Scarborough Museum Closed

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Don Taylor

The Scarborough Historical Society’s Museum is closed to visitors in response to the COVID-19 increases in Maine. The museum is expected to remain closed until the number of daily cases in Maine drops back to under 100 for three days in a row when a reassessment to return to visitors by Appointment Only.

Please see Google’s Covid-19 Alert for Maine for the latest status of Coronavirus disease in Maine.

For questions regarding donations or research, please contact the society:

Please, please, wear a mask and stay healthy. 

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Scarboro Annual Warrant – 1821

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Carole Plowmn

To Joshua Libby one of the Constables of the Town of Scarboro

Greetings

You are hereby required in the name of the State of Maine to summon and notify the freeholders and other inhabitants of the said town qualifyed by law to vote in town meetings to assemble at the Meetinghouse in the first Parish of said town on Monday the twelvth day of March next at ten o’Clock in the fore-noon to act on the following articles [?] –

1  First to choose a moderator to regulate said meeting
2  Secondly to choose a Clerk
3ly – to choose all town officers for the year ensuing or untill others are chosen.  School     committee laid over till the adjournment.
4th  – to choose a committee to settle with the Treasurer.
5th  – to see if town will make any alteration in the school districts and vote accordingly.
6th  – to see what method the town will take to make or [?] the highways and vote accordingly.
7th – to see what sum of money the town will excise for the support [?] and vote the same.
8th – to see if the town will accept of any return of roads that may be laid before them.
9th – to see if the town will allow any accounts that may be bid before them.
10th -to see what method the town will take to support their poor
11th -to see what sum of money the town will raise for the support of the poor and for contingencies.
12th -lastly to pass any vote or votes relative to the above –

Given under our hands & seals this Fifteenth day of February in the year of our Lord 1821.

                                                            Gideon Rice                 }           Selectmen
                                                            Joseph Fogg                }                  of
                                                            Benjamin Lombeck     }           Scarborough

[Page Back]

Annual Warrant
1821
Recorded

Pursuant to the Within warrant I have summoned and notified the inhabitants of said town, qualified as therein prepared to assemble at the time and place and for the purposes within mentioned.

                                                            Joshua Libby   Constable

[Transcription by Carole Plowman, Scarborough Historical Society, 12 January 2020]
[Ref: “Encapsulated Collection 51 – Warrant Annual 1821”]

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Road – Saco Line to James Parker’s – 1823

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Pamela Keenan

Pursuant to a request of the freeholders of the town of Scarborough to us directed to lay out a road from the County line between Scarborough & Saco near David Burnhams Bark Hous to the County road near James Parker. We the subscribers, Selectmen of said town have lain the road as follows      N [?] = begun at the County Line in the old road near the above mentioned bark hous and run North [?] E 26 rods = Thence North by 20 rods cutting of a small piece of John McKenney’s share = Thence N 35 degrees E [?] = Thence N 45 E in the old road 160 rods to the [?] Line = Thence N 49o E 122 rods across D Moultons land – same cours 24 rods on Joseph Moultons land – same cours 10 rods on Jonathan McKenneys land. Thence N 64 E 400 rods on said McKenney’s land, same cours 45 rods on Joseph Foggs land = same cours 12 ½  rods on the before mentioned McKenney to the School Hous near Moses Libbys = N 50o E 53 rods on Elisha Collins land = same cours 58 rods on Nathaniel Joss Jr land = N 45o  E 56 rods between said Collins & Jonathan Joss to between Mitchel and said Joss 312 rods = to between Capt Joshua Moulton & said Joss 25 rods = to between Jonathan Moulton #3 and land owned by the Widow Meserve 54 rods to between Isaac Harmon & John Meserve 59 rods – N 75 E 43 rods on Theophilus Waterhous land = to on Ephraim Libby 104 rods, to on Jeremiah Deering 32 rods = N 46 and 64 rods in the old road N 51 E 75½ rods on John Meserves Land = to on Wm B Larrabees land 72 rods – to 55 rods on Jacob Staples Land, to 27 rods on Joshua Freemans land to 69 rods on John Meserves Land to old road = N 45 E of the road in old road to 19 rods on James Harmons land to the county road leading from Buxton to Portland – said line is to be the senter of said road and said road is to be three rods wide in every part, which is staked out the whole distance.

Laid out by us the subscribers August 15th1823

                                                                                                John [???]  }  Selectmen of
                                                                                                Moses Libby}  Scarborough

                                                            [Back of page]

A return of the road laid out from the line between Saco & Scarbo to James Parkers

                                                                                                            August 15, 1823

[Transcription by Pam Ridley Keenan, Scarborough Historical Society, 17 January 2021]
[Transcriber Note: The author used “hous” instead of the more common “house.”]
[Ref: “Encapsulated collection 55B – Return of a road laid out from town line”]

 

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Election Warrant – 21 Oct 1820

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Pamela Keenan

To Joshua Libby one of the Constables of the town of Scarborough

Greeting

 

You are hereby required in the name of the State of Maine to notify and warn the inhabitants of the said town of Scarborough duly qualified by the Constitution to vote for representatives to assemble at the meeting house in the first parish of said town on Monday the Sixth day of November next at one o’Clock afternoon to give in their votes for two Electors of President & Vice-President of the United States (at Large) and one Elector for the Second Eastern district of said state.

Given under our hands & seals this twenty-first day of October 1820

                                                                                         Gideon Rice } Selectmen of Scarborough
                                                  Benjamin Larrabee

[Back of Page]

Warrant Election 1820

Capt Joshua
Libby
Constable
Scarbo  ——–

Pursuant to the written Warrant I have duly notified the inhabitants of said town, qualified to meet at the time and place and purposes within mentioned.         

                                                                                                Joshua Libby    Constable

[Transcription by Pam Ridley Keenan, Scarborough Historical Society, 14 January 2020]

[Ref: “Encapsulated Collection 53 – Warrant Election 1820 – 21 Oct 1820”]

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Auditor’s Report – 1865-1866

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Carole Plowmn

(Auditor Report)

This certifies that I have examined the account of the Town Treasurer of 1865-6 (as entered and balanced in the Treasury Book on the 24th day of February last) and also the list of town-orders drawn and town-notes issued during the first municipal year as with the vouchers for the same, and have detected no errors or deficiencies therein.

The only serious embarrasment and regret connected with this enamination has arisen from the mutilated state of the town-note and town-order books, from each of which there have been taken several blanks-with no vouchers offered, and no security given to the Town, concerning the use which has been made of them.  Such a fact is by no means a novelty in our municipal history, yet so long as this system of mutilation shall continue to be protected by your officers & tolerated by the Town, it must be entirely

[Back of Page]

in the power of any and every board of Selectmen to involve the Town in debt to any amount and for any purpose, without the consent, knowledge, or suspicion of the Town, until it may be wholly too late to look for a remedy.

In relation to the recent mutilation of these books, the Town is respectfully referred for information to such statements as your present board of Selectmen are prepared to make; and, for the future safety of the Town, it is very desirable that some immediate check should be put to this unwarrantable and dangerous practice by some action of the Town [?] this subject.  All which is respectfully submitted –

H.S. Storer, Auditor

Scarborough, March 2, 1866

 

[Transcription by Carole Plowman, Scarborough Historical Society, 12 January 2020]

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A High School Comes to Scarborough

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Linda Snow-McLoon

By Linda Snow McLoon

Introduction

It’s common knowledge that going back to early times Scarborough had over a dozen one-room district schools that offered children a grammar school education. But because no one seems to know much about when Scarborough first had a high school, I decided to do a little research on the subject. The information I was able to piece together led to this document, which tells the story of the beginnings of secondary education in Scarborough. We can track its growth from a humble beginning prompted by the state’s 1873 Free High School Law to when it could boast its first school building dedicated to both high school and elementary classes, the White School. The document also shows its move to the building that became known as the Bessey School.

The resources I used include a large collection of the Scarborough Historical Society’s town reports which are available on the society’s website. The historical society’s collection of ephemera contributed much helpful information, as did early pictures from their collections. Having access to the extensive private collection of Rodney Laughton made it possible to use his high school graduation programs, newspaper articles, and numerous school photographs. All of these materials allow us to expand our understanding of Scarborough’s early high school.

For some time prior to the passage of Maine’s Free High School Law, the friends of education throughout the state had been working toward establishing free high schools to supplement the various private academies which charged tuition. Finally, in 1873, the Maine Legislature passed a law which authorized towns to establish free high schools that offered secondary educational opportunity to all income levels at no charge, and as an inducement, the state would pay the towns one-half of their expense.

An entry in the 1878 town report acknowledging payment to W.G. Lord for teaching high school in Dunstan in 1876-1877 confirms that the first high school in Scarborough was
organized by 1876. Since it was customary for school children to walk to school, the first high school program split the year between Oak Hill and Dunstan in an effort to offer more
scholars an opportunity to attend at least one term of the Scarboro Free High School. The
following year, a third term was added in the Beech Ridge District. Some high school students would board with nearby families in order to attend multiple terms in the three locations

[For the entire article, with images please download from here.]

FREE HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION IN 1877 TOWN REPORT:

The town voted at the last annual meeting to establish Free High Schools in the Oak Hill and Dunstan districts, and the committee accordingly went through the necessary preliminaries and set the schools in operation. We endeavored to have the terms at different times, so that scholars who chose to do so might attend both. After some delay it was arranged to have the Oak Hill school in the fall [1876], and the one at Dunstan following it in the winter [1877]. The services of Edmund Fogg, A.M., were engaged for the fall term, which began the first of October, and continued thirteen weeks. The number of scholars in attendance was about thirty. (We have no data from which to give the exact attendance or the studies pursued.) A good degree of progress was made by all, and though the attendance was small at the closing examination, it was evident that the term had been a profitable one.

The winter term in the Dunstan district began the first of January, in charge of William G. Lord, A.M., an able and experienced teacher. There was no delay at the commencement. Fifty-five scholars, mostly large and well advanced, were in attendance, and the term was soon in full operation. It continued four weeks, teacher and scholars seeming to vie with each other in activity and interest, when it became necessary on account of contagious sickness to discontinue the school for a time. After a vacation of two weeks, it began again with some diminution of the original number of scholars, and is now in successful progress. Mr. Lord is an educator in the broader sense of the word, and in spite of the discouraging circumstance of the prevalent sickness, has made this a very valuable term of school.

The benefit of these schools comes largely from the education of teachers in them for the common schools, and in this way the town reaps a direct and immediate advantage. We consider that the success of the free High Schools this year has been such as to warrant their continuance by the town, and we therefore recommend for that purpose on appropriation, the same as that of last year. We would particularly recommend that either the municipal officers or school committee be allowed to locate the schools and direct when the terms shall begin. If this be done, we believe that the High Schools will improve year after year, until they become of recognized necessity, and value to the town.

Payable to Edmund E. Fogg, for teaching High School at Oak Hill: $250
Superintending School Committee: Augustus F. Moulton, Granville McKenney, James F. Small

FREE HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION FROM 1878 TOWN REPORT – 1877-78 SCHOOL YEAR.

The S. S. Committee and Selectmen together were last spring authorized to locate the High Schools in such places as in their judgment should be for the best interest of the town. After careful consideration they decided upon three terms to be held respectively at Beech Ridge, Dunstan and Oak Hill. It was feared that dividing the schools into three parts would make the terms so short that they would be of little profit, but the result has shown that this was perhaps the best arrangement that we could have made. We were fortunate in securing the services of Wm. G. Lord, whose former school had given so great satisfaction. Mr. Lord has devoted himself to the school with untiring application. He is peculiarly fitted for teaching and succeeds in awakening an interest among his pupils that amounts to enthusiasm. No one can deny that our Free High School the past year has been of great value. One hundred eighty-five scholars in all have been registered in the three schools, of these about one hundred twenty-five were different pupils, showing that quite a large number have attended the three terms in succession. The question for our consideration now seems to be, not whether it is best to continue the High School, but where we can find room to accommodate all the scholars who wish to attend. It is best just to say that the great success of the past year is mostly due to the untiring zeal and ability of the teacher, Mr. Lord. We would suggest that the appropriation be increased somewhat if there are to be three schools, so as to give terms of about ten weeks each.

[For the entire article, with images please download from here.]

To W.G. Lord, teaching High School at Dunstan,’76-’77: $250. Received from the state: $294.64
DO for tuition: $16 Bal due from State: $125.
To William G. Lord, teaching High School at Beech Ridge: $166.67 & $333.33 – Total due Lord $750.

Superintending School Committee: Augustus F. Moulton, Granville McKenney, James F. Small.

Having a town high school was a cause for pride and celebration, and on February 28 and March 1, 1878, examinations were held at Oak Hill and a prize declamation was offered at Dunstan. The printed program that is part of the Scarborough Historical Society’s town hall ephemera collection lists the names of the scholars from each of the three school locations along with their teacher, W.G. Lord.

[For the entire article, with images please download from here.]

The three high school terms’ locations were alternated, with the fall term at Beech Ridge, the winter term at Dunstan, and the spring term at Oak Hill. When the high school was in session, there were no common schools held in that district.

During the Beech Ridge term in 1878, Edna Libby and Lizzie Pillsbury collected work of classmates to put into the Scarboro High School Journal. They called their venture the Beech Ridge Publishing Co.

[For the entire article, with images please download from here.]

FREE HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION FROM 1879 TOWN REPORT – 1878-1879 SCHOOL YEAR

The High School has been in charge of the same teacher that gave so excellent satisfaction last year, Wm. G. Lord, A. M. The first term was held at Beech Ridge, the second at Dunstan, and the third, which is now in progress, at Oak Hill. The interest of last year has continued unabated. About seventy-five scholars have attended each of the two first terms and the average of attendance has been very high; we are not able to give the exact attendance of the present term but it is large. While some of the higher branches of learning are taught in this school, attention is given chiefly to those most useful. The teacher labors to give a practical training to the studies of all the classes. Quite a number of scholars have been teaching a part of the year and have shown in their schools the good results of their High School training. We congratulate the town upon having such a good school established and would recommend an appropriation for its continuance at least as large as that of last year.

Attendance at the Scarboro Free High School was not free for out-of-town residents, as this receipt made out by Town Treasurer Augustus F. Moulton to Charles Giles shows. Charles paid $4.00 for attending the Dunstan term of the high school in 1877.

The state rescinded the Free High School Law in 1879, and after state money for high schools dried up, the status of the high school program in Scarborough for the next decade remains sketchy.

FREE HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION IN 1880 TOWN REPORT

The Legislature of 1879 having suspended the Free High School act, the town has not maintained a High School the past year [beginning in the fall of 1879]. Arrangements were made for a term to be supported by private subscriptions, but the project failed for want of a suitable building in which to have the school.

A former student, Perley Libby, reported that in 1882 Master Lord of Limington was in charge of the high school, so it appears there were occasional attempts to continue the high school program. In a number of town warrants throughout the 1880s there were articles similar to the following:

To see if the Town will vote to establish a Free High School and raise money for the same.

Permanent high school classes were resumed without interruption in 1890, when a program was initiated with terms alternating between Dunstan and Oak Hill. At some point all classes were held at the town hall in Oak Hill. The name of the school was the Scarboro Free High School until 1902, when it was simplified to Scarboro High School.

When the Scarboro Free High School resumed classes during the 1890-1891 school year, students had to show a certain level of academic proficiency in order to earn admission. Martha (Mattie) Hill passed her admission exam, and four years later she earned a diploma.

[For the entire article, with images please download from here.]

We have photographs of the scholars who made up the student body of Scarborough’s first permanent high school program in 1890-1891. This labeled picture taken at the Good Templar’s Hall shows the Free High School students who attended the Dunstan term run by their principal and only teacher, Bertram E. Clark.

The Good Templars’ hall located near where the soldiers’ monument stands today in Dunstan was used for the Free High School when classes were resumed. Since the community had supported the building of the hall just a few years earlier, residents signed a petition objecting to the fees the town was being charged for the use of the building.

This document was part of School Superintendent Charles Cheney’s negotiations with the Good Templars for the use of the building for high school classes in Dunstan in 1891.

The Good Templar’s Hall was eventually moved to another location in Dunstan when it was taken over by the Grange organization. Later it became the Masonic Hall.

[There are many images of documents, school classes, and ephemera supporting this article and more to the article. Please download the entire article with images from here.]

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Added December 8th through 14th

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Don Taylor

Research

Annual Reports

Added the 1951 Scarborough Annual Report to Digital Maine and to the Internet Archive.

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Added December 1st through 7th

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Don Taylor

Research

Annual Reports 

Added the 1950 Scarborough Annual Report to Digital Maine and to the Internet Archive.

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Holiday Cheer at the Museum

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Don Taylor

Thank you to the Scarborough Garden Club, especially Jeanette Guglielmetti, for the beautiful holiday wreaths to decorate the museum’s doors this year. Also, thank you to Joyce Alden for the boughs and berries used to decorate the window boxes.

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Added November 17th through 23rd

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Don Taylor

Research

Annual Reports

Added the Scarborough Annual Report – for 1949

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