Newton Schools history, Part 4: Women on Newton’s School Committee in 1872

Forty-eight years before women had the right to vote, they were serving on Newton’s School Committee. The Massachusetts constitution limited voting to men but omitted the word “male” as a qualification for elective office. Women noticed. Suffragists began working to get women elected (by men) onto school committees. They thought it would be the easiest public office to get. 

Prior to 1840, women held no responsible position in any public school in the State. The few women who were teachers worked mainly in summer, to “spell the men” during the haying season. Following the Civil War, the number of women in education grew rapidly. In 1861, at the beginning of the war, Newton had 1,353 students. Of its 30 teachers, 7 were women, and all 8 School Committee members were men. By 1872, there were 2,452 students, 66 of the 86 teachers were women, and three women were on the 15-member school committee: Charlotte Wheeler of Newton Upper Falls, Mary Roberts of Newtonville, and Amelia F. Waters of Newton Corner (elected by the School Committee and Town Selectmen to fill a vacancy). The School Committee report of 1872 notes: 

“we desire here to bear testimony to the diligence, as well as intelligence, with which our lady coadjutors have discharged their duties.”[1]

School Committee members hired teachers, conducted monthly school observations, selected books, disbursed school funds, and maintained the schoolhouses (purchased fuel, oversaw building and repairs, etc.). The number of school committee members was still the same as the number of school buildings, but school governance had become more complex with subcommittees on the high school; training schools; grammar schools; primary schools; evening schools; music; industrial drawing; drawing; textbooks; rules and regulations; and repairs and supplies.[2] School Committee members were paid a nominal amount for their work ($1,250, compared to the Superintendent’s salary of $3,000).

In 1872, Thomas Emerson was hired as Newton’s first superintendent. He was responsible for examining students (oral and written tests), advising teachers on instruction and discipline, maintaining attendance and tardiness records, and preparing an annual report for the town and state. Newton had five different superintendents between 1872 and 1882.

 “Unwillingness on the part of the committee to surrender any of its powers and privileges and the tendency to treat the superintendent as its errand boy seem to have been the main bone of contention.”[3]

Superintendent Emerson’s 1873 annual report to the town begins with the need to improve schoolhouse ventilation. Schoolhouses were heated by coal and wood. Bigelow and Oak Hill had outhouses connected by covered passageways. Other schools had water closets in their basements – basements that doubled as a playground “in stormy or very cold weather.”[4] 

From the City of Newton 1885 Annual Report: 

“The privies of the Underwood school, which, by leakage, had become offensive and dangerous have been removed, and a new set of water-closets put into the basement.”[5]

Danger came from communicable diseases. Consumption (tuberculosis), scarlet fever, typhoid, and cholera were leading causes of death in Newton. Over one-third of all deaths were of children under 10 years of age (32 out of 94 deaths in 1860; 80 out of 191 deaths in 1872). Newton required students to be vaccinated for smallpox (in 1855, Massachusetts became the first state to require vaccinations), and students exposed to contagious diseases were sent home, though not always successfully. From the superintendent’s report for 1899: “A boy who was suspended on account of a case of membranous croup in the family immediately secured a position in a candy store where scores of school children bought their daily supplies of cheap confectionery.”

Proceedings of the Common Council, February 12, 1894, record an argument over the assignment of blame for student deaths: 

“Councilman Parker then said: No doubt most of the members present have seen the numerous articles in the Boston dailies as well as our local papers in reference to the cases of scarlet fever in the schools at Newton Centre. They reflect upon the fair name of our city, giving the impression that our board of health is negligent, or at least not efficient, the cases were of the most malignant type, as three out of four resulted in death, and two of them within twenty-four hours of being taken. Our local physicians, at the request of anxious parents, repeatedly urged the chairman to fumigate the Mason school, only to be told (they) declined to do it. After waiting four days they fumigated on Thursday and opened the school on Friday morning, when of course the children could not remain on account of the fumes from sulphur.”[6]

In true Newton fashion, the council members argued over who was responsible – the Board of Health or the Superintendent (who “was opposed to any closing of the schools, saying there were already vacations enough”) – and then tabled a resolution to blame either for the bad press and children’s deaths. 

The No Recess Movement 

In 1882, School Superintendent John Kimball recommended the permanent adoption of no recess in grammar schools (4th through 8th grade), based on the opinions and observations diligently gathered by parents, teachers, and medical professionals “on the mental, moral, and physical development of the pupils.” Without recess, discipline had improved, there was less “petty tyranny” (bullying), “evil communication” (gossiping), and “playyard injuries.” If necessary, grammar school students could request individual recesses to wander about by themselves. Poor schoolhouse ventilation and the democratic co-mingling of “children of all conditions of life” were the leading and losing arguments for keeping school recess up to high school. 

Under the new no-recess schedule, the lunch break was extended from 2 to 2½ hours. The school day began at 9:00 am, broke for lunch at 11:30 am, resumed at 2:00 pm, and concluded at 4:00 pm. Most students walked to school, home for lunch, back to school, and then home again. 

Children between the ages of 5 and 15 were required to go to school. Parents frequently held their children back in grades so that they would not have to walk a greater distance in winter to attend another school. Educational offerings varied widely among schools (more on this in the next article), and the only high school was on the north side of town.

The school committee’s 1872 report urges the town to pay for the transportation of high school students on the south side, and charge them “the average price of (train) car travel from the villages on the Boston and Albany Railroad” to equalize “the privileges of the various parts of the town” to a high school education.[7] The train stops ran along the north side of town from Newton Corner to Riverside. In 1873, the town councilors took this advice and allocated $540 for transportation for high school students by horse cart. 

That same year, the election of Elizabeth Thurston of West Newton brought the number of women on the School Committee to four. Then they were all thrown out of office in 1874 when Newton became a City and reorganized its government. 

On October 13, 1873, the town of Newton held a vote on whether or not to become a City. The vote was far from certain; town selectmen had debated the issue since 1830. Protest meetings were held by residents who wanted to remain a town and thought that becoming a City would increase expenses. Others had petitioned the State to divide Newton into two or more towns. Some hoped to become part of Boston. The townwide vote was decisive, with 1,224 votes in favor of becoming a City and 391 against.[8]

On January 5, 1874, the City of Newton was formed, with James Hyde elected as Mayor and a member of the School Committee. The other School Committee members were the president of the common council, ex-officio, and two men from each ward, elected for staggered three-year terms. Members of the School Committee were no longer compensated for their service (except for $300 to the member who also served as secretary) and could not be hired as superintendent. If there was a vacancy in the Committee, members could select someone to fill it until the next annual election, same as before. 

The new City began with a budget of $394,205.45 and a debt of $467,057.51 (much of which was from the Civil War). $77,000 was allocated to the schools. The schools also received money from the State School Fund and leftover money from a dog tax. Female dogs were taxed $5 per year, while male dogs were taxed $2. The taxes went first toward dog-related damages (for example, $6 to the owner of a killed sheep, $8 for a pig). In 1872, Newton received $620.26 from the Dog Tax and $570.46 from the State School Fund.[9]

Boston school committee men challenged the election of women, taking the issue to the state house. State legislation was passed allowing women to serve on school committees (1874) and to vote in school committee elections (1879). To vote, women had to be 21 years old, read and write in English, and either be paying property taxes or pay a 50-cent poll tax. Men were required to pay the poll tax. (Until 1963, voters in Massachusetts had to pay a $2 poll tax to vote.)

In Newton’s 1880 elections,107 women and 2,079 men voted to return a woman, A. Amelia Smead of Newtonville, to the Newton School Committee. It would be 40 years before women could vote or run for any other elected office in Newton.

Next in the series (1860 to 1900): Soaring student population, evening schools for illiterates, and award-winning art. 

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1. Town of Newton, 1873 Annual Reports, Town of Newton (Boston: Rand, Avery & Co., 1873) 142.
2. Ibid., 192.
3. Francis Foster, A History of the Newton Schools (Newton: Jackson Homestead, 1973) 14.
4. Town of Newton, 1873 Annual Reports, (Boston: Rand, Avery & Co., 1873) 222.
5. City of Newton, 1885 Annual Reports (Boston: Rand, Avery & Co., 1886) 156.
6. City of Newton, Proceedings of the Common Council of 1894 : Prepared under the direction of the Clerk (Newton Centre: The Circuit Press, 1894) 24.
7. Town of Newton, 1873 Annual Report, (Boston: Rand, Avery & Co., 1873)  204.
8. Samuel Smith, History of Newton, Massachusetts, (Boston: The American Logotype Company, 1880) 729.
9. Auditors Report for the Town of Newton for the Year Ending February 1873 (Boston: Rand, Avery & Co.) 20.  https://archive.org/details/publicdocuments1872newt/page/n19/mode/2up