Carla Occaso
The settlers in Montpelier’s village began teaching school right from the beginning, according to an account in “Montpelier: The Capital City’s History from 1780-1976” by Perry H. Merrill. The first school operated out of a log cabin alongside the Winooski River near the Middlesex line. It was run by the son of one of the town’s first European settlers: Col. Jacob Davis. Jacob Davis Jr. ran the school from 1784 to 1791, then left the log cabin and continued teaching from his father’s house from 1791 to 1797.
As the population grew, an actual school was built on present-day Elm Street near the Elm Street Cemetery, but it was destroyed by fire soon after. It was called the Jefferson County Grammar School (Washington County was Jefferson County from 1810 to 1814, when it was named Washington County, according to the Vermont Sheriff’s Association). So a second school building was constructed on the corner of Spring and Main streets, funded by personal donations.
Requirements to attend school included being able to read and write “decently,” being of good moral character, and remitting the cost of one quarter of the year’s tuition in advance. Tuition was $1.50 per term. Also, students were required to “be polite and obedient to the preceptor, to avoid gambling, idleness, tavern-haunting, late hours abroad, profanity, intemperance, Sabbath breaking, every species of immorality and indecency,” and to go to church on Sunday, Merrill wrote.
The subjects taught were reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, geography, Latin, Greek, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, navigation, composition, elocution, and history. However, navigation was dropped from the curriculum as the years rolled on. Hours were from 9 a.m. to noon, and then 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Teachers were required to teach at least six hours per day.
