Wolcott History – How the schools were named

Historical Context

Note that much of the material in the first part of this article comes from the Wolcott History website (wolcotthistory.org) and a series of excellent articles written by Florence Goodman.

The first schools in Wolcott (then called Farmingbury) were established by a meeting of the Ecclesiastical Society in 1770. Their school committee voted to divide the town into nine districts, each with its own school. They used the geographic names of North, Northeast, Center, Southwest, South, West, Mill Place, East and Southeast. At first the schools in these districts were kept in private homes, but once school houses were built, the Southeast district and the one at Mill Place were discontinued. (If you want further information on these schools, see the Wolcott History article at http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/oldnews200808.html.)

As I noted in an earlier blog (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/04/wolcott-history-chronology-of-wolcott.html), the population of Wolcott did not exceed 1000 until the 1930’s. The completion of a paved road through town (Route 69) in 1935 was key to the growth in population. By 1940 the population then swelled to 1800 and it doubled again to 3500 by 1950 and then more than tripled to 12,500 by 1970. The school system also had to grow to keep up with the expanding population and the collection of one-room schools would no longer be adequate. The early population growth was in the southern part of town (the closest to Waterbury), but after WWII, the population in the northern part of town also increased.

In the Southwest district the stone school (now the home of the Wolcott Historical Society) was replaced with a two-room brick building called Woodtick School (in keeping with somewhat geographic school names). The old South School was replaced with a two-room school on Shelton Avenue in 1922 and two more rooms were added in 1930. It was renovated in 1949 and renamed the Addin Lewis School.

In 1945, the residents voted to build a new six-room elementary school in the northern part of town – Alcott School, named after Amos Bronson Alcott – this replaced the one-room schools in the North and Northeast districts (two more rooms were added a few years later and more in 1969). This was followed by the building of Frisbie School in 1950. (The old Woodtick School was later demolished and replaced by the current Police Department building.) In 1959/1960 a new school was built in the western section of town – Wakelee School. And finally in 1964/1965 Tyrrell School was built to replace the Addin Lewis School. (Because it is not named after anyone, I am omitting the development of the high school which was originally built in 1958/1959 and later had several additions.)

Note that the schools are still quite aligned with the original districts from 1770. Alcott serves the North and Northeast districts, Tyrrell is in the South district, Frisbie is in the Southwest district, and Wakelee in the West district. The old East district is now the location of the Southington reservoirs and thus does not need a school. While there is no elementary school in the old Center district, that is now the home of Wolcott High School.

School Names

I noted in another earlier blog (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-i-am-related-to-everyone-for-whom.html) how I am related to all the individuals for whom these schools are named. But the question here is why these individuals. Let’s look at each of them (in chronological order):

Addin Lewis – Addin (1780-1842) was born in the part of Southington [South Farmington] that is now part of Wolcott (Southington was created as a separate town in 1779, but Wolcott not until 1796). He was educated at Yale College, taught at the University of Georgia and served as the mayor of Mobile, AL. In his later life he returned to Connecticut and he died in Wolcott in 1842. In his will he left $8500 to the Town of Wolcott to be used for school purposes. (The income from this, about $500/year, may not seem like much these days, but the total cost of school support from the town at the time was only $1200/year, so it was a very significant gift.) He also left $15,000 to Lewis Academy in Southington. In the latter bequest was the provision, “And all pupils from the town of Wolcott, not exceeding ten at any one time, who may wish to receive instruction in said institution, shall receive the same without any charge for tuition.” Many members of the Lewis family are buried in the Southeast Burying Ground near the Southington Reservoir. With his support of education in Wolcott, it was only fitting that the first school in Wolcott to bear the name of an individual should be named for him.

Amos Bronson Alcott – The Alcox/Alcott family were among the first settlers of Farmingbury in 1731. John Alcox (see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/04/genealogy-story-alcoxalcott-pierpont.html) had 12 children and 67 grandchildren, most of whom continued to live in the area. He also at one time owned 1200 acres of land in Wolcott, nearly 10% of the land in the town. Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) is the great-grandson of John Alcox. His early education was at the Center School in Wolcott (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Bronson_Alcott). He moved from Wolcott as a young man (going first to the South, then Cheshire, back to Wolcott, Bristol, Boston, then Germantown, PA).  He was thus not only a representative of this founding family, but was one of Wolcott’s most famous sons and a well-known educator. It made perfect sense to name a school after him, even though the majority of his life was not spent in Wolcott.

Judah Frisbie – Judah (1744-1817) was born in Branford. When he was a young boy his parents moved to the Waterbury area and then in 1759 to Farmingbury – in the area known as Woodtick. Judah moved to this area around 1773. He served in the Revolutionary War, then married in 1779 and built a home. It was later replaced with a larger home built by David Frisbie, his great-grandson. He operated a saw mill below the dam on Nichols Road and a turning mill on Lily Brook. Legend says that he was the one who named the Woodtick area when he put his coat on a stump while chopping trees and found it covered with wood ticks at the end of the day. Frisbie School was named in honor of him and his family since they were some of the first settlers in that part of town. (See http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/oldnews200806.html.)

Robert Wakelee – Wakelee School was the first to be named not after a figure from Wolcott’s history, but in honor of a living individual. The Wakelee family moved to Farmingbury some time during the late 1730’s, so they were a “founding family” much like the Alcox/Alcott family. Robert was born in Wolcott in 1885, but he was involved in the governance of Wolcott for many years. In those days the town was governed by three selectmen, not the current mayor/council system of government. Bob (that’s how I knew him when I was growing up), was one of the three selectmen from 1943 to 1973, which is when he passed on at the age of 88. He not only managed all the office duties involved in running the town, but the selectmen also were involved in the road maintenance of the town and he could often be found with one of the trucks filling potholes. When Wakelee School was built in 1959 they were honoring a man who had already served the town in that capacity for 16 years, but then he went on to serve for 14 more years. (See http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/oldnews200807.html.)

Eva Tyrrell – Tyrrell School (originally an elementary school) was named for Eva Tyrrell (1884-1968). Like Bob Wakelee, she served the town for many years and was known as “Mrs. Wolcott” because of her extensive knowledge of the town. Her roots in the town went back to 1750. She was the town correspondent for the Waterbury paper for over 50 years. She was also the first woman elected to serve on the school board in 1918 (quite an accomplishment since women had not yet earned the right to vote). Honoring both her town roots and her service to the town made this a logical choice for the name of the school. (See http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/oldnews200805.html.)