Radio Script #861

Little Talks on Common Things
October 4, 1970

It is interesting how often there turns up some new information about old time schools in this vicinity. There recently came into my hands and is now carefully preserved in the Waterville Historical Society’s Redington Museum, a hand written document of four long pages, headed “Report of the Superintending School Committee of Waterville. March, 1835”.

At that time, of course, schools were operated under the district system, and Waterville had 14 different school districts. The town appropriated a certain sum of money for all its schools; then that money was divided among the several districts according to the number of pupils in each. Each district committee decided how many weeks, for how many terms, it could operate its school in a particular year. The committee or its appointed agent, hired a teacher, saw that a building was ready, fuel on hand, then left the teacher pretty much alone, though the district committee was supposed to visit the school at least once during each term and on a so-called examining day at the term’s close. So diverse were the ways in which the district committee performed their duties, that, to bring some order into a chaotic situation, towns began to set up supervising school committees, with the duty to examine each district school, report to the towns on what they found, and make recommendations for improvement.

I was rather amazed to learn that all three members of Waterville’s supervising committee in 1835 were clergymen. The chairman was Rev. Calvin Gardner of the Universalist Church. Another member was Rev. P.P. Morrill, a Methodist. Although there was then no Methodist Church in Waterville, Morrill lived here and held frequent services in the community. He was apparently out of town a great deal, for this old report says: “In consequence of the absence of Rev. Mr. Morrill from Waterville through most of the year, the duties have devolved entirely on the two remaining members of the committee. That other member who, with Calvin Gardner, did all the work became the most famous of the three. He was the pastor of the Baptist Church, Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, who gained national renown as author of the hymn “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”.

The custom of three terms a year that even the oldest people living today knew in childhood, even if they lived in the smallest of Maine communities, was unheard of in 1835. The best any town or district could do was to operate two terms, called respectively winter and summer schools. The length of a term would be anywhere from six to twelve weeks, according to the money available.

Now let us see how that 1835 Waterville report begins: “With two or three exceptions, Members Gardner and Smith have visited all the schools in town four times during the year, twice during the summer term, and twice in the winter. By hints and suggestions they have done all within their power to promote the happiness and success both of teachers and scholars.”

I have previously mentioned on this program the fact that summer terms were usually taught by women, winter terms more commonly by men; for in the winter, but not in summer, the larger, older and more obstreperous students were likely to attend, and most district committees contended that only a vigorous, two-fisted man could control a winter school. Even then, the older boys sometimes heaved the male teacher out a window into a snowdrift. The Waterville committee said that the length of the summer term varied in the several districts from 6 to 13 weeks. Although they did not give the first names of the women teachers, their family names reveal that they came from some of the town’s most prominent homes in 1835. Among those teachers were Miss Dunbar, Miss Smith, Miss Mathews, Miss Marston and Miss Crowell.

The committee lamented that, in the summer term there was no school in Levi Dow’s district, because there was insufficient money, and anyhow the district had no school house, and if there were any school, it would have to be held in someone’s house. There was also no school in the district near the Sidney line. The committee was pleased to report that most of the winter schools had a longer term than in the summer. Family names of men doing the winter teaching included Marston, Combs, Warren, Gates, Goodman and Bennett. All teachers for both terms had been orally examined by Gardner and Smith in arithmetic, grammar and geography. With one exception, where a second examination was required, all were immediately approved. The committee hedged their approval with this statement: “We could testify only to the literary qualifications of the teachers. Their ability to impart knowledge and maintain good government must be tested by their practical success.”

As already indicated, there was no school operated in 1834-35 in two of the town’s fourteen districts. But this committee reported on each of the remaining twelve. It is interesting to note how they designated the districts, which were later identified only by number. In 1835 each district had a name. Ticonic Village district actually operated two schools. called respectively the Village School and the Brick School. The former was situated on the Common, beside the old combination meeting house and town house erected in 1795. It fronted Common Street and was a single-storied wooden structure. The Brick School, a more elaborate building, but likewise of only one story, stood on College Avenue, then called College Street, on the site of the present American Legion building.

During that winter of 1835 the Village School had 45 pupils, the Brick School 60. The Webb School, near the present Webb Road, off the West River Road, was then the largest school in town, with 65 pupils. What a job for a single teacher! The Marston School, near the corner of County and Marston Roads, had only 29 children and the Neck School 21. A school out on Penney Hill had 21 also. What was called the Brick School in West Parish (that is. in what is now Oakland) had 40 and the Holmes School 38. One school was called the Richardson School with 30 pupils. I do not know where it was located. A school on the present Pond Road in Oakland, north of the Sidney line, had 45 attendants. Another school in then West Waterville was the Combs School with 54. The Ten Lots School had 50, a number hard for us to comprehend as we consider the population of that area today.

Now let us turn to the committee’s comment on school books, which then had to be supplied by the parents. “With a few exceptions”, they said, “the scholars have been supplied with books. But the diversity in each school has been such as to cause the teachers a great deal of trouble, which might have been avoided. True, while anyone grammar would answer the purposes of instruction in the rudiments of our own tongue, we have found four in the same school: Murray, Greenleaf, Greene and Smith. In arithmetic there are Smith, Kinney, Welch and Emerson, all in one school and in others we have found Colbron and Adams, as well as one or more of the others. In four or five cases we have found a single scholar using a different arithmetic from all the other children. He is actually formed a class all by himself. In geography there are in use Brun, Olnay, Parker, Worcester, Blake and Morse. There has also been too much diversity in readers. While the American Chap Book, the National Reader and the Primary Chap Book have been most common, the English Reader and several others have appeared. One scholar, by request of parents, was using a geography as a reading book.

The report tells us just how many students studied what subjects. It says: “In the summer schools 48 studied grammar, 70 arithmetic, 64 geography, and 40 writing. In the winter schools there were fewer of the ABC children, and a much larger number have been engaged in more advanced subjects. In addition to the usual required studies, four or five scholars have had a little algebra, some history, and a smattering of rhetoric.”

Anyone acquainted with reports, teachers’ diaries, or even family letters dealing with the old-time schools knows that they were seldom free from dissension. Parents too often sided with children, when a teacher punished them, although the same parents were likely to demand the dismissal of a teacher who couldn’t maintain discipline. They simply wanted the teacher to punish someone else’s child. We should not be surprised, therefore, at the following paragraph in that old 1835 report: “The committee regrets that trouble has occurred in any of the districts. Whenever such cases have come to our attention, we have endeavored to conciliate, as far as possible, the parties concerned, and settle the difficulties to the satisfaction of all. Our official relations to the community, however, as ministers, have made it a delicate task for us to seem to take sides with either parents or scholars.”

Recommendation was made that the committee be enlarged to five members. The report said: “The additional members should live in the more remote districts. The present members, all residing in the village, have gone to much time and expense to visit all the schools. It has been impossible for us to do full justice to all of them. In visiting the schools we have used the equivalent of 12 full working days — an entire fortnight. That has been in addition to the time spent examining teachers. Add to that time the expense of conveyance to remote schools, and our task has been neither easy nor lucrative. From an earnest desire, however, to promote the interests of our fellow citizens and the good of their children, we have given cheerfully this time and attention to the Waterville schools, hoping that our successors in office will find the task equally enjoyable.”

So any of you listeners who have served on a school committee can be assured that 135 years ago Waterville had school problems, just as it has them now.

Year: 1970