380 HISTORY OF CO H ASSET. 



The art of writing has changed but little, and there were 

 many who reached a wonderful proficiency a century and 

 a half ago in Cohasset. 



The one peculiarity was in the use of goose quills for 

 pens. The teacher had a sharp " pen " knife with which he 

 kept making and sharpening pens a large part of the time 

 when the writing period was on. A bunch of quills such 

 as were used for more than a century by the writers in 

 this community are preserved in the town's historical 

 collection, and specimens of quill penmanship are there 

 displayed.* 



The imperfect implements of that early intellectual train- 

 ing were sufficient, however, to accommodate the unfold- 

 ing of strong mmds and to encourage the good judgment 

 necessary to the life of the community. 



The school of the precinct was a roving one for many 

 years, but after a while the Jerusalem and the Beechwood 

 people demanded schools of their own, not kept in turn by 

 the one master of the town, but by separate masters. 

 According to the old vote of December 30, 1731, the two 

 arms of the precinct had the school with them their pro- 

 portion of the time, according to what they paid of the 

 school tax. Twenty-six years later, 1757, it was voted that 

 the inhabitants of the Beechwoods from Gushing Kilby's 

 upwards should draw their proportion of the money that is 

 allowed to the parish, provided they lay out the same in 

 hiring a schoolmaster. Thus there were two schoolmas- 

 ters ordered for the precinct, and one committee of three 

 was to supply both. 



Nothing is said in the records about the school for Jeru- 

 salem until seven years later, 1764, when they were allowed 

 to draw their proportion of the money for schools just as 

 the Beechwood people had been doing. 



From that year there were three schools provided in the 



*At least one of our town writers, Aaron Pratt, Esq., of Beechwood, still uses 

 quill pens. 



