Historic leaves, volume 5, April, 1906 - January, 1907

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[100] year, were lost to Charlestown forever. From the annual report, signed April 19, 1842, we read: ‘The recent division of the town by act of the Legislature, dated February 25, 1842, annexed a part of the town to West Cambridge, and an act dated March 3, 1842, incorporated the town of Somerville. This diminishes the number of schools one grammar, two district, and four primary. According to the last report, the salary paid the seven teachers of these schools was $2,090, and the number of pupils was 294.’

This series of articles on the history of the schools of Charlestown, from their earliest establishment to the incorporation of Somerville, must now come to a close. The writer cannot expect a work of this kind to be free from errors, or without many important omissions. The work has been a labor of love. By consulting the town records of Charlestown, which at the present time are carefully preserved in the archives at the City Hall of Boston, the records and reports of the trustees, to be found at the school committee's rooms on Mason street, Boston, the early history by Bartlett (1813), the later one of Frothingham, and the invaluable work of Wyman on old Charlestown families, by looking up newspaper files, and by numerous personal interviews, he has endeavored to rescue many important facts from oblivion, and to give to those interested in the schools of to-day a faithful picture of what has been. The picture is one not to be ashamed of, and ought to appeal to our local pride.

(For an impress of the seal of the Charlestown Free Schools, see report of the School Committee of the city of Charlestown for 1873, to which reports of the Trustees are added. Printed by Caleb Rand.)