Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-08
WHEN VACATIONS WERE LONG

4NO w 1ANA A&&1NA II included Major Edward Palmes for New London, MT. James Fitch, Jr. for Norwich, MI. Samuel Mason for Ston- ington, Capt Robert Chapman for Say'brook, Ensign Joseph Peck for Lyme. and MT. Edward Griswold for KiIlingworth.
 Several years eIapsed before the county grant was disposed of and a Latin school established; but the agi- tation of the subject seems to have aroused the towns to the importance
 of maintaining each common school of it's own.
 In Norwich no schooImaster is men
 tioned before 1877, when John Bircnard
 occupied the teachers chair, having
 been engaged to keep nine months of
 the year for 25 pounds, provision pay
 The next school item recorded is as
 follows:
 March 81, 1879. It is agreed and
 voted by the town that MT. Daniel
 Mason shall be improved as school
 master for the town for nine months
 in the yeare ensuing and to allow him
 20 pounds to be paved partly by the
 Children ....,... and each child that Is
 entered for the full time to pay nine
 shiIlings and other children that come occasionally to allow three pence a
 week; the rest to be paved by the
 ToWne.
 July 28, 1880, a special meeting was
 called to deliberate respecting the es-
 tabhshment of a town school and the
 whole matter communicable the jurisdfc-
 LiCn of the selectnen with the injunc-
 tions that they should see
 First, that parents send their chil-
 dren; second, that they pay their pro-
 portion, according to what is judged
 just; third, that they take care par
 ents be not oppressed, especially such
 who are disabled; fourth, that what ever is additionally necessary for the perfeCtng the maintenance of Q school
 master, is a charge and expense be-
 longing to all the inhabitants of the
 town, and to be gathered as any other
 rates; fifth, whatever else is necessary
 to a prudent carrying through ihis oc- casiOn, is committed to the discreshiOn of ye sd. selectmen.
 Public works in those days were slow
 Tn progress, more, we are told, from the want of hands to labor than from
 the deficiency of skill or the absence of enterprise. A schOolhOuse for which an
 appropriation had been made in 1880 was finally built in 1883 by John Hough and Samuel Roberts. Both these men belonged in New London but , ployment as house builders, and event. Ual1y becoming residents of the town An item of the records reads: 1880, July 2l. MT. Arnold accepted as an inhabitant; the selectnaen to provide him with four or five acres Of land as convenient as may. be- Mir. John Arnold was schooIn1sster and probably exercised his calling for a number of years in Norwich, aI- though the records mention "AIr. John Arnold, merchant" but in those days the same man would engage in a va rjety of occupations.
 Afterwards Mir. Arnold moved to Windhan, where his name is found in the list of the first 22 inhabitants May, 1898. He settled in that part of the town now called Mansfield and the rec Ords of the town show that he had been master of a school in several different towns and had had children born at Newark, killingWOrth, Norwich and Windham. This MT. Arnold was prob ably an EEglishman, and is not to be confused with John Arnold merchant of New London, who died in 1725, aged
 Schools in the early settlements were only "kept' a certain part of the year, varying from two to eight or nine months
 In 1890 tie selectnen were directed to provide @ schOOlmaster, the pupils
 to pay four pence a week, the remain der of the salary to be raised on the list. No further mention is made of schools, town wise, until 1897, when Richard Bushnell was appointed to keep the school for two months that
 year, and to be paid in land.
 In 1898 David Hartshorn was engaged for the same time. Here it is probable i that the town school died out, for dur ing 1I00 the startling item appears in the indictments of the grand jury of the county:
 Norwich presented for want of Q l school to instruct children"
 That measures were taken imme- diately to remedy this deficiency is to 1 be inferred from the fact that six | pounds was added to the next years | tax rate, for repairing the school | house; and about the same time a ! tract of land was granted David ] Knight in payment for work upon the 1 meeting-house and schoOl-house. l Concerning conditions at that time 1 Miss CaUIl<ns writes: It may not be l true of all New England; but in some | portions of it, for a considerable per l iOd after the first generation had | passed away, education was neglect | ed; the schools were of an inferior 1 grade and very grudgingIy and ire l gularly sustained. This was probably 1 due to the scarcity of good teachers and the superfuous activity of the people, which led them to break away 1 impatiently from sedentary pursuits. | The inevitable consequence vas that l the grandchildren of the first settlers ] were more iIIiterate than either the 1 generation before or after them. April 26, 17o9, the town passed a l resolution, That they will have a ! school-master according to law" 1 Richard Bushnell was again employed