Birthday, February 22; Patriots' Day, April 19; Memorial Day, May 30;
Columbus Day, October 12; from Wednesday noon before Thanksgiving,
the remainder of the week.
School Sessions — High School: 8:30 a. m. to i :i5 p. m. Grammar
and Manual Training Schools: Morning session 9:00 to 11:45 o'clock;
afternoon session, i :30 to 3 :45 o'clock, without recess. Primary and
Kindergarten classes : Morning session at 8 :45 to 1 1 :45 o'clock ; after-
noon session, i :30 to 3 :30 o'clock ; recess in these classes for every pupil,
fifteen minutes in the forenoon, ten minutes in the afternoon, as near the
middle of the session as practicable. In all other classes the sessions are
prescribed by the superintendent, subject to the approval of the board.
The foregoing facts constitute the framework around which has been
built a wonderfully efficient system of public instruction. The school
report for the year ending June 30, 1916, thus enumerates:
School organization :
High school J
Grammar schools °
Mixed schools— Grammar, Primary and Ungraded 9
Primary schools '4
Subiirhan schools 2
Fresh Air schools 2
302 NEW BEDFORD
Conservation of Eyesight school i
Cooking schools 3
Manual Training schools 4
School buildings:
Permanent schoolhouses 34
Portable schoolhouses 20
54
Teachers and principals (whole number in service, January, 1917):
High school: 47 teachers, i clerk 48
Elementary schools 359
Special teachers and assistants 28
School nurses 3
Evening High school 14
Evening Elementary schools 86
Total 538
191S 1916
Enrollment of pupils 16,256 17,100 increase 844
Average membership 13,176 13754 increase 578
Average daily attendance 12,431 12,827 increase 396
Other Schools — Friends' Academy, located west of County street,
between Morgan and Elms streets, a day school for boys and girls. Its
history dates from the year iSio, when William Rotch erected a building
on the southeast corner of County and Elm streets, which became known
as Friends' Academy, and served two generations prior to i860, when the
building was sold and removed. A charter was secured February 29,
1812, and the old building used until i860, when a new structure at No.
25 Morgan street was completed and the old building moved away to
be used as a tenement. The school has always maintained a high repu-
tation and within its walls many men of eminence in New Bedford during
the past century received their education entirely or in part.
The Swain Free School of Design — On the ocean washed island of
Nantucket, William W. Swain was born January 20, 1793, a man whose
life was to have a most important bearing on the lives and fortunes of
many of New Bedford's sons and daughters. In 1800 the Swain family
moved to New Bedford, where William W. Swain married October 27,
1818, Lydia Russell, daughter of Gilbert and Lydia Russell. They were
the parents of two sons, one dying very young, the other, Robert, born
February 21, 1823, died in Harrisonburg, Virginia, June 15, 1844, an
invalid from his ninth year, but a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy
and Harvard College It was the death of the son that turned the deso-
lated hearts of the parents to thoughts of how best they could use the
wealth that would have been his. Mr. Swain died September 20, 1858.
Mrs. Swain died December 25, 1878, aged eighty-five. He left property
NEW BEDFORD 303
and money tor founding a school, which his will thub described: "My
hope is that the provision herein made will be sufficient for establishing
and supporting a school of high character, where the pupils may receive
a thorough education upon the most liberal and enlightened principles
free of any charge of tuition. My intention is that the school shall never
be in any form or degree exclusive, either religiously or politically, but
open for the admission of all whose good character and condition entitle
them to share in its benefits, and of this the trustees are to be the sole
judges."
The Swain Free School was incorporated March 18, 1881 ; opened as
a classical school October 25, 1882. Later the school became the Swain
Free School of Design, with courses in general art, design, normal art,
arts and crafts, architecture, jewelry and metal, ceramics, painting,
sketching and modeling. A related organization is the Atelier Swain,
the Society of Beaux Arts Architects, New York City and the Swain Art
Club.
Harry A. Neyland, director and head of the faculty, is an artist of
note, whose work has been highly commended by the metropolitan press.
New Bedford Textile School — The Legislature of the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts, in the act under which the trustees of the New
Bedford Textile School were incorporated, gives as the purpose of the
incorporation that of establishing and maintaining a textile school for
instruction in the theory and practical art of textile and kindred branches
of industry. The school went into operation in 1899 and the first class
was graduated in 1900. The regular courses were at first one year in
length. This continued for several years, but these were afterward
lengthened and now the regular diploma courses are three years long.
Special courses of shorter length are arranged, however, for students for
which certificates are granted.
Since the school was opened, over seven thousand students have
attended the school and received instruction in courses of various lengths.
Of these, two thousand, one hundred and fourteen have been awarded
diplomas or certificates. Reports received from them show that the
knowledge acquired in this school has proved of great benefit to them in
securing more rapid advancement in the industry than would have been
possible without such instruction. Employers and employees both unite
in testimony as to the value of the textile schools in promoting the effi-
ciency, broadening the scope of opportunity, and securing advancement
in the cotton mills and allied industries to those who have had the advan-
tages offered by them.
Officers of the corporation for the year 191 7:
President — William E. Hatch.
Treasurer — Frederic Taber.
Clerk — James O. Thompson, Jr.
304 NEW BEDFORD
Trustees — On behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : Wil-
liam E. Hatch; Abbott P. Smith, director Butler, New Bedford Cotton,
Quissett, Soule and Taber Mills. Ex-officio on part of the City of New
Bedford : Hon. Charles S. Ashley, mayor ; Allen P. Keith, superintendent
of schools.
Trustees at Large — Lewis E. Bentley ; George E. Briggs, director
Whitman Mills ; Charles O. Brightman ; William A. Congdon, agent
Whitman Mills ; Hon. W. W. Crapo, president Acushnet, Potomska and
Wamsutta Mills; William O. Devoll, treasurer Potomska Mills; Charles
O. Dexter, agent Beacon Manufacturing Company ; John DufT, president
Soule Mill, and director Bristol Mill ; Thomas F. Glennon, agent Quis-
sett Mill; Charles M. Holmes, treasurer Holmes Mill and Gosnold Mill;
N. B. Kerr, vice-president Butler Mill, and director New Bedford
Cotton Mill ; Edward O. Knowles ; John Neild, agent Neild Mill ; Hon.
David L. Parker, director Pierce and Potomska Mills ; Hon. Samuel
Ross, secretary Mule Spinners' Union ; John Sullivan, agent of Taber
Mill ; Frederic Taber, president Taber Mill, New Bedford Safe Deposit
and Trust Company, and New Bedford Cooperative Bank; James O.
Thompson, Jr., agent New Bedford Cotton Mills; William A. Twiss,
superintendent Kilburn Mill; Samuel F. Winsper, superintendent City
Mill.
Mosher Home Preparatory (29 Arnold Place)— Prof. Charles E. E.
Mosher, principal until his death. A well-known and useful institution
of the city for many years.
Herrick's Institute of Civil Service — Henry B. Herrick, manager,
135 Middle street.
Benton's Business School — Charles E. Benton, Ph. B., principal and
proprietor, 105 William street.
Kinyon's Commercial School — Odd Fellows' Building, corner Wil-
liam and Pleasant streets.
The Caswell School of Shorthand was established by Emma A. Cas-
well, a court reporter of highest ability. This school, founded in 1892,
was conducted by Mrs. Caswell until her death in 1903, and is yet main-
tained as a private school of shorthand by her daughter, Mrs. Carrie C.
Sweet, at Room 32, Masonic Building.
Vocational School of the City of New Bedford — This wonderful
trade school is supported by the city and is absolutely free to all
residents of New Bedford city. So long as its management is satis-
factory to proper commonwealth representatives, the State of Massa-
chusetts will reimburse the city to the extent of one-half the annual cost
of the school. The school was established under the following ordinance :
Ordered : — That an independent industrial school be and is hereby
established, to be in charge of a board of trustees to be elected by the
school committee, who shall provide and maintain such school for the
instruction in the principles of agriculture and the domestic and mechanic
arts, as permitted in Chapter 505 of the Acts of 1906, as supplemented by
Chapter 572 of the Acts of 1908, and for evening courses in such subjects
for the benefit of persons already employed in trade ; and if deemed expe-
NEW BEDFORD 305
dient by the said trustees, for the instruction in part-time classes of chil-
dren between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years who may be em-
ployed during the remainder of the day.
Such school shall be approved by the Commission on Industrial Edu-
cation of the Commonwealth as to location, courses, and methods of
instruction, before any money appropriated by the city for the mainte-
nance of said school shall be expended, and all appropriations shall be
expended with the approval of said commission.
And the said board of trustees shall so conduct said school and do all
things that may be necessary to entitle the city to be reimbursed by the
commonwealth the proportion of expense so incurred in the manner and
amount provided by law.
October 22, 1908. Adopted in concurrence.
October 23, 1908. Presented to and approved by the mayor.
The school was opened in the old George L. Brownell carriage
manufacturing plant and has developed into a most valuable vocational
school, with a machine department, George W. G. Poole, head ; carpentry
department, Oliver H. Gardner, head; power department, H. Percy Ar-
nold, head; electrical department, Ernest F. Lawrence, head; home-mak-
ing department, Elizabeth C. Jenkins, head. There are special evening
classes in the machine, power, electrical, paper-hanging and plumbing
departments, and in the home-making department in sewing, millinery
and cooking. Under the State law all evening instruction in this school
must be in trade extension courses and can be taken by those men over
seventeen years of age, who are employed during the day in the occupa-
tion for which they desire instruction. The various departments are well
equip])ed, the nxachinery, furniture, apparatus, tools and supplies of the
machine department inventorying $18,686.95; the carpentry department,
$3,006.86; the power department, $10,099.18; the electrical department,
$3,481.39; the home-making department, $4,083.71. The figures are up
to December i, 1916. The enrollment at the same date was:
00
Boys' Day School — full-time pupils '^
Boys' Day School — part-time pupils '°
Girls' Day School — full-time pupils 39
Girls' Day School — part-time pupils 7'
Men's Evening School pupils ^ '9<'
Women's Evening School pupils 3-14
7.=i7
Co.st of school from December 6, 191 5, to December 4, 1916:
Equipment Items :
Rent $3.i.=;o.oo
Equipment and Tools 1,102.95
Maintenance Items:
Salaries and Labor $31,131.97
Fuel, Water, Gas and Electricity 2,ji
Office. Janitor and Class Room Supplies 2.573-43
Material for Shops 7,2-5-37
Repairs and Replacements 1,31903
Total $48,891.88
N. B.— 20
3o6 NEW BEDFORD
One-half of net maintenance cost, paid by the State $16,245.65
Tuition receipts, from non-residents 4,805.55
Cash 2,893.05
$23,944.25
Net Cost to City $24,947.63
In the machine department the aim is to give solid, all-round trade
training to the boy who can complete the full cour.se. The instruction is
so arranged, however, that if only a part of the course can be completed,
training on definite lines and for efficiency in the operation and care of
one type of machine can be assured.
In the carpentry department the equipment is ample for forty-five
pupils, each boy having a bench and set of tools. Boys who complete the
course in this department secure a good apprenticeship training as house
carpenters or pattern-makers. Boys who can complete only a part of this
course are taught the proper care and use of tools, to lay out their work
and figure the stock required and to realize the value of personal effort
and attainment. A small number of boys are allowed to specialize on
pattern-making, as there is a growing demand for this class of wood-
workers at this time.
On entering the power department a boy is made assistant fireman;
he is taught to make and keep a good fire, weigh and make a record of
the amount of coal burned, ashes taken out, and volume of water evap-
orated ; he learns to handle injectors, pumps, traps, and other necessary
fireroom apparatus, and to be accurate and reliable in his work. Thor-
ough instruction in installing steam, gas and water pipes is also given in
this department. Each boy is properly prepared for all the duties of an
assistant fireman before the close of his second year.
A boy completing the full course in the electrical department should
be able to render satisfactory service as operating assistant on central
station maintenance and repairs, in the handling of switchboards, and
the keeping of necessary log sheet records ; also to install and keep in
continuous service electric motors and generators, light, telephone, and
bell circuits, and have a general knowledge of storage batteries and mag-
netos. He should be able to make necessary calculations and drawings
to show proposed work which may be given him to do.
In the home-making department the aim is to develop a course that
makes the hands of the girls skillful in cooking, cleaning, sewing, millin-
ery, and the home care of the sick, and at the same time, constantly turns
their minds towards responsibilities that they are already old enough to
share with their mothers at home. It has, therefore, present use, though
its aim is to make the girls intelligent and idealistic in their own later
home-making.
Faculty — Arthur S. Allen, director ; Russell B. Leonard, head of
related work ; G. Tappan Little, instructor of related work.
NEW BEDFORD
307
Parochial Schools — Angel Guardian, Acushnet avenue, corner of
Logan. Holy Family, County street, near North. The Sacred Heart,
No. 45 Robeson street. St. Anthony's. St. Hyacinth, Rivet street. St.
John the Baptist De La Salle, West French avenue, corner of Brock ave-
nue. St. Joseph's, Linden street, corner of State. St. Killian's, Earl
street, corner of Bowditch. St. Mary's, Acushnet avenue, corner of Wing
street.
CHAPTER XL.
Free Public Library.
Instituted August i6, 1852. Established March 3, 1853; 160,000
volumes. Open 9:00 a. m. to 9:00 p. m. week days; reading room open
2:00 to 9:00 p. m. Sundays and holidays. New library building occu-
pied December i, 1910. Branch reading rooms: Branch library, Weld
street ; ward room, Blackmer and South Water streets ; over police sta-
tion, corner Kempton and Cedar streets.
Board of Trustees — Board consists of nine members, three ex-officio,
and six elected by city council in convention, two annually, in April.
Term of elected members, three years. No salary. Ex-officio members :
The mayor, Charles S. Ashley; president of common council, Harrison
T. Borden ; president of board of aldermen, Alderman Clifton W. Bart-
lett. Elected members: Samuel F. Winsper, elected April, 1915, term
expires 1918; Frank A. Milliken, elected April, 191 5, term expires 1918;
Charles 1\L Holmes, elected April, 1916, term expires 1919; Francis M.
Kennedy, elected April, 1916, term expires 1919; Abbott P. Smith, elected
.April, 1917, term expires 1920; Otis S. Cook, elected April, 1917, term
expires 1920. President of board, the mayor.
Librarian — George H. Tripp.
Cataloguer — Anna M. DeWolf.
Assistants — Clement L. Yaeger, Josephine A. Merrick, Anna W.
Cleveland, Edith H. Cobb, Grace D. Sherman, Minerva F. Maxfield, L.
Gertrude Wilcox, Mary A. Chase, Jane E. Thuman, Jane E. Gardner,
Louise C. Tourtellot, Ellen F. Dollard, Edith H. Brodhead, Marion
Briggs, Ethel Wilcox, Alice H. Tripp.
Branch Library Attendants — North, Elsie Collins, Amanda Dion ;
south, John Wilkinson ; west, Mary Elizabeth Brown.
Trustees of Bequests, Gifts and Trust Funds — Frederic Taber,
elected April 12, 1917, term expires April, 1920; Abbott P. Smith, elected
April 12, 1917, term expires April, 1919; Thomas S. Hathaway, elected
April 12, 1917, term expires April, 1918.
The Free Public Library — The act of Legislature authorizing cities
and towns of Massachusetts to establish and maintain public libraries
was passed May 24, 1851. New Bedford had its Library Society and its
prosperous Social Library, but on May 27, 1852, a large petition, headed
by James B. Congdon, was presented to the city council, asking that an
act be passed authorizing the Free Public Library. The request was
granted, $1,500 appropriated and the date of the appropriation bill pass-
ing, July 20, 1852, is the date the establishment of the New Bedford Free
Public Library. The library was opened to the public and the delivery
of books begun in March, 1853, and it is an interesting fact to note that
in his elaborate "Memoirs of Libraries," published in 1859 in London,
fi:kk itbi-ic i.ip.uakv.
NEW BEDFORD 309
Edwards names but two libraries established in Massachusetts under the
act of 1851 — one in New Bedford, the other in Boston. It is also to be
noted that the act establishing the Boston Public Library was passed
October 12, 1852, and the doors opened for the delivery of books May 2,
1854, over a year later than the New Bedford Library.
The cornerstone of the library building was laid August 28, 1856,
addresses being delivered by George Rowland, Jr., mayor, and James B.
Congdon. In his address Mr. Congdon made the statement borne out
in several reports, that the Free Public Library was the first established
by order of ordinance under the law of 1851 ; the first from which books
were issued under said law ; that the library building was the second
whose construction was commenced after its passage ; and that prior to
its establishment and the delivery of books therefrom, there had never
existed a library established and wholly supported and managed by a
municipality, free to all the inhabitants, its books for the use, at the
library or at home, of all the people without payment or pledge.
This building which at first seemed to be fully adequate to the needs
of the library for many years was outgrown in 1886, and a large addition
was built joining the old building at right angles. The entire upper floor
of the building was then given over to library purposes, the first floor
being devoted to offices for the mayor, city clerk, city treasurer, city audi-
tor and the board of assessors. Robert C. Ingraham was the first libra-
rian and for nearly fifty years he held that post, the present successful
library owing much to his careful, earnest and persistent labor and to
the devoted interest he took in all that tended to increase its usefulness.
After the fire of 1906 in the old City Hall, public sentiment almost
immediately manifested itself in favor of remodeling the building as a
Free Public Library. On March 30, 1908, commemorative exercises were
held in the old building, which was a last farewell to the building which
for seventy years had been the center of the civic life of the town and
city. The order of exercises follows :
Memories of Olden Days Orchestra
Address by the Mayor and Chairman William J. Bullock
America Audience
Address— The City Hall of the Past William W. Crapo
Address — The Library of the Future Rev. Matthew C. Julien
Auld Lang Syne Audience
The good-byes were said and hardly had the echoes died away before
on December 3, 1910, the people were bidden to the opening of the build-
ing, beautifully improved, that henceforth was to be the exclusive home
of the New Bedford Free Public Library. The program for the exercises
follows :
Prayer Rev. Matthew C. Julien
Introductory Remarks Mayor Charles S. Ashley
3IO NEW BEDFORD
Address The Public Library and the Community
Frank P. Hill, Litt. D.
Address The Public Library and the Public School
Prof. William MacDonald.
Address A Historical Sketch of the New Bedford Library
George H. Tripp.
Address What the Public Library Means to New Bedford
Horace G. Wadlin, Litt. D.
The facts about the building as recorded by the historians at these
two memorable gatherings place its beginning in 1838, the funds used in
its construction being in part received from the United States Govern-
ment at the distribution of surplus revenue in 1837.
The first public action looking toward such a building was taken
at the town meeting, April 3, 1837, when the selectmen were authorized
to purchase a lot on William street for the purpose of constructing a
new market. At an adjourned meeting held on the 17th, it was voted to
"appropriate that part of the surplus revenue which shall be apportioned
to this town, together with the sum of $12,000, which is now in the treas-
ury and applicable to that purpose, to the purchase of a lot and the erec-
tion of a Town Hall and Market House on William street."
Russell Warren, of Providence, was engaged as architect to assist
the New Bedford designer, Seth H. Ingalls, and the contract was let to
S. H. & W. Ingalls. James Howland, George Howland, Jr., Joseph Grin-
nell, Zachariah Hillman, George T. Baker and James B. Congdon were
appointed a committee of the town government in charge of construction.
The building, one hundred feet long, sixty-one feet wide, three stories
high, was constructed of local and Fall River granite, two massive fluted
Doric columns guarding the front entrance.
At first all the town and city offices were housed on the top floor, the
main floor being reserved for a hall, the lower floor first used as a market.
In 1854 the trustees of the Free Public Library desired the use of the
lower floor, but they were able to secure their own building elsewhere.
In 1872 the market was removed from the basement and until the fire of
December 11, 1906, the building was used as a City Hall, and during its
life as such — seventy years — its service was useful and varied, serving
as a forum for all varieties of civic and political meetings and next as a
convenient center for social gathering.
The historical address at the dedicatory services, given by George
H. Tripp, who succeeded Mr. Ingraham as librarian in 1901, is here largely
drawn upon when not bodily quoted. Mr. Tripp prefaced his address by
alluding to the great significance, that at the time when New Bedford
was at the height of its fame as the greatest whaling city of the world ;
when all the streets were literally running with oil ; when its material
prosperity was great ; certain public-spirited citizens should have be-
NEW BEDFORD 311
stirred themselves to give New Bedford an opportunity to furnish a
means for a more liberal culture in the arts of refinement. This proved
that there is in American life a strong current of idealism even under the
strongest material surroundings.
When the Massachusetts Legislature in May, 1851, passed the act
enabling municipal libraries to be formed, two or three of the citizens of
New Bedford, notal)ly James B. Congdon and Warren Ladd, at once
moved to arouse a public sentiment enabling New Bedford to take ad-
vantage of this act. Warren Ladd at the July, 185 1, meeting of the city
council introduced a preliminary order, and the ordinance establishing
the library was passed on the i6th of August, 1852. The city seal just
adopted had declared that the aim of the city was to shed light and
knowledge ; the literal was to be made figurative, and the lamp of wis-
dom and learning was to be lighted and tended for the benefit of all the
citizens.
There had been several private libraries of some importance which
ante-dated the establishment of this library. The old Encyclopaedia
Society, so-called from the purchase of Dobson's EncyclopEedia as the