Radio Script #555

Little Talks on Common Things

December 9, 1962

You have frequently heard me refer to the frankness of the comments about teachers which used to appear in the town reports of 75 years and more ago. Recently I chanced to pick up the Skowhegan Town Report for the year ending March 1, 1885.

The report of the Superintending School Committee covered eight pages. The committee members were Lizzie Miller, E. F. Danforth and S. A. Patten. They had expended during the year $5,778 for the instruction of 1,251 pupils, a little less than five dollars per capita. They had employed 38 teachers, of whom only two were men. They had operated 18 different school districts.

In the 1880’s Maine was only gradually working toward the elimination of the separate school districts within the towns, whereby a district agent had for many years exercised so much authority that it was difficult to secure the agent’s cooperation with the central, all-town school committee. In its 1885 report the Skowhegan committee referred pointedly to this difficulty: “It would be well if the agents would consult with the Committee before engaging teachers. By so doing, some annoyances might be avoided and more satisfactory results secured.”

We consider our present day teachers to be loyal, low paid, sacrificing persons. But consider what Skowhegan teachers did back there in 1885. When insufficient appropriations caused an official decision to shorten the final term in the village schools, the teachers taught the remaining weeks without pay. The report tells us: “The teachers felt the pupils needed the full time to accomplish the work of the year.” The committee expressed the hope that the town would appropriate enough money for the ensuing year to keep the schools open and pay the teachers properly.

Now for some comments about individual teachers: “Miss N.E. having resigned, Miss H.P. was put in the vacancy. She seems to be doing good work so far.

“Miss C.D. had 18 pupils in District 2. She began her work with the best intentions, but the term would have been more profitable if proper order had been maintained.

“Miss L.M. has been fairly satisfactory except for want of discipline, for which, however, we consider the teacher not wholly to blame.

“Miss M.K. did not and could not keep order in the school room, and therefore the school was far from being a success.

“In District 3 there exists a condition unfavorable to profitable schools. Whoever may teach there, as things are now, will hardly be able to satisfy himself or do justice to his pupils.

“Mr. G.M. with 24 pupils in Dist. 12, was not an experienced teacher. He was, however, earnest, ambitious, and with an aptness to teach. If he had any failure, it was want of ability to interest and get work out of his smaller scholars.

“Miss E.E. had a hard time in her school. The scholars did not show the interest necessary to make a profitable term.”

Some of the teachers, on the other hand, came in for high commendation: “In District 6, under Miss C.M., the scholars took especially high rank in reading — a much neglected study in many of our schools; it being too generally thought that, if a scholar can pronounce the words with which he comes in contact, he is sufficiently accomplished in reading.

“Miss L.A. in District 9 gave excellent instruction in penmanship. We wish that every scholar attending a Skowhegan school could feel as great a desire to improve in this skill as did the little ones in Miss A’s school. The importance of becoming a good penman cannot be urged too forcibly. We suggest to every teacher that no scholar is too old to spend half an hour every day with the copybook.”

Five years later, as shown in the Skowhegan report of 1889, the comments on individual teachers had disappeared. This coincides with reports I have seen from other Maine towns. The practice apparently came generally to an end some time in the 1880’s.

In 1887 Skowhegan voted to abandon the district system, and the result was almost immediate improvement in the town schools. It was also in 1887 that Skowhegan for the first time voted to supply free textbooks in the public schools. Fortunately that report of 1887 contains a list of all textbooks then used in Skowhegan. I wonder if any of my listeners remember some of those old books, for many of them must have been used in other towns allover the nation. There were the Lippincott readers, Greenleaf’s Arithmetic, Harper’s Geography, Harrington spellers, Swinten’s Grammar, Meservey’s Bookkeeping, Steele’s Physiology, and Barnes’ U.S. History.

Although Skowhegan had a high school, then situated on the Island, in 1889, it had taken over and was using for other school purposes the old Bloomfield Academy on the west side of the river. About the old building the 1889 report had this to say: “The Old Academy was found in a truly dilapidated condition. For want of proper care for many years, the cellar wall on the side next to the meeting house had caved in so badly that the whole side had to be taken down and relaid. The woodwork in the front end was taken out and the space bricked up. The second story had been plastered on to the brick walls without laths. So those walls have been strapped and lathed and the whole building has been newly plastered. Thus repaired from cellar to ridgepole, the building now contains two pleasant and comfortable school rooms.

Several articles in the Skowhegan town meeting warrant of 1889 are of historical interest: “To see if the town will vote to light the South Bridge with electric light.” To see what measures the town will take, if any, to procure in the Library Building to be erected during the present year by the Trustees of Bloomfield Academy, a memorial room in memory of the Soldiers and Sailors of the War of the Rebellion, and raise money for the same.

“To see what action the town will take in relation to procuring a city charter.”

Last winter I devoted a broadcast to the Eaton School, famous in Norridgewock during the 1870′ s and 1880s. A few weeks ago I chanced to find two old catalogues of that school, one for the school year of 1874-75, the other ten years later, 1884-85.

Those catalogues permit me to add, beyond what I said last winter, a few interesting facts about that famous school. The total expense for boarding pupils was $100 a term, or $300 for the full school year. That expense included tuition, room, board, washing, and repair of clothing. Commuting pupils paid $6.50 a term for the common English course, $7.50 for the Higher English, and $9.00 for the College Preparatory course that included foreign languages. All pupils paid extra for music and painting, but the charges were unbelievably low; only one dollar a term, for instance, for pencil drawing.

In the earlier broadcast I mentioned that, of all Mr. Eaton’s pupils, perhaps the most famous was Pelayo Garcia, the man made famous by Elbert Hubbard in his “Message to Garcia”. But that boy was not the only one of Spanish descent in the Eaton School in 1875. There were three Cubans: Jose ~guela from Sagua, Juan Dorticios from Cienfuegos, and Alberto Perez from Matangos. Then there were boys who came all the way from Spain, among them Pelayo Garcia himself, whose home was in Oviedo. There were also his relatives, Jose Garcia from Gyon, Amalio Polledo from Proaza, and Roman Rodriguez from Malaga. Another boy was Julio Diego from Panama.

How Mr. Eaton secured the attendance of those Spanish and Cuban students at his Norridgewock school I do not know. Perhaps some listener can enlighten me. It seems somewhat unusual that he enrolled those Spaniards, because his school had very few students from outside the immediate area. Most of his pupils had their homes in Norridgewock, Skowhegan, Madison, Anson, Solon or Starks. For some reason four students came down from Greenville, and there was one each from Portland, Yarmouth and New Gloucester in Cumberland County, and one from Bangor in the eastern Part of the state. Three came from Massachusetts and one from Vermont. Like most Maine academies in the 1870’s it was predominantly a local school, but it did have a much wider geographical representation than most such institutions.

When the Eaton School catalogue for 1885 came from the press, Mr. Eaton had himself left Norridgewock. Albert Allen was the principal, and the day of the Spanish students was over. The catalogue lists not a single student as living outside the State of Maine, and only four outside Somerset County. The Eaton School had become just another local academy. Interestingly enough, the expenses were exactly the same as they had been in 1875, except that there was no longer one comprehensive fee for the boarding students. In fact the school had abandoned its dormitory and no longer housed and fed any pupils. The 1885 catalogue said: “Board and room in private families may be obtained at $2.50 to $3.50 per week.”

It is interesting to note what was happening at Colby College in 1875, when the Eaton School at Norridgewock was in such a flourishing condition. Henry Robins was then the Colby president, and he had a faculty of six other persons, with one place, the professorship of mathematics, then vacant. A distinction of Colby College has been the relatively long tenure of its senior faculty members, and in 1875 there were names on that roster that were still teaching at Colby many years later, men of sound learning and considerable distinction.

Longest on the staff in 1875 had been Samuel K. Smith, professor of rhetoric. He was the father of William Abbott Smith, the beloved pastor of the Waterville Congregational Church. Moses Lyford was professor of natural philosophy 9the old name for physics) and of astronomy. John B. Foster, professor of Greek, was the second of five generations of Colby Fosters, one of whom was my own Colby classmate, John H. Foster, a distinguished Connecticut surgeon. Edward W. Hall had been only a few years at his post as professor of modern languages and librarian. He was to remain in the latter position until his death in 1910, and he would make the Colby Library known throughout New England. William Elder, crusty old Billy Elder, was professor of Chemistry and Natural History, and Julian D. Taylor, whom many Waterville residents still remember well as the Noble Roman, was professor of Latin, a post he held for 62 years, longer than any other college teacher in America, so far as we have been able to learn.

When the vacancy in Mathematics was filled, the total faculty in Robins’ time numbered eight, including the president himself, who taught a full schedule in addition to his administrative duties. Today the Colby faculty numbers 115, and by 1975, a hundred years after the Robins era, it may well exceed 150 –more faculty members than there were students in 1875 — in fact very many more, for in that year the whole student body at Colby numbered exactly 62.

Year: 1962