Radio Script #803

Little Talks on Common Things

April 13, 1969

In last Sunday’s broadcast I made an error that I want to correct today. I stated that the oldest Latin Grammar School in this country was the Roxbury Latin School and that later came the Boston Latin School. It was just the other way. The Boston Latin School was first and Roxbury came later. In fact the Boston Latin School was founded in 1635, one year before the establishment of Harvard.

In this country, as in England, the original name given to any school that gave instruction above what was then called the common school was the grammar school, or more strictly the Latin Grammar School, for it was there that pupils were first introduced to the study of Latin.

By the middle of the 18th century those schools were often called academies, and the same kind of instruction was also given in the first high schools. As time went on the grammar school, especially in Maine towns, meant two or three grades just before high school. In fact the division of the schools that I attended as a boy were the primary school, grades 1 to 3; the intermediate school, grades 4. 5 and 6; the grammar school, grades 7 and 8; and the high school, grades 9 through 12.

The oldest school in America that gave instruction beyond the common school, that is. beyond what we now call the 8th grade. was the Boston Latin Grammar School, soon shortened in name to the Boston Latin School, established in 1635. It was followed in 1638 by the nearby Roxbury Latin School. At least one secondary school, a venerable private school established also in the 17th century, still carries the name of grammar school. although it covers grade 9 through 12. It is the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Conn.

Now let us talk about the old grammar schools or academies in Maine. The most reliable reference on that subject is Miss Ava Chadbourne’s valuable book. “The Beginnings of Education in Maine”, published as a monograph by Teachers College of Columbia University in 1908. Much of what I now tell you comes from Miss Chadbourne.

The record of grammar schools in the District of Maine in the period immediately following the Revolution is scanty. Of the nine towns that established grammar schools previous to Maine’s statehood, Portland carried on one such school up to 1820, where the master was required to be proficient in the Latin and Greek languages. Kittery raised by subscription money for a grammar school in 1810.

As early as 1790 Kittery recommended the employment of three grammar school masters, but it is not clear whether they actually served. York was apparently the first town to support a grammar school by taxation, when in 1788 they voted money for such a school. By 1820 a grammar school had already been going for several years in Biddeford.

In Fryeburg, where a grammar school was established in 1791, its purpose was stated as “to promote and encourage the good education of youth, in order that they may have an acquaintance with and a knowledge of the learned languages and other branches of literature necessary for their appearance and action in public life”. The subjects taught in the Fryeburg school were English, Latin, Greek, the art of public speaking, geography. and other useful branches of literature.

From Miss Chadbourne’s account it is clear that very early some of the grammar schools did have tax support, although many got under way as fee schools, to which parents paid tuition.

As most of my listeners know, the first town incorporated on the Kennebec north of Merrymeeting Bay was Pownalborough, now the town of Dresden. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Miss Mildred Burrage, daughter of Maine’s outstanding historian, Dr. Henry Burrage, the old courthouse at Pownal borough has now been restored and is open to the public. Until the county seat was moved to Wiscasset, Pownalborough was the shire town of old Lincoln County, which at that time included all of the district of Maine east of the Androscoggin. Out of that immense county were carved all of Maine’s present counties except York, Cumberland, Oxford and Androscoggin.

Pownalborough was founded as a result of the Kennebec Purchase in 1749, when a group of Boston proprietors bought the immense tract that had once belonged to the Plymouth Colony. The chief proprietor was Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, and it was he who opened up the area to settlement, later founding and residing in the town that took his name, the present city of Gardiner.

With that introduction to old Pownalborough, we can understand what Miss Chadbourne says about a school there. She wrote: “In 1789 the voters of Pownalborough accepted the gift of John Gardiner (son of the old doctor) of 300 acres of land, and to comply with his conditions to set aside 100 acres for the support of a public grammar school. The town’s records, however, make no further mention of that school until 1804, when the town voted to procure a teacher of the grammar school.”

In Augusta in 1803 an association of citizens erected a grammar schoolhouse of brick, but it was supported by tuition. not by taxation. The association sold shares which entitled each holder to send one scholar for each share, and shares were sometimes leased to people who held none. That schoolhouse was destroyed by fire i n 1807.

Monmouth, on the other hand. set up a free grammar school in 1801 and erected a building known as the Monmouth Free Grammar School. But even that school, though free, was not supported by town taxes. Like the school in Augusta. it was started by an association of citizens, but unlike Augusta inhabitants, the Monmouth people could send their children to the school without charge or the ownership of shares.

Miss Chadbourne sums up her account as follows: “The grammar schools in both the older and the newer towns of Maine reveal that schools of that earlier type. that had opened in and near Boston, were considerably modified here, though still giving prominence to Latin and Greek. Those Maine schools were indeed the beginnings of what came to be the academy.”

As for the academy itself Miss Chadbourne points out that in 1797 the Massachusetts Legislature had begun the long continued grants of land for the establishment of academies in the District of Maine. In fact five of the fifteen academies incorporated before 1797 were already at work in Maine when the land grants began. Those academies were Hallowell, Berwick. Fryeburg, Washington and Portland. Often, as was the case at Fryeburg and East Machias (the site of Washington Academy) an entire township of land. six miles square, was granted.

Of the 25 academies founded in Maine before 1820, it is surprising to note that three were for girls. Education of women beyond the common school was not usual early in the 19th century. and those so-called female academies gave witness to the progressive attitude of Maine people at that time.

Let us now see how those early Maine academies were set up. The law required that an academy have permanent funds before it could be incorporated. Usually a subscription paper was circulated among the inhabitants. At Fryeburg the subscribers were named proprietors of the school, and each subscribed for a certain number of shares. The total subscription amounted to $1,226. the individual subscriptions varying from $6 to $30.

At Hebron, where much later it was my good fortune to do my first teaching, Deacon William Barrows circulated the subscription paper, and when the needed sum was not realized, the deacon himself became responsible for the balance.

In Farmington 55 citizens subscribed $3,000. Bridgton did even better, raising $4,000. In Belfast there was raised $3,500 and Captain McFarland gave an acre of land for the site. At North Yarmouth one man gave $150 toward the meager $1,100 to start the academy.

The many subscription lists in Maine towns testify to the desire of the people to establish higher schools, and to do it on their own resources. After the required amount of money had been raised, a petition was submitted to the Massachusetts Legislature to incorporate the proposed academy. A typical case was that in the town of Canaan where in April, 1806 the following petition was sent to Boston: “To the Hon. Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth in General Court assembled. The petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of Canaan, Norridgewock, Madison, Cornville, and other adjacent towns in the county of Kennebec, respectfully submit that, as there are no regularly established academies in this part of the county. we are unable to offer an academical education to our youth, unless at great expense and inconvenience. This circumstance, together with the central location of Canaan. its extensive increase in population, and many other circumstances, render it particularly desirable that a seminary of literature be instituted in said town of a higher order than the ordinary town schools. Having raised for the support of such institution nearly $1,000, besides erecting a suitable edifice, your petitioners humbly pray that an academy be established by the name of Canaan Academy, and that your petitioners and their associates be incorporated into a body politic with such privileges and under such regulations as the General Court shall deem proper.”

The early academies were all incorporated under boards of self-perpetuating trustees. The particular clause in the Canaan Academy charter is typical of the others. It read: “As often as any trustee shall die or resign, or in the judgment of a majority of the trustees is rendered incapable of discharging his trust, the trustees then surviving shall fill the vacancy by a new election. ”

The number of an academy’s trustees varied greatly. In the early days Washington Academy had only four trustees, while Hallowell had 21. The charter of Berwick Academy, which, next to Hallowell. was Maine’s oldest academy, called for not less than nine nor more than 15 trustees of whom a majority had to be non-residents of Berwick, one had to be the principal of the school, and a majority had to be laymen, not clergymen. On the other hand, when the Academy was opened at Newcastle, its chairman was General Henry Knox, but the other six members were all ministers.

Most of the academy charters listed among the trustees’ duties “to make and ordain such orders and rules for government of the academy as shall seem most fit and requisite, but in no ways contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth.” The opening of a Maine academy was often the occasion of public celebration. There was usually a dedicatory sermon and a public dinner. At Newcastle it was provided that Lincoln Academy should be opened by an introductory prayer, a sermon or oration, appropriate music, and a public dinner. Saco Academy (later to become Thornton) was dedicated in 1813 by what the program called performances at the meeting house, including a prayer appropriate to the occasion, an address by Rev. Asa Lyman, who had been named the first principal, another address by the Hon. Cyrus King, and a concluding prayer, after which there was served a sumptuous dinner.

I have already mentioned the subjects taught in the early academies with their emphasis on Latin and Greek. French was introduced early into some of those schools, and there was in all of them some attention to English grammar, composition and literature. Arithmetic was continued beyond its common school termination at the Rule of Three (that is, proportion). At first few of the schools taught algebra. but nearly all of them introduced the elements of plane geometry.

Some academies had courses in logic, philosophy, and Evidences of Christianity. Among early textbooks were the Columbian Orator, Murray’s Grammar, Webber’s Mathematics and Morse’s Geography. Attention to geometry led to courses in surveying and navigation, for which there were numerous early 19th century texts. It is worth noting that many of the books used in Maine schools before 1820 were published in Hallowell, then the largest book-publishing center north of Boston.

Well, that completes our account of early secondary education in Maine, and we must now say goodby until next week.

Year: 1969