Historic leaves, volume 7, April, 1908 - January, 1909

[33] Charlestown, of a teacher being hired by the year. ‘The trustees by this action incur the additional expense of $72 for meeting the wishes of the people at Milk Row.’ So, satisfactory was Mr. Sherman, as a teacher, that he was retained in all two years and a half, an extraordinary event in the history of this old school.

Efforts to learn something of this man's history have thus far failed. A suggestion has been made that he may have come from Sudbury or its vicinity. Of his pupils here Miss Martha Tufts, Captain Francis Tufts, and their sister, Mrs. Allen, remember him well. He was a popular teacher, and seems to have ruled by ‘moral suasion’ rather than by the rod. One means of interesting his pupils was to, take them on little excursions of inspection. One of these was to the State's prison in Charlestown, another to Mt. Auburn, which had but recently been laid out, a delightfully rural spot in those days.

In 1833 a curtailment of holidays was made; both Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were to be granted, but aside from this concession the actual number of days when school did not keep was reduced to fourteen for the year, viz.: Election day, Fast day, the day after the April examinations, June 1, June 17, July 4, and in August, the days of holding the American Institute (not more than four probably), Commencement day at Harvard, the day after the October examinations, Thanksgiving day, Christmas day.

John Tufts and others, about this time, enter a petition for the removal of the schoolhouse in Milk Row, and the matter is referred to three trustees, including Mr. Hawkins. This seems to be the first move towards establishing a school at Prospect Hill on Medford Street. The petition was justified, as the school population of the district had now increased to 127.

In the spring of 1834 Mr. Sherman was succeeded by Ann W. Locke, who, following such a popular teacher, seems to have had her troubles. Fortunately, the trustees sustained her, but some unruly ones evidently vented their spite by turning it upon the schoolhouse; for we read under date of June 30, ‘It having been represented by C. Thompson that the windows in ’