Early Brick School Stories
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BREWSTER’S RAMBLES #140

In one of his most fascinating essays, Brewster talks about early schooling in Portsmouth. He rambles on about corporeal punishment, offers a timeline of teaches and offers a lengthy list of students. Included is a description of Shakespeare performance and the story of the school struck by lightning.

 

 

 

MORE School Rambles

RAMBLE CXL.
The Brick School-House in State Street
Teachers former and recent -- School Dramatic Exhibitions -- Struck by Lightning.

Editors Note: This can be confusing stuff even for local historians. C.W. Brewster was a Portsmouth, New Hampshire columnist and editor in the early to mid-1800's. This article includes his opinions and may not reflect current research or current values. From Brewster’s Rambles About Portsmouth, 1859 exclusively on SeacoastNH.com. – JDR

Brewster's Rambles on SeacoastNH.com THIS edifice was within the range of the great fire of 1813, and all of it that was combustible was then consumed by the insatiable devourer.  It was a building of no little note, for it was at that time not only the place for two schools; one the High School of the day, kept by Master Eleazer Taft, and the other but a slight grade lower, kept by Master Samuel Bowles,--but within the building on the north side, was a room for the Town Records and the Town Clerk's office, and another for the Selectmen.  On the north, six feet from it, extending into State street, was a brick watch house of one story.  The entrance to the school-house and offices was by a door on the centre of the north side; and where the recitation rooms have since been erected was an avenue to the play ground on the south side of the house.  The building was then symmetrical in form, surmounted by a belfry, in which a good bell was hung.  We give the particulars, for it is a matter of some interest to hundreds now living, to go back half a century to the scenes where they were "boys together."

This spot has been used for a public school house since 1735, previous to which time the only public school-house was one below the south mill.  The house was at first individual property, belonging to the Wenworth family, and by Ebenezer Wentworth was given to the town in 1735, in exchange for a school lot on Daniel street, given by Mrs. Graffort for school use.

The original house, probably with some additions, remained until about eighty years ago.  It was of one low story, built in the style of the old south school-house.  We can find no record of the early teachers.  Before and after the Revolution, Major Samuel Hale here taught for many years, and gave the right bend to the twigs of those days, as the after life of some of our best citizens, who have continued with us until the last thirty years, show.  Another teacher who kept in the old house after Major Hale, was Mr. Morse, of whom we only know that he requested such scholars as Dr. William Cutter and others of his class, to leave the school, as they knew as much as the master.

CONTINUE with Brewster's SCHOOL MEMORIES



EARLY PORTSMOUTH NH TEACHERS (continued)

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Former Portsmouth Schoolmasters

The last teacher who filled the chair in that old school-house, in about the
year 1787, was Salmon Chase, a recent graduate from college.  Boys then, as they sometimes have been since, were unruly.  Master Chase, who was a portly, athletic man, had occasion one day to chastise young George Turner as he deserved.  The boy looking out of the open window and seeing his father, Capt. George Turner, coming up Buck street, sprang out and ran to him, complaining of the whipping.  Capt. Turner was rather excitable, and rushing into the school room commenced a torrent of abuse.  Master Chase was calmly seated at his desk preparing the boys' writing books.  He looked up, told one of the boys to open the door, and pointed the visitor to it.  He still continued his abuse.  Standing up at his desk, the master raised his round solid ruler in such a manner as to show what he could do, and bade him depart!  The old sea captain saw but poor chance in a personal contest, and departed, leaving the master to govern his school in his own way.  Mr. Chase was a good teacher, but did not long remain here.  He removed to Portland, and we think there studied law.  He afterwards settled in an interior town in New Hampshire, and in 1808 was born to him a son named Salmon P. Chase, who has been Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, and is now Chief Justice of the United States.

The next teacher of whom we have account was Deacon Amos Tappan, probably the first teacher in the new brick edifice.  The Deacon was a single man, and the Selectmen of the town thinking it desirable to secure his services permanently, respectfully requested him to get married, and further they recommended him to marry the sister of Rev. Dr. Buckminister.  He doubtless had thoughts of the same proceeding before the suggestion was made.  The matter being agreeable all around, the Deacon was married to her.  But it appears that the principal marriage the Selectmen sought was not consummated -- that of being wedded to the town as a schoolmaster.  For in those days corporeal punishment was deemed a duty, and deacon Tappan having done his duty rather severely on one of the boys, his parents prosecuted him.  This led the deacon to leave the public school, and open a private school, which he continued as long as he lived, in an old building located on the west side of High street, between the mansion of C. H. Ladd, Esq., and the corner of Congress street.  Soon after the fire of 1813 the west side of Mulberry street, near State street, where it now stands.  He was a successful teacher, although the boys regarded him a severe disciplinarian.

In 1805 Mr. Tappan was succeeded by Eleazer Taft.  Mr. Taft received his classical education in Brown University, and subsequently officiated as a Congregational minister.  Changing his religious sentiments, he renounced his ministry, and after serving in the army as one of Washington's Life Guards, became an instructor of youth, first in Vermont.  In 1805 he came to Portsmouth and succeeded Mr. Tappan in the instruction of the High School, then kept in the chamber story of the school-house, where he remained until the building was burned out in the time of the great fire of 1813.

We here present the names of all the scholars we can gather who attended Master Taft's school between the years 1805 and 1814, when he retired from the school. [Click here to read the list]

The tuition of the school consisted of reading, spelling, writing, geography, grammar, natural philosophy, mathematics, and the Latin and Greek languages.  He fitted several of his pupils for college, who subsequently graduated at Harvard University.

The reading of the record above given will bring back to many the names of their early associates, many of whom have long since passed away.  But in those who remain, there is but one feeling for the old master whose mildness, dignity and affection for his scholars endeared him in their memory.

CONTINUE with Brewster's SCHOOL MEMORIES



EARLY PORTSMOUTH NH TEACHERS (continued)

After the rebuilding of the school-house in 1814, the teachers were Messrs. E. Hathaway, Ezra A. Stevens, William C. Harris, --- Snell, William H. Y. Hackett, Isaac Adams, Israel W. Bourne, Moses P. Parish, Chandler E. Potter, John T. Tasker, Israel Kimball, A. M. Payson, Lewis E. Smith, and some others, we think, but we have no record for reference.

We have before us the original contract made in 1748 between Samuel Hale and the Selectmen of Portsmouth, in which he obligates himself to keep the grammar school of Portsmouth, and instruct in the languages for five years; and the selectmen bind the town to give him an annual salary of L45 during that time.  Salmon Chase received about L80 per year.  We find he left the school in 1789.

We have seen Deacon Tappan's receipts in 1791, written in a beautiful hand, showing that his pay as teacher of the high school was L100 per year.  He was a keeper of the school about twelve years.  Between his time and Mr. Taft's entry in 1805, the school was kept by Mr. Peter Cochrane.  His memory is vividly impressed upon the minds of his scholars--whose hands can almost feel the tingle of that awful ferrule, which was in constant use.

In the next generation some of the boys were better prepared for the
Reckoning -- especially when the cowhide was the dispenser of punishment for playing truant.  In one of the schools of a second grade in those times, a boy who was certain of receiving punishment for truancy the day before, went like a martyr to his post, and received his punishment without flinching,  though put on perhaps rather more severely to overcome his stoicism.  He walks to his seat without a tear, and while the boys admired his bravery, they pitied him for his suffering, as was very evident from the stiffness of his gait.  There was however a good shout at play-time, when he withdrew from under his jacket the remains of an innocent salt-fish his sister had aided him in placing there to receive the punishment.

In this same school, kept in a room under Mr. Taft's, in the time of the embargo in 1809, the children were taught the first principles of writing, without the use of pen, ink, pencil or slate.  The whole length of the desk, in front, was a level about eight inches wide, and sunk about half an inch below the other part of the desk.  This place was covered with yellow sand, smoothed by a guage with projections in it, giving the lines to conform with those in the copy book.  In this sand, with sticks formed like lead pencils, the young urchins would make their pot-hooks and trammels -- and every form their imagination suggested, on to the mystery of joining-hand.  One of our Market-street merchants informs us that in this way he took his first lessons in chirography, without wasting a quill or blotting a book.

Mr. Bowles describes his recollection of the old brick school house, in the following communication:
Among the ancient edifices that have been used for cational purposes, there is none where so many of the past and present generations of Portsmouth have received their earlier instruction, and with which so many memories are associated, as the old Brick School House in State street.  Boys have gone forth from its venerable walls not only to fill almost every station in life, from the most humble but useful calling to the highest positions in the state and national councils of the Republic, and, better far, to become faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion, and to elevate the American name in other lands beside our own.  Neither have the girls, when weighed in the balance, been found wanting.  In every place where woman's duty and destiny call her, they have acted well a woman's part--crickets of the hearthstone, bringing joy and gladness to their husbands' firesides -- and better mothers never fulfilled "Life's highest, holiest task."

The scholars of some forty years ago, when a bell upon the roof rang out its stirring notes to call them to their tasks, had a more extended play ground than those of the present day enjoy; for School House Hill was then an open thoroughfare between Pitt and State streets.  Although the school building had risen Phoenix-like from its ashes, other memorials of the great conflagration of 1813 were visible around, in the form of old cellars and bricks, innumerable, the latter affording an inexhaustible fund of amusement in recess time.  Upon the summit of the hill, on the State street side was an old well, with the stump of a half-burnt pump in the centre.  It was a hideous trap, into which it is a miracle that more than one unfortunate wight did not fall, during the years its open mouth stood ready to receive them.
 
One day it occurred to Master Stevens, in connection with the above, that he would bring the boys' play to some practical account.  Having interested them just before recess hour with the incident in ancient history where a river is recorded to have been filled up, by each soldier of one of the conquerors of old throwing a stone into it, he then suggested that they should thus fill up the old well with a portion of the bricks that lay so profusely scattered around.  It would be such rare fun, they were not slow to act upon the hint thus given them, and before the bell rang for their return, (delayed a little probably in honor of the occasion,) the dangerous aperture had been filled to the surface of the ground; the last course of brick laid with the smoothness and precision of a Russ-pavement.

CONTINUE with Brewster's SCHOOL MEMORIES



SHAKESPEARE IN NH (continued)

School Dramatic Exhibitions


Let us cast a backward look to the days when school dramatic exhibitions were in vogue, and see what it presented to our view.  It is a winter evening.  The first floor of the school-house is converted for the time being into a theatre, with a crowded audience.  A partition extends across the lower end of the room, one-half the enclosed space answering the purpose of that mystery of mysteries in a theatre, the green room, and the remainder as a stage, with its green curtain.  There is no gas to cast its brilliancy upon bright eyes and fair faces, where bright eyes and fair faces still are seen, (for no visionary had ever dreamed of such a corporation as the Portsmouth Gas Company,) but Tetherly's "dips" in tin candlesticks suspended from the walls supplied the deficiency, and a range of oil lamps furnished the "foot lights" for the stage.  The orchestra, located in the green room, consists of Esido-Victor, from Water street, professor of the tamborine, and another colored gentleman, professor of the violin.  The bell rings, and the curtain rises to scenes from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream."  As Peter Quince calls over the names of his actors who are to play before the duke, and "Nick Bottom, the weaver" "Francis Flute, the bellows-mender," "Robin Starveling, the tailor," and "Tim Snout the tinker," severally answer, "Here!" the oddity of their names, combined with the ridiculous dresses they have assumed, call forth shouts of laughter from the juveniles, and the humor of the scene is well enjoyed by the audience generally.  Nick Bottom is an especial favorite, and creates much mirth by promising, that if permitted to play the lion, he will so roar that the duke shall say. "Let him roar again!" nor less so, when, on being told that he might frighten the ladies, he replies that he can, at will, "roar as gentle as any sucking dove."  The entrance of Snug, on all-fours, (enveloped in a buffalo skin) as the lion, is the signal for a fresh outbreak of merriment.

Peter Quince, bidding adieu to Athens, retires to the gentlemen's dressing-room in the entry, (under the stairs,) transforms himself, by the aid of a Gilman Blues' uniform into a fine looking soldier, and reappearing, recites with much spirit Campbell's stirring poem of "Hohenlinden."  A blooming young lady then favors the audience with a popular song of the time, "Wreaths for the Chieftain," and is succeeded by a young gentleman, who in the costume of an American sailor, sings one of the war songs of 1812.  A very young gentleman, in a broad frilled ruffle, (his "first appearance on any stage,") then recites, with the most approved accent, the somewhat familiar lines, commencing --

"You'd scarce expect one of my age,
To speak in public on the stage."

School dialogues, of a varied character, intervene, but enveloped as they are in the shadows of the past, they present a confused and misty appearance.  Among other passengers of less note, Queen Zenobia, with a train of attendants, appears in one of them.  The performance concludes with an entire two-act play, entitled the "Military School" very well done, but the special life of the piece is "Old Pipes," a decayed soldier with a crutch and a wooden leg, who, perpetually smoking, perfumes the room--not with tobacco smoke, but the more agreeable odor of pennyroyal.  Exeunt omnes -- the curtain falls.

CONTINUE with Brewster's SCHOOL MEMORIES



NH SCHOOL HIT BY LIGHTNING (continued)


School Struck by Lightning

The scene changes now to a day in summer.  The rain that commenced early in the morning has increased in violence, until school-house hill is a fair sized cataract, and the street at its base a running river.  Mingled with the deluge of the watery element, are thunder and lightning so terrific and oft-repeated, that the more youthful pupils hide in terror beneath their desks.  At last there comes a shock more terrible than all that preceded it -- like a broadside from Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar, or the Allies' fire at Sebastopol.  The room is filled with sparks, and without the whole atmosphere seems a blaze of fire.  When it has passed, revealing faces livid with affright, the stillness of death succeeds, for simultaneous with the last great shock, the rain has almost instantly ceased, and teacher and pupils rushing out of doors, discover that the belfly has been shattered to fragments, one of the chimneys rent asunder, and the bricks scattered upon the roof and the ground below.  Looking in the direction of the residence of William Jones, Esq. they see that one of the chimneys has entirely disappeared, and the windows of the first floor are in a sadly damaged condition.  A man in the door of Wiggin & Story's grocery, at the corner of State and Penhallow streets, is telling some people that while standing in that position a few minutes before he saw in the air a large ball of fire, which separated, one portion taking the direction of the school-house, the other that of Mr. Jones's residence, and while nearly blinded and stunned by this blaze and explosion that followed he was suddenly brought to consciousness by a heavy blow upon his knee from a brick still lying upon the door step.  There is no more school for the day, for the lightning has struck in a dozen places, and the boys are given a holiday to enable them to take lessons in electricity.  Among other locations they visit the old South Church, and climb the fence on the opposite side of the way, to get a peep at two promising spring pigs, which had been brought to an untimely end by the electric fluid.  They think the catastrophe rather of a comical character, yet it brings to mind a fact the master endeavored to impress upon them before they were dismissed for the day, that had the classes recited that morning in their usual position beneath the belfry, a miracle alone could have saved some of them from being instantly killed.

Text scanned courtesy of The Brewster Family Network
Copy of Rambles courtesy Peter E. Randall
History Hypertext project by SeacoastNH.com
This digital transcript  © 1999 SeacoastNH.com 

CONTINUE with Brewster's SCHOOL MEMORIES



STUDENT ROSTER 1805- 1814 (continued)


Portsmouth, NH Students 1805 - 1814

We here present the names of all the scholars we can gather who attended
Master Taft's school between the years 1805 and 1814, when he retired from the school.

Leonard Akerman
Daniel Adwers
Supply J. Akerman
Joseph Ayers
John Blunt
Charles E. Blunt
Robert Blunt
John Samuel Blunt
Mark Blunt
John Bowles
Charles Bowles
William Briard
George G. Brewster
Charles W. Brewster
Joseph Brewster
Hosea Ballou
Massena Ballou
George Blunt
Enoch Brown
Archibald Blaisell
Robert Blaisell
Thomas Brierly
Wm Bagley
William T. Bell
Ira Brown
Nehemiah K. Butler
Daniel J. Bigelow
Bartholomew Barri
Samuel E. Coues
Hugh Clarkson
Benjamin Clarkson
Nathaniel Currier
Charles W. Cutter
Charles Conner
J. Warner Conner
Daniel Clark
Benjamin Carter
William Coxe
Charles W. Coxe
Leonard Cotton
Nathaniel Cotton
Stephen Chase
Ichabod Clark
Charles Cutts jr.
John Clark
Theodore S. Davis
George Dearborn
Gilman Dearborn
William Dickson
Joseph Dodge
James Dodge
John M. Davis
Thomas Deverson
James Drisco
Joshua Drisco
Wm DeRochemont
Mark Ewin
Joseph Ewin
Richard Ela
John Ewen
Theodore Furber
McLaughlin Furber
J. Foster Flagg
John Flagg
Supply Foss
Samuel Foss
Augustus Frothingham
Arthur Folsom
Simeon Fernald
Alphonzo Gerrish
William Goddard
Charles Goddard
Oliver Gerrish
Nicholas Grace
William Grace
Joseph Grace
Charles Grace
George Gerrish
George Grouard
Edward Grouard
Phineas P. Goodrich
Alden Gove
Tobias Harrold
Benjamin Harrold
George Hill
J. Brackett Hutchings
Samuel Hilton
John Hilton
Morris Ham
Oliver Ham
Nathaniel J. Ham
William Hardy
George P. Ham
Edward Hart
Nicholas C. Hart
Daniel J. Huntress
Leonard Holmes
Oliver Holmes
Timothy Hall
Thomas Hall
Theodore J. Harris
Abel Harris
Herman Harris
Lewis Harris
Joseph Hill
Daniel Haselton
Ira Haselton
Benjamin B. Haselton
Charles Harratt
Daniel Haslett
J. Byram Hall
Ashton S. Hall
Samuel Ham
Robert Ham 3d
Gilbert Horney
Charles Horney
Hanson M. Hart 2d
Charles Humphrey
Samuel Hutchings
Edward Hardy
Oliver Hall
Joseph Hall
Benning Hall
E. Ricker Hill
J. Marshal Hill
William Haven
Henry Haven
Henderson Haven
Howard Henderson
William Henderson
William Ham
Samuel Ham
William Jones
Thomas Jones
Clement Jackson Jr.
Edward Jones
James Jones
Arthur Jones
Zaccheus Jones
Samuel Jackson
Samuel Jones
Moses Locke
Jesse Lombard
Oliver Larkin
David Lyell
John I. Lane
John Lake
John Laighton
Elias Lowe
John Lowe
Granville Lowe
Sylvester P. Lowe
John Lowe 2d
Jermiah L. Lunt
John Collings Long
Samuel P. Long
Samuel L. Langton
Samuel Lamphire
William Lamphire
Luke M. Laighton
George D. Libbey
Oliver Livermore
Joseph C. Langford
William Libbey
Edward S. Manning
George Melcher Jr.
Henry McClintock
John McClintock
George Manent
Charles Manent
Benning Morrill
Joshua Morrill
George Morrill
Oliver Merriam
Gershom F. Melcher
Daniel Melcher
Nathaniel McIntire
Samuel Marshall
John F. Mendum
Thatcher Mather
Nathaniel J. March
Samuel Moses
Isaac Mudge
Joseph Mann
Nehemiah P. Mann
Thomas Morton
George Morton
William Marden
George Moore
George Moses
Samuel Moore
John Moore
Edward J. Marshall
Benjamin Marshall
Andrew Marshall
Samuel Marshall
Joseph Marshall
Woodbury Melcher
William Nowell
William Neil
William G. Nowell
Anthony F. Nowell
Thomas Odiorne
Benjamin Orne
James Orne
William Orne
Herman Orne
William Overton
Oliver W. Penhallow
Samuel Penhallow
Hugh H. Pearse
Leonard Peabody
Jeremiah Pike
John M. Pillow
Daniel Peters
Edward Parry
Edward Peirce
William Peirce
Nathaniel Peirce
Samuel Rowe
Eben. Rowe
Thomas Roach
Edmund Roach
John E. Ross
Samuel Smith
Jacob Sweetser
John N. Sherburne
H. Hoskins Seaward
Parker Sheldon
Stephen H. Simes
John P. Simes
George Simes
John H. Sheafe
Oliver Sheafe
Samuel Shackford
Henry Shackford
Benjamin Salter
J. Billings Shepherd
J. Marshall Shepherd
Oliver Simes
George Sherive
Jonathan W. Sherburne
William Sherburne
John Sherburne
Henry Schroeder
Samuel Shaw
Joseph Stiles
Samuel Sprague
William Sprague
Thomas Simes
Moses Safford
Charles Stavers
James S. Stanwood
John Sparkhawk
George K. Sparhawk
Washington Sweetser
Henry Salter
Seth Tripe
Hall J. Tibbetts
Henry B. Tredick
Edward Tredick
Thomas Tredick
Moses Taft
Henry Taft
Alonzo Taft
William B. Tappan
William Thompson
Eben Thompson Jr.
Hugh Tuttle 2d
John Trundy
William S. Tullock
John Turner
Benjamin T. Tredick
James Thomas
William Thomas
William Varrell
Samuel Wyatt
Joshua B. Whidden
John M. Whidden
Samuel W. Waldron
Peter Wilson jr.
George Wentworth
George Wentworth 2d
George W. Walker
William Walker
Edward Watts
Richard Walker
John Wendell
John Winkley
Daniel Wendell
Robert Yeaton
Charles Yeaton
William T. Yeaton
Joseph Yeaton
Richard C. Yeaton