USA > Vermont > Addison County > Cornwall > History of the town of Cornwall, Vermont > Part 18
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Hon. Darius Matthews was the second physician who settled in Middlebury, and among the most respectable of the early settlers.
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He was born in Cheshire, Conn., Dec. 11, 1766. At the age of thirteen be removed to Tinmouth, in Rutland county, and having a fondness for study, and perseverance in the pursuit of learning, he had obtained a sufficient education to engage in the responsible duties of school teaching, at the age of fourteen. By the same persevering disposition and efforts, he made himself sufficiently acquainted with the science of medicine, under the tuition of Dr. Marvin of Tinmouth, to be licensed to practice at the age of twenty-one. At that age he commenced the practice of his profes- sion in Salisbury, but removed to Middlebury in 1789. In 1798, he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court, in 1801 Judge of Probate for the District of Addison, which then embraced the whole county, and in 1802, clerk of the County Court. From this time he relinquished the practice of his profession, and devoted his attention to the faithful and very satisfactory discharge of the duties of his several offices. He continued in the offices of Judge of Probate and Clerk of the Supreme Court until his death, and in the office of Clerk of the County Court until 1808. In that year he exchanged his house and lot in Middlebury, for the farm of Ethan Andrus, Esq., in Cornwall, now occupied by his son, Rev. Lyman Matthews. He. was elected a representative of Cornwall in the Legislature from 1811 to 1817 inclusive. By the charter of Middlebury College, he was made one of the original members of that Corporation, and continued a judicious and useful member and friend and helper of that institution until the close of his life. He was a member of the Congregational Church and Society in Middlebury as well as in Cornwall, and everywhere a firm advocate and supporter of religious and literary institutions. He was some- what reserved in his conversation and manners, and possessed an uncommonly cool and deliberate judgment and conservative dispo- sition. By these traits he exerted, in all his relations, an extensive and salutary influence." " He was one of the first in this part of the country," remarks Dr. Merrill in his semi-centennial discourse, " who conducted a large farm without the use of spirituous liquors. Indeed he was incessant in every good work, till death released him frora his labors, October 8th, 1819, at the age of fifty-three years."
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CHAPTER XXI.
EDUCATIONAL -- SCHOOLS-FIRST DIVISION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS SCHOOL LANDS - SUPERINTENDING SCHOOL COMMITTEE -- APPRO- PRIATION OF SURPLUS FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS -- SCHOOL HOUSES - "OLD RED" SCHOOL HOUSE - "BRICK " SCHOOL HOUSE - CHANGES IN DISTRICTS - SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS - SELECT SCHOOLS.
Among the early movements of the first settlers of Cornwall, was the adoption of measures to secure for the community, facilities for education. At the annual March ingeting, March 5, 1787, Thomas Bentley, Eldad Andrus, Jared Abernathy, William Slade, James W. Douglass, Roswell Post, and John Rockwell were chosen a committee to divide the town into convenient school districts .- They promptly discharged their duty, and reported to the town March 15, a division into seven districts, with boundaries as definite as the partially settled lands of the town would permit.
The first district embraced very nearly that part of the town afterward annexed to Middlebury-much of the southern portion of which, was, at that time, deemed! unlikely to be occupied by the families of settlers, and was, for that reason, left out of wecount in the division. The first school house, within the present limits of Cornwall, designed to accommodate District No. 1, under the di- vision of 1787, I am informed was about sixty rods south of Sam- uel Blodget's.
The second district was in the north-western part of the town,
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embracing the territory between the first district and the western boundary of the town, and two miles south from the line of Wey- bridge. These limits included most of what is now the Ist and 7th districts. The first school house in what is the present first dis- trict, was just north of Lavett Samson's.
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The third district embraced what is now the 2d, with a small portion of the 6th. The first school house was near the present house in No. 2, though on the opposite side of the highway.
The fourth district embraced very nearly what is now the 3d, an early school house having been located just south of the present residence of Maj. Orin Field, on the east side of the road.
The fifth district embraced what is now the 4th and the south part of the 5th. The first school house was south of Esq. Janes'- afterward on the corner opposite the present house.
The sixth district embraced nearly what is now the 5th. The first school house was where Edwin Walker now lives.
The seventh district embraced what is now the 6th. The first school house was just south of the late Rufus Mead's.
The seventh embraced what is now the sixth.
The first school taught in town, of which I have been informed, was kept by a Miss Kilbourn, in Capt. Benton's barn. Miss Jeru- sha Bell of Weybridge, taught one summer in Cornwall at a very early date. and her brother Salmon Bell taught several winters.
Among the early teachers in the north part of the town, was Wm. Arthur Stirling, an Englishman, said to have been of noble lineage, who was distinguished for his peculiarly attractive hand- writing. Jacob Linsly was also much respected as a teacher, and continued in the employment, for many successive years, in the north part of the town, sometimes in the common schools, and sometimes in select schools, his reputation securing him full ero- ployment.
In 1786, the town, for some reason not entered in the record, voted to sell the school lands, and appointed a committee for the purpose, but in March, 1788, another committee was appointed "to take care of the school lands," from which we infer that they were not sold, or that the sale, if made, amounted only to a permanent
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lease, which is the tenure by which they are held by their present occupants. These lands which were surveyed in several lots in different parts of the town, are now occupied, those in the west part, by Simeon S. Rockwell, John Rockwell, Rollin W. Foot, and P. B. Warner ; - and those in the east part by Z. B. and E. R. Robbins-under permanent leases. Some portion of the Cornwall school lands lie within the present limits of Middlebury.
In September, 1789, the subject of school districts was again before the town for consideration, and a committee of seven was appointed to propose such alterations as they should think proper. Their report, which was rendered and adopted at the March meet- ing in 1790, is not recorded, but made some changes in the number of the districts, not particularly specified - it having been voted at the same meeting, "to set Elisha Wright to the eighth district, also, Ethan Andrus to the ninth district."
At the annual March meeting in 1791, the Selectmen were em- powerel, "to alter the school districts, from time to time as they shall think proper." By a vote passed in September, 1794, the first district which, as we have seen, embraced much of the terri- tory afterwards set off to Middlebury, was divided nearly in the middle, by an east and west line, and the south part of it was called the 10th district.
In March, 1806, a committee appointed "to examine into the condition of our school lands, and the money arising therefrom," reported, but with what results we are not informed.
December 26, 1811, a motion was made that "each district retain their own money that was raised by the school tax, for the benefit of the school in their own district." -- Negatived, a tax hav- ing just been voted of one cent on a dollar, to be paid into the town treasury.
March 12, 1822, the trustees of school lands were directed "to re-lease, or lease anew, all the school lands in Cornwall heretofore leased, except that part of the timber lands in Middlebury, for at least thirty-four dollars annually, and the land be holden for the pay- ment thereof; which motion prevailed."
In 1828, a committee was appointed by the town to arrange the
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districts anew. The arrangement which they reported still remains, excepting changes more recently made in the second and third dis- tricts-the third having its northern limit extended northward so as to embrace a part of the second. It-will be sufficiently precise for our present purpose, to say, without specifying the exact bounda- ries of the districts, that the 1st is located in the northeast part of the town-the 2d, 3d and 4th, on the main north and south road from Middlebury to Whiting. The 5th embraces what is now known as West Cornwall. The 6th is located next north, on the west north and south road through the town, and the 7th on the Bridport road in the north-west part of the town. A few families in the south-west part of the town, have many years been connec- ted with the 7th district of Shoreham.
These districts have all provided themselves with commodious school houses. Several of them, which have had occasion to build anew recently, have erected structures attractive in their external appearance, and well finished within. Four of the houses are surmounted by belfries, and three are furnished with bells. All have black-boards, and some of them have valuable maps.
To one of the early school houses, known by all familiar with the history of Cornwall for the last half century, as the " Old Red School House," perhaps a more particular allusion may be appro- priate. The site is beautiful, with a landscape bounded on the north-west and west, by the Adirondack mountains of New York ; on the south by the hills of Sudbury and Hubbardton ; on the east, by the Green Mountains, visible almost from Killington Peak to Mansfield Mountain, a distance of more than sixty miles. Aside from its location, there are two points in the history of this mem- orable structure, which render it an object of more than usual in- terest.
Here, for a long series of years, were held the meetings of the " Young Gentlemen's Society "-an . association, which, in another connection, is more minutely described. Here, too, as the house was contiguous to his dwelling, the vencrable Father Bushnell was accustomed, during his long ministry, ordinarily to hold his Sab- bath evening "conference." Here, he came at the appointed hour,
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SCHOOL HOUSE NO. 2, NEAR THE SITE OF THE OLD RED SCHOOL HOUSE.
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usually bringing in one hand his favorite chair, and in the other, his Bible and hymn book. Here, many survivors of his charge, in imagination, can yet see and hear him dispensing in the formal lec- ture, or more commonly in social and familiar remarks, truths fraught with eloquence divine.
Few school houses, probably, have been the scenes of more deep conviction of sin, and of more triumphs of renewing grace. In God's book of remembrance are recorded the labors of many pious students of Middlebury College, who were led, during the fre- quent revivals of religion under Father Bushnell's ministry, to meet the assemblies here convened. Here, Fisk and Parsons and Henry, and a multitude of other young men, loved to sit under his paternal counsels, and, in turn, add their exhortations to his own. Here, the eccentric Marshall, in the early days of Father Bush- nell's ministry, urged his quaint, but forcible expositions of divine truth on the consciences of his hearers. Here, the venerable colored preacher, Father Haynes, was wont, occasionally, to preach, point- ing his hearers, with unerring retentiveness of memory, to chapter and verse, for any passage to which he wished to direct their atten- tion. Here, a long list of ministers, whose friendship for Father Bushnell and respect for his virtues, led them in their journeys, to spend a Sabbath in his family, were wont to favor his people with their instructions.
But this structure thus distinguished, having, for more than half a century, well answered the end of its erection, like all earthly things, grew old and yielded its place to another, erected near the same site, more ample in its proportions and more modern in its finish. May the "glory of the latter house be greater than of the former."'
Another of our school houses, in which were witnessed similar displays of divine power, was that known as the "brick school house," in West Cornwall. Here the venerable Deacons, Daniel Sam- son and Jeremiah Bingham were wont to conduct religious services, with a devotion that was always engaging, and with a power that was deeply impressive.
From the year 1838 it has been the usage of the town to ex-
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pend the income of the surplus revenue deposited in their treasury for the support of schools. For several years, this item of public money was distributed equally among the districts.
The people of Cornwall have ever shown their interest in the improvement of their schools, as well as their law-abiding propen- sity, by complying with the requirements of law in appointing all the officers specified in the statutes, to secure proper qualifications in teachers and a suitable superintendence of the schools. In 1828, Jedidiah Bushnell, Elijah Benedict, Isaac Tilden, Horace Janes, Truman Post, Zenas Skinner, and Jesse Ellsworth-one in each district, wero appointed a superintending committee of schools. The number was in subsequent years reduced to three, and this number continued to be appointed at the annual town meeting, until a change in the statutes. Under the present school system the town appoints but one Superintendent, who is expected to guard the schools against imperfectly qualified teachers, to examine them and report their condition to the town at the annual March meet- ing.
The following persons have held this office : Lyman Matthews was first appointed superintendent under the present law, and held the office one year, declining re-election on account of ill health .-- Lucius L. Tilden next held the office two or three years. Then B. F. Bingham and David Hall for some years. L. Matthews, the present incumbent, has discharged the duties of the office the past five years.
There is no reason to doubt that the number of children in Cornwall is far less in proportion to the whole population than formerly-so much less as unfavorably to affect the most sparsely settled districts. The reason of this decrease is a question for the the solution of the Physiologist.
Private schools have been attempted in our town, and though temporarily successful have not been of long continuance. One taught. by Rev. Amzi Jones near the Fair bridge in the north-west part of the town, was established many years since, but was not long sustained.
B. F. Bingham also established one in west Cornwall at a later
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date, which promised well until his removal from town, It may be added that select schools for a quarter or for several quarters each, have repeatedly been kopt with much temporary benefit.
It was long the practice in Cornwall, to employ male teachers in winter, and females in summer. Of late years the diminished size of several of our schools, and it ought perhaps to be added, the improved qualifications of female teachers, have led to their em- ployment in the winter as well as in summer. The change, es- pecially in our smaller schools, probably is not attended with any disadvantage. The time was when it was accounted an important, if not an indispensable qualification of a female teacher, that she should be a proficient in needle-work, and instruction in this art was a prominent part of her duty. Often it was true that girls were taught to feel more concern about their "sampler," than about their intellectual attainments, as the former was of course expected, on examination day, to be the principle object of praise or censure. Highly as we may appreciate dexterity in needle-work, there are few, doubtless, who do not regard its banishment, from our schools, as a daily exercise, a desirable reform.
While we are constrained to admit that modern common schools are in some respects superior to those of earlier days, they have also their comparative defects. We crowd them with an undue variety of studies, some of which belong to the high school, or the college, and thus too often make superficial scholars. Another defect of our schools is the lack of adequate discipline. It will not be denied that, under the system of government which authorized the teach- er to enter the school room with his formidable rod, as a badge of office, and to use it as though afraid that lenity might spoil his pupils, some instances of hardship occurred. But can we doubt that under that regime stable men and well trained women were reared? Can we doubt that mental discipline, habits of order, of application and obedience were more efficiently promoted, than they can be under a system which imposes little or no restraint? The present tendency is so obvious to extreme leniency in school discipline, that words of caution may be pondered with salutary effect.
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CHAPTER XXII.
EDUCATIONAL-YOUNG GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY : CONSTITUTION AND RULES - MEETINGS - INCORPORATION --- LIBRARY LANE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION -- ITS CONSTITUTION AND LIBRARY. .
It would be allowing too much credit to our common schools to ascribe the mental characteristics of cur citizens wholly to their influence. Among the early settlers, Linsly and Bingham and Slade and others, if not themselves highly educated, were yet well educated-too well educated, not to appreciate intellectual disci- pline in the community to which they belonged. Hence, their pre- cepts were enforced in the home cirele by the more silent, but not less potent influence of their example. Their children were early taught that their respectability and usefulness would be proportion- ate to their mental and moral cultivation. Those children failed not to draw the inference that they should make the most of the common school, as a primary, and at that period, only accessible source of instruction. That it was well improved is evident from the fact that a fair proportion of those born within the first ten years after the settlers here made their permanent abode, acquired a collegiate education. A town library, of limited extent, was es- tablished at a very early period, which was sustained for several years.
An invaluable source of improvement was presented to the youth of Cornwall, about the year 1804, only about twenty years after the first permanent settlement of the town, in the formation of a Lite-
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Tary Society, denominated " The Young Gentlemen's Society." Its constitution, which both for brevity and completeness, is not iten surpassed in that species of composition, will doubtless be re-perused with pleasure by many of its once active members, now scattered in every portion of our land. It reads as follows :
CONSTITUTION.
PREAMBLE.
To promote order, and useful knowledge, and to secure the advan- tages of an association, We, the members of " The Young Gentlemen's Society in Cornwall," have adopted the following Constitution :
ARTICLE I.
Sec. 1. No person under the age of fifteen years, can be admit- ted a member.
Nee. 2. Each person on his admission, shall pay to the Treas- arer, a sum not exceeding two dollars, nor less than twenty-five cents.
Nec. 3. There shall be three terms in each year ; the first com- mencing on the 10th of September, and ending on the 10th of December : the second, extending from the 10th of December to the 10th of March ; and the third, from the 10th of March to the 10th of September.
Sec. 4. The Society shall assemble, during the first and second terms, once at least, in each week.
Sec. 5. The sessions shall be holden, and the library kept with- in one mile, north or south, of the present site of the Red school- house, and within twenty rods of the highway, on which said house is standing.
ARTICLE II.
S.c. 1. The Society may receive individuals of worth and re- spectability in the character of Honorary Members.
Nec. 2. Honorary Members, at the Meetings, are expected to observe the same rules of order, as other members. They may express their sentiments on any question before the Society, but vote only on questions relating to this Constitution.
Nr. 3. Honorary Members cannot be eligible to office.
Nec. 4. Honorary Members cannot be required to pay admission bills or taxes ; nor can they be subject to fines, excepting under the la' 3, which regulate the use of the library.
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ARTICLE III.
Sec. 1. The officers of the Society shall be a President, a Vice- President, Secretary, Librarian, Treasurer, a Prudential Commit- tee and an Auditor.
Sec. 2. The President, or in case of his absence or inability, the Vice-President, to which offices, none shall be eligible under the age of eighteen years, shall maintain order in the meetings, put to vote all motions regularly made; criticise all performances, and call extra meetings.
S.c. 3. The Secretary shall write and preserve a correct jour- nal of the proceedings, and report to the Judicial Committee all instances of negligence.
Soc. 4. The Librarian shall keep an exact catalogue of the books, and superintend the concerns of the library, as required by law.
Sec. 5. The Treasurer shall receive admission bills, taxes and fines ; make no payment without the direction of the Society, and present, at the last weekly meeting of each term, an account of his receipts and expenditures.
Sec. 6. The Prudential Committee shall be composed of three persons, above the age of eighteen years; who shall receive sub- scriptions and donations : select and purchase books : assist the Li- brarian in making all necessary arrangements in the library, and report their receipts and expenditures, and the state of the library, at the last weekly meeting of each term.
Sec. T. The Judicial Committee, to be composed of three per- sons, shall take cognizance of all instances of negligence and dis- orderly conduct.
Sec. 8. The Auditor shall examine the reports of the Pruden- tial Committee, Librarian and Treasurer, and write upon them an expression of his opinion.
Sec. 9. There shall be a Committee, of which the President, Vice President and Secretary shall be members, to examine candi- dates for admission into the Society.
Scc. 10. Permanent Elections shall be made by ballot, and a majority be adequate to a choice.
Sec. 11. An office, vacant by abscence, or resignation, may be filled pro tempore by nomination.
Sec. 12. Permanent elections, and the examination of the official reports, shall be the first business of the last regular meeting in cach term.
Sec. 13. No member after the payment of ten dollars, by dona- tion, shall be the subject to fines for absence at meetings for ordi- nary business ; and to murried members, who have not paid the said
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sum, the same exemption shall be extended, upon the annual pay- ment, in advance, of one dollar.
Sec. 14. The Society may permit the use of the library by the widows and children of those deceased members, who have given the sum of ten dollars.
Sce. 15. Should the Society ever omit for a specified time, or entirely discontinue their stated meetings, the library shall not be destroyed, by dividing it among the members, but shall remain a permanent library, for the use of the proprietors, bearing the name of The Young Gentlemen's Society Library.
ARTICLE IV.
Sec. 1. The rights and privileges of members shall be suspended, for refusing to pay admission bills, taxes and fines; and if the offender persist in his refusal, he shall be expelled.
Sec. 2. Profane or obscene language before the Society, shall be punished by an admonition from the President, and, if repeated, by expulsion.
Sec. 3. If a member, without just cause, frequently neglect to attend the stated meetings, he may be expelled.
ARTICLE V.
Sec. 1. The Society may determine the rules for their own proceedings ; punish for disorderly behavior, and with the concur- rence of two-thirds in town, expel the members, and impeach the officers.
Sec. 2. Without the concurrence of two-thirds, both of the Or- dinary and Honorary Members in town, the Society shall not alter this Constitution.
Of the founders and original members of this Society, most have finished their work, and entered upon their reward, while a few yet survive. Of the former were the late Gov. Slade, Hon. Ashley Samson of Rochester, N. Y., Rev. Reuben Post, D. D., of Charles- ton, S. C., Frederick Ford, M. D., Levi F. Tilden and Dea. Asahel Bingham of Cornwall. Of the latter are Horace Linsly, Esq., of Barre, N. Y., and his brother Rev. Joel H. Linsly, D. D., of Greenwich, Conn. Dr. Linsly informs me that Mr. Joseph Sill, at that time a member of Middlebury College, and, temporarily, a teacher in Cornwall, also bore an active part in its organization. It was modeled after the Philomathesian Society of Middlebury Col- lege, which had just been formed, and its exercises were similar-
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