294 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



During the year 1814, before any of the town schools 

 had been established, a few young ladies between the 

 ages of eighteen and twenty, belonging principally to 

 the society of Friends, feeling the necessity of provid- 

 ing instruction for the poor children of our town, and 

 hoping and believing that some plan might be formed 

 by which it could be effected, met at the house of 

 Rachel G. Austin to consult upon the matter. This 

 occurred in the midst of the war with England, at a 

 period of great poverty and suffering by the mass of 

 the people upon our island, when many parents were 

 hardly able to furnish the bare necessaries of life, and 

 of course they deemed an education of secondary 

 importance. After serious thought on the matter, 

 these young ladies determined to open a school them- 

 selves, each taking her turn as teacher for one month 

 during the summer; for, they could not afford a fire, 

 consequently they could hold it only during the warm 

 season. They were obliged to be limited in the number 

 of pupils, and commenced with thirty. These chil- 

 dren were so poorly clad that their enthusiastic young 

 teachers were obliged to solicit clothing from their more 

 fortunate neighbors. The benevolent answered the 

 call, and contributed articles and fragments of any 

 kind of cloth to cover these poor, destitute little ones; 

 hence the name of Fragment School. They subse- 

 quently formed a society to sew, and it was called 

 the Fragment Society. In the school the children 

 were instructed in the common branches, and plain 

 sewing. 



This society continued to grow, contributing to the 

 wants of the poor, from the year 1814 until 1836, when 



