One of our ongoing projects has been to research the stories of early residents of Acton who were black or of mixed-race ancestry.  The Massachusetts Tax Inventory of 1771 revealed that there were two “servants for life” in Acton at the time, including one person assessed to Simon Tuttle.  (For relevant entries click here.)  There was no detail about who the person was.  It was easy to assume that records from the March 4, 1783 town meeting referred to the same person when Acton voted to pay Mr. Simon Tuttle for “the Bounty for his negro man which was Twenty four Pounds in March 1777 to be Paid by the Scale of Depreciation.”  However, as is so often the case when we try to understand events more than two centuries ago, we have to be careful with our assumptions.
 
In early 1777, the Continental Army was in a recruiting crisis after enlistments ran out at the end of 1776.  There was pressure on towns to fill their quota of soldiers.  At the March 10, 1777 town meeting, Acton approved a bounty of twenty pounds to every man who would enlist in the Continental Army for three years or as long as the war lasted.  An additional four pounds was offered to men who had or would volunteer between March 3 and March 17, 1777.  Bounties obviously cost money that had to be raised through taxes.  To understand each taxable person’s contribution to the war effort, the town chose a committee to determine “what Service has been Don[e] Personally or by Hireing men to go into the Service ever Since this Present war Begun.”  One of the members of that committee was Simon Tuttle. 
 
In trying to fulfill quotas for towns, it was apparently common practice for recruiters to pay bounties for enlistment out of their own pockets on the understanding that they would be reimbursed.  At a July 30, 1778 town meeting, it had been proposed that the War Rates (taxes) of four men including Lt. Simon Tuttle be abated, presumably for their recruiting efforts.  That proposal was voted down; instead, the town voted that “Every man in the Town that had Paid money to hire men for the Town into the Continental army for three years Shall Receive Said money from the Town.”  During the war years, assessments were frequently revised, and the town did not always have the cash to pay soldiers or recruiters what they were owed.  Inflation was so great that delays in payment made previously-promised amounts seem worthless, so by the time Acton actually paid, amounts had to be adjusted ”by the Scale of Depreciation.” 
 
Most of the men who were hired and received bounties from the town of Acton were not mentioned in town meeting records.  At the March 4, 1783 meeting, however, two individuals were identified.  The third agenda item at the meeting resulted in the formation of a committee “to Settle with Capt Joseph Robbins Respecting his Bounty that he Paid to Oliver Emerson.”  The fourth agenda item resulted in a vote to pay Simon Tuttle the bounty for “his” man.  The use of the word “his” may look to modern readers as if the soldier either had been enslaved or was an employee.  However, we discovered another town meeting record that called that assumption into question.  At the March 5, 1781 town meeting, a committee (including Simon Tuttle) was formed to help the assessors to “class” the residents for the purpose of hiring soldiers to fulfill the town’s quota.  The record went on:
 
“...also voted that if any Class in this Town Shall be So unfortunate as not to Procure their man (after ofering their Best Endeavors to hire one) that they Shall not be Subject to Pay any more than their Proportion of the fine and the Charges that the Several Classes are Put to in hireing and Pay their men in this Town” (emphasis added)
 
Given the above phrasing, it is possible that the 1783 town meeting record’s use of “his” man meant only that the soldier had been hired by Samuel Tuttle to fill a quota.  Town meeting records do not tell us for certain.  What we can say, after our research, is that whatever the soldier’s route to military service for the town of Acton, his story did not have a happy ending.
 
Finding out more about Simon Tuttle’s “man” was complicated by uncertainty about his name and pre-war experiences.  We did discover that Rev. James T. Woodbury’s mid-1800s listing of known Acton Revolutionary War soldiers (transcribed in town histories by Fletcher and Phalen) included “Titus Hayward, colored man, hired by Simon Tuttle.”  The compendium Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (MSSRW) did not have an entry for a soldier of that name.  Thinking that perhaps he might have been a (possibly former) slave who enlisted under the name of Tuttle, we found a Titus Tuttle from Acton in MSSRW as having enlisted April 29, 1775 for 3 months and 10 days.  Other service was shown for a Titus Tuttle (no town and no description) in 1776 (2 months) and 1781 (21 months).  (There were other entries of individuals named “Titus” with no surnames in MSSRW, one from Harvard and one from Pittsfield.)  None of the service terms for Titus Tuttle or Titus __ matched the March 1777 enlistment for which Simon Tuttle was later paid a bounty.
 
Matching up the service dates and investigating surname variations for Titus “Hayward” led us to the record of Titus Haywood.  His service record (available online and summarized in MSSRW) shows that he enlisted on March 14, 1777 and served in Edmund Munroe’s Company, Mass. 15th Regiment under Col. Timothy Bigelow.  Captain Munroe was from Lexington as were many members of his company.  The remainder came from other Middlesex County towns, including Acton men John and Theodore Barker and Titus Haywood.  (MSSRW cited a return dated Feb. 2, 1778 that gave Titus Haywood’s residence as Acton and his enlistment credited to fill Acton’s quota.)  Included in the company were at least five other soldiers who have been identified as people of color.  The company served in the Northern Department and fought at Saratoga.  Titus Haywood apparently was not able to participate in the actual Saratoga campaign.  By September 1, 1777, he was reported as being sick in the hospital, later was reported as sick at Albany where there was a large military hospital, and finally in April 1778 was reported as having died on Nov. 5, 1777.    
 
Astoundingly, though later town records and histories listed Titus “Hayward” as a soldier, mentioned his race, and specified who was paid for his enlistment bounty, nowhere in town records did we find a mention of the fact that he died while in service.  It is a reminder of how “history” comes to us.   In later years, there was much more interest in soldiers who died in battle and in the Actonians who were “first at the Concord bridge.”  Other stories disappeared over time.
 
Many questions remain unanswered.  Who was Titus Haywood/Hayward?  While some have guessed that the man Simon Tuttle hired might have been his slave originally, that hypothesis may be incorrect.  We had thought that perhaps the Titus Tuttle who served from Acton in the Revolution might be the same person as Titus “Hayward” in the Woodbury list, but we have not yet found any evidence confirming that theory.  We found some Titus Tuttles alive after the war.  Clearly those individuals were not the Titus Haywood who died in 1777. 
 
We did find one record for a Titus Haywood that may be the same person.  An entry in MSSRW for a Titus Haywood (no town given) shows him as a private in Captain John Hartwell’s co., Col Dike’s regiment.  He enlisted Dec. 14, 1776 and was credited to the town of Concord.  The regiment served until March 1, 1777.  He would have been available to reenlist on March 14, 1777 and be credited to Acton, which would have made him eligible for the 24-pound bounty from the town.  We hope that he actually received it.  Town records do not indicate why it took a special town vote for Simon Tuttle to be paid for hiring him.
 
So far, we have not discovered the story of Titus Haywood’s earlier life.  Our search for information will continue, but on this Memorial Day, we honor the memory of Titus Haywood who served for the town of Acton and never made it back.

Samuel’s family connections made it highly likely that Samuel also served in the Revolution.  Samuel’s brothers Asa and Nathan and many of their relatives served.  Samuel also had many soldiers in his family on his wife’s side; she was Lucy Davis, first cousin to Captain Isaac Davis who led the Acton minutemen and fell at Concord’s North Bridge. 

We checked our standard town histories by Fletcher and Phalen, both of which reprinted Rev. James T.  Woodbury’s listing of Actonians who were known (at the time the list was created, sometime in the mid-1800s) to have served in the Revolution.  The list is not perfect, and Rev. Woodbury acknowledged at the time that it was incomplete.  However, Samuel Parlin did appear in that listing.  Some of his children and other relatives living in Acton were the likely sources. 

Our next challenge was to try to determine when Samuel actually served.  Fortunately, our quest was made much easier when we were able to turn to the Robbins papers in our own archives.  Not every man who served is listed there either, but for lucky people researching certain individuals, the papers can be a goldmine.  It happens that Samuel Parlin was listed as one of the Actonians who signed up on September 29, 1774, “thinking our Selves Ignorant in the Military Art and Willing to be Instructed” by Captain Joseph Robbins in a militia company.  Later, Captain Robbins documented the fact that Samuel Parlin had served under him in 1776 (as did his brothers Nathan and Asa).  We also discovered that much later, Concord’s Gazette and Yeoman listed those who were living in Acton in April 1824 who had fought at Concord on April 19, 1775.  Samuel Parlin was included. (April 24, 1824, p. 2)

Having confirmed that Samuel Parlin did indeed serve in the Revolutionary War, we set out to learn about the rest of his life.  Samuel was born in Acton on May 18, 1747 to Jonathan Parlin and Sarah Warner.  His family were among of the original residents of Acton when it became a town in 1735.  They lived in the northern part of Acton (previously Concord) that eventually became Carlisle.  A map of historic home sites done by Donald Lapham in 1969 shows that the Jonathan Parlin house was located at 322 West Street (at the corner of Acton Street) in present-day Carlisle. 

According to The Descendants of Nicholas Parlin, Samuel had numerous siblings, the oldest of whom (Jonathan) died as a soldier in the French and Indian War in 1758.  The book lists two brothers (Nathan and Asa) serving in the Revolution and, with some question, an additional soldier brother Nathaniel.   Aside from a muster and payroll record indicating that “Nathaniel” Parlin marched from Acton to Roxbury on March 4, 1776 and served six days, we could find no vital or other records for a man of that name.  It is very likely that the record was actually Nathan’s.  Samuel had a sister Elizabeth who never married, and as the Parlin genealogy added, unhelpfully, “There were four other children, all girls.”  (p. 22).  We were able to find in Acton’s vital records that Samuel had three additional sisters, Sarah, Lucy, and Mary.  Sarah died in 1759.  Acton death records do not mention Lucy and Mary, but they must have died before their father, as his probate record does not list them as survivors.  (It also does not list a son Nathaniel.)

Samuel’s father Jonathan died in 1767.  His estate included an 87-acre farm, partly in Acton and partly in Westford, bordering on the land of John Heald Jr.  The farm was left 1/3 to Samuel’s mother, as was customary, and 2/3 to the eldest surviving brother Nathan who lived out his life in Carlisle.  Asa eventually farmed nearby and served the town of Carlisle for many years as town clerk and selectman.

Samuel Parlin, however, moved to a part of town that remained Acton. On March 26, 1772, he married Lucy Davis (1749-1829), daughter of John and Sarah (Flint) Davis of Acton.  Samuel and Lucy had eight children:
 

1. Samuel (1773-1778) - The Parlin genealogy has this child living to adulthood, but Acton records and a gravestone show that this Samuel died Sept. 29, 1778.
2. Lucy (1774-1800) married Lieut. Phinehas Wheeler
3. Jonathan (1777-1830)
4. Eunice (1779-1822) married Joseph Robbins Jr.
5. Warner (1781- 1839) married Lydia Davis (another Capt. Isaac Davis relative)
6. Sally (1785-1859)
7. Susanna (1788-1825)
8. Davis (1791 – 1857), married Nancy Barnard and Sarah Keyes.  For information about his son Henry Davis Parlin, see our blog post on F. W. Pelton’s students.

 
We know that Samuel Parlin lived at what would now be 48 Hammond Street.  The house, which stood until a tragic fire in 1985, was believed to have been built approximately 1772 -1776, presumably based on the date of Samuel’s marriage to Lucy Davis.  Supporting that estimate, we found that in the tax valuation of 1771, Samuel was listed without taxable property, but in Lucy’s father’s 1778 probate record, Samuel Parlin was already a landowner.  Lucy inherited eight acres of pasture and woodland, known as part of the “Proctor Place” that bordered land of “Samuel Parling.”  The probate record also noted that Lucy’s father had previously given her 86 pounds, 19 shillings and 9 pence, probably the value of land John gave to Lucy and Samuel as they started their life together.  Lucy inherited an additional thirty-acre lot on the “westerly side of Nagog Hill” when her eldest brother John died in an accident on March 2, 1791.  The lot was bounded by land that had been set off to her sister Abigail Conant and by land of Simon Tuttle and Samuel Jones Jr.

Samuel first appears in Acton’s town meeting records as a fence viewer in 1776.  He was clearly back from military service in 1780 because he was chosen selectman and assessor in that year.  Starting in 1783, he was chosen regularly for roles such as constable, tithing man, assessor, surveyor of timbers or highways, and school committee.  He was also selected as a member of special committees, for example to deal with abatements to individuals’ taxes and to deal with the selectmen about town expenditures.  He was made a member of the committee to instruct the Convention at Concord in Oct. 1786 (probably the Middlesex County convention dealing with issues that led to Shay’s Rebellion).  In May 1798, town meeting records show that he was selected for a special committee “In a Constitutional mannar to take under Consideration the alarming Situation of our publick affairs and express there minds thereon the Town Expressed there minds agreeable to this article and Chose Jonas Brooks John Edwards Jonas Heald Samuel Parling and Thomas Noys a Committee to publish the Same.”  (This was probably related to tricky diplomatic issues with France.)  It is clear that Samuel Parlin was a trusted figure in town, someone who could handle both money and negotiations amid controversy.

According to church records, on Nov. 24, 1791, Samuel Parlin was chosen for the office of Deacon of the First Parish church of Acton.  On April 19, 1792, the record continued that Samuel Parlin having declined, the church chose Simon Hunt who accepted and “took the seat” in August.  While the Parlin genealogy refers to him as “Deacon Samuel,” there is no record that Samuel Parlin actually ever “took the seat” himself.  The story of why he declined the honor never made it to the history books.

Samuel Parlin died on March 7, 1827, leaving his widow Sarah and four surviving children.  At the time of his death, his real estate included the home farm containing 38 acres of land, a 5-acre “Sargent Meadow”, a 6-acre “Chaffin Meadow”, and an 11-acre “Littleton Pasture.”  He also had the title to pew number 42 on the lower floor of the Acton Meeting house.  Among his personal belongings were agricultural products and tools, cows, swine, sheep, and, oddly, ½ of a horse.  Samuel’s widow Lucy survived him by two years, and eldest son Jonathan only by three.  The home farm passed to son Davis in 1831. The house eventually went out of the family to Thomas Hammond whose name was given to the road on which they lived.  When some of the land was developed in the late 1960s, the new road was given the name of Samuel Parlin Drive.

Our research into Samuel Parlin reminded us of a few lessons that are worth repeating.  Despite having found what looked like a very complete genealogy of the Parlin family, if we had not checked each item, we would have believed that Samuel had an additional brother named Nathaniel and that Samuel’s son Samuel Jr. lived to adulthood and married a woman named Phoebe.  If we had only paid attention to the flag holder in Woodlawn Cemetery, we would have thought that Samuel’s military service was in the War of 1812, not the Revolution.  And if we had stopped our searching at Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, we would have missed Samuel’s service, the best documentation of which, ironically, is in our own archives.

As mentioned in a recent blog post, in mid-1800s Acton, a college student or recent graduate could earn funds by teaching an advanced private school session during the fall when the public schools were closed.  A descendant of a student in one of those schools recently shared with us a document relating to Lyman Cutler’s Select School held in the autumn of 1849.  This presumably was the Mr. Cutler whose teaching in the fall of 1848, according to the 1848-1849 School Committee report, was so popular that it created problems for the teacher of the public school in the winter term; the older students apparently did not give the public schoolteacher a chance.  Until seeing this document, we did not know that Mr. Cutler came back to Acton the following autumn.

The document lists the 29 students of the school, divided into “Masters” and “Misses.”  Some were also students in F. W. Pelton’s 1852 private high school, and some were siblings.  The document may have been a recommendation, because the “Remarks” at the bottom state that, “The Scholars enjoyed the School without any exceptions, and in the opinions of Visitors made good improvement.”

We looked into the life of this promising teacher.  Lyman Cutler was born in Holliston, MA on August 4, 1826 to Amos Cutler and Sarah Topliff.  He had at least three brothers and a sister.  Instability and tragedy seem to have affected the family during Lyman’s childhood, and Sarah and her children returned to Dorchester where she had grown up.  Despite apparent early difficulties, three sons were able to pursue higher education.  Lyman studied privately under Reverend Dr. Perry of Bradford, MA and entered Dartmouth College in 1843.  While there, he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.  He graduated with honor in 1847 and immediately went to Andover Theological Seminary.  It would have been during fall breaks in his Andover studies that he taught in Acton to earn money.  He graduated in 1850.  (Two younger brothers followed him to Andover Theological Seminary; Calvin, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1856 and Seminary in 1861 and Elijah who graduated from Williams College in 1856 and Seminary in 1862.)

The newly-minted Reverend Cutler was called to the Evangelical Church in Pepperell, MA and was installed on January 22, 1851.  The Boston Recorder reported the event and indicated that Pepperell had done well to have obtained Lyman Cutler as their pastor, because his “reputation as a youthful preacher has already made him somewhat in demand among the churches.”  (Jan. 30, 1851, p. 18)  On March 14, 1851, he married Elizabeth Hill of Conway, NH.  Lyman Cutler returned to Acton to participate in the installation of Rev. Benjamin Dodge at the Evangelical (Congregational) Church in October, 1852, presumably seeing some of his former students there. 

Rev. Cutler was only in Pepperell for 2.5 years.  While there, however, he managed to get into a dispute with Daniel Foster, a speaker for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society who lectured in Pepperell in May 1852.  The dispute may have been partly personal and partly religious, but without actually mentioning names, Rev. Cutler apparently attempted to persuade his flock that Daniel Foster was not to be trusted, causing quite a furor.  To be fair, we only have the words of aggrieved letter writers in the Liberator and not Rev. Cutler’s side of the story.  (Oct. 8, 1852, p. 163, Dec. 17, 1852, p. 204)  He was not the first minister with Acton ties to be at odds with the Liberator, as discussed in our blog post on Rev. James T. Woodbury’s dispute with Liberator editor William Lloyd Garrison.  (We can see from the student list that Reverend Woodbury’s son Porter was in Lyman Cutler’s 1849 school.)  Other references to Rev. Cutler’s career were more favorable.  He did not have long to prove himself.  By November 1853, he was sick and asked to be dismissed from his role in Pepperell.  It was a difficult decision for him.  With rest, he managed to regain his health enough to start preaching again. 

Though not in perfect health, he was called by Eliot Church in Newton to be their pastor and was installed there on October 25, 1854.  Unfortunately, 1855 was a terrible year for the family.  Lyman and his wife Elizabeth lost their only child Lyman Edwards Cutler on January 16, 1855 at the age of sixteen months to “congestion of the brain.”  The Boston Herald had just reported that Rev. Cutler was in a “feeble state of health” himself and would be taking a leave of absence with pay.  (Jan. 12, 1855, p. 2)  Sadly, on April 28, 1855, Lyman succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of 28.  His gravestone, next to his son’s in East Parish Burying Ground in Newton, was erected by members of the Eliot Church “in memory of their late beloved pastor.”

A lengthy obituary in the Congregationalist mentioned Lyman Cutler’s ability to speak with “great force and beauty of imagination,” “great emotive power” and “irrepressible fervency....  When he was impassioned the tones of his voice were thrilling.  The work of persuading men was natural to him.”  He was also apparently social and warm-hearted and had a capacity for drawing “to himself the hearts of his fellow-men.”  (May 18, 1855, p.1)  It is not at all surprising that Lyman Cutler’s school would have been exceptionally popular with Acton’s students.

References:
A comprehensive biography of Lyman Cutler can be found in the Congregationalist, May 18, 1855, p. 1, “Rev. Lyman Cutler.”  His select school is mentioned in the 1848-1849 Acton School Committee report, p. 11.  He also appeared in catalogues of alumni of both Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary and was mentioned in his brothers’ biographies as well.  See especially his entry in Chapman’s 1867 Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College, page 366.  The Boston Recorder described his installation at Pepperell (Jan. 30, 1851, p. 18) and Newton (Nov. 2, 1854, p. 174) and his visit to Acton (Nov. 4, 1852, p. 178).  Brown University has a copy of his 1854 installation program in its archives.

A biography of Daniel Foster that sheds some light on the dispute with Lyman Cutler and other “orthodox” ministers can be found in the October 2005 newsletter of the Chester Historical Society, “Reverend Daniel Foster ‘The Fighting Chaplain of the Massachusetts 33rd.”

Thank you to our donor for sharing information about Lyman Cutler’s Select School.  In the course of researching Rev. Cutler’s time at Dartmouth, we found quite a few other Dartmouth students who taught in Acton.  Most taught in the winter term of the public schools and were discussed in school committee reports.  We did not find such records for the teaching of Reverend James Fletcher (1843-1844) and Sylvanus Dearborn (1855), either because of record availability or because they taught privately.  If you have more information about their teaching or about other private school teachers in Acton, please contact us.
 

In our collection are two maps of Acton and Boxborough with a red outline around part of Acton, dating back to 1868-1869.  At that time, residents of the western part of Acton were proposing to secede and join with Boxborough in creating a new town.  Shown with the maps are the two towns’ relative populations, areas, and tax valuations, and how those would change if the proposal passed.  The new town would take 26% of Acton’s population, 18% of its area, and 25% of its tax valuation.  Previous local historians have puzzled over this village uprising (see references), but recently the Society was fortunate to be given access to a memoir from George C. Wright that discussed the West Acton secession proposal from the perspective of someone involved.  Having access to digitized newspapers from the time added other details to the story.

Decisions over the exact route of railroads and the location of depots led to changes in the relative fortunes of many towns and villages in the 1800s.  Some boomed while others were passed by.  To Boxborough residents in the 1860s, this was an issue of great importance.  After failing to get a depot of their own, Boxborough residents generally went to West Acton to send their produce to market or to get to the city themselves.  For most of Boxborough’s inhabitants, the nearest store was in West Acton.  The central issue from Boxborough’s perspective was that the railroad had changed West Acton’s fortunes for the better.  Boxborough residents were helping it to thrive, and they wanted some of the tax benefits.  Underlying some of the agitation was probably the fact that businessmen with Boxborough roots had moved to West Acton, prospered, and contributed to the growth of their adopted village.

George C. Wright wrote that about the time that the railroad came through in the 1840s, there was a small “boom” in West Acton, a place that had previously barely had enough economic activity to be called a village. (p.2)  Though South Acton eclipsed it as a center of industry and mercantile activity, West Acton certainly grew as a result of the railroad.  While presumably Boxborough’s farmers profited personally from having a railroad nearby to take their goods to wider markets, one can understand that they wanted the benefits for their town that they saw accruing to their neighbors each time they headed east on the turnpike.

The actors in the secession drama seem to vary depending upon who was telling the story.  The petition to the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts, published by the town of Littleton, stated that the 57 signers were a mix of Boxborough and Acton citizens.  However, after tracing each signer, we were able to find a Boxborough listing in the 1870 census or other evidence of Boxborough residence for 50 of them (plus another whose name was probably misspelled).  Two signers had lived in both Boxborough and Acton, and four signers’ residence eluded us.  Absent from the petition are the names of the quite well-known businessmen of West Acton with roots in Boxborough, among them West Acton Meads and Blanchards, and George C. Wright (who spent his teenage years in Boxborough).  According to Phalen’s History of the Town of Acton, the petition’s supporters were the majority of the people of Boxborough and “the disgruntled minority” of Acton citizens who were trying to create a town “cut to their own pattern” that, by weight of numbers, they would be able to dominate.  Phalen said, “The coterie in West Acton that started the scheme was motivated by no altruistic notions with respect to the established families of old Boxborough.... Very shortly the rural community would have found itself perpetually out-voted and more or less ignored except as an expansion area for its vigorous and ambitious new bedfellow.” (p. 203-204) 

Based on the published list of petitioners and Phalen’s history, we might have thought that the proposed new town was really a “Boxborough issue” with the support of a few West Acton outsiders.  However, George C. Wright’s version of events contradicts that conclusion.  

George C. Wright and West Acton’s Boxborough natives were extremely generous to West Acton and did much for its development.  (See our blog post on George C. Wright.)  Over the long haul, they did not come across as the disgruntled “coterie” that Phalen described.  Nonetheless, apparently George C. Wright not only approved, but was a leader of the secession effort.  He wrote that the proposal was backed by “a large majority of the citizens of West Acton,” including native Boxborough businessmen, and that “I was heartily in favor of the project and was chairman of the committee to secure the necessary action by the legislature.  I did everything I could to carry the measure through, sparing neither time or money...” (p. 6) 

Town meeting records from Acton show that the proposed secession of West Acton had been discussed at the November 3, 1868 town meeting.  The citizens of Acton as a whole disapproved.  The vote was 204 to 45 in favor of a resolution that included the following statements:

• Small towns labor under great disadvantage in reference to sustaining social literary and religious institutions
• Acton is too small already and has not a farm or family to spare and should seek to add to rather than cut off any of its population and territory
• The division of the town as proposed would detract from its historic fame
• Acton is ready to receive any part or all of said town of Boxborough. 
• We as a town persistently oppose its dismemberment

 
The town then chose a Committee of seven “to save the town from prospective trouble and ruin.”  They were authorized to hire counsel at the expense of the town of Acton.  The chosen committee members were Luther Conant, William W. Davis, John Fletcher Jr., George Gardner, Aaron C. Handley, William D. Tuttle, and Daniel Wetherbee.

Apparently undeterred by opposition from the rest of the town of Acton, the proponents of the proposal moved forward.  Both sides hired lawyers.  On January 18, 1869, the petition to create a new town (officially known as the petition from “H. E. Felch and others” ) was referred from the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate to the (joint) Committee on Towns.  (The Committee was surprisingly busy with other proposals as well; disagreements over territory were not unique to Boxborough and Acton.  In fact, Boxborough and Littleton had their own disagreement before the Committee in 1868 and 1869, illustrated by the green-shaded properties on our maps.)

The Acton committee against the proposal apparently got busy gathering signatures.  Between January 27 and Feb. 2, “remonstrances” were presented by lawyers and referred to the Committee on Towns.  The remonstrances were labelled with the name of the first signer “and others”, so we know that five anti-secession remonstrances were filed from Acton with the first signers being W. E. Faulkner, Daniel Wetherbee, Luther Conant, Lewis F. Ball, and George Gardner.  (The latter was ”George Gardner and 18 others of West Acton” according to the Boston Herald, Feb. 3, p. 1.)  On Feb. 2, there was also a remonstrance from Simeon Wetherbee and 22 others of Boxborough.  According to the final report of the Committee on Towns (in our archives), the total number of remonstrants was 313. 

Those in favor of the petition also obtained more signatures.  On Feb. 8, the Journal of the House shows that “Mr. Fay of Concord presented the petition of Wm. Reed and others of Acton and Boxborough, in aid of the petition of H. E. Felch and others.” (p. 103)  Non-resident owners of real estate in Boxborough signed a petition in favor of the new town that was presented on Feb. 10  (“Henry Fowler and Others”).  The total number in favor mentioned in the final report of the Committee on Towns was “about one hundred and forty or fifty petitioners.” (p. 2)  The number is surprisingly vague, given the fact that the opposition signatures were counted exactly.  Signing was obviously not considered enough; many supporters and opponents attended the hearings.  The Springfield Republican reported that at some point during the proceedings, the Blue Room “was crowded almost to suffocation by Acton and Boxboro people.” (Feb.20, 1869, p. 2)

In this midst of the petitioning and remonstrating, a call apparently went out for funding and naming the new town.  A correspondent signing as “Maxwell” wrote to the Lowell Courier (Jan. 13, 1869, p. 2):

Clearly there were rumors about the possible naming of the new town.  Local historians have tried to determine what the name might have been.  Phalen stated that no records mentioned a new name, although he had heard a “legend” the name would have been Bromfield. (p. 203-4)  Local historians in the 1990s-2010 era accessed the memory of a couple of descendants of long-time local families who thought that the name was to have been Blanchardville.  Given later Blanchards’ generosity to both towns, this was a plausible name.  However, with the advantage of access to digitized newspapers of the 1860s, we investigated what was said in the 1868-69 period.  We did not find contemporary mentions of Blanchardville (except for a village of that name in Hampden County, MA), but we did find in the Boston Traveler of Feb. 13, 1869 (p. 4) a report on the Boxboro’ and West Acton case that mentioned “the proposed new town of Bromfield.”  The Springfield Republican (Feb. 20, p. 2) confirmed that the name was “Bromfield.”  The Lowell Courier of Feb. 26 (p. 3) reported on the “very lively and interesting” set of hearings held on the new town of “Bramfield.”  It also stated that the petitioners from Boxborough suggested that “such annexation would increase the value of their real estate by giving them a local habitation and a name, particularly the latter.”  The implication seems to be that there was money to be gained from the new name, but whether there was actually a Mr. Bromfield (or Bramfield) “ready to give his hundreds, if not thousands,” we have not discovered.

Newspapers were also helpful in describing the progress of the proposal.  The Boston Journal reported that the Committee on Towns took up the petition on Monday Feb. 1, 1869 and planned to visit the towns in question the following Friday.  Boxborough was nearly unanimously in support of the proposal while 4/5 of West Acton supported it. (Feb. 2, p. 2)  The Lowell Courier, seemingly with an opinion on the matter, reported that “Nearly all the people of both places are in favor of the union.  Some opposition will be made by the town of Acton, which, however, will have left in case of division a territory larger than that of the new town, and nearly double the number of inhabitants.” (Feb. 3, 1869, p. 2)

On Tuesday Feb. 9, the Committee on Towns held an early hearing on the matter.  “Nearly all the legal voters of Boxboro were present, quite depopulating the town.” (Boston Herald, Feb. 9, p. 4)  The arguments centered  on the growth of West Acton since the building of the Fitchburg railroad and that “many of the people of Boxboro had removed thence to get the advantages of the railroad, and all of their business and other interests centered about that locality.  The opposition to the project comes from the town of Acton, the people of West Acton and of Boxboro being united in favor of it.” (Boston Herald, Feb. 9, p. 4)  

On Feb. 10, the Boston Post (p. 3) reported that the hearing continued, but the Post’s only other comment was that “Several witnesses were called.  Their testimony is not of general interest.”  Fortunately, The Lowell Courier (Feb. 26, p. 3) filled in more of the arguments.  In addition to Boxborough’s assertions, West Acton petitioners claimed that the new town would benefit them economically.  (Their plan seems to have been that the town hall and business of the new town would be located in West Acton.)  Notably, there was no claim that the town of Acton had treated them badly in the past.  On the other side, the anti-petitioners from Boxborough wanted to leave their town as it was, quiet and peaceable.  They feared that any benefits of the arrangement would go to West Acton, which would dominate them numerically.  Acton’s opposition included “all but three of the legal voters outside of the territory proposed to be set off, with nineteen living on the territory”.  Among their objections, the Courier noted that the section to be taken from Acton included some of the town’s best farming land.  The result would be an awkwardly-shaped, narrow town with, they feared, decreased property values, increased taxes, and impairment to their schools.  “Why, they ask, should they be impoverished that others may be enriched?”  Other arguments listed in the final report of the Committee on Towns were the fact that Acton had just recently built “a large and commodious town hall,” that they had paid to build and repair roads that would now be part of another town, that having a smaller population would defer for even longer the hope of a high school in the town, and that this could set a precedent for South Acton that might seek its own alliance with the thriving village of Assabet.  (p. 3)

George C. Wright’s memoir added:

The legislators no doubt would have been reminded that much of the monument’s cost had been funded by the Commonwealth.

George C. Wright also mentioned that “Among the influences which worked against us, one was found in George Parker, Esq., a member of the legislature, who was a native of Acton and a son-in-law of Rev. J. T. Woodbury.  Mr. Parker’s opposition was very earnest and effective.” (p. 6)  Rev. Woodbury had been the driving force behind getting the grant for the monument.  (Research indicates that George Gedney Parker, born in Acton to Asa and Ann M. Parker, married Augusta Woodbury.  In 1869, he was a lawyer in Milford, MA.  He had not yet been elected to the legislature, but another of Rev. Woodbury’s Milford lawyer sons-in-law, Thomas G. Kent, was actually part of the Committee on Towns.)   

The closing arguments to the petition debate were made to the Committee on Towns on the morning of February 13.  Lawyers for the opposition, Hon. David H. Mason of Newton and Samuel W. Butler, Esq. made the arguments, including an apparently eloquent recap of Silas Hosmer’s objections.  Also mentioned was the “fact that the village of West Acton, by its numerical superiority, would control the proposed new town of Bromfield, and that not the slightest necessity was shown for the change, or for breaking across old town lines.” (Boston Traveler, Feb. 13, p. 4)  Lawyers for the petitioners, George M. Brooks and George Heywood of Concord, spent 1-2 hours making their case that Boxborough needed help to stop its decline, that Boxborough and West Acton would benefit from the plan, and that the evidence for making a change “came from the best men in West Acton and in Boxboro’.” (Boston Traveler, Feb. 13, p. 4) 

The next week, the Committee on Towns held a private meeting. The result was its report of February 18, 1869 in which “with all but entire unanimity” the Committee found that though the town of Boxborough was indeed too small, if the petition were granted, both the new town and Acton would be too small.  The committee was unconvinced that the new town would grow, having “no water power and no manufacturing interest well established.”  (p. 4) They foresaw future political problems with a town “center” situated so far from the western boundary of the new town.  Overall, the petitioners had not proved that the formation of a new town was best for the “public good.”  In fact, they added:

Boxborough’s willingness to give up its identity ended up working against the proposal.  It is very likely that many residents of Boxborough over the years have looked back on the decision as a fortuitous one for their town in the long run.  Boxborough has maintained its identity and grown its own way.  Proponent George C. Wright, looking back in his later years, had this to say from the perspective of his decades in West Acton:

References (in addition to newspaper articles cited in the text):

• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. House Report No. 72, Committee on Towns, dated Feb. 18, 1869.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1869.  Boston: Wright & Potter, 1869.
• Hager, Lucie C. Boxborough: A New England Town and Its People.  Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1891. (see especially pages 26-27)
• Sanderson, George Augustus (compiler).  Petitions, Remonstrances and Acts Relating to Littleton and Boxborough, 1782 to 1869.  Boston: Commissioned by the town of Littleton, printed by George S. Crosby & Co., 1890.
• Phalen, Harold R.  History of the Town of Acton.  1954.
• Pontius, Jill.  “1868: Villagers vote to secede from Acton.”  The Beacon, Feb. 7, 1991, p.4.
• Wright, George C.  “Reminiscences of West Acton and of Personal Life.” Typescript, undated, probably 1900-1910.  (see pages 6-7)
  

In the years before Acton had a high school of its own, students wanting to further their education needed to take opportunities where they could be found.  In Acton’s early days, young men were usually the ones to seek education beyond the schoolhouse; they might be given advanced training or prepared for college by a learned individual, often the town’s minister.  In the 1800s, more opportunities arose for young men and young women; some might board at private academies or, as time went on, commute to a nearby high school.

In the early 1850s, Acton’s advanced students had the option of studying for short periods at a privately-run advanced school.  Our Society’s collection includes a program for an exhibition of F. W. Pelton’s High School in the center district of Acton, starting at 6 p.m. on November 19, 1852.  It must have been a long evening; there were twenty-seven items on the agenda, including two dramatic pieces.

The Exhibition

As evidence of what was going on in the minds of young Actonians in 1852, the “programme” is a revealing document.  Even in a small town, there was obvious interest in the issues affecting the country as a whole.  Abolition was the foremost theme of the evening.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin, though now criticized because of its racial stereotypes, was hugely influential in raising awareness of the evils of slavery.  It had been serialized starting in June 1851 but had only been out in book form since March 1852.  An early performance in Acton, featuring over 30 performers, would have been a notable event.  The song “Little Eva” that followed the performance was based on the book and had recently been published in Boston.  Other items on the program that involved the issue of slavery were “declamations” on Anson Burlingame’s opposition to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Grimke’s “Bible”, presumably Angelina Grimke’s “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South” (1836), and Henry Clay’s attempts to save “The Union” without war.

Other declamations had as their subjects Daniel Webster’s writings on Washington and on “The Present Age,” Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian leader whose words had managed to catch the popular imagination in the United States, Napoleon, and the Whig Party (written by the schoolmaster himself).  We were not able to identify all of the items performed.  Ames’ “Character” may have referred to one of Fisher Ames’ writings, but there is not enough information to be sure.  Stuart’s “Birthplace of Liberty” and Snowball’s philosophy were similarly hard to pin down.  In online searching, some of the titles are now overshadowed by later writings and events.  A search for Snowball’s “Philosophy” led to many references to George Orwell’s Animal Farm.  Searching for “A Nation Mourns” brought up references to Lincoln’s assassination, and “Modern Humbugs” yielded P. T. Barnum’s book The Humbugs of the World, both dating from the 1860s.  (“Modern Humbugs” by Florentinus may have been a tongue-in-cheek piece written by the schoolmaster; see the section on him below.) 

Drama, songs, and poetry were easier to find.  “The Tongue Bridle” was a dramatic piece for “four older girls” published in Boston in 1851.  Thanks to the Library of Congress’ Music Division, we were able to find the 1849 Ossian’s Serenade, the 1851 Oh, Must We Part to Meet No More?, and The Green Mt. Yankee, a Temperance Medley, published in Boston in 1852.  Once we had navigated past references to Led Zepplin songs, we were able to find an 1848 song by I. B. Woodbury that set Tennyson’s poem "The May Queen" to music.  Henry Theodore Tuckerman’s “Love and Fame,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1841 “Excelsior,” and Henry Ware, Jr.’s “To the Ursa Major” can all be found in online poetry collections.

The only item with a strictly Acton theme was Pierpont’s poem “Acton Monument.”  One wonders if the entire poem describing the events of April 18-19, 1775 was recited; even at its debut, the audience became impatient with its length.  Rev. John Pierpont of Medford presented the poem at the celebration of the completion of Acton’s Monument in 1851.  The reverend had the misfortune that day of being slated to recite after an hour-long address by Governor George S. Boutwell and just before the meal was served.  Hungry attendees started eating during his recital of the poem, and the clatter of utensils clashed with the sound of the reverend’s voice.  Apparently, he got quite upset.  Acton’s Rev. Woodbury, who could have tried to quiet the crowd, instead said a quick grace and let the dinner officially begin.  Boutwell’s Reminiscences quote Woodbury as telling the poet, “They listened very well, ‘till you got to Greece.  They didn’t care anything about Greece.” (page 130)  By that point in the day’s speeches, the audience might have been losing enthusiasm for Acton as well.  Later, obviously having calmed down, Rev. Pierpont commented on the situation that

“Poets at dinners must learn to be brief, Or their tongues will be beaten by cold tongue of beef.”  [Boston Evening Transcript, Oct. 30, 1851, p.1)

The audience at Pelton’s High School Exhibition had to have been tired by the end of the evening.  After speeches, songs, poetry, and drama, Arthur Cowdrey capped off the event with a declamation in Latin from Virgil.  Presumably this was to wow the audience.  (Clearly, Mr. Pelton was able to teach his students a range of subjects.)  Miss A. B. Fletcher performed her fourth musical number, and the evening was finished.

Acton’s Private High Schools

We had thought that perhaps F. W. Pelton’s high school was unique to him.  However, a speech by one of his former students explained that Acton’s private high school, at least for a time, was an annual occurrence taken on by a college student during a break from his studies.  It allowed a college student to earn funds and benefited the townspeople by supplementing their publicly-funded education.  Eben H. Davis told Acton’s high school graduates in 1895 that:

“When I was a boy, the only high school in the town was a private enterprise, held but a few weeks in the fall, in the centre of the town, and kept by some college student to eke out his college expenses.  There was no orderly course of studies, but each student selected such branches as his fancy dictated or friends advised, for which he paid his own tuition.  In this way it was possible to obtain a smattering of Latin or Greek, an introduction to the elements of science, and some knowledge of mathematics.  But, in order to fit for college, I had to attend an academy, one hundred and fifty miles from home.  ... I would by no means speak lightly of the schools of my boyhood days... Nor were those brief terms of high school studies without influence.  They opened up to us new lines of thought, and the personality of the teachers, fresh from college and imbued with zeal for a higher education, made a strong impress.  It was through contact with such influences that I was inspired with an ambition to go to college.”  (Town Report 1896, p. 83-84)

Contrary to what we had expected, this high school was not simply for older students who had progressed beyond the curriculum of Acton’s schoolhouses.  Some of the students were fairly young.  From reading school committee reports of the time, we discovered that the public schools in the early 1850s had a summer term and a winter term; the private school in autumn obviously filled a gap, not just of higher learning, but in a time of the year when scholars would not have been able to continue their studies. 

We have not yet found all of the college students who led a private autumn high school in Acton, but we did find mention of a Mr. Cutler who seems to have run a popular private school in the fall of 1848.  The school committee report of 1848-1849 alludes to the difficulties of a Winter Term teacher, Dartmouth College graduate Mr. Whittier, who had come with great recommendations.  “Mr. Whittier, in assuming the duties of his school, was somewhat in the position of the poor king who followed the people’s favorite, when nature’s poet said, ‘As when a well graced actor leaves the stage, All eyes are idly bent on him that enters next.’  Mr. Cutler in his select school had won all hearts, both of parents and children, and they thought his like would never appear again.  This feeling among the leading scholars was a great injury to the school, which ought to have been one of the best.”  We will set aside research into Mr. Cutler’s identity for another day.  If anyone knows more about him or other Acton private school teachers, please let us know.

The 1852 Schoolmaster, F. W. Pelton

We know very little about F. W. Pelton’s brief time in Acton.  We were able to identify him because the 1853 school committee report mentioned hiring F. W. Pelton “of Union College” to teach the Centre School in the winter term 1853 after he had run a private school in Acton Center in the fall of 1852.  The mention of Union College allowed us to confirm that he was Florentine Whitfield Pelton, born in Somers, CT on April 23,1828 to Asa and Lois Pelton.  According to Jeremiah M. Pelton’s Genealogy of the Pelton Family in America (page 477-478), Florentine Pelton left home at a young age, supposedly taught in New Jersey, and furthered his studies at Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, MA and Union College. 

The year in which F. W. Pelton taught in Acton was an unusual one.  At town meeting the previous April, Acton had elected a School Committee of three clergymen.  All three had left town by the end of the year.  (One was Rev. J. T. Woodbury, discussed in a previous blog post.)  Ebenezer Davis and Herman H. Bowers wrote the subsequent School Committee report.  Two of Ebenezer Davis’ children had attended Pelton’s fall High School.

F. W. Pelton’s winter term at the public school seems to have been much less successful than his private school experience.  (School committees in the nineteenth century could be merciless in their reports, and teachers had no ability to present their viewpoint.)  It is likely that having 52 students of varying ages, with an average attendance of 44, was a contributing factor, as well as the fact that the curriculum would not have been driven by students’ interests as it was in the private school. 

Pelton may already have been in career transition during his Acton period.  He soon made the law his career, studying with C. R. Train and at Harvard Law.  He was admitted to the Middlesex County bar in 1855, and practiced first in Marlborough and then in Boston.  He married twice, first to Laura M. Buck, a graduate of the State Normal School at Framingham, MA, on Dec. 18, 1855.  The couple had two children before Laura died from complications of childbirth in 1860 in Newton where they were living at the time.  Pelton married Mary Reed Whitney in Waltham, MA on Nov. 20, 1862, and the couple had eight more children.  In addition to practicing law, Pelton dealt in real estate and was responsible for the construction of a number of houses in Dorchester, MA.  Toward the end of his life, he retired from the law, focusing on various business ventures.  He settled in Dedham, MA where he died of “chronic peritonitis,” probably a complication of his diabetes, on June 25, 1885 in Dedham. 

We found no reference to Florentine W. Pelton’s time in Acton in newspapers, family histories, or obituaries.  However, his experience there may have led to this thought from the report of the Newton Grammar School Sub-Committee, of which F. W. Pelton was a member in the 1860s: ”If the varied, difficult and exhausting work of the school-room could be understood at home, there would be more sympathy and less fault-finding with the teacher.”  (Annual Report, Mass. Board of Education, Vol. 27, 1864,  p. 92)  Indeed.

The Exhibition Participants

There are many names on Pelton’s 1852 Programme, but there were only a few that we could not track down.  Perhaps those students were not residents of Acton; the school committee report of 1853 mentioned that some private school scholars in the past had come from out of town. (p. 5)  In the rest of the cases, we found individuals who would have been between twelve and eighteen in the fall of 1852.  Among the sources we used were school committee reports; it is not surprising to find that young scholars who were enrolled in an extra school in the fall of 1852 were also commended for excellent attendance at the public schools.  

As best we can reconstruct it, the following is our list of Pelton’s high school exhibition participants:

George C. Wright does not often come up today when discussing Acton history.  Well-known in his own time, his name seems to have faded from our collective memory.  However, his life story conformed to the late nineteenth century ideal of a man who started with nothing and became a success.  He lived long enough that he was featured in town histories and newspapers, giving us access to information about him.  Biographies emphasized that he was a self-made man.  As we investigated other sources, we found that though he was self-reliant from a young age, his life was filled with connections to family, friends, and community.  He was no loner.

George Cleavland Wright was born in Bedford, Mass. on Jan. 7, 1823 to Joel and Dolly H. (Reed) Wright.  His mother had been a school teacher in Boxborough, a fact of which George C. seems to have been quite proud.  According to an 84th birthday biography, he “shared the vicissitudes of a large family in humble circumstances.”  (Concord Enterprise, Jan 9, 1907, p. 8)  At least seven children were born to Joel and Dolly; birth records are not comprehensive, but later records mention the children’s birthplaces as Acton, Bedford, Boxborough, Concord, Littleton (in MA) and Jaffrey, NH.  In his Reminiscences, George C. says that the family moved to Jaffrey, NH, for a few years, then Littleton, MA, and then to live on the Acton Center farm that later belonged to Rev. James T. Woodbury and Daniel Tuttle.  From there, the family moved into the brick house in Boxborough opposite the Congregational Church.  It seems that George C.’s early vicissitudes included moving frequently.

George C. Wright went to district schools but was already working outside the home by the age of ten.  He was self-supporting by fifteen.  He went to work for Christopher Page of Boxborough, intending to learn the carpenter’s trade.  A serious accident to one of his knees ended that potential career, and while recovering he looked for a way to make money with his arms and hands.  He had the chance to learn the shoemaking trade from a Mr. Wyman in Bedford.  After his three months of training, the business was apparently in a slump, and the payment for a pair of child’s shoes was only ten cents a pair.  He made $3.80 a week, of which $2 had to go to his room and board, but he managed to save up $40 in a little more than a year.  About this time, George C. went to a temperance convention in Lexington where he met  John Fletcher of Acton whose shoe business had transformed Acton Center.  Mr. Fletcher offered George C. a better deal, fifteen cents for children’s shoes and, eventually, even more for women’s shoes.   After he had worked for Fletcher for a little more than a year, George C. sensed an opportunity.  The extension of the Fitchburg Railroad through West Acton in 1844 would give the village easy access to the city, both for goods and people.  Around that time, George C. Wright moved to West Acton, first working in a shop belonging to John Woodbury and then going into the shoemaking business for himself.  His shop was on the second floor of the general store on the corner in West Acton.  He was successful, in a good year making $400.  John Fletcher eventually prevailed upon George C. to come back to work for him, so George C. sold his stock to Fletcher and worked another year for him.

On Dec. 31, 1846, he married a West Acton native, Susan Haskell Davis.  Susan was the daughter of Jonathan Billings Davis and Sally Hosmer, both with deep roots in Acton and relatives of men killed in the Revolutionary War.

In 1844, George C.’s sister Mary had married Martin Hayward in Boxborough, a family connection that soon became a business one.  Martin and Mary moved to Charlestown.  In their daughter Annette Hayward's birth certificate in 1848, Martin was described as a milk dealer.

In West Acton, Captain James Hayward had begun a business of buying local farmers’ milk, taking it to the city on the train in milk cans to sell to dealers.  Capt. Hayward apparently convinced George C. Wright to take up the milk business as a “milk peddler in Boston”.  Though less dull than shoemaking, it was hard work.  He described in his Reminiscences that he had to get up at 3 am and be making rounds by 4 am in the summer and only an hour later in the winter.  He did his milk route twice per day and had to spend time washing cans, putting in twelve-fourteen hours per day.  George C. did a two-year stint in the milk business.  He worked up to dealing with more than 120 cans per day.  Selling milk for five cents per quart, making sure to keep consistent quality, he made good money, clearing $200 in his final month in the business.

When George C. Wright began in the milk business, he and Susan moved to Charlestown.  Their first-born child, Estella, was born there on Dec. 20, 1849.  The father’s residence was given as B[unker] Hill Street, and his occupation was shown as “Milk Man.”   They must have spent some time in Acton, however, because the 1850 census showed shoemaker George C. Wright living in Acton with wife Susan and daughter “Esther M.” (Estella) in a two-family household with George’s sister Sarah and her husband Edwin Sawyer, a wheelwright.

Growing family, Growing Business

According to biographies, George C. Wright entered the coffee business at the age of 31, around 1853-1854.  In the 1855 Massachusetts census, George C. Wright, wife Susan and daughter Estella were living in Charlestown in a two-family dwelling with trader Martin and May “Heywood” and their daughter Annette.   George’s occupation was “coffee dealer.”   George and Susan had moved to 84 Green Street in Charlestown by August 1856.  A number of other family members were already in Charlestown as well.

George C. and Susan Wright had seven children.  Sadly, three of their children died young. 

• Estella Maria, born Dec. 20, 1849 (Charlestown)
• George F., born ~May 31, 1853 (Acton)- died Feb. 4, 1855 (in Acton of whooping cough)
• Charles F., born and died Aug. 22, 1856 (survived 17 hours, Charlestown)
• George Sumner, born July 13, 1857 (Charlestown)
• Effie Rosella, born June 13, 1860 (Acton)
• Frank Cleveland, born Nov. 13, 1863 (Acton)- died Aug. 22, 1865 (in Acton of dysentery)
• Theodosia Bertha, born June 5, 1866 (Acton)

 
The coffee firm for which George worked was Hayward & Co.  It was clearly a family affair.  Biographies, advertisements, directories, and census records indicate that Martin Hayward was already in the coffee business by 1850, but he was soon joined by George C. Wright, who according to later biographies was an equal partner.  According to George’s Reminiscences, after George C.’s two years in milk, Martin Hayward invited George to join him in the business of turning green coffee berries into a state ready for consumer use.  At first, they worked for wholesale grocers, taking their raw coffee and returning it ready-for-sale.  Eventually, they were encouraged to buy raw coffee themselves, and the pair became coffee dealers.  At some point, George’s brother-in-law Silas Davis became a partner in the business as well.  By 1856, George’s brother Emery (who had been a shoemaker and then in the milk business) was working in coffee.  He seems to have spent the rest of his career in the business and much of the time in George’s company, according to Boston directories. 

The 1854 Boston directory shows Hayward & Co. at City Coffee Mills, 75 Charlestown, Boston.  Principals were Martin Hayward, Joseph Maynard and George C. Wright.  Later, the company’s address was 5-7 Haverhill Street in Boston.  George C. Wright was the coffee buyer for the firm, making frequent trips to the New York coffee markets.  He was apparently very good at his job, and showed particular wisdom (or luck) in the 1886-1887 year when Brazilian coffee prices went up 250% in one year.  A booklet published by George C.’s company (c. 1907) mentioned that in the early days, most coffee buyers relied on the look of the green coffee berries for their purchasing decisions, but George C. Wright took samples and roasted them in an old-fashioned corn popper.  This method apparently worked well for 35 years.  Outgrowing the corn popper, eventually six small roasters were added.  By the time of that publication, sampling and tasting were common practices in the coffee industry.  He was well-known to the “coffee men” of the country; he was the driving force behind an effort to reduce an apparently unintentionally severe tax on coffee during the Civil War.  His efforts were successful, no doubt gaining him many friends in the industry. 

Around 1855, George became so seriously ill for a period of about two years that he did not know if he would be able to continue working.  Except for noting that it was not the fault of the coffee business, he did not explain his illness in his Reminiscences.  During this period, hoping for his health to improve, he traveled to Saratoga and Philadelphia for several months and took a five-week trip on a fishing schooner that gave him an appreciation for the difficulties of fishing for a living.  Eventually, he and Susan decided that it would be better for his health to return to West Acton to live.  In his words, they “carried out that decision in the spring of 1861.  Having secured the land, I built the residence which has been our home since the autumn of 1861.  I felt that good air and a plenty of sunshine would do more for my health than anything else.  For this reason, we built upon a hill and arranged the rooms of the house so as to get the sun to its fullest degree.”  (Reminiscences, p. 5)  George C. recovered his health and was able to devote another fifty years to his business.

The Historical Society owns the Fitchburg Railroad log book used at the West Acton station during the 1850s-1860s.  We found the following 1861 shipments for George C. Wright, most from Charlestown:

• February 18 & 19 – 12 Casks Nails, 1 Grindstone
• March 15 – Lot Lumber, 120 Bdls Shingles, 138 bdls Clapboards
• February 19, March 5, April 6 & May 16 – Lot Lumber
• June 7 – 36 Doors, 7 bdls Blinds, 8 bdls Windows
• June 20 – Lot of Laths
• July 6, Sept. 16, Oct. 4– Pipes
• July 24 - 6500’ lumber, 6 M Shingles, 18 bdls Clapboards
• July 8 – 30 casks cement

• July 16 – 200 Bricks
• August 8 – 500 Pieces Sheathing
• August 27 – 9 bdls Windows, Blinds
• Sept. 5 – 5 Boxes Marble
• Sept. 11 & 12 – 200 Window Weights, 1 Door, 10 Bdls Clapboards
• Sept. 21 – 500 Bricks
• November 2 - Furniture

 

After settling into his new home in West Acton, George C. served on the school committee in the 1862-1865 school years, with a particular focus on the West Acton school.  He is mentioned in letters (held by the Society) written by Clara Hapgood, a local teacher during the Civil War.  Her letters refer to Mr. Wright examining her school and delivering her pay.  George C.’s assessments were printed in the annual town reports.  His largest contribution to the schools was to have served as the chairman of the committee overseeing the building of a new “beautiful and commodious” school house in West Acton in 1872.  It was he who suggested the site, now Gardner playground.  Though the site was a successful one, there was a bitter fight over it, litigation, and a taking of the land by eminent domain.

George C. also had a lasting effect on West Acton village as one of the three largest contributors toward the building of the Universalist Society Church on Central Street in 1868.  According to George’s Reminiscences, the West Acton Universalists had been meeting in Charles Robinson’s Hall (that he believed the Universalists had contributed to) and were sharing cost of the minister with the Universalists in South Acton.  There had not been much motivation to build a separate building until the Baptists refused to allow their church building to be used for a funeral led by a Universalist minister.  His memoir says nothing about his contribution to the building, but he does mention that “The Universalist meeting house has been used for Congregationalist preaching some of the time, and it is at the service of the public for funerals, or for any other suitable purpose at any time.  I am glad to note the fact that the strong sectarian feeling which was so apparent, even a quarter of a century ago, is no longer evident.  It is now generally admitted that men may differ in their religious views and be sincere.”  (p. 6)  George C.  continued to be a substantial supporter of the Universalist church and faithfully attended for decades.

After moving to West Acton, in addition to working in the coffee business, George C. Wright farmed 60 acres.  As he described it, “For a number of years... I kept a diary, looked after my cows, delivered the milk to families in the village and then took the first train for Boston, attending to my farm work upon my return at night.  I used to think the change of pursuits did me good, but I confess it was hard work.” (Conditions of Success, p. 2)  The New England Farmer, a Boston newspaper, reported that at an 1869 agricultural exhibition, George C. had the best Jersey bull and award-winning poultry. (Oct. 16, 1869 p. 2)  Presumably, George C. hired help eventually.  The 1870 agricultural census shows that he had 23 “improved” acres in Acton worth $5,700 and that he had paid $395 in agricultural wages.  His livestock included two horses, two milch cows, another cow/bull and two swine.  Crops were “Indian” corn, “Irish” potatoes, butter, and hay.  The West Acton Farmers Club chose George C. Wright as their Vice-President and later their President.  He also became a Life Member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 

George C. was busy with real estate deals as well.  He bought some land on his own account (including land from Susan’s father).  He also lent money, holding mortgages on properties around Acton.  He lent money to his sister’s husband Edwin Sawyer in 1859.  The 1872-1873 Acton annual report shows George C. Wright had lent the town $3,000, evidently a short-term loan, perhaps related to the construction of the West Acton schoolhouse.   In the 1872 valuation, he was holding $5,000 of mortgages.  In that valuation, we also discovered that the house, barn, and home place were listed under Susan’s name, rather than George’s.  Presumably this was a legal protection of Susan, although we have not found any details.

By the 1870s, life in the Wright family was already changing.  In December 1870, eldest daughter Estella married George W. Crampton, a native of Vermont.  Son George S. went to Charlestown around 1872 to go to high school.  Daughter Effie attended grammar school in West Acton, but she eventually graduated from Charlestown High School as well.

In November 1873, George C. Wright was nominated as a Republican to represent Acton, Wayland, and Sudbury in the Nineteenth Middlesex District.  He did not seek the nomination.  The contest was between three candidates including a Democrat and a Prohibition candidate.  George C. won by a plurality of 30 votes. The newly elected Representative hosted a celebration, attended by nearly a hundred people, at his “attractive residence.”  (Boston Journal, Nov. 14, 1873, p. 2)  According to his obituary (Concord Enterprise, July 20, 1910, p. 8), “Though a Republican in politics, Mr. Wright has never hesitated to work and vote for principles, not party.”

In 1877, for reasons that were never discussed in histories, Hayward & Co. merged with a well-known competitor to become Dwinell, Hayward & Co.  The principals of the new business were James F. Dwinell, Martin Hayward and George C. Wright, all later pictured in Ukers’ 1922 All About Coffee as pioneer coffee roasters. (p. 500)  The new company operated at 1 and 3 Hamilton St. in Boston (at the corner of Wendell).  In addition to coffee, they also sold “absolutely pure spices.”  George C.’s son George S. Wright, after a post-graduate year of education, went to work for the new firm that became the largest coffee and spice house in New England.  Susan’s brother Silas Davis left and joined with two other former employees of Hayward & Co. to form a new coffee and spice partnership that operated at the old Hayward & Co. site. 

The 1880s brought more changes.  When it came time to choose spouses, the three unmarried Wright children all chose Meads, children of George’s longtime friends.  The Mead brothers, who like George C. had spent their early years in Boxborough, were the driving force behind much commercial activity in West Acton and beyond through the extremely successful firm A. & O.W. Mead & Co.  George and Susan’s son George Sumner married Emma A. Mead, daughter of Oliver W. and Mary E. (Hartwell) Mead in 1881.  Two years later, daughter Effie Rosella married George Varnum Mead, first cousin of Emma and son of Varnum B. and Direxa E. (Stearns) Mead.  Daughter Theodosia Bertha chose George Varnum Mead’s brother Adelbert F. Mead.  Theodosia and Adelbert were both born in West Acton six days apart. They married in 1889.   

The 1890 Acton valuation shows that family ties again were mixed with business.  George C. Wright and his friends Adelbert and Oliver W. Mead were involved (with Luke Blanchard) in the Middlesex Live Stock Company.  We were not able to find anything else about the company.

In 1893, Martin Hayward retired from Dwinell, Hayward & Co.  The company was to go on with that name even after his retirement; biographies emphasized that despite having been an equal partner for years, George C. Wright never insisted on having his name on the firm.  However, apparently it became a practical necessity, and finally the partnership was renamed Dwinell, Wright & Co. in 1894. An ad in the April 19, 1895 Middlesex Recorder showed that they had branches in Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis.  Their Boston Office and Factory were at 1 & 3 Hamilton St., 35 and 37 Batterymarch St. (p. 3)  After James F. Dwinell’s death in 1898, George C. Wright incorporated the company as Dwinell-Wright Co.

As they got older, probably because the younger generation was able to take on more of the management of the coffee & spice company, George and Susan were able to take some time to travel.  They took a trip to California in 1882.  They traveled to New York, Washington, D.C., and Florida in 1892.  In 1893, they took an excursion trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and then on to Texas and a month-long tour of Mexico.  George took two trips to London, primarily for the benefits of ocean travel.  In 1894, however, George, Susan, their daughter Estella Crampton, and her daughter did an ambitious European tour for three months, returning at the end of August.  (Estella kept a diary of the trip which, combined with George’s observations, became part of his “Travels” reminiscences.)  They visited Ireland, Scotland, England (mostly London), Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France.  They travelled by ship, train, “steam and electric cars,” cog-railway, funicular railway, open and closed carriage, boat, gondola, wagon, and even donkey.  The evening after their return, George and Susan were given a “very agreeable reception” at their home with a large number of friends and neighbors welcoming them home.  “Mr. and Mrs. Wright have enjoyed their trip very much and their appearance indicates they may have found ‘the fountain of perpetual youth’ somewhere in their journeyings.” (Concord Enterprise, Aug. 30, 1894, p. 8)

George and Susan seem to have been quite hospitable people.  The location of their home lent itself to sharing with the community, especially on the fourth of July.  The Concord Enterprise mentioned that “Fireworks on Wrights’ hill in the evening were enjoyed by all.” (July 12, 1889, p. 2)  In 1892, the paper mentioned that the ascent and descent of a balloon in Marlboro on July 4 could seen from Wrights’ hill, as well as fireworks in the evening.  In 1895, several citizens contributed to “quite a display of pyrotechnics the evening of the fifth from Wright’s hill.”  (Concord Enterprise, July 11, p. 8) 

On December 31, 1896, George and Susan’s Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration “far eclipsed anything of its kind ever held in this town.  Seven hundred invitations had been sent and the great number present gave evidence that there were not many regrets received.”  (Concord Enterprise, Jan. 7, 1897, p. 8)  Employees of Dwinell, Wright from far and near, “the Boston coffee and grocery trade”, politicians, church members, West Acton residents, family, and friends all attended.  A special train took the Wrights’ guests back to the city after the event.  President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland apparently were two of the few who sent regrets. (Boston Globe, Jan. 1, 1897, p. 4)

Looking Back and Looking Forward

George and Susan were both directly descended from Revolutionary War soldiers.  Susan, as mentioned earlier, was related to both Capt. Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, two of the three Acton men killed on April 19, 1775 and honored by Acton’s monument on the town common.  The Wrights probably attended the dedication of the monument in 1851.  George C. Wright and Oliver W. Mead seem to have been involved in planning the 1875 Centennial celebration in Concord.   As part of Acton's ambitious Patriots’ Day celebration in 1895, a large ball was held in Littlefield Hall in West Acton (just down the hill from the Wrights’).  George C. Wright was given the honor of leading the “grand march.”

In 1900, George funded the installation of a hewn granite monument from the Acton quarries in front of the birthplace of Captain Isaac Davis, the property where Susan had grown up.  The monument was dedicated by the Sons of the American Revolution at a “field day” they held in Acton in September.   “The society voted that the name of Mr. Wright and the date of unveiling be added to the inscription on the tablet.” (Concord Enterprise, Oct. 4, 1900, p. 2)  As is typical of the time, newspapers and histories devoted much more space to men’s activities, so it has been hard to learn much about George C.’s wife Susan.  However, George C. clearly felt that she belonged on the monument, so the final product said that it was “Erected by Mrs. Geo. C. Wright a grand-niece of Capt. Davis.”  George and Susan provided a lunch of sandwiches and (of course) coffee, served on a neighbor’s lawn by “young ladies, representatives of Acton’s leading families.” (Concord Enterprise, Oct. 4, 1900, p. 2, 8)   One cannot help wondering how families achieved the “leading” distinction. 

On Feb. 2, 1904, the Boston Globe (p. 12) reported a fire at the five-story building of Dwinell-Wright on Batterymarch Street in Boston.  More than thirty women who worked in the building were alarmed but had managed to exit safely.  (The Globe neglected to mention any fear on the part of male employees.)  The damage, fortunately, was minimal.  Later that year, Dwinell-Wright Co. moved to a new building constructed for it at 311-319 Summer St., at the corner of A Street.  It was built into a slope that created convenient street and shipping entrances.  The street level (actually floor 3) had offices, a sample room, and a printing plant for labels.  Spice packing and grinding were on the 4th and 5th floors, and coffee packing and roasting were on the top two floors of the building.  Below the level of Summer Street, the 2nd floor had direct shipping access to a railroad spur built by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.  The Globe reported that “All labor-saving devices known to the trade, and some never seen before, are being installed... Automatic weighing machines, watchman’s clocks, telephones and elevators, automatic regulators of the heat, light and power plant...  On the top floor are the coffee roasters (Jabez Burns’ latest pattern) located under an immense glass-covered monitor roof which floods the apartment with the direct light so essential to success in the delicate operation of roasting coffee.  This ‘Burns’ machinery will easily handle 60,000 pounds of roasted coffee per day.”  (Aug. 22, 1904, p. 3)  Clearly, the firm was thriving.  George C. Wright had the satisfaction of seeing his company survive and be passed down to the next generations.  His son, George S. was treasurer of the company and later became its president.  In his Conditions of Success, George C. stated that “In these last years my success has come to me largely by the loyal cooperation and able management of my son.”

In 1905, George C. Wright served on Acton’s “old home week” committee.  It was estimated that over a thousand people were fed in the collation.  “Mr. George C. Wright added to the many obligations for which the town is indebted to him by giving an unlimited supply of his best coffee.” (Acton Town Report, March 10, 1906, p. 60)

George C. Wright was known for his generosity.  He covered the operating expenses for Citizen’s Library when the funds from a bequest were not yet available (Boston Herald, Dec. 30, 1906, p.4).  According to Phalen’s History, George C. Wright offered to fund the building of a chapel at Mt. Hope Cemetery.  “Due to a lack of understanding or to the extremely modest ideas of the town officials, a small building was erected which although quite different from what he had envisioned, Mr. Wright agreed to accept and present to the town for whatever purpose it might serve.” (p. 308)  The town thanked him in the March 1909 town meeting.  The building served for some years as a chapel and later was used as an office and storehouse.

George C. Wright continued to commute daily into the city well into his mid-eighties.  A story of his life on the occasion of this 84th birthday stated that “he may be seen each day through storm or sunshine satchel in hand en route for the early train for Boston.  Aside from somewhat defective eyesight Mr. Wright is a well preserved man with a young heart and takes an interest in whatever cause he may do good.” (Concord Enterprise, Jan 9, 1907, p. 8)

Unfortunately, even Susan and George eventually had to slow down.  In June 1908, Susan fell and had to have a nurse’s assistance while she recovered.  In June 1909, George C. was trying to board a streetcar at Adams Square in Boston, when “he was knocked down by the hurry and rush of the passengers, his hip being broken by the fall."  (Concord Enterprise, June 16, 1909, p. 8)  The Herald reported that he had broken his thighbone.  (June 20, 1909, p. 17)  He spent nine weeks hospitalized in Boston.  Later that year, Susan and George C. were both doing well enough to “sit out on their piazza both morning and afternoon and on the coldest days, too.” (Concord Enterprise, Dec. 22, 1909, p. 8)

George C. Wright had been known for his energy, so despite his age, his death of heart trouble came “very suddenly” on Sunday. July 10, 1910.  The funeral was held at the Universalist church, “filled to the utmost capacity.”  (Concord Enterprise, July 20, 1910, p. 8)  He and Susan had been married 63 years.  Susan died three months later on October 16, 1910.  They were both buried in Mount Hope cemetery.

A few years before his death, the Boston Herald described George C. Wright as “a gentleman of the old school, a business man of unimpeachable integrity.”  (Jan. 8, 1903, p. 7)  Though he was portrayed in life stories as a completely self-made man, he had many family ties.  Whether he was sharing the fruits of his labor and talents with family members or vice versa, there was certainly a web of family relationships involved in his business ventures.  His children and grandchildren created many more ties among business, friends, and family.  Though many of them eventually settled closer to Boston, the contributions of George C. Wright and his wife Susan still affect West Acton.  The Wright Hill Conservation land has preserved some of the family land for the enjoyment of Actonians, although trees now block much of their famous view.

Can you add to our Wright collection?

Though our historical society has gratefully received donations of wonderful items from the Wright/Mead family, especially the recent addition of George’s reminiscences, we are missing photographs of family members.  From histories, we have been able to find pictures of George C. and George S.  Wright.  We know that George C. Wright owned a camera because he was thanked in 1890 for taking a picture of a portrait of Isaac Davis’s wife several years earlier.  We also know that pictures of the family were taken at their West Acton home; we would be very grateful for donations of photographs or scans of the Wright/Mead family and of gatherings at the Wright house.  Please contact us if you can help.

From the AHS Collections:

Major Sources for George C. Wright:

• Wright, George C.  Reminiscences of West Acton and of Personal Life.  Unpublished manuscript.
• Wright, George C. Travels.  Unpublished manuscript.
• Wright, George C. Conditions of Success.  Unpublished manuscript.
  
• Cutter, William Richard.  Historic homes and places and genealogical and person memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.  New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1908.  Vol. 2, p. 782-783 (includes portrait).
  
• Dwinell-Wright Co. Facts About Coffee.  Boston: Dwinell-Wright Co, c. 1907.
• Fletcher, Rev. James.  Acton in History.  Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Col, 1890. (especially pages 4-5)
• Hager, Lucie Caroline. Boxborough: a New England Town and its People. Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Col, 1894. (especially pages 215-218, nearly identical to Fletcher)
• “Golden Wedding,” Concord Enterprise, Jan. 7, 1897, p. 8.
• “Full Sixty Years of Married Life,” Boston Herald, Dec. 30, 1906, p.4
• “Celebrated 84th Birthday,” Concord Enterprise, Jan. 9, 1907, p. 8
• “Death of George C. Wright,” Concord Enterprise, Jul. 20, 1910, p. 8
  

See also our blog post on the West Acton and Boxborough secession proposal of 1868-1869 for a discussion of George C. Wright's role.

For those who are missing Thanksgiving high school football games in this strange 2020 holiday season, we offer some glimpses of football in Acton’s past. 

A favorite item in our collection is an 1890s leather football helmet.  We are grateful to relatives of Ernest R. Teele who donated it.  There are ventilation holes around the top, and it offered a bit of padding, but it was a long way from today’s headgear.

Previously, we had written a blog post about the West Acton football team after seeing a team picture that only identified Ernest Teele (front row, second from left).  In the time since, we have discovered other copies of that and a similar photograph of the team, both taken by Eugene Hall.  (A number of his glass plate images were donated to our Society).  However, we have not made any more progress on identifying the players.

Some of our best discoveries at Jenks Library happen when we are searching for something completely different.  We recently came across a reference to a 1960s slide copy of an old Acton football team photograph.  Expecting that it would be a duplicate of the Eugene Hall pictures that we had already seen, we scanned the slide and discovered a different image.  It had some familiar faces from our other pictures, but most importantly, names had been listed on the back. 

Trying to interpret the name list, we believe that the pictured men are as follows (corrections welcome!):

• Far left in back, not with group: Harold Littlefield.
• Back row: Bert Holt, Del Cutler (with hat and tie, perhaps team manager)
• Second row from back: George Guilford, Harry Holt (sitting in front of Bert), William Rodway (with WA on uniform)
• Front Row: (We believe that the person making the identification was trying to show the relative positions of people and ran out of room, so this is our best interpretation, left-to-right): Ed Barteaux, Levi Perkins, Harry Steele, Burpee Steele, Bill Seavens?, James Barteaux, Sheldon Littlefield
  

Among the players was William Rodway.  This was a familiar name; as discussed in a blog post, he served in the Spanish American War a few months after this picture was taken.  He made it back to a hospital in New York but died of disease there on October 18, 1898.  He was known as “a young man of fine personal appearance and splendid physique” (Concord Enterprise, Oct. 27, 1898, page 8), so his succumbing to disease must have been a shock to his teammates and the community.  For reasons that are unclear, when Acton’s monument to its Spanish American War veterans was put up, his name was left off of it.  Now, at least, we have an identified picture of him.  (As it turns out, he was front and center in the Hall pictures, as well, which jibes with our knowledge that he was team captain in 1896-7.)

Another discovery that we have made since our original blog post on early football in Acton was that the West Acton team existed longer than we had thought.  The 1900 team played Maynard High School on its baseball grounds on Thanksgiving.  (Concord Enterprise, Nov. 29, 1900, p. 4)  The following year, there was a Thanksgiving game between South Acton and West Acton football players.  The rosters:

• Position: South Acton Player, West Acton Player
  • Rt. End: C. Owens, _ Crieg
  • Rt. Tackle: H. E. Tolman, J. Beach
  • Rt. Guard: H. Willis, _ Littlefield
    
  • Center: L. W. Piper, A. Beach
  • L. Guard: F. Tuttle, R. Whitcomb
  • L. Tackle: J. Bradley, E[rnest] Teele
  • L. End: W. E. Hubbard, _ Bezanson
  • Quarter Back: H.K. Tuttle, C. Beach
    
  • L. Half Back: H. Hatch, W. Beach
  • R. Half Back: G. R. Tuttle, H. Holt
  • Full Back: H. White, R. “Reach”

The Concord Enterprise’s South Acton correspondent described the game as “one-sided,” leaving the “West Acton linesman nothing to be thankful for,” while the “half-frozen spectators” looked on.  The final score was 21-0.  (Dec. 4, 1901, page 8) 

Here’s hoping that by next year, we will have the privilege, if we so choose, of braving Thanksgiving weather to attend our own favorite events.  Cheering on friends and family in person sounds pretty good this year, cold or not.

Those of us who did not grow up around farms or horses are at a disadvantage when tasked with identifying items from Acton’s agricultural past.  A recent clean-up and inventory of our barn uncovered a heap of knotted strings.  There was a label nearby that simply said “Fly Net.”  This seemed impossible to the skeptical among us; we could not (and did not want to) imagine a fly with a wingspan that could be caught by the openings between the knots.

As so often happens, it turns out that older members in our society knew something we didn’t.  We now know that a fly net was worn by a horse.  Obviously, it could not catch the flies, but its movement with the horse's would help to keep flies from settling.  According to W. R. Runyan’s 1001 Words and Phrases You Never Knew You Didn’t Know (2011), the large openings were necessary to keep the horse from overheating. 

Spread out, the fly net turned out to have leather pieces attached to the strings, long strings hanging from each side, and braids at one end. 

Trying to keep one's horses from being irritated by flies was, and remains, a problem.  Another blog post mentioned Hanson Littlefield's Anti-Fly concoction marketed from West Acton.  We do not know how well that worked, but clearly farmers had worked out other solutions. 

And now we know not to dismiss a heap of string in our barn.

As a salute to those who are dealing with the infinite complexity of trying to educate students in the midst of the COVID-19 era, we turn this month to Acton’s school history.  Presented here are a few struggles of days past. 
 
One Teacher, Many Grades

In early Acton, the community seems to have viewed teachers’ role in the schools primarily as keepers of order rather than as educators in today’s sense.

As the 1891-1892 School Committee report noted, “Within the memory of some now living, a hundred scholars were in one school, with one teacher.  The discipline of the crowd was ordinarily enough for any master to manage, without wasting his strength on the minor matters of instruction. The little ones on the lower seats were pleased if they had one chance recognition in the course of the long day from the master in the desk.” (p. 48)

By the 1890s, expectations of teachers had changed.  By that time, teachers were supposed to instruct classes, rather than simply to hear students recite.  The problem with the new approach was that it was demanded of teachers whose working circumstances had not been adjusted to the new expectations.  Acton’s school committee report in March 1896 explained:

“There are at present seven grades in the East and North schools.  One of the best arranged daily programs of work I have seen for a school of seven grades called for thirty-three class exercises per day.  Allowing thirty minutes for two recesses, there are left three hundred, thirty minutes for thirty three class exercises, or ten minutes to a class, and this includes the time for all individual work.  This number of class exercises is altogether too many for satisfactory instruction and drill, but the East and the North schools have even more than that number.  It is an impossibility for a teacher to teach a class properly in ten minutes, and follow it up all day.” (p. 66)

In the larger schools, the issue was large class sizes coupled with a range of ages.  In Fall 1894  (p. 61), the South Acton primary teacher had 51 students enrolled in her classroom and not only had to deal with classroom management but also had to be prepared to teach four grades’ worth of material each day.  (Bertha Gardner, we salute you.)

The superintendent wrote in his March 1896 report that “To teach is to direct the work of the pupils, to show them how to study, to arouse their interest, to train them to habits of clear, concise, and connected expression, to examine their written work, to cultivate in them a love of study and lead them to investigate for themselves, to impart information, and to lead pupils to apply the things learned.”  (p. 66) That seems a little ambitious for ten-minute class periods.

 
Two Teachers, One Schoolhouse

In a brief entry in the 1863-64 Superintendent Report, we learned about a problem in the East Acton school.  “In consequence of some misunderstanding between the Committee and two female teachers who both laid claim to the school, it was decided to employ a male teacher for the Winter term.”  (p. 31) The logic behind that solution, unfortunately, remains a mystery.
 
Two Superintendents, One Town

A more open dispute occurred in 1884, when the School Committee managed to appoint competing Superintendents.  Rev. Franklin P. Wood and lawyer Frederick C. Nash had both served in that role in recent years.  In April 1884, missing one sick member, the Committee voted 3-2 for Rev. Wood to serve.  After a member objected that the full committee should have been present, a new vote was arranged at the home of the sick member.  The supporters of Rev. Wood refused to participate, calling the new vote illegal, leaving the supporters of Frederick C. Nash with the victory.  Nash started fulfilling the duties of Superintendent, Rev. Wood applied to the state’s Supreme Court for an injunction to stop Mr. Nash, and the Committee and the town split down the middle. (Boston Globe, Apr. 20, 1884, p. 1 and Apr. 23, p. 4)

Mr. Nash seems to have won that round, and education proceeded.  In the 1885-1886 year, Rev. C. L. Rhoades was appointed to replace Mr. Nash.  In his first report, he said that “Perfect unanimity has existed between members of the Committee, and between the Committee its Superintendent, during the year.”  (School Committee report, p. 1)  That optimism was tempered the next year with a report of unanimity except for interference from “outside parties, not parents of any children in the school(s)”  (1886-7 Superintendent’s report, p. 31)  Soon thereafter, a huge controversy broke out over a West Acton teacher’s disciplinary measures, the process used to investigate them, and the fact that the Superintendent was not allowed to speak in a meeting to defend himself.  Somehow Frederick C. Nash became involved in the hostilities, probably as part of the “outside interference” mentioned in the previous report.  The superintendent and three out of four members of the school committee resigned. (Boston Globe, March 14, 1887, p. 8)  Rev. James Fletcher was appointed in his place.  In a feat of longevity, he managed to last until the town joined (perplexingly) with Sturbridge and West Brookfield in a joint superintendency arrangement in the 1892-1893 year.  (Apparently, state aid was part of the joint superintendency deal.)

Blizzards are Good for Them

Since the beginning of Acton’s history, there has been recognition of the need to educate the town’s children, giving fair access to all.  However, deciding how to achieve that goal has been a source of disagreement.  There were always those who advocated for better schools, in one way or another, and those who resisted on budgetary or other grounds.  There was often contention over where schools would be located and how far students would have to travel to get there.  The 1851 School Committee report dismissed concerns from residents of the more remote areas of town:

“Parents generally fear the distance more than do the children.  What if they do face the winds and buffet the storms of winter?  It only makes them more hardy and more courageous.  Our children have bones and muscles as well as minds; while the latter are being developed by judicious training, the former must be enlarged and strengthened by constant and vigorous use, so that they may possess sound minds, healthy frames, and cheerful hearts.  Every obstruction removed, every obstacle overcome in their school-boy days, will prepare them for the earnest struggles of real life.  The boy or the girl who bravely treads the snow for long miles to school, is not likely to be a loiterer there; indeed, the tardy and the heedless are rarely those who must, every day, make a vigorous effort to be at school.”  (p. 13-14)
 
Eventually, students who lived far from school were, at times grudgingly, given transportation.  Students who lived nearer were still on their own (within 1.5-2 miles in many cases, according to the Superintendent’s Report, 1914, p. 20).  Even after the transportation of students from outlying areas was the norm, it kept being either cut or threatened with cuts.  In their 1895-96 report, (p. 54), the school committee recommended against transporting high school students because “this expenditure is altogether disproportioned to the benefits resulting from it.  Parents sufficiently ambitious for the future of their children to send them to the High School ought ... to be willing to provide for their transportation.”  (The school committee wanted to hire staff with the money used on transportation.   Having a high school at all was a new and contentious issue.  See our blog posts about Acton High School in the 1880s and  the political drama over building a new high school in town.)  

Horse-drawn school barges were not a particularly quick mode of transportation.  This became more of an issue with the advent of automobiles competing for the road. The difference between today’s attitudes and yesterday’s showed up when the Superintendent recommended that school-barge drivers should move far over to let automobiles pass, both when the cars signaled from behind and when they approached from the front: “They [barge drivers] are charged with the protection of the children, not with the assertion of their legal rights-to-the-road.” (1915 Superintendent report, p. 21)  Today’s drivers behind a school bus might consider that at least they are not stuck behind a horse.
 
Rocky Acton Provided Great Recess Materials

Recess could be perilous.  When safe equipment was not available, apparently rocks would do.  In 1908, Theron Lowden was playing “Duck on the Rock” during recess and was hit by a stone as he was picking up one to launch himself.  We will leave aside the gore in the report, but Theron was “without the use of his right hand for some weeks.” (Concord Enterprise, May 13, 1908, p. 8)
 
It’s all the Teacher’s Fault, Ventilation Edition

For those who have been following the complications of preparing schools for in-person learning in the era of COVID-19, it may be interesting to note that ventilation issues in classrooms are not new.  What is different is that it was considered the teacher’s responsibility to keep the students well, regardless of the condition of the schoolhouse.  It was a no-win situation.  The 1879-1880 School Committee Report called for safe ventilation of school rooms “that so many pupils may not be detained from school by colds contracted there.  We trust our teachers will be more particular in the future in this regard.  Such care ought to be taken of the health of our pupils that they will be safer, when in charge of the teacher, than when they are at home.”  (p. 2)  Apparently, opening a window was considered the main danger.  The following year, the Superintendent wrote, “We hope, too, that better provisions will be made for ventilating the school-rooms.  Teachers too often open windows and expose the children to drafts of air.  Boards should be so arranged against the lower window sashes that this danger will be avoided.” (1880-1881 Superintendent’s Report, p. 8)

A few years later, the Superintendent raised the issue of air quality, this time because of the foul air  produced by coal stoves.  “In the absence of the janitor the teacher is ex-officio master of the situation, and his comfort and success, and that of the school, hangs largely upon the temperature and quality of the air in which the work is done. No amount of zeal or tact in conducting recitations will overbalance a vitiated atmosphere. One good current of air from the outside world will often settle problems in discipline and in arithmetic all at the same time.” (School Committee Report 1887-1888, p. 33)  One presumes that boards were no longer across the windows to keep them from being opened. 

As mentioned in our previous blog post on maintenance in Acton’s schools, the disagreement over ventilation continued for years.  Ventilators were argued over, installed, seen to fail, and argued over again.  Acton managed to defer improved ventilation systems in its schools even after having been ordered to install them by the state inspector, yielding to the argument that opening windows was adequate... and free.  (1891-1892 report, p. 45.)
Even after improvements were made, ventilation systems were still problematic.  Teacher Ella Miller wrote in her diary on March 16, 1911:  “Cold, blustering day, hardest to be out in this winter.  The ventilator cap blew off the top of the schoolhouse, just before school began.”  Obviously, school ventilation is a never-ending struggle.
 
Teachers Need to Work... But Not Necessarily for Money

In 1919, teachers had expected to be paid every other week for their efforts, as previously voted by the town.  It was socially unacceptable for female teachers to be demanding, but when the teachers had reached the four-week mark without pay, they expressed their annoyance.  (The janitors of three schoolhouses had also gone without their pay.)  The Sept. 25, 1919  Boston Globe ran a headline that “Two Acton Teachers Threaten to Strike” (p. 7), although it made sure to put quotation marks around the word “strike” in the article.  It also pointed out that two of the teachers did not live in town and had to pay for room and board, a justification for their speaking up.  (Others, including Ella Miller and Julia McCarthy, were local and apparently were expected to be patient.)  An unsourced clipping in the Society’s collection was headlined “Teachers Didn’t Mean Strike Talk.”  The article explained that the persuasive out-of-town teachers waited at the depot until the secretary of the school committee stepped off the train and convinced him that they needed pay.  Their approach apparently did not go over well in some parts of town, and a story circulated that teachers had threatened a strike and tried to “coerce the school committee into paying them.”  Whatever was said, the teachers did manage to get some pay, half of what they were owed, with a promise of the rest and prompt payment in the future.  (Boston Globe, Sept. 28, 1919, p. 14)  One hopes that the town made good on the promise.
 
The More Things Change...

Every school has issues to address, whatever the era.  Though we’ve focused on past Acton school issues that are different from today’s, some problems are universal.  Ella Miller’s diary of June 11, 1913 reported that “All of us at school are tired and sleepy.  Went to bed early.”  After all the adjustments of this year’s reentry into school life, one imagines that a few teachers and students might have experienced a day like that.