Passages From The Early History of Brownfield

Maine/New Hampshire, 1916

By Hon. Eli B. Bean.

Schools.

After the settlement of a portion of the sixty families Brown had obligated himself to settle in his grant of land, and these had erected for themselves log cabins and commenced clearing the then unbroken forest, those families located near each other began to think about schools for their children. Under such circumstances as they were then situated the question of establishing schools and erecting suitable houses for same was a problem hard to solve. Yet it was boldly and firmly met with all the means in their power and with partial success, in many cases the mothers and older children acting as teachers and some portion of the larger houses, or some out building, serving as a school room for the time being. The hardships and privations endured by those pioneers of our township would quite discourage the people of the present generation. Yet they were ever sustained with the hope of making a home for their young families. The first building erected for a schoolhouse was situated not far from the present junction of the road from Denmark, with the road to Fryeburg at East Brownfield railroad crossing, and was built prior to the incorporation of the town. It was at this schoolhouse where the first town meeting for the election of town officers was held after its incorporation in 1802. In 1806 a town meeting was again called to meet at this "schoolhouse near John Bolt Miller's" and no further mention is made of the house, either for school purposes or town business.

In 1803 the town voted to raise fifty dollars for school purposes, but there is no record of it having been expended, or, if expended, where or how. At the same town meeting the Selectmen of the town (Joshua Ames, Cyrus Ingalls and Lieut. John Goodenow) were directed to divide the town into school district and they reporting the following:

District No. 1. Beginning at Timothy Gibson, Esq., and to include all the inhabitants on and about "Beech Hill" and on the main road as far as Wilson Howard's, including Josiah Spring and his neighborhood that are in Brownfield to be one district. We recommend two schoolhouses to be built in the most convenient places to accommodate the inhabitants of said district.

District No. 2. Beginning at Benjamin and George Lord's and including the settlement on towards Fryeburg (east side Saco river) as far as school rights of land, so called, now owned by Lieut. Joshua Ames and John Howe, and we do recommend one schoolhouse to be set in the most convenient place to accommodate the inhabitants of said district.

District No: 3. Beginning at Lieut. Joshua Ames' and John Howe's land, as mentioned in the second district, and on the main road to Fryeburg line. Lieut. Asa Osgood and others in that neighborhood, also all those persons on the west side of the river, below Wilson Howard's, we recommend to draw their money, providing they will lay it out for schools in said town.

In March, 1804 it was voted to raise one hundred and fifteen dollars for support of schools in town and that each district should build their own schoolhouses. At the town meeting held in March, 1805, the town voted not to raise any money for school purposes, but at a second meeting called in April the same year, they appeared to repent of such action, and the town voted to raise $115 for schooling the present year. From this date on until 1820 the town raised various sums for schooling from $115 to $250 annually.

NO schoolhouses were built in districts No. 2 and No. 3 prior to the change in town lines in 1807 and their schools were kept in private houses. At the first town meeting held in Brownfield in 1807, after a portion of the town had been annexed to the towns of Denmark and Hiram, and the north part of Porterfield annexed to Brownfield, the town selected Timothy Gibson, Esq., John Sands and Nathaniel Merrill as a committee to divide the town into school districts and they reported as follows in October of same year and their report then accepted:

District No. 1 Beginning at Timothy Gibson Esquire's, and extending to Wilson Howard's.

District No. 2. Beginning at William Merrill's and extending to John Sand's on the Merrill road to take in Mr. Thompson and David Mansfield and "athuat" Sheppard's river so as to embrace Timothy Gibson, Jr.

District No. 3. To take all on the south side of Sheppard's river to Porter line.

District No. 4. To take all on the north side of Sheppard's river.

At the same meeting the town voted to allow any person to send their scholars to either school they chose, but that each district should retain their own school money.

School district No. 2, the Centre district, was the first to build a schoolhouse under the new organization of the town. In 1808, the district voted to build a schoolhouse and locate it "on the ridge at the foot of Dugway hill, below John Sand's" the size of the house to be twenty-two feet by twenty-six feet square, and voted to raise two hundred dollars for that purpose, selecting John Sands, Lieut. James Steele as a committee to build the house. Timothy Gibson, Jr., was clerk of the district meeting. As many of the inhabitants in the district wished to pay their tax in labor or material, a vote was taken to establish the price the committee were to allow for such as furnished. The same year (1808) District No. 1 voted to build a house, locating it in the centre between Esq. Timothy Gibson's and Wilson Howard's. The house was erected near the Maj. Stickney homestead. Daniel Gibson was clerk of the meeting and Timothy Gibson, Esq., Wm. Webster and John Stickney, selected as building committee, and one hundred and thirty dollars raised for the purpose, the house near John B. Miller's having been destroyed or abandoned.

The frame of the house was erected by Daniel Gibson for which the committee paid him thirty dollars. The following year, Dec. 30, 1809, the district voted to raise 85 dollars to finish the house and have the committee call on the Selectmen to furnish a school teacher as soon as they think proper. No record of any school in this district for the years 1808 and 1809, but they probably had schools kept in private houses during those years.

There is mention of school in 1810, when Maj. John Stickney was paid two dollars per week for board of teacher (probably Sally Mansfield) and tuition, and the district "voted to have a lock on schoolhouse, and allow any denomination go into the house to worship God."

District No. 3 voted to build a school in 1809 and locate it on land deeded to the district by Andrew Wentworth, near the Wentworth homestead. Luke Mills, Ichabod Ricker and Isaac Merrill were chosen committee to build the house. Most of the orders given by the building committee for labor and materials are now in good condition and on file with the town papers in Selectmen's office.

In 1811 an effort was made to have the town assume the expense of the schoolhouses already erected in Districts 1, 2 and 3, and finish the same for schools, also "to build such other schoolhouses in town as may become necessary." The town voted not to build any schoolhouses, but voted to aid District No. 2 to rebuild, contributing one hundred dollars for same, conditioned that the town could hold their town meetings there and that the house be free for each religious denomination to hold Sunday meetings, each denomination to have its equal share of the time. The size of the house to be 28 feet by 30 feet square, and to locate same in the forks of the road in front of Dr. Hadley's.

It was in this house Rev. Jacob Rice, the first settled in town, was preaching when he was stricken with heart failure and died within a few hours afterwards at the house of Dr. Hadley.

W. S. H.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.