Bristol High School - Green and White Yearbook (Bristol, RI)

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of the weighty subjects mentioned first in this paragraph. Heavy and impractical as such a course of study may now seem, it is certain that the members of our class learned to use the English language with considerable facility; and that they derived enjoyment as well as discipline from the study of the ancient languages seems probable from the fact that one member passed his Latin examination by translating Ovid’s Metamorphoses into tolerable English verse. There were no extra activities. Dramatics, debating clubs, orchestras and choruses. Fraternities and athletics did not exist. We sa hg ‘Juanita or ‘The Old Oaken Bucket,’ at the opening of the morning session, or on Friday afternoon when declamations or essays varied our routine, and practised a ‘real piece’ for graduation. Play was unorganized. The boys indulged in one o’cat or leap frog at recess, while the girls, dressed in jerseys and shoe top skirts, without a single bobbed head, chewing gum. powder puff or lip stick, walked sedately, arm in arm, four of five abreast, up and down the High Street side of the common. The tempo of life in those days was slow and its pulse regular. Syncopated music had never been heard. Dancing meant a quadrille or a waltz. Electric light was just beginning to scatter the shadows of the larger cities and Boston had still ten years to wait for its first trolley car. Automobiles and radio were unknown and bicycles and telephones were curiosities. A trip to Providence was an adventure and the great west began just the other side of Xew York. Quite a different world then, but whether it was a better one most people would hesitate to say. And the schedule of education was uncrowded and unhurried. We had time to think, though we did not alway use the time for that purpose. But as we leisurely conned the classics and Victorian authors, something gracious and vital entered into our lives which has made this writer, at least, grateful for the associations of that simple and unsophisticated period. LOOKING BACK O'ER THE YEARS History of the Bristol Public Schools On September 3, 1663, the General Court of Plymouth Colony met and enacted a law: “that if any town of seventy families should be destitute of a grammar school it should be taxed five pounds sterling for the support of such a school.” The liberal minded people of Bristol took heed of this law, and immediately took action on the matter. A suitable provision for the support of a school was made at a town meeting on September 7. 1663. Samuel Cobbitt became the first school master of the town in 1685. A house lot, and a portion of the “land for the common good” was set aside for this use. From then on votes concerning the school and schoolmaster appeared almost as frequently upon town records as those concerning the town affairs. Mr. Cobbitt held the position of schoolmaster until 1694 when Josiah Hervev was appointed to succeed him. Mr. Hervey’s stay was short for in 1699, Mr. Easterbrooks was elected schoolmaster. On acount of the increase of the number of people on the outskirts, a plan was introduced and ratified to divide the town into two school districts—the “North Creek” being the dividing line. GREEN (TMndl Pi DIT[B 19

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FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO (Written especially for this edition of the Green and White by the Right Reverend Louis C. Sanford. Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquim, California, who was the editor of the first high-school paper published by students in Bristol, the Iris, which appeared in 1884.) The Freshmen of the High School today cannot possibly feel as important as our class did in 1881. It was but a step across the hall of the second story of “Byfield” from Miss Bradford’s room in the northwest corner to the High School in the southwest corner, but that step added several cubits to our stature. In the Grammar grade we were called by our first names as little boys and girls should be. In our new altitude we were addressed as Mr. and Miss. My eleven years could scarcely sustain the weight of so much honor. There were, perhaps, forty High School students. Their instruction was supplied by two teachers. The Principal, Mr. William Shcafe Chase, had just graduated from Brown University, where his studies included neither pedagogy nor Rhode Island School Law. It is doubtful if he ever passed an examination on the Constitution of the United States. Unqualified, as he might be regarded now, he seemed then to be highly competent. The school appeared to prosper under his administration and his ability and winning qualities made friends of his pupils. In fact, he married one of them, after her graduation, and took her with him to new fields of endeavor. Mr. Chase is still alive, an ardent advocate of good causes. He never looked like a schoolmaster and indeed the three or four years in Bristol marked the beginning and end of his school teaching experience. His successor, Mr. James A. Estee was a teacher by profession and had the manner. He was tall and thin and wore a reddish-brown mustache. If he lacked some of the personal graces of Mr. Chase, his understanding of boy nature was wide and exact. Two boys will never forget his kindness, when, in order that their preparation for college might not be retarded. he had them come to his sick room for recitation. Principals came and went, but the Assistant Principal was permanent. She had taught school since her girlhood and, coming later to the High School, remained until her retirement on account of age. No M. A., or even B. A., followed her name. Women in her day had few opportunities to win degrees. Her culture, which is the proper word to use, was acquired in her home, through her social contacts and reading. Many of the older people of Bristol will remember Miss Anna Manchester. Little, erect, with pale, regular features and snapping dark eyes, always severely clad in black silk, her eye glasses supported on a gold chain, she had the poise of a great lady, as indeed she was. We learned many things of her besides the Latin declensions and the feeble scientific information which went by the name of ‘natural philosophy.’ Our simple curriculum would seem old-fashioned today. We studied English, Latin, Greek, French and Mathematics. It is true, we penetrated a short distance into the mysteries of chemistry and astronomy and some of us toyed with the rudiments of book-keeping which demanded little concentration and afforded the chance to write with red ink, which did not have for us then the sinister meaning it has since acquired. But these fancy relaxations were never allowed to obscure the importance GREEN OArudL WDIDTTEr 18

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In 1701, Mr. Severs succeeded Mr. Easter-brooks. Mr. Severs remained until 1705 when his place was taken over by Samuel Howland, who was succeeded by Timothy Fales in 1709. In 1714, Mr. By field, one of the noteworthy residents of the town conveyed to John Nutting, teacher at that time, for the use of the schools, certain plots of land, ever since known as the “School lands”—those plots being the ones on which the By field and Walley Schools now stand. The town meeting in 1737 appropriated 50 pounds sterling for the erection of a school house, school having been previously taught in private homes. The school house was placed on State street nearly opposite the Methodist Episcopal Church lot and stood until 1799 when it was torn down, and the school was transferred to the Court House. From 1740 to 1772, the schoolmasters of the “Neck School”—school being taught in houses in that northern section of the town known as the “Neck” — were Daniel Bradford, John Thrope, Bosworth Kinnicut, John Croomer, and Samuel Pierce. The teachers in town were Shearfashrub Bourne, Israel Nichols, Leverett Hubbard, Bellamy Bosworth, Nathaniel Lindall, John Throope, Josiah Brown, Haile Turner, John Barrow and John Usher Jr. From 1772 to 1781 no school was maintained whatsoever. Samuel Bosworth taught from 1781 to 1788. The sum of $700 was named in 1809 upon the subscription paper, “To be applied to the building of a brick house upon the Common to be fifty feet in length, twenty-eight feet in width, and two stories high.” The expense of the building was to be equally borne by the town and the Masonic Society; the first floor to belong to the town “for a free school forever.” James DeWolf’s subscription was $400, George DeWolf and Charles DeWolf each subscribed $100. This school became known as the “Old Academy.” About 1826 a Mr. Storrs came to Bristol and opened a private school in the Academy and also started a new system—the Lancasterian System. His success was so great that in 1828 the School Committee asked him to take the town school and allow girls to share his instructions with the boys. Mr. Storrs was succeeded by John Cross, he, by James E. Hidden, and I19, in turn, by Dennis S. Gushee. It was during Mr. Gushee’s term that several grades were established, the Select School, the Grammar, the Intermediate, and the Primary. A committee was appointed by the town in 1830 to purchase the Academy from Mr. James DeWolf. When the committee approached Mr. DeWolf upon the subject, he at once presented the town with the deed of the building. It was used thenceforward until the Byfield School was completed, when it was sold at auction and moved away. From 1788 to 1872, nearly a century, no serious incidents occurred to alter the dull monotony of the school routine. On December 19, 1872, at the town meeting the following vote was passed—“voted that the sum of $25,(XX) be appropriated for the erection of a two-story building with a French roof for school purposes to be located on the Southwest Corner of the Common, to be paid for in not less than five years,” which still stands today as a symbol of education. It was dedicated to Mr. Bvfield. who had so graciously given the land, on which it is erected, to the town. From the year 1782 on, there sprung up many schools until the small town of Bristol boasted of eleven schools. In 18%, the town council again appropriated a goodly sum of money “for the purpose of erecting a brick school on the northwest side of the common.” This school became the Walley School, built in memory of Mr. Walley, an honorable resident of Bristol. In 1900, a plan was introduced and ratified at GREEN (OrndL WD1OTTE- 20