Radio Script #1140

Little Talks on Common Things
November 20, 1977

In the 1890s Oak Grove School had a longer name. Its catalogue for that year heralded it as Oak Grove Seminary and Bailey Institute, Vassalboro, Maine. The catalogue begins with a historical sketch which tells us that the institution began as what was called a Select School about 1850, as the result of efforts of five members of the Society of Friends who lived in Vassalboro: John Lang, Samuel Taylor, Ebenezer Frye, Alden Sampson and John Pope. The school soon closed for lack of patronage, but in 1856 Eli Jones raised $15, 000 to reopen it, and by the spring of 1857 it had 140 students. In 1890 the school was owned by the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. To such an extent was the Bailey family of Winthrop involved in financing the school by many generous gifts that by 1894 the name Bailey Institute had been added to Oak Grove.

The catalogue’s description of the school property is interesting: “The Seminary is located in Vassalboro, about a mile from the railroad station. The buildings are conveniently arranged with all modern appointments. Steam is used for heating. In the evening the schoolroom is lighted by large Rochester burners, giving the best of light. The recitations are held in separate classrooms so that the schoolroom may be kept quiet for study. The dining room accommodates ninety persons.

“The second and third floors are devoted to dormitories. Rooms accommodating two students are furnished with two single beds with woven wire springs, good mattresses and sufficient chairs. Bathrooms are supplied with hot and cold water. The boys and girls have separate sitting rooms heated and lighted. The building is of three stores, 40 by 70 feet, with two wings, one 40 by 35, the other 40 by fifty – altogether a commodious well appointed and extremely useful building.

In stating the courses of the school, the catalogue stressed what seems to be too often neglected in educational systems now 80 years later in the 1970s. It said: “While the primary thought in education is to gain mental development, the educator must not forget that it is his real business to mold and shape active boys and girls so that they shall in every sense become better and more complete men and women. This would be no problem if all children were trained from
infancy to respect whatever is worthy of respect, and to obey the laws of God.

“But such is not the case. A system of discipline must be devised and impartially carried out. No progress can be made with pupils who willfully refuse to learn how to discipline themselves. Such pupils will not be retained in this seminary. No unnecessary rules will ever be made, but only those needed for decent living. We expect our students to know and heed the moral law, in which we certainly include abstinence from all intoxicating drink, tobacco and profanity.”

Now let us note what the old school catalogue says about religion. “Feeling that it is our business to train good citizens and that this cannot be done without constant referenceto the Son of Man and Son of God, in whom alone we, see the possibility of mankind, we strive to impress upon all in the school, simply, but in no sectarian spirit, the truths which most dearly concern all human beings.

“The school opens with a short religious service each morning. Meetings are held for about an hour on the Sabbath and there is a Sabbath evening prayer meeting under auspices of the Christian Endeavor Sociefy.”

In 1894 the Oak Grove principal was Henry Goddard, who taught mathematics. History and English were taught by Harriett Collins, who also had charge of the girls, and carried the title of governess, rather than the more usual title of preceptress. Latin and Greek were taught by Wilbur Estes, saga by Sibyl Stanley. No modern languages were in the curriculum. However, there were commercial subjects, especially bookkeeping, taught by Henry Cole. Mr. Frank Hubbard of Waterville taught music, and Sara Day painting and drawing.

The school was governed by a board of 31 trustees headed by Charles M. Bailey of Winthrop. There were five other Baileys on the board: C. Irving, Hannah J., Melvin H., Lottie M. and Elvira A. Other trustees from Winthrop were Joseph Briggs, the school treasurer; Emma Briggs, Henry and May Winston, and James McPherson. Only one trustee had residence outside of Maine: Rufus Jones of Haverford, Penn. He, of course, was the man who had been born in South China, Maine, had himself once been principal of Oak Grove, and in 1894 was on his way to being the internationally known Quaker leader.

In 1894 only four of the 31 trustees lived in Vassalboro: Ruthanna Washburne, Eliza Pierce, Mary Taylor and George Cates.
Most of the students came from Vassalboro, China and Winthrop but a goodly number from further away. Robert Bean lived in Mercer, Gustavus Bell in Clinton, Alice Hall in Portland, Edna Magoon in St. Albans, Mildred Wyman in Millbridge. There were 9 students from Massachusetts, 4 from New Hampshire and one from Rhode Island. Surprisingly one student came from Michigan and another from far away as Idaho.

What did it cost to attend Oak Grove in 1894? Tuition was $18 a year, $6 for each of the three terms. The commercial course with all supplies cost $30 a year. Board was $3 a week.

Now for some information about the school now allied with Oak Grove. Let us look at Coburn in the 1850s. It was then Waterville Academy. This description of the school came from the handwritten text of an address given by an unnamed Waterville woman half a century later. Here are some of the comments: “The village girls, who attended the school had black silk aprons with pockets. I was fortunate to have a mother of fine taste, and, I was always becomingly dressed. I wore no bosom pin, but had a hem stitched ruffle of fine India muslin crimped by a penknife as a neck fringe. The daughter of Waterville’s wealthiest. man was in the school. She was unkindly criticized for wearing deep blue stockings and a maroon colored dress. On the spot where Coburn Classical Institute now stands, a modest, symmetrical building stood for many years, where many able young men fitted for college, among them Governor Nelson Dingley. The old building had only two rooms for school work. There were four rows of desks each accommodating two students. On the west side of the room was a platform where the teacher sat behind a flat desk.

“Among the pupils were Everett Patterson, son of the president of the college, and his sister, Fanny a remarkable scholar.

“We used Greenleaf’s National Arithmetic. At the beginning of each recitation we had drill on mental arithmetic. The biggest boy in that class was Henry Sheldon, son of a former college president. He is now a Boston judge. When he went to Harvard, he took enough prizes to pay his expenses.

“Mr. Hanson’s class in Latin was held before breakfast: Every day in Virgil he would begin by a thorough analysis of just five lines, about which he would ask many more than five questions. He aimed at complete accuracy in all his teaching.

“There were no separate classes in English. The whole school read sometimes from Manderville’s Fourth Reader, sometimes from Shakespeare. There was also a daily exercise in spelling from a spelling book. Every pupil was supposed to be thoroughly familiar with English grammar before he entered the Academy, but to make sure, all were required to be in what was called the parsing class until they had adequate mastery to prepare properly a lesson in sentence analysis and parsing took as much time as to prepare one in Latin. Many pupils brought their lunch and spent the noon hour in analysis and parsing.

“Though not an elementary school, the Academy insisted on having exercises in geography. Whenever in his teaching of Latin and Greek Mr. Hanson encountered references of history or geography, he challenged the students’ knowledge in those areas and gave much attention to etymology. We were excited to learn that cathedral, saddle and sect come from the same source as chair. Curtain and kettle have the same source. Rug and rough are the same word. Those and many other fascinating points of word history have stayed with me through the fifty years.

“All pupils were required to set in the big schoolroom all day except when they recited in the adjoining room and I never heard anyone complain.

“Every Wednesday afternoon we had General Exercises. The boys declaimed or read original compositions; the girls always read selections from their own writings. College students used to visit the Academy on those Wednesday afternoons, and it was not easy for boys and girls fresh from country farms to perform in the presence of those superior beings.

“How grateful boys should be for baseball and football. In the 1850s there were no organized sports. One thing, however, was the same as today. The boys paid as much attention to the girls as decorum of the times would allow. Fortunately there was no school rule that prevented boys from walking home with girls, but a lot of the girls were too bashful to do it in broad daylight. One of the older girls got attention from young men in the college, three of those college men out teaching school during the long winter vacation each received a letter from a girl at the Academy expressing affection for the fellow. When the three got back to college for the spring term, they found the letters had all been written by the same girl.

“English composition was one of the Academy’s hardest requirements. At the first assignment of such each year, a number of students declared they had never written a composition in their lives. However, we had some embryo poets. But when one lamely attempted some doggerel verse, Miss Sawtelle told him he had better stick to prose. Every two weeks we had a meeting of the Debating Society. After the debate there was a kind of social recess for 15 minutes, then some student read a paper on a current subject. After the session, boys walked the girls home.

“Occasionally some local student held a party in his home, but those occasions were so rare they were precious. I remember attending one party given by a local academy student who was later in the Civil War and killed in the battle of Fair Oaks.

“The school had no laboratory, no library, no endowment except the endowment of devoted, conscientious teachers and eager, ambitious pupils. I am thankful for the old-fashioned, limited advantages that Waterville Academy gave me.”

And with those tributes today to Oak Grove and to Coburn, the two schools now merged as Oak Grove-Coburn, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1977