History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

over, with a noise resembling the discharge of mus-
ketry. Then another psahn was read, "deaconed,"
and sung. After it came the sermon. The regular
orthodox length of a sermon was an hour, but that
limit was often passed before the venerable preacher's
" finally " was reached.
Here we note some of the changes of tlie years.
In 176;3 the reading of the Scriptures was first in-
troduced as a part of the exercises of public wor-
ship. In 1768 a short prayer was made before
this reading. In 1767 "Dr. Brady's and Mr.
Tate's version of the Psalms of David, with some
hymns of Dr Watts', which are now bound up and
published with this version," were substituted for
tiie version of Sternhold and Hopkins. In 1795,
at the request of some of the brethren who were
members of the musical society, a bass-viol was
allowed to be used on trial to assist the singers in
divine service. After two more seasons of trial it
was allowed to be used until further order.
At the time of the incorporation of the town
there were within its limits three school-houses.
One stood near Mr. Snelling's place, on the south
road, near the railroad crossing, another on the
Common near the old chestnut-tree. Shortly after
the incorporation of the town new school-houses
were built in the north and east parts of the town,
principally by the subscriptions of individuals re-
siding in those quarters. These were long, low
buildings, with a door at one end and a chimney
and fireplace at the other; two or three rows of
benches with forms extended along the sides of
the rooms. Seats with backs and desks with re-
ceptacles for books were not found in any of the
school-houses till within the last seventy years.
The possession of so many school-houses was
found objectionable, and many attempts were made
between 1760 and 1770 to agree upon a less num-
ber. In 1762 a committee, composed of gentlemen
from other towns, was invited to come here
and decide upon the location of the schools. This
committee, consisting of Messrs. Jonas Stone of
Lexhigton, Thomas Barrett of Concord, and Brad-
dyl Smith of Weston, visited the different parts of
the town, heard the advocates of various projects,
and made a report which was rejected ; but the
plan they recommended was adopted a few years
later. Since that time there has been no material
change in the arrangement of the schools, except
the establishment of the high school in 1852.
The first action of the town in relation to schools
was September 2, 1754, when the town "voted
LINCOLN. 39
that there be a school kept in said town, and to
remove to three several places, and that the selectmen
provide a school-master; " but the first payments
do not appear to be in accordance with this
vote, Samuel Parrar and Amos Heald being paid,
February 14, 1755, £1 6«. 8r/. each for teaching
school, and Ephraim Flint and Timothy Wesson,
Jr., in March, 1755, £2 13 «. 4r/. each for teach-
ing school two months. During the earlier years
of the town " a moving school " was kept, the
teachers usually teaching in one school-house from
six to ten weeks, and then going to another, according
to the directions of the selectmen.' No
school committees were chosen till 1808, and ex-
cepting that year till 1813, the duties of school
committees being performed by the selectmen.
Among the teachers employed in the earlier
years of the town were Micah Lawrence, Jacob
Bigelow, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Williams, Joseph
Willard, and Fisher Ames, and in later times Rev.
Drs. Hosmer and Hill. Mr. Micah Lawrence was
a cousin of Rev. William; he afterwards taught in
Worcester, and, later in life, was settled in the
ministry in Winchester, N. H. He was a more
pronounced loyalist than his Lincoln cousin, and,
after a third council, was dismissed from the ministry
because he was unfriendly to the war. Mr.
Bigelow, afterwards minister of Sudbury, taught
here three years. He was not only popular as a
teacher, but also succeeded in gaining the affec-
tions of Miss Sarah Hartwell, to whom he was
married January 14, 1773. Timothy Farrar,
afterwards a distinguished judge and civilian in
New Hampshire, was a native of the town.
But what graphic pen shall describe the schools,
the teaching, the poverty of the appliances of
learning? Lead pencils, steel pens, and ruled
paper were unknown in those days. The exercises
of the school consisted of reading from the spelling-
book and psalter, spelling, the study of arithmetic,
and learning to write. Arithmetic was the sole
science taught in those days, and the method of
teaching it was somewhat peculiar; the teacher
only was provided with a text-book, usually Cock-
1 The statements in Shattuck's history, " that at its incorpo-
ration in 1754 Lincoln was divided into three school districts,"
and " in 1770, and some other years, the grammar school was
suhstituted for all others," are incorrect. The town never was
divided into school districts, and the votes of the town, May 28,
1770, " that the grammar school he kept in the middle of the
town the ensuing year, and that there shaU he womans' schools
set up in the extreme parts of the town," were reconsidered July
30 of the same yeai'.