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��HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NASHUA.
��HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NASHUA.
��The first settlement in included within the limits of Dunstable, was made October, 1673. For nearly sixty years from that date, there is no information leading us to suppose a school of any kind was kept within the precints of the township.
This apparent neglect should not be at- tributed to a want of interest in the mat- ter of education, but to the many difficul- ties surrounding a frontier town. Indian wars were constantly occurring; the in- habitants dwelt in garrisons; and the settlement was every day liable to an at- tack from the wily enemy.
The dense forest, where the quiet of
the school-room might be broken at any moment by the yell of the savage, was no fitting place for helpless children; moreover, the few inhabitants were scat- tered over a wide extent of territory; — but even in these perilous times •home instruction was probably not neglected.
Dunstable at this time was within the limits of Massachusetts, and subject to her laws. In 1730 the town was indicted for not maintaining a school as required by law. The town at this time probably contained fifty householders, the number requisite for a grammar school, accord- ing to the law of 1647.
To comply with this law, in November
of the same year the town voted that "it be left with the selectmen to provide and agree with a person to keep a writing- school in the town directly, and that the sum of ten pounds be granted and raised for defraying the charges.' 1
In those days there were no school dis- tricts, no school committee: the select- men managed the schools. Here we find the first mention of a school in this
��BY T. W. H. HUSSEY. [From the N. H. School Report of 1876.]
Nashua, then
��The town was rent by religious feuds, and harrassed by Indian warfare. Mer- rimack, Hollis, and other towns were incorporated out of Dunstable.
Sept. 29, 1746, the first year the town acted under a New Hampshire charter, we find the following record :
" Voted that a schoolmaster be hired to teach children to read and write until next March, also voted that two places be appointed for the school to be kept at, also voted that one place be at the house of John Searles if it can be had for that purpose, and the other place at the house of Mr. James Gordon where John Mc- Clure now lives, also voted that the school be kept at John Searles House the first half of the time agreed to hire."
The house of John Searles occupied the site, or nearly, where Mr. Noah Searles now lives, near Salmon brook and Dun- stable, Mass. The Gordon house men- tioned here was situated near Reed's pond in the town of Merrimack.
It would appear from the records that some years there were schools, and oth- ers none, Three years later a more ex- tended arrangement was made for this object, as follows: "July 24, 1749. Voted to hire a school for eight months and that three months part thereof be improved the north side Nashua river in two places; one, the most convenient place near Indian Head, and one in some con- venient place at one pine hill; and that two months be kept in the middle of the inhabitants between Nashua river and the Province line; and that the other three months be kept the one half at the south end and one half at the north end to be determined by the committe to be chosen, the most convenient place for
��town; but whether the proposed writing- that purpose; also voted and chose
��school was ever kept is uncertain, as no allusion to this or any other school is made for about sixteen years.
��Messrs. John Snow, Ephraim Butterfield and Ephraim Adams a committee to hire for the school and to determine the
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