The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         School House Committee, Hingham (Mass.).           

Title:               Bills

Dates:             1829-1830

Call No.:         Col. 480

Acc. No.:        69x29.10-.53

Quantity:        43 items

Location:        34 J 3

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Hingham, Massachusetts has had public schools since the 17th century.  Massachusetts passed a law in March 1827 which set new regulations for town School Committees.  This led to a re-examination of the schools in Hingham, and in a report dated April 7, 1828, the School Committee reported that more schools were needed to relieve overcrowding.  The same report also named subjects which needed to be taught.  Boys’ schools were to teach orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, U.S. history, single-entry book-keeping, geometry, surveying, and algebra.  Girls’ schools were to teach orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and needlework. Although the town had separate schools for boys and girls, younger boys could attend girls’ schools, and older girls could attend boys’ schools.

 

In 1829, the town voted to build four new buildings for the boys’ schools.  The one in the North district was to be 31x40 feet and was to accommodate 125 students.  It opened July 12, 1830.  The other three schools were to be 31x34.5 feet and to accommodate 100 students each.  The West district school opened Nov. 23, 1829.  The school in what was called the Middle district in 1893 (the source for this information does not say what district this was in 1829) opened Nov. 24, 1829.  The fourth school house was built in what later became the North District of the South Ward, and it opened Aug. 2, 1830. 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This collection of bills addressed to the School House Committee of Hingham, Massachusetts, documents the erection of four school houses (North, South, East, and West) between 1829-1830.  All items are for labor and such building materials as lumber, stone, gravel, clapboards, shingles, joists, posts, fences, and soapstone for the chimney, as well as for digging cellars, painting, plastering, and mortaring.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The bills had numbers written on them at the time of payment, and the bills are in order by those numbers.  The bills are definitely not in chronological order, nor are they grouped by who submitted the bills.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchased from N. D. Scotti.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Building materials - Prices.

Lumber.

Painting, Industrial - Prices.

School buildings - Costs.

School buildings - Specifications.

School construction contracts.

Stone - Prices.

Hingham (Mass.) - Schools.

Bills.

Invoices (Acknowledgments).

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 34 J 3

 

All accession numbers begin with 69x29.

 

 

.10       Bill no. 1: account with Charles Gill, for the North School House, for building materials, labor, etc., Sept. 11, 1830; with Gill acknowledging receipt of payment.

                        This document mostly lists amounts of bills from various workmen or suppliers (examples: Joshua Wilder’s bill was for $3.00; Noah Humphrey’s bill was for $17.53); however, there are charges for tolls to Quincy, pine wood, carting hardware, and raising stoves[?].  Credit was given for timber and chips sold, boards, lime, brick, hair, joist, lathes, nails, hinges, screws, and window frame stuff. 

 

.11       Bill no. 2: receipted bill: Caleb Hobart [the mark after his name is illegible, perhaps it is Sr.] was paid for picking stock and clearing shavings out of the house, pulling away the old fence and wall, settings posts, filling in gravel round the house and yard, stoning a vault, etc., Oct. 9-10, 1829;

                        [there was a father and son Caleb Hobart in Hingham; the son (1783-1865) was a cabinetmaker; the occupation of the father (1754-1846) is not known]

 

.12       Bill no. 3: receipted bill: Caleb Hobart was paid for digging cellar, pine wood, tools, clearing and getting sand, window grates, getting lime into cellar, sawing soapstone fittings, painting blinds, filing saw, paint, etc.; dated Aug. 8, 1829;

 

.13       Bill no. 4: receipted bill: Elisha Remington was paid for work on both the West and the North school houses: carting boards, clapboards, shingles, stones, and posts; and for plowing and scraping, August 1829;

 

,14       Bill no. 5: receipted bill: Caleb Hobart was paid for 2 chairs, one each for West and East schoolhouses, March 3, 1830;

 

.15       bill no. 6: receipted bill: Caleb Hobart was paid by Caleb Hobart, [Jr.?], for carting gravel into the yard of the West schoolhouse, Dec. 2, 1829;

 

.16       bill no. 7: receipted bill: Caleb Hobart was paid for carting sand to the West schoolhouse; payment received by Caleb Hobart, [Jr.?]

 

.17       bill no. 8: account of Samuel Sprague with town of Hingham: for boards (merch, dry, green), timber, joist, shingles, clapboards, laths, lime, cedar posts, plank; some noted as being for West School house yard; dated July 2-Dec. 17, 1829, paid Aug. 13, 1830;

 

.18       bill no. 9: account of Edward Wilder, for materials and labor: the entries are along the lines of “to cash paid [a name] for [goods or labor, or “by bill”]; among the goods mentioned are handles, latches, soapstone for chimney, pinewood, planks, lime, timber, and bricks are mentioned;  carting and setting a fence are also mentioned; dated March-Sept. 1830; accepted Sept. 11, 1830;

 

.19       bill no. 10: account of Edward Wilder, for materials and labor on South schoolhouse: this seems to be a more personal bill than the one above; Wilder charged for selling tees on the schoolhouse lot; laying out the cellar; window lights and making window frames; using his horse for various tasks, including going to Boston for hardware, going to Weymouth for “stuff,” and hauling other building materials; plowing on school lot; a cellar door, etc.; dated Nov. 1829-July 27, 1830; paid Sept. 11, 1830;

 

.20       bill no. 11: account of Jacob L. Nichols, Dec. 2, 1829; for cash paid to various people, presumably for labor; but also for window lights, locks, and escutcheons;

 

.21       bill no. 12: account of Jacob L. Nichols, Nov. 16, 1829: mentions payments to various people for such things as sugar, cheese, biscuit, rum, brandy, fish, nails, sandpaper, screws, bricks, tacks, s. lead, line, joists, timber, ring and staple, butts, sash pulleys, planks, spikes, etc.

 

.22       bill no. 13: account of Edward Wilder, Aug. 6, 1829, for work on the Lower Plain Schoolhouse: for trips to Boston and Weymouth to purchase hardware and lumber; to cash paid others for labor, or for materials such as pine joists, threshold planks, iron cap for threshold, etc.; for window frames and lights; nails, s. lead, brass knobs, spike brads, hinges, ring and staple, etc.; several carpenters are mentioned by name;

 

.23       bill no. 14: bill from Bela Pratt, Weymouth, July 3, 1830: charges for procuring and laying a cellar wall, underpinning and laying the wall, front steps, bank step, trench stone under front steps, etc.; and for the same work on the Great Plain schoolhouse; with receipt for payment dated Sept. 8, 1830;

 

.24       bill no. 15: receipted bill from Lemuel Davis, for days spent shoveling gravel at the West Schoolhouse, Nov. 9, 1829;

 

.25       bill no. 16: receipt: Caleb Hobart, Jr., paid Lemuel Davis for digging post holes and shoveling gravel, Nov. 20, 1829;

 

[Bills number 17, 18, and 19 are not part of this collection, and their whereabouts are not known.]

 

.26       bill no. 20: receipted bill: Bela Pratt was paid for furnishing, laying, and facing the cellar wall at Lower Plain Schoolhouse, underpinning the wall, and for steps and foundations for steps, Nov. 4, 1829;

 

.27       bill no. 21: bill from Joshua Wilder, for various tasks and goods, including “mucking out specifications for the lumber necessary for the four school houses”; going to Weymouth to contract for the lumber; making a division of the lumber; sticking up boards, surveying a schoolhouse lot; culling shingles, stacking out the schoolhouse sites; selecting timbers, joists, and planks; working with others; etc.; part of the bill for exclusively for work on the South schoolhouse; June 27-Dec. 27, 1829, plus charges for March 1-July 9, no year, but presumably 1830

 

.28       bill no. 22: receipt: Josiah Mann was paid for work on the West schoolhouse fence, Nov. 30, 1829;

 

.29       bill no. 23: receipted bill: Welcome Lincoln paid for sundries for the West End Schoolhouse fence and outhouse, including nails and screws, Oct. 24, 1829;

 

.30       bill no. 24: receipt: Martin Battles was paid for work on the West schoolhouse, Nov. 30, 1829;

 

.31       bill no. 25: receipted bill: Nathaniel Gill was paid for labor on the West schoolhouse; the bill was presented to Caleb Hobart, Jr., one of the building committee;

 

.32       bill no. 26: receipted bill: Benjamin Hearsey [or Hersey] was paid for 14 red cedar posts for the West schoolhouse, Oct. 16, 1829;

 

.33       bill no. 27: receipted bill: John Burrell was paid for building a wall for the fence at the West schoolhouse, Oct. 9, 1829;

                        [see also bill no. 31]

 

.34       bill no. 28: receipted bill: Jesse Churchill was paid for laying the wall at the West End schoolhouse; and also for his dinners; Oct. 21-22, 1829;

 

.35       bill no. 29: receipted bill: Bela Pratt, paid for furnishing, laying, and facing cellar wall at West district schoolhouse; also for underpinning the wall, and for steps and for laying foundation for steps, Nov. 4, 1829;

 

.36       bill no. 30: receipted bill: Jacob Marsh paid for work on the fence at the West schoolhouse, Oct. 26, 1829;

 

.37       bill no. 31: receipted bill: John Burrell was paid for laying brick for chimney and other work at the West schoolhouse, Oct. 9, 1829;

                        [see also bill no. 27]

 

.38       bill no. 32: receipted bill: D. & A. Fearing were paid for nails, use of scraper, lime, all for Plain schoolhouse, Aug.-Nov. 1829;

 

.39       bill no. 33: receipted bill: Jacob L. Nichols was paid for something; Sept. 15, 1830;

 

.40       bill no. 34: receipted bill: John Burrell was paid for “pineting” [painting?  pointing?] the cellar of the Middle schoolhouse, Nov. 16, 1829;

 

.41       bill no. 35: receipted bill: Jacob L. Nichols was paid for two locks, freight, timber, shingles, and labor  on outhouse at the West End School house; Sept. 20, 1829;

 

.42       bill no. 36: receipted bill: Noah Humphrey was paid for building chimney in the West schoolhouse, and for labor, and for painting or pointing the underpinning of the house, Oct. 15, 1829;

 

.43       bill no. 37: receipted bill: Stephen Stoddard, Jr., was paid for lathing and plastering the West End schoolhouse; Caleb Hobart, Jr. paid him; Nov. 2-9, 1829;

 

.44       bill no. 38: receipted bill: Jesse Churchill was paid for making mortar and tending the masons on the West End schoolhouse, Sept. 26-Oct. 10, 1829;

 

.45       bill no. 39: receipted bill: Marshal Lincoln was paid for mason’s work on the West End school house, bill dated Nov. 3, 1829; payment received by Jacob L. Nichols;

 

.46       bill no. 40: receipted bill: Jairus Thayer was paid for soapstone for the chimney for the West District schoolhouse, Sept. 24, 1829;

 

.47       bill no. 41: receipted bill: Jeremiah Hersey was paid for hauling and carting timber, carting and hauling unspecified items, carting joist and planks, for the West schoolhouse, Aug.-Sept. 1829;

 

.48       bill no. 42: receipted bill: Jedediah Lincoln was paid for many loads of gravel laid upon the new West Schoolhouse lot, Nov. 1829;

                        [see also bill no. 45]

 

.49       bill no. 43: receipted bill: Caleb Gill was paid to carting various things, including sand, window frames, lath, plank, lime, and gravel; and also for working on the stone wall with C. Hobart; Sept. 22-Nov. 10, 1829;

 

.50       bill no. 44: receipted bill: A. & A. Fearing were paid for use of scraper at West schoolhouse, Aug. 5, Nov. 24, 1829;

 

.51       bill no. 45: receipted bill: Jedediah Lincoln was paid for loads of gravel delivered to West Schoolhouse lot, Nov. 1829;

                        [see also bill no. 42]

 

.52       bill no. 46: receipted bill: Benjamin Thomas was paid for window weights[?], for West schoolhouse, Oct. 10, 1829;

 

.53       bill no. 47: receipted bill: Nehemiah Ripley was paid for carting shingles and clapboards to West schoolhouse, Sept., Nov. 1829