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connected with Dartmouth College.
He then taught a school for about a year in Pittsfield, Mass.; and afterwards, in Boston, became principal of the Franklin public school.
But his health declining under his labors, in 1795 he went into business as a grocer in Boston, in which he continued till 1812, when, not liking the occupation, and having acquired a property sufficient for his moderate wants and simple tastes, he retired from business, and lived a happy, useful, and active life, much occupied in measures of public good, until his death, which took place June 26, 1821, at Hanover, N. H., where he was on a visit to some friends.
While he was master of the Franklin School, he made a modest contribution to the literature of his time in the shape of a small grammar of the English tongue, called ‘English Exercises,’ which went through several editions, and was much used in the schools of Boston and other places, till superseded by the work of Lindley Murray.
During his life of active business, Mr. Elisha Ticknor had much to do with the establishment of the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
He was one of the originators of the excellent system of primary schools in Boston, by which the blessings of education were extended to children of tender years, so that they could be prepared, without charge to their parents, for the grammar schools.1
He was, in conjunction with his friend, James Savage, a principal founder of the earliest Savings-bank in Boston,—the first
1 By the city regulations, no children could be admitted to the grammar schools under seven years, and those only could be admitted who could read. This excluded all who were too poor to pay for instruction, or whose parents were too ignorant to teach,—precisely the class to whom free schools are most important. In 1805, Mr. Ticknor, feeling deep interest in these neglected children, made efforts to draw attention to the subject; but it was not till 1818 that the selectmen could be induced to appropriate sufficient funds for these elementary schools. In that year four thousand dollars were voted for the experiment. There are at present (1873) three hundred and twenty-seven primary schools in Boston.
In the Connecticut ‘Common School Journal’ for 1841, the establishment of these primary schools in 1818 is spoken of as ‘the most important step in the improvement of the public-school system in Boston.’
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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