The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-10-10
MRS. E. P. BROWN.

Mrs. E. P. Brown, whose maiden
name was Joanna Pierce, was born in
Montville, near the foot of Frye's
mountain, January Is, 1918. She at
tended the district school summer and
winter until she was Is years of age,
when she became the teacher of the
school, and continued teaching almost
continuously until she was married in
1874.
She taught short terms in Montville
and adjoining towns, making frequent
changes from place to place. One year
she taught 4S weeks, changing localities
at the end of each term, which were
usually eight weeks. The wages paid
for male teachers during the winter
were from $40 to SIT month, and for
women, 81 a week in summer, and $1.5O
in winter, with board. The teachers
boarded with the families of the pupils,
and as they gave of their best, the
teacher usually Jared well.
The people we're mostly poor and had
large families. Log houses were not
uncommon, and all had open fires. They
were lighted with homemade tallow
candles, or by the open fire. Occasion
ally whale oil lamp was used, but they
were not popular The desks at school
were very long, with rough board seat,
on which sat from to - pupils.
There were no blackboards until about
1910, and then very poor ones. Goose
quilts were used for pens until about
the same time, and were preferred to
the steel pen for some time afterward
by many writer's. One of the neces-
sary accomplishments of the successful
teacher was to be an expert penmaker.
Mrs. Brown relates that her fame as a
penmaker often was of much advantage
to her, as we'll as great deal of trouble.
Ink was made from maple bark, and
the inkstands were nodded at home
from lead. Lead pencils were also of
home manufacture. Towns reader,
Webster's speller, Greenleaf's and Muir
rays grammarS, Kinney's arithmetic,
Blair's rhetoric, Goodrich's astronomy,
with maps, were some Of the text books
used.
winter terms philosophy, chemistry
dent and overcame all difficulties. She
became an expert mathematician. The
analysis and parsing of paradise Lost"
and "Young's Night Thoughts were
taken by the advanced classes, and the
ability of the teachers was often sorely
tried on some obscure passage.
Mrs. Brown says that one of the first
winter schools she taught was in Nor
rill, in the winter of 1886. She was en-
gagged by Mr.. Merrill Bailey while riding
horseback to mill with grist of wheat
or corn for her fathers family.
School was in session six hours each
day and six days each week, except
every other Saturday If holidays were
taken, extra days were given by the
teacher at the end of the term. At the
close of this term Mrs. Brown met with
an adventure. She was walking along
lonely road on her way to another
school when she met two desperate men
who tried to stop her. She eluded their
grasp and ran with such speed that her
pursuers soon gave up the chase.
Twenty to 80 pupils in summer and 40
to 50 in winter we're usually in attend
ance. Young men frequently went to
school for two or three years after they
became voters, and fights in many dis
tricts between the masters and big boys
frequently occurred. Mrs. Browns au-
thOrity in the schoolroom was never
questioned, probably owing to her Won
derful tact, as much as to her great
skill and learning as teacher.
During the Aroostook war two of her
pupils were drafted and were held to be
called at a minutes notice. One of
them cut off his right forefnger, it was
said, to escape being accepted, and was
jeered at by his companions for being
coward. His sacrifice of the finger
was unnecessary, however, for they
hnf in md
called.
Mrs. Brown. although in her s4th
year, still takes an active interest in
education, and still teaches the children
in her vicinity. Sometimes she has
quite class of small children, although
she has not taken penny for her ser
vices for more than so years.
Of her life work Mrs. Brown says:
'It is the tendency of the age to wor-
ship success, but in looking over the
past l am unable to say whether my
life has been success or a failure, but
this much l know, since 1888, much of
my time has been spent in teaching,
first in private then in public schools,
and later in teaching my own children
and now my grandchildren.
Il have enjoyed much satisfaction in
my chosen vocation, although in the
long ago the environment of the school
life was crude, the parents of large
families, poor and often ignorant. To
satisfy such, and teach their young the
first principles of morality and the
rudiments of learning, was task of
greater magnitude, with the materials
we had then to work with, than one liv-
ing in this day of culture can compre-
bend.
With all the bindrances of these
earlier times, am happy to say that
know of many Of my Contemporaries
of that time, and some of my scholars
even, who filled high places in State and
Nation. Perhaps greater per cent. of
the pupils of that time attained to
eminence than of those of the present
day who enjoy SO many helps. "-Bos-