Middletown High School - Cauldron Yearbook (Middletown, CT)

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the meeting adjourned to August I4tll, when a Society's committee was appointed, who were U directed to take the management and supervision of the present district schools and make them as efficient as the circum- stances of the case will admit. This action abolished the district organizations, and the former four became practically one district. The Society's connnittee appointed at this meeting were William J. Trench, David Allen, Charles Woodward, Horace Clark, Linus Coe, Richard Rand, Samuel D. Hubbard, and Jonas Chapin. William S. Camp wasthe first clerk and treasurer of the Society. At this meeting the following record appears: The Society's com- mittee were requested to report so111e plan for a High School to a future meeting. January 29, I84O, a meeting was held to hear the report of this com- mittee. After listening to the report, the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, that the committee men of the City School Society of Middletown be, and are, hereby empowered to hire the rooms under the Episcopal church in this city for the purpose of having kept therein high schools for said School Society, and to have the same prepared for said purpose as soon as may be, and that said COll1llllllEC men be, and they are, hereby authorized to hire suitable teachers for said schools, and to put said schools into operation as soon as i11 their judgment it shall be thought best, agreeable to the plan this day submitted by said committee men in their report. The building referred to is now the Russell Library. At the same meeting a tax of one and a half cents on the dollar was voted to pay the expense incurred. The schools were duly opened in the rooms mentioned i11 tl1e resolu- tion in I84.0. The record speaks of schools, it was practically one school, but in reality one for the girls and one for the boys. Rev. Alfred Saxe, a graduate of Wesleyan in the class of 1838, was the first principal. Con- tinuing until IS43, he was at the same time Professor of Normal Instruc- tion in NVesleyan University. Mis Hovey had charge of the girls' school until 1845. Thus began the first free public High School in this State. It would be interesting to know how many pupils there were, tl1e names of other teachers, and many other matters in connection with the new school. It would also be interesting to trace its history down to the present time. But this is impossible at this time, because there are no records of tl1e Society's committee and no reports, except such meager o11es as were sometimes published in the newspapers.

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ir Miainrg nf the 1l1lIihil1PIn1un High Svrhnnl. BY HON. WESLEY U. PEARNE. ROM the earliest days of the colony of Connecticut the education of the young was a matter of paramount importance. As early as I65O a law was passed requiring parents to see that their children were instructed in what are now called the rudimentary branches. Towns were also required to maintain schools for this purpose. But while this was so with regard to schools of the primary, and perhaps of the intermediate grades, the free public school of a higher grade did not appear until about the middle of the nineteenth century. The first statute regarding such schools appears to have been passed in 1856. In this city the idea of providing such a school, however much it may have been agitated before, seems to have bee11 a prominent one in the organization of the City School Society. In I839 there were four separate school districts, known as the North, Nortl1 Middle, South Middle and South, territorially embracing all of the city except a small part west of Indian Hill, and under the jurisdiction of the First School Society. In that year a law was passed providing for the separa- tion of these four districts from the First Society, and organizing the City School Society. Doctor Charles NVoodward, Richard Rand, and Stephen Taylor were named in the statute to call tl1e first meeting for the purpose of eiTecting an organization. This meeting was held July II, 1839, when a motion was made to accept the resolution passed by the General Assembly, which motion, after some discussion, was laid upo11 the table, and the meeting adjourned to the 15th instant. july Istll, at half-past six P. M., the meeting convened, when the former motion having been withdrawn, a new one was passed covering the same ground. A committee was appointed to propose by-laws and to take into consideration all subjects appertaining to the object of the organization of this Society, and this meeting adjourned until the 29th instant. July 29th the committee reported by-laws, which were adopted, and

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April 1, 1841, a special 1neeting of the Society was held, at which the following resolution was adopted: XVhereas, the success which has attended our schools for the past year conclusively proves that the present organization is fully adequate to meet the wants of the public, and, whereas, the rooms at present occupied for the High Schools are wholly insufl'icient to accommodate in a suitable manner the children of the Society 5 Resolved, that this Society will immediately purchase a proper site and erect thereon a suitable building, with the necessary appurtenances, for the acco1n1nodatio11 of the High Schools. The Society's committee at this time were David Allen, Samuel Bab- cock, Charles Woodward, Stephen Taylor, Richard Rand, W. J. Trench, Samuel D. Hubbard, and Merrils VVard. The committee was authorized to procure a site and erect the build- ing, at an expense 11ot exceeding ten thousand dollars. They were also authorized to apply to tl1e General Assembly for authority to pledge the credit of the Society for an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars. The legislative authority was granted, and on june 7th, 1841, tl1e Society appointed a special committee to negotiate the necessary loan. The committee purchased the site on the south side of College Street and put up a building. From the published report in 1842, it appears that the building was completed in the previous December, at a cost, including grounds, furniture and some apparatus, of x9,5I2.07. In 1842 the number of persons in tl1e Society, between four and sixteen years of age, was about goo. From the published report in I845, it appears that there were two teachers in the male department, and two all of the time and one half the time in the female department. In 1847 the following resolution was adopted: Whereas, the Legislature at its last session appointed a committee to select a place for the location of a State Normal School, Resolved, that should this city be selected for a State Normal School, the committee of this Society for the ensuing year be authorized to offer the use, gratuitously, of the upper story of the High School building for this purpose. The State Normal School was Hnally located in New Britain. The last meeting of record of the City School Society was held Sep- tember 22, 1856. In 1857 the Society failed to elect olicers. A meeting of the freemen was called by the selectmen and held October I2, 1857,