Norwalk After Two Hundred & Fifty Years

At the present time the public schools are really free. Tuition rates were abolished by legislation in 1868. In the very closing year of the century, October, 1900, the town voted to furnish text books and supplies free for the use of all scholars. Following this vote a revised list of text books was authorized by the board of school visitors at a meeting in December of the same year. The schools are now maintained for the larger part by public taxation and not by the income of public funds. During the school vear ending July 14, 1901, $10,569.37 was re- ceived from the state and local funds for the support of schools but the sum of $54,215.84 came from town and district taxation. Children are not suffered to grow up without school advantages. In October, 1900, there were 4,483 children of school age, of whom 636 were re- ported not in school. Of this number not in school 448 were under seven years of age and 159 were over four- teen. There were 3,876 children between the ages of seven and fourteen and of this number only 29 were out of school and these for sufficient reasons. Of the chil- dren of school age reported in school, 3,319 were in the public schools, 485 in St. Mary's Parochial School, and 46 in private schools. An evening school for persons over fourteen years of age has been maintained at each end of the town since its establishment in 1893. Last year the registration in this school amounted to 144 and the school was continued for 7^ sessions. The work is chiefiv elementary and to a large extent among foreign- ers anxious to learn the English language. There have, however, been at times large classes in bookkeeping and commercial branches and in mechanical drawing. A graded course of study extending to the high school, and applicable to all the schools in town, was adopted by the town school board April 17, 1900, and uniform courses of study for the high school department are in prepara- tion. The closing year of the century has thus witness- ed important and marked changes and improvements in the educational system of the town. It is a great satis- faction to end this paper with a chronicle of achievement so full of promise for the future. LIST OF OFFICERS OF THE SOUTH NOR- WALK UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT, 1854-1901. DISTRICT COMMITTEES: Bur Nash, 1854-1855, 1857-1859. William T. Craw, 1854-1855, 1856-1858. Fbenezer Hill, 1854-1857," 1860-1869. William O. Beard, 1855- 1856. Hezekiah Raymond, *i85e;-i856, 1859-1862. John H. Smith, 1856-1857. A. Dickerman, 1857-1860. Moses B. Pardee, 1858-1861, 1864-1865, 1871-1873, 1874-1875. Davis Hatch, 1861-1864. Dudley P. Ely, 1862-1864, 1871-1872. lames H. Knapp, 1866-1870. W. S. Hanford, 1865-1866. H. H. Elwell, 1 864-1870, 1875-1877. Lewis F. Beers, 1869-1870. E. A. Woodward, 1870-1871. J. J. Millard, 1870-1871, 1874-1875. S. C. Palmer, 1870- 1872. R. H. Rowan, 1872-1873. Edwin Adams, 1872-1875, 1878-1880. A. J. Crofut, 1873-1874, 1875- 1877. Talmadge Baker, 1873- 1874. A. J. Thompson, 1874-1875. Charles F. Hallock, 1875-1878. William T. Comstock, 1877-1878. Thomas I. Ravmond, 1877-1879, 1880-1885. Jacob M. Layton, 1878- 188 1. George W Dav, 1880- 1884. John A. Slater," 1881- 1885. "George W. Carroll, 1885-1886. J. A. Farrington, 1885-1886. Robert Pearson, 1885-1886. Walter C. Quintard, 1886- 1887. Franklin A. Smith, 1886-1887. 227 Richard H. Golden, 1888-1891. Abiathar Blanehard, 1886. Still in office. Matthew Corbett, 1887. Still in office. John H. Light, 1887- 1888 1891. Still in office. DISTRICT CLERKS. Matthew Wilcox, 1854-1860. William H. Benedict, 1860-1882. John W. Scott, 1882- 1885. David R. Selleck, 1885- 1886. Neison Dickerman, 1886. Still in office. DISTRICT TREASURERS. William H. Benedict, 1854-1858. Frank H. Nash, 1858-1861. Chester F. Tolles, 1862- 1873. James A. Brown, 1873- 1881. George C. Stillson, 1881-1882. Jacob M. Layton, 1882. Still in office. DISTRICT COLLECTORS. Daniel F. Benedict, 1854-1859. Matthew Wilcox, 1859- 1862. Frederick S. Lyon, 1862-1863, 1864-1871. Lorenzo Dibble, 1863-1864. Nelson J. Craw, 1 871 -1873. William's Bouton, 1873-1880. Franklin A. Tolles, 1880 Still in office. DISTRICT AUDITORS. Thomas I. Raymond, 1876-1878. Lorenzo Dibble, 1878- 1885. A. J. Crofnt, 1885- 1886. Franklin A. Smith, 1886- 1887. John W. Dake, 1887. Still in office. BUILDING COMMITTEES. Original building at FYanklin St., 1854. Burr Nash. William T. Craw. Ebenezer Hill. an Original building at Concord St., 1870. E. A. Woodward. William T. Craw. Charles R. Townsend. Andrew J Crofut. •John H. Smith. Addition at Franklin St., 1873. Edwin Adams. S. C. Palmer. C. W. Knudsen. Addition at Concord St., 1886. Edwin Adams. Thomas I. Raymond. John A. Slater. Walter C. Ouintard. Abiathar Blanchard. Franklin A. Smith. Addition at Franklin St., 1897. Abiathar Blanchard. John H. Light. Matthew Corbett. THE SOUTH NORWALK UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT HE genesis of the South Norwalk Union School District is to be found in the consolidation of the Old Well and Flax Hill districts in 1854. These two districts had been in existence since early in the century, as is shown by the record book of the First School Society of Norwalk. The districts themselves have left no records as far as the writer of this paper has been able to ascertain. Fortunately the records of the consolidated district are full and complete from the beginning. In answer to a petition from Mat- thew Wilcox and others presented to the First School Society in December, 1853, a meeting of the society was held in the following January and a vote was passed that the Old Well and Flax Hill districts be consolidated into one under the name of the South Norwalk Union School District. This action was confirmed by the legislature in the May session of 1855. Before the end of the month a school meeting of the new district was held and the following officers chosen: Matthew Wilcox, clerk ; Burr Nash William T. Craw and Ebenezer Hill, committee ; William H. Benedict, treasurer, and Daniel F. Benedict, collector. The school houses in the two districts were a one room building on Flax Hill, near the junction of West and Lowe Streets, and a two room building near the site of the newly erected soldiers' monument. At the time of the consolidation there were 324 children of school age within the district boundaries. Immediate steps were taken to erect a new school house. One acre of land was purchased of Mr. Algernon E. Beard for $1075, and a five room building was constructed in the course of the following summer. These rooms still re- main a part of the present Franklin building consisting of the two rear basement rooms, the two rooms on the floor above and a large room on the third floor. In front of these rooms were hall and stair ways and a suitable entrance to such a structure. The new school- house was of wood, but the district had voted that ''the building be filled in with brick, as a contractor found to his cost when a change was made in the location of the 280 windows forty-three years later. Mr. E. J. Peck was the first principal. Instruction in the higher branches was undertaken from the first and the opening of the new school was in many ways a notable event. Mr. Peck held the position for four or five years and was succeeded by Mr. Bradley for a short term. The next choice of principal was made in school meeting, April 13, i860, when Mr. William T. Comfort was elected to that position by ballot, with the provision that the sal- ary should not exceed $800. This choice does not seem to have been a fortunate one, for early in September of the same year the district records show that a committee was appointed to investigate his conduct in relation to the school. In March, 1861, he was relieved from his duties and Mr. F S. Lyon was appointed in his place, a position which he held until 1873. Mr. Lyon was a strong disciplinarian and a thorough teacher. Still liv- ing here in honored retirement, he is well remembered and highly esteemed by many who profited by his in- struction a generation ago. Up to 1868, when they were abolished by law, the schools were supported in part by tuition rates. A schedule adopted January 24, 1859, reads as follows: First Primarv, .... .90 for 12 weeks Second Primary, . . . 1.00 " " " Intermediate, . . . . 1.25 " " " Grammar, . . . . . 1.50 " " " SENIOR DEPARTMENT. High School 4.00 " " " Out of district scholars, . . 5.00" " " The schedules were changed from time to time as occasion required. In I80 the number of scholars enumerated in the district was 433. In T870 the number had grown to 758 and it became necessary to provide more school rooms. This was done by the erection in Concord street of a three-room building, comprising the two cloak rooms of the present building and a larger room on the floor above. The building was completed in season for the opening of the school in the fall of 1871 and cost a little less than $10,000. Still there was not school room enough, and in 1873 an addition was made to the Frank- 231