The Perkinsville (Vt.) School District documents consist of 46 receipts, committee meeting reports, meeting requests, and grand lists of taxes relevant to operation of the 1st school district in the village of Perkinsville between 1823 and 1851. School expenses reflected in the documentation include payments for teachers' wages, supplies, and services rendered. A single document dated March 10, 1818, grants David Graves permission to open a "publick Hous" in the town of Ira.
Local townspeople covered school costs, labor, and other needs. They cut and delivered fuelwood, boarded teachers, and transported educators to and from the school. They also repaired and cleaned the schoolhouse, and built desks and chairs. Supplies specified in the documents include brooms, blackboards, dippers and pails, nails, and glass. A letter dated August 6, 1841, to Mr. Horace Phelps contains a request for a supply of wool.
The bulk of these documents were generated by district clerks and superintending committee members, including Solomon R. Demary, Benjamin Chillson, J. F. Chillson, Luther Perkins, Charles Barrett, and Earle Woodbury. The receipts were signed and dated with the payment amount on the verso by the recipient. Many committee meeting reports were recorded on lined paper with dates in the left margin.
Two items of note include a meeting request for the purpose of building a house for the convenience of smaller scholars dated September 5, 1846, and a meeting request to discuss the opening a second school in District One, dated January 1, 1848.
The village of Perkinsville is located at the present crossroads of Quarry Road and Route 106 in the western part of the town of Weathersfield, Vermont. Situated on the Black River, Perkinsville was an ideal site for industry in its early years of development. Water powered its many lumber, flour, and wool mills.
In 1788, a committee divided the town of Weatherfield into 10 school districts. By 1830, this number rose to 13. Each district was considered a legal entity and oversaw its own operations. A prudential committee called meetings, hired teachers, secured firewood to heat the schoolhouse, and tended to the repair and upkeep of the facility. Prudential committees had their own clerks responsible for keeping school records.
Prudential committees also determined the number of weeks for each school term. Each school year included two terms, one summer term and a longer term for winter. A shorter summer term freed older children to work during the planting and harvesting months.
Around 1829, a three-person Superintending Committee of elected members approved persons for teaching positons and visited each of the district schools at least once per term. Separate prudential committees were retained for each district.
The 1st District School of Perkinsville was known as District 11 until 1808. Class was held in a one-room brick building, constructed in 1812. The school grounds included a wood shed and a necessary house (outhouse restroom). The building was heated by a fireplace or a wood-burning stove during the winter months. Town denizens supplied a half cord of wood for each child per household. Firewood supplied by voters served as school taxes.
In 1879, the Perkinsville school house was demolished. It was replaced by a second brick school in the same location as the original building. It still stands along Route 106 as of 2015.
