Master Hills taught the North Grammar School, after it occupied its present site. I remember him in 1835; and I pause when I think of this teacher, and wonder if, in some other sphere, he remembers whipping a little girl to overcome her persistent denials of an accusation made against her, thereby forcing her to tell a lie. She was accused by one of her schoolmates of taking a one cent multiplication table from her desk, and tearing it in two. For this slight offence, he, a strong man, unheeding her denials of the charge, with a heavy strap, struck with his whole strength on the tender palm of the little hand of a child of scarcely ten years. He punished her till she could not see, for pain and terror, and then she gave in, whipped into a lie, and said she did it.
The punishment over she staggered to her seat, thinking that at last it was all over. But the end was not yet, for she had to learn by this early experience that one is but the beginning of a sum, and that she must tell many lies and keep on telling them, in order to maintain her position. Her little schoolmates said, “Why did you not say sooner that you did it, and save yourself all that whipping?” She could not tell them the truth, for they would not believe her. Her dear mother said, “If you wanted another multiplication table, why did you not ask me for one?” But she could not even confess the truth to her. Her good aunt accosted her with, “You sinner! do you not know what becomes of liars?” She could not justify herself to avert that awful fate, and so she went on throwing out lie after lie (a heavy ballast), to save herself and to maintain her standing as a liar, till she was heartily sick of the whole matter, and wished that she had stuck to the truth, even if the master had killed her.
I have known Master Hills to go secretly behind a boy, who was playing at his desk, and strike him with a heavy strap across the back. Whipping was an every-day occurrence, and was done before all the children during school hours. A boy was made to lie across a chair, and was whipped in that position—not always through his clothing. Let us charitably hope that this cruel treatment of children was the fault of the times and of the arbitrary rule that was thought necessary to govern a community in those days. The day of children’s rights had not yet dawned.
Master Jacob Graves followed Mr. Hills, and he was the first teacher that I remember who used moral suasion, and instilled into our minds what honor among children meant. He taught us to be truthful for truth’s sake, his rule was mild and pleasant, he never punished with the rod, and his kind, remonstrating voice was more powerful than any whipping. In later life, many of his scholars sorrowed with him in his misfortunes, and now his memory lives in their hearts, a tender and pleasant recollection.
The first church edifice built in Lowell was St. Anne’s. It was built under Kirk Boott’s reign; and, without regard to the difference of the religious opinions of the operatives, the Episcopal form of service was adopted. Every operative on the Merrimack corporation was obliged to pay thirty-seven and a half cents a month toward the support of this church. This was considered unjust by the help, many of whom were “dissenters,” and they complained so loudly at the extortion, which was not in the contract, that the tax was soon discontinued.
The Freewill Baptist Church was built largely of money belonging to over one hundred factory girls, who were induced by Elder Thurston’s promises of large interest to draw their money from the savings-bank, and place it in his hands. These credulous operatives did not even receive the interest of their money, but, believing in him as an elder of the church, they were persuaded, even a second time, to let him have their savings. This building has had a curious and eventful history, “from grave to gay, from lively to severe.” According to Mr. Cowley’s history of Lowell, nothing had succeeded in it; and, to a believer in retributive justice, it would seem as if even the building deserved to be under a ban till those hard earnings were restored. The money wasted there represents so much of lost opportunity of education, lost means of comfort and maintenance, lost ability to keep or help the dear ones at home.
Early in the history of Lowell, Universalism became popular, and a large congregation, mostly young people, were soon gathered. This quite frightened those of certain other sects, and their ministers preached openly against the new doctrine; discussions and controversies were rife, and whether there was a hell or not, was the chief topic of the day among the factory people. That there was not was, of course, the more agreeable, and, with the fearless ones, the more popular side. There was a very benighted idea in the minds of many as to what this new religion really was, and “Infidel,” and “Atheist,” were the names applied by other denominations. Doctrinal feeling was strong, and young people who went with the “awful Universalists” received no favor from the other sects. The Unitarians also came under the ban, but the Universalists were the more condemned; and the good work they tried to do was hindered in more than one direction by this unchristian persecution.
As a matter of local history, it may be well to add here, that in its earlier days Lowell furnished quite a number of distinguished men. Among its physicians may be mentioned Dr. Elisha Bartlett, who was widely known as a man of scientific culture and of many accomplishments; the Daltons, father and sons, later of Boston; and Dr. Gilman Kimball, the celebrated surgeon. Lieutenant-Governor Huntington also practised medicine there, as did Dr. John O. Greene, the antiquary. Wendell Phillips was in a law-office, and John Nesmith, manufacturer, was lieutenant-governor during a part of Governor Andrew’s term of office. In Freesoil days John G. Whittier edited a paper there, and John H. Warland and H. Hastings Weld were in the same profession. Colonel William Schouler began editorial life in Lowell, assisted by William S. Robinson (“Warrington”), who went from Concord, Mass., in 1842. Mr. Robinson also published The Lowell American, one of the first Freesoil papers, from 1849 to 1854. William Worthen, of the firm of D. Appleton & Co. of New York, was formerly of Lowell, a Worthen being one of the founders of the city. Warren Colburn of “Colburn’s Sequel,” the mathematician, was agent of the Merrimack Mills. John P. Robinson, who was so severely lampooned by the poet Lowell (“John P. Robinson, he”), moved to Lowell from Dover early in life. The Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox, once Assistant Secretary of the Navy, lived with his mother on the Tremont Corporation. Major-General B. F. Butler was one of its most widely known citizens. Henry F. Durant, the founder of Wellesley College, studied law in the office of his father, William Smith, and Major-General N. P. Banks was bobbin-boy, and afterward editor there. The late Rev. W. H. Cudworth, and J. W. Hanson, D.D., now of Chicago, were cousins and Lowell boys, and were both chaplains of Massachusetts regiments during the Civil War. James McNeil Whistler, the painter, was born in Lowell, in 1834.
Lowell has never been a book-publishing place; but it is a curious fact that the first American edition of Hayward’s translation of “Faust” was published there in 1840 by Daniel Bixby, afterward of New York.