Old Brick Schoolhouse, Buckland, Mass., circa 1800-1850

From the collections of the Buckland Historical Society, Inc., P.O. Box 88, Buckland, MA, 01338, http://www.bucklandmasshistory.org/contact/

The Old Brick Schoolhouse once located at Buckland Center was built in 1804 and was in use until 1850 or 1860. The Samuel Taylor House can be seen in the background. An accompanying text with the image reads: Mary Lyon at the age of twenty, studied penmanship at this school under the tutelage of Daniel Forbes. Later she taught a session at the school, introducing the teaching of geography through map making. In 1804, Samuel Taylor (1744-1837) deeded to the Center District, District No. 1, the parcel of land where the red brick school was built. The red brick school replaced the first Center District School which had burned down. The first Center District School had also been on land deeded by Samuel Taylor. It was located on the Southeast corner of the Common in Buckland Center. The deed for the first school was recorded in 1799 and reads, for the good will and esteem I bear the inhabitants. Josiah Griswold, the historian for the 1879 Buckland Centennial, said his mother taught in the first school in 1799 and received fifty cents a week for her services. The Old Brick Schoolhouse was a one story, brick structure with a square roof and high windows allowing the children no means of seeing passers-by. The resemblance in architecture to the Buckland Public Library is so similar that people often confuse the two buildings when looking at old photographs, even though they were built nearly a century apart. The Old Brick Schoolhouse was torn down in 1850 or 1860 and replaced by the Buckland Center School, a wooden two-story structure that still stands as of this writing in March 2010, and serves as the home of the Buckland Historical Society's Museum. Teachers of note in the Center District, District No, 1, included: Daniel Forbes (1789-1871), Deacon John Porter (1792-1872), and Mary Lyon (1797-1849), founder of Mount Holyoke College. The author of The History of Buckland Massachusetts, 1779 - 1935, Fannie Shaw Kendrick, writes that she was told Daniel Forbes taught ninety-nine to one hundred terms.(The History of Buckland Massachusetts, 1779 1935, by Fannie Shaw Kendrick, pgs. 143 -144 and pg 210, serves as the reference for this description.)