same site, was owned in equal shares, by eight individuals, seven of whom were David Arnold, John Burghardt, Peter Burghardt, Jacob Burghardt, 2d, John Burghardt, 3d, and Isaac Van Deusen. This mill is supposed to have stood where Sage's mill does. It was afterwards owned by Peter Orcut and John Van Deusen, Jr., who sold it in 1796 to Eli Lyon. A grist mill had also been built upon the Seekonk Brook as early as 1787-perhaps several years earlier. This probably stood upon the site of the present mill of Andrew J. Baldwin. It was sold by John Burghardt, 3d, to Oliver Ingersoll in 1787. Ingersoll the next year conveyed it to Eli Lyon. Mr. Lyon, who resided for several years in Seekonk, appears to have been an enterprising man. He eventually removed to Bloomfield, N.Y. The name of Burghardt has been intimately associated with the vicinity of Seekonk from its earliest settlement. Lambert Burghardt, the father of the late Peter and Isaac Burghardt, had his dwelling a little south of the main road, where his grand-son, John L. Burghardt, now resides. John Burghardt at the beginning of the present century resided on the late Jonah A. Hulbert place, on the road from Seekonk to the West plain-though there was no road there at that time. This John Burghardt was the possessor of a large tract of land including the farms since owned by John M. and Jonah A. Hulburt.

Con Murray, who had been a soldier in Burgoyne's army, and one of the prisoners taken at Saratoga, built and lived where the house of William R. Palmer now stands in Seekonk.

We have, too, the tradition of one Ninham, an Indian, who in the last century had his cabin near the bank of the brook, a little south of the bridge in Seekonk, and whose son Hendrick is said to have been a man of some importance among the Stockbridge Indians after their removal to the Oneida country.

Robert Watson-son of Oliver Watson before mentioned, and father of the present Oliver-bought the Watson place," now James Kelly's-between the village and Seekonk, in 1805, and erected the present house on the site of an older one.

West of Seekonk at the corner of the Alford road,. where Henry A. Tobey now resides, John Hickok settled and kept a tavern before the Revolution.

The first settler, in this town, on the Alford road, of whom we have knowledge, was Eliatha Rew, who appears to have located on "the Prindle farm," next west of Henry A. Tobey's in 1762, and whose house is mentioned in alterations of that road made in 1764.

Further north on that road, and adjoining the Alford south line, Justin and Hugo Dewey purchased land in 1791, and apparently settled there at that time. The house of Justin Dewey stood where the farm-house of his grand-son, Justin Dewey, Esq., now does, and his brother Hugo resided in the house next north, stilf standing, in which his son Grotius afterwards lived. Justin and Hugo Dewey were notable characters, and in some respects remarkable men. Both were large and portly; both were genial and sociable; and a fondness for mirthfulness equally characterized both. They were brothers in every sense of the word. Living but a short distance apart they were almost con-stantly in each other's company. They tilled their farms and harvested their crops together. If they went to church they went together; if they visited the village tavern it was together, and together they told their stories and sipped their mug of flip. Their lives. were of that peaceful, unruffled nature which tends to happiness and longevity, and which in their case won the esteem and respect of their townsmen. Justin Dewey died August 31, 1832, in his 82d year, and Hugo died in his 81st year, April 17th, 1833.

CHAPTER XXIV.

EARLY SCHOOL HOUSES-SUPPORT OF SCHOOLSFORMATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS-SELECT SCHOOLS-HIGH SCHOOL.

We have in a former chapter made mention of the appropriations by the town of Sheffield for the support of schools in this place, while it constituted a part of that town, and of the existence of a very early schoolhouse here, which was sold at auction for eighteen shillings in 1757. We have also chronicled the building of a school-house, by the parish about the year 1748, and the erection of another, by the town in 1762. The school-house of 1748 was standing some time after the incorporation of the town, but had apparently disappeared before 1768. Its site is now unknown.

The school house of 1762, stood near the site of the present Congregational church, and seems to have been in existence as late as 1781. This, so far as we have ascertained, was the only school-house built by the town, until within a very recent period.

In 1768, the town voted to remove this schoolhouse, and also to build two others, and appointed a committee "to determine to what place in said town the present school-house shall be removed, and in what places the two school-houses yet to be built shall be sot." But we find no evidence that the house standing was removed, or that the proposed new ones were built. Indeed, it is not at all probable that the vote, quoted, was carried into execution.

Referring, doubtless, to this school-house (of 1762), was an article in the warrant for a town meeting in October, 1779, "to see if the town will sell the school

house in said town," the question upon which, being put, "passed in the negative." But in September, 1781, the town directed its selectmen to sell "the old school-house," at the appraisal of Samuel Pixley and Ezekiel Kellogg, and to apply the proceeds to the building of a town pound. As no further mention of this school-house is found in the records, we conclude that it was sold as ordered; though the selectmen, in May, 1783, were authorized to draw money from the town treasury and build a pound. This pound was built; it stood on the south side of the way near the Bung Hill corner, close up to the foot of the mountain, and a little west and south from the present Bung Hill school-house.

At the same meeting-September 11th, 1781-at which the town voted to sell its school-house, a proposition of several individuals for building a school-house at their own expense, was considered, and under an article in the warrant "to see if the town inhabitants will grant liberty for a school-house to be set up on the town land near the old meeting-house in said town," it was "voted to grant liberty for building a schoolhouse as within mentioned." These individuals soon after erected a school house, and, a little later, proposed to sell it to the town. But the town-August 29, 1785-by vote, refused "to buy the school-house in said town, belonging to certain persons, near the meeting-house." This school-house, described as a long building with two rooms, stood upon the east bank of the river, a short distance below the Great Bridge, where it did service as a school-house for about twenty years. It was purchased in 1801 by Major Dudley Woodworth and converted into a blacksmith's shop, and still later, it was removed some distance south on the old road east of the river, and transformed into a dwelling-house, by E. P. Woodworth, Esq., but was eventually destroyed by fire some forty years ago. The proprietors of this building, so far as we have ascertained, were: Doctor William Whiting, Walter Pyn-chon, Ensign John Burghardt, Hall Pixley, Doctor John Sibley, William Whiting 2d, Ezekiel Kellogg, Major Thomas Ingersoll, Justin, Hugo, and Benedict Dewey.

66

SCHOOL APPROPRIATIONS.

349

The statutes in force in the early years of our parish and town organization, required that every town of fifty or more families "should be constantly provided of a schoolmaster, to teach children and youth to read and write," and towns of one hundred families were required to maintain a grammar school and employ some discreet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues, to keep such school." Under this last requirement, Sheffield, in 1752, made provision for a grammar school to be kept four months in the Upper parish, five months in the middle part, and three months at the south end of the town; and in the next year a similar school was provided for in the North parish.

The first appropriation for schooling, made by this town, was on the 16th of November, 1761, when £30 was raised "for the support and maintenance of a school, and it was voted "that the school, for the present, be kept in the school-house now built;" that is the house of 1748. From 1761 to '70, sums varying from £30 to £40, were annually raised for schooling, and in one of these years-1768-£50 was appropriated for this purpose. From 1771 to the Revolution the unwritten records afford no information as to the action taken in regard to schools, though we know from another source that £30 was voted in 1774. In 1771, the town refused to raise money for schools, and the school was apparently unkept. In consequence of this, the town was summoned to answer before the Court of Sessions-February, 1772-"for being unprovided with a school," and through its agent, David Ingersoll, Junior, Esq., made virtual confession, in the plea, "Will not contend with the King," whereupon it was fined £3, 6s., 8d., and costs. In 1776 the inhabitants voted not to raise money for schooling; and during the war the subject of appropriations for this object was seldom acted upon. Still, schools were to some extent maintained by private enterprise.

The earlier votes of the town contemplated the sustaining of but one school and the employment of but one teacher. Thus, in 1763, a committee was appointed "to direct in what places the school shall be