Needham Town (part 6 of 12)

The History Of Needham 327 Graveyard In North Natick

The old graveyard on Main Street, North Natick, Is the burial place of many early inhabitants of Needham, some of their gravestones bearing dates prior to 1750. Since 1812 some residents of the Lower Falls, Needham side, have been laid to rest in the yard of Saint Mary's Church. For an elaborate account of these graveyards see

EPITAPHS FROM GRAVEYARDS IN WELLESLEY (FORMERLY WEST needham), north NATICK, AND SAINT MARy's CHURCHYARD IN NEWTON LOWER FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS,

Saint Mary'S Cemetery

The greater part of the land now this cemetery was sold at auction on December 15, 1873, by Samuel E. Sewall of Melrose, guardian of Amasa Winchester, the ward owning over two hundred acres in Needham. The property was bought for $2873.73 on behalf of Archbishop Williams, and the deed stated that the area was thirty-five acres and 21,916 square feet.

In March, 1879, the town consented that the Turner lot, which is one half acre between Wellesley Avenue and Cedar Street, should be used for a cemetery. It had been purchased the previous June of Mrs. Eliza Morgan, formerly Mrs. John Turner, who had married Henry B. Morgan of Newton.

Mrs. Bridget Egan, wife of Patrick Egan, died September 7, 1878, aged sixty-five years, and was the first to be buried in this cemetery, which in 1911 has many tenants, and contains some fine monuments.

Until 1795 the school-houses were owned by proprietors, and there is but little reference to them in the town records. On May 12, 1714, the town voted that "Matthew Tamling & John Fisher Should teach Children to read and wright". Both men were residents of the town, and Mr. Fisher was a prominent member of a prominent family. On January 14, 1718/19, the town voted to have a "moving Schoole and Keep* at three places in the Town", and appropriated £6, which Jeremiah Woodcock, Benjamin Mills, Jr., and John Smith, Jr., were to expend in carrying out the vote. In October, 17 19, Mr. Woodcock had an order for £2 for taking care of the school one month, which probably included procuring and paying a teacher, and in March, 1719/20, John Smith, Jr., had £1 "for taking y^ care of y^ Scholle" for two months. At the annual meeting on March 21, 1720/1, the town directed the selectmen to take "prudent Care" to have a school "for the good of the town & advantag of Childran", and appropriated £6 "for y« Charg of y® Schoole". On December 11 Ensign Thomas Fuller and John Fisher were appointed "to treat with mr Danlll Fuller to keep Schoole", and he was paid £8 for teaching fifteen weeks, probably in different parts of the town. Mr. Fuller was born April 20, 1699, son of Thomas and Esther (Fisher) Fuller, graduated from Yale College in 1721 (A.M.), and became a minister. The foregoing is all the information contained in the records of Needham as to its schools and teachers during the first decade of its existence as a town. A school is supposed to have been kept on our side of the river for a time before the incorporation.

The History Of Needham 329

On February 27, 1722/3, the selectmen received £5 from the executors of Samuel Aldrldge, a gift from Mr. Aldridge for the maintenance of the school, and on November 29 the town voted to have "a Stated Schoole", and granted £6 for it. On January 11, 1725, £15 were appropriated, and the inhabitants of the West End, The Leg, were to have their share of the money to maintain "a Schoole amongst them". It was also voted "that their Should be a Schoole Keept in four parts of the town", viz., one near the house of John Smith, another near the home of Ephraim Ware, who apparently lived close to the Rosemary Brook, where a dam later formed Longfellow's Pond, the third near the house of Deacon Woodcock, and the fourth near Joshua Smith's. Stephen Bacon was to receive the money "Belonging to the Weft End of the Town for thare benefit of a school for the yeare 1725". There were three schoolhouses in the West End prior to 1800, and the first one is said to have stood on land now owned by Dea. Willard Amory Wight, the second on the estate of the heirs of Edmund M. Wood, and the third, a well-remembered building, stood close by the road, at the foot of the hill, on the west side of Bacon Street. The site of the latter is owned by the heirs of John Bacon, 3d. One of the school-houses was of brick, presumably the second, as the earliest was a "moving school" and hauled about by oxen, and is said to have been drawn as far as Wellesley Hills. On May 16, 1726, the town considered a proposition to build a school-house, and the following March the need of a "chool houfe or houfen" engaged attention, but without immediate results in either instance. On October 3, 1726, the town had voted to petition the General Court that the unimproved lands of nonresidents might "be Rated for the use of the Chool". Other quotations from our quaint old records indicate that for some years "Chool" was a favorite spelling of "School".

and ten other men, and stated that the westerly inhabitants had been to the expense of purchasing and moving a schoolhouse, and requested the town to establish a place for it "Neare the place where it Now ftandeth". The town consented, provided the petitioners would pay for the land. This quaint petition is printed verbatim in the book known as Clarke's Wellesley Epitaphs, pages 126 and 127. The location of the building was probably the one near Widow "Orgiles" (Orgills), which the town voted on May 20, 1728, to "Difalow". The other petition was signed by Ebenezer Ware and twenty-six others, and asked the town to build a school-house "att the Meetting Houfe", and the yeas "had it". At the annual meeting in 1743/4 there was an article in the warrant to annul this vote of May 17, 1727, and on March 11, 1754, the town declined to build a schoolhouse near the meeting-house. At the same May meeting in 1727 it was voted that inhabitants that subscribed for no place for a school should pay "to the School Neareft there Dwellings". On May 6, 1728, a petition of Josiah Kingsbery and twenty-four other men living in the west part of the town was presented, and they pledged themselves to pay William Chub if he would build a school-house between the houses of Nathaniel Bullard and Henry Pratt. On June 24 the same men took measures to obtain a schoolhouse, as their plan to build one near the house of Daniel Pratt had been approved by the town on May 20, when £12 were appropriated for the schools. The subscription to pay Mr. Chub amounted to £31, los., and apparently by 1732 a school-house was located on Linden Street, Wellesley Hills, near Mrs. John W. Shaw's house which was occupied in 1905 by the Livermore family. The Rev. Daniel Kimball in his valuable series of historical papers, given before the Lyceum in the winter of 1841/2, said that there was such a school-house, and mentions 1732 as the date.

The History Of Needham 331

now Wellesley Hills at the time of the War of the Revolution, or for seventy-five years after, and the fate of the building of 1732 is not revealed. John Smith was paid £3 for keeping school in January, 1726/7, and Samuel Wilson, also a Needham man, a like sum for teaching the following month in the same winter. Mr. Smith had a school in April and May, 173 1. Joseph Pynchon, A.M., Harvard 1726, was paid £12, 15s. for keeping school in 1727. On July 4, 1729, the selectmen appointed Abigail Parker "Single woman", to keep school "one month or two this year". She taught two months that summer, apparently in the West, and was paid £3, 4s. by the hands of Henry Pratt, who in December was chosen "to treat with M' Robert pepper for to Keep a School amongst us" for "one Month or two this winter". Miss Parker taught in Needham terms of two months in the summers of 1730 and 1733, and Is the first female teacher of whom we have any record. In those days the teacher rarely remained more than four weeks In the same part of the town, for its territory was too large for one school, and the children of the West had to share with those of the East. In the spring of 1729/30 John Goodenow receipted for seventeen shillings allowed the families west of Natick Brook for a school, and that section subsequently had Its share of the appropriation.

In the summer of 1730 Miss Jemima Littlefield kept school in Needham for two months, and for thirty years she continued our "School Dame", with the occasional omission of a summer. It is possible that she taught every summer, and that the selectmen's records are Incomplete. There seems to be a more connected story of the schools in the West, where she often taught, than of those In the East. Apparently her last term was in 1760. She was a daughter of Ebenezer and Lydia Littlefield of Newton Lower Falls, and was born August 19, 1697, and died in years, when Massachusetts was a Province, was Mrs. Hannah Coller, who was the widow of Mr. Horton when she married Joseph Coller on November lo, 1732, and in 1762, or earlier, she was again a widow. She taught in all of the districts, with the possible exception of the West End, and was often the mistress of the Great Plain school. Her first term, the place not stated, was in the summer of 1745, and her last in that of 1773, when she taught the Brick school twelve weeks. She died in 1800 or 1801.

In 1729 twelve shillings were paid to William Ockinton, East, for the use of his house for a school. In the summer of 1730 Captain Cook, John Smith, Robert Fuller, Josiah Kingsbery and Andrew Dewing were chosen to answer the petition for a school which the Westerly inhabitants had presented to the General Court, and this petition may have led to an appropriation of £20 made at this time, with the further result that in September the selectmen "agreed for to Hier a Gramer Schoole Mafter" for two months. Captain Cook and Henry Pratt, who had a good deal to do with the schools, were to "agree" with a master, and to provide a place for his "Entertainment". Robert Cook, the younger, was engaged for that winter, the next year for five months, and at intervals to 175 1.

In May, 173 1, John Smith and Henry Pratt were "to Treat with and agree with a Schoole Dame or Mifi;ris to Keep a School at the Schoole Houfe for the space of Three months next Coming in"; evidently a departure In the direction of more education. A petition of the "Most Easterly or South Easterly Inhabitants", dated January 17, 173 1/2, was granted on March i, and the town approved the location which the petitioners, Joseph Boyden, who lived on the Blackman place, and twenty-nine others had obtained for a school-house, - "a Corner of Land Belonging to Samuel Bacon at the Crofs ways Near the Houfe of Caleb Smith". Early in 1733 the town treasurer paid twelve shillings for the use of a house to keep school in.

The History Of Needham 333

There were years when the town neglected to maintain a school as required by law, and was presented at the Court of Quarter Sessions and fined £1, 17s. Dea. Timothy Kingsbery paid the fines, and in 1734 and again in 1736 he was reimbursed by the town.

The Dedham Historical Register for 1903 contains an exhaustive account of the schools and teachers in Needham to 1775, with the exception of some of the teachers for the years 177 1-5, and only a few of the more conspicuous teachers from 173 1 to the present time will be mentioned in this history, as there have been several hundred employed by the town. Mr. Clarke also contributed to the same publication in 1900 and 1901 articles giving particulars as to the schools and teachers from the spring of 1841 to that of 1843, and from 1851 to 1859.

In the spring of 1741, and subsequently, there was a school in the house of Jeremiah Fisher, on Charles River Street. The house was later known as the "Liddy Fisher House". In February, 1747/8, the selectmen gave an order of £6 to Dea. Eleazer Kingsbery and to Josiah Newell, Jr., "for their Going to Bofton upon the account of the Town Being profeuted for not Keeping a Schoole". At the March meeting in 1752 the town considered the question of building school-houses, but it went over to the May meeting, and there was no result. In 1765 the town dismissed a petition of Samuel Daniell and others in reference to a school-house, and also refused to allow the building located by a vote of the town near the house of Joseph Mudge to be sold. This school-house that certain men wished to sell was probably the one in what is now Wellesley Hills, and which dated from 1732. There were school-houses on the Great Plain and in the south part of the town in 1763, and in what is now the village of Wellesley in 1765. The school for the Centre, as it was later known, was kept in 1766 at the Capt. Robert Fuller house, still standing, but in 1769 there was a brick school-house. In 1768 and 1772 there was a school in Ellphalet Kingsbery's house, which probably was on Oakland Street, and in the latter year there was one for four weeks at Samuel Daggett's,

Of the teachers in the Provincial period the following should perhaps be mentioned: Francis Very began a two months' term in December, 1733, and taught in Needham, from time to time, till 1747. On December 3, 1735, he was engaged to teach four weeks in the West, "Omitting Satterday ", for £4, and on the i8th was secured for another four weeks. He taught in a school-house, perhaps the one on Linden Street, or possibly the first four weeks at the West End, and late in January he contracted for a third term of four weeks, this time in the East if the "Neighbour Hood" provided a proper house for him to teach in, otherwise he was to continue in the West. Peter Vialas of Hopkinton taught in Needham for eighteen years, until his death, which occurred in our town April 21, 1756. He is referred to in the records as "our School Mafter", and presumably was successful, as he usually received the highest wages then paid by the town. Among the numerous undergraduates from Harvard College, most of them minors, who taught winter terms in Needham were: - Jonathan Townsend, Jr., A.M., Harvard 1741, afterward the minister at Medfield, and Jonas Clark, A.M., Harvard 1752, later the noted minister at Lexington during the Revolution. Mr. Clark was here in 1750/1, and there were others who became ministers. The Rev. Mr. Townsend's younger son, Lieut. Samuel, kept school in 1757-63, and Capt. John Jones taught here. He was later a well-known magistrate, surveyor, colonel of militia, and the owner of the fine estate, just across the river in Dover, now the property of the Cheney family. Of the young men belonging to the town who were esteemed competent to keep school were several Fullers and Kingsberys, and also Jonathan Newell, A.M., who graduated at Harvard in 1770, and was the minister at Stow from October 11, 1774, to his death, October 4, 1830, at the age of eighty-one years.

The History Of Needham 335

Beginning in 1763 Robert Fuller taught in Needham most of the winters until 1795, usually at the Brick school-house near his home, but several seasons at the Great Plain, and more than one term at the Lower Falls. In February and March, 1774, he had the South school. Mr. Fuller was prominent in town, as were other members of his family. When he was master of the winter school at the Great Plain in 1784/5 the school was at the house of Aaron Smith, Jr. ("Hawk Aaron"), on South Street. The summer school had been at the same house in 1780, when Mr. Smith's aunt. Widow Martha Smith, a most estimable woman, lived there. At times it had been at other houses on South Street; as early as 1774 at Elisha Mills's, and in 1784 at Solomon Fuller's. These facts rather corroborate the tradition that a school-house once stood on the east corner of Great Plain Avenue and Webster Street (not the north corner), and that it was burned about 1780. Why the schoolhouse was not used in 1774 does not appear.

Joseph and John Haven of Dedham, both undergraduates of Harvard, were teachers in Needham shortly before the Revolution. Joseph was subsequently for many years the minister at Rochester, N. H., then a wilderness, where he did much missionary work, and was interested in the welfare of the Indians. John became a surgeon, and was lost at sea. Another teacher at this period was Zedekiah Sanger, Harvard 1771, an eminent divine in later life. Of the male teachers resident in Needham, who had schools for a series of years, were: - Isaac Shepard, schoolmaster from 1770 to 1792, Jonathan Kingsbery, Jr., afterward a colonel, who occasionally had a school from 1772 to 1796, Joseph Kingsbery, Jr., from 1773 to 1795, and Joseph Mudge, Jr., from 1773 to 1793.

Until modern times women rarely, if ever, taught a winter term in Needham, and men were not employed in the summer. Readers of this history may remember what the district schools were in the winter, when there were pupils nearly twenty-one years old, stalwart fellows who worked out-of-doors all of the year, and yet many of them painfully backward as scholars, and often mutinous. The writer has seen his teacher, an undergraduate of Harvard University, obliged to strike many vigorous blows with a heavy ruler before it was an accepted fact that an attempted rebellion was a failure, and that the master was competent to keep that school, and that the well-disposed pupils were to have a chance to avail themselves of their rather limited opportunities. This experience with a district school in the winter, however, was not in Needham, but in Worcester County.

In 1780 the First Parish twice considered building a school-house "for the Use of Sd Parish", but without result, and according to the Parish records Moses Mann gave £40. "for the School" in 1793.

On March 15, 1785, on petition of Edward Jackson and others, the town chose a committee consisting of Michael Metcalf, Josiah Newell, Jr., Amos Fuller, Joseph Mudge, Jr., Moses Fisk, Edward Jackson and Ensign Eliakim Cook. Neither the petition nor the report is recorded, but presumably this committee divided the town into school districts, and their report was adopted on May 11, the vote being on "the Report of y" Committee that was Chofen to Devide the Town into Diftricts or wards for y« better Accomodating of Schools". In March, 1787, Edward Jackson, Nathaniel Fisher and John Slack were to make "Some Alteration in the School Diftricts", and in 1789, 1790, 1791 and 1793 similar committees were chosen, and from time to time in later years. On March 8, 1790, the town chose a committee of three in each district "to provide a teacher or teachers for each School and to Procure wood". This was the be- ginning in Needham of the district, or prudential, committees, which were chosen annually by the town, with the exception of 1802, until March 6, 1843, when it was voted to leave to each district the choice of its prudential school committee. This action was commended by the "Superintending School Committee" in their report for 1842/3. These district committees were often inefficient, and were wisely abolished in 1854.

In 1790 the town voted to allow "the Diftrict on great plain" to spend the balance of their appropriation for 1789 in finishing their school-house. The writer is inclined to think that there may not have been any school-house in that locality for nearly, or quite, ten years after the old building was burned.

In the winter of 1791/2 Isaac Shepard taught twelve weeks "at the New School House in Needham South Diftrict", and for more than ten years he was the teacher of this school. He furnished the wood for the fireplace, usually at nine shillings per cord. Mr. Shepard had the Great Plain school several winters before the War.

In 1790 the town paid one shilling per foot for wood delivered at the Brick school-house, and on July 26 the first order for repairing a school-house was granted by the selectmen, and was for ten shillings in favor of Lieut. John Tolman on account of the Brick school-house. Two years later Jonathan Kingsbery, Jr., was paid 2s., 2d., for setting glass in the Brick school-house.

Needham may pride itself on the long school terms It gave its children, not only In the first fifty years of the nineteenth century, when forty weeks was not unusual, and thirty-six rather below the average of the districts, but prior to 1800, for then many of the terms were for sixteen weeks both winter and summer, and for years twelve weeks had been the rule, with occasional exceptions. At that period the school year was much shorter In most localities, and as late as 1869 many of the Massachusetts towns main- tained schools for only twenty-four weeks each year. In November, 1793, Reuben Estey had fifteen shillings for the use of a room for a school in 179 1. In the winter beginning in 1791 a school was "Kept at the Houfe where Joseph Stedman Lived", presumably the old Stedman house on the east side of Washington Street, near where Dr. Bancroft lives. The "House Improved by Joseph Stedman" continued a seat of learning for some years, as the town hired a room in it for the school. In 1786 there was a schoolhouse on what is now Church Street, but apparently in 1791 it was not available. At this period a school was kept at the house of John Willson, who lived on the Hanks place near Newell's Bridge. In 1791 the Upper Falls school was still at Colonel Alden's dwelling, and as late as 1795 the Great Plain school was at the house of Aaron Smith, Jr., on South Street. In 1796 there was a school at Enoch Parker's, on Blossom Street, and in 1797 one at Enoch Davenport's. In the winter of 1793/4 there was a school at the Upper Falls for six weeks kept by Amasa Alden at the house of William Alden, Jr. In the summer of 1792 Joseph Daniell furnished a "Room for a School" at his house at the Lower Falls for eighteen shillings for the term, and the school was there in the winters of 1793/4, '95/6- Between 1793 and 1796 this Lower Falls school was sometimes at the house of Elijah Morse, who was paid $3 for the use of a room in the summer of 1795, and also at Lieut. Zibeon Hooker's and at Ephraim Jackson's. Lieutenant Hooker received $2 for the use of his room. There is an S. A. R. marker on his grave in Saint Mary's Churchyard.

Inhabitants of the weft School Clafs In Needham on December 27**» 1791 Duly notifyed and meet firft made choice of Mofes Fifk moderator Second. Voted to Build a Brick School houfe In the Senter on the Road from Theo- dore Broads Brook to Natick Line Near where Ifaac Coolldge now Lives and Voted to Raife Forty Five Pounds Voted that mr Thomas Broad mr William Farris and Mofes Fifk be a committee to provide meterials for the Same Gentlemen Selecmen of the Town of Needham Pleafe To Put an article In your warrant for your Next Meeting To See if the Town will Vote that forty five Pounds Shall Be affest upon and Raifed By the weft End School Deftrict For the Ufe of Building them a School houfe.

In May, 1792, the town authorized this assessment of £45, and in March, 1795, it was increased by £20, which was duly assessed and paid. Jonathan Bacon had then succeeded Mr. Broad on the committee.

At the meeting in March, 1795, £45 were assessed upon the South district for a school-house, which Capt. Ebenezer Fisher, Captain Newell and Deacon Shepard were to build. In 1795 the town also expended £75 for a school-house in the Lower Falls district, under the direction of Joseph Daniell, Enoch Fisk and Benjamin Slack. On September 14, 179s, there was held the first of a series of town meetings devoted to school matters, and progressive action was taken. The town however dismissed an article to build school-houses for the whole town, and assess proportionately each district, the money to be spent within the limits of the district where it was raised This proposition was a sort of compromise between the old and the new. Amos Fuller, Capt. Josiah Newell, Capt. Ephraim BuUard, William Farris, Enoch Fisk, Colonel Alden and Colonel Kingsbery were chosen "to see what they can purchase each Schoolhouse in the Town for". On December 7, after three adjourned town meetings, the committee reported that the Proprietors would sell their school-houses as follows : " Center Brick School" house £52, "great plain" "Estamate" £60, South £30, "west Meeting house" £36, "west End Dif- tiict" ,L'(>5. 'l\\c ivporl was accepted, together with another ol the same eonnintlee clianging tlie lines of the sehiH>l-dislriets, which mailer they liad also been aulhorized \o ciuis'ulcM'. 'rhcie were ine school-houses, aiul allhough llu' (i>\\n lIuMi exlended lo Lake C\>chiluate, il was pn^jMKscd to escape building iwo new ones by reducing the districts to fi^-e. There was no school-house, or praclically none, in ihe ['[ipcr l*'alls district, but ihe selectmen had already mdercLl .L'75 paid U> {\\c building ccunmitlee in the South district. l''\identl\ tluMc was no new school-house at the Lower L'alls in December, ly^)^, when the town voted to merge the Lower and l^pper Falls dislricts into the Center Hrick and [\\c \\ esl Mix'ting-house districts. This plan made it as incon\'enient as [x^ssible lor a large proportion of the children; lor example, it extended the Great Plain district westward to the present W'ellesley line, although man>- families had tor )ears been in the Centre (Brick) district, and were nearer to its sclux^l-house. The West V.nd district was to extend westerly oi "Broad and Stevens l->i\H>k (so Called) including Mphraim StcNcns ju''". At the December meeting £.^50, a large sum, had been \oted to repair the scluH'l-Iunises, and Amos l'\iller, Lnsign Natiian Dewing, Capt. Lj^hraim Bullard, Moses Fisk and h'noch Fisk appcMuted to "Build School house where they are needcLl". At the annual meeting in 171)6 the \ote establishing the new dislricts was reconsit.lered, and a ditlerent ccMnmillee on dislricts was appointed, whose rejHMl was accepted in Ala)-, when the committee on building schoolhouses was also dismissed, and that matter relerred to the district connnillce. A commillee of lwent)-one, three tfom each district, was also chosen to meet the proprietors of the school-houses, "and to Procure a Quitclaim". In December, 1796, the selectmen drew thirty orders in favor of the proprietors of the new Great Plain school-house to reimburse them li>r what the)' had expended, eight ort^lers on account oi the house near the Lower Falls, ei>;htccn iov the proprietors in the South, twenty-three for those in the West Meeting-house district, and seventeen to residents in the Brick School district, most of whom represented their predecessors. Presumably the building in the latter district was the same erected in 1769 on land given by Michael Metcalf, whose nephew, Ensign Michael Harris, received in

1796 $17.45 for what his uncle did "to y^ aforesaid house"; probably in addition to the gift of the land. Mr. Metcalf was an old bachelor with a remarkable talent for mathematics, using the kitchen floors of his acquaintances to illustrate his skill as a "Lightning Calculator".

In 1796 $216.66 were paid to William Farris, Moses Fisk and Jonathan Bacon, Jr., "which the Inhabitants of said Town voted to give the Proprietors of the west end school Diftrict (so called) in said Town, for the school House by them built for said Proprietors". Early in 1797 $200 additional were voted for building and repairing school-houses. Colonel Kingsbery was the only one of the appraisers of the school-houses in 1796 that gave three full days to that duty, and he received three dollars. At the March meeting in

1797 the town voted "to build & set up a school House on Land of William Alden Jun?", but having prepared the frame the town delayed ten years, while for a long time the frame lay upon the ground. It was finally set up, and in 1807 a vote was passed to "cover" it "so as to be convenient for a summer school", which for many years was the only school that It was customary to keep in that district. This building stood on land owned by the late George Wright, and was on the northerly side of Webster Street. At the May meeting In 1798 the town had refused to allow the Inhabitants from Colonel Alden's to "Cooks Bridge", including Lieut. Lemuel Mills, to pay school money to Newton, or to have "liberty to join Newton". At the same meeting In 1798 committees had been chosen to select a site for a school-house, and to build one, and in 1801 the building committee had been Increased to five, all without Immediate results, as already stated. Colonel Alden boarded the workmen while they were "setting up a frame near his house for a School house", and supplied them with rum, sugar, etc. Dea. Thomas Eustis, who lived near Wellesley Square, made the window frames, sashes and "glasing" for this schoolhouse.

During the early years of the last century the school children appear to have increased their efforts to furnish occupation to Jeremiah Daniell, Nathaniel Morrill, Jared West, Abel Weld and others who set glass. For generations the renewal of the glass in the school-house windows was a considerable expense to the town, and subsequent to 1840 the superintending school committee commented, from time to time, on the destructive disposition of the children.

A few items will illustrate the purchases of school furniture in 1801, and for many years subsequent: - a "Writeing or Book Defk" $4.25, one "pair of fire Dogs". These articles were for the South school-house, which was repaired and improved in 1801 and 1802, and are typical of the equipment bought for other schools. A pair of andirons cost the town $2 in 1812. By 18 15 stoves had been introduced into most of the school-houses, if not all of them. The stove for the Great Plain cost $15, and that for the Brick, with the funnel, $29.50. In 18 14 the town voted "to furnish a Stove for the Plain school district and others if wanted", and the school committees were to apply to the selectmen "for repairs on the school-houses and for purchasing Stoves &c: this year". The box-stoves, which were used in the school-houses for half a century, and which many persons well remember, cost from $8 to $15. The benches for the children were made by the local carpenters.

The History Of Needham 343

Daniel Ware, Esq., Moses Garfield and Dea. Asa Kingsbury to build a school-house In the West district, as the district formerly the West Meeting-house district was then designated. In September Nathaniel Ware and Lieutenants Garfield and Gay were "to procure a spot to set the new school house on", and to dispose of the old one "when It Is no longer wanted", which was not to be for some time. The new school-house was south of Blossom Street, and not far from where is now the FIske Dormitory. The town found that considerable land went with the old one, which was on Church Street, but, after two committees had reported on the matter, It was decided In 181 1 to sell. The land for the new school-house was purchased of Aaron Smith for $30, and the building cost upward of $500. The old school-house of 181 1 appears to have stood about where the barn Is In the rear of the tavern so long the home of the Flagg family. There was a question as to the town's title, but after investigation by a committee It was decided that the land could be sold, and the town treasurer was authorized to execute a deed of It, when a sale was made. At the April meeting, 18 17, it was voted to sell the old schoolhouse "near M^ Flaggs" at auction at the May meeting, the moderator, or some one he should appoint, to act as auctioneer. Joslah Ware bought this old West schoolhouse for $30.50 at the auction.

The school money was annually apportioned, among the districts, by the assessors, according to the taxes raised in each, and in 1805 the "Great plain" had $155.36, the South $98.32, the West $122.90, the "Brick School" $109.69, the "Lower falls" $94.79, and the "Upper falls" $18.18. In the succeeding years the West and Lower Falls districts grew In taxable property until they exceeded the Great Plain district, and by 1821 the South district had distanced the Brick. In the early thirties the North district grew rapidly In wealth and displaced the West, which had long led, and the Brick school, or Centre, district took the

On page 231 of Vol. V. is recorded the consent of the Rev. Mr. Palmer and twenty-six others to have a new schoolhouse near the East Meeting-house instead of "near neck Bridge", which latter was understood to be the location selected when the town at its last April meeting voted, on a report of the committee on altering the school districts, "that a school-house be erected for the Brick school district in the most central convenient place". In 18 15 the Brick school-house was removed to the Centre from opposite the modern Convalescent Home on Forest Street, where there had been a school-house since 1769. The new house was rebuilt from the old bricks, and was not enlarged, which policy resulted in a new house within twenty-five years. On May i, 18 15, Benjamin Slack, Esq., Major M'=Intosh, Aaron Smith, Capt. Artemas Newell and Jeremiah Kingsbury were a committee "for the purpose of moving one of the school-houses In the Brick School district or to build a new school-house so as to accomodate said district". The Major rebuilt It that autumn by contract for

South school after a brief experience, and Miss Mary Newell, who had taught there several summers, took the school and kept it for ten weeks, receiving $4.50 per week, besides board, which was a master's pay. She was the first woman to teach a winter school In Needham, with the possible exception of some early teachers.

On March 3, 1817, the town voted to "Expend the Interest annually of the Money Due to the Town for wood sold on the School lot In Dover, in additeon to what is granted by said Town for that purpose". As some of these notes given for wood remained unpaid for many years, and the

The History Of Needham 345

In 1817 the town bought planks for benches, and also shingles in Boston, which George Fisher carted to Needham. There were 8000 shingles, for which Jabez Ellis was paid $28, and Spencer Fuller $25 for laying them at the South school. At the annual meeting in 18 18 a special committee of six, one from each school district, was chosen to repair the school-houses, and in October, 1825, Artemas Newell, Esq., Colonel Rice, Capt. George Smith, Elisha Lyon, Esq., and Major Mcintosh were chosen to consider the question of school accommodations, but their report appears to have resulted only in a committee to repair in 1827.

As early as 1827 the town bought many school-books, and the committee made due returns to the assessors, who added to the tax bill of the father, or guardian, the cost of the books which he had failed to provide. The town school report of 1839 calls attention to the law as to books, and that of April, 1842, reminds "Parents, Masters and Guardians" that they must "furnish School Books for their Children". The report of 1839 commented upon the music introduced into two of the schools, and urged that It should be taught in all of them. In this report the committee insisted that the text-books must be uniform, or music, blackboards, and other recent Innovations, would be of but little avail. Within three years the recommendations of the committee as to music were adopted in all of the districts, and were a great success when there was a musical teacher like

* It does not appear that any wood was sold on the School Land prior to 1776, or that the proceeds were devoted to the schools until 18 17, but from that year to the close of the Civil War the schools received not less than $90 each year, which was increased to $100 in 1859. Successive sales of wood created these funds. It is possible that from 1817 to 183 1 there were years when the interest on notes did not equal $90.

Solomon Flagg. There were several public-spirited citizens who volunteered to instruct the children in music when the teacher was unable to do so, and valuable service was rendered in this way.

In 1882 the town employed Henry Joshua Whittemore as instructor, or supervisor, of music in all of the schools, and for several years he was assisted by his daughter, Miss Mary Estelle Whittemore. Mr. Whittemore retired in 1895 from the service of the town.

In April, 1829, following the report of a committee, of which General Rice was chairman, the town established the Upper Falls School district; there had been only a summer school in that locality.^

Four dollars were added to the school money for the Brick school district in order to make up for the almshouse property, which was withdrawn from the tax list. At this period there was a tiresome controversy as to the Great Plain school-house, which some persons had hauled to near Blind Lane (Green Street), and which others later replaced on its former site near Webster Street.

In May, 183 1, a committee reported on the situation of the several school districts", principally as to the location of the school-houses, and the town voted to "Equalize the school houses" "that the best School house should be Apprised, and that all other School houses should be made Equil by the town & that Each district shall receive his proportion of money as apprised to expend as they please in building & repairing their school houses". The appraisers were Aaron Smith, Esq., Moses Garfield, Elisha Lyon, Esq., Thomas Kingsbury, Capt. Reuben Ware and Rufus Mills, Esq.,^ and their report was accepted. On June 9 a rate of $400 was voted to "Equalize", but it was all reconsidered at an adjourned meeting, and in August a com-

1 There was a small amount spent on this school-house in 1829, when William Eaton, Jr., did some carpenter work, and Samuel Scott, the mason, was employed.

2 Town Clerk Kingsbury recognized fully the right of the Justices of the Peace to the title of "Esq.", although he usually omitted military titles.

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In 1833 a committee was chosen to sell the old schoolhouse in the South district, and Charles Rice bought it a year or two later for $36. The West school-house was too small, and in April, 1833, the town, acting on the report of a committee, voted to make alterations in it, which work was done by the well-remembered Richard Boynton, whose bill, $200, was not paid till early in 1835. In 1835 the insufficiency of the Centre school-house became serious, and it was decided to enlarge the front ten feet, making a schoolroom of twenty-three square feet, exclusive of the entry. The old bricks were used, but eight thousand new ones were also required. The land for this school-house was purchased late in 1835 from the First Parish for $50 and the adjoining lot on which the old house had stood.

Lemuel Lyon, 2d, owned the building in which the school was kept in the winter of 1835/6. William Eaton, Jr., who was the principal builder in East Needham for many years, did the carpenter work, and Underwood and Train, from out of town, were the masons; the latter boarded with Luther Morse. This school-house, built in part of old material, cost not far from $800, although two years before the town had paid Paul Dewing less than $400 for building the South school-house. In April, 1837, Spencer Fuller, William Eaton, Jr., and Abijah Greenwood were chosen to build a new school-house for the Great Plain district, and $500 were appropriated for the purpose. The old schoolhouse was sold at auction the following year, and is said to form a part of the house until recently occupied by Benjamin L. Barr.

there were new school-houses In nearly all of the districts, and they compared favorably with those in the adjoining towns, for they had blinds, some of them were painted, and they were equipped with stoves, and the sills were banked for the winter. The more efficient members of the school committee made upward of twenty visits a year to the town schools, for which they were paid sixty cents per visit, and there was a marked Improvement In the qualifications of the teachers, and In the methods of Instruction. The opening of the next decade brought maps and globes Into the schools, and several district school libraries were established, as the result of encouragement received from the Commonwealth.

The prudential school committees continued to engage the teachers and to provide fuel and other supplies for the school buildings. The meetings In the different districts to choose the prudential committee were called and warned by the outgoing committee at least seven days before the time set, and were usually, perhaps invariably, held In the evening. In 185 1 each district was directed to choose but one man to be prudential school committee, and three years later the old district system was abolished, although for some years subsequent a man was chosen in each district to provide wood and to take care of the school-house.

In 1839 the town had directed the selectmen to put blinds on four of the school-houses, also "the lower Falls and Upper Fall school-houses to furnish something Inside to keep the sun out". The school committee In the spring of 1 84 1 described these two school-houses as unfit for the time, and that year General Rice, Dexter Ware, William Eaton, Spencer Fuller and Abljah Greenwood were chosen a committee to build a new school-house In the North district, and $600 were appropriated. The town directed this committee to call on Henry Mann, Esq., for a plan, and William Eaton was the builder. Mr. Eaton presumably had completed the house by October, 1842, when $864 were paid him. In 1844 the town decided to buy all of the land between the roads in order to extend the grounds of the North school, and a portion, if not the whole, of the large triangle which now forms the school-house lot was then obtained from Amos Allen for a moderate sum. The town borrowed the money to pay for this land. Later a committee was appointed to stake out a school-house lot, and General Rice was authorized to sell a part for not less than what the town paid for the whole. In 1844 the local committee was authorized by the town to procure the blinds for this new school-house. The successive school-houses in the North district have been on, or near, the same site to 191 1, which cannot be said of the school-houses in any other old district in Needham or Wellesley. The new school-house in the Upper Falls district was built by Richard Boynton in 1842 at a cost of $474, and the town authorized its treasurer to borrow the money. The building committee, William Eaton, Thomas Kingsbury, Elisha Lyon, Otis Sawyer, Spencer Fuller, William Flagg and John S. Bird located the new house on the south corner of what is now Central Avenue and Webster Street, where it still remains, but has long been a dwelling.

In 1844 the town bought a piece of land of William Flagg for $60, and chose Capt. Reuben Ware, William Eaton, Deacon Lyon, Mr. Kimball, Spencer Fuller, William Flagg and John Mansfield a committee with authority to select a site for a new school-house for the West district, and to sell the old house at auction for not less than $125. The town borrowed temporarily $750 to build this school-house, but it cost $960, besides $124.50 for eighty-three chairs, and $13 for two tables. Dea. Hezekiah Fuller was the builder.

The report of the school committee in the spring of 1846 stated that all of the teachers were good, and that the employment of women teachers for the winter terms in three districts, viz., East, Centre and Great Plain, had proved a "profitable experiment". The East school had then been taught for two winters by a female, and persuasion was largely taking the place of the rod in all the Needham schools.

The Centre school was at that time large, and the building quite inadequate. For some years the parents had shown increasing interest in the schools, and for five years, or more, the examinations had been well attended by them.

The report for 1843/4 had referred to the great advantage in having two rooms in the school-house, and two schools in winter, in both the North and West districts. In the winter of 1837/8 Martha B. Morse taught "the small school in the west district" fifteen weeks.

In 1845 William Eaton made repairs on the South schoolhouse to the amount of $400, and in 1849 the town paid Robinson & Roberts nearly $300 for painting four schoolhouses, and one or more buildings at the town farm. The cost of the lead and oil, provided by the town, brought the expense of painting to nearly $500, and it was the first large expenditure of this kind that the town had had. In the latter year a good sized wooden school-house was built for the Centre district, and the total cost was $1700 including furnishing. It was a two-story building, and was in use till burned in 1878. The site was a few rods southwest of the old Brick school-house, and at a less elevation from the road. The site had been selected in 1845 by a committee, and was purchased of George Revere for $30; the latter had acquired this land from the First Parish. The building committee for this school-house, as finally selected, consisted of Timothy N. Smith, Mr. Kimball, Thomas Kingsbury, Lemuel Kingsbury, William Pierce, Daniel Ware and Capt. Reuben Ware. Members of these special committees were paid for their services, as were the selectmen and other town officers. Hezekiah Fuller was the contractor for the Centre schoolhouse, and Jonathan Fuller, Jr., did the mason work.

In 1855, after some years of consideration, the town built school-houses for the Great Plain and for Grantville at a total cost of about $5400. Timothy N. Smith constructed that on the Great Plain, and Gardner & Fuller the one in Grantville. The Grantville school dates from 1854 when

The History Of Needham 351

Miss Caroline L. Kingsbury taught twenty-nine children, forming a primary school. The house erected by Mr. Smith replaced an entirely inadequate building, which after two removals is now a dwelling-house on the Hicks estate. This school-house, and at least one before it, had stood on the north corner of Great Plain Avenue and Webster Street, but the new one was placed some distance further east on Great Plain Avenue.

The school-house for the Northwest district, Unionville, was secured in 1858 after seven years of defeat, and was sadly needed, as in the winter of 1857/8 thirty-seven children attended school in a small room totally unfit for school purposes. This school in the Northwest had been established in the summer of 1854 with twenty-six pupils, and Miss Hannah J. Ware was its first teacher. The building committee for the school-house In the Northwest consisted of George Spring, Silas G. Williams, William Flagg, Abijah Greenwood, Lauren Kingsbury and Franklin Stevens, and the same committee also directed in 1858 the construction of the North school-house, expending in all about $4000. The houses built in 1855 were under the supervision of a committee of nine, not identical with the original committee to which had been referred early in 1854 the entire question of new school-houses, including the location of them.

In 1857 the town directed the selectmen to put up on the school-houses the laws of the Commonwealth "In relation to killing birds, stealing fruit, and depredations on gardens".

On August 28, 1870, the school committee issued a circular establishing rules intended to check unnecessary absence and tardiness. This circular would not be popular at the present time (191 1), as it refers to "the poorer classes", and informs them that they had better avail themselves of the schools, which are maintained at the expense of others and paid for "by those who have the least need of such schools".

High Schools

At the annual town meeting in 1853 the superintending school committee and Solomon Flagg, Lewis Sumner, Charles C. Greenwood, Josiah H. Carter, George K. Daniell and Moses Winch were chosen to consider the advisability of establishing one or more high schools, and to report on the school system of the town as a whole. The committee reported to the town in April, and the report was ordered to be printed, and a copy supplied to "every legal voter". In November the report was adopted, and the Rev. Mr. Kimball, the Rev. Mr. Barrows, Nathan Longfellow, E. K. Whitaker, Dr. Noyes, Lewis Sumner, Jonathan Fuller, J. H. Carter and Capt. Reuben Ware were to introduce the changes recommended by the former committee, but with no authority to establish a high school.

On April 14, 1864, a committee, consisting of B. G. Kimball and C. C. Greenwood for the Centre, Lauren Kingsbury and Jonathan Battles for the Great Plain, Henry Wood and Charles Blaisdell for Wellesley, the Rev. E. S. Atwood and M. N. Boyden for Grantville, with Marshall Newell at large, was chosen to consider "the establishment of a high school", and to report in four weeks. The result was that the committee reported that the town was legally bound to have a high school, and on May 12 it was voted to have two, the cost not to exceed $1200 per year each, and $2500 were appropriated. A committee of eleven was named to locate these schools, and they were authorized to contract to pay rentals not exceeding $300 per year for each school. This was additional to the $1200 before referred to, and neither amount was expected to include furnishings. On March 6, 1865, it was "Voted, that the town establish & maintain two Schools, of the grade & character, of School provided for, in Sec. 2"^, Chap. 38 of General Statutes, one to be located on the West side of the town, the other on the East side of the town, which said Schools shall be for the benefit of all the Inhabitants of the town, and the attendance of Scholars upon said Schools, shall be regulated by the School Committee as may be found most convenient". The selectmen were to provide rooms for these schools, or for one of them, whenever notified by the school committee that there were a sufficient number of scholars. There was provision made for closing a high school if it was found to be unnecessary. Both schools were opened in May. The East High School was first kept in the upper part of the Centre schoolhouse, but In the fall removed to Village Hall, which was leased from Obed C. Parker for four successive years for the school. The first teacher was Silas Bundy Rawson, who had thirty-two pupils with an average attendance of twentyeight. He was from Maine, and later became a minister. He did his best with the scholars from the ungraded schools, and is favorably remembered.

The school committee from time to time to 1875 urged the union of the two high schools, and In 1868 a committee consisting of L. A. Kingsbury, the Rev. W. B. Greene, Emery Grover, Galen Orr, C. R. Miles, Lauren Kingsbury and C. B. Dana was chosen to consider building one or more high schools. Their report in favor of building was made to the annual meeting in 1869 and accepted, but another committee was chosen to consider details, with the ultimate result that no house intended solely for high school purposes was erected at that time.

The West High School opened In Maugus Hall, which was then owned by the Maugus Hall Association, who leased a room to the town. The town did not expend a large sum for furnishings, and in the autumn the school was established In Waban Hall, over Shattuck's grocerystore, Wellesley, and remained there until the fall of 1869. Waban Hall is a part of the store building, then owned by Jonathan, Granville and Augustus Fuller. In 1869 the school was poorly accommodated in a hall at Grantville hired of Sylvester M'=Intosh. In their report for the year ending in the spring of 1872, the school committee stated that prior to 1871 the West High School had alternated between Grantvllle and Wellesley from year to year, moving the furniture, although three quarters of the pupils lived in or near Grantville.

On the completion of the new school-house at Wellesley the high school was located there, but returned to Grantville when the large Shaw school-house was ready for occupancy. The school-grounds at Grantville had been enlarged by a purchase from the Boston & Albany Railroad Company of some land that had belonged to the Torrey estate. David S. Farnham, the first teacher of the West High School, had thirty-four scholars enrolled, with an average attendance of thirty-two.

In 1867/8 the pupils in the East High School were instructed by the Rev. Jonas B. Clarke of the Oakland Hall School, and the town paid tuition to the amount of $598. Mr. Clarke gave lectures before the high school on elementary science during other terms.

The East High School Alumni Association was formed on June 24, 1880, and meets annually. Since the division of the town the word "East" has been omitted from its name.

In the spring of 1896 the need of an additional schoolhouse was generally admitted, and a committee of sixteen was chosen to consider the entire question. Eleven of the committee, feeling that the comfort and health of the large number of young children was of the first importance, reported in favor of a new school-house on Lincoln Street, or in that locality, the expense to be about $7000. Five members of the committee reported advising a costly high school, and the minority report was adopted on June i, and immediately there arose a controversy as to the site. On June 22 $30,000 were appropriated, to be met by the issue of bonds, and $4000 additional for the purchase of a lot of land somewhere on Highland Avenue, between Mr.

The History Of Needham 355

Nickerson's and Highlandville, according to the language of the vote. On October i these votes were reconsidered, and, as a two-thirds vote to issue bonds could not be obtained, $30,000 were appropriated to be raised by taxation in 1897, and $3000 were to be taken from the School Fund to buy land on the east corner of Highland Avenue and Rosemary Street. Feeling ran high, and resulted in an injunction from the Supreme Judicial Court so far as the appropriation was concerned, which injunction might have also included the vote selecting the site had it not been for a document unexpectedly produced. This school-house was an issue in the town election the following spring, but the selectmen then chosen to do certain acts at once were unable to do anything, and on March 9, 1897, John Moseley offered to give the town a fine lot of land, next to Saint Joseph's Church, as a location for the school-house, and this gift was accepted, and again, more formally, on April i. A new building committee was chosen, consisting of Arthur Wallace Pope, chairman, Henry S. Locke, Henry M. Walradt, and the school committee, Francis de M. Dunn, Mrs. Adeline E. Harris and John W. Titus.

Aaron Twigg had been named for a place on this committee, but declined to serve. The new committee discarded the plans prepared by the architect employed by the first committee, and engaged the services of Whitman & Hood, whose plan was finally adopted. The deed from Mr. Moseley was formally accepted on July i, and the munificent gift of this large lot, one of the best in town, was the most valuable present that the Town of Needham had received since its incorporation.

The high school building was dedicated on September i, 1898, and a number of gifts of pictures and equipment had then been received, including its first flag from George Kuhn Clarke, who had previously presented large flags to the Dwight and Kimball schools. The cost of this high school building was about $33,000, of which $5000 were taken

In September, 1910, there were one hundred and sixtyseven pupils in the High School, including some third and fourth-year scholars from Dover. In September, 191 1, there were one hundred and thirty-eight pupils, none from Dover attending.

Seven New School-Houses

On March 18, 1867, the town referred to the school committee the proposition to "establish and locate a school at Highlandville". The first school-house was built therein 1869, at a cost of about $7800, and was one of three school-houses erected that year. The work was done by the day, chiefly by Oliver Pickering and Andrew G. Gardner, who employed the other carpenters. This school-house was dedicated on April 27, 1870, at 3 o'clock, and Miss Jane G. Avery read a hymn which she had written for the occasion. After consideration by two large committees, the town voted in 1869 to build new school-houses in Wellesley and in Grantville, the former to be in the vicinity of Kilborn Place, and the latter on the site of the primary school, or in its immediate neighborhood. For each building $7500 were appropriated, to which were added the proceeds from the sale of the old houses, and from land, if any was sold. A loan of $15,000 was authorized, and Galen Orr, Freeman Phillips and Charles B. Dana were chosen a building committee for both houses. The house at Wellesley was built by Mr. Phillips, and cost $10,000, independent of gifts of money from H. H. Hunnewell, Henry F. Durant, Edmund M. Wood and William E. Baker, which were gratefully acknowledged by the town. This school was named the Hunnewell School, and the house was dedicated on April 15, 1870, at 3 o'clock. Mr. Hunnewell presented the town with the land.

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owing to differences of opinion as to the needs of that section, and cost $21,000; the contractors were Clapp Bros, and Thwing & Clapp Bros. This school was named for John W. Shaw, who presented it with a clock, a bell and a globe. Further particulars as to the Grantville school-house will be given in connection with the one in the North district.

The school at Wellesley had been a grammar school, and that at Grantville a mixed school, but when the new building at Wellesley was completed the hitherto migratory high school, as previously stated, was kept there.

The new East school-house, which is much nearer to the Upper Falls than its predecessors, also dates from 1869, and cost $6600. There were then seventy children between the ages of five and fifteen in that locality. The building committee was the same as for the school-house at Highlandville: - Simeon Grover, Jonathan Avery and Oliver Pickering. Messrs. Pickering and Gardner were the principal builders, and the work was done by the day. In 1869 the town also voted $7500 for a new school-house on the Great Plain, which was immediately commenced. Galen Orr, Freeman Phillips and Charles B. Dana were chosen a building committee, and a loan of $7500 was authorized. The school-house on the Great Plain was to contain the East High School in its French roof, and was built by Mr. Phillips by contract, and cost $11,500. The "East High School House" was dedicated on May 17, 1871, at 2 o'clock. The old house was bought at auction by the school committee for $2800, and removed to Greendale (formerly Pudding Point), ^ by William B. Jewett, at an expense of $1250, where it was remodelled for $1209.69. It is still (191 1) the home of the Harris School, which was opened in the fall of 1872, with seventeen pupils taught by Miss Fannie E. Longfellow. The large lot on which the schoolhouse formerly stood was sold for $1000 In 1875.

In 1872 the town declined to employ a superintendent of schools, and did not have one till Frank E. Parlin began his duties in September, 1893. He gave two fifths of his time to Needham, and the remainder to Natick. His successor, Henry M. Walradt, also served elsewhere. It was not until 1907 that Needham had the entire time of a superintendent, when Walter Knight Putney was engaged.

In 1874 the town voted to assess $10,000, and to borrow $20,000 to pay for the school-houses to be built in Grantville and in the North district, and chose as a building committee for Grantville Flavins J. Lake, Lyman K. Putney and Gamaliel Bradford, and for the Lower Falls the Honorable George White, William Heckle and Henry B. Scudder. That year Needham expended nearly $50,000 on education. George Spring was the contractor for the North schoolhouse, which cost almost $15,000, the old building bringing $1000. In 1873 the school committee had urged the erection of a house near Aqueduct Bridge. The old building at Grantville was sold for $2898.90, and is now a double house on Washington Street.

After some years of consideration and delay it became evident that a large appropriation for a new school-house in the South district could not be obtained, but the town built a house there in 1876 for about $5200, Captain Fiske, Freeman Phillips and Marshall Newell serving as the building committee. On April i, 1878, the town accepted a bell given by citizens, and which was already in the tower and in use. In 1876, and for ten years or more, a school was kept in the French roof of the Odd Fellows Building on the Great Plain, and the school committee advised the construction of a small school-house on the same lot with the Kimball school-house. The Kimball building was only five years old, but was already so inadequate that one department, as stated, was occupying a hired room in a fire trap, which was burned In 1887, but fortunately when the school was not in session. The Intermediate school was

The History Of Needham 359

In 1877 the committee urged the town to build a schoolhouse between the Great Plain and Highlandville, and recommended improved instruction in drawing and music. During the seventies there had been a great advance in grading the schools, and in methods of teaching, which progress has continued to the present time. In 1878 twenty children from Needham attended school in Natick, and their tuition at $12 each was paid by the town.

The school-house at the Centre was burned on the evening of January 30, 1878, and that year a new one was built on a large lot purchased of Davis K. Mills, and early in 1880 the old site was sold for $50 to John Ward, owner of the Nehoiden Block property. Richard Marks was the contractor for the new building, which cost $4500, and the Honorable Galen Orr, Charles H. Flagg and Thomas Whitaker were the building committee. After the school-house was burned the pupils in the upper department went to Highlandville for the remainder of that term and the whole of the next. A shop where knit-goods had been made, near the school-house lot, very poorly sheltered the primary school for several months, but in the autumn the new house was ready for use.^

In 1880 a committee of five was chosen to consider the insufficient school-houses on the Great Plain and at Highlandville, and in April the majority reported in favor of two new buildings, both not to cost more than $6000, but the minority preferred one adequate house between the two

^ The Needham Chronicle and Wellesley Advertiser said of the loss of this school-house: "The destruction of the Centre Schoolhouse did not cause much interruption to the schools, the pupils of one being sent the next morning to Highlandville Schoolhouse, while the others were accommodated in a building formerly used for a hosiery factory ".

" On Wednesday night the Centre School House, in which two Schools were kept, was discovered to be on fire, and although quite a large number were soon on the ground, nothing could be done to prevent its destruction. The fire was doubtless of incendiary origin. We understood that it was insured for Si,SOO."

This question came up again in 1884, and in 1885 the town received $30,403.05 in its settlement with Wellesley, which sum, after paying expenses amounting to $2750, was made a School Fund. Of this money $11,000 were expended to enlarge the Kimball and Avery school-houses and $2500 to heat them with steam. A lot of land adjoining the Avery school-grounds was purchased in 1885, and the two schoolhouses, the Kimball and the Avery, were cut in twain, the ends separated, and the space filled with new work, to which wings were added. On August 4, 1884, the town appropriated $700 to pay for school-books, and has since made annual grants for this purpose. By vote of the town the South school was named the Parker School on April i, 1878, in honor of Jonathan Parker, whose home was near, and who was killed at West Cambridge on April 19, 1775. In 1886 the other schools were appropriately named as follows: Those at the Great Plain, then all in one building, the Kimball School, in honor of the Rev. Daniel Kimball, who did much for education in Needham, those at Highlandvllle, the Avery School, in honor of Jonathan Avery, who was the pioneer in developing that section, the one at the old Centre, the Dwight School, in honor of Timothy Dwight, who gave the School Land to the town, the school at the Upper Falls, the Eliot School, in honor of the Apostle to the Indians, and the one at Greendale, the Harris School, in honor of John Morton Harris, a useful member of the school committee who died in the spring of i8§4.

In 1889 the town refused to build a new school-house on the Great Plain, but the next year expended $1500 to improve the ventilation of the Kimball school building.

Until April, 1895, the instruction in drawing was given by the regular teachers in the different schools, but that year a special instructress was employed, and a drawing teacher is now considered Indispensable. In 1897 $4000 were appro- priated for improvements of the Avery school-house, Including better ventilation, and also $250 for the Kimball school building. The latter sum was taken from the School Fund, which was virtually extinguished on November 12, 1897, when the selectmen burned the bonds of the "Electric Light Loan" to the amount of $13,500, par value, in which the balance of the fund had been invested. This action had been authorized by the town on "All Fools Day" (April i), 1897.

Appropriations which formerly would have seemed large have been made from time to time for modernizing the school-houses, and for the health and comfort of the pupils, and in 1905 and 1906 a new Avery school-house was built, on the opposite side of the street from the older one, which continues in use. The new building, which is of red brick with sandstone trimmings, cost about $23,000, with the land and grading, and was ready for occupancy in September, 1906. Horace A. Carter gave 5000 feet of land on the southeasterly side to enlarge the grounds, and Alfred J. Mercer an equal amount on the east. The building committee consisted of the school committee, and William Gorse, who was the chairman, Joseph B. Thorpe, Edmund G. Pond, Henry Godfrey, Jr., and William P. Bailey. The architect was Lemont D. Litchfield, and the contractor J. J. Prindeville.

Of the teachers subsequent to the Declaration of Independence there are a number that for one reason or another are referred to in the following pages, in several instances because of long service. Doubtless there are a hundred more that are worthy of a place in this town history, but an expression of our gratitude to them, and a fitting notice

Dorothy Hall, daughter of David, taught the West End school at least seven of the summer terms from 1776 to 1789. When she first had this school she was a minor, and her wages were paid to her father. She is called "Mifs Dolly" in our town records, and is said to have been a successful teacher in other towns as well as in Needham. Widow Elizabeth Drury, West End 1778-92, a noted teacher in several towns.

Dr. Timothy Fuller, Harvard College 1787, a son of Amos, Great Plain 1783-96. Dr. Fuller died in 1799. Moses Alden had the school at the Upper Falls 1785-96, and apparently he taught the summer term in 1796, an unusual experience for a man in those days. Moses Kingsbery, Jr., Brick or West Meeting-house 1786-97.

Jonathan Gay, Jr., later prominent for many years as Capt. Gay, Great Plain or Brick 1798-1820, with the exception of one term at the Upper Falls. Mary Harris, daughter of Ensign Michael Harris, usually taught the Brick school 1800-16, although she had the Great Plain school in the summer of 1806. Dr. Samuel Gould, Great Plain 1802-28, with the exception of a term at the Upper Falls in the winter of 1803/4. Israel Whitney, sexton, cobbler and town official, taught the Great Plain school in the winter of 1807/8, and at the Brick school-house four winters, 1812-16. Miss Abigail Walker, a teacher of whom various anecdotes are told, 1810-30, several districts, particularly the Great Plain. John Tolman Great Plain or South 1810-21. Mary Fisher, daughter of George Fisher, later Mrs. Leonard Battelle, South 1817-21. She was the Honorable Enos H. Tucker's first teacher, and he made her name familiar to the writer. Job Haskell, Great Plain 1824/5. George Hiram Gay and Ezra Fuller, both of whom lived to a great age, were recipients of his instruction and correction. Solomon Flagg began to teach in 1826 and for thirty-eight years was a schoolmaster in Needham and in other towns. He is identified with several districts, notably the West and South. Mr. Tucker, who at different times attended school in every district in Needham, and also in a district in Dedham, said that Mr. Flagg was his best teacher, and that he learned a great deal from him. Miss Lucy Dakin Hunt, Centre, or small school in the West, 1837-50, except 1847, when she was at the Great Plain. Gustavus Adolphus Somerby taught at the Centre in the winter of 1 840/1. He belonged to a well-known Newbury family, and was prominent among the lawyers of Boston, gaining a reputation as a keen and able counsel for the defence In the noted trial of Alley accused of the murder of Abljah Ellis.

Charles Hiram Dewing, later for many years superintendent of streets, South two winters, 1847/8 and 1849/50. Miss Charlotte Kingsbury, of a well-known West Needham family, 1848-65, North, East, Great Plain and Centre. Miss Kingsbury was a severe teacher, and stories are told of hei skill In tripping up boys, and of mediaeval punlshmenti.. Adeline Maria Eaton, later Mrs. John M. Harris, 1849-63, East, South, Centre, but chiefly the primary school on the Great Plain. Miss Charlotte M. Sawyer, later Mrs. Luthei Allen Kingsbury, North and Grantville 1853-65. She taught the latter school 1856-65, and her sister. Miss Harriet Elizabeth Sawyer, later Mrs. Ezra C. Dudley, East or West or Centre primary, 1854-9, ^^'^ ^^ iS^5 succeeded Charlotte at Grantville, where she taught in 1866. They were daughters of Otis and Charlotte Sawyer. Albert Palmer, A.M., Dartmouth 1858, later State Senator, and Mayor of Boston in 1883, was master of the Great Plain school five winters 1853-8, and his brother, Alanson, who was graduated at Dartmouth In i860, and was A.M., had the Centre school two winters, 1855-7, ^^^ ^^e South two, 1858-60. A third brother, Wilson, Dartmouth i860, Albany Law

Isabella Sumner Kingsbury, assistant at the Avery School 1876- . Others who have taught for more than twenty years in Needham are: Martha Frances Kingsbury, Dwight School (grammar), Mary Maria Sutton (now Mrs. Thomas J. Crossman), Dwight School (primary) and assistant at the Kimball School, Mary E. Glancey, Harris School, Elizabeth A. Lester, Eliot School and assistant at the Avery School, Florence E. Eaton, assistant at the Kimball School. Miss Sutton resigned at the close of the school year in 1910.

The appropriations prior to 1800 were: 173 3-49 from £20 to £80, usuallyold tenor and badly depreciated, 1750-9, £13, 6s., 8d. when in hard money, and 1760-76 from £20 to £60, in money not always of the best quality. Of the £50 voted in 1745 £20 "of it [was] to be laid out for a School Dame and the other thirty pounds to be laid out for a School Mafter". Between 1735 and 1749 the ratio varied from three to seven shillings of currency for one shilling in hard money, and the wages of the men teachers were as high as £12, fos. per month and their board from thirty to thirty-five shillings per week. At this time £2, los. per month, in hard money, was considered fair pay, and board could be had at from five to six shillings per week. The wages of a woman teacher were about four shillings per week, hard money, and her board was reckoned at about two shillings.

The teachers were by no means all paid alike, as, for example, the town would board Mr. Vialas and his horse, and pay him in addition perhaps ten shillings per week, when in some instances a young man resident in the town received only ten shillings, although he boarded himself. It was also true of the women that some were in demand and when they taught in Needham were paid more than others. Apparently certain elderly widows were not in a position to dictate as to their compensation, although they may have been fairly competent teachers.

During the War of the Revolution the teachers were paid in currency so greatly depreciated that in 1780 a man received £250 per month, equal, however, to not more than £3, IDS. in hard money, perhaps somewhat less. A woman was paid £84 for teaching four weeks, when from about 1763 to the beginning of the war the best female teachers, who boarded themselves, got but 5s. 4.6.. per week. After the war many of the women were not paid more than four shillings per week till subsequent to 1800, and even as late as 1841 a young teacher. Miss Mary Adams, was paid $18 for a term of twelve weeks. From 1788 to 1795 the wages of the male teachers varied from los., 6d. to sixteen shillings per week, depending somewhat upon the efficiency of the teacher, and the board of a man was from five to six shillings per week, which when furnished by the town reduced his net wages accordingly. In 1793/4 Eleazer Taft, who was master of the South school, received nearly £1 per week, including his board and the care of his horse.

From 1795 to 1820 the pay of the teachers increased, and in 1804 some men could command $6.50 per week, and in 1819 $7.75, but in twenty years the cost of board had risen from

$1.75 to $3.50 per week. During this period the advance of the women's compensation had hardly kept pace with the expense of living. In 1802 the board was more than one half of the teacher's wages, and had been for at least fifty years, but by 1820 the female teachers had been gradually advanced to $3 per week, and board did not then exceed $1.50 per week. In 1840 Needham paid the male teachers, exclusive of board, an average compensation of $19.97 per month, the board averaging $9.28 per month, and in 1850, without estimating the cost of board but including it, $35.36 per month. In 1840 the women received but $6.28 per month, and board averaged $6, making the total compensation $12.28 per month, but in 1850 there was a decided advance, partly due to the employment of women in the winter, to an average of Si 8.62 per month, including board.

Statistics

1840/1. Children in town between the ages of four and sixteen 387. Number enrolled in the schools: Summer 307, average attendance 208. Winter 373, average attendance 264. Under four years of age 45, over sixteen 27. Teachers: Summer 6 women. Winter 6 men, i woman. Aggregate number of months that school was kept: Summer terms, all districts combined, 23 months and seven days. Winter 24 months and seven days. Total 47 months and fourteen days.

There were also two private schools, presumably the Rev. Daniel Kimball's in East Needham and Mr. Adam's in West Needham, in which there were on the average 32 scholars, whose tuition amounted to $418. These private schools were kept an aggregate of 15 months, which was an increase of three months since the preceding year.

1 850/1. Children in town between the ages of five and fifteen 387. Number enrolled in the schools: Summer 310, average attendance 241. Winter 400, average attendance 293. By districts: West 93, North 73, Centre 69,

The History Of Needham 367

East 56, South 50, Great Plain 46. Nine schools. Teachers: Summer 6 women, Winter 5 men, 4 women. Aggregate number of months that school kept: Summer terms, all districts combined, 27. Winter 33. Total 60 months.

1860/1. Children from five to fifteen 561. Enrolled: Summer 471, average attendance 343. Winter 504, average attendance 390. Teachers: Summer 11 women. Winter 5 men, 7 women. Aggregate number of months of school: Summer 55. Winter 45.

1 880/1. Children from five to fifteen 885. Individuals enrolled 1058, average membership 724, average attendance 628. Teachers 2 men, 25 women.

1900/1. Children from five to fifteen 592. Individuals 732, average membership 662, average attendance 603. Teachers 2 men, 20 women, not Including the instructors in music and in drawing.

Individuals 830 - boys 416, girls 414, average membership 791.6, average membership per teacher 29.3, average attendance 736.5. Teachers 2 men, 28 women.

The School Land In Dover

Mr. Timothy Dwight, an honored citizen of Dedham, gave to the town of Needham thirty-four acres of land in the Springfield Parish of Dedham for the benefit of the school, but he died January 26, 1717/18, without having executed the deed. This omission was remedied by his sons, Henry and Seth, who gave the town deeds in 1727, but, although the selectmen granted Andrew Dewing on November 13, 1727, the sum of £1, los. "for Gitting the Deeds & gitting of s^ Deeds upon Record of a Certaine peac or parsell of Land Given s"^ [?by] mr Timothy Dwit Late of Deedham for the benefit of a School in this Town", there was trouble about the title as late as 1764. Quaint votes were passed in 1744, 1744/5, 17485 1749/50? ^^^ committees repeatedly appointed " to git the Deeds " " Executed According to Law ", as the second of these votes stated. The deeds were never recorded till June i, 1876. Henry Dwight describes the land in his deed to the town as thirty and one half acres, sixteen rods, and as originally granted "to Peter Woodward deceast layed near the Indian Plantation called Natick upon a plaine within", and in Seth's deed the land is stated to be a part of "Natick Devident". From January 14, 1718/19, to modern times committees were appointed to care for this land, "Run the Lines", lease it, or to sell the wood. On May 20, 1745, the question was raised as to "the Towns power to fell the land that M' Dwight gave", and Captain Cook, Capt. Robert Fuller and Jonathan Smith were chosen to investigate, and to ascertain what it would sell for. In 1764 the town voted to sell the land, but six years later was convinced that in order to do so authority must be given by the General Court, and the committee which was chosen on May 23, 1770, to "Take a Plann of the School Land: Given by M^ Dwight to y« Town: Lying in Springfield the Forth Parrifh in Dedham:" was instructed on June 8 to "Put in a Petition into the General Court to

The History Of Needham 369

In 1776 wood was sold on the land, but that year a small portion of it was let "Under Improvement", and apparently in 1 79 1 the town voted to let the whole of it, which would account for there being no income from the sale of wood for many years.

In 1795 the town declined to lease the land, and there were sales of wood in October, 1803, when the proceeds, chiefly represented by notes, amounted to $762, and the expenses to $18.14. Perhaps wood was sold in 1801, certainly in June, 1816, there was an important sale, with Nathaniel Bullard as auctioneer; Solomon Flagg furnished "Rum for Vendue School wood". For half a century the income thus derived yielded the schools annually from $90 to $100, even more in certain years, as the fund was reinforced by sales in 1825, 1839, 1859 and 1864. Only $205.33 was realized in 1859, as a part of the School Land had been burned over in 1855, but it amounted to $866.49 in 1864. This tract was taxed by Dover to the year of its sale, the bill for 1808 and 1809 amounting to $6.02 for two years, and that for 1898 to $11.06. The School Land was sold in 1902 for $6000, and became a part of the Cheney estate, the proceeds forming the Dwight School Fund.

In 1839 the town voted to sell some land and wood which it owned with individuals "in High Rock", and a partition was to be obtained if the other tenants in common did not wish to sell.

On December 31, 1739, Dea. Eleazer Kingsbery, John Fisher, Esq., and Dea. Jeremiah Woodcock were "Chofe a Committee to treat with Dedham Select men . . . Concerning the Land and money which was given for the ufe of the School". This was apparently Church land and school I money possessed by Dedham, and not the Dwight land, as on May 29, 1755, Amos Fuller and Dea. Josiah Newell were

Private Schools

Miss Thayer had a private school, presumably for girls, in West Needham in 1820. In 1826 the Rev. Daniel Kimball, who had been the principal of Derby Academy, Hingham, from 1808 to 1826, came to Needham, and opened a day and boarding school, or academy, for boys and girls, in his house at the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Mark Tree Road. Mr. Kimball personally conducted the school for about fourteen or fifteen years, and then his son Henry C. Kimball had charge of it for some two years, the school coming to an end about 1843. The writer has met a number of the pupils at this school, where studied the Honorable Alexander H. Rice, Governor of Massachusetts in 1876-8, and others of note. Elizabeth Hunt, later Mrs. Noyes, attended this academy, coming from Boylston, and there were other girls whose homes were in Worcester and vicinity. Charles Hiram Dewing, Charles C. Greenwood and Augustus Eaton were among the Needham boys who were day scholars there, the latter entering the school in 1841, after Henry C. Kimball had in a measure taken his father's place. The only criticism of the school was that the boarding scholars were not fed liberally, but as Mr. Greenwood was a day scholar this did not affect him, and he had a life-long affection and reverence for Mr. Kimball, who was an active and useful man in the community. He died January 17, 1862, in his eighty-fourth year, and there is a sketch of his life in the History of Norfolk County, 1884. Mr. Kimball is chiefly remembered in Needham for his valuable services on the school committee.

For particulars of the building in which the Rev. William H. Adams kept his private school in West Needham from 1846 to 1852 see the account of the post-offices, as he was the first postmaster at Grantville.

The History Of Needham 371

The Oakland Institute, a "Classical and English Boarding School for Youth of Both Sexes at Needham, Great Plain, Mass.", was opened on May i, 1856, and the first entire school year was divided Into two sessions of twenty weeks each, extending from September 10, 1856 to July 7, 1857, with three weeks' vacation from January 27 to February 18. Charles M. Dinsmoor, the principal, taught the English branches and Latin, Mrs. C.N. Dinsmoor, the "Preceptress", was teacher of Mental and Moral Philosophy, as well as of certain English branches. William H. S. Ventres, A.B., Harvard 1855, taught Latin, Greek and Mathematics, and "Mdm." Urbino, formerly Miss L. Buoncore, gave Instruction In Modern Languages and Ornamental Branches. The tuition was from $200 to $240 per year for the boarding scholars, and $6 per quarter for the day pupils, who took only the "common branches", with an addition of $2 for the "higher branches". A second circular was Issued, and one, or both, of these circulars stated that "the Institute building Is new and spacious" with "all modern Improvements " "situated on an elevation. It commands an extended view of the beautiful rural country around, which Is unsurpassed in the variety of Its scenery". The building had been erected by Mr. Dinsmoor especially for a school. Before coming to Needham Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmoor had had five years' experience as teachers in Framlngham and Newton.

Under date of July, 1857, Lucius R. Eastman, Jr., as principal, informed the public by circular that the "Oakland Institute" a "Classical and English School", at Needham, "will be resumed July 7". It was to be a day school, and the tuition $4 and $6 per quarter, each language taught to be $2 per quarter extra. The Rev. Adiel Harvey, who had been a Baptist minister In Weymouth, was the next principal of the Oakland Institute, and it was then a boarding school for girls only. The Harveys were prominent in the social life of the town. On November 7, 1862, a "Musi- cal Soiree" was given, the music to commence at 7.30 o'clock in the evening, on which occasion some war songs were included in the programme. These "Soirees", which took place at the close of the school terms, are still remembered with pleasure. There were girls from the South and other distant sections among Mr. Harvey's pupils.

From 1867 to 1872 the Rev. Jonas Bowen Clarke, A.M., owned the property, and had a boarding and day school for boys there, the boarders rarely exceeding twenty in number, or the day scholars ten. Annual exhibitions were given in June in Village Hall, afterward Parker Hall, and the writer, who was a day scholar at this school from April, 1870 to the close of 1871, has a vivid recollection of those occasions, in one, or more, of which he had a part. Music was furnished by a fine band, and there was a special late train to Boston. Military drill had been a feature of this school, but was abandoned prior to April, 1870. Mr. Clarke called his school the Oakland Hall School, judging by the exhibition programmes, instead of Oakland Institute, which latter name had been used by his predecessors.

Mrs. Clementina B. Cummings owned the property for about ten years, succeeding the Appleton Temporary Home for Inebriates, and it was in her time a good summer boarding-house known as "The Pines". Later the estate was bought by John Moseley, who removed the large building to May Street.

Graduates Of Colleges

The following young men born in Needham, or resident there at the time of entering college, graduated during the first one hundred and fifty years after the incorporation of the town: Jonathan Townsend 1741, Jonathan Newell 1770, Ephraim Drury 1776, Timothy Fuller 1787, Daniel Clark Sanders 1788, S.T.D. 1809, President of the University of Vermont, Samuel West 1788, Calvin Whiting 1791, Luther Mills 1792, Nathan Plimpton West 1792, Isaac

The History Of Needham 373

Morrill 1805, Joseph Palmer 1820, M.D. 1826, James Ritchie 1835, Benjamin Gage Kimball 1835, Henry Colman Kimball 1840, Joseph Emery Fiske 1861 (A.M. 1871), Andover Theological Seminary 1867. All of the foregoing graduated at Harvard College, and all received the degree of A.M. except Drury, Fuller and the Kimball brothers. George Ellery Clarke, A.M., was graduated at Williams in 1851. A large number of students have prepared for college at the Needham High School within the last twenty years, and some of them have had fine records in the great universities.

Wellesley College

Wellesley College was founded by Henry Fowle Durant, a prominent lawyer of Boston who made his summer home in West Needham before the Civil War, and in 1864 owned about two hundred acres there. In 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Durant lost by death their only son, and consecrated the remainder of their lives to the service of others. The College was incorporated on March 17, 1870, as the Wellesley Female Seminary, and the name was changed to Wellesley College on March 7, 1873. Mrs. Durant laid the first stone of the first building of this institution, which was destined to become great within a few years, on August 18, 1871, and on September 14, of that year, the corner-stone was laid. The land was given by Mr. Durant, and he bore the expense of the original, or Main, building, the construction of which he directed. It is beautiful and artistic inside and without, of fine proportions, and built in the best manner. It is in the shape of a double Latin cross, and more than seven millions of bricks, and twenty miles of steam, water and gas pipes were required. On September 8, 1875, the Main Building, which provided for thirty teachers and three hundred students, was opened for use; the first graduating class was that of 1879, which numbered eighteen, and from 1875 to 1885 more than twenty-three hundred students were registered. There were forty-one graduates in 1880, and in the autumn of that year the college had three hundred and seventy-two students, and others had applied, but could not be received for lack of room. Charles B. Dana gave to the college the old Church, which he had moved to his own land, and it was then intended for normal and graduate students, but in 1881 it became the main building of Dana Hall, a preparatory school, which later required several large buildings.

On May 27, 1880, the corner-stone of Stone Hall was laid, and in September, 1881, this fine building, the gift of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone of Maiden, was opened for use. It is a dormitory for one hundred undergraduates, and cost $100,000. On June 10, 1880, the corner-stone of the College of Music was laid. This college is on a knoll, overlooking the lake, and was one of the munificent gifts of Mr. Durant. The College of Music was used in June, 1881.

These are the college buildings that existed when the College was within the limits of Needham, and the constant extension and expansion of this grand institution to the present time does not appertain to this town history. When the College opened its doors in 1875 there were twentynine professors and teachers, of whom Miss Ada Lydia Howard was the chief, and not only the first president of Wellesley College, but said to be the first woman in the world who held a college presidency. She served from 1875 to 1882, received the degree of Litt.D. from Mt. Holyoke In 1890, and died in 1907.

Mr. Durant's tremendous energy, great influence and ability were enlisted in favor of the division of the town, and East Needham had no man who could cope with him, although he was then much out of health, and died October 3, 1 88 1. By founding this noble College Henry Fowle Durant made his name immortal.

The History Of Needham 375 The Public Library

For some years Cyrus William Jones, a careful collector of facts, has been gathering material for a history of the libraries in Needham prior to March 5, 1888, when the Free Public Library was created by vote of the town. Mr. Jones's work is now completed, and is expected to appear as a volume of more than fifty pages. He gives a full account of the Social Library, which was formed in 1796 and merged in the Needham Library Association eighty-three years later, by transfer of its property, and also describes the somewhat numerous local or neighborhood libraries, existing in different parts of the town in the nineteenth century. These local libraries were usually subscription or circulating, and the Needham Library Association, formed in the early seventies, was owned by its stockholders. There were also three, or more, school district libraries, organized in the early forties, and two Agricultural libraries, dating from before the Civil War. There was an old library of religious books connected with the West Church, and the Sunday Schools have had their collections of volumes, in some instances for more than half a century.

After the loss by fire of nearly all of the books of the Needham Library Association, the town voted to have a public library, and designated it, on March 19, 1888, the Needham Free Public Library, appropriating the dog taxes, $428.10, to its support. An Old Folks concert yielded about $75 for the library, which with fines made an addition of nearly $100 to the income. During 1888 ten hundred and seventyeight volumes were acquired, largely by gift. In 1889 the town granted $200 besides the dog taxes, and continued this annual amount in 1890, but in 1891 increased it to $300 and the dog taxes, which was the usual appropriation until the new building was erected. The first librarian was Francis de M. Dunn, who served from 1888 to the spring of 1892, with Mrs. Riella J. Dunn as the assistant. The latter year