at the same time, while we hope to introduce the different trades, one by one, into the course. We are ready now for the gift of a good- sized carpenter's shop, and a greenhouse. Thirdly, the boys are trained with the idea of industry as a means of self- support. Every boy has a distinct work assigned him, for which he is held responsible."
OFFICERS.
President : Rt. Rev. THOMAS MARCH CLARK;
Warden : Rev. William M. Chapin; Secretary : E. J. F. Coleman ; Treasurer : W. F. Keach, No. 1, Custom House Street.
BOARD OF MANAGERS : Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark Providence,
Rev. W. M. Chapin Barrington, E. J. F. Coleman Providence,
W. F. Keach . 66
Zechariah Chaffee
Charles C. Gardiner
W. W. White 66
W. O. Blanding
Charles A. Warland . Pawtucket.
Chaplain : Rev. W. M. Chapin ; Vice Warden : Arthur F. Shepard ; House Mother : Mrs. Mary Parker.
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COLLEGE STUDENTS.
COLLEGE STUDENTS AND GRADUATES FROM BARRINGTON.
ALLIN, WILLIAM, A. M. Son of Gen. Thomas Allin, entered B. U. 1786; grad. 1790; taught school ; studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in R. I. Courts; was a Justice of the Peace for Barrington ; member of the General Assembly; Town Clerk from IS16-IS29; d. 1829; buried in Allen Land.
BABCOCK, CHARLES GIFFORD. Freshman, B. U .. IS96-97.
BICKNELL, THOMAS WILLIAMS, A. M., LL.D. Son of Allin and Harriet Byron (Kinnicutt) Bicknell ; common schools of Barrington ; grad. at Thetford Academy, Vt., March. 1850-July, IS53; Amherst Coll., Freshman year, 1853-4; teacher at Elgin, Ill., and Rehoboth, Mass., from 1854 to Feb., IS57; grad. B. U., 1860; teacher at Bristol High School and Providence, R. I., from May, 1860, to May, IS69; Com- missioner of Public Schools, R. I., from June, 1869, to Jan. 1, 1875 ; editor and publisher, Boston, Mass., from Jan., 1875, to March, 1886; editorial and literary work from 18S6 to the present time. Published works : Life of William Lord Noves, 1863; Brief History of Barring- ton, IS70; Reports of School Commissioner, 1869-1875; Educational Addresses; Historical Addresses ; The History of Barrington, 1898.
BOURNE, ALEXANDER PHENIX, A. B. Son of Rev. Shearjashub J. Bourne ; grad. B. U., 1890; Andover Theo. Sem., IS94; School of Theol. Har- vard Coll .; ordained Congregational minister, 1895 ; assistant pastor Cong. Church, Exeter, N. H., IS9S.
CADY, HENRY NEWELL, A.B. Son of Isaac Foote Cady ; grad. B. U. 1869; Artist; address, Germantown, Penn.
COLWELL, WILMARTH HOLT. Son of Rev. W. H. Colwell ; Freshman year 1895-6, B. U .; entered business life, 1897.
CHAPIN, CHARLES VALUE, A. M., M. D. Son of Joshua Bicknell Chapin. grad. B. U. 1876; College of Physicians and Surgeons and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, N. Y. ; house physician, Bellevue Hospital, 1879-So; physician, Providence, R. I., Superintendent of Health, 1884 -; Prof. Physiology, Brown University, ISS6 -; registrar births, marriages, and deaths, Providence, 1889 -; author "Sympathetic Nerve : Its Relation to Disease," ISSo; "Origin and Progress of the Malarial Fever now Prevalent in New England," 1884; "Present State of the Germ Theory of Disease," ISS5; " Methods and Practi- cal Results of the Treatment of the Malarial Diseases now Prevalent in New England "; " What Changes has the Germ Theory Made in the Means for the Prevention and Treatment of Consumption ?" ISSS; "Role of Ptomaines in Infectious Diseases," IS89; " Methods for the Prevention of Scarlet Fever," 1888; " Some Points in the Etiology of Typhoid Fever," 1889; " Disposal of Garbage in the City of Prov- idence, R. I.," 1893; " Purification of Public Water Supplies," 1893; "Census of the City of Providence," IS93; "Reports of the Super-
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
intendent of Health," ISS4 -; " Reports on Births, Marriages, and Deaths Recorded in Providence," ISSS; " Index of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Recorded in the City of Providence," vol. 5, 1894. Ad- dress, 84 Keene Street, Providence, R. I.
CHAPIN, JOSHUA BICKNELL. Son of Seth and Mary (Bicknell) Chapin ; received his preparatory education at Wrentham Academy; grad. B. U. 1835; studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical School, with degree of M. D. in 1838; practised in Providence, and in IS43 entered the drug business with Geo. Thurber, as Chapin & Thurber ; in IS55, entered the daguerreotype business with Henry Manchester; was always greatly interested in educational matters, and was Commis- sioner of Public Schools, R. I., IS59 to 1862, and 1863 to 1869. He resided in Providence, except from IS58 to 1866, when he lived in Bar- rington. His home in that town was immediately west of the Drownville station. Born, ISI4; died, ISSI.
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