# A History of Barrington, Rhode Island/Chapter 33

CHAPTER XXXIII
EDUCATION, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS
PRIOR to the division of the town of Swansea, a permanent school system had been established, and, at the date of separation and the incorporation of Barrington, in 1717, Mr. John Devotion was the town schoolmaster, on a twenty years contract. Under the laws of Massachusetts, each town must provide free schools, and Barrington at once set the educational machine in motion by providing a schoolmaster, made provision for a salary, and the arrangement of rooms for the schools to be held in the different parts of the new town. In 1722 the selectmen were authorized to see "that the town be provided with a schoolmaster to teach to "read, to write, and arithmetic, for four months from the first of November." Twenty pounds were voted in 1713, to pay Mr. Andrews for twelve months teaching, "if he see cause to accept." In 1724 twenty-five pounds were voted for the payment of the teacher's wages for nine months. The school committee was Benjamin Viall, James Smith, and Ebenezer Allen. John Webber was schoolmaster during the year 1729, and "was settled near the centre of the town."
With occasional interruptions, one or more schools have been maintained in town, at public or private expense, from ​the last named date until the present time. The earlier schools were itinerant in character, being maintained for a series of months in one quarter of the town, and then removed to another for the purpose of furnishing equal chances for improvement to the youth in all parts of the town. In 1730 it was voted "that the town provide a schoolmaster for seven months; that the school be kept three months at New Meadow Neck, and two months at the meeting-house or thereabouts, and two months at Benjamin Viall's or thereabouts." During these years before schoolhouses were built, the records state that school was kept at intervals at Josiah Humphrey's, Zachariah Bicknell's, Samuel Barnes's, Nathaniel Peck's, Nathaniel Viall's, Joseph Chaffee's, and other houses in the town. The division of the town into three districts was probably made about the date of the separation of the town from Warren. The original number of districts remain unchanged until 1873, when, owing to the increase of the population in Drownville and vicinity, a fourth district was formed to accommodate the citizens in that quarter of the town. The buildings in which the schools were kept belonged to individuals, and were held by proprietors in joint ownership, as the following receipt shows:
Warren, March 27, 1770.
"Rec'd of the Severall Proprietors to the Uper School House on Phebes Neck a full Satisfaction for the erecting and Building the Same.
| Sol. Townsend, Jr., | Rec'd pr me, |
| Sam'l Allen, Jr. | Sam'l Allen, 2d." |
This was probably the first school-house in the North District.
The following estimate for a schoolhouse in the North District shows the dimensions and method of construction about the year 1800:
"Dimensions of Schoolhouse given by Mr. Kinnicutt:
Length, 26 1-2 feet; width, 21 feet; heighth of Post, 11 1-2 feet; to be Seven windows of 24 Squares 6 inches by 8 inches with Plain Shutters; ​to be Shingled all over with good shingles;to be underpined one foot below the Sills laid in Morter; to be ceiled up in Side as high as the windows; with a Stove Similar to Paschel Allen's."
"I will build A School hous Agreable to the Above Sketch in a plain and workman-like manner for Six hundred and fifty Dollars. I have Calculated for H. L. hinges and Iron Buttons for the Shutters.
John Gregory.
I will (if Desired) make the Roof hip'd which will make the building have a much handsomer Appearance and as you make no use of the Garret it will in my opinion be much prefferable."
The subscription which follows indicates the time when stoves began to take the place of fire-places in the heating of our schoolhouses:
Barrington December ye ist 1793
We the Subscribers Whose names are under Written do Volluntary Give Into the Hand of Col. Thomas Allin For the Purpose of Purchis an Iron Stove to Set up in the North School-Hous in Barrington.........the Sums Which Shall be Enixid to our names..................
| | £ | s. | d. | | £ | s. | d. |
| Thomas Allin | 0. | 6 - | 0 | Ebenezer Peck | 0. | 6 - | 0 |
| Joshua Bicknell | 0. | 6 - | 0 | Sylvester Viall | 0 - | 3 - | 0 |
| William Brown | 0. | 3 - | 0 | Samuel Barnes | 0 - | 4 - | 0 |
| Nathaniel Heath | 0 - | 3 - | 0 | Comfort Stanley | 0 - | 3 - | 0 |
| Elkanah Humprhey | 0 - | 1 - | 0 | Asa Bicknell | 0 - | 3 - | 0 |
| George Sallisbury | 0 - | 1 - | 0 | | |
The poverty of the people after the Revolutionary War, compelled them to reduce all expenditures, both public and private, to the lowest terms. As a consequence, the cause of education suffered with all other interests, and, so far as the records show, private or proprietor's schools were all that were sustained. Tuition was paid by the parents or guardians of the pupils to meet the expenses of the schools. In fact, the tuition plan continued long after town and state made annual appropriations for free schools, and it is only within thirty years that common school education has been absolutely free in all the towns of the state.
It is a well known fact that Rhode Island was tardy, ​compared with her sister states, in establishing a system of public schools, and even a Massachusetts-born town naturally and inevitably fell into the habits of towns of its own commonwealth, and from the date of its admission to Rhode Island its educational interests declined. In 1800 the legislature of Rhode Island passed a free school act, requiring each town to provide schools for the children of school age. By that act Barrington was required to maintain schools for four months in each year. The town voted, June 2, 1800, to adopt the act of the General Assembly in respect to free schools, and appointed a committee, consisting of William Allin, Ebenezer Peck, Nathaniel Smith, Amariah Lilley, Jeremiah Drown, and Benjamin Drown, to draw up a plan and report to the town. No report appears on the town records, and, as the free school act was repealed in 1803, we may assume that none was made, and there is no reference therein to free schools, until April 16, 1828, when it was voted that the following persons be a committee to superintend the free schools in the town, viz.: Sylvester Allin, Enoch Remington, Ebenezer Smith, Benjamin Medbury, Simon Smith, Samuel R. Martin, Jeremiah A. Drown, and John Kelley. Though there is silence in the town records as to schools for the period of twenty years from 1800 to 1828, the date of the adoption of the free school act, there is sufficient testimony from persons whose school days were embraced in that period, to prove that schools were kept at least three months in winter and two months in summer. The winter schools were kept by male teachers, usually college students, and the summer schools by the most competent young women that could be found. The wages paid to men was from $12 to $20 a month, with the privilege of "boarding around " the district, and to women $8 to $12 a month, with the same privilege as to board.
The following memoranda illustrate the business side of the tuition schools of that period:
Nov. 29, 1817. An agreement was made between Alva Carpenter of Seekonk, a member of the senior class of ​Brown University, and the subscribers of the North District, Barrington, by which said Carpenter was to open and teach a school for the term of three months, at $18 a month; to commence December 1; to teach the branches usually taught in Common English schools, viz.: reading, writing, arithmetic, English, grammar, geography, etc."; the subscribers to furnish, "at some convenient place, good and sufficient board, lodging, etc.," and to pay each his proportion of the expenses of said school, according to the number of pupils sent to said school. It appears that there were fifty-one scholars who attended, and the tuition was about $1.75 a scholar for the full term of three months.
The first report of the school committee to the town, as to funds received from the state, was made April 21, 1830, and was as follows:
Barrington, April 21st, 1830.
The Committee of the Town of Barrington under the Free School Act, report as follows as regards the public money appropriated by the State for said Town:
| For the summer school in North District | For the summer school in North District | $9 | 50 |
| For winter school"" | For winter school"" | 19 | 00 |
| | | 28 | 50 |
| For summer school in South District | For summer school in South District | 28 | 50 |
| For winter school"" | For winter school"" | 17 | 13 |
| | | 25 | 46 |
| For summer school in East District | For summer school in East District | 21 | 50 |
| For winter school | | | |
| Amt. | Amt. | $75 | 46 |
Benj. Medbury for the Committee
From this date the school committee has made an annual report to the town covering financial and educational conditions.
It appears from a report made to the General Assembly in 1828, that Barrington had three schools, kept winter and summer, and in 1832, three schools 113 pupils, a male teacher three months in winter, a female teacher three months in summer.
INTERIOR BARRINGTON HIGH SCHOOL.
| North District; children, 78; money for summer and winter schools | $80 | 11 |
| South District; children, 80; money for summer and winter schools | |
| East District; children, 42; money for summer and winter schools | $47 | 55 |
It was not until what was called the awakening of 1843, that public education received the general attention at all proportioned to its importance. The movement then inaugurated in the State Legislature by Hon. Wilkins Updike, and the appointment of Hon. Henry Barnard as School Commissioner of the State, by Governor Fenner, lie at the foundation of nearly all, in the history of public schools in our State or town that can be reviewed with any high degeee of satisfaction. Since that period no friend of education in our State need be ashamed of the progress made and the success that has been achieved. Of this movement, Barrington was one of the first to reap the advantage. Two new school buildings were soon erected, and a third was repaired and refitted. The new building in the South or Nayatt district, was one of the best of its grade in New England. Its furniture and fixtures were after the best models of the time. Through the efforts, chiefly, of two members of the district, the school was furnished with an excellent library of six hundred volumes, which, in connection with other influences, did much to elevate the standard of education in the town.
Mr. Barnard, in his report on school architecture, inserted a cut of the new Nayatt school house, and said of it, "The new schoolhouse in Dist. No. 2, Barrington, is the most attractive, convenient, and complete structure of the kind in any agricultural district in the state—and, it is believed, in New England."
​The building was 40 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 12 feet high, and built after working plans by Tefft of Providence, and cost; $1,200. The desks, seats, ventilation and heating, maps, blackboards, globes, and other apparatus were the best then furnished, and the school furnishings reflected great credit on the district.
A comparison of a few items in the statistics of the town in 1844 with those of 1875 and 1895, will throw some light upon the progress of the cause of education during the intervening periods.
In 1844 the population of the town was 549; the number of children under fifteen years of age, 188; the aggregate value of property in the town, $316,733; the amount expended for public schools, $241.56, of which $75 was raised by taxation, or $1.29 per child.
In 1875 the population was 1,185; number of children under fifteen years, 332; the aggregate value of property in the town, $1,494,805; number of pupils enrolled, 166; average number belonging, 124; average attendance, 109; number of graded schools, four; average length of schools, nine months and thirteen days; State appropriation, $485.65; town and district appropriations, $3,683.17; total appropriations, $4,168.82; value of school property, $11,000. In 1885 the population was 1,394; children between five and fifteen, 225; value of town property, $1,917, 750; number of pupils enrolled, 222; average number belonging, 164; average attendance, 136; length of schools, nine months, nineteen days; money from State, $837.16; from town, $2,300; from all sources, $3,704.22; value of school property, $9,500; cost per month for each pupil's instruction. $1.95.
In 1895 the population was 1,668; number of children between 8 and 15, 240; value of town property, $2,161,900; number of pupils enrolled, 262; average number belonging, 186; average attendance, 166; average length of schools, 10 months; money from State, $1,019.98; money from town. $4,700; from all sources, $5,987; value of school property, $11,000; cost per month for each pupil's instruction, $2.43. ​Barrington has elected a person as school superintendent for more than forty years. Rev. Francis Wood held the office in 1855, andd his successors have been Rev. Francis Horton, Thomas W. Bicknell, Rev. S. Brenton Shaw, Isaac F. Cady, Mrs. George Lewis Smith, Fred P. Church, Rev. W. M. Chapin, and George Lewis Smith. Mrs. Smith was the first woman to occupy the office of superintendent in our town schools, and had prior to her marriage been one of the most successful teachers of the town.
One of the most important acts of the town in educational progress was the establishment of a public high school in 1884. This subject was first brought to the attention of the people as a much needed and practical measure, by the writer, while Superintendent of Schools, in his report made to the town, April, 1868. It was suggested that the establishment of a high school in Barrington would add another to the various advantages the town then possessed for attracting the best class of people to the town, as well as afford better opportunities to the boys and girls then seeking a better education than the common schools could give. It was also urged that a high school would elevate all the grades below it, and would aid in the preparation of teachers for our own and other towns. Two years later, in 1870, Mr. Isaac F. Cady, principal of the high school in Warren, for twenty-five years, at the earnest solicitation of the people, erected buildings for a school and a dwelling house, on land he had owned for several years at Prince's Hill, and opened the Prince's Hill Family and Day School, in Barrington. His idea was to have a few family or boarding pupils, living under his influence in his own family,—the balance of the school to be made up of day pupils from the town. This excellent school continued until 1880, when, on account of ill health Mr. Cady was obliged to give it up. Part of the time he had an assistant for the younger scholars. The largest number of pupils at one time was forty-seven. Several were fitted for college. The school year began with the first Monday in September, and consisted of four terms of ​ten weeks each, with one week recess between terms. The tuition was ten dollars per term. The family or boarding scholars paid four hundred dollars per year for tuition, books, stationery, board, and washing. The building erected for the school cost, including fixtures, about $3,000. After Mr. Cady closed his school, he with others, notably Mr. D. A. Waldron, started the Barrington Public Library, and Mr. Cady's schoolhouse was used as a library building until the erection of the town building. The town high school was also held in this building when first started. The Trustees of the library concluded it was not conducive to the best interest of the library to have the school in the same room, and requested the school committee to find other accommodations for the school, which they accordingly did. The value of a school of a higher grade than the district schools had been so clearly illustrated by Mr. Cady's school, that the people felt the need of a town high school, and the following resolution was presented to the town at the annual town meeting, April 2, 1884, by Mr. George Lewis Smith, one of the earliest and warmest advocates of the measure:
"Whereas, It appears to many of the taxpayers that the children in this town who are advanced in their studies can be educated to much better advantage if placed in a graded school by themselves; and whereas, some of the schools are now filled to or beyond the capacity of the school-rooms, and many parents feel obliged to send their children to other towns for their common school education;
Resolved, That the School Committee be and they hereby are instructed to secure a suitable room at an annual rental of not exceeding $200, to properly fit and furnish the same, and to estabhsh a school for such scholars, residing in this town, as shall pass such an examination as said committee may prescribe, and said committee shall employ a suitable male or female teacher in their discretion, at a proper compensation, and incur such other expenses as are right and proper to conduct said school, and that the same shall be paid for out of the appropriation for public schools.
​The resolution was adopted by a vote of 74 yeas to one nay vote.
The School Committee followed instructions, and the Barrington High School was opened in Mr. Cady's school building at Prince's Hill, with about thirty pupils, under the principalship of Mr. J. N. Eno, on the 30th of August, 1884. Mr. Eno taught a single term, until Nov. 21, 1884, and was followed by Mr. B. F. Thurston, whose services extended from Dec. 4, 1884, to March 6, 1886. Mr. S. M. Abbott took charge of the school March 29, 1886, and left Aug. 3, 1889. Mr. Walter H. Russell was principal from Aug. 29, 1889, to June 30, 1894. The present principal, Mr. R. F. Colwell, has had charge of the school since Sept. 3, 1894. The female assistants have been Miss Laura F. Parker, Miss Harriet L. Weeks, Miss Gertrude Walker, Miss Elizabeth Penny, and the present assistant, Miss Elizabeth Waite. When the town hall was erected, provision was made for the accommodation of the High School, and in 1888 the school was transferred to the new quarters, where it is supplied with valuable apparatus, a good reference library, and all the furnishings required for the comfort and advancement of the pupils. The High School has a graded course of studies, instructs in mathematics, the sciences, language, history, literature, etc., and prepares pupils for college, has accomplished all that its early advocates and friends claimed for it, and is now a permanent factor in the educational agencies of the town. One of the best evidences of its usefulness is the record of the graduating classes of the school. Several of these graduates have entered the State Normal School; others have entered college, and one. Miss Jessie G. Tiffany, is a graduate of Pembroke College, the women's department of Brown University. Under "College Students" and "Normal School Pupils" will be found the names of several graduates of the school.
Graduates of the Barrington High School.
Class of 1888.
| Ella M. Kirby, | Walter T. Anthony, | Willard A. Bourne, |
| Margaret Ellen Kirby, | Mary Elizabeth Smith, | Benjamin E. Martin. |
| Edward D. Anthony, | Jennie B. Horton, |
1889.
No graduates.
1890.
| Jessie G. Tiffany, | Hannah Holmes. |
1891.
| William Watson, | George A. Anthony, | Laura Smith. |
| Elliot Lewis, | Edward Holmes, | |
1892.
Abby E. Holmes.
1893.
Sarah Smith.
1894.
| Russell W. Baker, | Melvin F. Church |
| Elizabeth C. Holmes, | Marion L. Read |
1895.
| Wilmarth H. Colwell | Lucinda M. Burke, |
| Arthur Covell, | Florence Martin |
| John McEleny | Clara E. Gardiner, |
Marcia E. Burt.
1896.
| John S. Colwell, | Marion K. Smith, |
| George Smith, | Sybil E. Covell, |
| Alice Bates, | Mattie E. Bowden. |
1897
| Floy Montrose Granger Lewis, | Charlotte Dunbar Field, |
| Helen Gertrude Medbury, | Alice Brown Gardiner, |
| Ruth Lathrop Anthony, | Ida Lizzie Gardiner, |
| Ina Everette Watson Maxfield, | Phanuel Bishop Covell. |
Graduates of Rhode Island Normal School from Barrington.
| | Entered | Graduated |
| Harriet A. Rea, | Sept., 1871 | June 28, 1872 |
| Taught ever since she graduated at Doyle Avenue Grammar School. |||
| Cornelia M. Goff, | Feb. 7, 1872 | Jan. 22, 1874 |
| 240 Lockwood Street, Providence. |||
| Sarah Leonard Horton, | Sept., 1873 | June 25, 1875 |
| Married H. M. Williams in 1892. |||
| Mt. Vernon, Westchester County, New York. |||
| Mary Kellogg Cady, Barrington Center, | Sept 1, 1874. | June 25, 1875 |
| Mrs. G. H. Whitcher, 128 Broadway, Providence. |||
| Florence Nightingale Heath, Bar. Center, | Feb. 7, 1877 | Jan., 1881 |
| Mrs. Fred P. Church |||
| Mary A. Cornell, Grad. Warren High School, | Sept., 1880 | Jan. 27, 1882 |
| Deceased. Mrs. Austin A. Darrah, Warren, R. I. |||
| Abbie M. Martin, Barrington Center, | Sept., 1880 | Jan., 1883 |
| 120 Hanover Street, Providence, R. I. |||
| Lillia M. Boyden | Sept., 1884 | June 28, 1889 |
| Married Henry F. Keach, 1892. Greenville, R. I. |||
| Katherine F. Doran, Nayatt Point | Sept., 1884 | July 1, 1887 |
| 14 Creighton Street, Providence. Teaching at Smith Street, Providence. |||
| Ella Margaret Kirby, Grad. Bar. H. S., | Sept., 1888 | June 28, 1889 |
| Jesse Goodwin Tiffany, Grad. Bar. H. S. | Sept. 2, 1890, | Jan. 15, 1892 |
| Graduated at Brown University, Class of '97. |||
| Teaching at a school (boarding and day) of the Protestant Episcopal Church, |||
| Lucinda May Burke, Drownville, | Sept 3. 1895 | June 8, 1897 |
| Teaching in Auburn. |||
Students at the Rhode Island Normal School, from Barrington, not Graduates.
| | Entered |
| Rachel A. Tiffany, | Sept., 1871 |
| Waitie Allen Matteson, | Sept., 1874 |
| Hattie A. Bowen, | Feb., 1881 |
| Ellen T. Tobin, | Feb., 1882 |
| Joanna E. Godfrey, | Sept., 1882 |
| Martha W. Miller, | Sept., 1882 |
| Emma E. Staples, | Sept., 1882 |
| Maggie Ellen Kirby | Sept., 1888 |
ST. ANDREW'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
The St. Andrew's Industrial School.
This school had its origin in the benevolent spirit and labors of Rev. W. M. Chapin, rector of the Episcopal Church in Barrington. At first a few pupils at his own residence satisfied him of the need of such a school. Mr. Chapin afterwards associated with him in the work, Mr. W. F. Keach, Mr. E. J. F. Coleman, Mr. Charles C. Gardiner, Mr. Zechariah Chafee, Mr. Charles A. Warland, Mr. W. O. Blanding, Mr. W. W. White, Mr. George Gordon King of Newport, and others, in sympathy with his plans to furnish a home and school for boys who needed the opportunity of a fair chance to develop into good and noble men. St, Andrew's Industrial School was begun in 1893 at Barrington, R. I., to give a home and training to homeless and helpless boys. When the first boy came in June, the school had nothing but the rent of some land and a good barn on Rumstick Point assured for one year. The boys' food was promised for the summer, in return for work. The second summer the boys lived in a little house they had themselves built on the farm. As time went on the number of boys increased, and, though no one to this day knows how, the money for their support came in. A permanent home was leased for them in 1895, after two years of temporary expedients. Then the full purpose of the school began to take shape. The gift of $1,000 came without warning. In 1895 the Joshua Bicknell house and ten acres of land were purchased, and a corporation was formed to hold the property. Membership in the corporation is open to men of any or no denomination. The President is the Bishop of Rhode Island, and he appoints and removes the Chaplain of the school. School training, farming, gardening, carpentering, and other ​industries occupy the pupils. "The Hardy Memorial Building," erected by Mrs. Hardy in memory of her husband and "The Andrews Cottage," and a barn, have been erected on the property, and seventeen acres of land have been added to the first purchase. Warden Chapin states the purposes of the school briefly as follows: "First of all, we want to give these boys a real home. This requires a woman's influence, and it necessitates that there shall not be a large number of boys in the house. So we plan for a series of cottages, each accommodating fifteen boys with a house mother. We now own one house and hire another. Secondly, this is a school. The boys are taught all the employments on a small farm, the planting and cultivation of the gardens and the fields, the care of the barn and of the live stock. They are also taught something of carpentry; and now, in the Sloyd room, will get a more scientific education. The study in books is to go on at the same time, while we hope to introduce the different trades, one by one, into the course. We are ready now for the gift of a goodsized carpenter's shop, and a greenhouse. Thirdly, the boys are trained with the idea of industry as a means of self-support. Every boy has a distinct work assigned him, for which he is held responsible."
Officers.
President: Rt. Rev. Thomas March Clark;
Warden: Rev. William M. Chapin; Secretary: E. J. F. Coleman;
Treasurer: W. F. Keach, No. 1, Custom House Street.
| Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark | Providence, |
| Rev. W. M. Chapin | Barrington, |
| E. J. F. Coleman | Providence, |
| W. F. Keach | " |
| Zechariah Chaffee | " |
| Charles C. Gardiner | " |
| W. W. White | " |
| W. O. Blanding | " |
| Charles A. Warland | Pawtucket. |
| Chaplain: Rev. W. M. Chapin; | Vice Warden: Arthur F. Shepard; |
House Mother: Mrs. Mary Parker.
College Students and Graduates from Barrington.