Nantucket School Days of a Century Ago As Recalled by Capt. Coffin IN THE SUMMER OF 1937, Captain Everett B. Coffin, a retired steam boat commander from Seattle, Washington, came to the Island for a visit after an absence of many years. Stopping in a t T h e I n q u i r e r a n d Mirror office, in conversation with a young reporter he recounted many of his stories of Nantucket life fifty years before, among which was an account of his school days on Nantucket. He was prevailed upon to send a written account, and upon his return to Seattle he sent the following story:
School Days on Nantucket in the Early 1870's On an early morning in September, 1871, having reached the age of admittance to the public schools, accompanied by my mother, I entered the east room of the south grammar school and was introduc ed to the teacher, Miss Phebe Clisby — a tall, slender lady with a very pleasant smile. After hanging my coat and hat in the entry (as it was then called) I was assigned a seat in the front row, known as the beginners' row. Be ing my first time in a school room, I surveyed the surroundings. The teacher's desk was in the center of the east side of the room, with sta tionary blackboards on each side, extending the length of the room and on the top of these boards were painted the multiplication tables. On the floor at the west side of the teacher's desk was a white line, extending about six feet and parallel with the blackboard, about two feet from the board. That white line was a mystery which was solved later. There were six rows of seats, ten in a row. In the back row, each seat had a small desk, and they were given to the pupils having the highest grades in school work, as well as deportment, and of those ten seats, the girls occupied nine of them. The one boy was Harry Dunham, at present one of Nantucket's ag ed and respected citizens. The balance of the seats were small, halfround chairs securely fastened to the floor, with a small box-like ar rangement at the side, called a till, and in each till was a small yellow covered spelling book and a Whiter elementary arithmetic. On the top row there was, in addition, a song book of school songs. Singing was very popular in those days in Nantucket schools. Although
