Public Schools, 1674-1868

There’s been some ongoing debate about forgiving students loans and making college free, which piqued my interest in the history of public education. We often assume that what we have now is what has always existed, but of course that’s not true. When Waterbury’s first public high school opened in 1851, it wasn’t free. In fact, legislation protecting the right of all children to attend any public school in Connecticut regardless of income or race didn’t exist until 1868. Earlier laws in Connecticut attempted to guarantee that children who had jobs would still get a basic education, but those laws weren’t always enforced.

Waterbury's first High School
From Richard Clark's Map of Waterbury, 1852

Nineteenth-century advocates for free education argued that it was in everyone's interest to ensure that all children could get the best education possible, that no one should be deprived of fulfilling their potential. Thanks to their advocacy, education is free through 12th grade.


Waterbury Public Schools During the 1700s

Henry Bronson, who wrote the first comprehensive history of Waterbury in 1858, believed that the first school in Waterbury was most likely started in 1710 in a small building at the center of town measuring sixteen feet by fourteen feet (Bronson, History of Waterbury, p. 237).

The school was in session during the winter and summer, teaching the children of Waterbury’s farming families the basics of literacy and mathematics. There was no expectation of higher learning for the general public. The sons of wealthy and ambitious families would be sent elsewhere to study with tutors before going on to Yale, Connecticut’s only college before 1823.

As the town grew, expanding outwards as new farms were started, additional schools were established. During the 1730s, schools were started at Judd’s Meadow (now Naugatuck), Bucks Hill, and Wooster Swamp (now Watertown), staffed only briefly each year by a schoolmaster who taught at each school in turn. Connecticut law required larger towns (those with at least seventy families) to maintain a school for at least eleven months of the year. In Waterbury, the schoolmaster was employed for forty-eight weeks out of the year (meeting the eleven month requirement), but his time was spread out between each school, ranging from twenty-one weeks in the center of town and only three weeks at Bucks Hill. Formal school districts were established in 1749: the Town Centre, Bucks Hill, Judd’s Meadow, and Breakneck (now Middlebury). (Bronson, p. 238)

The Old Township of Waterbury, circa 1740
Published in Bronson's History of Waterbury

Public School Funding in the 1700s

The initial division of land in Waterbury during the 1670s included “school lots” – land that was rented out, with the income used to support the education of the town’s children. In 1734, the town decided to sell the school lots at auction, with the purchasers of the school lands agreeing to pay a lease for 999 years to support the schools. (Anderson, Town and City of Waterbury, Vol. 1, p. 333-4 + 596)

Funding was also made available by the colonial government through land sales. During the 1730s, the western half of Litchfield County was sold by Connecticut to the founders of seven new towns (Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sharon). The funds from the sale were distributed to towns throughout the colony, including Waterbury, for the purpose of supporting their schools. (Bronson, p. 240)

A third source of school funding was provided each year by Connecticut taxes. Initially, each town received a portion of Connecticut’s tax revenue to support their grammar schools. This was later supplemented by the sale of a portion of Connecticut’s Western Reserve, millions of acres of land in what is now Ohio, in 1795. The proceeds of the sale were used to establish an education fund for Connecticut’s towns. (Anderson, Town and City of Waterbury, Vol. 1, p. 597)

Map showing Connecticut's Western Reserve
From Wikimedia Commons

State Legislation, 1794-1839

A fire in 1833 destroyed most of Waterbury’s school records, leaving a gap in the local historical record. Some information can be found in biographies – Julius Kingsbury, born in Waterbury in 1797, was sent to a series of towns during his teenage years to study with private teachers because “there was no school in Waterbury of a higher grade than a district school.” (Bronson, p. 423)

Other information can be gleaned from statewide activities. State legislation had a direct impact on education in Waterbury. A law enacted in 1794 allowed school districts to impose a local tax to support the construction and maintenance of their school buildings. (Acts and Laws of Connecticut, 1805, p. 375)

In 1813, Connecticut passed one of the country's first education laws, requiring parents, guardians, and any other person in charge of children to send children between the ages of eight and fourteen to school for at least three months a year. The basic education for all children consisted of reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic. The law was expanded in 1842 to ensure that school visitors (a predecessor of the Board of Education) verified that all children working in factories were receiving their education. Any employer who didn’t sent their child laborers to school could be fined $100. A further expansion of the law in 1871 required that children who were temporarily out of work were required to attend school for the duration of their unemployment. (“Laws of the State of Connecticut, Concerning Education,” Annual Report of the Board of Education of the State of Connecticut, New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Printers, 1879, p. 211-212)

Employment for girls started around age 10
Waterbury American, 15 May 1846, p. 3

Employment for boys included apprenticeships from about age 14 to 21.
The employer became the legal guardian of the apprentice.
Waterbury American, 1 November 1845, p. 3

A convention of educators from all over Connecticut was held in Hartford in 1830. When asked to identify “the evils existing in our common schools,” the list of complaints included apathy of parents, neglect of school visitors, inadequate pay of teachers, and overcrowded schoolhouses with one teacher for all ages. (“School Convention,” Connecticut Courant, 16 November 1830, p. 3)

In 1838, Connecticut’s Governor William Ellsworth ordered an investigation into the schools. The official report found the following:

“parents took little interest in the schools; the school visitors were not always faithful; teachers were often poorly qualified and inefficient; their pay, being on average $14.50 for men and $5.75 for women, exclusive of board, was not adequate to their deserts, or equal to the rewards of skill and industry in other fields of labor. The great diversity of schoolbooks was an evil, the schoolhouses were unfit for use, and over 6,000 children of school age were out of school. Furthermore, private schools were established in nearly every place of any size, and 10,000 children of the richer classes were in them, there being 60,000 or 70,000 in common schools.”

(Bernard C. Steiner, The History of Education in Connecticut, U.S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 2, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893, p. 37)

As a result of the 1838 investigation, Connecticut’s legislature created a state board of education in 1839 tasked with supervising the common schools. Each school district was required to submit an annual report to the state board.


Waterbury Schools, 1830-1850

By the 1830s, Waterbury’s public school system was run by several committees, including a visiting committee tasked with overseeing the operations of each school. School visitors would inspect the schools and teachers at different times throughout the year.

Waterbury had fourteen school districts which defined the major neighborhoods: West Center, East Center, Buck’s Hill, Sawmill Plain (Mill Plain), East Farms, East Mountain, Horse Pasture (Hopeville), Plattsville (Platts Mill), Clark (south of Town Plot), Town Plot, Oronoke (Westside Hill), Bunker Hill, Pine Hole (Waterville), and Gaylord Plain (near Hamilton Park).

Bunker Hill School
Collection of Mattatuck Museum

Horace Hotchkiss shared his memories of one of these schools in 1876, writing that each schoolhouse consisted of one room with an open fireplace:

“[The room was lined] by a continuous writing-desk or board, with a bench in front of it. Both desk and bench served as tablets, on which initials or other rude figures were carved by ambitious jack-knives until little of the original surface was left. Within the area that has been indicated was a row of smaller benches for younger scholars.—benches without backs and so high that that the little feet often could not reach the floor.”

Hotchkiss recalled a limited set of school books covering spelling, grammar, geography, and arithmetic. Advanced scholars also learned oration (formal speeches). (Anderson, Vol. 2, p. 490)

About the same time that Horace Hotchkiss was sharing his memories of the old one-room schoolhouses, the legendary artist Winslow Homer was painting a series of nostalgic images based on a one-room schoolhouse in the Catskills. Although not specific to Waterbury, it can help us understand what the schoolhouses here might have looked like at their best.

Winslow Homer, The Country School, 1870s
Collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum

A report from Waterbury’s school visitors in 1841 described the local education system as follows:

Public Interest: Apathetic.

Schoolhouses: Desks and seats uncomfortable. Drawback of district system.

Attendance: In seven schools, the aggregate in attendance the past winter was 200, average 174. With four exceptions our schools are kept but about six months. One kept nine, two eight, and one ten months the past year….”

Teachers: 17 female during summer. 7 female and 6 male during winter.

Studies: “One of the greatest evils in our schools generally is the neglect of the spelling book. The committee has been much gratified at witnessing a decided improvement in this respect in some of the schools during the past year, especially in those where the same teacher has been employed both summer and winter.

“But often in the winter school has the spelling book been almost entirely neglected, except by the smaller scholars. In one school only have the committee witnessed a blackboard in use. That school, for improvement in the more advanced studies generally, was scarcely equaled by any, and in arithmetic it was decidedly the best.”

Private Schools: “The academy in this place is really a private school; besides which there are private schools taught by females for smaller scholars. Many scholars attend the academy to learn the first rudiments of branches which ought to be taught to perfection in a public school. And could the public schools be raised to become what they should be, they would cover nearly all the ground now occupied by the academy; and certainly much more to the benefit of the community at large.”

(Connecticut Common School Journal, Vol. III, July 1, 1841, p. 204)

Notice to Waterbury public school teachers,
Waterbury American, 21 November 1846

A report from 1846 indicated there had been some effort to improve Waterbury’s schools, but there were still many deficiencies:

“The visitors have endeavored to reduce as fast as practicable, the number of books, so as to have but one author upon a branch taught.

“About half the schools are provided with blackboards, and are used. None have globes or maps.

“More than half of the school-houses are good, and others are being improved; a few decidedly bad; out-buildings culpably neglected.

“One or more of the visitors visit each school within four weeks of the commencement and close. There have been a few instances of considerable neglect.

“The parents occasionally visit a few of the schools, but not many.”

(Annual Report of the superintendent of common schools of Connecticut to the General Assembly, May Session, 1846)

In 1847, concerns about Waterbury’s common schools sparked a public conversation that played out in the local newspaper. The Secretary of Waterbury’s Visiting Committee (precursor to the Board of Education), Dr. Agrippa Nelson Bell, published a series of essays sharing his opinions about the role of public schools and the problems that needed solving.

Waterbury American, 30 January 1847

Inspired by Dr. Bell’s first essay, an anonymous writer to the newspaper blamed parents for the inadequacies of the schools, declaring that parents should “be taught what their duty is, and then we may look for improvement in our common schools. …if they would live in peace and happiness, to the end of their days, they must thoroughly educate their children …by taking a lively interest in their studies.” (Summum Bonum, “Common Schools,” Waterbury American, 13 February 1847, p. 2)

Dr. Bell agreed with Summum Bonum and went further, criticizing Waterbury’s “most prominent and influential men” for sending their own children to schools outside Waterbury or hiring private teachers, “plainly showing that they have lost all respect for [the common schools], and do not consider them places fit for the training of their children; showing at the same time, that they do not consider them worth their attention, or an object the least worthy of their regard, as they no longer patronize them.” While not willing to send their own children to the common schools, these “influential men” hired countless laborers whose children had no option but to attend the inferior common schools. (A. N. Bell, “Waterbury Common Schools,” Waterbury American, 20 February 1847, p. 2)

In his fifth and final essay, Dr. Bell proposed the creation of a new school with enough teachers for all of the children in the central part of Waterbury, replacing the existing system of numerous schoolhouses (several of which were described as “huts”) throughout the area. (A. N. Bell, “Waterbury Common Schools,” Waterbury American, 13 March 1847, p. 2)

Dr. Agrippa Nelson Bell, circa 1847
Photo from Pinterest, linked to eBay, additional information not indicated

Dr. Bell left Waterbury in March 1847 to join the U.S. Navy as a surgeon. He was replaced by Charles Fabrique as the primary representative of the school visitors. Fabrique was a teacher who ran the private Waterbury Academy. He submitted his first report on the Waterbury schools in October 1847. (Charles Fabrique, “School Visitor’s Report,” Waterbury American, 20 October 1847, p. 1).

Principals of the Waterbury "Stone" Academy, late 1840s
Possibly Charles and Caroline Fabrique
Collection of Mattatuck Museum

In his report, Fabrique noted that there were 15 female teachers and 6 male teachers, with wages ranging from $4 to $25 per month. He did not give further details to explain this enormous gap in pay, but it may have been based on gender. Male teachers were more highly regarded than female teachers; Fabrique would later suggest that students at a schoolhouse run by a female teacher did not have a fair chance at a decent education. (Charles Fabrique, “School Visitors’ Report,” Waterbury American, 27 October 1848, p. 1)

Students’ ability to read was judged on their elocution, rather than comprehension. Fabrique reported that the “general style of reading varied from the stammering to the dull and heavy tone” while one school “had gone to the opposite extreme and read with a screaming voice which was almost beyond endurance.” Students at three schools could boast of “correct habits of articulation and emphasis.”

Fabrique warned against letting children age six and seven study geography, geology, physiology, and philosophy, as he believed this led to them becoming terrible at reading and spelling when they were older. He placed some of the blame on teachers with “more enthusiasm than judgment” and on booksellers “whose motives are not above suspicion.” (Oh, those devious booksellers, encouraging children to learn new things!)

Advertisement, William Patton, bookseller,
Waterbury American, 10 November 1848

Page 7 of Mitchell's School Geography, published in Philadelphia in 1849
View the full book at the Library of Congress website

Tardiness was a widespread problem, with schools frequently starting late because none of the students arrived on time. This may well have influenced Fabrique’s opinion that the only thing wrong with Waterbury’s schools was “the indifference and negligence of parents.” He repeated complaints from teachers who sent invitations for school events to parents who never showed up, but there is no sign that either the teachers or Fabrique took the time to find out why the parents didn’t visit the school.

A year later, the School Visitors’ Report acknowledged that a lack of consistency could be contributing to some of the educational problems – teachers typically lasted only two seasons at any one school, and each teacher set their own curriculum. Students would start one with one teacher in the winter, then start all over with a new teacher and a completely new course of instruction in the summer, then start all over again with a third teacher, and so on. (Charles Fabrique, “School Visitors’ Report,” Waterbury American, 27 October 1848, p. 1)

Fabrique also addressed problems with children who weren’t attending school at all. In some cases, it was due to illness, while in other cases, parents were unwilling to send their children to overcrowded schools. An unspecified number of children were working full time in Waterbury factories, while yet another unspecified number of children “roam unemployed through the streets, acquiring idle, truant and pilfering habits.” (Charles Fabrique, “School Visitors’ Report,” Waterbury American, 27 October 1848, p. 1)

Juvenile delinquency, or “juvenile loaferism” as it was dubbed at the time, was seen as a growing problem in Waterbury during the late 1840s. The local newspaper decried the “disorderly gangs of unmannerly boys, who throng the streets in the evening” instead of sitting at home with their parents or guardians. (“School Visitor’s Report” [editorial], Waterbury American, 27 October 1848, p. 2)


Normal Schools

Professional development for teachers in the mid-1800s consisted primarily of attendance at a “normal school” where they learned the latest in teaching methods for each subject. A one-week normal school, organized by the State Legislature, was held at the Waterbury Academy in 1847, featuring several visiting instructors. Attendees included teachers from Waterbury and more than a dozen other towns. (“Normal School,” Waterbury American, 20 October 1847, p. 2)


Waterbury’s First High School

Plans to create a High School for Waterbury were announced in October 1848, coming out of an earlier discussion to create a Central School District for the various small schools serving families in the center of Waterbury. (“School Society,” Waterbury American, 13 October 1848, p. 2 and Charles Fabrique, “School Visitors’ Report,” Waterbury American, 27 October 1848, p. 1)

A committee was formed to develop plans for the new school. Their proposed plan recommended the creation of three Primary Schools for children between the ages of 4 and 10, taught by women during the summer and winter (the two “seasons” of the school year). They proposed creating a Public High School for children above the age of 10. The committee emphasized the importance of offering a quality of education that would satisfy the “wealthiest and best educated families” while also being affordable, to ensure that “the worthy and talented child of a poor family” would be able to attend. (“Description of a High School,” Waterbury American, 16 March 1849, p. 2)

Waterbury American, 17 August 1849, p. 2

The committee recommended establishing a tax to support the high school, which they knew would be controversial. In order to justify implementing a new tax, they would have to prove that the entire community would benefit from a free public high school. They argued that spending money on a High School would improve the quality of education for the lower grades, since the primary school teachers would no longer need to spend any of their time on older students. Male students at the high school would receive an education that would prepare them for a business career or for college; female students would receive “a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gentle and graceful manners” and various abstract ideals of womanhood (no thought was given to preparing female students for college, as women’s colleges were still extremely rare). (“Description of a High School,” Waterbury American, 16 March 1849, p. 2)

Other justifications for supporting the new high school through taxation included equalizing “the opportunities of a good education” and exerting “a happy, social influence throughout the whole community.” More specifically, the committee noted that a central high school would bring together older students who might otherwise never interact with anyone outside their neighborhood. The committee felt strongly that placing children from all walks of life, rich and poor, in the same school and giving them “nearly equal opportunities” in education would benefit society at large, ensuring that everyone had the opportunity to be the best contributing member of society possible. (“Description of a High School,” Waterbury American, 16 March 1849, p. 2)

The committee encouraged wealthy parents to send their children to the public high school, noting that an increase in their taxes would be less than what they were paying for private school, while promising that the quality of the education would be the same. For taxpayers with no children, the committee argued that it was worthwhile to pay a small tax for the support of schools, since they would otherwise end up spending the same amount for the support of police, a jail, and a poor house – without an adequate educational system, “neglected children” would become criminals and paupers. A large amount of the committee’s argument in favor of making the high school free to all students through taxation was focused on children whose families simply could not afford to pay for schooling. They gave examples of what might be possible if everyone had equal access to education, asking “How much would a community be justified in paying for [the education of a future] physician who should discover or practice some mode of treatment through which many lives should be preserved?” Even if no such extraordinary person came out of the public high school, “it is certain that it would produce many intelligent citizens, intelligent men of business, intelligent wives and daughters, who… would repay to any community much more than they and all their associates had received.” (“Description of a High School,” Waterbury American, 16 March 1849, p. 2)

Waterbury incorporated a new Centre District in May 1849. The assets of the West Center, North Center, Gaylord Plain, Bridge, and the old Center School Districts were absorbed into the new Centre District the following year. (Notices, Waterbury American, 8 February 1850, p. 2)

Notice for a West Centre School District meeting to merge with the Centre District,
Waterbury American, 8 February 1850, p. 2

A series of public meetings were held in 1849 and 1850 to engage the community’s support and ideas for the proposed high school. The building’s location, general design, and cost were voted on at a meeting in March 1850. Modeled after Hartford’s high school, construction of the three-story brick building was estimated at $10-12,000. The location selected was on a small hill with a view “unrivalled by any other location in the central part of the village.” The school faced west, towards the Green. (“High School,” Waterbury American, 22 March 1850, p. 2)

Detail of 1852 Map of Waterbury showing the location
of the High School between East Main and Scovill Streets

The finished high school featured two bell towers, a central dome, and room for 350 students. Seven teachers were led by Charles Fabrique and his wife Caroline as principals. The total cost of the building, constructed in “the most permanent styles, with all the modern improvements,” ran over $12,000. (“Waterbury High School,” Waterbury American, 20 December 1850, p. 2)

Waterbury High School, illustrated on Smith's Map of New Haven County, 1856
The full map is available on the Library of Congress website

The new high school opened on January 27, 1851. The school was divided into two grades, essentially a grammar school and a high school, with younger students in a single large room on the first floor and the older students directly above on the second floor. Each room had 36 desks with seating for four students each, and each student had their own chair with a back (as opposed to the benches found in earlier schools). Recitation rooms were located off of the main rooms, and a music room was located on the third floor of one of the towers. A recreation room for female students was located under the dome. (“Waterbury High School,” Waterbury American, 28 February 1851, p. 2)

Stereopticon photo of Waterbury High School, circa 1865
Collection of Mattatuck Museum

Teachers during the first semester were Theodore Driggs, Anne Frisbie, Esther Humaston, and Eliza J. Holmes. Rosa Miller taught French and Instrumental Music. Maria Brainard taught Vocal Music for the younger students, and Theodore Driggs taught Vocal Music for the older students. (“Waterbury High School,” Waterbury American, 28 February 1851, p. 2)

Despite the efforts made to have the school be free to all students, fees were charged. Students under 10 years of age were charged $1 for eleven weeks, ages 10 to 16 were charged $2, students over 16 were charged $3, and any students from outside the district were charged $4. An additional fee would be charged for Instrumental Music and French. (Advertisement, Waterbury American, 31 January 1851, p. 3)

Waterbury American, 31 January 1851, p. 3

At this point, fees were now charged at all of the schools in Waterbury. For the primary schools, each student was charged 25 cents – an amount considered small by some standards, but for families who needed extra income just to get by, it made more sense to find employment for their children than to send them to school. Boys and girls could find work starting at age 10. The new fee appears to have been controversial, as the local newspaper ran an article attempting to justify it to people who “think there is something mysterious and wrong about the matter.” (“High School, &c.,” Waterbury American, 2 May 1851, p. 2)

A public meeting was held in 1853 to discuss making admission to all of the public schools free, with funding for the schools coming from increased taxes. An informal vote was held, and it was decided that the public schools would be free to all residents. However, there were still some fees at the high school for specific curriculums. (Anderson, Vol. 2, p. 502 and Advertisement, Waterbury American, 1 January 1858, p. 2)

Waterbury American, 1 January 1858, p. 2

The Waterbury High School was enlarged in 1867, but the entire building was destroyed only three years later by fire. A new high school was constructed on the same lot during the 1870s, approximately where Croft School was built in 1910, but facing in the opposite direction. A primary school was built behind the high school on Elm Street in 1872.

Map showing the high school in 1879
School Street ran between East Main Street (top) and Scovill Street (bottom)
Hopkins Atlas of Waterbury

Connecticut Education Legislation in 1868

Two important pieces of legislation concerning public education were passed by the Connecticut legislature in 1868. The first ensured that children could attend school without having to pay an admission fee. State funds were made available for this purpose, the ultimate goal being the increase in attendance at the schools, based on the belief that it was in everyone’s best interest to have as many educated people in Connecticut as possible. (“The Legislature on Education,” Hartford Courant, 1 August 1868, p. 2)

The second piece of legislation was an Act “prohibiting any discrimination in admission to public schools on account of color.” Some state representatives argued that there was no need for the law, since rural districts already let nonwhite children attend their schools and cities such as New Haven and Hartford provided “separate accommodations for them.” (Waterbury followed the rural model and allowed all children to attend their district schools.)

Rep. Sprague of New Britain spoke in favor of the Act. The summary of his speech is worth repeating: “If there is no injustice now done it would be well to prevent future injustice. But is it not time that they have sufficient accommodation? There is a separate school for them in Hartford but it will not accommodate them all, and besides there is a stigma attached to it, it is called the n—r school.” (“The General Assembly,” Hartford Courant, 30 July 1868, p. 1)

Reviewing the overall debate, it appears that most of the representatives were ignorant about the subject and had assumed everything was fine. Others worked hard to prevent integration of the schools. Rep. Eaton of Hartford insisted that “the more intelligent colored people” were opposed to the act before making it clear that he was flat out racist. Eaton declared that if Sprague was going to insist that he didn’t object to his own children attending school with nonwhite children, or even if Sprague was fine with “admitting negroes to his parlor,” Sprague should not force Eaton to do the same. (“The General Assembly,” Hartford Courant, 30 July 1868, p. 1)

Eaton went further to state that “the negro is not his equal, socially or politically,” and that the two races did not even share a common ancestor – and yet at the same time, Eaton claimed that he “had no prejudice against the negro, none ever sought charity at his door in vain.” Racism was so deeply embedded, Eaton couldn't see that he was profoundly prejudiced. (“The General Assembly,” Hartford Courant, 30 July 1868, p. 1)

In fact, it was Eaton's attempt to prevent integration in Hartford that led to the new legislation. Earlier in 1868, Eaton presided over a special Hartford town meeting at which he and others voted to ban nonwhite children from the Hartford public schools, leaving them only one school they could attend. (Waterbury Daily American, 1 April 1868, p. 2)

The Act finally passed the House and Senate, worded as follows: "The public schools of this State shall be open to all persons between the ages of four and sixteen years, and no person shall be denied admittance to and instruction in any public school in the school district where such person resides, on account of race or color, any law or resolution to the contrary notwithstanding."

The Waterbury Daily American newspaper firmly supported both pieces of legislation, declaring that "schools are now for the first time free to the poor as well as rich" and "Injustice like that practiced last winter in Hartford, where nearly a hundred colored children were turned out of school for no offence but color, will henceforth be in palpable violation of law." ("Action of the General Assembly in relation to Educational Matters," Waterbury Daily American, 13 August 1868, p. 2)