Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 35, 1888

Educational

One of the reasons why the Village and Middle Parishes petitioned to be set off" from Salem was because they were so far from the grammar-school. But there were schools, probably of lower grade than grammar, in both the Village and Middle Parishes many years before the district of Danvers was incorporated. The first action taken towards a separate school within the present limits of Danvers and Peabody was in 1701, under a vote entered in the village parish records that " Mr. Joseph Herrick and Mr. Joseph Putnam and John Putnam jun. are chosen and empowered to agree with some suitable person to be a school-master among us, in some convenient time ; and make return therefor to the people." The man instrumental in building the first school-house was the minister of the Village church, Rev. Joseph Green. Certain passages of his diary, March, 1708, bear upon the subject: said to this effect : Neighbors I am about building a schoolhouee for the good education of our children . . . Some replyed that it was a new thing to them and they desired to know where it should stand, and what the design of it was. To them 1 answered that Deacon Ingersoll would give land for it to stand ou, at the upper end of the Training field, and that I designed to have a good school -master to teach their children to read and write and cypher and everything that is good. Many commended the design and none objected to it. " 25. Began to get timber for schoolhouse."

The teacher first mentioned by name is Katherine Daland; she taught before Mr. Green's house was finished. In 1714 Samuel Andrew taught and is the first mentioned master.

To pass now at once to the separate existence of the town and the manner in which it managed school affairs. At first the schools were left to the selectmen. The first school-committee, as a distinctive board, were chosen in 1756, under the following votes :

" Voted, to chuse a com'tee to regulate ye Grammar School & to be five men. Voted, Dan'l Gardner Dan'l Purington Dan'l Epes Jiin'r Nath'l Felton Sr. David Putnam voted, that the School Com'tee Draw up Something and lay it before y« District on y« adjournment."

In the annual warrant for 1766 there occurred for the first time a proposition for the division of school money between the parishes according to the proportion of their taxes, but no action was then taken. The next year the question of establishing other than grammar-schools came up again. It was four years since the same matter had been referred to the discretion of a committee, and now the growing need of such schools seemed so imperative that it was directly voted " that there be a number of schools provided by the selectmen besides the Grammar Scool in the winter Season in this Town as the Selectmen Shall think proper, To be at Town Cost." The next year, 1768, " the claws in the warrant " relating to division of the school money between the parishes was dismissed as before, and again the monopoly of public education was restored to the grammar-school ; but before winter set in the selectmen were instructed " to set up what schools they shall think proper."

So matters went, at times only a grammar school, at times " other schools set up," until, in the midst of the Revolution, December 1, 1777, on a petition headed by Col. Jeremiah Page, a decidedly progressive step was taken. At a meeting held in the North Meeting-House, Archelaus Dale, Moderator, it was voted that there be Ten Schools set up in the Town for three months each, and that the selectmen regulate the schools and provide proper persons for Schoolmasters.

In 1780 the expression " district schools " is first used ; it was then voted " that there be District Schools set up for three months to begin as soon as may be."

In 1783 nine schools were "setup " for two months, but whether or not nine schools were insufficient to meet the law, or the setting-ui) thereof was too largely on paper merely, the inhabitants found themselves this year presented before the Court of General Sessions for not keeping schools according to law.

and Samuel Cheever was sent to Ipswich to answer for the town on the first Tuesday of April, and he was instructed " to use his influence, that the Town be not fined for their neglect in not keeping schools." The potency of Samuel's endeavors may be inferred from the fact that there is no further mention of the subject.

The 10th of November, 1794, is the beginning of a new epoch, it marks the first step towards the establishment of a systematic district system. It was then voted that the selectmen "divide the town into as many districts as will best accommodate the town ; " and the next month the first distinct and separate appropriation of money for school purposes was made, - £90, exclusive of the grammar school. Gideon Foster's record of the laying out of the school districts must here be omitted. There were nine in all ; number one including the present central village of Peabody; two, the Port; three, Putnamville; four, Beaver Brook ; five, the Centre ; six, Felton's Corner; seven and eight, West Danvers; nine, towards Humphrey's Pond. The establishment of division lines caused some uneasiness among those who lived on the outskirts of the respective districts. For instance. Col. Jethro and Dr. Archelaus Putnam, and the dwellers on the Derby Farm, found themselves, by the new dispensation in No. 3, wished to be in No. 4, and evidently succeeded in getting there ; for the next year, Aaron .Putnam and others of No. 3 petitioned that the lost sheep be brought back again. Daniel Taylor and others soon wanted a division of No. 7 by a North and South line. In 1800 Amos King wished to be set off from No. 8 to No. G, but the inhabitants said no.

Early in 1802 a special meeting was called, to see if the town would make some general alterations in district lines ; the only changes made were in numbers two, three and four, all within the present limits of Danvers.

In 180fi John Jacobs and others presented a petition for the division of No. 7 and, succeeding in obtaining it, the new district, number ten, was the result. In the same year the subject of rules for the government of schools was first considered, and the following code drawn up by Parsons Wadsworth and Walker, and Hon. Nathan Read, David Daniels and Capt. Samuel Page, will prove interesting reading :

Dk. Wadsworth'S Code

"2. On every School day except Saturday, each instructor shall employ at least six hours in the instruction of his pupils, and not less than three on that day.

"3. The instructor of each School shall class his pupils in such manner as he shall judge most conducive to their improvement, not making leBs than two Classes.

"4. To facilitate the acquirement of an accurate & uniform mode of Spelling & pronunciation, Perry's Spelling-book and Dictionary shall be taught in all the Schools ; and the following shall be the (Catalogue of Books from which the Scholars shall be supplied at the discretion of the Instructor, viz. -' Murray's English Gnimmer Abridged,' 'Morse's Geography, abridged Constitution of the State of Massachusetts,' lea.,

' Wakefield mental improvement,' ' Pikes Arithmatic ' & the ' holy Bible,' together with such Latin & Greek Classics as are usually taught in Grammer Schools.

"5. To abridge the time commonly consumed by Children in learning to write, the plan discribed in Jenken's ' Art of Writing ' shall be adopted in all the schools; Jt Copper-plate copies furnished by the Instructors shall be used by those Scholars who are able to write joining hand.

" 7. Every Instructor shall establish & maintain order & good Government in his school, not by inflicting cruel & unusual punishment, but by addressing the understanding & ingenious feelings of the youth committed to his care, & by endeavouring to excite a spirit of industry & emulation stimulating them to their duty by the hope of reward rather than by the fear of Punishment.

" To carry these rules & orders (should the Town adopt them) into effect the Committee sensible that the improvement of Scholars depends greatly on the attention & fidelity of instructors beg leave to recommend a particular cejurj to the moral & literary quallifications of those who shall be employed in that capacity the annual choice of a School committee, faithfiiUy to discliarge the important trust reposed in them by law, it likewise tu direct the Town Clerk to furnish the Grammer School Master at least with a written copy of the laws of this State respecting the power & duty of the School committee & instructors of Schools prefi.xed to a copy of these regulations.

In 1808 another sub-division of districts occurred ; the people living in the western part of No. 1 were set off as No. 11 ; and within a few months Clark Wilson and others secured a division of No. 11, and a portion thereof was established as No. 12. At the March meeting of 1816 another very important advance towards system was made. Three persons - Nathan Felton, Daniel Putnam and Dr. Andrew Nichols were chosen "to define the powers and duties of School Committee."

Ten years in advance of the law of the State making it the duty of towns to choose a school committee, Danvers accepted the report of these men, which contained, among other recommendations, this, -

" That it be proper and expedient to choose a School Committee, whose powers and duties shall be the same as is given to the ministers of the gospel and the selectmen of the town by the laws of the Commonwealth, excepting such as have or may be given to the school districts by a special vote of the town."

" It shall be the duty of the School Committee to make a report of so much of their doings and such other particulars respecting the several schools as they may deem worthy the consideration of the town at their annual March meeting."

At the same meeting at which this action was taken it was voted " that District No. 2 be divided, agreeably to a Petition of John Page and others, dated April 19th, 1816, and is on Town files." A search among the old papers in the town-house vault was rewarded by the finding of this interesting autograph petition, the origin of the present Plains District, now No. 1, - meeting for the choice of Representatives to this effect : to see if the town will pass a vote to separate that part of District number two. Beginning at Frost flsh brook bridge, so called, and from thence following the mill-pond down untill you come to the point of land owned by John Page, thence up a branch of said pond, untill you come to the bridge near brick yards ; thence running down by the Salem road untill you come to the east corner of Seth .Stetson's pasture ; thence running as the fence stands to the south corner of said pasture ; thence southerly as the fence runs to Crane river, so called ; thence following said river to the Bridge with all the land, polls and estates, to the northward and westward said line now belonging to District number two, wiih all the powers and priviledges belonging to other school Districts in the town of Danvei'S.

Very soon Benjamin Wellington and Jonathan Perry, with their polls and estates, were set ofl' from No. 3 to the new district, No. 13, and the next year '-'the land of Wni. Burley, of Beverly, which lies in Danvers " was subjected to the same transfer.

About this time it is apparent that the old "grammar school " was being neglected. In the summer of 1821 Dr. Nichols and others petitioned for such a school, and as cumulative evidence of its non-existence this vote appears on the record of the next annual meeting, -

" Voted, To choose a committee to answer a commuuication received by the selectmen from the county attorney, relating to Grammer Schools. Voted, that John W. Proctor, John Page and William Sutton be said committee."

The spirit of Samuel Cheever seems to have descended on these men, for, as in the case of his mission to Ipswich forty years before, nothing was thereafter heard of this threatened indictment.

Since the code of 1816 there had been annually elected three committee-men at large, and each year these three were the ministers of the three churches. After seven years it seems that it was thought well to give laymen a representation, and at a meeting called for that purpose and no other, and on the petition of the school committee themselves, it was voted then and thereafter to add three to the committee at large ; and those first added were Dr. Nichols, Nathan Felton and John W. Proctor.

In 1827 the term "at large" was dropped. The body which had been thus distinguished now became, with the addition of one more, simply the School committee ; while the committee, chosen as formerly, one from each district, received the new title of Prudential Committee. To further distinguish the " upper house " from the latter, for several years

In 1835 just forty years had passed since the original establishment of districts. In the mean time many alterations, onlj^ some of which have iiere been noted, had taken place in the way of changing individuals and their estates from one district to another, until there might well have been more or less uncertainty about the true dividing lines. They were therefore carefully examined and re-located by a committee of delegates from each existing district, and their report was recorded by Dr. Shed in a volume of school records.

In 1836 occurs the first mention of compensation to the school committee. They were authorized to appoint three of their number to visit all the schools in town, and these three were to receive for their services the same rate per day as other town officers.

The next year, 1837, the Massachusetts School Fund is first mentioned. The manner of disposal of the town's share was referred to the school committee.

The Legislature of 1838 passed an act, changing the authority to employ teachers from the prudential to the general committee unless towns should otherwise order, and Danvers did so otherwise order. But lest the district goverment should smack too highly of one-man power, it was, the next year, recommended to each district to choose two other persons to act and advise with the prudential man in superintending the concerns of the district.

The year 1839 marks the beginning of our printed school reports. The first school report proper ever made to the town was in 1817, and was committed to the " files." Resurrected from its long repose, this old document, somewhat blotted, scratched and interlined, signed " B. Wadsworth, Chairman, pr. order," makes very interesting reading to-day, and shows that school-report literature has departed not far from the standard thus early set, - the very small iron hand in the glove of well wadded velvet. There seems to be a certain familiar sound about expressions such as these :

"The Committee are enabled to report that the schools generally appeared advantageously in comparison with their condition in past years. . . . Notwithstanding the respectable character of the schools generally, there is still room for improvement. In some districts the committee did not find the scholars had made so great proficiency in their studies as might have been reasonably expected. . . . In some districts many of the childran have been sent very inconstantly to school, and the efforts of the Instructors have not been met with that zealous support from Parents which is essentially necessary to give the desired effect. In some instances the committee did not find thatdegree of Silence and regular order which is necessary to enable schoUars (Ah, Doctor !) to p\irsue their studies most advantageously. . . . But the committee with pleasure add that in no instance was there discovered any marks of negligence, or want of constant and faithful atten ion to their laborious employment on the part of the Instructors. . . . The eonmiittee would close their remarks respecting the several schools by stating, that they derived the highest gratification in witnesing the regular order and highly respectable attainments of the schoUars in the school kept by Mr. Samuel Preston, District N. 4, in the North Parish, and in the school kept by Mr. Amory Felton, District N. 11, in the South Parish.

The Committee conclude by earnestly exhorting all concerned to exert all their influence and abilities to improve their respective schools by employing the best Instructors, by sending the children and youth to school as constantly and as many years as possible, and by affording them all the aid and encouragement in their power to attain at least a thorough acquaintance with the several branches, or, rather, rudiments of science which are taught in English schools."

Following the custom thus set in 1817, reports were for eighteen years annually read at town-meeting and filed away. From 1835 to and including 1838 the reports are recorded at length, together with many interesting returns, in Dr. Shed's book of "School Records."

At the annual meeting of 1839, after Rev. Allen Putnam had read the report of the year then ended, it was recommitted with authority to the committee to cause as many copies of it to be printed as they should think proper for the benefit of the inhabitants. Israel H. Putnam appears in this earliest printed report a.s a teacher in No. 7 ; subsequently he was given the much larger school in No. 5. One of his successors in No. 7 was John G. Walcott, and following Walcott, in the winter of '42-43, was a young man from the Village, Augustus Mudge. Of the latter the committee said, " the teacher seemed to feel an active interest, and the appearance of the school justifies us in saying that in his first attempt, he has succeeded in imparting that interest to his scholars.'' In the sequence of events, Mr. Putnam and Mr. Mudge are now associated the one as treasurer and the other as president of the Danvers Saving Bank.

Oliver A. Woodbury, who became a physician in Nashua, N. H., deceased, taught in No. 10. Among the lady teachers were Elizabeth P. Pope, Fidelia Kettelle, Margaret Putnam, Harriott A. Pope, Emily Gould and Hannah J. Putnam. The mention of the then young men, Putnam, Walcott and Woodbury, calls to mind the fact that just about this time they were themselves attending school at Pembroke Academy, N. H. And this was a thing not uncommon among the ambitious young fellows of Danvers, who desired something more than the meagre education of a few weeks each winter at the home schools. They left their work and their wages not for the fun of a term or two at boarding-school, but to get the most out of it ; sometimes spurred on by a friendly word of advice, but as often impelled merely by personal detei-- mination. Quite a number went to Bradford, a few to Atkinson, N. H., and perhaps elsewhere, but Pembroke seems to have been the favorite. In the few catalogues which have been preserved the following names appear of North Danvers young men and women who were at Pembroke about 1840 : Israel H. Putnam, Oliver A. Woodbury, Israel P. Boardman, Francis Noyes, Charles A. Putnam, Albert Putnam, Elias E. Putnam, Israel E. Putnam, Moses W. Putnam, Thomas M. Putnam, William Putnam, John G. Walcott, Joseph S. Black, Charles P. Preston, Aaron W. Warren, Charles H. Gould, Harrison 0. Warren, John H. Porter, John Reed, Caroline E. Page, Sarah P. Piige, Emiline Putnam, Nancy Putnam, Mary O. Black, Sarah A. Kent.

A fellow-student with some of these Danvers young people at Pembroke was a young man from Deerfield, N. B., who went to Dartmouth College, and helped to pay his way by teaching, winters. About Thanksgiving time, during his first year, he drove from his home looking for a school, and spent a night in Danvers with Oliver Woodbury, calling the next morning on " Uncle Moses," father of Israel E. Putnam, a young man of great promise who had died at Pembroke, and by Uncle Moses he was taken over to the old General Putnam homestead to the shoe-factory of Daniel and Ahira Putnam, to see in particular the latter who was prudential committee-man, and to Ahira the young man made application to teach the district school, No. 4, the ensuing term and was engaged. Julia Putnam, a daughter of the homestead, helping about the household work which by wellestablished New England custom falls to Monday morning, noticed the arrival of the young stranger, and was interested in his errand for she was the teacher of the summer school. The young man's name was John D. Philbrick. It is a proud thing for Danvers that a name since so widely and honorably known should find itself connected with her annals. Mr. Philbrick taught the No. 4 school three winters. He became engaged to Miss Putnam, and was married to her after his graduation, and after his great lifework was accomplished came back to these scenes of his early labors and of his early love to die. It is interesting to read in the light of his subsequent career what was said of the young student-teacher by the committee of 1839 : "At the commencement of his term we feared that Mr. Philbrick might fail to meet the reasonable demands of the district ; but are happy in being able to state that both he and his school made progress that was highly gratifying to the committee and creditable to themselves. We have seldom found in school so general and thorough acquaintance with the various marks of punctuation as was possessed here ; and as a necessary consequence we found some of the best readers here that we have listened to in town. The various recitations approached to uniformity in character and were very fair."

in 1842, having some weeks previous to graduation entered upon the duties of a position in the Roxbury Latin School. While at Roxbury he married, August 24, 1843, Julia A. Putnam, of Danvers. He next went to the Boston English High School, was master of the Mahew School in 1845-46, and achieved great reputation for his admirable work as master of the Quincy School, 1847-52. For a few years his labors were then transferred to Connecticut, first as principal of the State Normal School, and again as State superintendent of common schools. In December, 1856, he was recalled to Boston by his election as superintendent of public schools, a position which, except for an interim of a year and a half, he held continuously until March, 1878. His published official reports during this term are a part of the standard literature of education. He was sent by the United States to represent our educational department at the Vienna Exposition in 1873, and again to Paris in 1878. From France he received the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and the Gold Palm of the University of France. St. Andrew's University of Scotland conferred upon him, in 1879, the degree of D. C. L. He was one of the original incorporators of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and remained on the board as long as he lived ; was ten years a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, and ten years a trustee of Bates' College. In his later years he was especially instrumental in the establishment of free evening schools and the State Normal Art School, and in the enactment of the truancy law and teachers' tenure of office act. He died at Danvers, February 2, 1886. In a private letter to John G. Whittier, I. E. Clark, of Washington, says : " I cannot express to you what a personal grief to me was the news of the death of Mr. Philbrick. . . . He was a great educator, I think worthy to stand beside Horace Mann in the memory of his countrymen." The immediate successor of Mr. Philbrick in this district school, of Danvers, was the man who is now librarian of the Boston Public Library, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, who also married a Putnam of the neighborhood, a daughter of Jesse.

Mrs. Philbrick has furnished these names of other old teachers in No. 4: Asa Cummings, long editor of the Portland Mirror; Samuel, William and Eliza Preston (the latter Mrs. Nathan Tapley), Catherine, Elizabeth, Susan, William R., Francis P. and Julia A. Putnam, Dr. Joseph E. Fiske, Otis Mudge.

In the winter of 1846-47 a young man, now widely known as Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, taught the "senior department" of the Plains School. "This was Mr. Putnam's first experiment in school -keeping. He entered upon the work in his own district, and under peculiar disadvantages. Yet the committee present at the closing examination testified to the general good appearance of the school and its decided improvement during the year." Charles A. Putnam, who became superintendent of schools in St. Louis and there died, taught at No. 4, in 1847-48. Freeman N. Blake, who some years ago became a permanent resident of Danvers, was teaching thirty-seven years ago in No. 12. Harrison Gray taught at No. 7. Rufus Sawyer at No. 10, in 1850. Arthur A. Putnam, brother of Alfred, son of Elias, lawyer, of L^^xbridge, began his first experiment, 1852, where he grew up, in No. 3. John W. Sawyer, who recently died at the head of the Butler Insane Asylum, Rhode Lsland, was teaching in 1852 at the " little border school," in No. 10.

Other well-known names than those already given which appear in the list of teachers from 1840 to 1845 are, - Hannah Pedrick, Sarah A. Osgood, Hannah P. Bradstreet, Sophronia Fuller, Asenath P. Pope, Sarah B. Pedrick. Almira A. Putnam, Eliza W. Preston, Melicent P. Peabody, Matilda Peabody.

From 1845 to 1865, - Elizabeth Hopkinson, Clarissa A. Preston, Mary P. Tapley, Eliza W. Preston, Nancy Perry, Mary J. Sawyer, Adeline F. Bomer, Sophronia E. Tapley, Mary E. Porter, Nancy E. Boardman, Sarah E. Symonds, Susan Putnam, Julia A. Page, Lydia A. P. Tapley, Harriet Felton, Amanda B. Hood, Hannah P. Pope, Harriet A. Putnam, Lydia A. Felton, Mary A. Richards, Sarah .J. Putnam, Harriet M. Putnam, S. A. Hyde, M. A. Wilkins, Pamelia Needham, Sarah F. Emery, Ann J. Emery, Ellen F. Towns, Cornelia Putnam, Sophia J. Richards.

In the year of the first printed report, 1839, the subject of high schools was first brought up. William D. Joplin, John W. Proctor, Allen Putnam, Samuel Preston, J. M. Austin, Daniel P. King and Benjamin Porter were appointed to consider the propriety of establishing one or more such schools agreeably to the statutes. They reported that a majority at least felt that the credit and interest of the town demanded better and higher schools than those existing. In view of the scattered location of the inhabitants, they said, it would not be practicable to agree upon a site for the establishment of one school to accommodate all, and, perhaps, it would be equally difficult to agree upon two. Although there were wise men on this committee, the concluding paragraph of their report is a bit of that rare wisdom which confesses its own limitations, -

"They are satisfied that something ouglit to be done, and they hope something will be done ; but it requires wiser heads than theirs to determine how it shall be done in a manner that will prove satisfactory."

In the face of such an avowal it is not surprising that high schools remained in the realms of the ideal for many years to come. After three years some determined souls had the courage to bring up the subject again, it was referred to the school committee and that was the end of it. Then after one of the periods of Jacob's courtship, in 1849, it was brought up a third time, and again referred to the school committee. The next year, for the third time in its history, an indictment hung over the town. Highschools were no longer a matter of choice, but of necessity, and the citizens stirred themselves to get at once out of the unpleasant situation. J. W. Proctor, Samuel Preston, Moses Black, Jr., Andrew Nichols and Fitch Poole were appointed to act in concert with the school committee.

On Monday, the 8th of April, 1850, Rev. Thomas P. Field of the South Church read the report of this committee in town meeting. It was voted that he read it over again. And after various attempts at amendment, it was adopted.

"It is obvious that the Town is under an absolute necessity of establishing a High School The Law on this subject is imperative, and we cannot neglect its requisitions, without Incurring a heavy penalty. But so extensive is our Terrritory, and so scattered our population, that One High School will by no means satisfy the desires or meet the wants of our community. If we have One High School, we must have two, in order that all the Inhabitants of the Town, may participate in the benefits of Education, in the higher branches of knowledge. The Committee have considered the subject of uniting the High Schools, in some way with one or more of the District Schools, in order, if possible, toobivate the necessity of establishing Independent Schools. They have come to the conclusion, however, that no satisfactory arrangement of this kind can be made. It is uncertain whether any of the Districts would consent to it, and if they would, it is thought by the Committee that the plan could not be made to work, in a manner advantageous to the interests of either District or High School education."

"First, That it is expedient to establish two High Schools, independent of the District Schools, - One in the North and one in the South pari of the Town, the said Schools to be free to all the Inhabitants, under such uniform I'egulations for the admission of Pupils as the school committee shall establish. . . . That the School Committee he instructed to provide two suitable school rooms, with Furniture and appa ratus, and establish High Schools, according to Law, as early as thf first of May next, or as soon after as practicable."

On the third day of June, 1850, the two high schools were opened for the admission of such scholars as should pass the examination. Thirty-eight entered the south, thirty-one the north school. John P. Marshall, now of the faculty of Tuft's College, was the first principal of the north school. The building in which the north school was inaugurated was situated on Con ant Street, in a corner of the lot now occupied by the dwelling of Roswell D. Bates. It is described by one of the original pupils as " a long, narrow and low structure, a little back from the road, with two large trees before it. The room was very low studded, at one end the desk and at the other the recitation platform ; between were only three rows of double seats. The pupils were of good age and ability." The first examination was awaited with great interest. " In consequence of the desire of so many to be present at this time, it was deemed proper to hold the examination in the new spacious schoolhouse at New Mills. The performances were of a high order, and most gratifying to the committee and the numerous visitors."

the school. On the present town-house lot was the chapel of the Wesleyan Society and, being then little or not at all in use, the real estate was sold to the town, and the meeting-house became a school -house. This chapel had been called the " Quail Trap," and the name clung to it so long as it was used as a schoolhouse. When the town-house was built, the ' quail trap' was moved to Essex Street, where, ever since, it has been a residence in good and regular standing. At the close of the second term of the second year Mr. Marshall resigned to take a better position ; A. P. S. Stuart succeeded him, and remained till the close of the fall term, 1858. Mr. Nathaniel Hills, late principal of the high school at Great Falls, N. H., was selected as Mr. Stuart's successor. Rev. James Fletcher succeeded Mr. Hills. The present principal is H. R. Burrington ; Miss S. F. Richmond, Miss Annette Sawyer, assistants.

By a letter dated London, 30th November, 1853, addressed to the committee of the Holten and Peabody High Schools, George Peabody, in acknowledgment of the compliment paid him in the name of the south school, stated that he would transmit in the autumn of 1854, and thenceforth annually during his life, the sum of two hundred dollars for prizes as rewards of merit to pupils of both high schools at their yearly examinations, the entire amount to be common to both, and distributed as among the pupils of one school. The school committee determined "that a suitable medal shall be awarded and presented to every pupil who shall pass three years - constituting the entire course - in either of these schools, and whose attendance, deportment and advancement shall have been uniformly satisfactory to the teachers and committee." Later, 1867, Mr. Peabody established a fund of two thousand dollars, the income of which has been annually devoted to the purchase of medals and books for graduates.

Class Of 1855

Emily G. Berry. Mary A. Black. Harriet G. Bradstreet. Susan E. Perley. Mary F. Putnam. Nancy W. Proctor. Asenath A. Sawyer. Elizabeth P. Swan.

In the spring of 1849 a lively episode occurred in No. 6. There the Rev, Daniel Foster, the preacher at the Wesleyan Chapel, was teaching, and things did not run smoothly between himself and the committee. Rev. Mr. Eaton, one of the committee, went in to examine the school. He undertook to hear a class in geography, but Foster remarked that the time was up, and cut short the committee-man's questions by sending the class to their seats. Mr. Eaton called a meeting of the board and reported what had occurred, and the board voted " that the whole committee pro- ceed this afternoon to examine the school in District No, 6 ;" and they all filed into the school-house at halfpast one. Foster gave them seats, and went on with his business. In a few minutes the chairman, Mr. Braman, said: " We have come here to examine this school." "It was examined yesterday," said Foster, with the inference that it wasn't to be examined again. Then followed a scene. The committee ordered scholars to stand up and recite, and the teacher told them to sit down. They were more in awe of their teacher than of the committee and they sat still and some cried. The committee finally withdrew as gracefully as they could, leaving behind a note in Foster's hands, informing him that he was forthwith dismissed.

At the adjournment of the annual meeting the matter was piping hot. The committee read a long report, covering nearly four newspaper columns, giving the facts of the case and justifying their action. On a motion to print twelve hundred copies, Foster himself moved to strike out all concerning No. 6 ; followed his motion by a violent attack on the committee and carried his point. And further, at the subsequent election, he was a successful candidate for membership of the board which turned him out, and the Rev. Mr. Eaton failed of re-election.

By an act of 1850 the Legislature gave towns the option of abolishing the district system. There was an immediate effort in Danvers to take advantage of this act. The larger expenses made necessary by the establishment of the two high schools just at this time gave a special incentive to the movement. In response to instructions to consider the subject of a radical change in the school district system with a view to greater economy a)id more efficient management, the school committee, through A. A. Abbott, Esq., presented in 1851 a very strong and clear rejiort setting forth the desirability of abolishing the system. But Danvers never voted to abolish the system, though a number of attempts were made to secure this action. On March 24, 1869, the Legislature took the matter into its own hands and broadly enacted that " the school district system in the commonwealth is hereby abolished."

At the annual meeting of 1853 William L. Weston made a motion that a superintendent of schools be employed. Subsequently it was voted that the committee be instructed to hire Charles Northend. Mr. Northend, a native of the northern part of the county, had been long and favorably known as a teacher; his name appears in the first printed report, 1839, as principal in No. 1. His salary as superintendent was at first eight hundred and fifty dollars. The great extent of territory to be covered, from the " Rocks " to " Beaver Brook," from the " Devil's Dishful" to "Blind-hole" must have made theoccupatiou somewhat akin to that of a circuit-rider. Mr. Northend served faithfully a number of years, and was the first and only school superintendent of Danvers.

In April, 1841, a move was first made for the establishment of what is now the Tapleyville district. Gilbert Tapley presented a petition with his own signature and thirty others for a new district to be carved out of Nos. 5 and 6; but inasmtich as his brother, Asa, was on hand with a list of remonstrants twice as long, the petitioners were respectfully given leave to withdraw. They withdrew just five years, and at the end of that time a division of No. 6 was effected on the petition of its own district committee, and the northern part thereof set off as a new district, - the last - No. 14. No record of a dividing line was made further than to adopt the one described in the petition, which has not been found.

AVith the division of the town it became expedient to readjust the districts. Six districts, namely, Nos. 2 (Port), 3 (Putnamville), 4 (Beaver Brook), 5 (Centre), 13 (Plains) and 14 (Tapleyville), together with a part of No. 6 (Collins House), were left to Danvers. One from each - S. P. Fowler, I. H. Putnam, Francis Dodge, Augustus Mudge, Calvin Putnam, Orrin Putnam and Hix Richards - were appointed to renumber and relocate the districts. No alterations were made in the lines of Nos. 2, 4 and 13. A portion of No. 14 was annexed to No. 5, and another portion to No. 6. No. 5 previously had 141 scholars and lost 7; No. 14 had 193 and lost 49; No. 6, having but 31 left in Danvers after the division of the town, gained 66. The districts numbered 13 and 14 in the old town became 1 and 7, other numbers remaining unchanged.

A short time after the dissolution of the annual meeting at which this report was accepted, dissatisfaction was manifest in the calling of a special meeting to alter the new lines of Nos. 5, 6 and 7. It was then voted to annex all of No. 6 that remained in Danvers to No. 7, and to call the consolidated district No. 6, with the proviso that if a majority of voters residing south of a certain line should within thirty days express to the selectmen their wish to form a district by themselves, they should then be allowed to organize as District No. 7.

The people south of the given line did wish to remain a district by themselves, and did not wish to be deprived of the old number, which had been a familiar designation of their locality for more than sixty years, and in June the numbers were changed back, - No. 6 to the old " Turkey Plain " District, and No. 7 to Tapleyville.

In the mean time the people of the old Village district, No. 5, were having a hot little war. The people in the immediate neighborhood of the church, and so on to Tapleyville, wanted to be a separate district and have a school-house of their own. They were outnumbered in the district, but succeeded in obtaining a vote of the town for the division of No. 5 by a line crossing Centre Street four rods east of the house of John Roberts ; and all that portion lying east of the line was established as District No. 8. A nice large school-house was erected just opposite the church ; but the triumph of the seceders was short. Although they had fortified themselves with the opinion of eminent counsel, the division was tested by a suit at law and pronounced illegal. For a time the disappointed divisiouists held out, and many of them actually let their places be sold under the hammer for the taxes levied for No. 5, and one man remained in Salem jail six months rather than pay them. But better counsels soon prevailed, the sold property was redeemed, and now only broad smiles wreath the faces of certain town fathers when the nearly-forgotten subject is mentioned.

The school-house stood for a number of years in melancholy emptiness, and was finally moved to the Plains, where it was used first as a shoe manufactory, and was then changed to a fine-looking dwelling, as innocent of anything like neighborhood quarrels as is its respected owner and occupant. Deacon Ebeii Peabody, of the Maple Street Church.

It was during the ephemeral existence of this No. 8, that the annexation of territory, east of Porter's River and Frost Fish Brook, from Beverly to Danvers took place. This new territory was, February 1, 1858, established as School-district No. 9. But at the March meeting of 1859, there being no longer a District No. 8, it was voted to change the new territory from No. 9 to No. 8, and thus without further change the districts have since remained : No. 1, Plains ; 2, Port ; 3, Putnamville ; 4, Centre ; 5, Beaver Brook; 6, Collin's House; 7, Tapleyville; 8, East Danvers.

After South Danvers was set off, the first appropriation of Danvers, 1856, for schools was $3800 for common schools, $1200 for the Holten High School. In 1865, $5000 for common, $1300 for high ; in 1875, $10,000 for common, $2100 for high ; in 1880, $10,- 000 for common, $1750 for high ; in 1887, $15,600 in all. The income on the Massachusetts School Fund and the dog tax have been added, and are not included in these figures.

At the annual election of 1880, next after the passage of the law enabling women to vote for school committee, twenty-seven Danvers women availed themselves of the right. Mrs. Andrew Nichols was the first woman to vote.

an appropriation for evening schools. The first and only previous instance of similar action was in 1850, when some provision was made for evening schools for the poor from the State school fund.

The first school-house at the Plains was brought from Middleton the first part of this century by private enterprise, for the use of primary scholars. Older scholars went to New Mills until the Plains district was established, in 1816. The first district schoolhouse was a small building erected under contract by Stephen Whipple, carpenter, near the spot occupied by the bakery.

The present grammar-school building at the Port was finished in 1849, and was dedicated July 25th, with considerable ceremony. There were addresses by the presiding officer, S. P. Fowler, by Charles Northend, then a teacher in Salem, by J. W. Proctor, Rev. Messrs. Appleton, Fletcher and Braman, Mr. Rust, commissioner of schools for New Hampshire, and "Mr. R. Putnam, an experienced teacher of Salem." The immediate predecessor of this building was the " old brick school," situated on a part of the same lot but much nearer the street. Hon. James D. Black has furnished the writer with some reminiscences of the brick house : " With my brothers and sisters my school days were spent in the district school -house at the Port till we attained the age of fifteen or sixteen years. Andrew Wallace taught most of the time of my earlier school days. I recall among my schoolmates Henry and Augustus Fowler; Jeremiah and Timothy Page ; John, William and Parker B. Francis; Samuel and Josiah Pender; Warren M. and John Jacol)s ; William B. and Augustus Read; William and Joseph Lamson ; Benjamin, Charles and William B. Chaplin; William Cheever, Edward Stimpson, William Endicott, George Kent, Philip Smith and Setli Stetson. Our schools were not graded ; all ages attended the same school, from children in A B C to those in studies now confined to the high school. Quills were used in writing, steel pens came later. Most of Mr. Wallace's pui>ils made good penmen. He was succeeded by Richard Phillips, of Topsfield."

There was another smaller building called the "green door school-house," near the present railroad station, which was in use some eighty years ago, and was long ago moved by Peter Wait's father to Ash Street, where it has since been used as a dwelling ; and of still earlier date was a school-house, close by the First Baptist Meeting-house.

The very first schoolmaster at the New Mills was Caleb Clark, who kept his school in the house of farmer Porter. His writing desks were boards laid upon barrels. Of his discipline. Deacon Fowler has written :

" He was in the habit of a shingle in school and for small offences compelling the disobedient to pile the whittlings in the middle of the room ; when this was accomplished he would kick them over, to be picked up again. He would sometimes require them to watch a wire, suspended in the room, and inform him when a fly lighted on it. For greater offences he would sometimeB attempt to frighten them into obedience by putting his shoulder under the mantel piece and threaten to throw the house down upon them. It is said of the worthy pedagogue, when deeply engaged in a mathematical problem that he became so absorbed in the work as to be wholly unconscious of anything transpiring around him, and the boys taking advantage of this habit would creep out of school and skate and slide by the hour together."

At a meeting held in District No. 3, Putnamville, July 6, 1812, a vote was passed to build a new schoolhouse after the plan of the brick house at the New Mills and also " voted to purchase a piece of land of Rufus and Simeon Putnam in this district, being on the northwest corner of the school-house pasture, so called, adjoining the road and Zadoc Wilkins land, and the same land on which the old school-house stood before the present school-house was built."

The" present school-house" was built in 1787, under this vote passed at a meeting of " School ward No. 3," at the house of Zerubable Porter, namely : " voted that there be a school-house erected for the education of children on or near the spot where the old one formerly stood if the ground could be obtained."

Both the original building, the building of 1787, and the brick building of 1812 stood farther up the Topsfield road than the present Putnamville schoolhouse, namely, at the head of North Street.

The second one of these buildings is still in useful existence, having been bought and moved, some half a century ago, by Perley Tapley, to become part and parcel of the little village which bears his name. It forms a portion of the house next west of the late residence of Gilbert Tapley. Among those who taught in this building were Master Andrews, a famous teacher, college educated, Jonathan and Benjamin Porter, Thomas Savage, Charles Wheeler, Charles Kimball, probably Clarissa Endicott, and surely Esther Forsaith, to secure whom Jonathan Porter went up to Chester, N. H. It was in this building, too, that Universalist meetings were first held. Elias Putnam taught the first winter school in the brick house in 1812-13, and his youngest son, Arthur, taught the last in 1851-52. Between them were, among others, Philemon Putnam, Oliver Woodbury, Edwin Josselyn ; ladies, Clarissa Endicott (Porter), Nancy Putnam (Boardman), Sarah Rea (Bradstreet), Sally Shillaber.

The old school-house which preceded the present one in No. 5, the Village, both being in the line of succession to that first school-house of Parson Green, has been thus described by a former pupil: "The old brown house stood on a small barren, unfenced, unattractive triangle at the corner of Centre and Dayton Streets. There were three rows of benches on each side of the house, one side for the girls, the other for the boys. At one end there was a large open fire-place, and opposite it stood the master's lofty desk, to which he ascended by two or three steps. The windows were so high that scholars could not look out from the seats, and outsiders could not look in without climbing. No paint or ornament of any kind was indulged in. My earliest recollection goes back about sixty years, when Miss Edith Swinerton (Mrs. Aaron Tapley) was the teacher.

" The only other lady teachers to whom I went were Hannah and Betsey Putnam. They were sisters, 'solemn sisters.' They always taught together. Though very unlike in temper, they were devotedly attached to each other, and would consent to no other arrangement, no matter if they together received no more than enough for one, as was generally the case. Each had a chair and table, and sat facing each other. Both were very pious. Betsey read the Bible ; Hannah opened with prayer. Betsey heard the lesson. She was of a very sweet ^nd gentle spirit, and much beloved by her scholars. Hannah was more fiery and quick, and a terror to evil-doers. They always spoke with punctilious accuracy and dignity. A little girl was sent one day into the clothes-room to get the teacher's hose. Not knowing what was meant, and yet not daring to ask, the messenger brought in, perhaps, a shawl. ' I sent you for my hose, not my shawl.' Again the timid messenger retired and brought in a bonnet, when the exasperated teacher, in a sort of desperation, sjioke, in unmistakable terms, ' Well, if I must so speak, bring in my stockings.'

" Betsey's way of showing her regard for a favorite pupil was by calling him out occasionally to read for her entertainment ' The Bears and the Bees,' ' The Beggar's Petition,' ' Procrastination ' or some other choice selection from the ' English Reader.' Hannah's attentions were commonly bestowed in a somewhat diflerent way when correction was needed. A reverend gentleman recalls an occasion of this sort, when his young form bent, at an ungraceful angle, over Hannah's knee, and the room reverberated more or less with the emphatic correction applied to that portion of a boy's body by nature designed to receive it. Their prized 'rewards of merit' consisted of little oblong bits of paper with yellow borders, and mottoes written thereon in their own hands. On Saturdays hymns and Bible verses were repeated as a sort of special exercise."

This present summer of 1887 a number of the survivors of the pupils of these estimable sisters have taken steps to erect a memorial over their hitherto unmarked graves in Wadsworth Cemetery.