The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-06-01
A Rhyme OF Penobscot Pedagogues.

Smlte my breast in deepest PAIN.
Many moons their luster
Where the gOlden-rod and aster
Cluster round his grave.
OF Charles Hutchings, (2) who taught gram.
mar,
Taught vocal music in manner.
Taught our fathers and our mothers,
He, the honest politician,
Never sought but found promotion.
Well he served us i'll each station,
Schoolroom, town and State and nation.
He is gone, his ferule turned to ashes,
His birchrod no more lashes in the school.
But his voice is ever ringing,
AS he leads celestial singing,
On the bright Elysian shore.
Should you ask of Wilson Carpenter, (3)
W ell skilled in mathematics,
Who taught the boys and girls long ago,
| can't restrain the falling tear,
He to memory is so dear evermore.
His department grand and courtly,
In statue short but portly,
His voice was sweet and low
His switch was long and slender,
All we'll do we remember to our woe.
Should you ask of David Dunbar. ~
Whose voice was like the thunder,
When cyclonic clouds hang low;
Whose every word was truth,
Even when it wasn't so.
He has gone to get his penny,
And he deserved many
For labor here below.
Juliette, % whose smiles were winning,
Would often stop her spinning
To wrap a bloody finger or a toe,
To hear us read and SPELL
To chide us or to tell
The story of monkey and crow.
Ever busy as bee, she would often stop to
see
If our patchwork would rip;
Then would look at stocking,
o dear, how very shocking,
We could neither bind nor slip.
Now she has gone up higher,
And she plays a golden Tyre,
Near the throne.
And Phebe, good and wise,
My prayers shall ever rise
For her repose,
For she had golden-rule
That made our Jackets smoke
And turned our shoulders black and blue
We obeyed her slightest nod,
And the path of silence trod
Straight and true
Arise ye shades of mighty masters,
With your feruIes and your birchrods.
Arise and smite these dudes
Who are teaching in our schools.
Arise and smite the dudess,
Clothed in silk and decked with Jewels,
Who calls the country boys and girls little
fools.
We want man to keep the school,
Not to teach abnormal rules,
Who teaches osophes and ologies,
And has to make apologies
For his ignorance Of all the common rules.
W e want mistress with muscle,
W no without tusse
Who can lick any boy big or little,
Who can knit, sew and spin.
Ride cycle with a vim,
Or walk the street without a hustle.
HOSEA B. WARDwELL
Penohscot, May 20, 1899.
~ James Whitelaw, native of England
and a graduate of Oxford college, was the
first teacher in this vicinity reduced to a
destitute condition by his Incorporate
habits. He taught private school for a
mere pittance before the incorporation of
Penobscot. He died about 1893.
(2) Charles Hutchings,a native of Penob-
scot, was the first who taught after the
towns incorporation. He was also the
first to teach English grammar, algebra
and vocal music. He was the last to rep
resent the town in the General Court Of
Massachusetts, and the first representative
to the legislature of Maine He served
several years in the Senate of Maine, and
was high sheriff of Hancock county many
years. He was offered the Democratic
nomination as representative of Congress-
He was supervisor of schools, selectman,
treasurer and town clerk. All this he did
for forty dollars year. Is it any wonder
he was poor? He died in 1S4S.
(3) Wilson Carpenter, a native of New
York, was noted for skill in all branches
of matbmetics and superior penmanship
for his kind and gentle manly manners, per-
sonal beauty and rigid discipline in the
schoolroom.
(4 David Dunbar, retired ship captain,
had voice of stentorian power and was
noted as an excellent teacher and for his
fondness for romance.
81 Juliette and Phebe were teachers of
your scribe when a small boy. Knitting,
spinning and the art of making patch
work were then taught in district schools.
Juliette always had on hand supply of
linen rags and burdocks for us boys, who
were always wounding ourselves. If l
ever meet them on the evergreen shore
they will receive my sincere thanks for
what they did for me.