Radio Script #1186

Little Talks on Common Things
January 14, 1979

Until well into the last quarter of the 19th Century most New England colleges had three terms a year, beginning in September and closing in August. The long vacation was in the winter, not the summer. In fact what later came to be called a spring term was long known as the summer term, beginning in late May and closing about the middle of August. The fall term began in September and usually continued until shortly before Christmas, and the winter term did not open until mid-February.

Not until the middle of the 19th Century were there any colleges for girls. though some of the New England academies had introduced earlier what they called collegiate courses for young ladies. All the colleges had as students men only. The purpose of the long vacation in the winter was to allow those male college students to teach, not only in the academies, but much more commonly in the elementary schools, known everywhere as the common schools. While it was long felt that any graduate of a high school with a good academic record was capable of teaching a common school without any professional training, then young college undergraduates were looked upon with special favor. Although when the 19th century began, many of the common school teachers were women, simply because they could be employed at lower salaries than men – that was long before the day of equal rights – men were favored for the winter terms.

Why? The reason was the different kind of student enrollment in the winter. During the summer, older boys were needed on the farms, and at that time Maine was principally an agricultural state. In fact, as soon as a boy reached teenage, he was likely to be allowed to attend school only in the winter term, one term a year, thus delaying his completion of school until he was as much as 20 years old. The logical reasoning of school committees was that a vigorous, wellmuscled man was needed to keep discipline during those winter terms. So it was the practice to engage a teacher one term at a time – usually a woman for fall and summer terms, but a man for the winter term.

Often there was pressure on the colleges to lengthen their winter vacation to give those school districts opportunity to have a winter term longer than six weeks without causing the teacher to lose any college time. At Waterville College, that later became Colby, the usual way of meeting that situation was to extend the student teacher’s leave of absence, sometimes permitting him to leave the fall term early as well as enter the winter term late.

That such, however, was not always the case is shown by a letter which Colby’s first president, Jeremiah Chaplin wrote to Otis Briggs, secretary of the Trustees of Waterville College in 1823. “The Officers of the College” – that meant all three members of the faculty – “feel anxious to have the time of Commencement altered to the last Wednesday in July instead of the second Wednesday in August, so that the fall term may begin earlier than it does now. The term could then close the last of November, as many of the students are under the financial necessity of going out to keep a school before the present beginning of the winter vacation. Under our present plan, the fall term, which ought to be the heart of the three, is in a manner lost. We find it necessary to let a considerable number of students have a leave of absence to keep school several weeks before the term closes, and before the term examinations. This has a pernicious effect on their studies, diminishing their value not only to those who go, but also to those who remain. Hence we think it desirable to have a meeting of the Trustees on the last Wednesday in December. I have consulted Mr. Boutelle and Mr. Partridge, both of whom desire that the meeting be called. You will therefore please notify in due form, as the bylaws demand, and will place the notice in the newspaper printed in Waterville.”

It would be interesting if we could have a record of the discussion at that meeting of the college trustees. All we have is the cryptic sentence in the record for December 28, 1823, “Voted not to change the time of Commencement.”

So the request of President Chaplin and his faculty was denied, and they had to continue to suffer the nuisance of letting students leave early to teach the winter term in Maine schools.

In order to be sure of a source of student enrollment, almost every New England college, early in its existence, fostered a preparation school. At Colby that practice began as early as 1822, when President Chaplin set up on the side what he called a grammar school to get boys ready for the college course. That meant especially to make them proficient in Latin and Greek. The grammar school was always taught by one of the college students, usually a senior. In the winter of 1826 that senior was Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who 12 years later was killed by a mob in Alton, Illinois because he refused to stop printing anti-slavery articles in his Alton Observer.

Then in 1828 the college trustees decided to set up an affiliated academy, for which they erected a building on Waterville’s Elm Street, just south of the town cemetery that is now Monument Park. It was to be a full-fledged academy with three terms a year and they required a full-time principal, a college graduate, rather than a college student. That was the beginning of Waterville Academy which later became Coburn Classical Institute.

How principals of the early academy were engaged, and the terms of their employment, is shown by a letter which President Chaplin wrote to Henry Paine on April 29, 1831, when Waterville Academy was only three years old.

Henry Paine had graduated from Waterville College in its second class, 1824. As ancient as it may seem to us today, Henry and the other two members of the Class of 1824 – in total there were only three – had all been born in the 18th Century. In fact, Henry was the oldest, born in 1793. So he was 30 years old when he got his college degree.

Like Lovejoy, Henry Paine had taught in the college grammar school in his senior year, but unlike Lovejoy, he did not turn to the pulpit and the printing press for a career, but became a life-long teacher, ending his career in 1868 as Principal of the prestigious Thomaston Academy – a school founded by General Henry Knox of Revolutionary fame. Henry died at the age of 75.

So now let us see what the President of Waterville College wrote to his former student Henry Paine, then Principal of Monmouth Academy, in 1831. “It gives me much pleasure that you have decided to take charge of our academy. We have fixed the tuition at $3 a quarter. If you have an average of 40 scholars, you can well get $480 for the year.” Note how that shows us the compensation plan. Paine would get no stated salary, but could keep $3 each of the four quarters (not three terms) into which the school year was then divided from every student enrolled.

One of President Chaplin’s pet projects was the mechanic shop the college had opened to provide employment for the students. He told Paine: “l think we can accommodate in our shop the young men who study with you. We want you to commence your labors with us six weeks from next Monday.”

Since that letter was written on April 29, Paine was to start his Waterville teaching about the middle of June. If that seems peculiar, bear in mind that was the very time when the annual summer term at the college would be underway, a term the college men would be attending until mid-August.

President Chaplin, aware that he was taking Paine away from another school, added: “As to replacement for you at Monmouth, there are two of our present seniors who will finish here in about seven weeks. They are Lord and Noor.” Chaplin continued: “In regard to a house, you are likely to have one ready in six to eight weeks. Mr. Dodge is building one just about large enough for you. It is 38 x 18 feet with an ell for a kitchen, and on the upper floor are two large and one small sleeping chambers. It will, of course, provide room for a number of student boarders if you care to take them. Rent for the house will be $50 a year. It is situated a short distance from the meetinghouse and the academy.”

Chaplin recalled that, six years earlier, he had sought to employ Paine as a tutor at the college. When Paine informed the college he was getting married, Chaplin had sadly told him: “By action of the Trustees, we are not allowed to employ anyone as a tutor any longer than he continued unmarried.”

When the Maine Literary and Theological Instution changed its nameto Waterville College in 1821, it operated no dining service, but students had to eat somewhere and preferably at the lowest possible cost. This was especially true of the theological students who were helped financially by the Massachusetts Baptist Education Society. In August 1821, President Chaplin wrote to Lucius Bolles, secretary of that Society: “Mr. Burleigh will furnish board to your beneficiaries at $1. 50 per week. Mr. Partridge, who has moved into part of the house occupied by Professor Briggs, will provide board for young men at 8 shillings 6 pence per week. You must decide whether you wish to contract with Mr. Burleigh or with Deacon Partridge.”

It is interesting to note that as late as 1821, not the new American dollar and cents, but British units of currency, were still common in New England. Since the New England shilling was rated at six for a dollar, Burleigh’s rate of $1.50 a week was a bit higher than Partridge’s $1.41.”

And with that reference to boarding prices of 157 years ago, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1979