History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

1-60 HISTOBY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
lu 1796 the citizens voted " to provide five
stoves to warm the school-liouses." As late as
1780-85 Rev. Mr. Blood, the first pastor of the
First Baptist Church, Newton Centre, pieced out
an inadequate salary by keeping the winter school
at Oak Hill two seasons.
A new interest was awakened in the cause of
education in connection with the action of the
Massachusetts Board of Education, and especially
(^ I—•- .^1
as a result of the efficient labors of Hon. Horace
Mann, its secretary, who was a citizen of West
Newton. Tlie schools liad been conducted for
many years without much variation from the estab-
lished routine, except as the growth of population
from time to time demanded increased accommo-
dations. This riiiitiiic ciiiilcniplnlcd iiiMiidy nine
or ten school-honsrs, chiclly ol' one sloi'v inul con-,
taining but a single room, witii a schoolmaster for
a certain number of weeks in tlie winter months,
and a schoolmistress in tlie summer. At tiie period
indicated, about 1854, judicious citizens, deeply in-
terested in the cause of education, of whom the
late Dr. Henry Bigelow and the late Hon. D. H.
Mason were among tlie foremost, — and it is in their
honor that two of the school-houses are named, —
began to counsel the citizens in town-meeting to
adopt measures looking to a more generous course
of training for (lie voung. Tlic (irsi elTurls were
merely tentative, because the people in many in-
stances were not prepared to relinquish their ancient
customs for new and untried measures. But after
warm debate a resolution was passed to establish
graded schools throughout the town, except in the
Oak Hill district, which was remotely and there-
fore peculiarly situated, and the citizens of that
part of the town were not willing to accede to the
new arrangement. Two grammar schools, one at
Newton Centre, the other at Newtonville, were to
be provided with masters all the year round, competent
to prepare young men for college. Two
new school-iiouses were erected, — one at Newton-
ville, a few rods north of the railroad station, where
three or four ways met ; the other at Newton Cen-
tre, uearly on the site of the present Mason School-
house. The school at the Centre was in charge of
J. W. Hunt, Esq., formerly of Blymouth, the first
master, and proved a success. The building was
afterwards removed to a lot on the opposite corner
of Station Street, to make room for a much larger
and more convenient structure, and Avas finally
transferred to a lot near the southeast part of
WiswalPs Pond, and became Crane's macliine-
shop. The new school-building was burned by an
incendiary, and tlie present Mason school-building
took its place. Tlie school did excellent service
as a mixed high and grammar school, until the
public interest in education demanded a still fur-
ther advancement, and the present pure high-school
edifice was erected at Newtonville in 1858-59.
Tiie appropriations for schools, showing an inter-
esting increase in the progress of years, indicate
tiie growing intelligence and liberality of the citi-
zens. From £50, the earliest appropriation, and
which remained fixed at that sum for many years,
and from $600, tlie appropriation in 1800, the
advance has been in an ever-increasing ratio. In
1870 the amount paid for educational purposes
was $117,253.98, and the value of school property
owned by tlie town was $:?37,600. In 1873
tiie last town grant for schools, before Newton be-
came a city, was $73,000. In 1878 there were in.
the city eighteen school-houses, eighty-six teachers,
3,359 pupils; total expenditure for schools in 1878,
$83,208.63, or .| 2 1.77 per capita, the expense of
every pupil enrolled. The wliolc number who
graduated from tlie liigli school from 1861 to
1878 inclusive was 315; males 140, females 175.
The first class (1861) numbered four, all females;
the last class (1878), tliirly-six ; tlie largest class
(1877) uuMibcrcd fiftv-nne". In tlie class of 1878