Tantasqua Regional High School - Tantasquan Yearbook (Sturbridge, MA)

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TANTIUSQUES ea ee Mel THE GRAPHITE OR BLACKLEAU PpEposIT NEAR BY WAS VALUED BY OTHE INDIANS FOR FACE PAINT, AND’ BY THE WHITE MEN FOR PENCILS ee AND OTHER USES. JOHN WINTHROP, ih 1uR., WAS “GRANTED THE HILL AT @ TANTOUSQ” IN 1644, AND BEGAN 4 TO EXPLOIT THE MINE IN 1GOu MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY TERCEN ERAS: COMMI ssi ON Sign on Route 15, near the Lead Mine. VYlaning Our School Sign at the exit of Old Sturbridge Village. h ts Ce OLD FORDWAY AT TAD + TASK A» 3 EY Used by Indians from time im a ime memorial, by white on their first westward journeyings. Part of ere “irst known path from | Bo. ston Bay t tot: vonnect icut River. a Crossed by bidinne onieaas Sea y Joiut Py acon on bis - yw ir, ayo by Thomas Hooker wes he pom bt 2 ae — his flight from Bristol, R.A. to succor the Pilgrisns. by ies poste : P 9 owen spmmentis sti adil i hh sce me, ee j 8

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There have made history — “The members of the Planning Boards who were appointed by the Selectmen in each of the five towns: Brimfield: Denzil Bagster-Collins, Robert Bruce, Henry Lach; Brookfield: Richard Goddard, James LeRoy, Philip Palamountain; Holland: Lewis Howlett, Mrs. Dorothy Ordway, Reed Rich; Sturbridge: Frank Haynes, Harold Murphy, Harry Rosenblum; Wales: Mrs. Carrie Baker, Holly- well Dreyer, Frank Nierodzinski. This group organized as follows: Chairman, Denzil Bagster-Collins; Vice Chairman, Frank Haynes; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Dorothy Ordway; Corresponding Secretary, Harold Murphy. Later Mr. George Adams repl aced Mr. Bagster-Collins on this planning board. “It was their duty to study the advisability of joining forces to build a Re- gional High School and to make recommendations to their respective towns. The first joint meeting of the Planning Boards was held June 12, 1950. For about a year and a half these Planning Boards met and considered thoroughly the operation of schools under a Regional School District; the organization re- quired to operate and control the schools; tentative details relative to construc- tion and the maintenance of the buildings; preliminary plans for a curriculum; methods of dividing among the towns the construction costs and the operating costs. “These Boards held informational meetings in their own towns, and finally presented their report for consideration at a special meeting at each town on January 14, 1952. “The towns having approved the recommendation for a Regional School by a total vote of more than five to one, the Tantasqua Regional District School Committee was established. This Committee has been in existence since January 1952, and the following individuals have served: Brimfield: Roger Bennett, 1952 to November 1954, Ralph Hall, Mrs. Irene Wright, from November 1954; Brookfield: Richard Goddard, Philip R. Palamountain; Holland: Reed Rich, 1952 to February 1953, George Canning, February 1953 to March 1954, Arthur Earls, from March 1954; Sturbridge: Lloyd Goddu, 1952 to November 1953, Mrs. Francis Ginn, from November 1953, Harold Murphy, 1952 to September 1954, Michael Mantak, from September 1954; Wales: Frank Nierodzinski. “The committee was organized as follows: Philip R. Palamountain, Chaitr- man; Roger Bennett, Vice Chairman (after November 1954, Richard A. God- dard), Harold Murphy, Secretary-Treasurer (after September 1954, Richard E. Held).” From a statement issued to the press by Philip Palamountain, Chairman of the School Committee.

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Where did we get our name “Tantasqua?”’ The name was selected by the school committee from many names suggested. The word is an Indian word which has had many spellings, in accord with the way the word sounded to those pronouncing it. Our spelling was chosen as the one most easy to pronounce and to spell. The region in the vicinity of an old graphite mine near Sturbridge was called by the name, in its various spellings, in records early in the seventeenth cen- tury. The deeds recording the sale of the mine to Governor Winthrop’s son in 1644, so named the region (one of the men negotiating those deeds was Stepherr Daye, first printer in America). The whole Quinebaug valley was given the name; the villages around the present Sturbridge were grouped under the clan name; and the village itself (where the open theater is now in Sturbridge), was given that name. The Old Fordway at the present exit of Old Sturbridge Vil- lage was designated as in that region. The name had been used so often that a lake or pond which had been known as Walker Pond was renamed “Tantiusque Lake’ at the annual meeting of the town of Sturbridge in 1894. A nearby brook came to be called by the name, also. The meaning of the word is of no great importance to us, since the historical associations with the name made it seem significant enough to be selected. In 1893 Mr. Levi Chase, who wrote much accurate history of the region, wrote to Mr. Albert S. Gatschet of the Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C., for the meaning in the Indian dialect of the name ‘“Tan- tousque, stating it to be a territory near Sturbridge. The reply was that it means “located between two breast shaped hills.” Mr. W. R. Carlton of Spring- field wrote in a letter to the School Committee on March 11, 1955, ‘‘To me, the word seems to carry a meaning to the effect of ‘Near the Green Meadow’ ‘Near where green things grow’...”’ Mrs. William Reynolds, Town Clerk of Sturbridge, who first suggested the name ‘‘Tantas- qua’’ to the school committee.