[43]
March 18, 1819, the school received its customary visit, when J. Haywood, then in charge, is pronounced an excellent teacher, and his school gives a fine exhibition.
The male teachers next named were Simeon Booker, for the winter of 1819-20, and Mr. Colburn, for 1820-21.
Nothing has been learned of these gentlemen; the latter may have been Joshua O. Colburn, who taught the Milk Row School a few seasons later.
At his examination, March 22, 1821, twenty-two girls and fifteen boys were present out of an enrollment of fifty-four. ‘The school was addressed by Rev. (Edward) Turner, and closed with prayer.’
From time to time the records give us the names of the trustees in charge of this district.
For the years 1822-23 the school near ‘elewife bridge’ was superintended by Samuel (P.) Teel.
The next year James Russell was in charge.
An oil portrait of this gentleman may be seen at Arlington in the home of a descendant.
For 1826-27 Nathaniel H. Henchman was the local trustee.
This gentleman, who lived in what was later known as the Porter residence, and later still as the Morrison-Durgin place, died while in office that year.
The first lady teacher in this district whose name has come down to us was Miss Sarah Perry, who taught during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1825.
The late Mrs. Lucretia Russell Carr, granddaughter of the above-named James Russell, vividly remembered Miss Perry, who was her first teacher.
Her words were: ‘She boarded with my grandmother and I liked her.’
Mrs. Carr was then but three years old.
Other female teachers of this period were Hersina Knight, 1826, and Miss Ann Brown, 1827, the latter of whom, on being transferred to a school in Old Charlestown, was succeeded July 3 by Elizabeth Gerrish.
Later Miss Gerrish taught the lower Winter Hill School.
For the summer of 1828 Miss Miranda Whittemore was engaged, a daughter of Jonathan Whittemore, of West Cambridge.
His homestead is still standing on Massachusetts Avenue (nearer to Boston than the John P. Squire estate). Miss Whittemore was the first teacher of Mrs. Susanna
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.