DESCRIPTION OF A NEW ENGLAND DISTRICT SCHOOL AS IT APPEARED IN 1804

Abstract

The Reverend Warren Burton (1800-1866) of Wilton, New Hampshire described the District School he attended between 1804 and 1817 in these words:

The Old School-house, in District No. 5, stood on the top of a very high hill, on the north side of what was called the County road. The house of Capt. Clark, about ten rods off, was the only human dwelling within a quarter of a mile. The reason why this seminary of letters was perched so high in the air, and so far from the homes of those who resorted to it, was this: Here was the center of the district, as near as surveyor's chain could designate. The people east would not permit the building to be carried one rod further west, and those of the opposite quarter were as obstinate on their side.

The edifice was set half in Capt. Clay's field, and half in the road. The wood-pile lay in the corner made by the east end and the stone wall.... The doorstep was a broad unhewn rock, brought from the neighboring pasture. It had not a flat and even surface, but was considerably sloping from the door to the road; so that, in icy times, the scholars, in passing out, used to snatch from the scant declivity the transitory pleasure of a slide....

The outer side of the structure was never painted by man; but the clouds of many years had stained it with their own dark hue....