May 8, 1812, the board of trustees organized, with Rev. William Collier, president; Abram R. Thompson, secretary; Nehemiah Wyman, treasurer, who gave bonds for $10,000. Milk Row School, it will be noticed, at this time was represented by Captain Joseph Miller. The number of children in town was 1,167, or 457 between the ages of four and seven, and 710 from seven to fourteen. It appears that no children beyond the Neck, under seven and over fourteen years of age, were allowed to attend the town school. In reply to the complaints which came, in consequence, from the outlying districts, the report says that School No. 4 (Alewife Brook) contains thirty-four children, from four to fourteen, and yet this district receives for that number as much money as is expended within the Neck for fifty-one scholars. ‘This distinction in favor of the schools outside is, in the opinion of the trustees, an ample indemnification for all inconveniences arising from their local situation; besides, the money appropriated without the Neck is abundantly sufficient to defray the expenses of their schools through that part of the year when the inhabitants send their children to them, from seven years old and upward; and the expense of educating their children under seven, it seems as just and reasonable for them to pay out of their own pockets as it is for the inhabitants within the Neck to do it. When we consider that, of the 1,167 children in town, only 133 are without the Neck, or less than one-eighth, and that we expend upon them more than one-fourth of the money (contingencies excepted), it cannot be denied that the rule is not only favorable, but generous, to the people without the Neck.’
The teachers of the town schools were Israel Alger, with Oliver Jaquith for an assistant, and for the others Messrs. Fuller and Stickney. There had been two public examinations of each during the year, and frequent informal visit had been made, ‘as ’
