Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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kept a steady record of liis voyages, his hai ' dships, and joys throughout liis life. He dwelt in Ipswich in his declining years after having ' seen life in many foreign counti-ies. He was a kind, generous iver all his life. In his old age he had planned for the building of a library for which he t)rovided in his will. He selected the site and purchased the land for a library. He became somewhat bolder and took upon himself the selection of plans and the oversight of the erection of the building. He appointed the trus- tees, told them what he wanted them to do, and selected a libi ' arian. He approved the selection of three thousand volumes of books, and seven thousand more were added by his four nephews after his death. He provided for a library that might be self-supporting at all times and and free to everyone. His total be- quest exceeded forty thousand dol- lars. Daniel Treadwell had likewise made i)lans all his life for the pro- vision of a free public library in Ipswich. In his will he stated, “I give .... to my native Town of Ips- wich all my real estate situated in the said Town, to have and to hold the same forever — the income whereof, together with the sum of four thousand dollars .... shall be appropi’iated by the said Town for the founding of a library, to contain a collection of the standard works of the best authors, ancient and modern, but to the exclusion of the cheap literature and party newspa- pers of the day, for the use of the inhabitants of Ipswich and the neighboring towns. And it is my wish that the build- ing of the said library shall be erect- ed upon the land purchased by me near the Stone Bridge (meaning Choate Bridge) a few years since, that it shall be made fireproof and used exclusively for the purposes of a library.” As Mr. Heard had provided for the same object, one or the other had to change his will. Mr. Heard erected the library building and in- stalled a library. Of course this was a keen disappointment to Mr. Treadwell but after consultation with the trustees, he made a change in his will by which he gave his lands, estate, and other properties mentioned in the former will for the further endowment and support of a free public library in Ipswich. Now we have a library where any- one can go to enjoy himself by good reading. The collection of books was one of the best in the country as it contained many rare books and first editions. Unfortunately, how- ever, some of these seem to be miss- ing at the present time. But we have a collection of books now to interest young and old of various tastes. William Burley is another man who has added to the benefactions of the town of Ipswich. He was a native of Ipswich and interested in the welfare of the town, who died in Beverly but remembered his old home town in his will. He be- queathed two thousand dollars of which fifty dollars was to be paid yearly for two years after his death to teach poor children to read and to instruct them in the principles of the Christian religion. But it would be quite difficult to carry out the terms of the will as there are so many who would be eligible to re- ceive this instruction. Now every child goes to school to learn to read and most children go to church or Sunday school. The trustees, realiz- ing this, were in favor of changing 20

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dred years, that war was fought on exactly the some principles which Wise emphasized. Furthermore, his later writings were copied in part almost word for word by Thom- as Jefferson in the Declaration of independence. At this town meet- ing Mr. Wise recalled to the people the struggle of their forefathers in England to obtain the rights which meant so much to them. He exhort- ed each one not to bow down to every whim of the tyrant Andros. For they were still British subjects and their mere change of home could not take away their cherished rights. He begged them not to pay the tax, no matter if it was small. Several other men then spoke in a similar strain. The people, real- izing that whatever their leaders said must be right, voted not to pay the tax. Here was struck the first blow for independence, without con- fusion and bloodshed, it is true, but a firm stroke, nevertheless. As soon as Ipswich had blazed the way by open refusal, other towns followed suit, and Andros soon found himself with a very troublesome colony on his hands. Ipswich was, at this time, next to Boston, the most important town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thus, since Boston had quietly sub- mitted to the governor’s demands, Ipswich as the next largest town, liad to bear the brunt of the wrath of the ruling powers. The men who had spoken at the town meeting and several others who were suspected of having incited the people to open resistance to the governor’s orders, were arrested and tried. Most of them were quickly acquitted, but Samuel Appleton was detained in jail for a long time. Ipswich was roundly censured and was men- tioned in the governor’s report as a trouble-maker. This was the price that Ipswich had to pay for the priv- ilege of bearing on her seal the in- scription : “The Birthplace of American Independence.” Ipswich lived up to her reputa- tion in the years that followed. Ips- wich men were sent to the Revolu- tionary War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish War, and the World War. A large proportion were distinguished by their bravery. Ipswich men are as ready to fight for the liberty of others now as they were ready to strive for their own independence in a matter of taxa- tion in 1687. For although Ipswich is small, her inhabitants are not lacking in courage. May she there- fore always be the home of Ameri- can independence as well as its birthplace ! THE TRUST FUNDS OF IPSWICH Edward Dolan Ipswich, endowed with a beauti- ful location and a glorious past, has been very fortunate in having money given to her. Funds, amount- ing to $188,000 have been donated. This sum of money hasbeensupplied by funds of the following names : Heard, Treadwell, Manning, Payne, Burley, Crane, Cowles, Jones, and Brown funds. The number of these various funds indicates to some de- gree theii- value to the town of Ips- wich. One of the most interesting funds is the Heard Fund. Augustine Heard led a very eventful life. He was a student at Exeter in his youth and he displayed much talent there as a scholar and a writer. He travel- led to Smyrna in a small schooner at an early age. He loved the sea with its adventure and his life reads like that of a story-book hero. He 19

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the terms of the bequest. There- fore, by a legal procedure, the terms were changed for a more logical purpose. The interest from the money accumulated as there was little use for it. Later much of the money was used for building a schoolhouse which is called the Bur- ley School, named after Mr. Burley. Robert Payne also desired that Ipswich might have schools for the education of its future citizens. He carried out his plan in somewhat the same way in which Augustine Heard provided for the library. He built a schoolhouse at his own cost and held it until 1863. Then he gave this schoolhouse to a board of trustees and it became the Payne School. Although this school is not very imposing now, it has stood the wear and tear of many years and has proved itself even more dura- ble than Manning High School. William Payne was also interest- ed in the welfare of his town. He gave Little Neck to Ipswich, where it might build a schoolhouse. How- ever, as it was not deemed wise to l)uild a schoolhouse there, it has been used otherwise. At present it seems that Little Neck has been of more value in its present use than it might have been if it had been used for the building of a school- house. The town now holds Little Neck and the income from it is ap- propriated toward the maintenance of our high school. Little Neck is now one of the most beautiful sum- mer colonies in this vicinity and it adds greatly to the attraction and beauty of the town. The most important of all the funds is the Manning Fund. Di . Thomas Manning had always been a kind and generous man. He was an ardent supi)orter of the town and helped his town in many ways. How- eve! , when he tried to provide for a high school in Ipswich, he be- came the innocent cause for much trouble and scandal. He left sixty thousand dollars in the hands of executives to be invested in good stocks and to be given to trustees at the end of twenty years “for the purpose of maintaining a free high school for the use of youths of both sexes of good moral character and deportment and of suitable age.” The first point of combat was that he was incompetent to make out a will. His son thought he was de- prived of his proper share of the money and therefore fought for his rights. However, the Manning High School was built in 1874 and it still stands. But at this point the misfortunes began. For several years, for some reason or other, the trustees made no report upon the condition of the funds. Because of this, a bill was passed in the Massa- chusetts legislature forcing the trustees to make a public account- ing each year. At present the fund amounts to about forty thousand dollars, part of which is invested in the Colonial Building. This re- turns about two percent and some- times less on the investment. An- other part of the money is invested in the so called Masters house which was acquired by the trustees to re- lieve the local bank of a bad mort- gage. The major portion of the ) est of the funds is invested in Mexi- can railway bonds of questionable value. It can be plainly seen that all of these investments are doubt- ful and certainly cannot be of any great value. Tliere are good results and bad results from this Manning Fund. Of course, the best result is that we did get a high scliool. An- other good feature is that li)swich has never had to build a high school 21