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FACTS, HEARSAY AND MEMORIES - Page 12 The next was, strange to say, another man named Crocker, Winthrop N. He was very young, just out of Bridgewater. He had many new ideas, one of which was very frequent Teachers' Meetings. These were very unpopular among the teachers as they meant giving up an entire Saturday, in contrast to the Workshop idea of today with a short session. At that period new teachers were given examinations in all school subjects before being hired. Ernest P. Carr followed the second Mr. Crocker and he by Albert S. Cole. By this time, about 1908, Dartmouth felt that it had become large enough for a superintendent of its own and the union was dissolved. Westport was then for a period of a few years in a union with Freetown and either Cuttyhunk or Gosnold. I shall not discuss personalities of these later school heads, some were good, and others were poor. Having digressed to the town schools as a whole, I want to return to school life as I knew it at No. 9, or Macomber's corner, as that name was given to it I presume because Clarinda Macomber owned the farm below where Sodom Road connects with Adamsville Road. As I said, I started at five with Kate Chase (Tallman) as teacher. At that time she was a young student in the two year town High School called to fill a vacancy. She probably had a natural ability for teaching and was fond of children. She gave me that first and only valentine I had during my childhood. I still have it today. She drove from her home on Drift Road just about where it was entered by Kirby Road. Sometimes Mabel and I had a ride with her and her horse called "Old Nab". We were very fortunate in our next teacher too, who came from Cambridge, a Miss Corbett. She was very well liked. I believe she had received some training. She went to Wisconsin to teach next. She later went to California. I knew nothing more of her until perhaps fifteen years ago when she by chance met a woman by the name of Macomber who had lived in Westport. Miss Corbett spoke of having had two pupils by that name and we then began a correspondence which continued until her death. From then on the teachers perhaps did the best they could but for the most part it was "just a job" and some had little to give. The mile and quarter walk to school was a long one. If the weather was bad my father would drive us in the covered wagon, not "the covered wagon" of the Westerns, but just what its name implied, a two seated wagon with a cover, but not dignified enough to be called a carriage. My cousin Evelyn always rode with us and as many others as could be piled in along the way. I think I was always a timid child. I had a constant fear of a stray cow on the road, something scarcely ever seen nowadays. I think I was more frightened as then cows were not dehorned. We passed the pound on the way, but the poundkeeper was never on hand. Another fear especially in the spring was of meeting tramps. These stragglers having spent the winter under cover began to travel the country roads. Many women began to keep doors locked as I was not the only one who feared them. The farmers dreaded them too, as they would often go into a barn after dark to sleep on the hay causing a fire hazard. For this reason the town maintained a tramp house at the Town Farm. By getting a permit from the Overseers of the Poor a tramp could have a bed and breakfast. Since my father was on the Board, just at dusk of a spring evening in May or June, the two worst months, it was a frequent occurrence for a tramp to appear at the door for a permit, but at any time of day they might come along asking for food. We always had a horror of being late for school, and I cannot recall that we ever experienced it. The first day of the fall term we looked forward to seeing what renovating might have been done in the summer. I will say that the buildings were always cleaned during the summer, the blackboards, which were really boards, were painted, and the stove had a coat of polish. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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