Facts and Stories of Woodsville

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Quick Facts and Stories

Changes in the School
- Woodsville High School began on the top floor of a local schoolhouse on School Street in 1896.
  - There were twenty students on August 30, 1896. Their ages ranged from thirteen to twenty years old.
  - The first high school teacher was Bernard V. Child.
- The first Woodsville High School graduate was Eugene Dow.
  - Dow later attended Dartmouth College and graduated at the top of his class in 1901.

- In 1968, the Town of Haverhill voted to create the Haverhill Cooperative School District.
  - Along with this, it was voted to unite Woodsville and Haverhill, and to reform Haverhill Academy into just a junior high school, sending all of its high school students to Woodsville High.
- By 1942, the school colors had undergone a major change. Originally green and orange, our school colors were changed to honor Dartmouth College, so we adopted green and white as our own.
  - The school's sports teams were also changed, too. Athletes used to be known as "Woodsvilleites," but the name was eventually changed to "Engineers" in honor of Woodsville's roots as a railroad town.

- By 1920, the school calendar had been updated to resemble something like the one the school uses today. Prior to 1920, school was held in three terms: a fall term of ten weeks; a winter term of 12 weeks; and a spring term of 10 weeks. After 1920, however, the 32-week school year was disbanded in favor of a 36-week school year.
Issues With Space
- Woodsville High School started on the top floor of a general schoolhouse. Now, it spans three buildings. Space has always been an issue for the high school that is constantly attracting new students, so administrators have been forced to be a little bit creative over the years.
  - By 1900, it was apparent that the old grammar school built in 1872 was not large enough to hold all of the elementary and high schoolers, so it was decided to build another school right next to the old one. This led to complications, however, as they were building this new school before the days of electricity. On some days, the sun was not cooperating with the teachers, and the shadow that the new school was creating would often leave certain classrooms in the old school dark. In cases like these, they were forced to close school early.
    - The students moved in to the new school in January of 1900. By May, however, the school was already crowded.
  - In 1905, the high school had 50 students. This was too much for the schoolhouse to hold, but townspeople were reluctant to build another school so soon after the one they were currently in. By 1913, however, a new building had to be built.
  - The new school, built in 1914, was crowded again by 1930. In that year, the school was hosting 280 students, so a new plan had to be created until a solution could be found.
    - It was decided that the school would have two sessions for the large lower grades that were taking up space. They had an alternating morning and afternoon group in an attempt to make do with the accommodations that they had.
    - Finally, in 1937, the space issue was solved when the Fire Department built the Woodsville Community Building. The department allowed the high school to use the building located next to their full schoolhouse, and a gym and cafeteria was built in the new building. This allowed for turning the old gym and cafeteria into more classrooms, thus creating more space.
  - The school gained the Bennett Building in 1952. With this addition, the home economics room was moved out of the main building, thus allowing for that room to be transformed into even more classrooms.
Interruptions to the School Year
- In 1918, an influenza epidemic raged around Woodsville, thus closing the schools for at least five weeks.
- 1927 saw an outbreak of infantile paralysis, or more commonly known as polio, that closed the school for weeks.
- Woodsville High School also served as a housing place for other students, as well. In 1961, when the elementary school burned down, many kids were brought to the high school for their classes, and in 2008 when the Haverhill Cooperative Middle School had to replace their roof early in the school year, Woodsville was the temporary home of the eighth graders.
Classes at Woodsville
- In 1915, domestic arts was added to the course list.
- Headmaster McGaw spent time at the University of Geneva perfecting foreign languages, especially French, so that Woodsville High students could study languages other than English.
- With the addition of the Bennett Building in 1952, classes like auto mechanics, home economics, wood shop, and welding were introduced. Night classes for adults were also made available during this time.

Eugene Dow, the first graduate of Woodsville High School, in 1897.

At left is Dow, the sole member

of the class of 1897.

Left: The new, colorized logo of the school, detailing the train

that serves as our mascot.

At left is a photo of Miss Demarini's Home Economics class.

Schooling In The Area- Tales from William Whitcher's History of Haverhill
- The first demand for a schoolhouse in the Haverhill area was on March 9, 1773- three years before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
  - A town meeting was held that day, and it was decided to raise £ 35 to build the schoolhouse.
    - In this schoolhouse, strict rules were to be obeyed. The windows were placed high, as the builders wanted to discourage children from gazing outside when they should have been studying. To further this, only boys were put by the window, as it was believed that girls would be more likely to gawk outside. Boys usually did not spend time looking outside; much rather, they would be more likely to carve things into their desks with jackknives.
- Winter during these early times was known as the "important" school term. The ages of the pupils attending ranged anywhere from roughly four to twenty years old.
- Around the 1850's, certain things in the school were changing. The idea of two terms, a summer and a winter, was introduced. The summer months was kept by a "schoolma'am", while the winter months were overseen by a "schoolmaster".
  - Often, the schoolteacher would have to live with the families of their students. The families of the area would take turns hosting the teacher for short periods.