USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > The town of St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; a review of one hundred twenty-five years to the anniversary pageant 1912 > Part 9
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"In witness whereof, I 'have hereunto set my hand and seal this 24th January, A. D. 1856; in presence of Luke P. Poland and H. H. Deming. WILLIAM C. ARNOLD, S. S.
Acknowledged, Jan. 24, 1856 before MOSES KITTREDGE, Justice of Peace.
Received for record, Feb. 28, 1856 at 12 o'clock, M. and recorded. A. J. WILLARD, Town Clerk.
Thus came about an unanticipated fulfillment of the spirit and intent of the original conveyance of 1790 as regards its proposi- tion for a "public building convenient and necessary."
For its present uses the spot is an ideal one; in view of the increasing business importance of the town as well as the inap- propriateness of a large grave yard in the heart of a populous village, the event arrived at may be considered as at the time the most felicitous in the history of the town in respect to public con- venience and permanent improvement.
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SOURCE BOOKS OF HISTORY
OTHER BURIAL GROUNDS
The old church yard at the Center Village, flanked formerly by three church buildings, was part of the Eleazer Sanger prop- erty designated for a burial plot in 1800. The first burial here was that of a boy, son of Joseph Vincent, in 1801. On the stones in this enclosure we read many names that were well known in the early history of the town, not a few of whom passed the mark of eighty years of age: Lieut. Thomas Pierce and Major Israel Pierce, Stephen Putnam and Lieut. Andrew Putnam, Ariel Al- drich, Alpheus Goss, Capt. Samuel French, Hannah, wife of Eleazer Sanger. Among those originally buried here, afterward removed to the new cemetery north of the village, were three rev- olutionary veterans, Joel Roberts, Simeon Cobb, Jonas Flint. Since the opening of the new grounds in 1850, there have been no interments in the old church yard. There were never any lots or paths laid out in it; "every one buried where he chose ," trees a foot in diameter have grown over some of the graves ; two are marked by flat stones from the field, without a name.
The small burial garth a mile above Goss Hollow was given for the use of that neighborhood by Jeriah Hawkins and Samuel Ayer, on whose adjoining farms it lay. They and their families were buried here; also the Goss family, the Houghtons and others of that first generation. This is the most retired burial place in the town, surrounded with groves, and covered with a matting of myrtle vines, moss pinks and sweet williams.
In a similar secluded nook just across the town line near East Village, is the resting place of Mrs. James Adams, the first woman who came to St. Johnsbury, in 1786, nine years before her death. The inscription reads- "Mrs. Submit Adams departed this life, Nov. 18, A. D. 1797, aged 67 years."
There was formerly a burial place in Chesterfield which, in March 1829, the town voted to fence with cedar posts and boards.
The fencing and care of the early burial grounds was always under direction and expense of the town ; not usually done how- ever in a creditable manner. Experience here, as elsewhere, has conclusively shown that a Cemetery Association is the only proper and reliable custodian of the resting places of the dead.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Sometimes however the sluggish sensibilities of a town are moved to do an appropriate thing ; as when it was voted at our town meeting in 1884, "that the remains of Samuel Jenkins, a revolutionary soldier, now in potter's field, be reinterred in a decent place in the East Village cemetery, and a suitable monu- ment erected, the expense not to exceed one hundred dollars."
IX
THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL
"In New England schools are established in almost every township and small district."
Morse 1800.
"The years after the Revolution, till about 1840, form the most picturesque period in our educational history." Steuck, 1912.
BIRTHPLACE OF THE DISTRICT SCHOOL-THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE -PLUMMET AND QUILL-THE SPELLING CLASS-MIDDLE DIS- TRICT RECORDS-RITING TABLES-PUBLICK WORSHIP-MAS- TER BID OFF-ROBERTS' NARRATION-SLAB CHILDREN-A PRIMITIVE HEATER-THE PLAIN DISTRICT-A MIGRATORY SCHOOLHOUSE-DAY OF JUDGMENT-BRANCH BRIDGE SCHOOL -BRIGHT MEMORIES - SPAULDING NEIGHBORHOOD - FAIR- BANKS VILLAGE SCHOOL BOYS
New England was the birthplace of the public school sup- ported by the town or district. Nothing just like it was found anywhere else in the world, not even at first in the other colonies. In 1640 Gov. Berkeley of Virginia writing to the Lords of the Plantation in England said, "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing presses here, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." That same year Gov. Hopkins of Con- necticut reported "one-fourth of our annual revenue is laid out in maintaining public schools." In 1650 every town of Massachu- setts Bay having fifty families was required to have a free public school. The settlers of our state bred under that system, brought
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it with them to their new homes and fixed it in every town charter. In 1795, about fifty families being established in this township, it was divided into six districts and small schools began to be held in private houses.
The picturesque period above referred to, began in this town with the erection of district school houses somewhile after 1800. These buildings were small and low, unpainted, made of hewn timbers and rough boards, costing $250 or more. "Around three sides of the school room were rude benches made of slabs, with rounded side under, each slab equipped with four straddling wooden legs set into auger holes. From these seats the younger children's legs swayed in the air being too short to reach the floor. What an awe fell 'over us when we were all seated and silence reigned." Reading, spelling and cyphering were the branches of learning principally attended to. The slate and blackboard had not yet arrived. Paper was had in large, coarse brown sheets, unruled and unbleached, generally folded into four leaves and sometimes adorned with a gorgeous wall paper cover. On this the plummet did its figuring and writing. The plummet was an important instrument, made by running melted lead into a shallow groove, sometimes as we've been told, into a crack of the kitchen floor, then when cool whittled down to a point at one end. This was the original lead pencil ; it vanished from off the earth long ago, but transmitted its name to the present day pencil of graphite which hasn't a particle of lead in it. 3 The pen of the period was a slit goose quill, shaped by the sharp penknife of the master as he stands at the window; a short lived pen, but not easily surpassed as a smooth running instrument. The Gillott steel pen did not appear till about 1830, and at twenty-five cents a pen was considered costly. The quill continued in school and common use till 1840, and when it finally took flight, transmitted its name, penna, to the entire family of metallic pens now in use.
The old time district school itself, like its antiquated pen and pencil, has given way to the new time improvements. The inde- pendent sovereignty of the district is now merged with the town, which owns the buildings and by its directors administers the schools. If the schools of long ago seem crude in comparison, it should be remembered that their work in developing character and.
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THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL
intelligence was invaluable. To those whose memory goes back far enough, pleasant pictures of that waning picturesque period rise to view ; for example, the crack on the floor which every pair of feet in the spelling class had to toe ; the bright girl who could outspell the others and walk up to the head of the line and wear the medal of honor. Whittier put it into verse forty years after :
"Still sits the school-house by the road, A ragged beggar sleeping; Around it still the sumachs grow, And blackberry vines are creeping.
"Within, the master's desk is seen, Deep scarred by raps official; The warping floor, the battered seats, The jack-knife's carved initial-"
and lingering at the door-step the little miss in a blue-checked apron making her artless confession
"I'm sorry that I spelt the word, I hate to go above you."
Additional details respecting our first school houses will be found farther on in the Roberts narration. Two of the earliest district record books have escaped the mischances of time and have been deposited in the Athenaeum: from these the minutes that follow are taken.
MIDDLE DISTRICT RECORDS
No district records are found prior to 1805. The items here given are from District No. 5, in the center of the town.
Dec. 14, 1805. At a Schoolmeeting of the Middle School District legally warned and holden at Lieut. Thos. Pierce's-Voted, and chose Lieut. Thos. Pierce Moderator. Voted, and chose Samuel A. Wheeler District Clerk. Voted, and chose Ebenezer Sanderson Collector of District Taxes. Voted, and chose Esquire Edson, Eleazer Sanger, Richard W. Fenton as Prudential Committee. Meeting dissolved.
Jan. 5, 1807, Then met agreeable to warrant and made choice of Capt. Daniel Pierce as Moderator. Voted, to raise $30 for schooling this winter. Voted, to have the School House set up at vendue and built by the lowest bidder. Voted, to pay for the School House one-third part in Cash, the
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
other two-thirds in Wheat and Corn. Voted, to have, the house finished by the first day of October next. Voted, that whoever shall engage to build said house shall complete the same by the first day of October, and in default thereof he shall lose all the labor done to said house and forfeit $500. The house was set up at vendue and bid off to Thos. Pierce, with half an acre of land, for $265. Voted, to have the house built with wood and painted.
Oct. 30, 1812. Voted, to raise $70 payable in grain to defray the ex- pense of four months schooling this winter. Voted, to fetch one-fourth of a cord of wood to a schollar, to be fetched by the tenth of January, and all thos that neglect are to pay one Dollar and fifty cents per"cord.
A gap of nine years occurs in the records from 1812 to 1821. Meantime a new school house had been contemplated on the east side of the river where the Center Village was then growing up. The old one was on Lieut. Pierce's land near the old meeting house. The district took action as to the missing records by voting "to pass over the old records and start from the time that we left the old school house and moved over the river to the Brick school house."
On the 7th of March, 1821, it was voted to build of Brick- perhaps the proximity of Capt. French's brick yard determined this-and the contract was given to Isaac Wing for $230 to be completed by Oct. 1, 1822. The location was fixed April 15, 1822, to be "near Sanger's barn instid of the place by the gid-board." This would be not far from the site now occupied. That the new house was completed on time is to be inferred, for on the 29th of October it was voted, "not to have any meatings of publick wor- ship held in the new Brick School house." At a later date it was voted "that their bee riting tables in front of the back riting table."
Nov. 21, 1825. At a school meating illeagally warned and holten at the school house on Monday Nov. 21, 1825. Voted, and chose Nahum Stiles as Moderator. Voted, to have a singing school in said house the winter insuing. Voted, and chose Walter Wright and Wm. P. Stoughton as Committee to superintend and take care of said house threw the ceaping of said singing school. Meeting disolved.
April 15, 1826. Then met agreeable to warrant and made chois of Capt. Ira Armington as Moderator. Voted, to have five months schooling the sum- mer insuing. Voted, to rais $35 payable February 1827 to defray the ex -. pence of said school. Board put up at vandew and bid off to Capt. Arming- ton for fifty cents per weak.
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THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL
March, 1829. The town meeting chose Erastus Fairbanks, Lucius Kim- ball, Stephen Hawkins, Luther Jewett, Isaac Harrington a superintind com- mittee to visit Schools; to receive 50 cents a day when so employed.
Dec. 7, 1830. Then met agreeable to the warrant and made chois of Philow Bradley as Moderator. Voted, to reconsider the vote not to have meetings of Publick worship held in the school house. This vote stands re- considered until the last of May next. Voted, to have meetings held in the school house until the last of May next on Sundays. Voted, to have the time divided acc. to the grand list between the several sosietes in said Destrict. Voted, that the Methodists hold their meeting next Sabbath in the school house.
Notice. By request of a number of the inhabitants of School Destrict No. 5, in St. J. the Destrict is hereby notified and warned to meet at the schoolhouse in said Destrict on Saturday the 18th inst. at 4 'clk. Afternoon : viz. first to chuse a moderator to govern said meeting. 2nd to see if the Destrict will reconsider the vote taken Dec. 7, admitting meetings of Publick worship in the Schoolhouse on Sundays.
Dec. 18, 1830. Then met agreeable to the Foregoing warent, and voted not to reconsider the vote admitting meetings of Publick worship.
Note. "Their was a nother meeting called out of spite. But never met."
Oct. 26, 1833. Voted, to have a woman school 3 months, to commence at the usual time, and a man school 2} months, commencing two weeks later. Voted, to raise $75 for the support of the two schools. Voted, to bid off the board at auction. The Master was bid off at 91 cents a week, and the mistress at 86 cents a week by Joseph Hutchinson.
ROBERTS' NARRATIVE
The narrative of H. N. Roberts gives additional particulars about the early school houses of the Middle District.
"The first one was built about 100 rods from the River on the west side ; it was not verry large, the outside was clapboarded and the inside was sheathed up with wide boards; two rows of seats around, and then a row of seats part way around, and were made of slabs with the flat side up for the little ones to sit on-they were called the Slab Children.
"For heating the Schoolhouse, was a fire Place made of common stone, but it did not warm much, so they thought of another way. They made a large hearth of stone and then got a large kettle, (for they had large kettles in olden times to boil down lye they made from ashes of logs burnt for that purpose, to make what they called salts, they could sell the salts and get money, for money was verry scarce) so as there was not any stoves in those times they substitute a kettle for a stove; the kettle was turned over botom side up ; a hole was made on one side to put the wood in, and another on the
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top to put on a sort of a pipe to carry off the smoke. This made a great im- provement in the warming of the House. The Kettle was an old-fashioned Potash Kettle; they Paied the School Marm from 80 cents to a Dollar a week and Board for their services.
"The next School House was built in the Villiage, where the Larnerd house afterward was; it was Built of Brick, was a good sized house, would acomodate a Hundred Scholars. In Winter the average attendance was about 75, some days when all in would number a Hundred. It was made with three rows of seats on the sides and two on the ends, and warmed by a Fire Place at first, but that would not warm enough, so they put in a stove; this made it more comfortable, but thos that sat on the back seats it was cold to their Backs-no studing but was plastered on to the brick walls which made it cold to Lean against. After some years this school house needed much repairing, it was too small, and a new one was built about a Hundred rods from the main road with modern Improvements, with Desks two to a Desk, with a good Black Board and warmed as the other was with Stoves. It was Burnt in 1876."
So far as any record appears, the old school house that was heated by the potash kettle was the first building erected for school purposes in the town. It stood not far from the Old Meet- ing House on the hill. Schools prior to that time were held in rooms provided in some dwelling for such use in the district.
The first school in the Four Corners, after the districting of the town in 1795, was held in Gardner Wheeler's house ; a sim- ilar provision was made for the pioneer school on the Plain.
A SCHOOL GIRL SWOWS
"I went to school in 1831, and used to hear the older girls say what I thought were swear words. Suky and Roancy used to say "I swow, I swan- ny." They wanted me to say them and I wouldn't. The shed built against the school house had sagged off, leaving a space where a child by squeezing could get through into the field behind the school house. One day I went thro that place squatted down on the grass and whispered "I swow!" then bit my lips and got up and squeezed my way between the shed and school house, and went in. I felt guilty, but never told any one till I was grown up. I was five years old then.
"Long years after I went to see that old school house which had then been cut up for family rooms. I slept in one of them that night, and in the morning on looking up at the plastering there were some of the old paper wads thrown by the boys, still sticking to the ceiling!"
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THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL
HOME FROM SCHOOL
"" "Tis five o'clock, the school is done, The girls and boys are off for home, The children want their supper quick, Come Betty, get the pudding stick!
"The cows are coming from the vale, Molly, bring the milking pail And milk as quick as e'er you can And strain it in the largest pan ;
"Now take the bowls and dip it out And drop the pudding all about, Now children, you may come and eat, The pudding's new, the milk is sweet ;
"And then undress and go upstairs And when you all have said your prayers Then you may lay you down to sleep And rest till morning light doth peep."
St. Johnsbury, 1835.
E. H.
THE PLAIN DISTRICT
The organization of this school district was made in 1807, under the following call- "SCHOOL MEETING! The inhabitants of the school district in St. Johnsbury commonly known by the name of The Plain District are hereby notified to meet at the dwelling house of Joseph Lord Esq. on Wed. 18th of February in- stant, at 4 'clk. afternoon, for the purpose of organizing said Dis- trict as the Law Directs.
Gardner Wheeler, Luther Jewett, Selectmen, St. Johnsbury, Feb. 5, 1807."
"Feb. 18, 1807. Meeting opened agreeable to above warning. Luther Jewett was chosen Moderator, and B. Bissell Clerk of said district. B. Barker, John Moore and John Clark, Committee to superintend the Prudential affairs of said district. Hubbard Lawrence chosen Collector for said District. Meeting Dissolved. Attest B. BISSELL, Clerk." 4
The number of school children in the district at this date was 54, between the age of four and eighteen years.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
On March 30, 1807, the question of building a school house was taken up. It was "Voted, eight for and five against, to pur- chase a piece of land opposite the house which E. Humphrey lives in on the east side of the road. Voted, to raise $200 on the polls and ratable estate of the Inhabitants of said District for the pur- pose of building a school house in said District ; one half to be paid in money, the other half in grain, by the first day of January next, ten voting in favor and four against it." It was also voted to raise $50 on the polls and estate to provide for an instructor.
The school house was put up that summer, but at a cost ex- ceeding the $200 appropriated. In January 1808 an additional $125 was authorized. It was also voted that Theophilus Grout pay full price for the instruction of his girl; from this it would appear that Kirby, which had only just arrived at town organiza- tion, was looking to St. Johnsbury for educational facilities.
The said piece of land opposite E. Humphrey's was probably half way up from the Bend, but the school house did not stay there very long. Within three years it was "moved to the north end of the Plain, as being most advantageous to accommodate all parts of said District ;" three years later it was moved again in to the northwest corner of the burying ground, where we now turn down into Eastern Avenue, and in addition to these recorded transits, tradition names three more, making a total of six locali- ties covered by this migratory little structure. Miss Rhoda Smith is reported as the first teacher ; in 1810 while the building was so- journing at the north end, Miss Hannah Paddock was mistress. During the burial ground period in the winter of 1814, a man teacher was in charge; no less a man than William Goodell, whose remarkable work as a missionary in Constantinople made him widely distinguished in after years. His vivacity, wit and energy brought life to this little school, and he still further ·en- livened the community by a series of singing lessons given during the winter evenings.
The number of children from four to eighteen years of age in the Plain District was fifty-four in 1807, fifty-seven in 1810, seventy-eight in 1820, fifty-six in 1830. During the decade ending 1830 the average number was fifty-seven, an increase of only three in 23 years.
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THE OLD DISTRICT SCHOOL
Regular semi-annual meetings of the District were held to make provision for the summer and winter schools ; aside from this, few other items of interest appear on the records. In 1813 it was voted not to have any needle work or knitting admitted in to the school. The District officers for 1823 were Ephraim Paddock, moderator; R. H. Deming, district clerk duly sworn into office by Luther Clark, justice of the peace; Ephraim Pad- dock, Samuel Crossman, John Clark, school committee, Levi Fuller, collector.
"Nov. 10, 1828. Voted, to sell a small lot of wood which is dirty and cannot be used, at auction; and Hezekiah Martin bid off the same for twenty cents. On the question being put, who will get 5 cords Birch, Beech or Maple wood, cut and split fit for stove and put in to the shed by first of July next-when Capt. Martin bid off the same at $1.19 per cord."
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
One of the septuagenarians of the village has this reminis- cence of the method of discipline practiced on her mother in the district school of former time. The master appeared very genial and lenient thro the entire term ; but it was noticed that whenever any irregularity came to the surface, he took a note book from his drawer and made an entry therein. This, he remarked, was for the Judgment Day.
In the afternoon of the last day of the term, the boys and girls all being in their seats a little better dressed than usual, the doors of the little brown school house were locked and the great wooden window shutters closed and hasped. In the resulting darkness announcement was solemnly made that The Day of Judg- ment had come. The little girl who in after life narrated this was then punished for being tardy, by standing fifteen minutes on the top of the stove, the fire being out. Other girls for offences of giggling or whispering, had their ears twisted or were set to hold weights out at arm's length so many minutes. Boys were ordered to pull off their jackets preparatory to the birch rod application, or to present their hands for the master's ferule; this was in judg- ment for their doings with bent pins or paper wads. The exer- cises of The Judgment Day were conducted with serious exact-
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ness and formality ; each boy or girl was called out by name, the offence was read from the book and sentence thereupon pro- nounced as it were from the supreme bench.
MAKING MONEY
"My first school was over in Waterford Hollow. The pay was $1.50 a week. The next summer I taught at South Kirby and had a dollar a week and boarded around. During two summers I taught in St. Johnsbury. The most I ever received for teaching was two dollars a week. I went down to Newbury Seminary for two terms, and suppose I learned something, but as I think of it now, it seems to have been a superficial school."
EARNING MONEY
"A man in the neighborhood above Moose River came home one day and told his wife he had hired a girl to work for a dollar a week. She replied that a dollar a week was too much. No girl could earn that amount. The man thought this one could, and she came. Her name was Rebecca Richardson. It was soon admitted that she was well worth her wages. After working all day and doing up the supper dishes, she would spend the entire evening with her needle and make up three sheets before nine o'clock."
This was before 1833; at that time the cotton mills were started in Lowell, and agents came up to St. Johnsbury offering large wages for operatives. The result was that farmers' daughters in great numbers went to those mills; three at one time from one family.
THE BRANCH BRIDGE SCHOOL
Moose River was first known as the East Branch. On the bluff just north of its confluence with the Passumpsic where one now turns in toward the town farm was a small school house where for the first forty years of the century nearly all the chil- dren east of the Plain and south of the Butler meadows got their schooling. One of them revisiting the spot with some of the school mates of fifty years before, records his remembrance of the woodlands by the river "where they learned to climb and to swim; and of the little school house where they learned to read and spell and make their manners ; their stirring young life gave
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