The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-09
Is CLOSED.
Number One
District
IN LANCASTER.
Another Sequel to Row of
Long Standing.

Clinton, Dec. S.-Dissensions in the |
first school district in Lancaster have |
exhausted the patience Of the commit /
tee on schools. BY order of the COM
mittee, No / school is closed indefin
irely. The children of the district are
either not attending school at all or
are going to the schools Of the adj
joining towns Of Harvard and Shirley, |
where their tuition is paid by the town
of Lancaster.
This unusual state of affairs in
which the school of district is closed .
because the people of the district can
not agree among themselves well /
enough to permit their children to |
drink knowledge from the same foun-
tain, grows out OF an alleged persecu-
ton of little Edith Whitaker, the de-
tails of which were printed in The Spy
about four weeks ago, exclusively.
The trouble seems now to be rather
an outgroWth Of the original trouble /
than the same trouble John Ryan,
whose four children have been kept |
from attending the school, says that his .
grievance no longer is that Edith .
Whitaker is not a proper person for /
his children to associate with but that /
Mr.. Samuel Whitaker. Edith's foster |
father, will not withdraw his threat /
ened suit, the material for which is and |
has been some time in the hands of /
Attorney David 1. Walsh OF this place. |
The trouble began about a year ago /
last fall when Alice NJ. Carr was teach |
er Of the first district school Edith |
Whitaker, the four Ryan children, |
Lucy Stone and the two Spear children, |
with others, were going to school to- |
gyafh NC
old, said things to the other children |
that were not nice. She had been |
taught them by a foolish fellow en- |
ployed by her foster father as a hired !
man.
The other families in the district
drew up a petition and presented it to
Chairman S. H. Quincy of the Ian |
caster school committee, asking that |
Edith be deprived Of the privilege of |
the school for the protection of the |
other children
The committee kept Edith out Of
school through the fail term. the VIM
ter term and the spring term follow
ing.
But when the September term came, !
three months ago, Edith's foster father
demanded of the committee that she
be re-admitted to the school. on pain
of suit
The committee assented, when the
or two other families in the district
withdrew their children, leaving Edith
and the children of Mrs. Hattie Davoll
practically the only pupils in regular
attendance,
In the meantime Mr. Whitaker had
consulted Attorney David l. Walsh Of
this place about bringing suit against
MI Ryan. Mr. Whitaker alleged that
Mr. Ryan's boys, with other boys in the
district, had prosecuted Edith, beating
her over the head, running into her
with bicycle, and in other ways.
And so the matter has gone on from
bad to worse, with the quarrel among
the neighbors growing constantly
warmer and the patience of the Lam
caster school committee continually
less, until now there is no school in
Lancaster's first district, and the teach
er, Miss Mary Kilbourn, a daughter Of
William A. I<ilbourn of South LancaS-
ter is without a school.
Mr.. Quincy told the Clinton CORE
spondent of The Spy, at his home, to-
day, what he personally, as well as
his fellow members Of the committee,
had done to patch the matter up. 1t
was with evident pain that Mr. Quincy
spoke of the necessity of shutting up
the school. He said:
In the eight years that I have been
on the Lancaster school committee,
this has been one of the pleaSantest
schools in the district to govern until
recently. -Four weeks ago thought
I had the matter settled. I took half
day and went to see Mr.. Ryan. He
talked fairly. He said he had nothing
against the Whitaker girl, and was
willing to send his children back to
school if Mr.. Whitaker would with
draw his threat of suit and be friends.
Mrs. Spear said the same thing. They
both said they did not want to send
their children to school as long as there
was danger of being sued.
" l am afraid said Mrs. Spear that
my children may do something to ex-
cite Mr.. Whittaker's ire. We can not
stand law suit, no matter how unjust
it may be-"
SAT the time" continued Mr.. Quincy,
II did not see Mr.. Whitaker, but a lit
tie later / took half a day and went
to see him. I talked with him and his
wife. He seemed reasonable enough in
some ways and very unreasonable in
others. He seemed to have a particular
srudge against Mr.. Ryan.
He said: All l want is to drive that
man Ryan out of town
He told me Of his intention to bring
suit. ] said to him: You have some
COWS in your yard. Mr.. Whitaker. If
you want to put those COWS into law
suits, of course, you can; but l advise
you not to-
Then I told him l couldn't have
things going on in this way. That 1
had never had any trouble in the dis
trict before during my service on the
committee, and that 1 didn't want to
close the school and leave one of our
best lady teachers without q school for
the term, unless 1 was compelled to-
But / showed him that the committee
couldn't keep the school open for three
pupils: there were rarely more in at
tendance, and sometimes only two, oc-
faS1OnallX OnlV I told him NrrIl a
Ryan was willing TO do: That he would
let bygones be bygones if the threat of
suit was withdrawn.
Il tried TO get Mr.. Whitaker to say
he would drop that sort of talk, but I
wasn't successful. Finally, / gave him
a week TO think the matter over.
IF you are willing to bury the past"
! said, write me note to that effect
before the week is up"
He has not communicated with rae
on that point since. Matters We're no
better when Thanksgiving day came