Little District Schoolhouse circa 1897. Built about 1883 at a cost "not to exceed $350," this one-room schoolhouse served Topsham's Cunningham or Watson Hill District. It was still in operation as late as 1911. The tall student in the white dress in the center of the front row is Nettie Wright (Pierson) the author's wife's grandmother. (Town of Topsham)
“Selectmen of towns to have a vigilant eye over their
neighbors, to see that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of
their families as not to endeavor to teach their children and apprentices so
much learning as may enable them to read perfectly the English tongue.” NH
Provincial Legislature, June 14, 1642
Education was crucial in early New England as it enabled
people to read the Bible. By 1777 New Hampshire and Vermont required primary
schools in most towns.
In 1782, Rev. Gershom
Lyman spoke before the Vermont Legislature expressing, “the belief of the
majority of Vermonters when he referred to ignorance as ‘a natural source of
error, self-conceit and contracted, groveling sentiment.’”
Randolph Roth’s study of the early Connecticut River Valley
of Vermont found education in high regard. “Education promised to create an electorate
that would chose its representatives wisely.” Roth concluded that by the turn
of the 19th century, “the valley had one of the highest literacy rates in the
world, approximately 95 percent for men and 85 percent for women.”
That high rate of literacy was fostered at least until the
beginning of the 20th century in small, usually one-room, district schools. The
following includes just some local examples of this historic practice.
In local towns, such
as Bradford, Orford, and Corinth, the earliest schools were held in homes or
barns. In 1770, Orford voted to hire its
first schoolmaster. In 1773, Haverhill established its first primary school.
East Topsham built it first schoolhouse around 1810.
In 1782, Vermont
provided that towns could create neighborhood self-funding and self-governing
school districts. New Hampshire followed suit. Each district was “a little
independent commonwealth with certain defined boundaries.”
In local towns, the number of districts increased with
population growth, especially in previously unpopulated areas. Haverhill began
with 4 districts in 1786, added 5 more by 1815, eventually reaching 20. By the
early 1800s, Bradford was divided into 17 districts and several fractional districts.
The latter were districts that shared a school with adjoining towns.
The district was responsible for the construction of a
schoolhouse, usually within walking distance from most homes. Sometimes,
property for a new school was donated by a local landowner as property near the
school increased in value. Terms of up to 12 weeks were held 3 times a year,
with timing determined by farming practices.
Early schoolhouses lacked many of the amenities of later
schools. Initially, students sat on benches and, later, in straight-back desks.
At first, there were no blackboards, globes, or teaching supplies.
Student were expected to bring their own textbooks, which
often meant little uniformity in books. Students brought wood for the stove to
heat what were often cold, drafty buildings. Schools were without running water
for drinking or toilets.
Initially, only Vermont taxpayers who had school-age
children were expected to pay on a per-student basis. The early practice of
allowing taxes to be paid in labor or produce was abandoned and, by 1864, all
property owners were expected to pay school taxes.
A district school committee made decisions about school
operation., including securing a teacher, usually at the lowest possible price.
“The system was the occasion of more local quarrels than anything else in
town.”
In many local towns, the population peaked in the 1850s, and
Vermont schools had an average of 38 students. In 1860, there were 2,591 school
districts in Vermont with a reduced average of 29 scholars in grades 1-8. In
1867, Vermont required attendance for students up to 14 years of age. While
district students could stay beyond 16 years of age, few did. In 1854, New Hampshire had 2,294 district
schools.
As the population continued to decline in the latter half of
the 19th century, the average number of students also declined. In 1884, there were 103 Vermont district
schools with six or fewer students and 420 districts with between 6 and 11.
School were sometimes closed briefly until students were available or closed
permanently. Reduction in the number of
students in a district school did not result in a similar reduction in fixed expenses.
These factors led to a decline in the number of district
schools. In 1900, there were just over 1,500 district schools in Vermont, by
1920, there were 1,000, and by the 1950s, about 500. Abandoned school houses were often dismantled
or sold. By the beginning of the 21st century, the number of
one-room schools in the two states had dwindled to single digits.
This was especially pronounced in rural districts that
became underpopulated. The one-room school in Orford’s Quintown district is an
example. In 1894, there were only seven students, the following year, five, and
by 1900, it was abandoned.
Until the late 19th century, there were no state
certification requirements for teachers.
Generally, anyone who had completed the equivalent of high school could
be hired as a district school teacher.
While there were men hired as schoolmasters, most teachers were women.
In early Newbury, teachers received 50 cents a week.
Teachers were expected to board with families either on a weekly or full-term
basis. In some districts, the housing of the teacher was bid off to the lowest
bidder, which did not always provide the best of accommodations for the
educators..
This was the
description of one early Newbury teacher: “She was not incompetent, however,
having learned through her own efforts to read and write. She also knew a
little something of the science of numbers and taught successfully.”
The academic demands on teachers were significant. In 1867,
the teacher in the District 12 school in Bradford village taught 45 pupils 25
different subjects in an ungraded one-room school.
A good teacher was one who could keep order “even if
preserved with a rod.” Historian Steve Taylor described the discipline as
varying from “chaotic to dictatorial.”
During the winter term, big farm boys often created discipline
problems for younger teachers. Some
years ago, an elder told me of a local school that had a problem with a number
of boys who “broke up the school,” including driving teachers away. A new teacher arrived and, placed a large
whip over the blackboard, stating her intention to use it as necessary. She taught successfully for decades.
The district school was a center of local activity, and
school affairs were newsworthy. In February 1876, The United Opinion carried an
article on the “excellent and successful” winter term of West Fairlee’s
District 4 school. It had 27 students under the instruction of Miss Lydia
Smith,” an able and experienced teacher.”
Samuel Reed Hall opened the first teacher training or normal
school was opened in Concord, VT in 1823. He also operated a similar program in
Plymouth NH after 1837. Over the years that followed the Civil War, both states
operated normal schools that provided teacher training and increased
certification requirements.
Beginning in 1885, both states passed a series of acts
setting standards for school buildings, allowed women to vote in school affairs
and adopted a policy of town-wide graded school districts with consolidated
schools located in the centers of local population. In 1919, the NH state started a program to
improve underperforming schools.
In the late 19th century, both states began to reconsider
the self-financed neighborhood district.
In 1884, Vermont enacted a law encouraging towns to adopt the township system
of schools. Newbury voters voted twice not to adopt. In 1894, the state
mandated the town system. The takeover closed some district schools, whereas
other were kept and improved.
This town-wide control encouraged the consolidation of
schools. In 1895, Bradford built a new brick primary school on South Main and
placed grades 4 through 8 in the newly-constructed Woods School Building. These
locations served until a new elementary school was built in 1952 at which time
the last district school, located in Goshen, was closed.
In 1890-92, the Vermont Legislature passed legislation to
equalize school funding, improve teacher training, and consolidate school
administration. These efforts were
enhanced by further legislation in the 20th century.
A state-wide property tax, designed to use moved funds from
wealthier communities to assist poorer ones, passed with the support of rural
legislators. Their numbers were more influential because each town had one
representative, regardless of population. Orange County schools were among
those which benefited the most from this new tax.
That tax remained in effect until 1931. From then until it
was re-established in 1997, the cost of local education again depended on local
property taxes.
In 1892, hundreds of local Vermont school districts were
wiped out when the State replaced them with a single town-wide district. Known by its detractors as the Vicious Law,
this placed the responsibility for public education in the hands of a town
school committee.
As the district schools served a neighborhood, children who
lived within two miles walked to school.
As these local schools were discontinued, some town districts provided
school wagons. In 1902, Bradford students were transported in four school
wagons. Pulled by two horses, these canvas-covered wagons had two benches
running lengthwise.
On nice days, the canvas was rolled up. Often, boys had to
get out and walk up the steepest hills. In the Spring, all but the smallest
might be required to walk as the muddy roads became almost impassable.
Little Elizabeth Miller didn’t have to walk from her North
Road home to the West Newbury school because her family had the horse named Pete.
When Elizabeth started school around 1915, her family hitched Pete to a wagon
to transport her to school. After dropping his passenger off, Pete found his
own way home. Bradford’s Douglas Miller
recalled his mother’s story, adding that the afternoon trip didn’t work quite
so well. His mother had to walk home.
Newbury’s Aroline Putnam and Bradford’s Margaret Drew began
school in West Newbury in 1941 and recently spoke of those school days. They
said there were usually less than 30 students in the one-room school. Grace Whitman was the teacher and conducted
group lessons, sometimes with the help of older students. The school did not
have running water so, it was carried from a nearby farm. There were two
privies, one for boys and one for girls.
Drew agreed that it was
a “wonderful little school.” She recalled there were few discipline problems.
She remembered that sometimes boys would hop the tail of the milk truck to get
a ride to school.
In 1947, Putman, Drew, and the two other girls that made up
their class, transferred to the Newbury Central School. Whitman told them she
had taught them all she could. When
asked if she thought most children got a good education in a one-room setting,
Putman thought they did, but it “depended on the kids and their parents.” Having served the district for 75 years, the
school closed in 1970.
In some districts, one-room was replaced by two-room
buildings. East Haverhill resident Marilyn Seminerio recently related stories
of her experience in a two-room school in Chesterfield, NH in the years after
1935.
She said there were fewer than 25 students, but they were
divided into grades one through four and five through eight. Instruction was often ungraded, with courses
such as history and geography offered in alternate years. Her teacher heated
soup on the top of the wood stove for those students who could not walk home
for lunch.
How communities handled the consolidation of their
elementary schools varied. Where there
were several village centers, separate schools existed longer. Wells River maintained a separate school
system long after the rest of Newbury consolidated.
When Thetford’s new elementary school opened in 1962, it
replaced district schools in Union Village, North Thetford, East Thetford, Post
Mills, Rice’s Mills, and the Stevens District.
Several village
schools were maintained in Corinth and Topsham until Union 36 opened in 1972.
In 1898, a new two-story Orfordville School was built to
accommodate students as many of the town’s district school were phased
out. In 1901, Fairlee voted to build a
new two-story building at the south end of the village. This was used as the elementary school until
a new building was built in 1956.
These are just examples of the continued consolidation of
school districts. Since the 1960s, town school districts have merged in a
number of configurations.
Those interested in the further history of the one-room
district schools that once operated in their neighborhood are encouraged to go
to their town’s history book. Most have extensive descriptions. My article on
the early history of area high schools can be found on my blog at
larrycoffin.blogspot.com. It is entitled School Bells: Academies &
Seminaries 1790s-1890s.
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