Charlestown schools without the Peninsula Revolutionary period.
Frank Mortimer Hawes
(Continued.)In closing our account of this period, it remains to speak of the Alewife Brook and the Gardner Row schools, both at the upper end of Charlestown. After 1790, when the four schools were designated by numbers, these were known as No. 3 and No. 4.,
As we have before stated, the Alewife Brook district probably comprised that part of our city which lies west of College avenue. It extended well up into, Arlington, and took in that part of Menotomy which belonged to Charlestown. The Gardner Row district extended along by the Mystic ponds as far as old Woburn line.
Like the Milk Row school, the affairs of these districts were managed, for the most part, by a local committeeman, who was usually selected at the annual town meeting in May. The selectmen were supposed to, have control of all school affairs, and at times, when dissatisfaction arose, mostly from economical reasons, no, local officer would be appointed to, relieve them.
In 1754, when our account begins, Nathaniel Francis and Joseph Phipps were representing these two districts. The former had been elected as early as 1744, and served, with some interruptions, for seven years. The last mention we find of him is May 5, 1755, when it was agreed that his account for wood, etc., for the school without the Neck, amounting to £ 2 6s 4d, be allowed. This gentleman belonged to a family that gained more prominence on the Cambridge side of the line than in Charlestown; Paige and Wyman both speak of him. He died September 2, 1764, aged seventy-one, and was buried in West Cambridge
Mr. Phipps served continuously from 1751 to 1757. He was a descendant of Solomon Phipps, an early settler of Charlestown, and in previous chapters we have given the family due prominence. According to Wyman, he was the father of
