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A STUDY OF THE 
 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 IN MAINE AND THE 
 EVOLUTION OF OUR 
 PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 BY THE STATE 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 OF MAINE, (^fff^- n '^^^^^^ 
 
 ^I'^oif^ 
 
}^ 
 
 SEP 21 ,v07 
 
 D. Of' a 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF 
 THE PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM IN MAINE. 
 
 In this, the first year of the new century, it seems fitting 
 to give as briefly as possible, a history of education in Maine and 
 of the development of our present school system. As Maine 
 was, until 1820, a part of the present state of Massachusetts and 
 as there were settlers in Maine even before the landing of the 
 Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, any history of education in Maine 
 or of the. origin and growth of our school system must necessarily 
 begin with a description of the first efforts in that direction by 
 the colonists in other sections of New England. These pioneer 
 settlers, who had fled from the tyranny of the mother country 
 and established homes in the wilderness of the New World, were 
 a God-fearing people. It was their conscientious adherence to 
 their own form of religious belief and worship that drove them 
 to these shores, and, stern bigots though they were, they left an 
 impress upon the people, the manners, customs, social relations 
 and educational institutions of New England which will endure 
 for all time. 
 
 It is to the influence of Puritanism, softened by the kindly 
 teuch of time, that we owe that pronounced moral sentiment, 
 that reverence for religious things, and also that interest in the 
 education of the young which is observable throughout this 
 portion of our country. 
 
 As they were pre-eminently a religious people and as their 
 reverence for God and the Bible was the foundation of their 
 civil and religious institutions, it was natural that their clergy 
 should be the first teachers of the youth of these forest settle- 
 ments. Before even the primitive school was organized with 
 the pastor as teacher, in these wilderness homes the little ones 
 received instruction at their mother's knee and were there taught 
 to read with, in many cases, no text-book but the family Bible. 
 
The pioneer settlers of Massachusetts belonged to the intelli- 
 gent and in many cases well educated class. They were not 
 adventurers coming to these western shores with the greed of 
 gold or with a desire to regain fortunes lost in the old world. 
 Neither were they ignorant peasants sent here by a tyrant ruler 
 to form new colonies for the enlargement of an empire. They 
 were English yeomen and gentlemen, God-fearing, self-respect- 
 ing, and desirous of providing the means of an education for 
 their children. Some of them were scholars who had worn the 
 cap and gown at old Cambridge or Oxford, and it was to be 
 expected that among the first things attempted after their homes 
 were established would be the inauguration of some system of 
 education. 
 
 In many respects they modeled their home life after the cus- 
 toms prevailing in old England. Where they found that the old 
 forms were unsuited to the new surroundings, they supplied the 
 want by new modes better fitted to their primitive institutions. 
 
 The first evidence of any organized attempt to supply the 
 means of education in the new colony is found upon the records 
 of the town of Boston. In 1635, when the new town was five 
 years old, the following record appears : "Agreed upon that 
 our Brother Philemon Pormort shall be entreated to become 
 school-master for the teaching and nurturing children with us." 
 In part pay for his services, thirty acres of land were voted to 
 him. Soon after "a garden plot was voted to Mr. Danyell 
 Maude, schoolmaster." 
 
 No school system, however primitive, had at that time been 
 established nor had any been attempted. How "Brother Por- 
 mort" went about his labors, what branches he taught and how 
 long his labors continued, we are not informed, but this simple 
 record marks the first attempt to inaugurate a system of educa- 
 tion in New England. In the same year was founded, through 
 the efforts of Rev. John Cotton, the Boston Free Latin School. 
 
 In the following year we find the first action of the General 
 Court in the direction of education. The first volume of the 
 Massachusetts Records contains this most important entry : "At 
 a court holden September 8, 1636, and continued by adjourn- 
 ment to the 28th of the 8th month, October, 1636, the Court 
 agreed to give ^400 toward a school or college ; £200 to be paid 
 
next year and £200 when the work is finished, and the next Court 
 to appoint where and what building." 
 
 The next court ordered that the college should be established 
 at Newtown and there, with most meagre and primitive equip- 
 ment, was founded the young college which has since developed 
 into Harvard University. 
 
 Very soon we find the name of Newtown was changed to 
 Cambridge, in memory of that older Cambridge, where so many 
 of the colonists had pursued their studies and which they desired 
 to reproduce as far as possible in their new home. Small as it 
 may seem, the endowment voted by the Court for the infant 
 college, — £400 — was indeed most liberal. It was equal to the 
 entire tax of the colony for a year. 
 
 An appropriation of a million dollars by the present General 
 Court of Massachusetts would not represent a burden equal to 
 the one which these people voluntarially placed on themselves 
 by making provision for this fund. This liberal endowment was 
 soon to be followed by a most generous private bequest. 
 
 In 1637, the year of the establishment of the college at New- 
 town, Rev. John Harvard joined the colony. He was a man of 
 wealth and of culture, and at once became interested in the cause 
 of education. What he might have accomplished in this direc- 
 tion, had his life been spared, we can only conjecture. His 
 labors were brought to an abrupt termination by his death in 
 1638. His love for the new college is shown in the bequest by 
 which he left to it, his entire library and one-half of his estate. 
 President Quincy in his history of Harvard University thus 
 speaks of this timely aid : "An instance of benevolence thus 
 striking and timely was accepted by our fathers as an omen of 
 Divine favor. With prayer and thanksgiving they immediately 
 commenced the seminary and conferred upon it the name of 
 Harvard." Harvard College was formally opened in 1638 and 
 graduated its first class in 1642. The requirements for entrance 
 in those early days w^ere such as might puzzle many who apply 
 for admission to-day. In 1643 these requirements were given as 
 follows : "When any scholar is able to understand Tully, or 
 such like classical authors extempore, and make and speak true 
 Latin in verse and prose — and decline perfectly the paradigms 
 of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then and not 
 before be capable of admission into the college." 
 
With those old colonists religion and education went hand in 
 hand. The clergy were, it is true, among the cliier promoters of 
 learning and it has been charged that the Puritan ministers 
 fostered the new college mainly as a means of perpetuating their 
 own influence and that of their class. Said an old writer among 
 the colonists : 
 
 "After God had carried us safe to New England and we had 
 builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, 
 reared convenient places for God's worship and settled the civil 
 government, one of the next things we longed for and looked 
 after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; 
 dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our 
 present ministry shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking 
 and consulting how to effect this great work it pleased God to 
 stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a Godly gentleman and 
 a lover of learning then living among us) to give the one-half 
 of his estate (it being in all about £1,700) towards the erecting 
 of a college, and all his library. After him another gave £300 ; 
 others after them cast in more and the publique hand of the State 
 added the rest." This paragraph has been made, in part, the 
 basis of this charge, but a close examination into their acts shows 
 that their efforts were earnestly directed towards finding means 
 for the education of all classes. Naturally the colonists, having 
 come to these shores on account of religious tyranny at home 
 and having established themselves in the new world in order that 
 they might have "freedom to worship God," desired that the 
 religious teachers of the next generation should be educated 
 men. They also desired, as their acts immediately following the 
 founding of Harvard College show, that they were determined 
 as soon as possible to extend the benefits of a practical educa- 
 tion to all the youth of the colony. 
 
 In 1642 an attempt was made to provide some general system 
 of education which should be compulsory upon the colonists. 
 The record of the Colonial Court, is, in part, as follows : "This 
 Court taking into serious consideration the great neglect of many 
 persons and masters in training up their children in learning, and 
 labor, and other employments which may be profitable to the 
 commonwealth, do hereby order and decree, that in every town, 
 the chosen men appointed to manage the prudential affairs of 
 
the same, shall henceforth stand charged with the care of the 
 redress of this evil ; * * * and for this end, they, 
 or the greater number of them shall have power to take account 
 from time to time, of all parents and masters, and of their chil- 
 dren, especially of their ability to read and understand the prin- 
 ciples of religion and the capital laws of this country and to 
 impose fines upon such as shall fail to render such account to 
 them when they shall be required; and they shall have power, 
 with the consent of any court, or the magistrate, to put forth 
 apprentices the children of such as they shall find not able and fit 
 to employ and bring them up." 
 
 The selectmen of every town were further required "to have 
 a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see that none 
 of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, 
 as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their chil- 
 dren and apprentices, so much learning as may enable them per- 
 fectly to read the English tongue and (obtain) a knowledge of 
 the capital laws ; upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect 
 therein." 
 
 It will be noticed that the act of 1642, while insisting that chil- 
 dren, whether apprentices or at home, shall be to a certain extent 
 educated, yet does not provide the means for that education and 
 says nothing whatever about public schools. 
 
 Seventeen years after the establishment of the Massachusetts 
 colony the population had increased to nearly twenty thousand. 
 They had in that time founded "fifty towns and villages, built 
 thirty or forty churches and more ministers' houses, a castle, a 
 college, prisons, forts, cartways and causeways many; had com- 
 fortable houses, gardens and orchards, grounds fenced and corn- 
 fields." In many of the towns schools had been provided in which 
 boys were fitted for the new college at Cambridge. There was, 
 however, no general system and the schools were supported for 
 the most part by voluntary contributions. 
 
 In 1647 was enacted the law which became the basis of the 
 common school system of Massachusetts and which remained 
 unchanged, except by an increase of penalty for its violation, for 
 a period of one hundred and forty-two years. Moreover it con- 
 tained the nucleus of the entire school system of Massachusetts 
 as it exists to-day. 
 
8 
 
 The following extract shows the general scope of the law, the 
 system it inaugurated and the principles upon which that system 
 rested. The original form of spelling is given only in the 
 preamble. 
 
 "It being one chief e project of y® ould deluder, Sathan, to 
 keepe men from y® knowledge of y® Scriptures, as in form^ 
 times by keeping y"^ in an unknown tongue, so in these latt"^ 
 times by perswading from ye use of tongues y* so at least y^ true 
 sence and meaning of y® originall might be clouded by false glo 
 of saint seeming deceivers, y* learning may not be buried in y® 
 grave of o^ fath^^ in y® church and commonwealth the Lord 
 assisting o^ endeavors. 
 
 "It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof 
 that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath 
 increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then 
 forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such chil- 
 dren as shall resort to him, to write and read ; whose wages shall 
 be paid, either by the parents or masters of such children, or by 
 the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part 
 of those who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; 
 provided that those who send their children be not oppressed by 
 paying much more than they can have them taught for in the 
 adjoining towns. 
 
 "And it is further ordered that when any town shall increase 
 to the number of one hundred families or householders, they 
 shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to 
 instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the university ; 
 and if any town neglect the performance above one year, then 
 every such town shall pay five pounds per annum to the next 
 such school, till they shall perform this order." 
 
 It will be seen that this law was not in the interest of the select 
 few, but that it provided a system of common schools for all and 
 made that system compulsory. It will also be seen that in this 
 law certain principles were for the first time boldly proclaimed 
 and clearly enunciated, and they have 'been emphasized and reit- 
 erated by frequent legislation in Massachusetts and in Maine 
 until this day. The underlying principles of these earliest 
 school laws recognized first that the safety and prosperitiy of 
 the State require that the youth of the State should be educated. 
 
Second, That the parent is in the first instance responsible for 
 the education of his children. 
 
 Third, That the State has a right to enforce this responsibility 
 upon the part of the parents. 
 
 Fourth, That the State may, by legislative enactment, not only 
 require the child to attend school, but may fix a standard of rank 
 which shall determine the kind of education and the minimum 
 amount. These principles were set forth in the law of 1642. 
 
 The law of 1647 required all that was demanded in the pre- 
 vious act and supplemented it by providing the means for the 
 support of schools which should give the required instruction. 
 Under this law towns in their corporate capacitiy were required 
 to provide adequate opportunity for the education of all youth, 
 which provision might be made by a tax upon the property of all 
 the free-holders. The later law also made provision, at public 
 expense, for secondary schools in which pupils could be fitted for 
 college. Therefore the law of 1647 added these two principles 
 to those already enunciated, viz : Fifth, A general tax may be 
 ordered upon all property to provide such education as the State 
 requires and no property holder can evade the tax on account 
 of having no children to educate. 
 
 Sixth, The State may provide for a higher education and may 
 support schools at public expense for fitting pupils for the 
 colleges. 
 
 It should be noticed that the principle underlying these laws 
 was not that the State should educate the child for the benefit of 
 the child or its parents, but because the safety of the State 
 demands that the child be educated. 
 
 It should also be noted that attendance at the schools provided 
 by the law was not made wholly compulsory, for the parent had 
 a right to provide equivalent education in any way he might 
 elect. The law was based on the principle that the child must be 
 educated. If the parent does not provide the means then the 
 child must attend the public schools. This fundamental idea is 
 retained in the school laws of today. A careful reading of the 
 law of 1647 shows that under this act towns were not obliged 
 to lay a general tax for the support of common schools. The 
 one thing about the law which was compulsory was that the 
 towns must provide for the education of the children. The 
 
lO 
 
 schools might be supported by voluntary contribution, by reason- 
 able tuition or by general taxation "as the major part of those 
 who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint." As a 
 matter of fact there was at first no uniformity in the plans 
 adopted to raise funds for the support of schools by the towns, 
 but in the course of years it came to be seen that the most equit- 
 able way was by the general tax which the law allowed but did 
 not make compulsory. 
 
 With the enactment of the law of 1647, the school system, 
 though crude was, in a measure, complete and provision was 
 made for elementary schools in which the rudiments of the 
 English language were taught, the secondary classical schools, or 
 grammer schools, as they were denominated in the act, in which 
 pupils were fitted for college, and the college where those who 
 wished might obtain a liberal education. 
 
 In the Plymouth Colony, or the Old Colony, as it was called, 
 where both population and wealth were less than in the younger 
 settlement, there seems to have been no attempt to establish pub- 
 lic schools during the first fifty years of its existence. 
 
 Still, in the Old Colony education was by no means neglected, 
 as the minister in most towns added to his pastoral duties the 
 task of instructing the youth of his flock. In 1663, t^^ General 
 Court of Plymouth Colony recommended "that some course may 
 be taken that in every town there may be a schoolmaster set up to 
 train up children to reading and writing." Very little attention, 
 however, appears to have been paid to this recommendation. In 
 1670, the profits from the Cape Cod fisheries were set apart for a 
 free school and a little later a grammar school was established 
 at Plymouth. In 1677, thirty years after the Massachusetts law 
 was passed, the Plymouth General Court authorized towns of 
 fifty families, which chose to have a grammar-school, to support 
 it in part by a tax, and required towns of seventy families which 
 had no grammar school to pay a stated sum to the nearest town 
 having one. By the same law the profits of the fisheries were 
 divided among the towns supporting such schools. Thus in the 
 Old Colony the three-fold method of the support of schools was 
 fixed by law ; fixed revenues, tuition fees and a town tax. 
 
 In i6qt, came the new charter uniting the colonies of Massa- 
 chusetts, Plymouth and Maine under one government and from 
 
1 1 
 
 that time onward the educational history of these colonies became 
 identical. Though the colonial school laws were re-enacted after 
 the reorganization under the new charter, there seems to have 
 been a laxity in their enforcement and a diminution of interest 
 on the part of the masses of the people as the years went on. 
 The penalty for neglect on the part of the towns to provide a 
 schoolmaster was by the re-enactment raised to iio and, in 1701, 
 the General Court declared that "the observance of the school 
 law was shamefully neglected by divers towr^s, and the penalty 
 thereof not required, tending greatly to the nourishment of ignor- 
 ance and irreligion, whereof grievious complaint is made" and 
 increased the penalty to £20. 
 
 In not a few towns the law was evaded by appointing the min- 
 ister to act as schoolmaster, and this custom became so general 
 that it was enacted that no minister should be considered as a 
 schoolmaster within the intent of the law, and all magistrates 
 and all grand juries were enjoined to special vigilance in the 
 execution of the law. As a result of this enactment frequent 
 "presentments" of towns for non-compliance with the law are 
 on record. It is worthy of note that some towns refused to sup- 
 port grammar schools, electing to pay the fine regularly as a 
 matter of economy. On this account the penalty was in 17 18 
 raised to i6o for towns consisting of 300 families. The Indian 
 Wars and other trials and hardships incident to their pioneer 
 life rendered the towns poor and the school tax often became a 
 burden. Early in the eighteenth century, the system of "moving 
 schools" was adopted in many towns. Instead of having a 
 number of schools in session in a town at the same time, a school 
 would be held for a certain number of weeks in one portion of 
 the town and then, under the same schoolmaster, move to another 
 part and sometimes again to a third locality during the same 
 year. In the sparsely settled towns it was often difficult to find 
 men who were willing to teach these small "moving schools" for 
 the wages the town could afford to pay, and special inducements 
 were offered to such as would make teaching a profession. 
 "Professed schoolmasters" were exempted from taxation, after- 
 wards from militia duty and finally from watch duty. As a pro- 
 tection against this exemption being claimed by unworthy per- 
 sons, it was lequired that "persons who keep schools" must be of 
 
12 
 
 sober and good conversation and must have the allowance and 
 approbation of the selectmen and a penalty of forty shillings was 
 imposed on all who should "keep school" without this approba- 
 tion. The grammar master was required to be approved by the 
 minister of the town in which he taught and of the two next 
 adjacent towns, or two of them. In this law we see the first idea 
 of compulsory examination and certification. Soon after this 
 date we begin to read of the "school-dames" and find that in 
 many of the towns "dame-schools" were instituted in which ele- 
 mentary instruction was given the youngest children by women. 
 Thus, in 1732, the town of Mendon voted to choose school-dames 
 to teach school in the outskirts of the town. In 1764, Westford 
 voted to hire a school-dame the following six months, to keep 
 the school in six parts of the town. In this case we have an 
 example of a dame-school on wheels. We read of one school- 
 dame who took entire care of her own four little ones and taught 
 a school of young children for twenty-two weeks in the warm 
 season, for fourpence a week, eking out her wages by making 
 shirts for eight pence each and breeches for a shilling and six 
 pence a pair. 
 
 Thus the cause of education struggled along until the dark 
 cloud of the Revolution absorbed the entire attention of the 
 colonies. That struggle having been successfully terminated, 
 Massachusetts changed from a province to a commonwealth and 
 in the new constitution the importance of education was duly set 
 forth. "Wisdom and knowledge as well as virtue diffused gen- 
 erally among the body of the people being necessary for the 
 preservation of their rights and liberties ; and as these depend on 
 spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the 
 various parts of the country, and among the different orders of 
 the people, it shall be the duty of Legislatures and magistrates, 
 in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the inter- 
 ests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, 
 especially the University of Cambridge, public schools and gram- 
 mar schools in the towns." In 1788 a law was enacted providing 
 that in the disposition of all townships of the public lands there- 
 after, four lots of 320 acres each should be reserved for the fol- 
 lowing purposes. The first lot was for "the first settled minis- 
 ter" in the township and was known as the "minister lot." The 
 
13 
 
 second was for the "use of the ministry" and was known as the 
 "ministerial lot." The third was for the support of common 
 schools in that township and became known as the "school lot," 
 while the fourth was reserved "for the future disposition of the 
 State," and was designated as the "State lot." 
 
 In 1789 an elaborate school law was enacted which gathered 
 and announced in the form of statute all the principles and ideas 
 which an experience of a century and a half had demonstrated 
 to be of value. 
 
 In the new law, as in the old colonial laws, the requirements 
 were graduated according to the population of the towns. In 
 regard to the common English schools it was required that every 
 town having fifty families must furnish annually six months 
 schooling by a master ; this might be in one or more schools. 
 A longer aggregate time was required of the larger towns. All 
 towns of two hundred families must support a grammar school- 
 master. 
 
 Under the old law instruction was required only in reading 
 and writing. The new law required reading, writing, the Eng- 
 lish language, orthography, arithmetic and proper behavior. No 
 youth could be sent to the grammar school unless he were already 
 able to read. It was required that the "schoolmasters" should be 
 graduates of §ome college or university, or they must produce 
 a certificate of qualification from a learned minister of the town 
 or neighborhood, and must produce a certificate of moral char- 
 acter from a minister or from a selectman of their own town. 
 
 The law of 1789 makes so important an advance in the history 
 of our school system that we deem it advisible to give it entire. 
 
 An Act to provide for the Instruction of Youth and for- the 
 promotion of good education. 
 
 WHEREAS, . The constitution of the Commonwealth hath 
 declared it to be the duty of the General Court to provide for the 
 education of youth ; and whereas, a general dissemination of 
 knowledge and virtue is necessary to the prosperity of every 
 State, and the very existence of a Commonwealth : 
 
 Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of 
 the same, that every town or district within this Commonwealth 
 containing fifty families or householders, shall be provided with a 
 
14 
 
 school-master or school-masters, of good morals, to teach chil- 
 dren to read and write, and to instruct them in the English 
 language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent 
 behavior, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six 
 months in each year. And every town or district containing one 
 hundred families or householders, shall be provided with such 
 school-master or school-masters for such term of time as shall 
 be equivalent to six months in each year; and shall, in addition 
 thereto, be provided with a school-master or school-masters, as 
 above described, to instruct children in the English language, for 
 such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months in each 
 year. And every town or district containing two hundred 
 families or householders, shall be provided with a grammar 
 school-master of good morals, well instructed in the Latin, 
 Greek and English languages ; and shall, in addition thereto, be 
 provided with a school-master or school-masters, as above 
 described, to instruct children in the English language, for such 
 term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for each 
 school in each year. 
 
 And whereas by means of the dispersed condition of the inhab- 
 itants of several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, the 
 children and youth cannot be collected in any one place for their 
 instruction, and it has hence become expedient that the towns 
 and districts in the circumstances as aforesaid, should be divided 
 into separate districts for the purpose aforesaid. 
 
 Sect. 2. Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
 That the several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, be 
 and they are hereby authorized and empowered, in town meet- 
 ings, to be called for that purpose, to determine and define the 
 limits of the school districts within their towns and districts 
 respectively. 
 
 And to the end that grammar school-masters may not be pre- 
 vented in their endeavours to discharge their trust in the most 
 useful manner, 
 
 Sect.' 3. Be it further enacted, That no youth shall be sent to 
 such grammar schools unless they shall have in some other school 
 or in some other way, learned to read the English language by 
 spelling the same ; or the selectmen of the town where such 
 
15 
 
 grammar school is, shall direct the grammar school-master to 
 receive and instruct such youth. 
 
 Sect. 4. Be it further enacted. That it shall be and it is hereby- 
 made the duty of the President, Professors and Tutors, of the 
 University at Cambridge, Preceptors and Teachers of Academies, 
 and all other instructors of youth, to take diligent care, and to 
 exert their best endeavours, to impress on the minds of children 
 and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles 
 of Piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their 
 country, humanity, and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry 
 and frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and those 
 other virtues which are the ornament of human society, and the 
 basis upon which the Republican Constitution is structured. And 
 it shall be the duty of such instructors, to endeavor to lead those 
 under their care (as their ages and capacities will admit) into a 
 particular understanding of the tendency of the beforementioned 
 virtues, to preserve and perfect a Republican Constitution, and 
 to secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their 
 future happiness ; and the tendency of the opposite vices to 
 slavery and ruin. 
 
 And to the end that improper persons may not be employed in 
 the important offices before mentioned. 
 
 Sect. 5. Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, 
 That no person shall be employed as a School-Master as afore- 
 said, unless he shall have received an education at some College 
 or University, and, before entering on the said business shall 
 produce satisfactory evidence thereof, or unless the person to be 
 employed as aforesaid, shall produce a certificate from a learned 
 minister, well skilled in the Greek and Latin languages, settled 
 in the town or place where the school is proposed to be kept, or 
 two other such ministers in the vicinity thereof, that they have 
 reason to believe that he is well qualified to discharge the duties 
 devolved upon such School-Master by this Act ; and in addition 
 thereto, if for a grammar school, "that he is of competent skill in 
 the Greek and Latin languag'es, for the said purpose." And the 
 candidate of either of the descriptions aforesaid, shall moreover 
 produce a certificate from a settled minister, of the town, dis- 
 trict, parish or place, to which such candidate belongs, or from 
 the selectmen of such town or district, or committee of such 
 
1 6 
 
 parish or place, "That to the best of his or their knowledge he 
 sustains a good moral character." Provided nevertheless, that 
 this last certificate, respecting morals, shall not be deemed neces- 
 sary, where the candidate for such school belongs to the place 
 where the same is proposed to be constantly kept ; it shall be the 
 duty, however, of such Selectmen or Committee who may be 
 authorized to hire such School-Master, especially to attend to his 
 morals, and no settled minister shall be deemed, held, or accepted 
 to be a School-Master within the intent of this Act. 
 
 Sect. 7. And it shall be the duty of the Minister or Ministers 
 of the Gospel and the Selectmen (or such other persons as shall 
 be especially chosen by each town or district for that purpose) of 
 the several towns or districts, to use their influence and best 
 endeavors that the youth of their respective towns and districts 
 do regularly attend the schools appointed and supported as afore- 
 said, for their instruction ; and once in every six months, at least, 
 and as much oftener as they shall determine it necessary, to visit 
 and inspect the several schools in their respective towns and dis- 
 tricts, and shall inquire into the regulations and discipline 
 thereof, and the proficiency of the scholars therein, giving reason- 
 able notice of the time of their visitation. 
 
 Sect. 8. Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all 
 plantations which shall be taxed for the support of Government, 
 and all parishes and precincts, are hereby authorized and 
 empowered, at their annual meeting in March or April, to vote 
 and raise such sums of money upon the polls and rateable estates 
 of the respective inhabitants for the support and maintainance of 
 a School-master to teach their children and youth to read, write 
 and cypher, as they shall judge expedient, to be assessed by their 
 Assessors in due proportion, and to be collected in like manner 
 with the public taxes. 
 
 And whereas, schools for the educaion of children in the most 
 early stages of life, may be kept in towns, districts and planta- 
 tions, which schools are not particularly described in this Act; 
 and that the greatest attention may be given to the early^estab- 
 lishing just principles in the tender minds of such children, and 
 carefully instructing them in the first principles of reading. 
 
 Sect. 9. Be it enacted, That no person shall be allowed to be 
 master or mistress of such school, or to keep the same, unless he 
 
17 
 
 or she shall obtain a certificate from the Selectmen of such town 
 or district where the same may be kept, or the Committee 
 appointed by such district, town or plantation to visit the schools, 
 as well as from a learned minister settled therein, if such there be, 
 that he or she is a person of sober life and conversation, and well 
 qualified to keep such school. And it shall be the duty of such 
 Master or Mistress, carefully to instruct the children attending 
 his or her school, in reading and writing (if contracted for) and 
 to instill into their minds a sense of piety and virtue, and to 
 teach them decent behaviour. And if any person shall presume 
 to keep such school, without a certificate as aforesaid, he or she 
 shall forfeit and pay the sum of Twenty Shillings, one moiety 
 thereof to the informer and to the use of the poor of the town, 
 district or plantation where such school may be kept." 
 
 Important as was the law of 1789, it still contained many 
 radical defects. While the law required that certain things 
 should be done, it neglected to provide means for doing them. 
 It provided for the establishment of school districts, but gave 
 the districts no powers. The law made schoolhouses a necessity, 
 but neglected to mark out the way for their erection, except by 
 voluntary contributions of citizens. As these defects were 
 brought sharply to the notice of the people it was natural they 
 should soon be remedied. In 1800, power was given the dis- 
 tricts to tax the people within their limits and the money thus 
 obtained was placed in the hands of officers regularly chosen, 
 who had charge of its expenditure. The districts were author- 
 ized to hold meetings, to choose a clerk, to decide upon a site for 
 a schoolhouse and to raise money by taxation for buying land 
 and for building and furnishing the house and for subsequent 
 repairs. One thing only was still lacking to make the districts 
 full municipal units and that was supplied by the law of 181 7, 
 which made school districts corporations with power to hold 
 property, enforce contracts, to sue and be sued, "so as to bring 
 and maintain any action or any agreement made with any per- 
 son or persons for the non-performance thereof, or for any dam- 
 age done to their property ; and be liable to have any action 
 brought and maintained against them for the non-performance 
 of any contract made by them ; to have and to hold in fee simple, 
 or otherwise, any estate, real or personal, which has been or may 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 be given by any person or persons, for the purpose of supporting 
 a school or schools in said district, and to apply the same for the 
 purposes aforesaid, and may prosecute and defend any suits 
 relative to the same." 
 
 By this act the school districts became full municipal corpora- 
 tions and at the same time the ultimate subdivisions of American 
 sovereign power. 
 
 To this point had the evolution of our school system advanced 
 when the separation 'was made from the mother State. 
 
 On March 3, 1820, by act of Congress, Maine took her place 
 as the twenty-third State in the American Union, with a popula- 
 tion of 298,335, an increase of nearly 70,000 in the previous 
 decade. At the time of its erection into a sovereign State, Maine 
 contained 236 towns, included within nine counties. The new 
 State preserved the district system inherited from Massachusetts 
 with a few special exceptions, until it was repealed by the law 
 of 1893. 
 
 In 1822, the city of Portland, by special act of the Legislature, 
 was given power to abolish its school districts and to give to its 
 school committee the powers conferred by the old Massachusetts 
 law upon district agents. Similar acts were passed in relation to 
 Bath in 1828 and Bangor in 1832. At the first session of the 
 Maine Legislature, which met on May 31, 1820, nonaction was 
 taken in regard to schools. 
 
 At the second session, which convened on the first Wednes- 
 day of January, 1821, the first Maine school law was passed in 
 the following language : 
 
 WHEREAS, The Constitution of this State has declared that 
 a general diffusion of the advantages of education is essential to 
 the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, and has 
 made it the duty of the legislature to require the several towns, 
 to make suitable provision at their own expense, for the support 
 and maintenance of public schools : 
 
 Section i. Be it enacted by the House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled, That every town and plantation shall 
 annually raise and expend for the maintenance and support of 
 schools therein, to be taught by schoolmasters, duly qualified, a 
 sum of money including the income of any corporate school fund, 
 not less than forty cents for each inhabitant, the number to be 
 
19 
 
 computed according to the next preceding census of the states, 
 by which the representation thereof has been apportioned ; Pro- 
 vided that a part, not exceeding one-third of the money allotted 
 to any district, may, if the district so determine, be applied to the 
 support of a school taught by a mistress, or when the sum so 
 allotted to a district in any year shall not exceed thirty-five dol- 
 lars, the whole may be expended in the same manner. 
 
 Sect. 2. Be it further enacted. That it shall be the duty of 
 President, Professors, and Tutors in Colleges, and the pre- 
 ceptors and teachers in Academies, and all other instructors of 
 youth, to take diligent care and exert their best endeavours, to 
 impress on the minds of children and youth, committed to their 
 care and instruction the principles of piety and justice, and a 
 sacked regard to truth, love to their countr\', humanity and a 
 universal benevolence ; sobriety, industry and frugality ; chastity, 
 moderation and temperance, and all other virtues which are the 
 ornaments of human society ; and it shall be the duty of such 
 instructors to endeavour to lead those under their care, (as their 
 ages and capacities will admit), into a particular understanding 
 of the tendency of the beforementioned virtues, to preserve and 
 perfect a republican constitution, and secure the blessings of 
 liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness, and the 
 tendency of the opposite vices to slavery and ruin. 
 
 Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That there shall be chosen by 
 ballot, at the annual meeting in each town and plantation, a 
 superintending school committee, consisting of not less than 
 three nor more than seven persons, whose duty it shall be to 
 examine schoolmasters and schoolmistresses proposing to teach 
 school therein. And it shall be the duty of such committee to visit 
 and inspect the schools in their respective towns and plantations, 
 and inquire into the discipline and regulations thereof, and the 
 proficiency of the scholars therein, and use their influence and 
 best endeavors that the youth in the several districts regularly 
 attend the schools ; and the said committee shall have power to 
 dismiss any schoolmaster or mistress who shall be found incapa- 
 ble or unfit to teach any school, notwithstanding their having 
 procured the requisite certificates, but the towns and plantations 
 shall be bound to pay such instructors for the time they have been 
 employed ; and the superintending committee shall have power to 
 
20 
 
 direct what school-books shall be used in the respective schools ; 
 and at the meeting for the choice of town officers, there shall be 
 chosen an agent for each school district, whose duty it shall be 
 to hire the school-masters or mistresses for their respective dis- 
 tricts, and to provide the necessary utensils and fuel for the 
 schools. If any parent, master or guardian shall, after notice 
 given him by the master or mistress of any school, refuse or 
 neglect to furnish their several scholars with suitable books, the 
 selectmen of the town or the assessors of the plantation thereof, 
 on being notified by such master or mistress, shall furnish the 
 same at the expense of the town or plantation, which expense 
 shall be added to the next town or plantation tax of such parent, 
 master or guardian. 
 
 Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, That no person shall be 
 employed as a schoolmaster unless he be a citizen of the United 
 States, and shall produce a certificate from the superintending 
 school committee of the town or plantation where the school is 
 to be kept, and also from some person of liberal education, liter- 
 ary pursuits and good moral character, residing within the 
 county, that he is well qualified to instruct youth in reading, 
 in writing the English language grammatically, and in arithmetic 
 and other branches of learning taught in the public schools ; and 
 also a certificate from the selectmen of the town or assessors of 
 the plantation where he belongs, that to the best of their knowl- 
 edge he is a person of sober life and conversation and sustains a 
 good moral character. And no person shall be employed as a 
 schoolmistress unless she shall produce a certificate from the 
 superintending school committee of the town or plantation where 
 the school is to be kept, that she is suitably qualified to teach the 
 English language grammatically, and the rudiments of arith- 
 metic, and produce satisfactory evidence of her good moral 
 character. 
 
 Sect. 5. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of 
 each town and plantation to assign to each school district, a pro- 
 portion of the money raised in each year for the support of 
 schools according to the number of children therein, between the 
 ages of four and twenty-one years ; and the assessors of towns 
 shall certify such assignment to the selectmen ; Provided, That 
 whenever any town or plantation shall raise a sum of money 
 
21 
 
 exceeding that required by this Act, such surplus may be dis- 
 tributed among the several school districts in such manner as 
 the town or plantation may determine. And if any town or 
 plantation . shall fail to raise and expend annually for the sup- 
 port of schools the amount of money required by this Act, they 
 shall forfeit and pay a sum not less than twice nor more than 
 four times the amount of such deficiency. And any person who 
 shall teach any school required by this Act, without producing 
 prior to his commencing the same, the certificates required by 
 this Act shall forfeit and pay seventy-five cents for each day 
 he shall so teach such school, and shall be barred from recovering 
 from any town, plantation or person, any pay for teaching such 
 school. 
 
 Sect. 6. Be it further enacted. That all forfeitures for any 
 breach of this Act, shall be recovered by indictment or infor- 
 mation before any court of competent jurisdiction; and it shall 
 be the duty of all Grand Jurors, to make due preparation thereof, 
 in all cases that shall come to their knowledge, and such penalty 
 when recovered, shall, in all instances be paid into the treasury 
 of the town, or plantation, where the same was incurred, for 
 the support of schools therein, in addition to the sum annually 
 required to be raised by this Act, and the cost of prosecution 
 into the county treasury. And if any town or plantation shall 
 neglect for the space of one year, so to appropriate and expend 
 any fine or penalty, they shall forfeit the same, to be recovered 
 in an action of debt to the use of the person who may sue 
 therefor. 
 
 Sect. 7. Be it further enacted, That the several towns and 
 plantations, be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered, 
 to determine the number and define the limits of the school dis- 
 tricts within the same ; and each and every school district in 
 this State is hereby made a body corporate, with power to sue 
 and be sued, and to take and hold any estate, real and personal, 
 for the purpose of supporting a school or schools therein, and 
 to apply the same agreeably to the provisions of this Act, inde- 
 pendently of the money raised by the town for that purpose. 
 
 Sect. 8. Be it further enacted. That the inhabitants of any 
 school district, qualified to vote in town aflfairs, be, and they 
 hereby are empowered, at any district meeting called in manner 
 
22 
 
 hereinafter provided, to raise money for the purpose of erecting, 
 repairing, purchasing, or removing a schoolhouse and of purchas- 
 ing land on which the same may stand, and utensils therefor, and 
 to determine where the said schoolhouse shall be erected or 
 located in said district, and also to determine at what age the 
 youth in said district may be admitted into a school kept by a 
 master or mistress, and whether any scholars shall be admitted 
 into such school from other school districts. 
 
 Sect. 9. Be it further enacted, That for the purpose afore- 
 said all lands, whether improved or unimproved, shall be taxed 
 in the district in which they lie ; and the assessors of any town 
 or plantation, shall assess in the same manner as town taxes are 
 assessed on the polls and estates of the inhabitants composing 
 any school district in their town or plantation and on lands 
 lying within the same, belonging to persons not living therein, 
 all monies voted to be raised by the inhabitants of such district 
 for the purpose aforesaid within thirty days after the clerk of 
 the district shall have certified to said assessors, the sum raised 
 by said district, to be raised as aforesaid. And it shall be the 
 duty of the said assessors to make a warrant in due form of 
 law, directed to one of the assessors of the town or plantation, 
 requiring and ^ipowering the said collector to levy and collect 
 the tax so assessed and pay the same, within a time limited by 
 said warrant, to the treasurer of the town or plantation, to whom 
 a certificate of the assessment shall be made by the assessors ; 
 and the money so collected and paid shall be at the disposal of 
 the committee of the district, to be by them applied agreeably to 
 a vote of their district aforesaid. And such collector in collect- 
 ing such taxes shall have the same powers and be holden to pro- 
 ceed in such manner as is by law provided in the collection of 
 town taxes. 
 
 Sect. 10. Be it further enacted, That the treasurer of any 
 town or plantation, who shall receive a certificate of the assess- 
 ment of a district tax, shall have the same authority to enforce 
 the collection and payment thereof, as of town or plantation 
 taxes. And the assessors of any town or plantation shall have 
 the same power to abate such district tax, as they have to abate 
 a town or plantation tax. And the assessors, collector and treas- 
 urer shall be allowed by the school district the same compensation 
 
23 
 
 for assessing, collecting and paying any district tax, as they are 
 allowed by the town or plantation for similar services. 
 
 Sect. II. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of 
 the selectmen of any town and the assessors of any plantation, 
 upon application made to them in writing by three or more free- 
 holders residing in any school district in such town or plantation, 
 to issue their warrant directed to one of the persons making such 
 application, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of such dis- 
 trict, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at such time and 
 place in the same district as shall in the warrant be appointed. 
 And the warning aforesaid shall be by notifying personally every 
 person in the district qualified to vote in town affairs, or by leav- 
 ing at his usual place of abode a notification in writing, express- 
 ing therein the time, place and purpose of the meeting, seven 
 days at least before the time appointed for holding the same ; 
 Provided, That any town or plantation, at the request of such 
 district, may at any legal meeting thereof, determine the man- 
 ner in which '<otice of future meetings in such town or plantation 
 may be given. And such inhabitants, so assembled, may choose 
 a moderator, and also a clerk, who shall be sworn faithfully to 
 discharge the duties of his office before a justice of the peace, or 
 before the moderator, and it shall be the duty of such clerk to 
 make a fair record of all votes passed at any meeting of the dis- 
 trict, and to certify the same when required ; and may also choose 
 a committee to superintend the laying out and expending the 
 money raised by such district agreeably to their vote, for the 
 purposes aforesaid, to examine and allow such accounts as they 
 may think proper, and to draw orders on the town or plantation 
 treasury for the amount of money raised. 
 
 Sect. 12. Be it further enacted, That whenever at any legal 
 meeting of a school district, called for the purpose of raising 
 money for the erecting, repairing, purchasing or removing a 
 schoolhouse, or for purchasing land on which the same may 
 stand, or for procuring utensils therefor, a majority of the voters 
 present are opposed to raising money for any such purpose, it 
 shall be lawful for the selectmen of the town or the assessors of 
 the plantation in which such district is situated, on application in 
 writing of any five or more freeholders, inhabitants of such dis- 
 trict, to insert in their warrant for calling the next town or plan- 
 
24 
 
 tation meeting, an article requiring the opinion of the town or 
 plantation, relative to such subject as proposed in the said district 
 meeting; and if a majority of the voters present in such town or 
 plantation meeting, shall think it necessary and expedient, they 
 may grant a sufficient sum for the purposes aforesaid, to be 
 assessed on the polls and estates in said district, to be collected 
 and paid as in this Act provided. 
 
 Sect. 13. Be it further enacted. That when the inhabitants 
 of any school district cannot agree where to erect or locate a 
 schoolhouse in their district, the selectmen of the town or assess- 
 ors of the plantation to which such district belongs, upon appli- 
 cation made to them in writing by the committee of the district, 
 chosen to superintend the building or purchasing of such school- 
 house, are hereby authorized and empowered to determine on the 
 place where such schoolhouse shall be erected or located." 
 
 A careful analysis of this law discloses the following provis- 
 ions: I. It established a minimum amount of money which 
 each town and plantation was required to raise and expend, annu- 
 ally, for the support of schools. It will) be noticed that in Section 
 I, it provides that the schools shall be "taught by schoolmasters 
 duly qualified," while in Section 3 provision is made for exam- 
 ining "schoolmasters and schoolmistresses proposing to teach 
 school therein." 2. It establishes the plan of apportioning the 
 money thus raised among the several school districts in the town. 
 3. It provides for a closer organization of the school districts, 
 reciting how they shall be formed, how the district agents shall 
 be chosen ; defining the powers of the district in raising money, 
 locating and erecting schoolhouses and assessing, collecting and 
 expending money. 4. It provides for the election by the town 
 of a superintending school committee, and defines their powers 
 and duties. 5. It defines the qualifications of teachers and 
 establishes the mode of determining those qualifications. 6. It 
 enumerates the subjects to be taught in the common schools 
 including morality, sobriety and industry, (Section 2) as well as 
 the usual public school branches. (Section 4). 7. It estab- 
 lishes penalties for non-compliance with its requirements and 
 recites the manner of appeal from the decision of the school dis- 
 tricts to the town by aggrieved parties. In 1822, an amendment 
 was proposed, taking the power of choosing agents from the 
 
25 
 
 town and giving it to the district. This met with opposition and 
 a compromise amendment was passed makiner it optional with 
 the towns to allow the districts to choose their agents. 
 
 As time progressed defects in the law became apparent, and 
 these the friends of education sought to remedy by suitable legis- 
 lation. Several amendments were enacted by the Legislature 
 of 1825. The original law ot 1821 provided that each town 
 should choose a superintending school committee; it neglected, 
 however, to append any penalty for non-compliance. The com- 
 mittee were required by the first law to visit the schools but 
 nothing was said as to how often or at what periods, neither were 
 the committee given any authority over unruly scholars. The 
 amendatory act of 1825 fixed a penalty of from $30 to $200 upon 
 any town neglecting to cnoose a school committee and gave the 
 committee power to exclude unruly and disobedient pupils. It 
 provided that the district agent should inform the committee of 
 the date of opening and closing of the school and that the com- 
 mittee should visit each school at least twice during its session, 
 once within three weeks after its commencement and again within 
 two weeks of its close. The act of 1821 provided for an annual 
 enumeration of the persons between four and twenty-one in the 
 district as the basis for the division of the school fund, but did 
 not specify any date for such enumeration. The law of 1825 
 named the first day of May as that date. It also allowed ten per 
 cent, of the school fund to be expended for fuel and necessary 
 repairs upon schoolhouses. 
 
 The original statute provided that any district receiving less 
 than $35 as its portion of the school fund for the year, might 
 expend the entire sum in a school taught by a mistress ; but if 
 more than that amount were received, at least two-thirds of it 
 should be expended in a school taught by a master. The act of 
 1825 left it in the discretion of the district and the committee 
 to decide how much of the school fund should be expended for 
 each class of schools. 
 
 Experience proved that some basis must be fixed on which 
 to apportion to the several towns any school funds that might be 
 ■distributed by the State. The original law made no provision 
 for any returns of school statistics to be made bv the towns. 
 The law of 1825 made it the duty o^ the selectmen of the several 
 
26 
 
 towns to make returns, once in three years to the Secretary of 
 State, on blanks furnished by him, giving the number of dis- 
 tricts in town ; the number of scholars in each ; the number 
 usually attending school; the length of the schools and the 
 amount of money expended for their support. The provision 
 was only partially complied with and the returns lacked accuracy 
 and hence were of little value. No apportionment of school 
 money on returns from the towns was made until 1833. 
 
 The Legislature of 1827 made further enactments in regard 
 to education. Provision was made for forming districts out of 
 portions of two or more towns and for the apportionment of 
 school money to persons living upon islands, or in remote por- 
 tions of towns outside of district limits, said money to be 
 expended under the direction of the superintending school 
 committee. Districts were authorized to instruct their agents 
 as to the time when the schools should commence. The act 
 of 1827 also contained the first hint of anything like a graded 
 system of schools. It provided that where, in any district, a 
 school was taught a portion of the year by a master and the 
 remaining portion by a mistress, the district, by a committee 
 appointed by the citizens, or by the school committee of the town, 
 should the districts so choose, might determine what class of 
 scholars should be admitted to each school. 
 
 The Legislature of 1828 enacted a law directing the Land 
 Agent to set apart twenty townships of the public lands to be sold 
 and the proceeds to be deposited in the State treasury, to form 
 a permanent State school fund, the interest to be distributed 
 annually among the several towns and plantations in the State 
 according to the number of scholars therein. The same law pro- 
 vides that a certain portion ("the excess over and above what the 
 State may then owe"), o^ all moneys received from Massachu- 
 setts on account of claims against the United States for services 
 in the war of 181 2, should also be set apart for the support of 
 schools. These two items form what is officially known as the 
 State permanent School Fund, the interest upon which at six per 
 cent, is annually distributed among the towns and plantations for 
 the support of common schools. For the year 1900 this interest 
 amounts to $26,565.47. The Legislature of 1828 also passed a 
 law that one thousand acres should be set apart in all townships 
 
thereafter sold or surveyed instead of the four lots of 320 acres 
 provided for by the old Massachusetts law of 1788. In 1830 
 an act was passed specifying the manner of calling school district 
 meetings. By an act passed in 1831 it was provided that the 
 "Act of Separation" between Massachusetts and Maine should 
 be so far modified or annulled that the Legislature of Maine 
 should have the power to direct that the income of any lands 
 reserved for the benefit of the ministry should be applied to the 
 support of "primary schools" provided the consent of Massachu- 
 setts should be obtained. 
 
 That consent having been obtained the following law was 
 enacted by the Legislature of 1832. 
 
 CHAPTER 39 PUBLIC LAWS OF 1832. 
 
 An Act appropriating the income of certain Ministerial 
 Funds to the support of Schools. 
 
 Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives in Legislature assembled. That the Trustees of any 
 Ministerial Fund incorporated by the Legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, in any town within this State, be and they are hereby 
 authorized, with the consent of the town for whose benefit such 
 fund was established, to surrender and transfer said fund to the 
 Selectmen, Town Clerk and Treasurer of such town ; and said 
 town officers shall be and they are hereby made, ex officio, the 
 Trustees of the fund aforesaid; and, after such transfer, the 
 animal income of said fund shall be applied to the support of 
 primary schools in^such town. 
 
 Sect. 2. Be 'it further enacted. That the income of any fund, 
 which has arisen or which may arise, from the proceeds of the 
 sales of lands reserved for the use of the ministry, or of the first 
 settled minister, in any town in this State, and which fund, or 
 the land from which it may arise has not become vested in some 
 particular parish within such town, or in some individual, is 
 hcrebv directed and required to be annually applied to the sup- 
 port of primary schools in such town. 
 
 Sect. 3. Be it further enacted, That the income of the funds 
 aforesaid shall be expended for the benefit of schools in the 
 same mat!ner that other money raised for the support of schools, 
 in the several towns in this State, is by law required to be 
 expended. 
 
28 
 
 But this act shall not be construed to exempt any town from 
 raising, for the use of the schools, the same sum of money, 
 beyond the income of the fund aforesaid, that it is now by law 
 required to raise for that purpose. 
 
 Sect. 4. Be it further enacted, Ihat all Acts, and parts of 
 Acts, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, he and the 
 same are hereby repealed. 
 
 (Approved by the Governor March 9, 1832). 
 
 At the same session the law was passed allowing the town of 
 Bangor to abolish its school districts and also giving that town 
 authority to pay its school committee such sum for their services 
 as might be deemed proper. No legal provision had before 
 been made for the payment of school committees and this act 
 applied to Bangor alone. This act also gave Bangor the right 
 "to determine the age at which scholars may be admitted into 
 the several schools in said town, and of transferring the scholars 
 from school to school."' Plere.at this early date we find the 
 germ of our present law for the conveyance of scholars. 
 
 The Legislature of 1833 passed an act additional to an act to 
 provide for the Education of Youth. This act provides "That 
 all sums which may hereafter be received by the State for the 
 tax on the several banks, excepting the sum of one thousand 
 dollars appropriated for the benefit of the Parsonsfield Semin- 
 ary, shall be and the same hereby are appropriated to the support 
 of primary schools."' Section 2, provided that school agents 
 should be sworn and that they should in the month of Decem- 
 ber in each year return to the selectmen a certified list of the 
 number of scholars between four and twenty-one. 
 
 Section 3, required the selectmen to make the return called for 
 in the act of 1825 to the Secretary of State "in the month of 
 January annually" instead of once in three years as the original 
 act prescribed. 
 
 Section 4, required the Secretary of State to notify the State 
 Treasurer of the number of scholars "in the several towns, plan- 
 tations and city aforesaid from which returns were seasonably 
 made.'" Section 5, required the State Treasurer to apportion 
 the bank tax among the several towns, etc.. according to the 
 number of scholars and to send the amoimt to the several town 
 treasurers on or after the fifteenth day of February in each year. 
 Section 6, required the selectmen to apportion the amount 
 
29 
 
 received among the several school districts according to the 
 number of scholars in each. Section 7, provided that the towns 
 should not be relieved by this distribution from raising the 40 
 cents per capita required by the former law. 
 
 In 1834 was passed "An Act to provide for the Instruction 
 of Youth," Chapter 129, Public Laws of 1834. In this act all 
 the school laws, previously enacted were collected in one statute, 
 a few minor changes were made and all acts inconsistent there- 
 with were repealed. In this act the superintending school com- 
 mittee of each town were to consist of not less than three nor 
 more than five, instead of seven as in the former law. The com- 
 mittee were required to be sworn and to make a written report 
 of the condition of the schools, to be read at the annual town 
 meeting. Destricts were allowed to vote to receive scholars 
 from other towns and other districts into their schools. The 
 act also allowed all towns in the State, if they should so vote at 
 any legal meeting called for that purpose, to adopt the school 
 organization allowed by former laws to Portland, Bath and 
 Bangor. 
 
 [n March, 1835, the third .section of the act of February 23, 
 1828, which provided that certain moneys received from Massa- 
 chusetts on claims against the United States for services in "the 
 late war" should be set apart for a school fund, was repealed. 
 
 An act approved February 13, jS^.y, repealed certain sections 
 of the general act of 1834 and provided "That it shall be the 
 duty of the Selectmen of Towns and the overseers of Planta- 
 tions, respectively, to make out a statement, annually, of the 
 number of scholars in each of their districts, between the ages of 
 four and twenty-one years, as the same existed on the first day 
 of May preceding ; the number of school districts within their 
 respective towns or plantations ; the number of scholars who 
 usually attend school in each ; the amount of money raised and 
 expended for the support of schools ; designating what part is 
 raised by taxes and what part from funds, and how such funds 
 have accrued ; and the time the school has been kept in each, 
 desigiiating how much by a schoolmistress ; and to certify upon 
 oath in said statement, that the same is true and correct accord- 
 ing to their best knowledge and belief; and to transmit the said 
 statement to the office of the Secretary of State, on or before 
 the twentieth day of January in each year." This law also pro- 
 
30 
 
 yided that the distribution of the bank tax should be predicated 
 upon the statements made in these returns : also that the Secre- 
 tary of State should furnish proper blanks for making the 
 required returns. On March 20, 1838, a resolve was passed m 
 the following words : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Secretary of State be required to make an 
 abstract in tabular form, by counties, of the returns of Common 
 Schools made by the several towns, cities and plantations for 
 the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, together 
 with a statement of the population of ^each town, city and plan- 
 tation according to the census taken in that year, and such com- 
 parisons of the returns of schools and of population and such 
 deductions therefrom as may be usefully and conveniently made, 
 and a statement of the amount paid, or to be paid, to each town, 
 city and plantation out of the Bank Tax or School Fund for the 
 same year." 
 
 ''Resolved, That the Secretary of State be authorized to cause 
 ten thousand copies of the abstract and statements aforesaid to 
 be printed and distributed for the information of the people, 
 reserving five hundred copies thereof to be laid before the next 
 Legislature for the use of the members." 
 
 Abstracts, as contemplated by this resolve, were made each 
 year until 1842, but the tables proved to be so faulty and unre- 
 liable that the resolve of 1S38 was repealed in January, 1842, and 
 the publication of the abstracts discontinued, 
 
 On March 16, i8zj.o, an act was approved providing for a fine 
 of not more than twenty nor less than two dollars for disturb- 
 ing schools. Offences under this act were to be prosecuted by 
 presentment of the Grand Jury or by complaint before a Justice 
 of the Peace. 
 
 (Occasionally during these early years we find resolves giving 
 persons residing at a distance from schools a certain sum in full 
 of their share of the school fand when they shall make it appear 
 that they have expended a like amount in the education of their 
 children. 
 
 In 1840, a resolve was passed directing the vState Treasurer 
 to include in his apportionment of the School Fund all returns 
 of scholars received up to February twenty-second and to 
 assume as the basis of apportionment for such towns as had not 
 made a return at that time the number of scholars given by the 
 
31 
 
 last census. In 1841, the time for making- the returns was 
 extended to the twelfth of March. A resolve approved March 
 20, 1841, directed the State Treasurer to pay to the County- 
 Treasurers the amount of school money due "unincorporated 
 and unorganized plantations in their respective Counties," the 
 same to be paid by the County Treasurers to the treasurers or 
 agents of the several plantations. 
 
 Chapter \y of the Revised vStatutes of 1841 collects in one act 
 the entire school legislation of the State, in this revision certain 
 changes were made. The superintending school committee were 
 required to make their return of school statistics to the select- 
 men fourteea days prior to the annual town meeting. For the 
 first time a general provision was made for pajing the com- 
 mittees for services rendered, the pay being fixed at "not more 
 than one dollar per day for their services, unless otherwise 
 ordered by the town.'' A slight change was made in the 
 required qualifications of teachers, "writing" being added as one 
 of the requirements of schoolmistresses. 
 
 In his inaugural address, January J5, 1841, Governor Kent 
 says : "We are justly proud of our system of common schools 
 and New England can point to no higher evidence of the v;is- 
 dom, patriotism and foresight of tlie fathers of our land. The 
 principle of universal education, upon which the system is 
 based, lies at the very foundation of our republican institutions. 
 
 * * * * Tq ^id jj-^ |-|^g great work of renovation, we need 
 a higher standard of qualifications for teachers, institutions par- 
 ticularly adapted to instruct and prepare them for the great 
 work before them, schoolhouses of better and more suitable con- 
 struction, and a more general interest on the part of the people 
 in the researches and suggestions of those who have investigated 
 the whole subject with patience, ability and minuteness, a dis- 
 semination of the able treatises which have been published and 
 a determination to adopt and carry out in practice judicious 
 reforms and unquestionable improvements. In aid of their 
 views, I would suggest the expediency of authorizing school 
 districts to raise money for the purchase of district libraries, of 
 standard works, under the direction of a committee or otherwise. 
 
 •K * * * * J ^ff^ not prepared to recommend at this 
 time, the establishment of a Board of Education, but I have no 
 doubt that the employment of one or more intelligent, active, 
 
32 
 
 judicious commissioners, whose duty it shall be to devote their 
 time and talents to this subject, visit different parts of the State 
 and disseminate information, awaken attention and interest 
 among- the citizens and carry into practical operation well estab- 
 lished improvements, and gather and arrange statistics, would 
 be highly advantageous to the cause of popular education, and 
 amply repay, in substantial benefits, the cost of the experiment. 
 * * * "■ I cannot but regard the course adopted in most of 
 our compact and populous towns and villages, by which the 
 public and common schools are made of secondary importance 
 by the preeminence given to private instruction, as injurious to the 
 cause of general education, and as fostering a spirit which leads 
 to invidious distinctions in society and serves to degrade the 
 public seminaries, in many minds, to a point little short of 
 absolute contempt." 
 
 In 1842 a law was passed prescribing the duties of school 
 officers in districts composed of parts of two or more towns. 
 This act also provided for the grading of schools in districts 
 having a sufficient number of scholars to require two or more 
 schools to be in operation at the same time. 
 
 In the session of 1843, the committee on education, through 
 its chairman, reported a bill to provide for a Board of School 
 Commissioners, to consist of one from each of the thirteen coun- 
 ties in the State, to be appointed by the Governor and Council. 
 This bill was thoroughly discussed in the House and the argu- 
 ments for and against were fully brought out. The bill passed 
 the House by a small majority, but was, without debate, indefi- 
 nitely postponed by the Senate. The discussion was, however, 
 of great importance in awakening public interest in the improve- 
 ment of the common schools. 
 
 The Legislature of 1844 enacted four laws in relation to 
 public schools. The first, approved February 29, provided 
 that plantations organized for election purposes only, should 
 be empowered to establish schools and should receive a 
 share of the apportionment of the State school fund, accord- 
 ing to the number of persons of school age living therein. 
 The law recited at length the manner of organization, of 
 census enumeration, and prescribed the powers and duties of 
 the school officers. The act of March 6 gave to districts '"'where 
 more than one school is necessary to accommodate the scholars 
 
33 
 
 in said district," power to build ''such a number of scboolhouses 
 as the wants of said district may require." The third act 
 approved March 19, authorized school districts to expend not to 
 exceed five per cent, of their school money in any one year for 
 the purchase "of district libraries. The fourth act, approved 
 March 21, provided that when any district declined to raise 
 money for any purpose which the town considered necessary, 
 the town might require the district to raise the sum needed and 
 the selectmen were required to appoint, in writing, three suit- 
 able inhabitants of said district, to be a committee to superin- 
 tend the expenditure of the money, etc., etc. 
 
 In 1845, the committee on education again reported a bill pro- 
 viding for a Board of School Commissioners, to be appointed 
 by the Governor and Council and to consist of not less than three 
 nor more than live persons. After full and free discussion in 
 both branches of the Legislature, the bill failed of a passage. 
 
 In January, 1846, a convention of teachers and of those inter- 
 ested in education was held in Augusta. A committee consist- 
 ing of Amos Brown, Phillip Eastman, A. S. Packard and 
 Samuel P. Benson, was appointed by this convention, with 
 instructions to consider carefu.llv "the defects in our educational 
 system and to suggest measures for their removal." This com- 
 mittee was instructed also to prepare a memorial upon the sub- 
 ject and submit it to the Legislature at its next session. Tn their 
 memorial the committee emphasized the following as the princi- 
 pal evils then existing in the common school system of Maine • 
 I. "The multiplying of school districts." 2. "The prevalent 
 inefficiency of school committees." 3. "The want of suitable 
 qualifications in teachers." 4. "The want of proper classifica- 
 tion in schools, arising from multiplicity of school books and 
 want of system in the course of study." The committee strongly 
 recommended the establishment of a State Board of Education. 
 This memorial was presented to the Legislature and was by 
 them referred to the committee on Education who reported the 
 following bill, which was enacted by the Legislature and was 
 approved by the Governor, July 27, 1846: 
 
 An Act to establish a Board of Education. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled : 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 Section i. A Board of Education is hereby established in 
 this State, to consist of one member from each county who shall 
 be elected in the manner hereinafter provided. 
 
 Sect. 2. The superintending school committees of the several 
 towns, and the clerks of the several plantations in' each county 
 are hereby required to assemble, annually, at the times and 
 places hereinafter designated, and when so assembled in each 
 county, to choose, by the majority of those present, one person, a 
 resident of the county, who shall be the member of the Board of 
 Education for such county, and shall hold his office until a suc- 
 cessor is duly chosen and qualified. The county meetings 
 aforesaid shall be organized by the choice of a chairman and 
 clerk, who shall severally certify the election of the member 
 chosen and transmit one copy of such certificate to the Secretary 
 of State, and one copy to the person chosen. 
 
 Sect. 3. A quorum of each county meeting shall consist of 
 one or more members of the superintending school committee 
 from a majority of the towns in each county, but if any town or 
 city shall have a superintending school committee consisting of 
 more than five members, such committee shall appoint delegates 
 from their own number, not exceeding five, which delegates 
 shall exercise the duties and powers herein provided. 
 
 Sect, 4. The county meetings aforesaid shall be held at the 
 shire towns in each county, and at Wiscasset in the county of 
 Lincoln, at the times following: 
 
 York, third Tuesday of September. 
 
 Cumberland, Friday next after the third Tuesday of Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 Oxford, fourth Tuesday of September. 
 
 Franklin, first Tuesday of October. 
 
 Somerset, Friday next after the first Tuesday of October, 
 
 Piscataquis, second Tuesday in October, 
 
 Penobscot, Friday next after the second Tuesday in October, 
 
 Aroostook, third Tuesday in October, 
 
 Washington, Friday next after the third Tuesday in October. 
 
 Hancock, fourth Tuesday in October. 
 
 Waldo, first Tuesday in November. 
 
 Lincoln, Friday next after third Tuesday in November, 
 
 Kennebec, second Tuesdav in November, 
 
35 
 
 And each meeting shall be held at eleven o'clock on the days 
 aforesaid. 
 
 Sect. 5. The members of the Board of Education thus chosen 
 shall hold their first meeting on the first Wednesday of May in 
 each year at Augusta, and may meet thereafter, at such times 
 and places as they shall by vote determine. They shall appoint 
 a chairman and clerk from their own number. Five members 
 shall be a quorum for the transaction of business. In case of 
 any vacancy in the Board, or if in any county an election shall 
 not have been effected at the county meeting herein provided, 
 the members of the Board actually elected and in office, may fill 
 such vacancy and supply such failure for any county where the 
 same may occur. 
 
 Sect. 6. The Board of Education first chosen, shall meet for 
 organization, and for choice of the Secretary hereinafter pro- 
 vided, on the third Wednesday of December next, at Augusta, 
 and shall hold their offices until the first Wednesday of May, 
 eighteen hundred and forty-eight, and the term of each new 
 Board of Education thereafter shall commence on the first Wed- 
 nesday of May, annually. 
 
 Sect. 7. The Board of Education shall, at their first meeting 
 in each year, elect by ballot, one person, who shall be styled the 
 Secretary of the Board of Education, and shall hold his office 
 for one year, and until another shall be chosen. But the Secre- 
 tary first elected, shall hold his office, until the first Wednesday 
 of May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Tn case of a vacancy 
 in the office of Secretary, it shall be the duty of the Board, as 
 soon as may be, after the occurence of such vacancy, to elect 
 another for the remainder of the year. 
 
 Sect. 8. The members of the Board, and the Secretary, shall 
 severally be sworn to the faithful performance of their respective 
 duties, before any magistrate authorized to qualify civil officers. 
 Sect. 9. It shall be the duty of the Board of Education, and 
 especially of the Secretary, to devote themselves assiduously to 
 examine the practical operation of those parts of the constitution 
 and laws of the State, which provide for public education, and 
 the diffusion of knowledge among the people. In pursuance 
 of this object, the Secretary shall attend the county meetings 
 herein provided for the election of members of the Board, and 
 communicate with the superintending school committees there 
 
36 
 
 assembled, and with teachers and the friends of pubhc instruc- 
 tion genera]l_v. And the Board of Education, directly, or 
 through the agency of the Secretary, are authorized and 
 required to collect and disseminate information in regard to 
 the location and construction of schoolhouses ; on the arrange- 
 ment of school districts and the use of the best school appar- 
 atus; to consult with superintending school committees and 
 school agents on the best and cheapest method of introducing 
 uniform school books, and on the practicability and expediency 
 of establishing school district libraries ; to inquire and report 
 on the advantages of normal schools, or schools for the edu- 
 cation of teachers ; to consider the best methods of aiding and 
 promoting education in the new settlements of the State ; to 
 devise improvements in teaching the branches of instruction 
 now pursued in the common schools, and for the introduction 
 of such other branches of useful knowledge as may be practi- 
 cable, and generally to consult with school committees, school 
 agents, and other authorities and inhabitants of the State, for 
 the purpose of ascertaining, recommending and promoting all 
 such improvements in the common school system as may be 
 consistent with the constitution and laws of the State, and the 
 welfare of its inhabitants. And it shall be the duty of the Board 
 in the month of April, annually, to prepare a report of their 
 doings, and the results of their investigations during the pre- 
 ceding year, which shall be presented to the Governor, and by 
 him laid before the Legislature. 
 
 Sect. lO. The Secretary of State is hereby authorized, under 
 the direction of the Governor and Council, to furnish such blank 
 forms for returns respecting schools as the Board of Education 
 may recommend ; and all such returns may be addressed to the 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Sect. II. The members of the Board of Education shall each 
 receive for their travel from their several places of residence to 
 the place of their several meetings, ten cents per mile, and one 
 dollar for each day's attendance at any meeting, but not exceed- 
 ing in the aggregate thirty days in each year. 
 
 Sect. 12. The Secretary of the Board of Education shall 
 receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars, payable in 
 quarterly payments, which shall be in full for all services and 
 expenses of said office. 
 
37 
 
 Sect. 13. The Board of Education, at such times as they may 
 appoint, sliall make up their pay roll for travel and attendance, 
 which, when examined and allowed by the Governor and 
 Council, shall be paid to them, out of any money in the treasury 
 not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Sect. 14. For the purpose of providing- for the organization 
 of the first Board of Education, the Governor, with the advice 
 of his Council, is hereby authorized to appoint, before the first 
 day of August next, a provisional School Agent for the State, 
 M'hose duty it shall be to communicate with the superintending 
 school committees of the several towns respecting the duties 
 required by this act, to make such arrangements as may be nec- 
 essary for the ■ first county meetings herein provided, and to 
 obtain, from the returns now in the office of the Secretary of 
 State, and from other sources, such information respecting 
 the actual condition of common schools within this State, as may 
 be usefully laid before the county meetings, and the Board of 
 Education, at their first organization, to enable them to enter 
 without delay, upon the discharge of their duties. The duties 
 of such Agent shall continue until the Board of Education is 
 organized ; and he shall receive therefor such compensation as 
 shall be allowed by the Governor and Council, not exceeding 
 two hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 The law provided that the Board should consist of one mem- 
 ber from each county, to be elected by the school committees of 
 the several towns and the clerks of the several plantations. 
 The following persons were elected members of this Board, viz : 
 Stephen Emery, Horace Piper, Philip Eastman, Benjamin Ran- 
 dall, A. F. Drink water, Aaron Hayden, R. H. Vose, Samuel 
 Taylor, Ebenezer Knowlton, David Worcester, Oliver L. Cur- 
 rier, Samuel Adams, and William I. Savage. This committee 
 chose as its first Secretary of the Board Mr. William G. Crosby 
 of Belfast. The first session commenced December 16 and 
 closed December 21, 1846. The second session began on the 
 5th of May, 1847. I'h^ Secretary presented his report, which 
 was afterwards submitted to the Legislature. The report gives 
 the first reliable statistics concerning the common schools of 
 Maine. By this report the average wages of female teachers 
 was $1.52 per week and of male teachers $16.71 per month, 
 exclusive of board. The average length of schools for the year 
 
was 21 weeks, i day. The number of persons between 4 and 21 
 years was 201,992: whole number in winter schools, 94,217; in 
 summer schools, 96,127. Thus it will be seen that less than fifty 
 per cent, of persons of legal school age were enrolled in public 
 schools. 
 
 An act approved August 10, 1864, provided that moneys aris- 
 ing from the sale of timber on the reserved lots in unincorpor- 
 ated townships should constitute funds for school purposes, the 
 income only to be expended. The funds were to be invested by 
 the County Commissioners of the several counties. If there 
 were no inhabitants in a township from which timber was sold, 
 the interest should be added annuallly to the principal. If the 
 township had inhabitants and if they became organized into a 
 plantation, then the interest should be paid yearly to the planta- 
 tion clerk, to be applied to the support of schools. 
 
 Aug. 2, 1847, an act was approved providing for the better 
 education of youth in cotton and woolen mills. Children 
 employed between the ages of twelve and fifteen years were 
 required to attend school three months in each year, and chil- 
 dren under twelve )^ears, four months ; a certificate to that efifect 
 to be deposited with the clerk or agent of the mills. A penalty 
 of fifty dollars for each offense was provided, and superintend- 
 ing school committees were required to inquire into violations 
 of the law and report to the County Attorneys. 
 
 In June, 1847, a l^w was passed providing for the establishment 
 of county teachers' institutes. To defray the expense of these 
 institutes the sum of twenty-six hundred dollars was to be set 
 apart annually from the income of the permanent school fund 
 and a maximum of two hundred dollars was appropriated from 
 this sum for the expenses of each covmty institute. 
 
 One institute was held in each county, thirteen in all, during 
 the latter part of the year 1847. Sixteen hundred and eighty- 
 six teachers attended the sessions and great good resulted to 
 the teaching force of the State. 
 
 An act approved July 31, 1847, made several amendments 
 to the laws in relation to schools. Additional duties were 
 imposed upon superintending school committees and they were 
 denied pay until they had furnished evidence to the selectmen 
 that they had made the required returns to the Secretary of 
 
39 
 
 State. Districts were authorized to unite and appropriate a 
 certain portion of their school funds for a graded school. 
 Districts were also authorized to determine what proportion 
 of their school money should be applied for the support of 
 schools taught by schoolmistresses. In case school agents 
 failed to take the census of scholars, it was made the duty of 
 the assessors to make the enumeration and return. The clause 
 requiring teachers to be citizens of the United States was 
 repealed. The time of making school returns to the Secretary of 
 State was changed from January 20, to April i, and towns neg- 
 lecting to make returns forfeited their share of the State School 
 Fund. Additional penalties were provided for disturbing 
 schools and destroying school property. School districts were 
 allowed to purchase "apparatus" as well as libraries, and teachers 
 were required to keep registers and were denied pay until the 
 register, properly filled out, was deposited with the school com- 
 mittee. 
 
 An act approved June 27, 1848, made some amendments to 
 the law establishing a Board of Edvication. By this act it was 
 prescribed that the annual meeting of the superintending school 
 committees should be held at such time and place in each 
 county as the member of the Board for the county should 
 appoint ; he to give thirty days' notice to the committees of the 
 several towns in his county. In case of a vacancy on the Board 
 from any county, the Secretary of the Board should call the meet- 
 ing of the committees. The annual report of the Board should 
 be made in the month of May, instead of April as required by 
 the original act. Chapter 44 of the laws of 1848 directed the 
 State Treasurer to discontinue the apportionment and distribu- 
 tion of the annual school funds to unincorporated or unorgan- 
 ized places. 
 
 Chapter 48, of the laws of 1848 required that school agents, 
 whether elected by towns or school districts, should be sworn 
 either by the district clerk, the town clerk or by some justice 
 of the peace. Chapter 54, same year, provides that when a 
 majority of the selectmen of any town shall reside in one school 
 district in which it becomes necessary to locate a schoolhouse, 
 or shall not be able to agree, the superintending school committee 
 shall locate the house. 
 
4" 
 
 Chapter 124 of the laws of 1849 directed that an amount 
 equal to six per cent, of the permanent school fund shall be 
 annually appropriated for the support of primary schools. The 
 Treasurer of State shall annually in the month of May distribute 
 the fund in the same manner as required in case of the bank 
 tax. This act shall not relieve towns from raising the required 
 forty cents per capita. 
 
 Chapter 129, 1849, authorized the Land Agent to dispose of 
 any timber lands apportioned for the benefit of common schools 
 without regard to the law requiring that no more than three 
 townships should be sold in any one year. 
 
 Chapter 137, 1849, authorized school districts to elect tax 
 collectors. 
 
 Chapter 143, 1849, amended the act establishing teachers' 
 institutes by directing that the expense of their maintenance 
 should be paid from "any rnoney not otherwise appropriated" 
 instead of "from the income of the permanent school fund" as 
 provided in the original act. 
 
 Chapter 193 of the Public Laws of 1850 entitled : "An Act 
 to provide for the education of youth," approved August 27, 
 1850, is a complete codification in twelve Articles of the school 
 laws of the State. 
 
 Article i. Containing sixteen sections, relates to "the gen- 
 eral duties of towns." In section eight of this Article it is pro- 
 vided that the number of superintending school committee in 
 each town shall be limited to three, one of whom shall be chosen 
 each year, the term of office to be three years. Section 9 provides 
 that any town containing two thousand inhabitants or more, 
 may, instead of a committee, choose a supervisor of schools. It 
 required that the supervisor be a resident of the town and a 
 "competent individual." 
 
 Section 11 allowed towns to choose annually a committee of 
 not less than three and were authorized to "invest such com- 
 mittee with the rights, powers and obligations pertaining to 
 school agents as well as to a superintending school committee." 
 Section 14, 15 and 16 authorized towns to make "all needful 
 provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants." 
 
 Article II containing twenty-one sections, treats "of the powers 
 and obligations of school districts." Article III. with nineteen 
 
41 
 
 sections, treats "of the assessment and collection of money 
 raised or borrowed by school districts." No change of import- 
 ance is made in these two articles. Article IV, consisting of 
 five sections, treats "of school districts formed from two or more 
 towns." This article provides for the formation of school dis- 
 tricts from two or more towns, prescribes the manner of organ- 
 ization, how money shall be apportioned, location of school- 
 houses decided and schools superintended. Article V, contain- 
 ing three sections, the first two being subdivided into nine para- 
 graphs each, treats "of the powers and duties of superintending 
 school committees." Section one enumerates the duties of the 
 committee as, ist to fill any vacancies occurring on the board 
 until the next annual meeting ; 2nd and 3d, to examine teachers ; 
 4th, to select books ; 5th, to visit schools twice each term ; 6th, to 
 dismiss unfit or incapable teachers ; 7th, to expel obstinately 
 disobedient and disorderly scholars ; 8th, to exclude persons 
 not vaccinated ; 9th, to report the state of the schools to the 
 tion. Section 2 defines what the returns shall include. ist, 
 amount of money raised and expended for schools and how 
 raised or obtained ; 2d, number of districts and parts of dis- 
 tricts. 3d, number of persons* between 4 and 21 years of age on 
 May 1st. 4th, number of persons of school age residing on 
 islands or in portions of town not classed with any district. 5th, 
 whole number and average number attending summer schools 
 and same of winter schools. 6th, average length of schools, 
 summer, winter, and for the year. 8th, wages of male teachers 
 per month and of female teachers per week exclusive of board. 
 9th, returns to be made, certified and transmitted to office of 
 Secretary of State on or before the first day of April each year. 
 When for any reason, only one member of the committee is left, 
 it shall be his duty to make the return. Section 3 requires 
 parents, masters and guardians to furnish books to pupils. If 
 they neglect or refuse, the town shall furnish books and add 
 expense to next town tax of the delinquent. Article VI, con- 
 taining one section with six subdivisions, treats "of the powers 
 and duties of school agents." ist. to call district meetings. 2d, 
 to employ teachers. 3d to provide fuel and utensils and make 
 repairs. One-tenth of the school money was allowed for repairs, 
 exclusive of fuel and insurance. 4th, to notify the committee of 
 time when school is to commence ; whether to he kept by master 
 
42 
 
 or mistress, and for how long a term. 6th, to make annual 
 return to the assessors, of the number of scholars in the district. 
 Article VII, containing three sections, was devoted to "Duties 
 and qualifications of instructors." Section i required teachers 
 to keep a register. Section 2 made it the duty of all instructors 
 in colleges, academies and schools to inculcate morality and 
 virtue. Section 3 prescribed a forfeiture for teaching without 
 a certificate and provided that no certificate should be valid for 
 more than one year unless annually endorsed by the committee. 
 Article VIII, consisting of ten sections, relates to "scholars in 
 certain plantations." Article IX, containing fourteen sections, 
 treated of "a Board of Education and Secretary ; how elected and 
 their powers and duties." Section i provided that the Board 
 should consist of one member from each county ; section 2 that 
 the members of the Board should be chosen annually by the 
 superintending school committees of the several towns, etc., 
 etc. ; section 3 treated of the details of conducting meetings for 
 the choice of a member of the Board ; section 4 of the time and 
 place of holding such meetings ; section 5 provided that the 
 Board should meet for organization and for choice of a Secretary 
 at Augusta on the first Wednesdaf of May in each year, at which 
 time the term of each new Board should commence ; section 6 
 treated of the manner of organization, five members to constitute 
 a quorum and the Board to have power to fill vacancies if any 
 county neglected to do so ; section 7 required the Board at their 
 first meeting each year, to choose a Secretary who should hold 
 office for one year, or until his successor was chosen ; section 8 
 required members of the Board and the Secretary to be sworn 
 bv a magistrate ; section 9 prescribed the duties of the members 
 and Secretary. They should examine carefully all the laws 
 relating to schools and their practical operation ; the Secretary 
 should attend the county meetings for election of members : the 
 Board, directly or through the agency of the Secretary, should 
 collect and disseminate information in regard to the location and 
 construction of schoolhouses, the arrangement of school dis- 
 tricts and the use of the best school apparatus ; to consult with 
 school officers on the best and cheapest method of introducing 
 uniform school books, etc. ; to inquire and report upon the 
 
43 
 
 advantages of normal schools ; to consider the best methods of 
 aiding and promoting education in the new settlements of the 
 State ; to devise improvements in methods of instruction in 
 branches now taught in the common schools and to introduce 
 other branches, if practicable, and to promote "all such improve- 
 ments in the common school system as may be consistent with 
 the constitution and laws of the State and the welfare of its 
 inhabitants." It was made the duty of the Board, "before the 
 first Wednesday of May, annually, to prepare a report of their 
 doings, and the result of their investigations during the preced- 
 ing year, which shall be presented to the Governor and by him 
 laid before the Legislature." Section lo authorized the Secre- 
 tary of State to furnish blank forms for school returns and pro- 
 vided that all such returns should be addressed to the Secretary 
 of State. Section ii fixed the compensation of the members of 
 the Board of Education at one dollar a day for attendance upon 
 the meetings of the Board, not to exceed thirty days in each year, 
 and ten cents per mile travel from place of residence to place of 
 meeting. Section 12 fixed the salary of the Secretary of the 
 Board at one thousand dollars "in full for all services and 
 expenses." Section 13 required the pay-roll of the Board to be 
 audited by the Governor and Council. Section 14 required that 
 each member of the Board should have sole charge of the 
 teachers' institutes in his county and should make a report to 
 the Board, before the first Wednesday in May, of the result of 
 his labors, of the quality of the teachers and the condition of the 
 schools of his county, together with such other information as 
 he may deem necessary and proper. 
 
 Article X contained sixteen articles and was devoted to 
 "special provisions relating to the regulation and endowment of 
 schools, and afi:"ecting the government and discipline of literary 
 institutions." Section i provided that all forfeitures and pen- 
 alties under this act should be recovered by indictment before 
 any court of competent jurisdiction, the amount of the penalty 
 to be paid into the treasury of the town where the same was 
 incurred and the costs of prosecution to be turned into the county 
 treasury. Section 2 provided that any town neglecting to 
 expend the fines and penalties for the support of schools should 
 forfeit an equal amount, to the use of any person who should 
 sue therefor. 
 
44 
 
 Section 3 provided that all moneys received for the sale of 
 public lands shall be set apart for a common school fund, the 
 interest to be distributed among the towns according to the num- 
 ber of children between four and twenty-one years of age in the 
 town. 
 
 Section 4 specified that all the money received on the bank tax 
 should be added to the school fund. Section 5 required the Sec- 
 retary of State annually to report to the State Treasurer the 
 number of children in each town. Section 6 required the State 
 Treasurer, in the month of May of each year, to distribute to 
 the several cities, towns and plantations the funds set apart for 
 the support of schools, according to the number of children 
 between four and twenty-one, provided, however, that no town 
 should receive any part of the school fund, unless its returns 
 were received by the Secretary of State on, or before, the tenth 
 day of April. Section 7 required the Secretary of State to fur- 
 nish the "superintending school committees with blanks for mak- 
 ing returns. Section 8 provided that the president of any college 
 should be removable at any time at the pleasure of the trustees 
 who elected him. Section 9 required that all fees for diplomas 
 or medical degrees granted by any college should be paid into 
 the treasury of said college and no part thereof should be 
 received as a perquisite of any officer of the college. Section 10 
 provided that no inn-holder, tavern, boarding-house or livery 
 stable keeper should give credit to students without the consent 
 of the officers of the college or other literary institution. Section 
 1 1 provided that no license should be given to any person guilty 
 of giving credit to students. Section 12 provided that if any 
 person should, contrary to this provision, give credit to a student, 
 he should forfeit a sum equal to the amount so credited. Section 
 13 prescribed a penalty for interrupting or disturbing schools. 
 Section 14 made parents and guardians liable for all injuries 
 done by a minor to school property. Section 15 provided that 
 in the construction of this act, the word "town" should include 
 "city" and "plantation," wherever consistent with the context. 
 Section 16 provided that all provisions of the school law should 
 apply as well to executions against school districts as against 
 towns. Article XI contained three sections and treated of teach- 
 ers' institutes. Section i provided for holding teachers' insti- 
 tutes for not less than ten working days, "said meetings to be 
 
45 
 
 held annually in different sections of the county and not oftener 
 than once in four years in the same or adjoining towns, except 
 in those counties where suitable places cannot be obtained for 
 said meeting." Section 2 provided that a sum not to exceed two 
 hundred dollars should be expended for the support of each insti- 
 tute. Section 3 authorized the Governor to draw his warrant 
 upon the treasury for a sum not exceeding twenty-six hundred 
 dollars annually to meet the expenses of the institutes. 
 
 Article 12, consisting of one section, repealed by title all acts 
 inconsistent with this act. 
 
 Chapter 233, of the public laws of 1852, extended the term for 
 which school districts might borrow money, from five to ten 
 years. 
 
 Chapter 243 of the acts of 1852 provided for the establishment 
 of graded free schools by the union of two or more school dis- 
 tricts. Chapter 268 of the same year specified that supervisors 
 of schools should be elected annually. Chapter 293 of the public 
 laws of 1852 is entitled "An act establishing a Commissioner of 
 Common Schools in each county in the State." Section i of this 
 act required the Governor and Council to appoint, annually, a 
 Commissioner of Common Schools in each county of the State, 
 to hold office for one year from the first day of May. Section 2 
 specified the duties of the Commissioner "to spend at least fifty 
 days (during the term of the winter schools) in visiting the 
 towns in his county, for the purpose of promoting, by addresses, 
 inquiries and other means, the cause of common school educa- 
 tion, and annually to make a report to the Legislature, of his 
 doings under this act, of the character of teachers, and of the 
 order and condition of the schools and schoolhouses in his 
 county, together with such other information and suggestions 
 as his experience and observation may enable him to offer, calcu- 
 lated to advance the cause of popular education," Section 3 
 forbade the School Commissioner to be interested, directly or 
 indirectly, in the sale of school books under penalty of forfeiting 
 his office and being ineligible to reappointment. Section 4 fixed 
 the compensation of the School Commissioners at two hundred 
 dollars per year "in full for all services rendered and expenses 
 incurred." Section 5 required the Commissioners to be sworn. 
 Section 6 is as follows : "All the sections of an act approved 
 
46 
 
 August twenty-seventh, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and fifty, estabHshing teachers' institutes, a Board 
 of Education and Secretary, and also all other acts and parts of 
 acts inconsistent with the provisions of this aci are hereby 
 repealed." In accordance with the provisions of this act, the 
 following named gentlemen were appointed as School Commis- 
 sioners in their several counties, viz : York, R. A. Chapman, 
 Biddeford ; Cumberland. John M. Adams, Portland ; Lincoln, 
 Daniel Small, Thomaston ; Hancock, Charles Jarvis, Ellsworth ; 
 Washington, Robert N. Smith, Calais ; Kennebec, David Fales, 
 Augusta ; Oxford, William Frye, Bethel ; Somerset, William M. 
 E. Brown, Solon; Penobscot, Joseph Bartlett, Bangor; Franklin, 
 A. B. Caswell, Farm'ington ; Aroostook, George A. Nourse, 
 Limestone ; Waldo, Nathan G. Hichborn, Prospect ; Piscataquis, 
 Valentine B. Oak, Sangerville. Messrs. Chapman of York and 
 Smith of Washington declined to accept, and Abner Oaks of 
 Kennebunk and George F. Talbot of East Machias were substi- 
 tuted. Whatever work they may have done is unrecorded for 
 no reports remain, if any were ever made. In 1853 the list of 
 Commissioners appears as follows, viz : York, Caleb B. Lord, 
 Limerick ; Cumberland, John N. Adams, Portland ; Lincoln, 
 Joseph T. Huston, Bath ; Hancock, Charles Jarvis, Ellsworth ; 
 Washington, George F. Talbot, East Machias ; Kennebec, Wil- 
 liam B. Snell, Winthrop ; Oxford, Mark H. Dunnell, Hebron ; 
 Somerset, Henry D. Wyman, Skowhegan ; Penobscot, Henry B. 
 Haynes, Bangor ; Waldo, Edward H. Cutler, Belfast ; Piscataquis. 
 Ephraim P'lint, Dover ; Franklin, Eben F. Pillsbury, Kingfield ; 
 Aroostook, Jotham Donnell, Houlton. The system of County 
 School Commissioners was hardly given a trial before the law 
 establishing it was repealed. 
 
 By an act approved March 30, 1853, the amount to be raised 
 and expended by towns for the support of schools was raised 
 from forty to fifty cents per inhabitant, exclusive of all other 
 iunds for school purposes. This act also empowered any town 
 to choose a supervisor of schools instead of a superintending 
 school committee, if the town so desired. The age of truants 
 was changed from "six and fifteen" to "four and twenty-one," 
 thus bringing all persons enumerated as scholars under the pen- 
 alties of the truant law. 
 
47 
 
 Chapter 80 of the public laws of 1854 prescribed the method 
 of assessing school taxes in districts formed of parts of two or 
 more towns. 
 
 Chapter 89 of the public laws of 1854, by which the system of 
 County School Commissioners was abolished and a State Super- 
 intendent of Coinmon Schools appointed, is of so much import- 
 ance that it is given entire. 
 
 An Act to provide for the appointment of a Superintendent of 
 Common Schools and for county conventions of teachers. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled, as follows : 
 
 Section i. There shall be appointed by the Governor and 
 Council a Superintendent of Common Schools, who shall be duly 
 sworn and whose term of office shall continue for three years 
 from the first day of May next ; and on the expiration of said 
 term or the occurrence of a vacancy in said office by death, resig- 
 nation or removal a new appointment shall be made for a like 
 term of three years. 
 
 Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent to devote 
 his time to the improvement of common schools and the promo- 
 ion of the general interests of education in this State. He shall 
 carefully investigate the operation of our common laws ; collect 
 information in regard to the arrangement of school districts, the 
 location and construction of schoolhouses and the use of the best 
 school appartus ; consult and advise with superintending school 
 committees on the selection of text-books adapted to the wants 
 of schools, and on the methods of ascertaining the qualifications 
 of teachers, and of visiting and examining schools ; inquire into 
 the most approved modes of teaching, and the best means of 
 training and qualifying teachers for their duties ; examine the 
 returns made by superintending school committees to the office 
 of Secretary of State, and obtain from them such facts and 
 statistics as may be useful, and, in general, procure information 
 from every available source, for the improvement of common 
 schools. 
 
 Sect. 3. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent, by corres- 
 pondence with teachers, school officers and others, and by public 
 addresses from time to time in dififerent parts of the State, to dis- 
 seminate the information he may have acquired, and endeavor 
 to awaken a more general interest in public education. 
 
48 
 
 vSect. 4. The Superintendent shall annually, prior to the ses- 
 sion of the Legislature, make a report to the Governor and Coun- 
 cil of the results of his inquiries and investigations, and of the 
 facts obtained from the school returns, including such sugges- 
 tions and recommendations as in his judgment will best promote 
 the improvement of common schools. 
 
 Sect. :;. The Superintendent shall receive an annual salary of 
 twelve hundred dollars, payable quarterly, and he shall render 
 an account of his traveling and other necessary expenses to the 
 Governor and Council, to be by them audited and paid out of the 
 treasury of the State. 
 
 Sect. 6. The vSuperintendent shall prepare blank forms for 
 all returns which are required by law, or which he may deem 
 necessary to be made by school officers and teachers, and such 
 blank form shall be printed and distributed by the Secretary of 
 State. 
 
 Sect. 7. It shall be the duty of all superintending school 
 committees, supervisors and district committees, whose annual 
 reports shall be printed, to forward copies thereof to the Super- 
 intendent. 
 
 Sect. 8. The Superintendent shall hold annually, in each 
 county, a teachers' convention, to continue in session one week 
 at least ; and it shall be his duty to give due notice of such con- 
 vention to all teachers and persons proposing to become such, and 
 to invite their attendance for the purpose of mutual consultation, 
 discussion and instruction, and for that of receiving lectures and 
 addresses on subjects relating to education and the duties of 
 teachers. 
 
 Sect. 9. The Superintendent shall attend and have charge of 
 each convention, and shall employ suitable instructors and lec- 
 turers to instruct and address those who may there assemble, 
 with the view of aiding them in qualifying themselves for a 
 better and more successful discharge of their duties as teachers. 
 
 Sect. 10. For the purpose of defraying the expense of the 
 teachers' conventions, there shall be annually appropriated the 
 sum of two thousand dollars, to be expended by the Superin- 
 tendent ; and he shall render to the Governor and Council an 
 annual account of his expenditure of the said appropriation, to be 
 by them exammed and audited. 
 
49 
 
 Sect. II. The act entitled "An act establishing a Commis- 
 sioner of Common Schools, in each county in the State," passed 
 the twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one 
 thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, is hereby repealed. 
 
 Mr. Charles H. Lord of Portland was the first State Superin- 
 tendent of Common Schools, having been appointed June 12, 
 1854. His report is a scholarly production, making thirty-six 
 printed pages, and is devoted to an account of his visits to 
 schools in various portions of the State and of his observations 
 and experiences during those visits. The particular evils spoken 
 of in the report are irregularity in attendance, want of interest on 
 the part of parents, lack of discipline, incompetent teachers and 
 improper classification. He recommended a normal school for 
 the instruction of teachers and some means of awakening an 
 intelligent interest on the part of parents. His report contains 
 no tables nor statistics regarding schools or the expense of their 
 
 maintenance. 
 
 Chapter 104 of the Public Laws of 1854 gave towns the right 
 to determine the number and limits of school districts and, if 
 necessary, to divide or discontinue any district or to annex it to 
 any other district or town. These changes could only be made 
 upon the written recommendation of the selectmen and superin- 
 tending school committee of the town, who were constituted a 
 committee for that purpose. Section 2 of this law raised the per 
 capita tax from fifty cents to sixty cents exclusive of all moneys 
 received from any other source for the support of common 
 schools. Section 3 made it the duty of the school agent to 
 expend the money apportioned to his district for the support of 
 schools taught by instructors, duly qualified, in said district, 
 within the year for which such agent was chosen. If the agent 
 neglected or refused to expend the money as the law required, 
 the municipal officers were empowered to appoint a special agent 
 who should be sworn and should have all the powers and per- 
 form all the duties of the school agent for said district. 
 
 Sect. 4 authorized any city or town choosing a committee, with 
 the powers of committees and agents, to elect one-third of such 
 committee annually and for three years, instead of electing the 
 whole committee annually as formerly. Section 5 gave school 
 districts the right tO elect a district committee in the same man- 
 ner as was allowed to towns. Section 6 required the State 
 4 
 
50 
 
 Treasurer to set apart all moneys received from the sale of school 
 lands, to serve as a permanent school fund, the interest of which 
 at six per cent, should be annually distributed among the several 
 cities and towns in the State according to the numtjer of inhab- 
 itants. Section 7 empowered towns to take land for school- 
 houses if the owner refused to sell, and gave the selectmen, or 
 mayor and aldermen, power to select a lot, not exceeding in 
 quantity forty square rods, and at least ten rods from any dwell- 
 ing-house, and to appraise the damages in the same manner as 
 is provided for laying out town ways. 
 
 Section 8 provided that if the owner of the lot was not satisfied 
 with the appraisal he might have the matter settled by a jury 
 appointed by the County Commissioners. The land so taken 
 should revert to the owner when it had ceased for two years to 
 be used for school purposes. 
 
 In March, 1855, Mark H. Bunnell of Norway was appointed 
 to succeed Mr. Lord as State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools. Mr. Bunnell made a very carefully written report, 
 followed by full statistical tables, also plans for schoolhouses and 
 common school apparatus and extracts from the reports of super- 
 intending school committees of many of the cities and towns 
 throughout the State. The following "summary of statistics 
 relating to the Common Schools of the State for the school year 
 ending April i, 1855," is given in this report. 
 
 Number of towns in the State, 384 
 
 Number of towns that have made returns, 379 
 
 Number of towns that have made no returns, .... 5 
 
 Number of organized plantations, 99 
 
 Number that have made returns, 62 
 
 Number that have made no returns, 37 
 
 Number of school districts in the State, 3>965 
 
 Number of parts of districts, '2']'j 
 
 Number of children in the State between the ages 
 
 of 4 and 21 years, 238,248 
 
 Number of scholars in the summer schools, 123,641 
 
 Average number in the summer schools, 91,894 
 
 Number of scholars in the winter schools, 142,220 
 
 Average number in the winter schools, 100,560 
 
 Mean average in summer and winter schools, .... 96,227 
 
 Ration of mean average to whole number, .44 
 
51 
 
 Number of male teachers, 2,559 
 
 Number of female teachers 4A37 
 
 Average wages of male teachers per month, ex- 
 clusive of board, $20 57 
 
 Average wages of female teachers per week, ex- 
 clusive of board, i 90 
 
 Average length of all the schools for the year,. . . 18.9 weeks 
 Amount of money raised by taxes for the support 
 
 of schools in 1854, $333,019 ^6 
 
 Amount required by law, 281,148 00 
 
 Excess over amount required by law, S^jS/i 76 
 
 Amount of money received from State, 54)398 96 
 
 Amount received from local funds, 16,990 57 
 
 Amount expended for private schools, 23,843 00 
 
 Number of schoolhouses built the past year,. ... 128 
 
 Cost of same, $62,808 00 
 
 Aggregate amount expended for school purposes 
 
 the past year, 491,060 29 
 
 Number of good schoolhouses in the State, i)752 
 
 Number of poor schoolhouses, 2,088 
 
 Estimated value of the schoolhouses in the State, $870,005 00 
 Average amount of school money raised per 
 
 scholar, i 36 
 
 Amount received from the State per scholar, .... .30 
 Number of towns that have raised, as required in 
 
 1854, 50 cents per inhabitant, 292 
 
 Number of towns that have raised less than 50 
 
 cents per inhabitant, 75 
 
 Percentage of the valuation of 1850 appropriated 
 
 to common schools, in mills and tenths, .0034 
 
 Number of towns that have raised $3.00 or more 
 
 per scholar, 3 
 
 Number of towns that have raised $2.00 and less 
 
 than $3.00, 23 
 
 Number of towns that have raised $1.00 and less 
 
 than $2.00, 334 
 
 Number that have raised less than $1.00, 22 
 
 During the year 1855 teachers' conventions were held in 
 every county. These conventions in most instances continued 
 
52 
 
 through five days. Sixty-nine public lectures were delivered at 
 the evening sessions and much interest was manifested. The 
 number of teachers in attendance at all of the conventions was 
 1,691. 
 
 Chapter 127 of the public laws of 1855 provided that superin- 
 tending school committees should be entitled to all necessary 
 traveling expenses. Chapter 128 stated that one-half of the fine 
 for violation of the school laws in regard to disturbing schools 
 should go to the complainant. Chapter 147, of 1855, directed 
 municipal officers and school committees "annually to apportion 
 ten cents of the sixty cents required to be raised'' per inhabitant 
 "in such manner as in their judgment shall give to the smaller 
 districts a more equal opportunity of enjoying the benefits of 
 common school education with the larger districts." 
 
 Chapter 154, of 1855, required towns to make all needful pro- 
 visions concerning habitual truants. A resolve, approved April 
 9, 1856, authorized the Land Agent, under the advice and 
 direction of the Governor and Council, to set apart a quantity of 
 the public lands equal to twenty-four half townships, "to be 
 reserved and applied for the benefit of common schools, and to 
 be held in trust for that purpose only." This resolve provided 
 for the sale of not more than one township each year, the pro- 
 ceeds to be appropriated as a permanent fund for the benefit of 
 common schools, the interest of which fund should be annually 
 distributed among the towns according to the number of scholars. 
 Chapter 228 of the public laws of 1856 provided that when three 
 school committee were elected at one time, they should at their 
 first meeting designate by lot one member to remain in office 
 three years, another two and the other one year. Chapter 230 
 of the laws of 1856 repealed the act passed in 1855 directing 
 that ten cents of the sixty cent per capita tax should be distribu- 
 ted among the smaller districts. 
 
 J. P. Craig of Readfield, was appointed State Superintendent 
 of Common Schools for the year ending December 31, 1856. 
 From the statistics of his report the following items are taken, 
 viz : 
 Whole number of children between 4 and 21,.. 241,097 
 
 Average number in school for the year 89,712 
 
 Average wages of male teachers per month, $21 96 
 
 Average wages of female teachers per week, 211 
 
53 
 
 Aggregate expenditures for school purposes in 
 
 the State, $499,424 00 
 
 Teachers' institutes were held during this year in every 
 county. 
 
 By a resolve approved April 13, 1857, it was directed that 
 twenty per cent, of all moneys accruing from the sale of the 
 public lands should be added to the permanent school fund for 
 the benefit of common schools. The State Superintendent was 
 directed to prepare in pamphlet form a compilation of the laws 
 relating to public schools for distribution among the school 
 officers throughout the State. By a resolve approved March 
 6, 1857, the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars was appro- 
 priated from the State Treasury to be expended by the school 
 committee of Oldtown for education among the Penobscot 
 Indians. 
 
 Mark H. Dunnell was appointed State Superintendent in 1857 
 and remained in office until i860, during which period there 
 were no important changes in school legislation. 
 
 The first State teachers' convention ever held in Maine met in 
 Waterville, on the i6th of November, 1859, and continued in 
 session three days. The exercises consisted of lectures and 
 essays upon educational subjects, followed by discussion. A 
 State Teachers' Association was organized, officers were chosen, 
 a constitution and by-laws adopted and provision made for an 
 annual meeting. 
 
 Chapter 163 of the laws of i860 gave towns the power to 
 apportion ten per cent, of the per capita tax for the benefit of the 
 smaller districts. Chapter 192 of the public laws of i860 
 repealed the act providing for teachers' conventions. Section i 
 of this act appropriated eighteen hundred dollars for that year 
 and directed that thirty-six hundred dollars should thereafter 
 be annually appropriated for the support of normal schools in 
 connection with eighteen academies in the State. Section 2 pro- 
 vided that in each of these academies a normal school shouid 
 be "kept" during the spring and fall terms, each term to be not 
 less than eleven weeks, with suitable and qualified teachers and 
 good accommodations for at least fifty pupils. Section 3 provided 
 that a committee appointed by the trustees of each academy 
 should examine in common school branches all pupils applying 
 
54 
 
 for admission to the normal school, and if in their opinion two 
 terms of instruction would fit the applicant to teach, they should 
 give him or her a certificate of admission. Care was to be taken 
 that an equal number, population considered, should be admitted 
 from each town. Females were to have preference in the spring 
 term and males in the fall term. Section 4 prescribed that each 
 male student should pay, upon entering, one dollar, and each 
 female student fifty cents per term in full for tuition for said 
 term. Section 5 required the State Superintendent to visit each 
 academy during each term of normal school, examine the course 
 of study and character of instruction and make such rules for 
 the management of the school as he saw fit. Section 6 reduced 
 the salary of the State Superintendent from twelve hundred to 
 one thousand dollars per year, with not exceeding four hundred 
 dollars for expenses. The remaining sections provided that 
 the trustees of the several academies designated should make full 
 returns, at the close of each term, to the Secretary of State on 
 blanks furnished by him and prepared by the State Superinten- 
 dent. Also that in case any academy designated should decline 
 or fail to accept the provisions of the act, the Governor, with the 
 advice of the State Superintendent, should name some other 
 academy in the same county. Also that former acts inconsistent 
 with this act be repealed. 
 
 Mr. E. P. Weston was appointed State Superintendent in i860 
 for the term of three years. The act providing for county 
 normal schools was amended by Chapter 12 of the public laws 
 of 1861. This act provided, first, that the two hundred dollars 
 allowed each academy should be paid in installments of one 
 hundred dollars each on the first day of May and November 
 annually, on certificate of the State Superintendent that the law 
 had been complied with. Second, each term of normal instruc- 
 tion should continue ten weeks. Third, the Superintendent 
 should prescribe such qualifications for admission as would 
 enable the students to pursue their subsequent course with uni- 
 formity and success and the committee should issue certificates 
 of admission to those who passed a satisfactory examination. 
 Fourth, each student was required to pay three dollars per term 
 for instruction in the normal course. Fifth, in case the academy 
 designated in anv countv should fail to fulfill the provisions of 
 
55 
 
 the act, and no other school in the county be selected, the super- 
 intendent was authorized to hold a normal institute, not exceed- 
 ing ten days, at any suitable place in the county, provided he was 
 assured that not less than one hundred students desired to attend 
 the institute; and he was allowed to draw the amount appro- 
 priated for the normal school of such county, to defray the 
 expenses of said institute. 
 
 Chapter 55, of the public laws of 1861, gave districts maintain- 
 ing graded schools the right to raise money by taxation for the 
 support of such schools. It also raised the amount allowed the 
 State Superintendent for traveling and other expenses from 
 four hundred dollars to five hundred dollars per year. 
 
 During the same year the truant law was amended, making 
 the age of compulsory attendance at school "between six and 
 seventeen" and requiring towns to appoint one person instead of 
 three to make complaint for violations of the truant law. 
 Chapter 72 of the public laws of 1862 repealed the laws provid- 
 ing for county normal schools and made it the duty of the State 
 Superintendent to visit the academic institutions when "con- 
 sistent with his other duties" and "assist the teachers' classes 
 there organized in acquiring a .familiarity with the best methods 
 of instruction and school management." Section 3 of this act 
 is as follows: "With the view to the future establishment of 
 one or more State normal schools which, in point of character, 
 shall be worthy of the State and the age, the Superintendent is 
 authorized to receive from any individuals or from the trustees 
 of any institution, proposals for conducting the same, with 
 offers of buildings, funds and apparatus, the same to be reported 
 to the next Legislature for such action as the circumstances of 
 the State and of the treasury may warrant." 
 
 Chapter 92, of 1862, reduced the amount allowed the State 
 Superintendent for traveling and other expenses from five hun- 
 dred dollars to two hundred dollars. Chapter 103, of 1862, 
 repealed the provision of the school law allowing towns to choose 
 a supervisor of schools and inserted in its stead a clause allowing 
 the school committee to appoint one of their number who should 
 have power to visit and examine schools and make the annual 
 report. It struck out the clause requiring a schoolhouse to be 
 "ten rods at least from any dwelling house." It made it the duty 
 
5^^ 
 
 of the superintending school committee to select a uniform sys- 
 tem of text-books to be used in the schools of the town, and pro- 
 vided that a text-book once adopted should not be changed for 
 five years unless by vote of the town. It also provided that the 
 school agent should call a meeting of his district, annually, in the 
 month of March or April, without a written application. Chap- 
 ter 210, of the public laws of 1863, provided for the establish- 
 ment of two normal schools. The term of office of Superin- 
 tendent Weston having expired, he was reappointed, in 1863. 
 
 Chapter 217, of 1863, remitted to the banks of the State an 
 amount of their State tax equal to the amount required to be 
 paid to the United States by the law establishing the national 
 banks. This remission took from the school fund over $39,000. 
 Chapter 339, of the resolves of 1864, directed the Land Agent to 
 sell the lumber and timber upon "any township of land belonging 
 to the State not already selected for the permanent school fund 
 and not otherwise appropriated," "the proceeds of said sale of 
 lumber and timber to be paid into the State Treasury for educa- 
 tional purposes." The Western State Normal School was opened 
 at Farmmgton August 24, 1864. State Superintendent E. P. 
 Weston resigned his office at the close of the year 1864 and Rev. 
 Edward Ballard of Brunswick was in May, 1865, appointed to 
 succeed him. 
 
 The amount of school fund derived from the bank tax con- 
 tinued to decrease, and to supply the deficiency the amount to 
 be raised by the towns for the support of schools was increased 
 from sixty cents to seventy-five cents for each inhabitant and 
 any town neglecting to raise the required amount was by law 
 deprived of its share of the State school fund. Each school agent 
 was required to return to the school committee, in the month of 
 April, annually, a certified list of the names and ages of all per- 
 sons in his district from four to twenty-one years, as they existed 
 on April first, excepting those coming from other places to attend 
 any college or academy or to work in any factory or other 
 business. In case the agent neglected to make the enumeration, 
 the school committee were required to do it, the expense to be 
 taken from the amount apportioned the district. The committee 
 ^vere required to return to the assessors, on or before the fif- 
 teenth of May, annually, the number of scholars in each school 
 
57 
 
 district. Any district maintaining graded schools was allowed 
 to raise for their support a sum not exceeding that received from 
 the town. In order to increase the amount of money available 
 for the common schools the Legislature passed a resolve in 1866, 
 "That the residuary interest of the State in the public lands 
 shall be applied in aid of the permanent school fund of the 
 State." 
 
 In 1867, the State Teachers' Association held a meeting in 
 Lewiston, the first for several years, and a renewed interest was 
 awakened in the society. Chapter 'j'j of the public laws of 1867 
 allowed assessors of plantations organized for election purposes 
 to take a census of the inhabitants at the expense of the planta- 
 tion, as a basis for raising and expending school money. Chap- 
 ter 81 amended the school laws, thereby making it the duty of the 
 Secretary of State to forward blank returns and school registers 
 to the several town clerks, to be by them delivered to the super- 
 intending school committee. Chapter 83 fixed the pay of school 
 committees and supervisors at one dollar and fifty cents per day, 
 and all necessary traveling expenses. Chapter 93 allowed dis- 
 tricts to raise money and choose committees to build, buy or hire 
 schoolhouses, and the assessors should assess the tax upon the 
 polls and the estates in the district "including wild lands." 
 Chapter 132 provided that when districts neglected to furnish 
 necessary schoolhouses, the town might vote to do so at its 
 annual meeting. Also that in districts not having any legal 
 voters, the town should transact the business of the district and 
 the school committee should perform the duties of school agents 
 therein. By a resolve the Secretary of State was instructed to 
 cause the school laws to be compiled and 8,000 copies to be 
 printed for distribution. A normal school was, during this year, 
 established at Castine. 
 
 In 1868 the per capita tax to be raised by towns for the sup- 
 port of schools was increased to one dollar for each inhabitant. 
 A resolve was passed giving the sum of two hundred dollars 
 to the Maine Educational Association, which was thus for the 
 first time recognized by the Legislature. Another resolve directed 
 the Land Agent within six months of the passage of the resolve 
 to set apart the ten townships devoted to common school pur- 
 poses by resolve of March 21, 1864. By far the most important 
 
58 
 
 item of school legislation in 1868 was Chapter 221, which stated 
 more definitely the duties of the State Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools and required that an office should be provided for 
 him at the State House. This act was as follows : 
 
 "An Act to increase the efficiency of the State Supervisor of 
 Common Schools." 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled, as follows : 
 
 Section i. The Governor and Council shall appoint a State 
 Superintendent of Common Schools, who shall be duly sworn 
 and continue in office three years, or during the pleasure of the 
 Executive ; and when a vacancy occurs, a new appointment shall 
 be made for a like term. 
 
 Sect. 2. An office shall be provided for the State Superin- 
 tendent at the seat of government, where he shall preserve all 
 school reports of this State and of other States which may be 
 sent to his office, the returns of the superintending school com- 
 mittees of the various towns, and such books, apparatus, maps, 
 charts, works on education, plans for school buildings, models, 
 and other articles of interest to school officers and teachers as 
 may be procured without expense to the State. 
 
 DUTIES OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 Sect. 3. The duties of the State Superintendent shall be as 
 follows. 
 
 First — To exercise a general supervision of all the' public 
 schools of the State, and to advise and to direct the town com- 
 mittees in the discharge of their duties, by circular letters and 
 personal conference, devoting all his time to the duties of his 
 office. 
 
 Second — To obtain information as to the school systems of 
 other States and countries, and the condition and progress of 
 common school education throughout the world ; to disseminate 
 this information, together with such practical hints upon the 
 conduct of schools and the true theory of education as obser- 
 vation and investigation shall convince him to be important, by 
 public addresses, circulars, and articles prepared for the press ; 
 and to do all in his power to awaken and sustain an interest in 
 
59 
 
 ■education among the people of the State, and to stimulate 
 teachers to well directed efforts in their work. 
 
 Third — To take such measures as he may deem necessary to 
 secure the holding of a State educational convention once each 
 year, with a view of bringing together teachers, school commit- 
 tees and friends of education generally, for the purposes of con- 
 sultation with reference to the interests of common schools and 
 the most improved method of instruction. 
 
 Pourth—-ln case sufficient encouragement is afforded by the 
 citizens, to hold in each county once during each year a public 
 meeting or mstitute for teachers and educators. 
 
 Fifth — To prepare and cause to be printed and distributed 
 such portions of the proceedings of the county and State insti- 
 tutes of teachers' conventions as he may deem important in the 
 furtherahce of the interests of education. 
 
 Sixth — To prescribe the studies that shall be taught in the 
 common schools of this State, reserving to town committees the 
 right to prescribe additional studies. 
 
 Seventh — To act as Superintendent of the State normal 
 schools, and perform the duties imposed upon the Superintendent 
 of Common Schools by the ninth section of the act establishing 
 normal schools. 
 
 Eighth — Annually, prior to the session of the Legislature, to 
 make a report to the Governor and Council of the result of his 
 inquiries and investigations, and the facts obtained from the 
 school returns, with such suggestions and recommendations as 
 in his judgment will best promote the improvement of common 
 schools. 
 
 Sect. 4. The annual salary of the State Superintendent shall 
 be eighteen hundred dollars, exclusive of traveling and other 
 necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of his duties, for 
 which he shall receive such sums as he may actually expend, to 
 "be approved by the Governor and Council, not, however, exceed- 
 ing five hundred dollars, to be paid quarterly, on the first days 
 of April, July, October and January. 
 
 Sect. 5. Sections sixty-two to sections sixty-nine, inclusive, 
 of chapter eleven of the revised statutes, providing for the 
 appointment of a Superintendent of Common Schools, and all 
 acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act, are hereby 
 repealed. 
 
6o 
 
 On March 30, 1868, Mr. Warren Johnson was appointed State 
 Superintendent of Common Schools. In his first report he 
 emphasizes several causes which stood in the way of the complete 
 success of the school system. The principal among these were 
 the district system, the lack of school inspection, incompetency of 
 teachers, the low rate of wages paid teachers and short terms of 
 schools. 
 
 Several acts in the interest of education were passed in 1869. 
 Chapter 13, of 1869, made it the duty of the State Superintend- 
 ent to prepare and forward blanks and registers to the town 
 clerks ; and the school committees or supervisors were required 
 to make their returns on the first day of May to the State Super- 
 intendent, who should ascertain the number of scholars in the 
 several towns and furnish a list of them to the State Treasurer 
 on the first day of July, and immediately thereafter the State 
 Treasurer should apportion the school fund and notify each 
 town of its proportion. No town should receive its proportion 
 of the school fund until its returns were made. Chapter 50 pro- 
 vided a penalty of not exceeding five hundred dollars for the 
 violation of the law in regard to change of text-books. Chapter 
 69 allowed cities to take land for schoolhouses in the same man- 
 ner as towns. Chapter 74 made it the duty of the State Superin- 
 tendent, on the written request of twenty-five teachers in any 
 county to hold a teachers' institute in that county. An examina- 
 tion of teachers should be held at the close of the session and 
 certificates granted of such grade as deemed best by the State 
 Superintendent. The sum of four thousand dollars was appro- 
 priated to defray the expense of these institutes. Chapter 75 
 was as follows : 
 
 An Act for the establishment of County Supervisorships of 
 schools. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled, as follows : 
 
 Section i. The Governor and Council shall appoint for each 
 county, on the recommendation of the State Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, one person as County Supervisor of Public 
 Schools for each county, whose term of office shall continue three 
 years, unless he be sooner removed by the Governor. 
 
 Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the County Supervisor to visit 
 the schools of his county as often as practicable, to note at such 
 
6i 
 
 visits in a book provided for the purpose, to be designated the 
 *' Supervisor's Visiting Book," the condition of the school build- 
 ings and outhouses, the efficiency of the teachers, the method of 
 instruction, the branches taught, the text-books and apparatus 
 used, and the discipline, government and general condition of 
 each school. He shall give each such directions in the science, 
 art and method of teaching as he may deem expedient, shall 
 distribute promptly all reports, forms, laws, circulars and instruc- 
 tions which he may receive from, and in accordance with the 
 direction of the State Superintendent, and in general shall act as 
 the official advisor and constant assistant of the school officers 
 and teachers in his county. 
 
 Sect. 3. He shall assist the State Superintendent in the organ- 
 ization and management of county institutes, and labor in every 
 practicable way to elevate the standard of teaching and improve 
 the condition of public schools in his county, by organizing town 
 and county associations of teachers, and by personal efforts with 
 pupils, school committees, teachers and parents. 
 
 Sect. 4. No County Supervisor shall act as agent for any 
 author, publisher or book-seller, nor directly or indirectly receive 
 any gift, emolument or reward for his influence in recommend- 
 ing or procuring the use of any book, school apparatus or furni- 
 ture of any kind whatever in any public school in the State ; and 
 anyone who shall violate this provision shall be removed from 
 office, and shall further forfeit all moneys due him from the State 
 for salary and traveling expenses. 
 
 Sect. 5. The State Superintendent and the County Supervi- 
 sors shall constitute a State Board of Education, of which the 
 State Superintendent shall be ex ofRcio Secretary, and said Board 
 shall hold a session at the capital of the State at least once a year 
 during the session of the Legislature, for the purpose of confer- 
 ring with the legislative educational committee on matters per- 
 taining to the common schools of the State, and to mature plans 
 of operations for the following year, and in general to devise 
 wavs and means to promote and elevate the public schools of the 
 State. 
 
 Sect. 6. The County Supervisor shall receive three dollars 
 per diem for service actually performed in the discharge of his 
 duties, and also reimbursement for traveling expenses necessarily 
 incurred ; said services and traveling expenses to appear in his 
 
62 
 
 "working report." rendered quarterly to the State Supermtend- 
 ent for his inspection, and thence transmitted to the Governor 
 and Council for their examination and approval ; provided that 
 the total annual expense for County Supervisorships shall not 
 exceed the sum of sixteen thousand dollars. 
 
 . The following named gentlemen were appointed as County 
 Supervisors for the term of three years : Androscoggin, C. B. 
 Stetson, Lewiston ; Aroostook, W. T. Sleeper, ShtTman ; Cum- 
 berland, J. B. Webb, Gorham; Franklin, A. H. Abbott, Farm- 
 ington ; Hancock, Charles J . Abbott, Castine ; Kennebec, W. H^ 
 Bigelow, Clinton ; Knox, A. R. Abbott, Rockland ; Lincoln,. 
 David S. Glidden, Newcastle; Oxford, N. T. True, Bethel: 
 Piscataquis, W. S. Knowlton, Monson ; Penobscot, S. A. Plum- 
 mer, Dexter ; Sagadahoc, D. F. Potter, Topsham ; Somerset, 
 G. W. Hathaway, Skowhegan ; Waldo, N. A. Luce, Freedom ; 
 Washington, W. J. Corthell, Calais ; York, Charles H. Milliken, 
 Saco. 
 
 The State Superintendent issued the following instructions tO' 
 the County Supervisors. 
 
 1st, Preliminary. Examine carefully the several requirements 
 and provisions of the legislative act by which the office of 
 County Supervisorship was established. A copy of this act has 
 been sent you in circular No. 3. 
 
 2nd. Preparatory. Lay out your tour for visiting the several 
 towns and districts in your department, while the schools are 
 in session. Determine as nearly as possible the towns to be 
 visited, and time of visitation, notifying the town committee of 
 the same. If all the schools in the county cannot be visited in the 
 same year, omit towns rather than districts, thus doing thorough 
 work in each town. Make the required entries in "Visiting-^ 
 Book." 
 
 3d, Inside Work. Visit schools in company with the super- 
 intending school committee. Ascertain from teacher the classi- 
 fication of the school, order and length of recitations, kinds of 
 charts, apparatus and text-books used, amount of truancy, and 
 witness work of teacher in the regular and ordinary recitations. 
 Take recitations into your own hands if desirable, to wake up 
 pupils and to stimulate teachers. Make suggestions and 
 improvements to teacher directly, or to the committee, as may be 
 deemed politic and prudent. 
 
63 
 
 4th, Outside Work. Hold a meeting of teachers, committees. 
 and educators in every town visited, some day or evening of the 
 week to communicate instruction and improved methods of 
 teaching, to ascertain difficulties in the way of success, and in 
 general for mutual consultation in the interests of common 
 schools. 
 
 5th, Meet the people as often as possible in different parts of 
 the county, for plain talk on various school matters, according 
 to the wants of particidar localities, such as "Better and larger 
 School Houses," "Compulsory Attendance," "School District 
 System," "Union of Districts," "Text-books," etc. 
 
 6th. Make frequent use of the county papers and the press 
 generally. The press is most emphatically a power ready for 
 every good work. A column of educational intelligence will 
 indicate life in the educational body, and will exert a wide- 
 spread influence through the community. 
 
 7th. Prepare fully for the annual County Teachers' Institute. 
 Rouse teachers to an earnest desire for attending. Secure the 
 required petition. Select place for holding the Institute. Pro- 
 vide accommodations for teachers ; free for the ladies if possible, 
 and in general, arranging for and managing the institute. 
 
 8th. Make quarterly returns of per diem and traveling- 
 expenses, and of the "Visiting Book." Make an annual report 
 December i, embracing at least the following points : 
 
 (a) A general review of work done during the year, (b) 
 General condition of schools and schoolhouses, quality of instruc- 
 tion and educational interest among the people, (c) Of County 
 Institutes and teachers' meeting, if any have been held, (d) 
 Defects of school system in Maine, and recommendations apply- 
 ing thereto. 
 
 The foregoing directions will indicate a plan of operations 
 for the whole State. Teachers will be provided for the annual 
 County Institutes to be held between the first of August and the 
 last of November. Supervisors will report at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity the most desirable time for holding the Institute in their 
 respective counties, that notice may be issued and arrangements 
 made accordingly." 
 
 From the excellent report of State Superintendent Corthell 
 for 1876, which report has been of much assistance in making 
 up this sketch, the following extract is made : 
 
64 
 
 "The teachers' institutes, revived this year, were largely 
 attended. Thorough preparation was made for them by the 
 county supervisors. Twenty-nine institutes of one week each 
 were held. Two thousand six hundred and fifty teachers 
 attended. Examinations of teachers were held at the close of 
 these institutes, and a graded certificate granted to all examined, 
 showing the exact rank obtained by each. 
 
 A new impulse was given to the schools of the State by means 
 of this new agency of inspection. The classification of the 
 schools was greatly improved, the average number of classes 
 being reduced from twenty-five to sixteen. The poorer and more 
 incompetent teachers were driven from the business. A greater 
 public interest in education was aroused. The demand for 
 competent teachers was increased. Teachers were stimulated to 
 new efforts, both to fit themselves for their work and to do 
 better work." 
 
 In 1870 the first movement was made toward the abolition of 
 the district system, by the passage of a law permitting towns to 
 abolish the districts, and providing the way for the town to own 
 all school property and manage all public schools. Another law 
 authorized the committee or supervisor to employ teachers. 
 Another empowered towns to purchase school books and loan 
 them to the pupils or sell them at cost. The school week was 
 fixed at five and one-half days and the school month at four 
 weeks. School officers were empowered "to allow the school- 
 house to be used for meetings of religious worship, lectures and 
 other similar purposes." 
 
 Several changes in the corps of County Supervisors were made 
 during 1870. C. J. Abbott, of Hancock, resigned and William 
 H, Savary was appointed. G. M. Hinds was appointed in Knox 
 County, vice A. R. Abbott, deceased. Amos H. Eaton was 
 appointed in Somerset County, vice G. W. Hathaway, resigned. 
 M. K. Mabry was appointed in Knox County, vice C. H. Milli- 
 ken, resigned. By three several acts passed in 1871, cities and 
 towns were authorized to make provision for giving free instruc- 
 tion in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over fifteen 
 years of age, either in day or evening schools ; school officers 
 were empowered to endorse and make valid any graded certifi- 
 cates issued to teachers by normal school principals. County 
 Supervisors or State Superintendent of common schools, and 
 
I 
 
 65 
 
 towns were permitted to decide by vote, at the annual meeting 
 whether the district agent or superintending school committee 
 should employ teachers. Superintendent Johnson was reap- 
 pointed in 1871 for a term of three years. D. F. Potter, Super- 
 visor for Sagadahoc County, resigned and S. F. Dike of Bath 
 was appointed in his place. 
 
 Important school legislation was enacted in 1872. Chapter 3 
 more clearly indicated how land may be taken for a school lot 
 when the owner refused to sell or demanded an exorbitant price. 
 Chapter 11 required State normal schools and schools having 
 normal departments aided by the State, to make annual returns 
 to the State Superintendent, on or before December first. Chap- 
 ter 43 established the school mill fund for the support of common 
 schools. This act directed that a tax of one mill per dollar 
 should be annually assessed upon all the property of the State and 
 should be paid into the State treasury and designated as the School 
 Mill Fund and should be distributed July first, annually, to the 
 several cities, towns and plantations, according to the number of 
 scholars in each. All portions not distributed or expended 
 should at the close of the financial year be added to the per- 
 manent school fund. Chapter 56 reduced the per capita school 
 tax from one dollar to eighty cents per inhabitant. Chapter 67 
 repealed the act establishing County Supervisors of schools. 
 Chapter 74 required savings banks to pay to the State Treasurer 
 a tax of one-half of one per cent, on all deposits, to be appro- 
 priated for the use of schools. Chapter yj changed the time of 
 the distribution of the mill fund from July first to January first. 
 Chapter 87 provided that when school agents are empowered by 
 the town to employ teachers, they should give written notice to 
 the committee or supervisor, when the school was to commence, 
 whether to be taught by a master or mistress, and how long it 
 v/as expected to continue. In 1873 the Governor and Council 
 were instructed to withhold the portion of the school fund and 
 mill tax from any town neglecting to raise and expend the school 
 money required by law, or faithfully to expend the school money 
 received from the State. The branches to be taught in common 
 schools were defined. The items to be entered in the school 
 registers were specified. The right of cities and towns to locate 
 school lots was more clearly defined. A penalty for injuring or 
 
66 
 
 destroying text-books was provided. An act in aid of free high 
 schools was passed. By this act towns were empowered to 
 estabhsh free high schools and receive from the State "one-half 
 the amount actually expended for instruction in said school, not, 
 however, exceeding five hundred dollars from the State to any 
 one town." 
 
 In 1874 State Superintendent Johnson was reappointed for a 
 term of three years. A fine was provided for defacing school- 
 houses. It was specified that the ten per cent, of the school fund 
 allowed to be given small districts should not apply to free high 
 school fund. Some changes were made in the free high school 
 law. 
 
 In 1875 the percentage of school money allowed to be appor- 
 tioned to small districts was raised from ten per cent, to twenty 
 per cent. Towns were allowed to draw State aid for free high 
 schools semi-annually. The act establishing teachers' institutes 
 was abolished. The State Superintendent was instructed to 
 cause the school laws to be compiled and five thousand copies 
 printed and distributed. Every child between the ages of nine 
 and fifteen years was required to attend school at least twelve 
 weeks in each year unless excused by the school officers. 
 
 In 1876, the towns were made responsible for the faithful 
 expenditure of the school fund. Chapter 68, of 1876, required 
 municipal officers to make sworn returns of all amounts received 
 and expended for school purposes. Blanks were to be furnished 
 by the State Superintendent and no town could receive its share 
 of the school fund until its fiscal returns were properly made. 
 Some slight amendment was made to the free high school law, 
 and school agents were required to make oath to their lists of 
 scholars. In 1876, W. J. Corthell was appointed State Superin- 
 tendent of Schools. 
 
 In 1877, the law allowing districts to raise money for graded 
 schools was slightly amended and by an act approved February 
 8, 1877, it was provided that no money appropriated to the use 
 and support of public schools should be paid from any city, town 
 or plantation treasury, for schools, except upon the written order 
 of the municipal officers and no order should be drawn except 
 upon receipt of a properly avouched bill of items. 
 
 By an act approved Feb. 9, 1878, it was provided that no town 
 or plantation which neglected to raise the amount required by 
 
6; 
 
 law for the support of schools should, during that year, receive 
 any part of the State school fund. An additional normal school 
 was established in 1878 at Gorham. Mr. Corthell resigned his 
 position as State Superintendent and accepted the place of prin- 
 cipal of the new normal school, and N. A. Luce was appointed 
 to succeed him. Mr. Luce entered upon the duties of his office 
 December 31, 1878 and served until the next April, when, owing 
 to a political change in the State administration, he was removed 
 and was succeeded by Mr. Edward Morris of Biddeford. In 
 February, 1880, the political character of the administration 
 having again changed, Mr. Morris was removed and Mr. Luce 
 reappointed. In 1878 the Madawaska training school for 
 teachers was established and the towns in the "Madawaska 
 territory," so called, were exempted from raising the per capita 
 tax of eighty cents for schools and a special sum was named for 
 each town or plantation to raise. 
 
 By an act approved February 20, 1879, the Governor and 
 Council were authorized to send such deaf mutes as they deemed 
 fit subjects for instruction, at the expense of the State, to the 
 American Asylum at Hartford, Conn., or the Portland School 
 for the Deaf. Chapter 131, laws of 1879, provided that the Free 
 High School act of 1873 and the act of the same year enabling 
 academies to surrender their property to towns in favor of free 
 high- schools, should be suspended for one year. Chapter 146, 
 of 1879, entitled "An act in relation to Free High Schools," is 
 as follows : "Any town may establish and maintain not exceed- 
 ing two free high schools, and may raise money for their sup- 
 port." By these two acts it will be seen that the State aid to 
 free high schools was temporarily withdrawn. 
 
 In 1880 the first move towards consolidation of schools was 
 made. Chapter 181, of 1880, provided that when a board con- 
 sisting of the municipal officers and the school committee, or 
 supervisor, considered that the number of scholars in any dis- 
 trict was too few for the profitable expenditure of the money 
 apportioned to that district, they might suspend the school and 
 expend the money in an adjoining district and might use one- 
 half the money due the suspended school for conveyance of the 
 scholars to and from school in the adjoining district. This law, 
 together with the law already upon the statute books allowing 
 towns to abolish the school districts and assume the management 
 
68 
 
 of all public schools in the town, was a long step towards the 
 complete abolition of the district system. Formerly the school 
 district had been the ultimate imit of power in regard to the 
 management of schools and its authority was well nigh supreme. 
 But the handwriting was upon the wall and the old district sys- 
 tem was destined to give way to the better methods demanded 
 by advanced ideas upon the subject of school management. 
 
 By chapter 229, of 1880, the free high school system, with 
 State aid, was restored, the maximum amount allowed any one 
 town from the State being reduced from five hundred to two 
 hundred and fifty dollars. These two important acts completed 
 the legislation of 1880 in regard to schools. 
 
 In 1881, the Maine Pedagogical Society was incorporated "for 
 the purpose of promoting the interests of education and work of 
 instruction in this State." Chapter 24, of 1881, gave school 
 committees and supervisors the power to close the school in any 
 district "on account of any contagious disease or other good 
 reason." This act was another severe blow to the power and 
 authority of school districts. Chapter 27, of 1881, made women 
 eligible to the office of supervisor of schools or of superintending 
 school committee. By a resolve the sum of eight hundred dol- 
 lars for each of the years 1881 and 1882 (the State having 
 adopted biennial sessions of the Legislature) was appropriated 
 for the expenses of teachers' meetings "one meeting or more to 
 be held in each county in the State." 
 
 In 1883 the first act passed by the Legislature provided that 
 "A plan for the erection or reconstruction of a schoolhouse 
 voted by a town or a district shall first be approved by the super- 
 intending school committee." Chapter loi, of 1883, provided 
 that in towns which had abolished the district system, the loca- 
 tion of school houses should be designated by vote of the town 
 *'at any town meeting called for that purpose." Chapter 129, 
 of 1883, required school committees to make sworn returns of 
 free high schools before the first day of June in each year. 
 Chapter 187, of 1883, provided that, in towns or cities that had 
 abolished the district system, the school committee, or supervisor, 
 should determine the time of commencement and duration of tlie 
 schools. Chapter 240, of 1883. stated that the sHionJ week 
 should consist of five days, (formerly five and one-half) and the 
 school month of four weeks. 
 
69 
 
 In 1885 an act to facilitate the abolition of school districts was 
 passed and the manner in which the town should assume posses- 
 sion of the school property specified. Towns were authorized, 
 in addition to the twenty per cent, allowed on school money 
 raised by the town, to apportion to the smaller districts twenty 
 per cent, of all school money received from the State, except that 
 received in aid of free high schools. Schoolhouses of one story 
 were exempted from the law requiring inner doors to open out- 
 ward. Chapter 267, of 1885, entitled "An Act relating to scien- 
 tific temperance instruction in public schools," provided that, in 
 all schools supported by public money or under State control, 
 instruction should be given "in physiology and hygiene, with 
 special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants 
 and narcotics upon the human system." No certificate should 
 be given any teacher who had not passed a satisfactory examina- 
 tion in this subject. 
 
 In 1887 a more stringent compulsory attendance and. truant 
 law was enacted. This law required that children between the 
 ages of eight and fifteen years should attend some public school 
 for at least sixteen weeks annually unless equivalent means of 
 education were otherwise furnished. Cities and towns were 
 required to elect truant officers to enforce the law, under penalty 
 for neglecting so to do, of from ten to fifty dollars. Boys who 
 were habitual truants should be committed to the State Reform 
 School. The "Labor law" enacted the same year, provided that 
 no child under fifteen years of age should be employed in any 
 factory, except during vacations of schools, unless he had 
 attended school sixteen weeks during the preceding year. 
 Chapter 100, of 1887, specified more distinctly what the course 
 of study should be in free high schools and also provided the 
 manner in which pupils from without the town might be admit- 
 ted to these schools. The law allowing towns to apportion 
 twenty-five per cent, of the school money received from the State 
 to small districts was repealed at this session. 
 
 In 1889, towns were authorized to contract with any academy 
 or high school for the tuition of their scholars and to receive the 
 same aid from the State as if they had established a free high 
 school within the town. Towns were allowed, by vote on an 
 article in the warrant calling any legal meeting, to employ the 
 supervisor of schools to teach in the town and fix his compensa- 
 
70 
 
 tion. In such case, a certificate should not be required. Music 
 was added to the course of study in free high schools. Towns 
 were allowed to raise money for the support of evening schools. 
 The most important law in relation to schools passed in 1889 
 was the free text-book law. Formerly it was optional with 
 towns to provide books, but this law changed the word "may" 
 to "shall," thus providing that "Towns shall provide school books 
 for the use of pupils in the public schools, at the expense of said 
 town, and all money raised and appropriated for that purpose 
 shall be assessed like other moneys." School committees were 
 required to make necessary regulations for the distribution and 
 preservation of school books and appliances furnished by the 
 town. 
 
 In 1 89 1, it was enacted that all teachers in the public schools 
 should devote not less than ten minutes of each week of the 
 school term to teaching the principles of kindness to birds and 
 animals. Also that "the elements of the natural sciences, espe- 
 cially as applied to agriculture," should be taught in the schools. 
 
 In 1893, the age of pupils allowed to attend the public schools 
 was fixed between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The 
 powers and duties of truant officers were more clearly defined. 
 Scholars living at lighthouse stations, not included in any school 
 district, were allowed to enter any school in the State without 
 paying tuition. The most radical school legislation enacted at 
 the session of 1893 was "An Act to abolish school districts and 
 to provide for more efficient supervision of public schools." 
 More than 1 50 towns in the State had voluntarily abolished the 
 districts and adopted the town plan of management of schools 
 and the advantages of this change were so apparent to the 
 majority of the educators of the State that it seemed that the 
 time had come when public opinion would sustain a law making 
 this abolition compulsory and general throughout the State. 
 Much discussion followed the introduction of the bill in the 
 Legislature and a most exciting contest was waged against it. 
 In the end, however, the friends of the town system prevailed 
 and the act received a passage. A course of study was provided 
 for the common schools and, in a large percentage of the rural 
 schools in which it has been adopted the work has been 
 conducted upon a more methodical plan and has been attended 
 with gratifying results. The law of 1893 provided that "the 
 
71 
 
 management of schools and the custody and care of all school 
 property in every town shall devolve upon a superintending 
 school committee consisting of three, five or seven members in 
 each town, as the town may elect, who shall be chosen by ballot 
 at the annual meeting, said committee shall have power to fill 
 vacancies occurring during the interim between annual meetings 
 and shall annually elect one of its members supervisor of schools, 
 who shall be, ex officio, secretary of the committee, shall make 
 the annual enumeration of scholars required by law and shall 
 examine the scholars and inquire into the regulations and disci- 
 pline thereof and the proficiency of the scholars, for which pur- 
 pose he shall visit each school at least twice each term. He shall 
 make all reports and returns relating to the schools of the town 
 * * * and perform such other duties as said committee shall 
 direct. Provided further, that in case the town so authorize, in 
 lieu of the supervisor herein provided for, a superintendent may 
 be elected who may or may not be a member of the committee. 
 Said committee shall serve without pay, but the supervisor or 
 superintendent by them elected, shall receive for his services such 
 sum as the town shall annually vote therefor, which sum shall in 
 no case be less than two dollars per day for every day of school 
 service." 
 
 In 1895 this law was amended so as to require the committee to 
 "elect a superintendent of schools who may or may not be a 
 member of the committee." His powers and duties are the same 
 as in the law of 1893. The text-book law was amended so as 
 to allow parents to provide their scholars with books for their 
 separate and exclusive use if they wished so to do. It was also 
 provided that whenever there should be in any unincorporated 
 township two or more children of school age residing within 
 three miles of a school in any adjoining town or plantation, the 
 school officers in said adjoining town might enumerate and they 
 should have the right to attend school in that town. The Treas- 
 urer of State was directed to pay to the treasurer of the town 
 where these scholars were enumerated and schooled, the interest 
 on the reserved land fund of the unorganized township not to 
 exceed three dollars for each child. 
 
 In 1895, provision was made for the State examination and 
 certification of teachers. Graded certificates should be given to 
 those who passed a satisfactory examination, indicating the 
 
72 
 
 grade of schools which the person named is qualified to teach. 
 School officers must accept these certificates in lieu of the 
 personal examination required by law. A sum not exceeding- 
 five hundred dollars per year was allowed for the expenses of the 
 examination. In 1895, Hon. N, A. Liice retired from the office 
 of State Superintendent and W. W. Stetson of Auburn was 
 appointed to succeed him. 
 
 In 1897, several laws were passed in relation to schools. 
 Chapter 2.2;j changed the title of State Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools to "State Superintendent of Public Schools."' 
 Chapter 260 provided that towns should pay the expense of text- 
 books, apparatus and appliances for the use of schools, including 
 free high schools also repairs, insurance and improvements upon 
 school grounds, out of money raised for that purpose and not 
 from the school fund. Chapter 264 required all educational 
 institutions receiving State aid to report annually to the State 
 Superintendent of schools. Chapter 273 directed the State 
 Superintendent to furnish the school officers of towns proper 
 blank books for keeping itemized accounts of all receipts and 
 expenditures, which books should remain the property of the 
 State. Chapter 286 amended the law in regard to education of 
 children in unorganized townships. It was made the duty of the 
 State Superintendent to cause an enumeration of the children to 
 be made out and returned to him and to provide for the schooling 
 of the children, either by establishing a school in the township 
 or by sending the children to schools in adjoining townships, or 
 both, as he deemed expedient. If the interest on the reserved 
 fund of the township was not sufficient to pay the expense of at 
 least twenty weeks schooling each year, the State Treasurer was- 
 directed to pay the same sum per scholar as was apportioned to 
 scholars in organized towns. The inhabitants of the township 
 so aided were required to pay to the State Treasurer twenty-five 
 cents for each inhabitant before receiving any aid from the State. 
 Chapter 289 required town superintendents to furnish such infor- 
 mation as the State Superintendent should at any time require. 
 Chapter 295 provided that any school that failed to maintain an 
 average of eight pupils for the year should be discontinued, 
 unless the town voted to continue it. The superintendent of 
 schools in each town was directed to procure the conveyance of 
 all pupils to and from the nearest school when the pupil resided 
 
7Z 
 
 at such a distance as to render such conveyance necessary. As- 
 the law did not state who should decide whether or not convey- 
 ance was necessary, much friction was caused. Chapter 296 
 allowed towns having not less than twenty-five or more than fifty 
 schools to unite in the employment of a superintendent. When 
 a union of towns had raised by taxation a sum not less than five 
 hundred dollars for the support of a superintendent of schools, 
 the State should pay to each town in the union, one-half the 
 amount expended for superintendence up to a maximum of two 
 hundred and fifty dollars to any one town or of seven hundred 
 and fifty dollars to any union of towns. Persons employed as 
 superintendents under this act must hold a State certificate and 
 devote their entire time to superintendence. Chapter 299 made 
 it necessary for candidates for admission to free high schools to 
 be examined before entering, and amended the course of study 
 by adding "the studies which are taught in secondary schools."' 
 Chapter 321 gave school committees power to fill vacancies in the 
 ofiice of truant officer. 
 
 In 1899 the law in regard to conveyance of scholars was 
 amended by a clause requiring conveyance to be furnished when 
 "in the judgment of the superintending school committee" it was 
 necessary. School officers were allowed to pay the board ot 
 scholars near any school, instead of furnishing conveyance if 
 they deemed it feasible to do so. The Governor and Council 
 were authorized to withhold the State school fund from towns 
 neglecting to raise and expend the school money required by 
 law or to examine teachers, have instruction given in subjects 
 prescribed by law, or to furnish suitable text-books. A most 
 stringent truant and compulsory education law was passed in 
 1899. This law required every child, between the ages of seven 
 and fifteen, inclusive, to attend some public school during the 
 time the school is in session unless excused by the school officers. 
 All persons having children under their control were required 
 to cause them to attend school as required by the law, under 
 penalty of a fine of not exceeding twenty-five dollars for every 
 ofifense or of imprisonment not to exceed thirty days. Any child 
 who should be absent, without sufficient excuse, six or more 
 times during any term should be deemed an habitual truant and 
 if. after due admonition, the truancy was continued, the child, if 
 a boy, might be committed to the State Reform School and if a 
 
74 
 
 girl, to the State Industrial School for Girls, or to any truant 
 school that may hereafter be established. Any person having 
 control of a child who is an habitual truant and who shall in any 
 way be responsible for his truancy, shall be subject to a fine not 
 exceeding twenty dollars or to imprisonment not to exceed thirty 
 days. Cities and towns were required to elect truant officers, 
 under a penalty for neglect of from ten to fifty dollars. An act 
 to provide for the schooling of children in unorganized town- 
 ships was passed, all other acts for this purpose being thereby 
 repealed. By this act, the State Superintendent was required to 
 cause an enumeration of the children in all unorganized town- 
 ships having two or more children of school age, and to provide 
 for their schooling, either by establishing schools upon the town- 
 ship or by sending them to schools in adjoining towns. No 
 township can have the benefit of the act until the inhabitants shall 
 pay to the State Treasurer a sum equal to twenty-five cents for 
 each inhabitant. The State Superintendent should have the 
 power to appoint agents for the several townships in which 
 schools were established, whose duty it should be to enumerate 
 the scholars, collect the per capita tax, employ the teacher and 
 attend to all necessary details, for which work he should be paid 
 not to exceed two dollars a day when actually employed and 
 regular traveling expenses. When the interest on the reserve 
 fund and the amount of the per capita tax of twenty-five cents 
 was not enough for the expense of any school for at least twenty 
 weeks in a year, the remainder of the expense should be paid 
 from the fund appropriated by this act, which fund was an appro- 
 priation of fifteen hundred dollars annually. 
 
 The Free High School act was amended by making the school 
 committee, with an equal number of the board of trustees of 
 any academy receiving scholars by contract with the towns, a 
 joint committee for the election of all teachers and for the 
 arrangement of the courses of study when such academy has less 
 than $10,000 endowment. 
 
 Provision was made for the education of blind children at the 
 Perkins Institute for the Blind at South Boston, Mass., and the 
 provision of law for the schooling of deaf children was repealed. 
 
75 
 
 FREE HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 The free high school system of Maine was established to 
 furnish instruction in secondary school studies, at public expense. 
 Under the provisions of the law of 1873, any town raising and 
 expending funds for the maintenance of a school or schools 
 giving free instruction in academic studies to the children founa 
 competent therefor would be reimbursed for the expenditure so 
 made to the extent of one-half the amount paid for teachers' 
 wages and board, provided that no town should be paid a sum 
 exceeding S500.00. 
 
 When towns failed to make provision for the support of high 
 schools, the districts might maintain such schools, and receive 
 State aid. When supported by towns, they were under the sole 
 control of the town's school committee. When supported by 
 districts, they were under the joint control of a board consisting 
 of the town's school committee and the agent, or agents, of the 
 districts maintaining them. 
 
 In 1875, such schools were organized in 157 of the 421 towns. 
 In 1879. the Legislature passed an act suspending for one year, 
 the operation of the law under which these schools were main- 
 tained. In 1880, the Legislature provided that instruction in the 
 ancient and modern languages should not be given in any school 
 which was aided by the State, except in such schools as formed 
 a part of a graded system. The maximum amount of State aid 
 annually payable, was in 1880, reduced to $250. Penalties were 
 also provided for any attempt to defraud the State under this 
 law. Subsequent amendments were made in 1887, 1889, 1893, 
 and 1897, providing that towns may contract for the free tui- 
 tion of pupils in the high schools of other towns, or in academies, 
 allowing the organization of free high school precincts for the 
 purpose of maintaining schools under the same provisions as 
 applied to school districts before their abolition, and making 
 more strict the examination of candidates for admission to these 
 schools and defining the course of study to be pursued in them. 
 This course of study included ancient and modern languages, 
 when prescribed by the superintending school committee. Since 
 1880 the growth of the system has been such that the number of 
 towns in which free high schools are maintained increased from 
 157 in 1875 to 256 in 1898. 
 
76 
 
 The law raising the grade and requiring all applicants for 
 admission to free high schools to be examined had the effect 
 to discontinue a number of schools which were high schools in 
 name only, so that the number in 1899 was reduced to 220 and 
 in 1900 to 214. While the number of free high schools was 
 thus reduced, their rank as secondary schools was much advanced 
 and in many of them pupils are now fitted for college. 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 In i860, normal departments were established by the Legisla- 
 ture in eighteen academies, but the experiment not proving 
 satisfactory they were discontinued in 1862. 
 
 In 1863, the Western State Normal school was located at 
 Farmington and the first session opened on the 24th of August, 
 1864. During this term the number of students enrolled reached 
 fifty-nine, from thirteen of the sixteen counties of the State. 
 The school was placed under the joint control of the Governor 
 and Council and the State Superintendent of schools. In 187J 
 the control was transferred to a board of trustees, of which the 
 Governor and State Superintendent were, ex officio, members. 
 Upon the establishment of the school the trustees of Farmington 
 Academy transferred to the State in money, building and lot, 
 property to the amount of $12,000. Of this $4,900 was in money, 
 which sum with several thousand dollars furnished by the State, 
 was expended in the erection of the present buildings. In 1867, 
 the sum of $4,500 was appropriated for the payment of money 
 expended by the trustees, thus giving the State full ownership 
 of the property. In 1869, ^" appropriation of $2,500 was made 
 for the completion of the building. The appropriation was 
 made from a fund arising from the sale of lands set apart for 
 the normal schools. In 1870, the sum of $1,000 was expended 
 on the buildings and a steam-heating apparatus was added at a 
 cost of $2,000. In 1873, the sum of $3,500 was appropriated 
 for apparatus and library and cases for the same, for repairing 
 the roof and fencing the grounds. In 1875, there was an 
 expenditure of $400 for chandeliers and apparatus, and in 1876, 
 an unexpended balance of the normal school fund, amounting to 
 $1,018, was appropriated for additional heating apparatus, a 
 transit, a spectroscope and for additions to the library. Ambrose 
 P. Kelsey, the first principal of the school, resigned in 1865 and 
 
77 
 
 was succeeded by George W. Gage who resigned in 1868. Mr. 
 Gage was succeeded by Charles C. Rounds and he in 1883, by 
 George C. Purington, the present principal. The original school 
 building has given place to an entirely new and much larger 
 structure, thoroughly modern in arrangement, furnishings, venti- 
 lation and sewerage, and of a most attractive style of archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 EASTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CASTINE, ME. 
 
 This institution was opened very modestly and quietly on the 
 7th of September, 1867, with but thirteen pupils. Mr. G. T. 
 Fletcher was its first principal. The town of Castine had mani- 
 fested its interest in the establishment of the school by the loan 
 of an excellent building, completely furnished, for the use of 
 the school for a period of five years. At the close of the school 
 year, in May, 1868, public examination exercises were held. 
 These exercises were so satisfactory as to attract public atten- 
 tion, and the second school opened in August, 1868, with 51 
 pupils in attendance. At the close of the school year in May, 
 1869, the attendance had reached 81 and the first class of eight 
 pupils was graduated. The number of pupils continued to 
 increase and at the close of the fourth year, 140 pupils were in 
 attendance. It now became evident that a building adequate 
 to the needs of the school must be supplied at once. The town 
 of Castine gave a lot of land and the Legislature appropriated 
 $20,000 for the erection of a school building, which was begun in 
 the summer of 1872 and completed in January, 1873, and dedi- 
 cated with appropriate exercises on May 21st of that year. An 
 appropriation of $5,000 was afterwards made for furniture, 
 library, apparatus, and improvements, and the new school found 
 itself comfortably housed and equipped. The building has since 
 been enlarged by an extension of the main building to the rear, 
 furnishing space for a large model schoolroom in the lower 
 story and for library, teachers'- rooms and large classroom in the 
 upper portion of the addition. The grounds have been graded 
 and rendered attractive by laying out walks and planting shade 
 trees. Adequate systems of sewerage, heating and ventilation 
 have been provided. Extensive repairs and improvements have 
 also been made in the main assembly room and classrooms, 
 including steel ceilings, tinted walls, slate blackboards, etc. Mr. 
 
78 
 
 Fletcher continued as principal until 1879, when he was suc- 
 ceeded by Mr. Roliston Woodbury who held the position until 
 his death, in 1888. Mr. Albert F. Richardson was then 
 appointed and has continued to hold the position until the 
 present time. 
 
 GORHAM NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 In 1878, the Legislature made provision for establishing a 
 third normal school at Gorham. The town and citizens of 
 Gorham presented the State with a school building, furnished 
 and ready for occupancy, and the trustees of Gorham Seminary 
 gave a dormitory, with its furnishings and library. The value 
 of these buildings, including land, was fully $40,000. The first 
 school was opened January 29, 1879, with a class of 85 pupils, 
 45 of whom were awarded diplomas at the end of the year. 
 Since that time the originally extensive and finely located 
 grounds have been graded and adorned with shrubbery and trees, 
 a system of sewerage has been constructed and the largest and 
 best arranged and furnished dormitory in New England has been 
 erected to supply the place of the one destroyed by fire in 1894. 
 Repairs and improvements have been made in the assembly and 
 classrooms, including steel ceilings, slate blackboards, physical 
 apparatus, etc. The lot on which the dormitory is built was pre- 
 sented to the State by Mr. Dana Estes of Boston, of the firm of 
 Lauriat & Estes, and is one of the finest sites in the village. 
 Hon. W. J. Corthell has been the principal of this institution 
 since its establishment. 
 
 MADAWASKA TRAINING SCHOOL. 
 
 In 1878, the Legislature made provision for the establishment 
 of a training school for teachers among the French speaking 
 people of northeastern Maine. These residents upon the banks 
 of the upper St. John were, for a large part, descendants of the 
 original Acadians, who, escaping from Grand Pre at the time of 
 the cruel dispersion of that colony by the English, in 1755, had 
 made their way up this magnificent river and made homes for 
 themselves on the broad and fertile intervales along its banks. 
 Their numbers had from time to time been increased by emi- 
 grants from Canada and there grew up a large French popu- 
 lation in this frontier portion of the State, who retained the 
 language, manners, customs and religion of their ancestors. 
 
The trustees of the State Normal Schools were authorized 
 "to establish and maintain for a term of not less than six months 
 in each year, two schools in the Madawaska territory, so called, 
 for the purpose of training persons to teach in the common 
 schools of said territory." The first half year was taught at 
 Fort Kent and the second term at Van Buren. The same teach- 
 ers were in charge of both schools. At Fort Kent, the school 
 was held in the village school building ; at Van Buren, in a par- 
 tially finished building furnished with rough seats and study 
 tables. At the former place the attendance was forty-nine and 
 at the latter thirty-four. Such were the humble beginnings of 
 an institution whose work and influence were destined greatly 
 to exceed the fondest hopes of those who were instrumental in 
 founding it. In 1887, the school, though still called the Mada- 
 waska Training School, was permanently located at Fort Kent, 
 where a two-story school building and a two-story dormitory 
 have been erected at a cost of $20,500. The school building con- 
 tains, on the first floor, a main schoolroom, 40x50 feet, finishet: 
 in native spruce, with tinted walls, and provided with modern 
 furniture. Connected with this room are three commodious* 
 recitation rooms. On the second floor is a hall of the same 
 dimensions as the main schoolroom, with seating capacity for 
 300 persons. It has a stage 18x26 feet, connecting with 
 two convenient dressing-rooms. In the rear of the hall is an 
 unfinished room which, it is hoped, will eventually be used for 
 a manual training department. The building is well lighted, 
 heated and ventilated. The dormitory will accommodate 100 
 students. It is so managed that pupils may board themselves 
 or be boarded at a minimum cost. Both buildings are heated by 
 furnaces and are supplied with pure water on each floor and 
 have also a complete system of sewerage, connecting with bath- 
 rooms, laundries, lavatories, water-closets and kitchen. Mr. 
 Vetal Cyr was principal of the Madawaska Training School 
 from its establishment until his death in September, 1897, since 
 which time Miss Mary P. Nowland has had charge of the school. 
 
 The course of instruction in the normal schools, as originally 
 established, covered two years, with the exception of the school 
 at Gorham, which at first had a course of one year, but, at the 
 end of the first year, the course in this school was changed to 
 the plan adopted by the other schools. In 1881, the trustees were 
 
8o 
 
 authorized to provide for a three year course and an additional 
 year of advanced study was added to the course at Farmington. 
 Comparatively few pupils took advantage of this course. In 
 1895, the Legislature authorized the trustees to extend the course 
 of study over three or four years and, in accordance with the 
 authority so conferred, there was an advanced course of one year 
 in all the schools. 
 
 Beginning with the school year 1898-9, the standard of admis- 
 sion to the schools was raised to include examinations in simple 
 equations in algebra, physiology and hygiene, and the common 
 school branches. In 1899, the trustees provided for the admis- 
 sion, without examination, of persons holding State certificates, 
 graduates of colleges and graduates of secondary schools having 
 a four years' course which fit students for Maine colleges. They 
 further made provision that candidates for admission might 
 take their examinations at the times and places appointed for the 
 examination of candidates for State certificates. 
 
 teachers' institutes and summer schools. 
 
 There are certain general agencies which belong to every well 
 organized public school system. Teachers' institutes and sum- 
 mer schools come under this classification. The work of the 
 former is more general and popular in character and purpose 
 than that of the latter. The summer school is more systematic 
 in the order of its work, because it is of longer duration than the 
 institute. It gives instruction in principles and methods of 
 teaching, and in the more general subjects of instruction found 
 in the schools, such as music, drawing, nature study, physical 
 culture, English and the common school branches. The sessions 
 usually extend through two weeks of the summer vacation. 
 When this movement becomes a permanent agency in the school 
 system, the instruction can be so planned as to require a series 
 of annual sessions to complete it. It then may be made to cor- 
 relate with the work of the normal schools in such a manner as 
 to give those who have taken a complete course special privileges 
 in entering the normal schools. 
 
 When the Legislature of 1875 assembled, there was on the 
 statute books a law enabling the State Superintendent of schools 
 to hold in each county one or more teachers' institutes of five 
 
8i 
 
 days each, for which purpose the sum of $4,000 was annually 
 appropriated. This law had been in effect six years. During 
 the first three years of its operation a system of County super- 
 vision existed in Maine, the County Supervisors acting as local 
 agents of the State Superintendent and assisting in the work of 
 organizing and conducting these meetings. In 1872, the law 
 providing for county supervision was repealed, and in 1875 the 
 law establishing institutes shared the same fate. 
 
 From 1875 to 1881, no provision was made by which the State 
 Superintendent could come in professional contact with the 
 teachers. In 1877, the State Superintendent called to his assist- 
 ance the principals of the two normal schools, and with their aid 
 held a series of one-day conventions in all the counties of the 
 State. The interest manifested in these meetings gave evidence 
 of the need that something be done in this direction. In some 
 coimties the teachers organized county associations, but they 
 were of short life and not especially efficient. 
 
 In 1 88 1, the Legislature appropriated $800 to enable the State 
 Superintendent to hold for two days each, one or more meetings 
 or conventions in each county. During the fall of 1881, twenty- 
 one such meetings were held, and were attended by about 1,200 
 teachers and school officials. Teachers' associations were organ- 
 ized in connection with these meetings, and with few exceptions 
 they are in existence at the present time. 
 
 In 1885, after four years of experimental work, these county 
 associations were made a permanent part of the State educa- 
 tional machinery by an act of the Legislature providing for their 
 maintenance by the State and management by the State Super- 
 intendent of schools. Under this act teachers were authorized 
 to close their schools for two days in each year for the purpose 
 of attending these meetings, without forfeiture of wages. The 
 law has been made more efficient by increasing the amount annu- 
 ally appropriated for the support of these associations. The 
 attendance has constantly grown and public interest in them has 
 come to be such that the largest assembly rooms are required to 
 accommodate the attendance at most of the sessions. 
 
 The teachers' summer school in Maine had its origin in the 
 
 work of the county associations. In 1891, the Piscataquis 
 
 County Association, at its annual meeting, took steps looking 
 
 toward holding its next annual meeting in the summer instead 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 of the fall, and for a period of one week instead of two days. 
 Specialists were secured to give instruction in vocal music, draw- 
 ing, physical culture, pedagogy, arithmetic, history and geog- 
 raphy. The school was in session at Foxcroft for one week. 
 More than a hundred teachers were enrolled, and the wisdom of 
 the movement was fully vindicated. The work of this school 
 was so satisfactory that before its close, arrangements were made 
 foi holding, during the ensuing summer, another session at the 
 same place and with the same instructors. The second meeting 
 was even more successful than the first, and for the following 
 year, arrangemnts were made for a term to extend through two 
 weeks. In 1894, two other -schools of one week each, were held, 
 the first being at the Chautauqua Campground at Fryeburg, and 
 the other at the Methodist Campground at Northport. The 
 attendance at Foxcroft for the third year aggregated nearly 200. 
 The work it did and the favor it received, resulting in making an 
 earnest effort to secure legislative provision for establishing 
 these schools at different localities throughout the State. 
 
 The Legislature of 1895 passed a resolve giving the State sup- 
 erintendent authority to establish and maintain annually not less 
 than three summer schools, and made an appropriation for their 
 support in the years 1895 ^"'^^ 1896. Like appropriations for 
 the same purpose were made by the legislatures of 1897 and 1899. 
 From the beginning the work has been systematic and construc- 
 tive, embracing such instruction as is fitted to qualify teachers 
 to direct rightly the mental, physical and moral education of their 
 pupils. The course extends through four annual sessions of two 
 weeks each. To hold teachers to continuous attendance, certifi- 
 cates are granted to all who attend two-thirds of any session. To 
 teachers attending four annual sessions, diplomas are awarded. 
 The schools are not permanently located, but are established at 
 places where it is found that the largest number are disposed to 
 avail themselves of their privileges. But three sessions have as 
 yet been held at any given point with the exception of Foxcroft. 
 The change of the location after three years has for its purpose 
 the bringing of teachers into wider relations with their fellows 
 than they would naturally be brought into, otherwise. It has 
 also the purpose to make these schools a permanent part of our 
 public school system, and it is hoped that their work can be so 
 arranged as to be brought into close relation both with the county 
 
83 
 
 institute and the normal schools. These three agencies have 
 already assumed important places in our system, the two former 
 being feeders for the latter. The young teacher often receives 
 at the institute or summer school the impulse which carries her 
 into our higher institutions of learning. Even teachers of 
 extended experience have been stimulated to fit themselves better 
 for their work, because of attendance upon some of these meet- 
 ings. During the past five years summer schools have been held 
 in Foxcroft, Northport, Fryeburg, Orono, Newcastle, Machias, 
 Saco, Turner, Houlton, Pittsfield, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Norway, 
 Waterville, Presque Isle and Fort Kent. The attendance has 
 been quite as large as could profitably be handled, and has aver- 
 aged about one thousand teachers each year. 
 
 ACADEMIES. 
 
 The history of the New England academy goes back over a 
 period of 136 years. The old Boston Latin school, founded by 
 Rftv. John Cotton in 1635, ^s the first of the secondary schools 
 established in New England. Other schools, more or less pre- 
 tentious, had an existence in the 17th century but it was not until 
 the century following that the academy proper came into exist- 
 ence. In 1 76 1, Governor Dummer bequeathed his mansion and 
 330 acres of land in Byfield, Mass., to found an academy, and 
 Dummer academy was opened in 1763, under the noted Master 
 Moody. In 1780, Samuel Phillips founded the famous Phillips 
 Andover Academy and in 1781, his uncle, John Phillips, founded 
 the equally famous Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hamp- 
 shire. In 1 791, two academies were founded in what is now the 
 State of Maine, one at Hallowell and the other at Berwick. 
 In 1792, Fryeburg Academy and Washington Academy at East 
 Machias were founded and Portland Academy followed in 
 1794. Of these five earliest of Maine academies, three, viz: 
 Berwick, Fryeburg and Washington, are still in existence, after 
 an honorable career of more than a century. Twenty-five 
 academies had been incorporated in Maine previous to the sep- 
 aration from Massachusetts and had received as an endowment 
 from the old Commonwealth 253,980 acres of wild land. 
 Between 1820 and 1851, forty-four academies were chartered, 
 receiving from the State 332,980 acres of land and $20,000 in 
 
84 
 
 money for their support. Up to 1876, the chartered academies 
 had received from the State $230,000 and from individuals, 
 $135,000. 
 
 The act estabhshing free high schools, passed in 1873, was a 
 death blow to all but the stronger of the old academies. Many 
 of chem transferred their buildings and funds to the towns in 
 which they were located and became free high schools. In 1891, 
 the Legislature granted fourteen academies an annual appropri- 
 ation of $500 each for ten years, tv.'o $800 for ten years, and one 
 $300 for ten years. The Legislature of 1899 made appropria- 
 tions for quite a large number of academies, a list of which may 
 be found elsewhere in this report. The following table from the 
 "History of Education" in the hands of the U. S. Bureau of Edu- 
 cation, gives the incorporated academies of Maine in the order of 
 incorporation. Academies not in operation are indicated by an 
 asterisk (*) 
 
 INCORPORATED ACADEMIES OF MAINE. 
 
 Name, 
 ♦nallowell Academy. 
 
 Berwick Academy 
 
 Fryeburg Academy 
 
 Wasliiiigton Academy. 
 ♦Portland Academy. .. 
 
 Lincoln Academy 
 
 *Gorliam Academy — 
 
 Hampden .Academy.. . 
 
 Blueliill Academy 
 
 Hebron Academy 
 
 *Bath Academy 
 
 *FarminKton Academy 
 *Bloomfield Academy.. 
 
 *Wai'ren Academy 
 
 ♦Belfast Academy 
 
 Bri<lgton Academy 
 
 *Batb Female Academy 
 Wiscassct Academy 
 
 M on month A en demy — 
 Limerick Academy . ... 
 Noi-ili Yarmoulli Acad. 
 
 Tliornton Academy 
 
 *Yonnf< Ladies' Acad — 
 *Cony Female Academy 
 
 *niiina Academy 
 
 Maine Wesleyan Spmin 
 
 *<iardiner Lyceum 
 
 ♦Brunswick Academy.. 
 
 Date of 
 
 Location. Incorpoia 
 
 .Hallowell 1791 
 
 .South Berwick... 17111 
 Fryeburg 1792 
 
 .Fast Machias 1792 
 
 .Portland 1794 
 
 Newcastle I>^01 
 
 .Gorham 18(W 
 
 . Hampden l.-OM 
 
 Blnehill lsii3 
 
 Hebron IMI4 
 
 Bath 1W1.5 
 
 . Farmington \!^(i' 
 
 .Skowhegan .... 1^(17 
 
 .Warren I1-O8 
 
 Belfast ISOS 
 
 .Bridgtcm 1808 
 
 .Bath 1808 
 
 ■ Wiscasset 1.^08 
 
 .Monmouth 18i'8 
 
 I^imei ick I80S 
 
 . Yarmouili l.'^l I 
 
 Siico 18U 
 
 . Bnngor 1M8 
 
 ..Augusta .. 181>; 
 
 China . jsl>: 
 
 .Kent's Hill 1821 
 
 Gardiner 182-' 
 
 . Brunswick I>22 
 
 lion. Remarks. 
 
 Meiged in Hallowell Classical and 
 Scientific Academy. 
 
 Maine Female Seminary in 18.50, 
 now Normal School. 
 
 Now High School. 
 Ni>w Normal "ichool. 
 Now High .school. 
 
 Conveyed to the city in 18.52. 
 
 Extinct prior to 1851. 
 Kxtinct prior lo 1851. Revived in 
 1899. 
 
 Now Yarmouth Academy. 
 
 Formerly Shco Academv. 
 
 Fxtinct in 1851, 
 
 N'i'W Cony High school. 
 
 ' onvHved to ilistrict in 1887. 
 
 I'X' ioct in 1851. 
 
85 
 
 Date of 
 Incorporation. 
 
 Name. Location. 
 
 Foxcroft Academy Foxcroft Iis2.3 
 
 Anson Academy North Anson 18-23 
 
 *Oxford Female Acad ..Paris 1827 
 
 ♦Dearborn Academy Buxton 1828 
 
 *C berry fiekl Academy. .Cherry tield 1829 
 
 *Alfred Academy Alfred 1829 
 
 Westbrook Seminary ...Westbrook 18.31 
 
 *Titcomb Academy . ...N. Belgrade 1831 
 
 *Eastport Academy . .. Eaatport 1832 
 
 *St. Albans Academy ..Hartland 1832 
 
 Parsonsfleld Seminary. .N. Parsonsfleld.. . 18.33 
 
 *Lee Meadows Acad ... Weld 1833 
 
 *Union Academy Kennebunk 1834 
 
 *Falmoutli Academy Falmouth 1834 
 
 *Sanford Academy Sanford 1834 
 
 [Auburn 
 *Lewiston Kails Acad... Danville, now 1834 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Never in operation. 
 Organization not permanent. 
 
 Never organized. 
 
 Property distributed. 
 
 Extinct prior to 1851. 
 
 School not established. Now High 
 
 School. 
 In 1866, Edward Little Institute 
 
 Since 1873, High School. 
 
 Now Somerset Academy. 
 Exti .ct prior to 1851. 
 
 *Vassalborough Acad. .. Vassalborough ..1835 
 
 *Waterville Liberal In.. Waterville 1835 
 
 Gould's Academy . ... Bethel 1836 
 
 Freedom Academy Freedom 1836 
 
 * Athens Academy . Athens 1836 
 
 ♦Livingston Academy ..Richmond 1836 
 
 Waldoboro Academy . . .VValdoboro 1836 
 
 ♦Calais Academy Calais 1836 
 
 ♦Norridgewock Female 
 
 Academy Norridgewock ...1836 
 
 Charleston Acadetny Charleston 1837 Now Higgins Classical Institute. 
 
 ♦Clinton Academy Benton 1839 
 
 *Eliot Academy Eliot 1840 
 
 Waterville Academy — Waterville 1842 Now Coburn Classical Institute. 
 
 Litchfield Academy Litchfield 1844 
 
 .♦Dennysville Academy. .Dennysville 1845 
 
 ♦Monroe Academy Monroe 1845 
 
 ♦Brunswick Seminary ..Brunswick 1845 Existence nominal in 1851. 
 
 ♦Brewer Academy Brewer 1845 
 
 ♦Newport Academy Newport 1845 
 
 ♦St. George Academy ...St. George 1845 
 
 Lee Normal Academy .. Lee 1845 
 
 ♦Thomaston Academy.. Thomaston 1845 Sold to city, 1867. 
 
 Somerset Academy Athens 1846 
 
 Mattanawcook Acad.. .. Lincoln 1846 
 
 East Corinth Academy. .East Corinth 1846 
 
 Houlton Academy Houlton 1847 Now Ricker Classical Institute. 
 
 Patten Academy Patten 1847 
 
 Monson Academy Monson 1847 
 
 ♦Litclifleld Liberal In. .. Litchfield 1847 
 
 ♦Union Academy Oldtown 1848 
 
 Limington Academy Limington 1848 
 
 •Standlsh Academy Standish 1848 
 
 Bucksport Seminary... Bucksport 1849 
 
 ♦Norway Liberal In Norway 1849 
 
 ♦Oxford Normal In South Paris 1849 
 
 ♦East Pittston Academy. East Pittston 1850 
 
 Lebanon Academy — Lebanon 1850 
 
 ♦Yarmouth Institute Yarmouth 1851 
 
 In 1850 East 
 Seminary. 
 
 Maine Conference 
 
86 
 
 Date of 
 Name. Location. Incorporation. Remarks. 
 
 Corinna Union AcademyCorinna 1851 
 
 *Towle's Academy VVinthrop 1852 
 
 Oak Grove Seminary ... Vassalborongli ..1854 New cliarter 1857. 
 
 Maine State Seminary ..Lewiston Ih55 Now Bates College. 
 
 *Presque Isle Academy. Presque Isle 1858 Property sold 1883. 
 
 *We9t Gardiner Acad... West Gai diner... 1859 
 
 *Harpswell Academy. . . Ilarpswell 1859 
 
 Greeley Institute Cumberland 1859 
 
 ♦Richmond Academy .. .Riclimond 1861 Now Higli Scliool. 
 
 Paris Hill Academy Paris- .' 1861 
 
 ftlaine Central Institute. Pittsfield 1866 
 
 Wilton Academy Wilton 1866 
 
 *Augusta Academy Augusta 1867 
 
 *Passadumkeag Acad... Passadumkeag ..1867 Not organized. 
 *Hallowell Classical and 
 
 Scientific Academy ...Hallowell 187"2 
 
 *St. Dennis Academy. ..Whitefleld 1872 Not in operation. 
 
 *Dixfleld Academy Dixtield 1883 Not organized. 
 
 Van Buren College Van Buren 1887 Catholic School. 
 
 George Stevens Acad . . Bluehill 1891 
 
 Higgins Classical In Charleston 1891 
 
 Bridge Academy Dresden 1891 
 
 The old academies were a powerful agency in the intellectual, 
 moral and religious life of the State. A few, located in the 
 midst of thriving agricultural communities, like Washington 
 Academy, Lincoln Academy, Gould Academy, Bridgton 
 Academy, Fryeburg Academy, Yarmouth Academy and Wilton 
 Academy, have been able by the aid of small endowments, to 
 keep alive and do good work. Thornton Academy at Saco and 
 Berwick Academy have fine buildings and generous endowm'ents. 
 Nearly all the other leading academies receive their chief sup- 
 port from their denominational connections. Coburn Classical 
 Institute, at Waterville, Hebron Academy, Ricker Classical 
 Institute, at Houlton, and Higgins Classical Institute at Charles- 
 ton are all supported by the Baptist denomination and are feeders 
 for Colby College. The Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's 
 Hill and the East Maine Conference Seminary, formerly the 
 Bucksport Seminary, are Methodist institutions. The Maine 
 Central Institute, at Pittsfield, is supported by Free Baptists; 
 Westbrook Seminary by Universalists, and Oak Grove Seminary 
 by the Friends. 
 
 The Legislature of 1901 passed the following law : 
 
 An Act relating to Academies, Seminaries and Institutes. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
 Legislature assembled, as follows : 
 
8; 
 
 I. Whenever it shall be made to appear to the Governor and 
 Council, from returns made as herein provided, that any incor- 
 porated academy, seminary or institute in the State is prepared 
 to give instruction equivalent to that required by law to be given 
 in free high schools, that the pupils attending the said academy, 
 seminary or institute are qualified to receive such instruction, and 
 that the teachers in the said academy, seminary or institute have 
 the qualifications fitting them to give instruction in secondary 
 school studies, such academy, seminary or institute shall be 
 entitled to receive annually from the State a sum not exceeding 
 five hundred dollars in case it maintains an English secondary 
 school course of study as prescribed by the educational depart- 
 ment of the State, and has an average attendance from towns and 
 cities other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which said 
 academy, seminary or institute is located of at least ten students, 
 or a sum not exceeding seven hundred and fifty dollars in case 
 it maintains in addition to an English course, a college prepara- 
 tory course, and has an average attendance from towns and cities 
 other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which said acad- 
 emy, seminary or institute is located of at least twenty students, 
 or a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars in case it maintains 
 an English course, a college preparatory course and a training 
 course for teachers, and has an average attendance from towns 
 and cities other than the municipality or jurisdiction in which 
 said academy, seminary or institute is located of at least forty 
 students ; provided, the courses of study herein named shall be 
 subject to the approval of the Educational Department of the 
 State : and provided, that the amount paid by the State to 
 any academy, seminary or institute under this act shall be 
 expended by the said academy, seminary or institute for instruc- 
 tion during the year for which payment is made, and shall not 
 exceed the total income of the said academy, seminary or insti- 
 tute from all other sources ; and provided further, that in addition 
 to the amount received from the State, a sum equal thereto shall 
 be expended for instruction and maintenance of the academy, 
 seminary or institute during said year; and provided further, 
 that every academy, seminary or institute receiving money from 
 the State under this act shall provide instruction as contemplated 
 by this act for not less than thirty weeks in each year ; and pro- 
 
88 
 
 videcl further, that no academy, seminary or institute shall be 
 credited with maintaining a course or study under this act vniless 
 the said academy, seminary or institute shall have an average of 
 not less than twelve students in said course. 
 
 II. The Treasurer of State is hereby authorized and directed 
 to pay annually to the legal representatives of such academies, 
 seminaries or institutes as shall be entitled to receive money from 
 the State under this act, at the times and in the manner provided 
 by law for the payment of money in aid of free high schools, the 
 amounts to which they shall be 'severally entitled under this act ; 
 provided, that no payment shall be made to any academy, semm- 
 ary or institute until the State Educational Department shall 
 have certified to the Treasurer of State all the facts which by 
 this act are made necessary to entitle an academy, seminary or 
 institute to receive money from the State under this act. 
 
 III. Any town or precinct providing free tuition for its high 
 school scholars in any academy, seminary or institute, shall 
 receive State aid to the amount of one-half the sum expended for 
 such instruction, provided, no town shall receive to exceed two 
 hundred and fifty dollars in any given year; and provided 
 further, that no town shall receive State aid under this act if a 
 free high school of standard grade is maintained in said town. 
 
 IV. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
 aid under this act unless incorporated prior to the date of 
 approval of said act. 
 
 V. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State aid 
 under this act unless the average attendance in said academy, 
 seminary or institute for the year preceding shall exceed thirty 
 students, and no academy, seminary or institute shall receive to 
 exceed five hundred dollars unless the average attendance in said 
 academy, seminary or institute for the year preceding shall 
 exceed sixty students. 
 
 VI. No academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
 aid under this act if said academy, seminary or institute has an 
 annual income from invested funds exceeding sixteen hundred 
 dollars, and no academy, seminary or institute shall receive State 
 aid to exceed five hundred dollars in any given year provided the 
 said academy, seminary or institute has an annual income from 
 invested funds exceeding one thousand dollars. 
 
89 
 
 VII. The officers and teachers of every academy, seminary or 
 institute receiving money from the State under this act shall 
 annually on or before the first day of January in each year render 
 to the Educational Department an itemized account of all the 
 moneys received and expended during the preceding year and 
 shall make such further report to the State Educational Depart- 
 ment as may from time to time be required. 
 
 Approved February 26, igoi. 
 
 This law is one of the most important acts in relation to educa- 
 tion ever passed by a Maine Legislature. It does away with all 
 special legislation in regard to aid to academies and places these 
 institutions, as far as the amount each shall receive from the 
 State is concerned, upon the same basis as the Free High 
 Schools. 
 
 The aid each shall receive from the State (if any) is deter- 
 mined by the amount and character of the work done, as evinced 
 by the sworn return made by the officers of the institution to the 
 State Superintendent of Public Schools and not by the influence 
 any academy may be able to bring to bear upon the Legislature. 
 
 COLLEGES. 
 
 Bowdoin College. More than a century and a half had passed 
 since the opening of Harvard College, when, in response to a 
 wide spread desire of the inhabitants of the District of Maine, 
 a new college was established at Brunswick, in the county of 
 Cumberland. Brunswick is one of the oldest towns in the dis- 
 tiict, having been settled in 1628, when it was known as Pejep- 
 scot, and incorporated in 1738 as the eleventh town in the old 
 Commonwealth. Cumberland, the county in which Brunswick 
 is situated, originally embraced all of the present counties of 
 Androscoggin and Franklin and portions of Oxford, Kennebec 
 and Somerset, and was incorporated as a county in 1760, thirty- 
 four years previous to the founding of the new college. 
 
 The charter for the college was signed by Governor General 
 Adams on January 24, 1794. The college received its name 
 from James Bowdoin, great-grandson of Pierre Bauduoin, a 
 French Protestant who fled from religious persecution in his 
 native land and settled in Falmouth, in the Province of Maine. 
 His oldest son, named James, was a successful merchant and 
 amassed a large fortune in trade. His son, also named James 
 
90 
 
 Bowdoin, was born in Boston and was elected Governor of 
 Massachusetts. He was deeply interested in science and litera- 
 ture and was a generous patron of education. He died in 1790 
 and it was soon after decided to give his name to the proposed 
 college. The earliest patron of the college was the Hon. James 
 Bowdoin, the third of the name, son of Governor Bowdoin and 
 United States minister-plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain 
 under the administration of President Jefferson. 
 
 In 1794, the year in which the new college was chartered, he 
 gave it $1,000 in cash and 1,000 acres of land in Bowdoinham, 
 valued at $3,000. In 1795, he made it a further gift of $3,000 
 and before his death in 181 1 transferred to its trustees a tract 
 of land in the town of Lisbon, containing 6,000 acres. At his 
 death he left to the college a valuable library of 2,000 volumes 
 and as many pamphlets, a collection of minerals, a fine gallery 
 of 70 paintings and 142 drawings. 
 
 The college was duly opened for work in September, 1802, 
 with the inauguration of Rev. Joseph McKeen as president and 
 John Abbott, a graduate of Harvard, as professor of ancient lan- 
 guages. His first class consisted of eight students. In 1805 
 the department of mathematics and natural philosophy was 
 established, with Parker Cleaveland in charge. Prof. Cleave- 
 land's "Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology" was 
 a work of much value and excellence and reflected great honor 
 upon himself and the college. In 1806, seven of the eight 
 students who entered at the opening of the college completed 
 their course and received diplomas. This was the last, as well 
 as the first commencement at which President McKeen presided. 
 He died in 1807, after a painful illness extending through a 
 number of years. President McKeen was a man of strong 
 character and exceptional executive ability, and his brief admin- 
 istration was of great value in starting the college on its career 
 of usefulness. He was succeeded by Rev. Jesse Appleton, dur- 
 ing whose administration the religious life of the students was 
 quickened, the material equipment of the college was enlarged 
 and the reputation of the institution for "good rnorals and sound 
 scholarship" established. President Appleton was, in 1819, suc- 
 ceeded by Rev. William Allen, who held the position until 1839. 
 Jn 1820, the Medical School of Maine was chartered by the 
 
legislature and placed under the control of the college. Pro- 
 fessor Cleaveland was appointed professor of chemistry and 
 materia medica and secretary of the medical faculty. In 1824, 
 Alpheus S. Packard was appointed professor of ancient lan- 
 guages and classical literature and filled this position with 
 eminent ability for forty-one years. He retained his connection 
 with the college until his death in 1883, at which time he was 
 acting president. The term of service of President Allen was 
 a period of strife and litigation. It was noted also for the many 
 strong men who during that time joined the faculty of the college 
 and who for many years impressed the institution most power- 
 fully and beneficially with their marked and vigorous person- 
 alities. Among them, besides Professors Packard and Cleave- 
 land, were Samuel P. Newman, Thomas C. Upham and WilHam 
 Smyth, whose connection with the college averaged forty-five 
 years. In 1825, a professorship of modern languages was estab- 
 lished and Henry W. Longfellow, a member of the famous class 
 of that year, was called to this chair. After traveling and study- 
 ing abroad, he entered upon his duties in 1829, and, during his 
 incumbency, Bowdoin was the first of New England colleges to 
 give prominence to the study of modern languages. In 1839, 
 Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., became president and by his courtly 
 grace, refined taste and rare culture, lifted the little college into 
 the larger atmosphere of the scholarly world and impressed nigh 
 standards of gentlemanly bearing upon the students. He was 
 succeeded, in 1866, by Rev. Samuel Harris, who was a man of 
 pre-eminent gifts as an educator, and who at once placed the 
 curriculum of the college upon a broad and sound basis with 
 decidedly progressive tendencies. In 1871, Gen. Joshua L. 
 Chamberlain, who had been a brilliant and faithful officer during 
 the war of the rebellion and for four years Governor of Maine, 
 was called to the presidency of the college. He continued the 
 work inaugurated by President Harris and introduced a scientific 
 department which for a decade gave thorough instruction in 
 applied science, but was discontinued on account of lack of funds 
 to maintain two courses so distinct in aim and method. In 1883, 
 Gen. Chamberlain resigned and the venerable Professor Packard, 
 then in his eighty-fourth year, acted in his stead until his death. 
 In 1885, Rev. William DeWitt Hyde was called to the presi- 
 
92 
 
 dential chair, which he still occupies. During- his administration 
 the elective system has been greatly extended, facilities for 
 thorough labratory work have been given to the college, the 
 library has been made more accessible and useful and systematic 
 physical training has been established. 
 
 Bowdoin has twelve buildings, chief among which are the 
 Chapel, a monument to the memory of President Woods ; 
 Memorial Hall with its tablets inscribed with the names of those 
 who served their country in the war of the rebellion ; the Walker 
 Art building, erected by the Misses Walker of Waltham, Mass., 
 as a memorial of their uncle, Theophilus Wheeler Walker of 
 Boston, and the Mary F. S. Searles Scientific Laboratory, 
 erected by Edward F. Searles in memory of his wife. 
 
 Upon the roll of graduates of Bowdoin are many men who 
 have acquired fame in all the varied walks of life. 
 
 COLBY COLLEGE. 
 
 The second college established in the State was opened 
 at Waterville in 1818. In 1810, the Baptist association 
 of Maine proposed "to establish an institution in the Dis- 
 trict of Maine for the purpose of promoting literary and theo- 
 logical knowledge" and a committee was appointed to petition 
 the General Court for a charter. In 18 13, an act was approved 
 by the Governor of Massachusetts incorporating the "Maine Lit- 
 erary and Theological Institution." Section i of the act estab- 
 lishing the institution specified that it should "be erected and 
 established in the District of Maine, in the township hereafter 
 mentioned." This township was "No. 3" on the west side of the 
 Penobscot river, which now includes the towns of Alton and 
 Argyle. It at once became evident that it was unwise if not 
 absurd to locate a college in a region destitute of common 
 schools, and in fact almost a wilderness. A petition was pre- 
 sented to the legislature of Massachusetts to authorize a more 
 central location, and, on June 12, 181 5, an additional act was 
 passed which empowered the trustees "to locate and establish 
 their buildings in any town within the counties of Kennebec or 
 Somerset," and it was voted by the trustees, in 1816, to estab- 
 lish the school at W^aterville. 
 
 No suitable building was available and after many difficulties, 
 instruction under the auspices of the college was commenced on 
 
July 6, 1818, in a private house, by Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, who 
 had accepted the professorship of theology, the students being 
 those who had been studying for the ministry under him in 
 Danvers, Mass. In 1817, Rev. J. Chase of VVestford, Vt., was 
 elected professor of languages. In May, 1819, there were seven- 
 teen students of theology. Rev. Avery Briggs was elected pro- 
 fessor of languages in 1818, and in October, 1819, the literary 
 department opened under his direction with some twenty-five 
 students. Although founded by a religious denomination the 
 institution was administered from the first in a broad and 
 catholic spirit and, in 1820, this attitude was confirmed and 
 enforced by an act of the Maine Legislature, providing that the 
 corporation should have no rule or by-law requiring that any 
 member of the trustees should be of any particular denomination 
 and that no student should be deprived of any of the privileges 
 of the nistitution on theological grounds. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1820, the "President's House" 
 and South College were completed and occupied and for the 
 first time the infant college had a home of its own. 
 
 The Legislature of Maine at its session in 1821 changed the 
 name of the institution to "Waterville College," in accordance 
 with the wishes of the trustees. With the new name came also 
 a new organization, Rev. Daniel H. Barnes of New York being 
 elected as president, which ofiice, however, he declined to accept 
 and the college remained without a president until 1822, when Dr. 
 Chaplin accepted the position which he retained until 1833. In 
 1822, the first class, consisting of two members, was graduated 
 and received the degree of A. B. The classes of 1823 and 1824 
 numbered but three each. In 1829 the trustees established 
 Waterville Academy, as a fitting school and feeder to the new 
 college. About the same time, the "manual labor department" 
 was added to the college, with the intention of afifording needy 
 students an opportunity to pay a portion of the expense of their 
 education. This department did not prove to be a success and, 
 after adding each year to its indebtedness, was abolished in 
 1842. In 1827, a department of matliematics and natural phil- 
 osophv was established, rhetoric and Hebrew was added in 1831, 
 and chemistry and natural history in 1836. In 1833, Rev. Rufus 
 Babcock, Jr., was elected president. In 1836, he was succeeded 
 bv Rev. Robert Patterson who, in turn, was, in 1841, succeeded 
 
94 
 
 by Kev. Eliphaz Fay. . The Chapel building, containing, besides 
 the chapel proper, recitation rooms and the library, was erected 
 in 1839. This building is now known as Champlin Hall, while 
 Old North College has become Chaplin Hall. Memorial Hall 
 v/as built in 1867 and dedicated in 1869. It was erected as 
 a memorial of the sons of the college who gave their lives to 
 their country in the war of the rebellion. It contains the Chapel, 
 Hall of the Alumni and Library. Coburn Hall, built in 1871 
 and named in acknowledgement of Hon. Abner Coburn, is occu- 
 pied by the departments of geology and zoology. The observ- 
 atory and gymnasium were built in 1875. Ladies' Hall, situ- 
 ated on College Avenue, near the college buildings, affords a 
 pleasant home for the young women students and two other 
 houses on the same avenue are devoted to their accommodation. 
 The chemical laboratory was erected and equipped in 1899. 
 
 In 1843, I^ev. D. N. Sheldon was elected president. He was 
 succeeded, in 1853, by Rev. Robert E. Patterson, who was fol- 
 lowed, in 1856, by Rev. James T. Champlin. Upon the resigna- 
 tion of Dr. Champlin, m 1872, Rev. Henry E. Robbins was 
 elected president. He was succeeded, in 1882, by Rev. Geo. 
 D. B. Pepper, who was followed in 1889, by Albion W. Small, 
 Ph. D. Dr. Small was succeeded, in 1892, by Rev. B. L. Whit- 
 man, who retired in 1896, when Rev. Nathaniel Butler, D. D. 
 accepted the position. Dr. Butler retired in 1901 and was suc- 
 c«eded by President Charles L. White. The college had a 
 continual struggle for existence until 1864, when Gardiner 
 Colby, of Newton Center, Mass., offered to contribute $50,000 
 as an endowment, provided an additional $100,000 could be 
 secured. The condition was complied with and, in 1866, the 
 college was placed upon a safe financial basis. In 1867, by act 
 of the Legislature, the name of the institution was changed to 
 Colby University. In 1871, women were first received on equal 
 terms with men. In 1899, by request of the board of trustees, 
 the name was again changed by act of the Legislature to Colby 
 College. 
 
 The benefactions of Mr. Colby, including the bequest received 
 after his death, April 2, 1879, amounted to $200,000. The 
 college has four affiliated academies in Maine, viz : Hebron 
 Academy, Hebron; Coburn Classical Institute, Waterville; 
 Ricker Classical Institute, Houlton, and Higgins Classical Insti- 
 
95 
 
 tute, Charleston. These academies are under the general 
 direction of the board of trustees of the college, and their grad- 
 uates are admitted to Colby upon certificate of the principal, 
 without individual examinations. The record made by Colby in 
 the past does honor to the institution and to the State and its 
 promise for the future is most flattering. 
 
 BATES COLLEGE. 
 
 Bates College, situated at Lewiston, and the pioneer of co-ed- 
 ucation in New England, grew out of the Maine State Sem- 
 inary, which was chartered by the State in 1855. In 1854 Par- 
 son sfield Seminary, the only school in the State belonging to the 
 Free Baptist denomination, was destroyed by fire. Rev. Oren 
 B. Cheney, at that time pastor of the Free Baptist church in 
 Augusta, at once set to work to establish in the central portion 
 of the State an educational institution with a liberal endowment, 
 and thus more than compensate to his denomination for the loss 
 of the seminary. 
 
 In October of that year the Free Baptist anniversary meetings 
 were held in Saco. Here Mr. Cheney unfolded his plan, and at 
 Ihe close of the convention a meeting of ministers and laymen 
 was held, before which the matter was fully laid. The meeting 
 became so interested in the matter as to appoint a committee to 
 call a Free Baptist state convention to consider the enterprise 
 more fully and take necessary action. The convention met at 
 Topsham in the following November and, after full discussion, 
 voted unanimously to establish the proposed school and also to 
 continue the Parsonsfield Seminary, for which latter purpose 
 the sum of two thousand dollars was pledged. A committee 
 was appointed, consisting of Rev. Oren B. Cheney, Rev. Eben- 
 ezer Knowlton and Francis Lyford, Esq., who were clothed 
 with full power to establish the seminary, obtain a charter, 
 secure, if possible, an endowment from the State, and to provide 
 in such other ways as seemed feasible for its support. At the 
 first meeting of this committee, held at the residence of Mr. 
 Knowlton, in South Montville, a charter for the proposed insti- 
 tution was drawn up, the name of the Maine State Seminary 
 adopted, and a board of trustees elected. By the persistent 
 efiforts of Mr. Cheney, an act was passed by the Legislature of 
 1855, granting the charter and with it an appropriation of 
 
96 
 
 $i5,ooo. By the terms of the act, five thousand dollars were 
 granted for general purposes of the institution and ten thousand 
 dollars in the bonds of the State for the nucleus of an endow- 
 ment fund, the whole gift being upon condition that an equal 
 sum should be raised for the new school by subscription. That 
 amount was at once pledged by the citizens and corporations of 
 Lewiston, the Franklin Company heading the list with a sub- 
 scription of live thousand dollars, and the trustees decided to 
 locate the school in that city. A site containing twenty acres 
 was purchased of Ammi R. Nash, Esq., for about five thousand 
 dollars, and on June 26th, 1856, the corner stone of Hathorn 
 Hall, named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Hathorn, of Wool- 
 wich, who contributed five thousand dollars towards its erection, 
 was laid with appropriate ceremonies. Parker Hall, named for 
 Hon. Thomas Parker, of Farmington, who had subscribed five 
 thousand dollars, was commenced soon after. On Sept. ist, 
 1857, the Maine State Seminary was opened for the reception 
 of students, with Rev. Oren B. Cheney, A. M., as principal. 
 The new school was liberally patronized from the start, its first 
 class numbering one hundred and thirty-seven students. During 
 the six years of its existence as a seminary it maintained an 
 average of one hundred and fifty and graduated seventy-six 
 }Oung men from its classical department. During the same time, 
 forty-one young ladies were graduated from the full course. In 
 the winter of 1862, through the influence of Mr. Cheney, the 
 Legislature passed an act giving to the Maine State Seminary 
 collegiate powers, including the right to confer degrees. At 
 the annual meeting of the trustees in July, 1863, Mr. Cheney, 
 with much energy, urged the adoption of a college organization 
 and the immediate formation of a freshman class. His efforts 
 were successful, and the trustees voted not only to form a Fresh- 
 man class at the opening of the fall term, but also to change the 
 name of the institution from Maine State Seminary to Bates 
 College, and to ask the Legislature to legalize their action and 
 to change the charter to conform to the vote. Rev. Oren B. 
 Cheney, D. D., was elected president of the embryo college, with 
 Levi W. Stanton, A. M., professor of Greek, Jonathan Y. Stan- 
 ton A. M., professor of Latin, Selden F. Neal, A. M., professor 
 of mathematics and Horace R. Cheney, A. B., tutor and librarian. 
 The name of the college was chosen in honor of Hon. Benjamin 
 
97 
 
 Edward Bates, A. M., of Boston, to whom President Cheney 
 had confided his plans and who had pledged twenty-five thousand 
 dollars towards the endowment of the college, provided seventy- 
 five thousand dollars could be otherwise secured. In 1864, Mr. 
 Bates made a second subscription of fifty thousand dollars for 
 an additional building to complete the original plan and twenty- 
 five thousand for an endowment on condition that twenty-five 
 thousand should be obtained from other friends of the college. 
 This condition was quickly met and the subscription was paid ; 
 but upon mature deliberation it was agreed by Mr. Bates that 
 the whole amount might be added to the endowment fund and 
 the erection of the building postponed, provided thirty thousand 
 dollars additional should be raised for permanent endowment. 
 In 1873, he made another conditional subscription of one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars to be met by an equal sum secured from 
 other sources. Subscriptions amounting to the required sum 
 were secured, but, owing to business depression, were not all 
 paid. The college opened in the fall of 1863, with a freshman 
 class of sixteen. At first the seminary remained as a part of the 
 college. Out of the college preparatory class was developed 
 the Latin school. The ladies' department of the seminary was 
 presented to the Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield, and, in 
 1870, the seminary was discontinued. In the same year a theo- 
 logical department of the college was established and Nichols 
 Hall, made vacant by the removal of the seminary, was appro- 
 priated to its use. 
 
 The charter of 1864 was amended by the Legislature in 1868, 
 giving the right to establish the theological department and mak- 
 ing some changes in the board of president and trustees. The 
 complete charter, as it now stands, establishing the Board of 
 Fellows and Overseers and giving the alumni a voice in the 
 government of the college, was granted in 1873. In 1877, the 
 floating debt of the institution had risen to $86,000, and the 
 invested funds were reduced to about $120,000. In 1878, Mr. 
 Bates died. He had not paid the $100,000 conditionally pledged 
 and the court subsequently decided that his estate was not under 
 obligation for its payment. 
 
 During the next six years, by the efiforts of President Cheney 
 and Professor Chase, sufficient funds were secured to give the 
 college about $150,000 as a productive fund and an income of 
 7 
 
98 
 
 $i8,ooo. Subsequent gifts brought the productive fund of the 
 college and of the Cobb divinity school, which in 1870 became 
 a department of the college, up to $300,000 in 1891, with build- 
 ings and grounds valued at $200,000. 
 
 Professor George C. Chase was elected president in 1894. The 
 course of study includes the classics, mathematics, modern lan- 
 guages, English literature, rhetoric, political economy, science, 
 psychology, logic and the evidences of Christianity. More than 
 forty per cent, of the graduates of Bates have become teachers 
 and more city high schools in New England are taught by gradu- 
 ates of Bates than by graduates of any other college. Its pro- 
 fessors have been devotedly loyal during its periods of struggle 
 and hardship and by their self-sacrificing zeal have contributed 
 very much to ensure the prosperity the college now enjoys. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE. 
 
 By an act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862, it was 
 provided that there should be granted to the States, 
 from the public lands "thirty thousand acres for each 
 senator and representative in congress" from the sale of which 
 there should be established a perpetual fund "the interest of 
 which shall be inviolably appropriated by each state which may 
 tak? and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support 
 and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object 
 shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies 
 nnd including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning 
 as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such man- 
 ner as the legislatures of the states may respectively prescribe, 
 m order to promote the liberal and practical education of the 
 industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." 
 The act forbade the use of any portion of the principal or interest 
 of this fund for the purchase, erection or maintenance of build- 
 ings and required each state taking the benefit of the provisions 
 of the act "to provide within five years not less than one college" 
 to carry out the purposes of the act. 
 
 Maine accepted this grant in 1863, and in 1865 constituted "a 
 body politic and corporate by the name of the trustees of the 
 State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." The 
 trustees were authorized to receive and hold donations, to select 
 the professors and other officers of the college, to establish the 
 
99 
 
 conditions for admission, to prepare courses of study, to grant 
 degrees and to execute other powers and privileges. 
 
 The Governor and Council were given the right "to examine 
 into the affairs of the college and the doings of the trustees and 
 to inspect all their records and accounts and the buildings anB 
 premises occupied by the college." 
 
 The State of Maine received, under the act of congress above 
 referred to, two hundred and ten thousand acres of public lands 
 from which the university has realized an endowment fund of 
 $118,300. This has been increased by a bequest of $100,000 
 from Abner Coburn, of Skowhegan, who was for many years 
 president of the board of trustees. 
 
 The town of Orono contributed $8,000 and the town of Old 
 Town $3,000 for the purchase of the site on which the buildings 
 now stand. The State has appropriated about $300,000 for the 
 material equipment. 
 
 After the conditions of the act of 1862 were accepted by the 
 Legislature it remained a matter of discussion whether the new 
 institution should be a separate college or should be united with 
 one of the colleges already established. Governor Coburn, in 
 1863, and Governor Cony, in 1864, favored union with one of 
 the existing colleges. A board of commissioners was appointed 
 to consider the matter and their report recommended that the 
 new institution be connected with Bowdoin College. This plan 
 was vigorously opposed by the State Board of Agriculture, sup- 
 ported by the agricultural press of the State. After a lengthy 
 discussion the Legislature decided in favor of establishing an 
 independent college. 
 
 The first meeting of the trustees was held in April, 1865. In 
 January, 1866, the board of trustees voted to locate the college 
 at Orono, on a farm of three hundred and seventy-six acres 
 given by the towns of Old Town and Orono. In 1867, the Legis- 
 lature appropriated twenty thousand dollars to erect two build- 
 ings and furnish apparatus for the new college, and the next 
 year ten thousand dollars were voted to complete the buildings. 
 There were upon the farm two sets of farm buildings which 
 were fitted up, one for the farm superintendent and the other 
 for the first professor. 
 
 In 1869, the Legislature voted twenty-eight thousand dollars 
 for the use of the college. In September, 1868, the first class, 
 
lOO 
 
 consisting of twelve students, was admitted. The faculty at 
 that time consisted of Merritt C. Fernald, M. A., professor of 
 mathematics, and Samuel Johnson, farm superintendent and 
 instructor in agriculture. In the following year Stephen F. 
 Peckham was elected professor of chemistry and soon after John 
 Swift was added as instructor in botany and horticulture. In 
 these first years temporary lecturers on special topics were 
 employed. 
 
 In 1871, Rev. Charles F. Allen, D. D., was chosen the first 
 president of the college and continued in that position until 1878. 
 He was succeeded by Pres. Merritt C. Fernald, during whose 
 administration the college was placed upon a substantial founda- 
 tion and the several courses of study were developed. In 1893, 
 Pres. Fernald retired from the presidency and accepted the posi- 
 tion of professor of philosophy, and Abram Winegardner 
 Harris, Sc D., was elected president. Dr. Harris resigned in 
 1 90 1 and the chair was temporarily filled by Pres. Fernald until 
 a choice was made of Dr. George Emory Fellows of the Univer- 
 sity of Chicago. An experiment, station was established in con- 
 nection with the college in 1887. 
 
 The Legislature of 1897 changed the name of the institution 
 to "The University of Maine." The university is now divided 
 into colleges, each offering several courses upon related subjects. 
 The colleges are interdependent and together form a unit. They 
 are as follows : College of Arts and Sciences ; College of Agri- 
 culture ; College of Engineering ; College of Pharmacy ; School 
 of Law. There are also short courses in agriculture for the 
 benefit of students who are unable to devote the time and money 
 required for a full course. 
 
 Under an act of Congress approved March 2, 1887, the univer- 
 sity receives $15,000 annually for the maintenance of the experi- 
 ment station. Under an act of Congress approved August 30, 
 1890, the university receives for its more complete endowment 
 and maintenance $25,000 annually. 
 
 Under an act of the Legislature approved March 20, 1897, the 
 university receives $20,000 annually from the State for current 
 expenses. 
 
 The buildings now occupied by the university are as follows : 
 Wingate Hall was erected for the departments of civil and 
 mechanical engineering. Oak Hall, used as a dormitory for men, 
 
lOI 
 
 contains forty-nine study rooms for students, bath rooms and 
 a room occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association. 
 Fernald Hall contains fifteen rooms devoted to the departments 
 of chemistry and pharmacy. Coburn Hall contains the reading 
 rooms and library, laboratories for the departments of agricul- 
 ture, botany and entomology and recitation rooms for a number 
 of departments. This building also contains the museum, the 
 chapel and the president's office. The observatory contains a 
 seven and one-half inch refractor and an excellent equipment 
 of astronomical instruments. The machine shop contains the 
 foundry, forge shop, carpenter shop, machine shop and tool 
 room. An adjoining building contains the dynamos, motors and 
 storage battery. The drill hall and gymnasium, erected in 1900, 
 will contain when completed, the offices of the president, secretary 
 and cashier, a board room, two recitation rooms and the private 
 office of the professor of mathematics. The university chapel 
 will be located in the second story. In the basement are the 
 usual appliances for gymnasium work. The drill hall proper 
 is 100 by 62 feet and is encircled by a 9-foot running track sus- 
 pended from the roof. The experiment station building is 
 thoroughly equipped with the necessary apparatus for the work 
 of the station. The horticultural building contains a head house, 
 three greenhouses, conservatory, laboratory and offices. The 
 dairy building contains a milk room, butter room, cheese room, 
 cold storage room, cheese curing room, lecture room, office and 
 laboratory. The Mt. Vernon House is the women's dormitory 
 and contains sixteen study rooms, each arranged for two stu- 
 dents. The fraternity houses are four in number, three being 
 located upon the campus and one in the village of Orono. In 
 addition to the buildings enumerated, there are six others devoted 
 to various purposes. Among these are the president's house, 
 the commons, or general boarding house, and three residences 
 occupied by members of the faculty. The university has at 
 present forty-eight instructors, including the president and 
 faculty. The total assets for the present year, including endow- 
 ment, buildings and other property, amount to $466,200, and the 
 amount available for current expenses is $90,828. The number 
 of students enrolled is three hundred sixty-five. 
 
 The graduates of this institution are occupying prominent and 
 lucrative positions in the different professions and industries in 
 which they are engaged. 
 
I02 
 
 BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 The Bangor Theological Seminary was founded under 
 the name of "The Maine Charity School" by the Society 
 for "Promoting Theological Instruction." The seminary 
 was opened at Hampden, in 1816, under the charge of 
 Jehudi Askman. In 1819 it was removed to Bangor. The 
 seminary was originally intended to prepare for the ministry 
 students who had not received a previous collegiate training. 
 The first two years were to be devoted to classical studies and 
 the last two years to theological studies. The two years clas 
 sical course was discontinued in 1836. For the first twenty 
 years the seminary had little or no endowment. It now has an 
 endowment of $225,000 and buildings and grounds valued at 
 $65,000. The course of study is practically the same as that 
 pursued in the principal theological seminaries. The seminary 
 has sent out about eight hundred graduates and has educated 
 for one or more years without graduation, some two hundred 
 and fifty more. Among the professors who have held positions 
 in Bangor Theological Seminary are included many men who 
 have been prominent leaders of religious thought. 
 
 COBB DIVINITY SCHOOL. 
 
 This school, which is the oldest higher institution of 
 learning in the Free Baptist denomination, was founded 
 in 1840, as a library department in connection with Par- 
 sonsfield Seminary. The name was, in 1842, changed to 
 Biblical department and, in September of that year, it was 
 moved to Dracut, Mass., as an independent Biblical school. 
 
 In November, 1844, it moved again to Whitestown, N. Y., 
 where it remained until the fall of 1854, when it was transferred 
 to New Hampton, N. H. Here it remained until it was estab- 
 lished at Lewiston in 1870, as a department of Bates College. 
 
 At its founding Rev. Moses M. Smart was placed at the head 
 of the school, which position he held until 1848. In 1844, Rev. 
 J. J. Butler was associated with Professor Smart as professor 
 of theology, remaining with the school until 1873. In 1850, Rev. 
 John Fullonton became professor of Hebrew and church history, 
 retaining his connection with the school until 1894. On Septem- 
 
I03 
 
 ber 12, 1894, Rev. Benjamin F. Hayes, who had been connected 
 with the school since 1870, assumed the chair of apologetics and 
 pastoral theology. In 1872, Rev. James A. Howe became pro- 
 fessor of dogmatic theology and afterwards of homiletics. 
 Thomas Hill Rich became professor of Hebrew in 1872 and con- 
 tinued to hold that position until his death in 1893. In 1890, 
 Rev. Alfred W. Anthony became professor of New Testament 
 exegesis and criticism. Rev. Herbert R. Purinton was made 
 instructor in Hebrew and church history in June, 1894, and was 
 promoted to the full professorship in June, 1895. I" 1888, in 
 recognition of a gift of $25,000 from Hon. J. L. H. Cobb, of 
 Lewiston, the name of the school was changed to Cobb Divinity 
 School. A new building for the exclusive use of the school was 
 erected in 1895 by Mr. Lewis W. Anthony. These gifts, with 
 others received from time to time, have placed the school upon a 
 sound financial basis. 
 
 In June, 1894, a Biblical Training school was established for 
 the benefit of students not qualified to enter the divinity school. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 The first State convention of teachers ever held in Maine 
 met at Waterville, November 16, 1859, and continued in session 
 three days. The exercises consisted of lectures and discussions. 
 Lectures were delivered by Rev. E. B. Webb of Augusta, on the 
 "Life and Character of Hugh Miller ;" by Dr. N. T. True upon 
 "The Elements of Power;" by Rev. Cyril Pearle, upon "The 
 Teachers' Vocation;" by E. P. Weston, upon "The School- 
 master and the Source of his Authority ;" by Isaiah Dole, upon 
 "The Elements of General Grammar ;" by Rev. Jonas Burnham, 
 upon "The Duties of the Teacher ;" by Walter Wells, upon "Sun- 
 power." 
 
 The following subjects were discussed : "Best mode of teach- 
 ing morals," "Prizes and rewards," "Mathematics and languages 
 in public education," "Normal Schools in Maine," "Natural 
 sciences in public schools." 
 
 An organization was afifected under the name of the Maine 
 Educational Association, a constitution was adopted and provis- 
 ion made for an annual meeting. 
 
 In 1868, the Legislature appropriated two hundred dollars for 
 the benefit of this association, which was its first official recogni- 
 
Ill I 
 104 019 876 169 2 
 
 tion. The influence and efforts of the association had an 
 encouraging effect upon the teaching force of the State and 
 helped to advance the cause of education by timely recommenda- 
 tions in favor of the abolition of the district system, of the estab- 
 lishment of free high schools, of free text-books, normal schools, 
 libraries and the extension of the school year. 
 
 In 1882, the association transferred its records and property 
 to the Maine Pedagogical Society. 
 
 The Maine Teachers' Association was organized in 1876 and 
 held regular meetings until 1879, when it also became merged 
 in the Maine Pedagogical Society. This society was organized 
 at Waterville, May 7, 1880. Its object was "the consideration 
 and discussion of all questions relating to the organization and 
 government of schools, methods of instruction, professional n 
 standards and the principles which should control the policy and 
 leghlation of the State in respect to education. 
 
 In 1892, a council was chosen to prepare topics for discussion 
 at the meetings of the society and to present to the Legislature 
 such measures as the society approves. At the annual meeting 
 in 1901 the name of the "Maine Pedagogical Society" was 
 changed to the "Maine Teachers' Association" and a new consti- 
 tution, containing many important changes, was adopted. 
 
 The Schoolmasters' Club was organized at Brunswick in 1892, 
 for the promotion of acquaintance and the development of a 
 community of interest among the presidents and professors of 
 colleges and the principals of academies, high schools and normal 
 schools of the State. 
 
 The Maine Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools 
 was organized in the hall of the House of Representatives, at 
 Augusta, on Oct. 27, 1900. The constitution provides that the 
 membership shall be made up of presidents, professors and other 
 teachers in Maine colleges, the heads of Maine schools giving a 
 four years' preparatory course, and other teachers giving college 
 preparatory instruction, and that the time of meeting shall be the 
 fourth Friday in October of each year. 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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